Jingyi Bo walked away from the initiation ceremony more enriched than she expected to be. Knowing the rules was good, for all that they were. Bo was certainly looking forward to not being oppressed, after all. And supplies! Given that they were delivering food now, Bo quietly wondered why there had already been food in her little shed. She certainly hoped she hadn’t robbed someone’s snack cache - a man wronged was bad, a man wronged and hungry was worse.

Chao insisted she walk back to the dorms with the group. To Bo’s immense relief, the gang had failed to notice the panda half-spirit. However, she suspected it was only a matter of time before her accidental assault and intentional theft caught up with her. How had he got in here without his token, anyway?

“So, Junior, you gonna attend those other classes?” Chao and his gang seemed genuinely interested.

“I don’t see why not. I’ve never heard of a cultivator awakening in a foreign discipline, but I suppose there’s no reason why it’s impossible …”

“Told you, De! Why would they even give classes if it wasn’t possible?”

De kind of shrugged noncommitally. Bo realised the greasy creature hadn’t spoken a word - he mostly just snickered along with whatever Chao said. A true underling to the last.

“De was just going to keep on following his path - which is totally not the point of coming here. I for one am gonna try them all!”

“I will also be there,” Wang insisted. “I plan to do the same.”

Giving him an unbelieving glance, Bo nodded along. “I hadn’t given it much thought, but it could be useful. My technique is--”

Wait. Wait, wait, wait, Jingyi Bo! Those rules made it pretty clear - if someone wants to fight you here, they absolutely can. Oppression is a fairly loose criteria, and it certainly seemed like the kind of thing you could quibble over after the deed was done. Chao may seem like a bit of an airhead, but he’s probably a lot stronger than me. I shouldn’t reveal my weakness right now--

“Junior, it’s fine!” Bo felt Chao’s hand ruffle her hair. “If your sect gave you a crummy technique, you can always just ditch it and follow Elder Qin’s guidance instead!”

The way he was smiling so sincerely gave Bo the idea that Chao was speaking about himself, unintentionally or otherwise. He had stopped the talk about prior sects - not that Bo was any one to talk, but what kind of weak sect had Chao belonged to that still managed to get him in here?

“I’m … quite content with my technique, thank you! Once I refine it, it will be very strong!”

“Hah! That’s the spirit! Hey, Junior, this is my dorm here - De and Wang got squashed into this little place with me.” Chao gestured to a modest house, complete with a small front garden. Leagues better than the shed. “You better go back to your place and look over your schedules. Where is your dorm, anyway?”

“It’s, erm, down there,” Bo gestured vaguely, “I’ll show you some other time! Bye!”

Without another word, Jingyi Bo all but sprinted away. Taking a somewhat winding path, in case the boys wanted to satisfy their curiosity in her living quarters, Bo made it back to her shed. Inside was a small crate of supplies, a couple sheafs of paper and a little red gemstone. To Bo’s surprise, the gemstone vanished at her touch as though it were made of mist. She felt vaguely warm for a moment, then merely confused.

Putting on another kettle of tea, Bo read over the papers. One was simply a schedule - a jam-packed run of basic lessons that would serve to introduce initiates to each discipline. A cultivator of her level (however basic) might have been tempted to skip Elder Qin’s classes on the basics of spiritual cultivation, but there would surely be something that could expand her abilities. The other paper, however, was a letter.

Jingyi Bo, it read, in a very utilitarian script, It has come to our attention that you were not intended to be a student at this Academy. However, as you are now here and evidently have settled in, we are willing to overlook your unorthodox entry. You are still expected to prove that you are worthy of remaining here, as are all students of the Academy. If it is found that you are lax in your efforts to study and grow, you will be removed immediately.

If at such time an opening in more appropriate housing opens up, you will be informed and granted the opportunity to move. Until such time, we have installed basic necessities in this domicile. You will be able to use the mana stone provided to light the fire, in case your abilities are such that you cannot activate it yourself.

P.S. We have installed a formation to enable you to bathe. Please bathe. We are asking you politely.

-- Admin.

Bo went through the full gamut of emotions as she read throught is note from whoever called themselves the administrator of this place. No doubt some upjumped groundskeeper who couldn’t cut it as an instructor. Still, they had delivered on their promise to install a means to bathe - a wooden bathtub had been placed in one corner, a small metal disc bearing a charm that made it spew hot water at a touch. Making sure her windows were closed and the door locked, Bo ran herself a bath.

Soaking all the dirt off, she considered the particulars of the letter. First off, that mana stone had seemed odd. Bo had seen mana stones before, especially around the Everchanging Way Sect - though they tended to have different names based on their element, Bo was fairly certain these were the same thing. This one, however, had simply evaporated under her touch. Assuming they hadn’t handed her a false mana stone, there had to be something to it.

