Shen woke up drowsy and noticed he was in a completely different place from before. He had figured that what happened before was likely a dream, and that line of thought kept him from going insane over remembering the initial fear.

It happened again.

‘A dream within a dream?’ That seemed to be the case, but it was stupid to think like that - it killed the chance of any other possibility, simply due to lack of knowledge.

He breathed in some air and smiled. It carried an amusing freshness, not a scent per se, which healed his insides and infused life into him. That was strange considering evil Qi hadn't left it.

He remembered that, sometimes, when he was in water carrying duty, he would get two or three fresh cups after working his sweat for the morning. That water felt amazing running down his throat, and it made all the work seem worth the trouble. Was it really the water, or was it just the small pleasure of relaxing after some hard work? Maybe both, but he preferred to let the question unanswered as he felt the same magic of mystery once again.

He didn't want to think, just feel.

Looking around, he saw steam rising around him, but he suspected it was the fog again. It wasn't so thick, and he saw foliages in the distance, but he couldn't recognize whether it was tall grass, bushes, trees or something else entirely. If anything, they were blue with some tinges of pink, a good mix with the moonlight reflected on the surface of the lake.

He felt sad for having to leave. Life on the Wang manor was harsh, but the happiness he found on coexisting with nature, that pleasure of just being alive and near so many simple, beautiful things, he would trade that for nothing. There were good and bad memories, the latter ones higher in number, but in his mind only the prior.

He missed those days.

With each breath, Shen mixed with the surroundings until no distinction could be made between him and the scenery, he appeared to be as natural as those still waters, and time seemed to fly as he thought of staying there for a little while. Dream or not, he wanted to enjoy every bit of it.

He wanted to grasp that moment with his very soul.

***

An hour later, Zhu Gong came down from the skies in a rush. He had left his disciple lying around and went outside searching for books covering the basics of cultivation. He wouldn’t be able to teach him full-time as he still had other things to do, but once Shen had broken through the first stage, Mortal layer, it would be easier to pass on his techniques.

While flying, he caught the sight of the boy meditating and became excited. ‘All he needs to do is start absorbing Qi and he will progress, the evil Qi is practically begging to enter his veins!’

Shen was resting so absent mindedly that Zhu Gong needed to wake him from that state. He blinked twice, disoriented, and noticed the old man in front of him.

- Hi grandpa, do you live here?

Hearing Shen calling him “grandpa”, Zhu Gong let out a smile, covering it with one hand. ‘Such a good disciple!’

He harrumphed and spoke.

- I do. I am Ancestor Zhu Gong of this Seven Swords Sect and you are in my domain, First Island. As my disciple, you will be living here from now on.

- Disciple? – Shen frowned. ‘Did the old man go senile?'

He couldn’t tell who was right, that cultivator back in the Wang estate or Ancestor Zhu. If a cultivator told him all humans originated from the apes, he would have no choice but to agree.

- Yes, you the only one I have decided to teach, but don’t be too proud of yourself! You had a little talent so I decided to take you in…

- Grandpa… My talent is less than little, I can’t cultivate at all! - He replied honestly.

- What?! – Zhu Gong blinked twice and even rubbed his eyes a few times – That’s impossible!

- I was brought in to serve my mistress. Whether I am able to cultivate or not didn’t seem to matter.

- Hmm, let me see your spirit-veins.

The old man approached and lifted Shen’s wrist, then slid his fingers across many pressure points over his body.

The boy didn’t resist, he couldn’t fight back if he tried.

There were many ways to study someone’s aptitude, the crystal ball test was only the quickest and most efficient one, with a small margin of error, but there was no secondary test for the off chance it failed.

The test worked by stimulating one’s inner Qi on the surface, putting it inside an empty container and measuring the time elapsed until it started flowing in and the amount. Most of the time, nature also manifests, and if the container is clear enough, it can be seen clearly. Thus, cultivators would measure overall conductibility of the spirit veins and the behavior of inner Qi.

The more Zhu Gong operated his fingers over his body, more questions arose.

The boy’s spirit veins were narrow, tight and with little porosity, it would be hard for Qi to enter, but on the other hand, they were also strong and resistant. And even more difficult to understand was the exceedingly difficult pathing they took, along with their branches.

Of course people would find Shen to have no talent. Not only were the spirit veins inflexible, they were narrow and the pathing was inefficient. As for the nature of Shen’s inner qi, Zhu Gong couldn’t determinate; it would be best to wait until the boy could exert some force into a qi container and see the results.

