I talked with Liza several times over the next few days but we didn’t go on an actual date, as we had an all day date that Saturday. But that doesn’t mean the week was uneventful. Maria had stayed here all but one night, when Dave had stayed at her place. On Wednesday I got home from work and saw her meditating in the living room. I tried to be quiet so that I didn’t disturb her, but she opened her eyes and spoke. “Hey, Kev.” she said, getting my attention. “Quick question. We’re learning about how different medicines are needed at different levels of cultivation. Mind answering a few questions so I can get a different perspective?”
“Yeah, sure” I said. I guess she figured I could help her study.
“What would you say is the difference between the different cultivation levels? I know the different levels, but I’m confused about why certain techniques, pills, and elixirs, and I guess Formations too, are rated by cultivation level. How are they actually separated?” She rubbed her arms to relieve the pain. For the last two days she had been preparing her blood vessels by converting them in sections as much as she could into meridians without managing to fully converting them. Even this failure, though, would let her use the first method to break through, as the meridians would be easy to restore to just beyond where they had reached before as long as she could picture all of the blood vessels at once.
“Oh, that’s something I can answer.” I said before taking a second to gather my thoughts. “It basically comes down to the phase of the qi.” She looked even more confused. “Like with the phases of water. You have water vapor or steam that’s a gas, liquid water, and solid water, or ice.” She nodded in understanding. “Well, the qi in the atmosphere is basically a gas. Well, it’s technically closer to a plasma based on its properties, but you can think of it like a gas.” That briefly confused her, but I saved it in the end. “So, you know how oxygen and CO2 can be dissolved in water, along with a lot of other gasses?”
“Yeah, we covered that in biology. Fish tend to breath the dissolved oxygen by absorbing it in their gills, and release the carbon dioxide into the water at the same time.”
“Right.” I said. “That is basically what wearing a qi bracelet does. It it dissolves the gaseous qi into the liquid in your body, and when it’s saturated you are at the Peak level for Cleansing. Well, technically levels are measured in percentages, but for the sake of convenience we approximate it with ranks. Initial is when you first start. At 25% it becomes Early, at 50% Middle, at 75% Late, and at 100% or more Peak.”
“You can go beyond 100%?” she asked.
“Technically. Some techniques let you push it a bit beyond the natural end point, some have loopholes. I was technically at 150% Gathering when I broke through to Condensing, as I converted both my nerves and Blood Vessels, and you don’t technically need to do both.” She nodded. “Well, in Cleansing it is dissolved gas, then at Gathering the fluid in your meridians start to turn to Enhanced Qi Liquid, essentially those drinks you can buy to rapidly increase your qi level.”
“Like the saline they started selling 20 something years ago? Or those fancy sports drinks that cost ten dollars a bottle and are basically that with flavoring?”
“Yeah, that’s also an Enhanced Qi Liquid. Once that liquid gets as saturated as it can be in your meridians, you can form a dantian and make actual liquid qi in it, and store it in the sub nodes. That puts you in Condensing. Then, once the dantian and subnodes reach maximum size, you can start cycling that liquid qi through your meridians. While they can handle it better than the rest of your body, only the Dantian and subnodes can survive exposure to pure liquid qi. So you let a bit dissolve in the fluid in your meridians and cycle it through them, and they will slowly build up a resistance. The cells which can’t handle it will die and the ones that can will split to take their place, healing the damage it caused, kind of like your muscles recovering after working out. Eventually the meridians will be fully conditioned, and you can cycle the liquid qi directly. That puts you in Foundation. Then you need to put your body through Reconstruction. Basically, you do the liquid qi step with all of your body by letting it slowly leak from your meridians into the rest of your body. Once your whole body can handle pure liquid qi, and every cell in your body is fully saturated with the liquid qi, you are at Peak Foundation. These are the parts that most people know about, but there are two other steps people have techniques for.”
“Yeah, I was pretty familiar with those, but the not that much detail on the Foundation. What’s the other two levels?”
“Core and Nascent Soul. Core is basically where you grow a solid qi crystal in your dantian. You ever grown rock salt or sugar crystals?” She shook her head. “Well, basically, if you supersaturate the water with one of those, then give it a nucleation point, like a string or stick or crystal of its chemical, it will start to gather there and grow a crystal. That’s basically what you do to start a core. You compress your qi enough that it becomes supersaturated, then you create a nucleation point in the dantian. Then it will slowly grow over time by absorbing liquid qi. After that is Nascent soul. It’s classified, so I can’t tell you much about it. But I know that it lets you compress your mind or part of it into items or your Core to make them easier to control.”
“Classified? As in only the governments have it?”
“Yep. It’s not that big a deal, though. Of the twelve billion people on Earth, only five are Nascent Soul, and they are in five different countries.”
“Right, I heard about that on the News. US, UK, and…”
“China, Russia, Egypt. Yeah, those five people are all pretty popular. They all keep their areas of the globe safe and prevent large scale war, basically making their countries superpowers. Though, I have heard rumors that all of those countries are offering help to other countries in elevating one of their own people to Nascent.”
