Present - The Immortal Vale - Talen

This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Talen had no idea why Master Han wanted him to be his apprentice, but he clearly did

“I formally accept your offer,” Talen said, standing up and bowing deeply. “You honor me greatly and I will do everything I can to make myself worthy of being your apprentice.”

“Good,” Master Han said, nodding. “If everything goes smoothly you will one day become an immortal as well. So I want that bow to be your last except for the ones required in the ceremonies. I need you to learn and question anything you’re unsure about. What is true for me might be different for you, especially when you progress to the higher levels. Like those small children, I have also been known to be wrong occasionally.”

Talen’s mouth fell open once more. It seemed the world was very different from what he’d been led to believe.

“But how could you be wrong?” Talen asked, his face turning very red as he realized he’d just addressed one of the eight great immortals like an equal.

“Just because I have been alive for a very long time doesn’t mean I know everything there is to know,” Master Han said. “I’m still learning and the best way to learn is to have an inquiring mind, instead of assuming you know everything. Remember that, because it will stand you in good stead over the next ten thousand years.”

That was a very long time. The color drained out of Talen’s face and his shoulders sagged slightly like a great weight had settled on them. Living for ten thousand years meant that everyone he knew now, other than Master Han, would be long gone. While being immortal sounded great, there was clearly one rather large down side. It would quite possibly be a very lonely existence. Master Han nodded along as if he could hear the thoughts going through Talen’s mind.

“Progressing to level 33 doesn’t make you immortal, you need the final ceremony for that, however, it does slow down the aging process considerably. Since you will also need help to complete the necessary quests during your apprenticeship, another student will be advancing up to level 33 and joining you in the ceremonies. They will then live for several thousand years as well, so it is important that you can trust each other. You will undoubtedly raise others up over time, but to start, I have chosen to give the young Mei Ling the chance to prove she is worthy of progressing in ranks and reaching level 33 as well. I hope you approve?”

Other people could get to level 33?

“Oh,” Talen blurted out. “Yes we’re already training together.”

“Good, because Master Wu is already level 33,” he said, causing the bottom to fall out of Talen’s world again. “Now onto other things,” he said, straightening up. “It’s time we started working on your cultivation training.”

***

“Okay your gathering and cultivating Kai skills are good enough for now, so, we’re going to work on the next skill, which is purifying Kai,” Master Han said.

Talen sat on the floor in the cultivation pose, having just proved he could gather and circulate Kai as well as Master Han required. Unlike Master Han, however, Talen had three stacked pieces of cloth between him and the stone below. Unsure why his teacher had insisted on them, he wasn’t going to complain, since it took the edge off cold that seeped up from the dark grey floor.

“Now close your eyes and focus on the Kai flowing around your body,” Master Han said. “Tell me what you sense.”

Talen concentrated hard, looking inward at the swirling mass of energy in his body. All the Kai moving around somehow felt sluggish to him. He had no idea why he thought that, but it seemed like it ought to be moving through his channels easier than it did currently. The stuff also looked more like dark mist than bright, vibrant energy.

“My Kai is dark grey, wispy and slow, almost like it’s trying to fit through a space that’s too small for it,” Talen said, trying to find the right words.

“That’s very perceptive,” Master Han said. “That’s precisely what’s going on. Your Kai desperately needs purifying. It’s bloated with all the toxins your training has released from your body. That’s why this step is so important. If you didn’t purify it, you’d eventually fall ill. I’m sure you’ve seen people in your clan get slower as they got older.”

Talen nodded remembering his previous village elder.

“It’s because they didn’t fully purify their Kai,” Master Han said. “So rather than sending pure life-force energy around their body with their circulation skill, they were distributing the toxins around themselves instead.”

“So how do I go about purifying my Kai?”

“This will change as you go up the ranks, but the basic idea is that you cycle your Kai through your heart center, then as it enters you separate the two and only allow the pure Kai to continue,” he said. “The toxins will then come out through your breath and your skin. It can get a little messy, especially the first time you do this or whenever you advance in rank like you will with the ceremonies. The best way to learn is simply to start.”

Despite wanting a lot more details, Talen closed his eyes. Sluggish Kai entered his heart center. He pulled on the black mist to see what would happen. Nothing. There had to be some way of disrupting it and shaking the two apart. He sat still for a moment contemplating the problem. An idea tickled the edge of his mind. Grabbing the dense Kai, he formed it into a ball. Stretching it as far as he could, he held it until it started to vibrate, then quickly released it. The two ends slammed into each other and a puff of black mist exploded out like dust. The Kai left behind was a beautiful clear sparkling ball of energy. Talen released the Kai to carry on flowing out of his heart center, providing the rest of his body with pure, clean energy.

Having lost track of time purifying his Kai, Talen finally cleared the last of the black mist out of his body. He opened his eyes. Sitting alone on the floor, a wave of stench hit him. It smelled like rotting fish combined with manure. He coughed and gagged. Lifting up an arm to fan the air in front of his nose, he realized it was covered in a black sticky tar-like substance. Panicking slightly, he glanced down to discover his entire body and his clothes were coated in the stuff.

Talen let out a small laugh. This had to be what Master Han had meant by getting a little messy. He was clearly the master of understatement. Talen needed a bath, desperately.

If the level of light was anything to go by it was after dark, so the kitchens were most likely closed. No hot water then. He stood up, shuddering at the thought of a cold bath. It might have only been a week since he left home, but he’d quickly become used to the nice hot baths here.

The top piece of cloth underneath where he’d sat was drenched in the same goop. The middle piece wasn’t too bad and the bottom one was still clean and had protected the floor. Clearly, they hadn’t just been there to keep away the chill.

Talen picked up the middle piece and used it to wipe the soles of his feet. After Master Han had gone to the trouble of protecting his floor, he didn’t want to then track this stuff all over it on his way out. Once he’d finished, he picked up the other pieces and carefully left his master’s study.

Given how sticky this stuff was his clothes would probably need to be thrown away. He sighed and headed back to his room to grab some replacements.

Opening the door to his room Talen found a small servant boy sitting on his stool, head down on the desk, fast asleep. Reaching out, he shook the boy’s shoulder. With a stifled yelp the child shot to his feet. The servant took a deep breath and ended up coughing hard as the color drained out of his face.

“Master Han told me to wait here so I could get you a hot bath, honored student,” he said bowing quickly to Talen. “He also said to leave some old pieces of cloth on your bed for you.”

With one last cough he pointed at the pile of rags before running from the room. A faint retching noise could be heard in the distance as the boy went to call for the hot water.

Grabbing the pile of tattered material, Talen gingerly went back outside. He used up half of the pile wiping the black mess off of his exposed skin. Feeling much cleaner inside and full of energy despite the fact that sunrise wasn’t that far away, he set off in the direction of the bathhouse.

By the time he arrived, the servants had been and gone. Talen carefully spread two unused rags on the ground to protect the floor. Placing his ruined clothes and the tar soaked rags on top of them, he finished removing the toxic goop from the rest of his body, before cleaning up using one of the buckets. Finally, he sank into the hot water with a sigh.