Chương 55: Density

Ruling the plane was not enough. Not even close. Ruling the Heavens became his obsession. Wuxing his tool. — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms'They are searching for you.' Elder Sun's words echoed in Jianyi's head, and he had frozen in shock. Demons and demonic cultivators were searching for him.

"Well, I should say they are searching for dual cultivators to extract your core card."

"But why?" Jianyi asked in exasperation.

"I never looked into all the demonic rituals in detail, but there is probably something that they can do with it that aligns with their plans. If they have sent out demons deep into the Empire to coordinate the effort, it means that it is important to them. The good news is that they don't know who you are, so they are not looking for you specifically." The initial shock started to fade. For one, because Elder Sun had put his initial statement into perspective, but also… wasn't there an opportunity?

"Teacher, could we maybe draw them out if we tell them who I am?" The elder raised an eyebrow.

"Bold idea, my young friend, but I am not in the habit of using Qi Gathering cultivators as bait. I have a number of new leads based on the mission yesterday; there is no need for desperate measures, yet."

"But, demons…"

"I know, Jianyi, believe me, I know. I will be talking with the patriarch later today. The sect needs to step up. But you need to focus on learning how to be a cultivator first." Jianyi nodded reluctantly. He understood the reasoning, and it was not like he was eager to put himself into danger, but if it would help to root out demons and their followers, he would do it.

"That brings me to the final topic I wanted to address. Do you think you have sufficient qi for a technique?" Jianyi was surprised by the turn of events and only slowly came to the conclusion that he didn't know the answer to that question.

"How can I tell?"

"Well, it is one of the most important pieces of information about yourself, and you should always be aware, because if you lose track and you hope to save yourself with a technique but run out of qi, you might die. But for now, take a look at your lower dantian…" Jianyi did so and saw that things had changed—even if marginally—his short cultivation session had added significantly to the qi that he had gathered passively so far.

Also, he thought he could detect a bit of qi on the bottom of his dantian that was moving less around than the rest, but he might be imagining things.

"… now, a good rule of thumb might be literally a thumb." The elder chuckled at Jianyi's confusion.

"An ancient joke; you have to excuse this old man. Anyway, if you were to loosely bunch up the motes of qi in your dantian, would the remaining mass be about as big as the first digit of your thumb? If the answer is yes, then you probably have sufficient qi for a single unit of affinity, the cost to activate a respective technique." This was, of course, a very rough measurement, but Jianyi felt that he should have enough qi gathered, so he nodded.

"Very well." The elder stood up and positioned himself at one end of the training circle.

"Please shoot a Bolt of Fire at me." Jianyi blinked, then shrugged. If an elder of the Fivefold Spear Sect asked him to use a technique on him, he probably knew what he was doing. He positioned himself in the ring as well and then, for the first time, breathed in with the intention of calling up the techniques, the cards in his upper dantian. And they appeared in all their glory. When others did this, you naturally couldn't see the face of the cards, just their metaphysical representations. This was different.

The cards drawn were random, but given that he had only two cards and could draw two, both Force of the Forest and Bolt of Fire appeared in front of him. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. He got so excited that he breathed out, and the cards vanished. Rarely had he heard Elder Sun laugh so loud and so long, while Jianyi stood there with a beet-red face.

"I am… I am really sorry, Jianyi, but your face. It… wonderful. Just wonderful. Maybe I should have had more students over the centuries. Anyway. Let's try this again." The elder had mostly calmed down, though he was still chuckling slightly. Again, Jianyi breathed in, the cards appeared, and this time he pointed at Bolt of Fire and waved it in the direction of Elder Sun.

Following the instructions from their lectures under Elder Zhang, he willed his qi in parallel into his Celestial Core Card, where it transformed from the normal gold into a streak of fiery red that left his body and filled the card in front of him, which then turned into a fire bolt that flew at the elder. Jianyi was keen to see which technique his teacher would use to block the bolt, but the older man just raised his hand, snapped the bolt out of the air, and let it fizzle out.

His elation about his first-ever technique turned to disappointment when it had absolutely no effect at all. Not that he wanted to hurt his teacher, but this was appalling. The elder looked at him.

