Mu

Book I

Chapter 3: Attempting qi-realm formation

Two months after Aran started training with Jacob and Ada, the elder children, Tomas, Armand, and Erin travelled back to the one of two Royal Academies, where nobles’ children in the country of Iridis almost all attended. These were the best places to cultivate their children, as the royal family, even with an expensive tuition paid for by the nobles, spared no resources to hire best lecturers and instructors to teach the students martial arts, etiquette, politics, and magic. This was also where the future nobles and rulers met, promoting healthy competition and forming lasting friendships. Therefore, to all the nobles in Iridis, there was no cost too expensive to send their children to the academy.

Aran had spent the rest of the year advancing his studies, both scholarly and martially, and continued to awe all his teachers and instructors. Aran’s martial arts proficiency also spurred a spark in his daily sparring partner, Owen, as he saw Aran as a friendly rival. As such, much to everyone’s satisfaction, Owen’s close combat abilities also developed rapidly.

In the evenings after dinner, Aran had continued his cultivation. This was a secret he kept to himself, for multiple reasons. Firstly, it was not something that was familiar to this world and he could not chalk it off as being born with an innate physical aptitude or intellectual talent. It was not something that he himself completely understood, and would not be able to find a way to explain it. Secondly, through his readings and probing questions, he realized the similarities between qi and the magic essence in Parthenon, something the people here called mana. It was forbidden for children under the age of seven to practice magic and absorb mana. Lastly, it was of no benefit to Aran to reveal this information, as he believed that no one could guide him and a hidden trump card was something he’d like to have in his hands.

When he first started cultivating qi, it felt like he was pulling in thin wisps of smoke that dissipated seconds after it entered his body. The proficiency of absorbing the qi increased at a rapid pace with practice. It gradually accumulated and thickened. He could feel it flowing through the veins in his body when he was actively cultivating. When he stopped however, this feeling was replaced same ephemeral feeling of the qi fizzling out like smoke of a blown candle.

Now, the qi has become so dense, he could feel it lingering long after he had stopped cultivating. For about an hour after he stopped cultivation, his veins pulsed with qi with every heartbeat, ready to erupt like a volcano. Aran sighed inwardly. If the qi had not tempered his body, the qi might even burst out. He did not want to imagine the sight of that.

‘According to the tome, this feeling is called yang saturation. When I can constantly feel the circulation of qi in my body, at the state of complete yang saturation, I should be able to attempt to form my qi-realm.’

It was unfortunate that he did not have the tome with him. He had read it countless times after being able to sense qi, believing its words with skeptical optimism. And so, he remembered most of the details of the first stage, as he was actively attempting it. As for the remainder, he remembered the concepts, but not the finer details of how to achieve them. Aran put that thought away, ‘No use thinking about the other stages. I remember all about the forming stage, and who knows how long before I am able to form my qi-realm? It was a major bottleneck and countless mortals spent years cultivating but never realizing it.’

Every time a cultivator’s qi-realm forming attempt was unsuccessful, the energy dissipates and they lose ten percent of their accumulated qi, having to cultivate that over again.

There was a long road of cultivation ahead.

***

A month shy of turning three, Aran had achieved complete yang saturation. It was a cool spring evening, with a soft breeze bidding the sun farewell as it escapes down the horizon, casting its last light as a vivid orange. Aran drank in this majestic view and rolled down the bamboo blinds of his window. He sat on his bed in a lotus position, body trembling with anticipation, and recounted the steps of qi-realm forming.

Aran must first clear his mind and enter a meditative state of nothingness. An excited thought or external distraction was all it needed for the process to fail. Next, Aran had to manipulate the qi in his body to spin and form a sphere where his middle dantian would form. When a whirlpool like sphere has formed , he had to start absorbing qi and directing it through a point just below his navel, where his lower dantian will be located. When this is completed, the whirlpool should start absorbing qi at a furious rate and the qi absorbed through the lower point will circulate through fiercely through the natural path of his veins. It destroys as it heals, reforging the body along the way. This was a painful process, and without the necessary willpower, he would fail. A failure in this step may lead to physical harm, and in serious cases will cripple if not kill him.

As the body gets used to this ferocious energy, the whirlpool’s consumption will increase and eventually collapse on itself, forcing its way to the soul, creating a transient bridge. At this point, Aran will have some control over his soul and will be able to expand it to accommodate this qi. The size depends on the strength of the soul and the quantity of qi he was able to absorb. When the qi settles down, it will form a gentle swirling sphere in the center of his soul, effectively forming a qi-realm. As the mass of energy in the qi-realm swirls, it draws in tiny strands of the soul, which contains yin energy, while thin wisps of it gravitates outwards into the surrounding soul, strengthening the soul while harmonizing the qi with it.

The qi in from this qi-realm will flow continuously between the soul and the body while the bridge between them slowly solidifies over time. The complete stabilization of this connection signifies the true completion of the forming stage.

Aran took a deep breath, controlled his emotions and began. For Aran, who was trained to perfectly control his emotions, the first step was easy. Within seconds, he effortlessly settled into a meditative state. He had experimented over the past year and had reached an acceptable degree of proficiency at controlling the qi within his body. He slowly gathered qi at his middle dantian. After an hour, a fist-sized amount of qi had coalesced at Aran’s chest and started spinning slowly.

