Chương 86: Chapter 84

The rhythmic sound of the pestle against the herbs fills the silence of the study as my arm begins to protest at the unaccustomed effort. I've been grinding the dried leaves that Master Mu selected for this exercise for a while now, a process that in theory is simple but in practice involves a repetitive motion that's starting to take its toll.

My right arm, the one I'm using to hold the pestle, is sending increasingly insistent complaints, and a part of my mind can't help thinking I should carve out some time at some point to invent the grinder if I'm going to have to do this many times in the future. Because this whole process, with a good gear mechanism, would be infinitely faster and more bearable.

A cylinder with a crank, some teeth to crush the herbs with ease, and the work that's costing me considerable effort would be reduced to calmly turning a handle. But before I can continue mentally designing the contraption, the voice of Master Mu, who has been standing at my side observing the entire process with that silent attention she adopts when evaluating my work, interrupts me.

"Stop", she tells me in a tone that admits no delay.

"Let me have a look at the bowl." I halt the pestle's motion and carefully hand her the bowl with the crushed herbs. Master Mu takes the bowl in one hand while holding the closed fan against her forearm with the other and examines the contents with an evaluating eye. After a moment that feels longer than it probably is, Master Mu nods with satisfaction and raises her gaze from the bowl to settle it on me.

"You've done well, child", she tells me, and in her tone there is an approval that, coming from her, is worth more than any elaborate praise.

"You're now able to correctly perform the first part of the steps for making ink on your own." She pauses and sets the bowl on the table with a careful gesture before continuing.

"That is, selecting the right herbs for what you want to achieve and then preparing them properly", she explains.

"Which isn't as simple as it sounds, since most apprentices fail precisely at the selection, not the preparation." I nod slightly as I register her words, because I know that every comment Master Mu makes during these lessons contains information worth storing, even when it sounds like a simple compliment. But then her expression changes, and the satisfaction gives way to something closer to resignation.

"But unfortunately for you, we can't continue", she goes on, and her tone acquires a hint of frustration.

"And the next part we won't be able to practice together." I look at her with a silent question in my eyes, though I already sense where this is heading.

"You'll only be able to do it on your own by following the steps in the book I gave you", she tells me, the fan tapping gently against her forearm.

"And only once you've opened at least one Gate, since you need to be able to manipulate Qi to convert the prepared herbs into ink." Hearing her words, understanding settles in my mind with the clarity of something I already suspected but needed confirmed. The physical preparation of the ingredients is only the first step, and the second, the one that transforms a pile of crushed herbs into functional talisman ink, requires something I don't yet possess.

But instead of frustration, what I feel is gratitude, because Master Mu has done the most that could be done given the circumstances, and that is something I cannot fail to acknowledge.

"Don't worry, Master Mu", I tell her with sincerity.

"I'll take care of completing the process when the time comes. And I'm grateful you've taught me everything you could given the circumstances." Master Mu looks at me after hearing my words and a smile appears on her lips, one of those smiles that are neither condescending nor theatrical but simply genuine.

"It's the least I can do", she tells me, and there's a hint of humor in her voice she doesn't try to disguise.

"Let's not forget I've already charged you for lessons that took far less time than they were supposed to." I can't stop a small smile from appearing on my lips at her comment, because I know exactly what she's referring to. My ability to memorize and learn at a speed that is not exactly normal has shortened the timelines Master Mu had planned considerably, though she has never complained about it. But before I can respond, Master Mu raises a finger, indicating she isn't finished.

"Though there is one last thing about the ink I must tell you before you do it on your own", she says, and her tone takes on the gravity she reserves for advice she considers truly important.

"When you make the ink, always use a cauldron. Never a furnace, even if you read somewhere that it makes no difference." I look at her with curiosity, because the warning has a specific nuance that goes beyond simple preference.

"Why?" I ask, unable to contain my curiosity.

"What's the difference between using one or the other?" Master Mu nods slightly at my question, as though she'd expected exactly that reaction.

"A professional Alchemist can use both types of instrument for practically everything", she explains in the unhurried cadence of her lessons.

"But the reality is that furnaces are more effective for creating solid objects, like pills, while cauldrons are more effective for processes that require turning ingredients into liquid, like ink." She pauses as the fan sways gently in her hand.

"For someone who isn't going to venture too deeply into Alchemy, it's always better to use the cauldron for ink and spare yourself unnecessary complications", she continues, looking at me directly.

"An experienced Alchemist can compensate for the differences between the two instruments, but you don't need to complicate your life with that." After hearing her words, I bow with respect.

"I appreciate the advice, Master Mu", I tell her with sincerity.

"I'll keep it in mind when the time comes." Master Mu nods with that discreet satisfaction she adopts when she feels her counsel has been understood, and she seems about to say something more when I get there first.

"Master Mu", I say quickly, seizing the gap before she can reclaim control of the conversation.

