I released the flow of my qi, and instantly, the odd feeling that the world was slightly out-of-sync with me vanished. I wobbled slightly as I felt everything snap back into place, but I quickly regained my equilibrium and looked at the demolished statue lying perfectly still on the floor in front of us.

“Sara, what the hell just happened? What did I do to my qi? Why did everything seem…off?”

When my AI assistant replied, she sounded quite pleased with herself. “You altered the fundamental nature of your qi, John!” she told me excitedly. “Before, it was almost like a gas that you controlled by putting it under pressure. Now, it behaves like a liquid, and…here, I’ll just show you.”

Instantly, a text box popped up in front of my eyes.

Qi Phase Change

You have shifted your qi from the state: Vaporous Qi to the state: Liquid Qi.

Benefits:

Qi Density increased by a power of 1.25

Qi Abilities boosted by 25%

Perception Speed increased by 2.5%

“Okay, that all sounds great,” I said sarcastically, reading through the text. “I have no clue what it means. Care to explain?”

“Of course. While I was watching the battle, it occurred to me that while the statue had far more qi than you or Jing, thanks to being water-ranked, its qi wasn’t as powerful as yours.”

“Wait, not as powerful? It felt a lot stronger than me, Sara.”

“Well, yes, but that was because it had something like ten times the amount of energy in it that you do. What I’m saying is that it had a quantitative advantage, but not a qualitative one. Your qi, for lack of a better term, was ‘thicker’ than its, probably because of a combination of its celestial nature and the storage pattern I was showing you. That was why it didn’t just kill you outright, and why you were able to scratch it at all. Your qi was just better than its.”

“Not better enough, though,” I thought wryly, looking down at my torn robe and wincing as I saw the gashes across my side and chest. The pain hit an instant later, and I stifled a groan.

“Exactly,” Sara agreed, obviously not too concerned about my injuries. “If you wanted to beat it, you either needed more qi – which you couldn’t get – or you needed your qi to be even denser. So, I worked out a way to compress your qi and make it thicker. That turned it into a liquid.”

I mentally examined the energy sitting in my dantian. Like she’d said, the radiant energy there no longer swirled as a vaporous cloud. Instead, it sort of sloshed about like water. “Shouldn’t it be harder to use like this?” I asked dubiously. “I mean, gases flow faster than liquids, right?”

“Yes, but the moment it leaves your dantian, it turns back into a vapor – a highly pressurized one, at that. That pressure means you hit harder and can withstand more damage, now. Not an order of magnitude more or anything, but you’ll definitely see the effects in combat.”

I sighed and pushed away the notification, noting that Jing stared at me curiously. “Just thinking about something,” I hedged, shaking my head and looking down at the statue, watching as it crumbled into fine powder like the others. “That thing was water-ranked, Jing.”

“Yes, I could feel its aura, as well,” she nodded with a smile. “It was a true test of our abilities, and I am certain that defeating it has strengthened our spirits.”

“And tore the heck out of our bodies,” I countered, noting the blood welling from scratches all along Jing’s stomach, arms, and legs. “Did you bring any healing pills?”

“I did; however, I believe we should wait to use them, Xu Xing. These wounds are not severe or threatening, and I have but the two. Once they are used, we will need to purchase more, as we can no longer simply ask my mother or father for additional ones.”

“Good point,” I sighed. The cuts in my chest and side hurt, but she was right. They weren’t life-threatening or anything. I doubted I’d even need stitches, which was good, because I doubted Jing knew how to stitch up a wound, and it wasn’t in a great place for me to do it. Plus, you know, no needle and thread.

“You do have a healing technique, John,” Sara reminded me critically.

“Oh, yeah, right. I forgot about that.” I activated Flesh of the Stars, and I felt a strand of the liquid qi in my dantian slide out into my meridians. Just as Sara said, the moment it exited my qi storage, the strand flashed into vapor, filling my meridians and cycling through the pattern for Flesh of the Stars. It was an odd feeling, almost like being overfull except that the sensation was everywhere in my body at once. I wasn’t sure I liked it, but as blood stopped seeping from my wounds in a few seconds, I decided I could live with it.

