Twisted Skies, Chapter 5 - Culprit, and Pest (Patreon)

 As soon as Thurain began the procedure, the man's murky eyes cleared as he screamed in pain. But there was nothing Thurain could do to ease his pain. Untreated, the infused yang would burst his blood vessels and bleed him out from the inside. This was the only way to save him, no matter how traumatic it would be

At least the forced yang infusion has opened his meridians... but my qi is still ripping apart his circular system. Well, he won't ever become a cultivator this way, and he might be sickly for the rest of his life, but at least he'll survive.

Bit by bit, every circulation took more of the man's overbearing yang and added it to Thurain's own reservoir. A normal cultivator on his level could never just take unrefined yang power like this, but Thurain was born a natural yang body, able to accept this power as his own. After a while, the man was tired out, and the screams had stopped. Exhausted in both mind and spirit, the fake alcoholic sank to the ground. At this point, the wife had long been taken away by the clerks.

Thurain only had to search the unconscious man's breast pocket to find the missing ring. Even more, he also found the flask he had spotted earlier, another proof of the man's supposed alcoholism.

As Mr. Aubrey took back his ring under copious thanks, Thurain himself brushed off the pointless laudations. Instead, he remained much more interested in the flask and its contents. As soon as he removed the stopper from the metal container, a massive force of yang rushed out of the opening. Inside, a shiny, bright yellow liquid was sloshing around. Despite its powerful nature, Thurain hadn't sensed anything before, as the liquid had been shielded by the flask's strange material.   

“What could this even be?” he wondered, since he had never seen anything like this, nor had he ever heard his master talk about it. However, Mr. Aubrey had much more pertinent concerns.

“He was a cultivator?” the rich man asked in a breathless voice. No doubt he was worried that he had become the target of an organization with cultivators at its disposal.

“Not quite. He drank from this. I have no idea what this liquid is, but it's loaded with yang qi. The stuff forcefully crammed enough yang into his body to kill a beginner cultivator, let alone a mortal. That's also how he could stick to the train's surface.”   

Done with his pointless explanation, Thurain handed the flask to Mr. Aubrey. As soon as the magnate saw the contents for himself, he took a deep breath and calmed down.

“This is Caleone! It's something I've seen bandied around a lot these days. A new technology that is supposed to replace older qi fuels. Though it is no surprise Master Thurain wouldn't know it. This product is still very new, and very expensive. Only certain circles would even be aware of its existence. How did someone like this get his hands on it?” Mr. Aubrey asked as he looked down on the still unconscious thief. Without the yang power to fuel him, he once again looked like a middle-aged mortal down on his luck.

“If I had to guess, he got it from someone else, and robbed you on that 'someone's' orders,” Thurain concluded. Finally, the entire picture began to fit together in his head.

“Who would do something like that?”

“I'm sure your family has many competitors, and at least as many true enemies,” Thurain replied in a dry voice. Most families wouldn't make that sort of money unless they had a ruthless streak about them, and more than a few skeletons in the closet.   

“Most are one and the same,” Mr. Aubrey confirmed.

“And then there's always the chance that he was sent by a rival railway line, to discredit the security of this one,” Thurain continued. If anyone were to ask him, this was the much likelier story. “Didn't the clerk say they already had problems with robberies before?”

“Indeed he did,” Aubrey replied as he stroked his chin in thought. Maybe the rich man wouldn't be traveling with the Spiritbridge trains in the future to stay away from their troubles, but Spiritbridge Transportations' bottom line wasn't Thurain's concern.

“Either way, your ring is back and the mystery is solved as far as is possible halfway between cities. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to find at least a bit of meditation before we reach Heliana.”

“Young master, please wait,” Aubrey called and held his gold watch towards his savior, “your payment.”

“Didn't I already say that I don't need anything?” Thurain repeated.

“But-”

“No but, I won't go back on my word. Despite the way my robes might look, I don't need the money. I helped because I sympathized with your troubles, so please don't cheapen my benevolence by treating it like a transaction.”

With a nod, the old man returned his watch to his breast pocket. “In that case, the Aubrey family is in your debt, Master Thurain. If you find yourself in need of help during your time in the city, please don't hesitate to come by and ask for it. The doors of the Aubrey family mansion will always be open to you.”

“Thank you,” Thurain said, and took the man's business card with Aubrey's new address written on top.   

As he walked back to his seat, the eyes of the other passengers were all over him, but he didn't feel all too great about the attention. Instead, he felt the man's business card in his fingers, made of heavy, expensive paper. In the end, he really had only been trying to help, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to make a few worthwhile friends along the way. There was still much to do if he wanted to find his master's killer, and any support would be greatly welcome. Still, he would try to rely on himself first and only come to seek help when he really needed it. After all, he was unwilling to involve strangers in his issues, even more so since his issues were even dangerous enough to make his master disappear, let alone some rich mortal family.

Although in the end, he had made no material gains from his little adventure, he still had gained the greatest treasure of all: Peace and quiet, enough of it to restart his meditation. Even his unpleasant seat neighbors were gone now, so he had an entire section of first class all to himself.

However, when he reached his seat, he was dismayed to find another intruder. Across from him, where the thief and his wife used to be, sat the young girl who had first defended him. As he took a seat himself, she stared at him with large eyes and a dumb smile on her face.

