When Darian woke up the next morning, he did so in a foul mood. Not because he was hung over from drinking the immortal wine. In fact, he felt fine in that regard. The immortal wine didn’t seem to have any lingering effects, which Darian knew was a minor miracle. He had never gotten drunk before, but he had heard that the hangovers afterwards could be debilitating. Darian had woken up clear-minded and refreshed.

At least he managed to get home just fine. He would have to thank that cute servant girl who had helped him. What was her name again? Cassandra, that was it. What a sweet girl.

No, he was in a bad mood because he remembered every detail of his conversation with his friends last night. They wanted him to marry Willow Stone Pillar in Lucius’ place, for the sake of the clan. If he did not, Lucius’ overdeveloped sense of duty would drive him to marry a woman he didn’t love, and cause him to lose the one he did. It was like the plot of a bad drama, the kind that made him want to slap everyone involved and tell them to stop being so melodramatic.

Unfortunately, he was one of the people involved.

Darian could understand where his friends were coming from, but that didn’t make him any happier about it, or any more willing to chain himself to a woman he had never met before. Yet, he didn’t want his friends to suffer. It was vexing, to say the least.

The weather seemed to reflect his grumpy mood, because a blanket of gray clouds covered the sky. The day was hot and muggy, with no wind to stir the air, just further adding to Darian’s miserable mood.

Darian had eaten breakfast, communicating with Stella purely through grunts. She seemed amused by this, and didn’t make any comment. After that, Darian walked to his father’s house. On the way there, he noticed a difference in how people treated him. The servants were more respectful, bowing to him as deeply as they would for any other member of Clan Wind Dance.

His kin were the same. People who would have never acknowledged his existence before nodded at him and said hello. Some even smiled at him and tried to engage him in conversation. The news that he was now a cultivator seemed to have spread across the clan already.

Darian, as someone so used to being ignored, found it odd. It was as if he was a person worthy of courtesy and respect now, whereas before he wasn’t. That worsened his mood. He wasn’t rude, however, and maintained the bare minimum level of civility with everyone. A few found this off-putting, the ones who smiled and attempted to talk with him, but the rest seemed to understand where he was coming from.

Just because he was a cultivator now didn’t mean his kin had accepted him, and it certainly didn’t mean he had accepted them. Resentment didn’t just go away overnight.

His father’s servants were overjoyed to see Darian when he arrived, which helped with his grumpiness somewhat. They were worried about his father, however, and he did his best to alleviate their concerns. His father’s manservant, Wyatt, was miffed at being left behind. It took Darian some time to mollify him.

Darian wondered if he should bring Wyatt with him when he returned to his secret realm. The man had faithfully served his father over the years, and he deserved to be treated better than unwanted luggage. The secret realm belonged to him, and it was his decision on who had access to it.

The problem was, the entrance to the secret realm limited things somewhat. The mound where it was located had a cramped interior, and Darian didn’t know if expanding it would mess with the teleportation formation that led to the secret realm. He would have to ask Astra about it when he saw her next. In fact, he had a lot of things he needed to ask Astra about. Unfortunately, he hadn’t seen his auntie since his bout with Zayne yesterday.

Oh well. She was a cat, and would show up when she felt like it. Or when she was bored and wanted to mess with her favorite playthi-nephew. He meant nephew.

Lucius and Vera arrived soon after he did. The first thing they did when they saw him was apologize.

“We’re sorry, Darian,” Lucius said. “I should have never asked you to do something I was unwilling to do myself. It was wrong of me.”

“It was wrong of us,” Vera said. “We’re both at fault here. We had no right to ask it of you.”

Darian waved off their apologies.

“There’s no need to apologize,” he said, still irritated. “I understand why you did, and in your shoes, I might have done the same. I don’t like it, but I can understand it.” He shook his head. “I just don’t know if I can go through with it. Give me some time to think on the matter.”

Lucius and Vera glanced at each other.

