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Chapter 41: "Future Favor."
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Forcing herself into mediation didn't immediately clear her mind. Shae still had to deal with all the frustration and anger of the conversation. She focused on breathing evenly, letting the thoughts pass by as she moved forward. Some were harder to ignore, but ignoring them wasn't the goal. She had to acknowledge them, which meant giving them some thought. It could be described as the difference between stopping to read a road sign, and reading it while driving past it. One didn't need to stop, but they did need to read it.
Once she had settled, she reached out to her surroundings, sensing the water qi still filling the autumn air. She was surprised it hasn't been colder, if the qi had been humidity, it certainly would have felt colder.
She knew the problem she would have back when she was arguing with Long. If she tried to use his personal qi, it would be painful. Stuffed with his Dao, it wouldn't really listen to her and would cause problems in her channels. It might not even absorb into her Dantian's formation.
The obvious answer was to call the qi in a way that was opposing his Dao. His is pressure, so just call out to water qi unaffected by pressure.
She took a slow breath. Letting the thoughts come naturally.
His pressure is from a geyser. Well, maybe it is. Could be the ocean too, probably something natural. So go with the sky? Clouds and rainwater?
She focused on those ideas, falling back to the simpler method of harmonizing with the qi to draw it in. The way she had learned when under Elder Ghon's supervision. He hadn't taught her to do it that way specifically, but it was what she found worked.
The qi was slow to move, drifting into her in thin wisps and small drops. Just like clouds and rain. She kept up the mental image, adding in small streams and runoffs. That drew it in faster. Right, movement, it wants to move. Hmm, it should also want to settle, build up in low areas, but the weather cycle would stop that.
She made her mental image more complex, including heat and weather patterns, flows of water along the ground that evaporated with the sun then returned as rain. She was deliberate to not let it pool and build up reservoirs.
The flow of qi picked up again, and she noticed some of the qi around her not moving. That must be his. Could I...? No. Best to leave him be.
She funneled the wispy river into the formation around her Dantian. The water rune glowed slightly, but it was the formation lines around it that grew and spread.
She also cycled her own qi around her channels while she waited. After about half the water was gone, she felt a lot of the qi moving out of the area, specifically the other water qi that she wasn't drawing in. Ah, he's leaving, finally.
Shortly after, she sensed more neutral qi returning to the area, drifting in slowly from outside her sense range. When it felt almost as dense as before Long arrived, she began to draw that in too. It was a careful balance to keep the two qi types separate. Fortunately, if there was water qi in the neutral qi, she could run it past the formation to suck out the water. The inverse worked even better, as it absorbed into her formation it would leave behind accumulations of other qi that had been mixed into the water qi.
She found that the various scraps of other qi didn't affect her much. They would get dissolved into the neutral qi and possibly purified by her own demigod qi, the pure qi base seeming to cleanse and destroy the small deposits of other qi.
Once the water was mostly gone she switched to only bringing in neutral qi. If Long wasn't lying, I should slow down and cycle it more. She thought to herself. But where's the fun in not finding out?
She tried to match the speed she used earlier in the night and was quite sure the local qi kept up for longer; suggesting Long had interfered. If nothing else, his water qi interrupted the flow. She was prevented from cultivating for too long, however, as another qi type invaded her space: steam qi. She sighed internally but also hoped for a pleasant conversation and not more games.
She wound down her cultivating rhythm, the same way she had before. Then opened her eyes to find a familiar face.
"Oh," she said while rolling her eyes dramatically.
"Hmm, I really didn't think your planet metaphor was that bad. It has a certain ring of truth to it, even." Someone who looked and sounded like Master Long said.
She stopped herself from calling them out and chose to play along instead. "How so?"
"Well. It's in the stories, isn't it? Usually space cultivators, but everyone at a certain divine stage seems to have a whole planet or solar system inside their Dantian."
"In their Dantian? I never read it as being literally within their body."
"Well yes, it's more accurately within their soul, but..." they trailed off.
"But their soul is... A part of their body, metaphysically, at least?"
