The Fire Wolves rode in tense silence for the rest of the day.

Though dissatisfied with Aaron, no one scolded him anymore, for they couldn't risk losing him. While the guild rules officially forbid him from leaving with no notice, he had just shown that he had little respect for the authorities, which, in retrospect, was expected from a Rogue.

They kept to the Imperial Road most of the day. In the late afternoon, they left it to take a narrow and deserted gravel road. A few hours after sunset, they reached the edges of the Red Forest.

As the name indicated, the Red Forest stood out for its trees of reddish foliage. They were as tall as eucalyptuses but shaped like pine trees. Green vegetation was also visible, but only on lower trees and plants.

The red trees were yet another species Aaron had never seen before. When Tia ordered them to dismount for camping, a few hundred feet away from both the road and the forest, Aaron took the chance to approach the trees.

He picked up some leaves on the floor, looked at them, and smelled them. Then he kneaded them by hand and repeated the process.

In this world, Qi couldn't be used outside the body; therefore, he couldn't wrap the leaves with it to feel them in greater detail. Fortunately, he had another skill that would allow him to analyze them well enough for his current purposes.

Myriad Absolute Arts — Detection Arts — Two Star Qi — Keen Senses!

The name of the technique was simple, and so was its application. Qi immediately filled his eyes and nose, making him able to see at the cellular level and smell every substance the leaf was made of.

That said, the skill merely made things easier for him. Identifying the substances and their uses depended on his knowledge. Luckily, he didn't lack in it.

In a few moments, he guesstimated most applications for that plant and was surprised at how deserted that place was. Did no one know how useful those leaves could be? He stored some of them in his spatial ring and decided to ask Alys about them in the conversation he intended to have with her soon.

He returned to the group, finding the camp already set up. The ligurus had been fed and brushed, and five sleeping bags were around a lit fire pit.

The Fire Wolves were sitting around the fire, looking at it in silence while eating pieces of dried meat. As soon as Aaron approached, he also received a piece.

He wanted to talk to Alys, but refusing food after fighting for it at the guildhall would be suspicious. So he sat to eat.

As soon as he did, Tia spoke in a low voice, "It's been three years since I ran away from home." She made a long pause. "My family is..." She sighed. "Complicated. My only chance to stay away from them is with the Mercenary Guild, but even then, if I cause a commotion big enough, as in a battle against the Royal Guard... An investigation will happen and the news won't go unnoticed by my father."

Aaron almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. Her actions showed that she was even more naïve than he had imagined. Was she seeking understanding and emotional support from a "Rogue" that she had just met and had given her no sign of emotional attachment? How the hell was she even still alive?

He looked at Logan and Lana. Alys had said that they also had special circumstances, but they were wisely not interested in opening their hearts to someone they knew nothing about.

"Aren't you afraid that I'll search for your family and sell your location to them?" asked Aaron directly.

She gave him a sad smile. "I'm terrified. But what else can I do but trust you?"

"I didn't even ask you anything. You could've just kept silent about it."

She shook her head. "You would have found out sooner or later. My family has some influence and every month they announce that they're still looking for me. The next announcement is only two days away. You better hear the truth from me, right?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Heavens, do you have the maturity of a child? You're hoping that the best will happen because you opened up to me? Why don't you try to silence me with force or money?"

She shook her head negatively. "I'm not a monster like my father to use force. And if you're the type that can be bought, you're going to sell me to them anyway."

Aaron suppressed a sigh. As much as he didn't plan to expose Tia to her parents, it was in these moments that the truth that a person's character was revealed. If the Cage was watching him now and he behaved too friendly, Tia's life would be at risk.

He needed to show ambition and lack of morals so the Cage would think it was possible to control him with economic advantages, which was much better than killing him if he did anything it didn't like. He also wanted to show that he didn't connect with the people around him too easily, and therefore, it wasn't worth it using them to get to him.

It was beneath someone of his stature to allow innocent people to become bargain chips like that. He wouldn't bend to any blackmail, of course, but he also wouldn't just ignore the potential danger he represented. His Absolute Immortal dignity demanded him to make at least some measure of effort in distancing himself to protect them.

"You're partially right," he said. "You do need to trust me, at least now that you have opened up, but trusting a stranger whose silence you bought is much smarter than trusting only the good feelings of said stranger."

