Chi is the ki of the soil that has enriched us through plants by way of digested from our stomach and Dantian. Types of chi are created from raw chi when your understanding of the world become bound to a chi flow and then expressed as a casting. Why then do we sicken and demonize when cosuming to much chi-beast meat and not enough ki-rich plants? Well that is when consuming raw chi there is still Gu in it. Death or the Intension that resists consumption. This is why we exhale Gu and chi. And why we only store ki in the body.

  ~Excerpt from administrator Zhao’s intro to chi orientation refresher.

  Xinyi waited for Baba or Mama to move as the shattered bowl shards wobbled on the table settling into silence

  Baba rose first, placing a hand on Mama’s shoulder. “Well… at least we know his chi potential evaluation will be strong.”

  Mama barked a laugh, the tension in her forehead melting.

  “A sight-based or mental Chi casting is very impressive,” Wàigōng said, eyeing the heat-warped bowl fragments, “but also concerning with the current regulations.”

  Nǎinai handed Xinyi a cloth. “Save me a piece… something medium to large. I want to put it in the Juniper shrine with the family stones.”

  “Perfect,’ Mama said, her tone lighter rubbing Nǎinai shoulder while passing. “It can go beside Wei’s.”

  Nǎinai smiled, scanning the table missed pieces. “Exactly, like father, like son. Though Hao’s starting far earlier than Wei ever did.”

  Xinyi pulled a jagged piece from the wall, sharp and curved like a multi-barbed fishhook, She held it up towards Nǎinai. “Wait, Baba was ridiculously strict with me about casting control.”

  “And yet,” Nǎinai said with a smirk, dropping a few more pieces onto the cloth, “you still blew up my wing of the house. So… I’d say his point stands.”

  Xinyi groaned and slumped, tying the cloth’s corners together. “That was my first… ‘major,’ slip-up.” She tucked the bundle in the corner of the room for cleaning later.

  Wàigōng raised an eyebrow. “And what is your definition of ‘major,’ exactly?”

  “Clearly,” Mama interjected before Xinyi could reply, “it depends on whether she can hide the damage or not.”

  Xinyi rolled her eyes, then turned to Wàigōng, “What was it like when you were learning? My control feels like it’s getting worse, not better.”

  Wàigōng’s eyes flickered to Mama then back to Xinyi frowning. Then His expression went slack and vacant.

  “What was that?” Wàigōng asked, blinking refocusing.

  Xinyi repeated, more slowly. “Did your control ever get better, then get worse the very next week?”

  Wàigōng nodded sowly, Lifting a gnarled hand. “It’s difficult to say. Control does decline with age, but skill becomes… refined. It’s like setting down a form you’ve mastered. Your body remembers, but it fades until you use that form and sharpen it once more.”

  In a silent pause Chi hum from Wàigōng filled her mind. Lightening mote fireflies danced fusing and dividing erupted to life around and above the clenched fist. Leaving bright after images. “I can still cast with control.” he glanced around the corners of the room. “But not with the force I once had. At Mei’s age, my chi was wild, powerful, but imprecise.”

  Still seated, Wàigōng moved fluidly through four flowing forms. The motes danced following his movements, weaving like a floak of birds. Then arcs across the room into the the openings of the paper oil lanterns scattered around the room. Gently brightening the entire space with soft golds and rose.

  With a firm exhale, Wàigōng’s casting gave a final flash. The paper lanterns around the room stayed lit.

  Nǎinai clapped gently. “A beautiful demonstration.”

  Wàigōng’s bowed.

  Xinyi looked down at her hands. They trembled slightly. (I could never do that.)

  Mama rubbed between her shoulder blades. “Don’t look so overwhelmed, Xiao Xinyi. Professor like my Baba here spent decades master these applications. At your school level, even directed casting is a rare.”

  Wàigōng gave a modest nod. “I used many mental casting tools that are not able to be seem with ones eyes or in my forms flow. My form supplies more than Radiant Chi. I hid Balance triggered Control Chi in there as well. Infact, I was using in large amounts to make the Radiant Chi dance and form the Radiant balls.”

  Nǎinai raised a skeptical brow. “Hong, I can cast with multiple Chi type, but I’ve ‘never’ it into motes you did it.”

