“See the problem here I need to falsify is, where I come from, humans have this inherent sense of fairness. They see being fair as the normal way of doing things, does that mix well with your current understanding of the world?” Jessica asked her reflection in the dark underground tunnel.

She’d been at it for an hour. Talking things over to herself. Things she wanted answered honestly. Like if this world was predicated on power over all other things. Many times as an accountant she’d been given an excel spreadsheet that looked horrendous and the guidance would be to fix it. And she, the sole heir to a mathematical equation that broke under her corrections, with each edit getting closer to a fixed product.

She did. She fixed it well. But it cost her a little piece of her soul each time, a part of her that she felt wouldn’t come back. But it did, after the quarterly rush. It’s one of the reasons that she spent so much time working through her issues with a rational bent to the why behind the process.

It was the process that she was going to turn to the sect now.

The Sect implicitly saw her as some figure from myth. An isekai-ed hero. Come to save them all and return justice to those that had wronged them. Jessica groaned. At least they had given her private chambers to contemplate her next steps.

In her hands, her path manual showed her the steps she needed to take in order to reforge her body, to break through to the fifth realm. An-Yong had explained earlier that Initiates- the outer sect- were usually in the first realm through third. Upon turning over to the fourth realm, they joined the ranks of the Junior disciples. Elders and Senior Disciples were about the fifth realm and up, and there were twelve realms.

The core that had been passed over to her made her a fourth realm to start, she had also been told, greater than any cultivator in the sect. Greater than patriarch Min.

An-Yong had shown her where and how to change her body, but she still wanted some time to sit. Alone. A woman needed to process things. And without her usual coterie of rationalist friends, she couldn’t start with experiments. She would have to experiment herself.

Her hair was now more and more white with streaks of black and blue. It wasn’t quite what she’d wanted. It worked, though. She doubted that she would be going on any dates anytime soon. The dao probably wouldn’t allow it. Apparently that was the code by which cultivators did their courtship and to hear them tell it, Jessica would probably rather be stuck in a regency romance.

It was no matter.

Jessica had heard for years about women who had it all. She didn’t. She’d long ago decided that children weren’t for her. They were cute. But, Jessica would rather spend her time snowboarding or hiking, and she didn’t think that she could nail parenting.

And yet here she was, mother to about two hundred souls.

Cycling, she drew in the cold qi around her. She’d been given the choice of a mixed cold and ice path, a cold path, an ice path or to pick something else. Around the school, stone and wood were strong auras. The only other strong qi around was hunger qi. Long winters here- Jessica had yet to see a map- led to hibernation and hungry predators. The land hungered for the four months of summer each year.

In those months, the land blossomed.

Jessica hoped that she could get a snowboard out here. She could probably get one made.

The qi moved around her body in a circular pattern as she stretched her core. She synced her breathing up with the movement of the qi.

Inhale, cold qi.

Exhale, dreams of an apres ski.

Inhale, ice qi.

Exhale, hot chocolate.

Come to think of it, she could probably set up her own lodge. No, she concentrated again.

Inhale, cold qi.

Exhale.

For three hours, Jessica cycled her qi moving it around according to the path manual. The hypothesis she most wanted to test was…

She felt the power well up in her, as she drew close to… well it felt like the water was at the top of the glass.

But when water froze..it expands.

Concentrating on using her qi, she visualized it expanding into her core and expanding.

A rush of power overtook her and she felt it. Her core got denser, more compact at the same time, expanding itself, and then she sucked in cold qi. The air around her warmed up visibly as she started to sweat.

The air wanted to reach…which was it. Was homeostasis zero degrees kelvin? No movement? Or did the air want to reach some other set point, in the absence of cold?

The air wanted to reach freezing, it complied and then continued upwards until it reached her body temperature. Around her, it was immediately spring as she pushed her core, cycling all of the cold.

And then it pushed the other way- towards absolute zero.

Jessica's eyes flashed open. Two blue pools saw the pathway she had created.