Her shoulders dropped, and even though she was staring at the fire, he saw when the last bit of hope disappeared from her eyes. When she looked at him, her gaze was haunted by the past and frightened about the future.

"How much?" she asked. "To keep quiet until we return from the commission at least."

Aaron thought about how much he would receive for this commission and said, "My service fee is always the same, one hundred gold coins."

She made a gesture of holding something with her hand while activating the spatial ring. White light appeared in her palm and soon materialized in a purse of money. She threw it to Aaron.

"Ninety-eight coins, this is all the unit's money. I'll pay the rest when we get back to the city with the sword."

"And how will you pay if we don't find the sword to complete the commission?"

She closed her eyes and stroked her spatial ring. "I still have some things to sell."

Aaron felt sorry for her but didn't show it. He had made a fair trade by charging that much to join the unit, but now he was blackmailing and extorting the girl, an incredibly weak cultivator, using her fear to his advantage.

Maybe he would need to help her so they got even, after all.

The mood in the camp turned even heavier after that little negotiation.

With a thought, his new money bag disappeared into his spatial ring. Then he turned to Alys. "We must talk."

She paled, but nodded and followed Aaron to the ligurus.

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He walked slowly to allow her to feel the transition from the heavy air around the fire to the peaceful surroundings of the ligurus, who were eating their food in absolute tranquility.

Once there, he started to caress one of them and said, "Erect a sound barrier around us, please."

With a pounding heart, she obeyed. Space Energy left her body and an invisible energy dome formed around them.

Aaron went straight to the point. "Why are you so scared of me?"

She swallowed hard before answering weakly. Her body was shaking. "I... I kidnapped you..."

"Wrong," he said and touched the liguru's head with his own while stroking it.

The animal let out a growl of pleasure and licked Aaron's hand. Docile animals like that reminded him of how simple and carefree a submissive life could be, as long as it was under someone good, skilled, and with good intentions. His days as a servant at Ironblood House, when he first left Earth, immediately came to mind.

"The portal you opened couldn't force me to go through it," he explained. "I came on my own accord."

She opened her eyes wide. Was that true?

Aaron was not finished. "Actually, I'm grateful for the opportunity the portal presented me with. I've been looking for a new purpose in my life for a long time and I found it in this world." Or, to be more exact, in that dimension.

Alys said nothing. He was... thankful? This was completely outside her expectations; she didn't know how to react.

"In exchange for your service in bringing me here, I offer to guide you in your cultivation," he said. "Or to pay you some amount of money, either now, or in the future if I don't have enough at the moment."

Gratitude was not a bad thing to show to the Cage, especially after the episode with Tia. People with at least some ability to show gratitude were easier to control than those with insatiable greed.

"Guide me?" she repeated.

"There are countless flaws in your cultivation. Your internal energies are a disgrace for any cultivator, starting with the impurities in them."

Aaron felt the energies inside others in a similar way to a mortal feeling the heat of a flame. Each kind of energy provided a different type of heat; the intensity of the heat indicated the amount of energy; and the instability of the heat he felt, the oscillation of the flames, indicated the purity of the energy.

He continued, "I can give you a single lesson of an hour that will help you correct several of these flaws. Or, I repeat, I can give you a sum of money. Which form of repayment would do you prefer?"

Aaron stared at her. That question would test her heart against material greed. It was the first of two tests he would apply to determine how much he would teach her if she chose to learn.

Alys felt her heart beat faster. Flaws in her cultivation? Countless flaws?

She had long suspected that something was wrong in the Illyria Kingdom. Nobody could reach the Five Star level, and it wasn't exactly hard to deduce that the problem lay with the cultivation techniques they had.

In fact, the reason she wanted to become an imperial citizen so badly was to request relocation to a branch of the Circle in some imperial city. That would give her a small chance to learn better cultivation techniques.

But now... Now, she had the chance to reach new heights in power even before that!

She didn't doubt Aaron's ability to do what he said. He had resisted the king's Sovereign Scepter, ignored the spatial barrier around the summoning circle, used a powerful technique to kill two Royal Guards when he was still an Inept, and became a Two Star Qi Manipulator in fifteen minutes. His skill was undeniable.

But... An hour? What could he teach in an hour?

She took a deep breath. An hour of possibilities was better than money; as a Three Star Sorceress, making money was as easy as breathing.

"Please, teach me."

He nodded. "Before I even give you your lesson, you need to make a choice, which in turn needs a good explanation. So, sit comfortably and listen well."

