Qi Like Tar

Paike rose from his cross-legged position a little before the sun. He was finally done after several days of near-constant work; he had fixed all the issues that he could in his physical cultivation.

Of course, that wasn't even near all the things that Elder Ji had pointed out for him. There were many things that were just bad habits he would need to work on changing. Or potential dead ends that he needed to avoid. Or things that he couldn't fix until he advanced again.

But all those things weren't something to consider now. For now, his condition was prime. Flexing a little, he felt the power of his body and was satisfied.

After all the improvements, he felt that what he needed active qi reinforcement for had nearly halved. He was more than twice as powerful. It wasn't like moving up a realm, but maybe like having an extra stage that he went through without actually having to deal with the downsides.

Leaving the cultivation chamber, he went to his bedroom. He hadn't spent much time in here, and the place was rather barren.

Besides the bed by the far wall, there was a staff leaning in the corner.

He quickly changed into a fresh set of robes and grabbed the staff. This time he wasn't going to forget it.

It was his turn to cook breakfast, and he prepared a few simple dishes while waiting for his roommate to rise for the day.

The whole time, he left the staff leaning against the table.

Despite Elder Ji's fate being unknown and his offer for Guan Li no longer a real option, his wisdom was still worth listening to. Paike was still encouraging Guan Li to finish reading the books.

It was mostly a selfish motivation, but being able to talk about cultivation theory with Guan Li was fascinating. The boy was quickly outstripping Paike's ability to follow along, but he was also able to help Guan Li connect the ideas back to the current thoughts.

Today he started to discuss some of the things he had noticed about the elder's fight. There were at least three fifth realms that he had the privilege of observing, and soon his notes were spread all over the table, and eventually the floor, and Guan Li interpreted them.

More paper was fetched from the supplies, and soon it was getting tacked up on the walls as Paike recorded the results of the tests Guan Li was quickly devising.

To Paike's shock, he had been right slightly more often than he was wrong with his criticisms. But that paled compared to the hundreds of little things he had noticed. All those little tricks would add up.

And it was with awe as he watched Guan Li incorporate them into his own methods of qi gathering and his arts after seeing them once. Sometimes Paike hadn't even finished explaining his thoughts before Guan Li was circulating the qi in some version of it.

It would take Paike weeks, if not years, to incorporate all of his insights. However, that didn't mean he didn't make changes. Unfortunately, a lot of the ideas just didn't seem to work for him. Or they would take too long to do the complicated features with his slow qi, and if he accelerated it enough to reach the speeds required, it became too unwieldy to make the shapes.

That was how he started explaining his issues with controlling qi to Guan Li. He hadn't wanted to do this, but when he was having trouble confirming some of the findings the younger boy was making, Guan Li asked why.

This derailed their research as Guan Li pushed Paike to test his limits.

Paike didn't really learn anything new, but he did find it cathartic to vent about his problems. When he had to beg off lest he waste too much qi, he had to explain why he couldn't just gather more.

So far he hadn't even told his sister about how he gathered qi, as it was quite worrying.

"Well, if it is too viscous to enter through the pores of the dantian like others do, why don't you make a wider hole?" Guan Li asked after Paike explained the problem. He still hadn't explained his solution yet, as he was struggling to do so without sounding insane. Luckily, if there was anyone who would understand it, it was Guan LI.

"It's strange that you mention that. It's pretty much what I do."

"Then why would you have problems gathering more qi?" Guan Li asked, and Paike realized that he didn't fully understand.

"Well, the last one is closed, and I don't want to recover from making a new one before we head out. That takes time."

"No, I mean a permanent hole. One that you can leave open. Or better yet, one you can open or shut like a door." Guan Li said.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Before Paike could ask how he was supposed to do that, there was a knock on their door.

He got up to answer it, while Guan Li wrote down some more thoughts. They had long ago run out of paper, so he wrote directly on the kitchen table with his brush, the wood taking the ink just fine.

Paike opened the door and found a slightly annoyed Li Feng sanding at their stoop.

"I saw there were still candles burning through your window. We are going to be late if you don't head out now..." Li Feng trailed off as he looked around Paike.

Turning, Paike saw the state of their house from an outsider's perspective. There was chaos; it was as if a demon had come through and wreaked havoc, tearing books apart and scattering their pages everywhere.

There were a few spots where one of them had knocked over inkwells in their excitement, and no one had bothered to clean them up, as they were too captivated by the ideas.

