“Can you leave me?”

  Dejiu was unenthusiastic to say the least. He nervously walked down the desolate interior of the Pillarshard. It was almost dark… but through the small cracks webbing the stone walls glowed a brilliant, or perhaps in a hellish orange. Because it was exactly that — the light of the Seventh Hell.

  “I cannot, my little monk.”

  “Please?” He asked, skittish because the spiraling stairwell he was on opened into a chamber.

  “I cannot. Besides, how else are you going to survive the Seventh Hell? You need my knowledge and strength.”

  “...Who said I was going to withstand the Seventh Hell, wasn’t I supposed to snuff the Pillarshard’s core? Kill the guardian and all that? Then leave?” He asked again. His echoing steps stopped because he didn’t want to enter the chamber before she informed him of… anything at all really. He was doomed without her despite how much he disliked her.

  “You will do that too, but what then? You only know half the story. Those monks, they didn’t teach you much of cultivation, the Pillarshards, the many hells, or even the world — you don’t know anything. You are nothing more than a child.”

  “I think I know some stuff—”

  “Don’t try and bluff yourself into delusion, my little monk. How long do you think I was present in your life?” She quickly dismissed him.

  Dejiu frowned and reread the attribute that led him to his answer.

  [Attribute Description: Doomed Entwinement — This pitiful herald of blood is forsaken to be ever entwined with such twisted beings, the everlonging daimons of rebirth. However, this bond comes with the same indescribable yearning for what has been lost in exchange.]

  “Since I was born, maybe?”

  The daimon left him answerless for a while as he stood in the dark. “I wonder.” She said.

  Dejiu’s face twitched at her nonsensical answer.

  “Hmph. Then can I ask you this — did you… play a hand in why the Seekers Accord granted me my Class?”

  She once again left him waiting for a few minutes. “I wonder.”

  Dejiu’s hands wrapped around the shaft of his monk's spade tightly. Not answering? This woman—daimon! God, what did I do to deserve this!?

  “I heard that, my little monk. There is nothing you can hide.” She whispered and read his thoughts.

  “Quit calling me that!” Dejiu growled but immediately brought a hand to cover his mouth in case he alarmed whatever was nestling inside the chamber the stairs led to.

  “Though I will say… if you doubt my sincerity, I have much to teach you. First, before you walk towards this daimon den to die fruitlessly, sit in the lotus position you monks love all so much.”

  “What makes you think I can trust you—”

  “Should I force you to walk to your death?”

  “No Ma’am!” Dejiu complied immediately. He plopped down and kowtowed on the warm stone stairs. “Amitabha, I couldn’t be more grateful! Please find the kindness in your heart to teach this garbage, insolent, stupid monk!”

  Bing Xin laughed. “Good boy. Now close your eyes and visualize your core as you’ve always done.”

  Dejiu did as told and visualized his prana core. Flimsy as it is, he still looks upon it proudly.

  “What I will teach you is called the Dark Flower cultivation method. It is my own curated method, so treat it well.”

  Dejiu raised his eyebrows in glee. He couldn’t believe his ears. She was going to teach him? This called for something he once saw the lay monks secretly indulge in when he was cleaning the outer monasteries — wine!

  “A cultivation method? Really? You’re willing to teach me something precious—wait.” Dejiu’s tone immediately lowered. “This wouldn’t be a… daimonic cultivation art now would it, Miss Bing Xin?”

  “It is, it is made by me after all. A daimon.”

  Dejiu frowned. “...Miss Bing Xin, you know that I’m from a Buddhist temple. One that preaches for righteousness. The noble symbol of peace in the Shenguo Kingdom. A Buddhist sect that has ancient roots said to be tied to The Honored Buddha himself.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Why speak the obvious? I’ve been trailing along with you for a long time. What of it?”

  “Must I spell it out? Although the other people my age have mostly grown out of their nosey, rude, and obnoxious phase, they still outcast me and have quite creative and backhanded ways of calling me a dangerous piece of garbage without outright saying it.”

  “So?”

  “You daimon wench! If I learn a daimonic cultivation method, I’ll be persecuted instead of outcasted!”

  “What if you die tomorrow? You’re worrying about the wrong things. Don’t worry, don’t worry, they won’t find out. Just avoid that Abbot when you return to the surface and your worries won’t come to fruition. Never let him touch you as he did seven years ago.”

  He frowned. “...Fine.”

  “It’s not such a bad thing now, is it? You will be stronger all the same. Now focus. The Seekers Accord tells you that your prana capacity is at 51. But do you know what proportion of which elements you have?”

