"Let's go like yesterday — start on the third step," Rene said.

"I preferred it from a standstill," I replied.

"You've already mastered that," Rene said. "Let's see it in motion."

He'd cleared a lane for me from one wall of the hall to the other. That was generous, considering how packed his training space had become lately — so many wanted to train techniques under his supervision that he'd begun turning people away.

A straight line wasn't the best path for the Monkey — even a level surface didn't suit it. The technique itself was chaos incarnate. But as long as I didn't take more than three steps in a row, I could manage.

I activated the training programme and adjusted the settings. My legs lit up in green holographic lines, and a few waist-high blue silhouettes appeared ahead — a short two-step run-up, then the jump itself.

I still remembered how badly it hurt when I was first laying down the channels for the Chain Punch and failed to push qi through them before my arms began their reverse movement. The backlash made both of them swell like balloons.

"Ready?" Rene asked.

I nodded, though everything inside me clenched. Running qi through the new leg channels was easier from a standing start, but this was a movement technique — its whole point was mobility and speed.

I focused on my energy centre — the solar plexus, which I'd always imagined as a reactor core. I needed to draw a small amount of qi and thread it through my legs all the way to my toes. All five of them.

By comparison, Iron Head only used the big toe.

Then again, the Monkey didn't use the head.

I pulled down two threads of qi. I wondered — was it easier for cultivators who chose the dantian as their centre to learn movement techniques? Logically, they had less distance to draw from. But since proper execution took less than a second, the difference couldn't have been all that meaningful.

I took a step. Then a second...

Even before my left foot touched the ground, I felt qi condensing beneath it — Fist Qi. I threw my weight onto it, muscles taut. The qi didn't form a projection — it detonated instead, not letting my foot reach the floor. A split second before contact, a shield flared under my trainer, absorbing the impact. The blast and muscle tension launched me upwards, adding an extra metre to the jump. I could've squeezed more out of the technique, but I wasn't about to risk tearing my foot apart.

"Good!" Rene said. "Now starting with the right foot, and then I'm off to the others."

Starting with the right didn't go nearly as smoothly. I detonated the qi too early — my foot hadn't landed low enough to give me proper support. Instead of a leap, I ended up performing a graceful roll with an immediate recovery. All those sessions with Adam were clearly paying off, but Rene wasn't fooled by my elegant save.

"Not good!" he said. "Drill the jump from the third step. Once starting with the left — twice starting with the right. Keep that cycle going until the end of the session. I won't be coming back to you today."

Rene kept his word, and near the end of the session I landed badly on my right foot and twisted my ankle. I had to limp over to the infirmary and spend five whole points on a healing procedure — I didn't want to mess up my evening cultivation. The Flow always struck the weakest point, and instead of forty minutes of decent practice, I could've ended up in agony. Not a risk I was willing to take, especially since this was my first cultivation after breaking through the bottleneck.

I even cancelled my training with Kate.

While my foot was being treated in a personal pod — the doctor decided there was no need to shove me in completely — I had time to think. What else was I supposed to do, stuck motionless for two hours with my leg clamped in place?

I had 24 ampoules of Fist essence. I couldn't return them to the school shop — they didn't do refunds, and not all those ampoules had exactly... clean history on how they ended up in my locker.

I could try exchanging them for other types, but only in off-the-books trades. The problem was, no one bought ampoules in bulk like I had. So if I wanted to trade one, someone would need to go to the shop and buy a specific essence first. And why would anyone do that, when they could just get exactly what they needed?

I could sell the ampoules for units — since the school store no longer accepted them that way — but I wasn't exactly strapped for units right now...

I could definitely trade them with students from another school, but until second year, meeting anyone outside our own campus was extremely unlikely. So, for now, those Fist essences were here to stay — permanent tenants in my locker.

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A shame, really. I would've gladly traded them for Palm or Wood, just to start learning how to sense their qi.

I glanced again at my roots:

Spiritual Roots:

Fire: 7

Water: 16

Lightning: 4

Air: 15

Earth: 16

Wood: 5

Martial Roots:

Blade: 5

Mace: 2

Point: 16

Fist: 50

Palm: 6

Finger: 11

Celestial Roots:

Gravity: 3

Vacuum: 1

I could already distinguish between Fist and Point. Water and Earth, though, were still out of reach...

Wait!

Kate wielded Lightning — and that wasn't taught at the Black Lotus School either. She'd learned to use that qi during her time at the Yellow Pine School, as part of an exchange programme. She couldn't be the only one.

Which meant there were probably others walking around campus who had access to different types of qi. The only question was: how to get them to help me...

No — that wasn't quite right. I didn't need them to train me. I just needed to sit in on one of their training sessions! Quietly. In the corner. With my hypersensitivity formation running.

I doubted it would be free, but in theory, it could be arranged.

