Demon of Dawn and Dusk

The seconds ticked by as my mother and I stared at each other. I wasn’t sure what to say or do. While I had heard a lot about her from my sisters and others, Nova had always been a distant figure to me. I knew that she was my mother in my head, but in my heart she was a stranger. A powerful and renowned stranger, but a stranger nonetheless.

I felt closer to my father, Connor Wind Dance, since I spent a lot of time in front of his immortal cave. With Nova, that wasn’t the case. Still, I had always wanted to change that. A part of me always yearned to meet my mother and forge a connection with her. I took after her more than I did my father. However, I never had the chance. Nova went into seclusion after she gave birth to me, and stayed there. The only person who maintained contact with her was Sidra.

Until now that was.

My mother continued to stare down at me, as if waiting for something. Maybe she wanted to see how I would react to meeting her. That was as valid a theory as any. She meant me no harm, as far as I could tell. Well, malicious harm. I remembered the stories my sisters told me, of how our mother raised them.

After giving it some thought, I pulled a bottle of spirit wine from my storage ring. Not just any spirit wine either. It was the spirit wine that Senior Sister Zenia gave me earlier tonight. Since this was my first meeting with Nova, I might as well start things off with the best I had to offer. When Astra first told me about Nova, she mentioned that two of our mother’s favorite past times were ‘drinking and fucking’.

“Drink with me?” I asked, holding up the bottle of expensive spirit wine.

I must have made for a comical sight, sitting on my ass and holding up a bottle towards a creature the size of a mountain. My mother must have thought so as well, because she started laughing. The sound began as a low rumbling, before exploding into thunder. My ears hurt, and that was with my mother’s protection. Without it, I think I would have exploded.

“You are my son indeed.” My mother said, her voice deep and feminine. She sounded the same as when I first heard her, during the dream. “Very well. Let us drink together and celebrate your achievement, Little Demon.”

With that, my mother’s body shifted and shrank as she transformed into a human. The difference between her… beast form and her human form was staggering. As a human, she looked a lot like my sisters when they weren’t in their Demon Forms. Though, maybe it would be more accurate to say that my sisters looked like her. She was our mother after all.

Height-wise, she was somewhere between Sidra and I. She had brown skin, with long and curly black hair. Like with her beast form, her eyes were golden though her pupils were normal for a human. Her body was lean and toned; more slender than Estelle’s but more muscular than Astra’s. She was striking and beautiful, but also dangerous. I sensed violence simmering beneath the surface, ready to boil over.

Like with Uncle Jericho and Sect Leader Twinheart, I couldn’t sense Nova’s cultivation base. I knew that she was in the Domain Creation realm, the realm above Nascent Soul, but that was because I heard it from others. Sensing it was a different matter.

However, what surprised me the most was how young she looked. She seemed the same age as me, though I knew she was much older. It was a little uncanny, if I was being honest. I couldn’t imagine someone who looked like that as my mother. It didn’t help that she wore a set of loose robes, the kind meant for sleep, which gave her an indolent and slovenly air. She looked like a young mistress who had just woken up and didn’t bother with getting dressed for the day.

“It’s rude to stare, you know.” Nova said, her lips quirked up in an amused smile. “Your mother may be a consummate beauty, but that’s no excuse.”

I gave her a baffled look.

“That’s not why I’m staring.” I said. “It’s just that… Well, I never expected you to look so young.”

Nova pursed her lips.

“Hmm, you’re right,” She said, pulling a mirror out of her storage ring and examining herself, “I look like a young maiden with my current appearance. Let me fix that.”

Nova pulled a jade bottle out of her storage ring and retrieved a pill from it. A medicinal smell filled the air. It felt far more potent than any pill I had ever seen before. Nova popped the pill in her mouth and swallowed. Moments later, her appearance changed before my very eyes. Within seconds, it seemed as if she aged twenty years, until she looked like a woman in her late thirties or early forties. She went from young maiden to mature matron.

“Better?” Nova asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I nodded. With her current appearance, it was easier for me to accept that she was my mother.

“Good.” She said, before reaching towards the bottle of spirit wine. It flew out of my grasp and into hers. She frowned as she studied the bottle. “It’s cheap swill compared to what I usually drink, but it will do. Considering your age and cultivation base, I can’t expect you to have any of the good stuff.”