Next, it mentioned that the charm that lit the fire pit needed the fire stone, or some skill. Bo had assumed they worked at a touch, but the thought lingered in her mind - had she unconsciously done something to activate it? Reaching out of her bathtub to the nearby firepit charm (a formation, she supposed it was called), she prodded it experimentally, focusing on her qi as she did so. Her fingertip was very momentarily cold, and she registered a miniscule amount of Fire-aspected qi escaping her into the thing. It didn’t take any more than it needed - was it pulling some kind of unaspected qi in to continue going?

Realising she was leaning halfway out of the tub in an extraordinarily uncomfortable pose, Bo resolved to finish washing up before carrying on with her day. She felt much better now that she was clean, even going as far as to comb her hair as she dried before the fire. In fact, after a short while sitting there staring languidly at the firepit’s formation, Bo felt herself relax enough to meditate. Without even thinking, she fell into a deep, focused trance.

---

What in the heck is this?!

Bo’s meditation was almost disrupted as soon as it started. Having turned her focus inwards, she found that her meridians had changed somehow. Especially closer to her dantian, they were pristine, entirely clear of the elemental slurry that Bo had accidentally been accumulating. The further-away meridians, like those out in her fingertips or toes, seemed to be pouring their contamination down into the dantian like sand through an hourglass. The elemental stone within her was busy working away, and Bo finally realised what it was doing - by extracting the primary elements out of the slurry, it was able to absorb them into itself. Why it was doing that was a mystery for another day.

The only meridians that were unaffected were those that formed the ‘engine’ of her Endless Steps of Transformation technique. Concentrated around her heart, they formed the basis of her ability to transform and transmute. Theoretically there was a way to expand it outwards to enhance the speed and purity of transformation, but Jingyi Bo didn’t quite have the know-how or control to do such a thing. However, with all this scrutiny, she noticed that a particular section of it was drawing in qi for reasons unknown. Unlike the specificity of elemental qi that her technique needed, this was just drawing in anything, like it was pouring in from around her into a vessel of sorts. Concentrating, Bo allowed it to continue - it felt quite nice.

Whenever Bo pulled in enough of some primary element, her dantian rumbled, and the stone scooped it out of the pool, leaving behind oddly unaspected qi. As far as Bo knew, all qi had some kind of aspect to it, however miniscule - what did it mean to have plain, generic qi?

---

Bo’s meditation ended with a bit of a sigh, as her mortal body complained to her. The shed’s ambient qi had grown thin, her belly had grown empty, her throat had become dry, and her skin was freezing cold. Opening her eyes, she realised the problem - her thirst for qi had evidently deprived the fireplace charm of power, its vague smouldering not enough to give off any heat. As she pulled herself up, the flames began to rise again as the ambient qi fell back in where it belonged to refuel the pit’s charm.

A pot of tea and a bowl of rice later, Bo thought it might be a fine time to go for a stroll of the academy … only to realise it was very dark outside. Jingyi Bo had never been one for long meditation sessions, but she knew they could get away from you. She had spent almost the entire previous day meditating without realising. However, all the elemental slurry in her meridians had been cleansed, so perhaps it had been worth it. Judging by the rising light in the east, it was nearly sunrise. Soon, class would start, and first on the agenda was Elder Qin Zhao’s basic lessons on spiritual cultivation.

After a light jog to clear her head, Bo circled around to the central courtyard which was being set up for lessons. It was still quite early, the sun only barely risen, but a couple of people were here helping.

“You there!” Bo nearly jumped ten feet in the air with surprise as a muscle-bound Yamato boy shouted from behind her. “Help arrange these cushions!”

The guy was twice her size, with a face that looked perpetually infuriated, his arms barely contained by his straining robe. Bo had heard tales of savage Yamato warriors - this man looked the part. Well, except for the soft cushions in his hands. He dumped an armful into Bo’s hands, nearly bowling her over, and left. Grumbling all the while, she did as she was told, before sitting herself down off to one side. The muscle-bound man moved at an insane pace, as though he placed pillows professionally. Just watching him made Bo a bit tired.

In fact, Bo dozed off, woken up by someone prodding her side.

“O-Ouch! What the-- Chao?!”

“Hey, Junior!” The sun had risen, and everyone was awaiting the arrival of the Elder. Chao and his gang had specifically sat around Bo - she didn’t like how De insisted on being behind her, but she wasn’t going to kick up a stink around the crowd. “You stay up late studying or something? Never heard of a narco … nara … sleepy cultivator! Haha!”

The other boys chuckled along with him. Bo humoured him with a forced laugh of her own. Was she just stuck with these morons now? Not that it was bad to have people willing to help. Now that Bo was awake, she took stock of her surroundings - noticing a lump of jade on the ground in front of her. A simple jade slip, likely containing cultivation techniques and all kinds of useful--

Eat it.

“What?”

“I didn’t say nothin’, Junior.”

Put it in your mouth and chew it into pieces.

