Cultivation is Creation-Chapter 189: Dissipate

"Well," I muttered, watching the Stage 8 Stormwing Raptor circle overhead, "time to see if this works or kills me."

I took a deep breath, then activated the Overclock Rune.

The effect was... dramatic.

The red sun in my inner world suddenly swelled up like it had been hitting the spiritual essence gym. Its surface, usually a steady crimson glow, now rippled with muscle-like patterns of deeper red and brilliant orange. It began to move erratically, spinning and pulsing as if caught in some kind of star-sized roid rage.

I swear I could hear something like roaring coming from it.

I didn’t have time to think about it further, my body felt like it was being remade from the inside out. Physical essence doubled instantly, jumping from 1150 to 2300 units. Still nowhere near the 3000+ that a Stage 8 beast would have, but that wasn't the real advantage here.

The red sun's capacity had increased significantly, and that was what I needed. The runes drew their power from that energy, and right now, I had more of it than ever before.

I could see the blue sun's energy struggling to maintain its concealment effect. The red sun's power was becoming more... primal.

Wilder.

It felt almost demonic in nature, raw and untamed.

I reached out with my qi, calling forth vines from the ground. But these weren't the usual plants I used.

The red sun's enhanced energy transformed them as they emerged, turning them into something darker. Their surfaces became black as night, covered in thorns that looked more like fangs.

The eagle tried to dodge, probably sensing the change in my energy signature. But it was too late.

The demonic vines shot upwards into the sky, wrapping around its wings and legs. The beast's spiritual armor prevented them from piercing deeply, but they didn't need to. They just needed to hold it drag it down to the ground.

I activated Blink Step, burning through multiple charges in rapid succession. To anyone watching, it probably looked like I was teleporting randomly around the beast. But each position was carefully chosen, each new angle calculated for maximum effect.

My fist, enhanced by Titan's Crest and wrapped in layers of strengthening techniques, slammed into the eagle's left wing joint. The impact sent shockwaves through the air, and I felt something crack under my knuckles. Dark blood sprayed from the impact point as several of its feathers, each as long as a sword, went spinning away into the darkness.

The beast screamed, a sound that would have paralyzed most cultivators. But I was already gone, appearing behind it as my scorpion tail lashed out, delivering a strike to another weak point Azure had identified.

"The right shoulder junction," Azure advised. "Its defensive reinforcement is weakening."

I didn't waste time acknowledging him.

The eagle was already twisting, trying to break free of the vines. Its beak, charged with enough spiritual energy to shear through steel, snapped at where I'd been a moment ago.

But I wasn't there anymore.

Blink Step put me directly above it, my hand already moving into the familiar motion of the Phantom Strike. The technique, powered by my qi and the overclocked red sun, hit with enough force to crater the ground beneath the beast.

Blood erupted from the beast's mouth as the impact pulverized several of its internal organs, its spiritual armor finally beginning to fail completely.

The eagle's counterattack was desperate now. It managed to break one wing free of the vines, sending a barrage of those air bullets toward me. Each one could punch through solid stone, and there were dozens of them.

I didn't try to dodge.

Instead, I activated Aegis Mark, letting the hexagonal barrier take the hits while I prepared my final attack.

The first air bullet hit with enough force to crack the barrier from edge to edge.

The second widened those cracks into a spiderweb pattern of failing energy.

The third shattered it completely, the backlash making my teeth rattle.

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But by then I was already inside the eagle's guard, appearing directly in front of its chest where its spiritual armor was weakest.

My scorpion tail, enhanced by every drop of power I could squeeze from the overclocked red sun, struck. The bark-scaled tip punched through failing defensive layers like they were tissue paper, driving straight into the beast's core.

The eagle's core shattered.

As its massive body began to fall, I quickly transferred it into my storage ring.

"That... that was..." Yan Ziheng's voice was barely a whisper. He was staring at me with an expression somewhere between awe and terror. "Was that a... demonic technique?"

I didn't correct his assumption. Let him think the red sun energy was some kind of forbidden demonic technique I kept as a trump card. It was better than him knowing the truth.

Then the Overclock rune's time limit hit, and everything went wrong at once.

The transformation reversed like a cultivation technique hitting a brick wall. My physical essence plummeted back to normal levels so fast it felt like my bones were trying to collapse in on themselves. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest as the enhanced energy drained away.

I would have fallen if Yan Ziheng hadn't caught me.

"Senior Brother!" he called out, genuine concern in his voice. "Are you..."

"Fine," I managed through gritted teeth. "Just... backlash."

