Paired Cultivation, A Threads of Fate Universe Story: Chapters 1-5 (Patreon)

Chapter 1

The sun that was beating down on the city was a far cry from the harsh winter of the last few years. The sounds of martial artists shouting filled the air over the training grounds, occasionally punctuated by a brief yell of pain as one of the trainees was struck.

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I stood panting by the water trough. Clutching the broken halves of my staff, I remember when my grandfather gave it to me. It was right after I was selected for the advanced martial arts class. I was hesitant to accept the promotion, but when I saw the look on my grandfather's face, I couldn't do anything but say yes, despite my apprehension at joining the advanced class.

He took me to his workshop and gave me the staff as a present. Something he said that day, as he revealed it from under a cloth, stuck with me, “Steven this is for you, may protect you in your time of need and bring with it great fortune.”

I guess he was wrong about it protecting me…well, in hindsight, maybe it did keep me safe. That blow would've broken my arm easily, if it wasn't for the staff deflecting the blow like it did. I’m not seeing great fortune anywhere, but I guess I was very fortunate that it didn't break my arms. So, I had that going for me.

Keiko was standing with a group of her friends, laughing, when she looked over to see me clutching the broken halves of my staff. Not wanting to deal with her, I turned and began walking away, but she chased me down and stopped me with an open hand on my chest.

She was short, petite even, with a blonde topknot setting off her blue eyes. Her white gi was spotless, despite our previous sparring. Maybe it was some use of water qi I’d never heard of keeping her clothes clean?

She bowed deeply toward me, “I'm so sorry Steven, I had no idea that your staff was so fragile. I should've pulled my punches like the instructor told me to, but I’m really bad at that. Sorry!”

You would think that a girl like her, the only daughter of an elder, would have more restraint, but you obviously didn’t know Keiko if you thought that about her. People thought that she would be some demure little princess waiting to be rescued, but nothing could have been farther from the truth. She was a better fighter than any of the boys in our class, bar none, her unique combination of water and metal qi led her to be both unpredictable, yet hard striking. Her metal coated skin made her very tough to take down without using qi attacks.

I knew that my fire and wind combination techniques that I learned watching the tournament last year would be effective against her, but I didn't know if I could do them without hurting her, so I was always hesitant to use them in training. She was furious when she learned that I was holding back, and in the few fights we've had that I did use my full strength I was able to eke out a victory.

Keiko and I both unlocked our Body cores on the same day, less than a week after the tournament where Jim Roh took down everybody, despite being formerly useless. What he and his group pulled off was inspiring. Unlike most people our age they used their heads, not their muscles, to fight. They represented who I wanted to become as a warrior.

After spinning up the qi in my lower core, I enjoyed the warm summer breeze that my combination of fire and wind qi gave me. It leaves me feeling refreshed and ready despite having just been in a fight a few minutes ago. Nearly all of my qi had been restored during the little bit of time I spent resting.

I was unique in the fact that I had an extra pair of meridians in my heels that I can use to draw in qi without other people knowing. That was something you usually needed to be at least a Brain cultivator to do. It helped me stay in the fight longer because my opponents didn't know I was regenerating as fast as I was. They also allow for increased amounts of qi to be released when I kick.

As for the staff, I decided to take the high road and forgive Keiko for breaking it. She didn’t mean to destroy it; she just sucks at pulling her punches.

Shrugging, I turned back to face her, “Don't worry about it, I'll just go find a new piece of wood to carve into a staff in the forest next week. It's not like we have training between now and then.”

She grinned, which made me nervous, nothing good ever came of her grins, I had the scars to prove it, “We should go together and find your new staff! It's only fair, seeing as I broke your old one. I know your grandfather gave it to you before he died, I really am sorry.”

She pulled me in for a hug, but I pushed her away gently, “It's okay, I needed a new staff anyway, I knew that this one wasn't going to last much longer, but I figured I would use it until the end of the class. It just so happens that it broke on the last day. Maybe it was meant to be?”

I was suddenly clapped on the back by the large hands of the teacher for the advanced martial arts class, it was the deputy chief’s only son who, despite the nepotism that got him his job, was actually a pretty good teacher. I winced in pain, but shrugged it off when I saw Keiko in front of me.

I turned to face him and gave him a small smile, “Sensei, how are you doing today?” I don't think my grin offset the fact that I obviously didn't like him.

Sensei Damien roared with laughter, “Steven, it's good to see that your reflexes are just as sharp as your old man's!”

I shook my head sadly, “If I'm ever half the man my grandfather was…I'll be a lucky man.”

My grandfather was a loyal guard to the former Chief of the Roh clan. When he grew older, he took up carpentry and the former Chief had him create all of the staves for the Clan warriors use.

Keiko bumped against my shoulder and laughed, “Steven, you're being too modest! You and I both know how wonderful a person you are.” She smiled as wide as I've ever seen her do, which was pretty unsettling.

I was never good at accepting compliments, especially when they came from Keiko. Her social status was significantly higher than mine, despite the fact that we grew up together, I knew for a fact that would never be able to be anything more than friends.

Sensei Damien laughed uproariously, “Modesty is for weaklings and you my young student, are strong! If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have chosen you for this class.”

I wasn’t strong, I knew that from my repeated beatings from Keiko, I was just skilled with qi. My punching was never up to snuff, though my kicks were particularly devastating for my age. I usually used my hands to deflect incoming blows with either a staff or my open hands, while striking out with my feet when I could create an opening.

Keiko grabbed my arm and spun me away from Sensei Damien, “We have to get going Sensei, but Steven and I need to get going. My father asked him to assist me in hunting for a few basic earth cores for a project he’s working on.”

Sensei Damien looked at us suspiciously, “Really?” He quirked an eyebrow, “Are you sure he asked you to do that? Couldn’t he just purchase a few in the market?”

Our teacher hit the nail on the head, Keiko’s father was so wealthy, there was no reason for him to risk his only child to avoid paying for a few basic earth cores.

Luckily, Keiko had already planned for that question. She blushed, “OK, so he did ask me to go and buy them, but I want to buy something for myself instead, so I roped Steven into helping me gather up the cores I need so I don’t get in trouble.” She bowed her head in shame.

I rolled with her story. I bowed low, “That’s the truth Sensei, I agreed to assist because she said we could gather some basic fire and wind cores while we were out hunting if we ran into anything that would drop them.”

Sensei Damien frowned, before nodding, “With the two of you going out there together, you should be fine, but if you get into danger, don’t hesitate to run away. Both of you are skilled enough to escape unless a freakishly powerful monster appears, but please be careful.”

Keiko dragged me toward the exit of the training grounds, “Thank you Sensei! We’ll be sure to be safe. Come on Steven!”

I was always putty in Keiko’s hands, no matter how I tried to argue with her, I couldn’t ever seem to win an argument with her. It didn’t hurt that I would have done anything I could to spend time with her out of her father’s view. Her father encouraged our companionship until we both turned fifteen, but after that, he grew wary of our friendship. He didn’t outright forbid us from spending time together, but he did request that we avoid being alone together except during training.

I smiled as she tugged me toward the waiting exit, “See you at the graduation ceremony next week Sensei!”

He roared after us while laughing, “Don’t you two be late, I need both of you for the ceremonial sparring match!”

We both laughed as we ran away, “We won’t!”

I spun half of my broken staff in each hand as Keiko and I walked through the forest around Roh City. Despite the fact that Keiko lied about needing to gather earth cores, we decided that it couldn’t hurt to gather some while we were out to find a new staff for me.

Keiko strode confidently through the underbrush, “As long as we stay away from the road leading into the forest, we should be fine. I hear that the City Guards have been having trouble locating Jim from last year’s tournament. Supposedly, he caused that massive explosion we all heard coming from the forest a few months ago, but I’m not sure I believe that. Either way, we should really stick to the area opposite the road.”

Despite her unusual level of aggression, Keiko wasn’t dumb. In fact, she was probably smarter than most of our clan members. If she put her mind to it, she could become the apprentice to an alchemist or a formation master, but instead she focused solely on honing her martial skills.

I smiled from behind her, “Gotcha, avoid the road. So, what are we hunting around here, Wisp Raccoons, Earthen Snakes, or Ashen Foxes?”

She skipped ahead without a care in the world, “Ashen Foxes are fun! I like how they spray embers like they think it’s going to hurt us. Plus, I’d like a new winter coat made from their hides for the upcoming Winter-Year.”

Ashen Foxes were fire elemental monsters. They’re fast, but their fire attacks aren’t really a threat to skilled combatants, even students like Keiko and I.

“Sounds like a plan. I get to keep the cores we find on them, right? You get the hides?”

She continued on happily, “Yup!”

A second later she stopped dead in her tracks and crouched low among the underbrush. Under her breath she said, “I heard something, be careful.” She took a moment to spin up metal qi in her lower core before coating her forearms and chest in metal skin. She held her arms out to her sides, obviously prepared to create her whips of water qi.

I followed her example, ducking down and spinning up wind qi in my lower core. Assuming we would be fighting Ashen Foxes, my fire qi wouldn’t do anything but strengthen them.

A few moments later, a pack of five, three-foot-tall, Ashen Foxes burst from the underbrush.

Shit! Keiko and I had never dealt with more than a pair of Ashen Foxes at one time before. I needed to get Keiko home safely, even if it meant sacrificing myself to save her.

I rushed up past Keiko and held out my arms to protect her from the monsters, “Keiko, leave now! I’ll distract them.”

It was a death sentence, unless I was freakishly lucky, but for her, I had no other choice.

I spun in a low roundhouse kick and sent a blade of wind qi out toward the Ashen Foxes. The sudden motion caught them by surprise and the wind blade cut down one of the monsters in a single blow.

Great, now I was a bit more likely to survive. My odds of survival went from one or two percent, up to ten or twenty percent, not great odds, but better than I had hoped for after seeing the monsters before me.

Keiko crouched behind me, stunned, for a moment before snorting, “Fat chance I’m going to let you have all the fun!”

With that, she whirled around me and created her whips of water qi before sending them in devastating arcs toward the largest of the Ashen Foxes. I’m not sure if it was luck or skill, but one of her water whips cut straight through the spine of the largest Ashen Fox.

The remaining Ashen Foxes yipped angrily and attacked us at lightning speed. I did my best to deflect their bites and claw attacks with the broken halves of my staff, but despite my efforts, I was left very bloody after a few choice bites slipped through my whirlwind defensive maneuver.

Keiko did much better than I did in that exchange, her metal coated forearms and chest meant that she only had to guard her head and neck from the bites and claws of the monsters. She took the opportunity to hammer arm the smallest remaining Ashen Fox and caved its skull in.

She roared in triumph at her success, “That’s right! You better fear me you little shits!”

Keiko was a lot of things, strong, smart…but ladylike wasn’t one of them. Her manners were more akin to that of a stable hand than an elder’s daughter.

I took stock of the situation as I continued to defend myself from the onslaught of attacks from the remaining two Ashen Foxes. One of the monsters isn’t attacking as often, its fur is an odd reddish gold rather than the normal fire red too. It’s mostly sitting back and watching while the other Fox does the dirty work. What is it doing?

As I watched, I saw what it was doing. It burped the largest fireball I’d ever seen from a monster straight at Keiko’s head. In an act of desperation, I threw myself at the fireball, sacrificing myself for my best friend. As far as I was concerned, that was an easy trade, my life for hers. I did my best to survive, forming a ball of wind qi around myself, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to save myself. I just hoped that it would be enough to save Keiko, if that was the case, I could die happy, knowing that I’d saved the woman I loved.

Much to my surprise, Keiko jumped up behind me and grabbed ahold while creating a shield of metal qi before us.

At that moment, the massive golden fireball struck, first me, and then Keiko. The world went dark.

