Waving half of a spear vaguely in Everheart’s direction produced no results. Vari supposed she could stab him herself, but what was the point? Her opinion of Luminous Heartpiercer had swung about wildly after it first controlled her actions followed by her learning why it might do so. The remnants of people she’d never had in her life, actual family. The Harmonious Citadel had tried to replace her family with its structure, but after truly experiencing the world she knew it hadn’t even come close. Alva and the others, on the other hand. They were as close as she would get, unless she made a family of her own.

“Heh. Hahaha. Bwahaha!” Everheart’s chuckling turned into full on maniacal laughter. Right, there was that asshole. “Excellent. We’ve killed a saint without even having to get to any of the backup plans! This is great.”

“I thought it would feel… better.”

“Really? The exhilaration of annihilating an enemy and the power pouring into you aren’t enough?”

Vari looked down at herself. It was true that a sizable quantity of energy was being drawn into her dantian, improving her cultivation. But while she should have felt something at that, she could only really acknowledge it on a technical level. “Yeah, this is good. I suppose.”

“Man,” Everheart said. “You’re awful at relishing your revenge. At this rate you won’t even be motivated to get the other seven.”

“Or six,” Vari said offhandedly. “But it’s not like I have a personal grudge against the rest. I’ve caused more than enough damage to make up for what was done to me.”

‘Listen, uh…” Everheart mumbled to himself, “What motivates people? Aha!” He placed a hand on her shoulder, “Vari, don’t forget about all of the others harmed by the Harmonious Citadel, including their own people. Those who, like yourself, were forced into the subordinate Holy Harmony Technique.”

“Wow, you’re uh… really bad with people, huh?” Vari raised an eyebrow. Then she reached up to grab his hand.

Everheart pulled away. “Anyway,” Everheart said. “If you want your share of this crap you’d better take it. I’m taking Damjan’s head impaled on his own spear to display somewhere, but you can kind of have your pick of anything.”

Aside from some gloves the spear saint had, Vari didn’t find much of interest. She did take with her the broken halves of Luminous Heartpiercer, though. She didn’t have any intent to use it as a spear, even if the enchantments along its spine could be reforged to return it to full power. But as a memory, it was of some value. Whether or not it was actually the legendary spear of the spear saint, which was still in question due to Everheart’s lack of reliability.

Then she left without even a proper goodbye. As a planet, Ye’sin wasn’t the least pleasant one Vari had ever visited, but it was the least likable due to the planet itself and not the individuals upon it. It hurt to breathe, whether or not she was technically protected from the toxins.

-----

Upon her return to Xankeshan, Vari received confirmation that a second saint had fallen. Two out of eight in basically a single moment. The bow saint’s demise was fairly public, but people would miss the spear saint soon enough. Rumors of two saints dying had been prepared to spread immediately, to make the Harmonious Citadel’s ultimate suppression of the knowledge that much more difficult.

Some of those in deep like Vari had been would likely disbelieve it, but the fact of the matter was that the Harmonious Citadel was down two Augmentation cultivators. That put them a major step closer to losing an all out war with the alliance against them, and the loss might attract some neutral factions previously afraid of them to fight against the Harmonious Citadel.

After some thought, Vari did still find herself motivated to continue the fight. Even if her personal reasons were basically satisfied, her friends were in the conflict to the end. And she did want to help out those who were unable to make a choice about being part of the Citadel. She was a step closer to Augmentation, as well. If she was involved with the deaths of a couple more saints- and didn’t die herself- she thought she could reach it. Or, the more sensible way was training for another century or so. There was no guarantee she could actually reach Augmentation, but she was surrounded by people working towards that goal.

The two halves of Luminous Heartpiercer she brought to the best smith she was aware of, Grandmaster Smith Sadiq. He was a busy fellow, even being somewhat selective in his work. And apparently quite expensive, in some cases. On the other hand, bringing him interesting materials could help. All this Vari knew from Chikere, except the thing about expenses. Vari presumed Chikere had been charged, but she also collected a large amount of wealth from people she fought and didn’t use it for anything except swords.

There was no long line or anything stopping Vari from just walking up to the man- just a few people standing around hoping to learn something from watching him. In general, people’s requests were quickly accepted or rejected. Being straightforward was apparently the right thing.

“What can you do with this?” Vari said, holding the two halves of Luminous Heartpiercer in front of the man as he hammered on a sword.

He didn’t look up, but she felt his senses sweep over her and the broken weapon. “I can fix up the shaft, apply new enchantments. But I can’t say it would be as good as before. Or, I could scrap it for you.”

“Scrap it?” Vari frowned.

“Scrap it, melt it down, maybe turn it into something else. The material is good. Could provide a basis for something.” Sadiq’s senses lingered on Vari, and her equipment. “Some bladed gauntlets, perhaps.”

“Why blades?”

“Because I’m good at blades, and the materials should take a profoundly sharp edge even before enchantments. I don’t think it would restrict your style, either.”

