The sound of a meandering river flowing at a leisurely pace through the trees could be heard in the distance, complemented by the gentle rustling of the leaves in the general vicinity and the occasional bird call from neighboring trees. Together it all made for a perfectly tranquil setting for the young man laying on a thick branch a little over half way up one of the more impressive trees in the valley.

As he stared at the sky through the leaves and branches of his chosen tree, Xu Long could not stop going over the conversation he had with his mother again and again in his head. Considering that the sun was well past the halfway point of its daily journey he had been there for quite a while now.

“I have got to hand it to you kid, this is a great spot.”

Having become very familiar with Old Wu’s voice the last few days, not to mention his proclivity for appearing out of nowhere, Xu Long saved himself the embarrassment of being startled out of his perch in the tree when he steadied his breathing and reaction. Turning his head to the side, he saw Old Wu sitting in the lotus position on a branch that did not look like it should be able to hold his weight in the slightest, yet looked none the wiser that an old man was sitting on it. Seeing Old Wu sitting there looking at him, Xu Long decided that now would be as good a time as any to ask the old man some of the questions he had been pondering over.

“It occurred to me that I don’t know much of anything about you Old Wu, I don’t know how you know my mother, and I don’t know why someone of your power is here training a 6 year old child.”

The old man just smiled in return. “This is the reason you are blowing off our training today? To sit and stew on these thoroughly unimportant questions?” Shaking his head in pretty obviously feigned disappointment. “You need to learn patience kid, your mother will tell you everything in due time, instead of mulling over trivial matters you should be focused on what is important, training.”

Xu Long sat up and copied Old Wu’s seating position on his much sturdier branch and looked at the old man a little incredulously. “I can’t even start cultivating for years, what is the rush?”

Old Wu switched almost instantly from his light-hearted feigned disappointment to a look of actual disappointment. “Huh, I thought you were supposed to be smart, kid.”

“Cultivation is not merely about absorbing qi and becoming stronger, any idiot that can follow instructions can do that. Cultivation is about comprehension, understanding the world, understanding yourself, understanding your weapon. You have already started your cultivation journey, in fact you are in the process of taking your first and some would say most consequential step.”

Xu Long’s mind blanked out for a second after being scolded for the first time by Old Wu. Then it went into overdrive as the old man was looking at him, apparently waiting for him to redeem himself. As Xu Long was thinking about what Old Wu had just said and what he had been doing over the past few days, it clicked, and he wanted to kick himself.

“Choosing my weapon.”

Old Wu’s countenance lightened ever so slightly. “At least you are not a completely lost cause.”

“Make no mistake kid, the cultivation world is fundamentally a martial society, and if you want to be a part of it, or at the very least not be pushed around or controlled by it, you need to understand the very simple maxim at the heart of the cultivation world, might makes right.”

“Everything you are being taught is important, but all of it will mean nothing if you die because you are weak.”

“So how about it kid? Do you want to pine over nonsense or do you want to learn how to fight?” Old Wu raised his eyebrow in question.

When he saw Xu Long stand with determination in his eyes and then set off for the courtyard they had been training in for the last few days, a grin appeared on his face. ‘I don’t think you have to worry about him, Master.’

…

For the next 5 months Xu Long took to his weapons training with Old Wu like a boy possessed, they had blown through spears, staves, bows, heavy swords, halberds and judging by Xu Long’s current form as he sparred with Old Wu with a saber in hand they would be moving on from that shortly.

After his little talk with Old Wu, Xu Long applied himself to his weapons tutelage with an even more ferocious determination than Old Wu’s ear flicking inspired, over time he found that not only was he rather good at it but that he enjoyed it immensely. His mother’s tutelage, however, was another story.

Once she had covered the broad strokes of cultivation theory, namely qi and its many forms, the meridians that flow through the body and their integral role in distributing and refining qi, and the dantian, the repository for the bodies qi, located three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel, they began a process of rote memorisation that Xu Long had long come to regard as a form of torture. It started innocently enough as they covered the list of known spirit beasts and their general attributes. Xu Long found this very interesting, especially when they came to the section on spirit foxes and bears respectively. However, although there are quite a few species of spirit beasts and many variations among those species, eventually they had gone over them all, that was when Xu Long’s troubles began.

