Chương 143: Returning To My Peak

The abandoned storage facility ended up being exactly what we needed, a three-story building of weathered stone and rusted metal sitting in what must have been a pretty busy industrial district at some point in the past. Now it just stood there among its equally rundown neighbors, windows dark and loading docks completely empty. Perfect for someone who needed to stay off the radar.

"The foundation has jade-infused stone reinforcing it," Han Renyi explained while we made our way through this cleverly hidden side entrance.

"Father always said it was standard practice back when the Han family originally built these warehouses. The jade keeps the rouqi field stable inside which..." he trailed off when I nodded at him.

"Which makes it a lot harder for anyone on the outside to detect cultivation activities happening in here," I finished.

"Smart. Your ancestors definitely knew what they were doing." The inside was surprisingly well-kept all things considered. There was dust covering everything sure, and you could see water damage in a few corners, but the basic structure was still solid. More importantly I could feel this faint hum of residual energy coming from the walls, not much by my standards, but it was probably pretty impressive for a world this starved of qi.

We settled into what had probably been some kind of office space up on the second floor. The room had no windows but it was dry, and it had enough space for what I needed to do. Most importantly the jade running through the walls was strongest here which naturally blocked any spiritual sensing from the outside.

"So," Han Renyi's voice echoed in our shared consciousness while I started unpacking the formation equipment we'd picked up on our way here.

"Are you going to explain why we needed all of this? Are you some kind of formation master?" I had to smile at that. If he only knew about all nine levels of formation mastery and where I actually sat on that scale.

"I wouldn't exactly call myself a master," I replied.

"But I'm not too bad at it either." The detour to grab the equipment had been completely necessary, without my usual tools I had to make do with whatever was available in this world and the differences were honestly pretty interesting. The scribing brush was a lot cruder than anything I was used to, its qi flow adjustment mechanism was more mechanical than spiritual. The measurement calipers looked similar enough to what I knew but they were missing the fine-tuning capabilities I'd grown accustomed to having.

At least they still had the standard copper and jade array anchors.

"It's like trying to do surgery with stone tools," I muttered while I was examining one of the copper anchors.

"What was that?" Han Renyi asked.

"Nothing important." I laid the tools out in their proper positions.

"Just talking to myself."

"What formation are you making?" I smiled even though he couldn't see it.

"You'll see."

"Do you think this will actually work?" I directed the thought over to Azure, keeping it separate from my connection with Han Renyi.

"The principles should still hold," Azure replied.

"The local energy is different but the basic laws that govern formation arrays seem to be consistent here. We may need to make some adjustments though for the reduced power density." I gave a nod and got to work. The Qi Gathering Circle was one of the very first formations I'd ever learned, and even though I was only a Level 2 Formation Practitioner I was confident enough that I could make the necessary modifications to both upgrade it and adapt it to work with this world's energy.

The basic pattern came to me easily, nested circles with inward-spiraling lines and each stroke was precise despite the unfamiliar tools. But where a normal Qi Gathering Circle would just have simple containment barriers I added resonance chambers at key junction points. The spacing between the spiral arms needed to be wider to account for the thinner energy density, and I threw in some extra stabilization arrays to keep it from collapsing on itself.

"The energy density here is roughly one-tenth of what we're used to working with," Azure noted while I kept working.

"Should we add a compression matrix to the outer ring?"

"Good idea," I thought back at him.

"And maybe link it into those resonance chambers we just added, create a feedback loop to amplify the gathering effect."

"Agreed. Though be careful with the power ratios, too much amplification could destabilize the entire array." From Han Renyi's perspective I probably looked like I'd gone into some kind of trance, my hands moving with precision as I kept laying down line after line. He stayed quiet the whole time which I appreciated because nothing ruins delicate formation work faster than getting interrupted in the middle of it.

The final touch was adding a set of emergency release valves, if the array ended up gathering more energy than it could safely handle, it was a lot better to have it disperse harmlessly than blow up in my face. When I finally finished, the formation covered most of the floor in this intricate pattern of copper-infused ink. It wasn't my best work, the lines weren't as smooth as I would have liked and some of the angles were a little off because of the crude tools, but it would get the job done.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Alright," I said while straightening up.

"Let's see if this actually works." I channeled a small amount of energy into the array's activation point and for a moment, nothing happened. Then the lines started glowing with this soft blue light. The light flickered dangerously and I could feel Han Renyi's consciousness go tense waiting for it to fail. But then the resonance chambers kicked in and created that feedback loop exactly like I'd planned. The flickering stabilized and suddenly the air in the room felt heavier, denser with spiritual energy.

"This is incredible!" Han Renyi's voice was full of genuine awe.

"I can actually feel the rouqi gathering in here. If I'd had something like this back when I was trying to break through to Tier 1..." I smiled at his reaction, not that he could see it. I didn't blame him at all because this was probably more concentrated spiritual energy than he'd experienced in his entire life. Even with the world's natural energy being so thin the formation's amplification and compression effects were working better than I'd honestly expected them to.

My status information updated on its own: Core Essence: Soul Essence: 50/105 Spiritual Essence: 40/63 Physical Essence: 16/33 Perfect. At this rate, my spiritual essence would be completely restored within the hour, and by then I should have my preparation finished.

