“Now, I realize I have not yet introduced myself,” said the old man as we were escorted out of the temple and into a nearby classroom. “My name is Zhang Shi, and I shall serve as this generation’s teacher. As a peak stage rank three cultivator, I am known as an elder among the other adults, though I have certainly been quite a hermit for the last few years.” He chuckled at this. “I will begin today’s lessons if you all go ahead and take a seat.” He walked behind a podium and gathered sheaves of paper, placing them on top.
The classroom wasn’t very large, but it was clear that it had been maintained with care. The seats were aligned in a semicircle that allowed students to look over each other as they got further back, a common design used when giving lectures to large bodies of people. I remembered the dingy little desks we were given in our basic education and smiled knowing that we had become true adults now, people with qi that got to learn more than just math or history. I sat near the front and Dao Xing joined me.
“What do I mean when I say that I am at this ‘peak stage’ of cultivation at rank three? We all know there are nine ranks of cultivation, but who here knows that there are different stages to these ranks?” Some students raised their hands, including Mao Feng and Yong Qiang. “Hui Gui Yong Qiang, please elucidate to your peers the difference between ranks and stages.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, standing up, his voice as smooth as a calm river. “There are nine different ranks, but most of us here will only be able to traverse ranks one through five, the ranks that denote cultivators in the mortal realm. Each rank has four different stages, the initial stage, middle stage, upper stage, and peak stage.” He gestured to the crowd of students around him. “All of us here are now in the initial stage of rank one cultivation, and we all have a Primary En to support the replenishing of qi in our bodies, more specifically, in the dantian.”
“Yes,” Zhang Shi said. “Perfectly said.” He gestured for Yong Qiang to sit back down. “The body needs a Primary En, Primary Ko, or Primary Zen to produce qi. Without one, we are akin to mortals or cultivators with crippled meridians. Hopefully, you will take your current Primary En and evolve it as you continue growing, but one thing Hui Gui Yong Qiang failed to mention is that some of us received less-than-spectacular En and did not choose to refine it in the temple.” He gazed at us deeply with his beady black eyes. “There is no shame in this. Some people have a closer tie to the founder of the Hui Gui clan and will thus receive greater blessings. This is the natural way.”
The bearded man stepped back from the podium. “Those who have a Primary En, please display it to us.” This was a custom I had heard about from my father, one of the few things he told me and Dao Xing before he returned to his job as a traveling merchant. It was a display of transparency that meant each student knew what En the others possessed. But, he had whispered to me, the powerful families often had ties with the immortals, and rigged it so that their children would gain a higher ranking En. This had its limits of course, as En could only be refined by those who were sufficiently compatible.
Yong Qiang, ever the model student, stepped up first to show what En he received. He stood behind the podium and a dazzling light glowed from his body’s core, located just below the heart. He held up his right palm, and a ball of lightning emerged.
“This is the [Lightning Strike] En, an S-rank En,” he stated, speaking over the crackling of electricity. In an instant, the ball fizzled out, and he clasped his hands together. Closing his eyes, he stood there with his hands together for several dozen seconds before a thunderous noise erupted. Then, a yellow coil of lightning buzzed between his two palms as he moved them apart, displaying a giant strand of electricity that would surely fry any typical mortal where they stood. The crowd gasped in awe, me included. Dao Xing frowned and leaned in next to me.
“I bet he’s had lots of training already,” he whispered. “His family probably knew from the start he would get the [Lightning Strike] En.” Yong Qiang glanced over at us and beckoned for Dao Xing to come up to the stage. My cheeks flushed in embarrassment, but my brother just stood and nodded. As he got to the podium, he closed his eyes and a silence passed over the crowd, a light suddenly glowing from his dantian.
Almost two minutes went by and nothing happened. Someone snickered.
As the students started to get antsy, a crack sounded and Dao Xing’s body began to morph in an incredible way. His body changed form and grew larger, with his muscles bulging and his bones expanding to support them. He became even taller and wider than he already was and smirked at the expressionless Yong Qiang.
“I’ve gotten the [Body Expansion] En, an A-rank En.” He flexed for his admirers. “Like that, Hui Gui Yong Qiang?” The blonde boy maintained an inscrutable expression, ignoring the question Dong Xiang posed at him. A light gleamed in my eyes while watching my brother use his A-rank En. Sure, I was a little jealous, since I was left with an abysmal C-rank En, but I wanted to support my brother on his journey as a cultivator. The wide-eyed audience clapped and I clapped along with them.