Chapter 2

I woke up to the sounds of a water clock dinging bells to signal that it was six hours past midday. I struggled to sit up before looking at my surroundings. First things first, in my lap was Keiko, completely unharmed. Next, I noticed that I was completely fine as well, despite the fact that I know I should have died to that massive fireball. Finally, I take in the room we’re in, it appeared to be a sitting room of some kind. Half a dozen chairs and divans filled the large room, while the walls were a mixture of white marble and bronze accents. There was a large opening leading out away from the room we were in, but from my vantage point, I couldn’t see where the hallway lead.

A few moments later, Keiko started to stir. I hurriedly rushed to slide myself out from underneath her, but when I did so, she latched on with claws formed from metal qi.

She groaned, “What…happened…to my head? It feels like I got whacked by a Greater Iron Bear and sent tumbling down a ravine.” She rubbed her head softly with her non-clawed hand.

I looked down toward her and smiled, “I don’t know, but it appears that either we both died and this is where we go before reincarnation, or we’re both alive and something fantastical happened. Either way, I guess it could be worse!”

A loud booming male laugh came from down the hall, “Ah, ha, ha! Agreed my young applicants, please head down the hall when you are ready to begin your trial.”

An equally loud, but definitely female voice started speaking immediately after, “Take your time, it’s not like we have anything to do until you get here.”

The male voice grumbled absentmindedly, “I hope they get here soon; I like it when we have new prospects.”

The female voice sighed, “I know dearest, but we need to let them recover from the transportation effect. We both know how disorienting those can be.”

The loud voices went silent, leaving me with Keiko laying in my lap, which I can’t say I was too displeased with, if I was being completely honest.

I struggled to sit up on the divan I was resting on, “It looks like we’re alive, which is good. I guess that fireball wasn’t a fireball. Who knew?” I chuckled nervously while running my hands through my jet-black hair.

Keiko stretched like a cat, putting pressure against my hips as she stretched her spine up until she could look me in the eye. She smiled wickedly, “So, we didn’t die.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off of the view in front of me. Here was Keiko, my lifelong crush, stretched out before me and all I could think of was how ravishing she was. Her ample bosom was in plain view, as her gi was askew, despite my better judgment, I pulled her into a fierce embrace. She gasped, before returning my embrace even more fiercely.

I whispered fervently into her hair, “I almost lost you… I don’t know what I would…”

She stopped me midsentence by squeezing me even tighter, “Don’t finish that thought, because I know exactly how you feel. I watched you dive in front of an attack that would’ve killed my father, a Brain cultivator, let alone you, a newfound Body cultivator. You saved my life!”

Every part of my body was telling me to kiss her, hold her, or maybe even more… But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was the lowly son of a thief and a prostitute, whose grandfather took them in out of the goodness of their heart. If Keiko was the moon, I was the frog staring out of the well at said moon longingly on clear nights. Those clear nights were moments like this, times when our difference in background wasn’t visible. I cherished those times, but I saw them for what they were, a daydream or a fantasy.

I pulled back from her embrace and looked her in the eyes. The look in them was like nothing I had ever seen in them before, she was terrified. Gone was my brave warrior princess, in her place was a scared teenage girl, her bright sapphire eyes were full of doubt.

I smiled grimly, “I’m just glad were both okay.” Struggling to get free from Keiko’s iron grip, I eventually flopped onto the mosaic tile floor. I took a second to smooth out my gi and then extended my hand for her to take.

She snorted, shook her head, then took my hand, “We’re not done with this conversation by a long shot. I hope you understand that.” She pulled herself up and started stretching again.

I quickly looked away from her stretching before solemnly nodding and turning to look down the hallway, “Do you think this is going to be something good for us? Or is it just something strange, like a shared hallucination before we die?” I tucked the broken halves of my staff into the back the belt on my gi.

Behind me, she said, “Either way, there’s not much we can do about it. We might as well enjoy it.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hall toward our destiny.

The hallway was full of paintings of fantastic locales, places like the Imperial city, the Great Sea, and more mystical places like Dragon Fang Island. I had only heard stories of that island, but the painting was so detailed that I could tell exactly what it was.

In addition to the paintings, there were sculptures of couples, some were in poses like they were ready for a fight, or reading scrolls together, others were in more…intimate positions. After seeing those statues, I focused entirely on the paintings, though I saw Keiko staring at them intently. The mosaic pattern of the floor was more intricate than any I had ever seen, though I guess I had only seen a few mosaic patterns, so maybe I wasn’t the best judge of their complexity. Other than the paintings, the walls were featureless slabs of white marble with columns of bronze every twenty feet or so.

Keiko and I walked for what felt like forever, but was probably closer to an hour, before we saw light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. In this case the light was literal, the flicker of firelight shown off the bronze columns at the end of the hallway. She grabbed my hand and I didn’t pull away.

She and I exchanged nervous glances, before she grinned, “To new adventures?”

I nodded my head like the lovesick puppy dog I was, “To new adventures.”

The room we entered defies description, but I’ll do my best. It was enormous at least five miles on a side, and everywhere I looked I saw cultivation pedestals, but they were different than any cultivation pedestals I had ever seen before. They were all almost twice as large as the largest cultivation pedestal I’d ever seen before. About fifty feet in front of us was a large gold and silver orb floating above a bronze pedestal, to either side of it were sets of stairs leading up to it.

A few moments after we entered the room, the disembodied male voice boomed out, “Excellent! Our new prospects have arrived at last. Please approach the Testing Orb when you are ready to begin.”

At this point, the female voice chimed in, “Dear, don’t scare them. It’s been years since we had new prospects. Take as long as you need to get acclimated. Please don’t worry about my counterpart.” By her tone, I could tell that she was used-to having to cover for her so-called counterpart.

Honestly, I could relate to her situation. I had spent my entire life up to that point covering for Keiko’s little mistakes and social faux pas, but I did it gladly. No matter what she did, I was always there to bail her out, be it finding lost jewelry or apologizing to the cook so he wouldn’t quit after Keiko insulted his food.

Keiko tugged me toward the floating orb, “No time like the present! Let’s do this thing, I’m excited to hear why we’re here.”

I shook my head, but followed along. I would follow her anywhere.

She dragged me all the way up to the steps in front of the Testing Orb, the matching staircases were just far enough apart that if we wanted to keep holding hands, we would have to be walking right on the very edges of our staircases. Which is what we did.

Balancing precariously, we edged our way up the steps until we were directly in front of the gold and silver orb. The orb was vertically split in half perfectly, half gold and half silver. The silver side faced me and the gold side faced Keiko. We stood there for a few minutes, not knowing what to do next.

The female voice gently answered our unasked question, “When you’re ready touch the orb. We’ll take care of the rest.”

I turned to look at Keiko and saw that the fire burning in her sapphire eyes was back, she was more excited than I’d ever seen her, she was practically bouncing on her toes. Our eyes met and we exchanged a simple mod, tightened our grip on each other’s hand, and touched the Testing Orb.

A moment later the world went bright white before Keiko and I found ourselves seated at a table facing a man and a woman in exquisite golden robes. Gone was the room full of cultivation pedestals, in its place was a much smaller, more intimate room. This room couldn’t have been more than ten feet on a side, the walls were jade, so was the tabletop. Keiko hadn’t released my hand at this point and I wasn’t going to try and get free, I’m not ashamed to admit that I was scared.

The woman in the golden robe’s smile was like the rising sun, “You two passed the second trial, congratulations! You can call me Dawn and my counterpart here is Dusk” Dusk nodded his approval enthusiastically.

I turned to look at Keiko and saw that she was at a loss for words, her mouth hung open slightly and nothing was coming out. I had seen her like that a few times before, each time it took her quite a while for her to collect herself before she could continue. I decided to take the lead.

I spoke up softly, “Trial? What trial?”

Dusk answered excitedly, “The Trial of Chemistry of course! Each of our pairs of prospects are required to undergo that challenge, it weeds out people who wouldn’t be good fits for our techniques.” He whistled softly, “I have to say, you two scored off the charts! How long have you two been a couple?” He leaned in conspiratorially, like he couldn’t wait to hear our little secret.

I was sad to have to disappoint him, “We aren’t a couple…we’re just best friends.” Keiko’s grip on my hand tightened at that.

Dawn shook her head, “That’s not what our test said.” She paused for a moment before turning to her counterpart, “Dear, we have a rare pair here.” Some hidden communication seemed to pass between their shared gaze before she turned back to us, “Do you know why you’re here? What were you doing before you showed up here?”

Keiko and I both shook our heads before I answered her question, “No, we don’t. The last thing I remember before waking up here was diving in front of a massive fireball that was about to engulf Keiko.”

I heard a soft grunt and turned to see Keiko working her jaw before speaking up, “I just remember jumping up behind him and focusing every bit of qi I had I’m keeping us both safe. I know Steven was doing the same, but I knew his alone wouldn’t be enough.”

Dusk nodded, “Good, that means you weren’t some thrill seekers looking for a way in here.”

I looked confusedly at the pair of people before me, “What you mean ‘thrill seekers’?”

Dawn took over for her partner at this point, “This place is special, but I’m guessing you both figured that out. Am I correct?”

Keiko and I both nodded our heads vigorously.

She continued with a broad smile, “This place holds what is known as an Inheritance. In this case, it’s the Inheritance of the Lovers.”

Both Keiko and my faces both grew as red as the setting sun before I stuttered, “L-l-lo-lovers!? We’re just childhood friends though!”

Dawn’s smile broadened, “I thought you might say that, but your childhood friend might beg to differ.”

What was she talking about? I turned to face Keiko and found her staring at me with eyes full of tears. I squeezed her hand tightly, “What’s wrong? What does she mean by that?”

She was trembling like a leaf in a Fall-Year storm, “I don’t want to just be childhood friends. I wanted to be more for years, but I was afraid of how my father would treat you, so I did my best to bury my feelings. This past your training with you has been torture! All that time spent sparring, both in class and at home, it was all I could do to not do this.”

She released my hand and grabbed my face in both of her hands before pulling me into a kiss. For a moment, like an idiot, I resisted, but after a second or so I melted into her like butter into a warm roll at the harvest festival. We kissed like I had imagined a thousand times before; it was like the world fell away and only she and I remained. Nearly a full minute later we parted, panting, with eyes full of passion.

Her voice trembled as she squeezed my hand even tighter than before, “I have been in love with you since we were five years old and my love has only grown stronger since then. Steven, I love you.”

I didn’t know how to respond that; I was so surprised to hear that she felt the same way that I was stunned into silence. I couldn’t reconcile the fact that the woman I loved, loved me back. In my head, my love was always going to remain unrequited. I was going to have to watch her grow up, fall in love, and have children with someone else, but I had resigned myself to that fact. Now, I had a chance to be with her, but I still worried that I wasn’t good enough for her.

Unbidden, the fire qi in my lower core was spinning up, bringing with it a wave of passion. It took everything I had to fight that sensation down before speaking up, “I love you too, Keiko.”

A few moments passed while we stared into each other’s eyes before Dusk’s clapping snapped us out of our reverie.

When I looked at him, I could see that he was smiling, but his smile was much smaller than Dawn’s. She was grinning ear to ear as she elbowed Dusk in the side, “I told you so. I knew she was going to confess first.” Her voice was full of mirth as his face soured.

Under his breath, Dusk murmured, “I hate it when she wins bets like these…the last time she held it over me for three centuries!”

Ignoring her counterpart’s apparent depression, Dawn continued her explanation of our current situation, “Like I was saying, this is where the Inheritance of the Lovers is located. To qualify for the Inheritance, a series of conditions must be met. First, the couple in question must share a deep bond, it needn’t be romantic, at least at first. Second, at least one partner in the couple must have a Token of the Lovers.”

I looked at Keiko, “Where did you get that?”

She shook her head while Dawn laughed.

Dawn laughed, “That explains a bit, you didn’t know you had it! The token is tucked into your belt behind you.”

Puzzled, I pulled out the broken pieces of my staff and laid them on the table in front of Keiko and I, “What do you mean? This is just a staff I got from my grandfather.”

