It was a familiar feeling. I woke up in an unknown environment, but this time I did not feel pain and I could raise my hand to cover my eyes from the offending light. Cultivator Li was certainly skilled in the arts of healing and was happy to benefit from his expertise.
I sat and looked around. I was in a simple room. It was not adorned with anything. The only furniture here was the bed I was sitting on, but the doors were open and I could stand up without issue. It was a miracle.
Before I could explore further Cultivator Li showed in the door smiling.
“I see you have awakened. That is a good sign,” he said, but I had a duty to do. This was a man who gave me more time. Time to meet my family and get my affairs in order. I could not be ungracious and unthankful.
I fell on my knees and bowed, ”Thank you honored cultivator for your efforts. I am forever in your debt,” I showed my gratitude to him and stayed on the ground waiting for his reaction.
“Do you know how hard I worked on these knees of yours? Why are you trying to wear them out early? Jump up and join me. We have a lot to discuss.” Cultivator Li rolled his eyes and gestured for me to rise.
It seemed I erred in expressing my gratitude. I was not deterred though.There would be more opportunities to show my gratitude and I would have to rethink my efforts. I stood up and joined cultivator Li as he walked through his house.
“Where is Edward the Beggar? I thought he would want to be here, when I woke up,” I asked cultivator Li
“He is sleeping off the stress of the situation, he fell asleep as soon as it was clear you would be okay. He was acting like a proper mother hen around you, which I admit I did not know he had in him, but even at my age people can surprise me. But now let’s get to your bill of health shall we?”
“I am under your guidance and shall heed your advice as master healer,” I said. I would have to find Edward later and express my gratitude to him.
“I patched you up as I promised, but there will be consequences,” I nodded as he continued his explanation, “You will be much more tired than you were used to until now, your body will try to heal as much as possible and use most of your energy on that. Luckily your meridians healed nicely, so I do not foresee too many issues from that direction. Nevertheless, you will suffer attacks of heavy cough, bleeding from ears and or nose. These attacks will escalate as my patchwork fails and your body grows weaker. Once they reach a frequency of roughly twice every day, you will need to seek me out again, so I can get you patched up again.”
“I thank you for your effort, great cultivator. I will seek your aid, if it will not impose too much on you,” I tried once more as we were passing barren halls with no ornamentation.
Cultivator Li scoffed, ”Don’t thank me yet. That was the good news, the bad news is that your body was much more mangled up than I was expecting, so I do not have a good idea how long will my patchwork keep you stable. Any undue stress will decrease the time your body will be able to keep itself together and is likely to trigger an attack. Try to avoid them as much as possible.”
We passed through a door and entered a hall much more suited to a landed gentleman. They covered the walls in mahogany. Beautiful tapestries depicting scenes from the history of Imperium were draped over them and a few weapons stands adorned by silver weapons gave the place a look even my family would envy. These were riches uncommon for just a wealthy farmer. These were riches worthy of a great noble.
I stood there surprised at this ostentatious show of wealth, which did not fit the character of the man who was walking in front of me in a simple robe of the lowest cultivator.
Li looked at me satisfied with my expression, ”I see you like my entrance hall. I had it built to impress visitors who come for the more lucrative side of my business and a grower of potent ingredients cannot be just a normal farmer, that would not do.”
“You grow ingredients for cultivators? Why keep a business relationship with Edward?” I asked him the first thing, which came to mind. Plants and herbs rich in Qi were finicky and hard to grow even in the best of circumstances outside of areas incredibly rich in Qi, which the Land of Three rivers was not. Thanks to that even the lowliest of such herbs could be sold for an incredible amount of money. Sects never had enough of them.
“I do not grow only such ingredients. My farm offers all kinds of produce and I have more than enough land to grow even less Qi dense produce,” cultivator Li offered me an explanation. I was sure it was not a complete one as his smile hid a mischievous edge.
We walked into a large room in which the center was a large table of solid black stone. At the table sat Haoyu Yi in all of his splendor looking like a chicken caught in a storm, as Anna liked to say. He was looking rather unhappy as he watched me enter.
“Now I would like to talk about a long-term solution for your condition, but I have a favor to ask you first,” cultivator Li said.
“You saved my life, I shall do anything.” I bowed once more.
“Then I need you to run fifty times around my estate singing Little Red Hen meet a lady Hedgehog,” Li ordered me to.
I looked at him surprised at such a strange request, when he burst out laughing, even Haoyu Yi smirked at my misfortune.
“Sorry, I could not stop an old joke from an old man, but you should not agree so readily.”
