Year 658 of the Stable Era,
Fourteenth day of the tenth month
Half past the 11th Outer Hour:
“So, class, it’s time to review what we’ve learnt today,” Yeung Lin said, wiping the board clean with a quick motion. His hand began to sketch a new diagram while he turned to the class. “Can anyone tell me what the names of the three pillars of cultivation are?”
A few hands went up with calls of ‘pick me, pick me’, and after a moment or two of hmmming and humming, he picked a hand from the back.
“Jin Tai!”
“Umm, uh, body cultivation, qi cultivation and, uh, brain cultivation!” Jin Tai exclaimed, triumphantly crossing his arms.
“That’s close,” Yeung Lin said, chalk barely squeaking as he wrote the two correct answers on board. “You’re just a little off on one of them. Would you mind trying it again?”
Jin Tai scrunched his brow as he furiously thought, a bead of sweat almost breaking as he wracked his brain before inspiration hit him. “Mind cultivation!”
“Very good,” Yeung Lin said, labelling the last pillar with a flourish. Despite the detail of the chalk pillars, he’d drawn below it, his script was simple and clean, bereft of any excessive splashes or lines. The class tended to respond better when he added detail to his work, but he wanted to avoid making it too hard to read his characters, so this was his compromise. “Now, can anyone tell me the names of the first stages?”
Again the hands went up, and again, after a moment or two of exaggerated deliberation, he selected his next student.
“Zhu Min.” The rest of the students lowered their hands dejectedly.
“Um, bahdy tempwing, qi gathwing, and mind wecognition!” Zhu Min recited, excited to have her answers ready.
“Yes, very good,” Yeung Lin replied, writing the names on the board. He made sure to enunciate each name clearly as he read each aloud. “The first stages of cultivation are indeed Body Tempering, Qi Gathering and Mind Recognition. The stage you reach when you finally unlock your ability to cultivate. When you shape your body, become able to store qi in your body, and where you become aware of the true potential of your mind. Now, who can tell me the names of the second stages of cultivation?”
“Me, me! I know” a voice yelled.
“Now Chu Bai, you know what the rules are about calling out,” Yeung Lin gently scolded. “If we all just yelled whenever we wanted, what would we have?”
“Chaos and disorder,” the class chorused.
“Very good, now, let’s try that again. Class, can anyone tell me the names of the second stage of cultivation?” Yeung Lin said.
Several hands went up, and after a bit of hesitation, one more hand in the back joined them.
“Yes, Chu Bai. What are the names of the second stage of cultivation?” Lin asked.
“Body Refining, Qi Refining, and Mind Refining, shifu” she answered, hands nervously clasped behind her back.
“Very good,” Lin said again, writing each name in their respective places. “Yes, to reach the second stage of cultivation one must move past simply forming each pillar, and on to refining your abilities. Your muscles grow beyond their mortal limits. Your mind becomes ever sharper. And you go from simply storing qi to refining it into your own. And what begins after this stage?” He motioned for the class to answer as a group.
“Triblations!”
“Twibulations!”
“Tribulations!”
“Correct! As a cultivator approaches the third stage of cultivation, they begin to truly defy the heavens. And in their eyes such defiance is folly, and so they seek to strike us down with blows of flood, thunder, and flame. From the third stage onwards, each ascension will be accompanied by tribulations. Remember that class. The higher we climb towards them, the more strongly they rebuff.”
The class nodded in affirmation, each trying to imagine being the epicenter of those awe-inspiring displays that they’d seen so often in the distance. That had raised so many they knew to new heights, and taken just as many away from them forever.
“Now,” Lin asked, moving along to the next topic, “What are the names of these stages? Guihan Bo, what is the third stage of body cultivation?”
“Body Refining turns into Body Moulding!” the child obediently answered.
“That’s correct,” Yeung Lin commended, adding it to the diagram. “The stage where you break your body’s limits and begin to reshape it to your will.” He held up his hand, each nail slowly shifting to lustrous gold before he changed them back with a snap of his fingers. The class cheered at that, always eager to see a practical demonstration of cultivation. “Now, what is the next stage of qi cultivation? Li Lee.”
The child at the back of the class looked startled at his selection, as he hadn’t been raising his hand. “Um, um, um… Core Formation?”
