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The mood of the Illusion Room entourage as they made their way back to the was apocalyptic.
Jin could understand why.
The lanky-haired boy and the wheat-haired disciples slunk back, their heads hung in shame. Even Lung Junior looked chastised.
"That was the most embarrassing thing I've seen in my life," Hashimi whispered to Jin, but going by the twitch of Elder Flower's eyebrows, she heard it.
"You did all right, though," Jin reassured his female friend.
The dark-skinned girl simply tapped a finger to her chin as they walked on silently. The crowds had yet to disperse from the arena slung over the volcano entrance, so the streets were relatively empty.
"It was different, I saw today that I've never really gone into a fight blind, not knowing much about my opponent's psyche. Even knowing that a Blazing Fire Sect disciple is going to be throwing fireballs, I could still barely handle it when he did," she analysed.
"That's why our sect exists," Jin replied. "Knowing your enemy's abilities is only half the battle; the other half is won when you gruellingly train your own. The better your reflexes, physique, skills, and experience, the more battles you can win against the same opponent. Warriors hone their body, their whole body throughout the year just for that one percentage."
"But their opponent often is training at the same time, so they're just training to keep up," Hashimi noted.
"It's not easy being a fighter. The stakes are usually low; you just train. Then, the few minutes per year during which you meet an opponent that might have what it takes to beat you, the stakes become incredibly high, very, very fast. It's a gruelling life. It requires dedication, purpose." A pause. "Talent."
"I think it might not be for me," Hashimi eventually decided, as the group reached the small but luxurious house they'd rented out completely. "I trained, but I'll never have as much time to train as someone from a combat-focused sect. Most of my qi is tied up in mental processing, but the sect doesn't have that many mental combat techniques. I could probably achieve more by just making Illusion Rooms."
Jin closed his eyes and sighed. "I often think the same-"
Whatever was going to come out of his mouth was suddenly stopped by a hand on his shoulder. A hand that was gripping his shoulder a bit too tightly.
"Congratulations, inner disciple Jin," Elder Flower said with a plastic smile as she took his other hand with hers and robotically shook it. "Your outstanding efforts and martial prowess will help convince those at the sect that we, Illusion Room cultivators, do have latent combat potential simply waiting to be tapped." She paused. "For all that your companions today lack any of the talent you displayed, this trip was already a minor success due to your efforts."
"Thanks, Elder Flower," Jin said listlessly. He looked forlornly at Hashimi at his side, who was beaming at him.
She'd lamented that she had no talent, whereas he lamented that he wasn't as incompetent as she. He wished that he could have convincingly lost, but a weak fireball to the face was barely something he could pretend to be taken down by.
"Regardless, let's quickly go to discuss your next steps," Elder Flower continued. "Now that you are the only disciple remaining in the tournament, you will be receiving…" An ominous pause. "My undivided attention."
Jin barely refrained from gulping in fear and simply bowed his head in deference.
"Let us abscond to the training room."
The next round of fights was tomorrow, so he didn't quite know what he could learn until then, but he followed nonetheless.
-/-
Once they were seated in the small dojo belonging to the house, Elder Flower openly rubbed at her temples and drank her tea in big gulps.
It was a startling loss of composure in the older woman. Jin's enhanced eyesight could even determine that more than just one of her strands of silky smooth black hair was out of place.
Her green eyes blinked wearily at him.
"I initially thought that so many of our disciples progressing to the bracket stage would be a good thing," she grumbled.
Jin looked up at the wooden ceiling. "The heavens work in mysterious ways."
The Elder snorted. "You think this was the work of the heavens?" she asked poisonously. "I rather think that there are certain parties that clearly benefit from our sect, which has just begun developing its combat proficiency, to be publicly shamed like this."
The disciple considered that for a few moments. Elder Flower wanted at least some of the sect's efforts to go towards strengthening it martially. Elder Lung and his faction didn't, simply wanting to further increase revenue; their own, mainly.
