One week has passed since Jade started her training with Victoria and it had already born fruit. Jade didn’t know if it was because of her new skill or just that she was an actual cultivator now but her body developed substantially in a short amount of time. She hardly felt sore anymore after her workouts and If she did, the slow pulses of her core soothed her aching muscles and quickly restored them.

Right now, Jade was climbing one of the massive poles Victoria put up. She was supposed to run to them, climb up then down and run to the next one. Between running and obstacle courses she did weightlifting and other exercises to strengthen her core. All this showed in her increased [Body] and [Speed]. She gained 5 points in each over the past week and as far as she could tell it wasn’t slowing down.

Her theoretical work turned out quite a bit more challenging than she expected. Especially the basics of formation were a headache for her. The Math she did not mind too much but when it came to the vague principles of fengshui that seemed entirely made up to her she had a hard time. Why should it matter if that rune was near one or two stones?

The Lessons on alchemy she took to like a fish to water. Her previous knowledge was expanded quite a bit and she was praised by her teacher for her quick understanding of the more advanced process that went into alchemy. During that time, she also asked Gregory about the evolution of plants and beast.

It turned out that the current understanding of evolution for mana entities was still very limited. The common belief was that each entity that could gather mana would reach a threshold at some point were they could not gather more mana.

Once they reach that threshold, they seemed to convert the excess mana into what researchers called life energy. If enough Life energy was gathered it could use that energy to change its entire being into a stronger form that had more mana capacity.

Some mana beasts of particular strong bloodlines could cultivate in a similar manner to humans. They would go several stages of power before hitting their limit. For Humans this limit was yet to be found since even the strongest living cultivators of humanity had yet to reach that limit.

The emperor who was supposed to be a tier 8 cultivator was still continuing on his journey. Many people speculated that tier 10 would be the limit of humans but others believed that humans could also evolve once they reach that point. If historic records are to be believed the only person to have ever reach such height was the first emperor.

Her cultivation was going smoothly but not as fast as they first expected. Her origin core was incredible with mana purification and compression. Its small size on the other hand limited the amount of mana that could be absorbed at once. It turned out the cultivation path she created excelled at storing mana but did not help her absorb mana.

Other paths created secondary absorption points known as Meridians. Her Path created her nebulae but neither they nor her wood core absorbed any mana from outside. Only when she made a breakthrough or created another core could she absorb large amounts of mana. This did not mean she was slow compared to most other cultivators just not as fast as a prodigy with the growth concept should be.

During this time, she kept Duyi with her most of the time. The weight and heft of the staff a constant companion in her run’s, lectures and cultivation sessions. She could feel a faint connection to the weapon already and she could already tell a lot more then just vague ideas from it.

To be honest he was kind of endearing with his boasting and posturing.But most of all it was quite annoying. She still got the kind but unreliable uncle vibe from him. But Duyi saw her as some sort of nice or grand child to be coddled and dote on. Which manifested in strange behaviors from it.

Since she had made this connection, it could use a small part of her mana which it used to float around and make a nuisance of himself. He sometimes dashed in front of her to “protect” her from pets or most of all boys. She tried to give it stern talking to, but all she got was a feeling of boisterous laughter as a response.

This resulted in some strange awkward conversation with various men on her way to and from the campus. Frankly Jade was fed up with it and resolved to talk to her master about it. There must be away she could act out more control over it.

When it came to her cultivation session, she approached her master about it. With pleading eyes, she begged him: “Master is there no way I can control it. He is really embarrassing me all the time and I can not rely on it if I can’t control it.”

“As much as it is the wrong reason to want to master your weapon, I guess it doesn’t change the fact that you have created an initial bond with it. This means we can now go through the bonding ritual.”

“Thank you master. I can’t wait to teach this old codger a lesson or two.”

Namoru shook his head in disbelief and went on as if he did not hear that comment. Meanwhile Jade got a douse of indignation from Duyi. Which she silenced with an intense glare at the staff.

“I will prepare the formation. You should meditate and reach your ideal condition. A centered mind will create a stronger bond.” Namoru left to create the formation leaving Jade behind with a pouting Staff.

“First let’s get this straight Duyi. I am your wielder which means you need to listen to me. Second please stop pestering every boy I come across. I am old enough to judge people for myself. We need to work together to make this bond work. Please don’t act on your own.”

There was a begrudging response of affirmation from Duyi. Jade smiled: “Good now let’s get to meditating. And Duyi, I dare you to not turn into anything weird once we are truly bonded.” Jade got an image of Duyi patting his chest radiating the feeling that he was a noble and powerful weapon and that she had nothing to worry about. Jade sighed and started to regulate her breathing.

Some time later Jade was sitting in the lotus position in the middle of the bonding formation. Now that she had some time to study up on formations, she recognized a few of the runes that were used in this ritual. There was “Bond”, “Gather” and “Link” also several mana accumulation runes.