“Okay, we need to go this way,” I said, pointing to the door from which I felt the sense of queasiness emanating. I slid the door open and peered at a set of stone stairs that descended down into the earth. A divot in the wall held some sort of flickering flame that bathed the steps in eerie, reddish light. I listened for several seconds, but no sound drifted up along the stairwell.

“Are you certain?” she asked dubiously, looking around and pointing to a set of stairs that led upward on the other side of the room. “Might not those be preferable? It seems to me that going higher within the school will likely lead us to answers, not descending to the depths. Do you not agree?”

“No, we need to go down,” I told her. I took a step onto the stairs and glanced back, seeing that she wasn’t moving to follow me. “Jing?”

“I…” She sighed. “Xu Xing, those steps lead down into the embrace of metal and fire. I do not wish to go that way.”

“Why…oh, wait, I understand,” I cut myself off as I realized what she was saying. “If you’re surrounded by opposed qi, you’re a lot weaker.”

“Yes, that is my concern. I will not be helpless, as there is certainly air to breathe, but I will lose much of my strength, and my spirit will be weakened. Should we face another beast such as this one…” She let her words trail off, and I frowned as I realized she was right. Without her full capabilities, another water-ranked statue would kill her pretty easily.

“Okay,” I nodded. “I still have to go down there, though.”

“Very well,” she sighed. “I will…”

“Try to make your way back out of the school without being seen,” I cut her off. Her eyes narrowed, but I shook my head. “Jing, you said it yourself. You’re going to be very weak down there. If you come with me, I’ll have to worry about keeping you safe as well as protecting myself, and honestly, that’s likely to get us both killed.”

“And if you encounter another beast such as this?” she asked quietly, pointing to the wrecked statue. “You needed my help to defeat this, Xu Xing.”

“Would you be able to help me the same way down there?” I countered. “I’m betting the answer is ‘no’. Besides, now that we’ve beaten one, I have a better idea of how to handle another.”

“Would it not simply be wiser to seek another path?” she asked after a moment, her face troubled.

“This is the way I have to go, and we’re running out of time, Jing. At some point, the students and teachers are going to start returning, and when that happens, we’ll either be caught or have to start killing people to escape. I don’t think either of us want that.”

She bit her lip and sighed. “No, I do not. Very well, I will make my way back out of the school. I believe I can do so unseen.”

“Good. Head back to the travel house, and I’ll meet you there.”

“As you wish.” She hesitated. “I do not like this separation, Xu Xing.”

“Neither do I, but I don’t think there’s any other way, do you?”

“No.” She turned and vanished through the passage we’d used to enter, and I continued descending down the stairs.

The stairs were smooth, even, and polished, and they curved gently around through walls that glossily reflected the flickering firelight. As I passed the first sconce, I glanced inside and noticed that the fire there seemed to be burning without fuel. I didn’t know how that was possible, to be honest, but I was sure it was qi-based. In fact, as I descended, I realized that the whole tunnel was probably made with qi somehow. It was too perfect and uniform; that was possible on Earth, thanks to heavy machinery, but this world didn’t have the science and tools needed to do something like that.

I crept down the stairs, moving as quietly as I could, my ears straining to catch any hint of sound. I reached the bottom of the steps and found myself in a small, round room carved out of the rock beneath the school. The floor was flat and even, and the walls glowed glossily in the shimmering firelight. The cavern was empty of furnishings, and two stone corridors led away from it deeper into the earth.

None of that really registered to me right away, though, because I was too busy dodging the gout of fire that erupted from the statue that launched itself at me the moment I stepped into the cavern. The statue was another jade one, but instead of having a lion’s head on a reptilian body, it had a head that looked vaguely like a hawk’s on a long, serpentine body with two thin, taloned arms. I called up my qi as it struck, its beak snapping toward me, and I barely managed to deflect the attack with one hand while slipping to the side. As I’d expected, the thing slashed at me with a claw, then followed that with another snap of its beak and a swipe from its other hand.

