Chapter 11 — Expectations
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Okay, so, this might sound stupid, but hear me out.

The Yin Cultivation Method was mainly about like, getting yin-type energies in your aperture, right? And that was what formed yin essence?

Well, remember how the manual also contained a bunch of methods to collect yin-type energies? They were all pretty simple, right? Basically just like, open your aperture and let the energy in. Simple stuff.

Okay, so, I had this idea.

What if I just, like, went in the shade of that cave behind the waterfall, where it was probably a little cold? And what if I did it when the moonlight was filtering through the waterfall? 

What if I just cultivated all the energies there?

Theoretically, then, I’d simultaneously be cultivating moonlight energy, cold energy, dark energy, and whatever else. All the yin-type ones, basically.

The reason that I felt dumb for even considering an idea like this was probably pretty self-explanatory. Like, I’d cultivated one time, and now I already felt like I could experiment? Was I really that reckless?

To be completely honest, I didn’t actually know. My idea did sound pretty reasonable to me... You know, with my complete and total layman’s understanding of energy and essence. 

Hmm. Maybe I was curious, or a bit of a scientist at heart...? Since I was the type to, like, really want to try something out when I thought of it. See what happens, whether it does what I want, you know. 

It was probably sort of like... Wanting to stuff ten bags of popcorn in the microwave simultaneously just to see what happens? You know, something like that! Wait... Right, duh, you probably don’t know what popcorn or a microwave is. Nevermind.

Anyway, to get back to the topic at hand, the Yin Cultivation Method manual gave me instructions on what to do if I screwed something up, right? So it’d be okay! If something went wrong, it really could only be just a teensy setback, right? Like, I’d just started cultivating, what was the worst that could happen? 

But on the other hand, if it went right... Heck, I could use this place to great advantage.

 


 

Of the tier zeroes in Sweeping Rain Academy, there were nineteen. Of the ones on this camping trip, there were nine. And then, of the girls, there were five of us. Myself, Azure Cloud, Morning Rain and one of her lackeys — the other had taken that deal to get another Spirit Stone allowance — and lastly, one rather mousy girl whose name I didn’t know.

I was able to cultivate any yin-type energy, but the others cultivated a wide array of different things. That evening, as I walked around the campsite, I saw just how varied everyone was — Morning was waiting for it to turn night like I was, but besides us... the mousy girl was sitting in the stream to cultivate, the water flowing gently around her crossed legs. She was probably cultivating... tranquil energy, maybe? That sounded like a thing. 

The other two I wasn’t sure about, though... 

Azure Cloud had her legs crossed as she sat atop a large, moss-covered boulder right at the southern edge of the pool. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have said she was cultivating yang energy, but that made no sense. 

Morning’s lackey I understood even less, if that was possible — the girl was currently halfway buried inside a bush, half-sitting, half-standing in a position that looked... well, it looked rather uncomfortable, let’s just leave it at that. Was there some kind of plant energy that someone could collect or was standing inside a bush helpful for other reasons? Or maybe there was an “uncomfortable energy” that required her to be in awkward positions like that... that would be kind of amusing. In all honesty, though, it seemed like it was a possibility that she’d picked up one of the cultivation manuals that was totally ridiculous, like that Bright Moon Cultivation Method that gave people tons of body hair. And considering how... well, dumb Morning’s lackeys seemed to be... yeah.

Anyway, you may ask yourself — why exactly are we all cultivating here? Sure, the area might be well-suited for it, but that doesn’t have anything to do with core vi, which was the entire point of the trip, right?

Well, the answer was pretty simple. The way to attract wild vi to your aperture — unless you had some kind of special method that allowed you to not have to, probably — was to cultivate the energy in the open, where the wild vi can sense it.

“Whether or not you like it, wild vi are, well, wild,” Elder Swan had reiterated, walking around the campsite. “This entire part of your cultivation is based on luck. You can only hope that your luck is good enough to grant you a suitable vi plant.”

And so, as the elders set up the camp and began to make dinner — Morning and I assisting them where we could — we watched the rest of the girls cultivate.

“Don’t you have the Yin Cultivation Method?” Morning asked at one point, her bewilderment temporarily outweighing her spite. “You could cultivate any of these energies, you don’t need to wait for nighttime...”

I shook my head. “Yeah, I can, but I want to do more than that. You’ll see.”

By the time the night had fallen, only a couple hours later, I was sufficiently starving. As my method said, after all, I needed to not have eaten recently for the cold energy to be cultivated. 

