Cha Ming was surprised yet again, but then he decided that he may as well take out the brush. Although it was likely linked to his rebirth, he felt as though this expert could destroy him with a single thought, should he so choose.
When Cha Ming presented the paintbrush, the old man gently took it. He stroked it, looked at it carefully, and ran his fingers along the inscriptions. After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he handed the brush back to Cha Ming.
“You may call me Uncle Su,” said the old man.
Cha Ming bowed and said, “Uncle Su, this one of the younger generation is called Du Cha Ming.”
Uncle Su nodded, seeming pleased. “There is karma between you and me, since you are now the bonded owner of this brush. As such, I want to teach you a technique. My only condition is that you are not allowed to tell anyone that you learned it from me.”
At this point Cha Ming was quite intrigued, but he was really at the mercy of this expert and figured he might as well go with the flow.
“Let it be as Uncle Su has suggested,” said Cha Ming.
Hearing his answer, Uncle Su smiled and walked toward him. He was a full head shorter than Cha Ming, quite short for an adult. After reaching him, he took out his hand. Each of his fingers was glowing a different color and was inscribed with the Chinese character for each element: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. On the outside, he could see a white circle. In the middle of the circle and connecting the elements was a black star. The black star had no characters. It was as if it could not be materialized as a character, instead materializing as a block of nothingness.
Before he could react, the man let out a quick palm strike to his chest. He was thrown back and landed at the foot of a tree. He couldn’t move his limbs, and as his eyes slowly closed, Cha Ming wondered what the hell had just happened.
“Cha Ming! Cha Ming!”
He woke up feeling groggy and shaken to the chirping voice of Xin Er. She explained how she had not seen him all morning, and finally in the afternoon she remembered that he had gone for a walk. She saw him resting quietly by a tree. It looked like he had slept all day, judging by the number of leaves that had settled on him.
Rubbing his eyes, he slowly looked up at the sixteen-year-old girl that was staring at him rather grievously. “Wuuuuu, you are bullying Xin! I was so worried that something had happened to you out in the woods, yet here you are, napping all day!”
Xin then broke into tears again and sat down crying. Looking around him, Cha Ming didn’t see any sign of the old man. Although he felt more energetic than normal, there was no wound remaining from that vicious palm strike. He got up and brushed the leaves off himself.
“Xin Er, did you see an old man in a white robe with white hair nearby?” he asked.
Xin Er finally stopped crying and shook her head. Sighing, he took her hand and led her back to the school, and they arrived just in time for supper. After a while, Hong Xin was fine. Feng Ming and Gong Lan had not really noticed Cha Ming’s absence. After all, it was common for cultivators to wander off and seclude themselves for a few days—why would a single day trouble them? After accompanying Xin Er for a sufficient amount of time, he finally made his way back to his room and started cultivating. As he looked inward, he almost fainted from surprise.
If he had looked into his dantian two days ago, he would have seen a mixed swirl of five elements, sitting together in a small puddle. The situation now was starkly different. Instead there were five liquid spheres floating in the air, joined by a white circle. A black star was present in the middle, crossing between the elements in a destructive cycle but not daring to touch the white circle.
This… what the hell? That looks a lot like Uncle Su’s palm!
As he continued to observe it, he noticed a few strange things. First, it seemed like each puddle was twice as large as before. As he inspected further, he noticed that the white circle holding them separate was circulating a thin layer of elemental energy from one sphere to the next. This seemed to reinforce each element. Conversely, the black star seemed to cause mutual restraint, but now that he looked at it, something was a little off. The black star seemed to only have four lines, but the lines alternated between the elements. It was like the four lines were instead averaged over its initial five spaces. He was still at the third level of qi condensation, but he now had access to twice as much qi! Wasn’t this a little too much?
After finishing his observations, the soft voice of Uncle Su sounded in his head.
“Young lad,” the voice whispered, “I am always a man of few words. Since you have that brush, I decided to give you this cultivation technique on a whim. Since you haven’t cultivated it from the start, however, I needed to be a little… forceful. Nevertheless, if you can hear my voice now, it means that the process was a success.
“What you are now cultivating is called the Perfect Five Elements cultivation technique. This technique is a little special; you can use the five elements in a creation cycle and generate ‘creation energy.’ This creation energy is made from all five elements and is used to suppress the destructive energy between the elements in your dantian. This destructive energy is not there on purpose. Instead, it’s a consequence of joining the five elements together in formation. Effectively this means that you can remove one ‘restraining’ or ‘destructive’ interaction in your dantian. Accordingly, one restraint is eliminated from each element, which allows the individual’s qi pool to double its growth instead of being inhibited as with lower-level cultivation methods. There are also other ways to make use of this interaction, but you seem like a creative man; I’ll let you figure it out.
“To finish, I’d like you to continue paying close attention to that brush that you’ve bonded. It’s not an ordinary item, and I can sense the karma of reincarnation on you. Perhaps in time you will be able to solve the riddle of the brush. When you meet my dear apprentice, perhaps he will be able to elaborate.
“Anyhow, take care. Remember that your path forward is like a clear sky, with many possibilities.”
