Chapter 53: Wrath of the Plastic Men
Engraving an innate technique turned out to be a very literal experience.
The Third Coil’s changes had been automatic so far, natural. Yuan hardly had to think about them. The mere act of cycling replaced his human flesh with qi-forged steel.
Learning an innate technique meant directing that transformation. Arc had him write sutras onto his nervous circuits first, an act which required him to cycle in a very precise and deliberate way. It hurt too. Each inscription, each word set his neurons ablaze with pain.
“Struggling yet?” Arc asked. Teacher and student meditated face to face in a lotus position, though she mostly cycled to show him how to engrave sutra scripts on his nerves.
The actual words came to Yuan in flashes of inspiration.
“It's hard,” Yuan replied with a grunt as a flash of agony coursed through his spine. “The sutras come on their own, but metal is not paper.”
Yuan couldn't quite explain it. He had been dubious when Arc insisted the correct scripts would come to him during meditation, but they did. Strings of words written in a language he did not recognize flared in his mind when he cycled.
Yuan intuitively understood their meaning. Gun, firearm, gunsmoke, bullet, hell… All the words that could be used to describe his chosen Bullet Hell subpath and resolve.
“Surviving the moonburns cleared your qi circuits of emotional sludge and strengthened your spiritual awareness,” Arc explained. “You are hearing your soul’s whispers and aligning your body with it.”