Year 658 of the Stable Era,
Fifteenth day of the tenth month
Chao Ren dreamed that he was falling.
He had stood atop a narrow path, barely a blade’s edge of stone worn into the steep side of a mountain.
“Cross this path and be part of the sect!” The jade-skinned elder from the entrance ceremony had yelled, standing across that vast distance amid the tables of a lively banquet, the rest of the applicants drinking and eating their fill as they rejoiced in their success.
He’d tried his hardest to cross, he really had, but as he reached the halfway point, body leaned against the rock for support, bare toes grasping the rock with all the force he could muster, it had all collapsed. The side of the cliff had unfolded like a book, both the rock face and the path giving way under him.
“Ah, what a pity,” the elder lamented, his faint words ringing like jade as the darkness engulfed Chao Ren. “I wish you better luck next year, should you decide to apply again.”
He awoke with a start, arms flailing as he fell from his cushion. His legs were still crossed in the meditative pose he must have fallen asleep in, and he flopped sideways onto the ground. His eyes now aligned with the crack of the door, he caught sight of the faint amber light trickling in and realized the time.
It was morning!
Of the last day of the exam!
He had to hurry, he only had hours left to break into the second stage. Quickly Chao Ren rubbed the sleep from his eyes, reaching for a food pill to calm the rumbling of his stomach. He’d need every scrap of energy for the task ahead. His hand slapped limply against empty cloth, and with a groan, he realized that he must have miscounted his supply.
Sloppy, so sloppy!
He’d been sure that he’d left just enough spare to avoid pushing himself to the brink when he’d used the extra energy they supplied to skip the last two nights of sleep, but apparently he had overindulged in his delirious state. He’d have to push through if he wanted to make it. It would be tough, but he would endure it. Adversity was the fire of the crucible of cultivation, and hotter flames would only increase the quality of his result.
He rose, and with three quick strides reached the jade slab of his room. With a soft crack of his knuckles and scab he readied his fists, striking the stone again and again as he worked his way through the exercises of the Beginner’s Teal Jade Body Tempering Technique. He felt his body warming as he did, muscles regaining their elasticity as they woke up. By the end of the set he felt more awake than ever, a lightness in his step that he hadn’t felt in a week.
Perhaps falling asleep was a blessing in disguise! He felt incredible, like a statue finally freed from a century of webs and dust. He could do it! He could really do it!
His head whirled with thoughts as he hurried back to his cushion, ready to circulate his qi again. This feeling was what he needed, he felt incredible, and he could use it to grasp his qi with even greater control. He could break through the stage and join the Teal Mountain Sect! To begin walking down the path of a true cultivator and to finally-
His foot slipped on one of the pages of the manuals he had spread on the ground around his cushion. The cover of the Teal Jade Qi Gathering Technique flashed before his eyes as he fell through the ground, falling up through the sheets of his bed.
“Aaaaaaaa!!!” he screamed, arms waving for a moment before he realized that he’d failed to hit the ground.
“Shut the hell up you brat!” a voice yelled, and he felt a pillow hit his face. “Some of us have serious injuries, so let us recover in peace! Now give me back my damn pillow! My back’s getting sore without it.”
Chao Ren opened his eyes and realized that wherever he was was far brighter than his dim training room. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light, unused to such luminance. It was a very bright room, open windows allowing the afternoon sun and breeze to play against its peach walls. It was about the size of a small training hall, with five beds lined up along its length. He was at the far end, opposite the door.
To his left was a tasteful painting of a tiger, caught in the middle of chasing a rabbit with a willow switch. To his right were three other patients, of what he was now realizing was a medical facility of some sort. The furthest from him was currently glaring at him with sharp blue eyes, shaking his fist at him.
His only fist.
With a start Chao Ren realized that the man’s left arm was missing, its sleeve hanging flatly by his side. Hurriedly, he tossed the pillow back, lobbing it over the two patients between them, who had looked up from their game of Go. The sailed high before it caught an exposed beam, sending it tumbling down towards the gameboard. Chao Ren gasped in shock as it did, but a wave of a bandaged hand from one of the players stopped it midair.
It hung there for a brief moment, like a fly caught in a spider’s unseen web, before the bandaged man twirled his mitted hand, and the pillow floated past the board and nestled itself between the man and the wall. With a grunt, he leaned forwards as he grasped the pillow, giving it a pair of rough puffs before positioning it in his preferred position.