The voice faded away. Cha Ming pondered a bit before he walked out of his room. Looking toward the woods, he kowtowed in the general direction. After all, Uncle Su could now be considered a teacher.
Little did he know, at the edge of the woods there was an old man in a white robe. He was quite short and was gently stroking his long white beard. After a few moments, he turned around and walked inside the woods, seeming to vanish with the mists.
* * *
1 Nuwa, in Chinese literature is the progenitor goddess of mankind and has also been credited with mending the heavens. She appeared in Chinese classic literature over two thousand years ago and makes frequent appearances in current Chinese fantasy novels and web novels.
Chapter 11: Seventy-Two Transformations
Cha Ming’s sudden and stable growth in his qi pools led to a series of realizations over the next few days. The first was that he would need to change up his combat style. This came to him when sparring with Ming after finishing twenty consecutive fights. He usually had at least forty percent of his qi remaining at the end of every fight, and unfortunately he had no good way of utilizing it. The next realization was that he would need to acquire additional battle techniques—the cheap ones he had acquired before no longer suited him.
Finally, Cha Ming had to face a depressing fact: he was broke. He hadn’t had to think about this in a while because since entering the academy, he had no need to purchase additional techniques. Additionally, his cultivation was proceeding much slower than before since advancing in each subsequent stage would take twice as long as the next. Growing his qi pools was not what took the longest; instead it was overcoming and growing the limits of each qi pool between stages. This required large amounts of pure qi. He had attempted cultivating by drawing energy from some of the spirit stones he had earned as a prize. And while his cultivation improved by leaps and bounds in a short amount of time, he felt his heart ache every time he witnessed a spir
it stone crumble into dust.
He decided to bring this topic up at supper the next night. Xin just blushed and said that her father earned spirit stones as a captain of the city guard, and she received some every month. For contribution points, she performed menial cleaning tasks for individual courtyards.
Feng Ming, on the other hand, was simply very rich. He could get as many spirit stones to spend as he wanted, within reason. He did not need a lot of contribution points because his family had inherited techniques that suited him perfectly. If he ever needed them, he could buy them for a price that seemed outrageously low. He offered to lend spirit stones to Cha Ming. Cha Ming politely refused, as he didn’t like being indebted to others. This was especially true because Feng Ming was from an aristocratic family, and favors like this would likely need to be paid back in some sort of political support in the future.
Gong Lan was originally from a family of commoners. Over the last few years, her eldest brother had managed to successfully establish a small mercenary group. However, the danger levels were quite high, and she was forbidden from participating. As such, she had been preparing to venture out into the woods with other students to help gather herbs and fight off spirit beasts.
“It’s going to be so cold and lonely at night,” she said. “Oh, Cha Ming, how about you tag along for the mission? It’ll be much more exciting with the two of us there.”
Cha Ming blushed as Gong Lan made eyes at him. He had never been too good at these kinds of things. He made up some nonsensical excuses, such as needing to continue training with Ming.
“Cha Ming, you have a very high innate soul force, right?” Feng Ming inquired.
“Yes, I have the peak soul force available for someone of my cultivation,” replied Cha Ming.
“It’s simple, then! Just pick up a profession! Professions typically pay very well and teach you auxiliary skills. Since you cultivate five elements, you should be able to choose one you like the most,” said Feng Ming. “Since you don’t have a lot of experience with these kinds of things, let me elaborate. In the martial world, there are often professions that support cultivation, and these professions combine the power of their qi and soul force to produce extraordinary results. Typically, these can be separated into some combat-oriented roles, like beast tamers, illusionists, necromancers, and the like. These types of professions burn through money, so what you’re looking for is a creation-type profession.
“Alchemists must practice both wood and fire and create pills that help support cultivators. The profession is in high demand, but they are insufferably arrogant. They command a lot of respect and make a lot of spirit stones. Often, sects have a trade-in system where apprentice alchemists and alchemists can create medicinal pills or assist in their concoction for contribution points. This would solve both of your problems. My uncle is an alchemist, but I don’t recommend him as a teacher. He’s extremely grumpy and has a very poor reputation with his students.
“Spirit doctors are another noteworthy profession. They are very well respected; however, the apprenticeship is very long. Before you complete your apprenticeship, you would only be marginally better at healing than a wood-element specialist or a dual wood-water-element specialist. In addition, it is frowned upon to earn a lot of money as a doctor. People would think that you are taking advantage of people. Therefore, I do not recommend this occupation in the short term.
“Spiritual blacksmiths require cultivating fire and metal elements. However, before starting in this field, you would first need to embark on the path of body cultivation, which is time intensive and quite painful. Since you are already cultivating five different elements, it may be difficult to add in yet another cultivation method. In addition, while alchemy is very lucrative, spiritual blacksmiths are very hierarchical. They basically have a cartel that distinguishes the quality of goods. Master blacksmiths would make a lot of money, but the markets are flooded with apprentice-level products. Unfortunately, those who produce high-quality goods as apprentices cannot advertise their goods properly until they become master blacksmiths. Therefore, this would not solve your financial problem and would only give you headaches.
