《The Science of Qi》 Prologue: Intruder Alert. *Warning, Intruders located attempting to breach perimeter sector six; local perimeter defences activated and awaiting your order*. A firm middle-aged male¡¯s voice rang out ¡°Thank you Jason, let¡¯s start with the mines and the sentries on automatic.. ¡± A cold clear echoed out. With the absence of the alarm the large room slowly returned to being a clinical silver, one side a large terminal wired to numerous peripherals that surround the seated user; the other half taken up by multitudes of desks, workstations and various equipment. In the middle, the floor sloped gently down to the middle with two gurneys on the left and right, beside each a white arm could be seen hanging. In the middle of the floor was a small drain that despite the prior events, remained spotless. *Intruders have engaged the turrets and active mines and sustained heavy casualties, intercepted American transmissions have requested and confirmed aerial strikes to be inbound. Permission to mobilise Anti-aircraft measures and the ADF?* ¡°You may,¡± a slow cruel grin showed on the casual seated figure. She Leaning back in the arm chair with her head resting on a noticeably aged and pale palm awaiting the show to start ¡°Show me the affected areas on satellite and through the drones¡±. ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am.¡± This time tremors resounded through the large lab as the AA defence raised itself up from its roof mounted sheaths and the drones took flight. She gazed at the satellite feed until the separate drone feeds caught site of the initial carnage of the first attack which then proceeded to show footage of 5 planes bearing the American flag in a reverse V-formation exploding. The woman chuckled to herself ¡°I thought they learnt already; they¡¯ve already moved their Nevada base once - It seems I will have to discipline them further.¡± *Alert, Wider scans indicate a large force of hostile land, air and sea forces; identities appear to range across the globe* the male¡¯s voice sounded out much louder, with a hint of worry, once again showing red warnings across the lab. The woman raised an eyebrow asking ¡°How did they conceal this from us? Send the entire facility and the far perimeters into fortress mode, mobilise all countermeasures including the mechs, and leave Zeus on standby as a contingency. ¡±. ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am¡± a pause as the figure withdrew two 3-prong needles from each side of her head. *Entering mobile mode, interface and augmentations active.* the seat then disengaged from the terminal showing a large cube section where her legs should have been. The throne proceeded to glide silently across the room before leaving through a large heavy door into a similar hallway. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°It appears that one lapse will lead to trouble; however the other humans never cease to give up in the face of greed. I¡¯m amazed they managed to come to an alliance at all.¡± She murmured to herself with some melancholy before reverting to her cold expression. She thought back to those two; the early years she spent together with her two fellow scientists, her confidantes, her friends. Yet they had betrayed her; fearing her ideas, staunchly objecting her experiments when these could be considered the most ¡°humane¡±. Of course Jade, true to her nature, proceeded with the experiments in secret, yearning to continue her progress in the study of learning and information processing. She had turned to creating an AI of her own design and worked on it in secret. A few years went by and she finally made preparations to control the subsequent information explosion and hide it from her workmates. After the explosion, integration and necessary recalibration, Jason the AI was finally born and fully operated as her mind¡¯s new operating system. With Jason¡¯s integration, numerous things now became possible; conscious control of things like the heartbeat, muscle and cell growth and most fortunately, how information was dealt with in the brain. Jason was truly the pinnacle of her research, and arguably her greatest in achievement of her life. A few days later, it happened. The gunfire, the breaching explosions, the building collapsing and their twisted dark greedy faces as they ran away clutching papers in their blood covered hands. After she passed out, she found herself awake in a small cupboard in the lower lab bathroom nearby - Jason had taken control and forced her broken body into safety from the explosions and out of sight whilst controlling her internals so that she didn¡¯t bleed out. From that day she swore she would always be alone; she couldn¡¯t trust anyone else - nothing could be trusted. From then on she had isolated herself, slowly built up funds and built her new laboratory in a foreign country - the only contact with humans was in the form of transactions, or as electronic and sometimes explosive messages. By the time her identity was surfaced, the laboratory was a well fortified fortress, where inside Jade with Jason¡¯s help had managed to further augment her own mind by downloading and processing the masses of information available to the human race. Her thirst for knowledge was insatiable, after a decade she had far surpassed the current human race in any area of science or study; after the twelfth year, the current throne was created. Jade finally came across a large open doorway leading down to a large gap that sloped around a 500m large cylinder; various lights flashed as charging cables were lead through by small robots to attach to their connections. She flew in her chair down to the bottom to a new terminal and with a thought the throne launched new pronged connectors and connected. ¡°Jason, report battle status.¡± *approximately 76 fatalities across 28 destroyed aircraft, 3 tanks and 1 road vehicles, defences still operating with only 2 drones destroyed. Approximately 3650 enemy combatants alongside 380 aircraft, 99 tanks, and nearly 300 road vehicles* ¡°Jesus Christ,¡± she started with wide eyes, ¡°they really want my research that much!? Hahahahahaa, over my broken corpse.¡± she laughed hysterically before commanding ¡°activate Zeus.¡± Jade Disconnected herself once more then retreated back towards the large container before coming to a small side door and gliding inside. The sounds of gas being expelled and electricity whirring could be heard across the entire compound. Chapter 1: Deaths Yellow River In a large dark room, many people of all nationalities were gathered in front of one screen surrounded by a myriad of smaller screens that projected the current battlefield. Upon seeing the initial destruction of his nation¡¯s planes, a man sat at the desk with the American flag sat clenching his fists. ¡°Begin phase two, and load the pinches into position¡±. Back on the laboratory perimeter there were many sirens, mobile gunners and drones of various usages blaring intruder alert; whilst firing all manner of weaponry at the intruders. Planes were dropping down one after the other; tanks were directly blown in half or the crews were shot through the armor. The sheer amount of defensive weaponry was mind blowing. However that isn¡¯t to say it was a one sided battle. The allied forces still managed to incur some damages and steadily destroy more and more robots. Although the Anti-aircraft phalanx and heat-seeker missiles were effective; they couldn¡¯t catch every bomb dropped or every missile launched. *Zeus is primed and ready, please take your seat ma¡¯am* ¡°Thank you Jason, now let¡¯s begin.¡± During the chaos both the allies and nearby locals felt new rumbling. Slowly a hatch on the side of the facility opened and slowly a large black human-shaped dreadnought revealed itself. At nearly 500m tall it towered over the peak of the facility; with large well built limbs smoothly encased in thick armour; had it not been a war machine it would have been a work of art. As it took its first step the earth quaked and cracked yet Zeus did not shake. At its forehead if one strained to see, they would see Jade sat in her throne, with a manic smile that could freeze blood. ¡°Jason, break into their communications, I wish to send them a message¡± *Yes ma¡¯am¡­.. You¡¯re on* ¡°Good day everyone, I hope you¡¯re enjoying my little show. I had thought you all would have learnt by now¡­. yet here we sit. After I finish cleansing the scout parties here; further retributions will be conducted to each party I find associated to this attack. My advice is to find a good cartographer. Cease transmission.