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Chapter 51: "Sure Bets."
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The three at the table finished eating quickly and watched Bai and Apollo finish their batch of arrows. Apollo looked up at the darkening sky and mentioned something to Bai, who looked disappointed at the comment. He came over to eat his meal after another brief exchange that the table didn't hear.
"Wise Shae, sorry for the imposition, could you collect the arrows so we can eat?" Bai asked.
She nodded. "Sure, I wouldn't mind another practice set while there's still light out."
Bai glanced at Apollo, then up at the sky. "There does seem to be time for a few more, thank you." He sat, then offered the open seat to Apollo.
Shae realized she still didn't know what name the woman was using as a cover identity. Only that her position was not as a cultivator. As appropriate, Apollo waited for Bai to begin the meal. Shae missed the rest of the over-formalized dance of respect as she left to collect the arrows.
It took her a bit longer to find them all, the lessening light and long grass made it difficult. Though she was surprised to find Bai's accuracy had improved quite a lot. When she returned, Apollo had already finished eating and was waiting with her bow.
The disguised woman offered it to her with a slight bow. "Miss Cultivator, Senior Cultivator Bai has informed me of your accuracy when focusing." She emphasized the last word with a wink. "I'd very much like to see a demonstration."
"Please call me Miss Shae, Wise Shae only if you really need to be formal. My accuracy isn't that impressive unless I'm using qi reinforcement to stabilize the shot." She took a stance, nocked an arrow and began to draw back.
"Miss Shae. If it's stability you need," Apollo gently used her hands and feet to nudge Shae's stance. She pushed her shoulders slightly and turned her foot out. "Stand tall and strong, don't lock your joints. Breathe with confidence."
That's new, she hadn't said that to Shae yesterday, how's that different from breathing calmly? And why the change? She glanced at the woman, an eyebrow speaking her question.
Apollo just nodded in response.
Shae breathed, decided that she knew how to aim, and took the shot.
Apollo watched the shot, tilted her head slightly when it only hit just inside the target circle.
"That does seem to help, thank you. Now with qi." Shae pulled back another and swiftly planted the arrow within a finger width of the center. "Hah. Good." She nodded.
Apollo nodded in sync. "Very nice."
Chen shouted through cupped hands, "Thrice or it's luck!"
Guard Shu frowned and spoke up, "Isn't the saying twice?"
He shrugged. "Sure, but she's already lucky, so it's gotta be thrice." He held up three fingers, then everyone turned to stare at Shae expectantly.
She rolled her eyes and picked up three arrows, settled the two extra between her right-hand knuckles in the rapid firing grip Apollo had demonstrated yesterday.
A deep breath with closed eyes let her center her mind. She relaxed into the bow stance, being sure to keep the adjustments Apollo had just shown her.
When she opened her eyes she didn't rush to take the first shot. She kept her breath steady and followed its rhythm. Inhale and draw, exhale and take aim. Then right at the end of the breath, fire. She quickly nocked the next arrow before repeating the cycle.
It matched up well with her qi cycling as well: inhale to draw qi from her Dantian, exhale to flood her muscles and reinforce those needed. Apply mental focus at the bottom of the breath, using it to steady her nerves and make final adjustments to her aim just before releasing the arrow.
During the laborious day swinging Marta at felled trees Shae had quickly learned to use as little focus as possible. With that, she learned to use less qi. Minimal qi use wasn't necessary, she seemed to have plenty, yet it helped refine her focus use. Archery was no different. Only in the blink of time the arrow was released from the bow was perfect focus and muscle control needed. She used what she thought of as a tiny drop off focus to fire the third shot. Planting it with the others, a finger's breadth from the bull's-eye.
Shae inhaled and let out a long breath as she relaxed out of her focused state. Whether exhaustion from the day, or mental focus drain, she felt it catching up to her just a bit.
"Wooo! Nice show!" Shu cheered and clapped.
"Keep going! Shoot 'em all!" Chen chanted, again through cupped hands.
Apollo just had an eyebrow raised and quickly switched to a smile. She nodded. "Well done." Then she glanced at Chen and back. "Could you? Do that again?"
The young woman shrugged. "Sure."
"It takes a toll, correct? How many times?"
She nodded. "Hmm, not sure." She tried to gauge how mentally spent she was, comparing it to a few days ago when she was chopping logs. She glanced down at the remaining arrows. "It doesn't feel like it takes a lot of effort, but it really sneaks up on me. I think I could go through most of these. More if I have breaks in-between." She nudged the remaining dozen and a half arrows with her foot.