"Since we've finished with the subject of ink and there isn't too much time left today, would you mind if I asked you a question?" Master Mu arches an eyebrow and the gesture shifts her expression from satisfaction to a curiosity she doesn't try to disguise.

"It's unusual for you to want to ask me a question, child", she tells me in a tone halfway between amusement and intrigue.

"But since you've decided to ask, go ahead." I take a deep breath upon hearing her assent, hoping I'm not making a mistake, despite my mother also having given her approval for me to ask.

"When I cultivate", I begin, choosing my words with care.

"If I visualize the elemental runes or the neutral Qi rune in my mind, the specks, or particles as you call them, start behaving strangely." I pause to organize a description of something that is difficult to put into words.

"The sensation they give me", I continue.

"Is as though they vibrate. As though the rune I'm imagining makes them react in some way. And I wanted to know if you have any idea what might be causing that and why it happens." The silence that follows my question is unlike any other silence I have experienced in Master Mu's presence. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

It is not the comfortable silence of the pauses she takes between lessons, nor the calculated silence that precedes one of her cutting observations. It is a tense silence, charged with something I cannot entirely identify, that takes hold of the room with an almost physical presence. Master Mu looks at me, and the intensity of her gaze is different from any she has directed at me before. It is not the evaluating look of her examinations, nor the amused look she wears when I do something unexpected.

It is a look that seems to want to pierce through me, as though she were searching for something she needs to confirm before deciding how to react. And then, without warning, the tension breaks in the most unexpected way possible, because Master Mu sits down. And she does not sit as she normally does, with that controlled grace that turns her every movement into a display of elegance.

She lets herself drop into the nearest chair without even attempting to maintain her composure, with the air of someone who has just received news that has overwhelmed her ability to keep up appearances. A sigh leaves her lips as she sinks into the seat and, for an instant that feels like an eternity, she stares at me from her new position.

"Are you doing this on purpose?" she asks, and her voice carries a tone I have never heard from her, a mixture of disbelief, exasperation, and something that could be admiration if it weren't so steeped in frustration.

"Are you tempting me to cast aside all my decorum and simply grab you and run off somewhere you could get proper training?" I swallow hard, because Master Mu's reaction, a woman I have seen maintain her composure in practically every situation, tells me that what I've just described is something considerably more significant than I believed.

"Master Mu", I say, and I notice my voice sounds more nervous than I'd like.

"What does what I asked you have to do with that?"

"Everything", she replies, and the word leaves her mouth with a weight that makes it sound like a sentence.

"Because what you've just described is something known as Qi Resonance." She pauses, and her gaze locks onto mine with a gravity that compels my full attention.

"Qi Resonance is something only runic masters achieve", she continues, and now her voice carries the tone of someone explaining something she knows will fundamentally change the conversation.

"Cultivators who are typically at, at the very minimum, the Harmonization of the Elemental Cores stage." The words settle in my mind like stones falling into a pond, and each one sends out ripples that expand toward conclusions that make me increasingly nervous.

"And even then, not all of them are capable of achieving it", Master Mu adds, and there is something in her voice that sounds dangerously close to nostalgia.

"Only a handful of those who reach that stage attain the Resonance." I swallow for the second time, and this time the sensation of nervousness running through me is far more intense, because the implications of what she's just told me are crystallizing in my mind with a clarity I don't like at all.

If Qi Resonance is something achieved only by runic masters who are several cultivation stages above where I am, and I'm experiencing it without having even opened a single Gate, then I have just revealed to Master Mu something I probably should have kept to myself. But it's too late for that now.

"With how many elements are you able to achieve the Resonance?" Master Mu asks next, and her tone tells me that the answer to this question is considerably more important than the question suggests. I consider for an instant the possibility of lying, of saying one or two and leaving the matter at something notable rather than something extremely alarming.

But when I look into Master Mu's eyes, which are watching me with an intensity that makes it clear she suspects exactly what I'm thinking, I decide that honesty can no longer make the situation much worse than it already is.

"All of them", I tell her in a quiet voice, almost as though saying it more softly would make the answer more normal. Master Mu, upon hearing my words, says nothing. She simply brings her hands to her face and covers it with them while a muffled groan escapes from between her fingers, a sound that contains a mixture of emotions I cannot separate but that includes, without question, a considerable measure of despair. The moment that follows is profoundly uncomfortable.

Master Mu remains with her hands over her face for what feels like an eternity, and I sit there watching her without knowing what to do, nerves squeezing my stomach and the growing certainty that I have just crossed a line I didn't know existed. Finally, Master Mu lowers her hands from her face and straightens in the chair with a movement that seems a deliberate effort to recover her composure.

Her face has regained some of the controlled seriousness that is habitual for her, but there is something in her eyes that wasn't there before, something resembling the determination of someone who has just made an important decision.

"I will tell you everything you need to know about Qi Resonance", she tells me, and her voice is firm and stripped of any trace of humor.

