Aaron awoke to the sensation of his head pounding as if it were going to split apart. He swiftly realized that some of the pounding was actually coming from the door. Looking out of the window, he saw that the sky was still dark. He couldn’t have been asleep for more than two or three hours, and yet he felt fully refreshed. It had not even occurred to him that the improvements to his body might have reduced his need for sleep.
Aaron rose to his feet, noting as he did that he suffered neither intoxication nor a hangover. He stored his mattress, returned his spatial ring to its pocket, and moved towards the door. Opening the door revealed Deng Fang standing in the hall, a look of concern covering the mercenary’s face.
“Aaron, I heard downstairs that you were attacked earlier?” Deng Fang’s tone also conveyed concern.
“Yes, several men attempted to rob me, but I handily defeated them.” Aaron answered in an attempt to soothe his friends' worry. “The guards hauled them off, and I returned unharmed.”
“Yes, well, I should allow you to return to bed.” Deng Fang said, turning away and moving down the hall. Aaron did not return to sleep, having a lesson to attend in what appeared to be just a few short hours. Moving downstairs and making an inquiry to the unfamiliar bartender, he was directed to a building out behind the inn. Entering, he discovered a hallway with a dozen doors along it. Several of these doors had red wooden tags hanging from the handles. Looking around showed a stack of such tags resting on a small table to one side.
Aaron entered one of the unoccupied rooms and hung a tag on the door. The room contained a large stone tub sunken into the floor. The tub seemed to be filled and emptied via small wooden gates set flush against the outside wall. He lifted the gate marked with an upward pointing arrow, and heated water gushed into the tub. Aaron allowed the water to flow for several minutes, filling the tub. He retrieved a block of soap and a tightly packed ball comprised of stiff thread from a table set beside the door. It took him only a few minutes to scrub and wash away the scent of alcohol. He indulged himself by spending the next half hour soaking in the hot water. He then began drying himself with a thick cloth towel from a table on the opposite side of the door. Aaron dropped the used towel into a half filled wooden crate in one corner, before emptying the tub via the other gate.
Having washed himself, he headed inside the inn to request breakfast, using his room key to verify his prior payment. He ate his meal with a ravenous hunger, only briefly glancing around the mostly empty taproom. His needs for the morning met, Aaron headed out into the city just as the sky began to lighten with pre dawn light. He arrived outside his destination just as the sun crested the horizon. Aaron was somehow sure that Lai Daiyu would not have been happy with any tardiness. He suddenly felt supremely grateful to Deng Fang for his previous worry.
Aaron quickly knocked on the courtyard door, waited a moment, then entered the abode. He found Lai Daiyu slowly moving through forms that somewhat resembled tai chi as the sun rose over the walls. It took another half hour for the old woman to finish her forms, but Aaron waited silently beside the door.
“You have surprising patience for one so young, this is good. It will make teaching you much easier.” Lai Daiyu spoke into the early morning air as she slowed to a stop.
“This one is honored by your praise, Elder” Aaron bowed his head as he spoke, out of deep respect for the old woman’s power.
“Oh, hush you, there is no need to be so formal. I am a teacher, and you are a student, it is as simple as that.” Lai Daiyu spoke, waving away his prior statement. “Now then, on to the lesson. Sit down as you were yesterday. Then focus on my voice as you begin to meditate.”
Aaron complied with his teachers instructions. He slid into himself and saw his cultivation network. His dantian was filled with lustrous white mist surrounding a core of neon yellow gas. His meridians spiraled with dull gray and brilliant white.
“Good, now feel not just your skin, but also your hair and nails. Start with feeling the innumerable pieces that make it up. Feel how each one understands and interacts with the world around it. Then feel how each connects and interacts with the other pieces around it. Begin to understand how the parts form into the whole, like bricks in a wall.” Lai Daiyu instructed in an even, gentle tone. His teacher sounded more like a mother reading a story than an instructor giving a lecture.
