CHAPTER 1 --- AWAKENING

Waking up, the first thing Ren saw was a blur. As his eyes adjusted after blinking a few times, what he saw was just like what you would see under water, all kinds of particles moving about. His first thought was that it was quite dusty, but it didn’t impact his breathing so he gave it no second thought.

Sitting up and looking around, he saw that he was in a cell. Swinging his leg under his bed to get up, he was too late to notice that his legs weren’t as long as he was used to. His legs shot under the bed, the momentum pulling him off of it as he fell flat on the ground.

*Bam*

Getting up again, his first action was to feel his head. “ow” he murmured, feeling the huge bump on his forehead. He shakily stood up, struggling to find his balance. He quickly looked himself over to see if his head was the only thing that was hurt, but as he did so, his whole body stiffened as he was completely shocked. “My… my legs..” he said.

As he looked himself over completely, he finally had to sit down on his bed in an effort to calm himself down. Although having to jump up to sit on it didn’t really help.

As he finally started to calm down and accept the fact that he had the body of a child, he couldn’t help but ask himself what happened. Looking around, he started calling out.

“Hey, anyone there?... hey?... HEY!”

*BANG*

“Shut up brat! Or you’ll regret it!”

A man yelled after throwing a stone against the cell’s door.

“f*ck you can’t do this! Let me out!” Ren yelled.

“What did you say you little brat!” the man yelled, quickly arriving in front of the cell. Opening the door, he immediately kicked Ren off the bed.

*bang*

“Take that you little slave, how dare you mouth off like that, just wait until I’m done with you!” As he was giving Ren a few extra kicks, his partner quickly came after him and said.

“Hey, are you crazy? That’s the new addition, the elder’ll kill you if you break it!” hearing this, the other man went a bit pale, as he spit on the ground, saying “Tsk, you’re lucky kid, but you won’t be lucky for long!” and quickly left, leaving Ren on the ground, panting for breath.

‘Sh*t, where’d I end up? Why am I here? What happened?’ He thought, as he crawled back to the bed in pain. On his bed, he felt comletely useless and powerless. There was nothing he could do in a child’s body, and he was at the full mercy of his captors.

As soon as he thought of this, he started panicking and a deep sense of fear invaded him. ‘Why is this happening to me? Where am I? what’s going to happen to me? Who are these people? Why me?’ Questions like those flooded his mind. But in the end, he had no way of finding the answers, lest he got beat up again. So, he finally decided to try and calm down.

But all of this, waking up in a cell, getting ruthlessly kicked against the wall, and most of all being in the body of a child, was just too much for Ren. Looking around, he saw the hole that was supposed to be his toilet. Running up to it he let the dizziness overwhelm him and puked.

Of course nothing came out, making it all the more painful. Having done that, he did the only thing he could do in his situation: lay down, sleep, and hope it’s all a dream.

He lied down and felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion overcoming him.

*Klank… kreeeeeee*

“haaaaaaahh, good moho..oorrgh” Ren said, as he stretched his body, but quickly cringed in pain. He still had a few bruises from being kicked yesterday. That was also when he noticed what happened before was NOT a dream. But before he could give it any thought, his visitor started talking.

”Well, that’s a first, usually you slaves are all afraid of …” the elder was stopped speaking in stunned silence, his eyes flashing with pleasant surprise. By now Ren had gotten up and had an equally shocked but also a kind of depressed expression on his face upon looking at the elder, but Ren’s shocked expression was of course for other reasons. The reason for the elder’s surprise was because he saw Ren’s eyes!

Seeing them, the first thought that went throught the elder’s head was that he had struck gold.

‘Hehe, this child will sell for a fortune if I can get him strong enough!’ he thought as he looked at him.

“who are you?” Ren cautiously asked, afraid he’d get kicked again.

Of course, the elder, who still looked at him as if he were a huge pile of gold, had no such intentions.

He chuckled and said “You can call me third elder. But you should introduce yourself when you ask for someone’s name. Although I have to say this is a pleasant surprise, most slaves your age would be crying and asking for their mom, hehe.”

Looking at the elder, Ren said “I’m Ren, why am I here? Can you get me out? What did you do to me?”

“We did nothing to you… yet. Some of our disciples found you a few days ago, and gifted you to me. You’re quite lucky I’ve taken a liking to you! At least you won’t end up in the arena immediately.”

The elder said with his trademark smile on his face.

Looking at the elder in confusion, Ren asked “Arena?”.

The elder chuckled, “hehe, you’ll learn of it later, for now, follow me.