- I’ve inspected your spirit-veins. It’s not that you can’t cultivate, but it will take a lot longer than others to reach new heights… However, that problem can be solved! – Exclaimed the old man. Regardless of the difficulty in nurturing Shen, the important part was that he had the potential to perform Abyssal Hunt; it didn’t matter that he would be slower than the others.

- Really?

- Yes! You just need to take a special medicine once per week. Normally it would take you ten times the effort to achieve the same level of a normal cultivator, but with the medicine, it should be reduced to two or three times. The rest you’ll have to make up with blood, sweat, and tears.

Shen wasn’t particularly moved by the news, but he wasn’t unhappy.

By not practicing and choosing to remain low profile, he would probably die of old age. For a mortal servant, 30 years could already be considered long-lived, he didn’t expect to live longer than that. By taking good care of his health, he could maybe live to 50 years or even 80, but by that time he would be faced with some old age problems and become more useless than before – he could be discarded at any time by the cultivators.

Choosing to cultivate, he would definitely face more hardships and most of his time would be spent strengthening himself, having less time for leisure and meditation on subjects he was interested in, but if he was successful it would be easier later on – not only that, if he became strong he would act more like himself and go past the boundaries of status. He didn’t like acting so subservient with people he considered to be at the same standing as him, another sentient being.

Not like he had a choice on the matter.

After processing these thoughts, he finally let out a smile.

- Thank you, grandpa, I will do my best!

It was a fake smile and a fake excitement, but he ignored it. 'You have a lot of time to change that'.

Zhu Gong stood up and clenched his fists. He was fired up, his disciple carried so much potential. He felt the urge to lift his right arm in a punch and shout for all to hear. ‘Uoooooooh! You will be the strongest cultivator the world has ever seen!’

A tame sound interrupted his emotional outburst.

It was a grumbling stomach.

Shen scratched his head and looked at the old man. Zhu Gong didn't know why, but it was him that felt embarrassed and not his disciple.

- Now that I remember, I haven’t eaten anything since morning. Do you have something to eat here, grandpa?

Zhu Gong started thinking. He did have many animal carcasses, fruits, plants and other things that could be eaten, but they were things that a common cultivator wouldn't be able to handle, except for a few - and he never bothered to cook them, eating it raw. Eating a beast after killing it carried a very pleasurable feeling for the old man, it was another way to absorb Qi.

After so many centuries away from the mortal world, he had forgotten what normal people used to eat.

- Do you eat raw meat?

- If it's not poisonous – Shen smiled wryly. If he had a choice he'd rather not, but considering that many people went without anything for days, due to war and widespread poverty, he couldn’t complain.

- Alright, first let’s go up the pagoda. I have some plants which you can eat too if you'd like.

- Yes, please.

- Oh, that's right. What is your name, disciple?

They have been talking for a while, but now it dawned on him that he didn’t even know the boy’s name.

- I’m called Shen.

- I see. Then from now on, you are Zhu Shen. You can continue to call me grandpa.

Shen whispered this name a few times.

‘Zhu Shen, Zhu Shen… Hmm, it has a nice ring to it’.

He had never been bothered by the fact he had no family name, although unconsciously it made him detached from others when he was one of the few born without it - he had no family back in the Wang estate. Only then, when Zhu Gong had taken him under his wing, he felt that names held power too – it made him feel a sense of belonging, which brought him closer to the old man like he was his own blood relative, a real grandfather.

Of course, he couldn't create that link so quickly, but it was growing inside him like a small tree.

Another smile appeared on his face as the two reached the ground floor of the pagoda, and it wasn't fake.

A true, warm smile.

- Thanks, grandpa.

***

After she finished reading the book on basic cultivation, Wang Fan dismissed Ling from her room and went to Shen’s. She was fed up with Ling’s constant advancements on her but didn’t shoo him earlier because he was quite thorough in his lessons, carefully explaining every point she didn’t understand and being honest about topics he didn’t fully grasp.

The breaks would be much more of a quality time if he had stopped his mouth from moving, though.

When she entered Shen’s room, it didn’t take long to notice he was nowhere to be seen. ‘Did he venture out on his own?’, it was very easy to get lost in this place and an evil sect’s sleeping quarters were one of the worst places to wander at night. She put her hands on her chest in worry, her heart was beating slightly faster.

Wang Fan had a soft spot for pretty boys, but she always restrained herself and never approached them. Although she was considered to be a peerless jewel among the beauties, it was difficult to maintain the facade of a pure and innocent girl.

