Elder Qin Zhao tapped his finger impatiently against his upper arm as he glared down at Jia and Eui with his arms crossed—a deeper scowl than usual on his face. The girls stared at their feet, unable to handle the intense pressure of his scrutiny. It felt almost as though the sky had darkened, and the vibrant colors of the garden around the gazebo where Elder Qin conducted his lessons had become more muted. The displeasure of a cultivator as powerful as Elder Qin was physically palpable.

After what felt like an eternity, Elder Qin finally broke the silence with a single word.

“Explain.”

Jia swallowed nervously, her eyes searching for anything that wasn’t Elder Qin’s furious gaze to lock on to.

“Uh, w-we didn’t mean to...”

She trailed off, not entirely sure how to even describe what, exactly, they had done. The core in Jia’s chest felt distinctly different from Eui’s, but not in a way that she knew how to put into words.

“We were just trying to figure out how to control Eui’s destruction element—the Grand Magus suggested that we could neutralize rampant destruction ki with lightning so we...”

Again, she struggled to actually put what had happened into words. She didn’t fully understand it herself—everything that happened in her soulscape was strange and abstract, like a dream—how was she supposed to explain it to someone else? Elder Qin was still glaring at her, though, so she’d have to just do her best.

“Well, when we tried it, we had another vision of our soulscape. I don’t really know for sure what happened after that. I think the core caused another deviation, and we did as Grand Magus Do Hye suggested—we tried to counter it with lightning.”

It left out a lot of details, but most of what had happened in her soulscape had been deeply personal, and she wasn’t comfortable describing it to the elder in full detail. Elder Qin seemed to chew her words over for a moment, before finally speaking again.

“I see. So this somehow led to the formation of a demonic core within your body, Miss Lee?”

“No! At least, I don’t think it’s the same as a demon core. I can’t really describe why, it just feels different.”

Eui nodded in agreement and added her own impression.

“I think a demonic core is the crystallization of the kind of negative emotions that cause deviations in the first place. Jia’s isn’t like that—or at least, it’s made from different emotions.”

Elder Qin raised an eyebrow at that.

“That’s quite the theory, but even if it were true, I have only your word that it is not what it appears to be. Rather than Miss Lee leading Miss An away from demonism, it appears that you have gone down the opposite path.”

Jia shook her head in vehement denial.

“It’s not that! It’s hard to explain what we saw in that vision, but we found a sort of balance. I’m certain that we’ll be able to control Eui’s core and her destruction element more effectively now.”

Elder Qin sighed and uncrossed his arms.

“Fine. Demonstrate.”

Jia hesitated, confused.

“Wait, what?”

Elder Qin scoffed irritably.

“If you believe that this has furthered Miss An’s mastery of her element and the demonic core, then demonstrate that mastery.”

Jia shared a baffled glance with Eui before looking back up at Qin Zhao.

“You’re not mad?”

Apparently that was a stupid question, as the intensity of the pressure she felt suddenly magnified.

“I am livid. However, if what you say is true, then it does mean a significant advancement in your abilities, and may have broader implications on the way we understand demons and deviations. I am not so petty as to allow my personal biases to distract me from such a potentially valuable advancement. Now, demonstrate!”

Jia looked to Eui, who just shrugged and produced one of the knives she always kept hidden on her. She glanced up at Elder Qin.

“I’m going to try infusing this with destruction ki. Assuming I have your permission to use my own ki, master.”

Jia winced at Eui’s petulant tone, but Elder Qin just ignored it, nodding magnanimously.

“You have my blessing. I will not consider it a breach of conduct should you lose control and feed your core during this demonstration. You may proceed.”

Eui scowled, more annoyed that her jab had been ignored than she would have been at being punished. It had been quite a while since Eui had practiced her signature technique, but she returned to it as if it were second nature—infusing the knife with destructive energy without causing any damage to either her or the knife.

“The first arm—and a gateway to the second. Technically I could use this as a regular weapon, but I’d run the risk of it exploding in my hand. The manual suggests using smaller objects like throwing knives to get the greatest combat potential out of this arm. Arrows work too, but they have to be iron—wood is elementally incompatible with destruction.”

Elder Qin nodded.

“I see. Once you break the connection, the destruction element will rapidly destabilize and consume everything nearby in the resulting detonation. Crude but effective—as expected of Yamato’s martial arts. Withdraw the energy without damaging the weapon.”

Eui hesitated, a nervous sweat forming on her brow.

“I uh...haven’t tried that before. That wasn’t something the manual covered.”

“Of course it wasn’t. Try anyway.”

Eui frowned, but nodded once and focused intently on the weapon. She slowly and deliberately drew the destructive energy out of the knife, until there was no longer any danger of it exploding. That had been the easy part—the more difficult part was safely returning the ki to her natural flow. Eui squinted her eyes shut as she focused intently on the flow of ki within her body, then after a moment she let out a sigh of relief.

“I did it. No backlash!”

