“I can improve my body by farming?” Micro looked at his hands in confusion. “The old man was a farmer, but farming only made him tired, not to mention his back…”

  The elder chuckled across the table at Micro’s misunderstanding.

  “You’re only half wrong, child,” he explained. “Micro, you said your name was?”

  “Well, sure.”

  “Well, Micro,” he continued, clearing his throat. “Cultivating and farming aren’t all that different. Farmers nurture the land, sow their seeds, tend to their crops, mind the seasons, and harvest the fruits of their labour when the time comes.”

  “That’s right!” Micro agreed. “He had a lot of fruit trees. And he was always taking care of the soil.”

  “Well, cultivators tend not to physical matters, but matters of the spirit.” As he spoke, he raised both of his hands for Micro to see. In one hand was a teacup, while the other was empty. “In one hand I hold the material. A cup made of things you can find anywhere in the world.”

  He tossed the cup to Micro, who tried and failed to catch it. It fell to the table with a thud, and the old man laughed.

  “You see? A physical object which you may hold in your hand,” he went on. “In this hand, however…”

  Micro watched with great interest as the air began to swirl around the man’s empty hand with increasing intensity until something like a ball of water appeared there, only to vanish moments later as if it had never existed at all.

  “That’s cultivation?”

  “It is the immaterial,” the man explained. “The energy I have cultivated in myself is available for me to use as I wish, as long as I am able.”

  “How does that help me improve my body?” Micro asked earnestly.

  “Understanding the immaterial is the first step, young Micro.”

  “How?” Micro asked. “How long does that take? I’m in a hurry.”

  “Through study and meditation, some people achieve a basic understanding of immaterial forces over the course of several years,” he explained slowly, giving Micro time to catch up occasionally. “However, you have neither the time or the need.”

  “Why?”

  “Because not only will you die before reading a single scroll on the matter, but you already have a mid-level jade core within you.” He clapped his hands enthusiastically and continued. “It shouldn’t take you very long at all to understand the powers you already possess, and then it will only be a matter of mastering them.”

  “I didn’t understand that at all,” Micro replied enthusiastically. “What should I do?”

  “You really are the best pupil I ever had, boy.” The man closed his eyes and sighed. “The young masters of the sect were always so… ah, never mind that now. Yes, you must first become aware of your own power. This is the most difficult step for most. Close your eyes.”

  “Awareness…” Micro said. “I see.”

  “Very good—”

  “I have one question.”

  “Oh?”

  “What is your name?”

  “How rude of me,” the man replied with a boisterous laugh. “I am Master—No, just call me Feng, of the… No, just Feng is fine.”

  “Nice to meet you, Just Feng.”

  “No, I—”

  “That was a joke.”

  Without further questions, Micro closed his eyes and waited for the old man named Feng to speak. From his pocket, he heard a tiny voice.

  “Hey, boy,” Blue whispered. “Where did you learn how to joke like that?”

  “The radio,” Micro whispered back. “It made the old man laugh…”

  “Get a new teacher.” Blue frowned, then leaned back into his pocket.

  “Right then, are you relaxed?” Feng stood up and stretched. “It’s always good to start with a few deep breaths.”

  “I think I feel okay.”

  “Good…” Feng said, and his tone suddenly became more serious. “Let’s begin.”

  Micro was suddenly shocked by the weight of Feng’s hand resting upon his head. He remembered the strength in his driver’s grip weakening as he aged, but Feng’s hand felt like it was made of steel. That wasn’t the only shock though.

  “Woah!” Micro couldn’t help but cry out as a wave of energy travelled through his head and down into the rest of his body.

  “You alright, boy?” Feng chuckled as Micro squirmed, struggling to remain in a seated position.

  “That felt like lightning!” Micro replied in excitement.

  “You know what lightning feels like?”

  “I was struck by lightning once,” Micro confirmed. “My antenna was a funny shape after that, but it still worked!”

  “You were quite the farm tool…” Feng sounded confused, but he persisted. “What do you feel now?”

  Micro thought for a little while about the sensation in his body. The energy pouring into him through his head felt like fuel travelling through his fuel lines, but he’d never had so many fuel lines. The feeling seemed to run down thousands of little lines to every part of him, from his ears to his toes.

