I woke up to a rustling noise, completely disoriented and blinking repeatedly as I tried to figure out where I was... it was dark, too, so I couldn’t quite make out what I was looking at. Why was my room shaped so weird? 

Wait. Right. This wasn’t my room, this was one of the three tents. I was snugly tucked in my sleeping bag, and the reason it was so dark was because it was probably around dusk. In other words — I’d slept all day long.

Recalling the previous night... it had been a little odd going to bed in the early morning, but I supposed that was life for a vi master cultivating moonlight energy, wasn’t it? It had at least been very easy to go to sleep then, considering how much I’d needed to. The long hike followed by a night of cultivation had done a number on me.

I shifted in bed, groaning a bit at how sore I felt. It was weird, like all my muscles were tensed. Was that just par for the course for getting so much exercise yesterday?

“Sorry,” a girl’s voice whispered. “I was looking for my bag.”

“It’s okay,” I mumbled. “I’ve probably slept long enough anyway. You can light a lamp if you need?”

“I can do one better,” she said, and the tent soon filled with a dim, bluish glow. Sitting up and blinking a couple times, trying to clear my vision, I saw... 

Woah. 

Okay, so, you know how when you look at a map of a large region, the rivers usually look kinda crazy and all over the place? Turning this way and that, becoming tributaries of a larger river...

Well, it felt kinda like I was looking at something like that, but projected into the air, with the tributaries in all directions, left, right, forward, back, down, and up. It was like glowing rivers of blue light hung in the air, snaking around the tent.

After staring at the shining, pulsating rivers of sapphire for a while, I finally looked back to the girl, whose aperture was lit up in a similar blue as she activated the vi plant. “Very pretty!” I said, and she blushed and smiled. “What’s it called?”

“Glowing Rivulets Vi,” she gushed. “It seems pretty useless, but it’s my first one, so I’m really happy.”

“That’s great! Congrats!” I smiled back.

“Thanks! Did you get one last night?” she asked, sounding a bit curious. “Morning Rain barely slept today, and she’s been glaring at the tent from the table for the past few hours...”

I nodded, but didn’t say anything else. It wasn’t as if I could reveal the real reason why Morning was so mad at me... A tier one vi plant! That was worth so much more than a tier zero, wasn’t it? Based on what Elder Swan had explained back in her lesson, didn’t that mean that I could cultivate all the way into tier one without needing to spend time looking for another core vi?

But why couldn’t I reveal it? Well, mainly because I’d already made the mistake of being a bit too open about my situation before, mentioning my cultivation method and that I was a girl.

Granted, that had worked out fine — honestly, that was probably the sole reason I’d made it to Site Yin, and managed to get the Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi in the first place...

Well, with that in mind, what harm was there in being open? I might as well tell everyone everything! That was obviously where the most benefits were!

(Just kidding. I wasn’t that naïve.)

“Did anyone else get vi while I was asleep?” I asked.

She shook her head, grabbing a bag and starting to filter through it. “Just me this time!”

“That’s pretty slow,” I murmured. “Only two vi plants a day at tier zero? No wonder vi masters get stuck in their cultivation...”

She looked up at me and blinked. “I don’t get it.”

“Oh, sorry. I mean, like, if tier zeroes are already this rare, and each tier of vi plant is rarer... Eventually it’d get to the point where you’re spending years looking for higher tier vi plants, and that’s not even taking into account the vi plants you could attract that aren’t suitable for your techniques, right?”

She put her thumb on her chin, tilting her head. Finally, she turned back to the bag, saying, “I think that makes sense? But, like, we’re just tier zeroes right now, so does it really matter?”

“I... I guess not,” I mumbled. “I just thought it was interest—”

“Aha!” she exclaimed, startling me. 

I rubbed my ears a bit. That was extraordinarily loud, and I internally thanked the heavens that I’d woken up when I did. “...Wh-what?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing, I just found my jammies,” she said.

“Oh,” I said. 

Well that was rather anticlimactic. 

I stood up, taking a moment to stretch my limbs — I was still so sore! — then went to leave the tent, smiling back at the girl. “Okie doke, I’m gonna go head out then.”

“Later, Midnight Rain!” she said.

I hesitated, realising I had no idea what her name was. Had I heard it and forgotten? Should I ask? No, I was way too awkward for that. 

Blushing as I left, I called back, “Goodnight!”

 

---

 

True to the Glowing Rivulet Vi girl’s word, a certain pair of eyes landed on me the moment I left the tent. Good lord, sister, honestly... Let it go, seriously... it can’t be healthy to hold that much rage inside of you.

I crossed the bridge of stones over the shallow stream, coming to the table where she was sitting. Her bloodshot, beady eyes were locked to mine in an endless glare.

I had nothing else to respond with, so I said, “‘Morning.”

Hehe. Morning? Morning Rain? Well, I thought it was funny.

“Hah. Hah,” she said, quite obviously not amused.

“You’re supposed to say, ‘No, Midnight,’” I smirked. Looking up at the sky, which was quite clearly just a short while after sunset, I noted, “Although that’d be funnier if it was actually midnight.”

She just continued giving me that long glare.

“I’m sure you’ll attract another tier one vi tonight,” I smiled, trying in vain to appease her.

“Yeah, so you can take that one too?” she spat.

“If it’ll make you feel better, if another tier one vi plant shows up, I won’t take it into my aperture?” I suggested.

Morning Rain just gave me a long stare. “No, I don’t want your pity. I’m not going to resort to scheming against you again, either... for now.” I glanced around, realising that the two elders weren’t actually close enough to hear that one. I couldn’t see Elder Tea, and Elder Swan was currently talking to Morning’s lackey, who was in a bush again. 

