Spirit 1.2
Spirit 1.2
The flustered Panacea quickly tried to escape after citing the need to get back home, as Taylor was fully healed already.
"We will meet again. I will find you in three days' time, so that I can begin to repay the debt I owe you for saving me tonight."
"You don't have to repay anything, I don't need a reward for healing."
"Even so, I wish to repay you. At the very least, please allow me to heal you as you have done for me," said Taylor.
"Heal me? You can heal too?" Panacea's curiosity came back in full force.
"Not right now. It will take me three more days to recover enough before I can perform any healing,"
"But you're not a parahuman…are you?" The parahuman biology expert could not deny what she felt during the shared senses, but she also knew that all parahumans had a common brain feature that Taylor lacked. The two facts could not be reconciled, unless Taylor had a Stranger power to fool her own.
Taylor's eyes twinkled in amusement. "I am neither a parahuman nor a regular mortal, but it would be difficult to explain what I am without first explaining many other things. If you are interested in learning, I am willing to teach you."
'Teach me? She's a Trump too??' Panacea was alarmed. What if the so-called spirit sense was a way to Master her? There was a known Trump and Master called Teacher in the Birdcage that could give other people powers.
"I'll think about it, thanks. I really should get going now." She stepped back.
"Very well. You don't need to decide now. I will heal you regardless, and you may seek me whenever you wish."
Panacea nodded and turned, leaving without providing contact information. Taylor watched her and knew that the healer had no intention of taking up her offer, but that was of no consequence.
Taylor didn't particularly need a disciple. And as for the healing…normally the spirit sense was not advanced enough during Purification stage to accurately track spiritual or qi signatures, but because Taylor projected it directly into Panacea and touched her spirit sea, that wouldn't be a problem for her.
O O O
Hours passed in silence as Taylor sat in meditative pose and continuously performed the motions instructed in the scripture. Her hands were raised in front of her abdomen, curled over each other as if holding an invisible ball of energy between them.
The act of drawing starlight was very quick, but true cultivation was no easy task. Even as her body was healed, she needed to seek control over the star essence and her own qi, using external motions to guide the flow because her spirit sense could not control them directly.
That was a fundamental component of the Purification stage.
In the general theory of cultivation, it was said that Purification was still a preparatory stage on the path to seeking the Dao.
Every aspiring cultivator had to study intensively and practice meditation both moving and still. To realize the truth that the Dao existed in all things, to be enlightened in the duality of motion and stillness, and recognize the mysterious Dao of the twofold mystery.
Only when a cultivator had sufficiently grasped the nature of the world and themselves would they finally be able to gather their spirit sea and complete Spirit Forming. Those who lacked even a Spirit could not perceive the Dao at all – they could at best be mortals aware of the word and vernacular definition of the Dao.
Next, it was necessary to centre the cultivator within the Dao. The orthodox way was to link with a star, but there were other esoteric ways Taylor was not familiar with. Some cultivators used volcanos, oceans, forests, or other earthly phenomena. This step was called Star Designation or Foundation.
Finally the cultivator would build up essence and begin to purify the physical self. This was known as Essence Cleansing, and it was possible to accomplish with earthly energies as well as starlight.
The completion of all three steps of the Purification stage would give the cultivator the ability to consciously control qi with their spirit, expand the spirit sense, and break through mortal physical limits.
Taylor was still in the last step. Merely allowing the star essence to cleanse her body was not sufficient. If she wanted to continue cultivating efficiently the next night, the star essence had to integrate and settle properly in her body.
She slept only three hours and woke in the morning. After Danny gave her a long hug, she was released from the hospital.
She was given a doctor's note to take a week off school for recovery purposes and health monitoring.
On the way back home, Danny continuously glanced at her, hoping she would be willing to tell him everything, but she stayed silent and he didn't push her.
Danny made breakfast and they ate in silence.
