Chapter 19: 47-52
Chapter 47-Restoring Order 2
Ling Qi found that unlike her previous breakthrough to Yellow Soul, this one was an intensely material experience. There were no fuzzy dreams or vague thoughts, only an awareness of every inch of her own body. It had suffered much in her time in the streets, from poor nutrition to ill-healed wounds from old beatings. She could feel the effects of all these things as her qi circulated through her flesh and bones. Layer upon layer of qi, carefully soaked into her tissues through months of physical cultivation, pulsated in time with her heartbeat. The muscles were at the limit of what they could accept, mortal flesh unable to hold a single drop more of enhancing qi.
Ling Qi didn't often think about it, but she knew that she was far beyond what she was three months ago. She could now dash as fast as a horse, lift her own weight or more with a single hand, and suffer blows that would crack stone and merely be wounded. She could, she thought, as she felt her awareness soaking into her every vein and tendon, probably shatter a grown man's sternum with a simple palm strike.
And Ling Qi had just begun to walk her Path of Cultivation.
She could almost understand why cultivators looked down on mortals so for all their talk of protecting them. Mortals were so easily broken and withered so quickly. The spans of years Bai Meizhen had mentioned in her lessons came to her. It hadn't sunk in properly until now, but she knew if she avoided a violent death, she would live more than a hundred years. That lifespan would only increase if she continued cultivating.
How old was Elder Su? Two hundred? Three? The woman had a matronly air, but she was still young and beautiful. All but her eyes and demeanor were largely untouched by time. What did it even mean to live for so long? Ling Qi could hardly even wrap her mind around the idea.
Crack.
She felt something change within her. A poorly healed fracture in the bone of her upper arm shifted, sending a knife of pain through her body as it realigned, and the bone grew smooth and straight once more. Another needle of pain followed, then a thousand more, as the effects of years of malnutrition began to reverse. The qi in her body began to surge riotously, sending painful shudders through her frame.
Ling Qi almost screamed as the barrage of sensation crowded out all conscious thought. The qi she had built up was draining away precipitously, no longer simply layered within her bones and muscles, but instead fusing and becoming part of them, forcing out mortal impurities as it did. She felt like she was baking beneath a high summer sun, drowning in her own sweat.
When she came to herself, the first thing that struck her was the smell. It nearly made her gag; it reminded her of a middenheap in summer, and it was coming from her. She struggled to open her eyes, gummed as they were. When she managed to do so, she found herself covered from head to toe in something sticky and black like smelly tar. It was so much worse than her previous realm breakthrough.
Gu Xiulan had warned her of something like this, she remembered. She had even prepared washing water for it. That preparation seemed woefully inadequate now. Her eyes watering from the smell, Ling Qi hurried to clean herself as best she could.
Thankfully, the gunk covering her came away easily despite its stickiness. It was almost as if the stuff was repelled from her skin. As she cleaned herself up and the smell began to fade, she began to wonder at how light she felt and how easily she breathed, the absence of a thousand little aches and pains that had been with her so long that she didn't even notice them save by their current absence.
Of course, she still found herself disappointed. Her skin was clear and smooth, but it was still dark. Her limbs were not slender and graceful as Gu Xiulan and Bai Meizhen's were but instead showed well-defined and sleek muscle. Her ankles were still too thick, and her feet too large, and if anything, she was even taller now. She didn't often think of her appearance but some part of her had hoped that she might at least become a little prettier like the immortal ladies in stories. The lack of anyone truly unattractive among her fellow disciples had buoyed that hope.
It wasn't to be though. She was still the same plain and boyish girl she had been before her breakthrough. Ling Qi scowled at her reflection in the mirror as she brushed her fingers through her long hair. It had grown out greatly during her breakthrough, hanging almost to the middle of her back in a wavy, curly curtain. At least the breakthrough had finished the job Gu Xiulan's efforts had started.
Her fingernails were a few centimeters long now too, and her toenails weren't much better, which was more annoying. She would have to cut them along with her hair.
Ling Qi paused, looking into her own bright blue eyes in the mirror. Did she need to cut her hair? She had kept it short before out of practicality. She had no time on the streets to care for longer hair or put it up with pretty ribbons and ornaments like Mother had enjoyed doing to it. She idly fingered a few of the lengthened strands … Maybe she could do something with it. Arrange it in one of the ways Mother had shown her when she was young.
She turned away from the mirror. Something to consider later. She still had to dispose of the buckets of filthy water and at least trim her toenails so that she didn't trip.
Ling Qi didn't like the attention she drew when she finally went out to dispose of the buckets and her old clothes. She had been shut in for days again. The fighting had died down, but that just meant that there were more people in the streets. More girls whispering behind their hands as she passed, even if most of them lowered their eyes when she glared at them.
It was unsettling. She had grown used to spiteful looks and disdain. The lack of it made her nervous.
In the wake of her breakthrough came less exciting things. Organizing her time and resources came first. The storage ring she had acquired had swiftly grown full, carrying everything. She did not forget Elder Zhou's words. She was progressing quickly, but she still had so much ground to make up. Going through her things brought Ling Qi a surprise however. While she was sifting through the jumbled contents of her storage ring and deciding which of her meager possessions she wanted to leave at their new home, she came across the tokens from Elder Zhou's test.
She had forgotten about them, those three symbol inscribed discs. She found herself idly turning them over in her hands as she recalled the test.
The light caught on a scratch in the smooth metal of the sun token as she did, and she paused. That wasn't a single scratch.
Squinting at it, she found that the token was covered in dozens of tiny characters, some of which she recognized from Elder Su's lessons. Bemused, she recalled the only real practical part of formations the Elder had covered, that being the activation of dormant symbols. She fed a bit of qi into the token and watched as the character lit up faintly.
Nothing else happened though, and after a moment, the character faded. A second attempt showed that she could light up as many as five characters at a time to seemingly no effect. She spent a bit of time trying different combinations but eventually stopped. She only recognized perhaps half of the characters. This seemed like a good use for her archive pass, she supposed.
With that in mind, she left the residential area, shifting uncomfortably as she found people getting out of her way. It wasn't like Bai Meizhen where the street ahead would clear entirely, but Ling Qi didn't have to weave through the people in the streets as much. Many of her fellow disciples would simply take a step to the side or turn to give her more room.
It was weird.
Ling Qi pondered her different reception by her fellow disciples as she made the trip up the winding path that lead to the archive. It had to be her participation in that meeting. Nothing else really made sense. Remembering Gu Xiulan's words, it could also be a result of her breakthrough. She supposed it would be difficult to miss her suddenly lengthened hair or even more unwieldy height.
Halfway up the path to the archives, she heard a massive crash and and a rumble as a plume of dust rose from the path ahead. Ling Qi stopped, craning her neck to see further up the switchback, but all she was able to catch sight of were several flashes of dark green light and a sudden burst of silver.
Was someone having a duel on the path to the archive? She had been desensitized to such things since the end of the truce, but the next rumble and the rain of stones and dirt falling from the higher path seemed a little more intense than the usual violence. Ling Qi mostly felt only curiosity as it was unlikely to have anything to do with her. She continued up the path at a slightly faster pace, hoping the duelists wouldn't put the path out. Having to climb the cliffs to reach the archive would be annoying.
Ling Qi was almost blinded by the brightest flash yet as she reached the same level, and when her vision cleared, it was to a disquieting sight. In the middle of the now badly pockmarked path were two figures, both male. One, Ji Rong, stood frozen in absolute stillness, one foot off the ground and his fist extended for a punch. Burning stakes of viridian light seemed to puncture straight through his limbs and torso, but she saw no blood or wounds.
The other figure slowly straightening up was the Xuan boy she had first seen at Cai's meeting. He was dressed much the same as then in a thick, dark green robe patterned with geometric shapes. His shell-patterned conical hat still concealed much of his face. He held a weapon now, a tall xizhang capped with a silver hoop cut in half by the continuation of the staff's haft. A half dozen rings of varying metals jangled musically as Xuan removed the hoop from Ji Rong's forehead.
Ling Qi eyed the scene cautiously as the odd boy turned to look at her in an unhurried way. She could tell that he was at least somewhat winded from the way his shoulders rose and fell. Meanwhile, Ji Rong was eerily still, the glow of the stakes thrust through him casting his frozen face in sickly relief.
"Sister Ling," the Xuan boy greeted her. What little she could see of his expression was even as he nodded in her direction once before looking back to Ji Rong. Xuan reached into the collar of Ji Rong's robe and plucked out what she recognized as the archive pass granted to Ji Rong.
