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Chapter 56: "The Expert Advice of Elders."

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Shae took a few breaths to consider how best to approach the topic of mental focus. "So, what's something you don't like doing? Studying or exercising, for example."

"Ah, yeah, either of those." Zhango nodded. "Reading history books is really boring."

"Okay. Not surprising. Let's say you read your history books for four hours-"

"Ugh, not likely. I'm usually half asleep after the first hour."

"Heh. Just an hour then. Someone might say you were able to focus on reading for an hour."

"Hmm. On reading history. I like reading other stuff."

Shae nodded. "Sure, but what if we are only talking about reading, not about what you're reading. Like reading the same word over and over again. It would probably be boring like the history books."

He grimaced, then nodded.

"So, all that focus, all that mental stamina. If you practiced reading you'd probably get more of it, and be able to read longer. You could also learn to read faster. Hmm, yeah, that's a good angle." Shae perked up at her own rambling idea.

"Uhhh, what angle? And are you just trying to trick me into reading more history books?"

"No, not at all. You should read more, reading is great. If you want to learn history you have to find someone who is good at teaching it. Someone who can make it as exciting as a good story that you'd enjoy reading."

"I'm not sure that's possible." He scowled at the dirt under the wagon.

"Heh. It takes perseverance too."

"Umm, takes what? I don't know that word."

"Oh!" She looked up and thought for a beat. "It's pretty much the same as stubbornness. Though, it's a good kind of stubborn."

"Hmm. Kay." He nodded. "So, how does this tie into mental focus and cultivation?"

"Yes! It does, I'm getting there. Stubbornness, drive, willpower, there's countless words and descriptors for a person pushing through a challenge. That is hugely important for cultivation. Like working through the burn when exercising. You do exercise, right? And when your muscles start to hurt and it's hard to do the exercise, you keep going right?"

He looked to the side quickly. "Yes. Of course. I exercise daily."

"Pfft. Liar. You're not just going to give up on cultivation as soon as it hurts a little, are you?"

His gaze snapped back to her, his expression was a little hard and angry, it didn't suit him well. "No! Of course not! Cultivation is different from exercise."

"Oh? Is it? How so?" She smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it has qi. It's got cool spells and special techniques." As he spoke, Shae could see the excitement in his eyes. "Exercise takes forever to do anything, but qi can make you strong in an instant!"

"But it takes forever to collect qi and learn how to use it. Then you have to collect it again after you use it. How long have you spent cultivating? Just collecting qi without being able to use it to make you strong?"

He opened his mouth to argue but nothing came out for a breath. "It doesn't take that long." He said and looked away.

"Heh. It does take time, though. Whereas, if you exercised, you would be strong all the time!"

"Pfft. No! Not that strong."

Shae smirked. "Hey, are there any guards around? Any other cultivators?"

He briefly looked confused. "Um, why?"

"For a demonstration, obviously. I'd go get one but I'm supposed to be resting my already-healed injury in the medical wagon."

His confusion didn't disappear, but he did look around. Looking around the edge of the wagons, he spotted and waved someone over. It was a guard Shae didn't recognize.

She smiled anyway because he was pretty muscular, which would help with her plan. "Hello, Guardsman. I'm Wise Shae. Do you have a moment to show Cultivator Zhango and I some of the fruits of your training?"

"Well met, Wise Shae. Cultivator Zhango. I am Guard Hon." He nodded to each, and they returned a bow as they remembered their manners. "As long as it's not a spar, and you stay in the wagon. I probably can." He smirked.

"Ugh, did Long tattle to the whole dang caravan that I'm a cripple or something? He didn't even verify how severe it was, just assumed."

Hon paused to give her half a glare. "Master Long is an elder of the sect and very knowledgeable in these matters. Any mental focus exhaustion should be treated seriously, especially the first occurrence."

"And what if it's not the first time?" She groaned and managed her forehead.

"Well, you quite clearly have a headache. That's a common symptom. The sect prescribes a full dozen hours rest beyond the end of any headache symptoms."

"This isn't a headache. This is annoyance and frustration at the major pain in my ass by the name of- Ugh." She cut herself off and waved a hand. "No no, forget it. I didn't ask you over here so I could complain."

Hon smiled. "That's good to hear."

Zhango was nearly snickering, covering his mouth with his sleeve and trying to look nonchalant.

She took a deep breath and asked, "Guard Hon, you look like you exercise a lot. If it's not inappropriate to ask: have you done any body cultivation?"

"You mean alchemy baths?"

"I think so. The ones that strengthen you beyond normal limits? I've heard they're quite painful?"

He nodded. "Those would be alchemy baths. Though there are different names. I tried one to strengthen my tendons and cartilage, it was supposedly the least painful." He grimaced. "I don't think I'll do another. The cost is also rather prohibitive."

