The morning sun rose just above the treetops, washing the clearing with yellow light. The smell of wood smoke created a sense of homely comfort transcending personal experience- ‘home’ as an objective quality. Master’s log cabin hid a mystical labyrinth matched only by the palace itself, but inside and out, it remained comfortable on a subconscious level.

  Already, she had given him a glimpse of his training. She injected learning into everything, not giving him breakfast but teaching him how to do the cooking. When that was done, and the meal proceeded, he’d asked her a question. Her eyes gleamed in response, and now they stood outside the cabin before a large, round boulder.

  “Okay, buddy, let’s hear that question again.”

  “Um,” he sought for his own exact phrasing. “You told me you wanted to teach me alchemy. I asked how a person with such little qi could practice the art.” As far as he knew, alchemy involved compressing, extracting, and manipulating energy, and it required not only great knowledge but great quantities of qi as well.

  “Yes. Now, please try to lift this big-ass rock, here.” She gestured to the boulder.

  Without much hope, the prince bent down and tried to move it. It didn’t even roll. He plied all the strength in his small-but-enhanced body, but the rock did not shift. “I… I can’t,” he puffed at last.

  “Yeah, no shit, this fucker weighs like five tons. And yet- behold!”

  [Emergence of the Groundhog]

  When Huang Jin turned his eyes from his Master to the boulder, he found that it was now wrapped about with rope, and attached to a complex wooden scaffold. “What- when did this happen? What kind of technique?” He didn’t know whether to clap his hands or back away.

  “What are you talking about? It was here this whole time, I built it last night. You commented on it when we walked out here, just now.”

  Come to think of it, that was true. He remembered it both ways, the rock standing alone and uncovered, and the rock attached to a framework. “Huh. I don’t think I’m crazy…”

  His Master looked down at him with a thoughtful expression. “Then you remember a time when I didn’t build the scaffold. Well, I guess that means we’re causally linked, now. A good sign!”

  The prince tried to think over her words. “Wait, Master. Do you mean, you have a technique that controls time?”

  She bent down and placed her hands against his cheeks, squishing his face. “Honey. Sweetie. Baby. The fuck did you think ‘The Great River’ is? You think I just picked a random patch of moving water and was all like ‘yup, gonna let this define me for eternity!’ It’s time. The Great River is poetic pretentious speak for time. Yes, I have a technique that controls time.” Just as suddenly, she released his face and stood erect again. “Not that you have to worry about quantum physics just yet, we’ll get to the syllabus in a minute. Now, go ahead and pull that rope!”

  Stunned, he did as she asked. He dragged on the rope with all the strength he could muster. Rope moved within grooved wheels, they turned, and inch by inch, the enormous boulder lifted. It required far less effort than the jade bell in the palace. “It’s moving!”

  “Leverage. You’re still lifting five tons, but distributed over hundreds of feet of rope. Distributing the weight evenly has that much effect. You can drop it now, slowly-”

  The last word came too late. He released the rope as soon as he heard the order, and though it only dropped five feet or so, the shockwave knocked him off his feet. The scaffold creaked, but held. Dog yelped and ran back into the cabin, tail between his legs.

  The ensuing silence lasted a full minute. Finally, the Immortal spoke. “Wonderful! The educational process has begun already. There are two basic units of learning: the question, and the mistake. As long as I am your teacher, do not be shy about either. Now!” She clapped her hands together. “Can you tell me the point of this exercise?”

  “... Forgive me, Master. I don’t know.”

  “‘I don’t know’ is a wonderful phrase, as long as it is accompanied by, ‘but I want to.’ Your flesh could not budge the weight, but flesh augmented by a healthy dose of physics, could. A human being is a creature that makes tools to make tools. ‘Mere’ mortals put a couple of normal guys on the moon and then brought them back alive, you can chew on that when you want to talk about potential and limitations.”

  The prince put a finger to his chin and thought about it. “Then… you mean, alchemy can let me do things that I can’t on my own?”

  “I’ll take that, yeah. Alchemy and the art of formations. These two things will be the greatest focus of your studies, but I intend to run the whole gauntlet. Behold!” From her flowing sleeve, she produced a plain, white scroll. “Gaze upon the next four or so years of your life.” She tossed the scroll to her student, who caught it out of the air and unfurled it.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  He found the structure familiar enough. Numbered points indicated phases of progression, like the old instructional literature he’d read. He could hear the Immortal’s voice in the words, though the document was very short.

