Three months had passed since the Naming Ceremony. Kai had been held in the village for almost two weeks before the town herbalist had decided that there was no lasting damage from his Naming and he’d been finally able to go back to his and Hunter’s home.

Since then, his training had ramped up a few notches. Kai was more than halfway to mastering the Fifth Form, which was a mind blowing rate of mastery. He would train for all hours of the day during the week, but on the weekends he would only train half the day, which gave him more time to go down to the village and spend time with Mera.

Cohen had retired from guarding the merchant’s caravan and had taken up a job as one of the guardsmen for the village itself. On the day the caravan had left, Kai and Cohen had been met with emotional men and women whom they had wished well on their future journeys, though they would see the caravan again in six months. Corinne herself had given him a tear filled good-bye, and for some reason, Mera hadn’t spoken to him for almost two weeks after that.

After his recovery however, Mera had also pushed herself into her training with the Master of Arms, and had mastered the Third Form. She would spar with Kai on the weekends while he gave her pointers and then they would hang out in the village.

For almost three months, Kai had getting ready for his fourteenth Nameday. He’d been working on the Cycle of Breath, and every day, he could feel himself getting closer and closer to touching that ever elusive Heavenly Energy that surrounded him.

Three months of preparation had led to this day.

Kai was sitting on the grass of the forest, a light breeze picking at his dark hair. His legs were crossed, his eyes were closed, and he was breathing in a steady rhythm.

In front of him sat Hunter, observing Kai’s breathing and the way his body would react.

And then, midnight finally hit, and Kai turned the auspicious age of fourteen.

He felt it in the air first, a thrumming that couldn’t be felt physically, but something that resonated with him to the very depths of his Soul. And then, his mind faded from the world.

He entered a familiar void area that he’d come to learn from Hunter was his Soulscape. However, unlike during his Naming Ceremony, instead of two pillars, there were two swords in front of him.

The two weapons were still the respective colors of the pillars they represented, a gold sword and a silver one. The golden sword, however, had a thin black line, running right through the middle of it, while the silver one looked pure, but shifty, almost like liquid mercury.

In the outside world, Kai’s breathing had become erratic, straying from the rhythm he’d formed for the last few hours. Hunter noticed both this and the sweat that had started to run down his face.

“Boy, what’s happening? What do you see?”

Kai, still in his Soulscape, said, his voice still projecting from his physical body, “I’m not sure. You said there should only be a golden orb that I’m supposed to touch, but instead, there are two swords. What should I do?”

Hunter flinched backwards, eyes widening as he heard the description Kai gave him. He’d suspected from the name Eritos, but… no it couldn’t be. He refused to believe it.

He forced his body to relax from the tenseness that had filled him at Kai’s description, and then a few moments later, he instructed Kai what to do.

Kai listened to Hunter’s instructions and then focused on the two swords in front of him.

No matter how much he wanted to grab the silvery sword that seemed to be made just for him, no matter how much of a pull he felt from its light and its purity, he trusted Hunter implicitly. He’d been raised by the man after all.

He forcefully turned his head from the silver sword and instead looked towards the golden sword, with the hint of instability in the middle.

In the end, it was a fight, every step he moved towards the golden sword felt like an increasing pressure that settled on his shoulders. At one point, Kai realized that he’d started moving towards the silver sword and so, he turned his hips sharply and kept forcing himself towards the golden one.

Hours passed and finally, Kai reached the sword Hunter had instructed him to touch. The sword would’ve been a perfect gold except for the hint of black that marred its purity.

However, Kai could tell that there was something else. A hint of sinisterness that exuded from the sword, along with a lilting song for his Soul, one that sang of power and victory.

Kai reached out, and was forced to his knees by the outpouring of pressure that he could tell exuded from the golden blade itself. Yet, mirroring his vision in the Naming Ceremony that seemed like a lifetime ago, he pushed himself to his feet and finally, touched the golden blade.

He realized his mistake when he felt ghostly chains settle over him. Chains that had been invisible on the sword before he’d touched it, hidden from him so that he wouldn’t turn away at the last moment.

He struggled, but no matter how much he tried to grab at the new weight now putting pressure on his Soul, it was impossible for him to get it off. He’d chosen, and though Hunter had vehemently told him to choose the golden sword, sounding almost scared of even the appearance of the silver one, Kai still felt like he’d chosen the wrong one.

