Twisted Skies, Chapter 17 - Cultvation Training (Patreon)

After his run-in with Theodoro and his girlfriend, Thurain spent most of the night mixing colors and covering the walls in thin lines of qi-conducting paint. By the time he was done with the main structure, he could feel traces of qi focus inside his new room. As it swirled and followed along the lines drawn on the walls, it collected in a spot towards the center of the room, where Thurain would sit to cultivate.

As a final coup de grace, he added his newly acquired Valorplume as the focus of his formation in the center. Right away, the qi in the surroundings of the apartment building turned into a small spiral, which would sponge its qi off the giant spiral that made up the city. Although the qi attracted to Thurain’s shed would still be nothing compared to whatever the people inside the sect would have at their disposals, at least for now, it was good enough for proper cultivation.

By the time he was done with his work, he was already far too tired to do anything though. It was the middle of the night, and he had been working all day, not to mention how draining the creation of an array was for a beginner cultivator. As a result, he fell asleep atop his blanket, with his clothes on, for the third time in two days.

When he woke up again, he was groggy and all his limbs felt heavy. In the total darkness of the shed, he had no idea how long he had slept. Once he opened the shutter, he didn’t feel any better. From the position of the sun in the sky, he could tell that it was already early noon. Annoyed that he had wasted so much of his time on sleep, he rushed out to get his morning routine done.

First he came around to the front of the house where he had some more room, and began his morning exercises. The set of movements had also been taught by his master, of course. While they didn’t directly improve cultivation, they were very useful to limber up and get in the right frame of mind. Cultivation was a dance on a knife’s edge, and any lapse in concentration could be fatal, so any little bit of prior meditation helped. Wven without any ‘hard’ benefits, the exercise was still were a good habit to get into. However, his meditative state didn’t last for long.

“What are you doing out there?” a grumpy voice interrupted him. Behind him, the main entrance to the apartment had opened and revealed Mr. Artia in all his unkempt glory.

“Just some exercises before I start with my cultivation,” he replied.

“You’ve been in that shed all day. Haven’t you started your cultivation already?” Before Thurain could reply, the landlord interrupted him again. “Actually, have you eaten anything today? It’s almost evening, you know?”

As he spoke, an enticing smell escaped through the open door of the old man’s place and entered Thurain’s nose.

“No, but I don’t want to impose,” he said, though he didn’t plan to take the obvious offer, despite the temptation. “I wanted to buy something from a street vendor once I’m done with my exercises.”

“Nonsense. Just come with me, I got some soup left over from lunch. I always make too much anyways. If you don’t eat it, I’ll just throw it out.”

With that, the old man grabbed Thurain’s arm and dragged him inside. Before he could react, the cultivator sat inside his landlord’s house with a steaming bowl of soup in front of him. Embarrassed, he ate in silence while he looked around.

Considering the old man’s appearance, his own home was surprisingly well-kept. Thurain had expected dirty clothes and empty bottles of booze lying around everywhere, but found nothing of the sort. Still, much of the house looked a bit run down. The edges of the table he sat on were chafed down, from edges to rounds. In fact, everything here looked like it had been bought at least a decade ago.

It couldn’t be that Mr. Artia couldn’t pay for new furniture, right? After all, a piece of property like this, in the middle of the city, had to be extremely valuable. Maybe the absence of anyone else in the large apartment was a clue towards the old man’s attachment to the old furniture. The pictures around the place spoke even louder, showing a son and a wife that were nowhere to be seen.

Although Thurain decided to be tactful and spoon his soup in silence, his landlord seemed to have noticed his look.

“That’s Aignan, my boy,” he said as he held up one of the pictures. “He works as an agricultural planner across town. Never became a cultivator, but he’s growing qi plants these days, so he still achieved his goals of working in the cultivation business, in some ways. Rarely comes by these days, but it’s a long trip through the city, and he’s always busy.”

“Hm.” Thurain hummed a noncommittal answer to get away from the awkward moment, but the old man didn’t seem to notice.

“You said you wanted to become a cultivator as well, didn’t you?”

“No, technically, I’m already a cultivator,” Thurain said. “I just need official accreditation, so I’m entering the sect to get a degree.”

“Well, that’s good, that’s good. And are you confident about getting admitted?”

“I ought to be,” Thurain said as he thought about his situation to give an accurate assessment. “Yesterday, everything went wrong, and I wasn’t so sure anymore. But I’ve received a lot of help recently, thanks to you and Theodoro. With the cultivation room you gave me, I’m confident to reach the next stage in my cultivation, at least. At that point, I doubt there will be anyone with better cultivation than me in the entire exam.”

“I didn’t help with anything. You paid for it, so it’s your room now.”