“Now that you understand the whole and the pieces that make it up, you can improve them. Feel how energy comes in through your skin, soaking in before flowing to specific points. It moves from these points and flows into your peripheral meridians, which combine and thicken as they move towards your primary meridians. These peripheral meridians form clusters with one hundred and twenty surface congregation points each. Gather chords of essence two hundred and forty threads thick at the juncture of each peripheral meridian cluster. Use these chords to force the incoming essence back through your peripheral meridians. Split the chord at each branching of the cluster, until two threads exit each congregation point. Be sure to maintain the chord’s connection to your primary meridians, keeping essence flowing to the skin barrier. Once you have cleansed your network out to the skin, use the essence to form a barrier to prevent your body from absorbing essence. Taking in essence while tempering your skin is almost universally dangerous.” Something about his teacher’s gentle instructions felt…off somehow.
Lai Daiyu’s head snapped towards him as the tingle returned to the base of his skull. Aaron saw before him a method to extend the Meridian Helix technique out onto his skin. He also felt, but could not yet see, a method to extend the spiraling nature of the technique into a defense outside of his body.
He considered the peripheral section of his meridian network, concluding that they were thin and weak. They would simply tear under the strain of his helix method. Switching to observation of his skin revealed that the points of essence congregation were spaced about one inch apart. These points formed a rough grid across the surface of his skin. The tingle led Aaron to consider both these points, and his peripheral meridians as a whole. Several long moments of contemplation led him to consider a new method.
He pushed the chords throughout his peripheral meridians, exactly as Lai Daiyu had instructed. Upon reaching his skin, however, he did not form a solid barrier across his body. Instead, he began pushing the refined essence into a series of counter clockwise spirals. One dedicated spiral for each limb and one for his torso. These spirals pushed out essence only for only part of the spiral beginning at; shoulder, hip, and the crown of his head. The end point of the outward essence spiral was at the wrists, ankles, hips, and the base of the neck. His hands, feet, collarbone, and hips instead absorbed the spiraling essence back into his body. The spirals slowly narrowed as his essence spun faster, until it covered only some of his skin.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
He felt the essence in the air begin to move, forming a whirlwind around him. This essence whirlwind spun counter clockwise, from top to bottom. The unrefined essence within the whirlwind was drawn towards his skin where it crashed against his essence and was pushed slightly to the left. This unrefined essence landed upon the uncovered portions of his skin. The essence then began to flow in new spirals, banded on each side by his essence. The gray spiral flowed all the way to the end of each spiraling section, flowing across the portions where his essence was absorbed.
His body now appeared to him to be coated completely in spirals of white and gray. Yet the tingle in his skull informed him that the process was not yet complete. He began driving his essence through the spirals even faster. Aaron had merely a second to notice when the surface spirals reached a tipping point. They were now spinning fast enough to automatically pull white essence up through his peripheral meridians.
Aaron was then suddenly slammed with an indescribable agony that rendered him senseless and silent. The gray essence spirals on his skin began to bore down through his flesh, leaving no visible wounds. The gray essence began to form almost exact copies of his existing peripheral meridians. The pain somehow became even greater as his existing peripheral meridians began to change. Even in his insensate state, Aaron still felt that the new peripherals were highly specialized in moving gray essence. The old peripherals were similarly specializing in moving white essence. He lost all sense of time under the crashing waves of agony as his body was reshaped.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lai Daiyu stood in her personal courtyard, gifted to her by the Azure Stone Empress. Her abode was guarded in secret by elite soldiers under the command of the Silver Crest City Lord. She felt the essence in the air fluttering her clothing. The whirlwind spiraling around her foreign student had become fast enough to lift dust and produce wind. She watched in a mute mixture of concern and awe as the young man trembled in pain.
She was amazed that the young man had managed to begin a complete restructuring of his body. Daiyu’s awe deepened even further when she realized that the transformation was completely natural, relying solely on the properties of essence.
