Auslen’s bedroom.

“Just one more droplet, Vincent. You're almost there!”

At least, I think you are. We’ve been at this for nearly a month now, kid, and the bottle’s almost empty…

Auslen sat cross-legged directly in front of Vincent, close enough not to miss any of the changing features on his face — the increasingly downward movement of his facial muscles, the slight hunch in his posture, his twitching eyebrows — each detail adding up to express the eleven-year-old’s growing inhibitions as Vincent stared once more at the nearly empty bottle of Qi Refinement Elixir bottle that was being held up in line with his face.

Shaking his head, Vincent’s agitated voice was dripping with grief. “You’ve used up so much of your Elixir on me, Auslen! It’s so expensive, and I almost drank the entire thing with nothing to show for it.”

He was not wrong. Even Auslen was blindsided by the monetary value Qi Refinement Elixirs held within the Sect.

Back at the Bright Forest Royal Palace, Auslen was aware of the standardized coinage currency system that spanned each of the four main continents, consisting of pence, copper, silver, and gold coins.

If one were to compare a pence coin to a dime, as Auslen did frequently due to their similar purchasing power, then the copper coin would equate to ten dollars, silver to one-thousand dollars, and the gold coin to one-hundred-thousand dollars!

A commoner could buy a decent meal with just one copper coin, but a wealthy individual could rent a reasonably-sized estate within the Capital for one gold coin per month.

However, the Five Profound Elements Sect’s universal currency was Merit Points, which typically maintained an exchange rate of ten gold coins per one Merit Point!

One of the cheapest items in the Sect was the Qi Refinement Elixir, and even that required 50 Merit Points to purchase. This meant that a Qi Refinement Elixir was worth a whopping 500 gold coins! That’s similar to the purchasing power of fifty-million dollars! No wonder so many untalented, but aspiring practitioners chose to practically enslave themselves to powerful cultivators. With a regular salary, the average person basically had no other methods to touch the extraordinary.

Of course, Elixirs were not nearly as expensive when auctioned outside. However, items sold through the Sect were endorsed by the Sect itself, ensuring a high standard of quality for each and every Spirit Elixir.

It was not an uncommon occurrence for Spirit Elixirs bought from the outside to contain some defects or nasty side-effects.

But in all actuality, the heightened exchange rate was to deter wealthy disciples from outright purchasing too many Merit Points.

The Sect wished to incentivize Sect Missions or the exchange of desirable items, as those were the primary ways the Five Profound Elements Sect could continue to prosper, instead of being inundated with gold and silver which higher realm cultivators had minimal use for.

So while Vincent’s sluggish Profound Qi absorption speed was indeed comparatively costly, the pace was unsurprising when Vincent’s mediocre talent was considered. His Grade 6 Dao Roots, unremarkable Soul Force, and muddled Elemental Affinities had long prepared Auslen for the subsequent difficulties.

And besides, he had plenty of bottles of Qi Refinement Elixirs. His father had given him the nearly one-hundred bottles he had initially prepared for Auslen a year prior, before he was aware of his stupidly powerful Soul Force. If he also considered the additional bottles he received every month from the Sect, he had no lack of Elixirs, even if he used plenty on his Pseudo Spirit Plants.

In fact, he needed to finish using the ones his father had given him quickly, as they could only maintain their efficacy for the length of one year. The few remaining Elixirs he received from his father were already showing indistinct signs of deterioration, the bright blue color of the liquid beginning to appear minutely dull.

Come to think of it, I still have those Pills…

A new idea percolating within his head, Auslen retrieved the Elixir from Vincent’s face, which was now tinged with faint regret, before removing another glass bottle from his spatial ring. Tilting the glass towards his open hand, a bright blue longan-sized pill fell into his palm.

Holding it up to Vincent’s face, he spoke, “Here. This should help.”

The sight of the Spirit Pill rolling around unceremoniously within Auslen’s palm hit Vincent like a bolt of lightning, his pupils shrinking and silver irises trembling.

“Is… is that—”

Not giving Vincent any more time to stall, Auslen flicked the Pill into the boy’s open mouth, watching him absentmindedly swallow before paling in shock at the treasure that he had just mistakenly consumed.

Seeing the boy’s lips puckering, as if in attempt to somehow eject the Pill from his esophagus, Auslen squinted his eyes and softly warned, “Don’t you dare waste that Pill, Vincent. Close your eyes and concentrate.”

Once Vincent eventually gave up struggling and tightly closed his eyes with an anxious moan, Auslen tried his best to keep his laughter contained within his heart.