Morning continued, “I’m going to beat you fair and square. Thoroughly, too. To prove that I’m better. And then when you’re beaten, and broken, I’ll become the Chief of the Village of Rain, and then the most powerful in the village, and then I’ll become a vi immortal.”

“Having goals is... good,” I smiled weakly.

“You, Midnight Rain, are a temporary hurdle. My first great challenge. I thought I’d already overcome you when my A-grade aperture was first unsealed, but... apparently not.

“However, being my first great hurdle... You’re also a stepping stone.

“I will beat you.

“I will take everything you have.

“I will take everything you care about.

“Just like you have spent your entire life doing to me.

“That’s when I’ll forget about you.”

The tense monologue gave way to a tenser, eerie silence... that is, until footsteps started approaching. The footsteps of Elder Swan and Morning’s lackey.

The girl spoke up, rolling her eyes. “Boss, are you being petty again?”

Morning opened and closed her mouth a few times, stunned, before slamming her first on the table and storming away towards the boulder to cultivate.

I blinked a couple times, then stared at the lackey, who shrugged. “It just gets annoying, y’know? It’s the same stuff over and over with her.”

Elder Swan, obviously also surprised by her sudden declaration, patted the girl’s shoulder. “Good on you for seeing through that.” She pulled her hand away — err, well, she tried to, but her hand got stuck to the girl’s robe, and the elder had to take a moment to peel it off. She sighed. “You have sap all over you. Hon, are you sure the Great Big Bush Cultivation Method is really that important to you?”

“I don’t want to let my pa down.” Morning’s ‘lackey’ nodded emphatically. 

 

---

 

The core vi camping trip was to last until all of us had obtained a core vi, or until the week was up. For anyone who didn’t have a core vi by the end, they would be able to go again in the second core vi camping trip, the one for the vi masters that had needed extra help in choosing a cultivation manual.

Obviously, needing to wait until that second camping trip was a potential waste of time that could be spent doing something more productive, so there was quite a bit of pressure to get a vi plant by the end of the week.

Luckily, according to Elder Swan, “The rate we’ve been attracting vi plants has been a little slow so far, but by the end of the week I expect it’ll average out to the normal amount, which is a bit higher. Most years, everyone can attract a vi plant in time.”

However, with that information, all I could think about was the fact that Morning wasn’t in it to just get a core vi.

She was in it to get a core vi which rivalled my own.

Would she really manage to attract another tier one in the time we had left?

I was feeling pretty doubtful.

Especially when, sitting behind the waterfall for the second night in a row, I saw her on that rock again, once more shaking and sweating as she cultivated her method. Seriously, why was she so tense when she cultivated? Was that just part of how the Silent Moon Cultivation Method worked?

Or was she just, like, constantly really angry at me so concentrating on her method was harder than it otherwise would’ve been?

I supposed I had to admit to myself that I had no idea. Or, you know, I could just drop the subject for now and focus on cultivating.

That’d probably be smarter.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing once more as I opened my aperture and let in the slurry of yin-type energies — tranquil energy, cold energy, dark energy, moonlight energy... Once more, my cultivation speed was rather impressive, measuring up to last night’s speed... and then some? Interesting.

As I began to cultivate, I looked once more at the state of my aperture; now that I had a core vi, some things had changed. Sitting in the centre of my ocean, the singular, sparkly lotus flower had rooted itself into the entirety of the mystical space, shoots of leafy blue-green having shot up from those roots as I slept.

It had truly claimed this place as its own; it had completely become my core.

Dismissing the Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi for now, I allowed the ocean to shift. It took slightly longer for the ocean to get moving now that there were roots running through it, but eventually it did, the roots coming along with it. I directed it gently, patiently, eventually gaining enough force with it that I was able to once more begin to tear into the scarlet thorns of my aperture wall.

I would dissolve all of it, no matter what it was. I would completely remove these weird vines, and then once they were gone, no matter how big my aperture ended up being... I would hopefully begin to refine my body.

See, I had this suspicion. Basically, if the Yin Cultivation Method talked about being able to gain yin energy through my body itself, and these vines were blocking me from being able to do that... that meant that I wasn’t done yet. It wasn’t just that I was raising my aptitude by adding more space — I was also getting closer to the day I’d be a girl in the flesh as well... A girl to everyone’s eyes.

I would do it. I had to. I was more sure of that fact than I was sure that Morning hated me... now that was saying something.

But for now... I settled into another routine of dissolving the walls, refining higher tier essence, and collecting more essence. 

One step at a time.

After a while, I opened my eyes again. Would Morning attract her vi tonight? Would I attract an additional vi?

At that moment, as if to answer my question, a single, glowing petal drifted down from the starry night sky. My eyes traced its arcing path, then a spiral followed quickly by a steep dive, where it then lazily hovered around Morning’s head.

It was a vi plant. She’d attracted another one.

But, assuming that she’d been the one to attract the tier one vi plant last night... Had she really gotten that lucky twice in a row? 

Was it really another vi of tier one?

The answer? No. It wasn’t. It was a tier zero. And if my suspicions were correct, the moment Morning realised it was even there... she would be the one to reject it this time.

The petal drifted to a stop in front of Morning’s forehead, as if eyeing her aperture. Good luck, li’l buddy, I tried to project to it. Unfortunately, I didn’t currently have any vi plants that allowed me to telepathically communicate with other vi plants, so I doubt it heard me.

Then, suddenly, Morning Rain snatched the petal out of the air, opening her eyes. She made an expression of disgust at the poor vi plant, then ground it between her fingers, blowing the remaining particles away like they were as worthless as dust.