With even breaths, Qing Lang opened his dark brown eyes. He’d just performed his first cultivation session. It’d gone well. Besides the two seat beads on his broad forehead, he didn’t feel as exhausted as those in his class.

At this rate, I’ll probably open my essence core in about two weeks, he thought, pulling out a tiny bottle of booze from his fine blue robe and taking a swig.

Noticing it was two o'clock in the morning on the blue willow square clock hanging on the wall in front of him, he jumped to his feet and grabbed the other big bottle nearby; it was black with a fake alcohol brand label on it.

It was the time of day he went for the search. However…he glanced down at the bottle and waved it. It was empty. He had to refill it.

And activated it, as well.

He snuffed out the candles that lit his room and immediately made his way out.

Gentle raindrops of late spring fell over him as he walked through the courtyard with his penguin gait. The guards of the family solemnly nodded at him as he passed them. 

The weather was the kind that made you crave to bury yourself under a cotton blanket and drink some lion's head soup with a hot mantou, rather than wandering the city for… probably no result.

Qing Liang grimaced at his thoughts. How could he stay at home knowing his sister was being raped in Sa Clan? He squeezed his grip on his minibottle, and took another gulp before tucking it back into his robe. 

None of this would have happened if it hadn't been for him.

Wandering the city like a madman was the least he could do.

Reaching the big doors of the main hall, two voices conversing with each other could be heard from within.

“...the only thing we can use now is our own blood,” the thick voice of the head of the family guards said. “Only a few colored-eyed people are left in the city, and all of them are hard to capture. Not to mention that my Blue Blood-Pail Ka has a little time before it expires.”

There was a moment of silence, and then a gravelly voice spoke: “Do what needs to be done. We cannot stop now. We only have the eastern part of the city…”

Are we sacrificing our own people now? Qing Lian scratched his disheveled hair to calm the guilt aching inside his head. If I’d known how things would end up, I would never have told them about the Key that man had told me about. My mother wouldn’t have died. My sister would have been sold to that fucking womanizing patriarch.

Feeling his scalp was about to come off, he stopped, forcing himself not to reach for his minibottle. What had happened had happened, there was no changing it. Now, he could only bury the unwanted emotions inside and carry on; otherwise, all their sacrifices would be in vain. 

He pushed open the doors, and as he stepped in, the smell of the cheap Chunghwa cigarettes the guards’ head smoking tickled his thick nose. The room’s walls were filled with lanterns and ancestral paintings. 

Before the two main chairs there were two men. One was a white-haired old man with his hands clasped behind his stooped back — his father, Qing Xieren. The other one, with shaved hair and an even thicker nose, was squatting like he was taking shit. It was Qing Yun. He liked to smoke that brand he hated so much.

At Qing Lian’s sight, the guards’ head, Qing Yun swiftly got to his feet, offering a respectful greeting to his father before he retreated. “Young master.” He nodded as they crossed paths.

Qing Lian nodded back and approached his father. With that heavy expression, the rank 8 old man didn’t look like he was in the right mood. And from his conversation with Qing Yun, it was not hard for him to tell the reason.

“How is your first cultivation session, Qing Lian?” His arched father shuffled away with his nimble steps towards the wall shelf.

The long eleven hairs left clung to his head always reminded Qing Lian what he would become if didn’t stop scratching his head.

“Pretty easy,” he replied. “I didn’t have any trouble manipulating my pure force. With my B-grade aptitude, I’m confident I’ll open my essence core in like half a month.”

"That’s… good." His father nodded slightly as he took a small, rectangular wooden box from the shelf. "But are you sure you can get those Spherical Coins?"

Qing Lian scratched his head. "Yeah, maybe. Why…are those Spherical Coins so important, father?” He hesitated, genuinely couldn't understand. He knew that they weighed a lot of merits that could help him buy other valuable things, but his father wanted him to use them himself. “I mean, I already have strong Ba.”

“You’re Ba is not going to remain strong forever,” he said in a biting tone, opening the box in his hand.

Qing Lian’s eyes went wide. “Is this…  Force Olive?”

“If you’re not sure about getting that first place, use it.”

This made Qing Lian’s eyebrows furrow. Force Olives were precious objects filled with primal force. Unlike force apples that needed to be absorbed, Force Olives simply needed to be sneezed on and then thrown into the sea core, where they would explode with force.

Ka wielders mostly used them when they wanted to break into rank 2.

There were different types of Force Olives. The black one held the force of 50 force apples within. Using it to just break through the roadblock was kind of… foolish, wasn't it?

