Chapter 22: Chapter 22: (Interlude) Nascent soul

Diana knew a secret. One nobody else in the Ravenborne family was privy to, including the other family elders. Even her deceased elder brother never learned of this secret as the man—her father—had gone to extensive lengths to keep the truth of his cultivation a secret.

Her old man, the Grand Elder of house Ravenborne, was not a mere Star Core realm cultivator... instead, he had secretly ascended to the realm above and was now a Nascent Soul.

But he had only ascended this year and was, therefore, still consolidating his new realm's foundations, and right now, he was weaker than he was before ascension.

But even with his weakness, it was an accomplishment that would be hailed in the Celestial Empire and righteous empires as an outstanding achievement! Diana's father would be promoted to a defender of the great Empire against the beast tides and could enjoy a near-immortal life of endless prestige and luxury.

But out here? In the depths of the wilderness? Where savages and cast-away families fought over limited resources? As they say... the tallest trees attracted the greatest tribulations. Would all the other families—especially the patriarch—allow a Nascent Soul cultivator to parade around their sect? Flaunting their divine power for all to see?

No, they would want it for themselves. Jealousy leads to spite, but fear leads to a sword through the back and an early grave.

In the Qi realm, a mortal slowly gathers the world's energy to prepare their body to ascend their mortal shell. At this stage, one can use internalized Qi to empower their bodies to break boulders with their bare hands. Next is the Soul Forge realm, where the world weeds out the weak from the strong—cultivators attempt to solidify their souls into a core with their enhanced bodies.

As Diana carved through the relentless ice of the avalanche with the Evergreen cultivator hot on her tail, she felt her Soul Core burn as blue flames poured from her hands and down her sword, letting her cut through the ice as if it was butter.

She could hear her father battling in the distant skies. Yet, even this far away, she could feel the immense gravity surrounding all Star Core cultivators. Their Soul Cores had become so dense after decades of cultivation that they had evolved into miniature stars—giving the cultivator a near-unlimited source of Qi.

In fact, their Soul Cores were so dense they had their own gravitational field. The cultivator could naturally tone down the effect, but no matter what, anything in their presence, man or furniture, would have to resist some pressure.

And when those godlike Star Core cultivators unleashed their powers to the max and turned off the suppression of their own soul, they could levitate into the air with the assistance of spiritual artifacts such as flying swords. Something Diana hoped to do one day... assuming she survived.

Clangs of swords thundered throughout the valley, causing the ground to tremble and Diana to briefly stumble before catching herself.

Honestly, it was looking bleak. The Ravenborne family was larger than the Evergreen and Winterwrath families combined, but decades of mediocre talents had caused the Ravenbornes to be very top-heavy with their influence. Eventually, the old will die out. It may take decades or even centuries, but with nobody to replace them, the Ravenborne family is doomed to fall.

So Diana ran. As far as she could. Her family was doomed, and she refused to stay aboard a sinking vessel. Diana could see the border of Darklight city, only a couple meters away. Her insides felt on fire as her Soul Core began to leak and break.

So close—

Diana felt a hand clasp her shoulder with such force it crushed her bones to dust—before she could even scream in pain, Wayne Evergreen's full weight slammed into her back like a rampaging bull, pinning her to the ground. Frozen mud dug into her face like shards of glass, and she groaned.

Diana gasped for breath as she was winded by the blow, her vision blurred from her head smacking some ice on the way down. Her body went into total shock, and her overused Soul Core refused to comply with her pleas, instead choosing to go dormant.

She was royally fucked.

"Fucking bitch, just stay down." Wayne Evergreen snarled as he locked his limbs around Diana and activated a martial technique. The ground rumbled as stone and rock surfaced, while a depression in the earth formed around Diana, causing her to slowly sink into the ground... as if she was being buried alive in a stone coffin.

