The Old man and the Arrays

I went up and climbed the stairs. Arrived on the top floor we entered a little office which had a big windows, giving a beautiful sight of the city. I was happy because humanity hadn't forgotten all the knowledges we had built in nearly 5 thousands years of history. I was seing a large bay window. I had also seen well build house inside the city.

"So ? How are you Old man ? You seem younger than you were." I said as I walked and sit on one of the sofa put for the guest.

" Of course I'm good, I have a new science to study and its a really exciting one at that. I'm now a Qi Core Creating cultivator too. Of course I seem younger. And you ? You seem fine after the loss of your arm but I'm still worried about you. And what happened during these 3 years to make you this handsome, fit and athletic ?" The old teacher answer and asked me with a worried expression on his face.

I spend the next 3 hours talking about my past experiences. I had complete trust in him but decided to omit the number of Qis I had sensed, I didn't want that to be known too soon. He wasn't just my teacher but he was one of the few people who had been by my side when my father passed away when I was 12 years old. He gave me my love for books and helped me when I needed it. He was like a grandfather to me.

"And you, I'm quite curious about what happened while I wasn't nearby. Any news from my mother and sister ?" I asked hopeful.

" Sorry brat, I got nothing for you."

A moment of silence followed but he quickly jumped on my other question and answered it.

" It began with a Chinese, the president of this Arrays association. After 3 months of research about Qi and the Cultivation Techniques used to gather and absorb the Qi, he found some caracters. When you absorb Qi you must circulate your Natural Qi so that it attract the Qi in the surrounding. But when you circulate your Qi, you don't do it like that, you must follow a certain patern, a certain road inside your body. This patern when wrote on a sheet of paper, can be separeted and form enormous numbers of caracters. When they are infused with other Qis, they produce differents reactions.

For exemple if there is a caracters which looks like a snake and another representing a crown. If you fuse them together with Fire Qi you could obtain a new caracters representing a crowned fire snake. The important stuff isn't that you can create new caracters using Qi but when you put some caracters on your equipment, dependent on the Qi you used, you can receive boost in this Qi. Also if you combine differents caracters you can obtain new effect, usually extremely strong but inefficient for now.

We already found a way to create an array producing fire constantly, one that can light our surrounding forever and one that can repair extremely slowly the object we put in. It's not really efficient but we are in the process of learning and everyday, the mysteries of Arrays are discovered and understood." The old man said excitedly.

I envied his passion for what he was doing.

"Well you have good luck because I want to learn Array, I'm sure I can help a little bit." I said clearly confident.

"Sure, why not. I'll give you this book. It contains the basic we already understand about Arrays. Everytime you discover something new, you will receive resources and privilege according to the importance of the information. We are already based in the 10 surrounding cities so the privilege won't be cheap." He gave me a book completely Off-White. I looked at him, suddenly remembering something.

"Tell me quickly, is there a meaning behind the color ?" I asked as I got up and looked at him excitedly. I nearly choked myself when I saw the color. My thoughts were running wild as I was imagining the best outcome possible.

'Please, please be it what I thought it is...' I prayed and looked up fervently.

"Of course there is a meaning. When whe were injecting Qi in the differents caracters they were always getting a shade whiter than they should be. But when we injected Life Qi which is completely white, the caracters got a shade darker. We deduced that there is probably something like a Qi related to Arrays which make the injection of other Qis inside the caracters more fluid and stable. But we didn't find this Qi yet, so we are just left with speculations." He said a bit desapointed.

My eyes shined and the next instant I was near him.

" Give me a sheet of paper and draw a caracter NOW, if what I think is true I can help you with that."

I couldn't help but be a bit stunned. Everything was so strangely connected.

He gaves me a sheet of paper where he had drawn his strange caracter. I concentrated myself and attracted the Off-White Qi in the surrounding, I had discovered years ago. I fused the Qi with the caracter as it shined the more I infused Qi in it. The caracter got out of the sheet of paper, flew in front of me and became more stable. I asked the old man for caracters which could be combined with it and he gave me 5 more. I infused my Qi in them and they flew out too. I thought that they would inbrick themselves, fuse or mix together to form something else but was rather desapointed when I saw that nothing happened.

The old man was totally red. Excitement, joy, curiousity, admiration and a lot of differents emotions could be seen on his face. after what looked like 1 minute he snaped out of it and looked at me.

"How the f*ck did you do it ?" He asked me as he had difficulties keeping himself from shouting.

I was still concentrated on what I was doing and tried to merge the differents tendrils of Off-White Qi together. They first got along well but after several seconds, chaos brokes and the filaments gradually disapeared.

I looked at him and said.

"Did you see that ? I have discover your famous Qi and have probably resolved one of the worst obstacle you, Arrays masters, have. Well, it needs more research but goods results are sure to be brought soon enough. I think you can already give me the privileges I deserve, right ?" I said while laughing like crazy as I saw his red face.

He took 10 good minutes to calm himself.

"First I'll need the method you used to be able to sense or create the Qi you have showed me. Next I'll be able to present you to the president of the Array association and you'll be immediately promoted to Array master. The privileges will be decided by you and the president." He said as he turned serious. A hint of excitement could be seen in his eyes but he held it back. It was an incredible discovery which would change everything about Array master.

