Chapter 56 — Qi/Stage Mismatch

Inside the farmhouse, Lin Che sat on the bed whilst Elder Mao sat in one of the chairs beside him. He poured two cups of leaf water from a ceramic pitcher on the table, and set one within Lin Che’s reach.

They sat like this for a while, mainly because Elder Mao was waiting for Lin Che to take a sip so that he could take one of his own, but clearly Lin Che was not that thirsty.

“I take it you’ve never had a breakthrough before,” said Elder Mao.

“I’m young,” said Lin Che.

“That wasn’t an accusation about your age. I’m just curious about your cultivation history, if you’re fine with sharing that.” Elder Mao caved and took a sip of his tea. “A Heavenly Tribulation is the natural consequence of a cultivator’s Qi volume exceeding the threshold for their current stage. It’s the Heaven’s method of… well that depends on your philosophy I suppose.” He paused. “You didn’t defend against the first few strikes, so I gather you had no prior experience of a tribulation. I’m only here to provide you with advice.”

“I managed well enough on my own,” replied Lin Che. “I’m still alive, just about.”

“You were on fire.”

“That was after the strikes.”

“The fire was also a consequence of the tribulation.”

Lin Che finally drank his tea, downing half the cup in one go.

“What puzzles me is this: the stage at which you broke through was Qi Gathering, in which a cultivator first learns to externalise Qi in a manner more malleable than simple techniques. It is, for most practitioners, an early milestone.” He looked at Lin Che steadily. “The technique you used to survive the final bolt was externalised Qi — I watched you develop the technique in real time, and your externalisation was more structured and controlled. As if you’ve been doing this for a long while.”

Lin Che said nothing.

“So,” said Elder Mao, “either you have been at a stage substantially beyond Qi gathering for some time and have been concealing it from us for whatever reason, or there’s something else at play.” Elder Mao placed two fingers on Lin Che’s wrist and closed his eyes. “Your meridians are still consolidating,” he said. “I can’t get a proper read of your constitution until they’ve properly developed again.”

“Checking my constitution without permission is awfully rude,” said Lin Che.

“And you’re in a position to stop me?”

Lin Che stayed silent.

“So long as you are not a threat to the Shen Clan, my lips are sealed. I owe your family that much of a favour, at least,” he said.

“You know members of the Lin Clan?” asked Lin Che, leaning up closer despite the tenderness in his burned torso.

Elder Mao made a sound that was not quite a sigh and stood from the chair. He moved to the window and watched the extraction team exit from the holy land portal, with Jianfeng taking a headcount as they filed out.

“Knew,” he said. “The Lin Cl—”

The door to the farmhouse opened.

***

Shen Yue had clearly been informed of a rough outline of what had just transpired, as she didn’t flinch upon seeing a shirtless and burned Lin Che lying in bed. She looked at Elder Mao and gave him a nod in silent communication.

Elder Mao returned the nod and left the room.

“Hold on, Elder Mao!” called Lin Che as he disappeared into the corridor.

“We’ll discuss this later,” came a voice already nearer to the staircase downwards.

Shen Yue coughed once to regain Lin Che’s attention.

“The honeymoon has been confirmed,” she said. “It’ll be in two days, so as soon as you recover. I’ve ordered some ointments from Hu Baolin for you which should be on their way soon.”

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“Thank you,” said Lin Che. “But we’re not married yet.”

“That’s up to you,” said Shen Yue. She set her bag on the table, reached into it, and produced a document. She set it in front of Lin Che. “There’s no innate Qi extraction this time, I promise.”

Shen Yue held out a pen for Lin Che, who promptly signed.

“I’ll come to collect you in two days’ time, so just focus on recovering in the meantime,” she said, turning to the door. “We’ve booked a wonderful hotel and some restaurants in Dalian by pulling some strings at the last minute. I’ll deal with the itinerary for us all, so all you need to do is relax and have fun.”

***

Once he had finished the rest of his tea, Lin Che reached for his phone.

His phone had been in his pocket, and therefore in the fire. The screen had a crack running from the upper right corner down to the lower left, but, when he pressed the power button, it still turned on.

Lin Che breathed out a sigh of relief as he navigated his messages and opened the thread with Xu Fang.

Heading to Dalian in two days, he wrote.