The mission clerk at the Hall of Ascendant Tasks counted the pelts twice.

  "Young Master Cao." He looked up from the pile of white fur on his desk. "The mission only required ten."

  "I had a productive hunt."

  He stamped my completion form and retrieved a spirit stone from the locked cabinet. Mortal Grade. The translucent surface caught the afternoon light, pulsing faintly with contained energy. I'd seen spirit stones before in the sect's display cases and in the pouches of senior disciples, but holding one myself felt different. The weight of it surprised me. Heavier than it looked, as if the concentrated qi inside added density that ordinary minerals lacked.

  I tucked it into my pouch next to the one I'd won from Chen Bo.

  This might be enough to attempt a breakthrough.

  "Will there be anything else, Young Master?"

  "No. Thank you."

  I left the Hall and headed for the library. My wounds still ached despite the herbs I'd applied in the forest. The claw marks across my shoulder pulled with each step, and my ribs protested when I breathed too deeply. Pain could wait. I had research to do.

  The martial arts library was quiet. A handful of disciples browsed scrolls or copied techniques into notebooks. One older student sat cross-legged in the corner with his eyes closed, apparently memorizing something through meditation. No one looked up as I entered.

  I made my way to the cultivation methods section and scanned the spines until I found what I needed. "Foundations of Qi Absorption and Refinement" by Elder Huang Wei. The tome was thick, bound in worn leather that suggested generations of disciples had consulted it before me.

  I found a reading desk near the windows where the Emberfall light provided good illumination and opened the book. Elder Huang's writing was precise. Each concept explained with the detail of someone who had guided disciples through these processes rather than theorized about them. I could tell he'd watched students struggle, watched them fail, watched them succeed. The advice carried the weight of experience.

  The basics were straightforward. Spirit stones contained concentrated spiritual energy. Cultivators absorbed it through meditation, circulated it through their meridians, and integrated it into the dantian where personal qi was stored. The process required focus and proper technique, but the underlying principle was simple. Take energy from external source, make it your own.

  But the details mattered.

  According to Elder Huang, breakthrough in a normal environment was inefficient. Ambient qi was too diffuse, too contaminated with mundane energies. A cultivator would spend most of their effort filtering impurities rather than advancing. He compared it to trying to collect rainwater during a dust storm. You'd get some water eventually, but you'd spend more time picking out debris than actually drinking.

  The ideal environment was a Qi Reservoir. Places where spiritual energy naturally accumulated. Caves were the most common type, particularly those with specific mineral compositions that channeled ambient qi into concentrated pools. Mountains worked too, especially peaks where the boundary between earth and sky grew thin. Some rivers and lakes qualified if they'd been gathering spiritual runoff for centuries.

  I leaned back and let the information settle.

  Every xianxia novel I'd read had the protagonist find an isolated cave for breakthroughs. I'd always assumed it was dramatic effect. The lone cultivator sitting cross-legged in darkness while power swirled around them. Good imagery for building tension before a protagonist emerged stronger. Turns out it was practical advice backed by cultivation theory.

  I kept reading. Meditation postures for optimal energy flow. Breathing techniques that synchronized with qi absorption. Warning signs that indicated the process was going wrong. Diagrams showing meridian pathways and circulation patterns, with annotations explaining common mistakes disciples made when attempting to guide energy through unfamiliar channels.

  One passage held my attention.

  "Breakthrough attempts carry inherent risks. Spiritual energy can overwhelm insufficiently prepared meridian channels, causing permanent damage or qi deviation in severe cases. Disciples should attempt breakthroughs only under elder supervision or in established sect cultivation chambers."

  The sect probably had chambers designed for exactly this. I could walk to the Inner Sect administration building right now, submit a request form, wait three to five days for approval, then sit in a sterile room while some bored elder monitored my progress and corrected my technique.

  Where's the adventure in that?

  I'd handled the wolf pack when the ambush turned against me. I'd adapted against Chen Bo and became even more proficient in my self-made martial style while under pressure. If problems arose during cultivation, I'd figure it out. That was what cultivation truly was, finding one’s own path.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  I closed Elder Huang's book and headed for the geography section.

  "Chronicles of the Sunset Continent" sat where I'd left it after my last consultation. Scholar Wu's comprehensive survey had proven invaluable for understanding the region around the sect. The man had apparently spent decades wandering the continent and documenting everything he encountered with obsessive detail. Rivers, forests, rock formations, caves, local legends, unusual phenomena. If it existed within five hundred li of the sect, Scholar Wu had written about it.

  I flipped to the section on local features near the Eternal Mountain Sect and scanned entries until one made me pause.

  "The Emerald Cave, located approximately three li from the sect along the Emerald River's northern bank, is noted for unusual spiritual properties. Local legends suggest the cave functions as a natural Qi Reservoir due to unique mineral deposits in its walls. The same minerals that give the river its distinctive green coloration appear in concentrated form within the cave system, creating what this author believes to be a self-reinforcing cycle of qi accumulation.

