The Elder’s Call. It was finally time to make my entrance. The sect’s centre had eluded me for years. Admittedly my unwillingness to take on disciples with more muscles than brains may have impeded slightly. There was no boundary to cross, no guard to verify my identity. Just a room, filled with books; otherwise known as my idea of a good time.
As the name stated, the room was a calling for Elders with disciples. The room provided no uses for an Elder without disciples hence the lack of security. It was tradition, now that they had proven to me that they were worthy of me, I had to prove that I was worthy of them.
The reason I was excited was quite simple, Elders were known to go through quite an enlightening experience during the Elder’s Call, and I was not only on the cusp of a breakthrough but also close to a soul root progression that had been a long time coming.
I sat amongst the books, they were not techniques, they were research tomes. Designed to aid, not provide answers. My entire life was about to be swallowed by two disciples, my entire reason for coming to Gutura was finally underway.
I meditated until the morning, it would have been difficult to get anything done while I still had no idea who my disciples were. I meditated on my interactions with the kids so far. Their disposition, their countenance, the way they communicated.
I hesitated to form any ideas, stopped myself from developing any preconceived notions, allayed any temptations to predict anything and simply drank them in. Everything that they had shown me.
Finally, it was time for our lesson. I recalled the conversation I’d had with Safi after Sen’o left.
“You are hiding something from me,” I had said, without aggression or malice.
“Not intentionally, I assure you,” she replied quickly. I was not trying to make her defensive and yet had managed to do exactly that.
“I believe that. I just want to know what creature you have managed to tame, it would be in your best interest to share all your progress with me.”
“How do you know that?” she asked with a shocked face, she was not scared that I knew, which was good, it meant she was not intentionally hiding anything from me.
“The trinks I sensed had holes in them.”
“How did you find our trinks?” she asked.
“I didn’t find them, they were delivered,” I answered.
“This progress is not thanks to me, it’s not progress I made by myself, someone else made it for me, and that’s why it is not my first instinct to tell you about it.”
“It’s good to be humble, but in whichever way you may have gained power, it was up to you to learn how to wield it. It seems like you did that?”
“I guess I did…”
“So, are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
A beautiful translucent blue bird momentarily appeared on her shoulder before disappearing. “I’m afraid I can’t maintain it’s form for very long.”
“That’s quite alright darling, it just means we have plenty to work on. From now on, this progress is all yours.”
“Understood, thank you Master.”
“Run along, and take the same advice as Sen’o, you should focus on cultivation. That way you can spend more time with your new bird friend.
I entered my dark and uninviting passage that I had grown used to but now seemed unsuited for the young and joyful disciples I had recently obtained.
Their youthful exuberance was already beginning to rub off on me, my excitement was positively bubbling in comparison to the tranquil haze that shrouded my consciousness as my years in Gutura passed me by.
They were already inside, both bowing as I entered, like the good students I expected. Our training was beginning, and I was more than ready for it.
“To begin, I must establish your level. Whilst one of you sits a written test the other will train with me, then you will switch. Understand?” They nodded of course. “Safi, you take the written test first, I will begin with Sen’o.”
They split up, Safi sat at one of the desks, still shrouded in darkness, and began to write. Sen’o followed me.
I took his hand and sent my qi streaming into him. “Guard it,” I said. Instantly his qi swelled against mine. Of course the amount of qi paled in comparison but his technique and his control was faultless. He even took into consideration my quantity advantage and held me off with far less qi than he had just in case I decided to dip into my reserves.
I wasn’t going to, but considering that he had prepared for it, I decided to humour him. I sent the full wake of my qi crashing into him, he forced the rest of his own qi out of hiding too, desperately fighting me back. His thin wall looked poppable with the slightest jab and yet everything I threw against it was being stopped dead.
I recognised that he was channeling a technique but I could not identify it. I opened my eyes to see sweat tumbling down his brow. I had to do my job properly, for his benefit, and he was clearly not at his limit.
I began to use a technique of my own, a swelling of power coursed through my qi as it trembled to life from an injection of a technique from my soul root. Suddenly my qi was making progress, his qi began to retreat. For a second I thought I had reached his limit and was about to pull out but all of a sudden, my qi was encased.
I tried to move it back before instantly realising my mistake, in the process of moving my qi back, Sen’o had regained the ground that he had lost, and some more. He attempted to push me, which did not work at all. I resumed my fierce onslaught until he gave out. I probed to see where I had conquered only to find that I didn't quite know.
Having never experienced that before, I was more than a little lost, I reigned my qi back into my body and opened my eyes, signalling my loss. Not something I was expecting.