She obeyed, sitting on the ground, and he continued, "In this world, there are nine types of energy: Qi, Arcane, Elemental, Vital, Nature, Psychic, Space, Time, and Holy. Of all these energies, Qi is the densest and most dangerous when cultivated incorrectly. On the other hand, it's also the only one capable of tempering dantian, body, and soul. It can refine them, strengthen them, make them more resistant and healthier. An Inept, for instance, must absorb Qi before any other energy, otherwise, their dantian would explode and kill them."

"I never quite understood how it works," interrupted Alys.

If she needed to make an informed decision, she would seek to understand as much as possible instead of just listening quietly. Although she still feared him a little, she hadn't become a Three Star Sorceress by being ruled by her fears. Moreover, he had said she had nothing to fear, and it was her future they were talking about.

Aaron didn't care about the interruption. When a student raised their doubts, it became much easier to find out their knowledge gaps and correct them.

He replied, "Dantian, body, and soul have natural limits on how much energy they can take. Cultivating Qi increases their resistance, which makes them able to withstand more energy of any kind. You are a One Star Qi Manipulator. This allows you to safely reach the Five Star level in any energy other than Qi, and the Three Star level in a third energy."

"But the highest level in Illyria is Four Star..." Alys interjected.

"I'm stating the safely reachable limits, I didn't say that anyone can reach them. Other factors also influence someone's cultivation, such as natural talent, effort made, techniques used, available resources, and even luck. You and everyone else in this kingdom have a much more serious issue though. It's called stupidity."

Alys frowned. "What do you mean?"

"As I said, dantian, body, and soul have limits on how much energy they can withstand. In other words, they have limited energy potential at each Qi cultivation level, and only increasing said level can increase that potential. What happens when someone uses part of that potential with something other than Qi?

"Put in another way, think of the dantian as a bucket and consider Qi as water. For a cultivator to level up his Qi, he must fill the entire bucket, every drop of internal space in it, with water. But if there are already stones inside, that is, other energies like Arcane and Space occupying the space that Qi requires, the bucket will never have as much water as it needs to level up.

"The cultivator will then find their energy potential forever limited. Even if anyone in this kingdom ever reaches the Five Star level, that would be at their limit, because they can't cultivate Qi to increase their energy potential anymore. By cultivating another energy right after reaching the One Star level with Qi, they effectively crippled themselves."

Alys paled, immediately understanding what that meant. "So if I ever want to go beyond the Five Star level, I need to give up on my Arcane and Space cultivation temporarily and cultivate Qi again to increase my energy potential?"

Aaron nodded. "Yes. Removing the stones would be the simplest solution. Unfortunately, throwing your Arcane and Space energy away would be tantamount to throwing away all your power and status. You would have to cultivate those energies from scratch again. Not to mention that the energies you already have in your body and soul, even after emptying your dantian, would make cultivating Qi much more difficult. Even worse, there's no way of knowing if you'd even be able to cultivate Qi up to the Three Star level, which would allow you to reach level six, Champion, with a second energy.

Aaron's math left Alys confused. "Three Star? If a One Star Qi Manipulator can reach the Five Star level in another energy, a Three Star Qi Manipulator should be able to reach at least the Master level, shouldn't they?"

He shook his head. "Energy interactions and the improvement of dantian, body, and soul are things much more complex than the sum of two numbers. Before I came into this world, I analyzed its energies and these are the equivalences.

"A One Star Qi Manipulator can absorb another energy up to the Five Star level.

"A Three Stars Qi Manipulator can absorb another energy up to the sixth level, Champion.

"A Five Star Qi Manipulator can absorb another energy up to the seventh level, Master.

"A Master Qi Manipulator can absorb another energy up to the eighth level, Grandmaster.

"And the only way to reach the ninth level, Sage, in any other energy is to become a Sage Qi Manipulator first.

"In any of these situations, a third energy can reach the Three Star level. There is an exception, but you need not know about it because it's far beyond your capability.

"An ambitious cultivator will cultivate Qi up to level nine, Sage, before cultivating any other energy, while those down to earth will just reach the Qi level that would allow them to cultivate a second energy as far as they think they can go. Any of these alternatives are better than what I saw in the Illyria Kingdom.

