In the County of Ju, resides a village far away from any other towns or villages. It’s a humble village as most of the residents are farmers and hunters, barely making ends meet. It’s quite large as there were a hundred houses, surrounded by farmland.
On a hilltop near the village, stood a tree with a youth sitting on one of its branches in a lotus position cultivating, his eyes closed. The youth looked to be 13 years of age and seemingly taller than his peers, his height was about 5.6 feet and towered over children his age.
You could see his developing muscles under the coarse robe from working on the farm his whole life. Underneath the dirt and grime on his face is a handsome face with some baby fat still attached to it and his short black hair waving and moving with the breeze.
Opening his eyelids, he let the sundown light bask his eyes, making them shine like stars revealing light-blue-colored eyes. Sword-like brows gave him a valiant and heroic look, as he sat on the branch looking at the sundown, he closed his eyes again. Shortly after closing his eyes, a small bird flew and perched on his head, mistaking it for a tree branch. Breathing out, the youth reopened his eyes, scaring the bird away.
“Finally, I have reached the 1st rank of body tempering, my skin is much tougher now, even a blade won’t pierce my skin easily’’. Standing up, the youth stretched his aching body from working on the farm all day.
Taking a step forward, he let his weight carry him down the tree and land softly on the ground. Standing up from the landing, he walked towards the tree trunk where a straw basket leaned against it.
Taking a look inside the basket, various vegetables lay inside as he had foraged them while on the farm. Looking at the sundown and seeing it disappear into the ground, he started moving his legs, making his way home to the village outskirts. After a short 10 min walk, he arrived at the village gate where an uncle stood guard and greeted him.
“Ah little Tianyu, back from the farm soon?’’
‘’Hello Uncle Zheng, I couldn’t stay for too long either as Uncle Ji forced me to go home’’.
‘’Be careful, little Tianyu. there have been demon beasts attacking the merchants traveling on the road lately. Go home now, don’t make your uncle Lei worry, alright?’’
‘’I''ll be careful when I''m traveling through the forest, don’t worry Uncle Zheng’’
Passing by the gate, he kept on making his way home until he was blocked by a figure standing in his way. The boy looking down on Long Tianyu who stood in his way, is even taller and larger than him, about 1,83m tall, and has his arms crossed. “Long Tianyu, you should be begging me to forgive you right now. I just reached the 2<sup>nd</sup> rank body refinement. If you don’t, then be prepared for a beating’’
Long Tianyu, looking back at the youth, didn’t reply, He only stared at the boy opposite him and put the basket down. Cracking his knuckles and bending his knees into a horse stance. His chest was facing to the side, and he had both of his hands in a fist toward the youth challenging him.
Similarly, the tall youth also went into a horse stance with his left hand behind his back and his right hand facing backward toward Long Tianyu. After a short moment, the tall youth made the first move and with swift speed shuffled forward and punched toward Long Tianyu''s face.
Long Tianyu tilted his head back to avoid the approaching punch, narrowly missing it. He then responded by striking the tall youth''s elbow from below.
Quickly pulling his arm back, the youth shouted at Long Tianyu. “You vicious bastard are you trying to cripple me.”
Long Tianyu replied by sending an elbow toward the tall youth''s face. Quickly blocking the attack, the tall youth was pushed a feet backward. “You said you were at the 2<sup>nd</sup> rank of body tempering, that meager punch won''t cripple you’’
“You said that, but who knows how much strength you used, you have more strength than me, I won''t fight you anymore. Who knows, I might go home with a few broken bones’’
“Hahaha, brother Xiong Han, you know I didn’t mean to hurt you that badly’’
“Brother Long Tianyu, the last time you said that I went home with a broken nose, you got scolded by my mother for that remember?’’
“Brother Xiong Han, you know fists have no eyes when I punch, surely they are going to hit something right, do you remember last month you broke one of my ribs forcing me to rest and I couldn’t earn money for a week forcing Aunty and Uncle to feed me, you even got spanked for it by Uncle’’
“Brother Long, please forget about that embarrassing moment’’
Thinking about that time, Long Tianyu couldn’t help but laugh out loud, forcing Xiong Han to hide his embarrassed face.