Maria nodded. “Makes sense. Having more than one would basically make them stronger than the others, and if you can’t do it on your own, you might as well help a friend so you can still get most of the benefits. How expensive are the techniques, though? I know the ones you gave me are free, but formation devices and skill techniques aren’t.”
“Well, there are a few skills that are. I’ll teach you Levitation once you finish your break through. That way you can fly slowly. And even at Cleansing you can use qi blasts, though they are pretty weak. But for the most part you do have to pay. The ones for advancing, though, have a lot of free versions out there. At least until you get to Foundation and they are all based off of the same base technique unless you pay for it.”
“Why is that? Is there some Open Source Foundation project out there?”
“Kind of. Fifteen years ago a university in Beijing was working on a new Foundation technique for the Chinese government when one of the students working on the project was hacked. And because they had alpha and beta versions of the technique saved on their computer, the files were copied and quickly leaked on the dark web. After a few months, someone started giving out copies for free, and most of the projects that were working on a free or open source version switched to using one of those techniques and fixing or modifying it. The Chinese government released an official version of the technique that they claimed was the one their soldiers were using, but anyone that knows about technique design can tell they took the latest leaked beta version and quickly fixed the major flaws to create that version. The solutions weren’t very elegant, compared to the rest of the technique, for one, like it was improvised. It works, but any of the open source projects based on it will work better.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Maria smirked. “Sounds like you have a lot to say on that subject.”
“Oh, yeah.” I said, a bit embarrassed. “The leaked and official versions were given to us in one of my design classes and I actually wrote a paper on it. It’s the highest level technique I have, as I try not to pay for them, being broke like I am.”
“Well, if I ever get that far, you can pick one of them for me to use.” She got up and stretched a few times. “Well, I’m going to go get us something to eat, then try breaking through again. Hopefully I’ll have recovered by then.”
“If it’s an issue, we have healing items at work. The cheapest goes for around $50, though it only really helps you recover from your workouts faster, and would probably work on cultivation stress too.”
Maria shrugged. “Well, I’m broke too, but if I think I need it I’ll swing by and get one. My scholarship comes with a bit extra for living expenses, I just won’t be able to eat anything descent for a few weeks.”
“Make Dave buy you food, then. His parents are pretty rich, so he didn’t even need a scholarship or to work, like me.”
“Really? He never talked about being rich.”
“Well he only told be after getting drunk. I don’t think he likes talking about it, because I still don’t know what they do for a living and I’ve been his roommate for three years now, and knew him for three years before that.”
Just then Dave came out of his room. “Oh, Kev, you’re home. What are you two talking about?”
Maria looked at me. “He was just explaining the different ranks of cultivation to me.”
“Oh, yeah, he likes to talk about that. He’s a bit of a nerd.”
“Nothing wrong with being a nerd.” I responded. “Just means I’ll get a job making something that you can’t live without.”
Dave laughed. “Well, when that happens, send me a free sample.”
“Are you kidding?” I responded. “I’m charging you double.”
---
The next interesting thing that happened was at work. When I got there an overweight woman was complaining about one of the products. I had no idea how one could be overweight after wearing a bracelet. The only people I’d heard of that were overweight were members of religious groups that didn’t believe in the use of qi. When it was first discovered there were religious groups that claimed that qi based techniques were magic or sorcery, and therefore evil, or that qi itself was demonic in nature. Over the next few years most of their membership had left for versions of the religion that didn’t have an issue with it. Even the Vatican had decided that it was just a scientific phenomenon after it had been around for a few years, and started letting their members use it, and the Amish only banned the use of Formation devices, and therefore relied on meditation and medical means to cultivate, like drinking Qi Enhanced liquid or eating plants which had qi inside them, what many places called qi plants or spirit plants.
This woman, however, was wearing a bracelet. In fact, it looked like she was wearing several on each arm. Some people did that to try and gather as much as possible, but few people went so overboard with it, instead doing as the military did and using larger devices like vests or belts to gather qi.
“I just got off the phone with our supplier,” said one of my coworkers as I went to the computer to clock in. “They said that the bracelet is rated for up to one hundred and twenty kilograms, and that is likely why it isn’t allowing you to fly.”
“The advertising on the box says that anyone can use it to fly. ANYONE. A-N-Y-O-N-E. It doesn’t say anything about a maximum weight. That’s false advertising!”
“I’m sure they just didn’t account for everything that could happen with the device.” Brad started to explain before she cut him off.
“Well how are you going to fix this?” she demanded.
“Let me ask my manager and…”
“Of course you can’t do anything without your manager. Typical incompetent workers.”
I definitely didn’t envy Brad in this situation, and was glad that I wasn’t scheduled to come in an hour earlier, or I might be in his position. Luckily, he could leave as soon as she finished her tantrum, as I was his replacement.
Soon, a manager came over and agreed to give her a second one for free. They then went through the process of linking the two wirelessly so that they would work together, something that I’d rarely seen used with anything but barrier devices, but which managed to let her hover a bit off the ground. They had said the name of the device, so I knew it was a Gathering level Levitation object and not a Condensation level Flight object. At this speed of movement she would have to be near the device’s limit still, as you generally needed to be at around 80% of an object’s limit for it to decrease its performance. That meant that she was probably around 200 kilograms. I would have to research if there were any medical conditions which prevented weight loss even at the peak of Cleansing, or if there were techniques which made use of extra fat in the body, which she might be using. I couldn’t think of another reason she might be so big.
