Heavenly Shae

Chapter 5: "Long Bao."

A short silence gripped the plateau. Cultivators shuffled around to face the geyser again, the entertainment of the moment seemed to have passed. Shae's stomach gurgled. "Ugh, apologies seniors, I haven't eaten since lunch." She turned to leave.

"Ah, I've something for that." Long exclaimed. A small Lunchbox appeared in his hands. Steam leaked from the edge on the box in casual wisps.

She looked at it and her hand reflexively reached out, but she hesitated. "Thank you for the offer but-"

"Don't try to refuse. Stay, eat. I insist." He pushed it forwards.

With her excuse firmly denied, she bowed and accepted the box. "Thank you, Master Long." The stream that wafted off of it was delectable, sweet and spicy. She nervously spared a glance for Bai, who was completely stone faced. "I'll still need to head back to the caravan, my travel companions will want to know I arrived safely."

Long tilted his head sideways and up. "I'm not sure I understand that sentence, shouldn't they already know, if you traveled with them?"

She tore into the soft and fluffy steamed dough, a burst of scents escaping as the spiced interior was revealed. She quickly stuffed her mouth, "Mmmhhmmm! This ish shooo good!" She mumbled through the food. Her excitement at the strong flavors made her want to bounce in place, but she resisted enough to reduce it to just a small bob up and down. Her sore muscles complained slightly, doing the real work of dampening her excitement.

The box contained three Bao buns, steamed buns filled with spiced meat or vegetables. These were perfectly steamed, the dough a soft chewy texture. The meat filling was an adventure of spices.

"Heh, family recipe." Long stated proudly.

Swallowing, and resisting the next bite, she said. "As in Chen-Long Bao, from back in the village!? I didn't get to try theirs because I missed the lunch rush."

"Hah. Chen-Long, what a joke! They don't even use spiritual ingredients."

Shae stopped with a mouthful of food and glanced over to Bai, who had raised an eyebrow. Then she kept chewing.

"Master Long. Would these spiritual ingredients be safe for an early stage cultivator to consume?" He asked.

"Eh? Of course. It's not a pill, and they are sufficiently diluted. That red box is even a lesser batch, where the dragon spice came out weaker. Now, if it was the blue box...!" He trailed off with an eyebrow raised, leaning towards Bai.

"Master Long, that is a blue box." Bai pointed at the box in Shae's hands.

Her eyes went wide, a flutter of panic ran up her spine, and yet, her mouth kept chewing and swallowing the delicious meal.

Long scratched his chin and leaned forwards. "Hmm, so it is." She felt his qi sweep over the box then her. "Well, you should probably stop eating those."

She did not, they were too delicious, and she could barely feel the spice he had mentioned, only a little heat tickled at the back of her throat.

As she reached for the next bun, Bai stepped forwards and stopped her. Batting her hand out of the way and closing the lid on the box, then handing it back to Long.

"Well, at least you only ate... two. Gives you a good chance to purge qi from your system."

"There's a way to do that?" She asked.

Both other cultivators stared blankly at her. Then opened their mouths to explain, they stopped when they noticed the other had started. They passed the privilege of teaching back and forth silently, with glances, then audibly.

"Go ahead, Master, you are the experienced cultivator here."

"But you are an equal Elder, by rank. And in charge of the recruits."

"Yet, I still call you Master, the hierarchy is clear. And you are a famed teacher."

"True, but you will be at the sect with the girl, you can teach her more there."

"She's not a martial student, that is unlikely."

"Yet, you still learn from your Fairy Dawn, and you are no poet."

"Surely that is irrelevant, you've more experience teaching new cultivators."

"And you need more experience teaching new cultivators."

Shae jumped in before Bai could continue. "Elders. Is it just normal fire qi? Or something else. I hardly feel it yet."

