"You still have a lot to do out here?"

  "No. Only need to get a few herbs. This went much quicker than expected."

  "Happy to hear it."

  "You seem restless," said Therus, looking at Seth.

  It was the following morning. Seth's qi had mostly recovered, and he had healed both of their injuries. The fight the day before had made clear just how weak he still was, and was anxious to fix the issue. True, he still needed to make some progress with the 'healing' that elder Frerren was expecting. However, right now, he couldn't focus on that.

  "Yesterday's fight was eye-opening. I want to capitalize on that inspiration."

  "Don't you need to make progress on that task for elder Frerren?"

  "If all goes according to plan, I'll be able to take care of both at the same time. If it doesn't, I have a backup plan."

  "That's good to hear."

  They finished eating breakfast in silence, then they headed out into the woods. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the gloom and shifting shadows, the trek through the woods was pleasant. The air was neither too cold nor too warm, and a comfortable breeze blew through the trees, carrying hints of jasmine and lime.

  It took the rest of the day, but they found the rest of the herbs Therus needed to bring back. A pack of folen tried to harass them, but they quickly drove the pack away. Seth had experimented on one of the folen, but had made no genuine progress, other than being able to complete the process in an hour instead of several.

  They were back in their camp. The light had fallen, and they just finished eating dinner. The plan was to spend one more night out in the woods, then return to the sect in the morning.

  "Has your qi recovered?" Therus asked.

  "Yes."

  "Good. You go first, and I'll keep watch."

  Therus handed him half of the spirit boar core they had gotten the day before, a bright yellow hemisphere. According to Therus, they had to use these prior to returning to the sect, as they were even usable by foundation establishment cultivators. It was a bit of a waste to use them in qi condensation, but the cultivation boost could be the difference between life and death. If it didn't kill them. A full core would have probably ruptured their meridians like a raging torrent through paper pipes. Half of one should be manageable.

  Seth sat down in the tent and held the core in both hands. Then, he closed his eyes and entered his mindscape. There, he could still feel his connection with the core. He could also monitor his body, cultivation, his passengers, and other things from here. After taking three deep breaths to calm himself, he started pulling in qi from the core. It rushed into his body like a raging river, threatening to rupture his meridians. He guided the torrent into his spirit furnace and cycled the technique.

  Minutes flowed by, and the torrent raged through his body. During that time, he had several close calls as he felt pressure build up on imperfections in his meridians. Sounds of cracking glass reverberated through his soul as he scrambled to heal them before they failed. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he knew if they failed, that was it for his cultivation. For him.

  Time became an abstract concept, detaching from the flow of qi into his furnace. Then, the sound of the rushing qi changed; a higher-pitched sound joined the rushing. The sound became higher and higher pitched. It can't be... He looked into the furnace, and his heart sank. The furnace was a dozen seconds from overflowing.

  I should have known there was a hidden downside. Then he forced the grumbling from his mind. It was useless now. He had no idea what would happen when the qi overflowed and decided he didn't want to find out.

  He directed some qi away from the stream into the furnace and used it to increase the power of the furnace. That caused the cultivation art to destabilize the next instant, and he poured all his focus into feeling every part of this process. When he first learned the technique, he implemented it while barely understanding the workings. Now that he's seen it in action, he could begin to unravel the technique's complexities. It was far more complex than just applying lots of energy to qi to transform it. Applying more energy to the first stage caused pressure to build up in the furnace, requiring him to cycle the technique faster. That faster cycling led to instabilities in the construct, challenging him to reinforce the furnace's structure.

  All this to accomplish one goal: to condense qi until one could use it to build a foundation. As time flew by, he also noticed that the art had another flaw. It should have processed qi much faster and was far too inefficient. Did the elder give me a flawed technique on purpose? And if so... no, need to focus on the current problem. Now that he had found and fixed the flaw, he could process the torrent of qi. He still monitored the process, tweaking it in tiny ways on the ebbs and eddies in the qi rushing into him.

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  Seth opened his eyes. He felt better than he had ever felt in his life. He had managed to go through three additional cycles of condensation. Months of work done in... hours? Hopefully, it hadn't been days.

  [Food?]

  "Of course. Eat up." Seth sent some of the further condensed qi to Mal and the other tumors. He was generous, as he had gained a lot, and the more the tumors could cultivate, the further he would advance.

  When he exited the tent, Therus was still sitting outside, watching the fire. He turned his head to Seth and smiled.

  "Looks like it went well for you. Congratulations."

  "Thank you. How long?"

  "About six hours. Shorter than I thought, to be honest."

  How long did he think this was going to take?

