My room was very small, even smaller than a college dorm room from Earth. It felt kind of like going into a broom closet, except it was just big enough to hold a small bed. Luckily I was still only a ten-year-old, otherwise, if I’d had a growth spurt, I had a feeling I wouldn’t have fit in it.

My bed is precisely where I sat, crossing my legs and setting down my prize atop them. The manual was actually rather pretty — a silvery blue, shiny flower printed (or painted, maybe) on the cover of a thin booklet bound in pure-white leather. The binding was a silvery blue that matched the flower, and the cursive lettering that stated the manual’s name.

The Yin Cultivation Method. From the summary I’d read before, it had the most promise of any other manual I’d looked through — none of the other thirty-seven manuals I’d collected held a candle to what it stated. Cultivating the essence of femininity? That sounded like exactly what I’d need to do to change my body’s sex... if it was possible at all, that is.

To be honest, I still wasn’t... super hopeful with this manual. It was definitely the method I was banking on the most, but, like, based on the fact that Morning Rain had given it to me, and the fact that Madame Scroll and Elder Swan had given me the strangest look when I’d told them I was taking it back to my room... I knew there was probably a lot of risk here.

But, regardless, I had to try.

The first step in my cultivation was to inspect my aperture. To do that, I had to open it, which from an outsider’s perspective would look like I had a third eye opening on my forehead. I reached out for my aperture, and... it opened. Well then. That felt very weird. 

In the middle of an empty void, my consciousness appeared. This was the entry point to my aperture — the centre. In all directions — up, down, left, right, forward, and back — there was void, and then a short distance away was a wall.

Being only ten years old and only recently a vi master, I wasn’t privy to much information about apertures, vi plants, moves, nor tiers higher than tier zero. However, I did know what the usual starting aperture for a tier zero vi master would be like — a small, spherical space, its radius closely matching the distance walked in the spirit cave. Then, surrounding that space, would be a dim, red wall. 

And that was very strange, because that was not what I had. Rather than the... well, half a metre I fell after the 100 metre mark, I had an aperture of about a ten metre diameter. It was a lot smaller than most apertures, yeah, but it definitely didn’t match how far I’d walked.

But that wasn’t the weirdest thing. No, the weirdest thing was the wall of my aperture. Rather than the dim, red wall that other tier zero vi masters apparently had, my wall looked as though it were made of bright, thick, scarlet vines. It was actually a little... disturbing, if I had to be honest. I didn’t understand what I was looking at, it just looked like an impenetrable layer of twisted, layered red... plant. It was even covered in thorns...

Why would my aperture wall look like this? This was weird. It definitely was not what I had been advertised... Hmm. Maybe it was because I had such a low aptitude? Maybe that was just how extremely low-aptitude apertures looked? I wasn’t sure, though. 

If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume that this wall was some kind of vi plant, actually. Or many vi plants. But I could tell that it wasn’t, because I couldn’t sense anything from it. Cause, like, if a vi plant were in my aperture it’d be something I had access to, right? ...Well, unless it was put there by someone else. 

Would someone else have put vi plants in my aperture?

Was that why my memories had been sealed?

If that was why... was that the reason why my Spirit Walk had gone so poorly?

...Probably not, to be honest. Though I was next-in-line for the village chief, the position wasn’t really one of power, it was one of responsibility. Being next-in-line didn’t really mean much, so there likely wasn’t any reason for someone to scheme against me.

Sighing as I rubbed my temple, I thought. If no one had schemed against me, I was back at square zero. I had no idea why my aperture would look like this, nor whether it had anything to do with my miserable grade of aperture. 

Was it worth asking someone to take a look at my aperture? Probably not... not yet, at least, not before I could defend myself. Usually you weren’t supposed to show anyone else your aperture, as it was exposing yourself to a great amount of risk. Not even village elders held the right to inspect a vi master’s aperture, not without their permission. There were only two exceptions that I was aware of.

The first were criminals. Criminals would have their apertures forcibly opened and their vi plants removed, including their core vi, potentially setting their cultivation back years. I’d seen my father after he’d had to do that to vi masters of our village before, and... it wasn’t pretty. Those were the times where my father was the least jovial; it was... a pity, seeing a member of the village losing their way and needing to be punished. 

The only other exception to the rule — the only other time when someone would have the right to view your aperture — was when you became the disciple of another vi master. To form the master-disciple bond, the master needed to mark the disciple’s aperture, which required the disciple to open it and allow the master access.

But for some reason, given my aptitude, I had a feeling that I’d never become the disciple of any vi master... not anyone who was any good, anyway, unless I somehow did way better than anyone else at cultivating this manual. That would be pretty confusing, though. At the same time, it would be pretty funny, and definitely help me in my quest to make everyone spit blood.

Anyway, yeah. Inspecting my aperture and reading the manual. Right! Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I returned to the task at hand. 

