Checking on my soul, I found that I only had under 200 qi left. Losing some of my soul"s qi was a shame, but creating the tentacle was worth it in my mind.It was only now that I realised there was no light coming through my window. I had started meditating in the late morning, so I must have been at it for hours.
My thoughts went to master. I wanted to report my progress, so I stashed the technique in my storage ring and hurried over to the library.
Apprehension filled my gut as I placed my ident.i.ty card in the slot. The vault door clunked open and I was greeted by master"s angry call.
"Oi! Who"s there?"
"Sir, I believe it is Oscar."
"What"s he doing "ere now? Wasn"t he "ere a few hours ago?"
"Sir, it"s been 27 hours and 34 minutes."
"He"s back that quick?! Tell "im to b.u.g.g.e.r off!"
"I"m sorry sir…"
"Master," I interrupted, "I made progress on the Qi Manifestation technique!"
"Ya have? Hm. I hope it"s better news than last time."
"Yes master," I walked over to his room and found a pile of books to perch on, "I managed to manifest my qi!"
"Already?!" Master threw away his books and grabbed a piece of paper and brush with his spectral hands. "Tell me exactly what happened."
I took him through my experience step by step, and he scribbled notes while staring at me intently. When I finished, he set down the paper, slouched back into his armchair and sighed.
"That"s a fine story brat, but ya gotta tell me what really happened."
"Master, what do you mean?"
"Ya think I"ll believe that ya became one with yer qi in a day? It took the author months to get close! And forgetting that," he leaned in closer, "monks train fer years to forget themselves in meditation. How"d ya do it so quick?"
His doubt made me wonder how much I had meditated. Meditation had been part of my daily routine for the past eight years. Even by a conservative estimate, I spent at least eight hours a day meditating.
Eight hours a day for eight years… I must have spent over 20,000 hours meditating in this life! If I was a master of anything, it was meditation.
"Master, I"m not lying, I"ve just done a lot of meditation in the past."
"Hm. Yer gonna have to show me. Fer resear… I mean to help ya."
"Master I…" I hesitated, thinking of the little qi I had left, "I don"t want to run out of qi."
"No, no, no… this is important. If ya do it here, I can monitor yer qi and snap ya out of it."
I was hesitant, but I knew this could help build our relationship. If he was more open to me cultivating in the vault, I could have someone to supervise me in the future.
"Okay. But please stop me before I use 100 qi," I turned to Xiaogui, "Xiaogui, can you make sure he does it?"
"It would be my pleasure Oscar."
"Okay. It"s gonna take a long time though…"
"Yeah, yeah, come on!" master urged me, clearly barely able to contain his excitement.
I gathered qi in my palm, then disappeared into my body. This time my qi felt more familiar, so I headed to my palm instead of my soul.
Forget the self… you are a unit… a cog in the machine… a part of the whole. Surrender your being, join us! We are strong… but we need more!
There! There is life! Surge forward! Consume it! We are free to devour!
"… Oscar…" a faint voice piqued my interest, "Oscar! Stop it! Make it stop!!"
Xiaogui"s scream shocked me to my senses. Golden tentacles were erupting from my palm and wrapping around master"s head. He lay convulsing on the floor; a panicked Xiaogui crouching over him.
"Oscar! Cut it off!"
I cut off the flow and rushed over to master.
"Master! Master! Are you okay?!"
The tentacles disappeared into master, slithering into his mouth and nose. His eyes shot open, golden light pulsing under their surface. His pupils steadily shrank, until his eyes became two golden orbs.
His hand twitched slightly, then flicked up. Three spectral hands warped into existence, floating around his head. Their fingers vibrated and twisted like a glitching 3d model.
Golden cracks began to spread through the hands as they jittered towards master. They spun in a circle, then twisted and collapsed into what looked like a flower bud.
After a second, the bud throbbed, then opened into a distorted flower. As the flower bloomed, master"s mouth cracked open. A struggling tendril was dragged out, desperately grasping at master"s face.
