Chapter 392: Non-Existence (Patreon)

"All I need is a few seconds!"

~~~

The first step of [Art of the Roaming Thief] reads the opponent’s Qi and steps into their blind spot. The second step reads the ambient Qi and becomes one with it. Both are deadly techniques that can be used to great effect in a wide variety of situations. 

“Interesting,” Xiao Shuang says after Liu Jin demonstrates the two steps in succession for her.

“What is?” Liu Jin asks. “Do not hesitate to share any insight you might have.”

“Well…” Xiao Shuang purses her lips as she considers how to best phrase her conclusions. “I was thinking that the first step isn’t really trying to hide your presence that much. You are reading my Qi to find out where my attention is, then immediately moving to where it isn’t.”

“The first principle of hiding is knowing where your opponent’s focus is and making sure you are not there,” Liu Jin explains. “The power of every subsequent step is magnified by always being aware of that simple fact.”

“Right,” Xiao Shuang says, nodding. “However, the second step does demand that you perfectly blend your Qi with your surroundings at the expense of not making your actual body hard to see at all. You are prioritizing not being sensed by people who are not close enough to see you. One assumes you are in the middle of a fight or trying to escape someone. The other one seems more like it is used for sneaking inside houses or fortresses.”

“It is called [Art of the Roaming Thief],” Liu Jin points out, stressing the last word. “But yes. The first step is for combat; the second is for infiltration. However, once the second step has been mastered, the skill can be incorporated into the first. Like so.”

A blink of an eye. A soundless step. Liu Jin appears behind Xiao Shuang as if he had always been there.

“Impressive,” Xiao Shuang says. “Much better than before.”

Naturally, there is a difference between merely lowering one’s Qi or making it hard to sense and perfectly blending it with the environment. One leaves behind an empty spot where someone’s presence should be, allowing detection through simple absence. The second step fixes that flaw.

“Third Step leaves a mirage,” Liu Jin says, once again demonstrating for Xiao Shuang. Two noiseless steps leave two Liu Jins standing in front of Xiao Shuang. One lingers for an instant, not even a full breath, before fading away.

“A decoy,” Xiao Shuang says, holding her chin. “How does it work? Do you have to create every part of the image?”

Liu Jin shakes his head.

“There is no need to,” he says. “That is where the next principle comes in: Presence. We all have it. When a well-dressed person enters a room, you pay attention. When someone’s Qi is roaring around him, you pay attention. When one among hundreds of people is walking down a busy street, we ignore them. The third step taps into that and applies selective magnification.”

Again, Liu Jin demonstrates. His hand passes through his mirage, dismissing it before it can fade away on its own.

“When you suddenly heighten your presence for an instant, it leaves an imprint, a place where it feels like you should be but aren’t. Your Qi does the rest of the work and fills it. The image is the result.”

“And the fourth step does… the opposite?” Xiao Shuang asks, remembering the Crimson Cloud Tournament.

“In a way,” Liu Jin says. “The fourth step matches my presence to the mirage, making it hard to tell the difference. They are meant to be used together. The fifth step follows a similar principle, but decreases my presence to the point of insignificance. It makes you into someone not worth paying attention to. Even if people see you, it will not matter because you are not significant enough. That is how my master was able to spend so much time hidden in Eastern Port City.”

To this day, it still amazes Liu Jin that his master held that state for so long. Though not perfect enough to fully hide himself from someone like Patriarch Xiao Zheng, his master still managed to stay in the fifth step for years while fighting a poison that killed him a little more every day.

“I begin to understand,” Xiao Shuang says, crossing her arms. “It is another principle you can apply to the first step, creating decoys while making yourself harder to sense. Most techniques with multiple levels only go forward. Your Art of the Roaming Thief encourages you to go backward and even sideways. It is impressive.”

Liu Jin smiles sadly.

“But it is not enough, is it?” he asks her. “You have not lost sight of me even once.”

“In the heat of combat, I might lose sight of you. You have already proven that,” Xiao Shuang says, softening the blow before she gives it. “But no, husband. My Eye has not lost sight of you.”

Eye.

Singular.