Cheap swill? That bottle of spirit wine cost hundreds of spirit stones. I knew this because the wine merchant I favored kept some in stock. Then again, as a Domain Creation cultivator, a few hundred spirit stones was nothing to her.

“However, before we get to the good part,” Nova said, looking back at me, “Let us get the formalities out of the way. We don’t have much time together, but we should observe a certain amount of ceremony.”

It took me a moment to figure out what she meant. Nova wasn’t just my mother. She was also my Master. However, I hadn’t been able to formally greet her as such because she remained in seclusion until now.

I shifted position and kowtowed before her.

“Disciple greets First Master.” I said in a somber tone.

“And I shall endeavor to be a worthy teacher for you, Little Demon.” Nova said. “Now get up. We have some drinking to do.”

I stood up just as my mother snapped her fingers. The gates to the palace opened, not making a sound as they did so. Given their size, I expected to hear something, yet they opened in silence. I started to walk towards the opened gates, but before I took more than a single step, I felt a familiar force wrap around me. In the blink of an eye, I found myself atop the palace. It took me a moment to adjust to the sudden change.

“Apologies for the rough treatment,” Nova said, sounding sincere, “As I said, we don’t have much time together and Foundation Establishment cultivators are so slow.”

The force let go of me, but kept protecting me from the pressure exuded by the palace.

“You could have warned me at least.” I said, glaring at Nova.

“Yes, yes,” she said, waving off my words, “I’ll remember that for next time.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Instead, I took a look around. The two of us stood upon a stone platform situated atop the palace. Despite this, I felt no breeze or wind. The temperature felt nice and warm. I think the palace’s defensive formations were responsible for this. In my experience, high places were cold and windy, and we were above the clouds.

Two couches and a wooden table stood nearby. Nova walked over to one of the couches and sat down, while I sat on the other. She produced a pair of cups from her storage ring and handed one to me. I took it. She then opened the bottle and poured spirit wine for the both of us. We cheered, before downing our cups.

The spirit wine tasted better than anything I had ever had before. It burned as it went down my throat, filling my stomach with both warmth and qi. The wine was potent too. Despite my new cultivation realm, I felt myself affected by it. Though, the food and wine I consumed during the feast earlier contributed as well.

“I always like watching the sunrise from high places.” Nova said as she poured each of us another cup of wine.

“So do I.” I said. “I suppose that’s something else I inherited from you.”

“From both your parents.” Nova smiled at me. “It was something Connor and I shared in common.”

I paused when I heard that. While I heard many things about my father’s accomplishments, I heard little about him as a person. The people who knew him best, my kin in Clan Wind Dance, despised me and never told me about him. Learning that I shared something in common with him, even something as trivial as this, meant a great deal to me.

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” I said. “Could… Could you tell me more about my father?”

As his lover, Nova knew him in ways that others didn’t. Perhaps she could share something else about him with me. However, to my disappointment, she shook her head.

“Maybe next time.” She said, giving me a sad smile. “I have to go back into seclusion soon, so our time together is limited. The only reason why I emerged was because you reached Foundation Establishment. I thought that I might as well be a proper master and start teaching you instead of letting your sisters do all of the work for me.” She pulled a small blue crystal from her storage ring. “However, I do have a recording crystal with recordings of Connor. Take it. It’s the least I can give you.”

She tossed the recording crystal towards me. I caught it and held it against my chest, cradling it as if it were some priceless treasure. To me, it was. Recording crystals were magical treasures that were used to capture images and sounds. Afterwards, those same images and sounds could be replayed. The amount that could be recorded depended on the quality of the recording crystal in question.

It occurred to me then I had never seen an image of my father, not even a painting or a drawing. That just made the recording crystal that my mother gave me all the more precious. I felt tears form in my eyes.

“Thank you.” I said, my voice thick with emotion.

Nova nodded and sipped her wine as she waited for me to regain my composure. After I felt ready, I placed the recording crystal in my storage ring and wiped the tears from my eyes.

“Ready?” Nova asked.

I nodded.

“Very well then.” She said, before pulling out a jade slip from her storage ring.

Jade slips were like manuals and scrolls in that they were used to record knowledge. However, said knowledge could only be viewed with spirit sense once one had reached Foundation Establishment. Nova tossed the jade slip towards me and I caught it.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“A gift.” Nova said. “Now that we’ve formally become master and disciple, I shouldn’t let you leave empty handed. The recording crystal doesn’t count, since it was a gift from a mother to her son.”

