After the brief meeting with Nue, to avoid his thoughts getting caught in a quagmire, Siu decided to focus on his training again and let his mind settle before considering the offer one more time. Expelling all his theories, focusing on nothing but the Fox form's basics, his breathing became steady, his stance taking up the starting position, his balance flawless compared to how it was months ago... If an outer disciple had been watching, they might say Siu was already mastering the sect's own martial art pretty well... but for him, it was still sloppy and not what he wanted.

  "Tsk..." He exhaled slowly and reset his posture, but it still didn't match what he had memorized as the form of the Crane and Wild Cat was way too close to it, starting to interfere thanks to his muscle memory. Finally, he realized that this is why he will need to not only chain the forms, but also to merge them, so this wouldn't happen.

  "Again." He told himself, restarting it from the beginning, doing his best to use all he knew to achieve the stance of the Fox, because if this form is all about deceiving his opponent, he would have to use it as a base, as it would conceal all the others in the future.

  Closing his eyes, his feet shifted a little, his weight flowing from his heel to the tip of his toe as his hands traced the opening motion. The movement was smooth, well-controlled, and very much... precise. Like how the Crane demanded it, meaning, it was too precise. Realizing it in his head, his shoulders dipped to counteract it, forcing his torso to twist as his right hand rose just a fraction faster than the left, but no... It was already all wrong.

  "Damn it..." He exhaled as he stopped mid-motion, shaking his head, "And to think I thought I was ready for all the advanced forms."

  Even if he understood that the Fox form was not about power like the Ox or about speed like the Wild Cat, he just couldn't use them when the motion was so fluid that his body began using them instantly.

  "One more time for today, and if not, I will keep working on meging what I know..." He told himself, slapping his face while standing in the middle of his private training room, wearing only his underwear, so he could feel all his muscles move and twitch.

  This time, he tried to exaggerate the looseness, letting his arms sway wider, and his steps become less direct, consciously going against everything he had learned before. He imagined that he should be like... chaos itself, incorporating some randomness into it all, maybe some drunken sway, but the moment he committed to it, his muscles betrayed him, taking it as creating an opening for his enemy. The instant it happened, his left shoulder tensed up, forcing his hip to be realigned as his center of gravity snapped into place, making him groan out in frustration.

  “…Damn it!”

  "Master," From the edge of the field, Arya flicked her tail, watching him do these weird hops, “Your dance looks very weird... you are doing it again...” she said.

  "Hm?" Siu didn’t look at her, loosening his muscles, deciding that he should stop for today, as forcing a new form would only make it harder and harder to learn, causing him to get stuck. “Doing what?”

  “I bet you are thinking too loudly, I can see it in your face,” Arya replied, hopping down from her perch and padding closer, going circles around him, “And I can hear you, you know, I mean, I can feel it.”

  “You can read my thoughts?”

  “No, but I feel them.” She said, seriously, as she slowly orbited him like a moon, her golden eye tracking every micro-adjustment in his muscles while her silver one, on the other hand, took in the entire frame of him. "I can tell that for some reason you want to move left, but you think you are going right... That’s not how it works.”

  "Pretty much," Siu flexed his fingers, smiling to himself for being lectured by a fox, but it was... fitting, and he was ready to listen. “Then how does it work?”

  "Um..." Arya stopped in front of him and tilted her head, thinking for a moment. “You just... make a mistake, by confusing left with right when actually moving...” she said, not knowing how to explain it, “That's it.”

  "Well..." He frowned, “That’s not helpful...”

  "Sorry..." She mumbled, lowering her head, making Siu chuckle, before he crouched and started scratching her behind the ears.

  "It's alright. Thank you for telling me."

  "I can show it to you, too!" Arya hopped backward suddenly, getting an idea while landing lightly on her feet, her fluffy tail swishing behind her. “Watch!”

  Her posture changed immediately, making Siu remember how she was when she was running from the Ironclaw hunting her for breakfast. Without exerting herself, she was simply standing there, her tail swaying lazily, when, without warning, her body shifted in a way that made no sense, as her paws moved without rhythm. She lifted her left front paw only to make a step with the right one, getting into a rhythm that was just out of sync.

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  It looked and felt wrong, wholly unbalanced, sloppier than a baby who was trying to learn how to walk... even foolish... And yet, every time Siu’s eyes tried to lock onto her center, to get a read of her, he couldn't do it.

  “See?” Arya said, running now, circling him. “I don't think, I just... don't know what I will do next!”

  Watching her body move around, without rhyme or reason, yet still not tripping over herself, also stirred the little fox's essence. Despite being in the middle of the day, bright and sunny, Siu's eyes caught it immediately, noticing a shimmer in the air, like an emerging mirage in the desert. The light that was falling on her black fur was now bent, and suddenly there were two Aryas... Then three. All of them were running in different directions, and with her speed, it was hard to tell which was the real one. By then, Siu didn't dare to blink his eyes, watching as her mirror images stepped out of her body, each one slightly out of sync, their paws landing a heartbeat too early or too late. Their movements sometimes overlapped and then diverged, rejoined into one Arya, only to split again, and the longer he looked, the more confused he became.

