Sitting beside the large altar Ava would be lying if she said she didn’t feel nervous at the moment.

Cense at that moment decided to break her stupor as he said, ‘Astral Qi is volatile and destructive though under the control of an Astral Beast can be refined and controlled for their cultivation. At the moment your body and soul is very weak, therefore the first step will be to start with tempering your body slowly with Astral Qi, this will set a good foundation and keep your body free of impurities which for a cultivator will improve your bodies natural talent for cultivation. However none of this will even matter if you cannot correctly merge the Astral Qi with your body.’

‘And how will I even do that? If Astral Qi is so volatile how will be I even be able to introduce it into my body without, you know, imploding?’ Ava asked bluntly.

The spirit smiled and said, ‘Astral Qi is so volatile to other cultivators because the only way they have been able to manipulate it is to forcibly suppress it with their superior Qi, the stronger a cultivator gets the denser and purer the quality of their Qi is. Therefore when there have been attempts to introduce it into another cultivators body, it has resulted in mostly deaths and implosions, yet for some they benefited. Astral Qi is superior to other types, therefore it is more effective in body tempering, on the other hand you shouldn’t’ face this issue. Since you have an apparent affinity with Astral Qi you have innate advantage these cultivators do not have. Nonetheless most Warriors will not use the soul to refine and manipulate their Qi, this is something only a mage would do, you on the other hand will have to, Astral Qi is too volatile for your body to handle, you will effectively need to use the soul to refine the Qi and then carefully introduce it to your body in order to adapt it to the Astral Qi. In the future you will then be able to use a Warrior cultivation method to then store Battle Qi, however at the moment tempering your body is a must before beginning training using a battle Qi manual.’ 

‘When do I begin then?’ Ava asked ready to get this over with, she had already decided she was going to follow Cense with this method, so it was no point hesitating over it now. 

‘Haha, that’s more like it. A true cultivator should be dauntless as there will always be dangers with advancement. Now, this method will also allow you to effectively train your soul, it will be difficult to manipulate Astral Qi even holding an affinity over it, your soul is weak and not at the level of even a Tier 1 Mage, progress will be slow, but as an infant you have time, after all most cultivators begin much older. A few years of setting up a foundation for the future is more effective than other options which will bring about short term gains, now firstly as your consciousness is currently within the soul artefact to the outside world you will appear to be sleeping, when I introduce you to the Astral Qi, I will instruct you on how to refine it, you then will introduce it into your body and begin circulating it ensuring your soul keeps the Qi docile enough that you can merge the Qi with your body’

Ava nodded completely focused on Cense’s word as he had taken a more serious attitude compared to before. 

‘Now focus, I will be introducing a sliver of Astral Qi to your soul space, I want you to fixate on it, feel its power and nature.’

As Cense voice filled her senses, she felt something foreign, a different kind of energy fill the space. 

It felt oddly intimate as if it was a distanced family member who wanted to reunite. 

She knew it wouldn’t be difficult to manipulate it at all, it seemed like it was calling for her to just reach out and grasp it.

‘Good now, this is the truly challenging part, now you can sense the Qi, you need to be able to manipulate it, imagine a tendril of your soul reaching out towards it, sort of like how you humans love to reel in a fish that has latched onto your bait’

That was when she felt the energy respond. The energy seemed eager, like it was throwing it herself towards her, to respond to her commands. 

‘How high is your affinity with Astral Qi…’ Cense couldn’t help but voice with wonder at how the Astral Qi seemed to react to her presence. 

Ava wasn’t sure how to answer him either, she just felt a fond connection to the energy.

‘I guess we should move on quickly, now concentrate, your consciousness will return to your bod in a moment, try not to cause a disturbance, you’re beside your mother after all. She should not be able to detect anything with my interference and with us forming a connection now I will be able to communicate with you mentally, you will also be able to enter this space again whenever if you wish, it should come natural to you, when you awake listen to my words.’

Before Ava could even think about replying to the spirit she found herself again back in her infant body, this time though something was different.

‘Listen to me control the Qi fast… steady your breathing, and feel the energy coursing through you…’ Cense voice sounded into her mind.

Calming herself down she found herself quickly getting into a calm state of relaxation. 

‘This is not too bad…’ she consoled to herself, until she realised the docile Qi in her soul space seem to require more effort to manipulate suddenly. 

‘Don’t panic, this is just the effect of leaving your soul space, you are still an amateur at manipulating Qi after all, this will be more apparent here but with your affinity you should have no problems doing this next step. Keep steadying your breathing, instruct the Qi to follow through the blood in your body out towards your skin. When you have reached the outer layer of your body continue to circulate the Qi until you have made a whole circle through your body, keep repeating this until you have whittled the Qi down completely’ Cense ordered calmly.

Ava did what was instructed at first she was sloppy at controlling the Qi, and was not as efficient as she could have been, but despite her poor technique the Qi was docile to her manipulation. 

She was surprised by how eager it was to respond to her, she felt the wild and volatile nature of the Qi coursing through even such a small sliver yet to her it was calm and gentle like a soft breeze. 

‘Haha! What I would give to see my creators eyes if he knew this was actually Astral Qi! It’s even more docile than Water Qi…’ Cense amazement could be felt through his tone of voice alone. 

Eventually the Qi was whittled down to nothingness and she was left with a warm, fuzzy feeling coursing through her body.

She was about to ask if she could have another sliver of Qi to continue but she suddenly felt a deep wave of exhaustion fill her.

It was a different kind of fatigue than she had ever felt before.

‘Looks like it’s time to rest new master, I can see why you interested such an old being like that, ahhh I can’t wait to see what you’ll grow into, for now just enjoy some rest, we’re going to be having a busy time ahead of us’ Cense said as Ava found the world going black as she drifted into a peaceful slumber.