Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

When Dàilán slipped free of the clarity of her meditations, the Golden Crow flew high in the sky. Looking around she saw Chenli seated in her own Cultivation on a rock across from her, but the other maids were not present.

A moment later, Chen'er's eyes slid open and she stretched lazily in place. "Whatever you are doing with this new meditation is powerful, Young Mistress. My own cultivation has improved after listening to your bāwū - and both Chang and Biyu fell into cultivation while guarding you - they both increased a rank. I sent them with Ai to go and clean themselves out once they came out of Cultivation.

The young heiress shook her head helplessly. "I really do not know - I have not experienced anything similar with my cultivation; only I feel refreshed, there is no discomfort and my Essence feels more… more, itself?"

Her lady-in-waiting and bodyguard indicated the rock she sat on, "But you are clearly expelling impurities."

"Euech… " the young teen girl shuddered as she realised her clothing and the rock was covered in a foul smelling black sludge. Without another word she hopped off the rock, holding her bāwū away from her body and headed for the changing rooms and the hot spring bath inside.

Chen'er followed her silently, closing the door behind them as they entered the small structure - taking the bāwū she was handed the moment Dàilán entered the bathing room. With a wrinkle of her nose she placed the Essence treated instrument on a shelf, next to the limiter already there and grabbed a nearby broom - using the handle to pick up her Mistress' skirt as it fell to the floor and tossing into the refuse disposal.

The Heiress headed straight for the rinsing area. "Scrub, please, Chen'er", she tossed over her shoulder, desperation clear in her voice.

Chenli stopped, her voice tentative. "Are you sure, mistress?"

Dàilán spun in place and stomped her foot, glaring at her friend "Stop hesitating!I feel like I am crawling with death. I do not trust anyone else to clean it off."

"You still trust me?" The maid's voice was hopeful, but uncharacteristically timid.

The Heiress rolled her eyes and kicked of her leather 'slippers', dropping her underthings to the floor. "We have discussed this. Your earlier action was technically inappropriate, but with your duties as my guard - and given the situation - it was an action I forced you into. I have forgiven you - and yes - I still trust you to use your Essence directly against my skin to clean this off. Stop being silly! You know the situation is completely different." She stomped towards the bathing stool and sat, violently.

The maid bowed. "Yes, mistress. Thank you for your trust."

"Enough. Help me burn this off before I go mad." Dàilán was giving off full body shudders. "How the wandering Jianghu deal with getting rid of impurity sludge, I wonder."

The maid stepped up towards her young mistress' b.a.r.e back, kicking the ruined shoes and underclothes to one side; Chenli's hands glowed with Essence as she passed her palm across the black sludge on her friend's skin. The black muck peeled off, falling to the ground like strips of dead scale revealing jade white skin.

"I have heard of techniques that allow a Cultivator to tune their Essence to affect their own impurities," commented Chenli as she methodically ran her hands over every inch of skin, causing the black substance to flake off, "of course it is not possible to use the same Essence that expelled the impurity."

"Because that Essence is part of the impurity… and it will not just wash off with mundane methods, I know this - everyone knows this - why are you mentioning it?" Dàilán replied irritably.

"En…" Chen'er said sheepishly, "...nervous, talking to cover it… stand please..."

The teen girl stood, grumbling. "Why those stupid stories always have the hero washing their Essence expelled garbage with normal washing I never understand. I wish it was true."

Chen'er laughed. "How would that make sense? Since when do regular methods ever affect anything imbued with Essence? You are lucky your flute is an Essence imbued instrument and this stuff cannot adhere to it - or you would have had to burn it as well."

Dàilán laughed too. "Yes. Still, it would make life easier."

A moment later, the maid poked her mistress in the shoulder. "Turn to the right. You know - and this goes back to our original topic - your skin is has definitely advanced. It is practically glowing. I think I want you to teach me this new technique."

"I swear it is not a technique… it is just… you know how we are always told to form our Essence into a cultivation circulation path…depending on the technique?" explained the other young woman tentatively.

Chenli shrugged. "Basic first steps, of course… so?"

"Well… what if you did not?" Dàilán's eyes were intent under the cover of black muck.

Her friend paused, lifting one foot. "Be still... " she warned as she ran her glowing hand under the sole. "Hmm… well if there is no circulation path, nothing happens… the Essence just goes around aimlessly to no effect."

The Heiress shook her head as her friend moved to her front, slowly repeating the Essence debriding process up her feet, ankles, legs, pelvis, waist and torso. "No - that does not make sense. Think, what do you call a person with no Essence flow?"

"Dead." replied Chenli bluntly.

"Right. So… if a person is alive because their Essence flows through them - that flow of Essence literally - is - that person right?" The young beauty was becoming more animated as she explained, gesturing forcefully.

"Be still!" snapped her friend, drawing her hands back as her Essence nearly intersected with her friend's c.h.e.s.t with a faint smell of singed skin.

