The Third Realm - Chapter 32 preview (Patreon)

The next morning, Wu Ying met his new teachers below the fort itself, in a deep pool and reservoir dug into the very earth itself by the initial builders. Multiple floors had to be crossed to enter the reservoir, long chains of buckets set aside behind a gated entrance; while glowing spirit stones and enchantments kept the entire emergency reservoir both fresh and clean.

The man who waited for Wu Ying was half-dressed, only a pair of wrapped cloths covering his lower body as he stretched against the cold stone floor whilst waiting for Wu Ying. His hair, unlike the common standards, were shorn short, barely covering the nape of his neck and his skin was deeply bronzed all over, indicating this mode of clothing wear was not unusual.

When the bobbing spirit lamp that Wu Ying carried announced his presence, the man stood up, stretching. Captain Ren, leading Wu Ying down the passageway, made the introductions.

“Cultivator Long, please meet Master Diver Wang Feng Mei,” Captain Ren said, introducing the man to Wu Ying.

A simple extension of his spiritual sense was enough to ascertain that Master Diver Wang Ren was no more than a high Body Cleansing cultivator. Stronger than the majority of mortals, but nothing special at all. Yet, he moved with lithesome grace as he bowed, hands clasped.

“Thank you, Captain. I am honored to meet you, Cultivator Long. I understand that I am to provide some small instruction in the ways of the ocean?” Master Diver Wang said. His voice was cultured and smooth, relaxed even as he interacted with Wu Ying and the Captain.

“Yes,” Wu Ying grinned. “I can swim, but I must admit, my skills are likely significantly below your lowest worker.” He shrugged. “The river’s are strong, but the ocean I hear are truly treacherous.”

“She can be,” Feng Mei said, then gestured at Wu Ying. “If you’ll prepare yourself, we will begin by testing your current standards.” He gestured at the reservoir that stretched into the distance, smiling. “Afterwards, we shall practice diving and work on your ability to hold your breath, all of which will be necessary.”

“And what is the minimum time required, do you think, for being underwater?” Wu Ying said. “What did my predecessors do?”

Feng Mei hesitated then, looking over to Captain Ren. Only when the Captain nodded did he dare answer, truthfully. “A Master Diver had hold their breath for twenty minutes(14) at a time whilst working. Your predecessor’s have managed to stay underwater for an hour at least.”

“At least?” Wu Ying said, probing.

“Yes. One of those lost, the previous Master Gatherer of the Seas had an elemental water body and a dao of the sea. He was known to spend months meditating under the water itself to consolidate his own path,” Feng Mei replied.

Wu Ying turned fully to Captain Ren, crossing his arms in annoyance. “You would have thought someone would have mentioned this last night.”

“It slipped my mind,” Captain Ren said.

“Mmmm….” Wu Ying walked over to the edge of the reservoir, staring down at the inky blackness of the shadowed waters below in thought. Eventually, he turned to the others, his lips pressed tight. “It seems that the acquisition of the seven Lesser Serpent Pearls is going to be difficult indeed.”

“We will, as promised, provide you what aid we can,” Captain Ren replied smoothly. “Including full access to the Provincial Armoury and the family library.”

Wu Ying grunted in acknowledgement of the Captain’s words. The opportunity to receive training in the methods utilized in the province along with access to their library was just too good to pass up. Though it was likely something truly dangerous had taken residence near the Lesser Serpent Oysters, Wu Ying assumed that he could do what he did whenever he was faced with something truly strong watching over something he wished to acquire.

He'd just sneak in and steal it.

But to do that, he would need to acquire the skills. And considering the entire process was happening underwater, that meant training.

Shrugging off his robes, Wu Ying sighed as he committed himself to hours of training. Once he was dressed similar to the Dive Master, he listened to the man’s instructions before diving within the water, beginning the process of familiarizing himself with the water properly.

First, swimming. Then, diving. Then, underwater movement. And finally, at the end, gathering.