‘Although Xiong Han is not my blood brother, he and I grew up together. When they found Uncle Lei and me near a farm they cared for and provided for me, treating me like their son since I was a baby’
“We need to hurry home before my mom gets angry, she made dinner and told me to invite you since Uncle Lei and Dad are out hunting for demon beasts, and Brother Long, have you heard about the news yet’’
Long Tianyu shook his head to the side “What news? I was out all day working on Uncle Ji''s farm’’
“I was wandering around the village center today when I saw a carriage being pulled by two vermilion fire horses, entering the village center and going to the most expensive inn we have. Curiously, I peeked into the inn to see a kid our age talking to the owner about buying all the rooms they have. Only after the kid and his guard went upstairs did I go talk to old man Kang at the front desk about why some rich kid arrived at our village. I couldn’t get much out of that damned old man Kang but from what he said there would be some event happening over 3 days in the village. The village is buzzing with life because of the new visitors. Let’s go to the village chief tomorrow, I know the village chief respects Uncle Lei a lot, so maybe we can get something out of that old man’s mouth with you asking him’’
“I guess we''ll see if the village chief is willing to spill the beans tomorrow, let’s hurry home before Aunty gets mad’’ Grabbing the basket off the ground, Long Tianyu and Xiong Han walked side by side towards the inner part of the village where relatively richer villagers live.
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Walking through an alleyway, at the end of it stood a middle-aged woman, “Little Tianyu, are you hungry? I made a lot of food today, so make sure you eat a lot, and you rascal, I heard you were sneaking around the village center today, what were you up to?’’
“Nothing Mom, I was just looking here and there like I always do’’
Looking suspiciously at Xiong Han, his mother soon stepped to the side, letting them both inside the courtyard. Handing the basket in his hand to Xiong Han’s mother, “Aunty, I picked these herbs and vegetables on the way back from work, I’ll give you half’’
“Little Tianyu, I won’t accept them, and you are still in your growing phase, you need all the nutrition you can get’’
“Then, I’ll keep them Aunty’’
leaning the basket against the kitchen door, Long Tianyu stepped inside the kitchen to a table full of food, mostly vegetable dishes and one meat dish, but even then, there was little of it.
Xiong Han, putting a piece of vegetable in his mouth, muttered “Sigh, when will Father and Uncle Lei be back with a giant demon beast, then we can eat meat until our bellies explode’’
“Long Tianyu, how long have Father and Uncle Lei been in the forest for? I think today marks the 128<sup>th</sup> day of the month, so tomorrow the count of a new month will start’’
While stuffing their face with food, Xiong Han’s mother''s voice could be heard from outside the kitchen. “There is more food inside the pan, so eat slowly, I will be back later”
Stuffing a sliced piece of bamboo root into his mouth, Xiong Han asked Long Tianyu “Hey, what do you think that event is in 3 days?, I think it might just be a group of merchants passing by and deciding to trade with our village’’
“That kid could be the young master of that merchant group. I think we’ll know once we ask the village chief tomorrow,’’ Replied Long Tianyu, stuffing a piece of stir-fried bamboo shoot in his mouth afterward.
Arriving at his small house with quite a large courtyard, Long Tianyu placed the basket near the door. Lighting a fire close to the center of the courtyard where he usually cooks, taking off his outer robe and shirt standing in the center of the courtyard he closed his eyes and began moving his body into stances. After an incense of time he opened his eyes, a frown appearing on his face.
‘Every time I cultivate, my body gets more and more painful as if 1000 needles are stabbing in my body. I don’t understand if there is something wrong with my body or if it is for a different reason. At first, cultivating to the 1<sup>st</sup> rank is as easy as stealing candy from a child, but how come after that step it only became harder and harder? My cultivation speed was slower when I began, but still faster than everybody else in the village, even Uncle Lei and the village chief told me I had great talent in cultivation. I''m already halfway to the 2nd rank, I guess by tomorrow I will be in the next step. I’ll ask Uncle Lei what is happening to my body when he gets back’
Setting those thoughts aside, Long Tianyu went into the house, grabbing an item underneath his pillow. Looking at the weathered blue cover of the book, it depicted a blue flame.
‘Uncle Lei gave me this book and said it was his cultivation method, he acquired it in an abandoned cultivation clan’ Azure Flame, reading out the title of the cultivation method, Long Tianyu flipped to its first page reading the text.
