After seeing Li and her brother off, Yu felt much better about the situation. If Healer Shuiguo could not help Li, nobody could.

With that off her chest, Yu felt far more able to take on whatever her master had lined up for her.

“I will be sure to keep you apprised. Now, we must discuss what is to come in the days following the end of that ridiculous tournament.”

Yu nodded. After the help he had just provided, she was determined to put forth her best effort.

He held up three fingers. “There are three events, the first happening eight days from today, which you are required to attend. Additionally, some others may come, but only these three are mandatory for you.”

Yu nodded again.

“First, is the ball.”

“Oh, right. That.” Yu winced internally, but she had already decided not to dodge her responsibilities. “You do know I’ve never been to a ball before, right? I hope your expectations aren’t high.”

“Indeed. It is mostly a social gathering and connection-building enterprise. You will not be required to dance if you prefer not to. In fact, few do.”

Feeling somewhat relieved, because she had no idea how to dance, she asked, “Alright. What can you tell me about it?”

“The publicized reason it is being held is to celebrate the winners of the tournament as well as introduce all the participants going into the spirit realm to each other in a more relaxed social setting. There will be false platitudes regarding building comradery within the Gui Empire participants.”

“Why do I feel like that won’t work?” Yu asked sarcastically.

“Hmph! Because, unlike most people, you are not a complete idiot. The entire thing is a farse, as was the tournament. What will really happen are the same things that always happens when imperial nobles are in the same room with each other: posturing, threats, offers, deals, insults, compliments, and all the variety thereof. I would assume many references to the Gui succession will also be raised as well.”

That reminded Yu of something.

“Ummm, Master, will the second princess be there?” Yu asked with concern. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for me to be around her.”

“Ah, yes. Well, she will not be entering the spirit realm, being both too old and beyond the cultivation limit, but it is possible she will be present as a political ploy. You should know that she connected you to Prince Zihao and him to his sister, and therefore you to her as well. Although by now, most know of your close relationship, and anyone important who did not before, does now.”

“Great,” Yu mumbled. “I-I don’t think it’s… wise for me to be around her.”

“You will spend much of the next eight days relearning your body and Qi flows. I believe that you will have control of yourself again by that time. And without outside influence, you have excellent mastery of your emotions, so I am not worried.”

His confidence in her made Yu feel good, but she was not sure she agreed. Did she usually have good control? Generally, yes. Could she if she saw that woman again? Ehhh… maybe?

Well, I’ll try.

“It is not like I particularly care if you insult her or the imperial family, although your actions may have consequences with your supposed marriage.”

Right. Why is my life so complicated?

“I see your doubt and concern. If you find yourself in her presence and failing to manage, you should simply leave the area.”

Good enough solution, I suppose.

“So that’s the ball,” Yu said. “I’ll figure something out. What’s the second event?”

“Ah, yes. The second event is the auction.”

That was not at all what she had expected him to say.

“An auction? Now?”

“Indeed. It is being touted as a last opportunity for spirit realm entrants to shore up their final needs. The Treasure Pavilion – they are responsible for the event – claim to also have a small number of items which could be very advantageous to those with sufficient silver to procure them. I imagine the price will be quite hefty.”

“Wow. That’s… interesting.” Yu took a moment to look in her ring, seeing the piles and piles of silver she had acquired from the demented alchemist, Houjin Xing. Well, she had removed it from his desiccated corpse, but whatever. Details…

Of that silver, she had spent a bit for her faction and personal reasons like dinners, clothing, and whatnot. She had also given her parents half of the original amount to help speed up the Qi well construction in her home city. The rest, however, she had had very little use for. The sect ran on points, not silver.

“I think I have about two million silver left? Is that enough to buy anything?”

Yu had absolutely no idea what things would cost in a capital auction. For all she knew, she wouldn’t even be able to afford a loaf of bread.

He shrugged. “It is enough to afford some things, but not the major items the Treasure Pavilion is advertising. Not that they are releasing the specifics, but they have given the reserve prices.”

