The origin of light, a fascinating phenomenon on the sun's surface. It is a spot that is the first to illuminate at the beginning of the day and the last one to fade away at its end, the origin of many myths and legends all throughout the world and a basis for innumerable cultivation techniques.

Ever since his rebirth Kenki has possessed a nearly supernatural ability to wake up at the first light of the sun, regardless of the time of year, this day being no exception.

‘I'm already bored and I just woke up.’ Ken grumbles to himself.

Hopping off from his bed Ken twists his waist left and right, feeling the bones in his spine popping like a sheet of bubble-wrap.

'Yesterday morning, she left me alone in this room, only visiting to bring me lunch and dinner. That's fine and all but I had absolutely nothing to do. All I brought with me was a single plank of wood which I filled with sketches the first two hours of my stay…'

With a gentle touch, he places a hand on his stomach.

'...actually that's not right, I had my impending diarrhea to keep me company. It’s not exactly entertainment but I can’t say that I was bored. I think the foreign food upset my stomach'

Surveying the room he fails to find anything out of place. No plate of food placed on his table while he'd slept, no mysterious items appearing out of nowhere, all is as he'd left it the night before.

Opening up the window the young boy takes in the scenery of the outside world. The darkness of the night still lingers but a glimmer of morning light could be seen. It reflects off the treetops in the nearby forest.

Ken briefly contemplates jumping through the window and making a run for it but the idea is quickly shot down as foolish and suicidal.

Shaking his head he turns around, much to his surprise finding the source of his recent troubles sitting on one of the table's chairs, holding his previous day's work in her hand.

He quickly drops to his knees, as is right when one is interacting with individuals of greatly higher status.

"What are these? Some sort of local beasts?" She shoots off an inquiry to him as she nonchalantly waves the plank of wood around. For those of this world the drawings on the wood would appear like nothing special, beasts drawn with a great degree of skill.

Most former residents of Earth however would recognize them as Pokemon - although sorely lacking in the cuteness aspect. The drawings display an eerie realism, complete with intricate details like scales, bloodied claws, and other such fierce features.

“No, Master Dongmei, they are purely imaginary creatures.”

“You certainly have a vivid imagination.” She comments, examining the plank for a moment more before placing it on the table, seemingly losing interest.

“But that is not the reason for my presence here...” The cultivator rises from her seat, the chair unpleasantly scraping against the floor as it is pushed back. Imperiously she approaches the boy, slightly leaning over him when she’s close enough.

“...Now tell me, have you ever taken a human life?”

Ken’s eyes widen with trepidation, and he swallows hard before answering, "N-no, never! I could never hurt anyone." His voice trembles as he speaks, feeling the weight of the cultivator's intense gaze bearing down on him. She studies him carefully, her gaze betraying no indication of what she might be thinking.

“You lie.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Ken feels the hairs on his arms straighten up as she pats him on the head.

“But do not fret. This is the main reason you caught my eye.”

‘What do you mean it caught your eye, what does it have to do with anything!?’

The cultivator lets her statement hang in the air as she turns around. “Stand up and follow me.” She says as she starts walking towards the room’s exit.

Kenki hesitates for a moment, confused and unsure of what to make of the cultivator's orders after her mysterious statement. With a deep breath, he rises to his feet and follows after her, keeping a careful distance behind.

They pass the black room on their way out. It is barely recognizable compared to the day before, having now been filled with a multitude of mysterious items, scrolls and inscriptions.

‘Oh, lovely, I’m guessing that dimensional storages are a thing in this world.’ Ken remarks in his mind, some of his frustration bleeding into his thoughts.

He is brought to ‘the lawn’ as Kenki named it the day before. The large enclosed area fenced off by the tall stone wall from the rest of the village. Much like the black room it has gone through a drastic change.

‘...’

‘...Am I blind and deaf?’ Ken incredulously questions himself. ‘I took a look outside just a couple minutes ago, how didn’t I notice all of… this? I get that it was dark but still.’

