Time flowed quickly by and soon I was preparing to make my breakthrough to the second stage of qi refining. Wanting to set as firm of a foundation for the future as possible, I took my time condensing my qi, packing it tighter and tighter inside my dantian until I felt that one more drop would crack it in two before holding it there and doing nothing. Slowly my dantian learned to adjust to the new pressure and the walls became more sturdy and any minute gaps in concentration were completely evened out. This was a trick I learnt from one of my many trips scouring the book pavilion for notes written down by higher level cultivators. Eventually though I felt the pressure build so high that the qi in my body naturally began to swirl and compress to make room for more. Tighter and tighter the gaseous qi gathered until a popping sound echoed through my body. I had just broken through the barrier to the second layer of qi refining and now my qi was purer and higher quality, any low quality qi was either passively tightened and upgraded or breathed out. This process was going to continue seven more times until I reached the ninth layer of qi refining, then I would be able to form my foundation.

The next day I got up feeling even more refreshed and ready than before, my higher cultivation meaning I needed less sleep and my body just functioned better in every way, colours were brighter, sounds were more detailed etc.

Even so I put on a serious expression and got ready. It had been a month since I arrived and today if I was selected I would be able to move to one of the mountains instead of staying here at the foot of the range. One had to understand the closer to the peaks, the better the cultivating conditions. Legend has it that the qi is so pure and strong at the very central peak that qi refining cultivators would simply explode if they tried to absorb it. A gruesome fact, but showed off just how diverse the situations for cultivating could be.

I was quietly confident in being chosen, after all I had the highest realm, everyone else were just stage one, not to mention I had all my meridians cleared, including the four extraordinary meridians. But without any guarantee I would definitely be selected butterflies started to flutter in my stomach.

Standing in my place I waited for Elder Jinn to read the list of recommendations. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long and let out a sigh in relief as he called me first.

“Disciple Hayden, is there a specific mountain you would like to join?”

“Please recommend me for cauldron mountain elder.”

“I see, interested in becoming an alchemist?”

“A spiritual chef Elder Jinn.”

“Indeed there’s a lot of overlap with alchemists, you could learn a lot there, very well. Next, disciple Isiah Lin which mountain would you like to join…” as he moved on to the next boy on the list I felt excited thinking about how much closer I was to my goals.

There were eight disciples recommended altogether, all of the other were on the brink of breaking through to the next stage. Three of them chose to join me coming to the cauldron mountain, this showed how popular the alchemist profession was. Two others chose the black hammer mountain, one picked jade mountain and the final chose mount cut. The rest would remain in that courtyard for another month until they too were chosen to join us at one of the mountains.

We gathered around elder Jinn and I almost jumped out my skin when I felt a sensation wrapping around my feet. I didn’t get time to ponder it, however, as soon we were hurtling through the air. In an instant we were out of the city and flying towards the mountains. Strangely I didn’t feel any wind as we flew, Elder Jinn must have done something to protect us. He took better care of us than expected of him and dropped us off group by group at the correct mountains.

As the four in my group touched down at cauldron mountain we were greeted by an inner disciple who looked about twenty, although they may be older, cultivation slowing the ageing process.

“Hello junior brothers and sister, welcome to cauldron mountain. I’m inner disciple Jefferson.” The young man spokes quickly and surprisingly sternly despite his warm smiling eyes.

“I’ll be in charge of helping you settle in today so ask any questions you need to. You won’t get the chance again later.”

He guided us up the mountain road towards the wall encircling the mountain. A giant stone structure that I could only assume circled the entire mountain. Resembling the Great Wall of China from my old life, a marvellous feat of human workmanship. We approached the great archway that was the entrance to the mountain and were stopped by yet more guards but seeing our inner sect badges they quickly let us through.

“The giant city at the foot of our mountain range is where outer disciples as well as the families of some sect members live. Inside the first ring of one of five of the mountains is where inner sect members live. There is a second wall higher up too and that’s where inner elders at the nascent soul live. I’m sure you’ve noticed there are seven mountains on the sect crest and you only learnt about five, the other two are part of the core of the sect. Maybe one day one of you will get to see the inside of it, though that may just be wishful thinking.” He looked longingly towards two mountains I could just barely make out in the distance.

“As you should be aware, the inner sect prides self reliance. For this reason the only the lowest houses here lower down the mountain are free. To move higher up and live in better conditions, in houses or even mansions and passively be able to absorb more concentrated qi you have to either improve your cultivation base or pay with gold or contribution points.” Looking at our confused faces he sighed and explained further.

“Contribution points are the main currency higher up in the sect. One point can buy a qi nourishment pill, however whilst it’s possible to buy points from the sect they cost twenty gold. As you may have noticed this is a loss on our part, this encourages disciples to prioritise sect work rather than making money through other streams outside of the sect.”

We were currently walking through a small town just inside the wall but I couldn’t recognise anything on sale, they must be higher level than the stuff I had read about in the book pavilion.

I also noticed another pavilion much like the book pavilion down in the sect city. This one had was designed in much the same way but was named ‘Alchemical book pavilion’.

“This is cauldron mountain’s book pavilion. Inside you’ll find more detailed descriptions of herbs and ingredients than in any other pavilion, except maybe that of the inner sect. As new disciples you’ll be allowed to choose one low level technique for free. Later on you’ll have to pay using contribution points. Go inside, you’ll have one hour to choose your technique, then I’ll direct you towards your huts.”

Entering, the library looked much the same as the one in the city. Tall ceilings and huge amounts of books and scrolls littering the walls. This time, however I was allowed into the second floor. I handed a token that disciple Jefferson gave each of us to the guards and ascended the stairway.

The second floor looked much the same as the previous, only this time there were no disciples waiting to help. It seemed an hour was going to be cutting it very fine, I had to manually check what each technique did before I could choose and take one away.

Rushing forward I started on the left wall and skimmed through each method, trying to pay attention to what the core of each spell did. Some would summon water that was good for nourishing crops, some produced fire to burn your enemies. I even found some strange techniques solely used to imitate the mating calls of wild beasts. Time flew by and just coming up to an hour I had a group of technique I was struggling to choose between. One was for self defence, it directed qi into a sharp point that could be shot short distances at enemies. It sounded simple but effective and in such a dangerous world there were no guarantees I would survive tomorrow. Another good choice was a set of sword techniques, it could be used to attack and defend and train my body at the same time. In the end though I chose a set of hand-signs that would prevent medical properties escaping. This was meant for use during pill concocting but I didn’t see a reason they wouldn’t work with my cooking. I planned to try and get a job in a restaurant as a beginner spiritual chef to save up money and contribution points and maybe later come back to get these two techniques.