The Jade Shadows Must Die [Cultivation LitRPG]

The dive site was deep in the bowels of the prison, down a long spiralling corridor that seemed to burrow infinitely into the earth. The air grew warmer and heavier, charged with a kind of electricity as Rix walked. It was a familiar sensation to anyone in Cloudpiercer Citadel. It spoke of an array of great power. He encountered other prisoners as he went. Nobody seemed very inclined to engage with him, but whether it was simple prison tribalism or a desire not to get on Yutaro's bad side he couldn't tell.

Though Rix had heard rumours about the portals leading to the Fractured Realms, he'd never seen one in real life. They were the domain of those on the Martial Path. Almost every major corporation or Thousand-Year Family in the city owned or shared rights to an access gem. The origin of these gems remained a mystery to Rix, but they were vital to the ongoing survival and growth of every martial institution.

Each gem was effectively a set of coordinates to a specific Fractured Realm, and they gave you exclusive access to it. But the realms were vast and varied. Blindly jumping through a portal was an easy way to end up in an area thick with entropy, where the fades were powerful enough to eat you alive. To that end, there were corps that specialised in offering more granular control over where you landed. Most gems were broken into pieces, each imbued with more specific coordinates to locations with different levels of entropy, and thus fades of different strengths. That allowed a corp to have multiple portals appropriate for acolytes of different tiers.

Though, as Tolson had made clear, that might be less applicable to Spiritlock's ageing access gem.

Eventually, the passage ended in a doorway that opened into a long room. At the far end stood a series of stone pylons. There were two next to one another, like a door frame missing its top, with a third shorter one off to the side. Near them sat a desk, though there was nobody manning it.

Most prisoners were gathered in the centre of the room, already brandishing their weapons. Rix summoned his too, finding the soulspace lock lifted down here. Dotted around the space were guards, including one in a rich blue tunic standing near the stone pylon. Judging by the pins that adorned his outfit and the elegant sword that hung by his side, he was someone significant. The Divemaster, then.

A group of men at the far edge of the room caught his eye — Yutaro and his goons. Yutaro raised his weapon, a long straight jian sword. Rix looked away. He didn't want to antagonise the man any further. He'd been given a week, so for now he was likely safe.

At the far end of the room, the man in a blue robe stepped forward. "New prisoners to me," he called out. He was a solid man, heavily muscled and rougher-looking than most of the other prison staff. He wouldn't have been out of place watching the door of some of the Lantern District's less reputable establishments.

Rix approached, arriving just a moment after Luna, who shot him a confident smile. She was a picture of barely contained excitement.

The man in blue looked them up and down, the contempt obvious on his face. When he saw Rix's staff, he broke into a grin. "Where's your weapon, prisoner?"

Rix kept his expression neutral. "The staff is my bonded weapon, sir."

"Well, isn't that sweet? A dreg weapon for a dreg." In a blur, he drew his katana from its scabbard. It was about three feet long and slightly curved, and the metal was a beautiful pale blue colour, like ice. As it moved in the air, the blade rippled gently. The purity of it didn't suit the man, in Rix's opinion, but there was no denying it was impressive. It had to be an artefact, a weapon imbued with mana or runes that made it more than just steel and leather. From what he'd heard, most Martial Souls had one by the time they reached the peak of Nova.

Rix had never seen one up close before.

Artefact weapons had varying functions and power levels, but it was generally acknowledged that to fight against one using a mundane weapon was like bringing your fists to a sword fight. But there were weapons that were stronger still, artefacts of legendary status. Soulwrought weapons. Rix knew even less about those, save that they were wielded by the Ascendants and were made monstrously powerful by drawing on a piece of the user's soul.

"The blade is the only true Martial Soul weapon," the Divemaster said. "I've bathed this in the blood of thousands of fades."

"Impressive, sir. I'll have to remember to pack soap on my dives. Wouldn't want to fall behind on weapon hygiene." The words left Rix's mouth before he could stop himself.

Next to him, he noticed Luna smothering a smile. The Divemaster's expression hardened. "We'll see how funny you feel when you're staring down a fadeborn with that toy in your hand. Sticks are for dogs, swords are for killing." He slashed the air several times to demonstrate, close enough that Rix could feel the wind from them. Rix did his best not to flinch.

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"Well, I suppose I'll just have to hope the fadeborn are more impressed by it than you are, sir."

A few days ago, the man's act might have rattled him, but there were only so many ways he could hear someone say 'you're going to die' before the impact began to wane. Rix was ready, come what may.

The Divemaster seemed dissatisfied not to have got under Rix's skin, but he pushed on. "Fine, let's get this over with." His voice took on a more monotone quality. "This portal will take you through to the Fractured Realm. The realm is only stable for six hours a day. If you're not back by then, we leave you behind."

