66th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

Newt and Everlast carefully entered the frostworm cavern. Dandelion was not as stressed, nor did he tiptoe around, he simply walked normally, his steps muffled by cushions of air. Newt would not be surprised if the man started humming, but as they approached the scene of their previous battle, Dandelion went ahead, running on air to scout the situation and surrounding tunnels.

“Don’t get frustrated because you haven’t figured out the new technique Dandelion told you to focus on.” Everlast broke the silence after watching Newt frown for half an hour.

Ever since fleeing the fifth realm frostworm, the team spirit grew warmer, and everyone seemed to grow closer to each other. Dandelion proved himself a capable combatant, leader, and instructor, winning the Everfrost Palace’s disciple’s respect. Newt half expected Dandelion would invite Puresnow to join them, but he ordered the woman to guard the entrance without a hint of apology in his voice.

Puresnow’s face remained expressionless, but Newt could tell she wanted to cry. Newt found it understandable, he also wanted to cry. Despite consulting his ancestral technique and wasting hours, he had failed to produce a technique which focused his flames into a single point. Worse, Flaming Fist III focused on delivering a firebolt, which dispersed with the distance until collapsing altogether.

“I’m not frustrated,” Newt lied a bit, “I’ll figure it out eventually. It’s just that Senior Dandelion’s suggestion can only work at short range, and isn’t it common to fight from a safe distance at higher realms?”

“Not necessarily.” Everlast drew out the words. “Some seniors do fight from a great distance, while others close in, which makes sense whenever your opponent is more skilled in ranged combat than you are. It’s like a more intricate version of Wood-Water-Fire; the key is to strike your enemy’s weakness with your strongest aspect. Master told us that wise tactics can allow you to win even against opponents who outclass you in raw power.”

“She is an intelligent woman.” Dandelion landed before them. “The floor is empty. It seems the elder frostworm has recalled its spawn from here. We have two choices. One is to mine the ice jade and forget about the Association’s mission and the marrow, the second option is to first mine some ice jade, then head down, harvest ice jade marrow, and kill two more frostworms along the way to complete the mission. You choose.”

Surprisingly, Dandelion was looking at Newt, striking him speechless.

“I think finishing what you start is important?”

Newt lacked confidence, but Dandelion responded with a firm nod. “Good choice, more dangerous, but moral and orthodox. Keep thinking like that, if you wish to join an orthodox sect later.”

Then Dandelion shifted his gaze towards Everlast. “What do you think?”

“I agree with Junior Apprentice Brother Newstar.”

“All right, follow me.”

As they walked deeper into the domain of the frostworms, the water-aligned spiritual energy grew thicker and thicker while the icicles above their heads became more numerous, fusing, until the tunnel’s ceiling became a layer of ice several feet thick. At the center of the ceiling, Newt saw wide grooves, marking the fifth realm frostworm’s recent passage. But even there, new icicles were already forming, pointing down like a sea of sharp, pointy teeth, ready to devour the intruders.

Even the faintest traces of sunlight were gone, no longer reflected by frosty prisms, and outside the zone of piercing green light, the tunnels were pitch black. Newt did not mind the darkness. While the lack of spiritual gem slag made it more intense than in the mines back home, he had spent three years of his life underground, and the frostworm tunnels felt familiar, on a grander, colder scale.

Everlast, on the other hand, gripped her sword tightly, her eyes darting left and right, seeking invisible danger.

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“Over here.” Dandelion pointed at the stretch of wall seemingly no different from the rest of the cavern, but when Newt focused, he noticed that the wall beneath the ice was white, not bluish-gray.

“I need two hundred pounds of it to repay a favor,” Dandelion said, surprising Newt.

He owes someone a favor? The elderly blacksmith immediately came to his mind. Newt struggled to recall his name, but failed. Swift-something.

Newt expected Dandelion would draw a pickaxe from a spatial pouch he had concealed somewhere, but the former sect master did something completely unexpected. He placed four of his fingers so that his fingertips formed the corners of a square, while the pinky was off to the side. Then four thin jets of flame burst from his fingertips, meeting in the middle of the square, projecting outwards from his arm.

