by Jace Kang
“It was founded by Chen Wangting of Chen Village, based on his own martial arts background and reading Zhang Sanfeng’s manuscripts.”
Ken bounced up and down. “And Yang Taiji?”
“A student of the Chen family, Yang Luchan, was invited to teach imperial princes. The princes were too lazy to hold the low stances, so Master Yang modified the training.” Master Ryu gestured to Aya. “Because her muscles are so weak, I taught her an easy version to begin with.”
Ken scratched his head. How much later had the master woken him up? “When did you show it to her?”
“About five minutes ago?” Master Ryusuke shrugged.
A new pit formed in Ken’s gut. In just five minutes, she was already performing it so beautifully.
“She’s a natural talent.”
Ken snorted. “XHuman genes, probably.”
“Maybe. Now, come with me.” Master Ryu led Ken over to where Aya was practicing.
“All right, Aya-chahn. Stop.”
Chahn? Was that like the Coon he’d used?
Aya froze in place.
“Come, sit across from each other, under the tree. It’s almost dawn.” Master Ryu gestured with both hands to his left and right, even as he assumed the Zhan Zhuang stance.
Meeting Aya’s gaze, Ken went to the indicated spot and plopped down. She followed suit.
“What’s so important about dawn?” Ken asked.
“Because dusk and dawn are the best times for beginners to Cultivate.”
So cryptic. “Why?”
“Because that’s when Yin and Yang are balanced, and even new practitioners like yourselves can differentiate between the two.”
Ken nodded in slow bobs of his head, though Aya eyed the master with a raised eyebrow.
“And here, one male, one female. Yin and Yang, facing one other.”
Did this mean Ken would be stuck with Aya throughout their training? Just what did the master see in her? Sure, she had the same face as Captain Keiko, but she was so thin and frail, her complexion so pale and sickly, it was hard to believe they could be related.
The master tsked. “Straighten your spines, like I showed you. Good. Now, press your Huiyin point to the ground.”
“What’s the Huiyin point?” Ken asked.
Master Ryusuke smirked. “The very bottom of your torso.”
Aya blinked several times and gulped. “Down there?”
“Down where?” Ken threw his hands up.
“Halfway between your anus and your scrotum.” His lips twitched as his eyes shifted to Aya. “Or for those of us without scrotums, halfway between your anus and vagina.”
Swallowing hard, Ken shook the image of Captain Keiko out of his head. He squirmed, trying to get into the right position. It was satisfying to see Aya squirming as well.
The master nodded. “Before, in the Zhan Zhuang stance, you were connected to the Earth through the Yongquan points in your soles. That way, you draw Qi up from the ground through your legs. But now, I want you to circulate it through your Governing and Conception vessels. Close your eyes. Press the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, right behind your teeth. One palm on top of the other over your navel.”
“What does that do?” Ken asked.
“It connects the Governing vessel on your back, the Yang side, and the Conception vessel on your front, the Yin side.”
It didn’t make sense, but Ken did as he was told. His tongue tip tickled the roof of his mouth.
“Now, imagine drawing Qi from the ground through your Huiyin point as you inhale, up your spine to the top of your head, then down the center of your body down to your Core as you exhale.” He knelt and adjusted first Ken’s position and then Aya’s.
Doing as he was told, Ken settled into a rhythm. At first, it was hard to pay attention to all the details of sitting correctly, and then visualizing it all.
“If you can’t sense the energy, imagine it like a stream of water. Rising, rising, rising like a fountain up your spine to your Baihui point.”
Pressure and warmth spread from the master’s finger at the very vertex of Ken’s head. It was easier to visualize it now, and Ken could almost feel the tingling up his spine.
“Now, down the front of your body, through your neck, through your sternum, across your naval, down to a few inches below your naval.”
The tinging went down.
“That is your Dantian: your Core, the Sea of Life. It’s the reservoir for Qi, the house of your Essence. The more you expand and enrich it, the greater your Cultivation.”