You know, thinking about it, in the past week I’d both eaten less food, and eaten more inconsistently than I ever had before. I still felt fine, yeah, but, like, I swear, I must have already tempered my will so much to be able to handle this... Like, it was starting to become easy to resist the temptation of the good food smells.

I was proud of myself. I was a good girl! Doing all these impressive things!

“You’re not going to eat, Midnight Rain?” Elder Swan had  asked at some point, gesturing to the large pot of stew on the stone table. 

I’d shaken my head in response, saying, “I don’t want to cultivate yang energy by mistake.”

“That’s wise,” the woman with green hair had smiled, patting my shoulder. “Just don’t forget to have a big breakfast tomorrow, alright?”

I nodded. “Will do, Elder Swan!”

Anyway... eventually night fell, and with that, I sat in the cave, just past the edge of the pool. I looked out through the sheet of water slowly feeding into that pool, towards the rest of the campsite.

It was quiet. Granted, the campsite had been quiet for most of the day, but now it was even quieter. Where in the day there were many sounds from nature — the chirping of birds, the chatter of small animals, all kinds of insect noises, and more... Now, it was nearly silent, each sound rare... and calming, almost. Every once in a while, I heard the howl of a wolf, or the hoot of an owl, or the chirping of a cricket... Distant noises of the night which only accentuated the beautiful image before me.

It was dark. However, it was not so dark that I couldn’t see. In the heavens above, as if someone had taken the night sky and, like, covered it with glitter... There were more stars than I could count — and on top of that, far more than I ever could have witnessed in my first life... I mean, unless I’d travelled to the south pole or something.

There were only four of us here to witness this picture-perfect sight — myself, my sister, Elder Tea, and Elder Swan. Currently, Morning’s master was meditating, sitting with her legs crossed on a mat she’d brought out with her. She wasn’t cultivating, though — I could tell because that golden light in her aperture was not visible. And, honestly, that made sense, considering that if you cultivate, you don’t want to have distractions, and the entire reason she was out here was to keep an eye on us.

Elder Swan wasn’t cultivating, nor was she meditating, but she was keeping Elder Tea company for a little while longer. The other tier zero girls had gone to bed in one of the tents, and Elder Swan would soon follow, but... well, not quite yet.

Besides our elders, there was also my sister. Where earlier in the day, Azure Cloud had sat on a boulder on the southern edge of the pool, now Morning Rain took that place. Just like me, she was waiting for the moonlight to appear. Maybe a bit more impatiently than me, though — I could see her fidgeting all the way from my spot in the cave.

The moon would appear eventually, my dear sister.

And appear it did, the silvery, heavenly body rising above the trees in the east as they swayed in the gentle, nighttime breeze. The moonlight fell down onto the campsite, bathing everything in that silvery glow; reflecting off of the surface of the gently rippling pool, it shined through the sheet of water and drew complex and ephemeral patterns on the wall of the cave behind me. 

I watched as Morning Rain closed her eyes and opened her aperture, the glow enveloping her more than it enveloped anything else. She was cultivating, and it was time for me to do the same.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Another.

Slowly, in a rhythm.

I opened my aperture, and I allowed the latent energies in.

I felt cold, but not unbearably. I felt tranquil, but my mind remained active. I felt the darkness all around, like a comfortable, protective blanket... but I knew it was bright.

It was interesting, wasn’t it? Moonlight and darkness... they coexisted completely; the way they interacted was far beyond my understanding. 

And that wasn’t all... I was calm, and, well, tranquil, but I also felt as though I could think clearer now than I had all day. And on top of that, the fact that they were all yin-type energies... I felt more... me than I had all day. Than I had ever, maybe. Honestly, my worries were slipping to the back of my mind...

Woah. That... Wow, my essence was skyrocketing. This was way faster than cultivating in the freezer, earlier. Not double the speed... Not even double double. This speed of cultivating surpassed cultivating in that freezer to such a degree that I considered calling it thrice doubled — eight times faster.

And on top of this all, I could think better here than I could anywhere else. While I was in the freezer, I’d needed to maintain my concentration on the cultivation, but here... well, here I was pretty sure I could actually keep cultivating while doing other things, my mind was so clear. And that... that was kind of weird actually. I was pretty sure that went entirely against conventional wisdom.

So... eventually, curious, I opened my eyes.

There was absolutely zero change. I continued to breathe, I continued to cultivate, I continued to feel the latent yin-type energies enter my aperture and form more essence in my yin ocean.

