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Cultivation - Ch 4
🕑 Added 2022-10-24 00:23:02 +0000 UTCKit closed the book softly.
He was completely silent even as tears streamed down his face.
Xia Zhilan couldn’t know what kind of things he was thinking about. The journal was shocking, to say the least.
She coudln’t imagine. Bonen had told his son that he was desinted to die young, and that even Kit might be subject to the same destiny.
It was a twisted curse. Generations of fathers dying while their sons were young, and no matter how much talent they attained, they couldn’t fight against their fate. They could only have a child and hope that they weren’t headed toward the same end.
Kit was at a crossroads.
What would he do, now that he knew the truth of his situation?
Was he going to stand and fight? He knew he had talent, talent that at least guaranteed his rise to the peak of the Sky Realm.
But how hard would he fight? Would he take it easy since his fate may already be sealed? Or would he fight like hell against the cruel fate that he had been bestowed?
Xia Zhilan wanted to know his motivation. What would push him? What would be his reason for fighting?
She also comforted him. She couldn’t help but embrace the crying child. By now, she was no different from his mother.
“Aunt Xia.”
“Yes?”
She responded to Kit’s low voice.
“My parents. They were killed by demons. Didn’t demons disappear from this continent with the end of the Red War?”
“...They should have. But nothing is absolute. Still, your parents killed those demons. No others have been seen since.”
“...”
Kit was silent for a while. His gaze fell back onto the book in his hands.
There were many thoughts in his mind. Thoughts of his parents, of gaining power, of the demons that shouldn’t exist.
The demons took his parents away. Kit was supposed to hate them. Perhaps his desire for revenge could drive him to great heights.
But he didn’t hate them. He spent many years hating himself instead.
He was responsible for the death of his parents. They were supposed to win, but because of his appearance, the tide of battle left their favor.
They were supposed to win, but because of the curse that all those in Kit’s paternal lineage bore, his father was destined to die anyway.
He was the sole cause of their deaths. Kit didn’t care about any excuses others might tell him. And he wasn’t going to delude himself.
He had accepted his role in their deaths.
But he had dwelled on it for six years already. Time had gradually washed away the despair. He would never forgive himself, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t continue.
Now, he was developing a new goal.
Kit’s father and grandfathers. Four generations before him, all of them holding the deep desire to rise to that bright heaven. They all sought the profundity of the Dao, even in the face of their inevitable destiny.
Kit would not forsake their sacrifice. He would not allow himself to shirk the undying wishes passed down through the generations.
He would bear the responsibility that came with causing his father and mother’s death.
He would fight toward that bright heaven.
And if the day came, and his destiny was also to die…
Then at least he could go and ask his parents’ forgiveness in the afterlife.
Kit made his silent vow. Finally, he could see the road that his forefathers paved.
“...Aunt Xia.”
“Yes, Kit?”
Kit heard that soft voice. The voice of his second mother.
He let out a deep breath, wiping away the wet streaks on his face. His eyes glowed from underneath the blindfold.
“What weapon did my father use?”
………
……
A few more days passed.
The day before the ceremony.
Kit sat within the pool of Qi.
Within his lower abdomen, he could sense the Qi reaching that threshold. He could feel its desire to change. It wanted to evolve.
He focused as he let it grow as it wished.
It wasn’t long before the changes occurred.
He could feel the heat in his abdomen as it churned. It swirled in a vortex as all the Qi in his body began to condense and coalesce.
Xia Zhilan watched from nearby. Although she had something she needed to do, she really didn’t want to miss this phenomenon.
A naturally formed dantian. What was it like? She knew several others at the entrance ceremony would have the same thing as a result of being trained by Elder Han.
She wanted to know what Kit would be up against.
And she could see as all the Qi in his body surged toward his abdomen.
Normally, when one created their dantian deliberately, the ambient Qi would surge toward them and strengthen it, creating a skeleton dantian. It was usually the amount of Qi that surged toward them that would determine how talented they were.
But none of that happened with Kit. The only Qi that moved was his internal Qi.
