Chapter 151 – Discovery
“We are going to fight,” Quillian repeated, already standing and gathering his things.
“Right now?” Siu asked, a bit taken aback.
“No, next century, boy. I thought we would both take a nap first and wait for your affinity to mature on its own.” Quillian shoved the new notebook under one arm and grabbed his cane. “Yes, now. Get a move on!”
“I thought we had inventory to do.” Siu continued, also standing up.
“I am the inventory! No, wait. You are. So, we will do you!”
“That does not sound correct...”
"It is," Arya offered, quickly eating the rest of the food while Marly kept stuffing things into her mouth in a hurry, "But I would prefer if we do you, Master, and not an old man. That's just weird."
"Oi!" By then, Quillian opened the door and stepped out into the Cultivation Archives and snapped his fingers toward a servant who was just going by the door. “Halven!”
“Yes, Senior?”
“I am leaving the floor, you take over for today! And for tomorrow!”
"Eh?!" Halven went pale at once, “Leaving, Senior? Right now? In the middle of inventory?!”
“You heard me, yes, I'm leaving now because something came up. You are in charge until I return. And..." He stopped, throwing him a look over his glasses, "If anyone misplaces any set, while I'm not here, I will know. If Pellan sends anyone up here asking after me... Just tell them I died.”
“Ahm... Ah..." The man named Halven stuttered, suddenly feeling something was very wrong, but was afraid to ask what or why, "Yes, Senior."
“Nera!”
A woman near the far row straightened so quickly when Quillian's voice reached her, once again, defeating the library's muffling systems.
“Yes, Senior?”
“You are second-in-charge. If Halven screws up, take over.”
“Yes, Senior!”
It was easy to tell that, despite the other servants working under Quillian, they had their own little rivalries, fighting for positions within the pecking order. Siu couldn't give more thought to it, though, as he had to hurry after him, as the old man was dictating a very quick and hurried tempo.
“Where are we going?” Siu asked after they left the fourth floor, took an outside platform to go down, and were walking on the Public Road ten minutes later.
“We will take one of the private fields.” Quillian began as they followed the signs pointing to animal statues at a crossroad, veering off the main street. “There are practice rooms beneath, above, beside, and inside half the sect if you know where to look, and the one we are going to take is the type that peak, First Circle discipels use.”
It reminded Siu of when Seloryn took him to her own such place, especially after they took a passage through a side gate and entered a small courtyard tucked between three stone buildings. The sun was fully up now, even over its zenith, illuminating the entire, barren courtyard. The floor was gray, made of stone, and he could see where it was marked by formations, reinforcing it. When Siu stepped inside, the floor softened beneath his shoes, almost like it was testing his weight, then hardened again, and the runes here and there blinked a few times before going dormant. After Quillian sealed the entrance behind them, lines of gold and blue light ran across the open air above them, creating an invisible ceiling, before the colored lights descended along the walls, disappearing into the floor, cutting off any outside noise.
"I don't even want to know how expensive it is to rent a place like this."
"Depends on how long you've been here." Quillian smiled, saying no more. Instead, he began removing his outer robe.
"..." Siu stiffened, but mostly because of what Arya had just yelped out within his mind, “Senior?”
“What? Did you think I was fighting in my robes? I'm old, boy, I can't move that fluently within them like when I was at your age...”
In the end, Quillian placed it beside his cane along with all the knick-knacks he was usually carrying, including one of the two glasses he had on his nose. Beneath it all, he wore a sleeveless inner vest and battle-wrapping trousers. When he was freed of all the useless garbs, he breathed in, and it was like a whale inhaling; it made Siu's body run cold for a moment.
The old man's bent back straightened, adubly cracking as he aligned his vertebrae by vertebrae. His chest began swelling as he breathed, and the muscles that had looked shrunken and old suddenly filled up, expanding as his arms thickened. A moment later, his limbs finally looked like actual limbs, and he no longer looked like a hunched old man; he was once again a proper cultivator. Smiling, he tied his hair up before stroking his long beard, tucking it into his belt.
“Much better.” He chuckled, exhaling, and his aura washed over the room, making the formations light up, resisting it, containing it to the arena itself. "It has been a long time since I used my entire cultivation, or... What is left of it..." A thread of red-orange essence appeared around Quillian’s right hand, swirling and then sparking and popping like a miniature firework.
