Heavenly Shae

Chapter 9: "Campfire-bending."

The next day, the old monster had a new plan. "It is a bit odd to learn elemental control before neutral qi control. Yet, here we are, doing a rather odd bunch of things back to back."

Shae had been expecting more practice with moving air qi, as she had yesterday. So she was unsure how to respond, remaining silent instead.

He nodded to agree with himself. "We'll try with fire qi today, then the other basic elements. Try not to get any ideas about how the qi should act, as with the air qi."

She was unprepared for this reprimand, and took the warning as it was. "Yes, Elder Ghon."

He nodded again and they started the same way. Shae slowly falling into meditation. The fire qi was much more identifiable. It was hot, and burned to move. She lost her meditative calm multiple times until her composure cracked.

"Ugh, why does it have to hurt so much!"

"Well, it is fire qi. And far more than there usually is because of the density issue. But, you might be giving it more power than it should have. Fire does much more than just burn. It provides warmth, cooks food. Provides safety and light. It is likely your ideas of fire are influencing it more than you realize."

She groaned and grumbled quietly while considering his words.

"Let's pause briefly for a meal. Take your time and consider what other aspects of fire there are."

The soup today had more substance to it, and a fair bit of spice. Something that left some heat on her tongue while she thought over the various aspects of fire, real and imagined.

As they got back to more practice, the old monster changed the plan again. "Since this is supposed to be control practice, and finesse specifically. I'm going to reduce the quantity of fire qi. It was quite noticeable, yes?"

"Yes, Elder Ghon. It was very apparent."

He nodded and got into position. Shae drifted into her meditation a bit faster, only the lingering spice in her mouth a distraction.

The fire qi held much more depth this time. Cycling over its various aspects, all that the old monster had mentioned and the ones she had thought of after. Even the comfort of a home cooked meal and the lingering spice of hot peppers, which were both very odd feelings when coming from one concentrated spot on her arm.

She managed to settle on the warmth and smokey smell of a campfire, but she couldn't quite shake the spicy flavor or remove all of the burning pain she had felt initially. The pain sharpened when she failed to guide the qi through her arm properly.

The old monster woke her after some amount of practice. It was quite hard to tell how much time had passed for Shae. She first noticed a smoky smell in the room. He then declared, "It would be rather difficult for you to cultivate while needing another beside you the whole time. So I must leave you to practice on your own."

She nodded in agreement. Still recovering from breaking her meditation.

"Notably, I would like you to practice drawing qi into yourself, so I will leave this small brazier of burning incense, which should slowly add fire qi to the room." He set the jade stones on the side table next to the smoking brazier, then looked at her expectantly.

"Ummm. Thank you, Elder Ghon, for all your assistance?" She said nervously.

"Anything else?" He paused, "like what you should do with that qi once you have it?"

"Oh!" She exclaimed, "Yes, how do I use it to cultivate, Elder?"

"Ha-ha! Trick question. You don't! Because you don't have a manual, and because you might not want to cultivate fire qi specifically." He paused for emphasis. "Cultivating a specific type of qi will aspect your own qi to that type. With some benefits, and more limitations. Instead you should stick to simple exercises and control practice. Try to find the shape of your qi channels, especially in your left arm and leg. Try to move less and less qi, being precise with how you move it.

"If you feel an empty space in your gut, around here, that may be trying to draw the qi in." He pointed near her belly button. "That is your Dantian. The place where you collect qi to eventually form your core. Try not to seed it with fire qi, as that will restrict your future options." He shrugged, "but if it happens, don't panic. You can empty it out later, it just takes more work."

"Heh, always more work." She chuckled quietly to herself.

He checked the incense, and turned to leave, then hesitated near the door. "I'm afraid I must say something."

Shae tensed up. "Yes, Elder?"

"Hmm? While I appreciate not being mocked or assaulted with a litany of sarcasm. I must ask if you are doing alright. Is there something wrong? You have been far too passive today."