  The first point worried him. “Step one, months one to six, THE HARD PART. Cognitive Enhancement, the basics, LOTS OF BOARD GAMES.” Details were scant. “Step two, months seven to twelve, THE TEDIOUS PART. Book learning, lots of fucking book learning. Step three, practical training, years two to four, THE FUN PART. Focus on formation craft, alchemy, artifice, medicine, hieromancy, ingredient sourcing, mechanics etc. Step four, end of term, CONGRATULATIONS. Great Auction presentation, self-driven final exams. Final step: answer THE QUESTION.”

  “That’s a lot of subjects for only four years. Cognitive enhancement must be incredible…”

  “Apapap, not ‘cognitive enhancement!’ [Cognitive Enhancement], it’s a whole always-on technique, and a real game-changer. Without it, I might make you a professional in one esoteric art given the time limit. You’re at the perfect level to learn it, too, and that’s another example of your ridiculous luck.”

  Him, the ‘perfect level’ for anything? “A technique that demands weakness?”

  “Indeed. Here, sit in the lotus position, this is a lesson you need to remember.”

  He obeyed. She took up a position in front of him, palms clasped together in the classic Dao teaching posture. “Qi is a force both mutagenic and connective. It edits, shifts, uplifts, and joins. Even physical law cannot stand unchanged in a high-qi environment, especially as qi compresses into different states.

  “In the normal course of cultivation, your brain advances in step with your body. [Cognitive Enhancement] fundamentally alters your brain’s function using qi. Every thought and subconscious process will incorporate a pulse of qi. If your body is already saturated, you can’t possibly hope to control the interactions and you’d tear your neurons apart. You need to adapt slowly. If you succeed, the physical barriers to cellular communication can be circumvented. Total recall, rapid information processing, the works.”

  Huang Jin vibrated with excitement. His Master shook her head and smiled. “Feel free to get excited at the results. The process… the process is gonna suck.” He nodded, holding his tongue. She noticed immediately. “Now, the way you’ve been taught up to now, you’ve had to keep it zipped during a study session, right? Again, as long as I’m your teacher, do not skimp on the questions. I thrive on questions. I’m all about them. Ask!”

  He shifted, eyes darting down. “Not a question, just… I’m willing to accept any hardship for this. A mystical, secret art that even I can learn!”

  “Yeah, woohoo, great, but you do have a question in there somewhere, right?”

  He had to reflect on it. “Come to think of it, I guess so. What is ‘THE QUESTION?’”

  “‘Why does someone like me take on students at all?’ I want you to have some guess by the end of your training. It’ll come together in time. I will answer your questions, but don’t be disappointed when the answer is ‘it’ll make sense when put into a broader context.’”

  This also required considerable thought. “Any question?” he confirmed.

  “Yeah. I will answer in whatever way I deem optimal to advance your education, but I will answer any question without fail.”

  “That’s terrifying.” Jumping in headfirst, he asked the big one. “Master, what is your Dao?”

  “Easy. Mine is the Dao of the Falsifiable Hypothesis, the Repeatable Experiment, and the Testibly Predictive Conclusion. By these means, I advance my understanding of the universe. What about you? Have you worked out a Path yet?”

  That one, he did not need to ponder. He could only shake his head. “No, Master. I Awakened, I was thrown away, I came here. It all happened so fast.”

  When he looked up, he found that his Master had scooched forward until she sat right in front of him. “I have said it before, but you really need to internalize this. You’re nine years old. You’d have to have a pretty fucking simple mind to have a Path set already. Now is the time for learning. Now, we begin your meditation exercises. How do you enter a meditative state right now? What’s your method?”

  “Elder Fu taught me to picture myself as a tree, with golden bark and jade leaves. Metal to strengthen and shape, wood to grow and flourish-”

  “Well cut that shit out, you’re a human being and you need to picture yourself as a human being. You’ll hamstring yourself, warp your self-image doing it that way. Energy flows within you, but you’ll need to picture it like blood, like flesh and bone and feeling. Things that are real.”

  He blinked. “Oh. I think I get why you told me this would be hard.”

  Her graphite eyes gleamed. “This is important, so listen up. Perception forms the core of your internal reality. In an environment suffused with qi, perception informs reality. It all begins by learning to control your perception. This is a vital component of [Cognitive Enhancement]. I call it the ‘Prana Bindu Method’ of qi control.”

  Huang Jin wiggled into a straight-backed posture and schooled his features into a stern expression. “I am ready to learn!”

  “Good! Now, stretch out your hands. Look at them. I want you to see your hands growing wrinkled and withered, like the hands of an old man. I don’t want you to imagine it, I want you to see it! Settle in. This might take a while.”

  He obeyed. And his new Master did not exaggerate.