Qi Like Tar

"Is he looking at you?" Paike heard Yixin ask.

Paike nodded. On the surface, this was a perfect chance; he could fight the number-one-ranked disciple and clearly improve his standing in the sect. There was something nagging at him that made him feel as if it was a bad idea.

First off, neither he nor Li Feng were at their peak. While that wasn't actually important, as a cultivator needed to be able to fight at any given moment. Maybe he just felt enough respect for the boy that it felt right that their first real fight should be special.

On top of the Li Feng was still Ruby. Pushing the boundaries, but still in that first realm.

"Why aren't you going, brother?" Liming asked, after he hadn't moved for a couple of seconds. "This is just the chance you need. You said you sparred before, right?"

"Wait, can you beat him?" Guan Li sounded surprised but did not fully believe.

"Of course he can!" Surprisingly, the one who came to his defense wasn't his sister but Yixin. She blushed as they all turned to look at her. "I mean, he's a Topaz, it's a full realm advantage, right?"

Paike shrugged and answered Guan Li, "I don't know. Maybe. I think I'm a bit fresher, and last time we were pretty even, and I've advanced since then."

A realm difference was nothing to scoff at, but in the early stages of cultivation, the gap was less. Paike had tangled with his share of Topaz's as a Ruby. He would be shocked if Li Feng couldn't beat some, if not most, of the Early Topazs.

"So why hesitate?" Guan Li asked.

Paike sighed. It was silly; it wasn't some climactic fight. This was really just training, and maybe the sect elders would take notice.

Instead of walking down, Paike made up for his hesitation by launching himself from his seat on the surrounding hill. He landed lightly in front of Li Feng and gave a respectful bow.

"If you were not aware, most of those who have fought me have had their rankings lowered rather than me moving up." Paike changed what he had been about to say, adding the second half of the sentence because he realized it might come across as bragging. He honestly did not want to harm Li Feng's standing.

The boy shrugged. "If the elders are so blind."

Paike was sure that Li Feng hadn't read his mind earlier, but maybe it was obvious enough. It did seem more likely that his inability to really move up the rankings was due to the uncontrolled battle trance rather than some personal grudge.

"If you insist," Paike responded, stepping back. Li Feng also prepared himself, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

The audience was like ghosts. Paike stirred his qi. He moved it into position for his quickest technique. While it might have been his quickest, that didn't mean it was fast. That was just the nature of his qi.

Only his preparedness allowed him to be ready in time. Li Feng was the first to activate his art.

Last time they had clashed, it had been only with martial prowess. Paike hadn't used any qi, and he had been nearly certain that Li Feng hadn't either. Now he was sure.

If Li Feng had used qi in their last spar, Paike was pretty sure that he wouldn't have been able to keep up. At that time, Li Feng had been a stage higher. Li Feng had advanced since then, but then so had Paike.

So he wasn't sure whether he should be surprised or not that his disk of qi formed in time to catch Li Feng's sword, which was flashing toward his neck.

What did shock him was hearing the shield crack.

He had seen that shield take hits from Topaz-level blows when he was in Ruby. Of course, now that he was in Topaz, it was stronger. Not as much of a jump in power as his raw power. He would need to recarve the art before that would be the case. But it still should have done better.

The shield cracked, then shattered, the qi dispersing into the surroundings. Still, it did its job, halting the sword's momentum and allowing Paike to bend out of the way. It might have looked graceful; however, it felt anything but.

The rest of the exchange was like lightning. Li Feng attempted a hilt strike, catching him off guard with his atypical attack.

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Paike caught it in the palm of his hand, more by luck than by skill. He twisted his hands, forcing Li Feng to perform a no-hands cartwheel to keep hold of his sword, but then Paike lost his own grip on something he didn't have time to categorize as he tried to kick during the whole maneuver.

His foot landed on Li Feng's leg. However, the boy had still been in the air. So while it connected, it didn't strike with any force. It just pushed the limb out of position for the landing.

This was when Li Feng used qi for the second time. Paike's senses were not honed enough to tell exactly what had happened, but the boy landed one leg and set his other foot down as if he were stepping out of a carriage.

They stepped back.

"You are better with qi," Paike commented.

Li Feng gave a slight smile and inclined his head.

