Book 5: Chapter 33: Clarity

Book 5: Chapter 33: Clarity

Sen was happy to discover that the tension that had hovered between him and Fu Ruolan largely dissipated after their conversation. However, he suspected the gift of the extremely rare ice lotus helped as well. That translated into unexpected but welcome changes in how they worked on his pill refining. The mystery of his persistent failures remained unsolved, but she paid much closer attention to his state of mind. When she thought that he was getting too frustrated or disheartened, she would have him do other things for a day or two. Sometimes, shed have him make elixirs. Sometimes, shed just tell him to go and practice his martial forms. Not that he needed any encouragement for that last part. Hed often end his day with hours of practice out in the dark, viewing it as an opportunity to hone his skills in adverse conditions. During those months, Falling Leaf would often vanish for days or weeks at a time. Sen didnt question it until he found more comfortable furniture in the galehouse one day.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

Where did this come from? he asked, gesturing at a chair.

I bought it, said Falling Leaf.

Where?

She shrugged. I went back to the one of the towns on the road.

Sen stared as he tried to make sense of what shed said. Falling Leaf had made a habit of venturing out into the wilds to hunt for spirit beasts that could help her advance. Shed done fairly well at it from what Sen could sense of her advancement. Sometime in the previous few months, shed once again snuck past his own level. The disparities between them were harder to judge. He was fairly certain that the new upper limits on his power meant that she was stronger than he was, at least in terms of pure shadow qi. On the whole, though, he was less confident. They might be on equal footing again. He might be a little stronger. Still, it had never occurred to him that she might seek out human beings on purpose.

You went by yourself?

You were doing alchemy with the madwoman, said Falling Leaf.

Sen chose not to argue about Fu Ruolans degree of sanity. Im just surprised. You dont really enjoy human beings.

Falling Leaf nodded enthusiastically to that sentiment, which made Sen close his eyes as he tried to repress his disappointment. Hed hoped that maybe her trip had been a sign that she was coming around on people. Then again, people kept going out of their way to prove to Falling Leaf that they werent to be trusted or liked.

I dont like humans, but your stone chairs and beds arent comfortable. The humans at the town sold things to me.

More to the point, making her come at him straight on let him take advantage of his greater reach. He kept her at bay for a little while with a series of kicks, but she evaded them all. If hed managed to land one, he might have slowed her down a little. In a battle of pure speed, he was pretty sure he was overmatched. It wasnt a big gap but even small gaps in speed could spell disaster in a one-on-one fight. It was less important in the chaos of a battle with lots of participants because fighters could use other people or spirit beasts as distractions, negating the small but real advantage. Sens concentration slipped for a fraction of a second at an unexpected sound out in the forest. He didnt even take the time to identify it. Still, that brief moment of hesitation was enough for Falling Leaf to land a blow on his thigh. He tried to pull the leg back, but it wasnt reacting as fast as he expected.

Then, Falling Leaf was inside his reach and there was no room for thinking. It was all instinct and honed reactions as their fists and elbows moved in a blur. The sounds of their blocks echoed like distant thunder through the nearby trees and sent the winter birds in the area fleeing for the sky. Even with his disadvantage, Sen found himself smiling at the purity of their sparring. It was direct but spontaneous. The exact opposite of what hed been trying to do with pill refining, which was often indirect and rigid. Sen was caught off balance when Falling Leaf disengaged instead of blocking one of his strikes. He took a stumbling half-step forward to regain his balance. Sen felt the blow coming more than saw it and threw out a hasty block, but it came too late. Falling Leafs foot connected with the side of his head. He staggered away and another quick strike drove him down into the snow.

Sen lay there for a moment to regain his wits. Falling Leaf certainly hadnt held her blows either. His head hurt and there was a dull whine in his ears. He also felt the melting snow soaking through his clothes. Shaking his head, he pushed himself back up to his feet. Falling Leaf looked pleased with her victory, but she wasnt gloating over it. Instead, she looked vibrantly alive and happy. He had been leaving her to her own devices a great deal in the last few months. While Fu Ruolan had all but required that Falling Leaf stay, the elder cultivator didnt seem to have any actual plan for the panther girl. Sen had been so caught up in his own concerns that he hadnt done anything to remedy that situation. Rolling his head to loosen up the muscles in his neck and shoulders, he gestured for her to attack. Eyes wild with anticipation, Falling Leaf lunged at him. They kept that up until both of them were making sloppy mistakes that meant a lot of bruises the next day.

I think thats enough for today, said Sen, pressing his hand against a cut that Falling Leaf had opened along his ribs.

I can keep going, answered Falling Leaf while trying to catch her breath.

Really? asked Sen.

The panther girl looked at him and offered a weak, No.

The pair went back inside and Sen pulled out two healing elixirs. He handed one to Falling Leaf and downed the other. He let out a relieved breath as the collection of minor injuries hed suffered started to close or fade. Slumping down into one of the new chairs, he gave it an appreciative pat.

You were right, said Sen. These are way more comfortable.

She smiled a little as she sat down in one of the other chairs. As Sen waited for the elixir to finish its work, he smiled. He wasnt sure it would work, but he and Fu Ruolan had tried everything else. The only thing they hadnt tried was for Sen to just try to do it the way he made elixirs. Hed discounted the possibility because hed assumed that the process required that absolutely rigid approach. However, all of the evidence said that it wouldnt and maybe even couldnt work for him. It bothered him that he hadnt figured out why it wouldnt work for him, but he supposed that the why could wait. While she hadnt gone into detail, Fu Ruolan had told him that he needed to use pill refining to make use of the Five-Fold Body Transformation. The manual only detailed the pills. She admitted that there were probably ways to make something similar in elixir form but that components were rarely the same, even if a pill and an elixir did the same things. Sen recognized the problem immediately. Hed need to see the pill version, maybe even see it used, before hed be able to make reasonable guesses about how to create an elixir alternative.

To make matters worse, the pills were so precise that the person using them had to make them. Introducing anyone elses qi to the pill creation led to inevitable failure. It was one of the reasons why the body cultivation method was so rarely used. The number of body-cultivating alchemists in the world was so small that they practically didnt exist. Sen suspected those problems were also why it had killed so many people. Even if he managed to get it right, body cultivation was still a gamble. It could still kill him. But he was on borrowed time. What Fu Ruolan had done to stabilize him wasnt a permanent solution. She hadnt told him that, but hed worked it out on his own. His inability to make any meaningful forward progress was the real clue. Shed figured out a way to restore most of what hed been before and lock it in place. It had probably been an impressive bit of alchemy, but it was also unnatural. At some point, it would break down and hed start to deteriorate again. He remembered with terrible clarity the kind of pain hed been in at the end, and he wasnt eager to experience that a second time. So, hed take a chance and see if his intuition paid off.