Chương 15: The Weed in the Garden

When Paike emerged from his cultivation chamber, he found that the sun was just rising, and Guan Li was cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

"Good morning," Guan Li greeted in his extremely casual manner of speaking.

"Good morning, Guan Li," Paike responded.

"Are you feeling any better?" Guan Li asked as he set down some food and slid a bowl across the table to Paike. Paike had to step forward quickly and stop the dish from sliding off the edge and falling to the floor. He grunted in response, "Mm, a bit."

"I was thinking," Guan Li continued, "You should ask Elder Chu to take a look at you. Liming told me a little bit about what happened, but I don't think she has the full story either. You had some sort of fight with an ancient spirit, right? Did it poison you? Inject some sort of toxin?"

"Hmm, nothing like that. Not really." Paike said and briefly explained what had happened. How he gave up some of his cultivation to reclaiming it, but finding it changed and possibly tainted.

"I think I stabilized my cultivation so far, but something is different now. I'm not sure exactly about the mechanics... I also seem to have smoothed out the power differential, making it so it's not unsafe to have the higher realm qi inside me." In fact, Paike felt good. Better than he had in a long time. His qi still wasn't moving like it should, but he felt energized, powerful—like he could take the world by the ears and ride it across the sky.

"Is that why Elder Ji told you to progress?" Guan Li asked.

"So you heard that? Well, I don't know. Maybe, probably. But it could have been something else. Advancement is the right answer at least half the time if the stories are right." That feeling of power lasted well into the spiritual cultivation class, where they reviewed some of the more nuanced parts of opening meridians and learning arts. Paike paid particular attention to this, as he hoped to soon be able to start practicing his new art in earnest.

But for now, it was simply on the back shelf until he figured out his more immediate situation. This time, after class, he joined the queue of people asking questions. He wasn't exactly eager to have everyone overhear his problems, but he didn't want to hold back either. After a few people had their turn, he stepped forward in front of Elder Chu. She looked just as casual as ever in her odd clothing, her straw hat held at her side. Occasionally, she would use it to fan herself as if it were sweltering.

Before he even had a chance to say anything, she snapped her fingers and gave him a considerate look.

"Kong Paike! You know, I'm surprised you didn't die." He blinked.

"What?"

"Well, your cultivation... You pulled in tainted qi with higher realm toxicity into your dantian directly, and you managed to survive. Normally, that would have killed someone in Ruby almost instantly." Paike wasn't sure how to respond to that, or how she could know all that from just looking at him. So he just stared at her for a half second.

"Elder Ji said something similar," he said after a moment, "but didn't really give me much advice." Elder Chu nodded, not saying anything, waiting for him to ask his question.

"Uh... my qi moves slowly. Is there anything I can do to fix that?" She looked at him with a pitying glance and let out a heavy breath, puffing out one cheek as she sighed.

"I don't think I can help you with that problem. Talent is something that some have, and some don't." Paike grimaced. He knew the answer. She had been more encouraging than most of his family who had addressed this issue, but still, it wasn't easy to accept.

"What I mean to ask, though, is... is there anything I can do with my qi to fix my other issues? Is— is my lack of talent helping me in some way?" Elder Chu tapped her lips with a finger as she thought. Paike glanced around, wondering what his classmates were thinking. But surprisingly, they didn't seem to have reacted to anything he said.

"Oh, don't worry," she said, seeming to read his thoughts.

"No one can hear us." Paike tried to think back and remember the first couple of questions the others had asked. He had thought he was simply too focused on his own thoughts to pay attention. Still, now that he reflected on it, he hadn't understood any of the words spoken before him ever since she had snapped—just a jumble of sounds that resembled words. He nodded his appreciation for the Elder's gesture of privacy. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Okay, back to your question," she said.

"That's an interesting thought. If your qi really moves that slowly, then maybe that's why you had time to actually fix the toxicity before it killed you. It might have just taken longer to fully percolate and affect you like it would a normal cultivator."

"But...?" Paike prompted.

"Well," she said, "That would make sense if it took a while to get into your dantian. But once it was in there, it depends on how slowly the qi cycles within your dantian. There might be a window of time…" She trailed off, laughing thoughtfully.

"Anyways," she said after a pause, "You probably want to think about what to do with the taint now in your qi and physical cultivation, too." Paike blanched.