***

“Welcome to the library.” The old woman that greeted Wu Ying as he entered the darkened rooms wielded a cane in one hand, using it more to point and gesture than she did as a walking aid. “The first section consists of a series of cultivation and martial works meant for Body Cleansing and Energy Storage cultivators. Most of the works collected by the family have been focused on dark, deep and water elements, with some minor dabbling into beast taming – of the aquatic variety – and spirit conjuration.

“Nothing of interest to you.”

Wu Ying inclined his head, though he let his spiritual sense extend, helping him note titles as he passed. As the librarian had related, none of it was particularly interesting. There were some combat manuals within, but many were sword and shield arts that were familiar to him, being works in popular circulation among cultivators. Others – like the harpoon or trident or the rowing oar – were of little interest.

She led the way through the multiple shelves, holding the spirit lantern before her before she reached the end of the narrow room and the doorway before it. The sold wood reinforced with dark iron bands was opened via a series of keys, two of which the librarian held and the third by Captain Ren.

Curious that the Captain had a key. After all, if he was sent to deal with matters on the regular, how were they to access the room if he was slain? Dismissing the impracticalities of their security arrangements, Wu Ying let his senses delve deeper into the room.

Unlike the much larger – if narrow – room they had exited, this room barely held a half-dozen bookcases. Each bookcase was stacked with work though, though they were often grouped and separated via small, carved bookends to delineate the differences.

Following the librarian within by rote, Wu Ying tilted his head from side-to-side as she proceeded to walk around the edges, activating the enchantments that illuminated the room above. When she was done, she stood before Wu Ying, letting the head of her cane tap the ground in impatience.

“Finished prying?” She said, waspishly.

“Not yet, but you can continue,” Wu Ying said, refusing to be intimidated.

She sniffed, before gesturing with her free hand. “These works are the pride of the family. Meant for loyal servants and direct members of the family, it includes the family martial techniques as well as cultivation manuals for the Core Formation and Nascent Soul stages.”

Wu Ying considered pointing out that her reaction to him was a little overdone, especially when the Viscount herself had ordered the librarian – her grand aunt – to show him the library itself. Yet, Wu Ying chose not to. There was little gain in such a confrontation.

“And the cultivation exercises and techniques for deep water navigation and movement?” Wu Ying said, searching the shelves.

“This way.” Stomping over to a shelf, she waved her hand up and down. “You can find all the better forms here.” A beat, then she pointed further into the room, where a lone table sat. “You are not allowed to remove any work from this location. I will be watching. It will be opened to you, everyday in the afternoon for the next two months. At which point, you will either have succeeded or failed.

“Questions?”

Wu Ying shook his head and watched as she stomped away to take a seat, arms crossed. Looking around him, staring at the mounds of work, he began the process of sieving through the documents within. He could have asked for help, but considering the relative size of the location and her antagonistic nature, he felt no desire to open himself up to potential problems.

As he went through the stacks of manuals, scrolls and other documents, Wu Ying soon realized that the sorting process would be faster than he had expected. Powerful as the family might have been, they were not a sect and the volume of information that they contained was limited. Each stack, separated by the carved bookends, pertained to a single technique, with the majority of the other documents treatises, similar and supporting works or observations and journals of past practitioners.

The library was, in effect, a perfect showcase of a family that had delved deep into a single technique unlike the sect’s he was used to, which often went much broader. Similar, then, to other north eastern clans, which was no surprise. After all, this kingdom had originated from a singular family gaining in strength sufficiently to impose their dominion over others. Since then, the nobles had been cultivators and overlords, with the cultivation sects nearly non-existent. Instead, cultivation academies had been created, sponsored by the nobles, of which the largest and most prestigious within the capital itself.

What it did mean was that, instead of over a hundred plus techniques he had to scan through, he only had about two score. Many he could discard immediately, like Core Formation and the pair of Nascent Soul cultivation techniques, at least from direct study.

He did make sure to note to look back at those Nascent Soul techniques later, wanting to review them in greater detail to expand upon his understanding of the process. But, in those cases, it was likely the bare dozen or so journals and treatises would offer greater enlightenment than the actual manual itself.