She poured qi into a technique, aiming it at a rock in front of her. One warm unassuming rock. She could see with her newly reforged eye that it was about room temperature. She made it drop and rather than the warm cool look, it was now hot blue.

Make it zero, she asked, and her core responded. It had no concept of kelvin. But it knew how to stop something.

Make it stop.

Had the rock been moving, it would have stopped short. Instead, the poor rock was covered in cold, a cone extending upwards to the tunnel. Her new spiritual vision told her that nothing around was remotely as cold as the rock.

Qi poured out of her into her technique as she released it.

Instantly the rock shattered, as if struck by a hammer.

Her core was dry, and she was elated.

“I can see why cultivators get addicted to this,” she said.

Jessica considered the Dartmouth Conference on Artificial Intelligence in 1956, a seminal example in the rationalist community. It had seriously been suggested back then that a team of ten dedicated scientists could make massive progress across the broad domains of computers, understand language, machine learning, and improvement. In all seriousness they thought it would take two months. Real progress had taken more than thirty years.

She considered this as, reading ahead in her path manual, it stopped at one point saying that further advancement would make one functionally immortal. She at least now had the time on her hands to unravel the mysteries of this area, assuming no one tried to have her assassinated and they were of a higher realm.

She’d always dreamed of what she would do if she were immortal. Perhaps she would take up some hobbies, and certainly she’d do more with her gaming groups. She could fly to the stars, once faster than light travel had been figured out.

But now?

Facing down the potential?

She could do with an adventure. But it would be on her terms.

Her newly formed body had many advantages. Her favorite was how easy her steps were. Light as a feather. The feeling that she could jump hard enough to easily touch the overhead ceiling, and would probably jump much farther if it hadn’t been there. Everything was in focus. A lifetime she’d spent blind to her newly found spiritual sense and she couldn’t get enough.

It was jumping around using her new legs that Grace found her.

“Elder,” She said, with a curt bow, “I see that you’ve found your way to progress to the fifth realm.”

Jessica hadn’t felt the glancing touch of another's spiritual sense. Perhaps there was some other way.

“You’re not shielding your core.”

“Would you explain how to do that, Junior Disciple? I am at a loss, having not grown up with these… traditions.”

Grace ever so slightly smiled just the tiniest bit.

“When a cultivator wants to hide their… talents, they envelop their core so as to not be sensed. Of course this one would be honored to show you how it is done.”

Grace knelt, putting both hands on her knees.A brief moment of confusion followed and Jessica assumed the same kneeling position across from her. Grace cycled. Without reaching out, Jessica could feel the cycling. It was strong, like being pushed by a heavy wind unexpectedly.

Then, nothing.

“Elder, this one still cycles.”

Jessica no longer felt the junior disciples core without reaching out. Even when she stretched her perception farther, she felt nothing. Then, a curtain came up. Grace's core shone once more.

“This one spent many attempts to get it right the first time, but the imagery given was… doors closing… power inside content to stay…” Grace strained as the curtain fell again.

With one large exhale the curtain came up and Grace was no longer cycling.

“The Sect does have a small remnant of elixirs and pills that help refill ones qi,” Grace said, standing, “It is part of the duties of the Elders to see that these training aids are given out fairly among the most gifted and promising students.”

“Thank you Junior Disciple,” Jessica said, “We will have to take an accounting of those as well.”

“Traditionally a few are given to new students upon their arrival to see if they can use those well.”

Jessica stood, began to walk and motioned for Grace to follow.

“Now, tell me about the refugees. I understand that some have lost their homes?” Jessica said.

“Some have no place to return to, Elder that is correct… and…”

Grace trailed off. Jessica stopped to watch her.

“And?”

“Some of the refugees have requested an audience, and a few request to be given a chance to join the sect. It is something that only an Elder, usually in council of other Elders, can permit.”

“And as I am now the only Elder, I hold the key. Come on, let’s not keep them waiting then.”