NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12: TWELVE
When he was wracking his brain to create a new and working combination he heard a sound. A deep, complicated yet simple sound. He looked towards the giant and saw as its mouth opened and it tried to utter words. "This can`t keep happening." He heard a hint of helplessness in his voice before it turned into rage. Helplessness for he was lost and rage since he knew he had to rely on other for help even when he had separated from his father. He hadn't realized that ever since he had heard the story about his father from the ginger child, a seed of independence had formed. He wanted to be his own person. Although no one seemed to think he wasn't, they didn`t matter. What mattered was that he saw himself as still in his father`s shadow.
He activated the lightning feet gu at full force, causing him to be thrown towards the lightning cloud beast. When he had yet to reach he reached deep in his aperture and pulled a gu worm. It was golden and shaped like a small thick pillar. It didn't have eyes or anything that could denote it as something that was alive. With its appearance he could feel something trickle from a faraway place into it but he didn't let it spread inside his aperture as it wanted. He directed it into the four gu worms that should have combines and complemented each other to form a balance that would have given birth to the killer move he intended.
"If you won`t obey my will then you shall obey something greater than me." He spoke with fury as the killer move he envisioned was formed. He knew that the fire wave and fire man gu worms would survive as the will of Heaven that poured from the Man Made Heaven gu would protect them while the lightning feet gu and the fire funnel gu would be destroyed but he valued his life above gu worms. He was also filled with furry on his over reliance on Heaven for his victories. This fury led to the name of this killer move.
As he got close to the giant lightning cloud the yelled with all the rage in his heart.
Heaven Series: Cursed Judgment.
He had effectively distanced himself from the killer move. He was only the conduit Heaven used to perform the killer move. With those words hanging in the air, a heavy presence fell on the two figures, and a golden flame with a small black mark inside it formed on Tian Zheng`s palm. He breathed outwards and threw the flame. It zipped towards the torso of the surprised giant with unnatural speed. When it reached its torso, it didn`t cause any disturbance but sunk inside swiftly. After a few tense moments, where the two fighters were frozen and the ginger had awoken. He found Tian Zheng and the giant that he had ran away from after his primeval essence had ran out, staring at each other. He wanted to call out for him to attack but saw as the gaps he had formed started healing and then watched as one of its arms, which was smaller than others start to puff up.
The giant also noticed and was about to celebrate when he felt something wrong. Like the sky and that was; were looking at him. Even the ancient wind looked at him and slowly the cold gaze of the world turned into a rage his intelligence couldn't fathom. It looked at the human who had unleashed such a move. For the first time in its life, it uttered a word. It was like a screech and a groan had combined to form one voice. "Judgment." It remembered what the boy had shouted as the flame formed. The voice was cold but held an unnatural conviction. It looked upwards, as it knew whatever was to come would fall from the sky.
In the Eastern Sea, some distance from the Great Palisade, above empty waters, clouds started to form. They created what looked like a large hole in the sky and from it, a large yellow eye formed. It started at the empty waters but after a few breaths, cracks appeared on the air and the small island appeared before the world. The ancient wind wanted to escape but was pulled by a mysterious force towards Tian Zheng where they forced themselves into his gourd. Tian Zheng was still stuck in surprise. He could feel the weight of Heaven`s Will that had appeared and he was sure it wasn't due to his killer move.
He was close to realize what had happened when he saw the Dao mark that he had injected on the lightning beast appear above its head. It now shed the black color and took on a white one. The dark flakes that had fallen from it rushed back to his aperture where, the Dao mark that Heaven had removed appeared again balancing the situation. The beast was as confused as Tian Zheng but its eyes were pointed upwards and following it the two boys turned their gaze. They saw a large eye made of yellow lightning stare back at them. While normal Heavenly lightning was just golden, this felt holy. Like it was a sacred part of the world and once Tian Zheng realized this he gave it a name. True Heavenly Lightning, as he realized the one he had been summoning with the lightning feet gu was just a cheap imitation.
The beast looked at this lightning and with the white Dao mark above it, they started floating. They didn't go far, as lightning, thicker than a building came down on it. Forcing it to remain grounded but the beast kept rising, seemingly unaffected. When the eye saw this the lightning increased, not in width but in strength. This seemed to be able to stop it but the beast was still floating. It roared to the eye in the sky and in return the lightning bathing it grew more powerful. It now looked like a stream of sunlight falling onto its body. however, Tian Zheng could still see the beast inside and its white Dao mark shone with even greater brilliance. 'They seem to be proving themselves to Heaven.' This thought came and went along with many others. At this moment, Tian Zheng didn't know what to do so he froze. Snaking hair framing a perfectly circular face and eyes that held both amazement and confusion. He stood frozen. His back straight and every muscle in his body tense to the point of tearing.
The position Tian Zheng was in would be called majestic by an observer. However, Yi Chen was anything but majestic. His small stature compared to the scene before his eyes, ginger hair cut short and ears that had poured blood over his face. Which dried forming scale like flakes all over his face. His beautiful blue robes were torn, dirty and bloody and the body that was shown underneath was frail and borderline malnutritioned. He looked up to the beast while on his knees. Like a zealot looking up towards his god. No thought was between those eyes.