"Ah.. well." She squirmed. "I'm anxious, I guess." He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue. "Why haven't you asked about it? Uh, Elder?"

"About what? Miss Shae"

"My side of the trade. Talking about evolution." They both flinched at 'evolution' expecting a thrum of reverb, but not getting one.

"Ah, that. Yes, I suppose I have been ignoring it, as well." He inhaled sharply and exhaled slowly. "In short I am willing to be patient. I have lived a long life, and waited for most of it. Another month makes little difference. Though I will admit, your words before your tribulation gave me much thought." He sighed again. "If it goes as well as I hope, I will not be here to assist you, so to leave you in such a state is simply negligent. Whether I should owe you this now, seems unimportant, as I certainly would owe you much more if I gain significant enlightenment, as I hope to."

Shae released the breath she had been holding unconsciously. "Wahhhaaaaaa-" A huge wave of relief washed over her as she exhaled all her pent up stress. "Thank you, Elder Ghon Fixiu, really. And, if it goes poorly?"

"Hah." He smiled and left the room, "then I will try to not hold it against you!"

***

Shae's meditation that day did not go as smoothly as she expected. The fire qi was elusive. She could smell the incense burning in the brazier. Even feel the occasional prickle of heat. Yet, it was slow progress to gather it and bring it into her body.

Like catching sparks, they would flash briefly, then be hard to find, their heat fading quickly. She focused on bringing them to her left arm, and slowly grew a small bunch of sparks, like fireflies. She slowly corralled them up and down her arm. Moving their warmth and spicy sparks of pain.

She was interrupted by the old monster returning with more soup. It seemed she had been practicing most of the day, yet the meditation felt much less, even though she was recovering she didn't feel the exhaustion of the day accumulating.

The elder had some wise words for her. "Cultivation does strange things to time, and takes a bizarre toll. Sometimes, we progress like a tidal wave, crashing ourselves into the rocks along the way. Sometimes it flows like a gentle creek, slow and steady."

While he suggested Shae rest, she asked for the brazier to be lit again. So he did. It burned while she enjoyed the spicy soup, probably from the same pot as the morning's, but she didn't mind. She found it was very nice to have someone cooking for her again. Like her mother had growing up in the small rural village, just a year ago.

She lay back in her bed to rest and meditate, pulling the blankets up snugly. Now, she realized she had no energy for chasing sparks or corralling fireflies. So, she let the metaphor pass by her, just as her other thoughts would during meditation. She felt the warmth of her blankets and smelt the smokey smell of the incense, not tinged with anything strong, just the smokey charcoal of a warm campfire.

The memory of warm campfires led to the desire for that comfort. Not the greedy need for fire and heat now, but the gentle warmth of a rest by the hearth. She let her feelings out into the room around her, not searching or grasping at the warmth, but gently calling to it. Slowly, at the edge of sleep, she felt it's kind touch warm her skin. She smiled at the sensation, free of the heat of spice or burning pain, she almost didn't recognize it.

The warmth slowly moved up her arm, not rushing, until it reached her shoulder. Where she would need to turn it around and move it back down her arm. Yet, her sleepy mind, clouded with comfort, continued to call and draw in the fire qi, pulling it into the rest of her body.

It calmed and relaxed her like a warm bath. Tension fading from her muscles, twice giving rise to sharp muscle and joint pains she had been protecting herself from. Even her right arm and leg were not spared. The qi only brushed past them, not truly entering the domain of the wrathful divine lightning qi. Yet, its slow progress seemed to go unnoticed, relaxing even those damaged and exhaustingly twitchy muscles.

As it made the rounds of her body, faintly brushing past the meridians she had read of in the book the old man gave her. It swirled towards her stomach, to her Dantain. The presence of qi nearby seemed to awaken the previously numb thing. A spherical outline appeared in her mental image of herself.

