Chapter 39: Small Breaks and Big Revelations

After the fight, Teresa and Eveline started walking back to join the others.

"What do you mean I never asked?" Eveline was more than a little irritated by the comment.

"Well, all you ever talk to me about is enchanting. Mana this, eggs that. When have you ever considered my part in combat?" Teresa was haughtily strutting as she walked.

To anyone else, the sight of a haughty, glowing, blue, chicken was enough to cause some sneers or jokes. That was, anyone who did not see the end of their previous fight.

"Just take that last fight as an example. You just told me to keep out of the way, and stay near by." Teresa was obviously offended by this. "You got so mad at Alex for trying to help you, just because you assumed he was looking down on you. Yet you were looking down on me!"

After telling Eveline off, Teresa flapped her way to go relax with Penny and Sylph. She didn't even bother responding to Eveline's repeated apologies.

By the time that Eveline made it to the rest of the group, she was already in a horrible mood.

"Great fight. Why didn't you tell us that Teresa could do that?" Tom was honestly impressed by Teresa. To be honest, he had thought that she was only good for enchanting materials.

Eveline stared daggers at Tom. She didn't even bother to answer him.

Sensing the awkward tension in the air, Red broke the silence.

"How did you have the qi for all of those enchantments." He was whispering, thought he obviously didn't need to. The next round of fights was about to start. Taunts, and cheers were already filling the ears of everyone present.

It seemed that the crowd had finally warmed up.

The look of irritation melted away. It was immediately replaced by a look of excitement.

"Well, you know how we were all looking for places to house or nebulas? I found a very strange place to house mine." She quickly pointed to a spot on her abdomen, only three inches below the navel.

"When I placed it here my nebula was put under pressure by some other force." When they heard this, everyone's eyes bulged slightly.

"What kind of force?" Tom asked, completely enthralled by the conversation so far.

"How the hell should I know." Eveline practically spat the words at him. Rather than feel wronged, Tom just felt he had asked a stupid question.

"Continue. Please." Alex asked. Even Eluril, who was always on his shoulder, appeared to be listening.

"Well, the pressure forced my nebula to form a perfect sphere." She had been waiting for a good moment to tell the others about this. There had been no time during the previous week. This was mainly due to the fact that they were all studying and learning about the fundamentals of qi, and qi manipulation. Not to mention the hours they all spent trying to help Tom become a cultivator.

Even Eveline had decided that Tom simply had no aptitude for cultivation. They spent most of their week bouncing ideas off of each other and trying everything they could think of to help him along.

"Not only is it a perfect sphere, but the qi separated from the mana!"

"What! I can't separate the two at all." Red was very surprised. He had seen some effects as he moved the qi nebula through his body, but nothing quite as obvious as this.

"I couldn't either. At least not until I moved my nebula. But that isn't even the most important part." Eveline stepped in even closer to the others. They were practically huddling over their companions now.

"I found seven gates inside my body!" Eveline was practically vibrating with excitment as she hopped form foot to foot. She had been bursting at the seems to tell the others about her discovery.

"What are these gates made of?"

"Where are they?"

"How do you know they are gates?"

These rapid fire questions were launched by Alex, Tom, and Red respectively. They were met by responses from their own companions. Each one said some form of, 'shut up and let the woman speak!'

Eveline was not sure who to answer first. But before she could even decide who to answer first, Teresa made the decision for her. "Just ignore the idiots and tell your story. You have waited long enough."

With a smile, Eveline picked up Teresa and continued. "I call them gates, I am not sure what they are. They are spots along the vertical axis of my body. They begin at my qi nebula, and end behind my brow. I found them as soon as I placed my nebula. I could feel them resonating with my qi."

With the exception of one, all of the others were stunned by this. After a moment of contemplation Eluril spoke up.

"Ask her if her qi has started to circulate between the nebula in her dantian, and the first gate." Alex was honestly upset by this question.

If Eluril knew so much about this that she knew the spots name, how could she not know enough to tell them about it?

In the end he still asked Eveline.

"Yeah, actually." Eveline was put off balance by this question as well. "That is why I could use so much qi to ignite all of those enchantments. The first gate really speeds up my qi creation. I have not been able to circulate my qi to the other gates yet though. What do you know?" She looked directly at Eluril as she spoke.

"As you know, my species are natural cultivators. The place she has described we call a dantian. Every naturally cultivating species has one. Though they may have different forms or placements." Eluril looked away from Eveline and looked into Alex's unhappy gaze. "The reason I never told you about it, was because I did not know humans had one. Since your species are not natural cultivators."

Alex faithfully articulated what she told him to the others.

"Okay, so Eveline is cultivating like you do then. So what are these gates?" Alex asked this aloud so all of the others could hear it.

"You are right, and you are wrong. Like I said, the dantian's placement and the effects are different for each species. Those 'gates', as you call them, are chakras. Each chakra has a different effect. As you progress in cultivation, you will gain access to more of the chakras."

"Does this mean we are not cultivating correctly then?" Red asked the question that was on all of the boys minds. Simply put, all four of them had different cultivating styles. So, if all of this was true doesn't this mean that humans was supposed to cultivate like Eveline?

"No. Even I know that humans the most blessed and cursed of all the cultivating species. There are as many paths of cultivation, as there are stars in the sky for humans. Some may be more potent then others, this is true. But all of them can become insanely powerful in their own right." As she finished, Eluril curled back up on Alex's shoulder.

"Show off. She just wants to seem like such an expert. But all she knows are strange names for things and second hand knowledge. With the exception of the names she gave us, we know just as much now as we did before." Sylph, couldn't help complaining about Eluril. She was not particularly mad at Eluril, she was even slightly grateful for the information.

She was simply sulking due to the way Eveline had treated Tom earlier. Ever since Eveline joined the group, Sylph would get testy when ever she would be mean to Tom. In Sylph's eyes, Tom had never done anything wrong, Eveline was always being snooty for no reason.

Tom couldn't help but smile at Sylphs outburst. He knew she meant well, even if she didn't know quite how to express it. However, he did agree that she made some good points.

"It is always nice to have more information. Thank you Eluril." Tom's sincere tone calmed everyone down for the moment. "But, it really doesn't change anything for us." Tom looked at the others, one by one.

"We still have no idea what the effects are, or how Eveline is supposed to progress from here. Not to mentions the fact that it has no effect on our cultivation paths. That is unless we can find a way to interact with these 'chakras' as well."

"True. But, it is also true that we now know that dantians and chakras exist. That alone, is something. Going forward, it is better to know more, than to know less." Penny's message was immediately delivered to the group.

Alex looked over the crowd, toward the arenas. "This will have to wait until later." He looked over at Tom and Sylph. "It looks like you will be fighting soon."

As he said that a spearman hooked his opponents knee and tossed him into the air. Then a large shadow covered raven slammed into his chest. Knocking him out of the ring.

The spearman had long black hair that hung down to his waist. His pale complexion attracted many of their classmates. Eveline recognized him right away. His name was Deirdre Daill.

As soon as she told the others who he was, Tom already began to hate him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he just couldn't think of anything good about him.

"Can you be more pathetic? Feeling jealous just because she knew his name?" Sylph rolled her eyes at Tom.