It seems I had been had.
“More seriously and understand you can refuse. Irpin asked me to show the young Haoyu how I work and operate. I think this would be an experience for him, but if it makes you uncomfortable, I will find him some tedious work for the time being, while we discuss your problems.” Now it was Haoyu Yi's turn to look horrified.
I thought about the issue, but I found no reason to deny him. Since I was little others were present when I discussed anything important from servants to curious junior sect members working to earn favor of their seniors.
“I see no reason to deny his presence. I am sure that it will be a worthy experience for his journey towards immortality,” I said and saw a flash of gratitude on Haoyu Yi's face.
“Good, good,” cultivator Li nodded, ”The core of your ailment is simple. You require refined Qi to cure your condition, but you cannot cultivate anymore, which leaves you in a seemingly inescapable situation.”
I nodded and watched Haoyu Yi's horrified expression at my condition. He understood what had happened to me quickly.
Cultivator Li pointed to the table, and I sat down. He walked in front of us and took on a stance typical for a master giving lecture.
“Now for the teaching,” cultivator Li turned to Haoyu Yi, ”Could you, wise young cultivator, offer a solution to young miss Mei?” he asked him.
Haoyu Yi thought for a long time his brows furrowed deeply, before finally he spoke. “I do not see any viable solution. She needs to add refined Qi to her flesh, which is impossible to gain refined Qi one must cycle it in their dantian and purify it expelling the others types of Qi, even the most concentrated Qi sources must first be purified by cycling and refined stripping them of impurities. Lady Mei lacks dantian to do so, and it is an organ necessary for such a function, if she suffers from self-devourment syndrome, I cannot see any cure. Thousand cultivators across the ages tried to find a solution to this issue and all of them failed.” Haoyu Yi finished and looked at me with pity in his eyes.
“Good summation of the conventional wisdom and like many such cultivation wisdoms it is imperfect. Your assumption about the means of cure is correct, if too narrow. There are options for purging the body of Qi completely thus ending the self devourment syndrome,” I looked up hopefully, ”Sadly they are not possible to use in case of cultivator Mei. These techniques cause terrible damage to the body and her body is already too wracked by the self-devourment syndrome to withstand their effects.” My hopes fell down.
“Your second assumption is more flawed. You suppose that there is no other way to gain refined Qi than by cultivation.” Li looked at us expectantly and Haoyu Yi nodded confusedly at this revelation. I was in the same boat as him. It was impossible to gain refined Qi in any other way.
Cultivator Li saw our faces and sighed. “Have you ever heard of pair cultivation?” he asked.
I was first to answer, “Yes, but that is not applicable. You do not gain refined Qi by pair cultivation, you exchange Qi you refined in equal measure with a trusted partner to gain their refined Qi. This method is perfect in case you wish to incorporate Qi of distinct elements into your cultivation. It is also a process fraught with danger, if the exchange is not perfectly equal or your chosen partner distrust you. It will lead to a catastrophe and cultivation deviation.”
Cultivator Li looked impressed at my knowledge, same as Haoyu Yi. I was pleased with myself. At least the hours spent in the sect library trying to find details about a solution to my lack of Earth affinity was useful for something. pair cultivation was the only viable option I found, but it was too dangerous to use and would easily lead to ruin of anyone I persuaded to help me with it. The warnings were over three quarters of the book describing the practice.
“Yes, but it is possible to draw an unequal amount of Refined Qi from your partner, if one is ready to deal with consequences. Ergo it should be possible to draw refined Qi in other ways,” cultivator Li pointed out. I looked at him horrified.
“That is the textbook definition of an Evil path. To steal energy from fellow cultivators is the first step on the path of evil. Only harvesting fellow humans for cultivation ingredients exceeds that kind of evil,” Haoyu Yi shared my concerns.
“Yes, but it is one of the simplest solutions. Demonic cultivators excel in this method. They can kill a cultivator and draw out all of his Qi in a short order,” Cultivator Li chuckled, “Of course the consequences of such an act are dire soul of the drained cultivator will fight back striking at the person who is killing them damaging them and the Qi itself will be tainted which will slowly rot the demonic cultivator, not that they care. It would allow you to walk the path of immortality once more without a hitch and allow you to pursue vengeance against those who hurt you”
“I will not go around hunting down people!” I shouted at him and rose from the table.
Cultivator Li smiled, “As I expected, but it would be the simplest and easiest solution.”
It was clear I passed some kind of test or maybe he just enjoyed getting a rise out of me, but I still gave my savior a death glare for suggesting something like this.