Apollo's smile turned into a fierce grin and Shae finally noticed she wasn't wearing her facemask anymore. "So that means you could maybe do more if you pushed yourself?"
She glanced between her disguised Senior and the other watchers. Shu and Chen seemed rather excited and Bai had shifted from slightly annoyed to curious.
"If I refreshed myself I'm sure I could, though I'd need more arrows, and I'd rather not pass out from mental exhaustion."
"Don't you worry about the arrows. In fact you really must use your quiver properly for this. Take a minute if you need it. I'm very interested in what you can do when you focus on it." Apollo immediately began fastening the quiver around her as she spoke.
Shae shifted her stance, slightly uncomfortable with the sudden contact. It's just Apollo, she shook it off and closed her eyes. A breath later she was cycling her personal qi and a few wisps of enlightenment qi through her head to refresh her mind. Faster than she expected, the wisps were absorbed as they healed her exhaustion. She added a few more until one survived the trip through her channels. She returned the divine qi, but hesitated before she returned her own.
Chef Van did say to go slow with revealing my mental focus. She breathed and cycled her qi while she thought. Is it bad to show off? She breathed again. This is nice... and I should take more time right now. No sense in revealing such a rapid recovery... if anyone was even paying attention to how exhausted I was.
She breathed again. I should assume they did notice. Apollo at least, Bai was probably too busy paying attention to her. One last deep breath and she opened her eyes slowly. Just in time to see Apollo jogging back up the archery range to deliver the missing half dozen arrows to her quiver.
"Found one you missed." She held up the arrows then continued forwards to place them into the quiver.
When the other woman was closer Shae quietly asked, "This isn't a test, is it?" A bit of venom slipped into her words, yet she didn't regret it when she heard herself.
Apollo set a hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. "Junior Sister," she whispered even quieter than Shae had, "I wouldn't." She held her gaze for a breath longer, then slapped the arrows in the quiver and spoke louder as she stepped away. "Two sets should be plenty, yes? Dozen in one, then a dozen in the other?" She jabbed her thumb down range.
Shae's breath caught back up to the situation with a gasp. "-Ah. Uh." She looked at the quiver and tested drawing one out a few times. "You want me to count while focusing on firing and using qi?" She complained with what she hoped was obvious sarcasm.
Bai spoke up. "Yes! Out loud, in proper Imperial base twelve, if you could."
Her jaw hung open slightly. Then she remembered something important. "Yes, Senior Bai," she responded respectfully, even dipping her head.
It was probably a bit too formal for their friendly gathering, but he still smiled and nodded back. He was the most senior at the table and needed to be respected as such, even if it was only for the benefit of maintaining Apollo's disguise.
Shu and Chen were sitting at the table looking pleased as well. A few gold coins stacked up between them.
She scowled. "Betting now, are we? I thought you Honorable cultivators didn't do that?"
Shu smirked. "Well, we certainly wouldn't out in public, and we definitely wouldn't let ourselves be dragged into a stupid bet with an outsider."
Chen chuckled into his sleeve at that.
Shae scowled harder, squinting at the group. She wasn't sure about Apollo, but she was quite sure all three of them had made bets with each other. "What's the minimum spread? Not the bets, just the least gap."
Shu raised an eyebrow, but it was Bai that responded with three raised fingers.
"Alright, I'll match all your bets that I beat the highest by at least six arrows. That is the subject of the bet, yes?" She waved an arrow at them.
Chen laughed, "Pfff, you don't have the sect coins for it new-blood."
Apollo smirked and turned to the table. "I'll buy out the loss if it happens."
"Huh?" Shu and Chen gawked at her.
Bai raised a hand into their eye-line. "She's good for it, I'll accept."
They still seemed confused but Shu decided first. "Bet on!"
Chen trailed behind, looking slightly hesitant. "Uhh, yeah, I guess."
"Great!" Shae smiled wide. "Then before we lose the rest of the light-" she clipped her own words off by taking a deep breath and relaxing herself into the proper archery stance. Immediately she noticed that the added weight of the arrows actually felt better than without. Another breath and she started into her rhythm of qi cycling and breathing.
Right after the first shot she noticed a problem, the counting. As she was firing at the end of the exhale, she couldn't speak. "One." She said it at the top of the next breath, instead.
