Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 58: Enlightened

"We go to catch up to the old man, are you warm enough?" Benzhi asked Anastasia.

"I grew up in Russia, not too far from Siberia," she said proudly explaining in a few words that the cold would not bother her.

 Benzhi smiled at Anastasia, "oh ok, I hope you are prepared for the Alpine Forest." With that Benzhi ran out of the Seer's Cave, it would not take him long to find the Seer, aka Huineng. In the Alpine Forest, Benzhi preferred to think of him as the Seer, it was only fitting.

 Benzhi was satisfied with the gasp emanating from Anastasia as she exited the cave. The Alpine Forest was a truly awe-inspiring place. The pure air, the many hues of green from the grass to the trees and the white-capped mountains made for a picturesque view when leaving the cave.

 They ran for ten minutes before finding the Seer, the grey elves were waiting patiently amongst the trees and grass. The air was cool, but not freezing as it could be, it was mid-afternoon thankfully.

 "How long do you think we have been gone?" Benzhi asked the Seer.

 "A week, at a guess, not long," the Seer answered.

 "I see you are wearing one of your old robes Seer," Benzhi laughed.

 Huineng merely smiled knowingly. Anastasia looked a little confused at the change in names, but she would catch on quickly. 

 "Let me try and make a portal to the glade. Then we can talk once the grey elves have travelled," Benzhi stated.

 Benzhi communicated with Mother through their link, now that he was back in the Alpine Forest it was an easy thing to do, he explained about the grey elves, how they were enslaved and how they were altered with a qi web around their core. Mother would host them until it was decided, by all involved, where they would settle. The Fae were not short of food and it made the most sense to see if the two groups of elves were compatible.

 Benzhi felt his connection with the Land Core in the Glade, it was a simple thing to open a portal to this location now he knew how to do it and a Land Core provided a perfect anchor. The main issues with opening portals were the amount of qi involved and anchoring at the other end. In the instance of portalling to a Land Core Benzhi could utilise qi from the Land Core, assuming it was one he owned and it provided the location. From now on, returning and travelling around the Alpine Mountains would not be an issue.

 Benzhi opened the portal to the Glade and turned to the Tinker of the grey elves, "Master Tinker," Benzhi called, "through this portal is the Glade, it is the home of the wood elves who call themselves Fae. You will be their guests and if both parties are happy, it could be your permanent home. Any questions?"

 "Yes Enlightened, about our alteration..." the Tinker started.

 Benzhi held up his hand, "I haven't forgotten. In the Glade by the willow tree, there is Mother. She is expecting you and it is she who looks over the Alpine Forest, its people, plants and wildlife, she may be able to help you. And if she cannot, I will find a way. Also, do not call me Enlightened, I am merely Benzhi."

 The Tinker nodded and smiled meekly, "Thank you. We are most grateful for all you have done."

  "We are just getting started," Benzhi smiled nervously, "we still have to ensure you are not followed and kept safe from the Myrkalfar and the QWP." The grey elves were agitated by this statement and Benzhi felt guilty by bringing it up, but it was the truth. "Do not live in fear, I know that is easy to say and hard to do. We," Benzhi swept his hand showing he meant all, "are putting ourselves at risk by taking you in. And we do this gladly, what was done to you was wrong."

  "We thought you were an Enlightened of Dawnharbour?" the Master Tinker asked.

 "Technically I was, but that doesn't actually mean anything except my ability to manipulate qi is higher than others," Benzhi answered. The Master Tinker looked more worried than before.

 "We did not realise this," the Master Tinker replied looking anxious.

 "Right after you left, the shield came down and Dawnharbour was overrun with demon spawn. Unless I had prevented that from happening and you stayed, you would be dead now. We can talk about this later, we have pressing matters right now, which directly relate to our escape being discovered."

 "I would like you to focus on settling in and adjusting to the Alpine Forest. The defence of you and all people of this land will be up to the Vanguard, Guardians and Warriors of the people, we will all stand together. No amount of worry on your part will change anything," Benzhi stated. "The best way to protect yourself will be to support the overall effort."