“If you would seek a more morally pleasing solution,” he said which earned him another glare, “then I might have something to offer. There are thousands of failed cultivation paths, many of which are rather interesting and all of them resulting in failure, yet many offer an exotic methodology which work contrary to cultivation orthodoxy. They will not allow you to walk the path of cultivator, but they have a potential to solve your issue. We just need one, which matches your needs,” he explained his idea to me.
“That might be possible, but we will not find a library full of such methods just lying around. Sects guard all cultivation manuals jealously,” I said, baffled by cultivator Li’s chirpy tone.
Cultivator Li looked at us like a cat which got the bird, ”Luckily for you I have created something of a small library in my twilight years, which contains many tomes of such knowledge. It is a truly magnificent coincidence.”
“Why would you have a library like that?” Haoyu Yi asked, “What kind of benefit would a library of semi-failed cultivation practices provide?”
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I did not wonder about that, I just wanted to have a look at such a library. There would be so many manuals I could look into and see the variety of cultivation styles. I smiled at the idea.
“Well, I need to have some hobby,” he paused and then continued his tone somber for a moment, “It began as an obsession after I failed to break into the next stage. I tried to break through that bottleneck at any cost. By the time I lost interest in breaking through, I already had a sizable collection of manuals in my possession.”
Cultivator Li smiled wistfully, ”It was then I discovered I actually enjoyed reading these manuals and trying to understand the Path to immortality in its entirety through them. Well, even in failures there is wisdom, so I settled down, set up the farm I dreamed about in my youth and let my collection slowly grow.”
One part of the story was strange to me “But how did your collection grow, after you settled down? Sect rarely part with their secrets willingly,” I asked.
“I have many “acquaintances”, like the master of this young lout here, who bring me worthless manuals they had run into and I am not without connection to the world of cultivators. There is actually a rather booming business of seekers who go into ruins of sects to fetch precious things. In those circles I am rather well known.”
“That is well and good, but how can you be sure you have a manual which will help Mei Silverhand with her condition?” Haoyu Yi asked, still dubious about the cultivator's Li claims.
“Like I said, I have a few ideas, but if I hooked you in. I would rather discuss this in my library. I have only a few opportunities to bring people there after all,” Cultivator Li rose, and we followed him through the door and into a small inner courtyard.
As we walked, Haoyu Yi turned to me. ”I wish to apologize for my rude behavior earlier. I did not wish to cause any offense.”
“I thank you for your apology, but are you giving it because now you know we are both cultivators and thus not so much beneath you?” I looked at him.
He looked flustered. It was clear he was expecting I would graciously accept his apology without a comment.
“That is-,” he stopped himself before he finished the sentence., ”It doesn't matter, my behavior was still rude and cultivator should aim to be a greater man.” I looked at him.
“Then you should apologize to the servants you yelled at too, shouldn't you?” I said and as expected he looked insulted at my suggestion. To his credit, his expression quickly shifted to one of shame.
“You are correct. I shall seek them out,” he said to me. I wished to continue our conversation, but by then we reached a big metal door with no ornamentation.
Cultivator Li pushed the door in and we followed him into a long hall filled with statues. Cultivator Li gestured, and the hall lit up by white spheres of cultivator’s light shining beautifully at the statues and letting each detail on them shine.
The number of statues was strange, which is what attracted my attention to them. There were six of them on the left side and twelve of them on the right side. All of them were clearly depicting cultivators at the peak of their power. Each of the statues had a weapon or a cultivation. They were guarding the way to the large ornate door adorned with metal books and scrolls.
We were nearly to the ornate door, when I saw the statue next to it I finally recognized who the statues on the left depicted.
The statue which led me to the correct path depicted a tall woman wielding a shard of earth and standing on the platform of rising stone. It was her exotic face in combination with the earth, which led me to a conclusion. It was a distinct combination which only one cultivator fit.
“Is that Miriam the Earthen Fairy?” I asked Haoyu Yi for confirmation. These were not the typical depictions of one member of the Peerless Generation. It looked much more human than the pictures in the scrolls. There was no aura or subdued beasts around and their skin still had blemishes, which was not possible for cultivators of their level.
“I think you are correct, the one with ax must be N'zath Blade of Doom,” he pointed to the only statue which wielded an enormous ax.
Six of the seven members of the peerless generation were depicted in the statues on the left side, only Atreas Boliear Wielder of Sacred Flame was missing from this line up. I had no idea what it meant.