  Wàigōng smiled, drawing a line with one glowing finger tip. “I could only ever do such a demonstration for my last lecture of a day. It exhausts an abundance of Control Chi far more than any real-world applications.” He then circled his glowing finger in a loop. “The Radiant Chi beam is caught by my Control Chi and bent into an orbit. If I use less Control Chi it would form an invisible ring of limited value.”

  Mama rolled her eyes and sighed, “So what you’re saying is. You’ll need me to heat your bath water again because you would boil your self without having Control Chi.”

  Wàigōng sat taller, voice smug. “Naturally. That was a rare display. And impacts to my remaining Chi is surely not something I forgot about, of course.”

  Xinyi smirked, admiring the power Wàigōng still held.

  “Hmmmm.” Mama mused, lips pursed. “Maybe a cold bath would do you good increase your blood flow and wake you up a bit.”

  Wàigōng faltered. “But my poor old bones…”

  Nǎinai patted Mama’s shoulder. “While you two bicker, how about Xinyi and I fetch a fresh bowl for Hao?”

  “Thank you, Fang.” Mama said, smiling. “I’ve got to keep Grandmaster Baba humble somehow.”

  Xinyi grabbed the wrapped cloth from the corner and followed Nǎinai to the doorway.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “I’m ‘not,’ bickering.” Wàigōng grumbed behind them. “And I guess I must suffer in silence.”

  Mama’s teasing voice faded as stepped outside. “Oh, I could ‘never,’ make Grandmaster Baba suffer and…”

  Nǎinai bumped Xinyi lightly with a shoulder. “I like the piece you picked.”

  Xinyi scratched her nose with her wrist and carefully emptied the fragments into a rubbish and leaf lifter bin. “It was the most unique one. Do you think Hao will need a Disruption Chi bracer?”

  Nǎinai smile faded. “They are getting stricter about Uncontrolled Casting. Honestly, your Wàigōng might need one first. His memory…” She sighed. “He’s powerful proficiency, but a single slip.”

  Nǎinai gestured at her damaged Wing of the House.

  A sour heat rose in Xinyi’s throat. “I can’t imagine forgetting everything. Teacher Chen said long-term exposure to Disruption Chi can damage ones proficiency and control habits.”

  Nǎinai opened the Juniper shrine’s door and lit an insense stick with a gentle pulse of Chi. Smoke filling the area like there prayers.

  “We can ask the ancestors for guidance,” Nǎinai said bowing her head. Much of what they knew is tied to lost Chi types since the World Minds silence. What they say may be incomplete.”

  Nǎinai begin the ritual words. “Thanks to Juniper for preserving our family.”

  Xinyi bowed beside Nǎinai. “Thanks to Kas’Hao for empowering the preserved to speak to the living.”

  Xinyi and Nǎinai bow their heads, palm pressed together. A gentle glow of Chi flowing from them to the Juniper shrine.

  “Thank you for choosing to stay.” Nǎinai Whispered reaching to the smallest of the Seven family pagodas.

  Before them stood six pagodas full of crystalline stones each with a stand and chiseled name plate. The seventh Pagoda only half the height of the others, it held only two occupied stands.

  As their Chi collected in the stones Radiant Chi illuminated the Shrine as the stones glowed like Wàigōng’s fingertip.

  Nǎinai reached towards the stone next to her empty stand. “Lǎo gōng, how i’ve missed you.”

  A chorus of voices stirred in Xinyi’s mind. Familial familiar voices, despite most never heard in life.

  “Ah, you’ve returned.”

  “So skinny! Have you eaten?”

  “Bǎo Bèi.”

  “No, no… too fat! Eat less, develop with restricted Chi!”

  “How can we help you, Xiao Xinyi?”

  Xinyi focused thinking each word as if speaking aloud. As well as picturing the conversation, and events at the dinner table. (We wanted to share Hao’s first external casting. It… shattered a bowl. We’ve brought a shard to add to the shrine.)

  The response came in a rippling wave of voices.

  “The tradition continues!”

  “Congratulations, Hao! But, he’s also skinny, make him eat!”

  “He’s so young… yet strong. Start his Chi forms training soon.”

  “Mke him eat he needs Chi! Or no, make him fast he needs control.”

  “Was it a lack of control?”

  Xinyi winced. Her Chi reserves were thinning. (No. He was overwhelmed. Everyone was arguing and… it slipped out. But he gets overwhelmed more than others do.)

  The ancestors murmured and bickered, a web of advice and concerns reaching a partial set of consensus thoughts.

