The barely audible rustling of cloth is heard as Kenki raises his head to look up at the night sky above, taking in the alien scenery that it projects. The sun is nothing other than a ball of darkness, surrounded by cosmic dust and tens of thousands of stars, all sparkling with light. The position of the stars is most intriguing for the former resident of Earth, as some of them are located directly between him and the celestial object.

And then there are the moons. Twelve of them in total, all varying in size and color and each one having a month named after it.

'Man… How much longer do I need to wait until the first light?' Ken does his best to hide his dissatisfaction, afraid that the cultivator might be observing him. He tenses the muscles in his legs in an effort to get some blood flowing back into them, his kneeling position having numbed them considerably.

He takes in the manor in front of him once more, it is easily the largest man made structure he's seen in this life, standing at a grand total of four stories. His mind idly chews over the order given to him by the cultivator for what must be the hundredth time.

'Pack my things? I just can't make sense of it. Are we leaving the village? I doubt it, why would she fight to be the village's guardian, only to abandon that position not even a day after?'

'Is it a figure of speech? A way of saying to make my peace? I just don't know, with the way the villagers looked at me, with the way my parents were acting, it might as well have meant just that.'

Ken suppresses the memory of his parents sending him off, the expression on his mother's face had been eerily similar to those of parents sending their children off to war.

He stiffens upon hearing the creaking of the front door. Not daring to move his eyes, he only sees a pair of leather boots.

"You didn't run away."

'...Were you expecting me to run away!?' Ken inwardly shouts.

"Well, it doesn't matter. It saves me some trouble." She speaks up after noticing that Ken isn't going to respond. "Come in"

Ken takes one final moment to look up, noting that the first light of the sun still hadn't occurred. He grabs the rough sack filled with his belongings and follows after her into the manor.

The first thing that he notices is how incredibly dark the inside of the room is. Not because it's still night out, the room is well lit, it's because all of the surfaces are painted black.

The woman moves forwards to the room's center where an array of glowing white lines and symbols could be seen. She kneels down and begins tinkering with it, the tips of her fingers glowing in the same ghostly white light as she does so.

"Right…" she mutters out after a minute or two. Standing up she turns to look at Kenki who had been observing her work from a distance. Walking forwards she stops barely a meter from him, the difference in height becoming more than apparent with her towering two meter frame. Ken can't help turtling into himself at her approach.

"Raise your head and look me in the eyes, boy."

The cultivator's piercing gaze fixates solely on Kenki, demanding his complete attention. Filled with uncertainty and some dread, the boy cautiously lifts his head, meeting the woman's slitted azure eyes and barely keeping himself from flinching.

"From this day forward, you shall address me as Master Dongmei. My words to you shall serve as absolute commands to be obeyed. Every task assigned to you must be completed without hesitation or inquiry. You shall consume the food provided to you, rest when told to, train when ordered to..."

"…When you perform admirably, you shall be duly rewarded, and in the event of disobedience, appropriate consequences shall be meted out."

"Am I understood?"

"Yes! Master Dongmei!" Ken vigorously nods his head as he feels the faintest of pressure on his shoulders.

"Hmph" She points to the formation behind her with her thumb. "Get in the circle and make sure that you stay there."

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Ken does as he's instructed, walking to the very center of the formation where a big encompassing circle sits. It reacts when he steps on it, the lines shifting as if they are alive and glowing brighter.

He turns to see Zhang Dongmei rummaging through his sack.

"Hoh?" She exclaims as she pulls out Ken's bone knife. She twirls it around in the palm of her hand with such dexterity and speed that he has a hard time suppressing his awe.

‘She has surpassed the Glizzy Ninja for sure...’

"You made this?" She asks him as she puts her weight on one leg, a smile gracing her features.

"Um, I did Master Dongmei"

"Very good.." As she utters those words, a turns into one that is almost predatory, leaving the boy with an unsettling sensation akin to what a defenseless lamb would feel when placed before a tiger.

She places the knife back into the sack before pulling out a piece of parchment and feather pen seemingly out of thin air.

"So, what is your name?"

"Kenki"

She raises an eyebrow. "Just Kenki?" asking for clarification, "Do you not have a second name?"

