Ascending the stairs of the library exit, Sol noticed how quickly his stamina evaporated. The mid-grade recovery pill did take its toll, so he moved slowly and deliberately, taking every step patiently. Step by step, he ascended and stepped into the basking sun of the mid-day cultivation grounds.

  Where the cold lake and snowpit had been frequented less, the central hub was bustling with activity. People were engaged in conversations everywhere. Small groups had formed in the grass with books open, studying and discussing topics together. Some exchanged combat pointers and martial stances, executing complicated dance-like movements—the likes of which Sol assumed to be foundational for their techniques.

  For the first time since his fight with Rax’Rathos, his body did not hurt at all while walking, and it made him eager for the pill to run its course so he could gather Qi and cultivate again.

  There was, however, a quiet and unspoken discomfort hanging in the air, and it did not take him long to figure it out. The Spear Saint Mountain group walked around like they owned the place and made others get out of the way whenever they felt like using a particular cultivation spot.

  Furthermore, they seemed to block off access to the cave near the library entrance. Two members stood like guards and denied entry to anyone who asked unless they paid for the privilege. Quite a few did. It made a lot more sense to Sol now that they banded together like this. Security, housing, and access to the best cultivation spots. Even if they were not affiliated with the group outside the sect, here they gained immediate benefits.

  Since fights outside of housing arguments were forbidden and punished, it presented the question: How did they enforce their dominance? Sure, they could go after your home of choice to harass you back, but that would not stop you from just waltzing in and taking whatever cultivation spot you wanted to use.

  Curious, Sol took to a flat rock nearby in lotus position and observed the group through half-closed eyes. It did not take him long to figure it out. They were abusing the spirit of the rule “no fighting allowed.” Instead, they invaded people's personal space, “accidentally” spilled their sticky drinks on them while walking past, or acted distractingly in general. They provoked a fight but never actually engaged in one.

  At least, that was his theory. He could not say for certain, since he had only observed a few incidents of rude or obnoxious behavior, but the tense atmosphere seemed to suggest that it was a common occurrence.

  They were the dominant force in the Skin Tempering Garden of the Verdant Reflection Sect. It was no surprise that they carried themselves so confidently. It was not the confidence of the individual but rather their status as a group. Power gave way to confidence.

  Since Nyx was unable to locate the mysterious girl with the mask, he decided to check the cold lake again, and if she was not there, find a quiet place to relax and try to recover some Qi. The recovery effect would slowly fade out, freeing up more energy.

  Another reason why he could not locate her was that he had no idea what she looked like below the mask. She could have just taken it off and disappeared within a number of unknown cultivators, and he would never know. It bothered him. It was impossible to sense Qi outside of his body, so he could not even memorize her Qi signature as described in some of the books he had read at home.

  Home. He missed his mother’s cooking. What advice would the Matriarch of the Eternal Blossom Clan give him? Come to think of it, he did not even know the girl's name, only that she hailed from the east. Maybe she would advise him to be patient instead of pestering the girl for information. Had his father not waited an eternity just for a chance to reconnect with her?

  Sol found her sitting at the snowpit, one hand emerged in it. He eyed the obstacles above. Should he just “accidentally” fall into the snow near her? It felt awkward to approach her casually, and he had no idea what he would even say. Annoyed, he reached for his focus. All he received in response was a pulse of amused encouragement. Not helpful. What would he even say? Or call her?

  As he approached, he noticed her tense posture. She was trying to concentrate and… cold? He noticed a slight tremble, and she opened and closed her gloved hands repeatedly. But it did not seem likely that she would stop anytime soon, so now was as good a time as any.

  “Greetings, friend,” he said smoothly after testing it in his head a few times.

  She responded in an annoyed and snappy, almost grumbling manner. "Greetings."

  Oh, he was disturbing her. Clearly. “Sorry, I did not want to disturb you….” He barely managed to say, growing quieter with every word. He immediately chastised himself. Why was he so weird all of a sudden?

  Just as he turned to leave, the girl let out a frustrated moan that turned into an angry growl before she responded to him. “I apologize, it is vexing me. Please sit.”

  Nyx quietly did as he was told, relieved that her anger was not directed at him. “What are you trying to do?” he asked before he remembered that techniques were often a sensitive issue. She might have inherited it from her clan. “If you want to share?”

  The familiar white mask turned toward Sol and deflected his question. “You found a healer?”

  “Recovery Pill.” He brought forth the second pill from his clothes and showed her reluctantly. “I think I overpaid for them, though.”

  She lifted the pill from his hand and held it against the sunlight. “Mid-grade? My family processes—” She stopped herself with a cough. “I’m sure you are fully recovered then. That is good. How did your emotion-blocking skill react after my needle blockade wore off? Did you manage to contain it fully? You seem… more open?” The masked girl inspected his face curiously.

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  As Nyx tried not to blush at the sudden attention, his focus skill sent a feeling of annoyance throughout his body. What should he tell her? His father had always said, “Honesty is important—she will always find out anyway,” so he decided to tell her everything.

  “I think the skill is much more than just something that heightens my focus and blocks emotions,” he began, immediately sparking her curiosity.

  “More how?”

  “More in the sense that it seems to direct me toward certain ways of cultivating, giving me ideas that work so well that it cannot be simply focus or heightened concentration.” He tried to find the right words. The fact that he could talk about something that mattered to him, instead of continuing with awkward questions, was a bonus. “And sometimes it does not block emotions at all but is rather helpful. Uhm. Helpful for the focus. And I feel like it gives me feelings I do not have when it is active as well? It's hard to describe.”

  The masked girl nodded thoughtfully. “What do you think it is? Do you have control over it now?”

