A Decision Made

Yu Hua stood there being showered with the cold water from the waterfall. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around the events that had occurred. From start to finish, she had known that her Old Auntie had protected her from much of the world, but for the last 10 years until now she only just understood how much she had been sheltered from. She couldn't help but clutch the manuscript in her arms and the seed in her hand to her chest.

A part of her needed to know that this was all real while another part of her simply wished none of it had ever happened. Tears filled her eyes, but she willed them away she felt she had cried enough for an entire lifetime.

Inhaling deeply, she loosened her grip on the book only just realizing that she had been gripping it tight enough her fingers had turned white under the pressure. Yu Hua inspected her surroundings once again and nodded to herself.

"I will busy myself with necessities first, yup that's exactly what I'll do," she said aloud to herself and as if on cue her stomach growled loud enough to echo softly through the cavern. Yu Hua remembered the many fish teaming in the lake.

"Maybe fish later, for now, I need to find something a little more accessible" she inspected her surroundings deeply looking for anything edible. Spotting something near the inside of the cavern's entrance she slowly made her way back across the steppingstones to the cave mouth.

"How did I even manage that in a daze?" she questioned as she clumsily made her way off the last stone. Deciding it was not worth pondering at that very moment she continued to her left towards the spot she had seen from the lake center.

As she drew near she smiled at the light grey mushroom caps. She was very familiar with this variety seeing as they grew frequently around her village. Without delay, she dropped the seed in what was left of her garments pocket making sure it would not fall out. She plucked two large mushrooms from the ground examining them. Both mushrooms were roughly the same size at about 5 inches tall and the caps were about 8 inches wide. She sat them neatly on top of the book in her arm.

"These shall do nicely" she declared as she walked to the edge of the water, kneeling she sat the book to the side and rinsed the mushrooms in the clear water to clean them. Happy with herself for finding something she could nourish her starved stomach with, she broke off a piece of the mushroom cap and popped it in her mouth. To her delight, it had a slightly salty and earthy flavor and she chewed happily.

She paused in her happy chewing and looked out over the water in front of her, the play of light across the water was soothing. She had been physically exhausted from her recent tragic experiences. Now however she felt overwhelmed with mental exhaustion though her body was fully rested. Her mind had taken its fair share of trauma.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror like lake seeing a young girl sitting. Her robe hung in a tattered rag revealing more than it covered. Her hair fell in long black disheveled curls framing her ethereal facial features. Her jade-like skin seemed to be glowing in the pale blue light of the cavern. Her hazel eyes were crystal clear and held a sadness that seemed to seep into the very cavern itself.

Yu Hua smiled sadly and took another small piece of the mushroom cap and put it in her mouth chewing slowly. She wasn't really thinking of anything she was simply listening to the waterfall. The water crashed in a continuous fashion into the lake and the sound resounded into a small roar at times through the cavern.

She found herself entranced by the sound. It calmed her in a way she had never felt before. It was a type of inner peace that she couldn't even begin to fathom how she possibly could feel. Being trapped in a series of caves and cavernous lakes, she had been raped and lost her Old Auntie.

The last thing she had ever expected was to feel at peace and calm, but there she sat in just such a state. She finished what she could eat off of her mushroom cap and picked up the book placing the mushroom back atop it. Holding her book close to her and slightly crushing her mushrooms she made her way back to the now empty lily pad in the middle of the lake.

'I hope the mist recedes a bit' she thought as she stepped onto the lily pad, she couldn't help but marvel at the sheer size of it. Yu Hua walked around it for a few moments before realizing she wasn't being misted. She looked up to find that the waterfall had slowed from crashing into the lake below it, to smoothly flowing in a steady stream.

As most of the mist cleared, she noticed that the bodies that she had seen before were gone. Shaking her head, she decided she didn't have the energy to even try and think about it. She meandered around the giant lily pad for quite a while looking over the edge into the rainbow of colors in the lake below. Yu Hua walked towards the center of the lily pad and laid down.

She looked at the book in her arms for a long moment before sitting it to the side. Her delicate frame barely took up a quarter of the lily pad. After a moment she pulled out the white seed and looked at it. No matter how she turned it around or stared at it looked like a simple white seed.

"I wonder what the Jade Lily meant" she pondered for a while and shook her head in frustration. She wasn't even sure what she was supposed to do. Yu Hua put the little white seed away and turned over to look at the 'Spirit Tamer's Manuscript.' She had opened it and run her hand across the page once before, but she had yet to even read a word.

She felt apprehensive about reading anything from the book. She felt like once she opened the cover and truly began to read it there would be no turning back. What kind of world would she even be stepping into, where a lily could talk, people drank blood, and judging by the bodies that had disappeared, where people gave their lives for a bit of fortune?

The very same fortune she lay staring at. She thought of Li Tian and her vow.

"Can this manuscript really help me complete my vow" she spoke her thought aloud. Her face clouded over in frustration. Why was she being so indecisive about this? She had never been indecisive about anything, but this was somehow different.

Yu Hua wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. She sprawled over on her back and rubbed her face in an aggressive manner. She had a choice to make and she knew that it would change her life entirely and already had.

She sat up folding her legs in a seated position in front of her and picked up the 'Spirit Tamer's Manuscript', brushing her mushrooms to the side onto the lily pad as she did. Yu Hua traced the deeply grooved words on the cover, she couldn't help but marvel at the book.

;

"Ok" she all but whispered. Her hand slightly trembling as she opened the book for the second time and found the script to be written just as elegantly as the book itself was made. She took a deep breath and began to read.

"The Qi Condensation Realm is the very beginning of cultivation. There are 10 stages in this realm, the tenth stage, being referred to as the great circle of Qi Condensation.

Qi Condensation refers to the collection of Qi or Spirit energy in your dantian or core.

You will first start with feeling the energy around you and drawing it into oneself and rotating it through the body.

This process both purifies and condenses the Qi within your body."

Yu Hua wasn't certain she understood what she had read, but she managed to deduce the concept of the short lesson. The short description was followed by a series of pictures. The first picture showed a person sitting cross-legged drawing in energy. The second depicted them circulating the energy within the body. The third showed purer and condensed energy flowing into the person's core.

She nodded her head a couple of times before sitting the book in front of her. Yu Hua copied the seated position of the person represented in the picture and imagined herself drawing in energy. She breathed slowly in and out and after some time she felt as if her pores had suddenly become tiny vacuums. She felt herself being filled with spiritual energy and began to circulate it within her.

Yu Hua closed her eyes and used her mind to peer into herself. She watched the energy circulate within her. The energy after being condensed into the tiniest of strands poured into her spirit core without any guidance needed on her part whatsoever.

After a closer evaluation, she realized that the green globe she had obtained with the Jade Lily's help did not absorb any of the energy in her core. The energy seemed to crowd around it. She hadn't seen this in the pictures nor was anything relayed in the text.

Yu Hua continued to cultivate quietly for some time. She watched as her core began to fill to the brim with energy and she felt stronger for it. Soon though she felt she was hitting a wall of some sort. The spiritual energy around her began to surge into her in greater amounts until she felt the wall start to crack and slowly break.

As soon as the wall broke Yu Hua felt exhilarated. She could feel her body growing stronger. She could see further; all her senses were enhanced. She knew she had broken through into the Qi Condensation realm.