Cultivating Chai

55:

Lianhua was the first one to charge at him, her ponytail bobbing in the air as she closed the distance with quick but firm footsteps. Xiao Feng could hear the song of the wind as she willed her blade into an upward slash.

Her Wind Qi empowered strike was nothing to sneeze at. While it would not draw blood if it connected, it would most definitely leave a bruise or two.

Xiao Feng adjusted his grip over the blade’s hilt to intercept Lianhua’s strike.

Their wooden blades made contact and Lianhua’s eyes widened in surprise as her strike sloughed off Xiao Feng’s blade. The force behind her own strike was absorbed and then her blade was pushed away from Xiao Feng’s, sending her stumbling to his side as he took a step backwards.

Lianhua chose to retreat, knowing that if it were a real battle, the opening she had given Xiao Feng was enough for her to end it.

Alchemist Jun broke into what looked like more a run than a charge, her steps more hurried than quick as she thrust her blade forward in a telegraphed strike. Xiao Feng side-stepped the attack while tipping his blade forward. Alchemist Jun’s blade approached his own, only for her to be sent stumbling past him.

She managed to stop herself from falling and turned.

Now, Xiao Feng was flanked by Alchemist Jun and Lianhua from opposite directions.

“We need to attack together,” Lianhua called out, not a hint of amusement audible in her tone. She was taking this seriously and from the looks of it, she did not want to lose. “As long as we get a single hit in, it’s our win.”

“Hey!” Xiao Feng protested, not having heard anything about that.

Alchemist Jun let a laugh escape her, before she added, “That sounds fair to me, Senior Alchemist Lianhua.”

“What?” Lianhua asked, sending Xiao Feng a glare that could cut through iron. “I am self-taught and Alchemist Jun’s Qi capacity is probably a third of your own. Do you have any complaints?” She asked.

“Uhh, no,” Xiao Feng replied, trying hard to keep the confusion from her voice. As Grand Alchemist Xin Wu’s daughter, she certainly had no lack of resources. And from Xiao Feng knew of the Martial Division, there would be dozens of cultivators willing to teach her if she so much as asked. A chance to build a relationship with an alchemist was way too valuable to pass up.

So why had she not leaned on those resources.

No further clarification came, as Lianhua and Alchemist Jun exchanged glances and nodded..

They charged forth in unison.

Xiao Feng took two steps back in quick succession, slightly throwing off both cultivator’s aim. It was Alchemist Jun’s hurried charge that arrived first, this time going for an overhead slash that left her wide open.

Fortunately for her, the Flowing Wind Art’s fourth form was meant for defense and only defense.

Xiao Feng shifted his blade to guard his head from the blow, watching as the Wind Qi empowered strike connected against the top of his blade. Alchemist Jun’s blade slid down the coils of wind wrapping around his sword and then, as Xiao Feng pushed away, the coils of wind pushed away with him.

Alchemist Jun was once again sent stumbling past him, but this time Xiao Feng did not have nearly as much breathing room.

Lianhua was on him within moments, shifting her strategy to a non-lethal attack as she angled her blade downwards, for his legs.

He was side-stepping as he met it, his blow lacking any real force. Xiao Feng wasn’t worried though, as Lianhua’s own momentum was turned against her as the coiling wind refuted her charge.

She was sent skittering away past him, sliding to a stop opposite Alchemist Jun.

The two alchemists were lightly panting at this point, not used to employing their Qi and strength in such a manner.

Xiao Feng wasn’t even winded.

Lianhua’s eyes shone with defiance as she readied herself for another round. Alchemist Jun didn’t seem nearly as enthused, but she too prepared herself.

The female alchemists charged.

Xiao Feng danced.

To the untrained eye, he was merely following a sequence of moves as he took two steps back and then side-stepped. But there was more to his movements as he circled away from Alchemist Jun and Lianhua’s repeated attacks.

In his hands, was a dancing breeze that gently repelled any strikes that sought to harm him, much like the gentle breeze had repelled dark feelings that he did not even comprehend all those years ago.

In his footsteps, there was also a dancing breeze as he flitted away from attacks without making any attempt to retaliate. It was not possible to stop the flow of a breeze dancing away from you, just as much as it was impossible to harm a breeze.

The dancing breeze would simply flit past you, irrespective of your anger or hatred or defiance and Xiao Feng felt like he was embodying that essence as the two alchemists struck again and again, only to be gently buffeted away without harm by the fourth form of the Flowing Wind Art.

He sensed the profundity in the movements as he became one with a dancing breeze, growing closer and closer to understanding what his predecessor had meant by the Dao.

Then, Alchemist Jun and Lianhua stopped chasing after them before allowing themselves to fall on the padded ground, their swords slipping their grasps.

Xiao Feng’s focus shattered and the dancing breeze in his hands and legs left him.

“You’re so mean,” Lianhua protested, her chest heaving as she greedily gasped for mouthfuls of air.

Alchemist Jun seemed to have gotten the worst of it, her face a bright red from the exertion she had forced her body through in the last thirty or so minutes. She was only a Qi Condensation cultivator, even if she was near the peak of her stage.

“Hey, what can I say,” Xiao Feng replied, offering both the alchemists a smug grin. “I like winning. Besides, if I actually lost to you both at the one thing I’m good at, where would that leave me?”

Alchemist Jun seemed too tired to spare the oxygen to laugh, so she offered him a smile instead.

Lianhua just rolled her eyes.

Before they continue with the banter, Xiao Feng froze as his own voice questioned him within the confines of his mind, “What was that?”

Uh… pardon?

“What form did you just use?” His predecessor asked him, the usual gravitas in his tone nowhere to be found.

Flowing Wind Art, Fourth Form? Xiao Feng replied, not seeing what the problem was.

“That’s… not it’s supposed to be— no, that’s not how I used it. You have my memories, look through them,” His predecessor directed him, his tone sounding shaken.

Xiao Feng did as he was asked, reaching into the bank of memories with intent.

He found himself on a battlefield. An acrid stench assailed his nostrils, the cacophony of clashing swords, burning flames, whooshing wind and shifting earth assailing his ears. There more voices, more scents, but Xiao Feng focused on the man before him, the mesh of meridians, acupuncture points and dantian that stood before him and his essence cultivation art.

He noticed the deep, jagged scar running across the meridians in his enemy’s arm and therein, Xiao Feng saw weakness. Even if the wound had healed, damage to the meridians was not so easily reversed.

The enemy charged, his fire qi empowering his sword blazing to life.

Xiao Feng willed for the Flowing Wind Art, Fourth Form— Dancing Breeze to come to him and a whirlwind of Wind Qi coiled around his blade.

Their blades connected, and Xiao Feng pressed the Whirlwind snaking around his blade hard, to the enemy’s injured side.

The flaming blade flew out of his enemies hands and Xiao Feng dispelled the Flowing Wind Art.

Then, his blade snaked towards—-

The vision shattered as he pulled away from it.

Xiao Feng’s eyes were wide in disbelief.

“Do you understand now?” His predecessor asked. “That was not my Dancing Breeze. That was not my Dao. Somehow, it was your own.”

I think I like mine better.