Chương 87: Chapter 85

Latin. It's written in damned Latin. My mind nearly goes blank for a second, but I look at the inscription again. GLORIA·LEGIONI·GLORIA·IMPERIO. The letters are separated by dots, exactly as the Romans did. Moreover, the composition is unmistakable, the same arrangement any student of classical history would recognize in an instant, since it follows the same format that adorned the standards of the Legions and the commemorative monuments of the ancient Roman Empire.

And while my mind desperately tries to process the latest impossibility of what I'm seeing, the thought of how on earth this is possible forces its way through the chaos engulfing my brain. First Egyptian ruins, with their statues of gods, their hieroglyphs, and a cultivation guide written in the language of the pharaohs alongside an actual pyramid, something that by itself defied all logic in a world that, as far as I could tell, operated under an exclusively Chinese culture. And now Latin.

And not just Latin, but an inscription that is clearly Roman and military in composition, bearing the characteristic structure of a legionary dedication that leaves no doubt about its origin. And what's next to come out of one of those Celestial Fragments? Perhaps a text written in Scandinavian runes, a shard of pottery bearing inscriptions in ancient Greek, or even a Sumerian tablet with cuneiform writing?

A part of my mind, the one that has spent a lifetime training to analyze languages and ancient civilizations, wants to throw itself headfirst into a detailed analysis of the stone fragment. It wants to examine the typography, the depth of the engraving, the type of stone, any detail that might give me a clue about who made it and when. But then, like a bucket of cold water, I remember I'm not alone.

Master Mu is watching me, and in that instant, with a clarity I am profoundly grateful to the survival-oriented part of my brain for providing, I understand that if to my problem with Qi Resonance I add the revelation that I can also comprehend a language no one in this world is supposed to be able to read, the possibility of being literally kidnapped by her is likely to become something terrifyingly real.

So I do the only thing I can do in this situation: I transform my genuine surprise at seeing Latin into an equally genuine but considerably more innocuous surprise.

"What kind of language is that?" I ask in a tone I hope sounds like startled curiosity and not panic.

"I have no idea what it says." The lie leaves my mouth with a naturalness I hope is convincing and that proves all my Acting lessons haven't been in vain. Master Mu observes me for a moment after hearing my words, but if she detects the lie she says nothing, simply continuing to speak.

"I've never found anyone who knows what it says", she tells me at last, and her voice carries the resigned tone of someone who has asked that question many times and always received the same answer.

"I keep it simply as a curiosity." After those words, Master Mu slides the stone fragment back into her sleeve, and the Latin vanishes from my sight as quickly as it appeared, taking with it an avalanche of questions I'll have to leave for another time. And then, as though the subject of the fragment had been merely an aside in a far more important conversation, Master Mu looks at me with an expression I recognize as the prelude to a lesson.

"It's best to set aside those secondary matters", she tells me, and her tone leaves no room for negotiation.

"Let us focus on what concerns us right now." I nod, because she's right, even though the part of me that was an archaeologist protests in silence at the idea of treating a Latin text found in a world of Chinese cultivation as something secondary.

"Your confusion with the names of the cultivation steps could cause you problems in the future", Master Mu continues, the fan tapping gently against her shoulder with that rhythm that has become familiar.

"So I'm going to tell you them in order, as they are commonly known." She pauses briefly, as if to make sure I'm giving her my full attention, which I am.

"The nine steps of the Earth Realm of cultivation are as follows", she tells me, and her voice takes on the didactic tone teachers use when explaining something they expect their students to memorize.

"Body Tempering, Gate Opening, Condensation of the Elemental Cores, Harmonization of the Elemental Cores, Refinement of the Elemental Body, Branching of the Elemental Cores, Celestial Fusion of the Core, Transfiguration of the Celestial Body, and Reaping the Tribulation." I nod to myself as Master Mu lists each step, mentally comparing every name against the ones I have written in my notes, the same ones I've titled Steps of the Earth Realm of Cultivation and that currently rest inside my storage pouch.

The first three I had right thanks to Lianhua knowing their names, but from there the names begin to diverge from the ones I extracted from the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and I realize I'll need to pull out those notes later and update the name of each step, replacing the Egyptian terminology with the one used here.

"Even so", Master Mu continues once she has finished listing the steps, and her tone becomes more focused, more direct.

