Qi Like Tar

Paike meditated for an indeterminate amount of time. He felt that there was the slightest movement in his understanding of the visions, but he still had a long way to go.

Eventually, he opened his eyes and found that nothing had changed, except that his sister and many of the other disciples that were once wet were now dry. Guan Li's bruise had spread a little as the flesh on his cheek swelled up more. Paike cocked an eyebrow at his friend.

"Anything change?" he asked, but Guan Li just shook his head.

"No, nobody has even joined us since you finished."

"Huh," Paike said as he pushed himself to his feet. "What is going on?"

He stood and stretched, working out the stiffness in his muscles from the series of fights they had had and the long climb up the mountain. Liming opened her eyes and stood as well.

"Yeah. It seems that there might not be thirty-two people who passed the second trial. That would be disappointing," she said.

Looking around, Paike found that most of the top ten ranked disciples were present. They stayed off in their own little corners of the open courtyard, mostly leaving everyone else alone. Of course, several of the top disciples hadn't bothered with physical cultivation classes, having their own methods and techniques. But the other disciples here this far were ones he recognized as being the quicker students of the class.

Of course, many talented students like Lan Zhu wouldn't have made it this far because they ran into a situation that wasn't suited for them. Just as Paike was about to go talk to the other students to see if anyone had a better idea of what was going on, Elder Ji materialized by the entrance to the courtyard. A single clap of his hands gathered everyone's attention.

"It seems we will not have enough disciples to fill out the thirty-two slots we wanted going into the third trial."

There were murmurs of anticipation and apprehension throughout the small crowd.

"Because of that, we are going to automatically pass the first eight to finish the second trial."

Paike heard a soft curse from behind him and looked over at Liming, the ninth disciple to pass. He nudged her with his elbow, but she refused to look at him. With a shrug, he returned his attention to the elder, who was looking right at him. Paike flushed slightly, embarrassed to be caught not giving his full attention, and gave an apologetic bow.

Elder Ji didn't say anything but continued on. "The remaining sixteen of you will enter an elimination bracket."

The pairings were drawn out in the the air with glowing gold characters. To Paike's surprise, Guan Li wasn't listed. He looked over at Guan Li, and his friend just gave a shrug with a small smile. Paike nodded in approval and clapped him on the shoulder. "Well done."

Thankfully, the tournaments weren't seeded based on placement in the second trail. Instead, it seemed to be random. Despite being last to clear the trail, Paike was on the opposite side of the bracket as his sister.

The way the tournament was structured was odd because the victors weren't moving on. If you lost, you had to fight again, and if you lost a second time, you would be in the bottom four and then be eliminated from the competition. Paike felt better knowing that he'd have two chances, but he was still quite nervous. He was relatively confident in his ability to fight, but these were the best. A week ago, he wouldn't have even dreamed of being here. Well, he was here now.

He tamped down his anxiousness and looked around, seeing many of the younger cultivators displaying more nerves than he felt. Several were pale, though they held themselves stoically. He saw one boy's hands shake as he stepped toward the ring designated to him.

"Huh," Paike thought. He wished his sister good luck and moved to his ring. Guan Li waited around with the seven other students who weren't participating. After everyone had a chance to check on the brackets, the elder created an exit for the finalists.

Guan Li looked cautiously over at Paike, the look in his eyes asking if he should stay and watch. Still, Paike shook his head and gestured that he should go and receive whatever reward the elder was planning for him. Surely, they would get some sort of advantage for being in the top eight.

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Paike examined the student across from him. She was a nondescript girl with thick black hair, cut into straight bangs. He winced. He recognized her. She was Zhai Lianitian, the number two student, after all.

Her mother was known as the Shadow Empress. At least, there were rumors of her mother, and the way that her cultivation felt told Paike that there was definitely some connection. The shadows around her danced, and clearly, she had deep combat knowledge from the way she carried herself.

Paike noticed that she, like him, was in the middle stage of the Middle Ruby and the middle stage of the Awakening for physical cultivation, having a leg up on him physically. Still, she certainly knew more cultivation arts than he did, which was not a surprise as he actually knew zero. He was actually surprised that she had bothered coming to the physical cultivation classes at all. It was probably not for the initial classes but rather the chance at extended instruction.

