I glanced over at the sleeping form of Shi Lo lying beside me. Our time had been pleasurable, but it had also been awkward. We were both clearly nervous, although probably for very different reasons. Still, I felt fairly relaxed at the moment, and I was content to let my mind wander for a bit.

We were in the city, and my next step was obvious. I needed to find a path into the School of Earthly Fires, to see if the entire school set off my imbalance detector or not. The problem, as I saw it, was that the woman in the cursed’s camp had gotten an excellent look at me and would certainly recognize me if she saw me again. She might also recognize Jing, but that was less likely. My companion’s battle with the Chief had been some distance away, and in the flickering firelight of that night, the woman probably hadn’t seen Jing’s face clearly. She might recognize Jing’s clothing, though, so we needed to get her a new outfit.

I could change my appearance readily enough, of course…assuming I had the materials, which I didn’t. I didn’t think I needed hair dye – almost everyone I met had black hair like mine – but I could cut it and use makeup and putty to make my face appear different. Honestly, I probably didn’t even need the putty; a change of clothing, a new hairstyle, and some subtle makeup to make it look like the shape of my face was different would probably be sufficient. Here, I had no idea how to make any of that happen, though. Shi Lo might know, but then, she probably didn’t. I’d yet to see anyone in makeup in this world.

“There’s another issue, John,” Sara pointed out silently. “You used celestial qi against the woman. That’s rare enough that if she or anyone else in that school sees you using it, it will probably set off alarm bells.”

“Okay, I can change my face, but I have no clue how to change my qi. Do you?”

“I think so – but you won’t want to try it here. If it goes wrong…well, the landlady isn’t going to let you stick around after that, to say the least.”

I slipped as silently as I could from Shi Lo’s grasp and dressed quietly in the darkness. The paper door slid open and closed without too much noise as I made my way back downstairs. Guardian looked suspiciously at me as I stepped out into the entry hall, but he didn’t say a word as I stepped outside into the cool darkness of the night. I stopped outside the travel house and took a deep breath as I felt the moon’s light beaming down on me, as well as the distant light of the stars beyond. The dirt road here was lit by flickering, paper lanterns spaced out every thirty feet or so. They provided enough light to navigate by, but not enough to see clearly. Not that it mattered since I didn’t really know where I was going.

“Actually, that alley you were in earlier should work just fine, John. It’s dark and quiet enough that you shouldn’t be bothered. I can guide you there.”

It didn’t take long for us to make our way through the darkened city and into the alley where we’d fought the idiots from that Crimson Night place earlier. The fallen students were gone, of course, and it was too dark to see any signs of our earlier scuffle. It was also dark enough that the moon’s light didn’t reach there; I could only feel the wan stars far overhead.

I glanced up at them; was one of them Earth Sun? Was my former home out there, somewhere? Or was this an entirely separate universe? I didn’t know, and honestly, it didn’t matter. I was here, now, and I was supposed to be doing a job.

“Okay, so what do I need to do?” I asked Sara silently.

A moment later, she appeared before me, as she usually did when I was alone. “You may recall that when Wader-in-the-Morning-Waters first discovered that you’d unlocked your meridians, he remarked that you could draw in power from any of them, but that he wouldn’t let you.”

“Yeah, I recall that.”

“Well, it was true. All of your lesser meridians are open, which means you can draw in any type of qi. The problem is, your cultivation spiral is designed for celestial qi, not an earthly type. What that means is that you’ll need to create a second spiral, one that can purify earthly qi.”

She hesitated briefly. “John, the problem with this idea is that you can cycle earthly qi through your body all you want, but you can’t store it in your dantian. Or, to be clear, you can, but it’ll destroy the progress you’ve made toward advancing your celestial qi. Again, the matrix I showed you for that was designed with celestial qi in mind.”

“So, does that mean that I can’t learn any techniques that use those qi types?”

“No, but it does mean that you can only power them with the qi that you’re cycling in your body, which is a lot less than what you can store in your dantian. You’ll only have a limited amount of earthly qi, and it’ll run out quickly if you use it too much.”

I shrugged. “I can live with that. Again, once this is all done, I’ll be leaving this world anyway, right?”

“Yes, but Kuan Yang isn’t the only cultivation world in the Doorverse, John. The base you build here will carry over the next time you step into a similar world. If you let your cultivation get corrupted or broken here, then the next time you enter a cultivation world, you might be at a serious disadvantage.”