"Ah! Cartilage is the flexible not-quite bone material in joints, and our nose and ears, right?" Shae clarified.

"Correct, and tendons are the strong connective tissue between our muscles and bones." He flexed his hand and pointed out the raised tendons on the back.

Zhango leaned over when Hon showed it to him as well. "Hmm, yeah, that sounds familiar." He nodded.

"Alright, great." She pointed between the two. "Skipping the song and dance. The point I'm trying to make to Cultivator Zhango is that exercise is valuable even though we have qi. You are much stronger for having shed blood, sweat, and tears while training!" She pumped a fist in the air as she made her point, and then flexed her bicep, which didn't help her point at all.

"Eh, well, yeah, muscle training is important." He rubbed the back of his neck. "But the blood and tears part is a bit of an exaggeration. Real blood and pain mean injury and lost progress. You can't just push blindly ahead without a training plan and experienced trainer."

Shae immediately recognized that her point was being undercut. She slumped and covered her face as Hon replied. "Thank you, Guard Hon," she said when he finished. "But I wasn't trying to convince him to work into an early grave. Just that there was work involved. That you have to have drive and stubbornness to get through it."

Guard Hon rubbed at his neck again. "Oh, uh, yeah. Cultivation is lots of work. Always gotta put in the effort." He chuckled and patted Zhango on the back.

The boy stumbled forwards with an, "oof."

"Uh, was that all?" Hon asked as he stopped Zhango from falling over.

She tilted her head in thought. "Uhh, almost. I guess the reason I called you over was because Zhango seemed excited about qi, but less excited about the rest of the training. So, I was hoping you could show him a feat of strength without using qi? How your training makes you strong all the time, instead of just when you use qi?"

"Ah, well, technically." He said sheepishly, rubbing his neck again.

Shae glared at him.

"Heh, okay-okay, feat of strength first. Hmmm." He looked around briefly then stepped into the open space between a few wagons. He did a quick warm-up flex, grabbed his scabbard to steady it, then crouched and jumped straight up.

Shae leaned out of the medical wagon to watch him soar into the air at least a dozen paces.

Zhango gawked, "Woah."

Hon nearly floated at the height of the jump. His robes fluttered and flapped as he began to fall. Returning to the earth about three heartbeats later, where the ground caught him as easily as it let him go.

Shae smiled wide as he walked back over. Then she scowled at seeing Zhango; he was flat faced and acting as though nothing interesting had just happened.

"Good hop, Guard Hon." He nodded.

"Hah! Good one!" Hon laughed. "I suppose a noble kid like you sees that kind of thing all the time?"

"Faker!" She pointed. "He was totally gawking earlier."

Zhango stifled a cough and looked away. "I was surprised, is all. Didn't expect a jump."

Hon kept chuckling. "Hah hah! Well, I probably could go higher, but I can't guarantee a safe or accurate landing. Especially with my full gear on."

"Aha!" Shae clapped. "Right, the armor, you probably weigh like double because of that."

"Eh, not exactly, spiritual materials are pretty light, maybe double Cultivator Zhango here, and at least triple you. Hah-ha!"

Zhango coughed into his fist and smiled. "Still, that was pretty impressive. Probably makes your jump a full set multiple stronger than a mortal's, yeah?"

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Hon shrugged. "At least. Probably two sets."

"Hah! Math to the rescue! It could be way more than that! Because gravity is acceleration based, it could be closer to a square-set multiple!" Shae pumped her fist in the air again.

"Uhh, what?" The younger cultivator asked.

"Yeah, I didn't get most of that either." The guard admitted.

She opened her mouth, then worked her jaw helplessly for a beat. "Ugh! Go ask Scribe Bai to explain it. He'll do a better job and probably give you a real answer. I'm sure not about to work out that math."

The two men looked at each other and shrugged.

"Oh, what was that technicality from earlier?" Zhango asked Hon.

"Hmmm. Ah, right! This isn't all from training, you get a real good boost from qi cleansing, so don't skimp on that. You can always push as hard as you want through cleansing. Even when you run out of qi, some people just draw more in and keep going. Hard to manage a real long cleansing session without getting a little cultivation to back it up."

Zhango looked down at the dirt and kicked it once as he walked.

Shae grunted loudly in frustration.

Hon glanced between the two disappointed cultivators. "Ah, alright, I'll be going now. Have a good afternoon you two." He waved awkwardly as he walked away.

She sighed, and called to him, "Thank you, Guard Hon." Then sighed again and flopped onto the mattress, setting her back against the wagon's side." She closed her eyes and thought.

A few quiet breaths stretched out.

"Hmph." Shae nodded to herself. "Right. So. Did that at least prove my point? Even if it wasn't as clear as I hoped."

Zhango looked up, then scratched the side of his head. "Uhh, your point that there was work to do? Sure? I guess so. How was this related to mental focus, again?"