Bo looked suspiciously at the jade slip. It did look kinda tasty, like a perfectly shaped piece of apple slice. Would anyone care if she just-- Wait, no! I am not eating the jade slip! Who’s speaking to me?

Me. I’m speaking to me. Eat the jade.

Closing her eyes, putting the jade out of her sight, Bo sighed.

“Chao. Am I still asleep?”

“Wow, you really are tired, Junior! You didn’t even call me Senior! Don’t nap through class!”

“Chao. Poke me in the ribs.”

Chao didn’t even hesitate. Wang and De poked her too - Bo slapped De’s hand away before he could make contact, but Wang had been too fast. The poking had been unpleasant enough for Bo to guess she wasn’t in a dream. Then why did that jade slip look so tasty?

Concentrating desperately on not wanting to eat a piece of magic rock on her first day of school, Elder Qin made a brilliant distraction. That was, at least, until he told them all to figure it out themselves, before vanishing. The assembled crowd universally lost their minds.

“Woooah, does this mean … Elder Qin trusts us to do self-study?! This is awesome!”

“I think Elder Qin means that he will not instruct anyone without a proper foundation. I believe this lesson has been a waste of time for me.”

While Chao and Wang muttered, De just snickered. It was never quite clear what he was thinking about. Still, that left Bo with nothing to focus on except this delicious chunk of entirely edible jade-- No!

Bo slapped herself across the face, drawing the attention of a few nearby students.

“Hardcore, Junior! That’s the spirit!” Chao slapped himself across the face too - his goons following suit. De’s snickering as he did so was amusing enough, but watching Wang hit his entirely straight face without changing expression was enough to send Bo into hysterics.

“Are you guys all morons?!” she blurted out without thinking, laughter escaping her freely.

“That’s us!” Chao laughed along. Moron or not, Bo decided that the three of them were, roughly speaking, harmless. How did three buffoons like this even make it into an Academy as illustrious as this one? Make that four, Bo groaned internally - she hadn’t exactly proven to be the brightest spark.

After calming down, the four decided to look into their jade slips then and there. Bo’s hand shook as she resisted the strangely powerful urge to shove the thing in her mouth, but she managed to concentrate enough to access the learning within. Breathing techniques, meditation techniques, flowery information on meridians and techniques, all the boring stuff. Still, it did give Bo an easier way to fall into a meditative state, and contextualised some of the things going on in her meridians - namely, why her soul was accumulating qi.

“... Huh. That was kinda disappointing.”

“I agree.”

De snickered. Bo nodded. The God-Emperor’s technique for one’s foundation had held a lot of similarities or overlap with what the group already knew. Bo assumed it had been even more underwhelming for the others - if they had come from a sect that was even vaguely more traditional than the Everchanging Way, it all must have been dreadfully obvious.

“What do we do with these things now?” Chao waved around his jade slip. “Feels kind of a waste to throw ‘em out. But we all got one, and I suppose it’s ours now.”

“Can I have it?” Bo spoke without thinking, covering her mouth with her hands in surprise. The boys grinned and handed them over - she took Chao and Wang’s slips, ignoring De’s grease-slicked chunk of jade. The guy snickered and put it in a fold of his robes.

“What’re you gonna do with three of the same jade slip, Junior?”

“Eat-- Study them. For. Differences. In case they are different. I need to leave.” Standing up, Bo turned and sprinted away. Would she finish one interaction with these guys where she wasn’t fleeing from them? The guys seemed to find it funny, so at least someone was enjoying it.

Bo couldn’t even make it back to the shed. Finding some quiet corner, the young cultivator felt herself break into a cold sweat as she stared at the three pieces of stone in her hand. They looked so unbelievably tasty - just feeling the smooth jade in her hands, she could imagine their flavour, like some baked treat or even like one of those juice-filled ice treats she’d seen before.

C’mon, said a little voice in the back of her head, Just stick ‘em in your mouth.

Never before had Bo had such an unbelievable craving, even for real food. Not even when she had been at her hungriest had she been so uncontrollably desperate to chow down on a hearty meal, let alone pieces of carved stone. As Bo contemplated her strange, unnatural desire to eat jade, she realised she already had them in her mouth.

Part of her wanted to throw the things across the little alleyway she was hiding in, but curiosity got the better of her - and they tasted so good! Why did they make these li’l things taste so wonderful? The flavour was indescribable, but electrifying. Bo took an experimental bite, and felt her teeth cry out in pain. Still, she had to finish them! Something deep inside her took over, and she instinctively used her Endless Steps to functionally turn the jade to foam. Piece by piece they dissolved into her mouth, and in the span of a few minutes, Bo realised she had devoured the slips entirely.

Looking at her empty hands, Jingyi Bo’s rational mind kicked back in.

Why in the name of the Emperor did I do that?! What sort of idiot eats a jade slip? I sure hope the Elder didn’t want those back!

However, that voice at the back of Bo’s mind crept back in.

Hey. Guess who knows how to turn things into jade?