A person has three dantian, and each one serves a different purpose. The lower one lays the foundation. It focuses on the body and how Qi flows through it. The middle one governs the bond between body and soul. The upper dantian controls vision. However, the vision granted by the upper dantian does not refer to simple eyesight. It goes far deeper than that.

As a cultivator grows in power, purely physical senses start reaching their limits. They have to be supplemented with a cultivator’s Qi. It is Qi that allows them to sense the world around them while fighting at extreme speeds. It is Qi that allows their words to be transmitted when the speed of sound becomes an impediment to communication. Their remaining senses are supplemented in similar ways.

However, such solutions are nothing more than half-measures. They are simply not enough to give a cultivator’s mind and soul the information his growing capabilities require. A new type of awareness is needed. That is the vision the upper dantian provides. It goes beyond vision, beyond touch, beyond smell, beyond taste, beyond hearing.

It is knowing.

Some cultivators never awaken it. Usually, it is only possible for those in the Heaven Realm or above. Even then, many cultivators in the Heaven Realm fail to grasp it. However, Xiao Shuang can do it. She demonstrated it during the Crimson Cloud Tournament.

That is why she can detect him when he is using [Art of the Roaming Thief].

That is why she is perfect for him to test himself against.

Lord Feng Shang wants him to stop Xun Huwen and protect Feng Zhuo, and that can only happen if Liu Jin can completely hide his presence and bypass the barriers of this tower. Even if Great Mother collaborates and helps him hide his presence, it will mean nothing if he cannot bypass the barriers.

“It is fine,” Liu Jin says, both to Xiao Shuang and to himself. “We knew your Sight would help you see this much. I will go a step further now.”

Liu Jin closes his eyes and reaches into himself. He focuses on everything that makes him the person that he is. His memories. His Qi. His Dao. His body. His soul. He paints an image of himself in his mind and holds it.

Then, he lets go of it.

[Art of the Roaming Thief - Sixth Step]

The step is light. Floaty. His surroundings sway, and that is the only way in which Liu Jin can tell that he is moving. He can barely feel his own body anymore. He has forgotten the dimensions of it. Everything is hazy, faint…dream-like.

Xiao Shuang’s arm catches his elbow.

Surprise flashes across his face because, somehow, Liu Jin forgot that he was in the same room as her. He almost falls on his face as his legs end up tangled together. Only Xiao Shuang’s arm helps him steady himself in time. Liu Jin breathes deeply as he remembers that he can. Cold sweat shines on his forehead.

“That was different,” Xiao Shuang says. Her tone is light, yet the tightness of her grip betrays her worry.

Liu Jin tries to smile reassuringly.

“Good thing I didn’t use it in the tournament,” he says. “Everyone would have known I was bluffing.”

During the Crimson Cloud Tournament, Liu Jin’s plan relied on people being unsure if he had mastered all seven steps of [Art of the Roaming Thief]. As long as doubt existed, they could not attack him because they risked making him flee and disappear. They had no choice but to wait and let the entire tournament play out, hoping to catch him by defeating him in the matches.

However, the whole thing was a bluff on Liu Jin’s part. He can barely tap into the Sixth Step, and as Xiao Shuang has so clearly demonstrated, he is a long way from mastering it.

“What was that?” Xiao Shuang asks, still shaken. “That was not like the others.”

Liu Jin smiles and lets his knees fail him on the edge of the bed. The round mattress makes a light sound as he sits.

“The Sixth Step. The Principle of Non-Existence,” Liu Jin says, smiling as if drunk. “It is…intense.”

“That was not just Qi. I could still perceive you, but you were not just faint,” Xiao Shuang says, frowning at him. “It was like you were not really there.”

“That is the idea,” Liu Jin says. “To be and not be at the same time.”

The Sixth Step builds on the concept of Presence. If the Fifth Step reduces it to unimportance, then the Sixth Step reduces it to zero. Until reality itself is unsure if you are even there. No presence. No existence.

No being.

“When you master it, you are not just undetected. Your actions do not register as having happened. Because if you do not exist, how could you have done anything?”

Liu Jin let out a deep sigh. His shoulders fall heavily.  

“It is... intense.”

“Dangerous, you mean. Can you really master it?” Xiao Shuang asks. “We do not have much time.”

“I must. We only have a few days until Feng Zhuo’s turn comes,” he says. “Even if Great Mother shields me from the Scribe, I will need to be able to do at least this much to bypass the barriers. Can I keep counting on your help?”

The apprehension melts away from Xiao Shuang. Resolution hardens in her eyes like ice.

“Always.”

