L.S. Easton
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Chapter 42 - Completion
🕑 Added 2025-01-15 07:00:08 +0000 UTCBack in his room, Kevin cleared his mind and focused on the blank cloth on the desk in front of him.
The flags he’d completed over the last few days had been acceptable, but ‘acceptable’ was no longer good enough. Not if he was serious about impressing an inner sect elder.
No, he needed to do much better than acceptable to achieve that.
Once his mind was empty, he began. As he’d thought the day before, the trick was to go even slower. Every stroke had to be near-perfect; very image an accurate copy of his notes.
Even if it took twice as long to finish each flag, it would be worth it for a quality product.
As the hours slipped by, Kevin’s skill increased with each flag he finished. Before he knew it, three flawless flags sat before him in the fading light.
Each had taken hours to complete yet had succeeded on the first try. Despite the increased time per flag, the lack of failures made his total time investment similar to the day before.
Kevin relaxed back with a satisfied sigh, letting his cramping hand relax. So far, he’d focused a lot on the physical improvements of his advancement while letting the mental improvements slide.
He’d been decent at intensive focus before he’d grown sick, but over time, he’d let the skill fall to the wayside. Now, he had more capability for it than ever before. He just had to push himself to sink deeper into that complete focus.
Was this how advanced cultivators could pull off all those crazy moves? A beyond human level of focus had to be part of it, at least.
Standing, Kevin stretched and carefully massaged the feeling back into his right hand. It was time for dinner; he could finish the last flag of the Energy Attraction formation before bed.
Part of him ached to redo the previous flags with his new skill level, but that wasn’t the smart way to finish a project. No matter how perfect his work was, he’d never impress Elder Fischer with a partially completed project.
It was far better to finish all three and then use any remaining time to redo imperfections.
Dinner was swift, and with neither Amelia nor Brad present, Kevin only waved at a few classmates while scoffing down his meal. On returning, he settled back into a focused state to finish the final flag.
That was two formations down and one left to go.
The Energy Filtering formation was the most complicated. Rather than being a simple process like the Energy Containment or Energy Attraction formations, it had logic built into it.
This logic wasn't quite on the level of a programming language; however, Kevin still likened it to the logic gates he’d studied in college. Such a level of decision-making was necessary for the flag to filter out specific types of Qi.
Like logic gates, it was an if/and/or system that allowed comparison between multiple inputs. A series of these decisions allowed the formation to begin with a wide mixture of Qi and end with a single, desired type.
Since the elder hadn’t specified what he should filter, Kevin chose to focus on Earth Qi. This felt the most natural to him and also had the potential to be helpful in the future.
With a series of Attraction and Filtration formulas, he could, in theory, set up his own cultivation area. It wasn’t something he needed in the sect, but it could be vital if he was ever traveling.
His tattoo might perform a similar service, but he’d seen how much more efficient it was in an area filled with the correct Qi.
That was an idea for the future, however. For now, it was a convenient choice to make creating the flags easier. Another step up in complexity required ever more detailed brushwork so he could use all the help he could get.
Rather than trying to begin the first flag that night, Kevin focused on memorizing the pattern and practicing the symbols. Many of his earliest attempts had failed because he was unfamiliar with the required work, and he didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
Last, he checked up on the free-floating Qi within his body. The remaining Fire and Earth Qi he’d gathered in the Fire courtyard had been floating about in his body all afternoon. However, the new pills were showing their worth, and he’d had no trouble with either during that time.
This was the exact result he’d hoped for, and Kevin experimented a little to see if he could pull even more benefits out of it. Before heading to bed, he drew a tiny amount of Fire Qi into his Sealed land to leave overnight.
If he was lucky, waiting so long would be a way to process the Fire Qi without discomfort. If not, then he had little to lose by trying.
Finally, he drifted off to sleep, happy with the progress he’d made that day.
On Friday, Kevin had no classes until the MAR-101 practical at one P.M., leaving the entire morning free.
The first thing he did after waking was to check in on the Fire Qi he’d pulled into his sealed land the night before. To his disappointment, it was still floating around above his desert-like landscape.
Rather than clumping into burning balls of energy, it had dispersed like a fine cloud. Frowning, he tried pulling in the remaining energy still floating around his body. It wasn’t until he’d almost drained his body of Fire Qi that he saw movement.
As he drew more in, it slowly clumped together. Eventually, it reached a critical mass, where it began burning away. Even then, it was slower than he was used to.
Which made sense since he only had about two-thirds of his usual Qi quantity available.
On a brighter note, the new pills had continued working while he slept. While he couldn’t circumvent the discomfort of using Fire Qi, he could store large amounts of Qi within his body for later use.
This would give him a battery from which to use the spiritual void during the day. Using this method, a single visit to the Fire Courtyard could gather the same amount of Qi as three of his old styles.