Dawn smiled, “Do you mind if I reveal what I’m speaking of?”

I hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded my consent. She wasted no time in acting on my response, with a wave of her hand. I watched the wood of my broken staff pieces peel away from a strange black piece of metal that was placed at one end of the staff. In front of my eyes, she formed the broken pieces of wood into a pair of beautiful tonfa, sitting between them was a very thin statuette of black metal that looked like a man and a woman embracing in a moment of passion.

She smiled broadly, “Your grandfather was a crafty man, he never met a woman that he felt deep enough connection with to use this token, but he knew that you would, or already had. I’m happy to report that your grandfather knew that you and Keiko were meant to be together. When the staff broke and you and she went out into the wilderness, you triggered the first trial. You see, the token only reacts when exposed to heightened romantic emotions and a sense of danger.”

“What do you mean? My grandfather was a hermit after my grandmother died giving birth to my mother. He spent thirty years mourning her before my mother dumped me off on him and skipped town again.” I spat that last sentence.

My mother, if she could have been called that, was nothing to me. My grandfather raised me all my himself, he was everything I could have asked for in a parent. Caring, kind, strict, when need be, and always willing to help if I needed it. I can’t even remember the number of times he bailed me out with his boss, Keiko’s father, when I got in trouble with her.

Dawn’s smile only grew, “He must have loved you very much to give you that token. By selling it, he could have gained enough money and cultivation materials to reach at least Saint, if not Sage cultivator status.”

My grandfather would still be around if he had done that…but then I wouldn’t be. It would have been silly for me to be angry at him for what he did. He knew that Keiko and I were meant to be together, so he gave me one final gift. This chance at an Inheritance must have been the “Great Fortune” he was talking about with the staff.

Dawn continued while I reminisced about my grandfather, but something she said snapped me out of my mental haze, “…at that point, it draws in monsters to act as camouflage for our Dimensional Vulpine. The Dimensional Vulpine blasts one of the members of the couple with a Translocational Blast, if their partner tries to save them, they end up here. If they don’t, they end up somewhere else on the continent, with no memory of the events that transpired a few moments before.”

I grumbled, “I knew that Ashen Fox looked strange, it’s coat was the wrong color!”

Dusk buts in, “That’s correct, we bred a line of Dimensional Vulpine whose sole purpose is to find others like you and to get them to this place. Almost no one can resist their Translocational Blast, not even a King cultivator, though an Emperor would have a decent chance of getting out of the way.”

My mouth hung open until Keiko shut it for me.

While my brain was restarting, she took a turn asking a question, “You’re telling us that Ashen Fox lookalike was powerful enough to send a King cultivator here?”

Dusk nodded happily, “Yes indeed, though we’ve never met a King cultivator with the requisite dedication to their partner to proceed very far with our techniques. Plus, the earlier someone starts Paired Cultivation, the more powerful they can become. My wife and I are proof of that.” He reaches out and grabs a hold of Dawn’s hand. “With the techniques we found here, we went from Meridian cultivators, all the way to Emperor cultivators.” He sounded sad at that fact.

I gasped in disbelief, “Emperor cultivators? Are you serious? I thought the only Emperor cultivator was the Emperor himself!”

Dawn shook her head sadly, “Yes, we were Emperor cultivators, the pair of us. We died at the hands of one of the current Emperor’s ancestors, but before our souls could depart, we decided that we would help shape the future generations of Paired Cultivators. With that in mind, we forced our souls back in here, bound them to the core of this place, and settled in to teach.” She tightens he grip on her husband’s hand.

Keiko looked at them with sad eyes, “I’m so sorry to hear about your passing, but I have to ask, why did the former Emperor kill you two?”

Dusk answered before Dawn could speak up, “He was threatened by our power. Together, he was no match for us, so he found a way to separate us and then struck. We were only barely able to reunite before passing on.” His voice was shaking with rage as he answered and it made the room very difficult to breathe in.

Dawn spoke soothingly to her husband, “Don’t worry about that anymore dear, Xing can’t hurt us anymore. Anyway, I’d like to get on with the third trial if possible. Does that agree with both of you?”

Keiko and I exchanged glances, before nodding toward Dawn. I didn’t know what the next trial was going to be, but I was glad to have Keiko by my side for it.

Dawn smiled happily, “Excellent, now, this is going to be a simple trial for the pair of you, I can tell, but we do need to go through it. I’m going to hand each of you a piece of parchment. On that parchment is going to be a list of twenty questions with two columns to the right of them. I will separate you two and then I need you to fill out the first column with your answers and the second home with what you think your partner would give as an answer. Seeing as you grew up together. I have a feeling you’re going to do excellent on this trial. Let me know when you’re ready to begin. Beware, you won’t be able to lie for your own answers, they will be pulled directly from your subconscious.”

I kissed Keiko and then grinned at her, “I’m ready when you are, this is going to be a breeze for us.”

She laughed, “Agreed, we’re going to crush it.” She turned to Dawn, “We’re ready when you are.”

Dawn smiled widely, “Excellent. Let me just put up the barrier between you two and then we can begin.”

One wave of her hand later and a massive jade wall appeared between Keiko and I. I couldn’t help but feel like a piece of me was missing, despite the fact that we were a new couple, our emotional ties were much older than our romantic relationship.

A moment later, a piece of golden parchment matching her description appeared in my hands. Somehow, I understood without any explanation that if I put my finger in a box and thought the answer I wanted to put in it, the answer would appear in the box.

After we finished the questions and put our questionnaires face down on the desk, the wall between Keiko and I faded. Immediately, we reached out and grasped each other’s hand again, sighing in relief as we did so. This made Dawn and Dusk smile.

Dawn grabbed Keiko’s sheet and Dusk grabbed mine. A few moments later, they exchanged sheets. Dawn’s grin grew when she saw my answers and Dusk started laughing at Keiko’s.

Dusk looked at us, “So, you guys know each other really well, but weren’t forthright about your hopes and dreams. That’s understandable, considering you only just became a couple in front of us…we won’t hold it against you.” He turned an eye toward Keiko, “Did you know that even with our most personal questions, Steven got all but two of them correct? On the other hand, you missed five of them.”

She blanched and turned to stare at me, “How did you know all of those? I know you as well as anyone does and I missed five of them!”

How was I supposed to tell her that I’ve been cataloguing her likes, wants, and needs since we were kids? It’s not like it was a conscious decision on my part, but I was hopelessly in love and everything she did felt like the most important thing in the world. I knew her favorite food was plum dumplings, though she’d claim it to be dragon pepper soup. I know her favorite Year is Winter, because it was the only time her dad actually spent any real time with her. Hold on…she confessed to me, maybe I can let her know those things.

The moment I went to tell her about my near encyclopedic knowledge of her, my mouth wouldn’t move. What if she thinks its creepy that I took such an interest in her despite us not being a couple? I looked up to Dawn and Dusk for help, pleading for assistance with my eyes. No matter what I did, they wouldn’t help me with this situation.

Keiko was still staring at me expectantly, though it felt like minutes, I knew it had been just a few seconds. I sighed while running my hands through my thick black hair, “I’ve been paying attention our entire lives, I couldn’t help it. Every little thing you did was more engrossing than the most interesting skit in the street to me.”

For a moment she didn’t react. My heart was pounding in my ears until she pulled me into another kiss and all the stress flooded out of my body.

She pulled back with a stupid grin, “I’m just frustrated that, doing the same thing, I didn’t pick up as much as you did!”

Dusk’s grin grew so wide that it threatened to break his cheekbones, “Alright, moving on. Let’s go over the questions you guys got wrong? Deal?”

I nodded happily, “I’m interested to see which questions I got wrong.”

Coincidentally, Keiko was not as happy with the situation, but after a moment of hesitation, her curiosity got the better of her, “Fine, I guess.”

Dusk got started immediately, “I’ll save the two you both got wrong for the end. Here’s the first one that miss Keiko got wrong. Steven, what is your favorite Year?”

Sitting up straighter, I cleared my throat, “Sorry, I didn’t realize this was going to be so interactive. My favorite year is Spring.”

Keiko looked at me like I’d stabbed her, “I thought it would be Summer, because it’s hot and we got to go swimming together down in the pond.”

Dawn looked at me expectantly, I guess I had to explain my answers. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was judging my responses to see if I was lying to Keiko.

I shook my head, “I love Summer, but my favorite is Spring for the opposite reason that yours is Winter. For me, not only did the flowers come out of hibernation, but you come out of your family compound, and I got to see you again.”

She was stunned, “Oh,” was all she could think to say.

Dusk continued down the list like nothing had happened, “Steven, what is your fondest memory?”

Oh boy, this was going to be awkward, but I steeled myself and explained, “My seventh birthday, because it’s the only time Keiko didn’t have to leave my birthday early due to her father. We spent the whole day together with my grandfather, laughing, eating street food, and running through the woods without a care in the world.”

She grabbed my hand and held on tight, “I thought it would have been the day you opened up your Lower core. Unsurprisingly, that’s one of my favorite days too, only beaten out by the one time I got to hear my mother’s voice on a memory talisman.”

“Completely understandable,” I hugged her quickly before turning back to face Dawn and Dusk.

Dusk kept on rolling with the questions, I got the impression he was getting bored of this trial, “One more for just you Steven. Who is the most influential person in your life?”

I laughed, I was sure Keiko would get this one wrong, “Jim Roh. He showed me that using my brain was just as important as using my qi or muscles. Despite what some people say about him, I think he’s inspirational.” I saw Keiko’s surprised face and decided that I should elaborate, “The obvious answer was my grandfather, but he always told me to be myself, I was already doing that. Seeing Jim forced me to take a hard look at my life and decide to be better than before.”

She squeezed my hand even harder than before, “Damn it, I didn’t know he had that kind of effect on you. I knew you picked up your favorite fire and wind combo from his team, but I didn’t know you changed your entire outlook based on his win.”

Dawn interrupted Keiko as she started to continue, “Alright, now we get to go over the two questions you both got wrong! This is always my favorite part, though in your case it’s just two questions, so it won’t take so long.” On the surface, Dusk looked bored, but I could see the glint of mirth in his eyes from my angle across the table.

She jumped right into it, “The first question was what each of your greatest fears were. I’m not going to make you both explain for a single reason, both of your answers were the same. Both of your greatest fears are losing the other.”

Oddly enough, now that I know how she feels about me, I definitely would have put that for her answer. It just goes to show that love is a crazy, powerful, thing.

Dawn gave us a few moments to exchange glances, “Steven, you said that Keiko’s greatest fear was being trapped in an arranged marriage and being prevented from fighting.”

Keiko shivered, “OK, to be honest, that’s a really close second. My dad actually threatened me with that as a punishment once too, so it’s not just a nightmare.”

I would kill her father before letting him do that, but I wasn’t going to let her know how I felt about that situation.

Dusk laughed, “Seeing the look on his face, I get the impression that wouldn’t have lasted long.”

I blushed, “You’re right there. I would do anything to stop that from happening.”

That made Dusk burst out laughing, “I completely understand. I took Dawn here from her father’s care when he tried to arrange a marriage for her to some asshole merchant. Best decision I ever made!” He grabbed hold of Dawn’s hand and kissed it.

Dawn smiled, “Keiko, you said that Steven’s greatest fear was dying in Roh City.”

I took a moment to consider Keiko’s answer as the three of them looked at me. I guess that was a big fear of mine, call me crazy, but I was terrified of dying as someone irrelevant to the world as a whole.

I shook my head, “I hadn’t even realized that fear of mine. I want to travel the world, not only that…I want to make waves in the world. As long as you’re with me, Keiko, I know it’s possible.”

Keiko squeezed my hand again, but remained silent, allowing Dawn to continue, “OK, so the other question you both got wrong was ‘What is their greatest dream?’ and I love your actual answers so much I won’t bore you with what each of you said the other’s dream was.”

