Aaron scanned the open field in front of the entrances into the bowels of the Tower. But there was nobody here. Nobody looking for him, nobody waiting for new Aspirants. There were only animals. A small herd of deer were grazing on new grass hidden behind a small slope. Aaron could not actually see them, but he heard and smelled them. Those sense impressions more and more added to a map of awareness in his mind. The longer he used Sensory Harmony, the more all of his senses started to complement each other. What his eyes could not see, his ears could hear and his nose could tell him of the past and the present.

It was an interesting discovery that his awareness of his surroundings started to get amplified by all of his senses working in concert. Aaron was always aware of his surroundings, but a lot of the sensory impressions were filtered out by his brain as it had gotten used to the constant barrage of sensory input.

For Aaron this just meant he could be sure he was unseen as he entered the right tunnel and walked into darkness. After spending that much time on the fourth floor and in darkness, his senses almost automatically switched to accommodate his lack of vision. If Aaron had wanted to he could have sprinted through the tunnel and not even touch any walls while he was doing so. Simply from the echo of his breath and footsteps. It did not take long until he reached the Prison.

The ethereal blue glow of the giant lamps fueling the light screens of the Prison was comforting somehow. Despite the risk of being hunted again, he could take a breather here.

"Welcome back, Aaron." the voice of the great Master echoed out of the giant central prison and Aaron bowed towards the ghostly outline of the ancient soul.

"Hello, Great Master. I hope I am not overdue by too much."

"You are, but such is the way of the world. Circumstances and time are in a flux. So lets take advantage of the moment we have together. I see you have grown tremendously since we last spoke."

"I hope so. I have worked hard to improve myself." Aaron said.

"Indeed, come closer, Aaron."

Aaron raised his eyebrows and walked over to the prison until the great master floated right in front of him, just across from the thick light shield and intricate iron bars that made the whole giant cage look like a monumental gilded bird cage.

"Ahh, Starburst has served you well. Great progress in your Cultivation, but with little time to perfect each minor realm. You have slacked a bit in repairing and perfecting your Qi veins." The great master judged.

"Ah, well. I was busy and I have been absorbing a lot of Spirits to gain this level of Cultivation."

"Undoubtedly. But what about the cost? How do you feel about it?"

"It starts to reach the limit of its usefulness down here in the Tower. I think I need higher leveled Vessels for it to retain its usefulness. It takes simply too many Vessels to be practical if I stay below the fifth floor."

The great master stroked his beard, his form flickering in and out of sight.

"Any urges that are not your own?"

"No, Sensory Harmony has been the bigger culprit there." Aaron said with a look and a soft chuckle.

"Ah yes, the wonders of the mortal coil. No doubt that has affected you. But what of the downsides of my old technique?"

"Yeah, pain is a problem. Its almost debilitating now. I mean the sensory enhancement are a downside itself sometimes not just for pain, but also pleasure. The higher my realm, the more intense the sensory input. The stronger the pain, the more addicting the pleasure."

"Indeed and that will never cease. But once you are in the Foundation realm you will be able to control it. Tone down or even deactivate pain. Not that I would recommend that. Pain can be very useful. Its the bodies most direct way of talking to us after all. I am glad you have seen the danger of pleasure. It can be as destructive or more than pain."

"I was never much of a hedonist, but...yeah I will try to stay away from too many temptations if I can."

"Good, good. How about your techniques?"

"I think I have made some good progress. But I guess I we'll leave that up to your judgment." Aaron said and turned around towards Mei and Sylus who were awake and looking at them. Sylus waved casually and Mei straightened as her piercing eyes studied how he held himself.

"Go ahead, demonstrate what you have learned." she said.

Aaron slowly went through the stretches Mei had taught him through the now lost memory core. He started slowly, flexing, stretching and soon was flipping, contorting his body, stretching mid air as he went through the entire complicated sequence almost entirely by muscle memory. He had done this every day since he had gotten the core and this repeated training showed. It was far from perfect. He did not stretch far enough sometimes or did not hold poses for the correct amount of time. But he felt the affect of the stretches in his bones as his entire body stretched and flexed against his limitations. When he was done Mei nodded curtly.

"Adequate. But not enough. You need to start to always move with grace, to incorporate flexibility into your every movement, into every punch, every extension of your limbs."