Again, the old man’s eyes wandered to the picture of his son, reminiscing about things Thurain could only guess at. Maybe the old man was projecting his son’s wishes onto the young cultivator, or maybe he had wanted to clean out the shed himself, but couldn’t due to the memories that were stored there.

Either way, Thurain didn’t intend to stay here long enough to find out. Before the old man could unload his emotional baggage onto him again, he thanked him for the meal, which was actually quite excellent despite the atmosphere, and returned back to his shed.

Finally, he was ready; awake, prepared and well-fed.

Right, time to train then.

After Thurain had closed the shutter again, the qi array painted on it formed a closed loop with the drawing in the rest of the room. Thus, it began to draw in the qi from the surroundings once more. At once, the Valorplume in the center of the formation absorbed even more qi and formed it onto a small spiral.

Although this house was on one of the city’s central spirals, which only drew yang qi, Mr. Artia had set up the cultivation room for his son at the very edge of the spiral. Thus, he was close enough to the yin area between the spirals to attract the yin qi as well, at least once he set up the formation right. At the same time, the drawings around the room also made sure that the two qis were mixed in equal measure, to guarantee healthy and safe cultivation.

As soon as the room was saturated with power, Thurain had sat down in the eye of the formation in a lotus position and began to concentrate on his surroundings. He could feel the room getting hot and cold at the same time, and the air itself felt thicker than before, yet it wasn't uncomfortable. Qi was the basic cornerstone of all creation. Feeling it move in harmony with oneself would never create a feeling of discomfort. Rather, he felt refreshed immediately, even before he had begun to actively cultivate.

Thus, he closed his eyes and focused on the giant, unfinished spiral hidden inside his body. Although he had been able to beat up the mortals in the alley two days ago, he knew that his actual abilities were still somewhat lacking, at least compared to many other cultivators. For now, he still had to close his hands to form a circle with his physical body, because his internal spiral was too large and lacked refinement.

While Thurain’s master had attested him great talent, he hadn't been a cultivator for all too long yet. Rather, his master had insisted that he didn’t start cultivating before he turned twelve. Even worse, his master had trained him as a classic cultivator, since that was all he had known.

In the olden days, most cultivators freely traveled the lands alone or in small groups – master and disciples – and thus needed to be well-versed in a wide variety of subjects in case they encountered any trouble. This approach had its advantages, but the drawbacks were also obvious.

Thanks to his education, Thurain had been able to identify the Valorplume, mix his own colors and create his own array inside the shed without anyone’s help. He was far more versatile than a modern cultivator, but all the time spent on various subjects had also eaten into his cultivation time. Thus, if he wanted to guarantee success during the exam in a month, he felt like he needed to at least reach the next major stage of his cultivation.

To achieve his goal, he needed to use the small qi whirlpool he had formed inside the room to brush against his own internal qi spiral. This way, his internal spiral would be ground down in size, leaving behind a more refined and sturdier structure. At one point, the spiral would get thin and small enough that he would be able to fully house it inside his torso, rather than having to use his arms to form a circle whenever he needed to draw power.

By then, physical forms like that would be useless, and his use of qi would become much easier, and far more diverse. Only then would this power truly become his own, and only then would he no longer be considered a beginner cultivator.

Although most would only attempt this pivotal breakthrough under supervision of their elders or masters, Thurain felt confident. His body was somewhat stronger than the bodies of most others, due to its powerful yang nature. He had been born with a natural strength as well, so his powers were well beyond others at the same level.

Once he managed to reach the next stage of internal circulation, a stage which would be considered quite impressive for someone this young, he would be guaranteed entry into the sect, no matter what. He may even gain the favor of some great master and directly make his way into the inner sect, or so he fantasized.

When he had first arrived in the city, his goal had been to stay in the outer sect for a while and work his way up. After all, the timing had been too tight to attempt a breakthrough in cultivation. Now however, he had an additional month to prepare, so he could try to gain deeper access into the sect earlier, which would bring him much closer to his goals: Uncovering the mystery of his master's disappearance and getting revenge on those who had taken his home from him. Now that he had this practice room as well as the Valorplume, he would get the chance to finish his internal circulation training ahead of time.

Thus, he sat in silence and focused on the circulation of his qi. As the two-colored force inside his body turned again and again, its rough edges were smoothed away by the spiral inside the room, as it slowly reduced in size. After only a few hours of concentration, he could feel a real difference in his control over his qi. There was still a long way to go, but Thurain still had a lot of time.

Hermit's Notes: In this story, I wanted cultivation to feel less like leveling up, and more like a challenge... I also didn't want to just handwave the descriptions, but I didn't want to lose the mysticism of it all. It's a tough balance.