Oi, ya fool. I brew me own alcohol, so’s I ain’t got no drinking problem—it’s part o’ me hobby! Watcha gotta say ‘bout dat, lightweight?

~Goibniu, The God of the Forge and Brew

“Let’s get started,” She refused to give him a chance to respond. “Today, we are going to discuss the other Chakras and how the meridians associated with them will help you. First, remove your shirt and stand in a relaxed position stance. I’m going to touch various points and roughly trace out the meridians. Relax, I promise I won’t do anything inappropriate.”

“That was your promise,” Crow said very seriously, and Song Xue snorted.

“Idiot.”

With no hesitation, he removed his shirt. Initially, before all the training and acupuncture, he had reservations, but now it felt natural. Sparring without it was easier. Most Druids practiced their martial skills with sleeveless tunics, so having his arms free was almost a given.

“Here, here, here… are the locations of all chakras,” She was behind him and touched seven places from the tailbone to the top of his head, all of which went up the center of his body. “This point is the Sacral Chakra I mentioned before, and—” She reached her hand around his waist. Her cool, slender fingers touched a spot below his navel and above his pubic region. The abdominal muscles betrayed him as they rippled at her touch. “—is where the Sacral Chakra will form. We associate it with the element of water and will strengthen your life force, passion, and creativity. It will also improve your kidneys, urinary system, your… thing’s performance.”

He was glad he was in front of her because he could feel his face burning. He coughed a few times before asking. “What—err—does strengthening those things do?”

“Most notably, it improves resistance to toxins and poisons. Secondarily it helps preserve your life force. Gives you more endurance during interco—copulat—uh, doing that,” Song Xue stumbled over her words, and Crow was sure she was as flushed as he was. “Another benefit is it gives you some control over your blood which is a form of liquid or water. Watch.”

Song Xue moved to his side and sliced the upper part of her arm. Blood welled up in the cut, but it never spilled over. It almost acted like a seal, and not long after, the wound scabbed over.

“How?”

“Body refining, dumb-dumb. Opening your Sacral Chakra can help you slow your blood flow, but it won’t give you this kind of control. Only after you open your Heart Chakra, the fourth one, can you force your blood to coagulate. Before that, though, you will need to open the third chakra, which is right here, and its common name is the Solar Plexus Chakra.” Song Xue pressed against his abdomen’s soft spot right below his ribs and on his back about midway up his spine. “This chakra might be the most important for someone in your condition because it’s related to the fire attribute. Physical benefits are related to strengthening your stomach, liver, pancreas, bowels, and it’s rumored it improves sight too. Mentally you’ll improve willpower, ambition, and courage. The method we use mirror each other except for this one chakra. Women are filled with Yin and men Yang, or ice and fire if you prefer. The meridians I’ll use will differ from you because they will augment the ice attribute, whereas yours augments fire. So I can only give you the academic knowledge related to it.”

Crow knew about the fire and ice thing, and it was discussed pretty heavily with Song Lin. The one thing the vestige they gave him didn’t mention was the sight aspect. It intrigued him because he lined up with his drugged haze enlightenment.

“You mentioned sight—is that physical or metaphysical sight?” The question served another purpose, and that was to distract him from Song Xue’s close and extremely intimate contact. It was getting harder and harder to control his breathing and stay focused. Even now, he could feel her soft curves pressing up against his back. Willpower was something he had in abundance, but even he could feel it crumbling in this situation.

“It is only a rumor, so I’m not sure. If I were to guess, since we are body cultivators, it’s physical sight. For all I know, it could be both. This one,” she said, raising her hand and touching the center of his chest between the developing pectoral muscles. “Is the Heart Chakra, but it also strengthens your lungs, arms, hands, and thymus gland. This chakra is of the air element and related to your sense of touch. It is strongly connected to empathy, compassion, trust, forgiveness, and love. And it is where we will stop today.”

Crow turned his head to glance down at this exquisite petite beauty. She had her long black hair tied up behind her head, exposing her slender, pale neck and flawless skin. Her thin, white robe did nothing to hide the shape of her shapely, slim body.

“Why are we stopping?” He asked curiously.

“The Heart Chakra is also known as the Anahata, which unifies the lower realms with the upper realm. Opening the fifth chakra is not even something I’ve done, nor do I understand. If the Heart Chakra is the door between the mortal and divine aspects of our existence, then I haven’t even figured out where the handle is, much less how to open it.”

