Wu Jian felt the Qi stir in the room even before he entered it. A breakthrough was happening. He lingered just outside the entrance, unwilling to enter and risk disrupting the moment. After minutes that felt like an eternity, the Qi calmed, going back to its original flow, and the Wu Patriarch pushed into the room.

"Congratulations are in order, Wu Bingwen. Or should I say, Elder Wu."

He greeted the grinning cultivator who sat in lotus position at the centre of the chamber.

"Thank you Lord Patriarch. It is all thanks to you."

The young man quickly stood and bowed to his Clan Head, cupping his fists as he did so.

"I merely provided the catalyst, it is your talent that has pushed you this far."

Wu Jian replied.

"Now come here so I may inspect your core."

He added. The young Wu clansmen did as instructed and approached Wu Jian, stopping in front of him and bowing his head once again. The Wu Patriarch put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and sent his divine sense into the very depths of the younger cultivator’s body. He found the newly formed core, small as it was, and gently enveloped it. Holding it with his mind as he scanned it, Wu Jian realised how easy it would be to crush the core and cripple the boy now that Wu Bingwen had let his divine sense in.

Core Formation Realm cultivators had a natural resistance to the Nascent Soul Realm’s divine sense, allowing them to block it from entering within their body but not affect it in any way if it was scanning their items or what they wore. They could, however, drop this resistance consciously if they wanted to, giving a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator access to their cultivation base. Of course, they would only do this with those that they trusted absolutely, which was why Qi doctors and other medical cultivators valued their reputations immensely.

"It is a strong, solid core."

Wu Jian commented.

"It will bring you up to the Late Stage of Core Formation so long as you cultivate diligently. Anything after that relies upon your insights."

He continued.

"Thank you Lord Patriarch."

The Wu Clan’s newest elder expressed his gratitude with a deep bow.

"Gratitude is not necessary. Just continue to serve the clan with all you have."

The Wu Patriarch stated.

"I will!"

Wu Bingwen replied enthusiastically.

"Good. Now go and consolidate your breakthrough. You may use the cultivation room in your new residence."

Wu Jian advised as he moved to sit where the young cultivator had formerly been sat.

"Yes Lord Patriarch."

The Clan Elder said before running off to do just that, almost tripping in his excitement as he got used to moving at his new Realm of cultivation.

With his company gone, Wu Jian slipped into meditation, cycling his Qi in a way that brought him to a relaxed state of mind. The calm aligned Qi around him was drawn into him and further amplified this state. The feeling of being embraced by his father returned, and he made to ask him for advice.

"Father tell me, how do I be fearless in the face of death like you? I am prepared to die for the clan like you did but the thought of it still makes me afraid."

He spoke to the air.

"Courage comes with practice my son. The more dangerous situations you find yourself in, the less you fear them."

A voice, no, a memory surfaced in Wu Jian’s mind, reminding him of his father’s words. That had been the first day he faced danger, even though, in retrospect, he knew he was in none. His father had brought him out into the wilderness and dropped him there with nothing but the clothes on his back and a compass that pointed towards home before disappearing and leaving him to find his way back. When he did eventually make his way home, clothes and body in tatters, he had been wrapped up in a hug by his sobbing older brother who apologised for not being able to tell him about their father’s training.

He pushed away the memory, focusing only upon the words his father had spoken.

"But what happens to the clan if I die facing one of these dangerous situations? We are beset on all sides and I am the best hope that the clan has."

He asked.

"No matter what happens, the clan will always endure. No matter how dire the circumstances, we will find a way to prevail."

A second memory played. One of him and his father stood at the peak of Mt. Serenity, overlooking the Wu compound and its territories. It was here, after the long, hard climb up the mountainside, that his father had first taught him how to manipulate his Qi. He had managed to do as instructed and push it into his eyes, allowing him uncontested vision of the surrounding landscape, but he had soon gone temporarily blind for the next few days as his young body was not yet adapted to Qi being infused into it.

Wu Jian again pushed away the memory, responding only to the words.

"What if this time, we don’t? What if this is the end of it? Everything our ancestors worked for, everything you worked for, all gone because I was unable to perform."

He questioned, his voice trembling.

"I have always been proud of you both. I know you will continue to make me even prouder my son."

The words of his father, more recent, sprang to mind. The memory of that day and what he did after in his father’s name filled him with a cocktail of feelings: loss, pride, anger, sorrow, and that empty feeling he felt after realising that nothing he could do would bring his father back. He almost shut down at that, but more words came and pulled him out of his spiral.

"I love you both very much."

A warmth filled him, those words finally having been spoken to him by his father again, years after he had last heard them. Ever since his mother’s death, his father had become closed off and cold, even towards his children, putting them through painful training in the name of raising a successor. In a way, it had worked, as Wu Jian’s brother ran away from home to be a rogue cultivator, adventuring far out of his father’s reach. As a result, the burden of becoming the next Clan Head had fallen on Wu Jian, a role he seemed naturally suited for and was motivated to learn by necessity.

Up until his brother left, he had only been trained as a cultivator, to give him the smoothest possible progress along his path and ensure that he walked far on it, but now afterwards, his mind would also be stuffed full of the knowledge on how to run a clan. Leadership, management, economics, speech craft, military strategy, to name a few, and the young Wu Jian had been taught them all, drilled until he could perform the duties of patriarch in his sleep.

"I know I have been harsh upon you."

His fathers ghost spoke.

"I know you will continue to make me even prouder my son."

The past echoed, making him remember the good and the bad.

"I love you both very much."

The words repeated.

"Father I... I love you too."

Wu Jian said, drifting off into the blissful oblivion of cultivation.

"I loved you too."

He mumbled, and his cultivation base, which had stagnated ever since he had broken through to his current realm, progressed ever so slightly forwards.