“Today’s lesson will be crucial in determining your future as a disciple of this sect,” Elder Cai begins. “Our first goal was to unlock your divine sense so that you could start using basic qigong, and I believe all who remain have found success in this endeavor.”

  I cast a curious glance over my shoulder. Most of the initiates seem to be in attendance today, though if I have to guess, at least five are missing. The words of Elder Shangguang pop back into my head. He expects no more than two dozen of us by the end of the year and we are already losing people. He may not be wrong.

  “Our second goal is to purify the dantians and awaken your spiritual roots. Once you have completed this step, you will actually retain some qi you gather rather than losing it all. Furthermore, you will begin claiming that qi as your own.”

  Elder Cai moves to the front of the dais and folds her hands behind her back. “Before we begin, we will address the assignment I gave you yesterday. Can anyone tell me whether the objects were cups or pots?”

  The initiates shift and shuffle with uncertainty, but while they murmur and look around for someone to take the initiative, I raise my hand.

  “Miss Zhou! What is your answer?”

  “When considering the dao, they are neither cups nor pots,” I reply with confidence. “They are only such things when we consider the views of society.”

  “A good answer,” Elder Cai raises a hand and holds up her index finger. “But now I have a question for you: did you come to this conclusion on your own?”

  My heart skips a beat and I gulp nervously. “N-no, I did not…”

  “You received help from someone else?”

  “My roommate…”

  Elder Cai slowly lowers her hand with a solemn nod. The silence that hangs over the class is maddening. “That is just the thing I wanted to hear!”

  Relief hits me like a tidal wave and I exchange a quick smile with Song Ling.

  “While there is much to learn about the dao, the more immediate lesson is one that Miss Zhou passed: you are not alone. If there is anything you take away from my lessons it is that. You are part of the Taiyi sect, even as initiates, and we are going to do everything we can to help you, which means you must do the same for each other. This is part of the reason you are all martial brothers and sisters. You are family; you work together, learn together, and succeed together.”

  Elder Cai hangs her head, as if drawing upon vivid memories of the past. “The only thing I can guarantee is that if you try to go it alone, you will fail.”

  “That said… Miss Zhou, can you explain your answer?”

  “Uhm, I think so,” I sit up straight and confident while clearing my throat. “The way it was explained to me is that nothing that exists can be the dao. The dao is unnamable and exists beyond our perception. In a way, it is the perfect form or idea of whatever concept it pertains to, thus all things, such as cups and pots, are just a reflection of the dao.”

  Elder Cai begins pacing while mulling over my answer. “That is not a bad explanation of such a complex premise. As Miss Zhou says, the dao is not something that we can truly observe, but we know it exists because the dao defines the world. The dao is a path, and it is a law. Therefore, understanding the dao as it pertains to your cultivation is essential to advancement.

  “You will often hear your fellow disciples mention insight and enlightenment. Generally, this means they have come to understand their dao more intimately, and thus how it shapes their path. To know what makes a sword a sword allows one who wields it to do so with even greater skill than one who does not.”

  “Because Miss Zhou provided the answer, she will receive special compensation at the end of the week,” Elder Cai explains while pulling one of the paintings forward. “Now, on to today’s lesson!”

  “While I explain these first few steps, please begin your breathing exercises. You will need to be circulating qi through your system for this to work, so I recommend you get a head start,” Elder Cai gestures to the painting, specifically the upper dantian. “We will start at the top and work our way down. Over the years, we have determined this to be the most efficient method.

  “Our goal is to remove lingering impurities, most common of which is turbid qi. That is to say, a mixture of innate qi and earthly qi slowly acquired over the course of your life that was never forced out. Circulate your qi in your dantian and you will notice some resistance, as if there is a heavy cloud taking up space and getting in your way. This is that turbid qi.”

  I close my eyes and take a deep breath, drawing in as much qi from the surroundings as possible. With so many of us in the room it feels thin and wispy, so I need several breaths to reach my capacity. I isolate the qi in my lower dantian and begin moving it upwards to the middle dantian, and then into the upper. My qi rarely lingers in either, and is most notable in my lower dantian, so it is easy to forget the other two exist. They do their job subconsciously, much like my other internal organs. However, I can urge some qi into their open spaces if I put my mind to it.

  The moment that I do, I feel the resistance Elder Cai speaks of.

  It is like a sack filled with cotton. The qi flows in and through the cotton, but there is undeniable resistance. Furthermore, as I concentrate and force my qi through the areas of resistance, I am overcome with a sense of wrongness. It feels dirty and muddy, perhaps even corrupt in some way.

  “The objective is to move that turbid qi to the lower dantian. Coax and encourage it to move downward until you have cleansed the upper and middle dantian. This may take a few minutes, so I will give you some time. There is no need to rush.”

