16 Light and Shadow

Once, master had gotten drunk.

"They wanted to throw me into the streets because of the color of my qi." His monotoned voice brought chills down her spine.

The aforementioned energy circled his hand; simple movements controlled the bright red particles with an elegance only an expert could be capable of. "For so long, I've envied my brothers and sisters. For being loved, for being cared for, for being superior to me in ways I couldn't change."

He took a long drink from his bottle; eyes closed shut. His shoulders were tensed and a large frown was set on his face. She had seen him angry, she had seen him disappointed, she had seen him proud. She had never seen that expression on him before. It was concerning.

"And all along, it wasn't true." He had buried his head in his hands.

It was the one time her master had told her about his youth; his life before his never-ending studies and adventures. She knew the significance of that particular day, knew how much it bothered him. After the fact, he pretended as if it had never happened at all.

Now, curled up on her own bed, a world away from where that conversation had taken place; Yun Da Xia could not tear her eyes away from the red matter gently moving around her fingers. Her mind was simply too overwhelmed with emotion. It was wonderful and strange all at the same time. She had no idea how she mustered up the energy or the consciousness to clothe herself–somehow she had even remembered to take a vial of the poisoned bathwater before dumping the rest down the drain.

Qi manifestation appeared differently; sometimes it took form in the shape of flames, or sparks, or balls of light. Its color had been determined as the indicator for a person's potential and future capabilities. In the spectrum of which the human eyes could see; those with colors that hailed closer to purple were painstakingly groomed by their clans and sects, while those with colors hailing closer to red were left to scavenge.

Master's energy was colored red. In this world, that meant he would never be as quick as the others in advancing in rank. In a powerful sect, they deemed him a waste of time.

She didn't know how he persevered on his own. Perhaps that brother he wanted her to find had been there to assist him. All she knew, was that when master had attained the peak of a Gold cultivator, he had tampered with the strings of space and time. Then he had found his place on her world and settled there.

The knowledge of her world had given him so much material to study. He had devoted his time to study energy and light; his heart set on proving those people who had abandoned him wrong. Even when he had taken her in, graphs and prisms littered their house. He'd meditate for periods on end, and she'd carry bottles of pills for him to take when he exhausted himself.

She had been ten when he finally attained his Eureka.

His findings meant that the colors of qi manifestation weren't a scale of one's innate weakness or strength. It merely signified the difference in obstacles a cultivator must face.

Simply speaking, those in each division of the color spectrum meant that their way of cultivation was different from the other; with those at the far most opposite of each other– red and purple– being the pinnacles of their respective halves. The difference in technique wasn't vast, but its effects were. Once he understood, her master had gone from a first stage Jade cultivator to the peak of Light in a short span of ten years.

She could achieve that same kind of success now.

Yun Da Xia continued to watch the red around her fingers, feeling a slight ache stem from her abdomen. Although she had finally purged the poison from her body, there were still some traces of it left. If she really pushed, she could feel a faint barrier over some of her veins and meridians. It would be detrimental to her advancement into higher cultivation ranks.

As if struck by lighting, she quickly pulled out her master's ring. Aha! Finally, she would be able to see what master had left behind for her! She'd finally get some clue as to why she had been brought here. Furthermore, in light of her energy's change, she would need to check his notes and study his curated cultivation technique for her color.

She took out a needle and pricked her finger; smearing the drop of crimson over the ring's centerpiece. The energy in her hands shuddered, and she felt the air around her shift. Her brows furrowed. It felt like she was going to vomit right then and there.

She gasped.

A shriek escaped her mouth but was cut off midway.

In the next second, Yun Da Xia's bedroom was empty.