Aki was in the midst of an endless sea of shifting colours, which he watched with a wary eye. Honestly, he had rather been looking forward to having his pleasant nap, but evidently the whims of fate had other plans for him. The colours closest to him shifted continually between blue and grey, while the more far-off colours shifted with the full glory of the visible spectrum.

As he observed his surroundings, he noticed another curiosity about himself – he now bore his true form, with no traces of the disguise pills. Experimentally, Aki took a step forward, and found that he could walk around here. It did not feel or look like there was any physical ground below him, but somehow, he felt in his soul that he could walk if he wanted to – this was a realm of the mind. As he made the observation, the colours around him shifted with splotches of yellow. Are these colours reacting to me somehow?

He decided to experiment a bit. Aki imagined his greatest moment of rage, that moment when he had first been denied the hot wings of his desire. He could feel the anger bubbling deep within him, and saw the colours around him gradually intensify with tones of red. He quickly clamped down on the emotion, and his surroundings shifted back to the previous blueish-grey.

Alright, so this is definitely some sort of weird mental realm. I came here by trying some sort of cultivation thing while sleeping, so maybe its some sort of dream realm?

He took another careful look around, but could not spot any hiding mental demons or stray nightmares. Hopefully this realm is a benign one – I really don’t want to know what kinds of monsters my subconscious could conjure up.

At that thought, the colours around him began to shift to tones of the deepest black, and Aki quickly focused his thoughts on more wholesome. Oh shit, I should probably be careful with my thoughts here. Absolutely no musings on eldritch horrors. He quickly shifted to thinking happy thoughts – a nice relaxing sauna session, drinking some calming tea, going to bed after a long day of work – and his surroundings stabilised again.

Alright, I think that pretty much confirms it: This is some sort of dream realm. But if this is a dream, can I...

Aki carefully extended out his spiritual sense and felt at the Qi around him. It seemed to hold infinite colours and possibilities in it, but it also felt ethereal, difficult to hold onto. He grabbed hold of one strand and began drawing it inside his core. It worked. So I can cultivate here? Interesting.

He felt the strand be pulled inside, but it had no place there. His core currently held his karmic Qi string, and his growing pool of water Qi, which was still in the midst of his condensation phase. I originally thought I should try for water Qi as my second Qi string, but that might be more difficult than I thought in this trial.

Aki took another look at the realm around him – it was peaceful, and most important of all, empty. The Qi felt rich here, much richer than the world outside. He remembered how standing in the middle of the steaming point of power had felt, and he knew the point of power here had to be a lot more powerful. Do I have a golden opportunity here? A realm full of dream Qi, ripe for the taking?

He had heard of so many different types of Qi that the existence of dream Qi did not surprise him too much. Clearly, the creator of this hidden realm must have had some interest in it, as they had set up this dream realm for collecting it. What kinds of techniques could dream Qi be used for? Something powerful has to be possible.

Aki began to think on why this realm was so much more rich in Qi in the outside world and came to a realisation. In hindsight, considering what he knew of the world and cultivators, it was an obvious thing. The realm opened every 500 years, allowing cultivators to collect the power that had been gathering there for all the time. However, Aki knew that modern cultivators scorned sleep and viewed it as a waste. He doubted one could get into this realm by being knocked unconscious or anything like that – his relaxed intentions had been key in him gaining access here.

When was the last time someone actually took the time to sleep in this hidden realm? When was the last time somebody stepped in this dream-space? It had to have been a long time.

Aki had to laugh. Such a well of power had been gathering here for who-knows-how-long, and it had been right under the noses of the previous generations? He had never felt more grateful for his life habits. Clearly my philosophy on the importance of sleep is superior!

Aki again focused on his spiritual sense and began mapping out the flows of Qi he could feel. The masses were all gathering in a certain direction, and Aki needed no further prodding – he took off.

He licked his lips, tantalized by the potential wealth all around him. What a superb windfall! With something like this, I might be able to condense a dream Qi string in one go! I’ll instantly become the biggest winner of this trial!

The passage of time was strange here, and Aki was not sure how long he flew before he felt the spot of power within his spiritual sense. The dream QI was much thicker here, forming into images instead of the vague colours of the previous regions. The images shifted at the same pace as Aki’s thoughts, so he fought to keep them under control. Who knew what dangers messing with dream Qi could bring? He needed to be careful about this.

The spot of power was a swirling vortex of colour, which seemed to be pulling all the Qi in the realm around itself. The density of Qi was staggering – the place of power outside this realm could not compare at all. Just how long has this been gathering energy here? Have people really not slept here for over 2000 years? It has to have been at least that long if I compare the power here to that outside.

Aki carefully waded through the dense Qi, trying to maintain a grip on his thoughts. The imagery most prevalent around him were illusory money bills, floating around him in a swarm. Aki really could not get the imagery out of his mind, this felt like too much of a lottery win for that.

He managed to walk into the center of the vortex without incident and sat down into a meditation pose. He steadied his breathing and began reaching for the calm trance he felt when cultivating. It was difficult. The roar of the dense Qi around him was like a raging waterfall, and Aki had not practiced meditating under those too much.

Still, he persevered and tried to focus his mind, eventually managing to draw streams of Qi inside his core. Cultivating two different pools of Qi was not an impossibility, Aki had read about it in some jade slips, so he focused on trying to create a pool of dream Qi next to his pool of water Qi.

It was difficult.

