Maksym Pachesiuk
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Moon Cultivation [Book 2] - Chapter 78: Truths Unveiled
🕑 Added 2025-05-27 23:36:01 +0000 UTCIn the evening, Kate and I were invited to Novak’s. Since she already had access to his quarters, there was no need for Adam or Lina to escort us from the station or take us upstairs.
No bourbon this time. The air held the scent of honey, pine, apples, and roasted nuts — a clear sign we were having tea.
Novak was already waiting, dressed formally but without a jacket — just a vest over a crisp shirt, which gave the meeting a slightly more informal tone. Two teapots and three cups were set neatly on the low table. As we entered, he reached for the dark green pot, its surface etched with a raised pattern that looked like pine branches, and poured a cup.
“Master,” Kate bowed lightly.
I just gave a nod — and got a sharp glare from her in return.
Novak acknowledged us with an even lazier nod and placed the filled cup across from my seat. Then he turned to the second pot — nearly white, with swirling wind-like patterns — and poured from it as well. This tea was lighter in colour, tinged with green and a faint pinkish hue.
“Sit,” he said, placing the second cup in front of Kate’s chair.
Her eyes lit up.
Novak poured himself a third cup and lifted it in a toast.
“I’ve already congratulated you on your breakthrough,” he said to Kate, his voice suddenly serious. “But adulthood begins now.”
He drank.
Kate followed, though she didn’t swallow — swirled the liquid in her mouth, probably evaluating the flavour… and the effect.
I drank my tea without hesitation. It tasted like standard Gunpowder — perhaps a bit higher quality than what you’d get from the school shop, but definitely without any special properties. Which meant Novak wasn’t expecting anything exceptional from me today.
“You already know there are strange things happening outside the regular curriculum,” said Vaclav. “What you don’t know is the scale — and your dear mentee’s involvement.”
Kate blinked and turned sharply to me.
“What did he do?” she asked cautiously.
Novak shook his head.
“You misunderstand. He helped us — a great deal.” He swirled the tea in his cup, watching it spiral. “Normally, I don’t tell my students what we really do here until they reach Condensation. Some I never tell at all. But your time has come — and Jake is already neck-deep in this mess.”
I raised my cup in a mock toast to Kate.
Clearly, I was here as a live specimen — exhibit A.
“His amnesia wasn’t exactly amnesia,” Novak continued. “It was the demons attempting to clear his body for one of their own.”
“Demons? Here, on Verdis?” she asked, incredulous.
And I couldn’t believe she was that naive. But her next question made it clear she wasn’t.
“What do you mean, ‘attempting to clear his body’?”
Kate didn’t believe in demons because, to her, they were obvious — all thick horns and brute violence. I’d been stewing in this story from the start. I knew better. Demons didn’t always come horned. Kate, meanwhile, had been too busy cultivating.
“They transplant their consciousness,” Novak explained. “Their soul, into human bodies. That’s how they spy on us. His friend,” he gestured toward me, “Nur Amira Rahman, intercepted the demon that was meant for Jake. By some miracle, she ended up sharing a body with it. Two minds in one head. We managed to separate them — but it didn’t go as planned. Nur’s consciousness was also transferred. She’s alive. Her name is Zola now.”
Kate looked at me like I was some kind of dangerous weirdo.
“I want them both to pass the culling,” Novak said. “Bulsara will handle Zola. You’ll prepare Jake.”
“But I already am doing that, Master,” she pointed out.
“Focus on combat drills and sparring. By year’s end, he needs to distinguish all qi types,” Novak said, slowly shifting his gaze to me. “If you win three weekly tournaments, I’ll give you the Rhino's Third Horn”
“That’s…” I started.
“Breakthrough material,” Kate cut in. “Boosts shield durability and duration. I used a horn for my last breakthrough too — but it was the Second Horn. You can’t handle the Second. The Third should be just right.”
Third and Second, huh? Incomplete set. I’d bet good points Novak’s got the First stashed away somewhere, just in case.
“Is that even realistic?” I asked. “I’ll only get around forty shots, if I’m counting right. And guys like Erik Dubois will be there — people who’ve trained for this their whole lives — and you want me to beat them not once, but three times?”
“Don’t haggle, Jake,” Vaclav said with a smile. “I’m not forcing you. You want to enter the tournament — enter. You don’t — don’t.”
“Yeah…” I muttered. “And how much would that horn fetch at auction?”
“Not that expensive,” Vaclav replied. “Three hundred thousand, give or take. But usually only one or two are sold at auction per year.”
“Then I’ll just buy one,” I said — out loud, decisively.
But Novak wasn’t fooled. He knew he had me hooked.
When the conversation wrapped up and Kate was fully brought into the loop, we took the lift down toward the metro. Somewhere between floors, I turned to her and said:
“I need a sparring match against a Point.”
“You’ll get one tomorrow,” she promised.
I blinked. “First stage,” I reminded her.
“You’ll get it,” Kate smiled. “I arranged it after our last training session. Just happened that he’s a Point-type. Wood-Point, to be precise. Drop by Alan’s in the morning and pick up your gauntlets — you won’t be able to spar without them.”
