"As am I! We are, after all, all part of the same Empire."

"A fine sentiment, young one."

...It is impossible that nobody noticed the man standing at the front of the room until now. He is eye-wateringly colorful, wearing robes that are simultaneously pink and turquoise and acidic green and sunny orange, possibly deliberately designed to be as clashing as possible. His eyes rapidly shift through colors, and he stares at the group from the small stage at the front of the hall with something between amusement and boredom. And yet, as far as she can tell, he definitely wasn't there a moment ago.

"Everyone's here, so let's not waste any time. I am Sect Elder Sima Jiao, current head of the Talisman Department, and as occasionally comes to pass, it is my turn to welcome the next generation. Listen up, because I'll only say all this once."

He shrugs, the gaudy beads on his robes jangling.

"The Argent Peak is a place to train young cultivators. More importantly, it is a place to winnow the wheat from the chaff- Those with minor potential will go on to become soldiers, bureaucrats, and the like, and those with real talent- Well, many doors are open to them. Most of you will remain in the Outer Sect for your entire time here- If you have any hope of being useful and important you will actually try, and not just coast along with a 'good enough' effort."

Sima Jiao goes through a series of rules with an almost casual tone. They won't be permitted to leave the mountain for three months, and even after that they won't be able to leave the area until a full year has passed. Also, no mail in or out for the first three months. There is no fighting permitted for the first three months, outside of sanctioned and monitored spars. There is an obvious implication that fighting each other will be permitted after three months.

"Conflict is important for your growth, but it would not do to allow potential to be cut off before it can even begin to bloom. The only true rule is that you may not kill or permanently maim your fellow disciples."

All the mundane necessities will be provided for; If one needs new robes or soap or food or anything else they can simply visit the administration building. Cultivation resources are not so generously doled out, and everyone receives a fairly minor stipend of five red spirit stones per month. These are apparently both a currency and a resource one uses to cultivate faster. Finally, the provided Sect Housing is gender-segregated, no boys allowed on the girl side and vice versa. Sect officials are exempt, of course, on the rare occasion they would need to enter first year outer disciple housing.

"Rooming arrangements are for you to organize amongst yourselves. I do recommend everybody find at least one roommate," the elder says dryly, making eye contact with Sia Bis in particular. "Lone targets are far easier to ambush, if nothing else. Now, line up kids, it's time for your first monthly allowance! Spend it wisely!"

Elder Sima Jiao claps his hands, and it's as if a quietness laid over the room is dispelled, and everyone is hurrying to line up.

Well, they made it rather clear. The thing the Duchess wants from her is for her to exceed. The thing they saw in Mei Cao is inexplicable, but they clearly saw it, and she cannot possibly fail them. 

What does an exceptional effort look like here, in this place where the teacher has all but said that they're to fight each other for the sake of tutorial sadism that's frankly bizarre inexplicable beyond her paltry education to comprehend. How does she thread that needle. 

Well, she knows what the people in this room are terrified of. She knows who the teacher singled out as strong enough to potentially solo whatever gangs form, if she didn't need to sleep. 

She asks, as they're waiting in line for their 'red spirit stones'. 

"Hey. Do you want to be roommates?" 

...She doesn't blink, exactly, but stares at Mei Cao very hard. In a way that is somehow kind of scary.

"Why?"

"Because you're terrifying and I need time to actually learn how to fight if I want to defend myself." 

She doesn't think to say 'and from talking to you, you seem to be a basically reasonable person somehow'. She doesn't even really think to think it. 

She wants to say no, but she has been... Advised... To find actual connections in the sect, instead of going it alone. She doesn't even have the advantages of higher noble scions. Being here is a privilege and she cannot afford to let some sense of petty pride or disgust or whatever it is that is welling up in her get in the way of being effective.

"Okay. Just don't expect handouts, I'm rich compared to you and poor compared to some others, and if you betray me you will regret it."

"I will not betray you and do not expect handouts. The Duchess's generosity is already beyond imagining that I am permitted to study at all."

A firm nod.

"Let's get our allotment and go, then. I'll want to hurry and claim one of the smaller places- Hopefully we shouldn't have to share with a third."

They get in line. At the front, the Elder is carelessly handing out little bags with five spirit stones in them, and also a slim book, with shiny paper and a purple cover. Argent Soul Cultivation Art, Basic Form, it says.

Sia Bis bows to the Elder and turns to exit the hall at not quite a run.

She will do her mortal best to take her allotment and keep up, while wondering to herself what an argent soul cultivation art is. 

It would be unseemly to run, of course.

Out behind the administration building is another nice garden'd plaza, with two side streets sticking off it. Sia Bis takes the left one. It's full of nice houses. She takes a smaller one, sets down a messenger bag inside, and then sits out front, smiling and holding her weapon. She elects to ignore the snide remarks muttered below a mortal's hearing but not hers.

"My obvious presence is our best chance at privacy... I'll stay here for a couple of hours at least. Then I want to go scout the mountain. I noticed that you seem to be a mortal entirely - you have not even started on cultivation. Is there a particular reason for that?"

"I didn't think it was allowed and wouldn't know how?"

"...You should read the book. The classes are much more about refining what you already know. And the harder and smarter you work, the better. One thing that might stall you... There is a thing in the body called the Dantian, it's where you need to gather qi. You should be able to... Find it by feeling with your qi sense. An empty space. That's the first step. The breathing and thought exercises in a soul cultivation art are designed to help you get into the right state of mind to fill it. I'm using my family's Placid Thunder manual instead but Argent Soul isn't bad for a beginner."

