The elder looked down on his disciple (even if said disciple was entirely unaware of the fact they were now his student) and let out a sigh. Not even an inner disciple and already causing trouble. His expression sharply changed as he grinned thinking about that. Perfect. The sect healer, a tall old woman with swept-back hair who’d been at the sect almost as long as him, gave him a smack on the head.

“Get that smirk off your face! Honestly, I should’ve known to be expecting this as soon as you mentioned having your eyes on a disciple.”

“Haha! If they didn’t get in a bit of trouble could they really be considered cultivators?” The old woman just let out a sigh and ignored him.

“His internal injuries are bad. Not unrecoverable, especially considering he barely began cultivation, but he activated his chakras far before he should’ve. Add on the fact that the demonic beast landed a solid hit on his chest and it's one big mess in his body.” The elder frowned and looked back at the young student with worry evident in his features.

“How big of a mess?”

“Well, lucky for you I’m a damn good healer. He’ll be up and running in a few hours, a day at worst. When he does wake up, he’ll be a little loopy for a while, and he needs to finish his foundation fast. His chi is incredibly unstable due to his early activation.”

“Well, I’m long overdue a few favors. Nothing that a few good old-fashioned pills can’t fix!” He received another wack for that statement.

“One. One pill, then he needs up to a year of abstinence from any others. If you can weasel your way into one, a body refinement pill would be the best, skip the foundation building altogether.”

“Mhm, that old fogey elder Ming should still have some. Plus he still owes me for the last dragon turtle incident.” The conversation between the two was cut off by a grumbling coming from the young man. Both of them turned to the youth who placed his hand on his head and tried to sit himself up. He was stopped by the healer's cane.

“Quit moving, you took a good hit from that beast, and your internals are a mess.”

“I feel like I got hit by a train.” The two elders exchanged glances, neither knowing what a train is, the healer spoke once more.

“Well, whoever Te Ran is, they probably would've left you in a better state. You’ll be coming here weekly for acupuncture for around a year-.” A grone cut her off. “Oh stop that! You’re a strong cultivator, a few needles won’t hurt you. Listen, during that fight, almost all of your chakras opened. That should happen, but only after you’ve reached a physical state where your body can handle it, you jump-started the process and you're crumbling under the weight of your own chi. Understand? Now you can either go to acupuncture or implode.”

“Understood Ma’am, go to the needle sessions or die. Loud and clear. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Hmh.” She turned to glare at the elder. “At least someone has manners around here.” He gave an apologetic smile. “Now then, I’ve got to check up on your friend, and a few inner disciples who got cut while training.” With that final statement, the healer left the elder and his new disciple alone together.

“Where am I?”

“The sect proper, it's around the top of the mountain.”

“Li Huá?” The elder let out a cherry laugh.

“Also a bit of a mess internally, but nowhere near your level, she got scuffed by the fangs but managed to fight off the poison. What you two managed was quite impressive. The demonic beast was a tier 9.”

“That means nothing to me but thanks.” The elder laughed once more.

“A tier 9 is roughly equal in power to 4 foundation building cultivators. Even if it was only a sound practitioner creature, it's still impressive you managed that.”

“Sound? The rumbling. It was an ambush predator. Damn, it lured us straight into its trap.”

“Mhm, yes it’s as you guessed. It grew so large by using chi to make sounds and luring prey right into its mouth. If it weren’t for its inexperience when it came to fighting it may have very well killed both of you.”

“Neat?” The elder shook his head fondly looking down at his new disciple.

“I’ll leave you to rest for now.” The elder made his way to the exit of the small clinic. “Oh, before I leave-” The elder cleared his throat and spoke in an official tone. “Yichén in light of your accomplishments and defense of the sect, you and Li huá are both welcomed as inner disciples. Furthermore, I’m welcoming you as my personal disciple! Now rest up!”

Before his new disciple could respond, the elder left, humming happily to himself.

____________

The sect leader, a tall and imposing man with short black hair and luxurious robes, pinched the bridge of his nose while filing paperwork in his office.

“Repeat that.” His adviser, a fox-eyed man with his hands hidden in his sleeves, let out a sigh as he acquiesced.

“Elder Huang has accepted a new disciple.”

“I’m sure this has something to do with the demonic beast incident?”

“Indeed. The young man who restrained the beast and embedded his sword into it.”

“Haa. How bad does he seem?” The adviser shrugged.

“Hard to say, I asked around but apparently he was incredibly quiet and studious, only ever talking with the girl who was also involved in the incident. The only person who had a strong opinion was the young master of the Lin family, who called him a bastard and a coward.”

“Do you suspect that's a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Honestly? No idea.” The sect leader let out another sigh.

