Chapter 107 - The Speakers Way (1/2)

Cultivation at Speaker Peak was very different from anything Shin Sumi was used to, as she soon discovered. It was very disorienting, as it appeared like the basic principles didn't matter. Cultivation levels were nothing to speakers in relation to the mastery of their craft.

Instead of fighting training, lectures were given to the disciples by the upper ranks of Speakers. For novices like them, the teachers were most often cultivators who had been in Lead Peak for over two years.

Apart from their experience as a Speaker, nothing differentiated the teachers from the students. In fact, Shin Sumi's jaw nearly dropped to the ground when one day a Liquid Realm second step cultivator walked up to stand before them in the lecture hall.

With a cultivation of only the second step, the man was one of the weakest persons present and yet he was supposed to be their teacher.

Rather than teaching techniques and divine skills, the person in charge of their education would simply sit cross legged on the center platform and talk. Sometimes the lectures could last up to six or seven hours but there was never anything other than talking involved.

At first, Shin Sumi thought maybe they had been unlucky, having been given an unusual individual as a teacher, but after the second, third and fourth lecturers, she had started to realize that it was all she could expect from their lectures.

”What is the point of talking like this for hours? The things he says don't even make sense! He's been contradicting himself for five hours today!”

”We are on Speaker Peak after all, we should have expected them to speak quite a lot but this...”

Next to Shin Sumi, Lei Jing and Xiu Ying were slowly losing their patience.

”Yesterday's teacher was proof that everybody on this peak is crazy and wasting their time. If a second step cultivator can become a teacher here, we will never properly cultivate past the level we are at now.”

Shin Sumi turned to her comrades discreetly, speaking in a low voice as to not disturb the hall, ”I have an idea. Maybe we are understanding this all wrong. Follow me after the lecture, I know where we can get some information.”

As frustrating as it was to her, Shin Sumi couldn't help but believe that there was more to it than just hearing a cultivator talk for hours. After all, she had witnessed first hand the power used by Master Lead. It hadn't been a divine skill or a profound technique or anything of the sort. His words had been simply... magical.

Nevertheless, the lecturers only spoke normal words, and ones that made no sense, at that. Only if there was one place where they could get a good grasp on the discipline that was Speaking, then Shin Sumi knew exactly where to go.

”Haven't you already been here a few times before?” asked Xiu Ying. She was eyeing the rows of books, parchments, jades and scrolls with a strange face. It was clear that she wasn't fond of libraries like Shin Sumi was.

”I have, but back then I didn't know what I was looking for. Now that we know there is a thing called 'Speaking', it is easier to search for related documents. Look!”

Shin Sumi picked up a rolled up parchment that had been covered by dust for the last dozens of years, at least it seemed. On the end of the wooden frame that held the parchment rolled up, the character for 'word' was inscribed.

”I saw this one the last time I was here but I didn't bother opening it. Now I'm thinking it might be useful if it's about word magic or Speaking.”

”Listen to this, 'Speaking exists in many different ways. The only common denomination is that words Spoken come not from the ċhėst but the dantian. Speaking is not spiritual powers enhancing speech, nor is it formation based. The Speaker's voice is an expression of the flow of Shinsoo in its purest form, reflecting the heart. Complex thoughts are intrinsically harder to Speak, as is Speaking to another cultivator,'.”

”... What does that mean?”

”I am not sure. Maybe this is saying that the cultivators teaching us are simply practicing Speaking with their dantian instead of their ċhėst?”

”That makes no sense! How could you produce sound without using your vocal chords?!”

After sharing more of their findings and parting ways for the rest of the day, Shin Sumi walked aimlessly for a while before finding herself in front of the moss-covered rock and the bamboo grove where Master Lead had seeked her out.

”Nuan, do you want to come out?” she asked in the silence, only perturbed by the rusting bamboo leaves.

”Hmm. I guess not. Last time scared you, is that right? You had to wait for a couple hours in hiding before I could come find you again, poor girl,” she sighed, ”Next time I will find something for you to read at the library, okay?”

Continuing in her head, Shin Sumi thought back on what her comrades and her had read.

”Speaking is expressing the heart's intention with the flow of Shinsoo... Is this why Master Lead asked what was at the core of my Dao? He surely made it sound like Speaking was powerful and that it shouldn't be used for the wrong motives. I wonder what his motived are, though.”

Shin Sumi couldn't shake the first impression she had gotten of the strange Master. The sudden change in the Master's words and action from when everybody thought the prisoners were in the State of Sleep.

”With his position, he didn't have to appear nice to us prisoners. If it was his true nature, why didn't he act like that despicable Master Tin? It would have been simpler. Same with the shady way of approaching us, first not telling us anything and then picking us one by one to reveal what Lead Peak was all about. Why didn't he tell us right from the start?”

Something was strange, but because there wasn't any apparent motive for anything she had seen so far, Shin Sumi couldn't even begin to formulate theories.

Her eyes were closed and her heart was still, deep in thoughts as she was, when suddenly her eyebrows perched up.

”Wait a minute. If Speaking is about the truth of the heart, why did Master Lead start picking prisoners with the ones Master Tin said had lied? That's the opposite of the way of Speaking!”

Replaying the events of that day, in the plaza with all the cultivators and the Masters of the sect watching, Shin Sumi realized something.

”Out of all of us chosen, five had lied in the first of Master Tin Fire's questions, as for the rest we all are below twenty-five of age. And now that I think of it, I don't think I have seen one of the 'liars' since I properly entered Lead Peak...”

A sudden chill ȧssaulted Shin Sumi's back, crawling like an intangible feeling of fear.

”Wh-where are these five now?! Master Lead should have known from the start that they would not be prone to the way of Speaking, so what were his motives in choosing them? Was it just to appear like the saviour from Master Tin's nightmarish questioning?”

Now the semblance of a theory was starting to form in Shin Sumi's mind.

”Is that why he didn't reveal that Lead Peak was also called Speaker Peak? So that his saviour disguise would hold?”

***

”Senior Chao, pardon this junior for asking, when will be able to cultivate fighting techniques?”

The one who had spoken after the day's lecture was Fei Unwan, one of the most recent recruits of Lead Peak with Shin Sumi and the others. Raising a hand while bowing slightly with respect, he had attracted the attention of the lecturer, Chao Wu.

The young man who had been in Speaker Peak for years turned to look at him, his eyebrows furrowed behind the long black hair falling partly on his face. According to the information the newcomers had gathered on Speaker Peak, Chao Wu was one of the strongest cultivators around, at the Liquid Realm's Seventh Step.

The rumors even mentioned that he had grown up in a smaller sect known for their fighting talents and that he entered the Blue Fire Sect due to his great potential, which was why Fei Unwan had chosen to talk to him rather than the other lecturers.

”Junior... What is your name?”

-Fei Unwan, senior.

-Junior Fei, can you tell me what is wrong with your question?”

Fei Unwan instantly froze in place, remaining silent for a long time, provoking a long sigh from Chao Wu, ”Have you learned nothing from all my lectures?”

”With one question, you are asking me more than five different questions in one, do you realize that?”

Silence.