I stopped cultivating pretty soon after the Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi had established itself in my aperture, resting for a moment before standing up and leaving the cave. Surprisingly, a lot of what I’d been feeling while I was cultivating — the calmness, the clarity, the softness, the cold — they stuck with me, though to a slightly lesser degree. Was my plan working? Was my body slowly gaining more yin energy to replace the yang?

That was a question for later. Right then, I was worried about my sister. Even if I’d secretly wanted her to spit blood the entire time, that didn’t change the guilt I felt about it now... For one thing, blood was, like... Well, anyway, I wasn’t used to it. And, heck, she’d even fainted! 

So, there I went, walking down to the rock that the two elders were holding my sister up against. When I arrived, Elder Tea was activating a vi plant, the aperture on her forehead alight with a golden glow, pale golden particles flying out of her fingertips and into Morning Rain’s body.

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked.

“Yes, she’ll be fine,” Elder Tea nodded. “I’ve healed her most of the way, the rest is up to her. Anyway, it’s her own fault for getting so worked up over things like this. Unexpected things happen. Unexpected setbacks happen. Being able to adapt and overcome without... well... freaking out? That’s a lesson every vi master should learn.”

I bowed my head slightly. “Thank you for the wisdom, Elder Tea.”

Elder Tea giggled lightly. “So respectful. How did you two end up so different, anyway?”

I pouted a bit. That was still something I felt guilty about... “When we were little, I had what she wanted. I didn’t want it, but that didn’t make much difference.”

“Oh, dear...” the woman sighed. “Don’t feel too bad for it — it sounds as though it was out of your control.” Elder Tea patted my head reassuringly. “She’ll overcome it at some point, I’m sure.”

Elder Swan sighed. “She’d better. Hopefully it’s before she breaks the record for most Demerits.”

Not able to help myself, I asked, “How many is that?”

“257 — and based on her current rate, if she doesn’t make changes, she will hit it within the next couple years.” The older woman crossed her arms.

Elder Tea gave her a look. “Was that record set before my time? Who was it?”

“It was before mine. I don’t know too much, but what I do know is best not said around such... juvenile ears,” she gestured to me.

I pouted again. Hey, there’s some of nineteen-year-old past-life me still in my head, right? 

Maybe? Not as if they’d know it, though.

“Hey,” Elder Tea said, turning away from my sister and looking to me instead. “By the way, Miss Rain. I was wondering if you’d be willing to sell that vi plant you just got? I think it’ll be more helpful for your sister, and the Spirit Stones I can give you for it should be far more valuable to you.”

I furrowed my brow. That did not sound right to me. If my aptitude was low, wouldn’t using a vi plant like this be a huge help to my cultivation? Theoretically, it could make up for my disadvantage, couldn’t it?

Was she trying to take advantage of me? 

Actually, thinking about it, did she even know I’d heard their conversation?

Elder Swan gave Elder Tea an annoyed glare, but I wanted to pursue this a bit. “How many Spirit Stones?” I asked.

Elder Tea glanced back and forth between us. “I was thinking a hundred.”

I snorted, then burst out laughing, giving my all to play it up just a tad. That was how you haggled, right? And, anyway, if this plant was legendary... “Only a hundred? For a ‘legendary’ tier one vi plant?”

Elder Tea blanched and the older woman to her side raised an eyebrow. “You heard our conversation?” Elder Swan asked, interested.

I glanced between the cave and her. Was... was that weird? It wasn’t that far away, and it’s not like they’d been whispering...

“Y-yeah?”

“But you were cultivating?”

I nodded, a bit confused. Was it specifically because I was cultivating? Normal people didn’t multitask like that?

“Interesting,” she murmured. “If only you and your sister could’ve switched places...”

She didn’t even know the half of it. Every moment of my life... I wouldn’t have even minded half the garbage she’d gotten from our folks... That being said, I wasn’t sure how she would’ve reacted to getting the grade that I got. Probably quite a bit differently than I had.

“So... umm, not selling?” Elder Tea asked.

I shook my head, lowering it slightly. “Probably not. I’m sorry, Elder. How much do you two think it’s actually worth, though, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Elder Swan spoke up. “Priceless, if I’m to be honest. Do you remember my lesson from before the camping trip? Do you remember the ways to collect vi plants?”

I nodded, hesitantly. “Nature... inheritances... umm... from others... and form— formulas?”