More than happy to follow the elder out of this prison, they left the cells and went a floor lower. Where they entered a hall filled with doors. The elder stopped at a door marked 0022 and said “Now, you’ll be staying here a few days until you have a basic cultivation, and once that’s done, you’ll be able to move about a bit more freely.”

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Looking at the elder in confusion, Ren couldn’t help but ask, “cultivation? Like a plant?”

Hearing this, the elder was momentarily at a loss for words, but in the end he still explained.

“No, not like a plant, I mean like a cultivator, a martial artist!” The elder said.

“Uh, no thanks?” Ren tentatively answered.

Hearing this, the elder’s face immediately changed, “Look, kid, it’s either that, or you fight in the arena and probably die! Now get in and listen!” he yelled, his patience finally running out.

Seeing that the middle-aged man was getting impatient, Ren decided to just do as he was told until he understood what situation he was in.

Walking in, Ren noticed he was in an actual room with four walls, a decent bed, and even a bathroom.

“Now,” the elder started, “I’ll explain how to start basic cultivation. Don’t worry, most children start at the age of 6-7 years old so you should be able to do it.”

“First, you have to know that the world is filled with essence, a form of energy. It’s everywhere and in everything. To martial artists, we absorb it in our body, where it creates a space. This space is called your ‘inner space’. Once this space is created, the essence you absorb will be stored in it as Qi.”

Looking at Ren, he said “I know you probably knew this already, but I’m just making sure. Do you understand?”

Ren’s mind was reeling, as he finally concluded that he had ended up in some kind of mental institute!

‘Just go along with him, Ren, crazy people can be dealt with if you stay in their little world.’ He said to himself. And quickly responded with a “yes, of course!” whilst he looked at the elder with pitying eyes.

Hearing this, the elder was glad that the kid was quick to catch on, and never noticed the pitying look the kid gave him. Had he known Ren’s thoughts, he would’ve slapped him until his face was black and blue!

Luckily, he didn’t know, so he unassumingly continued his explanation.

“Good, now, this will take you a while, but I’ll explain how to start building your space.

First, you’ll have to sit cross-legged and close your eyes… come on, hurry up!”

Ren quickly did as told under the elder’s urging.

“Good”, the elder continued, “Although our sect has some special methods, all you’ll get to learn is the basics.”

Hearing this, Ren couldn’t help but think ‘sect?! How’d I get mixed up with those religious crazies?!’

But he didn’t dare say anything as he continued to listen to the elder.

“Now, feel around yourself until you can feel the world’s essence” he explained, “after that, focus on your body’s center, which is a bit below the bellybutton. Then imagine a whirlpool forming, once you do, you’ll start feeling a tingling feeling across the skin there. That is the energy entering and purifying your skin. Once this happens you’ll have to slowly spread out the feeling over your whole body. Once you achieve that, you will automatically create your space, and hopefully an elemental seed, if you’re lucky that is.”

Hearing this, the word ‘crazy’ flickered in Ren’s mind, but he still did as told, because, well, he did wake up in a child’s body, so who knows? Concentrating on his surroundings, he tried to get a feeling for the particles. As he tried focusing on the air, he actually noticed he could ‘see’ the same dust-like particles he saw floating around when he woke up.

‘Is this the essence he was talking about?’ He thought, as he started imagining a whirlpool forming.

As he did so, he started thinking he was actually going nuts, because he really did feel the tingling sensation. As he tried to spread the feeling further, it instantly disappeared. The elder, seeing his look of confusion, started explaining.

“You won’t get it on the first time. You’ll have to be patient and spread it slowly. But for now wait until I’m done explaining the rest.”

Ren nodded and the elder continued.

“So, after you’ll have formed a space, and maybe an elemental seed, you’ll be able to start accumulating essence in the same way to form your core. Only by forming your core will you take your first step as a martial artist! At that time, you’ll be able to see your inner space! Once you can do that, you’ll be able to utilize your Qi outside of your body. Until then you’ll only be able to use it to strengthen your body. Of course you don’t have to worry about that yet, you can just be happy if you manage to form your space before you join the others! Hahaha!”

Hearing this, Ren finally perked up. “The others? So there are more like me?”

Looking the kid over, the elder mumbled “I don’t think there are any others like you, I really should find out where those useless disciples found you…*cough cough* but anyways, yes! Of course there are other slaves like you! Did you really think you were alone? How naïve!”

Of course, Ren didn’t miss what the elder said.

’So they don’t know where I came from either… who are the disciples that found me?’

As Ren was thinking this, the elder finished his endless explanation with a grim expression. “But don’t worry about the rest, I’ll explain the details later. For now just make sure you finish making your space if you want to survive!”

Seeing the elder’s serious expression, Ren nodded his head, after which the elder finally left.