Chapter 100: Betrayer, Thief, Poisoner

Paike didn't mind making a detour. After all, he had planned to visit the cave soon and investigate how it might have affected his battle trance. There might have been some connection to how he felt afterward. That lingering mental effect seemed connected somehow.

"Do you think that extra momentum came from the attunement?" Paike asked.

"No," Elder Song said. "If I were forced to guess, I would think that you were applying bursts through your physical cultivation. Now, could that exceed the maximum top speed you can achieve on your own? It would be interesting if that was the case, but I will need to test that. If that is the case, then we have all sorts of other testing to see what I was missing about the nature of our interactions with qi and its fundamental nature."

"Well, with the collision experiments, I had to break qi down to the previous realm; I was certainly able to increase the speed beyond my normal limits," Paike said.

"And I'm eager to see and test that for myself," Elder Song said. "I had no idea that was even possible. However, did you think of doing that in the first place? Never mind that; how well were you able to control the Ruby qi? What happened to it?"

Paike started to fill her in. He wished he had all his notes on him, but didn't want to take the time to go back to his house for them. He knew the Elder's time was limited.

"Interesting," She said once he had finished. "You certainly have a strange ability to test the limits of theory."

"Your thoughts?" Paike asked.

"If we take qi realms as a combination of lesser qi particles instead of a qualitative change in its fundamental nature, there are certainly consequences. I'm glad you haven't done something like disprove qi's particle status. Then I would assume that the additional energy in the system comes from the qi combining; however, is this true for all stages? I think there might be some point where you might actually get less energy after splitting. When qi is upgraded in the higher realms, there is a well-documented phenomenon of energy being ejected from that breakthrough. Sometimes to catastrophic effects. This might be an explanation, but in reverse. I have no basis for this theory, but if we try your experiment on qi of different realms..."

"Ah, this is it." Paike cut in, pointing to the cave. Their conversation was fascinating, but he didn't want to waste too much time; they had experiments to run, after all.

Elder Song took them down and landed her cloud a little ways away from the cave entrance.

"I think I can feel something in here. You were certainly correct that this is too powerful a being to be this close to the outer sect without any bindings on it. That you survived the encounters was incredibly lucky."

Paike was slightly worried. "Are you going to remove it?"

"I don't think so," Elder Song said. "For while you are here, I think a formation around that area, keeping disciples away, will do for now if it isn't mobile."

"For what it is worth, it wasn't immediately hostile. I was able to bargain," Paike said. "Perhaps an accord can be made with it. Others may wish to gain access to the attunement. Though I do doubt it comes from the spirit itself, but rather from some treasure it is guarding."

"Not quite." Elder Song said. "It is clearly not from the spirit entirely, but what you have is related in some ways. Now show me how the qi around here responds so differently to you."

Paike and the elder both formed characters in the air with qi, then poked and prodded them repeatedly before repeating the tests with a new set. Hers reacted very differently from his.

"I believe this is mostly due to the proximity of whatever treasure the spirit is guarding and your attunement rather than a true qi property," Elder Song concluded eventually.

"That is what I thought as well, but have you ever seen qi harden like this?" Paike asked, indicating the vase of qi he had idly made.

"There are techniques that achieve a similar result, but the process is nothing like this," Elder Song said with wonder in her voice. She was leaning forward with rapt attention and taking notes.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

When she was done, they ventured further in. Once they reached where the cave opened up, they stopped.

"It's an interesting combination of elements. Earth with metal as a secondary element. I think there is maybe even a drop of water and something like shadow." Elder Song mused.

"Really? Four elements are very rare. I can feel the earth and metal, but not the others." Paike said. He wasn't about to challenge her senses, but it was just very hard to believe.

"I'm not surprised you can't identify them, but you should feel something besides just earth with a bit of metal. Weren't you able to totally categorize it for me, right? Think about why. You should have been able to tell me if he was just a simple combination of earth and metal."

