Heavenly Shae

The next stretch of travel required more constant vigilance for Shae. Their path was littered with small obstacles like shrubs, cacti, and small boulders. Hon pointed out several dips and holes she had to quickly navigate around, otherwise they didn't talk at all.

At some point she had dropped her Manifold Journey practice. When she noticed, she immediately decided to leave it until the next stretch.

The qi density and natural pressure slowly increased as they travelled and Shae found that her thinner qi was harder to move, even through her own body. Each time she thought the pressure wasn't affecting her, she forcibly reminded herself of Long's warnings; that it might be less noticeable simply because it was increasing so slowly.

The second most exciting part of the trip came when a loud thud erupted about a hundred paces ahead of them. It was followed by a large dust cloud and something streaking out and off to their right, landing with another puff of dust.

Hon immediately nudged Shae left. The push moved her just enough to redirect her without toppling her.

She still cursed in English at the surprise and scrambled to maintain her balance. It was enough of a distraction that she missed if there was anything more to the encounter until they passed the site.

A large gouge in the rocky ground was what remained, Long wasn't even there to explain what happened.

Several strides later, Shae spotted him leading the group again, a little further ahead now.

A half hour later, their running brought them along the edge of a canyon. Long and Hon kept them quite far west of it, and Shae saw why when a wandering surface crevice from the canyon nearly crossed under them. It was hardly a ditch where they jumped it, but if they had been closer to the canyon then its size would have been a problem. They followed the canyon for a while, and she thought she could sense the qi density had lowered slightly while they did.

With their previous detour having forced them west, Shae guessed they had wandered even further west to arc around this particular canyon. Meaning we would have had to stop and cross it. She checked the sun's position and guessed it had now been over an hour, maybe two since this run began.

And we would be taking the shortest route, right? She looked ahead of them and slightly to the east and found herself staring directly at the nearest mountain.

Over the next few li, Long redirected their course to be almost directly towards the mountain. Shae smirked to herself, So. That's the sect's mountain, eh?

Between dodging withered shrubs, she examined her destination. Unlike the distant mountains beyond it, it displayed a bounty of color. Mainly greenery which reached much further up to the peak than the other peaks. Dotted amongst the green were a rainbow of colors and many plain stone buildings. At this distance most were just a suggestive smudge, yet their boxy shapes stood out as man-made structures, especially those that were brightly colored.

"What's the purple one?" She called out to Hon.

He looked briefly confused, then followed her eye-line. "Ah, spotted it already, have you?" He nodded. "That's the lower administration building. Your destination for today."

"Why purple?"

"Heh. It's not actually purple, it's just that the red and blue blend together at this distance." He pointed at his own sect robes. While they were not the bright white of Elder Ghon's or Long's, the blue and red embroidery was still present along the sleeves. The steel grey of the robes hid the line work and allowed the guard to avoid notice more than the usual bright white base.

She looked back to the mountain with a smile and tried to pick the two colors apart, without success.

"Where's the library?" She asked after a few more breaths.

"Heh, that's a tricky one. It hides well in the greenery. Most of the important buildings are camouflaged like that. It's more strategically defensible like that."

"Ugh, you guys get attacked regularly or something?"

"Hah hah, luckily no, not for centuries. Yet, if someone wanted to, it would be a single weak point that would significantly impact the younger generation." He ended the sentence with a lot more steel in his voice than he started.

"Ah." She frowned.

Hon waited for a breath, then spoke up again, "Ah, the blue one, just above administration. That's the Bounty Hall: for general assignments and things like my guard duty. Actually much further away than it looks. And the red circle... Which you might not be able to see yet. It's just a thin red outline around a brown spot at this distance. That's the combat arena. Mostly for martial training, but you first years will do your quarterly duels there."

"Oh! Those." She jumped over a small rock then took a deep breath. "Those are the ones we can skip by doing missions?"

"Correct. Though most can't do that until the fall. Hmm, actually you might get some credit for the Gatewash battle." He scratched at his chin and looked up.

