24. A Multilevel Marketing Scheme (Patreon)

EMPRESS

Tankano Ichika's introduction to the Starry Waters Sect was not an especially auspicious one. First off, the core disciple had marched up the stairs with no regard for poor young Hana, who was scarcely a third of the way through the first realm. While she was certainly more hale than she had been mere weeks before, she was still barely past the average moral. Not bad, considering where she'd started, but those were clearly fartoo many steps for her.

How did the sect bring mortal dignitaries into the sect grounds? Did they just fly them up? Because surely they wouldn't use the stairs. To get Hana to the top, Lynn had debased herself and allowed the younger woman to ride upon her back, but needs must.

No sooner were they at the top of the stairs, one of the outer sect members had stormed up to them and demanded a duel with Lynn… whom the angry girl had mistaken for Lynn! That was mortifying in of itself.

Fortunately, Lynn had managed not to embarrass herself. True, she'd lost handily after about a minute of mostly running, but she'd also taken numerous solid strikes without serious injury and fired off her own technique (if it could be called that) as well as proving her speed and agility for Core Disciple Khando to observe. She hadn't yielded, even after taking a punishing blow to the kidney.

Then Lin, unable to control her impulsive nature, had emerged from Lynn's dantian and taken the girl, Zileng, by surprise. Given the spiritual nature of Lin's attacks, Zileng had been unprepared to mount a defense, and only Khando's swift intervention had saved the girl from serious injury to her dantian. It was an unfortunate breach of decorum, but it suggested that Lynn had been polite in reining in her more powerful attacks, thus painting her duel in an altogether different light.

Knowing the transmigrator, it simply hadn't occurred to her that she might gain an advantage by fighting alongside her… sister. Yes, Lin seemed to think they were sisters and Lynn hadn't once repudiated her.

Lynn simply didn't think of combat as an important part of her life - that would have to change if she was to flourish in the sect.

After the duel, Core Disciple Khando led the four of them to the Scholars' Hall, which served as the administrative hub for the outer sect. The sect's layout was similar to the several other sects that Ichika had been privileged to visit, back when she was still a welcome part of her father's entourage. It was hard to believe that was only a year ago.

The outer sect occupied a broad swath of mountaintop, a crescent that stretched perhaps five li from tip to tip and spanned two li at its thickest. At the center of the crescent were the entry steps to the outside and the ascent to the inner sect on the inside. The Scholars' Hall was located just beside the grand marble stairway leading up to the inner sect.

Like most of the outer sect building, it had been extruded directly from the stone of the mountainside. Since the Starry Waters sect was renowned for its water and celestial techniques, it was unlikely that any sect members had the skill with earth qi to do the job. Most likely, they'd exchanged favors with another sect to get the buildings built. Consequently, most of the structures were sturdy but plain, the only adornments having been either manually chiseled in or inexpertly shaped by dilettantes using trifling earth techniques. It left an overall impression of efficient asceticism.

Though there were rather a lot of fountains and meditative pools. That was, perhaps, to be expected.

"And here we have the Scholars' Hall, where you can access the public archives with sect contribution points," Khando said. He gestured toward the large domed building, perhaps a quarter the size of father's castle back in the west country.

"Contribution points?" Lynn and Hana both asked. It was almost adorably naïve.

"We can discuss those within," Khando said amiably.

They passed under a great stone archway and into the cool, dim confines of the hall. The atrium and nearby hallways were lit via crystal panels that faintly hummed with qi - they were expertly-made and emitted no noticeable heat, perhaps to be expected of a sect that cultivated celestial qi in addition to the more-common water.

After a short trip through the hallways, past vast troves of scrolls and study rooms where groups of students quietly but vehemently discussed the contents of scrolls, bound books, and old slate tablets, they arrived at a small office staffed by a dark-eyed middle-aged woman as well as a young man hunched over a scroll, brush at the ready.

"Core Disciple Jamyang, I bring our newest junior brethren!" Khando announced.

The woman clasped her hands and nodded. "Thank you, brother. Please, come in! Let me get a good look at you!"

