37 Possession (2/2)
After a second, the bud throbbed, then opened into a distorted flower. As the flower bloomed, master's mouth cracked open. A struggling tendril was dragged out, desperately grasping at master's face.
But the flower's pull was too strong, and slowly but surely, a mass of golden tentacles was ripped out. It floated in the air, tendrils flickering and reaching towards master.
The flower grew in a flash, enveloping the writhing mass. The light disappeared and the flower compressed, until it shrank back to a bud.
It withered away into a tiny seed, then disintegrated into nothing but tiny flecks of light. Master sat up with a groan, the golden light gone from his eyes.
”Master! Master! Are you okay?!” I called out.
”Ugh… I'm…”
Master retched and spat out blood, cutting off his words. I reached out to hold him upright, but he swatted away my hand.
”I'm alright. I'm all good. More importantly,” he sent me a blood-stained grin, ”that… was amazing.”
”Are you sure you're alright Master?”
”Agh stop it. I'm fine. Yer qi… it tried to possess me. Lucky fer me it couldn't control all my mental partitions.” He paused and his eyes seemed to glaze over, before clearing again. ”Looks like it took a few out though.”
He waved his hand, and his six ghostly hands rotated above him. The golden light was gone, but three hands still spasmed uncontrollably.
”Will they recover?”
”Yeah. I'll shut 'em down for now and reform 'em later. But damn. That packed a punch. How much qi was that?”
”I think it was a little over 100 qi.”
”Fucking hell, really? That much damage from just 100 qi? That would cripple any unprepared cultivator under High Warrior Grade.”
With a strained groan, master grabbed a pen and paper and started writing.
”We should test what happens with a full possession… keep it small… maybe a rat?”
”Sir,” Xiaogui interrupted, ”are you sure that it's wise to keep using that power.”
”Yeah, yeah it's fine. And, brat,” he pointed the quill at me, ”keep on doing that! Ya gonna need to control it better so we can do more testing.”
”Master, I think I need to wait for my qi to regenerate…”
”Hm… that's true.” He thought for a second, then sent a hand to pluck a book from the vault. ”This is breaking the rules a bit, just don't tell anyone.”
”Which rules?”
”One technique per scholar, per year. It's to make sure ya got a stable foundation. But honestly,” he peeked up from the paper, ”yer basically a monk already. This'll just boost yer progress.”
The hand floated over and passed me the book. The cover read: ”Complete Guide to the Meditative Arts: master meditation in just one lifetime!”
”Master… are you sure this book is genuine? It seems a bit...”
”Of a scam?” master finished off my sentence for me. ”Yeah, it was written by a money grabbing bastard of a monk a few hundred years ago.”
Master noticed the obvious doubt in my eyes and carried on.
”I guarantee that the techniques inside are genuine. It caused a massive scandal when it came out, and it's still the only record of the Ascetic Sect's teachings.”
”Most copies were destroyed a hundred years ago, so treat it with care! It's impossible to know how few of them are left.”
I looked down at the apparently precious book in my hands. It was hard to believe, what with the cheesy name written in a ridiculously elaborate attention-grabbing font.
Flipping it over, I found that it even had a blurb describing the author's accomplishments. Youngest monk to reach enlightenment in history… hero of the Divine War… none of it seemed genuine.
”Oscar, I believe you should head back,” Xiaogui remarked, ”Mr Dong is awaiting your presence at breakfast.”
It was breakfast already? Manifesting my qi was incredibly time consuming.
”Thank you Xiaogui. Can you take care of master while I'm gone?”
”Naturally. Have a good day Oscar, come back soon.”
”Only if yer ready for testing!” master called out.
I put the meditation guide into my storage ring and rushed off to breakfast, thinking about the Qi Manifestation technique.
The results were completely different to those described by the author. The author's qi had a curious, explorative nature, and its early emergences were far more peaceful.
My qi was dangerous, especially to people. Using it on the other students could be disastrous. Having to meditate for so long to use it was also impractical. I needed more practice.
My new mission was simple. Find a safe space to experiment and meditate. For that, I had to rely on Dong once more.