Untitled Space Xianxia - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: How Rumors Get Started

Elder Maria Lopez, one of six bronze core cultivators on all of Fyrion, third in command of The Dragon’s Right Eye’s local operations, kept her face a mask of cold neutrality as the outsider stepped from her office. A shiver ran down her spine as the door closed behind him.

That man was not human. Not anymore.

She’d bought the lie at first, believed he’d somehow learned a technique to mask his spirit before he’d even opened all his meridians. Looking back, the idea was absurd.

What legitimate reason could there be for a beginner to practice such complete stealth? Maria didn’t know of a single member in the entire sect with such flawless shrouding. Even as it’d fought her probe of his meridians, she hadn’t truly sensed his qi, only its resistance. At the time, she’d salivated at the idea of such a powerful technique that someone with as little control as the outlander could learn. Now, she realized the truth.

It wasn’t a technique at all.

It was an enchantment.

Either the soulship or whichever out-system master she served had cast a spell over Cadet Rex’s core. It was the only sensical theory. It explained the completeness of his shroud in contrast to his lack of skill, it explained why he refused to share the technique, and it even explained the venerable ancient’s interest in him.

Caliban Rex wasn’t here for training. Whoever’d masked his qi would’ve made a far better teacher than anyone on Fyrion. He was a science experiment. The soulship had clearly remained in orbit to observe and relay data. The question was, which data?

Maria had two direct clues, both of which pointed in the same direction.

Caliban Rex was dead.

His benefactor had masked his qi to hide the fact it wasn’t his. Either the soulship or her master had imbued a corpse with qi in an attempt to reanimate it, but even the cadets on Fyrion would’ve noticed the foreign qi if they could actually sense it, so the out-system cultivators had hidden their necromantic work for the sake of their unholy experiment.

But something had gone wrong. Whichever spirit they’d bound to the corpse—be it its original soul or one transplanted—had grown loose. No cultivator at Rex’s skill level could project their consciousness. He’d so desperately sought a spirit-anchoring technique because he’d needed one.

Maria shuddered.

A more scientific mind might’ve marveled at the achievement, might’ve thirsted to analyze the bindings and enchantments in place. A human mind quivered in fear.

If the walking corpse could use his master’s qi, what stopped him from stealing qi from sect members? Worse yet, if Rex’s spirit did wander free, his body would make the perfect host for demonic possession.

Maria froze. What if he’d already been possessed? What if the experiment wasn’t to reanimate a corpse, but to unleash a demon on a helpless sect and see what happened?

“Call Elder Ber—” She stopped. “Cancel that.” Her holopad closed.

She couldn’t bring this to Berkowitz yet. The head elder would laugh her out of her office just before scolding her for daring to speak ill of their visiting ancient. She needed more information.

The abomination’s arrival couldn’t have been an independent event. Too much else was going on. In the past month alone, three passing freighters and an out-system refueling station had gone dark. Reports from the recovery crews should begin trickling in over the next couple of days. The corpse claimed to have been a vac-welder. He must’ve come from one of those freighters.

Two nearby stars had also disappeared from the night sky, but while each was close enough to warrant concern, neither could be reached within a decade’s travel. They seemed unlikely to be related. Void beast attacks happened.

Maria sent out a message to each of Rex’s instructors, requesting they report on any odd behavior they noted in him or the students around him. She sent a similar request to the mortal staff in his housing complex. If he so much as looked at a sect member threateningly, she wanted to know.

Surveillance in place and salvage info still pending, Maria could only wait. In the meantime, she’d continue to play the part of the dismissive elder. She couldn’t let Rex or the soulship know she was on to them, but she couldn’t in good conscious help the insult to nature. It was in the sect’s best interests that Caliban Rex remain weak, unable to pose a threat until she could gather enough evidence to prove her theory.

He’d just have to think she resented his drain on resources, that she didn’t care enough about his progression to offer help. It’d mean making concessions, of course, but she could still bleed him of as many resources as possible in exchange.

And you certainly wouldn’t catch her complaining about a few extra focus room hours.

——

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I never said it was a good idea,” I answered over my shoulder as I reached into the shower to turn it on. “I said it’s my only idea. We’ve been over this.”

Xavier leaned against the back wall, fully clothed. “I don’t know, newcomer. I’m not trained in spiritual triage.”

“Xav, I’ve been here a week. You can stop calling me newcomer.”

