Chương 93: Chapter 91

Thinking about Qi Resonance, I can't help recalling when Master Mu explained that the Qi Resonance of elemental runes can help in the creation of cores, and that's something belonging to later stages of cultivation. But… what if the resonance of neutral Qi could help me now? If elemental runes make elemental particles react, what would happen if I use the rune of neutral Qi while I'm absorbing neutral Qi? It's an idea that is probably nonsense.

But if there's anything I've learned about myself, it's that my crazy ideas, like grasping many Qi particles at once, have an alarmingly high rate of being useful, so I decide to put the theory into practice. Without ceasing to absorb Qi particles, I create in my mind the rune that represents neutral Qi.

The familiar shape takes form in my mind with the precision granted to me by my Blessing, every stroke perfect, every line in its exact place, and the moment the rune is complete, I feel something change in the Qi surrounding me. The particles begin to resonate.

It's the same vibration I discovered that time while cultivating without the formation, that sensation of the specks, or particles, as I should call them now, reacting to the rune as though they were atoms vibrating just like they described in physics class when explaining sound, but this time the density is much greater because of the formation's presence, and the resonance feels like a constant hum filling the space around me. At first, I notice no practical change.

I keep grasping and absorbing Qi particles at the same rate as before, and the resonance doesn't seem to add anything beyond an interesting but useless sensation. But I keep the rune in my mind anyway since it costs me nothing and I can entertain myself contemplating the effects it has on my surroundings. And as I observe the effects, I soon realize that there is one, because after a while something I haven't consciously caused catches my attention.

A Qi particle I haven't drawn in myself, but rather one that has simply approached my skin through its own movement, is automatically absorbed the moment it makes contact with my body. I blink mentally in surprise, if that even makes any sense, and pay closer attention to what is happening. And what I see leaves me breathless. The particles closest to my body are being drawn toward me, as though my skin had become an invisible magnet pulling them in without my doing anything.

And not only that, but every particle that comes into contact with my body is automatically absorbed without my having to do anything consciously for it to happen. Surprised and wanting to confirm that what I'm seeing is real and not a product of my imagination, I stop resonating with the neutral Qi. The rune dissolves from my mind and instantly the effect disappears. The nearby particles stop being drawn to me, and those touching my skin are no longer absorbed automatically.

And with that test I confirm that what just happened isn't coincidental, it really is an effect caused by resonating with neutral Qi. A smile appears on my lips as I create the neutral Qi rune in my mind again, feeling how the resonance is immediately reestablished and with it the effect of attraction and automatic absorption. And then, with the logic of someone who has found a new tool and wants to optimize its use, I decide to change my strategy.

Instead of grasping the particles closest to me, which the resonance now takes care of absorbing on its own, I concentrate my eight mental hands on drawing in the more distant particles, those outside the radius of attraction generated by the resonance, combining manual absorption with automatic absorption and at the very least doubling my cultivation speed in a way that would have seemed impossible just a few minutes ago. And I can immediately notice how the effect is instantaneous and devastating.

My cultivation level begins to increase at a speed I can practically feel in real time, as though someone had stepped on the accelerator of a car that was already going fast. The impurities, which before came out as a steady trickle, now seep out with renewed intensity, oozing from every centimeter of my skin as though my body had decided that the only way to handle the purge was to do it all at once.

And after a stretch of time I'm incapable of measuring, a stretch in which my world has been reduced to an endless cycle of grasping, drawing, absorbing, and resonating, I feel it. A final wave of impurities surges from my body with a violence that wrings an involuntary shudder from me, and with it comes that unmistakable sensation I've already experienced twice before, that kind of feeling that takes hold of me suddenly, like information appearing out of nowhere to tell me I've completed another step.

And with that, the Tempering of the Nerves has been completed. But here is where an idea any sensible person would call madness crosses my mind. I'm already covered in impurities from head to toe, I've already broken every rule and I'm here, in the middle of the night, sitting at the center of an active Qi-gathering formation with the earrings on. And given the decision I've made, why stop now?

In order to have to repeat this whole process a second time, with everything that implies of sneaking around the Pavilion in the middle of the night, risking being discovered a second time, and on top of that having to clean up this whole mess again? No, absolutely not. Stolen story; please report. I don't want to have to deal with the impurities more times than strictly necessary, and I don't want to have to sneak around to cultivate Body Tempering a second time.

So I clench my teeth and, without granting myself a single instant of rest, begin drawing in more Qi at full speed. I repeat the cycle of automatic and manual absorption while I seem to hear Lianhua's voice in the distance, as though she were calling to me from the other shore of a river, but my mind pays her no heed. And then I remember something, which is that I have to increase the number of Qi particles I can grasp, since upon completing another stage my limit has gone up by one.

So while I keep grasping the eight Qi particles with my self-named mental hands and maintaining the neutral Qi resonance, I focus part of my attention on trying to grasp the ninth. The first attempt fails, the second too. The third, the fourth, and the fifth follow the same path, all failing with that familiar pain in my mind that tells me I'm pushing against a limit, which I'm making even more difficult by doing several things at once.