“Leave the kid alone Gang,” the male player said, placing a piece with a soft click, “he doesn’t know any better.” He was using some sort of technique to play the game, as both of his hands were bandaged like winter mittens. They wound all the way up his arms, peeking out from between white sickbay robes, and halting at his neck. His eyes were a striking orange, like a late dawn, and he wore his hair short, and his eyebrows even shorter.
“Shut up Li,” the man, Gang, growled. Unlike Li, he was letting his gray hair grow long and shaggy, like a wild wolf. He’d also chosen to forgo an inner robe, and the tableau of scars and bandages covering his muscular body were visible for all to see.
The marks of a cultivator. A story of centuries of struggle scribed on sinew and skin.
“I was in the middle of the most wonderful dream, and this stinking brat ruined it. And it’s Gang Guanxia to you kid! Or Senior Gang Guanxia for short!”
“I didn’t realize that you had begun cultivating a technique to sleep with your eyes open,” the female player noted, taking a pair of Li’s pieces with a single move, “much less one to talk so eloquently while doing so.”
Like the others, she was also covered in bandages. Or at least Chao Ren assumed she was, since unlike the other two her robes were actually covering the majority of her skin. She had beautifully smooth black hair, though it was cut a good deal shorter than the typical fashion preferred by cultivators.
“Shut up Tang,” Gang Guanxia grumbled, snatching an orange from the basket next to his bed. “Just let me be angry damnit!”
Chao Ren found himself staring at the fruit. He hadn’t had anything to eat since Xia Bao’s generously donated rice so many months ago, and he had to force himself to stop salivating at the thought of how sweet and orangey the orange must taste.
“I apologize for him,” Tang said, turning to face Ren, “he’s in a bit of a mood after what the Frost Ferret did to his arm.”
“I apologize, Senior Gang Guanxia,” Chao Ren said, bowing towards the man. Despite his attitude, he was clearly a senior member of the sect who had been injured in the line of duty, and it would be best to show him the proper courtesy. “You have my deepest condolences for your loss. To fully lose a limb to such a vile beast, in the name of the sect-“
“Hah!” Tang laughed, interrupting Chao Ren’s sincere apology. He looked up in shock. “He didn’t lose his arm to the Frost Ferret, he’s just annoyed that it broke his favorite prosthetic!”
“Shut up Tang,” Gang Guanxia muttered, the edge of a red peeking out from between the gaps of the bandages covering his face, “you don’t understand how much work I put into that thing. It took me years to get it just right! The perfect balance between combat power and fine control. I spent over five hundred spirit stones on the jade alone, and the damn chisels to work it cost me an arm!”
“And remind me again, why you don’t have your other spares?” Tang asked, seizing another of Li’s pieces.
“Well, you know that Red Lightning Champion got shattered during that tournament,” Gang replied sullenly.
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“And Mountain Mauler?” she asked.
“One of the cores broke when I was mining ore, and I can’t afford a replacement,” he replied, pulling the skin from his orange with his teeth.
“And why didn’t you afford to replace it?” she pried.
“Because I already had to pawn Old Faithful to replace the last core that broke.”
“And why did you have to pawn Old Faithful?”
“Because I bet all my savings on the entrance exam pool, so I could pay back Li Zhan for the chisels I broke.”
“You know, I think you might be just a little bit bad with money,” Li laughed.
“And maybe you’re a little shit at keeping your eyebrows attached!” Gang snapped, turning over in his bed, “Most alchemists have learnt how to stop burning them off by now!”
“You’re an alchemist?” Chao Ren asked, unable to stop himself. He’d never had a chance to meet one of the enigmatic crafters of the magical pills and elixirs that fueled cultivation.
Like most cultivators, he’d consumed his fair share, but they’d always been acquired through intermediaries like markets or trader families. He had been taught that alchemists tended to stay in their pill towers, hiding themselves from the world to keep their secrets safe. Supposedly, it was a practice born from the Age of Drought, when their relatively weak combat abilities had led to them being treated as little more than magical cauldrons that created pills on command.
“Of course,” Li replied, smiling at Ren with a slight bow. “Li Peizhi, alchemist of the fourth-grade, of the Clear Pill branch of the Teal Jade Pill Tower.”
