My back hit the rough dirt of the training ground, the wind getting knocked out of me, and Alice followed immediately after. Just like the previous eight spars with monster of a girl, she pulled one of my arms into a tight extension against her chest as she straddled it and kept me pinned against the ground with her legs.

I floundered impotently against the restraint, but it felt like trying to push a massive block of iron off of my chest.

After a few seconds, a clear clap from Elder Hazeon sounded out over the training area and Alice immediately released me and jumped to her feet, leaving me huffing on the ground still trying to catch my breath. I slammed my fist on the ground next to me, my frustration bubbling up once more and forcing me to take deep breaths. I never should have woken her from her cryo-sleep, though I didn't mean it.

I had my eyes closed, and when Elder Hazeon walked over to stand above me, blotting out the warmth of the sun, I frowned. I was mad at him. He made me spar against Alice eight times, and each time she thrashed me one-sidedly, even when I cheated and used my spirit cultivation to assist my movements. I didn't want to see him or his stupid beard right now. When the darkness didn't recede despite me sending lots of bad mental thoughts his direction I opened my eyes to see his grating smirk looking back at me.

"So, did you learn anything?" He asked for the eighth infuriating time. My nose scrunched up.

"No! I don't even understand what I'm supposed to be learning!" I punctuated my statement by slamming the ground again with my fist, rage flooding through me.

He smiled.

"Why haven't you beaten Alice yet?" He asked which just pissed me off more.

"I don't know? Maybe because she's a monster that was trained by a bunch of monsters to torture poor, cute, innocent cultivators millennia in the future?" I replied, to which he chuckled.

"No, my dear disciple. And it isn't the real reason you were thinking either. Despite her seemingly superior level of body cultivation, her superior training is the only thing you should be losing to her on. That's not to undersell how much better she is at combat than you. Without any cultivation you would never be able to best her in martial combat. But your unique constitution will give you the upper hand despite your seeming disadvantage in terms of minor stage." He said, which did actually make me feel a little better. Finally beating Alice would put me in a much better mood.

"How?"

I was eager to learn, even if I had to get knocked on my back a few more times.

"What is the Elemental Unity physique?" He asked, because why would he tell me when he could just ask me vague questions?

I felt the frustration coming back, but I really wanted to beat Alice so I bit back the growing anger and tried to learn what Master was trying to teach me.

"The Elemental Unity physique is a constitution that cripples the spirit root but in return it makes the body incredibly suitable for body cultivation." I answered, wondering what this had to do with 'proper body cultivation' as he called it.

He nodded as though what I said was some grand revelation.

"That's all true, but what does that have to do with proper body cultivation? Well the truth is that saying your body is 'suitable' for body cultivation is a gross misunderstanding of the true benefit of your constitution.

A normal human uses their qi to fill their body with power; reinforcing each of their flesh, viscera, muscles, bones, and marrow with qi to replace or augment some of their normal functionality. That method works great because their bodies aren't naturally attuned to their elements. That's where special constitutions come into play. Some constitutions and physiques, like the Elemental Unity physique, transform the cultivator's body into one more suitable for absorbing, and using, qi of their affinity.

Now, what do you think this means?"

I was a little surprised that his lengthy explanation that was genuinely interesting, though I didn't really know where this was going. His question at the end did make me think a bit on it.

He said that there is a method of using my body cultivation that I wasn't doing yet. The fact that he confirmed its existence was a hint. Considering I was already doing the method of body cultivation that normal cultivators did, then what I needed to do must involve using the unique quality I have that others don't, my physique.

If the Elemental Unity physique made my body more suitable for absorbing and using qi, then maybe there is a way to use the qi that's different than just flooding my body with it? I gave this as my answer and Elder Hazeon nodded.

"That's correct, though the important question is what can you do with your qi because your body is so attuned to the various elements?" He prompted causing me to think more.

I thought about it, but nothing came to mind. I had the vague feeling I could use fire qi specifically for…something? But I couldn't really pin down what exactly.

I explained that to Elder Hazeon and he nodded again.

