Cultivation Fever

"So," Crow started, "I heard you got jumped at school."

"Yeah, I wasn"t careful enough."

Crow nodded in agreement, "Hm. It"s good you recognise that. From what I heard you didn"t even consider them a threat."

"I do now."

"Good. So, let"s get to it. Your father tells me that you want to learn how to use a whip. I don"t mind showing you a few things since he asked so nicely."

"Thanks Crow," Father chimed in, "I really appreciate it."

"It"s no trouble at all. Well, then, show me what you"ve got."

I connected with my qi, then commanded it to flow out of my right palm. A golden tentacle gushed out, coiling down onto the floor.

Last night, I had struggled to find a way to hold it. Grabbing the end didn"t work, so I had to keep the whip anch.o.r.ed to my soul.

"That"ll do," Crow affirmed, "now tell me, can you recover that qi?"

"Yeah, I can pull it back in."

"Good, good. Do that as fast as you can."

From experience, I knew that the more intense my emotions, the stronger my qi"s reaction. I summoned all the sadness I felt from listening to mother and channelled it into my qi.

The whip shot back into my palm with an elastic snap, the force blowing back my hand.

"Hm, excellent," Crow nodded in approval, "and how long can you make it? Try shooting it at me."

Crow stood about 30 feet away from me. I closed my eyes and funnelled all my emotional intensity, a.s.suming a side on stance. I tucked my palm into my neck and imagine that I was holding a shot put.

Pressure built in my soul as my qi rampaged; bubbling and struggling against its cage. In one explosive burst, I unleashed it, corkscrewed my body, and thrust my palm towards Crow.

A blast of qi surged through my arm with ferocious power, spouting from my palm in a pressurized jet. It spiralled in a helix towards Crow, showing no signs of stopping.

Time seemed to slow down as I started to panic, worrying that the stream would hit Crow. It was five feet from him, and he was doing nothing! A single foot, and he was motionless!

Then Crow flicked his hand so fast, it was just a blur. A translucent purple disk appeared by his side, slicing into my qi, and slamming it to the ground with a crack.

The disk disappeared, and I realised that the disc was just an afterimage of his glowing chain, which now rested on the floor.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn"t control my qi and it latched onto the chain, slithering up to Crow"s wrist. Crow took a quick glance to his side, before stepping forward and whirling his chain again.

He pivoted around his leg and the chain reversed direction, scattering wriggling tendrils of my golden qi across the courtyard.

"That"s some dangerous qi." He remarked, before whipping the chain around his neck and body, where it coiled at rest.

The purple glow faded, and the chain returned to dull iron. I retracted what was left of my qi, but I could seem to control the last five feet.

"I"ve seen enough," he walked over, drawing a book from his storage ring and handing it to me, "there are a few forms in this book that would be best for you."

The book was called "Four Styles, Eight Steps Whip Technique."

"Since your goal is simply to touch your opponent," he continued, "this technique is best. In time, you can learn the Mountain Expel Whip Technique, and the Body Protection Whip Technique.

"That book should teach you the forms well enough, but I"ll demonstrate them for you. Since you can rapidly expand and contract your whip, some forms will be modified.

"There are six basic techniques to learn before you can study the forms. The first is Spinning. Carlo, if you could join me as a sparring partner?"

Father strode over, dropping his robes to his waist and conjuring twin golden swords.

"Just like old times, eh?" Father mused, smiling as he a.s.sumed a combat stance; one sword held high over the head, pointing towards Crow, the other low, pointing to the ocean.

"I will slow down these techniques so you can see what I"m doing."

Crow"s chain turned purple, and he unfurled half of it into one hand, holding the other end with his free hand. He began to spin the chain in a wheel, parallel to his body, by winding his wrist in circles.

"The three most important physical attributes of whip techniques are: wrist flexibility, arm strength and grip strength. For you, wrist flexibility is the most important.

"Spinning like this should be your base state as a beginner. From here, you can transition into any form," he let out some of the chain, spinning it in a slower circle, "and you should become comfortable with all lengths of your whip.

"The next technique is Twisting," with a slight shift in wrist movement, the chain wrapped around his forearm, then change its spinning direction, "it is important to become comfortable with this.

"When you get used to changing direction, you can implement step turns." Crow spun around, catching the chain around his arm halfway through, before whirling the chain in the other direction.

"Getting used to this is important so that you can respond to attacks from all directions. Moving onto Ground Ward Whipping, this is your basic defensive technique."

Crow turned to face Father, then lunged at him. He lashed the chain against the floor, causing Father to step to the side, before switching direction and lashing again, forcing Father to retreat.

After the second lash, Crow returned to Spinning, "Ground Ward Whipping allows you to change spin direction, and is a useful defensive technique to create distance.

"Now, onto your first attack. It is normally called Throwing, but for you, I would call it Shooting." Crow bunched up the chain in his hand, "You will expand and retract your qi instead of doing this."

Crow switched his leading foot, before flicking out the chain like a spear towards Father. Father parried it with his lower sword, and Crow withdrew the chain with a snap of his wrist, returning it to his palm.

"Once you are comfortable with Shooting, you can work on Entwining."

Once again, Crow lunged with the chain, but this time flicked his arm, sending out a rippling wave. This time, when Father tried to parry, the chain wrapped around his sword.

"After Entwining comes s.n.a.t.c.hing," Crow brought his backfoot forward, then spun his body, ripping the sword from Father"s hand.

As soon as Father lost his sword, his expression changed. In an instant, his muscles doubled in size and he shot forwards, twisting in a whirlwind of slashes.

Crow stepped back, withdrawing a second chain from his robes, slamming it into father. Their weapons clashed with sparks of light, stopping Father"s advance.

Crow"s chain had wrapped around Father"s sword, and Crow tried to pull it free, but Father held strong. Unphased, Crow turned away from Father and crouched, pulling the chain over his shoulder.

Father tried to react by rushing Crow, but he wasn"t fast enough. Crow launched himself off the floor, somersaulting imperceptibly fast, and wrenching Father"s sword from his hand.

Crow"s two chains, now with swords attached, forming purple and gold bladed wheels around his body as he spun. Landing on one leg, he twisted and lunged towards father, slicing both chains in a cross.

Father dashed to the centre of the cross, hunkered down, and raised both arms. The chains wrapped around his arms, and Father and Crow yanked on them simultaneously.

It was a stalemate, the chains held taught between the two of them. Crow cut through the tension with a few words, "That"s enough, Carlo."

They both relaxed, and the chains fell to the floor. Father stepped back, his body returning to normal size. Scratching his head, he complained, "How are you still so d.a.m.n good?"

"You weren"t even trying," Crow said with a grin.

"And neither were you." Father replied with a beaming smile.

"Let"s get back to the task at hand then," Crow a.s.serted with a clap of his hands, "now that you"ve seen a little spar, what do you think, Oscar?"

For a second, I just stood and stared in awe. What would happen if these two got serious? I shook my head and came back to my senses. This was a time to learn.

"That was… amazing. But I don"t think I can remember all of that."

"There"s no need," Crow laughed, his mood visibly lightened by the spar, "this is just for you to see what the techniques should look like. The book will teach you how to do them well enough.

"Now, should we get to the forms?"