Jin Shu sat nervously across from Ai Yuweewo cups of steaming tea sat untouched, their gentle wisps of vapor curling upward. Jin Shu barely registered the tea, his thoughts tangled in the weight of his past.

  Every mistake, every sin from both his lives repyed in his mind, ving him that his mere presen front of such a serene and virtuous being was a stain on her purity.

  He had faced tless battles, yet never before had he felt this kind of nervousness. Not even during his first deployment as a soldier.

  The sileretched between them until Ai Yun finally broke it. “Why did you e here?” Her voice was soft, yet carried an authority that demanded hoy.

  Jin Shu drew in a deep breath. Lying to her felt unthinkable, so he fessed everything. “My mother fought against Demonic Cultivators near Bck Mountain City. She went missing shortly after.” His voice wavered, but he pressed on. “I found out she was st seen in the southern regiohe Demon Mountains. That’s why I came here—to seek the Soul Jade that tell me her location.”

  When he finished, he fell silent, waiting anxiously for her response. Ai Yun remained quiet, her expression thoughtful as she stared into her untouched tea.

  Finally, she spoke. “I know why she’s in the southern region.” Her words were calm, deliberate. She lifted her cup, blowily oea before taking a sip.

  Jin Shu’s eyes widened in surprise. “You know?” He shot to his feet, his palms smming against the table. “Why?!”

  His sudden outburst sent a small spsh of tea spilling across the table. Ai Yun g the mess, and with a simple wave of her hand, the spilled tea vanished as if it had never been there.

  “Yes,” she replied, uurbed. “But before I tell you, I have a question. Do you know about your mother’s spirit? Or rather…” She paused, her gaze steady. “Do you even know what the Spirit Realm is?”

  Jin Shu opened his mouth to protest. He didn’t want to talk about theories or spirits—he just wanted answers about his mother. But the weight of her expet expression stopped him. With a sigh, he relented.

  “I know the Spirit Realm is where one unlocks their spirit,” he said. “I don’t know the finer details. I just know that some people, like my mother, have unique spirits. Most people, though, have spirits in the form of on animals or ons.”

  Ai Yun nodded, satisfied with his respohat’s correct. When a cultivator unlocks their spirit, they must nurture it, pnting a seed of sentiehis seed only fully blooms in the Grandmaster Realm.”

  Jin Shu spread his arms in frustration. “And? What does this have to do with my mother?”

  Ai Yun remained posed, taking another measured sip of tea. “Her spirit is so uhat she doesn’t know how to pnt the seed of sentience. Without that, she ot advahrough the Spirit Realm.”

  He leaned forward, his voice urgent. “Okay, go on.”

  She set her cup dowly and fixed him with a patient, maze. “Jin Shu, calm down. Drink your tea.” Her tone was soft but carried a firm authority, like a mother instrug a restless child.

  Jin Shu hesitated, gng between her serene fad the steaming cup before him. Finally, he relented. Sitting back down, he lifted the cup and took a tentative sip.

  The moment the tea touched his tongue, a mild fragrance apanied by a soothing surge of qi spread through his body. His taut nerves began to loosen, the tensioing away.

  His body rexed instinctively, and a soft, involuntary moan escaped his lips. The qi within him flowed more freely than it ever had before, smoothing out blockages and harmonizing with his natural energy. A few more sips, and he could feel the qi in his dantian reag near capacity, brimming with vitality.

  Without thinking, he draihe rest of the tea in a single gulp. The energy within him surged wildly, pushing against his current limits. Reizing the signs of an immi breakthrough, Jin Shu quickly sat cross-legged on the floor, pg his palms on his knees. Closing his eyes, he focused inward, surrendering himself to the process as the outside world faded from his awareness.

  An unknown amount of time passed as Jin Shu felt his cultivation rising and densiedly. Waves of energy surged through him, refining and strengthening his foundation until finally, everythiled. When he opened his eyes, he could feel it—his cultivation had advao the 7th stage, two stages beyond his previous 5th.