Looking at his expression, Qing Xieren sighed. It was more of a snort than a sigh. “You Ba’s strength is merely a fleeting thing,” he said. “You'll come to realize this when you advance in transformations and ranks and see the suffering you are missing. Also, keep in mind, people will eventually catch up to you. Your Ba must always be much stronger than it must be.”

Though still unconvinced, Qing Lian listened carefully.

“This not only going to make your cultivation easier, but most importantly, it will enable you to craft Yantras quicker, which is a huge advantage in fights. Imagine being able to craft a Yantra instantly or craft two Yantras at the same time.”

That was something Qing Lian had never thought of. 

Realizing how ignorant he was about these things, he bowed deeply. “I understand now. This one is grateful for your guidance, father,” he said, grabbing the little box and closing it. 

“You haven't learned this in the academy today?”

Qing Lian scratched his head in embarrassment. He had ended up sleeping during today's class. Having wandered throughout the entire night prior, tiredness had overcome him.

Qing Xieren threw his arms back behind his arched back. “The importance of Spherical Coins is more than you think. They are much rarer than these Force Olives because they are only produced in the Sea of Knowledge.”

“I will make sure to win those Spherical Coins.”

“Good,” Qing Lian said with his gravelly voice, turning around. “Does your bottle need to be reactivated?”

"And a refill too," Qing Lian added, following his father to the corner of the room.

His father tapped on a painting depicting birds and flowers, and with a crack of a sound, a hidden door slid open, revealing a dark pathway. Without hesitation, the father and the son descended.

“Alright, let's refill it.”

“Also, I know that the blood is running out, so I want to let you know of a man with colored eyes whom we can easily capture.”

“Who is it?”

“Sa Min.”

---

A few minutes earlier, far away in a small room on the second floor of an inn in front of Qing's gate residence, someone, breathing heavily, peered out from a lattice window, watching Qing Lian as he walked towards the main hall.

Sa Min’s eyes were burning, and he had to force open them wide until Qing Lian disappeared into the hall. The moment Qing Lian did, he shut them again. Burning even more. Now, he had to force himself from falling asleep as he continued his cultivation.

Within his sea core, a new portion of his pure force came out of his sea sphere and headed toward the black closed opening below. It was a very small portion from what he had been channeling earlier. However, given that his exhaustion reached its peak and his focus was hardly there, this was all he could manipulate.

This was how cultivation worked. You could not just cultivate forever, even if you wanted to.

Sooner or later, your Ba would reach its limit, and your concentration would begin to wane. You would need to give your Ba some time to rest and for your pure force to replenish."

Sa Min pushed himself for a few more minutes before he opened his eyes once again. 

They were bloodshot from fatigue.

 

I don’t know if my Ba has reached 5Q. Sa Min thought, letting the crumbs of the force apple slip through his fingers. But… this is my limit.

This mere thought sent a sharp pang lancing through his weighted head.

He winced. No. This was it. That was as far as he could go for now. He’d planned to follow Qing Lian if he decided to roam the city, as was his usual custom. Sa Min’s 600-year-old intuition was telling him something wasn’t normal about that habit.

However, with his Ba’s state, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that. 

Fine. No big deal. He would try again tomorrow. However, with his current Ba’s strength, he should really arrange his time: when he should cultivate and when not, so that he would not end up in this situation again.

Feeling his body sluggish, Sa Min sluggishly pushed himself up from the chair and stood up; his legs weighed as though shackled by a 100-katty iron as he moved to the bed nearby.

When he reached the edge of the bed, he glanced aside at the clock on the wall. Was it 2 or 3 o'clock? Who cares? He let himself fall, face down, his naked body glistening with sweat. 

….

Frowning, a middle-aged man with curly hair threw a glance over his shoulder.

Two terrified children with brown skin and eyes were still trailing behind him, their feet bare.

“You wish to become like her?” the man said coldly.

The girl tightly clutched her little brother's hand as he stopped, both still trailing behind him.

There was a burning anger in her eyes.

The man smiled faintly, shaking his head, before he resumed his stride with his stake.

….

At the sound of heavy rain, Sa Min woke up, darkness of the night enveloped the quiet room. The candles must have burned.

He looked aside, squinting his eyes, which now felt much better, at the clock to see what time it was. Apparently, he had just slept an hour or so. Glad there was still a lot of time, Sa Min was about to roll over to continue sleeping when he heard this noise coming from outside.

Sa Min stilled in his place for a moment. 

The sound came again and It sounded like the squeak of a gate.

Still drowsy, Sa Min hurriedly stumbled over to the window to see. 

A young man with a backpack walked alongside the fence of the Qin residence, a black bottle dangling from his hand and a red umbrella shielding him from the heavy rain.

Sa Min smiled faintly. That was Qing Lian!