Chương 41: Chapter 40

Wu Zetian let a wisp of her Qi out. Night asserted itself immediately, plunging the room into complete darkness. Another wisp, and a ghostly light appeared between them, casting their shapes into stark relief and their shadows into elongated versions of themselves. The children's spirits wavered for a moment, but then, as true children of the Yan Luo, they found their center again, and settled deeper into it. Darkness soothed them, their energy flowing smoothly and calmly.

"Lin." The little girl drew her breath. The thin flows of deep blue tentatively reaching for her Roots dispersed. Appreciable enthusiasm, but discipline is a must.

"What is Night Qi?" The child had realized her mistake. Her forehead set in a determined frown.

"A type of Yin-affiliated Qi."

"That is true. That is also insufficient."

"…insufficient?" Not used at being found so. Interesting.

"What have you described?" Her frown was tinged with confusion. As loud as a waterfall's roar.

"Its… nature?"

"No. You have described where scholars place it on a chart." Silence.

"Try again." She lowered her eyes.

"…Night Qi is darkness." Wu Zetian smiled faintly.

"And a cave?" Wu Lin hesitated.

"Darkness."

"And ink?"

"Dark."

"The inside of a closed chest?"

"…dark." Wu Zetian inclined her head.

"Are they all Night Qi?"

"No…"

"Then darkness alone is not enough." Wu Lin bit her lip.

"... It conceals."

"It does. So does fog."

"... It is quiet."

"So is freshly fallen snow." She opened her mouth. Closed it again. The Ancestor waited without rescuing her. She searched for words that had never before been necessary.

"... It feels…" She stopped.

"Go on."

"... Like..." She rubbed her thumb against her sleeve in frustration.

"I know it. I know exactly what it is. But…"

"But?"

"I don't know how to say it." Wu Zetian nodded.

"A common affliction." She looked up.

"It is?"

"The fish has never tried to define water." Wu Lin frowned in confusion.

"You were born surrounded by Night." Wu Zetian leaned forward slightly.

"So naturally, you recognize it. But recognition is not understanding. The Dao requires just that." Wu Lin stared quietly at the floor. After a long while, she tried once more.

"... Night Qi feels…" A pause.

"... Deep." The Ancestor's eyes brightened slightly.

"Better."

"It is... difficult to see the end of." Wu Zetian remained silent. Wu Lin continued, encouraged.

"... It makes everything... quieter. Not silent. Just…" She searched for the word."... Less eager to move." A tiny nod.

"And?"

"... People become careful. Even when nothing has happened. They lower their voices. They listen. They…" Again the words slipped away.

"They don't... want to disturb it." Wu Zetian smiled.

"Good." Wu Lin looked relieved.

"Is that the answer?"

"No." Her shoulders fell.

"It is only a footprint." Wu Zetian tapped the floor once with a finger. In the darkness, the sound echoed.

"You are describing what Night Qi does. I asked what it is." Wu Lin sighed.

"I don't know."

"You do."

"I don't."

"You do." She looked almost offended.

"If I did, I would have said it." Wu Zetian let out a soft breath.

"No. You would have found words. There is a difference." Silence stretched between them. Finally she asked,"When you stand beneath the open sky at midnight... what do you feel?" Wu Lin answered immediately, without thinking. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"... Small." Wu Zetian nodded.

"And?"

"... Safe."

"And?"

"... Alone." She frowned.

"... But not lonely." The Ancestor tilted her head.

"There." Wu Lin blinked.

"There what?" She lowered her gaze again.

"... Is that Night Qi?" Wu Zetian looked at the light. The ghostly radiance turned her features to smooth silver.

"It is one face of it." A pause.

"A mistake young cultivators often make is believing Night Qi is just an element. It is an experience. A deep insight that words often fail to convey." She let the words settle.

"The world beneath the sun teaches certainty. The world beneath the moon teaches humility." She looked back at her.

"Our qi is born from that second lesson." The girl remained silent for a long time.

"... I think I understand it even less now." The Ancestor laughed, the sound soft enough not to disturb the night in the room.

"Excellent." Wu Lin looked up in disbelief.

"Excellent?" Wu Zetian smiled.

"The moment you believe Night Qi can be captured in a single sentence... you have already mistaken the night for its shadow." The Ancestor let the silence linger after Wu Lin's lesson. She turned his gaze to the other child. Zhao straightened instinctively. Unlike Wu Lin, he did not come from generations of Night Sect blood. Unlike her, he hadn't received a formal education, nor was he taught in the ways of the Sect. The Ancestor regarded him with the same calm expression.

"And you." Zhao stiffened.

