Thinking about the things that keep getting added to my plate is somewhere between infuriating and depressing. I thought I had things bad enough when I was taking my exams to get into a good college, but this is a whole different league of struggle.

Almost literally, everything I’m seeing or hearing is new and something that I have to learn. I wish there was a ‘For Dummies’ style book that I could read, but I doubt it. Furthermore, even if there were, if this place is anything like Earth, then the number of cultures and different ideologies here might make it so I’d never stop picking up ‘For Dummies’ if I ever did start reading them.

Not wanting to dwell on yet another burden, I turn to the Pavilion Master and await his instructions. I’m still silent because I don’t want to get in trouble with the law, and the law here tends to be… conditionally-ethical and subjectively-judicious at best from what I’ve read. So before I say anything, I want to see what kind of person I'm dealing with.

To my surprise the Pavilion Master actually praises me.

“Very good,” he says. “While this particular device only tests a dantian’s quality to the Silver-grade, I feel confident in saying that you have a Peak Silver-grade dantian at the very least. To have completely drained a qi crystal in such a short period of time, I would even claim that there’s a possibility for you to have a Gold-grade dantian. To my knowledge, that would make you one of a small group of individuals in the city with such an outstanding baseline for cultivation. You should be very proud.”

“Well, that’s good,” I reply, not particularly proud over any of my cultivation so far. “Does this mean I can go to the lecture now?”

“Not quite yet,” he responds. “There are two more tests I need you to perform to create your identification. After that, so long as nothing is amiss, you will be free to take the test to enter the Talisman Hall.”

“There’s a test to enter the Talisman Hall?” That’s news to me. I didn’t see anything about that when I was looking through the information online, but I also didn’t look too terribly hard so that’s not really too surprising.

“Naturally,” he replies. “What would be the point in having an institution for the creation of talismans if those capable of creating talismans were flooded out by the curious?”

“I guess… but I think it would be better to make it more accessible so more people could have access to it, don’t you think? If more people could be exposed to it, then more people would create talismans.”

The Pavilion Master gives me a peculiar look, his head slightly tilted and one brow raised.

He directs me to a different area in the pavilion with another stone monolith. This one is tall, has a circle in its center, and has five crystals embedded into the top of it, but that is the end of its similarity to the Foundation Stone.

The five crystals in this one are embedded into it in the semblance of an arch. On the left is a gold crystal followed by blue, green, red, and brown crystals heading to the right.

The Pavilion Master finally replies to my question with, “Perhaps in a perfect world, but you cannot trust for such things to happen in reality. Without the necessary prerequisites, anyone who tries to learn advanced skill sets is destined for failure.”

“I mean, I don’t think you’re wrong, but I also think people will do everything they can to improve their circumstances in the world. While there will be some people who ultimately fail, not everyone will.”

He nods his head in agreement, but argues, “That is true, but in a situation where you cannot guarantee success coming from the masses, it is best to rely on developing the few who have already demonstrated competence.”

I disagree, but I don’t say anything because we arrive at the new monolith.

“This,” he explains, “is a Five-Elements Qi Stone. I’m sure you already know which element of qi you have, but it will need to be recorded.”

“Oh, okay.” I nod my head slowly, but my thoughts are running at a million miles an hour. From everything I’ve seen, having access to more than one type of qi in Qiang City is rare.

Out of everyone I’ve come into contact with, including the Pavilion Master, I’ve only seen two people who have more than one type of qi. Physician Bing and Qiang Yu. They both have two types of qi.

And I have five.

I don’t mind standing out, but I’d rather stand out for my personality or appearance— things that are uniquely me and will only isolate me from the kinds of people I don’t want to associate with in the first place. But showing five different types of qi would put me under the type of spotlight that would make me distinct from everyone… and with cultivation being as much of a symbol of status as it is, then having too much status might be a bad thing.

“So, what am I supposed to do?” I ask, slightly nervous.

“Simply send your qi through it,” he replies.

I take a step closer to the monolith and put my hand on the circle.

As I see it, showing all five types of qi would be a pretty… spectacular thing to do. And probably not too smart. So I immediately decide not to. The question now: which one, or which few, should I show?

I think I have to show my metal qi. After all, I’ve already shown that to the grumpy old man at the clothing store so there’s a chance, even if it’s small, that he’d spill the beans. But no one knows about my other elements outside of Physician Bing. So that gives me a bit of leeway to decide what to do now.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to only show the one element because I’m supposed to be Physician Bing’s apprentice. Going off of that, it would make sense to add fire into the mix since Physician Bing doesn’t have metal qi. To me, it just makes sense that you would tutor someone in something you have understanding in, right? But doesn’t that also mean I should use my wood qi?

But there’s also the simple fact that the Pavilion Master said ‘which element’ and not ‘which elements’ of qi. It’s clearly obvious that he doesn’t expect me to have multiple types of qi.

So I could show all three types of qi, but that would be much more significant than showing any comibnation of metal, fire, and wood. So I have the choice of taking a risk while hoping that the old man at the clothing store doesn’t rat me out— not that he should have any real reason to. He’s a pain in the ass, but he doesn’t strike me as anything more than a grumpy old man.

It should be safer to just have the same elements as Physician Bing. Not only would it strengthen our fabricated relationship as teacher and apprentice, but it would also make it less suspicious for when I learn how to make pills— at least until I’m strong enough that I don’t need to consider these things.

