NOVEL NEXT Chapter 30: The Sealing Mark
Transmigrated back into the body of her child self, can the mighty Celestial Bing Meilu survive in a Xianxia world all the while staving off the advances of arrogant young masters and wannabe protagonists alike?
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Chapter 30: The Sealing Mark
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It had really not been long since that day. Bing Meilu had been at the Peak of the Celestial Realm, the Birthing Dao Realm, for eons. Her cultivation, which had one blazed forward unimpeded had become utterly stagnant.
She, of course, knew the cause. Though she may have been a rare genius Bing Meilu had arisen from the mortal world, had ascended upon a hodgepodge foundation of various mortal quality cultivation techniques. Those critical flaws in her foundation had come back to bite her.
Where before she had comfortably breezed past her enemies in cultivation, now they had begun to catch up to her. It was utterly unfair. She was better than them in every other way, smarter, more talented, more ruthless, more dedicated. Her only failure had been the bad luck to be born in a lower realm. Had she been given the resources and backing of her many rivals, she'd perhaps have been a God already.
It was then in a moment of weakness, a Demon had approached her, offering an accord. A method by which she could finally reach the Paragon Realm. A Sealing Mark that could be used to unleash her true potential and ascend to the realm so long denied to her. Her stagnant cultivation would rush forward. Only, Bing Meilu had not properly understood the consequences of such a ritual. Such a thing demanded a heavy price, her Inner World, the Heaven and Earth birthed within her form that marked her as being of the Celestial Realm, was burnt to cinders.
The potent sacrifice had roused the will of an ancient Devil God, whose very presence had annihilated everything around her. Her sect, her junior sisters and all her disciples. No doubt it was a step in some esoteric and treacherous plot of the Underworld. Unwilling to let such an event occur, Bing Meilu had used the might of her Paragon status to send herself back in time, to change the future.
Now, blazing with heretical power, was another such Sealing Mark, of the same make. The molten bronze symbol twisted and turned, vile and laced with Demonic Qi. Bing Meilu's eyes narrowed and she inhaled shakily.
'Something like this cannot have been present in the original Bird Talon Continent. It is not possible! The presence of such a thing would have drastically altered the flow of history.' the girl realized. 'That can only mean that my arrival here has allowed its existence!'
This was the second major change she'd noticed, after the mysterious destruction of her old sect, the Moon Crying Swan Palace. At this point, it was overwhelmingly clear that outside forces were meddling in her world.
It should not really be feasible for higher beings to intervene in the lower realms like this. There were natural laws and providence that prevented such things. If one wanted to push their way in, against natural law, The Heavenly Dao would force them to pay a heavy price.
Bing Meilu had lost her entire cultivation base, of the realm of Paragon, just to return herself to the Bird Talon Continent, and she was actually from it. A Demon from the Underworld should be forced to pay an even higher price and there was simply nothing worth said price in the lower realms.
Theories poured through her mind. It was entirely possible that her transgression of the Dao of Time had essentially created Cassus Beli for higher beings to interfere more drastically in the lowers worlds. Bing Meilu cursed her low cultivation. At her current stage, she could no longer feel the Natural Laws of Heaven or Earth. She would have to step into the Ancient Sage Realm to begin to do with the degree of accuracy to assess whether her theory was true. If this was the case, and the natural protections of the lower realms were weakened, the situation would be very dire indeed.
'I need to find out more before I can fight back,' the girl admitted. 'There is not much I can do else. Right now I'll have to accelerate my plan to get stronger. Not that I was planning on being slow before... but if this continent is part of a plot of some Demon or other higher being, it becomes rapidly less safe every moment.'
For now, she would focus on the newly captured beast. She had to find out as much as she could about its origin and the Sealing Mark.
"Greetings Serpent," Bing Meilu spoke through her spiritual link to the tamed beast. "Do you have a name?"
She was not focused on Beast Taming, but Bing Meilu had many pets and tamed animals over the years, most fondly her Moon Crying Swan, who'd accompanied her all the way from the lower realms, so she was more than familiar with managing a Tamed Beast.
Her white-scaled, red-eyed serpent blinked in confusion, as it heard her voice. Then it began to trash in fury.
"-Fucking slutty cuntess! I'll light your entrails on fire and fling your defiled corpse into a fucking pit of-"
"Silence."
The Demon shuddered, falling quiet. She could feel torrents of rage and horror through the mental link. Cleary her beast had yet to accept its fate.
"You may only speak when asked a question and do not use any vulgarities. Now tell me Demon, Do you have a name?" the cultivator asked.
"My name is Aiwa Satsushi!" the creature spat. "And I am going to flipping kill you!"
"Refrain from any threats. What species are you?"
"I am cur-cur-currently a White Sword-Scale Python..."