  “It is more like… asking it to help? And I was able to stop it the last time it helped on its own.” He frowned. “Although it did not like that very much and refused to help afterward.”

  “Oh, I know!” The girl suddenly turned her sitting position toward him, pelting him with some snow in the process. “Ah, I apologize.” She cleared her throat briefly and sat a bit straighter. “I believe it could be your bond. Did you not have a familiar? Maybe it is acting through you?”

  “I do not think a spirit beast egg can already direct such drastic changes? And it seems to understand how a demon’s body works and functions?” Sol shook his head. “No, my thinking was that it could be a technique that is inherited through reincarnation. I have died once.” He pointed at the golden mark on his cheek. “And it might have something to do with this? Or it activated itself when I unlocked a memory of my past life? It seems to be something like that, but I cannot say for certain.”

  Furthermore, he had used the focus skill in his fight with the Sword Saint and received Lun'Archessa's gift a few days later.

  “You seem to have regained your control over it. I would suggest looking up what capabilities your bond has. If not to explain your skill, at least to rule out that it is not responsible.”

  Nyx thought about it for a moment. Maybe the bond had hijacked the focus skill and was using it to communicate? It was likely worth the time. “Yes, that sounds like a good idea. But I have some other things to figure out before that.”

  “And that would be?” she said teasingly.

  “Improve my Qi intake, first of all, then permanently change my skin to—”

  "Permanent?" she interrupted him. “How do you do that?”

  Sol showed her his hand. “See that spot? I changed the skin cells there with my shapeshifting. My idea is to make them able to hold Yin energy to protect against heat and cold.”

  She tilted her head. “How does it protect you against the cold? It would only neutralize Yang Qi on contact. Did I miss some secret law of the universe?”

  Nyx felt the heat rise to his face as he blushed. At least his dark skin color made it not immediately obvious. Had she just called him stupid for this idea? “Uhm, no. No. I am really bad at regulating temperature. I tried another technique to balance it internally, and I want to use that as well, but the idea is to just ‘store away’ the Yin Qi my body cannot handle into my skin, so it's technically away from my body?”

  She grabbed his hand to observe more closely. Now Sol’s ears practically burned. She was so close to him he could smell her, so he immediately stopped breathing. He did not want to be rude.

  “Fascinating. I’ve never heard of a technique like that, but there are alchemy enhancements that permanently alter your body in various ways. They are very strong but need to be upgraded as you progress further. It is costly.” She gently placed his hand back onto his knee and continued. “This way of permanently changing your skin could be combined with that, or you use a variation of bone tempering as you progress. There are thousands of books written on it. I wish I had such good ideas. All I am doing is following my bloodline technique. And even there I fail,” she said as her voice lost the spark she had shown earlier.

  “Fail?” he asked, both curious and seeking a way to cheer her up.

  “Breaking through. I have attempted it twice. Both times…” Her sitting position sank slightly lower. “I have worked hard to increase my Qi levels for almost a year prior to arriving here. I cannot—it is frustrating!” she growled forth.

  Nyx nodded. “If your Qi pool is large already, maybe try to apply it to something that is outside of your technique for some perspective?”

  She shook her head quickly. “I cannot deviate from what I practice. It will have consequences in the future. My bloodline requires and synergizes with it.”

  Nyx raised his finger to get her attention. Then he shifted his claw at his fingertips to form a round ball before moving it back toward his knuckles, where it reformed to a defensive layer, only to move forward again and retake the shape of a claw. It took him all of his currently heavily demanded Qi, but he got the point across.

  “Ah. My innate demonic ability. I have never really tried it, but that idea does not sound too bad.”

  “I’ve played with it for a long time. I did not want to accidentally scratch my little brother and sister, and it took a while, but it gets easier,” Nyx encouraged her. “In exchange for my great idea… may I ask you for your name?”

  The girl grew silent, her excited body language disappearing. “Mm. You may guess my name. If you are correct, I will confirm it.”

  That was ridiculous. How was anyone supposed to guess something like that? Nyx’Sol frowned. “How about guessing the birth name only?” Guessing her skin color and thus birth name would at least bring him a bit closer. Then he remembered something and cheekily added, “Otherwise, I will just call you nine-four.”

  She tilted her head. “Nine-four?”

  “Your talent score at our initiation was ninety-four.”

  “Ah. But that is horrible. To be named as a number.” She sighed. “You may guess my birth name twice. But do not dare call me nine-four if you get it wrong.”

  Nyx grinned sheepishly. He would have never called her that anyway. Just imagining the silence and her tilted mask in response to it made him want to sink into the ground.

  He guessed the most common demon skin tones. “Rax? Nox?” He guessed the red ‘Rax’ because of a story he had read, where an eastern clan consisted entirely of red-skinned individuals, and the masked girl hailed from the east. And he guessed ‘Nox’ mostly because of his own bias. When he imagined her taking off her mask, it was the first thing that came to mind, though he had no idea as to why.

  She shrugged and rose to her feet with a sly smile. “Wrong and wrong. Maybe next time.”

  Her smile made him suspicious. Had he guessed right, and she just refused to admit it? Or were there different naming conventions in the east? He would have to look that up later. “You are leaving?”

  “Yes. I have restored enough Yin Qi. Now I will work on your suggestion.” She pointed to his hand. “Permanent changes like this are quite hard to do, you know? If your fine control and efficiency are that good because of your continued training with shapeshifting, then I hope it will help me as well.”

  Her hand touched his hair and pulled forth a piece of straw that had been stuck there. Her mask tilted curiously as he felt his face heat up again. How long had that been there!? Then she waved him goodbye. “I will consult some books to clear my head. Good luck to you, Mr. Nyx’Sol.”