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"So let me get this straight, you want your Disciple to gain access to the Mystic Celestial Sect's historic archives and records of the states of the known and observable celestial bodies? Why, exactly?" Jace inquired while sipping from his cup of tea.

"It's for her cultivation," Krish answered,

Jace lowered his cup and shot an exasperated gaze towards Krish, who deciphered the gaze's implications and elaborated, "She needs that information to achieve a breakthrough. She believes it is the piece that will tip her over to advance into the Foundation Establishment realm."

Jace hummed contemplatively before raising a finger, "You said 'she needs' and 'she believes'. What's the deal with that? Isn't the cultivation pathway for The Heavenly Eye kind of fixed in the early stages?"

"Marie here is trying something different," Krish responded.

"And you're okay with that?" Jace's voice oozed with incredulity and disbelief. "You really have changed," he added with a low murmur.

"So, what do you say?" Krish reiterated.

"Fine, fine. You know the drill," Jace said with a wave of his hands.

"Wait!" Marie interjected sternly. "I have a few questions regarding the information you will be providing me access to."

With raised brows, Jace trained his complete attention towards Marie. "Excuse me?"

"Allegedly," she shot a side-eye towards her Master before returning Jace's gaze, "I was told that I would be able to find the information that I need here. I trust my Master. I trust that he has my best interests at heart. If my Master were to tell me something, I will believe it because I know where he's coming from. I cannot say the same for you or the Mystic Celestial Sect."

Jace released a hum that echoed within the room with an uneasy reverb. "I hope you realise that you are the one who needs this information."

"I am, which is why I want to first make sure that it is the information I am looking for," Marie reasoned. "They say that beggars can't be choosers, but what use is foisting a closet upon a beggar who owns only a single set of clothes and lacks a stable place to live? I have no use for information if it isn't relevant to my needs. Don't get me wrong though, I am infinitely thankful that you are offering me the opportunity to peruse your Sect's records."

From the corner of his eyes, Jace caught Krish holding back a smirk with great difficulty. "Looks like you're enjoying the show. Did you put her up to this?"

"No," Krish said amidst a gleeful snort. Jace sighed at his friend's uncharacteristic mischievous demeanour and scratched his forehead in vexation.

Seeing this, Krish coughed and took over. "The Mystic Celestial Sect follows a special kind of cultivation method that relies on the precise state of the celestial bodies for specific effects."

"How so?" Marie asked back.

"Now, that's confidential information!" Jace interrupted wildly.

"What kind of information do you record, then?" Marie rephrased.

"Location of the planets of our Solar System in the night sky every day since the inception of the Sect. We also include specific stellar formations, stellar clusters, and so on. Basically, if it exists in the night sky, it exists in our records," Jace answered casually.

"How do you record this information?" Marie followed up. "What kind of methods do you use to describe this information? Is it all diagrammatic? Or are you using some kind of unique unit of measurement?"

"Mostly diagrammatic," Jace muttered. "Kind of."

"What degree of accuracy are we working with then?"

"We pride ourselves in how accurately and precisely we can replicate and record the celestial positions," Jace responded with a proud front as he tried to keep his response as vague as possible.

"In their cultivation method, they define Meridians that are cultivated at different locations across the human body that act as pseudo mana cores. These Meridians act as subordinates to the central core and aid in the rapid circulation and expulsion of mana. The location of these Meridians cannot be messed around with and has an underlying theory that depends heavily on celestial positioning," Krish expounded, avoiding Jace's scrutinising gaze. "There is a lot of interdependency in the Meridian positioning as well. Minor deviations, and we're talking in the range of millimetres here, can result in irreparable backlash. So you can expect a high degree of accuracy and precision in their data."

Marie scratched her chin in thought as she digested the hurried revelations.

"Alright, it sounds useful for my purposes," Marie declared while tapping her lap earnestly. "How do I get access to it?"

____

While Marie was led out of the room towards her destination by a sect member, Jace and Krish returned to their catch-up session that was over five hundred years overdue.

"An interesting Disciple you've got yourself there," Jace commented. "She's quite..."

"Caustic? Blunt? Frustrating?" Krish listed.

"All of the above, I guess," Jace said with a wry smile. "Though it seems you're enjoying it."

"It's that obvious, huh?"

"The entire time we've known each other, you've never smiled so much in all those years combined compared to how much you've done in the last few hours," Jace declared. "That is to say that you, my friend, have truly changed. The Krish I knew would have dropped such an argumentative person at the first sign of opposition."