Oh yeah, welcome to one-week-later. I figured five days of repetitive classes and slow improvements weren’t worth describing, so we’re skipping to the good stuff.

Much as I’d like to pretend I’d needed that time to properly prepare for opening my skin meridian or to build trust with Xavier, in truth I’d only waited so my focus room hours would refresh. I’d spent both of last week’s, and I needed the capital.

“Until someone newer arrives, you’re the newcomer,” Xavier countered. “You should really use a focus room for this. They have medical staff on hand. What if you run out of qi?”

I grinned and glanced inward at my near-overflowing center. “That won’t be a problem.”

Xavier sighed. “Are you going to tell me why you seem to have an endless supply of qi?”

“I would if I knew,” I answered. “You’ve noticed by now my qi works differently from yours. People can’t sense it; it slows my breath and heartrate rather than quickening them; it cools me down instead of warming me up. In a lot of ways, it’s the inverse of yours. While yours energizes, mine calms. While yours heats, mine chills. Where yours is scarce…”

“Yours is plentiful,” Xavier finished for me. “How do I get some?”

I let out a sigh. “You don’t. I had exactly the right epiphany at exactly the right time in exactly the right place, and even then I had to get remarkably lucky to survive. It’d be impossibly dangerous to replicate even if you weren’t already…”

“Already what?” Xavier asked as I trailed off. “Already a cultivator? You think only mortals can—” He cut off as realization blossomed on his face. “You are a corpse, aren’t you?”

I scowled and looked down at myself. “I don’t look dead.”

“But you feel dead,” Xavier said. “That’s what it took, wasn’t it? Exactly the right time was exactly when your natural qi left your body. Someone drained you and then filled you up with this weird inverted qi. Who? Was it the soulship?”

“I’ll have you know I reanimated myself, thank you very much,” I mocked offense. “Seriously, I got lucky. I got very lucky. And even if I knew they’d survive, I wouldn’t wish what I went through on anyone.”

Xavier raised an eyebrow. “For infinite qi? Seems like a good deal to me.”

A cloud of steam hazed the bathroom air, the shower water very much hot enough to use, but I couldn’t very well end the conversation there. What was a few extra minutes of wasted water on top of the hours I was about to spend opening a meridian?

I looked through the steam to meet Xavier’s gaze. “Every single person I’ve known for more than a month is either dead or so far away they may as well be. I’m struggling to keep up with a class full of ten-year-olds, my instructors actively resent my presence, and my neighbors can’t decide if I’m a worthless mortal or a dangerous foreigner. My life isn’t exactly—”

“And you get panic attacks,” Xavier interrupted.

“Panic attack,” I corrected, “singular.”

Xavier sighed. “My apologies. If you say this qi of yours wasn’t worth the price, then it wasn’t. Whatever happened to you is yours to keep or share. I won’t press you to relive it.”

“Thanks.” I swallowed. “Remember our deal.”

“An hour in a focus room for my supervision and silence,” Xavier rattled off. “Your secret is safe.”

Despite his tendency to shout things to the high heavens, I trusted Xavier. There was an earnest sincerity to the man I couldn’t help but admire, even when it got obnoxious. Hell, when I first told him all this, he’d called me a perfect sidekick for his great ascension. The good news was, legendary heroes didn’t rat out their friends, so sidekick or otherwise, I could depend on him.

I nodded my thanks and stepped into the shower, tossing my towel over the door as I did. I kept a pair of underwear on for Xavier’s benefit, happy to ruin the garment to spare him the terror of seeing my pasty ass. Originally I’d thought to close the shower door, but that would’ve defeated the purpose. He couldn’t sense what my qi was doing, so he’d have to watch my body.

I evened my breathing and sank into my center. A brimming pool of perfectly still, liquid qi greeted me. One by one I pulled strands from the reservoir, feeding them into each of my open meridians. My heart rate slowed. My body cooled. My breaths came deeper and more stable.

As Chrissy’s exercises and details in the sect’s database outlined, I crafted a needle and thread from a tiny fraction of the remaining qi and slowly pushed it into the qi pathway at the middle of my back.

Expected pain washed over me as my skin cried out against me. Ants crawled down my back. Flames licked at the soles of my feet. Ice bit at my fingertips. Needles danced up my chest. Every form of protest my skin could manage, it assaulted me with as the cleansing wreaked havoc upon it. I pressed on. I’d felt worse.

The pain ended at my skin, after all. It didn’t threaten to kill me. It didn’t shatter my focus. It itched something awful, but compared to heart failure, compared to a qi-infused bone through my blood meridian, this was nothing.

