Heavenly Shae

Chapter 30: "Acupuncture 101."

Shae didn't cry for long, but was glad that she could. She needed to let out the wave of emotion Wise Kwan's words had stirred up in her. I didn't think that mess was so unresolved. Maybe I felt it more because I like Kwan, and don't want that to happen to him. Though, I don't really hate Ghon.

She found Yungfan gently rubbing her back and humming when she regained control of her senses. Her first impulse was to stiffen slightly then shake off the tears and force herself back to seriousness. She did the former but a lifetime of experience told her shoving the emotions aside wouldn't work.

She relaxed and leaned sideways into Yungfan. The older woman was ready to switch to a hug. Squeezing the girl once, then matched the girl's lean with her own. "Was it bad?"

"Mhm." Shae grumbled through her tears.

"Want to talk about it?"

She took a deep breath, trying to grasp at words. "I thought... hmm, no, I didn't think about it. I haven't let myself process it properly. Didn't know I needed to."

"Sometimes these things sneak up on us." The monk's arm was still draped over the girl's shoulders, and she squeezed her close again. "Was it scary?"

She sniffled. "I didn't really notice, not in the moment. The lead up was scary. I- I had guessed from a long way off, that the old monster wouldn't react calmly. Didn't have a clue what to expect, don't think I could have guessed, even with way more clues."

"Hwaaa," The monk exhaled. "I can't even imagine what facing a tribulation that young must have felt like."

"Eh?" Shae sat up, pulling away just enough to look at the older woman. "That's not what I'm crying about." She stopped and looked to the side, staring off in thought. "That wasn't scary either, it was just really stupid. What kind of asshole makes comprehending that trigger a tribulation?" She shook her head then fell back into Yungfan's side. "Thanks for being so nice."

"Thanks for being so adorable!" She teased and rocked the girl side to side.

"Mmmmghmm." Shae groaned and blushed. "Okay, what cool presents did you bring me?" She poked Yungfan in the ribs.

"Presents? Plural? Who says you get more than one!"

"Mmm. I do. You're too nice to only get me one."

"And you're too adorable to only be given one." She fought back by tickling Shae's side.

"Ah! You fiend! Ahaha" She giggled. "My only weakness!"

Eventually their roughhousing led to Shae nearly falling off the chairs and she had to stand up.

"Alright, Yungfan, the curiosity is killing me. May I please have my gift?"

She smiled. "Yes, come." She grabbed the girl's hands and dragged her out of the room.

"Wait, wait! All my new stuff!" Shae ran back in the room. Carefully tucking Kwan's gift into her robes, then stacking the paperwork that was everyone's gifts into a pile.

Yungfan came back in at that point and waved a hand over the stack, Shae felt a slight wobble of qi and rush of air as the stack disappeared into her spatial storage item.

Shae gasped in surprise. "Ah! You're not giving me a storage ring, are you? That would be too much."

"Too much? Well if you insist, we'll have to settle for the backup plan." She smirked.

"Hey!" The girl pouted.

"He heh, no that would probably get your hand cut off so someone could steal it."

"No!" She clutched her hands to her chest. "I just got this hand."

"Ah-ha-ha!" The monk laughed. "Alright, in here."

"The cleansing room again?"

"Yes, but this is the better one. Usually used for only gathering qi, like with that pill you have."

"Oh! Is that the gift? You rented the room for me?"

"It's part of it, yes."

"Ah-ha! I knew there were multiple gifts. Thank-you!" Shae embraced the woman awkwardly from the side.

"Well it will also be helpful for the other part, which is more instruction on cleansing."

"Oh? You had more ideas?" She asked as she went into the room and set herself up for meditation and cleansing.

"Not just me. Most of the monks contributed to this. They were quite interested in the nature of the qi providing autonomous cleansing. I hope you don't mind that I shared."

"Hmm, it's fine, I would have said yes. The qi is just like that anyway, I'm not doing anything. It's probably already in some book somewhere."

"Ha! If it's not then it will be when we return to the Monkery. But you should take some credit, getting it to start cleansing again can't be that simple, and mimicking the cleansing must also be unique. Most cultivation manuals don't use that method."

"Ah, right. How do you all cleanse then?"

"It varies. That is why I asked around. More minds that have experienced more cultivation methods are always a boon for new styles." She paused, considering how much to share. "Some are as simple as stuffing yourself with qi and cycling it around, it leaks out slowly taking impurities with it. Some think that was the first technique discovered."

"That easy? Must be... slow? As a trade off?"

"Right you are. Quite slow, though one of the monks thought it could be paired with tempering to save time."

"Hmm, no." Shae said authoritatively. "Local qi pressure would prevent the personal qi from leaking out. That's how Elder Ghon kept the lightning in my arm and leg."

"Ah! Good point, and with practical proof. I'll let them know."

"Hmm, maybe the reverse though? Can you pull impurities into your channels? Get them out some other way?"

"Hmm. An interesting idea."

"Don't patronize me, that means it's bad."

"Err, well, there would be side effects, certainly. I think you would need to cleanse your meridians first, which is nearly impossible that early."

"Oh, yea, the cleansing order thing- Elder Ghon told me about that, you wouldn't have enough to do it. I think he had a metaphor."

"Correct, and we do like our metaphors. We monks call it the ox-less wagon problem."

"That's definitely different. Ox-less...? You need something to pull the wagon...? Pulling it by hand is wasteful? Not sure I'm getting it just from the name."

"A merchant only has so much money to start his business, he can buy goods, an oxen, or a wagon. Though not all three."