  “He must Cultivate Control Chi.”

  “Encourage direct casting before anything more advanced.”

  “Your Baba and Mama should’ve caught this sooner. Are they over burdened?”

  “He is just a growing boy… you must let him grow at his natural pace. But remember to garden him. Shape that growth.”

  One voice wait for the others to finish before speaking. “Kintsugi, child. Like the repair tradition of Miezaru Hi. A shattered vessel, carefully rejoined, becomes stronger. Just be careful to make his rejoined piece are strongly bonded and he will recover.”

  Xinyi breathed in holding it to stimulate her fading Chi for one more question. (How can we teach control to someone not capable of feeling internal Chi flows on their own?)

  The chorus quieted.

  A presence moved forward towards her from a distance soaking up all the other stones Chi. Words arrived broken, translated poorly expressed more through intent than anything else. “Control… unfelt… unseen… that is the path of haste. It is tred too fast… it is the gallop… which breaks the unguided cart. Let him walk his control and listen to the cartwright. The control of yours to his... this is the path.”

  Sharks danced as she grabbed a breath Chi fading.

  The chorus returned, quieter now.

  “We are proud you came to ask us.”

  “You will master your forms. We see it.”

  “Sleep well, talk to us again soon.”

  “Eat something, Bǎo Bèi. Then sleep and grow.”

  “Return whenever you can, we remain for you.”

  “If old Wu’s son hasn’t ruined him, he could fix my Xiao Fang’s wing.”

  The connection faded as her Dantian emptied.

  Xinyi rose, legs tingling from kneeling too long.

  She left Nǎinai to commune with Yéye at the shrine. Quietly heading to the kitchen to get Hao more dinner.

  She scooped a fresh portion of rice and broth in a bowl. Only a few cabbage wraps remained, so them along with two peeled boiled eggsto make up for it.

  She headed to the main room to collect her bowl.

  The table sat empty. Food bowls empty and Nǎinai’s missing. Mama, and Wàigōng likely joining Nǎinai at the Juniper Shrine.

  She grabbed Hao and Her utensils. making her way to their bedroom.

  She pushed the door open with her foot, balancing the bowls while looking around the empty room. “Hao, I know you’re not asleep. Come eat with me.”

  The bundle of blankets in the corner twitched, an eye in a gap peered out at her.

  She rolled her eyes and set the bowls on the low windowsill. “Fine, I’ll just clean up all the bedding before we give the room to Nǎinai.”

  Hao threw off the blankets, Hair standing with static. “Fine, okay. What do you want?”

  Xinyi kept her voice even, controlling her breathing. “I wanted to make sure you ate. Did Baba explain everything to you?”

  Hao nodded, still mostly surrounded by the blanket. “I need to learn Chi control and Control Chi. If I don’t, I’ll have to take meds… or wear bracelet thing.”

  She sat beside the food, folding her legs leaning on the windowsill elbow next to her bowl. “I think you’ll get there.”

  Hao sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “But what if I can’t? I try and try to see Chi. I don’t know if I can. and I’m never going to be like you or Baba.”

  She patted the floor next to her.

  Hao scooted over and sat down. “Thanks for the food.”

  She bumped her shoulder gently against his. “You don’t have to be like us. You might need different practice than I do. Not everyone learns the same way.”

  Hao nodded, slurping up a half-unwrapped cabbage leaf. “Mama… said… something like… that too. But, why can’t I be like you all?”

  Xinyi turned her gaze to the sky. Stars speckled through high altitued clouds streaking over the moon bathed walls. “Because Juniper enpowers each of us differently. If everyone were the same, who would teach us anything new?”

  Hao hand fluttered as he shaped invisible clay in the air. “That’s what its was like when knowledge Chi worked, right?”

  Xinyi smile faded, Imagining Zhihao quietly painting. “I have not idea what being Chi-less would feel like… let alone needing to circulate Chi that you can’t do anything with it.”

  Hao bit his lip. “If I get a bracer, you could try it. See what it’s like.”

  Xinyi squinted. “Sure why not. If you get one, we can both try it out.”

  Hao eye light up. “And if you like it, you can keep it.”

  Xinyi laughed. “I’m ‘sure’ the Chancellors would love that.”

  “Eat up,” She nodded his bowl towards him. “We have to switch rooms and get ready for school tomorrow.”

  Hao nodded, shoveling rice down with his spoon. “Umkay!”