Auslen found it hilarious seeing Vincent showing such concern over having consumed a true Spirit Pill, an item far more expensive than Spirit Elixirs. Qi Refinement Pills were worth 500 Merit Points, ten times the cost of Elixirs that targeted the same realm!

But despite their extravagant price, over the past few months, Auslen had come to realize that Qi Refinement Pills were exceedingly useful supplements, perhaps even somewhat wasteful for most young practitioners.

After experimenting with his first Qi Refinement Pill, he was shocked to find out that each Pill contained a whopping ten strands of Profound Qi! Sadly, Auslen couldn’t have absorbed all ten of the Profound Qi strands at once, so he could only settle for seven, allowing the last three to dissipate once he began his breakthrough to the 5th Stage of Qi Refinement.

It wasn’t long after the fact that he comprehended the true allure that Qi Refinement Pill had to practitioners.

Although he had a previous understanding as to their comparatively slower deterioration process, he failed to consider that it also included when the Pill was sitting within the stomach. A single Qi Refinement Pill extended the paltry thirty minute absorption time limit given by an Elixir droplet by ten times! In addition, it seemed to be comparatively easier for the practitioner to absorb Profound Qi from Pills, but Auslen had yet to understand why that was the case.

Unfortunately for most practitioners, Auslen had heard that cultivators up to the True Core realm still used Qi Refinement Pills, which was why only the most talented disciples were provided with a small, but steady supply.

Regardless, none of this had anything to do with Auslen, as Qi Refinement Pills were basically unnecessary for the current him, which was why he had no issue with giving them away to Vincent.

…

Several hours later.

Auslen lifted his hand up towards his face, eyes not leaving the page of the book he was reading as his lips parted into soft yawn. He had relocated to the couch at some point while waiting for Vincent to complete his cultivation session.

Just as he turned to the next page, he heard a soft reverberation. Raising his eyes from his book to glance at Vincent’s vibrating body, Auslen’s face lit up with satisfaction.

Looks like the boy’s finally succeeded!

Auslen sat down the book as Vincent’s body began its first transformation on the path of cultivation.

Standing up to walk towards Vincent, he could see the young blue-haired boy’s muscles trembling visibly underneath his gray robes while sweat quickly covered his forehead.

As Auslen approached Vincent’s sitting figure, his spatial ring glowed before a small box appeared within his grasp, which produced a mouthwatering aroma as soon as it was opened.

Auslen kneeled down before Vincent just as the boy grabbed his stomach tightly, opening his silver eyes with a nearly tangible need radiating from within.

But before he could get a word out, Auslen grabbed the small slice of meat from the box before pushing it into Vincent’s mouth, similar to how his father did for Auslen before.

Seeing Vincent beginning to chew with haste, Auslen stood back up, placing the box back from within his spatial ring.

During the past few weeks that Vincent spent forming his first strand of Profound Qi, Auslen went ahead and decided to allow the boy to cultivate with the Demon meat he had on hand. What Auslen had just fed the boy was a tenth of a portion of one of the filets his uncle had given him.

Sure, it may have been a waste of resources, like his father had said, but he had a stringent time limit to get Vincent to the 9th Stage of Qi Refinement before he turned 18. It had already taken him so long to form the first one, so Auslen didn’t want to take any chances. He might as well cut some of the down time away by allowing Vincent to skip the protracted nourishment process.

He had made a promise to get Vincent into the Sect, and he had no intention of reneging from it.

Suddenly, a piercing ring drew Auslen’s attention away from Vincent’s sorrowful expression, which was almost certainly due to the absence of more Demon meat.

Auslen’s gaze landed on the small crystal ball that was flashing and vibrating loudly in the middle of his left nightstand. He couldn’t resist inwardly grumbling as he glanced at the beautifully designed grandfather clock sitting against the right limestone wall.

Who in their right mind is contacting me at midnight?

As he walked towards the Voice Transmission Crystal, he glanced towards Vincent, who was now gazing at his clenched fist in wonder, before throwing him both the bottle of remaining Qi Refinement Pills and his extra spatial ring.

He ordered, “Take these and head back to your own room. You should slowly adapt to your newfound strength before you go to sleep, but don’t overdo it, lest you hurt yourself.”

A little surprised that Vincent showed no signs of repudiating either the Spirit Pills or the spatial ring, Auslen turned with a pleased smile and was just about to pick up the Crystal before Vincent’s voice rang out.

“Happy seventh birthday, Auslen!”

Rotating away from his nightstand in confusion, Auslen was greeted with a small bow-tied envelope presented within Vincent’s extended grasp.

Birthday? Mine?