"Ehhh, technically true. Though I feel you don't have it quite sorted out. I probably shouldn't say, with souls being involved. Yet, ah, well, I think you could get it eventually. Think of the stages." They pointed at Shae.
She mumbled off the first few, "... Core, then nascent soul... Oh!" She paused. "Within their nascent soul?"
The one who looked like Long wobbled a hand, frowning with too much expression showing. "Not quite the right terminology, but you have the idea."
"The nascent soul..." The young cultivator wondered. "I really don't know much about it. Elder Ghon said it was too advanced, and Master Long has been almost no help with anything."
"Hmm, yes, they wouldn't speak on it in any case. As for myself, I am just learning these secrets. Consider that the mortal body and soul are flawed. They cannot live forever. The body will fail, and the soul... Will do something else, probably. Maybe it just can't handle being constantly attached to a physical form. So we cultivate." They gestured to Shae to continue.
"So we cultivate to... Cleanse the mortal body of imperfections. Destroying weaknesses and rebuilding it with qi, into something that can last much longer, but that alone isn't enough." Shae spoke slowly, working through it as she went. "Cleansing removes impurities from the metaphysical connection to our soul as well...?"
They wobbled a hand.
The young woman continued, "Maybe. Or that's not enough for the soul to be safe. So, the nascent soul stage... Which is often considered the first steps of immortality. Wait, but I skipped a step."
"Several, but yes there is the core formation stage."
"Where a ball of qi is compressed down into a solid core of qi. And most seem to have a solid grasp of their Dao then." She added as an afterthought.
Faux Long leaned forwards, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh? Are they related? Hmm..." She paused to consider. "If I think of solid qi as a crystal, then crystals form faster around a seed of something. It doesn't have to be the same crystal, but it helps. So the Dao, if it is supposed to be in the cultivator's qi, how does it get there?" She stared at her small campfire, which was brighter now that it wasn't being drowned. Even the steam qi didn't seem to have a negative impact. It felt humid, much hotter and it could be like a sauna.
Shae blocked away the distraction and continued, "If I count Dao infused qi as crystal, then a cultivator only has to infuse a small amount of qi with Dao, using that as a seed for their core to grow around." She bit her lip in concentration. "And Elder Ghon said two people could stay with the same Dao and wander away from each other. So maybe the seed could be from someone else?"
They raised a hand, palm facing out. "Maybe. That might even be how the army does it, I'm not sure. The sect does not do that, however. Cultivator's must develop the Dao that is best for them, not something sold as one-size-fits-all."
Shae nodded. "Makes sense. Then the question isn't just can it still grow and develop? But does it need to? Does Dao progress equate to cultivation progress?"
"Hmm, not directly. Some say understanding does, but that could be directly related to enlightenments jumping us forwards. For the next stage however. It is usually assumed you need a Dao to be developed to a certain extent. Though, you can't really measure that."
"Hmm, I think Elder Ghon said something about Dao not needing qi to be used, but the cultivator needs qi to hold the Dao? Or something. Does that hold for the next step?"
"Hah. A good try, I'll not give it away that easily."
Shae frowned, but after a breath, understood what they meant, even if it had been unintentional. "Hmm so the core stage compresses the qi and adds something. Is it a repeat? Compress and add? Or just add? Maybe compression is done?"
"You're getting there. What would you add?"
She shrugged. "Well, it's called nascent soul, so add soul, or nascent. Whatever that is."
They stared at Shae with a frown.
"Okay, okay. I know what it means, but in context it could be different. It's like budding or just formed, new, I guess?"
"You sound uncertain."
"Well, yea. I am stumbling in the dark here. New soul is a weird name for a stage. Like, how would you even do that? The other stages make some sense in their progression, adding more qi and making it denser. A new soul comes out of nowhere."
"The stage before brought in Dao. Isn't that wholly different?"
Shae paused with her mouth open. Then closed it and set her chin on her fist. "Hmm."
They both started into the light of the campfire formation for a few slow breaths.
