The first thing Kaoru left me was an odd green stone, which she told me to run some qi through while laying on the garden wall. I did, and my brain nearly exploded. More information than I’d ever known existed in my time as an Initiate suddenly ran through my mind, which was barely solid enough to retain it all.

And all that did was teach me how to read and write the local language!

Kaoru laughed from her little perch. Annoying vixen.

“Believe me, that’s normal when you use an information jade. And it only gets worse the more complex and detailed something is to learn. Which is why literacy jades are so common that one won’t be missed around here, but most of what there is to learn is in the library. I talked to Mistress Song, and she’ll find you some reading material. Rather annoying that we can’t shape-change to blend in yet.”

“Shape-change?”

Kaoru jumped off the wall to stand next to me.

“Humans think of it as animals coming closer to their perfect form. Typical of them really.

But it’s more that we learn to take forms more useful to us around humans. But even the beginning of that art is impossible to grasp if you haven’t developed your dao. So, no shape-changing until you’re an Adept, bare minimum. And you likely won’t be able to do it seamlessly until you’re a Master. Still, that doesn’t mean your shape hasn’t changed already…”

I glared at her, but she didn’t bother noticing.

“Foxes tend to gain tails as they cultivate, about one per level. Also our tails are the hardest things for us to hide, so it’s an easy way to see us as well as measure our rough strength. You’ve grown slightly larger and sleeker, and there’s also a small red gem between your eyes. Look for a mirror sometime, it’s quite fetching.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

She walked away after this, leaving a very annoyed Xiang behind. Why does she just wander off whenever she pleases like that when having a conversation? Honestly, I’d say foxes are annoying, but I’ve never taken the time to talk to one before. Not exactly the smartest of moves when you’re a rabbit.

Still, the ability to read helped, even if writing wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Paws and mouths don’t grip quills and brushes well. Hard enough just turning pages, so I was grateful most of what I read from was in scroll form.

Apparently, the channels my qi had been forming in my body were called meridians, and the shape they took was called a fractal. This was apparently a relatively advanced form of cultivation for a Novice, though not unusual. Also, my style of cultivation was apparently called “recursive digestion,” or “Rabbit-style Cultivation.” Which makes perfect sense.

But there were a few other things I noticed.

First off, while qi was and would always remain the primary medium of cultivation, there were other energy types that made up the world. They were called Fire, Earth, Gold, Water, and Wood, and were apparently part of something called “body cultivation,” which helped to reinforce your body so you could hold larger amounts of qi safely.

That said, the elements weren’t something you could tap into without a dao, so Initate and Novice adepts were encouraged to exercise religiously, and train themselves in a way that hurt a little… but not unbearably.

So I started going down to the training yard as part of my daily routine, and beating the night droppings out of a wooden beam that had littler beams sticking out of it at odd angles. I’d headbutt it (Kaoru was right, the red jewel on my head was rather pretty), jump off it, and kick it as hard as I could. Sometimes I’d just lift myself up off my forepaws and attack like I saw the humans do, though without the same finesse. It hurt, like the scroll said, but I could tell that the injuries causing the pain were almost unnoticeably minor, and would basically reinforce my bones and muscles as they healed over.

And so it went. Days turned to weeks, then to months. And I got stronger.