The Light’s Glory Sect wasn’t what it was many years ago. Neither were Dragon’s Eye nor Spear’s Blossom. 

But it was through no fault of their own. Raising a Demigod wasn’t easy, especially so for the Light’s Glory Sect whose previous demigods were a husband and wife pair. 

So with the devastation the Red War caused, an event that killed hundreds of elders and apprentices alike, and outright removed the demigods from the world, it was a struggle to climb back to the peak of glory. 

8 decades later, and the sects were only just beginning to find and grow geniuses. 

All three of the greatest sects seemed to be priming themselves for explosive growth that they spent all decades prior preparing for. After years and generations worth of recovery, accumulation, and rebuilding, they were ready to make a push, to raise that star genius that would take the place of their lost demigods. 

Naturally, the competition was fierce. Countless desired to enter the sects at all, while those that were lucky enough to get in found that rising through the ranks seemed impossible. 

Too many geniuses, enough to where the label of genius seemed to lose its meaning. Only the prodigies or savants managed to shine beyond all others, and without question, all of them were special in some way. 

This generation of little monsters was known as the Generation of Gilded Hope.

And in the year 88, one of the largest entrance ceremonies for Light’s Glory was about to be carried out. 

………

……

“Kit? Are you there?”

A woman carefully entered a small residence that was located on the outskirts of a small city. 

After walking in and looking around, she eventually entered the dining room where a young man was passed out in his chair. 

She let out a wry smile before walking over and lifting his body. 

“Hey now, that’s no way to eat your food.”

“Huh?”

The young man squinted his eyes as he woke from his sleep. After taking a long breath, he settled back into his chair. 

“Good morning Aunt Xia.”

“It’s the afternoon. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you weren’t asleep when the sun came up this morning.”

She spoke while cleaning away the plate of food that Kit had fallen asleep beside. 

He rubbed his eyes tiredly. 

“I like training at night better. It’s cold.”

“Well it’s time to start getting your sleep habits in order. The entrance ceremony is soon.”

*Tak*

Kit saw her walk past and place a small scroll down before him. When he opened it, he could see details for the entrance ceremony into Light’s Glory. 

It was in 8 days time.

He stared at it for longer than he should have before setting it down. 

“Alright.”

“You’ll at least need to be past the Immersion Stage to get in, and your depth into the Accumulation Stage will often determine how well you do during the ceremony. Though, I hear this year’s entries are loaded with some big names.”

“That’s fine.”

Kit responded blandly before standing up. He could still use sleep, but now that he was awake, he wasn’t going back down.

Aunt Xia watched as he walked to his room quietly.

His words seemed to imply that he had already surpassed the Immersion Stage. 

The Immersion Stage was the first step to take as a martial artist. It was so simple that even ordinary mortals could enter the immersion stage with decent talent. 

The stage simply required one to become aware of the ambient Qi in the air and let it into the body, thereby immersing the entire body in the pool of Qi that is the world. To mortals, this was known as enlightenment. To martial artists, this was the first baby step on an infinitely longer road. 

Kit, who was now 16, was long past the point of having started.

Aunt Xia remembered the day that he first began.

It was only after Kit had come to terms with his trauma. A 10 year old child witnessing the brutal death of his parents, and thinking that it was his own fault, was the perfect recipe for ruin. 

It had taken Aunt Xia four years of constant nurturing and therapy to pull him out of the dark pit of despair he had dug himself.

She remembered having to feed him for the entire first year that she took him in. After that, it was a long process of doing small things like getting him to crawl out of bed, go outside, and engage in some sort of education.

Those bright eyes, that had turned so dull, finally regained some color after four whole years. 

And then, something odd happened.

Kit began to speak about being able to see ambient Qi. He said he could see the air and its various colors.

Not only was this the first thing that Kit had shown interest in after four years, but it provided a shocking glimpse into Kit’s talent. 

That was, he was actually an abnormal talent. 

The ‘air’ that he was seeing was ambient Qi, and the colors were actually the elements. 

Aunt Xia was shocked that he could actually see the elements, especially at so young. 

It was known that normal talents could begin the process of Immersion around 15 years of age. The better the talent, the younger they could engage in Immersion. 

But even then, this didn’t mean that one could see Qi. That took years of practice and exposure to Qi in order to accomplish. And the elements? Aunt Xi wasn’t sure if that was possible for anybody below the Sky Realm. 

