22: Breaking the rules

Mellanie’s view

“Lane, did you just make a mountain disappear?” 

“It’s not gone, it’s just in a separated space now.”

“Well, all I see is empty space where it used to be.” 

“I’m just using a modified version of how storage rings are made, Smitt.” 

“Storage rings are made out of metal, to ensure the necessary formations remain unbroken. You’ve somehow created one on the ground. It’s made of dirt. I don’t understand how it doesn’t break from the movement of the wind and the earth.” 

“... right, you’re not familiar with the principles of living formations. You only know about static ones.”

“Living formations? It’s alive?”

“As alive as a sterile plant is. Like a plant, small changes to the surroundings won’t affect it much, and small injuries can be healed. It’s the only way to make a formation on the land like this without expensive materials. It just can’t make copies of itself.”

“If it’s like a plant, wouldn’t it make sense to use plants as materials then? This is just dirt with ki infused into it. I still don’t get how you keep it from dissipating.”

“This actually is the first step to creating a plant reinforced formation. As the plants in the area grow, they’ll follow the pathways of the formation, and become an integral part of it. It will actually make the formation grow stronger with time instead of weaker. Trying to get the plants setup right first, takes too long to be practical.” 

“... Devin would be sad to hear that. He’s been working on making a formation out of plants in the hopes that it would last forever, and possibly even generate more power than it consumes.”

“Well, he needs to learn how to make a proper living formation first, or the plants will break the formation as they grow. Living things are not good at maintaining static forms.”

…

Devin’s view

“What is this you’re trying to show me, Smitt? An empty field?”

“Look more carefully, there’s a formation here.” 

“Absurd. There may be something here, but it’s not a formation.”

“If it’s not a formation, then what do you think it is? The space is clearly warped when examined with divine sense.” 

“Formations have clear and vivid energy flows, this looks more like a natural phenomenon. There’s no way such a thing could be made by someone. The flow of ki is far too complex and ever changing.”

“I can assure you, this is not a natural phenomenon. I saw her make it.” 

“Impossible! The ki flows are perfectly in sync with the natural ki in the area. Nobody knows how to make a formation blend in that well. Even the experts at hiding formations can’t get it to look this natural.”

…

Emelia’s view (Mellanie’s maid)

Sometimes I wonder why Lanie has so little common sense. She’s been toying with space and time lately, creating cultivation spaces with accelerated time, and portals that can be used to travel long distances in an instant. Yet when I ask about the impact this could have, she just dismisses it as something that’ll become wide spread soon enough to not be a concern. When I asked for a more specific time scale, she said it’d only take a thousand years for this technique to become wide spread. A thousand years! How is that “soon?”

So, now it seems the Clear Sky sect has turned into a major trade hub, because of the portals she created. She calls it just a minor modification of the storage rings, but even Elder Smitt claims no understanding of how she does it. All he seems to know is that it involves mastery of Space Law. 

Though really, the most absurd thing is that Lanie will complain that her plan failed. 

“It’s not separated! The link to the current world is too strong!”

“You’ve made something amazing Lanie. Why do you call it a failure?”

“I was trying to find a loophole in the rules. I failed. Everything I made still follows the rules exactly. I may have warped space and time, but the dao of the world remains untouched.”

To think the woman I serve is one who considers anything less than control of the dao itself to be a failure… and I thought the lady I served before was ambitious because of her desire to help her husband take over the country. Lanie is even more ridiculous, she wants to rule over the very heavens.

***Author Note***

Rolled to see how well Mellanie did at her objective of altering the dao, and rolled a 2. Insufficient. Time acceleration, and portals are insufficient to actually separate a space from the main world’s dao. Didn’t even weaken the link.