Her second shot was shaky as speaking had interrupted her rhythm. It hit the target but was near the edge. She tried again at the third but had the same problem. She rushed an extra breath in after to say "Three," and swear in English, "fucking counting."
A quick changeup for the fourth had her fire the shot at the top of the breath, then count "Four." as she exhaled. It wasn't as good a shot as she had made earlier, but was closer to the center than the others.
After the fifth shot didn't change her accuracy Apollo quickly spoke up, "Good adaptation. You're doing fine, keep going."
The rest of the dozen went smoothly and her accuracy slowly improved. When she switched to the second target it landed within a finger's breadth like she had demonstrated earlier. "Set and one." She spoke loudly.
One of her audience members clicked their tongue at that, and received a swift "Shhh" from Apollo.
She heard an exhale of defeat at "Set and six."
Then something unexpected at "Set and Eight." Apollo quickly said, "Don't stop, don't hesitate." Shae wrinkled her brow in confusion until right when she released the next arrow: a black blur appeared downrange in front of the right-hand target just before the arrow struck the other target just a pace to the left.
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Shae almost hesitated, but Bai called out "Set and..." and without turning away she called back "-and nine." then continued her rhythm.
"What?" Chen said in the most incredulous tone Shae had ever heard.
The black blur was gone before the eleventh arrow struck the target, taking the dozen arrows from the other target with her.
"Two sets." She called out and the black blur, Apollo, appeared at her back, adding weight to her quiver just in time for her hand to find the fletching of the dozen retrieved arrows. Shae smiled wide again, a spark of pure joy finding its way through her intense focus.
Blackness began to take her before she finished that set of arrows. One of her last successful conscious acts was to draw out a blob of divine qi from her Dantian, not much more than she had refreshed herself with earlier. The remaining personal qi in her channels, now freed from her direct control, began cycling through her channels and pushed the divine qi around to do the recovery work for her.
A thought popped up, regret for losing count of her shots. Then another as she collapsed into the waiting arms of Apollo, she tried to reach her quiver to see how many were left, but found her arms unwilling to move. Lastly, she felt the fingers of her right hand were still clutched around the fletching and string of her bow.
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Aside: Scribe Bai
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Bai was quite confident his eyebrows couldn't climb higher up his forehead. His facial muscles were beginning to itch when Shae finally collapsed from mental exhaustion.
The woman disguised as a scout, who was most definitely Apollo, caught her. Everyone at the table released a long held breath. Quite literally for Bai.
Junior Chen spoke first. "When we were betting, I thought it was just until she missed. I didn't think she was going to work herself into qi exhaustion."
"That's not qi exhaustion. She was barely using any qi." Guard Shu shook her head. "Looked more like a battle trance, but I've never seen someone at her stage last that long."
"It wasn't a battle trance." Apollo said with the clear authority of someone who expected no arguments.
Bai stretched out one of his eyebrows again. "Really? I do agree with you. Yet, how are you so sure?"
She didn't answer immediately as she was gently moving Shae into a comfortable recovery position. Using the bedroll from the younger woman's pack, then covering her with an additional blanket from her own spatial storage.
"Apologies for interrupting, Senior." Chen looked at Bai then pointed at Apollo with his whole hand. "And apologies to you, Senior, but who are you exactly?"
Everyone else smirked and Shu snickered lightly, covering her mouth with a sleeve. "She's Apollo, obviously," she said.
Bai snorted. "Not that obvious, since you only figured it out when I vouched for her."
"I was already suspicious," she defended.
Apollo sat at the table. "Not that suspicious, and not suspicious enough for a guard. I helped you get the food and could have easily poisoned everyone here."
Shu's jaw dropped, she glanced at the unconscious Shae and paled. "Is that why you know it's not a battle trance?"
Apollo chuckled. "Heh, no. You would be quite aware by now if that was the case."
Chen took a swig from his water skin with a skeptical look. "Are you even allowed to poison us? Uh- Senior?" He dipped his head slightly.
"Poisoning and other spycraft isn't generally concerned with what's allowed." She gave him an evil grin.
Shu snorted this time. "So dramatic. There are rules for this, Chen. You can relax."
Bai raised a clay cup in salute. "Don't relax too much, though. Harmless pranks are still good training, don't want to have someone point out your blue tongue and not know where you got it." He finished with a drink from his cup.
The table stared at him intently, even leaning in slightly.
He looked between them. "I'm not that gullible, thank you."
Chen and Shu chuckled again.
"Back to answering Brother Bai's question?" Apollo suggested after a couple breaths.