“What happened?” I asked, I could sense the slight smile on his face as he wiped his forehead free of sweat.
“It’s an illusory technique that infects your qi and tricks you into believing that you do not recognise your surroundings. In reality you had conquered most of my internal organs.” My eyebrows shot up.
“Well that is quite spectacular.”
“Thank you,” he said unashamedly.
“After such a resounding loss, I feel a little embarrassed conducting the rest of the tests. Even still, we must continue.” He only nodded. “Then, I would like you to fight me now.”
“My pleasure,” he said cheekily before launching towards me.
“Don’t confuse me for a blind scholar,” I said as I easily countered his first punch and gave him a smack on the wrist as a reprimand.
“I wasn’t,” he said as I realised the wrist I had slapped was rotating quickly away from me and a quite menacing elbow was quickly approaching.
I ducked beneath it and I was glad I did because it whizzed by me at a speed I had not experienced in a long time. I was quick to shake off any awkwardness that came from not fighting for a while, and focused intently on what had quickly become a real and quite stimulating spar.
We traded back and forth, I could tell his body was not enough to keep up with his mind and despite my having to fight defensively at first, as soon as I noticed his fatigue, I played the long game. He recognised my plan and without any doubts, went all out for one last go.
Of course, he lost. I was taller than him and stronger than him. Although, had I a little less brains, I may have lost. Which was all I needed to be shocked once again.
He continued to ace my tests, I conducted a check on his ability to meditate. Flawless. I looked for some insight on his ability to cultivate and progress. Peerless. Everything about him screamed ‘experienced cultivator’ to the point that by the end of it, my ears were ringing and I was about to question my sanity.
“You have probably guessed already...”
“You are not who you say you are.” I said, my focus honed in on everything the boy was saying.
“I am Sen’o, but I am not the same soul that this body was born with.”
“You have possessed a corpse?” I asked, suddenly I was gripped with slight fear.
“I suppose in a rather morbid sense, I have. But I prefer to refer to it as reincarnation.” He spoke as if it were a small thing. Rather it was more of a planet-defying, life-altering revelation that I could not even begin to consider the possibilities of.
“Who is Safi?” I asked. I was worried she was caught up without any idea.
“She knows about me, but she’s a resident on this planet, original soul and everything.”
“Then, who are you?”
“I am Sen’o.”
“I have established that, I would like to know more.”
“I would imagine you do.”
“So you’re not going tell me?” I was beginning to get angry. He chuckled, infuriating me further.
“You’re my Master, of course I am.”
“In what farcical sense am I your Master?”
“It is clear to me now, that we are your first disciples…” he said cryptically.
I took a second to ponder what he meant, for I was treading on unfamiliar ground and allowing my mind some time to catch up was probably a wise decision anyway.
After a while, it clicked. The bond was sacred, regardless of who we are, regardless of where we come from. Status is inconsequential, age even more so. Knowledge is paramount. The fact that he had sworn himself to me was not farcical, it was not a bout to undermine or embarass me. It just meant that what he could learn from me was not combat or technique, but something else entirely.
“What is it you think I can teach you?” I asked. He smiled, clearly I had asked the correct question this time.
“I want to learn about the world, I want to learn about its people and its history. I want to learn about civilisations or sects that stand atop. Most importantly, your customs and taboos. For someone with my soul root, such things are rather important.”
When he put it in such a way I was more than convinced. “You are not from this planet?” I asked.
“I am not, nor have I ever been here in the travels of my previous lives.”
“Lives?” I echoed.
“There were a few, many forgotten, some treasured. It is difficult to speak on as I’m afraid a full recount would take a considerably long time.”
“Are you a good soul?” I asked. He laughed.
“I appreciate your use of words. I have been many things, male, female, creature, races I would not imagine you have ever seen or would believe even if I told you. Soul is probably the only accurate word to describe me now.”
“So, are you a good one?”
“Ah, well that is something you will find out. I will not claim a virtue until it has been tested. But if you ask Chit, or Safi, they would probably tell you that yes, I am a good soul.”
“They are young and naive.”
“From my perspective, so are you,” he said without mockery.
“I want to know if you think you are a good soul.” I insisted.
He thought for a time. “I believe myself to be good.”
I did not need to be a truth-teller to know that he genuinely believed it.
“Then, once again you have muddled my training schedule considerably.”
“And I am once again sorry,” he laughed.
To my surprise, despite Sen’o and I finishing early, Safi was too, and was waiting patiently for our return.
“Are you sure you’re finished darling?” I asked. She nodded at me then looked immediately at Sen’o.
“You’re so fucked,” she said.