Slightly obscured by the steadily fading darkness, all that Ken could see was what would be best described as a… training environment.

A large track field most likely meant for running stretching from one end of the stone wall to the other, the grass stripped bare and the dirt packed to the point of it being a hard flat surface.

Dozens of training dummies made of wood and stone positioned right next to a gazebo, although the gazebo is not the typical one that has a table and chairs, instead it is filled with weapon racks all fully stacked with a variety of weapons. From swords to spears to daggers and bows.

A field of wooden poles, straight out of an anime and most likely meant for balance training could be seen some distance away.

And most strikingly, a pool. A long pool that, like the track field, stretches from one end of the wall to the other. It is only six meters wide at most and with a depth that Kenki is unable to make out from the distance.

‘How the f…’ Ken stops in sheer surprise, jaw hanging. Had he been in a cartoon it would have hit the ground with a resounding thunk instead. ‘How is it not soaking into the ground? Did she line it with ceramics or something?’

The boy jogs over to the two meter tall woman after noticing that he has fallen behind. The two of them arrive at the gazebo filled with weapons in short order.

“Have you ever held any tools of war, boy?” She asks quizzically as she turns to meet his eyes.

“I can’t say that I have, Master Dongmei.” Ken shakes his head in answer. “I’ve used knives although mostly to cook and I’ve also used a sling to hunt for pigeons…”

“And what did you use to kill that friend of yours” She cuts Ken off mid sentence as she crosses her arms, an accusatory tone heavy on her voice. Ken feels like her eyes grow several shades darker as she does so.

“Uhm…”

Doing a double take, Ken takes in the demeanor of the cultivator.

‘I don’t think that lying to her face again is the right option.’

“The… creature that I killed that day, I killed using the bone knife in my room, Master Dongmei.” He tip-toes around the issue. It causes the cultivator to raise an eyebrow although much to his immense relief she doesn’t press the issue any further.

"Hmph," scoffing, she waves over to the weapon racks. "Pick the weapon that draws you in the most." She pushes him forwards using some sort of a force power as she says so, causing him to stumble and almost fall.

Ken quickly regains his balance and looks towards the weapon racks, feeling like now isn’t the time to make the cultivator wait. He scans over the many weapons on display, his mind trying to figure out as swiftly as possible which one to pick.

‘I know that swords are incredibly overrated, but that was back on Earth, I have no idea how they would work out here. No, that’s assuming that I become a cultivator, I still have no idea what plans this woman has in store for me’ Ken’s eyes move to the rack filled with spears, polearms and other such close combat weapons.

‘Too big’ A single look is all he needs to move on to the next rack ‘I’d be able to lift them but my small build would make them impossible to wield properly. Actually, if I’m looking for a weapon of the appropriate size, nearly all of the weapons here are out of my reach.’

‘That means, it’s a choice between the gladius and some of the other short-swords, the dagger, the tanto looking thing or the small recurve bow.’

Ken contemplates his options, carefully considering the pros and cons of each weapon. After some thought, he decides to go with the recurve bow as his weapon of choice.

He sees the cat-woman nod.

"Come, I'll teach you how to properly wield it. For today you will train with it until you are able to reliably hit a target that is ten meters away. You will not be given any food until then, am I understood?"

"Yes, master Dongmei."

"Hn." She nods once more.

They stop some distance from one of the dummies, using her powers she conjures up a total of ten glowing white arrows, identical to those she'd used in her fight with the previous guardian. She hands them over to Kenki, their glow lighting up his face.

His face twists up in pain.

'I feel like I'm holding boiling water in my hands'

"You'll be using these to train for today, as you've just found out they cause you pain when wielded but will not be harmful. Push through it and it will eventually fade away…"

"…Now then."

A bow manifests in her hand as she takes an archery pose.

"Try and imitate me as best you can"