roadtomastery
patreon
Chapter 203: Realizing True Power
🕑 Added 2023-05-29 17:36:01 +0000 UTCThis is a pretty humongous chapter, but ah, these things happen sometimes when editing. I don't imagine anyone dislikes extra words.
In other news, Road to Mastery's Book 1 launches tomorrow, and I'm so electrified I can't sit still...
Enjoy the chapter!
---
Trial Planet had nine rings. Garden Ring had twelve gardens. And Trial Garden, the most dangerous but rewarding of those, had a core guarded by seven different formations, one behind the other.
In the System’s world, numbers were everywhere—though, if these particular numbers had any mystical meaning attached to them, it flew right over Jack’s head.
The entire group paused as they came into sight of the garden’s core. A lone tree stood in the middle, with a single, blood-red apple hanging from its branches. Seven concentric domes of color surrounded it, each a formation barrier that shimmered with power. Even the mist had receded from this area—a tribute to the formations’ power.
“We have arrived,” Lady Minerva said breathlessly. Her eyes were glued to the tree in the middle, barely visible through the formations, and the apple on its branches. As were the eyes of the other two Lords.
They had come a long way to reach here. They had traveled through seven rings of Trial Planet. They had defeated an immortal labyrinth guardian and overcome a series of deadly traps.
Finally, they were here…but only one of them could claim the prize. Only one of them could have the Eighth Ring Conqueror title, and most importantly, the Dao Sprouting Pill. Jack didn’t know what exactly that was, but he could see the limitless desire in the Lords’ eyes.
He leaned towards Dorman. “Hey,” he asked in a low voice, “what exactly does that apple do?”
“The Dao Sprouting Pill?” the young man replied in a whisper. “Supposedly, it helps a peak E-Grade consolidate their Dao and grow their Dao Tree, reaching the D-Grade.”
Jack nodded. “I see. So it speeds up the process?”
“Not just that. The more Dao Roots one has, the stronger they are, but the harder it becomes to breakthrough. Since the Lords have fused three Dao Roots each, breaking through is not guaranteed at all. Even if they succeed, it could take them years or decades, which cuts away at their D-Grade cultivating time. Essentially, they’re in an all-out gamble. Either they’ll reach the top of the world, or they’ll end up mediocre…and this pill is a shortcut over the greatest hurdle.”
“I see. So they’ll stop at nothing to get it.”
Dorman nodded. “The title of this ring is good, of course, but the pill itself is the real reward.”
“How does the System know who got the pill, though? Is it the first person to touch it?”
Getting Garden Ring’s Top Treasure was the prerequisite to getting the Eighth Ring Conqueror title. However, when traveling through the labyrinth previously, Lord Longsword had told Jack that only one person would get it.
“Exactly. Whoever touches it first will get both the pill and the title—and, by agreement between the factions, the battle ends there. Which means that, the moment the final formation falls, or even before that, the Lords will be battling each other. That’s why they are so tense.”
Jack looked around. Each Lord team was gathered aside, talking over their plans. The final bits of jovialty had already evaporated. Now, everyone was at war. Faces were stern, eyes were hard, fingers twitching.
Jack’s mind was also racing. To defeat the planetary overseer within a year, he had to take the absolute best road to power. Yet, from what he understood, becoming an immortal was a long, difficult process.
He needed a shortcut. And here, in front of his face, was a legendary treasure offering just that. The problem was the existence of three super strong cultivators between him and the treasure.
He wanted to join the battle for the Top Treasure. He wanted to face off against the Lords and defeat them, gaining the power he needed to save his people.
But he couldn’t.
Jack had done his homework. He’d carefully observed the Lords and their followers in Trial Garden—and even before that. He had seen how they spoke and acted, dissected their personalities for weaknesses he could exploit.
There were some. Bocor, for example, hated Jack’s guts. He would be easy to bait into action. The ice witch always remained by Longsword’s side, if possible. Longsword himself was prideful and arrogant—and also kind of a dick. He knew that Jack would never join his faction, so he wouldn’t mind killing him if the opportunity arose.
Lady Priya was a direct individual. She would not employ underhanded means. Chuto was eager to battle, so he could be lured into what he thought was single combat. Kareena used soul attacks, which Jack hoped to resist with his Indomitable Will.