"Taint?" He had feared it was so but had almost convinced himself it was benign.

"It's not an aspect?" Elder Chu just looked at him and shook her head slightly.

"I suppose you could call it that.. To be fair, the difference between a taint and an aspect is kind of like identifying a weed in a garden. It's more about whether you intended it to be there rather than any pure classification. I don't think this taint will kill you outright, but if you don't remove it within a week, it'll probably be permanent."

"Is it something I could live with?" Paike asked, thinking of all the possible side effects. There were many stories of cultivators turning into monsters after embarking on forbidden or new cultivation paths.

"Oh, that..." She shrugged.

"I'm going to have to do something I should never do here as an Elder and plead ignorance. I'm not familiar with this particular taint or aspect. I have trouble describing it beyond knowing it has elements of earth and darkness to it, but there's more. It's more complex, and I don't have the decades needed to study it thoroughly. Perhaps make use of your library pass and figure it out for yourself," she said with a knowing smile.

Paike wasn't sure how honest she was being, but it didn't sound like the taint was an immediate danger. And from her indication, its permanence wasn't impossible to fix. Just extremely unlikely. Should he keep going with it? He really didn't know.

"Is there anything else you can tell me that might help?" Paike asked hopefully.

"You should try cultivating more," she said with a mischievous smile. Paike gave a polite bow, inwardly grimacing in chagrin. Gee, thanks, he thought. How helpful. Just work harder. That was nothing new. Work harder had been something he had done his whole life. It was the unofficial motto of the Kong clan. The sarcasm, though, never reached his face as he bid the Elder a good day and turned to leave. He supposed that those thoughts weren't fair and he was being ungrateful.

After their conversation, he knew a lot more than he did before, but it was just frustrating that he had even more questions.

Paike returned to his dwelling to cultivate every second he could until physical cultivation class. Just because his qi had calmed didn't mean it was 100 percent fully integrated. There were still many things he could do to smooth it out and improve its efficiency. He worked on further pulling apart the bits of power to space them more evenly. He checked on his progress as the bits slowly, finally diffused and added to his power in a more permanent way.

With the burning pain of the disparity of realms gone, there was still an ache in his qi channels, especially in the membrane of his dantian where it was stretched. This was at least something he was prepared for. It was the feeling of advancement pushing the dantian to hold more and more power. He wasn't exactly sure how to measure it, as his progress didn't seem to be as standard as everyone else's. But he knew expanding his power was a good thing and embraced the discomfort, continuing to work on it.

Unfortunately, his session could only go on so long because he needed to make it to class. He was actually relieved when he got there. He saw that they would be combining the lessons from the first and second days, performing exercises while layering qi into their bodies. Apparently, it helped people focus on the target muscle by reinforcing it. Paike couldn't exactly say that it made things easier, but compared to everyone around him, he felt like he was doing a good job.

Elder Ji stopped in front of him while he was holding a particularly precarious position—balanced on one hand, extending both feet up in the air with the other arm stretched out for balance. He knew better than to stop holding the position, so he could only greet the Elder with a slight nod.

"I'm impressed," Elder Ji said.

"You managed to survive the toxicity rampaging through you." Paike wouldn't necessarily have called it rampaging. The toxicity had definitely made his qi move faster than expected, but it was still only at a snail's pace, instead of a sleepy snail's.

"Thank you, Elder Ji," Paike said as calmly as he could despite the persistent ache in his lungs and muscles from the exercises. He was impressed by how calm he managed to sound.

"I believe I've survived the toxic nature, but there's still a taint—er, aspect—to the qi that I don't know how to handle, especially after physical cultivation with it." The Elder huffed.

"Yes, I imagine Elder Chu expressed concern about this to you. I don't think you need to worry. You should learn how to use it rather than throwing away an unexpected gift." Paike continued, working towards asking the Elder if layering it into his body was going to have lasting consequences.

"She said she didn't know exactly what it was," Paike said, not disagreeing. But hoping to have the Elder give some more insight. Elder Ji replied.

"That makes it even better. I'm curious to see what you'll do with it." And with that, Elder Ji walked away, leaving Paike still in his precarious position as he tried to reinforce the fingers on the hand holding him up. Paike wanted to say that the Elder's advice had made him feel better, but he felt more like a duck set on a perch and told to sing like a canary.