The Dao of Magic

30 - Bird

So there is a dragon studying my qi-absorbing circle. It is spinning with a few thousand rounds per minute, but that shouldn't be a problem to magical eyesight, right? The dragoness then holds out her hands, gathering some of the yet unknown energy. Now that I think about it, this is an ideal opportunity to find out what emotions I may have missed.

Quickly cycling through all the known ones nets me nothing new. Feeling some anger, love, worry, grief and fear puts up a pretty light show of swirling mana, but the dragon's actions remain invisible to me. What am I missing here? Emotions are one of the more complex types of phenomena to describe.

I can tell you what something tastes like and you might get a pretty accurate picture of what I am trying to describe. Doing the same with emotions is inherently useless since there exists no way to accurately transfer feelings across to someone else. Any cultivator I knew that went it that sort of direction, the direction of emotional manipulation, went insane and died a few hundred years later. The brain is a tool that apparently does not like to be abused and manipulated in that manner. Maybe there were a few old monsters that mastered this art, but they were not telling anyone.

I make a list of all emotions known to me. I am still missing stuff that can't easily be defined, like surprise, amazement or desire. Is pain even an emotion? How would I even simulate being surprised? Loathing is also missing, but that's more due to my nature than anything else. How can I truly despise something or someone without having lived their lives?

This gives me a few ideas though. Clearing my mind I look at the dragon in female form, studying every detail. White straight hair that ends uneven around her shoulders, light brown leather vest and pants, with big, flat white scales protecting the important bits. Light skinned hands carry long white nails, her grey eyes have a slight flicker of light in the middle of their pupils. Her face is perfect. Whatever mathematical codes for beauty or fertility recognition are hidden in my DNA, they are all yelling at me that her proportions are impeccable. C-cup, some process I definitely deleted pops up.

I bring up a golden ratio analyser and she hits perfect marks. Every piece of her face is in a one point six ratio with another part of her face. I empty my mind of everything that isn't her, I leave my automation running, of course - I don't want to end up insane just when I meet a rather hot chick.

White strands form around her. Panic flashes through my mind, the world around me flashing dark blue for a second. The white strands have disappeared. Is that the colour of her mana? I thought my qi trap had broken for a second, but a quick check allows me to calm down. All the qi the Tower produces is still being sucked up by the circle.

Was that amazement? Admiration? What is the opposite of admiration? Despising someone? Maybe loathing?

I don't want to start despising her before having a proper conversation, so let's go with self-loathing for now. Here we go!

'What kind of idiot made that circle like that? And must it be spinning? Totally useless, it might even affect the gathering process adversely. The anchors are shit as well. Absolutely disgusting, the creator must be a pathetic lowlife for sure.'

White strands with a sinister aura surround the dragoness. As my thoughts turn more and more self-incriminating, whatever the dragon is doing becomes clear to my eyes. Air mana gushes from her hands, forming into a rapidly spinning object. Is she trying to drill inside the protective shield? Did she not see that I made this thing? Too many questions, let's try asking for now.

"What are you doing?"

I get splendidly ignored. This isn't the first time I am ignored by girls, so let's not get depressed. She just pours more power into the energy construct she is controlling. I decide to entertain myself with something I should have done a while ago, and that is seeing how the city handled half of a massive space pillar falling on top of their heads.