When Anji finally woke up from the weird dream, she still felt strangely upset at the old golden dragon. The little girl deemed it irrational, so she soon replaced that feeling with enthusiasm for a new day. Although it was only one out of the twenty meridians, Anji had already established the most difficult first step. All she had to do was repeat this nineteen more times for each meridian with her teacher.
The sky was still dark because the sun was not up yet. However, Anji was too awake to fall back asleep. Her shifu would wake her up soon, so she decided to make her bed and tidy the room up a little before washing up. Maybe she could help to prepare breakfast and forage for ingredients.
As Anji got busy with chores, she noticed how much energy she was brimming with. Was this the miracle created by laying the foundations of a meridian path?
From the other room in the hut, Yan Ping wondered what her student was up to. After expanding so much energy yesterday trying to smoothen out Anji’s chaotic energy while she slept, the blind cultivator was exhausted. However, she was happy to learn how energetic Anji felt. Perhaps it was alright to let Anji try and cultivate today, opening a new meridian path by herself. It would be difficult but not impossible. After all, Anji could now store energy in her Tai Yin Meridian.
Getting up from her meditative position, Yan Ping grabbed her staff. It was too early to relax around her student. The sun was not up yet, but already, Anji had gotten herself into a new sort of trouble. Raising children wasn’t an easy job. It usually took an entire village to raise one child. Unfortunately, there was only one old and blind woman in this hut.
"What are you doing so early in the morning?" Yan Ping finally located the child in the backyard.
Startled by her teacher’s presence, Anji let out a little scream of surprise.
Despite being able to sense Anji’s presence with stronger qi circulating in her body, Yan Ping could not understand what Anji was doing with the basins.
"What was the loud crash earlier?"
Looking at the emptied basin, Anji wondered how she should explain the accident. Ultimately, she decided to go with the truth and bite the bullet. A mistake was a mistake, and she would not shy away from consequences. It was a lesson for her.
"I thought I would do the laundry before the sun rose and was trying to refill the water when I accidentally tipped the bucket. Sorry for waking you, shifu."
Sighing, Yan Ping simply told Anji to clean up the mess. She would prepare breakfast.
"Laundry is easier done in a pool of flowing water and some ash," she informed. "If you bring it to the river or a flowing pond, it’s easier than washing it in a basin."
Nodding, Anji decided to heed her teacher’s advice to get a pouch full of ash and gather all the laundry that needed washing. She would use the bamboo basket to carry them. Wet clothes tended to be heavier, so she decided to carry the washing line. There should be trees nearby to set up the washing line. As long as Anji remembered to collect them before sundown, it should be fine.
As Yan Ping left to prepare meals for the day, Anji tidied up the messy backyard. She wondered if she could activate the simpler spells on these objects now that she had a functional meridian pathway. It wasn’t a lot of qi, but her teacher did not mention anything about quantity to activate a spell.
Tempted to try, Anji wondered if she needed permission for this. Eventually, she decided to seek forgiveness instead of permission and secretly gathered energy into her Tai Yin meridian, circling the little energy she gathered from the atmosphere into her arms. Then, she focused the little threads of energy towards her thumb and held them against the spell circle.
Pushing energy out of her body was easy. Pushing her energy out of her body and into another object was slightly harder as the energy did not dissipate. Instead, it was met with slight resistance.
Anji did not know why she was unable to conjure water until her teacher snuck up behind her again.
"You’re not activating the right part of the seal. Where is your focus? Is it on the strokes of the character or on the rune as a picture?"
Breaking concentration, Anji broke into a hiccup. Of all the times she had been caught doing something weird, this had to be the worst. It wasn’t her first rodeo breaking the rules or trying something sneaky behind an adult’s back. However, it was Anji’s first time not being scolded for it. Yan Ping was a weird adult, giving guidance instead of a lecture.
Hearing that guilty voice, Yan Ping knew that this method would already be more effective than any scolding. According to Mingfeng and Wanting, Anji was someone who constantly defied her parents sneakily. Unlike her brother with the Yang Body, who rebelled openly all the time, her older sister, who was a compliant law-abiding people pleaser, or her scholarly brother, who was a manipulative pacifist, Anji was like a stubborn hamster who thought it was doing a great job hiding from the cat while leaving its paw prints behind. The girl has many years ahead if she thought she could fool the grown-ups.
"If you wanted to break the rules, you shouldn’t sound so scared or guilty. After all, you’re willing to bear all the risks and consequences that come with it. Don’t be mistaken. On the Mystical Qilin Mountain, only the capable get to make the rules. We don’t follow tradition as much as others think we do. The votes of practice are all according to logic. If you can prove your point, nobody else can say that you’re wrong. I’m sure you decided to do this for a good reason." ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novel·fıre·net
Stunned by the difference in culture between the Celestial Dragon Sect and the Mystical Qilin Sect, Anji started to understand her shifu a little better. Suddenly, she no longer felt afraid to express her ideas.
"Anji understands," she smiled. "I was trying to test if I could use the established Tai Yin Meridian to activate a seal. Gathering energy in the body and releasing it into the atmosphere is easy. However, injecting it into an object or a spell is met with a lot of resistance."
Humming in approval at Anji’s observations, Yan Ping decided that it might be time for Anji to learn the more intermediate concepts of spells. Most people find it easy to activate a spell at a basic level because energy usually travels to the path of least resistance. However, in Anji’s case, the path of least resistance is to flow from the environment to inside her body. Utilising her gathered energy would be slightly trickier.
"Normally, people activate spells easily, even without a high cultivation base. The body is full of energy that overflows and will easily pour out into an empty spell. In your case, this method won’t work. The more powerful spell casters focus on the character strokes of a rune instead of the rune or even spell array if the caster is a novice. The objective is to fill the spell full of qi and hope it activates correctly according to what was created."
Hearing the lengthy explanation, Anji looked at the basin and wondered how she could use spells. She thought she could cultivate like her siblings if she worked hard enough to create all twenty meridian pathways. Yet, Yan Ping’s explanation made it seem more complex.
"For now, leave it. I will do the laundry for today. Eat your breakfast and read the new book I left for you on the table."
Perking up, Anji thanked her teacher and dashed to the hut. Yan Ping heard her little footsteps grow further away and sighed. She just wanted to rest. However, Yan Ping had to do them without the other disciples, who would normally handle menial chores. She could not rely on Anji because the girl might get funny ideas.
"It’s not easy raising a child..."