She’s never really considered it before, Tantra’s always assumed that being a cultivator is to participate in a constant flow of violence. Practically the only way to make money as a cultivator is mercenary work or beast hunting. Or, If you’re lucky, being a master in a sect, you could be an assistant, but people only do that for the continued support, not the financial benefits. But she doesn’t need to make money like a cultivator, she could just be a merchant who cultivates, getting the best of both worlds. Most of a merchant's life is on the road, she’d have plenty of time to train, and plenty of coin to finance her endeavors.
The only problem is her soul.
But if this technique works that won’t really matter.
She has to get to four threads.
She has to.
The master librarian deemed it safe to give her this book at three, but she wants to be sure. What he’s given her could be a death sentence, or the answer to her prayers. One year, that’s how long it would take to reach foundation with this technique, one measly year. That’s insane. Surely she could just try it out now? See if it actually works. She has yet to circulate after her beating, now would be a good time to test if it would be feasible. She takes a deep breath, it’ll be okay, she’ll be okay.
The core is the metaphysical manifestation of the heart, so they end up overlapping in location, which makes this all the easier. She pulls on the smallest measurement of Qi she can manage, a few motes, not enough to make a thread. She brings it to where she can feel the hollow space of her heart. She’s not sure if this is the right one, of the four there’s apparently one that works the best, but all of them will do at the end of the day.
She takes a breath.
Then she boosts her blood.
-
The first thing she feels is pain, but then? Then she feels euphoria, from the tips of her toes to the crown of her head. It’s like a pleasant rest and a shot of adrenaline all at once. It enhances everything, like all her nerves are working on overdrive. Which unfortunately means that the pain in her right arm feels a lot worse, but that’s okay, that’s really okay. No, it's great. It worked, it actually worked. She can feel the small amount of Qi she sent to her heart pool into muscles and bones and brain and everything.
All at once.
It’s almost overwhelming.
This is good, this is so good.
A smile of pure bliss splits her face.
-
“You have to do these exercises,” Tantra insists.
Yorin groans, “first you have me read, now you want to learn something actually useless? What’ll be the point of it, half my main meridians are already cleansed.”
“It’s not useless,” Tantra doubles down, “It’s the key to everything.”
“How?”
“I already said, I can’t tell you.”
Yorin raises a brow, “those elbows must’ve done a real number on your head Tantra. Because you’re not making any sense.”
“I’m with the buffoon on this one,” Kisrin says, “while I'm already practicing the exercises, making it my main focus seems…foolish.”
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Tantra scowls at him.
“Not that you’re a fool,” he backpedals hastily, “on the contrary you're quite intelligent, I just don’t see the point of it. Maybe when we touch the dao, but that’s so far away I might as well keep my focus on my foundations.”
“But this can help you get to your foundations so much faster!” Tantra whines.
“How?” he asks.
Tantra snaps her mouth shut, she can’t tell them, but she can try to nudge them in the right direction. Though that seems to be going poorly. She huffs, what happened to her bargaining skills? She used to be-
An Idea pops into her mind.
“Oh Yorin~” she says sweetly.
He squints at her, “what?”
“If you do the exercises, we can go hunting for mongrels once the ban lifts.”
He squints harder, perhaps letting an actual thought enter that brain of his. Tantra smiles, he took the bait marvelously, now she just has to reel in her catch.
“Imagine all the merits we could make.” She says casually, “we might even be able to afford you a proper weapon.”
Yorins eyes go wide like saucers, and he measures his next words carefully, “ok, and all I have to do is the exercises?”
Tantra nods, “for at least three hours a day.”
He nods and extends his hand surreptitiously, “deal.”
“Deal” Tantra goes to shake his hand only for the caste to get in the way.
Kisrin watches bemused as they both hastily switch arms.
-
Tantra is running hard, and she’s enjoying it.
If only for the anticipation to use her new technique. She knows she shouldn’t, she really, really shouldn’t. But she can’t help herself, that small amount of Qi was intoxicating, it was like circulating a whole thread throughout her body all at once, and it absorbed instantly. So she runs and runs hoping to do something extremely reckless.
Her sect's disciples aren’t the only ones on the field, the River’s Scales are also here, running alongside them. There isn’t exactly another place for them to cultivate, so they join their rivals. There’s some ribbing between the joggers, but that’s only expected. Sect rivals never get along, it would be a cardinal sin to suggest otherwise. Even if most of them could be classified as friendly rivalries.
Eventually, she runs herself to exhaustion, and someone carries her off to the side to circulate. She smiles, crossing her, and slowly pulls a few motes of Qi, the same amount as before, and finds the hollow space.
She boosts.
A wave of ecstasy washes over her, finding every inch of her body and searing Qi into the cracks left through exhaustion. Slowly acclimating her body closer and closer to the point where Qi won’t be something volatile. She brings a few more motes, more than before.
She boosts.
The satisfaction from a good meal, and the moment something stuck in the teeth is pulled free. She grabs even more motes.
She boosts.
The moment your head hits a cold pillow, and the feeling of regaining sensation in your limbs. She pulls a thread.
She boosts-
-
Drip drip drip,
Sap falls slowly into a wooden bucket as Rakia watches. DarkWoods Aspen is special you see, being so close to a foci, it is strong and can make a wonderful elixir with the right ingredients. Populosolone, a wonderful little concoction that boosts the soul! Sure it fucks the body pretty bad but whats that compared to a stronger soul? You could always just build your body back with a few years of training and circulating, it’s more than a fair trade. All the surrounding sects are fools for banning its production. How much faster would their students advance if they had access to this wonderful sap?
Ah well, that’s not her problem, if they want to cap their own knees then all the better.
“Rakia ma’am,” a man whose name she doesn’t bother to remember says. Everyone dies so quickly it's not really worth it, and she stopped caring a while ago. Yorisir and Umakar are the only ones that matter to her, likely the only ones that will ever matter. She turns to face the man.
“Yes?” She asks with a hint of annoyance, she was busy watching liquid gold!
The man bows, “the lads and ladies are eager and waiting for your signal.”
Her smile is a vicious one, like the smile of a predator as it feeds on something still alive. Most predators don’t do that, at least the ones capable of empathy, but every species has its sadists.
Rakia doesn’t really care if the label fits her quite snuggly.
“Good” She says, “good, good, good. I’ve been waiting ever so long.”
She paces around the tree, “how do you think we should start? Bombastic or quiet?”
The man shrugs, “I prefer going loud, let’em see the blades coming and all that.”
Rakia smiles, “ah, a man after my own heart, yes, I think we’ll do that”