“We’re going to have to deal with him in the upcoming disciple exchange movement aren't we?”

“It wouldn’t be Elder Huang’s disciple without being the center of attention.”

“Haaaaa. One day, he’ll run out of favors to pull and we can finally stop giving him personal disciples. One day.”

“We can only hope sir.”

___________________

It took a few hours before I was fully lucid again. Whatever treatment was done on me left me messed up, I guess given that the alternative was death it was worth it. I let out a sigh as I lay in the bed given to me to rest. That was more than enough excitement for both of my lives put together, I don’t think I really fully understood the consequences of becoming a cultivator, it's seriously nonstop conflict, isn’t it? I’m barely a few weeks in and I’ve already brushed death, and all this for what? A chance at an immortal life I don’t particularly want? So I could farm easier?

It occurred to me then how truly out of my depth I was. Normally in stories like this one, the protagonist gets something in return for transporting, an aid to help them in an unfamiliar world. A system, an overpowered ability, even just a good family. The best I’ve got is my body's memories, which gave me the language, understanding of the currency, and 1 basic chain of attacks. The main problem here being, I’ve got no idea what the ever-loving fuck I’m doing.

I’m being reactionary. Being swept away by the events that occur, I need to fight back against the course that's been plotted for me. It’s not like I can stop cultivating now that I’ve started though, to fight back means to have power, and to have power in a world where a rabbit can gain enlightenment and level cities, I need to train hard. I’m an inner disciple, and an elder's personal student now. I'll drain this for all its worth before looking for the next route to strength. The problem remains though, how do I fight back against the heavens?

…

Oh god, I’m starting to think like them.

I was interrupted from my thoughts as a familiar face busted through the door, her arms bandaged and looking pale. “Li Huá?”

“Yichen! You're alright!”

“Are you? Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“I’m-” She stumbled a little before steadying herself, grabbing onto the sliding door frame for balance. “I’m fine, just got a little scrap from the fangs.” I sat up from my lying position, which my body protested in the form of an immediate headache. It stopped my movement long enough that Li Huá moved to my bedside and pushed me back down, stopping me from getting up.

“Easy, I’m not the one who got hit.” She had somewhat of a teasing expression on her face.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up...Thanks by the way. You saved me a few times out there.” She let out a small chuckle at that.

“Eh, you would’ve been fine, more importantly, we’re inner disciples!”

“Are we? I’m still not sure if that was the acupuncture talking.”

“We definitely are! I heard you even got accepted as elder Huang’s personal disciple.”

“It seems that way, any idea what you’re doing?”

“I think I’m just joining with the rest of the inner disciples, basic training and all that, but I’ll be sure to get recognized by an elder of my own!”

I let out a sigh. “Sure, just don’t hurt yourself. Oh, and try to make some other friends, my new master seems to be a bit of an eccentric, so I don’t know how often I’ll be around.” She shook her head as she stood up.

“Quit being so dramatic. I’ll see you soon.” I gave her a small wave as she left. Weird person or not, Li Huá was a good friend. Seriously though, is it a cultural thing to get super close with someone after knowing them for a week? This world is so strange.

_______________

I looked up at my new master as we sat at the same mountainside seats from the trial. “So, what exactly does being your personal student imply?”

“Well, it essentially means that I’ll be overseeing your training, which starts today coincidentally.”

“Right … and what will my training entail?” The elder took a sip of his cup of tea.

“Well, for right now-” The elder pushed a small box over in my direction, opening it to reveal a small round silver sphere. “Eat this!”

“...Pardon?”

“It’s a body refinement pill.” I waited for my memories to fill me in on that and received nothing. I tentatively grabbed the small sphere, turning it over in my hands.

“Any advice or just throw it down?” The elder stroked his beard while looking at me, remaining silent for a moment.

“Eat it.”

Alright then. I popped the pill into my mouth, it was slightly too big to swallow so I crushed it with my teeth. It had a bizarre texture, almost like metallic tofu. As soon as I bit it, the whole thing dissolved. I didn’t feel anything for a moment, then I felt a prickling feeling like I was on pins and needles, but throughout every inch of my body.

“That pill will finish your foundation building, it will also reinforce your body to a degree, quite a powerful pill. Though you may experience some discomfort.” It was a wonderfully mistimed warning as I was already experiencing the entirely new sensation of my body shifting slightly, as If my skin was being pulled tightly on all sides.

The pill's purpose was to reinforce and push my body to its physical limit, bypassing years of intense exercise. Exercise, I don’t know if this is known about in this world, but when you exercise to get stronger, the way it works is that your muscle fibers will be torn, then when they heal, your body will adapt to the tearing by making the fibers stronger. Following that train of thought, it was likely that the way the pill works is that it rapidly heals my body, while simultaneously tearing all of the muscles in my body to sort of rapidly speed up the workout process. At least, that's the explanation for the intense pain I thought of while flailing on the ground and screaming, which I spent around 5 minutes doing.