"I was close to doing it, I won't lie," Krish confessed while shaking his head. "In the beginning, a part of me was this close to just ending it and leaving."

"Why didn't you?"

"There were a lot of factors. The greatest contributor towards my staying, though, was when I realised that a Master-Disciple relationship was a two-way street," Krish emphasised. "Both the Disciple and Master have expectations of each other. While the Disciple strives to meet their Master's, so must a Master attempt to match their Disciple's. It is unfair for me to expect my Disciple to suddenly become a perfect fit for myself because in doing so, I am asking them to turn into another me. Furthermore, it also inhibits my opportunity for growth."

"So in meeting midway, both you and your Disciple come out of the relationship as better people," Jace completed the sentence.

"It was hard for me - I've lived for two millennia after all. Certain characteristics of mine were far too ingrained to change. But as I kept at it, I found myself adjusting. Thanks to the assistance from the Leader of the Sect I am affiliated with now, the process became easier," Krish continued.

"Tell me more about that," Jace interjected. "Which lucky sect managed to tie you down?"

"It's a new one. It is called the True World Sect," Krish answered.

"Sounds kind of pretentious," Jace grumbled.

"Less pretentious than the Mystic Celestial Sect," Krish countered.

"Hey! That name wasn't my decision to make. My Grandmother wasn't particularly gifted in the creativity department," Jace said with a groan.

"The Leader of my Sect is a natural when it comes to getting through to the youths," Krish said to divert the conversation. "I learned a lot from him."

Jace cocked his brows in disbelief.

"There is no shame in learning something from someone more skilled in it than you are. There's always more room to learn, isn't that how we keep ourselves alive?" Krish hinted.

A light chuckle escaped Jace's lips, following which a spontaneous silence descended on the room. Krish's demeanour turned dour.

"Let's address the erumpent in the room," Krish's gaze narrowed - his attention focused on Jace in his entirety. His face changed into a concerned frown.

Jace tried to put on a jovial front, but his smile faltered and dissipated as the silence dragged on. "Of course, there's no hiding it from you," he said with a sigh. At the same time, he released his grasp on his presence and revealed his cultivation and, by extension, his soul for a cursory glance

Krish's frown deepened upon noticing Jace's deteriorating state as his cultivation and soul started to escape as wispy strands. "Ten more years," he declared with certainty.

"Sounds about right," Jace agreed. "You don't see anyway, do you?"

With a decisive shake of his head, Krish said, "You tell me! You must have tried every possible avenue for reigniting your cultivation. Did you succeed?"

"It's frustrating," Jace admitted. "My grandmother died at the age of 2034. My father lasted a hundred more years. I didn't even exceed his by a hundred. I experimented with weird quirks with my cultivation, I tried to relearn my cultivation method by segmenting my memories to suppress some of my pre-existing knowledge, and I even forcefully tried out-of-the-box strategies for cultivation and magic at the expense of damaging myself. I tried everything! But nothing. Fucking. Worked!"

"It isn't fair," Jace complained with a growl. "Why do we call ourselves immortal if we have to live with the constant fear of death?!"

"It's because immortality is a myth," Krish shrugged. "Everyone must die, that is how the world works. Old must give way for the new which in turn pushes the world forward for better or worse."

"It is the new generation that innovates and develops. It is in immersing ourselves in these innovations that we gain the boon of a few additional years of life. The moment we reach the point of diminishing returns, it is the world indicating to us that there is nothing left for us to contribute," Krish orated.

"I've reached my saturation point already. No amount of teaching or Discipleship is helping me," Jace complained. He then shot back enviously, "Your Disciple must have stimulated your cultivation by quite a bit."

"Far more than I expected. That girl's mind works in ways unlike my own. For her, the world operates through infallible lines of reasoning. If there is a shortfall in said reasoning, there is a cause that introduces an exception. If she identifies the existence of an exception she makes it her life's goal to formalise it quantitatively or qualitatively," Krish gushed.

Without pause, he continued, "Even though she comes off as abrasive and negative, her optimism is unparalleled. She believes that anything is achievable given the proper resources and knowledge. She never gives up, never compromises, and never takes anything at face value."

"This is another reason why I disdain the orthodox Master-Disciple relationship," Krish decried.

"The orthodox strategy shoves down a Disciple's character and moulds it to fit the Master's needs. If I did the same with Marie, I would be robbing the world of a revolutionary mage."