Imparting knowledge
Exiting the room Bran Ai saw that now the hallway was lit by lantern light and made his way back to the room with all the clerks, past the front entrance and out into the stone streets.
'What? Wasn't it night time?'
Looking back at the sect scripture hall, he noticed it was covered by a veil of shadow obscuring it from the sun.
'The night is not real?' he walked back into the building and the outside turned to night, then he went back out again.
He took a moment to simply marble at the sight, the sky was still bright with not a hint of darkness.
'Can I do the same one day?'
Bran Ai walked along the stone pathway following it back slowly taking care not to reopen his wounds.
He watched as those around him went about their day, how they responded to him in their actions or gestures, he saw which buildings seemed to reci
There were less people walking along the street then earlier making Bran Ai feel more comfortable and less worried about making a mistake that could cause other's to berate him or to notice him.
Bran Ai enjoyed the scenery watching as the birds flew from tree to tree chirping to one another, watched as leaves carried by the wind danced, watched as people made their way all headed to their own destination.
Such liveliness was new to him whom had always lived on the outskirts of his village.
'Am I a part of this place now? Can I be a part of them?'
The house's made long rows in all directions, he didn't doubt that each of them had someone in them would they have space for him?
'To much, I want too much too soon'
Fighting the urge to enter one of the alley's Bran Ai kept to the main path not wanting to get lost.
Along the way he saw people of all sorts carrying objects of all kinds, no one seemed to pay attention to him much to his delight.
'This place is nice, peaceful, quiet… but so full'
Bran Ai looked up wishing to take in the sunlight but for some reason the light from the sky above felt a little odd.
'Why does it never warm up? This light, it's cold'
He looked at the streets for a moment feeling something was odd.
Walking slowly for over an hour he finally found his way back to the underground chambers.
It shouldn't have taken him so long even if he was curiously observing his surroundings, but he had not eaten anything for a few days already at best he ate some of the snow and roots on the path yesterday while today his tired body had to walk some more with no nourishment.
'I wonder if I can eat these plants' looking at a shrub he wanted to taste it but held back.
Ahead of Bran Ai an old man sat back on a chair relaxed, It was the old man Abbas.
"Come here child" Abbas called to Bran Ai still speaking directly into his mind, he had been waiting for each child to complete their awakening, he wished to impart his first and final gift onto them.
Bran Ai made his way over, he saw Abbas sitting relaxed as one of his savior's to be respected even if their interaction could be considered basic.
Although Abbas only guided the way indifferent to each child, his guidance was one of Bran Ais few experiences with such a thing, even though he was speaking indirectly to him it was now engraved in his memories.
Bran Ai wholeheartedly believed everything happening right now was positive, hungry or not.
Abbas did not make small talk, he placed two fingers on Bran Ai's forehead, spoke a few words under his breath and retracted his arm.
Bran Ai felt something enter his head, it was sharp making his head recoil.
"Now go, do not waste time and cultivate yourself"
Bran Ai no longer heard Abbas's voice in his head, for the first time the old man had spoken aloud.
"What are you surprised about, I simply imparted onto you the ability to understand me, I did the same for all of you, now stop wasting time and go" Abbas waved his hand brushing Bran Ai away.
Bran Ai looked at Abbas before quickly nodding and walking away.
Even if Abbas had done the same to all the children besides himself, Bran Ai would remember this gift.
Looking down the stairs Bran Ai had a thought 'Should I ask him if it is day or night? N-no he told me to go away'
Entering his room Bran Ai saw all his roommates for the first time.
A boy with long dark brown hair, a girl with long black hair, and the sleeping boy from earlier with short black hair.
"H-hi, uhm" Bran Ai greeted them with a low voice, his heart was slightly pounding harder.
None of the children answered him, they simply looked up returning to reading the booklets in front of them paying him no further attention.
Bran Ai quickly made him way to the back of the room where his mat lay, face slightly red.
He quickly made himself busy pretending to read the booklets in front of him.
'Huh? how?'
Bran Ai looked up to his side.
Through the window, warm light shinned illuminating the inside of the gray stone room.
He didn't notice before due to how tired he was, followed by old man Abbas's quick appearance his thoughts kept being interrupted.
'But aren't we below the earth? Where does this light come from?'
Bran Ai looked at the other children wanting to ask them about it but he swallowed his words.
'Let's try reading this instead, I can always take a look when they leave'
He would need to find another time when no one was around to take a closer look, he was worried of what they might think of him otherwise.
He could already imagine the mockery [What you don't even know where the light come's from? Hahah what a bafoon!] It gave him the chills.
Looking at the booklets he flipped through each one skimming the contents within.