She beckoned him closer and Aaron was once more startled by the ancient cultivator's ethereal beauty. Her face was probably the prettiest thing he had ever seen, even with the shark teeth and the scowl on her face. Knowing how Mei thought of distractions he quickly focused on how she held her body.

"The next step in mastering the 10.000 Heavenly Steps of Change is to always have it active. You must learn how to control it and your body to absolute perfection. Learn how to walk with Wind Steps activated first." Mei demonstrated as she leisurely walked a few meters, turned around and stopped where she had started. It did not look like she had done anything and Aaron frowned.

"Match the acceleration of the Technique with your natural gait to improve your control. Its harder than it looks. Go ahead and try." Mei said with a small smirk.

Aaron hesitated and then activated Wind Steps. He felt it coat his entire body and then tried walking entirely normally. With the first step, his feet carried him way too far as he tried to walk and when he tried to reign it in, his steps did not bring him far enough. For a few minutes he walked up and down speeding up and slowing down as he tried without much success to perfectly control his own movements so that it was like he was not even using the technique.

"Good, you get the gist. Eventually, once you have mastered this. I want you to accelerate without actually pausing. So in between steps you travel further than you should. Control the acceleration to pin point precision."

Again she demonstrated as she started to walk and with each step she propelled herself forward three steps, without her feet halting or her walking showing any difference to before. It looked like the ground was moving, not her and it was surreal to see.

"Once you have done that you can start with the really enjoyable part. With increased control we can work on increased potency of your jumps." Her smirk this time was broad and slightly predatory because of her teeth.

"You remember the short glimpse of me using the technique I showed you in the training core?"

"Yes, of course."

"After you have increased your control to a sufficient degree you will work on learning how to increase the distance and strength, the speed of a jump. This will be aided by your higher cultivation, as you surely have noticed." Aaron nodded at that and she continued.

"Increasing the potency of your jumps means you will travel faster and further than before, allowing you traversal of vast distances in an instant. But it requires exceptional control and flexibility to manage such a jump without losing said control, understood?"

"Yes." Aaron said and paused for a moment.

"Your technique has saved my life more times than I can count. Thank you for it again."

Mei smiled and it was an utterly breathtakingly beautiful sight. "You are my student, your success and your survival means I am succeeding. I hope you continue and one day release us from this prison. So really I am doing my best to benefit myself."

"You can be so sappy, Sister Mei." Sylus said sarcastically.

"Shut up Sylus." she barked back on reflex.

"Are you done flexing and stretching that pretty body of yours?" Sylus said with a broad grin.

"Yes." she spat out in disgust.

"Go teach him if you are so impatient, Sylus."

"Sure. Come over here Aaron. I can already see that you have used the Katas a lot. Its in your every step. Once you incorporate Sister Mei's softness and flexibility into the kata you will create something truly remarkable. But, lets see how far exactly you have gotten. Show me the katas."

Aaron nodded and stepped in front of Sylus cage. Then he went through the Rejuvenating Fist Kata from start to finish like he had been taught. The movements came easily, naturally. One stance flowed into the next as he kept punching, evading and in his inner eye he saw enemies he had punched and killed this way flash past. He had used this Kata so much and in such different circumstances it was hard to believe. It all came back to him as he demonstrated the kata. His muscles, hardened by the fiend-god art and by fighting almost non stop for the last few months, rippled and flowed in concert to his movements. The first wave of Rejuvenation hit and Aaron switched to the Unceasing Palm kata. The flow of his movements turned liquid, he spun, weaved through the different forms, blocking foes and attacks as time crawled by, his senses sharp and awake. Every time he pushed an imaginary attack away from him his mind conjured examples of doing this in real life. Far fewer than for the Rejuvenating Fist, but still. The once stilted and separated stances and blocks were one fluid dance of perfect defense now.

Once he was done demonstrating the Unceasing Palm kata he started to combine the two katas freely. He started with the Rejuvenating fist and then defended himself with the Unceasing palm, switched to another set of the Rejuvenating Fist and he kept going. He switched from one kata to the other as fluid and as easy as walking. Aaron had used this way of fighting through his entire climb. Had beat swarms of enemies this way. Each fight had gotten him a bit closer to perfectly harmonizing the two katas into a unified whole. He was closer to that now, but he knew he still had a long way to go.

