As the morning light arrived, a small figure could be seen shadow boxing inside the Yu Clan’s training fields. The field was nearly empty, with only a few diligent individuals choosing to awaken so early for morning practice. Yu Jiao was naturally among them.

It had been 1 whole year since Yu Gan had first introduced her to cultivation practices. Within this time she had kept up appearances for the sake of being inconspicuous - presenting herself as slowly learning the forms of the Flowing Storm Fist; despite Jason having them completed as muscle memory within the hour she got it. As the saying goes - when in Rome, do as the Romans do. If she were to stand out then there would be way too many difficult questions.

However throughout this year, she had found a new way to occupy some of her time. After practice until the peak of light, she would dash down to the kitchens. She was well known even in the family as a bit of a glutton. Even compared to Earth people in this world consume far more food - yet Yu Jiao was a complete mystery - at the age of 3 she could out eat a fully grown man.

However there was a reason to this madness - having a stronger body means much higher energy expenditure - the capacity and activity of her mind was hundreds of times stronger than a regular human, and despite her and Jason’s best attempts at energy efficiency - it still needed a lot of power.

As Yu Jiao left the kitchens, she carried two large baskets in each arm and ran to a quiet peaceful and ancient looking pavilion, a large sign above the gate read “Martial Hall”.

She came up to the main doors and knocked loudly calling “Big Uncle Míngzhì, I brought lunch; I want to play our game.

After a few seconds the door opened, a white haired wrinkled old man emerged holding an ancient looking walking stick; his face showing a gentle smile.

“Ahhh, Jiao’er, this old man had thought you had forgotten our rematch!”

Yu Jiao wrinkled her eyebrows and pouted like a child “I won’t lose again Big Uncle, and if I win you have to let me see one book.”

“Wahaha, you sly child, buttering up your Big Uncle so you can see more martial arts manuals. Have you sensed Qi yet? If not then I’m afraid these books would be useless to you.” He chuckled and teased. Yu Jiao’s visits were always pleasant, after all what old man did not enjoy the company of his younger generations.

Yu Jiao continued to play the child and sulked “I haven’t Big Uncle, I don’t understand how to sense Qi, it’s so hard!” It was true; Yu Jiao really hadn’t been able to sense Qi at all. She could only see Qi during events that showed martial artists sparring or practicing. However through her attempts at meditation she had never been able to sense the qi in the surroundings in a normal setting. Jason’s attempts at hypothesizing reasons how or why similarly bore no fruit.

“Big Uncle I want to play our game again!” Yu Jiao said amidst her play sulking. Playing the child was only as a means to play to Yu Míngzhì’s needs. His job guarding the Martial Hall - the storage place of all the martial arts known to the Yu Clan, was quite boring; until peak seasons when new members of the generations would stop by, there was very little to do other than drink wine and play games; he was quite lonely, and had no children himself.

At Yu Míngzhì’s age, there was very little hope of further progression with his current cultivation techniques; however he should not be underestimated. This old man was one of the great elder’s in the Yu Clan standing at the peak of Qi Gathering, If it weren’t for the fact further techniques were guarded by higher organisations then Yu Míngzhì might have been even stronger.

As the kind elder brought Yu Jiao in and seated her opposite him at a table with a chessboard on it, Yu Jiao was reminded to be constantly vigilant. The very fact that the rules and layout of chess were the exact same as Earth meant that either transport between this world and hers was possible - or that information could be stored in souls after death. Similarly it showed that there was an opportunity that death was not the oblivion that Earth had previously thought it was.

If she could retain her memories, then others may be able to as well.

Stolen novel; please report.

If there’s different worlds with systems of qi as physics laws in this world; then what else is out there in this universe.

Is this the only universe? Could there be more? These questions were too big for her now. But she yearned to learn; and for now this world was still heaping with mysteries and unknowns awaiting to be solved.

Hours went by as Yu Jiao and Yu Míngzhì played the time away; Yu Jiao played the tenacious loser, always wanting a rematch, amusing the old man. Mid-game Yu Míngzhì asked Yu Jiao

“Tell me Jiao’er, what do you think of this proposed marriage between you and the City lord’s fourth son Zhang Fu”.

