The next week saw me spending most of my time and effort in martial training. It had taken me days to get used to my body being the home of another being. The sensation that Storm gave off as she settled into my spirit ocean was not painful, just all-consuming. No matter how much you tried to ignore it, the more it demanded attention. It gave me that same uncomfortable feeling I got when I ate too much. That feeling that the food didn't have enough room to enter my stomach and no amount of swallowing could force it down.

Storm settled in happily for the most part. Her Dharmic body informing me when her true body needed release. Those moments didn't last long, only when she was hungry or wanted to stretch, moments she used to begin exercising her wings as down was quickly replaced by feathers.

I saved the down and fluff that she shed. I'm not sure why, perhaps it was the same reason I saved locks of my children's hair when they had their first haircut in my previous life. I had a vague notion of having a pillow or toy stuffed with the quickly accumulating material.

It was interesting experimenting and training with her Dharmic body. She was much too young to fly or fight using her physical form, but those limitations were mostly negated as spirit. As long as I dedicated a meridian channel to her, sharing my Qi, she was able to manifest, fly, and after days of practice, use the elements that was threaded throughout that shared Qi.

The first time she manifested thunder and lightning, the cloud she had created wasn't much larger than her. But size wasn't the issue. She could direct the lightning created from the very beginning.

As we played and trained together, our ability to understand each other grew. We weren't able to speak, at least not yet, but emotions flowed both ways down that Qi bridge I had created. Emotions that worked as a Rosetta stone, a means for us to begin building a vocabulary.

There were the occasional interruptions. Most had to do with the spirit lotus pond I had found. I was too busy to deal with things like profits, shares, and decisions about the amount that was safe to harvest, so I allowed Elder Tye to make those decisions in my place.

Most of the benefits would be derived by him and Elder Dalis anyway, so it made more sense to give my over-sight to people who knew what they were doing. Plus, I trusted him; he was one of only a few. In the Sect, those few included him, Elder Shadow, and Tarrah. That was a sad commentary on my time here, that I had only come to trust three people. But they had proven themselves.

Tarrah had progressed from mentor to friend over the past year. Although the difference in station meant that we were never really able to connect or mingle socially. Still, she was someone I could trust and turn to for advice, and at the end of the day, that was what was important.

The tournament was only a few days away, and I was still testing and trying to understand my new limits. The insights I had gained into the [Dao of Movement], the increased power I gained by bonding and carrying that bonded animal in my spirit ocean, and the qualitative improvements I had made by ranking up required effort to incorporate those advances with my martial skills. That left little time to spend on Pill formation, but because it was one of the fields I would be competing in, so I couldn't ignore it completely.

The new formulas Elder Tye had shared, Bone Refinement to aid in healing broken bones, and Pet Nurture allowing me to nourish my bonded companion, replacing food while confined within my meridian space, both required I step into the Qi Gathering Realm to achieve success.

Normally, without the additional boost in power and realm from spirit I would gain when advancing to the Qi Gathering Realm, I would have had to wait. But the bond I had formed with Storm gave me a bit of a cheat. Adding Storm's energy to my own, I was able to condense enough of my Qi to the liquid stage giving me the ability to create the pills.

The Body Refinement Realm was a preparatory stage for a cultivator's body. Honing meridian channels, blood vessels, organs, skin, and bone. Clearing the impurities and rebuilding the DNA and cell structure to be powered by Qi. Qi Gathering required the cultivator to refine their soul ocean. To not only make liquid the Qi that had been stored there but to make it solid.

It was at this stage that a cultivator could siphon off excess to refine and create a personalized soul stone, one that resonated exactly with the creator. These stones were formed without the impurities that would be found in the spirit stones that were mined. A soul stone contained a detailed map, a metaphysical code that if examined closely would allow someone to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the person.

Because of this, each stone was unique, and none were ever traded or sold. Instead, these stones were used to increase the rank and level of spirit weapons, armors, and items. The only exception was when a stone was used as an inheritance.

It was also at the Qi Gathering Realm that I could begin using my first spirit weapons and armor. Although spatial storage devices were considered a spirit tool, no one had figured out why anyone that could direct Qi was capable of accessing those tools. That wasn't the case with weapons and armor.

If I had chosen Array and Inscription as my secondary profession, I think that my focus would have been on solving that paradox. I already had a theory that growth was the determining factor. Spatial rings never grew in power or gained sentience. The same could not be said for spirit weapons and armor.

Storm was too young to offer much help other than a boost to my Realm, but eventually, she would gain abilities and skills of her own. Once I had realized she was able to create small localized storm clouds with her Dharmic body, I began making a concerted effort to cycle lightning and air between each one of sixty points of connection that we had established.