  "Well, your turn. I'll warn you, it's a bit rough on the meridians."

  "... I keep forgetting you didn't have meridian tempering treatments growing up," Therus said, looking at the ground. "How did you keep them from rupturing?"

  "I healed them as they were about to rupture. Has made them stronger."

  As he finished his sentence, Therus' eyes went wide. Then, he shook his head and cleared his throat.

  "I'll get started."

  "Good luck."

  With a nod, Therus entered the tent to get started. Seth sat down and began keeping watch, thoughts of how he could improve his skills circling his mind.

  Their host's breathing settled into a safe pattern. They reached out, and a sea of shifting purples and grays came into view. It knew there was more meaning to these shapes, but had no clue what.

  Still, it learned. At first, it had been angry at the host for tricking it. How dare the host steal Mal's food? The host wasted no time in showing Mal how useless its rage had been. No, it was better to hide that. For now.

  It was also frustrating that it couldn't freely expand. Mal was born to grow. As it condensed more qi, with nowhere for that qi to go, it became... more. Simple thoughts became complex. Complex thoughts became plans.

  Mal had thought about sharing some of these thoughts with their host, but decided against it. What if the host decided to end Mal? It had already trapped Mal and stolen its energy. Trusting the host would be stupid.

  The host had been changing. Mal no longer felt their hatred. Why had the host hated them in the first place? Had it done something wrong for being born? No, that made no sense. Was the host broken? Hard to say.

  Still, Mal would wait. The host had promised freedom. It was impossible now. Mal hated it, but knew the host was being honest. It was bad at lying. Someday, though, Mal would have its freedom.

  [Please...] one of the other beings in this host whispered. Mal ignored it and kept draining life from it. Assimilating it into Mal. No. Having seven different beings allowed the host to split the power between them. It kept them weak while the host grew strong. That wouldn't do at all.

  Mal would grow. And if the host didn't keep their promise, the host would die.

  Therus emerged from the tent twelve hours later, looking both haggard and revitalized.

  "Take it everything went well?" Seth asked.

  "Perfectly. Ready to head back?"

  "Yeah."

  It took them a couple of hours to exit the forest. An uneventful, peaceful walk through shifting shadows. They avoided a couple of packs of folen, one of which was still carrying Seth's healing. Will that fade over time? May have to return later to see if I can find it again.

  When they got back, they went their separate ways. Seth went to pick up some more rations for an extended trip before leaving the sect again on his flying sword, by himself this time. His destination was the sorcerous trial site. Even if he didn't have access to the trials themselves, he was sure he still had access to the library. That, and the area surrounding the trial site had small animals that would be perfect for experimenting on. Some small, six-legged rabbits, if he remembered correctly.

  On the flight there, he experimented with more daring aerobatic maneuvers on the flying sword. Everything went fine until he became daring enough to jump. The jump itself worked fine, and he yelped in delight. Delight turned to alarm as he landed, as only his left foot was on the blade. Without him to slow it down, the blade had gotten slightly ahead of him, leading to his right foot dangling in the air. More alarming, the magic binding him to the sword wasn't taking hold, and he tipped backward. He bent at the waist as far forward as he could to tip himself forward. It worked, and he landed face first on the sword. After that, the familiar magic bound him to the sword. Not trying that again.

  Light had already fallen by the time Seth arrived at the trial site. He flew in through the hidden entrance and landed in front of the trial temple. As he walked toward it, he felt a wave of qi wash over him. Then, the entrance opened, allowing him in.

  The main area was as he remembered it, minus the timer counting down until they failed. And the leaderboard. It felt like a lifetime ago he had come to the trial, weak and on the verge of being culled, instead of just a few months.

  He allowed himself a few moments of daydreaming about the future. Daydreamed about seeing his kids once more. Unbidden, a scene of him trapped in a luxurious room came to mind. From there, he cranked out people with his unique constitution, never allowed to grow on his own. His fists and teeth clenched as the vision played out. Not if I can help it.

  He strode into the library, where he expected to spend a lot of time over the next couple of months. He could have done this in the sect's library, but this had a few advantages. First, it allowed him information on how to improve what he already does with the formation pieces in his soul. Second, it probably had good information about how to progress beyond the qi condensation stage. He had found the sect's library lacking. At least the sections available to initiates.

  He also wanted to have at least one surprise that nobody in the sect knew about. Not even Therus. As much as he liked the man, Therus believed in the sect wholeheartedly. Part of him wanted to believe in it, too. But he knew the sect saw them as resources. Some were worth keeping around, and most were only useful as fuel for the strong. All of them ultimately expendable.