"But first, you must promise me something." I look at her and wait for her to continue, and the gravity of her expression tells me that what comes next is not negotiable.

"Never", she says, and the word leaves her mouth with an emphasis that makes it sound like the crack of the fan against the table.

"And I stress the word never, must you tell anyone what you've just told me." She pauses, deliberately brief, as though not wanting to give me time to interrupt.

"And if anyone ever suspects you are capable of Qi Resonance", she continues, her gaze locking onto mine with an intensity that pins me in place.

"You must always say one or at most two elements." And then, to leave no room for doubt, she adds with even greater emphasis than before.

"Never", she says, and once again the word reverberates through the study, and then she repeats it.

"Never say you are capable of doing it with all of them." After her words, Master Mu stares at me with an unprecedented gravity, a gravity that goes beyond what she uses during her most important lessons, a gravity that tells me what she has just asked of me is not advice. It is a warning about survival.

And seeing that expression on her face, the nervousness I felt transforms into something deeper: a visceral understanding that what I have, whatever it is exactly, is something that could put me in danger if the wrong person finds out.

"If it's that important and serious, I agree", I tell her, and my voice still carries a tremor I can't entirely eliminate.

"And Lianhua won't say anything about what has been discussed in this room today either, Master Mu." Master Mu stares at me for a moment longer after hearing my reply, as though evaluating not just my words but my comprehension of the gravity of what she has asked. Then she looks for a moment at Lianhua, who is in the usual place she occupies during my lessons, and I see her nod at Master Mu with unusual seriousness. This seems to satisfy Master Mu, who stops looking at Lianhua and fixes her gaze back on me.

"Then", she tells me at last, and her tone shifts to something I recognize as the prelude to one of her lessons, but with a weight that none of her previous lessons has carried.

"First I am going to give you the most important lesson you will probably ever receive at your level of cultivation and in a place as remote as this." She pauses, and the fan, which has remained motionless throughout the entire conversation, taps softly against the palm of her other hand with a dry snap.

"After that, I will explain exactly what Qi Resonance is", she continues.

"And lastly, why it is going to be so important for you." I inhale deeply, filling my lungs with the study's air as though that could give me the stability I need.

"All right", I tell her, and I'm surprised to find my voice comes out firmer than I expected.

"I'm ready. You can begin whenever you like." Master Mu nods slightly, but instead of launching directly into the topic of resonance or perhaps the elements, as I'd been expecting, she asks me a question I didn't anticipate.

"How much do you know about the levels of cultivation?" she asks, and her tone indicates that the answer to this question will determine the starting point of her explanation. I consider the question for a moment. I could give her a partial answer, tell her I know the basics and let her fill in the gaps. But after what just happened with the Qi Resonance, I realize I have already committed to total honesty, and at this point, given her reaction to my words, I don't have much more to lose.

"I know all the stages", I answer with the same sincerity with which I told her about the Resonance.

"Though probably under different names." Master Mu frowns upon hearing my reply, and I can see confusion seize her expression for an instant before she controls it.

"What do you mean you know them under different names?" she asks, and there is an edge of genuine curiosity in her voice telling me my answer has truly thrown her.

"The source from which I obtained the information is somewhat peculiar", I say, choosing my words carefully.

"And unless some of the cultivation realms are called the Communion with the Sah, the Transmutation of the Ba, or the Judgment of Ra, then the names are not the same." The words leave my mouth with a naturalness that surprises me, considering I have just revealed names that come from a text written in a language no one in this world should be able to read. Upon hearing the names I've just mentioned, Master Mu looks at me with an expression that combines partial recognition with something I can't quite identify.

"Did you obtain your knowledge from that Celestial Fragment of the Sands that is so famous in the capital?" she asks, and the question carries the tone of someone beginning to fit the pieces of a puzzle together.

"Yes", I answer with the simplicity a truth that makes no sense to deny deserves. Master Mu nods slowly upon hearing my confirmation, as though the answer fits with what she'd suspected.

"Then you were lucky to find something you could understand", she tells me, and there is a nuance in her voice suggesting that what she's about to say next is something she considers important.

"Much of what is found in the Celestial Fragments is written in languages no one can comprehend." And then, to my utter surprise, Master Mu reaches into her sleeve, that apparently infinite storehouse from which I have seen books, talismans, and all manner of objects emerge, and extracts a small broken fragment of stone.

She holds it between her fingers with the delicacy of someone handling something fragile "I myself have entered the occasional Celestial Fragment, but I've rarely found comprehensible inscriptions, such as the one on this stone fragment." After those words, Master Mu turns the fragment so I can see the inscription engraved on its surface.

And the moment my eyes settle on the letters carved into the stone, the world around me seems to stop, because in a language as impossible as Egyptian would be, on the tablet, completely legible to me, it reads: GLORIA·LEGIONI·GLORIA·IMPERIO