Cultivation is Creation
Chapter 274: Indigestion

I didn't waste any time.

Immediately, I dove into my inner world, needing to see for myself what Azure had detected.

The four quadrants materialized around me, but my attention focused on the center, where the Genesis Seed stood tall and proud, except right now, it didn't look proud at all.

The massive tree appeared to be... well, sick.

Its normally vibrant bark had taken on a sickly blue-green tinge, and its leaves were trembling. The roots, which usually rested peacefully in the soil, were writhing slightly, as if in discomfort.

"What's happening to it?" I asked, approaching cautiously as the entire tree began to sway.

The blue mini-sun that orbited overhead seemed to be keeping its distance, hovering nervously near the edge of the canopy.

"I'm not entirely sure," he replied, studying the unusual patterns rippling across the tree's surface. "But I suspect it has something to do with the Saint's Essence it absorbed. Perhaps there were... elements within it that the Seed is having difficulty processing."

I frowned, placing my palm flat against the trunk. "Is it in danger?"

"The Genesis Seed is remarkably resilient," Azure reassured me, though I detected a note of uncertainty in his voice. "It has integrated foreign energies before without..."

His words were cut short as the tree suddenly convulsed. The entire trunk shuddered violently, sending a cascade of leaves fluttering down around us. I stepped back instinctively, watching in alarm as the bark split open near the base of the trunk, revealing a pulsing blue light within.

"What in the..." I began, but didn't finish.

With a sound like a gasping breath, the tree seemingly vomited a stream of pure blue light.

The luminous energy poured out of the opening, pooling on the ground before us. Instead of dissipating, however, it began to coalesce, forming shapes that gradually solidified into recognizable images.

"It's creating a projection," Azure murmured, moving closer. "Some kind of vision."

The blue light sharpened, revealing a scene playing out before us like a living painting.

I recognized the elegant architecture of Kal's study, the shelves lined with scrolls, the table where we had practiced my first painting techniques.

Kal was studying a scroll marked "Lesson 7" in elegant calligraphy. And there, standing before him, was... me. Or rather, Tomas, the body I now inhabited.

The vision-Tomas looked slightly different, more confident, perhaps, with a subtle glow emanating from beneath his skin. His eyes held an unnatural brightness that I recognized immediately as the blue sun's influence.

"Master," vision-Tomas began, his voice carrying a strange resonance that wasn't my own. "The Blue Sun has shown me a vision."

Kal, who had been studying a scroll, set it aside, giving the Saint his full attention. "Tell me."

"The time has come," vision-Tomas declared, his voice taking on an almost prophetic quality. "We must put a stop to the Red Sun's madness once and for all. The barriers between worlds grow thin, and only by eliminating the corruption of the Red Sun can we protect our realm from what lies beyond."

I watched Kal's reaction carefully. His expression remained neutral, but there was a subtle shift in his posture, a tightening of his shoulders, a slight narrowing of his eyes.

This wasn't the first time he'd heard these words, I realized. He'd received this message before, perhaps hundreds of times across his many loops.

"The Blue Sun has shown me the way," vision-Tomas continued. "You must strike at the heart of the Red Sun Academy.”

Before I could hear Kal’s reply, the scene shifted, dissolving and reforming into a new image.

This one showed Kal and Headmaster Hiron facing each other above the Red Sun Academy, a perfect mirror of the battle I'd witnessed in the previous loop.

Kal's paintings swirled around him like living constellations, while Hiron stood within a complex formation of blood-red runes. The sky between them was torn with conflicting energies as Lightweavers and Skybound fought to the death below.

"The culmination," Azure murmured beside me. "The battle that ends each loop."

The scene shifted again before we could witness the battle's outcome.

This new vision showed a location I didn't recognize, a massive, ancient tree that dwarfed even the most impressive structures I'd seen in this world. Its trunk was wide enough that a hundred people could stand around its circumference without touching shoulders, and its canopy stretched so high that the uppermost branches disappeared into the clouds.

Standing before this colossal tree was vision-Tomas, carefully painting an elaborate formation on the ground surrounding the tree's base.

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"The World Tree," Azure murmured beside me. "One of the anchoring points of this world's barriers."

The formation vision-Tomas was creating looked complex and beautiful, concentric circles of glowing blue symbols interspersed with more organic, flowing patterns. As the last brushstroke fell into place, the entire formation lit up with blinding intensity.

The light spread upward, engulfing the massive tree.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, then, with a sound like a mountainside splitting open, the tree began to move.

Branches that had been still for millennia swayed and reached toward the sky. Roots that had delved deep into the earth for eons shifted and churned the soil around them.

The tree was awakening.

Vision-Tomas stepped back, watching with a mixture of awe and triumph as the World Tree fully animated. Its branches stretched impossibly higher, seemingly reaching for the heavens themselves.

Then, with a movement so sudden it was almost violent, the tree's uppermost branches pierced the sky, literally tearing through the fabric of reality to reach the red sun that hung above. The branches wrapped around the crimson orb like grasping fingers, and with a pull that shook the very foundations of the world, began to tear it apart.

The red sun fractured, crimson light spilling out like blood from a mortal wound. Piece by piece, fragment by fragment, the celestial body was dismantled by the World Tree's relentless grip.