The Elder’s Call. It was finally time to make my entrance. The sect’s centre had eluded me for years. Admittedly my unwillingness to take on disciples with more muscles than brains may have impeded slightly. There was no boundary to cross, no guard to verify my identity. Just a room, filled with books; otherwise known as my idea of a good time.
As the name stated, the room was a calling for Elders with disciples. The room provided no uses for an Elder without disciples hence the lack of security. It was tradition, now that they had proven to me that they were worthy of me, I had to prove that I was worthy of them.
The reason I was excited was quite simple, Elders were known to go through quite an enlightening experience during the Elder’s Call, and I was not only on the cusp of a breakthrough but also close to a soul root progression that had been a long time coming.
I sat amongst the books, they were not techniques, they were research tomes. Designed to aid, not provide answers. My entire life was about to be swallowed by two disciples, my entire reason for coming to Gutura was finally underway.
I meditated until the morning, it would have been difficult to get anything done while I still had no idea who my disciples were. I meditated on my interactions with the kids so far. Their disposition, their countenance, the way they communicated.
I hesitated to form any ideas, stopped myself from developing any preconceived notions, allayed any temptations to predict anything and simply drank them in. Everything that they had shown me.
Finally, it was time for our lesson. I recalled the conversation I’d had with Safi after Sen’o left.
“You are hiding something from me,” I had said, without aggression or malice.
“Not intentionally, I assure you,” she replied quickly. I was not trying to make her defensive and yet had managed to do exactly that.
“I believe that. I just want to know what creature you have managed to tame, it would be in your best interest to share all your progress with me.”
“How do you know that?” she asked with a shocked face, she was not scared that I knew, which was good, it meant she was not intentionally hiding anything from me.
“The trinks I sensed had holes in them.”
“How did you find our trinks?” she asked.
“I didn’t find them, they were delivered,” I answered.
“This progress is not thanks to me, it’s not progress I made by myself, someone else made it for me, and that’s why it is not my first instinct to tell you about it.”
“It’s good to be humble, but in whichever way you may have gained power, it was up to you to learn how to wield it. It seems like you did that?”
“I guess I did…”
“So, are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
A beautiful translucent blue bird momentarily appeared on her shoulder before disappearing. “I’m afraid I can’t maintain it’s form for very long.”
“That’s quite alright darling, it just means we have plenty to work on. From now on, this progress is all yours.”
“Understood, thank you Master.”
“Run along, and take the same advice as Sen’o, you should focus on cultivation. That way you can spend more time with your new bird friend.
I entered my dark and uninviting passage that I had grown used to but now seemed unsuited for the young and joyful disciples I had recently obtained.
Their youthful exuberance was already beginning to rub off on me, my excitement was positively bubbling in comparison to the tranquil haze that shrouded my consciousness as my years in Gutura passed me by.
They were already inside, both bowing as I entered, like the good students I expected. Our training was beginning, and I was more than ready for it.
“To begin, I must establish your level. Whilst one of you sits a written test the other will train with me, then you will switch. Understand?” They nodded of course. “Safi, you take the written test first, I will begin with Sen’o.”
They split up, Safi sat at one of the desks, still shrouded in darkness, and began to write. Sen’o followed me.
I took his hand and sent my qi streaming into him. “Guard it,” I said. Instantly his qi swelled against mine. Of course the amount of qi paled in comparison but his technique and his control was faultless. He even took into consideration my quantity advantage and held me off with far less qi than he had just in case I decided to dip into my reserves.
I wasn’t going to, but considering that he had prepared for it, I decided to humour him. I sent the full wake of my qi crashing into him, he forced the rest of his own qi out of hiding too, desperately fighting me back. His thin wall looked poppable with the slightest jab and yet everything I threw against it was being stopped dead.
I recognised that he was channeling a technique but I could not identify it. I opened my eyes to see sweat tumbling down his brow. I had to do my job properly, for his benefit, and he was clearly not at his limit.
I began to use a technique of my own, a swelling of power coursed through my qi as it trembled to life from an injection of a technique from my soul root. Suddenly my qi was making progress, his qi began to retreat. For a second I thought I had reached his limit and was about to pull out but all of a sudden, my qi was encased.
I tried to move it back before instantly realising my mistake, in the process of moving my qi back, Sen’o had regained the ground that he had lost, and some more. He attempted to push me, which did not work at all. I resumed my fierce onslaught until he gave out. I probed to see where I had conquered only to find that I didn't quite know.
Having never experienced that before, I was more than a little lost, I reigned my qi back into my body and opened my eyes, signalling my loss. Not something I was expecting.
