Despondency washed over him, and for a moment, Yan Wei thought his mask was obstructing his vision. However, he could sense the disappointment in Pill Master Qiu's gaze without even looking. 

There, in the very center of the crystal, was a dazzling, solitary light.

If there was a light for every Source, then that meant...

The atmosphere immediately sank. It wasn't as simple as him only having one Source, it also meant that the business's chances of prospering were crushed.

Yan Wei was the only person who worked at the pill shop for two reasons. Firstly, with how small the place was, he was all that was needed.

Second, Pill Master Qiu was bereft of any blood relatives, making Yan Wei the closest thing he had to a son, even though Yan Wei never felt a father-son attachment between them. Thus, if anything happened to the Pill Master, the shop would belong to him.

If Yan Wei thrived, the pill shop thrived; likewise, if anything detrimental happened to him, it would be the equivalent of stripping away part of the pill shop's foundation.

Yan Wei looked up and forced out a laugh. "I'm sorry, Pill Master..."

"It's fine, it's fine," the Pill Master said, snapping out of his trance. "You have a Source, which means you can still cultivate. I can still teach you the ways of medicine and make you into an amazing medicinal sage, and..."

Yan Wei sighed. "Yeah... sure."

Pill Master Qiu patted his shoulders and plastered on a smile. His sleeve filled with light again as he grasped the air, retrieving three books, which he handed to Yan Wei.

"Believe me, you'll see. You are a good child, so there's no reason for you to have any misfortunes in life. There must be a good reason for this.

"The first two manuals are essential to every medicinal sage; study them well."

"And the third?" Yan Wei asked.

"It contains the basic cultivation technique that everyone learns," the Pill Master answered. "I have been saving these for you since the day I took you in."

"Thank you, Pill Master," uttered Yan Wei. "I have to clean up downstairs, so if that's all for tonight..."

Shaking his head, Pill Master Qiu said, "I'll do that. You go ahead and rest for tonight."

Yan Wei headed back down the tall stairs and locked the front door, then went into the room behind the counter.

The room was very simple and tidy, with the ceiling being almost twice as tall as Yan Wei. A few books could be seen scattered on the ground, as well as a table, its contents obscured by a fortress of neatly stacked books about gardening, the city’s history, and anatomy—both human and animal.

He shut the door behind himself and found a lamp on the table for light.

All three books laid out in front of him, Yan Wei sat on the soft, woven surface of his bed and picked up the book with the least amount of pages.

Staring at the cover, he thought about what happened upstairs, and wondered if he should be so indifferent about the situation. “Should I be frustrated about being looked down on? Should I be disappointed about having one Source?”

He shook his head slowly, knowing he would never find an answer until he solved these problems himself.

"Source Channeling Scripture..." Yan Wei skimmed through to the last page, then started reading from the beginning.

Every now and then, Yan Wei had to stop and read a passage twice or mentally bookmark a page for revisiting, but other than that, there was no issue as he breezed through the book.

Three hours later, he had finally finished the first of three portions contained in the book: the Source Channeling Scripture.

Although his talent was limited as far as cultivation went, that had nothing to do with Yan Wei's talent in studies. It only took him a moment to comprehend everything he'd just gotten finished reading, and it was also right around this time that the lamp went out, giving Yan Wei the final push that he needed to fall asleep.

...

"Cough, cough, cough-cough..."

The following morning, Yan Wei woke himself up in a violent coughing fit.

He autonomously leapt out of bed, teeth chattering, and rushed across the room, scrambling to find something on the table as he very nearly lost a lung.

However, after more than a few seconds had passed and he still had yet come across what he was looking for, Yan Wei knew something was wrong. He organized his own life in a very detailed way, so much so that he could estimate how many steps he would take on any given day with terrifying accuracy.

Therefore, when he was certain enough that what he was looking for wasn't where he put it last, he bolted out of the door and up the stairs to the second floor, where Pill Master Qiu was already awake and pill concocting.

Dry heaving, Yan Wei said in a raspy voice, "Pill Master, cough-cough, I can't find my–"

Before he could finish, the Pill Master threw a pill bottle to him, emanating a rich, warm aura as it arced through the air.

