After a year of travel, Temurel and Aylaqun decided to stay at the Sacred Mountain to raise Asena and supervise the Tagh Boru and North Alliance from there, while letting Temurcin lead the Altin with the help of Zarir.
Midnight Blue updated us on the recent situation, which is mostly stable except for some minor raids from neighbor tribes. I also passed a message, asking her to tell them about our journey so far and where we are going next before sending her back. I decided not to teleport back so that Asena could spend as much time with her grandparents as she can.
While we stopped around the Huna base to resupply, Erik warned me about the supernatural beings we might meet on our journey to the heart of Chinese civilization.
"Don't be fooled by their level of energy. Even minor spirits can kill us if they have the right innate power. So, if you meet someone who has an ability that gives them leverage over yours, don't fight them!" Erik stopped and looked at me before continuing. "There are plenty of mysterious entities on the central plain. The more complicated their belief system, the more unique spirits they have created. Many bad spirits are born from the tragedies caused by their strict norms. Some are born purely from negative energy, especially in times of conflict like this."
"Try not to offend anyone. Not only normal people from faraway lands, but many Time Travelers are also attracted to Chinese civilization." The White Deer also spoke her mind, "Chinese Taoists are quite troublesome because their cultivation methods actually work to a certain extent. Many local and foreign shamans also directly use those negative energy from bad feelings, some even use evil methods to leech off the life force of people or animals."
"Is this why you guys have been trying to train me to develop my own Personal Space?" I questioned them.
"Partly true, but if you want to establish and manage our organization there alone, self-knowledge is really important. Do you know about Heaven and Earth?" he answered, following up with a question.
"You mean the Chinese concepts of 'Tian' and 'Di', right?" I replied.
Erik looked at Cynthia before continuing. "They might have a vast pantheon of gods and spirits, but you two are what they truly worship. Heaven and Earth, principles of all things, the very foundation of the cosmos and the world itself. Actually, Sima Qian will mention in the future that our Huna are also descendants of Yu the Great from Xia Dynasty. I think that's why these two groups worship similar things."
"But not as Heavenly Father and Mother of the Earth, huh? What about your worshipers?" I asked curiously.
He smiled gently before answering. "There are only a few of them there, but I have my own plan, so please don't worry about me."
We got travel documents and Chinese dress from the Moon Maidens just in case. After all the preparations were done, we continued our journey south. We started from vast, open grasslands under the eternal blue that stretched far beyond our sight. The rhythm of our horses' hooves synchronized with the hum of the wind. A shiny golden herd reflects the bright sunshine while flying across the land.
We rested in a field of wildflowers and had an afternoon nap one day, just like that springtime. I really missed Aycecek, in my memory she smelled just like these wildflowers. They started to speak about Yu the Great and how he managed to control the Yellow River. For me, he was definitely a Time Traveler, perhaps an engineer. Cynthia's face suddenly whitened as if she remembered something horrible. She began to tell us about how she tried to create her very own utopian civilization in the North before things got out of her hands. It seemed like everything that deviated from the history we were familiar with tended to be destroyed without a trace. But the Chinese seemed fine even with a lot of the helpers from the future, so she felt it was a bit unfair for her people.
Later in Erik's Realm, they showed me how they truly fight with all the Divine Power they have—a final training session before we enter the central plain. Deities tend to solve conflicts in civilized ways, especially those from the future, even though we have psychopaths as War Gods from time to time. But the most worrisome are those Evil Methods practitioners and some greedy Spirits, who look for shortcuts and intentionally prey on minor spirits or newly ascended deities. We had to be ready for the true dangers that lay ahead, not just the mortals, but the unseen forces feeding on their conflict.
The White Goddess is the real deal. She shook the land and vibrated space itself as we fought with her Ivory Drum. She even summoned the spirits of ancient extinct Megafaunas to help her fight. She stomped like an enormous mammoth, charged in with the spirits of wild bison, gored like an angry rhino, pounced like a fierce lion, and jumped like a flying elk. Without Divine Energy, I might not have seen all these animal spirits running wild with her. While I thought I could handle all of her attacks, she suddenly grew giant vines from the ground and fully controlled my whole body.
The Lord of the Underworld also used his full power, adding his spear to his arsenal. At first, I thought Gungnir might look similar to normal Viking spears, but it's actually a black obsidian hunting spear. The shaft is a dark, burned wood, making the spearhead seem even more out of place.
