Chapter 7 — Video Tutorial

It was over in under a minute. The thing died the same way it had before.

Lin Che watched from behind her, and tried to track the engagement with his sensitivity rather than his eyes. Opposing currents of Qi interrupted one another, competing for dominance whenever blows were exchanged. The fight was still too fast to discern the precise movements and methodologies of Qi channelling, but he saw the general gist of the fight.

Pressure and response.

Shen Yue stood in the empty street afterwards, her breathing slightly elevated. Compared with last time, she seemed a bit more haggard after the fight, and her coat was even slightly torn at the shoulder. She turned and looked at him with the same expression as last time.

“Are you hurt?” she asked.

“No,” he said, voice shaking.

She assessed his situation: confused and somewhat panicked, but not injured, before turning away once again. “We should go home.”

***

They talked in the kitchen.

Lin Che had heard the explanation before — that there are sects and cultivators hidden in the world and that she was one of them. This time, however, he was much less passive, and now asked her deeper questions about hidden cultivators.

“How many are there in the city?”

“It’s difficult to put a number to it. There aren’t many that would pose a threat to us, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

“Can I become a cultivator?”

“It depends on the circumstances and condition of your body. I can ask my family about it, but most likely yes.”

“Are you hiding anything else from me?”

She was silent.

“It’s okay to have secrets. I just don’t want any surprises in case I get attacked again,” he clarified.

“Nothing that should affect you,” she replied.

She looked at him for a moment before she got up and went to the back room. Lin Che promised himself that one day he’d be the one to end a conversation with her.

***

The following morning, Shen Yue took him to Hu Baolin’s pharmacy.

The bell rang and Hu Baolin looked up from his ledger and greeted the two upon entry. “Miss Shen,” he said. Then, with a different registry: “And guest.”

“My husband,” said Shen Yue. “He needs a breath-opening blend for basic sensitivity training.”

Hu Baolin looked at Lin Che. “First time?”

“Yes,” said Lin Che.

***

He hadn’t seen her create the brew in many loops, and watched the sequence paying close attention to Shen Yue’s movements. Watching her do it was different: much different to the kitchen-scientist approach he had on his attempts. Hers felt more… natural. She moved more clumsily than he did, but adjusted the process using Qi — was it some sort of alchemy technique?

The bad-smelling herb went in last. She strained it, reduced it, and set the ceramic cup in front of him.

“All of it,” she said. “Whilst it’s still warm.”

He drank it.

The human palette can adapt to things very easily. For example, Lin Che absolutely hated coffee, and now would drink a cup or two a day. Some days he’d drink more coffee than water, despite his tongue’s initial bitter reaction to the bean and its lingering aftertaste painting itself against the inner walls of his mouth and nostrils. Even cheap, low-quality coffee tasted, at least somewhat, pleasant to him.

Unfortunately, the process of adapting requires introduction to something new. And in this life, it was his first time drinking this brew. So it was entirely foreign and just as unpleasant as the first time, the second time, and so on and so forth.

He set the cup down and breathed out. She told him to close his eyes and to focus on an image whilst controlling his breathing.

He thought about the jellyfish — blue-white light with a slow drift. A boneless, unhurried movement of things without mind but with form.

The current came up immediately.

It always did with the first swig.

To a body that hadn’t developed tolerance, but a soul that had withdrawals, it was like providing stimulants: everything was clear and he felt like his eyes weren’t even closed at all.

Then, it passed in an instant.

He opened his eyes.

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The kitchen was as unremarkable as ever, but everything had a slightly blue hue to it for maybe half as second before returning back to normal.

“It’s like I can see the air around me,” he said. “Sort of like wisps of smoke dissipating all over.”

Shen Yue looked at him and placed her cup of tea on the counter. “What you’re describing usually takes months of practice to access consistently.”

She thought for a moment before opening her mouth again. “Close your eyes.”

He closed them.

“Try to feel that sensation once more and tell me what you see.”

Something moved through the air in front of his face — some sort of pressure change in that gap between his eyes. There was a repeated slow rise and fall.

“A wave,” he said. “A sine wave going left to right.”

There was no audible response from her, but he felt a shift in Qi.