He sat on a plateau on the tallest mountain in the local range, overlooking the sprawling village near the valley. The Village With No Name.

A stream ran on the side of it. A large forest was filled with animals next to it. Fresh air was blown from the mountains. No disturbance from the empire, this village was truly a paradise hidden underneath a film of mud.

He took a deep breath, the surrounding air for a 2 li (1 li= ½ kilometre) distance becoming a raging maelstrom of all kinds of Qi. Since the beginning, his cultivation manuals had preferred the Yin and Yang Qi wisps, but this time, he melded all of it into a single, Golden Qi wisp. Lao Chen was tired of following conventions, and instead set out to carve his own path. His own Dao. Instead of internalizing it into his own Dantian, he finally set to work on creating his Nascent soul outside of his own body. Lao Chen would create it and reach an agreement with it, or set it free to wander the world.

It was a risk he was willing to take, for if he created a creature, only to enslave it for the rest of its life, was it not the same as treating it like a feeble sheep meant for the slaughter? He would create a Nascent Soul capable of free thought, and come to an agreement. Slavery was wrong, after all.

Lao Chen closed his eyes and furrowed his brows as he spent all of his concentration in creating the golden core of his Nascent Soul. It took nine days and nine nights of ceaseless cultivation before he created a Golden Core and its pseudo-soul, and another eighteen days and eighteen nights before having finished the corpus of the young nascent soul.

The Nascent Soul stood in front of Lao Chen, on the same mountain plateau. She was an enchanting sight to see. A girl with the appearance of a ten year old. One eye was completely dark with a white pupil while the other was white with a dark pupil. Her hair was resplendently gold, and shoulder length.

Lao Chen couldn’t help but gasp at the finished product. While he had created the corpus from his own cultivation base, its appearance was largely randomized to be based on some aspect of himself, whatever it was. He didn’t expect it to be female, much less a young one.

Despite her young appearance, Lao Chen was sure that she would become a peerless beauty once grown, if she ever did as he had no idea how Nascent souls worked.

Her eyes gazed at Lao Chen curiously before closing. While she stood, she suddenly fell asleep and was about to fall on the hard ground just as Lao Chen caught her. He removed his own shirt and covered her with it, standing up before returning to the sect hall.

She woke up. Her eyes opened and the first thing she saw again was that very same old man from before. She looked down on herself and saw that she was clothed, wearing a white tang suit.

“Are you feeling alright, Lin-Lin?” The old man asked. Lin-Lin blinked a few times, parsing the message. She wasn’t in any pain, so she just nodded, before wondering something. She was not a baby, but she knew that she hadn’t existed before long, yet she was with the knowledge of language, but she also knew that she was born with that knowledge, and that was something no human was capable of.

“Am I a human?” She asked, more curious of what the answer would be than fearful of it. Lao Chen just smiled.

“You’re my Nascent Soul. I created you to bolster my cultivation. Your name is Lao Lin, and Lin-Lin is your pet name. My name is Lao Chen,” he explained. Lin-Lin blinked again.

“Does that make you my father?” She asked. Lao Chen chuckled amusedly.

“I guess that makes sense,” he smiled. “Are you hungry, Lin-Lin? Would you like some food?”

Lin-Lin looked down on her stomach and patted it before considering the question. After a few moments, she nodded curtly.

“I do require sustenance at the moment.”

Lao Chen turned around and showed her a plate of food, which she eyed curiously. “Is that for me?” She asked. Lao Chen nodded, pushing the plate forward.

Lin-Lin took the plate and looked at the food before forgoing the cutlery, instead opting to grab the food and stuff it in her mouth.

By the time it took an incense stick to burn out, she was finished, yet her golden brows were furrowed in confusion. “I do not feel nourished at all.”

“Ah, you’re a hungry one,” Lao Chen chuckled. “I shall get some more food for you,” he assured her. Lin-Lin shook her head.

“I’m afraid food like this cannot nourish me,” she explained. Lao Chen raised an eyebrow and frowned in thought before coming to a conclusion.

“You’re a complex self-sustaining Qi construct. Perhaps Qi is what nourishes you?” Lao Chen explained.

Lin-Lin blinked before wearing a frown. “Oh. I did not think of that.”

Without preamble, she sat down in a cross-legged position and began cultivating. One breath. The Qi in the room began to swirl around her violently as she sucked in Qi ceaselessly. After five minutes, she was finished. She opened her eyes to look at Lao Chen’s curious gaze.

“Are you satisfied?” Lao Chen asked. Lin-Lin just nodded. “I’d like to discuss something with you, Lin-Lin.”

“What is it?” She asked.

