Tantra’s pretty sure her core’s grown, a third of it is filled with soul Qi and it feels like the same amount she had when she cleansed her first meridian. Feeling is a nebulous measurement, and while Tantra prefers more concrete methods, there are none for Qi. She doesn’t know how much she’s progressed in comparison to her peers, but more Qi is always a good thing, it also means she won’t be seeing a full core anytime soon since her Qi stone is now officially inert. Has been for about two weeks.
But that’s okay, she doesn’t really need it anymore.
She’s been boosting her blood.
It’s not wise to do so before she gets better at her control, but she only does a few motes at a time, not willing to risk overwhelming her body like last time. The greatest benefit is she doesn’t even need to touch the Qi her soul gathers to complete circulating for a day's training. Which means she can build it up to cleanse her meridians. She should probably wait until she gets a bit more Qi, just in case, every meridian cleansed makes the next harder after all. But she’s only cleansed one, and it was a minor meridian, so it shouldn’t be too bad.
She pulls on her Qi and sends it to her left collarbone.
-
The bandits have pulled back, she doesn’t know why but it seems as though the army of children actually managed to push them back. Of which there is now only little over a hundred seventy. There are rumours spreading that the Elders will have to start the tests early to get fresh blood, but Tantra hasn’t seen any indication to serve as proof. Tantra is just astonished by the death count, almost half of the disciples, dead. Full blown wars don’t have those kinds of percentiles. All that and the Elders barely moved a finger.
“It’s just a cultivators way,” Sola explained, “challenge must be present in the journey, fair challenge, but challenge nonetheless. If we let the strong solve all our problems we will grow weak and complacent.”
“But so many died,” Tantra points out.
Sola purses her lips and sighs, “that’s the way it is Tantra, those who can’t meet the challenge fall off the path.”
“Like Karaz,” Ranya says darkly.
Sola looks at Ranya, and nods, “like Karaz,” she whispers.
-
“Come on,” Etra says, “why is your arm healing so godsdamned slow?”
Tantra waves her caste at the girl, “getting bored honourable Etra? Kisrin and Yorin should provide sufficient challenge in my stead.”
Etra rolls her eyes,”Kisrin’s too predictable, and Yorin just refuses to go down, it’s annoying. At least with your idiotic experimenting there’s some flavour to the fights, even if they mostly get you sent flat on your ass.”
“There was that one time I knocked you to the ground,” Tantra points out.
Etra scowls, “that was because of a mistake on my part rather than skill on yours. Besides, we agreed not to talk about that.”
Tantra shrugs, “if you’re going to keep mentioning how weak I am, I may as well return the favour.”
-
Breathing hurts.
Breathing while running is agonizing.
Which is just what Tantra needs, another complication to her routine. She has to slow down a few times to catch her breath, still going fast enough that the assistants won’t beat her. But it’s making it take longer to reach exhaustion, which is not good as it cuts into the rest of her time. Although she’s not exactly managing it judiciously, skipping classes means she has a lot more time to train, which she mostly uses for control, since her broken forearm won’t really let her do anything else. Yorin’s started attending the classes though, even though her lessons are far superior. Ah well, more time to train.
Damn, she sounds like a cultivator.
The regular derision doesn’t show its face at the thought. She can be a cultivator, she believes that now, so long as she tries. She doesn’t even need to participate in the more violent activities, just slowly building herself while dedicating her coin making to something else. A merchant cultivator sounds kind of ridiculous but…well it could work. She just has to make it work.
She speeds up as the pain in her throat reaches a manageable level. She doesn’t know how close she is to foundation, hasn’t even started to develop her Qi senses to measure it, but she can tell she’s farther than she should be. She can match Yorin now (if it weren’t for the times she has to slow down) a boy raised to be a farmer and easily the most dedicated when it comes to building his foundations, and she can match him. Circulation increases the body's capabilities incrementally, as a happy accident to adapting to Qi. She won’t see the benefit of years of circulation with her blood boost method, but she still sees improvement. She’s nothing like the oldest disciples, who have to move at blinding speeds just to reach exhaustion, but she’s getting there.
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She slows down as the pain becomes too much. There isn’t much she can do about it, not until reaching foundation, and unfortunately scar tissue doesn’t leave any openings for Qi to be absorbed. Organs are like that, they take the longest, with joints being a close second, and bones being a distant third. There just isn’t much you can do to train the internals. You can break joints, and fill in the gaps with Qi, but the brain? How do you exercise that besides concussions? Even the muscles of the heart don’t really get exhausted, despite the exercise. Foundation, in that sense, is a misnomer, referring exclusively to the skeleton and skeletal muscles.
