On the way back to the residence from the archives, Aki noticed something nearby. As he was gliding low, his apprentice at his side, he spotted an opening in the sparse woods, where an interesting scene was playing out. Two inner sect disciples were standing near an almost perfectly circular lake, doing stretches and warm-up exercises, while a core disciple was waiting nearby. Is this what I think it is?

“Passionate Seeker, what are those two doing?”

“Master, that lake is one of the more popular inner sect duelling grounds. I expect they are going to duel soon.”

Hmm, this seems interesting. Aki had not really seen many too impressive techniques yet, and he was now stepping forward on the path to learning weaves. Watching something like this should prove pretty educational. Besides, it’s a duel. A proper duel using magical powers! How could I not stay and watch this play out.

“Let us stop to observe them. I wish to see the level of inner sect younglings these days.”

As they landed near the lake, the overseeing core disciple rose to offer greetings. Aki however stopped him before he could speak.

“At ease, disciple. I am not interested in the details of the duel. I only wish to observe this matter for a moment before continuing along.”

Aki really did not care about whatever drama had caused this duel and did not want to get involved in it. He had read enough to know that nothing auspicious could occur from elders meddling in such matters. The core disciple stopped himself from speaking, then turned back towards the duelling pair.

“Are you two ready? Let us not waste the honoured elder’s time. Proceed with the duel promptly.”

The pair nodded, then began to walk towards opposite ends of the lake. They stepped smoothly on top of the water and began walking along it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Is water walking a mandatory skill at this sect or something? I suppose it is the Thousand Lakes sect after all...

The disciple who took the left side of the lake was a very tall woman, her long legs moving steadily forwards along the water. She had a rather stiff, rigid posture as she walked. The other disciple was almost her complete opposite, a short man who walked in a very relaxed, flowing manner. After they had both arrived to stand on opposite sides of the lake, the core disciple overseeing the matter announced the start of the duel.

Both disciples immediately began weaving threads of Qi into complex patterns. The man finished his weave first, holding it in his left hand while manipulating its threads, causing the waters around him to begin raging ferociously. He began to elegantly dance forwards, water trailing all around him. The woman on the other hand remained standing in place and upon finishing her weave, she tied it off, and the waters around her turned eerily calm, revealing a mirror sheen.

So, she finished creating whatever effect she was after, while he is still actively holding onto and manipulating that weave in his hands.

The woman picked up her knife out of its sheathe and threw it towards the approaching man. He dodged to the side, but the woman manipulated a weave of qi she had formed in her hand, causing the knife to follow the man with increasing speed.

As the stormy waves created by the man approached the woman, they suddenly dissipated as if they had hit a wall. The pocket of calm, mirror-like water around her refused to be disturbed.

The initial phase of the fight turned into a ranged exchange, with the man dancing around the knife and responding by throwing out cutting blades of water towards the woman. The woman used her other hand to manipulate threads of light Qi into a weave, and suddenly she split into several illusory duplicates which all ran in different directions.

The man snorted coldly and responded by gathering water into a sphere in his hand, which he used to throw out a massive cutting wave. He couldn’t however keep up his dodging while doing this and as a consequence received a few cuts from the knife that was still persistently following him. His attack however dissipated all of the illusory clones, and even managed to injure what was revealed to be the real body.

They’re drawing blood now... How far do duels in this world go?

The woman recalled her knife to her hand, and both duellists stopped for a moment to warily watch each other. Neither had serious wounds, but both had now drawn blood. The woman was the first to continue acting. She suddenly thrust her hand into the reflection on the mirror-like water surface. A moment later she pulled her hand back, and in it she was holding an identical copy of the knife she held in her other hand. It seemed just as real as the original one, with the only difference being that the carvings in it’s handle were mirrored in reverse. Aki noted that the mirror image in the lake still held a knife.

Is this what that first weave she made was for? I don’t think one additional knife is that useful though.

Maybe the woman sensed Aki’s musings, for when the man began to again rush towards her, she responded by pulling 6 more knives from the reflection until she held 4 knives in each hand. She grinned maliciously and threw them all at once. As she manipulated a complicated weave of qi, they all started following different curving trajectories towards the man, covering all of his possible directions of escape.

The man ground to a halt and began to furiously manipulate the weave of water Qi in his hand, until a roiling mass of water began to cover his body, growing thicker and stormier with each moment. The knives all flew into the mass of water but failed to penetrate it and were swept away under the waters of the lake. The man pulled on threads of qi and gestured down, and suddenly the mass of water rolled towards his feet and started to propel him forward on a jet of water. He laughed victoriously as he rushed lightning fast towards the unarmed woman.

All this takes quite a while to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes for a spark to fly off a piece of flint. As the man approached the woman, he formed sharp blades of water into both of his hands, with which he performed a crosscut on the woman as he reached her. She did not seem to defend herself in any way, but as the attack hit, her form shattered like glass into strands of light Qi. The man gasped with shock, and suddenly the reflection of the woman in the water, which had remained behind, moved.

Wait, was that the real one? When did she switch places like that?

The woman rose up from the lake with her knife in her hand, thrusting it at the man’s neck. She stopped her strike just as it began to draw blood, as the overseeing core disciple interrupted the fight.

