The purple mist slowly vanished from the hallway after it gave Gina its final warning, and Gina felt shock pass through her when she heard that she was being watched. Gina looked down the hallway to see if there was someone else there! But Gina couldn’t see anyone at all, and no matter how much she spread her senses, she couldn’t pick out any other magical signatures! Gina didn’t know if she could trust C’thlyanu or not just from this one interaction, but C’thlyanu had not yet given Gina any reason not to trust him, so Gina decided that she would tell Jason what she heard and allow him to decide what they should do next! Gina kept her eyes on the distant hallway with a distrustful frown on her face as she fell into the shadows behind her and hurried back to Riyala and the others.
On the other side of the hallway, a tiny bug that was barely the size of a fingernail clipping slowly detached itself from the wall, and it quickly headed around the corner and down a new hallway before finally reaching the Emissary inside of a dark alcove. The Emissary grabbed the listening device and slotted the bug into an opening in his mechanical arm, and in the next moment, a holographic image popped up that began to replay the conversation that Gina and C’thlyanu had! The Emissary’s brow only grew tighter as he listened, and by the time he was done, he realised that they could no longer tolerate either Jason or Gina! It was time for them both to vanish, and the Emissary already knew exactly what he had to do!
....
[Radagan]
[Yellow Ash Mountains]
A circular rune spun to life on Jason’s palm, and a massive explosion of power erupted from his hand and slammed into the barrier in front of him!
DOOM!
Jason waited to see if there would be any change, but he was disappointed when he felt nothing at all. That was one of Jason’s more powerful explosion runes, and this fucking barrier shrugged it off like it was nothing!
’Magic doesn’t work against it, runes don’t cause any damage, and I can’t use the shadows to phase into it. How the hell can I get in there?’
Jason was facing a difficult situation as he pressed his hand against the shield in front of him. Jason had already tried using various skills to get through the shield, and he even used the [Land of Lost Shadows] and [Wandering Shadows] as well, but the shield was actively blocking out every form of magical or non-magical power. It was almost as though the person who built this hadn’t even thought about ever needing to enter it again! They had just built it with the intention of it always being locked!
’Or is it that I’m just not strong enough? That’s possible. Is this the same sort of protection that the world of the Machina has? My subordinates can’t use the shadows to get in there, and you can’t use magic either.’
Jason frowned as he felt his mind running at a mile a minute to try to decipher what this was. Jason was slowly running out of options, and he had already tried asking all his subordinates from Radagan if they knew what this was. But none of them had even known that there was a barrier like this below these mountains, so they were no help at all! There was still one more power source that Jason could try, and Jason scoffed when he heard Esdath’s annoying voice echo through his head.
’So you’re finally going to use your Qi. Honestly, I don’t know why I still see you as my student. You treat my teachings like they’re some sort of second fiddle to magic. You should’ve used your Qi first! Qi is far superior to magic!’
’Yeah, yeah, just shut up already.’
Jason dismissed Esdath’s annoyance without bothering to acknowledge it, and he put his hand on the forcefield and closed his eyes as he felt for his Qi. Jason didn’t think that using a Qi attack would make much of a difference here. Even though Qi and magic were two very different things, there were still a lot of similarities between them when it came down to how to use them for attacking. They were both very destructive, and they could both be defended against by using similar techniques. Instead, Jason decided that he would make use of the most significant difference between the two power sources. Unlike mana that was volatile and intense, Qi was calm and gentle, and it had the ability to interact with the things around the world more intimately, almost like it could connect with the very soul of reality.
[Qi Amplification] has been activated.
Jason felt a steady stream of blue Qi surge out from within his body and wash over the barrier in front of him.
Ba-Dump!
The barrier pulsed under Jason’s finger, and Jason felt a shocked expression spread on his face when he felt that pulse.
’Was that a heartbeat?’
Jason had lost his concentration for a split second after he felt that, and he had to recompose himself and dive back into his Qi as he tried to sense the barrier again.
[Qi Amplification] has been activated.
Ba-Dump!
This time, Jason didn’t lose his concentration after feeling the pulse. Instead, he allowed his Qi to slowly envelop the barrier and sink deep into it, and along with his Qi, his consciousness slowly began to flow into the barrier. For a few seconds, there was no resistance at all, and Jason was able to move freely through the structure. But Jason was shocked when he suddenly felt something strange reaching for his Qi. An external power wrapped itself around Jason’s Qi, and Jason suddenly saw the world from a different perspective! Jason could see energy lines flowing out from the barrier and seeping into the mountains around him! It was almost like the barrier was holding back some sort of massive nuclear power plant, and those energy lines were the power grids distributing the power! Jason forced himself to concentrate on the barrier again, and he continued moving deeper. Jason must’ve travelled for a full minute before he felt the resistance around his senses growing into something thicker and more difficult to move through. Jason frowned at the resistance, and he suddenly gathered his Qi together into a sharp point before he shot it forward with full force and tore through the resistance!
[Qi Blade] has been activated!
This was another form of Qi amplification that Jason had learned from Esdath, and according to Esdath, it had been used by some of the male cultivators to cut holes in the bathroom walls so they could spy on the female cultivators’ naked bodies since the walls were made from extremely strong metals. Jason couldn’t believe that something so fucking powerful was created for such an idiotic reason, but Jason wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth!
Jason felt his Qi bypass the resistance in front of him, and for a moment, his Qi broke out into a wide open space, and Jason felt an intense power that made his eyes widen in shock! But all of a sudden, Jason felt an even greater power grab onto his Qi, and he was roughly and unceremoniously yanked forward! Jason immediately tried to pull his Qi back into his body to prevent being pulled forward, but it felt like there was a rope tied to his soul, and he couldn’t do anything as his very consciousness was pulled out from him and into the barrier!
’Jas—!!’
’Jason!!’
’Jason, wake the fuck up!’
Time seemed to pass very slowly in the few seconds after Jason’s consciousness was pulled away from his body. Deep in the muddy waters of his unconsciousness, Jason could hear a familiar voice calling out to him. The voice became clearer as time passed until it was practically ringing right in his ear, and Jason let out a deep groan as he began to regain consciousness! Feeling slowly returned to his body, and Jason’s fingers and toes twitched strangely before he brought a hand to his head and cursed.
"What the fuck happened?"