Age 0-5

Being born was something that he hadn’t really stopped to consider when selecting perks. Sure, there’d been a few perks that guaranteed a smooth and painless birthing process, but he hadn’t given them much thought. After all, how badly could things go wrong? His young master perk meant his parents would be cultivators. More than that, it meant they would be the leaders of a cultivation clan and have a huge amount of authority in a minor sect. Given those resources and personal cultivation strengths, how bad could the birthing process be?

His unasked question was answered when his mother died in childbirth. He himself only barely survived the process with the help of elixirs and doctors. Although having said that, there was no lasting damage. Something he was eternally thankful for.

His father, Cadmus Starfall, was nearly broken from grief. It was to the point that it actually damaged his cultivation, turning him from a prodigy to simply above average. Although by that point, he was already a Violet Palace cultivator and one of the strongest people in the sect.

As for himself? Well, he initially spent his time just trying to learn the local language. Something that was hampered by his baby self’s body. As it turns out, a baby’s eyes, ears, nose, and other senses take a while to properly develop. So for a while, he felt like he was trapped in his own body.

The first thing he learned was his own name. Alistair Starfall. No middle name. Apparently those weren’t used here. After that, he learned words like “cultivation,” “dad,” “qi,” and other such things. But despite his slow start, he had the spoken language mastered by the time he was two and had begun working on his reading and writing skills. Something his idiot Uncle Jeffrey found great amusement in.

“Look at him!” He’d roar, heedless of Alistair’s sensitive baby ears. “He’s trying to read A Song of Twin Souls! Even I stay away from that damnable thing!”

Apparently, nobody taught Uncle Jeffrey about inside and outside voices. For that matter, nobody had tried teaching Alistair that either. But Alistair preferred that. He would have hated being treated like the baby he appeared to be more than was strictly, absolutely necessary.

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Age 6

Alistair was slightly giddy. Actually, more than slightly. He was almost vibrating with excitement. He'd finally convinced his uncle to allow him access to the clan library. He couldn't actually start cultivation until he was thirteen, but he could still start working to understand cultivation and create the perfection cultivation scripture and a set of perfect techniques to go with it. He’d make sure he knew exactly what he was doing when he started cultivation!

"Now, Alistair," His uncle said, pausing in the act of opening the heavy, ornately carved and decorated doors. "What are the rules?"

"No removing manuals, no damaging manuals, no copying down anything in the manuals and removing it from the library, no taking manuals out of sight of the librarians, no taking food or water into the library, no taking other people into the library, no shouting in the library, no running or playing in the library." Alistair recited quickly. Honestly. It's like they thought he was six years old or something!

His uncle narrowed his eyes at Alistair. "And don't you forget any of it. Because if you do, you'll be banned from the library until you're eleven. And even then, you’ll be under strict oversight. Understand?"

Alistair nodded solemnly. As if he was going to jeopardize his library privileges! Although if they allowed a loudmouth drunk like Uncle Jeffrey to run the library, the library rules couldn't be that strict.

His uncle nodded back, then opened the door. Alistair walked inside, outwardly maintaining a facade of serenity. The only bit of his shock that showed was in a slight widening of his eyes.

The library was huge! Not large, not enormous, but utterly gargantuan! It was at least as large as the Library of Congress. Alistair had been expecting an impressively large library, sure, but not this. He'd figured that, given how the Starfall Clan was a minor clan running a minor sect that was a vassal sect of a vassal sect of an actually powerful sect, their library would be pretty small.

His uncle watched him, amusement battling with disappointment in his eyes. "I'd hoped for a better reaction than that," He admitted.

Alistair gave his uncle a wan smile. "It's very impressive," He said blandly. His uncle scoffed.

"It's nearly as big as the sect’s library!" He said indignantly. "It's more than just 'impressive'!"

Alistair nodded amicably, then asked what he felt was the most important question. "Where's the area with novice manuals and scriptures?"

