Samantha had initially been on the fence on which meridian she should open next after she found out about the “Golden Ratio” of one meridian per cultivation rank. At first she had been working on opening her mind meridian and a meridian in her right hand simultaneously, but that had been an uphill battle. The loosened impurities from the meridians had to go somewhere since they were not being expelled from the body, so every time she switched which meridian she worked on, the other would immediately begin to clog again. She had kept at it for a little while, experimenting and hoping she could keep most of the gains from her split efforts, but she had to admit that it likely wasn’t worth it. She had made minimal gains on loosening both her mind and hand meridian, but she could’ve probably made significant progress had she just focused on one or the other.

Then, after unlocking her Flurry Bond ability, she discarded working on either and opted to try and open one in her right foot. This would’ve hopefully allowed for learning a relevant fortification combat art so she wouldn’t break her body with her own strength, and would be a useful fallback if she was ever without a weapon or fighting in close quarters where the spear was not as effective. Now though, because she had injured her spirit to the point where some of her abilities were non-functional, she felt there was no other choice than to go back to opening her mind meridian to fix things.

She knew that each new meridian would take longer and be more difficult to open than the last, but she had a hard time estimating how long this would take her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t rely on her prior experience of opening her heart meridian. In that situation, she used foreign power pulled directly from a spirit pearl to rapidly cleanse the pathway, but she wouldn’t risk that approach a second time. Using spirit pearls for advancement like that could permanently damage your spirit, and with her already fragile state the results could be catastrophic. The elixirs she consumed would help to speed things up, but she estimated that in a best case scenario where she forwent things like eating or sleeping, it would still take a couple of days of concerted effort at minimum. She acknowledged to herself the risk she was taking to unlock a meridian with her already limited time crunch, but she needed to at least be at full fighting strength to stand a chance in the upcoming duel.

She slowly built pressure within her dantian and began funneling the energy through her mind meridian as she entered a state of deep meditation. She retreated inwards, losing touch with everything outside of her own body and soul. Time ceased to have meaning as she gave her full attention to drawing in more qi, increasing the internal pressure of her dantian, and burning away the impurities in her meridian bit by bit. She could not clearly mark her progress, but with each passing moment she felt the fresh infusion of qi restore and revitalize the frayed pathway she had overtaxed with her training incident.

In that space of pure, dedicated cultivation, when every speck of attention was dedicated to a singular task, Samantha found herself in a world of silence and darkness. In her mind’s eye she felt, more than saw, the intricate maze of meridians that branched out in every direction within her. Most were darkened with only a gossamer thin trickle of qi passing through the blocked channels, but one bright line traveled upwards from a shining core to bathe her heart in vital energies. As she diligently focused on her task, she observed another line begin to shine brighter and brighter as the dark specks within it were consumed by the powerful stream of qi.

For some, she imagined the isolation of one’s inner self could be suffocatingly lonely, but she was never truly alone now. Within that sacred space where previously only she could enter, there was another being whose steadfast companionship was a comfort to her. Silas was ever present as she tirelessly worked towards her goal, encouraging her however he could through their bond. He gifted her small sparks of resolve when she felt her anxiety rise up or her willpower flag, and cheered alongside her when she made a burst of progress. In the last stretch of cleansing her clogged meridian, she felt his excitement at her imminent success and they celebrated as she finally broke through.

A sudden wave of qi flooded into the newly open space through the meridian’s many tributaries, soaking her mind in a cold energy that seemed to freeze her head solid. The chill spread throughout her body and she felt the lingering tenderness in her spirit wash away as it was passed over.

*Ding* Congratulations, you’ve opened your mind meridian! Mental processes have been enhanced, +6 to Qi pool

Your talent for advancement is only equal to your ability to get yourself into trouble. With luck, your newly enhanced mental acuity will help get you out of the latter.

Samantha felt like the notification should have offended her, but with how things were going for her lately she couldn’t deny the truth of it.

She stretched, took a deep breath, and sighed, exhausted but content. The unsteadiness of having an injured spirit was difficult to describe, but now that she felt fully like herself again she couldn’t deny how unsettling the experience had been.

