Boneroot found himself staring into Kroshieshi’s eyes in a manner not unlike the first time he saw Felindei.

“Not bad. Not great.” His new teacher seemed to prefer non-verbal speech when Felindei wasn’t around. Fortunately, he had gotten accustomed to it in spending time with Kuroki.

Boneroot tilted his head to the side, clearly expecting further instruction from the tsovar in front of him. Instead, he was given another gruff command.

“Again.”

This was now the fourth consecutive time Kroshieshi was having him demonstrate his breathing and meditation techniques. He had gone to sleep immediately after his meditation the day before. When he awoke, he was given all of five minutes to collect himself before training began. For now, training apparently just meant cultivating in front of his teacher. Before the first of such demonstrations, Boneroot tried to explain the importance of his visualization process, but he was quickly shot down.

The grizzled, old cat simply rumbled, ‘No crutches. You’re no child.’ Boneroot’s comment on technically being younger than Kuroki did not earn him any favor. So, the boy dropped his awkward grin and got to work. He was disappointed in his performance, to say the least.

Without access to his flower visualization, and no swell of emotion to spur him on, Boneroot was slow to get his qi and ki cycling. It didn’t help that he was having his cultivation meticulously assessed for the first time. By the time one hour had passed, he had barely accomplished any assimilation of ambient energy.

All in all, he’d been terribly inefficient. To his relief, though, Kroshieshi didn’t even comment on it. He just demanded another hour. And then one more. Though the hourly interruptions weren’t conducive to effective cultivation, Boneroot was at least satisfied that he was doing better than his first go-around.

This time, when Boneroot shook from his meditative stupor, his teacher gave him a non-hostile glance that the boy chose to think of as approval. Progress! As the two cultivators faced each other, and silence settled over them, the student took the opportunity to better assess his teacher. For all that the hellecat projected an image of a grizzled veteran, he did not have the appearance to back it up. There wasn’t a single scar marring the sheen of his black fur. There wasn’t any indication he’d ever stepped out into the forest at large, aside from the power he exuded, of course. While he wasn’t anyway near Felindei’s cultivation level, he had to be at least in the fifth or sixth realm. With a shrug, Boneroot figured there was one way to find out.

“What realm are you? Fifth? Sixth?” The question came out much more demanding than he intended. Boneroot flinched at his own lack of tact.

Fortunately, Kroshieshi relished the opportunity to brag a bit.

“Not shy, are you, boy? You have the honor of being taught by the fourth strongest cultivator in the Sentoru Forest Pride. Probably in the whole forest, for that matter. You have a keen sense, at least. I’m in the middle of the Blue realm, Both ki and qi, mind you.” The cat arched his chin up, satisfied by his own boast.

However, this inspired more questions in Boneroot than it answered.

“Wait, what’s the Blue realm? And what do you mean ki and qi? And —”

“Enough. One at a time. Hmm, Felindei did mention you might be unaware of the Imperial systems. Very well, then. Listen up because I’m not going over this twice. The blue realm is the fifth realm of cultivation. Just think of a rainbow. First is the Red realm, then Orange, then Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Above that is Black, then White. If you meet anyone in Yellow, or above, you best mind yourself. The realms are the same for ki and qi cultivation, but among the tsovars, we don’t feel the need to differentiate the two. Seems like it was the same for your village. However, many in the Empire cultivate the two separately. That said, it’s really only for the nobles who can’t be bothered to get their qi up to par. I’ll admit I was worried you’d fall into that category. However, you don’t appear to favor ki or qi in your cycling, so you’re at least doing that right.”

Boneroot suppressed a grin, all-too-clearly pleased with himself. This was quickly replaced with an expression of mild confusion, though.

“But why would anyone cultivate ki without qi? What’s the point?”

Kroshieshi rolled his shoulders, offering, “Beats me, really. For some it’s a bit easier to cultivate one or the other, rather than both of them at the same time. You can also progress faster in one if you ignore the other, but If you ask me, that’s just being lazy. That and Felindei says it was the fashion for a time to favor ki cultivation among nobles. Something about elegance, or whatnot. They’ve never seen me or mine hunt, I can tell you that.”

Again, Boneroot nodded his acknowledgement. The one thing he’d learned for certain in these last two years on his own was that the hellecats were the apex predators in this forest for a reason. He had never spied a single wasted movement, or errant twitch, in all his observations of the animals.

There was one thing still bothering him, though. He was rather surprised he hadn’t thought to bring it up yet.

Remembering how Felindei had reacted, Boneroot was a bit hesitant as he asked, “Sorry, but earlier you mentioned an ‘Empire’. Felindei wouldn’t tell me what that is. Am I allowed to know?”

Briefly taken by surprise, his teacher let out a snort.

“Right, I’m supposed to explain all that, aren’t I?” The cat’s posture slumped and his head lolled slightly. “Let’s just skim the basics, then. We are in a forest. Felindei’s forest to some; Sentoru Forest to others. This forest technically lies at the eastern border of the Empire. This Empire is a few thousand years old and it stretches west to the sea, along the mountains to the north, and ends somewhere in the deserts of the south. Although, I guess that doesn't actually explain what an Empire is. It’s like a big village. So big, in fact, that it contains thousands of other villages just like yours. That’s not to mention the cities, which are actually big villages. Not big like the Empire, though.” The tsovar let out a sigh.