Uncle Jeffrey seemed to swell with indignation for a moment, then let out his frustration with a sigh. "Ehhhh, forget it," He muttered under his breath. "Just a kid, just a kid."

Speaking more loudly, he answered Alistair's question with a point of his finger. "Over in that direction. Ask any of the librarians if you need more help. They wear bright blue robes. You can't miss them."

Alistair nodded gratefully and began walking in the direction his uncle had pointed. He turned his head to ask another question, only for his lips to curve into a frown as he saw his uncle drinking from a bottle of booze. Probably pulled out of his uncle’s storage ring. Interspatial storage rings, rings with little pockets of space and frozen time, were expensive. But everybody important always had at least a low quality one. Except Alistair. He was important, as the young master of the Starfall Clan, but deemed too young and stupid for such an expensive artifact.

He scoffed internally. If his idiot uncle was allowed one, Alistair should be allowed ten! But sadly, his father didn’t agree with that reasoning when Alistair had pointed out the fact, although Uncle Jeffrey had found it hilarious. That was a pretty low bar though. His uncle was easily amused. The bastard.

Alistair’s next attempt at getting a storage ring had been to go to his uncle and offer him a ticket to Red Blossom Pavilion. A glorified, high class whorehouse that his uncle was more than fond of. The Pavilion did have some excellent non-sexual parts to it that reputable people often visited. Their terpsichores, singers, and musicians were top class. But both Alistair and his uncle knew what part of the Pavilion he would go to.

To Alistair’s disgust, his uncle had seriously considered the offer. But ultimately, Uncle Jeffrey had declined. And when his father had found out about the attempted transaction, Alistair had been told in no uncertain terms that if he was found with a storage ring before he was thirteen years old, it would be taken away and given to Uncle Jeffrey as a present.

Alistair had stopped trying to get a storage ring after that.

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It took Alistair nearly an hour of wandering around and asking librarians for help before he found the novice section. It had irritated him to no end when he discovered that his uncle had sent him the wrong way. Uncle Jeffrey knew the library better than the back of his hand, which meant the bastard had done it on purpose. Alistair would need to find a way to pay him back for it. But that was a project for a later time.

Alistair subconsciously licked his lips as he looked at the shelves of cultivation scriptures and techniques. Iron Turtle Cultivation Scripture, Jade Dragon Cultivation Scripture, Sunfire Cultivation Scripture, the list just kept going. Alistair couldn't be bothered to look through all of them, so he activated his Eye of Insight and started scanning them.

IRON TURTLE CULTIVATION SCRIPTURE Quality: Complete Trash Core Concept: Defense Description: Cultivating this scripture makes the body as hard as mortal iron. It also makes you slow and useless. And mortal iron isn't even that strong, so it's just not worth it. This is a trash scripture, plain and simple.

Alistair pursed his lips, but pulled it off the shelf despite the "complete trash" rating. He was interested in how it strengthened the body. After all, he intended for his self created cultivation scripture to be holistic in its perfection. Which meant strengthening the body needed to be part of what it did. Although maybe he would make that a separate technique? He honestly didn’t know enough to say whether or not he would.

He looked around, then picked a table at random and put the book on it. Then he turned his attention back to the shelfs and began using his Eye of Insight again.

JADE DRAGON CULTIVATION SCRIPTURE Quality: Complete Trash Core Concept: Domination Description: This scripture gives the innate ability to control the qi around you, allowing you to use it for spells and techniques. In theory. In reality, it has no method of purifying that qi and no method of converting it to the qi type you require. So this innate ability is useless. And everything else about the technique is worse than trash.

What a harsh assessment. Alistair sometimes wondered if the description about the Eye of Insight had been entirely truthful. The Reincarnation System had described it as a mutation of his Inner Eye. The part of the soul that could sense and examine the world. This mutation would allow him to examine something and get a summary of it using a mix of high level aura reading, divination, and just examining the target really closely. The description was supposed to be using a description that he himself would have used if he had all the information that his Eye of Insight did.

