Kai sat on the floor of the Archive, in a meditative posture, his awareness elsewhere in the laboratory. There, he stood and looked at his final list of cultivation methods. He reduced it down from over sixty to those that matched his criteria best, or that he felt interesting. Each technique was listed with the summary beneath.

  “This is disturbing. You don’t recall doing anything that would have caused the gates here to open?” Relay inquired.

  “No, just,” Kai's eye’s never left the list, “I remember being afraid, maybe it was some kind of unconscious defense mechanism? Everything seems normal now.” Kai glanced out the lab window to the closed outer gate before returning to the lists.

  Kai looked over them again and considered adding one or two more to the list.

  “There are several astronomy-related methods it seems,” Relay observed, examining the list. “So congratulations on finding something compatible with your energy sources.”

  Kai nodded and leaned back against the lab table in thought. He had found several methods that seemed exactly like what he was looking for, but why was he hesitating then?

  “I’m not sure now,” he admitted. “Each of these methods conveys its understanding of stars, energy, and planets. With my existing knowledge will I be able to reconcile the discrepancies or will there be irreconcilable conflicts?”

  “It’s possible your deeper scientific understanding may increase the benefits you get from the methods?”

  “Possible, but I can only pick one. If I get one that I can’t reconcile, I’ll be in a worse position than having picked something unrelated to my energy.”

  Relay turned and looked back over the list. “Plane Walker sounds like it could refer to the KDF theory?”

  “I noticed that too,” Kai nodded and turned towards relay, “but what are the odds they actually understand the underlying geometry needed to rationalize that?”

  “Not high,” Relay acknowledged.

  “Same with several of the others, I get a sense of some of the underlying principles, here for example,” he tapped on the screen where the Manifest Force Doctrine was listed, “This is likely based on the UFI principles. Again, a source of potential conflict with what I know.”

  “If I eliminate all the methods that I think maybe incompatible with my knowledge that only leaves these.” Kai swiped several items away leaving a much-reduced list.

  “Creating pacts with constellations, that almost seems like another potential attack vector on the Eternals,” Relay commented.

  “And it’s weird, maybe not weirder than fusing two souls though… These cultivators get up to some pretty esoteric practices. But I agree, I’m not fond of the idea of a cultivation method that requires you to make pacts. I already have soul fusion, that feels too much like a double-edged sword.”

  “The God’s Eye then? I doubt you are going to find any kind of advanced imaging on Long Yuan, so maybe this method can replace the need for a microscope or even x-ray imaging?”

  “That’s an interesting take, I hadn’t considered it, but I’m more concerned about my weak body. God’s Eye does nothing to help there and don’t forget the number one priority… stay alive.”

  “That’s something I wanted to ask you about. If soul fusion is supposed to enhance your body, what were the results of your soul fusion? Should we have expected to see some bodily transformation right away, or does it change over time? There’s too much we don’t know.”

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  Kai sighed and looked back at the shortened list.

  “There are a lot of unknowns here. But I don’t think I can bet on my first soul fusion having any effects on my body. I like the idea that God’s Eye is very focused. I’ve always believed it was better to have a few very good tools that did one thing well, than a general-purpose tool that did everything poorly, but I can’t ignore my weak body. It’s too much of a risk.”

  “All right, that’s one.” Relay turned back to Kai. “What about the soul fusion method?”

  Kai turned to another screen and reviewed the soul fusion methods.

  These were the ones Kai could stomach, there were several evil soulforging methods that he felt disgusted reading. Why would they even have those in the Archive?

  “I’m not interested in the taboo methods, so that eliminates two of them. And I have no interest in inviting any more visitors here, so Many Minds in One is out. That leaves only two.”

  “Both seem compatible but given your previous host lost himself to the possession I think perhaps the Soul Shearing Art would be prudent.” Relay suggested.

  “I want both of them. Imagine if you could imprint soul fragments. That might allow you to pick the exact skill or trait to fuse. I’ll have to see about getting the other method in the future if we can’t figure it out on our own. For now, I agree on Soul Shearing Art.”

  Kai stood and turned, “I’ll get these manuals and be back. I want to see if I can transcribe them here.”

  Kai returned his awareness to the Archive stood and stretched.

  “This one has selected a cultivation method,” Kai called into the seemingly empty Archive.

  “I was wondering what you were doing, meditating to choose, shows prudence.” Gao Jie appeared from around the shelf faster and quieter than Kai believed possible.

  “Which have you selected?” the dragon inquired.

  “God’s Eye and Soul Shearing Art,” Kai replied. It wasn’t until the words left his mouth that he realized what he said. That’s not what I wanted. I wanted to get the Nine Heavenly Palaces Body Refining method. Kai opened his mouth to correct himself but found the words would not come. What’s more, he found himself relieved with his selection, as though he just avoided a very wrong choice. This unconscious stuff, I have to get this under control.

  “Interesting combination, but it reflects well on you that you took my guidance to heart.” The dragon stood in front of the shelf and completed some seals, the air glowed with arcane symbols in green, before fading. Once the seals faded the dragon waved his hand over the two manuals and they vanished from the shelf.

  “Follow me,” he turned and moved toward the periphery of the room.

  Kai followed the dragon arriving in front of a door, leading off the Archive to a small room. Opening the door, Kai inspected the room, There was a desk, a chair, and a lightly glowing light.

  The dragon opened a small cabinet door on the outer wall near the room door, exposing a small shelf. With a wave of his hand, the two manuals were left on the self before he reclosed the cabinet. Kai entered the room and noticed a matching cabinet door on the inside. He opened the door to retrieve the manuals.

  “You have five days to study them, but I’ll check on you once a day. If you finish early just leave the manuals inside the cabinet. I shouldn’t have to say this, but do not remove them from the Archive. ”

  “Thank you, honored Elder,” Kai held the manuals in both hands and bowed, “This one will do as instructed.”

  After the elder left Kai closed the door, and retreated to the table. With some anticipation he picked up the first manual, the leather-bound tome had a palm embossed into the ancient surface, inside of which an eye was engraved. From the eye, lines radiated outwards as though it was a source of light.

  “God’s Eye huh,” he muttered to himself as he opened the tome and began reading. Inside, a note was added to a separate card. It read.

  Kai shifted his awareness to his laboratory and stepped up to the screen.

  “Okay, let’s get started.”