Aki flexed his muscles and felt at the new energy roiling within him. Dream Qi was very different from other types of Qi he had handled – it was more ethereal and versatile, but also limited in a way. He did expect to strike down foes with mighty blows of dream Qi, at least not anytime soon. Do our sect’s archives even have techniques for this stuff? It might be a bit of a pain to finds jade slips to study.

Still, he had no urgent need to find new techniques – he had just received a brand new one after all. He felt like a kid on Christmas, mind full of anticipation at his new gift. It wasn’t really a gift though; this was something he had earned and crafted for himself. Lucky opportunity or not.

Aki walked out of the cave he had been using for rest and surveyed the outside. The hidden realm seemed to have a sort of day-night cycle, as right now the world was enveloped in the unmistakable light of daybreak. Good timing, getting ready by morning is a fortuitous omen.

He wanted to test out his new skill, and for that, he would need targets. Aki turned his gaze back towards the direction he had arrived from, towards where he had met his sauna fiend disciple. I guess I could act as like a dao protector for that lad or something of the sort. I don’t think that spot of power is too hard to find, so conflict is probably inevitable. I hope he is still in control of the place.

Aki picked up his flight wand and set off. Having condensed a second Qi string, his speed was a lot faster than it used to be. It was a simple matter of Qi volume, he could put a lot more into the tool using two channels than he could using one. He made record time as he flew through the mountainous landscapes.

As he flew, Aki felt at the Qi around him. It somehow felt a lot... thinner than it had felt before. Aki first thought it might be because he had gotten used to the denser Qi in the dream realm, but he discarded that thought as a more obvious solution hit him – the realm was being drained. All the spots of power being used right now, the Qi for them did not come from nowhere. I wonder what this place will feel like at the very end of the trial. I guess there is a reason this place opens only every 500 years.

As Aki neared the location his disciple had been holding, he noted that the steam was not any thinner – if anything, it had grown in volume. Hopefully that means he’s been busy at work here. However, as Aki approached further, he saw disturbances in the steam. In the centre, it was not a uniform blanket like it had been before, but a tattered, worn thing. In spots the steam was as thick as it had been before, while in other places long swathes had been dispersed away. It resembled a torn garment of wool.

He stopped to observe the place, and soon saw a new tear be torn into the thick steam by a roaring blade of water – A fight was going on here. Aki suppressed his aura as much as he could and crept behind a boulder to observe. He soon saw the two fighters. One was a disciple of the Liquid Sword sect, a man with blazing eyes who held a surging river as a sword. He looked pretty fearsome.

Aki also saw the other fighter, his own disciple, and his expression quirked down in distaste. The man was... not wearing any clothes. He stood in the midst of a vortex of steam, constantly emanating more through his skin. Aki was generally not a man averse to nudity, but even he drew the line at indecent exposure in a trial like this. How did I not notice this before? I guess the steam veiled him well in our prior encounter. Still, he pushed his displeasure down, that matter could wait for later.

The fight seemed to be a bit of a stalemate – Aki’s disciple was constantly emitting more steam which he sent at his assailant, who then coolly dispersed it with his sword. However, the swordsman never managed to get close enough to strike before he was driven away by an overwhelming amount of steam. Aki smiled, this should be the perfect opportunity to test out his new technique. A distracted target was always a good target.

Aki focused his mind, held out his hand and called the weave from his foundation cloth. A rich mix of dream Qi and Karmic Qi swirled around in his hand, condensing, as he called forth his new technique.

“[Karmic Work-Life Balance]!”

A tool resembling a pocket watch appeared in his hand, formed entirely from the Qi. It had a watch face, but this tool was not meant for measuring time, no. This tool had a different purpose. The dial was divided into two halves, with a pointer positioned in the middle. One half was labelled “Work”, and the other was labelled “Life”.

Aki looked at the dial with a smile, satisfied that his technique was working as intended. He peaked out from behind the boulder to make sure that both men were still engaged in battle, and then sent out a karmic thread from the weave, attaching the tool to the Liquid Sword sect disciple.

The dial instantly thrummed to life, Qi roiling around it, as it began taking measure of the man. Aki focused his mind in concentration. The pointer started trembling and the tool heated up, until the tension was released, and the pointer swung decisively into the “work” section, almost to the very end of the measuring scale.

Aki clicked his tongue in distaste. “How typical. A complete neglect of leisure and rest for the sake of cultivation. I shouldn’t have expected anything else.”

Aki looked back at the man and began preparing the next part of the technique. So far, he had mainly made use of karmic Qi, but now it was time to put his new dream Qi into use. His target seemed to have noticed that something was wrong, as he was casting glances around, searching for something. Aki knew he needed to hurry – he wasn’t sure how well his technique would work against an enemy who was prepared for it.

He began forming the next weave and pointed the measuring tool at his target. “Your balance has been measured and found wanting. [Reclaim Sleep Debt]!”

A strong pulse of dream Qi travelled along the thread of karma to the man, and his eyes went wide as it entered his body. He tried to struggle, but then he was hit by a concentrated blast of steam. When the steam dispersed, it revealed a man prone on the ground, sleeping like a baby. Aki looked back at the dial, and it had now travelled some distance back to the “Life” side of the gauge. Excellent. With this, I can quell these workaholics a bit.

His disciple was looking at the collapsed assailant with wide eyes, so Aki chose to reveal himself. It would be a good opportunity to play at being a mysterious benefactor. He dismissed his technique and stepped out from behind the boulder. His apprentice’s gaze found him.

Aki gave the man his best mysterious smile and spoke up. “Greetings, we meet again.”

The disciple took up a wary, guarded pose. “You... you were the one who was here before me, right? Have you come back for a proper fight? I won’t go down as easily as that man did.”

