Chương 25: Guidance

Jianfeng had stayed at the site, as a significant amount of work was now possible that had previously not been possible, and someone needed to begin coordinating it. The jet cabin held just Elder Mao and Lin Che, and the farmland appeared smaller and smaller as they took off. Elder Mao poured tea from a flask he'd produced from somewhere inside and held a cup across the aisle. Lin Che took it.

"Your external Qi," said Elder Mao, "is not too large a problem." Lin Che looked at him.

"I mention this because the natural conclusion most practitioners reach when their Qi leaks externally involuntarily is that they are not yet in sufficient control of their cultivation. That if they focused more precisely or refined their internal circulation more thoroughly, the leakage would resolve." He took a sip of his own tea.

"In your case, that conclusion would be incorrect."

"Then what's the cause?"

"Volume." Elder Mao set his cup on the table.

"You have an abnormally large quantity of Qi for your stage, and the internal channels can only carry a fixed amount before the excess finds other routes. Yours have been finding the nearest available one, which is outwards." He paused.

"Attempting to force everything inwards will accomplish nothing useful and will at minimum cause discomfort."

"Then how do I manage it when I need to?" Elder Mao reached into his jacket and procured a small folded piece of paper and a pen. He opened the paper onto the table between the two and began drawing. It was not a complicated picture — a square containing a series of nested lines that folded inwards in a specific configuration. The lines were precise and clearly practised; he drew it without hesitation or correction.

"A talisman," he said, still drawing.

"This configuration is a void array — it accepts Qi and, to keep things simple at your level, gets rid of it." He finished the final node and held it up.

"The array can bear a significant quantity before it saturates. At your current output, it will take several hours to fill." He handed it across.

"Keep your subconscious attention on it," said Elder Mao.

"You won't need active concentration if you're smart enough, but don't let your mind wander off it, lest you surprise everyone at the clan." He picked up his tea again.

"When it saturates, let me know."

"And what if it saturates whilst still at the clan?"

"You weren't radiating significantly when we were outside. The breakthrough had settled by then, and the fight would have consumed a substantial portion of the excess." A brief pause.

"But yes, within the residence, keep the array active. I will tell the others that the weekend plans have been cancelled so you can avoid detection." Lin Che looked at the talisman again and folded it carefully into his shirt pocket. He spent the remainder of the flight with a fraction of his attention resting on it as peripheral habit. After half an hour or so, he noticed that the ambient sense of pressure he'd been carrying in his chest since the breakthrough had eased slightly.

He looked out of the window at the city below.

Shen Yue was in the outer courtyard when they returned. The younger disciples had finished their session and dispersed, and she was in conversation with one of the residential staff asking about where she would be staying for the night. She turned around once she sensed Elder Mao bringing Lin Che with him.

"Come inside," said Elder Mao.

The room he took them to was smaller than the meeting room from that morning, and was instead a side room with a window overlooking the inner courtyard where the calligraphy group had been earlier. They were gone now, but their supplies remained and art was drying in the open air. Elder Mao sat and gestured to Lin Che, who placed the notebook on the table between them and opened it to the layout sketch. Shen Yue looked at the sketch.

"This is the holy land," she said.

"Lin Che produced it this afternoon," said Elder Mao.

"Took him two hours to do so." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Shen Yue looked at the sketch for another moment, picking up the notebook herself and moving it to her eyes. She flicked through each page quickly giving it a skim over.

"The entire layout," she said.

"All twelve chambers including the notable contents," said Elder Mao. Shen Yue read the notation and set the notebook down.

"The wolf is dead," she said.

"Yes." said Elder Mao.

"It was dead when I got there," added in Lin Che, making eye contact with Elder Mao.

"And what about the materials?" she asked, her voice finally steadied.

"For my condition — are there things that can be harvested?"

"That is the current top priority," said Elder Mao.

"Jianfeng is on site now. I will have a full inventory of the chamber contents before the end of the week, and the relevant materials will be assessed and brought to the clan's medical practitioners immediately." He folded his hands on the table.

"I want you to understand that this is not a secondary consideration. Your condition is our top priority right now." Shen Yue held his gaze for a moment and nodded. Something in her posture changed, as though she could finally exhale a breath she'd been holding in for an awfully long time.

"You should both go home tonight," said Elder Mao. She looked at him, confused.

"The plan was to stay." He looked briefly at Lin Che.

"The plan has been revised. It would be difficult for the evening to proceed normally given the events of the afternoon. I will explain to the household that something came up." Shen Yue followed his gaze to Lin Che. She looked at her husband with a long measuring look, and noticed the slip of paper peeking out of his shirt pocket. Her expression underwent several revisions in quick succession.

"You broke though," she said.

"Yes," he replied.

"This afternoon? Again?" Lin Che shrugged as he had no explanation for what had happened. She looked at the notebook on the table, before moving her eyes across to Elder Mao and then back at Lin Che. She finally reached a conclusion.

"Inside the holy land?" Lin Che nodded. Her mouth was a flat line, the configuration it adopted when she was feeling something strongly and had decided the current venue was not appropriate for it.

"We should go home," she said.

They said their goodbyes at the outer entrance, which Elder Mao kept as brief as he could. He reminded Lin Che about the talisman, and told Shen Yue he would send word the moment the inventory was complete. He watched them walk to the car and turned once the engine began to churn and the two left the Shen Clan residence. When the car had passed through the outer gate and the sound of it had faded, he stood in the entrance corridor for a moment. He did not turn around when he spoke.

"You could have sat further back," he said.

"The acoustics in the inner rooms carry." A pause. Then, footsteps from the direction of the room they'd just left. Shen Bowen came to stand at the entrance to the corridor. He was still in his indoor clothes, wich meant he'd been in the residence all afternoon. The cup of tea in his hands that Elder Mao had prepared for him had long gone cold, without so much as a sip being taken. Shen Bowen was quiet for a moment.

"He's further along than I thought he'd be."

"Considerably."

"And you're not going to tell the other elders about the breakthrough?"

"I will tell them what is appropriate and relevant. The breakthrough occurred inside the holy land, and the portal opened as a result. The only relevant information is that the portal is open." He paused.

"How it occurred internally is between the practitioner and his cultivation, which is not the elders' domain." Bowen turned his cup in his hands.

"Zhiyuan will push for a formal assessment."

"Zhiyuan pushes for formal assessments of new household members as a matter of routine. He does not have to be there for the assessment, and both our words will be enough to silence any protest."

"What do you need from me?" he asked.

"Nothing dramatic," said Elder Mao.

"The boy will need more people in the residence to think well of him before the formal introduction. The ones who currently hold reservations — and you know who they are — are more likely to revise those reservations based on the opinion of people they respect than based on any direct impression Lin Che makes."

"You want me to make the case for him."

"I want you to let the people who already think well of you see that you find no fault with him." He paused.

"You've been watching him since before the wedding. You know what your own assessment is." Bowen said nothing for a moment.

"He went back for the map," he said finally.

"He had the portal open and he went back and mapped the whole facility."

"Indeed."

"That's not something you do if you're only thinking about yourself."

"No," said Elder Mao.

"It is not." Bowen looked at the cold tea in his cup. He thought about his niece, who had spent the walk to the car with a face he recognised more — not the composed version she showed most people, but the one that surfaced when she previously had her footing on the ground.

"I'll handle the ones I can handle," he said. Elder Mao nodded.

"And the ones you can't?"

"Lin Che can prove himself to them instead." Bowen stood in the entrance for a moment longer, looking at the gate as Elder Mao went back inside. He poured the cold tea onto the garden bed beside the path and went to find something warmer.