They stepped inside to the modest, well-lit office. It was larger than Ichika had expected due to its rounded shape and domed ceiling, as if the room was the pod of a large fruit rather than an office within an administrative hub. Multiple large crystals gave the room the impression of indirect sunlight.

"A very promising group, indeed. If my senses aren't lying, two are within the third realm, and the gentleman… Mister Wang if the records don't deceive me… is quite close. And you, young lady, are mere steps into your journey. You remind me of my granddaughter!" she chuckled.

The woman looked to be in her middle forties, her hair still mostly dark. But, given that she was a core disciple, Jamyang must have been fairly late in the fourth realm if not bourgeoning into the fifth, she might well be pushing a century old and have the appearance of less than half that age.

"If you'll each push a bit of qi into one of the crystal globes, it will give me a better idea of what energies you've been cultivating and how pure your affinity for it is… I trust we don't have any earth or fire affinities here?"

Fortunately, none of them did - Big Shilei cultivated mostly earth and nature, but he was currently starting a new life a thousand feet below in Lake Lhim City and wouldn't be cultivating any energies any time soon. Ken had been close to a pure fire cultivator, but he… he'd been killed trying to save them. Try nothing… he did save their hides by staving off Ieyasu's attack for long enough that Lord Inspector Fun could encircle and capture his men. If only he'd arrived a minute earlier.

It's quite possible that he could have intervened earlier. For all Ichika knew, Fun had orders to make sure Ichika was relatively unharmed but to otherwise let the battle play out. Ichika had wanted to escape a forced marriage to a boor, and she'd gotten a friend and protector killed.

She was no better than the young noble girl in an adventure romance escaping her strict family's clutches, playing at heroic banditry, and getting her confidant killed. Only, instead of encountering a manly and virtuous hero cultivator, she already had her Yangutan and she'd encountered a bloody transmigrator.

"Lady Tankano?" the core disciple repeated, a pulse of qi flitting out to capture her attention.

"Oh! Sorry," Ichika mumbled, hoping the blush she felt hadn't reached her cheeks. Yangutan had already gone and she hadn't even been paying attention.

She placed her hand on the cool crystal and pulsed qi into it as if she was activating an array - in fact, that's exactly what she was doing. The assessment crystals were designed to present varying colors of varying intensities and constancy based on the alignment, intensity, and purity of the qi pulsed into them.

Of course, they were only pulsing a bit into them - too much would simply turn the sphere pure white and make any further assessment impossible. Anybody beyond the mid-second realm could pull that off, so it wasn't particularly impressive the way it was in the novels, when a protagonist revealed their audacious talent by turning an assessment crystal pure white with little training. Such scenes were cringeworthy and suggested a poor understanding of qi and cultivation on the author's part.

Ichika drew upon her dantian and artfully deposited a representative sample of her inner qi into the sphere. It flared into the shimmering, sparkling silver of lunar and silver qi with a faint fluttering aura of the lightest lapis blue.

"Mostly lunar and something celestial metallic… silver? The affinity is as pure as it comes! And just a hint of air, a bit less pure," Core Disciple Jamyang stated. "The celestial elements are notoriously difficult to work with, so it's good that you've got a solid base of that already. Air and water together can be tricky to balance against a celestial dominant, since they combine to be much closer to earth. Still, if you can manage so much lunar and silver qi without any instability at your stage, I don't see why you couldn't add water into the mix - that is, assuming you intend to learn our sect's signature techniques."

Ichika clasped her hands and bowed. "Of course, senior sister - it would be a tragedy to become a disciple of the Starry Waters without pursuing the fruits of its masters…"

"Well said, junior sister… well… soon-to-be junior sister!" Jamyang chuckled. With a wave of her fingers, the light in the assessment crystal extinguished and her sharp, sky-blue eyes turned to Lynn. Ichika uttered a small prayer to her ancestors, if they were even still listening to such an unfilial daughter, that Lynn wouldn't make a mess of things as she tended to do. "Miss Lee?"

"Okay…" Lynn nibbled at her lip. "I'm not very good at pushing out qi, though. Well… not from my hands…" She wiggled her fingers - they were the size of a seven- or eight-year-old child's fingers and only slightly too small for the undersized palm they were attached to, ruddy ochre in color and with a faint sheen of leaking bodily fluids. She closed her eyes and qi began to pull out of the audaciously rigid foundation that was her cultivated dantian.

