Chương 64: Elder Fang

Jianyi walked with Hong that morning. The boy still seemed a bit shaken from the earlier encounter with the spirit beast boar.

"You didn't seem to hesitate at all. No fear, no doubt, … How?" Hong said contemplatively. Jianyi scratched his nose.

"I don't know. It's not like I am not afraid in general, but in this situation, there wasn't enough time to do anything but react," he paused.

"I have been in a few unpleasant situations these last few months, and maybe I'm slowly getting used to it." Hong slowly nodded.

"I never expected to become a cultivator. Jun neither. Nor was anybody in our family prepared for this. Of course, I have heard all the stories, and I dreamed of fighting mighty beasts and evil demons when I was little, but it was not something that I ever thought was realistic. I thought I would follow in my father's footsteps and lead a mortal life…"

"For me, it was a bit different; my father was a cultivator, and I always wanted to fight the demons, but I also thought it was unrealistic and expected to become a tailor like my mother."

"And what do you hope to achieve now? I mean, we all have to go to the frontlines for a time, but some move on to crafting or other pursuits quickly…"

"No, I will not rest until every single one of the demons and demonic beasts is dead and buried!" Jianyi's voice had become quite forceful, so that even the others, who were walking ahead of them, looked back in surprise. Jun chuckled.

"It seems we have found what can make Jianyi emotional." Jianyi took a deep breath and calmed down enough to laugh with the others. He sometimes forgot that not everybody felt the same way about demons as he did. That didn't mean they wouldn't do what was required, but they still saw the fight against the Demonic Tide as a duty, not their purpose. They continued on the road until they reached a large rock that looked completely out of place in the largely flat, wooded area.

Jianyi fantasized that a powerful cultivator had left this here as a remnant of a dramatic fight, but now it only served as a marker for them to step off the road and dive into the forest. Fortunately, there was limited undergrowth, so their progress was steady.

As they dove deeper into the forest, Jianyi's senses picked up on subtle differences—the sounds of birds and insects somehow felt more real, the loamy smell of the ground was more intense, and the spectacular sight of light rays breaking through the canopy to light up the shadowy ground was almost mystical. He shook himself. It was unusual for him to feel this… poetic. Maybe the fight and lack of sleep were impacting him more than he would have thought. Time to stay focused on their environment.

Soon after, they saw the first Silver Willows, relatively thin trees whose branches reached almost to the ground and whose bark had given it its name. Unfortunately, the first trees they encountered were harvested, and it took them another two hours until they found a grove of older, unharvested trees. Shuhua had brought knives that were thin and flexible and well-suited to separate the silver outer layer of the bark so that you could almost pull it off.

Despite the equipment, it was still a tedious process and took several hours, during which one of them always remained vigilant while the others harvested the ingredient that would hopefully help heal a lot of people in the city. Done with the grove, they spent a bit of time looking for more trees, but just found a few here and there. So they decided to call this a successful trip and started to make their way back to the road and the sect.

Twelve weeks. It had been three months since officially joining the sect and therefore six months since the day of his trial. He still missed his mother from time to time, but he was happy to know that she enjoyed life with her new shop, new clients, and employees. He had, of course, written to her about the work he was doing with the tailors in the sect, but maybe he could demonstrate some of the progress he had been making in that craft. This morning, though, was not the time.

He looked forward to the lecture on qi control with Elder Zhang. Instead of the regular lecture hall, they were in a large room that looked a bit more like a workshop; the walls were stone and wood, instead of plaster, and they didn't have theater-style seating but worktables around which they could stand in groups of five. On each table were small artifacts, not dissimilar to the toys that Elder Sun had given him to practice.

"Good morning." Elder Zhang said as she entered the room as gracefully as ever.

"Every one of you has proven to be able to manipulate qi. Otherwise, opening your meridians would have been impossible. Some of you have storage rings or other artifacts that require you to manipulate qi outside of your body. Others have started using techniques that require you to pull qi through your core card or other affinity cards. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Few of you, however, have yet gained the ability to manipulate more than one qi thread at the same time, which is required to activate techniques with costs higher than one affinity and for many other activities in the life of a cultivator, in particular, crafting." Jianyi frowned. He had learned to control two threads months ago. Before the test even. It had been a prerequisite to use the Martial Meridian Art.

Also, Verdant Mending, his healing card, had a cost of two Wood, and he had started using that weeks ago. Maybe he was missing something?

"The first step is simple: you need to separate an additional thread of qi in your lower dantian. The more difficult step is to move them independently from each other; there is no shortcut but practice. Finally, you need to move them out of your body to manipulate the real world." No, it didn't seem like he was missing something. Maybe his own ambition to open all of his meridians and Elder Sun's guidance had set him on a path that was ahead of his peers.