Alistair just couldn't imagine what would prompt him to be so harsh on the scriptures. He was honestly dreading finding out. It was probably going to be really, really frustrating. But he took the book and went to the next without saying anything.

SUNFIRE CULTIVATION SCRIPTURE Quality: Complete Trash Core Concept: Sunfire Description: This scripture is supposed to allow you to take in sunfire qi and use it freely. Sounds great, right? After all, sunfire qi is pretty strong! But what the technique doesn't mention is that you'll slowly be cooked from the inside out while you cultivate. Or that it's impossible to form a Golden Core. But that makes a twisted sort of sense. If anybody knew how worthless this scripture was, they'd probably hunt down the fool who made it!

Alistair sighed, took the book off the shelf, and kept browsing.

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Cultivation scriptures all have three parts. A sutra, a breathing technique, and a qi flow pattern.

Sutras were a series of Truths about… well, whatever the scripture was about. Take the Iron Turtle Scripture as an example. The sutra would be a series of Truths about metal, turtles, and how the two were connected. But since the scripture was trash, the Truths were nonsensical at best. But if a sutra was created properly, it would resonate qi of the type and concept the cultivator needed and draw it to the cultivator as they recited the sutra.

The Truths of a sutra were varied. They could be anything from universal Truths, like the law of gravity, to Truths about stories, to Truths about laws or the culture. Or it could be Truths about magical laws. Or philosophical Truths. Honestly, all that was really required was that, from your point of view, the Truths in the sutra were, well, true.

Breathing techniques were what you used to absorb the qi gathered by the sutra. It was a mix of meditation and aura manipulation that sucked in the qi type corresponding to the sutra. Or at least, that was what it was supposed to do. For something like the Iron Turtle Scripture, it sucked in pretty much all the qi around you, not just the qi you actually wanted. Because of that, more effort had to be put in to remove the undesired qi.

Qi flow patterns were the methods used to compact the qi in your body, cleanse it of unwanted qi types, and apply it to your cultivation base. It was the meat and potatoes of any cultivation scripture. The other two parts were absolutely important, but this was the critical section for any scripture. And for "Complete Trash" scriptures like the Iron Turtle Cultivation Scripture, this section was also complete trash!

Alistair was fighting the urge to take the manuals out back and burn them. Using his Eye of Insight in a targeted way allowed him to get a list of flaws. This list wasn't perfect and was largely based on what he understood to be a "flaw." If he didn't know something was a flaw, his Eye of Insight wouldn't call it a flaw. And it didn't check for better ways to do something. Only whether or not there was a flaw in the way it was currently being done. But using it on the cultivation scriptures before him had immediately created a list of nearly a hundred flaws each! Some of them, like the Sunfire Scripture's flaws, were outright lethal!

He quietly seethed in his chair. Alistair knew that he barely knew anything about cultivation. It was why he'd wanted to get into the library. If he could, even with his total lack of knowledge, find over a hundred flaws… well, it didn't bode well. He turned his Eye of Insight on the Iron Turtle Scripture again, hoping against hope that it would be different.

IRON TURTLE CULTIVATION SCRIPTURE Flaws 1. Drawing in qi will harden and solidify the meridians, reducing talent and making it difficult to move qi around. 2. The method used to harden the body will slowly solidify the body, making the user slow, stiff, and clumsy. 3. The method used to harden the body puts enormous strain on the body, leaving injuries that can only be healed through the use of expensive elixirs. See full listing?

No, he didn't want to see the full damn listing. He'd already looked through it, and it was a doozy. What he wanted was to have a cultivation scripture that wasn't complete trash. But he should have realized that a "minor family" in a "minor sect" would only have trashy stuff like this. He knew he should have gotten that Top Tier Cultivation Manuals perk. So what if he'd needed to take enough detriments to earn 9000 more points? He wouldn't have to suffer through this crap!