Ling Qi eyed Xuan warily. At this distance, she was confident she could have her mist up before Xuan could reach her if it came down to a fight.
"Brother Xuan." Ling Qi mirrored his polite greeting. Xuan's choice of address was odd as few others used the formal terms. It also occurred to her how strange it was to be holding a normally pitched conversation with someone over thirty meters away. It was times like this that made her wonder at the enhancement of her senses.
"Might I ask what happened?" Ling Qi asked cautiously. She would like to know if the other boy was in Kang Zihao's camp or if this was something unrelated. Ji Rong had been pretty antagonistic to both Kang Zihao and Huang Da after all.
The pass vanished from Xuan's hand, presumably into a storage ring.
"The untamed wolf bites all hands, knowing no loyalty nor gratitude. The cur's insult to Lady Cai could not be brooked." Xuan replied, turning away from the frozen boy to begin walking toward Ling Qi at an unhurried pace. "A lesson was administered."
Ling Qi stepped to the side of the path, ready to draw her flute or her knives at a moment's notice. "How long is he going to be stuck like that?"
Xuan cocked his head to the side slightly, pausing in front of her.
"A season perhaps?" he answered, sending a chill down her spine at his casual coldness. His strange eyes flicked back in the frozen boy's direction. "Nay. Without intervention, a full cycle of the moon more like. Does Sister Ling object?"
His way of speaking was a little grating. "Isn't a month a bit much? He's helpless like that, isn't he?" Ling Qi hated to think what would happen to her if she were to be frozen in place for a month.
Xuan's wide shoulders rose and fell in a dismissive shrug. "No touch can reach but mine. A lesson - not an execution." Xuan resumed his walk, the top of the xizhang jangling as he moved past her. "Good fortune, Sister Ling. Convey my greeting to Sister Bai."
Ling Qi watched his back as he walked away, perturbed by the encounter, before testing Xuan's claim. Sure enough, when she cautiously poked at Ji Rong, her finger was stopped a half meter away. It felt as if she were prodding smooth stone rather than air. Ling Qi could see faint viridian characters glowing in the dirt in a circle around Ji Rong, and a single black character meaning punishment on the frozen boy's forehead.
She grimaced and withdrew her hand. She supposed she would find out more at the next meeting... if there was one. There was little she could do either way. Casting one more cautious look around to search for any hidden characters on the ground, she hurried on to the archive.
Thus began her routine for the first part of the week. In the mornings, she would go to the archive, studying formations and attempting to decipher the symbols on the tokens. In the afternoons, she would head to the vent to cultivate and train with Li Suyin and Su Ling. They were both doing relatively well as far as she could tell although Su Ling was absent more and more often, citing a need to gather materials for some kind of arrangement she had with a crafting disciple.
Ling Qi's training with Han Jian would then continue in the afternoons. The boy seemed to have shaken off his gloom, and he apologized for how short he had been with her the previous week. But… Ling Qi felt that he was still growing more distant to her. It wasn't out of any malice, she thought, but he had an ever increasing focus on the others in his group. Han Jian spent more time drilling and encouraging Fan Yu than he had ever done before.
She caught Gu Xiulan giving Han Jian the occasional worried look, and the other girl's interactions with her had become… awkward. When she had shown up at the first training session, Gu Xiulan's expression had been greatly conflicted. Fan Yu avoided even looking at her.
It seemed that even her successes could have negatives
Chapter 48-Restoring Order 3
Ling Qi forged on, determined to keep improving as the days passed. Soon enough, her efforts began to bear fruit. Her study in the archive had allowed her to recognize more of the symbols and allowed her to puzzle out the combination for the star token. The token itself had pulsed with soft light and then disintegrated, leaving behind three wax stoppered bottles. A hurried check of the bottles' properties revealed the liquid inside to be a potent elixir for the enhancement of physical cultivation.
So too did her training advance in other areas. Ling Qi was growing closer to a complete Argent Foundation, and every day, the air she breathed and the qi she circulated seemed to become a little clearer and a little fresher. Another week, or perhaps two, of effort and she would have it.
Her skill with the mystical melody of her arts grew as well. The mist spread further and lasted longer, the weave of qi holding it together growing more potent. She had also found the trick to weaving the the first two melodies together in order to activate both techniques at once. As her understanding grew, a new tune was revealed to her. Starlight Elegy was a slow, sad piece of music that left those lost in the mist exhausted and lethargic, sapping their vitality and qi.
All her training and study could not keep her mind off the past though. Ever since the issue had been shoved in her face during Elder Zhou's test, she found her thoughts occasionally turning back to her mother. Ling Qi's feelings toward the woman were mixed. Mother had been strict and often highly critical, only rarely having a word of praise. Yet despite her profession, Mother had done everything she could for Ling Qi. In hindsight, it was easy to see that her mother had obviously spent most of what she had on Ling Qi's education, such as it was, despite Ling Qi's failure to absorb most of it.
Ling Qi had had good reasons for staying on the mountain these past few weeks. Her breakthroughs were critical to her continued safety, and there was just so much to do… but could she honestly say that her mother didn't at least deserve to know that her daughter was alive? Perhaps it was insight granted by long hours of cultivation, but her past assumption that her mother's continued fretting over Ling Qi's manners and appearance were due to wanting Ling Qi to follow in her footsteps seemed foolish.
After all, an escort didn't have much use for literacy. It made her wonder where Mother herself had learned.
That night, she resolved to write a letter and go into town the next day. It was no easy thing to complete. What did one say to a family member that she had abandoned years ago? The candle she was using for light burned down twice as she wrote a few lines only to hastily scribble them out again and again. Finally, she was able to compose something passable.
Mother,
I hope you are still well.
This is from Ling Qi, your daughter. It seems a little silly to write that, but I would not blame you for forgetting me. You will be surprised to see this letter, I am sure.
I am sorry. You did not deserve to be left alone without a word. I know it cannot make up for leaving you to believe me dead for years on end, but I hope you can accept this small gift as an apology.
That seems rude. It likely isn't a small gift to you, but I might already be forgetting the worth of silver. I've joined the Argent Peak Sect. I have become a cultivator.
I will not ask that you write me back. I do not deserve that, but know that I will continue sending similar gifts when I can.
Thank you for taking care of me.
It seemed stiff and formal to her, but Ling Qi didn't know what else to write. What could she do but apologize? Ling Qi stared at the letter for a long time before she finally went to sleep. She just hoped it was possible to send it; she would feel awfully stupid if she couldn't have it delivered after spending so much time on it.
The next day, she left bright and early, departing through the front entrance of the sect. Ling Qi chose to head down the path at a jog, her command of the air currents keeping her gown from flapping unnecessarily. It was a good, light workout.
Just another strange thing since becoming a cultivator. A jog of several kilometers on a steep path barely left her breathing hard. There were a handful of other disciples going back and forth, but none paid her much mind. The town at the base of the mountain soon came into sight, an island of stone and cleared land in the midst of a sea of trees. The air was cool and crisp from the early spring, and a light mist hung over the sprawling farmland that surrounded the shining stone walls that encircled the hub of the town. The walls bristled with towers and their accompanying war machines, net casters and other more deadly things for fending off barbarian and beast incursions, and the sun gleamed off the helms of the guardsmen atop them.
Ling Qi slowed down to an energetic walk as she approached and passed the gate without issue, her head held high. It was a lesson from her old life that still held true. The appearance of confidence and self-assurance quelled many suspicions. She had to pause to give her name at the gate and get directions to the local Ministry of Communications building, but there was no further hold up.
Her walk through the tidy streets was enlightening. It was strange to walk among mortals again. The projections in the test had not been real people, and besides, she had barely begun to cultivate at that point. Had… everyone she knew really been so slow and graceless? It wasn't as if the mortals were moving in slow motion precisely, but to her perception, their every motion was obvious and telegraphed. That man would stumble on his way through the door. That woman would shift the basket in her hands to adjust for the weight in three more steps.
The obvious respect in the eyes of the townsfolk as they parted to make way for her was unsettling. She hid her unease and soon made it to the office of the Ministry of Communications. The easy part was changing a spirit stone for silver, ninety five coins for a single stone with the remaining five being the office's fee.
It had taken longer to set up the delivery because even though she only had to wait in line behind other cultivators, the Ministry was busy. It had been awkward to explain to the Ministry worker that she needed her letter and package delivered to a Ling Qingge in Tonghou city and that no, she didn't have an address.