Sylus nodded approvingly when Aaron paused after finishing the combined kata, studying his body intently the entire time.

"You have done well. You would be ready for the third Kata, but I would advise against learning it."

"Why?"

"Because the Piercing Finger is an entirely offensive technique that projects Qi out from your fingertips. While it technically does not need Qi veins supporting it, its full potential can't be reached without them. It will also burn through a significant amount of Qi while just practicing it without Qi veins in the foundation realm. In the end it is up to you. I am sure you can get through the little test I prepared on the third memory core now. But it might be more efficient to just get to the Foundation Realm first."

"That is still quite a long way away and I am really lacking in the offensive department right now."

Sylus shrugged.

"If you decide to learn the Piercing Finger I would recommend you stick to the martial arts as much as possible and only project Qi in fights. This will slow down your training significantly, but it will save a lot of Qi."

"Hmmm, I see. You once said that with the third set of the triplet I would be able to walk up to Ambition on that alone."

"Yes, absolutely. But only with some degree of mastery. You have done well combining the two katas into a unified whole. But its a triplet so you have to learn and master the third kata before you can truly combine them."

"They feel pretty complete to me." Aaron said and Sylus chuckled.

"Oh you have no idea. The first triplet just uses your hands, the second triplet uses your whole body to attack and defend and the third well we will come to that when we get there. You are nowhere close to completing anything in the Heavenly Kata. But considering the time you spent on it, you show remarkable growth." Sylus nodded to himself.

"Try to integrate your fighting style into your everyday moves. If you really want to learn the Piercing Finger then be careful not to overspend Qi. It will be quite inefficient at the start. It might take hours of cultivation just to make up for the lost Qi during training. So be aware and careful of that. The more you fight, the better this will get. The more proficient with the kata, the better the Qi proficiency. Besides you have barely reached what I would call adept status on your mastery of the other two katas. There is much more in the two katas you already learned, so much more."

"I get it. But another tool in my arsenal is something that will keep me alive. I will try to conserve Qi though, I promise."

"Good, good. For that purpose let me give you a hint or rather a riddle:

The sharp sword is brittle, but pierces the heart,

the mace is heavy, but smashes apart,

the shield never falters, but can't slice, no matter how hard.

Yet they are all made out of iron."

Aaron blinked. "Sorry? Can you repeat that."

Sylus chuckled and repeated the little rhyme and Aaron memorized it as he thought about it. At first he had no idea what Sylus was talking about. None of the things he had taught him were about weapons, but he quickly realized that they were allegories. He was not entirely sure for what though. He would take some time later to contemplate it.

"Thank you Sylus. Here the manastone. Sorry for the delay."

Sylus caught the small manastone Aaron had fished out of his purse and nodded.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Anytime. Keep training, none of the katas are simple. Explore their depths and you will find yourself superior to any foe. The better you treat them, the better they will treat you."

Aaron nodded and moved on to give Mei and the great master their manastones.

"Done with your report? Good, go ahead and deliver the manastones to the rest of us and then return here." The great master said. "I will have you remedy the mistakes you made while rushing your Cultivation."

Aaron looked a bit sheepish, but he nodded. Then he went down the line of prisons to deliver his offerings. The demon just smirked when he gave him the manastones, but he did not say anything. The monk right next to them just nodded gratefully. There was a startling difference between the two prison cells. With his even more enhanced senses the Demon's cell felt cold and he could have sworn he heard some whispers at the edge of his hearing. The Monks cell felt bright and peaceful. There was a hum of mantras and prayers said in the air and Aaron could have sworn he smelled incense. Krish, the giant lizard man ate the offered manastones with a crunch, before he lazily turned around and went back to sleep. But then Aaron got to the cell of Mortag. The not really dwarven artificer.

"Ah. Your still alive, laddy. Looks like you made some progress too. Good job." Mortag said, leaning against his anvil.

"Thank you. This little magic breaker saved my life today. I had almost forgotten about it, but I won't let it out of my sight again. So really, thank you." Aaron said and looked at the small ring affectionately.

"That little thing? No problem. Its nothing much. But I am glad to hear you almost forgotten about it."

"What? Why?"