The Hand of God team was the most difficult to deal with. Lady Minerva was a calculating and cautious individual. Moreover, she didn’t really care about her summoned beasts, so they couldn’t be used against her. Vocrich knew Jack, and they were already enemies, sort of…but he was too cold-blooded. Jack didn’t feel confident in tricking him in any way. As for the dryad, she usually remained by Minerva’s side and wasn’t particularly strong, but her healing powers were phenomenal. When a treasure hunter got a deep slash on his thigh facing a trap, she cured it almost instantly.
The point was, Jack knew the Lords and their followers. He had watched and cataloged them. He had cards to play. What infuriated him was that his cards didn’t seem enough. Despite having done his homework and actually invested effort in securing as many advantages for himself as possible…he still came up short.
Will I really have to give up the Top Treasure? he thought, gritting his teeth.
He didn’t lack understanding, Dao Skills, or titles. The only thing he lacked was levels. He was at 97. The Lords were all around 124. With each level representing five stat points, those were almost a hundred and fifty points of difference. He couldn’t overcome that against the most talented people of the galaxy.
He gritted his teeth harder. Throughout Trial Planet, he had struggled to grind levels. He had risen by forty-five since entering—a tremendous amount! But he had been chased out of Giant Ring. He had been ambushed and forced to escape Barbarian Ring after only hunting a tyrannosaurus. The desert of Village Ring had been relatively empty, and the space monsters of Space Ring had been too few and far between—or too strong to hunt consistently. Even in Labyrinth Ring, bone monsters had been rare occurrences, not letting Jack rise by much. As if those weren’t enough, he was always on the clock, for one reason or another.
Finally, Garden Ring was…almost empty.
Trial Planet was a treasure trove of experience and levels, and Jack had already gotten a ton of them, but there was a limit to how much he could grind when everyone was after him.
When all was said and done, he was just too damn underleveled.
He had good titles, yes, but so did the Lords. They were the prized children of B-Grade factions with a million years of experience in the System. They definitely had a way to feed their disciples the right titles. Against them, Jack was not at all optimistic of his chances.
Perhaps he could exchange a blow or two with a Lord, but winning would be very difficult without using the Life Drop—which he absolutely couldn’t reveal, especially with the Hand of God snooping around. Given the Exploding Sun’s standing offer, the risk just wasn’t worth it—even if it meant giving up on the Top Treasure.
Can I sneak through? he wondered. If the Lords are busy fighting each other, maybe I can just rush to the fruit… But this requires them being idiots, which is not the case—well, except for Bocor, maybe.
“Don’t even think about it,” Dorman said with a smirk. Jack looked up.
“Think about what?”
“Greed is the downfall of cultivators, Jack. You are strong, but you are missing a few levels. Stay out of this.”
Jack frowned. “You handle yourself, and I will handle myself.”
“As you wish. I just warned you in good faith. If you die, that’s on you.”
“Yeah… I’m just anxious. I appreciate the warning.”
Dorman nodded.
Jack did appreciate the warning, but he didn’t plan to heed it. Dorman had just explained how the battle for the Top Treasure worked. The moment someone got it, everybody stopped fighting. Therefore, if Jack made it to the treasure, he would be fine.
He would keep an eye out during the battle. If he saw an opportunity, he would go for it. If not… Well, then, there was nothing he could do. He didn’t possess the strength to fight for the pill fair and square—and he had no followers, either. The Lords had two each.
“We are ready to start, everyone.” Lady Minerva’s voice cut through the whispers. Everyone turned to look at her. “Formation masters, please gather around me. You are to begin working on the formations immediately. Everyone else, please wait patiently, and do not leave this core area of the garden. Anyone spotted leaving, especially in that devil’s direction, will be executed.”
A wave of murmurs and nods followed. Jack nodded in agreement. Devils were best left untouched.
Three people approached Lady Minerva. One was Kareena, the silver-haired healer from Lady Priya’s team, who was also a formation master. The other two were the draconic woman and the merfolk guide, who apparently also dabbled in formations.
The three of them settled down right outside the edge of the outermost formation and began observing it. Occasionally, one of the three would make some observation aloud, to which the other two would nod or object. They soon sunk into their spirited research.
Jack admired them. All he could see of the outermost formation was a shimmering barrier of swirling green, emerging from a circle of mystical symbols on the ground.
What would happen if I wiped at those symbols with my foot? he wondered. Of course, he didn’t suggest that. He knew better than to doubt the formation masters by now.
