The bright blue moon rose and shined light through Huabe’s window. The walls were alight with faint, flickering candlelight. All of the babies were tucked into their cribs, swaddled in blankets. Their father was seated on a padded wooden chair. He was wearing a lotus print nightrobe with a Santa-like hat on his head. But, instead of red and white, the whole hat was a charcoal grey colour. On his feet, he wore a pair of thick wool slippers.

“Now, here’s the tale of the Kiuly Iron eyes, chapter 1, Origin.”

Huabe had heard this story once before, but it was a few months ago when she barely understood the language. Hopefully, this time, she will be able to understand what is being said.

“Once upon a time, there existed a boy. He was none other than Kiuly. He lived underground, as descendants of Ulth often do.”

“There he grew up, as a humble miner. He mined ores day in and day out, burrowing deep into the earth. During this time, Kiuly often felt dissatisfied. “I’m destined for more” he would often think to himself.

“Then, tragedy struck. A group of demonic cultivators set upon his home village by the name of Golset. The demonic forces set to work destroying the people's homes, stealing their hard-earned coin, and killing the people on the spot.

“When Kiuly returned, he was set upon by the demons. They robbed him of his loot found in the caverns and beat him blue. They carved out his eyes and cut off his ears, the greatest blessing of Ulth.

“They left him to die there, on the cold stone ground of the cavern. But he did not. That was the demon's first mistake. They underestimated the strength of his skin, the second greatest blessing of Ulth. Kiuly rose from the ground in defiance, he would not be put down, he would lift himself up every single time.

“The demon's second mistake was underestimating the strength of Ulth’s blessing upon his ears. Kiuly could still hear very well despite the injury, for that was the descendant's greatest strength.

“Using his superior hearing, he searched for his trusty pickaxe. He scavenged what food and water he could and then set off down into the mines once more.

“Kiuly travelled deep, deeper than he had ever gone before. For if one travels deep enough, one will eventually come across a fortune. And that was indeed the case. A vein filled with mystical metal sat at the bottom of that tunnel. Kiuly could hear the difference in sound when he tapped his pickaxe against the vein. But he also heard something quite unexpected.

“The sound of a quiet metal grinding. He did not know it yet, but there was a metal spirit nearby.

“Paying the sound no further thought, Kiuly began to do what he did best. Mine. Two full days, he laboured, and yet all he had to show for it were two small lumps. “I need to move on,” he said to himself. His food had run out, and he was down to his last sip of water.

“But before he left, Kiuly decided to find the source of that metal grinding noise. Using his blessing, he followed the sound. Using his hand, he searched for whatever made the sound. It was close, he knew that it was. Yet he couldn't find it with his hands. That was when the thought struck him, it must've been a spirit!

“ “A spirit residing around a mystical metal must be rare” were Kiuly’s thoughts. So he made the decision. He took his last sip of water and then settled into meditation. He sat there for 4 days, weathering the constant hunger and the growing thirst. But his efforts were rewarded. The metal spirit, having grown used to his presence, finally decided to sate its curiosity. The spirit rested on Kiuly's chin and stared down his throat, observing the oddity that was a material existent.

“Kiuly awoke from his meditation and grasped his chance. He took a sharp, deep breath. The spirit was pulled inside by the force of the gasp, unable to resist.

“He had succeeded! Kiuly pumped his hands in the air and celebrated but soon fell to the ground, exhausted. Using the last of his strength, he made the arduous climb upwards, his pack empty save for two lumps of metal.”

Wenku brought a string down on the page, then closed the leather-bound book, careful to not make a sound. He stood up from his chair and slowly tip-toed towards the four cribs and looked into each one, checking to make sure they were all asleep.

Huabe kept her eyes closed. Sure, if she had shown that she was still awake, her father might continue the story. But, she was sure the man in front of her was tired. She was not a monster. She would let her father sleep.

Wenku took a small wooden stick with a metal cone attached to the end that was shaped like a bell. Using this, he snuffed out the candles in the room one by one, until only one remained. He picked up the lone candle in its holder and exited the room, leaving the door open.

Huabe opened her eyes wide and began to think about the story she had just heard.

She had heard this mentioned before, but from context, she didn't know it was a person's name. But that story confirmed it. The context she had heard of Kiuly was in this era, KIE. Which she guessed stood for Kiuly Iron Eyes. An entire era named after one person. It frankly sounded insane, but she guessed, on earth, they did the same thing. But still, it kind of blew her mind.

Who was Ulth? She had never heard of this person. The story said that Kiuly had Ulth’s blessings. Did that make Ulth a god? But it also said that Kiuly was a descendant of Ulth, so did that mean that Kiuly was a demigod or something? Because it didn't really sound like he was treated like a demigod, but just some chump.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Also, Kiuly managed to capture a spirit. She didn't think that they were capturable. Also, what would you even do with a spirit?

But back to the capture portion of the story. The story said he just took a deep, sharp breath. Do spirits react to breath? Or is it just the act of taking a breath? The story was kind of unclear. If she blew on a spirit, would it react to that? And why did a person have to mediate for a spirit to come close?

Ok, she could probably answer that question. From her experience, earlier today, spirits were cocky but dumb. Or, at least she hoped they were dumb.

You hear that gecko!? You’re dumb! She didn't care what anybody else told her, spirits were dumb. Especially if they kept falling for that meditation trick over and over again. She would've thought that if a spirit were smart, they would spread the word.

