Chương 47: Permanence

A Celestial Core Card, it was revealed. Unique. The first and the last. — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms Three more days, and he still hadn't managed to make the construct that would protect his soul and spirit permanent.

Elder Sun was pursuing his own activities as he wasn't needed for this part of Jianyi's journey to acquire the Veil of the Immutable Will Art, so Jianyi was hovering above his spirit lake and glowering at the circle of spears surrounding him. After he had formed it—quickly—this morning, it had taken little more effort to turn them into the granite black that he now associated with activating them as a protective measure, but the moment he lost focus or left his soul space, they would disappear again.

According to the scroll with the technique, he needed to dedicate a slice of his will to keep the veil up at all times. That was a lot easier said than done—and given that this was not a qi-based technique, the description was a lot less prescriptive than what he was used to. There was a parallel, though. He had learned how to work with two qi threads at the same time—he was even working on making it three—this was similar.

He needed to keep a part, a thread of his will, constantly focused on defense, while keeping the majority available to go through life with discipline. Studying the spear formation for the thousandth time, he focused on the connection between the circle and the remaining soul mist around him. He imagined how his will would continuously suffuse and keep that connection stable. Something clicked. The connection gained… stability. A sense of permanence.

The bridge between the mist and the defense changed color as well. It got darker. Not quite the same color as the spears themselves, but Jianyi shrugged. It had to be good enough. This should hold so that he could finally work on his dantians again. There was little more than a week left until his next duel with Lu Shan after all. Minghao waited for him with the most elaborate exercise setup yet. It was a ten paces long gauntlet of pain—at least that's how it looked.

A sturdy wooden framework with sticks moving in a random fashion and targets painted at several places, high and low, along the way.

"This is something new for you, it actually requires you not to get hit." Minghao smiled innocently, and Jianyi grimaced, reminded of the water cloth hitting him repeatedly. They had actually repeated the exercise since then, and he had managed to dodge a lot, though not all, of the strikes.

"Thank you for teaching me humor, Minghao, I appreciate it."

"You are welcome. Now, the exercise is simple: you move from left to right, you must not get hit, and you must hit all the targets along the way. Begin." It was a great test of the things he had learned in recent weeks. It required him to be aware of his surroundings, he needed to be precise and economical in his movements, given the constrained space, and he needed to maintain forward momentum while aggressively hitting—wooden—opponents.

After sparring, a few chores, and dinner, Jianyi fell into bed happily, resolved to resume his dantian opening as well as return to his classes the next morning, if Elder Sun agreed. Having mastered the Veil was a great accomplishment, and he allowed himself to be proud of what he had done. He quickly fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Jianyi was sweating. It wasn't the heat, though; it was the pressure radiating from the large golden eye above him, burning through him. Seeing him. The remains of his defense were lying around him. The spear circle was mostly fine, but the connections with the rest of his soul mist had broken. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Slowly, the spears turned into mist, merging with the rest. He sensed the displeasure from the eye above him.

He woke up, sweating in his bed. A knock on his door. He sighed; it was clear who would be waiting on him on the other side of the door. He bowed slightly as he saw Elder Sun standing in the hallway, his hands clasped behind his back, an eyebrow raised.

"Teacher."

"Why do you think your defenses failed?" Jianyi knew that the answer would be important. He had disappointed his teacher, and he didn't want to make it worse.

"I did not dedicate sufficient will and focus to make the defenses permanent."

"Why?" Jianyi wiped the sweat from his brow, shoulder sagging.

"It felt… good enough… I wanted to be done with it."

"Mhh. My young friend. I was sixteen once, I understand. But your discipline is one of your strongest assets. Don't let short-term concerns undermine you. If the Heavens will it, you have hundreds of years ahead of you. What do you care about a week more or less?" He knuckled his eyes, nodding.

"I… being so far behind…" he sighed.

"I will do better."

