The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

"You have 3 minutes remaining."

When Isaac heard this, he stopped hesitating and opened the box. The Anima would've flown away if the box wasn't made from ferin glass, a compound designed to subdue low rank Anima. Instead of flying away with incredible speed, the 2 Anima in the box could only move upwards slowly.

Focusing on one of the pair, Isaac extended his will towards it. Even commoners possessed 'will', strands of mental strength which could interact with the world around.

Will specialised in dealing with Qi, Anima or related substances. Isaac was currently forcing a Spirit Sword Anima to accept his will. This would usually be a difficult process, but the Anima was still suppressed by the ferin glass.

After 15 seconds, the Spirit Sword Anima was filed with Isaac's will and he had full control over it. He put his arm into the box and controlled the Anima to fly into his hand. He wasn't holding it or anything: the Anima had quite literally entered his hand. Refined Anima – Anima which had been refined by a person's will – had to dwell in a part of the body and there were only a few, specific exceptions.

2 Anima also couldn't exist in the same body part. For example, the Spirit Sword Anima dwelled in Isaac's right palm. He could have another Anima in his left hand or in his right arm, but not in his right hand. At least, not unless he got rid of the Spirit Sword Anima first.

After thoroughly subjugating the Anima, Isaac climbed the stairs back to the ground floor. He approached one of the officials to show them the Anima he'd picked and they flipped through a few sheets on their clipboard to find its price. Then they wrote Isaac's purchase down so they could deduct it from his temp point total later on.

Isaac was one of the last to pick his Anima and minutes later, they were told to leave the building. When everyone gathered outside, the officials had a final announcement,

"We congratulate you on becoming true cultivators with Qi Cores and Anima. Henceforth, you are no longer honorary disciples of the sect; you are formal disciples – you are grown men and women. Therefore, you will no longer receive soft, preferential treatment from us. You will make your way to the empty residences on the other side of the Rank 1 district and decide your houses by yourself. Goodbye and good luck."

With that, the officials turned and left together. The disciples – the formal disciples – were left alone in an unknown part of the sect.

However, they were all capable individuals: finding their way wouldn't pose a problem. They simply turned their backs to the Silver Palace and started walking towards the other side of the district. When they saw the sect wall, they knew they were near their destination.

Then they asked some of the people on the streets where the residences for newcomers were. In fact, their seniors in the sect gave them directions very politely. Not because they were kind hearted, but because they wouldn't offend 2,500 potentially talented newcomers for no reason.

They reached the empty residences and once again, the matter was settled in a mature manner. The residences were practically the same so there was no need to fight over the best ones. Isaac chose a residence near Johan and a couple other skilled disciples he met while in the academy, and that was the end of that.

Standing in his new residence, Isaac tidied some bits and moved a few pieces of furniture such as the bed. He felt it was important to make the room his own, but he liked the minimalistic feel it already had so he'd probably just buy some potted plants and leave it at that.

Having a space where you felt comfortable and relaxed was proven to help during meditation. Therefore, Isaac wasn't spending money on useless things. Creating a room with the right ambience would help him enter a meditative state quicker and maintain it for longer, noticeably improving his cultivation speed. Therefore, plants were the most cost-effective purchase Isaac could make.

Isaac quickly finished organising what was already in his room and made a brief plan for some simple decorations. It was afternoon by now and Isaac decided to finish his training from earlier. He made the 20-minute walk to the public training ground and spent over an hour beating the stuffing out of a practice dummy with his wooden sword.

After that, he returned to his residence. He had kindly been left enough food for about 2 weeks as well as 3 wooden buckets. The sect had a huge underground reservoir of water and used several Rank 2 Water Propulsion Anima to create a system of running water. However, that service was only available in the Rank 2 district and above. Here, Isaac had to use a well to draw near-freezing water from the underground reservoir.

After making a trip to the well and filling 2 of his buckets, he settled down. He needed resources but wasn't in a state to acquire them right now. His Qi Core was completely empty so he had no way to use his Anima.

It wasn't that he couldn't fill his core up: he could reach 20% full in a few hours... but then his Qi Core would crumble. The walls of Isaac's Qi Core were very fragile. If he tried to fill it with Qi now, it would be destroyed. Even holding a small amount of Qi would do slight but permanent damage to his core, making it harder to reach higher ranks later on.

Cultivation worked by meditating and absorbing Qi, then using that Qi to strengthen the walls of your core. With stronger walls, you could hold more Qi.