"It's also his own sect, sabotaging our international reputation hurts our exports just as much as it hurts your efforts," he said, not really seeing the point. He hoped Elder Flower wasn't becoming paranoid; he'd already dealt with enough schizophrenics in his last life.
Elder Flower gave him a pitying look, as if feeling sorry for his naivete. "Exports will recover, if my efforts don't bear fruit within the next few years, the sect leader might just be swayed into making a permanent decision." She lifted her porcelain teacup.
"The sect leader didn't even attend, to my knowledge. In terms of messaging, this indicates that the time for judgment has not yet come," Jin analysed calmly.
The Elder paused mid-gulp. She put down the cup. "What if there is no specific time of judgement, but rather a continuous assessment?"
"The wills of the Elders are as mysterious to me as those of the heavens, yet I always feel blessed by their wisdom and generosity," Jin said airily, trying to extricate himself from the conversation before it got too deep. If Elder Flower started having regular chats about internal sect politics with him, then he might become too implicated. They weren't master and student, and perhaps in terms of positioning, that was more beneficial at the moment before Elder Flower proved herself in being capable of exerting an iota of control over the unruly factions of the sect and its indecisive leader. In other words. 'I'm a low-level employee, please don't implicate me in high-level office politics, I need this job to pay rent.'
"Regardless," Elder Flower said, waving a hand dismissively in the air. Your showing was good. A bit crude to simply force your way through, but it forced an early close-quarter coin flip which ended up in your favour." She rummaged through the inside of her robe and threw him a small pouch. "Here's your reward for salvaging some of our reputation as a sect. I was planning on handing out more rewards, but no one else merited any."
Jin caught the pouch, about as big as a quarter of his fist and loosened the string to look inside. Blue light shone from within. Spirit Stones. He blinked. For The Last of Us, he'd gotten sect contribution points. This looked to be about half as much as he'd gotten, but in spirit stones instead.
"There's a condition," Elder Flower continued. "The spirit stones you receive for your wins in the tournament can only be used to further your cultivation, be it through buying resources or simply using up the stored qi to cultivate more effectively."
Regardless of Jin's relatively low ambitions when it came to his cultivation, the gift still meant that if he wanted to maintain the same pace which set him to finish core formation in a few decades, he could now spend less effort on reaching that goal at the same time. He inclined his head. "Many thanks, Elder Flower."
"Regarding how I'll know if you used them for cultivation," the Elder continued. "I'll simply assume you didn't if you take more than ten years to enter the core formation stage. I'm aware of your talent, and I will be keeping track. Every additional pouch will decrease the years you have by one."
Jin's eye twitched.
Elder Flower smirked.
'Bitch.'
He could see a similar accusation in her green eyes, just that hers said, 'lazy bum.'
'You shouldn't use my deeds as a way to solidify your position; you should strengthen your position and then use your newfound leverage to recruit me fully behind your ideology with material benefits,' he transmitted with his eyes.
'Why would I do that when I can simply make you do what I want with my superior position. You can't deny an Elder, but you also need my goodwill to protect you against any other enemies you might have or make.'
'If you keep forcing me to be a meathead, then I'll beat your ass when I'm stronger than you.'
'I'd love it if you did, as then the sect would have two high-level combatants. Also, anything you'd have to do to achieve that goal would entrench you further against the other factions in the sect.'
Jin narrowed his eyes.
Elder Flower's smirk widened.
"Anyway," the woman continued. "Your mastery over the self-puppeteering technique, your avatar, is progressing well. Unfortunately, you won't be able to embody the metaphysical aspects of the technique at least until your core formation, but there are other things you can work on until then."
"You mean that right now I can only move my body according to my qi, but in the future I'll be able to use the qi techniques of the characters I embody if I choose too?" Jin asked curiously. The avatar technique was a complicated set of work bound in a lot of poetic gibberish involving understanding the dao of mimicry and beyond mimicry and the heavens and their weeping at the authenticity of the blablablabla. Even the scroll Elder Flower had given him back then was just a precursor to the full thing. The library hadn't been much more useful either.