They stopped and looked surprised she was still here. Master Long answered, "Other elements as well, but yes, quite pure, it adds to the flavor. I believe that specific sun-pepper plant had also touched a Dao. Hard to say what that will do."

She frowned but it was Bai who asked the question. "You recall the specific plant used to make that, but managed to mix the boxes up?"

Long looked slightly embarrassed. "These things happen."

"Right, Elders, so do I actually need to do anything? I'm really not... Oh! Okay, there is the spiciness. Would either of you like to give me any direction?"

They looked at each other again. Then Long spoke, "if you are ejecting qi, sit over there. If you'd rather try to balance the fire with water and earth, sit over there. By the lanterns, like the others." He pointed in near opposite directions.

Shae stalked off to the second area with the lanterns.

Falling into meditation was harder with the fiery spice in her mouth, but she slowly managed it. Once under, she looked around the mental landscape of her qi channels to find the offending fire qi.

While she waited, she drew in a small amount of neutral and water qi. The area was suffused with both, so it was almost hard to not get the extra water qi. She also mentally dug into the earth for its qi. That was harder to pull up, but it was there. She noticed the first qi flames while doing that.

The warmth was overflowing around her stomach meridian. Pushing through her body and spilling into the nearby channels. She thought to call to it, drawing in the elemental qi like she had learned to do, then froze. She suspected this might trigger a wave of fire qi, like a damn breaking. She withdrew her will from the area, letting it play out naturally for now.

She focused on her breathing, keeping herself calm. She broke the situation down. Qi could be spilling in faster soon, probably damaging the weakest nearby channels. So I need to protect the area or lower the potential damage. I'd like to guide it to the larger channels. Going through my stomach meridian would also be preferred. That should solve the overflow issue.

She examined the meridian, like she had seen before with her other meridians, it was like a large cavern full of boulders and rubble with black pitch binding it all together. It wasn't quite full as the pitch was more of a coating or glue, clumped mainly where pieces touched. Still, that made it roughly as dense as loose dirt, just scaled up. Hmm, well, that's a perspective question, this is probably smaller, right?

She fetched some of her personal qi, the slight variant of demigod qi that she had named previously. It felt so long ago, but it had been less than a week. Like she would with her flesh cleansing, she let it soak into the back pitch and around the boulders. Right away, she got confirmation that the pitch was impurities; old impurities that had hardened and begun to calcify into a cement like resin.

She wondered where it had come from. The impurities in her flesh were different, softer and newer, like a thick sludge, not even a tar. This is beyond tar, more like dry old asphalt.

The boulders in between were a surprise. At first they felt like nothing, like they were not even there. Then she got her qi to soak in, and found the feeling very familiar. They had a small sprinkling of fresh impurities inside them. Just like my other flesh has. Ah! These are also a part of me.

The realization disturbed her meditation, rocking her mental landscape. The qi she had collected vibrated slightly, knocked against her channel walls and threatened to riot. She breathed to calm herself, and calmed the qi in turn before returning her focus to the leaking fire qi. She guided a small portion to her Dantian and let it absorb into her formations. It worked, but the process was slow, it will only work for this small amount leaking through.

The fire qi resisted her attempts to move it. It has ideas of its own, just like the divine lightning qi had. Is this the result of the plant's Dao? She wondered. It was difficult to safely guide because it wanted to wander and lash out searing her channels as it passed.

She wondered how much qi she had consumed. Will it be this slow trickle for hours, or a gradual increase, like the enlightenment ritual. She remembered the mass of her demigod qi growing during the ritual, when she couldn't draw it all in safely, even though it was her own qi.

I have to plan for the worst.

She pushed thoughts of cold and cooling into the water qi, then guided it through all the smaller channels that the fire qi was leaking into. It mostly accomplished what she wanted, lessening the strain on those channels.

As she felt the strain lessen, she noticed the rest of her body. Most of her channels were already stained and worn out from the day's run. Holding qi to boost her body for the whole day had taken its toll. She would need to be cautious. I do not want to find out what severely damaged channels feel like. Will they burst and tear? Can they?

