Chapter 260
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The Power of the {Heart of Hope}, something I was going to personally learn from her, the Heavenly Empress. Similarly to the {Seven Cursed Seals}, it’s the Unique Martial Arts and Power of a Venerable. While the power of the Heavenly Demon depends on a person’s deep traumas, hatred, and negative emotions, this one clearly works differently.
And I wanted to get to learning it already! However, Master first started assigning training methods to everyone else, including Violet, Shiro, and even Snow… I was a bit surprised about that, but she said she was a Beast Master, someone who had tamed countless beasts.
“Very well, seeing how everyone is willing to learn from me, I shall work to give you all your own training. You will be working on this for the first two weeks, and then for the last two other weeks, you will work on something different,” the Heavenly Empress said.
“W-Wait, how long are we staying here?” I wondered.
“A day outside is a week inside,” said the Heavenly Empress. “Stay four days, four weeks.”
“Wait, how much time do I have left?” I wondered.
I checked the timer.
[Trial Time Left: 11 Days, 18 Hours.]
“Shit, that’s a bit too much…” I sighed. “I only have eleven days left; that’s eleven weeks, but… Outside time will go much faster. I’m worried it won’t be enough?”
“It will; do not worry,” she smiled. “Four weeks, a month—I need at least that much time to make you into a proper inheritor of my legacy, Anna. You will go back to that old crow, right? Spend only two weeks with him at most, then come back for the rest of the weeks with me to finish what we started and then… end this.”
“End it? How?” wondered Ying Shen.
“We’re going to create a solution, somehow.” I was still doubtful, looking at Zero One. “We’ll destroy the trees.”
“…” Zero One remained in silence after hearing that, then lowered her head.
“It seems she won’t say a thing,” Wai Tian pointed out. “Are you okay with us destroying them?”
“I-I…” Zero One muttered. “Well, for one, the trees are both cores, factories, and batteries for all of us, while also being used to extract materials for our creation, repair, and existence. I-I can tell they’re predatory and destructive, even though it is where I was born. Destroying them seems… necessary if we want to solve any conflict with my kind and the people of this world. But if possible, I would like to first talk about it with Mother.”
“If that’s all you need, then it's fine,” I nodded. “Maybe we could… Ah, never mind, this is not the time to talk about these things.”
“Indeed, first, we must let Zero One learn many things, so her kind, as a result, will also learn about the emotions, lives, and efforts of the beings whose world they’ve invaded,” said master. “Even if the majority of those that waged war against us already died, it is undoubtedly that they’re still aggressive. To reach peace, both parties must reach an agreement.”
“To think the Heavenly Empress is willing to go to such lengths…” sighed Wai Tian. “Well, if it were your majesty who would say such things, I suppose the people would indeed be willing to cooperate. Everyone loves you and respects your decisions.”
“I wonder… I truly wonder how far the loyalty of the people goes,” sighed the heavenly empress. “But enough chatter. First of all, let’s begin with you, Wai Tian. Your training will be to use both Meditation Techniques together and use them for your daily life. The first three days you will meditate and spar with the other disciples. In the next four days you will go hunt out with the other disciples, and in the next week you will go through a special trial alone.”
“I understand,” Wai Tian nodded. “I await your guidance, your majesty.”
“Yes, sit here and relax,” the empress said. “Concentrate and start your meditation. Now.”
Wai Tian closed her eyes. With the power of her techniques activating, the colorful rivers flowed through her spiritual body, slowly taking away, bit by bit, the dark cloud of anger and frustration in her head.
She calmed down, feeling slightly blissful; it was really like a drug—that meditation, huh? Interesting; I might want that thing too!
“Now, the other.”
“Yes…”
The tiger girl then activated the second meditation, washing away everything with a gold aura. She slowly stood up, her eyes closed.
The heavenly empress led her to an area with wooden dummies.
“Spar with them with all your strength, but don’t let the rage consume you like before. Make your attacks graceful and flow as beautifully as rivers,” she explained. “You are not fighting to the death; you are not fighting someone you hate. You are giving them mercy; remember that.”
“Mercy…?”
“Your heart is powerful, but your mind is now; you must learn penitence; pray after me,” the empress said.
She then started giving her a prayer I couldn’t quite hear from here, and Wai Tian repeated it as she prepared herself, her fists flaring with her powerful Ki Aura; each attack was like the claw of a tiger, but with the intensity and mastery of a martial artist.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
The wooden dummy resisted all hits; it wasn’t a normal dummy, of course. It was caved through with the attacks, but it quickly regained its posture.
“You won’t walk out of it until all ten dummies are destroyed,” the empress said.
After that, she moved to the rest. She was quite interested in Ying Shen, so she quickly went to look at him in particular.
“I have never trained assassins, nor do I know of ways to teach you how to better be a backstabbing evildoer,” said the empress.
“A-Ah, well, I did guess as much…” Ying Shen sighed.
“However, that does not mean I cannot teach you other ways,” said the empress. “Do you want to walk the path of the swordsman?”
“S-Swordsman?” wondered Ying Shen. “I-I mean, my main weapons are short swords and daggers, but… I never considered actual swords.”
“Your build is good for dual-wielding midsized swords; it could enhance your lethality and give you a secondary fighting stance for when you’re cornered and forced to fight head-on,” said the empress.