  “I can feel… everything. I can feel my body, and the air…”

  “Good, it’s working,” Feng replied happily. “Now do me a favour and try to imagine looking at yourself from the other side of the table.”

  “Imagine?” Micro mumbled. “What?”

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  “Yes, imagine it. In your mind, I want you to picture yourself standing up and walking away from your body. Then, turn around and look back at yourself. Don’t actually move. Just imagine it.”

  Micro was confused by the odd request, but he spent the next few minutes trying to do just that. For the first time since he’d landed in his new body, he was finally beginning to feel comfortable in it. Thanks to the strange energy flowing through it now, his lingering sense of loss was replaced by a feeling of confidence. At first, his efforts to imagine standing up resulted in his legs actually moving, but he was held firmly in place by the strong hand of Feng, who patiently waited for him to understand the task. However, after his eyes had been closed for some time, he began to imagine other things.

  He imagined the songs his driver listened to on the radio. He imagined the pile of vegetables waiting for him to carry. He imagined his garage door opening up in front of him. It was then, when he imagined himself driving slowly into the open garage, that it occurred.

  “What?” Feng’s voice echoed in the entranced Micro’s ears. “Already?”

  The image of his garage disappeared, and he was standing alone in a world of pure darkness, like the night sky if all the stars were taken away. Still, it wasn’t a cold or lonely place. Rather, it was comfortable. Remembering the instructions of Feng, he turned around. Sitting on the ground where there was no ground to sit, he saw a young boy. At first he didn’t recognize the human figure which looked to be in its early teenage years. Its hair was short and black, and its frame was thin but muscular. When he noticed the clothes it was wearing, however, Micro realized who it was.

  “That’s what I look like…?” His words reached Feng, who soon replied.

  “So you really were able to perceive yourself’ in that short a time.” Feng sounded impressed. “You do your borrowed garments justice. On to the next step.”

  “What do I need to do?”

  “Look deeply into the heart of your other self, past its rusty outerwear, past its skin and bones. Look for the light that shines the brightest.”

  Micro did as instructed, staring at his human body intently until he finally noticed a faint glow where a human’s heart would be. He leaned in closely to try and see it clearer, and suddenly felt sick.

  “I—” Micro coughed. “I see it, Feng. But it’s weird… I think I feel dizzy…”

  “That’s the artificial core which the magicians used to harness your soul’s vast energy, but it was crudely constructed, and they never could have guessed how powerful a soul they were going to be sent.”

  “So it holds energy?” Micro asked. He felt some relief at finally being able to see what Blue and Ray had tried explaining to him before. Within the human body, a glowing orb pulsated and squirmed as if it were struggling to contain something and nearly failing.

  “A core allows you to harness energy and utilize it according to your will.”

  “So it’s more like an engine than a fuel tank…” Micro sounded almost happy to have made the connection despite the queasiness in his voice. “But it can’t handle the fuel… Okay…”

  “What are you talking about?” Feng’s voice rang out in the empty space

  “It’s nothing, but what do I do now?”

  “The next step is the most important, but it is the most difficult.” Feng’s voice grew stern, but his energy continued to flow steadily. “To cultivate a stronger core and increase your potential growth, you must use both your own energy and the energy around you to build upon your existing core. For a beginner, it usually isn’t so dangerous, but your soul is under so much pressure that any damage to your core could result in an explosion of spiritual energy that would rip your vessel apart.”

  “Energy?” Micro’s face contorted. “Wait, an explosion?!”

  “Yes. It is called many things, but its name is irrelevant, for it isn’t something for humans to name,” Feng explained. “Your fate is such that your core existed in this body before your soul. Normally, a cultivator builds their core around their soul.”

  “So this is a pretty big repair…” Micro nodded. “More of a modification…”

  “Focus, child,” Feng ordered. “Your body relies on energy to survive.”

  “So it’s a type of fuel…?”

  “We can stop now if you’re feeling tired.” Feng sighed in exasperation. “This isn’t meant to be simple, but—”

  “No, I’m alright. What do I need to do?”

  Feng hesitated for a moment, but decided to trust in the confidence of the boy.

  “Very well…” Feng resolved himself to proceed. “I’m assuming the world around you looks black at the moment. Am I correct?”