Taking the envelope absentmindedly, he watched as Vincent bowed with a deeply grateful smile before he promptly turned away to exit the bedroom, leaving Auslen alone with one annoyingly present Voice Transmission Crystal.

With a silent sigh, Auslen put the letter away and faced the crystal ball once more, answering the transmission request by lightly touching its brightly flashing surface.

“Happy birth–!” Aiden’s voice abruptly cut off when his voice cracked, shooting up an entire register out of nowhere.

Embarrassment tinged silence filled soon afterwards, at least until Auslen’s sharp laugh burst out at the teenager’s pubescent voice crack.

“… What exactly are you cackling at, Auslen?” Aiden’s slightly deeper tone that was resonating from the Voice Transmission Crystal sounded noticeably peeved, seemingly trying his best to ignore the several piercing breaks in his previous sentence.

Rubbing away the faint wetness from the corner of his eyes, Auslen hurried to reply, “Nothing! I was laughing at umm… Vincent just now. Besides, I’ve heard that voice cracking is very normal for teenagers. It’s normal!”

Man, those voice cracks were always the funniest thing. When the boys were that age—

All of a sudden, Auslen’s mirth dissipated completely.

Meanwhile, Aiden’s distrustful voice continued, “I don’t believe you. It should be midnight where you are. Why would Vincent be in your room so late?”

Running his fingers through his golden hair, Auslen attempted to clear his thoughts as he continued speaking to Aiden with a slightly forced calm.

“I was helping him cultivate. Anyways, thanks for the birthday wishes, brother. Mother told me that you had recently broken through to the Foundation Establishment realm, but I never got the chance to congratulate you.”

“It’s cool. She told you too early anyways. I planned to keep my breakthrough a surprise until I visited you in a few months for your Five Profound Elements Sect’s Tri-Annual Qi Refinement Tournament!”

Auslen chuckled softly, “I still can’t understand your and Nathaniel’s excitement around seeing a bunch of kids beating each other up in a public venue.”

Aiden’s voice shot back, “It’s more shocking that you don’t care at all! Tournaments are the best place to test yourself against others around your age, and you even get cool rewards if you do well enough! At least you have the option to participate in one. I’m tired of getting beaten up by Master Gerard all the time. I want to win a fight for change!”

“That man was never the type to let you win, was he?”

“I don’t even want to think about it! What about you? I heard you had some sort of test coming up, right?”

Auslen smiled and replied, “Nathaniel and I have this Alchemy Apprentice Examination next week. It’s not any big deal, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Yeah, I told Mother that you’ll do fine. She always…”

Auslen slowly sat down on the side of his dark stained wooden bed, sinking into the white bedding as he continued partially listening to his brother's frequently cracking voice, repeatedly failing to keep his thoughts from wandering off towards another planet.

…

Auslen stepped barefoot through the dense, misty grass outside of the cave abode, in need of some fresh air.

His eyes were nearly closed while he concentrated on the sensations of crisp, cool air rolling across his skin and loose white robe, trying all sorts of methods to divert his attention from his thoughts before eventually choosing to give up altogether.

I guess what they say is true. You never quite know what you have until you no longer have it…

Of course, he was thinking about his children, his grandchildren, everyone that he tried to not think about but was consistently reminded of through the new family and friends he had in this life.

Auslen gazed up towards the star filled skies, golden eyes dancing here and there distractedly, as if he could somehow locate Earth somewhere within the endless reaches of space from his pitiful vantage point.

I'm not sure how long it took for me to reincarnate in this strange world. Is any of my family even alive anymore?

But does it truly matter? Even if they were still alive, even if he could go back to Earth and see them right at this very moment, what would Auslen do?

Auslen closed his eyes and leaned against one of the many Pine trees surrounding the entrance of his residence. Soft rays of starlight that broke through the tree branches above bathed Auslen seven-old-body, his hair and lashes seemingly radiating gentle golden light.

What exactly do I want to do?

Oh shit, I forgot...

Auslen raised his lashes and a bow-tied letter appeared within his palm. He opened the letter and curiously read its contents.

...

Dear Auslen,

Although I lack anything tangible that you would value, I hope that you can accept my humblest gratitude.

Without you, I would still be stuck day dreaming far away from here. Now, I'm in a place I could have never imagined being!

I know fully well how much you have given me, and I swear that I will repay you for each and every kindness.

Even though I do not know how, I will. One day.

Happy Birthday, Master!

...

Closing the letter, Auslen let out his final sigh for the night.

Lifting himself away from the tree he glanced back towards the sky.

Well, If even a little boy like Vincent could be so confident, then I'm sure I'll figure things out eventually.

Turning his gaze away, he walked back towards the mossy cave with a warm smile.