"..." Siu's eyes were already seriously locked onto it, his own affinity beginning to stir at once, mostly because he was feeling threatened by their difference in strength. It wasn't at the level Elder Thane felt like, but it was above Seloryn, Titus, the Icecrown Stag, or any of them combined.
“My affinity is fire,” Quillian explained, and Siu nodded slowly because he already felt that part.
"Yes, I guessed."
"But that means nothing much, does it?" He continued, "Can you feel it? I mean, feel like starting to copy it?"
"I only feel the type, I don't think I have copied it yet," Siu answered, raising his own hand while Arya and Marly hopped off him to not interfere with their master's thoughts. "I just know it's fire, but it's not there yet."
"Understandable," Quillian nodded, "There are vast differences between fire-based affinities, my boy. We will note this down because it just proves that you can't copy in a broad sense; you need a narrower sample. Which makes it even better, because then you will wield it much more efficently than just copying a diluted, weak form. Keep watching, and then tell me what you feel!"
The red-orange essence gathered again around his raised hand. As it coalesced, instead of becoming the steady flame Siu had expected, it pulsed, then he saw it compress and snap outward in a brief flash that made the air thunder as an explosion happened between the two of them.
"Senior," Siu began speaking at once, "I felt it heat up in a flash, while also compressing. I felt how you draw in essence, both from the air and your body, pushing the two together, smushing them to a point where they became hard to control and then let them... explode back out."
"Very good!" Quillian laughed, his eyes flashing, his smile reaching both his ears, "Damn. This is... Your senses are sharper than any sensory-based affinity I know of! Ahahaha! You are right." He explained with great enthusiasm, “My variant relies on explosive releases,” Quillian said. “My version of fire is not the long whips of orange flames or roaring fire dragons that so many like to produce. I deal in quick bursts, and my attacks are usually long-range variants, as my explosions can be... dangerous, even to me, their creator. Well, they were dangerous, at least when I was at my top form.”
"Senior, sensing your aura right now, I would say, you are pretty much at a top form still." Siu smiled, but Quillian just shrugged, shaking his head.
"No, my boy, I am no longer. I am wilting away. As the years go by, I lose more and more of my cultivation, and one day, it will disappear, and I will die. When I was attempting my breakthrough, this..." He paused, looking at Siu with a forlorn smile, "I was much stronger than this."
And with that, he lifted one foot as a tiny burst flared beneath his heel, and he vanished at once. Siu didn't even see or sense him cross half the chamber, yet Quillian appeared ten steps away, standing lightly on his toes, as if he had not moved at all.
"Did you catch it?" Quillian looked at him, curious. “I tried to do it as slowly as I possibly could.”
“No, I did not.”
"Hmmm." He tilted his head, crossing his arms, stroking his beard, "This means that you have difficulty sensing, and thus later on copying, if there is too big a difference between you and your opponent. I wonder if it makes it easy for you to copy from those who are weaker than you. Oh well... we'll try to test this later. Anyway!" Quillian pointed at him. “Three against one.”
“What is my goal?” Siu asked as Arya and Marly happily jumped forward to stand with him.
“Just touch me. You may use any forms you have learned. Come at me with the intent to kill; otherwise, you won't have a chance.”
Siu took one breath, and Quillian smiled at once, because he sensed the change happening in him, seeing every moment within Siu's body that he used to access his essence. Quillian didn't say anything, but he noticed that Siu's current power was still what he would categorize as beginner-level. Without a proper affinity, it even seemed weaker than how an Inner Disciple should look. Then Siu moved as he opened with the Wild Cat form, linking up with Arya, who also burst forward. While the two attacked, Marly went wide, trying to force Quillian’s attention to split.
As a simple answer, he just snapped his fingers, and three tiny bursts of fireballs flew through the air, bombarding them. One landed in front of Siu’s foot, one beside Arya’s nose, causing her to yelp out, while one exploded above Marly’s tail, shaking her out of balance. It was all it took for Siu’s step to break off while Arya skidded to a halt, snarling and on the verge of a sneeze. At the same time, Marly flipped over herself and landed on all fours, anxiously checking that her tail was on fire or not.
Quillian didn't need to say anything because Siu attacked again, and this time, he used the Snake, taking advantage of Quillian's allowing him to gather his momentum. When he shot out with a loud crack, Arya leaped high, just when Marly flew across her path, using the flying squirrel's back as a launch board to change direction midair.