“That’s hardly any clearer, is it. The Empire controls the land. They say who gets to come in, who gets to go out, who gets gold. It is the most significant nation on this continent, but not the only. Northeast of this forest, you will find the nation of Kazemura, while Hamagari lies to the southeast. For now, we’ll focus on the Empire, though. It is ruled by the Emperor, Li Doa. Like Felindei, he is a White realm cultivator. Unlike Felindei, he is a fool. He cares too much for gold and all it can buy. That’s not to say he isn’t dangerous, though. Far from it. No, he is an exceptionally powerful man and not half the fool your last two Empresses were.”

Kroshieshi paused. After a moment of trying to commit names and directions to memory, the boy asked,

“How big is this Empire? I’ve known only the forest since I was born.”

“A fair question. Within the Empire, I’d guess you could fit thirty, maybe up to fifty, forests of the same size as ours.”

The boy’s eyes went wide. In the last two years, he had tried on a number of occasions to reach the end of the forest, never even coming in sight of it. It looks like his mother had been right, after all. Shaking the memories away, he gestured for Kroshieshi to continue.

“That just about covers the very basics. We could go over the government of the Empire in more detail, I suppose, but I can only stomach so much drivel in a day. Let’s return to training. I’ve got a rough idea of how you cultivate, now, so we’re going to move forward. That means efficiency. You’re going to meditate as you normally do, but when you start absorbing a shred less energy than you should be, I’ll stop you. We’re going to drill your cultivation efficiency until it’s perfect, or you try to kill me. Either way, you’re not going to be happy for some time.”

The boy apparently took that as a challenge. Responding with only a wordless smile, he began meditating once more.

As Kroshieshi watched, he had to admit that Boneroot had done well in adapting to cultivation without his preferred visualization technique. Perhaps he’d try to find some of those flowers the next time he left the grove. With a grimace, he realized it’d be a long time before he actually had the chance to leave.

Just a few minutes later, the hellecat noticed an increase in the amount of unassimilated essence effused by Boneroot’s body. He swatted the boy’s head. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to be quite unpleasant for someone in a meditative state.

“What was that for? Everything’s spinning...”

“Get used to it because that’s what you’re going to feel every time your efficiency slips. You get lazy the moment you have your energies synced. If you let everything happen automatically, you might as well give up on ever getting to the Orange realm. Cycling is an active process. You have to consciously weave the natural essence into your own energies. You can’t just let it do as it pleases. It’s only when you have perfected these processes that you can obtain any real strength. Don’t like it? Do better.”

Boneroot wanted to say he knew that, or that knowing and applying something are entirely separate. Instead, though, he just got back to meditating. He could protest when he was stronger. He resolved to at least make it ten minutes this time.

The two of them continued in that pattern for some time. In each repetition, Kroshieshi observed the flow of essence around his student. Whenever he noticed a discrepancy in the amount flowing out, he struck. It was tiresome. Tsovars had no need for this sort of training. They were born directly into the Red realm, after all. Cultivation was just another natural function of life to them, the same as breathing. Well, it did get more complicated at the higher realms of power, but most would never experience that. Idly, Kroshieshi wondered if he would doing something similar for Kuroki any time soon. Doubtful. Even if Kuroki hit a wall, Felindei would handle that herself.

As Boneroot passed an hour of uninterrupted meditation, his supervisor let out a small sigh of relief. He had expected to be interrupting him every thirty minutes for the next couple days. He had a modicum of talent, that was certain. As to whether he would be able to keep up with Kuroki, though, the older cat was still unsure. Kuroki cultivated quickly even by human standards. So long as he matured around the average rate for his kin, he’d likely surpass Kroshieshi within a century at the latest.

The thought sent a shiver down to his tail. It had taken him three times as long to break into the Blue realm and even that had been remarkable. Still, he had to remind himself that nothing was certain. Kuroki could just as easily fail to pass the Yellow realm entirely. Particularly if this human wasn’t able to keep up. He had questioned Felindei when she first revealed her plans to him, but he was soundly rebuked. She’d hardly even told him more than the boy, really, so while he was still skeptical, he just had to accept the immortal’s wisdom at face value.

The mentor was pulled from his thoughts ten minutes later by a hiccup in the otherwise steady stream of essence flowing from his student.

Kroshieshi swatted him again.

After taking a moment to reorient himself, Boneroot perked up and spoke with enthusiasm.

“That had to have been better! Was that one a full hour?”

“Nope. You might get it by the end of the day. If you stop wasting time chatting, that is.”

The tsovar gave him a predatory grin.

If Boneroot was at all frustrated by his failure, he kept it well hidden. He took only a moment and a deep breath to center himself and returned to meditation.

Kroshieshi hadn’t lied, exactly. He’d just omitted the truth. It was far from the worst such omission the boy had suffered since his arrival. At least this one would make him stronger.