Gust’s pale blue eyes lit up. Well, one of them did.

He kept rubbing at the dark eye, but nothing ever changed. It was all he could do to ignore that new blindness and avoid thinking about it while he listened.

Cultivation methods were the basis of any path. Nearly every student in his class sat in a different posture, their hands poised up or down in strange positions. Every one of them was unique, and Gust was excited to get two of his own.

“The first,” Saith began with a small smile that wrinkled his dark beige cheeks, “is my own. The Twelve Blades of Subtlety. I’d always wanted to pass it down but…” he shook his head, “never did find the right candidate. We’ll need to make some adjustments, of course. You’ve already formed a core, and as that happens to be the end goal of this method, I’ll need to treat it like a secondary path.”

Gust’s chest felt light. Not only because he was about to learn a powerful cultivation method, but because it was the one his father practiced. He was so excited he almost forgot to ask questions. “What do you mean, secondary path?”

Saith nodded. “Well, you’ve already formed your void core. When I figure out your aspect, we will change the name. Since you already have that core, you cannot form another. This mystery will always be your core aspect, but that does not mean you can’t lay another foundation around it. You won’t form a sword core, but you can still raise your sword aspect, and learn some of my spells.”

Saith lowered to the ground and swept black hair out of his face, tying it into a top knot. He held his arms out in front of himself, parallel to the ground, fingers splayed. His feet stiffened and pointed. There were numerous smaller adjustments which he made that Gust failed to notice, but the young man tried to imitate it as closely as possible.

“We will call this… Demon Blades in the Void.” When Gust’s eyebrows shot up, Saith grinned. “Tantalizing name, is it not? There will come a time, Gust, when you’ll need to name your own spells and techniques. Try to keep them interesting. And intimidating, if you can. When another cultivator learns of your technique, be sure that the name strikes fear in their heart, or at least clouds their mind.”

As the young man settled into the position, his arms already felt weak. They didn’t hold any weight but their own, but he could already imagine the soreness building in his shoulders after maintaining such a position for hours.

“Your two arms must be as stiff as a blade. See the air passing over and under your fingers as if sliced in half. Feel the sword qi and attract it like you are one of its own. Listen and watch closely.”

Saith’s expression grew serious. His lips formed a straight line, slightly parted, and inhaled sharply three times, then exhaled in the same fashion. Every four cycles, he took one breath that was long and slow.

Before Gust could to the same, Saith held out a hand. His lips twisted into a wry smile. “Not here. The qi is far too dense. You will need to start outside my home. Cultivate just within the sword’s array, as deep into it as you can bear, and keep moving closer. You will notice a few things as you progress:

“First, sword qi is silver and sharp. It will leave small lacerations wherever it travels, but it will also strengthen those places when they are healed. Your meridians will grow strong, like copper piping, and as unlikely to burst.

“You only have one meridian, so advanced cycling technique will elude us for a while. Instead, cycle to your heart and back, and never stop. Whether you are cultivating, working, studying, or resting, you should always be cycling. Even when it hurts. If you don’t push through the pain, the pain will never stop.”

After hearing he shouldn’t cultivate yet, Gust let his arms droop and sighed. “So, if I’m working on filling my soul with this qi, how do I avoid activating my core? Won’t some qi just, like… get sucked in?”

Saith’s eyes opened slowly and he shook his head. “No, Gust, it won’t. Your soul space is a part of you. Do your arms spontaneously grab food just because your stomach is hungry? No,” he sighed. “I know you haven’t had much practice cycling, but the qi in your body is yours to command. As long as you don’t deliberately cycle it into your core, it will not activate and convert the qi into… whatever it is you produce. Understand?”

Gust nodded, but he held up a hand before Saith could say anything more. “What about the mana sense? How does that work?”

“Much like opening an eye, but you are sensing qi instead of light. It is an almost physical awareness which you lay upon the world. Speak to your Masters about that, Gust. In fact, with everything, it would best for you to receive basic instruction from your school and only return to me for corrections. My time is not unlimited, remember.”

“Ah, sorry.” Gust quieted the hundred other questions running through his head.

Saith nodded. “I will say this: when you come to me again, do not use your qi sense. In this place, for you, it would be like staring into the sun.”

The man cleared his throat and closed his eyes as his body returned to his cultivation position. “As I was saying… at first you will mostly absorb pure qi, but as you cultivate closer to my sword, more of what you absorb will be sword qi. As your soul fills, you should expel everything but the sword qi, then continue as before. The goal is to fill your soul with only sword qi, then work on condensing it into the shape of a blade which starts at your meridian and stabs toward your core. Once you form the first sword, I’ll teach you your first real spell.”