"Right, so. You said the soul can't survive forever? Or something like that?" Shae waited for the nod. "So that means the nascent soul stage is about remaking our soul to survive? The same way we remake the body? Or making a whole new soul? But then we'd need to move into that one, or discard our existing weak soul at some point?"
"Hmm. Yes, I've wondered about that as well. It's good that you are just as confused. I'd be worried I'd you already knew the answer." Fake Long spoke, a hint of disappointment in their voice. "I shouldn't tell you more though. Soul information is tightly held and guarded, people can do some nasty things with it."
"Ugh. That's not at all worrisome." She huffed. "So, where does that leave us?"
"Us? Oh, progressing to your original question? What was it? What's it like inside a high stage Dantian? One that can hold multiple qi types easily?" They took a deep breath. "I think you can move forward without more details. I've given a few clues already."
"Pfffff." She blew air out in frustration. "Lucky if I remember any of them."
They shrugged.
"Do you mean you gave me clues, or Master Long?"
"Heh, found out easily, eh? When did you figure it out?"
"Right away. I was meditating when Long left and when you arrived, your qi is different. And the first thing you said was as if you were a different person." She lowered the pitch of her voice and sat up straight, "I didn't think your metaphor was that bad."
They snickered at the young woman's impression. "Heh, heh, heh. You would be surprised how often people trust their sight over everything else. And yes, I suppose that was my first clue. Long did leave an earlier clue, a good one too, but saying it again would make this too easy."
"Ugh, like I'm going to remember our whole conversation. I was too busy being annoyed with him to think everything through, let alone memorize it all."
"Ah, hmm. I suppose you don't have our memory techniques yet."
"Nope." She rubbed her temples trying to remember.
"Well, think it through out loud, I'll consider guiding you in the right direction if you get close."
She looked up at them. "Could you look like someone else now? I'm still angry with Long, it's distracting."
"Hmm, maybe, but... then I'd be breaking character. I am still acting as the wise and helpful mentor figure."
"Hah! You're already breaking character. You've been way more wise and helpful than he ever is." Shae smirked.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Their laughter loudly broke out of Master Long's voice and into a bright and feminine tone. They quickly controlled the volume, but kept going for longer than Shae thought the joke deserved.
The honest joy was infectious and brought a smile to Shae's face. She had a new question when they calmed down enough. "Should I call you Apollo, or do you prefer something else? And any title to go with that?"
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Their tone of voice stayed a bit higher pitch, but was still close to Long's if you were just passing by and kind of deaf, "Hmm, I usually don't like people blowing my cover by calling out my nickname. Senior is fine, and works most of the time. If you know no one is listening, which even I never do, Apollo is nice." They shrugged. "Pronouns have never been a concern, personally, but again, fitting the disguise is preferred. You've clearly shown you can indicate you know without fully giving away the game, and I should thank you for that."
Shae smiled. "Which time? During exercise or the other day with Mistress Ping and the Dongs?"
"Hah, both times!" They tilted their head forwards as a small seated bow. "Now that's getting a little off topic, did you want to continue puzzling it out?"
Shae shrugged. "I suppose, or I could be doing it during meditation; I might need to think it through. Am I wasting your time by going slow?"
Apollo shook their head, "Not at all, I'm on night watch, and your campfire is much nicer to sit at than the others. The light doesn't ruin my night vision."
"Heh, you don't have a technique for that?"
"I do, but there are still limitations of the flesh and true workings of light. A bright source will always interfere." They pointed at the formation, which was no brighter than a candle. "That's quite dim, and not a single point, I think that helps too. Though, no light would be better."
"Hmm, I can make another without light. Unless there's a way to change this one?"
Apollo shrugged. "There probably is. I'm no formation expert. Though, the basic theory is straightforward. It should be a bit advanced for you, but you could surprise us."
"No hints? And what do you mean by us?"
"You don't think I was the only one eavesdropping earlier, do you? Or that I won't eventually report this all to someone?"
Shae quickly glanced around her, into the dark night. "Ugh, you're going to make me paranoid."
"Heh, good. You should be. And you should be more careful what you talk about, and with whom."