Guan Li crouched on their table, scribbling in the center. He had climbed up on it as Paike had gone to get the door. That spot he was writing on was too far to reach from any of the seats, and Paike guessed that he hadn't wanted to find a new place to write before he lost his current thought.

The whole time there were three flows of qi twisting around him in patterns that were complicated and seemingly useless. They were useless without a lot of context around them that Guan Li wasn't bothering with.

And since Li Feng was Topaz like him, he could see the qi, which only added to his confusion.

Now, outside the fever that had gripped them, Paike realized the two of them looked possessed by some spirit. Crazy as a pair of loons.

Paike activated Unshakable in his Faith in case there was some sort of mental influence, but there was no change. His excitement about being right as much as he had been and how their ideas would make them so much better cultivators still simmered in the background.

He cleared his throat to get Li Feng's attention again. "We, uh, had some inspiration."

It was a week's explanation, but it would have to do. Who would believe that they were revolutionizing cultivation theory as a pair of cultivators that had only been practicing for less than a month?

Well, Guan Li was a natural cultivator, but that wasn't widely known among the disciples. He and his sister hadn't spread it to keep Guan Li safe. The elders certainly had known, but they also didn't want to paint a target on the boy.

Since it was too early for most of the disciples to have reached Topaz, no one had seen how oddly Guan Li handled his qi. They might have sensed something, but they couldn't see it,and the older outer sect disciples didn't have enough interaction to notice.

Li Feng nodded once and became composed again. "I take it you need some more time?"

"Yes," Paike said decisively. "If you could just give us a moment to clean this up, we will be ready to depart momentarily.

"Guan Li!" He called. "Finish that thought."

Instead of going to see what it was lest Paike be pulled into the frenzy again, he started picking up each page.

Thankfully, his mind and body were enhanced. He quickly started categorizing them. Useless ideas that needed to be scrapped went in one pile. He might consolidate them into a failed idea list.

The others were sorted by what type of cultivation they helped with. Then by effectiveness and difficulty. He stacked those and weighted them down with their empty bowls. He would need to organize them later. He made sure to place them in groups near where they had run out of paper and written on the floor.

The last section was the smallest, but it was the things Guan Li had written about Paike's odd cultivation. Guan Li had the habit of comparing qi to physical world phenomena. Even when it didn't line up with the spiritual world perfectly. For example, calling Paike's qi viscous had led him to have Paike test several things.

These notes he placed on the table next to the notes Guan Li wrote there. They weren't done with them yet, but it would have to wait.

As they walked out of the house to join Li Feng, Paike considered how much of what they discovered was truly new. Likely not much. Each of the tricks and optimization patterns was likely something more experienced cultivators had discovered, a few at a time. How many had as much as they did? When they finished what they had, they might already have a lifetime's worth of tricks for even a middle realm cultivator.

How much more powerful would this make them compared to others at the same realm or stage? How long would it take them to integrate all they learned?

And what was even more scary to Paike was that he had no doubt that Guan Li had so many more ideas already. Even he had several more leads they would need to take their thoughts. So this was certainly not the end, but rather the beginning.

They would need to consolidate it and think about who they wanted to share it with. Obviously Liming, but they could likely trade bits and pieces for a ridiculous amount of resources. They might need to hide how they got this stuff, but they wouldn't be short on anything if they played it right.

Why was this so easy? Surely these things were something anyone could have figured out by now. They should have been widely spread; cultivators were secretive, but families shared their ideas. His father revolutionized many things for the Kong family and sent out a book of notes every decade.

That Guan Li was a natural cultivator wasn't enough to explain all of it. But that was only because almost half the ideas were coming from Paik himself. Could it be that he was just good at this?

Paike looked at Li Feng, the one widely considered to be the most talented in their generation of the sect. Only his sister came close. How much would he be able to do if they asked him? Would he be any good at this sort of stuff?

He remembered watching Li Feng's flow of qi while he trained. There was a grace and control there but nothing original. It was all things that Paike knew about. Maybe not widely known tricks or patterns, but things that could be found in the right book. Nothing was unquiet, not one thing.

Was it really that rare to try and understand the qi itself? How few people really innovated? Now that he thought about it, perhaps Paike was the odd one here. It would fit, as he was different in most ways; perhaps this one way was good?

Maybe how Li Feng was obsessed with his sword, Paike would train his qi.

Paike watched Li Feng fondle the hilt of his sword and looked down at his own empty hands and cursed under his breath.

"Keep going on without me, I'll be right back," Paike said as he took off at a run back to their house.

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