The Art of Sword

After Grandma Yan had gone out for her morning walk, Sunz started exploring her house to get a sense of direction of each room… after 5 minutes, he found and remembered the path of four rooms. His room, living room, kitchen, bathroom. Satisfied with the result, he stopped and went to watch the TV in the living room while eating the snack.

Sunz: So, the show from before was ‘Journey to the West’… Oh! That’s where the Sun Wukong stuff comes from. Didn’t know it was that old, jeez. Well, from the start.

After about two episodes in, Grandma Yan returned from her morning walk and saw Sunz being all comfy on the sofa with the snack.

Sunz: Hi, Grandma.

Yan: Hi to you too. Seems like you are already settling in.

Sunz: I guess so. Can I go home and shower?

Yan: Will that be necessary?

Sunz: Yes? I just finished that hours-long test while moving a lot, so my body is disgusting, and I was also in a coma for two days. So yes, I think it’s necessary for me to clean up my body.

Yan: You are not that dirty. I already cleaned you before you woke up from your two-day coma.

*snap her finger*

Sunz: What are you doing this time with your advanced psychic ability?

A full medium-size spray bottle appears, floating in front of him, then starts spraying mist at him. After getting hit with the first spray, Sunz closes his eyes and takes the spray from the bottle until it stops after spraying a quarter of itself on Sunz.

Yan: All clean and smelling nice.

Sunz opens his eyes: I feel like I did something bad. Did I do something that upset you?

Yan: Don’t say such nonsense.

Sunz sniff himself: It’s… smells nice? *suddenly feeling goosebumps all over his body* that is weird, uggh… Please explain what just happened?

Yan: No need to sound so concerned. All I did was give you a light shower with that perfume bottle. The goosebumps you are feeling are the plant oil erasing all the sweat and grime from your body and clothes.

Sunz: That… is impossible and might I say too magical. “Erasing” the sweat and grime from my body. Odd choice of words.

Yan: Of course it’s an odd choice of words. Normally this should only wash away sweat and grime, but with magical properties it can "Erase" all that dirt.

Sunz: Sure, I guess this random fact shouldn’t be surprising to me anymore.

Yan: There is one fact that should surprise you. The show you’ve been watching, every magical item in there, is all real, while the characters are most certainly fictional.

Sunz: What?... That makes no sense at all.

Yan: Of course it makes no sense at all. Asia is the only region on Earth that contains so much secret and spiritual energy.

Sunz: What are you trying to say?

Yan: Everything you know about China is all surface-level information. While every fiction information about China is real but hidden behind the barrier called “Fiction”.

Sunz: This is such a real headache. Will this affect me at all in the future?

Yan: That, is unknown even to me. Besides, I haven’t been back there in a very long time, so the “Fiction” world development has been quite murky for me, and now… most of the fiction just keeps regurgitating each other, so the validity is questionable.

Sunz: So all you just said is word of mouth, I guess… well, if what you said is true, then nothing will come out of it. They are all mysterious but not that strong, we would be seeing a huge shift in the world if they make a move.

“But what I care most about is. Can I just go home and shower? What you sprayed on me makes me smell really nice, but I don’t trust it at all. I want water flow through my body and new clothes. So Please!”

Yan: You sure have your priorities straight. Ok, I’ll let you go home for 30 minutes, which is convenient for me to set up your next lesson.

Sunz: Will the next lesson be more book or physical?

Yan: Book, of course.

Sunz: Great, that means I don’t have to take another shower. Ok, I'm ready to go.

Yan waves Sunz goodbye and his surroundings immediately shift into his room.

Sunz, all alone in the house: She, is a nice grandma *looking for his new clothes and a towel*. Can’t believe my mom knows her. Well, let’s just hope that nothing bad will happen in the future.

…

…

…

20 minutes later, Sunz finished his shower and put on a simple home outfit, then he shouted in his room: GRANDMA! I’M DONE!

Suddenly he felt a force squeezing and lifting him off the floor, but only for a second before it stopped, and he was thrown on the sofa of Grandma Yan’s living room.

Yan: All fresh up? *constantly disappearing then reappearing in the living room in random spot*

Sunz: Yes *looking at the same living room but now has a photo album on the table*…

“What is this?”

Yan: Have a look yourself. I’m still busy.

Sunz: Ok.*grab the photo album*

Nothing special about this album, just a plain white cover, until he opens it and starts flipping through the pages and sees pictures of many different flowers with a handwritten note next to them.

“Interesting… Chlorogalum, plucked from normal soap plant, and then after being cultivated with magic, its ability to wash away dirt is better than any chemical without harming the body. Note pure magic variant is Unknown.”

Continue to flip through the album and read the note about each flower. Sunz was lost in it until. While reading one of the notes, a miniature version of Grandma Yan appears from inside the page and starts jumping up and down while screaming “SUNZ! SUNZ! UP! UP!”

Looking away from the album, Sunz sees that he is now inside the white void again, then looks back at the miniature of Grandma Yan and sees it walking off the page, then pops into a big cloud of smoke with Grandma Yan appearing out of it.

Yan: Someone is strangely focused.

Sunz closes the album: Ok Grandma. What the hell is your ability, because this is beyond the psychic ability that I know?

Yan: You are in my territory, so my ability has no limit to what I want to do with it.

Sunz: Well, move on then. So, this again. How are we doing it?

Yan sits down on the white void with her legs crossed: Sit down and look for a flower you want.

