Baihu sat there, numb. It was his fourteenth birthday, a day to be celebrated by most. It was the age when you were officially counted as an adult on the census. The day where you picked your trade, though it was most likely to be whatever your parents did, or became a cultivator. That was the real reason why fourteen was important, it was the age your body became able to handle Qi.

It fluctuated a little depending on the person, many of the most powerful cultivators could draw in Qi at ten, while those with little to no talent often took longer. Baihu was a slightly early bloomer, by his Spirit Root count. Sitting at a nice sixty-nine spirit roots, he could be called a good cultivator with plenty of potential. However, that was nothing compared to his brother's eighty-two spirit roots. A prodigy the village had never seen before. That was pointless now since he had died three years earlier. Killed at the hands of Outer Elder Wei.

The young man, for that was what he was now, clenched his hands tightly at the thought. As the admissions drew close, the Sect would be coming for him in a few months. Baihu would never admit it, but he was terrified. The Sect killed his brother, and cultivators held grudges. There was no way that Elder Wei would let him live his life free of harassment and pain. The Elder might even have the young man killed just for being related to someone who slighted him. The only reason their family still existed was likely due to the Elder not yet leaving the Sect to kill them all for the ‘slight upon his honour’.

Baihu put his head against the table. He had no motivation to enjoy his free day. It wasn’t a happy day, but a death sentence.

“Baihu, darling, please.” His mother pleaded. She was once a beautiful woman, for a mortal. Lacking the unnatural beauty of cultivators, she was still someone many lusted after for her fine features. Baihu had inherited her silky black hair, which he kept cut short, unlike his older brother who grew it long.

“Nothing we can do, hun. He is old enough to know what is coming.” His father said, sipping on some tea. A large man, a woodcutter and a charcoal burner by trade. He was strong as an ox, mostly due to him being too poor to afford one for many years and having to do the manual labour himself. Baihu took after his father's build, while Chaoxiang, his older brother, took the slender build of their mother.

Baihu looked at his father, eyes pleading. “Father. I don’t want to go to the Sect. We know what will happen to me.” Though he was an adult, Baihu’s voice was that of a child. Whiny and loud, though it was starting to change as hints of a much rougher and deeper tone came through.

“We cannot defy the Sect, son. They are second only to the Emperor.” His father said though a small smile was hidden behind the teacup. Baihu scrunched his face up in confusion. Did his father wish for him to be taken away?

“Can’t we just run away? Take a boat and sail down the canals, to the South.” Baihu asked, raising his head slightly.

“We cannot, son. Such an act would make a mockery of the Elders, and they would send their disciples to hunt us down and drag us before them.” His father explains, setting his now empty teacup down.

Baihu felt like he was trapped. Like there was nothing he could do. He put his head back down on the table as he felt the tears prick at the edges of his dark brown eyes. He was tired of crying though, and did his best to stop them from falling, though it was a herculean effort that failed.

The young man’s head shot up as something was placed in front of him.

“Happy birthday, my son.” Baihu’s father said, that smile still on his lips and a knowing look in his eyes. “I know it isn’t traditional to give gifts, but this one was needed.”

Baihu looked at the box. It was marked with a single imprint of a coin, signalling it was delivered by the Grand Merchant Association. Though what a simple charcoal burner could order that would require the Merchants to deliver was beyond the young man's thoughts.

With a gesture from his mother, Baihu slid open the box to reveal what was within. It was a thin book, covered in black leather. “Father, what is this?” He asked, his breath hitching as he knew exactly what it was.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“A cultivation manual. It’s a rather simple one, so it can be used by anyone with enough talent. It only goes up to Qi Gathering, so it cannot help you beyond taking in Qi and explaining how to use it at each step.” The Father explained, the smile playing on his lips now making much more sense.

“But… Why? Won’t the Sect just give me a better one?” Baihu asked as he picked up the book. It was heavier than it should have been. Though the lettering was now gone, the imprint on the leather was still readable. Basic Night Cultivation Manual.

The smile began to drop from his father's lips at the continuous mention of the Sect. Even after all these years, he was still hurting from the loss of his eldest son. “They are still months away, and many things can happen between now and then. I chose the night one for a reason. You have to be seen, doing chores, working around the village and beyond. From now on, your duties are changing. You no longer work for me. You work for the whole village. We did all come together to pay for this, after all. Just be safe while beyond the village. I hear that in two months, a bandit group will suddenly appear, with a perchance to attack people on the road. If you were to go missing because of them, well, the Sect couldn’t really do anything about it, could they?”

