“I had heard that she attacked an innocent young child, and that is the reason they expelled her,” the voice behind me said. I would roll my eyes, but I could not allow myself to be distracted.

The clan was receiving Imperial assessor once more. It was not a special occurrence. This type of Imperial official arrived every half of a year to check the books and send the information he gathered towards the Imperial census office, so that it could mete out the proper rate of taxation. It would of course be a different assessor each time, so that corruption could be kept to a minimum.

It was a surprisingly efficient system, but it meant the clan had to throw a big show twice a year to show our gratitude to the Empire. I was chosen to be in the front row of the welcoming delegation.

It was a place of honor and dignity as my mother explained to me in great detail, when she was preparing me for the duty. It was also sadly a perfect place to hear rumors from the back row, who were now discussing my perceived failures.

I had an inkling, where the negative rumors about me originated. Xian’s malicious grin every time he looked at me was more than enough proof, but I did not know what to do about it.

It confused me, why did Xian still act against me in such an underhanded manner. I had bested him in battle and proved his superior, so why he did not accept this and instead turned to such underhanded means was baffling me. Well lit was not that he did so, but that anyone would listen to him.

The rumor about his defeat was the first one to spread, but it was not a story about honorable fight, instead I used underhanded means and my brute strength originating from my time in Fiery Peak sect, which I obviously only attended to gain such advantage and to gain further favor in the clan, so I could betray the clan with ease. The rumors were not exactly consistent.

What this meant in practice was that I received no invitation to the social gatherings and even my mother could not get me to more than a few parties.

Parties, which led to nothing more than awkward silence in my presence as I tried to break the ice futilely. I admit that trying to converse about the quality of the town guard was a bad , but I ran out of the conversation topics supplied by my mother and even by Adra swiftly for the simple reason I knew nothing about clothing, perfumes, boys , or social rumors and neither one of them could supply me with more information. My mother aged out of my age group years ago and Adra was never even close to them in the first place.

I was being frozen out of the clan slowly but surely and with it all my opportunities to get money for my parents were diminishing swiftly. The most frustrating thing about these events was that I could not see any way around this issue. I could beat Xian silly, but it would only prove the rumors. I could not bait Xian into a social trap, because he has been avoiding me as a plague town.

Clan head was not inserting himself into this struggle, but it was by his will, that I had this place of honor, so that suggested to me, that I was still in his good graces and he was keeping his distance to seem impartial or for some other reason I could not see.

Sadly, this also meant rumors about how I used my cultivator’s wiles to enchant the Clan head were spreading now too.

My social isolation had only one advantage. It left me with much more time with the manual and, while I successfully translated nearly all of it by now. The details it provided were not very helpful.

I practiced the exercises it prescribed the novices, although they made very little sense to me.

First exercise demanded that I fill my meridians with Qi freely collected from the air to increase my capacity for holding it. It was not a complex exercise, but I saw little point in this exercise. The passage said to hold the Qi and release it back to the surrounding area. It had no description of what to do with the Qi once meridians were filled and I saw no point in the exercise only purified Qi could be used for cultivation carrying a bunch of Qi without circulating it and refining it was a waste of meridians, but the passage was rather complete and so I did this exercise. It was easy.

The second exercise was of the same validity. It wanted me to draw in QI from the atmosphere and then release it without absorbing it. Sadly, the passage describing the point of the exercise was missing, so the reason the writer wished me to do it was lost. While I saw no point in the exercise, I did it diligently even now spreading my Spirit sense in the area and moving flows of QI through my will alone.

I was practicing diligently, but I was grasping at straws as my condition slowly but surely worsened. I was now having an attack every two days. The stress of failure and fate of my parents was clearly worsening my condition, but there was nothing I could do to help it.

I let go of these dark thoughts as the Imperial Assessor walked towards us accompanied by his two bodyguards.