At least one of the ones she practiced was a pure shadow art. He could see its effects flowing through the world around her even without her trying, meaning that she indeed had some level of power. Still, he stepped into the ring, not letting any of this show in his body language or face. He couldn't stop now just because she had a scary family. He reminded himself that many opponents would consider his family scary, even if not him. And he'd outdone those doubts so far.

Paike closed his eyes, waiting for the match to start, and focused on his physical cultivation. He might need to dig a little deeper than in his previous scuffles. He pulled on the qi supporting his body and could feel the strings vibrate slightly. With that vibration, energy coursed through him.

He closed his eyes and delved deeper. Something was there. There was something special about his attunement, maybe something he could use to grasp a last-minute advantage.

Things did not go as he had hoped, there was something that Paike managed to grasp deep within himself, but that something grabbed back. He disassociated from his body intensely, not as if he passed out or everything went black, but as if he was watching his movements from far away. He wanted to step forward, so he stepped forward.

His instincts told him to drop his staff and raise his hands, and so he did. As he blocked his opponent's first strike, he fell deeper into the trance. He felt qi flow through his fingers, slowly oozing out to coat them in steel-like blades, and he felt them tear into something.

The fight faded from his memory at that point and became a confusing blur of images and feelings of rage, pain, and elation. His emotion's intensity was scary for him to even think about. Never before had he felt so strongly about anything.

When he fully regained control of his body, Elder Ji was standing in front of him, the world walled off by light blue energy. Paike stood there, panting, his hand reaching towards Elder Ji's throat, grasped with a simple two-finger pinch on his wrist as the elder held him steady. He met eyes with the elder, and as their gazes locked, he felt his qi sputter out. He had actually burned through all of his qi. How much time had passed?

This was the first time he'd even come close to making a dent in the reserves he had stockpiled. He just simply couldn't use it fast enough. But how long had it been? He felt like he hadn't eaten in weeks, but in a spiritual way. Like there was an empty pit at the base of his soul trying to suck everything in. But even as he tried to open himself up to qi, the elder blocked his attempt.

"Do you have control of yourself?" Elder Ji asked in a calm tone, showing no strain from holding Paike in place with two fingers.

Paike was no longer struggling. He slowly nodded and attempted to say "yes," but his voice came out in just a raspy hiss. He cleared his throat, trying to work some saliva into his dry mouth, and after a few moments, he could speak.

"Yes. Elder, what happened?" he asked quickly.

Elder Ji cocked his head slightly, considering. "Hard to say," the elder said. "It seems as though your attunement and physical cultivation are a little more active than maybe you realized. You should look into that a bit more before trying to dive into such a deep combat trance again."

Paike blinked. A combat trance. He supposed that was what he was trying to do, but he didn't think he'd be able to achieve that until Topaz at the earliest. He tried to keep the dumbstruck look from his face and just nodded.

"Do you have any advice?"

"Lots of testing in a place with someone you trust. Also, it might be a good idea to search for inner-sect disciple tutoring. It will be much easier than wasting your time in my class."

"Then… I passed?" Paike asked, stunned. He thought maybe he was disqualified or something for losing control.

"Yes," the elder said with a smile. "You won your bout quite spectacularly, in fact."

Paike looked down at himself and saw the blood splattered all over his robes and blanched. Flashes of deep cuts and blood coating his hands came back to him, and he felt a little queasy, but he stamped the emotion down. Violence was just part of a cultivator's life, and a little bit of blood couldn't upset him.

"We had to heal her before she could take on her next opponent," the elder said amicably. "But I think it's best if you go home without having to face the rest of the class. They seemed a little shaken up."

Paike was grateful for the blue energy walling off the world.

He waved a hand, and a portal appeared behind Paike. Without hesitating, Paike stepped through and found himself standing in front of his home.

The portal closed behind him, and he turned to look. Had Elder Ji been maintaining the portals the whole time? He was pretty sure one of the other elders was helping with that. Still, the mystery of higher cultivators was something Paike could ponder later. For now, he desperately needed to cultivate.

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