145 Cultivation Techniques

Awakening from the vision, Ed stood dazed for a moment. When he recovered, he turned to Sect Leader Fang. "Why did you show me that?" He questioned.

"Why indeed." Chonglin smiled while stroking his beard. "I've shown it to many cultivators both within and outside the sect. It's a monument of pride for Chinese cultivators, declaring that we were the first humans to ever walk the earth, and the humans that earned us freedom from our creators."

Ed skeptically rose an eyebrow. "You really believe all of that? Scientists determined we originated in Africa long before the apocalypse ever started. The idea of a god creating us in China thousands of years ago goes against the scientific community completely."

"Oh?" Chonglin frowned, his face turning serious. "Are you implying my great ancestor was a liar?" He questioned in a low, intimidating voice.

'He's serious?' Ed thought, debating how to answer without offending the man. He couldn't risk messing up his cultivation plans over some debate such as to who or what started humanity.

"Pfft!" Chonglin stifled his laughter, his serious facade disappearing. "I'm joking. I'm joking." He waved his hand. "Ah, it's always fun seeing how others react to the mural. In truth, there are similar monuments in other civilizations and they don't always agree with this one, though there are some similarities between all of them."

"Is that so?" Ed sighed in relief. It seemed that Sect Leader Fang was fairly easy to get along with.

"So." Chonglin continued. "Tell me. What did you think of what you saw?"

"That..." He rubbed his chin, thinking back on the vision. "The whole story was told from Yu's perspective, so his biases would be included. In other words, he probably showed us what he believed to be true regardless of what was really true."

"Mm-hmm." Chonglin nodded, urging Ed to continue.

"The matter regarding there only being five elements doesn't make much sense when considering there are seven today. But if you assume the elements can be split up and divided into other elements, then I suppose it's feasible. It's not that the lightning and wind elements didn't already exist in the previous system, but instead they were just included as parts of other elements. So, the sum-total always remains the same regardless of how many elements you divide things into. It may even be possible to divide the seven elements existing today even further. That is, assuming there was any truth to that part of the vision." Ed looked to Chonglin. "Are my thoughts on point so far?"

"Maybe." Chonglin shrugged. "I've had a few suggest similar theories in the past." He laughed. "But the real answer is, I don't really know!"

Ed frowned but didn't press the issue. "Other than all of that, we can return to the idea of where humans came from. Yu was just an ordinary human in the beginning, and some gods told him and the others that they created them. But what if they were really just humans to begin with as well? They could easily trick Yu and the others into believing whatever they said. This would explain both the fact that humans didn't originate in China and that other regions may have similar but conflicting monuments."

"Not bad. Not bad at all." Chonglin slowly clapped his hands. He walked a few steps away from the monument where a short stone table sat. He picked up a single notebook from it and walked back over. Pulling out a pencil, he marked several lines in it at different locations. "Here, take a look." He said as he handed it over.

"Hmm?" Ed took the notebook and glanced inside. Surprisingly, every theory he had just suggested was already written down within it. Not only that, but there were many other theories. Some were as simple as the vision was completely correct. Others dived deep into various religious beliefs from different areas of the world. A few went into far greater depth than his own, bringing up many scientific studies and theories. Next to each theory or thought was a mark indicating that someone else had come up with a nearly identical interpretation. Of the various ideas, it seemed that his own was one of the less popular ones, but even it had a dozen marks next to it. "Looks like you really have shown this to many others." He commented as he handed the book back.

"Of course." Chonglin smiled as he returned the book to the table. "What fun is it to horde a work of art? It only becomes enjoyable when shared with others so that discussions and debates can take place. If everyone agrees on something, then it's no longer fun."

"Which theories did you come up with originally?" He questioned.

"Me?" Chonglin grinned. "I wonder..." He began walking away, seemingly having no intention of answering.

Ed hurriedly followed behind as they left through the tunnel filled with relief sculptures.