“As my Nascent Soul, you have a variety of functions. In the event that I die, my consciousness can live on with you until I construct another body. By absorbing enough Qi, you can carry my cultivation towards Dao Seeking and if you bond with me, I can share my techniques with you. However, you are not obligated to obey me, and as such, if you so wish, you are free to claim your freedom and refuse to bind yourself to me. I repeat, you are not obligated to obey me, so if you want your freedom-“

“I consent.” She replied quickly. “If father wants to bond with me, I consent.”

Lao Chen sighed. “Are you sure? Please, don’t feel obligated to bond with me. Do what you want to do. This is a permanent decision.”

“I still do consent.”

Lao Chen stood for a moment and mulled the situation over before coming to an answer.

“Lin-Lin, I’ve decided to put off your decision until another year. If you feel the same way after that time has passed, you can bond with me. Until then, I’ll take care of you as you experience our village. Is that okay?” He asked.

Lin-Lin nodded.

Lao Chen went on to explain some basic rules that all villagers had to follow, as well as explaining human morality and his own code of conduct, hoping to impart values on his Nascent Soul such that in case she wishes to leave, she will know how to behave in the world.

Once done, he introduced her to the sect disciples who all gushed over her beauty and became fast friends with her and then introduced her to Wu Shan, her de facto stepbrother.

While the first few interactions that she had were rocky and awkward, she picked up on social cues like a born social butterfly and made friends with the girls.

During sparring sessions, she dominated her peapparent age-group of seven to ten year olds, taking down her opponents quickly and cleanly, taking great pains not to severely hurt them. So good was she, in fact, that Lao Chen decided to pit her against the older students, and after she defeated them one after another, he matched her against the Foundation Establishment disciples. First up was Wu Shan.

The moment the match began, Wu Shan darted forward, intent on taking her down with a kick, which was fluidly dodged by her, who then grabbed his leg absently, tossing him several meters upwards lazily.

Before he could regain his footing, Lin-Lin closed her eyes, then opened them up as they shined with an intense light. Lao Chen was prepared to move when he noticed that she was just using a Qi manipulation spell to bind Wu Shan, restricting him completely.

Only a single exchange.

Expert after expert, it was quickly apparent that Lin-Lin was only second to Lao Chen, but that was no surprise. Lin-Lin was equivalent to a Core Formation expert, and the only one close to breaking through to Core Formation was the Chieftain, who looked much younger than Lao Chen, despite their difference in cultivation base.

Time continued, more relentlessly than ever. In the year which followed Lin-Lin’s creation, the young Nascent Soul had blended in with the villagers smoothly, making friends and experiencing familial love from her fellow sect disciple, not to mention the fatherly doting of her creator, Lao Chen. Also, because Lao Chen had no way to further his cultivation without his Nascent Soul, he slipped right back into his old habit of reading books, but due to his cultivation, sleep wasn’t required, allowing him to read for up to weeks on end.

Exactly a year after Lao Chen had created her, Lin-Lin broached the topic.

“I wish to bond with you,” Lao Lin said this out of nowhere, in the morning as she cultivated alongside her father.

Lao Chen opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow. “You’ve seen our little village, you’ve heard of stories of a wide world, and all the splendour it contains, yet this doesn’t move you?”

“Yes, it does,” Lao Lin protested. “It really does.”

“Then why sever your freedom by binding yourself with me?”

“Because all of that is meaningless if I’m not by your side,” Lin-Lin admitted. “I want to see the world, but with you, father.”

Lao Chen considered her words for a pregnant moment of silence before nodding.

“I don’t have to ask you if you know that your decision is permanent,” Lao Chen stated. “Very well. Hold still,” he commanded.

Lin-Lin obeyed and sat stock still while Lao Chen pointed both of his palms at her. Suddenly, she felt the core in her body rotate without her conscious control, but her absolute trust in Lao Chen overrode any doubt that might sprout in her mind.

Then, it happened.

A portion of Lao Chen’s Dantian transferred itself to hers, marking her as his Nascent Soul until she was to perish.

Suddenly, Lao Chen began to glow somewhat.

The spot right beneath his navel began to glow before a dozen pathways connected it to the middle of his chest, which then branched into several dozen other pathways branching into his forehead, and then into his eyes, lighting them up.

Lao Chen took off from the ground, rising slowly but surely until he was several meters over it.

True flight.

Lin-Lin gaped before trying the same. She also hovered a few inches upwards, but seconds later, she fell on her butt. Lao Chen was still rising, steadily.

“A Nascent Soul expert is capable of true flight the moment they create their Nascent Souls and bond with it,” Lao Chen smiled. “I do feel quite powerful.”

“Show-off,” Lin-Lin pouted, crossing her arms in dissatisfaction.

The rest of the decade went without a hitch.

As Wu Shan turned 16, he had already cultivated eight Dao Pillars and was on the verge of compressing them. The chieftain had finally regained some of his years, looking more like a thirty year old the moment he stepped into core formation, and has since slowed his cultivation pace down. Lao Chen, however, still looked like a dried up geezer nearing the end of his longevity.