  He blinked, adjusting to the sensation of his strengthened qi. But his thoughts quickly derailed when he realized something odd—his chest was bare, his robes o be seen, and there was a damp, soothiion on his back.

  Turning his head with growing curiosity, he fou Master Ai Yun crouched behind him, wiping his back with a cloth. “Um…? What are you doing?” he asked cautiously, his voice caught between fusion and embarrassment.

  “You were sweating,” she replied evenly, as if her answer fully expined why the dignified Sect Master was attending to him like a maid. Her posure remained untouched as she tio his back. “What are these markings on your body?”

  Jin Shu shifted awkwardly under her touch but mao respond. “They’re runes. My cultivation teique requires me to inscribe them onto my body.” He tried to sound casual, though the feeling of the cloth gliding across his skin made him want to squirm away.

  “That isn’t a cultivation teique,” Ai Yun stated matter-of-factly. She dipped the cloth bato a small basin of warm water and wrung it out with practiced ease. “It’s an auxiliary teique.”

  Jin Shu blinked, startled by the unfamiliar term. “What’s the difference?”

  “An auxiliary teique doesn’t alter the way you cultivate qi. Instead, it enhances or supplements your cultivation and be used alongside a proper cultivation teique,” she expined gently.

  Finally satisfied, she stood from her crouched position, pg the cloth ba the basin before returning gracefully to her seat at the table.

  Jin Shu sat there for a moment, digesting her words. Then realization struck, and his eyes widened. “Wait… does that mean I’ve been cultivating without a cultivation teique this whole time?”

  Refleg on his path, it hit him—he’d never used a cultivation teique. In the Body Realm, it was unnecessary since cultivation teiques only came into py from the Qi Realm onward. But now, he was beyond that.

  Ai Yun gave a small shrug, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “If that rueique is all you’ve been using, then yes.”

  Jin Shu stood abruptly, hastily pulling his robe ba to cover himself. “It’s called the Body Scribing Art,” he admitted, still processing everything.

  “An Art?” Ai Yun raised a brow. “An Art typically includes a set of teiques—a cultivation teique and an auxiliary teique. Did yours only e with the one?”

  Her question hung in the air, leaving Jin Shu to grapple with yet another realization.

  Jin Shu reached into his space earring arieved a worn scroll. “This is the scroll I found with the teique… Could you look it over?” His voice carried a cautious tohough hope glimmered in his eyes. Given her willio help so far, he trusted she might offer some insight.

  Ai Yuended her hand, and with a simple motion, the scroll vanished from his grasp and reappeared in hers. She exami for a brief moment before letting a wisp of her qi flow into it.

  The scroll glowed faintly, just as it had when Jin Shu first discovered it in the cave within the Bck Mountains. Slowly, glowiers began to appear across its surface, their brilliance reflected in Ai Yun’s calm expression.

  She spread the scroll open and read silently for a time. Then, after a few moments, she spoke. “No wonder you couldn’t cultivate it.”

  Jin Shu blinked, stepping closer to peer over her shoulder. “Why?”

  “Here—look.” She poio a specifie etched into the glowi.

  Core Scribing Teique.

  Jin Shu frowned as realization dawned. “Oh… So it only be used in the Core Realm?”

  “It would seem that way,” Ai Yun said with a nod, rolling the scroll back up and handing it to him.

  He accepted it, furrowing his brow in thought. “But how is that any different from the Body Scribing Art? Isn’t it just inscribing runes on the core instead of the body?”

  For the first time, she hesitated. A light cough escaped her lips, a small sign of her momentary embarrassment.

  “You… seem to be right,” she admitted, her tone softer. “An Art also refer to a colle of teiques.”

  Jin Shu tilted his head slightly, his brow lifting. “So… it still isn’t a cultivation teique?”

  “It is not,” she firmed with a small sigh, regaining her usual posure.

  Jin Shu frow the scroll in his hands, suddenly feeling as though he had stumbled onto a far more plicated path than he’d first realized.

  He exhaled slowly, a determined glint fshing in his eyes. If this isn’t enough, then I’ll just find a real cultivation teique. One way or another.