As Verus stared uneasily at the ritual chamber in front of him, Elder Caligo waited behind him and the white-haired crone whose mansion he was in stepped past him and into the room.

“Come in now. Don’t make me wait,” she told him snappishly.

Unsure, Verus decided to try to get some assurances. Events were moving a little too fast for him, but he needed to be both smart and polite about it. The slightest mistake could upset the great elder and bring her wrath down on him.

Verus walked into the room and gave the ancient woman a deep bow. “Pardon my rudeness, but I’ve yet to learn the name of my gracious host.”

The great elder huffed impatiently. “I am known to many as Lady Nightclaw, but you haven’t earned the right to call me that. Simply refer to me as great elder.”

“As you wish, great elder. I was…”

“Take this pill,” the ancient woman ordered Verus as she held out her hand. In it was a small dusty red tablet.

Verus froze. It looked rather plain when compared to the Spinterseed, which was undoubtedly a good thing. Still, his recent experiences made Verus very wary of unknown medicines, but he didn’t have a choice since she’d given him a direct command. He took the pill and swallowed it dry. It didn’t go down smoothly.

“Now, sit in the center of the circle.”

Verus grimaced sourly but did as he was told. He’d already anticipated this order. Off to the side, Elder Caligo was grinning in amusement at his predicament. The man was very quiet and respectful around his master, but he was obviously enjoying seeing Verus’s own actions cause him to suffer. It was like he held a grudge about being bothered with all this…

The ancient woman nodded at Verus once he was in place. “I’m sure you’re wondering what we’re doing here. Explaining this will help the process, so I will. Both the pill and the ritual circle you’re sitting in do similar things. They’re designed to make the essence within your core more malleable and easier to change. This will greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for you to reshape your core. Meanwhile, this room is a cultivation chamber that can draw almost any type of ki from the Heaven and Earth Array, although I had to threaten to consume the souls of several jumped up bureaucrats to get it access to void ki. Any question so far?”

Verus hesitated. Was consuming souls something she actually did? “If I may, Great Elder, all this sounds like it was incredibly expensive. A small fortune. Why are you putting so much effort into helping me?”

The old lady laughed. “Your unique attunement has caught my interest. Like I said before, it is rare for something truly novel to appear in my life. I want to see what I can make of it. Also, most of these preparations are for my benefit. They will speed up an otherwise slow process so that less of my time is wasted.”

“I’m humbled by your interest,” Verus replied. “However, what about the rest of the sect? Won’t someone complain that you’re giving an unfair advantage to an outer disciple.”

Verus had spent so long fuming about the unfair resources that family scions got that he couldn’t really accept so much aid without feeling at least a little guilty.

The old lady snorted and waved her hand dismissively. “There are very few people in the sect who can tell me to do anything, and regardless, we’re allowed to do as we wish with outer disciples as long as we don’t damage the process itself or anger other patrons. What I’m doing for you is less help than most family heirs receive over the course of their lives. Perhaps others might think you haven’t properly earned any status you achieve after this, but that’s your problem. I certainly don’t care. Besides, no one will criticize me for investing in a young cultivator at this moment in time.”

Verus nodded in understanding. “The tournament.”

The great elder gave him an amused look. “Yes. Now, that’s enough chatter. Let’s get to the experiment. The first thing we will be doing is reshaping your existing core to better handle void ki. Conveniently, the basic sphere of human ki that you’re using now will only need a few changes. It shouldn’t take long for me to guide you through the process.”

This didn’t entirely make sense to Verus, and the ancient lady noticed the confused look on his face.

“Without proper preparation, attempting to create void essence in your core would destroy it and kill you. It is not a type of ki that would normally suit a living being, so we must isolate it from your body using a less dangerous sort of ki. For this we will use a shell of human essence with threads of devotion to act as a seal. These threads should also help you defend yourself from mental attacks. Now, you already have a shell of human ki, but it is set up to contain pressure from within. Void ki is different, as you have already realized. Rather than push outward, it will pull on the shell. Your core must thus be reinforced to withstand such forces. Understand?”

Verus nodded. Her words made sense to him. In the Heavenly Empire, many cultivation techniques incorporated small amounts of devotion essence.

“Good, then let us begin,” the great elder said before walking behind Verus and placing her wrinkled hands on his shoulders. “Close your eyes and focus on everything I tell you.”

Verus stiffened anxiously at her touch. Although her hands were small and she was being gentle, they seemed to press down on him with a heavy spiritual weight. The depth of the power within her form was simply so great that he couldn’t help but feel it. The ancient lady’s small hands could effortlessly and utterly destroy him.

