Chapter 1
A Lucky discovery!
Grey smoke drifted across the cobblestone road towards a cute but skinny young girl who was standing next to a jewellery shop. The smoke was coming from a wood fire stove in the food stall directly opposite from where she was standing and looking around the marketplace. The thin tendril of smoke carried the delicious scent of cooking meat. Ling Mai gulped back the rush of saliva that flooded her mouth. Her stomach rumbled in sympathy, “Not yet.” She thought, “I have to get some firewood for Grandma Tang before she will feed me.”
Grandma Tang was the proprietor of the food stall opposite her which was located in the central market of her hometown of over ten thousand people. Grandma Tang was a hard but fair taskmaster. She didn’t give charity, as she believed in people working for what they needed. Ling Mai had learnt a lot of lessons from the seemingly cranky at times, and at other more prosperous times, jovial to the point of her seemingly happily drunk; though she never drank that Ling Mai had witnessed.
The hilly wilderness surrounding the town was only broken by a few smaller villages. Other large towns were some distance away as tall mountains enclosed the large valley of hills and streams, and the one river on the banks of which the town was located.
Shaking her head, Ling Mai swallowed again and put her hand on her grumbling stomach in an attempt to soothe the hunger pangs then turned and swiftly made her way past the other stalls that lined the marketplace. Stall owners, trying to drum up business, shouted at the passing customers making it hard for others to hear when they tried to hold a conversation.
Trying not to breathe in the tantalising scent of cooking food coming from the many food stalls, she weaved her way through the mostly somewhat wealthy patrons who frequented the food stalls for breakfast before they visited the stores in the main shopping area. Ling Mai hurried as she would need to return before dinner to replenish the firewood for Grandma Tang.
Grandma Tang helped a number of street kids but most street kids were uneducated and were therefore feral. They often stole from people and shops, and when older they mostly joined gangs, be it freely or by coercion. Ling Mai had managed to avoid being recruited as she spent most of her day out of town gathering firewood and collecting the occasional herb for Grandma Tang or fruits when they were in season.
Ling Mai still remembered her parents’ teaching her many things as she grew up. All aspects of life were taught from a very young age: reading, writing, morals, money, values of things, history, geography and many more. Ling Mai had continued to learn when she could and had an active mind and a good memory which also helped her pick up odd-jobs such as with Grandma Tang. Grandma Tang also said, having a cheerful and intelligent helper who was also cute, helped her business and her mood.
Looking back in the direction of Grandma Tang, she felt a wave of warmth from the thought of all the help she had received. Grandma Tang didn’t have a lot of money to spare to give to the many street kids but she did help a few of the younger ones with food handouts for those who could not find work. Hopefully, she will be able to eat some leftover breakfast or lunch food from Grandma Tang! It was delicious; the best-tasting food in the market due to the special spices she used. If Grandma Tang had no leftover food, then Grandma Tang would give her money for the firewood so she could still get a meal elsewhere. Fortunately, for her continued survival, most food stallholders would give her a discount as she often ran errands for them.
Trotting swiftly, she soon made her way out of the town, only stopping by the town’s wooden wall where her primitive abode was located. She only stopped briefly at her lean-to shelter to get a length of cord and her small travois. She was worried that the frayed cloth between the two poles would not last much longer. She also used it for her blanket at night. Winter was only a month away so she needed to purchase another blanket that was not so used to the point of disintegrating. She was too big for the small blanket now that she was approaching her teens. Eight, almost nine, was a dangerous age. She needed more food and more clothes as she grew. She desperately needed to find a better source of income. Running errands and gathering firewood paid but a pittance.
If only she still had a family, but they were now a fond memory. They had been ambushed by bandits as they travelled between towns and villages. Her family and some relatives were travelling merchants based in a large city on the coast. They were one of many caravans which distributed imported goods from the hot lands further south.
Ling Mai was considered lucky by the townsfolk as she was still very small, being only five to six years old when the attack happened, so she was able to hide from the bandits in the bushes beside the road. After the bandits had finished killing and looting, they fled the scene which allowed her to flee herself before it became dark. She walked to the town her family had been planning to visit, luckily avoiding being eaten by wild beasts. Those first few weeks had been very hard until she learnt how to survive on the streets.
Passing through the gate in the wooden palisade she nodded to the three guards, one of whom was new. He was previously a street urchin like herself but had recently turned twelve and was now considered a young man. He would need to serve as an apprentice guard for four years before becoming strong and skilled enough to be regarded as qualified to guard the town and to be paid a wage instead of just being given food and lodging. He was lucky to get the job as most street urchins ended up joining gangs or working on the farms that surrounded the town. A job that was not really any different than slavery.
