Ashes of the star forge

Ryzek Vorn did not waste time with gentle instruction.

Once the basic agreement was settled and their most urgent wounds had been stabilized, he led Lian and Elara out onto a relatively flat section of the canyon ledge. The wind still tore across the exposed stone, and the planet’s crushing pressure remained a constant burden, but the location offered enough open space for practical training.

He stood before them with his four amber eyes narrowed in clear disapproval.

“You are both deficient in primary applications,” Ryzek said bluntly. “At Stellar Circuit Star 1, and even at Peak Core Condensation, there are fundamental techniques every cultivator is expected to use without conscious effort. External Qi projection. Basic energy barriers. Controlled force amplification. Stable flight under adverse conditions. You can manage crude versions of some of these, but your execution is inefficient and fragile. That is unacceptable on a world like this.”

He raised one crystalline-ridged hand. A dense spear of amber energy formed above his palm, compressed so tightly it distorted the air around it. With a casual flick, he launched it into the far canyon wall. The impact carved a deep, clean hole through several meters of solid black stone.

“That is the minimum standard,” Ryzek said. “Again. Watch the compression. Watch the release. Then reproduce it.”

The training that followed was brutal in its simplicity.

Ryzek drilled them without pause. External projection. Short-range barriers. Force amplification through the limbs. Repeated flight under the planet’s heavy atmosphere until their Qi reserves burned and their control frayed. Every mistake was corrected immediately and without kindness. When Lian’s black liquid interfered with clean Qi compression, Ryzek forced him to separate the two energies and master them independently before allowing recombination. When Elara’s lightning-based attacks scattered too widely, he made her collapse the energy into tighter, more penetrating forms.

It was as hard as the death-protocol sessions Lirien had put Lian through in the ship’s training room. There was no actual dying here, but the relentless pressure, the constant drain of the environment, and Ryzek’s uncompromising standards pushed both of them to the edge of collapse repeatedly.

Between rounds, while they recovered just enough Qi to continue, the questions began.

Lian spoke first, his breathing still uneven.

“Where do you come from? And what is following you?”

Ryzek’s tail flicked once. He studied Lian for a moment before answering.

“I am Veyrani, from the outer colonies of the Indigo Reach. My clan specializes in high-pressure mineral extraction and void-stable alloy refining. I came to Veythara’s Grave for a vein of crystallized voidstone that only forms under these exact conditions. I found it. My extraction support is late. In the meantime, certain... interested parties have taken notice of my presence here. Some want the mineral. Some want the survey data. Some simply want me removed because my clan’s success threatens their own routes. That is all you need to know for now.”

He turned the question back without hesitation.

“And you? A human with void-aligned eyes and an internal black substance I do not recognize. A half-aug woman. Both of you abandoned on a death world by a supervisor. What exactly are you being prepared for?”

Lian gave a carefully limited answer.

“Something larger than this planet. A coming spatial event. And a personal enemy who operates at a level far above either of us. The training is necessary.”

Ryzek accepted the partial truth with a slight nod. Information had been exchanged. Trust had not. That was enough for the moment.

They returned to the drills.

As the hours wore on, Lian noticed something about himself that had been growing clearer since the arena and the repeated deaths in Lirien’s simulations. He no longer feared dying. The terror that had once gripped him during the early death-protocol sessions was gone. Even when the monsters had overwhelmed them, even when the Star 5 bounty hunter had nearly ended him, the dominant feeling had not been fear of death. It had been the cold recognition that he might lose. That he might fail. Death itself no longer carried the same weight.

The only thing that truly weighed him down now was the environment of Veythara’s Grave.

The constant pressure weakened the circulation of Qi. It slowed recovery. It made every technique more expensive than it should have been. It turned even basic flight into a draining struggle. The planet itself was the real opponent — a slow, relentless force that punished every inefficiency.

Ryzek seemed to understand this instinctively. His training methods focused as much on adapting to the pressure as on the techniques themselves. Compress tighter. Cycle shorter. Waste nothing. Survive longer.

By the time the blood-colored sky began to darken toward the planet’s harsh night, both Lian and Elara were exhausted, their Qi reserves scraped thin, their bodies marked with new strains and fading bruises. But their control had already improved. The projections were cleaner. The barriers held longer. Flight cost less.

Ryzek finally called a halt.

“Rest,” he said. “Tomorrow we continue. And tomorrow we will see whether you can apply these fundamentals while something tries to kill you.”

Lian sat against the canyon wall, feeling the black liquid settle into a slower, denser rhythm inside him. Elara lowered herself beside him, lightning quietly flickering across her fingertips as she stabilized her own energy.

They had gained a teacher, temporary shelter, and a clearer understanding of their own deficiencies.

Power Scale / Cultivation Realms (Quick Reminder)

Foundation Realm (Layers 1–9): Body forging, no external Qi.

Circuit Awakening Realm (Early–Peak): First Qi loop, internal bursts.

Core Condensation Realm (Early–Peak): External Qi release, short flight.

Stellar Circuit Realm (1–9 Stars): True flight, Qi armor, energy projection.

Nebula Dominion Realm and higher: Domain control, galaxy-level power, etc

Power Scale Reminder

Lian Yu: Stellar Circuit Star 1.

Elara Voss: Core Condensation Middle

Keep it as reminders

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