[Arrival Day + 8, 9am]

Jin bowed and left straight for the practice room. Set still wasn’t there. Jin closed his eyes and entered the aperture.

“GUARDIAN!” - he shouted. Jin was a little bewildered, a little excited, a little frightened. Things really started ramping early because of this new approach of his. But how far can things escalate? He was hoping not too far, or he was really going to go crazy.

The boy appeared, with an amused expression.

“No need to shout, I can hear you fine no matter how softly you speak here.”

“My dear other self, I have some news to share with you. I brought you trouble - I made a pact with a devil.”

Jin smiled.

The boy raised his eyebrows.

“Well, speak up. What are you waiting for?”

Jin explained the details of the deal he worked out with Ma Gu.

The boy thought for a minute. Then he smiled.

“This deal is very good for us no matter how I look at it. Maybe in the future it turns out our backer’s demands would get into our plans, but I honestly doubt that he’d slow us down more than he boosts us now. I’m satisfied.” - Kasm nodded.

Jin breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

“Fantastic, let’s get to it then. I have already received the stones for 2 days. We can spar for 5 hours straight, not counting short breaks I take on refining the stones. I also have an appointment with a senior, so I might need to leave early, at that point we’ll continue after.”

The boy nodded, and they started to spar, no moves held back.

[Arrival Day + 8, 11am]

It was around 2 hours later that his senior had entered the practice room with a couple of large boxes of materials. They looked heavy.

Jin jumped up as he helped his senior bringing everything in.

“Uff, that was heavy, thanks junior.”

Jin bowed. “It is me who wants to express his thanks. I look forward to your guidance, senior sister.” - Jin answered earnestly.

Set smiled.

“No need, No need, just doing my job as a senior.” - She chuckled. She wouldn’t dare complain about this job as the amount of credits she received for it was really good,

They sat by the table.

“Alright, let’s start.” She said resolutely.

“First, I’ll teach you about processing methods. I’ll skip over mortal methods because although they are not all as easy and as simple as crushing or heating things up over fire etc., but in the end - anybody can perform them. Any refinement expert practices them anyway since recipes call for these methods all the time.

The basic expert processing methods are:

Solidification.

Fluidification.

Gasification.

Freezing and cooling.

Abrasion.

Charging.

The first are quite self-explanatory, and there exist 3 basic gusu to cover these, it’s Solid Gusu, Fluid Gusu, and Vapour Gusu. You can find all three of those at rank 1. Solid Gusu is priced at around 70 essence stones, fluid Gusu at 140 stones and vapour Gusu at 90 stones. They can also be upgrade-refined to make the results of their abilities better and so they work at all when used against higher ranked materials.

The Gusu used for freezing and cooling is called flash freeze Gusu. This Gusu naturally exists as a rank 2 Gusu, and it is high in demand, it is quite expensive among rank 2 gusu, the price usually hangs around 450 stones.” - here Set sighed - “Refining costs are quite a bit cheaper thankfully, though the process is a little difficult. If you can refine it then you are at least rank 2 refinement expert. We will not be refining this Gusu, since you’re just rank 1 expert and the process would have a good chance of killing you. It’s a really good Gusu though, it has good utility and is also very effective against a lot of beasts.

Basic abrasion is performed by rank 1 Abrasive Gusu. It can turn rocks and minerals into dust, if the ability was used long enough. At higher ranks, the gusu also can polish materials, which is another method of processing. It can also be used to deal painful, non-lethal wounds. The market price is 140 stones, this Gusu is used mainly for refinement.

Charging is an ability of Shock Gusu. It’s lightning attribute gusu, it can give an electrical charge to a material, and you can find it in nature at rank 1. It’s ability is similar to that of shockwolves’ bite when used on people. Lightning attribute Gusu. The market price is 170 stones. It’s an expensive rank 1 Gusu, but you’ll find that often true for lightning, ice and metal attributed Gusu.”

“I have all the recipes with me. We’ll start with the Solid Gusu. Here, take a look.”

Materials:

1x Stoneworm Carapace

10g deep earth black soil

15x everlasting thistle

2 kg Brittlewood bark

1kg purple nettles

Processing:

Boil 0.5l of water.

Add the everlasting thistle to it. Lower the flame and let it simmer for an hour.

Juice the nettles.

Make a fire, out of the brittle wood bark, and place the stone worm carapace in it.

Once all the bark has burned, Pound the carapace together with ashes. The carapace should have become very brittle.

Mix the whole batch of the nettle juice and the deep earth black soil.

Once an hour has finished, sift the thistle brew from the solids.

Add the ashes and ground carapace to the thistle brew.“

Bonding:

Drink the nettle juice soil mix.

Wait 10 minutes.

Drink the thistle brew, ash, grounded carapace mix.

Tempering Instruction:

Enter the Aperture space.

Wait for the energies to organize into a form.

Temper the form

Once the form is tempered, place Not Gusu into contact with the form.

That was it for the recipe. It seemed a little tighter than the previous one, time frame wise. The material processing could be finished within one hour.

Set looked at Jin.

“As you can see, the recipe doesn’t require any expert techniques. You can do it all by yourself. I’ll be here to oversee and give you tips, but do your best anyway. In the next refinement we’ll use this Gusu”

Jin didn’t waste any time. He started putting water in a pot. Set was laying out the materials on the table. She handed him the thistle plants.

“So, how many students invest to learn refinement?” - Jin asked.

“To a certain degree, all of them. It’s rare to see a rank 2 expert within a sect that hasn’t touched refinement. Usually this means a person is affluent enough to not have to bother. Usually at rank 3 a lot of options open up before the experts, and those that learned just enough to help themselves financially afloat drop the art, or at least do not develop the skill anymore. It’s probably a waste for them to invest in it if they have no feeling for it anyway, there’s a very big gap to cross if somebody wants to become a refinement master.” - Set explained, as she continued looking for and placing ingredients on the table.

