Cultivation as easy as breathing.

Two days passed in a flash, spent drinking in Qi like water. We still could not drain the raw magnitude of Qi suffusing the air. It was like humidity, clinging to our skin and trapping in the heat, raw force and power that electrified the air. We had taken turns sleeping, one of us always awake to keep watch.

Not that anything came for us, yet. We were alone in a forest full of monsters and trapped in eternal night.

In only two days, I pushed myself to the barrier of the Fourth Realm, to the edge of safety, towing the line between a mortal and — not quite a god, but something more. This was it — it was real. This was a line that I couldn’t go back across once I crossed it. There would be no turning back from the path of silver light, attuned to the aspect of the moon in both body and soul. Or, well, body and Dantian.

And then all I had to do was fight a monster in the Sixth Realm.

We would know what realm it was in when we fought it. If we died instantly, Sixth. If we lived an extra two seconds? Then it was probably in the Fifth.

We could hold it off long enough for one extra person to live. It’s funny how different things are here; in Earth’s societies, humans often consider the powerless and most vulnerable when deciding who to protect. To a sect, those people are nothing more than a burden.

I opened my eyes, reaching beside me to eat the half of a granola bar I had on the ground. We had rationed out the food we brought with us. It wasn’t exactly a few days’ worth. But it would be plenty.

“How much do you have left?” Kim asked.

“I’m ready to break through. You should rest first. When it’s your shift, I’ll start the breakthrough. It will take a few hours.” I said, still looking forward at the lake. More and more of the chains sealing the monster had fallen away. Not enough that it could move, yet. But that time was quickly approaching.

“I meant food.” Kim said.

“Oh.” I looked down at the backpack, counting through it. “Two more granola bars… and that’s it.” I said, drinking the water from my water bottles. I had drank all the well water days ago; I was refilling it out of the lake.

“Are you sure that’s safe to drink?” Kim asked as she sat beside me.

“Its aspect is aligned with ours. The Qi inside of it — “

“I mean like, there’s no weird diseases or anything in it.” Kim said, taking the open water bottle.

“It won’t matter once we reach the Fourth Realm. The body becomes — “

“Hardened against outside forces. Yeah, you’ve explained it like six times.” Kim threw the water bottle back, drinking all of it. “You seem fine. Probably safe.”

“Totally safe.” I nodded. Kim took a second water bottle, downing that one as well.

“Sorry. Ran out of water yesterday.” Kim said. “You’re ready to break through?”

“Yes. I’ll be incapacitated for hours during the process. It will probably be best to wait to start until the beginning of your next watch.” I said.

“We’re going to be out of food tomorrow.” Kim said.

“Have you ever had fox meat?” I asked.

Kim made a face.

“I can’t eat them! They’re — I mean, they’re like people! They talk and walk on two legs and everything.”

“They’re not even vaguely related to humans. It’s not cannibalism.” I shrugged.

“Okay first — I never implied it was cannibalism. Now that I think about it, it’s actually worse. I mean, they’re like living, thinking people. That’s fucked up Rain.”

“People eat cows. They form whole social casts. Friendships. They even grieve their dead.” I shrugged again.

“You — “ Kim opened her mouth to say something, then stopped. “Were you a farmer before or something?” She asked.

“No. Never had enough wealth to buy livestock in the other world until I had enough wealth to not need to.” I replied, looking up. “Knew people who did, though.”

“There were cows there.” Kim said, before turning into a full yawn and a stretch.

“Cow analogues. They were way hairier. Fuzzier? Furrier? It’s not important right now — go to sleep.”

“Is it that time already?” Kim asked.

It was hard to tell time with the ever present nighttime that hung over this world. High above, the shattered moon filled the sky, the rocks in heaven stuck in an unending stasis. The sun never rose and the moon never set, an eternal night time left behind by whatever sect built and abandoned this place.

Kim and I talked for a bit before she fell asleep, using a backpack as a makeshift pillow. There was a tension in the background, but it was a distant thing, somehow. Although there was a monster that would almost definitely kill us a few feet away, this place somehow had its own unique comfort. Maybe it was the stunning beauty of the liminal space.

I sat watch over the monster for hours. Another chain broke, Kim woke, and I began my breakthrough, walking Kim through the beginning of the process so that she could observe it before it was her turn. Her cultivation was fast — prodigious, even. But I had years of experience on my side, meaning I was still advancing faster. She probably wouldn’t hit the Fourth Realm before the monster tore its way out of this reality.

My Dantian was full, pushed to the edge of the Fourth Realm. In fact, it was overflowing. Qi flooded each of my meridians, pounding at the seams and ready to rip my body apart, constantly in motion.

With each breath, I inhaled even more Qi, my body glowing with silver light as the speed of my cultivation increased. I cycled as much as I could, then with an act of conscious effort, pushed my Qi outwards and into my body. I stepped over an invisible tipping point, a wall that stopped cultivators in their tracks, and the Qi around me shifted, collapsing towards me like I was in the center of a black hole.

The pain started as a tingle as Qi reforged my body, destroying and reforming my flesh on a microscopic level, being subsumed as fast as I could absorb it. I gritted my teeth, bearing with the pain as my body yielded inch by inch to the alien power flooding into me.

The pain only intensified the longer the process went on, but the longer I held it, the stronger my foundation would be. Over an hour, it rose from a tingle to a dull ache. The pain grew every minute as Qi ravaged through my body, reforging my flesh. It was outside of my Meridians and control now. All I could do was maintain the process through sheer will.

As time went on, the pain rose to a sharp, burning crescendo. With a gasp, I finally released it.

The Qi that was built up in my body and held together by my will decompressed, exploding out of my body in an eruption of silver light and incorporeal mist. I panted.

I had broken through to the Fourth Realm. Not only that, with the preparation and experience of having already done it, I could step all the way to the first Minor Realm of the Fourth Realm.

I leaned back, looking up at the sky. Kim leaned over me.

“Your eyes are silver.” She said.

With the breakthrough into the Fourth Realm, the mark of my path would show on my body. Reforged by the aspect of moonlight, my body would reveal my path. I shut my eyes, focusing to slow my cultivation, before reopening them.

“Better?”

“Woah.” She said. “Back to blue. Chuuni.” She leaned away.

“How much food do we have left? I’m starving.” I said, reaching into my bag and shoving an entire granola bar into my mouth without getting up. Then I repeated with the other.

“Just that, and — hey!” Kim said as I reached into her bag, pulling out and eating a piece of jerky. Then I drank all the water we had before, stumbling to the side of the lake and scooping it into my mouth with my hands.

I paused after the third mouthful, looking down and counting the chains.

Two more had broken.

But they shouldn’t have yet — one more at most.

“The seal’s breakdown is speeding up.”

Kim walked up beside me, staring down.

“How long do we have?”

“Based on the last few breaks and how many remain… a little over 12 hours in the worst case. A little over 20 in the best?” I said.

“Shit.” Kim said.

“Shit.” I repeated, stretching and moving back to my spot on the lake. I flopped onto my back, yawning. “My turn to sleep.”