"Ling'e, do you know what qi is? Qi is the veins of Heaven and Earth, the breath of all living beings—every divine ability is wrought from it: inhale, exhale, revolve, return, and only then is the Cycle formed. What I pass down to you today is the foundational chapter of our lineage's inheritance, the One Qi True Heavenly Way of the Immortal Crossing Sect—how you lay the foundation of the Dao, first-rank even across the whole of the Five Divisions of the Primordial. Ling'e... Ling'e?"
"Your disciple is here!"
In the willows' shade by the lake, Blue Ling'e drew back her gaze—which had drifted to the water—and gave a slightly uneasy flick of her tongue.
"Your senior brother is comprehending the Water Escape Technique," Qiyuan said, looking out over the lake. "Don't let him disturb you—listen well."
"Mm!" Blue Ling'e gathered her thoughts, straining to grasp the wondrous arts her master spoke. But only a while later— "Master! Senior brother has vanished!"
Her almond eyes went wide as she pointed at the lake.
Qiyuan turned and gave a helpless chuckle. "That's an escape technique! Come, we'll cultivate indoors. Your senior brother takes a keen interest in them. This must be the sixth he's mastered."
"Master, what is an escape technique?"
"An escape technique lets its caster move swiftly across different environments—the Water Escape, for example, lets you dart through water faster than any fish. Look, your senior brother is just reappearing at the shore."
"Senior brother is amazing!" Blue Ling'e murmured, rising on her tiptoes at the tall, lean figure standing silent upon the distant water.
"You're right there," Qiyuan said with a wry face. "If he spent half as much effort on any other spell, your master could rest easier."
She blinked and followed her master into the thatched cottage, where he summoned two cushions, shut the wooden door, and tapped his small disciple's head with his fly whisk. "Pay close attention!"
"Oh." Blue Ling'e sat cross-legged, and this time finally settled her heart.
Out on the lake, Li Changshou trod the waves; after two steps he dissolved into a stream of water and vanished, reappearing a few breaths later at the lake's center.
"The Water Escape is done, though it's far too slow. Still, while performing it I can merge with the water, letting me withstand some magic-treasure attacks. And water benefits all things without contending, bears a thousand boats without collapsing—truly worth exploring further."
Through persistent trial and error, soon the moment his skin touched the lake he could execute the Water Escape directly. Still unsatisfied, he kept practicing, until the afternoon when Qiyuan transmitted his voice and called him back.
"Ling'e has not yet attained fasting, and she can't live on satiety pills alone. When you build her cottage, set up a stove too—until she attains fasting, prepare her one meal each day."
Li Changshou cupped his hands. "Your disciple obeys."
"Your master is off to cultivate. Ling'e, if anything comes up, speak to your senior brother."
"Yes, Master!"
Blue Ling'e mimicked her senior brother's gesture and duly cupped her hands—but her small belly let out a rumbling growl, flushing her face crimson in an instant.
Daoist Qiyuan burst into laughter and dissolved into a wisp of green smoke. Li Changshou, smiling as well, looked away toward the lakeshore so as not to embarrass his junior sister.
"Senior brother! Is that the Smoke Escape Master just used?"
"Hm? Smoke Escape?" Li Changshou gave a subdued laugh. "That's an Illusion-Transformation Technique—a life-saving spell for facing enemies, though it can also wound and trap foes. I'd call it Master's specialty. Want to learn it? Once your cultivation matures a little, let Master pass it on."
"Then your Water Escape? Can Ling'e cultivate it now?"
"The Water Escape must wait even longer—you need the realm of Refining Qi to Transform the Spirit first, as with all Five-Phase escape techniques. Don't think about it yet, fledgling qi-refiner barely done with your first meditation."
"Senior brother, what does 'fledgling' mean?"
"Roughly, a beginner who stumbles over their own hands and feet?"
Li Changshou's eyes curved into a smile, and he led her toward the open ground beside the medicine garden. "What would you like to eat? Our mountain has no shortage of game. If you've no restrictions, I'll just recommend for you."
"Game?... Senior brother, are we eating these medicinal herbs at noon?"
"Of course not." Li Changshou thrust his right palm forward; a small stone flew in, spun a circle in his palm, then shot into the woods with a piercing whistle.
Blue Ling'e gasped, and the forest erupted as startled birds burst skyward in covey after covey. Before long, a pheasant with three-colored plumage came crashing through the air, the stone buried in its breast—dead as a doornail. He caught the returning stone and tossed it into the grass, leaving Blue Ling'e watching with a glimmer in both eyes.
Soon he had set up a roasting rack by the lakeshore, plucked and cleaned the pheasant, and brought out a few jars of hoarded seasoning, beginning to "lure" his junior sister into drooling.
