Yu Chen watched the small waves forming upon the pond below, from atop the small cliff top on which he sat. He had stumbled upon this secluded place while making his deliveries, finding it to be a quiet place without all the other disciples around.

Since then, he’d taken to coming here in the evenings after work to meditate. He was more at ease within nature, and better able to relax his mind. He’d ruminate about his daily life and his future as he sat there, watching the cattails blow in the breeze as the soft buzz of insects filled his ears.

He’d been in the sect for some weeks now, and he’d settled into a routine. He’d made new friends and formed grudges, began to learn martial arts and had even perceived the energies of heaven and earth, laying eyes on wonders he’d never imagined existed prior to coming to the sect. And through it all, he’d come to learn some things about himself.

For example, take the scenic pond he was currently at. He’d realized he preferred being outdoors in the midst of nature, because it was in the wild, untamed places of the world that he found joy, peace, and comfort. It was something he’d had a vague sense of before, but after weeks of meditation, it was now a realization, a visceral truth about the nature of himself.

The senseless boy that he’d once been was finally gaining a bit of self-awareness.

However, with every layer he peeled away from himself, another was revealed, more questions to answer in the pursuit of self-understanding. Right now, he was compelled to ask, why? Why did he enjoy being outdoors while others preferred to stay indoors? Was it the wild he craved, while others clung to civilization? Was it the silence, the escape from the hustle and bustle? And each person was different, some preferring to be surrounded by people, and some displaying no preference one way, or the other.

Perhaps it was something vital to his nature, something intrinsic to his being, like his height or his hair color, or the pattern of the freckles on his arm. Was it something stamped upon him, determined before he was born?

Or was it somehow caused? Perhaps his nature was formed by the experiences he went through and the choices he made. The foods he preferred were the ones that reminded him of home, and fond memories of his brother accompanied him when he stepped into the wild.

He wasn’t sure why the answer mattered to him, only that the question had arisen days ago, once he’d begun questioning who he was, and since then it’d returned again and again, filling his mind and interrupting his meditations.

He felt as though the answer would reveal something important, and so he chewed at the thought, like a dog worrying a bone. He was still young after all, his thirteenth birthday only having just passed, and he could be quite stubborn, unwilling to quit until he found the answers he sought.

His thoughts turned, and he considered the time he’d spent in the sect so far, and the changes it had brought.

So far it had been gratifying, and as time passed, he found himself becoming more grateful that he’d come. He still felt the absence of his family, but as the days turned, he’d found himself becoming wrapped up in his new life at the sect.

The hard work he’d put in had begun to return dividends. He’d achieved the realm of small success in the Condensing Fist forms, and his motions were now smooth and seamless. These days even Li Ming couldn’t find fault with them. Lately however, it seemed that he’d hit a wall, and he was no longer seeing any improvements, regardless of how hard he trained.

Li Ming had advised him to focus on his cultivation, and Jin Hao had agreed, claiming that the physical movements he’d mastered were only the outer half of the technique. The sect was for those cultivating the energy of heaven and earth after all, and so he’d yet to realize the true purpose of the martial forms, because, despite the weeks that had passed, he’d still yet to condense a single drop of qi.

Yu Chen let out a low sigh that might have once, to his untrained mind, sounded out of place in the halcyon scene. He however, no longer possessed feelings of disparity with the natural world, and as his sigh blended into the tableau of reality, Yu Chen allowed his thoughts to flow with it, filled with all of the concerns for his family, his frustrations at his bottleneck, and the fears surrounding whether or not he could condense qi.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Such thoughts served no purpose at the moment, although they did speak to who he was. He breathed in, breathed out. Slowly he fell into the rhythmic breathing patterns that he’d ingrained into his bones. With every breath his focused attention waned, and the sharp lines that delineated his reality began to fuzz at the edges, as the thought of himself began to fade.

