We spent precious little time in Rivermill. To stay would be suicidal. But we still remained long enough to gain some basic knowledge in trades that would be useful to us, as well as regions that would be relatively safe to remain in, provided we stayed moving and kept our heads low.

Kaoru learned to make jewelry and blow glass, using her affinity for fire and love for beautiful things to make trinkets and accessories that others would (hopefully) love to wear. I learned more advanced gardening techniques, including how to use wood and earth qi to keep growing things in any condition. Li’s own water affinity would help, as it would ensure we would never thirst and the plants would always have just the right level of moisture.

I also learned of the apothecary’s arts, and of alchemy. Using plants and minerals to make medicines, poisons, and substances of all kinds. The legends of creating a magical pill that would instantly raise you to immortality were a myth, but I could already tell that many of the formulae I’d been given would be useful in boosting qi absorption. A benefit we’d need, without the boon of living on a natural qi spring.

Mistress Fu also gave Kaoru and myself two information jades apiece. In absorbing them, we learned her and Mistress Song’s entire knowledge of cultivation, and their individual understandings. Not only did this map out for us exactly how to cultivate to Master rank, but showed us that we were actually cultivating two different things. Kaoru had learned to cultivate qi in a way that enhanced her projection of qi, creating barriers, illusions, and projectiles. I had learned body enhancement, building and reinforcing my meridian fractals to their absolute limit. This was why I was faster, stronger, and more durable than even some Experts.

To reach beyond Master, it was clear we’d have to cultivate both approaches to their absolute limit, using all five elements. Information that, overall, was worth the cluster migraines we had to suffer through to learn it the easy way.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Hidden in Mistress Song’s jade was also a circulation technique that acted as a contraceptive, which she had apologized for not telling us about before we’d left for Rivermill. Apparently, she had already suspected Gin would run straight to the Tortoise King with information about us, and had set this up as a contingency.

I told Kaoru to apply that technique as soon as possible… but her blush told me it was already too late.

“I’m glad for you, but try to hold back. We need to focus on cultivating as much as we can as fast as we can.”

Kaoru pouted. “And do you intend to stop having kids until the world is saved or whatever?”

I shrugged. “Not entirely. The technique doesn’t absolutely guarantee you won’t get pregnant, and life isn’t something you set aside while you try to make the world a better place. It’s the very reason you set out to do so.”

Kaoru nodded, and we set about to learning more about our new trades. I honestly envied her, having someone to lose herself in like that. I hoped things between her and Zhong worked out, and that I’d next meet her with a dozen kids and another on the way.

Because that was part of what came next.

It was too dangerous for Kaoru and I to travel together. If the Tortoise King found and killed one of us, we didn’t want him to be able to track the other. Plus his army wouldn’t see anything suspicious about single families of traveling peddlers, while any kind of caravan might attract attention.

So we’d be going our separate ways, Kaoru toward the central lands, and I’d travel to the northeast, where the lands of the Tortoise King met the ocean. I’d miss my best friend and early rival, but we both had our paths to walk, and we’d made an oath to see each other again.

Neither of us would dare to break that oath by dying.

And soon enough, our belongings were packed, our “families” bundled in, and we travelled our separate ways for the next ten years.

By then, we’d hopefully be ready.