  It is not an easy thing to do. I try to create a sort of swirling blanket of qi to drape over the impurities and then encourage it to descend through my core. It takes a few tries to get it all, but soon enough I have captured it all in my lower dantian.

  “How are you doing, Song-shijie?”

  She does not open her eyes, but she does smile. “I am almost done. How about you?”

  “I think I have it all isolated, or at least what I can feel.”

  “Even faster than me!” she furrows her brow in concentration and then finally opens her eyes. “But now I have caught up.”

  “The next step sounds easier than it is. For those who aren’t ready to proceed, just keep trying until you figure it out. I intend to lay out all of the instructions early so that you may continue at your own pace,” Elder Cai flicks her wrists to swish her sleeves out of her way and holds her hands out over her lower dantian. “Next: force the impurities out.”

  Her smile bears a sense of mischievousness as she watches our expression shift into a mixture of bewilderment and consternation. “As I said: it sounds easier than it is. Anyway, at this stage in your development, you do not have much control over what you do with your qi, so we’re just going to force it out in any way we can. Our best recommendation is to take a bit of qi and let it naturally disperse, but hone your senses and keep an eye on it. Follow it out of your body, and once you have traced the path, use it to expel the impurities.”

  I give Elder Cai’s suggested method a try. I begin by isolating a small bit of captured qi from the prison I’ve formed around my impurities and let it go free. It takes some time for it to meander out from my dantian but when it does, I am ready. I sharpen my focus and follow it through my body until it finds several exits across my upper arms.

  I hear Song Ling mutter something under her breath, but I am too drawn up in the process of cleansing my dantians. I take another deep breath, one filled with an acrid taste that nearly causes me to gag, and use the new qi to push the turbid qi from my body.

  A sense of relief, like the one following a series of much needed sneezing, hits just before I get another whiff of that acrid taste in the air. I open my eyes and find the source of the disgusting smell: an inky sludge seeping from my skin.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  My face contorts in disgust and I turn to Song Ling to let her know how foul it is, and to offer a warning before she gets too far.

  She returns a weak smile and speaks before I get a chance. “It’s all down my back…”

  We were not given a pill today. Instead, the sect provided a pair of small towels, and now I understand why. I quickly wipe my arms clean and then crawl to Song Ling’s side, take her towels, and shove my arm down the back of her robe to help clean her up before it gets too nasty.

  Elder Cai chuckles. “I am pleased to see that a number of you have already succeeded. As soon as you complete this task, you are dismissed for the day. However, you have some assignments. Ensure that you take this opportunity to practice your breathing. Cleansed of impurities like it now is, your dantian can hold and retain the qi, and as you do, your dormant spiritual roots will begin to awaken. This process may take a day or two, but by the time you start next week’s lessons, you should be ready.

  “Because today’s lesson is short and I am not providing any lectures, you will be encouraged to attend a few this afternoon. Some of the inner disciples have volunteered to give presentations after lunch, lead some lessons, and perhaps provide a bit of tutoring. Attend at least one, if not more. This will be to your benefit.

  “Those of you who haven’t finished today’s lesson will remain here until you do, or until the regularly scheduled dismissal time. I will take the rest of this time to help you individually.”

  “Shall we go?”

  I raise a brow at Song Ling. “I think I know what you’re thinking.”

  She grins.

  I smirk.

  “Back so soon?”

  I pull the gate closed and bow to Xiuyi who is lying in the grass beneath our evergreen tree. “I didn’t think it was that early.”

  “Oh?” she shades her eyes with her left hand and peers up through the leaves. “I must have lost track of time.”

  I slowly swish my way over and crouch down next to her. “It’s almost time for lunch.”

  “If you’re thinking your pet will cook for you then you’ll be disappointed.”

  “Pet?”

  “The girl fawning over you whenever you show up, Xiang… Jingyi? She’s off somewhere else doing who-knows-what.”

  I smirk and rise. “She’s my friend, not my pet. Maybe she went to deliver my letter?”

  Xiuyi perks up. “You actually wrote it?”

  “I said I would, didn’t it?” I twirl away from her and mosey my way back over to the gate. “Want to join me, Ban-shijie?”

  “For what?”

  “For lunch! Without Jinyi to feed us, we’ll have to go elsewhere” I make a series of flourishy gestures at the gate. “There’s also some presentations later. We should go to a few.”

  “Ah, right… I heard about those,” she grumbles while rising to her feet. “They told me I need to go to at least one, so yeah, I’ll tag along.”

  I hold the gate open for her and smile as she brushes past me.

  “So, you think your old man can find my sister?”