For a moment, Ichika was certain that Lynn was about to pulse qi right out of her dantian, as she was wont to do. But she managed to rein it in and pull a wisp along her meridians. When Ichika had explained what meridians were and about where the primary ones were located, she'd become extremely excited and gone on about how an Earth friend of hers who used to practice acupuncture had once given her a whole chart of the meridians along with something called chakra, which sounded similar but Ichika had never heard of them.

The qi tried to rebel - Ichika could feel it perturb as it moved down the meridian. This was the problem with moving so many varieties of qi at once: for each mote of qi (well… Lynn insisted that they were fibers or threads), there was another opposing mote, and if their energies intersected, or even grew too close, they would annihilate and lead to deviation. Lynn took in a slow breath, her brow flitting as she struggled to warp the energies - and warp them she did. They somehow melded into a single unified stream, a manipulation that should have been impossible, but that Ichika had observed enough times to know somehow worked.

The crystal glowed a brilliant white. Lynn's eyes fluttered open and then went wide in surprised. "What… what does that mean?" she gasped.

Core Disciple Jamyang snorted in amusement just a Ichika did. "It means you pushed too much qi into it. Try again with less." Without so much as fidgeting at the artifact, she snuffed its light out. "If you would, junior sister?"

"It wasn't very much qi," Lynn protested. "Fine… here goes…"

This time, the qi came more easily, though it was no less than before. It proceeded out from Lynn's core and shot toward the sphere. Ichika obviously couldn't differentiate between individual meridians - it would take another two realms of cultivation and quite a bit of experience until she might be capable of that - but she could feel the bulk of it moving…

At the last second, the energy paused and the majority of it shunted back into Lynn's core, effortlessly settling in with no hint of disturbance. The remainder pulsed into the sphere, which alit with a pale, ghostly light so constant you might have mistaken it for the room's ambient lighting.

"Well… now that's something," Jamyang murmured. "Have you ever seen anything like that, Brother Khando?"

The other core disciple crouched by the sphere, tapping on it with a stubby finger as he considered the question. "I'm not even sure what I'm looking at. It's… I'm assuming that's gray qi? Which would be… what? Every variety together? Even black thanatopic qi?"

"And perfectly pure," Jamyang added. "How would one even cultivate such a thing, let alone incorporate it into their foundation?"

"So… did I pass?" Lynn asked.

Jamyang nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, you 'passed'… though I will note this and there may be questions later… and it means your cultivation is compatible with the sect's techniques but may be suboptimal…"

"Oh…" Lynn murmured, deflating slightly. Though Ichika was well-aware that befuddling two cultivators close to the fifth realm was very telling. If Lynn's cultivation had been obviously flawed, that would have been fairly straightforward. That the two core disciples weren't even sure what to think, that two cultivators with decades of practice under their belt were at a loss, only reinforced Ichika's thoughts on the topic…

Namely, that Lynn was onto something big, and that no senior cultivator could fully help her develop it. This would have to be her life's work, if she was resolute enough to brave it…

And, not for the first time, Ichika pondered whether shecould help Lynn, and whether she was ready to sacrifice what was needed to do so.

"And finally, young Miss Shan." Core Disciple Jamyang smiled blandly, having impressively recomposed herself.

"I… I don't really know how to direct my qi yet…" she mumbled. "I can barely even cultivate it… I'm barely even a…"

Lynn wrapped her arm around the girl and drew her close. "A cultivator is a cultivator, no matter how early in their journey. Isn't that right, senior brethren?"

"That is correct," Jamyang replied without hesitation. Khando just nodded, a bit less enthused. "Miss Lee, if you would hold the sphere in front of Miss Shan's dantian, we can get something of an idea of her affinities based on what the sphere looks like when she cultivates. I would request that the rest of you restrain your auras insofar as possible, assuming you're capable of doing so…"

"I'm not what that even means," Lynn admitted.

In truth, few cultivators before the fourth realm had enough of an external aura to even present an issue. But for a beginning cultivator like Hana, Ichika supposed that every little bit counted. She did her best to rein in her own reflexive influence upon the surrounding qi. Lynn shot her a curious look.