Kit had only been 14. 

And so, with his magical vision, Kit began the process of Immersion. 

It was supposed to be simply meditating, concentrating on your surroundings and opening your body to the world’s energy. In this way, you would begin to feel Qi seep into your skin, and that would allow you to saturate your body. 

But Kit pioneered his own path. 

As he was able to see Qi, he was able to learn how to wield it in his own way. He didn’t have to feel it like others. Instead, he simply sat himself down within a dense cloud of Qi and let his body absorb it. 

This process continued for two years, but during that time, two things confused Aunt Xia. 

First, Kit began covering his eyes. He said that his vision kept getting better, but that it was also overwhelming. He said that it hurt if he had his eyes open for too long. 

So instead of making him blind himself with blindfolds, Aunt Xia was able to make a special blindfold that dampened the sight of his surroundings. This let him see things like normal without getting overwhelmed. 

The second thing that Aunt Xia found odd was that Kit had taken two entire years to complete the Immersion Stage. 

At least, that’s what Kit told her. 

Aunt Xia got curious as Kit dressed and came back out of his room. 

“Hey, come here.”

She waved her finger, and Kit walked over as his face questioned why. 

“I haven’t checked you in a while.”

“My scar is fine.”

Kit sighed. 

His wound, the one that he got as a child during that fateful night. 

It had been filled with demonic energy, and when she found him, Kit had been on the verge of death, the demonic energy destroying his body. 

Thankfully she had been able to remove it and gradually nurture him back to health. He had long since healed completely, but the wound still left a horrible scar across his body, one that would stay with him for the rest of his life. 

The topmost portion of his scar showed itself as a red laceration up his neck and across his chin. The rest of it was across his torso and down his right leg. Truly a horrific wound it had been. 

Kit never liked it when Aunt Xia checked it. She had done it for a year after he completely healed, making sure there were no hidden wounds. After that she stopped. 

The reason he didn’t like it was because it involved her streaming her power through his body. It was uncomfortable for anyone to have their body invaded by another’s power, only mitigated by his lack of resistance. 

But Aunt Xia was adamant. 

“Not just your scar. I want to check your Qi. I wonder how well your Immersion went.”

“...”

Kit was silent, signaling his resignation. With that, she placed her hand on his chest. 

As her palm lit up, she got a deep glimpse of his body. 

And the view was surprising. 

“My goodness… That’s completely pure Qi. How did you do this?”

She asked amazedly, earning a shrug from Kit. 

“I can see impure Qi, so I only let the pure Qi inside. Impure Qi feels icky anyway.”

“Amazing… Wait, you haven’t formed a dantian? You lied! You haven’t even started Accumulation!”

“...”

Kit turned away from Aunt Xia’s Piercing gaze, scratching his head. 

“I’m close.”

“What do you mean? You could form a dantian right now with how dense your Qi is. It wouldn’t take more than a minute. Why haven’t you?”

“...You form the dantian on purpose?”

“Of course? Were you…”

Aunt Xia backed off. It seemed they both were misunderstanding something. 

She asked. 

“What do you mean by close? What were your plans?”

“...My dantian is forming naturally. It’s reaching a critical point soon. It’s why I’ve been training late.”

“Naturally? As in, you don’t guide the Qi at all? And it just forms the dantian for you?”

“Yes. You never told me how to form a dantian, so I thought it was a natural consequence of Immersion. So I’ve been training and waiting, and now it's getting close.”

“...”

Aunt Xia was quiet for a moment, as if trying to wrap her head around what he was saying. 

Eventually, she closed her eyes and sighed. 

“Alright, you’ve obviously discovered something I’m unaware of. Continue as you are, but if the night before the ceremony comes and you haven’t formed a dantian, then I’m having you form it. Not like it would take long anyway.”

“Ok.”

Kit nodded dully, as if that were his plan all along. Aunt Xia just pat his head. 

“Alright, I’m going to be leaving for a few days. After that I’m coming to stay with you until the ceremony where you’ll be accepted into the outer palace of Light’s Glory. Keep working on Immersion until then.”

“Ok.”

“And please practice some martial arts! At least to refresh yourself because you will be fighting when you’re there.”

She left with those words, leaving Kit and his blank face behind. 

………

A day passes…

Xia Zhilan arrived at her destination after going through a waypoint. The place she appeared in was the main Palace of Light’s Glory. 