I nodded, before I sent my spirit sense into the jade slip. It was a strange sensation. The jade slip fit in the palm of my hand, yet the interior felt much larger than that to my spirit sense. Recorded inside was a cultivation technique, a profound one at that. Even giving it a cursory look filled me with awe.

“What is this?” I asked after I retracted my spirit sense, staring at the jade slip in wonder.

“It’s a cultivation technique I created some time ago, and the one I practice myself,” Nova said, smirking. “It’s called the Celestial Asura dual refining technique. I created it using the Soul of Divine Fire and Asura Crucible Body techniques as references.”

I blinked at her in surprise.

“I didn’t even know that such techniques existed.” I said, astonished.

In all my research, I never came across any mention or reference of dual refinements techniques.

“They do, but they’re rare.” She said. “Dual refiners are uncommon, and cultivators who form Dual Foundations are even more so. As such, cultivation techniques specifically for them are almost unheard of, especially in this realm. Dual refiners with Dual Foundations often end up creating a personalized cultivation technique after they reach a high enough cultivation base.” She gestured to me. “A few are lucky enough to inherit one from their master or clan, yourself included. However, the requirements for practicing a dual refinement cultivation technique are strict.”

I nodded.

“Yes,” I said, staring at the jade slip again, “I noticed that. In order to use this technique, one needs to be a divine demon who practices both the Soul of Divine Fire technique and the Asura Crucible Body technique. Not only that, but one needs to form a Dual Foundation. It’s as if it was tailor made for me.”

“Well,” Nova said, “I created it for myself and you’re following in my footsteps, but you’re not entirely wrong.”

I frowned.

“But what’s the point?” I asked. “Why bother creating a whole new technique? Why not continue cultivating with Soul of Divine Fire and Asura Crucible Body?”

The Celestial Asura technique was profound, but so were my current cultivation techniques. From what I could tell, there didn’t seem to be any advantage to switching techniques. Maybe I was too ignorant and too weak to tell.

“Simple.” Nova said. “The biggest drawback of forming a Dual Foundation is that it slows down one’s cultivation speed.” She gestured to the jade slip in my hands. “Practicing a dual refinement technique mitigates that drawback. You won’t be able to return to your previous speed, but you won’t be that far behind.”

My eyes widened. That was a significant advantage indeed. Depending on how fast the Celestial Asura technique allowed me to cultivate, I could keep up with my peers.

“Another advantage is that the Celestial Asura technique was created for divine demons,” Nova continued. “You can cultivate with either divine qi or demonic qi without throwing yourself out of balance. You don’t need both.” She grinned. “And, once you reach Golden Core, you’ll be able to use both divine and demonic mystic arts, as well as divine and demonic martial techniques.”

As if to illustrate her point, Nova summoned both a mote of black demonic fire and a mote of golden divine fire. I stared at them, entranced. After a few seconds, she snuffed the motes of fire out.

“However, I should warn you,” Nova said, a serious expression on her face, “There is a drawback to cultivating with the Celestial Asura technique. Since it is a single technique, you will only be able to use half the innate abilities compared to someone who cultivates with two techniques.”

I frowned. That was a serious drawback. One of the benefits of practicing both qi refining and physical refining was being able to use more innate abilities than cultivators who only practiced one or the other. Still, I thought the trade off was worth it.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “The advantages of practicing the Celestial Asura technique outweigh the drawbacks.” I grinned. “Besides, I noticed that the innate ability for Foundation Establishment was still Three Heads, Six Arms.”

Though, instead of mid Foundation Establishment, I would be able to use that innate ability at peak Foundation Establishment.

“Yes,” Nova said, “The Celestial Asura technique shares many of the innate abilities of the Asura Crucible Body technique, since one still becomes an asura.”

I nodded. That made sense to me, though I felt a bit sad about not being able to use the innate abilities of the Soul of Divine Fire technique. Many of them were quite powerful.

“Now, let us move on to the actual lesson.” She glanced towards the east. “Just in time too.”

I blinked at her.

“Wait, that wasn’t the lesson?” I asked.

Nova snorted.

“Of course not,” she said, “That was just me explaining your gift.” She stood up and walked to the eastern edge of the platform. “This is the lesson.”

Nova raised her hand and formed a fist. I felt her do… something to it. She didn’t reinforce it or coat it with qi, yet I felt her imbue her fist with some kind of power. I used my spirit sense to try to figure out what it was, but failed to comprehend it. This power felt like spirit sense, but also something more.

