Chapter 29
With three days to kill, none of the children wanted to spend the entire time cooped up in Elder Yotu’s mansion, so they requested a tour of the sect. Elder Yotu, sensing their restlessness and also their hesitation to deal with any other elders after Argoth’s ill advised approach, promised to find them a tour guide closer to their own age.
His first choice was the powerful fire cultivator Fiora, who at twelve years old he thought would get along perfectly with the young prodigies. Her response to his missive politely requesting such a service of her in exchange for a handful of contribution points was another missive with an inappropriate drawing on it. He sighed, then sent a message to a fifteen year old water cultivator in the first stage of the profound realm.
Or the sixth stage of the initiate’s realm, according to the way the children saw things.
Olin was the boy’s name, and he was indifferent to the task, asking for double the fee before agreeing to it. Yotu wasn’t worried about it, however. Olin was a respectable young lad, and once he’d agreed to do a chore he wouldn’t neglect it. So just as the children were beginning to drive him truly crazy as they continued plundering his library for its secrets, the young man appeared and took them away.
Yotu collapsed onto one of the sofas once the children were gone and looked at the mess that they had left in his library. He sighed, then rang a bell to request a stiff drink from one of his servants. He’d agreed to host the children until the Red Rooster was ready for travel, which meant putting up with their youthful exuberance.
With a sigh, he began picking up his library. He stopped when he spotted a scribbled note on one of the pages. His eyebrows came together in anger. For a moment. Then he read the note, and they rose in surprise.
He contemplated the insight that the author of the scroll had intended to impart compared to the childish summary that was scribbled upon it, summarizing it in less than a paragraph. His servant appeared with his drink, but he remained lost in thought at the insights the youths had left behind. When he did stir again, he began looking for more such notes.
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Olin sighed as the brats he was escorting took in the sight of the Kopan Waterfall. It was the best place for water cultivation in the mountain complex, and his favorite spot to come to just think. Sharing it with these kids was annoying, but it’s not like the waterfall was a private part of the complex, and showing them now would hopefully set the mood for the rest of the tour.
He was a bit of a dour boy, but the thought of the twenty contribution points he was earning for this simple task did cheer him up slightly. He’d just heard that the spider-demon that he and several of the other boys had been hunting recently had been killed by Fiora, and with that potential payday snatched away from him he needed every point that he could earn. Twenty points for a few hours of distracting some brats was nothing, and he was glad that his reputation was so honest that Elder Yotu had--
“So where does the water come from?” Tan asked.
“Up the mountain, obviously,” Olin answered.
“Can we see the source?”
“No. It’s a spring,” he said. He sighed, and decided to expound. “The water is forced uphill by the Qi of the dragon vein from the primary mountain. It’s one of the reasons why this water is so spiritually rich. It’s one of the best spots for water cultivation for a thousand miles, and it’s also one of the main reasons why this mountain is the main headquarters to the sect.”
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He continued to speak for a moment, and was slightly distracted when the girl of the group abruptly walked out into the water.
No. Not into the water, he realized.
Ko walked on top of the water, stepping easily out into the middle of the pond that gathered beneath the waterfall. When she was out in the center, she sat in the lotus position – again without sinking through the surface, and began to cultivate.
Olin gasped as he felt the Qi in the area roil and get sucked in to the girl. She was only one stage above him in cultivation, but she was better at it, he realized. The amount of Qi she was holding suggested that she had just taken a pill, yet he had sensed nothing in her before she’d walked out on the water.
“Pao, what do you think?” Tan asked.
“It’s rich in water Qi, but I’m pretty sure it’s unbalanced,” Pao answered.
“Yeah, I sense it too,” Won said. “It’s more obvious now that Ko has stirred things up.”
“Should we do something about it?” Tan asked.
Pao shrugged. He turned to Olin. “Would anyone be upset if we formed a Qi gathering and focusing formation for the other elements here?”
Olin laughed. “As long as it’s nothing that the elders can’t undo, then you can do whatever you want. This land is public space for anyone in the sect. If your focusing formation is any good, then I don’t see a problem.”
Pao glanced at Tan, who nodded. The youngest boy pulled out a tool from his storage ring—a hoe that boiled with spirituality.
He had a spirit tool just sitting around waiting to be used? Olin gaped as Tan casually passed the spiritual object to Pao, who gestured. A circular mound rose up from the ground nearby, and Pao began scratching symbols on it.
Next Tan pulled out a brasier, which he set up atop the mound. Won stepped over and flicked his fingers, and the brasier began burning, despite having no fuel or oil in it that Olin could see.
“Keee!” the little dragon on Tan’s shoulder called, and the boy absently scratched its little head. He pulled out a pole from his ring next, and together the boys pushed it into the earth. Etched into sides of the wooden pole were complex formations. With the little Qi guardian on his shoulder, Tan jumped on top of the pole, seven feet in the air.
As the quartet began to cultivate, Olin became aware of a sudden shift in the ambient Qi. Although Olin was a water cultivator, he was vaguely aware of the other elements as well, and even if he was not he would have noticed the sudden weight that was drawn to the area.
Recognizing the opportunity for what it was, Olin ran out into the water, splashing to get closer to the waterfall. Once he was beneath it, he began to cultivate, ignoring the pressure of the cold water splashing down on him.
The Qi that he gathered was rich and untamed, but he quickly brought it under his control and fed it into his dantian, running it through his meridians to purify it and more closely align his body with his chosen element.
In near silence, except for the roar of the waterfall, the five children cultivated for six hours.