Once the stone coffin was sealed and Wayne was sure there was no way for the weakened Diana to escape, he collapsed on the coffin's cold stone with heavy breaths. Wiping the sweat from his brow, a grin formed on the young man's face. His father had promised a hefty reward to anyone who captured Diana Ravenborne, and if Wayne wanted to get the spotlight back from his newlywed sister, this was precisely what he needed.

Deciding to make sure nothing could go wrong, the young man used his last bit of energy to cover the coffin in vines, and then with a satisfied smile, he slumped to the ground. The sounds of fighting between the elders became a calming melody that Wayne relaxed to as he daydreamed about his future surrounded by spirit stones and compliments from his family.

Looking up at the blue sky, Wayne felt beyond relieved... until his heart practically jumped out of his chest. He was currently a few meters down, surrounded by two ice walls on either side that Diana had carved out.

But there was a face peeking over the edge, one he didn't wish to see.

"Cousin!" The square-faced man with venomous eyes smiled, casting a shadow on the ice tunnel below. "How kind of you to keep the prize warm for me."

"Back off, Tristan!" Wayne snarled as he shakily stood up by pushing on the stone coffin behind him. Wayne's body felt awful after he chugged those cheap healing pills, and his Soul Core was on the verge of shattering. His golden ring flashed with power, and a sword appeared in his hand, but it felt heavy and cold in his limp grip.

Tristan casually dropped into the tunnel, landing perfectly on his feet, and eyed his cousin with a curious smile. "Why do you look so distraught to see me, Wayne? There's no need to fight over petty things like this, right?"

Wayne gritted his teeth and shuffled his feet into a wide stance as green flames flickered to life around his hands—which earned him a chuckle from Tristan.

"Wayne. Drop it. You can't beat me at your best... and certainly not at your worst." Green flames roared to life, turning Tristan into a column of green fire and illuminating the ice tunnel in its sickly neon light.

Wayne saw the reflections of his cousin's flames dance around him across the magical ice. No matter where he turned, he couldn't escape its shadows.

Despite his cousin's calm smile, Wayne knew this was the end. There were no witnesses, and nobody would question his death when demigods fought overhead. A stray attack from them was enough to end his puny existence.

It had been a trap all along. Not only would Tristan get the reward from his father, but Tristan would also increase his position in the family with his death. But perhaps most tragic of all, the bastard will steal all the cultivation resources he had been saving up in his ring for years.

Tristan summoned a short sword to his hand and looked at it casually while rubbing his finger on its ornate handle. "You know Wayne, I never really liked you."

Wayne scoffed, "No shit—"

Tristan shook his head, "No, no, cousin, you don't understand." Tristan took steady steps forward. His eyes were dull as the short sword lazily hung in his grasp, dripping in green flames—his smile had turned to a frown as his boots crunched on the icy mud. "I really, really dislike you. In fact, I often dreamed of cutting you up into little pieces and feasting on your flesh."

"You sick bastard." Wayne spat.

Tristan's frown turned into a sickly smile. "Then I would hunt your sister and her pathetic husband." Tristan imitated a cutting motion across his neck, "And once she is on the floor squealing like a pig with a slit throat, I can go after the rest of your filthy little family that dares to rule over the side branches."

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The two Evergreens locked eyes. Not another word was spoken, but both knew there was no going back now. A duel to the death had been silently agreed upon.

Tristan moved first, shooting across the clearing—Wayne raised his sword a second too late and deflected awkwardly with the hilt rather than the blade. Usually, Wayne would be strong enough to keep his hold, but his hand was limp with fatigue, so the blow sent his sword flying out of his hand and embedding into the opposite wall of ice.

Wayne closed his eyes as his cousin sneered and, with a swift strike, decapitated Wayne with ease.

The dense green flames shrouding Tristan's form died down as he casually walked up to his cousin's lifeless head and kicked it away.

It cracked like an egg on his boot as he forgot to control his strength.

"Disgusting." Tristan shook his foot in a vain attempt to remove the red stains.

With a sigh, his eyes wandered to the stone coffin. He smiled, and his short sword vanished from his hand as he walked over. But his happiness was shortlived—he had been drowning out the clashes of swords from overhead, but now they had ceased.