What was even stranger was that we could not identify the twelve statues on the right side, but the creators crafted them in the same style and heroic pose as the members of the Peerless Generation. They were not their rivals, or another renowned group of cultivators like the Five Brothers or the Imperial Companions, which we could remember. They were just men and women unknown. I did not know what it meant, but it was very strange.
Well, the easiest solution was to ask the master of the house, “What do these statues depict?” I asked cultivator Li who was standing at the door waiting for us to stop gawking.
“They are another hobby of mine, when I was building my estate I discovered I enjoyed sculpting and well had to put them somewhere and they certainly left an impression on you two,” Cultivator Li smiled again, “But now to the main course,” he said as he opened the door to his library.
I was not disappointed. This place had to be as big as the public section of Fiery Peak’s public library. There were tall shelves full of books and tomes. Each shelf was at least two stories high filled to the brim. There was of course only one reading table, instead of many, but this was a private library. Cultivator Li would not need more. I wanted to explore, but we still had work to do.
“Welcome to my life’s work,” smiling cultivator Li gestured to the entire hall full of knowledge, ”There are not only cultivation manuals but also essays about the cultivation, medicine making methodologies and so much more. All collected to expand the horizons and understanding of cultivation,”
“It is very impressive,” Haoyu Yi said, looking unimpressed, while my mouth was hanging open.
“I dedicated this section to the earliest cultivation methodologies. It contains a few scrolls from the pre-Imperial era I could get my hands on and many treatises on the subject collected from sects all around the continent.” cultivator Li pointed to the first few shelves of the library.
“This section is all about the foibles of demonic cultivation and many historical accounts of how it destroyed its practitioners. It is a fascinating read especially, when combined with the manual themselves and diaries of demonic cultivators. It is one of the more unique parts of my collection.” cultivator Li pointed to the shelf beyond the first.
It was clear cultivator Li did not get to show his library often, and he wanted to savor the opportunity. I Was all for him showing me every nook and cranny of this place, but Haoyu Yi was not interested in such a worthy venture.
“Honored cultivator, we are here to find a cure for Mei’s ailment, not to wonder around the library,” he said.
I wanted to wander around the library very much, but the moment was lost. Cultivator Li looked at us with a sheepish expression on his face.
“You are of course correct. Forgive this old man a momentary lapse in judgment. I shall bring the viable manuals,” cultivator Li left searching through the stacks of the library. He sprinted away with great speed, before I could apologize for him.
He returned after a short while carrying several thick tomes in his hands. He put them on a reading table
“These are the manuals I had in mind. Let’S go through them and see if we find something you could use.” cultivator Li pulled the first one of the stack.
“This one is a special cultivation method used by the tribes of the far north and written by cultivators from the area who traveled there. It does not have a particular name as it is more of a tribal tradition, than formalized method, but it works. You bond yourself to a spirit beast uniting yourself with it and once the bond is strong enough, they sacrifice the spirit beast. This allows the user to drain all the escaping Qi including the refined Qi of the spirit beast. The limitations are clear: it takes at least a month to grow a bond potent enough for cultivators' needs and so it can convey only a small amount of refined Qi making it an unsuitable method to reach the higher stages of cultivation, but it is perfect for your needs. Refined Qi gained through this method would sustain you for more than enough time to get another bond going and low rank spirit beasts are rather affordable. These pests get everywhere and if you get rid of a few spirit rats on the way I will be only thankful for it.” cultivator Li presented the first option.
I thought about it. It sounded too similar to the demonic path. This method still included killing, even if it apparently did not corrupt in the same way as the cursed path. It was still problematic.
“I am thankful for your offer, but if I could implore you, honored cultivator. Do you have a method which does not include killing even animals?” I asked him carefully.
Cultivator Li thought about it. His hand was laid on the stack of the cultivation manuals he prepared for me.
“That poses an issue. Most of these methodologies include the transfer of refined Qi from spirit beast to the recipient and while I am sure there is a way to do it without killing the spirit beast. I do lack any manual describing the method of such, more so I am unaware of anyone successfully doing so. Your desire honors you, but I do not think I could help you.” cultivator Li spoke his voice gentle.
I looked at him. He did more than anyone else for me and gave me an option to live, so why was I disappointed? Was I truly so prideful I would scoff at his generosity. I killed spirit beasts before to defend villages on the missions of the sect. I used materials gained from beasts. This should not have been different.
Haoyu Yi nodded, ”Such is the artifice of life. We cannot have all we desire and what we desire might be sour,” I was sure he cited some strange wisdom. It told me nothing, but cultivator Li nodded at this truism and then his eyes lit up.