The crowd was no longer quiet. They weren't exactly cheering either. Paike did give himself time to get distracted. He moved forward with a testing strike, baiting a sword motion from Li Feng.

Paike grabbed the blade, a small shield covering his palm. He ate a kick to the side for his troubles, even as he threw Li Feng, unable to force the blade out of his hands.

Then he flashed forward with Unstoppable in his Goals. This time, he was ready when Li Feng landed, already moving before the boy was set again.

That wasn't enough. Li Feng defended masterfully, and Paike took a cut to his arm. The tiles in his subdermal layer prevented it from being more than a light cut, but it still bled.

He looked down in shock. This wasn't supposed to be even close. He had gotten so much stronger since they last fought, but Li Feng's mastery of the blade was astonishing. Beyond that, though, was why Li Feng was considered talented.

His qi responded as if it were thought. Techniques flashed out in support of the sword so fast that Paike would have said they were overlapping if he didn't know that was impossible until Emerald.

"Again, when you had every chance to do otherwise, you are fighting unarmed." Li Feng commented. Paike remembered the conversation they had last time; it had been in the back of his mind for the last few days.

"I've been thinking about what you said. One thing you were right about, I was spreading myself too thin."

"Yet you still focus on so many things." Li Feng responded.

They clashed several more times. Li Feng was proving his mastery of the blade and qi each time, even when there was no clear victor.

Paike had only been able to use a few of the techniques; it just required too much anticipation against someone like Li Feng. His shields weren't holding up as well as he'd hoped, and the first technique from his other art was useless here.

"And still I find myself reaching for something I don't have," Paike said, letting a little of his frustration out. He was really feeling the limitations of his arts. They were a work in progress, but it was still frustrating.

Li Feng narrowed his eyes as he studied Paike's stance. "A narrow focus isn't a singular one. Imagine if I only knew one way to swing a sword."

Nodding, Paike prepared himself. Even as Li Feng charged in, Paike said: "What swing does more than cut?"

He locked himself in space to avoid being shoved backward by a kick, then capitalized on it to land a blow to Li Feng's chest, sending the younger boy stumbling backward.

Paike was on the brink of charging forward to press his advantage in the first exchange, where he had clearly come out ahead.

However, before he got more than a step, his qi still moving into place, Li Feng held out his free hand. The open palm facing Paike.

Paike paused. Li Feng gracefully sank into a cross-legged seat, his eyes closed and sword laid across his knees.

"It can't be," a shocked expression came from someone in the crowd.

A pulse of qi gushed from Li Feng.

Paike frowned as he watched it wash over the crowd. He could guess what was going on, but at the same time, it was so different from his own advancement.

Most of those watching were only Ruby, so they couldn't see the qi, but some of the more aware might have been able to sense it. So the reaction was more limited than if everyone could see.

The second pulse was stronger. Paike couldn't help but wonder where all this qi was coming from. During the physical cultivation class, he thought Li Feng had run himself dry. However, the amount of qi radiating off him was more than most cultivators could store in their entire core.

Again, the next pulse was stronger still.

Had Li Feng taken some pill or elixir to provide this power? Paike had never heard of anything that could provide this much power. The only thing that made sense was just some oddity of advancement. He had heard that each cultivator's path was unique, but he hadn't really understood how much.

The rules seemed to bend when crossing into the next realm of cultivation. It would explain how his own advancement was possible. Still, as far as he knew, qi couldn't be created by humans. It needed to be gathered, so where it was, it was all coming from.

The first pulse returned in a wave, crashing back into Li Feng, and at the same time, a fourth pulse echoed out. Stronger still.

That was when Paike realized what the difference was. He had made a mistake. The wave was not more powerful because of the amount of qi. When he looked closer, it became more obvious that the inherent quality of the qi was improving with each cycle.

The pulses and returning waves increased in frequency and magnitude, each time the qi was slightly closer to Topaz quality.

After a length of time that felt as if it dragged on forever, but realistically was just more than a handful of breaths, the qi reached Topaz. And Li Feng opened his eyes.

It was as if the world unfroze. Paike moved forward as the crowd erupted into a flurry of hushed whispers. He reached Li Feng's side just in time. Reaching out, he was able to steady the new Topaz cultivator and then offer him a hand.

Paike hauled him to his feet. It took a second for him to make sure that the boy was steady before he took a step back.

"Let me be the first to say Congratulations."

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