Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

“Up to now, it should’ve been easier to feel the sinking sensation down the front of your body.”

It had, but why?

“That’s because it was still night, and Yin was predominant. The sun is about to break the horizon. Yin and Yang are in balance. Soon, it will be easier to feel the rising sensation up your back. It will be easiest at noon, when Yang predominates.”

The master’s presence loomed over Ken, followed by a dull, aching sensation blossoming in the top of his left wrist and the inside of his ankle, then the side of his right hand and the outside of his ankle.

“Ow!” Aya said.

“Hush,” Master Ryusuke said. “Just continue breathing.”

Ken tried to suppress a smirk. At least in this, he was doing something better than Aya.

After a few moments, the master said, “Keep sitting and relax. Open your eyes. You can stop visualizing now.”

Aya gasped for breath.

Ken opened his eyes.

Across from him, short, golden filaments sprouted from her spots on left wrist, right hand, and ankles. He looked down to find them in him, as well.

“Acupuncture?” Ken asked.

“Yes, the Master and Opening points of the Yang Governing vessel and the Yin Conception vessel.”

Hadn’t the Peacekeepers taken the needles? Ken looked at the metal in his flesh. “Where did you get this?”

“They were wires in some device I found last night.” Master Ryusuke held up the casing of a street light.

Ken shuddered. Where they even clean?

“Now, the goal of this exercise was to open and scour your Governing and Conception vessels. They’re the most important of our eight Qi reservoirs for the regular meridians. The system is like a river with several lakes. In times of flooding, the water in your riverbed backflows into the lakes. In times of drought, water from the lakes replenishes your riverbed.”

“It was hard to feel the energy from the ground,” Aya said, shoulders drooping.

“I had similar difficulties. Our cystic fibrosis makes it difficult to breathe, thereby making it harder to visualize. Also, the Metal aspect of our body is tarnished, rusted, and otherwise impure. It makes the processing of air all the harder.”

“How long will it take?”

“It’s hard to say from individual to individual.” The master shrugged. Then he set his hand between her shoulder blades.

Jealousy twisted in Ken’s gut again. Why? It was Aya and not him who suffered a disadvantage this time.

Master Ryusuke’s eyes widened. “Here’s part of your problem: the circuity in this cloth. It bypasses and redistributes all your own bioelectric energy. You’ll need to Cultivate in different clothes, ideally those made of natural fibers.”

Ken and Aya exchanged glances. Where were they supposed to get clothes made from natural fibers? Everything was made from polymers now.

Even if he held an advantage over her in Cultivation, he’d progress even faster if he could replace his synthetic clothes. Maybe he could practice naked, which no doubt this pampered princess wouldn’t dare do.

She coughed several times, the mucous thick in her throat. She cast them a nervous glance, then turned away and spat it out. She wiped her mouth and turned back. “What if I meditate naked?”

Ken had clearly misjudged her determination.

The master didn’t bat an eyelash. “That would be better than in these clothes.  Our next practice will be when the sun reaches its apex, at the moment of Greatest Yang.”

“And she won’t have to practice naked,” a mellifluous voice said.

Ken joined the others in turning to the source.

The Elestrae woman from the day before stood with her hand on a tree. Her gown looked like starlight made solid, and barely covered her breasts. She grasped her hem and gave a slight dip of her body, letting the istrium jewelry around her neck jingle.

Master Ryusuke sank into the opening stance of the Xingyi Water Form. “What do you want?”

“I mean you no harm.” She straightened. “I was fascinated by you.”

A grin formed on the master’s face. “Were you?”

“I am Siena,” she said. “Vice Science Envoy to Earth from the Elestrae Confederation. You are not like other most humans.”

Master Ryusuke bowed. “I am Ishihara Ryusuke. I am honored that a fairy gives me so much attention”

“Fairy?” Her expression turned quizzical.

Ken snorted. “He means—”

Master Ryusuke placed a hand over Ken’s mouth, quieting him. Ken found Aya in the corner of his eye. She was frowning.

“How may I help you?” the master asked.

“Humans shouldn’t be able to do what you can do, and I’m curious to learn how.” Her eyes shifted, taking him in.

Had she come alone? Ken looked past her. “How did you find us?”

Siena played with her necklace. “Channeling.”

“And how do propose to study me?” the master asked.

“First, by combat.” She settled into a fighting stance.

“

Chapter 14:

The Cultivator

R yu could recognize almost every fighting style from the first few movements, but the stance Siena adopted looked nothing like anything he’d ever seen before.

Knees slightly bent, one arm extended with the elbow out and palm facing him, the other behind her back in a mirroring motion… perhaps it looked like a movement from Ba Gua Zhang, or maybe the Water Path of the Sun-Moon Sect back in the World of Rivers and Lakes.

She, however, looked familiar. He’d thought so when he’d first seen her at Peacekeeper Headquarters. Then her sparkling green eyes had gazed at him with curiosity; now they took on a deadly focus.

“Are you ready?” she asked, accent lilting and sensual.

He swallowed hard. As a Fourth-Ranked Water Master, he wouldn’t stand a chance against a fairy, even if this one only came up to his chest. Indeed, even though his senses revealed