Qi Like Tar

There was little ceremony. Elder Ji just awarded them some sect points for completing a task he didn't think any of his students would finish for at least a week and told them to get lost.

Paike and Li Feng both bowed low, and the elder vanished with a gust of wind. He wasn't sure whether it was a teleport technique or the elder just moved faster than he could track. Either way, Paike had plans.

There were many things he had to take care of. He was already working on his battle trance so as not to get expelled from the sect. But that was just one of his many responsibilities. His family expected him and his sister to reach the top five in the sect rankings in a month.

He hadn't actually read the letter, and would need clarification from his sister if their mother meant the end of the month in a couple of weeks, or if a month from when they received the letter. He couldn't remember what his sister had said.

On top of that, there was his physical cultivation that he needed to improve to make sure it kept up with his spiritual cultivation. He was also pretty sure he had made promises to work with a few others that he needed to keep. Helping Guan Li and some of his other friends would hopefully cover that. That wasn't counting all the enemies he had acquired.

Li Feng gave him a nod and turned to start walking down the path leading back to the sect. Paike was pretty sure his pace was slow because his legs also felt like pudding.

It was tempting to follow, but there was one more thing he needed to take care of. Turning back to where they came from, Paike started to walk back up the path. As he moved, he started to circulate qi through the channels in his legs, helping the recovery along.

His sister and Guan Li were not back, and he wanted to make sure Mei Lingchi hadn't caused them any problems.

After a little bit of walking, his legs started to feel a bit more stable. As a Topaz cultivator, it was a testament to how hard Elder Ji had pushed them that Paike felt any discomfort at all. It was true that his physical cultivation wasn't in the second realm, which was the only reason that Li Feng had been able to keep up at all, but it was still hard.

Gritting his teeth, Paike broke into a jog. The exhaustion had been abated, yet not entirely washed away. The qi was kept in constant motion, but with the unique properties of his qi that required his constant attention and willpower. As he put one foot in front of the other, he lost himself in the rhythm. He imagined his will and strides as a giant pump, each motion was like a river forcing a water wheel to turn.

But as the wheel turned, shoving the qi along, he noticed that its flow was turbulent. At first, he didn't realize this was odd. His qi was slow, and he was trying to move it faster than it wanted to; of course, it would rebel. However, when he looked a little closer, he found that much of the disturbance was from irregularities in the piping.

His metaphor was starting to break down, so he left it behind. There was something disturbing his qi channels. They weren't blocked, just misaligned from where he had first carved them. Studying their walls, he found out why.

When he had perfected the physical cultivation in the hospital, he had adjusted the structure of how the qi reinforcement of their body lay. It might already have been an issue he hadn't noticed, or maybe it had to do with his advancement to Topza. But now those threads wrapped around the qi channels, slightly choking them in a few places, while in others they were just taut against the pipe that qi flowed through.

The best way he could think of it was if he was wearing clothes that were too tight around an arm. The blood flows, but the vein might be pushed aside. For blood that wouldn't be an issue, but qi was a lot more particular about its path.

He was still considering how he could solve this problem when he found the first people walking back.

To his relief, it was Liming and Guan Li.

He slowed as they approached and studied their faces. Liming's face was pinched in frustration, though that somewhat lifted as she saw his approach. Guan Li looked slightly annoyed as well.

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"Brother!" Liming greeted him with warmth.

Guan Li was looking over Paike's shoulder. "Dang, I thought you would at least last. Don't tell, my Li Feng was the last left."

"Little sister and Guan Li," Paike returned the greeting. "Ah, no. We both made it back to the clearing. But what happened with you? I was worried when I saw Mei Lingchi interfere with both of you stopping."

Guan Li waved his hand dismissively. "She was no problem. After a brief scuffle, she ran away."

Liming covered her mouth as she let out a light laugh. "You should have seen him, brother. Healing isn't very comforting when faced with shadow knives at one's throat. Guan Li was quite scary."

Lifting an eyebrow. "Shadow knives?"

"Something I picked up while you were indisposed." Guan Li said, making a gesture as if a black knife formed in his hand. He quickly dropped it. "It's pretty qi hungry and only lasts a bit, but it's much more flexible than an actual blade."

"I haven't seen that technique before," Paike said.

It wasn't that blade summoning was rare. In fact, it was one of the more common abilities for many aspects. But how the qi formed was odd. Paike was still learning about how to use his qi sight and what everything meant, and he was pretty sure that Guan Li wasn't restricted to summoning the knife in his hand. Also, it was not unheard of, but usually it was a more advanced technique. Not commonplace until Emerald.

"Who was the author? I didn't have time to look at all of the books in the library, but with a certain element of darkness in my own qi, I might want to take a look." He asked. It looked like a single meridian art. It was certainly an untuned meridian, but he might learn something from it.

Guan Li looked away and rubbed the back of his head while looking down. He muttered something that Paike didn't catch. Liming must have heard, however, as she let out a gasp. She turned so that she was fully facing Guan Li instead of just standing beside him.

"You did? Do you know how risky that was?" She asked in a sharp tone.

"It worked out, didn't it?" Guan Li said defensively.

"This time!"

"Excuse me," Paike broke in. "Can you fill me in?"

"I helped this morning, pick out a few arts from the library a little while ago," Liming started to explain. "We didn't get anything about summoning knives, so I assumed he just went back and found a new one, but apparently, he said he just made it up himself!"

Paike understood his sister's concern. Practicing an unproven technique was risky. The library had been vetted by elders, making sure each was valid and safe. Creating your own was for higher realms. It was one of the many reasons the grand sects had been formed in the first place. Standard techniques that one could trust wouldn't instantly break one's cultivation. They were rare before the grand sects were established, as families fought among themselves. Hording techniques and planting dangerous ones for their enemies to find.

However, he could also agree with Guan Li. It worked, and he knew how talented the boy was. Natural cultivators play by different rules.

Paike gestured for them to follow him as he headed back toward the sect, trying to find the words to say.

After a little while walking in silence, he finally spoke. "Cultivation is not without risk. I would be the biggest hypocrite to lecture you on doing a dangerous thing, Guan Li. So instead I will ask, why did you think it was necessary?"

"It wasn't like I was working from scratch. The books we found were complete. The way Honored Xi structured her meridians just didn't work as well with her stated goal as Grand Duke Tain's did. But the Grand Duke's aspecting twists were not as efficient with the shadow, so I just put them together and followed the pattern for the water knife I saw Liming looking at while we were there--"

"I looked at it for a second!" Liming threw her hands up. "Even I didn't remember it well enough to use it."

"Please continue," Paike asked Guan Li, ignoring the interruption.

"Well, I just thought this would give me more flexibility and leave less pressure on my soul for how many meridians I carved." Guan Li finished.

Paike hadn't even considered many of those things. How the meridians were carved might affect how many could fit wasn't something he had even considered. He didn't even know it was true; if it was, that wasn't widely known.

When he carved his own, he had just taken the easiest path. Elixirs and pills would help force more down the line.

"I think I would like to talk more about this. I think we might be able to learn something if you are willing to share your tenure. I can pay." Paike finally responded. That was only right.

"Uh, sure?" Guan Li said. "I don't think it's that special. It wasn't very hard to come up with and didn't take very long."

He clearly still didn't understand how special he was. Paike would have to write home and see if Father was willing to come talk with Guan Li; he was the only comparison he could think of.

"Let's worry about this later," Paike said. "We still have some time today, and I would like to try to move up the rankings a little. Who wants to join me for some sparring and duels?"

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