Murayoshi’s words weighed heavily on Jia, but there was no way she could bring it up with Master Ienaga. Instead she decided to ask Yuuko and Rika about it during the next group training session, but the response she got was not what she was hoping for.

“Murayoshi used to be part of the Ienaga clan!?”

“The shogun’s brother!? He told you that?”

Jia sighed dejectedly, shaking her head.

“I was hoping you guys could tell me. How is it that someone that important wouldn’t be more well known? Apparently renouncing his name had something to do with Master Ienaga’s breakthrough to xiantian, but he wouldn’t say anything more than that.”

Rika shrugged.

“I’m surprised you got that much out of him, honestly. You shouldn’t be too surprised that people don’t know about it, though. That was a really long time ago, and it would have been overshadowed by Master Ienaga’s achievement. Plus, I doubt that either Murayoshi or Shogun Ienaga were keen to make a public spectacle of something like that.”

“I guess so. How long ago was it, anyway? I’m getting a lot of mixed signals about how long Master Ienaga’s been a xiantian cultivator.”

Rika scratched her head, but Yuuko came to her rescue.

“It would have been about eighty years ago. That’s recent by the standards of immortals from Qin and Goryeo, but it’s a long time for mortals and us lowly martial artists.”

Eighty years? Jia had forgotten that Ienaga was over a hundred years old—she looked so young.

“Wait—isn’t Master Ienaga the shogun’s daughter? She’s as old as she is because she’s a xiantian immortal, but what about her father?”

Rika grimaced, while Yuuko had a smug grin on her face.

“Let’s just say there’s a reason that the shogunate is in decline. Master Ienaga is over a hundred and looks like she’s thirty, but Shogun Ienaga is over a hundred and looks like he’s a thousand years old.”

Rika smacked Yuuko in the arm.

“He does not!”

“He totally does. Every time he shows up in public you can practically see the dust flaking off of him. He’s had a foot in the grave for over a decade! He should have made room for the new generation ages ago!”

Jia decided to leave the two of them alone. Though they were both commoners, the Takeda family were fierce loyalists from Ienaga’s land, while the Minami clan was a vassal of Hayakawa. The two of them clashed like that all the time, and it would probably not end until they sparred to get it out of their system. Instead she approached Fujino, the de facto leader of Yuuko’s team—a role technically shared between the two of them, but Fujino’s cooler head usually prevailed when it came to actually making decisions.

Fujino bowed apologetically as Jia approached.

“Sorry about that, Miss Lee. You know how Yuuko gets.”

Jia nodded.

“Not my problem. They’ll bicker for a few minutes, beat the crap out of each other, then laugh about it together. I’m not going to pretend that I understand it, but whatever works for them.”

Fujino sighed, shaking his head.

“I just hope their behaviour doesn’t lend credence to our nation’s barbarous reputation.”

Jia had a lot more than the behavior of a couple of rowdy teenagers behind that reputation, but she kept that to herself, instead just shrugging as she responded.

“I’m sure our countries all have dumb stereotypes. I’m not about to take them seriously. Is Hayakawa still not back?”

Fujino shook his head.

“No, and we’re starting to get a bit concerned. I swear, if her closed door session lasts any longer, poor Miyata is going to break down the wards to the girls’ dorms himself just to check on her.”

Jia giggled at the mental image of Miyata clawing at the wards trying to get in to see his precious master.

“That guy seriously needs to get a life. Well, let me know if you see her—I’ve got a few things that I need to discuss with her.”

“Of course.”

Jia bowed politely as she excused herself. What was taking Hayakawa so long?

Another month passed in the blink of an eye, as Jia and Eui continued their training routine and summer gave way to autumn. With help from Do Hye and Magus Hwang, Jia and Eui learned how to control the mana within their domains. Apparently it was a little bit different from the aura control that Dae and Sun Jaehwa had demonstrated, and newly xiantian mages often struggled with the transition. Jia and Eui didn’t have that problem, but the magi weren’t used to teaching the technique to someone who hadn’t already mastered aura control.

Once they had learned to do that, their magical repertoire opened up significantly. Jia didn’t think she’d ever be the kind of perfect omnimage that Dae was, but she made a point of learning the flexible mana shield that had given her so much trouble against Sun Jaehwa, as well as covering her weakness against sustained physical attacks by learning a few wall spells.