 The Tinker nodded but said nothing. Many of the Grey Elves were listening to the conversation and when it was completed started to make their way through the portal. This portal was being powered by the Land Core in the Glade, Benzhi would need to close it, but did not need to maintain it while the Grey Elves made use of it.

 "That's convenient," the Seer stated indicating the portal.

 "Thanks to you, you could have shown me this ages ago you know," Benzhi said.

 "And have you run off on me?" the Seer questioned.

 "We both know that would not have happened. It is more like teaching me would have blown your cover," Benzhi said.

 "Come walk with me, both of you, I have made my decision," the Seer said and they walked away from the grey elves into relative privacy. They approached the Seer's cave at a walk.

 The Seer inhaled deeply and said, "I will be returning to QWP, to Jiangxi, before too much time passes, otherwise it will be suspicious."

 Benzhi was visibly upset, "I knew it!"

 "You do not know. I have only just got my health restored, thanks to you, which I have not and never will, forget," the Seer looked at Benzhi with tears in his eyes, "you do not need me. I can still possibly assist you from QWP, I will need to travel and they will not know where I go when I do. There is nothing stopping me popping in and talking to you through a telepathic link and then heading off to where I was supposed to go. Without a subject here, there will be no reason for me to come. When I return, I can also report that you died fighting the demon spawn. You need to tell me, to show me, what you saw so I can report properly," Huineng asked. He had just effectively resigned as the Seer.

 "There is much more, Grandmaster Huan was controlled, in a way, he had loaned powers that were not his own and it was he that brought down the shield. Not me." Benzhi said and showed Huineng what had happened through their link. He showed him everything from when Huineng left through to the portal until Benzhi had escaped through the portal himself.

 "This is excellent," Huineng said and hugged Benzhi, "I urge you to sever your connection with your pod now, this will line up with the disaster in QW9. You cannot afford to wait any longer."

 Benzhi nodded. He was sad to see Huineng leave, but it was not totally unexpected. It seemed that the old man was not on the QWP's side, but his own. "Goodbye old man," and with a tearful farewell and hug, Huineng entered the portal in the Seer's cave returning to Earth.

 "Anastasia," Benzhi said turning to her, "I will attempt to draw my conscious from Earth fully into this body. Which means that my earthly body will die. You too have a hard decision to make, but at least you do not need to risk your life. If I am successful I will be able to help you. The real question is, do you want to stay here, forever cutting off a return to earth or will you return to Earth now, like Huineng?"

 "You may think that is a difficult question for me, but I need to tell you something," Anastasia looked guilty. "When I first told you how I was recruited by the QWP. I lied," she admitted.

'Oh, here we go,' Benzhi thought.

 "I am actually seventy-eight years old," Anastasia admitted.

 Relieved, Benzhi said, "um so?"

 "You are not mad? That I am not as young as I look?" She asked.

 "We don't have time to waste, are you going back?" Benzhi asked urgently.

 Anastasia stared at him. She was young and beautiful, what she was saying was not having an impact with Benzhi, it was like she was talking about another person. "Would you if you were me?" She asked.

 "Of course not!" He said and then suddenly comprehending, "oh I get it because you are young here and old there you really don't have a lot to lose. What about family?"

 "I was a qi trainee of QWP up until a few hours ago, so, I don't see any difference. I was already effectively lost to my family," she replied.

 "I will go first, if I don't come back, do not wait for more than an hour, even that is pushing the boundaries of what is reasonable," Benzhi stated.

 He left and went through the portal to his antechamber, where the pool and portals were situated. What he was about to attempt was what he and Huineng had discussed last night with a few tweaks that Benzhi had thought of during the discussions.

 Benzhi opened the portal back to the Alpine Forest and tethered himself to the Mountain Core in the Seer's cave. He could draw qi from it and use it for an anchor. He then sent a stream of qi into the qi pool, which was pure qi. What Huineng had told him was this pool was connected to the Qi Line on earth, it was not a plane in itself, but a place used to travel to all the planes. Including earth. 

