Chapter 46

The Zang family returned from the audience with the emperor to their compound on Tantalous Mount of the Black Sky mountain range. Kora spent the entire trip pondering the Treatise of Rising Sun. She had read the first two sections. The second section had instructed her not to read the third until she understood the relationship between the first chapter and the second, and so she had stopped there.

It was beautiful. Poetic. She could barely describe the language that was used to bestow the wisdom inside the sixty-page document. It was written by hand, with only a handful of sentences per page, but each page contained such profound wisdom that she felt like she was going to break through once more simply reading it.

Of course, she didn’t.

She sighed, turning the page. She wondered what was in the third section, but she didn’t dare peak lest she stunt her cultivation. This treatise was a rare opportunity, she knew, and she was better off following it exactly than cheating.

The first chapter dealt with the burning of Earth. The second chapter dealt with the burning of Air. She’d been somewhat surprised to realize that air was as necessary to fire as fuel, but she had performed the experiment herself. She didn’t have a glass dome as was recommended in the treatise, but she made due with the cover for her dinner tray. She couldn’t witness the fire go out with her eyes, but her spiritual senses were sharp enough to have detected the strangled flame.

She smiled. There was so much to unpack in the treatise that she worried it would take her years to read the third chapter. But she was in no hurry.

After all, she only had to impress a boy who was five years younger than her.

They arrived, and after they had settled in, changing their clothes and washing off the dust of the road, they were setting down to dinner when a sudden burst of lightning struck the courtyard.

The adults and the elders, many of whom had congregated to this dinner to hear the account of the audience from those who were present, all went rigid as they felt a tidal wave of fire Qi nearby. But rather than being ravenous, it carried a warm and pleasant intent. They remained terrified, but they went out to greet their guest.

He was a tall man, dressed in a robe from the capital which proclaimed him to be a grandmaster. He smiled at the congregating elders.

“Am I early? I was told that Kora would be returning home today and – ah, there she is,” the man said. “I am Renton Shen. I am here to tutor you, Kora Zang. Is that food I smell? I hope that there is enough for me, the fulmination movement technique is the fastest way to travel, but it leaves one ravenous when they reach their destination.”

The adults’ eyes were wide with shock, but they quickly bid their guest welcome and escorted him inside, where he was sat at the head of the table and fed the choicest parts of the feast that had been prepared. At his right was Kora, and to his left were her parents, Toh and Mahn. He ate with gusto and made polite conversation.

“I serve the empire,” He said around a mouthful when someone asked him exactly what he was. “I’m afraid that’s all that I’m really willing to tell you. My qualification to educate the daughter of the Zang family should be obvious should you have eyes to see. If you are blind, then let me know and I might be able to fix that, one way or the other.”

“Healing is a property of water,” Toh argued.

“No, it is not. It is a property of change, and change falls under the purview of fire,” the grandmaster said. “While you can heal with water or earth, fire is the element that causes the body to heal itself.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“What about wind?” Uncle Sean Zang inquired.

“Ah. Well, it’s more difficult for the air cultivators to regrow limbs, but not entirely impossible,” Renton Shen said. “But the best solution is to cultivate until everyone is too afraid to fight you, so that way you don’t have to worry about healing yourself at all.”

The dinner progressed, with Renton making a few more statements and a few boasts about the element of fire. When the last course was served, he leaned back and patted his belly.

“You know, that was one of the better meals that I’ve eaten in a while,” he admitted. “You didn’t slaughter the ducks just for me, did you?”

“We would have if we’d known you were on your way,” Toh said. “No, this was to be a feast to welcome Kora home after she impressed the emperor.”

“He was impressed, you know,” Renton said. “He wasn’t being polite. He struck Kora with the full force of his intent. A mortal might have died, but Kora merely fell over. A lesser cultivator would have fainted, but she managed not to scream. It is most impressive indeed.”

“I wasn’t expecting it, or I might have done better. I’ve never faced anyone who could use intent as a weapon before. If I’d had some practice--”

“He would have noticed if you’d been drilling yourself to withstand intent. That’s why he used intent to measure you. It’s not exactly the best measure of a person’s cultivation potential, but it’s a good place to start,” Renton said. “Come now, let’s go plant the berry bush that he promised your family. Have you selected where you want it to be?”

“Right now?” Toh asked.

“There’s no time but the present,” Renton answered.

So the family went out into the courtyard, and then back to the garden behind the compound when someone suggested that would be a better place for it. Renton looked around for a moment, then pointed at a floral arrangement.

“Do those flowers have any particular sentimental value?” he inquired.

“Not especially,” Toh answered. “Why?”

“Because the ambient Qi would be best for the blackberries if they were planted there,” he explained.

Toh glanced at the others, who pressed her to ask for more details. “Will it improve it in some way?”

“It will improve the garden more than the bush itself,” Renton explained. “The bush will provide heat and nourishment to the plants around it, possibly even keeping them alive through the winter. If it’s planted anywhere else, it will draw in too much Qi and its fruit might be lacking compared to what it will give when planted where I asked. But if the flowers are important for some reasons--”

“They’re not,” Toh said.

Renton glanced at her, then nodded. He pulled something from his pocket, a seed, and walked over to the flowers he had mentioned. He pushed the seed into the ground, and then everyone watched as the Qi roiled out of him.

It was the Qi of the sun, and it was warm, comforting, nourishing, and life giving. It concentrated on the seed, which sprouted and grew into a sapling in minutes. He paused and took a step back.

“I will continue to feed it every day until I leave,” He announced. “It will bear fruit before the end of the summer.”

Everyone cheered, and while they were still cheering Renton turned to Kora. He smiled at her, and said “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak with my student alone.”

The others all nodded and filed out, leaving them alone in the gardens.

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