Threads 137 Preparations 2

Ling Qi had not been idle on other tasks while working on the garden. Each morning, she would either attend sparring with Wang Chao and his group or perform some private cultivation, further refining her new combat arts.

Starless Night’s Reflection continued to come easy to her, and she soon ironed out inefficiencies in the techniques, and prepared to begin working toward the art’s capstone technique. She still had some ways to go, but she was confident that she would soon have the art mastered.

Beast King’s Savage Dirge, on the other hand, was a more daunting art. There was much more to it, more techniques, more little twists to master. She refined its first two techniques further and began to work on its next technique, the Wolf God’s Cunning. There was no spectacular growth, just a simple polishing and deepened understanding of the art’s fundamentals.

In the evenings, she checked in with Hanyi. It was hard to talk to her because Hanyi didn’t want to talk. She was being willful again, refusing to engage with Ling Qi when Ling Qi had tried to broach the subject of Hanyi’s battle performance. Instead, Hanyi focusing an almost manic energy on preparing for her performance. Sixiang thought the winter spirit needed space to work out frustrations, so Ling Qi had backed off. The last thing Hanyi needed was Ling Qi’s smothering. So she had elected to finish some other tasks.

Ling Qi shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the archive. Across from her sat Bian Ya and Ruan Shen, who were being incredibly inappropriate.

Ling Qi averted her eyes as the older girl sighed in content, letting her head rest on Ruan Shen’s shoulder, mussing her carefully braided hair. Their hands were intertwined atop the arm of the archive chair.

Ling Qi coughed awkwardly into her hand. “Congratulations on your betrothal.”

Ruan Shen smiled at her, a teasing twinkle in his eye. “It just seemed like the time to stop dragging my feet.”

“Honestly, it took you long enough,” Bian Ya said primly. “I had cleared this courtship with my parents ages ago.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Ruan Shen held up his hands. “I’ll be more diligent from now on.”

“I will hold you to that,” Bian Ya said, not bothering to lift her head or open her eyes.

Was she really fine being like this in public?

<You’re such an old lady, Ling Qi,> Sixiang complained.

Ling Qi’s eyebrows twitched. How was it that the gutter-girl had a stronger sense of propriety than the nobles?

“So, what was it you wished to ask, Junior Sister?” Bian Ya asked.

“I want to modify an art, and it’s my first modification. Have you heard of the Harmony of the Dancing Wind art?”

“Mm. That is a funny little art,” Bian Ya mused, cracking an eye open. “A bit awkward in execution. It’s a good choice for your first modification.”

“I thought so too,” Ling Qi said, fixing her gaze a few centimeters above their heads. “Would you be willing to provide some advice?”

“Well, you did help keep this wonderful pillow intact,” Bian Ya said lightly. “What is it you wish to change?”

“I want to remove the active element,” Ling Qi said, after considering for a moment. “The effects I find most useful are the extension of my perceptions. I want to make that two-way. The rest of the art is something I’m willing to discard; I have better arts for those purposes.”

Harmony of the Dancing Wind had been a useful stopgap when she had lacked social arts entirely, but now, between Playful Muse’s Rapport and Moonless Saboteur’s Smile, she had better options.

Bian Ya raised her head from Ruan Shen’s shoulder. “I understand why you wished to speak with me on this matter.”

“Senior Sister is the best expert I know,” Ling Qi said humbly.

Bian Ya snorted at the flattery. “Perhaps in a year or two when you’ve expanded your circle of acquaintances, that might even be flattering.”

“Give her a break. Junior Sister Ling has been trying pretty hard of late,” Ruan Shen teased.

Ling Qi just crossed her arms and huffed at them. At least they had stopped… cuddling.

“It’s not too difficult a task,” Bian Ya admitted. “I would normally suggest removing the musical element to achieve what you’re looking for, but your focus makes that a poor choice.”

“You still practicing that art you were looking at before?” Ruan Shen asked, leaning back in his chair.

Ling Qi nodded. “Yes, it’s proved pretty useful.”

“You can probably use Winter’s Hearth Resounding as a model then to convert the Harmony of the Dancing Wind into a secondary background effect,” Ruan Shen suggested.

Bian Ya shot him an unamused look. “I believe I was the one being asked for advice?”

“Sorry,” Ruan Shen apologized with a playful smirk.

“In any case, I would suggest leaning into your command of the wind,” Bian Ya said. “It is an element of transmission, the medium through which light and sound alike must travel. For this art, I would suggest focusing on sound. Attempting to add visual elements would simply snarl the qi flows.”

Ling Qi nodded slowly. “I see. I would probably need to shift the art’s heart meridians to head meridians.”

“Not necessarily,” Bian Ya disagreed. Ling Qi felt the wind in the room shift, and then, fluttering lightness and energy. When she heard Bian Ya’s voice again, it whispered directly in her ear without the girl’s lips moving. “It can be of use to provide some bolstering effect to those you are in communication with.”

“Of course, that’ll cost you in other areas,” Ruan Shen said.

“The Harmony of the Dancing Wind is unsuited to long range communication.” Bian Ya gave Ruan Shen a quelling look. “I do not believe it can be adjusted past the battlefield coordination level. As communications are not your specialty, for your purposes, that level should be enough.”

Fair enough. If she went all in on the communications aspect, Ling Qi probably could squeeze more range out of the technique, but she wasn’t sure how useful that would be given her usual battlefield role. “Alright, thank you for your advice, Senior Sister. Do you think you could assist when I go to make the adjustments?”

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“I can certainly observe,” Bian Ya agreed. “And I can warn you if it seems that you are in danger of breaking the art.”

“That is all I ask,” Ling Qi replied. She knew the process was too personalized for anything more.

***

The alteration of the Harmony of the Dancing Wind art took place over several days, spread out in six hour sessions during which Ling Qi had Bian Ya’s assistance.

Altering an art was a meticulous task. It was not something she had thought of while cultivating, but an art was an extremely delicate and complex framework of qi, and each and every twist and slight variation in the flows could have cascading effects on the rest. This was a problem considering that modification was done while the art was equipped, and something going wrong could mean blowing out some of her meridians. However, Ling Qi had her advantages.

“You need to lower the frequency of the emanation in the fourth ear channel,” Bian Ya said clinically. She touched a finger to the pale green vein of pulsing light. “Here, I think. Just a small adjustment of two pulses per cycle.”