The water she had used to cool her channels was starting to produce a side effect. The fire combined with it and created steam qi. Worse, she felt the steam was too hot because it had easily overwhelmed her cooling suggestion and kept itself hot even as the new element.

The heat of the fire and steam qi were similar to how she had first experienced fire qi. It was a painful scalding heat wearing away at her focus and meditation.

What else do I have? She looked through her Dantian and found the cloudy divine qi. Clouds are close to steam. She reasoned. Will that help? Mix?

She moved some of the calm cloudy qi to the steam. It responded to her much faster than the steam did and quickly rushed to her stomach meridian. Right away she felt better. The calming qi soothed the area.

She tried to mix it with the steam. Tried to blend the two into... Nothing, they won't blend. She was surprised, that should have worked, right?

Shae thought back to what the divine qi was supposed to do. Something Wise Kwan had said about converting personal qi faster. Well, that was for enlightenment qi, this qi is different... probably?

She decided to try it anyway. She told the divine qi to make the steam hers and the two roiled in response. Steam and clouds pushing and punching through each other. Trying to fight and wrap around one another. She decided she needed to help and grabbed at the steam. Like grabbing a hot pan, she flinched away, then tried again, ready to hold on. Its heat seared her mind, burning away at her willpower and focus.

She still slowed it down enough and the divine qi did the rest, wrapping and combining. Adding density to the steam and calming its raging fire.

The new steam was warm, but not painful. It felt like a steam sauna. As soon as her mind landed on that idea, the steam twitched, the idea snapping into place. It relaxed her just a bit. Perhaps I got to keep some of the calming nature. She guessed.

She swirled the new qi around the area. It scooped up some of the new steam, but quickly reached its limit of what could be converted without more divine qi.

What now? She asked herself, and looked back at her Dantian. She decided to test the formation with it. She let the steam glide over the surface, and unsurprisingly, it found the area between water and fire and was sucked in. It settled into a new formation glyph on the surface.

Now I'm back at square one. She sighed.

She had a path, but it was not one she liked. It would work, but she didn't want to spend so much of her divine qi on this, she didn't even know when the fire would run out.

She tried to relax and get in a rhythm of moving the steam and fire to the formation. Even if it wasn't hers, she could still slowly push it around and let it soak into the formation. I can't keep this up.

"Aaargh!" She mentally roared out her frustration. Stupid old man, giving me stupid steamed buns made of too strong spirit plants and meats. Who could make that mistake?

She froze in thought. Even the qi she was guiding slowed suddenly. Was it a mistake? She considered it. He has said there was Dao in the food, and she had claimed something to do with Dao was how she got the sword. It clicked into place, a test!

She felt a grin creep into her face. So now..? How do I progress, knowing that.

The fire qi continued to burn her mental stamina away. Dao, is that why? She nodded to herself, agreeing with the assessment. Dao must be why the steam stays so hot, why it is hard to move and why it burns, all while refusing to accept my mental influence to change.

So, the divine qi took over the Dao? She could believe that. Maybe it destroyed it? Either could work. She summoned more divine qi for the next test.

Take the fiery Dao. She thought at the calm little clouds and released them into the fire qi. It floated slowly, different from last time. She would have scrunched up her face in confusion if she could.

The two qi blended together, the clouds acting more like fresh air, fuel for the fire. They swelled slightly, growing in density.

Shae felt very glad she had learned to sense density back in Minlin city. It added so much more texture to the experience. She wondered if there were other aspects she was missing. Ah! Dao is one. She realized.

She felt out her new fire qi, asking it to turn its flame away from her. She didn't want to change it yet, even if she could. It will probably be harder to change with the Dao there to resist.