His thoughts, even those that determined who he was, only distorted reality. He breathed in and breathed out. With every breath the edges of his perception widened, increasing to the point where discrimination became himself and others became meaningless. He realized perception for what it was, nothing more than the indivisibly thin line that separated himself from the world.

Separated himself from the world?

When had it been determined that they were separate? The thought crashed into his mind like a thunderbolt, almost startling him from his meditative state. As long as he could remember, he’d always been Yu Chen, and everything else, regardless of what it had been, was not Yu Chen, and that included the heavens and the earth, and everything upon and in between them.

Where then did the heavens end and the earth begin?

Where did the earth end and mankind begin?

Where did mankind end and the heavens begin?

The three concepts spun like a circle in his mind, before melding into one. The heavens, and earth, mankind as well, the three were inseparable. How could you speak of one without the other?

Did he enjoy the outdoors before he’d stepped foot outdoors? It now seemed such a funny thought in his mind. Yu Chen wasn’t separate from his experiences, there was no him and them, any more than there was a difference between him and the world around him.

It was the energy of heaven and earth, and Yu Chen was in no way separate from the two.

Something clicked into place in his mind, and Yu Chen let out a deep, full-bellied laugh as he felt his Dantian begin to hungrily suck in the energy around him. It was as though before this moment his body had been a dead thing, cut off from the world around him. Now that it had returned to life the energy of the world rushed to fill in the empty void, In the exact same manner that heat dispersed into cooler areas.

He let go of worries he’d been unaware he was carrying, sinking deeper into his meditations as he felt the hazy line delineating him from the world around him dissipate. His mind relaxed, and he became one with the breeze brushing against his awareness and the lazy croak of the frogs making themselves known as they wallowed in the pond.

The energy of heaven and earth swirled around him, ebbing and flowing with the pulse of his breaths, breaths that were unconscious, rote, and the energy followed a rhythm that led straight to his Dantian, where it pooled, gently swirling in place. With every breath more energy was sucked in, but Yu Chen didn’t notice, having immersed himself completely in the meditative state.

It wasn’t until much later that Yu Chen, taking a breath so uncomfortable it had set him to coughing, was brought back to his senses. Frowning he searched for the source of the discomfort and realized the feeling came from his Dantian, marveling at the sense of fullness that now suffused his being.

Yu Chen slowly blinked and looked around, wondering how long he’d been meditating for. The world around him was covered in darkness, and the barest sliver of moonlight cut through the clouds, illuminating the pond below him.

He roused himself and stood up on the small cliff overlooking the pond, clenching his fists tightly as his shoulder length black hair billowed in the wind. A small smile hung upon his lips as his robes moved in the breeze, pressing against his body and hinting at the well-defined muscles beneath.

He’d finally done it. He’d taken his first real step into the world of cultivation, managing to condense qi on his own for the very first time. It’d only been a scant few months since he’d come to the sect, but already so much of the young boy had been sculpted away, leaving behind a young man ready to face the world.

He lightly jumped down from the cliff edge, and, unconsciously, some portion of the qi within his body responded, causing his leap to take him further than planned.

Yu Chen let out a delighted laugh, in awe at the changes simply accumulating a bit of qi could cause. He started a light jog back towards his dormitory and he couldn’t help but notice the increase to his speed, the way every step propelled him just a bit further, as the addition of qi seemed to improve even his standard running speed.

And this was without any technique! Yu Chen was mesmerized, awed by the power that now filled him. Was this what had powered the blows Wu Feng had hit him with? Yu Chen could already imagine how powerful his punches would become with qi filling them.

It was a heady feeling. Yu Chen didn't want to stop moving even after arriving back to his room, he was so captivated by the energy that now filled his body.

He was helpless however, to a deep yawn that fought its way out of his mouth, and, despite his desires to the contrary, he lifted his hand and opened the door. He didn’t even bother to look around as he stepped into the darkened room, tired enough that he fell asleep moments after falling into bed.