Baihu felt his heart swell up as the tears, once a small stream, began to flow freely. His father, ever the planner, had come up with a way to save his only remaining son, and the entire village had come together to save him. Now, he had a chance.

“Father, Mother, I, I-”

Baihu was quickly wrapped up in a hug by his mother, his face pressed into her chest. He felt his father's hand on the top of his head as he accepted the love of his family. They couldn’t do it again, lose another son. Yet, they couldn’t directly defy the Sect either. How his father knew these bandits would arrive in two months he didn’t know, and with cultivator powers, not knowing was the only way to keep information safe.

“My boy. Don’t focus on becoming a cultivator, just focus on living a happy life. Immortality isn’t worth it.” Baihu’s mother whispered, holding him even tighter somehow.

“Your mother is right. That book is just so you can protect yourself, and those around you. Leave the influence of The Soring Fire Phoenix Sect. Find some small Sect with only a few villages under its wing and live a quiet life, or move to one of the cities directly under the Emperor and try your hand at becoming rich. You could even leave the Empire and strike out into the wilds. I care not, so long as you are happy.” His father told Baihu. The moment was quiet and filled with love, but it couldn’t be that way forever. Eventually, the hug was broken and the young man was released.

“Now, let me tell you a little about your uncle.” Baihu’s father suddenly started, much to the confusion of the young man. “He is my brother and a cultivator. Our line has always had a cultivator every few generations, and we thought my brother would be the only one in our lifetime. We were wrong. He isn’t very talented, only at thirty-three spirit roots, barely able to cultivate. He used to belong to a minor martial sect, but it was destroyed by a larger sect, and everything was taken by them. Since then, he and his martial brothers have been wandering around the Empire doing little odd jobs here and there, but in truth, they are nothing more than a mob of roaming vagabonds, barely better than bandits.” Baihu’s father said, empathizing the last word harshly.

That is when it clicked in Baihu’s head. His uncle was coming to get him, and ‘kidnap’ him away. That is how his father knew that the bandits were coming in two months. He had asked his brother to come and save the day. Truly, his father was much too smart to be a simple Charcol burner. Being able to read, write, and plan so far ahead, the young man couldn’t help but wonder who his father was before coming to this nameless village.

“Well, now isn’t the time for reminiscing about family. You have never even met him, it’s much too quiet for him to come around these parts. No, instead you should take that book and go practice. You should break through to Body Refining One in a few days.” Baihu’s father told him, giving him a gentle shove towards his bedroom. “It works better at night, but the method works fine during the day too, just a little slower.”

“Yes, father,” Baihu said, turning to bow towards his parents before scuttling off to his room. He sat on his straw mat and opened the book. It was filled with tiny scribble, roughly written, so it took a few moments to read. It felt like the words within were filled with power, and he committed as much as he could to memory. The young man only bothered with the first part, anything beyond simply breaking through into the first realm would be useless to him. And when he tried to read beyond what he needed, the words seemed to blur and become unreadable.

“Weird,” Baihu said to himself. He could see the words, they were written normally, yet when focused upon, they became unreadable. With a shrug, he figured that was to prevent anyone from trying to skip ahead and hurt themselves.

Sitting in the correct position, the young man did as the manual said, taking deep breaths through his nose in a very strange way. He breathed in slowly, so slowly that he began to feel light-headed, until his lungs were full, and then breathed it out through his mouth just as slowly.

The act left him strangely breathless, and the lightheaded feeling was only getting worse with each breath. Yet, he kept going. The act felt silly, and like it wasn’t actually doing anything. But he had to keep trying, he wouldn’t waste this opportunity given to him by his parents and the village. So, for the entire day, he sat in that strange position and breathed that strange way, only taking breaks to let the light-headed feeling pass.

Hours upon hours passed, and Baihu skipped lunch entirely. His mother would come and check up on him every once and a while, but she never said anything. Yet, there was a look of pride in her eyes that kept Baihu going. Her wordless support did more for him than any amount of cheering could.

Just as the sun began to set, it finally happened. The sun had just hidden behind a mountain, and the sky had begun to go dark when the first mote of Qi settled into the young man's Dantain. It shocked him out of meditation, causing him to stand up in surprise. He had cultivated. Sitting back down, the young man kept going. Two hours passed before he felt another tiny mote settle next to the first in his Dantian, and another hour before the third. He missed dinner without even noticing, and cultivated throughout the night, falling asleep sometime around two am, still in his meditation pose.