Cultivation Fever

Most of my clothes haven"t been cleaned since I moved in. What has been cleaned is trapped in a constant cycle of re-use, never getting a chance to rest.

My housemates wonder where all the plates have gone. If they dared to brave the stench of my room, they"d find them. Eventually.

Once white sheets have turned a putrid yellow. The colour of the grime that encrusts my skin.

I stopped using an ashtray a long time ago. Cigarettes crumple underfoot on the only path I regularly travel. My bed to my desk. My desk to my bed.

Am I going to do something about it? Probably not. No-one expects me to do anything, so why should I?

The days all seem to merge into one. I wake up, I make a coffee, I smoke, then wait until the hunger pains force me to eat. I don"t shower, I don"t do any university work, I don"t talk to people, I just read.

Cultivation stories are my only respite. They bring me to better places, to worlds of fantasy. Worlds where one man can change history. But in this world, everything seems meaningless.

What is the point of living out your days just to be a fleeting memory? Even if I made something great that people remembered, I wouldn"t be there to see it. Why can"t we become great ourselves?

Why can"t we cultivate?

These days of monotony have brought me to this. No, I won"t sort out my life. I will write a cultivation web novel. I don"t care if no-one reads it. This is just for me. I will make my own world and carve my own path in it.

"A futile exercise."

"Yeah, it"s stupid isn"t it. Wait who… "

I spun in my chair and fell off, scattering dishes.

"Who the f.u.c.k are you!? Get out of my house!"

The old man in front of me chuckled and stepped back. His robes swished as he raised his hands in mock defence.

"Calm down child. I am not here to hurt you."

I got to my feet and brandished a plate in one hand.

"Alright if you don"t get the f.u.c.k out of here right now, I"m bashing your head in old man."

He sighed and the humour slipped from his face.

"That is enough, child."

Then he was gone. A hand appeared on my shoulder, and I felt a trickle of breath pa.s.s my ear before the low hum of his command.

"Sit."

That word filled the room before he crumpled my body under his hand. He spun me around and stepped back. I made a move to jump up, but the chair shot backwards, pulling me with it, and I was pinned against the door.

With panicked breath I strained my muscles but could not move an inch. I looked at my wizened a.s.sailant with fury in my eyes. He had long white hair streaked with grey, and his sweeping robes shimmered more than the dim light should allow.

"The f.u.c.k was that?" I spat out, "Who…"

Before I could continue, the old man raised a ringed finger to his lips.

"Silent."

He only whispered it, but it howled like a scream in my ears and my breath was stolen.

"I thought you would be excited," his low, calm tone sounded ominous, "I even dressed the part."

Dressed the part? He was dressed like a cultivator, and these powers… My heart leapt a beat of excitement.

"As I said I am not here to hurt you. My name is Sirius and I have a proposition to make."

He waved his hand, and a mirage of afterimages seemed to follow it. The pressure on my body lifted and I slumped down.

Sirius had unbelievable power. He could be what I had dreamed of. And even if he wasn"t, I still had to play his game.

"A proposition?"

"Yes. I have been looking at your world for some time now. I noticed that many individuals have begun to desire cultivation. I find this interesting and wish to test a hypothesis."

"What do you want to test?"

Sirius let out a small breath of a laugh.

"Hmph. You study matters of the mind do you not? Or…" he looked around the dishevelled room, "you should be studying such matters."

I gave him a snide look.

"You should know that I cannot bias you toward my opinion. For you shall be a partic.i.p.ant."

"Do I get to consent?"

He leaned forwards slightly, and his gaze pierced through me.

"You mean to tell me that you wish to turn down the opportunity to live again, in a world of cultivation?"

I was taken aback. What Sirius was capable of was beyond this world, and I desired cultivation more than anything. For this opportunity, I would throw all caution to the wind.

"Yeah! I mean, um, no I won"t turn that down. Please, anything I…" my words lagged as my thoughts raced forward in excitement.