"Taylor, I know it must be hard for you, but I want you to know that I'm here to listen if you need me. I know I haven't been a good father to you, but I love you and I want to help. We are going to find out who did this, and we'll make things right, I promise," he said.
Taylor looked at him with an unchanging expression. After her meditation last night, her emotions were back under control.
She knew that she could not blame Danny for his failures. He might be her dad, but he was only a mortal.
"I know who did it," she said.
Danny's eyes widened, but his taut face relaxed in relief. He had thought Taylor was still in shock and unresponsive.
"You do? Who was it? Once we talk to the police we'll send them to juvie!" He was already told yesterday that detectives would be visiting them sometime today after Taylor was healed.
"Sophia Hess, Madison Clements…and Emma Barnes."
"What? Emma Barnes? But I thought she was your best friend! How could she?!"
And so Taylor told him of the year long bullying, and Emma's betrayal. Danny listened with a growing inner rage.
"So that bastard Alan's been protecting her? I really misjudged him," Danny said quietly, his rage turning into a cold fury. His fist was clenched on the dining table as he resisted the urge to smash something.
"I doubt that Alan knows of it, or the rest of the Barneses."
"But he should have known! He's her father! And we were practically one family! And why didn't the school report any of this to me?"
"Emma is a very good liar. There was never any solid evidence, so the school didn't believe me. Even the locker, I doubt anybody will come forward to be a witness. The rest of the students are either part of the bullying or too scared of becoming victims themselves. The investigation won't go anywhere."
"But that's…we can't just let them get away with this! I'll sue the school! They're still responsible for letting it happen!"
Taylor put her hand over Danny's shaking fist.
"Dad. You don't have to worry about it. They won't get away with it. I know what to do, so please trust me."
"Taylor…you shouldn't have to handle this yourself. I'm your dad. It's my responsibility."
"I know. But, can you wait a little? I want to talk to Emma myself and find out the truth. Give me a week. Then you can think about suing the school."
Danny saw the strength in Taylor's eyes and decided to trust her. "Alright," he said with a sigh.
O O O
As Taylor predicted, the detectives were not optimistic. She showed them her journal, but they shook their head and simply said, "We want to help, but there's just not enough hard evidence for this case. The school won't say anything, the students aren't coming forward, it's just your word against theirs. We'll keep trying…but unless someone fesses up, it doesn't look good."
Danny almost shouted at them but Taylor held him back. The detectives weren't being difficult, it was the case that was difficult.
The next couple of days passed quickly as Taylor continued to privately cultivate and look up the existence of cultivation on Earth-Bet.
She had known about qi, chi or ki, as it was variously called before, but she had always thought it was metaphorical. Martial artists and eastern medicine traditions spoke of it, but there had never been any real evidence for it in the scientific community, not like parahuman powers.
But with half her soul coming from a world where cultivation was very much real, she decided to take a closer look, and see if there was anything hidden. It was something of particular interest because she already knew that spiritual energies were much more sparse on Earth-Bet, and spirit beasts did not exist.
This meant that a great deal of alchemical recipes would lack the appropriate ingredients.
It was not a fatal problem, as elixirs were only supplementary, not required for cultivation, but it was definitely an annoyance that would slow down her cultivation speed.
What she found through researching at the library and on the internet was intriguing.
There were ancient texts that contained many of the same concepts she was familiar with. Some could even be conceivably used as a basic cultivation manual. Other texts had even specific techniques which she had learned, such as the Nine Needles Art that was found in the Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.
The issue with these was that there were missing descriptions of certain aspects of cultivation that made the instructions highly ineffective.
Nowhere did she find anything about how to complete Spirit Forming or establishing the destiny link, for example, or the fact that those not yet in the Meditation stage simply couldn't control qi.
Certain movements such as in Tai Ji Quan could certainly cause qi cycling internally, but simply cycling qi itself was not cultivation. Without connecting to the greater Dao and mixing energies to create essence, the benefits of cycling qi were minimal.
