13 Reunited

Since the meridian pill required much more qi than the qi replenishing pill, Louis activated the Wind-Water Qi Pocket Array, then started meditating, building up qi in the outer layer of the array rather than allowing the qi to flow into his body. Although Louis had purer qi than normal, increasing efficiency and effectiveness, but ever since he gotten his second element, he effective qi was split into two halves, one for each element. The Wind-Water Qi Pocket Array supplemented his array and allowed him to create a flame, but it's most important function was so he could fully access his qi when he concocted pills.

Thirty minutes passed and Louis had already spent and recovered twenty percent of his qi. Unlike the elemental qi replenishing pills, the meridian pill required ingredients from all four elements. Because of this, there were four initial refinement steps before the final fusion. The resistances of the materials were also much greater since two star ingredients were also used this time, along with one star.

The concocting process went smoothly but the cleansing process were basically skipped to the cooling process. Theqi within the pill was around three quarters of what he expected it be and the outer layer of the pill was covered in black spots. In other words, it couldn't be consumed. He crushed it immediately before his sisters would get to it and threw it down the drain. His qi was completely exhausted, so he had to meditate. Although qi restored when sleeping, complete exhaustion was hard to recover from outside of pills and meditation.

Sadly, when he walked into his room, his mother was there, picking him up.

"Are you done concocting? We have to leave for the family gathering soon." Melissa said. "Your fiancee, Amber Moonling, will also be there."

Louis smiled as he nodded.

Amber, his fiancee, was a girl with long red hair, soft, green eyes and fair skin. She was out of control like Amelia, demanding, but for different reasons. While Amelia was fickle as the wind, Amber was passionate as a fire and let it show. However, Amber was so young at the moment, just as old as Xuemei, but he wasn't that five year old boy but a man in his hundreds. He looked at her more as a child, much like Amelia, and sought to help her spread her wings as much as he could.

Little could be said had delighted he was that he could see her, she only visited once a year. For she would come just after the New Year Festival, for her hometown had their own festivals, and leave in the fifth month, when the first semester of the year ended. Her father no longer was a man tagging along when they visited Allyn County but instead leading the trade negotiations on the behalf of the Moonling Family. However, her father would always leave after a month while her mother and her would always stay over for another three months.

His mother and Louis were the last to reach the gondola. This was not the normal gondola that his mother used to take him and his sister to and fro, but a much bigger one. A giant crest, of a single water drop falling into the a river with a sun setting in the background, was painted onto a giant white cotton cloth. It was the symbol of the water shrine, and the four woman at each end of it wasn't his mothers maids nor Elaine's, but fairies, a honored role for women with high water affinity that were adopted by the water shrine. While they were not talented enough to become a water shrine maiden, nor were rich or skilled enough to become priests, they were musicians and historians. After they served their twenty years, they would be allowed to marry into nobility and their daughters were guaranteed a spot within the water shrine. Only Elaine was allowed to call for them. As the former head shrine maiden, she maintained a set level of privileges, even after her retirement.

Inside, his three sisters, Elaine, Brian and the four maids were all sitting already. His sisters sat on the floor, which was covered with a luxurious mandala rug. Elaine sat with Brian on one side while the maids sat across from her. Melissa sat next to Elaine as she put Louis next to his sisters.

Louis frowned. He wasn't quite sure what Brian was up to and Elaine was gave him mixed signals. A new type of trouble, however, would be visiting him as his Amelia trapped and tackled him, followed by Shea and Carla.

"Help me," Amelia said. "Why can't I get one more level?"

Carla pushed Amelia aside, but just as she was opening her mouth, she too was pushed aside by Shea.

"Help me." Shea said. "I haven't reached the second realm yet."

Louis shrugged. "Amelia and Carla, meditate until you break through. I'll help Shea cultivate."

Shea sat down at one side of the gondola's cabin in a lotus position. Louis sat behind her and placed his hands on her back. His qi may have been exhausted, but he could still used his soul to guide her.

"Let's try to breakthrough one more time, alright? Let me see how you do it, then I'll help you the next time." Louis said.

It wasn't easy to put one's soul into another's body without inflicting harm. This was especially for the younger cultivators, who hadn't opened their upper dantian and whose souls overlapped with their body, limiting their growth and control. It was only possible since this wasn't the first time Louis had done this, though he often used his own qi as well, using his soul to determine where his qi was and the path for it to go. He could only put a fraction of his own soul into Shea's body, just enough to wrap around Shea and flow into her body without breaking it. This was especially difficult since Louis' soul was much stronger and the gentlest touch could crush her soul. This was only made more difficult from his exhaustion without resting.

"I'm ready. Sis, please start." Louis said.

Shea's cultivation technique, unlike Louis' technique, started at the lower dantian, moving down into the legs before going into the rest of her body. Her qi didn't have layers and was a darker shade of blue all around. This first part was mostly to check if she had properly cultivating her meridians and if she followed the current path.

Once her qi reached her lower dantian, Louis told her to stop. There were no errors, she had spent the last four years circulating her technique and any mistakes were long since corrected. He sighed as he reminisced about how much trouble she first had with cultivating and how often he had to stop her, almost to the point of using his own qi to help her circulate the first few revolutions. She had grown so fast.

"Alright. Follow the light in your lower dantian." Louis said, pouring just enough qi into Shea's body for her to detect. Since the purity was so high, it would shine brightly within her body, but due to the paltry amount, if she couldn't handle the strain, he could disperse into her body without harm or retrieve it from her body.

