Princess Seong Haeun sat in her garden and meditated quietly, focusing intently on the mana around her. The loose essence drifted aimlessly, but not without purpose. It was commonly assumed that neutral mana simply existed, floating through the world through invisible currents called leylines and disseminating throughout the earth where it was naturally absorbed by everything.
Humans, plants and animals, even seemingly lifeless things like rocks and water would absorb essence. But such loose essence wasn’t as neutral as people liked to assume. It was particularly obvious in Jiaguo, where most of the natural essence was constantly being filtered through Yoshika’s domain of Unity.
One thing all cultivators had in common was the manipulation of essence. In particular, they all had their own ways of speaking to essence, imbuing it with purpose. A spiritualist refined qi in their dantian and cycled it through their meridians, the ritualistic act of meditation defining their desired intent. A martial artist trained their bodies and fused with their ki, becoming one with the essence and expressing its power through well-practiced movements. Mages wrote spell formations and talismans, literally spelling out the desired shape of their mana.
It was all the same thing, in the end. Take weak, purposeless essence, then concentrate it together and give it a purpose.
Trying to teach her own method, as well as the lessons she’d been learning in the academy and from Yoshika, her mentor, had helped Haeun to understand exactly what her magic was and how it worked. The key element, she suspected, was listening.
Other cultivators were very good at telling essence what to do, but they weren’t so good at listening. Long Ruiling’s dragon magic had been a perfect example. At first, everyone thought that Haeun’s magic was similar to Ruiling’s, but the more she learned about dragon magic, the further apart they became. Ruiling's technique let her release the essence from her body into her aura.
It was a pretty neat trick, and it let her cast spells very fast and without any talismans just like Haeun did, but the premise was still the same as normal cultivation. The only difference was that the intent and the power were forged separately. Ruiling focused the power in her body, but only gave it purpose through her aura.
Crafting her aura to do that had apparently been the work of decades, and there were only a few different spells that Ruiling could manifest. In that way, it was actually a lot more like spiritual cultivation than either martial arts or spellcraft, despite being a combination of the latter two.
And it still didn’t listen. That was the part that Haeun had the hardest time communicating to people. Yoshika could read the intent behind a technique and predict its effects, but that wasn’t the same. Probably not, anyway.
Loose essence wasn’t purposeless—none of it was. Every last bit of mana floating through the air had its own job to do, and if one knew how to listen, then they could understand what it was.
In Jiaguo, all mana was tinted slightly towards promoting cooperation and trust, on top of its usual meaning. That was because of Yoshika, and while Haeun could only guess at what it meant for the cultivators living under her domain, it probably meant that the mana would slightly favor people who wanted to help others.
But even without Yoshika’s domain, there was essence that fed the grass, essence that moved the air, essence that toughened the stones—anything and everything needed essence, and it wasn’t like the rocks knew how to cultivate. Well, some did, but only after they’d already absorbed loads and loads of mana.
Mana intrinsically knew where it was meant to go and what its purpose was. Haeun wasn’t sure how exactly it knew, but it always did. A cultivator changed that purpose when they absorbed and refined their essence. That wasn’t a big deal in the long run, more essence would always come along to replace what they took, but it wasn’t a method that was compatible with her kind of magic.
As a child, she hadn’t really understood what she was doing. She asked the mana to do things, and some of it would comply. Over time she got better at knowing how to ask, and what kind of mana she needed to focus on.
Usually, the spells she cast weren’t very strong. She could move the air to pick up some scattered paper, or make a stick of incense burn out faster so that she could get out of studies sooner—that one had never worked, mages have perfect time keeping. Her most impressive feat was the embarrassingly named spell she’d used to turn invisible, but using mana from a spirit or elemental was cheating.
It was more accurate to say that Heian had made her invisible. The ‘Dark Sneaky Cat-Fox Technique’ required more than just Shadow essence—it required Heian. A shame, since Heian’s essence had changed so much since then that it wouldn’t work anymore.
Ultimately, it was the lack of power that had led her early tutors to dismiss her unique method as little more than a gimmick or a curiosity. Only Dae and Yoshika had ever taken it seriously.
Now, it was time for that to change.
Haeun thought back to the workshop, and all the help she’d gotten from the people who’d joined it.
----------------------------------------
Jin Hu paced back and forth with one hand behind his back and the other holding his chin.
“Let us forget elements entirely for a moment and split essence into three components—density, natural intent, and imbued intent. The physical manifestation of that essence is derived from these three components.”
Long Ruiling nodded.
“Right, and what we’re looking for is a way to enhance density without losing natural intent, is that right, Princess Seong?”
Haeun wobbled her head side to side.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Almost. It’s not enough to preserve natural intent—it has to be enhanced.”
Jin Hu clicked his tongue.
“That’s quite impossible under any discipline I’m aware of. Refining essence, no matter the method, requires making it part of oneself. The natural intent is always lost.”
Narae scowled—she struggled with the theoretical parts of cultivation, but was even better than Haeun when it came to figuring out the practical applications.
“Can’t you just...I dunno, get a whole bunch of the same kind of mana together?”
Jin Hu shook his head.
“That would mean more volume, but the same density. The power would remain fixed.”
“So squish it together.”
“Yes, obviously, but the question is how to do that without changing it in the process.”