But thinking about that part of the story raises another question. Why would spirits be interested in humans? Or, more specifically, their “Material existents.” Those were some big words for a children's book.

… Was it a children's book? Looking back, it talked about a massacre of a village. And “demonic cultivators.” What the heck was a demonic cultivator?

There was one part she barely recognized. Cultivators! Not of plants, but of immortality! She thinks. To be honest with herself, she did not know that much about cultivation novels. She was more of a western fantasy reader. Armour, dragons, mana, all that good stuff. But here, cultivation novels were all about robes, Qi, and male ponytails.

Was that the key? No, she decided to deal with that last, before she fell to sleep. She needed to get her thoughts in order first.

First off. Huabe's father was kind of weird. That book was definitely not meant for children. Or perhaps it was, and this was just a different culture. But she doubted it. From her spying… Her harmless listening, she had surmised that her father, Wenku, was some sort of paper-pusher. Perhaps in this world, it would be called a scribe. A scribe/nerd, that is. He always had ink stains on his robe, and he was always reading in his free time. She had also never seen him workout, giving credence to his willowy figure.

Spirits were a thing in this world. Common knowledge, it seemed. There was also a way to affect spirits. Whether it was a person's breath or just something to do with their mouth, she still didn't know.

Bad people existed in the world, and they were apparently called demonic cultivators. She would personally not give them such a cool-sounding name, and instead label them as scum that would soon be ground under the heel of her boot! But that was just her personal opinion.

Ulth. No fucking clue.

Now, on to exploring Qi. What was Qi? She didn't know. But, she had a suspicion. Huabe guessed that the Qi had something to do with the little psycho monster. And now that she had a second example of what a spirit was, she surmised that the little psycho monster was not a spirit. After all, in the story, the spirit was incorporeal, much like the gecko. The little psycho monster was definitely based in reality. Just remembering those tendrils forcing her mouth open and spilling into her throat gave her the shivers!

Her view shifted. She looked at the unbalanced white and black being floating in the air. The surroundings were still as fuzzy as ever. Something zipped past her view, bouncing off the walls.

And there was the wisp of light, still as energetic as ever. Now, was this Qi? She thought it just might be. After all, she should not even be able to see this weird area in the first place. This space was weird, the unidentified energy was weird, and finally, cultivation was weird. So all this weirdness must fit together somehow. Therefore, this must be Qi.

After all, if the shoe fits.

Moving on, she thought about what this meant. possibly. But! If she could collect this Qi while she was a baby, she would have a headstart! Maybe. She really didn't know enough yet, but it seemed plausible. How many baby cultivators could there be?

But, was she a cultivator? Surely it didn't just take collecting Qi to be a cultivator, did it? That seemed too easy. If it was just collecting Qi, wouldn't everybody be doing it? She hadn't seen her father meditate at all, so she doubted he was a cultivator. But, did you need to meditate to cultivate? Who knows? Perhaps you could cultivate while juggling, she didn't know.

Huabe kept falling down into these spiralling question traps!

Using her will, she spun the rings. This time she was able to stop before the action consumed her will entirely. But she still felt drained and tired. Also hungry for some reason.

It seemed that her will had grown since that other time, as she was able to shut it down in time. Did it grow because of her age? Or perhaps because she had done it before? Thinking about it, she doubted it was her age. After all, inside this young body is a strong mind. But that was also a downer. She hadn’t realized that her will was so weak before. Even after all she had done, it amounted to almost nothing. This gave her a respect for cultivators, surely they had wills far greater than her own.

But now was not the time for a will-measuring contest. Instead, she observed the new wisp of energy as it bounced around the walls. Soon enough, it impacted the black and white sludge sitting inside the rings. As before, it was slowly absorbed, then popped out in a different spot at half the size.

She continued to watch both wisps of light, scratch that, Qi. Soon enough, the two wisps of Qi impacted one another and combined into one larger mass. The wisp slowed down just a tad as it increased in size. The combined wisp of Qi impacted the sludge again but bounced off.

So it seemed that the new Qi would get absorbed, but even after combining into a larger ball with the old wisp, it would still not get absorbed more. So that confirmed that it is not the size of the wisp that counts but the overall amount.

What would happen if she expelled it!? What goes in must come out, after all. But how would she expel the Qi? To bring it in, she turned the rings. But she didn't think that would work to expel the Qi. That seemed to be a one-way street.

Perhaps just… Push?

So, Huabe scrunched her eyebrows and pushed, making sure to keep a close eye on her buttocks. Don’t want to have an accident.

The wisps of qi didn't really react that much. Until it suddenly did! The wisp shot through some kind of wormhole that suddenly appeared, and she felt an impact inside of herself. Then the Qi came back out of the wormhole, slightly reduced in size.

… That hole had just appeared in the space out of nothing, and transported the Qi to who knows where! Well, ok, she did know where. She had felt the tiniest little impact at the bottom of her throat, kind of under her chin. She would say right about her collarbone. Which, was admittedly pretty close to the back of her spine, where the wisp of Qi was. But she swore it was a wormhole! After all, normal holes don't appear in thin air, or… Was there any air in that space? Thin space! No. Thin area? Bah! It didn't matter. It was totally a wormhole.

Huabe was growing sleepy after all this thinking. Her eyes slowly drifted closed. With that, she fell to sleep.