 Huineng had told him, only one person, that he knew of, had ever travelled from Earth to their antechamber and he was the master that Huineng had employed decades ago. The true pioneer of the Qi Worlds Project, Master Sun Lutang, who established the first nexus of Antechambers. Benzhi did not have time to get bogged down in the history, however the practical situation he found himself in now was he was tethered to his earthly body through the qi pool, he just had to find it.

 If his tether was cut, he would likely die, however, if he pulled his conscious to his qi body using his tether as the means, it was possible he could disconnect from his earthly body. This would have two effects, one; his earthly body would die and two; his conscious would then reside in Benzhi. 

 Benzhi searched the pool for his tether, engaging qi sight to aid him, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Again it was a time he wished for a version of a qi microscope or magnifier. It would be simpler if he could sense the tiny stream which was always connected and just follow it.

 It was taking too long, and he was no closer to finding the tether in the pool. He needed to approach it another way. 

 Benzhi had one more idea to try. He kept qi sight engaged, but instead of looking for the thread he attempted to create the latticework of qi covering he had used to diminish the effects of the Myrkalfars auras. Instead this time he pushed it out from his body expanding its area into a circle surrounding him. Benzhi still could not sense the minuscule qi tether, however, he was not finished. Benzhi attempted to create an aura of his own, filling out to his latticework of qi with his own minuscule blobs of qi, so small they were like a gas, there were millions of them.

 This would have been much harder if he wasn't attached to the Land Core, utilising the stored qi within. This attachment was easy for Benzhi to discern, what he was looking for was the tiny tether going back to his old body on Earth. They must be there, there was no other way. 

  Benzhi should now be able to sense every molecule surrounding himself, every particle of dust, every qi stream and finally, he sensed something. It was not some minuscule tether which was so small it was not seen under qi sight, it was large, it was the largest tether or stream, he had ever seen. Except it was invisible, he only sensed it. It must be on another plane!

 It must be on the earth plane. But Benzhi could now sense it, using the large qi bubble he had created surrounding himself.

 Benzhi followed the tether back to its source and there was the machine connected to his nervous system in his pod. It felt odd, extremely odd, this mesh of technology with qi manipulation. The qi merely travelled up the optic fibre using it as a conduit. 

 He had thought the wires were attached to his nervous system, but that was not so. They were attached to points of his qi circulation which connected with his qi core. Benzhi reached into his Earthly qi core and began to pull, as he had when he battled the Grandmaster. The experience of that battle was now assisting him, he knew what to do immediately without experimentation. Benzhi effectively syphoned all the qi from his earthly bodies qi core.

 Was this his soul? How was he thinking? His memories and brain were the same. It was all confusing, Benzhi had no idea how it worked. It just did.

 As the last of the qi left the core of his Earthly body, Benzhi was certain it died, as certain as he could be, the husk had nothing left that was him.

 This was a dangerous technique, he could effectively live forever, assuming he wasn't decapitated or mortally wounded in some fashion. He could just take over a younger body at any time, or he thought whimsically, why was that even necessary, he could effectively regenerate cells and organs. 

 Benzhi had not been chasing immortality, but he was close to achieving it just by becoming a better practitioner, no wonder the powers behind QWP poured so many resources into this venture. They were chasing the elixir of life.

 Benzhi left his antechamber. He had to assist Anastasia, from the cave, as she repeated the process. There was no way she could complete it herself, with her current level of manipulation, experience and skill. Benzhi used his connection to her to guide the qi manipulation, he essentially treated her like a sock puppet, similar to whoever was assisting the Grandmaster or the Myrkalfar spear warrior.

 After an hour, they were both disconnected from Earth. They now shared a bond of an exodus, where they abandoned Earth together.

 It was time to prepare the Alpine Forest and its denizens for the battles to come.

Chapter end