Alistair sighed, then pulled a sheaf of paper, a brush, and an ink well. He gave the thin brush a slightly sour look. Learning to write with a brush had been a pain. It was just similar enough to writing with a pencil that muscle memory had kicked in, but just dissimilar that relying on muscle memory didn't work.

He shook the errant thoughts out of his head and started writing down the Iron Turtle Cultivation Scripture. His plan was to experiment with making changes to different parts of the scriptures, then use his Eye of Insight to see what changed. It would be slow and take forever, but it would allow him to dissect what made cultivation manuals tick. And eventually, he'd gain enough skill and knowledge to make a cultivation scripture of his own. One that was perfect and not complete trash. No, it would have a rating of "perfect." Or maybe "flawless."

Alistair smiled dreamily for a moment, unknowingly making the librarians smirk to themselves. Alistair was completely unaware of it, but he was rather adorable. Especially when he smiled so happily. Most of the servants who knew him had a betting pool on how old he would be before some poor girl fell madly in love with him, only to get her heart trampled by the socially incompetent boy.

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Alistair frowned as he looked down at the cultivation scriptures. A lot of the information in them talked about spiritual roots, meridians, and physiques. Basically, inborn physical talent for cultivation.

He pursed his lips. It had been a few years since he'd used Eye of Insight on himself. A human's meridians and spiritual root didn't stop developing until you were twelve. Or thereabouts. Some kept developing for up to a year later than normal, which was why cultivation started at thirteen years old instead of twelve. Alistair had gotten tired of scanning himself and getting no real information, so he'd just stopped doing it. But now that his roots and meridians were halfway done with developing, maybe he could get some information?

It was worth a shot. He quickly turned Eye of Insight on himself.

ALISTAIR STARFALL Age: 6 Sex: Male Race: Human Spiritual Root: Unknown Meridians: Unknown Physique: Unknown Bloodline: None Cultivation Level: None Occupation: Heir of the Starfall Clan Description: A person who reincarnated with his memories intact. He gained a few other prizes from reincarnation, but was also cursed. He tends to be cold and distant towards others due to his inability to truly connect with them.

Alistair grimaced. That was another reason he'd stopped scanning himself. The description always reminded him of his social incompetence.

Oh well.

Having gained nothing from his scan besides a slightly bruised ego, Alistair went back to the frustrating task of trial and error.

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Age 8

He was finally getting to visit the sect! Finally! After eight years of wandering around the admittedly enormous clan grounds, he was finally getting to visit the sect! He wondered if it would live up to the image he’d built up in his head. Probably not.

The Falling Star Sect was an Immortal Cultivation Sect, sure, but it was also the vassal of the Viridian Flame Sect, which was in turn a vassal of the Radiant Heavens Sect. The Radiant Heavens Sect was one of the seven great sects of Lost Sky, the world they all lived in. So the Falling Star Sect did have a tenuous connection to a great power, but they themselves were still small and weak.

Point being, Alistair couldn’t really expect all that much. He knew that, but he still secretly hoped it would live up to his expectations.

“Young master, we’ve arrived.”

Alistair glanced at the soft spoken serving girl. Her name was… Ella? Bella? Eh, something along those lines. She was a quiet, fifteen year old girl. Or was it fourteen? Alistair didn’t really care, but she was still his serving girl. And had been for nearly three years. He used Eye of Insight on her.

ISABELLA RIVERS Age: 14 Sex: Female Race: Human Spiritual Roots Fire Root: 67% Purity Light Root: 20% Purity Water Root: 3% Purity Meridians: Ordinary Mortal Physique: Ordinary Mortal Bloodline: None Cultivation Level: Body Cleansing 3 Occupation: Personal Servant to Alistair Starfall Description: A girl from a clan of servants that serve the Starfall Clan. She was trained from birth to be the perfect servant. Her talent was great enough to make her the personal servant of the Starfall Clan’s heir, but not enough to change her fate as a servant. Although she doesn’t mind her situation. She loves Alistair Starfall, seeing him as the little brother she always wanted, but never had.