While she was meditating she put everything else from her mind, so she decided to take stock of her situation now that she was calmer and figure out a plan of action. She remembered back to when she was challenged by the Braxands and noticed something odd. Her memory of the incident was incredibly clear in her mind now, to such a degree that she could recall the countless faces of the strangers in the crowd nearby and what their conversations were word for word.

She was taken aback by the clarity, the accuracy and detail of the memory so potent that it felt like she had traveled back in time to that moment and was standing there again. It wasn’t only this memory either– everything from the past few months seemed burned into her mind whether she wanted it to be or not, though beyond that timeframe the memories did start to become less clear.

Samantha pored over the memory, picking apart everything from the sentiment of the crowd to her exchange with the Braxands. Now that she had a clear head and wasn’t in a panicked state, she could see that everything was not as bad as it seemed. The group had caught her off guard with their approach and challenge, and then after she had agreed to the duel they had tacked on a wager on top of everything else.

She realized two things, however.

One, there was no Adjudicator present to officially sanction this duel. Finding Eileen likely took some time, and since they were eager to ambush her, they probably couldn’t find an available adjudicator as well. What this meant was that everything was technically in an informal state. Her reputation could take a huge hit if she outright refused the fight at this point since everything had been done so publicly, but unless they challenged her with the appropriate officials present that was all it would cost her.

Second, she had never signaled any agreement to their additional wager, verbal or otherwise. The challenger in a duel could set the win conditions, but any wagering or loss penalties would need to be mutually agreed upon by both parties with an Adjudicator present. This way, the Adjudicator could ensure that one party was not being unfairly taken advantage of, and they could enforce the correct payout after someone lost the fight. She did have one thing correct though: anything agreed to be paid would need to be given to the Adjudicator before the match began or else some other collateral would need to be offered.

Knowing how cultivators like to play games with face and reputation, she suspected that the Braxands had made such a blunt demand of 50 gold to publicly embarrass her. It had worked to a degree, too. She had been frazzled and unprepared, and knew that if she admitted in that moment that 50 gold was too much of an expense it would have made her look as unconfident in her chances at winning as she felt. If this was a war, Samantha could admit that the Braxands had won the first battle. They had succeeded in making her feel despair towards the upcoming fight, and a fighter’s mentality going into a duel could have as much of an affect on performance as their physical condition.

The Braxand brothers had been a thorn in her side ever since her earliest days as a cultivator. They had ambushed her and tried to steal Silas, she had to hide in the Gutter out of fear of retribution and was constantly anxious about being found, and now that they actually knew her identity they were a danger to her family. She would’ve been content to let the situation blow over if they had shown they moved on, but with their most recent attempt to shame and bankrupt her, she’d had enough. She was determined to make it so that this would be the last time they bothered her or her family, one way or another.

Samantha turned the issue over in her mind, feeling something tickle at her subconscious. She let her thoughts wander, hoping that her heightened mental acuity would help her suss out some solution. After a few minutes, it clicked. A smile crossed her face as a wicked scheme came into focus in her mind–something that would cost her nothing, and them potentially everything.

She spent the rest of the week making preparations for the fight. She found out from Silas and her parents that opening her second meridian had taken about two and a half days–not too far off from her estimate. This left her with four and a half days to do everything she could to give herself the best chances of winning.

That afternoon, she researched if any information about Eileen’s past fights were recorded by the Cultivator’s Association. A formal record of sanctioned duels would be submitted to the Athenaeum by the overseeing Adjudicator, which was made publicly accessible to any registered cultivator. This was one of Samantha’s few advantages going into the fight–knowledge about her opponent.

Although the brothers had seen some of her capabilities, their information would pale in comparison to what an Adjudicator would have officially reported. If Samantha’s hunch was right about Eileen, and it was true that the Braxands called upon her specifically for settling duels, she would have a lot of data to pull from. Sure enough, Samantha found ample records at the Athenaeum of Eileen’s dueling history.

Looking broadly at the reports, Eileen’s first duel was around seven years ago when she was still Low Copper. Her first fight with her spirit bond was around five years ago, and was shortly after she had broken through to High Copper. Her win to loss ratio was very good as well, 26 out of 35 battles ending in her victory. Granted, most of those losses were concentrated early in her dueling career before she acquired her spirit bond, but Samantha still took comfort in the fact that she was not invincible.