"Did someone win?" Tristan tilted his head as he spread out his spiritual sense in an attempt to gauge the victor. All he got back was a blinding light, a ball of such dense Qi like a miniature sun seemed to be preparing to explode.

Tristan almost rubbed his eyes in disbelief. There was no way a Star Core cultivator would willingly go supernova unless they stood absolutely no chance...

Tristan paled as realization dawned on him. The Ravenborne Grand Elder was no Star Core cultivator. He had definitely become a Nascent soul, meaning the Ravenborne Grand Elder about to go supernova was merely his clone.

If he could locate the Ravenborne Grand Elder's true soul—which would be without a vessel, he could absorb the soul of a Nascent soul cultivator, which would propel him to the Star Core realm overnight. Greed flashed through the young man's eyes, but his causal composure crumbled.

Either he stayed and guarded the trapped Diana Ravenborne to retrieve a prize from his father, or he left here and went hunting for a defenseless Nascent soul.

Gritting his teeth, Tristan left the coffin and dashed down the tunnel with all his defensive artifacts activating simultaneously and dense green flames to protect him. There was no way he would let such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip by.

***

Diana lost consciousness due to the pain, but when she came too, she was greeted with darkness and a musky scent. The air was dry and hot—her lips felt dry, and her mouth was parched. "Where?" She groggily croaked out as she reached up with her hand—

"Ow!" Her hand reeled back in pain from touching the red-hot rock, and her brain snapped awake. Finding her Soul Core was half full, she deduced that a few hours had passed. "Gotta get out of here."

She punched up, covering her fist in wrathful flames, and the rock practically crumbled to dust—not due to her strength or Qi, but rather because the stone was just that brittle.

Diana gasped for fresh air but instantly regretted it. Boiling steam blasted into her face, and she could only see Qi-dense steam in all directions. Empowering her legs, Diana jumped up, and her jaw hung open in shock.

A large chunk of Darklight city that had been her playground throughout her childhood was... gone. Instead, as far as the eye could see, a desolate wasteland of molten rock stretched out, flat like the great deserts in the north. Diana's heart beat loudly in her chest as she turned midair and saw the Ravenborne peak.

Her home was destroyed. Obliterated. Gone.

"Did father go supernova?" Diana wondered. It was a common tactic for Nascent soul cultivators to blow up their clones when they got outmatched. However, even if they didn't truly die, they would have to find a vessel and start cultivation again from a much lower realm. It was basically a death sentence.

She had never felt so free. With her father likely dead, endless possibilities stretched out before her.

Landing on the burning ground, Diana had to decide what to do now. Her body was in great pain—her left arm hung limply at her side... which limited her options.

Searching the molten landscape, Diana muttered, "Father's soul will be discovered soon. Unfortunately, I am already too late to claim it for myself. So where can I go?"

Darklight city was too risky, and her family's pavilion was gone. None of the other families would house her, and surrounding the sect was a wilderness overflowing with monsters she was unprepared to face in her current condition.

While her mind spun to find a solution, Diana's wandering eyes paused on a distant mountain peak. The steam from the melting ice partially obscured it, but it gave Diana a great idea.

Stella Crestfallen was out of the sect, so her peak was currently unoccupied... There was no way anyone would go looking for her there?

Right?

Deciding there was no better option, blue flames coated Diana's legs, and she dashed forward.

***

The journey ended up taking far longer than expected. Due to the flattened land from the explosion, Diana had to regularly lay low as Evergreen and Winterwrath cultivators that had survived the supernova moved around in groups, searching for Ravenborne survivors like a flock of vultures. By the time she had climbed Crestfallen peak, she was out of breath, and it was the start of a new day.

The doors were surprisingly unlocked, and Diana stumbled in. Wiping sweat from her brow, she looked straight forward, and through a door leading to the central courtyard, she caught sight of a tree.

Her brows furrowed in confusion. "Did it always look that ominous?"