- Kyle -

Looking over the books, Kyle saw that there were grammar books, arithmatic manuals, and other learning materials that might be useful. He wondered if he read one book, and Sam read another book, could they double their learning speed when they shared memories in the spirit merge? He decided they would need to test it later. There were other books as well, but he moved on to the drawers. There'd be plenty of time for reading later.

In the first drawer, he found an envelope with some cash inside. He wondered how wealthy the boy's parents must have been to send so much money with him. He also wasn't sure why they'd bothered, since it was worthless in the sect. He counted fifty-six dollars. That was incredible. He'd discuss with Sam what to do with it, later. They could split it to send back to their families, or they could hang on to it in case they needed to go on a mission in the mortal world. He wasn't sure if the sect would give them mortal money for missions, but they had the rest of the year to find out.

In a second drawer, he found a jade ring, but this one didn't have any engravings on it. Instead, it had a small purple stone in the middle. He tried sending some chi into it, and found that it was a storage ring with a small amount of space, maybe a yard on each side. While he could see the dimensions of the space, he couldn't interact with. He still had his needle from earlier, so he tried giving it his chi-infused blood. It didn't absorb right away, like the other ring had, but instead sat on the surface, like something was keeping it out. He focused on the chi in his blood, and forced more chi into it. The ring relented, but it was like forcing open a door while someone else was trying to hold it closed.

He could interact with the storage space now, but it was empty. A cultivator's storage ring would have been a priceless treasure, even for a wealthy mortal family. Kyle suspected that this had been a keepsake, passed down from an immortal ancestor in this boy's family. It was even likely that it had still been bonded to that ancestor, and that was why he'd had trouble binding it. It was too bad that it was empty, but this was still a great find. Now they would only need to buy one more for Sam. Actually, now that he thought about it...

Kyle stored a book in the ring, then took it back out, to make sure it worked. It was very easy, he just had to touch the item and the ring with his chi at the same time. He couldn't push his chi much farther than his own body yet, so he had to physcially touch the book to store it, but it was still simple to use. Now he wanted to test his idea. He passed the ring to Sam, who was doing something with a watering pale. "Sam, see if you can use this," he said.

Sam took the ring and put it on. When he did, the ring changed size to fit his finger, just as it had for Kyle. So far so good. "Try putting this book in it," he told him. Sam did, and it looked like it was the same for him. Then Kyle touched the ring, and pulled the book out. "It looks like we can both use it, just like the identity token rings. Now I want to try something else." He held the book with one hand, and grabbed Sam's shoulder with the other. The chi reacted immediately, as it always did, connecting the two boys, and circulating on its own. Kyle followed the chi through Sam's chi pathways, and he found the ring. He applied chi through Sam's hand to the ring, and through his own hand to the book, then the book went into the ring. He pushed into the ring, and pulled the book back out into his own hand.

"Wow!" Sam said, with a big grin on his face, "Let me try!" They took turns doing this for a few minutes, until they were certain that no matter who had the ring, as long as their chi was connected, they could both take stuff out of it. They were having fun, but Kyle wanted to finish searching the room. Sam kept the ring so he could keep playing with it.

Kyle opened the cabinet doors underneath the drawers, and found a little box with half a dozen sticks of rock candy inside. His parents could never afford something like this, but he'd seen it in town before. His face split into a wide grin. He took one out, and gave it to Sam, who immediately put it in the storage ring, before taking it back out, and licking it like a horse at a salt-lick. Kyle took one out for himself. It was officially the best thing ever! The spirit food might have tasted better than any mortal food, but he'd never had anything this sweet. He decided to save the rest for special occasions, and briefly touched Sam's arm to put the box away in the storage ring.

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He moved on to the trunk that was under the bed, but saw right away that it was locked. He tried to open it anyway, but with no luck. It was probably just mortal clothes anyway, so he decided to leave it alone for now. If the boy had the key with him, then they were never going to find it anyway. He shoved it back under the bed.

He saw that Sam was watering the plants. He waited for him to finish. "Hey Sam," he said, "there's one more thing I want to try. Do you know how to read at all?"

"Um... maybe. I could read 'Jade Peak' on the ring they gave me. I think it's because of your memories though. I knew a little before, but I don't think I could've read that. I don't really know though..."

He looked embarrassed. Did he think he was supposed to be able to read? Well, they'd understand each other's thoughts soon anyway, but he wanted to test this first. "Okay, try reading that book I handed you, and I'm gonna read a different book. Just read as much as you can. It's okay if it's only a little bit."

"Okay, I'll try," Sam said. Kyle grabbed a book that said "My First Biology Book" on the cover, and started reading. Or at least he tried to, but he got bored after a few pages. That should be good enough. It looked like Sam was determined to read the first page of his book. "Okay, Sam, that's good enough. Let's cultivate."

Sam looked relieved, or maybe just happy to finally get back to cultivating. They cultivated together for a few minutes before merging their spirits. They'd figured out quickly that it made the spirit merge a lot easier. They'd also learned to keep their eyes closed until their memories had finished exchanging. That part was never as hard as it had been the first time, since there were never more than a few hours of memories to share now. Their thoughts, and feelings were also merging more easily.

The boys noticed that it was especially easy today, then they remembered the rock candy. Maybe their shared enjoyment of the candy was helping, or maybe it was that they could still taste it. Then they realized they'd had different flavors, and it was strange to taste both at the same time. They focused on the sweetness of the candy, and pushed aside other thoughts.

Next they tried opening their eyes. In the tent, they discovered that if they were looking at the same thing, it made it easier to get used to having four eyes. There they had sat back to back, since the sides of the tent looked mostly the same. Here they had laid down and were holding hands while they looked at the ceiling. It was a flat and unremarkable cieling. So far so good.

Then they slowly sat up, keeping the wall above the bed in-view. The next part would be tricky, since they were different heights, but they needed to push themselves. The bed came into view in Sam's vision before Kyle's. They focused on the sweetness of the rock candy that still lingered on their tongues. Soon the bed was in Kyle's vision too, but from a different height. It looked uneven, like if someone had split the room in half, and moved one half up higher than the other. They stayed still for a minute or two to get used to the sensation.

It wasn't overwhelming, and they felt like they could handle more, so they tried slowly turning their heads in opposite directions. They felt nauseous, and decided to stop. At least they had made it through without using the Intense Focus technique, but they would need a lot more practice before they could move their bodies independently.

Sam and Kyle decoupled their chi so they could check the results of their reading test. Kyle thought about it, and was able to remember what Sam had read, which he expected. He realized he might've gone about the test the wrong way. Of course he could remember what Sam read. What was important was whether he could learn what Sam learned. Then he realized it had been math, and that gave him another idea.

Sam had already learned more math than he had. Sam's mom had taught him when they went into town to trade, and he had picked it up quickly. He had those memories, but it hadn't occurred to him to test it. Kyle decided to have Sam quiz him on math. After a few test questions, it was already obvious that Kyle and Sam could now do math equally well. If that was the case, then they probably could learn at double the speed. This cultivation technique really would be useful.

They went back to cultivating, and practicing their spirit merge, until dinner time. Afterwards, they washed up, and went to bed. The bed was huge, and they felt like they could get lost in it, but they still held hands, and as usual their chi circulated, letting them cultivate while they slept.

The next morning came, and they went to the training hall. Senior Hall was in high spirits, grinning like a coyote. "Alright, Juniors, time for more training! Hahahaha!" Why did he always get chills when the Senior laughed like that?