That grabbed my attention like a Vine Monkey grabs a banana. I guessed that her dream was to become an Emperor cultivator, but I wonder what hers actually was. When I looked her in her face, I saw the same look on her face that I assumed was on mine, she was thinking the same thing.

Unable to contain herself any longer Dawn told us what we both had as our greatest dream, “Both of your dreams were the same! To grow more powerful through cultivation together and then get married to each other! I have to tell you, that’s a serious point in your favor in this trial, it’s enough that you passed with flying colors!”

A small rainbow appeared between Dawn and Dusk. It spread from her right shoulder, across her back, then across his back, finally landing on his left shoulder. Small balls of color rose off of the rainbow before bursting into miniature colored firebursts.

Dusk cracked his knuckles, “Now it’s time for the second to last trial, my personal favorite, combat!”

Chapter 3

A moment later Keiko and I found ourselves in the middle of a square room about one hundred feet on a side, the walls were covered in murals depicting pairs of warriors fighting in tandem. They’re depicted mostly as pairs of men and women, though there are some that are same sex couples. Somehow, I got the impression that they were each defending their partner while simultaneously battling against their foes. Flashes of qi that should have appeared gaudy on a mural as large as these instead look like masterstrokes, each of them felt like they contained untold mysteries.

Dawn and Dusk were stretching together a few paces away from us. When they noticed us looking at them, they stopped stretching and walked over to join us, arm in arm. The look on Dusk’s face did not give me any good feelings, he looked entirely too excited for a trial examiner.

Dawn smiled broadly and lifted her hand to indicate the murals that were surrounding us, “This is the Trial of Combat, in which you will battle one of us together. Don’t worry, we won’t be fighting at full strength. Instead, we will be limiting our cultivation to that of a low Heart cultivator. I believe that both of you are peak Body cultivators?”

Keiko and I exchanged a look before turning back to Dawn and nodding.

“Excellent, that means that between the two of you, you should have a good fight with my husband here,” she pointed to Dusk, who was shadowboxing off to the side of her. “Usually, you would get to choose which of us you like to fight, but in this case, Dusk specifically requested to be your examiner. Don’t worry, he has a lot more restraint than appears on the surface…” Dusk’s grin behind her back didn’t make us any more comfortable, despite Dawn’s repeated reassurances. “Don’t forget, all of our trials are important, but as you know cultivators, despite their best efforts, end up in fights. We don’t want to pass on our techniques to someone who’s going to die the first time someone tries to kill them.”

The color drained from Keiko and my faces before she blurted out, “Why would someone want to kill me?”

Dusk laughed heartily, “After you receive our techniques and knowledge, honestly any part of the Inheritance, you will be a target for anyone who knows and envies your experience. Not just anyone can receive an Inheritance like this, opportunities like this come once-in-a-lifetime, some people don’t even get that chance.”

I nodded, I would have to defer to their knowledge about how people felt about Inheritances, I didn’t even know they existed before I accidentally fell into one. I turned to see that Keiko was nodding her head as well.

I cleared my throat, “Alright, give us just a few minutes to get stretched and we will be ready to fight you. Is that all right?”

Dawn nodded, “Absolutely, take as long as you need, though I do recommend you work expediently. The longer you wait the more amped up my husband will get.” Dusk unleashed another devastating grin from behind his wife, it made both Keiko and I shiver briefly.

I gently tugged at Keiko away from the center of the room and over to one of the corners, “All right, what kind of strategies do we want to use against him? Personally, I think we should stick with our usual strategies. I’ll do my best to ward his blows while you look for an opening, once you do that, I’ll take advantage of him being off balance and hit him with my combination of air and fire qi. What do you think of my plan?”

Her face was grim, “I don’t think anything we have in our arsenal is going to surprise him, he was an Emperor ranked cultivator. He has seen every trick people of our limited power can possibly think of, so instead of using tricks we should focus on the fundamentals: striking hard, striking accurately, and striking when our opponents are off balance.”

I nodded in agreement, “You are completely correct, sometimes I just need to get out of my own head and fight like a normal person.”

Keiko leaned in and gave me a kiss, “For the first time in our lives. We have an opportunity to fully unleash the might of our Lower cores on someone with no chance of doing them any harm. Honestly? I’m pretty excited!” Her voice grew breathy as she finished that sentence.

We spent the next few minutes actually stretching out, despite our will to battle, we both knew that by stretching we were reducing the chance that our muscles would seize up, especially if we were this close to unlocking our Heart cores. We finished our stretching. By doing paired back bends until we heard satisfying popping noises coming from each other’s backs.

We stalked toward where Dusk was standing in the middle of the room, still shadowboxing. As we approached, he smiled and waved at us, “Are you guys ready for your second to last Trial to begin?”

We both settled into fighting stances, Keiko slightly in front of me. She growled, “We’re as ready as we’re going to be. Let’s do this thing!” She immediately sheathed herself in metal qi and pulled her water whips out of the water qi in the air.

My preparations were nothing like Keiko’s. I focused on spinning up the fire and wind qi my lower core, before unleashing a barrage of wind and fire qi blades at Dusk with a series of quick kicks and punches. As I watched, he ducked and dodged my attacks like they didn’t matter, using just enough movement to avoid each strike.

At that point Keiko entered the fray, she whirled her whips in as complicated a pattern as she could and still maintain decent striking force before unloading a ton of her repressed aggression on him. Not only did he dodge all of her blows, he also managed to land a solid blow on Keiko’s left hip, which she had not sheathed in metal qi. Her cry of anguish stoked a fire in me, unlike any I had ever had despite my fire qi affinity.

With a roar, I dashed forward using fire and wind qi from the meridians on my feet to propel me forward as quickly as possible. I spun the qi in my lower core up into a frantic mix, despite how solid it was as a peak Body cultivator. At that time, all I wanted was to see Dusk take a step back from Keiko. That’s all I wanted and, by God, I was going to get it.

Keiko noticed what I was doing and decide to help, she ducked to the ground and spun her water whips around her in a circle to force Dusk to jump in the air to dodge her attack.

The moment his feet left the ground I unleashed an inferno of fire and wind qi from both the normal meridians on my feet as well as the odd additional meridians I have on my heels. I poured every last bit of fire and wind qi I had into that blast for a solid three or four seconds. When the fire cleared away, Dusk was standing on one foot with his arms and other leg folded up in front of him. His golden robe was scorched and not looking very good at this point. Seeing that my attack didn’t deal with him entirely, I focused on gathering up as much qi as I could, as subtly as I could.

Despite the state of his clothing, he was laughing like a madman, “This kid! I have to train him! His lower core has to be massive to explain how he could use that much qi for that long! Steven, do you have an extra set of meridians on your feet?”

I nodded, my attention was mostly focused on regaining my strength for round two of this fight, “Yeah, I do. They’re on my heels, they’ve been open since my lower core was.”

I heard Dawn gasp from the corner of the room. Dusk just laughed again, “I’d be willing to bet a year of my life on the fact that you have an enlarged lower core then, the extra pair of meridians serve to help you pull in enough qi from the world to fill up your massive lower core.” He took a deep breath, “Now it’s time for me to go on the offensive!” His grin reminded me of pictures of White Lighting Tigers from the Northern Reaches, the exposed teeth and the fierceness made me dash over to Keiko and pull out the tonfas that Dawn made for me from the staff she reconstructed to reveal our token for entry to this place.

I’d never fought with tonfa before, but as soon as they spun into my hands, I knew that they would be my weapon of choice until the day I died. They felt like they had been made for me, they could strike with the short part, ward off a blow with the long edge, or deal a heavier blow by turning them around and hitting my target with the longer edge. They were perfect for my style of combat.

Dusk whirled up to me with his fists and feet flying rapidly while being coated in earth qi, “Dance of the Piledriving Dragon!”

After seeing Jim defeat all comers in last year’s tournament, I decided that I wouldn’t name my attacks either, there’s no need to inform your opponent of what your attacks might or might not do, I convinced Keiko to give it up as well. For example, from a name like Dance of the Piledriving Dragon I could infer that the attack was designed to drive an enemy down, so I decided to angle my tonfa in such a way to deflect his blows down and away from myself and Keiko. Plus, what kind of dragon goes around piledriving anything? Don’t they usually bite or breathe fire on things instead? Also, I didn’t think that dragons who do go around piledriving things would do so as a dance. Where did he get that awful name?

The look of surprise on Dusk’s face when I deflected all of his attacks downward without breaking a sweat brought a wicked smile to my face. I whirled around and let off a single concentrated fire and wind qi blade toward his face.

He danced back away from my attack, just like I planned. Behind him, Keiko had snuck up on him and laid in wait. When he turned around to see her, she was already bringing down a massive bar of metal qi on his head. With a satisfying gong sound, he stumbled a bit before laughing loudly.

Dawn clapped happily and walked to the center of the room, “Excellent! You both pass with top marks. I’ve never seen a prospect avoid Dusk’s blows like that!”

Dusk walked up next to his wife with a huge grin on his face, “Agreed, you both did a great job, but I do have to ask how you dodged my Dance of the Piledriving Dragon so easily. I learned that as a Duke level cultivator and used it up until I died, no one ever dealt with it as handily as you did today.”

Really? Is that so? I guess Jim was on to something then, if Duke and Emperor level cultivators still name their attacks then maybe I can use them to get a leg up on my opponents.

I smiled, “It was all about the name of your attack. From the name, I could tell that it was all about driving me into the earth by force. So, I completely ignored any strike that wasn’t going straight down, because I knew that those were the only ones that would have your full power behind them. It’s also why I didn’t say the name of my Torrential Inferno or Inferno Blade out loud. It would have given you a second to make a decision based on what you heard, if you thought to do so.”

Dusk chuckled softly, “You know, Emperor Ming didn’t name his attacks as he used them. He attacked me brutally with hundreds of techniques, but I didn’t hear him name any of them. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I lost so badly to him, I was used to knowing something about the attacks I was going to take, if not consciously, at least subconsciously.”

Keiko looked incredibly pleased with herself behind Dusk, she walked back around to join me, “How many prospects have won their fights against you two?”

Dawn smiled ruefully, “You’re only the second set to ever do it in over five hundred years.”

Keiko and I cheered and exchanged jumping high-fives.

After settling back down, I looked at the pair of Emperor level cultivators before me, “One more trial? What is it?”

Dawn’s face shone, “Oh, that’s easy. We’re going to teach you the basic cultivation pattern from the Inheritance, then give you an hour to do one full cycle with your partner. You do that and you become full-fledged Initiates of the Inheritance of the Lovers.”

I grabbed Keiko’s hand tightly before staring at Dawn, “We’re ready, let’s do this!”

Chapter 4

Following a, now familiar, distorting feeling in our guts, Keiko and I found ourselves standing before a massive golden cultivation pedestal. To our right was a less massive, but still very large, silver cultivation pedestal.

Dawn called down from the golden pedestal, “What are you waiting for? An invitation? Climb up to the top of the silver pedestal and get ready. We’ll start once you both get settled in up there. Don’t forget, you only have an hour to learn the technique and perform it once. The clock’s ticking!”

When Keiko turned to face me, eyes were full of determination and what looked distinctly like hope. She didn’t smile, but I could tell that she was excited as well as afraid. I guess that’s what you get when you grow up with a person, you begin to see their inner thoughts displayed upon their faces like a sign on any road or street. It could have been that, or the fact that I’d been in love with her for almost ten years and studied her every expression like I would a martial arts kata, poring over each of them like they might contain enlightenment, but I’m going to go with the whole “childhood friends knowing each other” idea if anyone ever asks.

Not letting go of her hand, I ran toward the base of the silver pedestal and sized it up. The top of the pedestal was over forty feet off the ground, with no discernible handholds along the two-foot diameter silver pillar holding it up. How were we supposed to get up there together? I knew that my wind qi would allow me to launch myself up to the top if I was lucky, but that would leave Keiko on the ground…ah, that made sense.