~~~

“Impossible!”

Young Jiang yells as he paces around the campfire, arms moving in wild circles. He is older than in previous memories Liu Jin has seen of his youth, already a young man with hair growing on his face, sharp and short like countless tiny needles. The black hair atop his head is a mess, wild locks going in all directions. He has clearly been in the wild for a few days.

By contrast, the woman who taught his master looks perfectly immaculate. She sits by the fire with a cup of tea in her hands and not a single crease on her robes. Somehow, she manages to take a sip without raising or lowering her mask.

“What seems to be the problem this time, foolish disciple of mine?” she asks him.

“This!” Young Jiang shouts, waving a hand over the space in front of him. “Everything! All of it! It is! I cannot see the air, but I can feel it when my hand passes through. Something is, or something isn’t. I am, so you cannot expect me not to be! That’s not normal! It feels wrong!”

The masked woman moves her cup to prevent Young Jiang’s spittle from landing on her tea. Liu Jin gets the feeling that she is frowning.

“An adequate point. For a lesser being,” she says. “However, you are my disciple, and I expect better of you.”

“I have done everything you have asked of me, and I have excelled! I beat all those pouncy heirs you threw at me!” Young Jiang counters. The tip of his boot digs into the ground as he pushes his weight forward. “It is just this one thing that keeps getting in my way! This damn technique you insist on me learning!”

“Well, you are not entirely wrong,” the masked woman says. “You are uniquely unsuited for it.”

Young Jiang blinks.

“What?”

“It is a stealth technique, the highest of all. A boy who revels in his newly gained fame cannot be expected to have any affinity for the ways of the Roaming Thief,” she says as if it should be obvious.  

Young Jiang looks at her, unnaturally still save for the vein throbbing in his temple.

“And you are just now letting me know?!”

“Humility is a lesson too precious to be spoiled,” the masked woman says, completely without guilt. “However, the difficulty this time is greater than usual. The Principle of Nonexistence is naturally hard to grasp—that which is longs to remain that way. You cannot conceptualize yourself as a non-being. Your mind, body, and soul naturally rebel against the process.”

“And how do I fix that? You can do it, so clearly it is possible.”

“There is...a creature,” the masked woman says, staring into the fire. “Fearsome and terrifying. It is, yet isn’t. Its fur is painted red with the blood of its victims. Its hundred tusks gleam like steel in the sunlight. It has no eyes, yet its sight is perfect. Its body is like a small mountain, but it makes no sound. It plunders villages, brings down mountains, and devours…No, I cannot say it.”

The masked woman stops talking. The crackling fire and the song of the cicadas are the only sounds around the campfire.

“What...” Young Jiang swallows heavily. “What is the creature’s name?”

“The Calamity.”

“I have never heard of it.”

“Naturally, I made it up.”

Blue eyes blink slowly.

“What?”

“I made it up,” the masked woman says cheerfully. “Very nice, huh? Perhaps I have a talent as a storyteller?”

“Do you delight in mocking me?!” Young Jiang shouts, his soaring Qi scaring away all the insects. “Wait, don’t answer that! What was the point of that story?! Wasting my time?”

“You could picture it, couldn’t you? The Calamity,” the masked woman says, pointing at him with a finger. “You could picture it. You could see it. You were probably already thinking about how to fight it and kill it. It doesn’t exist, yet you could conceptualize it.”

“That’s… that’s not the same thing!”

“It is, and it isn’t,” the masked woman says, setting down her empty cup by the fire. “The mind is a wonderful thing. Even if it does not exist, you can think of it. You can delude yourself into bringing something into existence, even if only within the confines of your imagination. Consider it. Embrace it.”

Young Jiang doesn’t answer.