“Stop, this duel has been decided.”

Both duellists stopped, panting from exhaustion. The man’s expression grew frustrated, while the woman remained as cool as she had so far. They quickly formally bowed to each other, the overseeing core disciple and then towards Aki. They then started to walk back towards the shore.

Well, that was certainly an interesting fight. I feel like I understand Qi and weaves a bit better after watching them being used in battle like that. Still, that was quite the impressive display. I wonder how powerful those two are?

“Apprentice, how powerful are those two compared to other inner sect disciples?”

“Well, those two seem decently strong for their cultivation level. About what I would expect from a core weaving cultivator with two Qi strings. That guy’s major mistake was that he did not account for losing his vision while he covered himself in that mass of water, allowing for that deception at the end.”

So, these two are not even particularly strong for inner sect disciples... Just how strong are elders supposed to be? I honestly can’t imagine myself even getting on the level of those two. Not that I’m planning on getting into any fights, of course.

Aki felt that this would be a moment where a proper sage would dispense some cryptic wisdom, so he adopted a lecturing pose and turned to address everyone at the scene.

“Remember disciples, even if the lion and turtle are in a race, it does not do to forget the ox hiding in the woods. The one who wishes to become a dragon must follow the ancient path.”

He was rather pleased with that vague smattering of zodiac animal nonsense, and nodded with satisfaction as he saw that all others present had crinkled their foreheads, deep in thought, attempting to decipher the wisdom of his words.

Aki nodded briskly to the duellists and then departed back towards his residence.

It was beginning to be quite late by the time Aki returned to his residence. However, despite his dire situation, he was honestly quite excited to be taking proper steps on his cultivation road. Under the last rays of the setting sun, Aki retired to his courtyard where he began to study the basic meditation manual he had taken. It described meditation exercises and breathing techniques that one could use in order to sense their own internal energies. He sat into a meditating posture and began trying to reach the state described in the manual.

Initially his attempts went rather poorly. Trying to actively maintain the breathing technique was arduous and awkward. He decided that instead of trying to learn the method from the beginning, he should try to unlock the latent instincts that he hopefully would have. He tried to empty his mind while subtly trying to guide his unconscious actions towards the breathing techniques. His body must have spent countless lengths of time doing them, surely that memory was still hidden somewhere in there.

Aki began to think about what kinds of changes he could do once he was more in control of things. Before dismissing her, he had ordered Passionate Seeker to gather reports on the finances of the sect, as well as a census of all sect members. Maybe with those reports I can find some sort of vision for the future. My major was industrial management after all, so at least theoretically I’m supposed to be knowledgeable about these things. Sure, my lecture attendance was rather poor in the last few years, but at least some of those teachings should have stuck, right?

As Aki continued pondering his management abilities, he suddenly realised that he had started breathing with the techniques described in the manual. However, as soon as he realised this, his breathing technique collapsed and he ended up splayed on the floor, coughing his lungs out.

I-, I definitely just did it. Is this how these things are going to go? I should just vaguely try to do the thing while thinking about other matters, and hope that my body starts doing it on its own before I notice?

He sighed deeply, got back into the meditating posture, and continued his attempts. It took him until nightfall, but eventually he managed to enter the meditative trance again, and this time he managed to maintain it. He felt his perspective change, and he could suddenly feel the mystic energies in his body in much clearer detail. It almost felt like he could reach out with his senses, and touch those impressions of energy. He was not brave or foolish enough to attempt that immediately, of course. Initially he stayed on the level of surface observations.

As he studied the energies inside his body, gradually he started to get a picture of their arrangement. The strongest pulses of energy came from the centre of his body, from inside his dantian. He could feel a thin string of golden energy inside. It was the biggest source of energy inside his body by far.

As he continued his observations outwards from his dantian, he started to get an impression of fabric. Strands of chaotic energy had been forced together into a fine pattern, forming different pieces of cloth. The pieces of cloth however lay disconnected around his body, each vaguely corresponding to different body parts.

Studying the cloth closer, he started to notice that damage that had been done to it. There were holes, rips and tears all over the fabric, and inside them he sensed loose threads of chaotic Qi, zipping about wildly. Trying to observe the threads closer, he got the impression that they were somehow intrinsically a part of him, a chaotic foundation waiting to be put to order.

Aki gasped and opened his eyes, breaking out of his trance. Well, that seems to confirm most of my theories. Looks like I will have to repair the damage to the foundation cloth by using the chaotic qi that was released by the damage.

Aki eyed the strands of Qi floating around the courtyard with a studying eye. Their glow was more muted under the night sky, but the contrast to the dark only made their twirling paths seem more spectacular. The Qi inside me did not feel inherently different from all the Qi floating around in this garden. Just as that blue strand is Qi with an aspect of water, the Qi inside me had an aspect of my self. If I want to learn to manipulate it, I should probably first start with learning to manipulate external Qi.

Aki pulled out the jade slips he had taken from the archives. I should probably start by studying these weaves. I need to start unlocking my latent skill at weaving threads of qi together if I am to repair my foundation cloth. Hopefully those latent skills actually exist, but hope has not failed me yet.

He silently rose up and went to get some well-deserved rest.