In the time before the solstice, I managed to accomplish many things. Yue began practicing more complex techniques. These weren't yet changes in water's aggregate state, but even simple water manipulation contains numerous different techniques that aren't always easy to perform, even for masters.
Soon enough, I'll be able to open the first chakra, which will increase all my physical characteristics at once. This chakra is blocked by the feeling of fear, and to open it, one must consciously find their main fear within themselves and overcome it. I don't even know what exactly I'm truly afraid of yet. There are, of course, some fears, but these aren't even the fears themselves — just simple apprehensions. Here, most likely, it will be something from the deep subconscious, where people often unconsciously shove and forget the most traumatic things.
Things are going well at the South Pole, but people are somewhat wary of the new arrival of Fire Nation warriors. Maybe they've already written off the Southern Tribe, but when they finally decide to come and see why there's been no contact with this squad for so long, they'll definitely seek revenge for the Southern Invaders.
During my last visit, I relied too heavily on the new village's camouflage, but the people here aren't fools either — they might start combing through half the tundra.
As a last resort, an underground tunnel was built that ends two kilometers beyond the village. A temporary underground bunker was also equipped there, which will allow residents to stay inside without worry for up to two weeks.
Of course, we'll have to replace perishable food supplies from time to time and clear the exit from accumulated snow, but I think this is much better than sitting and waiting for the Fire Nation people to arrive.
While they're safe, I'll have time to appear. Well, that's the plan at least — how everything will turn out in the future, I can only guess...
To buy time for the residents themselves to evacuate or at least warn them about the probable advance of enemy forces, it was decided to set traps with the former hunters in the territory of the old village, which they definitely won't disdain to thoroughly inspect.
We made the same ones around the new village, and some of them will create enough noise so that even the deafest person could sense trouble. I'll hope that the screams of soldiers who get caught in them will serve as a sufficiently clear signal for the residents. After warning people where not to go, we quickly organized a patrol to watch whether any animals got caught in the traps, which could discredit the presence of the traps themselves.
Throughout this entire time, each time I crossed through portals, I took a rodent with me. This had an effect! Now the rodent appears with me in the Southern Tribe safe and sound. But in my experiments specifically with the rodent, I completely forgot that they don't have their own bending, and they have a minuscule amount of life energy. It turns out that a sufficiently strong bender can make this journey even without my help, while when crossing with a non-bender or weakly gifted person, I can easily protect them with my energy. Although the rodent is small, I spent half my energy reserve on it. But what if even my reserve isn't enough to protect a human? I need to get a human who definitely won't be missed. For now, I should try to drag some horned cattle — with them, I think, it will be tougher.
I'm not standing still in comprehending the mysterious art of bloodbending either. I'm starting to manage moving the blood of one rat, though the movements come out somewhat unnatural — even its own kind avoid it during this time. At least this is already a small success. It turns out I needed to specifically feel where and how blood moves and in which places it interacts with life energy. I initially thought I just needed to move blood, say, to an arm or paw, and it would start moving on its own. No, everything here lies in the reactions that the body produces when blood and life energy come into contact in certain areas.
Recognizing your own blood and life energy is the hardest of all, because it's part of your body. We don't think about how to raise our hand — we just raise it. Here's the same analogy. Even the bloodbending technique was created more subconsciously — the body itself tried to adjust the movement of blood with life energy. It was going so well before that I thought it was really that easy to control one's own blood. [ image ]

Why was Amon able to block Korra's bending abilities using bloodbending? Why could he control an entire crowd of people without a single movement? Because he knew exactly how to manipulate blood — he managed to understand if not all life energy, then certainly some important part of it. This is what I need to strive for.
…
The momentous day approaches — the solstice, for which I have approximately eighteen hours. In this time, I must find the dark spirits I need, quickly finish with them, and exit the Spirit World. I have no desire to wait there for the next solstice.
I should understand in advance which element to choose. I'd like to find some spirit of time or space, but even if such exist, first I need to find them, and they're definitely rare. Moreover, developing such elements would also be difficult — rapid development is impossible with their insufficient quantity for devouring, and among people there are no methodologies or scrolls for these elements. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself too much. Maybe there's no possibility of obtaining a new element at all.
It's clear I need to choose from the three main elements. Water is already there, leaving earth, fire, and air. Essentially, waterbending is a very flexible element — with it I can defend well, attack quite swiftly, and there's some mobility. One minus — until I learn to extract water from everything around me, I always have to carry some water supply with me.
Air would also be useful, but showing such an element now would definitely bring trouble upon myself. I'm certainly a strong bender, but I definitely can't stand against an entire nation, especially with this constant tension. This is danger for loved ones — too many significant minuses.
That leaves earth and fire — both elements are very "tasty." As it develops, earth would give me new branches of this bending — manipulation of metals and lava. Finding teachers of this element is also no problem, but fire has one feature that I really need.
Firebenders interact more closely with their chi. Essentially, to create fire they program their life energy, and as it seems to me, even add some of it in the process of creating fire, which happens automatically for them. Fire benders create their own element themselves — well, of course, if there's something to burn in the air... You can't fight with fire in a hermetic space, but you'd still have to manage to get into such an exceptional situation.
Another example — lightning. In the series, they roughly explained to us how it's created. Through special destabilization of chi flows with the addition of fire energy, a bender releases an electrical discharge. Another weighty reason to take fire is the technique shown to us in Avatar Korra's story when she was struck by a dark spirit and lost her memories.
The energy reading technique — I think that's what that ability was called. It allows reading a person's energy, meaning you can view not only physical health, as waterbenders do, but also the state of your spiritual body. And this is your energetics, life energy channels, and probably the mind itself. Maybe this technique can't heal, but knowing the problem, you can fight it. This is exactly what this ability gives us, allowing diagnosis of almost everything.
There's an unsubstantiated thought that this technique is also based on life energy manipulation. All this can only be learned through personal experience, or by sneaking to the Fire Sages and reading all their teachings. Maybe Wan Shi Tong also has knowledge about this ability lying around — though he definitely should have it. After all, he's a spirit of knowledge, and he doesn't send his assistants anywhere just like that. I think he even roughly knows where something new opens in this world, and already knowing the approximate place, he sends out his spirit assistants.
***
Sitting on the grass near the Spirit Oasis, watching the sun emerge from the horizon, simultaneously with which some spiritual tension began appearing in the air. Being here right next to the portal to the Spirit World, I could already feel how the boundaries separating the two worlds were becoming thinner and thinner.
As soon as the local luminary fully appeared from behind the horizon, I entered the portal. I don't know what processes occur during the solstice, but even visually the barrier became dimmer and thinner.
Gathering my strength and covering my body with a thin film of water, I headed toward the barrier. Upon contact with the barrier, energy for maintaining protection drained at high speed, but step by step I managed to completely "push" myself to the other side.
Already being in the Spirit World, my almost spent energy reserve began rapidly replenishing from the local background, which exceeded the human world's by several times. I found myself in a valley surrounded by many rocks of different shapes, which lightning periodically struck. [ image ]

