Chương 26: The Twenty-Fourth Student

Paike continued to slowly force his qi into the patterns from the wall. Even after working with them for several minutes, he didn't know how they functioned. Despite that, they clearly had an effect. He could see sections of the stone altar start to glow in his spiritual senses as he focused on those. But that wasn't the only change. He felt the perceptions of his more mundane senses change around him. The air rippled and distorted until he was in a dreamlike box of darkness.

He could barely feel the stone underneath his fingertips, and the sound of the wind howling from outside the cave faded away to nothing, just a background static like a thousand crickets chirping at once a thousand miles away. Paike focused on the spiritual sense, trying to encapsulate the patterns that just kept slipping from his mind as if they were not meant to be grasped, even if he didn't fully understand what he was doing. He continued the motions, but it took nearly all of his constant effort.

He powered through, and the sound and vision he was being shown changed. Above him, two cultivators fought—one with purple fire ringing his fists, and a young woman, her body clad in a green protective light, received a strike to the stomach. The green light flickered, and she began to fall. Only as she tumbled and spun through the air did Paike get a glimpse of her face and recognize the family resemblance. But it wasn't any of his older sisters. No.

This was Liming, all grown up, well into the Fifth Realm, from what he could tell. He saw himself older, much older. Age had clearly not been as kind to him as it had been to his sister. He ran towards where she had fallen, but he was too slow. Paike blinked, focusing back on the spiritual energy. Ah, it was one of those trials. He pushed away the feelings of inadequacy and failure that the image represented. His job was to keep working on the task as it showed him his greatest fears to distract him.

Something like that. He saw a party of his younger siblings, the ones he didn't know the names of, who may or may not have been born yet, awaken. He sat there, welcoming them into the world as their teacher. Was this really one of his fears? He wouldn't have minded teaching generations, even if he only ever made it to Topaz or, by some miracle, to the realm above. Teaching the next generations will always be worthwhile. But still, the scene played out.

He watched prodigy after prodigy under his care become successful, surpassing him and lifting the sect higher. He didn't understand. Was he really so selfish? Did he desire power and glory? Paike couldn't tell. Sure, the images pained him with regret that he couldn't be more, couldn't have the same adventures they would have. But at the same time, he felt deeply satisfied. He could tell that the image showed he was also content with his lot in life.

Every time a pupil succeeded in awakening or did well in their lessons, it brought him pride. He pushed away the vision. That was not in line with what he thought this trial was. Was it not showing him his greatest fears? Then what was it doing? A third image appeared, one where he had clearly made it further. His hair was streaked with gray, but his face was as youthful as it was now. It was an odd image, seeing his young features and slightly rounded face covered in gray hair.

He stood somewhere on a ridgeline as lightning cracked behind him and rain whipped past his face. He could see some great shadow rising on the horizon. This was a quick image, and Paike didn't know what it was supposed to evoke in him. Was it something he had failed to do? Something he failed to stop? Some power he had unleashed? What was going on?

Again, a new scene appeared in front of him: he was floating in the sky, standing amongst the clouds, looking down on hundreds of powerful cultivators as they screamed up toward him, weapons drawn, techniques being prepared. A wave of his hand snuffed out all their qi, and a flick of his finger downwards sent them spiraling to the ground. The shock of their impacts rattled the earth, and the clouds blew away. What was that? Coming around from his side, his sister touched his arm.

A brilliant amount of qi transmitted between them, and he gave her a smile as she floated up and back, rejoining a few others standing there watching. Paike considered the symbolism. Was this the top of the mountain? Was it showing him possible paths for his life to go? What heights could he achieve? His dreams? Or maybe what would happen if he stepped off the path at any given point? If he stopped pressing now, he would only be able to help his sister, but he wouldn't be more than useless when it counted.

If he pushed a little harder, maybe he could teach and raise his family. Or maybe he could be some sort of wandering cultivator. The last image, the most mysterious of all, looked like someone who had the potential to ascend. Someone who could step on the world and reach for the heavens. He wasn't like the Emperor—not yet. Maybe he was in the Sixth or Seventh Realm in that vision, but it was at the peak of his potential. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent.

Report it. Despite all the thoughts, doubts, and worries running through his head, he didn't let go of his focus on the patterns of qi running between his hands. No, he had a mission and instructions, and part of the test must be to not let such visions or delusions of grandeur, dreams, or fears distract him from his task. And Paike hadn't slowed one bit. Of course, the qi was moving slowly enough that he sat there for at least a half hour in darkness as he completed the patterns.