And if you couldn't expel qi externally into the needles, acupuncture could at best manipulate only the nervous system, and at worst cause serious damage.
On the other hand, this suggested that there may have genuinely been some cultivators in the past or even now.
But as it was, it could only be an idle curiosity. None of it helped her find more suitable ingredients, and any other cultivators who couldn't even use qi properly were far less of a threat to her than capes.
The third night after her rebirth, she was secretly out of the house and standing close to edge of the docks, overseeing the ocean.
The lightly falling snowflakes of winter grew in size and speed.
Were she a cultivator reaching the peak of Purification for the first time, she would have to exhaust herself until her meridians were forcefully opened.
However, her meridians were already opened when her body was strained to its limits in the locker and she was on the edge of death.
Therefore, to break through, all she needed was to finish Essence Cleansing.
Far away, the currents of the sea shifted slightly.
Once again the starlight energy filtered into her body. Star essence condensed and flowed through her, enhancing her body.
All of her Twelve Principal Meridians were channeling the star essence furiously and circulating qi into the Eight Profound Meridians.
The Absolute Yin was a type of physique that was both a blessing and a curse. It was the highest possible form of Pure Yin, the quality of such a level that it was "absolute". Similar to the corresponding opposite Pure Yang, a Pure Yin body possessed meridians that specially channeled yin energy at an extraordinary efficiency.
Sheer cold swept through the coast towards Brockton Bay, and a blizzard formed.
Dao was split into Yin and Yang, two concepts borne of the same origin. All things were possessed of both yin and yang qualities; qi and essence were no exception. Yet, while different, they were also the same. What is yin is also yang, and what is yang is also yin. The two only differed by observation and not by nature.
Taylor's Absolute Yin let her cultivate at an incredible speed, but it was also a terrible weakness.
The Heavens demand balance in all things, and one with such potential to break the balance could not be allowed.
That was her curse.
Her fate.
Clouds ran over each other as a storm of hail and frost attacked the docks.
Despite the wide area of destruction, Taylor was clearly the target, and she was forced to dance through the ridiculous soccer ball sized hail crashing down, each landing with enough force to shatter the ground, leaving small craters in their wake.
Frozen snowflakes cut across her skin furiously and inches of snow on the ground gathered within minutes of the storm appearing.
Suddenly she was struck by a bolt of lightning.
Moving at almost 1/3rd the speed the light, the bolt was unavoidable for Taylor's current level of cultivation.
The lightning shocked through her body, hit the ice and snow, and flashed through the whole area as several more bolts joined it.
Taylor's skin was melting from the extreme heat, her internal organs only resisting with star essence and qi.
"AHHHHH!" She screamed in pain but the sound was drowned out by the thunder that followed the lightning.
If another cultivator saw this, they would be stupefied by the scale of the heavenly tribulation of a cultivator who was merely breaking through to Meditation.
Not only was heavenly tribulation highly unusual to appear at all for this stage, it was not supposed to be so strong if it did appear. This was already close to a true heavenly tribulation at the end of the Meditation stage, except the lightning was only regular lightning.
When the lightning stopped, Taylor fell to her knees. The ground was blackened for a hundred meters in diameter, and nearby building structures had been devastated. She had specifically picked this abandoned docks area because she knew what might happen.
Yet tired as she was, she had survived and her meridians were finally advanced enough to bind to her spirit sense.
The qi in her body responded to her will and flooded every damaged organ, guiding the star essence.
More starlight energy streamed into her, the quantity an order of magnitude greater than before when her qi could not be controlled.
Star essence was crystallized and integrated rapidly, and even more qi was generated in her meridians to repeat the cycle, and her whole body glowed in an ethereal aura. Black dust dispersed to the air from her skin. It was impossible to know if it was ash created by the lightening, or some other impurity within her body that was expelled.
She stood back up and flexed her muscles, reveling in the comforting presence of her qi.