"Good. That is all we can ever do. The path of cultivation is a long one—long enough to make mistakes, long enough to learn from them." Jianyi remembered having heard that saying before. It had resonated back then, and it still did.

"Now, go to bed. I am sure you will find the path to complete the art soon enough."

He had made a nice breakfast for Elder Sun and Minghao and then settled down again in the bamboo grove of the courtyard. Back in his soul space, he took stock. The spear circle had worked to block out Elder Sun. That was good. Should he try to force more of his soul mist into it? He stroked his chin, then decided, no, he didn't. The reinforced spears, a mix between his father's and Elder Sun's, could do what was needed.

No, the answer was clear: he needed to work on the permanence of the defense, which meant on the clarity with which he separated a part of his will and committed it to the task. What was the one thing that always helped when he wasn't good enough at something? He exited the meditation, informed Minghao, and returned to his soul space. It wasn't about more visualization. That had done its job. Right now, disciplined training was the answer.

He settled down to keep up the spear formation for as long as he could, and—to increase the difficulty—he took up a simple qi control exercise in parallel. He hadn't taken a full breath before the formation shattered upon starting the qi circulation. Without hesitation, he rebuilt it and started from scratch. Again. And again. And again. After twelve hours of uninterrupted training, he could hold the formation up while working with a single qi thread. He took a quick break for dinner, then returned to his spot.

Two qi threads turned out to be too many. So he tried again. And again. As the sun rose the next morning, the only thing that held him upright was his will. He managed to hold the formation up while moving two qi threads through his pathways. After several minutes of uninterrupted success, he felt a rumbling in the space around him and from below his spirit lake, a brilliant blue ray shot into his formation, reinforcing the connection between spear circle and soul mist and turning it blue.

The protection around him took on another level of sturdiness. True permanence. He felt how part of his will was dedicated to a simple task, making sure that what was his would remain his. He opened his eyes, smiling. And fell asleep where he sat.

"Do you remember how they said all of this was voluntary, and the only thing that matters is the mid-year spear assessment?" Jun asked as they waited together for one of the first classes upon Jianyi's return. He nodded and looked at the boy inquisitively.

"Apparently, that doesn't mean there won't be tests. And being among the best in the test is one of the few ways to gain merit points." Thanks to the copious notes that Shuhua had provided him, he was not too worried about being behind, but still, for tests, he would need to compete with disciples who had not just attended all the classes, but also probably had years of private tutoring that likely went beyond what he had learned in school.

It was a concern, but right now it was small compared to the next duel with Lu Shan, which was one week away, and taking up the opening of his dantians again.

"You should also mention that there will be missions," Hong said, and Jun nodded.

"It would have been the next thing I would have brought up."

"What kind of missions?" Jianyi asked curiously, while keeping an eye on the stage below to not miss the elder entering.

"We don't know," Hong explained.

"But they will likely require teams, and merit points will be awarded." Jianyi nodded. It would, of course, be easier if those could be done without teams. But… working with the cousins, Shuhua, and Miyao would probably not be completely terrible. He had always hated group assignments in school, but one problem had always been the differences in levels of motivation—that was not a problem he would have here.

"Do you know when all of this is going to happen?" Jun shook his head.

"The tests are up to the elder in charge; they can also happen repeatedly, and they are not required to announce them ahead of time. The missions, from what we understand, are still a few weeks away, but this is mostly rumors flying around in the dormitories from older siblings, etcetera." Jianyi took a conscious decision not to get hung up on any of these things right now. His priorities were clear. Open his dantians, prepare for his duel, resume his jobs, and catch up on his class work.

On reflection, he thought that, as much as he liked collecting contribution points—even more now that they also counted towards merit—it might be time to give up on his job in the kitchen. While being a tailor connected him to his mother and could potentially be another way to earn money in the long run, the dishwashing was not really leading anywhere right now, and given that he had stockpiled almost 1500 contribution points at present, maybe that was something he could deprioritize to make more time for training.