“The remaining supporting professions are spirit arborists, artificers, formation experts, and talisman artists. Spirit arborists increase the growth of plants and medicinal herbs. This may be suitable for you—wood-element specialists can only aid the growth of common medicinal herbs, while high-quality medicinal herbs can only be nurtured by spirit arborists. The profession is in very high demand here in Green Leaf City.
“Becoming an artificer would normally be a possibility for you—they require a triple-element specialty at the very least, due to all the interacting components—however, there is no Artificers Guild in Green Leaf City. You can only give up this path for now. Formation experts are in the same boat—to my knowledge there is no one in the city that can teach you, and there is no demand for this profession in such a small city.
“Talisman artists are very rare and eccentric, and this path would be quite suitable for you. Your small qi pool could be subsidized by elemental ink used in talisman creation, and you would be able to craft a large variety of them with your specialties. Unfortunately, there are only three people who make talismans in the city. Zhou Li’s uncle, Zhou Tong, is a talisman artist, and so is the city lord’s son. At Green Leaf Academy, Elder Ling is very gifted in talisman creation. However, it is very difficult to meet this man, and he almost always refuses people who request to be his disciple.
“Talismans are almost as useful as medicinal pills, and as such, the market is very lucrative. They are one-use items that use ink, spiritual power, and qi to cast one-time Daoist spells. Anyone who has a talisman can use a very miniscule amount of qi to cast a spell, whether it be offensive, defensive, etc. The talisman is consumed in the process, but the one-time effect can tip the scales in a battle. If talismans weren’t so expensive, everyone would carry their weight in them.” Feng Ming finished his explanation proudly. Due to his noble background, he had been educated for many years, and his lessons could finally be used to show off, his favorite activity. Cha Ming was quite thankful and agreed that taking on a profession would be a very good idea.
That night, Cha Ming headed back to his room to meditate and think on his path forward. Cultivating, while necessary, was truly boring. It would be good to get a hobby. Alchemy seemed pretty fun. He’d also considered being a doctor before, so becoming a spirit doctor could also be a good choice as well. More importantly however, he’d discovered that Elder Ling’s invitation was in fact quite precious. Furthermore, he’d gotten the invitation because he’d picked up a paintbrush.
Is it a talisman brush? Cha Ming wondered.
Remembering that Uncle Su had also mentioned that same brush, he decided to take it out for a closer look. It really was a beautiful brush, and mostly white in color with black highlights. Many runes were engraved on the brush, and he could vividly remember them dancing around in five colors.
He looked at the brush from every angle, trying to discover its secrets. Finally, not being able to resist further, he decided to dip it in a pot of ink on his desk. He attempted to write his name on a piece of paper, only to discover that the paintbrush had not carried the ink.
Strange. This is a brush. How can it not carry ink or write?
He repeated the process several times and obtained identical results. He also tried to paint on his desk to no avail. Then he borrowed ink from Hong Xin, Feng Ming, and Gong Lan. Each batch of ink showed the same results. Just to be sure, he used a regular brush to spell out his name successfully.
Maybe something happens when the brush touches the ink?
It was difficult to tell because the ink was black, and the brush had an inky-black hue. He decided to pour ink into a bowl and see if anything happened to the brush. As he dipped the brush into the bowl, he didn’t notice any reaction. As he pulled it out, however, he observed a strange phenomenon. A drop of ink was about to dro
p from the brush, but instead of dripping down, it moved back toward the tip of the brush.
What the hell? This brush drinks ink? Isn’t this the opposite of what a brush does?
He decided to try “feeding” the brush. Perhaps there was a limit. One pot, two pots, three pots. He borrowed ink from all of his neighbors. After ten pots of ink, the brush finally seemed to be “full” and refused to absorb ink. Although it wouldn’t absorb any more, it seemed to be too prideful to be stained by the ink, so it still would not carry ink or write his name. Then, a thought struck him.
If it won’t write the normal way, maybe I can use qi to force ink out onto the paper.
This concept excited him quite a bit. To play it safe, he first poured separate types of qi into the brush. Then in combinations of two, three, and four, and finally all five types at once. After all five types of qi poured into the brush, the qi pools were draining like crazy. Quickly, before the last of his qi disappeared, he wrote “Du Cha Ming” on a piece of paper. Success!
Once his qi was fully drained, his face paled with exhaustion. That had been like executing a full-force battle technique that drained all your qi. Finally, he looked at the brush. It looked the same as before, except on its length, small characters written in gold had appeared.
Seventy-Two Transformations1. The first twelve start with self. “木, 火, 土, 金, 水”
The symbols were the Chinese characters for wood, fire, earth, metal, and water respectively. Perplexed, he recovered his cultivation base and wrote out a single character on a paper every time, the characters for the five elements in order, starting with wood. There was no response from the paper, no response from the brush.
Strange. The Clear Sky Brush was truly bizarre. He tried again in reverse order, and finally in all possible orders, with no results.
Finally, he decided he must be missing something and would need to experiment more in the future. His adventures in writing characters had left him interested in crafting talismans. He decided to go see Elder Ling the next morning.
Clear Sky Page 11