"That feeling, I would wager, is due in part to that special flame you bonded with. What do you know about the nature of the different elements of qi? I know you have at least the lowest level of acknowledgment from those dao—your locus is proof of that—but if your understanding of the element hasn't reached a high enough level, that feeling wouldn't exist. I'd estimate you're close to the high level acknowledgment for the dao of fire."

I frowned and shrugged. Was it even possible to tell the level opf acknowledgment in a dao? Then I remembered that strange phenomena that had accompanied my first acknowledgment by each of the dao.

I summoned Shimmer, the fox appearing and immediately stretching and yawning. Apparently she had been sleeping and I was now rudely interrupting her, and she made sure I was well aware of her annoyance. She'd get over it, though I did make a note to give her extra scritches tonight.

"Shimmer, can you do that thing where the elements show above your tails?" I asked her out loud, piquing Elder Hazeon's interest. The monster, Alice, didn't seem interested, but she did look over.

Shimmer yawned again, her mouth opening wide even as she obeyed. One by one a facsimile of the elements along with a stylized character for each of them appeared above each of her…nine? tails.

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I frowned. She had only had eight tails last I checked and I looked to each of the tails and read the characters aboves them as I did.

"Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Metal, Wood, Spirit, Soul, Body."

Now that I thought about it, I hadn't even realized Shimmer's tails had grown to eight. I was so upset that I hadn't noticed when it happened. I didn't understand what the criteria for the Soul and Spirit tails appearing had been. The body tail was clear enough, I reached the first major stage in body cultivation, but the other two I didn't know about. I supposed it didn't really matter, and with all nine tails swishing behind her, she looked…whole. Considering she was called the Nine-Tailed Fox of Destiny, I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised.

Another difference was the length of the tail with 'Fire' above it. It wasn't even a subtle difference. The tail was clearly longer than the others, the flickering flame hovering above it out of line with the arc of elements made by the natural spread of her tails. I supposed that was as good an answer as anything else, though I didn't know how much more of an acknowledgment I had for the dao of fire, it was clear there was a marked difference from the other elements.

I pointed to Shimmer who was now preening herself.

"As you can see, I do have a higher attainment in the dao of fire than the others." I said, to which Elder Hazeon nodded.

"Then that makes a lot of sense. That feeling you felt was a hint from your understanding of the fire element about the true usage of the element for body cultivation." He continued, finally getting to what I wanted to know.

"Each of the elements of qi lends itself to different philosophical, and metaphysical meanings. Understanding these intrinsic leanings for the elements is the first step into properly utilizing your unique constitution.

When you think of fire qi, what comes to mind?" He prompted, causing me to frown but I considered it some before answering.

"From my understanding, fire as an element is both nurturing and destructive. It's two sides of a coin where it's up to the cultivator to choose what kind of fire they want to wield." I said, but falling short on ideas of how it related to body cultivation.

Elder Hazeon frowned a little.

"That is all mostly true, but in terms of body cultivation, or to be more accurate, the body itself. What parts of the body do you consider as related to fire qi?" He asked, which seemed like a weird question to me. What did elemental qi have to do with parts of the body anyway? I tried to think of what he was getting at, he had to be asking for a specific reason.

If I assumed that what he was getting at is that each element of qi is somehow related to parts of the body and that the relationship has something to do with the more abstract meanings of the elements then I could come up with some simple inferences.

The first thing that came to mine was water. Most of the body was made of water and blood especially resembled water. Beyond that…The bladder and kidneys for obvious reasons were water related, but that was all I could think of. I wasn't made of wood so I had no clue how to relate that, or metal for that matter. For earth…that was also a blind spot. I guess the feet? Since I used them for walking? But that was a tenuous link at best.

Wind might make sense with the lungs, nose, and mouth because of breathing. While fire…I could only go off of the feeling I had earlier and think of the heart, but I felt like that was more related to water than anything else.

I explained my reasoning to Elder Hazeon and he smiled widely.

"That's good thinking! You're missing some key knowledge about the elements, but that can be fixed. The important thing is that your thinking is in the right place.

Like you said, water qi has a lot of relationship to the human body, but it isn't as simple as you think it is. I'll briefly go over the various relationships, but I'll leave investigating the other minor relationships and nuances to your own explorations.