“Yes, formulas — formulation,” Elder Swan clarified. “Innumerable formulas could use your Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi as an ingredient; there may be formulas which raise the Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi’s tier, formulas which create entirely new vi, and more. Simply by possessing the vi plant, you are opening yourself up to countless paths... Paths of formulation which have never been explored before.”

Wow, that was even better than I expected. “Not selling,” I said, resolutely.

Elder Tea giggled lightly again. “Probably wise, but... not even for... ten thousand Spirit Stones?”

Ten... ten thousand?!

I blinked.

Elder Swan raised an eyebrow. “Do you even have ten thousand Spirit Stones, Evie?”

“Maybe,” Elder Tea smirked.

“H-how many do I get in my allowance?” I asked.

Elder Swan held up her hand, waving her fingers. “Five Spirit Stones for tier zero. When you’re a tier one you’ll get twenty-five, though.”

“If I had that many Spirit Stones, I doubt I’d last more than a few hours,” I admitted.

“That is wise,” Elder Swan nodded. “Good girl.”

I smiled. “Thank you, Elder Swan. Um, by the way, now that I have my core vi, what do I do? Should I just keep cultivating?”

“Oh! Right, you were first to get a core vi, so that means you get ten Merits,” Elder Swan said, closing her eyes for a moment. “There, they should’ve been applied, now. Do you have your Inky Mirror Vi with you?”

“Inky Mirror Vi... What?” I blinked. “I’ve heard that name before but I don’t remember getting a vi?”

“You know, we handed it out when awarding Merits? You were one of the ones that got Merits, weren’t you?”

“That was a vi?!” I gasped.

Elder Swan covered her face with a hand. “Yes. It was.”

“It didn’t look anything like a plant...” I mumbled, looking down at my feet.

“What did you do with it?”

“I hid it in my room,” I felt my cheeks heat up.

Elder Tea giggled. “I mean, you wouldn’t have been able to tame it anyway, since you hadn’t gotten your core vi.”

“When you activate it — it just takes a bit of essence — you’ll see the academy Merit rankings for your tier, along with a list of all the things currently for sale in Treasure Hall,” Elder Swan explained.

“How many Merits would it take to get ten thousand Spirit Stones?” I asked, curiously.

“Ten thousand,” both elders answered.

“Oh. Wait, if they’re 1:1, why not just award Spirit Stones directly, then?” I furrowed my brows.

Elder Swan smiled. “You know what Spirit Stones look like, right?”

I nodded. Spirit Stones were dark blue shiny rocks with swirly patterns — they were actually kind of pretty, very useful, and they were even used as a currency between vi masters. That meant that pretty much any kid with vi masters for parents would know what they looked like, especially me, being the daughter of the village chief.

“Can you imagine us handing those out all day every day, and keeping track of how many we did? And what if we ran out? It’s just much more efficient to use the Merit registry. Especially because it supports Demerits, where Spirit Stones would not.”

“I understand. Sorry, Elder Swan.”

She patted my head. “No stupid questions. Only stupid vi masters — the ones that don’t ask them.”

A groan distracted us from our conversation, then. Morning was stirring. Uh oh. Sounds like my cue to leave. I supposed I could go and cultivate some more, right?

“Elder Tea?” Morning mumbled, squinting. “I just had the most terrible dream... Midnight stole my core vi...”

The elders gave me a look of pity. Okay, yeah, time to go. I spun around and slunk back towards the cave, as Elder Tea started to respond hesitantly. “Morning Rain, you... that... She didn’t steal it, hon... You failed to—”

Morning Rain interrupted her, voice dark. “Why does he always take everything from me?”

I winced as I walked.

“Hon...”

“I can’t ever get ahead, can I? Even having a grade of aperture a hundred times better than his didn’t help.”

“Morning, in life, for everyone, there are good times and bad. There are unexpected events, and some of those are setbacks. You can’t av—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Morning Rain snapped. “Am I cultivating correctly?”

There was a long pause before Elder Tea sighed. “Yes, you are. It might help to be calmer, though...”

“I’ll try. I’m going to cultivate for the rest of the night. There’s nothing I can do at this point, he’s already screwed me over. I might as well persevere and hope I get a second chance.”

 

---

 

So, yeah, Morning hated me. I supposed I’d known that before, but, well... it was a bit more extreme now.

