New insight

I spent some a few minutes taking in his words. It was as clear as day how serious he was, I could see the fear in his eyes as he told me to run away from the Murim. I contemplated his words trying to override my obvious desire to escape my mundane life. But the allure of a secret society was far too strong, far too alluring to me.

"It's already too late for me to turn back" I whispered softly. I knew I was lying to him and myself, but I just wanted to take a peek into this foreign world. "and it's not like it's really strange I mean people go to war-torn countries all the time for strange and weird reasons and no one bats an eye… this is the same" I thought while staring at the doctor who had his head tilted down as though contemplating what to do next.

"what do you mean its… too late?".

His face was filled with fear and concern, is this truly a man of the murim" I thought while staring at his pale face, and eyes that looked to be watering. As I was looking at him, I finally managed to look at his name tag.

"Your name is Charles P. Arthur…. Its nice to meet you I'm Alexander."

"ha sorry, Alexander how rude of me. I'm Charles a doctor here and..."

"Are you a man of the murim" I shouted not allowing him to finish what he was saying. He gave me a look of concern and slight fear. His brow scrunched together, his face grew less fierce every second.

"Honestly what's with this guy?" I wondered while staring at the man who looked to be nearing tears.

"umm, Charles?"

"(sigh)… no, I'm not a member of the murim. If I had to describe it. A person like me would be described as…. Just existing near the Murim and not apart of it. if that makes sense to you"

"It kind of does but then what do you do? Like are you just the grunt of the litter or something…."

"HAHA wow umm no I'm not like you would describe as the "grunt of the litter" I'm far, far below such a person. People like myself are associated with the murim simply because we have qi. we don't fall in line with any clan or organization, we as I said just associate with a certain clan or organization for protection or in most cases for the simple right to exist."

"For the right to exist? Umm, what do you mean?"

"It's like this every faction/organization/clan of the murim has a territory that they control and in that territory they manage all the qi users choosing who stays and who leaves, no it's not something you can refuse to be apart of. It's like being ruled over by a monarchy or a king if you're dealing with a clan and you become a subject of that ruling body. any attempts at rebelling and you'll be killed. Enough with the history lesson tell me about your situation."

As he spoke everything became crystal clear to me, those people weren't attacking me for no reason. It seems like I was in there territory and they wanted to check me out. After some time to think I decided to tell Charles about my situation, leaving out no details. Though I didn't tell him about my qi ability. I did tell him about the means at which the three people attacked me etc.

"It's not a terrible situation all things considered but it's not great either. You're in the observation stage and with this particular clan… I don't know exactly how long their observation stage last"

It was obvious he wasn't entirely talking to me as he placed his hand on his chin and began thinking about something. I interrupted asking

"What is the observation stage, does it mean I'm in danger?"

My question broke his train of thought as he turned around and looked at me.

"Yes and no. the observation stage is just that observation they'll be watching your every movement and deciding whether or not you're a danger to them or their allies. If they deem you a threat then sorry but there's nothing you could do, whether it's an accident, poisoning or just outright killing you. They will do whatever they can do get rid of you"

"What clan is it? how can I plead my case? Tell them I didn't know anything. Please tell me" this was a first since I awaken my qi I haven't been the type to panic at all or really feel much. But as he spoke it was as though I knew just how dangerous this organization was. "Charles has been through this and from the look on his face it's a terrifying process"

"Look ill talk to some people and attempt to reach out to them. As for the clan they're known as the Crescent Mood clan, I don't know how to describe them. Some say their assassins' others say they're just businessmen who deal in death and sell things in the murim. But I haven't asked around about them. All I was told was to stay out of longshore."

I had to take a few minutes to process the whole thing, assassins what the hell.

"What should I do"

"Nothing do absolutely nothing do not in any way try to engage with them or plead your case yourself. The reason for the observation stage is to place you in one of two categories, the first being just a person who had parents that processed qi like me. Or a person affiliated with an enemy clan/faction/organization. If they deem, you the latter then sorry but your dead"

It took me some time to process the whole thing. During this time Charles had walked over to the window, it was clear that this was tough for him as well.