The rest of the students showed their En off, most possessing B-rank En. They had already learned that most people were not Yong Qiang, and could not use their En so easily right off the bat, instead taking some degree of time to activate it. A beautiful girl walked up to the podium and froze it with a touch of her hand, causing even Yong Qiang to clap lightly in admiration.
“S-rank,” was all she said. She was the only other person who had received an S-rank En, with even the fierce Mao Feng only obtaining an A-rank En.
Then, it was my turn.
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A wisp of purple miasma formed around the Sorcerer’s quickly disappearing body. The Refinement Grandmaster cupped the smoke in his bandaged arms and a white cage formed around it.
“These are the soul remnants of the Sorcerer,” he explained. “They don’t possess his memories, but they represent the totality of who he once was, albeit in a fractured state. Theoretically, it might be possible to restore him if the current Dao Mei ever finds an applicable item, though this is very unlikely.” He stared at the caged mass of purple. “We should maintain this for as long as we can. He was, after all, the one who reached the highest peak any of us have ever gone.”
“Feh!” said the Demonic Hermit. “Leave him to die, what will change in the end, anyway?”
“As much as I dislike him,” the Prodigy said, “the Demonic Hermit has a point. What can someone who received a C-rank Primary En do when even I managed to get killed?”
“Do not doubt the Sorcerer,” the Warrior Monk said, a serene look on his face. “We shall be saved by this new Dao Mei if his predictions were correct.”
The Undead King interjected, “I’m not sure what the [Reminiscence] En can do, but we should at least keep the Sorcerer’s soul remnants around until this Dao Mei activates it.”
“Then it’s decided,” said the Refinement Grandmaster, clapping once. “Three to two, we will wait and see what happens.” He looked down at a hole depicting the mortal realm, a sea of color in a room of white. “I believe it’s time for him to show his En.”
Dao Mei shakily took the stand and told the classroom he had received the C-rank [Reminiscence] En. He closed his eyes and tried to focus, but the dim light in his dantian only grew dimmer by the second. The anxiety of having all the classroom’s eyes on him made the channeling of his qi impossible under the circumstances. Dao Xing looked at him with concern in his eyes.
“Maybe you should try again tomorrow,” Zhang Shi suggested after ten minutes had passed. The class roared with laughter. Dao Mei’s face grew red and he walked back to his seat, clenching his hand into a fist. He wanted to shatter the heavens and the earth with his own strength as a rank nine immortal, and he couldn’t do so when he lacked the ability to channel his qi properly.
The Refinement Grandmaster sighed. “If only he had spent another minute activating the [Reminiscence] En.”
“Maybe he’ll be able to do it tomorrow,” the Undead King hoped.
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Mao Longwei used the back of his massive hand to strike Mao Feng, knocking his head to the side. “I told my father to give you an S-rank En, and what happened? You came back with a useless A-rank one.” He glowered at the fifteen-year-old child. “What were you doing in the temple? Huh? Playing around?” Mao Feng looked at his father, glaring. He was several heads taller than the boy, and several shoulders wider as well. However, they both had distinctive orange hair and bushy eyebrows that earmarked them as part of the Mao family.
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“I tried to refine it, but it rejected me,” Mao Feng growled. “You know that En have a mind of their own. And I couldn’t overpower it either, since I need qi to do so, which means that I had to have a Primary En beforehand.” The core of his body glowed. “So I settled for second best.” He grabbed a nearby sword hanging on the wall, startling his father, but Mao Feng had no intentions of fighting Mao Longwei. He raised the sword up and in a shimmer of light, it transformed into a spear.
“The A-rank [Weapons Exchange] En.”
Clap, clap, clap.
A lanky, orange-haired girl emerged from the darkness and intently watched the spear. Candles lit the room in the night, and she appeared from the doorway.
“Pretty good, little brother,” she said.
Mao Feng sneered and slammed the hilt of the spear onto the floor. “I’m not going to lose to anyone, especially not you, elder sister.” Mao Qing was the older sister by only three years but had already made it to rank two cultivation, making her Mao Longwei’s golden egg. She smiled and a glow appeared from her dantian. She pointed a finger up and a tornado of fire erupted from it, carefully controlled and kept from expanding.
