Skyfire Avenue

Her face grew gloomy. “I’m going to go cultivate.”

“Alright.” Lan Jue didn’t give her any excuse to stay.

He watched her go. Secretly – and silently – he admired her. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever met, but her figure absolutely drew the eye. He loved to watch her go! She glided down the street, every movement vibrant and full of natural allure.

“You’re too blunt, Professor.” Tang Mi’s voice interrupted his thoughts. She’s snuck up at some point when he hadn’t been paying attention. She grinned at him coquettishly.

“How do you mean?” He asked.

She grinned back at him. “Can’t you see Professor Tan likes you? I don’t believe it, you’re playing dumb aren’t you?”

Her commander maintained a straight face. “You’re so young, what do you know about affection? Go cultivate! Your brother is in the midst of an epiphany, what about you?”

“Don’t you rely on seniority,” Tang Mi countered. “If I’m so young what about Qianlin, huh?”

“That –“ There wasn’t anything he could say. Where all young women so cunning these days?

Tang Mi crept closer and took his arm, while simultaneously extending one of the long legs she was famous for. “What do you think, Professor?”

He looked at her fatly. “Go cultivate!”

She sniffed. “Ugh, you’re so boring. Fine, I know you belong to Qianlin. But you know Jin Tao’s been chasing me. What do you think I should do?”

“Ah?” Lan Jue blinked at her helplessly. “Deal with your own emotional issues. I can’t teach you this.”

Tang Mi retorted. “That’s no good, you’re his teacher. You know him better than most, I’m sure. Tell me, do you think he’ll make a good boyfriend?” She looked genuinely lost.

She never gave the old Jin Tao more than a passing glance. However, she’d watched his spectacular transformation over the last year. Besides her brother, Jin Tao was the strongest one in the A.R.C. class. His persistence and dedication bordered on obsessive. It shocked her too see how much he’d changed from the dumb-mutt she used to know.

When she first met him, she thought Jin Tao was a waste of space with no talent or skill. How things change in just a year. Now he was stronger than she was. She didn’t know how to react to that.

Lan Jue shook his head. “I don’t know what Jin Tao was like before, but men change when they stop being boys. Take your time and think on it. If you’re sure he wants to be your boyfriend, maybe test it a little. Give him a target and see if he reaches it.”

Tang Mi’s eyes lit up. “I like that idea. I know, I’ll tell him that if he becomes a Paragon, then he can call himself my boyfriend. What do you think?”

Lan Jue feebly looked her way. “You’re a Paragon, then? That’s not so easy! Decades, maybe. Are you willing to wait that long?”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “What, then?”

“Ninth level is good enough,” Lan Jue said. “It’s not too far off, and it’ll serve your purpose. If you make it too hard he’ll just think you’re refusing him.”

She bat her lashes at him. “Professor, will you accept me as your disciple? Look at what’s happened to Jin Tao and my brother, I’m falling further and further behind. What do you think?” She playfully tugged at his arm.

“Absolutely not,” he answered. “You and Qianlin are the best of friends. If I accept you as a disciple how will manage that? Anyway, at your level a teacher isn’t what you need. What you need is more personal insight. You and your brother have similar Disciplines, you should talk to him. I’m sure he can teach you a lot.”

It took some persuading, but eventually Tang Mi went her own way. Lan Jue decided it was time to make a move as quickly as he could. If he stuck around any longer he didn’t know what other trouble would come his way.

The orders were given; those soldiers who were awake were to gather tomorrow morning for another excursion. He’d considered leaving immediately, but figured the students would need time to process what they experienced. A few hours likely wouldn’t make a difference, so he delayed their departure.

Lan Jue continued to train combining Disciplines with the Driver. It wasn’t cultivating exactly, more like an evolution.

The Driver’s gains were more profound than Lan Jue’s. As they continued to meld and absorb these energies, he could feel changes in the state of his Discipline. Lan Jue benefited as well, but he was better helped by continuing to absorb the thunder essence.

The thunder essence reacted to the yin-yang thunderbolt powers. It somehow catalyzed it and helped him to absorb the essence faster. Its righteous aura and immortal qi continued to join with his own energies. It was causing some changes in his own Discipline.

The river also benefited indirectly from the thunder essence. Since they were exchanging the flow of Discipline between them, some of that immortal qi was transferred. Even in miniscule amounts it was very helpful for the Driver.

Changing one’s own segregated energies into a combination of yin and yang was not quick. It would take quite a lot of cultivation to achieve. Part of the reason was its inherent danger. They could only combine a little bit of their Disciplines at a time, because if they lost control for even a moment it would be ruinous even with the help of Taiji.

The energies were the same when the two adepts joined them, but changed when they were absorbed. At the moment of creation, the yin-yang lightning was a crystalline blue. It looks like countless gemstones flowing into and around one another, perfectly calm.

However, this state was quickly modified as it was assimilated. For the Driver, he was surprised to discover traces of purple in the crystalline blue light as it flowed into him. Yet to Lan Jue it was different. A pale gold infiltrated his energy, turning it brighter. There were flecks of light within like twinkling stars. That was undoubtedly from the thunder essence.

The more of the thunder essence he assimilated, the deeper he felt it. It was something he recognized, that he’d sensed at some point before. It was a boundless void, and yet was the root of everything. That was the only way he could describe it.

Jun Yongye had explained it to him that this was part of the tribulation lightning visited upon immortals. It was the germ of life and death – from which everything sprang, and to where it would all return. In this way, nothingness was just as much a part of being. This fundamental power was dangerous no doubt. However if you survived, if you held onto your core, you would be reborn. The realm of the immortals would be at your fingertips.