Somewhat alarmingly, once she made it clear the recipient was her mother, the whole process was smoothed over. Apparently, the Sect had records on such things. Ling Qi wasn't sure how she felt about that. In the end, she sent the letter and a pouch of thirty silver off. Now that she knew what to do, it wouldn't take nearly as long to accomplish in the future.
Ling Qi wasn't sure whether she wanted her mother to respond to her letter or not.
With the lingering weight of worry over her mother's condition lifted for the moment, Ling Qi recalled the other obligation still waiting for her to fulfill, namely, her promise to Bai Meizhen. The taciturn girl had helped her a lot since she had begun here, and now, she should be strong enough to actually help Bai Meizhen in return.
Ling Qi didn't get a chance to speak with Bai Meizhen until later in the week though as her housemate had secluded herself to cultivate. When Bai Meizhen finally emerged from the house's meditation room, it was late at night on the fifth day. Ling Qi had fixed herself a small dinner of rice and fish and had been eating in the dining room when Bai Meizhen entered, swaying tiredly on her feet. She looked wearier than Ling Qi had ever seen her before.
"Welcome back to the world of the living," Ling Qi greeted the other girl wryly as she paused in eating her meal. "How did your cultivation go?" She knew the proud girl wouldn't appreciate an offer of help when Bai Meizhen was merely tired.
"Well enough. I will be ready to begin the breakthrough to the Green Soul Realm within the month," Bai Meizhen replied as she sat down at the table across from Ling Qi, expression drawn and tired. "Has anything of interest occurred while I was secluded?"
Ling Qi considered the last few days, thoughtfully chewing on a bite of well-roasted fish.
"Well… Ji Rong apparently got in a fight with that Xuan guy. He ended up frozen in place up by the archives. He's still up there." Ling Qi actually felt a little bad passing him every day. Was he aware when he was like that? "Xuan asked me to say hello actually," she added. That request was kind of strange in hindsight.
Bai Meizhen's expression grew puzzled. "Odd. Xuan Shi has never been particularly aggressive."
"Do you know him?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
Bai Meizhen made a dismissive gesture. "Not as such. I met him a few times as a child. There were some talks of a betrothal, but it never bore fruit. Neither the Bai nor the Xuan could agree on the details," she explained matter-of-factly.
Ling Qi's eye twitched, and her threat estimation of Xuan Shi rose a notch given that the Xuan family could apparently bargain at least somewhat equally with her housemate's family. Sometimes, she wished she had better knowledge of her peers, but she didn't have time for that sort of comprehensive education right now.
"Right. Why don't I get you some tea? You look like you need it." Bai Meizhen's eyelids were drooping, but Ling Qi still wanted to talk to her.
Bai Meizhen blinked in surprise. "Would you? That would be most appreciated." Her cool voice was touched with gratitude. "Thank you, Ling Qi."
Ling Qi nodded, pushing the scraps of her meal aside to head to the kitchen. She would make enough for both of them. Even if the tea didn't benefit her anymore, she had come to enjoy the taste of it. It had a certain spice that just perked her right back up even when she was tired. Several minutes later, she returned with a pair of steaming cups in hand and set one in front of Bai Meizhen, who offered her a tiny smile before taking a sip.
Bai Meizhen didn't quite sigh in relief, but Ling Qi nonetheless saw the way her stiff, tired posture eased slightly. Ling Qi took a tiny sip herself, enjoying the warmth of the tea.
"Do you think I'm strong enough to help you yet?" Ling Qi asked. "I'd like to think that I kept my promise on not taking too long," Ling Qi added with her best try at a teasing smile. It probably wasn't very good; she wasn't Gu Xiulan after all.
Bai Meizhen looked up from her cup as Cui peeked out of the collar of her gown to steal a sip of her tea. The pale girl shot her cousin a reproving look and shifted the cup out of reach in response.
"I think so, yes," Bai Meizhen responded slowly, the fatigue she had shown fading. "You held up well enough against those ruffians, and that was before your breakthroughs. You have become quite strong."
Ling Qi looked away, feeling awkward at the praise, and fidgeted with a strand of her lengthened hair. "I still have a long way to go."
"As we all do," Bai Meizhen said with a hint of amusement. "Very well. In my initial survey of the mountain, I discovered a curious chamber deep in a hidden cavern. It was sealed by a pair of bronze doors engraved with fortifying formations. Sadly, even the surrounding walls proved to be fortified as well."
'Rocks should not resist my venom,' Cui interjected sulkily while staring at Bai Meizhen's cup.
"So it's probably another thing like the vent. A miniature test set up by the Elders?" Ling Qi asked thoughtfully. "What do you need my help with then?"
"The formations upon the door require the cooperation of two second realm cultivators to open," Bai Meizhen explained. She met Cui's longing gaze with her own and lowered the cup with a soft sigh, letting the tiny snake drink. "I expect whatever trials beyond the door to reflect that."
Ling Qi nodded in agreement. She had been curious what Bai Meizhen had wanted her help with. She was glad it wasn't something more violent. "When do you want to go then?"
Bai Meizhen pursed her lips. "Nearer to dawn, I think, to preserve secrecy and give me some time to rest."
"Oh, I had meant…" Ling Qi floundered. "You wanted to do it tonight?"
"Yes, if you are ready." Bai Meizhen peered at her with slight curiosity. "Do you already have plans for the evening?"
"No, I was just surprised," Ling Qi replied quickly. She had made the offer. She wasn't going to back down now.
Bonus 9: On Cultivation
The core of all cultivation is the transference and refinement of the fundamental energies of the world. To advance, a cultivator must take in external qi and through various methods purify or otherwise transform the energies to be compatible with their own bodies and spirits. Once this initial infusion of external qi has activated the cultivators own spiritual organs, it becomes possible to generate internal qi in small amounts. However, internal generation is useful only for replenishing and expanding the internal reservoir. In order to refine the body and spirit, or practice arts and techniques requires additional infusions of external qi.
Early cultivation methods, and indeed the ways practiced by the barbaric peoples outside of the empire, achieved this in various unpleasant fashions. The Cloud Tribes of the southern mountains for example, perform a barbaric rite in which young men and women have their souls fully merged with a partner beast, trading away some portion of their humanity identity to catalyze their internal energies with the strength of beasts. This self mutilation is among the more tame non-imperial methods.
The barbarians of the western jungle are much more foul. Ritually excising their own blood and flesh, these veritable beasts would invite evil spirits to inhabit the gaps left behind, and merge these entities with themselves, cultivating through further blood sacrifice and rites most vile. Distant tales of barbarians across the northern seas speak of men who devour one another for power, becoming soulless abominations of mutable flesh. There are more terrible ways such as these than even this scholar can count.
Pre-Imperial methods, the methods of our ancestors, were not typically so unpleasant, however they remain inferior. Most require entering into pacts with spirits and beasts through any number of methods, both exotic and mundane, but almost universally do so from a position of weakness rather than strength, placing them always under the thumb of non human entities. Even those who bargained from strength were forced into an unseemly reliance upon capricious forces.
These ways are inevitably deadly and unstable. They offer a route to power, this is true, and our most esteemed ancestors cannot be blamed for using them in the face of our deadly world when no better methods existed, but they cannot be condoned in the modern day. Though the occasional throwback might arise, swiftly accumulating power in these primitive methods on the back of great luck, one must not forget that for every success there will be a thousand dead or crippled in the attempt, and that is this scholar being somewhat generous with the numbers.
It is a hallmark of civilization that the imperial method, if practiced properly will never cripple or kill the user. The untalented may find themselves progressing slowly or not at all, but they will never find themselves choking on their own blood as their own qi turns against them and poisons their organs.
The core of the imperial method lies in the use of spirit stones. First discovered and put into use by the peoples of Celestial Peaks, the exact nature of spirit stones remain somewhat mysterious to this day. Unlike other minerals, there seems to be no logic to where veins of spirit stones appear. They are most prevalent in Celestial Peaks, but smaller veins occur throughout the empire and indeed expeditions into barbarian lands have turned up signs of their presence even there. Also, unlike other minerals, if not over harvested, spirit stone veins will replenish themselves over the course of decades.
There are many competing theories as to their origin; that they are the remains of the fallen Dragon Gods, that they are the milk of the Nameless Mother, rising from the earth to nourish her children, that they are the last vestiges of ascended beasts so ancient that they have become one with the land, etc. Speculating on the origins is not the purpose of this document however.