¡± Her tone was cold, cruel and indifferent. After learning so many things, Jade had already ceased to be troubled by petty thoughts such as humanity and so on. If she could take revenge without suffering a loss then she damn well will. Naturally in this world, the only way for Jade to suffer a loss would be to hinder her current experiments. ¡°Now Jason let¡¯s proceed¡± As she spoke, the right arm of the dreadnought, in accordance to her whim, revolved and morphed into the form of a gatling gun. Thousands of light beams flashed out from the turret in only a few seconds as the sound of rumbling thunder exuded from the barrel as it spun. Clouds from explosions of metal dirt and flesh flew up in the air above where a small army was originally. More and more groups of various vehicles, aircraft kept approaching, but Zeus reigned supreme and continued to obliterate the land vehicles whilst picking off the various aircraft, drone and missiles with it¡¯s turret. Jade whilst piloting herself was humming a merry tune as if she were taking a pleasant walk in the park. Soon new waves stopped accumulating and the skies were clear and quiet, except for the erupting smoke of death and metal. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. The allied force¡¯s leaders in the dark room soaked in cold sweat after they had witnessed the outcome. After 10 seconds,and 2 assistants fainting from shock; the American once again stood up and commanded ¡°drop the pinches, this cannot continue!¡± ¡°Agreed¡± the crowd of other countries murmured, wiping their foreheads in fear. Jade gazed towards the sky, seeing 4 new planes slowly coming into range once again letting out a small grin. She raised her right arm once more; but paused as she noticed through Jason 4 more were coming from behind. Her left arm once again morphed into the same gatling as she stood to the side with her arms out to the side aiming at the two groups. The two groups were just out of range of her gatling guns, less than a few kilometers away, hovering ominously. Slowly each aircraft slowly began to raise up further before hovering forwards, dropping a package. *Scans indicate multiple EMP-type weapon, insufficient shield available, detonation will occur during their destruction, I recommend you to abort and flee.* ¡°No, no, no, no! Is there no countermeasure other than fleeing? Can I shoot them down?!¡± jade asked urgently, her eyes alert in torrid fear. ¡°Shooting them down will still cause detonation; only viable option is to abort and flee the immediate blast radius, ETD 20 seconds ¡°FUCK!¡± Jade screamed, ¡°I refuse; I will not abandon my work and everything I have achieved and strived for. All I wanted was to learn; to learn and progress until there was no more; to see and understand as much as I could! But these fucking creatures refuse to let me!¡± She shouted maniacally as the packages slowly descended from high up, a faint buzzing could be heard as they charged up. ¡°I refuse, they will not get my work! THIS LAND WILL BURN BEFORE THEY DO; JASON ACTIVATE THE LABORATORY SELF DESTRUCTION, OVERLOAD THE REACTORS AND FLATTEN THIS PLACE!¡± with bloodshot eyes she shouted, overflowing with fury and madness. *...Yes Ma¡¯am* Jason replied with a noticeable trace of sadness. ¡­.. The flash of the explosion obliterated all life for miles around, naturally Jade perished as well with her life¡¯s resentment and desire for retribution unquenched. The blast first brought light, then immediate and abyssal darkness. She felt falling, yet it was without direction. A large orb of light fell through the earth, through space, coming to a clear crack in the fabric of reality and was sucked through; the orb had fallen through and out of the universe itself. As it finally fell an eternal yellow river came into view ; yet the orb continued to fall, revealing the vastness of the seemingly endless yellow river. Surrounding the river seemed to be an infinite space of darkness and twisted crimson space. If one could see far into the sky, they would see the vague outline of an aged face and body, holding a ladle and slowly stirring. Inside, an uncountable number of smaller orbs could be seen, each dimming until they slowly turned back, without any aura or presence at all. Upon the lights being extinguished, the orbs would fight the flow of the river, causing a small circumference to turn still, before a suction force from below would pull the orb underneath the surface - to be born anew. As Jade¡¯s orb fell through the crack; a mutation occurred. The passing through between universes represented a change of system; and subsequently Jade¡¯s orb flashed, convulsed and expanded until finally a smaller brighter sphere grew and surrounded the original. The Outer orb interlocked into the middle through millions of interlocking hair-like strands yet the two could still be separately distinguished. As her orb finally made contact with the surface of the water, the process began - the outer orb became dimmer and dimmer - yet it occurred far slower than the others. In the nearby distance a similar situation occurred - a different orb was slowly dimming; yet this one was strangely tinted the dullest of blues. The dull blue orb seemingly noticed Jade¡¯s and miraculously managed to slowly shorten the distance between them; it''s light becoming increasingly dimmer as it did so. Jade¡¯s outer orb rumbled and began rotating in the river; some small connecting strand inside began transmitting pulses of light to the outside whilst the outer rim rotated different strands of light to the inner orb. The proceeded for a few seconds before the outer orb¡¯s light suddenly retreated through the connecting strands and suddenly the outer-orb had turned completely black. As the now nearly lifeless blue orb had finally managed to come alongside Jade¡¯s soul; the suction force occurred from below, creating a small whirlpool that sucked Jade¡¯s soul down. The blue soul suddenly stopped seemingly hesitant; before starting forward, attaching to the outer orb and being sucked down alongside it. Chapter 2: Birth Jade awoke slowly, yet couldn¡¯t open her eyes. Energy was slowly being felt throughout her body. Eventually she learned to feel around her; feeling and kneading the flesh-like walls of her new location. She felt drowsy; unable to think coherently and then fell back into a deep sleep. She awoke once again; her body felt heavy but slick. She felt around blindly once more, coming across to a seemingly pudgy stomach, but she was alarmed at what she felt. A warm small fleshy protrusion from her stomach; she slowly followed it until it came in contact with the fleshy walls. In fright, she kicked her legs; only to be horrified a second later to feel a huge lurching and shuddering in the walls of her containment. She was now awake to finally hear the voice resounding in her mind; the voice felt different to her thoughts; but so familiar. *Ma¡¯am, you¡¯re awake!* the calm male voice resounded in her mind. Slowly flashes of memories began to surface in her mind; the prior events resounding like a nightmare, her previous life all the way up to the final fight before that flash. Slowly she began to put together her memory, her mind felt as if it had hands continuously sorting and making sense of her memories before digesting each one. Once she had finished, she was free to think and asked in her mind, very slowly: ¡°Jason. What happened? Where am I? And why am I in, what I assume to be, a womb?¡± *What happened after you died is beyond my ability to process. Despite the fact the sensory organs were destroyed, I managed to record readings of parts of the process. Do you wish to view them?* ¡°Beyond your ability?!¡± she thought incredulously, ¡°that shouldn¡¯t be possible, the knowledge accumulated in this mind is near perfect. Furthermore, sensory readings without using the sensory organs? How can this be!¡± She began to panic once more, her eyes were shaking yet still sealed shut. She calmed down once more ¡°Is your operating system unharmed, is the integration between us completely undamaged? Are the memory, storage and processing augmentations still in effect?