Aimless Ascension

Now that those got out of the way, we finally could talk about magic. Well, spirit arts in her words, but I see no difference. Anyway, although I had a few questions, I would like to ask about what she told me, why not to trust her and more, her expression told my questions about that topic won't be indulged.

So I could only give up. I was curious, but it wasn't that she owed me anything.

"Now, where should we start with spirit arts?" I asked, growing in anticipation. "More importantly, is it really possible to wield Qi with this collar latched onto your neck?"

Well, I saw her do it, and she mentioned A'caen could do it, but that was only two people, not enough odds when the numbers of slaves were in the thousands.

"It is possible to work around it," Saarya said with a contemptuous look on her face. "Especially for those with poor inferior Qi suppression collars. Thankfully, they hadn't seen you as a threat, or they would have latched you on with a better collar."

I considered her words. So there were different levels of collars. Well, that explained why hers was different in build. Saarya's collar looked ancient, and she didn't seem to display it all that much, hidden behind her wildly tangled ebony hair.

"So what is the difference between the inferior and the greater ones?"

"You can guess to come up with the answer, but for the sake of saving time, I'll indulge you with the answer. The inferior ones are easier to build and cheap. They simply suppress the Qi with pressure over your cognitive abilities. You felt a stabbing pain when you tried to draw Qi, right?"

"Was that it?"

"No, the pain gets even harder," Saarya said, making me question what was harder than what I felt. "The pain is proportional to the energy the collared person wields. Of course, there was a limit, but most people don't survive if they draw more energy to threaten another person. To put more perspective, you barely held onto one-hundredth of what it takes to kill a man."

I swallowed, feeling the impossible mountain ahead of me. I passed out barely on 1 per cent of the collar's effect. Well, it was probably better than 1 per cent, but still not a number to be excited about.

"How do other people survive with more energy?" I asked, pretty sure a couple more per cent would make me dull like one of my neighbours. "How do you survive, or the A'caen?"

"Of course, there are ways to cultivate the mind," Saarya said. "And there are ways to block the psychological effect on the mind. That was exactly what I would teach you first if we were to go anywhere from this."

I nodded, although I didn't see any point if all I could do was die after killing a man. Besides, it would take me months of painful training to even that good to kill a man with Qi. But I wasn't going to complain out loud when I got the chance to learn magic. Well, spirit arts.

"Don't think too hard about it," Saarya said, "your collar is barely a poor inferior Qi suppression collar. I can dull its suppression feature exerting some of my force."

My eyes went wide as she said that as words came out of my mouth before I could get a hold of them.

"What! Really? How, I mean, can you do it now?"

"I can do it now," Saarya said, "but I won't do it."

"Why?" the question got out of my mouth before I knew it.

Saarya thought for a moment to give an answer that could satisfy me, knowing it was probably the biggest thing she could do to free me of the collar. Well, she probably didn't trust me enough and believed I wouldn't be able to keep her existence a secret.

"You will be like a kid with superpowers," she said, "there are many things that can go wrong with your callousness, so I wished for you to first have self-control. You can try other things after that, besides the lesser suppression collar was a great tool to cultivate mental fortitude.

"Qi can be many things on the right hand. It can cure a world of all its misery or destroy the user if he believes it is the answer to every problem."

I barely understood anything when she first told me that, but remembering that, I believe she was right to put me through that. I easily have problems with self-restraints, even to this day. I wondered what I would have done if she hadn't restricted my training.

Well, I would probably jump at the guards, just leaning a trick on Qi.

"What do you mean by the collar being a great tool to cultivate mental fortitude?" I asked, my brows furrowed in confusion. I really didn't like the sound of that.

"There was only one certain way to develop mental fortitude," Saarya said. Her eyes gleamed with something other than what her name suggested. "There's no better way to train mental fortitude other than putting yourself through mental stress."

I blinked as the revelation of her words dawned on me. "Wait, hold on," I sucked in a deep breath. "You are not suggesting that I keep on meditating through that excruciating pain, are you?"

"See, you already got it."

I shot her a flat look, but there was no change in her expression.

"Don't you have any other way?" I tried, clenching my jaw, recalling what I felt a couple of hours ago. I really don't want to pass out every second I try to draw the power. There was nothing great about that, even if you have something supernatural growing inside of you.

"Of course, there are ways," Saarya said, narrowing her eyes, "but do you think they were available to us with our status as slaves? The guards would kill you, even learning you can grasp Qi. Now tell me, how do you want to practise?"