Ling Hong

As soon as the word came out of his mouth, Ling Wei bore an elated expression as he asked,"What is it? Haha! You simply must tell your father!" Clearly, a name was a big deal. It is what any kid dreams of.

However, it is mostly a dream for these people because choosing your own name means becoming a cultivator. Not a lot of kids want to embark upon the path to Immortality. After all, cultivation is a dangerous path fraught with blood and death. The boy decided as soon as he was capable of thinking logically that he would embark upon this path.

The boy was currently six years old and he was going to turn seven tomorrow. His goat was going to the ceremony with him in order to receive a name also. The reason the boy and the goat are such good'friends' is because on the day the boy was born, a goat was also born. This goat was strange. It appeared to be smarter than the others and there was a sense of humiliation present within its eyes every time it had to mingle with its own kind. It was something you really never would think could happen among goats. One day, when the boy turned three, he and the goat met. It was the strangest thing, because the little goat seemed incredibly elated when it saw the boy. The boy also had a deep sense of attachment towards the goat, even though he didn't understand why.

The boy looked at his father dead in the eyes and said,"I have decided upon the name Ling Hong. I don't know why, but I just had a sudden attachment to this name. It just sort of popped into my head. It was weird." The boy, from now henceforth known as Ling Hong, spoke resolutely.

Ling Wei smiled and asked,"What has the goat decided on?" The scrawny little goat bleated in dissatisfaction as it started bleating as if it was talking. This made Ling Wei wear an odd expression. However, he knew that for some strange reason, his son could understand what the goat said. It was one of the strange things that he could do. He could also speak...er...goat? Bleat? Who knows? But all that needs to be said is that he could understand the little goat and all the other goats.

Ling Hong nodded after the goat finished. He proceeded to say in conviction,"He says he wants to be called 'Xie Zhi'" Ling Wei almost choked due to surprise.[1]

Ling Wei then exclaimed in an incredulous tone,"What an arrogant little goat!"

The little goat seemed to take offence to that because he immediately charged and tried to headbutt Ling Wei. All he did was chuckle then wave his sleeve and the little goat was instantly suppressed. He then released Xie Zhi and said,"I guess you will be named Ling Hong tomorrow. However, remember to remain nameless until you are permitted to use your name. It would offend the Gods if you should choose to go by a name before being permitted."

Ling Hong nodded solemnly as he committed this to memory. He would definitely not do that.

Ling Wei then said,"You should go say goodnight to you mother. Then go to bed." And with that, Ling Wei left for his room. After he left, Ling Hong went to his mother's room to say goodnight. When he entered, he was assaulted by the smell of flowers. It truly smelled like flowers on a nice spring evening. In contrast to the lovely scent of flowers, it felt like he was encased in a layer of ice!

.......Wait........HE IS ENCASED IN A LAYER OF ICE!!!!

While this took a while to read, this all happened in less than one breath.

As soon as he was encased in ice, one breath later, he was free and he felt something warm surrounding his head. He looked up only to see the concerned expression of his mother. She looked at him worriedly and was hugging him tightly.

He noticed that he had just intruded in his mothers seclusion, so he quickly consoled,"I'm very sorry mother! I only wanted to say goodnight, but I have intruded. I'm sorry, mom." He felt bad for his mom. After all, his mom was a cultivator, and seclusion was like slowly building an unstable tower, only to encase it in concrete in order to obtain it. If you were interupted while building a wobbling and unstable tower, it would most likely crumble and you would have to start again, from the beginning.

However, his mother, Ling Rou, just looked at him dotingly, and said in a gently chastising manner,"Hush now child. You are the most important thing. everything else comes after. Also, I only started a few moments ago."

Ling Hong smiled and said,"I just wanted to say goodnight. I also came up with a cool name. But, you're going to have to wait and hear tomorrow!" He was excited to see the happy expression on her face tomorrow.

After saying that, Xie Zhi bleated and ran over to Ling Rou only to jump into her arms and nuzzle her. After getting that out of his system, he ran back to Ling Hong.

They then left for their room and laid down on Ling Hong's bed. Xie Zhi went and sat on the special mini hay sack that was beside Ling Hong's pillow. Ling Hong rolled over so that he could see Xie Zhi and said,"I cant' believe we're going to get our names and Daos tomorrow! I am so excited. I bet I'm going to have the best Dao in the village. Hehe. Then, I can get really strong so I can help the village expand and stuff." He was truly excited. He really wanted to know which Dao he was most compatible with.

It's not like you're doomed if you get a weak Dao. You could still cultivate almost any Dao, it would just be harder by many fold. Especially if someone, for example, with a strong fire Dao compatibility wants to cultivate the water Dao, it's possible, but it's even harder than cultivating with no compatibility because they would naturally reject each other. Now, there are some can cultivate two opposing Daos, but they are from the huge cultivation sects.

After accidentally falling asleep, Ling Hong was walking around in his dream unconsciously. Suddenly, a bright light exploded in the depths of his mind, and a rather handsome youth appeared. He looked around and saw a goofy looking Ling Hong walking around. The youth looked at Ling Hong, and he had both a bitter and happy expression on his face.

The youth snapped back to reality after a moment. He shook his head and focused on Ling Hong. He then raised his hand in a beckoning manner and Ling Hong's consciousness floated towards him, still wearing a goofy face. When Ling Hong was around one meter away from the youth, The youth snapped his fingers, and flash of white energy diffused gently throughout Ling Hong's body.

Suddenly, the goofy expression on this ethereal Ling Hong disappeared, replaced by one of confusion. He looked around for moment, before saying to himself,"Where am I?"