¡± She asked with urgency. She panicked at the thought of her severely reduced capabilities that had culminated from her early life¡¯s work. Furthermore, if she were truly being born anew, then having those augmentations would be massively beneficial in her so called ¡°new life¡±. *Although the circumstances are different as to the growth of the mind in this body¡­.* ¡°What do you mean! How can the circumstances be different; all creatures have a brain, and the brain can be reconfigured as we did previously¡­.¡± she trailed off in panic¡­ *It would be best for you to see Ma¡¯am, the VUI alongside my core programming, operating system and control capabilities are still in effect. Please see for yourself, rendering now.* In the darkness of her mind, where she would have used to see through her eyes; a new screen appeared. It showed a full figure of the brain, before zooming through the pink flesh and into the centre, wherein a large sphere of light could be made out. Down near the bottom it showed an uncountable amount of connections to the surrounding parts of the brain, all connected to the sphere; yet each only let off a dull glow. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. The screen panned as if a camera were moving closer to the sphere, as if coming into contact; as the view and the sphere touched, an enormously tall white wall came into view. Embedded on this wall was a seemingly mystical drawing of a huge dark blue fish in the centre, as if it were guarding. It was slender, each scale¡¯s glow could clearly be distinguished, its maw was open displaying obsidian teeth and its eyes were the clearest of crimson. Immediately the eyes flashed, the image seemingly came to life as the body rippled forward, the scales glistening as the monster lurched forwards, opening its jaws before a deep monstrous roar could be felt before the screen turned black. Jade¡¯s body once again kicked, followed by another lurch from the mother. Internally wincing and cursing herself for forgetting. ¡°FANTASTIC! Something completely new has appeared, and it has appeared inside me!¡± She slowly calmed herself down and began to think with a scientists rational. She paused once again and asked in her mind: ¡°What are those connections to the orb and the mind?¡± *I concluded that they are the means to which all types of processing and storage power is connected from the orb to our physical mind. In my databanks there are records that remain pertaining to a belief of certain secular monks that could be interpreted that the initial learning matrix and the numerous synapses associated to processing and storage in the human mind was considered a human¡¯s soul. As they would gain so called ¡°enlightenment¡± they would grow until the ¡°soul¡± could separate from the body.* As Jason spoke new windows began to pop up in Jade¡¯s view displaying the written information and relating photographs. ¡°So if the connectors are basically wire links to the orb, how good are my mental capabilities compared to my previous body?¡± *Some information was lost in the previous events and transfer; however I managed to cycle the information whilst your mind was unconscious so that the superfluous memories, information and archived copies were destroyed; 64.5792% of the total data bank is intact. Processing, comprehension and storage have all been similarly reduced yet still exceed a normal human by a factor of thousands. However these reductions are recoverable due to the current situation.* ¡°What about this new body¡¯? How does it fare physically and mentally?¡± she asked excitedly, this was just too good a news. She had maintained at least a single copy of every significant and usable piece of knowledge of her entire planet and civilization whilst only just being born? Her new life had unlimited potential to be even greater and to learn even more! *The supposed soul orb and this body were integrated after an estimated 10 weeks from inception; after that point, whilst you were unconscious I manipulated the cell growth and neural layout to be as efficient as part of my core programming, strong and intelligent as possible. After I gained control I remedied inferior areas created prior to my control. However the toll on the mother was large; I estimate it has shortened her life span immensely, with only a few years to live due to the energy required for such cell mitosis. Furthermore certain substitutes had to be made due to a lack of available resources. Birth is estimated to be in 3 weeks as a human female.* Jade¡¯s heart couldn¡¯t help but beat faster and faster in excitement. She had never been so thankful to have created Jason. He truly was her masterpiece. ¡°Thank you Jason, I¡¯ll leave the remainder of the time for you to continue molding this new body; awake me a few days before my birth. I can¡¯t have them thinking I¡¯m dead if I am born prematurely.¡± She whispered in her mind, she had never spoken in such a kind gentle manner before, not even to Jason. She could not wait to have a fresh start, She would not make the same mistakes again. *Yes ma¡¯am* Jason¡¯s voice warm, masculine voice resounded out before she again fell into a deep sleep. Time passed quickly for Jade in her deep sleep; her body was growing bigger and bigger. Finally the day of her birth arrived, Jade sat in place excitedly, head nearest the entrance of the womb. Finally a flash of light flooded in as the muscles contracted pushing smoothly as Jade wiggled free headfirst. Jade only saw a blinding light and started crying as she drew her first breadth in this new world. As her vision settled she saw she was in the arms of a maid cutting the umbilical cord. Moments later she was handed to a huge hulking man in smart dress with a large black apron covering his powerful chest. His hands were rough and callous but held her with great care, large tears could be seen forming in the corners of his big blue eyes. The man was excited, but spoke so softly; Jade couldn¡¯t understand what he was saying, even with Jason¡¯s archive of languages. Slowly the man handed her over to a woman lying in an enormous bed. She was a true beauty, long black hair hung straight down each side of her pillow as her snow white face panted in exhaustion and sweat dripped from her head. As Jade lay there looking up into her new mothers tired but tender loving eyes. She heard her mother pant heavily before murmuring ¡°Jiao, Yu Jiao¡± before collapsing into deep asleep from exhaustion. It was at this point Jade had her observations interrupted as she heard a familiar voice: *Alert, airborne anomaly detected!* Chapter 3: What is this place? Jade turned her small pudgy face away from her mother to the side as she witnessed a strangely dressed woman holding her mother¡¯s hand with her own as a small deep green light appears to move along the mother¡¯s arm. Her eyes grew wide before a smile surfaced on her baby face as she urgently commanded Jason: ¡°Record this phenomenon! Quickly!¡± The light lasted only a minute or two, before the old woman staggered before falling into a nearby chair, her mother¡¯s face had regained some colour; seeing the result Jade was in shock before her mind faltered and she fell into a deep sleep. As she did, she whispered internally ¡°Set the cell growth as a continuous process and adjust it to energy input, even during my unconsciousness. Begin compiling a databank of the spoken words you hear so we can translate them later.¡± ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am¡±. When Jade had finally fallen asleep, the largely built man stood at the bedside gently lifted her from her mother¡¯s chest into his arms. He turned towards the worn out and sweating healer asking nervously: ¡°How is my wife Lady Lie? Will she be well?