“I see. What are you planning, my dear senior?” - said Jin, as he waited for the water to boil.

Set stopped for a second and glanced at Jin, but Jin’s focus was on the water in the pot.

“My master is a refinement master. It’s a big boost in that direction that others don’t have. It’s a good opportunity, so I’m definitely sticking to it. I am also quite apt at it.“

Jin nodded.

“Do you think I have what it takes?”

Set smiled. “I’ll be able to better answer this question after today.”

Jin smiled as well.

“I’ll do my best to not disappoint you.”

“I’d certainly hope you won’t, especially after what you pulled off today.”

Jin laughed.

“Haha, what do you think of my and master’s little arrangement? Don’t you think your junior did well?”

She looked at him again, this time a little disconcerted.

“You’re playing with fire junior.” - she sighed

“The house might seem like a safe and friendly place but the cultivation world is rarely so. Normal mentorship is organized by the House, and it is the House that manages how it will extract the value each student. Nobody will be able to avoid that. You just added another massive debt to your account. Ma Gu will extort what’s his from you, sooner rather than later. The only question is, how will he do it. In the end whether both of you benefit, or both of you lose out, is uncertain.”

Jin chuckled.

“As expected of a senior, a very firm and cool approach.”

“You should learn this kind of approach if you don’t want others to take advantage of you.” - Set said plainly.

Jin smiled. He’s only a fresh rank 1 expert. There’s nobody really who would see him as a potential object to take advantage of in a direct manner. Somebody wanting to take advantage of him, something that Set would be avoiding, was actually an opportunity, especially since he managed to sway an expert much more capable than himself.

The water finally started boiling.

Jin put in the thistle and lowered the flame, and started making preparations for starting the fire in the clean fireplace.

“Senior sister, what’s the proper way to set the fire?” - Jin furrowed his brows before attempting the task. He was fairly sure he cannot add any sort of fire starter, since then it’d be impossible to separate the ashes of the firestarter from ashes from the brittlewood bark.

“If you don’t have Flame Gusu or any with similar effect, you can just hold a piece of bark over direct flame and once it’s on fire drop it off in the fireplace. Make sure the fire catches the rest.” - she instructed.

Jin nodded, and proceeded to the task.

“How long have you been in the House sister? Would you share your experience with your junior? I’ve struck a deal with Ma Gu, which will be an enormous boost to me, but he still will not hand hold me through the process. Truth be told, I am probably the most inept rank 1 expert in the whole sect. I haven’t gone through the preparation training that all trainees go through. In many ways, I am inferior to them, who have a clear and organized schedule, and can focus and absorb the basics effortlessly.”

“Junior, you have a big appetite, you want to do everything at once.” - Set frowned.

“I can make it worth your time, dear sister. I will not forget favors. Even our master decided it was worth a gamble putting resources into me. Little bit of your time now I will return tenfold in the future.” - Jin smiled, as the fire was finally started, the bark was burning together with the stoneworm carapace.

Set raised her brows. It was a good point. She doesn’t have to worry too much about the junior disappearing overnight, since Ma Gu has Jin in his clutches. It might be worth her time to give out a couple favors.

She furrowed her brows.

The boy’s behaviour was a little uncanny to her. But then, if he was just a normal junior, Ma Gu wouldn’t strike a deal with him. Nor would she put him in her eyes the way she did now.

“What can you, a junior, offer me? Ma Gu probably thinks one way or another he can take his investment back anytime he wants. It’s a little bit of effort that will get wasted on his part at most. I won’t have such a hold on you, nor my support would be as valuable as Ma Gu’s, that much is obvious.”

“There’s nothing I can offer you now.” - Jin said plainly - “But whatever you need in the future, you’ll be able to count on me. All I guarantee you is, whatever effort you put to help me, will be returned tenfold. You can request things from me as soon as you find me capable of getting them for you.” - Jin was saying, as he proceeded to a press with purple nettle, to squeeze the juices out of it.

Set observed Jin for a couple minutes as he was making sure no drop of juice was wasted.

There was around 115 ml of fluid in the vial. He added the soil to the juice, mixed it, and set it aside. This mixture was ready for the bonding stage.

“I think we can work something out, junior brother. Filling up some of your gaps on common knowledge is an easy task, though it might be time consuming. So long as this doesn’t interfere with my schedule, we can try it.” - Set finally decided. It wasn’t much of a risk really. At most she’ll waste a little of her breath. There were plenty of opportunities in her day to simply talk while she was handling mundane matters. They can even talk quite freely during the first steps of each refinement.

Jin grinned.

“My dear sister, aren’t you afraid this junior will take you for a ride and take advantage of you?” Jin jeered.

Set smiled.

“Your senior sister just has to ask you to return the favours while she can still make a lot of trouble for you.”

Jin laughed at this response.

“You need not worry, I will keep my word.” - said Jin while moving the charcoal in the fireplace to make sure everything’s burned properly - “and I’ll make sure not give you reasons to doubt me.”

Soon, the fires got extinguished. Jin started to pound up the worm’s carapace with a small hammer, right inside the fireplace.

Once it all turned to dust, he removed the ashes to a small bucket. There was still around 20 minutes until the thistle brew was ready.

“Sister, can you tell me about formations?” - Jin asked, as he sat by the table. He knew formations were as big a topic as refinement, yet he didn’t really have much time to delve into it.

Set nodded.