I lifted my hand and looked at it. Once more, there was frost accumulating, but... maybe not to the same degree as it had in the freezer before? I could only assume that was because it was less cold here than it had been there.

And beyond that, the glow from the moonlight seemed to cover my skin, giving it an otherworldly feminine glow that... Well, I quite liked it, to be honest, even if I knew it was probably just temporary.

I put my hand down and looked back up through the sheet of water. Morning Rain was still cultivating as well, her eyes closed tightly shut and her hands clenched. Why in the world did she look so tense? It was almost like she was—

Then I saw it. Movement, a little flash of light in the corner of my eye.

On the surface of the pool, in the southern side, was a lotus flower.

Pretty. That was my very first thought. Its petals looked like glass, or crystal; they sparkled in a silvery blue light. The flower sat atop blue-green leaves, leaves that rippled gently in sync with the surface of the pool.

The lotus was not stationary, however, and in fact, it was rising... rising out of the pool, the sparkling petals stirring slightly in the breeze.

Eventually, the flower had entirely left the pool, those blue-green leaves fluttering serenely. It was strange, otherworldly. The plant seemed to disobey the laws of physics.

But then again, this was a vi plant, after all. And not just a tier zero. No, this one had a power not seen in those... It was tier one.

I saw movement in the corner of my eye again, this time it was Elder Swan, who’d shaken Elder Tea’s shoulder, eyes wide. Elder Tea stopped her meditation, her eyes widening at the vi plant which floated above the pool. They began a whispered conversation, but I couldn’t hear it, not without distracting myself from my cultivation...

I closed my eyes again, ignoring the vi plant for a moment.

“—this one?” the younger woman asked.

“Yes,” Elder Swan replied, her voice quiet and awed. “Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi... I think. It’s... it’s legendary, appearing only a couple times in the history of the village... And it hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years.”

“What does it do?”

“I’m not sure exactly,” Elder Swan said, “But I think it has something to do with cultivating moonlight energy. It makes it easier to cultivate it, or increases the essence gained, or something along those lines? I admit the stories are slightly vague.”

“Which of them attracted it?” Elder Tea asked.

The other woman didn’t respond for a while. “I... don’t know. But I think we’re about to find out.”

I opened my eyes once more, looking at the Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi. Water... or was that moonlight? Was dripping from the blue-green leaves, as it floated around.

It drifted towards the falls, and then back, getting closer this time to Morning Rain, whose fists were still clenched tightly, her expression grim as she sat there. 

The nearer it got, the brighter still became Morning’s aperture; silver light reflecting through the intricate, sparkling petals of the lotus, rays of light cast on the surrounding trees.

It reached her aperture, and it stopped there. She must have been able to feel it, then. Keep cultivating, Morning... I found myself rooting for her. You can do it. Overcome your past, find a better future...

But then the Lotus Vi suddenly drifted back, almost as if it was trying to escape. Why? What happened? I didn’t understand.

Morning’s eyes shot open, and she cried out. My sister bounced to her feet, reaching out towards the vi plant that had so unceremoniously rejected her... but she couldn’t reach. She reached further, and further... and then her foot slipped on the moss, and she toppled into the once calm pool, splashing the surroundings and the Lotus Vi.

The Lotus Vi spun in the air, careening towards the waterfall; towards me. It passed through the water unimpeded, and then it was there, in front of me.

For a moment, the Lotus Vi and I sat there. 

Strange, wasn’t it? I was staring into the petals of a flower and I wasn’t able to shake the feeling that the flower was staring right back. I had a feeling my aperture was glowing as brightly as Morning’s had... maybe... maybe more, actually? In the cave, the light reflected from the petals of the Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi made patterns on the walls like stars.

And then, I closed my eyes. I didn’t know why I closed my eyes, it just... felt like the right thing to do. It was. Without further prompting, just like that, the Lotus Vi entered my aperture, its stem diving into the surface of my yin ocean and its roots connecting throughout the mystical space.

In that moment, everything changed.

I opened my eyes once more, and my eyes landed on Morning Rain, who was sitting in the pool, staring at me with her mouth hanging open. 

Welp. She was not going to be happy with me now. 

I gave a bit of an apologetic shrug.

She spat blood.

It happened!!!!!!!!!

Also good lord I really did not think I was going to be getting a chapter done today. But I did! I'm so proud of myself. I hope you are proud of me too.

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Thanks everyone for reading! See you next time! No promises about when that'll be, but I'll keep up this every-two-days posting for as long as I can!

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