“Almost,” Elder Shadow admitted. I was still having problems controlling the boost in abilities binding with STorm had given me, as well as that feeling of oppressiveness in my heart region that was a constant reminder that I carried a Spirit Animal as a passenger within my soul ocean.

“You have mastered your control over the meridian channels branching out from your Spirit Root, but you are ignoring the connection between those channels and the sixty bind points with the Roc. Those connections are real, the ebb and flow of Qi between the two of you a constant cycle, a Ying and Yang duality with each of you adding power, abilities, and skills to a greater pool. A pool of potential that you both can tap into.

“You keep trying to exclude the Roc, to continue the cycle of Qi as if she doesn’t exist. You can’t do that anymore. Open your channels, and trust that the Roc is able to complete the circuit you are attempting to create. Your Qi and energy will not harm her, and hers can only add an additional layer and texture to your power.

“You have succeeded, the binding is complete. Stop agonizing that something may go wrong, there is no need to worry about rejection and immunity anymore. There exists two individual, you and her, but there is also a blended you. Two minds. One soul. One Qi pool.

“Now.

“Again and do it right this time!” Elder Shadow demanded.

I hadn’t felt so clumsy since the first month of training. I think I might have had an easier time if I hadn’t already created muscle memories and meridian pathways for the skills I was trying to adapt. It was hard to break habits and patterns, even those that weren’t even a year old yet. It required a focus that I hadn’t needed for months.

But I was determined. Today was the last day I would have to practice my martial techniques before we left for Dragon Spire Sect. I had mastered the easier martial movements. [Lightning’s Rush] and [Water Pierce] had again become second nature, my attacks simultaneous with my thoughts.

But the katas of [Tessenjutsu] was giving me problems. I think mostly because I insisted on perfecting the martial ability by changing the elemental affinity; I was channeling. The Bow and Movement technique while versatile, [Tessenjutsu] was so much more. I could modify elemental affinities in the middle of a martial form, the technique responsive to change.

[Tessenjutsu] was not a stagnate art, I could mix and match different moves, creating an attack specific to my needs. It was this fluid nature of the art that worked so well for me. It allowed me to combine movements as well as a combination of differing Qi affinities for an increased range of attacks and effects.

It would be hard to guard against [Spin and Dive Into the Ocean] if each time I executed the technique, I included insights from my Movement ability, Bow technique, and elemental affinities. Or if I changed, partway, and executed a finishing move based on [Dancing Wind and Rain]. Long-range, short-range, area effect, the versatility I was able to harness by experimenting and blending techniques, increased my unpredictability and offered as much of an advantage as bonding with Storm had.

Hours later, I finally had my first success. Instead of waiting for the exact moment that I needed to change the Cycle of my Qi and send the energy down one of the meridian clusters I had formed, I began to anticipate, cycling the energy in advance. By doing this, I was able to include the Roc’s beast points. My successes increased until as dawn broke, I had finally found a rhythm that worked for me and Storm.

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Rhythm was the best word to describe the process I’d discovered. Just as the blood in my body flowed with every beat of my heart, the Qi was absorbed and cycled with each breath I took. When cultivating, that Qi absorption could be expanded into a continuous stream of energy that was collected by breathing, and by my meridian points, but when fighting there were differences.

This is another area where having a Platinum spirit root gave me an advantage. The spirit root itself had a physical location in the body. The fibrous membranes that make up the structure was part of my trachea, the root followed that same path, branching into two sections at the bronchi to enter my lungs. It is here that the spirit tier comes into play. The spirit root makes use of the bronchial tree to expand, for me into the 78 branches that form my meridian body.

Because the Spirit root and the respiratory system overlap, it allows me to make use of breath control, to guide a large amount of the Qi that my body absorbs. The extra cilia that makes up part of my Spirit root mean I am able to absorb and process Qi energy through breath, easier than those people that had lower-tiered spirit roots. This ability and the permutations and clusters I can assign to different elemental affinities explain my increased potential.

There were drawbacks of course. I had to train and cultivate four times as much as a person with a lower-tiered spirit root to gain complete control and understanding, to create the pairings and clusters that would direct elemental affinities in optimum configurations. There were times I’d spent long hours to align a cluster with the correct affinities to combine air and water to form lightning, only to have to tear the cluster apart and start over with a different configuration.

The process was more trial and error than a logical progression, and there were people that are blessed with a Platinum or Gold spirit root that simply don't have the patience to test different elements and meridian channel configurations to find modifications that worked, efficiently. Higher tiered spirit roots required a person to be borderline obsessive-compulsive, willing to work through the exponential increase of pairings and clusters to excel.

By paying attention to my breathing, I was able to finally find the key to connect Storm’s power nodules and my meridian channels. By setting the cycle of energy to flow with each breath, I was able to finally find the missing key that opened the lock between my spirit companion and myself.

As the sun began to rise above Flowing Water Sect, I leaped into the air, directing lighting elements towards my legs so that my leap included elements of [Lightning’s Rush]. My jump was higher than I’d ever been capable of before as I included the boost in energy from the merged network Storm and I had created.

We had linked our disparate types of energy control into one system. My leap transitioned into pirouettes, the dress that I would be forced to wear during the tournament flaring, as I reached the apex of that leap. I snapped both Tessen open, directing a combination of air and ice to create a platform. Firm enough for me to stand on, ethereal enough to obey the limits of wind

My feet finding purchase, I exhaled.

And dove.

[Spin and Dive Into the Ocean] continued as I funneled water into the Tessen in my right hand, the one I had I left open, and lightning into the other as I flicked the weapon closed. Diving, using the ice platform as a purchase, I released elemental Qi, directing water to form a deluge while simultaneously releasing lightning.

I rode that streak of lightning, a physical connection between my Qi, the Tessen, and my target, and landed gracefully, thrusting the Tessen sparking with lightning into the chest of a target dummy.

I stood there a moment, eyes closed, as I reflected on the perfection of that attack, burning into memory what I had done. I knew that I would be able to replicate the attack, that I could change the elements I controlled when I paused at the apex of my jump, suspended and resting on the ice platform, before leaping like an avenging angel to dispense justice.

I was ready. As ready as I could be for the tournament that may be my graduation from Outer Sect member to Elder Tye’s disciple. The coming combat would see me advance into the Inner Court or cast from Flowing Water Sect.

And I wasn’t sure which path I preferred.