“Formations are a very broad topic. Part of the formations is knowledge about environments, how to modify, create or get rid of them. Some materials grow only in specific environments. Same with mana beast, they can thrive only in specific environments. It is a mixture of landscape, weather, fauna and flora, and generally studying on those is considered part of the science of formations. As you can imagine, subjects such as architecture or logistics are also under the umbrella of formations.”

“Of course cultivators have their own branches of formations. I’ll start from the most simple aspect. The most basic form of formation is something called Gusu Combination. It is nothing more than using multiple Gusu to produce a result, which none of the Gusu could produce separately. Different Gusu work differently if used as part of a combination. For example, if you use shock Gusu’s ability, it’ll discharge electricity through your body. However, it can be used as a sort of modifier to add lightning attribute, to otherwise attributeless attack. For example, if you’ll let the shock ability pass through the blade Gusu’s ability, then you will be able to produce an electrically charged blades, which are more dangerous that regular blades. Of course, the essence consumption is higher, since you’re using two Gusu in that situation instead of one.

This is the most basic aspect of formations, and every expert will have a couple combination moves at hand.

The second aspect of formations is a little more complex. It is about building external structures, which can be fueled by essence or essence stones. Formations like these can be used by anyone who knows how to access its features. They also allow mortals to use the Gusu as well, as formations do not require anyone to refine a gusu, actually if somebody were to refine a gusu within a formation, the formation would most likely crumble.

In this manner, artificers are able to create all manner of gear and equipment for anybody with adequate resources to acquire.

The final aspect of formations are the so-called domains. It is an advanced application of formations. Domain is a formation that separates itself from outside, affecting the space on the inside in a manner dependent on the kind of domain it is. The domains are extremely flexible in terms of what can happen within them.”

Jin nodded, digesting the information.

The brew was ready. He separated the solids from it and added the ashes to the pot.

It was time to bond.

Jin sat down cross legged and followed the instructions. Once he drank both mixtures, he entered the aperture space.

“We’re refining again?” - the boy asked, excitement showing on his face.

“Yes, and we’ll be refining a lot more. Your turf will be having a lot of guests from now on.”

Soon the energies formed, and a large clump of crystal bloomed in the spot where the energies were converging.

Jin activated the Beast Strength, and was immediately pouncing on the structure.

The crystal was insanely hard, but it was also pretty brittle. The more Jin was pounding on it, the more pieces were falling off, but also the larger clumps of crystal were getting rounder, which made it harder to apply the right kind of force to break the structure. After an hour of struggle though, the Guardian finally announced.

“It is done.” Put all the pieces and dust in one spot.

Jin swept all the dust and broken pieces with his hands. Once it was done, he summoned one of the Not Gusu, and placed it on top of crystal pile.

The process looked similar to his previous experiences. Once finished, what was left was a young, elegant black cicada, spotting big shiny black eyes and a pair of translucent wings with a bright orange pattern on them.

Jin picked it up, smiling.

“It’s Solid Gusu” - he said, predicting Guardian’s question -

“It’s useful in refinement. It helps transforming the substance’s state.”

Jin moved the Gusu standing on his hand close to his eyes so he could inspect it. It was really pretty. Jin moved his finger across the top of the cicada's body. The Gusu responded in a courteous nod, and flapped its wings. Jin smiled.

He handed the Gusu to Kasm.

“I’m leaving for now, I need to refine more Gusu with our senior. I made a little deal with the senior as well, hoping she can get me up to speed on some of the neglected topics. This deal is of little consequence though in terms of our progression speed. She knows of our deal with Ma Gu and I believe she’ll be a good support. The deal is, when the time comes, we will support her as well.”

“That’s fine” - said the guardian, but Jin was seeing that the Guardian was only half-listening, as it was already mesmerized by the new Gusu.

Jin left the aperture space.

He opened his eyes and smiled.

“Success. My dear senior, it is thanks to you!”

“Naturally there was no chance of failure under my watchful gaze.” - Set answered calmly.

[Arrival Day + 8, 1pm]

Jin noticed that the materials for the next Gusu were already prepared.

“Which Gusu are we refining next?”

“Abrasive Gusu. Here’s the recipe.” - she answered and handed Jin the recipe.

Materials:

1x Rugged trapdoor python skin

10ml Mercury

30g golden grass blades

25x golden grass seeds

10g red sharpstone dust

Processing:

Submerge the rugged python’s skin in 100ml of 70% alcohol for 90 minutes.

Crush the golden grass seeds and leaves in a mortar to form a paste.

Mix the mercury with sharpstone dust.

Solidify the mercury - sharpstone mixture into 3 small balls

Once 90 minutes has passed, squeeze out the alcohol lingering on the skin and discard the skin.

Add and mix the golden grass paste into the alcoholic extract.

Bonding:

Swallow the first ball of mercury-sharpstone mixture, use the alcoholic extract to help it down. Make sure to keep the mercury solidified throughout the process.

Repeat the process 2 more times. If there is any extract left, consume it.

Tempering Instruction:

Enter the Aperture space.

Wait for the energies to organize into a form.

Temper the form

Once the form is tempered, place Not Gusu into contact with the form.

Jin read through it carefully. Then proceeded to refine the essence stones, so he can fill his reserves back up.

Once he was done, he inspected the materials.

“How much were these materials worth?” - asked Jin, as he started measuring the alcohol.

“110 stones. If you refine the gusu yourself, you can save 30 stones. You can also save more if you procure some of the materials yourself. The skin of the python is by far the most expensive ingredient, going for 90 stones. It is a rank 2 beast after all. Abrasive Gusu is considered a quite expensive one. In refinement it’s irreplaceable, but it also has some other uses. All that being said, not many disciples decide to acquire it, because of its price. Mainly only those who plan to do more advanced refining work would invest in it.”

“That makes sense.” - Jin put the snake skin into the alcohol, making sure it is fully submerged.