Bai was now looking into his glass and running his tongue over his teeth. "Hmm? Oh yes, please do."
"Battle trance is characterized by being completely aware of the situation around you and fully focused on it. Shae was narrowly focused on the target. Proven when I collected the set of arrows and she hesitated. She likely didn't see me leave her side, which she would have if it was a battle trance, even at a novice level."
Bai scratched his chin. "Interesting. I was looking at it from the direction of what should be possible. As Shu said, she endured far too long for a battle trance. Most struggle to last more than a few breaths even into meridian cleansing. If she was using any mental focus, it must have been a very minute amount of it while aiming each arrow."
"Hmm -uh? How is this different from just concentrating on aiming?" Shu asked. "Surely any of us could just train to improve our aim and outlast her?"
"Heh, I doubt Apollo would need to train to do that." Chen chuckled.
The woman in question nodded. "The skill of the task itself isn't necessarily impressive. It's more the stage she's at, and how little training she's had. You saw her with the ch'th'knarr, yes? It's similar to that."
"I missed that, but heard it was quite the show from some observers. What was your read on it?" Bai looked to Apollo.
She smirked, "Junior Chen was right there, perhaps he should say first."
Bai nodded and all three looked to Chen.
He raised his hands, "I'm not sure, I was just... Okay, I was right there." He sighed and scratched his head. "I guess, she did reliably hit a very narrow point with the ax. Seemingly at full strength, and with an oddly weighted ax."
"You tried it with me afterwards." Shu pointed. "Not an easy task. We didn't spend long but I think I only got one clean strike out of it."
"Ugh, yeah, I didn't even manage that. The ax head was wonky because it's also a shovel. It doesn't want to swing properly."
Apollo pointed at Chen as well, causing Bai to notice she was mirroring Shu. "So, to strike accurately you would need to make last-chance adjustments. Using very precise muscle control, and while under qi reinforcement to manage the weight."
"Ugh, that sounds hard." Chen recoiled slightly.
Shu reached over and patted his shoulder. "That's what training is for. You've not learned a movement technique yet, right?"
"Have so!" He defended. "I've basically got small success with Rolling Rock Slide."
Apollo nodded. "But you're too easily interrupted."
He slumped, "Yeah, how'd you know?"
She shrugged. "I ran ahead of you to steam the road, remember?"
His eyes snapped wide. "Oh! That was you? Did we say thanks? I don't think I could have done enough about that without you."
"Nor me." Shu raised a hand.
"Nor me." Bai mimicked her.
"Hey! You weren't even there." She scowled.
"Of course not. I would have just gotten in the way." He nodded smugly like he did them a favor.
Chen snorted and shook his head. "Anyway. Thank you, Senior Apollo."
"I sense a but." She smirked.
"Uhh, however, Senior. Did you have to leave the road so hot?"
She nodded. "Of course, it's steam, steam is hot. You've never heard of cold steam, have you, Junior slowpoke?"
"Hey, I'm not that slow. I just said I have a movement technique."
Apollo smirked at his indignation. "And yet, our Heavenly Shae here was outrunning you without one."
"Yeah, well she's heavenly cheating as far as I'm concerned." He crossed his arms and looked at the table.
Shu raised a finger. "She does have that tribulation cleansed flesh she showed off last night. Divine flesh has got to be cheating."
Apollo slapped the table and leaned across at Shu, "Who said it was Divine flesh!?" A bit of qi pressure leaked out when she didn't answer right away.
"Ah- sorry, Senior. I'm not sure, it was just a rumor going around. I'm sorry." Shu leaned back with both hands raised, then lowered her eyes after answering.
"Tsk." Apollo dropped her qi pressure so suddenly the two juniors gasped. "Please stop that rumor if you can. Divine flesh, true divine flesh is sacred and even rumors of it might get her kidnapped and dismembered for it."
The table was silent for several breaths.
Bai twitched his hand and relaxed forwards slightly. "Do you know what...?" He subtly gestured to the unconscious woman.
Apollo shook her head. "No, we do not know for sure. If it were true divine flesh, it would not be holding the- -those black streaks, because of what they are."
"It could be a step in the correct direction, though?" Bai suggested.
"I hope not." She sighed. "If it is, I hope we do not find out before she is near nascent soul, at least."
Chen inhaled sharply. "That long?"
"I don't think the heavens would wait that long to reveal it. Yet, she would need to be that strong to remain safe."
