Chin sat at the clearing, legs crossed in a meditative pose. He was trying to cultivate.

I had already explained the concept of cultivation to him, and he seemed to have a good grasp of it in theory, but execution was a different thing.

All humanoids had twelve main meridians, long and overlapping pathways of qi that were responsible for distributing the qi throughout your body. They overlapped one another over and over again and occasionally intersected. These intersections were called meridian points.

Intersections of all twelve meridian pathways were called dantians, and that was what Chin was currently trying to get a feel for.

“I don’t feel anything,” Chin said.

“Then keep trying,” I replied while sipping my tea.

“I am trying.”

“Then you’re on the right track.”

Chin frowned a little deeper than usual.

“How do I know when I’ve reached the dantian?” He asked.

“You’ll know. Now stop distracting yourself and cultivate.”

Chin grumbled but kept quiet as he went back to work. I couldn’t really blame Chin for his annoyance. There were tens of thousands of meridians within the human body, and remembering the meridian pathways to cycle your qi through was a tough thing for your average mortal.

Most cultivation cycles focused on efficiency, each cultivation method trying to create the least amount of distance between your entrance meridians, the meridians that absorbed the qi from the outside world, and your dantians. And that would get you to the first rank very fast, but only the first rank.

Effective cultivation would cycle the qi throughout the body first, not only feeding your dantians, but your meridians as a whole. They functioned as the support structure for your dantians, the scaffolding to your metaphysical self. And even if you gave immense reinforcement to the lower dantian, the dantian of the body, you’d still find yourself unable to go past the second rank.

Good cultivation techniques focused on a balanced distribution of qi being cycled throughout your meridian pathways and eventually into your dantians. It was effectively feeding both the ground and the garden. A plant grown in subpar soil might, with enough attention, produce fruit for one year, but you wouldn’t be getting fruit from it the next season.

Foundations and all that stuff.

Chin was having a hard time cycling his qi from one meridian to another.

“I thought it was the dantains that determined my rank,” he questioned.

“It is. But it’s your meridian pathways that feed it and while the dantians hold your qi, your meridians distribute it.”

“Can’t I reinforce them during the next rank?”

“You can try, but you’d find the amount of qi produced by your dantians would overwhelm them pretty quickly. It would be like trying to build a store in the middle of the forest. No matter how many wares you have, you’d never be able be able to trade them.”

“And why this pattern then? Why do I have to circulate the qi in this specific method?”

“Let's say you want to build a house on the outskirts of the village and you happen to be a shepherd, where would you build it.”

Chin paused his cycling and thought for a moment.

“Probably by the east side,” he answered.

I sipped my tea.

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, that’s closest to the hills and has a lot of open grass over there.”

“And what if a farmer wanted to do the same?”

“Northeast side probably. The road there is nice and leads out to the farmlands, and we have the wind mill down there. It’d be easier to bring in the harvest as well.”

“And if a hunter wanted to do the same?”

“He’d be better off living near the forest.”

“Why’s that?”

“Less distance to haul your kill. Don’t want to pull a dead dear through the main road.”

I nodded.

“Cultivation methods work similarly. Certain meridian pathways lead to certain body parts and depending on the method you practice, you want the pathway between your dantians and body parts to be strong and refined.”

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Chin just stared at me, silently requesting an explanation.

“You know the five sects?” I asked.

Chin nodded.

“Well let’s take the Bloody Fist Sect for example. Their cultivation technique revolves around their fists and physical improvements, using and strengthening their hands till they become comparable to weapons.

But all of that requires a robust meridian pathway between their hands and their dantians. Meaning their cycle would heavily focus on strengthening and reinforcing certain meridian pathways in their hands, possibly using meridian points within the hand itself as a minor dantian.”

“Minor dantian?”

“Don't worry about that. The point is to establish and reinforce certain pathways for future use.”

Chin snorted and closed his eyes and went back to meditating, then after a second opened them back up again.

“That… madam came to me today,” he whispered.

“Madam Rose?” I asked.

“Yes. Her. She came with qi beasts and spirit stones, full ones. Fifty of them at the first rank.”

“Nice chunk of change,” I replied.

“I don’t know what I’ll do with it,” he mumbled. “And they want to build here, set up a permanent residence. The beast tamer as well, he wants to bring all of his animals here and raise them.”

“Sounds like the start of a blossoming city,” I replied.

“What should I do?”

“Have you tried asking one of the girls? I know Lin Tai has a knack for city planning-”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You do nothing but sit on your ass and sip tea all day. Why can’t you help with all of this? You’re the one who brought this upon us after all.”

Now it was my turn to frown.

“I’m a bit of a hermit.”

“So am I,” Chin replied.

