It was snowing again.

Still gentle, of course, Lin Songmei had learned that it was rare for the sect to receive heavy snowfall.

Walking arm in arm with Yan Mingqing on the way back to their residence though, Songmei stuck her tongue out, trying to catch some snow on it. Together, the two of them reported to the courtyard that their master Liu Xueli had told them to be.

The courtyard was serene as always, the large tree that stood in one corner rocking in the wind, the small koi pond filled with koi. In fact, Xueli treasured her koi so much that she had bought some qi artifacts off of some other sect members to make sure the pond wouldn't freeze over during the winter.

Sitting down on the edge of the covered wooden walkway that ringed the courtyard, Songmei and Mingqing made some idle conversation while waiting for their always tardy master.

“So you know our senior brother Ma Sicheng?” Songmei started off, resting back on her hands while staring off into the sky. “I heard he went through the core formation tribulation recently. Have you heard much news about it?”

Sitting cross-legged, Mingqing nodded her head with a laugh, keeping an eye on the door. “Who hasn’t? He’s one of the three rising stars in the sect. It’s amazing that he succeeded so early though, doing it at 25 makes him truly deserve his spot among the young stars.”

“Truly... We’re quite fortunate that our sect has three pretty famous rising stars though.” Songmei agreed, relaxing her arms, deciding to just fall back and lay back onto the wooden walkway.

Before they could talk about some of the other news that had been going on within the sect, the door burst open, a haggard Liu Xueli running in. “Hi you two~ I’m back, I’m back, come on let’s go!”

Getting pulled up like a ragdoll, Songmei swore to treat her stuffed cat Plum better as she got dragged into an empty room that Xueli had emptied before she left. Still breathless, Xueli sat down, waving at them to sit down as well in front of her. “So! Are you two ready?”

Songmei sat down and looked around, taking in the surroundings, Xueli truly moved too fast for her, it hadn’t even been a minute since Xueli burst through the door and they were already sitting down getting ready to begin?

Higher-level cultivators and their abilities to move as swift as the wind were bone-chilling yet impressive indeed.

“We’re ready.” Mingqing answered for the pair, having decided to just take charge as she watched Songmei sink into her thoughts once more.

Bashing those thoughts aside with a large mental club, Songmei sat upright, giving her own affirmation.

“Alrighty~!” Cheered Xueli with a few claps, leaning forward a touch with a grin, “Let’s just jump right into it shall we? What do you all know about the realms? Just to save time, just tell me about the realms categorized in the early stage.”

“You want to start?” Mingqing asked Songmei, Mingqing had everything cultivating related drilled into her head since she was young so she would rather let Songmei answer to fill in any patches in Songmei’s knowledge.

“Sure, no problem.” Songmei shrugged with a small chuckle, “I feel like everyone knows the basics. At least at the orphanage we all memorized it when we were younger...”

“To start, the first step to becoming a cultivator is recognizing the three internal dantians in your body.” Songmei explained, counting them out on her fingers. This was Songmei’s forte, answering knowledge based questions, it was just what she did in school. With this, Songmei’s brain began to spin, recalling all the knowledge she had read about, each of the metaphors the authors used to give a better explanation.

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“A dantian is best thought of as an internal cavity that can store energy. Except it isn’t really based on an actual cavity. In each of the dantians is stored one of three energies. Jing in the lower dantian located just below the belly button, Qi in the middle dantian located in the center of the chest, and Shen in the upper dantian located in the head.”

Liu Xueli raised her eyebrows, when she started cultivating, she too was just a commoner off the streets, but her own knowledge wasn’t even close to this level of comprehensiveness. Oh how the times had changed...

No, no, it must’ve also been because of Songmei’s vigorous reading habits...

With the other two staying quiet to listen to her, Songmei continued on her explanation after Xueli gave a small wave to continue.

“I never really learned the specificities of Jing, Qi, and Shen, since all the books on the topic were really confusing. But being able to peer into yourself and see the different dantians is the first step to cultivating. Then, the goal is two link up these three dantians by opening up your meridians.”

Getting into a groove, Songmei continued her little explanation, her back straightening, her usually more dull-silver eyes gaining a brighter sheen. “So the meridians are quite unique, there are 12 main meridians and 8 extraordinary meridians. To advance from the stage requires you to open up the 12 main meridians, with the 8 extraordinary ones being optional. However, the more you open the 8, the more of a future you will have.”

“Alright, I’m going to stop you there...” Xueli laughed with an impressed smile, waving her hands in front of the now droopy Songmei. “You did a great job! In all honesty, I didn’t expect you to have that much knowledge... But, since I do want to get you two started today, I’m not going to waste too much time with the explanations, it’s clear you two are already... well-educated.”

Getting a few pats on the back from Mingqing who was snorting at Xueli’s “well-educated” comment, Songmei sat back up, listening to Xueli as she continued. “I guess I’ll just add some other stuff that isn’t... hard set? Just common thinking among cultivators.”

Xueli pushed back her short hair, cracking her neck before beginning. “Well, as you said, recognizing the three dantians is critical. That’s what sets apart someone who can and can’t cultivate. Us cultivators kinda treat that as the entrance gate to cultivating. You’re still weak as shit, pardon my language, but you’re one of us.”

A small chuckle escaping both of her disciples, Xueli’s face broke out into a warm smile, glad she had disciples that didn’t have a stick up their asses. “Another thing is that the 8 extraordinary meridians have more weight than just determining your future potential. I know it's already a lot of weight that not opening some will seal off your potential, but it goes further than that. For a young genius, well, anyone in this sect for that matter, opening all 8 is a must.”

The warm, cheery mood getting doused a little, Xueli reassured, “Though they’re ‘extraordinary’ for you two, they’re really not going to be that hard let me assure you. I’m just reminding you because if you ever want to ascend, you must open all 8. Additionally, if you don’t open all 8, you’re just asking to be ridiculed by the cultivation world.”

Ruffling Songmei and Mingqing’s hair, Xueli laughed as she then got up to retrieve a small box that had been left on the floor haphazardly. “Don’t worry about it~ I opened all my meridians at 20, you two will be totally fine~”

20? Songmei struggled to keep her jaw from falling, that was the mark of a genius too... similar to their senior brother’s feat of entering the core formation realm at 25!

Maybe her master wasn’t that old after all...

Songmei made eye contact with Mingqing, only to see that Mingqing was... not surprised. “Did you already know about this, Mingqing?”

“Yeah,” Mingqing shrugged with a nonchalant expression, watching Xueli sit back down in front of them with the open box. “Our master is pretty famous, you know? She’s really famous for her feats, I heard about them a lot growing up.”

Bursting into laughter, Xueli flapped her hand while pulling out the two blindfolds that were in the box. “No need to compliment me like that! I’m already fully accepting of you two, no need to kiss up to your master~.”

With an unimpressed look on both of her disciples faces, Xueli coughed, changing the subject with as much subtlety as a car crash. “Anyway, I’ll explain the three energies, Jing, Qi, and Shen, after I get you two started. So put these on and we’ll begin!”