Purification was complete.
The flustered Panacea quickly tried to escape after citing the need to get back home, as Taylor was fully healed already.
"We will meet again. I will find you in three days' time, so that I can begin to repay the debt I owe you for saving me tonight."
"You don't have to repay anything, I don't need a reward for healing."
"Even so, I wish to repay you. At the very least, please allow me to heal you as you have done for me," said Taylor.
"Heal me? You can heal too?" Panacea's curiosity came back in full force.
"Not right now. It will take me three more days to recover enough before I can perform any healing,"
"But you're not a parahuman…are you?" The parahuman biology expert could not deny what she felt during the shared senses, but she also knew that all parahumans had a common brain feature that Taylor lacked. The two facts could not be reconciled, unless Taylor had a Stranger power to fool her own.
Taylor's eyes twinkled in amusement. "I am neither a parahuman nor a regular mortal, but it would be difficult to explain what I am without first explaining many other things. If you are interested in learning, I am willing to teach you."
'Teach me? She's a Trump too??' Panacea was alarmed. What if the so-called spirit sense was a way to Master her? There was a known Trump and Master called Teacher in the Birdcage that could give other people powers.
"I'll think about it, thanks. I really should get going now." She stepped back.
"Very well. You don't need to decide now. I will heal you regardless, and you may seek me whenever you wish."
Panacea nodded and turned, leaving without providing contact information. Taylor watched her and knew that the healer had no intention of taking up her offer, but that was of no consequence.
Taylor didn't particularly need a disciple. And as for the healing…normally the spirit sense was not advanced enough during Purification stage to accurately track spiritual or qi signatures, but because Taylor projected it directly into Panacea and touched her spirit sea, that wouldn't be a problem for her.
O O O
Hours passed in silence as Taylor sat in meditative pose and continuously performed the motions instructed in the scripture. Her hands were raised in front of her abdomen, curled over each other as if holding an invisible ball of energy between them.
The act of drawing starlight was very quick, but true cultivation was no easy task. Even as her body was healed, she needed to seek control over the star essence and her own qi, using external motions to guide the flow because her spirit sense could not control them directly.
That was a fundamental component of the Purification stage.
In the general theory of cultivation, it was said that Purification was still a preparatory stage on the path to seeking the Dao.
Every aspiring cultivator had to study intensively and practice meditation both moving and still. To realize the truth that the Dao existed in all things, to be enlightened in the duality of motion and stillness, and recognize the mysterious Dao of the twofold mystery.
Only when a cultivator had sufficiently grasped the nature of the world and themselves would they finally be able to gather their spirit sea and complete Spirit Forming. Those who lacked even a Spirit could not perceive the Dao at all – they could at best be mortals aware of the word and vernacular definition of the Dao.
Next, it was necessary to centre the cultivator within the Dao. The orthodox way was to link with a star, but there were other esoteric ways Taylor was not familiar with. Some cultivators used volcanos, oceans, forests, or other earthly phenomena. This step was called Star Designation or Foundation.
Finally the cultivator would build up essence and begin to purify the physical self. This was known as Essence Cleansing, and it was possible to accomplish with earthly energies as well as starlight.
The completion of all three steps of the Purification stage would give the cultivator the ability to consciously control qi with their spirit, expand the spirit sense, and break through mortal physical limits.
Taylor was still in the last step. Merely allowing the star essence to cleanse her body was not sufficient. If she wanted to continue cultivating efficiently the next night, the star essence had to integrate and settle properly in her body.
She slept only three hours and woke in the morning. After Danny gave her a long hug, she was released from the hospital.
She was given a doctor's note to take a week off school for recovery purposes and health monitoring.
On the way back home, Danny continuously glanced at her, hoping she would be willing to tell him everything, but she stayed silent and he didn't push her.
Danny made breakfast and they ate in silence.
