Chapter 36 Misunderstanding
Time passed as Mercury prepared for the Formation competition of a lifetime. Two of the best Formation Master would send their apprentice to compete on their behalf. It was even more important because of the truce between the sides of Light and Darkness. How would Mercury prepare for this grand event? He was mostly busy with his coffee business, but so was his opponent in the competition.
What happened was that Mercury found out that the people had no culture of drinking coffee, only eating it like a pill. Mercury, seeing the opportunity for profit, had made some prototype blends that quickly caught on. Many other of the Luminescence Cultivators also had problems with sleeping and waking up. It soon spread to the Cultivators of the school and other areas.
Mercury had spent the last five months working in the Coffee Business while studying. He crushed the competition through his knowledge of business and espionage, but he decided that he could not keep doing it and left it to Clover as he started working on his Formation for the competition. Half an hour later he remembered that Clover could not be trusted with all that caffeine and released the full information about coffee to everyone. Like that, what some people called the Coffee Wars came to an end.
The month before the competition was smooth for Mercury. He quickly had his idea for what he needed to do and he was able to make it fairly quickly. The problem was that Weaving Metal kept changing on what she wanted Mercury to wear. She insisted that it had to be just right but nothing seemed to stick and she kept changing it. Mercury, knowing what he wanted to do instead secretly made his own outfit.
Soon before the day arrived, many Formation Masters started arriving and waiting. It was decided that it would be held at Weaving Metal’s School. That way Mercury could still stay as the ‘hostage’ of Tenebrosity. The Grand Formation Master and Weaving Metal were both happy that their apprentice did not need to travel.
The day of the event, Mercury was called into Weaving Metal’s office.
“Greetings Teacher.” {Mercury}
“Are you nervous at all?” {Weaving Metal}
“No.” {Mercury}
“Good. Then I will keep this short. I will be meeting with Brick before the competition. I will call you to come to the meeting. This is when you will meet your opponent.” {Weaving Metal}
“Understood.” {Mercury}
“Good. How is the Formation you will reveal today?” {Weaving Metal}
“It should be perfect.” {Mercury}
“Great. There will be no surprises when you win. Run along but stay near the competition building. I need to get ready.” {Weaving Metal}
Mercury left and headed to the competition building. Along the way, the Grand Formation Master used the communication jade to contact him.
(“Greetings Teacher.”) {Mercury}
(“I will keep this short. I will be meeting with Weaving Metal before the competition. I will call you to come to the meeting. This is when you will meet your opponent.”) {GFM}
(“Understood.”) {Mercury}
(“Good. Stay by the competition building and I will tell you how to get to the room from there. How is the Formation you will reveal today?”) {GFM}
(“It should be perfect.”) {Mercury}
(“Great. There will be no surprises when you win. I will call you soon.”) {Weaving Metal}
“…”
“They are very similar.” {Mercury}
As he was walking, he stumbled into a person nervously looking around.
“Greetings Cove.” {Mercury}
“*Screams* Don’t sneak up on people!” {Cove}
“I walked up in front of you.” {Mercury}
“…”
“It is good to meet you again. Are you ready for the competition today?” {Cove}
“I think so. Were you looking around for Weaving Metal?” {Mercury}
“How did you know!?” {Cove}
“…”
“Mercury, it is getting harder and harder for me to want you to win. I will start cheering for Weaving Metal’s apprentice if you keep that smug look on your face!” {Cove}
“You can do what you want. You look up to who you want… CLOVER! … Come over here and meet my friend.” {Mercury}
Mercury spotted Clover sneaking around with extra cups of coffee in her hands. She sheepishly walked over.
“Cove this is Clover. Clover is basically family at this point. Clover this is Cove. I meet her when I did some Formation work for the Water Light Sect.” {Mercury}
Mercury took two of the cups Clover had. Mercury could tell Clover had not drank from them yet, so passed one to Cove.
“Those were mine.” {Clover}
“How many are you allowed to have in one day?” {Mercury}
“…”
“One, two if I am good.” {Clover, defeated}
“How many have you had already?” {Mercury}
“One.” {Clover}
“That is why I left you with one. Today is special. Now Cove, please try it out. It is a new specialty here.” {Mercury}
“Oh, is this the new drinkable coffee that I have heard about. I heard the man who made it was ruthless in his business skills. But I also heard that he just stopped and released all the information for everyone to use. Do you know anything about him?” {Cove}
“Nope. Nothing. Probably just rumors.” {Mercury}
“But Merc, you ” {Clover}
“They are just rumors. Right? Clover.” {Mercury}
“Yes. Just rumors. Merc is not the person who made it.” {Clover}
“Why… would I think he was?” {Cove}
“Oh, would you look at the time. I have to get ready. Clover, you know what how about you show Cove around. Maybe you can get some more coffee later if you do a good job.” {Mercury}
“Okay! Leave it to me.” {Clover}
Mercury ran off. He did not worry about Clover and Cove being together. What was the worst that could happen?
Mercury received the call to come to the room from both the Grand Formation Master and Weaving Metal and did so. Before opening the door, he took a deep breath and prepared himself.
“Greetings Teachers.” {Mercury}
“Ah, my apprentice, come on in.” {GFM and Weaving Metal at the same time}
“…”
The Grand Formation Master just started laughing as Weaving Metal looked horrified.