I could learn Air in the Air Garden, but I'd need Alan to finish my armour — and that version wouldn't have the hypersensitivity module.

Marlon definitely wouldn't show me any of his techniques. He was fully focused on upcoming duels and wasn't going to reveal his cards early.

But Marlon wasn't my only shot...

I opened the assistant supervisor group chat.

Sullivan: Anyone here trained in Wind techniques?

Kowalski: Why?

Sullivan: Trying to learn how to sense Wind qi.

Kowalski: Omar's Wind.

Sullivan: Cheers!

I was already typing a direct message to Omar when he called me instead.

Incoming Call: S. Omar

Accept / Decline

"I'll show you Wind," he said, "you show me Fist."

"Deal!" I agreed.

"Not so fast," he stopped me. "I need to get my Fist root to fifteen first."

"Speaking of which! I've had a few enlightenments — and I was downing essence by the handful in the Garden. I've got a couple vials left. Want to trade?"

"How much?" he asked.

How much?

I couldn't tell the truth — otherwise he'd definitely guess that the essence Marek mentioned had ended up with me. Last thing I needed was people making up stories about me.

Right now, I had twenty-four vials. The guys had only given me twenty, and my root was...

It had hit twenty-six, since Kiren and Tan brought me twenty-four... Which meant I actually had nothing left?

"Jake?" Omar prompted again.

"Ah? Sorry, I'm mid-procedure. Twisted my ankle — getting it fixed. Bit distracting. Two," I decided. "I've got two vials left. Will you trade for... Palm essence? You were going to buy some anyway."

"Deal. I need exactly two to hit fifteen."

While Omar and I were talking, the group chat had evolved:

Kowalski: I wouldn't mind learning Wind too.

Lin: I'll teach Wood if someone shows me Mace or Point. Dubois?

Dubois: Ask Sun Hao. I can already sense Wood.

Kowalski: I can show Mace. Once I raise my root, you'll show me Wood?

Sullivan: Maybe we should form groups? One person demonstrates, the rest observe. I'd like to learn Wood and Mace too, but mine are practically zero — I'll need to level them up first.

Sun: I'll show Point and learn Wood. I'm in for the group idea.

Sun Hao surprised me. Not only did he agree with me, he also offered to work with Lin — and the two of them hadn't been getting along at all lately. Something had definitely gone down between them. But this group training idea could patch things up. At least, that was the hope — until Dubois almost ruined it:

Dubois: Someone needs to stay in the block at all times.

Sullivan: You're not into Wood anyway, so evenings should work.

Dubois: Please, but I want to learn Wind too!

Sullivan: Sun Hao, you're our only hope. Tell us you can already sense Wind.

Sun: I won't lie. I've got 3 in Wind. If you're in a rush, you can sit in on my shift.

Omar: There's not much to learn. Basically, I just let you sit in on my training session.

Sullivan: Not quite. You need to use strong techniques as close to us as possible.

Omar: It's Wind, mate. Precision isn't exactly its strength. Unless you're all armoured up.

Sullivan: Will the plastic shell do?

The plastic training armour was good enough for Omar. And even though he didn't need to learn Point himself, he agreed to demonstrate it to Dubois — probably to keep things civil.

We tried to coordinate our schedules after that, which wasn't easy — and then someone pointed out we were missing a Palm user...

I immediately thought of Denis and mentioned that my roommate cultivated Palm. No harm in including him.

Denis was interested in Wood — his only root above fifteen that matched a school specialisation — but Bao had already helped him with that. Still, Bao was after Mace, and Denis owed him, so we agreed Denis would show us Palm, and Kowalski would show Bao Mace.

Bao, despite having crystals stashed away, acted less like a rich kid and more like a penny-pinching miser. In this case, it was about points. He was laser-focused on earning them and had started copying either Denis or Marlon, depending on the day. He flat-out refused to spend any on essence for non-specialised roots. Wood and Mace — end of story.

I started thinking more seriously about his approach. By the end of the year, we'd all have thousands of points, sure — but only a quarter of us would advance to the second year. There was a certain logic to his focus. Even if I ignored the Celestial Roots and those outside the school's core, the odds of facing someone using those in a duel were low. I'd still need thirty-two more vials to bring all my roots to fifteen. Omar would give me two. That left thirty — thirty times five was 150 points. I had 364 right now.

I hadn't worked much this past month, but my quota had been covered thanks to my shift in the Fist Garden — before the punishment squads showed up. Lately, things had improved since I moved to saturation work, but Bao was way ahead — nearly triple. He already had a thousand points. Denis had 900.

Their strategy had merit — but I'd already seen just how valuable danger sensing could be. When you couldn't see it coming, but your back still knew something sharp was flying toward it? That kind of awareness might not be a matter of life and death, for now, but it could definitely win you a duel.

And besides — I was banking on hitting Second Stage early. That alone would bring a ton of points.

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