"M-Me?"

"What is Night Qi?" The boy scratched the back of his neck.

"I... don't know the proper words."

"Then do not use proper words." Wu Zetian folded her hands.

"Use your own." The boy stared at the floor. A long silence.

"I've never really... thought about it."

"No. You have only lived with it." The boy nodded.

"... Yeah." Another silence. Finally he spoke.

"... Night is when the world stops trying to be seen." The room became perfectly still. Wu Lin slowly turned toward him. The Ancestor's expression did not change.

"Continue." Zhao frowned, trying to explain something he had never named.

"Outside... everything's loud. People. Colors. Everything wants you to look at them." He shrugged, the gesture radiating helplessness.

"But in the dark... nothing's showing off anymore." He searched for the words.

"It just... is." The Ancestor remained silent. Encouraging. The boy continued.

"I used to sleep in little places nobody cleaned. Behind old shelves. Under stairs. In broken storerooms." He smiled awkwardly.

"No one looked there. But… I never felt like the night was hiding me." He shook his head.

"It felt more like…" He hesitated.

"... it wasn't telling anyone I was there." Wu Lin's eyes widened. The Ancestor asked quietly,"What is the difference?" Zhao answered almost at once.

"Hiding means someone's looking for you." He rubbed his sleeve.

"If nobody even thinks to look... you don't need to hide." Silence. Wu Zetian's gaze sharpened almost imperceptibly.

"And what does that teach?" The boy looked embarrassed.

"I don't know if it teaches anything. It just…" He frowned.

"The night doesn't fight the world. It lets the world walk past." Wu Lin unconsciously drew in a breath.

"What is strength, then, to the night?" The boy answered after only a moment.

"... Not being found." Wu Zetian shook her head. The boy immediately wilted.

"I got it wrong…"

"No. You stopped too early." The boy blinked. The Ancestor leaned forward.

"Continue." Zhao swallowed.

"... Not being found... unless you want to be." Wu Zetian's eyes softened. A faint smile appeared.

"For a child who claims not to know words… those were remarkable ones." The boy flushed crimson.

"I just said what it feels like."

"Exactly." She watched them. For a long time, she didn't speak.

"If someone asked you what Night Qi truly is... what would you say?" The boy looked into the flame. He thought for a very long time. Then, quietly, he answered.

"... Day makes the world reveal itself. Night lets the world keep its secrets." Wu Zetian closed her eyes. When she finally spoke, her voice carried an unmistakable note of satisfaction.

"That… is the closest either of you has come." Wu Lin looked between the old master and her companion, then smiled despite herself.

"Zhao, you dummy!" She reached out to push his shoulder.

"You make me look bad!" The boy took it without a sound, flushed with pleasure. Wu Zetian smiled slightly. She tapped her finger on the floor, making them focus again.

"The deepest truths of cultivation are rarely discovered by those seeking clever answers," she pronounced.

"You brushed the truth that is Night Qi, and in doing so, your insight into it has grown. Such is the Dao, one of its myriad roads. The road is long. May as well be endless. Your understanding will fail you. You will falter and flounder. That is unimportant. As long as you walk under the Night and your eyes remain aimed at the stars, you shall find your path eventually." She gave each a long look.

"Remember this lesson and the insights you've gained from it, no matter how vague they are in your mind. It shall help your growth just as readily as the physical act of cultivation." The two children nodded eagerly. Wu Zetian smiled faintly, watching them. There was something endlessly endearing in seeing young blossoms reach for the light. Doubly so when they were her own.

"We shall continue Dao understanding in the next lesson. Let's move to physical cultivation now." One small breath and the flame was extinguished, plunging the chamber into complete darkness.

"Lin. Proceed." In her senses, the little girl was a flame of determination to do better. Wu Zetian wasn't disappointed by her lack of Dao understanding. Waxing philosophically about the concepts of mystery and the unknown was a work for when you weren't under threat of being swarmed by demonic ones. Her previous teachers had likely focused on the most materialistic aspects of the curriculum in order to prepare her for the realities of fighting. Not optimal, but she could understand.

Especially because it brought results she could see. Deep-blue Night Qi streamed into Lin at a ferocious pace, enough to outstrip cultivators double her age. Compared to her, Zhao managed to pull only a fraction of the same amount. That her Roots were a pure One Element and her Bloodline made her perfectly attuned to the Night covered the difference only in part: the male had an exceptional constitution, his robust Meridians and enlarged Dantian more than making up for his twin-element Roots.