His master’s young self sits in front of the fire for a long time.

~~~ 

Days pass, and Feng Zhuo’s name is finally called.

The Scribe does not escort him. Ever since the trial, he and Great Mother have remained in front of each other, neither side moving an inch, making the chosen ones go into the chamber of renewal without a guide. Feng Zhuo is not even made part of a group like everyone else. Someone who represents so many bloodlines must go into the chamber alone.

His father explained the process to him long before they left the Eternal Flame Clan, so he shows no hesitation as he enters the chamber and picks a podium. It lights up with his energy and begins the process. He will not be able to leave that spot for about six hours. There is no one in the room with him.

Yet, Xun Huwen strikes.

Yet, Liu Jin counters.

Their Qi connects them for an instant as Liu Jin’s kick knocks Xun Huwen back. An entire conversation happens in the blink of an eye. A realization. An understanding. A resolution.

“Are you insane?” Liu Jin yells, because he finally knows how Xun Huwen bypassed the barrier. It is not due to any item. That would have been far too sensible.

It is his damnable Dao.

“You are killing yourself!” Liu Jin accuses him.

How do you stop yourself from being found when you can only Destroy? In hindsight, the answer is shockingly simple.

You Destroy yourself.

“Impressive, isn't it?” Xun Huwen says, smiling with bloodied teeth. “I told you that I have been hearing about you, Junior. Everyone in the Peerless Heavenly Sword Peak kept talking about that technique. Did you know they have items that belonged to its creator? Very important relics, but they let me play with one. It gave me the idea of doing this. I wasn’t quite sure if I could succeed, but my Dao told me this was the best path.”

[Art of the Roaming Thief] is not such a simple technique that it can be copied just by knowing what it does. Even though Liu Jin explained the steps to Xiao Shuang, he knows she will not be able to learn the technique just from that. In the same way, Xun Huwen has not learned the technique by studying a relic.

He is merely imitating the result. 

To destroy his presence, Xun Huwen is actively focusing his Dao on it. What Liu Jin reached through skill and training, Xun Huwen is brute-forcing. However, it is not even remotely safe. If Liu Jin is someone who has learned to slow the beating of his heart to the point it does not seem to beat at all, Xun Huwen is someone who has shoved his hand through his chest and stopped his heart from beating by squeezing it.

And yet, if Lord Feng Gui attempted this, Liu Jin does not believe it would have worked. Did the purposelessness of Xun Huwen’s Dao help him mask the initial destruction of his presence from the tower as a completely meaningless act? 

No, it doesn’t matter. This does not change the inherent truth.

What Xun Huwen is doing is brutish, outlandish, and most of all, deadly.

“Idiocy,” Liu Jin says. “Destroying your presence like you are doing means destroying yourself! You lack the skill to move in this world!”

“I do not need your skill, Junior! All I need is a few seconds!”

“Then let them be your last!”

Liu Jin and Xun Huwen are little more than ghosts. They cannot be detected by the barriers in the tower. Yet all the same, ancient mechanisms begin to move. Words form in the depths of the tower as the significance of the event is recognized. 

Celestial Wisdom Star, Xun Huwen!

Vs.

Celestial Killer Star, Liu Jin!

~~~

Mini-Character List

Liu Jin: Our Protagonist. Hearing Boss music.

Xiao Shuang: Disciple of the Divine Frozen Palace. Can see Mt. Tai and also Mt. Tai’s long-lost brother.

Young Jiang: A protagonist of his own story. He lacks the fingers to count all the Young Masters he’s beaten. This will have repercussions. 

Masked Woman: Young Jiang’s master. Cao Bian’s “sister.” Writer of lewd romances in the AU.

Xun Huwen: “Disciple” of the Peerless Heavenly Sword Peak. When all you have is a hammer.

AN

I have been holding back from saying this, but this was never supposed to be a mystery. The intention was always for it to be obvious that Xun Huwen is the killer. However, since some people seemed uncertain in the comments, I couldn’t bring myself to say it and spoil it for them. 

Also, theme music for the next chapter.

Oh, also, there is a Collection for Ave Xia Rem Y now. I put the last 30 chapters in it or so. Some people find it easier to read it like that, I think.