Apparently, some limitation of thinking is inherent in me too. Concentrating on the attacking aspect of waterbending, I completely forgot about other directions. Good thing I have enough mastery to create a flying platform from water — after all, the Spirit World doesn't yield to the human world in size, and covering such distances is faster by air. And good thing I didn't forget to bring many containers of water with me.
Creating a carpet of water, I flew in a random direction. In this place, only the element of lightning is felt. Of course, lightning itself is also strong, but I don't think it will open the fire element for me — I'll have to fly further.
Only when already in the air did I realize with shock how easily this water platform was created. This definitely wasn't in the animated series... I have no guesses right now though. Unless it's because of my "foreignness" — perhaps the local laws still aren't sovereign over me...
Continuing to fly through the air, I scanned with my sensitivity for places with the greatest concentration of fire energy. I need to find fire spirits as quickly as possible, because the faster I find them, the faster I can digest the new element. That time when the water element appeared, I was knocked out for a good half day. And if this time goes according to the same scenario, I might not make it home in time.
Contact! Sharply turning left, I flew at tremendous speed to a place with a saturated background of fire energy. Hovering over the needed spot, I saw a rift in the earth with a fiery river flowing inside. The needed targets were playfully splashing in it. This would have been quite cute if these fire salamanders weren't radiating a sense of hunger in all directions. [ image ]

So I need to think everything through. I sense only four spirits — three lesser and one medium, Fire Salamanders. The task is easy, but what about the appearance of a new source?! [ image ]

Think, head, I'll buy you a hat... That time it was a medium water spirit when I was lesser, so if I reason logically, now I need to devour only a lesser spirit to at least have the element I need appear. Yes, the source will be weak, but the entire assimilation process should go much easier, and then I'll build up "mass" for this element. Good, I'll do just that!
Concentrating on the water in the waterskins I prepared in advance, I began gradually giving them the shape of bullets. I need to definitely take down three of them at long distance so I don't accidentally devour them.
With one swift movement, I released the water bullets. They shot out like thunderclaps, each one cutting through the air faster than sound. The lava salamanders didn't even have time to react.
They screamed — a strange, bewildered death cry — before their bodies exploded into glowing fragments of raw energy.
I didn't let my guard down until the last fragment of light evaporated in the scorched air.
Wiping sweat from my forehead, I allowed a victorious smile to spread across my face. Only one remained — the lesser spirit. It was still wandering aimlessly, with a dull gaze, searching for companions who were no more.
I summoned a blade of ice in my right hand — sharp enough to cut through flame itself. [ image ]

With one leap, I landed on the creature's back, driving in the sword.
The salamander let out a piercing howl.
With a quick movement, the blade whistled across its neck. Its head separated — and didn't even have time to touch the ground before melting in a whirlwind of elemental energy.
Meanwhile, I had already managed to move away from the lava river and sit on the ground, feeling in my gut how the fire spirit's energy was being digested by me. I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs: "Yes, a new element after all!" but knowing what should follow didn't let me do it. I had to grit my teeth and wait for the beginning of the source's appearance, which didn't keep me waiting long.
Pain consumed my entire body — both spiritual and physical. Knowing they're merged into one for me, the pain feels twice as strong, or maybe I'm just winding myself up... In the very first minute, my whole body simply became drenched from tension, but the pain must be endured while conscious. It seems my guesses were confirmed — the painful sensations are certainly very strong, but not consciousness-knocking-out strong. I think I can hold on.
The first hours, the pain only intensified, but in the subsequent four hours it gradually began to subside. As soon as these torments ended, I sprawled on the ground in a star shape with an extremely wide smile on my face.
Thinking to myself: "It was worth it."
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