“Senior Cultivator Qing Wu! Please forgive this one for sleeping… wow, I guess the whole day away in your bed?”

“More or less,” the salt and pepper haired cultivator conceded with a smile, putting down the tome he had been reading by the light of a softly glowing stone radiating Fire Qi hanging like a lantern in the center of the wagon, now peering thoughtfully at Alex.

“How do you feel, lad?”

Alex took a deep breath and smiled. “Honestly? Pretty darn good, considering how hard we all fought, yesterday.”

This earned a polite frown. “Are your injuries paining you? I’ll have my wife take a look just to make sure there’s no signs of infection in the morning… for all that I suspect you walk a path at least adjacent to a healer’s arts.”

Alex grinned. “That won’t be necessary,” he assured, already sensing the truth of unmarred skin beneath his bandages. He gazed at the man before him thoughtfully, sensing a warmth and concern that honestly touched his heart. He was so used to a degree of ruthless calculation from senior cultivators, even from t hose he would eventually call friends, that sensing what almost seemed grandfatherly concern, a concern he was savvy enough to tell was absolutely genuine, came close to choking him up.

But still… a practical part of him was eager, beyond eager, to seize an opportunity that perhaps had never come before. If there was one benefit to starting fresh once more, but with so much more to start with than almost every other time he had died and forgotten his past… it was that subtle shifts to his character sheet that now filled him with a profound sense of hope. That, and the sense that he was no longer forced to follow Long Wang’s body cultivation path, his eight positive elements able to effect only oneself or a single other party. That boon and limitation had defined him through every incarnation he could find even the slightest memory of. Even if he had used the River of Souls and Dark Qi during his last run to stretch that limitation to the brink of absurdity.

Yet now, that limitation was gone.

Should he choose, the path of the wujen sorcerer… or the gentlest of healers… could now be his own.

Alex gazed thoughtfully at the cultivator before him. “It appears that we have three weeks before we make it to Liushi, and who knows how many future bandit attacks, or worse.”

Qing Wu flashed a humorless smile. “It does indeed appear that way.”

“It would be a shame not to make full use of the time before us though, wouldn’t it?”

This earned a polite eyebrow.

“I mean, if you were to teach this wayward student of cultivation and kung fu the absolute best methods for rapidly increasing his cultivation base or just simply filling his Qi Pool...” He winced at the look this earned him. “I mean, replenishing depleted spiritual energy, it would only help him guard your back during any future encounters. Don’t you think?”

Qing Wu tilted his head thoughtfully, before flashing an approving smile. “Taking advantage of shared hardship and near certain death avoided only because of your intervention to entice from my lips my most treasured secrets of cultivation… all in the guise of better being able to keep us safe during a surprisingly perilous journey.” He chuckled softly, then shook his head. “I suppose I don’t have to ask just how ruthless the secretive politics of Ruidian clans truly are. Or perhaps you’ve attended a cultivation academy before.”

Alex winced, but said nothing, holding the man’s gaze with the same polite half-smile.

Qing Wu looked strangely crestfallen. “How your brave heart and earlier heroics remind me of my firstborn. With a cynicism to your smile I pray never infects his own.”

Alex winced, not quite sure how to take that, though his eyes widened when the man firmly squeezed his shoulder like he was kin. “Of course I’ll share whatever wisdom I can in the limited time available to us. The karma now between us demands nothing less! Though I warn you, it won’t be the exquisite perfection of a decade’s mastery, but a solid foundation in a technique both basic, fundamental, and powerful.”

Alex’s eyes lit up with those words, feeling an unexpected flash of hope, and the perilous fantasy that this truly could be the happy fairytale life he had always prayed for… and never received… before quickly shaking such foolishness away.

Instead, he kowtowed before the embarrassed looking elder. “This lowly student would be most grateful for those lessons, revered senior cultivator!”