"What comes next?" Azure asked, though I had a feeling he already knew.

"Something that will probably terrify our new friend," I replied with a mental grin. I picked out one of the sturdier branches from the materials we'd gathered and used a small application of qi to strip the bark away and polish it down to a smooth finish. Then carefully, I started sharpening one end into a makeshift scribing tool.

"What are you doing?" Han Renyi asked as I began inscribing the first rune onto our body.

"Adding some necessary upgrades," I replied calmly, staying focused on getting the strokes of the Blink Step rune perfect on our left leg. The branch wasn't ideal for work this delicate, but I had enough practice by now that even if I wasn't as proficient as Elder Molric, I was confident I could complete each rune in under three minutes.

"Those markings..." Han Renyi's voice had this growing note of horror in it.

"Those are demonic cultivation marks!" I'd expected that reaction, in most cultivation worlds anything involving blood or body modification got labeled as demonic pretty quickly.

"They're not demonic," I assured him while moving on to inscribing the Vine Whip rune on the back of our right hand.

"Just unconventional."

"But I've heard stories about demonic Rouqin!" he protested.

"They carve symbols into their flesh to gain unnatural powers, and it corrupts their bodies and souls until they turn into monsters!" That made me pause for a second.

"Tell me more about these demonic Rouqin." What came pouring out was a grimly familiar story, cultivators who chased power through forbidden methods, sacrificing other people to fuel their own advancement, their bodies twisted by dark energies until they barely looked human anymore. It was pretty standard stuff for any cultivation world really.

"And they all have marks like these?" I asked as I inscribed the Titan's Crest onto my left hand.

"Well... no," Han Renyi admitted.

"Their marks have a lot more curves and spikes. And they glow with this evil red light..." The last part nearly made me laugh. I couldn't help but wonder what his reaction was going to be when I activate the runes using red sun energy. That was going to be a fun conversation.

"I promise," I said as I finished inscribing the Explosive Seed rune onto our index fingertip, "I'm not a demonic cultivator. These marks are more like helpful reminders. If you want, you can think of them as training aids."

"Training aids don't usually require carving into your own flesh," he pointed out.

"That's fair," I conceded.

"But desperate times call for desperate measures. We're about to go up against a Tier 2 Rouqin, we need every advantage we can get." At that, he went quiet. Even though he was uncomfortable with the situation, he was still the same person who had decided to sell his soul to gain enough power for revenge against Elder Zhou.

After inscribing the Woodweave Seal onto my chest, I started channeling red sun energy into all the runes, making them glow with exactly the kind of "evil red light" he'd just described to me, but surprisingly, he stayed quiet.

"Master," Azure spoke up once I'd finished activating everything, "what's next?"

"Something I was really hoping to never experience again," I frowned.

"Time for another round of Tri-Essence Harmony." Converting soul essence into physical essence wasn't any more pleasant this time around, the pain was still intense enough to make me seriously question whether I was actually dying, but at least I knew what to expect this time. Small comfort when every bone in your body is being remade from the inside out. Han Renyi's reaction to watching his own body literally break apart and rebuild itself was entertaining in a pretty dark sort of way.

His consciousness recoiled in horror as muscles tore and reformed themselves, bones cracked and came back stronger, skin became denser and harder to damage.

"What are you doing to my body?" his mental voice was somewhere between complete terror and reluctant fascination.

"Improving it," I managed to reply through gritted teeth as another wave of transformation tore through our shared form.

"Trust me, you'll thank me for this later." The whole process felt like it took forever even though Azure kept assuring me it was only about fifteen minutes, and when it was finally over, I lay there panting on the floor with our new body gleaming with sweat in the formation's blue light. Status Update: Core Essence: Soul Essence: 25/105 Spiritual Essence: 63/63 Physical Essence: 33/33"Take a look," I said as I stood up and moved over to examine our reflection in a dusty window.

The changes were pretty dramatic, where before we'd had the build of a lean athlete we now looked like someone who'd spent years training as a dedicated warrior.

"This is impossible," Han Renyi whispered.

"My body... how did you do that?"

"I promised you power," I reminded him while testing our enhanced strength with a few basic movements.

"And power is what you're getting. But you need serious training once you gain control back because all this potential won't mean anything without the skill to actually use it."

"Is it time then?" he asked, and I could feel his thoughts shifting over to his father.

"Can we actually save him now?" With fully restored spiritual essence, enhanced physical capabilities, and my complete array of techniques available thanks to the new runes, we were in a lot better position than before.

"Yes," I said while gathering our equipment.

"It's time to show Elder Zhou why he should have left your family alone."

"But he's still a Tier 2 Rouqin," Han Renyi's voice carried this mix of hope and worry, "even with everything you've done..."

"Don't worry," I told him, deciding not to mention just how genuinely dangerous this was going to be.

"I have a plan. Several of them actually. And if those don't work out..." I let a little red sun energy flare in our eyes and grinned.

"Well, that's what Plan Z is for." I took one last look at the Qi Gathering Circle, its blue light slowly fading.

"Ready?" I asked both Azure and Han Renyi.

"Always, Master."

"As I'll ever be..."

"Then let's go crash a meeting."