"Of course, you are concerned about your presence in this world."

A wave of guilt washed over me. I hadn"t thought about that. My friends and family. I had been breaking away from them for years, but surely someone would miss me?

I calmed down slightly and paused to reflect, but Sirius interrupted.

"For my experiment, I require your life force. Well, your mind may be necessary too."

"Life force? Like, qi? I have that?"

"Of course, if you wish to call it that," he laughed.

He walked over and placed his palm on my forehead.

"I will guide you through the Mind Integration technique. This will allow you to transfer your mind and… qi… to another body."

I felt warmth spreading through my forehead, before the world stretched out in front of me and I was enveloped by darkness. I was standing in a s.p.a.ce which seemed to have no start and no end.

I looked down at my hands and was startled. They glowed with a golden aura, but there was no surface to reflect it. Tendrils flickered from the aura, as if reaching for something.

Sirius appeared in front of me, his golden aura brilliant and beautifully smooth. It encased him like a mandorla.

"Excellent, I was right about your innate qi."

He walked forward and placed his hand on my chest.

"I have isolated you in a section of my soul s.p.a.ce. Now, I will guide you to your soul…"

"Wait!" I interrupted, "So if I do your thing, what"s left behind? What happens to the me of this world?"

Sirius paused and removed his hand from my chest.

"Yes. Of course. I do not wish for you to hold any worries for your previous existence. It could... interfere with the results."

He placed his hand on my forehead, and a strange feeling washed over me. Like a bug crawling inside my head, picking apart my brain.

Sirius withdrew his hand and turned his palm upwards. There rested a brain shaped, incredibly complex network made of golden strands of light.

"This is a duplicate of your mind," he picked a golden strand from the network, "and I have removed the memory of our encounter. Your old self will know no better and will carry on your pathetic life."

He grasped the network, twisted his hand and pushed it through a rift in s.p.a.ce.

"But you..." the corners of his mouth twitched upwards, "will be reborn."

Once more, he placed his hand on my chest.

"I will now guide you to your soul."

My eyes snapped shut of their own accord and I was suddenly aware of my body. I felt the beat of my heart and the flow of my blood, the twitches of my muscles and the touch of my skin.

"Here."

Sirius"s voice was m.u.f.fled and quiet compared to the sounds of my body. With a rushing sensation, my focus was drawn to my solar plexus. It was almost as if I could see it, a flickering kernel of warmth that I had never sensed before.

"Dive into it," his voice spread through my body again.

I seemed to know what he meant, and I imagined a whirlpool with this kernel at its centre, sucking every ounce of my being into its depths.

"Well done."

His voice was different this time, like I was submerged in water. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn"t. However, in a strange way I could sense where he was. He seemed like the sun, sending waves of warmth towards me.

"You have brought your mind into your soul. For now, I have provided you with the qi to do this, but it is unstable so we must act fast."

I felt myself rushing through s.p.a.ce, with the occasional disturbing sensation, like pa.s.sing through a sticky membrane.

"We are here. You can surely feel my soul right now, but you must find the other, smaller soul and consume it."

I tried to sense this other soul but a deep, sickening sensation erupted from my core.

"You… fight… sickness."

Sirius"s voice sounded even more distorted and I could barely make out his words. In the ocean of sensations, I felt a pinp.r.i.c.k of a gentle warmth behind me. I rushed towards it and enveloped it. As the warmth soaked into my body, I began to feel more stable.

"Good. You have now grounded yourself in a physical body,"

Sirius"s voice was clearer now, and I relaxed as a comfortable feeling spread through me.

"I am removing the support of my qi. You will now go to your new body," his voice began to fade, "as a parting gift, here is the Soul Becoming World Technique."

A spark of light flashed into me, and the first page of a book appeared in my memories.

"It is important for you to remember your experience today and practice this technique."

His voice was now becoming almost too quiet to hear.

"Good luck, Oscar."