"Ohh… I can just still my inner light. That works!"

And, just like that, the faint aura surrounding Lynn winked out, as if it had never existed at all. Ichika could only shake her head - what could one say regarding the bizarrely uneven talents of a transmigrator?

They eventually got a measurement out of Hana, but it was imprecise, indicating that she was primarily a water cultivator lacking in purity, though that poor purity could have been an artifact of her nascent cultivation. Of course, Ichika expected that Hana's assessment was broadly incorrect…

Hana read as a water cultivator because water qi dominated here in a ratio of something like twenty to one over the next strongest type. This was on account of the massive array around the sect funneling energy from Lake Lhim's substantial qi vent up into the sect grounds. Hana was taking everything in, just like Lynn did, but the majority at the moment happened to be lake-aspected water qi.

"With the proper mentorship and aids, your qi purity will improve, though it will likely never be exemplary without tireless effort," Khando stated.

"I understand, senior brother," Hana said seriously, offering a perfectly proper bow. "I will be tireless!"

"Good. That's good," the man replied, mildly amused.

Ichika didn't care for the man - he was too full of himself and seemed to delight in putting his juniors on the spot and making them uncomfortable. Thinking on one's feet was an important skill for a cultivator, but a mentor ought not to relish in their student's discomfort… though Ichika knew from experience that more did so than did not.

"Based on my attested assessment, and as witnessed by Brother Khando, you are all cultivators with aspects suitable for the Starry Waters Sect. As such, you are hereby invited to take the oath of the outer sect member to become full members of the outer sect - all except for Miss Shen, who will take the oath but remain an initiate until she begins her path to bodily purification. I will ask you to place the palm of your dominant hand upon the sect stele and then repeat after me, taking the full meaning of the sect oath to heart."

Core Disciple Jamyang nodded to Khando, who carried in a stone pillar as wide as a man and taller than Ichika's navel into the room as if it were no heavier than a pail of water. Ichika felt the impact as it thumped against the floor and then noted a complex network of interlocking qi arrays pulsing within the thing - a sacred oathstone such as the one her father had once used when she swore fealty to the Tankano clan…

An oath that her father would swear she had broken. But oathstones were the constructs of humans - intelligent and powerful humans, but humans nonetheless. The magical stone didn't magically know if you broke an oath. Only you, the oath-taker, could know that…

For instance, Ichika had never foresworn her vow to uphold the honor, ideals, and tradition of her clan. No, her father had broken his honor when he arranged a marriage in bad faith. And Ichika and her loyal retinue therefore remained loyal insofar as she, Tankano RinIchika, was concerned.

"I swear under the heavens, upon my honor, and by my cultivation that I will honor the Sect of the Starry Waters, that I have no debts, alliances, or obligations that would put me at odds with the sect, and that I will adhere to the sect strictures and obey my seniors. I swear that I will hold precious the gifts of the stars and the waters, and that I will not divulge what is gifted to me in confidence with the outsider. I swear that I will conduct myself with honor befitting a cultivator, to use my strength for the glory of my emperor, my sect, and myself, and that I will defend my juniors and those entrusted to my care. I swear that I shall be a disciple of the Sect of the Starry Waters until I am released from my oath. So do I swear!"

Ichika repeated the words easily - she had met one or two members of the Starry Waters sect before, and they didn't strike her as particularly shackled by their oath. Some sects mired their disciples in asceticism or practices that many would consider bizarre, from ritual shaving to mantras and idiosyncratic movements that took up hours of each day. When wandering outside the sect, members of the Starry Waters seemed like regular human beings…

If Ichika had found any of the oath objectionable, she could have refused to complete the oath, and it would not bind. Her only qualm was that her oath to her Tankano Clan might one day conflict with her oath to the sect. She would hope that the day never came for, while a cultivator could survive breaking an oath, the amount of damage corresponded to how highly a cultivator held their honor. Knowing Lynn, she would be set back by a week… but Ichika would likely suffer greatly. She might not show it… her father might renounce her… but Tankano honor resided deep in her soul.