Yan Wei opened the bottle without hesitation and fished out a deep orange pill, swallowing it in between coughs.

"Thank you," Yan Wei wheezed. "How did you get them?"

"I was refilling the inventory last night, I figured it wouldn't hurt to refill your bottle of Yang Stabilizing Pills," Pill Master Qiu said. "I also noticed the Yin in your blood is growing stronger, so I increased the potency to the safest limit. Even though they are even more concentrated, you will still need to take two every day."

"Is it really getting that bad?" Yan Wei asked.

Pill Master Qiu waved his sleeve at him. "It's nothing I can't handle, just don't forget about them or you'll get even worse."

"Got it." Yan Wei thanked him once more, then left him in peace.

The sun was just rising, so after bathing, Yan Wei had time to start cultivating.

From what he read in the Source Channeling Scripture, the main purpose of Sources was to absorb and refine spiritual energy. When a Source refined enough spiritual energy, it would begin to release its contained spiritual energy in preparation for connecting with the others.

The more Sources one had, the faster their refining was, the more spiritual energy they could store, and the stronger they became as a cultivator. However, this also meant they required more spiritual energy to surfeit all of their Sources.

Once at least nine Sources were filled and part of a person's spiritual sea, they could break through from Source Realm.

Nevertheless, breaking through without completing their Sources would also be a waste of potential.

According to what the book said, the most common amount of Sources was nine. Any less than that, and the person in question would be deemed unsuitable for cultivation.

Even still, Yan Wei was determined to complete his Source and enter the first level of Source Realm. That way, he could at least become a medicinal sage and uphold the pill shop until his generation came to an end. That was all Pill Master Qiu ever asked of him, so it was among his top priorities to live up to it before moving on.

Yan Wei sat down in the lotus position(footnote 1) on his bed as he prepared to cultivate for the first time when he suddenly felt nauseous.

His vision swam, and he felt a sense of déjà vu so strong it felt like his head might implode.

In his head, there was a new memory mixed in with his others that almost felt lucid, and his mind seemed to have alerted him as soon as it appeared. In this memory, he could see a pair of hands that he could’ve sworn were his own, but clearly weren’t. Interweaved in a strange manner, they were held in front of ‘his’ navel as he madly absorbed spiritual energy like rivers flowing into an ocean.

He looked down at his own hands with bloodshot eyes. He remembered living through this memory before, but he knew it was impossible for it to have ever happened.

Yan Wei’s hands interweaved in the same way as it was done in his memory before he placed them in front of his navel.

Although he didn’t know what he was doing, his body seemed to be following a protocol of some sort. By the time he regained control of his body, Yan Wei knew it was too late to go back.

After a few breaths of time had passed, Yan Wei started to feel a weak attraction force coming from his Source in short pulses, as well as the Yin in his blood being bolstered by them.

With his eyes closed, he could vaguely sense a thin strand of spiritual energy condensing from heaven and earth that began to slowly make its way to him.

Yan Wei could be said to have the slowest refining speed that was possible. It surely didn't help that Silent Rain City was polluted, causing the supply of spiritual energy in the area to gradually decline over the years.

Two hours inched their way by, and the string of spiritual energy drifted through the air and stopped right in front of him. He inhaled aggressively, causing it to invade his nostrils and slither through his body.

Just beneath his skin, the glowing white strand of spiritual energy could be seen writhing in a serpentine pattern down the side of his neck, left and right across his chest, until it arrived at his dantian.

His Source thrummed like an awakened beast, sucking up the strand of spiritual energy at a leisurely pace.

An hour later, Yan Wei slowly opened his eyes. He could still feel the invigorating sensation of absorbing his first strand of spiritual energy, but he could also feel that it was far from enough.

"I can feel my Source's hunger, one strand of spiritual energy won’t do any good," Yan Wei sighed. "If I want to enter the first level of Source Realm, I'll need dozens more..."

He managed to cast aside the strange feeling of bearing a memory that he inexplicably knew was, yet somehow wasn’t his, and concentrated once more.

Prepared to absorb another strand of spiritual energy, unbeknownst to him were the strange things occurring in Silent Rain City.