"Elder Dill?" someone at the door said interrupting our discussion. The Elder had left the door open, which was strange, but what was worrisome was that I hadn't noticed. To lost in trying to understand what was going on.

"Daniel," the Elder said, "exactly on time, come in."

The Elder remained seated, but he had that luxury, my back was to the door and I stood quickly turning to see who he had invited in. The name should have been a clue, but I had only met him once. Granted it was during the tournament and our battle had left him with most of his animal companions dead.

I knew he would be offered a position with Four Element, the round we had been paired determined which of us would be an Inner or Outer Sect member. I outranked him, but that rank only increased his hate.

"Did you need me?" He asked trying to ignore me completely.

"You are here to serve as an explanation," Elder Dill explained.

"I owed your mother a favor. I swore a Cultivators Oath to repay that favor as long as I was able, and the repayment left no one dead or crippled.

"She has called in her favor and asked that I give you a position in Alchemy Hall, and deny that same position to Jai Myche, the Inner Sect young woman that defeated you in honorable competition.

"While I find this favor distasteful, I will stand by my Oath. Jai Myche has been barred from Alchemy Hall. All materials, including library information that is owned by the Sect, have been restricted.

"I have acted, and by acting my Oath to your mother is complete," he said, his words carried the weight of [Dao]. A truth that actually affected the weft of reality.

"I asked you here to make certain all parties know the truth," he said. "Jai Myche will receive no resources, no guidance from Alchemy Hall, I will honor my Oath. But that same honor demands I make it known why this action was taken.

"She has done nothing to deserve this. And nothing in my Oath requires me to act without explanation.

"Report back to your mother, and inform her, that I repudiate her. I will never answer her call, never come to her aid. She has forced me to act, and she must bear the consequences. I have capitulated to her demands and made you a part of Alchemy Hall.

"You are both dismissed," he finished, finally standing unleashing an aura tinged with fury and guilt as he did so.

Daniel's anger had transformed into humiliation. His actions and machinations made known. He left the room without even a perfunctory bow to Elder Dill, furious that I had been gifted with the truth. The truth that he had used connections to strike back at me for prevailing in honorable competition.

I was furious that someone of power had intervened with my life and my goals, but I did take comfort knowing that Elder Dill was nothing like Elder An. His actions were forced upon him, he wasn't using power or faction to screw with me. If he had repudiated Daniel's mother and refused to honor his Cultivator Oath, he would have been crippled for life.

Still, he had given me answers, explained why he had acted as he had, and I was grateful for his own sense of honor had required him to explain. Unlike Daniel, I performed Saikeirei, the deepest most profound bow that honor allowed.

Barring me from library access and Alchemy resources was a setback, but one that I could overcome. I had a copy of most of the library tokens Flowing Water had owned, so could continue to study. There was nothing stopping me from collecting and harvesting my own spirit herbs. Daniel had slowed my progress, but I could and would continue, even if at a slower pace.

The conversation with Elder Dill had actually been enlightening. Now that I knew my secondary profession could be expanded to include more than one specialization, I planned to take advantage. I'd often lamented my lack of knowledge and skills when it came to arrays and inscriptions. I wanted to understand how the torc I had discovered that encapsulated a miniature world had been created.

Now I would have the opportunity to find out.

That night was the first time I had problems cultivation since I'd formed my Dantian. Elder Dill's actions, his pronouncement, had angered me beyond all reason. Intellectually, I knew he'd had no choice, but emotionally I felt used and abused. I spent hours in my apartment's lab the Sect had supplied me stocking that anger. Using my personal supply of Spirit Herbs to create one pill after another.

Each one reaching the perfected stage.

Hours later. Hundreds of pills created. I sat exhausted at my desk, wondering what I should do next. Injecting Qi to activate Sprite Cix, I finally calmed down enough that I decided I would see what I could find out about other professions. It was too late to visit the library in person to begin selecting study material.

My frenzy of pill creation had finally ended with acceptance. I was certain Elder Dill had discussed my situation with Patriarch Umbra before speaking with me, so there was no point appealing his decision. Patriarch Umbra would have no choice but to affirm Elder Dill's decision, it would be more damaging to the Sect to second guess the Hall Elders.

One apprentice alchemist wasn't worth the possible damage to Head of Hall's authority, by second-guessing or counteracting this decision.

It was too late to consider Beast Taming, no matter how long I lived or how hard I studied that field was forever closed to me. Beast Tamers had to choose a cultivation technique that allowed them to create a specialized inner sea that could be partitioned to hold more than one companion. The first time I had cycled [Transcend the Heavenly Footpath] Beast Taming was closed to me forever; my inner sea could not be compartmentalized as needed for each additional companion I might bind with.

