"That is... Weird to think about. I mean... If I imagine being a sect elder hearing about a weird visitor who copied a technique by watching it, I'm concerned but resigned to it. If I hear about a weird visitor who did that and is distributing our sect techniques, I go kill them. Also, it's not like knowledge never spreads or leaks. They sell copies sometimes, usually with oaths not to spread it. They can't hunt every violator across the earth, just make it predictably a bad idea?"

So more like copyright than total-secrecy forbidden knowledge.

"Is it possible to copy a technique just by watching it?"

"No way, not unless you're multiple realms higher or, like, a sensory specialist and also they demonstrate it nice and slow for you."

She shouldn't spend time trying to figure a way around that. Her need-to-know-everything instincts aren't productive here. With Anything You Can Do and Time Enough For Love, adversarial spying doesn't play to her advantages.

"Should we break so I can get started on Qi Gathering? Is it something I'll be able to practice while flying, once I have the hang of it?"

"Probably. But can we just run for a while first? We've been talking for a while."

All of Rebecca's work circles are used to days spent 30% to 70% in meetings or poring over shop talk. Wen probably isn't. She needs to keep that in mind.

"Absolutely," she says. "Do tell me whenever I'm pushing too much. I tend to... overfocus on ironing out details, forget to take time to pause." Because she doesn't, except usually her endless attention isn't monopolized all day by the only person anywhere in sight.

She will allow them to run in peace until nightfall or Wen brings something up.

She goes to furry form, gives a yip that seems to indicate that it's no big deal, and dashes along for a while. The terrain steadily changes- Fewer rolling hills, more open plains. There's herds of animals in the distance once or twice. Around lunchtime she suddenly veers off the slightly-overgrown dirt road, surging low across the ground and keeping to depressions, and pounces on some sort of boar that never really stood a chance.

'Here's lunch!' her body language practically shouts. It's far too clear to not be some kind of magic. A head-tilt to a copse of trees says 'can you get some firewood?'

"Should I collect fallen branches, or break down some trees...?"

Tail-flick. (This is a shrug.)

Then she's human-shaped again, twirling a little knife and starting to work on butchering.

She will find a tree a little way into the copse and break a few large branches off. She tries to pick branches that won't leave the trees looking very conspicuously debranched. She's aware that this is stupid.

She also changes into something more camping-suitable, along with a butane torch and a pair of high-quality radio earpieces, while she's out of sight.

When she's back she dumps the branches in a pile near Wen, away from any flammable shrubs or such. Is Wen going to light the fire with magic qi, or should Rebecca torch it?

She blinks when reminded that Rebecca is here.

"...Either way, I can do fire, it's just wasteful to replace fuel entirely. And, sorry for being kinda... Eh. I usually travel alone, you know? And you seem like you're going to make yourself very busy. Which can get overwhelming."

She'll torch it and put the lighter away.

"I'm often described as intense," she says drily, sitting down by the fire. "Including by people who are themselves described as intense. But I'm trying to think of this as... not a vacation, since I don't expect not to do important or dangerous things eventually, but... a sort of development break, perhaps. So I'm not opposed to reminders to take it easy. How do you usually travel when you're alone?"

"If you make yourself sick of progress, progress stops being made. Even though I really sympathize with 'everyone else is doing it wrong and must be stopped'... The man who ends a mountain begins by carrying away a single stone. When I'm not in major kingdoms I spend a lot of time off the main paths. Wandering, foraging forgotten anomalies, avoiding many of the spirit beasts and diremonsters, just appreciating the immensity of heaven and earth. It's dangerous, but nostalgic."

She lets out an undignified snort at "everyone else is doing it wrong and must be stopped".

"We can do more of that if you like. We're in no hurry." She idly pokes the fire with a stick. "Studies say spending time in nature makes you live longer." After a pause, she laughs. "Sorry, that's—true where I'm from, but it's a joke."

"Spending time in nature makes you more likely to get eaten by something. I also have no reason to linger more than is really necessary. I came to Three Jades purely on rumor of blood-related materials, so I could have someone make a blood-quickening pill I've heard of, specifically for diremonsters with fire affinity. Water suppresses fire, you know. That should help my endurance and recovery!"