I blinked in surprise as one bodyguard was a cultivator. Unless he was hiding his prowess, he was in the stage of an Earthly body, same as me. It should not have been surprising that the Empire was the biggest employer of the outer sect disciples who departed their sects after giving up hope of promotion into the inner sect, but that even one accompanied this lowly Imperial democrat left me wondering how many cultivators were employed by the Empire.

The cultivator gave no sign that he registered my probing, but I retracted my senses. It was rude to poke too much.

The official passed us as we bowed deeply to him showing our reverence to the authority he represented, even if not the man himself, which would be rather hard as the official walked with a weird gait making him resemble a frog. I was thankful for my composure as I kept myself from giggling. The ones in the back rows were not so lucky, but at least they kept it on down low while the Assessor passed us.

The ordeal was behind us and I went back to my quarters and to my practise, when I heard another rumor.

“I know she bankrupted her father with her frivolity, but have you heard that Xun has another large loan due soon? My father says he cannot pay.”

I stopped and turned to the voices. I just wanted to ask for more details, but as the girls behind me saw me turning they swiftly sped away.

I could not pursue them, because I would just look like I was menacing them and so I went dispirited back to my quarters. I had exercises to do. Hopefully, they would help me forget about the darkness which was slowly encircling me.

My mother waited for me at the entrance to my rooms eagerly awaiting my arrival.

“How did the procession go?” she asked.

“It went okay, but I heard an interesting rumor. I heard the father has a loan due. Is it true?” I went right to the point. I needed to know if that rumor was true.

My mother hesitated,”Well yes, but do not be afraid. We have enough money to pay it even with the expenses for the doctor. We will just have to be a little more conservative with money,” she reassured me but doubt was haunting her eyes.

I was a terrible daughter. By lying about my condition I let that leech of a doctor into the confidence of my parents and now he would keep sucking the money from them, until there was nothing left and there was nothing I could do, even telling the truth now would have no effect. MY parents would simply not believe me.

My only hope was an unreadable manual, which I picked in my pride so I would not dirty myself with dark deeds as a true fool. I was truly a ruin bringer.

My mother saw my face sage, as I thought about my terrible life choices and tried to cheer me up, ”Do not despair. I could secure you a role as a maid of honor in the betrothal ceremony of Yu and Lim. Everyone will see what a beautiful lady you are and soon everyone will forget these nasty rumors.”

“Thank you, I will go to my room now,” I said to her curtly. I was in a daze trying to consider my options, but I could do nothing. My options were limited.

Adra was cleaning my room as I entered. She still tried to bow, but one look from me froze her in the middle of her maneuver. I really was not in the mood for her antics.

“Mistress, blacksmith Paulos delivered the package as was ordered. He told me that there was enough gold for three of them,” she said.

I nodded looking around the wealth my parents still did not sell. The ornamentations, toys and jewelry would serve a purpose after all.

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:”Adra, can you get into contact with some broker who can handle rather exotic goods? I have things to sell,” I said to her.

“What will you be selling, if I may ask?” she wondered as she dropped the duster staring at me for some reason.

“All of this,” I gestured to the room. It was of course not a literal statement. I had to keep the clothing and at least some jewels for official functions, but the amount of money stored in these things was significant and, if it could help my parents, It was something I had to do.

“As you wish, but before I go, I would like to remind you about the package from the blacksmith. It is on your bed, mistress,” she said. Her eyes were boring me and I waved her to leave.

When she left, I fell on the bed. I could not think of anything, but considered my failures. The dark pit was enveloping me and I could not wonder what to do. We had no money, our standing in the clan was precarious and my parents were clearly suffering, even though they hid it well and it was all my fault.

I laid there for hours not thinking about much, but even doing nothing was tiresome and so I rose as the sun set.

There was a package next to my head. I picked it up. It was an object wrapped in simple cloth. I pulled the cloth away, revealing three flat black stones. I turned them around revealing a golden coin-like inlay in the middle of each of those stones.