"Currently? Does that imply you can change your bloodline?"
The Demon seemed to twitch and struggle, but ultimately, resistance was useless before the Beast Taming Contract latched onto its very soul.
"Y-yes. I can switch my bloodline between options unlocked in the Demon Beast System."
Now that was interesting.
"What is the 'Demon Beast System'?"
"It-it-it's a power that interfaces with chosen humans, turning them into Demon Beasts and granting them special powers and abilities. It can grant bloodline abilities, special boons, items and all sorts of perks."
'That must be the work of the Sealing Mark. A human that was granted a power linked to the Devils of the Underworld... Exactly what happened to me. Was he also offered an accord by such a being?'
"Explain how you acquired this 'System'."
"I used to be a human being in another world- I then died, only to awaken in this world as a small snake demon. The Demon Beast system chose me, out of trillions of souls to become its new host and eventually become a Demon God!"
Bing Meilu actually rolled her eyes. Heavens above, it really did sound like such an obvious con to her. How she had fallen for effectively the same trick would forever elude her.
"And... do you think the creator of the Demon Beast system did this.,. out of the kindness of their heart?" Bing Meilu asked, disdain creeping into her calm voice.
Aiwa seemed to pause, blinking in confusion as if he had never considered the idea.
"What do you mean?"
"Obviously something as intricate as this system required a good deal of resources and time to create. Why would any self-respecting immortal or God just randomly hand out such a thing for no return? One does not ascend through naive benevolence. For every boon, there must be a cost."
"What the hell would a little girl like you know about the motivations of immortals?" the serpent spat angrily. "Perhaps the system simply recognized my potential and knew I was special. It chose me for a reason!"
'The Sealing Mark must have selected such a gullible host on purpose,' the girl snorted.
"It certainly is easier to fool a man than convince him he's been fooled," Bing Meilu shook her head. "Regardless, explain more about your System."
And so she sat, listening in quiet interest as her beast slave explain his System and how it worked.
"...There are also quests, where the system gives you a challenge and if you succeed, you receive a reward. There seem to be multiple kinds, triggered by different things, such as daily quests, and quests triggered by things, like receiving a certain bloodline after killing a bunch of creatures that possess it."
The more she heard about this system the more certain she was it was some elaborate trap. This quest system obviously served to push the host into specific actions. Perhaps the purpose was to mould an unwitting idiot into becoming a resource to be devoured for cultivation, or something even more insidious, such as how the Blood Moon Spectral God's Sealing Mark was placed into Xia Xuefeng to allow that old monster's resurrection.
"What quests are currently available to you in the System?" the girl asked.
Aiwa twitched, one more failing to resist answering her question.
"Currently I have five. The first quest requires me to devour six Islandback Tortoise Eggs in return for a perk that will let me move faster when in water. The second quest requires me to consume one hundred humans every day for a week in return for an increase in my comprehension ability. The third requires me to kill you in return for a powerful bloodline-"
"Kill me? Give me the full details," Bing Meilu frowned. "How exactly did the system present this quest?"
"It was like this: 'Story Quest Unlocked: Heaven's Retribution. Task: Slay and devour 'Bing Meilu', the young human girl wearing a blue dress.
Reward, Unlock Bloodline 'Crystal Heaven Dragon' Extremely Strong 10'"
Bing Meilu was silent for a long moment. Why was a quest offered by a Demonic system called Heaven's Retribution? It could simply be fluff... but her instinct said otherwise. Did that imply that the 'Demon Beast System' was actually aligned with the Dao of Heaven? The thought was almost unthinkable... but then again, the very presence of a Sealing Mark from the depths of the underworld was unthinkable as well.
"So the Heavens of the Bird Talon Continent are against me then?" the girl sighed, rubbing her brow in a rare show of annoyance. "That complicates matter slightly..."
It also solidified her worry. The 'Crystal Heaven Dragon' bloodline mentioned by the System was a rare and powerful draconic bloodline whose natural life cycle extended to the Celestial Realm. To be able to easily hand out such a bloodline through a mere Sealing Mark. That implied... that whoever had created this system was at the very least of the Paragon Realm. That was perhaps the most deeply worrying revelation since she had returned to the Bird Talong Continent.
Paragons were those who had reached the limit of natural power, invincible to all but the Gods above. Each Paragon was a unique genius of unfathomable power, deeply terrifying to oppose. Bing Meilu should know, having briefly tasted the power in her last life. She had been so mighty the very Abyss had not been able to harm her, even as it swallowed her Sect and countless lower realms.
"Tell me more. What exactly does 'story quest' mean?"
"I honestly don't know. I've never had anything else called a story quest." the snake replied, head bobbing up and down as if it were attempting to shrug even without any shoulders.
"I see..."