Keiko looked at me with concern in her eyes when I turned around to face her, “How are we going to get up there?”

My evil grin might have snuck out a bit, because she recoiled as I said, “We’re going to get up there by bracing against each other and against the pillar.”

I quickly detailed out my plan. We would both put our backs to the pillar and lock arms around it, looping them so we didn’t slip. Then, we would move in unison to push ourselves up the pillar one step at a time. Though I planned on using wind qi to speed us along after we got a few feet off of the ground, I didn’t tell Keiko that, she would have been nervous.

So, we did just that, we backed up to the pillar and started to climb. We slipped a bit at first, but after about five feet we had a rhythm going, the only problem was that to move five feet it took almost a minute, and that was with us jumping at the beginning to gain a couple of feet. From my estimation, it would have taken us at least forty-five minutes to reach the top, assuming we continued at the pace we were currently at. I wasn’t sure we could keep that up and even if we did, it would leave us almost no time to learn the technique, let alone use it.

I sighed and tightened up my grip on Keiko’s arms, “Do you trust me?”

She sounded frazzled, but it didn’t change her answer, “Yes.”

“Then hold on tight.”

As soon as I felt her tighten her grip on my arms, I poured all of the wind qi I could spin up in my lower core out through the meridians in my heels. We climbed steadily upward, at a pace much faster than was originally possible, but still not very fast. I loosened up my grip on Keiko’s arms and we started to move more quickly, about a foot every few seconds or so. Around thirty feet off the floor my meridians started to ache like I had strained them. I had heard about this, sometimes cultivators pushed too much qi through their meridians and damaged them. It was infuriating, I had so much more qi left to push, but the pain of pushing it through my heels was too much. Stars damned meridians! If only I had my normal foot meridians opened up, then we would already be up on top the pedestal, but instead I had both of the meridians on my hands open. Most cultivators at the body level would have been elated to have that advantage, but in this case, I really wished I had gotten my elbows or feet.

I grunted in pain, “The cart is stopping now, tighten up!” I grabbed hold of her arms as tightly as I could as we moved to a stop, about seven feet from the top of the pedestal. I bellowed up toward Dawn and Dusk, “How much time do we have?”

I really hoped they were going to say at least fifty minutes, that would have been the best-case scenario.

Dusk answered my question, “Forty-five minutes remaining.”

Thrice damned climbing challenge and stars damned meridians! I couldn’t wait until I reached Brain cultivator level, at that point the walls of my meridians would actually be tough enough to take all the qi I could push through them. At least I hoped they would be, that’s what my grandfather always told me.

Keiko’s soothing voice came from the other side of the pillar, “Great job Steven! We’re almost up there, it’s just the final push to the top and then levering ourselves up on top of the pedestal! We can do it!”

Rather than waste my breath on replying to her, I just started pulling us ever higher as fast as I could. I figured that, at this point, speed was our friend. We only had a few feet to go before we could launch ourselves and catch the edge of the pedestal. Hold on a second…the edges of the pedestal had bars for us to grab when we were swinging ourselves up.

My grimace morphed into an evil grin, “Stop. This is a waste of time.”

I could hear the confusion in Keiko’s voice, “What do you mean? We have to get up there!”

“We’re only five feet from the top and we need to propel ourselves almost ten feet to the edge of the pedestal. We can’t do that from up there, we have to do it from here.”

It took a moment for her to get it, but when she did, she laughed, “You’re right! All we have to do is launch ourselves toward the bars at the edge, right?”

I smiled, I knew she would get it, “That’s right. Take a second to figure out what you’re going to do to launch yourself over there. I’m going to use wind qi from one hand and use the other to catch the bar.”

“Why not use your heel meridians? Oh, you think you strained them pushing us all the way up here?”

I sighed deeply, “Every time I try to push any qi through them my arms threaten to spasm in pain, so yeah, I think that might be the case.”

She sounded pained, but was positive despite that, “It’ll be OK, we can ask Dawn and Dusk for help healing them when we finish the trial.”

“Sounds like a good plan. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, but I’m sorry if I get you wet.”

I spun up as much wind qi as I could, “Alright, on one we go. Three, two, one!”

I pushed as much wind qi through my right arm as I could so I could let my dominant hand grab the bar at the edge. The wind qi came out in a very focused blast, forcing me toward the bar at much greater speeds than I anticipated.

Well, I hope my arm can take this…I braced my left arm for impact right before snagging it. The force of the wind qi behind me almost tore me off of the bar, almost. I hung on, though I felt multiple ligaments tear as I felt myself be swung around the bar. I was dumped unceremoniously on a white cushion before sliding a few feet to bleed off the remainder of my speed. I ended up covering up the black cushion laid out for Keiko…I had a bad feeling about my position at that point, but I didn’t have the time to move out of the way.

A half a second later, Keiko rocketed around her own bar and, to only her surprise, slammed down on my back, where her cushion was supposed to be. A not-so gentle cracking sound was heard as she slammed into my lower spine.

I did my best to contain my howl of pain, but a bit of it escaped me despite my best efforts. Keiko froze on top of me before looking down with a horrified look on her face.

She sprung off of me and pulled me to my feet, despite my protests, “Get up, see if you can walk, what if I broke your back?!”

Spoiler alert, it was a miracle she didn’t break my spine.

I struggled for a moment to get to my feet, but when I stood up to my full height, I felt a couple loud pops and all the pain in my back faded away. I stretched and sighed, “Looks like I’m OK, except for my damaged meridians, but I’m sure we can figure those out.”

I grabbed my white cushion and put it back where I first landed before sitting down. I went into full dogeza and seeing me in that position, Keiko followed suit, “Honored teachers, we humbly request that you bestow upon us the technique for the trial at hand.”

Dusk laughed so loudly that you would think I had told the funniest joke in the world, that or shit my pants, whichever would get the louder laugh, “Ha, ha, ha! You’re funny! Get off the floor, sit down, and pay attention. We’re only going to show this to you twice. Once now and once with fifteen minutes to go. You have forty minutes to go, just FYI.”

He turned to face his wife, “Are you ready Sunrise?”

She smiled happily, “Always, Sunset.”

The next minute was very revealing, but probably not how you would think. Dawn and Dusk sat facing each other as Keiko and I watched bright white qi flow from Dusk’s left hand toward Dawn’s outstretched right hand and then dark black qi flowed from Dawn’s left hand toward Dusk’s outstretched right hand.

As they went, they explained what was happening, “In paired cultivation the male figure, be they actually male or just the one with the more yang attributed qi, pushes the excess yang attributed qi they have, usually fire, wind, or wood qi, toward their partner. The female figure, or at least the person with the most yin attributed qi, then pulls it in and pushes out her excess yin attributed qi, usually water, metal, or earth, toward their male partner. In this cycle, both halves of the pair grow closer to balancing their qi, which will lead to greater strength and harmony within the body.”

The hand gestures both Dawn and Dusk were using were so simple, simpler than the most basic martial arts kata, but I could tell that there was a lot more going on behind those motions.

I turned to face Keiko, “Let’s do this. All we have to do is believe we can do it. I’m sure we’ll figure it out!”

She turned around and scooted her cushion toward mine until our knees were touching, or in our case, her knees touching my calves. I really hoped that my long legs wouldn’t be a hindrance in this technique.

Pushing that thought from my mind, I focused on one thing: gather up my fire and wind qi and push it gently toward Keiko. I took what could have been a moment, or ten minutes, to spin up a small amount of qi in my lower core and then held out my left hand and willed it to pass to Keiko gently.

To my amazement, a stream of off-white qi flowed from the meridian on my left hand toward Keiko’s outstretched right hand and then I watched as it entered the meridian on her hand.

The only problem was, Keiko’s right hand’s meridian was still blocked, so my qi ripped through the blockage like a hot knife through butter. She screamed as my qi tore through the blockage in her meridian in less than a second before settling in her lower core. Somehow, I could feel my qi inside her body, I could feel it mingling with her qi and separating her yin attributed qi out so it could be pushed out of her body, to achieve balance. I lost sight of the yin qi as it left her lower core.

A few moments later a stream of murky black qi flowed out of Keiko’s left-hand meridian and flowed toward me like a lazy snake. My right-hand meridian was fully open to accept the gift from her and it greedily drank up her yin qi. To my surprise, her qi felt as cold as ice as it traveled down my channels toward my lower core. Despite myself, I shivered. Turning my gaze inward, I watched as her yin qi mingled with my yang qi before finally resting and becoming one homogenous pool of qi. As I began to spin up the qi in my lower core again, I heard clapping.

I turned to look toward the noise and saw Dawn and Dusk with the biggest grins on their faces. Dawn’s smile outshone the sun, “I hadn’t dreamed that you two would succeed so quickly! Congratulations, you passed the final trial!”

I smile, but my curiosity got the better of me, “How fast did we do it? Did we set a record or something?”

Dusk laughed again, he was quite jovial for someone named after the setting sun, “Not only did you set the new record, you crushed the old one by more than thirty-five minutes! You completed your trial in twenty-two minutes!”

Let’s do some math, the trial was an hour long, it took Keiko and I twenty minutes to reach the top of the silver pedestal, that makes twenty minutes. By the stars!

I burst out in surprise while Keiko celebrated beside me, “We only took two minute to do the technique? How is that possible?”

Dawn shook her head, “No, you did it in one minute. The other minute was us demonstrating the technique. You two are the most naturally gifted paired cultivators I have ever heard of, let alone seen.”

Dusk took Dawn’s hand, “What she was trying to say is that we set the previous record and you crushed our time by thirty-five plus minutes. You two are the real deal.”

The Emperor cultivators started glowing as they floated off of their pedestal toward Keiko and I. In a strangely ancient voice, they both spoke in unison, “Congratulations on becoming Apprentices of the Inheritance of the Lovers!” The voice shook the massive room we were all in. “Due to your extraordinary performance, you will be granted access to the first level of the treasure vault and each of you will be allowed to take one thing from it. This access will be granted once you become Spirit Knights, as that is the minimum level of strength required to access the doors.” An intricate silver tattoo of a heart appeared on the back of both Keiko and my hands before fading to a very faint line drawing.

Keiko looked at me, confused, as Dawn and Dusk settled down on the silver pedestal in front of us. They both shook their heads before Dusk started talking, “Wow, that’s a first, right Sunrise?” He turned to face Dawn.

She nodded in agreement, “Agreed, I think those may have been the progenitors of this Inheritance, taking over our bodies to decree something.” She turned to face us, “What did they say? I don’t remember leaving our pedestal.”

Keiko answered, though she still looked confused, “They welcomed us as Apprentices of the Inheritance of the Lovers. They also said that when we become Spirit Knights, we’ll each get to pick something from the first level of the treasure vault. What’s a Spirit Knight?”

I answered her question as our mentors stared at her in disbelief, “Spirit Knight is an old term for Brain cultivator, my grandfather used to tell me old stories and they came up from time to time.”

Dusk was the first to recover from the shock, “OK, so you guys skipped the Initiate stage entirely. Then again, it’s basically just showing you how to do the same technique you just did over and over again until it’s as easy as breathing. Oh, the name of that technique is called Orbital Breathing, not fancy, but it is descriptive. As you advance on this path, you’ll notice more meaning to the name of that, but for now, don’t think about it too hard. I have to say, I’m jealous, Dawn and I only got access to the treasure vault as Sage cultivators, but you get to go in there two full stages earlier. I wonder how you’ll leverage that into growing stronger faster?”

When I looked at Dawn’s face, I saw the same look all the elders had when a ten-year-old boy won the tournament last year. The elders couldn’t believe it was possible for him to win. Dawn was in the same situation; she couldn’t believe that we were already Apprentices.

Dawn took a deep breath, before turning to her husband, “I’m so sorry dear, I need to go over and help another pair with a technique, I think one of them just hurt themselves.” She turned to face Keiko and I, “I’m sorry, but I have to run. I look forward to watching you progress, congratulations on becoming Apprentices.” She turned back to Dusk, “Please show them to their bedchamber before you leave them to their own devices.”

