The Good Teacher

The sight within Marie's core matched the descriptions from Krish's records. A world, the entire cosmos encompassing everything observed and unobserved, compressed into a tiny and immaterial space within Marie's soul. Every aspect of the world was connected, with threads of gold forming a net tethering everything into one intricate tapestry. The fact that everything was within Krish's expectations indicated that at its core, Marie's cultivation had not deviated - she was still a practitioner of the Heavenly Eye.

However, a difference started to manifest itself within the very next second, when a golden thread split off from the cosmos and attached to his hand. The thread pulsed as a wave was transmitted back into the cosmos. Then, before his very eyes, the cosmos started to change. Heavenly bodies were rearranged, removed, and added in real-time. Once the rearrangement settled, he saw the cosmos shake unhappily and reset itself to the initial state. Then the pulse repeated once again, reiterating through the 'rearrange, remove and add' cycle to a new configuration only to disintegrate and reset after an unhappy shake.

It looked as though the world was trying to make sense of his existence, but was failing miserably to do so. This should not be the case because, after all, Krish was supposed to be detached from fate - an observer.

The iterative cycle repeated for a hundred tries, each more intriguing than the next. There were unique and configurations of the universe Krish could never dream of - one, in particular, had all the stars in space congregated into a single massive ball of fire with heavenly bodies orbiting at a manic speed around it.

After the hundredth repeat, the world shook angrily and started a new approach. Since it could not accommodate him into its tapestry, it was time for him to change to fit in. With that, an attack was launched toward him that started to deconstruct his hand. Krish could anticipate where this was going and immediately retreated. His spiritual cultivation was strong enough to resist the attack, and then some.

Before Krish exited his Disciple's core space he took a few seconds to summarise his observations. Her cultivation wasn't exactly as it was supposed to be. While the overarching nature of her cultivation was similar, there were minor differences here and there that set it apart, making it more personal to his Disciple. Was this a good thing or a bad thing?

For one, it meant that her path to advancement was no longer laid out as descriptively; quite possibly, she could no longer go through the same steps as he had to advance in her cultivation. This could be disadvantageous since uncertainty came with risks. On the other hand, this also meant that there was room for improvement in the Heavenly Eye, a cultivation method which had stagnated for many millennia.

Nonetheless, as he exited his Disciple's core, he wore a concerned demeanour truthful to his opinion.

"So there is good news and bad news," Krish started to say, but he was immediately interrupted by Marie with an immediate declaration.

"I know what I need to do," Marie spoke with conviction. "The way to advance safely - I know what to do!"

"What is it?" Krish probed.

"I need to model the world," Marie answered, though Krish didn't understand her meaning.

"Just like how other cultivation methods use the movement of planetary bodies to divine the future, I must do the same. However, it needs to be accurate and dynamic not the snapshot-method everyone else uses. It needs to be responsive to changes as they transpire and must correct itself in real-time," Marie elaborated. "Thus I need to devise a strategy to, and successfully model the world."

"And how will you go about doing that?" Krish probed.

"System identification," Marie responded. "We collate data sets and compare against existing models of the cosmos and optimise it. It is an iterative process. Although..."

"Although, what?" Krish urged.

With a bitter smile, "To do that, I will need a large data set of movement of heavenly bodies and so on. And it needs to be precise and accurate for my model to be correct."

"Why would that be an issue?" Krish asked with a tilt of his head.

"Well it's not like there's an observatory just floating around here," Marie snorted sarcastically, only to receive a proud smirk from Krish.

"Maybe not here," Krish said mysteriously. He then lowered his gaze and pondered over his next move. After a quick minute, he said, "Pack up your things. We will be leaving tomorrow morning."

"Leaving? Where?" Marie shot back.

"We will be going on a trip to fetch the information you need," Krish explained. "I hope you can explain this to the Matron," he said to Guy. "I don't wish to aggravate her... trauma."