“Can you compete with my S-rank [Firestarter] En?”
“Both of you, enough,” Mao Longwei commanded. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Leave me.” They hesitated but left anyway, careful not to incur their father’s wrath. Mao Longwei, a powerful elder of the village at rank four middle stage cultivation, was not happy with the circumstances. He coughed, and blood flowed from his mouth. Grimacing, he was reminded of the fight he had in the Barren Fields against that wandering cultivator. It was less of a fight and more of a massacre, and it was rumored that the cultivator was an immortal. But in the end, they had won, though recovering nothing from the man’s self-destructed dantian.
Mao Longwei slammed his fist into the nearby desk. “I don’t have much time.”
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The first day had passed by quickly and the students were back the next day. Zhang Shi stood behind the podium and waited for the classroom to settle down as I sat with Dao Xing again. He had tried to assist me last night with my qi channeling, but I decided it would be best if I did it myself, as a learning experience. I got used to working with the qi in my dantian, manipulating the flowing river of energy as best as I could. I was thinking that maybe I could try activating my [Reminiscence] En, but decided not to waste my qi that day, wanting to save it for tomorrow. Using En as a rank one cultivator was strenuous and used up a lot of qi that the Primary En would have to replenish over time.
“Something you may have noticed,” Zhang Shi began, “is that S-rank En are often related to the pure elements. Think of Hui Gui Yong Qiang’s [Lightning Strike] En or Hui Gui Bing Meihui’s [Ice Touch] En. There are anomalies, but they are rarely ever discovered.” He looked around at his students. “On the opposite end of the spectrum, D-rank En are almost always either benignly helpful or slightly harmful to its user. They are most typically used by geniuses in refinement or cultivators who have non-combat jobs, which I’m sure some of you here are aiming for.”
He took out a small, metallic-looking object with concentric circles embedded on its surface. “This is an engraving token, and the village head wanted to give everyone here one of these for the first combat trial we will have, in which those without a Primary En will sit out.” The students chattered amongst themselves before Zhang Shi held up his hand. “Of course, we will have a necessary healer on standby.” He flung the token in the air and it landed on his tongue. After several seconds, it disappeared and a light-blue marking appeared in its place. “Engraving tokens are basically canisters that store the activation of an En. They use up more qi, but in return, you can utilize an En instantly. Of course, some people are able to use En quickly without needing an engraving token, but they are almost vital in a real combat situation, with the only downfall being that only two or three can stay on the body at one time. So make sure to ‘save’ your best En when you ever need to fight.” He snapped his fingers and a blue mist began to spread from his tongue, with the mark slowly disappearing. “It would usually take me approximately three seconds to activate my [Healing Mist] En, but with this token, I have managed to save time. Some people use engraving tokens defensively, placing a [Bone Shield] En or [Rapid Healing] En on top of their core, where their dantian is located.” He smiled at his audience. “Now, who wants to give it a try?”
We moved to a clearing in the woods, flattened out, I assume, for the specific purpose of training us. Zhang Shi passed out the engraving tokens and Dao Xing patted me on the back, no doubt to ease my nerves, as another elder of the village came out to watch. The students imbued qi into their engraving tokens and tattooed the markings somewhere on their bodies. A sense of exhaustion suddenly overcame me as I used up my qi.
“May I challenge Hui Gui Bing Meihui?” asked Yong Qiang with a cool smile. Zhang Shi nodded.
“As long as both parties consent, I will allow friendly challenges to be made against each other.”
Dao Xing laughed and pointed at Yong Qiang. “Are you so eager to win that you have to challenge a frail girl? Come, fight me instead.” I knew my brother was competitive and wanted to show his strength, but I wasn’t sure if he could compete with the prodigy of the Hui Gui clan.
“Very well,” Yong Qiang said, face turning expressionless. “Let’s finish this quickly.” Bing Meihui, the beautiful girl I saw the day before, watched without any distinct signs of agitation or eagerness as if she didn’t care about the ordeal at all. The two competitors drew a distance between each other and the rest of the students crowded out to make space. They bowed slightly, then the fight began.
Yong Qiang immediately hurtled a bolt of lightning at his opponent and forced Dao Xing to use his engraving to activate the [Body Expansion] En, rapidly transforming his body and allowing him to sidestep the lightning. He made haste on his physical superiority and charged at Yong Qiang, but the wily blonde-haired boy was already running towards the curtain of trees behind him. As Dao Xing got closer, Yong Qiang shot the tree in front of him and it fell towards the muscular boy.