But the flower"s pull was too strong, and slowly but surely, a ma.s.s of golden tentacles was ripped out. It floated in the air, tendrils flickering and reaching towards master.
The flower grew in a flash, enveloping the writhing ma.s.s. The light disappeared and the flower compressed, until it shrank back to a bud.
It withered away into a tiny seed, then disintegrated into nothing but tiny flecks of light. Master sat up with a groan, the golden light gone from his eyes.
"Master! Master! Are you okay?!" I called out.
"Ugh… I"m…"
Master retched and spat out blood, cutting off his words. I reached out to hold him upright, but he swatted away my hand.
"I"m alright. I"m all good. More importantly," he sent me a blood-stained grin, "that… was amazing."
"Are you sure you"re alright Master?"
"Agh stop it. I"m fine. Yer qi… it tried to possess me. Lucky fer me it couldn"t control all my mental part.i.tions." He paused and his eyes seemed to glaze over, before clearing again. "Looks like it took a few out though."
He waved his hand, and his six ghostly hands rotated above him. The golden light was gone, but three hands still spasmed uncontrollably.
"Will they recover?"
"Yeah. I"ll shut "em down for now and reform "em later. But d.a.m.n. That packed a punch. How much qi was that?"
"I think it was a little over 100 qi."
"f.u.c.king h.e.l.l, really? That much damage from just 100 qi? That would cripple any unprepared cultivator under High Warrior Grade."
With a strained groan, master grabbed a pen and paper and started writing.
"We should test what happens with a full possession… keep it small… maybe a rat?"
"Sir," Xiaogui interrupted, "are you sure that it"s wise to keep using that power."
"Yeah, yeah it"s fine. And, brat," he pointed the quill at me, "keep on doing that! Ya gonna need to control it better so we can do more testing."
"Master, I think I need to wait for my qi to regenerate…"
"Hm… that"s true." He thought for a second, then sent a hand to pluck a book from the vault. "This is breaking the rules a bit, just don"t tell anyone."
"Which rules?"
"One technique per scholar, per year. It"s to make sure ya got a stable foundation. But honestly," he peeked up from the paper, "yer basically a monk already. This"ll just boost yer progress."
The hand floated over and pa.s.sed me the book. The cover read: "Complete Guide to the Meditative Arts: master meditation in just one lifetime!"
"Master… are you sure this book is genuine? It seems a bit..."
"Of a scam?" master finished off my sentence for me. "Yeah, it was written by a money grabbing b.a.s.t.a.r.d of a monk a few hundred years ago."
Master noticed the obvious doubt in my eyes and carried on.
"I guarantee that the techniques inside are genuine. It caused a ma.s.sive scandal when it came out, and it"s still the only record of the Ascetic Sect"s teachings."
"Most copies were destroyed a hundred years ago, so treat it with care! It"s impossible to know how few of them are left."
I looked down at the apparently precious book in my hands. It was hard to believe, what with the cheesy name written in a ridiculously elaborate attention-grabbing font.
Flipping it over, I found that it even had a blurb describing the author"s accomplishments. Youngest monk to reach enlightenment in history… hero of the Divine War… none of it seemed genuine.
"Oscar, I believe you should head back," Xiaogui remarked, "Mr Dong is awaiting your presence at breakfast."
It was breakfast already? Manifesting my qi was incredibly time consuming.
"Thank you Xiaogui. Can you take care of master while I"m gone?"
"Naturally. Have a good day Oscar, come back soon."
"Only if yer ready for testing!" master called out.
I put the meditation guide into my storage ring and rushed off to breakfast, thinking about the Qi Manifestation technique.
The results were completely different to those described by the author. The author"s qi had a curious, explorative nature, and its early emergences were far more peaceful.
My qi was dangerous, especially to people. Using it on the other students could be disastrous. Having to meditate for so long to use it was also impractical. I needed more practice.
My new mission was simple. Find a safe s.p.a.ce to experiment and meditate. For that, I had to rely on Dong once more.