For a minute after entering, Lu simply stood and observed the chamber.
At first glance, it didn’t appear to be anything special; just a smallish room, lit well by a crystal chandelier and with a single cushioned seat placed in the centre – but on closer examination one would notice that the chandelier’s candles burned with a strange chemical scent, that the silver filigree patterns hid numerous forms worked into the very walls, and further, that each metallic curve was indeed the real metal, rather than mere paint.
He took a breath, the air feeling like a washcloth scrubbing clean the inside of his lungs. It was harsh, but not in a bad way. The effect of the medicinal smoke, drifting down from above. Almost immediately, his head felt clearer, sharper.
He stepped lightly over to the low, plush-looking chair set facing the door. It was covered entirely by silver-white velvet, and when Lu reached down to touch the place where his head would rest, he found it fuzzy to the point where he had trouble sliding his finger over the fabric. Incomparable. I almost feel bad for sitting on it. He turned and, with a smile, placed himself on his new throne.
The qi gathering formations, the medicinal smoke, the impossible softness of his seat. Everything combined to make him feel an incredible awareness, as though every cell of his body was opening its eyes and ears. I’ve never felt so… present, in my body. It’s almost the exact antithesis to my Numbing Illusion – I feel like I could do anything in this room, and I’d succeed on the first try.
He felt like he was truly among the heavens, drifting on a cloud. Almost reluctantly, Lu closed his eyes and began the action he had come here to do. A beast core appeared in his hand with a twist of ki, but he didn’t draw on it yet – the air was already heavy, saturated with energy from the formations which had been running for however long this room had been left unused. Probably not very long; I can’t imagine the sect would just leave it here to languish.
He drew in a breath, and immediately his mind’s eye lit up with the radiance of the qi he had inhaled. With his breath held, he swirled the vapourous cloud into a whirlpool in his chest; it moved quickly, startlingly so, and Lu actually lost hold of that first breath in surprise. “That was..!” So easy! The qi drifted back into the atmosphere, only a fraction of the breath’s worth adhering to his tiny dantian.
Giddiness bid his heart to race even as the focus-enhancing drugs entering his brain through his lungs did the opposite, and it should have felt uncomfortable – but Lu felt nothing more than alive, manic energy restrained and concentrated into a sharp edge to cut through distraction. He drew in another breath, and cycled again, this time without issue.
For near thirty minutes he held his breath, qi gluing itself to his dantian’s minuscule surface area in layers, before he finished it with a spiritual kneading motion. The shining jewel in his chest grew just a hair, the new qi as compacted down as the old, the growth of his smile far outstripping it.
He breathed in, thirty minutes passed, he breathed out.
He breathed in, he breathed out.
In, out. In…
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Lu exited the chamber with a small unsteadiness to his footsteps, almost as though he were drunk. His head felt heavy and overfull – not quite painful, but close.
“Was the chamber to Master’s liking?”
Lu jumped at the feminine voice sounding out from his left, and the motion of his head flung tiny droplets of sweat from his nose and chin. “Nancho! Pardon, you- yes, it was quite lovely.” To the point I overindulged, perhaps. “I can’t imagine going back to standard cultivation after this.” He had gone through twenty cores at least, each cycle minutely increasing the amount of qi he could put into the next. With the smoke still making its way through his system, just remembering the feeling was like being transported into the past – but before a second had passed, an incongruous detail drew him back to the present. “Are you..? Carrying a ladder?”
The tall and broad woman nodded. “Yes, Master. To extinguish the candles.”
“Ah.” In comparison to the him of… however many hours ago, the Lu of the present felt sluggish and distractible, a feeling not helped at all by the hunger gnawing at his midsection. “Very good.” I assumed they were set up to light and extinguish automatically – wait, does this mean they had the chamber already set up when I got here? His brow tightened, but a growl from his stomach drew him to a more pressing concern. “Before I leave you to it, has dinner been prepared?”
“Yes, Master.” Her bland, servant-quality smile became the lightest touch wry. “Though I would call it breakfast, at this hour. Will you be eating in the dining room?”
