6 The Waterpark

The clay orb had a weak array within it, around a third level array, but it was a carbon copy of the array his sister had received: it absorbed the qi within his body; concentrated the element within it by spending some of the qi; then returned the newly heightened elemental qi into his body, so he could sense it better. It neither strengthened his meridians nor qi, giving only an ephemeral taste before disappearing.

The arrays within the orb was created by hollowing out parts of the orb. Louis looked at it and began to recall other arrays he had used and seen, hoping to find one with more permanent benefits, even if it was just a little. It didn't take him long before he found just the technique, the symbol of his shameful years within the second realm, the array he spent eight years learning when he had given up all hope in cultivating and alchemy: the Nine Revolution Heavenly Elemental Array.

Despite its grand name, it required to the user to have an element and required almost one hundred complete revolutions to see any effect. Not only did it require the knowledge of a sixth level array formation master, its effects could be replicated just as easily with a couple of second level pills and a third level array.

Louis remembered the countless hours he toiled to create this formation in the second realm. He grasped enough of the basics to understand the markings and spent years of constant repetition to only learn this array formation. Many ancestors recorded their knowledge from alchemy to array formations to beast taming to the art of wine making within the Nine Revolution Spirit-Body technique. Clearly, when the ancestors said "leave all your knowledge to your future generations" in the ancestral land, they meant it literally.

This wonderful little gem was the byproduct of a sixth level array formation master trying to craft an array to help him breakthrough to the seventh realm, Martial Emperor. He had included this technique because he eventually failed and gave up but like making beautifully complex yet woefully impractical array formations. After giving up on breaking through entirely, he had returned back to simplifying the array's cost but made the array more abstruse.

Eight years had passed when he managed to make this array. In a way, it did help him break through. He broke through the night before he would use this array, making it completely useless to him. He remembered crying tears of blood the morning after - tears for finally breaking through and blood for never using the technique ever. But he would have been damned if he never used it, so despite its impracticality, he eventually used it to help his daughters when they couldn't take pills or cultivate yet.

Today, eighty years after mastering this array, he would finally be able to use it himself. He got to work, using his qi to remove part of the clay within the orb, forming new geometric figures within the orb. By the time he was done, the orb - which had a simple design on a single plane was now - was nearly hollow, emptied by runes, circles, triangles, and squares pointing in seemingly random directions.

Four more people he had never seen before were now in the gondola. What seemed to be a young couple with a two-year-old son and an one-year-old daughter now sat across from them. mother was talking with the two adults while Amelia had laid claim on the new alien girl, her paws wrapped so delicately around her prey to ascertain her quality, but girl's mother grabbed the girl before Amelia could continue.

Amelia looked at the two-year-old boy with newfound interest, but the man holding him looked too menacing for her, so she redirected her sights on Louis. She found the orb - which he had be remoulding - and appropriated it.

Louis was about to snatch it back, when she activated the array and started smiling. He sighed. She looked too happy and the element dancing within the array was like a beautiful art show, ever-changing but beautiful. Nature within its most basic state always was.

Still, that didn't stop him from snatching his sister's orb from mother's pouch. He started remoulding this orb, this time much faster and smoother. He had to mould it slowly because he wanted to make sure everything was perfect, but now he had some more recent experience.

By the time the gondola stopped moving, he had finished remoulding the second orb. It wasn't the cottage. The amount of water elemental qi within the air hadn't changed one bit since they were moving.

"Louis, we are here." Mother said, carrying him out of the cabin. Towers of silos and ladders were spread throughout the area, some curved up and down while others were had some variation of a hundred yard vertical drop. Water coarsed through the silos and poured into pool. Here, there was no ground here only shallow and deep waters. "This is a water park."

His sister, who had been meditating, had been carried out by the younger maid. Her orb had be taken away and her eyes glistened as she never saw such a sight.

I'm not about to be outdone by some random arrangement of wood and some water, Louis thought. Just you wait, I'll make something so grand you'll think this is nothing more than a toy.

Just as Louis was expecting to partake in the festivities, mother had put him in front of the girl. "This is Amber Moonling, from the Moonling County. She is your fiancee and will be your wife someday."

Louis took another look at the girl. She had dark red hair that flowed and curved. She had soft green eyes and pale white skin. Her impression on him immediately increased by several dozen points. He handed her the orb he had spent the last good chunk of time moulding and gave it to her.

Mother smiled, not realizing the value of the orb, but gave it to Amber anyways. Amber's mother gave him her orb in exchange. Then they walked to the waterpark together.

As they say, a live frog will never attempt to escape a boiling pot if the fire is turned up slowly, so his mother eased into this new experience by carrying him into the highest water slide she could find and, without warning, took him down with her.

One hundred yard might not seem like much to an emperor, but Louis saw one hundred of himself stacked upon each other. No. This is not happening. Not for the first ride. No. Louis thought, but mother wasn't telepathic and she enjoyed the feeling of the wind as she went down. And down they went. His heart beat faster and faster, threatening to leave his chest and he closed his eyes. Then a sense of relief overcame him. Let no one record that, today, he peed his pants.

Once at the bottom, he looked up, keeping the straightest face he could, seeing his fiancee at another water slide, one only a hundred feet tall or so and had a more gentle decline. She laughed as she splashed the water as the slowly slid down the water slide.

Louis looked up at the slide once again, only to see his sister coming down the hundred yard vertical drop by herself, laughing. She was on an inflated tube, which slowed her down somewhat. She laughed then screamed when the tube hit the water, clapping. "Again, again," she said.

No hole was big nor deep enough to hide his shame. He looked at the slide once again and mother laughed. "Want to go again, I see?" She carried up to the slide.

No hole was big nor deep enough to hide his shame but that didn't mean he wanted to go down it again. Still, at the top of the slide, he took deep breaths and looked straight down the slide. He could see Amelia looking up at him, clapping. He closed his eyes and held his eyes together. He didn't believe in god, but he was willing to start now. He revolved the Nine Revolution Spirit-Body technique and off they went, down, down, down into the abyss full of water.

The water splashing onto his face cooled it and he finally opened his eyes. He did it, this time without peeing himself. Though it was debatable whether he didn't pee because he wasn't scared or because he had already peed a few minutes before.

At the end of the day, they all went home. His fiancee's family also came, taking Amelia's room while Amelia would sleep in with him and mother until they left a month later.

Today, was not that bad after all.