  Xiuyi proves to be a very swift walker. I normally take my time getting around so I have to scurry along at a frantic pace. “Uhm, I think if anyone can do it, it is him.”

  “Hopefully he has more luck than me…”

  “We’ll find your sister.”

  I do my best to reassure her but she shrugs it off. “I just need to be out looking for her but I can’t even leave the sect.”

  “Then we have to make sure you get promoted!”

  “Heh… there’s a lot of competition.”

  “But we’re not actually competing, are we?”

  Xiuyi comes to a very abrupt halt and looks back at me. “Of course we are. You saw how many initiates there were, right? They won’t keep everyone. We need to be better than the others.”

  My lips curl up in a sly smirk. “We?”

  She huffs and marches off again. “You’re competition, too.”

  “I’m not so sure I’ll be much of a threat to you since you’re already ahead of me.”

  “That’s only because I can already sense qi. That’s the only reason I’m not sitting in class with you this week,” she then grumbles a follow-up under her breath. “I’m not like that Bai-bitch.”

  ‘It seems my roommates may not be on the best terms…’

  “So, you’ll be joining me next week?”

  Xiuyi stops on the threshold leading into the Hall of Plenty, a centralized structure that provides food to the initiates who do not have a Xiang Jinyi to cook for them, or the time to do it themselves. It seems that accounts for most of my fellow initiates since it is teeming with life.

  “Yeah, sure. Anyway, let’s find a place to sit before it’s too late,” she crosses her arms and looks back across the crowd. “It might already be too late.”

  “I’m sure we can find a spot!” I chirp enthusiastically, hop up the last step, and slip past her to make my way into the crowd. “Let’s see…”

  If more people were seated rather than standing about I could actually see where I am going, but I might have misjudged. There’s so many people here that finding anywhere to sit really might be asking too much. Furthermore, I start dreading the wait times.

  ‘Maybe I should just go back and try to cook something for myself? It can’t be that hard, can it?’

  I pause long enough to make sure I haven’t lost Xiuyi, but to my surprise she is right behind me, so I prepare to move along. A tall, lean boy with a pleasant laugh and a charming smile in front of me turns his head just enough to notice me struggling through the crowd. We lock eyes for a moment and I return the smile.

  He nods to greet me and turns back to his friends.

  ‘Ooo… he is cute!’

  My thoughts drift a little but I get back to the task at hand. I step forward and find an opening in the crowd as a nice, wide path opens just ahead, so I lift my foot and—

  “Wait!”

  The same handsome boy half turns and swings his arm out in front of me to stop me from moving forward. My eyes go wide as I spot a serving girl carrying a stack of food items scurrying down the recently formed path, but that is immediately overshadowed by pain blossoming in my chest.

  I suck air into the back of my throat and let out the most pathetic, pitiful, and shock-filled squeak I can muster as the boy’s innocent attempt to keep me out of the servant’s way results in his open hand making direct contact with my left breast. I instinctively recoil from the unexpected slap by whirling around, wrapping my arms around my chest for protection, and then bonking headlong into Ban Xiuyi who is already laughing at my expense.

  “Oh! I am sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you,” the boy turns to me, holds his hands out like he plans to comfort me in some manner, but then thinks better of it and pulls back. “Are you okay?”

  I whimper softly and then shift my head to nod. “Y-yeah, I am okay.”

  ‘Eeee! Th-that hurts so much!’

  I lament my misfortunate and brush my watery eyes on the back of my sleeve. Accidents do happen, and I understand he intended to help, but ouch! I subtly cradle my injury beneath my protective arms and offer up a weak smile as I turn to face him fully.

  “Can you see if there are any open seats?”

  ‘He’s tall, but is it okay to ask? Maybe that is rude? Whatever! He owes me!’

  He doesn’t even bother to look. “No. No, no, not at all. We’ve been here, what, a half hour? We’ve still not ordered anything.”

  The other boy he confers with confirms with a bob of his head.

  “Is it always this busy?”

  He shrugs. “I don’t think so. I suspect most of us are trying to get something to eat before the senior disciples show up.”

  “Oh… uh, in that case,” I glance back at Xiuyi. “Maybe we should try something else?”

  She shrugs and nods, which tells me nothing of use.

  “I think we’ll try something else.”

  “Oh… maybe — maybe we’ll see each other again soon?”

  I force a smile that might have been genuine, or even filled with excitement, under normal circumstances. “Yeah, we might. Uh, see you around!”

  We push our way back out of the crowd and pause at the top of the steps.

  “Have you ever snuck up on a chicken before?” Xiuyi asks me without any prompting or context.

  “I can’t say I have.”

  “You sounded just like one!” She snorts loudly as she starts down the stairs. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  I roll my eyes and follow.