The whole table looked shaken as they took a slow breath together. The two younger cultivators glanced nervously at the unconscious woman.
Chen coughed into his sleeve. "Apologies, Seniors. But I'm still not sure I'm completely following the earlier discussion."
"Mhmm. Back to your movement technique then." Apollo raised a finger. "Most techniques require precise qi control. Movement techniques doubly or triply so. First the qi control itself, then precise muscle reinforcement and movements. All between heartbeats and repeated for each step you take. Hmm. Which training methods did you use to learn it?"
"Umm, slow-to-fast, on the reverse water-barrel course."
She nodded. "Good. Since that lets you slowly increase your qi movement speed, you can force the pattern to be instinctual. I bet it's still easier to do slower, though?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah. Of course." He nodded.
"If you had a vast well of mental focus, you could apply it during each step of your technique. Instead of scrambling to keep up between heartbeats, each step could feel like a full breath. Like you had all the time you needed to perform the qi movements."
He stared, slack jawed and silent.
Apollo smirked.
Bai cut in, "The limitation to your technique would then be the speed of your qi. Not your own control."
Shu leaned over the table. "And that's possible? Can we do that? Could Shae do that now?"
Apollo shook her head. "No. I said a vast well for a reason. No one uses it for movement techniques, save maybe the first and last step. If she tried that she would be unconscious before reaching those targets downrange."
Chen's excitement died instantly. "Oh."
"If you're doing killing intent training, that's a good step towards pushing your mental focus." She pointed at both the younger cultivators.
"She's got such a crazy head start." The young man ran a hand over his hair while trying to restrain a grimace.
"Heh heh. Don't look so disappointed. You'll get better at it in time. Can't be that slow forever." Bai chuckled.
"Sure but she'll get even faster. Especially with a movement technique." He pointed a thumb towards Shae.
Bai smirked, while Apollo hummed. "Hmmm. I wouldn't be so sure of that," she said. "You saw her uneven cleansing the other day. She'll probably have a very difficult time finding a movement technique that fits her odd running style. Maybe, if she's lucky, she'll just find something to change direction and speed quicker. Even then she'll probably have to use her mental focus to manage it."
Chen looked slightly surprised. "I never took uneven cleansing to be that big of a deal."
Bai chuckled again. "Heh, heh. That's because the sect does a great job of preventing anyone from doing it. None of the cultivation manuals recommend it, and it's only mentioned in passing to call it a bad idea."
Shu nodded along and picked up the last point, "I've heard rumors about short term benefits, but no one actually tries it. Will she have trouble with sparring?"
Apollo and Bai exchanged a glance. Bai gestured for Apollo to answer. "She'll have a strength advantage: should be able to use less qi for reinforcement to outlast her opponents. However, she'll have a lot of trouble training, so her actual skill will lag behind. I already noticed it affecting her qigong yesterday. And speaking of: that should be starting soon."
"Yes, Senior." Chen and Shu chorused and began clearing the plates from their supper.
Apollo's attention was drawn to the leftover coins from their bet, which the two deftly avoided disturbing. "If you're still unsure how impressive Shae's feat was just now," she began without looking up. "Consider that your Senior Bai knew she was capable of focused aim-"
"And sharp intent," he muttered.
"-and still he underestimated her performance by half."
"Half!" Bai cried out. "I nearly called it dead on, she stopped counting at two sets and two."
Shu paused as well. "Half? Oh, you're including the first few, we weren't counting that for the betting. Since she did take a break to meditate."
Apollo rolled her eyes at Bai. "Two and two wasn't her last. I heard the bets, there was no requirement that she count. You've lost. Or must I finish counting in her stead?"
Bai crossed his arms. "Fine, fine. But you can't count those first four, I'll hear no arguments for claiming doubling rules."
Apollo shook her head and collected the coins from the table. "I'll stay with our Little Sleepy Shae if you'd return the table. She'll likely miss the qigong practice."
Bai half huffed, half sighed. "Very well. Thank you for your time and wisdom, Senior."
The other two froze then quickly mimicked his parting gesture of respect.
Apollo watched them go, took a deep breath, then got up to collect Shae's arrows from the targets.
She returned to find Shae soundly sleeping. She clicked her tongue at the cool autumn night and crawled under her larger blanket beside the young woman. "Bloody fool. Should have made you make that campfire formation before you knocked yourself out." This close, she easily felt Shae's qi moving on its own. "Are you cultivating?" She poked her hard in the ribs, but the young woman didn't stir. "Tsk."
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