To begin with, the manual stated that I needed to fill my aperture halfway with yin essence. There were instructions on how to convert essences of other kinds into yin essence, but that was useless to me at this point because I hadn’t cultivated any other method, nor had I received my initial allowance of essence pills. My aperture was still a blank slate, so I needed to find ways to collect essence.

The manual defined yin energy as a number of things: tranquil, soft, fragile, and feminine, and of the moon, but also, cold, dark, and deathly. This was as opposed to yang energy, which it defined as: aggressive, hard, strong, and masculine, and of the sun, and also hot, light, and full of life. Apparently, in most vi masters, these energies fought an eternal tug of war, the vi master’s sex determining the dominant energy. The more yang energy a vi master had, the more masculine their appearance would be; likewise, the more yin energy a vi master had, the more feminine their appearance would be. The manual mentioned how other cultivation methods that saw the effect of increasing a woman’s beauty were likely giving additional dominance to the yin energy in the woman’s body.

Based on all of this, I could only assume that, currently, my dominant energy was yang energy. As I cultivated further, I would likely gain yin energy, and hopefully once I’d cultivated far enough, it would become my dominant energy for good. 

I was getting excited, now. I’d skimmed through this stuff while I was in the library and it had gotten me a little hopeful then, but the experience with Morning Rain and my elders had worried me... Now, however, there was nothing holding back that excitement. I crossed my fingers subconsciously, really hoping that my guess was right, that this would do what I needed it to.

The manual gave some suggestions for how to produce yin energy: Firstly, there was the light of the moon. See, where the sun produced hot, brilliant yang energy, being a powerful tool for those that cultivated mainly yang-related essences such as light, flame, or metal, the moon produced yin energy, and was a powerful tool for those cultivating yin-related essences.

However, the main problem with cultivating using the light of the sun or the moon — the problem these vi masters often faced — was that the efficiency was determined by how much bare skin you exposed to the light. And, currently, being trapped in a body that was extremely uncomfortable and decidedly not feminine, I had no desire to expose that body in the moonlight.

Luckily, the manual had other options. One option gave the ingredients for a tea that I was supposed to pour into my bathwater and soak in, and apparently that would expel yang energy from my body and help produce yin energy in its place. It would temporarily improve my beauty — which I was a little wary of, given my current body; I didn’t want to be a pretty boy or something, after all — but more importantly, by cultivating in that state, yin essence would be produced.

The main problem with the first option was that I needed to find the ingredients for that tea, and one of those ingredients was the crushed leaves of a vi plant! Apparently it worked with any vi plant high in yin energy — the higher, the better — but that didn’t change the fact that it was a vi plant. A vi plant, of which I had none, and probably wouldn’t be able to collect any time soon. So maybe that method would be good later, but for now, it was definitely not. 

There were a few other options that didn’t seem very suitable: a few options that suggested cultivating in various locations at specific times, such as in a quiet meadow at dusk, or on a mountain peak at midnight, or at the bend of a river, half in the water, in the early morning; a few options that suggested interacting with certain species of animal high in yin energy; there was even one option mentioned offhandedly that talked about a rare vampire bat that would drain humans of yang energy. (As much as that last option sounded amazing, I didn’t particularly want to risk my life for femininity, not when I had so many other options.)

Anyway, in the entire list, only one option seemed suitable, currently. This option suggested that I expose myself to extreme cold on an empty stomach, and cultivate in that state. The empty stomach part was apparently very important — the manual warned that vi masters who’d recently eaten would be producing a greater amount of yang energy, instead, which was completely counterproductive.

This method was perfect in more ways than one — for one, I was already starving, because I hadn’t eaten anything yet today. In fact, I hadn’t eaten since the morning before. For another, it didn’t require anything special besides a cold location. I could just pop into the freezer in the kitchens, sit in a corner, and meditate. I’d seen it from the dining hall, after all, that big metal door.

I was sure they’d let me cultivate there, right?

 

---

 

I didn’t take the risk that they’d deny me access to the freezer, and instead chose to sneak in. I knew it was kinda silly to do, but I only had a day to get started on my cultivation and I wanted to make sure this Yin Cultivation Method was actually going to work. If I’d had more time, I would’ve been polite and asked, but, well, I just didn’t, so this was what I had to do.

When I arrived at the dining hall, it was completely quiet, breakfast having ended a little while before. From the kitchens I could hear clattering and a few conversations — they must have already started preparing lunch. I poked my head around the doorway, seeing a few men and women working away on dishes. Wow, that smelled good. I shouldn’t have skipped breakfast...

Wait! Duh, yes I should’ve! I pinched myself to get myself focused again.

Okay, so the freezer door was at the back of the kitchens — the opposite end of the room. That was a bit annoying. However, there were lots of counters and tables and sinks and stoves and even a cart or two in the way — I could get around these people, I just needed to use this environment to my advantage.

