The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

Fuelled by the progress with the gun, I walked alongside Qiao Ying. The next one we needed to see was all the way out to Taizhou, and I flew, stepping through the skies, while Qiao Ying made use of an artifact to follow along, standing atop a flying sword to do so.

Both of us landed shortly afterwards in the village, Yin, and alongside her, two other scholars I only knew of vaguely bowed to greet me.

“Raise your heads, no need for so much formalities, I prefer to work easy,” I said to the scholars, before glancing at Qiao Ying.

“These two are my students, and trusted scholars. Or rather, to use a word you shared with us. Scientists. They’ve thoroughly studied the books, and absorbed as much information as they could, and have been helping Yin on her progress with the project. This was the main thing I had wished to shown you.”

“it’s an honor to have you here. We’d love to show you our work,” the two said.

I nodded, and followed along, stepping inside. This was a cavern system slightly detatched to the spirit mine where this experiment was taking place. The demonic herbs and miasma provided the perfect environment for testing.

Making our way through I went past the laboratories and chambers carved inside of caves, before entering the giant area where I had first found sheldon.

It looked nothing like it once had.

Carvings and formations were layered all over the place, the entire chamber reinforced with power, to keep it secure and hidden. The place was practically a nuclear bunker and given what was being tested, that was entirely reasonable.

I walked inside the cavern taking a look around. This was my big project, the secret, unnamed experiment that I was carrying out in a remote hidden location away from prying eyes. And even then I felt anxious about somebody finding out and taking what was inside.

"We have been making good progress," one of the two scholars said. It was only now that I realized that the two were brothers. The similarity had been obvious, but my mind had been entirely elsewhere. "Your books…they are revolutionizing. We are still reading through them and re-reading, at least the ones that Master Qiao Ying have given to us. But if everything written there is true, then it will change everything that we know of forever," the other one said in a reverent whisper.

I tried not to let the look linger in my mind as I stepped inside.

The project I was trying to build was an improvement of the gu-nuke. The name had been funny at the time, but in truth, the weapon I had made was at best a powerful bomb. It definitely had impact, but it wouldn’t even come close to the strongest explosives back home, much less a nuke.

And if the things I had to beat were the Deathless, nukes may very well be what I needed.

There was an area ahead, with contraptions made of metal, entirely metal, which was rare to see, and had cost a bunch to try and construct. But what was inside, was far more valuable than anything outside.

Lines were drawn on the floor, set around with a formation ward put in place to block anyone from entering inside.

Spirit stones fueled the entire thing, and just keeping this project alive was nearly draining the entire resources of the sect. If this failed, I would not be destitute and struggling to get by, but I would certainly be close.

Glowing lines flowed through the ground, in complex patterns of formation arts that began to blur the lines between technology and magic.

“This is the array master Qiao Ying had gotten developed,” Yin said, showing off a circular lit up platform made of smooth stone, set behind another barrier to protect the people inside.

There was a podium, on top was a metal cube floating in the air, with glowing lines too complex for me to even read.

“A grandmaster of formation arts had once created the penultimate device. A complex array of formation arts layered within a small cube that could be attached to any kind for formation, to combine the different devices and run them together,” Qiao Ying said, as I stepped up to the platform.

At his words, my eyes widened in shock, realising what this was.

“A motherboard,” I said, in a quiet whisper, looking down at the cube. The technology wasn’t entirely there yet, but this was basically it. A device to link and control and transfer information between multiple systems of logic that worked by transferring energy patterns between each other.

I was looking at the birth of the very first computer.

I almost wanted to laugh, the rate of progress had somehow shot forward directly from pre-industrial era to the development of nukes and computers.

But I knew that was far from the truth. If completely build, a computer based on this system would occupy entire chambers and run entire mines dry of spirit crystals to keep working.

And yet, it was the hints of a start nonetheless, and I knew that, given enough time… it would lead into a brand new kind of world.

Putting the thoughts of the distant future out of my mind, I stepped back, letting Yin work with the device. After sending pulses of Qi and shifting levers that physically altered the flow of the Qi across the giant formation construct in this cave, I watched as the entire cavern lit up, glowing lines circling all around each other.

