Outside Wu Ling's Inner World, the remainder of the group had joined Su Xiang in watching Wu Ling's breakthrough. Initially, Jin Wuya had been the first to join Su Xiang, drawn by the colorful aura spreading around the new Understudy.
When the breakthrough continued for more than an hour, however, she fetched Yu Jinqi to see if anything was wrong. As the only other person in their group to have reached the second stage in addition to being the group's healer, she couldn't think of anyone else to ask.
"He's Reawakening," Yu Jinqi finally told the others after observing the changes to Wu Ling's aura. "He's trying to go beyond becoming an Understudy. If he succeeds, he should be a Brawler, Initiate, or Drifter. Sister Su, do you know what he intended for his second path?"
"No," Su Xiang said with a shake of her head. "Brother Ling's cultivation is a little different than most. I was there for his original awakening, he used a two-part incense but he lit them in reverse order. He barely made it through," she explained.
"This time, maybe he's trying something else unusual. I'm sure he'll be fine though," she said with more conviction than she really felt.
"I'm going to check in with Brother Fang," Zhang Buyan said as he observed Wu Ling. "Sister Su, I know you'll guard him well but if he needs to be undisturbed while he completes his Reawakening, it might be good to have Brother Fang put a barrier around him. If he's feeling well enough to set up a formation, I'll bring him over."
"Thank you, Brother Zhang," Su Xiang said without taking her eyes off Wu Ling. His face seemed calm and relaxed without the signs of struggle that marked his original awakening but whatever he was experiencing, he showed no signs of it ending any time soon. Without any information from Wu Ling himself, all they could do was wait and hope that he succeeded.
Within Wu Ling's Inner World, after stepping through the door, he found himself in a small walled garden. Everything in the garden, however, felt vague and indistinct, as though it had been painted with watercolors in the minimum number of brush strokes. Vague shapes that could be boulders or benches dotted the garden along with splashes of color that were probably flowers but nothing was distinct enough to say for certain.
"How much has your mother taught you about cultivating the soul, Little Ling?" Hua Jue asked when they arrived in the vaguely defined space.
"Very little," Wu Ling confessed. "She told me that it involves defining your core self and deriving power from the reinforcement of that definition. We never expected that I'd arrive here so soon though, so she hasn't told me anything that's specific enough to be put into practice."
"In that case, I'll explain things to you the way my love once explained to me," she said with a wistful smile. "Describe yourself. Not physically. Tell me who you are."
"Who I am?" Wu Ling pondered for a moment. "I'm an Artist, a disciple of the Bamboo Silk House, I'm a man who…"
"Too many words," Hua Jue interrupted. "Use fewer words."
"Um. Fewer," Wu Ling said, pondering on the words he'd written on the wall of his inner world when he first became a cultivator. "I think the answer is still the same. I'm an Artist, musician, and a dreamer. I want to be a hero and I'm willing to be a villain…"
"Still too much," his master said with a teasing smile. "Try just one word. One word to define yourself. Don't use 'Artist', that's too easy to hide behind and it misses several of the things that make you unique. One word."
"One word," Wu Ling repeated. For several minutes he stayed absolutely still, closing his eyes and running through several things that occurred to him, discarding each of them as peripheral. If 'Artist' wasn't close enough to the core then what was?
As he turned different words over in his mind, 'Passion' was the first that stood out. Passion drove his art, his heart, his love… but as soon as he thought about 'Passion' he thought about 'Calculating' and his training in chess. Passion was tempered by reason and planning, seeing the broader picture and thinking several moves ahead. When that didn't fit, he thought about the 'Beauty' he brought into the world with any of his forms of art, but immediately after that, a vision of the Mountain's Bones gambling den and the very 'Ugly' scene he'd created flashed through his mind.
"Duality," Wu Ling finally said. "Compliment and contradiction. I'm not just one thing, I'm usually two, either at the same time or in turn. Like a coin, I have two sides," he finished, opening his eyes and seeing approval reflected in the eyes of his master. "You pointed it out to me when we first met and it's only become more true."
"Very good, Little Ling, you arrived where I hoped you would and faster than I thought you might," she praised. "But, this doesn't directly give you the power to eliminate your targets or improve your strength as an assassin."
"Zhai Xing was a calamity plagued by misfortune but there are some of her methods that would be suitable to you. I have no doubt that, given her manuals, you'll arrive at a very different destination than she did because of the duality of your nature. Are you willing to try or would you prefer to find your own way?"
"Master," Wu Ling said, kneeling on the ephemeral ground of the garden. "Disciple is willing to inherit your arts, whether they are arts you cultivated in this life or another one. Master has always given me the freedom to choose my own way but has also provided me with strength beyond what I could achieve without her guidance," he said formally. "If Master has a path in mind, simply point disciple's feet and he will walk as far as he may."