Kang Lin’s heart was much lighter than the last ti she’d waited outside the sect leader’s—her master’s—office. And, luckily, she suffered no interruption, either. She knocked, and he directed her to enter. Simple. Easy. Normal.
Light.
Though she tried to suppress it, a grin split her face as she saw the teacup set out for her. She sat and, instead of kowtowing, cupped her hands. “This lowly one has been an idiot, Master. I was so blind that I failed to see Mount Tai.”
Finishing in the top four in her division of the tournant had finally shown her that she belonged in the upper echelon of her generation. Was that partially—or even primarily—due to the advantages she’d received from her Master? Yes, but so what? All top cultivators gained benefits from one thing or another. The end result was what mattered, not how they’d gotten there.
It felt so good to admit her true failings to Master and even better to actually an it. The weight that had pressed on her shoulders the last several months lessened even more. There remained only one more task before it would disappear completely.
He smiled at her. “I don’t like calling my disciples idiots, but I cannot disagree with you in this instance.”
They drank tea in comfortable silence, a welco change from how anxious she’d been the last ti she’d been in his presence. Even better was the fact that he no longer seed irritated with her.
She took him putting down his empty cup as her cue to begin. “I see clearly now what I did wrong and why, Master, but I don’t know how to fix my relationship with the twins. Will you guide ?”
If she thought it would have made a difference in his decision, she would have gotten on her knees and begged him to help her. Now that she was seeing more clearly, her experience told her that such theatrics wouldn’t be welco.
“Your path forward is not an easy one,” he said. “It is possible that what has been ripped asunder cannot be repaired. You must accept that outco if it cos to pass.”
She was well aware that failure was absolutely still an outco. Her friendship with Yang Xiu and relationship with Yang Ru might have been damaged beyond repair by her stupidity. Master could do the impossible with cultivation resources, but even he could not simply change hearts and minds because he wished it so.
“Yes, Master.”
“Your punishnt will be to do your utmost to repair the damage, even if doing so embarrasses you or makes you feel uncomfortable.”
She couldn’t even imagine what she could say or do to make the situation better, but her comfort was the last of her worries. “Yes, Master.”
“Good. Keep your distance from the twins until I summon you. I shall do what I can to help.”
With the last division of the tournant finally having started, Benton felt more than a little pressure to get a particularly pressing outstanding issue resolved before the anticipated ambush occurred. Specifically, he wanted to be proactive in fixing whatever malady was affecting the twins.
He’d honestly gone back and forth in his mind a lot on that issue. For the most part, he was a firm believer in the philosophy that kids—teenagers, anyway—were better off finding their way through life on the their own. His job was to be a safety net that, hopefully, saved them from the worst consequences of their actions while still letting them experience enough repercussions that they learned from their mistakes.
The question that plagued him was whether or not the issue with their qi aspect was a function of teenage angst or if it should be considered a dical problem. After a bunch of thinking and research, he’d finally settled on the latter.
Since the trouble was dical in nature, it was absolutely his job as a pseudo parent to either fix it or to find appropriate professionals who could fix it for them. Thus, he ca up with a plan.
Step One was to resolve the root cause of the problem, which was the relationship between Kang Lin and the twins.
nding a fence was easy. So wood, a few nails, and bing, bang, boom, it would be as good as new. nding hearts was a much more fraught endeavor. Their relationships could not be fixed imdiately, but it was, perhaps, possible that they could be set on a course to resolution.
Hopefully.
That Kang Lin had co to him on her own and was willing to do whatever it took on her end was a good sign. Her willingness made the possibility of assuaging the twins’ feelings, at least, much more likely.
Even if he straightened that quagmire out to everyone’s satisfaction, however, the personality disorder the twins suffered due to whatever the heck was going on with their qi aspects wasn’t likely to revert to normal without additional asures. Which ant that he needed to dive deeper to reverse that damage as well.
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As he’d told Wan Ai and Sun Hua, a technique, a formation, and/or a pill could solve most cultivator problems. For ntal and physical issues, that statent was right on the money. What was affecting the twins, however, was … sothing else. taphysical? He didn’t even have a term for it, so he’d go with that one.
All three solutions would probably help, but more was needed. His research led him to a surprising idea—acupuncture. It was the only procedure he’d found that had the potential of correcting issues involving aspects, though no literature—not even System provided—ntioned the twins’ exact situation. He’d even spent sixteen sect points purchasing four separate levels of Qi Deviation Knowledge, making him probably the planet’s highest authority on the subject.
Which led him to Step Two—creating an Acupuncture technique, distributing it to the Healing Pavilion, and instructing them to use the Ti dilation rooms until at least two mbers attained Mastery.
