When I returned to the classroom, I was surprised to see the other students still cultivating. Examining them in qi vision, I saw that one boy and one girl were struggling to continue cultivating as Martial Disciple 4s, one girl was stuck at Martial Disciple 3, and the last boy was having trouble concentrating at only Martial Disciple 2.


    I looked to Instructor Sun to see what I was supposed to do, and he gestured for me to retake my seat, so that’s what I did. I didn’t even consider cultivating again in the qi-flooded environment, though. Instead, I just watched as the instructor assisted the other students.


    From what I could see, the problem was that they couldn’t focus, which made sense. I doubted they could even really think about cultivating. Rage from their techniques must be overwhelming them at all times.


    When it was clear no one was making any more progress, the instructor went to each student one by one and tapped on their open acupoints. After his treatment, their faces immediately relaxed.


    Instructor Sun walked to the front of the classroom and gestured at a diagram of the human body.


    “I have sealed your acupoints, but you should still be able to feel them pulsing. Try to feel the location of these pulses as accurately as possible. That is the location of the interface between your physical body and your energy body.”


    I reached out with my spiritual senses to my acupoints and felt them. They weren’t exactly pulsing like the instructor described, likely because I had sealed them myself, but I could sense a kind of pressure locked inside. It felt like there was an alien will that wanted to be released.


    I had always considered acupoints as holes through my body, connecting my muscles to the outside world. As I examined them closely, I realized that this paradigm didn’t make any sense. There weren’t any holes in my body. I should have realized this sooner, but I never stopped to think too much about it. Now, I was beginning to see that instead of being holes in my body, they were more like holes through reality. Between realities?


    The acupoints didn’t connect my muscles with the outside world, they connected the muscles of my physical body with those of my energy body, allowing the transfer of energy between the two.


    “Right now, I have completely blocked your acupoints preventing your energy body from affecting your mental state. You will need to learn to do this yourself, but this also blocks you from absorbing or using qi. The key is to learn control.”


    He walked over to the boy who had only risen to Disciple 2. Not giving the kid a chance to react, the instructor reached out and tapped one of his acupoints, completely unblocking it.


    The boy screamed in rage and moved to stand, but the instructor held him down with a hand on his shoulder.


    “Before, his acupoint was fully closed. Now, it is fully open. In most cases, neither state is ideal.” The instructor moved his qi to attenuate the energy flowing through the boy’s acupoint.


    The boy’s expression shifted as he slowly regained control.


    “That looks right. 5% open. It’s a bit low, but keeping it at this level will allow you to remain fully lucid while still having access to qi.” He looked around the room and met all of our eyes. “This is the idea. Learn to control the openings to your energy body. When you need a strong flow, or when you are cultivating with pills in a prepared chamber, fully opened acupoints may be best. However, in regular day-to-day life, you will want to keep them turned down so that the mental influences don’t overwhelm you.”


    I thought about Instructor Sun’s explanation and tried to match it up with my experiences. It didn’t seem right. Back in the Twin Mountain Sect, I had reached a point where I could flip on or off the effects from two different cultivation techniques without limiting my qi flow at all. His description seemed to fit with my more recent lives better, where the cultivation technique took over my mind, but it still didn’t match up completely.


    I had a bad habit of only taking the information people gave me and working to draw my own conclusions from there, but that needed to stop. With a trained, knowledgeable teacher in front of me, I needed to ask questions to help settle my doubts.


    I raised my hand. The instructor’s eyebrow raised at the interruption, but he gestured for me to speak.


    “As I understand it,” I began, unwilling to explain my direct experience, “a cultivator can block or accept the mental impulses from a cultivation technique without cutting off the qi flow. So why would we focus on blocking meridians?”


    The instructor gave a slight smile. “As you cultivate, your energy body will develop its own… personality. If you have a strong soul and a solid grasp of who you are, you can block the influences of this personality and only let them through as you desire. However, you are all 16 years old. You don’t know who you are yet. If you let your energy body’s personality through, it can easily consume you. Putting limits on it will let you develop your own personality without its influence.”


    I had an idea of what he was saying, but some things didn’t quite match. “Doesn’t a stronger soul—”


    The instructor held up a hand to stop me.


    “These are discussions to have much later.” He gestured at my classmates. “Right now, we need to understand the basics of acupoint control. The role your soul plays in this balance will be addressed in higher-level courses.”


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    I nodded, accepting his decision.


    For the rest of the day, Instructor Sun worked with the other students to perfect their ability to regulate their flow through their acupoints. Just by watching how he controlled the other student’s energy flows, I understood what I was supposed to do. When I was in the room with the grandmaster, I was able to quickly figure out how to slam my acupoints shut, so learning to attenuate the flow of energy came easily.


    At the end of class, the instructor walked to the front of the room to address us all at once.


    “For tonight, I will leave your acupoints blocked. Tomorrow, I expect you all to be able to advance several more stages.”


    He looked at me with a slightly conflicted expression.


    “As the first student to reach Peak Disciple, you are granted one technique from the library.” He threw a token at me. “If you don’t have a proper cultivation technique, you should go get one now so you can start studying it. If you do have one, you will probably want to save that.”


    I bowed and headed to the exit along with the other students.


    “Su Fang.” The boy who had only been able to reach Martial Disciple 2 spoke up as we were nearing the door. “We always visit the dining hall together after classes. Do you want to join us?”


    “I don’t know… I think—”


    “Yes, he does.” Halted in our tracks by these words, the entire group looked back to Instructor Sun. He was glaring at me. “To know who you are after you become a cultivator, you must know who you were before being a cultivator. Spend time with them. Talk to them. Learn about them and learn about yourself.”