Light’s Glory was built within a valley between two massive mountains. These mountains rose thousands of miles into the sky, making them an impassable barrier to any who wished to invade from the front. 

But the Palace wasn’t much lesser in stature than the mountains. 

As the home of Light’s Glory, the Palace was truly the world’s most magnificent and colossal palace. Standing at 999 miles tall, it was a behemoth equipped with magical artifacts that wouldn't fade for thousands of years. 

That palace singlehandedly housed an entire empire’s worth of people. And as an empire unto itself, it was home to the most powerful people in the world. 

Family clans, impossibly rich merchant guilds, the Tower of Cyphers, the Court of Elders, and most importantly, the heart of Light’s Glory. 

The Palace was one of the richest and most prosperous cities in the world. Only Spear’s Blossom and Dragon’s Eye could compete, and compete they did. 

Much to the dishonor of Light’s Glory, they were no longer the strongest or wealthiest. It was Spear’s Glory who took that honor, and Light’s Glory was barely able to reign as second place ahead of Dragon’s Eye. But even Dragon's Eye was beginning to declare its superiority. 

The decades hadn’t been kind to Light’s Glory. But, many would say that they themselves were the ones to blame. 

Their Light wasn’t as pure as it used to be. 

Xia Zhilan, being one of the Outer Court Elders, often had work she needed to complete as part of her job as one of the many administrators. 

Specifically, most of the recent work was in regard to the entrance ceremony. At no point in prior history had so much attention and resources been focused on the outer palaces of Light’s Glory. 

But because many big names were emerging, it was a big deal. Xia Zhilan had a lot on her plate. 

But it was nothing she couldn’t easily finish. People at her level couldn’t be distressed by such mundane work. In merely a day, she went through a month’s worth of work. After that, she was free to go for the next several days. 

She planned on returning quickly, as it took a day to travel to the main Palace even using waypoints. But before she did, she made her way to the Archives. 

The Archives had several levels which divided knowledge based on their importance. Xia Zhilan didn’t even have to surpass the first level in order to find what she wanted. 

“Depth of Immersion.”

A text on the first stage of all martial arts, the Immersion Stage. This knowledge was the most widespread knowledge there was. Everyone, even the smallest villages in backwater kingdoms, knew the process of Immersion and actively encouraged their people to try it. 

It was the easiest step of martial arts, so easy that even decently talented ordinary people could saturate their bodies with Qi. And it only came with rewards, such as increased lifespan and greater resiliency. 

It was as easy as it was simple, but Kit had spoken to her about a not-so-simple matter. 

Could one’s dantian be naturally formed through extensive Immersion?

Nobody thought about it much, but this question revealed an interesting aspect of cultivation. That is, cultivation and its steps were a natural process of joining the body with the laws of the universe. 

This would imply that every step of cultivation could be ascended simply by allowing things to progress naturally. 

It would also mean that the great geniuses of the clan had been going about things all wrong. 

It was often talked about how young geniuses, some as young as 12 years old, were able to feel Qi and begin the process of Immersion. In this way, some families even pressured their children to charge through the process of Immersion and form their dantian, as it was believed forming the dantian early was the best for taking advantage of youthful foundation building. 

But Kit had been going through Immersion for two years, even as someone who had the abnormal talent of being able to see not just Qi, but the elements. 

Surely he wasn’t any less talented. Then why did it take him so long?

Perhaps the duration wasn’t a lack of talent, but the consequence of natural cultivation. 

Xia Zhilan sifted through the book she picked, ignoring the curious eyes of those who were also in the Archives. 

But, perhaps unsurprisingly, she didn’t find what she wanted. 

So, she ascended the Archive. She looked through more and more books, all of them talking about the myriads of secrets that Immersion and Accumulation held. After all, those stages were the most important for building a strong foundation. Many Elders had no doubt dug into the secrets of these seemingly inconsequential steps in order to further their power. 

But the lower levels of the Archive never spoke about a naturally forming dantian. So she went as high as her Outer Court Elder status allowed. 

After going through a security checkpoint, she was allowed into a much smaller, though still massive library. 

Here, she casually did a search query through one of the Archive's jade tablets that contained a basic summary of all the library’s contents. 

“Natural Immersion… Let’s see it.”

Finding the location, Aunt Xia quickly retrieved the book. 

“Ah, finally.”

