Xiao Ji thought back to his uncle’s advice all those many months ago. He remembered thinking he was cruel for making a chick compete with an adult rooster in a test of endurance. Currently, he was thinking that perhaps, he could have used a bit more of that endurance training during his time in the village.

Perhaps because of naivete, he foolishly believed that the little exercise he had done on the first day would be representative of the training his Master planned to give him.

How foolish indeed.

The old man had said something about not wanting him to rush into qi cultivation with a poor foundation. Which meant that he needed to do ridiculous exercises.

From running round the massive compound many times to stretching till he could barely move, he often ended the day dead tired and in no small amount of pain. He still stood by the fact that a chicken should not be subjected to so much physical stress. Even more so in the frigid cold of the mountain top. An opinion that his Master thoroughly rejected.

Salvation, much to his relief, came a few weeks after he started his training. His Master summoned him to a large room in one of the smaller buildings in the compound. It was not one he had entered before, having been limited to just the main house, but the fact that he was not in the freezing outdoors was an upgrade.

“I believe your meridians are properly set in place now. It is time to properly resume qi cultivation.” The old man, perhaps seeing the relief in Ji’s eyes, added. “The exercises will continue, of course.”

At this point, there was little he could do but nod in reply. He had already learnt there was nothing to be gained from complaining. The path he was currently walking on was one he had chosen. It would not do him well to complain.

“You are awakened, and so you do not have to learn a breathing technique. In fact, you have one that is Beyond Perfect. An advantage many humans and spirit beasts would kill for. That does not mean you can rest or work less. Your cultivation speed will mean most threats to you will be from people older than you. Cultivators that have had years to practise their qi control, and their fighting techniques. You will need to catch up to them in skill as well as power. What is your trait, disciple?”

Xiao Ji had to admit that he found his master’s complete lack of questions about his traits odd. The other disciples had told him it was generally hidden even from fellow disciples, but the Master generally had to know at least. He brought up the trait and read the description out.

[Force of Mind: The humble chicken is a flightless bird known for being numerous and not particularly intelligent. You are different. For whatever reason, you gained sapience without any cultivation or special parents and have used it to overcome foes greater than yourself. Unlocking this trait strengthens your mind and allows it to influence your surroundings.]

He also remembered to mention the note about making his mind more attune with the laws of the world the day he selected it. That was something he had been curious about since it happened.

“Hmm. Interesting. Did it also sync with your breathing technique? The best traits often do.”

Ji simply nodded.

“So do you think this trait has made any changes to you? Traits tend to grow slowly, but there must have been at least some improvements to your mind.”

“I have noticed my memory getting better,” he admitted. “Routes are definitely easier to remember. I have also found it easier to notice certain things that happen in my body during exercise. I think it has helped improve my form. Occasionally, I have seen something that reminds me of qi from much further than I can normally sense, but it is completely unreliable and cannot be confirmed.”

That was mostly the extent of things he had experienced that were likely to be linked with his trait. His Master just listened to him in expressionless silence, as usual.

“Describe the qi you have been seeing.”

“It usually resembles a mass of blurry lines of different colours. I notice they are clearer around you, and sometimes Mei.”

“You are not seeing qi,” his Master said, much to his surprise. “The world is a product of laws and concepts. They go even deeper than the matter and energy I know Xie Sun must have at least taught you. Qi is merely the most effective way we have to bend these laws. That process also has the effect of making those underlying laws that are bent more… real, if you would. You are simply attempting to see laws that have been warped by qi but your mind is too weak to process it, hence the unreliability. It is a powerful trait nonetheless. Especially if it lets you manipulate those laws without qi.”

That was certainly not the explanation he had been expecting. Though he wasn’t sure what was. It all sounded abstract and confusing, much like his uncle’s attempts at explaining electron quantum states. He shuddered at those physics lesson attempts. There was still an important question, though.

“Master, what are laws?”

“I could answer that question, disciple. Yet you would fail to understand any answer I give simply because you are both too weak and too uninformed. I will explain it to you in time, but for now, it would serve you better to focus on qi.”

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That was not the answer he was preferring and he was certainly far from satisfied. Yet he did not doubt his master’s words were true. Even thinking about the lines for too long made him dizzy. So he agreed with the old man’s decision. Besides, he truly had been ignoring his qi in favour of physical exercise for the past few weeks. He was thankful that they would finally be focusing on that alone.

“Good. Now, tell me, can you sense all the qi in this room?” his Master asked, getting an answer in the negative. “ How much qi can you sense?”

Ji tried to sense all the qi he could and only found himself able to feel the ones in contact with his body. It was not surprising. Since he started his cultivation, only qi connected in some way to his body was visible to him.

“I can sense all the qi in about a centimetre around me.”

His Master nodded.

