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Chapter 134 – Calming and Exhilarating
🕑 Added 2024-11-11 16:20:51 +0000 UTC11/11/24 A/N: Bonus chapter for reaching 100 subscribers!
With the spirit beasts having retreated from the area, Wan Ai had found a nice, isolated part of the Wood to cultivate that only Zou Tian knew about. It was perfect, really. Several trees grew tight together, forming almost a wall that hid any other sect members passing by from her sight.
Peace and quiet were exactly what she needed.
She dropped into a deep meditative state. All her concentration was required to draw in qi and circulate it through her channels and meridians in the manner prescribed by her cultivation method.
From experience, she knew a cycle would take a half to three quarters of an hour, but it felt like only a few minutes to her. She purely loved the entire process. It filled her with peace and, at the same time, made her feel powerful and accomplished. Cultivating was somehow both calming and exhilarating.
Each time she finished a full cycle, she opened her eyes and looked around. So far, Zou Tian had not joined her, but she was sure he would once his training was complete.
She chuckled. His presence was something else that she found both calming and exhilarating. Which in turn confused her and drew butterflies to her stomach and made her reevaluate her future.
Wan Ai of course knew people her age often found partners and got married. Orphans who moved on to apprenticeships would eventually pair themselves with someone and start a family. But she’d never considered anything like that for herself.
She enjoyed being alone way too much to have ever anticipated preferring the company of another.
Now, though…
Zou Tian and she spent every moment together they could whenever their responsibilities didn’t require them to be apart. But she didn’t know if that made them a couple or if he even felt the same way about her that she was starting to feel about him.
They just kind of fit together. Enjoyed each other’s company, often silently. Cultivating with him next to her was amazing. His presence was so slight as to almost not be there, so instead of being intrusive, he was a comfort. There had nothing beyond spending time together, though, save for him occasionally holding her hand to provide support.
She sighed. Thinking about him was not advancing her toward her goal of reaching the next minor realm, however. Not seeing him nearby, she started another cycle and another after that one. It was difficult to sense exactly how many would be required to breakthrough, but she was close. Maybe today. If not, definitely tomorrow or the day after.
By late afternoon, she was at the very edge of advancing, and when she opened her eyes, she found Zou Tian next to her.
“Hey you, how was training?” she said.
“I’m making progress, but it’s slow. Without Master or Yang Xiu searching for me, I’m not able to really stretch my abilities. Hiding from the guards doesn’t even require me to use a technique. I doubt I’ll hit Mastery before the tide.” He shrugged. “How about you?”
“I’m unbelievably close.”
“That’s fantastic. Don’t let me hold you up, then. Get back to cultivating.”
She smiled at him before closing her eyes.
That cycle didn’t do it. Nor did the next. Or the next.
The one after that, though…
Energy built, and long practiced at handling just such an occurrence, she wrangled it into shape, condensing the qi. It was something like handling a wriggling snake—or how she imagined such a thing to be, anyway—as the qi tried to slip out of her grasp.
She was too experienced and her cultivation method too good to allow even a single mote to escape. Gradually and then all at once, the struggle ceased.
Wan Ai had done it. Minor realm eight.
A sound caught her attention, and she opened her eyes. Master was right in front of her.
She startled a bit just from the shock of finding someone there she didn’t expect, but she’d long since given up being surprised that he somehow knew she’d advanced and where to find her.
“Congratulations!” Master said. “You keep beating my estimates for when you’ll advance. Amazing job. Amazing. What’s your secret?”
She really didn’t know how to answer the question and ended up blurting out the first thing that popped into her head. “I really like cultivating, Master.”
“Don’t ever change, Wan Ai.” He laughed. “Okay, go ahead and consolidate your cultivation. I’ll be back in … say an hour?”
From past experience, that time frame sounded okay. Long if anything. “Yes, Master.”
“When I return, you have a decision to make, but I want to check your cultivation base before we talk about that.”
Without another word, he turned and stepped away, disappearing in a blink.
Consolidation didn’t require getting lost in meditation the way a cultivation cycle did, so she was aware enough to sense when Zou Tian finished one of his own.
He immediately noticed her staring at him. “Does this mean…?”
“Yes. Yes, it does.”
“That’s fantastic!” He stood and rushed to her, taking her hands in his. “Congratulations, Wan Ai. Still the third strongest cultivator in the entire sect. That’s pretty good.”