“Yeah well, I outrank you in hermitness Mister Village Chief. And besides, I hate cultivators.”

Chin at me with raised eyebrows.

“What?” I asked.

“You hate cultivators?”

“Yep,” I replied. “I always have. Even when I was still actively cultivating, I always pushed myself to the far reaches of the multiverse where no one would find me by accident and even that didn’t keep me out of some people’s reach.”

“Seems stupid to become the thing you hate,” Chin mumbled. “I think farmers are great.”

I took a nice long sip of tea and then set my cup down.

“Cultivators, as powerful as we are, are just humans Chin. But we’re humans without limits. And all of the bad things about people become limitless too. Their hatred and greed, pain and suffering. All of it grows endlessly in an eternal expansion. It's… terrifying.”

“What about the good things?” Chin asked.

I smiled.

“You ever heard the myth of the twin stars, Chin? Or maybe something about two sisters of opposing natures?”

Chin took a moment to think.

“Maybe not sisters but two opposing concepts of good and evil, maybe animals of some sort?” I clarified.

“The two lions within the human heart?” Chin answered.

“That comes from one true story, most myths do in some ways. Some cultivators are so powerful that they mark the shape of humanity itself and appear in almost every society as myths or stories. Some sects even keep track of them, trying to record their footprints through infinity.”

“Anyway,” I continued. “The archetype of twin beings of opposing nature traced back to one true story, The Twin Stars of Light and Darkness. A long time ago, there were two women, mortals wronged by some evil sect. Somehow, through luck and diligence, both of these mortals found a way to cultivate and grow. Now the evil sect had three bases at the time, and the two women, having been aquatinted with one another, sought vengeance on the group. So with some planning, they each decided to take one base by themselves and strike down the central base together. One woman, the Light, chose to judge her base righteously. She saw they were evil and she struck them down where they stood. She let the young and innocent among them flee and she let their servants live.”

“But the other woman, the Darkness, failed to kill one single man, instead choosing to use her dark techniques to freeze them in eternal torment. It’s said that every person in that base, from the unborn children to the sect’s prisoners, suffered unknown pain at her hands. Eventually, the two women met at the central base, fighting side by side to take down the sect Patriarch and they emerged victorious. But at the very end, the Darkness chose to torment, making him watch as his children, merely a month old were cut and eaten right in front of him.”

“The Light didn’t accept this. The two battled to a standstill and eventually parted ways before one could defeat the other.” I finished.

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Chin questioned.

“Who do you think was the bad guy in that story Chin?”

“The sect?”

“And who was the bad guy at the end of the story?”

“The Darkness Lady?” He replied.

“Yup. An Lie Kei, The Mother of Pain, Her Eternal Vengece, one of the most terrifying God Imperiums to ever exist.”

Chin shivered at her name.

“A forgotten sect of evil bastards created one of the most hateful existences in all of reality. Good is rare Chin. Bittersweet morality is everywhere, but good, true untouched kindness is one of the rarest things in the world. And even if you find it, it rarely stands the test of eternity. It only takes a drop of poison to ruin a cup of water. And when you live this long, you’re bound to see that poison many times over.”

There was a moment of shared silence between us. Chin adjusted himself, leaning back onto his arms and abandoning the meditative pose.

“What happened to the other girl?” Chin asked. “The Light One.”

“She grew with her opponent. Nei Lo, Justice Herself, The Great Judicar, leader of the largest righteous sect in all of existence.”

Chin frowned and stared up into the stars. I could see his brain churning away at the story. His mind focused on something that didn’t include farming for once.

“I still don’t understand why you hate cultivators.”

“It’s the eternal aspect of it all Chin. For mortals, everything, even suffering is limited. Sure the good parts are cut short but the bad parts are finished too. But because of cultivators, somewhere out there we’ve made hell in its truest form. Suffering unending for all of time because of some mortal grievance. That’s what disgusts me. Every time I see a cultivator, I wonder what they’ll be in a few millennia. I wonder how long they’ll last, how many they’ll hurt. I wonder how their dao will twist and corrupt them or how they’ll twist and corrupt it.”

Chin got up, wiping bits of wet grass off of his shirt and pants.

“I just think they’re annoying,” he mumbled, reaching downward for his hat. ‘

“And that too,” I added. “I can’t stand all the grandiosity.”

We both started down the hill and towards the village.

“I’m late again. Medin’s gonna have my ears sore till bed.”

“Did you remember to eat your lunch?” I asked the man.

Chin shook his head with a worried look and stared off into the distance.

“She’s going to stuff me like a pillow,” he mumbled.

“Yes. Yes, she is. But you’d be dead and overworked in some field without her,” I replied.

Chin nodded and started jogging off into the distance without saying another word as I looked on with amusement.