The next morning Jake sat on his small bed meditating, he could feel that he had reached the peak of the strengthening, and was the cusp of breaking through to expansion.

      He stopped his meditation and got up to eat the small meal prepared for the workers by the Zoldyzc family. But while the people liked to call themselves workers, there was no denying what they really were, slaves. Forced to go into the mines for hours a day, forever trapped in the camp, and given the minimum amount of food to keep themselves healthy for work, there was little chance the workers would ever escape their lifetime contracts. They had all gotten to him in a multitude of ways. Caught for banditry, prisoners of war, or like in Jake’s case, sold as a child.

Jake still remembered some of his childhood, although it was in bits and pieces. He was the middle son of a simple farmer, and he could still remember their hushed voices when he had awakened his heavenly energy at the age of 5.

“We have to get rid of him, what good is he as a farmer, a worker.”

“We would be able to get food for months, he’s just a burden”

Before the memory used to anger Jake, but now it just felt like a distant past. For most of his life, all he had known was this camp, and that’s because he was gifted with the talent of cultivation, as only one in ten people were. This is why he had sold for so much, able to do the work of an adult male while still being just a child.

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After finishing his meal Jake readied himself for his breakthrough. He was currently at the peak of the ninth level of the strengthening realm. The nine realms of cultivation are strengthening, expansion, core, profound, true, spirit, saint, emperor, and sovereign. In the strengthening realm, one would slowly build up their heavenly energy while refining it to slowly get stronger and faster. Then when you break into expansion you would truly be able to wield heavenly energy, being able to control it outside your body.

Jake cleared his bed and placed an old rug on top of it. He knew that if he successfully broke through he would dispel his impurities, and he didn’t want it all over his bed. Jake slowly felt the heavenly energy inside of him, it was like a small burning fire in his stomach. He willed the fire to grow and burn hotter. Jake sat for hours meditating in peace while the heavenly energy expanded at a rapid pace in his body. Then finally after half a day had passed, BOOM, his heavenly energy finally flared out from his body.

Jake woke up from his meditation and knew he had succeeded. He could feel that his body was covered with filth from his breakthrough so he quickly picked up the rug from his bed, grabbed his staff, a change of clothes, and walked towards the nearest river. This path, like the one to his shack, Jake knew by heart.

He threw the dirty rug into the forest by the river and quickly stripped and jumped in. The water was rather shallow, only a foot deeper than he was tall. He quickly finished washing and was about to step out of the river when he heard the water behind him splash. He felt a chill go down his back and immediately decided he would run. As he tried to swim out of the river he felt a cold sharp object stabbing the back of his neck, drawing a few drops of blood. Jake quickly stopped moving

“Stop, who are you and what did you see,” said what seemed to sound like a young female voice to Jake.