Cutting down on travel time would save a significant amount of time, reducing the disadvantage of using the courtyards. Further, spreading the consumption of QI out over the day would allow him to use small increments of otherwise dead time.
While it seemed to require a significant amount of Qi to trigger Fire to generate Earth, pulling smaller quantities in didn’t have a downside. He could simply build up the Qi levels until it was sufficient to trigger a reaction.
Before anything else, Kevin departed for the Fire courtyard to begin his plan. In the interest of safety, he limited himself to double the quantity of QI he’d usually pull in during a cycle.
Since he’d already drained a significant amount into his sealed land, he likely wouldn’t have time for three cycles that day in any case. Without a benefit pushing, it would be best to trial storing a higher amount of Qi instead of going for the maximum on day one.
Then, it was back home to focus on his flags for the Energy Filtering formation. Setting an alarm to ensure he didn’t go over time, Kevin settled back into extreme focus as he worked on one flag after another.
For the first time, he finished the initial flag of a new pattern with no mistakes, showing the benefit of going slow and practicing beforehand.
In total, he finished three of the flags before leaving for MAR-101 while also finding small gaps to pull Qi into his sealed land.
Kevin’s MAR-101 practical was held in Martial Courtyard Eight. His tutor, a taciturn cultivator in his mid-twenties, met him at the entrance before directing him toward one of the empty corners.
Miles Brown, a senior outer sect disciple, seemed to care little for formality. Rather than demanding a title, the muscle-bound man grunted, ‘Miles’ when Kevin asked how he wanted to be referred to.
In their first lesson, Miles took him through the initial footwork and stances for the Sinking sands. That was it; none of the strikes, blocks, or dragging motions so evident in the full style were on display.
“Footwork first,” Miles grunted when Kevin plucked up the courage to ask. “Footwork underlies everything else. We’ll get to the other stuff later.”
Lacking any detailed prior training in Martial Arts, Kevin could only shrug and trust that his tutor knew the best way to teach. And so they practiced, drilling the same half-a-dozen movements over and over again for three hours.
“Practice before you go to bed,” Miles said as their time ended. “Then twice more before next week. Unless,” the man held up a finger, “you feel you’ve lost the correct form.”
“If that happens, stop practicing until we meet again. It will slow your progress, but it’s better than learning bad habits.”
It was the most the man had said during the session, and Kevin nodded in response. Miles’ words mirrored the advice he’d gotten in the theory class about only practicing the correct movements.
Which was no doubt why the man wanted him to practice before bed. It should help cement the correct movements in his mind before he’d had too long to forget them.
Kevin thanked Miles, then returned to his dorm room. After that exhausting three-hour period, he needed a long rest before practicing more.
First, he spent an hour on the spiritual void. It was the first long cultivation period he’d had all day, with his early stints only being a few minutes at a time. Being a mixture of relaxation and productive action, cultivation was the perfect wind-down from physical exercise.
Then, he went straight back to working on formations. With just three flags left on his final formation, Kevin was determined to finish them that day. That would leave him with the entire weekend to redo his initial efforts.
After long hours of further work, he was successful. With the last three flags, he could finally lay all the formations out on his floor.
Though many of his initial flags were mediocre, it still sent a surge of warmth through him to see all the finished products. At first, Kevin had thought he’d barely finish the three formations in time.
Yet now, he’d finished days early. If he could maintain this pace, then there was a real chance he could keep up with Elder Fischer as she blazed through the FORM-101 curriculum.
Perhaps he could even impress her by asking her to go faster. He’d have to think carefully before taking that path, but it was a solid option to move forward. With how hard it looked to get merit, staying in her good books might be his best chance to succeed.
At dinner, he was called over by a couple of his FORM-102 classmates. They spent a pleasant meal discussing the techniques they’d used in the practical; it seemed he wasn’t the only one who’d enjoyed Thresher’s puzzle-based teaching style.
After bidding his classmates goodbye, he spent another hour pulling the rest of his stored Qi into his sealed land. As with the day before, he’d had no trouble holding the increased quantity of Qi within his body for the whole day.
Once again, it seemed his plan would work, and he looked forward to filling his body to the maximum in the morning.
Finally, he drilled the basic footwork of the Sinking Sands as directed by Miles.
He had to admit the man’s teaching style had a point to it; Even hours later, the movements they’d practiced so many times were fresh in his mind. As long as they moved on to new movements each week, Kevin could see himself learning the full style by the end of the class.
With that and his initial success in Qi Shielding, he only needed combat formations to complete his own fighting style.
And with the practical for FORM-115 first thing in the morning, he was about to get the chance to learn.
Comments
Valthonicas
Thanks! I appreciate the correction.
Raymond Mouton
Thanks for the chapter. BTW: This logic was quite on the level => This logic wasn’t quite on the level
