With even breaths, Wing Lian opened his dark brown eyes.

The room was dimly lit by flickering candlelight.

His first cultivation session was over, and though beads of sweat glistened on his broad forehead, he didn’t feel as exhausted as the other disciples in the lecture hall.

I’ll probably open my essence core in a week, he thought. He reached into his fine blue robe, pulled out a small bottle of booze, and took a long swig. The alcohol burned its way down his throat, offering a brief moment of calm to his worn-out Ba.

Glancing up at the blue willow clock on the wall, he noticed the time. Two o’clock in the morning. He cursed under his breath and jumped to his feet, grabbing a big black bottle from the nearby table, its fake alcohol brand label peeling at the edges.

It was time for his nightly search, but…he glanced down at the bottle as he waved it; the bottle was empty.

He sighed. I need to refill it… and activate it.

Snuffing out the candles with a flick of his hand, he stepped out of his room into the night.

Gentle raindrops of late spring fell over him as he walked through the courtyard with his penguin gait. The family guards solemnly nodded at him as he passed them.

The weather was the kind that would make anyone want to stay in bed, maybe even visit a brothel to warm up.

Wing Lian grimaced at his thoughts. How could he indulge in comfort, knowing his sister was suffering in the sa clan?

It’s my fault. If I hadn’t told them about the Key…’He gripped the empty minibottle tightly, resisting the urge to take another drink. His guilt gnawed at him, a constant reminder that his choices had brought ruin to his family.

No, I can’t stop. Wandering the city, even if it’s hopeless, is the least I can do.

As Sa Min approached the towering doors of the main hall, the murmur of two voices drifted from within.

“...the only thing we can use now is our own blood,” came the thick, gravelly voice of the head of the family guards. “There are only a handful of colored-eyed people left in the city, and they’re nearly impossible to capture. And my Blue Blood-Pail Ka... it doesn’t have much time before it expires.”

There was a moment of silence before a gravelly voice spoke, “Do what needs to be done. We cannot stop now. We only have the flourishing zone of the city to search…”

Wing Lian paused, his heart pounding. Are we sacrificing our own family now? he thought, scratching his disheveled hair in an attempt to calm the guilt aching inside his head. If I had known it would lead to this, I would never have mentioned the Key that one eyed man revealed to me to my father. Our clan would have remained intact, my mother wouldn’t have died, and my sister wouldn’t have been sold to that fucking womanizing patriarch…

Feeling as though his scalp might come off, he forced himself to stop. What had happened had happened; there was no changing it. Now, he could only bury his gelt inside and move forward; otherwise, all their sacrifices would be in vain.

He pushed the doors open. The smell of cheap Chunghwa cigarettes hit him first, burning his nose. The room was brightly lit, lanterns casting long shadows over ancestral paintings lining the walls.

Standing before the main chairs were two figures. One was an old man at the 2nd-transformation True Master stage. It was his father, Wing Xieren. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, white hair thin and brittle.

Across from him, squatting like he was taking a shit, was the guard captain, Wing Yun, a thick-nosed man puffing away on his cigarette. He was at the 5th-transformation Beyond Motal stage.

Wing Lian couldn’t quite figure out why he enjoyed smoking this cheap brand of cigarettes so much.

At the sight of Wing Lian, the head guard, Wing Yun, quickly rose to his feet, offering a respectful greeting to his father before stepping back. “Young master,” he nodded as they crossed paths.

Wing Lian returned the nod and approached his father.

With that heavy expression, Wing Xieren didn’t look like he was in the right mood. And from his earlier conversation with Wing Yun, it was not hard for wing Lian to tell the reason.

“How was your first cultivation session?” his father asked as he shuffled over to the shelf on the far wall. Despite his thin frame and age, he moved with a surprising nimbleness.

Wing Lian couldn’t help but glance at the few strands of white hair left on his father's head; it always reminded him of what might happen to him if he kept scratching his head.

“Better than I thought,” he replied. “I didn’t have any trouble manipulating my pure force. With my 2-star aptitude, I’m confident I’ll open my essence core in a week or so.”

His father nodded slightly, pulling down a small, rectangular wooden box from the shelf. “Good. But tell me, are you sure you can get that Spherical Coin?”

Wing Lian hesitated, furrowing his brow. “Why are these Spherical Coins so important to me, father? I know they are valuable items, but… I don’t need them, I already have a strong Ba.”

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A faint sigh escaped Wing Xieren, though it sounded more like a frustrated snort. “Your Ba won’t remain strong forever,” he said, opening the box to reveal a shiny black olive.

Wing Lian’s eyes widened. “A Force Olive?”

“If you’re not sure you can win first place, use it.”

Wing Lian scratched his head, feeling a bit bewildered. Force Olives were precious items that were filled with primal force. But unlike force apples, which had to be absorbed, Force Olives only needed to be squeezed slightly before being tossed into the essence core, where they would burst with force.

