Holding his breath, Zhang Cai tiptoed around the giant dragon to the exit. 

The creature lay in half-deep slumber: its eyelids had deep purple veins from lack of sleep, and its wings curled on top of its green-scaled body, but the tail trashed around the entire cave. The sleek walls kept crashing and breaking at every contact, flying left and right and on him. This was the third dragon he sneaked around and all of them did the same shit.

Three steps forward, and he slipped on the wet surface. His feet surfed on the ground, down-hill, and biting his lips to suppress a scream he flew out of the lair towards the open sky. 

He tumbled down, raising dust and cracking several boulders with his shoulders. The sound stirred something behind; above, the roar of the dragon came, and Zhang Cai dashed forward. 

‘‘Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it, fuck it!‘‘

He ran and ran, but the dragon did not follow. He snuck a peek behind, and he saw no sign of it. Looking to his front, he saw another barren mountain range blocking him from reaching the grass flatlands of humanity.

Truly, this adventure sucked to the bones.

Throughout hundreds of kilometers this place persisted in its unequal treatment to other races except Xian: the dragons of the Xia Empire. The ground beneath his naked feet froze his heels, the air smelled of ash, and every few hours a storm of dust and black char swept over the terrain. 

‘‘I need to rest,‘‘ Zhang Cai said to himself. ‘‘I need somewhere to put my head in.‘‘ he said again. He said them aloud. It had been four days since he saw someone and the loneliness crept to his heart already. Another few days of no communication and he would lay dead in a ditch whispering to an imaginary lady. Perhaps a good-looking one.

Of course he would not be dead. Wouldn‘t he?

Lamenting his supposed resolve he presented to his master a few weeks back, Zhang Cai surveyed the environment for a suitable place to hide. A cave would be the best, with a mouth looking outside and narrow enough for him to fit twice over. It needed to be shallow in depth, but also in deep shadow, so he would not be visible to outside. And it had to be somewhere conspicuous, so no one would guess he would be there. A bonus would be nice as a Qi-rich place.

Generally, most lodgings provided one or two of the requirements. Being a cave and being small. Looking around, and his thought asserted by the hills adorning the surroundings, Zhang Cai made way towards the closest one to him.

Kneeling, he peeked inside. It was not wet, there were no skeletons, and it did not smell like corpses or ash. He would be safe from the storm, then.

Taking the hefty bag from his shoulder, he pushed it inside and followed through the motion. His feet caressed the ground, and looking above he saw the entrance coming to his collarbones in height. 

‘‘It is like living in a basement.‘‘

The space seemed fit as well. He put the bag aside and collapsed down. It took a few seconds for him to bawl.

‘‘Why the fuck did I agree!? You stupid ass, moron, idiot! Zhang Cai you fucking idiot! What tempering you fucking mean? You dumbass looking dumbass, aaah! Aaaaah! AAAAH!‘‘

Something whistled outside. A large force, and something fast enough to buzz his ears. Zhang Cai accordingly shut his mouth and wiped his tears. He regretted listening to his master. He regretted accepting this adventure. Why did he need to go through such difficult paths and sneak around Xian criminals and live in poor conditions? Of course he always lived in poor conditions, he had no silver nor parents to his beggar self, but he never faced things like this.

Lamenting, as he always did, Zhang Cai crossed his legs and plucked the bag. From inside he took out a live-map and a hard piece of almost-rotten bread. His cultivation would block most harm from doing...harm, but the taste remained. 

‘‘Let me see, I am here?‘‘

The map depicted his live location on the paper, showing him between two mountain ranges; one down to his south, and one on his path at north. He seemed closer to the northern one, and the distance, if he learned properly, would take him a week to traverse. 

Another blue dot on the map was already on the mountains, almost out of bounds. Further than there laid outposts and marked cities his master would visit. Also, many, many schools‘ and sects‘ names spread throughout the map. Not his concern...for now.

‘‘How did he get there so fast by walking? Is he cheating knowing I won‘t notice?‘‘

Devouring the bread, Zhang Cai plucked the crumbs between his yellowed teeth and licked them clean. He took out a flask from his bag and twisted the lid, drinking several liters of water from it. At least he had an unending supply of water. If not, he would have died some days back.

Pouring some on his hands and face, he washed until he looked half dirty. He put everything back, casting one last glance at the map, and tied the bag‘s mouth shut. Now, all he had to do was cultivate two hours and rest six more. 

Legs crossed, hands on his knees, and his eyes shut, Zhang Cai‘s mind delved deep into his body. It was not a physical phenomenon itself, but when he willed it, a roughly-defined space presented itself. He could see himself from outside, as if he was a giant of some sorts, and he was a fly going around it. Of course, the shape and proportions all twisted in some way that made him inhuman. 

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He delved deeper and entered his stomach. Something rumbled in his belly, a warming sensation spread throughout the body. All muscles tensed, and veins bulging, his imaginary self sat before the dantian.

Dantian being a chaotic, unstable energy core that provided him with Qi, he sat far from it. Going too close would destroy the imaginary body, and sitting too far would be ineffective. 

Then he pushed. He thought of pulling something out of that ball by the strings. A rope of some sorts, he imagined, that had rough texture and a strong bond. He pulled it, and it came undone. Another surge of warmth enveloped him. Then another came to existence. He pulled once more. Then again, and again...