After registering the warranty for the new device, which I assumed would be tested in a few months due to the device being overtaxed constantly, she floated out of the store, unwilling to walk even the distance to the front door.
Brad walked over and sighed before clocking out. I could tell that he was still stressed from the encounter. “You have a destressing technique yet?” I asked and he shook his head.
“Never thought I’d need one.”
I nodded and pulled out my phone, then texted two of them to him, one for controlling breathing and one for slowing heart rate. They were both Gathering level, but I knew he was Early Gathering, so he should be able to use them.
He checked the text message. “Thanks, man.” he said. “I’ll try one of them when I get home.”
I put away my phone before the manager saw it and said something about having my phone out while on the clock. “No problem, man. They’re pretty basic techniques. In fact, I have multiple versions of each of those, I just sent you the easiest to use ones. Once you are used to them, tell me and I’ll send you a better one that is more complicated.”
“Sure, I’ll do that.” Brad went to the break room to grab his stuff, then left, taking off once he got outside. He had saved up for several months in order to buy a Condensing level Flight bracelet, though he still spent over $1000 on the cheapest model. Even with as little practice as I had with the technique, I could probably fly faster than his bracelet let him fly, but he had access to the effect at gathering level due to it being a device.
Many techniques had comparable devices, so that wasn’t anything special, but it did mean that those with money didn’t have to actually study and practice to have access to those effects, and that they could leave the effect running in the background so that they didn’t need to concentrate. Maybe, if I managed to save up enough, I would buy one of those old Army surplus Gathering barrier belts. That or a qi gathering vest, like they give their troops. That would be nice. If only I had the money. Though if I wanted that, I would need to actually work.
I forced myself to stop daydreaming about buying reasonably priced surplus equipment and concentrate on work. A woman had just brought here daughter in and likely wanted to buy her her first bracelet. Maybe I can convince her to buy a Qi Seven, like my dad once bought me the Qi 2 I’m still wearing.
---
For the rest of the week I went to work, meditated, and did school work. Liza and I texted each other occasionally, but not consistently. Then Saturday got here. As she hadn’t told me where she lived yet, I met her at a subway station near the Chinese buffet we had eaten at for our first date. She was wearing black pants and a black t-shirt, something that would work better during this combat game.
We rode the subway to the station closest to the practice field, then used our flight technique to fly there. While you could carry a gun in the city, as there were techniques that were stronger than any gun at Gathering, as long as the bullets weren’t given formations to enhance their effect, they weren’t allowed in the subway, as they could damage the train if used. That meant that even if we owned any we couldn’t have brought them with us. We could easily have worn shield devices, and many on the train were doing, but we didn’t own any of them either.
That didn’t matter, however, as Randy had many guns and shield belts. When we arrived we searched around the parking lot for him and, once I had found him, landed at the back of his truck. He got out and walked to the back. “Good, you’re here.” It was only 8:37 and he hadn’t expected us to get here until 9:00, but he still wanted to get inside as fast as possible. There were many people here to talk to and he was friends with about half of them, so he wanted to go meet them before the event started at 9:30.
He opened up the back of his truck and started pulling out equipment. “Do you have any of those military surplus gathering vests?” I asked, not seeing one among the equipment.
“At home. Didn’t figure I’d need them here.”
“Neat. Any chance you’d be willing to sell me one?”
Randy shrugged. “Maybe. What exactly were you looking for?”
“Well, I can’t afford much right now, but I was hoping to speed up my cultivation. I think even the original model was ten times as fast as my bracelet, so I thought of maybe wearing one for the next year so I can reach the peak of Condensation faster.”
“You still wearing that Qi 2 you got as a kid? Yeah, the original model would be ten times as fast. I actually got to mid Condensation with one before I upgraded to a ten year old model instead of that twenty year old one. But yeah, I’ll sell you my old vest. How about three hundred for it?”
I shrugged. “Still a bit more than I can afford right now.” I had around three hundred and fifty in my account, but I didn’t want it to get that low from one purchase. “Any chance you can go lower?”
“Not really. They are kind of a collector’s item, and I could get at least three fifty for it if I had it dry-cleaned and sold it on the internet. There might be a cheaper model available. I think the Chinese military released a similar model about seventeen years ago, three years after that one came out, but they weren’t super popular, as they weren’t comfortable. Their soldiers pretty much only wore them in basic training and stopped as soon as they were allowed to at Condensation. I can see if anyone has one of those they are willing to sell. I think they normally go for $150 or so.”
“Yeah, that sounds way more affordable.” While being comfortable to wear was important, the cost was more important to me at the moment. “So, about the game.” I picked out a shield belt and some old urban pattern fatigues, and, after I grabbed a standard rifle and ammunition and making sure that Liza had her equipment, he locked up his truck and we went inside.
