Xiao Shan stood with an oppressive feeling, like a mountain pressing down on his chest, suffocating him.
His senior brother had explained the examination process, revealing an uncomfortable truth: the examination was basically a combat death match.
Da He bid his farewell as he returned to his assigned work. Xiao Shan returned to his quarters, stopping by the communal kitchen to pick up some leftovers.
His quarters were a small shack, furnished only with a rough straw mat. He sat on the mat to eat, and while eating, he had flashbacks of when he met his master. He was sitting in an alley, hungry, when his master was passing by and saw him. "How would you like to eat something, child?" his master said while holding an apple in his hand.
The seemingly limp Xiao Shan took only a glance before jumping at it, taking the apple and eating all of it, leaving only the stem. His master furrowed his brows slightly, but when Xiao Shan said "Thanks!" as he showed a radiant smile, his master was surprised and laughed. "Good, very good child."
Xiao Shan then remembered that he had followed his master after that.
Xiao Shan tightened his grip, his determination reaching a new high. He was willing to do whatever it took to turn this into an opportunity. If he could pass the test, he could join the sect officially, and then looking for his master might be easier.
He took a dirty rag from his shack, this rag contained some instructions on the sect cultivation method for the first level of qi condensation, he then walked back to his work area.
Once in the working area, he took a pick and started to dig through a small hill to make way for the path. By the time night fell, he had managed to make a hole that looked like a cave. Exhausted, he sat in the hole to rest.
He recalled the information in the manual, sat in lotus position, and started to do breathing exercises. He tried to feel the spiritual energy in his body as described in the manual, but after a while, he couldn't get the feeling.
He sat there with gloom in his heart. At this pace, he wasn't confident he could make it to the examination.
Time passed and Xiao Shan's eyes became clouded with confusion. "Likely spiritual energy is just dispersed," he thought. He looked at his hands, focused on the throbbing feeling from his exhausted hands, feeling the circulation of his blood around his hands, his arms, the rest of his body.
Xiao Shan spent the night immersed in this feeling, his eyes clouded in confusion flashing with a purple tint from time to time.
The next day, he woke up feeling very tired. He repeated his cycle of work, going to the village to collect some food and water supplies, then coming back to work on clearing the path on the hill.
Night approached again and Xiao Shan sat back to cultivate. This time as he focused, he had a cold sensation coming from his chest. In his mind, the shape of a thread appeared. "Spiritual energy!" he thought excitedly. "I couldn't get the feeling for it yesterday." Excited, Xiao Shan proceeded to the next step according to the manual.
He tried to get the thread to move, but he had no idea how. The manual did not mention a specific method, just to focus and circulate the spiritual energy.
Xiao Shan spent most of the night immersed in this. He managed to make the thread rotate and move slightly. Due to physical exhaustion, he passed out.
The next morning, Xiao Shan went back to the village for provisions. While waiting in line for food, he heard other disciples talking. "Is it true Chen Fang is getting kicked out?" asked one disciple.
"Yes, I saw it. Brother Chen broke his arm in an accident and cannot work, so he is getting kicked out," replied the other.
"That is harsh," the other disciple sighed as he nodded. "Unless you are able to cultivate, we are just mortals. The sect does not care about us."
"But he is from a cultivator family, so likely he will be given another chance once he heals."
"I also heard senior brother Da got yelled at by Bao Tie," said one disciple.
"Yeah, but that is all he can do. Senior brother Da is already at the second level of Qi Condensation, he won't get expelled," replied the other disciple.
"Uh? If he can already cultivate, then why is he still here?" asked one of the disciples.
"I don't know. I think you need to also pass some tests to join the sect, but as long as you are able to cultivate, even Bao Tie cannot kick you out," came the reply.
Hearing this, Xiao Shan gritted his teeth. This time he was determined to go all in on cultivation, so he packed several days' worth of supplies and returned to the cave.
He sat all day trying to get the thread of spiritual energy to circulate. After spending the whole day, he was able to get it moving around, but nothing seemed to happen afterwards. He only felt very exhausted mentally.
As night arrived, Xiao Shan forgot about time. He was immersed in circulating his energy when at some point his eyes became cloudy with confusion and a slight purple tint. "Why is this not working?" he wondered. "There is very little spiritual energy. This method is wrong!"
He then started to move the thread to his skin, slightly getting a bit of it out of his body and then pulling the thread back in.
A sharp tingling sensation spread on his skin. Xiao Shan's eyes cycled between confusion and pain.