This earned a snort. “Elder Wu is fine. Even Qing Wu, for the boy who fought by my side against all odds. Now, to begin our lesson. I want you to take a deep breath. Do you know how to cycle your spiritual energy?” He frowned thoughtfully. “I sense both understanding and resistance. How odd. Let’s correct that, shall we? You must begin by truly sensing the environment around you.”

Qing Wu’s intense gaze bored into Alex’s own. “Ignore all distractions, Alex, and breathe deep. Take in the essence of the thick golden heartwood that is the basis of this carriage that we refer to as a wagon only for convenience. Feel the hot desert breeze blowing through the window slats. Breath the warm desert air, tasting the bitter grit of endless sands.”

Alex did as instructed, closing his eyes to get a better sense for the objects around him, focusing not with his eyes so much as his spiritual perception. He didn’t even flinch when the elder gently placed his hand in a freshly watered potted plant. “Water, Wood, and Earth. And the memory of Fire’s gift. The sun caressing your skin during the day, it’s warmth still permeating the sands at night. Its tiniest flame heating our dinner and lighting our way, even now. All together. Can you feel them? Not just the objects, but the fundamental truth of their nature?”

Alex solemnly nodded. He had always felt the connection between object and its elemental affinity. For him it was like asking if he could see the blue of the sky or the whiteness of the clouds.

Strangely, Elder Wu seemed both pleased and surprised by those words. “You can already? Wonderful! The heart of this cycling technique, and what we will be spending the rest of our journey learning and perfecting, is learning to draw the elemental energies radiating from the environment into your spiritual orbit. From there, it can be used to cleanse your meridian channels, or cycle into the strands, fibers, and cords that will eventually serve as one of the cables of your cultivation foundation. Do you understand, Alex?”

Alex dipped his head. “From Bronze to Silver. And with seven perfect cords incorporating space for all the elements, the potential for generating a basket of interwoven cables strong enough to secure a Gold core is formed. Yes, I understand, Elder Wu.”

Dead silence permeated the caravan. Alex winced, suddenly feeling the pressure of both Elder Wu and his wife, somehow suppressing and muffling the entire caravan.

An endless moment that soon passed, like shadows scurrying over the moon.

“That you know such things as the humblest of basic cultivators. But you’re the farthest thing from that, aren’t you, lad?”

Alex locked gazes with the Silver Wujen now staring a bit too intently at him. “Let’s just say I learned a bit more than my… elders wanted me to glimpse. One of the reasons why I, well, I guess you could say, ran away from my incredibly dysfunctional clan. Hopefully for good.”

“Please don’t tell me there’s a clan of Ruidian Golds eager to make their mark upon the world that we now need to worry about?” Reny said with a smile that invited a chuckle… for all that her eyes glittered with desperate worry.

Alex solemnly shook his head. “Not in the least,” he could say with absolute confidence. “So, let me make sure that I understand. This cycling pathway seeks to interweave all of one’s affinities with physical anchors to strengthen the spiritual energy connections. We’re not claiming all spiritual energy, ‘White Qi’ if you will, as a whole. We’re breaking it up as a prism, and claiming those rays of light that best match our affinities.”

Qing Wu and his wife exchanged a look, before smiling and nodding as one. “Exactly.”

Alex solemnly kowtowed before the pair of bemused looking cultivators, truly humbled to find here in this wagon an opportunity to learn and grow before skilled elders without jumping through at dozen hoops, without being shunted to independent study and forced fight for every scrap of knowledge he would claim. He had been so ready to expect the absolute worst, even in this, a brand new life, after having risked it in a perilous, perhaps foolish act of fighting for the lives and safety of people who had no ties to him at all. Such acts before had almost cost him everything. Yet those very same sacrifices had also helped him rise above all his limitations and both find and rescue the women of his heart. An impossibly graceful dancer who happened to be an imperial princess, and a bright-eyed kitsune beauty who was the spiritual echo of the first woman he had ever loved, countless millennia ago. Women he feared now lost to him forevermore.

He choked back a sob of bittersweet regret, his voice little more than a horse whisper. “This humble student would be grateful for any insights the masters before him would choose to impart on how best to walk the path before him.”