This isn't just a simple stone blade; it's a testament to extraordinary craftsmanship. The spearhead is a single piece of flawless volcanic glass, perfectly shaped and honed to a razor-thin edge. This 10-inch, leaf-shaped blade shimmers with a menacing liquid darkness. It is meticulously attached to the shaft with a strong ancient glue and tightly bound with finely braided sinew, a process so precise and perfect that it shows the spear could only have been forged by a master hand. The precise perfect facets of its surface prove that it is as deadly as it is beautiful.
He flew around with his wings, looking for an opening to attack while still refraining from throwing his sure-hitting spear at me. When he was close enough to attack, he twirled his pointy spearhead and used his blurry movements to distract me, feinting with some thrusting attacks, but he kept blinking behind me just before he really attacked. This is when I realized his essence was not shadow but the void of emptiness itself. He added this aspect to all of his power whenever he created a teleporting gate or used a void rift to let us enter his realms.
I extended my perception in all directions and acted more aggressively by trying to randomly attack him with my Thundering Sword. Even with this lightning-swift edge, my attack still can't leave any marks on him. So, I intentionally lured him by purposely overextending my thrust attack to create an opening at my right side. And when he blinked and tried to attack me with his thrusting spear, I lowered my sword while ducking, turned myself back in his direction, then twisted my shoulder back and moved up, pointing my sword at his neck.
I might be getting better and better at fighting with Gods, but I'm still not familiar in using Divine Power while fighting. At least with my seven Instruments, their roles are clearly separated aspects of my Sky power. It's almost like they were created just to teach me how to use all of my powers, but I still have a lot to learn.
Many days after the sparring, the landscape began its slow deliberate transformation. The grasslands gave way to a drier rockier terrain, the earth turning from a lush green to a dusty red. The air grew thinner, carrying the scent of pine and stone instead of wild sage. This was the first sign that we were approaching a new world, leaving the nomadic way of life behind for the complex, war-torn heart of civilization.
We traveled steadily southward, and as we descended into the mountains, the world below us began to reveal itself. The familiar open horizon was replaced by a series of rugged peaks and deep winding valleys, their shadows filled with an ancient oppressive vibe. Erik rode with his head held high, his senses on high alert. "This is where the civilization begins," he warned, his voice low and serious. "Every crag and stone are a witness to a thousand conflicts."
Finally, as we crested a high ridge, we saw it: a dark impenetrable line snaking across the horizon. It was like a scar upon the earth, a massive, unyielding wall of earth, stone, and wood that marked the boundary of an empire. This was the Yanmen Pass, a gateway forged in conflict. We knew that once we passed through it, our journey would truly begin.
We changed our horse equipment and clothes to a more Chinese style. For me, who still can't use my own personal space, I need to change the style of my Divine Instruments, too. Erik and Cynthia taught me how to adjust Divine Bodies and Divine Instruments not long ago. These two are basically the same thing: containers for our Divine Energy. That's why we can freely direct their shape according to our will. But most of the time, their shape is just how we instinctively imagine it—this is what's called True Form.
I reshaped my Armor of Floating Cloud into a fine thin chainmail. At the chest, I attached a round iron mirror plate from the Frozen Storm Shield. I left the Needle of Falling Rain and the arm guards that hold them as they are.
For the Thundering Sword, I didn't like its current style much. So in my mind, I reimagined the sword into one single uninterrupted piece of steel—a long narrow form of straight double-edged blade with a prominent eight-sided facets ridge, and a subtle waist similar to a Gladius or Xiphos, all tapering to a deadly piercing point.
The other side of the blade flows directly into the handle, as if a blacksmith cut into the blade's sharp edge, curving inward with such precision that it tapers down into a long, slender grip. The eight-sided facets of the blade continue as hexagonal angles down the length of the handle, which tapers slightly in the middle before curving into a six-sided faceted pommel that ends in a rounded, pear-shaped base.
I basically used a Han army cavalry's swallowtail lance blade to make a sword. Its profile is the same as a Spring and Autumn period Jian or Han Jian, and while the original design was intended for cavalry charges, a subtle waist gave me little advantage. This unique feature supports my sword style, which focuses on slicing and slashing rather than full cuts or thrusts. One-meter double-edged sword with a long handle, that allowing it to be used as a one or two-handed weapon, makes it feel perfectly balanced and agile in my hand.
While I was lost in my own thoughts, Cynthia and Erik who could see through things, seemed stunned. So I asked them, "What's going on, guys?"
"How did you change your sword's True Form? Why could you change its shape?" Erik asked first, his voice filled with bewilderment.
"I just did as you two taught me, that's all," I simply replied.
Cynthia raised her eyebrows before yelling at me, "What in the world did you do?! Even with my Innate Power 'Engineer,' I still can't do that!"