Chapter 3: An informative Visit
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In the corner of a room filled with bookshelves, on a padded chair, sat a young green-haired boy utterly absorbed in reading the book laying across his legs. He has been reading this particular book about the nomadic culture of the people of the northern desert for a few hours already. So distracted was he, that he didn't even notice the front door of the library opening or the rhythmic clanking of metal upon metal synonymous with someone wearing steel armour. So it came as quite a surprise when suddenly instead of his book he suddenly saw the face of his best friend grinning up at him shouting, "Kenta!"

Kenta, extremely startled, fell sideways off the chair onto his back. After he regained his composure he could hear Sana giggling. "Yeah, Yeah, very funny," he said, glaring at her and rubbing his back. Sana shamelessly smiled down at him but eventually helped him stand back up. "What are you doing here anyway. I thought I'd be rid of you for at least a month after your Awakening," he grumbled but the subtle smile on his face made it clear he was joking.

"Ugh, I know but apparently it isn't healthy to train everyday without taking a rest day," Sana complained, rolling her eyes. She looked at him and grinned. "So, I thought what else to do than visit my bestest of friends." Kenta just shook his head but couldn't keep the smile off his face. She continued, looking him up and down, "You should train with me, you're way to weak, a strong breeze could push you over."

"No thanks, I think I'll rather read my books in peace and quite than do some useless exercise. I mean I'm going to be a cultivator and everyone knows they are way stronger than martial artists so I don't really see a reason to train." he explained, shrugging his shoulders, ignoring the glare coming from his friend. He didn't understand why Sana insisted on training physically when she would undoubtedly be accepted into the Cloudsea Sect but she was always strange like that. Maybe she did it to feel closer to her parents, something he could never relate to.

Sana grabbed his shoulder and, under his weak protests, pushed him out of the house. "Come on, I want to go to the walls today and watch the guards." Having decided what to do she took his hand and dragged him behind her as she started running down the street. Her guards, already used to their charge, easily keeping up.

The walls surrounding Cloud City towered over them. Despite it's size relatively few guards patrolled along the top with most of them gathering at the sunward gate they stood before, the sun peaking through the opening. Carts filled with harvest from the fields directly outside the City, in the patrolled zone, streamed in and empty Carts were led back out. "Lady Sana, it would be best to remain at a distance," the older of the two guards said. Though it was framed as a suggestion, Sana knew better than to argue with her.

After watching for a while, speculating with Kenta about their future, a commotion broke out at the gate. People were quickly running to the sides of the road making space for a young man with purple hair in a pure white robe. Whispers of "Immortal" and "Daoist" were coming from the spectating crowd. Despite being visibly shaken the gatekeepers still stopped the man and after a brief talk let him enter, one of the nearby guards sprinting down the street towards the Tenki palace another heading towards the Goran Clan.

The man turned his head and Sana could see that despite it looking like he was searching for something his eyes remained shut. Eventually his face turned towards her group and he approached, her guards immediately springing at attention. As he approached she felt as if he was directly looking at her despite his closed eyes. He raised an eyebrow and the feeling disappeared. "It would seem that someone has quite impressive instincts despite her young age," he spoke directly at Sana.

Her eyes widened and she immediately bowed and exclaimed, "Lord Immortal, you honour me. Welcome to Cloud City. May I ask what your venerable self wishes to do here?" she asked after noticing both her friend and her guards bowing as well.

"I am simply here to pay a visit to this city. After all many new talents have come to my Cloudsea sect from here in the last few decades," he replied with a small smile on his face after seemingly looking around. Her guards glanced at each other and Sana.

"You're a disciple of the Cloudsea Sect!?" she exclaimed, unable to stop herself in time. 

The man simply chuckled and turned back towards her. "Indeed I am. You may call me Tonwaan and I assume you must be Sana Tenki," he said smiling down at her. Sana blushed at the thought of a cultivator knowing of her and turned confused eyes up at him. "We like to keep informed about the children of important clans who may join our sect. In this city, in addition to you, there are still Faranna and Etrik Goran who qualify, both 11 years old of course." Despite being slightly disappointed, she had to concede that it made a certain amount of sense.

A tap on her leg made her look back towards Kenta who nodded in the direction of her clans palace. She quickly turned back to and proposed, " Immortal Tonwaan, if you are staying in our city for some time may I invite you to our home. I'm sure my Lord Father will spare no expense in hosting your esteemed self." After considering a nerve wreaking few moments he nodded not saying anything else. Sana quickly led the way, ordering the younger of her guards to hurry back and notify her uncle of their coming.

Tonwaan did not appear to be in a hurry and casually strolled along the street not uttering a word, simply letting himself be guided. They arrived at Tenki Palace to see her uncle standing just outside the gates with her clan's elders at his side. As soon as they came into view they clasped their hands and bowed to Tonwaan. "Venerable Immortal, we are honoured to be able to receive you," her uncle said in a respectful tone. "We have prepared a banquet in honour of your fortuitous arrival."

Sana had never seen her uncle or even the clan elders be so respectful, almost grovelling, towards anyone. After looking back towards her one last time, Tonwaan let himself be ushered into the complex. Her uncle, giving her an approving nod, quickly followed.

When they finally could neither see nor hear them Kenta let out a big sigh in relief. "I almost forgot to breath when he started walking towards us. I can't believe you shouted directly in his face," he added with a shake of his head. Sana blushed again, looking at the ground, remembering her thoughtless action and he quickly put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry too much, you did great in inviting him. Your father and Lord Tenki will say so as well. But, I think I should return home, I don't think I would be invited to stay and it looks like you have an exciting few days ahead of you," he finished. He smiled at her, turned around and started walking down the street.