“This isn’t going to be another one of your sadistic beatdowns, like my first dodging session, is it?”
“No,” she laughed. “I’m not throwing you straight into a fight. You’ll meet first. Get acquainted. He’ll bring his weapon — I just don’t want you showing up underdressed.”
What was that? A hint of jealousy in her voice? Or maybe just competitive pride?
“And right now,” she added, “we’re stopping by the shop to get you two ampoules of Point essence.”
After that, I honestly couldn’t wait to meet this mysterious ‘he’.
My Point root was 13. Fifteen was considered the minimum threshold for working with specialised qi, so clearly, Kate wanted me to start learning to distinguish Point Qi.
I took the essence in the morning — quick stop at the infirmary for the shot, and I was already up +2 before channel training even started.
From Rene’s, I went straight to Alan for the gauntlets — 25K and not even top-tier on the market. But they were crafted specifically for me and my techniques — Chain Punch and Hook, to be exact. They dulled my lighter hits slightly, but in exchange, they amped up my Hook — and even added some speed to it.
There was a catch, though. Without the powered servos from my armour, the gauntlets were heavy. My new suit wasn’t just a plastic shell anymore — it was a proper combat frame made from dense alloys and composite plates. Base model alone cost me 35K — not much more than the free school-issued junk.
Adam and I had designed the concept together. Alan had pushed some pricier builds, but Adam made a fair point — I’d be paying for the repairs myself.
The armour wasn’t ready yet — I’d been waiting for Kate’s approval before placing the final order. Only once she emerged from her seclusion did I go through with it. The gauntlets, though — those had been made earlier. Adam insisted I’d need them soon, and as usual, he was right.
The sparring session with my new partner had been scheduled in the same training hall where Kate and I usually practised. I was expecting someone with a wooden spear — that’s the first image my brain conjured when I heard ‘Wood-Point’ Instead, the guy holding court in the middle of the room was gripping an oversized... scythe?
No — not a scythe, exactly. That would make it a Blade, or maybe Blade-Point?
Wrong. What he was holding was a massive two-handed war pick, its pointed head long, faceted, and viciously hooked — like a parrot’s beak cast in hardwood.
Kate really had dug up a pair of characters.
His mentor was a third-period — not much taller than Kate and similar in build, though her features were completely European and lacked any trace of Kate’s East Asian heritage. Her hair was blue, like Bao Feng’s, cut into sharp layers that framed her face. A living vine coiled around her hips like a stylish belt, and a bandolier of plastic spikes crisscrossed the front of her standard-issue jumpsuit.
Next to her, her mentee looked enormous. The guy had Denis’s build, but with less definition — more stocky, a little extra weight, maybe. His eyes drifted lazily across the sand, as if tracking something only he could see, until the mentors started talking. Then he made an exception and gave me a glance.
“Jake, meet Piper and Mustafa,” Kate said, gesturing toward them.
I didn’t pay Piper much mind. But Mustafa? I scanned him head to toe — and he did the same to me.
Broad shoulders, pale skin, dark but not quite black hair — unlike his eyes, which were pitch black, impossible to tell where the iris ended and the pupil began. His hairstyle was best described as ‘total chaos.’ It wasn’t curly, but it wasn’t straight either, and someone had clearly cut it with only one real rule in mind: don’t let it fall into the eyes. It flopped messily to one side, breaking somewhere above the left brow, but there wasn’t a clean part.
At first glance, the guy looked like a total slacker. But his name in the interface was M. K. Cinar. Could it be that Cinar — the one hovering one or two places ahead of me in the cultivation rankings?
I didn’t dare check. Pulling up someone’s file in a moment like this would be extremely impolite.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, and we shook hands.
His grip was firm and rough — probably from swinging that thing around day in, day out. How the hell did he fight with it? I couldn’t even begin to picture his style.
“Well, well,” Piper grinned. “Tone down the intensity, boys. You’re here to spar, not beat the crap out of each other.”
We both turned our heads toward her in surprise.
“You were literally drilling holes through each other with your eyes,” she laughed.
“Eye-drilling looks a bit different,” I muttered.
Cinar nodded in agreement.
“We’re just curious what the other can do,” he said.
“We’ll show you what we can do first,” Kate said sharply. “So you know what to expect in case you get too excited and break each other. Break Jake, and I’ll break every rib in your body.”
Mustafa gave me a sideways glance, then looked to his mentor — clearly hoping she’d vouch for his survival.
The comment stung, though. Why did Kate assume he would break me? Maybe I’d be the one doing the breaking.
“That goes both ways,” Piper said. “Do not offend my little boy.”
I raised an eyebrow and took a second look at her so-called ‘little boy.’
“So, when tormenting one mentee isn’t enough, you two just swap?” I asked.
“Ooh, clever one!” Piper said to Kate, then turned to me. “Come on, smart guy — let’s warm up.”
“I’d rather work with him,” I said, nodding toward Cinar.
“Absolutely agreed,” he said, eyeing Kate like she was a small, colourful snake with a lethal bite.
The girls burst out laughing.
“We’re not going to maim you,” Kate said.
“Just give you a taste of our techniques, so you know how to handle each other properly.”
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Jonathan Griffith
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