“May I ask why you’re bringing me with you, Sir Lu?”
Hom How’s uncertain voice drifted up to Lu’s ears from somewhere in the undergrowth, drawing his eye down to the sea of grassy ferns. Dear me, I swear it wasn’t this bad two days ago.
“I felt it would be useful to have an assistant who can use qi. Specifically, one who can do so without a dantian of their own.” Lu’s foot caught on a root, and he spent a moment untangling himself as the rustling behind him grew closer. “Given the intersection of those two criteria, there really weren’t too many people to choose from.”
Hom How’s head popped up, leaves comically stuck in his hair. “Ah, I understand… Though, I don’t suppose you could bring us there with your treasure, rather than walking?”
A mildly icy wind blew through the light forest, and Lu’s nose wrinkled. “Yes, that would probably be faster.” Seriously, what’s up with this plant growth? It’s the back half of winter!
His flying treasure was extruded from his bag by the effort of his sense as Hom How looked on, his eyes wide. “Telekinesis? I thought you were only..?”
“A side effect of the ki exposure. You and the others should be able to do it early as well.” Drawing his sense back into his body, Lu’s expression softened at the sight of the damaged board. He had taken some time attempting to repair it, but his efforts had proven mostly superficial; while it no longer looked charred and cracked along the underside, it still operated with only a tiny sliver of the efficiency it once had. And of course, it isn’t worth the time to learn advanced formations just to repair a single treasure.
I’ll have to see how many cores are left over after I’m done with my cultivation spree. Hopefully I can hire a specialist to do some work…
He and his student boarded the treasure, and they took off with a halting series of bursts. The controls fought him every step of the way as they flew through the air, resulting in a pace that was faster than a jog but slower than a sprint. Ugh. I’m going to be soaked through with sweat by the time we land. At least the weight reduction is working correctly, so if we crash even Hom How should be fine… Looking down and around, Lu saw that there was definitely something anomalous to the growth of the underbrush; it was confined to a circular area around the village, stopping quite abruptly at a certain point as though a circle had been drawn around the settlement. It isn’t hitting the anti-divination and containment barriers, those are still well in front of us. A leak? Runoff from their farms? I hope nothing’s gotten into the water.
Ignoring the mystery for the moment, Lu bent his mental effort towards moving in a consistent direction, and within minutes the two of them were in the wide field he was using as a training area – which is also completely overgrown, oh dear.
They stepped off, and Lu placed the treasure back into his pouch manually – he simply didn’t have any brainpower left to spare for telekinesis. “Greetings, students. I hope you’ve been well these past few days – and on that note, does anyone know what’s going on with this unseasonable growth spurt?” What had previously been an ordinary field sparsely populated by grass and mountain scrub now looked like an idyllic hidden valley untouched by man, with stalks and saplings reaching up over a metre high. The four warriors seemed unbothered by the greenery – which is a reasonably position to take, Lu thought, when it only reaches one’s hips, rather than shoulders.
Another cold breeze punctuated his statement as the four warriors traded looks amongst each other.
Finally, Eighteen-Coloured Entrails, the thinner man with the tusks of a boar, shuffled forward. “Okay, but you have to promise not to get mad.”
Lu’s jaw slackened. “Are you saying that..? You did this?”
The man reached up to scratch his cheek. “No. Well… A little bit.” The translation treasure encircling his throat rendered his voice in firm, cultured tones, quite dissimilar from Bo’s lazy drawl. Lu wouldn’t describe it as deep, exactly, but it was definitely on the other side of high – and entirely unsuited to the embarrassed words its owner was speaking. “The Clanboss had us repeat everything that was in your lesson, then gave it to the Warbosses. It was them who, well…” He made a short sweeping gesture. “It was mostly the shamans, you understand. Those guys have been going crazy ever since we left the swamp.”