The young woman studied the false face of Apollo. "Like talking through cultivation details with you?"
"Oh, not me. You can trust me unquestioningly?" They smiled wide and showed lots of teeth, sharp canines distinct in the firelight.
"Hah." She shook her head and looked away with a small shudder. "I'll keep thinking about it. One last clue?"
Apollo sighed and looked up at the stars. "There, up there. That bright one near the horizon. That's not a star."
Shae looked at it and nodded. She considered where it was and compared the path of the moon. "A planet?"
Apollo nodded. "I suppose you would already know about that."
"Hmm, is that the clue? Some stars are planets? Or some planets can be seen easily?"
"Come now." They lowered their voice back to Long's and put on a flat stony expression. "Cultivator lessons and clues are not so easy to summarize."
Shae snorted a laugh then shook her head. She took a deep breath in and out, then closed her eyes to meditate. "Thank you for your guidance, Senior."
"Mhm, and you yours, Wise Shae."
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Within her mindscape, Shae took a moment to decide what to do next.
Yun said to keep an eye on my Dantian's formation, to check if it's burning qi. Now would be the time to do that. She mostly hesitated because it would be a decent amount of work trying to record the exact state of each symbol and line set. Hmm, well I did just fill up water, could focus on just that. And which has the least... Metal, probably.
She looked both over and found there to be a lot of detail she had ignored before. This will take forever, and I don't trust my memory that much. She grimaced internally, then sighed. I should do it now, the sooner the better.
She started on the metal symbol. The character in the middle was dimmer than the others and only a few lines surrounded it. I'm pretty sure the lines can move around, I know they did when I absorbed the tribulation lightning. So this might be futile, unless I take a lot of notes.
After making mental notes and guesses she left meditation.
"Thought of something already?" Apollo asked.
"Hmm? Oh, no. I got sidetracked." She rummaged through her belongings for paper. Ghon's journal was the first thing she found. Did I even have blank paper, or a marking stick? She wondered as she looked, eventually frowning.
"Can't find something?" They asked.
"Marking stick. I need to make notes. Not sure I even had one."
Apollo leaned in close to her bag and Shae felt qi sweep over it. "Nope, nothing to write with."
Shae clicked her tongue. "Dang. Say, you wouldn't happen to...?"
They smiled and produced a marking stick. "Always have something to write with, do you need paper?"
She shook her head, and raised the journal. "Thank you, Senior."
Apollo jerked the stylus away as the young woman reached for it. "What's that notebook about?"
"Not: what am I going to write?"
They shrugged. "I'll find out when you do."
She frowned briefly. "It's Elder Ghon's notes for introductory formations. Though, the textbook it goes with is probably a collector's item now."
"What textbook?"
"Hmm." She checked the journal. "Formations and Talismans, an Introduction. Third edition."
"Huh. That does sound like an old copy. Although, formation theory hasn't changed much in centuries. Could be the same as modern printings, or close enough."
"It seems to be from when Elder Ghon was learning formations."
Apollo grimaced. "Ack. Good luck then."
Shae extended her hand again, and received the stylus. "This seems well made?"
"It's a bit fancy, yes. Technically a spiritual tool, it can mimic colored inks and charcoal. I think it was last set to a royal purple used in official documents."
Shae glanced between it and the cultivator. "Should you be telling me that? And should we change it? I'd rather not be accused of stealing Royal ink."
They shrugged. "It's a fairly popular color to replicate. Only certain officials will know it's close enough to be concerned. And no, you can't change it, and I won't because it doesn't have a memory, so it would be very inconvenient if I needed that purple again."
"Oh." She looked at it and shrugged. "Royal purple it is."
She flipped the journal to the back, most of the back pages were blank. She found a clump of blank pages to use, and folded a corner to mark the first page. As she roughly sketched the symbol for metal she found the stylus quite easy to use, almost as good as a ballpoint pen. The tip was square and behaved more like a split quill. Though, she noticed it slid over the page easier and didn't cut into or get snagged like a sharp quill would.