Plus, while I haven’t needed to rely on the supposed relationship between me and Physician Bing yet, who knows if that Gang Feng guy is going to come sniffing for my ass later on. If he does, then I will have to rely on Physician Bing. In addition, after fire, my current best type of qi is metal. It can harden my skin to defend me in a pinch so I’d rather keep that as a surprise. Just in case.

‘Fuck me! I wish I knew about this in advance!’

I hiss internally before making a decision and sending wood and fire qi down my arm and into the monolith’s circle.

The red and green crystals light up like beacons in the night, despite it being early afternoon, while the remaining crystals stay dull. Interestingly, the red one is significantly brighter than the green. If I had to guess, I would say it has something to do with my Soul Fire, but that’s only because I don’t know what affects the way the monolith works.

Little to my surprise, the Pavilion master is surprised.

“A Variant dantian?” The Pavilion Master gasps out. I turn my head to see that the Pavilion Master is wide-eyed and ignoring me completely to stare at the monolith while the guard is stunned and pale.

If I was a betting man, I would say that the guard is hoping I’m not one of those douche canoes who place so much value on face. Likely because, even though I’m not, I am still annoyed that I had to be escorted by the local equivalent of a police or security guard just to get some identification so I could attend a lecture. Judging by what I’d seen already, and what I’m personally worried about, people face significant threats of retaliation for even small affronts.

Even though the guard, personally, did nothing, he was still a part of the awkward situation.

“This is wonderful— wonderful!” The Pavilion Master finally shouts, excitement clear in his voice. “To think that our city would have another Variant dantian! Truly, there are fortuitous days ahead for us! And you even have an interest in talismans! Hah! Very good! Very good!”

The Pavilion Master pats me on my shoulders and begins praising me. “Your future is bright, very bright! Regardless of what you want to do or where you want to go, I’m certain that you have unlimited possibilities for your future! Yes, I can see why you are expected at the Talisman Hall! Truly, genius!”

“I’m not expected there,” I say, confident that saying something at this point wouldn’t get me in trouble. “When I told the guard at the gate I was certain I’d be allowed in, I meant I was certain I’d be allowed into the Martial Hall itself because my teacher told me to come here and I didn’t think he’d screw me over. But I only decided to go to the Talisman Hall on my own.”

“Who is your teacher,” he asks, an expectant look on his face.

“Physician Bing. He’s an old guy that lives in the Outer City. He recommended that I come here for fun,” I explain.

He looks at the guard who begins looking green around the gills.

“This— this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with my Sergeant!” The guard exclaims. “I was following orders!”

The Pavilion Master looks annoyed as he instructs the guard, “Return to your Sergeant and inform him that he should take some time off and reevaluate whether he wishes to continue enjoying his life.”

‘What the hell?’ I wonder what that is about, but I don’t want to give away that I don’t actually know too much about Physician Bing so I don’t ask.

“I apologize for your poor reception,” the Pavilion Master turns to me and nods his head slightly. “Normally, the guards manage to keep themselves better appraised of who they can and can’t offend. To be completely fair to their situation, I only heard about your existence yesterday and only suspected you to match with the person I heard about due to your hat. As to the guards at the gate, I can only say that those fools are either unlucky to have not been informed yet, or blind to have not made the connection.. I hope you don’t hold any offense for their poor behavior.”

“I’m not about to take it personally,” I respond. “They didn’t do anything but inconvenience me.”

He nods his head and says, “That’s a good mentality to have. Leave face to the old and focus your attention on cultivation. Glory in your youth now; you will have plenty of time to fight over tidbits in the future.”

“Makes sense, checks out,” I reply. To be completely honest, I’m not really interested in talking to this guy. I just want to go to a lecture.

With the guard gone and nothing but the third identification test and the Talisman Hall test stopping me, we move on toward a third, entirely different type of stone monolith.

Unlike the others, this one is carved into the shape of a lion or a maned-dog with one of its paws upturned and holding a clear crystal orb. There are no runes on the animal itself, but I can sense something weird from the crystal orb that tells me it is the main part of this particular test.

“This one is simple,” the Pavilion Master explains as we approach it. “All you need to do is place a drop of your blood onto the scrying orb. This will give me a reading of your bloodline to ensure you aren’t related to demonic path cultivators as well as your bone age. While I am certain you have no relationship to any such… unsavory existences, it is required, so please bear with me.”

“No problem.”

I walk up to the scrying orb and prick my index finger with my thumb after infusing it with a tiny, imperceptible amount of metal qi— not that anyone but me or Physician Bing would see it in the first place. My skin cuts open with a tiny pinch of pain and I raise my finger over the orb only to realize no blood is dripping down the tip of my finger.

It confuses me for a second before I notice that there is no longer a cut on my finger, just a white mark that is slowly fading away.

“The hell?” I wonder aloud as I try cutting the tip of my index finger again, once more using my thumb and golden qi.

My finger is cut open, but before any blood drips out, a tiny amount of green qi seals the wound and begins healing it.

I try again, this time pressing in a little harder with my thumb and keeping the metal qi going as a drop of blood slowly pools out of my finger, but this is short-lived as the blood simply refuses to fall.

Feeling agitated, I put my finger, along with the drop of blood, directly against the scrying orb only for something weird to happen.

The orb flashes in a kaleidoscope of colors before turning completely black and staying that way even as I jerk my finger back.

“Uh… what happened?” I ask, stunned.

The Pavilion Master looks just as shocked as me as he examines the orb and says, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen that happen before.”