For once, Zae Zin Nim shouldn't have been cultivating. She could get closer to the peak of Nascent Foundation any time she had adequate qi, so she should have been pursuing more urgent goals. Yet they slipped away from her so often that she ended up back here, focused on her dantian.
Despite Omilaena's occasional taunting implications, Zae Zin Nim had a clear plan that would take her beyond being a traditional Brightwind cultivator. She had learned that other practices, from acid cultivation to incorporating mana, didn't pollute her cultivation, just enhanced it. Her Coldfire Corona spun around the qi in her dantian, even more stable than it had been when she broke through to this stage. So, obviously, she needed to find a way to draw chakra into her cultivation as well.
Actually finding one had proved to be the challenge.
In her studies she had always been taught that chakra was superior to mana, which was the least of the three sources of power. Her experiences were beginning to flip that lesson. Rosemount might be stronger than Deadwaste, but its source of strength was infuriating. The chakra she had taken so far had done nothing but increase her new capacity, since she had rejected all of it as inappropriate for her.
Almost every single type of power she'd investigated had some sort of absurd requirement, like eating dozens of birds, or remaining constantly drunk, or channeling her own anger to use techniques. Half of them would do random things to her body for no reason, which would disrupt her healing and were usually distasteful to boot. It was hard to imagine any of them coexisting near her dantian without ruining all her attempts at cultivation. How could Kai stand figuring out everything blind?
She made herself keep looking, except for the times she grew frustrated and went back to cultivating. After all, she only needed one truly good power. Her goal was to be a world-class cultivator, not a dilettante with a dozen trivial abilities. But so far she had come up dry, even with Omilaena being suspiciously helpful.
Other than her father's cultivators catching up to her, her greatest fear was that she needed to find a chakra art before her next breakthrough. Gaining mana at the Body Refinement stage had worked wonderfully for her and she wasn't sure if she could repeat the process.
Either way, she hoped she could finally break through and catch up to the others. She sincerely hoped that at the next stage the Blackblood Physique would finally be healed and begin granting her additional power. Not only would she be superior to the average Earth Soul cultivator, her beauty would be restored, and then...
No, there was no point thinking about it. Not when there was so much still standing in her way.
Once she finished a round of cultivation, Zae Zin Nim used her mana exercises to produce drops of liquid qi and mana, which she trapped in small jars. Back to work. This was a new idea she'd come up with while meditating and she hoped that it might be more productive than just talking to the so-called experts in Roseport.
Zae Zin Nim headed out into the city, wishing she could use the crystal ship the entire time. Instead she had to navigate in between all the random people on the street. Now that she understood the basics of the city, she was tired of it. This type of civilization had luxuries, but not true opportunities.
The city didn't have very many arenas or other places for combat. Omilaena had said it was because they were more honest about their violence, Zae Zin Nim had called them a continent of thugs, and it had become a true argument. Things were easier when Kai had been there to smooth things over. She could only hope that he was adapting well to his jungle training and not suffering too much chakra adaptation sickness.
At last Zae Zin Nim reached her destination: a great house specializing in qi. She purchased a few qi pills from Cloudspire, both because she needed them and to appeal to the proprietor. It seemed to be a lamia woman who slithered behind the counter, desiring to be helpful but staying unusually far back.
"I need your expertise," Zae Zin Nim said as she set down her qi and mana samples on the counter. "I am looking for qi that would be highly compatible with either of these."
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"You want my opinion?" the lamia asked. Zae Zin Nim blinked at her.
"I'm just a little surprised. Visitors from Cloudspire usually don't look favorably on my kind."
That wasn't surprising, now that she thought about it. Cultivators like her father thought of humans who had the wrong ancestry as vermin, so he wasn't positive about non-humans when he thought about them at all. Some species who were refined and human-looking enough might get a pass, but a half-serpent lamia would have disgusted him.