In her heart lay dark thoughts she had buried deep inside.

The biggest motivator for joining Seven Swords was that their rules were laxer – you didn’t need to care about your image so long as you were strong.

Unfortunately, old habits are difficult to abandon, and hiding her true character was a deeply ingrained one.

Her dark thoughts resurfaced once she caught sight of Shen. She wanted that pretty boy to fear her, to obey her every command, to suffer humiliation, and Wang Fan also wanted to monopolize him for herself. Her little heart fluttered with excitement whenever she imagined his beautiful face contorted with pain, beaming red from the shame, listening to her wishes and begging for leniency. ‘Ah, that’s right, I still haven’t thought of his punishment…’ Her lips formed a playful smile.

Wang Fan returned to the hallway and called for Ling, who was not far from there. She explained that her wild servant had lost himself in the facility or had escaped, and needed help to find him and administer punishment - and Ling would the idea of finding the runaway servant, currying some favor in the process.

With the reassurance that Shen’s whereabouts would soon be determined, she went back to his room.

Still a bit distressed, it took her some time before calming down.

She started to cultivate, welcoming the purified Qi, making it flow into every part of her being and expelling the impurities. It wasn’t as efficient as she couldn’t stop thinking of Shen, but slowly she managed to forget his face. All of the Qi in the air condensed quickly and entered her body. Rather than tiring or painful, it was joyful – that Qi was hot and bountiful, Wang Fan felt like she was taking a bath in a hot spring.

A practitioner of her level would catch a break every few hours, but she could do it without restraints. Although she still needed to sleep about six hours with her energized body, it would be reduced to four, three, two… It wouldn't take long before she could go for days.

***

Shen would normally rest after eating, but he had slept for many hours and was afraid of falling into a slumber again. This worked out perfectly for Zhu Gong - he wanted him to start the training right away.

Taking out a vial of blue glowing liquid, he started instructing Shen.

- This is the medicine you will take every week. I only have a few flasks on me, but I’ll seek ingredients to make more. For that reason I will be absent most of the time, so always pay attention to my lessons!

Harrumphing, the old man continued.

- This is a book on the basics of cultivation, it’s not any different from other disciples’, but when I have the time I will write my own books and pass it onto you. By then you should be able to remember its contents with a single glance and meditate on them before digesting the knowledge. However, right now you must read it like you always did.

Shen was confused with the latter part. ‘Like I always did? How come?’

Although most people he knew from the manor and the people he interacted with in the frequent visits to the markets seemed to know the most important symbols, not that many knew how to read more complex books - that required a richer education.

Amongst nobles and rich families, it was normal to educate children, but as for common people, adults took precedence in learning. As a symbol of status, all servants of Wang were a level above other commoners in regards to education, including children, but it was still not comparable to the education of nobles.

He was quite interested in reading but never had much time to do so – his understanding of difficult texts, which cultivation books no doubt encompassed, was quite limited.

- Grandpa, let me take a look at the book.

Flipping through some of the pages, Shen frowned. ‘As I thought, there are many symbols I don’t know the meaning of’

He stared at the old man.

- I won’t be able to read most of it.

Zhu Gong was dumbfounded, but thinking about it, it wasn’t so strange. Many people were illiterate but would be able to cultivate with a rough idea in mind – that in itself was not very efficient, but once more Qi started flowing into their bodies, their memory would improve, learning to read would be quick, and everything settled for itself.

Problem was, these "many people" were almost all children. Shen was a late bloomer at sixteen years old, while most were accepted at seven, eight, or even earlier - some were already born into the cultivation world.

Zhu Gong couldn't go for this slow and tiring process, and he thought of how to solve the issue. He was prepared to teach his disciple all he could about cultivation, but…

‘How the hell do you teach someone how to read?’

In his thousands of years, it became unthinkable that someone was unable to read. It was actually strange if the person knew only one language.

- Well, just try to read what you can and piece together the parts that you don’t understand. I will find you a teacher in the mortal world, shouldn’t be difficult. Now, we will begin your first lesson, the most basic step in cultivating: Qi refining.

His solution came as quite funny to Shen’s ears.

'Piece together, are you not afraid I could get it completely wrong?'

Zhu Gong carefully relayed his points on Qi refining, leaving the most complex ideas and concepts for when Shen’s vocabulary and comprehension improved. After half an hour of diligent explanations, he left his disciple alone to cultivate.

