Liya had never seen someone cultivate. Now, as she looked a Feng Shen doing so, she couldn't decide if she found it fascinating or a needless time-sink when mana could strengthen someone much faster.

Feng Shen sat down, and ambient qi was absorbed into his energy center. Once there, it obeyed the mystical symbols engraved on the center's walls—characters that didn't follow Alliance Standard Mana Script. Then Shen willed the qi to spread throughout his body and soul in a pattern.

The pattern quickly changed. It was one way the first time, slightly different the second, then wholly overhauled the third. She guessed he was adapting his cultivation technique to his True Path.

He was done with most changes less than a minute later. Then he focused on cultivating as ordered, fine-tuning things here and there. He was enthusiastic about it, and she doubted he would've obeyed her order to cultivate otherwise.

Liya noticed the qi nourishing his body and soul, polluting the pure slate she had given him. That was unavoidable. Only the Void was absolutely pure. To walk a Path was to go through the muddled waters of Concepts and Laws and come out changed.

He soon realized that he couldn't improve his body much further, though. As much as Liya hated his arrogance, he had done an excellent job of pushing his body close to the peak of D+ stats, and the Pure Yin-Yang Water had taken some rough edges he had left. Going through the system limits was possible—she had done so herself using the Receptacles of Hope—but she had never seen it happen without external tools.

Of course, a first-class Talent wouldn't let her take the world for granted—she was proven wrong a moment later.

Shen found the limits of his body and almost went through them. Liya could tell that he only lacked the knowledge to bridge the gap, and she could share it with him. But she didn't.

She couldn't reward him for being obnoxious with her.

The failure to overcome the limits upset him enough that she detected emotional ripples in his soul. His mind was wavering, so she slapped him. That upset him enough that he completely lost track of cultivation and focused on his ire.

She sighed audibly. "So easily distracted. We'll work on that, too," she said, then willed a spear to leave her Inventory.

It was the weakest training spear she had ever crafted after being recognized as a Master Spearmaker. The one who requested it for their apprentice never came to collect it, probably dead in a ditch somewhere in the multiverse.

The metallic shaft was golden, and the wooden spearhead blue. It weighed too much, the shaft was slippery, the balance was terrible, and the spearhead was as blunt as a club.

Yet, each of the weapon's seemingly lousy features was there for a reason. Using that training spear would improve one's grasp over their weapon and help them notice that sometimes a looser grip was preferable. The shitty balance would force one to understand how to more effectively use different parts of a spear that they usually didn't. The blunt edge helped one use the weapon's slight sharpness and pointy edge more efficiently, which would assist when they fought with an actual spear.

Liya threw the weapon at the boy's feet. The ground shook slightly at the weight.

"It would be better to start with a G spear," she said, "but I don't want to waste time crafting one for a pathetic boy I might yet kill. D-tier will have to do." He didn't move. "What are you waiting for? Let me see you fail at wielding a spear, too."

To his credit, he only glared at her as he stood up from where she had slapped him into. Then he glared again when he almost failed to lift the purposefully overly-heavy thing.

He took a few instants to get used to the weight, then attacked.

Liya had to admit Feng Shen was many things, but a bad spearman was not one of them.

He improved his spear and movement arts after each failed attack. Less than an hour later, he was developing advanced moves that, while still not up to her standard, were a fair cry from pathetic. If given enough time, he could produce a peak D+ spear art that many with compatible Paths would kill for.

Unfortunately, he saw himself as too much of a spear and too little of a biological creature.

Feng Shen didn't fully see himself as a spear, but she could tell it was a recent realization. He was still confused and couldn't tell where the spear ended and his body started. That hindered all his fighting abilities, from how he held a spear—as an extension of his arm than his entire body—to limiting his reach and application of power.

The most glaring example was how he didn't punch her when she showed an opening after blocking a swing of his spear. The spear couldn't exploit the opening from that position, so he didn't seem to even realize there was an opening. She would like to think it was because he was obeying her in showing his spear skills, but she knew better.

Feng Shen was just stupid.