"Senior brother, what spell was that stone? Why does it fly out and then fly back?"
"Merely a simple matter of object control," Li Changshou said. "It counts only as a minor technique. Today, in the cultivation world—or across the whole of the Five Divisions of the Primordial—the most popular way of fighting is to refine a magic treasure, pour your cultivation into it, and smash your opponent with it. This object-control spell is simply the foundation for handling one. You've just begun, so it's no wonder you know none of this; I'll tell you at leisure later."
"Mm." Blue Ling'e knelt aside and murmured as faint as a mosquito: "All of senior brother's spells feel so powerful."
Li Changshou shook his head: "You're mistaken, junior sister. This is not powerful. Master and I are both qi-refiners who have yet to attain immortality. This Primordial world is far too savage. Becoming an immortal only means stepping out of the newbie village; after that, several more major realms stand between you and being counted a master, and every one walls off countless so-called prodigies. The Primordial has existed since times untold and its supreme experts number beyond counting—for an upstart, climbing above them is all but impossible. And cultivation is ultimately only the foundation. When two people of the same major realm clash, the one without a formidable magic treasure ends with only one outcome— Body, death, way, and obliteration!"
Blue Ling'e shrank back, her senior brother's words like magic sound in her ears.
His voice went on: "Even with a formidable magic treasure, without a formidable divine ability, body, death, way, and obliteration is still unavoidable. And even with both, if your own fortune is lacking and calamity befalls you, it's still body, death, way, and obliteration. In short—"
"B-b... body, death, way, and obliteration?"
Li Changshou broke into a kindly smile. "Good, you grasped that quickly."
"But senior brother," Blue Ling'e asked quietly, "isn't our purpose in cultivating to achieve immortality, to be untouchable, and to roam the mortal world freely?"
"No, you may have misunderstood. Cultivation is no lofty, noble thing." He shook his head. "We cultivate to keep growing stronger, to cope with harsh environments, so as to keep ourselves alive. Immortality is only one stage of the path—reach it and you'll no longer die of natural causes, but calamity can still claim your life."
"Then, senior brother," she asked nervously, "how can we truly survive?"
Li Changshou slowly turned the roasting rack and answered with order and calm: "First, avoid karma. Try not to get entangled with anything strange. The best way is to stay home and cultivate with a quiet heart—don't roam about, don't have too much contact with others. Of course, that's easier said than done. You and I, having taken the same master, now share an entanglement—a cause exists between us. If either runs into trouble, the other will be drawn in: that is the effect. So even if we try our utmost to avoid karma, we can never fully clear of it; then you must read the situation, judge soundly by circumstance, and stay out of danger as best you can. If you've done all you can and still land in danger, there's only one response left."
"The second one...?"
Blue Ling'e wiped the drool from her lips. The pheasant, roasted to about seventy percent, was already giving off a tantalizing aroma.
"A trump card."
"A trump card? What is that...?"
"Trump cards are the hidden abilities you possess," Li Changshou said, tearing off a piece of chicken and handing it to Ling'e, who could barely wait. "If you have a hundred points of strength, hide thirty and reveal only seventy, so that if someone schemes against you, you can catch them off guard. More specifically, in the future, whatever powerful spell, divine ability, or magic treasure you come by—hide it away as a trump card. At the critical moment, throw it out, and it's an ace that decides the game in one move. Your cultivation itself can also be partly hidden—that, too, is a trump card."
Blue Ling'e wolfed down the chunk in no time, eyes gleaming, and licked her fingers. She pondered, then asked quietly: "But senior brother, what if all the trump cards are used and you still can't defeat the opponent? What then?"
"This brings us to the third principle." Li Changshou flicked a finger, and the roasted pheasant was instantly dismembered into spirit-laden pieces that floated before her. "The third is actually quite simple, and that is... flee."
"Uh." Blue Ling'e blinked. Though most of her attention was on the meat, she still strove to understand.
Li Changshou said placidly: "As the saying goes, as long as the green hills remain, there'll be no lack of firewood. Indulging your temper only buries a fine future, and life is precious but once—though those of impeccable character and breeding might be lucky enough to get a second go. Ahem, to the point! To slip away from a master's hands takes keen reaction in the heat of battle, and that's where escape techniques come in. Each one you learn is one more chance of survival..."
The sun slanted west, and the fragrance of roasting meat drifted across the fields. At the limpid lakeshore, the young qi-refiner tirelessly instructed his newly initiated junior sister, while the little girl nibbling the meat gradually listened in rapt absorption. This would surely be a lesson that shaped her entire immortal life.
And yet, though little Ling'e kept marveling at how reasonable her senior brother sounded, when she savored it all, she felt there was somehow... something not quite right about it.