The testing took a toll on my Dharmic body. Each profession required me to demonstrate my understanding, to absorb the techniques, recipes, and blueprints the Spirits offered.

Thankfully, I was given time between each test to meditate. Those moments allowed me to reflect on what I had learned, to examine the skills I was shown, those that I had reproduced with fumbling inefficiency.

That I was able to gain even an apprentice level of achievement was mostly luck in the beginning. But as I meditated on the lessons I received and those moments of success, I began to form a gestalt of understanding. Each profession was unique, but there were interconnections, patterns, and energy flows that I could build on—methods of control that served to work from one profession to the next.

I learned and stretched my skills to their limit, the Spirits willing, even encouraging me to grasp one more piece of shared knowledge. I walked a tightrope as I tried to balance the stability of my Dharmic body with my thirst to milk this Heavenly opportunity for everything I could.

I pushed myself, and my efforts were rewarded. I had gained the entire journeyman level of knowledge for Blacksmithing, the lowest level for any of the professions I tested. But even more importantly, I was able to identify what the difference was between this technique and what I was familiar with.

Elfen blacksmithing used aspected Qi and Dharmic energy to create items successfully. The Blacksmithing these people practiced had a third component, an added energy that allowed them to create a braid of twisted intent that was more powerful.

This extra energy took a while for me to identify. Long moments of meditation and reflection, but I finally noticed the similarities between the energy and Astrid. The epiphany that followed helped me to understand the nature of spirit and soul and form a Dao Pillar.

The [Dao of Spirit] that I formed was an offshoot of my [Dao of Motion]. Spirit was the balance, the movement between life and death. Life leads to death; death leads to life. A balance of opposing forces, such as decay and deconstruction, allowed new life to put down roots and grow strong.

My understanding of this new Dao gained advances quickly as I completed each test and gave myself the time to reflect on what I was learning.

I had tested well enough for runes, arrays, formations, inscriptions, and enchantments to earn the entire library at the journeyman level for each of those professions. But for alchemy, I had shown proficiency at the Adept level earning me the library of knowledge at the Master level.

It was after this test that I endured a minor tribulation, as the Heavens tested my understanding of my new [Dao]. Visions of life in motion, transient experiences that eventually died and faded, no matter how long-lived. The fields, fruits, animals, people, and land would succumb to death, nourish the ground, and make it ready for the next life cycle.

It was easy for me to withstand this tribulation. My affinity with lightning allowed me to absorb and cultivate that energy now. I noticed a crispness and vitality to the Qi as I cultivated it, which was missing from my daily cultivation. The lighting emblazoned from the Heavenly tribulation was free of any corresponding Qi affinities that normally exist. There was a purity of Qi, of essence that resonated with the workings of the Heavens.

I survived. And once I had cultivated the lighting the tribulation had offered, I examined my inner sea. The island the pillar for the [Dao of Motion ] had been built on had expanded. A second pillar now existed. But the pillar was no longer stationary. They revolved around each other, dimming and brightening as they moved.

If I had gained nothing else from this Mystic Realm, the risk and time away from my territory would have been worth it.

But I had gained the rewards that had been promised.

Clear quartz, resembling ice held the stored knowledge that the people of this realm shared. The method of retrieval was similar to jade tokens. The quartz, I found, was just as capable of holding script, manuals, and memories.

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By the time I had finished testing, I had collected hundreds of quartz memory stones. Enough that if I hadn’t stored them by type and rank, I would have had to present Aki, the House librarian, with a jumbled mess. She would have enjoyed sorting them, I’m sure. I was certain she would do just that no matter how I presented them to her.

‘There is just one profession left to be tested,’ Astrid informed me. ‘The skill to understand the spirit world and form contracts with spirits.’

“Spirit contracts?” I replied. “Contracts like the ones my capital city has with a Triad of Spirits to protect the town from attack and weather?”

‘I have no idea if the contracts are the same. The techniques we use allow us to form contracts with Spirit guides that are willing to exchange their services for safety and residence in your spirit domain.’

“There seems to be some overlap, but I’m not sure any cultivator in my world forms personal contracts with spirits, one that allows them to form what you are suggesting seems to be a symbiotic relationship. I wonder what the advantages and disadvantages of forming such personal contracts might be?”

I might have seemed short-sided to trust Astrid about something so intimate. Allowing a spirit to take up residence in my spirit ocean seemed a fast way to find myself possessed and my body to be co-opted.

But she had proven herself by carefully marshaling my Dharmic energies and protecting the cohesion of my soul as I tested profession after profession. It was her voice, her demands that I rest and meditate, that allowed me to advance without doing irreparable harm to myself and gaining so much in the process.

Her care for me as she closely monitored my energy levels and mental stability had been instrumental in my success. That had earned her some trust, enough that I was willing to entertain and study the information she would share about spirit contracts.

And if I was completely honest with myself, I had to admit that this knowledge was intriguing. It would allow me to pioneer an entirely new field of study, a new weapon in the arsenal of the cultivators sworn to me.

‘You begin by understanding what spirits are. For some, they are the memories of those who have passed beyond. Others are more forces of nature, both small and large, given shape and function.

‘The most powerful are those tied to the Heavenly bodies- Sun, Moon, and Stars. They can be quixotic and mercurial, playful, and mischievous, but once contracted, they are fiercely protective.’

“How do you find the right spirit, or any spirit willing to form a contract?” I wondered.

‘By creating a summoning circle and defining the parameters of what you are looking for when you scribe that circle. You can scribe an extremely detailed circle, looking for a specific spirit. Most people are drawn to spirits that support or augment their talents.’

“What type of spirit did you have? And what happened to that spirit when you became a spirit yourself?”

‘I formed a contract with a spirit that was tied to the winter season, one that augmented my control over the cold and my ice affinity. I lived my life crafting, and she was the perfect assistant. Her contribution to my growth as an artisan allowed me to reach the Grandmaster tier in array formation and spirit contracting.

‘As for her disposition, all spirits return to the soul realm when their contracts are severed. When I died, she was freed. I took advantage of the connection we had formed over the years to follow her into the soul realm.

‘I’m not sure if that was the right decision, but my fury at my death, my sense of desperation to have my skills remembered fueled my transition. I continue to exist, my knowledge, my peoples’ knowledge not lost to time and history.’

“Is there a limit to how many spirits you can contract?” I asked. I know Xiwang had forged a contract with three spirits, although I had to confess, I had no idea how it was done. I think gathering and focus formations were used. The spirits were trapped by arrays and forced into a type of slavery.

‘Your Qi realm and spiritual strength determine the number or strength of the spirits you can contract. I contracted one spirit, but that was all I needed. Lady Yuki-onno had hundreds, maybe even thousands of spirits contracted to serve.’

I knew comparing myself to Yuki-onno would be a mistake. She had to have reached the Immortal Venerable Realm. I wouldn’t be surprised if she purposely restrained her ascension to the Heavenly Realms.

But maybe, I could contract two spirits. I would love to offer a contract to Astrid. Her experience with arrays and summoning circles would make her an invaluable assistant to my own crafting skills.

I wasn’t certain if she would or could accept a contract. That she had expended her life force to anchor her spirit in this city suggested a depth of emotion to her current task that nothing could break. Why would she choose to leave now, when she had already severed her connection to the wheel of reincarnation in order to guard and test those who would loot this city?

I would learn her methodology, learn how to create a summoning circle, and hope that I could contract two spirits. I would first attempt to ally with a spirit versed in martial techniques, someone who could fill in the holes in my own fighting prowess.

Only then would I attempt a second summoning and offer Astrid a place in my mindscape.