“What?” he asked, eager to cut the conversation short and get back to his training.

“You're a cultivator,” the girl concluded with sparkling eyes that looked like trouble.

“No, I'm not. I made it up earlier to seem important.” His lie was obvious, but with any sense, she would back off. This girl reeked of hassle, so he was eager to get her off his back. However, his newest seat neighbor proved much more resilient than his last.

“No way, I know you are one! I saw the robes, and I saw you handle that other mister too! That was really amazing! You're so strong, even though you don't look like it!”   

“Uhuh,” he mumbled and closed his eyes. However, his concentration was broken by a timid poke onto his arm.

“Hey, I'm Ria. What's your name?” The girl's wide grin, now right in front of his face, proved that she wouldn't stop any time soon.

“Little girl, don't you think you're being a bit rude?” Thurain frowned.

“Who's a little girl? Don't think I'll be fooled by your weird clothes and that grown-up way of talking. You don't look a day older than me. I know, I have an eye for that kind of thing,” Ria declared triumphantly.

With a meek grin, Thurain looked down to his own robes again. Indeed, compared to everyone else in first class, his clothing would be considered more than a little strange, though at least it made him seem more mature. These days, most rich people would wear expensive suits and fancy hats. The poor might wear caps and shirts, maybe with a cheap vest on top.   

Even in the countryside, no one would wear his kind of old robe anymore. These were the old uniforms of the cultivators, the kind of clothing they used to wear back in the day, the ones they still wore in all the stories and plays. However, those days were long gone, except in a few places off the beaten path. His old home used to be one such place, though of course it wasn't any longer.

“You're right. I am indeed a cultivator.” In the end, he had no reason to lie to the girl any longer, and they would soon arrive anyways. Hasty cultivation with an uneasy mind would only create problems down the line. On the other hand, conversing with a cute young girl wouldn't be the worst way to spend his time.

“So, what's your name, mysterious cultivator?” the girl repeated.

“It's Vaine,” he lied again, though this time with a friendlier motive. “Why are you traveling to the city, Ria?”

“My parents sent me to live with relatives.” Her exuberance left her in the blink of an eye, and her face was cast down. Before Thurain could apologize, the girl had already bounced back with the same energy as before. “You said you wanted to enroll in the academy, didn't you!?”

“That's right.”

“You think I could do that too? Wouldn't it be great if we got in together? And then later both of us would be great masters, flying over distant mountains and living off the free air.”

“I'm sorry, but I would rather not lie to you. Entering a sect is not as simple as you might think,” he said, this time without any falsehood. “Most people never become cultivators. That's no accident. First, most have no talent for cultivation. Unless your meridians are formed in a specific way or you have an unusual constitution, most sects won't even bother with you. Though even if you're talented, first you need to find a good master to help you get started. For that, you either need luck, connections or, most likely, a lot of money. At your age, most masters would already consider you too old to start out, so you should focus on more realistic goals.”

“But can't I just find a training manual and start myself?” the girl continued to dream, despite his warning. “I've heard stories like that, someone finding ancient manuals or secret treasures and using them to become strong!”

“Those are just that: stories.” Thurain shook his head. The least he could do was inform her of the proper ways of cultivation, so she wouldn't get scammed by tricksters in the city. His master had told him that all city folk were cheats and liars, so he would caution Ria to be careful.   

“In cultivation, your first step is always to open the waygate. In this step, an expert cultivator circulates their own qi through your body, to gently open up the meridians inside you, and prepare them to accept your own qi later. You can't do that by yourself, and you shouldn't get any foreign objects to help you with it either. If you try, you'll end up the same as that thief from before. Yes, there are techniques that let you become a cultivator without a master's help, but those are considered heretical for a reason. They are very dangerous, and often come with heavy side effects or are malicious in nature. By that I mean they harm others to help its wielder. That's why, unless you find a master, I would advise you to stay away from cultivation.”

“Can't you be my master, Vaine?” the girl asked him with big puppy eyes, but Thurain wouldn't be tempted.

“Young Lady, I am barely competent as a student, let alone as a master,” he answered with a forced smile. “Even if I wanted to, I have my own matters to attend to once we reach the city.”

“You're not a master? But you beat that thief so easily!” Ria shouted.

“The difference between a master and a normal person is huge. I am still only at the chasing qi stage, so I'm nowhere near qualified to teach anyone. Yet even I can deal with the strongest mortals without trouble.”

“And how do I get to that chaser stage?” the girl asked again. “What's the next stage after my meridians are open?”

Again Thurain sighed. It seemed like she hadn't listened to any of his warnings and only wanted to immerse herself in the dreams of cultivation. At least for now, he decided indulge her. There was little chance of her ever coming in contact with true cultivation again, so just for this train ride, he would allow her to live out her fantasies.

“The next step is basic accumulation, where you introduce one of the two types of qi to your body, usually yang qi. Once you have made that qi your own, you can circulate it inside your body to open up your meridians further and learn to control internal qi. That's just before my current level, the accumulation stage.”

Now that he had given in to the girl's nagging, Thurain explained what he knew about the early stages of cultivation. Thus, time passed quickly, and the clerks soon announced their arrival at their final stop and the goal of their journey: Heliana.