I hadn’t considered that. I’d been thinking of this cultivation stuff in the short-term. I’d been operating under the assumption that I needed to master it just enough to be able to get off this world and move forward, and nothing more. That was how I usually did my jobs; I learned just enough to get the job done. However, if she was right, then I’d need to start thinking about it a bit more long-term.

“Okay, so what do we do?”

“First, you might want to sit down and close your eyes. This is probably going to take a while…”

She was right. It took me most of the night to learn how to tap a single, new qi type. I chose wood wood, because I thought it would complement Jing’s sky and water – and because the wooden houses and crates surrounding me provided it in abundance. The problem was that my brain kept trying to draw qi in through my extraordinary meridians, but apparently, earthly ki didn’t travel that way. It could only be pulled in through my lesser meridians, although I could channel it through my extraordinary ones once it was in me just fine.

The spiral I’d created for the new qi type wasn’t as complex or multilayered as the one I’d made for my celestial qi, but it functioned and carried a decent amount of qi. Honestly, that was more important than how well it refined the qi since I wasn’t going to put any into my dantian anyway. It resembled a branching snowflake pattern that spiraled out in three dimensions, finally curling back into itself. It spun continuously in my center, forcing the heavier corruption to flow back out of me and be expelled into the air, leaving pristine wood qi behind.

Sara and I had only worked out two new techniques, and honestly, while they were nice, they weren’t all that special.

Technique: Skin of the Great Oak

Defensive Technique

Harden your skin with Wood qi, reducing all incoming damage.

Cost: 10 qi per second

Technique: Thorn’s Embrace

Offensive Technique

Cause spikes of wood qi to grow from any part of your body, inflicting extra damage with every attack

Cost: 5 qi per second

Sara assured me that she could create more techniques if we needed, but my stores of the new qi type were frankly fairly limited. I pulled up my status and grimaced at what I saw there.

Active Professions:

Inquisitor (Hidden)

Current XP: 45/100 Current Level: 1

Pugilist

Current XP: 900/1,600 Current Level: 4

Celestial Guardian

Current XP: 625/1,100 Current Level: 2

Mental Stats

Reason: 14 Intuition: 14 Perception: 16 Charm: 4

Physical Stats

Prowess: 15 Vigor: 13 Celerity: 15 Skill: 13

Special Stats

Qi Pool: 167/167 (+1.3/s x2) Qi Type: Celestial

Qi Pool: 22/52 (+0.5/s) Qi Type: Wood

Cultivation Rank: Metal

Skills:

Unarmed Combat (Adept 5) Weapon Focus (Unarmed, Initiate 5)

Qi Absorption (Adept 2) Qi Cycling (Adept 2)

Abilities:

Sense Imbalance, Omnilingual, Deep Strike, Leathern Hide

techniques:

Flesh of the Stars, Lightness of Being, Moonlight on the Water, Sun’s Scorching Ray, Skin of the Great Oak, Thorn’s Embrace

My qi reserves for wood were less than a third what my celestial qi was, since all I had was what I could store in my spiral. Even worse, my wood qi recharged at a much slower rate, something like a fifth of what my celestial qi did, meaning once I used it, I’d have to wait a lot longer to use it again.

At the same time, that was kind of a good thing. After all, if it looked like I only had wood qi, and not much of it, people would assume I was weaker than I actually was. I was okay with that; being underestimated was always a boon in my previous line of work. I assumed the same would apply here.

Learning how to use and cycle my new qi type freed my mind to think of something equally as important. If I was going to operate in this city, I needed a cover ID. That wasn’t as simple as creating a name; I needed a backstory. I had to have a few memories to share with people, a family to mention in passing, and a reason that I’d left where I was from and came to this city. That story had to include how I met Jing and Shi Lo, as well.

I’d decided to keep the Xu part of Xu Xing for my name. It sounded like a name I’d hear in the city, and it probably wasn’t an uncommon one. I’d considered adopting a fancy name like Wim and Dif had, but after listening to the students arguing in the alley earlier that day, I’d decided that only cultivators of a certain level of mastery took those sorts of names. I didn’t want to try and pretend to be an expert cultivator, because I simply didn’t have the knowledge base for it. That meant taking a simple name, and Xu fit that bill admirably. Plus, it would be easier for Jing to remember it. I was guessing that deception wouldn’t come easily to her, so the simpler I made things, the better.