“Is the difference because of ether?”

“Maybe. Your Qi will transform into a gaseous form which we often call ether. Ether is much more potent than Qi, maybe by ten times as powerful. Your body, mind, and soul will all experience transcendence. Those that open their Throat Chakra—the fifth chakra—can transform reality by turning illusion into reality and reality into illusion. In theory, it should work, but the reality is that it requires a lot of mental focus and an abnormally strong soul.”

“What is its related sense?” The more he went down this path, he realized something important. Outwardly, the Druid and Martial methods appeared to be opposites because of how they used energy. One focused almost entirely internal while the other focused externally. He could argue that Scarification was also external augmentation. However, he realized if he traced the methods back far enough, cultivation appeared to have a single origin.

“You want to hear something strange?” Song Xue asked, breaking his line of thought. “The Throat Chakra focuses on hearing.”

“Ahh, that makes sense.”

Song Xue laughed at his response. “It makes sense? Why would you say that? It makes no sense at all.”

“It does to me,” he replied, not backing down. Turns out his little wolf didn’t know everything.

“Oh, if you explain it in a way that makes sense to me, I’ll…” Song Xue thought for a moment about what she could offer.

“Do one thing I say, no questions asked.” Crow smiled at her, daring her to back off. Her eyes narrowed in return. She really watched him like prey, afraid he would slip away. It startled her when she first realized it, but she wasn’t about to stop now.

“Fine, I agree to those terms. If you can’t explain it properly, then you have to do one thing I say, no questions asked.”

“Agreed,” He smiled and explained. “It makes sense because in the realm where you don’t dare trust reality or illusion, you’ll need to eliminate your eyes—I mean, you close them. None of your crazy knife stuff—”

“Crazy? Crazy your ass. Call me crazy again, and I will take one of your eyes. Hmpf.”

“Anyway, if your eyes are the viewpoint of reality, and you can’t trust them, then what should you do?” Crow saw her eyes widen. “That’s right, you close them and rely on your other senses, like hearing.”

Song Xue sighed. She was smart and knew that his comment was a cleverly couched insight. Studying chakras and their benefits, she gave little thought to the senses they augmented. Crow nudged her thought process, and she gained immensely from what he just said.

“You win. What is it you want me to do?”

“I’ll let you know in the future,” he laughed, and her face scrunched in anger.

“You big meanie! That promise has a time limit of thirty days. I will not be beholden to you, nor will I wait on your demand.” She kicked his leg before she started giggling.

“Dammit!” Crow cursed, hopping on one leg. “Why would you use your Qi? That’s evil. Don’t worry, I’ll get my revenge, my sweet little Faelan.”

“You deserved—did you just call me your Faelan?” She smiled brightly, and he could see bright sparkles in her eyes.

“Why are you so crazy?” Crow yelled and ran away but barely made it inside the lodge before running into Otto.

“Come. Stranger see.”

Crow took a second to comprehend those words.

“Someone is here to see me?”

“Yes. What said.”

The two of them exited the building, and Otto took him towards Gavin’s private lodge. Crow had never been here before, but based on its placement, he suspected that this was the main entrance into the False Dawn Workshop. The number of formations around the place was astounding, and those were only the ones that Crow could sense.

Otto stopped at the door, refusing to enter the lodge.

Upon entering the private courtyard, Crow spotted the hooded man. He wore a sleeveless tunic, exposing his thick, weather-tanned arms and the curling of tattoos as they extended down his biceps on either side. Without knowing why Crow realized he’d been expecting this stranger. That was confusing because he didn’t know the person was coming, and yet he’d been expecting him to show up. Logically, that made no sense at all. Gavin must have misinterpreted Crow’s facial expressions.

“Crow, this man has asked to speak with you.” Gavin was usually unguarded, but now there was caution in his voice. Crow assumed it was a warning that this man was powerful.

“I understand, elder. I’ve… been expecting him.” Crow’s confusion slipped away the moment he admitted it out loud. He walked forward to greet the man. “You’ve got a request. Come speak it.”

The hooded man tensed up, but it happened so fast that Crow might have missed it if he didn’t have his Druid bloodline. What he hadn’t expected was the man pushed back his hood and revealed his face. There was no way Gavin or Crow could have anticipated the face under the hood was one they both easily recognized. The face that stared back was the same one worn by one of the statues in the Plaza of the Gods.