Wan Ai had just had the best three months of her life. Growing up in the orphanage, she’d mostly been praised by Mistress Zhong for being a helpful and obedient child.

Mostly.

When Wan Ai did get into trouble it was for hiding away from the other children in the house. It wasn’t that she was bullied or teased or anything like that. It was just that they were so loud. And she liked quiet. She liked to be alone.

For the last three months, she’d basically confined herself to a room, alone, and cultivated. For ten to twelve blessed hours a day, she experienced complete peace. Breathe in. Circulate qi as the jade slip instructed. Breathe out. Repeat.

Both the solitude and the improvements to her body and mind appealed to her. She found the cultivation method Master had given her nourishing to a fundamental part of her, which was weird because she hadn’t previously realized that part existed. He’d told her she had a fire and nature aspect, and the more time she spent meditating, the more in tune she felt with those elements.

It was glorious.

At night, when Wan Ai emerged from the room to eat, she was not criticized or told to spend more time with the others. Instead, she was praised for her diligence by Mistress Zhong.

Glorious.

When the second month went by and Master did not re-appear, Wan Ai did not know what to think. The man had changed the entire course of her life in a day, but she had no idea how to feel about him. He was so strange and so powerful.

The bad thing was that he expected much from her. To become a great alchemist. To be an important part of his sect.

She just wanted to sit in her room and cultivate.

And then, out of nowhere, he reappeared.

She was so nervous that she couldn’t even look at him, and he started complimenting her again, praising her for her diligence in cultivation. And when he said he had presents for her, she perked up.

No one had ever gotten presents for her.

And what presents they were and so many! Three books. She’d never even owned one. Herbs and seeds. An alchemy set. A dagger that looked really expensive. Two more jade slips, each holding a technique, real cultivator techniques.

But it all came with a price. There was a lot of work to do, and that was fine. She was used to hard work. Master was depending on her, though. He wanted her to be in charge.

That last requirement completely overwhelmed her.

He left, and she tried to calm herself, even skipping lunch. Before she managed to quiet her mind, a young man had showed up at the orphanage with an announcement. All disciples were to meet Master.

A command like that was not to be disobeyed, so she, Mistress Zhong, Xiao Rong, Chang Xioadan, and all eight cultivating children followed the young man toward the gate. At first, Wan Ai thought he meant to lead them outside the village, which would have been terrifying. She had never been outside. He stopped short, though, upon reaching a large crowd gathered in the plaza, and she sighed in relief.

It turned out that the large crowd consisted entirely of more of Master’s disciples. Apparently, Master had been recruiting.

She stood in the back of the group that had arrived with Mistress Zhong and tried to stay out of anyone’s notice. Wan Ai mostly succeeded until Senior Sister and Senior Brother came through the gate with Master.

They both had huge smiles on their faces at seeing her and greeted her warmly with hugs. After she returned the greeting, she noticed how many people were eyeing her, and she wished she could open a hole in the ground and disappear.

Luckily, it didn’t take too long until Master returned with the Esteemed Honorable Mayor. After that, something really bad happened. It became apparent that Master intended to lead them outside of the village.

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The very thought terrified her. There were spirit beasts out there. What if one attacked?

Seeing her distress, Yang Xiu hugged her again. “It’s okay, Junior Sister. Between Master and the two of us, there is no danger. We've just got back from killing dozens of spirit beasts, so we might not even see another one of them.”

“I’ll try to be brave, Senior Sister.”

“Here, let me get you a position in the front of the line right behind Master, Junior Sister. He’s incredibly powerful, more so than you can even imagine. I saw him kill a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator with a single blow!”

Wan Ai didn’t know if that made her feel confident to have someone so powerful presumably protecting her or even more afraid to be so near someone who could kill so easily.

She ended up not only behind Master, the most powerful person she’d ever met, but also the Esteemed Honorable Mayor, the most important man in the village. Even being around such prestigious people made her nervous but not nearly as nervous as leaving behind the village’s walls did.

Every step was torture. She expected lions or tigers or bears to jump out from behind every tree. After a little while, though, when nothing had appeared, she began to think that maybe Yang Xiu was right. Maybe they’d already killed all the spirit beasts.

Then it happened.

At first, there was nothing to be alarmed about. A little squirrel scampered out of the woods. Just a tiny thing. Kind of cute actually.

Master blurred.

He moved so fast that she lost track of him from one step to the next. When she next caught sight of him, he had a spear pointed at the animal.

That was when it hit her. The cute cuddly looking animal was actually a deadly spirit beast.

Before she could even process that information, Master’s spear hit the creature, and it … disappeared.

Wan Ai didn’t know what she expected. Blood probably? A mangled corpse? She’d never seen an animal killed before.

The sight in front of her eyes didn’t make sense. One instant the creature was there and living. The next instant it was just gone, along with a small section of the ground.

Had Master killed it and stored it in his ring so fast that it looked like it had vanished? If so, why did he take a part of the ground?

She happened to catch the Esteemed Honorable Mayor’s eyes. He looked stunned. Whatever Master had done was not normal.

Honestly, that conclusion was not unexpected. Master was truly unfathomable.

They finished their journey to … the middle of a field? No further spirit beasts appeared, so that was good.

The mayor and Master had a conversation. Apparently, Master owned all the land within sight. He’d bought a farm? Wan Ai had no idea why. Maybe to grow herbs?

Master seemed pleased. And thoughtful. He walked several dozen yards away from the group and did something with his hand.

A building appeared. A big building. In midair.

As quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared.

She had no idea what was happening or why.

Master suddenly had a shovel in his hands, and he started digging. Fast. Really fast. At times, he blurred again as he created random holes in the ground.

A quarter to a half hour passed as everyone watched him dig, fascinated by the display he was putting on and, if they were anything like Wan Ai, completely flummoxed as to the reason.

Finally, Master stepped back and looked pleased as he studied the holes he’d dug. The building appeared again, on the ground over where Master had been digging. And it stayed in place.

Master had summoned a building from somewhere or created one out of thin air. Or had it been inside his ring? But rings weren’t that big, were they?

Nothing about Master was simple.

Soon, they were all brought inside the building, which turned out to be an arena. Not that she’d ever seen one as the village was way too small to have anything like that, but she’d read stories where cultivators fought in one. Those descriptions fit the place to a t.

Master conjured a wagon, and Wan Ai was almost positive it came out of his ring. She couldn’t help but imagine what else might be in there. He stood atop it and started speaking.

He was founding his sect at that spot. That was why they were out in the spirit beast infected farmland. At least that aspect of the trip made sense.

Wan Ai liked what he said about the sect. Rising Tide was a good name and a nice sentiment. She liked helping others and liked the idea that she could count on Senior Sister and Senior Brother to help her.

Righteousness also appealed to her. She was more one to be protected than to do the protecting and couldn’t imagine facing evil, much less punishing it. Holding to her word was something she could get behind, though, and the other sentiments were nice if unapplicable to her.

Wan Ai had absolutely no problem swearing to be righteous, to be diligent in her cultivation, and to obey other sect members like Senior Sister and Senior Brother. In fact, she much preferred that last part to being made to be the one giving orders.

Then Master made an oath to the heavens and the heavens responded! She’d read about such things in stories but had never thought to see it herself. One had to be truly blessed for that to happen.

Master truly was not simple.

The call came for the disciples to rise and swear to an oath themselves, and Wan Ai couldn’t have resisted if she wanted to. Fate pulled at her. The very heavens pulled at her.

She stood proudly in unison with the others and yelled at the top of her lungs, “We so swear, Sect Leader!”

It was a heady feeling being a member of a sect.