I was left shuddering on the ground before slowly picking myself up, coughing a little as I did. I looked at the elder. “A warning would’ve been nice.”

“You would’ve hesitated! Relax, what's a little pain to a cultivator?”

“A very bad experience.” The elder walked over to where I was now standing wobbly before slapping me on my back, a gesture that was unappreciated as my body was incredibly sore. I let out a large cough and hit the floor once again. I groaned and turned around, remaining on the ground. “This is an awful start.” The elder let out a loud laugh, before placing another small box on my chest.

“Whatever's in there I’m not eating it.”

“Oh relax, it’s the demonic core of the snake you killed.” My memories did fill me in on that one, all demonic beasts, and even the high-level cultivators have a core inside of them, it’s like a body's way of stockpiling chi for later use, so killing a thing and stealing the core can later be used to reinforce someones internal chi, but mixing the different types of chi can be somewhat disastrous, a divine cultivator trying to take the chi of a demonic cultivator will get screwed up.

“What am I supposed to do with it? Or was this secretly a demonic sect?”

“Nothing like that, you aren’t far along enough that the alignment of chi matters, neither was the demonic beast, it could barely be considered a cultivating beast, more like an overgrown animal. As it stands it holds more about the insights of sound than anything demonic. So if you ingest the core completely, you may be able to mimic its ability, or at least better learn how it utilized chi to make its noises. So while you recover from the pill, I want you to ingest the pill over time and absorb what you can.”

“Thanks, but I don’t really know how to do the whole, meditate, and observe chi thing.”

“Well, that's why I’m the master and you’re the disciple isn’t it? Because I have things to teach you. Let's start with what you know, how many chakras have you fully activated?”

“Er, all my lower three, the upper three are fractured, and the one at the top of my head only opened for a second before closing again.” The elder pointed to the top of my head.

“That is called the crown chakra, it represents thoughts, awareness, and a connection with the heavens themselves, it is the most powerful and hardest chakra to activate due to the requirement of unlocking, see everyone has an elemental body, a singular point where they attempt to better understand the world as a whole, which impacts this point of energy. To unlock it, you need to learn what it is your root is, and subsequently what the focus of your cultivation will be. For instance, I have a Time Administration Root, which makes my practice of cultivation on the applications of time.”

“Time?”

“Indeed, the vast majority of cultivation roots fall under the 5 elements but for ones like mine, there are no elements associated with it, so I had to invent everything on my own. That's the downside of rare practices, but the benefits?” The elder caught a flowing leaf in his hands, and I watched as his hand began to softly glow blue and the leaf aged rapidly before shriveling and dying, he looked at me with a playful smirk. “The benefits are that you can become much more powerful than the elemental roots. When you received the bit of power from the crown chakra, you punched with a green glow that ended up provoking the forest itself to attack, now if it were just that, then I’d assume you would have wood roots and wouldn’t have picked you up at all, but when I checked over your body while you were recovering, Creepy, several of your chakras were blown open forcefully, a trait of a fire or even feisty water cultivator, but never of the sturdy elements like wood or metal, meaning something else is occurring within you, tell me, that drop of chi, what was its color?”

“Er, it didn’t have a color, or, rather, more like the color was endlessly changing shades.”

“Changing shades? Now that's quite interesting. Well, try to remember what provoked the bit of power, and perhaps you may unlock that chakra yet, but for now, I shall teach you how to properly meditate and how to absorb the demonic core. Work on that until you’ve completely absorbed the core”

______________

As I sat on the smooth rock of some random point on the mountain, I couldn’t help but admire how much more convenient cultivation through meditation was when compared to my previous method, which is to say swinging my sword until I reach a point of exhaustion and lose track of time, and so after a few minutes of deep breathing, I once again managed to visualize my chakras.

I had been given the rundown on all of them by my master. The first one, the base of the spine, like I thought controlled connection to the world. The next at the groin controlled creativity, weirdly enough, and desire. The chest was my solar plexus, and it controlled confidence and determination. The heart, predictably controlled love and compassion. Throat was communication, and forehead was actually the third eye, it controlled imagination and creativity.

My master also told me that what I experienced during the fight wasn’t uncommon at all and that most cultivators activate their chakras during their first battles, the first time you experience a life or death fight has some impacts on your psyche after all. So all I had to do now was activate the remaining ones through meditation and spiritual growth, which doesn't exactly sound riveting, but I guess there's a reason most cultivation novels stick to sword swinging and name calling. Regardless, the current mission was just understanding the demonic core, which I had resting in my lap as I worked.