"In front of you, you find an artifact. Your objective over the next weeks is to make it glow by connecting two separate qi threads to the silver and gold marked spots." He needed to know; maybe the toy that Elder Sun had given him had really been a children's version that was easier to use.

Without mental effort, he separated two threads, guided them through his pathways, exited his spirit through the meridian on his right palm, crossed the short distance to the artifact, connected to the two ends, one gold, one silver, and the device started to glow. No, there… He looked up and noticed that Elder Zhang had stopped talking, and she, as well as most of the disciples in the room, looked at him. The elder squinted slightly; a few small wrinkles formed around her eyes.

"Three merit points."

As Jianyi arrived at the training ground, the mood seemed off, somehow. Usually, the disciples would be talking animatedly among themselves and lounging on the steps while waiting for the inner disciples running the training. Not so on this day. The reason became obvious the moment Jianyi passed a small group of youths standing at the entrance. Elder Fang. The elder had never shown up for a group Amber training session, not even Lapis, if Jianyi was informed correctly.

So far, his interest had been exclusively with group Jade. His disciples stood in a straight line behind him, with impassive faces, though one of them wiggled a brow at him when their eyes made contact. This was unlikely to be a good sign. They waited for a few more minutes as the final disciples trickled in, each one losing any smile they might have had on their faces when they understood the situation.

"It was brought to my attention that some of you feel that they are too good for group Amber," Elder Fang said, loudly but without shouting, his eyes not connecting with any of the youths before him. Jianyi looked around, seeing if any of the disciples around him reacted, indicating that it was they who had complained. The only thing that he noticed was a drop of sweat on the girl's face, who had tried to get him into trouble before. Heavens!

If this was the result of another bout of jealousy, he would have to take action afterwards.

"You!" From one moment to another, the elder held a spear in his hand and pointed it at Jianyi.

"Step forward!" Sighing internally, he did as he was told, while some of the youths around him sighed in relief. One of the inner disciples swallowed hard, then stepped forward.

"Elder Fang, we didn't…"

"Enough! Step back." The disciple bowed and stepped back into line.

"You are nothing but trouble, aren't you? You feel like you should be back in Lapis, or even Jade?" the elder asked him, cold eyes focused on Jianyi. Jianyi bowed his head briefly.

"Honorable elder, I am unaware of how I have caused trouble. I am also very happy in group Amber and have never said anything else."

"Sometimes it is not what people say. You clearly behave as if you are too good for this group. Isn't it so?" The elder looked at the assembled outer disciples, and some nodded, while most didn't react—whether out of fear or because they disagreed was unclear. To their credit, Hong and Jun resolutely shook their heads. Jianyi glanced toward the inner disciples behind the elder. The one who had tried to speak up gritted his teeth, another looked on impassively, and two evaded eye contact.

It didn't look like they had actively tried to badmouth him, but they also couldn't or wouldn't help him now. He looked the elder in the eyes.

"I am deeply sorry if my actions…"

"I don't want to hear it. In the ring." The elder interrupted him and waved towards the nearest training ring. The elder followed him.

"Attack." This seemed ridiculous—what was this going to prove? He felt the heat of anger rising from his gut. He made to go to the rack of training weapons, but the elder yelled at him.

"I told you to attack!" Jianyi pulled his father's spear out of his storage ring, entered the Rooted Stance, and looked for openings, which obviously didn't exist. So he just went for the best version of the simplest of attacks. Piercing Fang. Before he was halfway through the motion, he felt himself landing hard on the packed earth outside of the ring, his spear lying a few paces to the side, having flown away during whatever attack the elder just executed. Absolute silence from the disciples watching on.

"Again!" the elder yelled at him, a few hairs having escaped his otherwise perfect topknot. His hands were numb from the force with which the elder had hit his spear, but Jianyi stood up, dusted himself off, and grabbed his spear. This would likely hurt, but the pain was nothing compared to a full cultivation session, and he wouldn't even count this as humiliating. For a Qi Gathering cultivator to lose against an Elder was as expected as a toddler against a grown man.

The only thing that mattered was to get through this with dignity. He took the starting position and attacked. Blood filled his mouth as he bit his tongue, landing hard outside of the ring again. He spat the blood out, hearing some of the disciples gasping.

"Again!" This had hurt more, but Jianyi ignored it. He had kept up with his meditation practice and had made some progress on having easier access to his boundless will. He didn't call for it, but it came anyway. He rose from the ground and looked at the elder impassively. He didn't divert his eyes as he spat out more blood. The elder squinted in anger.