“I’m lucky to avoid economic issues in the nearest future. I had no backing what so ever from the clan. The best I could do was ask for loans from friends, who were a little more fortunate. What’s the general economic status of the disciples?” - he asked, and grabbed the grass leaves and seeds and moved them into a mortar, as he started grinding everything to a paste. He activated the beast strength for the process to go smoother, the grass was very tough, and the seeds were hard.

“It varies, of course. I’d say most of the people are like you - their family provided them no or minimal support. There’s a small group of descendants of really affluent families, but how family decides to support them varies. Sometimes the family provides no support, leaving their descendant to figure out how to procure for themselves in a safe-ish environment of the House. Sort of like a trial, they are not in their home turf where they are little princes and princesses, nor are they in the open world scenario where anything can happen. Some families will not skimp on supporting one of theirs. The crux of the matter is that, most of the time, affluence doesn't provide as big an advantage as you'd think."

Jin was surprised.

"How so?"

"Usually affluent people cultivate faster in general, but they are also stuck at breakthrough points. Sometimes much longer than other students, who didn’t have outside help. They become agitated and start grasping at straws when they see themselves stuck and worry that they won't be able to push through. They see their less affluent peers catching up, a lot of them even surpassing them. Finally they manage to break through one way or another, as everyone else eventually does. Of course, that does not apply to everyone. Just having a chance at an earlier breakthrough is a great opportunity nobody really wants to miss. Even if they know using stones for essence recovery and similar tactics may not necessarily speed up their long term progress, just a chance that it might work is good enough. Many can’t afford taking up the chance even if they wanted to."

Jin nodded.

He finished grinding up the golden grass mix. He proceeded to practice usage of solid Gusu on mercury, just so he will be fluent enough in its usage when it is needed.

“That’s very interesting. Master mentioned Gu Ha Yun, he must be a genius then?”

Set chuckled.

“Indeed it is master’s pet peeve to mention most talented disciples of the House when he assesses our progress. Though it is true, your early breakthrough into rank 1 is highly unusual, that I must admit it, as anyone else would as well. You’re of an age of just-admitted trainee, it is quite amusing seeing you scuttle doing refinement tasks already with that magnificent necklace of yours no less.”

Jin smiled sourly in response to Set’s jeer.

“Is that why I get no help from you at all? I was thinking it was because I need to get experience.” - Jin jeered.

“It is both, my little junior. It is both.” - set said as she showed a big smile.

Jin continued to practice with Solid Gusu, as it wasn’t as straightforward to use as the Beast Strength. Jin could feel the complexity that this addon provided within his energy structure, and it was taking quite a bit of time to wrap his head around it.

“Senior sister, do you know about paths? I heard them mentioned, but I haven’t really seen any information about the subject.”

“Paths refer to different aspects of the world that a master can gain expertise on. The expert’s rank can be also referred to as his energy path rank. Do you know what elemental paths exist?”

“Water, Air, Earth and fire?” - said Jin

“Correct, those are the main elemental paths. there are also minor ones. Ice, Metal, Lightning, Wood. They are not really true paths, they are more of a mental shortcut. If somebody is a lightning master, it means he’s both, master of air and master of fire.”

“I see.” Jin pondered for a bit.

“If we all are cultivating an energy path, how does one cultivate a different path?”

“Energy path is the base for all other paths. The options to cultivate different paths opens only when an expert reaches rank 4. Rank 4 cultivators are no longer called experts actually, but masters.”

Jin was getting a feeling for controlling the solid gusu. He could quite reliably use it on mercury, which transformed it into a very soft, malleable solid.

The skin extract was supposed to be ready in half an hour now.

“Which path is the best?” - Jin asked cheekly

Set rolled her eyes.

“Each path has its own weaknesses and strengths. You can’t call a path the best. There definitely are rarer and more common masters, depending on which paths they’ve chosen to develop and their’ aptitudes. There aren't that many masters who can develop in all 4 elemental paths, some can develop only in two, because of their aptitudes. This also doesn’t mean that if a person has good aptitude in all 4, he must develop all of them. He might develop just 1 because it suits him best due to circumstance.”

Jin nodded.

“What other paths are there?”

“There’s a light and dark path. They don’t necessarily refer to physical aspects of light and dark. Dark path Gusu for example can excel at illusions, disguise, hiding, making untruth seem like truth, avoiding detection and so on. Light path quite the opposite, the associated qualities would be of the revealing sort, distinguishing truth from lies, improving perception, dispelling illusions and so on.”

Jin stopped practicing for a second.

“These are fascinating.” - he exclaimed.

Set nodded. “Indeed. However, they have weaknesses. You would be hard pressed to find a light or dark path master fend himself off against an elemental master. Nor will these paths help you much in refinement for example.”

Jin slowly nodded as he thought about the subject.

“Besides the Energy path, there is also the Vitality path and Mind path. Vitality, as you can imagine, focuses on bodily development and improvement. Improving your body can go way beyond just improving your vitality and strength. Your first gusu - the Beast Strength gusu is actually of this path.”

“Oh.” - Jin was dumbfounded for a second, just realizing they are not talking about some far fetched mystical things, but things that he already has at least some access to. He smiled. - “How come I can use it? Do I maybe have the makings of a vitality path master?”

Set chuckled.

“No. Any expert can use any Gusu really, so long as his energy rank is high enough. What paths allow a Master to do, is amplify the gusu’s effect. If you were a vitality path master, you would get an increased benefit from your rank 1 Beast Strength Gusu.”

“I see.”

“As for the mind, the story is similar. The methods of the path can improve it in a multitude of ways, or otherwise mess with it. The target needs not be the expert himself after all. Master’s sense share combination move for example uses the mind path Gusu.”

