Grand Master Bo looked upon his four disciples as they sat in lotus position and drew in the chi from the room around them. It was slow, imperfect, fumbling. The only reason they succeeded at all were the formations around this room focusing the chi of the spiritual mountain into it’s densest form here in this room, and the unprecedented conductivity of their bodies. Without mana channels, their body should already be suffering damage, yet they drew in more and more of the power as if uncaring of the risk.
Truly, gentle and slow instruction would result in loss. These were young dragons, unparalleled genius seen once in a thousand generations, and he had four of them. To lose one would be a worse blow than the loss of a thousand inner sect disciples, or all of the outer court. He would take them down the dragon’s path. Pain and power, to walk the edge of the abyss blindfolded, trusting that the instinct of a genius would cause their steps to not falter. If he was wrong, without their strength, all would die in the coming war anyway.
He came to Serena Bales, the thin pale girl with the mousey brown hair and long drawn face no longer looked like the frail angry thing ready to crumble like an old dry leaf in the first wind. Now she looked like a fledgling dragon, hunger, rage, ambition, and pride blazed in flesh that were not equal to the fire that burned inside her. She would rise swift or burn; above all others, she was born to cultivate.
He placed his hands over her eyes and began for force his chi into hers, the power of a Spirit Grand Master less important than the focus and control of one who had walked the path of cultivation for centuries.
“First of the nine gates is the Third Eye, the Inner Eye. The eye that sees not the physical world, but the spiritual. Chi is born from the world, from not only all that lives in it, but from the primal forces that shape it. The elements sing with it; fire, water, earth, air and wood all have chi within them, and flowing from them. As you learn to see the chi in the external world, so will you come to understand how the elemental forces shape the world, and soon, how you will learn to extend your own chi outward to cause those elements to move in harmony with your will.”
Grand Master Bo forced his chi in through Serena’s closed third eye, tearing a pinhole in it. Her own fierce hunger had created an intense negative pressure behind which drew chi in through her third eye like the first water through a failing dam. As the flow increased, it tore the gate to wreckage and widened it fully open. The chi flowed in and tore through the detritus in her mana channels as it forced the sludge of impurities out of the channels and into her flesh, and eventually out of her skin as a thick black sludge of unparallelled foulness. The essence of mortal weakness and impurity. The result of her muscular dystrophy leaving a legacy of harmful corruption of her natural power far more than the others. Serena had already torn open the gate at her throat, and the deep gate in her hara, her belly. She had a dragon's constitution and with the gate open in her eye now she would be able to see the low of power in her own body and take control of it. She burned the brightest, so her fire could cleanse her tattered flesh more deeply.
Grand Master Bo moved to Brock Kowalski, the fighter he had broken for insolence had become a devout disciple, yielding to strength as he yielded to nothing else. He was fighting the chi that threatened to tear his body apart, holding the pain at bay with will, even as he fought to draw more of the power he desired so badly inside. No skill, for he had ignored every spiritual teaching in the martial arts he had followed. He had cultivated his ignorance with a pride that would shame the most learned sage, for he boasted of his lack of knowledge as if it crowned him king and not fool.
He had not eyes to see, for in his world, only the greatest could stir the chi deeply enough to bend a candle flame. In this world, Brock had the potential to snuff a forest fire with a single punch, if he had the will and patience to master the powers he sought so hard to pull into himself.
Grand Master Bo drove his finger into the thick skull of Brock and lanced his chi inside him like a dagger. Brock screamed as the power lanced into him, and Grand Master Bo forced it into the channels of this blockheads neglected mana channels and began to force it to follow the paths every child should have learned to direct their chi along as they learned to take their first steps.
“When your third eye opens, you can see the flow of chi not only in the outer world, but inside yourself. Chis is the life blood of the universe, an effect of the natural laws of this universe even as gravity is a natural effect of the world itself. Like gravity, it follows its own laws, no matter if you are aware of them or not, whether you accept them or not. You can either learn to move with them or be crushed.
Inside your body are mana channels, for when chi enters the body it mixes with your soul, it tempers, it purifies, and it becomes mana. This mana must circulate through your body through your mana channels, or it will simply tear paths through your flesh, destroying rather than strengthening you.
Use your third eye, see the mana flow within you, direct that flow and force the circulation of that mana through the channels. You are in the initial stage of cultivation, chi condensation. It is your task now to condense that chi into mana and circulate it through your channels. Over time, and with help, you will open all nine of your mana gates, and with the flow of all nine gates, you will be able to condense your mana into droplets and begin to form your mana core and initiate your first steps beyond mortality.”