“That is abysmal, but it is expected, given your complete lack of practice. The ability to sense qi is one of the most important tools a cultivator has in his arsenal. Those who do not have this ability will be hit by many techniques without even knowing the source. By the time you break through to the third stage of the Qi Condensation stage, I expect you will be able to sense all the qi in a one metre radius around you. You should be able to sense all the qi in this room before breaking into the Foundation Building Realm.”

“I await your guidance, Master,” was all he said.

Having to delay his advancement yet again was a little frustrating, but he reminded himself that the old man trained his uncle. It was certainly better to build a strong foundation when he was still under the protection of people more powerful than him than die outside because he did not take the time to build it.

“Good. You will maintain your sense of qi around you at all times from now on. You will be tested on this at random times during the day. I will also give you qi control exercises. You will not be able to manipulate qi outside your body till the Foundation Building Realm but the exercises will account for that. While you are not doing the control exercises, I expect you to start thinking of possible ways to use your trait. Read the description closely and do not hesitate to think outside the box. Traits are rarely as simple as they seem.”

Ji focused his attention on sensing the qi around him and quickly realised just how difficult it would be to maintain it while doing other things. Something that was quickly proven when his Master threw something in his direction. He managed to catch it with his beak, but he immediately lost his focus and was unable to sense the qi around him anymore.

“You stopped sensing the qi around you. One strike. For every three strikes you get, you will spend an extra hour in the cold. Every strike after that will be another hour in the cold. Get enough strikes and you might even sleep outside. The thing I just threw to you is an egg. You will swallow it and it will attempt to suck all the qi in your body to nourish it. There is no need to worry about it hatching, as it needs more energy for that than you can possibly produce.”

Ji briefly put the egg on the ground and examined it. It was small, barely larger than a corn seed, and completely smooth. There was no qi he could sense from it even when he touched it with his beak, though trying to sense it stretched the limits of his focus, which he was now keenly aware of. He was a little sceptical of eating something so strange and unknown, but he supposed this was part of what he had agreed to as a disciple. So he picked it back up and swallowed it.

He lost track of it for a moment when it entered his stomach and seemingly stayed inert. That, unfortunately, lasted for only a moment. He sensed the moment it started draining the qi in his body. It tried to get qi from outside at first, but found no path, so it went to the only available qi source it found: his dantian. It only took a few minutes to suck out most of the qi in his dantian, during which he entered full panic mode and almost stopped sensing qi outside. He looked to his Master for help, confused as to how he should stop something like this. The old man sighed.

“I suppose it would have been too much if you figured it out yourself. The egg is exerting a pull on any qi it can find. You have to mentally fight it for control. It is a continuous process, of course. If you lose control, it will continue draining your qi. I would advise you to hurry as it will start to drain from your cultivation base when the qi in your dantian runs out. This can push you back to the first stage of the Qi Condensation Realm and even make you mortal again if left long enough.”

He had already stopped listening to the old man towards the end. A part of him wished to rage at the man for not mentioning any of that before he ate the egg, but it was ruthlessly quenched by his logic, which recognised he did not have the time to focus on currently useless feelings. A single mental clash with the seed was enough for him to realise that he would need to stop focusing on the qi around him to succeed. That was a sacrifice he was certainly willing to make. A few hours in the cold seemed almost trivial compared to losing his cultivation.

The egg continued to drain his qi, but it soon found resistance from him. It was hard, and trying to keep the egg from sucking in any qi was far harder than it had any right to be. Unfortunately, though he made progress, his method soon hit a bottleneck. Though he was able to slow it down, there seemed to be a limit on how much he could restrain it. Maybe if he had a stronger will, or his trait was more powerful, it could completely contain it. Alas, that was not the case. Which left him with only one other solution.

The best description Ji had for the dantian was a ball. Yet instead of being filled with feathers, like the ones the village children played with, it was filled with qi. He was currently focused on the difficult task of stopping qi from leaving the ball. The egg was actually draining the qi by somehow connecting to his meridians and draining the qi through that connection. Since he could not stop the connection, he had to try keeping the qi in the dantian instead. It was easier said than done, of course. And though he made progress, every second still saw the already low qi reduce.

Frustrated and with qi reserves battered down to what he suspected was less than twenty percent of the total, he manually took control of the qi and held it all together. He could feel the egg try to take it from his grasp, but for the first time in the past few minutes, it failed. Again he felt it try to search for other qi sources. Much to his relief, it seemed to find none and slowly became inert, its struggling gradually ceasing. Despite that, he did not let go of it. He was certain that the moment he let the qi go, the egg would awaken and start draining it again. He vaguely heard a voice talking and slowly opened his eyes to face his master, making sure to retain a tight grip on the egg.

“Ah congratulations on your success, disciple. The egg will stay there for the next two weeks, after which it will die due to lack of qi. Of course I also expect you to maintain your qi senses the whole time.”

Ji shook his head at that.

“It is not possible. Keeping the egg under control takes too much attention.”

To that, his Master simply blinked, then shrugged.

“Well in that case, I hope you find it comfortable outside.”