Qi Like Tar

A thunderous boom that echoed through the forest shook the ground as a tree, as big around as Paike was tall, crashed to the ground. A half second later, the tree behind it fell as well.

At first, there was an explosion of noise as the forest came to life from its nighttime slumber. Animals, beasts, and spirits alike leaped from their evening slumber and ran in a panic. Clearly, whatever battle was going on was hazardous for their health.

The mass awakening included the two sleeping humans. Though instead of running, they prepared to fight.

Paike rubbed the back of his head, the fresh, growing stubble feeling rough on his hands as it tried to recover from his most recent cultivation breakthrough.

"My apologies," He said, holding his arms out in a calming gesture. "My apologies, I didn't expect that to happen at all. Everything is okay, we are not under attack."

It took a couple of moments, but they soon calmed down.

"What was that?" Yixin asked.

Paike wasn't sure how to describe it without delving too deeply into his troubles with cultivation. How much background did they need to know?

Before he could figure out the right approach, Liming had taken the issue from his hands.

"WHAT?" Guan Li was more than a little taken off guard. Yixin looked mostly confused.

"No, I said you had inspired me to try something new, and this was a third-order result. Not your fault." Paike assured him.

"Oh, good," Guan Li relaxed. "I was worried, I still haven't figured out how to manage long delayed traps, but I didn't think any of my experiments would be all the way out here, or manage to do that much."

This caused Paike and Liming to look at him with a question in their eyes.

"And I wasn't sure how you knew about them..." Guan Li added a little sheepishly, "Anyway!" He changed the subject. "So why did you decide to become an arborist?"

"Huh," Paike said.

"Arborist: a profession for trimming trees," Gual Li explained. "I've been working on expanding my vocabulary."

"I know what that means, but why--" Paike started to ask, but his sister cut him off.

"Logger might be more accurate; there wasn't much trimming, rather removing trees wholesale." She told Guan Li

"Good point. But a logger doesn't sound all fancy like an arborist. What would the--"

"Alright!" Paike cut in. "I think we are getting a little off topic. In short, I was testing a change in my qi with my shield, and it had unpredictable effects."

"Like cutting down a tree?" Yixin said skeptically. She looked a little more composed than a few moments ago. Paike filed away in his mind that she was slow to wake up. He wasn't sure when that information would be useful, but it was good to know your allies.

"Yes."

"Can you do it again?" She asked, more interested.

Paike decided there was no harm in doing so, but he would keep it on a much smaller scale. Reaching into his dantian, he siphoned off a fraction of the spinning qi and directed it through the proper meridian.

The shield began to form in his hand. The trickle of qi was at about the same rate he normally uses to power the technique, but it was thinner yet moving faster.

"That seemed to activate quicker," Guan Li commented, and Paike was surprised he had noticed. The shield had started forming faster than it used to, by quite a margin. That reduction in latency was due to how much time it took for qi to traverse his meridians.

"I can actually grow it faster, but I'm trying not to repeat the issue from earlier." He explained. he grew the shield to about the size of his head, before throttling it as much as he could.

"It's spinning," Yixin commented, a frown of concentration on her face as she used her qi sense to sense what he was doing. At Ruby, she couldn't see what was happening as Paike could, but she did get a feel for the movement.

"It is," Paike confirmed. "I'm keeping a connection open to it. That was what let me reposition them in the past. Once I stopped providing qi, it would become locked into place, and even I couldn't move it. Now though..."

Paike moved his hand so that it was pointing into the forest, well away from any of his friends. "Now if I cut the qi to it--"

He did that, and it shot off into the forest in a straight line. This time it was moving much faster than the massive one, and he didn't have a good idea why."

This time, no trees fell. He also wasn't sure why, but instead of flying flat side first, it went edge in the lead. So it just slammed into a tree, ripping out a hole through it instead of pushing it over.

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The four of them watched as the second tree stopped the disc about halfway through its run, having run out of qi to power the shield.

"It stopped spinning." That was Yixin's first comment as they were all still considering the damage.

"After you let it go," she clarified that she didn't mean when it had vanished. "When you stopped providing it with qi, it stopped spinning before moving forward."

"I still need a lot of practice with this," Paike stated. He wanted to know how to aim it better and control its position in the air as it flew. But if the spinning qi in his dantian made it spin when he made the shield, it did make some sense that, when he disconnected it from his spinning qi, it would do something. It didn't follow any logic of the real world that he knew, but there were some parallels he could see. He had never studied natural philosophy before.

No one was in the mood to go back to sleep anymore. To Paike's surprise, they were all insistent that he test the rest of his arts. He didn't see any reason to deny them.

Unshakable in His Faith felt no different at all when he activated it. But without anything to test it against, he was uncertain how it was performing. He would have to see next time he got a lesson from his brother.

He was a lot more hesitant to test his last few techniques. His mind conjured an image of him spinning like an uncontrollable top. Still, there was no cultivation without risk. He would just have to start small.