"Hmm," Paike considered, looking inward at his qi, trying to pick out the details that Elder Song insisted were there while she studied the cave with the spirit in it.

He was so focused that when she walked forward, it caught him off guard.

"Anicnent spirit, show your self I would speak with you," Elder Song commanded.

She showed no signs of fear. Which told Paike that it was at least one realm below her. Likely more. Not that he thought he could have seen her fear if it existed, but she would probably have chosen a different approach if she had been wary in the slightest.

The spirit bubbled up from the rocks and puffed itself out in a display of dominance as it roared. "WHO?"

Elder Song did something with the qi that felt like the equivalent of flicking a hand in dismissal. Paike wasn't quite ready and didn't catch it exactly, but it was the impression he got. The spirit also seemed to get the message, as it shrank down by half.

"I have questions." Elder Song demanded.

Paike watched her bully the spirit into performing qi exercises, then tested the results. It had a similar effect to his. The qi hardened and lasted longer. Not to the same extent. This convinced him that the spirit was at least two realms beneath her. Maybe even three.

"Boy, I think its qi factor isn't yours, but it's still quite high. Come here so I can compare." Elder Song ordered.

Paike was hesitant given the reaction the spirit had given during their last encounter. Not that he didn't think the elder could

Just as he predicted, the spirit wailed in rage. "BETRAYER! THIEF! POOOIIISENER!"

The screams echoed throughout the cavern and shook the stalactites from the ceiling. The rocks started crashing to the floor with thundering booms.

Paike ducked and covered his face from the shards of exploding rocks. A wave of qi emanated from Elder Song and threw the projectiles back. The spirit collided with the far wall and mingled into the rocks.

The screaming continued. Paike covered his ears and found a trickle of blood coming out of each ear despite his physical cultivation working to keep him together.

Elder Song's qi ripped around the room. Paike watched as it dug into the rock and ripped the spirit out into the air. But as it wasn't connected to the ground, it started to struggle. She released it instantly, and it vanished again, this time wailing in fear.

"Come back out!" She demanded, but there were only incoherent lamentations. Trying again got no response.

Paike started to back out of the cave. His presence was clearly not helping, and the spirit was disabled as it was. The elder didn't try to stop him.

Soon he was sitting on a rock he had used as a chair a few times before. He meditated while keeping an eye on the qi coming from the cave. It seemed like the elder was trying to calm it down with little success.

Paike put that to the back of his mind, gathered the attuned qi, and compared it to his. There was some difference. Without others, he couldn't really see its intrinsic properties, but he could feel the attunement. It was different from his, but not by much, and he couldn't quite put his finger on how.

He would need to meditate on each aspect Elder Song suggested he base his own attunement on. Guan Li used shadows, and Liming had some water she was moving to; they might be able to help him get a better grasp of his attunement. That could open him up to learning more arts if he wanted to. Or maybe he could expand his plan to include a variety of different types of meridians not directly tied to the arts and have some of them studied where useful.

Paike knew he didn't have too much time before Elder Song came back, so he started on why he wanted to come here anyway. How did he get the lingering weakness and exhaustion in the mind after his battle trance?

He had a theory. Plastering a bit of qi on the side of his dantian, he waited for it to dry. It would have been better to test this within his spiritual system rather than on the outside, but he would have to make do.

After a little bit, he rubbed at the spot, and the qi flaked off in little bits. He ran fresh qi over it in a flow for a while until it was almost all gone. Examining what was left, he saw small parts of the residue. And when he examined them very closely, he noticed that there was a bit of mental influence coming off them that was so weak he could barely tell. It resembled what the spirit had expressed when it saw him.

If these were closer to his mind, would that cause his problem? It would make sense why his technique worked on the influence, but it would also fade. How could he prevent them from forming in the first place? Perhaps he needed more constant qi movement while he was in the trance. But which parts were connected to his mind?

There were always more questions.

His train of thought was interrupted as Elder Song emerged from the cave.

"Were you at least able to calm it down?" Paike asked.