I felt the bumping and shuddering of the carriage beneath me. That sound had accompanied me for the past three days. We had been traveling without stopping for the entire duration, trying to cover as much ground as possible, before the weather conditions forced us to stop. All the stops that we made had been for necessities, and that only for very short periods of time. Almost everyone within the caravan was a cultivator and did not really need to sleep or eat as frequently.Someone like me rarely needed to do either, but even then, three days of travel with barely any stops took its toll on me as well. And most people were not as strong as I was.And thus, as the sun slowly began to near the horizon, I could hear the talk as we began to make preparations for our stop for the night. The carriage I sat in also had Ash, Su Lin, and Flee. Ash had spent nearly the entire time meditating, with silvery flames occasionally lighting up around his body as he sat with his legs crossed. Flee had

I walked into the old man’s tent, noticing the already set up cauldron and herbs, ready to be used. A smile came on my face at his enthusiasm, but I hid it, simply following behind the old man as he walked inside, before turning to face me with his stern teaching expression.“So far, you have gained sufficient mastery of the flames. You’ve also observed me refining earth and know the technique now. Now, you must learn how to create spirit water, and afterwards, you must infuse it with the refined earth you have created,” the old man said. I gave him a nod.“First, I will show you how it is done,” the old man said, turning to his cauldron. I noticed that there was just water inside it this time, and the old man stood over the water, a gentle flame burning within the cauldron, heating it up.“The process to create spirit water is not difficult. I have seen your technique for the Qi crystals you create, and it is not dissimilar to this in some ways. The end goal is to simply bring out th

I sat in the carriage, hearing the howling of the winds outside. The weather had rapidly become worse and worse, and now we moved through the middle of a snowstorm. We would likely need to stop soon, given the weather conditions outside. I shivered as a particularly cold gust blew inside.“The snow grows,” Ash said, looking outside the window. He sat with short sleeved clothes like it was the middle of summer, and just watching him made me feel a little cold.“It does. Strange how quickly the weather changed, I’d heard that this part of the empire was gradually going to get warmer and warmer,” I said, continuing to work on the clay doll in my hand.Flee was snuggled up next to me, to try and stay warmer. “Flee doesn’t like it. Too cold,” she said, hugging herself. I let out some of my Chi to her, warming her up, which only made her snuggle up against me even more. I smiled, before bringing my attention back to the project I was working on.There was a small doll made of clay in my han

I twisted under her strike, dodging the knives she threw, as I saw the green coating on them denoting poison. If there was any doubt before that she was an assassin then this cleared it. But why? And who sent her?Those thoughts didn’t linger in my mind for too long, as I ran around in the knee height snow desperately using my flames to melt them while dodging all her strikes. The woman moved with a grace that showed years of experience while I dodged clumsily with all the grace of a drunk monkey. Pulling on my Chi as much as I could, I drew upon the power, letting my Chi seep out for a second. The earth shook beneath me, and from within the cold embrace of winter surrounding all of us, I called Life.Fire blazed all around my body, flames covering me and melting the snow as steam erupted from my body, and as the assassin rushed in closer, instead of running from her strike, I moved in closer. Using my hands and covering them in Chi I formed a layer of earth upon it, using it to grab

My eyes fluttered open, with a stabbing pain in my stomach. I groaned, clutching my stomach as I slowly looked around myself with blurry eyes. Where… was I?The snow still howled outside with crackling fury, and somehow it felt stronger than it had before. My eyes drifted and I found a woman clad in icy robes with haunting blue eyes nearby. For a moment, I panicked, those eyes plunging a deep rooted fear that only came from being left alive inches from death. I tried to get up and move, but found my wounds bursting open, blood leaking through, I coughed, even more blood pooling in my mouth.“Please do not move, Divine one. Your vessel is injured,” she said, moving closer as she put her hand on my gut. It was ice cold, and the sensation soothed the burning pain of my wounds as the woman’s Qi flowed in and sealed the wound shut.No… not Qi. Chi? It felt similar to Chi, but not quite the same either. But I didn’t have the mental capacity to ponder over those thoughts, I could feel the hi