It was then I remembered Adra said Paulos delivered my commission. It was truly masterful work. All three of the stones were smooth and I could barely feel the gap between the gold and the stone.

I was wallowing in my misery long enough. I had no desire to continue this and working, if this method was fraudulent would allow me to get a new manual from cultivator Li without being seen as ungrateful.

I went to the table and sat down. I put two of the devices aside for later use and the other one on the table in front of me.

I closed my eyes, letting myself relax and opening my spirit senses to the world. Compared to my inner turmoil the Qi floated across the world in serene harmony mixed together without worry, while it was impossible to discern various types of Qi flowing in this harmonious tangle around me I could discern the dominant Qi of the place with a touch. Like most places in this world Jiaomay city had no true dominant Qi, but this city was not a cultivation desert and so I could discern a small edge of the water Qi.

I focused on my spirit sense extending it towards the device in front of me. The Qi in the device was normal for any object few strands from the wide world trapped inside as the Qi flowed. It had no dominant element.

If my understanding of the manual was correct and the manual was not fraudulent gold should be able to filter for lack of a better word Fire Qi and provide purified fire Qi to me.

By all cultivation wisdom I knew this should not be possible, but most cultivation seemed foolish to outside observers, who were not initiated into the secrets. Why did you need to circle five times in the heart's direction and ten times counter to it to achieve the best balance of Earth Qi, if you were practicing Iron Ox body technique? To the uninitiated it made no sense and yet to those who knew the inner mechanism of the technique it was perfectly logical.

Sadly, I did not know the secret of this technique as the manual was too heavily damaged for me to read it but it was supposed to be simple and there were only so many ways to push environmental Qi into the object.

Logic dictated I started with the simplest approach.

I simply collected the environmental Qi in the area and pushed it into the device. The effects were predictable; any Qi I was pushing into it was simply leaking back out. This was not one of the exalted materials which had a great capacity to hold Qi. This was simple gold and stone, which had no such capacity. The Qi simply passed through the object with no effect.

I was not dispirited though. I was expecting it to do such a thing and so I began experimenting.

The process was long and arduous. First, I tried to feed the Qi in various pulses, which led to no discernable change. Then I tried to push everything I had into the device, which also did not work. I tried to feed the Qi in slowly as it dissipated and was met with failure. I pushed a large quantity in one moment of Qi to no avail.

When this failed I moved to shape the Qi in exotic forms feeding both the stone and the gold variant amounts of Qi, which had no effect no matter what kind of shape I tried. Slowly I got lost in the methods and ideas I was trying to achieve with the same negative result.

“My lady, It is very late,” a voice disturbed my concentration. I saw Adra holding a candle in one hand hovering over me and when I looked out, it was deep in the night. The candle in my room went out a long time ago and I was still sitting on the same chair trying futilely to make this work.

“I am okay. I am trying to meditate and make this thing work,” I gestured to the device in front of me, which refused to change or produce any results. rather stubbornly.

“Okay, but maybe you should try to do this in the morning. You need to rest?” She pointed out looking into the night sky and the window I forgot to close.

She had a point, but this puzzle needed solving and while I met no success yet, I still had more extreme methods to try including trying to bond with this rock. “I will try to work this for some time before I will go to sleep. Close the window and go to bed,” I said to her looking at the device in deep thought considering how I could get my blood into the contraption.

Adra nodded dutifully, but as she was closing the window her curiosity got the better of her, ”What are you trying to do?”

I thought for a moment about how to explain to someone who lacked any background in cultivation what I was doing, ”I am trying to filter a specific Qi from the other through this device, but I have had no luck so far.”

“So like pushing icing through a piping bag to create a specific shape?” She wondered out loud.

“Not exactly. It is more like collecting alcohol from water by hand,” I explained to her.

“That sounds impossible, mistress.” She said, looking at me in awe as I revealed secrets of cultivation to her.

“It might be, but I need to consider every angle before I give up. Now let me concentrate,” I said to her curtly, but she still looked at me in awe as she left.

