As dawn broke Liu Zhu lifted himself out of bed, his foggy thoughts slowly solidifying as he got dressed. After getting dressed Liu Zhu simply stared out the window before lightly sighing. He was in a bad mood. He'd been simultaneously looking forward and dreading tomorrow for a while- his 13th birthday. It'd normally be a happy occasion, but for Liu Zhu it mainly served as a reminder that he was lagging behind his brother. A few years ago, when Liu Xuan had turned 13, he had already reached Middle Flesh Tempering. Meanwhile Liu Zhu was almost 13 but he was still stuck at his bottleneck, unable to reach Flesh Tempering. As a result he had been in an increasingly bad mood for the past week.
After a few minutes of silently mourning his lack of talent Liu Zhu left his quarters, making his way to the room where he trained. Originally the room was meant for anyone in the clan to train in, but given how often Liu Zhu spent inside no one else used it. Eventually someone, probably passively-aggressively complaining about never getting to use it, put up a sign. From that point onward it officially became his private training room. Liu Zhu spent a few hours cultivating, and in the process vented his displeasure on an unfortunate target dummy. As his thoughts faded away and his focus turned completely to training, a knock came from the door.
Liu Zhu stopped attacking the dummy and opened the door, an action which narrowly saved the dummy from an unfortunate death. Standing at the door was a genial old man. The old man was dressed in simple blue robes and had a long, flowing beard. Liu Zhu bowed slightly upon seeing him. "Grand Elder Zhu, do you have some business with me?" Zhu Chao nodded, gesturing for Liu Zhu to follow him. "You're aware about the cave behind the Liu Clan's estate, right?"
Confused, Liu Zhu answered. "Yes, I'm aware of it, I played in it as a child. Er, well, I suppose I still am one- as a younger child. What of it?" Zhu Chao continued walking as the two spoke, going outside. "A few odd beasts appeared inside that cave recently. They're about as strong as someone at Early Strength Rendering, so you should be safe fighting them. Maybe a heated battle with them will help stimulate a breakthrough to Flesh Tempering, hmm?"
A smile appeared on Liu Zhu's face at the prospect of making a breakthrough, and he nodded. "Yes, maybe what I needed was a change of pace from my normal training." He began to leave the estate then, but suddenly paused. "But...it wouldn't be prudent to be fighting vicious beasts the day before my birthday, would it? If I got injured..." Liu Zhu trailed off, but Zhu Chao smiled and shook his head. "It won't matter. So what if a few families even smaller than the Liu Clan see a scratch or two tomorrow. I'm certain you won't get severely injured fighting them, but I can wait outside just in case anything happens." Zhu Chao chuckled before continuing. "Besides, I need to remind you that you can make a breakthrough. If you forget about that and keep moping about then it might become a problem."
Liu Zhu cringed slightly inside- he never realized that his displeasure about his bottleneck was that visible. "Well, if it's alright I'll be going then." Liu Zhu rushed towards the cave, Zhu Chao following just behind him.
Liu Zhu reached the entrance of the cave and begun feeling around near the roots of a tree outside. "It should be here..." After a few moments of searching his hands closed around a piece of wood. He pulled it out from under the tree, and following that he found a match. "Looks like my torch was still there. I hope it still works after so long." Liu Zhu struggled to light the torch for a moment before the cloth on the top suddenly caught fire.
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Liu Zhu entered the cave without hesitation now that he had a light, navigating the dark, narrow caverns. He kept on guard, his other hand holding a large knife meant for skinning animals. He trained in hand to hand combat, but that didn't mean he couldn't use a weapon if he needed to.
Liu Zhu moved forward for a quarter of an hour, on guard for vicious beasts. In that time he came across one extremely weak vicious beast. It wasn't strong enough to be helpful to him and he dispatched it in a few swift blows. Still, encouraged by his find, he hurried through paths he hadn't explored before, hoping to come across something stronger.
As Liu Zhu walked forward he suddenly noticed that something felt off, but wasn't able to react in time before the ground below him began crumbling under his weight. Liu Zhu swore loudly as he looked below him. Past the shards of rock he had been previously standing on, Liu Zhu caught sight of a massive root as thick as his torso. Surrounding the root was a colorful field of flowers blooming through the cave floor.
Before Liu Zhu could process what was going on he was already falling directly towards the root in the center of the cavern below him. He felt his heartbeat speed up and the lifeblood within him begin stirring before he fell on the root. A burst of pain exploded through Liu Zhu as the root pierced his chest. He began panicking, but much to his surprise his wound wasn't bleeding at all, and he started to calm down as his pain was replaced with a warm, tingling feeling.
The feeling spread through Liu Zhu's body, and he was filled with an inexplicable sense of overflowing vitality. This feeling grew stronger and stronger, but with it his body became wracked with pain. As the pain and energy increased within Liu Zhu, it felt like so much energy was passing through him that he might explode. Suddenly a massive burst of pain several times worse than anything he'd experienced exploded through him as his meridians tore open, creating a proper pathway for the energy to go through.
Liu Zhu gritted his teeth and did his best to stay conscious through the pain. His fingernails dug into his hands, drawing oddly thick blood as they did so. This blood slowly dripped onto the ground from Liu Zhu's palm, landing on a flower. Suddenly the flower grew, multiplying in size from a few inches to nearly a foot tall. Liu Zhu's vision began fading away as his last thoughts were replaced with the horrible, continuous pain. After holding on for an indeterminate amount of time Liu Zhu felt the energy within him focus on a point directly above his heart. As the energy focused on this point it began to disappear from the rest of his body, finally granting Liu Zhu some respite from his suffering.
The pain eventually disappeared completely, its destination unknown, and Liu Zhu took the chance to look around. The flowers that were once blooming were now completely withered, and the root that was impaled into his chest was now a bed of dry bark scattered around him. Upon examining his chest, Liu Zhu found that the spot he was impaled was covered in soft, tender skin. Once he saw this Liu Zhu let out a sigh of relief. He was confused about what was going on, but at least he wasn't dead.
Before Liu Zhu could examine his situation more closely, his mind began slipping away from him again, and he passed out. The flowers and bark around him continued to decay as he laid there, eventually disappearing, leaving behind no evidence of their existence.