Lu continued to look up at the man for a moment. I… think I’m just going to skip over this. Yes, if there are any problems, they’re the sect’s responsibility! “Were they able to make any forward progress?”
Entrails shook his head. “Nothing they told us about, or that we could feel.”
Damn, that would have been useful – though I suppose I would have been unsatisfied with having my expenditure of time and spirit stones be for naught. “Well, alright then. I and my friends have come up with some experiments to run, so let’s get to it-” A rustling from over his shoulder, as his child-sized companion picked his way through the dense foliage. “Ah, and I suppose I should introduce Hom How. Everyone, this is Hom How, an inner disciple who is also my student; he currently has no dantian, so I felt he would be a good example of how to use qi without one.”
“Greetings,” came a young voice from under the sea of green stems and leaves. A slightly unkempt bowl-shaped haircut emerged as he cleared away some of the obstruction with his arms. “I am glad to meet you.”
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After taking some time to clear out a space – most of the work being done by Sir Entrails, who simply used a plant-controlling technique to move them away – the lesson began.
“I believe that the primary impediment to your controlling qi lies not in its diffuse nature, but rather the, for lack of a better term, blandness of said nature. While ki is produced according to environmental factors, qi is universal; the energy present in a volcano will be no more fire-touched than that of energy found in the deep sea, or the top of a tall tower.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“This is a problem, I believe,” or I’ve been convinced, at least, “Because this property of qi makes it very similar to the ki produced as waste after a technique is used. As such, it is very possible that your bodies are following their natural physiology, and simply expelling it as a contaminant.” Lu allowed a small smile. “The answer to this is then obvious: simply give the qi an aspect, a flavour which your bodies will find palatable.”
With a twist of qi and some of his replenishing mental effort, a ball of thick mist coalesced over his arm, hiding it from view. “Obscuring Mist Trap, cast at the second realm. As it passes through the various qi forms – something to talk about later – the qi takes on certain properties, or effects. I’m currently holding the spell back from completing, but if it does, the qi will be expended to become actual water.” And to induce mild vertigo in an area, but that isn’t as important right now. “At the moment, it remains qi, merely with certain water-like properties.” The mass of fog slid up and away from his arm, compacting further until it was only slightly larger than his head. “Bo, come see if you can do anything with this.”
With an eager look the warrior approached. He placed his hand near the sphere, then leaned down to scent the air.
“It’s different. Yeah, it feels real different.” His brows furrowed and his teeth clenched, Bo made a fist. As he did, Lu felt something happening – it wasn’t a ki fluctuation, the spiritual atmosphere wasn’t nearly dense enough, but it was something similar. His spell pulsed and rippled, and like actual water slipping from his grip, the connection he held to the spell disappeared from his mental awareness.
The fog expanded and contracted violently, writhing like a worm on a hook as sweat beaded on Bo’s brow. With a savage grunt he brought his hands together, and the Concealing Mist Trap activated, blanketing the clearing in a cold and soggy aura. Lu immediately lost track of where everything had been a moment ago, the illusory component clouding his sense of direction.
“Ah, very good for a first try.” Lu heard a dull thud from somewhere in front. “I think that proves it’s viable at least. Don’t try and find the edge, it will disappear on its own in a moment-”
Suddenly, the moisture in the air was drawn together to a single point. Bo held the globe of water, no larger than the pad of his thumb, up to his eyes for a moment. Then he popped it into his mouth and swallowed in a single swift motion, his face considering.
“Hmm. Jus’ water, now, I think. No energy.” He licked his lips. “But I was like half-way to doing something there. Try it again?”
Lu nodded, baring his teeth in a grin. “Yes, absolutely.”
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Though Lu had proved the theory, it was Hom How who provided the bulk of the warrior students with inspiration for casting their own spells. With no dantian of his own, the young-looking man was forced to cast directly from the ambient qi – a feat that Lu found himself impressed by.