The best cover stories are ones that don’t attract too much attention. Assassins don’t pretend to be millionaires or barons, no matter what the movies might suggest, because everyone watches those sorts of people. No one watches the guy painting the staircase or the one replacing a toilet. So, I didn’t want to be the son of a noble from a distant land, seeking his fortune out from his brothers’ shadows. I also didn’t want to be a farmer who happened to learn martial arts, the way Jing was, because that was a story people might want to hear. I wanted to be the guy whose background made people turn away in boredom.

Fortunately, I thought I had it down. There was one good way to test it, though, and that was on my two companions.

As the night began to flee and the moon started descending toward the western horizon, I made my way back toward the travel house. As I stepped out onto the main boulevard, though, the sun cleared the distant horizon…and I froze in awe, staring at the crystal spires towering above me. The morning sunlight streamed into the spires, lighting them from within, and I felt more than heard a definite hum pouring out of the massive towers. It sounded like a huge swarm of bees, getting angrier and angrier as the humming rose in pitch and intensity, until it felt like the whole city was going to shake itself to pieces. And then, just as the pressure built to the point where I was sure it would explode, a wave of power blasted out from the crystals, slamming into me and pressing against my skin. There was no real force behind it, but the energy clawed at me insistently. I blinked and recoiled unthinkingly, but a moment later, the power faded into something tolerable as a pale, white globe formed over the tallest spire. The silvery sphere was huge, easily a couple hundred feet across, and as it hung there, I could feel its light pouring into me.

“It’s celestial qi, John!” Sara said excitedly. “Quick, try absorbing and cycling it!”

I opened myself up to the power falling upon me, and it surged into my meridians, filling them to overflowing. The power curled down into my spirals, and I was forced to expand them just to hold the extra flow. Qi coursed through my spiral and dove into my dantian, faster than I’d been expecting, and I scrambled to layer the energy in the correct patterns, pushing it down deeper and deeper into the center of my body. For a moment, I was utterly filled with celestial qi, and I felt omnipotent; with that much power, I could have slapped the woman at the quarry around with ease, could have fought a dragon by myself – assuming such a thing existed on this world.

The power faded, and the energy bathing me faded and died as the silver orb overhead vanished, dissipating into a wave of light that I could feel pass over me but couldn’t see. I took a deep, shuddering breath, realizing I’d been holding it the entire time without knowing. I stood quietly for a few moments, letting the feeling of power filling me descend into my dantian, packing it as tightly as possible as I did. When I finally had things back under control, I shook myself and continued my walk back to the travel house.

“Well, at least now we know why it’s called the City of Sunrise Moon.”

“That we do, John,” Sara laughed. “Also, you just channeled more power from that one burst than you’d have normally gotten in a day of normal absorption. You bumped your Qi Absorption and Qi Cycling skills up a rank just from that, and you’re about halfway to having your dantian’s new structure fully complete. A couple more mornings like that should do it.”

I entered the travel house and found Guardian still standing there, basically unmoved from yesterday. I wondered if he ever did move. He probably didn’t have to; I didn’t need to eat or sleep, and I was sure he didn’t, either. That meant that if he didn’t get bored or tired, he could probably stand there all day, every day. Of course, I was certain he did get bored – security always did, no matter how good they were – but I doubted that he would show many signs of it. That was the difference between good security and lousy security; the ability to hide your lack of interest in what was going on around you.

I walked past him into the house, and the scent of cooking meat and spices wafted into my nostrils. I wasn’t hungry, but that food smelled pretty good. I didn’t need to eat, anymore, but I wondered if I still could eat something if I wanted. I’d have to ask Jing. I slipped past the baths, noting that they seemed quiet this early in the morning, and made my way back to my room as quietly as possible.

When I slipped through the sliding door, I saw Shi Lo sitting in the center of the room, waiting for me. In the dim, morning light, her face was hooded, and her eyes looked overly bright. Her long, black hair fell down her shoulders, shrouding her face, and her shoulders were hunched and rounded.

“Master,” she said softly as I entered. “F-forgive me. I have displeased you, and…”

“What?” I said, honestly surprised. “Displeased me? How?”

“I woke to find that you had left, and I knew that I had not done my best for you.” She took a deep breath. “I promise to do better, and…”

“Okay, stop,” I cut her off firmly. “Shi Lo, I didn’t leave because I was unhappy. I left to go cultivate. It’s much easier for me to do outside, and I had a lot to think about.”