“No,” Lucius said. “It was wrong of us to ask this of you. You don’t have to do anything. We’ll find another solution.”

Darian pointed a finger at him.

“As you two mentioned last night, our options are limited. You two mean the world to me, and I intend to see you both happy, however that will work out. Just give me time to think about it. Until then, let’s not talk about it, okay?”

Lucius and Vera agreed, though they still looked uneasy. After that, Darian led them to his father’s immortal cave. They expressed wonder at the amount and quality of the spirit energy inside, and they were further amazed by the spring of spirit water. Darian was still too weak to make use of it himself, but since they were both in the Energy Gathering stage, they could imbibe a limited amount of spirit water.

Darian decided that he would bottle some of the spirit water to bring back to his secret realm. Maybe his father and the others could make use of it.

“Are you sure we should be here?” Lucius asked. “Patriarch Darin gave the token to you, not us.”

Darian snorted.

“Yes, he gave the token to me. If he has a problem with how I use it, he can tell me himself. Until then, I will do what I please.”

It hadn’t been that long ago where he had waited to get his father’s permission before letting Astra have access to the cave and the spring of spirit water. He had changed a lot in such a short amount of time.

His friends made some token efforts to decline, but Darian could tell their hearts weren’t in it. The immortal cave proved to be too tempting. After that, the three of them positioned themselves far from each other in order to start cultivating. The cave had enough space to accommodate all three of them.

Before he started meditating using the Mind Flame technique, which he always did before and after cultivating, Darian took a moment to observe his friends. Lucius, of course, practiced the signature technique of their clan, Dancing Wind. His movements were swift and graceful, and he seemed to be weightless as he danced.

Darian, who had practiced the moves countless times himself, realized that he had been like a pig wallowing in mud compared to Lucius. He was surprised that Lucius didn’t use the combat variant of the Dancing Wind technique, but after a moment’s thought, he supposed it made sense. That was for fighting, not actual cultivation.

Vera surprised him even more. She cultivated by sitting on the ground and meditating, which was the most basic way to cultivate. While it was a valid way to do it, Darian thought it lesser when compared to using techniques like Dancing Wind and The Nine Gates of Destruction. Still, Vera had managed to reach the Energy Gathering stage in less time than most cultivators took, so perhaps there was more going on beneath the surface.

It was at that moment that Darian realized that he had no idea what kind of techniques Vera knew and used. He had never bothered to learn, having been too focused on his own cultivation. He needed to rectify this oversight, especially since he intended to ask for Vera’s help with his own training. Knowing her capabilities would be useful.

Now that he thought about it, he needed to offer Vera something in return for her help. It would be boorish to expect her to do it without giving her recompense. The problem was, Darian didn’t know what he could offer her. He would have to ask Astra. She had access to the repository, or treasury as she called it, that Master Nova had left behind. Surely there would be something in there that Vera needed or could use.

After observing his friends, Darian meditated using the Mind Flame technique to calm his mental state. Once he was in the right frame of mind, he began cultivating. Before he began with that, however, he made sure to take off the Flamebound Gauntlets and Elliot. He didn’t want to get any black gunk on them.

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It wasn’t long before he lost himself to the rhythm and the movements of the Fists of the Mortal Flame. It wasn’t a dance, but Darian wondered if that could be changed. After all, Astra practiced a variant of The Nine Gates of Destruction. Could he? He was a Wind Dance, and after watching Lucian, a question occurred to him.

Could he incorporate aspects of the Dancing Wind technique into his own style? At the very least, he wanted to know if he could use his clan’s supplementary techniques. The Wings of Wind technique in particular looked useful.

Darian’s progress wasn’t as fast as he would have liked, since he didn’t have any Body Tempering Pills on hand. If he had known just how much time he would spend at Mt. Wind Dance, he would have brought some.