I wasn’t able to do that as a mortal, no matter how hard I tried while starving out in that hellish bog. It wasn’t just the lack of raw mental effort that a mortal possessed which made things difficult, but the need to impress the qi into forms outside the controlled environment of one’s mind. Maybe I could do it now – my spellwork is on a higher level than the me of back then – but probably not like this.
Hom How’s mouth was a flat line as he drew in a breath, qi swirling about him like drops of ink circling a drain. He extended his hand, and the flat of his palm became silvery, then truly reflective. Just a first realm spell, but still. He really is a genius.
“Pardon, brother Rodriguez,” he panted. “I’m not certain exactly how to parse ‘reflection’ as an aspect of qi. This Light-Deflecting Palm has forms that are common in many mirror-like arts; I hope it suffices.”
Hom How’s spell repertoire was actually much smaller than Lu would have assumed; when it came to water arts, he knew only a pair: Flowing Rain Thread, an extremely basic elemental attack that was functionally useless as anything other than a tool to help memorise forms, and Pool Purification Art, which removed contaminants from standing water. When it came to more esoteric elements such as poison or plantlife, he was completely stumped.
But his demonstrations seemed to be appreciated regardless. Sir Rod knelt down, examining Hom How’s slender hand with intense focus. He moved his fingers in jerky motions as his face scrunched several ways in quick succession. Then he blew out a breath, sitting back.
Hom How allowed his spell to cease, stepping back to recover while Lu stepped forward. “Anything?”
In lieu of a verbal reply, the man held up his hand. His fingers snapped, and a small spark drifted down like a snowflake, disappearing after a second.
“Ah!” There it was, a proper spell! Or perhaps proper was the incorrect word; the man’s art had been barely worthy of the term, the single form he had managed to build shaky and misshapen. “Very impressive!” If the ‘spell’ he had cast had any name, Lu was unaware of it, but the form was one he was familiar with. The only effect is a small point of light, without substance and of poor duration. Not much easier than a Fairy Light, and a fraction as useful. But still, it was a spell! “Congratulations, Sir Rod, you’re the first member of your species to create a spellform! How does it feel?”
The lightning-patterned man grunted; evidently, some of his boisterous spirit had been drained by the attempt. “Is it supposed to be hard? I felt like I was trying to catch a fly with my tongue.”
Lu made a face at the colourful metaphor, but his enthusiasm pushed past it after a moment. “Yes, without a dantian it’s quite difficult. Though with your person being elevated by consumption, it isn’t as though you’re a mortal. “Honestly, I don’t entirely understand how you’re moving the qi through the mental form without a spiritual sense, but I suppose I’ll leave that mystery for another day. Again, very impressive. The next thing we’ll try will be internalising the qi rather than casting with it, but for now let’s give you a rest.”
The man all but flopped over, the only sign he was still conscious a thumbs-up before his arm, too, hit the ground.
Lu turned, and looked over his other three students. Bo and Sir Entrails were trying to move a ball of water-aspected qi, whose spellform Lu had kludged together on the spot. And on the other side of the clearing was Sir Yon, his waddle flapping as he tried to cast Dancing Sparks. He may or may not have been making progress; it seemed that the spell was so similar to the counterpart technique Destructive Sparks, he had trouble differentiating them.
That was why he was off to the side; every second or third attempt, he would instinctively use the technique and obliterate a section of forest.
Well, it’s progress. I’ll let them practice a little longer, then take a break, and then it’ll be back to trying to condense their dantians. His eyes went up, tracking the movement of the sun across the sky. Yes, we should have a few hours left at least. Then his eyes went down, and caught on the slight form of Hom How, quietly meditating with sweat still soaking his hair and collar. Though I might need to take Hom How back early. Perhaps I asked too much of him, in doing this for me without any compensation?
Ah, I’ll just treat him to a meal or something. More importantly, I'll need to thank Lady Winter Blossom for her help. I wonder if wine would be too forward, or..?