Sky felt terrible.

After crying, he had a restless sleep. To top it off his headache was back with a vengeance.

With his puffy eyes, he looked around and saw Ernoldus sitting on a stump nearby with a pressure radiating off of him.

Deep inside of him, he felt something stirring, raging, pulsing and desiring to be free. Suddenly before he could react, it stopped.

Ernoldus was standing in front of him with a stupefied expression on his face.

“You haven’t even unlocked your qi? Have you ever cultivated any daos? I was wondering why you were running from the entry level degenerate with your physique.”

The suddenness of the questions, along with how he was feeling, it did confuse him as to what was happening.

Sighing gently Ernoldus walked towards the fire pit waving Skylar to follow. On the fire, that was light this time, was a pole with an assortment of meat, fruit, and vegetable impaled along it.

“The food is not quite done cooking yet. However, I will like to get some answers from you. Depending on your answers I will talk while you eat.”

Nodding, Skylar sat next to him waiting for the questions to start as he stared into the fire.

“I have two main questions for you. First I would like you to tell me about your past. It does not need to be in depth, I just would just like to get a general idea. Also, everything you know about cultivators. That is the more important one.”

Skylar knew the one about his past was coming after yesterday. After that cryfest, anyone would have some interest. He started talking slowly and quietly, his voice a little raw from crying still. His eyes seem to have something come alive as the memory of the past came rushing back.

“For the first 15 years, I lived in Cirrane with my parents and my twin sister. We were simple farmers for common alchemy ingredients. We weren't rich, but we were happy.”

“It was a custom in the village to test for cultivation talent once you were 15 during the harvest festival. My sister and I were the only ones at the time to get tested. It was a public event, it was a small village, everybody knew everybody. My sister. Jessica or Jess as we called her, went first.”

A bitter sigh escaped Skylar’s mouth before he continued.

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“She had no limit on her talent. The testing tool was low grade, but with how high it showed, to everyone in a village like ours, the sky was the limit. At the time our parents did not seem surprised, with what we found out later there was no reason for them to be. Then I went up to get tested.”

A few tears started escaping his eyes as his voice cracked as he tried to keep talking.

“There was no response. Even the people with no talent showed SOME response. I was worse than talentless. As such we were both praised and laughed at by the entire village.”

Anger leaked into his voice as he continued.

“Then a few years later, they came. They were bandits, or what they liked to call themselves, royal tax collectors. Everyone who saw them could see that they were up to no good. However, they had a royal seal. There was no reason to deny them. The tax they expected was above what the village could give. Then someone, we never learned who told them about my sister. It was deemed that she would be enough for tax for the next few years. We fought back of course. However, our parents were no cultivators and were killed by them. Before, they left to stall they had us run to Heaven Gaze City. They were planning to go for a long time.”

“They told us that Jess had a dragon’s physique, whatever that meant. We never learned what that meant truthfully. We could find protection from a sect there. They gave us instructions on where to go and what to say. They hoped to stall for at least a day. Dad had some knack for fighting, as he drove off any minor beasts that came for our fields. They barely lasted 10 minutes. He played with them, before killing them.”

“We ran for the next week straight with him on our tail. Jess had to practically drag me the last two days as I just gave up. It all felt hopeless to me. Home was gone, friends betrayed us, parents dead, and the likelihood of me living a happy life after this just seemed hopeless.”

“With your attainments ancestor, you likely know the rest.”

Skylar stopped eating as Ernoldus passed him a stick that was fully cooked. Like the soup, it was above anything he had eaten. After the story he told however, it did not uplift him much as everything struck him like a hammer blow once more.

A few minutes passed in silence as he ate. Ernoldus was silent just watching the boy with a contemplative expression on his face. Finishing the food he had Skylar resumed talking.

“I only know a few things about cultivators. They use qi that they accumulate to study daos. Borrowing the power of daos they aim to reach the heavens. Jess had a basic meditation manual she followed. She never really learned any daos. We both had headaches when she tried to meditate. She did unlock her qi which allowed her to enhance her speed, that helped us to reach the city.”

He grabbed another stick of food and started eating slowly.

Nodding slowly, Ernoldus seemed to break out of his thinking before speaking slowly.

“No wonder you never unlocked your qi. You were always around her and you mutually canceled each other out. Well, I have a lot of work ahead of me I see. Though this could be considered a blessing in disguise.”

Pausing at what Ernoldus said Skylar looked up at him.

“What do you mean by work, ancestor?”

Slapping himself on the head Ernoldus responded.

“I forgot to tell you didn’t I, huh? Well, I planned on taking you in as my disciple. So, you can call me master now if you wish.”