Chapter 837: The Sacrifice (Patreon)

A/N

1 chap, enjoy!

Chapter 837: The Sacrific

“Yes,” I smiled. “One free of corruption.”

Even though I said it with a lot of confidence, the matter wasn’t as simple as I made it seem to them.

In the vision, I had seen the former Azure Peak Sect Master, Li Tianyu, try to create a golden sun, and all he had been able to create was something the size of a lamp despite being a Civilisation Realm cultivator that cultivated the World Tree Sutra.

I wasn’t even a Life Realm cultivator yet. So yeah, I had a tall task ahead of me, and the resources that I had access to were the Genesis Seed, the Eldest Tree's network, every scrap of Golden Sun energy in the valley and in Elder Thorn's reserves, and memories of my predecessor’s attempts.

But was it enough? Because right now, I felt like a boy with a bucket that was trying to fill a lake.

I could try to merge the two suns like Elder Thorn had in a previous loop, however, honestly, I wasn’t certain that would work. Maybe a Golden Sun would be formed, but what concerned me was that the sun would retain fragments of the corruption, which the Otherworldly Being will definitely take advantage of in the future.

No, what I had to do was somehow absorb both suns, purify them completely, then create a new sun from them. But how the hell was I going to absorb one sun, never mind two. This body could only handle so much before it exploded. I actually believe maybe even my soul would collapse if I tried to contain that much power.

“What about the prophecy?” Tomas said inside our head.

“What about it?”

“You said I had a part to play in it to save the world,” he continued. “But I’ve not done anything except play the passenger. What if this is why I’m here?”

“You? You’re going to create a sun?”

“No, I can’t do that.” I heard him do the soul equivalent of swallowing as he tried his best to muster up courage. “But the prophecy called for someone who hasn’t been touched by either soul. Maybe…maybe you need to sacrifice something to give birth to a sun. Maybe you need to sacrifice me…”

I paused at that. The question that came to my mind was: why did there have to be a sacrifice in the first place? Though I had to admit there was some truth to that, especially remembering what kind of world this was. Perhaps the reason why Li Tianyu failed to create a true power source for the world was because he hadn’t paid the cost required for it. After all, Hiron had demonstrated that the power of a mortal soul couldn’t be underestimated, and it was something he preferred over even a Rank 8 soul. Even if a mortal soul could act as the catalyst, nothing would remain of it at the end.

“You might be right,” I sighed. “But even if you are, I'm not sacrificing you, Tomas. You're a teenager. You’ve not done anything wrong. You've not even lived life. You went four days on a cart once and thought that was the edge of the world. I’m not taking your future from you. I’d rather this world have no cultivation than sacrifice you for it.”

“But you said the corruption might come back in time. It’ll kill too many people. We can’t let that happen,” he shot back with heat in his voice. “If you leave it half-done and go back to where you came from, we’re the ones who—”

Before he got the chance to finish, I sensed something move in my inner world, trying to draw my attention. It was Yggy. It had come out of the moss at the base of the Ancient Oak and was sending me a feeling that wasn't complicated because it never was with Yggy.

In a nutshell, it was telling me to send it, to sacrifice it.

The decision weighed heavily on me, so I sat down on a rock because my legs decided to stop working. My first instinct was without a doubt no, because Yggy had been with me since the first Red Sun Academy loop. I had spent the entire next loop trying to create a soul bond so it could return with me. The thought of sacrificing it made my chest hurt that made me need to take a deep breath to stabilise myself.

But the more I thought about it, the more the plan made sense to me.

Unlike Tomas, Yggy wasn't a person, and more importantly, Yggy had a bond that connected its soul to mine. While that could make a cultivator vulnerable in some ways, which is exactly why a lot of trust was required before you made a decision like that, it came with its own benefits. For instance, the unforgettable time that I had wiped the continent off the map and taken Yggy with it, the vine had reformed in my inner world in a foul mood.

Since soul-bonded spirits didn't die while their anchor was alive, the cost might actually be worth it, especially considering that I could channel aspects of the Genesis Seed's power through it for the purifying aspect.

"Are you sure?" I asked, "it's going to hurt a lot…”

The only response I received was a warm sensation through our bond.

"Okay," I said. “Okay, buddy. We'll do it together.”

After everything that had happened, I was spent. I needed some time to recover. So, for the next hour, I sat with my back against the Eldest Tree while Elder Thorn poured everything he had left into the trunk and the roots poured it into me. As for the others, they all understood that this was a serious moment, they found their own place within the clearing and waited.