As time passed, Aran slowly uncovered the complexities of manipulating qi. His control over qi had reached another level and extended to qi half a meter around him. With his more polished control, he was able to increase the speed of the sphere and it transformed into a violent whirlpool. Aran gritted his teeth and started absorbing qi from his surroundings, forcing them to go through the point below his navel. Qi was rapidly sucked in and raged through his veins. Aran’s faced twitched. Even though he was mentally prepared, the pain was overwhelming; more brutal and raw than the torture he underwent during his assassin’s training. It felt like his veins were being scorched by lava and every so often, a warm feeling flowed through his body, as if healing him. The respite was but for a second, and the contrast heightened his sense of pain and worsened his agony. And yet, he endured.

The merciless cycle repeated itself. An hour. Two hours. The pain gradually subsided. Unfortunately, beyond Aran’s expectations, the whirlpool had turned into a maelstrom and the qi streams feeding into it turned berserk. Aran was slowly losing control of it! It spun faster and faster until Aran’s struggling concentration lapsed for a split second.

‘No!’

Realizing that there was no way to salvage the spinning mass of raw energy, Aran forcibly redirected newly absorb qi to protect his internal organs and veins. Layer upon layer of qi formed around his organs, preparing to shield them against the impending backlash.

The maelstrom shuddered, collapsed, and exploded outwards like a nova. The protective qi slowly depleted as the energy gushed out, following the path of least resistance. Aran’s body absorbed some of the impact, but a strong shockwave still rippled outwards, causing the walls to rumble and furniture thrown around. The door to his room swung outwards and the blinds crumbled.

***

Gerand Steele lightly pushed the papers in front of him away. It had been a long day. Two land disputes, three ferocious beast sightings, and a bandit raid. After hours of meticulous planning, he had to mobilize all the forces at hand and had to personally lead a few guards to subjugate an Ironhide Rhinoceros.

Of his three sons, two were still away dealing with the flood of problems. The eldest, Niall Steele, an accomplished swordsman and commander, had led a third of his army to subdue two other beasts on the eastern edge of Lapilla prefecture. Luca Steele, the equally accomplished middle son, had led the other third in pursuit of the bandits at the opposite end of the prefecture.

He sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned back into his chair when he felt the room tremble.

“What?!” Gerand jumped up. He suddenly felt a strong mana fluctuation within the estate in the direction of Luca’s compound. He grabbed his blade and dashed out the door.

***

“Welcome home, dear,” Rana Steele greeted her husband. She was dressed in a simple dark blue dress that contrasted her creamy white skin and her blonde curly hair. “Are the matters resolved with the villagers?”

Ed Steele returned a tired smile and nodded. He walked towards the table in the room and poured himself a glass of water. Just as he brought the glass up to his lips, he felt a strong tremor rock the room. He reflexively dropped the glass and reached for his dagger. Shock followed by seriousness filled his eyes. The shattering glass reflected the mood of the room.

“Mana fluctuation? No, aberration? In the estate, and at this time?” asked Rana, terrified.

“Yes, a strong one too. From Luca’s. Go to Owen. I will investigate,” said Ed after calming his nerves. Husband and wife left the room hastily, headed to different directions but with the same grim look on their faces.

***

Jura Steele had just put her two year old daughter to sleep. She lightly parted her daughter’s hair and planted a kiss on her forehead.

‘Looks like Niall won’t make it back tonight,’ she thought as she turned off the light from the mana lamp.

As she readied to go to bed, the room shook. Being a mage, she recognized the feeling. Alarmed, her motherly instincts kicked in as she quickly ran over to her daughter. She chanted a spell and a protective mana shield enveloped mother and daughter.

The silence of the night was marred by the toddler’s cries.

***

Celeste Steele furrowed her eyebrows while thoughtlessly tapping the pen in her left hand on the table. She was in the library and the mana lamp in the center of the table casted a bright light onto the open book, pages yellowed with age, in front of her. Papers were strewn around the book; all containing hastily jotted notes, with words often crossed off and replaced by another scribble, as if an army of ants trying to cram themselves onto the piece of paper except where the were figures. These figures consist of circles with strange runes and criss-crossing lines, forming well-proportioned squares and polygons.

Her face drew closer to the book and the warm light caressed her face, revealing the troubled look of an intellectual. Even so, she was no less beautiful than her usual self. Her rich wavy black hair wafted around her delicate face, highlighting her large green eyes, that sparkled like emeralds in the light. She had olive-colored skin, a common characteristic of Planarisians.

“This doesn’t make sense,” she murmured, staring at the page before her. She was a mage of her own right, and a distinguished academic in the arcane theory of wind and water magic. She was an independent researcher associated with the Magician’s Society, enjoying all of the benefits and having to give little back. She had been burning the midnight oil, having hit a bottleneck in her research trying to unravel the mysteries of merging magic of these two elements.

The library rumbled and the many books on the shelves around her shifted slightly.

“Aran!”

Mana fluctuated in the room and Celeste disappeared as a gust of wind, blowing the papers off the table.

***

Aran coughed out blood and his body fell backwards onto the bed. His skin was a pale white, the color of marble without the warmth.