She turned on her heel and disappeared in a puff of pink smoke that dissipated immediately afterward. I could tell that she was not actually glad we had become Apprentices already, though I didn’t know why. I hoped that Dusk might fill us in and given the look on his face, he was going to do just that.”

Dusk frowned while looking back to where his wife disappeared, “I’m sorry for her bad behavior, she was very proud that we were the most talented recipients of this Inheritance. For you to not only pass us up there, but to become Apprentices almost fifteen years before we did…she’s in a bit of shock.”

Keiko looked shocked, “We didn’t mean to…”

He cut her off with a look, “Don’t worry about her for now, worry about how you two are going to work together to strengthen yourselves. From now on, you two are a package deal, your cultivations are going to be inextricably linked. Based on your affinities, one of your cores will have bonded to the others. Knowing about your unusually large lower core, Steven, I’d put my money on that being the core you have now linked to Keiko.”

I frowned, “What does this link do? Is it going to cause us issues in the future?”

Dusk laughed, though I could tell his heart wasn’t in it, “Nothing could be further from the truth. Essentially, you to share one massive lower core, as long as you to remain within a certain range of each other, you have the benefit of access to the other’s qi.”

Keiko gasped while I nodded along.

“At lower stages of cultivation this will give you access to more types of qi to work with. At higher stages, it will help provide you with more qi when you need it most. Especially for you Keiko,” he turned to face her, “You hit the jackpot with Steven, you get all the benefits of his massive lower core, without the additional issues with pills that he’s going to have.”

I frowned again, “What issues with pills will I have? Is it because of my extra meridians or my larger lower core?”

Keiko put her arm around my waist as if to say “It’s going to be OK.”

I hugged her tight while waiting for Dusk to answer my question.

He smiled and shook his head, “It’s not that you’re going to have any particular issues, it’s that your additional meridians are going to require more pills to reinforce them. While some people may only need two or three meridians strengthening pills, you might need an additional one…depending on how powerful or pure it is.”

I sighed in relief, “That, I can deal with. I thought there might be an issue with how I would advance as a cultivator. Pills are helpful, but I’ve never been able to afford any up until now, I guess I’ll continue to not use them.”

He laughed again, which made Keiko glare at him. He held up his hands defensively, “Sorry, but that is simply untrue. Cultivators don’t just use pills because they are a nice shortcut, there are some things that are nearly impossible to do without their help. For example: strengthening the walls of your meridians, gaining resistance to different elements, and immunizing oneself to poison, to name a few. All of those things can be done without pills, but with them, the time to completion is cut down tenfold.”

I cast my gaze toward the floor, “So, I’m just going to be behind forever now? I thought we had great promise!” I looked up with a face full of dismay.

Dusk walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, “Steven, think of this as a tax on your pill taking. For every three pills you take, one of them is cut in half for effectiveness. The real math is a lot more complicated, but don’t worry about that for now.” He looked at both Keiko and I for a few moments, “I think it’s time that I showed you to your bedchamber.”

Keiko and I exchanged a glance before I nodded to Dusk, “That works, we’re both exhausted after all the trials we’ve been through.”

He grinned again, “Sounds good, follow me.” He turned on his heel and walked over to the wall that appeared in front of him. He opened the door before stepping through it.

When I looked through the door, I saw Dusk standing in a hallway looking back at us expectantly. Keiko looked at me for a moment before stepping through the door, so I followed her.

Dusk motioned for us to follow him as he started walking down the hall, “This hall is for Apprentices, if you go back the way we came from, it leads into the main cultivation room.” He stopped before a large set of double doors with Keiko and my names on them. “Well, I only have a couple pieces of advice to tide you over until tomorrow. I know, I’m a slacker, but it’s what I’ve got. Number one, don’t forget to practice your Orbital Breathing before going to sleep, the bonding of your lower cores probably isn’t finished yet and that will help cement the bond. And number two, time in here moves a lot slower than it does outside, so don’t worry about missing anything in your home town while you’re in here.”

I could tell that he was holding something back, but it didn’t feel right to ask him more information when he had been already been so helpful to us.

Keiko and I both bowed at the waist toward him, “Thank you for the help!”

He laughed it off, though he did blush a bit. He stepped forward and threw open the doors to Keiko and my bedchamber, “Welcome to your home away from home!” He spun on his heel and started walking quickly toward the main room, “Good luck, let us know if you guys need anything!”

Before I could ask any more questions, he was gone. Keiko and I exchanged a look before bursting out laughing. I reached out to take her hand before walking into our new bedchamber.

The room was lavishly appointed with a few divans and sitting areas full of pillows, nowhere to be seen was any kind of kitchen, though I did see a bowl of fresh fruit on a table between a few chairs. The most noteworthy thing in the room, however, was the enormous bed.

This thing must have been twenty feet on a side! As we stared at the bed, the doors swung shut behind us with a slam. Keiko started for a moment before settling back down, though she blushed intensely while staring at the bed.

I could feel my cheeks growing warmer by the moment, it was time to deal with the embarrassment so we could get some good sleep that night.

I turned to look at Keiko, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze, “OK, here’s the plan, assuming you’re good with it. Each of us will stake out a corner of the bed, that is after we sit in the middle and do our Orbital Breathing for at least an hour or two. Does that sound good?”

She just nodded and darted toward the bed before springing off into the middle of it, hiding her face behind a bunch of pillows, “Well, come and j-j-join me.” She stuttered before patting the bed beside her.

I laughed, though my face didn’t become any less red, “Alright, I’m getting ready now.” I walked over to the bed, kicked off my shoes, before finally crawling over to sit touching legs with Keiko.

She looked out from behind her pillow to see that I had followed her, “OK, time for nice, friendly, Orbital Breathing. No funny business here, none at all!”

I smiled, but didn’t say anything, which seemed to put her at ease.

We spent the next three hours doing our Orbital Breathing, after two hours, I could feel Keiko’s lower core, with all of the metal and water qi circulating inside. As I watched, threads of qi swapped between the two of us through our physical connection using our legs. However, when we separated at the end, I could still feel Keiko’s lower core, though I didn’t notice any threads of qi swapping between our cores.

I laughed softly, “Looks like we’re fully bonded! Time for us to go to sleep, because I’m exhausted!”

She laughed, “Sounds good,” before yawning very loudly, “I’m exhausted. I’m going to go to this corner.” She pointed at the corner as far from the door as possible. “Good night!”

She was such a spaz, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be there with anyone else! I slowly migrated to the corner opposite her.

I grinned, “Good night!”

She responded in kind and after a little while, we fell asleep.

The next morning, Keiko and I wore up holding hands, though no other parts of our bodies were touching.

I just laid there, not moving. I enjoyed the feeling of her hand in mine, but at the same time I was afraid she would wake up and freak out. I weighed my options, but decided that the benefits outweighed the cons and kept hold of her hand. A few minutes later she mumbled in her sleep and while I couldn’t make out what she said, I can say that it was adorable.

About half an hour later, Keiko woke up with a loud yawn, stretching her arms out like a bird and releasing my hand. I faked yawning to make it appear that I woke up at the same time as her. I’m not sure if she bought it, but she didn’t freak out, so I took it as a win.

She sat up and looked at where I was laying, “Steven, are you awake?”

I sat up and faked being groggy, “Yeah…I just got up. When did you get so much closer?”

Her head whipped around to look at the edges of the bed and saw that she was nearly in the middle of the bed. Her gaze narrowed as she turned toward me, “I could say the same for you! You’re just as close to the middle as I am!”

The grin stretched across my face was a mile wide, “When you’re right, you’re right. Guilty as charged.”

She didn’t know how to respond, so instead she slugged me in the shoulder with a metal qi coated fist.

I flinched back, “Ow! That hurt!” I rubbed my injured shoulder, trying ineffectively to alleviate the pain.

Despite the fact that we were a couple now, Keiko’s reaction to embarrassing situations didn’t really change from how she was before. That’s part of what I loved about her, she was someone whose opinions and reactions were part of her very core, nothing ever changed her. I can’t count the number of times me pointing out a little flaw in her outfit ended with me being punched in the shoulder, just like she did that morning.

Her face went from embarrassed outrage to worry in just a few seconds. She crawled over to me and pulled the gi off of my shoulder, “Are you OK? I’m so sorry!” The spot she hit was already throbbing and changing from a moderate tan like the rest of my body to a reddish tan. “Maybe we can get one of the teachers to heal you?”

I laughed, “It’s just a bruise, I’ll be fine. It hurt a bit, but my yell was more out of surprise than anything. You went from being adorable to your normal aggressive self in half a second, I kind of got whiplash.”

Her face hardened, “I’ll give you actual whiplash if you keep talking shit!”

I could feel the water qi gathering around her hands, she wasn’t kidding. I also felt a faint pull at my lower core when she spun up her qi for her attack.

I held up my hands defensively, “Fair enough.” The feeling of gathering water qi faded and I felt the tugging at my lower core fade away. “You were actually going to whip me; I could feel it in my lower core!”

She bit her lower lip, “You always make fun of me…I thought it would stop when we became a couple.”

Sometimes I forgot that she led a sheltered life. As the daughter of an elder, no one ever really gave her any shit besides me. I only did it because we were always together and eventually it slipped out. Eventually, I figured out that I was the only one who did it, so I decided to make sure to keep it up, just in case we ever went out into the wider world. I didn’t want her to go off on some young master and get hurt because she wasn’t used to being made fun of…in that, I guess I failed.

I pulled her curled fist into my hand and gently pried it open so we could hold hands, “You got it wrong, after we became a couple…I’m the only person allowed to tease you anymore. Remember, I’m never doing it to make you feel bad, it’s always just me commenting on how you are. You aren’t the best at keeping your emotions in check, if I keep pointing them out you might get better at it.”

She took a deep breath before sighing, “You’re right and I shouldn’t have hit you.” She paused for a few seconds, as if to let that idea sink in, “Can we do our Orbital Breathing now?” Her voice was trepidatious, she was obviously nervous after her outburst a few moments ago.

I pulled my legs into a lotus pose and held out my hands, “Let’s get started.”

She sighed in relief and settled into her own lotus pose, “I can’t wait!”

That session of Orbital Breathing was a lot more intense than our previous two sessions. Somehow, I could tell that subconsciously, Keiko and I were both gathering as much qi from the air as we could and our breathing technique was helping us refine the qi we were taking in and using it to start to activate our heart cores. I could tell that it wasn’t going to happen immediately, but at the rate we were going, it wouldn’t be more than twenty-four, hour long, sessions before our heart cores would both fully open up.

It was remarkable, in less than a month both Keiko and I would become full-fledged Heart cultivators! Most people didn’t reach that level until they were thirty-five and we were both going to do it before turning sixteen. If the people back in Roh City could see then, they wouldn’t know what to do.

At the end of our breathing session, both Keiko and I got up off of the bed and began stretching. Both of our stomachs started growling about two minutes into it.

She rubbed her stomach, “I’m getting hungry, did you notice where the kitchen was?”

I shook my head, “I did not. I say we get out of here and start wandering down the Apprentice hall, hopefully we come across a mess hall or a kitchen.”

She nodded and we left our room together in search of breakfast.

Chapter 5

Finding breakfast proved to be incredibly simple, as soon as Keiko and I started walking down the Apprentice hallway, we started smelling the most delectable scents coming from a door about half of the way back toward the main hall.

She arrowed toward it with a laugh, “No time for talking, need food now!”

I smiled and followed at a more sedated pace, “I’ll catch up, you can run ahead and grab a plate of food and a table.”

She darted ahead, “Gotcha!”

