Time passed slowly and eventually a little breeze passed by Li Lan. The leaves on the shattered sticks, whether it had parted from its original tree and was left on the ground, they still rustled and left a calm and sincere feeling.

Li Lan opened his eyes, looked around suspiciously. Then let out a breath of relief. Seemingly he had thought that he had heard someone along with the breeze, but unable to see or hear anymore, he let it be.

Once again he sat in the middle of a spring. The presence sat on a branch looking down at him, while he himself also meditated. What the presence saw was an ambitious young man, if not a young child. His long yet not long black hair, sat on the stone with no clothing.

The presence nodded in accept. Closed his eyes and stayed around. A few days passed like this. Li Lan sat cross-legged on a rock in the middle of the little lake, rather close to the small waterfall. His heart jumped every other minute.

Li Lan began to feel despair, soon a month had passed by. There had been no progress in his energy accumulation, and he had yet to even feel the slight energy enter his body. Li Lan skinny yet muscular chose to stop temporarily to go hunt.

He put on his robe, tattered as it was. Picked up his belt and put it in, then he attached the pouch. Hidden under some tattered clothing was his weapon, it was almost blunt after the endless use of multiple years. It was a blade that had been reinforced with leftover steel.

Li Lan gave himself a satisfied nod, as if he had just created this weapon of his, even though he had made it many years ago. The presence smiled lightly as he watched Li Lan place his weapon on the rock. Li Lan picked up some flint and gritted at the blade.

After an hour of sharpening the blade he stood up and with flickering eyes he ran into the forest. Filled with excitement and hope for the prey he would find. When the presence saw this, he followed by, not close, but not far away either.

“Leaving my personal barrier kid, you have guts!” the presence thought to himself. For three hours Li Lan kept hunting, he picked up some pelt that he could use to sew as an attachment to his robe. This pelt came from a middle aged bear that Li Lan spent an hour and a half trying to defeat.

Feeling his energy having depleted by half, he was still not satisfied with his haul. He had only gotten enough meat for a few days, and he kept going. Soon he was embraced by a small mountain chain and decided to move along at the end.

Soon Li Lan stumbled upon a cave in the mountain, it was not particularly big, and inside was a dim shine of a turquoise bluish light. He entered and as soon as he did he felt a dense air, not breeze but the whole cave was filled with some kind of emanating energy.

Li Lan soon realized what was upon him, and he went into a room in the side of the small cave. It was not bigger than thirty feet, the cave that is. In the room he entered an even denser air. Li Lan felt as if this energy had been accumulated for multiple years.

Cross-legged he sat in the middle of the room and he began sweating. This time he had finally managed to feel a thread of energy moving through his body. Trying to get a hang of the energy his face was distorted. He had never expected the pressure would be this hard.

It felt as if in his meditational state he had entered a black an unknown realm. The only thing that he could control in this realm was a line of light. Every time this light moved what Li Lan thought was an inch, the pain he felt was the same as a thousand needles. Suddenly his consciousness went into a state of dreaming.

Time passed by and a month quickly went away. Li Lan dreamt of himself, meditating on a pillar made of stone. This particular pillar was so high that it went even beyond the skies and stood high in the heaven. Able to watch the whole country from this peak.

A few times an image would flicker through his mind. The image of some pure energy solidifying slowly. As if it was in a cup that hit the floor, this pure energy suddenly burst and the energy flowed through his body. The pain was excruciating and it could be seen on his face. His body felt with sweat.

A little pool of blood exited out of his mouth. But no matter what Li Lan kept being in this kind of condensational state. The energy that had before solidified spread and entered his veins. Soon a wooden bowl filled with a still current of the energy, four times the size of the energy stone he had seen in his body appeared.

The presence outside of the cave took in a heavy breath, opened his eyes and smiled. Then closed his eyes and once again sat cross-legged cultivating. In his mind could be heard his fascination. “Second level of Qi cultivation! What a golden boy.”

What Li Lan did not know, was the many years he had tried to form the spiritual core, he had kept flowing spiritual energy through his body and it had adapted to it. This cultivating of his had made it easy for him to easily enter a higher realm of qi condensation.

The presence seemed to had noticed this long ago, and for any other practitioner of the immortals, they would easily be able to read his mind when seeing his face. This face that belonged to a forty-year-old practitioner of Qi.

As Li Lan had not progressed from this point for a week he decided to stop and feel out what had happened. He opened his eyes and could see his skin had changed. Not only that, his body had undergone a miraculous change.

His hair had grown longer, and now easily made it halfway down his back. His body was taller. His skin was as if it had been cleaned thoroughly. All impurities was gone and he no longer had pimples, as far as he could tell.

A power surged through him, and when he clenched his fist he could almost feel his skin being pierced by his long nails. He looked around in the first room of the cave, the only other one. The room he had entered into was as he could think up, a place for cultivators.

In the main room of the cave, was a skeleton. On this skeleton was an almost eaten robe and by this robe was a pouch. He bent forward and picked it up. Li Lan did not bother much with the skeleton, he had long forgotten how to react to such things.

Not that he had necessarily experienced it before, but after his mother and fathers death he just could not seem to mind much. But as he was on the way out to head back to the small lake, he turned around and bowed to the corpse. Said a few words of grace then left.

When he ran to the small lake, he could feel how he had gotten faster, his body was nimbler than ever. He urged to try to use his strength. On the way through the forest he saw a boar. He smiled, clenched his fist and took out his weapon.

He followed it for a few minutes until it finally found a bush of berries to feed on. At that point he jumped out of hiding and easily flew above the boar. With a quick swing of his weapon he cut open the neck and the blood spurted everywhere.

As sinister as Li Lan felt, he knew to survive, he would have to kill a few animals at least. The boar made a few shrieks and then fell to the ground. Dead as it was. Li Lan’s earlier haul had been eaten while he was cultivating in the past month.

He felt weird, he no longer felt the same hunger as he had usually felt. It might have been two weeks since he last ate, but there was only a slight pain in his stomach. To him this feeling was the same as if he had not eaten for two days, and compared to earlier times, it was nothing.

He soon reached the little lake and without dropping his robe, he dropped his weapon and pouch, then jumped in. His robe had been filled with filth that had been pushed from his pores. After a few minutes he decided to get up.

He looked at his reflection in the water, and noticed the many changes. Li Lan had not been particular ugly, he had always been somewhat pretty. But with the change in his skin he felt as if he looked like a goddess. A bit embarrassed he was.

Not that he did not like goddesses, but he was not a girl. Lightly scratching his chin, he thought of what to do next. He was excited and hoped he could enter the outer sect as soon as he returned. Then he suddenly remembered, he had taken a pouch from the corpse, but had yet to check its contents.

Walking towards the rock a chill suddenly emerged. He looked at a person. Forty years old sitting on the rock together with his belongings. “Do not fret child. I just want to chat.” The man spoke in a comforting manner. His radiant feeling that comforted Li Lan did not make him fear.

Li Lan suddenly felt some energy from the man, and instantly bowed. “Hello Elder, may I inquire your name?” Li Lan instantly thought that he must be an elder from the sect, else why would he have such a bold energy coming forth from his body.

“Be my disciple young one, if you accept then I will tell you my name, I do not belong to the xingxiu sect.” The man spoke as if he offered the whole world on a silver plate. Li Lan frowned, he wanted to know his identity before complying, but he could not seem to find an answer.