The pair were riding a carriage back to the sect, both exhausted. They've only worked for five days, but it felt like months.
"The bureaucracy in this city! I am tired of paying for stuff! And the whole barking stuff, if you only knew how many people I have to rub to make it work!" Lei was quite irritated.
"So, will the guild genuinely double anything we make here?" Xin felt too drained to support Lei, so he switched the topic.
"Apparently. Frankly, we aren't subtle about our guild connection at all, but they don't mind it. Maybe the guild don't necessarily see us as spies, and are injecting us here to brute force a connection. And any intel I provide is just a bonus."
"I see. How much are you even earning, may I ask?"
"Nothing. Neither me or grandpa have a salary, but we own half the shares each, so it's only natural that we work on improving the sale value first and foremost, so I mostly attend meetings with guild higher ups and interested merchants from related businesses."
"Good. I don't envy you, by the way.It's nice that we both develop." Xin didn't mind Lei potentially earning a fortune, it was his own measly salary that frustrated him.
"I had a chat with Chonglin today. He says that once I retrieve the permits and you finish training the workers so that they can work on their own, we'll be able to attend training again. Nice, huh?"
"Nice, indeed. I agree that we need to train, we still have a long way to go. Especially you, your foundation is lacking. The invasion is coming, four years sounds like a distant dream, until it doesn't. These workers are retarded, by the way, but I think I can get them to produce most of the mundane goods by themselves in two weeks time or so."
"Forget the workers, let's discuss what a jerk you are! My qi control is pretty good, you have to give me that. And when it comes to the breakthrough, I might just hire a specialist to assist me. I'll have plenty of money soon, hehe."
"The breakthrough is not just your chance to rank up. You can obtain heaven and human qi inspirations, or improve your physique with an earth inspiration.The better your foundation, the better your inspiration, generally speaking." It seems my comments stung Lei. Good, he needs to get his act together, he barely studies.
"I know this, smartass. Everyone does. But it's just the Foundation stage, maybe I'll get an idea or two, the gains are still marginal compared to higher stages. My priority should be ranking up as soon as possible, I can develop much easier once I am a master."
"Well, I understand, but it's not just the new ideas and inspirations, but also emerging connections between your previous ideas. You can take a shortcut and obtain years of life experience if you attune properly."
"Well, tough luck, I trained by trial and error, year after year, through repetition and experimentation. I didn't have an advantage of knowing all these meditation techniques and alchemy like you do, and it's too late to recoup that loss. Think I'll just rush to Foundation stage, sorry."
"Well, don't forget you can also just fail your breakthrough. It's not a given that you just do it on your first try, even with your bloodline and talent."
"Nah, I'll manage somehow."
Xin rolled his eyes. At least we have a "window" tomorrow and will be able to attend the classes.
***
Next morning, Elemental Pavilion Overseer, Yu Ting, a graceful woman who looked to be in her late thirties, approached the pair before her lecture.
"So, kids, you finally descended into our simpleton realm, huh?"
Xin pursed his lips, Lei just smiled innocently.
"Master Ting, we were extending the business interests of the sect. Forgive us if you felt like we were neglecting your classes, and your wisdom, by extension. I know that I now have a mountain to climb, but I'll work hard to impress you." Lei made his attempt at diplomacy.
"Whatever. After the main lecture, I'll quickly explain the basics of what you missed, then we'll test you and teach you how to use an Elemental Well. Xie Xiaodan and Feng Chonglin both spoke highly of your talent, make it count. You two are such a headache."
The pair nodded.
They joined their group and sat down. There were many students here, including every "seed" and freshly recruited internal disciple.
Yu Ting entered the lecture hall, her azure Condensation Stage robes woven with intricate golden patterns that shimmered like sunlight on water. Adorning her neck and wrists were delicate pieces of jewelry, complementing her expensive shoes, embedded with glistening crystals, sparkling with each step. The room, previously filled with chatter, fell silent as she exuded an air of feminine grace and gentle authority. She sat down, flicking away a speck of dust from her sleeve, and began to speak.
"Greetings. This lecture isn't meant to give you a rigid structure to follow, but to help you explore the options that you have. My philosophy is based on letting the students teach themselves, with the teacher just giving them the instruments." Everyone nodded in agreement, but Xin disliked this. Based on his previous experience with different mentors, he felt like this approach was one step away from slacking off and blaming the students for failing.
She continued:
"So, being a water path master, I can manifest water, but also invoke the properties of this element. Now, if I were to try and invoke an adjacent element, like ice, for example, would I be able to do it?"
Xin was the first one to raise his hand.
"Sure, Xin from Tealstone. Please enlighten us."
"It depends. If you can quickly transform your water qi into ice qi, and hold it long enough to invoke a technique, this is doable. It will be hard to invoke 'iceness' without natural affinity, and requires a serious foundation. It's a wasteful method, but has its uses."