Unmovable in His Convictions still locked him in place, and even all three of them shoving him together couldn't move him. There was a change that he would need to explore more. It felt like he could move slightly while the technique was still activated, whereas before, he was just as incapable as the others.

It wasn't like he could take a step, but he found that a motion that seemed circular to him was possible. He could pivot to some degree. He tried to throw a punch, but that felt impossible. However, a hooking strike or a clumsy roundhouse kick was possible. Still, he would need a lot of practice, as his balance and power felt very different from what he was used to.

Unstoppable in His Goals shot him forward, but he could curve the path somewhat. They weren't able to test whether something powerful enough could deflect him, but he would eventually try to find that out on his own.

After he was put through his paces, he insisted they all get some training in before they headed back to get breakfast.

He gave a bit of advice as Liming showed off her growing mastery of "The Reed Steers the River." They sparred, and despite his advantage in speed, strength, and experience, he actually had trouble pinning her down.

Sadly, she ran low on qi quickly and had to meditate to recover it.

Paike also acted as a target for Yixin. After the trial, she seemed to take some of its lessons to heart. Her Starfire Piercing Rain was a powerful attack skill. Not quite without equal in the early realms, but close.

Most would have picked up supporting skills that would help with keeping range or dealing with an enemy when they got close. Yixin had done none of those things. These last weeks, she had only spent her time honing her art and finding new and inventive ways to apply it. Her using the pebbles had apparently sparked some native creativity, and she had several devastating surprises for Paike.

When he managed to get in close, she kicked a shower of dirt at him. His shield was up high, blocking a near-lethal arrow coming for his face, so he didn't even consider the dirt a threat until sharp-tearing sensations scattered across his lower body. His surrender made it impossible to focus, but his skin burning made it impossible ot focus. Anyone else would have been seriously inconvenienced or hurt, even at Topaz.

As Liming tended to the many cuts on Paike, he fended off Yixin's apologies. He assured her that it was a spectacular trap she had laid and an ingenious application of her art. Liming's near-constant glare wasn't helping. She had reacted to Paike's curse, as he was hit much more strongly than he had expected. He didn't really need her healing, but she could be very stubborn.

"Yet you still made it through and caught me," Yixin grumbled when he had convinced her that no lasting harm had been done. The healed cuts did a lot to ease her mind.

"Anyone else would have struggled enough for you to get away; I'm a bit more durable." Paike said, "But you do need to consider what happens when an opponent ignores the attack. I get you want to stay focused, but I think some way to improve your movement would be a good idea."

"I'll consider it." She responded.

Paike couldn't ask more than that. She was more than free to ignore his advice.

After Liming patched everyone up from the minor strains and bruises they had sustained during training, they headed back. The mood was rather upbeat, even though Yixin seemed a bit put out that she couldn't join them for the physical cultivation class. It had been a productive trip. Paike would have to make sure they did it again soon and regularly. He could see the difference they had made from cultivating in a spot, and the extra training wouldn't hurt either.

The girls split off to head to their house when they reached the compound. Leaving Paike and Guan Li to fend for themselves when it comes to food. He still couldn't justify spending their cultivation resources at the restaurants that were beginning to pop up at the market until he received the increased stipend that had been promised with his increase in ranking. For now, it was just covering his expenses in spirit stones when he needed extra qi to cultivate, and he would still need to purchase some pills for when he finally picked out his next art to learn.

As he and Guan Li walked through the compound, they were receiving looks.

At first, put them up to their performance yesterday in the arena. After all, Li Feng's fight and subsequent advancement had been a huge deal. But as they neared their house and people started hurrying away from them, Paike started to look around for an ambush.

Guan Li was just on edge as he was. The air was tense. Almost as tense as when the introduction week was over. That time...

Paike broke into a run.

But they were too late. Apparently, being away from the house at night had been a mistake. There was just a pile of rubble where their cozy home had stood. It wasn't even burned down, but rather torn apart brick by brick.

No one was nearby. Paike looked up at the sky in frustration. It felt like it should be running, but the sky was clear and the morning sun felt peaceful on his face.

Guan Li started to pick through the ruins. Paike wasn't sure what he was looking for, but there wasn't much he cared about that he kept at the house. His money and cultivation resources were with him.

"Who do you think did this?" Guan Li asked as Paike joined him.

"I'm not sure. Have you made any enemies recently?" Paike asked.

"No as many as you."

"I'm sorry,"

"Not your fault. But there are several people I could name as suspects." Guan Li said bitterly.

Paike found where his room had been and started tossing stone blocks off to the side. "I understand if you want to find a separate place to live after this."

Guan Li gave a derisive snort. "I would rather find who did this."

Paike stood up and frowned. "I think I have an idea of who did this."

"Oh?"

"Yes, the only thing I’m missing is my staff."

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