Spirit Stones contain a qi that was unique in all of nature at the time of their discovery. 'Pure' or 'Blank' qi which contains no trace of elemental or spiritual nature. Perfectly mutable, this qi may be used by any person, no matter their temperment or descent, no matter which elements they favor. Pure qi is able to transform into any other type, making it perfect for cultivation whether one is at the very beginning of their way, or nearing its peak. The use of pure qi to cultivate outstrips all other methods in both reliability and efficiency.
That is not to say that the cultivation of other types of qi is useless. Clans the empire over practice cultivation arts which refine environmental qi as a supplement. The more impressive arts even allow for the refinement of various types of qi back down into pure qi for use in cultivation, bypassing the need for spirit stones somewhat. However, it was only the use of spirit stones and generation upon generation of imperial study that allowed such arts to come into existence. In addition such arts are universally difficult to cultivate.
A certain degree of spiritual potency must be achieved before such refinement even becomes possible, let alone efficient. For the vast majority of the empire's cultivators, spirit stones remain the source of self improvement.
It should be warned however that attempting to cultivate pure qi itself is a mistake. It is largely impossible for those of lesser cultivation and attempting to maintain the purity of the qi after absorption will only slow and hinder if one is capable. However, over the millenia some have performed trials in forcing the cultivation of pure qi. The results of these efforts have never been positive. For those who are already well advanced on the path of cultivation, the results are a damaged foundation and domain, or even losses in cultivation. For those in the lower realms, the results are more dire, typically involving mental degradation or even permanent catatonia.
This resulted in these efforts being banned by imperial decree under the reign of Emperor Wu of the Second dynasty…
-Excerpt from On Cultivation
Chapter 49-Serpent's Treasure 1
A little more preparation for the potential trial might not go awry however.
Once Ling Qi finished her meal and her tea, she slipped out to pick up an extra dosage of healing salve and stored it away in her ring. The spatial ring remained her favorite talisman. The ability to simply store things away without care was incredibly useful.
Ling Qi was careful to keep from the main roads and to keep an eye out for any potential watchers. She didn't much care for the idea of being followed by Huang Da again. She didn't see so much as a hair of him though. Eventually, she snuck off the beaten path, cutting through the scrubby woods on the lower mountain slope to reach the crossroads Bai Meizhen had asked her to meet at.
"Did anyone follow you?" Ling Qi asked as she stepped out from beneath the darkened eaves of the trees on the right side of the path. Bai Meizhen stood near the lone marker placed at the path's splitting point, her arms folded over her chest.
"Not that I am aware of." Bai Meizhen seemed to have no more trouble seeing in the dark than Ling Qi did going by the way her golden eyes tracked Ling Qi's movement. "There are few who would dare, and of those, fewer still who would opt for such tactics."
Ling Qi cast a wary gaze around. "Where are we going then?"
"The chamber lies near the base on the south side of the mountain," Bai Meizhen answered, turning to set off on the path leading in that direction.
"Opposite the entrance, huh," Ling Qi mused. She hadn't had any reason to look at that part of the mountain before. All the facilities were higher up; even the vent was closer to the peak. She followed Meizhen in companionable silence. She thought they made a visually interesting pair. Bai Meizhen's snowy white hair and skin along with her bone-colored robes made her stand out in the dark whereas Ling Qi was very much the opposite, a dark figure blending into the night's shadow.
Given that they were still on the path, it seemed like Bai Meizhen had no intention of actively sneaking anywhere. "Bai Meizhen, do you mind giving me some advice?"
Her friend glanced over at her without slowing her pace. "I suppose not. What troubles you?"
"It's just… Now that I've broken through to the second realm, I'm unsure as to how I should proceed with my cultivation going into the third," Ling Qi admitted. "Do you have any tips? Anything in particular I should do?"
Bai Meizhen hummed thoughtfully, hands clasped loosely behind her back as they began to descend the increasingly steep and rough path. "Each person's Path is different, of course, but I suppose there are a handful of commonalities. Your qi pool is impressive given your current level, but I would suggest expanding it significantly before entering the third. Half again as large as what you have now - at the very least."
"How do you know how much qi I have?" Ling Qi asked, filing away the information. "Is it something to do with how Cai Renxiang could tell I had broken through?"
Bai Meizhen gave her an unhappy look, and Ling Qi abruptly realized that she had interrupted the other girl. She still felt a thread of fear at the powerful girl's disapproval, but it didn't reach her face. She dipped her head in apology.
"My perception art grants me such sight. You have seven meridians in use, two of which are devoted to wind, one to water, and the rest to darkness. You should be careful not to unbalance yourself toward a single element so much," Bai Meizhen answered Ling Qi's query. "I assume Cai Renxiang has a similar art. Such things are hardly unknown."
"Guess I won't be able to do the same then," Ling Qi responded, feeling put out. She would have liked to be able to get such detail about her enemies.
"Returning to the original query," Bai Meizhen continued with a disapproving huff. "I can only suggest that you diversify your arts further. I have mastered four arts to the limit of my cultivation and four others to a lesser extent in the interest of utility and a well rounded skill set."
Ling Qi had been thinking much the same. Her current techniques were good, but she could do to have more options than simply playing her flute or throwing knives.
"What do you mean about unbalancing? Gu Xiulan uses nothing but fire, and she seems fine."
"Does she now?" Bai Meizhen asked tartly, a hint of arrogant condescension returning to her tone. "Tell me, does she lose her temper easily? Pursue her passions with far more than appropriate intensity?"
Ling Qi fiddled with a strand of her hair. "Sometimes," she admitted. "But she is not as bad as you make it sound." Ling Qi felt the need to defend her other friend.
"I did not say that she was. Some clans choose to accept the… quirks that come with such specialization. For the Bai, we focus our arts around water, darkness, and the more yin-aligned aspects of wood. It is best to use at least three elements in abundance in order to keep a degree of personal balance."
"I see," Ling Qi murmured. "Is that…?"
Bai Meizhen raised her hand for silence as they reached the end of the path proper. There was only a narrow, crumbling cliffside ahead and dark trees below.
"We may continue this discussion later," Bai Meizhen said. "For now, let us concentrate on the path. The way ahead is treacherous."
Ling Qi straightened up and nodded. Time to focus on the task at hand; she could consider the advice Bai Meizhen had given later. The two of them descended the cliff carefully via a narrow ledge barely wide enough to walk one at a time. Ling Qi was certain that were she still a mortal, she would have slipped several times or fallen when a bit of stone crumbled under her feet, but as she was, descending was easy enough.
What came after was far more difficult. Despite the fact that the darkness was no hindrance to her, the paths through the thick trees and undergrowth seemed to shift slightly each time she blinked, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose with the feeling of being watched. Bai Meizhen lead on confidently, unaffected by the twisting of perceptions. Several times, Ling Qi almost lost sight of her companion only to be guided back by Meizhen taking her hand in her own, seeming to simply melt out of the twisted landscape from nowhere.
She needed to work on her ability to resist such illusions, Ling Qi thought. She wouldn't always have Bai Meizhen with her. Perhaps she could ask later what a good method for training her perception would be.
In any case, that was what lead her to walk hand in hand with the pale girl by the time they reached the wide mouth of the cave her companion had mentioned. Unlike the crevices that she had seen up to now, this opening was a yawning hole in the side of the mountain twice her height and nearly eight meters across. Ling Qi took one last glance over her shoulder at the twisted forest but now, it only showed a normal nighttime scene.
Wordlessly, the two of them descended into the cave, following the shallow, sloping tunnel down into the lightless underground. She could hear the distant dripping of water, and her breath came out in wisps of steam as the air grew cool and moist.
Her grip on Meizhen's hand tightened as they reached another chamber, the simple beauty of it stealing her breath away. Her night vision was colorless, but the elegant natural artistry of growing stone was a sight to see. The ceiling was a honeycomb of free hanging and joined stone growths, and many twisting and smooth pillars of rock rose from the damp floor. This place was alive, and the qi in the air was thick and cloying.
Meizhen didn't pause save to cast a brief look Ling Qi's way before tugging on her hand. She thought she saw the other girl's lips quirk upward in amusement though. Ling Qi flushed; she must have been gaping like a fool. She hurried to follow her companion across the rounded stones that formed a path across the small, still lake in the center of the cavern.
They left the beautiful cavern behind, taking another exit down a narrower and steeper tunnel, which soon opened into a much more unassuming round chamber. A pair of great bronze gates were set in the far wall, coiling dragons carved along the edges. There were four indents, two on each door in the shape of spread human hands, each pair surrounded by a complex circle of characters.