With physical contact, the great elder was able to sense Verus’s ki with great clarity and even guide him through the complex ki circulation exercises necessary to alter the essence in his core. The flow of ki through his entire body had to be altered and controlled precisely to do it right. The process was made much easier thanks to the ki that began to stream into the cultivation room, a mix of human and devotion.

Eventually, Verus fell into a sort of trance, where his mind was turned inward, and he automatically responded to the great elder’s voice. He completely lost track of time while he was in this state but snapped out of it when his guide remarked on something other than his internal ki flow.

“Hmm, this is happening even faster than I thought,” Lady Nightclaw remarked casually an hour later. “You have a gift for complex ki circulation, and your core is oddly malleable, even considering the effect of the pill and the ritual circle.”

Verus said nothing and tried not to show any reaction. He suspected the Splinterseed was responsible. It had drilled through his core and into his soul without leaving a trace. That meant it could change and heal his essence.

The seed was valuable and mysterious, so it was best to keep it a secret if she couldn’t sense it already. It was hidden in his soul. However, he had no illusions of his ability to lie to a great elder if she asked him a direct question. Her eerie black eyes would see through him instantly.

Thankfully, the elder wasn’t suspicious of him and didn’t press the subject. They simply continued working together to reshape his core.

What felt like hours later, the great elder finally stepped back away from Verus. “That’s enough. The outer shell should be strong enough now.”

“Should?” Verus mumbled as he swayed and slumped forward. Focusing on his ki circulation for so long had taken a lot out of him. He didn’t see Elder Caligo around, so the man must have slipped away earlier.

“I have no records of anyone ever doing this before,” the great elder replied.

That wasn’t very comforting.

“What now?” Verus asked as the ancient cultivator walked over to the door.

“Now, we’ll be taking a break. Eat and refresh yourself,” the old woman told him before leaving the room.

A moment later, Beldred, the manor’s black-robed servant stepped through the door with a platter of food. Verus took an apple when it was offered to him, and then politely asked to use the restroom. After the servant had escorted him there and back, he finished eating the food on the platter.

“Excuse me, but how long have I been here?” he asked the grey-haired older man.

“Your visit has been just under forty hours so far. If you need to sleep, I can take you to a guest room. The mistress should be busy for a while yet.”

A tired groan escaped from Verus. That was much longer than he’d expected. He must have really fallen into a trance. It was a good thing that as a cultivator he had a powerful constitution and was used to meditating for long periods of time.

Reshaping his core had taken a lot of time and effort, despite all the aids and the minor nature of the changes so far. Well, building your core was usually something that took years, so he supposed he should be grateful it hadn’t taken far longer. He had missed some classes though. He hoped they hadn’t covered anything too important.

After asking to see the guest room, which turned out to be far nicer than his dormitory with very soft beds unbefitting an ascetic, Verus had a two hour-long nap before the servant woke him up and escorted him back to the ritual room. The ancient great elder was already present, although there was no sign of Elder Caligo.

“It’s time to move on to stage two, get back in the circle,” she told the young disciple.

While Verus obeyed, she explained what they would be doing. “Now that your outer shell has been reinforced, we can move on to actually attempting to create void essence. To do this, you will need to copy the technique of the captured spirit you retrieved. I’ve taken a look at its internal cycling, and it isn’t particularly complex. Thus, you should be able to manage it.”

The great elder then handed Verus the sphere contained the sealed spirit and told him to try to feel the contents of the orb. Seated on the floor, the young disciple grimaced at the small orb in his hands. This step seemed far more dangerous and difficult than the first.

“Now, I will weaken the seal so that the spirit emerges and becomes more active,” she said as she walked behind Verus again. “Don’t worry, I’ll supress it enough to protect you. Simply focus on observing its ki and reflecting everything it is doing within yourself. Sympathy is the key. Lose yourself in the flow.”

Verus gulped fearfully but nodded. This definitely sounded dangerous. There was no way it was safe to be so close to a hostile spirit. He was basically going to close his eyes and hug it while it rampaged and lashed out against the people trying to restrain it.

The great elder didn’t warn Verus before starting the process. The crystal sphere in his hands simply flashed as the spirit within began to emerge. Rather than close his eyes, Verus flinched back and stared at it with wide eyes. Right in front of him, the specter rose from the orb. It was hazy cloud of nigh-invisible ki that quickly grew to the size of a person before gaining seven long tentacles. The alien spirit radiated a dreadful hate as its tentacles shot toward Verus’s face, its very nature rejecting the world around it.