“To…to cultivate?” she said, her voice almost hopeful.

“Yes. I’ll probably leave to do that every night, to be honest. Last night was great, I promise.”

“I…thank you, master,” she said, taking a deep, shaking breath. “I had thought…that you…the baths…”

I snorted in amusement. “Shi Lo, even if I wanted something like that, I wouldn’t go to the baths for it. On…where I’m from, people do that sort of thing in private, not in front of other people.”

I walked over and sat beside her. “Did you eat anything?” I asked.

“No, master. The food will be served at first bell, as the matron of the house said yesterday.”

“Okay, I have no clue what that means, Shi Lo,” I sighed. “What are bells?”

“Forgive me, master. The bells are the way that time is kept in the City of the Sunrise Moon. The first bell sounds shortly after sunrise, and typically, the sixth bell denotes sunset. I thought that all cities measured time in such a way, or I would have explained it sooner.”

“So, how many bells are in a day? And are they actual bells?”

“Twelve, master, and yes, there will be…” The woman stopped with a smile as a clear chime rang in the air outside. “That is first bell. Do I have permission to break my fast?”

“Of course,” I waved at her. “Go eat. I’m going to check on Jing.”

I walked down the hallway and hesitated. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for entering someone else’s room on this world, I suddenly realized. Knocking on a paper door probably wasn’t a great idea. I could knock on the wooden frame, I supposed. Then again, the wall was only paper, which wasn’t particularly sound-resistant.

“Um…Jing?” I said hesitantly.

“You may enter, Xu Xing,” the woman’s voce said. I slid open the door and found that her room was basically identical to mine. Jing herself was sitting in the lotus position on one of the mattresses, her eyes closed, obviously meditating. I slid the door shut behind me, and she peeked open a single, disapproving eye to look at me.

“You should also be meditating. This is what my father taught us both to do each day, Xu Xing. Do not lose the habit because he is not watching.”

“I spent the whole night at it,” I shrugged, sitting on the other mattress. “Plus, I can’t do it as well in here. Not enough sunlight.”

“You cannot absorb qi efficiently within this house, it is true…but you can certainly cycle and refine it.”

“And you can keep filling your secondary qi spiral, especially with all the wood around you,” Sara added.

“Damn. I’m getting nagged from without and within.” Sara sent me an image of her sticking her tongue out at me, and I actually had to fight not to laugh, which Jing would not have appreciated. Still, I didn’t really have anything to do while Shi Lo ate, and I didn’t want to interrupt Jing just to chat, so I settled into position, closed my eyes, and began to pull in the wood qi that floated plentifully around us. It was a slow process compared to my celestial qi, but I kept at it for several minutes until Jing broke the silence between us.

“You say that you meditated last night,” she said casually – too casually, really.

“I did,” I agreed, opening my eyes and letting my grip on the wood qi around us slide free. “I left during the night and went out to meditate beneath the moon. I just got back a little while ago – I got to see the sunrise, in fact. It was pretty amazing.”

“I look forward to seeing it,” she agreed. She fell silent, and I waited for a bit before closing my eyes once more.

“And yet, I am certain that, from the sounds I heard from your room last night, you were not meditating,” Jing added a moment later.

Ah. So, that was what this was about.

“I went out after that,” I said easily, not bothering to open my eyes. “Shi Lo fell asleep, and I went outside to train.”

“Ah.” I waited to see if she’d say anything else, but she didn’t. I wasn’t interested in saying much more myself, for obvious reasons. It wasn’t exactly Jing’s business, and as far as I could tell, I hadn’t done anything that would be considered immoral or unethical in this world.

After a long, awkward silence, something scratched at the door. “Master? Practitioner?” Shi Lo’s soft voice spoke up.

“I am certain that you will now wish to return to your room, Xu Xing,” Jing suggested a bit archly.

“Actually, no,” I replied with a smile as I rose to my feet. “We all have things to do today. First, though, we need to find a place that’s more…” I looked around at the paper walls. “Private.”

Jing looked at me distastefully. “I owe you my life, Xu Xing, but not my honor. If you believe…”

“A place we can all talk without being overheard,” I cut her off, rolling my eyes. I reached my hand down toward her, and she eyed it mistrustfully for a long second before taking it and allowing me to pull her to her feet. “Now, come on, I have some things I need to tell you both – and some questions I think need to be answered, for all of our sakes.”