Chapter 179

Brenna

The Earth Remembers All

They knew, that was it, the two word response that caused Lykan to nearly shut down. That was it, the entirety of what he had found from the obsidian image of a book.

Then he began looking at the book, well not the book itself, he had already read the two permanent pages of the book ad managed to translate the raised text. Instead now he just focused on the materials that the book was made from.

“Obsidian?”

That was his other huge revelation that he made.

“Of course, how did I miss it. The transition of extreme heat to extreme earth.” Lykan said, as he dropped to the ground and began to meditate.

He was crazed.

As he sat down to think the world reacted to his emotional state. The wind blew his hair to be out of his face. The ground moved and catered to his light form. Even the water I the air seemed to congregate around him as he focused.

Still, he recognized everything that was happening around him, then instantly disregarded the action of the elements as unimportant. He was solely focused on his epiphany, just looking at him and his single minded focus on the obsidian book, Brenna was certain that he had finally found his inspiration. He had finally found the final piece of inspiration he needed to break through his final mental barrier. At least that was what Brenna thought with the comment.

The entire process seemed off to Brenna. There was clearly something that she was missing in the exchange, but she knew Lykan would tell her once everything finally made sense to him.

In a way, Lykan was something akin to the greatest cultivation muse. He could look around the world, at different aspects of life and gain inspiration.

Brenna too wished she could gain inspiration from the world the same way he could.

Taking a long breath, Brenna knew that if she just stood around and did nothing, Lykan would surpass her again.

No, not just surpass her, but once again he would be just one step closer to the point where he no longer needed Brenna. Or worse, one step closer to the point where she would be a burden to him and his future cultivation.

Brenna didn’t know how important cultivation was to the universe as a whole, but it seemed to be something that the Titan’s and their alleged masters would go to war over. Cultivation was the key to understanding the universe. Well not necessarily the universe as a whole, but rather a key to understanding one’s relationship and standing within the universe.

Every person who cultivated could feel the deep pulse of the world. That was what Brenna herself believed. Each time she cultivated, she felt her body connect with and pull a heartstring of the world. A heartstring of power and purpose. One that she felt empowering her with each interconnected breath. Each time she moved while under the influence of that connection, she felt empowered, as if the world itself was giving part of its immense power to her.

Power that she knew the planet itself didn’t want. Power that made it so the world was being forced to change in a way that it could never come back from.

Brenna herself didn’t know what the world was like before qi had been forced upon it. Though she knew she secretly liked the way it was currently. This was part of her dark secret.

As much as she loved going around with Lykan, trying to stop the spread and corruption of qi on the planet, she secretly liked the effects qi had on her. Not only did the power make her feel special, but it also gave her relevance. She was a nothing, a null. Someone the pre-qi world society would have ignored and likely tried to enslave or worse. That was part of why her ancestors started hiding in the deepest mines. That was also part of what caused Lykan to form an initial interest in her. Knowing this, she felt slightly guilty, the more she realized that she didn’t necessarily want to change the world back. Rather she just wanted to be able to help hide the planet from the people who forced the world to change in the first place.

Still, Brenna knew that even if Lykan knew she was having these thoughts, that he would be both understanding and supporting of her. That was just who he was. Which was also why, Brenna knew she had to work just as hard to keep up with his legendary pace.

Seeing the black stone book, Brenna couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous at the discovery. Obsidian was a stone, something that was clearly within her own personal realm of expertise. Yet, Lykan had looked at the book and seemingly found the missing piece he needed to enhance his cultivation.

Even now, she could feel Lykan casting aside his old cultivation base.

Something that Pentra seemed to be excessively concerned with, given the way she paced back and forth. Then would go to sit down next to Lykan. She observed him like he was a living statute. One that she would go up to with childlike enthusiasm and watch.

Pentra seemed to be just as enthralled by Lykan’s actions as Brenna found herself to be.

The only difference between the two, was that Brenna decided to gain her own inspiration from the stone tablet. While she couldn’t understand the four elements, not the way Lykan could. She could understand stone, and obsidian was clearly stone, that much she was certain of.

Focusing on the black stone she tried to understand the importance that one such a Lykan could have derived from the stone. Looking at it, it was clear that this was the final state of magma. Magma of course being the superheated fusion form of Earth and Fire. There was something there that Brenna could use for her own inspiration. While she knew she wouldn’t be able to fully understand all the elements, not like Lykan. She could at least take a moment to try to understand her own element.