For long moments the wagon was deathly silent, Qing and Reny Wu clearly moved by something they heard in his voice.

After a surprisingly awkward silence, Qing Wu cleared his throat. “No need for such formality, Alex. It is you saved us from disaster twice-over, and in the span of a single day, long as it’s been! Nay, the golden threads of karma lie thickly between us already, initiate. So let us reciprocate karma’s blessing with the lessons that should be a part of any cultivator’s foundation.”

Alex blinked, more surprised than he should be by the cultivator’s words.

“You sense the threads of karma between us?” Alex whispered in awed wonder.

Reny’s eyes twinkled with warmth. “Not my husband, though the fact he’s not having you wash his feet every night after making his tea shows that even this curmudgeon senses that which now binds us almost as tight as kin.” The woman swallowed, rubbing her eyes. “But to a woman who recognizes that she will only ever see her children again and embrace a healer’s arts once more because of the grace and courage of a youth who risked his life to save a caravan when he could have so easily fled… To one such as I, the golden cords between us are bright enough to light this wagon all by themselves.” She gently squeezed a shoulder that shouldn’t be trembling with relief or gratitude or an inkling of happiness, but somehow was. “And a few scant lessons are hardly sufficient to balance the scales between us. But it’s certainly a start.”

Alex swallowed, covering his unexpected blush at her praise by dipping his head.

“Now enough of that,” said Qing Wu, voice oddly gruff. “Instead, to our lesson!” He solemnly turned to his wife. “Let’s show our young initiate the true treasures of this journey.”

Alex’s eyes widened, genuinely curious about whatever Reny was now retrieving when her hands went through a mysterious serious of gestures over a steel container Alex only caught sight of at this very moment, recognizing in hind-sight the Shadow Qi ward that had hidden it from even his senses.

“Now, for our first lesson, initiate. Do you happen to know what precisely your affinities are?”

Alex grinned, realizing that his would-be mentor had had too much going to sense all the shield variants he had used protecting them the night just past. He was about to confess a number that would absolutely astound the man before him. Yet his mouth froze, recalling that he could hardly say everything now. Not when the cultivators before him were claiming Ice and Sand as separate elements. What if they somehow were? What if he had been frozen in abyssal waters for so long that the world’s forests had turned to deserts as cultivation itself warped and shifted in ways inconceivable, and that explained why all but the most basic elemental arts were now closed off to him?

The very thought sent chills of horror down his spine.

He swallowed the sudden urge to scream in dismay, only now appreciating the incalculable depths of his loss. “No,” he whispered surprisingly truthfully. “I no longer… I’m not sure I do know what my affinities are.”

Qing Wu’s brows furrowed. “That was a formality, Alex. Ya Ling made it clear that not only were you able to manipulate sandstone, but that Water also obeys your call. My question is, are you aligned with Soil or Sand? And is your Water derived from Ice, or do you actually channel the might of the oasis?”

He flashed a reassuring smile when Alex gave him the strangest look. “It’s alright, lad. It’s only body cultivators that need to worry about perfect attunement with their arts, and only those few with attunements so strong they can embrace their elements directly. Most such cultivators focus only on strengthening their bodies, and who is to knock the purity of their path? Immortality by any means, as they say. Most often, their affinities only manifest themselves in their hardening techniques. But for wujen such as you and I, able to channel the elements beyond our bodies, elemental affinities serve as a crucial foundation and showcase our greatest strengths, but by no means do they narrow the scope of the powers that may one day be ours to command!”

Qing Wu frowned thoughtfully as Alex just stared at the man, blown away by the unexpected revelations he was now hearing for perhaps the first time in any life. Wujen? Him? And when had any wujen ever revealed the secrets of their arts to him?

Never.

He was absolutely certain of it.

But still, he had to be certain he understood what the man was saying.

“Forgive your unworthy student, Master Wu. Are you saying that wujen don’t channel their elemental affinities through their bodies when they use their techniques? How about when they cleanse their meridian channels and wind together the strands, fibers, and cords that will become the cables woven into a pristine containment vessel for their eventual Gold core?”

