Muchen forced himself through the second half of the practice session. He might not be advancing his cultivation by leaps and bounds, but he was already reaping some benefits of practice. While he was sore, tired, and fuzzy-headed, his body still moved into an appropriate attacking stance, and even his spiritual energy was moving more or less correctly as he lashed out with the knife.

That wasn't to say that he was doing everything perfectly. Far from it. He still got more corrective swats with the willow branch than grudging nods of approval. The ratio did seem to be tilting more in his favor compared to the previous day, at least.

He didn't know whether that improvement would mean anything in a life or death battle. He could fight better than before, of course, but as a capable merchant he'd never planned to fight at all. He had a feeling he was still a ways off from the day when fighting would offer a better chance of survival than just handing over his goods and throwing himself on the mercy of any robbers who confronted him.

He knew better than to mention that line of reasoning to Xinyi. Especially when he was in the middle of what were supposed to be simple, mindless repetition of the same task until it became instinctual.

With twice as many things to practice, Muchen was dog tired when Xinyi finally called an end to the practice and released him to his evening meditation. He jolted awake, though, when he felt a connection, deep in his soul. The missing piece from his cultivation over the last few days had just been filled in. He didn't think twice before giving the connection a mental tug, intent on seeing where it would go.

His inner field of vision shifted. Before, he had been visualizing the flow of spiritual energy through his meridians. Now, he could see himself, sitting in a clearing. A silver thread stretched off along the road he had traveled. He barely had time to finish taking in the scene before his spiritual self shifted in a blur of motion.

When he could see clearly once more, he found himself floating behind a woman hard at work in the kitchen. When she turned around he recognized his second customer of the day. She was standing in front of a cooking fire, holding the brand new iron pot that he had sold to her. A silver line stretched out from the pot back the way that he came, while another line connected to the woman.

A third, more ephemeral line, stretched off in a direction ninety degrees off from reality. Muchen squinted at it, trying to puzzle out what it meant. He got a feeling of utility, the use of an object over time, before his head started to hurt and he was forced to divert his attention away.

He focused back on the original silver line. Another blur of motion saw him floating back in the original clearing once more.

If he could see the connection to his customers that represented the mutual benefit that they had provided to each other, then he ought to be able to see the connection in the other direction as well. It took some doing, and even his disembodied self was starting to feel a headache when there was a sudden shift and another silver line appeared. This one stretched out from Muchen back all the way to Heshan Town. Focusing on it, he had a vague impression of a blacksmith hard at work at the forge.

Out beyond that should be the miners who dug up the ore. Maybe even the merchants where the blacksmith had spent the coin he'd received for the purchase.

Before Muchen could go exploring, he felt an uncomfortable sensation of fullness, like he had gorged himself on a meal and his body was desperate to get rid of the excess one way or another. He shifted his focus and let his spiritual self settle back into his physical body.

He opened his eyes and hissed in shock. That wall blocking him off from the next step of his cultivation was no longer off in the distance. He was flush up against it and part of his spirit was trying to crash through whether he wanted it to or not.

He looked around for his sometimes mentor and found Xinyi was already looking at him with a sense of pride.

"Look at that!" she said. "I told you those exercises would get your spiritual energy growing."

"It hurts," Muchen said, grunting the words through gritted teeth.

"Obviously you can't just build up energy forever," Xinyi said. "Use it to clear out the next meridian and you'll be fine."

Muchen stared at her. Xinyi stared back for a moment, before hitting her forehead with her palm. "Right, right, you had that weird breakthrough before."

She walked across the clearing and sat down in front of him. "Listen to me and do exactly what I say and you'll survive for sure."

At least she was trying to be reassuring. Muchen pushed his doubts aside, did his best to ignore the pain, and focused.

Proceeding along the path of cultivation offered more and more power but also more and more danger with each step. It was pretty much impossible to hurt yourself with the passive meditation of the essence gathering phase. At that point you couldn't do anything with your spiritual energy, which at least meant that you couldn't do anything wrong.