Earth, it was so simple, so pure. To her it was the beginning and the end. Everything started and stopped with earth. All the other elements just gave richness to Earth. Riches that the Earth then used to create marvels.

Not only could fire be added to earth to make magma that would turn into obsidian, such events could also be used to create marble and other stones.

Also she knew of weathering, the way sedimentary rocks could be made to preserve the remains of creatures long since extinct. In that way, the earth itself made a living monument to the creatures that once thrived on this planet.

These were all things that Brenna knew, but never took the time to delve into. Not until times like now when she too would have to find her own inspiration. Her own drive to advance and stay relevant with Lykan.

Sure, Lykan was technically cultivation less for this moment, but once he finally reforged his cultivation base, he would be a monster who could wield all four elements with impunity. With that as her driving force, she continued to focus on her own understanding of Earth. While she wouldn’t branch out the same way Lykan would, she could still gain insights. Insights that could be used to further his own cultivation methods to new heights.

Focusing on the obsidian and ashes that still remained from when this building had been first burnt down, Brenna realized one thing. Both the ash and obsidian belonged to her realm of the Earth. While they were aspects of fire, they were the true memorialized imprints of Fire. In a way, she realized that Fire, Water, and Air would never be recorded without Earth.

Earth was the one true way to prove that the other elements even existed. Also Earth was the way to show that ancient civilizations and creatures also existed. Want to know more about a long extinct civilization? Dig up their remains and see what the earth managed to preserve of their legacy. Want to know what giant monsters used to roam the planet? Dig deep enough and find out what they did and how large they grew to be.

Want to see when a river shifted course? Dig up the trials and find the signs of erosion.

So many things were only known thanks to Earth. Thanks to the diligent records that Earth kept of the other elements, history could come alive. That was the true power that Earth offered. Earth offered a way to memorialize all events, everything from a bountiful harvest, to a drought, to a forest fire. Every major event could be recorded and memorialized in the records created by the Earth.

The more Brenna thought about this concept, the more different components came to life in her mind. Not only was the Earth the base for all life on the planet, the force that provided a foundation for everyone’s home and place where they would set up roots. Earth also recorded the effects of not just live, but also the other elements on its surface. A surface that would then be covered by protective layers to preserve the message of history.

There was something there, something to all of this. Brenna was close to her own deep understanding. The only problem was, there were too many ways to go. In her mind she knew she could go the way of protection, of drawing in Earth to harden her skin with overlapping layers of protection.

There was also the fact that she could use Earth qi to help her memorialize events. Once again using earth layers, but in a wider context, one that would preserve the end state of an item. A final state that showed the final and true ending point of an event in time.

That was the thing about using Earth to preserve a moment, it never recorded the beginning of a moment. Nor the middle of a flash flood, or other natural disaster. Instead the Earth was patient, always standing back and taking everything that the world had to give. Then capturing it all once it was at its end.

In a way, that was what showed Brenna that the Earth was the most powerful of the elements. The fact that it could hold back, endure anything that the other elements would throw at it, then record the remains of an event as a record of the past.

That was what Brenna wanted, that ability to hold back and endure. She didn’t need to be the Fire, or Flood. She didn’t need to be the cause of whatever great natural disaster struck the planet at any given time. No, she just needed to be able to endure. To be able to survive, side by side with Lykan, and record what happened next. That was her goal, that was how she would show her value.

She would be the record keeper, the one who wrote the story of Lykan, the one who committed his name and legacy to stone. Someone who helped record his legacy for future generations.

There was just one minor catch, she first needed to survive with Lykan to reach such a state. But the solid chunk of obsidian ore in Lykan’s hand was the final inspiration she needed to complete her own transformation.

Even now as she was putting together her final components of her second layer of Earth Cultivation, she could feel the surges of energy surrounding Lykan as his new cultivation base began to take shape.

Woosh!

Lykan’s body pulsed with energy. Energy that both burned and froze different parts of her at the same exact time. Brenna used this, focusing on this moment, she did what the Earth would do. What she knew she would need to do if she was to keep up with Lykan. She endured.

Then, as if riding on the tail winds of his success, Brenna found her own emotions racing as she was greeted by her own message from the Gods.

Blessing Bestowed: Second Tier Earth Cultivation. You have managed to push your mind and body to the next stage of Earth Cultivation. Reward: Your range of Cultivation and resistances to all elemental effects has increased tenfold.

Brenna took in the message, then opened her eyes to take in the changes to the world around her. Changes that she could finally begin to understand.

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