Dàilán froze at the sudden pain of Essence burning her skin. "Āiyō… Sorry… my fault, my fault."

Chen'er snorted. "Teach you to Stand Still when you are being cleansed. What, are you five?"

"Yes, OK…" agreed the Heiress quickly, before continuing her explanation frozen in place. "Anyway, the ancient writings suggested everyone has their own natural circulation that is uniquely theirs - a personal Dao - and rather than try to change that circulation to something else, one should seek to heal, reinforce and strengthen that natural flow to reach the 'perfect' form of themselves."

"Huh. Eyes closed," instructed the bodyguard as her hands went up towards her face. "You do that with the flute?"

Waiting until her friend's hands left her face and proceeded down the remaining side, she agreed. "Also while practising the tàijíquán, but I 'see' my Essence easiest when I play the bāwū."

"And so you add to it?" Chenli asked as she ran her hands down the side of her mistress' leg.

"Mostly try to focus on sorting out the twists and kinks so it smooths out and flows easier. I sort of… let myself change whatever feels 'less correct' to whatever feels 'more correct'."

"Finished," announced the maid. "Let me wash that garbage down the drain - then I will get out of these training clothes to scrub you down before we go in the hot spring. Wash my back? I still feel gritty and sticky from all the sand we threw around today, even if - unlike some people - I did not have another cultivation breakthrough."

Suiting action to words, Chenli unhooked an Essence powered hose and flushed a strong flow of water towards the shavings of black sludge which had become inert once burnt off.

"Of course. Do you really think it is making me stronger?"

Chenli turned off the water and hooked the hose back up to the holder, snorting in derision at the question. "Let me see:" the bodyguard started counting off on her fingers as she started removing her own clothing.

"One: Even with the limiter, you are moving as fast as me with the speed enhancers activated." She put on finger down while throwing her shirt on the floor.

"Two: Multiple times over the last couple of sparring sessions," Chenli dropped her training pants and jumped out of them, holding up a second finger to curl downward, "I have seen you avoid strikes that were coming from blind spots that you should have had no way of seeing."

The older girl untied her hair, shaking it out and stretching out a third finger, "Three: Again with the limiter on - you are hitting like someone exerting an external Essence technique."

Turning away from Dàilán, she dropped her under things into a pile and kicked everything into the laundry basket as she waved another finger in the air, "Four: Not only are you hitting hard, you are hitting targets - blind, mind you - in ways that would normally require some sort of external Essense technique, which - again you are performing with the limiter on which should completely sort of technique."

Chen'er paused, unfastening her shoes and placing them into the shoe shelf, then using a broom handle to pick up the last of her mistress's things from the floor and throw them in the disposal to be burnt, turning to glare playfully at the other girl, staking towards her in mock anger to poke an index finger into a snowy b.r.e.a.s.t.

"And finally - look at yourself. If you have not increased in bust, dropped a finger length off your waist and lost at least a catty of fat in the last week, I will eat my own leavings."

Dàilán blushed, stepping away from the maid's poking as she scrubbed herself with a cloth and hot soapy water. "Chen'er, stop being so crude!"

"You have glowing, jade white skin - at fourteen summers - it goes against the heavens!" Chenli threw her hands up in exasperation. "Even with cultivation, the bruises and scr.a.p.es from this morning's sparring should have taken at least two shi to heal!"

Her friend shook her head scowling at her, her arms akimbo with hands on her h.i.p.s in apparent anger, but with definite concern in her eyes. "Mist Orchid - you do not need Second Uncle interfering to have half the men in this city throwing themselves at you. Could you try to look a little - less - like one of those empty vase female Cultivators from the popular tales?" groused the maid as she pushed the other girl onto the stool and started scrubbing said back skin roughly with a brush and water.

Dàilán ducked her head, a flush spreading across her body. "The last thing I want is to be more beautiful, Chen'er. You know that."

The maid shrugged, even though the other could not see it. "Not more beautiful as such, just more you - with less imperfections - if that makes sense." The maid stopped and handed the brush to her friend. "Scrub me now please, I want the bath."

"It does. Thank you Chen'er." The Heiress took the brush and started rubbing Chenli's back as the maid used a cloth to wash her front

"So do you think you can teach me how to clean my own circulation like that?"

"We can try. I do not know… what it will do with an existing cultivation technique in place though."

"Bath now!" Satisfied with Dàilán's agreement her friend pushed away the brush and jumped into the bath, while the Heiress followed more sedately, sighing in relief.

"I have some other things to complain to you about," m.o.a.n.e.d the maid in bliss, "Just give me a shi or so to get around to it"

Dàilán waved her hand grandly. "Feel free not to bother."

Her bodyguard mock glared at her from across the bath, eyelids half shut. "Not a chance. I am getting answers. Just give me… oooh, a day or so..."