The duo traveled in silence down towards the upper reaches of the mountain. They eventually stopped in front of a small building. The building looked abandoned, with no one in sight. Upon entering, there was only a single man sitting behind a counter. He was leisurely reading a book. When he glanced up and saw who had come, he simply nodded and returned to his reading.

"Go ahead and pick a technique." Sect Leader Fang pointed at a bookshelf. "This is the entire collection of our cultivation techniques."

Ed felt surprised as what he saw. The bookshelf was small, only holding a hundred or so techniques at best. Curious, he walked forward and began reading them one at a time. As an honorary sect elder, he was allowed access to all of them.

All of the books were fairly similar. Like the Mortal Dragon Technique, they involved opening meridians and storing mana within them. For most, the only difference was the type of mana stored being optimized for one or two types. Beyond those, there were a few techniques for unique body constitutions. It seemed they had one for the yang body type, which was the opposite of Yuki's. A pity they had the wrong one. Otherwise, she wouldn't have had to gone through so much suffering. Another technique was for something called a starlight body. Apparently, this unique body could only absorb mana directly from the stars in the sky? He didn't really get how that was supposed to work. Yet another was called the War God Technique. This technique was peculiar in that it stored mana from slain enemies in the unique body's meridians, invoking some type of odd blood lust in the user.

Moving through the various techniques, Ed finally found one he was particularly interested in. It was neither an ordinary cultivation technique nor a unique body constitution technique. Instead, it was a technique that attempted to mimic a unique body constitution technique for ordinary cultivators. It was called the God Beast Technique. According to the book, there was a unique body constitution nicknamed as God Beast. Cultivators with this constitution could transform their bodies into a beastly form. However, doing so agitated the cultivator's mana and state of mind, causing them to lose control over themselves. The God Beast Technique calmed the mana throughout the body and within the meridians, allowing them to retain control over themselves when transforming.

'Isn't this too similar to chimeras?' He wondered. 'Perhaps unique body constitutions were created due to espers similar to myself monkeying around with genes in the past? Then the transformations were slowly lost through mixed breeding with ordinary humans over centuries. Even if someone was born with a unique body constitution, they never would have known until the mana apocalypse started.' Convinced with his deductions, he chose the book. He turned to bring it to the man at the counter when his eyes widened in surprise.

Chonglin and the man at the counter were sitting down at a table and playing a game of Go. This in itself wasn't that surprising. What was, was that Chonglin was losing badly!

'I thought Sect Leader Fang would be the wise unbeatable type...' Ed thought as he walked over.

"You're finally done!" Chonglin excitedly exclaimed, standing from the table. "We'll just have to call this game a draw." He sighed. "I really must be showing the sapling around. You know how it is." He turned around, anxiously wanting to leave.

"Chonglin!" The man yelled. "Don't run away like a coward!"

"Ta-ta!" Sect Leader Fang waved. "Must be going!" He didn't wait for an answer as he dragged Ed out the door.

Now outside, Ed saw that the sun had already gone down. Clearly, he had been more absorbed in the cultivation techniques than he had originally thought. He looked towards Sect Leader Fang. "Is it okay for you to waste the whole day with me like this?" He questioned.

"It's fine. It's fine." Chonglin nonchalantly waved his hand. "Truthfully, I don't have much to do these days. All my personal disciples have gone beyond my teaching and I'm viewed as too important to teach the newbies. I get pretty bored."

"I would think the leader of such a large and complicated sect would have plenty to keep him busy." Ed commented.

"Hehe." Chonglin chuckled. "You're still young. Tell me, Smithy. What do you think makes a good leader?"

'Smithy?' Ed didn't like the nickname but didn't bother arguing about it. "A good leader is both feared and respected." He confidently answered.

"True." Chonglin nodded. "Perhaps I should rephrase the question. What makes a happy leader?"

"A happy leader?" He repeated, never having really thought about such a question. He frowned. "Power?" He guessed.

"Wrong!" Sect Leader Fang shook his head. "The correct answer is..." He paused for dramatic effect. "Delegation! A good leader delegates all the hard work to others so that he can be lazy and happy! All the prestige and benefits with none of the work. This is what it means to be a true man!" He proudly proclaimed.