The flow of Qi was choppy and inconsistent – he did not have the appropriate cultivation methods for this. In practice, he was using brute force methods here, forcing the Qi inside based purely on the enormous pressure it had. His cultivation methods for water Qi had a gentle touch to them, but this was just trying to divert a raging stream with his bare hands.

It still worked, there was just so much of the Qi after all, but it was very inefficient. Most of the dream QI was dissipating without getting into the pool he was condensing, but he still managed to get quite a bit in. Aki however was not satisfied.

This is too slow and too inefficient. I risk running out of time in this trial and wasting perfectly good Qi – not something I’m too keen on. I’ll need a proper method for this.

Aki began brainstorming for ways to craft his own dream Qi cultivation method and cursed his lack of preparation. He had not really studied other cultivation methods much, as he had thought it would be best to only focus on those he was actually using. I really should have done more research on that, it’s basic academics to study alternate paths – if only to get a better grasp of your own one through comparison.

Aki felt a hint of despair as his normal methods didn’t seem to work, but as he calmed his mind he realised that he might have an inkling of an idea after all – how had he gotten into this realm in the first place? This realm was clearly deeply reliant on dream Qi, and perhaps that held some clue on how to handle dream Qi.

Maybe its a mistake to think of dream Qi like water Qi, trying to divert a river is the wrong approach. I need to think in terms of dreams, and if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s sleeping.

Aki stopped trying to force the Qi condensation, and began trying to relax, to sleep. He was rather tired from the day, so it was not too difficult to for him to reach an appropriate state, that moment when you are not quite awake, but not quite asleep either. Aki felt the dream Qi around him become more tangible, less ethereal as he sank closer to sleep. He knew he was on the right track.

Next, it was just a matter of trying out different breathing techniques until something clicked – that had been the method he had used to get to this realm after all. He focused on calming breathing techniques, ones that wouldn’t disturb his sleep-like state.

Suddenly, the dense dream Qi began surging into his core, not like a raging torrent, but like a calm ethereal flow. Even flow was the wrong word, the sense of motion just was not there. One moment the dream Qi was around him, then the next it was inside his core. There was only the before and after state, he couldn’t feel the in-between.

The dream QI began condensing inside his core at a faster and faster pace. Aki was sure he could form the Qi string in one go. As the dream Qi continued gathering, Aki realised that there was more of it than he could use for just the Qi string. Could he use it for something else? Could he go further?

Aki fell deeper into the focus, and the dream Qi engulfed not only his core, but the rest of him too. As the dream Qi began solidifying into a Qi string, Aki suddenly felt his understanding of it expand. No, it was not only his understanding of dream Qi that was expanding, it was something more. Aki didn’t open his eyes, but he started to feel a pattern around him, one that he was tightly wound in – the pattern of creation itself.

Aki’s mind raced. Could this be... enlightenment?

As Aki had previously learned, there were two ways of creating new weaves. The first was to use existing ones as a base, combining and modifying them into a new form. That was the way he had created his [Tinder] and [PowerPoint] techniques.

That was the weaker way, the inferior way. It was a way to copy and modify, but not the way to create the originals, for that, one needed to gain enlightenment. The scritptures told of many different ways to attain enlightenment, the state when aligning with the pattern of creation would allow the purest forms of new weaves to be revealed.

As he got engulfed deeper into the dream Qi, Aki felt the pattern exploring his own foundation cloth, studying the weaves he had affixed to it and the Qi strings powering them. He suddenly understood with certainty – he would be able to create a new technique now, one that would be purely his. Something completely new.

He felt his mind fall into a trance. What was he to this world? What sorts of techniques would embody him? He felt his dream Qi at last condense into a string and attach to his foundation cloth, but his mind was elsewhere. What would his own technique look like?

He was currently a cultivator of karma and dreams, a potent combination. What could he do with those? He had many desires in this world: getting good food, good drink, maybe even some love. However, those were desires that related to him, things that he wanted for himself. They were under a different purview, not that of weaves.

Weaves were a way for cultivators to exert their will on the pattern of creation, moulding the world around them into their desired form. How did Aki want to change the world around him? It was in this that he found one of his strongest desires, one he felt resonated with this moment of enlightenment, one that he would use as the basis of his new technique.

When he had come to this world and seen its state, he had found that he did not like it. The world felt to him like it was not balanced – people were endlessly working, forgetting the reasons they pursued immortality in the first place. There was karma to that imbalance. He wanted to correct that imbalance, make people take care of themselves more. Make this a world where work was balanced with leisure.

He felt his ideas crystallizing into a new technique, one formed of dream Qi and karmic Qi. The technique seared itself into his foundation pattern, a blazing work of art. The others weaves affixed there didn’t compare, they were only pale imitations of the originals after all.

Aki fell out of his trance and felt the new technique thrum within him, along with his new dream Qi string. He now had two veins of Qi flowing within his foundation cloth, and he felt that his spiritual sense had strengthened considerably. It was his first time actually completing Qi condensation, so he spent a few minutes just revelling in the feeling of satisfaction – his body throbbed with more power than ever before.

Still, he could not stay here for too long, there was a trial going on after all. Aki again focused his mind, and this time he woke up for real, outside of the dream realm. He groggily stretched out his limbs and rose up.

He still felt tired, but he was too excited for rest. He had many disciples in this trial, and surely offering a bit of his help to them wouldn’t be too much. He grinned with anticipation.

It was time to go test out his new technique.