Before I could think about it further, Nova punched the air. The force of it exploded out and overwhelmed me, even though I wasn’t its target. I almost fell unconscious. The sound was deafening. I closed my eyes and clutched my head in my hands. My body trembled and my heart hammered against my chest. It took me a while to recover.

Once I did, I opened my eyes and my jaw dropped. With a single strike, Nova had split the sea of storm clouds, revealing the land below. I saw Flame Fiend Peak in all its glory, as well as the black desert beyond the mountain. In the distance, the horizon grew lighter as dawn approached and the sun rose.

Nova turned towards me. Her very presence changed. Before, I saw her as a lazy and hedonistic woman. However, now she seemed like an empress, a sovereign clad in qi. No, not qi. She was clad in the same power that she had imbued her punch with. The violence I sensed shimmering beneath the surface had boiled over. I felt the urge to prostrate myself before her, but somehow held myself back.

“If there is only one thing you ever learn from me, learn this.” Nova said. “Never rely too much on external sources of power, be they mystic arts, martial techniques, magic treasures, or pills. They are useful, yes. However, if you rely on them too much, they can become crutches that will hinder your progress instead of aiding it.”

As Nova spoke, the sun rose behind her and framed her body. In that moment, she looked like a goddess, majestic and powerful. It was as if the sun continued to rise only because she allowed it to.

“True power comes from within yourself.” Nova said, holding up a fist. “It comes from the depths of your soul and the strength of your will.” Her gaze sharpened. “It comes from your intent.”

Intent. When I learned how to use Armor of the Celestial Warrior, Second Master told me that innate abilities were one of the ways a cultivator could impose their will upon the world using the power of their soul. Intent was another.

“Was…” I said, my voice shaking. “Was that how you did…” I gestured to the now split sea of storm clouds. “…that?”

Nova nodded.

“Yes,” she said, “If your intent is strong enough, you can shatter mountains and split seas.” She gestured to the storm clouds. “If your intent is strong enough, you can conquer the very heavens themselves.”

I stared at Nova. Her speech fueled the fire in my soul. With a simple punch, one imbued with her intent, she split the storm clouds that would have killed lesser cultivators. She had reached a level of power that I could only dream of, and I wanted to do the same. No. I wanted to surpass her. In that moment, Nova seemed like a mountain that I needed to climb and overcome.

However, in order to become a master, one must first become a student.

“Master,” I said, falling to my knees before her, “Teach me.”

Nova studied me for several moments, before she nodded. She pulled another jade slip out of her storage ring and tossed it to me.

“Study this.” She said. “Be diligent. I’ll check your progress once I leave seclusion. If you haven’t mastered the basics of intent by that point, I’ll be very disappointed in you Little Demon.”

Nova said that last sentence in an ominous tone. I swallowed. If her disappointment was that scary, just how terrifying was her anger?

“Our time is up.” Nova said. She looked towards the rising sun and sighed. “I need to go back into seclusion.”

My heart clenched. This was our first time meeting, yet my mother and I had spent so little time together.

“So soon?” I asked in a plaintive tone.

Nova nodded.

“Don’t worry,” she said, giving me a reassuring smile, “I’ll see you again in a few years.”

A few years? I already waited my entire life to meet my mother, and now I had to wait a few more years before I could see her again. Still, I didn’t want her to think I was a whiny brat, one desperate for attention.

“I…” I slumped. “Very well, Master.”

“Aw!” Nova walked over and ruffled my hair. She no longer seemed like an empress or a goddess. Instead, she once again seemed like an indolent and slovenly woman. “Don’t worry. A few years isn’t that long for cultivators like us. Besides, while I may not be there in the flesh, I am watching over you and your sisters.”

I looked up at my mother and nodded.

“Thank you.” I said.

Nova gave me a gentle smile, before she grabbed the back of my vest.

“Now,” she said, still wearing that gentle smile, “Time for your second lesson: how to fly.”

A shiver ran down my spine and I felt an ominous premonition.

“Also, stop moping about the future and spend more time with your friends.” Nova said. “You won’t have as many opportunities when you grow older. Take advantage of them while you can. Enjoy your youth.” Her gentle smile morphed into a demonic grin. “Oh, don’t fuck things up with that Stone Pillar girl. I want her as a daughter-in-law.”

Before I could respond, Nova threw me off the island.