Cultivation was often measured in what percentage full your core was when at maximum capacity. Each Rank was divided into Lower, Middle and Upper stage depending on how much Qi the Core could safely hold. From 0 to 33% full meant you were at Lower Stage. When you reached 33%, you would have to use your will to compress your Qi to make it denser and purer whilst simultaneously imbuing this purer Qi into the Qi Core walls. Succeeding to do so would mean breaking through to Middle Stage. You would have to compress your Qi again at 66% to reach Upper Stage.

However, Isaac's Qi Core was currently at the weakest point of this whole cycle. He would have to cultivate from the bottom up, starting from the very first strand of Qi.

Knowing this, Isaac sat cross-legged on the bed and prepared to meditate. He'd learnt about meditation but never had a chance to practice it properly since he couldn't attract Qi.

It took Isaac about 15 minutes to completely empty his mind and reach a meditative state. He spread his will into the surroundings and focused solely on the faint presence of Qi in the room. He could vaguely sense an invisible 'flow' but couldn't feel the Qi itself.

After about 30 minutes he began to sense the Qi more strongly. It was like a cloud of gas slowly and gently circulating around the room. It almost seemed frustrated that it was trapped in this small space, some Qi leaving or entering underneath the door and through the tiny gaps around the window frame.

Now that Isaac could properly feel it, he tried drawing a strand of blue Qi towards him with his will. The strand wavered a little as if something was pulling on it, then continued to flow past Isaac.

He tried again and again and again, but the closest he got was pulling a strand towards his chest. Ultimately, it took 60 tries to successfully draw a small strand of Qi into one of his meridian points, through his Qi veins, and all the way to his Qi Core!

However, the strand resisted when Isaac tried merging it into his Qi Core. He managed to keep control of the strand and made another attempt to integrate it with his core. This time the strand of Qi resisted even more and wiggled free from Isaac's will.

Again he repeated the process of trial and error. Every time he failed to absorb a strand of Qi, he tried to identify why it escaped and fix that next time. However, just working out the problem didn't mean he could fix it immediately.

Learning to absorb Qi was a much longer process than entering meditation or learning to sense it. It was late at night when Isaac decided to stop. He was getting tired and his concentration was slipping, causing him to break out of meditation more often.

*************************

After a night of peaceful rest, Isaac was ready to go again. He ate breakfast and did basic exercises to keep his body active, then prepared to cultivate once more. He failed, then failed, then failed again but Isaac didn't stop until the sun was high in the sky.

As he ate lunch, Isaac thought about why he couldn't succeed.

'The Qi from the atmosphere and the Qi making up my core are rather incompatible. My core was only recently made from atmospheric Qi as well, so what's the difference between them? One's solid and the other is intangible, but I don't think that's it. I've never heard of cultivators having to make atmospheric Qi solid before absorbing it. Maybe it's because my Qi Core is possessed by me while atmospheric Qi is ownerless energy?'

Isaac had already made several theories about why he'd been failing, but this one seemed more plausible than the others. After a hearty lunch and 15 minutes swinging his sword to help relax, Isaac resumed his cultivation.

At first he tried to be more forceful with the Qi, smothering a strand of it with his will and thrusting it towards his core. At first the strand stuck, but then it slowly peeled off and floated away. However, it was a sign that Isaac was on the right path.

Isaac experimented a bit more with the Qi and discovered that, with some skill and precision, he could infiltrate a strand of Qi with his will. He could kind of push his will into the Qi to gain greater control and compatibility with it.

He tried absorbing the strand while doing this and surprisingly it worked! The stand of Qi started to blend with his core and stayed there until he removed his will from it. After he removed his will, the strand stayed attached to his core for about 5 minutes before finally escaping and floating away again.

Isaac tried again. He did the same thing as before, infiltrating a strand of Qi with his will and pulling it into his QI Core. This time, he held it there for longer, waiting for it to merge perfectly with his core so it couldn't escape. When he was sure the strand had fully blended with his core, Isaac removed his will. There weren't any problems this time; the strand had become a part of his Qi Core.

Isaac was elated at his discovery and continued cultivating until the afternoon. At a certain point, he instinctively felt that his core could contain a tiny amount of Qi. It was almost like his core was talking to him and telling him how much it could hold.

When Isaac directed his will inwards to inspect his Qi Core, he saw a miniscule drop of pale blue liquid at the bottom, causing him to grin with satisfaction. Even the longest journey began with a single step, and this was Isaac's.