As always, Elder Shi's torturous routine began with a run. The increased resistance from the vest made Jie feel like she hadn't made any progress as, if anything, it only felt more difficult than before. But it helped to keep in mind that its current resistance and gravity likely would've killed her when she'd started.

Then came the thousands of push-ups, squats, and other exercises she still had no name for all while weighed down by more than ten times as much weight as when she'd first started training with the sadistic fox woman. And, as always, Elder Shi had Jie drink disgusting concoctions and consume body conditioning pills between her more arduous exercises.

Every movement felt as though Jie were wrestling with a mountain. Her muscles screamed and rippled beneath her skin, but the pain was an agony sweeter than honey.

So many years trapped inside her own body and now she could snap the bodybuilders on Earth in half with her pinky finger. The pain only made her feel stronger, to further remind her that she wasn't just alive... she was living! Living a life she'd only dreamed of in her wildest fantasies!

Jie smiled despite herself as sweat ran down her body and she did every movement to her fullest ability.

"If you keep smiling like that, I'll start to feel bad. Like I'm not training you hard enough," Elder Shi said.

Jie's smile grew.

"Tch, brat," Elder Shi said as she turned away but not before Jie saw the smile on the elder's lips.

Once her exercises were complete, Elder Shi helped to further condition Jie's body through calculated torture designed to make her body tougher and more resistant to attacks. To harden her bones and toughen her skin.

Hours later, Jie lay sprawled out on the grass, panting, and unable to move. Everything hurt.

"Hmm... I suppose that'll do for today," Elder Shi said, "your body is extremely impressive for your stage of cultivation. You mustn't neglect it. It may seem strange to do all this training when you grow stronger through cultivation, but the two together are where real strength lies."

Jie nodded slightly. It hurt to even do that much.

Elder Shi chuckled. "See? This is what happens when you smile like a maniac during torture," she said.

Jie giggled.

Elder Shi knelt beside Jie, still smiling as she shook her head. "I suppose there's nothing to be done for it. I can't let my student lie here all night," she said. She placed her hand on Jie's chest. It glowed green, vibrant, and filled with life. Jie felt the pain melt away as her muscles relaxed and healed, only even stronger than they'd been before.

"There," Elder Shi said, "now, stretch and go study your scrolls. I don't want to see you doing any more training today. I know you're hungry for power, but if all you do is cultivate, you'll be unprepared for a fight and get yourself killed."

***

Jie returned to her private residence, and after a bath to get the sweat off and a quick check on Ming, went into the private garden once more.

Her residence had enchantments that were supposed to obscure her from all but the strongest cultivators. They tended to make the sky shimmer when she entered the garden. But when she entered it now, the sky rippled and distorted heavily as though she'd thrown a large stone into a pond.

The effect was rather beautiful in a way, the ripples running through the night sky made it seem as though she could reach up and dip her hand into it. Jie smiled for a moment before turning her attention to more important matters.

She sat on the soft grass and pulled the two scrolls she'd won in the tournament out of her storage ring.

The scrolls were yellowed with age but unfaded, and they seemed to be reinforced somehow. Though they looked delicate, she wasn't sure she could destroy them if she tried. Not that she was going to.

The first scroll described a skill called finger of light. It was a ranged attack skill, where one shot qi out of their index and middle finger in a beam at whatever they wanted to hit. The damage, range, and speed of the attack were all affected by the user's strength and the nature of their qi. Jie nodded slowly as she read over it. It seemed perfect for her. She had lightning step for movement and dragonfist for devastating melee damage, but nothing to attack from a distance.

That was a weakness that needed to be dealt with.

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She set the scroll aside for now and had a look at the second scroll. She raised an eyebrow. Had the Headmaster specifically picked these for her? To make up for what he saw as her weaknesses?

The second scroll detailed a martial skill called qi armor. It was a defensive skill, so she couldn't imagine Ming being happy about her bothering to learn it. What good was it when, as Ming said, she should just not get hit?

Still, it was interesting. It weighed nothing and wouldn't slow her down, and it said that the qi cost of keeping it up was extremely low. Not unlike her movement skill in that regard. But, getting hit would soak up her qi to stop the attack. It reminded her of some of the spells she'd read in books or watched people playing in their playthroughs of games. Sure, it was a different energy, but it seemed similar enough.

A low energy cost to have the skill in effect and a much higher cost to absorb damage. So, it shouldn't drain her too much as long as she didn't get hit. And, if she got hit... perhaps it would be better to have her qi drained than to lose her life? Like a kind of insurance skill?