Liya kept showing openings, and at last, almost ten minutes later, his eyes widened when he saw it. Ten minutes later, he even tried to exploit it with a punch. Yet, even then, he manifested a qi spear around his hand—which wasted precious instants—as he thrust it against her.

Liya kept the spar going until he stopped improving his spear art and it became obvious he wouldn't be making leaps in his body usage. Then she slapped him again to stop and took his spear from his hands. She stored it back in her Inventory.

"I know exactly what I'm dealing with now," she said.

She had analyzed him while letting him properly harmonize with his True Path. Now she could forcibly change his mind to better understand some parts of himself.

"Let's start with the basics," Liya said. "You must learn to stand like a biped instead of some pathetic facsimile of a spear-human hybrid. So, stay still."

As always, he took his time to obey, but it was the third time he obeyed without complaining.

Liya was grateful for the small victory.

She stepped closer and gently tapped multiple places in his body. "You're not a weapon, pathetic boy," she said with a softer voice for the first time. Not really kind, but only stern instead of mocking. "You're a person. Your stupid mind might believe that's a disadvantage, but there's a reason you see people wielding spears and not the other way around. Your intrinsic existence is superior to a damn piece of wood and metal. I'll teach you how to remember that at your every waking and sleeping moment."

Liya was one of the best drow spearmakers and one of their best C-rank spearwomen. Maybe the best after she had absorbed the Receptacles of Power. She knew what she was talking about.

Liya kept tapping his body. Shen refused to move at first, but she started pushing with a bit of Annihilation, and the pain of having a few cells of his body ceasing to exist made him do as told. That the system didn't heal it until she took her Path away from his body made him realize the danger he was under.

"This will have to do for now," she said after he was standing less horribly. "Remember this position. Now let's learn to walk. Step ahead."

Three days later, Liya lost count of how many times Feng Shen had failed to do things correctly.

Even now, as she watched, he once more proved himself incapable of even running accurately. He had improved only slightly, and she could only tell because she was looking closely.

She could also tell he was ready to explode despite agreeing to train under her for one week. More importantly, despite being a Guardian and thus having his mind changed by the Alliance. He should be able to hold through months of boredom. Yet, he let his ire and frustrations get the best of him.

Liya concluded it was time to soothe the flames a little.

She sighed and said, "Sit down. I shall share invaluable wisdom with your stupid mind. Maybe that'll help."

Understanding the process would help, and she could've done that first. However, she would put him through some training in which being forewarned about the desired results would be detrimental. She needed him to trust her training—if not her, personally—and she would accomplish that by revealing to him time and time again how he was wrong in not immediately cooperating and doing his best.

Of course, eventually, he would take for granted that his unwillingness to obey enthusiastically at first would be rewarded with more explanations. That would be the more painful part of making him understand that obeying was best for him—both because of the results if he did and the punishment if he refused.

As usual, he took his damn time to obey. He did sit, though. He was learning, albeit slowly.

Liya sighed again and elected to start with something close to him. "I noticed how you regret killing all those humans. I shall not touch on the morality of your actions, but it's a good starting point for talking about Paths.

"Raving a bloodthirsty, murderous Path is bad for other people, but it's not necessarily terrible for the Path Walker himself—though admittedly, making strong people upset at your actions can lead to a short life. You, it would be a fulfilling short life. Even a few seconds of wanton slaughter will be more gratifying to a monster than an eternity not living accordingly to their Path."

That was a basic truth every True Path Walker learned. Now, to the actual novelty.

"What you should fear isn't your true self," Liya continued, "no matter how twisted it might be. Even your annoying, stupid, pathetic arrogance can be advantageous in some situations, though I see more disadvantages that don't make up for it.

"But that is your Path; no matter how pathetic it might be, it's what I have to work with. I'll disabuse you of some of your arrogance, but not everything, not unless you're willing to change—and I don't think you're smart enough to see reason even if I slap your face with it."

He frowned at those words but kept silent. Sweet, sweet victory. Liya almost smiled.

"What you should fear is what happens when you don't understand yourself. You walk a True Path, so you perfectly know all the parts that make you you, but telling a child they have a heart won't make them understand what a heart is or what having the organ means.