As usual, when he finished, Darian found himself covered in black gunk. Lucius and Vera, however, remained pristine. He made grumbling noises at them as he cleaned himself off using the supplies he had brought just for that purpose.

“It’s not fair,” Darian muttered. “You two look completely fine, while I look like I jumped into a particularly filthy mud hole.”

Vera covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.

“We had to go through the same thing as you did, Darian,” Lucius said with a smile. “That said, I don’t think either of us had ever produced as many impurities as you do.”

Darian thought about that for a moment.

“It might be because my technique is both a body refining technique and an energy refining one, leaning more towards body refining than the Dancing Wind technique.”

“Interesting. It looks like a combat technique. I’m surprised. I never thought you were a violent person, Darian. I always assumed that you would stick with dancing, if you ever managed to cultivate.”

That had never been an option for Darian, though he hadn’t known that until recently. Darian’s path had been laid out by Master Nova since his birth, or shortly after at least. According to Astra, he had been the equivalent of a rare natural treasure to Master Nova, a lucky find, and she had taken steps to ensure she kept him.

He now fully accepted that his master had blocked his spirit root. It was the only answer that made sense. The question that remained was, just how much had Master Nova interfered with his life? His intuition told him that it would be more than previously thought.

“Me neither,” Darian said in response. “That was until I started cultivating and found out that I like fighting. I enjoy it. Not a bad trait for someone who practices a combat cultivation technique.” He glanced at the black gunk still clinging to his body. “There are some downsides, however.”

“You know, I think I might have something that can help with that,” Vera said. “Clan River Heart has a formula for a solution that can help clean up the black gunk created by impurities. I don’t know the formula, but Lynda does. I can ask her to make you some, or I could learn the formula and make the solution myself.”

Darian gave her a look so full of gratitude, it bordered on pathetic.

“I would love that.”

“Consider it payment for giving us access to this immortal cave,” Vera said with a smile. “My cultivation has already benefited a lot from this.”

A perfect opportunity to ask for her help.

“That reminds me, there is something I need to ask you, Vera,” Darian said. “I would have done so last night, but I never found the opportunity.”

“Ask me what, Darian?”

He paused to find the right way to phrase it.

“In order to speed up my cultivation,” Darian said. “I need to go through a form of intense training. Auntie Astra won’t allow it, however, unless I have a healer on hand. I’ve been using Medicine Pills so far, but I’m starting to build up a tolerance to those. Will you help me?”

Both Lucius and Vera frowned at this.

“What kind of training requires a healer?” she asked.

“The painful, but beneficial, kind.”

Darian wasn’t going to say that the training was literal torture. She would never agree to help him then.

“Before you answer,” Darian said, holding up his hand with the palm out. “I want to point out that I don’t expect you to help me for free. I do have a few things I can offer you. The first is access to my secret realm. The spirit energy there is dense, and I’m sure you would benefit greatly from just being there. My estate also has several facilities you can make use of. There’s a library, an alchemy lab, and more.” He paused. “Actually, this offer is open to you too, Lucius. You’re my friend as well, and I don’t want to leave you out.”

Vera frowned as she thought it over

“While I would love to accept your offer, I can’t,” Lucius said. “Unlike Vera, I’m not sure if I can offer you anything in return that you can’t get for yourself. I don’t want to leech off your good fortune.” He chuckled. “The secret realm alone makes you wealthy by cultivator standards, Darian. That will take some getting used to.”

“Training,” Darian said, pointing a finger. “You have spent the last several years training your juniors and trading pointers with them. That sort of help is invaluable to someone like me. I have Astra, the snake twins, and my father to help me but it isn’t the same. The disparity between me and them is great. Even when they hold back, they still overwhelm me. I would appreciate training with someone closer to my own level.” He looked away from them. “Besides, I missed you guys when I was over there. It was lonely without you two.”

A beat of silence followed his statement.

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Vera said. “I would give you a hug, but you still have some impurities on you.”