No wonder they gave this meridian to the kids.

You all are well familiar with how this process works by now, so I’ll cut to the chase. I was about two thirds of the way through bolstering the qi flow, deep in cultivation, all sorts of nasty gunk oozing from my pores, when an unfamiliar voice drifted in to my awareness.

“What’s going on?” the voice asked. It sounded boyish and full of false confidence, a combination that screamed teenager in my head.

“We’re just—” Xavier tried to explain.

“Is he opening a meridian?” the teen cut him off. “In the showers? Threads, are you insane?”

Oh, that reminds me. Holy fuck did the cultivator world need my help. Not one of them had the faintest idea of how to swear. Threads? Seriously? Threads? Amateurs.

“Who are you?” Xavier asked.

“I’m Nick Vesper. I… joined the sect yesterday.”

“A newcomer!” I didn’t see it, but Xavier slapped the kid’s back loud enough for me to hear. “Welcome! Remind me to challenge you to a duel as soon as we’re done here.”

Nick audibly gulped. “I should go get—”

“Nonsense! You clearly came to take a shower. You should shower.”

I tuned their conversation out once I knew Xavier had no intention of letting the kid leave. I’d have to talk to him once I finished, but I could worry about that later. I couldn’t stop now.

I pushed and I pushed, cycling faster and faster until the last of the impurities oozed out and the qi flowed freely. I don’t know for sure how long it took, but I knew my watchers had been paying attention, because the moment my qi ran through an open skin meridian, the kid’s voice echoed through the bathroom.

“Threads, is he okay?”

“I’m fine.” My eyes shot open to find Xavier and a sixteen-year-old boy with curly, sandy blond hair both kneeling in front of me.

Nick gaped. “You look like a corpse.”

“So people keep telling me.”

“Not feel,” Xavier said, “look.”

I looked down at myself, still cycling qi through my newly opened meridian. Sure enough, my skin had gone deathly pale, nearing blue in some places.

Xavier touched my arm. “You’re cold.”

I scowled. “I’m sitting under a stream of hot water.”

Xavier nodded. “And you’re cold. Like a corpse.”

“I’m pretty sure even corpses get warm when you run hot water over them.”

“So you’re more corpse-like than a corpse?” Xavier asked.

“A hyper-corpse,” Nick added, as if that made any sense at all.

“What I am is fine,” I said, standing up and ceasing my cycling. Before my eyes color returned to my skin. “Guess I’ll need to be careful about cycling that one in public.” I stretched my neck. “Unless I want to scare the shit out of someone, I guess.”

Unable to get to my back from his position in front of me, Xavier slapped my shoulder. “A haunting visage indeed!”

Nick’s eyes flashed frantically between me and Xavier. “You’re just… okay with this? His meridian clearly didn’t open correctly. He needs help.”

“I’m Cal, by the way,” I introduced myself, hoping to defuse the tension.

“N-Nick.”

“Well, Nick, what I need is for you not to tell anyone what you’ve seen here. We’re not breaking any rules—I checked—and I’m very clearly alive, but you’re about to start the kind of rumor people don’t easily escape.”

“But I have to—”

I sighed. “I’ll give you a focus room hour.”

That got his attention. His eyes shot open as he sputtered for a few moments before managing a coherent, “Really?”

“Really. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut. If I don’t get in any trouble, maybe there’ll be more hours coming your way down the line, but that doesn’t happen if I get kicked out of the sect, got it?”

I’ve never seen a man nod so furiously. “I got it.”

I smiled at him. “Good. Now, if you two don’t mind, I’ve got a meridian’s worth of gunk to clean off and only an hour until dinner.”

Nick skedaddled promptly, apparently forgetting the shower he’d originally intended to take. I understood. I wouldn’t want to spend time in a bathroom that smelled like this one did either.

Xavier paused to flash me one more concerned look but didn’t comment before he too took his leave, no doubt to track down and challenge Nick to a duel.

I shut the door behind him and showered in peace.

Nick’s appearance had been unfortunate. I could handle losing my status as the third floor’s only resident, but I hated having to bribe the kid. They’d only just refreshed and already I’d run out of focus room hours for the week. That meant if I needed information from Charlotte or instruction from Elder Lopez, I’d have to wait.

I resolved to talk to him later. I’d have an easier time trusting Nick if I got to know him, and even if he managed to escape the qi-sparse third floor, for the time being I had unique access to the sect’s newest member. Maybe I could swoop in and make a friend before this place’s cutthroat nature took hold.