A second later, I saw the entire chamber light up.

“We’ve run our own tests, and currently, there are three enter connected cores with pairs of Gu and Qi crystals, diluted to be as pure as possible set. Upon beginning, they’ll spin and rapidly ignite the core, which is a metal sphere inside of which grounded spirit and demonic herbs filled with Qi and Gu have been added in a mine mixture with just enough earth Qi to keep the ball stable and from igniting on it’s own.”

“Took us some time to figure the right mixture, it almost kept exploding,”one of the other boys said.

“All that said… we’ve never actually run this… and don’t know what will happen if we do,” Yin replied.

I looked at her, and saw the fear and hesitation. There was a part of me that recognized why it was so.

I knew why. I’d made the diagram for this thing myself, created the idea and even named it, and yet, as I stood here, watching the floating sphere covered in glowing lines like magical runes, I couldn’t help but feel the same trepidation.

“What’s the current capacity of the formation?” I asked.

“25% for this one,” Yin replied. After a moment later, she looked at me and spoke in english. “Are you sure? I… only know the stories. But my grandfather told me about this. About the weapons… and the cost.”

I looked at Yin, feeling my resolve shake. “I know. And yet… we did not have immortal monsters in our worlds to fight.”

We shared a look, after which, Yin turned to look at the other boys.

She gave commands and I watched the thing come to life

Within moments it all flared and the countdown began.

“Five… Four…”

The formation lines lit up, three more wards formed around the area, and Qiao Ying created another one.

“Three…”

The ground began to shake, and I felt a quiet humming in the distance.

“Two…”

The air vibrated, as the sphere began to spin, it’s contents rapidly mixing and ready to ignite within a second.

“One…”

A strange warmth began to permeate the air, and the hair on my hands stood in anticipation.

“Launching,” Yin spoke, pressing the metal lever on her cube, as the box lit up.

Nothing happened for a moment. Lights shivered and shuddered all around the area, and the humming noise I heard stopped.

I glanced back at Yin, who looked at me nervously. We waited, a second, then one more, and then another.

“Did it not work?” Qiao Ying asked.

“It… should have,” one of the brothers said.

“We don’t know,” the other replied, looking.

“Let me go check,” Yin said, about to step out to look at the device when I held out my hand.

“Hold on,” I said, watching. In the distance, I saw the sphere spinning, with a bright light rising it like a concentrated mini sun. And with each second that passed, the light began to grow and rise.

Soon, it was blinding, as I felt the heat even from here.

And then, a second later, I heard a click, and realised the explosion hadn’t yet started.

The Gu and Qi crystals collided, erupted in fire.

It took just a second.

Just a single second.

And the world collapsed in front of us.

My voice was drowned out by the echoing explosion as I used my Chi to protect us. The barriers shook and shivered, breaking one after another, as the entire the entire world turned white for a moment.

I felt my skin burning, even at the other end of this massive caver, hidden behind layers of protection. I moved to cover Yin, the shockwave passing over us like a punch that nearly kicked me back.

The barriers shattered, breaking through and for a moment I thought the flames would engulf us.

But the system held, the out wards lit up with power, keeping the explosion entrapped within. The ground shook with a powerful earthquake, the air swirling in a tornado.

And just as quickly as it had happened, it was gone within a second. I turned around, opening my eyes and found a massive hole that had evaporated the very earth inside. There were no falling debris or chunks splattered around, just a giant hole like the earth had caved in like a perfect sphere.

We watched in silence. No words would’ve done this justice.

I walked closer as the wards faded and looked down to see the ground had fused into solid glass. Not a single trace of Qi or Gu, or anything was left in this place and I felt a cold gust rushing inwards to fill the vacuum that had formed in the cavern. What had happened were, was true annihilation, as the very Qi and Gu in the air had ignited, burning away and leaving nothing behind.

A bomb that left a vacant void in the world.

A void bomb.

Distantly, I heard the heavens rumbling.

I would too. Because if there was a god that watched over this world from the heavens, then it would do him well to remain hidden.

For we had just created a weapon to kill him.

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