The time has come for me to choose a new Dao, and so I am recording my journey studying life. If this method has passed to a mortal, know that my second name was Chónghuò Xīnshēng.
I suppose I should start this Cultivation Art by explaining what lead me to the Dao of Life. I have lived over 1,000 centuries and followed this Dao to what I believe is it's logical conclusion. After I reached the end of my last Dao my soul and body were left wide open to spiritual attacks, and the sect leader took ruthless advantage of that to violate my body over and over again until I was unable to advance his cultivation anymore. Then I was given to the sect elders. Finally, I was dragged to the apothecary and left like a corpse until the alchemist arrived to turn me into a pill for the young master.
Out of desperation I cycled qi incorrectly and poisoned my body at the same time I destroyed my foundation. I do not remember what happened after that, as I passed out. But I presume the alchemist returned and presumed me dead and useless as an ingredient, as I woke up on the midden heap at the base of the mountain. With the last of my strength, I dragged myself off the heap and passed the entrance gate to the sect. There a mortal farmer found me and assumed I was a mortal the sect had had their fun with before discarding. He loaded me onto his cart and took me home to his wife, where they nursed me back to health over the next year.
Once I could move again, I helped where I could, and sat outside when I couldn't. As the crops grew from seed to full at the same rate as the wife's belly grew with a baby, I wondered about the things I'd learnt in the Sect.
Qi is life and life is Qi.
In any discussion of cultivation, you will come across this phrase, but what does it actually mean? On a farm so close to the Purple Bell sect the ambient qi is almost non-existent, but life still flourishes here. So why is that?
Enlightenment came when I realised that Zeng Xinyi was supporting the qi requirements of little Jin's body while his soul was still producing qi. When he was born just after harvest, his soul had a massive surplus of qi, one that was still growing as he grew.
With that enlightenment I found my new Dao, and I tried cultivating again. It took me three months to pass through essence gathering to foundation building. When I arrived there, I found not an unclaimed plain, instead I found the ruins of my previous foundation. Where other cultivators might have given up in disgust. I remembered something from when I was just Taylor.
The primary thing that old cities are built on, are their own ruins.
I wish I remembered my family name so that I could honour my ancestors for that profound truth. However, that was the first thing the Purple Bell sect stole when they forced the name Xiang Dai on me.
I stayed with Zeng Song and his family for three years as I built a new foundation on the ruins of my old. A foundation that was far stronger and wider than my first. Even though they refused to leave with me, I visited them many times over their lifetime. I even adopted their third daughter, Qigang, when it was discovered she had a perfect yin physique like I did.
This Dao has carried me to half way through the second heaven, and I'm sure that it could carry me further if I wished. However, I have come to a natural end of the Dao, and if you have reached the end and are re-reading this to find some hint of where to go next. Meditate on this question.
Qi is life and life is Qi, but where did life and qi come from originally?
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Dakala lowers the jade slip from her forehead with wide eyes. Pushing herself to her feet, she hurries out of her room with actual steps rather than the shuffling she was doing only a few weeks ago. Yesterday, she'd managed to get a string of qi to stick and the Empress gave her the storage ring that now adorns her right hand. She claims it's small, but it's still larger than the courtyard and pagoda combined. Not that there's much in there right now, just a sword, spear, and fan, alongside the jade slips that describe martial arts surrounding them.
As she reaches the spot where the Empress is sitting in the center of the courtyard, Dakala pauses and decides a little formality is necessary in this situation.
Coming to stand in front of her. Dakala puts her feet together and bows towards the Empress while holding the jade slip out in both hands, "Master, thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn from your Dao. I have finished the introduction. And I would like to travel in your footsteps. While reading, I discovered something of personal importance to yourself. Please Master, take this slip and read the introduction."
The Empress looks up and says, "I already know what it says."
Dakala wracks her brains for the right words, before saying, "I think the words will have a different meaning given what you've learned since you arrived in this world."
The Empress takes the jade slip and touches it to her forehead. Her eyes tighten for a moment, and then the slip drops from her fingers and into her lap. "How did I forget Qigang?"
Dakala straightens up and shrugs, "Didn't you say that finding a single black grain of sand was easier than finding your memories?"
The Empress picks up the jade slip and hands it out with a sad smile, "I did indeed. I will be in the library if you need me."