She separates a haunch, not especially caring about being partially covered in blood.

"This guy is - barely - a spirit beast. There's a core that might be worth something, I'll get to it in a bit. Sort of like <century?> koi. And the reason I went for him instead of packed food is that mundane food has slight levels of spiritual impurity- Just barely enough to hinder your cultivation slightly because you need to take the time to purge them. A lot like what I'm doing to my wounds. 'Spiritual' food, including spirit beast meat, has less. And, well, he wasn't a person. Law of the jungle. After this, I'll make a pair of qi gathering circles and we can camp for a day or two, it's not a bad spot for training if you're so eager."

"I would appreciate that.

"I wonder spiritual food I duplicate has the same purity. If I don't eat any food at all, would that keep me the most pure and help my cultivation the most? It would be a bit depressing, though, to never eat anything, even for fun... I didn't use to need food to survive, but maybe I do now, actually, to cultivate."

"Your spirit stones seem fine! Get some immortal chefs to make you the best bento they can when we're back in the city. Spiritual food is much tastier than ordinary food! And I would be surprised if you needed food. Requirements for breath, food, water, and sleep tend to go down as you cultivate."

So taking Breathe Easy was a waste of points She couldn't have predicted that and she's not even there yet.

"There are immortal chefs? Are those chefs who are immortal or just the name for chefs of a certain level?"

"No, that's just the name for the discipline of cooking spiritual food!"

Rebecca chuckles. "Do you want help with that?" she wonders aloud.

"Sure. The most annoying part is disposing of things so it won't make a stench or get into that stream over there."

She has big chunks of meat roasting on thin metal sticks in a few minutes, and clears the vegetation out of two large circles before drawing in them with some sort of special chalk with a hint of qi in it. There's one smaller circle with a few complicated glyphs around it - not characters she recognizes, if they are characters - and then a series of short arrows making a counter-clockwise loop along a much bigger circle.

"This," she declares, "Is Fan Yong's Dirt Simple Qi Gathering Circle. You just put a spirit stone or any other leaky spiritual material in the small circle, then sit inside the large circle. It should give off a steady thrumming of qi, which is helpful for the first prerequisite- Sensing spiritual energy and moving it in time with your breath. We can get started while the meat cooks."

Rebecca memorizes the circle but doesn't ask how it works yet.

When Wen's looking away she creates two spirit stones. She floats over the chalk so as to not disturb it, places one stone in the slot of the closer of the diagrams (does Wen want the other?) and settles in the middle of the circle. What does it feel like? She looks at Wen questioningly.

She does want the other, just not quite yet.

It feels like... Spinning. A slight breeze washing over her, slightly turbulent and uneven, growing stronger as it gets up to speed.

"This part is not very dangerous. But some parts of cultivation in the future can be very dangerous. I'm going to give you my instructions according to how I did it, how I would do it, from my instincts. There's probably reasons for doing things in certain ways. So sit in the lotus position, like this."

She demonstrates.

"Hands and arms wherever you feel comfortable. Get into a good posture that feels comfortable and alert but unburdened. Your breathing pattern is important, but people focus on that too much. What really matters is how you feel. There's a soul inside you, near immutable. And a spirit surrounding your soul like skin and muscle surrounds bone. Your spirit is like your body. It answers to you. It just doesn't know it yet. I think you can sense qi already, which will speed things up. What you should do now is focus. The thing it's brushing against is not your body, it's your spirit. You want to ignore your body and become aware of your spirit by degrees, like using a limb that's never moved before. Is it soft? Is it breathing like you do? Can you tense or relax it? Don't hurry. The goal is a meditative state where you can do this. My visualization is a steady flame, growing as I breathe in and shrinking when I breathe out."

She watches and waits until Rebecca seems ready.

"Six beats in, hold three, two beats out, hold four. That is the breathing pattern. Breathing in should come with a building of energy or pressure, and breathing out a sudden release of it. Now breathe in, slowly, slowly. Three, four, five, six. Hold, two three. Breathe out quickly, two. Hold, two, three, four. In, two, three, four, five, six..."