“Yes, indeed! And what does a cultivator do when they form their Core?” The class was silent, a few noticeably scratching their heads as they tried to think of the answer. Eventually, realizing that this was just going to needlessly prolong things, Yeung Lin answered it himself.
“The Core Formation stage is when a cultivator condenses their qi inside of themselves into a new form, and becomes able to start generating and forming it on their own. It is shaped by their Dao and their cultivation method. Some are simple, some complex, but all hold a profound meaning to their creator.” His fingers danced as they conjured a cloud of glowing motes, slowly coalescing into a smooth sphere. As the class cheered, he made its shape change, forming a simple sword, a fancy fan and then a spinning pentagram.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“The next stage of mind cultivation is the Mind Coalescing stage, when you become able to reach out to the minds of others, and to truly begin to unlock its power.” He made the chalk write this answer on the board with his mind, his illusion forming glowing rays behind his head as he did.
The latter stages of mind cultivation were always harder to explain to the youth classes, so he’d learnt to simply explain them himself. It was hard for the kids to understand the ways that a truly trained intellect could affect cultivation, so he also tended to exaggerate its appearance.
But just a little bit. Not enough to alter their perception of it too much.
“And after Mind Coalescing comes the Mind Materializing stage, when a cultivator can bring their very thoughts to life, in both the minds of others and the world around them,” Yeung Lin continued, “Now, can anyone tell me the fourth stage of body cultivation? Guihan Bo.”
“Body Reshaping!” the child excitedly answered, tail wagging as she jumped up and down.
“Very good, very good. Yes, the Body Reshaping stage, where a cultivator truly becomes their ideal selves. Do you all remember Elder Chou Biming?”
The class nodded. The elder had been at the opening ceremony for their school year, and his shiny jade skin had left a strong impression. It had been so shiny and smooth. He had also brought candy fruits, which had been yummy.
“The elder has spent centuries mastering the Teal Mountain Sect’s techniques,” Yeung Lin continued, “and as he grew closer to the Teal Jade Arts, so too did his affinity for the stone itself. When he was a Body Moulding cultivator it is said that he changed his bones to jade, and his eyes to crystal to become closer to the truth of stone. When his cultivation ascended, he abandoned his flesh for stone, becoming one with jade itself. It is not often that a cultivator becomes so completely unified with their art, but…”
He trailed off as he realized that he needed to return to the topic at hand before he forgot the forest for a tree. This lesson was meant to be about cultivation stages, after all, and this was not the best audience to discuss the philosophies of the divergences of late-stage cultivation paths. “Now, can anyone tell me the fourth stage of qi cultivation? How about you, Ye Kuo.” Yeung Lin pointed to a boy fiddling with something in his hands as he spoke, the student glancing up at his name.
“The Nascent Soul Formation stage, shifu,” Ye Kuo answered, his hands stilling as he spoke, “the stage where a cultivator and their qi become one.”
“Well spoken, Ye Kuo,” Yeung Lin complimented with a smile, “you must have an excellent teacher.” He let the class laugh at his joke before he continued. “Yes, the Nascent Soul stage is indeed when a cultivator becomes one with their qi, guided by the code of the Dao Path they have chosen to follow. No two are quite the same, as they are shaped by the lives of their wielders, but each touches the truth of the Dao in its own profound way.”
“What’s your Dao shifu?” an excited student asked.
“I bet it’s the coolest Dao!”
“It’s probably just books.”
“Fire! No, no, Illusions!”
“Expwosions!”
“The Divine Snake’s Art of Heavenly Rains and Storms!”
“Formations, it has to be! My daddy said that only formation cultivators write as much as he does!”
“Now, now class,” Yeung Lin said, waving his arms to calm them down, “it’s quite rude to ask a cultivator about their Dao. It’s a very personal thing, a true sliver of one’s self. Some might boast theirs to the heavens and back, but those are the exception, not the rule. You can cause great offense if you were to ask another cultivator that, so you should never do it unless you’re very close. Do you understand?” He gave the class a serious face, exaggerating the frown of his brow to a goofy degree once he realized that he’d perhaps been too harsh.
“Now, that’s enough lessons for today. There’s not quite enough time to talk about the Void Stage today, so we’ll save discussion of that and the Immortal stage for next class. But seeing as how you were all so good during your lessons, how about a little treat?”