"Because that means you have not used it at all. Which is good. You want the hardest path for the best results in training. Besides this ring might break magic by disrupting any spellform, but mages with some deeper knowledge and ability will be able to get around that. Instead of throwing a fireball at you they will just detonate it before it comes into the range of the magic breaker. The explosion is not determined by a spellform then, so it will be effective. In the end this is just a trinket."

"That makes sense, but this trinket was already very useful to me. So thank you again." Aaron said and handed him a mid grade manastone. The small man stroked his beard and nodded appreciatively.

"All good, but I am happy that this little thing helped."

Aaron said his goodbye to the dwarf and went over to the formation master who was muttering to himself and did not look up as he accepted the manastone with a lazy gesture. He was writing something on the ground with his long stick and was entirely lost in his own world. Aaron went past him and was immediately greeted by a small burst of fire.

"Oh hey! Aaron was it, yes?" Illyria said as she jumped up and ran towards the edge of her prison that was behind rather heavy light screens.

"Hello Illyria." Aaron said and looked the strangely paradoxical woman over. Her two part dress had not changed and it still looked like someone had fused two women together. One side was on fire while the other one was almost frozen.

"You bringing me another manastone?! Have you brought me some water to play with this time?"

Aaron had entirely forgotten his promise to the bubbly woman who bounced on her heels as she stood right next to the edge of the prison. He reached around and took out his waterskin. Illyria threw her hands in the air.

"Hell yes! Water! Give it to me."

Aaron put a manastone and the waterskin into the box and Illyria waited impatiently for him to close it and push it inwards so she could take the contents of the box.

"Gosh, I was so bored. Now I can make ice furniture!" she almost yelled in her excitement and turned the waterskin over, pouring out the water. A stream of ice fell half a meter before floating back up frozen solid. Illyria almost danced as she turned and boiled and froze the water again as she created huge columns of transparent ice around a broad frozen bed. It even had soft looking cushions and some slightly opaque drapes. She squealed and threw herself on top of the bed. Which was of course hard as steel, despite it looking soft and inviting even transparent.

"Aww, right. To make this I have to make the ice hard. Bleh." she struck out her tongue in disgust and then sighed. Aaron was about to leave when she sprung up and ran towards him again.

"Oh hey, you can have the waterskin back, just without the water."

"Right, thanks." Aaron said and waited for her to put the waterskin back into the box. Illyria hesitated and then started blabbing.

"You know freezing stuff is fun, especially water. Since its so versatile. But its not as good as burning things. You don't think you can bring me something to burn alive? A monster maybe? I hear there are bears on the first floor. Can you imagine how nicely all that fur would burn?"

"Er...I don't think I could fit a bear through this box here." Aaron said and Illyria faltered, looking downcast.

"Oh right. Well maybe something smaller, like a rabbit? That would fit in there."

"You want me to catch a rabbit alive so you can burn it?" Aaron asked and Illyria gave him a broad grin.

"Yes! Exactly."

"I...will see what I can do." Aaron said to the obvious pyromaniac and turned away.

"Wait." Illyria said almost desperately. Aaron paused and looked at her. The strange woman with the two opposing forces of ice and fire warring inside of her looked to the floor before she swallowed and looked back up at him.

"Can you stay and talk to me for a bit? I can't stand the loneliness anymore. Nemu has been doing his calculations for so long I feel like I am going crazy. Please, just...just for a few minutes."

Aaron turned and after a moment of hesitation, he stayed. Another thing he might not have done in his last life. He had never had a problem with loneliness or isolation. In his last life he had been built for it. It was peaceful, quiet and his own thoughts had always been his best companions. He was not sure if he could understand the desire to talk, but he thought he might now. So he let Illyria talk and then when she fidgeted uncomfortably he offered some stories from his climbs. The probably ancient woman hung on his lips, laughed and scrunched up her face when she heard something she did not like. She was a good audience and when Aaron finally said his goodbyes she looked much better.

"Thank you for your kindness." a gentle voice drifted over to him and Aaron saw the Monk stand and give him a bow. Aaron nodded back and continued his circuit. He put a manastone into the empty prison of the ghost and felt it in his senses when the manastone vanished. It was creepy, but that man was entirely invisible, no, non existent in all of his senses. How that was possible, he did not know. Then Aaron placed a manastone carefully into the Asura's cage and moved on.