Ichika said the oath, the magic washed over her, tethering the oath to the primordial nexus within her dantian that would one day ignite and become a proper cultivator's core. As easily as turning her hand, she had become a member of the Starry Waters sect.

"Excellent!" Senior Brother Khando clapped his hands exactly once. "Welcome junior brother and sisters!"

"Indeed," Senior Sister Jamyang said. "Now… let us speak of your obligations. Let us speak of contribution points."

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I knew a multilevel marketing scheme when I saw one. Contribution points? Whatever happened to cold, hard cash?

I guess it was a good thing I said the oath with my fingers crossed, because the oath was some weird culty bullshit. Use my strength for the glory of the emperor? No thanks. I don't even know the guy! They even had an NDA baked into the oath!

And then, of course, there was the obedience bit. I've never been an anarchist or anything crazy like that, but it's very hard to live a positive, self-affirming lifestyle when you place others over yourself. Ideally, you should view everybody as your equal, or else every interaction comes from some kind of obligation rather than freely. Your actions don't have meaning if they aren't made freely - you might as well be a robot!

Still, I felt some weird energy push its way into my dantian when I finished saying the oath. Afterwards, I didn't really feel any different, but that had to mean something, right? Then Core Disciple Jamyang started in with the multilevel marketing shit…

"We will start you with seven contribution points as gratitude for taking the oath and becoming members of the outer sect. You will then accrue further points for performing sect services. These points can be claimed in turn for various benefits. The most common expenditures and rewards for the outer sect are as follows:
-1 point for 5 meal tokens, to be redeemed at one of the outer sect kitchens
-2 points for 1 week of communal residence
-5 points for 1 week of private residence
-2 points for 1 set of sect robes in qi-reinforced cotton and silk
-2 points for 5 articles of tier 1 cultivation aids, effective through the 2nd realm (redeemed through the alchemist)
-5 points for 5 articles of tier 2 cultivation aids, effective through the 3rd realm (redeemed through the alchemist)
-1 point for 10 public lesson tokens
-3 points for 2 hrs of private lessons with an inner sect tutor
-10 points for 2 hrs of private lessons with a core sect tutor
+1 point for 2 hours of menial sect work
+1 point for 1 hour of skilled sect work
+2 points for 1 hour of advanced sect work
+additional points for completing sect tasks (registered through the Scholars' Hall administrative desk)

Since you currently have only seven points, it is recommended that you begin allocating four points for communal residence plus ten meals. I would recommend that you distribute your remaining points for cultivation aids and lesson tokens so you can begin advancing quickly…"

"Um…" I raised my hand. "So… cultivation aids for third realm cultivators is five points, not two…"

Jamyang tilted her head with an equanimous nod. "You will still likely get some benefit from the tier one aids, especially as you are unused to focusing water qi. There will be time enough to try the more advanced aids."

I wrinkled my nose, not really liking my options. But I knew there was a way to game almost any system, and I bet these guys didn't have anything near as insidious as the pyramid scheme crap they had back on Earth, where you found yourself having to sell hundreds of dollars' worth of essential oils to your friends just to break even. I never fell for that, thank the heavens, but like half of my yoga class was peddling oils, aromatherapy, and yoni crystals during my time at CalOc.

"Cultivation aids seem like a kind of bad deal, since somebody could just steal them in a duel," I said. "Sign me up for private residence and, uh, I guess ten meal tokens…"

"I would recommend cultivation aids and lesson tokens, junior sister," Jamyang said with the same placid smile.

"But it's not mandatory, right?"

"Senior disciples are… discouraged from ordering junior disciples in how to spend their contribution points. I will not do so here. I will only say that typically, students find great utility in the lessons and cultivation aids we supply."

"Yeah, but like you said, senior sister, there's time enough to try all the other stuff. So I figure I'll take a week to get my bearings and earn some of these contribution points, and then maybe I'll be ready for school and drugs next week?"

"I respect your decision and pray you do not come to regret it, junior sister. Very well. What of the rest of you?"

My jaw dropped when Ichika replied: "I shall follow senior sister's advice and allocate them as suggested." She nudged Monkey.

"Um… right… same here…"

Jamyang's eyes turned toward Hana. "I'll… I'll do the same one that Mistress Lynn is doing!"

