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

“Oooooh.” Master Ryu closed his eyes. “Even your instrument influences the energy of the world.”

“Feel the string.” Siena beamed at Ken.

His heart fluttered at her smile. None of the XHumans ever smiled at Purebreds. He reached out and felt the string. It buzzed against his finger.  Did his pulse feel like that?  He tried again, and still couldn’t tell the difference.

“In any case,” Master Ryu said, closing his eyes, “this is all basic. Later, you will be able to extend your Qi and sense all the way to someone’s Core. Siena’s Core is so dense. It’s also recovered exponentially faster than I could.  How is that?”

Siena shrugged. “I still don’t know what a Core is, exactly.”

“How do you replenish your energy for fighting, or opening that portal?” he asked.

“We just do. It’s just like breathing.  It’s faster with rest, cleaner air, and fortifying food.”

“Amazing.” Master Ryu looked her up and down.

“Our species developed around a white giant.” She pantomimed shading her eyes. “With all that ultraviolet light, we evolved to heal quickly.”

Ken snorted. As much as XHumans wanted to emulate Elestrae through gene manipulation, their DNA was just too complex in comparison.

“Wait,” Ken said. “This is all fascinating, but how does Siena’s health help us acquire your pills?”

“Her Core already has as much capacity as a Fifth-Ranked master’s.” Master Ryu placed his hand on her belly. “And it isn’t even solid. If she can Cultivate to First Rank, her potential will expand by orders of magnitude.”

“What does that mean?” Aya asked.

Master Ryu rubbed his chin. “Imagine you could give Cores a score.  With no training, the average human has a score of ten. At First Rank, their Core solidifies, and will have a score of one hundred.  At Second Rank, it would be a thousand.  On that scale, Siena is already a million.”

“A hundred thousand times greater than us,” Ken muttered.

“At least you have the potential.” The master patted him on the head. “None of these XHumans do. As Siena said, they must’ve edited it out of their genome.”

“So I can’t?” Aya’s eyes glistened.

“Here’s the thing: I think you can, because of the modification that gave you that hair, and the glitch that gave you cystic fibrosis.”

She wiped her tears away.

“In any case,” the master continued, “if I can train Siena to First Rank, and then she is still willing to transfer energy several times, I might be able to close the portal without the need for the pills. If she’s willing.”

“We can start now.” Siena started fiddling with the master’s clothes.

Ken’s gut knotted again.

“Not yet.” Master Ryu licked his lips nervously.  “First, you need to learn to Cultivate.”

 Chapter 17:

The Cultivator

D espite the old Confucian saying, Ryu was realizing it wasn’t always the father’s fault that a child couldn’t learn.  Or in this case, it wasn’t the teacher’s fault a student couldn’t Cultivate.

After all, Kentaro and Aya had already made progress in their respective paths in two days. They’d cleared their meridians enough that Qi was trickling through the pathways. Whether Aya noticed it or not through all the metal in her brain, she was having to clear her lungs out less frequently.

Siena, on the other hand, was just too flighty.  Easily distracted by pretty clouds, the occasional bird flying over the park, or some XHuman walking by in a garish outfit, she could barely hold a stance.

It was hard to believe she was a science envoy from an alien species. She’d told her colleagues she was doing research in the field; what she hadn’t told them was that he was apparently the research.

He adjusted her position yet again, pressing her hips forward.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s hard for us. There’s just so much diversity in color.”

Aya eyed the crow that had broken her focus. “It’s black.”

“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “It’s many shades of black.  I don’t think human eyes can see the difference.”

Ryu shrugged. A First Rank Wood Path practitioner, with their enhanced eyesight, could.

She flashed him a suggestive smile. “How about if we practice that other style?”

Which of course meant sex. They’d engaged in intercourse on three more occasions, each time allowing Ryu to enhance his Core. It might go against the Code of the World of Rivers and Lakes to sleep with a student, but really, she was much more powerful than him.  Plus they’d already done it before he started teaching her.

Shit. He was just rationalizing. This was so wrong.

Yet it might be the only way to accomplish his mission.  How much more time did he have?

Adopting a stern expression, he said, “Only after you hold the stance for ten minutes.”

“I—”

“Attention all citizens,” that female voice filled the air. “This is Peacekeeper Headquarters.”

Ryu looked up to the same skyscraper near Central as he always did with these announcements.

A holographic scene appeared, this time with the backdrop of Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion.

His heart sank. Another portal location.

“Last night, there were two more murders.” The image panned in on yet another body, lying in the concentric circles of a Zen garden. “The victim was thirty-two-year-old Koji Johnson, who was last seen by his wife yesterday at 23:00, when he went out for a walk.  He was discovered at 6:00. As with the other crimes, the cameras in the vicinity shorted out.”

“Another?” Kentaro shook his head.

“That’s four murders in three days,” Aya said. “In a city which hasn’t had a murder in centuries.”

The voice continued. “The next victim is Michiko Zhang, forty-three, whose remains were discovered at Kiyomizudera. Time of death is estimated at 20:00. We warn you, the next scene might be disturbing.”