Sunwhisper had gained access to Xanthous Ascendancy when his Dao Rating reached 4500, how high would it have to be for him to be ready for the transformation? It was a big jump from where he was, but with a supply of Seishin elixirs at his disposal, he could potentially arrive at that peak in a matter of days.

Each Seishin elixir was individually less potent than a whole fruit, but each one contained only two ounces of liquid, and after Yuyu showed them the transformation chamber, he was being given a dose each at sunrise and at sunset. The potions were keyed to their individual color affinity as part of the brewing process. Kaito had supplies of pill bugs of most colors, and he had ground them into the mix as needed for the recipe.

Starscream’s System worked differently than Sunwhisper’s, and he had advanced his own ascendancy technique as far as he could. The techniques that followed on that skill tree were Shining Soul Blade and Shining Soul Shield, and it looked like they would only be accessible after he was ready for his next star.

Janna was surprisingly competitive. She had really taken to the training, and her channeling was improving almost as fast as his, even though he was boosting his Ego by a couple of ranks every day. He wasn’t getting the full benefit from that, however, because he wasn’t also putting points into his Constitution, and the amount of mana his meridians could handle was limited by his physical statistics. But if his physical stats were about to be buffed anyway, he didn’t see a reason to spend any more ranks on them than he already had.

Janna’s weakness was that she had to sleep, whereas Sunwhisper could continue to meditate, albeit at a reduced competency, even while he rested. She still managed to pick up half a dozen earth techniques along the way; he had watched her skating across the courtyard like it was an ice rink, and molding stone like it was clay.

Ogumo and Karasu were given free reign of the facility, and while the raven was mostly content to observe and be fed, the spider made a nuisance of himself quite quickly. Ogumo hunted the local rodents and birds to extinction, and while at first he was given praise for dispensing with the vermin, he quickly grew bored when they were gone and took to stalking the servants.

He didn’t hurt anyone, but not an evening went by without a bloodcurdling scream from one or more attendants when he leapt at them from out of the dark. Ogumo also had a habit of sneaking into their rooms in the middle of the night and seeing how close he could get before anyone woke up.

As often as not, one of the cooks came awake with an eight legged interloper crouching directly over their torso, fangs waving, eyes gleaming wickedly in the moonlight. It was the stuff of nightmares, and Sunwhisper had to command Ogumo to stop harassing the help when the sheer weight of anxiety and agitation around the compound started to become a distraction for him.

Starscream was benefitting from the elixirs as well, though not as much as Sunwhisper, They were approaching the point when they would be equals, though they had very different builds. Contrary to what his size would suggest, Starscream had much higher physical stats. His base statistics put him nearly at the level of the first Ascendancy technique, but it seemed like that wouldn’t matter once they reached the next pinnacle.

Yuyu didn’t interact with them much over the course of the next week. She had duties around the city, taking meeting after meeting with Azai officials and ensuring everything was right with the tributes that she hadn’t actually accompanied on the last leg of their journey. As mentors went, she was less likely to impart wisdom than to give them a target and the resources they would need to achieve that target before sending them off on their own.

No matter how quickly he progressed, Sunwhisper couldn’t shake the feeling that it wouldn’t be fast enough, that the Spiral Dragon would come for them all long before he was ready to seek the Quintessence. There was no news from the border, however, at least nothing that was shared with them. Yuyu had ordered them to remain on the compound at all times unless she explicitly tasked them with going somewhere in the city, and the servants didn’t gossip.

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The hours and days passed by in a haze of martial training and increasingly demanding meditations, until the night Yuyu called them both back down into the ritual room to be tested.

Her dark eyes shared nothing as she offered Janna a small box of petrified wood. As hard as stone, each facing had been decorated with a lotus in a different stage of bloom. Expertly crafted, the hinges offered no resistance as she raised the lid, which was in turn marked with a set of three overlapping stars. Inside was a cabochon of stunning quality, as large as her fist and inscribed with scripts every bit as intricate as those that covered the ritual room.

"Channel your mana into the crystal," Yuyu said, neither her face nor her voice giving any hint of what the result would be.

Janna’s gaze flicked from her mistress to Sunwhisper to the priceless gem, and she let the fingers of her left-hand rest on the largest available facet, not daring to remove the treasure from its container.

Nothing happened. Sunwhisper couldn’t see mana at work until it had condensed enough to radiate light, or it was otherwise being used to affect the physical world, but he was sure Janna was trying to do what she had been asked. Her long hair fell forward as she lowered her head in concentration. Her effort was so great that a bead of sweat formed on her brow. Silver light shone in her eyes as she desperately sought to press her spirit into the crystal, but it remained clear.

"Enough," Yuyu took the box out of her hands, and Janna shook as much from embarrassment as exertion. To have come so far so swiftly, and to fail at so simple a task, it shook her newfound confidence to its roots.

Then it was Sunwhisper’s turn. He accepted the box gingerly, it was heavier than he had expected, and he removed the cabochon so that it rested in his palm, and he could examine it more closely. Obviously, it was not a standard storage crystal. It had been constructed for a specific purpose, much like the timing necklace Janna had worn into the Hidden Valley.

Cultivators used crystals to store mana for future use, or to be used as currency. The higher quality the cabochon, generally speaking, the more it could store and the less it leaked. The highest quality gems could hold their charge effectively forever, and even the cheapest, most inexpertly cut piece would suck in whatever mana was available. Intent wasn’t always required, and any cabochon left in a high-magic environment like the Hidden Valley would draw in spirit energy on its own by virtue of its design.

Spirit energy followed patterns and could be trapped by them. That was the theoretical basis of arrays. But this treasure hadn’t been constructed with ease of use in mind. Quite the opposite.

(The scripts are a barrier.)

(To keep mana out?)

(Yep. That’s the test, you’ve got to have enough mana and enough willpower to bully your way past the scripts just to get the cabochon to work normally. Other than the barrier, it looks pretty basic. Just a big stone.)

(Very well.)

Sunwhisper entered the same state of mind that he used for path meditations, feeling the flow of energy in his meridians as well as the rich pool that was gathered in his increasingly spacious core. Then he channeled it into his hand.

The resistance was immediate. He felt the mana gathering in his palm until it was almost painful, and he willed it to enter the stone. The pressure continued to build, and he felt the barrier begin to bend.

A minute passed in concentration, and then another, with no further progress. Yuyu moved to take the cabochon back, her derision evident in the slightest quirk of her mouth, but Sunwhisper stepped away, maintaining his grip on the stone.

"Wait," he said, "I can do this, let me just change one thing."

“What are you talking about?” Yuyu demanded, but Sunwhisper was already accessing his status screen.