Reaching into the storage ring on his right hand, Yeung Lin produced a small sheaf of white paper, and a delicate pair of silver scissors, with shining blades and a grip adorned with delicately sculpted butterflies and flowers. He usually preferred unadorned tools for simplicity’s sake, but the children loved them, so he made an exception. With practiced motions he folded and cut the sheets, a buzz of excitement went through the class as they watched, knowing what would come next.
He drew his left-hand forwards dramatically with the last cut, pulling the scraps into the ring of the hand holding them as he did. To the class as though all the excess had simply vanished, leaving nothing but a neat pile of cut shapes on his right palm. Taking a breath, he breathed qi and life into the paper. One by one, they began to fold in half, experimentally flapping their wings before they flew from the top and began to flutter about the classroom. His students began to excitedly chase after them, decorum forgotten as they began to pursue the paper butterflies with youthful exuberance.
With his older students he tended to chant his charms, so that they could learn from his example, and work to improve their speed. With the younger ones… Well, they could appreciate the wonder of cultivation better at their age, so some things were just better left unsaid. As he stored his scissors in his ring, he felt a tug on his robe. Looking down, he found Ye Kuo there, one hand behind his back.
“Yes, Ye Kuo?” Yeung Lin asked, keeping one eye on the rest of the students to ensure that they didn’t bump into anything while they chased their new toys.
“Shifu, could you bring Mr. Butterfly to life again?” Ye Kuo asked, holding up his other hand. In it was a familiar paper butterfly, slightly yellowed with age and decorated with crudely painted flowers and knot patterns. He had been holding onto it for the last year, ever since his first class with his shifu, and always asked him to animate it when he did ‘butterfly time’ with the class. The student clearly cared for the small paper insect, despite its disposable nature, always careful to protect and retrieve it after every class.
“You really care about Mr. Butterfly, don’t you,” Yeung Lin said, taking it from his hands. There were few creases or folds in it, a sign that he’d been keeping it pressed in a book or similar object to preserve it. “Now, you know what they say about attachments and cultivation, don’t you.”
“Yes shifu,” Ye Kuo said, looking down. “Beware the ties that bind, closeness only brings the blade deeper when they snap.”
“Indeed,” Yeung Lin said, looking at the paper in his hand again. “One must be careful of attachments on the road of cultivation. Loss can lead to inner demons, so a cultivator must be careful not to become too attached to the people or things around them.”
Ye Kuo looked down dejectedly.
“However, one must be careful to avoid lacking attachment as well, for without it, one may become unable to find purpose.”
Ye Kuo perked up at this, to see his shifu holding a fresh piece of paper and a pen.
“Without passion, one cannot pursue the path of cultivation. Without goals to strive towards, a desire for knowledge and the passion for life in our hearts, we are hollow. To simply become attached for emotion’s sake is a dangerous act, but to become attached because of a closeness to an art is no sin.” With deft strokes Yeung Lin began to write, inscribing his characters with the intent and meaning of a technique he had learnt long ago.
He sketched the forms to use, the hand signs to make, and the steps to use them, before drying the ink with flick of his qi and folding the paper into a tiny square. Then, faster than any of his students could follow, he slipped it into the pocket of Ye Kuo’s robe, patting it gently to let his student know it was there.
Ye Kuo made to gasp, but managed to put his hand over his mouth before the sound escaped. Yeung Lin nodded at his discretion, before whispering the words of his technique, softly, so that only the two of them could hear.
“To flit, To flap, with gentle wings, fly true, fly free, on breath of sky.” With those last words, he breathed life and qi into the paper once again. It fluttered through the air before seemingly recognizing its constant companion, and landing on his shoulder. Ye Kuo cheered in excitement as it did, petting it gently as Yeung Lin spoke one last time.
“When you are alone, practice that technique. It is a mortal technique, so you may learn it before your body becomes able to use qi. All that stands in your way is practice and resolve. If Mr. Butterfly means so much to you, you should have the latter in abundance, so all that remains is practice. It may be a hard road, but taking it will teach you a valuable lesson on the path of cultivation.”
Ye Kuo nodded enthusiastically, and Mr. Butterfly seemed to nod with him. Yes, there was definitely the hint of an affinity there.
“Now go play,” Lin said, ruffling the top of his head, “and remember to keep this our little secret.”