Gou Jia's attention shifted to keep track of two things at once.

The first was Arden’s fist crashing harmlessly into Sun Cai’s exposed face.

The second was the small flame that shot towards a rotted hole in the courtyard doors.

Gou Jia dropped like a swooping bird towards Abby, who froze at the sight of the small flame headed towards her. Within split seconds, Abby was being pulled back, and Gou Jia’s hand was clenching Arden’s attack into nothing but sparking cinders.

Gou Jia stared into Abby’s frightened eyes as a blaring shout sounded from the courtyard.

“OUCH! WHAT IS YOUR NOSE MADE OUT OF!?”

What did he think would happen when you punch a Gateway Foundation cultivator’s face? Gou Jia thought to himself. Gou Jia shook his head and looked down at Abby, who was staring at him with a shocked look.

“Are you okay?” Gou Jia asked as he let go of Abby's robes. Abby’s eyes rapidly blinked before she turned her body and ran away.

“…Really? Where is she going?” Gou Jia asked nobody in particular. He sighed and then looked back inside the tattered courtyard. Within it, a stunned Sun Cai looked at the burn on Arden’s throbbing hand from his inability to control his own Fire Qi. With Gou Jia’s cultivator hearing, he heard the exchange between the two.

“A fire-element cultivator, huh? Why didn’t you go for the bottle?” Sun Cai asked.

“GOODNESS, YOUR FACE HURTS. Fuck! Like I’d care about some bottle. I just wanted to hit you in the face.” Arden replied while cradling his hand. “But I didn’t think it’d be hard as a rock!”

Gou Jia felt the corner of his mouth raise a bit before he sensed a person appear behind him. There was only one person who could sneak up behind him like this. The slight smile on Gou Jia’s face left as the courtyard doors were forced open by his eldest brother, Gou Da, who likely rushed here as soon as Sun Cai’s restraining collar was activated.

Chime.

ACK!

The controlling bell on Gou Jia’s wrist caused Sun Cai to crumble as the activated restrictive collar around his neck choked him. Following that, Gou Da’s booming voice circled the courtyard, and a pressure forced Arden and Sun Cai to their knees.

“We won’t warn you again, Sun Cai. If you let loose even a sliver of power again, we won’t wait until the next full moon to kill you. Even if you are a rare prisoner.”

When Gou Da finished speaking, Gou Jia holstered the bell. He watched as the red markings on Sun Cai’s collar deactivated, and Gou Da released the pressure from his cultivation base, relieving Sun Cai from his torment in choking gasps of air.

“We will take our leave. Don’t make us come here again.” Gou Da spoke and left the tattered courtyard alongside Gou Jia. Once outside, Gou Jia instructed his brother in short words. As he spoke, Gou Jia remembered how Abby gazed at her brother and how he once did the same with his own sister.

Gou Jing.

“Leave Arden to Sun Cai. Post some outer sect members to watch inside. Ensure nothing escapes our attention.”

Gou Da looked at Gou Jia with a questioning gaze but nodded his head anyway as he lifted into the air. Gou Da quickly flew into the air: a telling sign of a Gateway Foundation realm cultivator.

Sigh.

“Maybe I am favouring her too much.” Gou Jia muttered.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

*****

I could feel it.

I’m sure I could see it now, which was doubly strange.

The violet water's Qi flowed inside me, amalgamating at a point above my navel and swirling like a spinning top as the inside tried to condense.

The swirling motion was something I thought up after having failed so many times. Before, the Qi would gather so naturally that I thought a result would form naturally as well. I was wrong, of course. The Qi wasn’t capable of creating anything until I guided it.

I had to give form to the boundless Qi.

As my thoughts drifted between the experiences I had seen and the myriads of forms I could give the Qi, a scene always popped into my head.

The first time Grandma Sylvie let me plant something in her garden.

