He found Avyr in his house. It was a quaint little thing, tucked away to the side a few blocks down from the library, overlooking the street with a small window and a smaller balcony that the big cat probably could barely even fit on. Knocking on the door, he only had to wait a minute for the Avyr to open it. The big cat blinked up at him, as though he was bewildered that he’d even come. “Mingtian?” Then just as quickly— “come in, come in. I can make some tea?”

“I didn’t think you partook.”

He shrugged. “It’s actually toxic to me but I bought some just in case I ever have guests over. I’ve become partial to the herbal blends, though. It’s always so cold here that having something warm is a relief.”

“Not a fan of hot chocolate?”

Avyr gave him a bemused look. “No, that’s also toxic to me, unfortunately.”

“A shame. You’re missing out on a lot.”

“I know…” he mewled as they climbed the stairs, only a little bit pitifully. “I can have a little with my cultivation, but still. It’s really a shame— I can’t wait until I'm in core formation and can eat whatever I want.”

Mingtian chuckled. “I assure you, unless you get a technique for it, being able to eat poison probably won’t ever make that poison taste good.” Avyr just whimpered. “But I’m not here to talk about your diet. How are you faring?”

“Good enough I guess.” A clatter, as Avyr grabbed his kettle and quickly filled it up beneath the tap— “I didn’t want to lose, but it’s not like I didn’t expect this. Fights at this level are pretty heavily determined by the sort of equipment a cultivator has access to— like the big guns they’d give their soldiers. Hopefully, I still impressed enough that I’ll get into University.”

Mingtian grabbed a chair, and sat. “Is that really what you feel?” Not even judgingly, as Avyr just watched the kettle boil— “or is that what you want to feel.”

Ultimately… Avyr was still a kid. He’d been through a lot, Mingtian was sure— had developed a certain sort of maturity to himself, but still… he was young. So very young. “No,” he finally whispered. “I wanted to win. I wanted to win so badly. At the end there… I think I might have even grasped on the sort of determination, sheer iron-clawed unyielding will to win… except, I didn’t win. I lost, and I don’t see how I’m possibly going to win another match after we both train for half a year. And if I can’t even win against the best of this small pond, how could I possibly hope to win against the entire University to make it into the Bloody Saffron Sect?”

Mingtian held out a hand in invitation, and after a second, Avyr brushed up against him, resting his head in his lap and allowing him to give him some calming scritches. “I think you’re overthinking this. Having a plan is nice, yes, but you can’t extrapolate out from a single data point. A loss now doesn’t mean a loss in the future. Besides…” he grinned— “you’ve still got Opening to reach before you really complain about losing.”

Avyr snorted. “I’m not going to reach Opening in less than half a year. Not without some heaven defying treasure.”

“Not with that attitude you won’t!”

“It takes most more than a decade to move from Opening to Foundation Establishment. I can’t imagine the realm below that is all that different.”

“More different than you’d expect but, yes, you're technically right in that it’ll be very difficult for you to advance so quickly. Doubly so for you to advance so quickly without harming your foundation. You’d need some sort of formation master to make sure your cultivation area is perfect for you, and an impeccable technique.”

Avyr scowled to the sound of the kettle reaching a boil. “Right, and where am I supposed to get those?” Mingtian gave him a sort of ‘really, now?’ look, and the cat sheepishly glanced away. “Right. Okay the first one might not be too hard, but the second? Lily knows just as much about cultivation as I do.”

Mingtian didn’t speak for a while, merely grabbing the kettle and pouring a cup of tea for each of them— zhengshang xiaozhong for himself, and a herbal blend for the cat. The two of them sipped in silence for a moment, as the emotion of it all drained away, Avyr surprisingly dexterous and Mingtian surprised that, with his mortal palette, even the local teas didn’t taste too bad at all.

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Finally, just as their drinks started to cool, he said— “who taught Lily everything she knew?”