I looked at the problem before me once more, putting the device aside. My problem was that Qi rarely reacted with normal materials without an intermediary, and I had no intermediary.

But there was Qi in the object naturally and exalted materials emerged without intermediary in accordance to one theory, so it should not have been impossible. I just needed to find a way to do it.

My sleep deprived brain drifted back to Adra and her piping bag analogy as I was looking at the stone. The gold coin looked like a hole through which you would push icing, but I tried to push Qi to the gold and it did not work before. It simply dispersed through the stone, there was no human body to hold it in meridians as cultivators did. I could not build a whole body around the device could I?

My mind drifted to the second exercise described in the book, moving QI outside of the body was not a very useful exercise, even if it could be fun, but it could allow me to hold a quantity of Qi in place through my Spirit senses.

I shook my head; I was too sleepy and this would not help me. Qi reacted with exalted materials, human body and Qi would just pass through the normal materials.

It was then my brain was lit. I could create a wall of Qi around the gold in the device forcing the flow of QI to interact purely with gold, instead of dispersing. It would force the Qi to work in the gold and interact with the gold like the walls of the bag force icing into the hole which shapes it.

I began the experiment by enveloping the device in a cloud of QI forcing it to create a barrier around the device. It was much harder than I expected. The barrier was fluid moving and flailing. It took all of my concentration to keep it in one place and when I moved to push a Qi through the gold it collapsed letting Qi disperse into the air.

It took me twenty attempts before I could keep the Qi barrier going as I pushed Qi into the gold plate. The results were not promising, as once more the Qi failed to emerge. I put the stone down.

Next thing I would try would be to pump the energy into the stone instead of gold. I prepared myself for the next round, but when I touched the stone with my Spirit sense, I felt something change.

I nearly dropped the stone in surprise. The stone now had more Qi in it than before. The amount was nearly undetectable and I would not have recognized it without feeling the stone for so many times before.

I repeated the process once more until the barrier collapsed and the amount of Qi in the stone once more increased.

The process was doing something, but I still had no Fire Qi to use.

I tried to reverse the process and push through the stone first to the same result, but when I let the gold out of the equation and pushed through the stone itself the Qi of the object failed to rise. It was clear the properties of the gold were the cause of the effect.

I considered the simple solution and changed the direction I would push the energy, instead of through the stone I put my finger on the gold plate and pushed along the gold.

I observed another interesting result. No matter how much I tried, the barrier I formed collapsed almost immediately as I pushed Qi into the gold. I felt increasing pressure as I pushed through and my barrier grew more and more unstable before it wobbled and finally collapsed.

Some force was working against me here destabilizing the barrier, but this did not happen when I pushed through the stone. On a more positive note it meant I was achieving something and was not just imagining it, but also presented a problem ,which needed a solution.

Well, the simple solution first was ancient wisdom, so I picked another stone and put it on the other one creating two plates of gold covered in stone. After consideration I moved one stone slightly, so that a piece of gold would be in the air and I pushed.

It was harder than doing so for the single stone, but not impossible. I felt my barrier wobble around the edges where the two stones met, but I could keep it together as my eyes lit up.

On the exposed end of the gold I could feel the purified Fire Qi emerge swirling and combing outside of the gold, all I had to do was to reach with my hand and draw it into myself. I achieved something thought impossible. I refined Qi without use of a dantian.

In my happiness I forgot about the qualities of Qi. Refined Qi had to be kept circulating otherwise it would pool and cause issues as it combined to create its proto element, so I failed to dispose of the Qi buildup.

The Qi combined, triggering a small blast of flame, which hit the stack of papers where my translation notes were. I dropped the stone stopping the reaction and grabbed the manual flinging it away from the flames, but the small blast of flame was enough to ignite the papers.

“Fire!!!,” I shouted as I moved to grab the nearest source of water, which was my morning and evening bath plate. I think it was the first fire call, which sounded happy.