Breakfast? I was cultivating for..? Belatedly, he noticed that Nancho’s clothes had changed from when he saw her last. Oh my, no wonder I’m so hungry. “I suppose I shall.”
“I’ll have my brother bring you your meal, then. It should be ready within five minutes.”
She bowed, and Lu nodded to dismiss her before he turned and made his way to the dining room.
Through the windows, he saw that the sky was awash with the golden light of morning. I must have been in there for at least eighteen hours. That’s… good? I think? His mind cast back to his bout with sickness in the wake of Bull’s abduction, but the grogginess he felt now seemed unrelated. Back then, he had been desperately cutting corners in a bid to jump realms before the rescue operation; now, he was just hungover from the aftereffects of the medicine. And starving. Both of my maladies are quite treatable, and there isn’t any reason for me to slow down so long as I take the occasional break.
Despite the pressure behind his eyes and the void in his gut, Lu smiled a wan smile. My life, for the moment, seems quite close to perfect. I wonder, is the feeling of some new disaster growing just out of sight mere paranoia, or simple pattern recognition?
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He was halfway through the dining room doors, when he realised he had completely forgotten about the second meeting of the consumption/cultivation think-tank.
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Tsushi’s cooking was as immaculate as Lu had been expecting, and it was a struggle not to inhale the fare with unseemly haste. How can roasted onions be this flavourful? Have I fallen into an illusion? This steak is even better than Bo’s cooking, and he’s a protein fanatic! It was a balm to his soul, even if it was slightly soggy; alas, even top-tier cookery couldn’t save the meal from degrading slightly in the time between when it was plated and when Lu returned from apologising for missing the meeting.
I should have put it in my purse before I left. Ah, truly hindsight is clearer than foresight. At least his friends hadn’t been mad; they all seemed some shade of bemused when they learned the reason behind his tardiness. I suppose that, being higher realm disciples themselves, they’ve probably all done the exact same thing.
After his breakfast, he took an additional break from the chamber with some alchemy. The house had come with a cauldron, but his own personal one was better – and with two extra pairs of hands preparing the ingredients, he was concocting pills almost as fast as he could read the recipes. By the time he was done an unsettling quantity of livers and poison berries had disappeared from his stores, transformed into a rainbow cascade of pills and tonics.
Then, as the sun hit its highest point, he went back in for a second, briefer session. According to Nancho each medicinal candle lasted a full twenty-four hours, and he was supplied with the same number each month, paid for by his rent. Four days of maximised cultivation each month, if I fill the chandelier completely. Which I should, since that’s the optimal dosage. If he needed more he could always buy them, but given that there were only eight days left until Year’s End, he felt that the amount he had was enough. Even without the alchemical assistance, the chamber on its own will speed up my cultivation by at least a third over the standard speed.
Exiting the chamber after a less rigorous four hours, he felt the aftereffects of the focus drugs less keenly. Amazing. If I keep this up, I'll ascend fifth realm faster than third. Why isn't everyone here in the core sect already?
Bull and Lan and three of his human students were suddenly much closer, and Lu spent two more days alternating between cultivation, his hobbies, and socialising. He rescheduled the meeting to after his next lesson, promising not to be late again.
Then it was time for said lesson.
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Lu’s head slowly turned from left to right, then back again. “My students; some of you already know one another, but for the benefit of those who do not, please introduce yourselves. Your name, your consumption, and,” the corners of his mouth tilted up, his stern instructor’s demeanour overpowered for a moment, “Your cultivation realms. Hom How, you begin.”
In front of him were a group of four lined up to his left, and a group of five doing the same to his right.
The young man cleared his throat, the back of his hand held to his mouth for a moment before he mastered his anxiety. “Greetings, sirs. I am Hom How, core disciple of the Steadfast Heart Sect. I consume… beauty, and I am currently mortal.” He bowed, the motion causing a black waterfall of hair to obscure both halves of his face. Ah, he should really cut that soon. I suppose that since he advanced so quickly the first time, he doesn’t know any local hairdressers; I’ll have to introduce him to someone. “I am pleased to make your acquaintance officially.”
