Cultivation Fever

Taking in other sources of qi had obvious effects on my soul. From the cultivation novels I read, I knew that it was crucial to maintain balance between different types of qi.

I realised that I didn"t know what types of qi there were in this world, so I decided to go to the library to find some information.

Xiao Ru payed me no attention as I walked in, and I got to searching. It only took a few minutes to realise that I wasn"t going to find what I wanted.

None of the sections mentioned anything to do with cultivation. Instead, this library seemed dedicated to the other subjects that Dong had mentioned.

Master had said not to disturb him… but teaching me about these things was definitely his responsibility. If I wanted to learn more, I needed to be a bit pushy.

I felt a smattering of strange looks as I walked to the vault, knocking on the door loudly.

"Master?"

No reply. I waited for a minute or so before knocking again.

"Master, are you there?"

After another minute of silence, I realised this wasn"t going to work.

"Master, I made progress on your technique!"

After a pregnant pause, I heard clunks from inside, and the door cracked open an inch.

"Ya what?"

Master"s voice crept out from inside, and I forced myself into the gap, bursting into the vault.

"Oi! Get out!"

Xiaogui appeared from around the pillar, a crackling yellow glow in his eyes,

"Sir, is there in an intruder… oh. Nevermind."

The glow faded and he turned to walk away.

"Oi! Xiaogui! There is an intruder! Get "im out!"

"Sir… that is your disciple…"

"And I don"t want "im in "ere!"

"Would you like me to change my identification parameters for student Oscar Schwarz?"

"Yeah! Change it to cheeky little brat!"

"Sir that is not…"

I stopped their argument with a few words,

"Master, I need to tell you about my cultivation."

"Hm," he scowled at me, "go on then, what"s so important ya had to come "ere."

"Um, can we sit down?"

Master clucked his tongue and frantically scratched at his beard.

"Fine."

We sat down in master"s room behind the vault, and I described what had happened. When I finished, master looked at me expectantly.

"And? What else ya got?"

"Um… that"s it."

"Ya had to burst in here just to tell me that!? Ya could "ave just waited a week!"

"But master, I need to know more about cultivating."

"Look brat," master seemed to be holding back an intense anger, "I hate those other t.w.a.t teachers as much as anyone. But not everything I said in that room was a lie."

"I"m not gonna help ya like that. I don"t have the time. So, get out and figure it out yerself!"

I thought quickly, and interjected.

"Can I at least read the books in here?"

"No! Yer gonna disturb me."

"What if I stay really quiet? I can just ask Xiaogui for help!"

"Xiaogui doesn"t have time fer ya…"

"Sir, I am well equipped with knowledge of every book in this vault."

Master spun around and shouted at Xiaogui,

"No interrupting!"

I turned to see Xiaogui standing there, his face motionless. The air was thick with tension, as master realised what he had done.

"Xiaogui… I"m sorry… I didn"t mean to…"

"That"s quite alright Sir." Xiaogui delivered his line in a chilly monotone, "I will seal off the vault, so you are not interrupted at all. By anyone."

"Xiaogui! That"s not…"

Xiaogui beckoned for me to come out of the room, and I followed.

"Happy researching, Sir."

"Xiaogui!"

I saw master surge out of his seat, but my vision was cut off by a thick wall that slid down, dividing the rooms. In the ensuing silence, I became aware of the server column"s low hum.

Feeling a little guilty for instigating this, I spoke up.

"Xiaogui, I"m sorry…"

"It is not your fault. If anything, I thank you for the chance to give Sir a taste of his own medicine."

"Oh…"

Silence hung heavy in the room. Feeling a little uncomfortable, I spoke up again.

"Xiaogui, can I ask you a question."

"Certainly."

"Someone told me that you"re a server construct but… you seem so real."

"Hm. I am not physically present if that is what you mean."

"Really?"

"Yes," he reached out to touch me, but his arm pa.s.sed through mine, "I am a manifestation of the server."

"So, can you… feel?"

"That is quite a difficult question to answer."

"I"m sorry I shouldn"t have…" I felt a pang of embarra.s.sment.

"No, that is quite alright. I find it to be an interesting subject. Just now, I "felt" what you might call "anger". But I do not know if that feeling is the same as what you feel."

I paused and thought about it for a second. Xiaogui was what I imagined an advanced AI from earth to be like. It was interesting to me that he expressed something like emotion. Where did it come from?

"Xiaogui, do you know why you feel things?"

"I might ask the same of you. Do you know why you feel?"

Truthfully, I knew that feelings were neurophysiological phenomena stimulated by contextual a.s.sociations. But it was fascinating that Xiaogui exhibited human-like compulsive behaviour.

"Yeah I don"t really know."

"I would love to discuss this with you more some time. Sir is somewhat… out of touch with such things."

"I can see that," I laughed, "I think you might be more human than Master."

Xiaogui gave me a warm smile,

"I take that as a great compliment. Now, you said that you wanted to learn more about cultivating?"

"Yeah! But Xiaogui, are you sure you have the time?"

"No need to worry about that. I am somewhat… over equipped to manage this school."

He pointed to one of the thousands of glowing blocks that made up the server column,

"This module alone is running the school," he turned his head and gave me a little grin, "one might say that I am "bored"."

A glowing feeling spread through me. I felt as though Xiaogui was as excited to talk about cultivation as I was.

We chatted for a long time after that. He had an answer for every question and was more than happy to indulge me. Among many things, we talked about the types of qi.

He told me that that there were eight types of qi: unique, earth, fire, water, thunder, poison, light and dark. Each type of qi had its own colour and was a.s.sociated with a different aspect of nature.

My qi was pure unique type, commonly produced by living creatures. However, most people were born with affinities for other types of qi.

We also chatted a great deal about the nature of qi. Many people throughout history had suspected that qi had a will of its own.

It was, in fact, the demonic cultivators that had made the most progress in understanding the will of qi. Unfortunately, this had created a stigma against similar research.

Thankfully, Xiaogui had no such prejudice and was well read. It was of particular importance to him, as he suspected that much of his personality stemmed from the qi running the servers.

Before I knew it, hours had pa.s.sed. Xiaogui perked up mid-conversation, alerted by something.

"It appears that Mr Dong is looking for you. It is best that you head back."

"Oh…"

My disappointment was tangible, and Xiaogui noticed it in an instant.

"Do not worry, you can come here anytime. This may be somewhat irresponsible of me but…" he paused for a second, "I have given you free access to the vault."

"Really? Won"t master be mad?"

Xiaogui laughed and pointed to the thick wall dividing master"s room and the vault,

"If Sir is displeased, he can enjoy some peace and quiet in his room."

Smiling, I stood up from where I was seated, and made my way to the door.

"Thank you for everything Xiaogui!"

"It was my pleasure. Now go quickly before I uncage the beast."

As I left the vault, I heard a hiss, followed by master"s indignant mumbling.

I had learnt more in these past few hours than the last few years of my life. Equipped with Xiaogui"s knowledge, I knew exactly where to go to start absorbing some qi.