She supposed that explained why Cui couldn't do this for Meizhen.
"I do not know what lies beyond," Bai Meizhen said, finally breaking the silence between them as she released Ling Qi's hand and stepped toward the door. She saw Cui slither down to the floor from under the hem of Meizhen's gown, growing larger with each passing second. "The door requires that we activate each pair at the same moment. It is simple enough, but be prepared for the unexpected."
Ling Qi nodded cautiously, stepping up to the door alongside Bai Meizhen. "Alright, let's do this." This would be easier with arm meridians, but presumably Meizhen would have mentioned if that was needed. She could still direct qi into the structure in front of her. She hoped she was ready for this.
"So, on a three count?" Ling Qi asked, placing her hands in the cold metal indentations.
Bai Meizhen nodded, Cui now at full size and coiled around her feet. "That would be appropriate, I think." Ling Qi could see the eagerness in the girl's golden eyes, their glow making them the sole spots of color in her vision.
"Three…"
"Two," Ling Qi murmured in time with her, steeling her nerves.
"One," they said together, and as one, they pushed their qi outward, the vast, cold pressure of Meizhen's energy erupting beside her as her own less obtrusive qi awoke. As Ling Qi exhaled, a thin stream of blue-black misty energy enveloped her hands.
The doors lit up, a dozen characters then a hundred and then two hundred making themselves known on the mirror sheen of the doors. Ling Qi shuddered as she felt her qi connect to something vast and aware. She felt the crushing, impossible weight of its attention, a mountain pressing down on her shoulders, bowing her knees from the weight.
She had an instant to see Bai Meizhen's shoulders shaking from the pressure, expression drawn into one of defiant determination, before darkness consumed Ling Qi's vision.
Chapter 50-Serpent's Treasure 2
There was a brief, strange floating sensation, and then, Ling Qi found herself swaying on her feet and standing on uneven stone. She blinked blearily, catching her balance on the nearby wall. She felt a surge of panic as she realized that Meizhen was no longer beside her and a further one when she peered down at the floor below from the ledge she stood on.
The floor writhed.
Ling Qi was on a narrow ledge halfway up the wall of a narrow cavern, although the cavern was more like a small chasm given its length and width. Below her, there was a veritable swarm of squirming life. Centipedes and other vermin crawled over one another, a susurrus of creeping legs. Some were as small as the ones she had seen as a mortal while others were as wide as her wrist and as long as her arm with wickedly sharp mandibles. The creeping things swarmed over the remains of some massive beast that lay at the bottom. She could see four limbs and a long body, including a sinuous tail, but little else under the carpet of insects. At the far end of the chasm, beyond what she thought to be the creature's head, was a wide cave mouth leading out and down.
Her eyes were drawn upward then to the loud sizzling that had caught her ear over the sound of the vermin below. There was another opening on the ceiling, rough and circular but wide enough for her to climb through. It dripped wetly with some kind of viscous substance.
Ling Qi fought to keep her breathing and nerves under control and consider what she should do. This… The elders were aware of most things on the mountain. Even if this were real, it was likely another test. She should try to find Meizhen obviously, but she had no leads on how to do that. What now?
Meizhen had a real sensory art after all. If she stayed in one place, the other girl would probably find her. But Ling Qi wasn't sure she was comfortable passively waiting for Meizhen to discover her. She had come to help, not to be rescued.
There were two exits, one going up and the other going down. On the one hand, despite her revulsion at the sheer number of insects below, the corpse they were swarming over was very large. A spirit beast that huge… Wouldn't its core be incredibly valuable if it still existed? On the other hand, wading through tens of thousands of hungry biting insects didn't appeal. Ling Qi might not be afraid of such things precisely, but well, who wanted to do that?
Ling Qi took a deep breath and stepped to the side, making sure she was well out of the way of anything dripping from above. It would be foolish to ignore good fortune like this. Even if the core was gone, other parts of a spirit beast were valuable too, and with her storage ring, she didn't have to worry about the weight as much as she otherwise might. To that end, she did a little rearranging of her storage ring to free up space. She tucked her qi cards under her sash and put a handful of spirit stones into her pockets.
Finally, she drew her flute and prepared to play. Hopefully, she only had to handle the vermin she could see down there and not anything larger. Ling Qi began to play, and the mist rolled out, spilling down over the edge of the ledge in a cloudy waterfall, expanding to fill the chasm around her. At first, the insects did not even react as they were engulfed, paying little mind to the noise and increase in moisture, so focused were they on their feast. That was fine. Ling Qi was glad that she could get right on to the second part.
She played the first high haunting notes of Dissonance, and her lungs burned with qi as the mist below became a veritable sea of black. The sheer number of targets left her feeling strained, but it didn't stop her. Taking the shape of a plague of insubstantial rats, the teeth and claws of her mist constructs tore into the swarm. Thousands of the insects died instantly, and the sound of crunching chitin almost overwhelmed the high-pitched shrieks of the larger insects, the biggest of which lashed out mindlessly, biting and clawing at the mist even as her qi-fueled attacks sparked uselessly off of their thick chitin.
That, however, wasn't a problem. There were only a handful that could withstand her mist constructs like that. The other larger insects thrashed around with cracked shells and chittering hisses. Time would take care of most of them. Ling Qi felt no real worry as she bounded down from the ledge. The corpses of insects crunched under her feet, she would have grimaced if her flute wasn't in the way. She was confident she could stay hidden in the mist and away from the attention of the still-living creatures.
Sure enough, her footsteps grew silent, even as she rushed over the carpet of dead bugs. More died every moment as she brought them within range of her mist. With many of the vermin covering the reptilian corpse dying, she was finally able to get a better look at the creature the vermin had been devouring.
It wasn't a pretty sight. The scent of rot nearly made her gag up close, and she could see great piles of sloughed off gray scales. The corpse was perhaps twenty meters long, not including the tail curled up well outside of her mist, with stretches of rotting muscle and exposed bone. It had four clawed limbs and a thick, squat body. Ahead of her in the mist, she could see its almost skinless skull, an unsettling reptilian thing with a boxy snout and fangs half as long as her forearm.
Most unsettling though was the way the creature's corpse pulsed with scabrous life. Even as she watched, more of the biting, snapping insects emerged from its rotting flesh, only to turn and begin devouring that same muscle and sinew in the moments before her mist constructs tore them apart. After the initial surprise, even the bigger ones had returned to feasting, ignoring the shadows nipping at their shells.
Ling Qi needed to figure out where its core would be. A core was essentially a spirit beast's dantian, so it should be… somewhere in the abdomen? She was going to have to stop playing to grab the core so she really hoped rotting spirit gunk was washable too. There was little to do but store her flute away, find a patch of exposed rib, and start digging. It was difficult to hold down her dinner as she drew a knife and began cutting her way in, releasing some kind of smelly gas as she punctured something or another. It was made worse by the way the carcass continued to birth more vermin. She tried very hard not to look too closely at what she was digging through. The flesh seemed to writhe under her hands, fighting back at her efforts to dig through it, almost as if the rotting meat was regenerating somehow.
Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, whatever had killed the beast had torn its belly open, thus making her job easier. Otherwise, she would never have been able to finish her search before the mist fully faded. Unfortunately, this also meant that her aspirations of a full beast core were unfulfilled. Whatever had slain the spirit had broken the crystalline sphere in its gut into pieces; she had to settle for fragments of warm, dull gray tissue. It felt like soft clay, but she could still feel fairly strong qi even from the fragments.
Hastily stowing away the bloody and viscera-coated chunks of material in her ring, Ling Qi rushed toward the exit and away from the much reduced swarm of vermin. She slowed briefly when she passed the creature's skull, reaching down to scoop a handful of fallen fangs and scales into her ring as she ran out of the dissipating mist.
It seemed her caution was unnecessary. The screeching swarm did not follow her or even seem to notice her passing as it turned back to its feast. She had an unsettling feeling that the corpse had been there for a very long time given the way the rot-slick guts and muscle had seemed to slowly recover in the wake of her digging.
Ling Qi slowed from a dash to a quick walk, sticking close to the wall in the downsloping tunnel. Slowly, the pounding of her heart returned to more normal levels. That had gone as well as she had any right to expect.
She passed several minutes steadily walking down the round tunnel; it seemed strangely symmetrical to her eye, more like a tube than a tunnel. The rock on all sides was smooth and rippled as if it had melted and then been left to harden again. At least it wasn't cramped. She kept alert as she walked, wishing that there was some form of cover for her to sneak behind.