After an encouraging nod from her guard, she eventually regained her courage enough to enter herself and prepare herself for the banquet.


"Martial artists are categorized in 5 different stages," Aria lectured her daughter who was grasping a two-handed double-bladed sword almost as large as herself, raising it up and swinging it back down over and over. "Those who have just started like you are simply called Martial Artists. After that are Scholars, Knights, Kings and lastly Emperors who, though not widely known, are even a match for the strongest of sect disciples."

It was the day after the banquet in Immortal Tonwaan's honour. Earlier that day he left to visit clan Goran and, later that day, return to his Sect. Sana would have loved to be able to talk with him again but it seemed that if she wished to interact with more cultivators she would need to wait 2 more years until she herself was initiated in the sect. Currently her mother continued her training in martial arts despite what her friend said about it's usefulness. She would show him how wrong he was, after all her parents were the strongest people around.

"You complained the last time that the qi wasn't filling your muscles on it's own anymore," her mother continued. "While faster than expected, in hindsight isn't so strange. You have always had a stronger body than most which, combined with your diet and natural tolerance, made you rush through the first stage, strengthening your muscles to it's current limit." Aria stopped her daughters exercise and lead her to sit on the ground. "The next step is to strengthen and sharpen your qi as much as you are able and penetrate your skin, so that your qi can freely flow outside your body and you don't need to breath it in anymore, simply absorb it directly through your skin."

Sana closed her eyes, inhaled a large amount of qi and concentrated, thinking about how to "sharpen" her qi. As part of her training her parents never told her how to do the things she needed to, instead letting her try and figure it out herself, only stepping in when she would seriously hurt herself. After all, other people may open the doors for you, but you still had to step through them yourself. To strengthen her qi was easy, she simply had to concentrate just under her skin until she could feel a sort of pressure. But try as she might, the qi wouldn't go through her skin, as if it were an impenetrable wall.

So she thought about the word "sharpen". How do you sharpen something like qi? No, she shook her head, she needed to think simpler, how do you sharpen anything. The guards used grindstones and smaller very rough but crumbly stones to sharp their weapons on the move. Her parents strangely enough never used a grindstone, their weapons seemingly eternally sharp. So she needed something to grind her qi on. Her body was an option, maybe her bones, but she quickly discarded the idea. It was way to risky and the qi would simply try to infuse into her body bringing with it incredible pain. The only thing left would be the qi itself.

Qi concentrated when brought together but only when done slowly enough. She quickly brought two concentrated portions of qi under the skin of her right forearm next to each other and slammed them against each other. They bounced of in opposite directions and dissipated. For her second try she tried to form edges with her qi and slammed them against each other again, this time at an angle, so that they would slide of each other. The qi "blades" brushed against each other and held their form. Something had changed about the very nature of that qi.  It didn't feel quite as nurturing and the usual tingling become more of a stinging.

Finally knowing how to sharpen her qi she concentrated her qi under the skin of her back, formed hundreds of small qi blades and ground them against each other until holding the qi under her skin almost hurt. At this stage the qi felt more like a freshly sharpened blade pressed against her neck making her sweat. She pushed the qi against her skin and with a bit of resistance it escaped outside where, having lost her concentration, surprised by how easy it was, it slowly dissipated. Despite the qi "stabbing" through her skin, it remained unharmed as if the thing blocking her qi wasn't her skin at all.

Hearing clapping startled her out of her meditation. She looked up to see her mother smiling proudly. "Fantastic, you didn't even need any additional hints. Although you didn't have to make your qi quite as sharp," her mother said, looking at her back. Stretching her hand behind herself she realized that her upper robe was shredded with hundreds of small thin cuts. "The next step would be sharpening your qi a little and then piercing deeper into your muscles and even into your tendons and letting it be absorbed there. Your muscles are now strong and acclimated enough to qi not to be shredded by you sharpened one. But for that you still need better control of your qi," Ariel warned.

"But, firstly," her mother started. After helping her daughter stand up she walked to the table, picked up a long thin box and returned to stand in front of her daughter. "Congratulations are in order I think. Here open it, "her mother said holding the box towards her. It was longer than she was tall and easily broader than both of her hands together. She opened the top and saw a long double-bladed sword. It was silver with a hint of blue. It's black leather grip split in two by a sweeping cross guard. A second smaller cross guard was directly between the upper third of the grip and the blade. She looked at her mother in shock. A sword this big, made entirely of skymetal would be extremely expensive. "I know it is still too big for you but you still have room to grow. Being able to externalise qi is the turning point from Martial Artist to Martial Scholar, so congratulations," she finished, holding the box with the sword to the side already expecting it, when her daughter tearfully jumped into her embrace.

Andus, who had arrived during her meditation, leaned against the wall smiling at the pair.


Tonwaan let himself into his master's hut. It consisted of one room with a fireplace before which sat two reclining chairs with a table in between. His master sat in the one on the left looking into the roaring flames. Tonwaan unhurriedly strolled to the other and sat himself down. He waited until his masters burning amber eyes fell on him, a scowl on his face like always.

"It would seem my new junior sister is quite the rambunctious one," he said with a smirk.

His master snorted and turned back to the flames "Then she will be a real pain. I should have never agreed to this," his master muttered under his breath. But even though Tonwaan had his eyes closed he was sure that on his masters lips was a small, slowly spreading smile. After all Elder Ietu was known to be "quite rambunctious" himself.

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