I took a deep breath, then... dashed in! Quiet, quick, and efficient, and then I slid underneath a table. Did anyone see me? There were no shouts, and the conversation continued, so it seems not. Perfect. Okay, next was a bit more tricky. It seemed like my best route was between the stoves; from there, I had a straight shot to the freezer. The problem was getting to the stoves — between here and there were two people, one a grumpy-sounding guy and the other an exasperated-sounding woman.

“Why are the new vi masters always so cocky?” the dude asked as he scrubbed a dish. “They’re still basically mortals like us, but they already think they’re so tough. I could take one.”

The woman stopped what she was doing, stirring a big pot of... something. Then she sighed, turning around and probably giving him a look. I couldn’t see what it was, though, because her face was obscured behind a countertop. “Not many have the ability to become a vi master, Driz. Obviously they’re gonna act like that, ‘specially when they think there’s no consequences. Besides, even if they’re basically mortals now, what could you realistically do to one of ‘em? Unless you kill ‘em, they’re gonna take revenge someday. And when they do, they’re gonna be strong enough to wipe out your whole family” — she snapped her fingers — “just like that.”

“Hmmph,” the grumpy dude said. “I guess.”

“Think of it this way — we’re bugs, and those are baby wolves. We could hurt one, sure, but when its pack gets wind of it, we’re still just bugs. Driz, honey, you don’t get out of a situation like that. Might as well just avoid the risk altogether.”

The grumpy dude grumbled a bit more, going quiet. “I just wish I didn’t have to deal with it,” he muttered, starting to drop a few new dishes into the sink. 

The clattering was loud, and the woman was distracted too, so I chose that exact moment to dash once more... five metres... four... three... two... one... there! I ran into the small space between two stoves.

Okay, new problem. I was between the stoves, but it was very hot here. I should’ve thought of that... I took a deep breath. It was fine! It was fine. Provided I didn’t touch the stoves, I’d be okay, no burns.

Shimmying along between them, very carefully, I got to the other end and almost went to poke my head out... but at that moment, someone suddenly stepped right in my view! Oh heck! I accidentally fell back a bit and touched my hand to a furnace, biting my tongue to keep from making any noise... Oh. Nevermind, that furnace was off, my hand was fine. I’d damaged my tongue more than anything...

The dude was still walking past, having completely failed to notice me. He looked older than the other two and quite a bit rounder; his eyes were beady and it looked like he’d never gotten much facial hair in his life. My eyes followed him as he went... and then, when he’d gone, I let out a shaky breath of air. That was way too close.

...Until I realised that he was headed for the freezer. This was my chance! If I snuck in right behind him, I wouldn’t have to open the door myself, which was perfect, because the door was likely to attract attention, either with the noise or movement.

I looked left and right... no one. This area was clear of people, the nearest was probably that woman stirring the pot I’d seen. I crossed my fingers, and then dashed one last time!

Right when I got to the rotund guy, he swung the door open outwards, and then I ducked in behind him. 

Did it work? Nobody saw me? Really?

Suppressing a giddy giggle at my successful sneaking, I quickly hid behind a shelf, content to wait until he walked back out... whenever that would be. It took a minute or two before he did, and he did so with a large cut of meat. Ooh, that looked like it’d be pretty good grilled... I felt my mouth water.

The door clicked shut behind him. Okay, perfect, I was in the freezer alone, and, well, now that I was a little more calm, I was very cold. Holy... Yeah, this was extremely cold.

I poked around the room for a minute, rubbing my shoulders to keep warm in the meantime. Where was a good spot? Maybe underneath one of the tables was best? That way if someone came in, they wouldn’t immediately see me and kick me out, or something. After all, it was really important that you didn’t get interrupted mid-cultivation. If you did, the energies collected could go awry, potentially harming yourself, the environment, and anyone around you. It could even cause accidental activation of vi plants, but, well, I didn’t have any of those yet, so I was safe there.

I heard a squeak as the door swung open again and quickly scrambled underneath the table I was nearest to, crossing my legs and trying to calm my nerves. It was okay — whoever it was, they couldn’t see me. 

Except... they walked closer, and closer, until they were standing just in front of the table I’d ducked under. It was the rotund man again... Great, he was gonna find me! All that successful sneaking for nothing!

And then I started hearing a clattering on the table above me. Oh! He was making another cut of meat! He was perfectly distracted. 

Should I... start? 

I sat there wondering for a moment, before deciding that yes, I might as well. As far as I knew, I’d have already gained a bit of yin energy just by being in the cold, so all I needed now was to start cultivating it. It wasn’t like I was going to be moving around a bunch and drawing attention to myself! All I needed to do was clear my mind... 

And then I could begin.