¡± Lady Lie shook her head slowly and still panting heavily, ¡°her longevity itself seems depleted; it isn¡¯t a case of a simple illness. I am unable to do anything more than relieving the accumulated pain and fatigue and doing so used up all my qi¡­¡± ¡°Depleted longevity? Xue xue was a practitioner on the 5th level of qi infusion¡­ Ordinarily she should have at least another 80 if not 100 years left, but what about now? How long does she have? ¡°At most 5 years¡­ Senior Gan I must return and rest, I shall bid farewell¡±. The woman stood up, bowed and left the building; leaving Yu Gan and his wife alone with Jade in the room. Yu Gan stood there with a stern face - hiding the sadness in his eyes and carrying Jade¡¯s sleeping baby body away. A few months have passed; Jade continued to learn about this new place she had found herself. However she was still an infant and could not go off to explore - whilst Jason had re-worked the central nervous system as well as the muscles, tendons and bones so that she could walk as soon as she was born. But doing so would cause too much attention. Thus she could only observe from her parent¡¯s and servants arms. Within the few months that have passed Jason had managed a complete grasp of this place¡¯s new language - combined with her improved senses meant she could still learn a great deal. If Jade were asked to describe her this world in a few words; she would undoubtedly respond with primitive sociopathic anarchy. It seemed as if many of this place¡¯s inhabitants had varying levels of superpowers from qi; this is also combined with martial arts. However with such varying strengths between people; it meant law enforcement was near impossible if a group or family had strong fighters. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Even the strongest families could not control everything due to pressure from other powerful families. There was a state controlled government yet they refused to impose strict law enforcement against the strongest local families or other powerful individuals for fear of retaliation or grudges. It could be said that law and order was only brought about through certain powers restraining the others and taking advantage of vanity and ¡°face¡±. This point was made abundantly clear when Jade was carried through a large city and witnessed an entourage of 3 men kidnapping a young woman after violently beating her screaming male friend to death. This was all under the orders of a well dressed teenage man. Her mother, father and accompanying party merely watched without batting an eyelid as they walked past, ignoring the fate of both of the victims. Thus this world could be said to be a free for all of strength. Luckily the family to which Jade was born into was one of the more powerful families - which will make survival a lot easier. She was born into a branch of the Yu family, her name here followed the chinese naming style from Earth, her given name was Jiao. She was the only child of a senior elder in the Yu clan; however Yu Gan¡¯s position was far from ordinary. He was the only spiritsmith in BlueCloud City - a highly sought job that comprised of blacksmithing weapons then adding inscriptions - strange circuits that would aid the function of weapons. With the vast amount of practitioners and martial artists, weapons were a huge asset - especially to those who could only fight with a sword or spear. Yet with such a massive demand Yu Gan was the only Spiritsmith in all of BlueCloud. BlueCloud is a medium sized city tens of kilometers in area, with thousands more kilometers of farmlands built around it; at the centre lies the city lord¡¯s mansion estate, and surrounding that was the noble quarters, as one went further out the city became steadily poorer. The only exception to this were the four main roads that led in all cardinal directions out of the city. Outside to the north was the Zhan forest range - A huge area of forestry inhabited by many types of demon beasts. Demon beasts appeared to be just a blanket term for any type of beasts that went through a so called ¡°demon awakening¡± and was thus able to absorb qi from the world to grow stronger. The key difference between Earth and this place was the existence of qi. Qi simply appeared to be the key to everything - the abnormal strength and power of practitioners, the various tools that worked inconceivably without any knowledge of applied science and physics - it all came from qi. There seemed to be many different variations of qi, but they all take the appearance of radiation, yet trying to find an individual particle of qi seemed impossible - even for the current Jade and Jason; whom previously had managed to isolate and analyse gravitons with various equipment of their own devising. Qi seemed present in the atmosphere constantly, though certain places had differing concentrations - this was noticed by Jade as she stood up in her crib alone and tried punching out only to discover the weight of her punch was 0.03% more than what it should be. Thus for now they could only conclude that it was a phenomenon that they could ignore until they could gain access to a library or be taught. For now Jade stood up alone in her crib - practicing a set of exercises that Jason had created to further improve her body¡¯s condition. She had also tasked Jason to begin assessing the archived martial arts from earth and then to cross reference this information with the inherent flaws of humanity and the prevailing body types of larger animals. Things like blind spots in the eyes, pattern recognition, pressure points, and other inherent weak spots would all be calculated to birth a new martial art. She stood with her legs wide apart, knees bent bringing her arms in slowly before rotating her arms and pushing it back out before collapsing back on her crib. On one hand she was happy to have been reborn again, but annoyed that she had to keep up the facade of having the capabilities of a baby. As she relented, Yu Jiao heard footsteps coming from outside, by the sound, she guessed it was her father. She quickly jumped back under the covers, wiped off the sweat from her head and shut her eyes. ¡°Kacha¡± As the door unlocked; Yu Gan walked into the small room and seeing that she was awake picked her up and brought her away with a gleeful smile. ¡°Jiao-er today you¡¯ll finally see father at work!¡± Chapter 4: The Spiritsmith in action Yu Gan strolled across the various halls before crossing courtyards to one that connected to a large heavy-looking metal pavilion; immense heat and the smell of burning metal could be felt. Yu Gan entered revealing a huge room in the centre was a large furnace with racks of weapon and armor moulds spread out. In one corner a large workbench with a huge vice sat beside open books and loose papers. He shut the door and ran over to his desk excitedly. Once Yu Gan had entered his work shop he could be far more unrestrained - playing a senior elder figure was extremely tiring. He retrieved a small thick wooden crib and placed it on the desk and gently lowered Yu Jiao in. The crib was filled with plenty of cushioning from animal furs. He placed Yu Jiao inside to keep her safe from the heat, before setting to work. As Yu Jiao walked her father work feverishly, she felt touched at his love of the craft. It was truly rare that she could find a somewhat decent man who only cared for his craft and family. In between hammer blows against the anvil Yu Jiao was constantly trying to calculate the force against the ingots her father used through sight and the tremors. Jason¡¯s enhancements meant she could feel vibrations with much greater sensitivity, and she was able to slow down her relative time through consciously focusing. Yet what she could perceive astonished her: her father with each blow could make the entire pavilion shake, yet the ingots barely warped at all. However sat in her crib she could not analyse anything. ¡°Wahh wwaaaah¡± Yu Jiao began crying, shaking her head inside - here she, a world renowned scientist was resorting to crying to get attention. Hearing her cries, Yu Gan stopped mid-strike and dashed over, when he did he picked up the crib and consoling his crying child. She stopped then began pointing to the various ingots stacks in one corner. His eye¡¯s lit up ¡°Oh? Do you want to play with the ingots?¡± He asked teasingly. Seeing Jade¡¯s continued points he picked up an armful of various ores and metal ingots before sitting Yu Jiao up in her crib and showing each one individually. ¡°This is Dharstic ore¡± he said, presenting a grey coarse rock with speckles of dark brown inside. ¡°It¡¯s a very flexible metal used for light armor. It¡¯s not a treasure ore but the City guards armor is all made from this so it¡¯s always in high demand. ¡°This here is a Xarxus ingot, a very useful metal for weapon guards, its very resilient but very heavy so rarely is a whole weapon made purely out of it¡­¡± Towards the end he picked up a small blue-green diamond in a box. In a hushed voice he said excitedly ¡°This is my favourite - it was because of this that I met your mother. It¡¯s a blue star diamond, an extremely valuable material that can hold class eight inscriptions and higher such as a space compression inscription. However I am merely a class six inscriptionist.