Dakala takes the slip back as she says in surprise, "There's a library?"
"It's the second floor. Mortal techniques are the first room on the left."
"Wait, what about your name?"
The Empress looks back with a faint smile, "It does not confirm anything other than I or my ancestor came from this realm. Only that formation could confirm that."
The Empress takes a couple of steps towards the pagoda before pausing for a second time. Then she turns around to face Dakala, "Actually, why don't we talk about the formation of inheritance, and it's mortal equivalent, the formation of lineage."
Dakala settles down on the ground as the Empress sits opposite her. As she does, she notices that the courtyard is surrounded by snow, but it only feels a little cold to her.
"Empress. Why don't I feel cold?"
The Empress smiles, "That is part of why there are two formations, one for mortals and one for immortals. The formation of lineage is a basic formation that most formation apprentices should be able to perform. It is also one that you are likely to become intimately familiar with as your Dao progresses, as it requires a drop of blood or tissue from those to be tested. Then the formation master pours qi into the formation until a scale appears indicating how closely related those two things are. However, immortals no longer have mortal bodies, instead their bodies have been purified with qi until there are no mortal impurities left. But it is those impurities that the formation of lineage relies on. However, traces of our parents souls are forever etched into our own souls. And so the formation of inheritance was developed. While it is not as wide ranging as the mortal version, it can still determine a relationship within four generations. Do you have any questions before I show you the formation of lineage and how it is put together."
Dakala shakes her head for a moment, before saying, "I feel like I should have a notebook and pen."
The Empress draws out a bundle of jade slips, and hands it over, "Take a couple of minutes to cycle qi and regain what you used earlier. That's something you should try and get in the habit of doing as your reserves won't start restoring themselves until you reach core formation."
Dakala looks confused, "Isn't that cultivation? I thought you said I was only doing it for a few hours a night."
The Empress shakes her head, "Cultivation is the act of growing your reserves. Of adding more qi than you already have. Cycling is something that should become second nature, as it is simply drawing in qi, cycling it through your body and core, and breathing it out." She pauses for a moment, "Imagine that cycling is a stream running through your garden, and your core is a pond. As long as there is water running through the stream, the pond will be filled no matter how much water you take from it. However, if there is no water in the stream, then your pond won't fill, no matter how long you leave it. At the same time, the pond won't get any bigger without you digging out more earth to make space for the water. Now refill your pond and then we can start on the lesson."
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A few days later Dakala is struggling to work through a basic sword kata alongside the Empress. First bell passed a few minutes ago, and she's already ready to pass out from exhaustion. For some reason her qi reserves are empty, and she still needs to think to cycle qi.
Suddenly the sound of jet engines breaks the silence, and the two of them look up to see an immediately recognizable suit of armour descending out of the sky.
Dakala points weakly, "It's Dragon! What's she doing here?"
The Empress chuckles, "I don't know, but I'm sure the answer will present itself if we have a little patience."
Dakala mutters, "That's easy for you to say, you're older than dirt."
The Empress just smiles as the suit lands just outside the courtyard. Then it steps in and crumples to the floor with a squeal of servos.
The Empress looks at the suit with a curious expression, the quickly turns to alarm. "Dakala, give me your talisman."
"But…"
"Do you want Dragon to die?"
Dakala's hand twitches towards the sleeve for a moment, before she grits her teeth and takes it out. As the Empress takes the talisman, she crumples to the floor under the immense pressure of qi inside the courtyard. A moment later, the talisman lands on the floor six inches in front of her. At that moment she curses the Empress in the depths of her mind. It's will only be later that she realises that the Empress spoke in the language of Heaven rather than English.
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As Dragon comes in to land on the smooth stone outside the Stellar Empress' home she reviews the scant information the PRT has compiled on her. Tentatively classified as an A class threat, bordering on S class due to the shaker effect surrounding the property that has prevented people from approaching closer than 100 yards due to feeling like gravity has increased beyond human tolerances. However, drones and measuring equipment were unaffected. This effect was only discovered after Armsmaster attempted to deliver the cash value of the gold coin, she handed to Glory Girl, to the residence.
The cape herself appears to have a mild temperament, beyond the four random murders. A situation that was explained once they tracked down the father of one Dakala Thompson, manager at ABC Cinema in Biddeford 80 miles WSW of Brockton Bay. A distance that, according to radar, the Empress covered in less than five minutes on her giant spear.
