“...and then I reached the gates of the sect, sat down and…” Alina Blake paused and frowned. “I guess I woke up after that. I don’t really get it. Was it all some big metaphor for aging or something?” She said, wiping black sludge off of her arms. ‘Impurities,’ Jaki called it. The sludge smelled fouler than rotting meat, but the arctic-fox-beastkin didn’t seem to mind.

“Honestly? I think you did it wrong.”

“What?” A flick of the hand, a sling of black sludge.

“Most people probably would have followed the steps on the stone slate, let the vision play out, follow the plot, and finish the tribulation that way. I’m honestly surprised you even passed the Tribulation doing it the way you did, though I’m not sure how else you could have failed that Tribulation.” Her instructor shook his head, seemingly exasperated.

“What happens if you fail a Tribulation?”

“Worst case, you die. Very rare for vision Tribulations. Your cultivation could also get stuck, making it impossible to ascend to the next layer. Best case, you wait a while and have to do a new Tribulation.”

Alina nodded, half listening despite having asked the question. Ever since she woke up, things were… different.

She felt very obviously stronger than before, that much was a given. But her senses, sigh, taste, touch, smell, hearing, all of them, were also much sharper than before.

And then there were the words written in black-and-white flames in front of her face.

Name: Alina Blake

Age: 14

Race: Nephilim (UR)

Ascension Reincarnation: Triplet Soul (2*)

Layer: Body (2nd)

Level: Peak Martial State (1/2)

Qi Compressions: 0/2 (1%)

Tribulations: N/A

Techniques: None

Affinities: [+]

Feats: [+]

Titles: [+]

The words hovered in the air in front of her, written in fire instead of ink. The fire moved and undulated, but not too much to make it illegible. The flames started off black, but near the tips turned pure white.

“Jaki… Can you see this?” She asked, pointing at the words.

“What is it? Floating scroll? Words written on glass? Maybe made out of ice?”

“Black and white fire. I see my name, age, race, and more.”

“Well, that confirms it. You’re a Twin Soul.”

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“Triplet.”

Silence.

“I thought you said your dad taught you how to read. There’s no such thing as a ‘Triplet Soul,’ Alina.”

Alina shrugged, bent down, and wrote out into the dirt, letter by letter, exactly what it says in front of her in the black-and-white fire. The black tar-like impurities mixing with the dirt, making it more legible than usual when writing in dirt.

Jaki seemed shocked, to say the least. Then, without warning, he swiped his foot across the dirt, getting rid of the writing.

“Alina. I mean it when I say this. I’ve been letting you be very casual with me for a while now, but I am giving you an order as your Master and teacher. Never tell anyone about this. Never show anyone what those words that only you can see, say. Not unless you trust them with your life and more. You should not have even shown me. I mean it, do not even tell your sister. If not for your own sake, then for hers.”

Alina was silent as Jaki paced around the clearing, rubbing the short, fuzzy white hair atop his head nervously.

“Fuck, this changes things. You’re a UR rank race. I’ve never seen that before in my life. That’s got to be above SSR, I guess.”

“SSR? What’s that?”

“Dragons. They’re one of the most well-known SSR rank races. Dao Elementals, too. I thought SSR was the highest rank, but if there’s a rank called ‘UR’ it has to be higher. There’s no way you’re a lower rank than N rank. And then there’s your Ascension Reincarnation. I’m no Twin Soul, but I’ve learned a bit about them in my old sect. Most cultivators in a sect receive education about them at some point. It should say ‘Ascension Reincarnation: Twin Soul (2)’ but for some reason there’s a star next to the number. That means, for whatever reason, you’re a Triplet Soul when you should be a Twin Soul. I cannot even guess why that would be. I’ve never even heard of a ‘Triplet Soul.’”

“Jaki? You’re kinda freaking me out, here.”

“You should be, Alina. I was already worried about you before, but to be completely honest I’m half tempted to leave this village now and never turn back. What you are… You might be a unique existence on the Ring, for all we know. You’d be more sought after than anything you could possibly dream of, if word got out.”

“You’re not… Going to do anything to me, are you, Jaki?”

Her teacher froze, then, and had a complicated look on his face. The look of a man that could have a castle built of gold if he sold a child, and was tempted yet conflicted, Alina imagined. Then, his face turned to one of resolve.

“No. What kind of teacher would betray their student like that? Besides, you’ll surpass me one day, probably even very soon. I can’t have you hunting me down for that, can I?” He said, winking, as if to make light of the situation.

The situation did not lighten up.

“Alright, Alina. Our time scale has just moved up. A lot. We’re training you, day and night, even harder than before. You’ll be able to take more punishment with you being in the Body Layer, now. Education can wait. From now on, every day and well past dark, it’s martial arts training, body training, Breathing Techniques, swordplay, and more. We need to get you into fighting shape last cycle.

Now drop and give me two hundred push-ups. Now!”

“Can I take a bath in the creek, first?”

—----------------—

Nightshroud had long since passed, as Alina and Jaki jogged up and down the main road north of the village. He was having her run back and forth, back and forth, for miles. At first, she balked at the idea of running constantly in the dark, but she found that she could actually see quite clearly. It was still night, and thus dark, but the light of the purple moon above felt much brighter than it ever had in her entire life. Her sister always had better night vision than she had, but now she felt that she could probably see further and clearer in the dark than her catkin sister. It’s like how when you stare at a campfire at night with one eye closed, then look away from it and open your previously-closed eye, the way it can see much better in the dark. It’s like both of her eyes had been adjusted to a campfire her whole life, and now she could see.

Her stamina, too, was amazing. As long as she didn’t sprint, she felt like she could run all night and never tire. Jaki, naturally, was forcing her to push herself, but even then she felt like she could breathe much better than before, not needing to stop and huff and puff to catch her breath. She’d been getting into good shape before, but being in the Body Layer exemplified it to a much further degree.

Jaki did say that staying in shape mattered, that an in-shape Body Layer cultivator was as far above an out-of-shape Body Layer cultivator as an athletic mortal was to a fat mortal. But apparently even an out-of-shape Peak Martial State cultivator was well above the average mortal. The average Body Layer cultivator was basically the absolute peak of mortals. The strongest weightlifter, the best sprinter, the furthest runner, the highest jumper. An average Peak Martial State cultivator of a race was on equal terms with the absolute peak mortal of that race.

Alina was, however, still a fourteen year old. And she’d only had a few months of training. She was in excellent shape, buffed further by her cultivation, but she probably couldn’t outrun every mortal on the Ring. She’d get there though, Jaki assured her.

Weightlifting, too, she noticed huge gains. Her arms had slender muscles from her training before moving up a layer, and that hadn’t changed at all. But as a mortal, especially before training, she couldn’t lift things that were very heavy. What fourteen year old girl could? Now, she could lift rocks bigger than her own head with one hand, and without even struggling that much. Jaki would still be mean and try to make her do that without bending her elbow.

All this in the half-day and half-night of training. She hadn’t even slept yet since coming out of that Tribulation, and she was running ragged.

But if everything Jaki said about those black-and-white fire words was true… Well, she’d need all the training she could get.