Same with the dozen or so works on Body Cultivation. After flipping through the manuals themselves, Wu Ying’s nose wrinkled. Split across the common elemental types among the clan, they were even more useless to him as they ended mostly in the elemental body stage. Afterwards, the discussion grew more esoteric, an exhortation to continue delving into the dao of the specific elements with only minor guideposts on further elemental baths.

A common thread, in some ways, for works in what could be considered the Nascent Soul level. Once one gained a Greater or Peak understanding of the element, the next step often grew vague as the transition into the specific elemental body was badly recorded. It delved into the dao’s of the element, of a painful process of subsuming oneself into the element and embodying it, a process that had varying results.

Overall, useless.

Same with the martial techniques. There were not many, in fact only consisting of four works. Of interest was the Khao family sword technique, known as the Breaking Wave. The others, wielding an oar – really, just a staff with a heavy weight at the end – or a harpoon was of little interest to Wu Ying, nor was the spear technique.

In the end, it was the soul cultivation exercises and myriad water movement techniques that Wu Ying found most useful. His quick perusal slowed when he reached those shelves, as he scanned through the documents.

The Graceful Turtle, Friends of the Ocean, Silverfish Darts… movement techniques were abundant, all of which consisted of swimming techniques. Many supplemented their strength from the elemental or dao understandings of their user, presuming a dark or water element. Useless, again, for Wu Ying.

Yet they were not the only techniques collected. Of the nine or so techniques, two required no dao or corresponding element to use, and those he set aside for further perusal. The Sea Serpent’s Grace and the innocuous sounding Floating Leaf both seemed appropriate for his own needs.

Then, fighting techniques. Those were more numerous, though he faced the same issues. After culling those techniques that presumed a dao or element of use within the water, Wu Ying found himself with a half-dozen fighting techniques that might offer him aid.

Bringing forth all the documents to the table beside the silent, unhappy librarian, Wu Ying settled himself in for a long night of reading.

And this was but the beginning of his studies.

***

If anything, studying gathering and harvesting from the myriad fishermen, kelp gatherers, shellfish and pearl gatherers and other professionals was the least arduous work. Wu Ying only managed to begin such lessons a week after his initial agreement with the Viscount, after the Dive Master had deemed Wu Ying’s skill grown to the extent that he was no longer a constant embarrassment in the water.

Wu Ying found the Dive Master reminiscent a little of Master Cheng, where adequate was insufficient and excellence the minimum. Hours of perfecting a swimming technique, back and forth across the large reservoir with minor corrections every moment. Then, once the man was happy with Wu Ying’s basic swimming technique did they progress to diving.

Up and down the reservoir, diving as deep as he could with a single breath before he was forced to ascend. At first, he was unable to reach the bottom of the reservoir, little glints of light at the bottom beckoning him onwards. Only when he was able to reach the swaying lights, surprise registering on his face as he spotted the luminescent kelp did Feng Mei allow him to begin his other studies.

He started by learning the basic of kelp growing, harvesting and preparation. He walked the mudflats with the fishermen who brought him out during the low tide, to stride between the sunk bamboo poles, lines with tied kelp strung between them all. They reached within, showing him the barely immersed seaweed, how to cut the branches and when they to replace the older kelp for newer, fresher plants.

Then, after harvesting, it was the process of drying the seaweed. He was shown the methods most often used by the residents, the wooden slats where the seaweed was laid out to dry in the air. They also showed him other methods to dry the seaweed, poles where the seaweed was hung up to be blown dry, coconut, banana and lotus leaves where the seaweed was allowed to dry upon, soaking up the ambient smell and taste of the vegetation. Even the faster methods, of warming over kilns and apothecarist cauldrons, where pills and other herbs were soaked within to convey taste and spiritual herbs.

