"Seeing how this Martial Way was made to perfectly match your Triple Qi, I believe it was likely created after you reported the attributes of your Sensed Qi. That's why your ancestor, Xiao Lan, made it his top priority to produce a Martial Way that could accommodate all three Qi...”

Cheng Hao rubbed the bridge of his nose. He appeared somewhat apologetic as his cheeks had reddened considerably. “Unfortunately, I just happened to come into the picture not long afterwards. Xiao Lan must have gone nuts, so much so that he actually sent you here as fast as he could, and only handed you an incomplete Martial Way."

"...Incomplete?" Xiao Wu's jaw visibly dropped. She glanced at the precious construct before her and couldn't hide her doubts.

It looks outstanding enough to me, though?

"Don't make that face, I'm being serious- Actually, no, don't bother hiding it either, it looks painful. Stop, I'll clarify so just stop. It's making me cringe, my toes are curling." Cheng Hao smiled wrily at the Brightfolk girl that couldn't bare falsehood. "It's incomplete as in it's lacking for your Ancestor's standards. He clearly only focused on the fundamentals and only bothered doing the bare minimum for the later stages. Not that I don't understand his intentions, given by then we'll have come face to face- Your next word is 'Eh?'"

"E- Yo-You..." the emerald-eyed girl had bright red cheeks as she was read like a book, "...Stop that."

"Never change, Little Wu," chuckled Cheng Hao as Xiao Wu cutely flared her nostrils.

"I have quite the relationship with your Ancestor," He reminded her, "Naturally, we'd both want to meet at the earliest, but we can't be too impatient. This is his way of acknowledging the importance of your first steps, and not letting our emotions sway us from our journey. We'll get to see each other when it's time. The better our efforts, the faster that'll come."

That, and he must be missing his dear Moon after a thousand years, Cheng Hao felt pangs of guilt as his gaze fell on a certain floor of the inverted pagoda. The gates of that particular level stood out in stark contrast to the silvery counterparts, an Olden aura obscuring their true appearance.

“After all, I would teach you better than he ever could. It's true, you know? Otherwise, would he have sent you, his prized descendant and successor to the Triple Qi, all the way here, in such a hurry- That condescending smile hurts my feelings you know?" the boy's golden eyes narrowed as his smile lost any warmth.

Another aspect was left unsaid as Cheng Hao ruthlessly pinched the girl's cheeks.

And that was, to extract the Martial Way from the depths of Xiao Wu's consciousness had required Cheng Hao to make use of his Immortal methods. Xu Ling's methods.

Cheng Hao sighed at the thought of that vibrant voice exclaiming, 'See boss? I knew you'd be here...'

As expected, I guess?

As the girl rubbed her swollen cheek, the boy was reminded of two similar bright, emerald eyes, and of violet hair flooding like a cascade,

When exactly was it, in those two hundred years that we got to spend together, that I first started taking his god-level stalking skills for granted?

Xiao Wu was quickly adjusting to Cheng Hao's eccentricity. In no time at all, she had recovered and was again inspecting the hovering Martial Way…

Her Martial Way.

As per the most notable myth of Xiao, the treasure was made up of three separate objects. One was a gargantuan white oak, emitting fluctuations of pale light. Another was a fierce, serpentine black-scaled dragon that was coiled around the tree’s branches. Lastly, the final entity consisted of an imposing violet orb occupying a fictitious sky, much like a purple moon would.

Immediately, she had identified them with the Qi they corresponded to.

For starters, the first was clearly a representation of the fierce and overbearing Black Dragon Qi, an attribute that mirrored the Black Dragon of legend. It would overpower one's opponent through vicious strength and elegant battle dances.

The second depicted the portion of Xiao Qi that focused on an immoveable defence; accepting of the world and lovingly bearing all that it would bare– the White Tree Qi.

And finally, the third, the violet orb, was the last of the Xiao Clan's Three Qi; the Purple Moon Qi, whose uncanny supporting abilities could completely turn the tides of a battle.

The more the young girl looked at the miniature scenery, the deeper her understanding of her Black Dragon, White Tree, and Purple Moon Sensed Qi seemed to grow. It soon reached a point where an instinct beyond familiarity would soon come into bloom.

How wonderful...

It was truly an object as miraculous as the legends foretold. Plus, it apparently was tailor-made just for her? By her revered ancestor, Xiao Lan himself??? She puffed her cheeks and nearly screamed from the bottom of her lungs. Her eyes confidently blazed, feeding on that recognition to flare even hotter:

I'll show 'He' was not wrong in his judgement. Beyond... I'll reach higher and higher, beyond even him.

Seeing her lost in her daydreams, Cheng Hao turned to a spot in a corner of the large room, by the window, lit up in moonglow. "Goldy, are the preparations ready?"

The golden dragon hadn't been in sight for a while. After he was done cursing the ungrateful twat for throwing him around, he had gone back to inscribe a complicated formation on the floor of the small hut.

"Goldy? Your grandfather's a Goldy…" The snake grumbled as a habit while inspecting his work with furrowed brows.

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Cheng Hao widened his eyes in appreciation, “I am the adoptive brother of the Divine Kings, adoptive son of the Primordial Emperors! According to that line of thought, my grandparents are really none other… than the Heavens and the Earth themselves! Never really gave you enough credit, my friend! Cursing at the very land you walk upon, aren’t you afraid it’ll snap back? As expected of the Heaven Devouring Dragon, your confidence sure is praiseworthy...”

