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

“All right, both of you perform the Microcosmic Orbit.”

Kentaro’s breath sounded deep and sonorous. Aya, as always, had to push her breath past the phlegm building up, but after a few moments she settled into a pattern. With her eyes closed, the Qi sensation percolated up her spine, then down her front. Like every other time she meditated, it felt as though some of the energy entangled with the hardware in her brain.

“Very good,” Ryusuke said, his voice now coming from behind her. “As you draw your Qi down, visualize it as light passing through the Core, as if you were shining a beam through a red glass. Feel the heat as it traverses your navel. It’s like a beam of red light.”

Envisioning the energy in this way, it glowed red in her mind’s eye as it passed through the Tofu-Kozo’s Core. Heat built up in her lower abdomen.

“You feel it, good.” Ryusuke sounded as if he were now behind Kentaro. “Now, draw that heat back up, and let it warm your back. Imagine it drying up the phlegm in your lungs as it travels between your shoulder blades; and again as you sink it through your chest.”

Was her breathing coming more easily? With each inhale and exhale, the phlegm rattled less in her throat and bronchial tubes. Her lungs felt more open than they ever had in her life.

Ryusuke moved between them now, his footsteps scuffing in the sand. He continued guiding her with a lulling voice.

“You can open your eyes now.”

A line of red ran across the horizon. It was dawn already, even though it only seemed as if ten minutes had passed.  Around her and Kentaro, Ryusuke had drawn a Yin-Yang symbol, with them as the dots in the divided circle.  Outside of the symbol, furrows of long and short lines formed eight sets of three bars.

“What are these?” She gestured at the shapes.

“Eight Trigrams, the Ba Gua,” Ryusuke said. “They represent change. I have drawn the symbol for Fire behind you, and the symbol for Water behind Ken-kun.”

Aya nodded, even if that meant nothing to her at the moment. She’d jack in and do research on what the trigrams meant.

“Do you know why the Yin-Yang symbol has a small white circle within a larger black swirl? And why across from that is the opposite?”

Kentaro nodded, his attention as rapt as hers.

Ryusuke traced his finger around the larger circle around them. “The white represents Yang, the black Yin.  The symbol represents the interplay between the two. The white dot appears in the area where Black is the largest. What do you think that means?”

“Oh, I know, I know!” Kentaro said. “When Yin is at its largest, it can only get smaller. That’s when Yang starts to grow.”

“Very good.” Ryusuke beamed.  “I set this up so that Aya is the Yin dot within Yang, and Ken-kun is the Yang dot within Yin. His overactive Fire balanced by your weak Fire, his weaker Water balanced by your excess. You are the perfect pair, complementing each other.”

“I felt heat in my head draining away,” Ken said.

“Yes, you are balancing each other out.”

Aya looked at Kentaro. She would’ve never considered that a flawed XHuman could be paired with a Purebred. If not for Ryusuke crossing over into this world, she would’ve never known.

“Remember how I said that dusk and dawn are when a Cultivator can distinguish the most easily between Yin and Yang?  I had you meditate as Yang energies grew from night to dawn, to maximize the Fire. This will help nurture your weak Yang energies. I’d normally have you continue to noon, but I’m sure we’ll draw attention out here in the open.” He pointed at her belly. “What about the Tofu-Kozo’s Core?”

Aya reached into her dress and pressed her index finger into her navel.  The gemstone was gone, replaced by grit.

“Am I cured?” she asked, savoring the air in her lungs.

“No.” Ryusuke laughed, not unkindly. “You can only compare to what you know. You’ve only just begun.”

Chapter 19:

The Purebred

K en had always resented the XHumans, but he’d never been jealous of one…until now.

Already, Aya was able to execute the techniques of Yang Family Taiji with minimal practice. She looked perfect in the way she could imitate Master Ryu’s movements, and even apply them to fighting the Tofu-Kozo.

Ken had had to work so much longer and harder to get the motions of Xingyi Fist to even an acceptable level.

Then, Ryusuke had given Aya the creature’s Core, and after a night’s meditation her breathing had already improved.

He looked at her now, as they climbed the path in the Ginkakuji compound into the hills. Well, her breathing still wasn’t that good, the way that she panted. Still, she had only had to cough once.

After a few minutes, they entered woods. Never before had Ken seen so many trees. Siena frolicked among them, hand brushing through overhanging limbs, occasionally hugging a trunk.

“You’d think she’d never seen a tree before,” Aya said.

Ken chuckled. Aya was turning out to be quite funny.

Siena looked over her shoulder and pouted. “My homeworld is full of them, but these!  I haven’t seen them in centuries! So much color!”

Ken and Aya exchanged glances.

“The trunks are brown and the leaves are green,” Ken said.

“Oh no, there are far more colors than that.” Siena danced around a tree. “Your human eyes just can’t distinguish all the shades.”

“We can rest now.” Master Ryu gestured for them to sit. “I don’t see any human tracks, so I don’t think anyone comes up here.”

Aya nodded. “My logs of Peacekeeper activity show nothing in this area for