Next was Ban Do, who bowed elegantly in his high-class robes, a playful look on his painted face. “Ban Do. Mine is the consumption of the sword, and I sit at the second realm of cultivation. I’m certain we’ll get along.”
Then a man with almost the exact same face. “I am Kai Hiien.” His bow was less elegant, but it seemed deliberate; he moved with the same martial grace as his sect brother, so the stiff motions were almost certainly a reflection of his personality. “And I also consume the sword. And, I am at the second realm as well.” Though his face was obscured with as much makeup as Ban Do’s, Kai Hiien’s features were unaccented; the only colour to him were his startlingly bright eyes, two rings of rich brown amidst a field of unbroken snow.
And capping off the humans, the lone woman in her red leather dress. “I am Jiendao. Consumption of lightning, third realm.” Her voice was cocky as she added, “Soon to be fourth.” In lieu of a bow, she nodded upwards. “Don’t think you’ll be catching up any time soon.”
Across from her, Bo bared his teeth in a grin that was both friendly and somewhat menacing. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that.” The human and warrior sized each other up for a moment, and it took Lu loudly clearing his throat to get the man to continue. “Oh, right. I’m Bo, son of Moe, and mine is the consumption of water. And I’m a first realm cultivator!” He thumped his chest.
And beside him, his clan brother mimicked the gesture. “Eighteen-Coloured Entrails,” introduced the tall but slender boar-tusked ogre. “I consume poisons, green matter, water, and mud, and I am a first realm cultivator.” His voice was more hesitant than Bo’s, but there was a conviction there as well. “I consider my mastery over energy to be well above average. As Bo said, we’ll see who catches up to who.”
Next was a warrior with a voice playful enough to match Ban Do’s, and Lu took a moment to be satisfied at the order in which he had lined everyone up; he hadn’t planned it, but the personalities paired together quite well if one squinted hard enough. “Fourth Rodriguez by the Light of the Moon. Pleased to meet’cha.” The black-and-yellow-skinned man had a grin, though his was less predatory than Bo’s. “Mine is the consumption of waters, and the reflections they hold. First realm, like everybody.”
And fourth in line, standing across from the most diminutive human, was the largest warrior. “I’m Big Dick Yon,” the giant proclaimed, pointing a thumb up at himself. The assembled cultivators – human cultivators; I should get in the habit of specifying, when in mixed company – blinked, Ban Do raising a sleeve to muffle a chuckle. “And I consume myself. I’m first realm too.” He brought his right arm up in a military salute. “For now. I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from each other.”
And then, lastly, a warrior much smaller than the others, standing near Lu without anyone opposite. Cobo was the only one still wearing a thick black cloak, and he spoke with a grimace on his face, almost as if being made to introduce himself like the other Salt natives was offensive to him.
“Cobo.” And then he turned left, showing Lu a sly twitch of the lips. Lu’s brows furrowed, and he was completely unprepared for the rest of his first student’s introduction. “Son of Lu. Consumption of chaos.” Son?! Cobo, I told you that I didn’t-! “And I’m not a cultivator.”
Lu was caught between conflicting emotions. Ah, he’s been holding me at arm’s length since I betrayed him… is this an attempt at proper reconciliation? But, I don’t want to call him son! I’m your master, you unruly disciple, master! And that’s it!
After changing shape several times, Lu’s face returned to its facade of sternness. “…Good introductions, everyone.” I’ll just leave it unacknowledged for now. “I’m sure you understand why you’re all here together, but I’ll spell it out anyway: humans, you are here to help the warriors understand cultivation. Warriors, you are here to help the humans with their consumption.
“By working together, we not only reaffirm the alliance between the sect and the clan, we not only show the Heavens that our two worlds are capable of coexisting, but we also stand to benefit from one another’s knowledge. Two heads are better than one, as they say.” And I simply don’t have the time to teach two separate classes on different days. Seriously, does Aiya Yu think I have a secret ambition to run a school, or something? “Everyone pair off for now, with the person across from them. We’ll swap things up as we move along, but first let's just describe our efforts to understand the other world’s energy and system to each other. Cobo, you’re with me.”