บท 69: Celestial Essence
"Yo, Bro!"
"Hey, Sleepy!"
Chún kept hearing this annoying voice yelling nonsense while he was trying to focus on the Celestial Essence.
He had perfected incorporating the Celestial Essence Dao pattern, into his own he just needed to make sure that it was creating and circulating the Essence correctly.
He had already circulated it a few hundred times and it seemed OK, but he was sure that it would be better to be certain and do it just one more time.
Entranced, he watched the beautiful pearl Essence as it moved around his body. It was so beautiful.
"Hey, Stupid Egg, wake UP!"
Irritated, he focused harder on the circulation, trying to block out the voice that buzzed about like a mosquito, trying to distract him from watching the beautiful Celestial Essence.
"OK! I, your Grandfather, warned you!"
Chún felt a mind shattering sound and shocking pain all over his body, forcefully throwing him out of his Cultivation. The beautiful Essence vanished and he found himself flat on his back on the grass under the World Tree, his skin covered in hard black gunk, with smoke trailing upward from his body.
"What... happened?" he asked, dazed and confused.
"You were close to experiencing Cultivation Deviation, you blockhead!" roared a familiar 'voice' in his head, "You let yourself be enthralled by the Celestial Essence! I had to throw a bolt of lightening at you to throw you out of it!"
"Hells!" Chún yelled back, "Cultivation Deviation is - caused - by disturbing someone who is close to making a breakthrough in their Cultivation - even I know this! Lightning bolts! What is that!"
"What breakthrough, what cultivation? You were just watching that Essence circulate. You would have kept on until you died," shot back the irate voice down the link, accompanied by flaming pulses of anger, "your Dao Pattern had stabilised safely and started producing its own Celestial Essence two days ago, but you, stupid egg, kept re-adjusting it…"
"That…" Chún trailed off, looking up and realising that he could no longer sense the remains of the Heavenly Chain. He could tell that the area around the World Tree was heavy with regular Essence again, lending a faint shimmer to the air, although it seemed smoother and gentler - more balanced and evenly distributed throughout the area - than he remembered.
Then he realised who he was arguing with and leapt to his feet, heedless of the mess he was in. "Mountain? Is it you?"
"I am an independent, if small, universe containing a full sized Planet and a First Heaven now, but yes, it is I, silly egg," replied the voice, its tone becoming proud, "You can still call me Mountain Planet until I decide on a good name for myself.
"Oh…" The young teen collapsed on the grass and started bawling, silvery tears running down his perfect features. "I… I…"
The Universe responded with waves of understanding and comfort as he sobbed. "I… I thought you were gone… I could not think… what to do next… it felt like I was the old Chún again… not smart, no friends… alone…"
"I am sorry, friend," responded the Mountain after a moment, "the link was barely functioning, you would not have had access to the cognitive capacity that had been enhancing yours."
"I do not care about being stupid again… you nearly died," said Chún, sniffling, "Why did you risk it? Surely there was another way?"
"There was not," replied the Mountain, "Granted, I did not realise the tribulations would compound each other like that, I thought I could handle it. Also, I did not realise that storm would become a Heavenly Tribulation. It took me by surprise too. I thought it would take longer to happen."
There was a pause, "Your involvement tipped the balance once again, I think. Thank you, my friend."
Chún wiped his face with the back of his hand and smiled bitterly, "From what I understand, I am responsible for this situation in the first place. So do not thank me."
"I have survived and advanced," pointed out his locus through the link, "it is not worth worrying about now. You should be more worried about your plans."
"My... plans?" Chún straightened up, confused.
"You have been sitting there for six days. That market you have been planning for for the last two weeks - twenty days - is tomorrow. And with the influence of the Celestial Essence all the plants you saved in Dao Pots have experienced a massive growth surge - you need to transplant all the overgrowth into your garden, before everything will be ready for sale."
Chún blinked, thrown by the sudden shift in the conversation, "The plants? Oh, that…"
"Right now, you need time to recenter yourself," lectured his locus sternly, "mindless busywork will be good for you. Go. Follow the Essence Sprites, they will guide you back to the Heaven and Earth Vine."
