'Yes, finally I did it!'
Koji's eyes brightened in joy; after many, many attempts he had succeeded in using the Zelit.
'This is only a small step; there is much more to come, won't there be? I shouldn't be so glad over such a small thing...'
However, he was still Koji, and he would constantly remind himself of this fact.
"Koji! Amazing!"
Lin was shocked beyond belief; no way did he ever think Koji would succeed so early. Yes, that's right; Koji succeeded in less than 40 tries, which is exceedingly rare.
"Koji, truly you have a bright future ahead of you. Creating your Xin core at six, and now you have used your first Zelit at only seven years old!"
Koji tried not to pay people's words any heed, nevertheless Lin's comment resided in his conscious.
'Maybe the future is bright for me, and I'm just too pessimistic; Always worrying about hardship to come but never feeling excited for what else the future holds.'
Omitting his new revelation, a new thought replaced it.
'I do wonder, does this world have any lessons taught through legends or myths? Usually, fictional stories do, and so far this world is close to a fictional story...'
He wondered how he could ask Lin about this.
'Could I just ask him to tell me a story? Maybe, but it may not be related to any legends or anything.'
He ultimately just gave it a shot; if it didn't work, it wouldn't matter.
"Master Lin, tell me a story!"
Lin raised an eyebrow, surprised at Koji's sudden question.
"Uhm, about what?"
Koji frowned like a child to expected people to read his mind.
"Any!"
Lin sighed, going into deep thought trying to remember a story. He decided that based on the previous encounter of Koji trying to succeed, he would tell him a story about success.
"Have you heard of the story called 'Five men, three fish'"?
Koji had naturally never heard of this even once in his life.
"No."
Lin smiled, he actually enjoyed telling this story.
"Well, it is one of the eight great tales."
Koji was now even more oblivious and interested.
"What's that?"
Lin was a bit surprised Koji had never heard of these, after all he often told them to Ivory.
"Well, throughout history there have been eight Demi-Gods. Basically, each story is from their own life. The one I'm going to tell you is from the fifth Demi-God, who was Great Immortal Xiyu Li."
Koji was extremely curious about who "Great Immortal Xiyu Li" was, but he suppressed his urge to ask, which let Lin continue.
"Well, one day when Xiyu Li was a child of the fourth realm, where everything was much more cruel, he and four other teens were tasked with catching a fish in a large pond. In this pond there were many fish, however there were only three of the fish that they were required to catch. Therefore, only three kids would be able to pass the test. What was this test? Well, it was for the village elders to see which child had the greatest discipline; because whichever one of them would fish the longest and hardest would be the one to catch a fish."
"The first teen desperately wanted to catch a fish to prove to her family she was talented, the second teen wanted to catch a fish to provide for his family in the future, the third teen wanted to catch a fish so the village elders would be proud of him, the fourth teen wanted to catch a fish so she can attract the favor of a boy."
"The fifth teen, who was Xiyu did not care if he caught a fish or not. To him, gaining the favor or help of the village elders was useless; although the village elders would help the three who won become Transcendents in the village, Xiyu thought he could become one by himself; the help of an elder was not needed."
"The challenge started, and for the first hour no one caught the right fish, but then someone did catch one; It was Xiyu. He was very surprised, and asked the elders if he was done; they simply told him to keep fishing. But Xiyu was tired, and in the competition you were allowed to rest as much as you want, so Xiyu stopped for 30 minutes. In that 30 minutes, no one caught another fish. After that, Xiyu resumed and caught the second one within 15 minutes. At this, everyone was shocked including the Supreme Village Elder; Xiyu asked if he was done for the second time and was again told no. At this point, Xiyu was annoyed; he simply wanted to be done and leave now, so he took another break and let the other teens fish for awhile. At one point, he got bored and decided to cast his rod once again. The first cast he sent out caught a fish, and not only that, but it was the fish they were tasked to catch."
"He had caught all three of them."
For awhile, Lin remained silent, which meant the story was over.
"What? Nothing else?"
Koji was baffled at the abrupt conclusion.
"No, now interpret it how you please."
'What? Interpret it how I please?'
Koji was very confused.
'Well, he's the only one who didn't care about succeeding; however, he ended up being the only one to succeed. Does this just mean life is based on luck? Wait...'
There was something more that he had noticed.
'People usually make fun of lazy people, or say their mindset is superior. But in reality, it doesn't matter; lazy or determined, intelligent or not. Xiyu was the only one who took time to rest and could have been said to be a bit lazy about it, and due to this most would say the others had a better mindset. However, in the end he was the only winner. I guess it teaches you that not to think your mindset is superior to others?'
Koji finally came to a conclusion about the story, and felt that he had understood it for the most part.
'Anyway... My life is really progressing quickly; now I have to learn to nurture a new Xin core.'
Every success was just a step forward to climb the mountain that was his goal.
After learning to nurture a new Xin core, he would have to do just that, and while doing that he would have to learn more about the Lightning Mantra, and while doing that he would have to improve his fighting skills. Eventually, when he was old enough and strong enough he would set out to explore the realms and find a way to become the strongest; break the chains of balance and enforce it on everyone else.