Zae Zin Nim couldn't claim to be without bias herself. Some part of her still thought it was bizarre that the upper body of a normal middle-aged woman was connected to the lower body of a massive snake. But most of the snake part was behind the counter and it had no bearing on getting what she wanted. If it got her the power she needed, she would befriend a thousand snake people.
"Can you help me or not?" Zae Zin Nim asked.
"So you're a cultivator at the Nascent Foundation stage, looking for a perfect source to break through?" The shop owner picked up the jar of qi and examined it carefully. "You could find moderately good sources in the Commonwealth. Probably enough to do things properly, if you have the skill."
"I understand that region is dangerous these days."
"True, true, and everything there is expensive. If you're willing to do your own investigation, there are potent sources of qi in the Coiled Empire. There are pills there twice as concentrated as the ones you bought, grown straight from nature."
The lamia had said 'there are' instead of anything suggesting she identified with the lamia-run empire. Well, Crescilor was a strange mixed country, so this woman might have nothing to do with it. Still... "What are my other options?" Zae Zin Nim asked.
"I'm not sure how you'd manage to get access, but they have very pure qi in the Elven Wilds. There's a place called the Sapphire Wind Oasis that would be a particularly good match for this qi. That's my best answer for you." The owner smiled awkwardly. "Those are your options if you want a local source of the highest level. Below those, you're going to have to make some concessions."
In the end, it seemed like her best bet was still to buy Cloudspire qi while on the coast, perhaps in Crescilor City. The problem was that it could be expensive, easily several hundred thousand Crests. At least Zae Zin Nim got several names of specific establishments that she could trust to maintain the highest quality.
"Now, about this mana, I'm not so sure." The lamia frowned at the glass as she turned it over in her palm. "You'll find plenty of mana, but not quite ."
"I am... open to alternative methods." Zae Zin Nim decided that there was no harm in revealing a little information, especially since this woman had proved knowledgeable. "Like most, I am seeking more power. Not of any type, only compatible with mine."
"Well, if you can move across the continent as much as you seem to be planning, you could get out to the Flaeren Dominion. They can build immensely powerful equipment there, using chakra to embed mana into the materials. Maybe even qi too, for all I know. The stuff is expensive, but if you have an understanding of mana, you could use it without disrupting your cultivation."
That was a useful piece of information, if not immediately actionable. "I will keep that in mind. Anything else?"
"If you're seeking chakra cultivation compatible with yours, you might be able to buy something from the Commonwealth." The owner lowered her voice. "They have ancient specialties involving yin and yang, and several forms of dual cultivation. Even a sacred site called the Kama Al-"
"That is quite enough," Zae Zin Nim said. "That is not what I am seeking."
"Alright, alright." The lamia's tail twitched slightly, but she managed to keep a smile off her face and Zae Zin Nim held back her rage. "I don't know if it would be appropriate, or how you could learn more, but you might be able to learn something from elven soul cultivation."
"Yes, tell me more about that."
Eventually Zae Zin Nim left the building with no true solution but a significantly larger number of leads. The problem was that so many of them required her to travel across the continent or enter dangerous territory. In her current state she couldn't survive and would need to depend on her allies again. She could trust Kai, but would Omilaena see all this as a debt?
On her way back she resisted the urge to seek her pursuers again. Searching too aggressively with her qi could actually draw attention to her, which was the exact opposite of what she wanted. Several days ago she had investigated as subtly as she could and discovered that the Brightwind cultivators were hiding their presence on the ocean. They were surely still following her, but she had no idea if they were weeks or days away. While she struggled to find the power she needed, they could show up at any time to drag her back in chains.
These thoughts raised her anxiety until she was twitchy and paranoid by the time she returned to the inn. Zae Zin Nim took a deep breath, feeling the presence waiting for her. Probably just Omilaena instead of an assassin, but there were far too many chakra users here, so she couldn't be sure. She opened the door very carefully, just a crack.
"There you are!" Omilaena practically shoved her face through it. "We've been entirely too civilized so far. Want to go steal something?"