The smile on my face had to be enormous, but no-one was around to see it thankfully. As much as I loved my time with Keiko, I was used to a lot of alone time, especially after my grandfather passed away. I used to spend hours at night, cooking and doing martial katas by myself to keep my mind off of how alone I was. Now that I was spending all my time with Keiko, I was beginning to feel smothered somewhat. I knew that it was a fleeting feeling, because I couldn’t wait to see her again, but it was nice to have a few moments to myself while walking in to breakfast.

The room I entered could only be described as a fine dining restaurant. Nowhere to be seen was the long serving line of food in containers kept hot with fire qi. Here, there were individual tables for two along with a pair of menus at each table. I found Keiko in an instant, she was sitting alone, struggling to get the menu off of the table, but it wasn’t budging. I sat down across from her and she nearly launched herself out of her chair as the menu suddenly released itself from the tabletop.

She groaned audibly, “I figured that was it, but I’m so hungry!” Her stomach growled loud enough for me to hear it across the table. “I wonder what they serve for breakfast?”

I opened up my own menu, “Let’s find out.”

Inside the menu was an impressive array of meals, each of which had a ranking required and a point value listed next to it.

I looked at Keiko, “Do you know how many points we have?”

From behind me a tenor male voice spoke up, “Touch the tattoo on the front of the menu and it’ll tell you your point balance. You get points for ranking up and performing well in the competitions in here.”

I turned around to face the person who spoke. The table behind Keiko and I was inhabited by another couple. The man was very light-skinned, almost albino, with fine blonde hair. His partner couldn’t have been more different, she was as dark-skinned as the night sky, with hair to match.

The man waved at me, “Hi, I’m Marcos and this is my partner, Rione, though she goes by Riri most of the time.” His smile was dazzling.

Riri merely nodded toward us before going back to her Golden Ox steak.

I smiled in return, “Thank you so much, I’m Steven and my partner is Keiko.”

Marcos’ grin didn’t fade, “I’m glad to hear I was of assistance. I’d love to chat after you’ve both had time to eat, does that sound agreeable?”

I looked over to Keiko, only to find her nose pressed into the menu. I turned back to Marcos with a smile, “That sounds fine, I’ll look forward to it.”

“Excellent, talk to you then.”

With that, we both turned back to our respective tables.

I held the back of my hand to the front of the menu and a silver number appeared on the front of the menu.

I shook my head curiously, “I wonder if seven hundred ninety-eight points is a lot or not?”

From behind me, I heard Marcos spit out his drink.

“I’ll take that as that being a lot and not worry about them too much for now. Keiko, what are you getting?”

She replied snippily, “Iron Crab legs with Fennel Blade sauce and a glass of Aqua Vitae. They’re supposed to be full of metal and water qi. Together, they only cost four points.”

“Sounds good, I’ll figure out my order quickly so we can eat.”

I pored over the menu and eventually settled on Salamander steak with Zephyr puffed rice balls and Fire Water. They were supposed to contain a ton of fire and air qi and they only cost three points all together.

As if summoned by me setting down my menu, a man in a black gi arrived, “Orders please?”

We both placed our orders and chatted about inane things from back home while we waited. Less than five minutes later, our food arrived.

The man in the black gi came back bearing a silver platter with two glasses and two silver domes on top, later I learned that they were called cloches. He set each of our plates down gently in front of us before whirling the serving tray to settle under his right arm.

He bowed, “Enjoy your meal. Please let me know if you need anything, you need only grab and release your menu to do so.” He turned on a heel and promptly departed our presence.

I can’t say I wasn’t a little disappointed to learn that was how he got to us so quickly, but I guess I am glad that I know how it happened…maybe.

Keiko and I dug in our meals with vigor. She tore into her Iron Crab legs with a ferocity only seen in the wild when a Bladed Hyena attacks its prey. She didn’t even use the provided metal crackers; she just used a small amount of metal qi to reinforce her fingers so she could dig into her meal even quicker.

I was a bit more sedated in my consumption of my Salamander steak. The steak was cooked to perfection, but it tasted burnt! On the other hand, the rice balls were perfection and I was eating them between each bite of burnt tasting steak. The Fire Water was pleasantly sweet with a nice cinnamon flavor, it was cold on my tongue, but warmed up my cores on its way into my stomach. The sensation was odd, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

She moaned with pleasure, bits of sauce dripping down her chin, “This might just be the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.” She sucked the sauce off of her fingers before grabbing her glass of Aqua Vitae. “Ah, that really hit the spot! I could get used to eating like this.” She batted her eyelashes at me, “Can I count on you to provide me with food this good for the rest of my life?”

I laughed, “I can’t promise it right away, but once we make it to Duke cultivators, I’m pretty sure that can be arranged. I just hope that I can find something that tastes better than this steak did.” I pushed the empty plate forward with a grimace, “It tasted so burnt that I had to wash it down with Fire Water, which is delightful by the way, to make it go down.”

She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before nodding, “I can live with that. Once you can use water and metal qi you should get this,” she points down at her plate full of Iron Crab shells, “It was delectable. The Aqua Vitae was alright, but I’d eat the crab every day happily.”

“Noted.”

A moment later, I remembered my deal to talk with Marcos and Riri after our meal, but when I turned around to look for them, they were both gone. We’d have to meet up with them at a later time.

I shook my head gently, “I wonder if we should just head into the main hall to look for Dawn and Dusk?”

She nodded, “That sounds like a good plan. I bet because we’re already Apprentices, we’ll get good seats for the lectures, way better than mere Initiates would, right?”

I shrugged, “One can only hope. We should get going.” I stood up and started to grab our plates, only to be greeted by our black gi wearing acquaintance. He snatched the plate from the table before I could even get close to it. He grabbed Keiko’s plate as well, not looking her in the eye as he did so. I got the impression that he was annoyed that we tried to help him, but whatever, different strokes for different folks.

He bowed at the waist, “Have a nice day, Apprentices.” Without waiting for our replies, he spun on his heel and headed off toward where I had to assume the kitchen was.

As we walked out of the restaurant, Keiko looked at me with a weird look on her face, “I don’t think he likes us for some reason.”

I frowned, “I’m willing to bet it’s because of how young we are. He couldn’t have been younger than forty and he’s serving ‘Young Masters’ like us. I understand how he feels, it must suck.”

She looked at me like I grew a second head, “What do you mean? He was just doing his job.”

Her pampered life before then hadn’t done much to prepare her for the world, I had to do my best to do that for her.

I shook my head and sighed, “Think about it, he’s almost three times our age, but he’s serving us food instead of cultivating or training…he had to be at least a bit miffed that we were the new hotness while he’s just a servant here. Trust me, serving the other elders’ kids at events when my grandfather and I needed money was always one of my least favorite jobs for that reason. I could tell they were only getting stronger, while I was stuck serving them food that would have done wonders for my cultivation if I could have eaten it.”

To her credit, she didn’t gasp, but she did look shocked, “I never thought about it that way! I’m so sorry that happened to you Steven.” She walked closer to me and gave me a hug, stopping us dead in our tracks. “I’ll do my best to be better about noticing things like that from now on.” She looked determined, despite the fact that I knew that she wouldn’t make much process on that without some serious life changes. Then again, maybe our Inheritance could help with those changes.

I returned the hug before starting to walk along, “It’s OK, that’s my job in this relationship. I’ll deal with the commoners and you can deal with the nobles. If either of us need help, we can ask, but those are going to be our roles. Deal?” I held out a hand to the side for her to shake.

She looked annoyed, but shook my hand, “Deal, but I don’t like it.”

The rest of our walk toward the central hall was uneventful. However, when we arrived in central hall, we found Marcos and Riri standing there passing a ball of qi back and forth between them across the path out of the Apprentice hallway.

When he saw us, Marcos captured the ball of qi and compressed it down before passing it back to Riri, who snatched it out the air before absorbing it into the meridian on her right hand.

He walked over to greet us with a grin, “My friends! How was your meal? I trust that our chef’s cooking was up to your standards?” Riri remained where she was standing, though she did gather up four balls of qi and start juggling them.

I laughed, “Everything was cooked to perfection, but it turns out that I don’t like Salamander meat.” I shivered at the thought of the burnt taste of that steak, “I’ll have to find another meal with fire qi that doesn’t taste like it was run through an incinerator before being given to me.”

Marcos chortled, “I made the same mistake on my first day, I ordered the Igno Vixen tartare because it was supposed to be full of fire qi. I don’t think I ate more than three bites of it before giving up, it cost me six whole points and I didn’t even eat it. Riri was pissed, she didn’t let me order for myself for almost two weeks. Truth be told, almost all fire qi foods taste like that except for Fire Water and Sunrise Pancakes, though those are a bit pricier at five points per meal if you get both. You can add whatever elemental qi you want to go with it as a bonus, though it’ll cost you another point to do so. I almost always do!”

I nodded along, “I’ll have to give them a try, but I’m not going to going crazy with them.”

Keiko started walking in circles around Marcos, “You two are getting pretty chummy, aren’t you?”

Marcos held up his hands in a defensive posture, “You misunderstand my intentions. All I wanted to do was make sure that our chefs were up to snuff.”

I smiled and pulled Keiko in by the hem of her qi top, “So, you keep talking about points like they’re a big deal, but no one ever explained them to us. Would you care to do the honors?”

A few moments before Marcos could start to answer my question, I heard a soft popping noise come from behind me. Keiko and I turned around and we found Dawn and Dusk standing behind us.

Dusk’s grin was just as big as always, “Marcos, I appreciate you helping out the new people, but you needed to focus on the techniques I showed you last week. Dawn and I will take care of the points introduction.”

Marcos bowed at the waist, “Deepest apologies sir, we’ll get on that right now! Steven, Keiko, it was lovely to meet you!” He and Riri scurried away as fast as they could toward the middle of the training hall.

Dawn’s frown was uncharacteristic of her, “Alright, I’m only going to explain how the points work once, so pay attention. The most important thing to remember is that if you lose a duel, the victors get half of your points. The reason this is the most important is that you’re going to receive a bevy of challenges today, but you have to decline them. It isn’t that you are weaker than the other Apprentices, it’s that they’re all at least Heart cultivators and you’re both Body cultivators. I don’t know if your clever strategies will allow you transcend that gap in power, but I can’t recommend you try it.

“The next most important thing about points, is that each day you spend in here costs two points. Time in here moves a lot faster than it does out in the real world, it moves somewhere in the realm of fifteen times faster in here than it does out there. Take advantage of that, don’t just sit around and do training exercises. Compete in some of the different challenges to earn more points. Challenges include things like relationship quizzes and martial arts tournaments, though for those you’ll want to wait until you’re at least Heart cultivators.”

Dusk cut in there, “Alright, that’s the gist of points in here, but for today we have something even more exciting! You both get to enter the vault and take something from the first level, you should be honored.”

He put a hand on both Keiko and my shoulders and a second later he, Dawn, Keiko, and I were standing in front of a massive gold and crimson door.

He strode to the side before revealing the door to us like a fisherman proud of his big catch, “This…is the vault!”

The massive golden set of doors that stood before Keiko and I were pretty intimidating, at that time I had never seen anything like it and I still haven't. We both stood in front of it gob smacked while Dusk continued talking.

He waved at the enormous set of doors behind him, “This vault contains many of the important pieces of this Inheritance, very few Initiates ever get to go in here, slightly more Apprentices get to go in, but not usually until they've been around at least ten years or have reached the level of Spirit Knight. Spirit Knights…”

I interrupted him, “That was an old term for Brain cultivators. My grandfather explained it to me.” I couldn't help but look a little bit smug at the look on his face, he was obviously very used to explaining what a Spirit Knight was to newcomers.

To his credit, he didn't let my interruption derail his train of thought, “As I was saying, only Brain cultivator to usually get to enter here, so you should take full advantage of this opportunity!”

Keiko and I exchanged a glance and a nod before I turned back to Dusk, “Do you have any advice on what we might want to grab? Is there something you think would fit our styles or would be very beneficial to us that we might have available to us that we wouldn't necessarily think of?”

