The following morning, an old grandpa arrived at the riverbank as he was looking for some herbs. 

“Aiyah, I can’t seem to find any herbs today,” the grandpa sighed as he walked along the river bank. 

“Wahh.. wahh!!!” a sound came from his left as he was just about to head back to his village. 

‘Huh? A baby?’ he pondered for a second before walking towards the sound. 

After a minute, he soon saw the culprit of the noise. Near a rock along the river, a basket was resting.

Walking towards it, he inspected the basket. ‘A newborn baby, 3 silver, 23 copper coins,’ he noted. It was a common sight, one that he had seen many times.  

Although he was a local doctor in the village, it didn’t mean that he was a good and benevolent person. Rural life was very hard not to mention living in the Southern Ice Continent with very harsh winters. 

With his old age getting to him, he sighed, turning around to leave. 

“Wahh! Waahhhh!” Yet as he did, the baby abruptly cried. 

The man stopped and turned around. “Fine fine,” the old man gave in.

And like that the old man grabbed the basket before heading back to Riverside village, a rather large village with around a thousand inhabitants. Along with being larger than other villages, it was safeguarded with the empire’s force since they were important sources of food and grain production for the empire. 

“Yes, yes good job on the stitching, yup, just wrap the wound with the leather wrap after you apply the herbs,” Qian Zemin was talking to the child he had picked up by a river years ago. 

“Ok ok grandpa Zemin!” Years flew by and Qian Yu, now 9, grew up like any other child except for a few things. Outside of being a little skinny and malnourished like many other children, he was a little more mature than his fellow comrades. His adopted “father” had told him early on about the circumstances of his birth and he learned about how he was found. As such, he always referred to Qian Zemin as his grandpa. 

Other than that, his grandpa also started teaching him his medical knowledge ever since he was 5. For the first year or so, he would learn a lot of theoretical knowledge about plants and herbs. It was important to know which ones were good and poisonous and how to gather and differentiate them. Afterwards, he would follow his grandpa in finding herbs in the wild and also grow herbs in their house to gain some real experience. 

It wasn’t until he was 7 that the old man decided to finally start teaching real applications which mainly started with simple stuff such as mashing together some herbs and grew to things such as helping him care with patients that came in. He had always watched his grandpa treat patients since he had remembered since there wasn’t anything else to do unlike most of the other village children who had to work in the fields with their family.

At the same time, he realized that his grandpa was getting older and older and his body and mind were weakening. By the time he was 8, his grandpa no longer went with him to look for herbs and would let him treat most of the patients while he watched aside and lectured on what he needed to do. Of course, there were times when he needed to personally carry out the treatment while Qian Yu would watch closely. 

Throughout the years, Qian Yu knew his life wasn’t easy but that didn’t mean he hated it. Every time he learned something new, saw the smile on his grandpa’s face and made a new achievement, he would be thoroughly filled with bliss. 

However, as he learned about the harshness of the real world from the patients, how increasingly often his grandpa would trip and fall down, and remember his origins, he would be filled with sadness. 

‘He doesn’t have much time left,’ Qian Yu often thought to himself. Grandpa was the only close person he had in his life. Always more introverted, he didn’t get to interact with the other kids often as he didn’t have many chances and would rather stay and spend time with his grandpa. 

He didn’t want to be alone but unfortunately, no one was able to escape the claws of death. 

4 years passed and Qian Zemin, 74 and a respected doctor of Riverside village, entered eternal slumber.

A few months passed and Qian Yu had already gotten used to his lonely life. Yet when he woke up today, he had a bright smile that the world hadn’t seen in months. 

‘Today’s the day,’ he thought before getting out of his bed. After munching down the remaining bread and meat from yesterday, he got his backpack and stuffed in some clothes, a box of herbs, and the 27 gold coins and 60 silver coins that his grandpa and him managed to save up over the years. 

Since his grandpa’s passing, Qian Yu was suddenly lost. Yet deep down he knew he couldn’t stay like this. He knew that there was one thing he had to do. 

“I will become strong! I will be a cultivator,” he yelled as he looked back to the house he spent his childhood at. Hearing his shout, many of the neighbors turned their heads to look before smiling. 

‘It’s good to be young, go do your best kiddo,’ many of them thought.