That was putting it mildly. Had it not been for my access to normal qi and the blue sun's energy, I'd probably be unconscious right now. As it was, I could feel the blue sun working overtime, its healing energy spreading through my body like cool water on a burn.

I checked my inner world and winced.

The red sun looked... well, "unhealthy" would be an understatement. It had shrunk to barely half its normal size and seemed shriveled, like a star that had gone on a crash diet.

I swear I could see it making little crying motions, mourning its lost gains.

"Master," Azure spoke up, "given your current condition, would this not be an ideal time to trigger your breakthrough to Stage 7?"

It was a reasonable suggestion. Breaking through to a new cultivation stage came with an instant reset of your energy reserves and a temporary boost in power. It would certainly help with the Overclock Rune's backlash.

But as I looked around the battlefield, I could see the tide had already turned.

Liu Chang stood over the corpse of the Alpha Wolf, his stone-like skin gradually returning to normal as he released his Immutable Titan Scripture technique. Despite fighting a Stage 9 beast, he looked barely winded. Though I noticed his qi fluctuations were slightly unstable - that fight had pushed him closer to his limits than he was letting on.

"Not bad," he muttered, studying the wolf's remains. "Been a while since I had to use the full Immutable Titan Scripture."

Nearby, Bing Lan was actually smiling as she cleaned her sword. The Stage 9 Blade Mantis lay in pieces around her, its core split so precisely it looked like it had been done with surgical tools rather than a combat technique.

"A decent warm-up," she commented to no one in particular, though I caught the slight tremor in her hands that betrayed the effort that "warm-up" had required.

Shen Xuanyu had apparently decided that if he couldn't penetrate the Ironclad Bull's armor with normal attacks, he'd just keep hitting it until something gave way. Judging by the bull's thoroughly pulverized remains, something had definitely given way. The Heavenly Jade cultivator was breathing heavily, his jade-colored lightning techniques having consumed massive amounts of qi, but his expression was satisfied.

Zhang Wei's fight with the Bone Gnawer had been... messier.

The massive rat-like beast's regenerative abilities had forced him to get creative. The entire area around their battle was covered in jade crystals, many of them stained with the beast's blood. But in the end, his "Heaven's Jade Burial" technique had prevailed, though he looked like he'd rather not talk about exactly how.

I shook my head at Azure's suggestion. "The battle's ending. The threat is passing. Better to recover naturally than waste a breakthrough now."

He made a sound that somehow conveyed disapproval while remaining respectful. I ignored it and settled into a cross-legged meditation position, trying to stabilize my condition.

Even though the threat had passed, I didn’t think it was over, it was better to save the breakthrough for when I really needed it.

Yan Ziheng took up a protective stance in front of me, which was both touching and slightly amusing given recent events. Still, I appreciated the gesture. It was nice to know that saving someone's life actually earned you some loyalty in this world.

I had just closed my eyes to begin meditation when something... strange... caught my attention.

The remaining lower-stage beasts were panicking, which made sense given that we'd just killed all their leaders. But this wasn't normal fear. They were acting like...

My eyes snapped open as the first beast literally dissolved into pure qi.

All across the battlefield, spirit beasts, whether alive or dead, were dissipating into energy. Not like when a core was shattered: this was different, more complete. They weren't just dying, they were unraveling, as if whatever had given them form in the first place was being undone.

"What's happening?" Someone called out. "Is this some kind of technique?"

"Hold positions!" Liu Chang ordered, though there wasn't much point.

The fighting had effectively stopped as everyone stared in confusion at the disappearing beasts.

Then I heard it: a cry of despair that didn't come from any spirit beast.

Chu Feng had fallen to his knees, his body starting to fade like the beasts. "Please," he begged, though I couldn't tell who he was talking to. "I tried my best!"

"Chu Feng!" Liu Chang started forward, but Yan Li caught his arm.

"Wait," the Yan Clan team leader's voice was tight with tension. "Look at his qi signature."

I could see what he meant.

The energy coming off Chu Feng wasn't normal human qi anymore.

It was... similar to the beast we'd been fighting.

Distorted.

"Give me one more chance! Please!"

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Chu Feng’s desperate pleas echoed off the mountains as more and more of him dispersed into pure qi and flew towards the direction of the mountains.

The last thing to fade was his face, locked in an expression of terror.

Then he was gone.

For a long moment, no one moved. The silence was absolute, broken only by the wind whistling through the trees.

"The shrine," Liu Chang said suddenly. "Everything leads back to that shrine."

The other leaders exchanged looks, coming to a silent agreement.

Whatever was happening here, the answers would be found there.