She rose to meet him, unable to respond with words but pleased at his praise.
He leaned in and touched his lips to hers.
She froze. He hesitated in response before pushing forward more firmly, the entirety of his lips contacting hers for a moment until he finally pulled away.
“Is that okay?” he said. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now, but I didn’t know if…”
If she would have stopped to think about what to do or say next, she probably wouldn’t have done it. But she didn’t, so she did.
Wan Ai grabbed the neck of Zou Tian’s robe and pulled him back down to her. “Shut up and do it again.”
For some reason, consolidation took a bit longer than she expected. When Master appeared again, the two separated like they’d been forced apart by one of Senior Brother’s famed charges.
While trying to hide her flushed face, she told Master that she needed another hour or so.
To her immense embarrassment, he grinned and said, “By all means, take all the time you need.”
With him gone, the two mutually agreed, silently, that there would be more time later for the new feelings they were exploring. Zou Tian went back to cultivating, while she meditated to consolidate her gains.
Concentrating proved a lot more difficult than usual, but by the time Master appeared again, she was ready.
“May I please have your hand?” Master said.
By that point, word that Master required touching the sect members to do a thorough examination of their cultivation had spread to everyone, so she quickly extended her arm toward him.
Other than feeling somewhat strange to be touching someone other than Zou Tian, the experience was both fast and without sensation. Master quickly let go of her finger.
He frowned. “You have been doing absolutely fantastic with your cultivation. There are no issues at all. I foresee no difficulty with you advancing to Foundation Establishment.”
His words were in contrast to his expression, so she was expecting what happened next.
“But,” he said, “I believe that consuming another Qi Condensing Pill so quickly after the last one could present some minor problems at the higher levels of the next realm. Most probably, simply focusing your next cultivation method more in Foundation will correct those issues. If not, there are other ways to solve the issue. Long story short, I believe that speeding your cultivation now has the potential to introduce a minor problem later, but I also believe that we’ll be able to get you to Golden Core relatively easily.”
“And after Golden Core, Master?” Zou Tian said.
“Honestly, that’s a crap shoot for any of you, even our three A ranks.”
Crap shoot? Wan Ai wasn’t sure what that was, but contextually, she understood that it meant Master didn’t know if any of them would reach that far. Which she was okay with. Being a cultivator at all hadn’t even been in her eyes a year ago. Now, she was mere months from breaking through to Foundation Establishment and Master was saying that Golden Core was almost a surety.
“Whether or not to take the pill is completely your call,” Master said to Wan Ai. “There appears to be limited downside, but the upside isn’t all that great, either. The decision comes down to going from the eighth to the ninth minor realm in a day or doing it in six to seven months. On one hand, there’s no great hurry compelling you to hurry. On the other, you’d be that much more powerful for the beast tide.”
“We don’t intend for her to fight at all, Master,” Zou Tian said. “She’s been so busy preparing baths and cultivating that she’s not had time for any sparring. Her weapon training has been solely with cutting herbs. She’s not ready.”
“I understand, Zou Tian. She is one of the few in this village who had more important things to do than practicing her weapon skill. I don’t want her to even see a beast, much less fight one, and I spent a great deal of time and effort doing my utmost to prevent beasts from gaining access to the village. Make no mistake, though. Beast tides are chaotic. Anything can and will happen. Hopefully, she makes it through the entirety of the event as planned. I can’t guarantee you that, however. No one can.”
Spending six to seven months practicing alchemy and cultivating sounded heavenly to Wan Ai, but the great thing about cultivation was that there was always more of it to be done. Advancing from minor realm eight to nine would make her a little tougher and a little stronger and give her more qi to work with, but it wouldn’t suddenly make her into a fighter.
She had no interest in fighting, anyway.
In the past months, however, she’d begun to embrace her destiny of the sect’s best alchemist. She’d never even made a pill yet, but she would. Soon. As soon as she reached Foundation Establishment, she could really begin helping people.
The sooner that happened, the better.
“I’ll take the pill, Master,” she said.
“Wan Ai, are you sure?” Zou Tian said. “This could affect your future.”
She smiled at him. “I trust Master. He will get me to Golden Core. After that, my own fate and luck and skill will or will not take me higher. I can live with that.”
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Pedro Sernagiotto
Yay!
Sarah Grfghlt
Congrats to 100 subs! You are an amazing author and I love your book. Keep up the good work and pat yourself on the back sometimes :)
