I grunted as I snapped the arrow in my arm. Fuck that hurt.

This body was fresh, free of scars or pain. It would be anointed in blood in time.

I pulled the arrows shaft back. It was mangled wood, poor craftsmanship, now spoiled in my blood. I hoped that the healing potion had some kind of disinfectant property. I had brought a pocket full of them, and I drank one greedily.

My flesh knitted itself back together, an itchy experience as fibrous tissue reached out and pulled the sinew and flesh, filling in the gap. I watched in awe as the magic worked, sliding down the wall.

As abruptly as the pain had come, it was gone, leaving me with a ghostly echo and an itch. It was as if it was never there, a phantom memory of an injury.

Dried blood flaking on my arm reminded me it was very real.

I stretched, flexing my fingers experimentally. It was really too good to be true, like a high level elixir available to the general public. I wonder how much these cost Willow.

I grabbed one of the strange fruits from the bag, biting into one.

They were still spicy, but in a pleasant way. Not terribly hot, more like a sharper cinnamon, and I chewed thoughtfully, inspecting the fruit.

There were seeds inside, and I picked them out, putting them back into the bag.

The fruit had a weirdly earthy smell, though I guessed it could have been the environment they were grown in.

I smelt like sweat. I was covered in it. It clung to my skin, soaking my clothes. My breath showed in the dim vision of my Moonlight Eyes.

It was freezing in the cave, but I was burning hot, boiling with Qi, and I drew it inside myself, filling my Dantian. There was enough here to fill it completely, and then, once it was attuned, I would officially break through to the next realm.

At my current strength, I was capable. I was like an athlete at the pinnacle. I could probably compete in the Olympics.

I doubt I would win if they let Awoken participate, but if it was 6 years ago, I could break a few gold records. The Qi changed me on a fundamental level as it saturated my body during the first and second steps of the First Realm. The effects would only become more severe as I progressed.

Being capable of participating in the Olympics was not being capable enough to spend hours hunting monsters without rest, even if I could make up a large part of the gap with martial skill.

So I recuperated, rested, and filled my Dantian.

By the time my Dantian was full my skin no longer sizzled from the Qi saturation, though my Meridians still felt like they were full of fire. I stood, stretching, and moving for the exit, now with a half empty bag of fruit.

I kept working on the Qi, nudging it through the pathways of this cultivation law that prepared it for attunement, until footsteps and squeaks down the hall interrupted me. I pressed myself to the wall beside the entrance to the side chamber I was in.

There were dozens of footsteps now, a veritable army on patrol through the tunnel, and I heard them rush by. They flooded into side chambers, disappearing down the hall, until one entered the room I was in.

Shit. It didn’t see me at first, its eyes fixed forward in a baleful glare that slowly explored the room. I stayed pressed to the wall as it scanned the room, nocturnal eyes glinting in the dark like gemstones.

I had to kill it before it shouted. It started to turn towards me, exploring the room. Easy, just kill it before it makes any noise.

It screamed from across the room. I was already charging it, half way through the distance, and then my blows landed hard and heavy but it was too late. I turned to race out of the room. I didn’t want to be pinned in a place with no exits, so I jumped over the head of a Kobold, reaching with one hand to grab the metal spear it held. I felt the metal cut into my hand as I took hold of it; it was sharpened on only one edge, and my blood flowed down it.

A flesh wound that I would health potion away was a small price to pay to have a weapon, especially surrounded by enemies.

I’d paid greater prices for victory before, and I would pay them again.

I stopped myself on the wall, kicking my legs out and sliding downwards, finding my balance in the half second between me leaping into the hallway and the Kobolds there noticing me, and I bolted without even killing any of them.

I had to go farther, to put distance between me and the colony.

The hallway— the winding cavern— erupted in angry squeaks as the Kobolds realized they found me, but I already broke out of their little patrol and was beating my way through the stone hall.

The monsters chased, of course. But my legs were longer, and I was faster, and they quickly disappeared into the dark of the caverns behind me. I slowed to a jog, but I didn’t stop this time. I didn’t stop when the sounds of monsters disappeared from behind me. I didn’t stop when the darkness of the caves engulfed me. I didn’t stop as I followed the winding path up, as I felt the stinging wind and saw the light of a frozen world. I stood outside the cave, at the edge. The moon was somewhere, up above a sea of boiling clouds that kept the world sustained in gray. Ice glittered on the ground and snow swept as far as I could see. Qi boiled in my body, keeping me warm, and I stepped back into the mouth of the cave to cultivate what was left.

This is what I was good at. Killing. For hundreds of years I cultivated power to survive, and what could I do with it now?

Build my own wealth, I guess. I couldn’t mooch off my sister forever. Even if she was way too rich. Come to think of it, I didn’t even ask how they make money off of this.

Getting paid security to respond to gates made sense, but there was no profit to be had in a low level gate like this. Not unless these monsters had spirit beast cores, or something similar based on mana.

Come to think of it, they probably had exactly that. Not that I was going to go searching through these monsters for them.

Qi attuned to the moonlight streaming through the clouds, my body a conduit for its essence. The frozen wind sent clouds of ice roiling on the ground, many of which slammed into the cave and painted the entrance in layer of white, layers of ice and frost pouring over me. The blood flaked and dried on my hand, the cut still open.

There was nothing left to do here but advance. Once I reentered the 9th realm, I could— I would… be able to do anything. Though I guessed I could do anything now. My life wasn’t in constant danger from those around me or rival sects…

My Dantian filled, glowing silver, and just like that, it was attuned. From now on, any Qi I absorbed to it would slowly be turned to Blood Qi— no. It would be turned to Moon Qi, now, and I had stepped to the edge of the second realm. Now attuned, my Dantian would slowly expand to hold more and more Moon Aspect Qi. I couldn’t push through the third realm until that slow expansion completed, which could take weeks. These were the easy realms, the early steps on the path. It would take as long to move through a minor stage of the fourth realm as it took to reach the fourth realm. My progress would slow down. But each stage would mean much more power.

I heard the sound of footsteps on stone. It was just one at first, distant, and I couldn’t see into the cave because of the ambient light difference of the world behind me.