The young woman raised a finger and opened her mouth, but froze and remained silent. Her finger began to dance as her head also bobbed and she thought back through the logic of her explanation. "... Stubbornness is needed for cultivation, like with exercise." She mumbled.

"Hmm, then I said they were different," he supplied.

"Aha! Yes! So, now you know you can gain benefits to your cultivation skills outside of just collecting and using qi, right?" She turned and pointed at him.

"Uh, yeah I guess so." He shrugged. "If I want to be physically strong, I should still exercise."

"Yes. And mental focus training is like exercise. You're going to have to work at it, maybe struggle a bit before you see the benefits. You can do a lot of exercise without making your muscles sore, without having to push yourself. However! Pushing your limits, feeling the soreness and the muscle strain, that is how you get your muscles to grow."

"So, I can only make progress through pain? Like with the alchemy baths?" He frowned.

"Not quite. It's not the pain that does it. You could take a pill to not feel pain while exercising and still make progress. Most likely you would also severely injure yourself and need to spend time recovering. Time where you could lose muscle mass because you can't work out."

"Hmmm, like passing out and needing to rest for two days?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

She huffed. "One day at most. I'll be tip-top tomorrow morning. Yes, you need to listen to your body, feel the soreness and pain and headaches, don't push too hard, just like Guard Hon cautioned."

"And listen to the expert advice of your elders?"

She huffed again. "Yes. And listen to them. I trust Master Long's opinion, but I also trust Senior Apollo's. She was with me when I passed out, watched over me while I remained unconscious. Then she worked my ass off this morning, even getting me to use qi. All without any overly dramatic warnings or scrambling in a panic to get the whole caravan involved. I trust her opinion more than his."

Zhango frowned with concern. "Is she an Elder?"

"They operate on a different system." She waved a hand, dismissing the idea. "She's easily at the cultivation stage for it, and she's an experienced cultivator that knows about mental focus. Even if she was somewhat concerned about it she could have mentioned it to Long when they talked this morning. Now. This conversation has strayed quite far. Back to the reading metaphor."

"Uh, yeah. I was wondering where that was going."

She frowned at him briefly. "Consider the focus it takes to read that history book for an hour, and how exhausted and bored you are at the end of it. Now imagine you could read faster, much faster. A whole set-multiple faster. You'd have that hour of reading done in a few sets of breaths, right?"

He nodded. "Okay."

"But if you used mental focus to do that, you would be just as exhausted as after the hour. You're squeezing the time down, but it still takes effort, probably more effort, really. I'm just trying to get you to think about it as a resource to use, like physical stamina. You start with very little mental focus and similar to physical stamina you have to train it to get more."

"And to train it I have to use it? Or can I... just... read more boring books? Is that how you trained yours?"

"Yes, no, and-" Shae froze mid-answer. "Hmm, actually, I did spend a lot of time reading dictionaries."

Zhango raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think that helped much. Aside from just expanding my mind. I'd bet you have to do other things to help it grow, like eating more meat when you exercise so your body has the right proteins to build muscle." She waved off the question he was about to ask about protein. "Anyway, yes, you have to use it, and nearly pass out from using it many times as it grows."

"How many times have you passed out? You made it sound like this wasn't the first time."

She wobbled a hand in the air. "I'm a bad example: I heal quicker than most, and I didn't know what I was training until recently. Now that I'm thinking about it, that's one of the reasons being a rogue cultivator would be awful. I think the first time I was really training it was... Hmm. Yeah, that was probably it." She began mumbling her thoughts out loud, before turning her attention back to Zhango. "I was trying to do a really specific cultivation thing. So, I tried and tried until I got tired, slept for a while, then tried again when I got up. It was really hard at first, then slowly got easier."

His eyebrows went up a little. "It must have been important for you to try over and over. Did it hurt? What was it?"

"It was very important. It did hurt, not my mind, it just physically hurt. However, I'm not telling you what it was."

"What? Aww come on, it's not a good example if it's just super vague. You're not even being mysterious!"

"Hah. I'll leave the mystery to someone else, thanks. I'm not going to tell you because it would be a huge conversational distraction and I think we're almost done." She shook her head. "Do you need any more clarification for what mental focus is?"

He looked up at the sky and thought for a few breaths. "I think I get the general idea. Use it regularly to get more, it might be tough at first. But, um, how do I use it? And what is it actually for, other than reading fast?"

"Ha ha ha!" Shae laughed. "Ha- sorry, heh- I thought Long explained that. Hah ha-ha! Should have guessed. A-hah!"

Zhango's face said he was 'clearly unimpressed' with her laughter.