Ignoring the three larger roads that led away from town, she instead took the smallest road. After trotting for about twenty minutes along the narrow winding road, which eventually led to a small village, she spotted her marker stones. She picked them up and walked a further twenty metres then placed them a bit off the road and turned into the forest. She started searching for fallen branches and dead trees. She soon found plenty of firewood as she had made a habit of placing a few unusual-looking stones beside the road at the last location where she had gathered firewood. This meant she just needed to go a bit further each time before starting to search new territory.
Picking up sticks and branches she made a series of piles to consolidate for later transport. After gathering for 30 minutes she almost had enough when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a movement and a glimpse of bright blue. Swiftly turning and pulling out her sling and a small round stone for ammunition, she scanned her surroundings. She spied a creature that was digging under a bush.
Slowly and carefully aiming with her sling she then paused, quickly scanning her surroundings once again for any danger she then let fly with her sling. The stone took a split second to traverse the distance to her prey, striking the animal in the head with a thump.
Again she checked the bushes around her, then she ran over to the twitching animal. Taking out her small cudgel from her rope belt, she struck the animal. It immediately stopped moving, causing her to grin in relief. She would eat well today!
She curiously examined the animal as she had not seen this species before. It had a large head for its size and a short fluffy tail. She was envious of its luxurious fur. It looked gorgeous and very warm. Soft white belly fur and green fur on its back contrasted with the black and blue striped head and neck. Teeth typical of an omnivore suggested its diet was similar to humans. It should taste good as most meat from herbivores and omnivores was superior in tenderness to carnivores. Hopefully, more of the animals would not come closer to her town and feed on the farmers’ crops.
Picking the animal up by its hind legs, she then noticed a blue swath of cloth underneath the bush. The animal had obviously been digging this up. Bending she grasped the cloth and gently pulled then, with increasing force, she managed to pull the half-buried bundle of cloth from the soil.
Looking at her find, she realised she had found what was probably a bandit’s loot. She wondered why the bandit would have buried it this close to the road. Did they hide out in the small village? She would have to be careful!
“I should check the bundle first to see if I should take it.” she thought. Too much wealth would be dangerous for her. She had no protection back in her town. Only her lack of any money or other valuables made her relatively safe.
Undoing the knot holding the bundle closed, she proceeded to open it up. Trail rations consisting of dried meat and fruit plus grains and nuts fell out onto the ground, but Ling Mai had no eyes for them despite her hunger. A small jade chest with intricate carvings and inlaid gold lay in the centre of the cloth.
Ling Mai had never seen gold before but she recognised it from Grandma Tang’s tales. She did love to listen to Grandma Tang’s tales; almost as much as Grandma Tang liked to tell them!
Carefully opening the small chest she discovered it only contained two jade slips and a few glowing crystals. “Mana stones?” She guessed. “I should not be able to see them glow? Unless I can become a cultivator?” She realised with mounting excitement! Only prospective cultivators could sense mana stones.
Grandma Tang had told tales of cultivators visiting the town and lucky children and teenagers being discovered by them to have the ability to become cultivators. They would be taken away to the cultivators’ sects to become powerful cultivators; able to use amazing techniques. The only problem for Ling Mai is that it had been many years since any cultivators had visited their town. Grandma Tang had surmised that the local sects must have suffered some sort of disaster for the visits to cease.
Gently picking up one of the jade slips she then examined it closely. Small writing could be seen covering the surface. Starting to read, she gasped! A cultivation method!
Cultivation methods were closely guarded secrets, as were sect techniques. Quickly examining the other jade slip she found it contained a technique for manipulating light. Feeling a little disappointed as she had always dreamt of being able to manipulate fire, so she turned her attention back to the cultivation technique.
Absentmindedly she sat down cross-legged and started reading:
‘Gather the element you want to use as your primary element then direct it to your inner core.’
“Okay, that sounds simple, but how do I recognise the light or fire element?” She pondered, “I will just give it a try.”
Closing her eyes she felt around herself for any energy. “How do I sense energy?” She thought, but suddenly sensed a flow of light or power or something from the jade box. “It must be the mana crystals.” She concluded.
“Very pretty!” She thought as she watched the sparkling flow of energy swirling in front of her.
