The Grand Magus In Murim

Chapter 17: The Weight of Power

The bandit sat slumped in the iron chair, his mind a shattered landscape of horrors that no longer held a coherent thought. Ling Tianyu did not kill him. He walked away, the cold metal of his boots ringing against the stone floor, leaving the broken man to his own fractured reality. He knew the bandit would never be the same again, his sanity eroded by the psychic trauma Tianyu had inflicted. It was not mercy, but simply a lack of necessity. The man had served his purpose, and the absolute destruction of his will now guaranteed his silence.

Tianyu ascended the stairs, the air becoming lighter with every step he climbed. He moved through the quiet corridors of the manor until he reached the infirmary. The room was heavy with the scent of medicinal oils and the shallow, ragged breathing of the men who had been ambushed on the road. He stood in the doorway, watching the physicians work with weary, calloused hands. These men had bled for his family, and their sacrifice weighed on him, though not with the crushing guilt of an ordinary youth. For Tianyu, it was a tactical failure, a reminder that in this world, protection required more than just gold. He committed the faces of the wounded to his memory, a silent ledger of debts he would eventually repay with interest.

After a long moment, he turned and made his way to the administrative hall. It was a cavernous room lit by flickering candles, where Elder Lu, the family steward, sat amidst mountains of ledgers. The old man was a pillar of the Ling household, a man whose hands moved with the rhythmic speed of someone who had spent decades counting silver and managing the livelihoods of hundreds.

"Elder Lu," Tianyu said, his voice cutting through the stillness.

The old man startled, his spectacles slipping down his nose as he hurried to his feet. "Young Master. I apologize, I did not hear you enter. We are tallying the losses from the Black Iron Mountain incident. It is a grim task."

"The gold is gone, but the foundation of our house remains," Tianyu replied, his tone brooking no argument. "Listen closely. I want you to prepare the compensation for every family that lost a provider in the ambush. They are to receive double the standard payout. Furthermore, prepare a generous fund for the wounded so they can recover without the fear of poverty. Do this immediately."

Elder Lu hesitated, his brows furrowing. "Young Master, with the shipment lost, the liquid assets are stretched thin. If we pay this much, the next quarter will be tight."

"Use the profits from the Luminous Lamps," Tianyu commanded, his eyes cold and steady. "The market demand is high, and the treasury can absorb this. We do not skimp on the lives of those who serve us. Do it, Elder Lu."

The old man bowed his head, accepting the logic. "It shall be done as you say, Young Master."

As night descended, the Ling Manor grew unnaturally quiet, the usual vibrancy replaced by the somber shroud of tragedy. Tianyu met with his parents, offering a brief word of comfort before withdrawing to his private abode. He signaled the guard at his door to remain vigilant and warned him not to disturb him for any reason, unless the manor itself was under siege. The guard nodded, his expression resolute. Tianyu stepped inside and locked the door with a sharp click of the heavy bolt.

The room was illuminated by the soft, steady glow of one of his own Luminous Lamps. On his desk sat a custom-crafted platform of polished jade, a masterpiece of his own design. He had spent hours shaping a square board from a massive jade block, its surface etched with an intricate gathering formula. Four cardinal holes were carved into the board, designed to house high-purity jade batteries.

He had planned to wait, but the events of the day forced his hand. He placed four premium jade stones into the slots. The moment they locked into place, the room resonated with a low, harmonic hum. A small vortex swirled to life in the center of the board, drawing in the ambient qi of the room and refining it into a ball of liquid, luminous energy.

Tianyu sat before the vortex. He began to channel his will, acting as a vice. He forced the liquid qi to compress, the swirling energy fighting back with a stubborn resistance. He did not relent. Two hours passed in total silence, save for the crackling of the gathering array. The liquid hardened, the raw vitality being squeezed until it reached a state of dense, crystallized power. A fist-sized orb formed, solid and pulsing with a deep, inner light.

This was a Spirit Jade, a condensed vessel of energy derived from a dragon vein. Dragon veins were massive reservoirs of geological power formed over eons. While a natural vein was immense, a Spirit Jade was essentially a smaller, concentrated shard of that same primordial force, chipped away and crystallized through his own method. Tianyu had bypassed the slow accumulation of nature. By condensing the ambient qi of the room into this orb, he had replicated the fundamental nature of a dragon vein in a portable vessel.

He took the fist-sized orb and compressed it once more, forcing the molecules together until it was no larger than a marble.

With his finger thinned into a needle of concentrated qi, he began the engraving. He did not carve simple defensive runes. He was inscribing the Rift, a Tier 6 spell he had modified from a Tier 7 World Gate. The Rift allowed for the temporary fracturing of space, a maneuver that could bypass physical defenses or provide a sudden exit.

The necessity of the orb was clear. In his past life, casting a Tier 5 spell was trivial. Tier 5 and 6 magic represented massive jumps in the complexity of energy manipulation. Tier 5 was within the threshold his current vessel could safely process. However, Tier 6 magic was inherently more demanding. It required a density of energy that his meridians could not directly channel. If he attempted to invoke a Tier 6 spell using his current vessel, the sheer pressure would take an unbearable toll on his body, potentially shattering his meridians and causing the formula to explode in his hands.

To cast a Tier 6 spell as a Tier 5 practitioner, one would have to follow the fundamental laws of magic: writing out the complex circle manually and performing a long, rhythmic chant to draw in the necessary mana. It was a slow, dangerous, and archaic process that left the caster wide open to attack.

The Spirit Jade orb was his bridge across the gap of his current limits, a catalyst that would allow him to invoke the Rift without the fatal backlash that would otherwise consume him. The orb acted as a pre-prepared battery, holding the semi-formed spell, so he only needed a small amount of his own qi to activate it. It removed the need for the manual drawing of circles and the long chanting of incantations, allowing for a rapid activation that his physical vessel could actually sustain. He held the small, glowing orb between his fingers, the cool surface offering the promise of a way through the gathering storm that threatened his house.