As the qi approached, she realized what was about to happen and tensed unknown reflexes. Pulling on mental levers that had been absent until just now. The outline sharpened, becoming a perfect sphere of hollow glass. The surface was impossibly thin. And the fire qi, in its slow gentle approach, simply floated up to it, then along its surface. It passed along the thin boundary without pushing against or forcing itself inward.

Ah! Of course, she thought. This was her space, her Dantian. Her little domain. The fire qi was never going to enter it unless she explicitly wanted it to. She smiled at her little revelation.

Then something changed. The fire qi, so slow and keen to be floating smoothly, became turbulent at one specific point. It rushed and swirled and flickered like a candle. Shae tensed again, flexing the glassy skin of her Dantian, but to no avail. It may have even given the qi something to focus on, because before she knew what to do about it, the qi had settled into the surface of her Dantian. Pooling into grooves and lines she hadn't noticed, forming the start of what must be a glyph or symbol, one she did not recognize.

The fire qi, now looking closer to the glowing embers of a hot coal fire without fresh fuel to burn, became still and unchanging along the edge of her Dantian. Shae was forced to relax the tension she had held. She suddenly found it exhausting to hold back against some unknown event that was unlikely to pass. The qi remained motionless, seemingly a permanent addition. So, she considered the issue resolved, letting relief wash over her. She felt no more warmth from any fire qi in the room, no more sparks or smell of old fires, and so she drifted off to sleep.

***

Now that they had a method of practice that worked for her, Shae's next week was a repeat of that day with fire, to varying degrees of success. With the old monster spending less and less time guiding her directly. After cycling through the five basic qi elements, air, fire, water, metal, and earth, he returned to focus on the elements she had struggled with.

Each element provided a unique experience of trying to wrap her mind around the best way to think about it. She struggled with metal. Knowing a lot about various metals seemed more of a hindrance to her. It first appeared as even finer flakes and dust, and was slower than the sparks of fire to collect and gather. Its associated feelings were very mild, the cold hardness of steel, the sharp edge of a knife, and the reflective shine of polished metal. She had hoped it would flow through her channels like liquid mercury, but it remained a fine powder. Shae and the elder were both concerned about this development. She was sure to keep the qi far away from her right side, the lightning sure to interact poorly.

At her Dantian, the metal flakes flowed and settled just like the others. Forming a complex glyph along the boundary of her personal domain. Air was distinct in its glyph's appearance as it was made up of swirling circles, giving the element room to keep moving along its markings. Even within the glyph it never stopped moving.

Shae also struggled with earth qi. Primarily in that it was very difficult to separate from the mountain's qi. After being blocked for most of the day, the old monster switched to a different qi type. They returned to earth on another day, once she had a few new ideas to try.

During the week, Shae also spent time reviewing the book on meridians, and digging into more technical writing that she couldn't quite keep up with. She was searching for a description of a Dantian like hers, with the odd qi glyphs around the surface.

When the old monster was ready to have her move on, she finally asked about them.

"Now that you have a barely passable level of control-"

"Eh? Barely!? I thought I was doing much better than that, Elder."

He frowned at her. "I will remind you not to interrupt. Not simply because it is rude, but because many powerful cultivators take great offense to it. Some simply for their lessers speaking out of turn."

Shea grimaced and shrunk into a slight bow.

"They also expect proper apologies."

"Sorry, Elder Ghon."

"Hmmm, passable only because of your sincerity. I'll add overly gratuitous apologies to our next social lesson plan. Now as to your skills. For a beginner and given the circumstances, I would not expect much better. You are fortunate in not having cultivated in a normal environment, so you can't bemoan the difference."

The qualification did not improve Shae's mood.

"Most begin with neutral qi, then move to the elements later. So your path is already quite different. Yet, you have made progress. Many would find it quite difficult." Shae shrugged, and the old man mirrored her sentiment. "Truly, we cannot know how to gauge your progress until we know your spirit root grade and affinities. Yet, I believe we may progress to the next step in your escape from this room."

