An flinches at the hand ruffling her hair when she suddenly finds herself in front of the famed immortal. She doesn’t move a muscle until Song Huan withdraws her hand. A droplet of sweat runs down her face when the smiling slaughterer pouts at her reaction.
“No need to be so tense, little shadow. Simply keep in mind the senses of cultivators can be far sharper than those of mortals.” She leans towards the little girl and whispers conspiratorially. “At my level it’s even possible to sense a person’s intent.”
An’s only tell is the way her open palms twitch at Huan’s words. The immortal directs a pointed look at them to warn the child she noticed, further emphasizing the differences between mortal and immortal.
“Ah, you’re so cute. I almost want to adopt you. Song An does have a nice ring to it, no? Ah but perhaps…” She grins toothily, “You’d prefer Gao An.”
Huan cackles before feigning a sob and pretending to wipe away a tear. “Ah, so scorned. You’re going to make this old lady sad.”
“At least you finally admit you’re ol-” Suwan disappears once more while Immortal Soulfire kindly covers An’s ears to muffle the sound of the crash. “Gods above, she never learns does she?”
“G- gods?” An stammers. Huan winks and raises a finger to her mouth. With a loud groan Suwan saunters back to them while stretching her neck. She scratches her side and yawns while sitting back down. With a wave she gestures for them to continue as if she had simply returned from grabbing a drink. The bottle suddenly appearing in her hand completes the image and prompts her to raise an unamused eyebrow at her teacher while muttering about Twelve and birds of a feather.
“Well then, let us begin.” Huan says while sitting up straight and looking at the girl with a serious expression. “Make good use of the qi density here, little shadow. You stand on the threshold of awakening. I shall prepare a medicinal bath beneficial to your constitution should you succeed before I kick you all out of my realm.”
Huan blows on her steaming cup of tea and takes a sip while looking into the distance melancholically. An decides to ignore that she was holding liquor until a second ago.
“You remind me of an old friend, An. Their arts would be beneficial to you I believe. I shall share the location of their legacy cave with your master. I wish you the best of luck attaining it.”
An kowtows at the implied dismissal and thanks Huan for her counsel before moving back to her previous spot. Zhi straightens knowing she is likely the next to receive words of guidance.
“That was productive, imma go take a nap and we’ll continue this tommorow.” Huan says loudly while standing up and straightening the folds in her dress. Suwan sighs.
“Master, must you tease all of my disciples?”
“Perhaps you are correct. I shouldn’t tease yours, I have one of my own after all.”
“Ah don’t worry, Zhi doesn’t mind.” Suwan adds quickly with no hesitation whatsoever in her decision to throw another under the bus. The two blondes share a chuckle while gesturing at Zhi to approach. She looks decidedly uncomfortable under their gaze feeling exposed out in the open like this. Years of habit cause her to glance around for escape routes and curse the lack of cover in her surroundings.
Huan leisurely smokes her pipe to give the skittish street rat time to relax and blows the smoke upwards. A stray breeze sends it into Suwan’s face, the other blonde simply taking a swig from her bottle in reply.
“I could give you advice.” Huan begins, “But I do believe you have already made up your mind about your path. Speak.”
“Ah want’a heal. Ah ain’t one fer sneakin’ round or shankin’ people wif a dagger. Poison ain’t my cuppa tea. Ah’m sorry Master.”
“There’s no need to apologise, Zhi.” Suwan waves her off. “It’s your path, as your teacher I can provide you advice but it's you that has to make the decisions so props for that.” Adding in a raised thumb and a wide smile she winks at the girl to let her know there’s no hard feelings.
"I must warn you, Grand Disciple of mine. Medicine is an incredibly different path, healing the self with Qi alone is difficult but doable, curing others of ailments shall be far more difficult. It shall take years of studying all manner of conditions, herbs and cures."
"Geh."
“I can see your determination, asking Tai Yating to assist you in learning to read was an excellent move, Grand Disciple. Rest assured it is not in doubt. Nonetheless I must ask, what drives you towards the path of healing?”
“Ah… well, t’is.. naht a fancy reason.”
“It need not be profound, simply one you truly believe in.”
“Well, the thing is… Ah ain’t tha best at all dis cultivator stuff, Mu’s pro’ly gon’ be ahead ah me foreva. Ah dun’ intend ta be dead weight, if ah kent do shite durin’ fights ah’ll be damned if ah ain’t at least useful outside a’ it. And well, ya know…”
“Hmm?”
“So maybe ah kent do all them pretty moves but punchin’? That a ken do. Thing ah know ‘bout punchin’ is ya can never hit as hard as ya wanna without breakin’ y’r wrist.” She raises her hand and pats it while speaking. “If ah ken heal it back up after, ah reccon ah can punch ‘bove my weight a bit.”
“A disciple of Suwan indeed.” Huan snorts. She opens her hand revealing a ring atop her palm and floats it over to Zhi. “This spatial ring contains medicinal guidebooks, herbology encyclopedias and basic martial arts manuals. I have full faith you shall use them well, Zhi.”