To his surprise the Alchemist Modestus was waiting for him when he finished his round in front of his lavishly furnished cage that looked more like a small flat on the inside. The curtains were drawn back this time giving Aaron a good look to the overcrowded cell that looked like a warehouse and a luxury apartment combined into one prison cell.

"Aaron, right? I have a task for you." Modestus said when Aaron paused in front of the cage.

"A task?" he asked surprised.

"Yes, well. It came to my attention that a new kind of high level ingredient has been found on the lower floors. I bought it and I am in the middle of analyzing it." Modestus pointed towards a small glass dome on a table. Underneath the thick, but clear glass was a purple glowing mushroom with white edges. Aaron was familiar with it. It was the same mushroom Roger and his team had harvested from the secret location on the third floor. How did it get here that quickly? No, Aaron considered. The mushroom and a bunch of samples had been left behind before they went up to the fourth floor. So the alchemist must have snatched it up back then.

"I see, what do you need me for then?"

"The stone that mushroom was growing on was described to me as volcanic rock, but glowing volcanic rock. The fools who harvested it did not think to bring a sample of that. The thing most people call mushrooms, so this:" he pointed at the mushroom under the glass dome. "is not actually their body, but like fruits. The mycelia, the roots of the mushroom are their real organism. Which must be in the damned stone they did not bring, the utter morons!"

Aaron smirked and shrugged.

"We thought it was just another ingredient and to have it regrow was a good idea."

"Wait, we? You...you harvested this?" Modestus was flabbergasted.

"Well why the hell did you not bring it to me? I bought it for a fortune! The teleportation costs alone are prohibitive!"

"Because I did not know what it was. And what you want."

Modestus groaned and shook his fist at Aaron.

"Anything remotely as magical as this mushroom you bring to me this instant, you hear me?!" he bellowed.

"Okay, okay." Aaron laughed, with his hands raised in mock defeat.

"But what do I get out of it?"

"You are in Qi Refining yes? I can make some good basic pills and yes, a breakthrough pill for the foundation realm."

"A breakthrough pill?"

"Take his offer." the ethereal whisper of the Great Master said into his ear.

"Yes, it helps amassing Qi for the final push into the next realm and puts you in a conductive mood for the breakthrough, focuses the senses, makes the body more receptive. All that good stuff."

"Okay, I will bring you a sample of that rock the mushroom grew on. If you throw in some more pills to make it worth my while."

Modestus gnashed his teeth and huffed before he gave a disgusted sigh.

"Fine. Whatever, just bring it to me! The rock needs to be around this size." The alchemist conjured a flame in between his hands and it grew to around basketball size in between his palms. Aaron was surprised by the fire, because it did not radiate any heat at all. He nodded though and the flame vanished as quickly as it had come.

"Good. How fast will you be able to get it?"

"Depends, will you pay me more if I get it to you faster?"

"Hm and here I thought you were a fool. Turns out you do know how to conduct business." Modestus said with a small smirk and an appreciative nod. "Yes, bring it to me as fast as you can and I will reward you handsomely. This rock might be the missing link between true alchemy and what the Tower calls alchemy. The blighted fools. So any minute I can spend on studying it earlier is a minute closer to my goal."

Modestus hesitated and then quickly ran to one of the many shelves in his cage and dug around in it before he came up with a small hand pickax.

"Use this to dig out the rock. Make sure it has mycelia, those are the tiny mushroom roots."

"Got it, but why this pickax?"

"Its enchanted of course." Modestus said with an eyeroll.

"Its very gentle, will take a bit more work to get anything out, but it should remove any samples better than a simple pickax. Quality is the most important. Oh and put it in this bag." Modestus grabbed a simple bag from one of his shelves and let the pickax vanish inside of it. To Aaron's surprise the pickax seemed to be entirely absorbed by the bag. There was no bulge from the pickax handle and when Modestus handed him the bag it felt like it was empty.

"Is this?..."Aaron started and Modestus interrupted him impatiently.

