“Teach me cultivation”.

These words had given Yu Gan endless headaches; Yu Jiao had made this request on the eve after her 2nd birthday - each year being 360 days of 24 hours each. She had revealed that she could walk extremely early in her age; and her speed of learning speech was absurdly fast to the point that her parents would have been frightened were she not their child. It felt that she had matured a year every day, she had the bearing of a fully grown adult; she was perfectly literate, polite and mature.

Every mortal indicator would judge Yu Jiao as a genius yet as a doting father, would Yu Gan allow her to take up the cruel and bloody path that is cultivation from such an early age where she should have barely left her cradle. Whilst it was always better to start early; Yu gan was still reluctant.

After a full week of pestering, Yu Gan finally gave in to Yu Jiao’s demands. One early morning he led her out to a quiet part of a practice field; nearby there were a few teenagers who had awoken early to train. They both sat down in a quiet corner where Yu Gan his explanation:

“The decision to cultivate is not one to be taken lightly Jiao’er; Cultivation involves battle, blood and often betrayal. It is the pursuit of power; a pursuit of a person’s own path, their own dao. Even in this Blue Cloud city, where we four organisations of Yu, Quan, Xie and even the Baron appointed Zhang family reign supreme; we are but one small corner in the entire Qin dynasty. The Zhang family was appointed to watch the zhan forest range for potential demonic beast attacks or other foreign entities.

But as far as battle strength goes; we are the tip of the iceberg, the weakest of the aristocrats. As one goes further into the empire, cultivators slowly get more powerful.  Do you understand? “

“I do father”, she replied quickly; “but how does one get stronger; how do people practice, how do people use qi to fight?”

Yu Gan, stopped and fell silent for a full minute; thinking how to answer it simply.

“People practice cultivation; by using martial arts and breathing techniques to slowly absorb qi and move it around the body through the meridian pathway; eventually after one reaches the pinnacle of the Qi gathering stage, they would be able to find a technique that enables them to unearth their dantian. However just to get that stage requires decades of practice. Tell me Yu Jiao; how old do I seem to you? “ He asked with a somewhat amused face

Yu Jiao’s eyebrows raised as she played her part as a child. “Father seems young, no older than 28” she replied after serious thought.

“Pahahaha, oh little one; if I were still that young with my cultivation at the 4th stage of Qi gathering, I’d be in a cultivation sect. Although cultivation allows us a longer lifespan, I am still considered a touch too old for the sects at age 52.” He burst into laughter before explaining with a smile.

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Watching Yu Jiao’s facial expression caused Yu Gan to burst into once more when he revealed his age.

“Ahaha; but in response to your last question; human’s use their spirit as a way to express their will so that qi will move. By moving the Qi through different meridians, and then expelling or containing the qi in their body’s acupoints and finally combining it with their will they are able to form endless different types of martial arts and techniques. Many martial arts are based on the characteristics of the five elements: Fire, water, wood, earth and metal. However a martial artist must learn a suitable cultivation technique of that element to then use martial arts that are based on that element.” Yu Gan explained without stopping, he wore a stern face befitting a teacher.

“But father, what about the other forces of nature - like the wind, thunder or even light?” Yu Jiao’s questions went on and on. He mentioned the cultivation stages of body strengthening, qi infusion, qi gathering and dantian excavation. Her questions seeming endless until she finally asked her final 2 questions:

“What is qi? what is the spirit?”

Yu Gan looked helpless and ragged at this point; they had been sat their for a few hours; many practitioners had come and gone by this point.

Yu Gan sighed exasperatedly, “I don’t know. The truth is no one really knows what qi is, or where it came from, or what it does naturally or why its even here. We don’t know why we can exert our will through our spirits to move it at all. As for the spirit, we have a more rough idea. The spirit is a bestowal by the heavens when a life form has ascended beyond following its instinct and think properly. Humans and few other races like the fairy race or born with this; however demon beasts must undertake heaven’s judgement after growing and expanding their own mind.”

“So then-”

“Enough, Jiao’er you are the most eager child I have ever met when it comes to cultivation. You don’t ask for stories about great legends; but much more complicated questions. Maybe one day if you ever reach that height, you can come back and teach me” Yu Gan interrupted suddenly despite only appearing in his mid twenties - to him a child’s curiosity seemed endless.

Yu gan passed her a large beast skin book held from within his robes and gave it to her whilst withholding the urge to chuckle at how the entire book was nearly as big as her chest., “Here, This is one of the basic martial arts for those at the body strengthening stage, Flowing Storm Fist.”

Yu Jiao happily received the book with a glint in her eyes. Skimming through the pages within a few seconds, she then mentally ordered “Jason scan the movements described here, analyse the required muscle movements and write these as new muscle memories”.

“Yes ma’am”, Jason responded in a monotone fashion.

“I want you to practice this early everyday when the light emerges until midday. In the Yu clan, you are allowed to begin cultivation at qi infusion after you successfully sense qi and can lift at least 100 jin with your own strength.” Yu gan instructed sternly.

“I understand father, I shall practice as the sun rises.” Yu Jiao replied seriously; yet inside she was shocked. To request a child to be able to lift a weight of 50kg before even learning how to cultivate qi? How do these arts enable such strength progress!? Even now she saw flashes in the corner of her eyes as Jason broke down each stance and movement of the Flowing Storm Fist.

Yu Gan looked confused towards his daughter, he waited a few moments to confirm that she hadn’t made a mistake before asking “Jiao’er, what do you mean by the sun rising? What is this sun you mentioned?”

Yu Jiao’s face twisted in confusion and alarm as she quickly looked up towards the sky. It was a clear day in the middle afternoon. There was light, there was wind, the sky was blue, there was gravity. But there was no sun, there wasn’t a moon either.

Jade cursed internally. “Oh shit. I’m really going to have to start from scratch again.”