That seemed reasonable enough to her. She just needed to see if she could afford something like that. Looking in her storage bag… there was a significant quantity of things she didn’t remember. Weird. However, it also still had everything she had expected to be in there, so she wouldn’t concern herself with it too much.

-----

Foundation was first. That wasn’t an option. Skin had been next. Following that had been muscle, tendons, then bones. Chidi’s next step was marrow, then the organs in his head and torso. His meridians were the very last on the list before the second full tempering that completed the Hundred Stars’ Body Tempering training.

He couldn’t claim it was the best method, but the order made sense to him. Outer to inner, performing each step as he could feel it. Muscle and tendons were weird and stringy. Bones were hard- obviously- but the marrow inside was squishy. Each organ felt different, as they all had different things to do and different physicality.

Meridians were the oddest of all. They were only sort of there, concurrent with the veins and arteries that carried his blood but more metaphysical. They felt soft, but not fragile. Like the air itself, only able to be redirected but never really destroyed. At least, not by anyone vaguely around Chidi’s level. As he stepped into Spirit Building, he had a better sense of how such a thing might be accomplished, but it was still just a pipe dream.

Somewhat around two years were spent in Body Tempering, not the fastest by any means but he was instructed to cultivate carefully. His father helped him push his limits without causing permanent harm as he involved himself with various practical jobs to grow strong.

Plowing a field was both dry and wet. Soft from the dirt and hard from rocks that were dug up. As for the taste… well, he could say he preferred not to taste it. Dirt still tasted like dirt. The sound was crunchy, and the smell could only be described in reference to the ground itself. Earthy, but more when he was working the ground.

Planting seeds was comfortable, feeling them all snuggled up against the surrounding dirt. It was both shelter and food. As a plant, at least, that was a pleasant idea. As a human, he would not particularly want to live in bread, potatoes, soup, or anything of the like. Candy was an even worse idea, because it was sticky. And constant sweetness would become cloying.

He carried old-style crates, splintery and rough constructs of wood. He worked with a tailor on his manual dexterity, feeling the softness of the cloth and the sharpness of the needle. The smell of leather at a cobbler. All of the old style professions had their own sensations.

Meanwhile, the fancy new technology Engineer Uzun was implementing fit into a smaller range of sensation. At least, on the production side of things. The end products were as diverse as anything else.

Machines were smooth metal and oil. Sometimes a heat, but that was exactly what the oil was supposed to prevent. His parents had been concerned about Chidi getting close to some of the machines, but he knew where not to be. He could feel their great crushing weight, the sharpness of rolling cutters. The pinching interconnection of gears. They fit together like great organisms with more clearly understandable internals.

Chidi didn’t have to actually touch something sharp to know to avoid it. He got the feeling that most people didn’t really get what sharp was from a distance. Apparently seeing could tell that, but he didn’t know- and since other people got hurt more than Chidi did, perhaps seeing wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Though apparently it was helpful for longer ranges. On the other hand, his parents could sense him from a great distance around corners, so sight hardly mattered unless he was outside on a roof. Maybe getting into space battles.

On that topic, Chidi was very excited to go with his lupine friends to experience battle for the first time. Real battle. Not wrestling with the wolves or sparring, but real battle in The Gardens. Sure, he would be watched over- but that didn’t make it not real.

-----

Chidi’s best wolf friend still had no name. She was just his friend- and he was very careful not to somehow make that her name. Many of her siblings had names. From the same litter there was Fang, Big Paws, Ember, and Brick. The first two were named after physical qualities, while the latter two shared some of their parent’s cultivation traits.

Likewise, Chidi had learned from his parents how to fight with a sword, which also went along with his namesake. She was supposed to have returned after going to the lower realms, but she was apparently still there. Maybe forever, unless she could figure out how to ascend again. Lots of people didn’t seem to think that was actually possible, and Chidi would never really understand because he was born in the upper realms.

“What are we looking for, buddy?” Chidi growled. It was apparently Fuzz that formalized an actual language for the wolves, and it had been impossible for Chidi to speak before body tempering. Now, he just used some energy to replicate the vocal chords, lungs, and head shape of a wolf until he had all the components to make the right sounds. He wasn’t crazy enough to try actually transforming his body.

“Boar,” his hunting partner replied. “There are too many here, rooting too much and destroying the growth.”

Boar. Chidi sniffed. He knew the smell, both as food and as something in the wild. Auntie Alva had brought him along on a hunt, but he hadn’t participated before now.

He wasn’t the first to pick up the scent- as it turned out, being able to put your nose to the ground was a huge advantage there. He could get down on all fours, but his body wasn’t made for that. And while he could make up some of the difference with his use of energy, the wolves also knew how to use energy to augment their senses.

“This way,” his companion said. “One appropriately sized for us to hunt. Father will deal with the larger ones.”

How exciting. Chidi made sure he kept his hand on his sword, and his ears open for sounds of movement. Though he would probably smell the boar first. Their scent was not something to take lightly.