  "However, outer sect disciples generally avoid the location due to persistent rumors of a naturally occurring Array within the cave that induces powerful hallucinations in those who venture too deep.

  "This author attempted investigation but found the disorienting effects too pronounced to conduct a thorough survey. The hallucinations intensify deeper into the cave system, beginning as minor visual disturbances near the entrance and progressing to full sensory displacement approximately fifty meters inside. Whether this is genuine Array formation or unusual mineral vapors affecting the mind remains undetermined.

  "Despite challenges, several inner sect disciples have reported successful breakthroughs cultivating near the entrance where effects are less pronounced. The concentrated spiritual energy is quite potent for those able to withstand disorientation."

  The hallucination warnings were concerning, but Scholar Wu had mentioned inner sect disciples using the cave successfully at higher cultivation stages. Their meridians were more developed, and their qi control was more refined, but the basic principle should hold. If they could handle the disorientation with stronger cultivation, I should be able to manage at Stage One by simply staying near the entrance where the effects were minimal.

  Even if I couldn't, the worst outcome was disorientation and retreat. The cave wasn't filled with spirit beasts or deadly traps. It was all just weird mineral vapors that made people see things.

  I closed the book and headed for my quarters.

  Back in my room, I laid out supplies. Spirit stones in the pouch. Notebooks for documenting the experience. Water and rations in case the cultivation session ran longer than expected. A change of clothes since the ones I wore were torn and bloodstained from the fights.

  I stripped off the ruined robes and examined my injuries in the mirror. The claw marks across my shoulder and back had scabbed over nicely, the wounds closing faster than they would have on Earth. The scratch on my stomach was healing clean with no sign of infection. Bruises from Chen Bo's punches were already fading, purple-black turning yellowish at the edges.

  Body Tempering cultivation accelerated healing. I'd noticed it before but seeing the evidence so clearly still amazed me. A week ago these injuries would have laid me up for days. Now they were minor inconveniences that barely affected my movement.

  I washed using the basin in my room, the cool water stinging slightly as it ran over healing wounds. Changed into fresh robes. Packed everything into my travel bag. The spirit stones clinked together in my pouch, and I could swear I felt them humming with potential energy.

  The sun was setting as I finished preparations. Warm orange fading to purple fading to deep blue, all visible simultaneously depending on which direction I looked. The Emberfall sky painted itself in colors that would have been impossible back on Earth, gradients that shifted and blended in ways that seemed to defy normal optics. Months in this world and the sight still amazed me every single day.

  I shouldered my pack and headed for the eastern gate.

  The guard on duty glanced at me without interest and waved me through. Just another disciple heading out for evening training or herb gathering. Nothing unusual about an outer sect member leaving at dusk. Happened all the time.

  The path along the Emerald River was well maintained, packed earth worn smooth by generations of disciples walking this route for various missions and personal cultivation. The river itself lived up to its name. Water carried a greenish tint that caught the fading light beautifully, the color deepening as the sun dropped lower and shadows stretched across the surface. According to Scholar Wu, the color came from mineral runoff upstream. The same minerals that supposedly made the Emerald Cave such a potent Qi Reservoir.

  The path followed the northern bank through clusters of pine trees and occasional clearings where wildflowers grew in patches of purple and white. Birds called from somewhere deeper in the forest, their songs unfamiliar but pleasant. The air smelled clean and faintly sweet, carrying traces of whatever blossoms were blooming this time of year.

  I found myself grinning as I walked.

  The classic cultivation cave scenario.

  I was about to sit down with spirit stones, meditate, absorb spiritual energy, and potentially break through to Stage Two. Every xianxia reader's fantasy moment, the scene that launched a thousand power progressions, and I was living it.

  The cave entrance appeared exactly where Scholar Wu had indicated. A natural opening in the riverbank cliff face, twice my height and wide enough for several people to enter side by side. Dark stone framed the mouth, the rock face weathered smooth by centuries of wind and water. Beyond the entrance, the cave extended back into shadow, swallowing the fading daylight within a few meters.

  But what caught my attention was the air around the entrance.

  It felt different. I couldn't quite name it but I could definitely sense it after my experience with the herb mixture in the forest. My skin prickled as I approached, the sensation similar to what I'd felt when my qi sensitivity first awakened but far more intense. Like the difference between hearing someone whisper across a room and having them shout directly into your ear.

  This was definitely a Qi Reservoir.

  I approached slowly, letting my newly developed sensitivity adjust to the intensity. The closer I got, the more I could feel it pressing against me. Like standing near a bonfire, but instead of heat it was pure potential energy pushing against my skin.

  My meridians seemed to respond instinctively, the channels I'd been learning to sense over the past weeks suddenly feeling more defined. As if the concentrated qi in the air was highlighting pathways that normally stayed hidden.

  Inside the cave, darkness waited. Scholar Wu's warnings about hallucinations echoed in my mind. The symptons were disorientation and sensory displacement with effects that intensified the deeper you went.

  Yet none of it could dampen my excitement.

  I stepped into the Emerald Cave.