But I keep trying, because stubbornness is a trait that has gotten me more results than any other virtue I might have in this matter, and after barely a dozen attempts, I finally manage it. The ninth Qi particle is firmly grasped by my mind, and the sensation of having caught it is so satisfying that, if I weren't in the middle of a process that requires my full concentration, I would probably be smiling like an idiot.

From that moment on, my absorption rate increases with the addition of a ninth particle to my rotation, and the Tempering of the Entrails and Veins advances at a pace that would probably make any cultivator who witnessed it and didn't know me scream in terror. Oblivious to everything around me, I continue with my cultivation at full speed.

The impurities I emitted upon completing the Tempering of the Nerves now mix with the new impurities of the Tempering of the Entrails and Veins, and I can feel how the viscous, foul-smelling substance accumulates around me in quantities I'd rather not imagine. And then, after another stretch of time I'm incapable of measuring, something changes. The Qi stops gathering around me with the same intensity as before, as though the formation were failing or its capacity to concentrate Qi had reached some kind of limit.

For an instant I feel a glimmer of panic, but instead of stopping, I do exactly the opposite. I grasp every particle I can reach and absorb them with a desperation born of being so close to the goal that the mere thought of failing now feels unacceptable. And with one final push, the impurities surge from me as a gushing flood, a final eruption that is the most violent of them all, and the sensation of fullness that accompanies it strikes me like a wave.

A sensation meaning that the Tempering of the Entrails and Veins has ended, and therefore, I have completed Body Tempering. And at the same time as that certainty settles into me, two things happen simultaneously. The first is that I lose the ability to absorb Qi, as though the mechanism that allowed me to do it had closed or transformed into something different.

The second is that I begin to feel strange sensations in seven distinct parts of my body, sensations I had never felt before and that I can locate with unsettling precision. And I quickly realize they are the seven gates I'm supposed to open in my next phase of cultivation, and I can feel them, each one of them, like seven points of pressure throughout my body. I'm about to stop cultivating when I remember I still have one last task, one I have no intention of leaving for another day.

I grasp nine Qi particles and, with the same stubborn determination that has brought me this far, I strain to grasp the tenth. The first attempts fail, the mental resistance is clear, and the familiar pain returns at the edges of my consciousness. But I persist, because I've done this many times before, the pattern is the same, and I know I can do it. And after barely another dozen attempts, the tenth Qi particle is firmly held by my mind, completing my ten Qi hands.

At least, I think at that moment, I'll be able to call them that officially as soon as I learn the Myriad of Hands technique, instead of being just a term that, once again, was invented by a five-year-old child. The satisfaction I feel is deep, silent, and genuine for having achieved a feat that many around me thought served no purpose and that only Master Mu confirmed could have its use. Even with that sense of satisfaction, I decide it's time to finish, and I open my eyes.

Or rather, I try to open them, because my eyelids are stuck together by the impurities covering them, and I need several attempts to manage to separate them, each one accompanied by a revolting sensation that makes me wish I hadn't opened my eyes in the first place. And what I see surprises me for two reasons. The first is the state of the room, since the impurities have spread around me like a dark stain covering the floor within a considerable radius.

A viscous, glistening surface under the dim light of the lamp that looks like a scene out of a horror film, and the worst part is that the stain hasn't limited itself to the floor around me but has reached part of the runes of the Qi-gathering formation, covering them with a layer of filth that has almost certainly rendered them useless. But what truly surprises me, and frightens me, is what I see when I raise my gaze, because in front of me is not only Lianhua.

My mother is there, standing beside Lingxi, both of them in the clothes they wear for sleeping, with their hair slightly disheveled and with an expression on their faces that makes me wish I could close my eyes again and pretend I was still cultivating. Concern, alarm, and, in my mother's case, mixed with something that resembles dangerously a blend of fear and contained fury that makes me swallow involuntarily.

The three of them look at me as though I had just returned from the dead, and the silence reigning in the room is so dense it could be cut with a knife. The need to say something suddenly comes to my mind, since breaking this tension before it explodes is clearly a priority, and my instinct tells me that the best way to do it is the same one that has always worked for me when the situation gets too serious.

So, composing the best smile I can produce while being covered from head to toe in a substance that could make a pig vomit, I begin to speak.

"It seems we're going to have to commission a new Qi formation", I tell them while vaguely gesturing at the impurity-covered runes.

"I think this one is no longer usable." And in the same instant the words leave my mouth, I regret having spoken. Because in opening my mouth, the impurities that had accumulated on my face take the opportunity to slide inside it, and the taste that floods it is so indescribably revolting that my stomach lurches with a violence that threatens to make me expel everything I had for dinner today.

I hold back the urge to vomit by pure force of will and start spitting frantically, trying to rid myself of the impurities that have gotten into my mouth while the sound of my spitting mixes with the echo of the silence that still reigns in the room. It's not exactly the triumphant image I had in mind when I imagined the moment I would complete Body Tempering. But, being honest with myself, with my track record I should have expected something like this.