His qi entered her lower dantian, and first scoured it in its entirety before choosing the stronger streams within it and directing Shea to push the qi to connect those streams to the spherical walls of her lower dantian. With his guidance, she pushed connected the stream to the walls quickly, making him rethink just how much time he wasted loitering instead of guiding yesterday. Instead of resting as she progressed, Louis continued to look at her lower dantian, searching both the canals Shea refined yesterday and any potential new ones. While she completed a few yesterday, they were from various difficulties, so the progress was both slow and should have been saved for last, when she had more qi to help her.

By the time they reached the center district, Shea had already expanded a third of her lower dantian. Louis was both happy and exhausted, wanting to roll over and sleep, but the family meeting had not even started. His had barely restored the bit of qi he had expended helping Shea, truly a slow recovery.

The family gathering house was a large manor. Where each inch of land was worth its weight in gold, the large manor and its garden were truly nothing to scoff at. Cranes were resting near the shore and some of them were wading through the pond. Although meat was a common for lunch, live animals were generally forbidden from entering the city, most of the animals lived on farms where the manure wouldn't worsen the city's living conditions. These cranes were used not for meat but for grand transportation, since boats were much cheaper and efficient, albeit slower.

They were the last to arrive, but the adults were gathered in the lawn. Small snacks and refreshments were served, picture perfect, on the tables as many people Louis hadn't seen before talked. Many of the kids were playing around the lawn with maids and butlers looking after them, leaving only the youngest cared for by their mothers.

Louis quickly looked around for Amber. He found her sitting alone under a cherry blossom. The soft pink petals fell around her, matching her white dress and long, curly red hair. Her mother must have forced her to wear it, since she didn't like her movement inhibited. Her cheeks were puffed and eyes glared at a particular group of girls - a few years her senior, who stood out with their brown and red hair, rather than the blue or silver domestic to the Allyn County - standing some thirty yards away.

Louis ran as fast as his legs would allow, but Shea reached her first, though he did beat Amelia and Carla by a narrow margin, having the headstart.

Shea hugged Amber for a moment and was about to bring her away when Louis hit her head lightly. "Continue cultivating those canals I showed you. You'll breakthrough tomorrow if you do." Louis said.

He looked over at Amelia and Carla who pounced onto Amber when he wasn't looking, grabbing onto her dress. Amber was the smallest of the three of them, as she was two years their junior, and her fury was long gone now. Instead, a large smile was on her face, along with a trace amount of tears.

Louis rolled his two sisters off of Amber. "Go, go cultivate. If you don't, big sister Shea will leave you eating her dust." Louis said. As soon as his sisters were off, Louis grabbed Amber and ran to the other side of the cherry blossom.

Amber brushed the petals off her head and clothes before puffing out her chest. "How I do look? Cute?"

Louis nodded. "Very cute."

Amber blushed, then a thin layer of flame came out of her body. A small formation glowed immediately after and quenched the flame. Amber became frantic, covering Louis eyes to stop him from seeing the flame, but it was too late.

Louis frowned. Like Shea and Carla, Amber only had fire elemental affinity. However, unlike them whose strength and elemental affinity were strengthened by that specialization, Amber's body was a flame body. Due to her poor control and weak soul, she couldn't control it very well, which prevented her from coming into contact with many other people who weren't prepared to deal with it. Being particularly passionate was a problem for her, as her sudden changes in emotions leaked the greatest of flames. Furthermore, the problem would only exacerbate as her cultivation grew, until her soul was strong enough or she was skilled enough to control it.

The stood awkwardly silent in this position, until Amber eventually broke the silence. "Are you mad?"

Louis turned around. "Of course not." He said as he hugged her. "Your flames are bigger. You have gotten stronger." He looked at her dress. "Did mother get it for you? It looks great, especially since it can protect you."

"Mhm." Amber confirmed, nodding her head. "Birthday present, but it's hard to move around." She said, twirling. "She doesn't let me outside anymore. I tried talking to some people here, but they wouldn't let me join after seeing the fire."

"Did you practice the orb daily?"

"Mhm." Amber took out a clay orb.

Cracks formed on it, since he had last seen it. As he held it, the arrays within barely held their integrity as the inside was charred. Her strength had grown by a considerable extent. It seems her physique also increased by age, not simply by cultivation.

He pocketed the clay orb and retrieved his own clay orb, which was strengthened by wind and water qi. It should last against the flames, since he had circulated so much of his own qi, which had be purified multiple times already and used much more often,

"Take mine. It'll help you." Louis said, sitting down. "Continue with daily practice while I try to find something interesting for you, alright?"

He searched through his memories for a fitting technique. He had gathered and researched many techniques, especially as his alchemy got stronger and he had to help more and more people. He needed to understand their cultivation in order to prepare proper pills to help them. Although he couldn't use those cultivation techniques, simply by looking at them inspired him and helped him cultivate his own technique easier, by avoiding some traps and increasing his overall understanding of the body and meridians.

Eventually, he looked towards the Nine Sun Yang Emperor technique, a technique only permitted by members of royal Yang blood, but it should be fine in this new world. Giving his fiancee some leeway in survival and a chance in happiness was the least he could do. Although he couldn't help Luo Xuemei before they got married, he could help his fiancee this time around. He knew this technique since his main clients were his brothers and nephews who could cultivate the technique, so he was granted special permission and could research it. While his family only permitted males in the family to learn it, Louis knew females could cultivate this technique too.

He hesitated giving it to Amber. But seeing her struggle, the sweat that poured down her face and how she gripped the orb until her veins were bulging, he put those worries to rest. He would deal with the consequences later, her happiness was at stake here and he knew the troubles of being inadequate and seeking help far too well. He tapped her on the shoulder and began explaining the technique to her, which immediately brought a smile to her face.