Night of the Broken Gliph

The father and son sat at the dining table, staring at a large, roughly drawn human anatomy diagram.

“We live in a world of gliphs.” Chui Tin started slowly as he then pointed to the limbs, abdomen and chest of the diagram. 

“These are known as the Six chambers.” 

“The left arm chamber, right arm chamber, left leg chamber, right arm chamber, wind chamber and the heart chamber. These are the six gliph chambers, and they represent a glipher’s quality. Numbers are used to represent the number of chambers that a glipher has achieved. Six chambers is the highest state a glipher can achieve, but nobody has been able to reach that state.”

Chui Yim rubbed his chin, thinking hard. So this is how cultivation works in this world? It’s very different compared to the cultivation system back on the Sallow Continent. 

“However, cultivating is just like going against the heavens. We cultivate with gliphs as the base and push ourselves beyond our physical limits. Since these limits weren’t meant to be broken, we gliphers must be very careful during cultivation. A minor mistake could result in dire consequences,” Chui Tin said, ignoring Chui Yim.

“You told me that you want to cultivate and become stronger. But you were born with a heart deficiency, which simply means that your heart chamber is crippled. You can only truly tread down the path of cultivation if you break through either one of the chambers. Even if you break through all four limb chambers, you’ll lose against any other Two or Three-chambered gliphers who’ve broken through their heart or wind chamber. 

“So what if you’re able to break through your wind chamber? Let’s put cultivation aside. You can’t even perform strenuous activities normally; how will you fight?”

Chui Yim kept silent.

He finally understood why Chui Tin was explaining all this to him.

He wants me to give up my dream of becoming a cultivator.

“A glipher’s body itself is a gliph, and that helps them achieve the extraordinary. To breakthrough, a glipher must not only store enough energliph but also need a gliph tattooed on them, and that’s where a gliphist comes in.

“When a glipher’s energliph reaches its peak, he will need a gliphist to help tattoo the gliph on him. Gliphs come in various kinds. There’s the Iron limb gliph, which is one of the simpler gliph. Tattooing it onto your arm chambers will make your arms almost invulnerable like an iron-armed ape. 

“There’s also the Vine gliph which grants a glipher stretchy and flexible arms. The glipher can even turn his arms into a thorny vine. Thus, not only does a glipher’s effort determine how strong they become, but so does their gliphist’s skills.”

“In this world of gliphs, a gliphist is crucial to one’s growth. Everybody looks up to a powerful gliphist. If it’s his wish, a gliphist is capable of taking in many gliphers as followers in exchange for his services.”

“This is also a way to become powerful.”

Chui Yim was deep in thought.

After some time, Chui Yim finally looked up. “Okay, I’ll learn to be a glipher.” 

“Mhm,” Chui Tin answered somewhat disappointedly. He didn’t feel even the slightest joy when he heard Chui Yim’s answer. 

“Wait here.” Chui Tin stood up and left for his room. Soon after, he returned with a huge stack of books.

Could it be because he’s our son? Is that why he’s so stubborn about gliphism? 

Thud! Chui Tin placed the books onto the table, making Chui Yim jump in shock. There were so many books that the books blocked Chui Yim’s sight.

“Read and memorise all these books. I’ll test you afterwards. If you pass, only then will I teach you about gliphism.”

Hearing him, Chui Yim picked up a random book: “Journey to the Red River”. 

He then picked up another. “State of the World Today”.

“Biography of Fan Yuk”, “Origin of The Prejudice Between the North and South”, “The Red River or Mother River”…

“None of these books are related to gliphs!” Chui Yim shouted after reading all the titles.

“Since when did I say the books would be about gliphs?” Chui Tin shouted back. “You can choose not to read them if you don’t want to. Saves me the trouble of teaching you gliphism.”

“Sissy,” Chui Yim glared at Chui Tin’s slender back and murmured to himself. He then picked up a book and started reading. 

Soon, a year had passed. 

Chui Yim was no doubt a genius. If not, he wouldn’t have been the best metalsmith on the Sallow Continent.

Other than his forging talent, his memory and observation skills were also superb. Rather than being gifted with photographic memory or other talents, he was just an ordinary human, albeit a very hardworking one. He would put all his heart into something once his mind was set on it.

To finish all the books, it had been a year since he last visited his workshop.

The only thing he didn’t forget to do was workout, eat and sleep. After a year of training, Chui Yim could now last for two more minutes per workout.

This day, Chui Yim was busy reading “Biography of Wai Yi, Architect of the Evergreen Palace.”  When he finished, he was suddenly confused, as there were no more books to be found.

He looked around him. There were books all over the floor, but none on the table. 

Other than the books, footsteps of two sizes could be seen. The larger ones belonged to Chui Tin, while the smaller ones belonged to Chui Yim. Every time Chui Yim finished a book, he’d throw it to the ground, leaving only the untouched books on the table while Chui Tin added new books for him daily. It felt like a never-ending job.

It was tedious, but Chui Yim’s extraordinary character helped him persevere. For the past year, Chui Yim had spent all his time studying, except when he was training, sleeping or eating. 

When he realised that there were no more new books on the table for him, Chui Yim felt lost. Unable to believe it, he picked up a book from the ground. 

“Reality or illusion?” A book about the author’s adventure to Celestial Fantasy City, a famous forbidden area in the south. I’ve already read it. 

“Exploring the End of the Red River”? Adventures at the creepy place located at the end of Red River. Read it already.

“Legend of the Deity of Gliphs”? Oh, in the past, before gliphs existed, a deity descended and taught it to our ancestors… I’ve read it too.  

So, I’ve finished them all? 

“There’s no need to look around. You’ve finished all the books.” It was unknown when Chui Tin had arrived at the dining table with a stack of paper in his hands. “This is the last book,” he said and sat across from Chui Yim. 

“Memorise this tonight and burn it afterwards. Nobody should know about it other than you. 

“Tomorrow morning, pack your stuff and get ready to leave.”

Chui Tin placed the stack of paper on the table as he left.

During the year, Chui Tin had been observing closely. He had doubts about how Chui Yim read, not due to his speed, but his time spent reading. This isn’t how a child who hated studying would act! 

Suspecting that Chui Yim was doing it just for show, Chui Tin tested Chui Yim on every book he read for the first two months. 

However, Chui Yim never got a question wrong, which proved that he was indeed studying hard. After that, Chui Tin stopped testing him. 

Throughout the year, Chui Tin spent his days looking at the moon, sighing, “He’s indeed our son.” He was both proud of and worried about Chui Yim.

Worried about Chui Yim’s future and proud that his son might be even more of a prodigy than his wife.