Chapter 31: Contradictions

"Okay, all of you start your exercises"

Dina was looking at everyone in class. The progress of her students was rapidly going along. Most of the specialists have moved on to the Manipulation Stage. The dualists in class were all in the Movement Stage. The triad, Zachery, was also in the Movement Stage. He was already in the Gathering Stage before most specialist were only in the Sensing Stage, so it was not that surprising that he was also in the movement stage.

As for the other two students, she estimated that Grifford had entered the Sensing Stage, but as for Teo she had no hope. Every class, they would take their meditation pose but Dina could not sense any changes in them.

At the beginning of the year, Teo would often meditate earnestly during class. When his Sensing Stage progressed to being able to see elemental auras he completely stopped his meditation and moved into the inner world to meditate instead. From his point of view, meditating within the inner world was more beneficial because of the thick world Qi.

“Master Cien, can you bring me in?”

Teo tried to mentally message the old man but after some time, there was no response. Teo then remembered what his master told him earlier this morning.

'He was going into the pagoda? He can't hear me when he is inside?'

Teo was troubled. Besides when he was kicked out by inciting the old man's anger before, he had always been able to contact the old man. He recalled that his master once said that if he could control his Qi, he should be able to go into the world by himself, but he looked at himself. His arms and chest didn't exude any aura.

With his new upgraded vision, he could see that most people had an aura. The thickness of their aura indicated the amount of Qi the person had. Elementalists absorbed specific auras that usually had a specific color but non-elementalists who had aura had a gray aura around them, but Teo did not find any aura on him at all.

Since he had gained his upgraded vision through the power of the 'Revealing Heavens' array, he decided to start practicing the breathing techniques that Dina taught before. He closed his eyes and started breathing.

-Inhale- -Exhale-

A rhythmic pattern was formed as he practiced. He could absorb world Qi through his breathe, but the amount of Qi was the lowest since the breathing technique was the most basic. Other more advance techniques required one to use his own Qi to easily absorb world Qi, but these techniques were not taught in class.

Dina who was overseeing everyone's practice was attracted by Teo's actions.

'Breathing techniques? Why has he moved on to breathing techniques already?'

She quietly approached Teo so that others would not be disturbed and gently tapped Teo's shoulder.

Teo who felt this tap stopped his unique breathing and opened his eyes. He was surprised that Dina was in front of him gesturing to follow him.

Teo followed Dina to the front of the class, far away from other students. If they spoke quietly, other students shouldn't be disturbed at all.

“Teo how come you've started breathing techniques?”

“Ms Dina, I thought I might need some Qi too”

“What about your sensing stage?”

Sensing stage for pures were very important, non-combatants usually don't practice breathing techniques so when she saw Teo practicing breathing techniques she had a feeling that Teo might have chosen to become a cultivator instead. But since this was an elementalist class, she didn't approve of students practicing other things besides what was related to class.

Although breathing techniques were required by elementalists, they were only for non-combatants. She  assumed that Teo was skipping out on his Sensing stage meditation exercises because he was bored of it.

“I have completed it” Teo replied

“Completed it?”

Teo's response to her question did not register that quickly because she was expecting a different answer, but when she finally realized his response, she was very skeptical

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'This child was always like this?' she thought

“Teo, lying to your seniors and elders is not good”

She thought that Teo was lying. How could someone with such a low growth potential complete the Sensing stage already?

Although Teo's sensing stage became complete through the help of his master, he felt that he was being wronged by Dina's scolding.

“Even if you want to become a cultivator, in this class you must practice elementalist exercises. I won't allow you to skip ahead”

“But I did complete it”

Teo insisted that he completed it, and Dina didn't believe it but she decided to humor Teo. She gathered Wind elemental Qi into the air and wrote a question behind her and waited

Teo who sensed the Wind elemental energy forming quickly activated his eyes. Although he was only at the stage of being able to sense the aura of the elemental energy, with his activated eyes he could clearly see the energies.

'Can you really see this?' The words were written with wind elemental energy

Teo replied “Yes”

“?” Dina was surprised, but was not convinced

'Is it coincidence? Did he guess my question? Is it too easy to guess?' she thought and quickly changed the question

'Where are you from?'

“Char Village”

With Teo's response Dina was dumbstruck. It confirmed that Teo could really read her questions, but she still was a little skeptical and changed the question again

'Can you really see this?'

“I can really see it”

“!!” Dina was shocked! Thoughts ran through her head. Did they perform the divination rite correctly? How is it possible that a child with such low growth potential master it completely within a year?!

This was completely unheard of. Even specialist, if they would want to completely master the sensing stage it would take around 6 months. Most of the specialist in class moved onto the next stages without completely mastering it, but a pure generalist who could master it at the same pace as a specialist?

Dina was stunned for a long while. Teo just stood there and waited.

After coming back to her senses, Dina quickly checked Teo again and found something strange. Dina could easily tell if a person mastered a sensing stage because they would produce a unique rhythm in their Qi, but Teo clearly had weaker Qi the other students. Teo's Qi was so weak that it was hardly detectable, like a new born baby.

'Could it be that it is so weak that she could not detect it?' She thought but quickly dismissed it. Impossible! Sensing stage required a person to use his senses to sense the elemental pulses. Upon mastering the stage, the person's Qi would act as another organ to sense the elemental energies. The person's Qi would emit a unique rhythm but this rhythm was not within Teo.

Teo could answer 3 questions correctly, but she could clearly see that Teo's minuscule Qi did not have the rhythm at all. She was confused!

She reorganized her thoughts and listed the possibilities. First, the divination rite was done incorrectly, this would explain Teo's progress but not the lack of rhythm on his Qi. Second, Teo was completely guessing what the questions were. Although it was highly unlikely, it was still very possible. Third, Teo was unique. But after some thought she thought that Teo was indeed unique. A pure generalist with only a growth rate of 1s was unique on its own. Perhaps he didn't follow the normal conventions, but this was very unlikely. She trusted the divination rite completely. It was a never changing fact that the results from the divination rite was always true.

After pondering for such a long time she said to Teo

“Okay, you can practice your breathing technique, but stay after class”

[Author's Note: Sorry for the slow chapter, some RL stuff happened, I'll try to bring out a chapter daily but there might be a few bumps for a while]