"Ahhh. I get it! He needs the goods to sell, and the wagon to carry the goods, and the ox to pull the wagon. Etcetera, if you start with the wrong purchase, you get nowhere fast."

"Hah, some monks would cry over that etcetera, but we should get to your cleansing."

"Yes! So what have you got to show me?"

"Well, teaching you acupuncture or hiring a specialist to help would be best, but we clearly don't have the time or funds for that. You should consult someone at the sect about this once you are there. And especially for meridian cleansing. Don't try to cleanse any meridians! This is just to hold you over until you find a proper cultivation manual." ...

The two dove into a few more experiments testing how Shae's qi worked. Once Yungfan had narrowed down which of her options would work the best she instructed Shae on how to perform it. It wasn't much trickier than what she had been doing; the difficult part was getting Shae's special hairpins placed in her acupuncture points correctly.

"Because your needles conduct lightning so well, we decided that you must use them. Well, you could go without, but the speed advantage is quite potent."

"So I need to learn acupuncture?"

"Yes and no. Ah, well, not at first. The others and I all recommend that you do eventually learn it. For now, even if you are awful at placing the needles, it should still reduce the pain from the lightning. Wise Kwan even suggested you use them to practice your control and senses. There is a note somewhere about how. It should be in the writing I will give you, but it may be quite a painful exercise, and there are other ways to stretch those skills."

"Umm, isn't placing an acupuncture needle wrong, like, really bad?"

She wobbled her hand quickly. "It can be, you could damage a nerve, qi channel, or similar. Which is why we included a body map. We think it has enough locations that are safe, even if misplaced. And several other locations where you will need to have a professional place them."

"Hmmm, could you use your tattoos to mark them on my body! Then I could do lots of points!"

"Heh, not with my tattoos, they like to wander, remember. Some people have done that, however. It's not enough for many of the more delicate points, however. The angle and depth of the needle is also important."

"Hmmm." Shae frowned.

"Am I making you nervous?" The monk chuckled. "We included guiding notes, and most of the points are quite similar in nature, so I believe you will figure it out quickly."

The next hour continued with Yungfan walking Shae through a cleansing session using the new technique. She made sure the girl first read and followed the instructions without help. Then stepped in with additional comments. These were mostly summarized as: You'll feel almost nothing when it is perfectly correct, or feel extra pain when it is too far off.

The first part of the cleansing ritual was a small circuit of cleansing. It was small to only draw in lightning to test the needle and cleanse the area surrounding the needle. With the option to reposition it when it is placed incorrectly.

"Eventually, your senses will tell you when the needle is wrong before you have to run any qi through it." Yungfan assured her.

Her next step was to infuse a large area, similar to how she had been doing it. She was to push her qi as far out as the pins would allow the lightning to arc back to. For whatever reason, her newly cleansed flesh didn't freely conduct like her right arm and leg would.

Yungfan instructed that the infusion step should be done with much less qi than she had been using. This would slow the process down, yet make it more efficient because of the final step.

That step was to draw in and circulate four-fifths neutral qi and one-fifth her own qi while the cleansing was happening. They confirmed with their testing that this caused the returned lightning to grab onto more neutral qi and draw it into the cleansing process. Ultimately letting Shae use less of her own personal qi to cleanse the area. The ratio was mostly a guess from one of the monks, and Yungfan told the girl to experiment and let the exact ratio drift a bit.

After an hour of testing, an hour of teaching, and a third hour to let Shae go through the whole process once with one hairpin, she had become a bit exhausted by the process.

She laid on her back while playing with her lightning infused hairpins. "Uh, I am done. Today was more tiring than I expected."

"Hmmm, very well, you can be done if you like. Do read over all our notes on the road, of course."

"Yea, I already said that I would." She bent and unbent one of the pins. They had discovered during their tests that one of the properties of Shae's living spiritual tools was its ability to bend freely. Even though the metal should have fatigued or sprung back, while charged with lightning qi it bent easily and could be returned to its naturally straight shape with a thought. "Ugh, I can't get the trick to straighten it out properly." Shae said in frustration.

"Hmm, yes, it will take quite a bit of practice. You might not get it until late meridian cleansing. One of the benefits of that stage is easier external qi control. But back to the present. You could be done, or you could stay the rest of the night and use that pill, refilling your reserves, you must be getting low on qi?"

"Hmm, not sure if I'm low, the dense qi is kinda weird. But yea, I guess I don't know just how full I can get."

"Yes, that would also be a beneficial fact to discover. Not only that, but this room is a bit special too. Did you notice it while practicing?"

"Uhhhm. Not really? I mean if I had to guess... it has a formation that draws in more qi?"

Yungfan's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but Shae cut in again quickly. "But that is just a guess from the name of the room."

The woman deflated a bit. "Ah, yes, I suppose that was an easy guess." She shrugged. "It's not so fancy that it draws the qi in or increases its density, that requires quite a lot of extra power from qi stones. What it does is balance the qi out faster, so if you draw a lot in, it will refill the area quicker than the natural flow would."

"Hmmm." The girl thought. "So, it almost acts like it is providing more qi, but technically isn't?"

Yungfan nodded.

"I guess that is good. Do you think I would actually need it? I'm not sure I can move enough qi?"

"I'm not sure either, but I'll let you know tomorrow if you try it out with the pill. That qi gathering pill should let you draw in more qi than usual, it will be the deciding factor. But remember, it would be a waste to only use it a little, you really should cultivate all night."

"Ugh! Fine, fine! Now I'm too curious. Let me go to the little ladies room and then I can get to it."