¡± He said, lamenting with a sad look. After Yu Jiao had picked them all up, looked them over and (unbeknownst to her father) licked them all; she had gone silent and resumed feigning sleep. By re-wiring her arm¡¯s biology to be able to emit electrical impulses as well as send signals back up to the brain, it can be used like a sonar on an extreme level. Needless to say, Jason¡¯s readings were in depth. Her tongue similarly had been enhanced. Thousands of individual sections could react differently to things she tasted yielding a more perfect analysis than just sweet, dry or salty. Through this endeavour she had gained much information that Jason had stored. She had even deduced that they all had varying amounts of qi inside - with the better materials having more qi inside regardless of differing atomic structures and elemental compositions. In fact the structures and elemental compositions made absolutely no sense. By her estimates the ingots should have been shattered or flattened from much smaller amounts of the energy received. Furthermore due to the qi invading the material, the individual atoms had also undergone mutations. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Jason Create a new database titled materials and deposit your readings there under sub sections of ingots or gems as needed. Include the qi and element compositions as well as the molecular structure; record any mutations in a further database for analysis. Understanding how this qi affects this world is critical.¡± *Yes Ma¡¯am* Jade sat back contented, looking forward to the results. She yearned to be able to be up and moving, to explore this world as there were so many new mysteries that could be discovered. She ignored her working father until he came over with a one handed sword. He locked the sword in a vice and placed his palm on the wall in front of the desk whilst looking over at Yu Jiao with a childish smile: ¡°watch this¡±. A small light passed through his palm into the wall, causing all the rocks over the desk to light up brightly; Yu Jiao laughed inside thinking ¡°at least they¡¯re practical and not completely primitive¡±. ¡°They¡¯re called glow stones; you can insert your qi into them and they light up; they¡¯re fairly common but I managed to create a small looping inscription that when placed on them stops them from leaking out qi into buildings so much.¡± He explained with pride and glee, ¡°now they¡¯re far more usable and a bit more valuable; it was due to this that I got the attention of the old clan master¡±. Yu Gan opened a drawer in the desk and removed a bundle of blank scrolls inside before stacking them on top one another. He took a deep breath and his eyes suddenly changed to those deep in focus before turning towards Yu Jiao and patting her head lovingly whilst putting his index finger over his lips; ¡°Father must make the inscription now ok; so help father and be veeeeery quiet for me¡±. He turned to look back towards his stack of scrolls and placed one out in front of him. His right index finger was raised and suddenly began glowing grey as it was pressed against the scroll. His finger moved astonishingly fast as he created tiny ruins on the paper feverishly; this continued for an hour before he stopped inscribing. He was panting, sweaty and exhausted. After catching his breath he looked over towards the wide eyed Yu Jiao, before laughing loudly at her little face¡¯s expression before explaining: ¡°This sword is a gift for the city lord¡¯s 2nd son for his 13th birthday; a fine and just warrior who studies a lightning sword art. Thus I created an inscription for qi storage and thunder sparks to go with the lightning attribute sword. You¡¯re my lucky charm Jiao¡¯er, normally I would have failed 2 times as it was a grade four inscription; creating inscriptions has a certain element of luck to it¡±. He lifted the scroll from the bench and placed it beside the sword in the vice; his hands illuminated again in grey, but this time whipped back forming a small grey dome. Yu Gan¡¯s palms slid under the paper dissolving it as the inscription itself was sealed in the dome and then pressed against the sword. The runes began slowly wrapping around and shrinking into the sword; the sword slowly changed colour to a deep royal violet. Seeing that the most interesting parts were over; Yu Jiao went back to sleep - leaving her further development to Jason. After creating a sheath for the newly created gift; Yu Gan carried his daughter back across the pavilions and courtyards to the tired but loving arms of the still-weak Yu Xue. Kneeling down beside his beloved¡¯s bed, Yu Gan couldn¡¯t help himself staring at the tranquil scene of mother and daughter lying together in peace. He eventually snapped himself back to reality; ¡°How do you feel? Have there been any changes?¡± Yu Xue turned her head slowly, gazing into his eyes, a slight smile appearing on her thin lips ¡°Dear, you ask me everyday; are you in that much of a rush to get rid of me?¡± Her reply was tired and slightly hoarse but her tongue was as sharp as always. ¡°No no! I wouldn¡¯t dare¡­ have you considered the request of the clan master yet? He continues to press me for an answer.¡± Yu Gan sighed in exasperation. ¡°No decent parent would ever want their child to be used for only political gain; she¡¯s not even a year old - she has no idea about her own path in life. I feel it¡¯s cruel to arrange a marriage that she has no say in - regardless if they are the descendant of the city lord family.¡± Yu Gan¡¯s position in the clan lead to many privileges; but that was only due to the desire for his services; the Yu clan¡¯s monopolisation of his services made him a chess piece of considerable value both financially and politically. A spiritsmith was a position of considerable influence in Bluecloud city. Any influential family would try and forge some good relations with them - even the city lord¡¯s Zhang family would be no exception. However any rash movements could lead to surging undercurrents in the current balance of power held in the city. Chapter 5: Teach me cultivation! ¡°Teach me cultivation¡±. These words had given Yu Gan endless headaches; Yu Jiao had made this request on the eve after her 2nd birthday - each year being 360 days of 24 hours each. She had revealed that she could walk extremely early in her age; and her speed of learning speech was absurdly fast to the point that her parents would have been frightened were she not their child. It felt that she had matured a year every day, she had the bearing of a fully grown adult; she was perfectly literate, polite and mature. Every mortal indicator would judge Yu Jiao as a genius yet as a doting father, would Yu Gan allow her to take up the cruel and bloody path that is cultivation from such an early age where she should have barely left her cradle. Whilst it was always better to start early; Yu gan was still reluctant. After a full week of pestering, Yu Gan finally gave in to Yu Jiao¡¯s demands. One early morning he led her out to a quiet part of a practice field; nearby there were a few teenagers who had awoken early to train. They both sat down in a quiet corner where Yu Gan his explanation: ¡°The decision to cultivate is not one to be taken lightly Jiao¡¯er; Cultivation involves battle, blood and often betrayal. It is the pursuit of power; a pursuit of a person¡¯s own path, their own dao. Even in this Blue Cloud city, where we four organisations of Yu, Quan, Xie and even the Baron appointed Zhang family reign supreme; we are but one small corner in the entire Qin dynasty. The Zhang family was appointed to watch the zhan forest range for potential demonic beast attacks or other foreign entities. But as far as battle strength goes; we are the tip of the iceberg, the weakest of the aristocrats. As one goes further into the empire, cultivators slowly get more powerful. Do you understand? ¡° ¡°I do father¡±, she replied quickly; ¡°but how does one get stronger; how do people practice, how do people use qi to fight?