“This humble junior is Chao Ren,” he responded, “applicant of the Teal Mountain Sect’s admission exam.” He returned Li’s bow with a far deeper one to show the proper deference his rank deserved. A fourth-class alchemist was in at least the Core Formation stage, and could craft pills useful to even fourth stage cultivators.
It wouldn’t do to get on such a cultivator’s bad side.
“Wait, Chao Ren?” Tang exclaimed, turning to face him. Excitement glinted in her jadelike eyes. “The same Chao Ren that passed the exam during the entrance ceremony? Applicant Fourteen?”
Her words struck a chord in Ren’s mind, a clear note that awoke a memory. He was in the sect now, wasn’t he? The elder’s floating head and the cliff hadn’t been real, but Yeung Lin, the instructor in the courtyard, had been, hadn’t he? As his mind whirled, he grasped for something to say.
“I, um, uh… Yes?” He finally got the words out, the memories flooding his mind as he did. Yes, he was. He had done it, hadn’t he! He was a disciple now, a full member of the Teal Mountain Sect. The memory of the last day began to overflow his mind, and Tang handed him a handkerchief to dry his eyes. He took it gratefully, damming his eyes as he did.
A cultivator didn’t let emotions get the better of him.
And he was a cultivator now, wasn’t he? He’d reached the Qi Refining stage, transcending his mortality by a single step. His first step towards a better future.
“I think you’re the one that owes an apology now,” Tang laughed, turning back to face Gang Guanxia as she confidently placed another piece on the board. “You’re looking at the only bet you won for the entire exam!”
“Shut up Tang,” he grumbled back.
“I’d just ignore him when he’s like this,” Tang said, sorting her pieces from Li’s as she turned back to the Go board. “By the way, the instructor that brought you in told me to tell you that he left you some stuff. It should include a sect uniform. We can’t have disciples walking around looking like applicants now, can we.”
Chao Ren looked down, realizing that he was still wearing the same uniform that he’d spent the last several days of the exam in. The sect had provided six additional sets for the applicants to wear during the exams, but in his fervor to push his cultivation forwards…
He took an experimental sniff of his uniform and recoiled. It stunk of sweat and despair, so deeply that it cut through the calming medicinal scents of the room. He quickly shrugged the robe off, reaching for the boxes by his bed as he did.
“Press your finger against the brass plaque for the privacy screen,” Li said, and Ren thanked him as he put his thumb against the symbol engraved in the metal. There was slight shock as it drew a wisp of qi from him, before the wood around his bed rose, surrounding him in lightly engraved wooden panels that touched the rafters. He couldn’t make out what the signs meant, but he assumed that they were some sort of array or formation designed to preserve some measure of dignity.
Stepping out from his bed, he stretched his back, and then his arms, and then his legs. He felt a bit sore, but with the power of hindsight, it was li better than he’d felt during the exam. He really had been letting himself go towards the end. There was a small basin of clear water and a pair of towels next to his bed, and with a sigh of relief he stripped himself of the rest of his clothes, including his undergarments.
After wetting one of the towels, he began to wipe himself clean, scouring away the weeks of filth that had accumulated on his skin. The food pills the sect had provided might have removed his need to excrete, but they had also made his sweat slightly stickier, by a degree he hadn’t noticed until it had accumulated as much as it had.
The scabs fell from his hands when he scrubbed them, likely the work of a healing technique of some sort. He could still remember the sensation of them cracking against the jade, the feeling of fresh blood trickling down his fists as he pushed himself against the limit of the exam’s duration. He shook his head, clearing it of such thoughts as he moved on to his armpits. It wasn’t good to dwell on such things.
It took three passes with the moistened towel before he was able to truly feel clean, after which he resolved to better maintain himself the next time he cultivated. There was just a certain itchiness that crept back to his mind when he thought about how his skin had felt minutes ago, and he’d rather he never had to think about such a thing again.
He considered washing his hair in the basin, but decided against it. It was a great deal murkier than it had been when he started, and he’d rather not coat his hair in all the grime he’d just finished scraping from himself. In retrospect, he should have really cleaned it first. It had grown quite a bit over the last six months, to the point where he’d been forced to use the hair tie the sect had provided to keep it from getting in the way.
He’d need to find somewhere to get it cut.
He hated when it got in the way, and he was absolutely awful at cutting it himself. His family still laughed about the last time he’d tried when it got brought up at gatherings.
