Seven-Colored Glazed Bodhi Tree

Dum Dum. Dum Dum. Dum Dum!

They could hear the sound of their own heartbeat. It was like a song pulling them away from the physical world, locking them in a trance. Still, they allowed it and slowly fell into their individual soul realms.

Huang Dawei, Xiao Ya, and Qin Yuechi each ran the methods they sought to obtain enlightenment with.

But what they didn't know, was that they sorely misidentify the nature of the mountain cave pool as it sensed their presence and tested their paths. Seven vibrant and blinding colors shined in each of the soul realms and imprisoned their consciousness.

And it was this phenomenon that Huang Dawei noted and lead him to believe that the root pool wasn't the remnant of just any Bodhi tree.

The Seven-Colored Glazed Bodhi Tree is one of the world's Seven Treasures that only exist in legend. Its seven-color leaves represent seven strengths. They are respectively gold/metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning. When in an active state and using its core energy the tree can become a miniature version of the Heavenly Daos and give others a baptism of the Myriad Daos. When in a passive/normal state it gives a continuous stream of wisdom and insight.

However, when desecrated, enlightenment must be earned.

If not for his origins, no one on the Tianwu continent would be able to identify this remnant root and or the opportunity of the boons it could bring to its owner. Huang Dawei knew now why the ancient demons plucked it from the mountain and why Qin Yuechi's old lover searched for it. This also told Huang Dawei, that that man was from a realm as high and auspicious as his own.

Xiao Ya's Soul Realm

"Xiao Ya! Xiao Ya! Wake up, girl!" Bai Lingmei shouted at her granddaughter as she smacked her ass awake.

A young Xiao Ya shoot up from the bed and frowned at her grandmother. But then her frown vanished as she saw how young her grandmother looked and decades of memories came to Xiao Ya.

Xiao Ya began to weep. She wept so hard that Bai Lingmei hugged and apologized over and over again for not knowing her own strength.

When Xiao Ya finally calmed, she hugged her grandmother back and promised, "I won't let it happen again. I won't lose you. Or anyone I love. I promise I'll be stronger."

Bai Lingmei was very confused but figured Xiao Ya had another bad dream. It was a common thing since she lost her parents. What Bai Lingmei didn't know was that Xiao Ya believed she died in a war that took the whole Huang Dynasty, Qin Yuechi, Huang Dawei, and seven of her sisters 100 years in the future.

A great power descended heaven for her husband and she could not stop it. Even though they had worked so hard together to swallow the five countries, build a great army, and become peak powers on the Tianwu Continent, they had failed to protect each other.

So, Xiao Ya set out to become a great Martial Artist and Alchemist. No, she had to become more if she wanted to save them.

"If Qin Yuechi could become Peak Wuzong by her thirties, I can too. And If I do it right, I can become even stronger," said Xiao Ya.

As a mortal, Xiao Ya picked up and worked on her hand-to-hand combat. She hunted lowly beasts for money to provide for her poor family and purchased books on character, strategies, and alchemical ingredients. She studied and cultivated like a mad woman.

When she turned thirteen, she had already reached the initial Earth level and went out on her own. She wanted to join the pill pavilion in the capital for access to more resources. And thanks to her past knowledge, she was viewed as a genius, but she didn't use it as a shield. She continued to journey and push her limitation.

Years passed and she meet many men who courted and offered her the best of the world but she remained focused and headstrong. Mastering the Martial Intent and Archery Intent. She collected flames and comprehended the law of fire.

The Vermilion Sun Dan Sutra broadened her soul and she began to step in and master the basics of other occupations with ease.

By the time she was thirty, she returned to the Great Qi State as a Rank 6 Alchemist and Peak Wuzun and waited. But he never showed.

Xiao Ya never believed that he was gone forever. Maybe he chose a different path. Maybe he never descended to the Tianwu continent. Xiao Ya continued, finding and befriending her sister who shared a life with her before.

1,000 years passed in a blink. And then she found him again. A bitter prince faced with a horrifying enemy without an ally in sight. Everything she had lived for came to that moment. A moment when she delivered herself and eight women to a dark horse against all odds.

At the end of her life, Xiao Ya appeared in her soul realm with a deep gaze. It soon turned shallow and she remembered where she was. When she was. Finally, the seven-colored light baptized and a great Vermilion Bird erupted from her body. It stood atop the cave pool and transformed into a flaming Xiao Ya. It conjured a bow and arrow, displaying the three archery methods Xiao practiced until Archery Intent radiated from the last shot. It then took a martial stance and performed four martial techniques that Xiao Ya practiced and bore Martial Intent.

Taking the basics of Arrays, Seals, and the short sword and turning them into a wealth of knowledge that could be applied instead of fading in the depths of her mind as mere dabblings.

When all was down, a chain snapped in Xiao Ya the heavens roared as her cultivation rose, pushing her through the gates of Wuzong.

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Qin Yuechi's Soul Realm

"You are pathetic…" Qin Yuechi spoke to Qin Yuechi.

"What are you doing here? Practicing his technique. Using his Guqin. Does the compensation as an accidental breeder make you feel better?"

"Stop!"

"Does it make you feel that if you practice hard enough and chase him through ten thousand lands then maybe he might hear of it and remember you!"

"Shut up!"

"Qin Yuechi! Qin Yuechi! You embarrass us! A waste of beauty and talent! Now you sit here to try and make up for what you should have done a decade ago!"

"Fuck you!"

"Hahahahah. Fuck You! Ooh, she's getting mad."

"What the hell do you want from me?" Qin Yuechi asked herself.

"We want you to wake the fuck up! We want you to fight for yourself, love yourself, and become strong! Walk for yourself. Stop the fucking embarrassment! Or one day, they will leave you too."