Yes! Yes there is something here. She could feel the shape of the fiery Dao. It's not just the heat, it's a kind of pain, a regret and a vengeance. Something that comes after. She thought it through carefully. It is an idea that the plant embodied, something that stuck with it, even after being harvested and used in dishes, a lingering heat.

"The spice!" She gasped. The Dao is embedded in the spice the plant was harvested for. The plant harnessed its anger and rage at being eaten. Buried it in the spice so it could linger and exact revenge on the thing that had the gall to eat it.

The right word is there, just on the tip of my tongue... Spite! That is what it is. It is the plant's spite at being eaten. She felt the little flames she had control of vibrate at the thought, wanting to flare out and rage within her.

In response, the flames she didn't have control of also flared. The fire qi pushed into her again, stronger, forcing its way around her blocked stomach meridian. The pain spiked and her remaining water qi boiled off into steam. Even that steam felt nice compared to the flaring fire digging into her.

She pushed back with her own spiteful fire qi, what little of it she had. She threw more divine qi at it in a panic. Stealing more of the flaring fire's Dao for herself. It was even easier now that she knew what it was. She even told her own fire qi to take over the new. It worked slowly, but it worked. Fire qi was just qi, after all.

In her wider qi channels she couldn't block them completely with her fire qi, so she brought in her personal qi. That little twist on the demigod qi that she had made. Much like how Elder Ghon had helped her stem the flow of the tribulation lightning qi, she now fought off this spite qi with the pressure and density. Slowly reaching an equilibrium.

As the pressure balanced, she stopped feeding it divine qi. She kept asking, no, demanding, her fire consume the invading fire. As the pain lessened she exhaled a breath that she hadn't known she was holding. The battle, for the moment, was delayed.

And what now? She asked herself. She looked at the messy disorder of her channels and began to clean them up. Mainly moving the steam qi into her formation. Now that she knew the Dao, it was easier to manipulate. Still painful and spiteful, but she could lead it better. The pain was still there but so much less than what she had just dealt with.

She floated her calming divine clouds through her channels as well. Soothing and relaxing them. The little cloud dwindled with the effort. Showing just how much damage had been done.

As peace returned to her mindscape, she asked again, What now? What do I do with this Dao? She recognized that Qi with a Dao was clearly stronger, better than base qi, it had ideas embedded into it, but how can I use it? That sparked a separate idea: the divine qi should have a Dao. It has so many ideas of its own, it must have a Dao, and a strong one.

Her own qi, by extension, might have some small part of that. The addition of lightning from the cat's eye marbles, themselves a memory of the heavenly tribulation lightning, maybe capturing some of that Dao. That could be why the lightning survives cleansing. She guessed.

A new spot of warmth and pain distracted her. The spicy fire qi was leaking through her stomach meridian. Trapped within her, it took the only paths available. It pushed through the blockages and resin-like impurities. Shae thought she even saw the impurities sweating, like they had begun to melt. I need to do something about this... I'm going to be so horribly sick later.

Or. She groaned at the realization, it's so stupidly simple.

She quickly groaned over her mental landscape, checking for immediate problems. Without seeing any, she swirled her personal qi to keep the whole system moving, then mentally nodded and dropped out of meditation and snapped her eyes open.

Master Long was waiting for her when she woke. "Not done already, are you?"

She barely heard the question through the pain in her gut. "Ugh.. I need to.." she moved her hand to her mouth and reached two fingers to the back of her throat.

"Not here." He grabbed her arm, dragged her up, and started walking. "That is what the other area is for, as I said." They had moved across most of the flat terrain before Shae realized how fast he had dragged her. When he released her arm, a few tight breaths later, her stomach churned in agony.

She tried to use her fingers again, and she dry heaved in response. More attempts, then success as her gag reflex triggered fully. The spice burned much more on its way out.

"Good try, but that's not going to be enough. Drink this." Long offered her a flask.

She drank from the large flask. It tasted like salt and charcoal and it might have been exactly that. It cooled the spice on the way down. A few breaths later it all came back up again. All that she drank and more.