"Ha ha!" Shae almost lost her balance to a laugh bubbling up, he looked rather silly in his thinking pose while his legs kicked the ground with more force that Olympic athletes could muster.

"Hmm? I didn't think combat credit was that funny?" He asked.

"Not that." She blushed and looked down to focus on her own footing.

"Eh? Well, it'd have to be Long that gives the credit. Don't think Apollo can manage that with her situation."

"Ah." She muttered quietly. The reminder that her close friend wouldn't be freely available was a sobering thought.

"Err, sorry?" Hon rubbed the back of his neck.

"Mhmm. Not your fault, Senior." She brought her eyes back up to the looming mountain. Her eyes scanned for more interesting buildings. Yet, she couldn't muster the curiosity anymore.

She took another deep breath and then focused more heavily on her breathing. Their path was now clearly uphill. The slope had slowly increased throughout their journey, and now it was steep enough to be an active detriment to their progress. Well, to my progress, at least.

When they did stop to cross the next canyon, Long made a point of telling Shae to not meditate. He took Hon across first so she could recover, yet was still concerned they would be delayed further but her.

She was feeling a little too wrung out to argue, so she simply nodded.

Once they left she did close her eyes to focus on her qi channels. Doing so without meditation, slightly exhausted, and while standing was a little more difficult than she expected.

She found that her left leg was sore, but not as sore as the last two running sessions. Considering this last one was longer than the other two, it was a marked improvement in her eyes.

"Miss Shae," Long spoke sharply.

"Here." Her reply was weak and tired. She swayed and blinked up at him. He hovered just above and in front, his sword within reach if she stepped forwards.

She took a deep breath and stepped into the wash of qi flowing down from the flying sword. "Euogh," she shuddered and stepped back. "Sorry. I think I need the extra rest. Could you carry me again." Her mind worked slowly to tell her she forgot something. "Uh, please, Master Long."

"Of course, Wise Shae." He swept her up quickly.

She blinked rapidly, and tried to focus. They were already over the canyon when she got her bearings again. She spotted the sun near the horizon, perhaps an hour or two from sunset. "How much longer?"

"You're doing quite well. I think Cultivator Hon is starting to strain at the density, as well."

She blinked and nodded. "Thanks, but?"

"Heh, we'll arrive before sunset. The oppressive qi should start to abate before then. This isn't the worst of it, though it is close."

"Ah... That's good." She remembered something else and tried to smell herself. "Uhm, am I leaking impurities?"

"You are not, which is good. As I mentioned earlier, that could attract spirit beasts out here."

"Huh. Weird. Does that mean my qi has cleansed my leg fully? Since it was doing that before."

"Hmm." He hummed. "I thought you weren't interested in learning from me, Wise Shae?"

She blinked once, then huffed. "Ugh. Master Long. It was just a question. Feel free to prove my assumptions correct, though."

"Heh, heh. I like you more when you're exhausted and your guard is lowered." This close to his face, she saw him smirk slightly. She also felt his qi as it battered against her sensitive forehead. It had even wavered during part of his sentence.

"Hmmm. Are you sure?" She squinted at him. "Better as a student, maybe. But not a better cultivator."

He didn't visibly react. Yet again, his qi gave him away and practically confirmed her guess. He gestured with his chin and she turned to see the approaching canyon edge.

They landed and Shae kept her balance and bearing this time. She looked up at Hon and saw what could have been the signs of strain on him. Nothing in his face, that was blank and nearly as stony as Long's. It was tension in his stance and the way he stiffly nodded at her.

Long paused for a breath, then asked, "Ready to go?"

Shae inhaled deeply and began cycling the Resist Anticipation practice. She stumbled and dropped to one knee before it had even finished cycling once. She blinked at the rocky ground that was now suddenly closer. "Uh, what?"