They spent a good portion of the first week after he had been allowed out learning the details of harvesting the kelp and other seaweed, the flora within the oceans varied and fascinating to the young man. Hours late in the night were spent poring over documents, much of it wholesale copied into his own journal as he learnt about a series of plants he had never before experienced.

His days filled with constant study, from speaking with apothecharist about substitutions for new spirit herbs and the creation of new recipes; trading pointers and ingredients to further studies and practice with Feng Mei and the gatherers.

The deluge of information was constant, and it was only the clear mind offered to him by greater cultivation levels and the reduction in hours required for rest that wllowed him to keep ahead of the constant demands. Long into the night he would study the tomes, when work in the ocean was no longer viable and his trainers required sleep.

Then, when the librarian finally chased him out, would Wu Ying take a turn along the top of the tower, practicing the techniques he had studied. On the open tower roof, where the wind howled, he would practice the movements and the chi flows of the techniques he had picked out.

The Sea Serpent’s Grace was the first technique he studied and practiced, knowing ease of motion was important. It was an arduous process, since the core of the movement technique focused upon the control of the ocean in proximity to an individual. To do so, Wu Ying had to convert his chi into water chi – a process that was doubly taxing, since he had to first transform his chi into neutral chi then aspect it to water – before exuding it into his aura.

The greatest point of conflict occurred, however, when the Never Empty Wine Pot method, his adjustments to his own aura to enact the twisting, tornado defense around his aura interacted with the newly imposed control of the Sea Serpent’s Grace.

Multiple times did Wu Ying find himself wincing, as he scoured his own skin clear of flesh or was fed a backlash of water or wind chi into his meridians. More than once, the smarting pain from overstrained cultivation bases forced him to put a hold to his practice, turning to more simplistic methods.

In this case, fighting techniques. The majority of the manuals began with an introduction to fighting underwater, the vagaries and complexities that moving within a liquid brought about. In this case, due to his ascension to Core Formation and thus access to the sky, many of the concepts were not foreign. Others, however, were of import as crutches he had used whilst battling or travelling through the sky were no longer available.

Chief among them, the lack of strong footing. In the air, Wu Ying would conjure steps of solid air when necessary to provide grounding and pivot points for his attacks, allowing him to do battle almost as though he was on the ground. The wind danced to his whims, but the water would refuse to do his bidding. He could not pivot, thrust or otherwise bear down on his attacks.

Indeed, much of the fighting techniques spoke of maneuverability, grappling close to provide a firm point of contact before unleashing an attack. Crushing motions, techniques that mimicked the biting techniques of fish and other serpents and, less common, thrusting attacks from built up momentum were the preferred form of combat.

Even basic techniques that Wu Ying had relied upon were of lesser use. Projected blades of chi were drowned out by the ever-present water chi, the attacks diffused within a short distance. On the other hand, his sword intent, the ability to sharpen his blade and hand by reforming his own chi and coating his attacks in intent were not diminished.

Such theorems and theories, he soaked within and later, would put to test within the reservoir in the third week. Once Wu Ying chose to concentrate only upon the Sea Serpent Grace movement technique, no longer employing the modified Never Empty Wine Pot method, he found progress with the movement technique much faster.

In fact, the first time he employed the technique fully within the water was also the first time he managed to land a strike upon Feng Mei, his sudden burst of acceleration catching the Dive Master by surprise. Reducing the pull of water upon his body, making him faster with each powerful stroke benefited him greatly as the greater strength and speed of a Core Formation and Body Cultivator made itself known.

Soon after, as Wu Ying’s progress with the technique grew, Feng Mei no longer posed a threat individually. At that time, their training was taken outdoors, into the ocean where multiple members of the guard and other divers took part in the newly created game of ‘tagging’ Long Wu Ying.

In such a way, studying, learning and progressing his skills in the ocean, days became weeks and then, months. And soon enough, the deadline loomed.

Footnote:

14 - Human divers have held their breath for a record 25 minutes. Oyster divers routinely do so for two minutes at a time, whilst working hard and doing hundred of dives a day. Since these are all cultivators, I extended the timing a little.