“Are you ready Jade?”

“Yes, I am ready. Start the process.”

“Very well. Good luck.”

Mana started to swirl from their surroundings and some seemed to be drawn from the ground. They were located in one of the academies Ritual rooms which were created for this purpose in mind. Additional artificial mana channels were also laid out into this rooms to shorten the accumulation phase of most rituals.

The Mana started to gather in the runes and slowly progressed through them all until finally reaching The “Bond” rune above which Jade sat with Duyi grabbed firmly in her hands. Jade’s mind was slowly pulled into a different space.

White in all directions. A vast space of nothingness spanned before Jade. The only thing inside was a middle-aged man and herself. The man wore old traditional dark blue Daoist robes that were opened loosely exposing a little of his chest. He was lying on the floor head rested on one of his hands yawning loudly. He had wild and loose hair that showed signs of greying.

Jade was looking at the man skeptically: “Duyi? Is that you?”

“Yes girl. Who else would it be in this space of our shared mind?” He summoned an apple out of nowhere and lazily bit into it. “Nothing much to see here really except what you conjure up with your mind. But I doubt that you can conjure up much yet with your pitiful strength.”

Jade ignored that last part focusing more on the shared mindspace thing.

“Are you saying this like a Dream? And I could create anything I want? That’s pretty cool, maybe I can make my own island.”

“No, Silly girl. It is mostly you mindspace, for now. Once we bond, I can add my own to yours. A mindspace is a representation of your mental realm. Once your mind stat increases your mindspace becomes bigger and more real. If you train enough, you can use your mindspace for many things. Mostly it is used by cultivators to think up new techniques. Since time passes much slower than on the outside it is an excellent space to make plans and reflect.”

“Then what is stopping me from making my own island?”

“You barely started cultivating, your Mind has yet to awaken enough for you to enact any significant influence on your mindspace. This is not important now. What is important is that we make our bond official. Now that we can talk, that is.”

“Okay, seems straight forward. Is there any document that I need to sign or are we just going to shake hands or what?”

“Pah! I am not one of those idiots who makes everything about words and contracts. What I want to create this bond with you is to see what I can become with you. What great things we can accomplish. If you fulfill my standards, I will bond with you. If not, I will just have another useless niece to take care of.”

Jade smiled and responded: “Uh huh, sure old man. Then what do I need to do to show you how worthy I am oh great powerful weapon of destiny.”

“Ha ha, very funny Jade. You don’t need to do anything. I will use my great and powerful destiny powers to peer into you Fate and determine what great and amazing things you will accomplish.” He winked at her and started to chant in a deep voice.

Jade’s Vision reeled and images started to flash by her so fast that she could make out not a single one. But she felt emotions. Happiness, fear, anger, grief and overall a stubborn determination to carry on. Was that her? She could not understand how these feelings could be hers.

Duyi started to bleed from his eyes and ears and collapsed on the ground. Jade was horrified and started to rush to Duyi until he started to laugh crazily.

“Ha ha, heavens you old bastards. This Duyi is coming for you! No one is prepared for what she is going to do. And I will be there, with her to the end.”

Being shocked and stupefied felt almost normal to Jade nowadays. Did he turn insane? “Old man what are you talking about? What heavens? Why are you spouting such strange stuff?”

Duyi seemed to only now remember that she was here and composed himself. He stood up and wiped the blood away. It disappeared without a trace. He bowed deeply to Jade.

“This humble Duyi Ogabu, first patriarch of the Ogabu clan, will be your faithful companion in your journey.”

“What nonsense are you talking now Duyi. Patriarch? Ogabu? How can a weapon be a patriarch?”

“I am the soul of the first patriarch. In hope of preserving my life and one day finding away to return I have bound myself to my weapon. And what I saw in your fate was so monumental that I could barley glimpse a corner of it. This means you are meant for a great destiny Jade. And I will be there to guide and help you.”

Jade sighed. “I liked you better as a lazy old man. But fine, destiny or whatever it doesn’t matter to me. I am going to do whatever I want and I will not have some old weapon patriarch or so on tell me otherwise. Make the contract or shut up!”

Duyi grinned and answered playfully: “As you command, Oh child of fate.” Suddenly he turned into a whirl of blue crystals that circled around her. “This is my true form. I am composed of 108.000 individual crystal pieces. You can shape me in any form you desire as long as my crystal can make up its size. I can also be used as a swarm to cut your enemies to pieces.”

This was the last thing Jade heard before she came out of the mindspace. Two crystal blue bracelets adorned her hands. She stood up and looked at her master, she could now feel a strong bond to Duyi. And to her dismay she could even hear his voice in her head.

“Huh, Now that I can actually see pretty well through you, I can see that he did not inherit my good looks."