"Taylor, I know it must be hard for you, but I want you to know that I'm here to listen if you need me. I know I haven't been a good father to you, but I love you and I want to help. We are going to find out who did this, and we'll make things right, I promise," he said.
Taylor looked at him with an unchanging expression. After her meditation last night, her emotions were back under control.
She knew that she could not blame Danny for his failures. He might be her dad, but he was only a mortal.
"I know who did it," she said.
Danny's eyes widened, but his taut face relaxed in relief. He had thought Taylor was still in shock and unresponsive.
"You do? Who was it? Once we talk to the police we'll send them to juvie!" He was already told yesterday that detectives would be visiting them sometime today after Taylor was healed.
"Sophia Hess, Madison Clements…and Emma Barnes."
"What? Emma Barnes? But I thought she was your best friend! How could she?!"
And so Taylor told him of the year long bullying, and Emma's betrayal. Danny listened with a growing inner rage.
"So that bastard Alan's been protecting her? I really misjudged him," Danny said quietly, his rage turning into a cold fury. His fist was clenched on the dining table as he resisted the urge to smash something.
"I doubt that Alan knows of it, or the rest of the Barneses."
"But he should have known! He's her father! And we were practically one family! And why didn't the school report any of this to me?"
"Emma is a very good liar. There was never any solid evidence, so the school didn't believe me. Even the locker, I doubt anybody will come forward to be a witness. The rest of the students are either part of the bullying or too scared of becoming victims themselves. The investigation won't go anywhere."
"But that's…we can't just let them get away with this! I'll sue the school! They're still responsible for letting it happen!"
Taylor put her hand over Danny's shaking fist.
"Dad. You don't have to worry about it. They won't get away with it. I know what to do, so please trust me."
"Taylor…you shouldn't have to handle this yourself. I'm your dad. It's my responsibility."
"I know. But, can you wait a little? I want to talk to Emma myself and find out the truth. Give me a week. Then you can think about suing the school."
Danny saw the strength in Taylor's eyes and decided to trust her. "Alright," he said with a sigh.
O O O
As Taylor predicted, the detectives were not optimistic. She showed them her journal, but they shook their head and simply said, "We want to help, but there's just not enough hard evidence for this case. The school won't say anything, the students aren't coming forward, it's just your word against theirs. We'll keep trying…but unless someone fesses up, it doesn't look good."
Danny almost shouted at them but Taylor held him back. The detectives weren't being difficult, it was the case that was difficult.
The next couple of days passed quickly as Taylor continued to privately cultivate and look up the existence of cultivation on Earth-Bet.
She had known about qi, chi or ki, as it was variously called before, but she had always thought it was metaphorical. Martial artists and eastern medicine traditions spoke of it, but there had never been any real evidence for it in the scientific community, not like parahuman powers.
But with half her soul coming from a world where cultivation was very much real, she decided to take a closer look, and see if there was anything hidden. It was something of particular interest because she already knew that spiritual energies were much more sparse on Earth-Bet, and spirit beasts did not exist.
This meant that a great deal of alchemical recipes would lack the appropriate ingredients.
It was not a fatal problem, as elixirs were only supplementary, not required for cultivation, but it was definitely an annoyance that would slow down her cultivation speed.
What she found through researching at the library and on the internet was intriguing.
There were ancient texts that contained many of the same concepts she was familiar with. Some could even be conceivably used as a basic cultivation manual. Other texts had even specific techniques which she had learned, such as the Nine Needles Art that was found in the Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.
The issue with these was that there were missing descriptions of certain aspects of cultivation that made the instructions highly ineffective.
Nowhere did she find anything about how to complete Spirit Forming or establishing the destiny link, for example, or the fact that those not yet in the Meditation stage simply couldn't control qi.
Certain movements such as in Tai Ji Quan could certainly cause qi cycling internally, but simply cycling qi itself was not cultivation. Without connecting to the greater Dao and mixing energies to create essence, the benefits of cycling qi were minimal.