Despite how proud of herself Eui seemed to be, Elder Qin just scrutinized her with his usual scowl.

“Hmph! You’ll need to learn to do that much faster. It should be as easy as breathing to reabsorb your own unspent energy. That ‘technique’ of yours is disgustingly wasteful.”

“Last time I checked, Master Ienaga was in charge of our martial arts training.”

Eui’s grumbling protest was met by a challenging glare from Elder Qin.

“Feel free to consult her on the matter—I am certain she will agree with my assessment. I advise you not to attempt to play your instructors against each other, as it will only antagonize us against you. You should consider yourself blessed to have so many experts taking personal interest in your tutelage. Most would consider themselves extremely fortunate to train under even a single one of us.”

Eui looked like she wanted to argue more, but she backed off. After waiting a moment to be certain that Eui wasn’t about to interject further, Elder Qin continued.

“The next form, if you would.”

Eui gulped, then took a deep breath.

“The second arm requires me to activate the destruction element within myself. It’s a lot like infusing weapons, except it’s my own body. In some ways the risk isn’t as bad—it’s not like my fist is just going to explode—but the risk of backlash is a lot higher. Worse, that backlash tends to flow back into the body and cause a chain reaction. According to the manual, most students of this technique die trying to master the second arm.”

After a few meditative breaths, Eui took up a stance and began to circulate her ki. She focused the active element in her hands at first, then carefully allowed her arms, legs, and tail to be infused as well. She spoke very deliberately, keeping her breathing steady as she did.

“The third and fourth arms are the fighting style. The third is a hand-to-hand style that takes advantage of the technique’s overwhelming force, while the fourth involves using weapons and the environment to expand on the style’s effective range.”

Elder Qin paced around Eui for a few minutes, examining her. Though her breathing remained steady, eventually her hands began to tremble, and she was sweating profusely. This was the first time Eui had ever used the second arm without relying on the demon core to absorb any potential backlash, and the added stress of Qin Zhao’s scrutiny probably wasn’t helping.

Finally, Elder Qin stopped and nodded once.

“Very well. You may stop.”

Eui let out a sigh of relief, but the lapse of attention turned out to be her undoing. All at once, several nasty black veins began to spread on her hands and wrists at sharp angles. The demonic core pulsed hungrily, and the out-of-control ki started to flood towards it. At the same time, Jia felt her own core react, and the feeling it gave off was the same one she felt if she saw a crying child or an older girl at the orphanage returning home with bruises—empathy.

With a flash of energy that she sensed through her domain rather than saw physically, a bolt of lightning ki surged from her core, across the metaphysical link between her soul and Eui’s, and intercepted Eui’s ki—at the same time as it entered Eui’s core. The lightning and destruction were both absorbed by Eui’s core, and all of this happened in the blink of an eye.

There was an awkward moment of silence. Jia and Eui had no idea how to interpret that result. Was that good? Bad? Had they completely messed up and somehow managed to hasten the expansion of Eui’s core? Without any clue how to interpret the event they had just witnessed, the girls turned to Elder Qin for answers. His face had the same impassive scowl it usually did, but he stroked his long beard thoughtfully for a moment before speaking.

“I do not know what this means.”

Jia almost fell to the floor in disappointment. What kind of underwhelming reaction was that!? Elder Qin continued before either of the girls could voice their complaints.

“However, I am tentatively inclined to believe that you are correct. Miss Lee’s core clearly has a different nature than the demonic cores I am familiar with. Furthermore, it appears that you have reached some manner of equilibrium between the two of you. I am still somewhat concerned about Miss An’s core continuing to cultivate, but it seems as though it is being neutralized by Miss Lee’s.”

Jia and Eui both sighed in relief, but Elder Qin wasn’t finished yet.

“This is no excuse to be incautious! Your path strays further into unknown territory with every step you take. In the entire known history of this continent, there may never have been a cultivator as bizarre as the two of you. Nothing is certain about any of what you are doing, and you already have the best experts in the world making educated guesses about your cultivation methods. If, by some miracle, you manage to survive long enough to reach the xiantian realm, you will not have any examples left to follow. You will have to find the rest of your path alone. I suggest you prepare yourselves now for when that time comes, and make the most of the opportunity you now have—it will not last forever.”

On that somber note, Elder Qin turned away and vanished, evidently finished with the day’s lesson.

Of course, Elder Qin wasn’t the only instructor demanding explanations. The Magi Hwang and Do were outraged that they had missed the opportunity to witness, record, and study such a momentous transformation, but they were quickly placated by a demonstration of the interaction between Jia and Eui’s cores, as well as a reminder that they’d be the first to study whatever new kind of core it was that Jia had formed. Privately, Jia was also anxious to discover whatever the two researchers would learn about her new core.

The last one to be informed was Master Ienaga Yumi. Jia felt a little bit bad about approaching her last, since in many ways Ienaga had been their closest mentor in the academy. They were also more worried about her reaction than the others. Elder Qin could be trusted to be displeased about anything, and the magi wore their hearts on their sleeves, but Ienaga tended to keep her own thoughts and feelings extremely private. As a result, she was the most difficult to predict.