Qin Yuechi looked up and saw images of Qin Chen, her father, Huang Dawei, Her second brother, and Xiao Ya leaving her. The only one that remained was her, sad and alone.

"Leave her be. This is what she wants. She waits for him! But this is what he's doing!" Another Qin Yuechi spoke and her soul realm showed images of a mighty Zhan Tian with 100 goddess-tier beauties and children around them, sitting amongst the stars.

Qin Yuechi's mind spun out of control and she fell deep into depression. Drowning and sinking to the bottom of pitch-black abyssal waters.

…

"No…"

"No…"

"Who will protect Chen'er"

"Who will save the Qin family from those vermin?"

"We have to find his mother…"

"what if those devils descend?"

"He chose me. She chose me. If they fail because of me, then I really am pathetic. Why waste away for people who forget? I didn't come here to feel pity for myself. I came to break the boundary, I came to show him that I'm worthy in my own right. Shatter the shackles that bind. I can soar on my own, I can protect my son. I am a force of nature!"

The darkness around Qin Yuechi shattered and all of her clones were destroyed. Her hair then turned snow white and her eyes took on golden splendor as a lotus marked the middle of her brow.

The Seven colors that sealed her soul realm then bathed her and formed a seven-colored lotus beneath her feet. She sat on the lotus of enlightenment and played her guqin, breathing through her doubt as the lotus transformed from nine petals to 18. Emitting a terrifying qi.

Her elegant fingers then strummed her guqin and a blade of qi fired off transforming in the process.

"This is it, the law of Guqin" she realized, "And I comprehend the first layer of the second half. This is the beginning of self-realization. Pure and prime, free and absolute."

As Qin Yuechi played the song of her heart, the great lotus revolved underneath as she unraveled the mystery of her own cultivation and self.

Images of her as a girl, running away and finding love flashed before. Addandoment and years of cowardice and suffering with nowhere to turn. Enduring under the lie she told herself.

Her figure then manifested and shatter the old with a step and the new was born again in the blooming lotus.

"The exalted lotus of high heaven. Become the throne and bloom. Release the seeds of laws and impregnate the world of creation. Destruction and resurrection as a whole. Shatter the void and become the envy of gods."

Qin Yuechi's soul realm shattered as the 18-petaled seven-colored lotus manifested from her body. As it blooms music covered the mountain and the lotus pulled nature in its direction as if the world was bowing. This was the law of authority under the lotus throne.

Unfortunately, she shared the cave pool and only achieved enlightenment as her cultivation touched half-step Wuzun.

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Huang Dawei's Soul Realm

"Do with me as you will," said Huang Dawei.

"But first, face me at my height," he added.

A moment later, Huang Dawei ran the Ancient Phoenix Nine Turn Sutra. His soul realm rumbled and the seven colored lights became waves but held strong.

Huang Dawei gives a big toothy smile and an ancient blazing phoenix manifested in his soul realm with magnificent crimson plumage and spread wings. It cried its song and nine feathers surrounded it.

The seven lights quickly attacked before Huang Dawei could finish but his manifestation wasn't shattered. He then spoke the truth into the world.

"You are only as strong as I am. Your boons only stretch as tall as I am. I am the scale."

The nin feathers began to turn at high speeds, pulling in the seven colored lights, and drinking their fill.

"No, you don't" Huang Dawei grunted as he formed a hand seal bound himself.

He suppressed his cultivation and it hit a great wall, impenetrable and boundless. The nine feathers soon rose higher and higher. The song of the phoenix became louder and it flapped its wings conjuring a storm of fire and wind.

Crackling echoed and the first sound of shatter was replaced with a human figure and one feather was gone. Another shatter echoed, and the spear replaced the second feather. A sword followed, then a pill, blood, a formation diagram, a flame, a hammer, and the turning of yin and yang.

The Seven colored glazed Bodhi root felt suppressed and manipulated. A feeling it once felt at the hands of ancient demons.

As the Heavenly Dao created in the midst of desecration, it stepped in once more with a bell ringing. It rung across the lands of the five countries and directly into Huang Dawei's soul.

Dung!

The human figure shatter and Huang Dawei began to meditate on the Human figure representing Martial Intent. Looking for enlightenment in the face of divine punishment.

Countless times he faced a reconstruction of the Crazy Slaughter Monkey and grasped Killing Intent and Slaughter. Transforming his Martial Intent.

Dung!

The spear shattered and Huang Dawei faced the Law of Spear.

Dung!

The sword shattered.

Dung!

The pill shattered.

With every ring, a manifestation shattered. With every ring, the heavenly dao tore a piece of Huang Dawei's off to face the tribulation of his manifestations.

Nine Manifestaions, Nine Tribulations. Drowning in pain, torture, and endless battle. Huang Dawei held on.

Outside, Qin Yuechi and Xiao Ya watched horrified as the water in the pool was absorbed by Huang Dawei at a speed as quick as breathing. The Great root then moved, twisting around him like a cocoon. All the while the bell of heavenly dao didn't cease.

It wanted Huang Dawei to admit defeat. It wants him dead. Him and his cursed blood. Not only did the demons desecrate a treasure of the dao, but he also tried to cheat the consequences.

And finally, when Huang Dawei was swallowed by the great root and his phoenix manifestation began to break down, he gave in.

He gave in and stepped out of his body. Hen then waved his hand and nine of his soul pieces were pulled from his body, forsaking the physical and materialistic things. Giving himself over to the dao.

At that moment, in that split second, he had grasped nine specks, and nine manifestations condensed again with new splendor. The bell of the heavenly dao rang one last time and immediately vanished, cutting Huang Dawei off.

The root cocoon was then blown to pieces revealing its seven-colored flesh. Huang Dawei was free and when he opened his eyes, his aura became mysterious and archaic, only fading the more he became one with his flesh once more.