Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 61 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 61 – Yang Mu

Transported through the portal between heavens, Yang Mu could feel the twisting of space, distances closing in on one after the other as they passed through the realms, bordering between heavens and even a few demonic realms. Those she sensed in the periphery as they passed, not as many, wisps of chi and impressions of space, the souls of others impacting upon her presence.

Her own dao of connections throbbed, expanded and filled in as she studied the journey. Again and again she had done this, with each transport but this one, from one kind of realm to another was different. The change of energies and state, the spatial proportions of the demonic realm were different as well as the way she unspooled as she landed.

Wu Ying was a comfortable presence that she noted, the connection between the pair anchoring her. At the same time, her aura was assaulted, her spirit searching through the structure of the portal that was already now fading away struck by the needles of demonic chi.

They were like sharp edges of rocks, pelting the barrier of her skin, tearing at the edges of her soul. She hissed, falling to a knee while fighting the pain and the overwhelming disjointedness of this world. Her dao throbbed, fluctuating as new connections and new shapes tore through her, expanding and deepening itself while hurting her at the same time.

Then, the pain from the demonic chi lessened. It helped, but it also stilled the expansion of her dao, curtailing the improvements and the bout of enlightenment that she was feeling at the moment. Seeing the world, experiencing this portion of the world and seeing how the various worlds shaded and twisted around her was better.

Trading pain for obstruction. “Ying. Let me do this. Trust me.”

He felt him pull away. She felt a surge of warmth, that unending trust that he carried for her. It poured through her, bolstered her own confidence and strength. She sank to her knees, crossed her legs and sat there. Braced herself against the pain that struck and left herself open to the open connections of this realm.

Here, an outpost of the Celestial Jade Empire. Behind the portal, a heavenly realm where a town had been built, an entire regiment sent to safeguard the entrance to the heavens. A colonel of the guard that they had not met dined and cavorted, one portion of his attention always on the portal connection itself.

Here, an administrator. Self-effacing, quiet but with a degree of hidden power lying beneath his demeanour. A deeper shade of red and white, connections and shades of colour and energy twisting between the administrator, the colonel and someone out there. Someone she had yet to meet, yet mattered to Eun. More than he liked to admit, more than it should have been for an administrator and an immortal.

From that connection, she bounced outwards, following the splash of colors that connected from one individual to another demon. The entirety of the town was within her grasp, though at a certain point the blending of colors, the myriad forms of connections between individuals grew so complex that it just became a black splash in the background.

She wanted to see more, experience more. Understand the full palette of connections between these demons and the world itself, the flow of coins and spirit stones, between individuals and materials and the greater Dao itself.

To do that, all she had to do was expand her aura. Touch the world around her further, widen her senses to explore more. To do that, she would have to brace herself against the pulse of chi striking her, even as the shards of stone grew blunted and her dao allowed her to understand it.

Time passed, the quiet pulse of her companion’s aura settling and expanding. She could the winds moving, sense his connection to the element. The way his bonds passed through them and across, how the pair mixed. She herself had no elemental affinity, not to the extent as Wu Ying. Some minor wood and metal alignment, but nothing that would have allowed her to progress upon those paths without significant investment in developing that connection in the mortal realm.

Less important now.

Funny, how all those aspects that she had once believed so important had faded. Bloodlines, elemental affinities, cultivation methods and auras. As an immortal, such mortal props were but minor steps upwards to a level that they now stood upon.

Now, the difference in power between one and the next immortal came not from the various techniques or bloodlines or elemental affinities they might hold, but with their connection to the Dao. If one was deeper versed in the flow of the world, the greater the strength of ones soul and density of heavenly chi they could wield and the greater force they could exert.

Yet, that too was a contradiction of beliefs. The imposition of ones will upon the surroundings, the very act of enforcement was contradictory to the flow of the Dao. True understanding and wisdom amongst a populace could not be imposed. The pathway could be illuminated, the individual walking up on it, a marker for others to stride towards.

None could force another to walk forwards, but in the dark of the night, when ignorance and cruelty and suffering was the darkness all about, few would continue to ignore the beckoning light of the Dao.

At some point, her soul and body corrected itself. The pressure of the demonic chi that inflicted itself upon her stopped, no longer hurting but something that she could accept. It was not smooth, it was still difficult but she knew that the longer she contemplated the surroundings, the way it all connected and the push and pull of such energies in her body, the easier it would be to utilize it.

Some might struggle with such changes, the adaptation and flexibility required in both soul and body an impossibility. Her dao, though, was wide and expansive and a reflection of the soul itself that she had built. The initial difficulties of her own journey forth was because her dao had been too expansive, too accepting. Too wide for a mortal mind and soul to grasp fully.

Forced enlightenment and a showering of heavenly knowledge had allowed her to ascend, time spent in the Palace of Lesser Harmnoies had given room for stabilization. For Yang Mu, acclimatizing to the demonic was simple.

Perhaps even simpler than her companion.

Though perhaps she would not tell him that.