Qing Wu gazed at Alex in surprise for long moments. “That you could both summarize so many priceless insights that lesser cultivators would kill to truly understand even as you profess absolute ignorance astounds me.” He shook his head. “The specific paths any wujen takes to break through to Bronze and then Silver are as individual and varied as the masters who teach them, and there is no ‘one path’ forward. Though that you know of such a potent and dangerous one is itself both admirable and troubling. As to your first question, absolutely not! No Wujen would dare channel arts as precarious as ours through our body without absolute affinity with those arts! It’s an act of, I won’t say madness, but rather daring, those few wujen cultivators who commune so utterly with their element as to give it full reign over their bodies.”

He then paused, locking eyes with Alex as he raised his hand, directing him to look at the silvery mist hovering just above his palm as the entire wagon dropped in temperature. Alex’s eyes widened as a shimmering spike of Ice formed.

Qi Perception Check successful! Spiritual Student insight gleaned. You have gained Basic Comprehension of Ice Spike Lattice! Unorthodox elemental configuration detected. Water element detected.

“A proper wujen weaves together strands of spiritual energy into elemental manifestations he then unleashes upon the world. Such a wujen may also weave together latticeworks that serve as wards, against attacks both physical and elemental. It is far easier to form manifestations tied to your element, but a master of his craft learns to use spiritual energy of all types.” He chuckled softly. “Or that’s the official line our academy teaches. The fact is, Alex, that you will learn rituals and spells tied to your own affinities a dozen times faster than you will any other, and few worry about mastering additional arts until they’re ready to break through to Silver and eager to make the most of whatever spiritual insights they might glean from expanding their horizons.”

Qing Wu then closed his fist, the silvery blue strands radiating a chilly essence Alex chose to identify as Ice Qi, so similar to Water yet with the rigidity of cast iron that Alex was momentarily reminded of how he had manipulated Metal into a liquid interpretation that had served him and his beloved extremely well. Even if it had shifted their Dantians perilously close to disaster that would only be alleviated upon breaking through to Silver, until their path became so extreme that only Gold would set them free.

Were these cultivators truly tapping into hybrid essences? New affinities? Or had their Dantians been forced to shift or even evolve in other directions?

Alex cleared his throat. “This humble student would ask his mentor a question, and prays he doesn’t offend.”

Qing Wu tilted his head curiously. “Speak freely, Alex. The student who fears his teacher’s condemnation will never truly learn.”

Alex paused, gazing meaningfully at the pair before him. “Are there certain… vows, or limitations that I should probably be aware of?”

The elder gave Alex a curious look. “Such as?”

Alex felt his cheeks flush. “Well, let’s say there was a certain girl I admired on our caravan ride. A month on the road is just that, after all. Are there any reasons why certain things shouldn’t happen?”

“If you touch that girl, darling Alex, it won’t be us you’ll be answering to,” said Reny Wu with a sweet lilt to her voice that sent shivers down Alex’s spine as he spun around to face the woman, her eyes radiating warning even as she carefully placed a dozen priceless treasures in the form of exquisite boxes radiating potent spiritual energy on the table before him.

“My wife is right, Alex. You’ve earned quite a bit of good karma rescuing a precious desert rose from the merciless sands. But if you hope to start your life anew within Liushi, its best to admire her petals from a safe distance,” he said with a chuckle.

Alex felt his cheeks flush. “That wasn’t what I...”

Reny’s gentle tut immediately froze Alex. He was getting distracted when he had an actual spiritual treasure to play with before him!

He quickly bowed his head. “My apologies.”

Reny snorted. “So long as you understand. Now, on to prizes that are within your grasp to embrace! You see before you a dozen boxes, yes?”

Alex smiled and nodded, before his eyes widened in sudden understanding. There weren’t twelve boxes.

There were fifteen.