I fought defensively at first, avoiding the strikes and watching the pattern. On its fifth attack sequence, the creature gaped its jaws and unleashed a jet of flames before dropping back into its pattern. I suppressed a grin; this thing was stronger and faster than me, but now that I had its attacks down, it didn’t stand a chance. I dodged and slipped its attacks, staying just ahead of its swipes and snapping beak, until it once more gaped its jaws wide to hurl of bolt of fire at me. As it stretched its neck forward, I slammed my knee up into its lower bill, snapping the beak shut with a loud crack, and crashed my fist against the side of its head. The jade skull shifted from green to white as its own fire attack superheated it, and I finished it off with a backfist that practically tore its head off.

My chest heaved and my skin stung as I stood over the monster’s shattered corpse, watching it collapse into dust. Even knowing exactly how the thing was going to attack, I hadn’t dodged every blow. I’d kept it from doing any serious damage, but its long arms and swift beak had gotten me a few times, mostly on the arms and shoulders. I glanced down at myself and saw that the attacks had drawn blood but hadn’t gone too deep. Sara was right again; my new qi seemed to make me tougher and more resistant to attacks. That promised to be useful.

I stood before the two tunnels; both of them set my stomach off, but the one to the left made me feel distinctly queasy, while the one on the right just felt a little wrong. I stepped into the left tunnel but only took a few steps before I stumbled as my torn and tattered robe wrapped around my legs. I gave it a cursory glance before pulling it off; it was simply too damaged to be worn anymore. I balled it up in my fist; I couldn’t leave it behind as evidence of my passage. I’d have to find a place to stash it along the way.

The tunnel branched twice, and each time, only one of the choices set off my sense of imbalance, making the decision an easy one. I passed a few doors, but again, none of them set of my sense of imbalance, so I ignored them. The tunnels narrowed as I moved deeper into them, turning back on themselves until I had no clue which direction I was facing or how far I’d actually gone. It didn’t matter, though; I was following my stomach, so to speak, and Sara assured me she could get me back out.

My first confirmation that something lay ahead came when the pair of brown-robed students who suddenly appeared before me as I rounded a tight curve. Everyone froze for an instant in utter surprise. The two must have been walking in complete silence, just as I was, but unlike me, they didn’t stay silent when we met. One of them literally screeched in shock, while the other let out a sharp yelp and took a quick step backward. They appeared to be locked in stunned paralysis, their minds struggling to process what they were seeing. Unfortunately for them, I was much faster to recover.

My reflexes kicked in before my brain had really had time to process what I was seeing. Even as the first student screeched, I dropped my wadded-up robe and moved forward, grabbing the front of her robe and slamming a knee up into her stomach. The blow cut her cry off instantly, and she crumpled to the ground, retching and gagging. I tossed her aside and snapped my fist at the second student just as he stepped back, allowing my momentum to carry me forward in a short slide. My brass knuckles cracked into his chest with an audible snap of bone, and he dropped to his knees, clutching his shattered sternum with both hands. I grabbed the sides of his head and smashed his face down into my uprising knee, and I felt his nose crush beneath the blow. His eyes rolled up in his head, and he collapsed like a boneless sack of meat to the tunnel floor.

I spun to face the fallen woman, but she’d managed to recover while I dealt with her friend. Her face was pale, and she still gasped for breath, but she flung a hand up at me and croaked something unintelligible. I leaped to the side as a thin line of fire shot past me, striking the tunnel wall behind and leaving a blackened patch on the stone. She croaked again, and a curtain of flame erupted from the floor between us, cutting me off from her. She turned and began to stagger back the way she’d come, no doubt intending to raise the alarm. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and leaped through the fire wall toward her.

I’d expected the flames to be hot, of course. However, I wasn’t particularly worried about the heat. Leaping through the flames, I would be moving fast enough that the fire wouldn’t get a chance to burn me. At least, so I thought, until I touched the flames and realized that this was no ordinary fire. The inferno felt hungry for fuel, desperate to incinerate whatever it touched. The instant I contacted it, pain seared my body as it scorched my skin. Tendrils of fire wrapped around my legs and set my pants ablaze, and heat engulfed my chest and face.

I bit my lip to keep from screaming as I landed on the other side, literally on fire from that brief moment of contact. The woman glanced back at me, and I saw a triumphant look cross her face, but it vanished as I put aside the growing agony and lunged for her. She thrust her hand out again, but I grabbed her extended wrist and twisted it, locking her arm straight. She bent forward to keep her elbow from snapping, and I dropped the point of my other elbow down on the back of her head. She collapsed instantly as the blow turned her off like a light switch, and the moment she dropped, the flames licking me winked out.

