Further watching confirmed I'd been right about Mur. She had indeed changed her approach, from trying to pierce through formation gaps to outright brute-force breaking. Point Qi might've fixed the spear's shortcomings, and maybe that was the original plan, but by the time she reached second year of her second period, the mace had already become her go-to. Third period and third-stage cultivation unlocked tri-component techniques, and she'd chosen Mace. It looked like she was actively growing that root now, trying to raise it to match her others. So I was wrong to count her as a dual-root cultivator.

David Morrow, on the other hand, definitely focused on two. He'd started with Lightning, showing impressive speed in his first year. Most of his opponents had good insulation on their suits, so despite his speed, he lost the majority of his early matches. But then he added Finger, and things slowly began to change. It wasn't until the end of his third year, second period, that he really started to shine.

If his Finger's violet beam managed to bypass the opponent's formation, it would quickly chew through their armour, and then Lightning would do its work, making them twitch like they were having a seizure.

Lightning wasn't quite as dangerous as Blade, so the judges were in no rush to stop him, letting him enjoy himself.

Still, not every match went his way. In one of the most recent ones, third period already, he lost to another Finger cultivator: Fire-Finger user Rob Heart.

First off, they'd drawn an insanely difficult arena — a chaotic pile-up of concrete blocks, meant to simulate ruins. Almost no level ground at all.

The judge gave the signal, and four beams flared out instantly between the cadets. Violet beams swept across Heart's formation, red beams slammed into Morrow's.

Their formations were fairly standard — clusters of golden mini-shields on both sides.

After that first exchange, they started moving. Morrow shifted in sudden, rapid bursts, leaving behind clouds of violet sparks. Heart moved with reactive propulsion, using flame-mods in his suit to leap across the terrain.

Accuracy tanked on both ends, and it was the concrete blocks that suffered most. Within seconds, the arena was hissing and steaming, like a real battlefield. This wasn't a tournament match anymore; it was straight out of a sci-fi action film.

I'd seen plenty of Morrow's matches, so I already knew his strategy. He usually spent a few minutes studying his opponent, adapting on the fly, then abruptly closed the distance to initiate physical contact, bypassing formations and blasting through insulation with a single, powerful shot.

Heart's style was unfamiliar to me, but he seemed focused on vertical control. After that first beam exchange, he jumped onto a heap of concrete beams and claimed the high ground, firing down with precise red beams that sliced through the air and burned through Morrow's micro-shields.

Heart's beams didn't vanish instantly. They glided along Morrow for several seconds before fading. Shorter-lived than James's yellow beams, but with a similar effect. James's beams had sliced Mur's armour while sliding off her formation shields; Heart's left molten streaks on Morrow's plating, skating from one mini-shield to the next.

So far, it hadn't hurt him much, most of the damage was hitting the thick chestplate, but I still remembered how Nyambe had nearly cooked Bennet, and how violently his armour had steamed while cooling.

Morrow's Fingers fired quick, thin violet beams, slicing through obstacles and grazing Heart's formation, but unable to punch through, only distract.

Then Morrow charged, bounding across the concrete blocks straight at Heart. He levelled both hands like pistols and unleashed continuous beams from each fingertip.

Heart did the same.

His beams burned through Morrow's shields a full second faster.

Two molten blooms flared on Morrow's chest, bright and blistering, but in the same second, he was already in close. His breastplate popped, launching forward. The overheated plates burst off, and a blinding light flared from beneath, stunning Heart.

Morrow grabbed Heart's right hand by the finger and yanked it upwards like a pistol barrel. With his own right, or more precisely, his index finger, he jabbed directly into Heart's neck.

The point of contact flared violet and sparked.

Heart, blinking away the light, lashed out blindly with his left and struck Morrow in the chest, right where his breastplate had been, hitting what looked like a scorched radiator. Red light exploded, and a patch of heat spread rapidly across the exposed metal.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Both recoiled at once. Morrow from pain, Heart from pain and the shock. Morrow tumbled down the blocks, clutching his chest and crashing into every corner on the way. Heart was thrown stiff, paralysed mid-spasm, and slid backwards over the concrete like a limp doll.

Morrow was the first to stand, though he was on the far side of the rubble hill and needed an extra second to run around using Lightning movement.

In that second, Heart only just managed to get on all fours.

Morrow kicked him hard, knocking him back to the ground and exposing his neck. He stepped on Heart's chest and aimed his finger at the now-vulnerable throat.

But Heart fired first, both hands straight into Morrow's exposed chest.

The red heat surged into the unarmoured section, and Morrow collapsed backwards, clawing at his chest, desperately trying to tear off the glowing hot metal.

Well… one mistake is often fatal. I'd been there too.

What really caught my attention in this match, though, was the presence of flash filters in the helmet.

