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Chapter 42: Turning on the Physics
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This time, Shae let herself slowly dip into meditation. She didn't like the earlier rushed feeling when having to write out the formation, so decided to enjoy the calming and relaxing nature of meditation.
Gradually, she drew out more and more qi from her Dantian and cycled it through her channels. It felt like it had been a while since she didn't have a clear goal, so now she just let it wander, pushing into channels rarely explored and saturating her.
She used a balanced combination of her personal qi and neutral qi, like she had found when first creating the demigod qi on Pilgrim's Rest Mountain. She found the balance to be more relaxing than just her personal qi. With only that, or only the base demigod qi, it was made from, she felt energetic, antsy, and hyper. Like she was full of energy. Which, I suppose I am.
It's been a while since I focused on my senses. She thought. Or has it been? Maybe it's just been a busy couple days.
She tried to pay attention to areas of her mental map that felt dark, unknown. Corners that probably had something in them, but were yet unexplored. However, as she stuffed herself with more qi one spot grew sore quickly: her right arm. Ugh, right, that injury was today. She sighed and relaxed, letting some qi back into her Dantian, reducing the strain on the injury. She kept her attention on it for a time, examining what the damage felt like, what parts hurt more, or less. When she finally grew bored, she checked it again, but didn't notice any improvement.
Reducing her qi flow further, she focused on her Dantian, and the problem she had been given by Apollo.
So, the planet and star metaphor isn't terrible, and there's a hint there. But what was Long's hint? She sighed. And did Apollo give more than one?
She tried to think over both conversations. Apollo's was easier, being more recent and shorter. The rambling, distracted nature of her talk with Long was all the harder to recall because of her anger at the man.
Ugh, I claim I don't want my qi to embody anger and wrath, yet I still rage and swear at people who annoy me. Fear the rage of Shae, wielder of the Dao of hypocrisy. A heavy breath and she acknowledged the thought, and let it pass. Her meditation practice allowed her to escape the regret quickly.
What did we first talk about? ... The gold lightning. She looked at the golden ribbons of lightning freely fluttering around her Dantian. He said he knew what it meant to him, and tried to get me to say what it meant to me. She took a few breaths, remembering her annoyance and letting it pass. I guess I need to think through that, or be the hypocrite again.
What is the gold lightning? She didn't know that much about tribulations, Ghon hadn't been particularly forthcoming, even after her experience with one. A cultivator defies the heavens, and the heavens respond with a tribulation. A punishment, a test, and a reward all in one. Though, that's my summary, Ghon wouldn't put it so plainly.
Right, my summary is the point, isn't it? Red is the punishment. Wrath at the infraction made by the cultivator. Hot and fresh and instant, it might only seek pain and revenge.
Blue is the conduit. The basic lightning that a storm cloud generates. It carries the red and gold, and is probably the test. The easily adjusted challenge, tailored to each cultivator's ability. It had taken her a while to figure that out. Not every tribulation was the same, it was stronger or weaker as appropriate to the cultivator. Arguably, red is also part of the test, but I have to start simple.
So, that leaves the gold as the reward... Ghon did hint at that didn't he? When he saw the mass of lightning forming, red and gold. He wanted to see the results of what it would do to my body after. Maybe just how much damage the red would do, but the gold also cleansed, rebuilt. He would have known it'd do that.
But reward is a terrible descriptor. It's still lightning, it still destroys, burns as it goes. It feels similar to enlightenments, which are like an acknowledgement from the heavens that you've done well; understood something. Hmm, maybe that you understood your infraction against the heavens? Hmm. Doesn't feel quite right.
She ran into a few mental dead ends. Thinking about the tribulation as a justice system, or a court of law didn't get her anywhere: you don't reward illegal acts. Other comparisons had similar problems, the tribulation doesn't prevent the infraction, it doesn't stop you after, it lets you carry on if you pass it, lets you keep breaking its rules.
It lets you progress afterwards; lets you continue chasing immortality. Accepts your infraction. Acceptance? Hmm, almost. That is very similar to enlightenment's acknowledgement. Yet, it could do that without providing anything. Just letting you be is acceptance.
She thought back over her own words. Progress? Change and improvement? Could be, it fits much better.
She looked outside her Dantian, outside her body. Checking the heavens above for that trickle of gold qi that might signal she was correct. Nothing. Do I need to shout it to the sky to be heard?
She turned inwards again and looked at the golden ribbons. Are you progress? Change and improvement?
They might have twitched in response, might have moved a little faster when she asked. Not the quivering excitement of wrath, but progress is harder to make. Wrath is easy, change is hard.
Looking at the whole of her Dantian; seeing the cloudy, unstructured clusters of qi, she thought to herself, Time for some change.
The large cloud in the middle, surrounded by orbiting marbles and smaller clouds of qi made her think of a few things. Mainly planets, since that had been on her mind already. A full solar system or even just a planet with moons. Is this what Apollo meant? Though it could be seen as atoms too, especially with the marbles.
But those marbles, they might be unusual. I doubt every cultivator uses cat's eye marbles to catch memories. Ghon used shards of glass, and stuffed them together for his Dao. ... Did I make pieces of Dao?