She falls, exhausted, and is carried off to the side.
“Impressive,” says the chipper voice of the assistant, “your growth has been nothing short of amazing.”
“Thanks,” Tantra croaks between breaths, blinking away the stars in her vision.
He sits in front of her rather than returning to observe the other disciples, “masters got you on that special little technique of theirs eh?”
Tantra blinks, then gives the assistant a sharp look.
He raises both hands, “relax, they gave me that manual when I crossed foundation. Rather handy technique eh? I’m surprised they gave it to you so early.”
Tantra nods slowly, “It is, honourable assistant,”
He lets out a small chuckle, “call me Rakan, and you’re Tantra. Girl with her soul so far and connection so weak it's a wonder you can walk at all. Have to say, buying your way into a sect isn’t exactly honourable, or fair, but you’ve proven surprisingly determined.”
Tantra suppresses her shock, keeping a placid expression on her face. “Is there something I can do for you honourable Rakan?”
Rakan smiles wide, “more like what I can do for you kiddo. You’ve caught my interest, and everyone loves an underdog story, how would you like to be my student?”
Tantra stares at him, not really knowing what to say.
“Think on it,” he says, then he waves his hand and materializes a truly massive studded bludgeon, “come see me if you're interested, and once you’ve got one of these.”
“I am partial to the spear,” she says blandly.
He shrugs, “see how that works out for you once you start fighting cultivators who don’t give a shit about a few pokes.”
He gets up with a flourish and returns his club to whichever artifact he has on his person, “see you soon Tantra.”
-
Sola walks down to the merit hall with a bounce to her step.
She managed to take down a proper beast! Sure it was a squirrel, at one point, but the fact she managed before foundation is remarkable in and off itself, she carries a corpse the size of a dog, with a tail that splits into three, and claws that are hooked into the merit hall. She doesn’t get much attention for the kill, there are others here with much more impressive bounties but she can’t help her smile at the look of sheer terror she gets as she walks up to one of the alchemist buyers.
“Absolutely not,” the man says.
“C’mon Bomin, don’t be like that, it’s just a squirrel.” Sola says with an innocent smile as she plops the corpse on his counter.
“I don’t care what it was, that thing’ll send my finances to the hells just on its own! Go to one of the others kid, looking at this thing is giving me enough of a headache.”
Sola pouts, and as she goes to pick up the squirrel a hand is placed on her shoulder.
“No worries Bomin, I can cover the cost if it’s for an old friend,” someone says behind her.
“Master ‘librarian’” Bomin says blandly, “to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Nothing much, I just want to speak with the girl.”
“Well feel free to do so you old codger.”
The man nods, snaps his fingers and suddenly the sounds of the merit hall disappear. Sola looks around to the people and finds them moving their mouths, but nothing comes out.
“A silence field,” the librarian says, “handy little trinket.”
“Apologies master,” Sola says as she turns to him, “but do I know you?”
The man shrugs, “you’ve visited my library a few times, back when you were studying combat manuals, apparently it’s been long enough that the memory has faded.”
Embarrassment creeps up unto her face and she bows, “apologies master, I meant no offence”
“No offence was taken,” the man shrugs, “I am quite forgettable after all.”
There’s an awkward silence before Sola decides to speak up, “you wished to speak with me master?”
The man strokes his beard as he regards her, “your Qi sense is remarkable for your age.”
What? Sola’s brain short circuits for a moment.
“How?” she blurts out.
The man looks amused at her, “you learn a few tricks as you age.”
“But that shouldn’t be possible,” Sola says.
The man grunts, “a little hypocritical for one who’s touched the dao at such a young age.”
Sola blinks at him, “Is that what this is about?”
“No,” he shakes his head, “this is about that merchant friend of yours. Tell me, have you noticed how fast she’s been progressing?”
Sola shakes her head slowly, “I never thought to look.”
The man looks almost disappointed in her, “well you should start noticing soon. When you do, don’t comment on it, and don’t tell anyone.”
“I am very confused, master, is there something special about Tantra?” Sola asks.
The man stares her down, letting some of his Qi blanket them both.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Sola mumbles, wilting under pressure.
He retracts his Qi.
“Good,” he says, “very good.”
Suddenly the noise returns to the hall.
“Now then” he says, “a thousand merits for that squirrel should be enough, no?”
Sola’s eyes go wide, “more than enough master!” She bows.
He nods and extends a sect token, she hastily does the same and feels hers get incrementally heavier as they touch and the merits are transferred.
“Well, it was nice seeing you Bomin, but I do have a library to attend to”
Bomin scoffs, “sure you do.”