"Yes, yes. Spacial enchantment. Its bigger inside than outside. Its easy to use, coat your hand in Qi, put it in, get out what you want. And no, this is not actually made by someone who knows what they are doing. This is just mages being able to do things without properly understanding the basic principles behind space and time. So don't think its a revelation, its just bad craftsmanship and anyone who dares to say otherwise has not seen the truly magnificent things a true master of space can do. We do have one such master of space down here, but sadly she has no materials to replicate any of the feats a true pocket dimension should have! So I am stuck using these terrible bags." Modestus raved and balled his fists in outrage.

Aaron did not say that this was actually a game changer for him, but he was curious what Modestus meant when he said they had a master of space here.

"We do have a master of space?"

"Yes, your teacher, Mei is one of the few true experts of space and time. The Tower has based all of their spacial spells on her abilities without understanding any of them. Its a tragedy. I have seen some of her real work, some of the true dimensional artistry. Its beautiful. Worlds within worlds. A house with garden in the hollow of a ring's gemstone. So please don't go gushing over this paltry bag or I will be sick. Now go, come back as quickly as possible and I will reward you handsomely!"

Aaron nodded to himself. He vaguely remembered seeing Mei open a portal of some sort and punching through it before. But he had no idea she was that important or accomplished. But given that she was the strongest Cultivator besides the great master himself in this prison meant a lot. Although Aaron suspected the demon might be close as he had the highest cultivation realm if he remembered correctly.

"Very well, I will be back as quickly as I can. I will start my journey up to the third floor tomorrow. But I think the great master wants me to fix some mistakes I have made first."

"Good, good. I will use that time to concoct something for you then. Not like I could do any real work when I am anxiously awaiting proof for all my theories. So go, go."

"You don't want your manastone?"

"Oh? Well throw it in, just hurry up!"

Aaron shook his head, threw a manastone into the cage and watched it roll to the pile of manastones, which had shrunk a bit since he had last been here. Clearly the man had paid a kings ransom for the mushroom. He hoped Roger and his group reaped the benefits, but he was not really in need of manastones at the moment. Agent Walter had been rich and paranoid enough to carry around probably most of his wealth. His purse glittered with manastones of all kind, but the real treasure was this bag.

Carefully and with his hand coated in QI Aaron reached into the bag and felt his arm sink in up to the shoulder until he found the pickax at the bottom of the space that felt like it was twice the size of the bag. He moved his arm and hand around, testing the edges of the space, but it felt just like the inside of a leather bag. The volume he could store in there was quite something. He could put a bunch of clothes, rations and more in there without being encumbered. Because somehow the bag did not weigh more than when it was empty. Aaron tested that by removing the pickax and then putting it back in. The only problem was that he had to be careful how he placed things in there. It was not some imaginary space but a real space and that meant he could not just throw in everything and expect it to be fine.

No, he had to properly sort things when he put his things into the bag or he feared things might turn into a horrible mess. But the bag was small enough so that he could hang it on his belt and it would not really hinder him. So that was a really nice bonus. After experimenting a bit with the bag he guessed it was the size of a really big backpack and if properly filled would hold barely enough stuff for himself for a week.

His curiosity sated and his tour of the prison done, he returned to the great master.

"The pills Modestus creates are some of the best you will find anywhere. Do not let his personality fool you. That man is one of the few alchemist sages still alive. If he wasn't so universally reviled for how he treats basically anyone, he would have never ended up here." the great master said and there was some amusement in his voice.

"I will admit he is a bit brusque but reviled?" Aaron asked and the great master chuckled.

"Modestus has no morals. Just ambition and curiosity. He would sell out his own mother for a new ingredient if he thinks will help his research. He is vain, believes himself to be the greatest man to have ever lived and he will betray you in a heartbeat. The latter part and his inability to work with others is the reason no faction ever kept him around. In the end his rivals got rid of him. Which was easy since Modestus had a truly terrible relationship with anyone in authority. But enough of our overambitious Alchemist. One day he will reach his goal and when he sits on top of the world, he will find that he has nothing left. He will change in due time." the great master said with the confidence of a man who had seen it happen before plenty of times.

Aaron nodded, although he did not really care as long as the man kept his word this time.

"But he will honor our agreement?" he asked to be sure.

"Oh yes, he pays people who work for him very well. Its just that he will work for anyone. So he does also make things for the master of the tower. In your case I believe he will be very generous and will tell you to go away once he has what he wants."

"Good."

"Now, sit down Aaron. It is time for you to repair and perfect your body. Have you looked through the memory core I have given you?"

