For the first time in over a month, Xiao Ji stood in front of his master, waiting for instructions. Without realising it, the range of his senses had grown, and he thought he could now cover double the area he once did. He noticed the subtle way all the qi particles he could sense seemed to orient themselves towards his master.

It was not something that was easily noticed, but after spending a month focusing on controlling qi particles, he had gained some insight into their behaviour.

“Do you know why I have called you here?” the old man asked suddenly.

They had spent more than ten minutes just standing in the middle of the room. Ji had no way of predicting his master’s wishes and it was something he had long since given up hope of accomplishing.

“I cannot hope to discern your thoughts, master.”

“Ho, is that tongue in cheek I sense?” the old man asked with his eyes narrowed. “First Mei, now you? That damn fowl coming back to torment me even after he’s gone.”

Ji simply remained silent, convinced that speaking would not be the ideal course of action, regardless of what he said.

“Well, you are here today because I have been studying you for the past month. You have made progress in your qi control, which was expected. Now however, I think it is time to move on from the simple exercises you have been doing to more practical things.”

“May I ask what these things are, master?”

“Of course. I will give you a body strengthening art, and you will begin practising it tomorrow. Apart from that, I will start to teach you how to actually use qi internally. Of course you will need to exercise perfect control, as the egg will remain inside your body during these lessons. That will be all for now. Lessons start tomorrow.”

Truth be told, Ji felt a little conflicted. On one hand, he was excited by the prospect of moving on to new things. The ability to use qi was something that greatly interested him. That said, he would certainly have preferred it if his qi control was better before he started moving on. As it was, more work would simply increase the amount of time he needed to get his qi control to levels that would support his breathing technique.

Still, it was like the other times, regardless of what he felt, he had chosen this path. He was not arrogant enough to think he knew as much as his master, so there was no point trying to challenge his teachings.

He left for his room eager to make progress with his control. His goal was to attempt using the breathing technique and moving as much qi to his dantian. The amount of qi he knew he was going to lose to the egg made him shake his head, already feeling regret in advance.

Sure enough, on his first attempt, the sheer mass of qi that entered his lungs overwhelmed him, and he lost most of it to the egg. For someone who had been manually breathing qi in a way that could barely be called a breathing technique for over a month, the amount of qi a beyond grade technique could produce was a massive increase. It easily brought in multiple times what he had gotten used to.

Though he regretted it, there was no other way he knew of, so he powered on with it. Each time, he lost a little less qi and his control got better. Unfortunately, the egg had started to get brighter and worryingly, he noticed the pull getting stronger. At first he found it hard to believe, yet it got to the point where it was impossible to ignore, and he felt it getting hard to protect even the qi in his dantian.

He stopped immediately after that. His dantian was currently full and he had no intention of undoing the progress he had made over the past month. He gradually calmed down as he got used to the increased pressure, the fear that had started to build up now ebbing away. He would have to ask his Master first thing the next day, but until then, there would be no cultivation for him.

He went to the dining hall instead, finding it empty. The sun was still up, so the others were likely still cultivating or doing whatever training it was they always did. He sat there calming himself down and contemplating his errors when Mei came in.

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“Well you look quite unsettled,” she said, then pulled one of the human chairs near him then sat down. He had never seen the use for those things.

“I nearly made a grave mistake during my cultivation,” he admitted freely.

“Ah. Happens to the best of us,” she said, and then a small fruit appeared in her hand, then promptly found its way to her stomach. “I hope you were not doing something stupid like trying to control external qi at your level?”

“No,” he shook his head, then filed external qi manipulation in his list of things not to do without getting knowledge. “Master gave me a qi control exercise. I have been building control for the past month, so I decided to try my breathing technique. The situation escalated beyond my expectations.”

“Ah, the egg thing right?” she asked, to which he nodded. “What was the issue? Did the qi funnel malfunction?”

“Qi funnel?”

That was not something his Master had mentioned before.

“Huh. I remember quite clearly that when Master Guo gave me the egg, there was a qi funnel with it. It was supposed to funnel the qi I lost away from the egg and direct it back outside. That way the egg wouldn’t get more powerful. Perhaps he has changed the exercise. We can ask the others when they come.”

He found himself confused by the difference. He would not have had to worry about this issue at all if there was a funnel to take the qi away from the egg. Suspicion filled him and a theory started to take root in his mind.

In the meantime however, he tried to distract himself, instead changing the topic with Mei. They talked about different things, from interesting things happening in the empire to fun stories about their Master and the other disciples.

Ji found his spirits partly lifted by the time the others arrived, and he found himself thankful for Mei’s general cheerfulness. From the way he was described, he doubted a conversation with the First Disciple would ever cheer up his mood. Or even the Second Disciple, for that matter. Truly, he was lucky to meet the fun disciples.

Qian Shi and Ruo Long came in not long after, both looking slightly exhausted. Ji let them eat, watching them devour food that was likely many times his body mass in minutes. He was largely used to their gluttonous eating habits at this point. He was only thankful that they had not eaten chicken in front of him so far. Knowing Mei, there was a good chance that it was a conscious decision.

It was only after they had full bellies that he approached them, asking about the eggs. Much to his dismay, their replies were much the same as Mei. The Master had given them funnels to take in the qi they lost. Even worse, the egg was only in their bodies for a few hours everyday, leaving them free to cultivate for the rest of the day. Ruo Long even admitted that he still had not mastered qi control enough to fully resist the egg’s influence.

They had both looked at him strangely halfway through his questioning, pointing out that it was basically impossible to succeed without a funnel and that he should not think of trying anything stupid. To that, he just sighed inwardly.

If only they knew.

The next day saw him anxious to confront his master. He was all but certain of his suspicions at that point. The only thing he worried about was that the old man would simply stare at him like he was an idiot and tell him he should figure it out by himself. That was certainly something he could see happening.

His Master finally arrived half an hour later, and simply raised his brows at his disciple. Ji was the one that was early after all. The man sighed, then spoke.

“You have something you wish to tell me, disciple. What is it?”

“Master Fan Guo, if you do not mind me asking, why did I get no funnel for my qi control exercise. From my experience yesterday, I believe it is nearly impossible for me to complete this exercise as the egg keeps getting stronger. Unless I wish to go a whole year without cultivation.”

“I suspect you already know the reason why you did not get a funnel. But if you insist, then I will tell you Xie Sun did not get a funnel. Neither did Huo Lan, though he needed some guidance. You have chosen to walk the same path as those two, so why should I treat you any differently? As for the difficulty, I believe nearly impossible is not impossible. You will need to do many nearly impossible things if you wish to stand a chance at achieving your goal.”

Ji suddenly felt inadequate. He had suspected it before, but this was confirmation. His uncle, and even the First Disciple had done it without a funnel. Yet he was here confused, unsure of what path to take next. He swallowed his pride and did the most reasonable thing he could.

“Master, this disciple asks for your guidance in defeating the egg.”

“It is good that you can suppress your pride. I was quite glad when you approached your fellow disciples yesterday. You should not trust outsiders easily, but if you cannot ask even your fellow disciples for help, then you are truly alone. As for guidance, it is a simple matter. I did not say you could only defend yourself from the egg. That was a limitation placed by you.”

Ji just stared, feeling like a bit of an idiot. Now that he thought about it, the answer was quite obvious. It would take some time, but at the end of the day, it was his body. Why should the egg be the only one capable of trying to take qi from him. Perhaps it needed a taste of its own medicine.

"You are quick to understand. Good. Now if you are done worrying about such simple matters, let us get to today’s lesson."