The tunnels felt better lit today and the light played tricks on Jessica's eyes. She briefly mused that being reforged could have fixed her vision so she might be able to get a glimpse of the infrared.

Her vision showed a lot of warm bodies in a generally warm room. Jessica silently thanked whoever was responsible for setting up these tunnels under the sect.

Jung and Grace both sat in front of a dozen rough-looking men and women.

"Elder Jessica, it seems that they think they will be able to eat if they stick around and join the Sect," Jung said.

"We are not in a position to turn away help," she replied.

Jung looked struck by her comment. Perhaps in a world where power was the only thing, and advancement came at a cost-Jessica was slowly understanding how it worked.

"The first application, please."

Grace nodded to the group of people. A man stood up and walked to bow in front of them. Jessica didn’t feel irritated but was starting to think that this might get old. His long brown hair was matted to mid-back.

"Honorable Elder, this one wishes to express his gratitude as the potential.."

Jessica held up a hand, reaching out with her spiritual senses.

"Do you have any special skills?" She said, bluntly, "Can you read?"

"This one can read elder but…" he stammered.

She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the baffled man.

"Read."

"The coldsteel sect welcomes all in these trying times…" He said.

"Welcome," Jung said, picking him up and leading him to the Initiates. He kept a grip on the paper until Jessica motioned for its return.

The waiting applicants all began murmuring. Jessica missed the specifics, but she did hear the tone of awe.

“Next.”

The blunt word stood up in the air in front of the shocked group. Grace nodded for one to step forward.

“Elder, this is quite unusual..” She said.

“I need helpers, Junior Disciple. People who will push the boulder up the hill. Will you stand on the boulder as I push it, or will you push along with me.”

Grace smiled, dropping all pretense.

Good, Jessica thought, as the next potential individual came up.

“This one too can read, Elder,” a gaunt woman said. Her hair was flecked with dust, and she looked haggard but determined.

Jessica reached out with her spiritual sense, probing all of the people waiting.

“Welcome.”

The gaunt woman bowed.

“Junior Disciple, who are these ones to report to?” The woman said, weakly. She gave Grace her full attention.

***

Jessica spent an hour asking the new disciples questions and sending them onwards. Each person that asked, was accepted. She could feel a bit of a spark in them. It made her think of how often cultivation was present in the natural environment. If beasts like the one that destroyed her school- yes she already thought of it as hers- were that common, surely qi was dense enough to turn normal humans into cultivators at a good rate.

On the other hand, she didn’t want to fall into thinking that it was too common or too rare. There must be some distribution, she mused, that allowed for a certain amount of cultivators to thrive. Now that she had some brand new cultivators, she could see how the school ran itself. According to Grace and Jung, the Junior Disciples gave the classes for the initiates where no initiate knew the material. Some more senior initiates, like An-Yong, were able to teach many classes.

Some Junior Disciples taught a few very specific classes. Jessica fell in on one, watching as one led a group through a cycling exercise. In fact, most of the new students were there and many initiates sat in the background, cycling as well.

The charged atmosphere felt like the first warm afternoon in spring and Jessica had to push aside the urge to skip around and frolic. Euphoria drenched her soul. Cultivators were on to something.

Cycling in qi, she felt a strong pull. She wanted the energy to flow around her core, but her core wanted her to use the qi for a technique. Her core wanted to train and it was trying to prod her along the way?

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She fought the urge, not knowing where it had come from. Sure way back when, she relished in rolling around on the mat with the others, getting an armbar or the dreaded leg lock, but she'd seen some of the students practicing with their weapons. It was impressive. She couldn’t just rear-naked choke, someone, to get the thrill out of it.

Plus they fought in more martial styles, less jiu-jitsu. She doubted that any cultivators here had any ground game to speak of.

For an hour she meditated according to the path manual, cycling her qi, trying to push the outer limits of her core.

You must advance some Cultivators.

The voice shook her out of her trance.

You must advance some of your students and carefully select some for senior positions.

