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Chapter 2 - Chapter 2 - Tian Li

The translucent Tian Li glowed brightly in distress. It had just been plucked unceremoniously from its home! Not only that, the surrounding Qi in these new environments felt awful and distasteful!

"Shhh, shh." A woman's voice gently tried soothing the flower, though she didn't have the time to attend to it. She was rushing as quickly as she could, crossing through many realms. It would only be moments before the fake Tian Li disintegrated.

"Don't worry, little Tian Li." The woman cradled the flower like a baby. "We'll be through the lower realms soon."

She was currently burning through her internal Qi to forcefully cross the Heavens. Though the lower realms are considered the weakest, they are also more protected by the Heavens. This makes it extremely difficult to leave, and even more so to enter. Restrictions were also placed on those entering from higher realms, further hindering the woman's path.

It took nearly a year until the woman finally reached her destination, the Underworld. It was the largest realm, being the size of multiple realms. Though it had been shattered into countless pieces and was only loosely connected. Unlike the other realms, the Underworld was very easy to enter, but nearly impossible to leave.

The moment the woman entered the Underworld, her remaining Qi violently began escaping her body and began bleeding from her pores. Still, she continued in search of an isolated location.

After a day's search, the woman found the perfect location. Although this place contains almost no Qi in the air, it flowed extremely fast. The soil too had little Qi, but it was extremely deep and wide. It was more important that it was isolated, so none could find the flower and influence it.

As the woman searched for soft ground, she began to worry about the Tian Li. It had not communicated to her for a few months and it seemed dormant. When she set the flower on the ground, she was startled when it escaped from her hands and quickly took root.

The Tian Li had been silently contemplating the entire time, particularly about its captor. 'I don't know why you're doing this, but I trust you.'

The woman was baffled and could only laugh merrily. "It is my honor."

She silently scorned the Heavenly Dao Pavilion for not considering the Nine Realms as a whole. The words she was going to speak however were replaced with a cough of blood. She grimaced as she looked down at her withered body. The remaining Qi in her meridians and dantians had diffused into the air. Now, even her spiritual sea was draining away. 

The woman collapsed onto her knees in front of the Tian Li. She began to question if she had made the right choice, whether to ignore the issue for a future catastrophe or act and exchange her own life. She sighed in pain and didn't think about it anymore.

One gaze at the little flower was enough for the woman to think her sacrifice was worth it. The Tian Li would grow up and have a limitless future, that alone made her happy.

"Little Hua, I hope you hear my will . . . survive for 1000 years and . . . find my gift useful."

The woman breathed out one last time before she let go. Her body shriveled and turned to dust, adding nutrients to the soil. Her spiritual sea burst and surrounded the flower. The Tian Li began to absorb everything the woman left behind.

The air of the Underworld has almost no Qi, so it would take it from any living creature. It was a place that all living beings feared, yet the Tian Li did not drain away.

The Tian Li had a soft glow that seemed to protect it. It was the aura of a being from the upper Heavens, and the Underworld found it revolting. The flower embodied everything Heavenly; four dainty petals with no extra intricacy, a simple stem that seemed fragile, and a white core that didn't bring out any color. It looked like an ordinary flower.

Still, even as an outsider, Tian Li needs Qi and nutrients to grow. After using everything from the woman, it had to take a meager amount of Qi from the air and had to grow its roots deeper for nutrients.

A thousand years then passed.

The sky of the Underworld suddenly shook. Clouds that stormed with typhoon winds and monsoon rains blanketed the world.

And then a thunder struck. It struck at the Tian Li. 'Why?'

The flower was bewildered that the Heaven Dao had sent a tribulation toward it. The Tian Li had felt instinctive danger from the clouds so it enveloped itself in a barrier.

It was only the first strike of the Heavenly Dao, and then another strike. Another struck again, and another. The thunder, winds, and rain seemed to go savage, ruthlessly intent on killing the flower.

But the Tian Li persisted. Even as the entire Underworld fractured, melted, and blew away, the little flower persisted. It defied the Heavenly Dao and fulfilled the woman's wish.

Countless more thunder struck, and the Tian Li wavered for only a slight moment. The Dao struck at that moment, and a petal fell from the Heavenly will. The flower quickly braced itself again and a hundred more lightning struck. It wavered for the second time, and another petal fell. This next time the flower could only endure 50 strikes before a petal scorched into ash. And with the next strike, with no time and energy to prepare, the last petal scorched.

The Tian Li could feel the Heavenly Dao gathering a tremendous thunder. It would be the final and strongest one, but the flower couldn't put up any more resistance. It cried out in pain. 'The Heavens are unfair. The Heavens have no mercy.'

Finally, the last thunder struck, but it didn't reach the flower. It hit a barrier that the Tian Li had forgotten about. It was the gift the woman had given, but the Tian Li didn't pay it any heed since it was so thin.

The clouds began to retreat, leaving behind a desolate Underworld. When the clouds all disappeared, the Underworld pieced back together. The melted land solidified and the blowing sands settled.

The only thing that seemed to change was the flower. It had lost all its petals and lost all its vitality. The Tian Li felt that it was going to die, but it still had a purpose to complete.

The strikes of the Heavenly Dao destroyed the shackles of the Underworld. The flower could feel the chain restoring, it had little time left to leave the Underworld.

The Tian Li left its withered body and became a spiritual soul. It moved as fast as it could, retracing the woman's footsteps. Eventually, the soul found a fracture in the Underworld. It looked to be forcefully held open by Qi.

The soul went through the fracture, but the shackles of the Underworld suddenly rushed toward the soul. It hit and exploded the Qi that held the fracture open, causing it to snap shut. The soul was hit by the backlash and it was thrusted forward. 

The Tian Li had escaped the Underworld, but there was too much damage to its soul. It could only conserve what little energy remained and sleep.