"The only ones that truly concern us right now are the Condensation of the Elemental Cores and the Harmonization of the Elemental Cores." She pauses as her gaze locks onto mine with an intensity that underscores the importance of what she's about to tell me.

"They are the ones closest to your current level and the ones that can benefit the most from Qi Resonance", she explains.

"Do you know what you have to do in those steps?" The question is direct, and the answer I have is the result of days spent studying the Egyptian text and exhaustive interrogations of Lianhua, so I nod before replying.

"If I'm not mistaken", I begin, choosing my words with the care of someone who knows she's being evaluated.

"In the Condensation of the Elemental Cores you have to absorb Qi into the elemental roots to create an elemental core that allows you to control that type of elemental Qi." Master Mu nods slightly, indicating I should continue.

"And then, in the Harmonization of the Elemental Cores", I go on, feeling more confident as I see she hasn't corrected me.

"Since you can now control the Qi of that element, you have to absorb the Qi of the elements whose cores you possess in order to gradually replace the neutral Qi they contain with Qi of their element. And when you complete the replacement, that core is considered harmonized." I pause briefly to think through the rest of my explanation. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Completing the harmonization of the core makes it much easier to control external Qi for using techniques and also generates its own elemental Qi", I continue.

"Though from what I've read, the Qi it produces can't actually be used at that stage yet." As I lay out my explanation, I notice Master Mu nodding at each point I make, and when I finish, her expression shows something that looks quite a lot like approval.

"That's a very precise explanation", she tells me, and there is a nuance in her voice suggesting she is quite pleased with it.

"But there are two details missing that are also relevant to the Resonance." She raises a finger in a gesture clearly meant to emphasize what she's about to say.

"The potency of the cores", she says, and a second finger rises into the air like a pointer.

"And how to increase that potency." I wait in silence for her to continue, and Master Mu doesn't keep me waiting.

"First, the potency of the cores", she begins, and her tone settles into the explanatory cadence I've come to find familiar.

"It turns out it depends on the number of roots, and therefore cores, one possesses." I nod, because that matches what I was able to extract from the Egyptian text, though the terminology there was considerably more cryptic and heavily mixed with mythological terms.

"For convenience, a number has been assigned to that potency", Master Mu continues.

"People who have only one root, and therefore one core, are considered to have a potency of seven, which means that when controlling or executing techniques of that element, they are the most powerful." Master Mu pauses briefly before continuing.

"From that point, potency decreases", she tells me.

"The more cores you have, the less potency each has. If you have two cores, both will have a potency of six. With three, a potency of five. And so on, until if you have all seven elements, the cores will have a potency of only one." I listen to the explanation and nod as my mind processes the numbers and applies them to the case I know best. Lianhua told me she had awakened four elemental roots, which means that according to Master Mu's explanation, when she condenses her cores they will have a potency of four.

That makes them neither the most powerful nor the weakest, but something in between that I imagine will give her a reasonable balance between power and versatility. But before I can delve further into that reflection, Master Mu's voice interrupts me.

"Do you understand?" she asks, and her tone indicates that my answer will determine whether she continues or needs to explain it differently.

"Yes", I reply with the confidence of someone who has genuinely grasped the concept.

"It's a clear case of specialization versus versatility. Fewer elements means more potency. And more elements means less potency but more versatility from being able to manipulate more elements." Hearing my response, Master Mu looks surprised for an instant, one of those brief moments I've learned to identify as the times when something I say forces her to recalibrate her expectations.

"Rarely have I heard someone describe the potency system that way", she tells me, and there is something in her voice that might be approval if it weren't tinged with caution.

"But don't let yourself be deceived by the apparent versatility." Her tone hardens slightly as she speaks her next words.

"A core that is too weak can never do the same things as a more powerful one", she warns with a firmness that makes it clear this is not a theoretical observation but a practical truth she has seen confirmed.

"And that brings me to the second point." The fan taps her shoulder once more before she continues.

"How to increase that potency", she says, and her voice drops half a note, as though what she's about to reveal is something that isn't shared lightly.

"And it's something not many people know about." The statement captures my full attention, because if there is one thing I've learned from Master Mu, it's that when she says something isn't common knowledge, it means what she's about to tell me has real and extremely useful value.

"In the Harmonization of the Elemental Cores stage", Master Mu begins, and her tone now carries the gravity of someone sharing a secret.

