Pushing qi to his legs, Lo Guan ran faster than he ever had in his 12 years of life.

“Stop!” Shouted the keeper of the stall Lo Guan just stole from. “Give that back!”

Lo Guan checked his dantian, where his qi was stored, and found that he had less than a minute of running left, if he kept wasting this much qi on reinforcing his legs. Wooden shacks that could barely be considered houses passed by in a blur of brown smudges. The path in front of him was made of large stones and dirt.

“Please … give it back … I beg …” coughed the old man, “We… we’re going to starve… we barely sold any bread today…”

Lo Guan turned his head around to appraise the man behind him. He was… fat, at the very least. The stall keeper looked as if a pig was transmuted into a human through some kind of illegal technique.

Huh. Now that I'm looking at him, I wouldn’t be too surprised if he started oinking. He’s clearly talking out of his a-

Lo Guan was interrupted by a wall of a man, one of the elder's children.

“Watch where you’re going, street trash,” he sneered at Lo Guan. “We don’t need garbage like you walking around.”

“Sorry, elder brother, this trash only wanted to reach the cultivation room,” Lo Guan said as he bowed to the man as quickly as possible, keeping his head down.

After realizing the man probably wouldn’t keep talking to him, he rushed past the broad-shouldered man and kept running, this time to the cultivation room. After he got away from the oddly spherical man, Lo Guan decided to reflect. During the brief interaction, Lo Guan realized he actually did need to go to the cultivation room. He nearly missed the core condensation ceremony where all the youths in the sect were taught how to compress the liquid qi in their dantians into a core, which allowed them to draw on qi with a higher efficiency than before.

“Sorry elder Ko,” breathed Lo Guan as he kowtowed on the floor, “this lowly outer disciple only wished to keep himself fed.”

Elder Ko only sighed and gestured for Lo Guan to sit down. “Today, disciples, you have all turned 12 years old. This means you are now ready to pledge yourself to the sect by creating your core, which means you have taken your first steps on the path of the river flowing sky wind lightning tribulation. Your first steps towards immortality.”

Yes! Finally! I get to begin treading the steps towards immortality. Soon, I’ll get to be like those heroes Ma always read about! Nobody shall oppose me! I will become the strongest cultivator our world has seen, and finally those elder's children will stop beating me!

Lo Guan turned his attention back to the elder, Lo Ko, who was still giving his speech on why this sect was the best one. Lo Guan always knew that the best path was never the easiest option, never the one just given to you. Luckily, condensing a core was the same for all paths. The scrolls in the library said so, at least.

“At last, we can begin the process of condensation. First, imagine your dantian as a puddle, not of water but as liquid qi.” Elder Ko looked at the children sitting around him. “Now, picture yourself pulling the edges together into a ball in the middle.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Elder… it’s falling apart… how do I move water into a ball?” One of the children asked.

Elder Ko sighed. “It’s not water, it’s qi. Liquid qi behaves as what you believe it to be. If you believe it to be water, it will move like water. Try picturing your liquid qi as qi. Move it together fast enough, and it will stay as a ball once it is one. In fact, if you establish the qi as your own, as if it is in your domain, you shouldn’t even have to visualize touching it, it will move into a sphere on its own.”

Lo Guan tried to take control of his qi. After all, what could be more interesting than manipulating the qi without even grasping it?

After what felt like hours, he finally managed to move his liquid puddle of qi and shape it into a core without touching it. Unfortunately for him, hours had passed in the outside world, not what was supposed to be a minute. All the other disciples left, and now he was alone with elder Ko.

“Finally, brat. You took almost three hours longer than the second slowest disciple. Care to explain why?” Elder Ko raised an eyebrow.

A grin appeared on Lo Guan’s face. “I managed to condense my core without touching it!”

The elder let out a grunt. “Congratulations on forming your core, outer disciple. Collect your token at the front desk of sect rooms,” He said without emotion. Lo Ko immediately left afterwards.

Wow. At least it kind of sounded like he approved of my qi manipulation. Qi manipulation, eh? Let’s see if I can’t name my path after that, maybe “Path of Qi Control?” No, too basic. “Pure Qi Manipulation Path?” Why not?

With his monologue complete, he took a left turn which led him to the sect room building. As he was about to reach the sect’s front desk, he was approached by three of the elder’s children. “Hey, street trash, we heard you stole from our friend Lo Mo. Theft from your betters isn’t allowed in the sect, you know. At least we didn’t tell our parents to kick you out.”

Lo Guan felt his stomach drop to the soles of his shoes. His head slowly turned and then his body followed. He tried to smile as much as possible, making no quick movements to avoid being attacked by them, although his mind was quickly decreasing his odds at succeeding. “This lowly street trash apologizes for any transgressions against the honor of your friend. It would be willing to atone peacefully for any malicious acts it committed against the venerable Lo Mo.”

That didn’t seem to be enough, since the brutes just kept advancing toward him. It seems he wouldn’t be able to get out of this peacefully, and with his newly formed semi-solid core he didn’t stand a chance against sect disciples already at the solid core stage of the River Flowing Sky Wind Lightning Tribulation Fighting Sect.

With that in his mind, he started running as fast as he could towards the front desk, and although there was nobody there, there was a slim chance he could find something to defend himself.

He saw that he wasn’t moving, and looked down. He saw that his legs were dangling in a running motion above the ground. He tried turning his head, but the massive hand holding him by the neck did not approve of that.

“This should teach him to leave our friends alone,” shouted one of the arrogant bastards, and squeezed. All thoughts left Lo Guan’s brain as his whole body started trembling. Quiet cracking sounds resounded from the poor boy’s neck.

One moment, he was lounging in quiet and dark bliss, the next, Lo Guan was falling, his bones broken. He landed on the ground with a thump and just lied there, unthinking. As if taking offense to that, the heavens themselves decided he hadn’t had enough suffering and summoned a thundercloud above him. Lo Guan’s world went white for just a moment, and then he smelled burning as a strong itching pain assaulted him from within his chest, or rather where his chest had been. There was now a gaping hole in his abdomen, and he couldn’t do anything about it. Just like that, Lo Guan died, or at least he thought he did.

The last thing Lo Guan heard before falling into the peaceful darkness once more was a beeping, and a small screen appeared in his vision for a second. Although he never learned to read, Lo Guan could instinctively understand that it said, “Please press the ‘Start Tutorial’ button to begin.”