Nine days.

Mitch couldn't quite wrap his head around it. He should have died of dehydration. He should have had to answer the call of nature. He should have been unbearably hungry. He should have been a lot of things, but the only thing he knew for sure that he was, was scared.

First, he is spewing the kind of mist that killed people out of his skin, and now he loses nine days to meditation. Forget just having nine days vanish, which is scary enough as it is, what if that time was the difference between him being able to survive or not?

He may not have much to live for anymore, but he still didn't want to die.

Where did that thought come from?

He had as much to live for as ever. What he needed now was information. It was possible that there was more information out there to be found from books, but he had already eliminated most of what he had been able to find. Also, there were less than a handful of months left until the Tolling, and he didn't have time to sort through all of that garbage at the expense of the few things he knew would have an effect on his survivability.

There was only one person he knew who had any direct, as far as Mitch could tell, knowledge of this stuff.

It was time to see the acupuncturist.

He really needs to ask the man's name this time.

***

He had been watching the boy for a while now, checking in a couple of times a day. Soulwalking so much in this low-energy environment was exhausting, but it had been worth it.

He had been shocked to see the boy enter stasis, and more shocked each day that state had endured. Three days was a period of enlightenment. Three cycles of enlightenment was a common event at higher levels, but nearly unheard of on a plane of this level. Even on a planet where the energies were at full strength, this would be rare.

The boy's methods were incredibly dangerous; but, it seemed they were useful. He wasn't able to observe what was happening to the boy internally, but he had noticed some effects associated with progress in the cultivation of the energies. His soulwalker had been, slightly, repelled by the boy's aura; the boy had shown increased, and improved blood flow, some of his scars had begun to fade, and he doubted the boy had noticed, but some of his few grey hairs had started to grow back in black.

Suddenly an aura permeates the room as someone enters the front door. If he hadn't already been familiar to some degree with the changes to the boy's aura, he probably would not have recognized it.

He set down his notebook and stepped out into the greeting area.

***

Mitch stepped into the acupuncturist's shop and barely a moment later the old man stepped out. It was kind of eerie how he did that without a bell or cameras to tell him someone was there.

"Back again." The acupuncturist says.

"Yes," Mitch says. "I'm hoping you can tell me if I've made any progress."

"Very well," says the old man. "Step back into the treatment room, and I be there soon."

"You can't just tell?" Mitch asks.

"No."

Shit. Mitch had really been hoping to avoid the needles this time, but it seemed there was no avoiding it. He started to walk back to the room when he turned back to the old man and asked, "By the way, I'm Mitch Conner, what's your name?"

The old man looks at him inscrutably for a moment before saying, "You may call me 看守."

"Can-show?" says Mitch.

"Kanshou," the old man repeats slowly, emphasizing the soft "a" and the "o" and "u" as distinct but connected sounds.

"Kahnshow," Mitch says again.

"Close enough, go to the treatment room." Without giving Mitch a chance to respond Kanshou heads back into the back room opposite the main door.

A bit disconcerted Mitch heads into the treatment room; Kanshou had always been curt but had never left him unaccompanied. He took off his shirt he lays back on the table, puts his hands behind his head, and waits for Kanshou to show.

***

He looked at the box in his hands. He hadn't expected to need these anytime soon, but after feeling the boy's, Mitch's, energy in his true body rather than through the dim senses of his soulwalker he thought should bring them out.

Truth be told, they were still overkill, by a large margin, but he wanted a clear picture of what was going on and what was bringing about such drastic changes in the boy.

He opened the box and looked at the needles within. Each was a hair-thin electrum wire with a tiny fingerhold made of common jade on top. They were no treasure, but they were somewhat valuable and currently extremely scarce. This was the only properly made set of basic acupuncture needles on the planet. He knew because he had destroyed all the others.

These would give him the most precise possible picture of what was happening in Mitch's channels.

***

Kanshou came back into the room carrying a wooden box Mitch had never seen before. He placed it on the small stand where he usually put his needles.

"New needles?" Mitch was stressed, nine days lost, nine days closer to doom: any change from the guy he was hoping could give him, if not answers then at least a hint toward the right direction, did not sit well with him.

Kanshou harrumphs. "No, these are old needles. Be silent." Mitch opened his mouth to say something else and got a very unamused look from Kanshou. He shut his mouth.

Kanshou brought out the first needle and it did look old. Very old in fact. The needle itself was some kind of silvery metal that seemed to glint green at times and the handle was what appeared to a translucent green stone, probably jade if he had to guess. They didn't look dirty or anything like what he had feared when he heard "old needles", but there was a kind of patina on the handles that screamed antiquity.

"These are older, there may be more sensation than with the new needles."

"Umm, what does that-"

Kanshou did not wait for Mitch to finish his sentence and jabbed the first needle into his stomach just above his belly button. Previously the needles had been painless, but this one was like getting stung by a yellow jacket with an inch long stinger.

Mitch grunted and hissed through his teeth, his body tensing up. With effort, he kept himself still waiting for that stinging sensation to fade, but it didn't. He kept himself under control but broke into a cold sweat.

"You weren't kidding."

***

He had never seen anyone react to one of these needles like Mitch was. Mitch seemed to actually be in pain.

He touched the tip of his index finger to the jade on the base of the needle. The needle pulled an infinitesimal amount of energy from the channels and pumped it into the jade, where it was stored.

After a few seconds, there would be enough energy in the jade for him to absorb and evaluate to see what Mitch's channels looked like.

The amalgamation of energy that flowed into his finger should not have been possible. It was still. As calm as a moonless night. Energy this stable did not exist at this level. It was impossible; especially given the state Mitch's energies were in when he had come in for treatment last.

It was still composed of all seven aspectual energies and had not yet formed into qi, but somehow, despite everything he knew, Mitch's passageways completely lacked any turbulence.

"Impossible." Oops. He had said that out loud.