Slightly speechless at the shameless philosophy, Ed was beginning to wonder if he should have taken up Tai's offer to join the Fire Dragon Sect instead. Well, he was learning a lot personally from Sect Leader Fang, so he was benefiting at the very least.

Chonglin yawned, stretching his arms wide. "Well, we'll talk more tomorrow." He said. "I'll teach you everything I know about cultivation and throw you in the training rooms. That'll probably keep you busy for a few months."

"Months?" Ed asked.

"You'll see. You'll see." Chonglin waved as he walked away.

...

Now alone, Ed returned to the courtyard he was staying at. It was practically deserted since all of Sect Leader Long's men had left with him. It seemed the argument this morning had been a serious one. Only Tao, Flair, Hina, and Haru remained behind.

Flair was busy messing with one of her inventions as usual. It seemed she never liked to have downtime. Well, at least it was easy to keep her occupied.

Haru was actually training despite the late hour. A strange glow lit up on his body under the moonlight. He was jumping between various wooden poles stuck into the ground so rapidly that he appeared blurry even to Ed.

'What an odd power.' Ed thought as he watched. 'For a power to be dependent on the moon and the sun. Even amongst stress awakened espers, it's unusual.' He thought back on everything he had learned today. 'Maybe it's related to the sun and moon created from the remnants of Pangu?' He shook his head. 'No, that story is too ridiculous. Maybe it's related to a unique body constitution?' He remembered reading about the Starlight Technique, which was specifically for those that absorbed power from the stars. Was the sun not a star? Was the moon not just reflecting light from a star? 'I'll have to get Sect Leader Fang to take a look at him. Maybe I'll have him join the Purple Origin Sect while I'm at it.'

Ed glanced at Hina. She was sitting down on the grass and watching Haru train. A miniature Tao was resting in her lap. It seemed she had no desire to grow stronger. But for some reason, she still continued to follow Haru.

'What a disappointing esper.' Ed scowled. He walked towards her and sat down, joining her in her watching. "What are your plans from now on?" He questioned.

"Huh?!" She practically fell over as she jumped in surprise. "Wh-what do you mean?" She asked.

"Haru." Ed said. "You keep following him. Look, I don't care if you have a crush on him or whatever, but-"

"I don't have a crush on him!" She interrupted, speaking the words rapidly in a high-pitched voice. She blushed as she calmed down. "I don't have a crush on him." She calmly repeated while watching Haru again. "I just... want to apologize... But he never gives me the chance. He ignores me whenever I try talking to him."

"Is that so?" Ed watched silently for a moment before standing up. "It makes sense he ignores you. After all, you're nothing but a bug."

"What?!" She turned to him. "A bug?" She questioned, feeling both confused and insulted.

"Right. A bug." He nodded. "Look at him." He turned to look at Haru. "He's already strong, and he's quickly getting stronger. He's giving it everything he's got for whatever his goals may be. Nothing will get in the way of that." He turned back to her. "Look at you. Lazy. No goals. No drive. A former noble who can't do anything by herself. Why would he listen to your apology in the first place?"

"I don't understand..." She mumbled quietly.

"What?" Ed asked.

"I don't understand..." She mumbled just a bit louder.

"I can't hear you! Is that how you're planning to apologize to Haru?!" He taunted.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" She shouted in frustration.

"There you go." Ed replied. "Right now, you're not worthy of apologizing to him. For someone to apologize, the two parties must be equals. Would an elephant listen to an ant if it tried to say sorry? No, it would already be lucky to not get crushed for getting in the elephant's way." He pointed at her. "You're the ant in the story. If you really want to apologize." He pointed at Haru. "Then work hard to become an elephant." He turned and walked away, leaving her in stunned silence.

"Ah, Sect Leader Fang must be rubbing off on me." He chuckled to himself as he left. 'It's rare for me to teach something useful to a weakling like that. Well, if she's going to keep following Haru, who is following me, then she needs to at least make herself useful. Nothing worse for a group than dead weight.'