¡± Yu Gan, stopped and fell silent for a full minute; thinking how to answer it simply. ¡°People practice cultivation; by using martial arts and breathing techniques to slowly absorb qi and move it around the body through the meridian pathway; eventually after one reaches the pinnacle of the Qi gathering stage, they would be able to find a technique that enables them to unearth their dantian. However just to get that stage requires decades of practice. Tell me Yu Jiao; how old do I seem to you? ¡° He asked with a somewhat amused face Yu Jiao¡¯s eyebrows raised as she played her part as a child. ¡°Father seems young, no older than 28¡± she replied after serious thought. ¡°Pahahaha, oh little one; if I were still that young with my cultivation at the 4th stage of Qi gathering, I¡¯d be in a cultivation sect. Although cultivation allows us a longer lifespan, I am still considered a touch too old for the sects at age 52.¡± He burst into laughter before explaining with a smile. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Watching Yu Jiao¡¯s facial expression caused Yu Gan to burst into once more when he revealed his age. ¡°Ahaha; but in response to your last question; human¡¯s use their spirit as a way to express their will so that qi will move. By moving the Qi through different meridians, and then expelling or containing the qi in their body¡¯s acupoints and finally combining it with their will they are able to form endless different types of martial arts and techniques. Many martial arts are based on the characteristics of the five elements: Fire, water, wood, earth and metal. However a martial artist must learn a suitable cultivation technique of that element to then use martial arts that are based on that element.¡± Yu Gan explained without stopping, he wore a stern face befitting a teacher. ¡°But father, what about the other forces of nature - like the wind, thunder or even light?¡± Yu Jiao¡¯s questions went on and on. He mentioned the cultivation stages of body strengthening, qi infusion, qi gathering and dantian excavation. Her questions seeming endless until she finally asked her final 2 questions: ¡°What is qi? what is the spirit?¡± Yu Gan looked helpless and ragged at this point; they had been sat their for a few hours; many practitioners had come and gone by this point. Yu Gan sighed exasperatedly, ¡°I don¡¯t know. The truth is no one really knows what qi is, or where it came from, or what it does naturally or why its even here. We don¡¯t know why we can exert our will through our spirits to move it at all. As for the spirit, we have a more rough idea. The spirit is a bestowal by the heavens when a life form has ascended beyond following its instinct and think properly. Humans and few other races like the fairy race or born with this; however demon beasts must undertake heaven¡¯s judgement after growing and expanding their own mind.¡± ¡°So then-¡± ¡°Enough, Jiao¡¯er you are the most eager child I have ever met when it comes to cultivation. You don¡¯t ask for stories about great legends; but much more complicated questions. Maybe one day if you ever reach that height, you can come back and teach me¡± Yu Gan interrupted suddenly despite only appearing in his mid twenties - to him a child¡¯s curiosity seemed endless. Yu gan passed her a large beast skin book held from within his robes and gave it to her whilst withholding the urge to chuckle at how the entire book was nearly as big as her chest., ¡°Here, This is one of the basic martial arts for those at the body strengthening stage, Flowing Storm Fist.¡± Yu Jiao happily received the book with a glint in her eyes. Skimming through the pages within a few seconds, she then mentally ordered ¡°Jason scan the movements described here, analyse the required muscle movements and write these as new muscle memories¡±. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am¡±, Jason responded in a monotone fashion. ¡°I want you to practice this early everyday when the light emerges until midday. In the Yu clan, you are allowed to begin cultivation at qi infusion after you successfully sense qi and can lift at least 100 jin with your own strength.¡± Yu gan instructed sternly. ¡°I understand father, I shall practice as the sun rises.¡± Yu Jiao replied seriously; yet inside she was shocked. To request a child to be able to lift a weight of 50kg before even learning how to cultivate qi? How do these arts enable such strength progress!? Even now she saw flashes in the corner of her eyes as Jason broke down each stance and movement of the Flowing Storm Fist. Yu Gan looked confused towards his daughter, he waited a few moments to confirm that she hadn¡¯t made a mistake before asking ¡°Jiao¡¯er, what do you mean by the sun rising? What is this sun you mentioned?¡± Yu Jiao¡¯s face twisted in confusion and alarm as she quickly looked up towards the sky. It was a clear day in the middle afternoon. There was light, there was wind, the sky was blue, there was gravity. But there was no sun, there wasn¡¯t a moon either. Jade cursed internally. ¡°Oh shit. I¡¯m really going to have to start from scratch again.¡± Chapter 6: Pawns and Books. As the morning light arrived, a small figure could be seen shadow boxing inside the Yu Clan¡¯s training fields. The field was nearly empty, with only a few diligent individuals choosing to awaken so early for morning practice. Yu Jiao was naturally among them. It had been 1 whole year since Yu Gan had first introduced her to cultivation practices. Within this time she had kept up appearances for the sake of being inconspicuous - presenting herself as slowly learning the forms of the Flowing Storm Fist; despite Jason having them completed as muscle memory within the hour she got it. As the saying goes - when in Rome, do as the Romans do. If she were to stand out then there would be way too many difficult questions. However throughout this year, she had found a new way to occupy some of her time. After practice until the peak of light, she would dash down to the kitchens. She was well known even in the family as a bit of a glutton. Even compared to Earth people in this world consume far more food - yet Yu Jiao was a complete mystery - at the age of 3 she could out eat a fully grown man. However there was a reason to this madness - having a stronger body means much higher energy expenditure - the capacity and activity of her mind was hundreds of times stronger than a regular human, and despite her and Jason¡¯s best attempts at energy efficiency - it still needed a lot of power. As Yu Jiao left the kitchens, she carried two large baskets in each arm and ran to a quiet peaceful and ancient looking pavilion, a large sign above the gate read ¡°Martial Hall¡±. She came up to the main doors and knocked loudly calling ¡°Big Uncle M¨ªngzh¨¬, I brought lunch; I want to play our game. After a few seconds the door opened, a white haired wrinkled old man emerged holding an ancient looking walking stick; his face showing a gentle smile. ¡°Ahhh, Jiao¡¯er, this old man had thought you had forgotten our rematch!¡± Yu Jiao wrinkled her eyebrows and pouted like a child ¡°I won¡¯t lose again Big Uncle, and if I win you have to let me see one book.¡± ¡°Wahaha, you sly child, buttering up your Big Uncle so you can see more martial arts manuals. Have you sensed Qi yet? If not then I¡¯m afraid these books would be useless to you.¡± He chuckled and teased. Yu Jiao¡¯s visits were always pleasant, after all what old man did not enjoy the company of his younger generations. Yu Jiao continued to play the child and sulked ¡°I haven¡¯t Big Uncle, I don¡¯t understand how to sense Qi, it¡¯s so hard!¡± It was true; Yu Jiao really hadn¡¯t been able to sense Qi at all. She could only see Qi during events that showed martial artists sparring or practicing. However through her attempts at meditation she had never been able to sense the qi in the surroundings in a normal setting. Jason¡¯s attempts at hypothesizing reasons how or why similarly bore no fruit. ¡°Big Uncle I want to play our game again!