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William Fitzgerald’s face was drawn up in a fierce frown as his own strength of will was insufficient to open his third eye. The harsh rationalism that was his defense against the world was the barrier that stopped his opening to the chi in the world around him. His frustration darkened his already black skinned face into a mask of almost demonic fury. Grand Master Bo smiled and struck like a cobra, his hand cupping the black disciple's forehead and his chi easily forcing through the resistance of William’s untrained mind.
“Feel the chi of the universe flow into you. It is all life, it is all existence, but you are not. You are a being of soul and flesh, and individual existence. Inside you is mana, which is your internal chi mixed with the very essence of your soul. The chi that flows into you is not yours to command. You must make it yours.
Your third eye allows you to see this chi, but your soul allows you to transform it. Draw the chi through your body, into your dantain, your belly, where your soul lives. Blend it with your soul, infuse it. Transform it. This is the nature of cultivation; this is the secret to alchemy. Chi is in all things, but only through your soul can you turn it to the mana which is your will upon the world. Chi condensation is the transformation of the world’s soul into your own. Once that chi has been made into your own mana, now you must let your heart circulate it through your own mana channels throughout your body, carrying the power of the universe through your mortal flesh, transforming it into something purer, something stronger.”
Truly, William Fitzgerald had an alchemist’s soul. Once the chi had been forced into his body, and his third eye forced open by the Grand Master’s infusion, William began to force his soul into the incoming chi, his fumbling attempts only requiring the gentlest touch of Grand Master Bo’s own power to find the way to transform the external chi into internal mana. Once it began to flow, William’s own deepening frown showed that he felt and identified the sludge in his own mana channels of his own mortal impurities, and instinctively sought to purge it from his body. This one could be taught; it wasn’t enough to do a thing, he must understand it, apply it, and extend it. This one was driven to master any craft he took up. Grand Master Bo smiled.
Grand Master Bo turned to Andrea Proske, her hair was spun gold, her face peasant tanned, her body fit like a swordswoman even if she had never held a weapon. She claimed to have rowed competitively, which seemed absurd on the face of it, yet the Grand Master knew that chi could infuse even the most common practices with power, indeed, musicians could shatter limbs or even armies with notes from the harp, and the dance of a fan dancer could cut down forests. However foolish her own world’s practice had been, the discipline it had worked in her, the union of flesh and will, the harmony it had built within her was, in this world, a powerful thing.
He knelt before her, his eyes growing wide. A pinprick was shining in her third eye as she sought to create within herself the breakthrough he had described as he forced it upon the others. She drew not a storm of chi into herself, but a slow stream.
Placing his hand on her chest between her breasts, he felt her mana heart. Her core had not formed of course, but the whisper of a current was there. She sought to force the tiniest bit of chi that she could move to follow the paths he spoke of. She sought not to tear open the mana channels but to learn them.
“Good, good. Feel the mana that is within you, this is your soul. Feel the chi that you draw in with every breath. Pull it inside you with every breath, bring it into you. Let it fill you, know it as yours, flow with it. Flow with it as your mana seeks the pathways through your body. These are your meridians, the pathways your chi will run, the pathways your mana has solidified in without the chi to make it liquid and to flow. Power must flow, and you must direct it, guide it. You cannot resist it, for the whole power of the universe is in that flow, yet the mightiest river can be tamed by offering it a path you open before it, a path you shape and guide. Use your will to shape the path, then let the power of chi open the path of the blockages before it. Guide the stream with your will, then when the torrent of the river follows, it will clear all the blockages before it.”
Andrea Proske did not struggle, did not scream, she smiled. The pinhole in her third eye became an iris, slowly opening as the flow of chi into her gently flowed into the tiniest pathways formed by her will and the whisper of her own mana already circulating. Chi flowed and mixed with mana, moving not with the shattering power of a breaking dam, but with the gentle carving of a mature river slowly nibbling at its banks to make a gentler and swifter path.
Grand Master Bo looked at her and saw the techniques for the healing of damaged mana channels being used to open the paths of a disciple. What must her affinity with water and wood be like to use natural healing chi for her own breakthrough? What was supposed to be a shattering and brutal transformational experience had been made a moment of serene healing and peace.
Cupping his fist to his hand, he bowed to his disciple, unseen. The other masters and adepts would be scandalized to see the Grand Master bow to a mere disciple, but this one had reminded him that there were more paths to enlightenment than the pursuit of power alone.