Speaking of weaknesses, her mental and spiritual resistance training with Yue and the others was starting to show actual results, compared to her practice with Eunae. Yue tried to slap Jia when she heard how they’d been practicing before.

“You idiots! Do you train your body by letting someone beat on you without resisting over and over? That’s not how you get stronger, it’s how you get bruised and broken! How in the emperor’s name did you survive without me?”

Jia still felt embarrassed, thinking back on it. It really hadn’t been a well thought-out plan, but she had been desperate. Yue taught them that all mental attacks were spiritual attacks, but the opposite was not necessarily true.

“The soul can’t normally be attacked directly. It’s—well, not quite inviolate, but extremely resistant to outside influence. It can be used as a vector through which the mind or body can be influenced, however. Ishihara and I would be examples of spiritual techniques which target the mind, while Jia and Eui’s target the body. Se—Eunae is a special case—near as anyone can tell, her ancestral technique directly influences one’s soul.”

Jia held up her hand like she was in one of Hwang’s lessons, and Yue gave her an unimpressed look. Jia ignored it.

“Eui and I don’t have spiritual attacks, what are you talking about?”

Yue made a disgusted face and shook her head.

“First of all, yes you do—what did you think that aura of yours was? Second, even if you didn’t, there are other examples of spiritual techniques which influence the body. It’s how qi healing techniques work, and also the reason why Eui’s brand is still present despite her cultivation and the ability to heal herself.”

All eyes fell on Eui, who held a hand up to her forehead self-consciously. The scar was covered by her hair as usual, but she didn’t appreciate the attention.

“Quit fucking staring! Yue, wouldn’t it fall into the same category as Eunae? I thought the brand affected the soul.”

“Not quite. It’s a clever bit of soul magic, but rather than directly altering the soul, it creates a sort of feedback loop. The brand is a spiritual attack which targets the body in order to rewrite itself. That makes it impossible to heal, or otherwise destroy. The brand actually does nothing else at all, the effect that prevents you from entering Goryeon cities is written into the wards themselves. That’s why you were able to enter the Academy—the Grand Magus must not have seen fit to include that particular inscription for some reason.”

Jia blinked at Yue.

“You seem to know a lot about Goryeon shield formations and exile brands.”

“The empire has been trying to replicate or bypass the shield formations for over a thousand years. It would be stranger if we hadn’t learned at least something from all that effort.”

So it went—Yue’s lessons were always like that. Insightful, vaguely insulting, and always seeming to know a little more than she should about any given subject. Jia couldn’t argue with the results, though. Yue taught her techniques to ground herself in reality and close her mind off from outside influence. It took an enormous amount of concentration, to the point that resisting spiritual attacks would leave her otherwise entirely defenseless. Yue assured her that with practice, she’d be able to maintain her focus during combat.

Spiritual attacks that targeted the body were a bit trickier to defend against, but also much harder to actually accomplish. It normally required physical contact with a pressure point, or control over the mana around someone. It turned out that the only reason Jia’s noxious aura had been so effective was her domain. Normally, a mage’s aura was sufficient to completely block the effect of the technique, but her domain bypassed that entirely. Now that Yue had a domain of her own, she was able to defend against it until Jia or Eui suppressed her domain.

Without an aura—or domain—to block the effects, one had to physically resist the effects. For someone who hadn’t even awakened their ki like Sun Jaehwa, that was a hopeless task. After some careful experimentation with Yuuko, they found that a higher body cultivation would allow one to passively resist the effects, while the knowledge of what was happening and how it worked also allowed Yuuko to push back against the aura by directing her ki against it.

Interestingly, it was also possible to block Eui’s healing in the same way—though Jia couldn’t think of any practical reason to do so, apart from practice. Actively resisting Jia’s aura had the same problem as resisting Ishihara and Yue’s mental attacks—it took up one’s entire focus and left them vulnerable. Again, something that would improve with practice.

Eunae’s gaze still proved to be almost entirely indomitable. Individually, Jia and Eui could just barely hold it off for a second or two, while Yue refused to even attempt it. As Yoshika, they could lock Eunae into a stalemate similar to the one she had gotten into with the Alpha Obsidian Wolf so long ago. Even that was a significant advantage to Eunae, who would be holding off two opponents for the price of one.