The next morning, Xiao Shan woke up covered in sweat. He went out of his cave to feel the breeze and eat some food.
At the same time, Bao Tie was doing some checks. He looked at the area Xiao Shan was working and was taking notes on a small wooden slip. "Good, the little street rat has not made much progress," he muttered. "Eh? Is that a cave? The rat has even made a hole to nest in." His lips twisted in an evil smile as he wrote down details on his wooden slip. "Next week I'll drag him out of his hole. I wonder if he'll kick and scream as I drag him all the way to the bottom of the mountain."
Bao Tie continued to descend and check on others. He relished the idea of punishing and expelling Xiao Shan. For Bao Tie, a no-name mortal like Xiao Shan trying to join a sect and being assigned to him was an insult.
Xiao Shan returned to his cave. While focusing back on cultivation, he realized there were now three threads of spiritual energy circulating in his body. Excited, he focused again on circulating them, but not much happened. He tried to recall what happened last night, but he could only recall a painful tingling sensation on his skin.
"This feeling..." he tried to circulate his energy on his skin. He did not find anything different at first, but he suddenly felt a prickling sensation. "Uh?" He focused on what was different and noticed that sometimes a thread would come out slightly, causing this sensation.
"Maybe this is the key?" he wondered. "What happens if I get a thread out?" Xiao Shan experimented with getting a thread out. He felt the prickling sensation again, but he also realized that a small amount of spiritual energy was forming as another thread. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to get a thread to come out, but he lost control and the thread went fully out of his body. It dissipated in the air, and now Xiao Shan was down to two threads.
Xiao Shan shuddered. "This method is too risky," he thought. After thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth. "But it works." He started to repeat the process non-stop for the rest of the day. After the second day, Xiao Shan's eyes were red. This process drained his mental fortitude as he needed fine control over the threads in order not to have them leave his body and dissipate. By the second day, Xiao Shan had lost several threads in this process, but he had also gained several dozen.
The next morning was nearing. The spiritual threads inside Xiao Shan started to converge. A cold sensation started to spread through his body. Xiao Shan was drenched in black, sticky sweat. Suddenly he felt an incredible clarity of mind. Inside his body, the threads condensed into a small flow that circulated, connecting different parts of his body.
Xiao Shan opened his eyes at the dawn of the day. "First level of Qi Condensation!" His eyes shined with a hint of purple as he stood up.
He left the cave, feeling refreshed for the first time in several days.
At the same time, Bao Tie was going down the hill, looking to check on Xiao Shan and punish him today. However, as he got closer, he noticed something different. With his fifth level of Qi Condensation, he was able to see that Xiao Shan had reached the first level of Qi Condensation.
He frowned as he did a second check. Xiao Shan was not only at the first level, but at the very peak. Bao Tie felt he was very close to the second level at the moment.
"What the hell happened here? How is it possible for this street rat to be already at this level in just a few days?" As Bao Tie fumed about this, other issues popped up.
"It will be more difficult to throw him out now," he thought. "However, if I get him into the examination, I will get rewarded even if he ends up getting killed." A devilish smile appeared on his face.
Just as Bao Tie started to revel in the idea of getting Xiao Shan taken care of and also increasing his resource allocation in the sect, a familiar voice called.
"Little nephew, why are you not greeting your uncle?" The voice sent chills down Bao Tie's spine. He jumped, looking in the direction of the voice, and saw a middle-aged man wearing a blue robe, his face elongated with thick brows.
"Bao Tie greets Uncle Bao Yan," said Bao Tie as he quickly prostrated to the man.
"Little nephew, I'm here to see the candidate you are submitting for the examination," said the man with a hint of exasperation.
Just as Bao Tie was about to respond, Bao Yan took a jade slip and looked afar to Xiao Shan, who was walking down the mountain.
"Very good, this candidate is at least at Qi Condensation," the man sighed. "Little nephew, the clan is concerned with your antics. This time you better make sure to get a disciple promoted."
Bao Tie stood in shock as he was thinking of what to respond.
"This time, if this candidate does not get promoted, the clan will disown you," Bao Yan said. "This examination is a bit different and we have inner elders supervising, so we cannot have your antics bring shame to our clan," he said with a cold, indifferent voice.
This struck like lightning on Bao Tie. He was about to react and make up some excuse when Bao Yan interrupted.
"Nephew, even the ancestor is not too pleased about this, so I'm giving you this chance. Better get this disciple ranking high." With that, Bao Yan simply turned around and flew back to the sect.
Bao Tie stood in place, petrified, his thoughts racing.