“What happened?” I asked, I could sense the slight smile on his face as he wiped his forehead free of sweat.
“It’s an illusory technique that infects your qi and tricks you into believing that you do not recognise your surroundings. In reality you had conquered most of my internal organs.” My eyebrows shot up.
“Well that is quite spectacular.”
“Thank you,” he said unashamedly.
“After such a resounding loss, I feel a little embarrassed conducting the rest of the tests. Even still, we must continue.” He only nodded. “Then, I would like you to fight me now.”
“My pleasure,” he said cheekily before launching towards me.
“Don’t confuse me for a blind scholar,” I said as I easily countered his first punch and gave him a smack on the wrist as a reprimand.
“I wasn’t,” he said as I realised the wrist I had slapped was rotating quickly away from me and a quite menacing elbow was quickly approaching.
I ducked beneath it and I was glad I did because it whizzed by me at a speed I had not experienced in a long time. I was quick to shake off any awkwardness that came from not fighting for a while, and focused intently on what had quickly become a real and quite stimulating spar.
We traded back and forth, I could tell his body was not enough to keep up with his mind and despite my having to fight defensively at first, as soon as I noticed his fatigue, I played the long game. He recognised my plan and without any doubts, went all out for one last go.
Of course, he lost. I was taller than him and stronger than him. Although, had I a little less brains, I may have lost. Which was all I needed to be shocked once again.
He continued to ace my tests, I conducted a check on his ability to meditate. Flawless. I looked for some insight on his ability to cultivate and progress. Peerless. Everything about him screamed ‘experienced cultivator’ to the point that by the end of it, my ears were ringing and I was about to question my sanity.
“You have probably guessed already...”
“You are not who you say you are.” I said, my focus honed in on everything the boy was saying.
“I am Sen’o, but I am not the same soul that this body was born with.”
“You have possessed a corpse?” I asked, suddenly I was gripped with slight fear.
“I suppose in a rather morbid sense, I have. But I prefer to refer to it as reincarnation.” He spoke as if it were a small thing. Rather it was more of a planet-defying, life-altering revelation that I could not even begin to consider the possibilities of.
“Who is Safi?” I asked. I was worried she was caught up without any idea.
“She knows about me, but she’s a resident on this planet, original soul and everything.”
“Then, who are you?”
“I am Sen’o.”
“I have established that, I would like to know more.”
“I would imagine you do.”
“So you’re not going tell me?” I was beginning to get angry. He chuckled, infuriating me further.
“You’re my Master, of course I am.”
“In what farcical sense am I your Master?”
“It is clear to me now, that we are your first disciples…” he said cryptically.
I took a second to ponder what he meant, for I was treading on unfamiliar ground and allowing my mind some time to catch up was probably a wise decision anyway.
After a while, it clicked. The bond was sacred, regardless of who we are, regardless of where we come from. Status is inconsequential, age even more so. Knowledge is paramount. The fact that he had sworn himself to me was not farcical, it was not a bout to undermine or embarass me. It just meant that what he could learn from me was not combat or technique, but something else entirely.
“What is it you think I can teach you?” I asked. He smiled, clearly I had asked the correct question this time.
“I want to learn about the world, I want to learn about its people and its history. I want to learn about civilisations or sects that stand atop. Most importantly, your customs and taboos. For someone with my soul root, such things are rather important.”
When he put it in such a way I was more than convinced. “You are not from this planet?” I asked.
“I am not, nor have I ever been here in the travels of my previous lives.”
“Lives?” I echoed.
“There were a few, many forgotten, some treasured. It is difficult to speak on as I’m afraid a full recount would take a considerably long time.”
“Are you a good soul?” I asked. He laughed.
“I appreciate your use of words. I have been many things, male, female, creature, races I would not imagine you have ever seen or would believe even if I told you. Soul is probably the only accurate word to describe me now.”
“So, are you a good one?”
“Ah, well that is something you will find out. I will not claim a virtue until it has been tested. But if you ask Chit, or Safi, they would probably tell you that yes, I am a good soul.”
“They are young and naive.”
“From my perspective, so are you,” he said without mockery.
“I want to know if you think you are a good soul.” I insisted.
He thought for a time. “I believe myself to be good.”
I did not need to be a truth-teller to know that he genuinely believed it.
“Then, once again you have muddled my training schedule considerably.”
“And I am once again sorry,” he laughed.
To my surprise, despite Sen’o and I finishing early, Safi was too, and was waiting patiently for our return.
“Are you sure you’re finished darling?” I asked. She nodded at me then looked immediately at Sen’o.
“You’re so fucked,” she said.