She leaned forward in anticipation.

"Not jumping to conclusions? Heh, that's good. Since you don't have a cultivation manual, we will focus on using the lightning to cleanse your body, instead of trying to cultivate it in your Dantian which some might try, to their detriment. You have been keeping qi out of your Dantian, yes?" He asked with an eyebrow raised. Then frowned in concern as she began to speak.

"Ahh, about that. I've been meaning to ask, Elder Ghon. This Dantian, how would you describe its features? I mean, I've read the descriptions in the books." She gestured to the nightstand where one still lay. "But they don't seem to match what I'm sensing."

"Oh?" He hummed. "Well, we never quite expect any two cultivators to experience the exact same thing. Our mental map of our qi channels is more of a metaphysical place than a literal and strictly rigid one."

"Err, yes I read that in the book as well, Elder. But this is very different. And very few detailed descriptions exist, so I just wanted a more clear, in depth example, if that's not too much to ask."

"Detailed description? Hmmm. It has been a long time since that stage, for myself, but there was very little to describe in detail. I can tell that you are nervous about something you have done." At her nod, he continued. "There is very little you can do at this stage, and with such weak qi control, that would be damaging or irreversible. So please, if you would, describe as best you can what you experienced."

Shae sighed in relief. "I was worried I did something, but I really wasn't trying to do anything with the qi. It's more like I was trying to keep it out." The old monster made an impatient hand gesture for her to continue: drawing a tight circle with his finger. "Right, well it happened the evening of first absorbing the fire qi from the brazier. It was sort of like you described, I found my Dantian, probably. And the qi was moving towards it. But I remembered what you said, to not draw it in. So I kind of tensed up? And my Dantian... almost sharpened? Its edges became very distinct, and hard like a thin film of glass. The qi was completely blocked, I didn't even feel an impact or any resistance."

"Hmm, before that, the location, size, and shape, how would you describe it?"

"It was near where it should be, the middle of my diaphragm." She touched her midsection, and he quirked an eyebrow at the word choice. "It was empty, a large hollow sphere. Its edges blurry, yet it still seemed much larger than I thought it would be. And as I said, the edges then sharpened to a clear barrier."

He hummed in thought again. "Such a clear mental image, and its edge became sharper later? That is, surprising, I suppose. Do you have such a clear image of your qi channels and meridians?"

"No, Elder. But I haven't forced qi into my meridians, or focused on them so specifically."

"Hmm. It is hard to say, I am no expert on early development. Near core formation, with qi packed into your Dantian as tight as possible, you get a very clear image of it. A large sphere, as you say. But to get that so early?" He shrugged. "It is likely the tribulation had an effect, I shall like to see if guiding a very small portion the divine qi into it would have additional effect, but that is your choice, really.

"Normally to expect something special from qi you would need more control, a specific technique, and a manual to guide you. However, divine lightning sometimes has plans of its own, so it will bridge the gap. It has already done so in your arm and leg, where it is confined so it can only cleanse the area. So now I would like you to-"

"Uhm, apologies, Elder. That's not all. If it were only that, I wouldn't have mentioned it." She swallowed nervously, now more wary that something strange had happened. "You see, after the initial contact with the fire qi. When I had relaxed a bit, and while the qi drifted slowly around the outside of my Dantian. It suddenly became turbulent! Swirling and spinning on its own." The old man frowned. "It drew towards a point on the surface of my Dantian, not passing into it, but coming to rest on the surface in a pattern. I think it could be a symbol, or glyph of some kind, but I do not recognize it."

He drew a sharp breath in. "That is... concerning. Could you draw this symbol?"

"Of course, though I should start with one of the others that I can recall clearly."

"The others!?"

"Ah, yes, Elder. I feel somewhat foolish not asking about this sooner. In the passing days the same has happened with the other elemental qi. Though, the same qi always flows into the same symbol, or same area."