“Do you mean the bladder?” Aya asked.
“No. You can’t see the Dantian on an X-ray, or whatever you use to look inside someone, at least not until you achieve First Rank and it solidifies into a physical Core.”
“Like the Dragon Pearl you mentioned last night,” Ken asked.
“Yes. The stronger you become, the larger, purer, and more tangible your Core becomes.”
Aya blew out a rasping breath. “That would explain why the Peacekeeper scientists thought you had a bladder stone.”
“No more talk; concentrate,” the master said. “Feel. Breathe in through your nose, pull the energy up your spine. Slow and controlled breath. Once it reaches the top of your head, breath out through your mouth, and let the energy sink down to your Core. Stretch each breath out, longer and longer.”
With each inhalation the sensation became clearer, though the rattling of phlegm in Aya’s chest, followed by a hissing wheeze, made it harder to concentrate.
“Up to now, it should’ve been easier to feel the sinking sensation down the front of your body.”
It had, but why?
“That’s because it was still night, and Yin was predominant. The sun is about to break the horizon. Yin and Yang are in balance. Soon, it will be easier to feel the rising sensation up your back. It will be easiest at noon, when Yang predominates.”
The master’s presence loomed over Ken, followed by a dull, aching sensation blossoming in the top of his left wrist and the inside of his ankle, then the side of his right hand and the outside of his ankle.
“Ow!” Aya said.
“Hush,” Master Ryusuke said. “Just continue breathing.”
Ken tried to suppress a smirk. At least in this, he was doing something better than Aya.
After a few moments, the master said, “Keep sitting and relax. Open your eyes. You can stop visualizing now.”
Aya gasped for breath.
Ken opened his eyes.
Across from him, short, golden filaments sprouted from her spots on left wrist, right hand, and ankles. He looked down to find them in him, as well.
“Acupuncture?” Ken asked.
“Yes, the Master and Opening points of the Yang Governing vessel and the Yin Conception vessel.”
Hadn’t the Peacekeepers taken the needles? Ken looked at the metal in his flesh. “Where did you get this?”
“They were wires in some device I found last night.” Master Ryusuke held up the casing of a street light.
Ken shuddered. Where they even clean?
“Now, the goal of this exercise was to open and scour your Governing and Conception vessels. They’re the most important of our eight Qi reservoirs for the regular meridians. The system is like a river with several lakes. In times of flooding, the water in your riverbed backflows into the lakes. In times of drought, water from the lakes replenishes your riverbed.”
“It was hard to feel the energy from the ground,” Aya said, shoulders drooping.
“I had similar difficulties. Our cystic fibrosis makes it difficult to breathe, thereby making it harder to visualize. Also, the Metal aspect of our body is tarnished, rusted, and otherwise impure. It makes the processing of air all the harder.”
“How long will it take?”
“It’s hard to say from individual to individual.” The master shrugged. Then he set his hand between her shoulder blades.
Jealousy twisted in Ken’s gut again.
Why? It was Aya and not him who suffered a disadvantage this time.
Master Ryusuke’s eyes widened. “Here’s part of your problem: the circuity in this cloth. It bypasses and redistributes all your own bioelectric energy. You’ll need to Cultivate in different clothes, ideally those made of natural fibers.”
Ken and Aya exchanged glances. Where were they supposed to get clothes made from natural fibers? Everything was made from polymers now.
Even if he held an advantage over her in Cultivation, he’d progress even faster if he could replace his synthetic clothes. Maybe he could practice naked, which no doubt this pampered princess wouldn’t dare do.
She coughed several times, the mucous thick in her throat. She cast them a nervous glance, then turned away and spat it out. She wiped her mouth and turned back. “What if I meditate naked?”
Ken had clearly misjudged her determination.
The master didn’t bat an eyelash. “That would be better than in these clothes. Our next practice will be when the sun reaches its apex, at the moment of Greatest Yang.”
“And she won’t have to practice naked,” a mellifluous voice said.
Ken joined the others in turning to the source.