Eventually, the tunnel flattened out and opened up into a much larger space. Here, the ceiling was dozens of meters above her head, and the walls extended a good fifty or sixty meters across. Ahead of her lay a great pit as wide as the tunnel she was in now. She couldn't see the bottom from where she stood.
Gingerly working her way around the lip of the pit, she peered further into the room. It was shaped vaguely like a huge bowl with a pool of what looked like liquid silver in the center. Its perfectly still surface gleamed in her vision. The walls of the pit were riddled with small tunnels, some a few meters across and others barely wide enough for Ling Qi to fit an arm into, and thick veins of what she thought were some kind of metallic ore. The floor was uneven, seemingly carved through by a thousand channels like irrigation ditches in the stone.
Most importantly though, Ling Qi saw Bai Meizhen sitting beside the odd pool.
Chapter 51-Serpent's Treasure 3
Bai Meizhen looked somewhat scuffed, her snow white gown dirtied at the hem, but otherwise, none the worse for the wear. She looked up as Ling Qi began to pick her way across the room.
"Ling Qi," she greeted, rising to her feet in a single graceful movement. "I am glad to see you well. I did not expect to be separated."
Ling Qi felt relief as she approached her friend. She had been hoping that they hadn't been sent to entirely separate places. She glanced at her hands, which were still covered in filth, and grimaced.
"Yeah, I didn't end up in the best situation." She came to a stop a short distance away from her friend and the shore. "Where is Cui? Is she alright?"
Meizhen paused before responding. "She was wounded in my initial encounter; I am letting her rest in my dantian. It is of no concern," she replied dismissively, turning her eyes away to peer around the cavern. "There is a door on the other side, but I believe this pool holds something of use. I suggest we investigate it first." Meizhen gestured for Ling Qi to come examine it.
Ling Qi took a few steps forward then stopped. "Do you need some healing salve for her?" she asked, eyeing Bai Meizhen in confusion. "I would have thought you had some, but…"
"Perhaps later," the pale girl replied. "For now, it is more important that we puzzle this pool out so that we may leave this place. I fear the creatures that dug these tunnels may return."
The idea made sense, but something wasn't right. If it were anyone else, even Ling Qi or herself, she could imagine Bai Meizhen dismissing a bit of hurt in favor of pursuing a goal… but not for Cui and not so easily. Bai Meizhen was not very expressive, but she couldn't imagine the girl would truly look so unconcerned about her cousin being hurt.
A knife slipped surreptitiously into her hand. "I think it's more important that we help Cui first. Why don't you bring her out?"
Bai Meizhen scowled at her, studying her face as if deliberating on something. Then she lunged.
Ling Qi's eyes widened and she backpedaled. Her face paled as Bai Meizhen's face tore in half like it was made of wet paper with a terrible ripping sound. It exposed a maw filled with sharp twitching mandibles, overshadowed by the much larger ones that erupted from where Meizhen's cheeks had been. Ling Qi ducked under the snapping sword-length mandibles and leapt back, gaining distance from the Meizhen thing.
The lake rippled as thrashing, chitinous coils emerged carried on dozens of clattering legs. The thing's mask - and she hoped to every great spirit she could name that a mask was all it was - now hung in two limp halves from either side of its wide upper body. The 'hood' of chitin formed something that looked like a half-melted human face above its chittering mouth, and dark eye sockets burned with emerald fire.
'The little ape just had to have its questions,' the thing's voice hissed in her mind, making her feel as if bugs were crawling over her skin. "Can't it see how hungry we are? Hold still, little ape, and it will be over quickly as it was for the other.' The thing's statement was punctuated by half of 'Meizhen' falling to the shore with a meaty thud and slowly dissolving into black sludge.
"Like I'd buy that," Ling Qi snapped. "Meizhen would destroy you." Ling Qi was confident in her assessment despite the thing's horrifying appearance. The thing's body was thicker than her torso and several times longer, and she had a feeling it was very fast for its size. Even as she backed up, a wicked spike of a stinger at the end of its body was emerging from the pool.
"How about this? You leave me alone and I won't kill you like I did the rest of the bugs down here!" Ling Qi bluffed.
The thing hissed, and Ling Qi shuddered at the fury in its mental voice. 'So that is the scent…' It raised its body higher, towering over her. "You will replace them soon enough. We will offer your bones and skin to the Father-Mother!' Some kind of disgusting, sticky black fluid dripped from its maw to sizzle on the stone.
Well, she didn't really think that would work. Ling Qi needed to figure out what her plan was though. She had fifteen meters of starting distance from the thing, which left her a good twenty five meters from any of the walls.
Ling Qi's flute appeared in her hand, and she began to play as she kicked off the ground, jumping backwards and away from the monster as the mists began to roll forth. Ling Qi mingled the melodies and strengthened the outflow of her qi, thickening the mist around the grotesque spirit to confuse its senses.
'We will not let the little ape run!' The thing's chittering voice scratched at her mind as it surged forward, dozens of legs clattering on the stone, her qi sliding off it like water from a duck's feathers. Rather than charge into melee though, it reared its head back, that awful maw gaping wide and spraying a gush of inky black gunk that stunk of rot at her.
Time seemed to slow as she traced the arc of the spray and determined that she wouldn't be able to move in time, even with her darkness-enhanced speed. Her qi surged, cool sable energy flooding her limbs, and she flickered, the gunk passing through where she had been standing, then dodged to the right to avoid the slick. It was still close. Her foot caught the edge of the gooey liquid, and she nearly tripped as she felt the thong of her sandal tear under the pressure of her continued movement, leaving her footwear behind, glued to the floor.
She turned the stumble into a graceful spin away from the spirit as she continued to play, making another attempt at entrapping the thing in her mist. This time, she felt her qi take hold, and the worm let out a chittering screech of frustration as the mist thickened around it, muffling its senses and causing the music to seem to echo from seemingly everywhere at once.
'Wretched, darting creature,' it hissed, coiling in place and peering into the mist. Emerald eyes flared with fell light. 'No escape from us!'
The entire, monstrous thing crouched and then leapt toward her, mandibles extended. Ling Qi wove out of the way as the creature crashed down against the floor with stone-cracking force, her melody never faltering. Despite being close enough for the wind of its passage to send her dress and hair fluttering, she remained calm thanks to the weekly combat practice with Han Jian's group. She knew that interrupting her song would likely spell the end for her. She could not afford that so she ran, darting away to hide in the mist.
The skittering horror righted itself as she vanished into the mist, its mandibles snapping together in frustration. It raised its head, scenting the air as it scuttled in a circle, searching for her while its chittering took on a higher pitch. Ling Qi was hidden for the moment though, which meant she was free to change her song, adding the threatening notes of Dissonance to the melody.
The creature shrieked in surprise and fury as shapes formed in the mist around it and struck, phantom claws scoring lines across its chitin. The worm's retaliation struck only air and mist, dispersing the construct, but it was useless as other phantoms continued to form and attack. Ling Qi felt a savage satisfaction as she watched the thing thrash and suffer. It curled in on itself as she circled it at a distance, protecting its more vulnerable parts from attack, but it seemed that the creature wasn't out of tricks yet.
'We can feel you, ape,' the thing hissed. 'Its steps on stone, the beats of its heart, the rush of its blood. No more HIDING!' Ling Qi winced as the voice in her head rose to an ear-splitting screech. The worm's eyes burned, giving off a haze of qi as it swung its upper body around and fixated on her, charging headlong toward her.
Still, she had given herself space, enough for one more melody to add to her song. Her fingers danced over the holes in her flute, and she began to play its elegy. Ling Qi had been hoping to conserve qi, but she would rather ensure that this thing bled out with as little chance of harming her as was possible. Ling Qi avoided the shower of disgusting fluid that sprayed from its maw with near contemptuous ease even as Crescent's Grace faded entirely. She circled away, still playing as her constructs continued their assault, cracking and scoring chitin where they struck.
The fight entered a death spiral from there, the increasingly incoherent worm spasming under the constant assaults as she continued to play keep away with it. Its limbs began to grow sluggish in their movements, and its attacks slowed while greenish-yellow ichor began to leak from cracks in its joints and shell. It cursed and railed against her, but even when she began to hear fear in its mental voice, she didn't let up and she didn't let it escape. This thing had worn her friend's face and threatened to eat her; she had no mercy for it.