They moved from spirit beasts to spiritual plants, where Xu Long learned that he could not care less about his ability to identify plants. After sharing his newly discovered apathy for the subject with his mother, she informed him that if he neglected this area of study he would be cutting off any future ability to practice alchemy, which he thoroughly approved of. He was rewarded for this desertion of all things alchemy with an abridged list of spiritual plants to memorize and learn proper handling of, this list only contained the more expensive and rare varieties that his mother insisted only fools would neglect their education on.

That list of spiritual plants had taken them all the way up to a week ago, when they transitioned to a new topic of study, one that he was surprised to learn that his mother was an expert in, formations. They began with a primer on formations, where Xu Long learned that this was the art that was responsible for his mother’s garden that was currently saving the life of the cute little spirit fox, but even more impressive than that, the valley that they called home itself. Needless to say, he was very impressed and was eager to start learning, that eagerness was short-lived however.

Xu Long’s eyes were glassed over as he stared at the runes in front of him, he had only been studying formations for a week but he was struggling, endless runes and calculations littered his head, he was starting to see runes when he closed his eyes to sleep. He looked up at his mother and was formulating his admission that he hated formations even more than plants, something he didn’t think would be possible a week ago.

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Before he could open his mouth though his mother said something that crushed his soul. “I am afraid there is no reprieve in this subject even if you decide that formations are not a field of study that you wish to pursue. Even if you are unable to create formations, at the very least you will know enough to break them, no son of mine will ever be caught dead trapped in a formation, I would die of embarrassment.”

The color drained out of Xu Long’s face. “How much do I need to know to be able to break formations reliably?”

“Just a comprehensive foundation in runes and formation matrices, then if you decide formations are truly not for you we will finish off the subject with formation breaking. All in all we should be able to get through the preliminary subjects and get on to formation breaking by the time our little fox wakes up.”

Xu Long just stared at his mother, feeling dead inside. “Two and a half years…”

Xu Long spent the rest of his studies with his mother and then his free time afterwards in a bit of a haze, not paying any great attention to what he was doing. When he walked out of his room the next day to attend Old Wu’s lesson in his courtyard he was still in this state and the old man could tell with a look.

“I know that look anywhere, your mother has moved on to formations, right?”

Snapping out of his haze he looked at the old man and nodded his head.

The old man burst into a hearty laugh that reverberated throughout the courtyard. “Cheer up kid, I am happy with your skills with a saber, so today we move on to the last weapon on the list, the sword. Now, there is a reason that I left this one for last, it is one of, if not the most difficult weapons to master. Here catch.”

Before Xu Long could blink he saw a sword coming his way, fortunately, hilt first, with enough angle that the tip of the blade was still pointed above the horizon. Xu Long caught the blade on pure reflex, as he did so he let the momentum from the throw out of the blade with a twist of his wrist and a spin of the sword to his side. As he weighed the sword in his hand and gave it a few practice swings, he had to admit he did feel better.

Old Wu gave him a knowing smile. “Alright kid, let's get started, watch carefully as I show you the forms.”

Xu Long tore his attention away from the sword in his hand and focused intently on Old Wu as he demonstrated what he wanted Xu Long to replicate. Just like all the beginning forms for the various weapons that Old Wu had taught him, they were very simple movements and Xu Long nodded his head rather quickly and then began trying to repeat what he had just seen. It came easy, easier than any of the previous weapons he had studied, his movements flowed, and he felt the sword in his hand just do exactly what he wanted it to, it felt magical.

Old Wu wore his usual composed instructor face as he watched from the side ready to point out mistakes and correct Xu Long’s form when necessary, however, beneath his mask of composure he was slightly astonished. Xu Long’s movements were perfect, there was nothing to correct. He continued to watch from the side for half an hour, never once having to intervene.

“Alright kid, let’s move on to sparring.”