“Give me a moment, I might have an idea.” he said as he left even quicker than before.
It took him a long time to emerge and when he did he was carrying only one tome, although it was a rather large one.
He put it in front of us, ”This might grant your desires, but there is a catch,” he said and sat down catching his breath.
“What is the problem with this cultivation method, honored cultivator?” I waited for a moment as he relaxed and asked him.
He looked straight into my eyes and spoke, ”The manuals I presented to you were of cultivation methods I knew were possible and functioned. This manual is different. I have no proof it works. It might be just a phantom dragon chase, but if it works, it should allow you to use common materials to distill refined Qi. I have to admit I have my doubts about its veracity,”
“That sounds too good to be true.” I conceded, if such a thing was possible everyone would know it.
“It is not as impossible as it sounds. Some rare and powerful materials draw Qi of their type towards themselves disturbing the natural balance between them, but those are extremely rare for normal materials to have this property is improbable. Even the manual itself is skeptical about its contents.” cultivator Li said.
“How is that possible?” Haoyu Yi asked. ”Skilled masters write Cultivation manuals. How could b such a master be unsure about its contents is nonsensical.”
“You are correct, but this manual is not typical. A wandering cultivator shared this method with the Library of Ten Thousand Things long before its destruction. It laid in one of its branches before a treasure hunter found it and sold it to me some two hundred years ago,” cultivator Li explained.
“Library of Ten Thousand Things?” I nearly shouted, ”Then this should be a true manual.” I pointed out the Great Library would not take in some fraud.
“I see you know of that sect, but I do not share your optimism. They shared my obsession only writ large. There certainly were many failures in their collections.” cultivator Li smiled at my enthusiasm at the same time he poured a vat cold water over it.
“Library of what?” Haoyu Yi asked.
I looked at him incredulously, ”Have you ever heard its story? The Library of Ten Thousand Things was the largest knowledge gathering sect during the rise of the Dragon Emperor. Their libraries are legendary and you can still find hidden gems in the multitude of ruins of their sect.” I read everything I could find about the fabled sect to just see the place was one of my goals before this fate met me.
“The story of that sect is not known among many. Only seekers of ancient lore and book loving dreamers know of them,” he explained and said to Haoyu Yi, ”To make a long story short the sect fell into infighting and was crushed by newly emergent sects, who were crushed by newly emergent sects and so on, but some of their legacy survives.
“For example, the sect branch this manual laid in was buried under a diverted river, which brings me to the most important problem with this manual. It was heavily damaged in the fighting and then the water did its damage once the protections failed, which made a significant portion of it unreadable. Even if it works, I am not sure you will gain any wisdom from it. “
“Have you not tried to reconstruct the method to see if it worked, honored cultivator,” I asked cultivator Li.
He looked at me now clearly embarrassed, “I never had much time to go through the manual at the time I was dealing with some trouble and there is so much to study and my time is sadly not infinite?” He explained himself, but avoided my eyes clearly. Cultivator Li was not pleased with himself about this situation.
I had an opportunity before me. I could study a tome from the Library of Ten Thousand Things and discover if impossible was possible. It was a challenge which called me. I wanted to decipher it.
I looked at the tome, “Honored Cultivator Li, I wish to glean wisdom from this cultivation manual. I think it will offer me a solution to my condition, which I will am willing to embrace.”
“I can see the hunger in your eyes, I will give you this manual, so you can try your luck with it, If you fail you should have time to try another method.”
“I cannot take a tome from the Library of Ten Thousand Things from you. It is too precious.”
“It is just a copy, nearly perfect one, but still just a copy. All the books here are. I store the originals in secure vaults.I will fill the empty place in my library in a few months when I safely open the vaults to check them,” cultivator li explained, ”if you wish to stay here and study the tome. I am sure I will find a place for you.”
I greedily grabbed the book, so I nearly did not hear the cultivator Li offer. I thought about it, but I had family.
“I thank you for your more than generous offer cultivator Li, but I must go to my family. I wrote them and they will expect me. They must be already worried about me. I wish to depart as soon as possible towards Jiaomay city. I would be impolite if I stretched your resources further.”
“Fair enough young cultivator, There will be a carriage departing to Jiaomay city in the morning. Take a good nap before you go. In fact you should rest. You need to conserve your energy.” cultivator Li mistook my station ,but I did not correct him. He was right about my tiredness now that he mentioned it. I felt rather sleepy.
I bid both cultivators farewell and walked to my room accompanied by a servant sent to guide me there. The last thing from the library I heard was cultivator Li asking, “So young cultivator, what have you learned today?”