“HOW!?” {Weaving Metal}
“I stayed with Earthlight in the Earth Light Sect for the years that Starlight was here.” {Mercury}
“…”
“DID YOU TWO PLAN THIS!?” {Weaving Metal}
“No. I had no idea.” {GFM}
“…”
“Mercury, why did you not say anything? How long have you known?” {Weaving Metal}
“I learned after you made me your apprentice. I did not say anything because I still wanted this event to happen.” {Mercury}
“WHY!? What would you achieve by doing so!?” {Weaving Metal}
“Let me guess. You want both sides to rally behind you.” {GFM}
“Close enough.” {Mercury}
“…”
“F*ck. This is too much all at once. Do you really think this will help both sides become peaceful.” {Weaving Metal}
“I have an idea on what Mercury wants to do. Have you seen his Formation he was going to use?” {GFM}
“No. It was supposed… Mercury what were you going to do?” {Weaving Metal}
Mercury took out a large drawing of his Formation and laid it out in front of them.
“…”
“Mercury, this looks like… I have no idea.” {GFM}
“It is clearly a mix of styles but how?” {Weaving Metal}
“It works.” {Mercury}
“What does it do?” {Weaving Metal}
“You will just have to see.” {Mercury}
“I can’t wait to see.” {GFM}
“You cannot be seriously considering letting him make that!” {Weaving Metal}
“I am. I trust him.” {GFM}
“But” {Weaving Metal}
“Have you seen if Formations?” {GFM}
“Well, yes. I cannot believe this.” {Weaving Metal}
“Mercury, go ahead.” {Weaving Metal}
“I will not let you down.” {Mercury}
The building was a large room where the center was a raised platform. The seats were raised even higher above the platform to allow everyone to see. The sides were divided between Tenebrosity and Luminescence Cultivators. Everyone went quite as The Grand Formation Master and Weaving Metal took their seats on their respective sides.
Mercury stepped onto the platform wearing a gray cloak over real outfit.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Formation Masters of Tenebrosity and Luminescence. I must apologize. There will not be a competition today.” {Mercury}
The crowd started murmuring.
“There will not be one because I am the apprentice to both The Grand Formation Master and Weaving Metal.” {Mercury}
The crowd went silent and listened.
“I see this as a failure to communicate. I see this as a wider representation of our two sides. That without proper communication more misunderstandings and problems will arise once more. I hope to use this day to change that.” {Mercury}
Mercury took off his cloak to reveal a robe. One side was mostly white while the other side was mostly black. The white side had swirls of black and other patterns in black. The black side had mirrored the patterns of the white side only with it being white.
“I simply ask that you let me show you what I think the two sides can do if they work together.” {Mercury}
Mercury started working on his Formation. The crowd was mesmerized as Mercury worked. Every action made sense on its own but no one could tell how it all fit together or what Mercury was doing. Soon it became clear. Mercury made a Formation using aspects of the two styles. Mercury finished the Formation by placing pairs of orbs containing Light Qi and Darkness Qi at several places in the Formation.
“Before I start it, if anyone here is sensitive to flashing lights please look away.” {Mercury}
Mercury activated his Formation. Each pair of orbs started sending out rays of Qi that hit each other. The result was a wide range of colors being formed. At first it was just the colors, but the crowd watched with amazement as the colors formed into shapes, then creatures and people. A quick battle between a serpent like dragon and a Cultivator played out. However, before it could finish, the Formation seemed to brake. The colors faded into nothing, leaving Mercury on the stage.
“I am sorry. It appears that my Formation was not good enough. I will need to work on it more. I hope that when I perfect it everyone can come once again to see it.” {Mercury}
Everyone was stunned. No one had seen such a dynamic formation before. Only one person spoke out.
“HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?” {Cove}
“The simple answer is that there is two main parts to this Formation. The Luminescence Style provided a base to control the Light and Darkness Qi. The Tenebrosity Style allowed for the other part to follow a set of instructions to change and control the Luminescence Style base.” {Mercury}
“HOW!?” {Cove}
“For anyone interested in my experiment, I will talk with my teachers about writing a book about it and giving it out to everyone. Now please allow me to research why my Formation failed.” {Mercury}
Mercury started studying his Formation. Looking for why it ‘failed’. Most Formation Masters started leaving but some stayed and hoped Mercury could figure it out soon, but they also left after a few hours of waiting. However most did not just head back but stayed and talked about Mercury’s Formation. Some were even brave enough to ask the other side about what they thought of it, and how to possibly make something like it. Soon only Mercury, the Grand Formation Master, and Weaving Metal were left.
“Mercury, I know that you are good. You cannot let a single fail drag you down.” {GFM}
“Brick, his Formation did not fail.” {Weaving Metal}
“You mean he did it on purpose?” {GFM}
“I did.” {Mercury}
“Why?” {GFM}
“It gives everyone a reason to come back. It gives them a reason to talk, to find out why it failed. It gave some of them a desire to improve it. It hopefully gave everyone a reason to come together.” {Mercury}
“…”
“You could have been called the best if it worked the first time.” {GFM}
“I do not need that title.” {Mercury}
Mercury talked with his teachers for a bit about the future and what he wants to do. When he finally left, he found Cove and Clover waiting for him.
“Mercury! How could you be so cruel!? How could you be so heartless to CLOVER!?” {Cove}
“What?” {Mercury}
“You got her addicted to coffee then took it away from her!” {Cove}
“I… uh… it is a misunderstanding.” {Mercury}
Thank you for reading.
I am sorry for the late upload.