And if you couldn't expel qi externally into the needles, acupuncture could at best manipulate only the nervous system, and at worst cause serious damage.
On the other hand, this suggested that there may have genuinely been some cultivators in the past or even now.
But as it was, it could only be an idle curiosity. None of it helped her find more suitable ingredients, and any other cultivators who couldn't even use qi properly were far less of a threat to her than capes.
The third night after her rebirth, she was secretly out of the house and standing close to edge of the docks, overseeing the ocean.
The lightly falling snowflakes of winter grew in size and speed.
Were she a cultivator reaching the peak of Purification for the first time, she would have to exhaust herself until her meridians were forcefully opened.
However, her meridians were already opened when her body was strained to its limits in the locker and she was on the edge of death.
Therefore, to break through, all she needed was to finish Essence Cleansing.
Far away, the currents of the sea shifted slightly.
Once again the starlight energy filtered into her body. Star essence condensed and flowed through her, enhancing her body.
All of her Twelve Principal Meridians were channeling the star essence furiously and circulating qi into the Eight Profound Meridians.
The Absolute Yin was a type of physique that was both a blessing and a curse. It was the highest possible form of Pure Yin, the quality of such a level that it was "absolute". Similar to the corresponding opposite Pure Yang, a Pure Yin body possessed meridians that specially channeled yin energy at an extraordinary efficiency.
Sheer cold swept through the coast towards Brockton Bay, and a blizzard formed.
Dao was split into Yin and Yang, two concepts borne of the same origin. All things were possessed of both yin and yang qualities; qi and essence were no exception. Yet, while different, they were also the same. What is yin is also yang, and what is yang is also yin. The two only differed by observation and not by nature.
Taylor's Absolute Yin let her cultivate at an incredible speed, but it was also a terrible weakness.
The Heavens demand balance in all things, and one with such potential to break the balance could not be allowed.
That was her curse.
Her fate.
Clouds ran over each other as a storm of hail and frost attacked the docks.
Despite the wide area of destruction, Taylor was clearly the target, and she was forced to dance through the ridiculous soccer ball sized hail crashing down, each landing with enough force to shatter the ground, leaving small craters in their wake.
Frozen snowflakes cut across her skin furiously and inches of snow on the ground gathered within minutes of the storm appearing.
Suddenly she was struck by a bolt of lightning.
Moving at almost 1/3rd the speed the light, the bolt was unavoidable for Taylor's current level of cultivation.
The lightning shocked through her body, hit the ice and snow, and flashed through the whole area as several more bolts joined it.
Taylor's skin was melting from the extreme heat, her internal organs only resisting with star essence and qi.
"AHHHHH!" She screamed in pain but the sound was drowned out by the thunder that followed the lightning.
If another cultivator saw this, they would be stupefied by the scale of the heavenly tribulation of a cultivator who was merely breaking through to Meditation.
Not only was heavenly tribulation highly unusual to appear at all for this stage, it was not supposed to be so strong if it did appear. This was already close to a true heavenly tribulation at the end of the Meditation stage, except the lightning was only regular lightning.
When the lightning stopped, Taylor fell to her knees. The ground was blackened for a hundred meters in diameter, and nearby building structures had been devastated. She had specifically picked this abandoned docks area because she knew what might happen.
Yet tired as she was, she had survived and her meridians were finally advanced enough to bind to her spirit sense.
The qi in her body responded to her will and flooded every damaged organ, guiding the star essence.
More starlight energy streamed into her, the quantity an order of magnitude greater than before when her qi could not be controlled.
Star essence was crystallized and integrated rapidly, and even more qi was generated in her meridians to repeat the cycle, and her whole body glowed in an ethereal aura. Black dust dispersed to the air from her skin. It was impossible to know if it was ash created by the lightening, or some other impurity within her body that was expelled.
She stood back up and flexed her muscles, reveling in the comforting presence of her qi.
Purification was complete.
Last edited:
