The administrative wing was, in Lu’s opinion, far and away the most aesthetically pleasing section of the sect. Greenery flourished in numerous indoor terraces, vines climbing towards the high windows a poignant metaphor for cultivators reaching towards Heaven. Rich carpets cushioned even the heaviest footfall; elaborate carvings on the crown and skirts adorned the walls, together with statues and works of high art; and if one were to look up, they would see beautiful frescoes painted into each ceiling.
Other sections of the sect were not without appeal, but the administrative wing was where it all came together. This was the first – and likely only – area any visitors would see, and one frequented by disciples of all kinds besides. It made perfect sense for the sect to give this wing special attention and privilege.
It’s just a shame that the people that work here don’t hold themselves to the same standard. Lu took a calming breath of pure, fresh air, before putting on his most charming smile and approaching the counter. Two clerks were present, a man and a woman, and after a moment’s hesitation he stepped in front of the man.
“Ah, Administrator Dan, nice day we’re having!” Dan, who had once ‘misplaced’ Lu’s Disciple Requisition Form R-202 three times in a row – surely an act of malice! – didn’t even look up. He continued to stamp documents, his eyes dead and lifeless. Beside him was Rio Din, who Lu was trying very hard not to make the slightest eye contact with as she frowned towards him. Let’s not have a repeat of the library incident. I promise I won’t approach you or anything, ma’am!
In tones as equally dead and lifeless as his eyes, Dan said, “What can I help you with today, sir?”
Lu’s smile attempted to curl up and die, but he soldiered on. “I would like to know the whereabouts of Elder Persimmon, who I was advised by Aiya Yu to meet with… For medical reasons.”
Finally, eyes made protruding and squinty from reading too many documents turned upwards. “Name and rank.” It was meant to be a question, but there was nothing even approaching inquisitiveness in the man’s voice.
“Lu,” wait I don’t even have a dantian anymore am I even a disciple oh Heavens don’t lie it’s not a lie I was never formally expelled so- “Outer disciple.”
The man stamped another form, than snapped his fingers. A small slip of paper floated down from above, and delicately placed itself on the counter in front of Lu. “The Elder is in the fourth courtyard of the formations and enchanting wing. Exact directions are on this slip, here.” His eyes slid down, and Lu’s heart resumed beating.
He bowed, low, and palmed the slip. “Thank you, Sir Administrator Dan. I won’t trouble you any further.” He did his best to exude confidence as he turned and made his way out, but he knew in his heart that Dan could smell the fear in him – all bureaucrats could, it was a prerequisite to the profession. And Rio Din is still frowning at my back. Ah, you invite a woman to a poetry reading while her lover is present just a few times, and then things spiral out of proportion. Shouldn’t you have mentioned you were off the market earlier? I’m not a mind-reader! But no, somehow it was his fault, and now he would just have to endure her distaste forever.
“Disciple Lu.” He turned. Though her expression was still unhappy, it was much more conflicted than he was used to. “I hope you make a full recovery.”
She ceased looking at him, going back to her own forms. He blinked and let out a belated “Ah, thank you,” before continuing.
…Well, that was nice. Ah, it must be that my long ordeal has reached the ears of the sect, predisposing them towards me! Good to know that, at the very least, I got a heroic story and some social standing out of it…
…Or she could just sense my mortality. Either-or.
----------------------------------------
Spells, formations, and enchantments were disciplines that had a broad overlap between both their function, and manufacture. But while spells, the superior art, needed only mental effort to construct, formations and enchantments required dedicated areas to store and refine materials. As such, spellwork and spell creation were taught to every disciple as a basic skill necessary to all cultivators, while the two derivatives were specialised in their own wing. It was similar to how herbalism and alchemy were bundled together, with the medical wing separate – though in that case, the medicinal arts were separated due to concerns of difficulty rather than resource imbalance.
On a practical level, this meant that the formations and enchanting wing had a lot of dusty storerooms, stuffy laboratories, and huge open spaces. The storage and laboratories for obvious reasons, and the courtyards to actually test arrays in field conditions – having to leave the sect every time one adjusted their incomplete formation would be incredibly tedious, after all. So Lu had to do a small bit of legwork, to get all the way to the fourth courtyard.
Ah, the joys of mountain living. Thankfully, he could activate his ki-reinforcement technique to increase his speed some. I wish I still had my network; I bet the enhanced version would increase my endurance as well. But no, he was down to just the one type of consumption – and soon, hopefully, he would be able to rebuild his dantian. He had been slightly nervous that being in a ki-free environment would have negative effects, but it seemed that his spiritual stomach was operating exactly the same as before. Better, maybe, since it had expanded to fill the space where his network had been. I still don’t have a good sense for how much ki I have… But at least it didn’t burst the way my dantian did when I crossed over, thank the Heavens.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
But eventually, after some light uphill jogging, he made it to his destination. Courtyard four was an open-air testing area, bound by only a waist-high wall of stones. A thick tangle of lines hanging in the air was clearly visible, as was the man manipulating them.
Lu approached leisurely, making sure there was no evidence of his earlier exercise. “Elder Persimmon? Apologies for intruding, but the Head Biologist suggested I speak to you. Something regarding my cultivation?”
