Yang stood and followed Saral as she led him and Som outside the hall.
Rather than walking back through the village, they went behind the hall toward the sound of rushing water. They walked to the edge of the woods and took the well-trodden path that led them to a section of river where the water ran shallow over rocks and stones. Deeper in the woods, Yang could make out the top of a waterfall in the distance.
"Som, Nahar. Step into the river." Saral called them over as she stepped barefoot into the current. Som quickly bent down to take off her sandals, with Yang following suit before stepping into the cool water behind them.
Yang felt the cool waters of the river wash over his toes and let out a deep sigh, taking joy in the sensation of the rushing current. He waded in until the water was up to his ankles and looked up to Saral to see where she wanted them.
She led them to practically the center of the riverbed. Sivlar clearly split into multiple tributaries, because Yang remembered the area he had come to when he first woke up was much deeper and with more turbulent waters than this peaceful stretch.
Saral sat down directly in the shallow current with no care for getting her clothes wet, and Som and Yang followed, taking a seat facing her. It was not the most comfortable position; the riverbed was hard and uneven under him with the stones poking into him at awkward angles. Yang, by virtue of being the smallest, also had the fortune of being submerged up to his hips in water while seated.
"Close your eyes." Yang immediately did so as Saral's voice turned softer, almost airy, blending seamlessly as if it was part of the flow of the river itself.
"Let the waters of Sivlar flow over you. Ignore everything but the feel of Sivlar on your body, even the sound of Sivlar itself." Yang felt her voice growing distant as she continued. "Feel the water of Sivlar flow over you. Feel it flow through you."
Everything went quiet. Yang evened out his breathing and concentrated on the feel of the water. It may have been a few minutes or more, but he couldn't feel anything different from how he would feel if he was sitting in any other puddle of water.
He let his mind drift to the basic cultivation manual he had received when he first joined the sect, as he tried to use the basic technique to absorb qi.
Qi was basically the life energy that was present in everything. If it existed, it had qi, and the qi differed depending on where it originated from. The cultivators in Yang's world mostly absorbed the ambient qi, a mixture of what was given off by land, air, water, and plant life, refined it to its base form, and used it to cultivate. But here the source of power was Sivlar. Or rather, the water. It was likely that the people here were proficient at using water qi, and considering the lack of meridians and dantian to channel and refine the qi, it was likely that the people here had a very strong affinity for the water element. Whether innate to them by birth or developed through a lifetime of proximity to the Sivlar River was not something Yang believed he could determine easily.
Usually the qi was, at least in the beginning, absorbed by breathing, letting it enter through the nose and finding the meridians naturally.
Yang had also been able to cultivate, or rather suck dry qi, with the aid of the bead from mere touch, so there was another way as well, but here, sitting in the water, he was neither able to feel any energy by himself, nor feel any reaction from the bead. Which was, he acknowledged, probably for the best. The last thing he needed right now was for the bead to suck dry these people's source of worship.
But it did leave Yang in a quandary.
The bead being able to absorb the energy from Unaib and Saral was likely because it was already refined pure energy instead of well… just water.
Now he needed to figure out a way to identify and absorb water element energy without relying on meridians. It should not be too difficult since all the members of the tribe had the affinity to do so and, Yang now being biologically of the same species, should also be able to do it.
If he could figure out a way to harness this energy to cultivate, it might just resolve his little speed issue as a result of cultivating the Heaven-Refining Soul Sutra. Hell, it may even be of great aid in forming a Water Origin Seed and help along the Thousand Element Technique. Of course, only if he figured out a way to draw in the said energy.
He brought his attention back to the river and concentrated on the feel of water, feeling its wetness on his skin, how it glided over his skin like silk. He felt his skin soak the water as it sat submerged. The slight chill that came from sitting in the cool water. The way it flowed between every fold, crease, crevice, and the gaps in his body.
The way it ran through him.
He felt the cooling wet sensation creep up over the rest of his body, as the water flowed over and over through every inch of his skin, cooling it as it passed over. He felt its tight embrace, the even pressure across his whole body.
He took a deep breath as he felt the water run into him. He felt it circulate through his veins, extending into every thread of tissue and revitalising it. The silence and peace it brought to his mind, the darkness that came across his closed eyelids.
And then he felt the energy rush into him as the bead began pulling in the energy with intensity. He felt the torrential whirlwind erupt inside him as the energy kept increasing and the bead kept drawing it in.
For the first time, he had been able to take in so much energy without it hurting him. It felt extremely invigorating. He felt like a god as the surge of energy kept crashing into him. He devoured it alongside the bead, absorbing it into his very soul. For the first time, he was able to partake with the bead. He drew alongside it. He feasted alongside it.
As the bead consumed, so did his soul.
Minutes, hours, maybe even days passed. Time lost all meaning as Yang tasted unlimited power flooding his body.
Then, without warning, he lurched forward, eyes bulging, coughing violently as water rushed down his throat, realizing he was underwater and drowning. The water covering him collapsed, making Yang realize that he wasn't underwater, but rather enclosed within a suspended sphere of rushing water that had just broken. He felt a sharp pain on his palm as he braced himself from falling face-first into the water.
He looked around desperately, now back to his full senses, terrified that he may have drowned Som and Saral, intoxicated by the power.
Only to freeze as his gaze shifted to the bank.
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