Where before, she’d bother me just to bother me, or show off, or even to make fun of me because she thought she was superior... 

Now, it seemed nigh impossible to escape her evil eye.

Before today, I’d just taken what she’d dished out, only ever striking back once or twice, and even then, just with words. But last night, taking that tier one core vi... it might not have been intentional, but to her, that was like a declaration of war.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was in for, to be honest. It was entirely possible that just by taming that vi plant, I’d sealed my fate...

But, as usual, for now I’d just hang on. She was still pretty much as useless as me, after all. The only real difference between us was that I had a core vi and she did not. And that I’d never won a spar with her. That was probably important, too. A good reminder to never leave the watchful eye of my elders.

It’d be fine... probably. I could fix things... probably. Find a way to make a peace offering, or something? If I could get lucky this many times, I was sure I’d find a way to get lucky with this, too!

Anyway, the night had ended, and the sun had risen on a new day. For the rest of the night, there had been no other vi plants that appeared — not even a tier zero, which were very common, and not for either of us — Morning or I. 

I’d ended up spending most of the night using the essence I was cultivating to dissolve the red thorny vines in my aperture, slowly digging out more space — space that I could use to increase the size of my yin ocean. I’d also spent a bit of time refining the essence I was collecting, making the stuff more potent or whatever. I wasn’t sure how much I’d really accomplished by doing that, though.

One thing I was curious about, and hadn’t yet completely tested, was how the Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi worked. I’d hesitantly put some of my yin essence into it, and allowed it to do what it wanted to... and that, I soon figured out, meant for it to stick up through my aperture and then just... sit there. 

There was just a sparkly flower on my forehead as I cultivated. That was it.

Well, there were also the bright lights like stars once more projected all over the walls of the cave. But it wasn’t like those stars actually did anything. That I could see, anyway. They were just pretty.

In fact, having the Lotus Vi activated yielded no difference at all — besides that it slightly decreased how much essence I was gaining. I was pretty sure that the amount it was decreasing it by was just the cost of continually activating the Lotus Vi, though.

As I sat at the table, thinking about the previous night, I took a bite of the breakfast I was working on. What was it about only eating once a day that made the food taste so much better? Or maybe it was just that I was really hungry. That was good, too, because I had a pretty big breakfast in front of me, and, well, I’d made a promise with Elder Swan, too!

You know? Whether or not my sister hated me, or things were good or bad... I was actually feeling happy right now. Thankful for the little bits of progress I’d had, excited to progress ever further. It was kinda nice out today, too... the morning light basking us all in a comfortable warmth. 

I glanced for a moment at Morning, and... One could say that there was not just one, but two morning lights — one of them was decidedly not comfortable, though. Her gaze on me was... well, alight. Truly, the fire that burned in those eyes... My sister was quite obviously stewing about what had happened last night. She was stewing hard, which was pretty impressive considering that the stew was gone; it was breakfast time, now, and there was only porridge.

I ignored her glare for a moment, putting another spoonful of that porridge in my mouth as I thought back to when I’d first tamed that core vi.

Was it worth it?

Yeah, obviously.

Even though I was probably at war with my sister, now? Even though I’d made her spit blood?

Well... probably? A worth at or exceeding ten thousand Spirit Stones seemed a bit excessive. In all honesty, that was probably the most luck I’d ever had. And I’d even gotten ten more Merits for it!

My train of thought was interrupted as I heard footsteps behind me... tired footsteps, from the sound of it, considering how much they were dragging their feet. Whoever it was, they stopped just before the table and sat down on the bench across from Morning Rain. 

I looked up from my porridge again, and without even seeing the girl’s face, I knew that it was Morning’s lackey. It was kinda obvious considering the number of leaves and brambles still in the girl’s messy hair.

She glanced at me, rubbing her eyes sleepily and squinting. “Who’re you?” the girl asked, confused.

“Midnight Rain,” I answered, taking another bite of porridge.

“Oh,” she said, turning back to the table and grabbing a bowl for herself.

“Doesn’t it make you mad?” Morning asked, loudly. “That a boy can invade our space? That he can cultivate yin energy and just... become a girl?”

“Not really,” Morning’s lackey said, still a bit groggily. “She can do what she wants, doesn’t bother me. Hey, are you okay, boss? You look a bit pale.”

Morning grumbled. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”

Her lackey took a bite of porridge, and, with her mouth full, said, “That’s too bad.”