Guy nodded with a morose frown. He knew that Krish was observing everything happening around him, and the fact that he intruded on Grace's confession did breach a few privacy laws... in his past life. However, he was right in this regard. A male Master suddenly whisking away a female Disciple from her family might draw a lot of parallels with Grace's own life experience, and she would need to be eased into it.

"I will handle things on my end," Guy responded. "However I will need assurances."

"I don't think we will encounter anyone stronger than I," Krish said with a bemused smile. "Besides that, she is my responsibility too. I am not going to rush her into trouble."

Guy hummed contemplatively and in half affirmation. He recognised that the trip would be important for Marie to advance and he was all for it. He also had a good read on Krish and knew that the man only held good intentions for Marie. The issue, though, was getting Grace on board which he expected to be a steep uphill rise.

Contrary to Guy's expectations, it did not take much to convince Grace. To quote her exact words, "Marie won't let the man get an inch near her if she doesn't want to."

Her confidence in Marie was staggering. Then again, the girl had practically lived alone for most of her life with her work. And thus, with haste and efficiency, the Master-Disciple duo were prepped up and ready to set off on their journey at the crack of dawn.

____

"We didn't pack any food," Marie commented with an irate scowl.

"It's all part of the plan, my little Disciple," Krish answered with a mysterious intonation. Seeing as his Disciple wasn't in a mood for jokes, he added, "It will be part of the practice. When I started my journey with my Master, the only things we carried was a set of clothes and a canteen of water."

"Why?"

"The aim is to acquire the required resources while travelling. It helps us put our abilities into practice," Krish answered. "Hungry? We accumulate a favour with a commoner and fill our stomachs. Injured? We do the same with a healer and get treated. Every problem has an individual who can offer a solution."

"So we exploit their goodwill?" Marie blurted out incredulously.

"Well, best case scenario would be that we anticipate encroaching danger and avoid it altogether, but if push comes to shove then yes," Krish nodded.

Marie chuckled along with Krish as they exited the vicinity of the village.

"So where are we going?" Marie probed.

"East," Krish answered.

"Please," Marie requested with oozing sarcasm. "Please be vaguer."

"There is an island due North-East from here smack-dab in the middle of the Vast Blue Expanse. That is our destination," Krish expounded.

"Why are we going there exactly?"

"Well, remember how I told you that a few of our ancestors have already tried to find alternatives and improve upon the Heavenly Eye? My Master's Master happened to be a part of that group, and happened to follow a similar line of reasoning such as yourself, barring the whole model part," Krish narrated. "Therefore, he accumulated a few favours with an upstart Sect that practice an arcane body cultivation method that relies on tracking the movement of heavenly bodies."

"How does that work?" Marie voiced her intrigue.

"You can ask them when we get there. Anyway, it's not our concern. What matters to us is that they've aggregated highly accurate and precise records of the movement of heavenly bodies for at least the last two millennia."

"How are you so sure that they wouldn't have gone extinct by now? A lot of time has passed, after all," Marie responded dubiously.

"I've checked," Krish responded. "They're still up and running. My Grandmaster was thorough in his intervention, do not think that we are half-hearted in our assistance just because we callously provide it for our benefit."

"Do you think I will succeed, Master?" Marie voiced her uncertainty. Although she exuded an air of confidence when she declared her resolve to create a dynamic model of the world, she was still just a teenage youth stepping into the vast expanse of cultivation. She was filled with worry and uneasiness.

"I have confidence in you," Krish hummed. "You achieved something that generations of our ancestors deemed impossible. Therefore, my confidence in you isn't insincere. You have proven time and time again that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to."

"Know this, it is my duty as your Master to support you through everything. Even if this venture does not pan out as you expect it to, worry not. Everything will work out as it is supposed to, you just do what you deem necessary," Krish added.

"It will all work out eventually," Marie parroted. "I am fated with the Heavenly Eye, after all," she said with a chuckle.

Krish stopped in place and looked at his Disciple's cheeky grin. After a second, he joined her in her mirthful laugh and continued on their journey.