Qi Like Tar

Perhaps it was his way of an apology. Perhaps his brother was actually interested in what they were talking about, but Taka went far beyond the actual hour lesson he was supposed to give. He also stopped fighting in a way that Paike could actually properly contend with.

There were no more close exchanges. Paike was just overwhelmed by speed and power rather than skill until he had no choice but to slip into his trance or be beat black and blue.

By the time they were done, nine times out of ten, he could activate the trance intentionally. Taka seemed pleased by it, but Paike couldn’t feel satisfied when he knew how far he still had to go.

He still could not say that he could avoid going into trance if pressed. After today it was just that the activation was slightly more intentional and the transformation was slightly quicker. He even managed to retain more awareness during the fight, though it was still as if he was in a dream. His control was weak and exiting the trance was always just exhaustion or Taka knocking him unconscious and waking him up with smelling salts.

It was after one such incident that Taka declared them finished. Paike sat up and moved back against the tree.

"Relax. It's still better to get into trance than die in a fight," Taka insisted when he saw Paike’s dissatisfaction. “At least you can get yourself out of dangerous situations with it now before getting seriously hurt.”

Paike frowned. "Yes, but I still only have so much time before I have to have it under control, or else I will be sent home."

"Yes, you definitely need a lot more practice. But you can't expect to master a technique in only a few days perfectly, especially nothing nearly as complicated as a combat trance. That is just as difficult as learning a True Art. If anything, your path could eventually become a True Art for you, with many techniques if you ever get full control over it. Like I said, though, I wouldn't recommend doing that until you're well into Emerald. Developing arts is really for higher realms even than that."

Paike nodded from where he rested as his brother paced in front of him, thinking. "I would certainly think that, though I might not have much of a choice, as this is rather unique. I have to progress somehow."

Taka waved his hand. "It's likely not totally unique, but certainly not common, and I doubt you'll find any writing on it, so you might as well treat it like it's unique. Anyways," he looked up at the sky and frowned, "this took far too long. Make sure you work hard to get enough sect points for our lesson next week."

Paike raised his eyebrows and frowned. His brother read his expression.

"I can't teach you for free. Not that I particularly would want to, but I actually can't. We're not supposed to have interactions with the outer sect unless they're paid for. And if I were found to be giving preferential treatment to my siblings, well, it would be expected, but it could be used against me. It's not like they're that expensive. I'm only charging 100 credits per hour. You should get that in a week, no problem."

Paike growled in frustration, but he nodded in understanding. He did not necessarily want to talk to his brother again, but it was likely unavoidable.

If he actually was a expert in combat trances, Paike was going to get more lessons from him. He didn’t have a lot of options, even if it grated on him to have to rely on his brother’s aid.

"One more thing," Taka said as he turned to go. "Can you get Liming to come and at least talk to me during the next meeting? She can't stay, obviously, but."

Paike considered and shrugged. "I will ask. But she might not be willing."

"I suppose it'll have to be enough," Taka said before disappearing in a blur.

Paike sat there for a while longer, the sun slowly making its slow trip toward the horizon, before he was able to gather the energy to force himself to his feet. He was battered and bruised, and he was not sure when he had broken his left arm, but he was pretty sure it was cracked. He held it close to his body and winced as each step jostled it.

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After a few minutes of walking, he had an idea. He scrounged out a little bit of qi that he had left, despite having run through as much as he would have in a normal month of activity, and wrapped it around his arm, stabilizing it, and the pain lessened at each jostling.

There was still so much he had to do, but he was confident enough that tomorrow he should be able to rejoin the lessons. But how would he go about getting that many contribution points? This last lesson had used up pretty much all he had.

***

When Paike opened his eyes he was met with the novel feeling of being moderately well rested. There was no feeling of any impurities on his skin or soreness in his muscles from a breakthrough. Rather, he was still a tiny bit tired from the exertions of sparring with his twin.

After some stretching and a brief examination of all of his spiritual organs, Paike figured even that would go away once he had a little bit of food. The various stresses he had put his dantian under during his breakthrough had mostly healed. He would still give it another day before he tried to make any more incisions.

Still, he carefully chipped away at the hardened qi he had plastered over the holes until he could sense faint scarring. That was, that may or may not fade, but the danger of it rupturing was sufficiently reduced for his peace of mind.

His physical cultivation looked fine to him, or rather it hadn’t changed since he had last checked. But he could tell is was lagging behind his spiritual efforts. It hadn't upgraded to the next stage, and he didn’t think he was even at the peak of the physical cultivation stage. It was something that he actually wasn't as familiar with when it came to spiritual cultivation. He was looking forward to the lesson today to hopefully give him some guidance to push him in the right direction.

When he left the room he found Guan Li in their shared kitchen. Neither of them were particularly proficient cooks, but they were able to put together a quick breakfast with rice and eggs.

Then they walked through the town together. Paike received a few odd looks, and he imagined it was from other outer sect disciples examining him in his cultivation. Those who didn’t recognize him likely assumed that he was some legacy from a previous year. Which was more than he had figured.

However, a few recognized him as well, but none made a move to get in their way.

They quickly left the group of buildings making up the sect compound and began on the trail leading towards where the physical cultivation class usually met. When they arrived they were not the first, nor were they the last there. Liming was already there and she strode over to greet him and Guan Li.

He examined her, looking at her carefully, realizing that she was pushing towards Late Ruby, and her physical cultivation might actually be more advanced than his own.

"Congratulations on your progress, sister," he said with a smile.

She gave a small bow. "It pales before your own, brother."

Paike shook his head. "Comparison is the thief of joy, but you should be proud nonetheless."

He had the urge to reach out and ruffle her hair or pat her head, as he would have done had they been alone. Instead, he looked around to see if he could find the other two that had been part of their team, but Zhang Shuying and Mi Lixain were nowhere to be found yet.

Paike considered telling her about his encounter with his twin, but decided to wait until they were in a more private setting. Instead, he just said, "After the session, there's something I would like to talk to you about, if you don't mind making some time for me."

She looked interested, a hint of a smile on her face. "Of course, brother. Would you perhaps like to get some tea, and we can talk over it?"

He nodded, already looking forward to having a slight bit of relaxing time after the likely grueling ordeal that they would have to go through for this physical cultivation class.

Elder Ji appeared without any fanfare, simply stepping out of the trees and standing in front of them. Though Paike had been certain that he hadn’t sensed him there previously.

With a dispassionate expression, Elder Ji scanned over everyone. When his hard eyes met Paike's, he simply gave a slight incline of his head in acknowledgment, but didn't say anything about his absence.

Paike was grateful, but he wondered if the elder would talk to him later, when it wouldn't be disrupting the entire class's schedule.

"Over the past several days, we have been working on your control and teamwork, along with explosive power. Many of you are still far behind what I would have preferred. However, that doesn't necessarily mean we can stay on that forever. MAybe some of you cannot be fixed. But we will not be giving up.”

Several of his students seemed to shrink under his gaze. Paike didn’t know for sure, but he suspected that they were the ones who were not performing well while he was absent.

“Today we will address your other shortcomings by focusing on efficiency and endurance, something that many of the more talented among you might struggle with." Elder Ji warned, causing a mixed reaction.

"We won't be splitting into groups today, so follow me."

The elder set off at a pace that looked like a casual jog, but Paike found himself having to push himself to maintain it. The entire group ran off along the trail behind the elder, with no word of how long it would take, how long they were expected to go.

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