I'll start with the simplest connection, metal qi.

Metal qi is often considered the simplest to understand. It's both rigid and stable, giving much needed structure to its users.

It is somewhat obvious then that the bones are the natural facet of the human body linked to metal qi. They support the structure of the human body, and provide stability during movements and techniques. Metal qi's intrinsic nature supports the bones further, making them into stalwart supports for your body's movements.

It may come as a surprise, but the next closely related element of qi to metal for body cultivation is wood qi. Despite being naturally opposing elements, their intrinsic qualities help each other in this domain. As a nurturing and supportive element, wood qi naturally leans to the supportive structures of the body. It most closely relates to the cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. They support the bones, keep them from straying too far out of place, and give the body longevity and flexibility the bones cannot provide. The wood qi improves the function of these facets of the body, allowing the muscles and bones to move more both farther and more effectively.

Next is earth qi. Earth qi and metal qi share a lot of similarities in most people's minds; but whereas metal qi is eternally unyielding and rigid, the same earth that can be tamped and trod upon for millennia without fail can be sown and turned to soft loam.

The muscles, much like earth qi, can be trained, flexed, and relaxed, and can become as hard as an arid mesa or as soft as a verdant glade's soil. The earth qi will allow you to increase or decrease the density and ductility of your muscles, allowing free control over their hardness or, if you find use for it, limpness.

Next is wind qi. Here's where your intuition about the elements goes astray, and the metaphysical and philosophical leanings of the elements beging getting more…seemingly tenuous.

Wind qi represents constant movement and flow. Along with freedom and breaking your worldly fetters. As such the facets of the body related most intrinsically with wind qi are the blood, brain, and senses.

Just as the wind never ceases all throughout the universe, so too does your blood flow endlessly through you. The senses free your mind from endless darkness stuck within yourself, and the brain has endless power and possibilities just as the wind is equally fathomless and infinitely expanding.

Channeling wind qi to your eyes increases your sight manifold more than simple impurity expulsion can accomplish, granting your an unfettered view of all before you, just as your ears will be able to hear much more clearly and much farther away than before.

Channeling wind qi through your blood hastens its flow, giving your muscles the ability to react much more quickly and answer your will. Which brings us to the brain. Channeling wind qi through the brain increases the speed of your thoughts, increasing your reaction time and giving you more leeway in combat to make decisions.

Second to last is water qi. As you mentioned before, the majority of the body is comprised of water. While blood is the domain of wind qi, the remainder of the body's viscera are solely under water's domain. Just as water is a necessity for all life within the universe on some level, your body cannot survive without your various viscera—excepting those who have reached the transcension realm of course. Water is often home to entire thriving ecosystems, which the human body naturally counts as, with each organ supporting the survival of the whole.

Channeling water qi through your various organs increase their strength and functionality, each organ becoming incomparably more efficient and effective. You'll find your breath holds more easily, and even inhaling toxic fumes will be no hindrance while channeling water qi through your lungs.

Poisons will become increasingly less effective against you are your liver goes into overdrive.

You gain full control over your metabolism, and can actively control the amount of nutrients you absorb from food.

Anything you may think of that your organs currently handle for you automatically, you'll have a much finer control over while channeling water qi. On top of all that, the organs are much more resilient to blows, blunt strikes becoming much less effective as your internal organs flow upon the shockwaves, reducing the damage you would take.

Finally, we have fire qi. While water qi supports each of the organs, there is one exception. As you accurately determined, the heart, source of life, is under strict control of fire qi. In fact, it's the only facet of the body fire qi relates to and while the others are considered somewhat as general relationships with specific boosts for channeling qi through their body parts, fire qi is the opposite. Fire qi is a hyper specific relationship with very general boosts. As the center of all your body's functions stem from the heart, channeling qi through it effectively combines the effects of all other types of qi in your body but to a much lesser degree.

Since you have the highest attainments in fire qi, I'll leave further ponderings on why fire qi functions this way when channeled through the heart to you.

I realize this has been quite the long winded explanation, and I didn't give you much time to think about it, but do you have any questions?" Elder Hazeon ended, and my mind spun.

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