***

After studying the book for a few hours, Shen came to understand many of the underlying principles, but he couldn’t be sure since most of it needed to be rewritten and then reviewed, thankfully his master had been thoughtful enough to give him a brush, ink, and paper.

In the end, it was actually quicker to completely rebuild the text, making use of the core concepts while inserting his opinions on the matter.

Although he didn’t master the common writing system, he felt an urge creeping through his hands whenever he touched the paper, an itch to test newfound knowledge but there was none. The brush touched the paper, he tried to draw a few symbols, but his calligraphy was at a level he himself couldn't understand anything.

He sighed, disappointed.

'Huh?' His hand started to move on its own, a few brushes at a time. He felt that, with a simple thought, he could control it - it has always been like that, he didn't remember not being able to control his body - but his curiosity was aimed at what was being drawn, not his hand.

Strange letters and drawings rose from the white sheets and there was so much ink in each of them that it ran down like water, and he couldn't understand what was going on, but he saw the symbols and they held meaning. His head hurt for a moment and he waved his hand to wash it over, it was just a moment.

He held the questions for later, what mattered was that he could work on his understanding of Qi with those symbols.

The resulting literary work was a jumble of commonly used characters and large sections of unreadable text. It didn’t take longer than five hours to finish it, breaks included. The original work in itself was not that thick as it only explained Qi on a surface level.

What Shen understood was that spiritual veins differed little from blood vessels and, in many aspects, they could be referred to as one and the same. However, this generalization held serious implications: that Qi was not only the refined matter produced by cleansing impurities from the surrounding - and even that definition was lacking - but that those same impurities were also Qi.

Qi and matter were one and the same.

In the same line of thought, if the Qi of living beings was bound by the Spirit, then Qi was also Spirit.

Spirit was another thing which couldn't be explained in satisfying terms, and that wasn't limited by Shen's lack of knowledge and ignorance in regards to recognizing the common symbols: several cultivators held different points of view and considerations for the Spirit, all holding their respective merits but lacking in some aspect.

The biggest demerit from Shen's generalization was its redundancy. In the end, he learned that, for human beings, Qi, Spirit, and matter were so closely linked that they could be treated as one, and the problem was that there was no starting point if he were to treat it as such. Another problem was that it didn't apply to Qi of inanimate objects. However, there was one thing to which this idea could be applied.

Qi refining.

He recognized the most obvious issues with his theory, but joining this concept with the Qi refining methods explained in the book and pointed by Zhu Gong, he found it much easier to absorb Qi by thinking of his surroundings as made entirely of Qi, and considering that, just by inducing Qi inside his veins, he could consider it as his own.

Was that how things functioned in reality? No, but it worked for his purposes.

Breath in, breath out. Simple and practical, but it had to be done diligently, with a clear pattern, correct position, rhythm. Breathing techniques were taught to every disciple in order to accommodate Qi, but Shen was a natural. He didn't have the knowledge, he didn't need the why, when and how - he did it by instinct.

Was sitting all day doing photosynthesis all that encompassed cultivation? For some, yes, but not for sword cultivators. Exercise and constant repetition of movements were a part of their training regime, and Shen wasn't aware of that, but it did not mean he was doing it inefficiently, only that he was steering off the path set by Zhu Gong.

Over the days, Shen kept studying the book and revising his theory, testing for different situations and ingraining the knowledge in his body, as well as appreciating the quiet life near the lake, eating fruits and getting comfortable with nature.

Like that, a month passed.

***

A loud shout echoed through the skies. Zhu Gong fell slowly with a man in his arms.

The man seemed to be in his forties and wore an official’s attire, and he was deathly pale.

- Disciple, I have returned!

- Grandpa, is that the teacher?

- Yes! How far did you go with your training? – Zhu Gong quickly landed and dropped the man on the ground like a wet dog.

He looked at Shen’s aura. He was making good progress.

- I feel a bit lighter, and I managed to understand a few things.

- Oh, so you managed to understand something.

The middle-aged man managed to stand up and recollect himself, but hearing Zhu Gong’s voice made him shiver.

- Yes, there were many things I didn’t follow at first, but as grandpa suggested, I pieced together the difficult parts with my own knowledge and created a different version of the book.

- A different version? That's definitely new... Show me your notes! – Zhu Gong was very excited to see his disciple’s thoughts on Qi refining. The book he brought to Shen was nothing special and held the most basic precepts for cultivation, but during the time he was outside, he worked on a revised version to give him. After all, the basics were one of the most important steps.

