**Yui Bay. Air Temple Island. Yo.**
"Please don't play with your food, my little airbender," Yoruichi loved molding her food into a little roll and rolling it across her small table.
The birth of our little girl was an unexpected surprise for us. For the past few years, I've had a barrier against conception in place using my chi, but it seems that with spirits, even a simple natural exchange of energies is enough.
Our little mischief-maker inherited her mother's element—lightning. And I can already foresee her becoming a true Goddess of Speed in the future. Even now, she's showing phenomenal progress in mastering new airbending techniques.
"One spoonful for Daddy," I said as I fed Yoruichi. Just then, a dragon hawk flew in through the window, delivering the latest news as it did every day.
"Thank you," I said, untying the tube from its claw and pulling out a freshly printed, rolled-up newspaper.
"Notorious criminal, the Sweating Thief, captured," I read the headline on the front page. "Over the past two months, nearly a thousand citizens of Tienhai and the Earth Kingdom fell victim to him. Anyone who encountered the thief inevitably lost their valuables and money, with the total damage amounting to seven thousand gold pieces. Trains were his primary targets. The thief had a decent understanding of chi, which he used to carry out his dark deeds. By enhancing his external secretion glands, he increased his sweating, releasing vapors that sent those around him into a deep sleep," the text read, accompanied by a photo of today's star—a good-natured-looking chubby man who appeared to be sweating profusely even in the picture.
"The percentage of chi-based crimes has increased by twenty percent compared to last year," Kuvira said disapprovingly as she entered the kitchen. "Good morning to everyone," she added with a "contagious" yawn.
She looked like a sleepy sparrow: disheveled hair, an untucked shirt, and eyes that seemed a bit weary. Poor thing doesn't get enough sleep, working overtime because every new crime is unique. In a way, the discovery of chi hasn't been all good, as human imagination combined with chi produces truly unimaginable results—not always positive.
"Last night, they caught a guy who, using chi, mastered the art of changing his appearance and voice. There weren't many victims, just a few families, by the way, all living in the same building as the criminal himself. The young man studied his targets for transformation very professionally," Kuvira said thoughtfully. "Then, during the day, he calmly entered newlyweds' apartments, posing as the husband who was absent from work. It would have been fine, but yesterday one man came home early and caught his 'double' in the act, so to speak," she continued. I can just imagine the scene: you come home, and someone who looks a lot like you is, well, 'busy' with your wife.
"What do you mean, 'in the act'?" Yoruichi asked innocently, making us exchange embarrassed glances. We'd completely forgotten about our little troublemaker, who loved warming her ears. How could we not? Adult conversations are always so interesting!
"Uh, they caught him stealing!" Kuvira quickly improvised, but the little one just narrowed her eyes suspiciously, not believing a word.
"If you're done eating, go wake up Mom, or she might stay in bed all day," I nudged my daughter toward the hallway, patting her head.
"Okay," she mumbled, with a certain gleam in her eyes. She'll definitely start rummaging through the library to find explanations for our words. Such a curious little airbender…
"What happened next?" I couldn't contain my curiosity. After all, the unfolding events are like a real TV series.
"He confessed to everything and was ready to face punishment, but the wives he had… well, 'you know what' with, intervened. Some of them started defending him. And judging by their stories, they suspected it wasn't their husband, but the pleasure he gave them was incomparable," she said.
"What drama," I shook my head. "It's more accurate to call those women ex-wives; their husbands wouldn't put up with this…"
**———**
**Spirit Realm. Near the Library of Wan Shi Tong. Yuki.**
Pushing off from a step of chi I'd created beneath my feet, I sharply changed my flight trajectory. A destructive beam of energy, released by one of the unsealed scrolls, whizzed by where I'd been. A dozen scrolls were floating around the spirit of knowledge.
"After mastering the seventh gate of my chi, fire is no longer a threat to me," I said calmly, standing amidst a wall of flames. Wan Shi Tong nodded briefly and retracted some of the scrolls.
Our training spar had been going on for a good two hours, but I wasn't even out of breath, using only chi. Thick columns of green chi burst from my hands; there was no room for precise manipulation. With my chi replenishment speed, there's no point in being economical. Even now, no matter how large-scale my techniques are, they're just drops in the ocean.
Recently, I finally tested my immortality ability in practice. Thank the gods and spirits, it worked. One of my bodies became the test subject, and we checked the regeneration speed. Any particles of the body reappeared instantly, and full restoration took less than a second.
As far as I understand, the spirit of knowledge loves surprising enemies with unexpected tricks. His collection of sealing scrolls contains various elements he's preserved from past battles with other spirits. His own techniques are more dangerous: the runes floating around him have the most unexpected effects, some even replicating my own unique abilities. For example, I almost lost my hand when I was strongly drawn toward him.
Overall, Wan Shi Tong is the most balanced spirit among those I've encountered. His speed, strength, chi reserves, control, and technique diversity allow him to fight even against opponents more powerful than himself.