"They can leave the World Tree, now?" questioned Chún as he obediently got to his feet.
"After my Advancement into a true planet and with a Heaven now under my control, the Essence is mixed and distributed much more evenly throughout myself than before - even the lowest concentration is as high as the levels in this crater were before - without the damaging side effects." The Mountain made a thoughtful rumbling sound that echoed through the link, "I believe it is due to the stabilizing, healing and nurturing qualities of the Celestial Essence."
Chún smiled, remembering how beautiful the new type of Essence was. An irritated rumble and the ground shifting in warning under his feet brought his focus back and he shook his head, walking over to his staff that was still embedded in the green sward under the World Tree.
As he grasped it, it came alive in his hand, rippling like disturbed water and glowing vibrantly with glowing pinpoints of Essence along its night-black surface. The golden end caps gleamed brightly with half seen Dao patterns flicker up and down it's length between the two ends of the staff.
The young teen blinked at it then shrugged and lifted it clear of its resting place as a small swarm of glowing flying creatures swirled through the air over to him and proceeded to make close passes around his body in a colourful cloud of light that darted out a short way in front of him then curved back, a chorus of chirps and scolding noises emanating from it.
"Right, right… I am coming," Chún smiled at the flying Essence creatures attempts to chivy him along, "can you keep up?" He darted out in front of the swarm which made an affronted collection of noises and darted back to just in front of him. He laughed and increased his speed, but the swarm did not seem to move from its position in front of him no matter how fast he went.
"You will never move faster than a creature of pure Essence," the Mountain's comment drifted laconically down the link, "stop trying to outrun them - you are following them back to your home now."
"Oh…" regretfully Chún focused on following the swarm as it shifted direction towards one of the now numerous gaps in the enlarged basin, noting numerous waterfalls cascading down what used to be the old crater walls, but now more looked like a broken chain of mountains forming a circular basin.
"Looks like the water issue is solved at least," he mused as he looked around. Away from the canopy of the World Tree, everything as far as the eye could see was covered in what looked like thousands of years worth of established old growth forest - if everything was glowing and outlined in different colours of Essence.
"I suppose the Essence levels around the World Tree will be going crazy again," he said to his locus after nearly a half-shi of running with the swarm and observing that the 'mountains' lining the crater-turned-basin were starting to show signs of crystallising again.
"That was the other reason I was so anxious to get you out - you were risking exceeding your channeling capacity again." His locus paused, evidently choosing its images and words carefully, " The healing has finished, so the Essence levels will start to accumulate to even higher levels before around the World Tree than before. Even with the balancing effect of the Celestial Essence it would be toxic for you - you had already automatically stopped producing any Essence internally; I had hoped that would wake you, but you ignored it."
Chún checked his Essence flows. Sure enough, his body had shut down its internal production down to nothing and he remained saturated. The Celestial Essence was keeping it all in balance, but he was at his limits in terms of channelling capacity. He winced and replied aloud, "Thank you my friend - and I apologise for my previous angry behaviour."
There was a feeling of reassurance sent down the link as Chún and his guides passed through the small valley that had been rent into the mountain that used to be the old crater wall.
Chún paused as they came to the lip of the pass down the mountain from the valley and stopped short as he looked out to the horizon and saw an unexpected sight; crow-light reflecting off an endless expanse of water. A moment later, as his hearing automatically focused on what he was looking at, he swore he could hear the faint crash of waves on a distant shore.
"What in the Hells…?"
"Part of the planet sunk as it was enlarged," answered his locus with what felt like satisfaction, "several parts actually - this is a relatively small sea - compared to the oceans I have filling up now."
"Where did all that water come from?" the young teen asked in astonishment, staring at the remarkable sight.
"Part of it came from that river you found all those carps in - as well as a few others," answered the Mountain as he slowly started following the urging of the swarm down the steep slope, still staring at the sea in the distance, "but most of it was dumped by the Tribulation Storm on top of all the Water Essence it threw at me."
"Huh," with some effort Chún tore his eyes from the horizon and focus on following his guides as he kept the conversation going, "I see why you said I needed guides to get back. Nothing is the same anymore. I suppose the Crystal Lord is gone?"