"Mistress Lynn?" Khando said with a grunt.

Hana nodded uncertainly. "She's… she's the reason I'm a cultivator at all. Mistress Lynn is my mentor."

"An outer sect disciple cannot be a cultivation mentor, even if they're much further along than you are. They may offer tips or pointers, but they are not your mentor. More advanced cultivators should be addressed as 'senior sister' unless they themselves suggest that informality is acceptable. Do you understand?"

Hana looked visibly offended, which I appreciated. But she nodded nonetheless, her shoulders drooping. "Yes, senior brother."

"Good. I will submit your decisions, questionable though some of them may be, to Sister Tin, the outer sect pointmaster. Any further expenditure should go through her office just inside the entrance. I will have somebody meet you outside the building entrance to show you to your quarters. You are dismissed, junior brother and sisters."

"Thank you, senior brother," Ichika said with a very proper bow. I bowed immediately afterward, but I'm not ashamed to say I half-assed the bow out of spite. I then turned and gave Core Disciple Jamyang a slightly-crisper bow before filing out with Hana on my heels.

We passed the Contribution Office before exiting out into the late afternoon sunlight. As we waited by the entrance for our guide, I had my first actual minute to think since I'd arrived up on the plateau of the Starry Waters outer sect.

The qi here was strong - strong enough that I could tell it was the still, fresh water qi of the lake, somehow being funneled up through the mountains. No wonder Hana's cultivation had registered as water-based. There was so much of it! I'd been aware of the different qi levels after we left the Heaven's Abyss area - the qi wasn't necessarily higher, but there was almost always a dominant aspect, and there were fewer sources overall, but each was stronger on average.

The levels had gone up as we passed through the abandoned city wedged between Lake Lhim and the sect's mountain, and they were higher yet here. It was like listening to the radio in a major city after driving through the country for hours and hours - the fuzzy country music and Christian revival stations were replaced with crystal-clear hip-hop and pop channels.

This was going to affect how I cultivated. I glanced toward Hana - how we cultivated.

"Are we really not going to take any lessons, Mist- Senior Sister Lynn? I think they might be valuable…"

I shrugged. "I think you're right. But a week or two isn't going to make any difference for your lessons, but it mightmake a difference for figuring out our cultivation routine. We're going to have to be very careful not to cultivate too much water qi."

"Really?" Hana pouted. "But there's so much of it, and it's so easy to gather!"

"Exactly! And what will happen if you try to cultivate fire qi afterward? Or even something non-destructive like earth qi?"

"It…" Hana's eyes went wide. "It would be a lot harder to balance qi bundles… er… braids, senior sister! I could have ruined my cultivation!"

"It sounds like that's exactly how they want you to cultivate. Lots of water with some celestial qi thrown in. It would probably be perfect if you want to advance in the sect…"

"I do," Hana said. "But our way is better, right? Every kind of qi is better than just a few kinds!"

"Better for what, Hana?" I asked her. "I don't know much about fighting - you saw that just like everybody else. So if you want to be a great fighter, I'm not the best one to ask. Maybe you'd be better off just sucking in water qi. I'm sure you'd be half-way through the second realm a few weeks from now…"

Hana shook her head vehemently. "I'm going to try it your way, senior sister. Like you're always saying - if it doesn't work, you can steal the mulligan."

"Take a mulligan," I laughed. "But yeah, you're right." I clasped my hands and bowed as Ichika had showed me. "Senior sister thanks junior sister for the insight."

Hana giggled in response. "Lynn!" She covered her mouth in shock. "Er… senior sister…"

"Hana, you can always be informal around me, alright? Let's just be like… like if we were real sisters, alright?" I felt a vague stirring within me. "You and me and Lin. Okaaah!" I yelped out the last word as Hana leapt into a hug.

She might have just been starting on her cultivation journey, but she could manage a pretty good surprise pounce.

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When I was a student at CalOc, there were always a bunch of kids who would arrive on campus like the day before classes started and who left as soon as final exams were over. In my opinion, that was a shame, because they always missed out on what Santo Domingo Bay had to offer. By the time they graduated, only around half of them had ever bothered to explore town beyond the beach and the campus drag to see what was where.