She wheezed out a few more laughs. "Okay-okay. Haha. Okay, I'm done. For now." She took a deep breath. "Easiest thing to use it for is qi techniques. It can dramatically improve your control for a sec- for less than a heartbeat." She wobbled a hand. "And control of your muscles movements. Remember that demonstration I did with the knarr outside Flame Well?"

"Uhm, yeah?"

"When Cultivator Chen asked if I could hit the same spot over and over again. I said yes, because I had practiced using my mental focus to do that. I used it to control the qi reinforcement and my muscle movements in the space between heartbeats right when the ax is swinging down into the log." She made a slow chopping gesture with her hand. "That's what it's for. Doing something you can't normally do, because you can't do it fast enough."

"Huh. So, why the reading example? Why not just explain the ax thing?"

Shae raised a finger and briefly for an excuse that wasn't because I didn't think of that first. "Because... that's the easy example. Also, I'm not supposed to let everyone know I can do that. So don't spread it around. If I hear rumors about that then I'll know it was you." She jabbed her finger towards him.

"Couldn't someone else guess? You did that in front of everyone. Brother Chen probably knows since he asked that question." He held his hands up defensively.

She pursed her lips and huffed through her nose while glaring at him. "Maybe. Don't go around explaining it to anyone, though. Promise that you won't."

He sighed. "Fine, I won't tell anyone that you did the ax trick with mental focus."

"Hey! Don't call it a trick." She continued her glare. "If you want another easy example, take silent messaging." She sat back and pointed. "Has someone sent you one before?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, of course."

"Hmmgh. Right, noble."

"Don't say it like that." He complained half heartedly.

She smirked. "According to my friend Fairy Yun, the number of syllables you can send with silent messaging is based on your mental focus."

"Huh. Cool. So then, the more syllables the more focus that cultivator has? Err, what if they send one syllable repeatedly? Does that not use up their focus?"

"Hmmm, Good question! Okay, she actually said the syllables mark your progress with the skill. Three syllables is small success, and she didn't say what large was." She hummed again, holding the conversational thread. "It definitely uses focus, and she said the more you try to say at once, the more it uses. So, I'd guess two is more than double one, and four would be more than double two. One at a time might be really efficient." She nodded in appreciation while staring up at the roof of the wagon.

He smiled smugly.

"Right-right, last thing to think about. If you're planning on being a martial combatant, you should know they have a different use for mental focus. Apparently, battle trance is in the same category, so the two are not compatible. Meaning you can't do both. I can't really say more though; it wasn't fully explained to me."

"Uh, wait, that's the last thing? You're not going to tell me how to practice it?"

She shook her head. "Nope! I wasn't given any specific practices, so you shouldn't try to replicate what I did. You can wait until the sect or just go ask Master Long. I'm sure he'll have something for you."

Zhango frowned. "Really? Not even a hint?"

"Pfft. I just gave you, like, twenty hints. More than I had."

"Umm, what's twenty?"

Shae flinched into a grimace. "It's about two sets. A specific word for a number."

"Huh." He scratched the side of his head. "What's it feel like? How will I know I've used it?"

She nodded. "Good question. You might not notice it. I didn't at first. Hmm, oh, if you are trying to use it, it's good to stop cycling qi once in a while. Even if you don't feel tired, it might be because your qi is supporting you. If you wait and overdo it, you might pass out when you stop cycling."

"So, it just doesn't feel like anything?"

She shrugged. "Not really. You will eventually notice it, especially when it's stronger. It's like, when you suddenly give something your full attention." She quickly turned to him and pointed forward with all her fingers while staring intently. "You get a heartbeat or two of full focus, then it fades. Not sure if that's the same as mental focus." She shrugged again and leaned back against the wagon's side.

He hummed loudly, visibly trying to think harder. "Hmm. Is it important for cultivation? Like just regular qi stuff during meditation?"

She threw her hands out to her sides, palms up. "Probably? Maybe not right away though. Another question for Long, or whoever else you trust around the caravan."

"I feel like I should have more questions to ask." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"You can always come back if you think of one. I'm here all day."

"Uhh, last one?"

"Sure."

"Why were you counting your steps earlier?"

Shae huffed and slapped her palms on her knees. "Because I just was. I have some strange and mysterious cultivation practices from far away monks!" She kicked her legs out the back and threw her weight into the air to twist and land facing forward. It wasn't as graceful as her jump into the wagon, but it felt fun. "It says that I need to count a cubic set of steps, and do it today. So, if you don't mind."

His eyebrows rose. "A cubic set? That sounds like a lot. And what for?"

"What about strange and mysterious monks makes you think I know? And it's not that far, should be done in three or four li. If no one interrupts me again."

"Ah. I thought you were going to leave the mystery to other people?."

"I am. This is the monk's mystery, not mine. Good chat, Cultivator Zhango."

"Hah, yes. Thank you for the explanation, Wise Shae." He dipped his head slightly and walked away.

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