Ch 09 - An Odd Legend

A knock sounded out in the house. A few seconds passed. Another knock resounded.

"Coming!" A young girl's voice echoed along with the sounds of hurried steps. The sound of rain falling outside muffled the noise.

Mei paused in front of the door and looked down to check herself. Straightening her blue dress, checking her hair was in its ponytail and brushing her bangs with her hand, she blinked her green eyes a few times and nodded.

Reaching forward and opening the door, Mei saw Shen Jian huddled against the door frame, doing his best to avoid even a single drop of rain from falling on him. It was a futile effort since his ankles were steadily getting wetter.

Mei's lips twitched in mirth and pulled him inside quickly. She went and found him a towel to wipe himself with.

Shen Jian dried himself quickly. Handing the towel back, he smiled at Mei. "Good morn-" His nose suddenly scrunched up partway. He sniffed a few times and then let out a sneeze. Sniffing once more, he rubbed his nose and looked at Mei again. "Good morning, Mei."

"You don't look like you're having a good morning though." Mei replied in amusement.

The amber eyed boy ran a hand through his black hair, feeling the slight wetness that persisted. He looked at his clothes, slightly wet even though he'd arrived here while darting from under one awning to another. Only the cast on his arm was dry and that was because he paid special attention to it.

He gave Mei a dull look. "Really? What made you think that?"

"Oh, nothing in particular." Mei said with a smile. She grabbed his free hand and started to drag him towards one of the rooms in the house.

They entered a decently furnished bedroom. Aside from the odd stack of clothes on the bed and some accessories and knick-knacks randomly thrown here and there, the most prominent feature of the room was the set of six books spread out neatly on the bed.

Shen Jian looked around the room curiously. "Is this your room, big sis Mei?"

Mei paused. It only occurred to her just now that she'd essentially brought a boy to her room. Her cheeks reddened slightly but she put her hands on her hips and replied proudly. "That's right! Be proud for you're the only one blessed to see the place I sleep."

Contrary to her flustered state, Shen Jian was uncharacteristically calm. He'd already endured the fluster from entering her house. Entering her room wasn't much different.

Instead, he looked around the room with a critical eye, glancing at the scruffy state of the room.

"Shabby." He murmured.

Mei's face went blank. "I beg your pardon?"

"I mean, it's a… well lived-in room." Shen Jian amended his words.

It wasn't his fault that he had an high standard for general cleanliness.

Mei let out a suspicious hum but let it go. She went to her bed, grabbed one of the books and sat down on the edge of the bed. She patted the space next to her. "Now come on. I want to read them too so we're going to share. Sit here."

"Eh?" Shen Jian stiffened.

"Hurry up." Mei said impatiently.

"Right." Shen Jian went and sat down next to her, valiantly resisting the urge to shy away from her.

Mei scooted closer to him, then finally showed the book she was holding in her hands. It was a thin book with a dark blue cover with its title written in gold lettering on the front.

'The Legend of Creation'

"What's this book about?" Shen Jian asked, curiosity brimming in his eyes.

"This is a story about the creation of… everything. How the world and universe came to be." Mei began with a deep voice, trying to sound wise and mysterious.

Shen Jian however disregarded her theatrics and instead asked. "Is it real?"

Mei paused. "I… don't know. Not many people even have this book but those who did always talked like it was real. But well… I don't know if there's any way to prove it's real."

Shen Jian hummed. "Never mind then. Come on, let's start!"

Mei obliged and opened the book. Surprisingly, the book had illustrations. The first illustration was strange in that it was literally a black nothing. The whole page was just black. The words began from the next page.

…

At first, there was nothing.

For all time, in all directions, there was only nothingness.

But soon, there was a light. A small faint light that shined in the infinite darkness.

It did not shine long for it quickly faded away.

Another light appeared. This too faded away.

Yet another light appeared. This one persisted.

More lights appeared. Some faded. Some persisted.

An infinite time passed. An infinite number of lights appeared and faded and persisted.

And when there could be no more, the lights began to merge.

Two shapes were formed. A man and a woman.

…

There was an illustration of two white featureless and unclothed silhouettes in the black void. A bald male figure and a long-haired female figure.

…

The man had not a single hair on his head. He was the first man and the first god. The Primordial God.

The woman had flowing hair that was infinite in length. She was the first woman and the first goddess. The Primordial Goddess.

Being the only two beings in existence, the God and Goddess were naturally drawn to each other.

The God and Goddess lived together in harmony for eons.

But they were alone. There was no one and nothing to accompany them.

As time passed, they grew to disdain the nothingness that surrounded them. In turn, the nothingness disdained them, consuming them with a slow poison, futile though it was.

…

There was an illustration of the two figures holding hands with small black dots on their feet, representing the poison of nothingness.

…

The God and Goddess grieved. They knew that although they could resist the poison for eternity, nothing would be achieved. They would simply be existing pointlessly and fighting the nothingness endlessly.