"It's a useful method on higher stages. Continue."
"A better option is using materials and artefacts to set up formations to augment the process, instead of relying on your natural concentration or internal core space. This reduces the reliance on your natural affinities, and eases the mental strain of the whole process."
"Correct. Keep working like that, and I'll give you a contribution point." She seemed impressed.
"I am not sure it's a contribution, frankly. I am using my past knowledge, not being a good student." Xin noticed several people in the class roll their eyes.
"Let's say I praised your good explanation, and not your knowledge." She looked annoyed now. "Can anyone explain the drawbacks of using the moves of the element you don't specialise in?"
The young noble man raised his arm. He then started twitching it, as if trying to say "Me! Me!". The teacher nodded to him and smiled.
"Teacher, there are indeed several drawbacks. For once, you are wasting a lot of qi. In every transformation, there is a loss. Second, your techniques don't benefit from your internal landscape, so they'll be weaker. And the chance to fail such a technique is also higher, as you are mentally strained and have no qi affinity. Thus, it is recommended that..."
"I'll continue from here, thank you. I don't recommend using any foreign qi techniques of your level, unless they are your trap card in a very specific situation. If you want to invoke a foreign element, generally speaking, at the Foundation stage, stick to mortal moves. At the Condensation stage, the Foundation stage moves. And so on. Some of the drawbacks can be nullified by dao shards, can someone enlighten me about them?"
Many people raised their hands. It was one of the most popular topics in the world of cultivation, after all.
"Yao Nang, speak."
"Yes, master! So, Dao shards are pieces of Great Dao, they are like... concepts, but they took form. And they can grant you special abilities, but the number of shards you can use is limited by your soul foundation."
"Correct. You've worked hard enough these past few days. Contribution point."
Xin and Lei exchanged glances and smiled. Is this female favouritism? Xin considered Yao Nang pretty stupid, he was certain she didn't truly earn the contribution point.
"Thank you, master!" She was delighted. Several male students also rolled their eyes.
"Master, if I may?" A person in the second row raised his hand. It was Rui Ming!
"The prodigal son decides to break a vow of silence? Please entertain us." Yu Ting smiled, but there was a hint of condescension and caution in her expression.
"The Great Dao is in a state of constant suffering, so it sheds pieces of itself to ease the pain. The more whole it is, the more it feels the misery of its existence. It needs to split itself into smaller things, with less sentience, the big concepts into smaller concepts, unable to bear being what it is. It's a great tyranny, being 'you', the burden of 'why am I me' can make one's head spin. Who says that the Great Dao is not subject to the same pain?
Still, like ants picking up small pieces of candy, we fight for these scraps we call dao shards and shed blood, all to support our delusions, like wealth and status. In actuality, it's an escape from nothingness. I based this idea on Tempest's "Five Winds Treatises", and I agree with him."
Xin and Lei exchanged glances, smiling. This guy was very entertaining. Yu Ting was baffled for a few moments, but recomposed herself, coughed lightly and spoke again:
"Ehm... Let's try to extract something constructive from this fairy tale Rui Ming came up with, and summarise a bit of what we heard so far.
Great Dao is not a person. Great Dao is just a philosophic concept, a simple way of expressing Dao as a whole. It's not an actual entity, just a useful term. The Great Dao can't 'suffer'. It undergoes different transformations, still subject to Wuxing principles, simplified into concepts like 'heaven and earth' and 'Yin and Yang'. The 'stronger' dao shards are named like 'death' and 'truth' and are more conceptual, while the 'weaker' dao shards are 'water boiling' or 'serene fruit expansion', and are more exact.
You can only attune to and manipulate a certain number of shards, based on your soul foundation. Each shard has at least one use, but sometimes more, and they need to be fed to not wither away. The food requirement is tied to the rank of the shard. Using a shard without attunement is much harder."
Wu Lei raised his hand.
"Yes. I am listening."
"Master, I know that shards have levels just like xiandao cultivators, but can they be upgraded?"
What's with that question? Xin was embarrassed, is Lei retarded?
"Oh, absolutely, refinement isn't just shard creation, but also upgrading. If you break through correctly, you can even bring them up with you, if your breakthrough method accounts for it, of course. Since you and your friend are dual element, you won't be able to refine or upgrade any shard this way.
You could also downgrade them, or attempt to split them into numerous smaller shards, but it's very hard to do and the effects depend on a shard. You people won't have a refinement course this year, your program is already overloaded, if you ask me. So just remember it for the future."
"Thank you, master." Lei's eyes shone as he fantasised about wielding different dao shards.
Xin wanted to ask her "are totems a category of dao shards?", but he decided to restrain himself, for obvious reasons.
"Now, let's review the sources you were assigned. Bagua principles in relation to physical reality..."