My thoughts wandered on to my next problem as I lathered and re-lathered my hair with the specialty shampoo.

Cycling my skin meridian made me look like a corpse. Logically, I understood why it might lighten and cool my skin. Normal qi made people’s skin warmer and brighter, of course mine made me pallid and cold. I just hadn’t necessarily realized what else looked pallid and cold.

The only place I imagined it could be a problem was cycling class. I supposed I could practice the cycling methods that involved the skin meridian on my own time, and spend Chrissy’s class working on other meridians, but I’d still have to cycle in front of her to advance to the next class. I let out a breath. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

I wrapped myself in my towel for the walk back to my room, tossing my ruined underwear into the garbage chute on the way. Moments later I emerged fully dressed and smelling faintly of lavender, an entire eight minutes early for dinner.

I opted to spend those extra minutes chatting with the other friend I hoped to make—the mortal that manned the reception desk.

“Arthur!” I greeted him, leaning comfortably with an elbow on his chest-high circular desk. “I didn’t know we had a new resident.”

“My apologies, sir—Cal,” he corrected himself. “I assumed you knew. I thought you and Cadet Honchel went upstairs together to challenge him as Cadet Honchel does all new recruits.”

“Don’t worry about it. I-uh-shouldn’t have assumed privacy in that bathroom.”

Arthur nodded. “If you and Cadet Honchel require privacy, it can only be guaranteed in his or your quarters.”

“If we… what?” I scowled. “No. No. It’s not like that. I’m not… Xavier isn’t… actually, he might be. I wouldn’t know. Wait, nevermind. Pretty sure the only thing Xavier’s attracted to is himself. Don’t worry. We’re not—”

“It’s alright, Cal.” Arthur smiled warmly. “I know cultivation makes emotions run hot. You don’t have to explain yourself.”

“Right, but we’re not—” I sighed. “You’re not going to believe anything I say here, are you?”

“I wouldn’t dare accuse a sect member of lying,” Arthur said, his voice calm and political but his eyes gleaming with mischief.

I exhaled. There’d be no winning this conversation, so I opted not to play. “What can you tell me about the new arrival?”

“I know he’s younger than most when they first join. That could work in his favor or it could isolate him. Whether or not he makes any friends will depend on how charismatic he is and how fast he progresses. He could thrive, he could flounder.”

“That… is really useful insight. Thanks, Arthur. How come nobody else presses you for information?”

“Most cultivators assume they know better,” he explained. “And those that don’t wouldn’t be caught dead spending time with a mortal.”

“Eh, fuck those guys,” I said.

Arthur let out a soft laugh before he caught himself and scowled at me.

I grinned. “Everyone’s way too serious around here. Someone should do something about that.”

Arthur paled. “Please don’t.”

I laughed, full and boisterous in contrast to his stifled chuckle. “Don’t worry; I’ve got more important things to worry about than a critical humor deficiency.” I let out a breath. “Like dinner! Dinner is more important. Take care, Arthur. Try laughing sometime!”

“Enjoy your meal, Cal. And don’t worry.” He winked at me. Seriously, he fucking winked. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

I groaned as I walked away. A benefit I hadn’t realized I’d enjoyed back on roofie was that if your best friend was your bother, nobody accused you of boinking each other. I’d been here a week and already somebody had seen me and Xavier sneak into a bathroom together.

At least that rumor was ultimately harmless. I wouldn’t have to hand out more focus room hours to keep Arthur quiet. On the grand scale of things, I figured ‘people think you’re fucking your friend’ and ‘people think you’re a walking corpse’ didn’t really compare. The latter would’ve probably ended in me leaving the sect, while worst case the former made it a bit harder to ask women out.

I could live with that. Like I said, more important things to worry about.

All in all, I headed to dinner with my head held high. It’d been a productive day. Classes aside, I was down two focus room hours and up an opened meridian and a potential friend. I counted that as a win.

I found Xavier in the mess hall at our usual spot—which was really Charlotte’s usual spot, at which she tolerated our presence. She’d been slow warming up to us, but progress had been made. Apparently even the daughter of the sect’s savior was susceptible to bribery. Still, she let out a quiet breath as I sat across from her.

Moments later, a fourth tray landed on our table. I looked up to find a certain fresh-faced teenager standing over it.

“Can I, um…” Nick stammered. “Can I sit here?”

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