The question caught her off guard, and she froze for what felt like a small eternity. No, couldn't be. Could it?
She took a deep breath and let the thought pass by. She had never considered them to be her Dao. They're not even mine, strictly speaking. One is Ghon's enlightenment, and the others the warning strike, meant mostly for him, before my tribulation. She looked at the golden ribbons. Those, however. Those are mine.
The marbles can definitely add something to my Qi, maybe Dao, memories of Dao? Solidified intent? She wasn't fully sure what intent was yet, but that won't stop me from using it.
If they are not mine. Is that why they hurt to use? Or I'm not using them correctly, maybe I'm not supposed to pull them into my channels. They are probably supposed to stay inside here, seeding the qi here with their... whatever it is.
She sighed at the problem again. Trying once again to let the thoughts pass her by. Back to planets and space... Space? Long said something about space, didn't he...? Shit, what was it?
She was drawing a complete blank. It probably wasn't one of his questions, those are too annoying to forget. Ugh, going to have to mock him by telling him that the only important thing he said wasn't a stupid question but a passing anecdote that I don't remember because it was the only not annoying thing he said.
Maybe not in those exact words.
So, space. Solar systems, planets. Probably go with the smaller option, since I'm a beginner. Or atomic nuclei. Those kind of fit too, and are smaller.
I could ask Apollo. She moved her focus out of her Dantian to feel at her surroundings. The telltale steam qi was gone, and she felt no sign of the cultivator. Hmm, cleaned up her qi, and maybe left. I did say I wanted to cultivate. Then again, she wouldn't be a particularly good spy if I could sense her that easily.
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Shae took a deep breath and began doing just that. Inhale and exhale, she breathed in the qi of the world and cycled it down into her Dantian. Not literally breathing it in, she was only using her breathing to set the pace of her cultivation pattern.
She kept at it until the neutral qi around her thinned out. Not completely, just enough that she noticed. That definitely took longer than before. She frowned at Long's test and the lies he used earlier tonight. The situation was definitely a lie, but the comparison might not have been. He has little reason to deceive me just to stroke my ego. I could even take the comparison as a compliment... If I needed that.
At this point, she knew she didn't have a high grade spirit root. Then I would definitely be noticeably faster at cultivating qi. Long or Yungfan would have said as much. Especially with a technique to go faster. A seed of doubt sprouted. Unless... She flexed her divinely cleansed leg, remembering an old piece of advice from Elder Ghon. Unless I'm just not pushing my limits.
She breathed and let the worry pass. Won't know for sure until the spirit root test.
With the qi around her thinned, she slowed her cultivation pace. She settled for something she barely had to pay attention to. Inhale to pull a bit of qi from her Dantian, exhale to return some of her qi and neutral qi. The rest of her qi flowed through her channels as it liked, spinning the qi around her slightly and dragging more in when it flowed into her Dantian. It was slow, but she didn't have to force it constantly.
This could backfire. If someone else's qi leaks in, it will be a problem. It might even be taking in elemental qi. If it was, she didn't have the precise senses to notice. Bleh, I'll have to risk it... should be fine anyway, I'm not drawing it in fast.
A deep breath let the worry pass and brought her back inside her Dantian. So, back to my earlier guesses. The Dao and soul infused solid-qi-core turns into a planet? That doesn't really make sense. Probably more sense than an atomic model, though.
She looked around at the scattered chaos that her Dantian was, it could use some form of organization, though.
She looked at the center where her personal qi was being formed from neutral qi. Sun or planet in the middle? Sun is rather ambitious, and too singularly elemental, but it would work if I was fire aspected. Planet then, or even smaller with a moon? ... Weird, I feel like a moon needs to be orbiting something larger, and yet a lone planet feels fine, planet it is.
She mentally crushed the qi down, squeezing it into a near perfect sphere. I'm probably not ready for liquid qi, don't think I have enough. But. She pressed a mental impression of a large mass onto the very center. Whether she was forcing it upon the qi itself, or the physics inside her Dantian, she wasn't sure. Probably just the physics, I did shut that off at one point so the marbles would stay inside nicely.
That brought her attention to the consequences of the sudden gravity. The cat's eye marbles, ribbons of lightning and bundles of divine qi all started falling towards the planet. Oh, right. She easily nudged the marbles into a lazy orbit. The ribbons she ignored, but the two divine clouds she was more careful with.
The enlightenment qi and the tribulation qi, what little was left of them, were precious resources and she knew mixing them fully with her personal qi would mean they would disappear into it. There would be benefits to doing that, of course, but she wasn't certain they were worthwhile compared to what else she could do with it.
She slowly nudged the two clouds into a wide orbit around the qi planet. It definitely doesn't feel like a planet yet, maybe an asteroid, it's far too small. She recalled the fate of Pluto, well, maybe that's a bit arbitrary.
A large spark of lightning drew her attention. It was real lightning, not the gold ribbons. Something was happening in the mass of qi, the ribbons had fallen into it and not emerged. She mentally grimaced, I don't know what's happening and that's bad. This is my space, I need to be in control.
