Seth woke up exhausted that morning. When he closed his eyes, he saw visions of him being impaled, sliced, burned, and healed over and over again without end. He had gone through his normal formation rounds that day, taking on a few of the resource preservation arrays and half of the laundry arrays on top of that. Now, he was standing in a training hall, staring down his instructor for the day.

  Instructor Zerek was still a bear of a man with bright blue skin and neon yellow hair. His face showed the manic grin Seth was used to.

  "So, finally back for some more training? Let's see how far you've come since last time! Come at me!"

  Seth leaped toward Zerek and punched, who blocked and counter-kicked, forcing Seth to leap back. He activated his qi sight; his instructor's qi control was as flawless as always. Not deterred, Seth leaped in, his lungs already on fire from the exertion. They exchanged a few blows, Zerek being careful to make sure the fight kept going.

  Seth blocked a punch from Zerek that sent him skidding backward ten feet. He was already panting. Not willing to give up, he shifted his weight to re-enter the fray.

  "Stop," said Zerek. Seth stopped.

  "How are you already out of breath?! We just started!"

  "I'm missing a lung instructor."

  "Then have it healed! You have enough contribution points, don't you?"

  "I can't, instructor."

  "Of all the silly... " Zerek strode over and put his hands on Seth. He felt the man's qi flow through Seth, searching. A puzzled expression crossed his face. Then, excitement.

  "I've never seen this before. I can see why you can't heal this. Not until you reach foundation establishment, at least. Before then, it will kill you. Even after that... using these growths like this is creative."

  "More like desperate, instructor."

  "Same thing! So, I take it the reason you actually signed up for training was to help train a solution to this problem?"

  "Yes, instructor, thank—"

  "Boring!"

  [Boring!] Mal echoed.

  "Then—"

  "Now, let's get to the not-boring part of this." As he said this, Zerek's voice became calm. Deadly calm. "Where did you learn how to do healing?"

  "I learned it in an inheritance."

  "Show me what you learned," Zerek said. He snapped one of his own fingers back until Seth heard an audible crack.

  Seth took hold of the instructor's hand and used qi to trace how the body was supposed to be. Then, he directed healing energy to make the body whole again.

  "So you can heal properly..." he trailed off. With a smile on his face again, he snapped another finger and said. "Now. Do what you did to heal the initiate's knee yesterday."

  Seth reached in with his power and started the healing process. Halfway through, he twisted it a bit. Just enough so that he knew the body wouldn't know how to regrow itself again. He didn't finish the healing; that wasn't what he did to the initiate, after all.

  "Done, instructor."

  Zerek stared at his finger for a moment before trying to heal it. He winced in pain before he re-broke the finger and healed it more slowly. After a couple of minutes, the healing was done.

  "Seth, that is a nasty trick you've got! I think I got the idea, but it would be hard to actually do in practice. Interesting."

  "So... I'm not in trouble?"

  "I was going to tell you off for healing without knowing what you're doing. But from what I've seen, it's clear you can heal properly."

  "I'm not entirely sure I know what I did, instructor. All I did was twist the healing a bit, hoping to make the process a little more painful..."

  "Oh, you made it more painful, alright," Zerek said with a laugh. "No, what you did was make the body forget how the bone was supposed to grow back. Instead, you gave it this warped vision that takes over any standard healing. Quite nasty. You didn't realize that's what you were doing?"

  "No, instructor," Seth said, feeling sick to his stomach.

  "Well, if I were a responsible instructor, I'd scold you for messing with things you don't understand. But I mess with things I barely understand all too often!"

  "That's... " Seth was at a loss. How the hell was he supposed to tell Zerek that his irresponsibility was terrifying?

  "Amazing, right? Anyway, your qi movement has gotten a lot better. No longer like a drunk child."

  "But I'm having—"

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  "Stop whining about your missing lung! You'll get used to it, and this will make you do what you're good at."

  "How so?"

  Zerek sighed, then looked at Seth seriously and said, "Come at me with everything you have."

  Seth focused and flung shards of ice at instructor Zerek, who just took the hits. He threw himself to the right just before the instructor appeared in front of him, fist missing Seth's face by inches. While bracing for another hit, Seth activated his iron arms skill and blocked Zerek's next blow. It flung him backward, but it gave him time to power and activate an ice orb. Zerek dodged the ice orb, giving Seth time to activate a shield. Zerek slammed into the shield and shattered it with a single hit. The delay gave Seth time to fire some more ice shards as he leaped backward.

  This time, the ice shards dug into Zerek's flesh, drawing some blood. Zerek smiled as he healed the wounds and charged in again. The battle continued like this for another minute before Zerek called a stop to the spar.

  "See, you're much better at that than smashing things with your fists."

  "Still, I should—"

  "Of course you should be ready for the enemy to get in close! But right now, you need to get better at what you're good at, and I'm not the right teacher for that."

  Seth nodded at Zerek's words. He had a point, especially with Seth's physical endurance no longer being what it used to be. Still, he felt resistant to the idea, but wasn't sure why.

  "Not to say that I can't teach that. I just have no interest," said Zerek. Seth rolled his eyes once he was sure Zerek wasn't looking.