"That node is rebuilding underwater, so the guardian is different now," agreed his friend, "I will guide you to another one elsewhere if you need to practice humanoid combat in the future."
As the group came out of the foothills of the ring of mountains, they picked up speed. Chún kept an eye out, but realised his surroundings were unrecognisable. Due to the presence of the sea now between the locations of the Heaven and Earth Vine and the World Tree, the route was completely different and the changes wrought by the tribulation and subsequent recovery had made massive changes to the landscape on top of that.
Still, he was sure the Mountain Planet - he snorted at the thought - could have used the Essence illusion map to show him the way home, so he was curious.
"Why have me follow the Essence… sprites, back?" he asked, "I am sure you could have shown me how to return to the cave."
"This swarm is joining the pair already helping the Heaven and Earth Vine maintain the clearing," answered the Mountain, "their population had a large explosion with all the Essence being thrown about during the Tribulation, the Celestial Essence and now the overall increased levels - so the World Tree area got too crowded, even with the expansion. The main swarm split up and are spreading out to other high Essence areas to tend while the Celestial Essence levels are high enough for them to travel."
"Wait, the current levels are not permanent? I thought you said…" Chún asked in confusion.
"Essence levels will remain higher everywhere than they were previously, but will eventually drop too low for Essence Sprites to travel without some form of support - especially as the majority of the Celestial Essence is absorbed," corrected his locus.
The teen shrugged internally, paying more attention to the changing landscape around him as they skirted around the edges of the sea, staying beyond the shore line of pounding waves, passing through forest, grassland and marshes as they started following a river away from the sea towards higher ground.
They travelled constantly at high speed for a full shi, before reaching a small lone mountain that rose up out of the hills, about half the size of the original mountain site that Chún had initially formed a link with. The small peak was densely forested with a familiar jungle like vegetation that stood out from the mostly rocky area around it that was mostly covered sparsely with conifers, bushes, small deciduous trees and long grass.
"I see the Heaven and Earth Vine has a whole mountain of her own to herself now," he joked to the locus, "almost as big as you were, originally." He paused, thoughtfully. "How far have we travelled since we left the basin?"
"Almost six thousand li," responded his locus.
"Wow, you really grew! Maybe I should just stick with calling you Fatty to save the confusion," he laughed.
"Weight only seems to matter to humans," pointed out his locus, "I do not care, but do you want to live on Planet Fatty?"
"You take all the fun out of things," grumbled the young teen, then he broke into a smile, "but that means I have increased my speed again."
"Yes, in terms of body tempering, you are a solid mid rank sky now, approaching true sky rank.," agreed his friend, "You will be able to travel without touching the ground soon."
Chún nodded happily and darted up the small mountain. This area seemed familiar, despite now being a mountain probably because the Heaven and Earth Vine's Essence had affected plants and trees to grow similarly to before, despite the changes in the landscape. As for direction, he only needed to follow the density of the Essence as it increased. The higher it got, the sooner he would be home.
---
It took a few Kè of travelling deeper into the small mountain, but the platinum haired teen reached the expanded clearing without incident. The swarm burst out of the treeline with excited chirps and squeaks, echoed by the two resident sprites who darted out from wherever they were to greet the newcomers. The whole swarm promptly disappeared into the vines and broad leaves of the Heaven and Earth vine and Chún laughed, "You two show them around, I am going to see what the Mountain was talking about."
He jogged over to the cave entrance, but was greeted with an astonishing profusion of unexpected greenery once he passed through the concealing curtain of vines. Thankfully, it had not completely choked the now much wider cave passage to the large cavern that the Immortal's cave had become.
When he got to the central cavern he was greeted with an astonishing sight; the Essence plants and herbs he had placed in Dao pots and then left behind immediately after waking from the Tribulation were overflowing with masses of new growth. In some cases the pot was impossible to see under the masses of greenery. The plants filling the entrance cave passage was simply an extension of some of the larger plants and vines.