Her close observation had allowed her to feel the triggering of her student’s physique. That ability that he had described as a tingle at the base of his skull. One of the special abilities of the vanishingly rare Cosmic Seer Physique. This physique, unlike most, could not be passed down family lines. It appeared at random in roughly one out of every ten billion people. It was broadly known for two innate abilities that all bearers of this physique possess. First was the Eyes of the Seer, which allows the bearer to see essence and qi with the naked eye, no special technique required. The second was Cosmic Insight, which allowed the bearer to experience sudden bursts of epiphanic insight, guiding them to special locations, objects, or people. She had never conceived that this innate ability might guide one to create an entirely new technique.
This young man became more interesting by the moment. Daiyu settled in to wait for her student to finish his metamorphosis.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron returned to true consciousness as the horrific pain receded to a dull ache. He could feel the sun beating down upon him from above, indicating that he had been insensate for almost five hours. He dove into himself, searching through his peripheral meridians and observing his skin. He immediately noticed that he did indeed have two sets of peripherals now, one for gray essence and one for white. He also saw that his surface congregation points were now situated half an inch from each other. His skin still spun with dual toned spirals, though they were now only spinning half as fast. He could feel the gray essence in the air spinning slowly around his body.
“Good, you are done with your metamorphosis. Come, sit and eat, we have things that need to be discussed.” Aaron was torn from his internal sight by the sound of his teacher's voice. He rose to his feet, feeling the popping in his joints and the ache in his muscles as he did. Turning, he saw that Lai Daiyu had set up the same short table, now covered in steaming plates of food.
Lai Daiyu began to speak as he took to the food with a ravenous hunger. His teacher spoke of the Cosmic Seer Physique, of its rarity, and of the random nature of its appearance. How it was known both for the ability to see essence and qi, and for an ability that guides the bearer in certain situations. This ability manifested to him as a tingling at the base of his skull.
“That physique will make you one of the most sought after individuals in the empire. Cosmic seers are able to train to see, identify, and circumvent arrays and other defenses. Their cosmic guidance can also be of great use in exploring ruins and mystic lands.” Lai Daiyu’s voice was solemn as she spoke “Unfortunately for you, the value of your physique will only place you in more danger. Your lack of personal power will drive others to attempt to use you for their benefit.”
His teacher sat silent for several moments, before her expression firmed with determination. Lai Daiyu stared directly into his eyes as she spoke once more.
“If you will accept, I will take you as my direct disciple.” His teacher spoke with a firm tone, before holding up a hand to forestall his response. “You do not truly understand what that means, so I will explain. The bond between master and disciple is sacred. It requires that I, as the master, do all within my power to teach and guide you. I am also required to act if I can to defend you from situations you cannot handle, and from those vastly more powerful than yourself. It also requires that you, as the student, defer to my decisions in matters of cultivation. You must also heed my words and wisdom in all other matters, before making your own decision. Accepting me as your master will bind us together in the eyes of others. You will be taking on a connection to my allies, who will help when and how they can. You will, however, also take on a connection to my enemies, who will act however they are able, to harm you. I need you to seriously consider these matters before you make your decision.” Lai Daiyu’s words held great weight as she spoke, her eyes never leaving his own.
Bearing her words in mind, Aaron sat and thought deeply about her offer. Lai Daiyu had agreed to help him after a single conversation, and had been intending to help him before he had even met her. He had always thought of himself as a good judge of character, and he trusted the old woman immediately. She spoke of adopting her enemies, and yet he felt somehow certain that those would have been his enemies regardless . That they would be the kind to enslave him for his physique, disregarding his desire because he was too weak to stop them. Becoming her disciple would provide protection from them. Meanwhile, he felt that her allies were far more powerful and influential than her enemies. Altogether, he felt that he could trust Lai Daiyu to act in his best interest. The old woman seemed to treat him almost as an adoptive child already. Having considered the situation for a quarter hour, and satisfied with his conclusion, Aaron spoke.
“Even though I have known you only a short time, I trust you. I will take you as my master.”