"Shae! Are you alright?" Hon stepped closer and she felt his qi waft around her, the oppressive density briefly brushed aside by hints of smoke and blade-oil.

"Yeah, I think so." She nodded and took a satisfying deep breath.

Long hummed loudly. "Do you know what happened? You were cycling qi briefly."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Ah. I was restarting one of my qi practices. Then I just blanked out."

Hon turned to Long, "Qi blackout? We'll have to take the river the rest of the way then?"

The older cultivator hummed again, his gaze locked on the youngest in their group.

"No." Shae raised her voice, stood quickly, then stared firmly at each of them in turn. "Not a blackout, I know what those feel like. My mind blanked out. More like... like when you did that intent disruption thing to me." She pointed at Long.

Hon glanced between them, looking more concerned than he already was.

Long raised an eyebrow. "Interesting." He stroked his short beard. "Could you share the goal of this practice?"

Shae opened her mouth to respond, then tilted her head. "Honestly, I don't really remember. Since I don't have the notes I'm just going by memory. It's one of a series and it's a lot like the one before it, which was about multitasking and keeping my qi cycling, off-rhythm to my running or walking." She looked up slightly and ran a hand through her hair. "This one is called Resist Anticipation, and has me cycling very slowly, and resisting the urge to speed up. Kinda tricky with my lightning qi."

Hon's eyebrows shot up. "Lightning!"

Shae shrugged at him.

The older cultivator hummed loudly and dramatically stroked his beard again. "Odd, that shouldn't be enough to disrupt your thoughts, Wise Shae. Unless you're using quite a considerable effort to resist the local qi density?" He glanced at Hon and made a hand gesture.

She shook her head.

Hon reluctantly nodded.

She felt Hon's qi withdraw and the local qi pushed in again. She shifted her shoulders to show her discomfort, then looked inwards to try to see how much effort she was using. "Still no. It's much easier than resisting the pressure you displayed at the plateau court, Master Long."

"Mhmm. Thought so. Try to multitask, throw some intent at me?"

She hesitated.

"I won't disrupt you."

She nodded and flicked his ear with her intent.

He frowned. "Something a little stronger, if you could. Like at the water stop?"

Hon creased his forehead, then raised an eyebrow at them both.

Shae rolled her shoulders and glanced up, then spotted the sun and felt inspired. Driven by the idea of a solar flare, she amplified and twisted the idea into the sun racing out with a long flaming arm to strike the planet like a whip of fire. She tried to replicate it without using much mental focus, but could tell it was only a half-formed idea.

Long tilted his head and pursed his lips, then glanced over at the sun where it neared the horizon. "That's different. I would have preferred something similar to before for a direct comparison. While it was false, I can see some truth at the root of it." He nodded sideways at her. "However, that does add to the explanations that you may need to provide to the sect's research department."

Shae slumped with exhaustion and exhaled noisily.

Hon leaned closer. "Did it take that much out of you, Miss Heavenly Shae?"

She shook her head and stood straight again. "No, just being dramatic." She waved him off and took a deep inhale and exhale.

"Back to the problem at hand. You should have more than enough ability to maintain a simple qi practice. Unless- You said it was part of a series? May I see the whole instruction set, Wise Shae?"

"Not at the moment, Master Long. It's with my pack. I'd like to see it as well, actually. I'll need to use the last one once we reach the sect. I remember it but would prefer to review. It seems like it's working up to something bigger, but none of the practices have felt complex enough to hide anything."

He nodded. "That was my concern. More so now that you've expressed a similar impression. Where did you get this practice series?"

"From Wise Yungfan and the other Golden Orchard monks in Minlin. It's called Manifold Journey."

"Hmm, I'm not familiar with the title, but the Golden Orchard monks are generally reliable. I don't think they would have shared something dangerous, or particularly potent." He tapped his chin.

"So?" She asked after a breath of silence.