Yu Jiao continued with her young facade; “I want to be the strongest cultivator! I don’t need a stupid boy with me, especially if he doesn’t help me. Besides I don’t even know him, he’s barely a year older than me!”

“But marriage into the Zhang family would be good to get stronger wouldn’t it? Zhang family is a Baron family supported by the Qin dynasty; if the Zhang family makes contributions or donations they can trade for items within the entire Qin dynasty storage, including martial arts! Marrying into higher nobility isn’t a bad idea if you want to be strong.

Yu Jiao’s eyes widened, however on the inside she was sniggering knowingly -This so called Zhang Fu would be a small stepping stone, but she had no access to him. Right now what she needed was contact between her and this Zhang Fu, Children were perfectly mouldable through conditioning if you start young.

“Mmmm, Jiao’er will think about it Big Uncle, but Big Uncle should pay attention to the game - Checkmate!”

Yu Míngzhì started, then focused his eyes back on the board; unknowingly to his eyes she had been improving rapidly; yet inwardly she was sneering.

“It’s about time, I’ve been patient enough to just be considered a clever child, not a freak but playing a game I’ve already solved is just so boring.” she thought inwardly, but now it was time for her to reap the rewards of her patience.

Yu Jiao stood up in her chair and held up one childlike finger “as promise Big Uncle Míngzhì, I can read one book”. Yu Míngzhì sad back in his chair in mild shock, until he sighed, stood up and brought out a key from his robes and escorted her through the large doors ahead.

The Martial Hall looked extremely large from the outside, however the higher floors with the better martial arts were noticeably smaller, the reason for the space was for allocated meditation rooms as well as stations for copying or techniques. It was extremely rare for a book to even be let outside the walls.

If one looked at the doors and walls closely, they would be able to see varying small shimmering lights that seemed like they were alive. These lights were the warning inscriptions and runes that Yu Gan himself had placed down as a contribution to the security of the martial hall. Other families had similar security, but they had to hire other inscriptionists or Yu Gan himself for a high price to similarly safeguard their precious resources.  The inscriptionist betrayal was a risk that these families simply had to live with; not to mention each ancestor of the balancing power families (Quan, Xie, Yu and Zhang had strength far exceeding the inscriptionists - retaliation would not be survivable.

As Yu Míngzhì guided Yu Jiao through the book cases he asked “Jiao’er, you haven’t gone through your awakening ceremony yet have you?

“No Big Uncle, what does the awakening ceremony do?”

“The awakening ceremony is done to aid you in your initial circulation of qi in your body. An elder level figure, traditionally one of your parents would inject their qi into your body all the way up until they reached your soul. Normally someone would find it very difficult to channel their qi so the stronger qi helps in paving the pathway of meridians through your body. Furthermore this ceremony helps in showing one’s talent and also the nature of their spirit root. To show which of the five phases you are most suited for.” Yu Míngzhì explained very slowly as they walked.

“Since you don’t know what spirit root you have, or what element you have an affinity for, then for your book I would advise you to go for something simple. Something that’s neutral across the phases.”

“I see Big Uncle; Yu Jiao will pick something simple” She played off a childishly sweet smile.

However inside she was worried. Her body was one of her biggest secrets; she knew she still didn’t have enough data concerning the power of qi and spirit to be able to deceive someone far stronger than she was. Right now she had little data to go on; her traditional deductions and hypothesis seemed completely mute on this topic. She was truly fumbling in the dark.

Plus there was the issue of that huge grey blue fish sat there inside her soul. If the family found that out then there would be a huge problem - Yu Jiao had subtly sneaked into the normal library and absorbed everything in there. She had no records of someone having a monstrous beast in their soul space. Let alone a big blue fish.

Yu Míngzhì interrupted her panicked thoughts “Oh and Jiao’er, one last thing.”

“What is it big Uncle?” she asked innocently, hiding her inner chaos.

“No telling your mother or clan leader about you seeing these books, they’ll just be our little secret ok?”

“Yes Big Uncle Míngzhì, I won’t tell anyone” Yu Jiao answered back with an innocent smile.