"Right, got most of it. Now you'll want to stuff a bunch of qi into your stomach so it can heal faster. Can't imagine you got off without any damage."

She had moved to her knees at some point; bracing her weight with her arms and keeping her head forwards and low. Shae wheezed, trying to catch her breath through the discomfort and lingering pain. "Why did... you feed me that?"

He gave her a stern gaze that she couldn't read through her teary eyes. "You think it was intentional?"

"Sure, a test or something. I don't approve." She began turning her head to glare at him but stopped suddenly and scrunched her face in discomfort.

"Poison a student as a test? A bit extreme for a... What stage are you anyway?"

"Cleansing." She sat upright enough to point at her hand, then lurched forwards, dryly heaving at the dirt.

Long stepped to the side. "Hmm, you waited too long, let it bloom too much."

"Bloom-?" She spat to the side. Then dug through her pack for water.

"Oh, don't drink anything yet. Fire and water make steam, you know." He motioned to the geyser, which was steaming at the moment.

Shae scowled at him. "Thanks. Master Long." Then took a gulp of water to wash her mouth out.

"Don't get too comfortable, there's some left in you." He handed her the same flask again.

She accepted it without thought, but instead of drinking more, she turned her senses inward. She felt the pressure around her stomach lessened and little uncontrolled fire qi lingered, but I didn't sense it well before, either. "If the source is gone, the rest I will keep."

"Will you now?"

She summoned more personal qi from her Dantian, then had it cycle through her system, past her stomach meridian, and back to her Dantian. Dragging her new fire qi with it, it splashed into the formation where the fire qi could be absorbed.

She broke her partial meditation and asked, "Is it safe to partly thaw out the meridian to heal my stomach more?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Thaw out? That's an advanced question asked in a simple way."

"Hardly. Is your sudden spite for me that strong? I thought Sword Bai was the one angry with me."

He cracked a shallow grin. "Why spite? Why that word?" He leaned in for the answer.

She rolled her eyes, rinsed her mouth again while she thought, using some of the charcoal to dampen the stomach acids lingering in her throat. Then she answered, "Better question is why does a plant ... have such a clear and specific understanding of a human emotion? Master Long?" She missed a beat at the word plant because Master Long activated a privacy field around them.

His grin deepened to show some teeth. "That, is a much better question." He summoned the buns from his storage item again and offered her the box.

She traded away the flask she didn't want to drink more from. Then considered the box without opening it. Just the scent of the steam leaking out the sides triggered her hunger again. Reminding her that her stomach was suddenly empty and the buns were just so delicious. She kept the lid tightly shut, not trusting her self control further than that.

What an impressive chef to be able to trigger hunger so easily after vomiting. She snapped her eyes up to Long. "Master Long. Are you a master chef?"

He leaned back slightly at the off topic question. "I am skilled at many things. Sword arts and immortal cooking are among them. Though my specific mastery is only really over the Bai boy. He wishes to learn some of my sword techniques."

She looked down at the box in her hands. "So you did cook these, and would it be correct to say, as part of that cooking you... refined the spice plant's Dao into spite?"

His deep grin returned, but he did not answer.

"Ugh, are you trying to get me to call you a master of avoiding questions?"

"Well, I think you've proven yourself well enough." He reached for the box and vanished it away, a brief flutter of qi brushing her hands away from it. Then he clapped once, dropped the privacy barrier and walked away. "Do stay for the geyser, most find it quite enlightening." Then he barked "Bai!" Across the area, disturbing most of the new cultivators' meditation. "It's time for more training."

"Master!?" The man spoke the single word like an excited boy.

"The young Wise Shae has put me in the mood for it. Make sure to repay her."

His expression dropped. "Master." He turned his obviously conflicted emotions to her and gave a tiny bow that was mostly a nod. Then he skipped off after Master Long.