Quillian’s eyes tracked everything still, and with another crack under his heel, he slid backward without having to move his body as all of them missed and landed where he had been a moment before. Then, just as Siu's fingers clawed through empty air, Quillian's essence cracked again, and he was back before him, tapping his forehead with two fingers, sending him tumbling back. They tried again without saying anything, and in more than ten exchanges, Siu had only a tingling sensation, always missing the old man with his strikes.
Quillian's affinity, even if it was fire, only manifested itself when it was necessary. His control over his own essence was flawless in Siu's eyes, drawing and releasing it just when he needed, giving Siu very little time to catch it and try to mimic it. He suddenly realized that true, proper cultivators, with ample experience and power under their belt, wouldn't waste any movements. He began to realize that he would have to sharpen his senses even more than he thought if he wanted to utilize his own powers. Maybe his affinity realized it too, because he began switching and focusing more on Arya's attacks, the way she was flashing lights at Quillian, trying to distract him, wanting to copy her instead, deeming Quillian too hard a target.
"No." He told himself, "Focus on Quillian."
Reluctantly, he felt Arya's thoughts drift out of his focus as he returned to the old man. He watched as a flash under his foot launched him forward. His palm came toward Siu’s chest, already gathering a new round of spells, probably intending to pop it right before contact and throw him backward with it. That was when Siu inhaled, compressing his own essence, and finally released it with a loud pop of his own. It was pathetic compared to Quillian’s, but it shoved him sideways, and thus, Quillian’s palm missed its target. Before he could celebrate, Quillian caught him by the back of the collar and tossed him upright, then down onto the ground with a laugh.
“You did it!” the old man said immediately, "Your whole being changed! For a moment, I felt like looking at myself when I got into the Inner Disciples!" He yelled, still laughing, looking him over. "I'll be damned... I can sense your affinity, and it is mine... from centuries ago... How the hell can you do that?"
"I don't know," Siu blinked, lying on the floor, “It just... happens, when I feel like I got it.”
"Up, up!" He pulled him back up, "Quickly, attack me with all you got, let me see before it reverts back to normal!"
In their next few exchanges, whenever Siu used one of his forms, at the end of his strikes, being punches, kicks, or countering palm-strikes, there was a loud crack and pop, echoing out as he missed Quillian's body. It lasted exactly until Siu felt his essence being spent completely, and he collapsed, unable to gather any of his strength anymore. Not even Marly or Arya had anything left in them, lying on the stone floor, panting for air.
"Take a little break," Quillian said as he snatched the notebook from his robes, beginning to scribble. "And you can tell me everything you felt while we are at it."
So he did, through great difficulty, as breathing itself felt like a chore. By the time he managed to sit up and not sway, Quillian finished writing, nibbling on the end of his quill.
"Incredible. This also proves that you can control it to some extent. You managed to stay on me and direct its focus. That's a very important part! Then, after the change, what you are describing, the feelings in you, how your body handles essence, is exactly how my cultivation works at its early levels. I wonder if I start teaching you stuff from my young days, could you learn them... we will have to test it. Also, I will bring in someone who has fire affinity and pit them against you. We will tell them you have the same and need a training partner for a brief moment! Then, you can copy their versions and see if you can use my stuff."
"I barely understand Senior's, well, stuff, right now, so I don't know if we should already go that far," Siu muttered, his breathing finally returning to normal.
"We should, because you copied it," Quillian looked at him with shining eyes, "Took some time, yes, and it was amateurish... But it was an identical copy. I know, I trained it for centuries myself! Haaah, boy... You may feel like you barely managed it, but that's not true. You mimicked it to the letter... It was an identical copy."
"Then why doesn't it feel like it?" Siu asked, he himself curious about his own powers. "I felt that it was a weak imitation at best."
"Essence." Quillian said without hesitation, "You need to draw in more, expand your internal storage, and fill it up. You need to repeat that cycle of drawing in and expanding; in short, you need to cultivate. Besides learning, that is what you must do the most. You felt it weak because you couldn't move enough essence to match me at my current level. Naturally, that was impossible, but..." He smiled, slowly closing his book, "You will be able to do it. You will not only be able to do it, but... Do it in a way I never could." He added, almost in a whisper, looking at Siu with eyes that were brighter than anything he had ever seen.