Alex slowly rose his head, feeling a sudden spike in tension. His thoughts began to race. What was safe to reveal? What wasn’t? What would result in appreciation and further instruction… and what might spell his death with a powerful and freshly healed Silver at his back, and he, technically, a Basic cultivator once more? But silence, hesitation, was itself an admission of guilt, when clueless, guileless innocence might be the only safe path forward, and he needed to say something… now!

“Is this another test?” He asked carefully.

Reny stared at him for long moments, before quirking the tiniest smile. “It is. And I see you passed. Wonderful! Now, as a first step, I want you to point to any box you feel even the slightest connection to. This will mark your strongest affinity. And please, don’t worry if you don’t feel a pull to any of them, most only have...”

Her words dried up when Alex solemnly pointed to one box after another.

Eight in total.

Deliberately avoiding the four additional boxes he sensed. One of which he could clearly sense though it tried to hide by its very nature, two of which he somehow knew they were there without being able to clearly see at all (placeholders!) and one that called to him more strongly than all the others combined.

Called with the force and fury of an ocean of darkness.

The crashing rapids and deadly current of the River of Souls.

Welcoming oblivion pulsated from such an innocent seeming box that could so easily serve as the key to unlock so much now sealed away… dooming this entire caravan in the blink of an eye.

Alex’s heart was pounding in his chest as he gazed with horror at his own hand, reaching toward the inevitability of damnation, and the hissing laughter of Shui Jun’s winding coils even now.

“Eight boxes. And you feel a connection to them all?”

Qing Wu’s voice broke Alex out of his trance, wrenching his own hand back.

The cultivator’s weren’t blind, of course, their gazes sharpening at Alex’s hesitation.

“Is there another that calls out to you, Alex?” asked Reny with a tone that sent chills down his spine.

Alex immediately jerked a nod, forcing himself to speak.

“There’s a box that looks like it wants to hide from me. It doesn’t actually call out, but the very fact that it’s trying to hide somehow draws my eye.”

Reny gazed at Alex for long moments, her lips quirking into a curious smile.

“May I ask a personal question, Alex?”

He jerked a nod.

“Is there kitsune ancestry in your family tree?”

Alex felt a fierce blush caress his cheeks. There was indeed, he thought, even now thinking of his great, great granddaughter, praying that Zhu Bi had enjoyed a sweet happy life with her husband Yingpei Lin, filling the wound in her heart with many happy and healthy children in a world as close to paradise as he could make for them all.

Alex blinked out of his reverie to feel Qing Wu’s hand gently pat his shoulder. “It’s alright, Alex. Mixed parentage isn’t so rare that it’s unheard of, even if those poor fox girls tend to be night owls, wilting in the daytime heat,” he said it with a soft chuckle. “And, of course, the boys look just like you and I.”

“And what you reveal tonight goes no further than this caravan, lest you yourself be the one to spread the tale,” Reny assured, before fixing Alex with her gaze. “And I do hope its understood that the secrets of this treasure are to be revealed to no one.”

Alex solemnly bowed his head. “Understood.”

“Excellent. Now open the boxes you picked!” Reny said with some excitement. “I’m eager to see if the boy who claimed eight boxes actually has eight affinities!”

Solemnly, Alex did just that, eyes widening with both relief and wonder, when his trembling fingers revealed a gently flickering flame radiating pristine spiritual energy that called out to him with effortless ease. It was nothing for him to pluck it free and absorb it…

“Alex!”

Before expelling it once more with a sigh, yet feeling a bright fiery tendril of energy effortlessly flowing from the flame into his nostrils, then effortlessly flowing through both major meridians and peripheral channels. When he ignored the horrified looks that Reny and her husband exchanged to flip open another box, he was rewarded with the sight of crackling sparks between an odd looking collection of metallic spikes. A gentle touch was all it took to entice the current through his fingertips, racing across his skin, to be taken in with each breath, and flow effortlessly with Fire.