And so it went, often in circles as they theorized, experimented, and failed to produce results over and over again. Sometimes Yoshika would oversee the workshop herself, sometimes it was Dae, and occasionally they’d simply be left to work it out on their own—usually Jin Hu would end up becoming the de facto proctor in those cases. He had a talent for getting the group organized.
Their first major breakthrough had come when Narae finally figured out how to cast simple spells with Haeun’s method.
“Look!”
She flew overhead in an angular pattern, ignoring her momentum. That was normal for Narae, but what came next wasn’t. She shot towards Jin Hu, and Haeun could hear the mana in her aura clearly.
Feint. Sharp turn right. Avoid reprisal. Attack.
There were two things amiss. First, Narae’s plan of attack made no sense—the sharp turn would send her flying away from Jin Hu, too far for her attack to land. Second, as Narae flew, the air seemed to gather near her instead of flowing over her like normal.
At the last moment, as Haeun predicted, Narae banked right. Jin Hu predicted the move as well, ignoring the feint and turning to catch Narae with a swift strike of his own. Narae flowed around his blow like water, but the motion carried her out of striking range.
Then the air around her burst. With a wumph sound like a heavy futon falling over, Narae was suddenly launched back towards Jin Hu, just in time for her technique to give weight to her blows once more, bowling the older man over.
Narae bounced to her feet excitedly, not bothering to continue the spar after that.
“See?! I did it!”
Haeun nodded slowly. The sudden change of direction wasn’t really special—Narae could already do that. But what she’d done, which neither Haeun nor Jin Hu could predict, was convince the air to push her without altering its natural intent.
Since the technique hadn’t been formed until the very last moment, there was no way to read the intent from Narae’s aura. Not only that...
“How did you get the air to push you so hard?”
Haeun herself had never managed such a strong effect from her magic. A gust like that should have struggled to do more than rustle a few leaves.
Narae scratched the back of her head, her ears wiggling proudly.
“It’s like I kept saying. You just need a bunch more mana. While I was flying around, I found as much air essence as I could and just asked it to follow me. I’m pretty light when using Star-Climbing so it didn’t take that much.”
Haeun frowned.
“Keep working on that name. Is it really that easy?”
“Did you not try it? I’ve been saying it for weeks!”
Narae looked genuinely hurt by the lack of confidence, and Haeun blushed.
“I did try, I just...”
Didn’t try hard enough. Didn’t believe in her only friend. Haeun sighed—she was the worst.
“I need to meditate on this.”
----------------------------------------
The essence flowed around Haeun like a storm. She’d been so stupid. All her life she’d been complaining about her teachers not taking her seriously, and forcing her to do things the ‘normal’ way. When Yoshika showed an interest in developing her unique style of magic into something more than just a gimmick, she’d been overjoyed.
Then she’d done the same stupid thing to her best friend. Brushing off her ideas because they didn’t align with conventional methods.
Everyone had assumed that essence needed to be refined within a dantian, or a body, or a formation—but Narae had dared to question that. The entire point was to let the mana do what it was meant for. And if you gathered enough like-minded essence together?
Haeun opened her eyes and her mana sense to the world around her.
She’d been calling essence to her for hours, waiting for the moment when there would be too much to stay in one place. It never came. The essence just built and built.
It was almost the opposite of normal cultivation. Instead of absorbing and refining the essence, Haeun was just refining it on the spot. It wasn’t hers, but it was growing increasingly powerful the more of it she called.
It wasn’t easy to keep up. If Haeun hadn’t been talking to mana all her life, she doubted she’d have been able to get as far as she had. Already she could feel her aura straining, and her focus beginning to wane. The mana hadn’t reached its limit, but she was reaching hers.
Haeun’s magic relied on the natural intent of mana, her own request acting as a tiny nudge in the direction she wanted. Even that tiny nudge was enough to overwhelm most essence. It wasn’t very strong or very smart, normally, but the collection before her now was different.
She’d created a sort of proto-spirit that still lacked a mind or soul, but she could feel a limited understanding from it. Anything she asked of it would have to align with its nature, or the request would be rejected.
Haeun didn’t know what would happen, then. Maybe it would just dissipate harmlessly, or explode into some unpredictable effect. She hadn’t thought it through when she started meditating, but now she had to make a choice.
Thankfully, there was one option that she felt confident in. Because it was Jiaguo’s essence, tinted with the concept of love, friendship, and mutual respect. Whatever else the essence was, it had come from Yoshika’s domain, and that gave Haeun her answer.
She asked the mana what she should have asked Narae already, if her pride hadn’t gotten in the way. The question she always wanted to ask, but could never bring herself to.
Will you help me?
The mana responded in an instant, flowing into her and filling her with power. It flooded her dantian, her meridians, her body, and her aura, then kept on flowing still. Haeun scrunched her face up in concentration, trying to hold the power in.
It was a familiar feeling. Like her first awakenings had been, but all at once. Beads of sweat formed across her entire body, and her head felt as though it would split in two.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. Haeun dropped to her hands and knees, panting for air. Then the smell hit her and she felt her gorge rise.
“Ohno—”
She retched as the vile black sludge of corruption ejected itself from her body by any avenue it could find. After what felt like an eternity, a heavenly voice interrupted her suffering.
“Oh dear. Looks like you weren’t ready for a sudden breakthrough, huh?”
Lee Jia’s tone was sympathetic, and swiftly followed by a spell that got rid of the horrific smell.
“Congratulations on reaching the second stage. Let’s go get you into a bath...and some new clothes.”