I remember how she took me to a corner of her vast garden. My knees fell into the earth with a dull thud, and my fingertips eagerly reached into the ground. I could remember the soil's warmth from the first spring sun in ages, even as it resisted my digging attempts.

It was gritting its dirt against my will.

I remember how it so quickly covered the flower seed and provided a space for the little plant life about to appear in full growing season force.

The dirt was letting life prosper in it.

The Qi inside me swirled as I remembered the scene and slowly condensed into itself. A wave of heat burst from me as the violet water around me seethed in excitement. A smile graced my face as the heat slowly passed, and it felt like my pores all gasped for air at once.

My smile quickly turned sour.

I opened my eyes with no small amount of shock as I watched blackened sweat pour out of my body like a broken faucet. Shock turned into realization as I remembered one of the cornerstones of cultivation.

Of course!

How could I forget the legendary body waste? It was getting rid of the impurities within my body and strengthening it to another level. Unfortunately, the smell it released tested my gag reflex multiple times before I finally clued in on a certain violet water that was very good at washing away anything harmful.

I laid down inside the violet pool and couldn’t have been more thankful as the violet water tore away the blackened sweat from my body and dissipated it into the pool. With a relieved laugh, I sat back upright and closed my eyes. Within moments, I was trying to find that feeling again.

I felt it as my senses zoomed inwards and saw a space like an empty black room. The exceptions were the rivers of violet lights that sparkled as they travelled to a point in the center. My senses drifted closer to the spot in the center, and there, in all its glory, was the result of my unceasing efforts.

A violet dirt particle.

It was small, about the size of a pea. But I could feel it as the streams naturally swam towards it, feeding it with the energy it needed to grow. If I left it alone, it would grow, but at a pace that was far slower than when I focused all my attention on gathering and condensing Qi.

I’m unsure how, but I reached out to it. I needed to feel it like I did with the earth on that first spring day.

Pulse.

Like another heartbeat, the dirt particle let out a violet pulse that caused the violet rivers inside me to speed up for a second.

I wasn’t much of a spiritual person, but when I opened my eyes again, I couldn’t help but grow silent. Wonder filled my eyes as I felt my chest for a heartbeat, and just faintly, I felt another beat that hid deep within me.

“Am I going crazy? This is what cultivation feels like?” I questioned myself.

“…Success…” The skeleton’s feminine voice reminded me where I was, and I shook my head free from my daze.

“Success is right.” I agreed.

Cultivation didn’t just feel good; it felt amazing. The rush after crashing through to what I assumed was the first stage of Qi Condensation was so intense that I couldn’t wait to try for the next stage right away.

Gurgle!

Unfortunately, my hopes were crushed by an intense pain that assaulted my stomach. Countless knife-like pains stabbed into me to the point where I wondered if I had experienced some sort of cultivation backlash.

I was starving.

I had just achieved something extraordinary, so it’d be a real bummer if I died from something like starvation. With new strength in my legs, I sat up from the violet pool and searched for an exit. When I finally found one, I had a startling realization.

I fit through the exit, but if it was just a few inches shorter, I might not be able to.

“I’m still chubby….”

My hands patted the extra fat that lined my stomach, and I must’ve pouted worse than a baby. The cleansing is supposed to remove impurities! Why wasn’t it getting rid of my fat!? I looked all over my body and began to analyze it. There was no way the cleansing did absolutely nothing. Cultivation had to get rid of something!

Unfortunately, no amount of anything was removed. I looked like the same person as before.

"That's impossible! Maybe–maybe, It'll begin at the next stage. Yeah, yeah! That's it! I need to get to a higher stage to get rid of it!"

Stubbornness flashed in my eyes as I resolved myself to a new goal:

I had to survive and reach the next Qi Condensation stage as soon as possible. Maybe this impurity cleansing wasn’t enough, but the next one had to remove some fat!

With determination and a new goal, I trudged through the hole to one of the most dangerous places I had ever set foot in.

The Pit.