After the first ten minutes of observing, he grew bored. He looked around. Everyone was still huddled in their teams or alone, cultivating as they waited for time to pass.
Well, when in Rome…
As even the Black Hole Church people were cultivating, Jack sat down and did the same.
The world gradually disappeared around him. He was now on a grassy field, with a white sun dominating the sky and three stars orbiting it slowly. The sun was his Dao Seed of the Fist, while each of the stars represented a Dao Root—Indomitable Will and Life were fused already, tiny tendrils connecting to the sky around them. Only the Dao Root of Power remained unfused, a dark blue orb hovering in the sky.
Jack focused on exactly that orb. Since breaking through to the D-Grade was not possible right now, and neither did he want to develop any more Dao Roots, fusing his existing one was all he could do. Well, either that or sparring against Copy Jack.
As he thought of that, Copy Jack materialized before him. It was an exact replica of himself, down to the hidden pocket under his left thigh, with one glaring difference—Copy Jack always sported a wide, excited smile like a child discovering the world.
“Hey, Copy Jack,” Jack said. “Wanna fight?”
The copy grinned even wider and nodded. Jack laughed. He had to admit that even this battle lust was an exact copy of his. He, too, was looking forward to sparring.
The Dao flared around him. A purple aura covered his body, focused around his fists. The powers of Life and Indomitable Will surrounded him, shielding him from harm. Since they were fused into his Dao Seed, they, too, were purple.
The only chromatic dissonance was the dark blue color shining on his knuckles—it was Meteor Punch, which he was using through the Dao Root of Power. He wanted to use this skill as the medium to fuse the Dao Root, making Meteor Punch stronger in the process. These two fit like peas in a pod.
And he was so damn close. He had been for a while. All he was missing was a final spark of insight. He could feel it brewing just outside his awareness, eluding him constantly.
Normally, practicing against Copy Jack wouldn’t bring about that flash of inspiration. It was the kind of thing that only appeared in actual battle.
However, the real deciding factor wasn’t battle, but pressure. And Jack felt pressure right now. He wanted to go after the Dao Sprouting Pill, but he didn’t have the power. Perhaps fusing this Dao Root would make the difference between life and death. He needed to succeed before the formation masters were done.
He hoped that this time pressure, along with the persistent feeling of powerlessness, would be enough to push him over the edge.
“Come,” he said. Copy Jack, his Dao aura and colors identical to Jack’s, charged.
They knew each other now. They had fought hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Soon, they fell into a familiar dance. Punches led to blocks, to dodges, to dashing, to punching. Jack jabbed thrice. The third was a feint, leading to an uppercut. Copy Jack saw through it and dodged, leaning aside to throw a cross into Jack’s face. Jack let the force of his uppercut carry him forward, parrying the cross with his shoulder and backfisting Copy Jack in the face—backfisting counted as a fist attack.
Copy Jack flew back but righted himself. He charged. He ducked under Jack’s blow and planted a fist in his abdomen. Then, Copy Jack stepped forward and prepared a wild haymaker. Jack expected it to be a feint—so it smashed into his nose like a meteor from orbit, flaring blue with the Dao Root of Power, and threw Jack back so violently that the soul world warped to help them remain close-by.
Jack stumbled. His twin fused Dao Roots worked together to repair his nose and face structure. “Nice one,” he said with a growl. He jumped back into the fray. They kept exchanging blows, with no one really getting the upper hand.
Jack quickly realized this wasn’t working. He wouldn’t fuse his Dao Root like this. All he was doing was practicing his battle awareness.
He had no time to waste. He had to lean into that feeling of powerlessness, somehow. He felt the final understanding locked inside it. But how?
With a spark of inspiration, he strangled the Dao flow to himself. It was now a trickle rather than a stream. Instantly, his power was reduced.
Copy Jack raised a brow but complied. He came in with fists blazing. Jack tried to fight back, but he was too slow, too weak. Copy Jack was dominating now. His punches struck like mallets, his arms blurred at the limits of Jack’s perception, and his defense was unbreakably rock-solid.
It took everything Jack had to remain standing. Powerlessness creeped into him again. He didn’t like this feeling. He hated it. It reminded him of the times before the System. He had no control. He was suffocating.
Yet, he did not yield. He kept restraining the flow of his Dao. His defense was broken, his attacks were useless, his eyes couldn’t follow the copy’s punches. Jack was toyed with like a toddler.
