Tired Jack looked down at his math book. Two nights without sleep were showing their consequences. The short time he had when he passed out after the loss of his Qi didn’t really count as it was closer to fainting than actual sleep.

At least the loss of sleep had been put to good use. By now he had around 2 litres of Qi inside his Dantian. Its purity was still too low, so he should choose a cultivation method soon to start refining it. And then he would have to cultivate even more afterwards.

He let out a sigh. It was now that the negative side of his large Dantian showed. He had no idea how much Qi he had to have inside his Dantian before he could break through to the next level. He just knew that the amount had to be far more than normally. And with the refining he had to do he had no idea how long it would take to really break through.

That is if he just kept cultivating normally. Maybe he should look into Alchemy again? Now that he was a cultivator again he should be able to analyse the plants he had stored in his room and finally create real potions and pills again. That should be able to cut down on the time he would need. At least if the plants had the right medical effects and weren’t just useless decorations.

Again Jack let out a sigh. There was simply so much he had to do that he didn’t know where to start.

“Hey Jack, are you alright?”

Jack looked up. Sam was looking at him, a worried look on his face. Honestly, Jack wasn’t surprised that his friend was worried about him. If he did even look half as tired as he felt he would still look like shit.

And it wasn’t only Sam that was worried about him. His parents had been concerned about him closing up inside his room yesterday after they finally came back from work. They even went as far as to barge into his room unannounced. Luckily he had been able to hide the formation back under the carpet just in time.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine” Jack gave Sam a weak smile. He knew he had to talk to him about cultivation, but he really didn’t want to. Still, after a moment of hesitation he opened his mouth.

“Listen Sam, after the school has ended we –“

Jack stopped right in the middle of the sentence. He could feel something. It was incredible faint, but it was definitely the feeling of Qi. A moment he panicked. Had the Qi already started to spread outside of his room? But then he felt the Qi moving. Slowly it came closer.

Jack looked to the door of the classroom, just as it opened. A girl was standing inside the door. She had dark blonde hair and blue-grey eyes that seemed to pierce through everything they looked at. Her crimson shirt bulged over her voluptuous chest. All in all she looked stunning.

Jack frowned as she stepped inside the classroom. His eyes followed her every movement. He was sure that the Qi originated from her, but how? She clearly wasn’t a cultivator, she didn’t even have Spiritual Veins. And more than that, the Qi around her felt strange, somehow stale and hollow. It was nothing like he had ever felt before, even though it was so faint that he had sometimes trouble to perceive it.

A sharp pain in his side suddenly interrupted Jack’s investigation. Jack looked towards Sam who had still one finger pointed under his rib. He looked somehow annoyed at Jack. Maybe because he had suddenly been distracted during their talk?

“What are you starring at the girl over there? Don’t tell me you fell in love at first sight or something silly like that”

Somehow the way Sam looked at him creeped Jack out. Quickly he shook his head.

“No way. I was just… curious because I haven’t seen her yesterday, that as all” It didn’t sound very convincing, but Sam nodded thoughtful.

“Hmm, you’re right. She must be that student that was excused”, Sam also looked closer at the girl with a frown on his face. Jack noticed that his friends view hovered conspicuously long on her chest area. Internally he nodded, his friend had finally entered puberty. He had been worried before, because he didn’t seem to have interest in women, but now he had finally taken the first step. Jack himself had only little interest in women. Sure, there had been one or two in his last life, but most of the time he had spent alone.

Suddenly Jack noticed that the girl had stopped walking and was looking over to them. Her view passed shortly over Sam before it focussed on Jack. A moment she frowned, as if she was unsure what to think about him, then her eyes narrowed into a glare that seemed to pierce through Jack.

‘Shit, did she caught us staring? Not good, I need to be more careful around her’

As long as he didn’t know what the strange Qi around her meant, Jack had to keep her under close watch. All he knew she could be reincarnated just like him. But a moment later he shook his head. No, it was unlikely that she was a reborn person. Not only was the chance of it happening to two people of the same world quite low, it didn’t explain why her Qi felt like this. No, it was more likely that she was a simple mortal and had found something that still stored some Qi. Some sort of artefact that would lose a bit of Qi constantly because of the void zone and that she was carrying with her right now.

The girl continued her glare for a few seconds, then she walked away and sat on her place. Still, every other minute she would look over to them. Wasn’t that a bit too much for simply staring at her? Suddenly Jack had another though and he paled.

‘Wait, if I can feel the Qi that comes from her, could it be she can feel mine, too?’

A feeling of dread came over him. He had just started cultivating again and not used to his newfound strength, no matter how meagre it was. So it would be the perfect time to attack him. Unconsciously he started to ready himself for a fight. If she were to attack now…

But then he chuckled and forced himself to relax. No, that was stupid. Even if she could feel the Qi inside him, why would she attack him? He hadn’t done anything bad. At least not to her directly. So there was nothing to worry about. Not to mention that she was probably just a mortal and had no way to fight against him. Still, a bit caution wouldn’t be wrong around her.

A light tugging at his shirt caused Jack to look back towards Sam.

“Are you sure you are not interested in her?”

---

With a loud ringing tone the lesson finally ended. The girl, whose name was Rin as Jack had learned, stood up immediately and left the classroom. Quickly Jack stood up and followed her. After some thinking he had decided to at least try to talk to the girl. During the whole lesson she had kept looking over to him, so he had become sure that she could feel his Qi. And maybe she did know more about the strange Qi that was around her.

The girl walked fast. Jack tried to call after her, but she either didn’t hear him or outright ignored him. Cursing lightly Jack started to run after her.

After a few minutes he finally caught up to her inside one of the older hallways. The mould coloured carpet floor gave of squelching sounds as she turned around to look at Jack. Her usual glare was piercing into Jack, but he tried to ignore it.

“Hello, may I talk to you for a moment?”

The girl snorted. The Qi around her suddenly started to flare up until it rivalled Jack’s own in power. Alarmed Jack moved into a fighting stance. But the girl remained still, her eyes glowing in a silver colour. For a moment none of the two moved and the hallway was still as if in anticipation of a battle that only waited to unfold.

But then a group of students passed by the corner to the hallway, talking and laughing. Immediately the girl’s Qi calmed down and her eyes loosed their unnatural shine. Her glare didn’t lessen though. When she finally opened her mouth the sound of her voice was quiet, but it held a deadly promise within.

“This is my last warning. Leave this class and me alone. Or else I’ll not show mercy.”

With this she turned around and left. Unsure Jack looked after her, his arms still raised defensively. While he had no idea what just had happened and why the girl reacted as she did, he was sure that it wasn’t good for him.

‘Okay, now I am worried’