"I see." He paused and stared at her sternly. "Yes, I would agree that your actions have been foolish, I may have tried to enforce caution. However, we are unlikely to know the correct path without additional information, like seeing these other symbols. Which do you remember most of?" He handed her a piece of parchment and charcoal stylus.

"This is water. What we reviewed yesterday. The qi was flowing quite smoothly and I found it rather refreshing. So, the glyph filled quite a lot." Shae spoke as she drew. Her movement on the page was somewhat erratic. Some curves forming natural organic curves running into one another, others being stiff and strict in their location and thickness.

"I was wondering where the excess was going." He mumbled. Once she was done, the old monster reviewed it. "Intriguing." Was all he said.

A moment passed. Then another. Shae squirmed in anticipation. "Well?"

He looked at her sternly. Then quirked an eyebrow, questioningly.

She looked away and coughed lightly, "Excuse me, Elder Ghon. Do you recognise it?"

He smiled wryly. "No, and that is what makes it so intriguing. Here," he pointed, "this thin line, is it exactly like this? Thin and curved."

She looked and quickly replied, "Yes, it is thin, and a more even arc than I could draw properly."

"As I suspected, then. I would say that this is an excerpt of a large formation. The symbols being characters in that formation as well. That it is inscribed on the surface of your Dantian is truly bizarre." He squinted his eyes, looking up at the wall instead of the parchment. "This is nothing like anything I have ever seen or heard of. Mind you I am not one to look into these kinds of things. But even in my limited study of formations, nothing."

"So we've no idea what it is for, Elder?"

"Well, I've several ideas. Baseless speculation though they are." He chuckled. "This may seem flippant of me, but I fear we must wait and see, though we can experiment a bit."

"Oh?"

"One possibility... which I fear to even voice! Would not be good for you, but I think it should react poorly to the divine qi in your system. Another would react well to it, drinking it up. Whether either is truly for your benefit...?" He shrugged dramatically.

"Uhh-ngh!" She made a noise in disappointment and frustration.

"Haha, yes I agree!" The old monster chuckled, again. "We must proceed with our plans as they are. If you can, during today's practice. Take the smallest portion of the divine lightning qi, and bring it to your Dantian, not inside, just to the surface, see if it reacts."

"The smallest portion? Elder?" Shae asked incredulously, expecting the task to be much harder than she would like.

"Yes, for the most part, you shall attempt to use the qi to cleanse more of your body. Dragging it around and letting it have-at whatever it likes. Well, in a completely controlled manner, of course."

Shae sighed and flopped back into her bed, preparing to meditate. "Arm or leg first? And do you have some suggestions for taking a small portion, Elder Ghon?"

"Ah, right, yes. Arm first, the leg being too close to your Dantian. As for small portions, I've a bit of an intrusive question for you. You did quite well at managing the tribulation, and spouted a lot of... er, nonsense? Or perhaps, not nonsense?"

"Ah." Shae blushed. She had hoped to not explain her words at all. "I spoke in anger and passion. Certainly, some of it was fact, or based upon fact."

He sensed her embarrassment, and didn't mean to push, as it might affect her cultivation session. "Yes, well, even in jest or boast, we often speak shreds of truth. I meant to ask about the boast of 'owning lightning'?" He paused and continued after half a breath, when she did not. "As you said own and not use, to do so one would need some form of containment, a receptacle of sorts, to perhaps contain a very small portion of lightning." His tone grew somewhat conspiratorial at the end, hinting at what he hoped she might know.

"Hmm... yes, I suppose such a thing would exist, Elder." She still didn't want to start explaining anything, lest she embarrass herself further.

"Very good. Then all I ask is you imagine such a thing within yourself, to move the lightning around." He wobbled a hand around. "It might not be as simple as that, since it is also divine qi, but perhaps you have a strong imagination, yes?"

"Ha ha, I certainly do, Elder Ghon."