Alistair winced. She saw him as a little brother? After three years of him not even knowing her name? He resolved on the spot to be nicer to the servants. Or at least, to the ones he interacted with more than once or twice.

Or at the very least, to Isabella.

Now that he thought about it, he was a pretty rude guy. Maybe he should work on that?

Naaahhhhhh.

Alistair had gotten off the flying ship he, his father, and his uncle had taken to reach the sect as he thought. Isabella, the subject of his thoughts, had naturally stayed behind. Only important personnel were allowed to actually disembark upon arrival. He idly watched as the sect elders greeted his father and uncle, then glanced around. Maybe they were looking for him? They clearly didn’t care that much, since none of them used their spiritual sense.

He shrugged. He didn’t mind. He actually preferred this, since he wanted to explore the sect without anybody trying to control where he went or tell him what to do. He’d just have to be careful not to piss anyone off. He was still 100% mortal, since cultivation only started at 13 years old. And besides that, Alistair was still struggling through creating his own cultivation scripture.

About three months ago, he’d bribed his uncle into giving him a copy of the Starfall Clan’s secret cultivation scripture. The version that only core members, like his father and uncle, were allowed to cultivate. It had actually been really disappointing. Sure, the manual was interesting in a few ways, but it was still pretty terrible overall.

Although he did have a few ideas on how to fix that… No! He was here to enjoy and explore the sect, not think about cultivation scriptures!

Alistair shook himself, then kept walking.

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Three hours later, Alistair was well and truly lost. The sect had been built on top of a mountain, like most sects. Mountains had more qi than most locations, so they were good to cultivate on.

The sect had been beautiful both as they were approaching and as he wandered around the inside. The grass and plants were all vibrantly healthy, thanks to the abundance of qi in the air. Everything was meticulously arranged for maximum beauty. Tasteful sculptures of immortals and famous figures could be seen here and there, and handsome and beautiful cultivators could be seen strolling through the sect.

Alistair fought to hold in a smirk as he considered that last thought. He’d never given it much thought, but it actually made a lot of sense that cultivation would make a person prettier.

The body refinement realm was all about removing impurities from the body and strengthening it through different martial exercises. That would leave a person in perfect physical condition if it was done properly, which always made them look more attractive.

Then three realms later was the foundation realm. To enter the foundation realm, and to progress through it, required threading qi through your entire body. The purpose was to reinforce and improve your body while storing qi in every part of yourself. But it had a side effect of slowly changing your body into what you considered to be your ideal physical form. It couldn’t cause huge changes, but it would still do a little bit.

Stuff like that happened through the entire process of cultivation. So really, it made perfect sense that all cultivators would be good looking.

He shook his head and sighed. So many things about this world were silly in his eyes. But this was his new reality. He had to learn to adjust.

A deep, cheerful voice sounded next to Alistair, making him jump and tearing him from his idle thoughts. “Hello there, little one. Are you lost?”

Alistair turned to see a… Well, fat didn’t do the man justice. He was an obese mountain of a man, standing seven feet tall and at least six wide with a massive smile on his face. Alistair tried to use Eye of Insight to scan the man, but only got a booming laugh for his efforts.

“A divination technique? But… No, you don’t have any cultivation. You’re too young. An innate ability, then? Interesting… You are the young master of the Starfall Clan, yes?” The man peered at Alistair, his eyes almost hidden behind rolls of fat and skin.

Alistair swallowed. He’d been caught using Eye of Insight before. One of the main reasons it had been so cheap was that it could be caught. But this was the first time somebody had realized it was him using the “divination technique”.

The man grinned at him. “What? Nothing to say?”

“I was just thinking about how cultivation turns a person into their physical ideal,” Alistair blurted out. Then he realized what he’d said and wanted to slap himself.

The man looked startled for a moment. Then he started snickering, then chuckling, then outright laughing. Alistair looked on nervously as his deep belly laugh resounded in Alistair’s chest.

