Xion CH23: Truth

I had little experience with espionage, but she kindly sent me poison every day. So today's meal was in my inventory. But unfortunately, I didn't know where the poison had been applied, how long the poison took to activate, or the initial symptoms. So currently, it stayed in my inventory until I had Temael look at it.

Then there was my growing friendship with Temael. She was good with a blowgun. Unfortunately, poisoning would be a little too obvious, and the minister never left her treehouse. Besides that, getting rid of her won't necessarily take care of business. It seemed like I wasn't just getting rid of one cocky admin. My best shot would be to warn Zosimael and hope for the best with that in mind.

That sounded pathetic even to my ears; maybe I should try some mob stuff like breaking her legs. But, of course, I hadn't mastered island obliterating fist, and these guys seemed to have most of their skills mastered. So I turned my attention to one of the junior warriors. They picked up a piece of meat when she thought no one paid her any attention and cooked it with a controlled laser between her fingers.

"Viarael, that piece of meat is coming out of your rations. And mister Red, if there is nothing else leave, you are holding up the line." So the minister said, though, there wasn't a soul behind me.

…

Power gathered in my hand as the astral form of the island obliterating fist appeared behind me. I punched forward and felt the training log shake mightily under my effort. Despite the power I put into my attack, there wasn't a mark left on the log when I finished. On the other hand, the same power gathered awkwardly, and I hit the log again. Repeatedly I punched the log with the same power that shattered the sea god's teeth to little effect on the living wood. Instead, it seemed to drink in power from my strikes, happily sucking in my strength with each blow.

"If you think you're going to break it with your level of strength, you're mistaken. This is the first real test any warrior faces. Samael completed it six months after she gained constant, and she's a prodigy worse you don't have that time. You have to figure out the trick in four days." Mekael said.

"Don't be too hard on the boy; he's come a long way. He learned constant in record time, and maybe this will be no different. But, I know he should increase his weight. That's the best way to reach the next level. Go fetch some rocks quickly; we will add them to his current weights. We'll make him strong." Zosimael said.

"Yes, of course, of stress from weights and training helped him speed up learning constant then more weights will double his learning speed again," Mekael said and took off in search of suitable rocks.

"That should keep away while I help you figure this out. I can't say what you need to do or else you won't learn why it's important. Normally we read a poem or tell a parable to help our students realize it themselves. Mekael should have told you one." Zosimael said.

"Her short story was about a pearl diver, and it turned into sexual innuendos. I think Mekael needs to get laid." I said.

"Most elves with full balls seem to lose focus." I slammed my single skill into the log repeatedly to no effect. "Two pearl divers search below the reef one takes a deep breath and halts their breathing technique while the other trusts her breathing technique and can exhale slowly. The pressure crushes the lungs of the diver who held their breath, and the trusting diver returned to the surface." Zosimael said.

"Some of the powerful people in your village have been poisoning your food to make you forget," I said and struck the log again.

Still, the log didn't break, I trusted my breathing technique, but maybe that wasn't what she was talking about.

"I've suspected, but everyone told me it was my advanced age."

It clearly wasn't my breathing technique that was the problem. Power radiated from my fists, but there was always a delay and a severe loss of power right before impact. The power escaped at the worst time right before I hit. No matter how much I force the power in my fists to compress, I'm constantly losing power.

"If you suspected, then haven't you done anything about it?" I asked.

This wasn't working. No amount of compression was going to stop my power from escaping. I needed a better understanding of the power. I found it easier to release my power when I exhaled, so I channeled the island obliterating fist. I held them without using the technique. More power raged out of my hands, and I felt it rising not from my lungs but from my blood. What qi I absorbed from the breathing technique concentrated in my blood, waiting to be unleashed. Breathing really didn't matter when the power was concerned. If I wanted to unleash that power, I had to do something different. After learning constant, I had to throw away all my misconceptions about the technique.

After studying flat earth theory, it was like finding out that the world was round and people had been to the moon. While I couldn't see it, I could feel it more surely than my own skin. Every bit of qi in my body was mine, and I could feel it nestled in my flesh, blood, and bones. That led me to more assumptions that I would undoubtedly disprove and later adjust my theories.

My conclusion changed. All my breathing technique did was collect qi. That was all it did; then, the power merged with my body, and the breathing technique stimulated it. Every breath stimulated the qi by adding more to my body. Now that my breathing was constant, I no longer had to focus on it and could begin to cultivate my strange new sense. Constant had been my first real step into this power.