"Hmm. Right. Some techniques require more than just skilled qi use, they can occupy our minds in a way. It's likely that your practice series is doing something similar. With your mental effort going towards defending yourself from the qi density, even just passively. You were unable to fit both tasks in your mind at once." He shrugged. "Not particularly surprising for a new cultivator to fail at such a task. It's theorized that a significant portion of our resistance to pressure and density comes from our mind." He made another hand gesture to Hon, one directing him closer to Shae.

The part-time guard moved to stand at attention beside the young woman.

"For now, you both should rest and recover. Wise Shae needs it most but I can tell Cultivator Hon could also make use of the time. We can spare a quarter hour, since it should allow us to finish our intended journey." He flexed his qi, and Shae felt the qi density lessen again. "I'll shield you for the duration. Sit and cycle, whatever helps you recover, though cultivation isn't recommended."

"Thank you, Master Long" Hon saluted then sat quickly.

Shae was slower. She took another breath and only acted after Hon was seated. She bowed and spoke, "Much appreciated, Master Long." Then she dropped to the ground roughly, not even bothering with a lotus pose. Her legs kicked out flat ahead of her and she slumped forwards. A breath later she was repositioning, pulling her knees up to better support her torso.

Two more shallow breaths and she felt uncomfortable. She decided to simply fall backwards and lie flat on the smooth dusty ground. The sky looked beautiful from here. The clouds had begun to take on the dramatic side-on lighting of a sunset. The blue sky was shifting towards a gradient of more vibrant color, reflecting some onto the clouds at the edges of her vision.

The only blemish to the scene was Master Long, standing tall and stoic. She clamped an eye shut to block him out and heaved a relaxing sigh. The other followed shortly after and she thought she could fall asleep against the cool rock.

The annoying man spoke. "Please do not drift off, Wise Shae."

She huffed loudly.

"Go on, cycle some of that new qi you were so excited to show off earlier. It should revitalize you."

She huffed again, but did as the voice recommended. A rough mental pull at her Dantian got her a variety. Various densities of her personal qi, plus a spattering of neutral and divine qi. It was more difficult to choose a particular qi type when she wasn't meditating, and especially when she was exhausted. She considered the divine qi to heal her exhaustion, then returned it. Like with her mental focus, she guessed it wasn't true healing. It worked great, yet it was probably more like attention from a good doctor, bandages and pain meds, rather than complete restoration. She feared that without proper recovery the stitches would tear and the wounds would burst open worse than before.

The densest of her personal qi she returned. It was probably valuable to have, yet it was hard to control, rushing around her and causing light damage to get channels that she couldn't afford right now. She made a note to let it run rampant later, I'll probably heal back stronger from the abuse. The remaining personal qi and neutral qi wandered her channels freely. The highly active qi she once named demi-god qi pushed and pulled the neutral around, using it as a buffer to slow itself.

Is that a good name still? It feels silly now, and far too pretentious. She recalled the name of the sect she was heading for. Perhaps just a touch too pretentious. The half-tribulation qi was still running a bit faster than she liked. Energizing her, but making her a bit twitchy and anxious. Need more neutral qi. With the same thought she reached out to her surroundings and pulled in the neutral qi. It was surprisingly difficult and almost painful when it arrived. She saw the hints of water qi that had flowed in with it, Ah! Long's water qi.

"A-hem." She heard the man clear his throat. "I believe I said not to cultivate."

"Ugh, even this counts?" she muttered and fed the water qi into her Dantian's formation. And that has messed up my tracking notes. She huffed again and reached for more neutral qi from her Dantian, her reserve of it felt shallow, yet she couldn't really check without meditating. Which I can't do right now. It was enough to balance and slow her personal qi, yet she huffed in frustration anyway. Guess I should spend more time cultivating soon. Wonder if they'll give me a qi gathering pill right away. "Let me know when I can pull in some neutral qi, I'm running a bit low, thanks."

"I think you've already discovered why now is a bad time for that, Miss Shae. You may choose to do so once we arrive, but waiting for the gathering formations at the sect is recommended."