Slowly and carefully she somehow gathered the swirling, multicoloured energy to her by using her newfound senses. Unfortunately, the energy dissipated as quickly as she gathered it even if she tried compressing it into a ball. “How can I keep it together?” She wondered. “Maybe in a vortex such as in a stream or a tornado?”
Separating it into aesthetically pleasing coloured ribbons of energy, she swirled it into a tight vortex and brought it towards her face. Examining it closely she noticed the colours were gaining clarity as they separated into distinct strands from a yellow background energy that resisted her new energy manipulation ability. She decided to keep the yellow mixed with the other colours, though it didn’t exactly mix as such, more like coexisted. Black and brown particles dispersed into the air as the vortex gained speed and strength.
“Impurities?” She wondered. “Which colours are fire and light energy? And where is my centre?”
Keeping the vortex rotating and coincidentally gathering more energy from the mana stones, she returned to reading the jade slip.
‘Your master or teacher will explain how to find and feel your centre. Don’t worry, it is just like eating food, and once you have started cultivating your energy it will not need looking after other than cultivating it to condense more energy and to purify it.’
“Okay, that sounds simple. I guess I just need to be able to move my energy accurately… hmm.”
Looking at the swirling vortex in front of her eyes she tried to separate the vortex from the energy component coming from the crystals. It didn’t work…
“Maybe a second vortex to be in the middle between the unpurified energy and the clean energy?”
She discovered that starting a second vortex was easy. She moved it in between the crystals and her now very bright energy vortex. The new smaller vortex fed the larger vortex with purified energy.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Success!”
The larger vortex soon stopped emitting the black and brown particles. “I must keep them separate“, she thought, “plus I need another one to swallow, that big one looks too big for little me.” She giggled in glee.
“This is exciting!”
She quickly achieved this, as manipulating energy was now becoming second nature. “I will try it for size before it gets too big,” she thought to herself, “I must be careful as I don’t have a teacher to guide me.”
Still, with her eyes shut, she slowly moved the small vortex in front of her mouth. Opening her mouth she tried to gauge the relative sizes. Her stomach chose this moment to growl at her. She was vaguely aware of the smell of the trail rations scattered around her on the ground. She was so engrossed in her new finds and her experiments that she had forgotten her hunger! Still, with her mouth open she involuntarily and awkwardly swallowed.
“URP!”
“GAHG!”
“OWIE!”
The small vortex zipped into her mouth and down her throat but her automatic response to this unwanted invasion was to fling it out of her throat, straight up!
The “OWIE”, was from the feeling similar to brain-freeze as the energy shot into her head. Eyes watering and nose running, she examined herself with her energy sense only to find a small energy vortex swirling, seemingly happily and harmlessly, in the middle of her head.
“Is this my centre?” She pondered out loud, “It must be.” She decided as it felt comfortable and ‘just right’.
Carefully keeping the internal vortex small by compressing the energy further as it passed through the purifying vortex and the compressing vortex, then into her centre vortex. She was a bit worried at first that the purified energy passed without any problem or sensation straight into her head. She slowly stabilised the process and tried to make it automatic. She likened it to a feeling of holding something in her hand while doing a mundane activity such as walking. She could see herself becoming proficient at maintaining the complicated but at the same time simple process if it was broken into separate sections to practice and improve.
Her stomach again chose this instant to growl. “Let me see if I can eat and keep this process going?” She declared to herself.
With a few initial wobbles and slight drifting of the external vortexes, she managed to start eating. Soon she was ravenously eating. Her stomach gurgled happily. Strength flooded into her body as the food filled her sunken belly.
Another type of strength started to permeate her body. “Is this from the internal energy vortex?” She contemplated but soon dismissed this idea. “It is still only in my head. Maybe it is strengthening my blood?”
Satisfying her hunger she returned to reading the cultivation slip:
‘Once your core has been formed and stabilised, move your energy along the following meridians.’ A list of names of meridians followed this.
“I don’t know anything about meridians. Maybe I can just see where the energy wants to go?”
Nudging a very small amount of energy from her inner vortex, she let it drift away into her body. Both a cool feeling permeated the path the energy took and a feeling of channels opening. “Are these my meridians?” She supposed with delight.
The wisp of energy started in her head but drifted towards the middle of her chest then into her stomach, seemingly circling the food she had eaten then wandered lower before drifting up to her right arm. It then proceeded to do a tour of all her peripheries and return to her head. She noticed the energy had changed slightly in appearance so she cycled it through the external vortexes again, watching as black and brown particles again dissipated from the previously purified energy.