"Here, everyone starts cultivating other energies as soon as they become One Star Qi Manipulators, well before they maximize their energy potential. Not only that, your cultivation techniques are so bad that you need twice the effort to achieve half the results you'd achieve with a passable technique. What are you, thirty-five, forty? You still being at the Three Star level of Space cultivation is pathetic. You should have reached the Five Star limit for One Star Qi Manipulators long ago."

Alys blushed at his words, feeling both angry and ashamed, but the fear she still had for Aaron was even greater and she didn't dare say a word. He might not blame her for kidnapping him, but he had killed two guards in cold blood.

"That said," he said in a softer voice, "there are alternatives to almost everything in this universe, you just need the right knowledge or correct resources. Since you didn't even know about your issues, I'll guess you don't have either." He smiled. "Lucky you, I have enough knowledge to give you two options to pick from.

"The first option starts with you throwing away your Space and Arcane cultivation at first. After you do so, I'll teach you a way to cleanse your body and soul of leftover energies, then impart on you a mighty Qi cultivation technique. It will allow you to reach the Sage level with relative ease, in less than thirty years, even if you don't apply yourself.

"When you reach that level, you'll be able to cultivate whatever energy you want again, this time up to the Sage level. Since you already cultivated Space and Arcane Energies before, it would be much easier and faster the second time around.

"The second option is teaching you a technique that will allow you to cultivate Space Energy as you are now, without having to cultivate Qi. However, this technique has a side effect. It will cut your Qi cultivation path for good. Nothing you might ever do would allow you to cultivate Qi ever again.

"Since I'm repaying you for a favor and this option has such a setback, I'll also throw in a Space cultivation technique. It will allow you to reach the Champion level in less than five years, the Master level with a lot of effort, or even the Grandmaster level with some luck."

He stared into her eyes and said, "Make your choice."

Alys felt her whole body shiver as she stared back into Aaron's black eyes. His sight seemed to reach the depths of her soul and contain all the secrets of the universe.

What did she want?

One Star, Two Star, Three Star, Four Star, Five Star, Champion, Master, Grandmaster, and Sage, the nine levels in the world.

Master was the seventh level, the level of the emperor of the Thenor Empire. Aaron was telling her she could easily become a Master with effort, and her whole cultivation life was about beating the odds with hard work.

Her heart started beating harder.

Reaching the Five Star level would already allow her to become someone of status in imperial cities. At the Champion level, even the Imperial Clans would covet her. And as a Master...

Marrying the Crown Prince and becoming the emperor's consort in the future wasn't impossible, even at her advanced age and with her average looks.

She obviously didn't believe she was lucky enough to become a Grandmaster. If she were so lucky, she would've been born an imperial citizen instead of a denizen of that border kingdom with inferior cultivation techniques.

If she were younger, she wouldn't hesitate to throw away her cultivation of Arcane and Space energies and cultivate Qi again, which would give her an even brighter future than a consort. But she was almost forty and her time was limited. Her ambitions in life were also few, and she wasn't particularly interested in Qi Manipulation, only in Shaping, the name of the energy specialization related to Space Energy.

Becoming permanently incapable of cultivating Qi sounded bad, but that path had already been cut before she met Aaron anyway.

The best choice for her was to invest in what she already had.

"I choose the second option," she said firmly.

Aaron smiled slightly. It was rare to find someone like Alys, who knew and accepted her limits. He had only offered the option to reach the Sage level at Qi cultivation because he wanted to test her heart again.

And she had passed.

Neither greed nor ambition hadn't blinded her. Twice, she had made the right choices.

It was common for cultivators in Aaron's home universe to believe in "ambition above everything to exceed one's limits." Although there was a certain truth to that, Aaron knew that the most important thing was not the ambition part, but understanding one's limits.

Only someone who knew themselves well enough could accomplish the impossible with enough willpower. That was the reason it was so common for young heroes to have humble origins, while young people born in a cradle of gold ended up stuck with their cultivation with a high frequency, requiring special resources to break through their bottlenecks.

"Pay attention then," he said. "I'll teach you the technique known as Regrettably Necessary Deviation. I'll explain it three times in a row. Whether or not you understand it depends on you. As the name implies, the Regrettably Necessary Deviation is a technique that exists to be used if necessary, but it being necessary is regrettable.

"Lamentation is a fundamental part of the technique. The cultivator has to regret deeply that their future is blocked, so their willpower can elevate their feelings to the universe and tear their destiny apart!

"Remember that! Your heart rules!