Simply put, Wu Lin had an incredible talent, one she had refined with relentless application. Wu Zetian watched, satisfied, as her Yin Roots – one-element, pure, effective – pulled moderately dense Night Qi, filtering it well. Out of her twelve primary Meridians, the ten most adapt to Night Qi cultivation were open and well-trod.

The Lungs, Heart, Heart Protector, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, Bladder, Triple Burner, Liver and Kidneys; The six Yin-Meridians and four of the Yang-Meridians, coming together to sustain Night Qi. Their systems formed a lively network, both adequately cleared of blockages and well-trained.

To show her diligence, even one of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Ren Mai, the Conception Vessel running over the front of her body, was open, and so were two of the Luo Channels that connected Meridians and shortened the whole circuit. Wu Lin kept to the breathing rhythm dictated by the Sect's sutras religiously. The Qi curled under her skin following the official manuals' optimized patterns.

She even respected the Yu Ji Ratio, which dictated that making the flow oscillate in a 5-8 millimeter distance from the body's surface eased the speed of transit. As for the dantian, it was larger than average, and filled with the ease created by constant use and high-quality ambient Qi. And then there was her Bloodline. True Night Bloodline was on par with, eh, legendary marks like Dragon Spines, Phoenix Blood, Godly Souls and Heavenly Bones.

A shard of primordial darkness in the shape of a spinning top sat at the center of her Dantian. It revolved slowly, folding itself in and out of reality while pulling Night Qi to itself and refining it through the glimmer of Shen contained in its abyssal heart.

Not only did it provide its bearers with a deep affinity for all things related to Night Qi, it let them interface with the Night swathing the Domain to some extent to increase their capabilities, gave them longevity, powerful foundations, vast qi reserves and a defense against poison, mind control and soul-based attacks. In all things, the heirs of Night were powerhouses. More, their darkness was innately dense and deep enough that they could use it to swallow light and energy to replenish themselves.

The Shen in their spiritual hearts infused their bodies, allowing them to become themselves Night, while lesser cultivators could only manipulate its essence. Wu Lin's genius talent was in this: she could turn herself into pure Qi at a whim, slipping through physical attacks and flying on the currents of the Night like a firefly. Together with her immense talent and constant work, it had made her Middle-Grade Foundation Establishment when children her age struggled with the first rungs of Qi Condensation.

In a fight against a veteran soldier of the Sect, she would win handily. With that said, there were problems.

"Lin. You're forming a knot in your left shoulder. Don't keep on pushing. Slow it down and wait for it to untangle." The little girl didn't answer. Her frown deepened, and she did what was told. Wu Lin was stubborn, incredibly so. When the Qi flow refused to follow the methods that had been drilled into her, she kept pushing, no matter the consequences. Her massive talent and Bloodline instinct had managed the ridiculous feat of letting her open two Luo Channels to compensate, but even that had its limits.

Her Meridians were filled with small tears and bumps as a result, and her Qi flow was developing permanent loops her body had to work around. She would need a regimen of medicinal baths and proper attention to fix it. And a stern teaching about what pain was trying to tell you to prevent it from happening again. Would that be all. Her Meridians showed a growing accumulation of impurity from emotional distress, which was just about to reach the level at which it was a problem.

Acupuncture and more baths to flush that out. And a fix on the emotional issue, of course. Lastly, her body cultivation was really lagging behind the spiritual one. That was easy in comparison: more exercise, better food, more organ and muscle tempering. Which was more baths. In comparison, Zhao had his own slew of problems and advantages. The boy's Qi flow was all instinct and workarounds, inventive and creative in some ways, horribly inefficient in others.

His strong suit was his impressive foundation: his body, for want of a better term, was tough as nails. His Meridians were large and resistant, and his Dantian churned like a stormy sea. Likely the result of a life spent cultivating and hunting the Shadow Beasts of the Palace to survive. He was also surprisingly clean of impurities, which spoke volumes about his emotional balance and success as a survivor. She suspected he must have dedicated most of his brief life to reach his first breakthrough.

With that, disadvantages and inefficiencies trumped their counterparts with him. He needed more resources and better care to develop properly. He wouldn't ever be on par with Wu Lin. Even now, should they be both middle-grade in their Realms, the little girl would use him to wipe the floor every day of the week. And yet, he had talent in spades, and an instinctive grasp of the Dao that wasn't to be underestimated. And then, one last thing, which they shared.

"Lin. Don't get distracted. The Qi is pretty, I know, but you must maintain control. Zhao. The same for you." The children jumped as one, tearing themselves away from the awed joy they had fallen into to focus on proper flow again. Wu Zetian smiled softly. Cultivation had their hearts. She couldn't talk. It had hers too, after all.