“I was most impressed with this method when he used this move on me and showed me how to refine a Not Gusu”

“Correct. It is a powerful path. Mind Masters are respected everywhere. And part of this respect is heavy, heavy wariness against them. A funny thing is, Mind Masters are particularly powerful when pitched against humans, be it a fighting or any sort of other competition. However, they are quite helpless against anything of low intelligence such as Mana Beasts and dangerous plants.”

“No strongest path as you said.” - said Jin with a sigh.

“Another interesting tidbit might be, is that Krakensort is known to have an aptitude in mind arts.” - Set smiled.

Jin raised his eyebrows. That was a curious thing.

“Oh? Do the sorts have their trademark paths?”

“Sort of. It is true that one sort’s most prominent path differs from others, but it is not true that each person within the sort has aptitude for any of the, as you called them, trademark paths. It’s just that a lot of them do have at least a small aptitude towards development in that direction.”

Jin nodded.

The free time was coming to a close, Jin mixed the sharpstone dust with mercury, solidified it and formed it into three balls. He solidified them further at that point.

He took out the snake skin out of the alcohol, and made sure all alcohol from the skin dropped into the container. Then he added the paste to it. He placed all processed materials by himself, filled up his essence and started the process as instructed.

After he consumed the mercury balls and drank the extract - grass paste mixture, he closed his eyes and entered the aperture.

The boy was laying in the void, two Gusu crawling on him. Jin looked slightly amused.

“The audience is ready for the show. Show those energies who’s the boss!” - Kasm cheered.

Jin just gulped. He was pretty lucky last time with energies taking a form of a solid mineral. He had a premonition this is not going to be as easy.

The energies were converging. After 5 minutes or so, a huge, fat python emerged from the center of the convergence. It must’ve been around 10 meters long.

Jin activated the Beast Strength. Solid Gusu was still activated, he didn’t dare to have liquid mercury inside his body.

Jin started the tempering process. The python was his strongest enemy yet. Thankfully, it was not very agile. Jin needed to be extremely wary of his position, he couldn’t let the python’s put any of its weight on him, otherwise Jin would just collapse and get strangled, even with his bonus strength. Jin resorted to a slower, hit and run kind of tactic, circling around the python. This made the combat last quite a long time. He needed to get out of the aperture and refine essence stones after 40 minutes or so, because of his expenditure due to using two Gusu. He needed to do it once again, another 40 minutes later. After a little over 1.5h has passed, the python finally was unmoving, belly up.

“Position it into the spiral and place the Not Gusu in the center” - instructed the lean boy, watching intently.

Jin followed the instructions. It took him another 10 minutes to position the python properly. Then, finally, he placed the Not Gusu on the snake’s belly in the center of the spiral, and moved away.

The energies soon started converging on the Not Gusu. A few moments later, it was done, the energies dissipated, and in the void, there was a… small and somewhat chubby at the same time sand shark?

Jin looked at it. Called it to come to him. The Gusu used two fins and approached Jin in a manner not dissimilar from what you’d expect a seal to move on the ground. It had big eyes, it looked a little clumsy. It’s skin was covered in scales that looked quite sharp. Jin took it in his hand. It was quite a bit bigger than the Beast Strength Gusu, but still could easily fit itself on top of his hand. Jin greeted the gusu by petting it. Gusu visibly enjoyed the greeting, and slapped it’s fins against Jin’s hand and making a sound in response.

Jin smiled. He inspected the Gusu’s mouth, as it looked quite capable of chewing through anything that comes its way. He let the Gusu bite his hand, by placing it next to its jaw. The gusu nibbled at the hand. He tried controlling it to see what’s the strength of its jaws. To his suprise, neither the sharpness of the teeth, nor the jaw strength were a fraction of what he expected - it was still a Gusu. It could hardly fend off for itself without its ability.

Jin played with it for a minute by pretending to try to escape the clutches of the mini shark and the shark was always catching up to his attempts. Finally, Jin gave him two belly rubs with the hand the shark was firmly seated on. The gusu understood the intent, and jumped off the hand, landing in the void, but instead of hitting the floor it actually started swimming in it.

This might be his cutest subordinate yet.

“Good Gusu.” - Jin exclaimed

Jin thought about how mysterious this space is. It was void. But there was a ground to stand on. For the Abrasive Gusu, there was probably sand to swim in. He looked at his Guardian, and smiled. The guardian was calling the Gusu, as it was swimming towards him.

Jin approached the boy, who was playing with the shark already.

“This is Abrasive Gusu. It is a pricey rank 1 Gusu, take good care of it.”

“There’s nobody in the world who’s going to take better care of it than me.”

“Have you finished with the tempered energy yet?”

“No, not yet, but I will be done in another hour or two. We should spar again at that time.” - Kasm gave Jin a battle ready grin.

Jin nodded, and waved as he left the space.

“We did it again, senior.” Jin smiled.

[Arrival Day + 8, 6pm]

Jin went to the bathroom to vomit out the solidified mercury balls. They haven’t left his stomach yet. The cobra wrapped around his neck really didn’t enjoy the process, and was hissing in displeasure. Jin felt a little weak and tired now after all was settled. Jin drank a lot of water and returned to the main room.

“Senior, let’s go out to eat. I feel like there’s a black hole forming in the pit of my stomach.”

“I was afraid you’re not going to ask.” - Set sighed and smiled gently.

Jin put on a grin.

“Senior, you should have said something. Your wellbeing is my wellbeing.”

They went towards the canteen. It was past the normal eating hours for most people, but the canteen was far from empty.

Jin was getting a lot of looks for his snake friend. He pet it from time to time to its great annoyance and his equally great amusement.