His tone suggested he was more than willing to do this.

Rix knew the realms had periods of downtime when great entropy storms swept in. Those storms were what spawned the fadeborn and resulted in the strange, ever-shifting landscapes the realms were famous for. More than a few Chronicles featured stories of Ascendants in desperate races against the clock to get back to their portals before those storms scoured their realms of life. It was said to be impossible to survive.

Most realms were said to be diveable for much larger windows of time — fourteen, even sixteen hours. Perhaps the six-hour window was another of the symptoms of this realm's decay.

The Divemaster stepped forward and tapped Rix's collar with the tip of his blade, letting it sit there a moment longer than necessary. "You are no doubt familiar with your tether. In the Fractured Realm, its connection will be passed to a beacon. That beacon will limit how far you can range. It gives you a stepped radius depending on your martial rank. Two miles for Low Whisper, four miles for Mid Whisper, and so forth. Step outside that radius, the tether will activate and notify me, and I'll need to come and find you." His grin grew toothy. "You don't want to make me have to do that.

"This is for your own safety," he continued. "The further you move from my dive site, the stronger the entropy and the worse the fades get. If you two want any chance of surviving, my advice would be to stick close to the portal at first, even after you rank up a little." He eyed Rix's weapon again. "Not that that'll make much difference."

Rix ignored the barb. "How will we know when we're close to the radius?"

"You'll know," the Divemaster replied.

The man seemed confident, so Rix let it go. This was all useful information. On one hand, the stratification of the realm made sense from a safety perspective, but it was limiting. He couldn't easily hunt above his rank.

"And now the most important part. The reason Mother even deigns to let you dive at all." The Divemaster reached into his robe and produced a blue flower that seemed to cause the nearby air to shimmer slightly. "This is a Tanno Blossom, an example of a natural treasure. You dregs won't have seen one of these before. They come in all shapes and sizes, but you should be able to identify them by their mana signature. A good guide is that any plant in the Fractured Realm that makes you feel the same as this does should be picked and brought back."

Rix had heard of natural treasures, of course; naturally occurring objects of pure mana. Though they had no effect on their own, they were the foundational ingredient in all manner of alchemical products. Using their power as a base, pills and elixirs could improve your physical capabilities, fortify your soul, and even accelerate your progress directly. Typically, the more powerful the Martial Corporation or Thousand-Year Family, the better treasures they had access to, which directly translated to more powerful Martial Souls.

It was a vicious cycle.

"Is there a reward for whoever can collect the most, sir?" asked Luna.

The man sneered at her. "Think that'll be you, dreg?"

"I wouldn't presume, sir," she replied smoothly. "But if I'm going to be picking flowers, I want to know there's something at the end of it."

The Divemaster actually seemed vaguely mollified by that. "There are leaderboards for divers in the Cauldron. The treasures they can find are worth significantly more. But for you?" A thin smile spread across his face. "The reward is we don't throw you in the tank. If you dive, you're expected to bring back two treasures each day. The price of letting our assets risk themselves. Any that you collect on top of that build up commissary credits, but you can investigate that for yourself."

"Thank you, sir," Luna replied. She seemed to have significantly better control of herself than Rix did. Or maybe she just had a genuine respect for authority.

The Divemaster studied them for another beat, then exhaled sharply. "Fine. Let's begin." He walked over to the smaller, isolated stone pedestal.

Luna shot Rix a grin. "Feel like having someone watch your back out there?"

Rix suppressed a sigh. Given that they were the only two new divers, he'd kind of been expecting this. Martial Souls did often work in teams, but he wasn't walking the Martial Path the way most others did. He had a defined mission, one that a lot of people probably wouldn't approve of. To mix others into that was a recipe for disaster.

"I'm not sure I want you stealing my fades," he replied, trying to brush her off gently.

She scoffed, a familiar glimmer returning to her eyes. "A stone says I kill more than you."

He couldn't help but laugh. This girl was incorrigible. "You're really willing to gamble a stone after having made one?"

"Wasn't planning on losing," she said with a shrug. She studied him for a moment, though he couldn't tell what was going through her head, before she turned and headed for the portal. "See you out there, I guess," she called over her shoulder.

He shook his head and followed.

The pedestal was topped with a glowing blue orb which the Divemaster began channelling mana into. The effect was dramatic. Runes all over the room sprang to life. They ran in great lines along the floor, walls and ceiling, all converging on the two tall pillars. The air between them began to shimmer and crack, before being split by a blue tear of electricity that shot outwards to fill the space. It looked like a door made from pure energy.

The other inmates began to file forward, disappearing one at a time through the portal. Rix moved to join them when he felt a tug on his sleeve.

"A moment," said a bearded man, who had a hold of his arm. "I have a message for you."