From what I could understand, the demonic core was one single incredibly long thread of chi, woven in a complex pattern over itself until it ran out of length, and dense enough to take physical form. And so, without much actual guidance, I decided to just unwind the string. I used what chi I possessed and started moving the bundle of thread around until after a few minutes of searching, I found the end. I tugged at it, just to see what would happen, and nothing did, so with a sigh realizing I was in for the long haul, I started to unwind the weird and complex pattern.

On day 2 of working exclusively with the core, I found myself struggling to describe it. It wasn’t exactly beautiful. I feel all too often when describing something foreign to a person, they either default to horrifying or beautiful, and neither fit this strange object resting on my lap. If I had to choose a description, maybe industrious? The weaves weren’t arbitrary, or complex without reason, it was like a large and expansive subway map, taking in chi from surroundings, and moving them along pathways that no longer exist thanks to the core no longer being attached to a body. I had started running my own chi through one end to see where exactly it came out, and while amusing, didn’t make any great progress on actually working.

By day 6 I’d finally managed to fully untangle one of the intake areas and got a better look at how that functioned, which is to say it seems like the nature of the stringy material I’m working with is some kind of colorless chi which is capable of moving all of the elements easily, whereas the intake lines are different elemental chi, which means that the lines were specialized for different sources of chi.

It was around day 12 when I think I hit the first quarter unwound, There wasn’t really much else to learn from the core, I was steadily unwinding the string of chi, and the leftover string was being used by me in an attempt to recreate some of the patterns the string originally followed, but with the chi leading into my body instead of the air, technically at this point I was supposed to directly feed the string into my chakras, but I was curious if I could replicate it.

Surprisingly it only took until day 14 for my attempts at a replicated core to work. It very passively refilled my chi at a slightly faster rate than how it would naturally refill, not super useful, but interesting.

It was at the one-month point where I figured out how sound played into it, see the bundle had one large exhaust port or area where chi exited, and this one was almost rifled, which is what people in the modern day do to gun barrels to make the gun more accurate by spinning the bullet in the air. From what I could tell, the core worked the same way, sending out bursts of chi which would make that rumbling that guided me straight to where it was waiting. The chi that it sent out went through a few different weaves but seemed to come from the input that worked with wood based chi.

The reason it was wood is probably because wood relates to the earth, and sound is caused by vibrations, so when the snake used the sound trick it did so by shooting out wood chi, with the sole purpose of making a rumbling noise. I wonder if I could do the same with water by manipulating the water vapor?

Honestly, I’m starting to feel like the captain of a sinking ship slowly going insane from isolation, even if my sinking ship is a scenic moonlit mountain top, I mean, I want to get stronger, but how many days straight is it healthy for a man to just stare at a ball? I put the thing a few inches away from me to just breathe in the mountain air for a little bit, I’ve been working non-stop for over a month already.

It’s been helpful, but seriously, I’m going to go insane if I have to sit and meditate for another straight month. My whole body’s sore as I unravel myself from the leg crossed sitting position I was in.

I stretch my back before abruptly stopping as I realize something. A month straight. For a full month, I’ve been sitting here, without food, drink, or sleep. I look down at my hands, then meaninglessly pat myself down, as if making sure I’m all still there. I-I mean, most novels I read say that food and water become meaningless at some point, but, still, this feels really, really weird. The worst part is that it’s not a realization that comes along with hunger and thirst, I’m still not hungry or tired.

The sect says that cultivation is the path to enlightenment, but I can’t help but wonder if I’m somehow losing part of what it means to be human by doing this? Or is that what they mean by enlightenment? Well, none of that really matters now. I look back down at the gleaming demonic core.

Yeah, nothing else matters. I stretch for a while longer, and I start to absorb the core, fully this time, no screwing around with experiments, no meaningless pondering. I have power in front of me, it’s my job to take it.

It doesn’t really last that long once I stop screwing around with it. Only another week. Once it's fully gone, I stand once more wreathed in the light of the moon, and look at the ground I’m standing on. I take a deep breath, and use my wood chi, sending it to my hand as I strike the ground. I hit it with an open palm, and shatter some of the ground with the initial force, before the activation of the vibration shatters a circle of rock surrounding the impact. The snake was using its ability wrong, who cared about making noises when you could hit something while vibrating it at high speeds? My new ability essentially allowed for the creation of shockwaves, though I noticed it was at the expense of a significant portion of my Chi, around a 5th of the total, which was now a lot bigger than it had been.

I grinned as I looked at the destruction caused. I’ve leveled up.