But, that was also a blessing.
Kit’s Qi was entirely pure, not a speck of impurities within it. In that case, the dantian he’d form would be the purest.
“Oh, here it is…”
She perked up as the Qi finally solidified.
Kit was entirely relaxed as he watched his Qi take on form.
It was a simple pool at first, like a deep empty cauldron. But then, stars began to appear around its edges.
One star, three stars, 6 stars.
One star after another formed, and each one consumed more and more Qi. But Kit’s Qi was completely pure, which these stars seemed to like.
When around 90% of his Qi was consumed, 9 stars had been formed.
But that wasn’t it.
The remaining 10% surged between those stars, and lines were created between each one.
The lines grew until each star was interconnected, forming a net of Qi between them over the empty pool of the dantian.
And with that, all his Qi was gone.
Once the process was finished, Kit fell limp in sheer exhaustion. Every ounce of Qi throughout his body was sucked away, leaving him with no energy.
Xia Zhilan moved over to him. But as she did so, she saw something amazing.
All the ambient Qi suddenly started flowing toward his dantian, attracted to it like a moth to a flame. But upon arrival, all the Qi was filtered through that net created between the nine stars.
The resulting Qi that entered his Dantian was pure. It was a completely natural filtration process, and Kit didn’t even have to meditate to absorb Qi. It all naturally flowed into him.
“Passive Qi absorption and a Harmonius Qi Constitution…”
She mumbled the words she saw in the book she read.
Passive Qi absorption, allowing one to unconsciously intake Qi as easily as breathing.
And Harmonious Qi Constitution, a body that wasn’t just completely accepting of Qi, but one that could make its Qi pure. With this constitution, one could use Qi no differently from a limb.
Two seriously advantageous perks, and all it took was a few years of dedicated work in the Immersion Stage.
Even Xia Zhilan wished she could go back and tell her younger self to follow such training. How many troubles could she have surpassed with just those two things?
“Well, not like I can start over…”
She had come too far to go back. With that sigh of regret, she helped Kit who was climbing out of the pool.
“Congratulations, Kit. Spend the rest of the day recovering. You’ll need it for tomorrow.”
“Mm.”
“I need to go grab your present right now, so head back to the house and I’ll meet you there. Oh, make sure everything is packed as well. We’ll be leaving tonight.”
“Okay.”
With that, Xia Zhilan took to the skies and flew away. The indicator of a Sky Realm martial artist: the ability to fly freely in the sky.
Kit sighed as her display of power. His parents could also fly…
Leveling his gaze, he headed home for the day.
……
Come night, Kit was completely prepared to leave.
He hardly had any possessions besides clothes and such, so there wasn’t much more than a chest to pack.
He carried that chest out into the dark of night.
Xia Zhilan was out there waiting for him.
“Come. We’ll be flying there. We’d be late otherwise.”
She said that, but instead of flying herself, she brought out a small ship.
The ship looked no different from a boat, and there was enough room for a dozen people. The two boarded this ship, Kit dropping his chest on its deck.
And then, the ship took to the sky. It gradually sped up as it aimed itself in a certain direction. Though, despite its gradual acceleration, Kit was forced back into his seat.
This continued for several minutes, and by the time it was done, the landscape below flew by in a blur. They were going absurdly fast.
Kit had lived in a small city that wasn’t near any significant establishment. Those in the big cities would call it a rural backwater village compared to what they would live in.
Now, Kit was on his way to one such big city, never to return to his little life in the middle of nowhere.
“Go get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we arrive.”
Kit nodded to Xia Zhilan. The ship had rooms, so he took one and went to sleep inside of it.
……
Light’s Glory didn’t stuff all of its members into a single place.
Instead, they had a system of palaces that the students would climb through. This was how the other two great sects operated as well.
Everyone below the Sky Realm was placed into one of several outer palaces. These outer palaces were divided into ranks.
There were exactly 9 outer palaces, and each of them were ranked in three different divisions.
Division one contained the top three palaces, and these three palaces contained the best apprentices below the Sky Realm. They all competed against each other during their times at those palaces until they ascended to the next level.