I was hoping that attuning her with those elements would allow me to direct and guide her evolution and growth. A Roc with lightning and wind abilities would be a devastating partner, even now we could team up and fight together. Once she had gained enough control of her physical body and could fly in truth, the synergy between our abilities would grow.

I took a day off from training the last week before we would travel to the tournament sight to visit my family. I had divided and stored enough of the plantings and seeds I'd collected while on my mission for my father to experiment with. I didn't know if he could grow them, but it didn't cost me anything to let him try.

I had barely spent more than a moment of time harvesting so I gave him what I had saved along with a few handwritten sheets of information I had copied from the books of herbology I had access to. The notes explaining the nature and growing cycle of each spirit plant.

For my mother, I passed along the stock of pills that I had created as well as some of the spirit herbs and plants that had been dried or placed in jade bottles to keep fresh. I could have been more generous, but I had selected only those ingredients I was certain she was familiar with. Except for the lotus. I passed more than a few portions of those to her, along with a few notes explaining their nature and properties. I had faith that she would be able to refine and create new potions.

I also gave them enough of the meat from the Eoraptor that I had killed to last for a season. The meat was dense in Qi and would have to be used sparingly so as not to cause harm to Geon or Syha's development. But if prepared in soups and stocks, the Qi released could be controlled, with just enough of the vitality released to push the boundary of their Qi absorption, without bursting the meridians as they were forming. This method was how powerful cultivators Clans and families indoctrinated and prepared their children for their eighteenth birthday.

The other errand that had to be completed had to do with my clothing and armor. The weapons I was using were well cared for, they fit my hands perfectly by now, and they were powerful enough to last through the first level of the Qi Gathering Realm. I would have to replace them at some point, but not yet. But the same couldn't be said for the armor.

"You're sure I have to wear a dress?" I asked Tarrah for the hundredth time. A casual word about tournament armor had had me scurrying to find appropriate gear. "That makes no sense. Why can't I wear a Hanfu like the men?"

"Truthfully? I don't know," she said.

"You're right. The Hanfu is comfortable, easy to wear, and appropriate for Martial techniques. But tournament rules require women to wear dress armor.

"The traditional clothing for tournaments can be traced back to the time of Dissolution, that era when our Empire was at war. It was a means to identify the many women cultivators that defended the empire, while visibly displaying what side they were on," Tarrah explained.

"They couldn't just use colors?" I asked the solution appeared obvious.

"They could. And they did. But the dress that was adopted allowed the volumes of fabric to become part of a hidden messaging system. Color, drape, how knots were tied, the layers of petticoats that were apparent at times, each piece of the dress could be used as a means to pass intelligence along.

"If the war hadn't lasted for over a century, that clothing standard would probably have reverted to Hanfu, but by the time the war had ended, fashion and expectation had become as much a part of a tournament contest as skill and martial technique," she explained.

"It would have been nice if someone had mentioned this before this week," I grumbled. "I have almost no time to practice moving, let alone fighting wearing that much fabric."

"I think you'll find that you won't have to adapt your fighting style. If that were the case, no one would bother to wear clothing that was going to handicap them. Let's visit the Sect's seamstress. While we're having her create something suitable, you should discuss a stylized House symbol with her," she suggested.

"Why?"

"A bit of knowledge that isn't widely shared until you become an Inner Sect member has to do with one of the perks you gain as you increase in power. Those cultivators that breakthrough to the Qi Gathering Realm are ennobled. They are elevated and awarded land, land that can be used to create your House," she answered.

"Why would they do that? And why isn't this known?" I asked.

"Survival," Tarrah answered bluntly. "The Empire needs the cultivators that are being nourished and trained with resources gathered within the empire to remain. By giving them lands and titles, the Emperor has found that more cultivators feel indebted, tied to the land in a way that patriotism or honor cannot reproduce.

"And you need to ask why this isn't widely known? How much jealousy and anger would a nation of people that are already considered second-class by so many because they failed to cultivate engender?" She demanded.

"I would think they would be running out of any suitable areas to award. If just half of the people that joined the Sect when I did reach Qi Gathering Realm, that would be ten land deeds to dispense. When you factor in, the Sects, Clans, and Houses that exist across the Empire? The amount awarded each year must be staggering," I said.

"It would be if the death rate for cultivators weren't so high. Those lands revert to State control unless the cultivator reaches the Immortal Realm, and you know how few manage to do that. And there are a large number of cultivators that refuse the land deed, choosing instead to embrace the safety that can be found with Sects and Clans that are already established," she explained.

"But with the treatment you have received from Elder An and Braun, I don't see you forming any deep attachment to Flowing Water Sect. Eventually, you are going to want to spread your wings, and when you do, what better place to use as a staging area than a small town or village that owes you fealty?"