She also noticed Apollo leaning in to watch her work. "Do you need to spy on what I'm doing?"
They looked up and smirked. "Yes. It's quite literally my job. I could be less obvious, so you weren't quite sure if I was or not. Yet, I thought you deserved a bit more respect than that. Plus you are using my stylus. For all you know it records everything you write."
She gaped slightly and looked at the stylus. It had no obvious place for a piece of Jade to inscribe information into. But I suppose it wouldn't, that would defeat the point. She tilted her head. "If it could do that, why also the ink swapping? Seems counter to the point of covertly recording someone."
"Perhaps." They nodded. "But trying to disguise a spiritual tool as a normal item is quite hard. Easier to disguise a spiritual tool as another spiritual tool."
"Then lie about what it does, with a reason to not demonstrate how it works." Shae squinted at them.
Apollo grinned devilishly. "Smart girl."
She looked down at her notes. She was about to start writing more details, she smirked to herself and began writing.
"What's that language?" Apollo asked.
"Oh this? Just one you probably don't know."
"There are other lost souls at the sect."
"That's good to hear, but I bet they are not all from the same nation, maybe not even the same world. There are many languages, the whole world doesn't speak Empress's Tongue, do they?"
Apollo grunted in agreement, then leaned in to stare at the notes.
Shae wanted to object, but figured that might lose her the stylus. Guess I have to roll with it for now. Unless... She looked at her pack again. Did I have a marking stick?
She shrugged and kept writing. The color is quite nice. "This is rather nice to write with, how do I get one? Or something similar but cheaper?"
"Depends if you want it to record everything or not." Apollo chuckled. "No, that wouldn't be available freely anyway. Neither is the good ink I have in this one. But I understand the question." They hummed and looked up while thinking. "At the normal rate newbies make money, it will probably take you a year to save."
"What!" Shae gasped, looking at the stylus with new appreciation.
"And you really should put that towards tuition, or cultivation progress. You have a head start, so you could maybe shave a year off tuition, a huge savings, really."
"Tuition?" She groaned.
"Of course. You didn't think the sect was a charity, did you?"
"Err. I guess not. No one has fully explained it to me."
Apollo nodded. "They usually wait until you're officially accepted. Makes you feel like you can't back out of their offer."
"And do I need to accept it?"
"You can, and should try to bargain." They shrugged. "There are different strategies. Nobles tend to pay upfront, saving on interest and getting a small discount."
"Ugh, the rich get richer. Of course." She frowned.
"Some people try to save by reducing the resources the sect provides regularly. Skip a few qi gathering pills a year, that kind of thing."
"Does that work out?"
"No, it's not worth the risk. It almost always slows them down and they have to pay out another year instead. If anything, you should ask for more resources."
"Will they agree?"
They shrugged. "Depends on your ability, or how much they want you. You could probably... Well, maybe I shouldn't say."
"Aww. Please?"
"Hmm, owe me a favor?" They raised an eyebrow.
"Owe a favor to a mysterious spy character with unknown motives? Oh yes, I'm sure that can't backfire at all." Shae grinned.
Apollo matched her grin. "Excellent, so what you should do is-"
"No-no-no. That was sarcasm and you know it. Pick something I can do now. Or tell me the favor now, that I can do later."
"Heh heh heh. Good choice. Hmm." They looked down at the campfire formation in the dirt. "This is quite nice. Make this into a formation plate for me, so it's portable."
"Uhhh. That's it? Um, sure, that sounds easy, though I don't really know how yet. Is it just inscribing it into better materials? Oh I guess that will cost something. Who's paying for materials?"
"Almost that simple, I believe. Though I'm no expert, or I'd do it myself." They passed a hand through the formation. "I'm not even sure what-all intent you used for this. The material will be your responsibility. I can't fund a dozen mistakes before you get one half working. However, if you take an introductory formation class, they will have you doing plates relatively quickly."
"Oh? Will that class be available right away?"
Apollo shook their head. "Unlikely, unless you can challenge a bunch of early classes and get a mentorship specifically for formations."