She will take Sia Bis' word for it that this is an appropriate way to pace her cultivation, though a part of her rankles at that. But presumably the Duchess meant her to start now, and not tomorrow or last month. 

She will read the book. She will need to ask what some characters mean, and also what most of the allusion and metaphor is about. 

And then she will try cultivating. She supposes she's not getting any sleep tonight. But she thinks she has some good guesses as to that inner space? 

There's surprisingly little metaphor. You are, broadly, supposed to take one of your red spirit stones and hold it in your hands, and breathe in the qi that the stone contains. It's all laid out as a process to be followed, steps one two and three, like chemistry or medicine, with diagrams, if only one knows how to 'move qi' and 'open the dantian'.

It even explicitly says that these are things you must simply do, like opening and closing one's eyes, and list some common feelings and sensations associated with it.

But.

The whole mountain has been alight with some of the same odd sensations that being near spirits, or near the wardstones, gave her. It feels warm, though the temperature is chilly. It feels alive. The sensation grows starker and clearer the longer she focuses on it, and she soon starts feeling the energy in the warm coal-stone in her palms flare up with each breath in, and die down with each breath out, as she inhales the vital smoke. After some long long minutes of trying, she does manage to start consistently breathing in this smoky energy.

...Most of it immediately escapes with her next breath out, not absorbed into her body but blocked and then wasted. Still, a steady feeling of warmth kindles inside her, not quite in her belly, not quite in her heart, but in a third place that surely must be her Dantian.

It's really engrossing. Just take one more deep breath, watch the fire, and draw the smoke into your belly. It feels... Right, comfortable, warm, even as it's a new sensation and one she's unpracticed at. She slips out of the proper pattern of breathing sometimes, simply not quite timing things right and gathering less of the energy than she perhaps could have.

When the ember of power in her hand is dead and lifeless and dim, no more energy to be gathered, it's dark outside. And the warmth inside doesn't seem to be fading. It's unclear if it's doing anything besides being warm and comforting, though.

Was it not explained in her book what the point of all this was? 

The point, it is so assumed to be known that it is barely mentioned (mostly in admonishments to be patient and diligent in your pursuit of power and ability), is that cultivation makes you stronger, more present in the world, smarter, faster, more you. Spirital growth, physical growth, chasing perfection and understanding.

She's broadly in favour of that, she supposes. 

How much time does she have before classes? 

Well, the sun has set and her roommate is nowhere to be found.

...Actually there's a note on the kitchen table, once she fusses with the candles or lanterns to get enough light to read it. 

I went out for a hike. Will be back by morning.

Well, she has time then, and she doesn't feel tired. Not even 'first night of a long burn' tired, which makes sense, she hasn't been hauling wood all day. She's going to pick a spot where sunrise will be obvious to her even if she's not paying attention and keep cultivating. She can't afford to be behind the other students. 

A second one of her five small red spirit stones goes to her hand, and she can continue.

It's so very easy to lose oneself in the flow.  

Time falls away.

Qi flows in and out. The discomfort of muscles in the meditation position prescribed by the book fades away. The sense of being in a room at night fades away. 

There is only the qi, slowly, slowly filling her up. Before long it feels like she's straining something, the soreness of well-worked muscles, but somehow in her soul. But the bright ember still burns, and she's doing much better at grasping for it, pulling, banking the energy. It seems to flow in almost of its own accord as she stubbornly continues.

The soreness increases, beginning to edge towards the kind of pain that indicates real damage, but she feels like she needs to continue, like she's near something important. And- All at once the kiln inside her has accumulated sufficient fuel and ignites of its own will. The gathered warmth transforms into a new whole, sitting, alive and ready, inside her.

It's unmistakably a 'full awakening', as described by the book.

She is officially no longer a mortal, and instead what the manual describes as 'Early Red Soul'. But the energy of the stone is not quite gone, and another couple of hours can pass as she gathers more qi, making what is already there ever so slightly denser.

Twilight is creeping up on the horizon. She is barely tired. There's definitely a sort of mental and spiritual fatigue, something that makes things seem a bit floaty and too bright even in the dim predawn light, but her body feels light and ready. Faster than before. More dexterous. Stronger. Her senses sharper. And her core of qi feels healthy and full, a steady fire.

Excellent. Presumably her classmates will still be well ahead of her but at least she can say that she took the first and simplest step. 

... And then she realises with dread that she managed to spend nearly half of her monthly resource allocation in one evening. She has several insights into the true nature of cultivation and the sect. 

Sia Bis is in the kitchen, cooking venison and rice.

There's a smell of blood, and a doe skin is visible on a stretching rack through the window. The stretching rack wasn't there yesterday.

...She goggles for just a moment, surprised, when she sees Mei Cao. But then she pushes past it and continues cooking.

"Good morning. I see you got straight to cultivation."

Sia Bis is presumably surprised that she was willing to work through the night to keep up, most people aren't willing to do that sort of thing. 

"I did! Thank you for your advice! Are you willing to share your meat? I can try and catch some in the future." 

Though rabbits and trout are more her speed, really. 

"Sure. It's not a big deal, the cultivation benefits of low-grade meat like this are really marginal, though. And the bones aren't bad but aren't anything special. I mostly took it because it was right there when I was exploring."

"... Oh is it. Special deer somehow?"