In theory, all Zae Zin Nim needed to do was advance to Earth Soul and attain her full potential. But in theory, so many aspects of her life should have been simple. The chosen daughter of a powerful sect should never have been cursed, forced to flee to Deadwaste, and taken on such a strange path.
Yet that path had brought her here. It was the path of her cultivation, ultimately the one she had chosen instead of the one that had been handed to her.
One last time she looked over everything she'd gathered. Even though she had all the qi she needed from the Deep Vital Pool, she prepared several qi pills from Cloudspire for balance. Then a vial of pure yin chakra, the last of her special purchased resources. A mirror for afterward. And finally a mana potion from the trading camp, just in case.
Her three sources of power floated within her soul in the formation she'd chosen: her dantian a peaceful sphere of qi, the mana of the Coldfire Corona burning in a ring around it, and her new chakra bubbling underneath both in a thick disc. She tried to master all her emotions and willed it to remain in place while she advanced.
She began to cultivate again and the qi in her dantian swelled, committing her to this path. Only success or horrible deviation left to her now.
For so long the Nascent Foundation stage had been building the metaphorical foundation to her true power. Now, as her qi overflowed, it began to become denser, saturating her dantian and perfecting it so that she could cultivate even the strongest qi. She had done everything perfectly, so the process advanced smoothly, cleanly, closer and closer...
Except that her body was still covered in scars, and they began to itch. The damage of the Blackblood Physique should all have been restored during the Body Refinement stage. Even though it didn't seem to harm her health or her cultivation, had she already deviated? It wasn't a violent fire deviation that would destroy her, but could she have ruined her chances?
Zae Zin Nim desperately swallowed a qi pill before she could lose her focus. The familiar power replaced the qi she'd lost in her hesitation and her dantian continued to perfect itself - but her emotional instability made the chakra begin to boil.
Its power rose like steam, striking her dantian. In theory it could have empowered her further, which was exactly what she had been hoping, but this was the worst possible time. The disturbance from the chakra could leave a crack in her foundation that would forever handicap her. She cursed Omilaena for allowing her to take the risk, which only made the chakra even more unstable.
Somehow it was mana that saved her. The Coldfire Corona continued to burn around her dantian, stable and unequivocally hers. Zae Zin Nim meditated on those blue flames until her peace returned, then took stock.
She hadn't ruined the Nascent Foundation stage, just slowed herself down. Zae Zin Nim drew in more qi from the environment, getting closer to perfection. Her chakra was still riled up, however, and she no longer wanted to expel it. No, it was doing what she had wanted, strengthening the rest of her. Instead of rejecting her new path she leaned in, drinking the yin qi.
Something strange was coursing through her scars. She had expected them to slough away like other impurities, but they seemed to be pulling inside her. That wasn't supposed to... no, that didn't matter now. Zae Zin Nim ignored her physical appearance entirely and focused on her power.
Her chakra bubbled, her mana burned, and her qi finally broke through to the next stage.
The peace of it overwhelmed her, both the relief that it was over and the aching purity of her new qi. No disturbances in her other power or pains in her body, yes, it was done. She kept her eyes closed and examined her own soul.
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Name: Zae Zin Nim
Total Power: 761
Cultivation: Earth Soul 0% (500)
Coldfire Corona: 51 (61)
Blackblood Physique Level: E-7 (101)
Blackblood Shadow (+50)
Soul Level: 7 (49)
Yin Chakra: 50 (0)
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At last she was an Earth Soul cultivator, and one with the maximum potential: 500 Power. Her Coldfire Corona remained stably supporting her and her chakra was integrated beneath her dantian, even if it didn't grant her any strength yet. In a stroke she'd gone from being the weakest member of their group to the strongest.
Yet as she looked, doubts began to creep in. As far as she knew, the Blackblood Physique should have been absorbed entirely into her cultivation, making her stronger than even a perfect Earth Soul Cultivator. Instead it remained, with a "Blackblood Shadow" granting her 50 additional Power. That was like nothing she'd ever read and she feared that she was mishandling it somehow.
Zae Zin Nim finally opened her eyes. It turned out she hadn't needed the mana potion after all, but now she desperately needed the mirror. Her fingers trembled, but she finally raised it enough to look at herself.