Darian looked. So he did. He cleaned it off. Once he did, he sat on the ground to rest for a bit.

“I’ll do it,” Vera said. “I want to help you, and I have to admit, I am tempted by this your secret realm. Plus, after what you told us last night, I want to meet these new friends of yours. I think I would get along well with Astra and Ellen.”

“Why did you specifically mention the two people who tease me the most?” Darian asked with a pained expression on his face.

“Why do you ask questions with obvious answers?” Vera answered with a smirk.

Darian sighed. He already knew that he was going to regret this.

“What about you, Lucius?” he asked, looking at his other friend.

Lucius looked thoughtful.

“I’ll accept, but only on one condition. You allow me to pay you with a technique.”

Darian blinked.

“I’m no expert on negotiation,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to argue for paying less to the other party, not more.”

“I would feel bad otherwise. I don’t think you understand just how valuable access to a secret realm is, especially a secret realm like the one you described.”

Darian shrugged.

“Would it help if I said that I might also be able to offer you both cultivation resources as well? I would have to talk with Auntie Astra about it first, however, since she’s the one who controls access to the repository Master Nova left behind.”

Lucius and Vera both stared at Darian.

“You would share that much with us?” Lucius asked.

“Of course,” Darian said with a shrug. “You’re my friends. Why wouldn’t I?”

Vera walked over and knelt in front of him, so their eyes were level with each other.

“Darian, while I think it’s good that you’re willing to share with your friends like this,” she said. “There is such a thing as being too generous. You’ve already offered us enough. You need to focus on your cultivation first and foremost. Don’t be a selfish ass about it, but don’t help others to the detriment of yourself either. Find the right balance for you.” She cupped his head and leaned forward, kissing him on the forehead. “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll have to refuse.”

Darian watched Vera as she stood up, unsure of how he felt. His friends had given him so much already. He wanted to repay them for their kindness. That would have to wait until later, however, when they were in a more receptive mood.

“Vera is right,” Lucius said. “That said, I don’t mind trading with you for these resources. I have access to plenty of techniques that you might find useful. This way, we both benefit.”

Darian nodded.

“I would appreciate that.” He stood up. “Now, then. When will you be ready to go? I want to leave Mt. Wind Dance as soon as possible.”

His friends thought it over.

“That depends,” Vera asked. “Given the distance involved, it wouldn’t be difficult to stay here and visit your secret realm on a daily basis. Or would you like us to move there, at least temporarily? If it’s the latter, I’ll have to make arrangements. I work with my sister at her clinic. I can’t just abandon her.”

“I have duties as well,” Lucius said with a frown. “While my workload is now lighter, thanks to my father’s ‘punishment’, I still have responsibilities.”

“I think it would be best if the both of you moved there,” Darian said. “We would all get the most benefit out of it that way. My secret realm is saturated with spirit energy, so just staying there will be good for you. And as you said, the distance involved isn’t great so you can still attend to your duties here.” He pinched his chin. “We’ll have to find a way to let you move in and out of the realm freely, however. I’ll have to talk with Auntie Astra about that.”

His friends looked at each other.

“In that case, give us a few days,” Lucius said.

“Three at the most,” Vera said, then perked up. “Wait, can we bring servants? I know this will make me sound spoiled, but I would like to bring a mortal servant or two along.”

Lucius snorted.

“Speak for yourself,” he said. “I’m fine without one.”

Vera stuck her tongue out at Lucius. Darian chuckled.

“It’s fine,” he said. “You can bring a mortal servant along, Vera. Just make sure they know what they’re getting themselves into. I’d rather not have them panic at the sight of several spirit beasts.”

“That won’t be a problem.”

“In that case, I’ll see you both here tomorrow. I have some errands to run.”

He still needed to head towards the clan’s repository and retrieve the supplies his father had requested. There was also the earth elemental stone he promised Elliot.

After that, there was the meeting with his grandparents. He was not looking forward to that.