A Wooden Ring - 430

Zhou Fan's mind was completely unconscious as his body floated in space. After an unknown amount of time, he briefly gained consciousness, but he could not move a muscle. 

He could only tell that he was about to fall unconscious again before he did so.

An unknown amount of time passed as Zhou Fan remained unconscious. His mind was completely blank.

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As clouds covered the sun, a boy around the age of 12 carried a basket of freshly picked apples down a path. To the sides of the path were endless plains with many trees.

The boy continued to walk through the peaceful surroundings with a sense of calmness. 

Suddenly, an exposed wooden stump caught his foot and brought him down. The boy was instantly pushed out of his peaceful mood and cursed at the ground.

"Damn lousy path. Who could have screwed up a path so badly. It's not as if it's a hard thing to create." The boy grumpily picked up apples, but realized that there were only a few around him.

"Damn hill." The boy looked to the side and watched as apples rolled down a hill. "I can't lose these. I've already lost baskets a few times, if it happens again, I'll be fired."

The boy mumbled to himself as he carefully walked down the steep hill. Downwards, there was a more forested area.

It seemed that the forest was where the apples had ended up.

The boy was annoyed, but went down to the forested area. Losing another batch of apples would cost him his job, which would likely get him kicked out of his house. Again.

The boy mumbled as he entered the forested area and picked up apples. "Damn lousy parents, making their 12 year old son pay rent. What a joke."

Suddenly, a cave caught the boy's eye.

"Was there a cave down here?" He asked himself.

The cave was going downwards into a small hill not too far away. Since he was already going to be a little late, the boy decided to enter the cave. After all, he had never seen it despite being in the forested area before.

The boy mumbled to himself. "Perhaps a cultivator is inside. Maybe he'll accept me as a disciple. Imagine that."

He did not hold any hope, but the sudden appearance of an unknown cave gave him the idea at least.

The boy walked up to the cave and looked inside. The entrance was half his height, but inside, it seemed to expand.

The boy looked around before crouching down and crawling through the hole.

"Was this cave revealed by that earthquake?" The boy suddenly remembered the shaking of the ground not too long ago that shocked the village.

When the boy finally entered the expanding area, he was shocked by the inside of the cave. On the walls were sparkling blue crystals that lit up the interior.

The boy's eyes widened as he went up close to the crystals and seriously examined them.

"This… This couldn't be a spirit stone mine could it!?" The boy was shocked, before fear settled in.

Cultivators would kill for a spirit stone mine. It could invite calamity to the entire village. Although it was just a small possibility, the boy was worried that it would happen. After all, he had heard many stories of such things.

The boy wanted to turn around, but he hesitated. He had always wanted to cultivate, but he had never been taught by another.

Although Zhou Fan had put the basic cultivation technique in the minds of all life, it gradually faded to the back of the mind as cultivation society grew. 

It was still relevant for beasts, but humans would usually need to either be guided or meditate deeply.

The boy longingly looked at the cave walls before deciding to move further in. At the very least, he could take a look.

The boy walked as he admired the spirit stone mine. There seemed to be hundreds of thousands, though he could not count them. And this was only on the surface. It was also unknown what grade the spirit stones were.

Eventually, the number of spirit stones began to lessen. The boy was surprised. Although he did not know anything about spirit stone mines, he knew that they were usually full to the brim.

"Perhaps a normal cave is connected to it?" The boy had no idea and could only guess.

Eventually, normal stone walls replaced the spirit stone, but the boy went deeper in curiosity.

As he turned a corner, he jumped back shocked. It was hard to believe what he had seen.

He looked again, and saw the same thing.

Leaning against the end of the cave was a person wearing gray clothes. He had gray hair as well, and blood seemed to form a small puddle under him.

After a moment, the boy spoke. "Hello?"

There was no response. 

"Sir? Are you dead?"

Once again, no response or even movement.

The boy gained the courage to stop hiding behind the wall and moved towards the person.

As he got closer, he could see an imprint on the ground and the wall that the person was leaning against. It was clear that he had been there for a long, long time.

The boy gained courage as nothing happened. "A cultivator?"

The boy got closer and closer, but suddenly, it looked like a finger on the person twitched.

The boy looked down in shock, but his attention was grabbed by the sudden opening of the person's eyes.

The person's eyes were wide as he looked at the boy. He reached out and touched the boy on the hand before his eyes went limp and his body fell backwards.

The boy finally reacted and jumped backwards, falling onto the ground.

He breathed heavily for a few minutes as he stared at the person.

As everything returned to normal, he calmed down. He turned around and ran out of the cave.

As he did so, he couldn't help but look down at the wooden ring that had suddenly appeared on his finger.