“You can’t teach me any now?” Gust whined.

Saith answered that question with a sharp look and a moment of silence.

“The second method I’m teaching you today is a bit more unique. What day is it out there?” The man nodded upward to indicate the outside world.

Gust accepted that this conversation was going to be a one-way street and shrugged. “These people don’t keep track of anything longer than their eleven-day weeks.”

There was a pause as Saith considered whether that was a joke, or just sarcasm. When he realized it was neither, he tilted his head. “Yes, Augustus, they do. Time is different on every layer, but all the peoples have their own calendars,” he scoffed. “Do you really think they could function without one?”

While he tried to avoid feeling stupid, Gust shot back. “Well, how am I supposed to know! I’m only busy learning about a dozen new concepts every day. I’ve been here a month, so that should put us around mid-June, does that help?”

Something dawned on the old man as he heard those words. His mouth formed an ‘O’ as he clapped one hand over his forehead and began laughing. “No, Gust, no. You’ve been here, what, three or four weeks? That isn’t even half a month to these people!” Saith snapped his fingers as he tried to think of something, “The months elude me, so you’ll need to get a calendar and keep track of the moon. What shape is it at the moment?”

Gust raised one eyebrow. “I know you can’t see the moon from here, but it’s always been a circle.”

Saith sighed. “Is it full? Waning? Crescent?”

“Ooh!” Gust scratched at the back of his head and tried to think of how bright the last few nights were. “I, uh, haven’t noticed.”

“Of course not. Well, whenever the moon is full… that means you can see the whole circle,” he explained and Gust sneered, “you can cultivate the Wolf Star Howling Body. Instead of forming a core, it strengthens and reshapes the body you have.”

Saith slowly moved his arms up over his head and interlaced the fingertips, forming an arch with his arms and a circle with his hands. His eyes pointed upward, and he breathed long, slow breaths through tight lips in the shape of a small circle.

Then his eyes snapped down to Gust. “You will cultivate like so. I’ll just stop assuming you know anything and explain from the start.”

Gust gave the man a flat look but had a hard time disagreeing.

“Yin and Yang aspects are quite abstract, but common nonetheless. Yang energies peak midday, when the sun is hottest, while yin peaks when the night is coldest. And when the moon is fullest. Such a potent time is what you are waiting for. The Wolf Star method cycles yin energy through one’s limbs, lengthening them and preparing them for the bursts of motion that a predator requires.

“With this method, you can begin as soon as the full moon reveals itself. As you cultivate, keep the qi within your pathways, otherwise it might interfere with your sword foundation. You will cycle the yin qi from your heart to your soul, and back. Just as I described with the Demon Blades, keep expelling everything else and try to stuff your pathways as filled with yin qi as possible. You will feel very cold, colder than you have ever imagined, but that means it is working. As the sun rises, expel the yin qi and let the usual fare fill your paths. With some diligence, stars will begin to form in each pathway. They will be illusory at first, but when all your open meridians have a solidified star you will reach your first level of completion!”

Gust listened with awe. “How many levels are there?”

“At the twelfth level, the stars will merge into a pure moon and your meridians will glow the purest white while being invulnerable to anything your enemies will throw at you. I only reached the tenth level, myself.”

The young man grinned and thought of the swords Isaac’s group launched at him. For a moment, he saw the wooden blades collide with his body and burst apart while Gust laughed. “I like the sound of that.” Suddenly, he glanced around the room and asked, “How heavy is your sword, by the way? I know you said I can’t use its full powers until I form a Starsoul, but when will I be able to lift it?”

Saith’s head tilted back and forth. “That depends. If your cultivation does not progress, you will need to form, perhaps, four solid stars before you can even think of using my sword. Every meridian you open may reduce that amount by half a star, though, so it shouldn’t require any longer than… a few dozen years.”

Gust choked. “What! Haven’t you already mentioned that I’m not supposed to stay in this place too long? Aren’t there a few Patrons we’re supposed to killing?”

The man’s top knot shook as he tossed his head back and laughed. “Oh, you won’t be more than dirt beneath their feet until well after you’ve formed a Starsoul. You need to be patient, Augustus.” He waved a hand through the air. “Leave me for a while. Give these new methods a month. A real month, once you figure out what that is. This visit took too much out of me, and if we’re going to do this right,” he leaned in and narrowed his eyes, “it’s going to take a long time.”