"You mastered your Concepts, so you understand them better than other parts of you, more glaringly your body. You might not realize it, but it's the truth. You know you're some Concepts of the Spear—I bet there's more than one, as wasteful as that is—and a human, yet you don't know what to make of it, how to reconcile two opposing existences effectively.

"And they are opposing. I told you before that a body wields a spear, not the other way around. You are your Path, but you don't understand the hierarchy of your existence and don't realize the weaknesses of failing to do so.

"If you believe you're a piece of rock, you'll behave as such, as ridiculous as that sounds. If you believe you're a spear, you'll behave as such—and that's equally ridiculous."

Feng Shen's frown deepened. He definitely didn't like hearing such things.

Liya continued regardless. "More than ridiculous, it's effectively stupid. Think of more extreme opposites, a dragon and a door.

"No matter how much a dragon believes he's a door, he won't be able to pass up as a door perfectly. The result will be stronger than a door, which is why you believe that making yourself a spear is good for you—that's the baseline you're comparing yourself to. But the result will also be weaker than a dragon taking advantage of everything a dragon can be. Your current self is nothing more than an aberration that doesn't tap into the full potential of your mana- and qi-enhanced human biology."

His frown turned a little from being upset to pensive.

Good.

"You grew up on stats and Path simultaneously from E-rank onwards," Liya pointed out, "and it was too fast and without proper mentorship. You thought some of the gains you got from your stats came from your Path. You would've realized the truth eventually, but when you became a True Path Walker, you went through Path Amalgamation, and now you have difficulty understanding where parts of you start or end."

Things were a bit more extreme than that, but he wasn't ready for the whole truth yet. True Path Walkers had trouble understanding the "Walker" part of their designation. They were their Path, yet they also walked it, which hinted at Path and oneself being separated to a degree.

Shen would only glimpse such a paradox after going through his Rupture Pilgrimage.

"Your physical existence is not that of a spear," Liya repeated after a pause. "I can tell from some of your movements that you realized it to some extent, but you fail to understand all the advantages that not being a spear, that being human, gives you.

"That's why you must start from the basics and learn to simply stand in a manner that takes advantage of your existence's strength while diminishing the weaknesses. I can't build on your fighting abilities if you don't even accept your body as a more critical part of your Path than any tool your body might be wielding. Walking a Weapon-centered Path does not make you a weapon.

"I'll prove it to you through a carefully crafted training plan, but only if you put your pathetic mind into it.

"So now, stand up, and stand still like a human, not like your mother and a spear—"

"No," he interrupted seriously and somberly. "Not my family."

Liya would've kept talking if he were a drow. But he wasn't. Humans took familial bonds much more seriously than any drow child, and she didn't completely understand it.

So instead, she used her domain to slap him and said, "Don't ever interrupt me again." She didn't continue with her curse. "Stand up and stay still."

Feng Shen stood up slightly faster this time. He even stood still a little better.

Liya sighed and started taping him again.

Those taps corrected his positional mistakes, but she also intended them to help him assimilate that immediately obeying her input would bring improvements. In the long term, it also trained him to stop overthinking things when he already knew the best solution.

Feng Shen still resisted a little too much for her tastes, though, not caring about improving, not even to kill her. So she had to fan the flames a little—the same ones she had just soothed.

"Stop getting off on getting touched by my amazing hands," she said and smiled at the absolute disgust on his face.

Good. At least he could see past her beauty and into the personality she showed him. That would save him many disappointments in an Alliance filled with breathtaking beings.

After her taunt, he put more effort into her training than ever.

Liya took a mental note of that and would use similar mockery whenever she felt it was most important. Too much, and he would get over it.

In fact, she started slowly changing her appearance to get even more beautiful. Absorbing the Receptacles of Hope had made her more symmetrical than any human could ever hope to be without magic modifications, but she was still a drow. Her features were humanoid but not human. She would adapt to Shen's personal tastes based on feedback she received from his reactions to also help him become immune to such things.

A few minutes later, Liya was almost satisfied with her charge's performance. He wasn't standing perfectly, but the gains were undeniable. However, too much focus on the rigidity of standing still would be detrimental in the long run.

Time to move to the next step, then loop through everything.

"Walk," she ordered, and he obeyed.