The Elder took his time answering, continuing to make adjustments to the formation. Lu didn’t mind – it was actually quite interesting. He had only a superficial knowledge of formation work himself, but based on what forms were in what order… Something with a mental effect? No, a soul effect. That corner has an emphasis on water-aligned forms, and opposite that is a snarl that resembles Unbreakable Bastion, though I don’t recognise the anchoring form…
Where spells were one-dimensional, existing as a single line within the mind where only order and realm mattered, most formations were two-dimensional. Not only was the order of forms important, but the distance and angle between forms altered their effects as well. And then there were truly complex formations, like the one the Elder was working on, that extended into the third dimension. Forms flowed like blood through a circulatory system, leading into and out of each other, even splitting into multiple streams or converging together. Parsing it was like trying to read a book where the meaning of words changed based on each surrounding word, and where the direction to read in changed erratically with little indication. Lu could grasp small pieces of it, individual sentences here and there, but the book as a whole was far beyond him.
“Yes, I was wondering when you would show up. You’re a bit earlier than I thought you would be.” He waved his hand, and a stream of forms split off to join a different tributary. “Can you guess what I’m work on, right here?”
Lu gave the formation another once-over, but nothing new presented itself. “Honoured Elder, my comprehension is lacking. All I can tell… Is that it likely has something to do with the soul.” Probably. There are a lot of forms here I don’t know – restricted to higher disciples, maybe?
Elder Persimmon nodded distractedly. “Yes, good work. At the moment, I am,” another wave, and the entire structure flipped, “Attempting to recreate the effect that the foreign qi has had on your soul. It persists even now that you’ve returned, which means it should be possible to understand from this side.”
Lu gulped. My soul? “Is Elder referring to my Heart Demon, perhaps?”
“Yes. You having a Heart Demon should be impossible – do you know why?”
“Ah…” His eyebrows scrunched. “Not completely. I know that a Heart Demon cannot manifest below the fourth realm, but the exact mechanics…” I didn’t think I would ever have to worry about it, so I avoided the topic.
Another nod. “A Heart Demon is a malady of the soul. One could compare it to a particular type of allergic reaction; one part of the self, mistaking a different part for an invader and striking at it. But in the case of the Heart Demon, it is the soul striking itself, rather than the body.”
Another restructuring of the formation. Lu waited patiently, and anxiously, for the man to continue. Please Honoured Elder, don’t leave me with half an explanation!
“A mortal’s soul is a weak thing. Even if it strikes itself, the mortal has no cause for fear; their mind and body will shield them from damage. A cultivator of the outer realms is similar; though it is possible, theoretically, for a Heart Demon to manifest in any realm, it would take an inordinate amount of conflict to germinate so early – such mental strain would kill a person long before a demon could grow.” For the first time, the man turned away from his formation. “But when one enters the inner realms, their soul begins to catch up. A strike from a fourth realm is just enough to crack it, a miniscule amount.”
The Elder’s gaze was intense. Lu felt a spiritual sense passing over him, like hot wind blowing through wet hair. “Elder, you are saying that my soul has actually been… Strengthened, somehow?”
A nod, but this time sharp and present. “On the face of it, it seems like a boon. But you lack the mental resiliency that a higher realm brings – and perhaps even more importantly, you lack the physical resiliency to keep a fractured soul from harming your body. If you continue without treatment, it will rip you apart.”
Lu suppressed a shudder. The itch in my bones… “Ah, my understanding was that Heart Demons are quite, uh, treatable..?”
“Yes. There are two options – three, with your unique situation.” Good, good, more options is good! “I will continue attempting to understand exactly what has happened; it is not impossible that it can be reversed. Unfortunately, this is not something you can aid me with.” Lu glanced at the dizzyingly complex formation, and shook his head minutely. Agreed. “As for the more standard treatments, you must either resolve the confrontation in your soul that birthed the demon, or cut it away completely.”
Ah, yes, very simple. “Could you perhaps explain in greater detail, Elder?”
From inside his robes, the man drew a stack of books. He held them out, and Lu took them. “These will aid you more than anything I can say.” He looked to his formation, where lines of light were starting to leak into each other without his attention. “There is a second matter, but it is not nearly so urgent. Seek me out again when you are confident in your progress – if I have news for you regarding the formation, I will send for you.”
Lu bowed, though the man was no longer looking at him. “Thank you, Elder Persimmon. To be given an Elder’s personal attention… I am humbled.”
He turned to go, but for a second time that day he was called out to mid-step. “Ahh, perhaps this is uncouth of me to reveal, but…” Lu turned back, seeing the Elder stroking his beard. “I believe your young friend, Disciple Bull, once had troubles of the heart. If you require additional guidance, you might ask him. Gently, or course.”
Lu bowed a second time, then departed without incident.
----------------------------------------
He had received three books; ‘A Practical Guide to the Soul,’ ‘Medical Evaluations of the Heart Demon Vol. I,’ and the second volume of the same title. He set them down on his vanity and spread them out. The first was somewhat slimmer than the other two, but he planned to read all three before doing anything else. And I definitely won’t ask Bull about his experience, except as an extreme last resort. I wouldn’t want to open any old wounds. Doing so unsolicited would be the very height of ungentlemanly behavior.
Anything to say, Demon? I’m pondering how to kill you; I would have thought you'd chime in by now.
The tingle in his spine nudged out with its spiritual sense, scoring his own sense like a kitten’s claws. Lu winced, but his expression was determined. It must have overextended itself badly when it paralysed me. It hasn’t been this silent in weeks.
Or, a more optimistic part of him said, the lack of ki was undoing the soul empowering naturally. But I shouldn’t rely on that. He lit an extra candle to ensure ideal illumination, opened the cover of the first book, and began to read.