    I dipped my head in acknowledgment.


    <hr>


    The Academy’s dining hall was a large multi-story building that fed over a thousand students every day. There weren’t any private rooms, but after standing in line and receiving our meals, the group found a secluded table in the corner of the hall to talk.


    “So, Su Fang, my name is Zhuge Yan. Nice to meet you,” said the boy who invited me to the meal, giving me a slight nod of his head.


    “Nice to meet you.” I smiled awkwardly.


    Not willing to let my apparent awkwardness dull the mood, the boy kept talking.


    “This is Shi Yulong, Chai JiaQi, and Lin LiTing.” He pointed to the other boy, the girl who made it to Martial Disciple 4, and the girl who only made it to Martial Disciple 3 in order. “We’ve been here a little over a month, but you were able to beat us good today.”


    I watched and gave a wry smile. If I had been paying attention to the others in the room, I wouldn’t have cultivated so quickly.


    “No need to be embarrassed. It’s good that someone was able to call ol’ Sun’s bluff. I don’t think he really intended for any of us to get that free technique he promised.”


    The meal devolved into silence as we began eating, but the girl named Lin LiTing finally broke it.


    “So, Su Fang, where are you from? I’m a minor noble from the Waxing Moon Empire. One of the princesses decided I was talented and sponsored my education here. What about you?”


    I knew the school could likely track me down if they wanted to, so I decided to be honest and see where that got me. At least, I would be as honest as I could be. “I’m from the Western Wastes.”


    “Really?” She looked up in surprise. “Hey JiaQi, that''s close to where you’re from, right?”


    The other girl furrowed her brow. “Yeah, it’s a bit north of the Empire of Tranquil Springs.”


    She looked at me with confusion in her eyes. “How did someone from the Wastes manage to come to the Nine Rivers territory?”


    I did my best to maintain my honesty while leaning on a bit of misdirection. “A senior directed me here. He thought it would be a good place for me to learn.”


    All four of the boys and girls at the table had a look of understanding when I said this.


    The larger boy, Shi Yulong, looked at me with excitement. “I won’t ask who it was because I know the rules for such things, but can you tell us anything about the senior?”


    I thought long and hard about what I could and couldn’t say. Again, there was information that wouldn’t be too hard for them to find out though. “He was from the Blue Wind Pavilion.”


    Chai Jiaqi began to have confusion in her eyes. “If you were in the Wastes, how did you meet a senior?”


    “This…” I had no idea what I should say. Did it make sense to tell them that I had left the Wastes? If I did, how could I explain taking a carriage from Dragon Gate City?


    Zhuge Yan spoke up to calm me down.


    “Don’t worry. None of us will pry into your secrets. Everyone has things that they can’t say.” He gave a meaningful look at the others around the table.


    “Yes,” Lin LiTing confirmed swiftly, eyeing the others. “No one wants people looking into their secrets.”


    Once again, the table fell into silence, but this time, I decided to be the one to break it.


    “They said where they are from.” I gestured at the girls and then looked at the boys. “Where are you two from?”


    Zhuge Yan gave me a surprised look and glanced at the other boy to signal for him to talk first.


    “I’m from up north. I’m a prince and a branch family of the Empire of Eternal Winter. Each year the family has a competition to see who will be sent to the Academy, and I was selected this time.”


    I nodded to him and looked at the other boy.


    “I’m from the Zhuge family.” He looked down and did not elaborate.


    I was about to ask more, but I caught the other boy shaking his head, so I stopped. Instead, I changed the topic to something that I considered more interesting.


    “What are your blessings?” Lin LiTing froze at the question, so I hurried to clarify. “Is that okay to ask?”


    “We all have comprehension blessings,” said Zhuge Yan, “as I’m sure you do as well.”


    I raised an eyebrow at this.


    “Grandmaster Ning always chooses people with comprehension blessings. Every Grandmaster has their own preferences, and his is for people who can easily specialize. Usually, that means comprehension blessings.”


    I nodded in understanding. “Mine seems to be a general cultivation comprehension boost.”


    Shi Yulong laughed. “That explains why you were able to cultivate so quickly today. I was wondering how you were able to beat us so bad.”


    I smiled but didn’t respond. The boy continued.


    “JiaQi and I both have martial arts comprehension boosts. You might be able to cultivate faster, but we’ll still be able to beat you up.” He flexed his muscles and gave a goofy grin.


    “Mine is a boost to strategy and planning,” said Zhuge Yan. “It won’t help me much right now, but I think the Grandmaster is hoping I’ll be able to support him after he becomes a Lord.”


    I should’ve realized it before, but his statements made it clear. This school wasn’t just about training us. It was about helping members of the Nine Rivers Sect establish connections with talented cultivators.


    I looked to the last girl who hadn’t spoken, but she just shook her head, not willing to talk about her blessing. Understanding that this was the secret she was referring to earlier, I didn’t press.


    For the rest of the meal, the other students talked about some of the things they had learned over the past month. It sounded like it was only learning qi control so that they could form their filters and begin cultivating. I might have missed something by arriving late, but it didn’t seem to be anything too vital.


    After we finished eating, Zhuge Yan spoke up.


    “Well, Su Fang, it was nice to meet you, but I’m ready to head back for the night. This acupoint is starting to become a nuisance, and I’m thinking I need to learn how to control it like you do before I’ll be able to get any kind of rest. Get some sleep tonight. You never know what tomorrow will bring.”