  “Oh? Master, you like it?” Arya said, her voice sounding very much delighted, “I can feel it!”

  "Yeah! I think... I think I am seeing something that..." He murmured, still watching her, experiencing a mental breakthrough that he didn't want to lose now by speaking or thinking about it.

  "Ehehe! I'll dance for you more! I like swinging my butt!"

  She darted forward the next moment, as if attacking. Still, it turned into a retreating move very quickly, and the illusions mirrored her, each suggesting a different intent. One continued the strike she started, then another showcased a stumble, while apparently the original Arya had already retreated far away. It was so convincing that Siu reacted instinctively, stepping back and raising his guard, making Arya giggle.

  “Got you!” She said brightly, “Master, try it! It isn't hard!”

  Getting herself into a very playful mood, she slid past him, her fur brushing his leg, her tail flicking at his calf, as if she was trying to help him start out, like if she was a cat, rubbing against him... It was her way to try to nudge him into a weird dance. Deciding to rely on his partner, Siu forced his thoughts to stay silent and follow her lead, unquestioningly. Moving where he felt Arya's tail rub against his skin, his steps lost their neatness at once. His arms lagged behind, not knowing how to balance, as he kept shifting and shifting again, and for a heartbeat, he felt like he was about to fall.

  But... it never happened... As long as his body followed the nudges from Arya, he remained standing, and then, without thinking about it, something clicked. All those sways, the missteps he was making now, lined up with his breathing. By then, his next step landed crooked, but on purpose, without correction, flowing into another misstep... then another.

  “Yes! That! You have to twist your butt, Master! Shake it!”

  And then, out of nowhere, he could swear he saw a mirror-image of himself almost separating from his shadow. The moment his peripheral vision caught it, the concentration he had fell apart as he froze in mid-movement, managing to stumble the next and fall over. No... that was not possible. An afterimage? He couldn't have materialized anything like that... For now. Or at all. He was not yet at that stage... It had to be a mistake. Plus, he didn't even know what his own affinity was, being how fresh he was on the path of cultivation. And for sure, he wouldn't just mimic Arya's natural abilities...

  "Ahahaha!" Arya laughed, stopping and hopping before his face, "Master, that was funny! You went... Oh?! And then BAM! You need more practice!"

  "Yeah, I do," He pushed himself up, smiling, watching his little friend, "You are a surprisingly good teacher, you know that?"

  "Of course!" She answered with a proud yelp, wagging her tail like a puppy, "Will we play again?"

  "You want to?" He asked, standing up, patting himself down.

  "Yes! Yes! I want! Nobody played with me before, it's fun!"

  "Okay, lead on, Arya. I have time!" He nodded and once again, their weird dance began as Siu let her guide his movements, teaching him what books and simple texts couldn't.

  ...

  ....

  ......

  Later that night, lying on his back in their dormitory, Neya sleeping at the other side of the room, mumbling something under her breath about 'precision cuts' and 'sorting guts,' Siu just stared at the ceiling, slowly rubbing the fur of Arya, who was sleeping on his chest. Somehow... he didn't feel tired, and he couldn't help but replay his training with Arya in his mind.

  What did he feel and see when he caught an image of himself... His mind was trying to say, it was a mistake, a mirage, but... exactly. It could have been a mirage, but that again, shouldn't have been manifested. Somehow, it didn't go away and was stuck in his head. Maybe he should ask the Elders about it... Shaking his head a little to allow his mind to switch off the weird experience, he decided to think about Nue's offer instead.

  A joint hunting offer...? He would lie if he said he wasn't intrigued. The harvest from that one bird was a big enough surprise, and if he could repeat something similar... That would set him up for a good few months or even a year. But it may also mean he could be crippled or killed. Nue was an older disciple, more experienced, and he had seen tricks like this before, learning about them by the time he was six. It wasn't rare for the dagger to be hidden in a box of flowers, presented as a peace offering.

  At first glance, he should simply refuse the invitation; he knew that. But then again, after what she said, he knew that Nue would bring up other methods to try and get to him, and he wasn't keen on experiencing those either. The worst thing was that, as he watched her eyes, he could see no deception in them. She was saying the truth, even when she said she wanted to kill him herself.

  But then again, when opportunities arrive, people change their stances without ever giving it a proper thought. Her promise meant nothing; it was as worthless as thick gloves in the summer.

  "..." Slowly blinking his eyes, for a moment, in the dark, they flashed with a cold light as a thought passed through his head, something Nue probably also entertained at least once.

  If he went on that hunt... and if Nue tried anything... It would also be the best way to get rid of her. Knowing that the woman was still going to come after him, after everything, was not only annoying but could become dangerous in the future. There are people who just don't quit and are somehow lucky enough to live on, never learning from the slaps life aims at them, to correct their path. And if he wanted to make the issue go away...

  It was indeed a hunt like this, where he could make sure that it happened.