The wind rushed through the highs and lows, chastising itself in an erratic pattern of unpredictability. It stopped and turned and turned again, it rose only to fall back down. It drove into the treetops, shaking off the leaves and carrying them along in its wild dance.

Autumn had arrived and it had painted the sect in its golden-red colors, brought storm and rain and blown away the searing hot tyranny of the sun that had lasted for months. Its message was one of transience and the beauty therein and though the inhabitants of this sect were some of the least likely people to listen, it would make itself known regardless.

The wind flew on, whirling the leaves in beautiful patters and diving into the hair of a girl that skipped through the forest with swift and proficient steps, uncaring of the way it messed up her hair. Qiao was boiling with giddy anticipation, as she always was on Sundays.

Ever since Professor Lei had arrived at the sect and started giving his weekly speeches, she’d had a good excuse to be at the Training Hall regularly. She’d wake up early in the morning, arrive there three hours later, just in time to attend the lecture. After it was over, just about before noon, she’d spend the remainder of the day training with Zixin and Chonglin. Only in the late evening would she start making her way back, arriving home well in the night.

Qiao hoped she didn’t make Lifen worry too much, but this routine had grown way too close to her to consider changing it. For the first time in her life, she could enjoy something else than winning and being complimented on her talent. She’d discovered that while, yes, winning felt good, it was way more fulfilling to share those wins with others, teach them how to do it and racing forward alongside each other.

She didn’t know how she had managed to live without anyone to do this with before, but it was actually becoming harder to keep up her mask of cold, uncaring superiority in public as it slid further and further away from her actual feelings. Dropping it once a week had become a reprieve she desperately needed and looked forward too throughout it.

Today though, today was not just one of these days. Today was special, even more special. Because it was the last day they would stay in the sect. Tomorrow, they’d finally depart for the great tournament that she’d been working to prepare for all this time.

She didn’t feel anxious to prove herself anymore, what had proving herself ever done for her? But she was very much looking forward to it. The challenge of meeting all the best fighters her age and comparing her skill against them was making her blood pump and the promise of getting to travel not just beyond the sect, but even beyond its territory and seeing so many new things had her bubbling with excitement.

And she wouldn’t just be there alone, Zixin and Chonglin would come along! Zixin wouldn’t get to fight sadly, but he’d still be there to train with them the entire way. It was a dream Qiao hadn’t known she’d had come true.

Qiao sped up, falling into a jog. She couldn’t wait to be there!

…

Qingge sat cross-legged; her eyes closed in deep concentration.

“Steady your breathing. There is no reason to feel nervous.”

The calm and soothing voice of her master washed over her. That was easier said than done.

“We have worked hard to prepare you for this. You will succeed. And even if you should fail, there will be another time.”

That was crazy to think about, but it was true. Most people didn’t get a second chance at this, but she was now amongst the few lucky exceptions to the rule.

“You haven’t committed to anything yet. If you get there and feel like you’re not ready, you can stop at any time.”

Slowly but surely, Qingge could feel Master Wei’s reassuring words take their intended effect. Her mind calmed, focusing on the task at hand and dampening her nervousness. Finally, she successfully steadied her breathing, and her meditative trance deepened.

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“Very good. Take your time. Now go ahead and examine your core.”

She followed the instructions that reached into her mind from far away and focused on her core. Its strange, semi-permeable form had become fully solid, giving off a thick haze of qi as its gravity pulled in more of it than ever, only to eject it again because there was no room for it.

It seemed absolutely insane just how quickly she had jumped to this point. In just over four months she had gone from being somewhere between the low and middle stage of the Core Formation Realm to reaching its peak.

It was all the doing of Master Wei. He had spent the last four months guiding her and supplying her with more resources than she would ever have expected to lay eyes on while she did nothing but cultivate all day. Elder Shi had even placed her on leave at the Enforcement Hall during the entire time.

They had discovered that Qingge’s talent at qi manipulation mixed extremely well with this kind of resource-heavy cultivation, as she was extremely efficient at pulling any additional qi injected into her to her core. And that was how they had gotten here.

Qingge’s trance deepened further.

“You have found your core. Now pull on it, move it, make sure the qi is perfectly synchronized with your will. Once you’ve done that, don’t let go of it anymore, keep it attached to your mind even as you move your attention away.”

Qingge did as instructed. This part came easily to her, she’d already done this when neutralizing the poison back in the city. It felt so long ago, like it had been in another lifetime…

“Good. Very good. Now focus your attention on yourself.”

This was the part that had been difficult to get a hang of. Normally, one would approach feeling their own soul slowly over many months and even years as they furthered their cultivation into the Core Formation Realm. Qingge had sped through it, making it difficult to grasp the concept. Eventually, her master’s guidance had helped her understand it though.

“Start with your body. Feel your connection to the floor. Move past it.”

Qingge felt the floor disappear beneath her. It was still there, of course, but it had been locked out of her mind.

“Feel the air on your face. Move past it.”

Qingge felt the air disappear.

“Sever your connection to the world. Focus only on yourself.”

Qingge levitated on an empty void. It was neither dark nor light, it was purely empty. There was only herself and the steady voice of Master Wei echoing through the nothingness.

“Now focus on your mind. Your thoughts, your dreams, your ambitions. Your fears, your faults, your memories. Everything that makes you you.”

Qingge’s mind turned in on itself. A million images flashed past her and a million feelings washed over her. Her consciousness seemed to stretch out into an eternal ocean of being, filling the entirety of the empty void, only to collapse into a single drop of her very self.

“You have found your soul. Feel it. And when you’re ready, let the qi of your core flow into it. But before you do so, shut out my voice.”

Echoes. Echoes in the eternity. And then silence. Absolute silence. Qingge was entirely alone now, but she was not afraid. There was so much of herself here, more than she had ever felt. In this state, solitude had no meaning anymore.

She didn’t know if it had been minutes, hours or days, but she felt ready now. She pulled on her qi and pushed it into her drop of self, her soul.

She felt it resist. She pushed in more. Its resistance redoubled.

More.

Her core was already half consumed, and it still wouldn’t budge.

More!

As she pushed all the qi she had into it, Qingge felt something shift. Suddenly, the last slivers of her core were being pulled in, hungrily consumed. When all of it was gone, more qi started being pulled in from the surrounding.

Like the pull of her core, only a thousand times stronger, the qi rushed in and fell into the drop that was her soul like it was a bottomless hole. As it took in more and more Qi, the drop condensed even further, shrinking until it was only a singular point in space.

And then, suddenly, it exploded outward.

Her soul expanded rapidly until it filled out her entire body, but it didn’t move past its limits. Instead, it remained there. She remained there. Because this thing that had just become physical, that was Qingge. It was her just as much as every part of her body was, maybe even more than that.

Qingge was pulled out of the emptiness. Or maybe rather ejected from it, because that emptiness was no more. The space beyond the physical was now occupied by her soul. She had succeeded.

As her senses returned to her, Qingge’s world expanded. For a moment she could see, no, feel the qi around her, whirling from the sudden pull it had just experienced. She could also feel the objects in her vicinity, without seeing or touching them. Soon, that experience ended, and her senses returned to normal, but she could feel that she’d be able to draw on this new sense again, through enough concentration.

Next, she noticed that her control over her qi had fundamentally changed. Her soul was the medium that controlled her interaction now, or maybe it had always been. With her soul becoming physical, she knew that she should be able to use it to strengthen her movements with qi now. She’d need to try that as soon as possible.

For now, she looked up to Master Wei. The elder was sitting across from her, studying her, his face beaming with pride.

“Congratulations, Qingge. You have just stepped into the Soul Realization Realm!”