¡± Yu Jiao said amidst her play sulking. Playing the child was only as a means to play to Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬¡¯s needs. His job guarding the Martial Hall - the storage place of all the martial arts known to the Yu Clan, was quite boring; until peak seasons when new members of the generations would stop by, there was very little to do other than drink wine and play games; he was quite lonely, and had no children himself. At Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬¡¯s age, there was very little hope of further progression with his current cultivation techniques; however he should not be underestimated. This old man was one of the great elder¡¯s in the Yu Clan standing at the peak of Qi Gathering, If it weren¡¯t for the fact further techniques were guarded by higher organisations then Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ might have been even stronger. As the kind elder brought Yu Jiao in and seated her opposite him at a table with a chessboard on it, Yu Jiao was reminded to beconstantly vigilant. The very fact that the rules and layout of chess were the exact same as Earth meant that either transport between this world and hers was possible - or that information could be stored in souls after death. Similarly it showed that there was an opportunity that death was not the oblivion that Earth had previously thought it was. If she could retain her memories, then others may be able to as well. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. If there¡¯s different worlds with systems of qi as physics laws in this world; then what else is out there in this universe. Is this the only universe? Could there be more? These questions were too big for her now. But she yearned to learn; and for now this world was still heaping with mysteries and unknowns awaiting to be solved. Hours went by as Yu Jiao and Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ played the time away; Yu Jiao played the tenacious loser, always wanting a rematch, amusing the old man. Mid-game Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ asked Yu Jiao ¡°Tell me Jiao¡¯er, what do you think of this proposed marriage between you and the City lord¡¯s fourth son Zhang Fu¡±. Yu Jiao continued with her young facade; ¡°I want to be the strongest cultivator! I don¡¯t need a stupid boy with me, especially if he doesn¡¯t help me. Besides I don¡¯t even know him, he¡¯s barely a year older than me!¡± ¡°But marriage into the Zhang family would be good to get stronger wouldn¡¯t it? Zhang family is a Baron family supported by the Qin dynasty; if the Zhang family makes contributions or donations they can trade for items within the entire Qin dynasty storage, including martial arts! Marrying into higher nobility isn¡¯t a bad idea if you want to be strong. Yu Jiao¡¯s eyes widened, however on the inside she was sniggering knowingly -This so called Zhang Fu would be a small stepping stone, but she had no access to him. Right now what she needed was contact between her and this Zhang Fu, Children were perfectly mouldable through conditioning if you start young. ¡°Mmmm, Jiao¡¯er will think about it Big Uncle, but Big Uncle should pay attention to the game - Checkmate!¡± Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ started, then focused his eyes back on the board; unknowingly to his eyes she had been improving rapidly; yet inwardly she was sneering. ¡°It¡¯s about time, I¡¯ve been patient enough to just be considered a clever child, not a freak but playing a game I¡¯ve already solved is just so boring.¡± she thought inwardly, but now it was time for her to reap the rewards of her patience. Yu Jiao stood up in her chair and held up one childlike finger ¡°as promise Big Uncle M¨ªngzh¨¬, I can read one book¡±. Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ sad back in his chair in mild shock, until he sighed, stood up and brought out a key from his robes and escorted her through the large doors ahead. The Martial Hall looked extremely large from the outside, however the higher floors with the better martial arts were noticeably smaller, the reason for the space was for allocated meditation rooms as well as stations for copying or techniques. It was extremely rare for a book to even be let outside the walls. If one looked at the doors and walls closely, they would be able to see varying small shimmering lights that seemed like they were alive. These lights were the warning inscriptions and runes that Yu Gan himself had placed down as a contribution to the security of the martial hall. Other families had similar security, but they had to hire other inscriptionists or Yu Gan himself for a high price to similarly safeguard their precious resources. The inscriptionist betrayal was a risk that these families simply had to live with; not to mention each ancestor of the balancing power families (Quan, Xie, Yu and Zhang had strength far exceeding the inscriptionists - retaliation would not be survivable. As Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ guided Yu Jiao through the book cases he asked ¡°Jiao¡¯er, you haven¡¯t gone through your awakening ceremony yet have you? ¡°No Big Uncle, what does the awakening ceremony do?¡± ¡°The awakening ceremony is done to aid you in your initial circulation of qi in your body. An elder level figure, traditionally one of your parents would inject their qi into your body all the way up until they reached your soul. Normally someone would find it very difficult to channel their qi so the stronger qi helps in paving the pathway of meridians through your body. Furthermore this ceremony helps in showing one¡¯s talent and also the nature of their spirit root. To show which of the five phases you are most suited for.¡± Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ explained very slowly as they walked. ¡°Since you don¡¯t know what spirit root you have, or what element you have an affinity for, then for your book I would advise you to go for something simple. Something that¡¯s neutral across the phases.¡± ¡°I see Big Uncle; Yu Jiao will pick something simple¡± She played off a childishly sweet smile. However inside she was worried. Her body was one of her biggest secrets; she knew she still didn¡¯t have enough data concerning the power of qi and spirit to be able to deceive someone far stronger than she was. Right now she had little data to go on; her traditional deductions and hypothesis seemed completely mute on this topic. She was truly fumbling in the dark. Plus there was the issue of that huge grey blue fish sat there inside her soul. If the family found that out then there would be a huge problem - Yu Jiao had subtly sneaked into the normal library and absorbed everything in there. She had no records of someone having a monstrous beast in their soul space. Let alone a big blue fish. Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ interrupted her panicked thoughts ¡°Oh and Jiao¡¯er, one last thing.¡± ¡°What is it big Uncle?¡± she asked innocently, hiding her inner chaos. ¡°No telling your mother or clan leader about you seeing these books, they¡¯ll just be our little secret ok?¡± ¡°Yes Big Uncle M¨ªngzh¨¬, I won¡¯t tell anyone¡± Yu Jiao answered back with an innocent smile. Chapter 7: It is Swimming Later that Evening, Yu Jiao ran back for dinner, making another stop off at the kitchens before she arrived. Some servants questioned why Yu Jiao would come here so much and a few even started gossiping that she would come down for extra food. However Yu Jiao had the filial daughter role to play when it came to her mother. It had been 3 years since Yu Xue had given birth to her - of which Yu Jiao had effectively brought her death forward 100 years. When the servants found out that Yu Jiao was taking certain foods from the kitchens, as well as constantly asking for more medicinal plants and herbs; they were all truly touched. Yu Jiao however saw a free specimen to use as a guinea pig. The awakening ceremony had reminded her that due to her interference, her body was fundamentally different from the others and if she did nothing this would soon be uncovered. Thus she needed data about regular bodies from this world. She started with the common foods, different beast meats and medicinal herbs, testing them herself and having jason record the results; then whilst her mother had fallen asleep (with her own mix of sleeping medicine) forced small portions down her throat and finally slipped an acupuncture needle into her brain to use as a conduit to intercept her mother¡¯s electrical signals in her brain. It was as harmless as she could make it - after all, if her mother died early then Yu Gan would be crushed and things would be more difficult. He might even start to (rightfully) blame Yu Jiao. In return for her mother¡¯s silent contribution, Yu Jiao had stimulated the