It didn’t necessarily surprise Samantha that Eileen remained at High Copper for the last five years instead of moving up to Peak. Most anyone of middling talent could work their way up to High Copper with a few years of dedicated effort–longer if they took a more relaxed, safe route. The jump up to Peak Copper was where many stalled, and to move into the realms of Bronze was where the truly gifted showed their worth. Samantha suspected that with Eileen’s history of dueling for the Braxands, if she was at or near the threshold for Peak Copper right now they were incentivizing her to abstain from ranking up until they found a replacement High Copper duelist.

Looking deeper into the records, Eileen seemed to be well versed in the main weapons favored by cultivators (staves, sabers, straight swords, and Samantha’s favorite, spears), as well as a variety of other armaments. Samantha–with the improved reasoning her new meridian afforded her–noticed a pattern immediately. Eileen chose her weapon for a duel primarily based on what would be most inconvenient for her opponent, rather than any personal preference.

While Samantha did not have any information about herself in the Athenaeum for Eileen to find yet, it wouldn’t be difficult to surmise that Samantha was most comfortable with spears. After all, she had fought the brothers with a makeshift spear, and she had been armed with her spear when she was challenged by the Braxands. Samantha, like most mortals in Yivesh, had done basic training with all four major weapon styles when she was first learning to fight so she could decide what would best suit her going forward. However, she was not comfortable enough with the other weapons to take anything other than a spear into a high stakes battle such as this.

If Eileen’s pattern held, Samantha guessed that Eileen would likely fight with a saber or straight sword combined with a shield. Eileen had done this in other duels with spear users, which made Samantha fairly confident in this deduction. The choice made sense, since aggressive, close-quarters attacks were one of the most challenging things to counter if an opponent could get inside of the spear’s attack range. It was fortunate that she had picked up the Flurry ability recently, since that would be her primary defense if Eileen closed into sword striking range.

After Samantha felt she had gotten all she could from the duel records, she did a bit of research on Sungleam Eagles before returning to the Southern Business district to purchase some items that would give her an edge in the fight. She also made a small commission from Cray’s Creations for a new armor piece.

She could tell that some of the merchants she interacted with were annoyed that she hadn’t addressed the cultivator on the Verdant Stallion yet, but none of them dared to mention it to her directly. She did her best to assuage their concerns by mentioning her upcoming duel, and that she planned to deal with the man when it was finished, but she knew that her explanations did not completely erase their frustration at her delay.

Shopping done for the moment, she traveled to the Coliseum to reserve space for the duel, as well as made arrangements for a Peak Copper Adjudicator to oversee the proceedings. Lastly, she spent the night at Thomas’s learning the next stage of the Vital Wellspring Cultivation Technique from the Granvich training tome. Predictably, the Mid-Copper version was much more complex than the Low-Copper version she knew currently. There was no way she would master it in a single night, but Thomas was confident that with his ‘expert tutelage’ she could learn it in time to use for the duel.

The next morning she returned to the sadist for her free day of training, and it was nothing at all like the last. The trainer had her perform completely different tasks than before so that she would not get accustomed to the difficulty of any one exercise, which would have caused the training to be less effective. Her least favorite activity was a contest between all the trainees to swim to the bottom of the nearby lake, scoop up rocks and dirt from the center with a bucket, and then pile the bucket’s contents on the shoreline. The person who had the largest mound of mud at the end of an hour won some sort of rejuvenating elixir to help recoup their spent energy, but Samantha didn’t know the exact effects since she didn’t end up winning. She had also been unlucky during the Lattice, and a trainee who she hadn’t seen before ended up claiming the “day of free training” prize that she had been wanting.

After the latter half of the training concluded, she did what she could to investigate those involved with Aiden’s death: namely Ol’ Man Whisper and Harold Green, the alchemist. Due to her relative newness to the cultivator scene, she didn’t make much progress though. None of the mortals she knew had even heard of a contest to make an elixir for the city lord–not even the alchemist she’d purchased from in the Southern Business district– and it was difficult to strike up such a specific topic of conversation with cultivators she hadn’t yet been introduced to. She enlisted Thomas’s help with asking around, but she didn’t know if anything would come of it.