She rested her chin on her fingers. What would Ming say? Would he say it was a good idea? Or would he laugh at the idea of defending? Still... it didn't look very complicated. Getting finger of light to work should be a priority, but how long would it take to get this defensive skill to a level that would be useful? Probably not long. Heck, it was made even easier by the fact it was so similar in the way it worked to lightning step.

Finger of light would be the tough one. She'd never projected her qi over long distances like that. It was definitely a much more complicated skill than dragonfist was. So, start with that and then possibly learn qi armor. Just in case, and because it didn't look difficult to do. Maybe it'd save her life one day.

Jie headed out of her home in the early hours of the night and went over to the Training Hall. She raced up the stairs too fast for the lesser cultivators to even see and up to the sixteenth floor, meant for Expert ranked cultivators of the third star. The floors on this level had private rooms along the sides for those who wished to train new techniques in privacy, and they seemed like the perfect place to train with her scrolls.

She stepped inside one of the rooms and closed the door behind her. Runes lit up, along with characters that she could recognize. It said simply "Room in use. Do not disturb. Protection Active."

Jie frowned. What kind of protection did this thing have? It was just a room... but then this was a world where stone was given life. Who knew what the room was capable of? She pursed her lips and pressed them against her fist as she stared at the brightly glowing letters. This enchanting thing, or whatever they called it, seemed pretty useful.

Would she get to learn it? There were professions based on elemental affinity... was this one of them? What were the others? What would be the best, if any, for her to pursue?

She sighed. Questions for another day. It seemed there was more she needed to learn every time she turned around.

Jie returned her attention to the room. A place of bare stone, without even a mat on the floor. Its only decoration was a metal mannequin in the shape of one of the hive. This was the practice dummy? Were they all like this? These people really hated those of the hive...

She shook her head. None of that was her concern. It was a training dummy. That was all that mattered.

Jie took out the finger of light scroll again and had another look through it. It was far more complicated than anything she'd learned so far, and it seemed like it was referring to something she hadn't even heard of before. Something called 'projection techniques.' Was she supposed to learn something else before she learned this? That was annoying. Well, hopefully, she could make it work despite that.

Other than these projection techniques the scroll referred to, the scroll made sense after reading through it. Jie thought she might be able to figure out the missing pieces using what she understood from the rest. And, if not, she could always ask Elder Shi about projection techniques tomorrow.

Jie took a stance, facing the metal mannequin. She bent her arm with her fingers facing to the side as it showed in the diagrams and closed her eyes. The martial skill had three main parts. Building the energy to be released, shaping it, and then releasing it with control to maintain the shape. She concentrated and cycled her qi according to what the scroll said and felt her dragon lightning qi build in her fingers. Lightning snapped and crackled, but she kept her eyes closed and focused internally. Having her eyes closed in a fight would be ridiculous, but it helped to keep her focus on her internal energies to make sure she was doing it correctly.

She built up the power until it was perhaps a tenth of the power she imagined she could put into it, but this was just a test run. A practice of the motion more than anything else.

She then moved on to shaping her energy as the scroll had said. This part proved more troublesome, and Jie felt unsure about how to do it. It wasn't difficult to shape her qi as she had with her dragonfist technique, but this one had to hold its integrity across a distance. How in the hell was that supposed to work?

But... this wasn't just qi. This was her qi. It was part of her... shouldn't she be able to control it even if it wasn't in her body? Like an arm or a leg?

She swept her arm out until her two fingers pointed at the dummy and released the attack as she opened her eyes, still focusing on her qi. The attack was supposed to look like a beam of light, but hers flashed like a brilliant lightning strike, it arced and twisted through the air and slammed into the metal dummy with a massive boom. The place it had struck on the metal mannequin was scorched and broken, in a thin spot no wider than her fist. As she watched, the metal knitted itself back together like a wound healing in fast motion.

Jie frowned. Was that attack successful then? It seemed to be, but Elder Shi would be able to tell better than she had. Still, it seemed a waste to just go home, so she continued training.

Thunderous explosions rang out one after another, shaking the entire room, and blasting the mannequin faster than it could heal as Jie learned to unleash her attacks swiftly and with her eyes open the entire time. It still took considerably more concentration than her dragonfist attack though, so she resolved to train more with it every day until she was satisfied. It seemed to be working, but it'd be good to get Elder Shi's opinion on it anyway.