That’s what he was telling me to master! But if he already knows how, why didn’t he tell me? It can’t be pettiness, otherwise he wouldn’t be showing the technique now.

Newt kept quiet and watched as flames met the ice, slashing it in a burst of steam. The ice groaned, cracked, and hissed as rivulets of water ran down, freezing again before they managed to reach the floor.

Everlast also got to work, severing ice with her enchanted blade, but Newt paid her little mind, focused on Dandelion’s fingers, their flames merging into a single, short blade of flame.

No, they aren’t merging, they are colliding and keeping each other in check.

Newt sat and closed his eyes. Inside his realm he created another replica of his sword, then sent two streams of Magmin Flames along its edges. Fire resisted such fine manipulation, it wished to burst, to feed on air and grow wild, but after two dozen attempts, Newt grasped it firmly with his will.

The flames shot up in thin lines, colliding at the blade’s tip. They formed a new flame, projecting from the blade’s tip, but the resulting flame sputtered and danced, constantly switching from a wide half-disk of fire to a wobbly string and back again.

Newt burst into excited laughter, his fire dissipating. What he had made was unstable, unwieldy, and probably horribly complex in the real world, where he would have to finely manipulate two streams of flame energy some two feet away from his body, but it worked! And it was merely the first step in completing the technique.

I could coat just one edge of my sword in flames and make fiery slashes. Would it be possible to launch the flaming slash at my opponents?

Newt filed those thoughts for later, and focused on improving his budding technique, but no matter how hard he tried, the merged flame grew unstable a mere inch beyond his sword’s tip.

An inch is enough to start, and Senior Dandelion used four streams of fire, probably to stabilize the flame.

“Look at him playing,” a voice chilled Newt’s spine. “You unfilial child.”

Newt shuddered and opened his eyes to find Dandelion and Everlast cutting chunks of the white, boney wall. He stood, trying to make no noise, but the shift in the green light he still carried around his neck alerted them.

Dandelion glanced back over his shoulder. “Newstar, I did not expect you to trust us so completely. You left your life in our hands. What if a frostworm wandered here? What if we killed you for the treasures?”

“Senior, I owe you favors and spirit gems, there’s no way you would let anything happen to me. Even if a fifth realm frostworm appeared, you would carry me out.” Newt flashed a cheeky grin at Dandelion, and the man laughed.

“Good! You are using your head. But seriously, try to not meditate inside a den of monsters powerful enough to cause you trouble in a fight.”

Newt nodded. Dandelion was right, even if Newt had had a flash of inspiration after seeing Dandelion’s cutting technique, he should not have meditated in an unsafe place. Even when traveling to Thunder Ridge, he often spent his nights in inns, cultivating his realm and studying his clan’s techniques.

After reminding his young friend, Dandelion returned to work, and Newt drew his sword. He tried to forget the accusing wail, coated his hand in Magmin, Scales and reinforced his arm with Granite Crust to equalize the elements, then he sent a trickle of Magmin Flames through his hand into his sword.

A weak flame enveloped the entire blade and Newt changed how the spiritual energy flowed, successfully keeping the flame on one flat side of the blade before shifting it over to the edge. Splitting the spiritual energy into two flows so close to each other made his head hurt like he was trying to watch one thing with one eye and another with the other, but after an hour Newt managed, reproducing the technique.

“Not bad,” Dandelion praised. “You really are a genius, it took me more than two weeks to get where you are now. Do you know how to stabilize it completely?”

Newt nodded. “I need to create another two flows on the flat sides of the blade, but I’m not sure I can do it. Even with this much, I feel sick.”

Dandelion nodded approvingly. “Keep practicing, it will grow easier over time. Do not worry about the ice jade, Everest and I are mining it for the four of us.”

Everest nodded, but said nothing as she continued severing the white bone with greater proficiency and effectiveness than Dandelion.