One morning, just a few days before his second birthday, Kai Lan was sitting in the cultivation garden with his father when his eyes suddenly shot open.

“I found it,” Kai Lan said.

Wu Lan, in the middle of his own cultivation, raised an eyebrow, “Found what?”

“My place”.

Wu Lan froze, banishing his core quickly and turning to look at his son with wide eyes.

“Your place?”

Kai Lan looked back at him seriously, “I can feel the essence of my Golden Core gathering there”.

Wu Lan frowned, “That’s a very important and dangerous process, Kai Lan, are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Kai Lan nodded with a determined gaze.

Wu Lan sighed, glancing over towards the house, then back at Kai Lan, “If you’re ready, I can’t say no, but please wait a few moments so that your mother and I are prepared if things go wrong”.

Kai Lan looked at the seriousness of his father’s gaze. Wu Lan had spoken many times of what it took to forge a Golden Core, and what would happen if it went wrong, so despite his eagerness, Kai Lan nodded in acknowledgement

Just moments later, Wu Lan returned with Ning Wei. They held between them a box of multiple items. A box Kai Lan had seen many times in the store, the Nine Elements Box.

“Are you sure, Kai Lan?” asked Ning Wei, “You will not get a second chance, it’s okay to wait”.

“I’m sure, Ma,” Kai Lan smiled.

Ning Wei sighed, “Very well. Make sure you’re in the centre of the garden. Your Ba and I will sit on the outside of the circle after we place the elements”.

Ning Wei placed the box down on the ground and opened it, and she and Wu Lan moved to take items from the box and place them at equal points around the circle of the cultivation garden.

A bowl of water, a small branch, a handful of soil, a lump of metal, a candle which was lit with a flame, a crystalline rock that seemed to glow from within, and one that was black to its core, an empty bowl, and finally, a bowl with a lock of Kai Lan’s own hair from his first haircut.

Ning Wei and Wu Lan then moved to opposite sides of the Cultivation Garden and sat.

“When you are ready, son, you may begin,” said Wu Lan.

Kai Lan sat with his legs crossed, closing his eyes as he settled his breathing, then he lifted his arms up with an inhale before drawing them in opposing circles, and stopping his palms just a few centimetres apart before his belly button.

“First, the gathering of Golden Essence,” he spoke.

Kai Lan drew together all that he was. He drew his love for his family, his inquisitiveness, his boldness, his intelligence, his hope, his caution. All that made him, good and bad, established and just beginning, his being, his name, his soul. All of it was drawn to his centre which he pictured in his mind’s eye as wisps of golden energy that wove together to form a cage of sorts in the centre of his being.

Kai Lan breathed in, his arms moving in the opposite direction the back to the same position with his hands in the opposing format, “Second, the calling of elements”.

Kai Lan focused outside of himself as he continued to breathe, focusing on each of the elements that his parents had set out around him. He moved to that which felt most natural first.

“Earth”.

The brown wisps of energy flowed from the pile of soil towards Kai Lan, and he coaxed it through the gaps in the cage he had created in his being, then spent several moments helping it to settle before he moved to the twigs at the next point.

“Wood”.

The green wisps followed the path of the brown, slipping through the gaps of his golden cage and joining the brown, twining together and settling there.

Kai Lan moved to the next, “Light”.

The white wisps from the faintly glowing crystal rose up and flowed towards him, joining with the green and brown and settling within him.

“Water”.

Blue joined within him.

“Air”.

Yellow danced towards him, then settled inside of him with the others.

“Shadow”.

The black wisps from the dark crystal were slower, more ominous, but they joined as well, settling with the others despite an initial resistance from light.

“Metal”.

Silver rose, cutting and sharp as a blade. Yet Kai Lan was strong, forcing it to bow to his will and settle within the cage of his growing golden core.

“Fire”.

Red this time, hot and angry, but suddenly soothed as it entered Kai Lan’s golden core, as if purified by the other elements.

“Spirit”.

Purple this time, with a sense of superiority. He drew it from the lock of his own hair, but this one was the most resistant to Kai Lan’s efforts to coax it inside the cage of his core to join the others. He evened his breathing, keeping his back stiff and straight and strong. Squaring his will, he pushed the Spirit within himself, subduing it to mix with the others before he took another breath in, shifting his arms once more.

“The Third step, the forging”.

Kai Lan focused on his golden cage, seeing how it moved and flexed and how the wisps of energy within him flowed before he snapped shut every hole in his core to form a solid golden shell. The energies within rebelled, trying to force their way out, beating on the inner walls of his golden core. But Kai Lan held strong, condensing the shell, shrinking it to force the energies closer and closer and closer together until they had no room to move. Then, finally, when Kai Lan was sure he would burst, the energies submitted, and his Golden Core turned from a shell-like cage, to a solid and resounding orb.

It pulsed within him, once, twice, three times, filling him with the energy he had lost before he breathed out, and let it calm within him. He released the tension in his muscles, his eyes slowly fluttering open. He felt sweaty, both tired and fulfilled. He found himself smiling as his eyes turned to his concerned parents.

“It’s done”.

“Xiao Kai…you took in all the elements?”

Kai nodded, “That is my place. Where I felt most like myself”.

Wu Lan and Ning Fei looked at one another before they turned back to Kai Lan, both with smiles on their faces.

“Congratulations, Kai Lan,” said Wu Lan, “Come, we’ll go out for the day as a family and celebrate”.

Of course, anyone that asked would get the story that it was Kai Lan’s second birthday, which wasn’t wrong considering that it was only in a few days.