Despite all their anxiety about how Master Ienaga would react, once they explained themselves, the reality was beyond anything they had expected.

“Hm, I see. In that case, I’d like to compare your sparring ability as Yoshika between two different strategies—splitting techniques between Lightning God and Six Arms, and synchronizing both bodies with Soft Fist. We’ll start with Soft Fist, since this is also our first opportunity to see how you do without the seal restricting you—take a moment to prepare and let me know when you’re ready.”

Jia and Eui’s jaws dropped. Her reaction was so overwhelmingly—underwhelming. Just ‘Oh, okay’ and on with the lesson. They rallied themselves quickly—they knew that Ienaga was the stoic type, so they should have expected something like this. In the end, her chief concern was always going to be the training implications.

After taking some time to reattune their ki flows toward the warmth element, the pair allowed their minds to merge and stood as one.

“We’re ready.”

Ienaga nodded curtly and stuck her wooden sword into the ground before lowering herself into a fighting stance.

“For now let’s start with martial arts only for comparison. You can work your other disciplines in next time. Otherwise, same as before—come at me with everything you have.”

Yoshika didn’t waste any time. She sprang forward as soon as Master Ienaga was finished speaking, trying to coordinate her strikes in such a way that Ienaga would be forced to take or block one in order to avoid or deflect the other. It didn’t work, of course—Ienaga was simply too fast, and too aware of her surroundings to be caught like that.

Yoshika wasn’t entirely sure if using Absolute Awareness would be considered cheating or not—it wasn’t magic, per se, but it was rooted in the discipline of mental cultivation. She decided to go for it anyway—she had used it against Ienaga in their last spar, after all. Like before, the enhanced perception only really served to highlight just how much faster Ienaga’s reflexes were. Her moves were almost prescient in how quickly she reacted to Yoshika’s attacks, and she seemed to know which strikes were feints even before Yoshika did.

There was one thing that Yoshika realized, as Ienaga continued to effortlessly deflect every strike from every angle—this was an absurdly bad matchup. The Soft Fist style was swift and graceful, but its combat applications mostly relied on turning enemy attacks away and using their own force against them. It was exceptionally good at absorbing and neutralizing an enemy's ki, both on offense and on defense—but Ienaga wasn’t using any.

On top of that, she was being entirely defensive against a combat style that was strongest when reacting to an opponent’s attacks. Before the headache from Absolute Awareness could get any worse, Yoshika backed off entirely.

“We yield.”

Ienaga stood up straight and crossed her arms.

“Why?”

Yoshika spoke in Jia’s voice as she explained.

“We had nothing that could break the stalemate under the conditions you specified. As long as you continued to defend, we might have gone like that forever. If we encountered an opponent like that in the field, we would just ignore them or flee.”

Ienaga nodded slowly.

“You managed to break the equilibrium last time—what changed?”

“Nothing, really. Last time we used improvised movements that were definitely not part of the Soft Fist style, and didn’t really have any ki behind them. Which, in hindsight, is probably why you blocked it and retaliated.”

“Good. Don’t forget your basic bujutsu techniques—I designed that style specifically to be compatible with any elemental affinity or attunement. If your martial art fails you, don’t hesitate to fall back to basics. That said, forcing a fight against an incompatible opponent isn’t wise either—I approve of the decision to retreat in that circumstance. Next, show me what you can do with two complementary styles.”

After a few moments to adjust her ki flow, Yoshika was ready for a second round. Ienaga declared the conditions for their spar.

“Same as last time, I won’t use any ki or martial arts. You win if you land a blow or force me to use ki. Start whenever you’re ready.”

This time, Yoshika took a moment to consider her approach. The Soft Fist was a flexible style, but it lacked raw power. By comparison, Lighting God and Six Arms were all power, but neither was particularly flexible. Lightning God Transformation was extremely fast, with high mobility and precision strikes that wore an opponent down by invading their pressure points with paralyzing lightning ki. Meanwhile, the Six Arms of Asura didn’t have much mobility, but had devastatingly powerful strikes that relied on the inexorable nature of the destruction element—one either got out of the way, or died.

Yoshika was a little bit worried about employing the destruction element full-force against another person. Eui had done it before during training, but it was something of an open secret that her charged blades were never intended to strike. Seeing a few of them explode during a sparring session—even harmlessly—was enough to sell the danger her knives posed. In the end, she decided she’d just have to trust Master Ienaga to know what she was doing.

The biggest problems would be the weaknesses of her two styles. Lightning God was fast, but a canny opponent like Hayakawa—and certainly Ienaga—would simply allow the relatively weak strikes to land anywhere other than a pressure point, and follow up with a counter-offensive. On the other hand, Six Arms had superlative power, but would struggle against an opponent who simply refused to engage. The challenge would be in coordinating the two to cover for each other’s weaknesses.

Yoshika began to formulate a strategy as she jumped into action.