And yet, he kept rising. Again and again, he threw himself at Copy Jack, only to fail miserably. Every failure only reminded him of his weakness. Every painful punch he received emphasized his helplessness. The power difference between them was just too much, and Copy Jack was too skilled. There was nothing Jack could do. Absolutely nothing. He even resorted to less dignified tactics, throwing dust at his opponent’s eyes or distracting him with odd movements. He tried to receive a punch on purpose just to throw a weaker one himself. He just wanted to land one strike.
Everything failed. Before absolute power, all tricks were useless. Jack could do nothing. His weakness was a purposeless hole, a bottomless abyss in his chest. He felt lost and alone. Small.
Copy Jack threw a Meteor Punch. Jack’s chest caved in, his ribcage shattered, and his body was almost broken in half. He couldn’t die in this place, so he quickly regenerated, but the feeling of weakness was even stronger than before, almost swallowing him entirely.
His entire existence was predicated on power. If he was weak, he couldn’t do battle. He couldn’t use his fists or stand up for anything. He was useless. Helpless. Alone. Despondent.
Only a tiny part of Jack remained now. Everything else was blanketed by mute despair. But this small, remaining part was the one focused on progress. It was the part forcing him to throw himself at this inevitable suffering repeatedly, analyzing his feelings.
He kept at it for hours.
Weakness seeped deeply into Jack’s psyche. After a while, he felt true fear. Was this experience against his Dao? Was he harming himself in the name of progress?
And yet, he kept at it. He took the risk. Deep despair drove him. The undeniable urge to obtain more power. The reasons why he fought passed through his mind—so many faces, so many fears, a deep desire—until he was just a weak, tired, little man. Another meteor punch came at his face. Finally, he almost gave up. The deep confidence he always felt wavered, and he knew that he couldn’t resist Copy Jack’s fist. It filled his entire world, a power far greater than anything he could muster.
The tiny part remaining of Jack shone. Now!
His Dao returned at full force, flooding him with power. He felt like a god. At the same time, the copy’s Dao flow was strangled, becoming a fraction of what it used to be. The situation was reversed. Copy Jack’s meteor punch faltered. Suddenly, it was laughably weak and slow. Jack simply slapped it aside.
Such a punch could never touch him. He held absolute power now.
For a single moment, the sensation of crushing weakness and overwhelming power coexisted in his mind. He felt the strength brewing in his fist, but he also saw it from the Copy’s eyes. He saw his strongest punch from the other side.
He was no longer the one facing an unstoppable god. He was the god, watching himself through the eyes of the weak. And his punch was so undeniably powerful. Only through weakness came true understanding of power.
Jack smashed out. It was a Meteor Punch stronger than any other, fueled by the mirror image of the helplessness that he knew his opponent was feeling. It was absolute. Jack had never felt more certain that his strike would land and decimate.
Finally… This was true power.
The copy tried to block but was blown away. The Meteor Punch tore through his crossed arms and chest, drilling a hole straight to the other side. The copy’s body flew away, spiraling out of control and into the distance.
Of course, he couldn’t die, either. The soul world warped, and the copy was standing before Jack again, safe and sound. But Jack remained in his after-punch stance. He hadn’t moved. Understanding was flowing through his brain, filling it. Everything clicked together, and Jack laughed at the sky.
“I got it!” he shouted. “I finally got it! Thank you! Thank you, Copy Jack!”
The copy smiled and nodded. Both were panting—not from physical exhaustion, which they couldn’t feel here, but from spiritual one.
Jack turned his gaze to the sky. The dark blue star was shivering. Slowly, tendrils extended out of it, connecting to the surrounding sky and pumping its essence out. The star lost its color, but it was stronger than ever—the dark blue was just fused with the purple of the sun, the vastness of the sky.
Jack felt so happy and relieved. He also felt deeply exhausted. He didn’t even know how long he’d meditated for.
“I have to go,” he said with a big smile. “Thanks again, Copy Jack. See you soon.”
The copy waved, and Jack opened his eyes in the real world, finding himself surrounded by figures, some sitting, some standing.
“Hey,” Dorman said. “Took you a while.”
Jack didn’t reply. He only had eyes for the screens hovering before his face; especially the very first one.
Congratulations! The Dao Root of Power had been successfully fused with your Dao Seed.
Strength +20
Constitution +20
Will +20
Congratulations! Meteor Punch II → Meteor Punch III