Zhi reverently cradles the small ring in both hands. Her mouth opens and closes like a fish while her eyes nearly bulge out of her head looking at the priceless treasure. An item that sects would go to war for given freely to her just like that. She gulps. Mere months ago she scavenged through trash heaps to put food atop the table and now she’s handed something worth more than the entire city she lived in without a second thought. She pinches herself hard enough to draw blood fearing she’ll wake up and be back in the moldy hovel she once called home.
“Ah… ah kent accept this. Ah kent.”
“No takebacks.”
A disbelieving laugh forces its way out of her throat. With trembling hands she slides it onto her finger and holds it up to the sun watching the simple looking ring gleam under its light. Unadorned and without jewels it appears like little more than a tiny metal band. Perhaps silver, iron or platinum, Zhi cannot tell.
“I am certain you’ll be eager to make use of them but you must remember that patience is a virtue. Healing requires fine Qi control, each section of the ring has a seperate lock requiring you to channel your qi through it correctly lest it stay shut. Do not let failure discourage you, best you experience it now before you operate on a person.”
Her lesson finished Song Huan stands up and makes her way back to the mound. She glances over her shoulder and speaks while walking.
“Tai’s lesson shall require privacy. Suwan, bring her and follow me.”
The mountain of pillows ripples when Huan walks through like it isn’t there. Suwan shrugs at Yating’s questioning glance and follows her teacher into the mound. Yating only hesitates for a moment to gather her courage before stepping through as well. They arrive within a small cave closed off in all directions, a brief touch to the cave’s walls revealing its satiny texture. The sole source of illumination within is a small candle behind which the immortal sits facing the center. She gestures for the two to sit down surrounding it as well. With the way the flame flickers and dances Yating cannot help but feel like the very walls are moving and twisting.
Even Suwan seems disturbed by the room within the mound. Always something seems to sit at the corner of her view yet when she subtly turns her head it moves along with her view. Extending her spiritual sense inflicts her with a sense of vertigo as the space seems to both stretch on infinitely and end only meters away. She pulls her spiritual sense back when she nearly loses her balance due to looking below, not a single difference noticeable between the empty space around them or the ‘floor’ beneath their feet. She uses a finger to prod it yet despite sitting down her entire arm extends and she still does not find it.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Master?”
“It’s your loss if you mind it.” Huan shrugs cryptically. “Let us not stay here for longer than we have to. The reason I have brought you here is simple: to stabilize the Tai’s constitution.”
Yating’s eyes widen. She coughs out a wad of black sludge when Huan mercilessly thrusts a hand into her ribcage. Huan wrenches her hand back pulling more of the sludge with her and casts it into the abyss, not a single blemish or ruffled cloth on Yating where she pierced her. The white haired woman sucks in a deep breath and stares wide eyed at where she is certain a bloody hole should be.
“That should rid you of the impurities your constitution has built up since awakening. This is the one and only time I shall assist you this way. Know that this measure is temporary at best, even at this very moment your body is once more generating impurities. If you wish to permanently remain unaffected you must find a technique capable of balancing out your constitution and cultivate it to a great extent. Until you have reached such a point dual cultivating with a user of the flames of Song can help keep you stable. Do not learn to rely on such a crutch. Begone.”
“Understood Venerable Soulfire. This lowly one offers a thousand thousand thanks for Venerable Immortal’s assistance.” Yating replies while kowtowing. She promptly departs upon finishing her thanks. It takes her nearly half a minute to walk out, the distance towards the wall seeming to stretch on and on with each step she takes until it finally snaps back into place. Suwan opens her mouth and raises a finger before she turns to her master with a chuckle and a look both questioning and judgmental.
“Did you bend reality for the sole purpose of watching her ass jiggle a bit longer while she walked?”
“You didn’t seem to complain while it was happening, disciple of mine.”
“Duh.”
They share a laugh at that.
“So, Master. What is this?” Suwan asks while waving her hand around them. Huan motions to draw from her pipe only to click her tongue when she remembers her hand is empty. “You already have an inkling, do you not? There is no need to answer that question yet. Simply remember the sensation and prepare to weather it better next time.”
“Next time?”
“There shall be one.” Huan replies with a tone of finality in her voice. Knowing she likely won’t be able to get an answer from her master Suwan casts a glance around her, getting lost in the variety of flickering shadows and shapes she can just barely not make out. She squints through her blurring vision. If she can focus just a bit more...
“Suwan. Look at the candle. Don’t stare into the distance for too long, you’re not ready for that yet.”
Letting out a long breath Suwan glares at the candle like it killed her dog. She petulantly crosses her arms and leans towards it to blind herself to everything else around her.
“Oh I don’t like this one bit.”
“I would be worried if you did.” Huan snorts while tapping her obsidian slate. “That’s enough for now. I need my rest, beauty sleep won’t do itself.”
“I’m amazed you still haven’t given up after so many millennia, Master.”
In hindsight she considers it was not the best of decisions to cause herself to be flicked into the distance while within a comprehension defying space. She can only thank her master for teleporting her out before she crashes once more into the mountainside.
