After the tour, it was time to settle in and meditate. Well, learn to meditate. Developing the mindset wasn’t too hard I found, but it was a lot harder to do when I didn’t have kits to nurse, or night droppings to eat, or other rabbit things to do. Still, Mistress insisted, and I decided it was easier to just go along.

So I sat on a small pillow, relaxed my mind, and cultivated. It was easier, now that I didn’t have to keep alert for danger as much. Plus there was a lot more qi here than I’d had in the warren. I could focus on drawing it into myself, digesting it, then releasing that wave to re-digest. I sensed that it wasn’t the human rhythm, but it felt more natural than what I could feel Mistress Song doing, at least for the moment. She seemed to simply cultivate by breathing, drawing qi through her entire body without needing to digest it and letting almost none of it out.

While part of my own cultivation did come from breathing, I mostly seemed to use my lower digestive tract to process what I cultivated. And that meant dealing with how that digestive tract worked.

As the qi digested, it became part of my… core? I think that’s a good word for it. Anyway, the core grew from being a singularity, and paths of qi started to form through my body, moving the energy from my core to my extremities and back again. Curiously, I saw a weird pattern in the shape of the paths, as if they were all just the same shape repeated again and again, while being in and of itself part of that shape. I couldn’t really put a word to the concept, but it was fascinating to “look” at. It just got smaller and smaller, even as it went all over my insides. At whatever “smallest” level it reached, it let go of qi into… something… and I’d feel the need for more qi in my core.

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I don’t know if the qi was storing itself in these tiny spaces or if it was being used to make me stronger. But I could feel the effects were the same either way, and could even understand what they meant.

Basically, I wasn’t an ordinary rabbit anymore.

First, I’m a lot stronger, faster, and more durable than most of my species. I think I actually could’ve taken that Idiot Li in a fight and won if he hadn’t been another cultivator. Certainly I wouldn’t have survived him bashing my head on a rock and stuffing me in a bag. Another point is that I’m going to live a lot longer and be a lot healthier. A few old aches and pains are already fading off, and even being the oldest rabbit I’d ever known, I could tell my lifespan was going to go well beyond the point where even the luckiest of rabbits would die of old age. Third point, I’m getting smarter. Or at least I feel more aware of myself, my surroundings, and could likely understand more complex ideas. It’s hard to measure “smart” on an even scale, since there’s always more to be ignorant of.

A wise bun knows that they understand absolutely nothing.

Of course, there’s also the subject of will. I think, therefore I am, and the more I’m capable of thought, the more I can affect the world around me. I don’t quite have a dao yet, so it’s just a sense of strength, but I can already imagine what I’ll be capable of when I develop that sense of purpose and direction behind my actions. As-is, I suspect I’ve got an unusually imperious air for a rabbit, and the ability to stare down some apex predators.

Huh. Xiang Tuzi, mighty hunter of tigers and dragons. Now wouldn’t that be something to make people take a second glance?

I was interrupted by Mistress Song, who’d brought a nice meal of lettuce, carrot greens, clover, and bean sprouts. Rather well-balanced, and certainly tasty. Especially with the extra concentration of qi in every bite. Had to wonder how the animals in the monastery didn’t end up like me, if this is what they were exposed to eating all the time.

A few days later, I’d learn the answer when a certain fox came to visit.