"When the moment comes that you've completed replacing all the Qi in the core with Qi of its element, if instead of stopping you continue absorbing Qi and adding it to the core, you can begin compressing the Qi it contains, making it denser and more powerful." The explanation makes something click in my mind with an almost audible snap, because the Egyptian text mentioned something about knotting the cores, but it did so in language so metaphorical I wasn't sure I had correctly interpreted its meaning.

It's now clear they were referring to the compression Master Mu is describing.

"But that additional step must be done and completed in a single stretch without stopping", Master Mu adds, and the emphasis she places on those last words tells me this detail is crucial.

"The moment you stop, the Harmonization is considered complete and that core can no longer be modified." I process the information quickly and grasp the implications at once. It's a one-time opportunity, a moment that cannot be repeated and that probably requires advance preparation.

"Even so", Master Mu continues.

"The maximum potency that can be added to each core is two." She pauses to let me absorb what she's telling me, then goes on.

"So, for example, if you have only one core, it would go from a potency of seven to nine if you compress it to the maximum", she tells me.

"Or if you have three cores, you could reach a potency of seven in whichever cores you manage to take through that step." Master Mu stops, and I take advantage of the pause to ask the question that has formed in my mind.

"If you can enhance the cores that way", I ask, and the curiosity in my voice is entirely genuine.

"Why doesn't everyone do it?" Master Mu's answer comes accompanied by a brief laugh that carries an edge of amusement.

"It isn't done because it's very expensive", she tells me, and the smile accompanying her words has something cruel about it.

"Enormously expensive." The laugh fades and her tone turns serious once more.

"Think about how much elemental Qi you normally see when you cultivate", she tells me, her gaze fixing on mine as though she wants to make sure I'm grasping the scale of what she's about to describe.

"And then imagine that to perform a single enhancement you need thousands of times that amount, all in the same place and continuously while you compress the core." The magnitude of what she's just described hits me hard, because I can picture the amount of elemental Qi I usually see when I cultivate, and the idea of multiplying it by thousands is simply absurd. But Master Mu isn't finished.

"That can only be achieved in two ways", she continues, and raises two fingers to emphasize the point.

"In environments very rich in that type of Qi, such as a volcano in the case of Fire Qi." She lowers one finger.

"Or with natural treasures", she says, and as she pronounces those two words, something in my mind begins connecting pieces I didn't know were related.

"That's why the natural treasures at the auction were so sought after", Master Mu explains, and now her tone carries the cadence of someone revealing the hidden logic behind something I didn't fully understand at the time.

"They don't just save time in the Harmonization of the Elemental Cores, since you can get through that stage normally with specialized Qi-gathering formations if you have the money." Here she pauses, lending weight to what follows.

"But because if you amass enough treasures containing that type of Qi, you can extract that Qi at the precise moment and use it to enhance your core", she tells me.

"Which would give you an advantage that others who haven't been able to do so wouldn't have." And here Master Mu smiles, a smile I recognize. It's the one that looks dangerously like a predator's, the one that appears on her face when she's discussing something involving obscene amounts of money.

"Even with all that", she continues, the smile still on her lips.

"You need dozens of natural treasures like the ones they auctioned just to increase a core's potency by one." The smile widens slightly.

"So you can imagine how expensive it would be to try increasing the potency by two", she tells me.

"And even more so if you wanted to do it with several cores." Hearing her words, my mind automatically travels back to the auction at the Merchants' Guild, to the prices the natural treasures reached during the bidding, to the figures that kept climbing with each bid, and I begin doing calculations that leave me chilled.

If dozens of natural treasures are needed for a single enhancement of a single core, and each of those treasures fetched prices of tens of spirit stones at the auction, then we're talking about an investment of hundreds or thousands of spirit stones just to raise one potency rank on a single core.

And if you wanted two enhancements, or to do it with multiple cores, the figure skyrockets to a point where probably only the most powerful families in the Empire or the sect itself could even consider it, and even then only for a chosen few, perhaps even just one. It's absolutely clear to me why not everyone does it. But after that thought, and despite how fascinating all this information is, I can't help a question forming in my mind with the insistence of something that needs answering.

"All of that is very useful and I'm grateful you've told me, Master Mu", I say, and I notice my voice carries a hint of impatience I can't quite control.

"But what does any of this have to do with Qi Resonance?"