Now that Muchen had to begin clearing his meridians, there was the chance that he could screw it up. It shouldn't be too dangerous—most of the stories he'd heard about cultivation deviation occurred much further down the road—but even a small chance of a catastrophe was still a worry.

Xinyi's cavalier attitude was almost reassuring, once she got into the rhythm of instruction. She obviously didn't see the situation as a big deal. Muchen almost couldn't help but calm down as he followed her directions. It helped that the process itself was fairly straightforward. He had to use his spiritual energy to wear away at the blocked meridian.

Muchen stayed calm and focused on the task. Part of him did want to just charge through the blockage, but even without Xinyi's warnings he could feel in his gut that going down that road courted disaster. Instead he focused on the image of water wearing away stone, letting his spiritual energy ease into the blocked area. It didn't feel like he was making any progress, until suddenly the block just vanished.

He grinned as he felt out the change in his spirit. The new channel didn't form a complete loop. Still, a new channel meant he had a little bit more capacity to store and use spiritual energy. It promised to make his progress just a little bit faster in the future.

He would enjoy a more dramatic increase once he cleared five more meridians, creating a path that traversed from his dantian around his lower body and back. That was for the future, though. Even if today he had only taken a small step forward, at least he was moving in the right direction.

ooOoo

Muchen fell asleep almost immediately after his breakthrough. When he woke up the next day the scenery around him looked just a little bit brighter than before. He hopped out of bed with a spring in his step and couldn't help but hum a cheerful little tune as he started off his day.

His good mood held as they set off on their journey. The crisp smell of the forest around them, the cheerful chirping of the birds, the gentle warmth of the sun on his skin... it felt like the world was conspiring to put him in a good mood.

He was even able to sell more cookware at a better price than he'd managed the previous day. When Xinyi put him through his paces, his movements were crisp and the knife cut through the air with power and authority that he hadn't been able to manage before.

When it was time to cultivate, Muchen could feel that connection to the world around him. When he gave it a mental poke he wasn't able to move around like he had before, but it didn't matter. Spiritual energy flowed into him like water from a mountain stream. The connection to the dao let him reap twice the results with half the effort. He wasn't able to rush straight to the next meridian opening, but he could feel that it wouldn't be too far away if he could maintain the same rate of growth.

The two of them settled into a new routine as the days went by. They would still spend most of the day on the move, traveling steadily northeast towards the Tuanliu river. Every time they passed a small farming village Muchen would set up shop alongside the main street for at least an hour to try and dig up any potential customers. He wasn't exactly raking in the profits hand over fist, but he was able to make at least a sale or two every day.

In the evenings Xinyi would put him through his paces. Muchen couldn't tell if he was actually getting more proficient in wielding his knife—he seemed to end up with a similar amount of bruises by the end of every session—but he was at least feeling more comfortable with a weapon in hand. Then he would meditate until it was time for bed.

As time passed, he took notice of a few patterns. For one thing, the price he was able to charge for his cookware climbed steadily as they moved further and further from Heshan Town. He had to take more of the purchase price in barter as they moved into the hinterland, but he was hardly taking a loss there. If nothing else, he was certainly eating well.

He also noticed a distinct correlation between his success in business and the ease of cultivation. His spiritual energy was steadily building up regardless, of course, but it came to him that much easier and quicker when he'd had few extra sales.

When Xinyi credited his great progress to her martial training routine, Muchen just smiled and didn't quibble. He only benefited from learning how to defend himself, after all, and it didn't really matter why he was enjoying such good results as long as the results kept coming in.

He didn't know how well his skills would stack up against a dedicated martial cultivator, but he at least felt like if he could go back to Earth then he'd be able to hold his own in a fist fight even against a group of ordinary men. With his knife in hand he'd be able to carve his way through any number of mortals. Providing they didn't have any firearms of course. Part of him was curious about what that meant exactly when it came to battle in the Qianzhan Continent.

It wasn't long before he was given a chance to satisfy his curiosity.

