When Lao Chen woke up, he concluded that he had reached the middle tier of the Qi Condensation stage. The instructions on how to break through amounted to the following sentence, which at the time meant nothing to him.

“To achieve greater cultivation, to overcome the dreaded bottleneck, you sometimes need to look into your noble self make the great become the lesser. Reverse the Dao and make many into few.

He knew it referred to Qi, but he wasn’t aware of what was required of him, so he simply waited for nature to enlighten him, which it did.

Qi Condensation was a challenging effort because although the main criteria of completing the stage was the collection of Qi, there existed numerous roadblocks that were too many to name, and could only be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Luckily enough for him, his bottleneck was a common occurrence, but he knew that his road would not be so merciful in the future.

He was in a bed, this time. He recognized it to be his brother’s home. Fully expecting the stiffness that came with old age, he surprised himself as he rose without any issue. He smiled to himself, happy to be alive more than ever. His bags of holding were right next to him, and a clean change of clothes.

After dressing up, Lao Chen took a look outside, startled to see every able-bodied man, woman and child doing something, anything, really. A giant hall was under construction, and between the unfinished walls sat dozens of children of varying ages, meditating.

Lao Chen grinned as he dodged the busy workers before entering into the room. He looked around, trying to see if any of the children are doing it right.

He had no way to see if they could, he realized on retrospect. Not wanting to disturb the younglings, he simply sat down to cultivate along with them.

It was strange, Lao Chen felt. He had every plan to run off on an epic adventure the moment he parted with his treasures, but as more time passed, he became more emotionally invested in the village, and as such, he decided that he wanted to see how the village would turn out, at least before he went on this adventure.

Towards that end, he meditated on the Dao described in the two scriptures, pairing them together as he absorbed Qi from his surroundings.

The thing about cultivation was that it was its own fun in and of itself. As he absorbed the natural energies, he could feel his core sea growing ever so slightly, smiling as he felt his longevity inch forward. Lao Chen cultivated without a doubt in his mind, letting himself become the beacon of Qi, attracting it with a fiery passion.

This passion was what he lacked, cultivating out on the pastures for the weeks that he had spent. He cultivated only as a curiosity and not because it was a vocation, but now he felt more determined than ever, and he felt that nothing would stop him.

So, he sat and he cultivated.

By midday, most of the kids had opened their eyes. Where some had experienced success with their cultivation, having been able to detect the wisps of Qi, no one had formed a dantian yet. Aside from one boy at the corner, a seven year old Wu Shan, everyone had already given up for the day, resorting to getting their free meals to replenish their lost energy.

Not having to pay the food vendors in the village felt strange, to say the least. After the chieftain ordered there be no more exchanging of money between any villagers, things were smoother than ever. The butcher received meat from the hunter free of charge, and the hunter would get a cut of the processed meat. The butcher would give the meat to the cooks who would cook for everyone. No loss or gain. Just a system of services and favors that worked only because all the villagers had been pulled out from the quagmire of apathy.

“Whoa! Is that the crazy sheep shagger?!” A child yelled, pointing at the meditating form of Lao Chen, the village benefactor.

The boy was smacked in the head by his older brother. “Don’t talk about Master Lao Chen like that! He’s the reason you don’t have to spend the rest of your sorry life as a farmer!”

The kids started grouping around him, forgetting their hunger as they observed the old relic, wide-eyed in their fascination.

One unfortunate child was tasked with bringing a cart of food for the newly-dubbed Yin-Yang Sect disciples so that the majority of the students would not have to move away from observing the master at work.

As the children played around the inside of the building under construction, they failed to notice a child in the corner, still meditating, sweat running down his forehead incessantly as he struggled to reach the Dao.

At dusk, the old man finally opened his eyes slowly, pleasantly surprised as he found out that all the disciples had surrounded him.

“The master woke up!” A child yelled in delight. The hall exploded into shrieks of joy as the children began to hug the old man, much to his own joy.

“Now, now,” he smiled as he made an effort to hug everyone back. “I assume you haven’t formed your dantians just yet, have you?” He asked, much to everyone’s chagrin. One girl sniffled in tears.

“I haven’t been able to do it no matter how much I’ve tried. I have no talent.”

“I’m talentless, too!”

The children began complaining as they all wallowed in their sadness. Lao Chen simply sighed.