The Elestrae woman from the day before stood with her hand on a tree. Her gown looked like starlight made solid, and barely covered her breasts. She grasped her hem and gave a slight dip of her body, letting the istrium jewelry around her neck jingle.
Master Ryusuke sank into the opening stance of the Xingyi Water Form. “What do you want?”
“I mean you no harm.” She straightened. “I was fascinated by you.”
A grin formed on the master’s face. “Were you?”
“I am Siena,” she said. “Vice Science Envoy to Earth from the Elestrae Confederation. You are not like other most humans.”
Master Ryusuke bowed. “I am Ishihara Ryusuke. I am honored that a fairy gives me so much attention”
“Fairy?” Her expression turned quizzical.
Ken snorted. “He means—”
Master Ryusuke placed a hand over Ken’s mouth, quieting him. Ken found Aya in the corner of his eye. She was frowning.
“How may I help you?” the master asked.
“Humans shouldn’t be able to do what you can do, and I’m curious to learn how.” Her eyes shifted, taking him in.
Had she come alone? Ken looked past her. “How did you find us?”
Siena played with her necklace. “Channeling.”
“And how do propose to study me?” the master asked.
“First, by combat.” She settled into a fighting stance.
“
Chapter 14:
The Cultivator
R yu could recognize almost every fighting style from the first few movements, but the stance Siena adopted looked nothing like anything he’d ever seen before.
Knees slightly bent, one arm extended with the elbow out and palm facing him, the other behind her back in a mirroring motion… perhaps it looked like a movement from Ba Gua Zhang, or maybe the Water Path of the Sun-Moon Sect back in the World of Rivers and Lakes.
She, however, looked familiar. He’d thought so when he’d first seen her at Peacekeeper Headquarters. Then her sparkling green eyes had gazed at him with curiosity; now they took on a deadly focus.
“Are you ready?” she asked, accent lilting and sensual.
He swallowed hard. As a Fourth-Ranked Water Master, he wouldn’t stand a chance against a fairy, even if this one only came up to his chest. Indeed, even though his senses revealed her Core to be no larger than a grain of sand—about the size of a First Rank initiate—it was impossibly dense. Her potential surpassed his by orders of magnitude.
Still, he’d give it his best. He nodded to the kids. “Hold your stances. Try to sense the interplay of energy between us.”
With the assumption that her stance was Water in nature, he sank low into a Hung Gar lunging punch. Supposedly based on the movements of a tiger fighting a crane, its combination of Earth and Fire aspects could counteract and burn off a Water style.
It was also the diametric opposite of his own Path, but as they said, know your enemy…
She leaped above his attack, a Fire defense, followed by a Fire-like volley of several kicks. Usually the distortions in water vapor gave away an opponent’s movements, but not hers. They rained down as she continued her descent, hard to track beneath her skirts. His Iron Shirt took the brunt of the strikes, though the blows caused him to stagger back two steps.
In this split second, he reverted to his Water Path, slipping and dodging. With the humidity still hanging in the air, he swept a hand out and sent a thin mesh of water at her. Once it clung to her, he’d be able to sense her motion from her intent alone. However, as she descended back to the ground from her jump, she twirled midair, dispersing his attack into droplets.
She landed in a crouch, and looked up. The beads around her necklace glowed blue, just as they had at Peacekeeper Headquarters.
What had the boy said? The beads were the source of her power? She didn’t fight like a fairy—indeed, a fairy would’ve overwhelmed him in the first split second.
She leaped up again, this time spinning mid-air with a combination of kicks and punches. Every attack was a non-committed committal, her faster speed relative to his making it near-impossible to use the Water Path’s approach of borrowing force to use against her. All he could do was dodge.
And watch.
The stones on her necklace grew brighter the quicker she moved. Her style did resemble the Fire Path taught in the Sun-Moon Sect—though a scan of her Qi suggested her martial skill was fueled by those beads instead of a connection to her Core. Doing something about that necklace would be the key to defeating her.