“You—” Avyr paused, eyes widening. “You know cultivation, don’t you? But you’re not a cultivator…” he frowned, the look on his face an odd mix of feline-cute and dangerous. “Lily might not understand just what that implies, but… you were a cultivator once, weren’t you? Or, no— maybe your cultivation didn’t regress or whatever, but you were definitely connected to cultivators. Part of one of the smaller sects, or an outer scion of a cultivator family… something.” Mingtian blinked, then smiled. Of course Avyr would get it. With his background…

“In a sense,” he responded after taking a long sip of his tea. “In a sense. Now, let’s talk cultivation. Moving from Shedding to Opening is easy, in a sense— all you have to do is push qi into your soul— you might refer to it as your core, or dantian— until it expands enough to then compress again, making your qi more dense. The trick to a good cultivation method is less making sure that it works, and more making sure that you get the most out of the advancement. The easy way to do that is just build off the same element. Your cultivation is a very simple strengthening variant, but I don’t imagine you want to keep toughening yourself like that, do you?”

Avyr shook his head, looking almost guilty. “I… don’t, really. I’ve heard enough about the Writ of the Peerless Paw to know that I should, but… I don’t think that’s the best route for me.”

“You’re understanding, now. What do you want, Avyr?” A hint of his domain seeped into that question— of endless, fathomless, light beyond measure— imperceptible but enough to give it a certain weight.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke— Mingtian watching Avyr, and Avyr sitting there, fiddling with his mostly empty teacup and staring down at his paws.

Like—

An eternity.

No time at all.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about this,” Avyr finally began, hesitantly, then more assuredly as Mingtian didn’t interrupt him. “At first, when it came to my path… I thought about what I had wanted. My greatest dream as a kitten was to follow the Writ of the Peerless paw and surpass my parents. Then the empire came, and that dream felt… broken. Except, now, I don’t even know if I’d want that even if it was offered to me…

“One day… I’ve always wanted to find them again. Free them, if that’s even possible— but that’s just a goal, far away. The Writ of the Peerless Paw won’t take me there— our clan didn’t even have any Sundering elders anyways. Humans have their weapons and their tools, and I have my self. If I want to succeed, I think— I want something that will draw on the natural essence of myself. I alone need to be sharper than any blade, faster than any bullet… I need to be greater.”

Mingtian smiled softly. “That’s impossible, you know. There will always be a sword cultivator whose sword cuts sharper than yours. There will always be a speed cultivator who can outrun you.”

Avyr shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if I’m the best or not. As long as I can strike them down…”

“Well! You certainly have no lack of ambition, do you?”

Avyr ducked his head in shame— “sorry… I know I’m overreaching—”

“Not at all! No— ambition is good. I respect it— the drive to rip down the heavens and make them yours. Now, listen. Your current strengthening relies on the wholeness phase of intra-yang transformation; thus, suffusing your being utterly and strengthening it in fullness. Of course all the other stuff also has an effect, making it focus more on making you tough instead of complete. However, if you want to transform your cultivation into something enhancing, then it would be best for you to continue the revolution and cultivate extreme yang energy…” and so on. It was fun, to give a lecture to someone who could actually use his insights. The last time he’d done that was… he scarcely even remembered. In the Heavenly Realm, when he’d been sent by the Astrological Orrery? Maybe…

It only took a second for Avyr to realize that he should be writing this stuff down, and as Mingtian drew to a close, sprawled across scattered sheets of paper before them lay the bare bones of a truly interesting cultivation technique. “How…” the cat shook his head, biting back the question and bowing low to him. “This one thanks the Master.”

“None of that. I’m not your master.” What a weird sense of deja-vu— hadn’t he just been doing the same thing with Lily? “This is just the skeleton of a true manual; it only describes the first advancement, and not even that all that well. Just remember— cycle your qi through your body as you cultivate, and exhale anything that gets too tainted before it reaches your core.” That was the crux of the method, at least.

“Thank you, really. I don’t… this is everything I need.”

“Thank me by reaching Opening and winning.” There was a flash of something in Avyr’s eyes, then, burning—

A desire, just as fathomless as Lily’s. To surpass Xinshi. To surpass everyone.

A promise.