Jessica stood up looking for the source of the voice. She only saw the same students, juniors, and initiates all cycling.

She turned to where An-Yong had been before. He would have said something like that. She could now feel that he was on the cusp of the next realm. Did he have to wait for her permission? Was that how things worked around here?

Moving closer she sat directly in front of him. His eyes were still closed in meditation, and she felt his core-like a bucket of water about to overflow.

How had she reforged her body and reached the fifth realm? She walked herself through the steps mentally. If this worked, it would be her first advancement to Junior Disciple. She would have to give him more duties.

He wanted more duties, she remembered.

"So be it," She said.

An-Yong’s eyes fluttered open. Evidently, he wasn't the one who had spoken to her. Jessica briefly wondered if edibles had led to a hubris mismatch.

"An-Yong, I am going to ask you to attempt to cycle and push into the next realm."

His face flushed.

“This one can do it, Elder.”

“Good. You know more than I, what it requires. I seek only the knowledge of how to advance someone.”

From inside his robe, An-Yong produced a tiny pill, packed dense with Qi. As she inhaled, Jessica felt notes of raw power playing along her Qi channels. She clamped her hand down as she felt her body try to reach for the pill. It wouldn’t do to take from those below her. Surely there would be more such pills.

An-Yong swallowed the pill as Jessica's spiritual sense focused on his core.It sloshed around, like a cup full of water, just about to overflow and then…

He condensed his core, pushing it down. Jessica marveled. Already at the peak, he must have been holding back on purpose. Was it a standing order that outer disciples couldn’t advance without a direct command? If so she would remove that order. How many had been held back purposefully?

Drinking in the cycle, An-Yong pushed out waves of qi. The effect was like a gentle push getting stronger and stronger until…

Abruptly he stopped cycling and the push ended. Jessica once again felt his core, now reforged as a third realm core.

***

For ten minutes they cycled and meditated.

Jessica stood.

“Thank you, Junior disciple for allowing me to experience your advancement to the third realm.”

“This one is honored to be able to make the advancement.”

Looking around, she saw a line of people watching the Cultivators. Were they waiting for her?

She moved over to see Junior Disciple Jung addressing a few of the women.

"Elder Jessica is a kind woman. She will listen to your requests."

He bowed as she moved around him. His face was a mask of blank boredom. He must have been on crowd control for a while.

"Junior Disciple, what is happening here?"

"Some of these women," he nodded to the group of about ten people, "Have a request."

Jessica scanned the crowd. All were women around her age with some children. It was about forty people in all.

"Who would speak for the group?"

"This one, Elder."

A tired grandmother stood firm surrounded by what could only be called her entourage. The image, reminded her of her mothers Korean social clubs, could only be more complete if they had on tennis visors and perms.

"Your name?"

"Mary. Is it true that you're a demon?"

Jessica was taken aback. After two days of unquestionable deference this almost felt like a personal attack.

"That is certainly not true," Jessica said.

"She’s got no horns!" A cool calm voice said from the back.

"Maybe she hid em somewhere?" Another voice, this one the sound of sandpaper said.

"Who hides horns?" The cool voice said,"Either they is there or they ain't!"

"And I says…"

Mary held up a hand.

"That's quite enough ladies," her voice sounded like butter in comparison.

"I can assure your… friends? That I have no horns, nor am I a demon," Jessica said.

"Those are my cousins. I will be having some words with them."

Mary's eye twitched.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Jessica said, uncertain if she would ever make it out.

"Well there is one thing. We are all women that lost husbands or fathers or brothers in the attack and well…"

"You are welcome to stay here as long as you need," Jessica said.

A gasp rose up from the gaggle of concerned aunties.

"Of course I will ask for you to help out as you are able," Jessica addressed the crowd now, "And if any of you have what it takes to become a cultivator, then…"

She let the words hang in the air.

And then for the second time in her life, she witnessed a stampede of aunties trying to give her a hug, thank her and in one particular case set her up with a teenage son.