“It must be removing impurities from my body.” she realised with delight but then had a worrying thought, “Oh dear, I forgot to just create and absorb only light energy! Will I explode or turn into an ugly monster? Would being a monster be that bad? But I don't want to be ugly! Never mind, I'll work something out.”
She then started to concentrate on this cultivation method, finding it easier and quicker now that she had found the path that the energy wanted to take. Soon it only took seconds to do a full cycle. She became lost in tweaking this new process and fine-tuning the size and shape of the vortexes to get the most purifying effect and the highest compression. Long and narrow vortexes purified the energy more quickly but wide and short vortexes did a better job of compression.
Studying the different colours in the vortexes she wondered how she could identify the properties so she could identify first, light energy, then fire, then the rest. Thinking hard she realised that if she could sense any energy coming from objects then she would have a starting point.
Taking out her small knife she closely examined it. Frowning, as she could not sense anything, she closed her eyes to see if that would help. Sensing something, she tried pushing her senses out towards the knife. Success! She identified faint green and silver energy from the location of the knife. She also noticed purple flashes coming from the location of her hand and arm holding the knife.
“What are the purple energies?” She wondered to herself, “It seems to flash more strongly when I move my hand. Maybe it is wind, water or even life impulses?”
Moving her hand and then stopping, she soon ruled out wind and water, leaving life impulses as the most likely energy. The green-coloured energy was the wooden handle and the silver was the metal blade.
“Three identified, now for the rest of the colours of the vortexes.” Blue was air/wind; turquoise was water; Brown was earth/stone. She stopped examining things to closely compare the colours in the vortexes with each object. They were similar but not exactly the same. “I think the vortexes are the complete pure form, and the objects either have mixtures and or are just a part of the colour/energy.”
Taking out her small flute which hung from a string around her neck, she realised the sensed silver energy in it glowed with a sheen lacking in the steel knife blade. “So silver metal is this colour and steel is more muted. I wonder, what is the colour of gold energy?”
Examining the jade chest, she identified a silver colour with a deep lustre where the gold inlays were; then a mix of brown and yellow from the jade. She had expected the brown shade but not the yellow. “Some sort of property of the jade or an effect of some treatment? It seems as if it is the same as the yellow background energy in my vortexes?”
Soon she was cataloguing everything in her surroundings. Her ability to sense energy was growing in range and sensitivity! “Is it similar to cultivating?” She wondered. “I wonder what range I can eventually reach?”
Soon she could sense the gentle breeze moving through the forest, all the plants and even small insects and worms, and surprisingly, to her, the light coming from the sun! The bright white energy was hard for her energy sense to ‘look at’ - similar to when using her eyes.
She opened her eyes only to feel a sense of vertigo. Everything swam with clashing colours! Quickly closing her eyes she dampened down her energy sense and slowly opened her eyes. “Much better“, she thought.
Slowly she ramped up the sensitivity and range of her energy sense until it was back to the previous level. “Just needs practice and familiarity”, she realised.
One thing she noticed was a scattering of silver colour and a small void in the brown earth energy under a nearby bush. Taking a stick from the closest firewood pile she proceeded to dig under the bush. Soon another smaller cloth bag was unearthed. Looking inside she discovered a stash of copper coins. Wearing a big grin she tucked it into her robe. “I can buy myself a new blanket, and maybe now I can discover more hidden treasures!”
The sound of a twig snapping caused her to instantly jump to her feet. The only problem was, she ended up jumping about a metre into the air. Suppressing an involuntary squeak, she landed in a crouch and took out her sling while scanning her surroundings.
A flash of purple and a swirl of blue behind a tree appeared in her energy senses. An identical type of animal to the one which she had killed previously, made its way past the tree and into her view and not just her energy sense. Ling Mai slowly loaded the sling with her lucky stone and stilled for an instant before unleashing death and destruction. Well, that was the unexpected result of her throw. The stone smashed the animal’s head and then ricocheted into the tree, embedding itself deeply into the bark.
Ling Mai stood frozen, her mind trying to understand what had just happened. “I jumped higher than I expected then I pulverised that poor animal’s head. I must be somehow much stronger. It has to be a result of cultivating!” She did a twirl in delight.
Regaining her senses, she quickly scanned her surroundings again. Ling Mai had gained caution from experiencing the dangers of both the forest and her hometown. It had made her hyperaware of her surroundings at all times.