  “Yes.” Micro confirmed quickly, still struggling to focus on his jade coloured core despite the sick feeling it caused him. “Darker than the garage in—”

  “Okay, be still and quiet,” Feng interrupted him. “Cultivators hone their senses over the course of a lifetime to be able to detect energy in the world around them. Some are more finely attuned to elemental energies, while others possess an affinity to more primordial forces, but a beginner like you wouldn’t be able to see any of them yet.”

  “Oh?” Micro suddenly noticed something else about his core. “There’s a blue ring around it, like water…”

  “What, a core binding technique?” Feng replied in disbelief. “How did that get there? Such an art is not commonly seen!”

  “Ah, the school bus did something then, didn’t he,” Micro replied, recalling the previous day’s encounter. “He poked my chest and I felt something then.”

  “A school of bus? What kind of fish is that?!”

  “It was big, yellow, and it was covered in lights,” Micro explained what he recalled of the strange creature. “Wait, Blue called it something else… A dragon?”

  “You’ve been in this world a short time, and you’ve already seen more dragons than I have in my entire life…” Feng sighed, only sure the boy was telling the truth because he could currently look directly into his heart. “Regardless, that should be helping to keep your core together, but it will only delay the inevitable. You need to reconstruct your core or it will simply burst.”

  “So I have to make it stronger, but I have nothing to strengthen it with.” Micro sounded disappointed at his inability to perceive the energy of which Feng spoke. “This is complicated.”

  “That’s where a master comes in,” Feng reassured him. “Brace yourself. I’m only doing this now because time is not on your side.”

  “Wha—” Micro was suddenly blinded by a torrent of shimmering rain drops that fell from the nothingness above. Holding his hand out to catch a few in his hand, he noticed it felt less like water and more like the sort of static shock his driver used to give him when he opened the door on dry days.

  “It tickles… What is this?” Micro asked while playing in the glimmering rain.

  “That is what little energy I can spare, flowing directly into you, so don’t waste this moment playing around.” Feng’s voice sounded strained. “Harness that energy however you can, and use it to stabilize your core.”

  “How…?” Micro wasn’t sure where to begin.

  “Hmm…” Feng thought deeply for a moment. “Have you ever seen somebody make a snowball?”

  “Yes, the old man’s son used to throw them at me.” Micro remembered the scene he’d witnessed many times in past winters. “That was fun!”

  “Do that with the energy, but put your core at the centre of it all. Hurry.”

  Recalling his sense of urgency, Micro did his best to press every glowing rain drop he caught against the core in his other self’s chest. Most of the drops simply washed away at first, but after some trial and error, he eventually succeeded in compressing some of the gifted energy into his own core. Each drop that fused to his furiously unstable core brought with it a fleeting sense of relief, like the splash of a puddle on a hot summer day.

  “Amazing…” Feng’s voice resounded. “Crude, but efficient. It should work, but…”

  “It’s working! It’s—” Micro’s celebration was cut short when the rain ceased and he was brought abruptly out of his meditative state.

  “Easy there,” Feng said with a comforting voice as Micro awoke with a jolt.

  “Huh? Blegh—” The shock of his sudden journey back to the material world caused him to throw up some of the tea he’d been given earlier. When his heaving ceased, he noticed Feng stumbling back to the other side of the room and dropping down to the floor. He looked even older than before, his face showing the fatigue of a strenuous experience.

  “I’m afraid… Hah…” Feng panted. “That’s all I can do…”

  “That’s okay,” Micro tried to reassure the tired old man, but was still feeling sick himself. “Cultivation, huh…”

  “You are truly remarkable though, young Micro…” Feng coughed and leaned forward. “I wonder if it’s because you were never human… Or maybe it’s your experience travelling between worlds…?”

  “What do you mean?” Micro asked with one hand on his aching head.

  “It matters not, for now… I shouldn’t be tempted to involve myself any further in matters of this realm,” Feng whispered, shaking his head sadly. “Today was just the beginning. You must find a master more capable than I, and you must continue to cultivate your core the way you began to today. But really…”

  “What is it?”

  “You may have—” Feng coughed again, but looked straight ahead at Micro. “The most potential, of any young cultivator I’ve ever seen.”