So too when he flipped open one box after another to reveal powdered metal, a large drop of water floating and jiggling in the air, a tiny bonsai tree, a tiny whirlwind of air, and the rich loamy soil of Earth, troubled not at all by the streak of soil caressing his clothes and entering his lungs with a misty quality that made him want to sneeze for only a heartbeat before it passed. All seven elements he could now feel winding about themselves with space for absent elements as well. It was an intertwined cord of spiritual energy whose configuration he knew so well. Yet it wasn’t quite complete, he thought, frowning down at the final box he had selected. Yet upon opening it.. he saw no particular element, merely a reflection of himself, Reny, and Qing Wu… and he immediately understood, sensing the emotions of all of them. Both the couple’s awe and his own sense of wonder. Spirit Qi, the most ephemeral and easiest to claim, as it was in a sense just the reflection and manifestation of his own spirit, an echo of his own not inconsiderable willpower and drive to make his mark in the world, to make his dreams manifest in reality. It now served as the eight elemental anchor to the interwoven stream of spiritual energy now cleansing and strengthening his already vast meridians, in addition to filling his spiritual energy reserves, or Qi Pool, a hell of a lot faster than just passively soaking up the sun’s golden rays. Not that he wasn’t grateful that his dragons’ blood allowed him to do that much without any need of exotic techniques at all.

“He did it. He actually claimed all eight elements!” Reny said with no small amount of wonder.

Qing Wu nodded, gazing at Alex with eyes that perhaps saw too much. “And he’s not just taking it in like a young hound sniffing futilely at an unfamiliar scent. He’s running it effortlessly through all his meridian channels and his peripherals as well.”

Reny’s eyes widened. “He’s embracing an eight-element cycling technique as easily as breathing!”

Alex closed his eyes, tuning out the awed murmurs of the pair of cultivators looking on.

All that mattered was capturing the wondrous sense of flow and connection he was experiencing as all eight elements effortlessly wound into place. Somehow, he was able to synergize his experiences with forging tri-state cords combined with his insights of cycling Dark and Light Qi into a spiritual cycling technique that incorporated those principles effortlessly. Incorporating them while simultaneously being distinct from them. He felt like he was skirting on perilous grounds. So close to treading on walled off territory within his psyche that he dare not touch for reasons he could only guess at. Yet he could still draw inspiration from them. Yet he could still learn skills that mirrored those he was forced to put aside, if not quite forget.

Like splicing a new cutting to sturdy roots, he was able to take fierce advantage of countless powerful past insights to push his latest breakthrough to untold heights, accomplishing in hours that felt like minutes what should have taken months if not years of effort, or a couple life and death battles fraught with meaning and profundity.

Breathe in, Breathe out. Just as he took in oxygen to enrich and reinvigorate his blood, before expelling waste with every exhalation, so too he allowing the tightly controlled tsunami of elemental spiritual energy to whip through all his Meridians, scoring them clean of so much debris from being trapped for untold years in the River of Souls. The residue that every cultivator must score free with every fresh life lived, explaining why all cultivators, no matter how glorious their earlier incarnation, must start from the very beginning. For every aspiring cultivator must first score free the river’s waste in the form of clogged Meridians, the telltale mark of mortality’s humble beginnings, before daring to defy the heavens one more.

Debris that was at its essence Dark Qi, an element that he realized he needed no cycling technique to harness and wield at all. The debris flowed free of his channels like the melting of ice, instantly obeying his will. Yet where as another cultivator would expel it as waste Qi, he sensed his body and most especially his bones greedily sucking it in. Even with the knowledge that beyond all other techniques he must avoid manipulating Dark Qi above all others, that element was now as attuned and a part of him as death was both a part of, and the ultimate doom, of every living thing.

The ultimate manifestation of Chaos, Entropy, and Change.

In the hands of a master, it was more than simple destruction. It was Transformation as well.

It was a doom he dare not reveal to a single living soul, lest he’d end the precious halcyon dream that was his very first day embracing this new life.

It was a doom that was well and truly his own.