"At a certain point, you won't just mimic actions, you will become the actions, but for that, you need a core to inscribe your dao on; you're not at that stage yet," Elder Flower said. "Until the core formation stage, your abilities are based on reality, qi natures, interactions… After core formation, you can start working on concepts."
"Sounds awesome," Jin said, something that he actually meant.
Quite frankly, other than the feudal society, the threat of extinction by the demons, the threat of getting beheaded by a salty Elder, the threat of getting bisected by an angry spirit beast… At least it was nice to be able to use magic. Being able to use more magic? That was cool.
"Good, well, there's no point in waiting to expand your repertoire, however, as there are also the beginning stages of other sect combat techniques you can start working on now. For example, illusions," Elder Flower explained.
"I thought that there wasn't any way for us to influence the minds of others?" Jin asked, confusedly.
"That's the issue. Most sects that use illusions for combat do so by injecting their qi into the system of the enemy and manipulating their senses. Considering how much of our cultivation is focused on manipulating our own minds, rather than the minds of others, this path becomes more difficult. Instead of that, as a precursor to anima, which is also a conceptual technique that requires core formation to fully utilise, we use illusions based not on manipulating senses but based on manipulating our own qi."
After explaining, Elder Flower held up a pale finger. A blue ephemeral one suddenly materialised above it. The colour then shifted to black, red, and yellow before the structure dissipated. "You can think of it like painting," the Elder continued to explain. "Just that instead of paint, your qi becomes your brush. Later on, you will be able to harden the construct and use it as a weapon, but for now? Just use it to distract someone."
Jin nodded seriously. "I imagine it's quite limited?" he asked.
"Of course," Elder Flower replied. "Especially at your level. It was a technique initially created so that Illusion Room cultivators could show each other their designs, before that was made obsolete by being able to share thoughts and memories through jade slips at an even faster rate than previously possible. The technique was kept around because it was noted that it makes learning anima later, easier. It has limited combat potential as well."
"If I can manipulate the colour and hardness of my qi while expelling it, what's preventing me from changing its temperature and just start shooting people with fireballs?" Jin suddenly asked. "After all, both are simply ways of changing the properties of qi."
Elder Flower seemed happy that he'd asked. "Obviously, it's easier to change the colour of qi rather than its temperature, especially to a point where it would actually be a threat. No, that's a different story. The advantages we have as mind cultivators are being able to finely manipulate the shape and colour, not the nature, that's an issue best left for the cultivators of the Blazing Fire Sect. Of course, that changes when things become conceptual, rather than purely logical."
"So, get to core formation, then think more?" Jin asked.
Elder Flower nodded. "Exactly." She looked him up and down. "Now, there's no one way to change the colour and consistency of qi so as to create hard illusions, so I'd just say go practice it. Don't tire yourself out too much. You have a fight tomorrow. We will have more lessons back at the sect. Consider it a reward."
Jin promptly stood up and bowed.
"Disciple thanks master!" he exclaimed with clasped fist.
Elder Flower shooed him off. "Go work on it and that room of yours; you need to adjust your mindset for tomorrow."
Jin made to leave.
"Also," Elder Flower said from behind him, this time in a much more tired voice. "Try your best. For the sect, yourself, or just for me," she said in a way that made her more vulnerable than Jin had ever heard her.
He nodded and left the room.
Thankfully, he was adept at spotting manipulative behaviour; he wasn't falling for that one.
-/-
Important Author's Note: I will be selecting the next video game to adapt on Patreon in 3 weeks. There will be a preliminary post where everyone, also free members, can put up their ideas. Then, a few days later, the subscribers will vote on the options in two rounds. First round to select a top three from 20 options, final round to select the winner. If you join the Patreon now you will be eligible to vote even if you only subscribe for one month. I have also enabled a free trial of one week for Tier 1 btw if you feel like timing it just for that.