*********

Thirty pulls later, his Qi reserves full and his body vitalized, Zhang Cai went to sleep. Ever since he became a cultivator and ascended some minor stages, his biological clock had turned more accurate. In the past he could never guess his waking time, but now he set it. He murmured six hours later to himself and lo and behold, he was wide awake.

He missed that feeling of deep sleep, but here he didn‘t have the courage to sleep deep.

Gathering his belongings, Zhang Cai pulled himself up to the entrance and slid under it. Outside, the sky just regained its blue-ish tint from the gold of dawn. Clouds were none, good for him. He could spot flying Xian easier. 

With that in mind, fastening the bag secure to himself, Zhang Cai let go of his Qi‘s control. His body twitched, the limbs shivered, and compacted. His fourteen-year old physique turned smaller than before, but somehow felt much more powerful and agile. And it was.

He pushed the ground, and his body shot forward thrice the speed of his normal dash. At a pace incredulous to the eye he swept through the ground as fast as an arrow. 

The Wasteland Of Xian did not have much terrain to speak of. The ground flowing beneath Zhang Cai always had two colors: brown of the original drought-ridden rocks of a once great mountain range, and the black of the never ending ash flying over from the dragons’ foul breath. So he had nothing worth noticing in the field as well.

He ran straight north, no detours and retakes. If a boulder came before him he would jump over it, and when he encountered baby Xian who could not fly, left to fend for themselves, he would step on their head to run away. It somehow satisfied the grievances of the adults that made him suffer.

He spent several days in the same manner traveling forth and each night cultivated diligently. Though at the first stage of Cultivation, he improved fast, and his constitution became better night to night. This period of growth ensured a constant stream of dopamine keeping him happy, for other than talking to people and eating, he had no joy to help him up. 

At the end of the week he came before the Kapet Mountain Range. The paths rolling down and rising up to its many passes were thin, their length abysmal and too steep to walk steady. Zhang Cai looked at all those before him and picked a path going to the top-most section, as the Xian liked hoarding deep inside in the darkness of earth. 

He climbed up, fastening his bag twice over to ensure it did not slip or dangle at a random point. With another spare rope he tied it to his chest, freeing both hands from the burden. He went over a ridge, and followed it straight across the tips of the peaks. When it became too pointy to walk on he descended, digging his hands into the mountain he climbed down until a path showed itself, and then he continued.

Several cliffs threatened to drop him down, and such cliffs did not have rocks supporting them but hardened earth that broke under the faintest touch. Zhang Cai kept his hands clawed inside the boulders, but the fingers of his now looked purple. The tips of his nails were all shredded and some entirely cracked; the longer he preserved the more pain he felt.

After hours under the freezing winds of the high space he stopped. Looking down, rubbing his fingers on his dirty curly locks of hair, he saw the scenery tone down. No more multiple hills and mountains appeared, but in their stead rolled green plains and primitive plants and wheat-like wild crops. Further, hidden away by a dark mist was the silhouette of a solitary mountain, flowing form its sides rivers parting the land apart from the wasteland. 

That was the last obstacle before he reached humankind. And even before that, many men and women would be going around here, hunting Xian dragons and serpents for merit points and their carcasses. 

Sighing, covering himself with a cloak to shield from the storm rising at the horizon, Zhang Cai delved into a random hole he found out of exhaustion. It was wet and slippery, and he slipped twice while going inside. Light of the moon did not reach here, and he smelled something foul. Not the familiar rotting of a corpse, but the cold hit his nose hard and chilled it. Tips of his fingers did not feel and he did not smell very well. He could only trust his eyes.

Instead of lighting a fire with his Qi, to preserve the last six pulls in his reserve, he strapped open his bag and took out a miniature torch. He reached further, his arm stuck a little, but a little clicks and clacks later he took out the flintstone.

The torch itself, while made of wood, had a slight ring of iron around its top to ignite embers. And the wood it was made of was out of ordinary, a spirit tree of ten years old, so it burned ten times longer than any other. The cloth wrapped at the top and the chemical he poured were not any more special, plain old oil. 

Once he rubbed the iron and the flint, and they whistled. Embers rose but did not ignite. Zhang Cai gritted his teeth, frustrated at the lack of touch, and using his whole strength pushed the stone upward.

Massive amount of sparks spread like fireworks and light up the torch, sprinkling shadows all around the cave.

The random hole he found was not just any random hole. The inside was humongous, tens of meters in size, and full of humanoid skeletons and skulls laying around. The stench of death heavy, and the Qi inside putrid, a Xian laid there chewing on a torn-flesh arm. Its golden gaze was on him, and it looked as shocked as he was.

Zhang Cai gulped. His mind in overdrive, and the Xian growling at the sight, he took a step back. Xian's jaw loosened and the arm hit the ground. 

A heavy thud came from it.

’’A heavy bone...must be a cultivator’s...’’

It meant whoever it killed was someone accomplished in cultivation. Perhaps a novice of Glassmade like him, or a Rocksmote junior above him. Either case, it smelled trouble, and it spelled death.

He took three quick steps back and hurled the torch forward. The Xian roared, bringing along flames as if to spite his attempt, and burned through the hallways of its lair. 

Zhang Cai leaped back and found himself at the edge of the cave, looking down at a steep cliff thousands of meters high. A flame pillar to his front, and an insurmountable height to his back, his instincts chose for him what he could not.

His feet slipped, and he fell.