Some appeared to have established secondary roots around the cave and grown from there - no longer confined to the pots. The entire cavern seemed more of a jungle than a cave at the moment, with not a rock wall or surface visible anywhere.
The whole cave felt more like a smaller version of the jungle outside now. Chún shook his head, the air might smell fresher, but it was terribly inconvenient.
For the next few shi, Chún worked with his locus' guidance to transplant inconveniently placed plants into the garden plot and other places around the clearing or inside the tree line. Each replanting he accompanied with a pulse of Celestial Essence to compensate for any damage that might have been done and to make sure that the plant was firmly established.
Early on in the task, his actions attracted the attention of the sprites and soon Chún had a swarm of helpers, selecting, pruning and watering the transplants. The Cauldron had also appeared out of nowhere - Chún caught it floating around the cave as if was an oversized sprite itself - gobbling up stray medicinal Essence stalks and plants that were too damaged or sickly to transplant.
The heads of the various sculptures that now adorned the surface of the Cauldron were surreptitiously darting out mouths, tongues or beaks out to eat anything discarded - and possibly a few that were not - Chún thought he now had an explanation for the occasional suspiciously bare patch he found here and there. He shrugged and pretended not to notice; he was poor in everything except medicinal Essence herbs.
With the sprites managing the finicky and detailed work and the Cauldron 'cleaning up' the mess, immature plants in bad locations around the cave were transplanted into the clearing, mature ones moved into their own Dao pots. Overgrowth was pruned back and replanted where possible or set aside for later drying and use.
Most areas of the cavern were improved by the presence of the plants, so where practical, Chún left immature plants in place, greatly improving the general atmosphere of the cave.
Some of the softer and fragrant cuttings and branches he gathered into new bedding to replace the grasses and sleeping pad that had been destroyed.
By the time the work was finished, he had a very large array of medicinal Essence plants and herbs - as well as others used in various types of cultivation stored in the Dao Pots - all of his store of Dao Pots was in use - or throughout the clearing, almost tripling his stock for tomorrow's market and basically meaning he would not have to search for most herbs anymore.
He did wonder where some of the plants had come from though - he was sure he had only harvested a few himself - but there appeared to have been almost every type imaginable overgrowing the cave.
"Where did all these extra Essence plants come from," he asked his locus, once everything was packed away in his gliding horse for the trip back down to the village - on another planet! - tomorrow and he was sitting with his back against the Heaven and Earth Vine, outside the cave, watching the Golden Crow return to its nest. The light from its feathers as it sank beneath the horizon lit the clouds in a vibrant collection of colours.
"Some of the seeds were in the soil that was in the Dao Pots," replied his friend, "Most, came from fruits and seeds I moved into the cave as it became clear that anything left out in the Tribulation would be destroyed. I did the same in other protected areas."
"How did they survive the toxic gas and lava?" asked Chún in surprise, remembering the last part of the catastrophe that had affected the Immortals cave.
"Essence plant seeds are normally not damaged by regular fire or other things like lava - it was only the Essence attacks of the Tribulations that were a danger."
"Oh." Chún paused, "Everything else seems to have recovered well…"
"I pulled a lot of regular plants and seeds in from the original Mountain on Golden Crow Planet. It is still me, technically, and with the Celestial Essence present, they spread quickly."
There was a pause and the Mountain Planet reminded him gently, "You do not need to eat with such high Essence levels - higher rank Sky Cultivators and Consumers at the level you are at only eat for taste anyway."
His friend suggested, "Go take a bath, clean off the Cultivation grime and go to bed for some natural sleep - you have been essentially awake for seven days straight. Tomorrow is a big day."
Chún blinked and yawned, surprising himself. "Yes…" He got up and stretched, then headed back into the cave, "Good night, friend."
"Goodnight Chún."
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
WheeledWriter
WheeledWriter Readers will note that Chun's time line is running about 12 days ahead of Dailan's - this is due to there being currently a lot more that needs to happen in Dailan's story (sometimes multiple chapters to cover the events of a single day) before the peddler gets back to Hujian with Chun's herbs and other bits.
Whereas there were a lot of timeskips in Chun's story - or days where not much happened and only took up single chapters.
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