“Well, why do I have to go if I can’t buy anything? What’s the point?”

“A few reasons. The first of which is that I am expected to be present.”

“Oh, gods,” Yu said with her hand over her eyes.

He did not respond. “The second reason is because the other empires will be invited, and I wish for you to experience how they interact. I believe it will be very insightful for you.”

She thought about it. “That does sound interesting.” Trying to envision the auction, she realized she really was looking forward to it now. “Actually, I’m excited. I wonder what they’ll be like. I mean, I know what I read and what you’ve told me, but seeing firsthand will be great.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I agree that it will be a positive experience for you and, as you have expressed interest in other cultures, it may even be pleasant. Now, the third event will be the one where you will finally be prepared by the imperials for the spirit realm. They will provide details about how the process of entry will go. Moreover, they will discuss what they can about the spirit realm itself, and make any expectations, offers, or threats clear.”

“Can’t avoid that last part,” Yu said bitterly.

“Of course not. Do you have any questions as to these events?”

Yu shook her head. “No. They seem surprisingly straight forward. I’m not particularly interested in the ball, but I promise I’ll try my best.”

“Good. Now, you should eat and then prepare for a week of training – or retraining to be more accurate. I will be interested to see what advances you have made after all of our preparations finally came to fruition.”

***

At the end of the final day of retraining, Yu was sitting with her legs crossed on a woven bamboo mat in the Long clan’s training center at their estate. That they had an entire martial center in their capital estate similar to the sect’s was something of a shock to Yu, but she was grateful nonetheless.

Over the last eight days, she had made some surprising discoveries. The first and most obvious was that the amount of Qi she could hold had not changed. Since that correlated directly with the number of cleansed meridians, she was surprised to realize that her remaining meridians had not been cleansed.

Her master however, had been prepared for a such an outcome. “If you opened meridians like everyone else, they probably would have been done and over with. Of course, you cleanse them, and that is a different thing, as it turns out.”

After some back and forth, she came to understand that her cultivation method using the Azure Dragon Scripture involved not just a physical, but also a spiritual cleansing. It was why they always sounded so tortured when she cleansed them.

Either way, it was a rather hefty disappointment, but what could she do? Complaining never got her anywhere.

The next unexpected change, or non-change in this case, was that she could detect nothing different about any of her secondary affinities. That was not to say nothing changed about her using them, but the affinities themselves were identical. Again, she had expected them to become stronger for some reason, although upon reflection that was a ridiculous thought.

The third and final thing that did not change was her God Sign. Sort of. Everything that was there ended up exactly the same as before her Release. However, there was an… addition.

Core:

Type: Unknown

Stage: Pre-formation

“Ignore that,” her master said helpfully. “There is nothing you can do about it. You are four stages too early to even worry about it.”

With that unsatisfying answer, and his unwillingness to expound on the topic, Yu had refocused on the changes.

So meridians, affinities, and Sign were the elements of her cultivation that had remained unchanged, or mostly unchanged.

Seeing Yu’s distress at these things, her master had reminded her that the intended results of the Releasing were focused on the Spatial affinity, and nothing else. That fact ameliorated some of her anxiety, so she decided to focus on what did change.

The first thing was actually an unintended consequence. Apparently, nearly exploding her meridians was… a good thing? Her meridians had changed. That outcome had shocked Yu and her master had also seemed surprised for once, after he examined her. But then after some thought, he established what he believed to be a plausible explanation.

“I wonder if this is one of the benefits of your purple grade meridians. There are so few of that quality in the historical records that real data on the topic is mostly guesswork.” He tapped his chin. “Hmmm… Meridian width is not static from person to person, after all. They vary greatly in radius, wall thickness, overall flexibility and the like – with the higher quality, copper through purple, being progressively better in any or all of those categories. That yours seem to have gained half again their radius as well as increased wall thickness is almost certainly not because of what we did, but because they strengthened themselves from their near destruction.”