When I was finally ready, I stood up and summoned my Dharma Vessel.

The air distorted around me as a wave of gold escaped from my body, this time I didn’t call upon Sect Master Yuan. As powerful as a Civilisation Realm expert was, what I needed right now was something different.  Two hundred feet of vine unwound out of my skin in slow, heavy coils, thick as a temple pillar at the base, crimson threading through the veins with gold pulsing underneath. The tip rose above the canopy of the Eldest Tree, bent over, and looked down at the Sacred Ring.

I wasn’t done just yet.

A Dharma Vessel version of Yggy wouldn’t be enough for this, so I reached towards the soul bond and pulled. Not a second later, a vine that was respectable in size, but nothing compared to the monster hovering behind me, came into existence three feet in front of my nose with a soft plop.

With a quick mental command, the avatar came down and folded itself over its smaller self, and the two of them stopped being two things.

This was Yggy version two.

Behind me, Monroe made a strangled noise of surprise.

“Boy, just how many tricks do you have up your sleeve?” He then turned to the Head Monk. “Cairan, clearly cultivating the Golden Sun isn’t your monastery’s greatest secret, it’s whatever this kid is.”

Cairan, who was still kneeling beside Molric, shook his head slowly with an expression of complete surrender.

I didn’t say anything. My entire focus was on the matter at hand.

“Go, Yggy,” I whispered. “Devour.”

Without hesitation, two hundred feet of green flew into the sky until it was a thin thread against the blue disc.

Lady Laelyn let out a gasp of awe when the thread opened and swallowed up the Blue Sun.

Without the Otherworldly Entity’s will influencing the sun, it didn’t fight back, or maybe it didn’t get the chance to, I don’t know. All we saw was Yggy expand, cover it, then swallow it. The next second, half of the light that had rained down on this world for over a thousand years went out at once.

Every blue shadow in the Vale slid sideways and vanished.

“By the suns,” Lady Laelyn whispered, grabbing at her own chest, probably having never thought something like this was possible.

The situation only became more impossible as Yggy turned and did the same to the Red Sun.

The dark came down over everything.

I mean everything. There were no stars, no moon, no glow on the horizon. Hell, I couldn't see my own hands. The only thing left in the entire sky was Yggy, hanging up there with two suns burning inside its body, one blue and one red, lighting its veins from the inside so the whole coil showed against the black.

In the back of my mind, I heard a gulp sound from Tomas as reality struck him, making him realise that creating a sun was easier said than done.

Underneath the magnificent sight, the world lost its cultivation.

Beric sat down even though he wasn’t affected since the mark on his neck relied on qi.

Monroe’s head was down, I couldn’t see his expression because of the lack of light, but I knew he took it hard, the leader of the Blue Sun Academy was now no different to a mortal.

"For centuries, I could feel its power running through my veins," Monroe said quietly. "Now there is nothing..."

Kal held up one hand, tried to paint, and got nothing.

What I hadn’t expected from the time looper was the smile that appeared on his face.

“It’s finally over,” he whispered.

Elder Molric just sat there, staring up at the majesty of Yggy as the vine sat on the horizon like a sun in its own right. It must be an emotional sight to see how far his creation had come.

The only people in the valley that were still able to channel an energy native to this world were Cairan and Elder Thorn. Both of them still had access to the little amount of Golden Sun energy they had left. Cairan pushed a thin gold light out of his palm, and Elder Thorn managed a weak flicker off his own fingertips. However, with no other sun to absorb, they were no longer able to recover their limited storage.

But I had no intentions to leave them in this state.

When I was certain that the Genesis Seed had done its thing with the two suns, I gave the command.

A second later, high up in the sky, Yggy coils pushed outward against the light inside them as it began to swell, multiplying in size rapidly. The red and blue clashed and refused to merge together causing the whole shape to shudder and stretch at the seams.

"Sorry, buddy," I murmured, automatically wincing in preparation. "I hope this doesn’t hurt too much."

The answer came back down the bond, small, stubborn, and unafraid.

The meaning was clear: do it.

Using my connection to my Dharma Vessel, I reached up with everything I had left and took hold of the two suns inside my friend, and I twisted them into each other until my buddy burst with a mental shriek that shook the entire world.

The light came out in every direction at once and kept coming, chasing the dark off the ridgelines, off the crimson trees, off the frost, off the upturned faces of every single person standing in the Sacred Ring.

When it stopped spreading, it settled into a ball of energy hanging high in the middle of the sky – a real Golden Sun.

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