"Yes, it was quite enlightening. But I must admit I have spent little time on perfecting my Qi veins."

"That much is obvious. Come, meditate and bring yourself into a state of calm. We will remedy your shortcomings."

Aaron closed his eyes and slowly let one of his senses collapse into the next one until he was in that quiet place of absolute focus and his mind and body had relaxed. Even though his hearing was entirely focused and nothing around him broke through this barrier of calm, he could still hear the great master's voice in his head.

"Good, now start with your dantian, search the walls of the center of your power. Wherever a Qi vein connects it to the rest of the body observe and correct it until it is perfect."

With the great master's words came instructions, techniques into his mind. He slowly let his inner eye wander along the walls of his dantian until he got to a Qi vein, there he corrected and properly opened it until the image in his inner eye was exactly the same as the great master sent him. Aaron did not question how the great master was able to do this. He kept up his focus and checked over his entire dantian. Especially the openings to the Qi veins fueling the fiend-god technique had scar tissue and other problems. Once he had finished with the dantian he went through every single vein connected to his cycling technique.

It was a tedious process, but strangely calming and relaxing. It was like working on a garden or drawing a mandala without any real thought. You just had to fill in the colors properly. In this case this meant finding any irregularities in the Qi veins and repairing them by using Qi to smooth out the vein, heal damaged tissue or remove scar tissue and replace it. He used plenty of Qi doing this, but with his current cultivation and depth of power it was merely a drop in the bucket. Once his cycling technique was done, Aaron could feel how he cycled Qi much smoother. It was like a river that had its shore repaired and could now flow faster and transport more water. With that done he went over the rest of his QI veins. First towards his legs for the veins he used with Wind Steps, which was relatively simple and fast, since he had barely damaged any of those veins and then he went up towards the Soul Catcher's veins.

Those veins were terribly damaged. For one he had been injured in places close to it more than once and he had to repair it properly for what felt like hours. Whenever he had finished one vein he found a new one that was damaged somehow. His shoulder that had stung slightly from the electric bolt Agent Walter had almost killed him with, had created a lot of scar tissue and repairing this took even more time. But after what felt like a whole day of arduous focus he was finally done and opened his eyes.

Aaron blinked into the blue tinged light and just sat there for a few long moments, feeling his entire body working at peak efficiency. It felt like he had been remade, had his body rejuvenated from the ground up. It felt really good and Aaron vowed to do this after every breakthrough at least. He would have to do that for his dantian anyways, since most of the problems there had been from the use of starburst and increasing the size of the dantian. So he should do this every time he broke through and ensure he was in peak physical condition.

"Good job, Aaron." the great master said and Aaron looked up at him floating behind his bars.

"Thank you for your guidance, great master."

"Your focus has improved. Sensory Harmony has served you well, but this is just the beginning. But before you leave, how have you fared?"

So Aaron told him. He told him everything that happened and he did not feel the need to leave anything out. The great master did not say much, he just asked some questions to clarify and when Aaron had finished he felt somehow relieved. Like he had left behind some of the weight on his shoulders with the story he had told.

"You have done well to prosper in this Tower. What are your plans for now?"

"While there is a chance of another manhunt I want to be gone. So I will go up to the fifth floor and challenge myself there."

"Ah, beast cores. That is a good idea. Cultivate diligently with them and you will rise in cultivation quickly, even without using the demon's technique. It will also serve as a good training for you. Yes, this is exactly what you need. Challenge yourself, fight and do not cross the fifth floor to the sixth before you are ready to ascend to the foundation realm. When you do, come back here and I will guide your breakthrough."

"Thank you, great master. I appreciate your guidance."

The soul of the ancient transcendent chuckled and he nodded. With his business done Aaron said his goodbyes and started to make his way back to the first floor. He started by trying to move correctly like Mei had taught him. It was difficult, but he did not have anything else planned before meeting with Iris again. So he stumbled in the dark, trying to control Wind Steps properly. The more he tried to control it the more difficult it felt. He would need to train this diligently or he felt like he would never get there. He exited the tunnel and once he was sure the coast was clear he entered the forest unseen.

He would have to spend an uncomfortable night under the stars, but there were worse things and he was really looking forward to the rewards the Alchemist promised.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.