A thought plucked the first ribbon out, and she casually tossed it into an orbit without worry. The other two came readily after, the third and largest being the only one that felt difficult to move; she left it in a lower orbit than the others.
Stepping back, she observed the new arrangement. Hmm, it's good to know the lightning aspect isn't completely gone from my qi, but this looks like more of a mess than before. I suppose I didn't really try to organize the orbits at all. True to that thought, she watched as the orbits criss-crossed and intersected each other. Are these even real orbits? And wouldn't they affect one another?
Like a switch being flipped, the orbits shifted slightly, then she noticed the real change, a marble flying past one of the divine qi clouds curved around it and shot off in another direction. Huh. Quickly, the orbits of all the other entities began to shift and change as they passed one another.
The only unmoving pieces were the main planet of qi, and the larger lightning bolt circling it like a planetary ring. Hmm, rings, eh? Rings would be much more organized. The two divine qi clouds also didn't move much in their orbits. While the marbles acted like they were nearly weightless, being grabbed and tossed back out without shifting the others.
I wonder... Shae thought with a wide smile.
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Aside: Faux Long (Apollo)
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Apollo sat comfortably beside the strange campfire formation. Passing a hand through the formation let her taste the fire qi. The intent of the formation rune echoed through the qi and came to her senses. Warmth, comfort, and a touch of light. Flickering light, perhaps.
Intent wasn't a mystery to Apollo. Yet, sensing such a clearly defined intent from a rough formation made by a beginner was quite the surprise. Even then, telling a newbie just how surprised you were was never recommended. Can't let her get a big head so soon.
Praise and acknowledgement would come, and was better dealt out by more experienced masters of the craft, and best measured out by heaven itself.
The young woman had taken some time to begin cultivation. Clearly too preoccupied with something else to notice Apollo had retracted her steam qi from the area. When she did begin, it was slightly surprising for one that supposedly didn't have a cultivation manual.
The young woman's technique was very similar to a wind cultivator's. Timing her draw in and qi cycling with her breathing. Even Apollo's own method included some of that. Steam shared some aspects of wind, after all.
Her technique wasn't stupendously fast or particularly efficient. Yet, it was enough to unbalance the qi in the area. Thinning it out so the pressure and density further out pushed more qi to fill the space. A normal process, and a good sign that she didn't have a low grade spirit root.
Apollo saw immediately when Shae changed her cultivation. It was as the density reached a more noticeable change. Apollo nodded in approval. She could have drained out more first, yet switching to a slower pace was common near this point. There was a careful balance to consider: draining the area dry could attract unwanted attention. Plus, with so many cultivators in the area, slowing sooner was the polite move. Although, Apollo guessed, I doubt she considered any of that.
It was a while later when the next shift came, maybe an hour. In that time the girl's cultivation had grown noticeably different. Matching her breathing exactly and being less picky about what types of qi it took in. Sure, the tiny scraps of elemental qi were hardly noticeable, and wouldn't impede her cultivation in a noticeable way. Yet, Apollo did notice the change from earlier. She's probably not even paying attention to it, hah, lucky girl.
Apollo didn't have the patience to count the time exactly, but perhaps another quarter hour later, a light flickering glow from the heavens began.
Apollo looked up. It was probably an enlightenment, but those were usually more steady. This was odd, and slightly worrying, though not in the tribulation sort of way.
"Hmmgh." She hummed out a groan. This will draw attention, I probably need a different disguise. A short scroll through her options, followed by some intense focus on her technique and she no longer looked like Master Long.
"Ahhhh~!" She sighed out in a distinctly feminine tone. "Much better." She smiled. There was a certain comfort in being a little closer to who you were supposed to be. It was a feeling that Apollo always had an interesting time describing to others. Even if it was just how she looked, she still knew it wasn't right.
The flickering light could only be a few different things. Apollo knew the first two, and suspected the third, though she had never seen it. Forcing and enlightenment was the first, a naive move by the desperate. It wouldn't damage the young cultivator, but would make for an unstable foundation if she based more of her cultivation on that.
The second she had only heard of in passing, but had been confirmed by her master. It seemed the least likely, she looked down at the young woman's pack, remembering the journal she was writing in. Well, maybe more likely than is reasonable. A shielding formation could dampen heaven's ability to sense and grant enlightenments. But that would mean she has a shielding formation around her Dantian, maybe shielding her whole body and soul from the heavens? She recalled the report that the young woman always registered as early qi gathering, until she got that sword to change that, of course. Apollo was hating how plausible this explanation was becoming.
The third option. Only heard of in children's stories and legends. Was a confluence. Hmm, no, that makes less sense, maybe she's just thinking quickly and indecisively flickering between enlightenment and not?
The flickering stopped suddenly. Snapping into place as a very weak trickle of gold light. An enlightenment then, but she hasn't accepted it. She might not even know.
Apollo watched as the gold light fell around the young cultivator. She sensed as it was drawn in with her regular cultivation. None spilled out to be wasted. It seemed as though the heavens knew exactly how much she could absorb, and only sent that much.
Apollo sighed. What a silly heaven-favored child.
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