production of a few select proteins that allows prolonged cell division - if Lady Lie were to check Yu Xue again, she would find her ¡°longevity¡± to be strong enough to last a further 4-5 years. Of course this wasn¡¯t giving further life to Yu Xue, at best it could be termed as moving around resources to be more efficient. As wondrous as the natural body is; it¡¯s far from perfect. In return Yu Jiao gained a vast amount of knowledge as to the body of a normal human practitioner and how it reacts to most foods and common medicinal plants. This data was gratefully stored away for future use. As soon as she had run out of ingredients, Yu Jiao nonchalantly pulled out her acupuncture needle from her mother¡¯s skull and withdrew from the room quietly bringing away the trays of food and boxes of herbs. Once she returned the leftovers to the kitchen and stowed her equipment away in her room. She sat on the bed and continued conversing with Jason about their recent gains of knowledge. The medicines she had tried and tested could be called similar if not stronger versions compared to the pharmaceuticals found on earth. However their medicinal strength was slightly stronger than she had expected - considering their deduced composition. Again she assumed this difference to be due to the Qi environment. She shuddered to consider the strength of a strong poisonous herb here, or even a demonic beast¡¯s venom. It seemed like Qi would just affect everything in this world. The sooner she could deduce the fundamental truths of qi; the better. Of course right now this would be akin to Socrates explaining dark matter. Thankfully the intricacies of the human body were by in large similar to earth, they had the same major organs, similar bone and muscle structures etc. and Yu Jiao with the aid of Jason calculated that changes could be made internally within the week available to her until the ceremony. Six days later. A large banquet was in progress for the awakening ceremony. Servants walked around holding large trays of food and carrying large gourds of wine. The entire Yu Clan had always come together once every few years to celebrate this event. It signalled the beginning of a new part of the younger generation taking their first steps into cultivation. This time four children would be undergoing their ceremony, of which they were allowed to sit upfront in the banquet alongside their Elder level parents. This was the day when they would truly be honoured as children of the Yu Clan. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Their age ranged from the youngest Yu Jiao at three years old; with the oldest being six, and most notably the six year old, Yu Gang, had sensed Qi a year before. Yu Gang even as a child was strongly built. Yu Jiao frequently saw him appear for morning practice, alongside the stern shouts of his grandfather the High Elder Yu Dong. Yu Gang himself wasn¡¯t arrogant to the other children - he had tried that once and had received smooth and brutal discipline from his grandfather. High Elder Yu Dong was a proud and loyal man. He turned down being appointed to the Patriarch of his generation and in return backed the current patriarch loyally. It was rumoured among the servants that both had been sent off by the ancestor to partake in an island siege ordered by officials of the Qin dynasty. They and 300 men had been dropped off on an island fully taken over by bandits and pirates. 20 men returned with their armor permanently red, as well as a sack each. Each one filled with heads of the bandits 3 days later. Yu Dong kept the armor as a trophy. The other 2 children Yu Heng and Yu Guo were twins.They were typical arrogant and ill disciplined brats. They would mistreat the servants and look down upon the common populace of Blue Cloud City. Yu Jiao was secretly appalled by the quality of parenting. A Gong sounded out among the festivities before Great Elder Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ stood up from one of three chairs sat at the head table. He proceeded towards the stage where his voice resounded across the courtyard ¡°Will the selected children alongside their selected elder please come up to the stage so we can begin the testing.¡± Yu Gan held Yu Jiao¡¯s hand as four pairs walked up to the stage and stood in front of the Grand Elder. Each Elder was given an orb of which the children had to place their hand on top of. ¡°We will proceed from oldest to youngest, if you are able to sense Qi already, then you must do your best to empty your mind and not manipulate it during this process. Does everyone understand?¡± The four elders and four children nodded sternly. Even the children could sense the gravity of the current situation and stood perfectly still. ¡°Elder Yu Dong, please begin!¡± Both Elder and grandchild stood with their eyes closed, Yu Dong¡¯s one hand holding the bottom of the orb, with his other holding down his grandson¡¯s hand on top of the orb. 20 seconds passed before the sphere started to glow a bright Earthy yellow before both Yu Dong and Yu Gang both opened their eyes and stared at the orb in their hands before giving off broad smiles. The grand Elder declared ¡°A grade 8 Earth Spirit root - genius level talent.¡± Everyone below started cheering. Once Elder Dong and Yu Gang descended the stage and back to their seats, many people came up to give their congratulations. For many it was worth investing kind words and gifts in order to get into the good backs of a future genius. Good relations with those in power or future powers was one of the few things a group could rely on in hard times. Yu Jiao tapped her father and whispered to him ¡°father, what are the talent grades? How are they measured?¡± ¡°Everyone who can cultivate martial arts will have an innate spirit root with characteristics of the 5 phases. Rarely someone will have a mutated root that has an added characteristic like ice in a Water spirit root.¡± ¡°And the grades?¡± ¡°Spirit roots are rated from 1 to 10 on their compatibility with the five elements. Your cousin Yu Gang has huge compatibility with the Earth element of the five phases - thus his root is classed as grade 8. However there hasn¡¯t been anyone in Blue Cloud city that is known to have a grade 10 spirit root.¡± As Yu Gan explained all this to Yu Jiao the twins Yu Guo and Yu Heng had finished their assessements. Yu Heng had a grade 6 water spirit root and his twin Yu Guo had a grade 6 Earth spirit root - much to the amusement of their parents. ¡°Yu Gan and Yu Jiao, please step forward¡±. Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬ announced loudly. Both father and daughter stepped forward and placed their hands on the now transparent orb and closed their eyes ¡°Unknown energy detected invading the body, I am unable to block this invasion.¡± Jason¡¯s alert sounded out in Yu Jiao¡¯s mind. She braced herself before relaxing and letting Yu Gan¡¯s Qi flow through her meridians and up to her soul. ¡°ROOOOAARRRR.¡± The Fish-like creature residing in her mind roared out - causing her mind to reel in pain. She heard her father¡¯s urgent voice in her ears ¡°exert your will, think of the qi being pushed out from the depths of your soul!¡± Yu Jiao ignoring the pain, did as she was told and soon the orb started to glow brightly. One could see two colours - A grey silver and streaks of red thunder. Upon seeing the unusual colours, Yu M¨ªngzh¨¬¡¯s eyes squinted in thought before announcing: ¡°grade 8 metal spirit root, grade 7 Fire mutated spirit root of thunder!¡± Cheers roared out below amongst the many members of the clan ceremony; some guests even stood up to come and greet the newly announced genius. Yu Jiao¡¯s mind was still reeling from the creature¡¯s roar as it continued ringing out without pause. The shining orb in her hand began to shake and soon; KACHA, the orb burst into fragments much to the shock of the onlookers. A white light flashed out from Yu Jiao¡¯s head before revealing what was in side. That same horrifying creature had shrunk down to an arms length and a naive look in its eyes. Yu Jiao breathed a sigh of relief as the pain stopped, she looked beside her at the fish that had seemingly come out from her mind. Yu Jiao¡¯s facial expression turned to that of utter bewilderment, her mouth agape. This small fish from her mind; it was floating in the air. It¡¯s fins began to move slowly. It started swimming.