Depthless Hunger

Zae Zin Nim made rapid progress each week, though all of that progress would have been impossible for her not so long ago. It wasn't simply that she'd grown stronger and mastered the compression exercises... the more important change had been the opening of her mind.

She still believed that Krysali cultivation was ultimately inadequate, but now she could accept that it had something to teach her. The fact that they had to develop their cultivation based on such thin qi meant that they had developed techniques that she could use. Some cultivators who claimed that their advantage was based on superior cultivation were likely exploiting the gap of phases, so she needed an edge of her own if she wanted to confront them.

Aeglien of Torleen proved to be an interesting teacher, far superior to every Krysali cultivator she'd met before. He had a Goralian Class, but what impressed her more was that his crystals themselves seemed to be compressed. Many others built larger and larger armor of crystals, whereas he could form a thin layer so durable that it neutralized every single one of her qi attacks even though she should have been stronger.

While studying the fundamentals of phases, she realized that she finally understood Suortril's defensive prism that had caused them so much trouble: it could partially grasp a defensive phase. Such an object was nearly priceless, even if it had major weaknesses to chakra... and monstrous powers, as he'd learned before he died. But if she could compress her qi into a higher phase, she could have torn through the prism and avoided the whole war.

The majority of every day was taken up by phase training, focusing on the principles so she could compress her qi more later. In much of the time that remained, she needed to rest and so only cultivated. But that still left a precious few hours for other developments.

Most cultivators never advanced beyond E-rank Physique, unless they had a special path of body cultivation or used an elixir that purified their bodies even further. After seeing so many cultivators die, and even killing some of them herself, Zae Zin Nim had come to fully accept that this was a mistake. So, after so much difficult training outside her normal path, she had finally reached E-9 Physique.

And there she stalled, up against a wall that even many Earth Soul cultivators couldn't climb. Increasing her Physique rank would be the easiest power she could grasp, but there were so many unknowns about the Blackblood Physique. There none of the elites could help her, since they had little expertise with Cloudspire, so she seemed fated to languish.

Except... Zae Zin Nim did have access to another sort of expert. When there was a break in their training, she arranged to meet up with Omilaena.

Soon the two women met at another wasteland outpost and the elites left them alone to work. Omilaena had abandoned her usual dresses for loose pants and a shirt, and her goggles were hanging around her neck. This Omilaena always seemed so different from the seductress that Zae Zin Nim was left unsettled.