Turning his attention over to his bedside table, he found a pair of boxes, as well as a pair of envelopes weighed down by another, far smaller box. He recognized the bottom box as the one he’d stored his belongings in prior to the entrance exam, and his hands quickly went to his chest to reassure himself that the marker for it was still around his neck. He let out a sigh of relief when he was reassured of its presence, moving the small box to the side so that he could read the letters. After slitting the first one open with one of his well-chewed fingernails, he began to read the contents.
Disciple Chao Ren,
On the behalf of the Teal Mountain Sect, I would like to congratulate you on your admittance to the Teal Mountain Sect.
However, do not become overconfident.
You may have achieved the Qi Refining stage, but cultivation is a long road, and you will face many obstacles. Endeavor to achieve the Body Refining and Mind Refining stage during the remaining time of the exam.
Do not let your diligence lapse because you have already passed.
Similarly, do not lend the manual labelled Teal Jade Qi Gathering Technique to the other applicants, as it contains teachings for stabilizing the Qi Gathering stage and for beginning the first steps of the Qi Refining stage. It is unlikely that you will be able to complete the first step of the Qi Refining stage over the course of the exam, but it is never too early to start practicing.
As your future Instructor, I would recommend you focus on the other two pillars more than it, but not to neglect it completely.
-Instructor Yeung Lin
Confused, Chao Ren opened the second letter.
Disciple Chao Ren,
I, Instructor Yeung Lin, apologize for the mental anguish caused to you by my actions. In my negligence, I failed to properly inform you that you had passed the entrance exam while it was in progress.
Please accept these thirty spirit stones as a token of my sincerity. Also attached is the letter I neglected to give you, as proof of its existence.
I applaud your diligence in cultivating your qi as well as you did during the exam, but I advise that you practice moderation in the future. Persistence is a virtue, but in too great a quantity, it is also a poison. Remain vigilant about your body’s condition, and avoid risking long-term damage for short-term gains.
Cultivation is a long road, and it will serve you well to remember that fact.
You also neglected the cultivation of your body and mind during the exam. I would strongly recommend that you avoid doing so in the future. As with all things, balance is key, so please endeavor to righten your pillars in the future.
I advise that you take your time recovering, so that you might resume your cultivation in an ideal state. I expect my students to properly care for their bodies, and as I am now officially your Instructor, this standard is now expected of you.
The Medical Pavillion will be able to guide you to your dorm following your release. Your lessons will begin at the start of the eleventh month, so I recommend that you use that time to familiarize yourself with the sect.
Do not attempt to enter closed door cultivation during this period.
I strongly recommend attending the Newcomer’s Tour on the twentieth of this month. It will help prevent you from getting lost during your first months in the sect.
-Instructor Yeung Lin
After reading the contents twice to reassure himself that they were real, Chao Ren turned towards his bedside table. He opened the small box that had held down the letters and found a small pouch containing the aforementioned spirit stones. He counted them with trembling hands, the purple stones clacking together as he did.
They were all there.
All thirty of them.
He carefully returned to them to the pouch, closed it in the box, and placed it back on the table.
He sat there, on his bed, for a long moment, unsure whether he should laugh or cry at his fate.
On one hand, his now-mentor had apparently put him through a veritable hell through sheer negligence. He’d spent six months attempting to summit a truly insurmountable mountain, to the point that he’d neglected other aspects of his cultivation. He’d pushed himself to his very limits, and almost been broken by them. His fist clenched in anger, the phantom pain of his recent injuries causing him to wince.
But on the other hand, his misery had been temporary.
He had still passed, and more than doubled his spirit stones for his troubles! From a certain perspective, it was almost as if he’d been paid five stones a month to focus on cultivating. A truly envious occupation, and one he’d likely never encounter again. He let his hand relax, the crumpled letters falling to the floor.
And most importantly, he had endured. He had proven that he could endure the struggles of cultivation. That he could overcome his limits to stand as a proud member of the sect. He opened the last of the new boxes, revealing the distinct dark green robes of the Teal Mountain Sect.
Nephrite green. The color of rough jade. Of potential ready to be shaped. He grasped the cloth reverently, feeling the realness of its soft folds in his hand.
Yes, it had all been worth it.
He was truly a member of the sect now.
He was… a cultivator.