“...”

Yes, yes… But then by that same logic, shouldn’t you be calling me Uncle? Why is it that this stuff applies only when it’s convenient, UH?

The fuming snake could only put his fury aside when he noticed he had completed setting up the formation. "Ah,” he sighed while wiping off some non-existent sweat. After all, snakes did not sweat. The poor attention-grabber was only seeking sympathy after pouring in so much effort for so long.

“Alright you two, wrap up your prepping, the formation is finished!" The dragon's voice snapped Xiao Wu back into reality.

"It is called the Impure Moonlight Gathering formation," explained Goldy. "It borrows the power in the moonglow to facilitate the flow of Spiritual Energy, and to efficiently filter strands of Qi beyond the Inferior Stage."

"After all, the Moons and Stars are prime constructs of Primeval Qi, ones that naturally condensed into the void sky many aeons ago." Cheng Hao knowingly remarked, "Detail a formation enough, fine-tune it to a certain Qi construct, and it can draw onto it as a reference to gather Spiritual Energy. Since Spiritual Energy is sparse in lower worlds, formations of this kind are a tried and true method to mimic the environment in higher planes and special grounds. In our cases, we'll need much more Spiritual Energy than usual cultivators would, on a scale comparable to the Advanced Stage. This Impure Moonlight Gathering array will not only assist out with that, but will especially help us filter the Qi Strands other than the ost impure Inferior Stage."

"Now, listen as I detail what exactly you'll need to do next..."

...

An incense of time later, Cheng Hao and Xiao Wu both commanded their Martial Way to over above their palms and then proceeded to sit cross-legged into the dormant formation.

Solemnly, they calmed their breathing.

Alas, the emerald-eyed girl heard the dragon exclaim, "Then, commence!"

The formation lit up at once, inundating the room in the pale moonlight. A breeze that couldn't be felt started to blow.

The array had thus initiated its functions.

Akin to a respiratory apparatus, it breathed in ample Spiritual Energy. Most of it was for the two children to draw upon, whereas the remainder would be used by the formation itself: the emerald-eyed girl could vaguely tell a mysterious haze that couldn't be discerned with the naked eye was quickly being expelled from her surroundings;

Reminded by Cheng Hao's explanation, Xiao Wu soon realized that it was filtering Qi Strands other than the Inferior Stage.

"How bizarre..." Xiao Wu acknowledged.

"Now now, don't be distracted yet. Do your best, Little Wu. If against all odds you are faster, I'll give you a present!" Cheng Hao teased her.

"Eh? Don't go back on your words later, Brother Hao. I'll expectantly look forward to unwrapping it first thing tomorrow!"

"Mm, cheeky girl."

With a confident smile and a deep breath, Xiao Wu closed her eyes.

Like that, she entered the meditative state.

In that special state, the mind and the consciousness would temporarily swap places.

She had left the material world and entered her Sea of Consciousness.

Outside its small perimeter, was the World of Qi.

She was not able to feel her body any longer, even her five senses had been almost completely shut off. She was mostly unable to see, hear, feel, smell or taste anything at all. On the other hand, she could instead clearly 'see', 'hear', 'feel', 'smell' and 'taste' the Qi Strands flowing around her Sea. A huge amount of information flooded her mind as countless strands of Qi brushed by the boundaries.

Like that, she was made vaguely aware of her surroundings in the material world even as she had lost all connections to it. Of course, the information carried over by the Inferior strands was pitifully little.

Xiao Wu finally focused on the strands themselves, rather than the scraps of information they were offering her.

They were all distinctly unique, but the sheer number of strands made it so finding a sufficient amount of Qi strands of one's Sensed Qi would take up a lot of time. Especially so, in a land where her Sensed Qi's Strands weren't as prevalent.

In her training sessions back at the Clan, she'd spend long sessions

in secret grounds where the Xiao Qi was much more frequent. Even then, when practising the retrieval of the necessary Qi strands to step into the Inferior Stage, Xiao Wu would require a few hours to find enough.

For one, as a rare Sensed Qi that originated from living beings, it was nowhere near as widespread as Qi Strands of more conceptual Qis. Even on grounds dedicated to propagating and safeguarding particular Qi Strands, these would still be but a small portion of the countless Qi present.

Moreover, many would even be of a different level from the Inferior stage Qi she needed. Just in the Mortal Realm were six stages, after all.

However, thanks to the Martial Way and to the formation inlaid on the ground, searching for the right level of Qi strands wouldn't pose any issue.

Xiao Wu was rather familiar with the meditative state, so she immediately noticed that the arrangement and amount of the Qi strands around her were not normal. The presence of 'impure' Qi Strands of the Inferior stage vastly outnumbered that of any other kind. Such a situation might not be that rare in most cases, as Inferior Qi was usually a bit more abundant than any other in lower worlds, taking the biggest portion of the Mortal Realm's six stages. However, under the pull of the formation, that insignificant ratio had been amplified many times over!

Amongst thousands of nearby strands, Xiao Wu failed to notice any more than ten Basic Qi Strands.

She could not help but exclaim in her mind,

What a miraculous formation!