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Chapter 45

Chapter 45

It was Tan’s idea, but once he thought of it the adults cheered him on and praised him for it. He got it from watching both Tren and Wensho fight against them wearing blindfolds.

So he started wearing a blindfold too.

Not in spars, or when anything important was going on. But for the majority of the next few weeks, Tan learned to navigate using his other senses.

The other children copied him for a while, but quickly gave up when they kept bumping into things. They complained about how good he was at it and that it was unfair. Especially Safron, who enjoyed complaining and enjoyed having a reason to complain.

The adults explained that it wasn’t just his hearing that Tan was developing, but his spiritual senses, in addition to other senses which were enhanced in the absence of sight. They encouraged the other children to experiment with their own blindfolds, but admitted that they might not get as much out of the experience as Tan, who was several stages above all of them.

Safron didn’t really care. She liked complaining so she pretended to wear her blindfold, but everyone knew that she was peaking constantly.

However, in the beginning of the sixth month of the year, Tan was wandering around the fields when he felt something coming from where he knew that Safron was. Something was happening, and he thought he knew what it was. He tore his blindfold off and rushed over to her.

Safron was sitting with the uncut ruby set on the ground in front of her while she had her eyes closed, her face focused intensely. Tan could see the waves of fire Qi bursting out of the stone and lingering nearby. He was worried for his sister, and relieved when his father and mother appeared seconds later.

Literally appeared. They weren’t there one second, and the next they were.

Moving so fast that Tan had trouble seeing what was being done, Tren quickly carved a formation circle in the ground using his hoe. Tan was surprised when he saw the symbol for ‘Air’ in one of the marks, forming a triangle with Earth and Water. He watched as his mother and father stepped on top of the symbols representing their element, and without being told he stepped onto the Air symbol.

“Repeat after us, Tan,” his mother said, and she began to chant.

“Ever present spirit of the earth, guide this young girl as she begins her journey along the one path that is many paths that is one. Gentle wind of the world, guide this girl as she begins her journey to know the many truths that are singular. Mighty water spirit of the deep lakes, guide this child that she may be enlightened by the wisdom of the ancients,” his parents said. The prayer repeated, and Tan joined in on the third repetition.

Safron’s first cultivation session lasted two hours, and her parents and brother circulated their Qi in the formation, assisting the process. It went steady, and abruptly Safron cried out. She gasped and began sweating black sweat. Her parents observed for a second, but there was no more Qi emerging from the uncut ruby, and the girl had absorbed as much as she could be expected to absorb.

They broke the circle and hugged their daughter between them, even as she sweated impurities onto them and their clothes. Tan smiled but hung back as his sister underwent the first physical transformation of cultivation.

It took a while, but eventually Safron came back to herself.

“I’m all stinky,” she complained.

Her parents laughed, and they took her out to the stream to bathe.

Tan thought of the differences between his own awakening as a cultivator and Safron's, and he pouted a little bit. It had only been his father supporting him.

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“Stop sulking,” Zephyr scolded.

“Are you reading my thoughts?”

“I don’t have to read your thoughts to know that you’re sulking,” the spirit said. “We both surprised your parents with your awakening. They were expecting this to happen soon, which is why they were both prepared. Your mother was busy that day, if you don’t remember, and would have responded to your awakening herself if she’d been aware of it at the time.”

“And I didn’t have a big brother to help me, either,” Tan said.

“No you didn’t,” the spirit agreed. “So you see, your family loves you as much as Safron. It’s not her fault that you were born first, so don’t be jealous.”

“I don’t think I can not be jealous of her,” Tan argued. “She’s getting spoiled rotten. But I love her anyway.”

Tan put his blindfold back on, and went to find his friends. They had sensed what was going on, but thought that it was a family moment and had backed off to allow the Shens their privacy. When he found them, they were atop the cultivation hill, discussing their own absorption of their spirit.

“I realized I had to poop halfway through,” Won admitted nervously. “I mean, how stupid is that, right? Who has to take a potty break in the middle of a breakthrough?”

“Not just any breakthrough,” Pao pointed out, a grin on his face. “That first one is monumental, you know? What did you do?”

“Okay, you gotta promise not to tell anyone,” Won said, looking around. He saw Tan, but Tan promised with the other children, so after obtaining their promises he admitted “I just did it. I pooped myself and continued cultivating.”

The children laughed at him, but Won defended himself “Wouldn’t you have done the same in my position? It got easier to absorb Blaze once I’d done it too. I swear it was the best cultivation decision that I ever made.”

Tan rolled around on the ground in laughter. But Won was right, he realized. He had made the correct decision.

Stopping during the middle of a normal breakthrough was something you could recover from. Stopping during the absorption of a spirit was … well, the spirit might get away. If it did you’d have to find it again, or convince another one to bind with you instead.

“Zephyr, did the magic circle that my father drew for you make a difference?” Tan asked

“Not really. I was trying very hard to become one with you, Tan,” Zephyr admitted. “Those circles are for younger and weaker spirits who need help during the bonding process. I’ve been through it before dozens of times, so it was no big deal binding with you. I could have done it in your sleep.”

“Don’t you mean ‘my sleep?’” Tan asked

“That’s what I said. I could have done it in your sleep,” Zephyr admitted.

“No, I mean your sleep .”

“Right, that’s what I said.”

Tan threw his hands up in the air in frustration. Then a thought occurred to him. “Zephyr, do you actually need to sleep?”

“Nope.”

“What do you do while I’m sleeping?”

“I watch your dreams. It’s very amusing,” the spirit admitted. “It’s the best part of being bonded, to be honest.”

Tan thought about the dreams that he remembered. “I guess that’s cool,” he said.

Then the children cultivated for a while before the adults called them in for dinner. Safron was asleep already, and nobody expected her to wake up anytime soon. That was fine. Tan had slept for three days when he’d bonded Zephyr. He wondered how long his sister would sleep for.