I sighed in relief and sank to the floor myself. My legs screamed in agony, and when I looked at them, I understood why. My pants had basically turned into shorts, revealing blistered and peeling skin beneath. I hissed in pain; seeing the injuries made the agony much more intense. I quickly closed my eyes and activated my Flesh of the Stars technique, hoping the cycling celestial qi could undo some of the damage. Normally, a burn like this would have left significant scarring; in this world, I had a feeling that between my technique and the pills Jing had, I’d probably heal up just fine.

Of course, if I got caught here, sitting on the floor with my eyes closed, I’d probably never get the chance to heal. I forced myself to rise to my feet and looked around. I needed to do something with these two. They wouldn’t be out for long, maybe another minute at the most. I could probably tear one of their robes to tie them up, but I doubted that would work. The woman, at the very least, could probably burn through any cloth or rope bindings once she was awake in a matter of seconds. I didn’t have the equivalent of handcuffs or manacles, either. That left me with precious few options.

I moved over to the unconscious man and stood straddling his body. I hesitated for an instant, but I couldn’t see any other choice. These two were coming from the place I was going, so they were likely a part of whatever I was supposed to fix, here. I had to way to safely restrain them; if I didn’t want the alarm raised in a matter of minutes, then I didn’t have much choice. I reached down, grabbed the man’s chin and forehead, tilted his head back as far as it would go, then dropped my knee on the back of his neck as I yanked upward. His neck dislocated with a loud pop, and his breath stilled instantly as the shifting vertebrae severed his brain stem. It was a clean way to die; he probably didn’t even realize what had happened. I repeated the process with the woman, then dragged the pair of corpses to the door I’d just passed. It was unlocked – so far, I hadn’t seen anything locked in this world, and I wondered if the people here even invented locks, yet – so I pulled it open and slid them inside.

The room was a simple cube stacked with large wooden crates along three walls. I pried one open and looked inside; it was filled with stacks of brown robes. I fished around until I found one that was my size and slipped it on, covering my scorched and ruined clothing. I went through the other crates and found similar mundane items – including a box of the orange robes that seemed to indicate a master or teacher. I considered putting one on, then dismissed the idea. It was doubtful that every student recognized every other student, or that any of the teachers knew all the students here. However, it was much more likely that everyone knew all the instructors. When you’re trying to hide, the easiest way is to simply be unremarkable. If people see you but never notice you, then you’re hidden far better than being tucked in a dark corner somewhere.

It didn’t take more than a couple minutes to hide the bodies inside a pair of the crates. Eventually, the smell would lead people to them, but for the time being, they’d be safe enough. Hopefully, I’d be long gone before they were found.

I slipped back into the hall and kept moving deeper into the labyrinth. At this point, my only choice was to move forward. Hopefully, I hadn’t left too much evidence of my passage behind me, but at some point, someone would realize that a bunch of statues were missing. They’d find and follow the trail of broken paper walls and doors until they found the stairwell, and while they might not be sure if I’d gone up or down, they’d probably check both directions, and I’d left enough blood behind for them to quickly realize where I was. I needed to move fast if I was going to get out of here before an alarm was raised.

The hallway ended at a single, metal door, held shut with an iron spike driven through it into the stone of the doorframe. The door was set tightly into the passage, and when I listened at it, I couldn’t hear a single sound coming from beyond. This had to have been where the two I’d killed came from; there wasn’t any other corridor they might have used. They’d left and sealed the door behind them; that suggested that no one was left inside. Of course, it was also possible that whoever was in the room had enough skill with metal qi to remove the spike without touching it, but even then, I’d have thought they’d have sealed the door from the inside. No, this had the look of a cell door, one the two students had locked behind them.

I hesitated for a moment. My stomach was screaming that something important was past that door, and honestly, I was no longer sure that going back was even an option. I might retrace my steps to find a fairly hostile reception waiting for me. There really wasn’t much choice. I slid the iron spike out of its socket and pulled the door open soundlessly, slipping inside to see what lay beyond.