Meanwhile, Jia and Eui’s spiritual training continued apace. Their progress was slow, much to Elder Qin’s neverending disappointment, but that was to be expected when they were working with elements as complex as Sky and Plasma—which Yue still insisted on calling Trueflame. Rather than the signature flaming mantle that Zheng Long and Yan Zhihao had displayed, Jia had so far only managed to surround herself by a strange multicolored glow that did nothing.

That was still better progress than Eui, who was struggling to understand how the element of Sky was different from Air or Mist. Her lack of a clear image meant that the manifestations of her technique were subdued at best. That was to say, she could make her hair flutter a bit if she focused on it really hard. They were a long way from Jia’s dream of soaring unbound through the clouds.

After two and a half months, Hayakawa finally emerged from her closed door training to report a successful breakthrough to the third stage. Jia was amazed—she thought that her own two week session had been huge, but Hayakawa had done nearly five times that much. Was it really worth it to spend so much of the time they had to prepare for the tournament on a single breakthrough? There was only another three months before the end of the year, and Hayakawa had already spent nearly that long in isolation.

Jia consulted the only other person she knew who had achieved the third stage of cultivation. Yue’s brows furrowed as Jia explained her thoughts.

“My own breakthrough took me multiple attempts, totalling nearly an entire year—my seventeenth. Miss Hayakawa’s talent is rather incredible to have managed it in less than a quarter of that on her first attempt. Perhaps it’s easier with body cultivation, but I’m still quite impressed.”

“Was it worth all that time, though? With the tournament coming up...”

Yue shrugged carelessly.

“I imagine it was a calculated risk—one which very much paid off. With three months to get acquainted with her new power and catch up on her techniques—I dare say she might be a contender for the team divisions all by herself. Maybe you and Eui should attempt to break through yourselves, hahaha!”

Jia frowned. She knew that Yue was joking, but she and Eui had reached a plateau in their cultivation recently. It was different from the bottleneck they had experienced before, where the essence they cultivated felt like it was being wasted. Now, it felt more like the essence they tried to absorb simply didn’t have anywhere to go. They had felt it before, more urgently, when they had tried to cultivate the tiny shred of divine essence left behind by Jianmo. Jia was fairly certain they had reached the peak of the second stage.

Yue noticed Jia’s quiet contemplation and paled.

“No! Jia, that was a joke—don’t you dare! Even if you managed it as fast as Hayakawa you’d have almost no time to practice, and your techniques are far far behind your cultivation level!”

Jia sighed with resignation.

“You’re right. I just don’t know how we’re supposed to compete with that. I was already struggling to come up with ways to counter Hayakawa as she was. Now? When she’s exponentially stronger than before? It’s kind of disheartening.”

“If anyone can find a way, Jia, I’m sure it’s you. You’ve fought and defeated third stage cultivators before, haven’t you? Rumor has it Zheng Long still gets jumpy during thunderstorms.”

“I had Hayakawa’s help, then.”

Yue scoffed.

“She landed one blow. A powerful one, I’ll grant you, but it was you—or Yoshika, I suppose—who wore him down. You who landed the finishing blow. Don’t underestimate yourself.”

Jia shook her head ruefully. What kind of insane world had she ended up in, where Yan Yue was trying to raise her spirits.

“I guess so. Well, I’d better go congratulate her—I’ve got some other things I need to talk to her about, too. Not really looking forward to this, but it has to be done. Look after Heian for me until I get back.”

Yue’s eyes lit up as Heian padded over to her. She had grown into the size of a proper house-cat—though still kept the appearance of a kitten—and had gotten a lot better at interacting with people, though she still couldn’t communicate. She was also still bound to Jia, which Yue visibly recalled, her face falling.

“Oh ha ha, Jia. Very funny. For a moment, I nearly forgot she’s your spirit familiar and not an actual pet.”

Jia giggled as Heian turned back around and leapt into her arms, it’s prank completed.

“She’s come a long way, but Kim says the hard part will be getting her to act like a person instead of a cat.”

“Tsk. What does he know? I like her just fine as a cat.”

Heian meowed her approval before disappearing back into Jia’s soulscape. Jia chuckled wryly.