“Come now. Nothing easy is ever worth possessing. The harder it is to obtain, the better. You have only been attempting for a day. You couldn’t possibly have unlocked your dantian this early-“

“Hwaaaah!” A child from across the room yelled as he woke up from his meditation. Lao Chen, sensing that something had happened, quickly stood up to approach the sweaty child before sensing the aura of a beginner cultivator. Although Lao Chen wasn’t aware of what it was, it was most likely the way Qi clung to him that made it obvious that he was a cultivator.

He was a young boy. He was rail thin, had black hair and a sharp jawline for a child, most likely due to his lack of body fat. He panted before looking up at the curious visage of Lao Chen.

“M-master... I think I’ve done it.”

“Indeed, you have, my boy.” Lao Chen responded as he eyed the young boy. “What scripture did you cultivate?”

“I couldn’t pick between the two, so I tried doing both at the same time...” The boy winced as he awaited punishment. “I apologize if I did wrong.”

“No... no, you did... well. I assumed that using both scriptures at the same time would require immense concentration. You... you did well.” He wrestled on what to say as he looked at the doe-eyed child beaming at the praise. Then he sighed. “Child. If there is one thing I want you to do, it’s not to become strong, but to treat everyone fairly. In this world, too many people forget that might doesn’t make right, and that treating others with compassion is, indeed, worthwhile. For everyone’s sake, treat everyone you encounter with kindness and bear in mind that your power obligates you to help whenever you can.”

“Yes, master!”

“Now... go and have a snack. You look famished.” Lao Chen chuckled, sending the boy off along with his friends, who had stuck around to listen to his words.

Lao Chen picked his words carefully when concocting the speech, taking on account the hubris of children too big for one’s britches. Sighing in relief at being heard, he lay flat on the ground, marvelling at how much headway the surrounding builders had made with the walls having been built several meters upwards already on all sides.

He wandered out of the building, towards the local street cook and got his excess share of food, stuffing himself to the brim with spiced meat and vegetables, leaving him in a near comatose state.

A hand held his shoulder, and Lao Chen turned around to look at whoever wanted his attention. It was the village chieftain.

“Change is in the air, Lao Chen. Can you feel it?” He asked, smiling. Lao Chen looked at the cook and gestured to the chieftain subtly, causing the cook to scurry of to prepare something. “Ah, no thanks,” the chieftain dismissed. “I have had my fill already.”

“Heheh.” Lao Chen chuckled. “Change is afoot,” he admitted.

“But for better or for worse, we will adapt regardless.” He smiled. “I saw you were mingling with the younglings today. They seem to have taken a liking to you.”

“Have they? I didn’t notice between all the hugs they gave me,” Lao Chen retorted as he stifled his laughter. The chieftain patted his shoulder good-naturedly. “Are you sure you’ll be leaving the village? You’re allowed to leave if you wish, but...”

Lao Chen sighed. “These topics are better broached when intoxicated,” he chuckled. “I’ve been a good-for-nothing dreamer for the past seven decades. I’ve read more stories of adventure than I can count, in fact, that’s where all my earnings go whenever we send our people out to town to buy supplies. Stories. I’ve wanted nothing more to leave the village, but now that people like me, it has gotten harder... Am I truly just the bag of bones I always denied I was?”

The chieftain looked at the ground pensively. “Well, you sure do move like a spring chicken. If only I had the aptitude to cultivate, but alas. I’m nearing the end of my years.”

Lao Chen sighed. The ring he wore on his thumb hung heavily, urging him to share its might. Only, he wasn’t confident that they would survive the tribulation lightning.

Although it burned out all of his impure Qi, that also happened to be all the Qi he possessed, and although it was a small amount, it was the minimum requirement to even survive. The only thing that saved his life was his ingenuity and his inspiration to mesh both cultivation methods, and even that took an extreme amount of concentration even under the duress of pain and death pangs.

If the chieftain were to die during his attempt, it would be a major travesty. The village still needed him.

And Lao Chen felt, for the first time, an urge to stay in the village to oversee its development.

“I’ve decided,” he stated, attracting the chief’s attention almost instantly. “I am staying in this village for another decade. Then, I will head out to see the world. I will help the younglings cultivate in the meanwhile. This, I swear.”

The chieftain embraced him. “Your benevolence knows no bounds, foolish dreamer.”

“You underestimate my prowess, chieftain. I am a dreamer unchallenged under heaven.”

“Attention!” Lao Chen roared. All the children in the unfinished sect hall stood, arms on their sides and backs straight.

In the front row stood Wu Shan, the prodigy that cultivated his dantian in just twelve hours. His talent was undeniable, which led him to stand where he stood.