He was hoping that maybe he would see more and have some sort of additional hint, but no. It left him with nothing to do but reflect. He wasn't sure what to take away from it. This trial was perhaps more suited for those who were arrogant and needed to see what would happen if they gave up, that they could give up and become less than what they dreamed. But for him, only the first vision seemed genuinely hopeless. The fact that he could even reach as high as he had seen, was that possible, or just wishful thinking?

Yet it told him one thing, though perhaps not the lesson he was supposed to take away. It was not that there was a risk of failure or that slow and steady would get him to power eventually. No, it was that his sister would grow far faster than he did if he played it safe. He would need to take more risks and push harder, unlike what she had told him. Otherwise, he wouldn't be there when it counted. For now, that would have to be enough to drive him.

If he could at least get to the Third Realm and help his family, he wouldn't feel like a failure. Many cultivators never made it further than that. Having made up his resolve, Paike had nothing to do but sit there and concentrate on the qi flows as they slowly wrapped up into some grand crescendo. With the final strokes of the pattern being completed, his qi faded from the stone altar beneath his fingers. At that moment, a final vision occurred. This one was of him standing on the tallest mountain in a long chain.

Bright lights washed out the black background all around him, and the sound of wind whistled in his ears as his robes and long hair flapped behind him. There were no other people around. No threat, no rain or storm. Just a cloudless blue sky stretching out so far that he couldn't see the edge. A peaceful expression rested on his face as he looked out, his eyes seeing nothing but the blue sky. Then, slowly, it faded.

The endless blue and the mountain under him seemed to warp with him, and the three subjects started to combine. And then he was back, his hands resting on an empty stone altar. A black oval where the wall had once been shimmered with power, and Paike hoped that meant he had passed the test. His focus had never faltered. Maybe he had learned something from it. Surely, it was meant to be more complicated than that. They didn't even test his physical cultivation at all.

Maybe this was supposed to be a test of resolve, but he couldn't figure it out. Shrugging slightly and shaking his head, he stepped forward into the portal. He found himself in the city, clearly the one he would have reached if he had gone straight. Its odd architecture and heavy use of stone surrounded him. In the courtyard, several disciples looked bedraggled. Some were injured, bruised, battered, cut, scraped. Several more were soaking wet, and a few were shivering with cold. Paike looked around, confused.

What had happened to them? He walked forward, joining the group of waiting attendees. An elder gave him an assessing look. He couldn't read either displeasure or approval in it, but the elder spoke up.

"Kong Paike, the twenty-fourth student to pass the second trial." The other disciples looked over to him, studying him. Paike scanned the crowd, finding Liming and Guan Li sitting next to each other off to the side, but he didn't see Xin Yixin. Guan Li had black eyes and a split lip while his sister was soaking wet. Paike walked over and dropped into a squat in front of them.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked. Guan Li let out a chuckle as Paike's sister wrung her hair out on the stones.

"I was ninth," she said grumpily.

"Why did you choose water? I didn't think you liked water. I figured you would have gone to the city," Paike said. She trailed off and just shook her head.

"I probably should have." Guan Li shook his head.

"No. The city sucked. People suck. It was a challenge among the other disciples. We needed to steal their tokens and collect enough of them to get through." He showed three wooden disks.

"What about you?"

"I took the mountain path," Paike said, and the other two nodded.

"I'm not really sure what happened, though."

"Yeah, well, it seems like you came out the best," Guan Li said, looking around.

"Except much slower. What did everyone else take?" Paike wondered as he looked around. Roughly half of the disciples were soaking wet, and the other half had cuts and bruises.

"Uh, I haven't really asked," Liming said, "But it looks like most were in the water. Many others were in the city," she added. Guan Li nodded.

"I recognize several of these as potential marks that I let slip past. They were too alert."

"Huh," Paike said.

"Do we know what we're waiting for?" Liming nodded.

"Apparently, we're waiting for thirty-two people to pass. The twenty-third made it half an hour before you did."

"Huh," Paike said, adjusting to sit next to them.

"I suppose we'd better recover our qi." Closing his eyes, he began to cycle. He didn't feel like taking the shortcuts he usually would, not with the elder's supervision, but he mostly just needed to recover. Perhaps he would work on his physical cultivation more. He still had a decent amount of reserves, but physically, he was exhausted. Soon the next trail would begin. But for now he needed to recover his qi and meditate on the vision he had been given.