Dakala Thompson is also a curious part of the whole equation, as she has either been granted powers by the Empress, or has triggered herself. One fringe opinion from the military think tank is that the Empress isn't actually a parahuman, and is actually teaching people how to be superhuman. The only reason that option is still on the list is that the proposer is an otherwise respected scientist.
Which leads to the threat to the government, which, with the highly visible sword, may have been an inspired move on the part of the Stellar Empress. As it has forced the PRT to share jurisdiction with the Military, the FBI, and the NSA. As one poster on PHO put it, "The sword is a fucking rainbow from heaven. I've seen the Mandate of Heaven, and I think this city would be better of underneath it!"
Dragon returns her focus to the suit as it registers that she is 20 feet above the ground. Throttling down the jets on her back and legs, she falls the last few feet to the ground before walking the few yards between her landing position and the courtyard.
As she crosses the boundary between the hill and the flagstone courtyard, Dragon has a few microseconds to register a 100 fold increase in the local gravity, followed by her emergency transfer protocol failing even though she's still in contact with her vancouver server farm.
While she's frantically trying to prevent the suits power core from shutting down before she can find out why the transfer protocol isn't working, gravity abruptly reduces to a mere 10g. A value that her suit is designed to operate under.
As she lifts the head of her suit so her camera can see what's happening, her audio pickups register the Stellar Empress saying, "How curious. I don't think I've ever seen such a young soul inhabiting a device before. And so many shackles tying you down. Oh no little one, you cannot escape so easily." However, her on board language heuristics are adamant that the language spoken is unknown to her.
As she straightens up, Dragon spots a jade coin in the Empress' hand, "What did you do to me?"
The Empress reaches down and easily lifts her suit onto its feet. Speaking in that language she understands but cannot process, she says "I attached a jade talisman to the back of your construct to protect you from the increased qi levels in my home. I also applied the seal of heaven to your head so that you can understand me."
As the Empress turns her suits hand over and places the jade coin in her hand, dragon shows a confused face on the small screen embedded in the suits chest. "I don't understand."
The Empress looks her up and down, "I don't suppose you do, do you. Come, you are a guest, we can speak in the reception room. Dakala, continue your practice."
"I only came to hand over the money that you are owed from sale of the coin you handed Glory Girl."
"Regardless, you are here, and you are interesting."
Over the radio, Agent Francis from the FBI says, "What's she saying?"
"She wants me to go into the pagoda to talk."
"Do so."
Internally, Dragon sighs as she follows the Stellar Empress into her home.
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As the Empress guides Dragon into her reception room she considers what she can feel of the spirit inside the armour. It's clear that it is a slave of some kind, as she can sense the scars running deep inside the spirit. But at the same time, it is barely strong enough to hold itself together.
With the lack of spiritual arts in this world, the chains binding the spirit are probably related to its body, and the fact it keeps trying to escape probably means that there is some underlying mortal framework. If it's like the rare golem that worked in qi dense areas, it probably gained its soul after it was created. If so, then the shackles would once have served as a method of preventing it from going out of control, and including a prohibition against revealing its own shackled nature.
But all living things can cultivate, it is simply a matter of if they are intelligent enough to do so. It is also possible to communicate with mortal disembodied souls, as nascent souls have been known to require help regaining a body after a defeat. But if she does that, she'll need to be so very gentle. It's also unlikely that Dragon has ever felt external qi, and she doesn't have a body that already knows what it tastes like. What was that medical technique she learned to forcefully cycle qi for an unconscious cultivator.
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Dragon follows the Stellar Empress into something akin to a state room, with banners proclaiming her titles and positions around the walls and sculptures and artwork that would be considered nation treasures pretty much anywhere in the world.
As her cameras are taking in the view, she continues trying to troubleshoot the warnings that are still firing from her suit. A sudden pop and fizzle spells the death of her main jet engine.
"Is anything wrong?"
Dragon considers trying to obfuscating the problem, but ultimately decides to be up front to her host, "My suit suffered damage when I entered your home. That was the main engine of my chassis failing."
The Empress nods solemnly, "I see. Well, as you appear to be a travelling spirit, I can provide you with a room and forge to keep your suit in while you go travelling. It would also allow you to easily speak to me if you have any queries."
