Against The True Gods

Caine's eyes snapped open, sharp as a blade.

A flicker of something ancient and elusive stirred deep within his mind, like the fluttering of wings against a locked door. His gifts surged to life, working relentlessly to grasp that fleeting insight.

It felt tantalizingly close yet maddeningly distant.

'D…d…' His gaze narrowed, a frown etching itself onto his face. It felt as though an unseen force was deliberately shrouding his thoughts, blocking his path to complete enlightenment.

BANG!

A shockwave of chaotic qi exploded around him as he completed the final fold of his refinements. His body thrummed with terrifying power, the atmospheric qi warping and contorting under his sheer presence. The sky above darkened, clouds roiling and crackling with suppressed fury, while the earth trembled beneath his feet as if afraid of what he had become.

But with a flicker from his silver star, [Inner Control] activated. The wild, chaotic energy that had surged outward like an uncontrollable tempest immediately stilled, tamed by his indomitable Will. The overwhelming power was leashed, falling completely under his command.

He exhaled slowly, his breath steady and measured. The Perfected Folds stage was now behind him. What lay ahead was the True Rebirth stage—the penultimate stage of the Blood Realm, a stage that would take his body beyond its current limits.

At this point in cultivation, a practitioner's body would have reached a state of completion. No more enhancements could be made; no more impurities remained to be purged. Instead, their blood would be suffused with Potential—the raw, untapped energy that lay dormant within.

This Potential was the essence of the True Rebirth stage. By igniting their Blood Qi, a cultivator could unleash this potential and fuse it into their body, undergoing a transformative rebirth. Each ignition equaled one rebirth, and the maximum number achievable was 81 rebirths.

The more rebirths one completed, the more formidable they would become. The quality of these rebirths was determined by the foundation laid in the earlier stages. The stronger the foundation, the more profound and powerful each rebirth would be.

Caine had no intention of overcomplicating things. He would complete 81 rebirths for each of his stars, just as he had achieved 13 folds per star in his previous refinements.

With his recent breakthroughs, his star count had risen to a staggering 425,608 stars. This meant he was aiming for an astronomical total of 34,474,248 ignitions and rebirths.

Thirty-four million, four hundred and seventy-four thousand, two hundred and forty-eight rebirths.

The sheer scale of the task would have driven others to despair. But to Caine, it was just another step on his path. He didn't hesitate.

The process began immediately, his mind splitting effortlessly into multiple streams of thought. One part of his consciousness focused on the ignitions and rebirths, while another continued to probe the depths of his Will.

His frown remained, the weight of his incomplete understanding gnawing at the edges of his mind.

'I can't let this slip away. I need to backtrack and pin it down. I'm too close to let it fade.'

He exhaled again, his Will washing over his body, sinking him into a state of hyper-focused clarity.

'I now understand that True Will is the core, the very heart of the path. Qi, Intent, Essence, and Quintessence are not stages above it—they are branches extending from it.'

'If I peel back even further, everything circles back to my first enlightenment—Blood Qi.'

Blood Qi was where it had all begun. The foundation of his journey.

'Through Blood Qi, I first comprehended Intent. By deepening my understanding of Intent, I realized that this path serves as a bridge.'

A bridge connecting his mind to reality. A means to transform abstract thought into concrete action. A path to achieving absolute control.

A ripple of energy surged through his body, and the air shimmered with auspicious signs—a celestial affirmation of his insight.

'Creation and Control—the essence of True Will. The ability to make my thoughts reality. The power to command myself and the world around me.'

The realization crystallized further.

'Each stage I've traversed represents a form of control and creation: Qi Control and Creation. Intent Control and Creation. Essence Control and Creation. Quintessence Control and Creation.'

But now, he needed to unify these elements.

Not through fusion—that would be clumsy and crude. No, he needed to link them, to create a seamless whole where each part flowed into the next.

He dove deeper, his mind stretching into the depths of the True Defiant Forgery Path. He didn't realize it, but what he was attempting was revolutionary. Law-breaking.

True Wills were deeply personal. Every cultivator's path to True Will was unique. One could forge a True Will by mastering the elements, while another might forge theirs through profound emotional experiences.

But not all True Wills were equal. Some paths led to simple, ordinary Wills. Others birthed monstrous, terrifying Wills capable of reshaping reality itself.

'Before I attempt to unify everything, I need to examine the foundation I'm building on.'

'Creation and Control may form the outer structure, but the core consists of my elements and beast progenitors. They are the roots of everything.'

His body shuddered as a new thought burst into his mind.

'The dragons…'

His focus turned inward to the five dragons coiling protectively around his silver star.

'…I see it now…'

The answer had been there all along. The path he sought was the same path he had used to manifest his gifts. Those gifts, now represented by the five dragons, were formed by a blend of Intent, Essence, and Quintessence, all bound together by Qi.

Hadn't those dragons always been the key to his perfect control?

Before their evolution, hadn't the Bloody Dragon granted him flawless mastery over his body and Blood Qi?

The realization struck like lightning. The path had been in front of him the entire time.

Deep within his mind, the outline of a new technique began to form. It was faint, still embryonic, but filled with limitless potential.

His body quivered as his mind rewired itself.

His Arcane Ring activated, dissecting his brain, rearranging his understandings, organizing every insight into a perfect, cohesive whole.

All the knowledge he had gained—across lifetimes—clicked together.
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'Creation and Control.'

BOOOOOOOM!

A deafening explosion erupted. The earth shook violently. Snow vaporized into mist. The sky cracked open with blinding arcs of chaotic qi.

Caine sat in the eye of the storm, his eyes blazing with clarity and purpose. The tempest of power around him stilled, bowing to his Will.

The path was clear.