Eschewing defense, he surged forward with Wing Chun punches, embracing the style’s tenacity of Wood and swiftness of Fire. Their limbs tangled up, he switched to the enveloping nature of Water, sticking to her arms and sensing her intention. He pulled her hands down, creating an opening upon which he launched Splashing Hands.
She wasn’t there. But in her jump back to avoid his attack, her necklace drifted upwards.
Coaxing the water molecules into a filament with Watershaping, he whipped it through the string holding her beads together. They went scattering.
Her irises tracked the beads.
He pressed his attack, resuming a flurry of Wing Chun punches, but now her arms moved slowly. Certainly faster than Kentaro or Aya, but not much quicker than a First Rank initiate. She parried the first twelve, but slowed with each defense until he’d enveloped her arms. He pulled up short to keep from pummeling her into the ground.
He took a step back, set his fist into his palm in salute, and bowed his head. “Thank you for letting me win.”
“No, thank you.” She dipped into a curtsey. “I’ve been to many planets and met many species. I have met few with your caliber of hand-to-hand fighting skill.”
“You are too kind.” He bowed his head again. “Just how many planets have you been to?”
She gave a nonchalant shrug. “I’ve lost count over the centuries.”
“How many centuries?”
“Don’t humans say it’s impolite to ask a woman’s age?” She giggled as she went to retrieve the stones. Every motion was graceful; even in the act of bending over to pick something off the ground she looked as if she were sculpted by a master artisan.
Kentaro was quick to help her, plucking up some of the beads and handing them to her. Aya joined in, studying each of the stones as she found them in the grass.
Keeping himself from ogling the beauty, Ryu helped. “Ken-kun says you are from another planet,” he said.
“Yes, I did say I was the Elestrae’s vice science envoy.” Her lips twitched into an adorable, lopsided grin. “And as I said, I am fascinated by you.”
Ryu put his hand on his chest and blinked. “Me?”
“How are you, a human, able to do what you do with so littl
e istrium on this planet?” Her eyes roved over him, making him feel just a little bit dirty.
The kids had mentioned something about the glowing blue mineral. Ryu shrugged. “I don’t think it has anything to do with this istrium. I’m not even sure what that is.”
“Interesting. Our channeling, whether it manifests as fighting or healing, usually borrows istrium resonance.” She held up one of the bluish beads. “Without it, we have to draw on our own innate energy.”
Innate energy… Ryu pondered. “Where is that?”
“Where?” She shrugged. “It’s innate, bioenergetic. It’s in us.”
Bioenergetic. Could it be these fairies—no, Elestrae—drew on their Core without knowing? “Do you sense a source? A location within you?”
Her brows furrowed. “ATP.”
That had to be figurative. “The kind of house that the aboriginals of America lived in?”
Aya, forgotten up to now, laughed. “No, adenosine triphosphate. It’s the energy that powers our cells.”
Siena nodded enthusiastically. “Glucose and oxygen. It powers everything. Even the bending of reality.” She spoke a strange syllable, and a blue flame appeared in her palm.
A Third-Rank Fire Path technique! With his Second-Rank Fire skill, Ryu extended his Qi and linked to the flame in her hand. With a flick of his fingers, he changed the color to orange.
Her eyes widened in wonder. “We knew some humans in your ancient history could channel. We suspect they had some of our genes.”
“How is that possible?” Kentaro asked. “We didn’t even meet your kind until four hundred years ago.”
“A theory based on our research suggests a group of our people’s colonists settled an island in the South Pacific some twenty thousand years ago. When glaciers melted and sea levels rose, they dispersed to the rest of the world, and some mingled with humans.”
“Research?” Kentaro asked, his tone dubious. “How could you know about something we don’t even have records of?”
Siena closed her hand, snuffing out the flame. “One of our commando teams was stranded on your planet a thousand years ago, during your late seventeen hundreds. They noted at the time that some humans had traces of our DNA. However, it’s gone in XHumans now.”