“This isn’t a path to instant power.” I said, staring down into the cup of coffee. The light in this office space of the church was orange and dim. Most of the people who had come for the free food were already gone— it was just me, Kim and Mozz somewhere cleaning up. You could clean away the dirt, but the stains ran deep here. Old wood grain in the floors had given way with age, and the walls and floor all blended into the same yellow-brown.

“Step by step.” Kim said, before throwing back the cup. She grunted in approval. “Whats the first one? The first step?”

The first step? Climbing a mountain and trekking through the wilds to arrive at the forest of death, then survive the threshing.

“You have to be able to sense Qi. Its the energy that cultivators gather— vital energy that belongs to every living being.” I sipped.

“And thats something like mana, right?”

“Maybe more like experience.” I replied. “Its how we progress. And how we fight.”

“Alright, easy. So, how do you learn to detect Qi?”

“Most spend weeks in blindfolded isolation and sensory deprivation to begin to sense it. But there are other ways. They’re painful, but quicker, if you’re willing.”

Kim sipped her coffee, squinting over the cup to look at me. “How painful?”

I stroke my chin.

“Like on a scale of 1-10?” She asked.

1 to 10? Lets see… ten being the heavenly tribulation faced when ascending from the 6th to 7th realm, where your body and soul are fused, and 1 being… “Maybe a three? Its like an electric shock.” Like lightning.

Kim nodded along, staring into the coffee. When she looked up, her face was fixed with determination. “Lets do it.”

“Here?” She asked, looking around. “You don’t need any weird preparations? A special ceremony to unlock magical powers?”

I shrugged. “No, here is fine. I’m going to touch your back, that okay?” I stood, stepping around the table after she nodded. Then I rubbed my hands, driving moonlight Qi through them. “The Qi will enter your meridians. Focus on it. Try to perceive it. You wont, at first, but this will give you some guidance and a direction. You will begin to perceive it within yourself after a few days of meditation, and without within a few weeks, if you’re persistent. Ready?”

“Yes! Wait. No.” She said. I retracted my outstretched hand, quirking an eyebrow. She breathed in quicker. “Okay. Yeah. I can do this. Go ahead.”

I touched my hand to her back, driving Moonlight Qi forward in patterns that swirled and wove through her flesh, filling her Meridians with light. She gasped, but just for a second, then she tensed. I only released a trickle, the smallest amount I could, and I lost my ability to perceive it as it dissolved away into her body. She grunted as I circled back around the table, hands behind my back. Her face was fixed in concentration.

“Do you feel it flowing through you?” I asked. Kim grunted and nodded. “Good. Focus on it. Familiarize yourself with it until it burns away. Meditate on the feeling until you can sense it within yourself. Then try to sense it in the air around you. Send me another text when the Qi is gone, and we can move on to absorbing and integrating it.” I stepped towards the door.

“You’re leaving?” Kim grunted out.

I shrugged. I never was much of one for personal disciples, and the last one I trained killed me. I preferred a more hands-off approach to training anyway. “I can guide you to the road, but only you can walk it.”

By the time I left, the sun had already set.

I stepped off the bus, pulling open my phone outside of Willow’s apartment. I’d need it to enter the elevator, but I never remembered to actually check the thing. I had missed calls and messages from Willow.

The latest of the messages had several attachments of care sheets and instructions for her plants, with five before them being pleading messages asking me not to overwater them.

Ok. I replied, walking into the lobby and towards the elevator. I had to wave my phone once to enter the lobby and again to head to Willow’s apartment. I scanned the messages as the elevator ascended.

Rain! I’m heading out of town for a week! Feed Hooty. And water the plants!

I read the next text.

But not too much!

I’m going on a deployment. Our guild got a big contract! We’re overseeing a new gate subjugation! Going to be so exciting! The weather inside is tropical this time. Tropical!

Normally they’re alien jungles with space malaria or tundras or desserts. This is going to be like an island vacation!

You know what? Here, have the care sheets for the plants

Several texts followed. The elevator dinged as I arrived at Willow’s apartment.

Kim sat on her couch, in lotus posture, eyes closed, brow furrowed in concentration.

She had been sitting for over an hour. It was like trying to peel open an eye that didn’t exist previously, to see something previously unseen. Moonlight Qi swirled inside of her, dim and distant now compared to the roiling storm it had been before. She made a noise of frustration before reaching for the remote and turning the TV on, then slumped sideways over the couch.

“This is impossible.” She said aloud, talking to herself. “I mean, he isn’t fucking with me, at least.” She had the memory of burning Qi inside her to tell her it was real. Even now, she could still feel dim echoes of it twisting and turning inside her, fading with each movement.

From that day he met her at the church, she had spent at least an hour each day in silent meditation, searching for something more than an echo. For the first few days she spent as many as 4, locked up in the dark, trying to sense something she couldn’t see with her eyes or feel with her hands.

For two weeks straight she failed. She laughed at herself, then.

“I’m an idiot, right.” She spoke out loud to herself, talking into the empty room. “How could it be so easy?”

She stood, pacing.

Then she sat back down on the couch. “Okay. Okay. One more shot.” She flipped the TV off, sat back down, and closed her eyes.