Eventually— because they were still pretty close to the farm— they forced themselves to get up and continue walking, for fear of facing that thing all over again. Up, this time— climbing only ever further into the dense forest, jagged rocks, streams… this time, at least, framed by the sun in backdrop, its gentle radiance transforming the whole world around them.

Not that the forest hadn’t been beautiful come the snows, with their pressing darkness and the way all the world closed in around them, alone— but the sunlight was a different, entirely more numinous type of beauty. Such radiance— it spilled through the pine-boughs, catching on each and every needle, glinting off their sharpness and sinking into their deep-green richness and shining effulgently onto the mosses below. A heart-achingly beautiful golden glow shattered and scattered, in a million parts manifest through the canopy above them as it was cast out over the forest.

They didn’t speak much, as they hiked upwards, following the streams that trickled down through the rocks when they could and climbing through the moss laden, thickets of ferns outstretched to sunlight above where they couldn’t. Speech wasn’t even really necessary, beneath the weight of that anticipation… that they were almost there. So close. So close…

It was a bit ironic though, that they didn’t even realize they were there until they stumbled out into a clearing in a sloped ravine, carved wide enough into the side of the mountain they hadn’t even realized they were climbing up that instead of the peak-proper. A series of pools of crystal water rested between the barren rocks—

Liquid water. They’d seen the streams, of course, but she’d just assumed they were a little more moving water than the one down in the valley. But— faced with the still pools, gently sitting there despite everything… steaming into the air, on closer inspection, she realized with a laugh that— “we’re here! We made it!”

Avyr slowly slunk forward to the lowest and largest of the pools, a serene thing; at the center of it rested a small island, unclaimed by any vegetation but just large enough for someone to sit on. For a human, they would have had to wade across the water to get there, but for Avyr…

His species was made to pounce. He settled, then leapt, empowered by his cultivation to sail across the fifteen foot gap and land so-gracefully on the center island. With one paw he tested the waters, tentatively— flicking it dry the moment he pulled it from the pool. “It’s warm.”

“No duh.”

“I mean, it’s hotter than I usually take my baths. At least a hundred degrees.” He settled into a strange position— half lounging, half purposeful, more like… and he breathed

. Eyes closed, therein emplaced, he looked utterly and completely serene. “At least the Association didn’t lie to us. I can feel the density of the yang energy in the air. If we went up to the peak…”

Lily glanced up at the peak above them— finally, now that they were out of the forest and no clouds occluded their view, visible at last. It was a jagged, harsh thing— a blackened spar of stone, punched in and shorn off at the top as though by some great force. It could very well have been that— some battle between ancient, powerful cultivators, the scars left to litter the land even now.

Treacherous as the ascent looked, it would probably be another two to three weeks to get up to the top from where they were— and that was just time they didn’t have. But the energy… she could not help but imagine it regardless, the sheer density of energy that accumulated at the final terminus between heaven and earth, mortal and immortal…

She shook her head. No point in dreaming up hypotheticals. “I think this place is good. Unless you want to head higher and search for somewhere more qi dense?”

Avyr shook his head. “No, you’re probably right. See there?” He lifted a paw and pointed it at the uppermost pool— no, not there, but beyond it, where a little crack just barely wide enough to fit a person in extended deeper into the face of the mountain. “Whatever is responsible for shifting the yang qi of the mountain into such a prevalent proportion of its total energies is probably within the heart of the mountain, not atop it. While the yang qi would accumulate there, it wouldn’t be as pure as it is here.”

“I can set up a purifying formation—”

Avyr fixed her with a look. “Are you trying to get us to waste our time climbing to the mountaintop?” She flushed. “Sorry… no, I think this is a perfect place to cultivate. I would appreciate any sort of formation you can make, though.”

