Change

The attraction to the cold environment increased so much more than ever before once they made a contract with the arctic foxes that lay by their side.

After many years of practice away from the north helped them realise new things they couldn't before so when they returned the absence of cold and the northern lands became something that they had lacked for a long time.

Now that they had returned their body and qi had reacted to the cold that had been lacking for many years and greedily absorbed what had been missing for so long as they attained their own enlightenment.

There are times when too much of something isn't a good thing and there are times when it is best to take a break from whatever it is that may be overwhelming or what you are unable to realise because you are far too close to be able to see the larger and deeper parts.

Lumi and Rayleigh had that chance to take a step back, take a break from what they had known, learned new things and when they returned they were able to see things in a new light and were able to see a broader and deeper view into their own martial arts and make further progress that was not possible if they continued to stay within the north for most of their lives and blindly pursued their martial arts path.

Whether it was ice and snow martial arts they pursued an extreme and continued down a path to that extreme but that did not mean that they should solely learn about ice and snow for the rest of their lives and ignore the rest.

Taking a step back they were able to learn about the other parts of nature and the world and then what their own extreme paths part in the world is and how they all relate to each other.

From this they gained further enlightenment into their own ice and snow qi and martial arts that could not be found with the divine ice sects methods and teachings.

Rayleigh had already returned to her homeland after the sect fell and was forced to confront and embrace her past rather than run away from it or keep it hidden so she had grown but also gained a further understanding of herself, her mother and her origins as she continued to run the entertainment halls.

The day she betrayed her master and pointed the sword at Lumi, she did so in order to survive but also a part of it was from what happened to her after she was accepted into her fathers family that made her turn into someone she no longer could recognise.

After she returned and was lead to pursue her origins further she could remember her mother and her friends who cared for her and taught her many things which could of lead her down a much happier and brighter path but in the end her father and others hated her for that part of her bloodline.

Even Lumi only knew how to practice and learn what she had been told to and not act on her own at the beginning so when the time came for her to defend herself she could not do it without an order from the grand elder but now she was able to learn new things and defend herself without being told to do so.

As they trained sat there and continued to run their qi art through the night their ice and snow qi was being refined and became much purer as it was also increasing further pushing them closer to making a breakthrough.

In the morning Ki had woken up from her sleep after she had completed her training.

Nothing much had changed on the outside but on the inside she had become much calmer and a little more sure of herself.

She also noticed a small change that had taken place within her qi.

The previous white coloured poisonous qi within her dantain had begun to take on a change of its own all of a sudden.

The pure white had remained the same for many years no matter how long it had been nurtured by the blood qi in her pseudo dantain as if wishing to maintain its form.

However as if it had given up its struggle just like Ki had came to a similar realisation earlier it finally let it's true form slowly reveal itself.

The pure white qi that was formed primarily and build as a foundation for her practice came from the white sap and the spores of the mulberry tree but in the end it was still being nurtured by the blood qi and also being corrupted by it at the same time.

Thanks to the realisation, the higher quality of blood collected from the transcendent and peak martial artists and also what she experienced during her bone metamorphosis Ki was able to let her qi begin its true transformation based on the generation qi art.

If she practiced a water qi art or something similar and used it to nurture a wood based qi art then at most she would be able to let her wood qi grow at a faster pace.

However she used a combination of a noxious or poison qi and instead of nurturing it with water qi she chose the path of an evil path which was blood qi.

When she practiced her poison palm arts after she woke up and tried to implement some things she had realised she had noticed that her qi was no longer the same and as pure white as it had been previously.

Instead it had started to take on a new form like a white flower that was stained in blood, the rain may wash it off but some of it may have been absorbed into the flower or a small layer remained on the flower permanently.

Her qi took on a pinkish white colour but it was not even that noticeable but over time it would soon transform into its true form.

Whether it was a good thing or bad was difficult to judge until it was completed.

Perhaps it was always supposed to turn out this way from the beginning but there was something blocking her from achieving the true meaning behind her generation qi art.

Instead of thinking of it as a bad thing she just accepted it and begun to practice her martial forms and further explore new directions that had opened up to make up for what she was missing.

After completing her morning training and getting dressed, Ki went to go meet up with Alf once more.

Today was going to be a busy day and she would probably be busy for a while until she leaves the north and even when she gets back home she will still have many things to do.