Set looked actually quite impressed how he is handling the situation.

“Ma Gu really did you in with the Jailer. I don’t envy you on that front.”

Jin chuckled.

“I doubt anybody would, senior sister. As long as it’s master’s Gusu, I can sleep at ease.”

Mu Set only rolled her eyes at this statement.

“You’ll tell the boss I said many nice things about him right?” - Jin said to the cobra, as he was patting it again. The cobra hissed quietly, probably wanting to roll its eyes as well.

After getting their food, Set has found an empty spot for them. They sat together and started eating, quite copious amounts of food on both of their plates.

“I feel we haven’t really finished our conversation on the paths” - Jin remarked.

“What conversation? It was just me explaining things to you. Let it be known to you that every second is counted and will be accounted for when I finally ask for my returns.” - Set jeered.

“Dear senior sister, I wouldn’t dare usurp your time, my apologies.” Jin replied, as Set was stuffing herself up.

“It’s good that you realize, junior. There’s not much left to say anyway. The paths I didn’t mention yet are the Sound Path, Space Path and the Time Path.

The Sound Path could also be called resonance or vibration path, as this is the main medium through which many effects can be created. It is quite a flexible path, perhaps the most so - in many ways it can mimic a lot of effects that are the specialities of other paths. For example, a tune can ensnare a person in a way that you’d expect a person to be under a mind method’s influence. There are methods to recon all manner of vibrations around an expert, so he has much fuller information about his surroundings. There are also many effective offensive methods associated with the path. All that being said, while very versatile, it has a typical property that you'd see in a person of many skills - jack of all trades, but master of none. You can’t imitate effects of other paths perfectly, and there’s often either a significant power disadvantage, or the requirements to produce an effect are quite a bit more demanding than it would be, using the path most suited for it.” - Set was explaining, as she occasionally stopped to eat and chew her food to gather some thoughts on the subject.

“As for Space and Time, there’s very few who possess aptitudes in these paths. The Time, of all paths, is the subtlest. Time Gusu are very rarely found on the market - their effects are usually too weak to be of any use, and so, since pretty much nobody was buying them, nobody has been trading them either for a long time. Only an amplification from the time path master could make these Gusu useful. That being said, the effects of these Gusu are quite magical. Think about reverting injuries instead of healingthem up. Hasting yourself up so you are a blur to everybody else or slowing your enemies to the point they are frozen and helpless. These and many more are said to be possible for Time Path master.

Space path is a little less mystical, as many space path Gusu are perfectly usable without any sort of amplification, though it is a very hard thing to do. Space path gusu are said to be incredibly hard to control with high accuracy. There often is a big variation in results. All that being said, if the flaws are overcome, the utility and power of space related abilities is hard to match. Just think about the crown of the space path mastery: the teleportation. What an ability. You have a favourite restaurant at the other end of the world? No problem. Well, I’m likely overselling it, there’s limits to everything and I can’t imagine how much essence it would cost to teleport such a distance. In terms of power? Warping space is said to cause huge damage. The kind of damage that is very difficult to protect oneself against.”

Set dug into her food again.

Jin nodded slowly, chewing his food, and thinking about the subject.

“Thank you, senior. I have a better overview of the matter now.” - he said, as he finally finished chewing.

[Arrival Day + 8, 6.30pm]

“Is this my fool of a friend sitting with a charming girl over a meal? Am I seeing things?”

Jin turned his head. It was Bei.

Jin smiled.

“Bei, meet my dear senior sister Mu Set. She studies under the same master as me.” - Bei made a courteous bow. - “Set, this is Bei, he is the southern continent’s best talent, be it cultivation or the smarts, and an invaluable friend to your junior as well.” - Set nodded towards Bei.

Jin smiled.

“Bei, join us, I want to catch you up on some developments.” - Jin said as he patted the snake again. The cobra definitely didn’t expect so much attention after a relatively calm day.

Bei raised his brows.

“I’ll go grab my food first.”

Once Bei was gone, it was her turn to raise the eyebrows.

“You seem to hold your friend in high regard? Or was it just friendly banter?”

“He is my inspiration.” - replied Jin, smiling.

“He must be quite a persona then. Too bad I need to go make some rounds, I’m finished with my meal. We still have 3 Gusu to refine before tomorrow ends. We should be fine if we start tomorrow morning. Let’s meet in the practice room at 6AM.” - Set said, and waved her hand in goodbye.

“Thank you for today, senior.” - said Jin sincerely, as she was leaving.

Soon, Bei joined him, with a much more reasonable amount of food than he and Set took,

He sat down.

“The girl’s gone?”

“She said she doesn’t like tall lean boys like you.”

Bei sneered.

“Fill me in, I’m quite hungry so you have to excuse me while I’m eating.”

Jin nodded.

“As you may know, since a week ago I’ve been acquainted with my master Ma Gu”

“In the first week, my progress was passable, and passable was all that it was.”

Bei raised his brows at these words.

“Today, when I visited Ma Gu, I requested that he invests in me through and through. He ended up agreeing and I have a serious backer now. My master is very protective of his investment, so he gave me this Jailer Gusu, to protect me from bad ideas.” - Jin pointed at the snake, and giving him two pats while he had its attention.

“I also made a little deal with my senior sister, that is of similar nature but smaller in scale, to gain her support, as she already knows my situation, it’s going to be easy to communicate with her. She’s a rank 2 expert.”

Bei listened while finishing his meal, nodding along the way.

“My dear friend, I am curious about your opinion on my current circumstances.”

Jin finished.

Bei finished as well and looked in the sky. Bei grinned.

“You grow up fast my friend. I wouldn’t have expected to become so bold so soon. It is certainly an amusing look seeing a kraken with a snake around his throat, somebody would have thought you are wearing wrong color of robes.” - Bei smiled.