The day passed by like many others on their journey. It had been a little over a week since he had opened his fourth meridian, and by his reckoning they were about halfway between the Dahuang and Tuanliu rivers. Every day the countryside around them grew less populated as they left behind the settlements radiating from the banks of the Dahuang. Eventually they would start seeing more villages as they hit the outskirts of the settlements radiating off the Tuanliu, assuming Muchen had been driving in the right direction.

As it was, they only passed a single settlement in a full day of travel. It was a tiny place, and Muchen was only able to sell a single cooking pot. When they made their camp for the day it was in more or less untouched wilderness. The only sign of civilization was the dirt road, which had dwindled until it was barely wide enough for a single cart.

After so much time camping outdoors, Muchen didn't have any lingering fear of the wild. He was even happy for their remote location when Xinyi returned from a stroll through the woods with a wild chicken in hand. Chicken soup garnished with spirit rice made for an excellent post-workout and pre-cultivation meal. He went to bed feeling happy and content.

Any lingering good feelings vanished instantly when Xinyi woke him in the middle of the night. Perhaps technically the early morning, judging by the subtle lightening of the horizon.

"Wolves have surrounded the camp," Xinyi said. She sounded more excited than scared.

Muchen blinked, still in the process of waking up. The moonlight shining off of Xinyi's face gave the whole situation a dreamlike feeling. Part of him wanted to close his eyes and just wait for the danger to pass. "Should we..."

"Time to try out your training," Xinyi said. "Grab your knife and get to work!"

Muchen grunted. Well, it had been nice freeloading on Xinyi's protection for so long. After spending so much time swinging his knife around in training he was a little eager to see what he could do in a real fight.

He pulled himself to his feet, hissing as he emerged from the blankets into the cold air. The dreamlike feeling gave way to a sense of nervous anticipation as he took his knife in hand and peered out into the gloom.

Their campfire had long since gone out. The moon was three quarters full and it was a clear night, so there was some light to see by. Not as much as he would have liked. It took a moment before he spotted a furry shape, gray on black, moving in the shadows.

"How many of them are there?" he asked. He swept his gaze back and forth, trying to take in the forest all around him, but still only spotted the one wolf.

"You'll know in a minute," Xinyi replied. She had moved away from their sleeping area and was now perched on the back of the mule cart. She was resting her chin in her hand, one elbow braced comfortably against her leg.

Muchen took a deep breath. He could do this. He'd been training hard for the last three weeks, and before that his body had already been toughened up by a lifetime of physical labor. He was ready for this.

Probably. Maybe.

The clearing that they'd camped out in wasn't large. Perhaps twenty or thirty paces across. The cart rested at one end, with Huichen tied up nearby. Even if Xinyi wasn't going to jump into the fray, Muchen figured he could at least rule out attacks from that direction.

That still left quite a lot of ground to cover.

He took a few steps forward, his eyes scanning the surrounding trees. He saw another flicker of motion. Another wolf? Or maybe the same one. Or maybe a trick of the light. His grip on the hilt of his knife was so tight it was starting to hurt.

An eerie howl rang out from the woods, off to his right. Muchen felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He started to turn in that direction, until he saw a shadow moving off to his left.

He spun back just in time to get a good look at the wolf as it burst out of the woods. It was big, standing about half his height. Quick, too. He barely had time to take in its silver and black fur or to spot the snarl on its face before it bounded to within arm's reach.

He took a step forward, lashing out with his knife. Thousands and thousands of practice swings guided his hand in sync with the movement of his spiritual energy. The air screamed as the blade sliced down. He caught the wolf at an angle near his shoulder, the blade severing half its neck before coming free in a spray of blood.

The wolf's snarl turned to a pained yelp that ended in a wet gurgle. It tumbled to the ground, its front legs going out from under it. Muchen shifted to the side and barely avoided being taken down in a tangle of limbs.

He lifted his knife in front of him in a ready position, a savage grin stretching his lips. For the first time, he'd taken on an opponent in mortal combat. He'd taken risks before, but this was the first time he'd come face to face with a foe that was ready and willing to kill him. Most importantly, he'd one! He hadn't had to rely on anybody else. Just the strength of his own arm had been enough to lay his enemy low.

In front of him, two shadows came gliding out of the woods together.