I probably wouldn't have ever gotten into teaching yoga and being a life coach if I hadn't stumbled across Stefi's studio on Bayona Boulevard in the days before my sophomore year. The two of us hit it off, and she became one of my besties. Stefi was sitting front and center, right next to my parents, on the day I opened my studio with Rhiannon and Bailey.

If I read the sect's rules properly, I wasn't required to do anything sect-related as long as I made enough of their dumb contribution points for sect housing. They didn't require you to do anything else no matter how strongly they encouraged it. I didn't ask for this life, and I wasn't about to relinquish what freedom I had.

"What do you say we go down and check out the town?" I asked Hana.

"There are so many steps!" Hana said.

"If you make it up the first five hundred, I'll carry you the rest of the way."

Hana seemed to compute that number in her head. "That's more than the first time…"

"Yeah. Don't you think you'll eventually be able to do the stairs without a piggyback?"

She grimaced. "I hate it when you call it that, like I'm a pig…"

"In the metaphor, I'm the pig…"

"What do pigs carry on their backs?"

I shrugged. "Lazy little sisters, I guess."

"Do I get a piggyback ride?" Lin asked - she'd come out of hiding when we checked out our new digs in the sect's private residence area and had come out again in the morning, shortly after the sect's 'sunrise bell' had awoken me.

"You can just go into my dantian where you've got smoothies, video games, and central air…" My willpower crumbled in the face of her forlorn expression. "But I'll carry you up the first five hundred steps if you really want me to."

"I do!"

"Okay, then let's make a day trip of it. Let's ask the other girls if they want to come…"

The housing in the outer sect was segregated by sex, except for a few small houses for married couples. Anybody with kids, though, had to arrange for them to live down in the city until they became a cultivator. That usually didn't happen until thirteen or fourteen, though some kids awakened as early as ten if they'd gotten qi from their mom during gestation…

Ichika told me about that, but she seemed to have some resentment over the issue for some reason. Maybe it was another family issue she hadn't told me about - she seemed to have a lot of those!

The private residences were nothing to write home about - a small bedroom with a built-in bed and mattress and enough room to furnish if you had the budget. I could already see myself setting up a small study area and a small cultivation nook. There were four bedrooms to a unit with a common room and a shared bath.

The good thing about living in a water cultivator sect was that they had something like modern plumbing. The toilet was constantly burbling, and any waste was quickly whisked away. Even kitchen waste was supposed to go down there. The bathtub was also always full and burbling with fresh water - there was no temperature control, but my cultivator body didn't find the lukewarm water uncomfortable at all. Hana thought it was a bit cool, but I'm sure she would toughen up.

Hana and I had rooms situated next to one another. Normally, initiates weren't even allowed to have private residences, but Hana's noble birthright, even if it was the lowest possible noble rank as the heir of a house with no demesne, apparently afforded her the option. Yay us!

I'd only yet met one of our two housemates, a tall (even taller than me! - almost as tall as Big Shilei!), rail-thin girl named Junior Sister Daiyu. It was strange that she'd been in the sect for like three years, but she was still 'junior sister' to me because I was in the third realm and she was still mid-way through her body refinement. I wondered if her refinement would fill her out, or if it would just refine her awkward body without changing too much.

She might get even taller… I'm pretty sure I was a bit taller than I had been on Earth, but it was hard to tell since regular people were all so short and I was just about even with the average cultivator man. If the average mortal man was five feet five and the average mortal woman was five feet even, that would put me just under six feet tall. In any case, I'd met her the evening before and showed her Lin, whom Daiyu was very curious about, and Lin relished in the attention, going on for over an hour about what it was like to be a bonded spirit.

I knocked on Daiyu's door and it creaked open - she was out already. Plenty of sect stuff to do, I guess.

Shrugging to Hana, I wandered across the common room to the other bedroom of our quad and knocked on the door to see if our mystery fourth housemate wanted to go into town. It would be nice to have an experienced guide to show us the sights of the city.

I knocked on the door. It creaked open. A familiar face popped out.

"You!" we both shouted.

Yes, my new roommate was none other than Sect Sister Zileng!