“I think I’m fine with snake, I’m not sure if I were more comfortable with an octopus around my neck.” - Jin jeered.

“I was thinking I’ll catch up with you the moment I awaken my aperture - but it seems it might take me a day or two more if you continue like this. You can consider me proud.” - Bei continued.

Jin put on a grin.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to keep reevaluating this timeframe, as your best friend hopes to leave you in the dust. But let’s leave this aside, better tell me how things are with you, my dear hatchling.”

“Things are going as expected, as dissatisfied as I am saying that.” - Bei sneered. - “Some things just cannot be rushed.”

“Is that so? I was curious, which master are you shooting for? Should I request Ma Gu to warm up a spot?”

“No, that’d be a total waste. Anyway, I don’t think he’d be giddy to take Mayura as a pupil. Most important of all, we’d end up with redundant methods. Since you are Ma Gu’s student, I can only assume you’ll be developing your refinement skills?” - Bei asked for confirmation.

Jin nodded.

“That is good. Refinement is most useful, but there’s no need for both of us to be good at it.” - Bei explained, as he was looking at Jin.

“Right now I’m thinking of going under Edo Mei’s wings.” - he added

Jin raised his eyebrows questioningly. He didn’t hear about this master before.

“She specializes in dark path. There’s not that many people pursuing it, as it is rather offensively crippled, but that should be fine as long as it is supported by proper methods. It’s quite rare to find a master with this specialization, and yet more rare to find one that is willing to share some of her methods, it’d be a waste to not jump at the occasion.” - Bei explained, somewhat expressionlessly - “You’ve been here as long as I have, it worries your friend that your head is as empty as ever.” - he added, with a saddened expression

Jin only scratched his head with an awkward laugh.

“Though my head is still empty, I have other gains.” - Jin pondered. Bei and dark path? What was Set saying about it… illusion? Deception? He couldn’t help but put on a sour smile and chuckle.

“Oh? What gains?” - Bei inquired.

“In short I have 3 Gusu now, the Beast Strength, Solid, and Abrasive. I’ll be refining additional 3 Gusu to aid my refinement. Moreover, I’ve been tempering my energy body, and now thanks to my master’s backing, I can use essence stones to speed up the process.”

Bei tapped the table with his fingers a couple times, sinking in thoughts.

“Good. Your master seems to have really taken to you. That is very good.” - Bei smiled. - “I hope that my master will give me the same level of affection.” - He chuckled.

Grimace appeared on Jin’s face, as he pictured Ma Gu being affectionate towards him.

“I have things to do now, I’ll see you around my kraken.” - Bei has left Jin with a tap on a shoulder, carefully placed so he doesn’t hit the snake, who anyway hissed in warning.

Bei chuckled again as he was leaving.

Jin sighed, giving the snake a couple more pets before he left the canteen.

[Arrival Day + 8, 7.00pm]

It was nearing 7pm.

It was about time to temper the energy again.

Jin found a nice grass covered spot he could sit on, that was a little distance from the paths, and entered his aperture space there.

He spent 3 hours sparring with the Guardian. He felt they both got a hang of hand to hand combat better using the enormous strength they could display inside the aperture.

After the 3 hours had passed, Jin asked the Guardian again.

“Is your last prediction accurate? That we can reach the peak of rank 1 in 6 months.”

Kasm raised his brows.

“Yes. It’ll be 6 months or a little sooner, most likely.” - the Guardian smiled. - “This is a really good progress speed for us. Even those with better aptitudes will be hard pressed to match it, unless they have a similar backing.” - Kasm said thoughtfully.

“Let’s keep at it.” - he gave Jin a thumbs up.

Jin nodded, and left the aperture.

He recovered his essence with stones again. Having basically an unlimited supply of essence really helped in cultivation. Jin sighed.

He already used 18 stones out of the 50 that Ma Gu has given him. For a daily spending, this was just too much for any rank 1 expert. He wasn’t sure how much any expert within the House could earn for himself or herself. That’s a question for Set, when he meets her tomorrow.

[Arrival Day + 8, 10.00pm]

Jin entered the kraken dorms. There were still a few people around. He navigated to his room through the common area. The snake wrapped around his neck caught attention of everyone he’d pass.

“Jin?” - He heard an unfamiliar voice. Jin turned towards it.

“Fin. Jin put a hand to the back of his head. I didn’t recognize your voice.”

Jin pointed at the cobra.

“You… are jailed?” - Fin continued.

“It’s a long story, but the short answer is yes.” - Jin smiled reassuringly - “It’s alright, I got this on my own request, so to speak.“

The boy blinked a couple times, he was quite surprised.

“I see. If you say it’s alright then it’s alright. Sorry to disturb you.” - the boy apologized.

“I’m not disturbed.” - Jin smiled - “If you’re free and curious, I don’t mind telling you about it.” - Jin said plainly.

Fin didn’t seem like a very outgoing person, a total opposite of Eru’s. His eyes brightened for a second as he nodded.

“I’ll make some tea.” - Fin suggested, as he went off. Jin found a place to sit in the common area. He was all flushed red, as he felt of curious glances at him all over.

Soon it seemed as if all the 20-30 people in the room knew he was Jin the newbie, who skipped the trainee phase by advancing to rank 1 almost immediately, and that he’s been jailed a week into his stay at the House.

“Well, the sooner krakens satisfy their curiosity, the better for him. It’s best to deal with it in one go.” - he thought. Jin felt quite embarrassed while receiving all this attention. Aside from curiosity, some people seemed to chuckle in response, and some had a worried or anxious look.

Two of those had approached Jin.