The rest of the week went similarly. She trained in the first half of the day, investigated in the late afternoon, and studied with Thomas in the evening. She felt herself being run ragged in every sense of the word, as she kept postponing sleep to give her more time to keep up with all of her responsibilities. Not to mention her funds were getting increasingly low, since she did not have time to spare to perform any hunts or jobs in the city along with everything else. Although she had won another free day of training with the sadist on the third day of this routine, she needed to pay 10 gold for the other days she attended.

Factoring in the costs of her purchases for the fight and the fee for the Coliseum arrangements, she was left with only 32 silver and 46 coppers to her name. She was hoping that her plot with the duel would pay off, but if not then she would need to find a large source of funds very quickly to continue training.

The night before her duel she reached her limit. Thomas had been in the process of learning the High Copper version of the Vital Wellspring Cultivation Technique, and was using his knowledge to help Samantha with the Mid Copper one. After long hours hunched over the Granvich tome in meditation and letting Thomas look into her spirit so he could give her pointers about her qi pattern’s flow and stability, she finally got the notification Thomas had told her to look for.

*Ding* Vital Wellspring Cultivation Technique has ranked up! +5 to qi pool. +0.5 qi regeneration/hour (+1 while Sage’s Rumination is active).

With the gains from her new meridian, this brought her pool from 18 all the way up to 29, as well as increased her regeneration from +2 to +3. This gave her a lot more flexibility with what strategies she could leverage in the fight. She checked her status page.

Name: Samantha Cray

Age: 17

Cultivation Level: High Copper

Qi pool: Vital Wellspring Cultivation Technique (Mid Copper Version)

29/29 (+1.5 qi point/hour [+3 with Sage’s Rumination])

*Excess qi regen currently allocated to Flawless Regeneration

Body Cultivation:

Heart Meridian (Endurance)

Mind Meridian (Mental Acuity)

Marks:

Vortex (Dantian)

Combat Arts:

Flawless Regeneration (Variable cost)

Meridian Requirements: Heart

By cycling qi through your heart meridian and circulatory system, you can repair any physical wound your qi has access to! All regeneration will occur without scarring, incorrectly set bones, or misplaced organs, so crippling injuries are a thing of the past! Qi cost varies greatly based on severity of the damage and the speed at which you want the healing to occur.

Inspect (Base cost 1 qi)

By focusing your spiritual senses on a target, you can get basic information about it. This art will have a higher rate of success for targets at or below your cultivation level and stage. On failure, has a chance to notify the target of your attempt. Extra qi can be expended to learn more details, but the cost will always be a minimum of 1.

Swift (Base cost 1 qi/second)

For every 1 qi point spent per second, you will gain +2 agility. For each additional qi point spent per second, gain +1 agility. After the ability ends agility will return to normal levels

Flurry (Base cost 2 qi/second)

By spending 2 qi points per second, your kick speed will be doubled and kick damage will be increased by half.

Passive Arts:

As One

You and your bond share vitality. If one is wounded or healed, the effect is split between the two parties. You will rise or fall as one.

Prey’s Awareness

Passive Effect: Gain increased perception of your surroundings that affects all senses.

Active Effect: Can enter a hyper-focused state that greatly enhances spatial awareness of immediate vicinity (Rank 1: 15 foot sphere)

Poison Connoisseur

Inherit the toxin processing abilities of your bond. You will more easily gain resistances to any poisons you encounter

Blood Toxicity Tolerance - Rank 2

Future blood poisoning will have its effects and duration decreased by 2/3rds.

Corrosive Poison Resistance – Rank 1

Future encounters with corrosive poisons will have their effects and duration decreased by half.

Sleep Poison Resistance - Rank 0

Sage’s Rumination

You have mastered the art of multitasking. Regardless of what your conscious mind is doing, you are

able to maintain a permanent state of meditation, doubling your natural qi regeneration rate.

Attributes:

Strength: 6

Agility: 11

Endurance: 8

Resilience: 6

Spirit Bonds:

Silas (Rank 4 Lunar Jackalope – Mid)

Strength: 4

Agility: 14

Endurance: 7

Resilience: 6

Samantha punched her fists in the air in celebration, whooping with glee. Then she promptly fell over, forced by her body, at last, to sleep.