He kept training.
Days passed inside the white space, then weeks, though nothing here marked one from the other. He called Brey back each time, and each time, the fight began the same way. Fists raised. No words. No mercy.
He lost more than he won at first. His technique was new, and his body still fought old habits instead of the new form. But he kept going, back straight, guard up the way Falling Edge Form taught him, footwork sharper with each fight.
"Again," he said, breathing hard, blood on his knuckles.
Brey's shape reformed a few steps away, blank-faced, fists ready.
He stopped flinching after the tenth fight. He stopped feeling sick after the twentieth. By the fortieth, the fights blurred into something close to rhythm, punch and dodge and recover, his mind quiet even while his body worked.
It wasn't just his fists that changed.
He noticed it during a fight he lost badly, pinned to the ground, ribs aching under Brey's knee. Instead of panic, he felt something steadier. Calm, even with pain pressing into his side. He filed that away without understanding it yet.
"You're not scared anymore," he said to himself once, sitting alone after a fight, catching his breath. "Not like before."
No answer came. He hadn't asked Axiom.
He kept the routine simple. Fight until his body gave out. Rest. Breathe through the Silent Root Method until the ache faded and the small warmth in his stomach returned. Then fight again.
The warmth grew slightly stronger each time he sat to breathe. Still faint. Still small. But there, now, in a way it hadn't been before.
Weeks passed like that, his body and his mind both changing in ways he only noticed in pieces. Steadier hands. A calmer chest, even during the worst hits. Better instincts, faster reactions, less wasted movement.
Then, during a quiet stretch between fights, the pressure came.
[Function One. Information Delivery.]
He sat up straighter. "What now."
[Future hardship identified. Host will require stronger Qi sources to advance past Qi Refinement's early stages. Current surroundings lack sufficient density.]
He frowned. "So I'll get stuck."
[Correct. Without denser Qi, progress will slow to a near stop. Breakthrough becomes difficult, then impossible, without external resources.]
"How long until that happens."
[Soon. Host's current pace will reach the limit within the current stage.]
He sat with that for a moment. "So I need herbs. Something like that."
[Correct. Herbs and resources with higher Qi density exist, but are rare and require conditions to grow. None exist near host's shelter.]
"Then how do I get them."
No answer came right away. He waited, the way he'd learned to.
[Function Three. Function Creation. Condition met.]
He straightened. "Wait, what?"
[Host's current state qualifies. A new function has been generated.]
The pressure spread through him, different from before, warm instead of cold, settling low near his stomach where the small heat from his training already sat.
[Function granted: Qi Attraction and Purification.]
He blinked. "What does that do."
[Qi does not remain fixed in place. It moves, drifts, settles where conditions allow. Over time, it can enter plants, slowly changing them into something stronger. This process is natural, but slow, often taking decades.]
"And now?"
[This function makes Qi around host denser and purifies it, removing impurity faster than nature allows. Plants near host will absorb denser Qi at a faster rate. Given time, this may produce herbs suited for cultivation.]
He looked down at his own hands, then around at the empty white space, like he expected to see something different already. "So it's like... I make my own herbs. Just by being near them."
[Correct, though slow at first.]
"Is it always on?"
[No. Host may activate or deactivate the function at will.]
"And the range? How far does it reach?"
[Function follows host. Range and density scale with host's cultivation. Weak now. Wider and stronger as host advances.]
He sat with that for a while, turning it over the same way he had every other piece of information Axiom ever gave him. A small edge. Not a weapon. Not a shortcut. Just a slow push in the right direction, tied to how strong he actually became.
"So the stronger I get, the more this helps me get stronger," he said slowly. "That's almost funny."
[Cultivation compounds. Expected.]
He almost laughed, tired but real this time. "Fine. Turn it on, then."
[Only in real world.]
He stood, rolling his shoulders, ready for the next fight.
"Alright," he said, calling Brey's shape forward again. "Let's keep going."
---
He fought Brey again. And again, for what felt like days by his own count, sweat and blood mixing into a rhythm he barely noticed anymore.
Then, mid-fight, a thought stopped him cold.
He dropped his guard, stepping back from Brey's next swing without even trying to block it. The fist caught him across the jaw, but he barely felt it.
Wait.
"Axiom," he said, ignoring Brey's shape as it reset a few steps away. "If I stay in here, and just cultivate. No fighting. No forest. No danger. Just breathing, over and over, for years... would I get strong faster?"
[Correct. No physical risk exists here. Time outside does not pass. Host could remain for decades without consequence to the body.]
He felt something like excitement rise in his chest. "Then why am I still fighting out there? I could just cultivate in here until I'm strong enough that nothing can touch me."
[Function Seven does not work here.]
He blinked. "Function Seven?"
[Qi Attraction and Purification. The function requires ambient Qi to draw from. Air. Plants. Stone. Matter that exists in the real world.]
He frowned. "So?"
[This space holds none of that, barely have Qj enough to flow smoothly every technique. No air. No plants. No stone. Only host, and what host brings into it. There is nothing here for the function to draw from.]
He looked around at the endless white, understanding settling in slow. "So the Qi around me... it's not real Qi. It's just me."
[... Host's own breath and body still function here. Qi sensed through Silent Root Method is real, generated by host alone. But the function that gathers and purifies Qi from the surroundings has is not enough to gather. No surroundings exist. You will just be stuck in your current realm.]
"So if I stayed here forever..."
[Host wouldn't breakthrough the current higher realm, through breath alone. No herbs. No external Qi sources.]
He let that sink in, the excitement from a moment ago fading into something closer to disappointment. "So I still need to go outside. This place won't just... let me skip it."
[Correct. Simulation trains the body and the mind. It does not replace what the world provides.]
He stood there a moment, arms loose at his sides, Brey's shape frozen a few steps away, waiting.
"That's annoying," he muttered. "For a second I thought I found a shortcut."
[There are no shortcuts. Only slower and faster paths.]
He almost laughed. "Fine. Fine, I get it."
He looked at Brey's still form, then let his fists drop for good this time.
"I'm done here," he said. "For now."
[Confirmed. Exit at will.]
He closed his eyes, and the white space began to fade
He opened his eyes.
The forest came back into focus, dim light through the trees, the wooden walls of his house nearby. He was still sitting where he'd left his body, legs numb from staying still so long.
Then something shifted near his temple.
The ring slid loose from the side of his head and dropped into his lap.
He froze.
He picked it up slowly, turning it in his fingers. Small. Thin. The same ring that had sat against his skull since the cellar, the same one every other child wore in that room. He'd almost forgotten it was there.
"Axiom," he said. "What is this?"
No answer.
"Why did it fall off?"
Still nothing.
He held it closer, studying it under the weak light. Small stones sat embedded along the inside curve, catching what little sun made it through the canopy. Not plain metal. Something else. He didn't know what.
He turned it over once more, waiting for the pressure to come, for Axiom to explain the way it always did with things that mattered.
Nothing came.
"Guess I'm on my own with this one too," he muttered.
He held the ring a while longer before setting it down beside him, unsure if he should be worried or not.