Before coming in the city, and during the past 2 years and 10 months, Array mastery had revolved around how many caracters you could remember and how did you fused them. You had to always have a sheet of paper with caracters on you ready to use. Now with this discovery, knowledge was the most important, followed by the control you had over the Off-White Qi.

" Since you have find it, What will be the name of this Qi ?" The old man asked me.

" ...Why ....Not ... Array Qi ?"

"Why all the suspense for a name as banal as that ?? Haaa...forget it." He said a bit tired as he began to rub his eyes.

"Do you have a place to stay ? Or do you want to live with me during your stay here ?" He asked.

I answer that I hadn't found where to live yet and that I could live with him. Then I asked a question that I had wanted to ask from the start of our conversation.

"What was the image you built your foundation on for the Qi Core Creating stage ?"

" It was a library. Super structured with a lot of diferents books, going from biology to music passing by psychology, fantasy and a lot of differents type of books. each of them containing knowledge and subject. For each new subject added, the library would expend in size and for each subjects toroughly understood the shelves would stop growing in height. Each time a subject could be deepened the shelf would continue to grow in height as my knowledge on this topic grew as well. Each subjects containing innumerable books representing all my knowledge about the subject in question." He replied clearly proud if him.

I whistled and asked.

" What kind of Qis did you sense before going for it ?"

" I sensed Soul Qi, Illusion Qi, Eye Qi and three of the Four Elements. Funny enough the president keep trying to convince me that there are more "elements" Qis like wood and metals. And you what Qis did you sense till now ?" He asked. I looked at him not sure if I really wanted to destroy his confidence. In the end I decided to go easy on him.

" Oh you know, the four Elementals Qis, the Soul Qi, Blood Qi, Array Qi and Spacetime Qi. really nothing much." I wasn't proud showing off, but he looked at me as if I was a dinosaur and kept rubbing his eyes until they were red.

" Spacetime Qi ?!? Not Space and Time Qis ?!? You fused the two of them or sensed a better version of the two ?? They are already the most sought after, complicated to sense and to control !! Where the f*ck were you to have sensed all these Qis ??" Completely dejected, he leaned himself in his chair while thinking.

" You're definitively one of the most talented person in the world. But you're weak right now. Even me who don't specialize in fighting can easily kill you. Your fighting ablity itslef is not as good as it should be, because of your missing arm...Ok come with me, we will go home, rest and tomorrow I will have you meet the president so that I can report everything to him. You alright with that, right ?" He asked me after a moment of reflexion.

I nodded as I felt the tiredness wash over me. We descended the stairs and I saw the secretary rise up and bow to us. I waved and get out of the building with the Old man. I forgot to tell you all his name. He is Myokago Zonondo. Since his name is really tiring to say and he don't really like it, he asked us, the first year we had him at school to just call him Old man. As we walked I presented him to Osis who had been hunting while I went to the Array association. We went to his "house". Well it was more of a manor than a house.

"I see that you're well paid Old man." I said teasingly.

We entered the manor as a file of servants were bowing to us.

" Greeting master !!" They said in unison.

He showed me my room and invited me to eat. I was really hungry and the food was excellent so I ate more than I could. Just as I was finishing my meal and loudly burped something nether me nor the Old man cared about, I heard someone approaching. I turned my head and saw the most angelic, beautifull, gorgeous and charming girl I ever seen in my life. my mouth was hung open as I forgot to breath. Long seconds passed until I began to hear again.

" Little Zoe this is James, the best student I ever had and a friend of mine, he will stay with us for a while ok ?" He said as he smiled at her and throw a glance towards me with teasing eyes.

I got up and bowed to her and said

" A pleasure to meet you Miss Zoe." I said as sweet rolled over my forehead.

' Please tell me she didn't heard this burp, God please tell me she didn't heard that...' I implored silently

" A pleasure shared Mister James. Grandpa how many time did I tell you to stop burping like that. Even with a guest you're this disgusting, it's not surprising Grandma left you..." She said first smiling at me and then looking at the Old man with a pout on her face.

I was so surpised I forgot to laugh, then I gathered myself and said.

" I don't really mind miss Zoe but I'm sure a feminine presence at this table would for sure lessen his disgusting behaviours." I said speaking seriously to her.

" That's a good idea, I didn't ate since this morning and planned to go to the kitchen prepare myself a meal so I don't die from hunger." She said smiling sweetly at me.

I smiled back as the Old man was completely stunned.

'Did he just lie in front of me ?? Did he really framed me, this... bast*rd... ?? Wait he lied to my granddaughter ?? Are they seriously flurting, in front of me now ?? Haaa I'm becoming too old for this shit...

He got up, excused himself and said that after a long day he was tired. He asked us if it was alright if he left us together, so he could go sleep early today. I was way too happy that he gave us the green light and quickly agreed.

We were now just together, Zoe and me and I couldn't help myself from looking at her. She had silver hair and blue eyes, plump lips and an angelic face. I couldn't see it but I knew her body was mesmering as f*ck. With the curves and edges wete it should have been.

She was also looking at me and soon her sight halted and fixed my left arm. She trembled a bit, her eyes becoming cloudy.

" How did you lose you arm ?" She asked me, a bit afraid of what she would hear.

I told her my story and another 3 hours passed. She was silent during the majority of it. At a certain point of the story, we just stopped using honorific and called ourselves by our name.

After telling my story, I asked her to tell me her's. She was willing but we decided to move to be a bit more confortable. We went to the living room and sat on the same sofa looking at each other and then...She began.