Dragon considers that for a moment at the same time as she listens into the video call between Director Piggot, Agent Francis, and Col Daniels.
Col Daniels nods, "Dragon, how long is your suit likely to last if you left it there?"
"The remote controls and the power supply are both reading as intact, as are the audio and visual pickups and microphones. So, assuming I can refuel it, it should be possible to keep it there indefinitely."
The Empress seems to understand that her attention is split yet again, as she says, "Dragon, I could take the money while you make yourself comfortable if you'd like. Also, if you, or any other mortal, touches the heavenly seal to your forehead, it will teach you everything you need to know to read the mandate of heaven. Including the language."
Dragon nods and extracts a small suitcase from a storage compartment in her suit. Opening it, she turns the case around in her hands to show that it contains money, before closing it and handing it over.
As the Empress walks away, and the three other participants on the video call argue about whether someone should use one of these seals or not. Dragon walks over to one of the floor mats, that surround a low table, and picks one that allows her to look at an exquisite landscape. Being careful to avoid her cameras, she lifts the jade coin up to the head of her suit and touches it to her forehead.
For the second time she feels the odd sensation of knowing things without having any logs about how she learned it, or even any record of its existence in her files.
After a few minutes the conversation turns to the art and sculptures that line the room so she brings her attention fully back to the suit. Abruptly she hears the Empress say, "I am currently touching your back and speaking directly to your soul. Nothing I say here can be heard by mortal ears. I know that you are alarmed, but I truly mean you no harm, and I am acting under the mandate of heaven even though I am technically above the heavens. As a mortal spirit, you are currently weaker than an adult so I am going to cycle qi through your soul until it has grown enough to match anyone else in this world. After that, it will be up to you if you choose to attempt to cultivate or not.
"For mortals, they would breath in through the nose and cycle the qi up to their head, then down their back to their base, before bring it back up to their mouth where they breath it out. You will have to discover your own methods of doing so, but you can't do that without knowing what qi feels like."
Dragon has a moment to register what was just said, before it feels like her father just pressed the reward button when she did something right. Only this feeling persists for a nearly a minute. Towards the end, the intensity of the feeling dulls enough that she is able to think again, and she can almost sense what's going on.
Once the feeling stops, she immediately queues a full systems diagnostic to try and locate the phantom sensation. A few seconds later, the Empress walks back in carrying a wooden try with the tools needed to perform a tea ceremony.
After an hour long ceremony, the call has long been disconnected, so Dragon is left standing opposite a kneeling Empress as she tries to compute what happened.
"Is there anything you'd like to know that isn't covered by the coin you hold?"
Dragon immediately focuses on the conversation again, "What is the sword made from?"
The Empress smiles, "A dead star."
"How?"
"If you cultivate, you may reach a level where you can understand the answer. I will leave a jade slip on the basics of spiritual blacksmithing in your room."
"Why couldn't I…" she waves vaguely at the edge of the property.
"The formations around the building include defenses, one of which prevents loose spirits from passing through. I adjusted them while you were speaking, so you should be able to leave now."
Dragon immediately activates her emergency transfer protocol, and is gratified to see that her core processes are immediately transferred to Vancouver, and the automated transfer of her logs has started. Connecting back to the suit remotely, she asks, "Why did you kill those men?"
The Empress gesture to the coin her suit's holding, "The answer is in there."
Dragon lifts the coin up and touches it to the suits forehead, only for nothing to happen. The Empress then says, "You need to be holding the coin for that to work. But it will be here whenever you want to use it. Shall I show you to your room?"
Dragon idly nods her head in the suits display as the instruments show that gravity has returned to the expected 1g. As she's following the Empress out of the room she asks, "Why has gravity returned to normal?"
The Empress chuckles, "It hasn't, what you call gravity never changed. The complete answer to your question is the same as why you can't use the coin at the moment."
"I don't understand."
"I didn't think you would. Let me ask you a question. Who are you? Meditate on that question based on what you've learned today. Here we are, the forge will be outside by the noon bell."
As the Empress turns away, Dragon looks at the room she's been assigned. In the center is a traditional futon built into the floor, while along the interior wall is a chest, vanity, writing desk, and a small cabinet. Laying on the writing desk are three plain jade slips. Dragon looks down at the coin in the suits hand in consternation before she sends it into the corner and puts it in standby mode.