"You should at least train against opponents with swords and staves and so on. Up your life expectancy."

"Urg. Fair enough. So many warnings about how I'm going to die... Not going to stop though."

"That's the attitude I like to see."

She goes over to the storage room and pulls out a shinai. "Think you're up for some practice against a sword?"

"Probably not going to make a good showing, but I'll do my best."

Audrey smiles, dances forwards, and hits her with the shinai.

Ow. Okay that reach is problematic, so if she- Ow.

Kicks have a longer reach, so- Ow!

Ow. Maybe a more aggressive style can unbalance- Ow!

Hrm.

...Ow.

Ow.

...Ow.

(It goes on like this for a while.)

Still. She's grinning. She's learning. And she gets a punch in, once, by accepting a return strike for it. "I know that's a terrible decision but I wanted to see if it would work, at least..."

"It's not a bad strategy if you have a rank five armor seal on you at the time. Tank the strike to get a good hit in."

She's smiling too. "You're really a good sport, you know that? Nix is nowhere near this happy about getting beat up."

"I've been saying that my one advantage here is determination. Preparation, eh... Those seals... I don't suppose you know who'd want to buy two for some lower-ranked armor and sword seals in exchange?"

"Eight Tails commonly does seal exchanges like that."

"Heh. Trading her own seals back to her... I hope that's not offensive or anything..."

"No, it's not at all. Seals and pills are commonly used as an informal kind of currency among cultivators."

"All right, I'll inquire about that later, then. Back to sparring?"

"Back to sparring!"

She takes failure personally and tries to move faster. Well, not just faster, but with fewer mistakes. Butterfly Dancer is currently limited to True Master level, just one above, and she really, really can't keep up.

Eventually she asks for a stop so she can do her meditation and hopefully get a couple strands in before lunchtime.

"I'll make you lunch while you meditate. It's kind of traditional."

"Hm? If you say so! Thank you."

She stretches one arm, still sore from a few repeated hits, then smoothly settles into the right post and meditates.

Audrey goes into the kitchen and returns a minute later with two ham sandwiches. 

She takes a bite.

It's like... The pure sweetness and loam of bread, sublime creaminess and essence of cheddar, all cut through with a blade of pure savory Meat. Essence of Meatiness.

She takes another bite, more slowly.

"Oh my god. Immortal cuisine?"

"Yep. Bottom-of-the-barrel junk food immortal cuisine - I just added some immortal spice I happened to have on me - but immortal cuisine."

"...Whoever first mentioned it to me was underselling this stuff, even without the long-term benefits there apparently are."

Slooow bite. Savor it.

Audrey gets a sly smile. "A bottle of immortal spice good for a month's meals runs for about 25 qi pills. I've got one on me going spare if you'd like to make that trade."

Twenty five thousand dollars. There are people who'd pay that much. Pepper, ordinary black pepper, was once worth its weight in silver in Italy...

"Tempting... But I gotta have my eyes on the prize. Does immortal spice have any particular cultivation benefits?"

"Regularly eating food seasoned with immortal spice tempers the qi system and improves energy generation. It's the kind of effect you start to see after a year, not a month, but it is real and significant. Not as good as a ghost spirit - maybe half that strong? Higher tier immortal food will let the benefits persist into higher ranks, though."

Seems like a bad deal. But the deliciousness. No, no, think clearly about it.

"...I think not. If I don't contract with a ghost spirit, I'll need the pills I have left to keep training. And if I do, the benefits wouldn't really come into play before I'm beyond them, it sounds like."

"That's fine! We can always talk again later if you decide you're interested after the ghost hunt."