Noticing the purple flashes from the animal had stopped she surmised the animal must have ceased generating the flashes when it died. “I’ll now be able to spot hidden animals”, she realised with happiness.
She decided to tidy up and return closer to her town where it was safer before doing any more reading or trying any more experiments in cultivation.
She retrieved her stone from the tree using her small knife, then picked up the newly killed animal and the first animal and placed them at the very bottom and rear section of the travois so they would not bleed onto her blanket.
Gathering the remaining trail rations and the small chest back into the blue cloth, she tied it closed and placed it into her travois then piled branches and twigs over the top to conceal it. Tightly tying the load down with the thin rope she had brought with her, she picked up the two pole ends of the travois to start dragging it behind her and then made her way back through the trees towards the road. She slowed as she came into proximity to the road and looked left and right to check if it was clear of people or animals.
She remembered a previous trip where she had come across a magical beast that looked like a giant spider with spikes all over its body. Luckily it had been distracted by a flying creature trying to protect its nest. She had had to wait 3 anxious hours before the magical creature had departed and then a further hour before she had felt safe enough to dash back to the township.
Nearing the town she again left the road and made her way up a dry creek bed to a small hill. Looking around she couldn’t see anyone so she ducked behind a large bush and entered a small cave. This was her favourite place to hide and relax. It wasn’t too far into the wilderness but it was still far enough away from the town and surrounding farms to not be disturbed. All the firewood had been collected from the area long ago. Only very young children came this way to see if they could chance across some firewood.
Loosening the rope tying the firewood onto the travois, she managed to pry the makeshift cloth bag out from under the load. Opening the cloth she took out the chest. Opening the chest she picked up the technique jade slip.
“Hmm, I should first start cultivating again.” She thought.
Starting the external vortexes was easy compared to the initial attempt, and now far more successful. She noted she had immediately recreated the more advanced form of the vortexes. She spent a few minutes tweaking the vortexes though she only managed to make minor improvements to the gathering of power and the purification efficiency.
“Enough cultivating”, she thought, and lowered her head to read, ready to start learning her first technique!
Examining the jade slip she realised the author was different to the cultivation jade slip author. A more refined style of writing characters and more elegant expressions had been used. “I will just read a bit then experiment for a short time. I must get the firewood back the Grandma Tang before she runs out.”
She didn’t want to jeopardise her main source of income and food. At least not until she advanced her cultivation and hopefully became more self-sufficient!
‘Visualise a divine beam of sunlight going from your centre to the target, deadly enemy or ferocious magical beast. Once this is clearly and firmly locked into your mind’s eye, feed the light energy from your centre through your Qimen meridian and then your Ruzhong meridian, being careful to only use the most minimal amount of energy you can separate from your centre. The light energy should follow your visualised beam of sunlight.
If all goes well, the light energy will light up your target. Assess the light energy intensity and focus. If the intensity needs to be increased then feed slightly more energy into the meridians making sure you don’t have any energy bleeding off into the wrong meridians. Concentrate the focus by having a stronger image. Don’t increase the amount of energy used too quickly as your meridians will only be able to handle an amount of energy equal to your current cultivation level.’
“Well that seems to be doable”, she thought, “I don’t know what these meridians are so I guess I can just see where the energy wants to go once I have visualised the divine sunlight.”
She closed her eyes to more carefully check her inner vortex, then opened them to look at the back of the cave. She stared for a whole three minutes to be sure she had the image locked firmly into her head. It helped that beams of sunlight were making their way past her silhouette at the entrance of the cave and striking the rear wall of the cave.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she teased a small amount of energy from her vortex and let it drift towards her imagined target. The energy moved slowly at first then suddenly vanished as it shot away from her and struck the far wall.
KAPOW!
She blinked her eyes rapidly as she coughed to clear the dust from her lungs. Luckily she had been sitting in the entrance of the cave and so was spared much of the surprisingly, relatively small amount of dust and other debris which had shot out from the wall.
“Note to self: Don’t experiment with new techniques in small caves!” She coughed and spat dust out of her mouth.
Taking out her water pouch, she swilled water around her mouth to get rid of the grit. Spitting out the turbid water onto the bush in front of the cave, she stood up and dusted off her clothes.
Turning, she examined the cave as the dust settled. “What? I did that?” She exclaimed, “I can’t have done this?”
The cave had expanded from a small two-metre-deep cave to a twenty-metre-deep cave. “I could live in this!” She thought happily but shakily.