The Village With No Name was no longer the small village that it had always been. Everyone had learned to cultivate, aside from the youngest of toddlers. The senile elders were helped along when Lin-Lin developed a method to force-cultivate them. By creating an environment rich with either Yin or Yang Qi, the elders were much more easily able to absorb the Qi, but the biggest hurdle for them was entering the first stage of Qi Condensation, but after that was done, they had regained most of their wits, enough to put their near-century age to good use by absorbing more Qi at a rapid pace.

Thus, their lives had been extended.

The average adult had already reached the latest stage of Qi Condensation, earning themselves a longevity of one and a half centuries. Productivity-wise, the village had already reached an extreme amount of efficiency. Now, with all these resources, the youth of the village were able to pursue different career options than the obligatory hunter, cook, builder or slacker.

Blacksmithing, tailoring, painting and poetry became commonplace. As a result of these usually wasteful activities, the villagers were able to enrich their otherwise dreary lives by a large margin.

After ten years of hard work, the Village With No Name was no more a village without name.

On the path of exiting the village stood three people. Lao Lin, Lao Chen and Wu Shan. Wu Shan had grown taller than his father-figure, Lao Chen, and Lao Lin’s cultivation earned her a more mature look, making her look like a veritable fairy in terms of beauty, despite being dressed in modest commoner-garbs.

The entire village stood by the gate, waving their hands at the departing adventurers. In the front of the crowd was the village chieftain, saluting them as they walked off. Even the sheep he took care of that were infants just a decade before stood there in complete stillness, watching Lao Chen.

He knew the sheep were in safe hands as they were pretty much the treasures of the village. It was a shame he couldn't teach them how to cultivate, not due to a lack of trying. In the end, animals would just be animals.

Out of his bags of holding, he fished out a paint brush the size of a broom-stick, a bucket of ink and a large sign on the floor. The sign was a meter long and three meters wide.

“I am not departing from the Village With No Name,” Lao Chen laughed as he dabbed the brush inside the bucket of ink, writing on the sign with refined calligraphy.

“This settlement will hereby be known henceforth as…” With a final stroke, he placed the giant brush next to the sign. “The Village Of Heaven And Earth!”

The old chieftain dropped to his knees and sobbed before kowtowing. All the villagers behind did the very same, kowtowing thrice while sobbing audibly.

“Master!”

Lao Chen smiled shyly, looking down in a bid to hide his face. Wu Shan was beet-red, not sure whether he, too, should kowtow or accept the adulation. Lao Lin simply stood there, itching her ear with her pinkie finger as she stared at the sea of kowtows.

One figure, however, had not bowed.

'Baldy' Ling stood tall, his trademark brush in one hand The bristles of the brush were dipped in a deep black which reflected no light. He raised the brush to the air and gave a wicked grin to Lao Chen, whose eyes widened. "What an apt name!"

Lao Chen laughed. "You've done it?"

Ling smiled. "My magnum opus is complete."

Ling channeled his Foundation Establishment-stage cultivation base and flicked his wrist with his brush dozens of times in the span of a moment. Dozens of mandalas many times difficult than the first one he made shot out into the sky and surrounded the mountain range surrounding the village and the surrounding areas around it, covering it in a dome-like array of artful shapes.

With a final push, the paint brush on Ling's hand emanated a dark shine which covered the area within the dome and shrouded it in darkness. Moments later, the dome disappeared and a cloud passed overhead, too close for them to have been on the ground.

The villagers stood up, slightly confused while Lao Chen hovered.

"To further protect you from any invaders greedy enough to take from us, Ling and I formulated a plan to raise us towards the heavens where we may remain safe! All my commendations go to Ling!"

The Chieftain sighed as everyone cheered behind, crowding around Ling. "You've done so much for us!"

Lao Chen shook his head. "I've only done the necessary. It is up to you to protect yourselves from any invading elements, but if you find someone with my name in writing, welcome them like you would a sibling."

The Chieftain nodded solemnly. "I will."

"Then this is goodbye."

The old man and his children turned around, heading through the pass between two tall mountains and once they approached the end of the world, a dome-like shield obstructed them, initially made to prevent children and animals from somehow falling off the 'island'. With a gesture, a hole opened itself up.

"Whoa... wait. I can't fly, yet," Wu Shan raised an eyebrow. "You're... helping me down, right?"

Lao Chen laughed. "About that... Come close so I can help you."

Wu Shan approached his father cautiously. The moment he was at an arms length, Lao Chen tossed him down the cliff effortlessly.

Lin-Lin gawked at him. "He really can't fly, you know."

Lao Chen smiled cheekily. "Calm now, daughter-mine. We could all do with some fun at someone else's expense."

Lao Chen dove straight down alongside his daughter.

Only one thing rang in his mind. What did the world have in store for him?