She grunted to acknowledge the words. Briefly, she wondered how their formations compared to the one she had used in Minlin City, well of course they must be better, if only because of the qi density.

A few slow breaths was all she could manage before the buildup of life-energy had her wanting to move again. Her eyes snapped open and she started working through one of her morning stretch routines. She would have preferred a full session of Tao Yan or Qi Gong, but got the impression she needed to stay in one place for Long's shielding to work. And I suppose that might be counterproductive.

"Recovered already, Wise Shae?" Long asked flatly.

"I'm just keeping moving so I don't get stiff muscles. Since I can't nap. Which will probably happen if I have to stay still. Oh, or you could tell me a story, Master Long. You have to have some great stories, right?"

She almost thought she heard Hon snicker, yet he was completely still when they both looked at him.

Long lightly grunted through his nose. The action drew a raised eyebrow from Shae, he ignored her. "I could answer your previous inquiry, if you'd prefer?"

"Uhh, sure? What was it?"

A breath of silence passed. "You've forgotten already?"

She took a deep breath then combined talking with the exhale for the stretch. "Might have. It's more that I want to see if your answer actually answers the intent of the original question." She inhaled again. "Master~ Long."

Another breath of silence passed. Hon coughed.

"It was your question about cleansing your leg, Miss Shae."

She thought that she could hear the tension in his voice, yet it might have been that she actually felt it through his qi. Especially where it brushed her forehead. "Oh! That, yeah that would be great to hear. Thank you, Master Long." Half a breath passed and his tension seemed to ease, or he's holding it back more.

"There are two factors to consider. Your qi and the cleansing itself. Your qi has changed and it may no longer hold the same properties as pure qi, meaning it may not passively cleanse you anymore. That's not a loss, really. Once you have time, you should be able to actively cleanse much faster than that. Most pure qi users don't bother exercising to cleanse like you have."

"Hmmm, okay, and if I do exercise, I won't get covered in gunk. That's good."

"Yes. Some do find it more of an inconvenience. Even for the short window that it occurs. Onto the other point, the cleansing: you'll find it a very weak form of cleansing compared to your other leg. Much as you have already discovered by re-cleansing the area today. We don't have time for specifics, yet it should be enough to say that pure qi exercise won't cleanse the whole limb."

"Hmm? How long do you need? We have like another ten minutes." She rolled her eyes.

"I don't know what a ten-minutes is, Miss Shae."

"Huh? Oh, sorry. About one of six parts of an hour." She grunted as she stretched her calves, her right not even feeling close to tight while her left was nearing painful. She stopped before it actually hurt. "Uhm, so it just cleanses the muscle then? The part that is being reinforced by the qi during the exercise. What about the tendons, ligaments and blood vessels? Oh and the nerves. Do we have to cleanse our nervous system? That'd feel really weird, right?"

Another slow and silent breath passed as Shae inhaled deeply and pushed the next stretch while exhaling. She glanced over to Hon for some support but he was facing away, still as a stone.

"It's good that you seem to have some anatomy basics." Long finally said. "How cleansing interacts with the full human anatomy is a full season-long class. I could hardly do it any justice in six hours, let alone your ten-minutes."

"Hmmgh." She grunted, both in frustration and from her stretching. "But I'm on the right track?"

Long sighed loudly. "You have made a single correct assumption, yes."

She looked back at him and frowned skeptically. Single, my ass.

"I will remind you, Miss Shae. That when I am this close I can read your intent quite clearly."

A number of childish remarks flew through her mind. She let them come and then pass her by, acknowledging them without letting them occupy much of her thoughts. A few she smirked at.

Her thoughts wandered to Doctor Cho's medical texts and she ran through her memorization of the book titles he recommended. Oh, I should write those down now. She finished her current stretch and reached for her notepad, her hand bumped the larger packet Cho had given her. Ah. Right. He wrote them down already. She sighed and let her empty hand fall out of her robes and then moved onto the next stretch.