Spiritual Journey(2)

Back at the place that Korra's father got us, I made preparations for the journey, I couldn't take a lot of stuff with me so I took only necessities. I had two more energy grenades and a half-finished one. I took all of them since I could finish the latter on the way. When I asked Nya if she wanted to come with us she told me that I could have fun on my own, walking in the tundra while she stays here and enjoys what the Southen Water Tribe has to offer since this was the reason we came here. But before I left she gave me a kiss for good luck. I then looked for Asami and Varrick to tell them that I'll be leaving and that I would be back in a few days, while there I gave the mad genius the schematics for the bombs to start looking at ways to make them work. He seemed very excited to have the schematics and gifted Bolin and me a snowmobile and one of his coats each. We quickly made our way to the gathering point to meet the others.

Once there I saw Korra and her dad arguing, it was what they did most of the time, I couldn't fault Tonraq, Korra's a handful on her best days, having a daughter like that must be exhausting.

'God, please, may my children be more understanding...'

With all of us here we started our journey to the South Pole.

The fact that I'm safe in using internal energy or chi or however you want to call it made me want to train more and maximize the way I do it. Up until now, I used the internal energy I had to clear the impurities, but it wasn't fast enough, the process was a hassle, I needed to stay still and concentrate on myself to do this, while you might think it would be easy since I could brute force it and use a ton of energy to clear them and throw efficiency out of the window, jokes on me, I didn't have that much energy, all that stuff about " you have more chi than the avatar ", the worst compliment ever, turns out people have so little chi that it's disgustingly hard to sense it much less practice with it.

Since I knew the problems I was faced with, it was time to find solutions for them. Sure each time I cleared a chunk my energy capacity grew a little and so I could hold longer the purification process so eventually, the problem would solve itself. But that eventually scared me, how much time would it take me, a month, a year, a decade? Up until now I barely made a dent. I didn't want to wait that long, I need a way to fasten my "cultivation". Yes, I started to use the "c" word, since it was that but a lot more pitiful. I could take in chi by breathing while it wasn't that much, but it was better than waiting for it to recharge on its own. The human body does 12 to 20 breaths per minute, so if I could make taking in chi as a reflex I would save a ton of time even if I could only take so much chi in, now I only needed to find a way to use that chi, I needed a way to cultivate while I was doing other things, to do them without thinking.

I wretched my brain for a while now trying to find a way to do it but then it hit me. I had my 'limbo state', once I entered it could control every small part of my body, so what about reflexes, could I control them too? I tried and stopped the patellar reflex, and it worked. Now since I could stop them, why not create some. I tried to look at how the connections worked, how my brain did it without me thinking it. Well, it was quite a trip to see all the neurological connections, all the twists, and turns, it made even my brain overloaded.

'No way, I'm doing this any time soon. I have a ton of pathways to sift through.'

While it would be slow, it would be many times faster than doing it the normal way through an obscene amount of practice.

I didn't notice that night was fast approaching till I heard Unalaq tell us to stop and make camp near a hill. We all gathered around the fire and started to eat, Korra kept asking her uncle questions about spirits while I was tinkering with the bombs near the spirit master partially listening as well, Bolin was fully immersed in talking with Eska while Mako and Korra's father talked.

They didn't talk about the incident since I already spilled the beans at the festival and surprisingly Tonraq didn't seem mad about it. After I teased Unalaq that day, the two had a chat and he told his daughter about his past, how he got banished and what he did after that. Not only he didn't seem mad when I apologies he even told me that he was grateful for bringing it up since sooner or later it would come to light and better now than later. I guess he didn't want Korra to find out from her uncle but he didn't have the heart to tell her this shameful piece of the past.

"Are the bombs ready?"

I look in the direction of the person and respond.

"As ready as they will ever be. At the moment I have three of them but I wouldn't expect all of them to work. By my estimations, we have one chance to block a spirit with this."