"Before I explain why we did this. Every morning you are to practice techniques, that is, at least one. When your available qi grows, even more frequently. The only way to increase one's speed to activate is to practice. Once you have the fundamentals automated, make Minghao interfere with you while you do this—learning to activate techniques while one is under pressure is essential, and there is no value in waiting to learn this.

"Also, no student of mine will ever learn to activate techniques with a hand movement. That is something for showmen or when you really know what you are doing; until then—intent only. Understood?" Jianyi nodded. He was pretty sure he had seen the elder use a hand gesture, but he probably fell under the category of those who 'knew what they were doing,' and he could see the benefit of being able to activate cards without telling the enemy what was going to happen.

"Good. Now let us discuss what I found, but wait a moment." The elder looked to the side, and Jianyi felt qi pressure him from all sides until a visible but transparent golden dome formed around the compound. Then, the elder took out formation plates, just like on the first day he had met his teacher, and placed them around them. Only after those were activated as well did he look at Jianyi again and continued where he had left off.

"Let's talk briefly about qi density. Yesterday, we discussed that density, which impacts the power of a technique, is driven by the level of insight a cultivator has with it. You have also learned that a dual affinity cultivator has a higher density than a single affinity cultivator, because 'Wood feeds Fire', or 'Metal enriches Water'." Jianyi nodded.

"Have they also taught you how much more powerful that is?"

"No, not that I remember." The elder nodded, as if he had expected the answer.

"For simplicity's sake, let's assume that a single affinity cultivator in the Qi Gathering Realm had a density of one. Roughly, that doubles with every realm. So in Qi Condensation, that would be two. A dual affinity cultivator like me would have about one and a half times that much power. So that would be 1. 5 in the first, and 3 in the second realm. Clear?" Again, Jianyi nodded.

"From our little test just now, my sense is that your density is at least two, to stay in that example. That means your Bolt of Fire hits about as hard as that of a Qi Condensation cultivator with a pure fire affinity," the elder looked at him meaningfully. Jianyi couldn't help himself; he had to smile as he imagined how he would burn demons by the dozens to ashes. Then he remembered how Elder Sun had just squashed his fire bolt. But still, this had to be good.

It would give him a significant advantage, and the absolute disparity between him and others would only grow over time. The Celestial Core Card started to show its value.

"I know what you are thinking. And you are right. This is great. But it is also yet another thing that can make you stand out. We will think of explanations and excuses, but I want you to be aware so that you can be intentional in how and where you showcase your strengths."

"Thank you, teacher. For everything."

"You do realize that we have a problem, right?" Jianyi turned to whoever had just addressed him while walking to one of his classes. The voice was familiar, not unfriendly. It was Lu Shan. Jianyi braced himself for another insane tirade from the unhinged youth. He was tempted to just walk away, but shrugged mentally and decided to bite.

"How so?"

"If you continue to improve for our third duel as you did for the second, I might not be able to humiliate you, which would mean that our karmic balances won't even out. You can't want that?" This was the Lu Shan that he had seen briefly after the test, someone who was much quieter than the loud personality that shouted nonsense in the open, and who continued to be obsessed with karma.

"Lu Shan, your whole assumption about my karmic debt to you is wrong. It has always only existed in your head. I never accused you of anything with the elders," Jianyi said exasperatedly, tired of this complication in his life. The other boy looked at him, squinting his eyes.

"I am not sure I believe you."

"Why would I care what you believe? You have caused me nothing but trouble." Lu Shan's cheeks slowly turned red; it seemed like he got really angry, and not just in the way he acted before and during their duels.

"If what you say is true, how can you have gone through with these duels? You created more imbalances! Do you have any idea what my mother will do when she learns about this?" At the end, he almost shouted, spittle flying from his lips. Jianyi was still thinking about how to react when another transformation overcame Lu Shan. He calmed down again.

"Ah, but by trying to entangle me in your karmic web, you have sown your own defeat. Lying to me incurred a debt which our duels will erase. I will just have to train harder for your final humiliation. I'll see you in four weeks." With that, Lu Shan left Jianyi behind, standing confused in the middle of the outer sect, unable to predict or even understand the other boy's thought patterns.