“I see, then please, teach me…” The fox boy nodded.
“Very well, here, grab this,” the empress materialized a rusty sword from her hands. “To learn the Blade Law, you must first obey its rules. And what is the rule of the sword?”
“Um… I don’t know?” Ying Shen wondered.
“To cut, of course. A blade is a blade because it cuts. But if you mindlessly cut things,” she glared at me for some reason. “Then you will never learn. Every cut must be calculated. You will meticulously cut this garden of flowers.”
“T-That’s it?”
“Let me finish when I speak. You will cut only the tip of each petal,” she said. “If you fail, the garden will immediately regenerate. Fail once, and you’re back to zero.”
“O-Oh…” Ying Shen looked dreadful out of nowhere. “I…”
“Can you do something so simple as being a gardener?” the empress asked, her beak forming into a slightly teasing smile.
“I can… Leave it to me,” the fox boy nodded.
“Good, get to it,” the empress nodded.
She walked towards her next target, Fang Shuan.
“You’re indeed similar to that machine, but you are at the same time… Not, your soul is powerful; you’ve grown it stronger,” nodded the empress. “But you’ve also filled it with hatred and demonic souls. You require a prompt purification. Or those souls that made yours so swollen and big will consume you with their hatred, and you will become a foe we will need to slay.”
“T-That’s what’s happening to me? So the time I defied master…” Fang Shuan muttered.
“It was because you’re a fool too; don’t blame it all to the soul,” laughed the empress. “But it might’ve had some fault too. Now, you’re using this.”
She materialized a pair of golden scissors.
“Trim your soul with them; these are heavenly soul scissors. Trim all the bad parts of it, by yourself,” she said. “It will be painful, and you will hate every minute of it. But it's necessary to learn this meditation technique that uses the soul.” She gave him a scroll.
“I see… You’ve gifted me so much; thank you, truly,” Fang Shuan lowered his head in thanks.
“There is no need to thank me for anything,” the empress said. “As a servant of my disciple, you deserve some attention and help… Now, to the most complicated of them.”
Finally, she walked towards Zero One; she did say something about letting her cultivate… somehow, I have no idea how.
“How are you letting her cultivate? Is it even possible?” I asked.
“Yes,” nodded the heavenly empress. “Do you think I have not studied the machines these last years, my disciple? I’ve extensively dissected them, piece by piece, many times. I’ve tried to discover what makes them work, what are their parts, everything. Zero One here… She’s strangely different than them, yet at the same thing at the end. It is as if the machines redesigned themselves, becoming a thousand times more complex and compact, and you said your kind was called human, right? Human shaped.”
“But I thought machines weren’t living beings?” I wondered.
“I am fairly sure I am a living being!” said Zero One. “I might be made out of materials extracted when they were inert, but aren’t all living beings like that? Your bones are calcium; your flesh and bones are made of all sorts of chemicals. We are all made of them, flesh or metal; we all descend from the stars, the dust they left behind, the pillars of all creation. It divided and transformed into endless shapes; we call those the elements, chemicals.”
“I know,” I nodded. “They taught me that in high school… Anyways, how does it work then, master?”
“Simple, all living beings can cultivate,” the empress explained. “It is the mere act of extracting and assimilating, then refining the elemental essence of heaven and earth. We absorb Ki; machines absorb Electromagnetic Energy and Metal. So…”
She placed several different-colored ores, grasses, and plants, which seemed to be giving small zaps of electricity.
“W-What is this?” wondered Zero One. “So many shiny things! Are they for me? A gift?”
“Yes, let’s call it a gift,” the empress nodded. “You will concentrate your little head into these materials and contemplate what makes them what they are and how they’re part of yourself. Then use your essence to extract their very power and incorporate it into your metallic body and your electromagnetic core.”
“I-I don’t think I am equipped to do such a thing…” Zero One was obviously doubtful.
“You will never know until you try,” the empress said. “Now, get to work.”
“Y-Yes…” Zero One nodded, contemplating the materials in front of her.
I saw her face twist into many shapes and forms; she was confused at first but was doing her best to try to understand how to do it properly.
I don’t know if it would truly work, but she was interested in the subject, nonetheless.
“This is a test of sorts I wanted the machines to go through one day,” the empress said as she led me to the rooftop of the palace. “To see if they can truly comprehend the elements and assimilate them.”
“I’ve seen machines using Martial Cores and Heaven Fragments before; are they also similar to her?” I wondered.
“No, those are not cultivating; they’re merely using the materials of the world to boost their own power; they cannot improve upon themselves. Cultivation is not just to absorb the essence of heaven and earth but also to evolve oneself,” said the empress. “It is the art of self-improvement and refinement. Your body is a temple, and you must keep it clean, above all else, well maintained, so it doesn’t collapse, and make it larger if more guests, your power, come along.”
“What a strange metaphor, but I guess I do get it a bit…” I nodded.
I looked at the sky, the sun shining brightly, the mountains in the distance, and all the beautiful green vegetation.
“Is it finally my turn?” I wondered.
“Yes, I’ve already instructed your pets to work on their own things,” the empress nodded.
“Wait, oh, they’re gone! When did that happen?!” I asked.
“I am good with Beasts, see? Now, forget about them and look at me in the eyes,” the empress said. “Anna, there’s something I need to ask you first before we begin. What do you think hope is?”
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