“Since you don’t even know that…” Qing Wei sighed.
“Look,” Qing Wei suddenly flinched.
“There are six stages of cultivation.”
“But the easiest way to explain it — imagine a staircase.”
“A staircase?” Feng Qi asked.
Come to think of it, if the function of the stages really did look like a staircase, then there was a chance that something could be above the sixth stage.
“Yes, a staircase.
You’re on the first stage right now, which means you’re standing on the first step.”
“The second stage will be on the tenth step, and the third on the hundredth.”
It was clear that the steps marked the difference in strength, and possibly not only in strength.
“By that logic the sixth stage will be on the hundred-thousandth step.
But is there anything beyond the sixth stage?” Feng Qi asked.
“So then, now let’s move on to the flame itself,” Qing Wei changed the subject.
Feng Qi understood right away that they would not give him information here just like that.
“Look at Leng Yu.”
After Qing Wei’s words Feng Qi turned toward the bed — Leng Yu was still sitting there in the lotus position and with his eyes closed.
He was turned directly to face them.
In the same instant Feng Qi saw something in the area of Leng Yu’s pancreas.
It was a small blue flame.
And instantly it flared up, now it covered the cavity of the liver as well.
It was a very strange sight — the flame seemed to be inside Leng Yu, yet it was visible from the outside as well.
“Well now…” Feng Qi said aloud.
“Leng Yu is on the third stage, his flame is blue,” Qing Wei said, looking at Leng Yu.
Feng Qi shifted his gaze back to Qing Wei.
“Hm?”
“Right now you’re on the first stage, which means your flame should be orange in color.
Like an ordinary flame.”
That was quite useful information — this way he could find out how strong an opponent was, if he saw his flame.
“So what is this spiritual flame, then?”
“In short — it’s a reflection of the bond between the body and the soul.
But it is brutally bound to the body, as are the stages themselves.”
If he had understood correctly, then the picture had now become more complete — so the soul was only data about potential, while the spiritual flame was both the energy and the consumer of that potential.
Now all that was left for him was to learn about those paths.
“I understand it all, but then how do I find out what path I have?”
In response, all Qing Wei did was take a small cube from the table, one whose size recalled that of a sugar cube.
But unlike a sugar cube, it had a glossy surface and a red tint.
It couldn’t be called either red or maroon; it was more black, but something in it made it red.
“Leng Yu!” Qing Wei half-shouted, tossing the cube toward Leng Yu.
Even though Leng Yu’s eyes were closed, he caught it, which stirred Feng Qi’s interest.
“Watch closely,” Qing Wei sighed.
On Leng Yu’s open right palm was that same cube, Leng Yu extended his right hand straight toward Feng Qi, seemingly so that he could see better. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
In the blink of an eye the cube trembled, and then it began to vanish piece by piece.
But Feng Qi immediately noticed that the cube wasn’t vanishing at all — it was moving.
It was moving straight into the blue flame in Leng Yu’s belly.
When the cube had fully vanished from Leng Yu’s palm, it too, just like the flame, was fully visible in Leng Yu’s belly.
It hung right there, just millimeters from the flame, literally levitating.
But in the end it fell into the blue flame.
In the next instant the fire seemed to rage and split off a small part of itself, which flew higher up the body.
The small flame had already flown past the liver and stopped in the left lung.
“No…
in the heart,” Feng Qi thought.
The small flame had stopped not in the left lung, but in Leng Yu’s heart.
A couple more seconds later, this small blue flame vanished, while the fire in Leng Yu’s belly appeared to grow a little in size.
“Leng Yu has the path of Spirit, and because of this cube the fire stopped in the heart,” said Qing Wei.
“Hey!
Qing Wei, you just revealed my cards just so you know!” Leng Yu objected sarcastically.
At that, Qing Wei only snorted softly.
“In short, you got the gist, right?
if your path is Mind then it goes to the brain, if Strength then the neck, if Will then the back, and Spirit you know yourself.”
“Looks like Qing Wei’s already tired of explaining,” Feng Qi thought.
Qing Wei took a second, identical cube from the table, and threw it to Feng Qi, even though, had she reached out her hand, he could have taken it.
Feng Qi caught the cube, but felt that if he had put his hand a little higher, it would have fallen onto his legs.
“What do I have to do then?” Feng Qi asked.
“In fact it’s hard to explain…” Qing Wei said.
It happens that when a person does one thing so often, the theory simply vanishes from his head, leaving pure experience of what has been lived through with that thing.
“Well in short…
Close your eyes and imag— no, focus!
Yes yes, focus!
focus on the cube.”
“Shouldn’t I first light this fire?” Feng Qi asked.
“Well…
no?…
Agh!
You’ll understand in practice!” Qing Wei replied.
Feng Qi looked at Qing Wei’s face.
She only turned her head toward the window as if hiding herself.
Feng Qi shifted his gaze to Leng Yu sitting on the bed.
All he did was shake his head from side to side, with a sad face and closed eyes.
Knock-knock.
Right away everyone turned toward the door, Leng Yu began to get up from the bed, and Qing Wei from the chair.
Beyond the door was a man in a robe; he was staring intently at Feng Qi.
Feng Qi’s face though, showed nothing; he only looked back at him.
This man was agitated — his pupils were narrowed, and sweat glistened on his face.
Knock-knock.
The man’s face changed when Feng Qi knocked on the wall beside him.
He began to breathe heavily as he looked at Feng Qi.
To an onlooker it might have seemed that he was suffocating.
In an instant, the man broke eye contact falling to his knees.
“Miss Qing Wei!
Master Leng Yu!
The elder is summoning you!” the man shouted.
He was still kneeling at Feng Qi’s feet, until Feng Qi took a step to the right.
“The elder, is it,” Feng Qi noted.
But Feng Qi had evidently frightened him properly — he had come agitated as it was, and because of Feng Qi’s actions he even forgot to add the prefix “young,” to Qing Wei and Leng Yu.
“Feng Qi,” a man’s voice reached Feng Qi’s ears.
He turned his head, and discovered that the source of the voice was Leng Yu.
“Sorry and all, but it looks like this is something important.
Possibly a difficult assignment, one you shouldn’t go on,” Leng Yu declared with a smile.
“You mean to say — sorry Feng Qi!
but we can’t guide you any more!
isn’t that so?” Feng Qi declared with a small laugh.
“Not exactly…” Leng Yu hedged.
Feng Qi turned his head toward the table.
“And what about you Qing Wei?” Feng Qi asked.
“Huh?!”
Feng Qi did not repeat the question; instead, he looked at Qing Wei.
“And I can’t say anything!”
“I see.
Then there’s nothing to be done about it,” said Feng Qi.
“Alright, then Qing Wei and I will be going, and you can try to find out what paths you have,” with those words Leng Yu went out the door together with Qing Wei, walking around the messenger still kneeling there.
But Leng Yu had made a mistake.
“Paths.”
This couldn’t have been a mere slip of the tongue on Leng Yu’s part; he hadn’t made any yet.
That meant the chances that Feng Qi had more than one path were far higher than they had been before this.
Yet Feng Qi looked at the open doorway — the messenger was still kneeling there.
Feng Qi slowly walked up to him and bent down, so that the messenger could see his indifferent face.
Knock-knock.
The messenger immediately got to his feet, and at first he walked quickly out of the room, but then, once he had made certain of something — he ran off as fast as his legs would carry him.
Feng Qi closed the door, took the cube he had put on the table a little while ago and sat down on the bed just as Leng Yu had.