'Tea' - Three Categories of Techniques.

"So, what's this newcomers tournament about?" Shu He asked as he carefully whirled the teacup in his hands while looking at the weirdly coloured liquid inside dubiously.

"It's a tournament for the new disciples to show off a bit, there are some nice rewards for placing well so it's worth entering."

Shu He had been invited by Na Xue to talk about the tournament since he knew nothing about it, they were currently sat outside in a small pavilion that was connected to the main building around a small table.

Na Xue had offered to make some tea for them, and he accepted, but now he was feeling a slight sense of regret since whatever was in his cup barely resembled any kind of tea he was used to, the smell was even worse.

"Senior Sister… are you sure this is tea?" He asked trying to hold back on his words.

"Yeah! This is the tea I usually drink!" She nodded, taking a sip out of her cup without any hesitation.

"It seems a bit… off to me, I don't think I've had this kind of tea before, may I ask what's in it?"

"Hmmm I guess I can tell you, it's a mixture of rain flower, blight weed, speed lotus…"

She began explaining the ingredients and as she did his face paled slightly more with each ingredient.

"…All mixed together, boiled, and then distilled down with pure spring water! It's my own recipe and has been great for my physique!" She said happily clapping her hands to conclude her explanation.

Shu He tried to gently place the cup down on the table as best as he could before pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"That's not tea then is it? It's basically a medicinal concoction!" He spoke with exasperation.

She tilted her head in confusion "Isn't tea a type of medicine in a way though?".

Shu He paused for a second with his mouth stuck open slightly as he considered what she said.

"…You could say that I guess depending on the type…" He spoke with reluctance looking at the liquid that resembled an oil spill, when he made medicine he would at least try to make it look decent and made it more bearable to consume with extra flavouring or processing, so the texture was better.

"You're not going to refuse a drink your senior sister made for you are you?" Her tone of voice made her sound like she was truly disappointed, her expression heartbroken and pouting.

"…" Shu He stared between her face and the black concoction, clearly conflicted.

'Fuck it'

He picked up the cup and chugged it, not even trying to taste it; As it flowed down his neck he could feel the thick texture wanting to stick to the walls of his throat making him want to hurl but he held it in until it was all gone.

He slammed the cup back on the table while his face turned a shade of blue as he held it down.

"You're not meant to drink it like that!" She complained.

"I prefer to take my medication in one go" He replied as he managed to stop himself from throwing up, feeling his stomach bubbling as it reluctantly accepted the concoction.

"It's tea!".

"Tea is a type of medicine".

"…I wasn't expecting you to drink it all at once" She said like a child when a prank went wrong.

'This woman! She's definitely doing this intentionally!' Shu He stared at Na Xue with exasperation, he now knows what it felt like to be bullied by a senior.

"I wasn't lying when I said I drink this normally though, it works well with my cultivation technique" She said quietly.

"Wait, so you don't give this to others normally?"

She averted her eyes that were filled with guilt.

"You… this won't have any bad affects one me right?!" Shu He was slightly annoyed now, at the very least he expected a senior of his not to do something harmful to him.

"No, no! It just helps with building muscle and integrating Qi with your body… you may have a bit of trouble with your stomach later though…" She explained, reluctantly whispering the last half of the comment.

Shu He sighed, covering his face with his hands for a moment.

"Then, give me the recipe later" He said surprising her.

"You're interested in it?!" She said, her eyes sparkling a little.

"If it has the affects you said sure, but I won't be making it as is I would put some work in to making it more presentable" He explained shaking his head at the presentation of the concoction.

"That would be great! Even I'm kind of sick of drinking this stuff but I need it to assist with my cultivation!" Na Xue stood up with an overjoyed expression filling her face.

"And you still gave it to me…?" Exasperation wouldn't be good enough to explained Shu He's feelings right now.

"Err… hehehe" She tried to laugh it off before she remembered "Anyway, you wanted to know about the newcomers tournament right?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Right… when was it announced anyway, I haven't seen anything about it yet"

"Just yesterday, if you went back to your room I'm sure you'd see some notices about it posted up on the wall".

'Makes sense, I was cultivating here for days on end' Shu He nodded "Then, what are the rewards?".

"Points for 1st to 4th place, 1st place also rewards 1 free technique from the Mesmerised Tortoise's Pavilion which would be quite valuable for a new disciple like you".

"Right… I was planning to go there after this but since you're here I'll ask you, what did you pick when you went there first? We get to pick two techniques for free right? Did you get your technique from there?" He asked in turn.

"No, my technique comes from my family" She explained with a soft expression on her face.

'Seems she values her technique a lot' He thought before asking "Are you part of a clan then?"

"Nope, my family has deep roots within the cultivation community, but we don't belong to any clan". Na Xue explained, surprising Shu He.

"Huh… I hadn't met any of the so-called cultivation families yet, I didn't think it'd be possible for one to exist outside of a clan" He said thoughtfully.

'Won't they get pressured by larger clans or such if they're too small?' He thought to himself.

Na Xue merely smiled knowingly "It's possible with connection, and most of all- strength to stand alone."

He felt her words put some of the puzzle pieces together in his head.

'Right, she's a core disciple, her technique is likely incredibly powerful meaning her family should be too'.

His curiosity was now piqued.

"I would love to see your technique" He said with great interest.

She simply smiled a bit "Maybe some time in the future, it's quite tiring to use you know?"

"And- You should remember that revealing your techniques to people isn't something you should do easily, you should always hold your cards hidden in your hand until you need to use them" She explained, indirectly admonishing him for asking such a question.

"Right, sorry I wasn't thinking" He bowed slightly in apology, though he was sat down so he barely tilted his head.

"But what about the tournament? Won't I have to reveal what I have to win?"

"This and that are two different things, if it's to get what you need it's fine; And I think you'll find the higher ranked tournaments in the sect will have people hiding their hand even in the finals, for newer disciples like you, your repertoire of skills is limited so showing what you have isn't that much a problem, but as you improve as a cultivator you'll develop uniqueness that you'll want to hide as much as possible."

He engraved her words in his mind, especially since he already held a 'hand' he would want to keep a secret for as long as possible already.

"Thanks for your words of wisdom Senior Sister" He stood up and clasped his hands.

He lifted his head up to see her smiling bright, her face slightly pink.

"What is it?" Shu He asked, confused as to what was wrong with her.

"Nothing, none of the other juniors in the division ever come to me for help so I'm just happy to finally have one".

"Wouldn't fixing your bad habits help that problem…" Shu He frowned a bit.

"If they care about that so much I don't want to speak to them" She shook her head in denial.

Shu He gave up on that talk immediately.

"Then, what kind of techniques do you recommend getting first at the pavilion?" He asked, shifting the topic back "You're a core disciple so you should have a good idea right?".

"I guess" She placed her index finger on her lips as she thought for a second "Do you know about the three types of techniques?"

Shu He shook his head "I've only heard the term cultivation techniques".

She nodded "Yeah that's what you'll typically hear people refer to the three categories as blanketly" She said as she held her hand up.

"First up is 'Combat Techniques'" She said as she held her index finger up.

"Combat techniques are, as the name states, techniques that are used for fighting whether it be injuring others or healing oneself, these are specifically techniques that have a one time effect and have no permanent effects on your body or cultivation; Combat techniques are also split in to two further categories being external and internal, external techniques make use of hand signs to assist in the weaving of Qi but because of this they tend to be weaker and less complex, however they have the advantage of being easy to learn. On the other hand internal techniques are performed entirely through mental visualisation and the moulding of qi inside oneself, they are much harder to learn and master, but are far more potent and complex".

Shu He had his hand on his chin as he listened then when a memory popped up in his mind.

'The seal… Dousing Seal was it? That Tai Min used on me must have been an external technique then, the Qi disruption should be a simple internal technique since you force your qi into a target…'

He then remembered seeing Chao Shi cut a branch from a distance with two fingers.

"I saw Senior Brother Chao Shi use a technique before, he held his fingers like this" He closed his hand, straightening only his middle and index fingers "and slashed out, it was incredibly fast and cut a branch from quite a distance away, is that an external technique?"

"You've met Chao Shi?" She said with surprise.

"Um yeah, he was the one that brought me here to the sect" Shu He explained.

"I see! I'll have to thank him for bringing me a junior brother when he leaves his seclusion".

"He's in seclusion?" He looked at her, surprised.

"You didn't know?"

He shook his head.

'No wonder I haven't seen him since I joined, I thought he may have been busy outside the sect or something… come to think of it Bai Shun said there was a reason he didn't visit us'.

"Anyway, about your question; What he did should be categorised as an internal technique" She said causing Shu He to feel doubtful.

"But didn't he use a hand sign?" He expressed his doubts.

"That wasn't a hand sign, it's essentially something he does to assist in visualisation; But that isn't a simple technique either, it requires something called an intent, but right now you shouldn't need to worry about that; You're not near that level yet."

"Right…" Shu He accepted what she said, yet he couldn't help but be deeply curious about these 'intents', he would see if he could find any information on them later.

Na Xue cleared her throat and held up two fingers, continuing her explanation.

"Carrying on, the second type is Cultivation Techniques!"

'There's a category with the same name as the blanket name? confusing…' Shu He thought but kept it to himself, so he didn't interrupt his senior sister.

"This category deals with techniques that affect the three core aspects, and the core of cultivation; I think Elder Bai went through this with you once before right?"

Shu He nodded, going by what she was saying the technique of a 'Lifeblood' cultivator would come under this category.

"These techniques are used to permanently reinforce a cultivator, my families personal technique also comes under this category" She said with some pride "Many of the clans have personal techniques that are unique to them, and most of them are in this category since they can support a clans power far greater than a combat technique, though that isn't to say they don't have both or multiple."

Shu He thought for a second and the visage of a white-haired girl with bright blue eyes flashed in his mind "Is the Bai clans technique one of them?"

She smiled and nodded "That's right, the Bai clans technique is the most prominent version of this category, their technique directly changes their core of cultivation and then in turn affects the three core aspects, theirs creates an Ice Core Flame".

"So that's how it is…" He nodded to himself; he had wondered just how she had only Ice Qi but then he thought of something else "Is that not a detriment for cultivation in general though? If you limit your Qi to one type then won't it conflict with everything else?"

"Yes and no, having the same type of qi that a technique desires or such will increase its potency, but that doesn't prevent you from using other elements, however it does decrease the efficacy; The Bai clansmen with ice qi will basically never be able to use fire techniques for example and they will struggle more with wood and earth techniques."

"So it's worth the trade off in the end…"

"Of course, most of the prominent clans wouldn't do it if it wasn't" She then held three fingers up "The last type is the Extraneous Techniques, these cover everything that doesn't fall in to the other two categories such as alchemy, forging, formations, lifestyle techniques and such, the main technique of this division also falls in to their category since its ability is to do with taming and conversing with animals, this is the broadest category honestly and the Mesmerised Tortoise Pavilion doesn't hold too many because most of them are held by the divisions themselves."

"Got that all?" She asked, Shu He nodded, it was easy enough for him to remember the categorisations and the extra details weren't excessive.

"Then, what is it you recommend I get?" He asked once more.

"Right! That's why I was explaining that, for me I already had my cultivation technique so I didn't need anything of that category, but that is considered priority for most cultivators since it will help you those most, if you don't have one use one of your choices for a cultivation technique" She promptly explained, Shu He quickly accepted and agreed with her after her explanation, he could understand why it would be important.

"For your other choice… I'd say choose a combat technique after considering whether you need to cover your weakness or strengthen your strong points, I don't recommend picking an extraneous technique since they aren't very useful." Na Xue said before asking "What weapon do you use anyway?" her expression filled with curiosity.

"…Mostly a bow" He answered feeling a bit off, the fact is since he came to the sect he hadn't had much of a chance to train with his bow so his skills might have felt a bit rusty.

"A bow! How surprising, most men go with swords, sabers or spears, how refreshing… I don't think I've seen or heard about you using one though?" She said inquisitively.

She He lent back in his chair and scratched the back of his head "Well… I haven't found a place to do my usual practice you see, there are ranges in the training area but they're too basic and I'd prefer a place where not many people were".

"Oh!" She clapped her hands together has she sat up intently "Then why don't you have what you need set up in this place, I'd like to see it as well!"

Shu He looked at her slightly wide eyed and asked "Is that okay? This place should be a sanctuary for animals, no? I'd be worried about disrupting things".

"It's fine! I'm sure Jian He would be fine with it, truthfully we have more space than we know what to do with down here" She explained, shrugging off all the supposed issues.

"That would be great but… please don't force it on Jian He" Shu He already felt bad for his senior brother shouldering the position of division head as an outer disciple, he didn't need more stress.

"Hmph, do you think I'm that kind of woman?" She sent a light glare in his direction.

'Yes' he would have normally replied, but he head learned his lesson already, instead he just replied with a silent wry smile.