He shook his head ruefully, “I'm really sorry, but I can't give you any information about the contents of the vault.”

Keiko looked puzzled, “What do you mean you can't tell us what is inside the vault? Haven't you been in there at least a few times?” She smiled at him and batted her eyes flirtatiously, “Not even for me?”

Dusk and I both laughed heartily at her failed attempt at seduction, I was confident that our ghostly teacher wasn't going to fall for it, but I did appreciate watching her try.

He just laughed, “Sorry dearie, but I really can't give you any more information. You see, you can only discuss the contents of the vault with the partner you go in there with. This is to prevent people from attempting to become inheritors of this place only to try and clear out the vault. I can tell you that when Dawn and I went in there for the first time we both took something to aid our cultivation, rather than increase our offenses or defensive prowess. Also, **& %…”

I was shocked, “What was that just now? It felt like you were trying to tell us something but this place stopped you from doing so.”

He nodded solemnly, “That's what I was saying, we can't discuss what was inside there with anyone else. I guess that includes any specifics about what we took.”

Keiko and I exchanged another glance and another nod, before turning back to face Dusk. In unison we said, “We're ready!”

Dusk stepped aside to allow us to walk toward the massive doors, “Good luck with the vault, I hope you find a something useful for each of you. Remember, cultivation is its own offense and defense.”

Almost instinctively, I knew that if I placed my hand on the door while Keiko did the same, it would open up for us just enough so we could slip through. We did just that and when the giant doors started to open there was a gap just barely large enough for us to pass through by sliding sideways. A transparent purple barrier popped up, but it allowed both Keiko and I to pass through without any issues. When we passed through the doors, immediately after Keiko's last hand slipped through, the door slammed shut, leaving us closed inside.

Before us was an enormous room full of thousands of objects, if not tens of thousands of objects. The room was divided into three tiers: the first tier, where we entered, was labeled with a massive “1” on the wall opposite the entrance. That wall was twenty feet high and to either side of the giant “1” were stairs leading upward. On the second level, I could see another massive number, along with more stairs leading up to the third and final level. Each of the levels was about twenty feet high and got progressively smaller due to the decreased number of items needing to be displayed. I can't say that I wasn't tempted to try walking up the stairs towards the second level just to take a look, but I had a feeling that I would regret that decision if I did so, so I didn't do it. To my side, Keiko seemed to be struggling with the same issue but, unlike me, she seemed to be about to sprint toward the stairs leading up. Before she could start moving, I snapped my right arm out and snagged a hold of her gi, stopping her in her tracks.

I shook my head when she turned to me with a pained look, “I'm sorry, but I get the feeling that we’re not supposed to know what goodies are on the higher levels until we have access to them directly. I don't want to risk being attacked or damaged to because I couldn't restrain my curiosity. I don't want that for you either, especially just to take a peek!”

She grumbled for a few moments, but eventually relented, “Okay, that's fine and all, but I want to go exploring on this level. Can we both go exploring and then meet up here?”

Her puppy dog eyes always worked on me, even when they shouldn't, “Fine, but I think we should come back here in half an hour. Is that okay with you?”

Half an hour felt like the perfect amount of time to wander aimlessly through this massive room. I had a feeling that if something was meant for us that it would kind of give us some indication as such as we walked by. I might have been wrong, but I couldn't shake that feeling.

Seeing Keiko’s pent-up excitement, I waved to for her to go, “All right, go get ‘em!”

She reached over, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then sped off around the central ziggurat of the room going clockwise.

She's a wild one, but I can't say I don't love that about her, because I do. All right, so what would be the most beneficial type of items for Keiko and I? Unlike most cultivators, we didn't just have to worry about ourselves. Instead, we had to worry about each other, because if one of us was injured very badly, until our partner was recovered, we wouldn't be able to progress at all. On that note, armor wouldn't really be a good option unless it was a paired set, hopefully counting as one item especially considering where we were. A weapon had the same problem. If one of us had a powerful weapon, we would be able to use it to defend ourselves and potentially our partner, but in the long run it would only serve to lead one of us into complacency, which was not a good thing.

I really felt like the way Dawn and Dusk went about their first visit was the best option, grabbing a cultivation aid for the both of us would most likely serve us very well. I promised myself that I’d see everything here before making a choice on what to take.

After settling my thoughts, I followed Keiko's path clockwise around the central ziggurat. As I started walking around the central ziggurat, I noticed that there were different sections of items. For example, the area directly to the left of the entranceway was full of weapons. Most of the weapons were not paired groupings, which really surprised me. I guess I was wrong when I thought that most of the items would be for pairs. These items were probably just things the Emperor who created this place either found or gained through seizing them from another cultivator. I passed a set of beautiful staves and tonfas, they looked to be made of a wood that was the color of pure jade, and it was all I could do to not touch the pedestal to retrieve them. They were called the jade tonfa. I can't say the name was very original, but based on the fact that they were in this location I had a feeling that there was more to them than met the eye.

I walked past hundreds of swords and dozens of other types of weapons before finally passing into the armor section about one quarter of the way around the central ziggurat. To be honest, the armor didn't interest me nearly as much is the weapons did. I know it's cliché, but I was much more of a mobile fighter than someone who would stand and exchange blows with another person. If I was wearing a lot of armor, my combat style wouldn't work! Instead, I had to focus on finding armor that didn't restrict my movement, but was instead easy to where so as to allow my arms and legs to be free to launch blasts of fire and wind qi.

Right before I left the armor section, I saw a very nice set of red leather boots that were calling my name. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't help but walk over and take a look at the pedestal. They were called Ashen Wolf Boots, and they allowed the user to amplify the fire and wind qi coming out of them through the meridians in their feet. I had a very tough time putting them down, though my promise to myself that I wouldn't take anything until I had seen everything served me well.

As I walked away from the Ashen Wolf Boots, I kept glancing back at them, but I shook my head and continued around the circuit. Next, I passed through the section full of miscellaneous objects, things like spatial rings and other such miscellany. I knew that a spatial ring was a good investment, but I didn't get the impression that it would be a great idea to waste my one item from the fault on something I could buy from a shop down the road. Not that I could find one in Roh City, but if I went to a local lord’s city, I would be able to find at least one to use. There were things like horse shoes designed to increase the speed of your horses, boats the folded up into little boxes, and a carpet that was labeled “Flying Carpet” that would have allowed Keiko and I to soar through the sky toward our destinations while traveling. I needed to talk to Keiko about that, because as far as I was concerned, that was really awesome and should definitely be something we consider picking up.

I continued on to the final section, the cultivation aids. Ahead of me I saw Keiko standing in front of a well secluded pedestal, but instead of rushing over to join her I continued along my path at a sedated pace while examining different interesting cultivation aids. There were plenty of medicinal pills to help increase your cultivation base immediately, but my grandfather had warned me that alchemical aids, while powerful, were not worth it most of the time. Their gains did last, but if you ate too many, or used too many in short succession, it could leave one with a damaged or imperfect cultivation base. As I went to past Keiko, I felt a hug from the qi in my lower core toward an object directly opposite her.

When I turned to look, I saw that the object my qi was drawn to was a Centering Lotus. I stepped up to read the pedestal and was pleasantly surprised. This was called the Centering Lotus. It described its effects as helping the user shut out the outside world to allow them to cultivate more freely, without distractions. It also said that it helped pull more qi from the earth into the air surrounding those on the lotus. From what I could tell, it would enlarge itself to allow one or two people to sit on it while cultivating.

Instinctively, I knew that I had to take the Centering Lotus, it was like someone was talking directly in my ear and sin me to do so. It took everything I had to turn around without it in my hands.

I turned around to see Keiko holding a bottle with two pills in it and I was furious, “Are you kidding me? I thought we talked about this! We are going to go over what we are going to pick and decide together!”

She looked chagrined, but didn't break gaze with me, “I understand what our plan was, but when I saw these pills, I knew that we had to have them.”

I crossed my arms, “If they’re so special, what do they do?”

The smile on her face told me that she was just waiting for that question, “They’re called Cultivation Building Pills. They’re supposed to reinforce our meridians, cores, and qi channels, all at the same time! I think that with them, we’ll be able to advance through the ranks of cultivation so much faster! They should also prevent us from hurting ourselves by cultivating too long or too hard, within reason of course.” She held up the bottle of pills like they were the most precious objects in the world, which I guess, to us, they might actually be.

I shook my head disappointedly, “I agree that we probably should have taken those, but I just wish you had waited to talk to me about it. We’re a team. We have to work together or this is never going to work.”

I couldn't help but look back at the Centering Lotus behind me, those two items in conjunction would allow our cultivation to skyrocket! Enhanced efficiency at handling qi along with better ability to draw in qi should allow us to advance through the ranks at a much faster clip.

Keiko saw me glancing back at the Centering Lotus and smiled, “What does the lotus over there do? I didn't even get to take a look at it. I felt these pills drawing me towards them, like we were meant to be together. I'm glad that I made it almost all the way through the loop before taking anything, or this would be really embarrassing.”

“It helps the user or users block out the world while cultivating, it also increases the efficiency of drawing qi in from the outer world while cultivating, it would pair perfectly with the pills you picked.”

She clapped happily, “That sounds perfect! Grab it and we should get out of here; I really want to go back to our room, take the pills, and test out that lotus!”

I smiled but shook my head, “I'm going to finish the loop, just in case there's anything better right before the end.”

She walked over to join me with her head down, “Can I walk with you?”

I gave her a side hug, “Of course you can, just don't go grabbing anything else off of any of the pedestals. I get the impression that there's a chance you could use my pick too.”

She pulled her arms into her sides clutching the bottle of pills in both hands, “Sounds good, I promise I won't grab anything off the pedestals without talking to you!” She smiled widely.

I just shook my head and started walking. Just as I suspected, there was nothing else that really struck me as something I had to have on this level. About five minutes later, I ended up back in front of the Centering Lotus.

I looked over at Keiko, “I think we should take this; do you agree?”

She didn't even answer my question, she just snagged the Centering Lotus off of the pedestal and placed it in my hands. The look of shock on my face was surprising to me in hindsight, I should've expected her to do that.

I started to yell at her, but stopped myself before I could even get started. That was part of our relationship, I suffered from analysis paralysis, while she suffered from attention deficit and that lack of impulse control. Together, we made a pretty good decision-making team! I stopped her from making rash decisions and she stopped me from taking three weeks to make a big, but basic decision.

She smiled at me, “All right, let's go!” She started tugging me toward the entrance, which made me smile.

I followed behind dutifully, we were done here and I was ready to cultivate with her. As we exited the vault, we came back into the same hallway to find Dusk standing there looking at us expectantly.

He was practically shaking, “Well? What did you guys get?”

Keiko looked to me before answering him, when I nodded, she began, “We got two cultivation aids, one is a set of pills and the other is a new pedestal for us to cultivate on that should help us pull in more qi from the outside world than we would normally be able to. I think they're an awesome pair!” Her grin was a mile wide, though I can't say mine was any smaller.

Dusk nodded approvingly with a smile on his face, “I think that those are perfect items for you two. I hope you use them well. I bet you can't wait to use them, so if you'd like I can deposit you in front of your room.”

I didn't even bother looking for Keiko's answer, “That sounds amazing, thank you so much.”

Dusk reached over, grabbed our shoulders, and with a small warping sensation the three of us were standing outside of Keiko and my room.

Keiko and I bowed to Dusk before I spoke up, “Thank you so much for this, we really appreciate it!”

Dusk waved us off, “It's all good, I appreciate you two jumping into this with both feet. You would be surprised to hear how many couples end up here but stagnate as Initiates.”

Keiko started tugging me back toward our room.

I smiled and waved at Dusk as I started walking backwards towards our room, “Thanks again, we should grab lunch sometime!”

Dusk smiled sadly, “That's probably not going to happen, but I wish you guys the best of luck cultivating today.”

A second later he disappeared.