  “I-I don’t. I’ve just been brutally breathing in and cycling my prana whichever way I feel best. You know this don’t you?”

  “It’s about a sixty to twenty split between ice and hell element prana.”

  “Sixty to—wait what about the remaining twenty?”

  “Blood prana. Death prana.”

  “You said what!?” Dejiu wanted to peel his scalp or chest and find wherever this Bing Xin was inside of him. “How come no one ever told me I have such murderous sounding elements?”

  “In element-rich areas like Mount Xuedou — the surrounding environment is absorbed into the body and integrated into the core, the child’s core takes on the aspects of that particular element, and the corresponding prana is produced multifold, as they cultivate. You? They probably assumed that you’ll follow suit.”

  “Damn… that doesn’t sound good.” Dejiu frowned.

  “Ah, blame those monks. I haven’t been able to help you all this time because of this deplorable Abbot. He… he is quite a powerful person. Do take my advice and stay away from him for both our sakes. Otherwise, you’ll be ousted. Anyway, my point here is that this Dark Flower cultivation method fits you more whatever the temple would teach you. You will never reach the heights of the Arhats and the Abbot if you mindlessly follow their teachings.”

  “Now, visualize your core and shape it into a flower. Whichever one you’d like, though I do have a good guess as to which you’d choose.” Bing Xin laughed.

  Dejiu paused and thought about it. Though it seemed a little funny to be thinking of the many flowers he read about in a botany scroll while he sat outside a den of monstrous daimons while being inside a Pillarshard, but who cares! Anything to survive he supposed. Then he came to a choice. A mountain avens, one of the only flowers he could see grow atop the frigid mountain.

  “Beautiful choice, my little monk. Now, draw in and soak the ambient prana and convert it as you’ve always done to cultivate.”

  Dejiu listened and began to follow her guidance. His breathing and cultivation was going fine, a little more rough than he thought it would be. “What is this supposed to–”

  Without warning, he felt something burst inside. Something that shouldn’t have burst and somewhere he shouldn’t feel pain. “Gah! ”

  “I’m fracturing apart your weak prana core to make reconstruction easier. That pitiful excuse of a core does not fit with my cultivation method.”

  Dejiu wiped the blood dripping from his lips with his sleeve and frowned. His hard work over seven years… gone! He couldn’t even wish it farewell. He clasped his hands and recited a small prayer for his dead progress.

  “Enough fooling around.” Bing Xin didn’t let him off the hook. “Now spread those flimsy things you call the walls of your core into the petals of that flower you chose. Cycle your prana carefully because I don’t think you’ve realized what type of environment you’re sitting in.”

  Still brooding over his destroyed core, he answered, “The Seventh Hell. Volatile and destructive hell element prana.”

  “Indeed, the hell element prana is obviously strong here — you don’t even need to reach the Advanced Stage and be given greater sight to tell. As for fracturing your core, I’m sorry for breaking your measly ‘progress’, but trust me.”

  “A daimon with sympathy? Pah! Fine, fine!” He said a little angrily. Doing as she said, Dejiu forced his prana core to mold into a white mountain avens flower. However, when he tried he realized that changing how he envisioned his core for the past seven grueling years turned out to be much harder than he thought. Sweat formed on his bald head. His robes eventually turned slick, even wetting the stone he sat atop.

  It felt like hours before he could form something. Probably because it was. But he told Bing Xin the moment he completed it.

  “I’m done, but my avens is really thin in prana. Is this okay?”

  “That’s fine, the change in outlook was the purpose of this.”

  “...Now what?”

  “Your prana has always raced through your meridians in a pattern unrestrained by any cultivation method and teacher. I do not have a manual to teach you nor do you have the time to read. So to teach you, I will take hold over your body as you watch. I will cycle your prana just once according to the Dark Flower cultivation method and teach your first technique belonging to the Dark Flower cultivation method — Wilted Stem.” Bing Xin said.

  Dejiu nodded. He’s going to learn cultivation method and techniques!? Alright, he was on the fence with learning from a daimon but hearing this now sounded kind of exciting. He was already committed to absorbing Hell Shards without care, so at this point, it was too late to worry. Not like the temple was going to teach him its cultivation method anytime soon anyways.

  “I can only do this once as of now so study how I manipulate your prana and burn it into your memory. I should also say that it’s going to hurt you.” Bing Xin nonchalantly continued.

  “What? Hurt? Why—”

  In the next second, Dejiu opened his mouth to ask more but only screams escaped. Bing Xin invasively and violently changed something inside, starting with his core’s prana and meridians. It was as if the Seventh Hell’s infernos unleashed inside.