I paused everything and called ALan to ask about it.

Turned out, my helmets handled impact well, but didn't include light filters. That could be fixed, for a few thousand, as always.

I now had two identical armour sets. One stayed in the storage room and was my official kit. The other was stored in an amulet I wore around my neck. I could equip it straight from there.

In fact, I could now swap one suit of armour for the other on the fly.

This took me quite a while, but I knew that training wouldn't go to waste. A trick like that could save my life someday.

Alan and I agreed he'd first modify the set still at the depot, and then I'd bring him the other. Though he was a bit curious as to why both sets weren't stored there. I mumbled something about training, and that seemed to satisfy him.

With that last fight analysed, I now had a general grasp of all the qi types taught at Yellow Pine. What I hadn't seen in videos, I read up on in the forums.

Blade – very similar to Point. Cutting instead of piercing. Slightly shorter-range telekinesis, which requires weapon rotation to compensate.

Finger – an energy beam, basically a laser projection. The sniper class of the cultivation world. Has no native movement techniques, only hybrids, but comes with sensory feedback: the user receives real-time data from the point of contact. A cultivator can literally assess the strength of a barrier, allowing Fingers to rapidly locate weak spots.

Fire – high-temperature projectiles in various forms. Pyrokinesis? Not sure if it counts as that. Also has shield-corrosion effects. The longer Fire stays in contact with a barrier or protective qi layer, the faster it eats through it. That's why Heart was melting Morrow's formation faster.

Water – short-range telekinetic manipulation and rapid phase changes.

Earth – short-range telekinesis with slower phase transitions, but by default, materials revert to solid state unless infused with qi.

Lightning – electrical damage at medium range. Has a secondary property of natural acceleration: boosts reflexes, muscular response and mental speed without needing specific techniques.

It would still be good to see how all this works in combination with Fist, and with Air, though I don't plan to focus on it.

Water does a great job locking down enemy formations, but it lacks penetration power.

Earth… well, it's like my Fist, but among spiritual roots. There's potential synergy, or at least a decent bonus, but the learning curve's steep.

Lightning struggles if the opponent's insulation is solid. Besides, I'm already studying mental techniques, so its secondary effects are somewhat redundant.

Fire… is Fire! Eats through shields and formations. That's just objectively top-tier!

Finger? Might come in handy if I ever go full sniper. The range is insane, so there's synergy potential through drone-assisted detection and a one-shot ult. But that path pulls me far away from my core.

It's something to think about. It's not too late to pivot, but should I?

Blade really had me intrigued. If I wasn't tied to a physical weapon, and could throw out blade projections, the effect might resemble formation-bypassing Finger-Blade style slashes.

That is, if the blade projections didn't detonate on contact. If they did, then Point would beat Blade down.

Mace could also add weight to my strikes, but it's more suited for crushing armour or freezing and revealing formations, not that useful against a solid shield like mine.

And that, basically, was the full list of candidates.

It was a relief I didn't need to decide immediately, and even more of a relief that I had access to the wisdom of senior cadets who'd all wrestled with similar decisions at one point or another.

I opened Novak's disciples chat.

Sullivan: Hey everyone.

Sullivan: Need some advice. Thinking of expanding my arsenal. Right now I'm Fist, with a few Fist-Air techniques. Looking to add some penetration. Finalists: Point, Blade, Finger, and Fire.

Sullivan: Thoughts?

Bat-Erdene was the first to respond.

Bat-Erdene: Fire, no question!

(Kate) Wong: Why no Lightning on that list?

(Adam) Veyron: Same reason he's not going pure path, Kate. Not all of us want to copy the teacher in everything.

I'd have to thank Adam for that one. Kate might've taken it personally.

Luckily, Artem backed him up, and since Kate had a thing for him, the topic quickly died down.

(Artem) Mykula: Jake's already made progress in Thousand Sparks of Awareness. Learning Lightning would require deep re-tuning of the technique, or he risks doing permanent damage to himself.

Whoa! I hadn't even thought about that. Thank God for this chat, and for Artem's message.

da Costa: I could show you a bit of Finger.

Tanaka: What exactly are you trying to pierce? Formations or armour? For armour, Point is better. For formations — Fire.

Tanaka: My guess is it's formations that are pissing you off. We've all been there.

Sullivan: Nailed it. Regular Fist's useless against them.

(Adam) Veyron: That's a lie!

da Costa: Not everyone was born with fists blessed by the gods, mate.

The four of them sparked a full-blown holy war in the chat over the freshly stoked debate. Kate stayed quiet, and the rest didn't chime in. I picked up a few new ideas, got even more confused, but no closer to a proper answer.

Right on cue, just as the chat was heating up, I got a message from the Great One.

Incoming message: V. Novak

Subject: Future

Content: Got time for a cup of tea this evening?

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