Shen passed the papers to his master, noticing a red glow on the old man’s eyes.

He dropped the papers, his face a mix of shock and glee, and sat cross-legged right there, processing all of the information.

After a few minutes of silence, he turned his head and stared deep into his disciple’s eyes – they were blue like the vast ocean, and his gaze was unconstrained as if he could see into his soul. ‘How come he is not surprised at all?’

Zhu Gong was dumbfounded, his mouth agape. In the papers there were many terms he had never heard of in his life and concepts so difficult to understand that words were insufficient to describe them, requiring the aid of images. Even amongst different masters of different sects, there wasn’t such a huge difference on the basic concepts, but Shen thought one step ahead, and while Zhu Gong couldn’t tell if those ideas applied to reality, as they still needed to be observed in different situations, he was amazed at how thoroughly he elaborated on them.

Many things made no sense and he suspected that the book was faulty, but for the moment he would hand over his own ideas on Qi refining.

- Grandpa, what’s wrong? – Shen lifted one of his eyebrows. It had been nearly five minutes since Zhu Gong spoke and he didn’t know what to think of it.

Breaking out of his daze, Zhu Gong smiled youthfully. ‘You really are one of a kind’. Still, the old man couldn’t pamper his disciple too much. He saw many young men like him fall into the trap of pride, as it led to arrogance – few of them lived to cultivate into Demigods, and even fewer went past that point.

Zhu Gong stood up and coughed before speaking, ignoring the amusing situation he got himself into.

- I see that you trained diligently while I was gone. Good, good… If you keep it up you should break past the Mortal Layer in less than a year. That guy over there will teach you some proper vocabulary; don’t be afraid to use him. If he’s no good, we can always dispose of him and find another one. Once you’re a little bit stronger I’ll also teach you how to handle a sword, oh, and here is the medicine for this month, and another book on Qi refining.

- Grandpa, what is the Mortal Layer?

Zhu Gong scratched his head.

- No need to concern yourself with levels right now, you'll learn it gradually. But the Mortal Layer is basically what separates mortals from cultivators. It is the apex of the human body, beyond lies the world of cultivation. I have to go now, bye.

And he left just like that.

Shen shrugged, he wanted some guidance on a few things he couldn't explain, but his master was too busy. He turned his gaze to the middle-aged man and helped him into the pagoda.

He was a court official. Shen could already imagine the sight of an old man bursting open the gates to the Imperial Palace and demanding the best teacher the Emperor could afford to bring. It was terrifying from the point of view of a mortal, and Shen originally stood by that point of view, but on the last month he had changed quite a bit and now found the situation to be hilarious.

He was slowly fitting into the world of cultivation.

The next few weeks passed by uneventfully. Shen was learning new characters and symbols extremely quickly – he already understood the words but was previously unable to put them into paper. With his constitution improving rapidly due to cultivation, his brain got sharper and memorization became easier - still tricky, however.

Unlike other cultivation layers, the Mortal Layer didn’t have any meaningful turning points, practitioners still had a very linear power curve and the time period to surpass it ranged between six months and two years, depending on the person’s conditions previous to Qi refining and the innate talent.

Shen wasn’t an active martial artist but he exercised regularly due to his jobs in the manor, he didn’t suffer from malnutrition or other debilitating conditions and was in good form. With his continuously growing comprehension of Qi and of a few other subjects, his Qi refining netted him results as good as a regular cultivator and kept improving.

It was hard to tell how much time it would take for a breakthrough, but it would be faster than expected.

***

Wang Fan was sad. Ling couldn’t find anything related to Shen’s disappearance and one month had passed. Although it was disappointing, she had to give up on him.

Her feelings were once again suppressed and she passed her days cultivating. However, it wasn’t easy to control her urges like before, she was unable to get rid of that itch on her skin, and whenever a pretty boy passed by her, she would think ‘not as beautiful as Shen’, and when she saw other girls, ‘who’s he with right now?’

It was infuriating, the world seemed to be mocking her every effort in forgetting him. In the end, she shook her head and focused on Qi refining.

With her mind as blank as a white sheet, Wang Fan cultivated without rest, locking herself on Shen’s room and constantly absorbing qi.

Thinking of Shen slowed her down a little in the beginning, but eventually, it soothed her and allowed her to achieve an inhuman level of concentration. As the days passed, Wang Fan’s cultivation rose monstrously fast, and with this her memory and sensory system improved by leaps and bounds. She could vividly picture Shen’s figure, in her memories beautified. Some days Wang Fan could smell a pleasant scent, and think that was his scent that didn’t leave the room.