“I kind of agree, but the experts all seem to think that humanizing her as much as possible is the safest way forward.”

Yue scoffed, but didn’t argue. Jia said her farewells and approached Hayakawa. She met Eui’s eyes along the way, and Eui immediately broke off her conversation to join Jia. As soon as she was close enough for their domains to merge, Jia heard Eui’s voice in her head.

“Moment of truth? I’m with you no matter what.”

Jia shot her girlfriend a smile—which widened at the thought. Their relationship might not have changed much outwardly, but it still made her feel warm and fuzzy inside to think about it.

“Thanks, Eui. I don’t think it’ll be too big a deal. Worst case, we end up burning a bridge with Hayakawa.”

“That’s a pretty big bridge, but I’ll support you.”

The two joined hands, heedless of any looks they got. Their relationship was an open secret by now, and there had been rumors that they were together long before they actually had been anyway.

Hayakawa noticed their approach and broke off from her group to meet them.

“Miss Lee, Miss An, good to see you again. I’ve heard that you had your own breakthrough of some sort while I was away.”

Jia and Eui bowed politely in greeting before Jia responded.

“Nothing quite as remarkable as yours! Congratulations, by the way.”

Hayakawa couldn’t quite keep the proud smile off her face.

“Thank you! I take it there are no hard feelings over the last time we spoke? I admit that I worried I might have gone a little overboard.”

Jia took a deep breath, and she felt Eui giving her hand a little squeeze of encouragement.

“Actually, I think we need to talk about that—do you mind if I cast a spell for privacy?”

Hayakawa’s face hardened, but she nodded her assent. Jia took out a talisman and activated its enchantment to surround them with a familiar bubble of gray silence. She was glad that she had taken the time to learn that spell. After taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Jia met Hayakawa’s gaze.

“Hayakawa, I’ve done a lot of thinking—not just about what you said, or your offer, but about myself, and my own failings. I think I did need that lesson you tried to teach me, though I’m not about to thank you for it. It helped me realize something important about myself. I really am too forgiving—I set my standards too low. I grew up in an environment so shitty that someone who was ‘only trying to kill me a little bit’ was best friend material.”

Eui snorted, but straightened up after Jia elbowed her. Jia was trying to be serious here. Hayakawa remained silent, a slight frown on her face as Jia continued.

“I was so starved for validation that I would let just about any insult or threat go if it meant gaining someone’s approval. I rushed into friendships, and I made mistakes—I was like a starving kid who broke into a grocers and ate until I threw up.”

Hayakawa’s brows furrowed.

“Are you going somewhere with this?”

“Right, so that brings us to you. When I first approached you, it was because Yue forced me to—a long story, but I think you can guess the gist of it. I never imagined that you’d take any interest in me—you were just so far above me. Eunae makes herself approachable, but it was like you were from another world entirely.

“Then you, Hayakawa, the beautiful, powerful scion of the next ruling clan of Yamato—a princess in your own right—told me, the homeless orphan starved for validation, that I mattered. That I was important. It was like a drug, and I was instantly addicted. If Yue hadn’t been there, I might have done anything for more of that feeling, and once she was gone, not even Eunae’s coaching could stop me from throwing myself at your feet.”

Jia took another deep breath to steady herself. Her hands were trembling, and Eui gave her another encouraging squeeze.

“If you had given me an oathstone—a real one—I really would have sworn eternal fealty to you, right then and there. I would have let you take advantage of me, my desperation, my craving for validation. I did let you take advantage of me. Our relationship started in the worst way possible, and for that, I apologize.

“That changes today, Hayakawa. I’m going to make myself, and my intentions completely clear. I have no intention of ever becoming your servant, your vassal, your retainer, or your political tool. I’m not a minion or subordinate to order around. I’m not another sycophant like Miyata, hovering behind you in the vain hope to make some of your power my own. I do not want to be your political ally, and under no circumstances will I ever surrender the awakening stone to your clan.”

Hayakawa’s face had twisted into a full-on grimace, and her fists were clenched tightly at her sides, but she still didn’t interrupt. Jia swallowed—her mouth felt dry, but she pushed on.

“What I offer, Hayakawa, is my friendship—as equals—and if you can’t or won’t reciprocate that, then I think it would be best for both of us to keep our distance.”