“The Azure Flame will strengthen the body and pave the way for a cultivator. This book will only be able to help you reach the 7<sup>th</sup> rank of body tempering, the 8<sup>th</sup> and 9<sup>th</sup> rank require a special cultivation method”
“The body tempering realm is the first step to becoming a cultivator. Mortals are born with a weak body. Only through tempering can the body accommodate qi and use it to further strengthen itself. The first 3 ranks are to strengthen the skin, muscle, and tendon with every rank requiring the body to be moved into 10 unique stances each rank”
“4<sup>th</sup> rank are the organs, refining the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidney. With each organ refined, the body will discard the impurities from within itself. The 5<sup>th</sup> rank is opening the meridians and the most important one to a cultivator. There are 12 main meridians in the body accompanied by 361 acupoints. A normal cultivator with average talent will only be able to open his 12 main meridians and a few acupoints. A truly talented cultivator will be able to open at least more than 200 acupoints, and those that can open all 361 are a genius that could only be found amongst 10000”
“Each acupoint is connected to one of the main meridians, the more acupoints that are found and connected to the main meridians, the more qi they can store inside the body and the faster qi can be absorbed or used. Qi in this stage of cultivation is only usable to heal the body and not suited for combat as the body isn’t strong enough to endure the power of qi used in that way”
“The bones are the 6<sup>th</sup> step in the body refinement realm, what good is the use of strength when the bones crack and break under that strength? Refine the bones by making small cracks on every bone in the body so that they can heal and become even stronger, only until every bone in the body is as strong as gold”
“The 7<sup>th</sup> step is ridding the blood of impurities, with each impurity washed out of the blood, it will make the body stronger in each aspect and faster. The 8<sup>th</sup> and 9<sup>th</sup> ranks are the sense and the mind, they can only be cultivated by a special method”
Flipping to the second page on it was a drawing of a figure in a stance. Walking outside, Long Tianyu placed the book on the ground in front of him, following the first stance in the book. He could feel his skin tighten, following the instructions on the third page.
Long Tianyu smoothly moved his body into the next stance feeling his skin get tighter once more. Closing his eyes and concentrating, he remembered every stance required for the 1<sup>st</sup> rank. Doing all 10 stances sweat could be seen on his body. Flowing from the 10<sup>th</sup> move of the first rank Long Tianyu transitioned into the second rank first stance.
After doing the fifth stance, Long Tianyu’s face contorts into pain, ignoring the pain, he slowly lowers his body and tucks in his arms. Every muscle in his body trembled nonstop, causing him to grit his teeth.
His eyes were still closed, as he thought about who his parents were and why they abandoned him, leaving him, for Uncle Lei to raise him on his own. Every time he got angry thinking about the matter, he’d always get into an argument with Uncle Lei. The argument always ends with Uncle Lei telling him not to be angry at his parents, that they love him very much, and that his parents couldn''t do anything in the situation that they were in.
He wanted to find his parents and ask why they abandoned him. This is one of the many motivations that give him the strength to keep on fighting this pain and get stronger.
Gritting his teeth through the pain, Long Tianyu punched out with his right fist completing the 6<sup>th</sup> form. After a few long breaths, he tried to perform the 7<sup>th</sup> stance causing his muscles to give out. Lying on the hard ground, he opened his eyes and looked up to the clear sky, wondering what mysteries and adventures were outside the village. ‘I want to get stronger so that I can see what is out there in the world and pursue immortality’
Slowly standing up, Long Tianyu dusted himself and walked towards a nearby vase the size of his body filled with rainwater, sticking his face inside the vase, he drank the cold rainwater and cooled his body down for a bit. Splashing some water on his face, he walked back and sat down in front of the book. Flipping through the pages, Long Tianyu focused on the stances to imprint them in his memories.
Looking through the stances again and again, Long Tianyu’s eyes slowly closed. In his mind, the figures in the book came to life performing all 30 stances. It may look like the stances are simple to do, but only those who are in the stance will know how hard it is to change the body into a different stance, the littlest of movements must be perfect, and no mistake made. If one did the movements sloppily it would simply do nothing, and the body would not get stronger.
Looking at the stances of the figures, he began to notice the smallest of perfect movements transitioning smoothly from one stance to another stance. Long Tianyu, in an epiphany, didn’t notice that outside of his mind, his body was unconsciously moving along with the figures in his mind.