“How long has it been? Two hours? Three?’ thought Cile while looking at the absurd level of control that was being displayed for the past few hours without any signs of it stopping. These past few months, when she had nothing better to do, she had tried counting the number of Threads and she was sure they were no lesser than ten thousand. This sea of Thread moved, each individually, without ever colliding with one another, covering everything within a radius of hundreds of meters. ‘What kind of Path does he walk on?’ It was something that she had to wonder about.

A Path was, in simplest words, a mental state that subconsciously affected the Qi. The manipulation of Qi was a feat accomplished with conscious thoughts and these thoughts were colored by the subconscious. A Path was established when those unfiltered, uncontrolled, random colors of the subconscious were filtered out to obtain desired results. Something that was not as easy as it was to think and talk about it.

Just what kind of Path was it that he could perform a feat that even those having performed their first Shedding would likely not be able to do? Just what kind of Path was it that stopped his core from just shattering under such pressure? Just what kind of Path was it that allowed him to apply such fine control at such large numbers.

She let her mind wander while waiting for the exhaustion from practice to dissipate. Once she was done, she started doing something new, Qi moved out of her body, and she shaped it similar to the Threads. Still, she stopped once it got as thin as a hair, then three more similar copies were created. Now that they were side by side, hers were worse, much much worse, but she was not angry, not that she could even feel that emotion, or any emotion for that matter. But there was only one thing that had penetrated through her detached state, something she had tried very hard to acquire, the curiosity and desire to learn. To gather knowledge, to improve herself.

Slowly she moved the copies. She wanted to see how much she needed to improve to reach the level being displayed before her. It had always been easy for her to deduce her own shortcomings, and decide the best way towards improvement. For her, who had never truly experienced anything, just watching from afar, even her own life, unfazed and detached, she had always been able to observe everything from an outsider's perspective, while being an insider at the same time. Though her parents and others around her worried endlessly for her, to a degree that she had read was called pity, she considered it a gift. There was only one thing she had acquired desire for, and her state just so happened to help in that matter.

Her condition was many times worse than her mother’s so her mother had tried her best to find something that anchored her daughter to reality, otherwise, what was that stopped her from just ending her life? There was nothing. Cile’s mother had experienced that state, where nothing mattered.

Though it had taken many cycles, they had been able to find something that got through her, something that would act as an anchor. Pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of improvement. An unending pursuit, that would see to it that Cile would live a long life. A worthy pursuit, given the world they inhabited, having the ability to generate and discover new knowledge was something that was in the highest regard within the settlements.

It had been anything but easy at the start, but with the insistence of her parents, she had kept doing this thing that she had once considered just as useless as living itself. But as time passed on, just like dripping water could penetrate the mountain and rocks, the pursuit for knowledge, the curiosity for knowledge, and the pursuit of self-improvement had crossed the endless chasm to reach her true self.

For her, who had never experienced anything, that event became the cornerstone, where she had gone from being uncaring of life to having a goal. But it had also made her even more detached. She never wanted to experience that again, that storm of feelings that had, for a moment, overwhelmed her. She wanted to remain in her empty world, just watching everything from afar despite going through them.

The four copies of threads that she had created moved under her control. They just looked like threads but were nothing but a form she had created of her Qi. Even then they were not the same. They were nothing like the sea of ever-moving Threads that were filled to the brim with formations with such density that it caused a headache. After controlling them for a while, she tried to copy the display that she had been seeing for the past few months. With just four strings of Qi, it was not difficult.

She had trained her control to a very high degree because even the slightest irregularities could result in failures during experiments, thus at the start she had shown a finesse that was not worse than Inero-ie’s. As she increased the number of Qi strings, it stopped being that way. From four to ten, ten to twenty, then thirty, then fifty. Each time she increased the number of Qi strings, her overall control worsened. If it was controlling just a few, even now she could achieve a similar result but whenever she tried controlling all of the Qi strings simultaneously like Inero-ie, she failed miserably.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Her mind worked in overload, looking at things, finding what she was doing wrong, what could be improved, and what had to be removed.

***

A hand grabbed Cile, pushing her back before her foot could land on the ground. It broke the trance she had fallen into unknowingly while trying to improve her control over the Qi strings she had created.

Before she could even understand what had happened, Inero-ie kicked the place she was going to step into and with a cracking sound, the ice shattered, forming a gaping hole with no end. At least Cile could sense none.

"Thank you," she said. Here expression still had not changed despite just narrowly avoiding death, something that Inero-ie had noted throughout the journey.

She then looked around, only to remember where she was. 'Ah yes, Sline is not here.'

Cile was used to her companionship. She was not just a servant. She could not call her that. She was a companion. That was a better word according to what she had read. A companion that had been by her side since she was but a child and took care of matters which she was incapable of. If she had been here, she would have noticed and not allowed Cile to fall into the zone.

Now that she had become aware once again, she noticed the deep exhaustion that had seeped into her body. Something that was hard to notice even when she was not so focused on something but this was the worst state she had found herself in. As she tried taking next steps, she noticed the lag that was apparent, the heaviness that dragged down her body. Even the Qi moved sluggishly inside her body.

Suddenly, she felt her feet lifting the ground and the next moment, they were in the air and the distance to the top of the mountain was covered in only a few seconds.

Inero-ie let her down on the plain surface and once again started focusing on something else.

"Take a break," the Thread told her.

She stopped for a moment but seeing him not creating the resting space he usually molded, she sat on the frozen ground. The spiky surface changed as she tried to copy what he usually did. At least she tried to but her Qi was sluggish so she had to make due with just smoothing out the ground below.

Her attention turned to the sea of Threads that was frozen in the air and they remained unmoving even as seconds gave way to minutes.

She turned her sight ahead.

The unending stream of mountains had suddenly ended and slowly the elevations gave way to a vast plain.

A dense, powerful cluster of Qi. Though far away, she could still sense them, a massive improvement compared to before, such a massive improvement that she wondered why she had never come across such training before.

She focused, uncaring of the headache that was growing in intensity. The blurry vision grew sharper and she was able to differentiate between different Qi signatures but soon her gaze was attracted by one unique Qi signature. Unlike others that were only dense spheres of white, a white more intense than any she had seen before, this one was artificial, just like the core of armor suits. The others were constantly trying to surround the armor suit, like predators surroundings their prey.

Her gaze shifted towards Inero-ie, 'what will he do?' a thought emerged in her detached mind, 'is he truly as he appears? Or is it merely a façade?'

Never had she seen this man's change his expression, it had been frozen in that indifferent look forever, even she was not like that, even she changed her expressions though they were but a learned act. It mattered not what kind of situation it was; his mask had never slipped. Be it when they were traveling, or when he had been forced to fight, or when they would hide.

'According to reports, he is ordinary, but is it really so?'

"Will you not save him?" she inquired.

"No," the Thread replied.

No change, no ripple. He appeared indifferent to the fate of the harvester.

"Why not?"

"My duty is to ensure your safety and return you," the radiant Thread responded.

"Isn't saving the right thing to do?"

"Unknown."

"Go save him."

"Your safety is the priority."

"You have taught me well. Haven't I already proved it before? Go save that harvester. If you won't then I will have to."