He could have simply used points to advance himself to Mastery of the skill, but he didn’t for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he’d had a purpose in mind when he ford a Healing Pavilion. Those sect mbers learning acupuncture would expand their skill and usefulness.
Mainly, though, the second reason drove his decision. He honestly wasn’t comfortable performing actual dical procedures himself. Following a recipe to create a pill was one thing. Flooding a person with healing energy was another. Both were fine. But being the one to actually stick needles into soone? That wasn’t his forte.
Since he didn’t want the mbers of the Healing Pavilion using the Ti dilation rooms too aggressively, he gave them a week before he’d force the twins into treatnt. That gave him seven days to complete Step One and the other parts of his plan.
Step Three involved utilizing his skills as a Master Alchemist. No pills he knew of would directly restore the twins’ previous reactions to their qi aspects, but that was why he was getting the proper professionals up to speed on acupuncture. He just needed to use alchemy to help the process along, not to do all the work.
Two potentially useful pills ca to mind. The first would send the patient into a ditative state that would make their mind, body, and spirit more susceptible to their treatnt. The second worked as a sort of taphysical restorative. Its exact effects weren’t well docunted or even understood, but it was said to ease the process of resetting a cultivator to a prior stage.
For example, it was often prescribed to those in the higher realms when they dispelled their cultivation back to the beginning of their current major realm. Such acts could cause qi deviations, and those who took such a restorative were anecdotally observed to suffer from that malady less often.
Benton held out no great hope that the pill would work miracles, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt anything. Besides, he adhered to the old adage of “any port in a storm,” and the twins rushed headlong toward a potential maelstrom.
Step Four was to create an array in the Healing Pavilion that would help with fixing taphysical ailnts. The obvious problem was that even all his knowledge as a Formations Master didn’t tell him how to make such a thing. He bit the bullet and paid two Shop Points for a template.
The System didn’t guarantee that the array would cure the twins, but it did assure him that it would help. Considering the miraculous effects of normal System purchased items, even that scant promise gave him more confidence than any other part of his plan did.
By the ti he’d completed Steps Three and Four, he felt he’d really pulled out all the stops. If all those elents didn’t fix the problem, he was at a loss as to what would.
He just had to focus on getting Step One right.
Yang Ru was finally moving forward. Each minute, each hour, each day, propelled him in the right direction, building Montum for his future. Gone was the boy who yearned for a path that was not to be, replaced by a man focused on what was to co.
Marriage and relationships with girls were not concerns for the current him, and honestly, he was disappointed in his past self for spending so much ti concentrating on such frivolities. All that effort could have been dedicated to cultivating, sparring, and practicing techniques, endeavors that would make him the best protector he could be.
It was quite a relief to be once again heading in the correct direction.
When a ssage dragon appeared that directed him to go to Master’s office, he felt only gladness. If there was anyone who could help him beco stronger, after all, it was his master.
Yang Ru wasted no ti in going to the office and, after the obligatory cup of tea, the eting began.
“Kang Lin ca to ,” Master said. “She is concerned about how things ended between the two of you.”
Yang Ru hadn’t known the subject of the eting, and such an irrelevant topic was the last thing he expected to be discussing. “What does it matter, Master? She is my past, not my future.”
The two stared at each other in silence for what must have been at least a full minute.
“She no longer ans anything to you?” Master said finally.
“She does not, Master.”
“Tell , have you noticed anything different about yourself since your match with her?”
Yang Ru was about to respond imdiately, but Master cut him off.
“Consider the matter carefully.”
Yang Ru did as instructed, thinking back over the ti since then, but found the task difficult. “It’s hard to focus on the past, Master. I only want to consider what is to co.”
“I see. What about your parents?”
Past him had dwelled on that loss a lot as well. It was nice to be rid of that burden.
“They, too, are my past, Master.”
“Okay. I guess … carry on, then.”
The conversation had so flummoxed Yang Ru that he found himself outside the office having forgotten to ask Master about new techniques.
Yang Ru shrugged. There would be other opportunities. For the mont, there were still imperfections to be improved. He would train. Spar. Montum would be preserved.
Benton sighed. Things were worse than he’d imagined. He’d been focused on Yang Xiu because her personality had so obviously shifted while Yang Ru seed outwardly the sa, focusing on sparring, cultivating, and practicing techniques just like he always had.
In talking with the boy, though, it beca very obvious that his Montum aspect was dominating his personality every bit as much as Yang Xiu’s Ice aspect was taking over hers.
Sothing had to be done. Soon.
Benton had hoped that Yang Ru still wanted to marry Kang Lin. That desire would have ford a good foundation for getting them in the sa room to talk. Instead, the question of how to proceed with Step One had only beco more difficult with his new attitude.
For the mont, Benton was at a complete loss regarding how to proceed.
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