He didn't understand most of what was written, but unlike expected he seemed to have a grasp of certain words.
This was Abbas's gift, wisdom. It did not grant him all the knowledge of the world but it did give him just enough to get him started.
Bran Ai looked through each booklet skimming the words until finally grabbing the one titled [Letters and speech the basic's].
Flipping through the first few pages Bran Ai started to get a deeper understanding as to the contents of the book without anyone explaining it.
'So these are the symbols that represent individual letters that make up a single word or make up a sentence'
Page by page Bran Ai learned the basics of reading and writing, not quite knowing what they sounded like but in his head the sounds came together as if it was natural.
He couldn't actually use this knowledge yet, even if he imagined how it should sound like, the reality of it would probably be different.
He had the vision but not the practice, his vocal cords would need a while to adjust accordingly.
'I should ask the old man about this, ah! but not right now he already told me too... cultivate? Am I cultivating right now? Is this cultivation?'
Bran Ai looked at the other children thinking of asking them, but once again chose not too.
Looking at them, one was reading the same booklet as Bran Ai, the other had gone to sleep, while the last seemed to be sitting cross legged with his eyes closed.
'Have a feeling they don't know either'
Time seemed to pass quickly he didn't notice being engrossed in the book.
It was rather odd, some letters seemed to be the same as other yet the words meaning was completely different while others seemed to be the same word yet the meaning changed depending on the context of other words that came before or after it.
Looking through the booklet for twenty minutes had greatly enhanced his knowledge and expanded his comprehension.
Still... It got boring after a while.
Bran Ai looked at another book [Basic Qi gathering technique]
This booklet had both letters and diagrams with the diagrams making up the majority of each page, Bran Ai gained a small burst of mental energy.
'Sit down and cross your legs, close your eyes and relax your body, feel the energy of your body, feel the energy in the air as it touches your skin and imagine yourself drawing this energy inside yourself'
Bran Ai read the book and looked at the pose in the diagram comparing it to the boy sitting cross legged.
'This is what he's doing? Does sitting like this change anything?'
Bran Ai quickly sat himself up and copied the pose, he gave it a quick re-read and then started to relax himself.
'Feel the energy inside of me, feel the energy outside of me'
Bran Ai tried to feel the energy within himself, his eyes closed, he relaxed his body and felt the blood in his body pulse from time to time, this was his heartbeat.
He couldn't feel the energy inside of himself, it was not any different then how he sat before.
'Maybe there's not enough? Lets try to feel the outside energy'
Bran Ai changed tactics.
This time Bran Ai felt the air in the room, the warmth it carried and how it touched his skin.
Little by little this air passed by and whenever he felt it touch his skin Bran Ai felt a little heat enter his body.
'I can feel something entering, but I can't feel it inside of me still'
A Question arouse in his mind 'What am I doing wrong?'.
Bran Ai was troubled but he carried on regardless.
'Maybe there simply isn't enough energy... Or Qi it was called'
Above the underground building Abbas felt the changes in the wind, he was feeling the spiritual energy inside each of the rooms and watching them carefully.
'That kid seems to know what to do, it's to bad his spiritual roots are such a low quality. His progress will be hampered until he reforms them multiple times, truly bad luck' he gave Bran Ai a passing look giving him a basic failing judgement before looking at the next child.
Indeed, Bran Ai's knowledge and understanding weren't inferior to others, his body or ability simply didn't have the requirements to achieve what he needed to do.
It was a matter of writing beautiful lyrics but not having the voice required to sing them, being able to compose but having no knowledge of how the vocal cords should be used or can be used.
With plenty of practice one could sing but it required stamina, training of the lungs, and knowledge or guidance to learn how to properly sing.
'Ah here come's the last one, now I can leave this to someone else'
Abbas had done what was required of him and would no longer involve himself with the children.
In the room Bran Ai kept drawing the energy of the surroundings inside, little by little his empty spiritual veins came to life and Qi coursed through his body.
'...I can feel it, the energy inside. But it doesn't seem to last long, it's like a passing breath, it enters but never stays'
Bran Ai would continue to gather the spiritual energy around him before his mind and body forced him to take a rest.
He went back to reading, even if he didn't know what the words sounded like he still knew what they meant so he would be able to understand the contents of each book regardless.
Eventually he would tire laying his head on the hard mat, Bran Ai feel started to sleep with a faint grin on his face.
'I'm here now, as long as I work hard I can stay here. but…I am really hungry, I have somewhere to stay but I'm really hungry' with that his eyes shut close and his thoughts ceased.
Abbas had forgotten that even if the the children had only just started to cultivate, they still needed constant nourishment otherwise they could collapse of hunger.
On this day, the children of this building went hungry.