Shae pressed her lips and considered it.
"You would have to be a generational talent to swing that. And probably have a noble's backing with previous training. Do you know more than this one?" They pointed at the campfire.
She half grimaced. "No. Just that. Wasn't taught anything else."
"What about those?" Apollo pointed at the journal.
"Oh. Hmm. I'm not sure if these work. Or what they do."
Apollo raised an eyebrow and stared into the young woman's eyes. "You're serious?"
"Uhm, yes."
"So where did they come from?"
Shae shifted uncomfortably. "I'd rather not say."
"Hmph." Apollo let out a sharp noise like a laugh. "Well, don't worry about it any time soon then. I'll come find you when you start working on formation plates."
"Okay. I agree, then?"
Apollo nodded. "Since you are not technically in qi gathering, you can argue for more resources. Second years get more, they are assumed to be in cleansing, so need more for that. They probably won't start you out there unless you demand it."
"Oh, that sounds good. Why isn't it just dependent on what stage you are in?"
"They don't want people jumping stages early. Especially into meridian cleansing. If you 'accidentally' cleanse a meridian early, you could claim you are at that stage and demand more resources, even if you are not using them for that."
"Oh. Yeah, that would get abused. And you'd put yourself further into debt, possibly too deep if you get stuck early."
Apollo nodded. "Very much so. Now, there might be a trade-off. They might accelerate your whole progression schedule by a year, don't agree to that."
"Mmm. I could see that being a problem, yes. I'm not confident my cultivation speed will match the high grades the sect is used to."
"Exactly. And there are consequences for falling behind. You'll find them out later, nothing terribly dire, but they will slow you down even more."
Shae frowned briefly. "Why set hard dates then punish failure with slower progression?"
They shrugged. "It's just how it's done. I think the higher ups like to rely on fate and karma a lot. If you are meant to progress quickly, you do." They said it plainly, like that should explain everything.
She frowned, again. "Weird."
"Fate works in strange ways. Now, one last tip. If they really don't let you haggle, ask for their superior. From there, if you are really blocked, you might be able to get a sponsorship from a sect Elder."
"From you? Or Master Long?"
"Heh. If it's from me, you'll definitely owe me a favor, maybe a few. You'd also have to be quite confident that either of us will agree. If the Elder says no, they might completely bar your entry."
She frowned with concern.
"That shouldn't be needed." Apollo offered open palms. "But that's enough for now, you were telling me about those symbols?" They pointed at the journal.
Shae smirked, "No, I wasn't. This one is almost done, though." She looked it over while biting her lip in thought. "Right, be back in a few." She set the stylus as a bookmark and began to meditate again.
It took her two more trips in and out of meditation to finish her notes on the water symbol. When she was done, she handed the stylus back with thanks.
"You're not being nearly as subtle as you think." Apollo said as they took back the tool.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Your notes. You told me too much about your formation knowledge. There's only so many places you could be getting those from. Are they the only two?"
Shae frowned and thought about it. Right, to them, I came out of meditation, wrote one down, then did the same for the other. Where else would I have found the symbols? She worked her jaw, trying to come up with an excuse.
Apollo raised a hand. "Don't bother lying. We learn a trick for that very early, and the lie often gives away more information. You don't need to say anything if you don't want to."
The young woman nodded. "I'm not sure I'll have any thoughts about our earlier discussion, I'll probably just cultivate all night. Is your steam qi still filling the area? Could you remove it?"
"Heh. You don't want to take care of it? Like you did Long's water?" They smirked.
Shae frowned. "Not really, it takes too long and slows down my regular cultivation."
The smirk dropped off their face. "Alright, I'll see what I can do. It might take a while though."
She nodded and smiled. "Thank you again, Senior. You've been very helpful. If I do think of something, I'll let you know, maybe tomorrow night?"
"Heh, if you make this formation again, I'll be there." They smiled back. A more youthful face briefly bleeding through faux-Long's stony mask.
It was a little uncanny, and Shae was glad it was only a flash. She smiled again, moved back into lotus pose and closed her eyes.
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