As it finally collapsed to the ground with a crash, she kept playing, allowing her constructs to continue striking it as it twitched and spasmed on the ground, letting out gurgling cries as its ichor pooled beneath it. Even when it stopped moving entirely, she didn't stop for nearly a minute. Eventually, she lowered her flute, allowing the melody to fade as she flicked a knife into her hand and cautiously approached.
She wasn't a fool. The knife flew before she closed within ten meters, burying itself in one of the creature's now dull eye sockets. It didn't so much as twitch. Ling Qi finally allowed herself to relax, approaching and ripping her knife free. She studied the thing's corpse, and soon saw what she was looking for, a wide crack on its lower body, torn wide by a dozen attacks, glittered with light.
She grimaced as she used her knife to pry its exoskeleton open further and rolled up her sleeve before plunging her hand into its foul innards. Her hand came back clutching a core the size of a child's fist but also covered in truly foul-smelling goo.
Disgusted, she slipped the core into storage, keeping her flute in her hand for the moment. She glanced at the still, silver pool in the dissipating mist. Ling Qi wanted to wash her hand clean, but she was leery of touching the silver liquid. She was also miffed to find that her sandal was irrecoverable, leaving her with one foot bare.
On the one hand, the pool might have something useful within it or was useful in and of itself. On the other hand, the worm had been trying to get her to examine it so it could be a trap. On further investigation, the face-stealing creature's claim of a door did turn out to be true. It was a blocky, ominous-looking thing of black stone with sharp, seemingly dangerous characters carved on it that she didn't recognize.
Ling Qi let out a weary breath. She'd have to choose which one to investigate first.
Chapter 52-Serpent's Treasure 4
Ling Qi glanced at the door set in the far wall and then to the silvery pool. While the pool might be a trap, she thought it more likely that the worm had simply been trying to get her close enough to strike by surprise. Leaving behind the increasingly smelly corpse of her foe, she walked back toward the pool to examine it, trying to ignore the warm, sticky chunks of bug viscera stuck to her right hand.
The pool was perfectly still again like the surface of a mirror. Her reflection stared back at her from the pool, expression wary and hair frizzy and wild. The faintly ridiculous thought that she really needed to figure out what she was going to do with it crossed her mind. She slowly paced around the pool, examining the shore because whatever liquid filled it was opaque, preventing her from seeing the bottom. As she studied it, she idly popped a qi restoring pill into her mouth, enjoying the feeling of relief as she bit down and her reduced qi pool began to refill.
Reaching down, she scooped up a pebble from the ground and tossed it in, watching as the liquid rippled once before stilling again. There was no other reaction. Ling Qi was still wary of touching the liquid herself though. She had a feeling that there was something more to this pool so she continued circling, looking for anything of interest.
After a few more rotations of the pool, something caught her eye. What she had first taken to be simply indentations in the stone where the edge of the pool lapped seemed a little too uniform. She crouched down, keeping a wary eye on the water, to examine the indentations more closely. Sure enough, she found that the marks were actually characters scratched shallowly into the rock. This one meant something like… "Obscure," or perhaps "Blind," depending on how it was interpreted in context. There were characters ninety degrees to the left and right, as well as one directly across from the first character and linking characters in between the cardinal characters. The others were "Sleep," "Human," and "Stillness" from what she could tell.
Well, she definitely didn't want to touch the pool now - at least not until she figured out how to disable the formation. Ling Qi wracked her memory for Elder Su's lessons. There had been something in there about removing formations without activating them.
If she recalled correctly, there were certain parts of the connecting characters she could safely break. She bit her lip and hesitantly scratched out one of the characters with her knife. There was a spark of qi and the water rippled, but no other sign appeared. Feeling a little more confident, she moved on to the next character that should be safe to remove and then the next. The air gradually filled with an odd static that put her hair on end.
She had to finish at this point, the energy in the broken array was started to go wild. However, it seemed she still had more to learn about disabling formation traps. When she moved to the section between the third and fourth characters and began to hurriedly scratch out another linking character, the whole section lit up fiercely. A painful buzzing filled her ears and it flashed blindingly bright.
Ling Qi fell back with a pained yelp, shielding her face with her hands as she was shoved along the stone nearly a meter by the force of the qi shockwave. Luckily, she had enough presence of mind to let her own qi absorb the explosive pummeling. There was something else to the blast though; she felt oddly lethargic, as if she had weights strapped to her limbs, dragging her down. It only lasted for a moment however.
Ling Qi grimaced and sat back up, rubbing the back of her head and giving the pool a wary look. The knife she had been using was little more than a hilt with a jagged bit of metal sticking out of it now. Explosion aside, it looked like she had accomplished her goal. The pool was now no more than an unusually uniform pool of water rippling naturally with the aftereffects of the wave that had struck her. She could see something shining at the bottom.
Grumbling, Ling Qi peered around the room to see if the concussive sound had drawn anything to her, but the cavern was quiet. She returned to the edge of the pool and peered in once she was confident that she was still alone. At the bottom was a small silver box, the size of a lady's jewelry case, its sides and lid plain and unadorned. She glanced at the formation circle, but the characters were gone, vanished with the outburst of energy.
A tentative finger poke revealed cool water and nothing more. After a moment of indecision, Ling Qi waded into the hip-deep water to get her prize, pausing only to clean her hands. The attempt at breaking the formation hadn't been ideal, but hopefully, this prize would be worth it. Examining the box revealed no further formations so she carefully picked it up and returned to the shore, scowling a bit as the fabric of her dress clung wetly to her legs. Her eyes lit up when she opened the case, revealing a single jade slip lying in the somehow perfectly dry velvet lining of the box. She hastily plucked it out and pushed a spark of qi into the jade to read the contents.
Ling Qi blinked as information regarding an Argent Mirror art flowed into her mind. A Sect technique. She supposed that confirmed her thoughts that this was a deliberate trial. The jade slip had definitely been worth braving the trap, even if it had been a little rough at the end.
As the sound of stone grinding against stone and draining water reached her ears and vibrations rumbled through her feet, she tensed and looked up from the jade slip. The pool was draining down a steadily opening gap in the bottom and rushing down a slowly revealed stone stairwell. Another glance showed the stone on either side of the basalt door pushing outward to cover it.
She cursed under her breath and rushed toward the door, but by the time she reached it, there was only a smooth expanse of stone. It seemed that she could only take one path. She hadn't even considered that the pool would be a path of its own. It was too late to regret things now. Best to keep moving forward.
She put the jade slip into her storage ring, drawing out her remaining restorative pills to put in a pocket for easier use. Ling Qi shook her head. Just a few weeks ago, she had been so excited by the idea of a storage ring and what could be done with it, and already, she was wishing for one with more space.
She could be a pretty greedy girl, Ling Qi thought ruefully as she turned back to the newly opened stairwell. As she reached the edge of the damp bowl where the pool had been, she glanced down at her feet and with an irritated sigh, kicked her remaining sandal off. She would just have to get some actual shoes when she got out of here, but for now, her partial footwear would mess with her balance. Besides, it wasn't like a pair of flimsy mundane sandals protected her feet from anything at this point.
The stairwell was damp and unpleasant, water dripping on her head from above and cold air making her breath come out in puffs of frost, but Ling Qi continued on, keeping a hand on the wall for balance as she traversed the water-slicked stairs. She wasn't sure how long she spent traveling downward, but eventually, the narrow path opened up into another huge chamber.
Ling Qi winced as the light from the new cavern stung her eyes. The ceiling was lower here, a mere twenty meters overhead, and the chamber was filled with pillars of stone, making it difficult to see how large the place was. It was, however, well-lit with glowing veins that pulsed like the beating of a heart. The veins wound through the pillars and ceiling, coming together in nodes of crystalline growth where three or more of them intersected.
The cavern was also inhabited. Overhead, she saw scores of grey-winged moths fluttering about, each one with wings as wide as a pair of spread hands. Glitter floated in the air in the wake of their wings. They had odd, faintly luminescent dark blue markings on their wings, as well as prominent feathery antennae and seemed to be congregating on the crystal growth.
They weren't the only creatures here. Even as she examined her surroundings, she caught sight of a dark shape the size of a large dog swooping out of the darkness to snatch a moth that had strayed too far out of the light. It was a rather massive bat with jet black fur and prominent bony ridges growing along its spine and ribs.
Ling Qi considered her best path while keeping an eye out warily and eventually decided to head toward the sound of falling water she heard from further ahead. The denizens of this cavern didn't seem hostile; the moths paid her no mind, and although she caught the sounds of bats fluttering overhead, they didn't seem interested in her either. She continued to walk under the faint light of the glowing veins, and the sound of running water grew louder and louder until she finally emerged from the forest of pillars. She found herself looking up at a ten meter high cliff from which a wide waterfall poured into a churning pool below, which, in turn, flowed into a narrow stream that curved off into the distance to her right.
