Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong.

I woke up to the sound of the morning bell echoing through the compound, clear and loud. I had overslept yet again and stifling a yawn hurriedly shoved on my disciple uniform, swallowed one of my nourishment pills and ran out the door to join my fellow disciples.

It had been a week since joining the sect and I had started to get into the flow of things. The rules here were relatively simple, no stealing, fighting outside the arena, killing etc. Always respect elders or those with stronger cultivations than you. They were basically common sense, it was the cultivation manual I had a hard time getting my head around. Complicated spiritualist terms to describe the feel of qi were hard for a twenty-first century kid to understand. Nevertheless last night I had successfully drawn in my first breath of heaven and earths qi. The feeling was wonderful, a strange mixture between dipping into a nice warm bath and a cool breeze on a summers day, it was relaxing and satisfying.

Qi refining was two parts, refining the body with qi to make yourself stronger, faster, more sensitive etc, basically superhuman, and refining the qi that was stored in the dantian into something higher and higher quality.

As I had successfully refined my first breath of qi last night I was the first of the batch to begin their cultivation journey, and successfully became a stage one qi refining martial novice, my high heaven spiritual root was doing wonders.

We all sat in neat arranged lines in the courtyard, our cushions already prearranged for us, today everyone noticed the aura passively emanating from me and realised immediately I must have broken through. A wave of awe and respect echoed through the crowd of disciples although it was tinged with hints of jealousy. Either way, a path opened in front of me and I was led straight to the front. Previously seats near the elder who came to guide us were hotly contended, although I never took part in these debates, content to sit near the back, so long as I could hear everything the elder said anywhere was fine by me.

Confidently sitting down, I sat cross legged and splitting my focus so I remained aware of my surroundings and passively began to sense the qi in my surroundings. Compared to sensing qi before my breakthrough it felt like taking off a blindfold and seeing the world for the first time. Finally a fog had been lifted and I could even begin to sense subtle flows in the way qi moved in the surroundings, traveling towards the mountain peaks in the distance. The confusing flowery language I used to struggle with suddenly clicked, it was truly difficult to put such an unfathomable feeling into simple words.

I didn’t have time to continue contemplating though as today’s elder arrived. Together all the disciples stood up and bowed in synchrony. Today happened to be Elder Jinn, and after a small gesture from him we all sat down and remained in silence.

“Today I will be talking about what you can expect in the inner sect.” He spoke with his signature gruff voice. “As you are all aware your current living situation will remain the same for one year however next week will be the last where you are privileged enough to have elders lecturing you each day. Instead you are expected to find things out on your own or look in the book pavilion for answers, furthermore those of you who do not advance to qi refining in a month will we relegated to the outer sect where you are given daily chores and may only cultivate during your free time. I see one of you has reached qi refining already, as expected from a high heaven root. Those of you who join him will also get 7 qi nourishing pills a week, you can either use them or trade them, I’ll let you decide what to do with them.”

He continued talking about different jobs and missions available in different areas of the sect and the general layout of the sect power structure. It was all very informative and helpful and we were disappointed when he left after his short two hours allotted. Just as we all got up to leave he gestured to me to come forward.

“You boy, what’s your name?” He asked sternly.

“Hayden elder Jinn.”

“No surname?”

“No sir. I’m an orphan.”

“Very well. You are the first in the group to advance so here are your weeks worth of qi nourishment pills one extra for being the fastest. Carry on diligently and you may one day enter the core sect.”

As custom dictated, I bowed to him and expressed my gratitude and we parted ways.

Trudging back to my abode, I contemplated todays lesson. The sect was truly a vast monster and right now we were only nominally disciples, if we proved too untalented we would be rendered glorified handymen. Luckily I had broken through so for now I was safe, even so the nature of the sect was disheartening. Outer disciples were servants and handymen and only through sheer talent and hard work would they have the possibility of advancing. Inner disciples basically had to rely on themselves and a cut of anything they earned would be diverted towards the core of the sect, after all this was where the true elites were nurtured. Children trained since they could walk and constantly nourished by countless heaven and earth treasures. To put it simply, outer disciples were the day to day running of the sect, inner disciples were the resource gatherers and core sect members were the true strength and backbone everyone else relied upon.

This understanding gave me something to desperately work towards. Since my rebirth I had one thing to work towards. An easy lazy life with no troubles. That’s right, instead of vague and hard to reach ideals like supreme strength, I just wanted a simple carefree existence. After experiencing the pain of death and the struggles that came with my street rat status on my new life, the life of a core disciple just sitting each day and meditating or cultivating and having everything I needed delivered to my doorstep sounded just perfect.

With my drive and determination in spades I sat in my room ready to cultivate. Sitting in the lotus position I slowly breathed in and as I did I gathered the qi from surroundings towards me, slowly sucking it in, I then directed it through my meridians and around the body according to the manual we were given. There was a slight itch and occasional spike of pain but I had been warned about that. This was the result of blockages in my meridians from over the years. Eventually I completed a circuit and stored the qi in my dantian whilst breathing out the impurities before once again starting the cycle again. I began again, this time picking up speed, the pain in my meridians was more intense, but I powered through, pictures of my idyllic life strong in the front of my mind.

I got into a rhythm and pain becalm a constant companion, thankfully I knew this would be temporary as once I had cleared my meridians the pain would fade. My understanding of both qi and my body increased as I went, feeling out the different ways qi reacted and moved through me. Eventually though I decided I knew enough about what I was doing opened the pill bottle and retreated one of the small pale yellow marbles.

Swallowing, instantly a bitter and astringent taste hit me, this was followed by a battering ram of qi flooding into me. Hastily I began cultivating and it felt like lightning struck me. Pain was all I knew but slowly it faded and I grinned knowing I had just cleared my first of eight meridians. Sadly the grin disappeared as I realised I had just used most of the medical effects. I felt like crying knowing how much that precious pill was worth.

Gathering the last dredges of the medicinal effects I continued circulating and began to fill my dantian.  Sadly I only got about one tenth the way full before completely exhausting it’s effects. I knew my meridians couldn’t handle the rough intensity of the pill again today so I had to continue cultivating normally and save the rest for a later date. We learned that there were eight meridians in the body, which meant if I used up all my pills I could finish cleaning them in a week. Not happy with the thought of wasting all my pills and taking so long I decided to make a trip to the library or book pavilion as it was known. Luckily a map was included alongside the rules and guidelines so, slightly apprehensive, I made my way out of the shared courtyard and towards the city centre.