Fair enough. She did think to herself early on that she shouldn't use that power on random people without asking first, but it's become apparent that the policy isn't the most sustainable, so she's allowing herself a little room for discretion.

She does, also, need to Dragon Fairy Elf Witch everything else from her universe other than Scion, but she thinks she's holding off until she has a stronger cultivation base and Wen watching her, to see if it affects her spirit, which might have implications for the best time to deploy them.

Since she's retired for the day, she'll take the time to inventory her purchases again, attempt duplication—not the weapons for now, since they might be unique enough she'd steal instead of copy them, and even if she does duplicate them, they might be signed in a way that makes the presence of a copy noticeable—and go back to practicing with the meridians she's already learned to control.

She's quickly getting the hang of exercising her spirit. She could probably try to specifically focus on expelling the gunk- Impurities, which Wen told her need to go anyway.

Once she feels like she's not making more progress on control, she focuses on flushing impurities. How much progress can she make before Wen comes back?

She can clean about a third of one meridian if she focuses on that.

Wen approaches the house and waits for her to be visibly done with a cycle before announcing, "Good evening! Decent success for me."

Rebecca rises.

"I may have attracted some attention, but not with nothing to show for it. Do you want to go first?"

"Sure. I successfully gave the impression of a disfavored clan member acting as escort for a mysterious heir, and that we have some kind of backup too. Deniably-like. I flattered them a whole lot- It wasn't too hard. I got them to think that since you can buy from the smaller players anyway they may as well sell some low level texts at a markup, so we can see about a metal aligned core cultivation method for you. And I also got official permission to get weapon lessons from the outer disciples. No treasures or spatial bags but you don't approach them right away mostly."

"Excellent, no overlap with my day. I received a short primer from a Five Ways Forge agent on different bladed weapons and bought a mid-priced glaive, weakly enchanted, which I need to pick up when it's done. Got a set of fire protection armor to experiment with, which was more attention-getting than I expected. Someone from Silver Acorn came up to me and started spinning yarn about caverns under the city with vaguely treasonous sentiment; do you know anything about that? And I picked up a storage ring and an assortment of immortal food and pills to duplicate from the Great Jade Pot and Ascending Fire Alembic.

"And then Shun Kun of the Shun Family tried to pick a fight with me, and I made no promises but deferred the resolution to the Earthblood Pavilion tomorrow afternoon or evening, so I need to determine what to do about that. Ah, and two people down the street tried to sell me poisons, but I didn't buy any."

"Arms and armor, comestibles, and information. Good haul. I haven't heard of the Silver Acorn, but I have heard of catacombs below the city, and that Three Jades kicked out an older sect when they moved in. Hmm... So, what did Shun Kun actually say? He came up in the conversation at the Three Jades Sect and the impression I got was, uh, that he's seen as, politely, very straightforward, and impolitely, kind of dim."

"He just came up and said, 'I want to fight you.'"

And she recounts the less of their conversation:

"I'm tentatively interested, but for private reasons, I am unavailable today," she says. "May we arrange a meeting place tomorrow? I cannot promise I will give you a fight, but I will deliver the answer in person."

"I am Shun Kun, of the Shun family. I'll be training at the Earthblood Pavilion tomorrow afternoon and evening. I'll ensure you're welcomed. I hope you accept and we can learn from each other by trading pointers."

"Then he bowed like so"—demonstration—"and turned and walked away."

"I think it's fine. I think... This is a guess, but it fits the pattern? Someone told him about the exotic new diremonsters in town, they often have unique fighting styles, doesn't he want to test himself? And they'll be watching, if you do fight him, and make guesses based on that. This isn't bullying, on Shun Kun's part anyway- This is a sincere desire to test himself against new foes."

"How strong is he? It won't be concerning if I win?"

She plays out how it might go in her mind.

"I need to know the etiquette for a friendly spar. When it's acceptable to tap out, how to know if someone is admitting defeat, the correct way to pay respect before and after the match. If it's offensive to hold back if your opponent is clearly outleveled."

"He's in the sixth stage - of nine - of qi gathering, so... He'd be much stronger than you, just starting out, if not for all the else. About as strong as the second-best blood cultivators? But likely more actual skill than them  As for etiquette, the biggest thing is a sense of respect. There's no shame in being punched straight out of the ring, or being outmatched in skill. There is shame in yielding without a clear defeat, or being 'insulted' by someone obviously going easy, or in being defeated in a humiliating way. Like... If you really outmatch someone that much and they choose to try and fight you anyway, the done thing is to hit them hard. Cause a lot of pain, or an injury, and declare your victory, and the consensus is 'yep, that's what we expected to happen'. So you might want to simulate a roughly equal level of speed and strength? Depends on what message you want to send. And if you're being polite in giving pointers you actually give each other relevant advice- Say, you escaped a grab because you saw it coming, you might tell him what you saw even mid fight? Mrhh, It's still so hard to explain all this clearly. Maybe we should spar and I'll show you. What'd you get on the food front? I could use a snack."

She unloads a spread of everything she got. If there's extra she can vanish it.

"Yes, let's. All of that makes sense. I can't quite feign being overpowered very well, but I can simulate not being much stronger than him. And I can feign inexperience, and slower reflexes; I think that will be reassuring?"

Yay, snacks.

She sniffs at the air and then picks one of the sealed-lunchbox-things; It looks like some sort of beef dish with mushrooms. 

"Gods and demons I am going to get so spoiled by the ridiculous duplication thing... Oh, I'm going to be there either way, to do the 'monitoring warden' thing. I think you do want to display raw talent, actually. Maybe not perfection, but being really quite good. It'll discourage anything rash."

She nods. "Do we have a space to spar in private?"

"Mmhm, the yard is a multipurpose space, and sparring sure counts as cultivation. We can keep up your lessons too, no reason to slow down."

"Shall I work on my meridians more while you take a break, and we can do a light spar, and then see about more lessons?"

"I really think you ought to wait to start actually gathering qi until we find you a good method, so opening meridians and purging impurities is all you can do for now. You are learning alarmingly fast, senior. That sounds good."

"I have my advantages," she says.

She noms food and chats about what cultivator culture.

And then they can go to the backyard.

She bows.

"Senior, we should both sharpen our skills. Let's trade pointers. Or if I were being obsequious, Senior. This one would be honored to learn from you in the arena. -In a major sect we'd have seniors officiating, to make sure nobody goes too far, and take people to the healers if it got that far. Ask questions about ettiquite freely."

She bows in return.

"I'll try to match your strength, as practice—though you're much stronger than him, I understand—do we have a plan for injury? I don't anticipate it, but better to be prepared then not."

And she's ready now.

"Indeed. If it's minor - dislocations, broken bones, internal bruising - take blood and qi pills, or the healing pill you bought, and sleep it off. If it's major - loss of digits or limb, serious holes - appeal to the gatehouse for aid for a training accident and happily pay whatever usurious fee they claim later."

"Understood. How do we start?"