"No, I'm just a farmer's son, Master Dongmei. Only important people are allowed to have second names."

"Your age?" She moves on after writing down the previous information on the parchment

"Seven, I'll be turning eight on the third of the following month." He answers truthfully, information that is swiftly recorded down.

She crouches and places a hand on the inscription. "Stand tall and still." she says as the light emitted intensifies "I do not wish to perform this a second time so do your best to remain as you are."

Ken nods, gripping his fists.

'I'm not going to be turned into an ingredient for some alchemical concoction am I?' He couldn't help but question as he observes the woman in front of him at work. Several faint white runes are formed in the air by a stroke of her index finger, added to the formation as she needs them.

It doesn't take long for him to feel something. Not pain, but a heat washing over him, as if he's suddenly next to a massive coal fueled train engine. The heat spreads over his skin like ripples do on the surface of water.

The heat intensifies, almost to the point of pain, before suddenly disappearing. Ken notes the pressure in his stomach that appears the moment the heat vanishes, it stays there only for a few seconds before also fading away.

"Hn." He sees the cultivator nod, her mask of concentration shifting to one of satisfaction.

Nothing much happens after that. Ken stands bored in his place, watching the cultivator work and trying to figure out what exactly she’s doing. She would go to one side of the inscription and then write something down on her parchment, circle around Kenki with an appraising eye and then write down something else.

She leads him to a different room about an hour after he'd first entered the mansion. This one is not painted black, instead having the more traditional wood and stone construction found around these parts. The furniture inside consists of a well made bed, two drawers and a table with a pair of chairs.

"This will be your room for the time being." The cultivator states as she flings Ken's bag in the corner, she walks to the table and places a plate of food on top of it. It manifests seemingly out of thin air much like how the parchment and pen had previously.

"Eat and rest. Prepare yourself for tomorrow." She leaves him with those words, closing the door behind her as she leaves.

===============================

Kicking off his geta, Ken lets his body collapse into the bed.

"So much for leaving the village. And what's up with her size, she was way smaller back when I was drawing a portrait of her…"

He stops himself from speaking further for fear that she might be listening in. Cultivators are supposed to have superhuman perception after all.

'I was acting like a doll, I feel like. No will of my own, just doing as I'm told. But what the hell am I supposed to do!? Disobey the cultivator that may or may not kill me on a whim'

He tosses around in the bed as a way to relieve stress, kicking the sheets off.

'Cultivators are entertaining. Nice to look at when they are contained as a fantasy in the safe confines of a book where there's no threat that you'll ever meet one. Kind of like a lion in a zoo.'

'When they break out of their enclosure though… when you have that giant two meter tall beast staring you down with a face lacking any emotion, a beast that can kill you faster than you can blink. I don't think that I've ever felt more terrified.'

The boy feels his heart painfully tighten at the thought, he stays unmoving in place until it goes away.

'Hai… it's not like I have a choice now. I'll see what she wants to do with me, am I a disciple of hers now? She gave me a room, food and new clothes but that's kind of hard to believe. With the way she was appraising me I might actually be an alchemical ingredient. But then it wouldn’t make sense for her to ask my name…' The boy sighs

'...I'll cross that bridge when I get there, an opportunity for me to escape will present itself eventually, I can only hope that nothing bad happens in the immediate future." He eyes the plate of steaming food that had been placed on the table. A small shock runs through his body when he realizes that there's rice on the plate, of all things. Or at least something that looks very much like rice.

'The rice isn't even the weirdest thing, now that I take a closer look the whole meal looks like something you could buy from a Chinese Restaurant. It even comes with a pair of metal chopsticks. Metal!' Ken examines the chopsticks, acting like this is the first time he'd seen anything like them.

'Well, a cultivator can afford to make eating implements using 'mortal' metals' barbarically stabbing a vegetable with one of the chopsticks he takes a bite.

…only to go for a second bite moments after.

"Mmmm… "

'Wait. Now that I think about it she did say that I'll be rewarded when I do as I'm told and punished when I don't.'

He stabs a piece of meat, giving it a lookover.

'Maybe I'll try doing a mediocre job tomorrow, in the name of research.'