“Are- ha!- are you ca- haha!- are you calling me fat?!” The man choked out between laughs.

“Ummm,” Alistair’s brain stalled as he desperately tried to think of something not offensive to say. Then the man clapped him on the shoulder, hard enough to knock Alistair to his knees. The man blinked, his laughs petering off.

“Oh. Sorry about that. I’m not accustomed to dealing with mortals.” He said contritely.

“It’s-” Alistair winced as he shakily got back up- “Fine.”

The man looked at him for a moment, then snorted. “It’s okay, kid. I am fat. It’s a side effect of my cultivation scripture. I’m at peace with it, and don’t mind when others point it out.” Then he grinned. “But most people don’t have the stones to insult an elder to their face!”

Alistair’s stomach dropped. He’d just insulted an elder?! His father’s political position could take a hit because of that! Not a big or lasting one, but it would still be unnecessary trouble.

“And,” The elder continued, “I’m on your father’s side anyways. So you don’t have to worry, okay? You look like you might cry and I’d hate to have that on my conscience.”

Alistair stiffened. Cry? Him? Never!

The elder took one look at him and started laughing again. Alistair’s face flushed with indignation, but he forced himself to stay quiet. He didn’t want to cause any more problems thanks to losing his temper.

“Alright, best if you ran off back to your airship,” The elder finally said after he stopped laughing. “They’ve been looking for you for the last half hour.”

“What!?” Alistair yelped, his stomach dropping. His father was going to kill him! And his uncle would have new ammunition to mock him with!

After asking directions back, Alistair ran off. When he got back, his father wasn’t angry at all.

He was livid. Alistair had embarrassed him in front of the entire sect. Or so he’d shouted at Alistair after dragging him into his private quarters. Uncle Jeffrey had later corrected this to “embarrassed him in front of Elizabeth.” An elder of the sect that Cadmus had been getting rather fond of lately. Alistair was happy that his father was finally moving on, but more than a little frustrated about the timing.

Needless to say, Alistair did not get to go on any more trips to the sect with his father.

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Age 11

A bead of sweat ran down Alistair’s back, but he didn’t break eye contact with his father. The tall, blonde, golden eyed giant of a man was holding their family’s secret cultivation manual. The original copy no less. But Alistair wasn’t interested in cultivating that manual. He used Eye of Insight on it again and winced.

STARFALL CULTIVATION SCRIPTURE Quality: Interesting, but still Basically Trash Core Concept: Starlight Description: This scripture is pretty bad. Terrible qi flow, the sutra makes no sense, the breathing pattern is all messed up, and the method it uses to condense gathered qi into your cultivation base is shoddy at best. But it does grant the innate ability to sense the future. This instinctive ability to be honed to a shocking degree, making this cultivation scripture far more powerful than it has any right to be.

Yeah. It was definitely interesting, and he had considered using his Improvement System to… well, to improve it. But…

Alistair willed his Improvement System screen to show up.

IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM! Points: 4015 Current rate of point production: 1 per day Select a target for more details.

He quickly selected the Starfall Cultivation Scripture and struggled not to show his dismay. Alistair didn't want his father asking questions.

IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM! Points: 4015 Current rate of point production: +1 per day Selected Target: Starfall Cultivation Scripture Improve Qi Gathering Rate: -500 Improve Qi Density: -525 Improve Qi Quality: -470 Improve Cultivation Base Creation Methods: -1360 Improve Sutra: -2320 Improve Qi Flow Pattern: -2550 Improve Breathing Technique: -1910

It was… expensive. Especially since Alistair didn't know how much they'd be improved by. It just seemed like a waste to use his previous points when he was slowly figuring out how to manually improve cultivation scriptures.

No, Alistair wanted to spend those points to improve himself. Mainly his memory and cultivation talent. But he didn't dare start improving his body until his cultivation stopped developing. Who knew what would happen if he did something now? Maybe it would mess up and outright ruin him! Or maybe he had amazing talent already and it would be a waste!