"To use this technique, you will need to move your Qi around your body in this symbol."

He used a dry branch to draw on the ground. The symbol was three-dimensional and extremely complex, so he needed several drawings to show all possible angles before continuing.

"You should use all your spiritual channels to draw this symbol in your spirit. Yes, all of them. This technique will force your body, spirit, and soul to practically merge into one, which will allow your energy capacity to increase artificially. This has some side effects that cancel each other out thanks to the high quality of the technique and, therefore, are not important.

"You should start by circulating the Qi through the easternmost spiritual channel that comes out of your dantian. The East is the beginning of everything, where the sun, the light of life, comes from. With light and life, comes hope, the answer to your cries of injustice. With light and hope, comes the strength to do what is necessary and go beyond your limits!" he said, then continued with the explanation.

Alys couldn't believe what she was hearing. The depth of that teaching was incredible, far beyond anything she had ever learned before. But when it came from Aaron's mouth, it seemed incredibly simple.

The second time he was explaining, she closed her eyes and did as he was saying. After circulating the Qi the right way and creating the symbol he showed, the Qi in her body ran erratically, linking to the Qi in her soul, and they both made another mystical symbol that she had never seen before.

She circled the Qi within that symbol nine times. On the ninth, she felt something inside her change.

According to Aaron's explanation, her body and soul got closer together, and her spirit stuck better in both. Her energies were the same but flowed better now, and with the proximity, her body and soul supported each other to withstand extra power.

And it was in that simple way that she became someone capable of going beyond Illyria's limits!

She could hardly believe it!

"Very well," said Aaron when she opened her eyes. "You are forbidden from teaching this technique to anyone without my permission." He cleaned up the drawings on the ground.

"I swear by the gods!" She exclaimed immediately and Aaron received a Heavenly Message.

[Holy Vow made!]

Alys Tyren promised not to teach others the technique you taught her unless you give her permission.

If she breaks her promise, Holy Judgment will befall her.

It was the first time that Aaron had received that Heavenly Message, but he had heard merchants making deals using Holy Vows earlier. It was a Heavenly Skill that everyone in the world had access to, just as the one to check other people's levels.

"That was unnecessary," he said almost with disdain. The last thing he needed was the Cage meddling in his interpersonal relationships. "Are you ready for the cultivation class?"

"Yes!" she replied immediately, too excited to notice his contempt.

Aaron nodded and started teaching again. "Space Energy is, as the name implies, energy capable of affecting space itself. The world is made up of Laws, Concepts, and Truths. Space Energy is directly linked to the Laws of Space..."

As she had passed his two tests, the one-hour class he had promised got an extension of two extra hours.

Alys went into a trance while listening to Aaron. As he spoke, she unconsciously did what he taught. The Space Energy on the environment started being sucked into her like a vortex, causing the purity of the Space Energy inside her to increase more and more.

The sudden influx pressured the sound barrier greatly, making it vibrate like bass drums. As soon as Aaron spoke his last word, a loud sound of an explosion came from inside Alys' body, even going through the barrier, causing tremors wherever it passed by.

She had leveled up.

In a mere three-hour class, Aaron had summed up the entire essence of Space cultivation for her, taught her how to purify her Space Energy, and helped her become a Four Star Shaper.

His words were still repeating over and over in her mind, and she kept meditating on them. Even moving would risk taking her out of the state of enlightenment she found herself in. She didn't want to move even a single finger.

But she dared not be ungrateful. Not after that.

She didn't even have the words to describe what had happened there, the depth of what she had learned, the chill she felt in her soul for having come in contact with such wisdom. She also had no words to articulate the extent of her gratitude. Therefore, she didn't thank him with words but showed her appreciation with a gesture.

She kneeled, then prostrated herself before Aaron. Her forehead touched the ground, and she just stood there, unmoving.

Aaron smiled, pleased for having judged her correctly. Heartfelt gratitude was more scarce in the universe than most people would believe. And since she had shown her gratitude with a gesture, he would accept it with a gesture of his own. He would protect the moment of enlightenment she was having from the Fire Wolves.

He moved the ligurus, placing them between Alys and the rest of the unit. Despite the loud explosion, the animals remained relatively calm thanks to his soothing aura. Then he stepped out of the sound barrier, rested his hands on the handles of the blades at his waist, and faced the Fire Wolves.

They were already approaching with weapons drawn.