Aki kept his eyes on the man’s face, careful to make sure his gaze did not wander downwards one bit. “Worry not, the fortuitous omens have called me here, but our fate is not one of battle. The seven mysterious moons guide my path, so I must now leave.”

Aki was pretty happy with that mysterious monologue and turned to leave. He hoped to walk away calmly without another word, but to his annoyance, the disciple just could not stay quiet.

“Fair Lady, may I at least know your name?”

It took Aki a moment to remember that he was still in a rather feminine form. He initially got annoyed at the question, but then realised it would be a good opportunity to play up his mysterious persona. He turned his head back for one last look, and gave another mysterious smile which seemed to hint at the great secrets of fate. “You may call me... Mysterio.”

He turned his face back and continued his calm walk away. He had often seen mysterious people slowly walking away in the anime he had used to watch, and he had always liked those scenes – they had a certain charm to them. Aki however found that the reality of the situation was a bit different. First of all, it was slow, so he just felt his disciple’s eyes running along his back the whole time. It was very uncomfortable. Second, there were no good spots for him to walk behind, from which he could vanish away. He had to continue his slow walk for quite a while.

Thankfully, he eventually managed to tuck behind a bend, and as soon as he felt he was free of his disciple’s piercing gaze, he bolted. He made sure that no one was following him and sped along the mountain scape, deep in thought.

Despite how awkwardly the situation had ended, Aki was happy with the results he had seen. His technique had proved useful, though he doubted it would work quite as well in every situation. His opponent had been distracted by another fight, unaware of his attack and starting to run low on Qi – a very fortunate combination. He was not sure he could ensure a similar situation for his next fight.

I think I need to test this out more in different situations. There are probably countermeasures for it, but I can’t plan around those countermeasures if I don’t know them. His decision made, Aki set off on the prowl. His plan was to look for good opportunities, strike out with his technique, observe what happened, then escape at top speed.

It took a bit of searching, but he did manage to find some fights to interfere in. He didn’t manage to find Thousand Lakes disciples every time, so he struggled a bit as he had to choose which side to support in the fights. He decided to follow three principles for his interference. First, he would always help out Thousand Lakes disciples – that was not something that even needed debating. He decided to put second priority on Liquid Sword sect disciples, as he felt Keen Blade might appreciate it. His last rule was to always help fight against Slime sect disciples – they just annoyed him.

He really did not care about other situations, so he just chose at random in other cases. His search for targets proved pretty successful: He attacked pairs of people fighting, lone people guarding their spots of power and even interfered in a brawl of at least four disciples – Aki was pretty sure a fifth was sniping at them from afar.

He would arrive, stake out the situation, use his technique, then run. If the situation allowed for it, he would give a mysterious smile and say some meaningless poetic platitudes before dashing away. He no longer tried the walk-away-slowly thing, it really hadn’t been as cool as he had hoped.

Many disciples would later end up telling tales of the mysterious beauty who would arrive just in the nick of time to save them, and many theories would later be put forth as to her motivations. Aki managed to stir the pot quite a bit with the mysterious words he always said before leaving. Many of the disciples were left wandering about their benefactor as they meditated in their spots of power.

Aki was not without results himself – he managed to find out quite a lot. First: his technique could be resisted with appropriate mental shields. Those techniques however took a good moment to set up and could be overpowered if the attacking volume of Qi was large enough compared to the shield.

Second, his technique was greatly affected by the Qi difference between the target and Aki. Those with only one Qi string fell to his technique often, while those with two proved to be bigger challenges. He had to strike at the right moment, hopefully with the help of a distraction. His technique was hardly infallible. Still, Aki was quite thrilled with the feeling of actually holding his own in fights. Sure, his current definition of holding his own was ambushing unaware opponents with sneak attacks, but it was better than nothing, right?

Aki wasn’t too surprised that the dial on his technique always went hard to the “Work” side, he was pretty curious about what would happen if he found someone with more balance. I wonder where I could find such a person, surely all cultivators can’t be this single minded?

He spent two day-night cycles at his pursuits, and was almost preparing to head out for a rest when he sensed a nearby spot of power. This one felt like water Qi, which roused Aki’s greed. Could he perhaps... condense two Qi strings during this trial? He had not interfered with the other spots as they didn’t fit his cultivation, but he did have an incomplete pool of water Qi.

The prospect was appetizing, so he set out. As he followed the trail of Qi, he found that the spot was not unoccupied. In fact, there seemed to be a fight going on. Techniques were being flung all about, gouts of slime and water.

Aki crept over a hill for a closer look and was a bit dismayed to recognize one of the fighters. Little Hawk, Passionate Seeker’s student who was still in the first realm of cultivation, was somehow managing to hold his own against two slime sect cultivators, who were both in the second realm. Aki’s eyes were wide as he surveyed the scene. How on earth is that kid managing that? Is he genuinely some sort of main character sort, favoured by the heavens? Does he have some sort of cheat item?

Aki felt a bit of greed at the thought, but he knew that trying to take away such objects would inevitably lead to disaster – he would not tempt the fates so. Still, despite the impressive display, Aki could see that the first realm disciple was not going to win this. He was managing to direct the enemy attacks away and dodge them, but he wasn’t dealing any damage of his own. It was an endurance battle, and a first realm had absolutely no chance in one those.

Aki knew he needed to intervene, but this situation seemed a tad challenging. Handling two cultivators who were working together was a risky affair, and he was not sure how well his technique would work here – the auras of his targets were not meagre.

Still, he could not abandon his disciple here – he was a sect leader. Aki started preparing his weave for an attack.

A sect leader did not abandon his young masters.