They both looked towards the beast as it let out a roar in challenge to the eye in Heaven and the eye didn't back down as the stream grew into a river in a moment. They could see as the beast`s body buckled under the weight while its body started tearing. Blue blood fell from the tears but it was lost in the river of True Heavenly Lightning. It fell without end and the beast, although injured and its body slowly falling apart didn't give up. Its hand reached for the still shinning Dao mark above it. Tian Zheng wanted to warn it that the Dao mark was protecting it but he swallowed the words as they came when the beast swallowed the Dao mark. A beastly roar escaped it when the Dao mark was swallowed fully, and as the full force of the river fell on. The river of lightning raged with greater intensity as if the eye was angered by its audacity to swallow the Dao mark.
With a final moment of brilliance, the Dao mark shone over the body of the beast before it faded from the world forever. Tian Zheng watched as the eye grew smaller and a greater river of lightning merged with that which was. This created a river that nearly reached the two observers before it concentrated itself back into a stream. The two boys watched as two clouds formed around the beast. They swilled for a moment before they came to rest where the Dao mark had rested. Still under the pressure of the True Heavenly Lightning, the beast opened its mow, which had changed to have white traces. The two clouds rushed towards the open mouth in order to escape the wrath of the eye in the sky. Just as they entered, thick smoke started to rise from the beast. It nearly reached the eye but was forced down by the sudden increase in the strength of the lightning. It grew smaller but greatly concentrated and wrapped itself around the beast, which somehow had stopped being injured by the lightning. It now stood there, in a daze.
'Similar to me when I think too much.' But he couldn't compare himself to what was happening before him. He also noticed that with each moment it stayed in that state the smoke around it would decrease but not by much. A half hour passed with the beast still in that before the lightning stopped pouring. The eye still remained but it had turned from an aggressor to an observer.
The three observed. Above the giant hole, that had reached the ocean and under the gaze of the yellow eye the creature floated in the air. In a moment, the layered vision given by the Heaven`s Vision gu appeared without his will and he saw as many Dao marks swilled around the beast. They all entered his abdomen, where the aperture was supposed to be and combined. It seemed that Heaven had judged that as enough as the double layered vision stopped and he watched as the beast let out a small moan or roar. It still had the same screech and groan mixture to its voice but the sounds could now be understood.
When whatever was happening was over and the beast landed before them it looked between the two before its eyes stayed on Tian Zheng. It had now changed, no longer was it a storm cloud with the shape of a human. It now had true features. It had a round face a small face framed by long white hair. Its skin or whatever it had was a mixture of storm grey, deep black and patched of white. It looked like the night sky. On top of its head were two great dragon like horns. Its body seemed to look like that of a god, with great, compact and aesthetically pleasing muscles. Its two arms held the same lightning swords but they had now became greatly detailed not like two jagged bolts it had picked from the sky. When the three blue eyes landed on him he felt his back grow stiff and his mind slow. "Thank you, human child. Without you I would have not been deemed worthy to ascend. My name from now on is Sky King Mu Chen, stop calling me a beast." The voice gradually faded from his mind as a sense of alarm rose in his heart.
He turned back to the Sky King but all he was met with was a cool wind as the giant being had disappeared. He looked around the rock they were on and then at the sky, seeing that the yellow eye had left he turned towards Yi Chen.
While Tian Zheng was being thanked by the Sky King Mu Chen, Yi Chen also heard his voice. It gave him knowledge that he had been seeking and told him where to find the inheritance of the being that had created and then abandoned him. Before he left Yi Chen was given a warning. "Guard yourself against that child for he hides something that could make even me sure of my doom if I touched it. Let not your greed guide you for it shall take you to your death." He looked at the silent and straight back of the boy. He had first thought of using him then discarding him once he was done. However, as time went on he saw as he summoned lightning with every step he took and then he fought and survived the giant before it had ascended while he was knocked out by a roar. He had become cautious of the boy and had thought of recruiting him but after the words of Sky King Mu Chen, he wanted nothing more than to separate himself from the black haired boy and cut off any sort of karma they had between them.
He stood up and dusted his torn robe. "Let us go to the inheritance." Even now he was suspicious of Tian Zheng taking the inheritance from him but he still announced it to him. When he hadn't heard any reply he looked at the boy to find him with his hand grasping his hair and eyes glossed over. 'Perfect, now I just have to make sure he never lays eyes on my inheritance' As he walked away he thanked the Heavens that he had been accompanied by Tian Zheng or else the storm giant would have killed him without any fanfare. As he was walking towards destiny he looked back to see Tian Zheng still in that same position, like madness had touched but not consumed him. "Wonder what happens in between those eyes."
Meanwhile Tian Zheng`s mind kept replaying the scene of the countless Dao marks combining to form something inside the Sky King. He tried to theorize what could be formed but it all came back blank or the theories he came up with were so ridiculous that he shot them down without giving them the chance to form fully. 'Will Heaven`s Will be angry if I harness the false lightning.' This thought freed him from the cycle he had put himself in. plans that he had formed to pacify or cheat Heaven were scrapped as he realized that it wouldn't mind if he took a copy of its power. 'The killer move will be like a copy of a copy. It won't even register in its mind.' He let out a hollow laugh as his greatest killer move, one not yet created was just to become a copy of a copy. Something uncountable times weaker than the original. As he continued to think and theorize, his mind wandered to the Foreign path and Rule path.
He had seen the way the False Seal gu had reacted. Like it had heard his call but refused it. That singular point led to him creating the first move in the Heaven Series. 'Did Heaven`s Will plan for this all to happen. How far has it planned?' This thought stuck and as he was about to continue thinking more about that mysterious Will that had made his aperture home, a fat worm shrouded by golden light woke up and a swallowing sound echoed around his aperture.