Pleased, Aunt Xia read through what seemed like the answer to her question. 

“So a dantian does naturally form through Immersion. But it can take upwards of 6 years to form that way… Kit is doing it in two. And the benefits…”

She read through the reasons for doing such a thing. After all, who would go through so much time and effort if it didn’t bring them something good?

And the main benefit was shocking.

“Passive Qi absorption and a Harmonius Qi Constitution…”

“Elder Xia?”

“Hm?”

Surprised by the voice, Aunt Xia stiffened and looked to her side. 

There stood another Elder. Specifically, he was an Inner Court Elder who she was a close friend with. 

She sighed. 

“Ah, Elder Han. You frightened me.”

“My apologies. I see you’re interested in the Immersion Stage. Have you perhaps heard of what the little monsters of the family clans have been doing?”

“Oh… Yes, I have. Did you know that a dantian naturally forms during the process of Immersion?”

Xia Zhilan, or more formally known as Elder Xia, handed the book in her hands to Elder Han. 

He was a middle aged man, one known for his scholarly and wise disposition. He quite enjoyed teaching the young kids and teens of the Terrestrial Realm even though he was an honored Elder of the Inner Court. 

In fact, he was one of the most powerful of the Inner Court at the heights of the Mind Realm. If not for his stagnant power and his wife’s lack of it, he would be in the running for attempting to become the next Sect Leader. 

But instead, he lowered himself to teaching the young generation, dispensing his endless wisdom and attempting to build a foundation for Light’s Glory through those young ones. 

He was naturally greatly respected, especially by Elder Xia herself. He was also the reason she could rise to her position, despite merely being someone of the Sky Realm. 

Elder Han nodded while taking the book. 

“I did. In fact, for the past three decades, I’ve been pushing the family clans and small schools to teach this method of Immersion. Unfortunately, it is a long and tedious process, one that not many teenagers thus far have been able to stick with.”

“So there are some who have naturally formed a dantian?”

“Indeed. In fact, those children who have are the reason this year's entrance ceremony is so important.”

Elder Han looked down at the book with a deep gaze. 

“They are the first batch of children who I’ve been able to personally guide along this road. After so many students refused to follow my teachings out of ill-discipline, I forced this recent batch of children to, pressuring their parents and personally ensuring that they followed through. And they are now by far the strongest children I have ever seen enter the Accumulation Stage. It took 5 long years, but I know that they will usher in a new era for our Light’s Glory.”

Elder Han spoke with hope and wonder. But at the same time, Elder Xia was astonished. 

Those little monsters Elder Han was speaking of were the young geniuses of the family clans. They were the most powerful clans in Light’s Glory and comprised what could be considered an empire within the Sect. They were responsible for generations of powerful procreation in an attempt to churn out the most talented children possible. 

They have had gradual success over the 8 decades following the Red War, and they were the reason Light’s Glory could still stand as one of the top sects on the continent. With constant talents, the sect would ensure its future. 

But those geniuses had taken 5 years in order to complete Immersion and naturally develop a dantian. 

Kit really had achieved something amazing if he did so in less than half the time. 

She asked. 

“Elder Han, surely not all of them took 5 years, right?”

“Oh, of course not. Some of them took four, and the best took three. There was even one who took two. That boy truly has a gift. I was told that he has a special constitution, but the family won’t disclose what.”

“I see. But if they merely took two years to complete Immersion, why have they waited until now for the entrance ceremony?”

“Simple.”

Elder Hang smiled while closing the book and putting it back on the shelf. 

“By holding kids back or accelerating them forward, they will all be able to compete against each other in the same generation. All of the families have this understanding and plan for batches of their kids to go through ceremonies at the same time. This year’s ceremony is their agreed upon ceremony to send in their most talented batch. And in 7 years time, another batch will come, though one not as talented.”

“I didn’t know such a thing…”

Elder Xia was intrigued by his words. It wasn’t exactly a secret, but it was something you would only know should you have close ties to the families themselves. 

Elder Xia, in her 53 years of life, had never heard of this. It told her that there were undoubtedly more secret machinations that the families engaged in. 

But they were deep waters she couldn’t quite swim in yet with her strength. 

Still, it was Kit who was about to be pitted against these young geniuses of the families. 

His time at the outer palace was sure to be filled with turmoil and conflict, especially if his talent showed itself in this ceremony.