“Are you alright? It wasn’t a student that Jailed you, was it?” - He was asked, quite sharply, by a small, blonde girl with quite long and bushy hair. Next to her was a somewhat worried looking girl, that was of a normal height. Her hair was long and straight, though not as long as her smaller friend’s. Or was it just an impression, because of mismatched proportions?

Jin smiled. “No, it’s my master’s Gusu. Thanks for checking - I am Tai Jin, I am quite new here in the sort. I hope you’ll take good care of me.” - Jin said, as he bowed.

The small girl furrowed her brows.

“And what did you exactly do to earn so much distrust that your master had to Jail you, after one week no less?”

The smaller girl got pinched by the other one.

“This is Lu Min, and I am Ru Fuji. It’s nice to meet you.”

Jin chuckled.

“It’s quite alright. I’m waiting for an acquaintance who is curious about the story as well. Feel free to join us and listen in.”

Min and Fuji looked at each other and nodded.

“We’re free, so might as well.” - Min said. They chit-chatted for a minute, and at that time Fin returned with the tea.

“Alright, listen closely my fellow krakens. As you might-” - Jin looked at Fin - “Or might not know-” - he looked at the Min and Fuji - “ I am a pupil of the most benevolent and the most auspicious master the Nan Liang Mountain has seen. Yes, I am a pupil of Ma Gu, the refinement master.”

All three raised their eyebrows at the way Jin was narrating events that led to his current circumstance.

“Because talented people seem to see eye-to-eye, Ma Gu has approved of my many talents, as I did complete his assignment in *fourth* of a time he had given me.” - Jin exeggerated a little bit, A month was the absolute maximum limit Ma Gu allowed for the task’s completion after all.

“While at the task, he had a chance to witness my valor. Just before finishing the assignment, as I was waiting for a watchful eye of my master to assist me in refining my first ever Gusu - a senior kraken, a vicious transformation expert, who was at least rank 2, maybe even rank 3 has sneaked into the room and attacked me. The vile beast tried to steal all materials, but with valiant effort I fought it off, and it managed to barely snatch two before running - as I have seen through all of its tricks, and it was simply scared for its life.”

Jin looked at his audience. Fin seemed to listen intently, Fuji was smiling sympathetically, while Min’s brows were twitching in annoyance.

Jin only smiled.

“Anyway, the transformation fellow has earned the wrath of my Master, and the very next day, as he was giving me his next assignment, he used this Jailer Gusu as a way to protect the rising star of Krakensort - from future troubles such as these, and furthermore find out the identity of the student - if he dared to face me again. In fact, this Jailer doesn’t prevent me from going or doing anything, it is only my cute bodyguard.” - Jin pet the snake as he was finishing narrating the events.

Min raised her eyebrows.

“Is it true? The Jailer Gusu can protect the Jailed person?” - she asked.

Fin nodded.

“That is correct, Jailer Gusu only harms a person if some simple conditions are meant, but otherwise it is not supposed to let the jailed harmed.” - Fin confirmed.

“Then that’s the only thing I learned here. The rest of your story, I don’t know how much, if any of it, is true.”

“It is true that my master is Ma Gu - who are you under, sister?” - he looked at Min.

“I’m not your sister. I’m Zu Bin’s pupil. And I’m already at the peak of rank 1 - so you better show respect and restraint around me - soon I’ll be your senior, newbie.” - Min scoffled.

Jin smiled again. “In that case, I might jump the gun and start calling you senior now, senior Min.” - Jin jeered.

Min furrowed her brows again, but Fuji put her hand on Min’s arm.

“I’m under Du Maru.” - she said. - “Thank you for entertaining our curiosity Jin. We’ll see you around.” - Fuji waved as she left them, pulling Min along.

“Have a good night, senior Min!” - Jin almost shouted, as the girls were leaving.

Afterwards, Jin explained to Fin that the story was only half true. Most of the facts were correct, though Ma Gu didn’t really wish for Jin to flaunt his tongue about why the Jailer was put on him.

Fin nodded. They both finished their tea before saying goodbyes.

Jin entered his room. Shin was absent again. Nobody had it easy around here. Jin picked up his Gusu Encyclopedia and looked for Solid Gusu and Abrasive Gusu. He needed to find what kind of food they eat and feed them. The sooner, the better.

Solid Gusu’s core food was Stone Philodendron Leaves. Abrasive Gusu’s core food were the red sharpstones that were also used in its refinement.

Jin navigated towards the trade center and asked the clerk about these items. Both were just rank 1 materials. Jin bought 50g of sharpstones for 5 stones and 10 philodendron leaves for 2 stones. He thanked the clerk and left.

Of course he wasn’t spared curious glances thanks to his new friend. Even the clerk was quite amused by it when Jin approached him.

[25 stones used]

Outside the trade hall, on a bench, Jin sat as he summoned the Solid Gusu, which happily dabbed at and chewed leaves. For the Abrasive Gusu, he just put the stones in its jaws, having the shark chomp on them happily. Once they absorbed the core foods to their limit, Jin recalled the Gusu into his aperture.

He felt satisfied as well.

It was a long day. He felt quite tired and decided to return to the lodgings and sleep off this tiredness.

Jin took a bath, to his surprise the snake didn’t mind.

His essence reserves were recharged, so he decided to do one more round of sparring with the Guardian, to not waste the essence. After all, it was going to regenerate fully during the sleep.

When he finally hit the bed, he needed to find a good position so both he and the snake were reasonably satisfied. Jin smirked as he finally stopped hearing the hisses of the annoyed snake.

“You are taking your job too seriously, just hop off, and jump on back again in the morning.” - he muttered sleepily to the snake.

The cobra ignored him, peacefully laying beside him, still wrapped around his neck.

Finally, at around 11PM he fell asleep.