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“I’ll set to work on that. And you—”

“Will cultivate,” the cat finished wryly. “I know what we’re here for, don’t worry…” and then, to silence falling, that stillness… he took a deep breath and—

Nothing at all happened,

Nothing observable to her, at least. But she imagined that to Avyr, the energies of heaven and earth were being drawn in and refined in his body, filtered through all the barriers that existed to someone without meridians, and pressed into his core.

Lily had no doubt that whatever cultivation technique Mingtian had given him was an incredible treasure, but even a treasure could be improved by the perfect environment. So, she set to work, tossing her bag against a tree and grabbing her stylus and after only a moment’s hesitation to toss off her heavy jacket, wading into the hot spring. Just as a stopgap—- at first, she just scrawled the runes into the stone Avyr was sitting on itself, ringing it with loops on loops of delicate script and circles, and transforming it into a makeshift cultivation platform. It followed much the same principles as the wardstones they’d slept at before— it took in the qi of the world and only let the yang qi in. Except even further— it only let in the specific sort of extreme yang qi that Avyr was cultivating. It didn’t actually draw any in… yet… but if the way Avyr minutely relaxed was any indication, then reducing the amount of work he needed to put into refining the proper qi types from the jumbled mess that was ambient qi would help regardless.

Then she started on the real work. A qi gathering formation. Not something a novice like her really should have been working on, but she knew enough about runes and connections and even formations

to make one with the stylus Master Mingtian had provided. Once again, as she waded through the pools to grab rocks of the right size— which were heavy, and slippery, and she really wished she’d been able to cultivate up to at least Shedding before doing this— she couldn’t help but appreciate the librarian’s foresight. He’d guided her to a level of skill where she could help Avyr, and then given her the exact right tool she needed to make it happen.

This time, she didn’t skimp on the preparation. She didn’t have the exact right tools, but the stylus would work regardless— for each block of stone she carved them down into square rectangular pillars, then bored a hole into the center of each of them to make cong. They weren’t jade, which would limit their effectiveness, but still— proper formation pillars were nothing to laugh at. She’d seen that with Master Mingtian’s Jade Top Formation— and she would do her best to emulate that here.

They looked a little crude come the end. She had a good carving hand, but mostly for smaller details— she couldn’t take forever to make the pillars, or else they’d be useless, so… she grimaced, but resisted the urge to start over. They were good enough… She slept on the first day in her tent next to a stack of rectangular cong, and woke refreshed and ready to continue.

She wasn’t sure if Avyr had even slept at all, still sitting in the same position he’d been in the day before.

The runework itself was far more interesting. She didn’t have the time or even knowledge to do what whoever had made the climate-controlling formation had, but she didn’t need to be a heavenly supreme master of the esoteric formation arts to make a qi gathering formation. It didn’t even take half the day to draw the runes out onto the surface of the cong, and by the time she was finished— even scattered in disarray as it was, she could feel the formation questing for its own completion. A faint strain in the world around her— a soft pressure.

That meant it was working. One by one she carried the heavy pillars to their proper placements, in eight-point circular arrangement around Avyr. Some of them on land, and some in the water… the pressure grew heavier with each one, until it was all she could do to place the last one down without dropping it. She had the impression that if she tried to move them now, she’d be hilariously incapable of doing so.

It still wasn’t complete though. As the sun began to set in the sky she brought out the last and perhaps most important of the stone she’d found— a crystal of almost flawless quartz the size of her fist— and began to carve. The stylus had a little bit more trouble with it than the earlier stone, but it was still just a mortal material, so she didn’t have too much difficulty. The difficult part was that she wanted it to be perfect. From the crystal as a whole she carved it into a disk with a hole in the center, then slowly began carving the hexagonal motif across it. That was important, she was sure, but…

As she carved the motif, and then slowly threaded the runes through it, she once more wondered why the runes acted like this? What was it about the patterns of the stones that was important? What was it about the arrangement of the stones that was important? It didn’t reflect the cosmos, that was for sure… she thought about it while she carved, but no matter how she turned the problem over in her head, she couldn’t come to a satisfying conclusion—

Then, almost suddenly, it was finished.