After another exchange of blows with the spirit, chi began uncontrollably bursting from my body. Trying to regain control, I missed a couple more of Wan Shi Tong's attacks. While I struggled with my own chi, my body began to be entwined by parchments.
"How do you like my new invention? There's a small mark on your back now that adapts to your chi and introduces chaos into it," he said, noticing how hastily I tried to remove the mark. "You won't make it in time."
The glowing parchments began to "erase" my body. A second later, more than half of my body was gone, leaving only my head, collarbones, and right hand. The funniest part was that it didn't look repulsive. Despite the chi not yet being under control, massive streams of chi instantly sealed all the open parts of my body, and in the next second, I was whole again. The main advantage of all seventh-level practitioners is undoubtedly their survivability.
From the memory of the lion-turtle, I know of one character—a defender of his settlement and a practitioner of the final level. He managed to drive away a more powerful ancient spirit simply because the latter grew tired of beating a man who just wouldn't die…
"Now it's my turn!" I exclaimed, releasing a frost attack. In an instant, everything within a radius of a couple of kilometers froze solid. Even elemental particles were frozen. "It wasn't for nothing that I spent days with the spirits of time and space…" Thanks to them and that ice spirit, I'd added a second unique ability based on the water element to my arsenal.
It was so satisfying to see the surprise in Wan Shi Tong's eyes.
"Victory is mine," I said with a satisfied smirk. I can't help myself; I've been waiting for this moment since I was a simple low-level spirit. Back then, the spirit of knowledge seemed like an insurmountable mountain I wanted to conquer. And even when all my elements reached the ancient level, Wan Shi Tong always brought it to a draw… This time, it was my complete and unconditional victory.
"No one's arguing," the spirit of knowledge nodded, his calm response slightly dampening my good mood. "Better tell me how you managed to create such an effect…" he added, clearly anticipating the answer.
I wouldn't be surprised if, in a few years, he manages to replicate the freezing effect. From what I've seen, his writings possess considerable flexibility in techniques, so he'll manage to replicate something. The conversation about abilities smoothly transitioned to other, more pressing topics.
"If we start from the fact that we've managed to suppress Vaatu and merge him with Raava, a whole host of other equally important problems arises. I can say with absolute certainty that the Spirit Realm and the Human World will begin to merge into one. You yourself must understand—their current separation is not the norm. The more spiritual part will be drawn to the more material half. And according to my calculations, the Earth will increase by a full thirty percent. All this will be accompanied by significant landscape changes: thousands of new active volcanoes will appear on Earth, cities may be buried under tons of water, territories of some steppe settlements will find themselves high in the mountains, and many areas will be shaken by powerful earthquakes…"
"Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people will perish…" I muttered grimly.
"Don't forget about the dark spirits who survive the battle. Finding themselves near humans, they won't change their nature and will begin devouring everything alive."
"You wouldn't have started this conversation if you hadn't come up with a couple of ideas."
"I have some," he confirmed my suspicions. "The simplest option is to bring over the floating islands from the spiritual plane. It won't be difficult to build temporary homes on them with the necessary supplies. While we're busy liberating cities, they can peacefully weather the turbulent times in the air. Even now, the concentration of spiritual particles in the human plane will allow them to stay afloat and not fall."
"Not a bad option," no, it's even excellent, at least nothing else comes to mind. But in my thoughts, an image of a Palace floating among the clouds appeared. I think if I take one small island for myself, no one will object. I'll turn it into a luxurious home with multi-tiered pagodas and a whole garden of beautiful plants.
"Yuki?" Wan Shi Tong's voice pulled me from my sweet fantasies.
"Yes?"
"I have another piece of bad news," he said, almost solemnly.
"Just tell me already—don't keep me in suspense," I didn't even need intuition to know—this is something related to me.
"By the time of the battle with Vaatu, Aang won't have accumulated all one hundred percent of Raava's energy," the spirit of knowledge began using terms and words I didn't quite understand, but if I summarize—it all boiled down to the fact that light energy is too complex, so after reaching a certain threshold, accumulation becomes harder and harder. The situation is somewhat similar to energybending: at first, the process goes easily and effortlessly, but then, closer to the end, huge time and power investments are needed.
"Let me guess what you're trying to say. Only you, Yuki, have the ability to achieve the power that will help Raava in the decisive battle with Vaatu," judging by the awkward silence, I hit the nail on the head.
"...Yes, only you have the ability to develop at an enormous speed for spirits. Moreover, the presence of vast reserves of chi and a neutral source will play a significant role. All of us ancient spirits will simply get in the way; dark energy stands above all of us—you've managed to preserve something alien to this world within yourself, something that doesn't fall under the laws of the hierarchy of elements."
"Bending rules," I sighed, already knowing about the huge possibility of such an outcome.
"Now I need to remember how Korra fought Vaatu in that cartoon…" Of course, blindly trusting some animated film is unwise, but there's always a grain of truth in it.