She was whole. All of the hideous scars were gone, leaving her skin as pure and pale as white jade. After so long feeling like a wretch, she was the great beauty she had once been... no, she was more. Rising through two entire stages of cultivation had perfected her body further, making her everything she wanted to be.
For some reason the Blackblood Physique remained within her instead of dissolving. That did leave her a little uncertain, and her soul looked a bit disorderly to her spiritual senses, but she decided to embrace it for now. She had improved herself without causing harm and she could study the rest later.
All at once contemplating herself alone wasn't enough and she desperately wanted to share her advancement with others. For months her time in the qi pools and caverns hadn't been lonely, yet now she felt isolated. She rose to her feet and marveled at how gracefully she moved despite being motionless for so long. Some of what the elves achieved artificially with their glamours she had incorporated into her very being through her advancement.
When she unlocked the door, one of the guard elves glanced at her in surprise. "Hey, good job."
"Please excuse me," Zae Zin Nim said, barely restraining her impatience with people she didn't know. "Where are my companions right now?"
"How should I know? Up, probably."
She brushed past the guards to go find the others, stretching her senses throughout the tunnels. Not nearby, but that was unsurprising. Now that she had reached Earth Soul she felt so much more subtle, and the cavern had contained her advancement, so she was free to search without fear of her father's cultivators. She'd find them soon enough.
What did she want to happen once she found her allies, though? A part of her wanted Kai to stare at her in awe, then she immediately changed her mind - she didn't want to him to be like other men seeing her as nothing but a beautiful jade object to possess. Yet she did want him to see her new beauty. If he just looked at her like nothing happened, that would feel wrong in a completely different way. After all the peace of cultivation, her emotions were a chaotic mess.
No one stopped her on her way out and she returned all the way to the entrance tunnel without finding her allies. Presumably they were training further away, then. She was still trying to decide when the guard by the tunnel entrance pulled his hat off his face.
"Looking for your friends?" he asked.
"Yes." Zae Zin Nim whirled back and gave him a slight bow. "Where are they?"
"You didn't hear? Naw, of course you didn't. They went off to the unicorn hunt."
"I see." For a moment she was furious, but she swallowed the unworthy emotion. It had taken her longer than expected, so of course they had continued moving forward.
"You want to follow them?" The elf rocked to his feet in a single smooth movement. "I don't know where they are exactly, because the hunt moves all over the Wilds, but I could take you to the central pavilion."
"Yes." She was about to ask more when the elf used his teleportation technique already, throwing them across Rosemount.
With her new Earth Soul senses the process wasn't so mysterious: she could feel the qi of the world rippling around them. The fabric of reality twisted to take them south and west, but not far, still within the Elven Wilds. She felt the large mass of people before they arrived, with stronger lights moving around beyond them, presumably in the hunt.
The desert around them was more alive than many she'd seen, with light blue cacti spotting the rolling dunes. But the majority of her vision was filled with a vast pavilion that had been recently erected. Elves from dozens of different factions milled about inside and outside, some cultivating or trading while others merely spoke to one another.
Her attention was drawn to the top of the pavilion, where elves were using either spyglasses or their own vision to examine the area around them. Presumably that was where they watched the hunt - her guide gestured toward it, then wandered off on his own business.
As Zae Zin Nim walked through the crowd, she felt as though every eye was on her. Her skin would have stood out in any crowd, but amid all the golden elves she was practically luminous. Normally their glamours would have made her feel worse, as if her own skin was inferior, but now she walked with her head held high.
When she climbed one of the staircases to the top, everyone was mostly focused on the hunters in the desert around them. Omilaena turned away from the others to glance at her, blinked once, then ran her eyes up and down.
"Damn," Omilaena said. "Guess I don't need to ask if you advanced."
Zae Zin Nim knew she was probably blushing, but it didn't feel as embarrassing as she'd feared. "I'm sorry it took me this long," she said. "The hunts have already started?"
"It doesn't really matter, because they won't let either of us participate anyway. I guess we should have been throwing ourselves into puddles of dirty water." Omilaena rolled her eyes and gestured for Zae Zin Nim to follow her across the roof to a better vantage point.
"So Kai is currently hunting out there?"
"That's right. Right now we're just the most powerful cheerleading squad."
While it was a bit disappointing, Zae Zin Nim couldn't remain discouraged for long, not when she had come so far. They could figure out everything else after they had advanced, together. For now, she looked out into the desert to find Kai.