“Do you think that’ll stop me?!” Dao Xing shouted, pounding the falling timber into bits. However, as he was looking up, Yong Qiang had already snuck in front of him and placed his palm on the boy’s abdomen.
“Did you forget about my engraving?” he asked, as stream after stream of electricity ran through Dao Xing. The poor boy screamed in intense pain, and Zhang Shi placed a hand on Yong Qiang’s shoulder, gently telling him to stop. The other village elder who had come to watch placed both hands on Dao Xing and a green aura was emitted, sucking away most of the burns on the boy’s body, as his muscles and bones began to shrink back to their normal size. I wanted to go check on him, but I knew he would think of it as a sign of his weakness and would be embarrassed.
Yong Qiang said while looking at Bing Meihui, “We will fight after I have recovered. However, it is up to our teacher whether or not I am allowed to receive another engraving token.” Zhang Shi looked reluctant, but the other village elder whispered something in his ear and he nodded.
“Very well, we will make an exception for Hui Gui Yong Qiang.” Some people grumbled in protest, but there was no denying the boy’s talent.
“May I challenge Hui Gui Dao Mei, I believe who Dao Xing’s brother is?” someone suddenly asked. I looked over at the newcomer, and my eyes widened in surprise. It was Mao Feng, who was carrying a spear on his back. Even Zhang Shi looked startled, but he asked me if I wanted to fight, making it clear that I had an option in the matter. I gritted my teeth. I didn’t know why Mao Feng wanted to challenge me, but this was a chance to show that even I was strong enough to stand up for myself. Even if I lose, this will be a learning experience. I nodded. I was ready.
We stood on opposite sides of each other and bowed. He instantly ran at me and lunged with his spear, surprising me and causing a gash to form on the side of my body. I tried to get away, but the tip of his weapon dug into my ankle and I fell onto the grass, screaming. I turned around to look up at him, but his spear had already turned into a sword, with no lengthy hilt for me to chance grabbing onto.
I suddenly remembered my [Reminiscence] En, which I had engraved on my head. I didn’t know how it would help me, as I had never fought in my life, but I activated it, praying that something would save me from both shame and unnecessary pain.
Suddenly, an odd flash of a memory appeared in my head, and I observed a bald man repeatedly swinging his fist, again and again. It was a rhythmic movement, and the man combined it into a sequence of kicks and twists that were as smooth as the flight of a bird. This place is… Red Lotus Temple? No, where am I? I’m… I’m in a clearing in Hui Gui village, fighting against Mao Feng.
Reality returned to me, and I instinctively imitated the movements of that bald man as I looked in the face of the orange-haired boy in front of me. In one smooth kick, I had both moved myself up and dodged the swing of his sword. I punched his chest with an open palm and he staggered backward. With a roar, he sprinted towards me and I squatted down, using his weight against him and throwing him over my shoulder. Then, I rained down a flurry of punches onto his face. His nose and gums were thoroughly bloodied before Zhang Shi stopped me.
I panted, my nostrils flaring and my throat aching for water. My muscles were sorer than they had ever been, even though I was not able to mimic the bald man in my vision properly. I’d say that I was even as much as 30% off, his movements being so precise that they boggled the mind. I took a panoramic view around, and the crowd was silent.
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The crowd of immortals in the Memoryscape looked down into the mortal realm at the fight about to occur between Mao Feng and Dao Mei. They were worried, but a sliver of hope found its way into some of their faces.
“I later discovered that Mao Feng was agitated from the pain Yong Qiang inflicted on Dao Xing, and wanted to defeat someone who looked easy to defeat, so he could maintain his pride,” the Refinement Grandmaster said. The Demonic Hermit walked away as soon as Dao Mei was about to be beaten, but the [Reminiscence] En was then activated.
The Warrior Monk suddenly convulsed, his eyes looking far into an invisible view that only he could see, stunning the rest of the immortals. They watched as Dao Mei defeated Mao Feng, and they rejoiced.
The Warrior Monk’s color soon returned. “Ah,” he said. “The Red Lotus Temple was a fortuitous encounter that I shall never forget.” A tear flowed down his eye, and a smile came to his face. “It seems like Dao Mei has the power of our memories.”