  For the rest of the block, Zerek put Seth through some more tests for his qi movement. He also showed Seth a few tricks to move more effectively with his qi, but the rest would come down to practice. With a final goodbye, Seth left the training yard.

  With nothing else to do that day, Seth made his way to the library. Now that he was back and had some contribution points, he needed to shore up some real weaknesses.

  He walked up to one librarian, a sleepy-looking middle-aged woman.

  "Excuse me, how can I get access to the technique manual section?"

  "Let me see..." she said and looked down at a book that Seth assumed to be a ledger. "Yes, you have enough. Two-hundred points will get you access for the next twenty-four hours. Borrowing technique manuals will cost extra. Reading past a particular point will automatically deduct the required points for that manual. Any questions?"

  "Ye—"

  "No? Excellent. The section you have access to is over there. Do not get confused and try to go over to the inner disciple or elder section," she said and returned to pretending he didn't exist.

  *Guess I'll have to figure out how the section is organized on my own.* Seth walked over to the technique manual section. He saw the familiar barrier, but this time, it let him pass as he walked through. Against expectations, he felt nothing as he walked through the field. No tingle of energy. No popping feeling to let him know he crossed a threshold. Nothing. The section itself was quite small, with only eight rows of shelves, each row nine shelves wide. Still, manuals of all different shapes and sizes filled the shelves to the point of bursting.

  A quick lap around the section didn't show an index, so Seth got to work going through the manuals one by one. The first one he picked up was a thin red book that read "Sanguine Steps." The first page contained an introduction to the technique.

  > Control of the circulation of blood and qi is vital for attack and defense. However, precise control of these factors can be combined into an explosive movement technique that allows the user to cross hundreds of feet in the blink of an eye.

  Seth's eyes bulged when he noticed the 32,000 contribution point price tag for borrowing it. He put it back and pulled out the next book, the "Tortoise Shell Manifestation."

  > Many cultivators are overly impressed by vigorous attacks that overwhelm their opponents. They mimic apex predators without being one themselves. Those who are wise will turn to the turtle who, while far from helpless, prioritizes surviving combat over dominance. Inside are defensive insights gleaned from my lifetime of studying various spirit tortoises and their defensive measures.

  As interested as he was, the 29,000 contribution points once again put this far outside his price range, at least for now.

  He checked the next few books in this row, and they had similar costs. Seth sighed and moved on. Maybe the middle row would have something for him.

  Fortunately, the technique manuals on this shelf had far more reasonable contribution point requirements. He flipped through a few:

  "Heaven Parts the Waves," would have been great before Seth lost a lung.

  "Seven Spearing Swallows," required a spear.

  After a couple of hours of searching for techniques, he found one that looked useful. A thick green manual titled "Leaf on the Wind."

  > Many are bound by the shackles of earth. Heavy. Dull. Longing for freedom. The freedom of a leaf on the wind, for example. It floats wherever the wind carries, without a care. If I could float on the wind, that would be an idyllic existence.

  The ramblings went on for a couple of pages before Seth got to the crux of the technique. It was surprisingly qi efficient, though executing it would be challenging. Still, if he executed it correctly, it would make him "as light as a leaf, floating on the wind." He didn't buy into the hyperbole, but if the technique could make him lighter, it should help with the strain on his lungs when he had to move quickly.

  It took 4,800 contribution points. More than half of his current balance. Still, it was an investment worth making. He thought about the manuals he saw earlier and wished he could afford to save up for them. The reality, however, was that life in the sect was brutal, and he needed the ability to defend himself. He had gotten stronger, but didn't believe for a second he was the strongest here.

  As he finished up here, he headed toward the back of the section. As he expected, these were the cheap manuals. The way the manuals were strewn on the shelves reminded Seth of the occasional shelving he found in junkyards. Even before he had gotten sick, he enjoyed scavenging junkyards and second-hand stores for hidden treasures he could repurpose.

  *But can I...no, that's the wrong question. I need to find something to enjoy here. There aren't any machines to take apart and rebuild. But maybe I can at least tear a worthless technique apart and learn something useful. Yeah, that might be fun.*

  The first manual he opened was a thin yellow tome titled "Cycling the Divine Wind." He opened it, and without much preamble it described a technique for cycling wind qi until the user could release a cyclone. On the first page was a handwritten note stating, "fails 99% of the time, resulting in wind rushing out of various orifices." Seth put a hand to his face to stifle a laugh and put the manual away.

  He spent the next two hours battling the urge to laugh. Who the hell comes up with a technique for body hardening your skin to the hardness of obsidian? It sounds great until someone slams a fist into your face and fractures your skin. After a few hours, he found a winner in "Eighteen Needle Incapacitation."

  On its surface, the theory of the technique was quite simple. Generate eighteen needles that can pierce most defenses to deliver a jolt of qi to acupoints that will render the target immobile for two to three seconds. The problem was obvious. All eighteen needles had to hit with pinpoint accuracy for it to work. Even then, it only disabled the attacker for a second. Still, Seth's brain turned.

  *Can I use other types of qi, like ice? Can I generate more than eighteen needles? Less? Does it actually pierce defenses? If so, how? And how can...*

  At 150 contribution points, Seth didn't hesitate to pick this one up as well. His heart swelled at the thought of playing with it.