Sunz sits down on the white void with his legs crossed and starts slowly flipping through the pages of the album while Grandma Yan watches with a smile on her face: What? Why are you smiling at me? Am I going too slow?

Yan: I’m just happy to see you so focused on this.

Sunz: I guess. *go back to the album until* this, Galanthus or snowdrop, by cultivating it with magic during the winter has changed its biology to needing the cold to bloom and the ability to emit extreme cold air in its body to prevent withering while waiting for natural cold to let it bloom. Note 碧血真情七叶花 is a similar variant of this snowdrop after cultivation, but it was born from nature, extremely rare or nonexistent, and was used for medicinal purposes.

“This is the flower I want, but before you do anything. What is the magic mentioned in what I assume is your note?”

Yan: Magic… it has so many interpretations that it becomes polysemous, but let's just say it’s the spiritual energy of nature and the gardener.

Sunz: Ok, got it… but, if I become the gardener, will the result be different from yours?

Yan:…hmmm…hmm…hm!

Sunz: Don’t tell me you have no clue?

Yan: Sorry, it rarely occurs to me that I’m the only person I know that cultivate flower into those in the album. Maybe we should just go back to normal training.

Sunz: No! You just show me this fantastic thing and now trying to take it away from me?

Yan: I’m not taking it away from you. I just realized that what I’m about to teach you might not be that helpful to you at all. *sigh* but if you really want this, then I’ll teach you.

Sunz: Yes! Let’s go!

Yan: By the way, I’m not trying to manipulate you at all. I’m being genuine.

Sunz: Why did you say that? I was not thinking about that.

Yan: Oh, it’s just you’ve been very curious about all this, and you also consume a lot of media, so I thought that you might think this is one of those cliché tropes in those media.

Sunz:… huh, you are correct. I guess I was too lost in this album.

Yan shakes her head lightly: Ohh, my dear boy. Let’s start then and figure out as we go. Lay the album and the page of the flower you want on your lap, then create a dome shape with both of your hands over the picture, then hold it until it touches you.

Sunz performs the action Grandma Yan told him to without asking any questions and closing both of his eyes.

...

...

Right now, all he can see is the black void of his mind and a person in a maid outfit walking around. Then he slowly felt something cold and familiar as she summoned an ice rapier in her hand. The ice rapier was clear and was slowly pulsing red. The maid looked in his direction to reveal she was Grace with red irises, then she threw the rapier in his direction.

When the rapier just slipped out of her hand, it immediately shattered into many fragments, and those fragments turned into rapiers and repeated until there were more than hundreds flying directly at him. Once the front of the ice rapier waves nearly hit his vision directly with a bright red pulse, all of them exploded into smoke that feels extremely cold and quickly dissipates, leaving him feeling like he was being encased in clear ice and seeing Grace Alter through a glass panel.

Grace Alter, standing in what was the black void, is now being covered in ice, everything is ice. But there were some reds scattered across the ice in front of her, on her outfit and her mouth. Then her surroundings exploded into smoke, leaving nothing behind except the black void.

Sunz felt the taste of blood in his mouth after seeing the red on Grace Alter, then he felt pressure on his arms and torso after she disappeared. When his vision looked down, nothing was there, but right after it blinked, Grace Alter was there, hugging him with her arms restraining his arms to his back and burying her face in his chest.

Then he heard loud whispers in his mind.

(HER! HER! NEVER LEAVE! HAPPY! HER! YOU! ME! FOREVER!)

His vision then started to crack like glass, then shatter, and he felt an immense force pulling him and separating him from Grace Alter. As he was being pulled away, he heard cries echo through the void.

COME BACK! DON’T LEAVE! WE ARE ONE! YOU BELONG TO US! HER! FOREVER! PLEASE! HOLD OUR HANDS! HER HANDS!

The further away from her, the voice getting smaller until it was muffled, and his body slammed through the black void wall, into the white void, and into himself sitting in the white void alone with the album and a flower with white outer tepals and green inner tepals wrapping its stem around his hand and finished at his ring finger with itself blooming.

…

…

Sunz then opens his eyes and sees the flower in the picture blooming above his hands with its stem squeezed between his fingers, and he also realizes that both of his hands have gone numb. He removes them from the flower and just laughs it off.

“Seems like I was holding it for a bit too long.”

Look at Grandma Yan and sees that she is somewhat stressed out.

“Are you ok?”

Yan immediately looks up at him once she heard his voice and relaxes a bit: I’m fine. Are you ok?

Sunz is confused about her question, then realizes: Oh yes, I’m fine, I think. My hands are numb from covering the flower too long. Well, way more numb than usual… I think I might need medical attention.

Yan: It's good to hear that you are fine, and I will take care of you in a bit… but was that all you remember?

Sunz: Hmm… yeah. That should be all. I didn’t close my eyes too long, did I? My hands are too numb, so I don’t know if it was too long or the flower was too cold. The cold was as strong as my Wife, but she was able to neutralize it.

*lick his lip and taste blood*

“Wow, strong enough to dry my lip and bleed it. Well, I don’t worry about this too much anyway.”

Yan: I see.

(He doesn’t remember all of that. And the girl that look like his wife but with different color iris, who is she? What does all that mean?)

“At least the flower seems to have taken a liking toward you. But I’ll analyze more after you are taken care of first.”

Sunz: Thank you… I hope it's not frostbite.