Images of him distorted at each passing hour: is skin, his flesh, his blood, his bones. She saw him suffering at her hands and begging for her to kill him, to release him from that torture, only to reappear the next day, free from worry and shining a flowery smile.

One night, her urges reached a breaking point and she hurt herself during the refining process – something that could happen if you got distracted while absorbing a considerable amount of Qi. A little bit of blood dripped from her nose and fell onto her lips, she felt the taste of iron touching her tongue and thought ‘How is the taste of Shen’s blood?’

Realizing how crazy that idea was, she sighed and erased the young man from her mind, but arousal filled her body.

Wang Fan would break through the Mortal Layer on a record time of three months.

***

On the eighth month of his training, Shen was on the brink of surpassing the Mortal Layer. He didn’t even need Zhu Gong to evaluate his progress, he felt it in his bones and muscles, in his respiration, in his improved five senses and the almost instant recognition skills, that he had gone way past what a human being was capable of – and something else.

At first, Shen thought that meditating and refining Qi was very time consuming and lasted an eternity, whereas resting felt short, but each month he would become more focused and spend less time resting, dedicating himself entirely to cultivation. The last month had passed so quickly that if his master didn’t tell him it was already a month, he would think it less than a week.

That intrigued him, even though he could think and associate ideas more swiftly, it felt like he had less time than before. Curious about this contradiction, he asked his master’s opinion.

- This is something good and bad at the same time.

- Huh?

- We live longer and think faster, that gives us time, a lot of time. But simple thoughts cannot satisfy us for long, and we delve into the mechanisms and intricacies of the world and of cultivation. These matters are not simple, they take much more time than those of the mortal realm, and just thinking on them is not nearly enough to reach a conclusion, we have to dive in and explore. If we don't, we wind up in a loop of continuously recycling our ideas, that change along with the seasons.

- And how do I avoid falling into this loop? - Shen was puzzled. He felt somewhat hurt, because he had thought the work of the mind to be directly superior to all else, due to his passive lifestyle.

- I don't know. Part of being a cultivator is searching for your own answers. There are many ways to explain the world, pick the one that works the best for your purposes... And that is the real question: What is your goal, Shen?

Shen was struck by Zhu Gong's words. He had been training diligently, and he only thought of living to see the next sunrise - he was never concerned with a goal. The only thing close to a goal that he could think of was becoming strong enough to continue living like that, but could he really call it a goal? He wasn't certain.

Seeing that Shen wouldn't answer, Zhu Gong didn't press him for an answer. What he wanted to convey was that, although he had plans for Shen, he shouldn't stay still and simply go along with it, eventually he would need to go out and experience the world, its good and bad things.

Cultivation was more than training and levels of power. It was living too.

- While you're in here, you can think about your goal. The same can't be said in the future, as the world doesn't stay still, it changes you as much as you can change him.

Zhu Gong's words struck him deeply.

Shen enjoyed listening to his master, he was always outside doing things, likely making medicine for him, but it couldn’t be just that. He cherished the few encounters with the old man, and their bonds became much more solid in comparison to the first two months. For the first time since he was born, Shen felt that there was someone very important in his life, someone he needed to cherish and keep by his side. Knowing that, he shone a smile that made even the grumpy Ancestor’s cold heart warm up.

Zhu Gong felt the same way. Teaching someone and having him learn from all of the knowledge he had accumulated through thousands of years and seeing him grow was exciting, and he would venture deeper an even say it was beautiful, a word that never parted his lips – he was building a legacy.

- You should sleep today. When you wake up, these doubts will be all sorted. I’ll come after a few days, you should be past the Mortal Layer by then. Afterward, the real training starts!

Shen climbed the ladders of the pagoda to his room, mechanically, with no thoughts on his head, just physical actions and without burdening his senses. He was indeed too hyperactive the whole time and forgot that he was a person with needs, like everyone else, not a puppet to be played with by the hands of cultivators. He had it all wrong, a misconception brought forth by his experiences in the mortal realm.

He couldn't think of a goal, and although he had been influenced by Zhu Gong's words, he didn't think that his lifestyle was bad. But the seed of doubt had been planted, was that peace he thought so highly of the apex of his life? Couldn't there be something greater beyond his limited views of the world? It was one of those things he couldn't find out just by meditation.

The meaning of his life, it was somewhere his eyes couldn't see.

He slept soundlessly that night, ignorant of the fact that he was being watched.