Then, there was division two and three. These palaces had more people, but they were also of lower quality. The apprentices there had ages that were generally older, and as a result of their lacking talent, the quality of resources and teachers was lesser. The goal of all those apprentices was to jump into a higher division, increasing their chances of getting to the Sky Realm.
Though, the first gateway was the entrance ceremony. Each of the nine outer palaces had their own entrance ceremonies.
Only, testing at the palaces of division one was a privilege reserved for those who had the connections and pre-determined talent to do so. Ordinary commoners weren’t allowed to test there, being forced to test at division 2 and 3 palaces. And perhaps if they had the necessary talent, they would be sent to the division 1 palaces.
But that was a rare occurrence.
Luckily, Kit didn’t need to deal with any of those issues.
With Xia Zhilan behind him and her status as an Outer Court Elder, along with Kit’s status as the son of two Sky Realm practitioners, he could test directly at the division 1 level.
Still, nothing could prepare him for the culture shock.
Come morning, Kit was standing on the deck of the ship, looking down at the city that was built around the division 1 outer palace.
It was massive, to say the least.
The palace was 9 miles tall, along with the tens of thousands of buildings surrounding it. This place could be considered a kingdom of its own.
And currently, there were thousands of huge ships even bigger than Xia Zhilan’s docked around the palace. Some were so massive that they could house a small city’s worth of people.
All of this was enough to baffle Kit who had never seen anything of such massive proportion. But there was one thing that shocked him above everything else.
Kit could only guess it was the reason this palace was built in this specific location.
The atrociously large geyser that spewed unfathomable amounts of Qi into the sky and dispersed it through the surrounding lands.
Lowering his blindfold slightly, Kit was overwhelmed by the insane amount of Qi that filled his vision.
He quickly put the blindfold back on as his head began to hurt.
Even then, he could still see the Qi around him as the atmospheric density was far higher than normal. It gave him a constant headache, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t handle that much. He would need to get tougher anyway.
“Good morning, Kit.”
“Morning.”
“Here. Since I didn’t give it to you yesterday.”
Suddenly, in Xia Zhilan’s hands appeared a long item.
It was wrapped in a wool cloth, but he could still tell what it was.
It was a sword.
And not just any sword. A massive greatsword almost as tall as him.
Kit reached out and took it, but when Xia Zhilan dropped it, all the weight jerked Kit’s body downward.
“Ugh… Heavy.”
“That is what you wanted.”
She chuckled as he struggled to lift the sword.
When Kit had asked her what weapon his father used, she replied that he used a greatsword. But, his greatswords were always extremely heavy. Just carrying the sword took great amounts of energy.
But even then, he could wield the sword with the dexterity of a rapier. That much speed and power behind such a massive weapon was one of the reasons he was so strong, even for his level.
After all, even if he and his wife could combine their powers to become greater than the sum of their parts, there was no way any normal person could battle three pinnacle Sky Realm demons at the same time.
Xia Zhilan had explained this to Kit, and he seemed determined to walk in his father’s footsteps.
So, she ordered a weapon to be made for him. A heavy greatsword, one that he could carry with difficulty. It was easily 400 pounds, but with Kit’s pure Qi filling his body, he could handle it.
There was only one problem though.
“I’ll warn you now, Kit. You’ve had no training with any weapon. When the time comes to fight, don’t use the sword. You can drop it and use your bare hand martial arts that I’ve taught you. You should only start using it after you’ve received lessons, otherwise you may develop bad habits, or worse, hurt yourself.”
“Alright… Thanks.”
“Of course, child. It wasn’t much anyway. It’s perfect for your level, but in the end its only a hunk of metal. You’d be better off using it as a blunt weapon than a sharp one.”
She chuckled while watching Kit carry the sword.
Thankfully, there was a harness with it that would let him carry it on his back. After he strapped it on, he was easily able to equip and sheath the sword, not considering the difficulty of handling the weight, of course.
So, with the sword on his back, he and his aunt descended toward the outer palace.