This also explained why she had had such a hard time controlling her Qi initially and, as she had described in the arena booth – everything seemed easier. Her Qi had fifty percent more space to move.

As such, Yu had spent almost the entire first three days of her “retraining” just running her secondary affinities throughout her body, getting used to the increased flow rates. Specifically, she had not been permitted to use a single skill that entire time, focusing only on the Qi itself.

Following that was finally relearning skills, which thankfully turned out to be not that difficult; it was just time-consuming due to the number of them.

It was the evening of the sixth day when her master had at last allowed her to touch Spatial again, and that was where the changes from her Release showed most. To put it succinctly, everything was stronger. A lot stronger.

She recalled how she had questioned it.

***

“Is this what the barrier did? Made everything hard?” she asked him.

“The truth is far more complex, but in simple terms, yes,” was his answer. “It blocked approximately ninety percent of your power.”

A few stones of various sizes were floating around her as she was manually manipulating the gravity of the area closest around herself.

“No wonder so many people in the clan died in the past. My affinity with gravity is low, and I can feel the Qi flow like a flood. I’m pretty sure my body would have burst from it when I opened my first meridian.”

“You would have. In fact, you would likely have turned into a cloud of bloody mist given your affinity strength. Quite unpleasant.”

“Uhh, yeah,” Yu agreed nervously. “How in the nine hells did I survive using it directly from my dantian then?”

Her master’s head whipped toward her. “You have not told me this story before.”

Yu shrugged. “It happened during Foundation Building. I kind of overreacted to a bunch of bullies about to hurt a kid and I froze time. Grandma Huan told me what I did and put a seal on me until I could use Qi internally without hurting myself.”

“I see…” he said while rubbing his chin. “And your dantian did not break? Not even crack?”

“Nope” Yu answered with a shake of her head. “I got the impression I was lucky, which I obviously was. But now that I know what I didn’t know about the restriction, I must have been even luckier than I thought. I bet the barrier saved my dantian.”

“And no doubt your life. What a foolish thing to do.”

“I agree, but it’s not like I did it on purpose. And there’s nothing I can do about it now anyway. It happened five years ago.”

“Yes, well, now you are no longer so foolish or inexperienced. Let’s return to Qi control. Remember to closely monitor the flows and adjust the rates at which you…”

***

Yu practiced her power flows until the present time where she was meditating alone and simply sending the silvery power of the Spatial Affinity through her meridians. She was regularly adjusting the streams – faster, slower, thinner, thicker, and more. It was a study of delicate maneuvering of her Qi, something she had become quite proficient at, at least before everything changed.

Yu felt Bai approaching, and then heard him pad into the training room. She did not move, but could feel his boredom. She had not been able to spend much time with him except when sleeping for the last days.

She could also sense his concern for her, so she released her Qi, opened her eyes, and padded the space next to her. “Hey buddy. Come here.”

He did, happy to be near her. Yu forgot sometimes, because he was so big, that Bai was only just over three summers old. He still got nervous if he wasn’t around her for an extended period.

In this case, she had also not fed him since the events with her Spatial Affinity, so he was quite hungry. Not starving yet, but getting close. She could feel he was trying to suppress it, because he cared about her and did not want to pressure her, but it was still there, a nagging hunger in the back of her mind.

She placed her hand on his head, scratching behind his ears while ever so gently and carefully sending a little of her Qi into him.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to feed you. First I was hurt, and then I didn’t want to hurt you.”

He lifted his monstrous head, let out a big yawn, then put it back down on his paws. Yu laughed, knowing it was his way of trying to shrug off her concern.

“You want to go to the ball with me? I bet everyone would focus on you instead of me.”

Yu had learned in her training class that intelligent demonic beasts could have very expressive eyes, and Bai’s with their glowing red and blue, were even more so than most. But she did not think it was possible for a tiger to say, “Are you out of your mind?” with such snark using only their eyes before.