Yeah… Alistair didn't believe that one either.

"Alistair, are you even listening to me?!" His father said angrily, interrupting Alistair's inner thoughts.

"Yes!" Alistair said hurriedly. Perhaps a touch too quickly, since his father raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Oh? What's the last thing I said?" He asked. Alistair winced and his father glared at him.

"Pay attention!" He snapped. "I got this manual for you. The least you could do was pretend to be grateful."

Alistair bit his lip. His father had made a very good point. He'd probably had to make some sort of deal with the elders of the clan to get the manual for Alistair, and here Alistair was showing disdain instead of gratitude.

"Yes, father," He said meekly. "I'm sorry, it's just… Uncle Jeffrey snuck me a copy years ago."

Cadmus Starfall's gaze turned flat. "He did what?!" He asked, his voice a deadly quiet.

Alistair had no qualms throwing his uncle under the bus.

"Yes, I bribed him with tickets to the Red Blossom Pavilion." He said innocently. "He told me he loves the dancers and singers there. Something about them being really flexible and eager to please."

Killing intent was rolling of his father in waves by this point. "I… see…" He said, in a tone that could freeze the ocean. "I'll have to pay him a… Hmm. What's the word I'm looking for?"

"A visit?" Alistair suggested.

Cadmus nodded gently, a happy, malicious smile spreading across his face. "A beating! Yes, that's right. Pay him a beating!"

Alistair blinked as his father vanished, having used a movement technique that moved him faster than Alistair could perceive. He hummed slightly as he turned and walked back towards his chambers.

Maybe he should light a joss stick for his uncle?

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Age 13

Alistair grinned up at the enormous mountain. Would-be disciples were probably supposed to feel intimidated at the sight, but he just wasn’t. Probably because he’d already been up there before. Or maybe it was just that he knew taking the Trials was just a formality for him. He’d already studied the exact information needed to pass the entrance test and was a master of the fighting style used in the exam.

He smirked a bit at the last thought. He’d started receiving some training in martial arts when he turned eleven. By that point, it was deemed that a person’s body was developed enough that mortal martial arts wouldn’t cause any damage, so long as they were trained in moderation.

Well, he’d trained in moderation alright. His version of moderation. But Alistair was the sort of guy who’d spend seven years doing exhaustive trial and error testing of cultivation scriptures in order to learn everything he could about them. He had the sort of pig-headed stubbornness that others could only dream of. His version of moderation was a normal person’s overboard.

But Alistair had access to medicinal baths, elixirs, and spiritual herbs. Nothing all that high quality, but it was still more than sufficient to prevent any lasting damage.

So naturally, he’d taken advantage of it. He’d learned a few forms of swordplay, spearmanship, archery, and bare-handed combat styles. It wasn’t like he was starting from scratch. He’d taken breaks from studying cultivation scriptures to examine different combat styles and qi techniques.

By the time he was eleven and actually allowed to practice different mortal martial styles, he’d perfectly understood what he was doing and why. So practicing them had just been a matter of training his body and muscle memory. Which was why Alistair didn’t find the feat nearly as impressive as his tutors had.

They’d all said things along the lines of, “Wow Young Master, you’re such a genius,” or “Wow Young Master, you’re so amazing!”

Alistair had long since given up on trying to get them to use his name.

A gong rang out, interrupting his thoughts. Alistair blinked and looked around. For some reason, everybody else in the courtyard was giving him a wide berth, making it so that he was alone in a circle. He resisted the urge to rub his arm awkwardly. He was the heir of the Starfall Clan! He needed to maintain dignity at all times!

He surreptitiously glanced around. Maintaining his dignity was normally pretty easy, since even in his previous life, he hadn’t been in the habit of wearing his heart on his sleeve. But this many people staring at him… He just didn’t like it.

Alistair gave an internal shrug. Oh well. Best to just try and ignore it.

He focused on the test giver the sect had sent down, listening to what he said with a slight smile on his face. This was going to be easy.