"Shit just waiting is not going to cut it for me. I'm not some damsel that can be pick whenever they want. Stop messing around. Be straight with me I know there has to be a way to quicken the rate at which I pass the observation stage."

Charles had turned around abruptly staring at me as though he finally found what he was looking In my eyes. A frown could be seen on his face. He gave a large sigh then turned around continuing to stare out the window. Looking at the many apartment buildings and endless rows of cars outside the hospital. He finally turned around and asked.

"How long have you known you had qi for?"

It was a weird question at first but then I remembered that I didn't tell him about my qi or how long I've been practicing.

"Its been a few days maybe three since I've awoken qi. But I been meaning to ask what stage are you in?"

I said with a smile on my face. Practically just remembering why I wanted to talk to him in the first place. if this guy is a manipulator then I can ask for some tips or maybe even a book about manipulation.

He gave me a slight smile that then turned into a full-scale laugh, he caught himself shortly after and just stared at me as though he didn't know what he was looking at but I could sense a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

"What do you not want to tell me what stage you're in?. I mean you don't have to. I was just curious"

He finally broke his long eye contact by getting himself a glass of water from the fridge in the corner of the room. The room was plane looking it had a few motivational posters up but other than that I looked like the standard medical room, with cabinets out on the wall and the standard dentist looking chair.

"Look kid I don't know if your telling the truth about just awakening your qi a few days ago but if you did then you must be special. As for the question about what stage I'm in, I don't know what you mean"

"What doesn't everyone have to go through the qi sensing then core creation stage?"

I wasn't even concerned about much anymore I knew I needed as much information as possible and well I had to swallow up my pride and begin asking every question that came to my mind.

"This confirms it then you weren't born with qi were you kid"

Born with qi what the hell, the book didn't say a thing about being born with qi. wait then was it only talking to people who weren't lucky enough to be born with qi? shit. Then qi is like a gene that gets passed along to descendants. That means the Murim is most likely filled with people who were born with qi. will I also be an outsider in the place I've so desperately want to join.

"People are born with qi? could you explain more"

"(sigh) yes a vast majority of people who are in the Murim are born with qi, it passed down from parent to child, like hair, and eye color. that's how they form clans. It's a coalition of people who only marry others with qi. the reason for this at least from I can tell is because qi dwindles in a family's lineage very quickly. A person like you who has awakened your qi through whatever means would be considered a new bloodline. Its nearly impossible to do this but If you're telling the truth it's possible, I guess. And before you ask people like me have a past relative who possessed qi or a parent and well... Because of that qi lives in our blood. And because we weren't born into any clan or organization we don't have very strong ties with the Murim."

"What the hell if its all just family then how big could the Murim really be?" I thought while staring at Charles, this was more than I ever hoped to learn from someone with such a tiny amount of qi in his body.

"And what about what the stage of qi you possess"

"Look Alexander I have no clue what you mean by qi stage. If you explain it to me I may be able to help you out."

"I read this book that talked about the different stages of a martial artist, it said that qi could be split into four categories qi molding, qi manipulation, qi transformation, and qi conjuration. So I was wonder what stage you were in. it alright if you don't want to answer. I was curious"

"It seems there are still lots of people pushing those bullshit "stages" as you would call them. To make a long answer short I'm not in any of those "stages". I can't do any of what you listed, the person who coined the term "stages" was an obvious supremacist who belied that the ancient qi user's way of using qi was the best and only way to properly use qi."

Oh, come on this Is too much what does he mean there are other means of using qi? ancient qi users? What's going on? He must have been able to see the confused look on my face because he promptly got up a walked over to the flower on the windowsill. He picked it up and walked over to me.

"Look kid I need to know you won't go run your mouth telling people about this but what I'm going to show you is what my master taught me long ago, it's the means to which a qi user can help the world around him. Qi doesn't have to be used for violence which is practically what the stages recommend. I won't lie to you and say that the stages are untrue only that they don't fully encapsulate what qi can be used for. Now pay attention kid, to this cause its going to be something truly magical"