“Before we start this cultivation session, keep a goal in your heart. Always remember why you are doing what you are doing, and you will work all the more harder. Also, remember to concentrate. Think of nothing outside of just cultivation. If you want to form your dantian rapidly, remember to only fixate yourself on your Qi intake, and once you have formed your dantian, remember to rotate it and purify it until it is completely transparent. Throughout your lives, you have suffered impure Qi, and it has clogged your meridians.”

The children were beginning to look at him with puzzled stares. Lao Chen sighed.

“Focus on your goal, concentrate on cultivation, and refine it as per the scriptures. Begin!”

As a group, they all sat down and began to cultivate.

And such did the months pass. By the first month, even the least talented individual formed a pure dantian and refined it until optimal purity was achieved. Wu Shan had broken into the middle stage of Qi condensation, displaying his hard work and talent to all who cared to see.

Lao Chen was half a step towards reaching the stage of Foundation Establishment, having formed a half-black half-white core sea upon entering the late stage of Qi Condensation, and was showing little sign of stopping.

By the first month, the sect hall, a huge wooden building in the heart of the village had finished its construction. In fact, a couple of the construction workers, having followed the instructions of the young students, had formed their dantians, inspiring even the adults of the village to cultivate during their free time.

By the second month, Lao Chen had overcome the month-long bottle neck of Qi condensation and broke into Foundation Establishment, using the Qi in his core sea to form a majestic Dao Pillar whiter than the purest jade, luminescent in its beauty.

He opened his eyes and felt a qualitative leap in his ability. He stood up slowly, not wanting to wake the young ones from their trances, and assessed himself.

He was in the Foundation Establishment stage. That meant that he had the lifespan three times that of the average human, totalling at 240 years. In this sense, he was just like a 20 year old mortal in terms of his lifespan, aside from his old face.

He introspected, assessing the state of his Dao pillar. It was luminously white, but he had no idea what this meant. An over-accumulation of Yang energy? Had he caused a misbalance in his cultivation? Was it capable of being corrected?

He crouched down to cultivate, shocking himself as he took in an extreme amount of Qi wisps at once, but what really surprised him was their colour. There was a whole rainbow of Qi wisps ranging from red to violet, but what he noticed was that his cultivation method would only make use of the black and white Qi wisps. They were of the Dao, he concluded, realizing that they were much more primordial than coloured wisps.

Next to the first bright white Dao pillar, a transparent outline of a pillar grew. It was simply the dais before the pillar started, yet he realized that this was going to take a while. If it took so long to cultivate his core sea until it became a single Dao pillar, making another one would be challenging, even with his increased cultivation speed.

“Whoa! Master feels much more powerful, is that even him?!” A child shook Lao Chen out of his cultivation with a loud shriek of delight. Lao Chen’s eyes darted open before looking at all the children huddled around him with a smile.

“Nice work, idiot. You woke him up,” a child smacked another on the head, eliciting a yelp of pain.

“Ah, think nothing of it, child. It was nothing I couldn’t catch up on at a later date,” he waved off. “So... has anyone gone through any breakthroughs as of yet?”

“What about you, master? You look powerful!” A child shouted.

“Yeah! Definitely stronger than my dad, and he’s the strongest!”

“Calm down, calm down,” he chuckled. “Well, I broke through to Foundation Establishment,” he revealed. The children howled over each other in happiness, but only one face in the room was ready to cry. It was Wu Shan.

Lao Chen furrowed his eyebrows in concern at the boy, ushering him closer as the children celebrated.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“It’s just... I’ve been stuck in a bottleneck for so long without headway. I am just about to step into the late stage, but... I’m not sure how my Dantian is supposed to look like.”

“Ah, that... honestly, I believe the speed you have been proceeding in until now has been exceedingly fast. According to the scriptures, completion of the Qi Condensation stage should conclude after about ten years of training. Reaching half-way at a fraction of that speed is already impressive enough as it is, son. Why the rush?”

“Because... I want to leave the village and go adventuring. I can’t do that if I’m weak,” he revealed, much to Lao Chen’s surprise.

“You’re much too young to adventure now, at any rate, but I am confident in your ability to overcome any issue. In ten years, once I decide to adventure, I will bring you with me, but only if you have managed to grow five Dao Pillars in Foundation Establishment. Think you can manage that?”

Wu Shan gaped, wide eyed, but immediately steeled gaze eyes and nodded. “Yes, master!”

“Good.” He needed a goal, and Lao Chen knew that. With a goal in his heart, Lao Chen was confident that Wu Shan would overcome any issue.