Even if by some miracle, I shattered my Dantian and rebuilt it, beginning my path for cultivation all over again, my inner sea was fully formed and established, there was no way to shatter that metaphysical space and recreate a new soul ocean. Any attempt to shatter and reform my mind's ocean would destroy my soul. The soul ocean was more esoteric in form, spiritual in nature, unlike the Dantian that embraced the physical, the Qi stored in that organ protected by the faceted ruby I had internalized the soul ocean was a function of the astral.

"I did wonder why I was taught I could only concentrate and master one secondary profession," I said aloud talking to myself.

"Resources," Cix informed me only seconds after I had asked the question. The sprite hadn't been aware the question was rhetorical, and I focused on what he had to say, pleased that the question might not be as rhetorical as I'd thought.

"Mid-tier Sects don't have the resources to allow their members to practice more than one profession. Large-tier Sects have more resources, better access to higher quality spirit stones, and jade mines that are extensive enough to record and share knowledge.

"The Mid-tier Sects were beggaring themselves, trying to compete until a quorum of Sects in the year 48,752 reached a consensus, that it was better for their Sect members to focus on only one line of study, then to have them spending resources the Sect couldn't afford.

"Each cultivator is going to fail and waste resources as they learn and advance, it was deemed necessary to minimize those failures by only supporting one secondary profession per member. A few of the more powerful mid-level Sects held out, but even they were forced to admit that the failure rate of resources was a drain on their finances."

"They decided to specialize, hoping to nurture powerful cultivators that were masters in one field instead of average in a few? Do I have library access to any of the other secondary professions?" I asked. "Enough access to download a primer so that I can make an informed decision on what profession I should focus on?"

"Most library access is still restricted. Elder Shadow has placed the restrictions on your access, until that restriction is lifted you can only access general studies and historical reference material," Cix informed me.

"Do a search for the history of arrays and enchantment, is there anything in general studies that I can look at?"

"There is a ten-volume series of tokens that detailed the life of Elder Cloys, the person considered the father of array formation. These volumes contain information on his thought process, failures, and successes as he experimented and developed the profession," the sprite informed me.

"I wonder where he got the inspiration?" I said not expecting an answer. But as I had already learned, as long as my Qi was powering the device, any vocal questions I made would be considered. Cix would attempt to answer every question asked.

"He started out a glyph and runic student but was frustrated at the constraints those often-mismatched teachings required. His frustration grew because of the inexact nature of each medium. Runes and glyphs acted as language; they were the alphabet that practitioners used to define what they were attempting.

"His frustration stemmed from the fact that there was no uniformity. The mastery of these two fields was more art than science. He began experimenting and building those first arrays in the hopes that he could use the conformity of geometric shape and mathematics to standardize a system. He hoped to create a system for those who were more logic centric, something that could be defined, understood, and adapted based on empirical evidence," he explained.

Cix's explanation detailing the difference between glyphs, runes, and arrays was helpful. I had known that each art was used for formation creation, as well as standalone workings that channeled Qi to affect reality. Of the three, I was more drawn to arrays; I preferred logic to art.

I liked knowing that something was done because it followed rules that had been established and proven. Runes and glyphs aligned more with musical notation or novel writing. Knowing that I could use runes and glyphs and get them to work as long as they told the story or song I was crafting was not something I was willing to experiment with.

Perhaps if I had any talent in writing, in crafting a narrative that could channel Qi to give life to the words the runes and glyphs represented I might be interested. But my writing and literature skills were average at best.

"Your meeting with Elder Shadow is scheduled to begin in thirty minutes," Sprite Cix reminded me. Looking at the time display that was blinking in the corner of the viewscreen, I confirmed his reminder. It didn't take me long to use the shower that had been supplied in my en suite.

I decided to wear the armor I had commissioned from Yvonne. I wasn't certain what Elder Shadow would have me doing today, but it was better to be prepared. I spent ten minutes with my Spirit Bow before heading out, using those few moments to feed the weapon a drop of my blood and polish the wood until each striation and grain gleamed.

I still hadn't used either of my new weapons in anything but cursory practice. I'd had no spare time in the frenzied schedule since the tournament. That didn't mean I had neglected the instructions I'd been given. I had been religious about sharing blood and polishing the Bow, and I would often hold the Tessen when cultivating, working to attune the weapon more closely with my Qi signature.

This practice was producing promising results, my familiarity increasing every cultivation cycle. I could still be mesmerized by the music from the Tessen as sixteen distinct voices blended in harmony, but the intense focus required when cultivating [Transcend the Heavenly Footpath] was helping me withstand those voices. I was losing myself less often to the symphony only I could hear.