“How come the effect of such a small amount of energy created this enormous effect?” She wondered, “Maybe it is due to the energy coming from the energy crystals? And, my bad, I forgot to separate just the light energy!”
It was lucky she didn’t injure or kill herself. The other energies’ combined effect seemed to just disintegrate the rock into nothing! “What a powerful attack! How does it not disintegrate my brain or the mana stones? I know I have separated the energy into separate types except for the yellow-coloured energy. Does it have a stabilising effect? Is that why the jade chest has this energy? Do the mana stones exist due to containing this yellow energy? So many mysteries!”
She realised she would need to do lots of practising to get the attacks under control. “Maybe I can just make a beam of light?” She pondered, “It should be easier and safer than this attack technique, but that will have to wait until later. Granny Tang needs this firewood!”
She was getting giddy with excitement. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she stood and started packing up so she could return to town with the firewood. She then buried the cloth sack with all the remaining trail rations and food, plus the jade chest. She could not risk others finding out she had it!
Blocking the cave entrance with a medium-sized bush, she cleared the ground of tracks with some bunched-up grass.
Double-checking her surroundings she started walking back to town, dragging the seemingly light load of firewood behind her. “Being strong is fantastic”, she gloated while sporting a big grin.
“I wonder how much faster I could learn and progress if I had a teacher?” Little did she realise that she was stumbling ahead in her cultivation and learning the technique with lightning speed due to her high natural ability to sense energy and not having the constraints of flawed cultivation information and poor teaching. Preconceptions could also be a bitch!
Her return to town and the market was uneventful, only the young new guard commenting on how big a pile of firewood, for her age, she was carrying on her travois. She just laughed it off as she had not thought about it as she was too overwhelmed by all her discoveries. She would have to sit down later and think of all the ramifications and what it would mean for her life going forward. The possibilities were endless!
Walking through the town, her new senses were working overtime with all the people flashing purple and the many different materials and energies glowing in her inner eye. Passing the blacksmith shop, she discovered fire was red which got her to thinking that she must be seeing suitable colours for what she thought would be natural for each material or element. That supposed a natural affinity for sensing these energies which predated her starting to cultivate! No wonder she learnt how to sense energy so quickly, she had been subconsciously doing it all along!
Returning to Grandma Tang, she hauled the firewood behind the stall to a large timber box. Making short work of unloading the firewood due to her increased strength, she brought the two small animals she had killed to Grandma Tang.
“Feather my butt, but you are a surprising young girl. A big load of firewood and fresh meat!” Grandma Tang sounded very happy, “Luckily I have some leftovers to feed you as you must be starving after hauling all that firewood back.” Turning back to her counter she piled a big helping of meat and vegetables into a bowl and handed it to Ling Mai with a flourish.
Even though Ling Mai had previously eaten some trail rations, she found she was ravenously hungry at the sight of the bowl of food. Taking a big sniff to saviour the aroma of the steaming hot food she proceeded to scarf it down before it got cold, not noticing that Grandma Tang was examining her with surprise on her face and then astonishment.
“You have become a cultivator!” She quietly exclaimed.
Looking up in alarm, Ling Mai looked around to see if anyone else had overheard. Relaxing slightly she looked at Grandma Tang in surprise and with worry clearly written on her face.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that you are now all-powerful!” Grandma Tang quietly murmured with a cheeky grin.
Thinking of what happened back at the cave, Ling Mai whispered back, “Actually, you are not far off the mark about being powerful”, causing Grandma Tang’s eyes to narrow and to wipe the grin off her face.
“Do tell me more“, then glancing at the still half-full bowl of food she continued, “After you have finished eating.”
Ling Mai nodded her head and started eating again while pondering over the puzzle of how Grandma Tang had so quickly discovered she was a cultivator. Hopefully, no one else would uncover her secrets! People would wonder how she became a cultivator. “Maybe I can claim I met a wandering cultivator who taught me a few things?” She thought as her worry grew about her future safety. There were plenty of nefarious people lurking in the underbelly of this town, not even counting the people who would be jealous of her and give her a hard time!
She had extra strength but not enough to defend herself due to her small size, and her newly invented technique was way too overpowered. Until she had refined her technique to be more selective and tuneable in power, she didn’t want to get in a fight and accidentally destroy buildings and bystanders if she had to defend herself!
“When we have time, and I have learned to be more gentle, I’ll show you how I can disintegrate solid rock, though it is still a bit messy.”
Grandma Tang just stared at her, then mumbled under her breath, “Messy, she says…”
****************