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

her Core to be no larger than a grain of sand—about the size of a First Rank initiate—it was impossibly dense.  Her potential surpassed his by orders of magnitude.

Still, he’d give it his best. He nodded to the kids. “Hold your stances. Try to sense the interplay of energy between us.”

With the assumption that her stance was Water in nature, he sank low into a Hung Gar lunging punch. Supposedly based on the movements of a tiger fighting a crane, its combination of Earth and Fire aspects could counteract and burn off a Water style.

It was also the diametric opposite of his own Path, but as they said, know your enemy…

She leaped above his attack, a Fire defense, followed by a Fire-like volley of several kicks. Usually the distortions in water vapor gave away an opponent’s movements, but not hers. They rained down as she continued her descent, hard to track beneath her skirts. His Iron Shirt took the brunt of the strikes, though the blows caused him to stagger back two steps.

In this split second, he reverted to his Water Path, slipping and dodging. With the humidity still hanging in the air, he swept a hand out and sent a thin mesh of water at her. Once it clung to her, he’d be able to sense her motion from her intent alone. However, as she descended back to the ground from her jump, she twirled midair, dispersing his attack into droplets.

She landed in a crouch, and looked up. The beads around her necklace glowed blue, just as they had at Peacekeeper Headquarters.

What had the boy said? The beads were the source of her power?  She didn’t fight like a fairy—indeed, a fairy would’ve overwhelmed him in the first split second.

She leaped up again, this time spinning mid-air with a combination of kicks and punches. Every attack was a non-committed committal, her faster speed relative to his making it near-impossible to use the Water Path’s approach of borrowing force to use against her. All he could do was dodge.

And watch.

The stones on her necklace grew brighter the quicker she moved. Her style did resemble the Fire Path taught in the Sun-Moon Sect—though a scan of her Qi suggested her martial skill was fueled by those beads instead of a connection to her Core. Doing something about that necklace would be the key to defeating her.

Eschewing defense, he surged forward with Wing Chun punches, embracing the style’s tenacity of Wood and swiftness of Fire. Their limbs tangled up, he switched to the enveloping nature of Water, sticking to her arms and sensing her intention. He pulled her hands down, creating an opening upon which he launched Splashing Hands.

She wasn’t there. But in her jump back to avoid his attack, her necklace drifted upwards.

Coaxing the water molecules into a filament with Watershaping, he whipped it through the string holding her beads together.  They went scattering.

Her irises tracked the beads.

He pressed his attack, resuming a flurry of Wing Chun punches, but now her arms moved slowly. Certainly faster than Kentaro or Aya, but not much quicker than a First Rank initiate. She parried the first twelve, but slowed with each defense until he’d enveloped her arms. He pulled up short to keep from pummeling her into the ground.

He took a step back, set his fist into his palm in salute, and bowed his head. “Thank you for letting me win.”

“No, thank you.” She dipped into a curtsey. “I’ve been to many planets and met many species. I have met few with your caliber of hand-to-hand fighting skill.”

“You are too kind.” He bowed his head again. “Just how many planets have you been to?”

She gave a nonchalant shrug. “I’ve lost count over the centuries.”

“How many centuries?”

“Don’t humans say it’s impolite to ask a woman’s age?” She giggled as she went to retrieve the stones.  Every motion was graceful; even in the act of bending over to pick something off the ground she looked as if she were sculpted by a master artisan.

Kentaro was quick to help her, plucking up some of the beads and handing them to her.  Aya joined in, studying each of the stones as she found them in the grass.

Keeping himself from ogling the beauty, Ryu helped. “Ken-kun says you are from another planet,” he said.

“Yes, I did say I was the Elestrae’s vice science envoy.” Her lips twitched into an adorable, lopsided grin. “And as I said, I am fascinated by you.”

Ryu put his hand on his chest and blinked. “Me?”

“How are you, a human, able to do what you do with so little istrium on this planet?” Her eyes roved over him, making him feel just a little bit dirty.

The kids had mentioned something about the glowing blue mineral. Ryu shrugged. “I don’t think it has anything to do with this istrium. I’m not even sure what that is.”

“Interesting.  Our channeling, whether it manifests as fighting or healing, usually borrows istrium resonance.” She held up one of the bluish beads. “Without it, we have to draw on our own innate energy.”

Innate energy… Ryu pondered. “Where is that?”

“Where?” She shrugged. “It’s innate, bioenergetic. It’s in us.”

Bioenergetic. Could it be these fairies—no, Elestrae—drew on their Core without knowing? “Do you sense a source? A location within you?”

Her brows furrowed. “ATP.”

That had to be figurative. “The kind of house that the aboriginals of America lived in?”

Aya, forgotten up to now, laughed. “No, adenosine triphosphate. It’s the energy that powers our cells.”

Siena nodded enthusiastically. “Glucose and oxygen. It powers everything. Even the bending of reality.” She spoke a strange syllable, and a blue flame appeared in her palm.

A Third-Rank Fire Path technique! With his Second-Rank Fire skill, Ryu extended his Qi and linked to the flame in her hand. With a flick of his fingers, he changed