He shrugged, because it was too late to do anything about it. And Hunter’s fear at the silver sword did still give him that same fear, because Hunter was the most powerful man he knew, and even though he’d kept his true level of Cultivation in the dark, Kai suspected that if he wanted to, he could blow the village of Brasbury off the face of the world without breaking a sweat.

He was pulled from his thoughts as he was pushed out of his Soulscape, having finally formed a Connection with Heavenly Energy. All of the negative thoughts that had permeated his mind during his trip to his own Soulscape faded from his mind as he started a rhythm of breathing.

By this point, it was natural and it only took him seconds to fall into the rhythm of the Cycle of Breathing. He was fortunate that he had Hunter as his master because in a village this far south, it was extremely difficult to find Gathering Techniques, let alone those of good quality. Yet, not only did Kai already have one on the night of his fourteenth Nameday, he suspected that this Technique from Hunter’s arsenal was of a superb quality.

As he entered a perfect rhythm, for the first time since he’d started learning the Technique, not only could he feel the Energy surrounding him, he could now take it in.

Hunter had walked him through this process weeks ago, knowing that the first thing Kai’s body would crave as soon as a Connection was formed would be the Energy it had lacked for the last fourteen years.

He took a deep breath and felt the golden energy enter through his mouth. Hunter had explained that the reason this Technique was so amazing was because it created a parallel between the physical body and the Soul.

At the same time he was physically breathing in air through his mouth and letting it travel to his lungs, his Soul was breathing in the Heavenly Energy. It was amazing because there was no Formation, nor random cycling involved. The Technique used an everyday process and expanded it to include the Energy that permeated the air.

Kai could feel the Heavenly Energy settle in his Soul, and as a result, felt the very beginnings of his first Meridian forming.

The Forging Realm started with the Meridians Stage, where a Cultivator would forge a cord of Heavenly Energy that connected their physical body to their Soul. According to Hunter, up to five cords of Energy could be formed and therefore, there were five Ranks within the Meridians Stage.

He could feel that it would only take him a couple more months to form his first Meridian and he would step into the first Rank of the Meridians Stage. If he told anyone in the village about his time frame to form the first Meridian, they would only be able to look at him in shock.

Even the most powerful person in the village outside of Hunter, the mayor, was only at Rank 5 of the Channels Stage, the Stage right after Meridians, and he was almost fifty years of age. He’d reached his First Rank within a year of his fourteenth birthday, but obviously, as he’d Cultivated, the rate at which he broke through slowed down, because each Rank took more and more power to break through.

Even Taran, the most promising young Cultivator in Brasbury had barely reached the second Rank of the Meridians Stage after a year, yet Kai felt that he could reach at least the fourth Rank, if not the fifth, by his fifteenth Nameday, a rate of increase that even geniuses within the Revanian Kingdom would be surprised by.

Kai kept breathing in a rhythm, making sure that with each breath, more and more Heavenly Energy entered his Soul, and added on to the first bridge that would connect itself to his physical body.

He could feel his body already slowly starting to strengthen, and his Soul start to lighten itself of its burdens. He Cultivated for hours, until he felt the first rays of dawn touch his face. As he snapped out of his trance, he realized that he’d been Cultivating all night.

At some point in their progression, Cultivators would stop needing to sleep, and instead, they would Cultivate during the night. The Energy that entered them would soothe their aches within their bodies and minds, and they would feel even more energized in the mornings. However, Kai was not at the point where he could use Cultivation instead of sleep yet and could maybe only Cultivate all night once every week without negative consequences.

Yet Kai could say with certainty that this was the most energized his body had ever felt. He looked up and saw Hunter staring at him with complicated expression on his face.

“It was difficult, Master, but I managed to grab the golden sword,” Kai said. “I can't believe that I’m a Cultivator now!”

Hunter’s strange expression smoothed out as he chuckled and said, “I suppose, though most back in the day used to agree that you could not call yourself a true Cultivator until you become a Spiritlord, and there aren’t many of those in the south.”

“Nuh-uh,” Kai said, shaking his head. “I refuse to take this as anything but a victory. I say I’m a true Cultivator so I am.”

“All right boy, I concede. But only because it’s morning now, so you know what that means.”

“Training,” Kai said with a groan, but inwardly he was determined. Now that he was a Cultivator, he was determined to push himself harder and work to become more powerful.

He turned and followed Hunter out of the clearing, leaving behind the ghost of a silver sword that weeped at the chains that now covered the Soul of another Eritos.