He couldn’t help smiling even as he focused on smoothing out and balancing the streams of positive spiritual energy he was now cycling through his meridians. He also intuitively understood that he need never worry about cycling Dark Qi in his cultivation during this lifetime, or about any buildup of waste whatsoever. Any so called ‘waste Qi’ he generated through living or cultivating would be instantly absorbed, nurturing him in ways that would imperil any mortal daring to walk his path. For it was already as attuned to him as it was possible to be, after having spent so long wrapped in Shui Jun’s coils, cycling Oblivion’s essence while drowning in the darkest depths of the River of Souls.

“Husband, look at how he glows with essence! What happens if the Headmaster finds out?”

Qing Wu sighed. “All we can do is prepare Alex for what’s in store for him, and how cautious he must be, if he wishes instruction beyond what a pair of exiled old cultivators can give him.”

Alex could sense a bittersweet tale hanging heavy in the air, filled with insights, pitfalls and warnings. Yet he dared pay those political currents no heed, focused as he was in mastering the spiritual currents now flowing so effortlessly through his body, lost in the throws of his transcendent breakthrough.

The pair of cultivator’s voices grew as hushed and still as the sudden weight in the air.

And that was when he felt it, the crack and boom of thunder and lightning.

The abruptness of a storm where the land was as much scrubland and desert. Where a single summer storm could coax parched land to blossom forth with brilliant fecund life in all its beauty and glory.

Because he already knew the next step he had to take.

“Alex, where are you going? Fool boy!”

“Hush, husband. He’s made his choice. Now close those boxes, you know the price if we dare to leave them open too long.”

Whatever else they said was drowned out even to Alex’s senses as he slipped out and embraced the howling storm, arms stretched wide, holding tight to the connection he still felt to the precious treasures within those boxes bringing to visceral life like never before so many streams of elemental potential. Yet he already knew those glorious anchors would not be available to him forever, perhaps not even past this night. So now, in the midst of a howling storm, was when he must seize the moment.

The lightning flashed a heartbeat before thunder roared, and distant scrub caught ablaze despite the torrential downpour, before sputtering out a second later.

Yet it was enough.

Enough to anchor the memory of that brilliant bolt for all time, connecting the essence of lightning and the furious flame so closely attuned to it, but only when catalyzed by a flammable like Wood. Water as well rode on its coat tails upon the howling Wind.

Water, Wind, Lightning, Wood, and Fire all connected in that single pristine moment, blazing upon his mind’s eye. Upon Fire he found the twin revelations of Spirit, in the form of so many souls cursing and grumbling in the storm, or using the rain and thunder to mask sweetest rapture of life passionately embraced after they had all come so close to peril… as desert roses bloomed in caravan and scrublands alike. The Earth anchored the Wood and drank deep of Water, creation and destruction in one singular whole. And Alex, thanks to his understanding of salinity, alkalinity, mineral composition, and so many years embracing a liquid aspect to Metal’s hue, intuitively understood the metal salts that were a part of every living thing and the soil itself.

Yet still the connection to that final element was flickering and ephemeral at best, as he strove to paint a mental picture that would serve as his perfect anchor for the technique he was on the cusp of truly understanding.

It was only when he felt the fusion of blood and iron that was steel suddenly pricking his flesh, tasting of bitter tears and furious resolve, that it all clicked, eight ephemeral elements forging into a pristine whole, a cycling technique as profound and powerful as any he could hope to have, within a single day of slipping free of death’s coils… before being furiously sent back into oblivion once more.

Congratulations! You have had a Major Breakthrough!

You have successfully forged an eight element cycling technique using physical manifestations of all your favored elements! This technique may be used to both cleanse, purify, and cultivate!

You have forged a brand new Cultivation Technique with multiple formerly mastered techniques as Pristine Reference Points!

Desert Fox Cultivation Technique is automatically known at 100% efficiency!

Desert Fox Cultivation Technique is now Rank 1! - This technique may be used to Restore & Purify Meridians, and Cycle additional Spiritual Energy!

Additional affinity to Dark Qi automatically incorporated as your insight is forged upon the steel blade of your would-be killer!

Draconic Resilience Mitigates Critical Wound to Serious Injury!

You have been poisoned!