There was a figure in white crouched in front of the waterfall, partially concealed by the rising mist. She appeared to be in the process of washing some rather familiar-looking black gunk from her hair. Ling Qi came up short, stopping at the side of a pillar to examine the scene critically. She hadn't forgotten the mimic worm and its abilities. Her eyes caught on the gleam of emerald scales though as Cui slithered out of the water to coil up at the figure's side.
That made it more likely it was the real Meizhen, but Ling Qi still hesitated. It didn't do her much good though as Meizhen turned around, white hair clinging to her neck and shoulders. Ling Qi shivered at the girl's cold and expressionless face, feeling the telltale wave of unease that her friend's attention brought.
They stared at each other from across the expanse of the cavern, and Ling Qi shifted from foot to foot nervously. Bai Meizhen, if it really was her, did not look friendly.
"I'm guessing you ran into a mimic worm too? Mine was pretty bad at pretending to be you," Ling Qi said, breaking the silence. Her voice trailed off weakly by the end.
Looking more closely, Bai Meizhen's eyes seemed slightly red. Had her mimic worm have some kind of blinding attack? Ling Qi felt uneasy at the continued silence.
"How am I to know if you are truly Ling Qi?" Bai Meizhen's cold voice asked, her tone clipped and unfriendly. "I have no time for further petty deceptions."
Ling Qi paused. She was almost certain this was the real Meizhen, but how to prove her own identity? Remembering that the worm had lacked Meizhen's particular aura gave her an idea of how to prove her identity.
"I could play for you," Ling Qi proposed carefully. "If I call my mist, will that set you at ease?" Apparently, the worm's mimicry was able to fool even her friend's superior senses. If the worm's abilities were so focused on deception, that might explain why it was relatively weak in direct combat.
Bai Meizhen considered this even as Cui slithered into a loose coil around her feet, head raised to stare down Ling Qi.
"Very well. Do so," Meizhen commanded, staring at her with hard eyes.
Ling Qi nodded and let out a quiet breath she hadn't noticed she was holding. She raised her flute to her lips, keeping her eyes on Meizhen as she began to play the melody of the vale. As her qi flowed into the music and the mist billowed outward, she tentatively included Meizhen in it as well. Despite the additional cost to include someone in the mist as an ally, Ling Qi didn't want to alarm Meizhen into thinking it was an attack given how on edge the pale girl was.
As the mist engulfed them, dulling the sound of the outside world, she thought she saw Meizhen relax fractionally, some tension leaving her expression although the girl remained mostly closed off.
"... I see," Meizhen said quietly, finally shifting her gaze from Ling Qi to glance at the mist around them. "It seems that you are real this time. That is a relief. Putting down more vermin would have been tiresome."
Ling Qi lowered her flute, letting the mist began to dissipate. "I wouldn't want to expend the qi to kill another one," Ling Qi agreed. "Are you alright? It didn't hurt you, did it?"
Meizhen's lips twitched, but her expression remained unreadable.
"No, I suffered no significant wounds," Meizhen answered evenly, crossing her arms as she examined Ling Qi before looking away toward the waterfall. "I see you did not either. We should proceed. The passage above leads to the lair of an Elder Mountainroot Bat and its brood. It is the only way forward, assuming you came from the tunnel that I imagine you did."
Ling Qi frowned. Bai Meizhen was still not acting quite right. She didn't suspect Meizhen to be a mimic, especially since she could hear Cui's mumbled hissing about flying rats in her head, but she strongly suspected the other girl was agitated about something even with Meizhen's usually muted emotional cues. Normally, she wouldn't consider prying, but something in her friend's studied non-expression and the redness in the girl's eyes worried her. Her first thought was that her friend had gotten an irritant in her eyes, but… as bizarre as it was to contemplate, had the other girl been crying?
Ling Qi was uncomfortable at trying to push the other girl into talking about it. She didn't exactly enjoy social confrontation, even if she had found herself slowly growing more perceptive about such things as she cultivated, picking up cues she would not have noticed a few months prior.
"Are you certain you are well?" Meizhen asked impatiently, turning back to her. Ling Qi realized she had been staring for some time.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ling Qi said slowly, mind racing as she tried to think of a feasible-sounding excuse to spin out. "It's just - I was thinking that maybe we should talk about what we encountered before in case we get separated and it comes up again."
Bai Meizhen's expression soured, and Ling Qi caught Cui sneaking a glance up at Meizhen.
"I doubt it will be an issue," Meizhen said tightly. "It seems unlikely that these trials will use the same trick twice."
"Maybe, but it can't hurt, right?" Ling Qi pointed out, nervously forging on despite Meizhen's unhappy expression. "The worm mimicking you tried to get me to approach by asking me to examine a pool it was standing beside and hiding in. It didn't have Cui with it though, and it dismissed my questions about her by saying she was hurt. I knew it wasn't you because you wouldn't be so dismissive about your cousin being wounded."
Meizhen's lips were pressed together in a thin line, and her arms were crossed in front of her, concealing her hands in her sleeves.
"I see. The worm had, like yours, elected to set its trap near a body of water." Meizhen spoke in a clipped and clinical tone. "It chose to appear as your corpse and attacked when I approached to examine the scene."
Ling Qi winced. It seemed like Bai Meizhen's mimic had been smarter in its deception.
"I… don't suppose it talked about having killed me?" Ling Qi asked, piecing together the events in her head. "Mine said it had killed you, but that was too ridiculous to believe," she added wryly. It would be much more believable that someone weak like her had fallen.
"Stupid bug had too many words," Cui grumbled, "until Sister Meizhen made it scream." The snake exuded smugness.
Bai Meizhen turned a frown to Cui, but Ling Qi thought there had been a flicker of something else in her expression before she had looked away from Ling Qi.
"The creature was quite talkative, yes," Meizhen agreed sourly. "And eager to gloat. Shall we move on?"
Ling Qi nodded absently, stalling for time as she tried to work out how to approach the next part carefully.
"Is that why you are so upset? Because you thought I was dead?" The words tumbled out before she could think too hard on them. Bai Meizhen usually appreciated her relative forthrightness so it seemed like the best path to getting her to talk.
Her friend stiffened in the process of turning away.
"No. A Bai does not lose composure over something as minor as the death of an ally. Do not inflate your own importance so," Meizhen said coldly without turning back around. "Now, are you coming or need I complete this challenge on my own?"
The air felt heavier, stained by the girl's abyssal qi. Ling Qi felt uncertain at how to proceed. It hurt to hear someone she regarded as her closest friend say something so cold. At the same time… the words felt false to her.
"I don't buy that. Don't just push me away and avoid the question," Ling Qi said bluntly to the girl's back. "I don't really get what the problem is. There's nothing wrong with being a little distraught when-"
She flinched as Bai Meizhen whirled back to glare at her.
"I am not so weak as that! Do not imply such a thing again."
Ling Qi very nearly took a step back, but at the last moment, she set her shoulders and refused to back away from her friend despite the weight of qi pressing down on her and the thrill of fear that went down her spine. Instead, she glared right back, pushing back the oppressive feeling of the other girl's qi with her own lighter energy, sending the hem of her gown fluttering in a phantom breeze.
"And I'd appreciate it if you didn't imply I was blind," Ling Qi snapped. "Do you really have so little respect for me, Bai Meizhen? I am your friend, not your servant. You've said that yourself. I'm not just going to stand here meekly and ignore it when I can tell that you're upset!"
The pale girl's golden eyes flashed, anger entering her blank expression. Before Meizhen could respond further though, the emerald coils at her feet shifted, and Cui let out a low, irritated hiss.
"Sister Meizhen is being ridiculous. This is not the time for the mouse to bare her fangs either. Do they both forget where we are?"
Ling Qi saw Meizhen flinch slightly at Cui's words, a flicker of something like self-loathing passing through her eyes so fast Ling Qi couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it.
"Cui is right. This is not the time for this," Meizhen said stiffly, the oppressive feeling of her qi fading.
Ling Qi let out the breath she had been holding and nodded unhappily.
"...Yeah. I was being too pushy," Ling Qi replied quietly. "But I won't apologize for worrying about you."
Bai Meizhen was silent, expression unreadable, before turning back around, damp hair fluttering with the motion. "Let us move on," was her only reply, a clear shutdown of the topic.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone