Every evening, outer disciples were given an hour of free time. After the dinner was over and the disciples were ordered to return to their barracks, I went up to one of my neighbors, a sickly boy named Su Chai.
"Brother Su Chai, hey, can you do me a small favor? I will owe you! If you will need anything—"
Su Chai shook his head and shrunk away from me.
"You want to look at my technique sheet? Sorry, Brother Yujin… I heard Brother Fen Chun will be angry with anyone who helps you with the contest."
My other neighbor, Ming Xiao, nodded.
"Yeah. And besides, Ru Yujin! You are the one burying yourself! You could've been an inner disciple already if you didn't decide to have three dantians! If Fen Chun decided to knock you down, I'm all for it!"
"You are such a smartass, Ru Yujin! Put your head down with everyone, then we can talk!"
I looked at the frowning faces of my neighbors and grit my teeth. Pettiness, pure pettiness!
They were really just children. With a huff, I turned away from them and flopped on my straw mattress.
I wasn't giving up, neither on my dreams or on this contest.
I was going to become strong enough to leave the Lin clan and the Purple Dragon Sect. Strong enough to find out the truth of my past. Strong enough to be left in peace by bullies like Fen Chun and power-hungry sects.
***
Next day, we had a lecture on techniques from one of Lin Tan's disciples. The principles of using techniques turned out to be as simple as most cultivation-related things.
Qi was a special substance that could, by a happenstance or because of a cultivator, become attuned to one of the 13 natural elements of the universe. When that happened, a cultivator could manipulate this Qi to generate and mold the elemental energy into techniques.
Techniques depended on gathering Qi of the right elements and arranging them into forms and shapes with various gestures, runes, and so on.
There were 5 elements of nature: Fire (orange), Water (blue), Earth (yellow), Wood (green) and Metal (gray). These were described as the easiest to master.
Then there were 2 elements of reincarnation: Life (cyan) and Death (purple). They were harder than the elements of nature, just like the elements after them were harder than these.
Then went the element of purity—Lightning (white).
Afterward, the lecturer listed the 4 elements of the creation: Space, Time, Mind and Soul, not mentioning their colors.
"And the 13th element of the universe is lost to time… But it's doubtlessly unfathomably powerful. You, however, must first master the elements of nature!"
The lecturer droned on and on about the finer details of summoning elements. I pretended to listen attentively, but my focus was actually on the Qi in my fingers.
With a thought, I ordered a bit of my Qi to travel there and change color. When the Qi there became blue and my hand felt colder, I knew it worked.
So easy. Why did other people have problems with cultivation at all? All I had to do was think about it with some intent, and Qi did whatever I wanted. Refined Qi obeyed my orders even easier!
The hopes Fen Chun dashed rose in me again.
For the rest of the lecture I barely listened, instead trying to remember the way Lin Tan moved his fingers when he showed off his technique.
In their hour of free time, everybody in my barracks was busy trying to do the Water Flower technique. To my surprise, I saw that most of them went red-faced with just the effort of summoning some Water Qi.
Maybe I was really something special. Or maybe they had a really hard time simply thinking commands at Qi.
Too bad that in this place, being special meant being hated.
Also, the failure of my peers meant I couldn't look at what they were doing for hints to use.
I tried to copy Lin Tan's technique myself. Even when everybody went to sleep, tired after the day's work, I kept lying in the darkness, waving my fingers.
If I did that while my Qi moved, I could feel the potential energy within. If I closed my eyes, I could almost see the result waiting to happen. I felt like a sculptor who looked at a piece of marble and saw a statue within.
When I thought my fingers went into a right position, I let the energy flow from them, and a small cloud of mist appeared on my palm.
I stifled a gasp and watched as it dispersed. My hand felt heavier, and the Qi within turned dim.
That meant it was "spent". With time, it will recover, but until then, it could produce no more elemental energy. It also wasn't strengthening my body anymore, and that made my hand feel heavier.
That was progress!
I tried several more times, focusing the mist into more solid shapes until my Qi was almost spent and my eyelids became heavier than lead.
Next day my Qi recovered somewhat, and luckily, I got one of the easiest chores—sweeping roads.
Between waving my broom around and avoiding the eyes of supervisors, I sneaked time to try the technique again a few times. Eventually, I could twist the mist tongues into the shape of petals, although only one or two at a time.
We had more lectures about techniques in the next two days. On day four, instead of a lecture or a meditation, there was a practice lesson on the Water Flower technique.
The disciples spread around the courtyard, while Fen Kuang watched over us. Or, more specifically, walked around Fen Chun, trying to look like he wasn't giving him hints.
Despite all the help, Fen Chun didn't have a lot of success. His best effort resulted in only three ice petals, which were too wide and uneven. But that was still much better than most disciples could do—they created only mist.
I kept practicing, trying to stay away from trouble and create more than three petals at a time. This naturally led me to a corner of the courtyard, where the concentration of disciples was the lowest.
There was only a single girl, sitting on the ground and hugging her knees. I remembered her name, Fu Zhou, because she was the youngest disciple here, only 8 years old.
At my approach, she scrambled to her feet and scurried away, staring at me with huge blue eyes like a dog expecting a beating.
"Junior Sister Fu Zhou, I'm not biting," I joked. "Why are you sitting here, anyway?"
She hugged her shoulders and didn't reply, but her eyes flickered to the crowd of other disciples. I frowned and had a guess.
"Did someone steal your technique leaflet?"
Fu Zhou nodded with a slight pout.
I was flabbergasted. "Why?"
She shrugged and stayed silent, but I knew the answer, anyway. Because they could, and because no one would stand up for Fu Zhou. The Lin clan wanted only strong people, and everybody saw Fu Zhou's tiny figure and thought she was weak.
Which was untrue—she was one of the 10% of disciples who had an actual chance of reaching the Qi Foundation stage in time. The rest 90% kept deluding themselves.
Even worse than pettiness!
That mindset was poison that crumbled communities. I wasn't a hero, but only total scum could watch something like this happen and feel nothing. Besides... If Fu Zhou became a strong cultivator in the future, I might call back on the favor I was giving her today.
This was just looking out for myself and for my future.
I waved my fingers, gathered some Water Qi, and five perfectly shaped icy petals grew out of my palm. Fu Zhou gasped.
I was just as shocked by this development, but kept my face calm. I was only a couple of petals away from the full flower, just like Lin Tan showed it. There was no doubt anymore that I could do it.
The flower disappeared, and Fu Zhou looked up at me in complete awe. I grinned at her.
"Little Sister Zhou, don't worry. I will show you how to do this technique, and we will win the contest together."