Xu Long blinked twice, not sure how long he had been repeating the forms but fairly certain that it was not anywhere near the time he usually spent on them. But he was by this point conditioned to listen to Old Wu during training and to jump when he said jump. So they began to spar.

Whenever Old Wu would spar after teaching Xu Long some new forms he would generally only use those forms against Xu Long in an effort to demonstrate how to use them during actual combat. This time, however, he found it entirely unnecessary, and after continuing to spar for about 10 minutes, they separated. Old Wu was looking at Xu Long, Xu Long was looking at the sword in his hand. Until he eventually looked up.

“I’ve chosen”

“Are you sure?” Old Wu asked, already knowing the answer, with a more serious look on his face than usual.

Xu Long looked back at the sword in his hand. “I have never been more sure about anything before in my life.”

Old Wu couldn’t help himself and let out a short laugh. “Kid, you are 6 years old, get a few more years under your belt before you start talking like that.” Smiling at the slightly embarrassed look on Xu Long’s face, he continued, “I hear you though, I knew you would choose the sword the moment you caught it.”

“So kid, are you ready to really get started?”

Xu Long nodded his head and then replied sporting a cheeky grin.“More ready than I’ve ever been before in my entire life.”

The rest of the session was a blur to Xu Long, he had never felt like this before, not only the ease with which he picked up the basic forms that Old Wu was imparting, but just having a sword in his hand and wielding it freely gave him a feeling of profound happiness deep in his soul. He spent the entire rest of the session with a smile on his face. Something he didn’t notice until Old Wu called an end to their session and told him to take a break before his afternoon studies, which woke him from his reverie and made him realize that his face was sore.

As Xu Long was walking back to his room rubbing his face a little, apparently not noticing that he had walked off with the sword Old Wu gave him to train with, Old Wu was watching him go with a thoughtful look on his face. After Xu Long had entered the room, Old Wu looked over at a nondescript patch of trees with a small clearing in the middle, he then began to walk over to the clearing at what appeared to be a leisurely pace, yet he cleared the distance in only a few seconds. After he crossed a certain point into the clearing a small ornate looking table with two chairs came into existence, as if they had always been there, sitting in one of the chairs was Xu Long’s mother taking a sip of tea as she so often did.

Sitting down across from her, he poured himself a cup from the teapot on the table and took a sip. Sighing contently, “your tea never disappoints LI, if only I could convince you to stoop so low as to create some spirit liquor.” All he got back was a look that said ‘you should give up’. Which caused him to laugh and shake his head, before returning to his tea and savoring his next sip.

“So what do you think, Zhong?”

Looking at the young woman, “you saw it too Li, he is a born Sword Immortal, I have never seen anything like it. His spirit was practically singing.”

Wu Zhong paused before continuing, he knew this next part was going to be a sore subject. “I think we need to discuss his curriculum, Li.”

After a few minutes of slightly tense silence with Wu Zhong looking off into the distance taking the occasional sip of tea while he let her collect her thoughts, he heard a slight sigh.

“I knew he didn’t have the temperament of a scholar, but he was just so intelligent that I hoped that it wouldn’t matter. But if the last 5 months have shown me anything, it is that he is even more like his father than I had even suspected.”

Wu Zhong looked at her thoughtfully, he knew that circumstances had conspired to rob her of any opportunity to take an apprentice, something she clearly wanted, and now her son turned out to have all the necessary attributes, yet his personality was the polar opposite of that required. It must be a bitter pill, on top of a lifetime of bitter pills.

Seeing the look he was giving her, “it’s fine Zhong, i am not upset because he can’t follow in my footsteps, I am upset because I almost let that small hope in my heart interfere with his path. Watching him today…was magical. His spirit was singing. Such a perfect way to describe it.”

“That being said, I told him ‘no son of mine will ever be caught dead trapped in a formation, I would die of embarrassment’ and I don’t intend to take that back. But given the path that he will almost certainly walk down I believe I can alter his education and tailor it to his strengths.”

She tapped her index finger to her lips as she pondered, "I believe once a week until Body Refinement should be sufficient to lay the foundations for an art that he can grow into.”

Wu Zhong smiled at her. “He is lucky to have you.”

“I know.”