As the last pieces of the red sun were consumed, the scene shifted one final time.

We now viewed a peaceful landscape: rolling hills, verdant forests, tranquil lakes, all bathed in the gentle light of a single sun. The blue sun hung alone in the clear sky, its serene radiance touching everything with a soft, comforting glow.

And then the screen collapsed, the blue energy retracting back into the Genesis Seed. The opening in the trunk sealed itself with a sound like a sigh, and gradually, the tree's appearance began to return to normal. The sickly color faded from its bark, and its leaves straightened once more.

"What... what was that?" I whispered, staring at the now-normal Genesis Seed.

Azure moved closer to the tree, examining it carefully. "It appears the Genesis Seed has become an intermediary," he said thoughtfully. "It's intercepting and processing the visions from the blue sun before they can reach you directly."

I remembered the agonized expression on Saint Icarus's face during his final moments: the way his body had contorted, his eyes rolling back as the blue sun's vision possessed him. It had looked excruciating, invasive, like his very soul was being violated by the foreign presence.

"So instead of the vision hitting me directly, the Genesis Seed absorbed it, digested it, and then... showed it to us in a filtered form?" I suggested.

"Precisely," Azure nodded. "The Saint's Essence we destroyed was meant to be the conduit for these visions. Without it, the blue sun is still attempting to communicate, but now the messages are being... processed by the Genesis Seed."

"The question is: what will I do with this knowledge?"

Azure didn't respond immediately, giving me space to think through the problem myself. It was one of the things I appreciated most about him, he knew when to offer guidance and when to let me reason things through on my own.

My focus turned to the miniature blue sun orbiting overhead. It seemed so innocent here in my inner world, just a speck of light, beautiful and bright. Hard to believe the actual blue sun was a malevolent force manipulating an entire world toward some cataclysmic end.

"I've been worried about the wrong observers," I said softly. "I've been concerned about servants and elders watching me, but it's the blue sun itself I should fear most. They say it sees everything in its territory."

"If that's true, we must be extraordinarily careful," Azure agreed.

"The blue sun seems to prefer working through intermediaries rather than taking direct action," I mused. "Whether that's due to preference or limitation isn't clear. But it doesn't need to act directly when it has an entire Order of devoted followers ready to do its bidding."

After a few moments of contemplation, I laid out my options, trying to see each path as clearly as possible.

"First option: I could tell Kal about the vision, exactly as the Genesis Seed showed it to me. Let events play out as they did in the previous loop. This would give me the opportunity to reach the World Tree and see firsthand what's happening. Maybe I could even use the Genesis Seed's power to actually strengthen the barriers instead of weakening them."

"Risky," Azure observed. "You'd be placing yourself directly in the Blue Sun's crosshairs. If it realizes you're working against its plans..."

"I know," I nodded grimly. "But at least I'd be in a position to potentially make a difference."

I moved on to my next thought. "Second option: I could lie to Kal, tell him I had a different vision. One where he and I travel together to the World Trees to strengthen the barriers."

"That would keep you from being alone and vulnerable," Azure noted, "but it comes with its own problems."

"Yeah," I agreed. "The moment I relay a vision different from what the Blue Sun intended, it will know something's wrong. The Saint's Essence failed somehow, and I'm not under its control. The consequences of that..." I trailed off with a shudder.

"And Kal himself would be suspicious," Azure added. "If every Saint in every loop has told him the same vision, and suddenly you're telling him something different, he'll wonder why. Even if he attributes it to your unusual circumstances, he'll be watching you more closely."

"That’s likely." I murmured, running a hand through my hair. "And my third option is the most tempting one, to let events play out as they have in previous loops while I just focus on painting.”

"It is what you came here to do," Azure agreed, "you can worry about the outcome of this world when you have the power to affect it.”

The third option was the safe option. With the time loop in place, the fate of the world could wait. The more concerning issue was the looper himself, it was only a matter of time before I was discovered by Kal, if not in this iteration than a later one.

I had to figure out a way to bring him on my side. No longer having to hide my identity as a fellow looper would make reaching my goals so much easier. But I had to be careful, I still didn’t know if I could trust him.

I turned back to face Azure. "There's something else bothering me. We know the blue sun is a pawn of whatever entity is trying to break through into this world. But what about the red sun? Is it part of the same plot, or is it truly the opposing force the Blue Sun Order believes it to be?"

"The vision showed the red sun being destroyed," Azure pointed out.

"Yes, but that could easily be misdirection," I countered. "What if both suns are working toward the same goal through different methods? Or what if the red sun is genuinely opposing the blue sun's plans?"

Azure nodded thoughtfully. "It could be worth finding that out in a future cycle.”

"So many questions, so few answers,” I sighed. “But one thing is certain, my priority must be to avoid being discovered and having my soul tampered with by some higher-ranked Lightweaver. Everything else is secondary to that."

I gazed out over my inner world, taking in the mountains, forests, and open spaces I'd created. In many ways, this place had become more real to me than the physical world outside. It was here that I felt most myself, most connected to who I truly was beyond the borrowed body and circumstances I now inhabited.

"We have time," I said finally, my decision made for the moment. "The vision showed me approaching Kal during our seventh lesson. That gives us some breathing room to consider our options more carefully."

One week to decide. One week to plan. One week before the game truly began.

No pressure.

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