Cultivators mostly reserved them for major breakthroughs.

There were different types of Force Olives. The black one his father held was the lowest tier, containing the primal force of 50 force apples. Using it just to clear the essence core blockage felt, in a word, wasteful.

His father, sensing his son's ignorance, said in a biting tone, “Instead of investing your free time in learning and expanding your knowledge about cultivation, you waste it on brothels, wine, and childish fights...”

Feeling embarrassed, Wing Lian scratched his head again. He had intended to pay attention in class yesterday, but he had ended up falling asleep, too exhausted from the previous night’s search.

“Your Ba’s strength is just temporary,” Wing Xieren continued. “You’ll come to realize this as you progress through transformations and stages and see the struggles you’ve been fortunate to avoid. Also, remember, others will eventually catch up to you.”

Wing Lian listened closely.

"Your Ba should always be strong for the stage and transformation you're in. Not only will it make cultivation easier, but more importantly, it will help you craft Yantras faster—a huge advantage in fights. Just imagine being able to craft a Yantra instantly, or even two at once!"

Realizing how uninformed he had been, Wing Lian felt ashamed. “I understand now, Father. This one is embarrassed by his ignorance,” he said, picking up the small box and closing it gently.

Wing Xieren folded his arms behind his back. "You have no idea how valuable Spherical Coins are. They're even rarer than Force Olives, as they're only produced in the Sea of Knowledge."

“I will make sure to win it.”

"Good," Wing Lian said, turning around. "Does your bottle need reactivation?"

“And a refill,” Wing Lian added, following his father to the corner of the room.

Without a word, Wing Xieren tapped a painting of birds and flowers. With a soft crack, a hidden door slid open, revealing a dark staircase. Together, father and son descended into the shadows.

“Father, I know we’re running low on blood…” Wing Lian spoke in a low voice on their way down. “But there is someone with colored eyes we can easily capture.”

“Who?”

“Sa Min.”

…..

A few minutes earlier, far away in a small room on the second floor of an inn overlooking the Wing family’s gated residence, someone, breathing heavily, peered through a lattice window, watching as Wing Lian walked toward the main hall.

Sa Min's eyes burned, and he had to force them open until Wing Lian disappeared into the hall. As soon as Wing Lian was out of sight, he shut them again—burning even more. Now, he had to fight off the urge to sleep and continue cultivating.

Within his sea core, a small portion of pure force emerged from his sea sphere and moved toward the black, closed opening below. It was just a fraction of what he had been channeling earlier. But with his exhaustion at its peak and his focus slipping, this was all he could manage.

That’s how cultivation worked: you couldn’t just keep cultivating indefinitely, no matter how much you wanted to.

Sooner or later, your Ba would reach its limit, and your concentration would start to fade.

You had to give your Ba time to rest.

Sa Min pushed himself for a few more minutes before finally opening his eyes again. They were bloodshot from fatigue.

I don’t know if my Ba has reached 5Q, he thought, letting the crumbs of a force apple slip through his fingers. But… this is my limit.

This mere thought sent a sharp pang lancing through his head.

He winced. No, this was it. This was as far as he could push himself for now.

As for the Wing family, he hadn’t really expected to pick up anything suspicious on the first day.

Feeling sluggish, Sa Min slowly pushed himself up from the chair and stood. His legs weighing him down like they were shackled by a hundred-catty iron as he made his way to the nearby bed.

When he reached the edge of the bed, he glanced at the clock on the wall. Was it 2 or 3 o’clock? Who cares? He let himself fall face down onto the mattress, his naked body glistening with sweat.

Tomorrow, I need to visit the cursed area and see if I can find some offensive and defensive powercubes at a good price, was his last thought before sleep overtook him.

…..

Frowning, a middle-aged man with curly hair glanced over his shoulder.

Two terrified children with brown skin and eyes trailed behind him, their bare feet shuffling along the forest floor.

"You wish to become like her?" the man asked coldly.

The girl tightened her grip on her little brother's hand as he stopped, and continued following him.

There was a burning anger in her eyes.

The man smiled faintly, shaking his head, before resuming his stride with his stake.

….

Sa Min woke up at the sound of heavy rain, the darkness of the night enveloping the quiet room. The candles must have burned out.

He turned to the side, narrowing his eyes, which felt much better now, and glanced at the clock to check the time. It looked like he’d only slept for about an hour. Relieved that he still had plenty of time, Sa Min was about to roll over and go back to sleep when he heard a noise coming from outside.

He stilled in his place for a moment.

The sound came again and It sounded like the squeak of a gate.

Still drowsy, Sa Min hurriedly stumbled over to the window to take a look.

A young man with a backpack walked alongside the fence of the Win family residence, a black bottle dangling from his hand and a red umbrella shielding him from the heavy rain.

A small smile formed on Sa Min's face. That was Wing Lian!