The God and Goddess made a decision.

The God surrendered his mind. The Goddess surrendered her body.

They embraced.

They joined.

They merged.

They burned.

…

There was an illustration of a ball of fire in the void. Interestingly, if one squinted their eyes, the circular ball would look vaguely, faintly like a yin-yang diagram.

…

They blazed.

They shrunk.

They became infinitely small.

And then, by their own will, they shattered themselves.

The primordial fireball exploded.

…

There was an illustration of the fireball exploding, followed by an illustration of a new scenery, different from the black void. The background now had a light dim colour that was different from the jet black of the previous images. The new light background was dotted with bright white dots all over it.

…

In its wake came existence, the bane of nothingness.

The Primordial God moulded the shattered Goddess' body into creation, shapes capable of interaction. He became the God of Creation.

The Primordial Goddess moulded the shattered God's mind into life, consciousness capable of growth and sentience. She became the Goddess of Life.

So came the stars.

So came the worlds.

So came the animals and birds.

And so came the universe.

…

There was an illustration of a grassy plain. It had animals, birds, trees, the sun on one side, the moon on the other side, twinkling stars dotting the sky.

…

But the poison of nothingness did not vanish.

Through the remnants of the poison came an inevitable fate for all creation.

So came death.

…

There were multiple illustrations following each other. One showed a burning star, the next showed the star dying, its fires snuffed out, turned into a cold rock. The following image showed the star crumbling into pieces and then into dust.

Then came an image of a deer, standing tall with its antlers jutting outwards and then laying on the ground dead. Afterwards, an image of crumbling bones in the form of its skeleton and finally dust being blown in the wind.

…

The God and Goddess however anticipated this and planned for it.

The remnant traces of the God's body shattered into uncountable motes, spreading across the universe.

The remnant traces of the Goddess's mind guided the creations, showing the way to harness the motes.

They joined together to open a path to all creation, to fight back against the inevitable fate.

So came the path of cultivation.

…

The final page had an illustration of a silhouette of a robed man sitting in the lotus position, spirals of small dots surrounding him.

The book was closed.

Shen Jian stared at the back of the book in a daze, his eyes wide, his mouth open.

Instinctually, he felt like he had grasped something. He didn't know what exactly it was. He didn't know how to use it. But he felt like it was important.

"So, how was it? Do you believe it's true?" Mei asked, curious of his reaction.

"It is." Shen Jian answered immediately. "I don't know why but I feel like it is."

Mei hummed thoughtfully. "You too, huh? I felt the same thing. The same certainty that it's true."

Shen Jian didn't reply, lost in thought. He found it slightly eerie how parts of that story had a fleeting similarity to the leading theory behind the birth of the universe in his previous world, the big bang.

Perhaps he was looking at it the wrong way. Perhaps all universes are created the same way. Or perhaps he was just seeing things that simply weren't there.

Either way, it wasn't something he could find the truth of at his current level. He would think about it when he had the leisure to do so.

"That was interesting, wasn't it? Now come on, let's read the next one!" Mei exclaimed and picked up the next book. Contrary to the first however, this one was thicker and just by the title, he could tell it was a novel.

Shen Jian and Mei continued to read books for the rest of the day, trading thoughts and speculation related to their current book. However, Shen Jian's mind was still on the Legend of Creation. Something about it had hooked his interest and he couldn't seem to let it go.

In the early evening, Shen Jian sat on the floor in his house. He assumed the lotus position and fell into meditation. Within the trance where he usually tried to absorb the energy, he looked at the energy around him and thought of the book he'd read.

He was quite sure that this energy, these countless sparks around him were the motes that the remnant traces of the Primordial God's body shattered to become. He still didn't know what the energy was officially called in this world but he at least felt sure of the source of the energy.

But that left a question. Where was the Primordial Goddess's guidance then?

Keeping the story of the legend of creation in his mind, Shen Jian tried to absorb the energy into his body once again. To his surprise, it was slightly easier to influence the energy than before but it still refused to get absorbed.

He was closer than before but he was still missing something.

---

Shen Jian and Mei continued to spend their time together. Though they ran out of books to read and became too bored with re-reading the same books, Shen Jian instead came up with the idea of small competitions. Things such as a race or who could catch the most fish.

For obvious reasons, Mei was somewhat unimpressed with the new pastimes. After all, she was still a cultivator and Shen Jian wasn't. It would barely even be any competition at all.

Her sense of superiority lasted until the very first race, whereby it was shattered when Shen Jian beat her almost easily, even despite the fact that he had one arm in a cast.

That definitely lit a fire in Mei.

For a week after that, the two of them regularly competed in physical activities. And somewhat expectedly, Shen Jian lost most of them once Mei became serious. Although he felt that he wasn't giving it his all and that he could push past his current limits, he was still injured after all and it was best not to aggravate his arm too much.

However, spending so much time with Mei did have some surprising effects for him.

Above all, the world seemed much more colourful than it did before. Spending so much time outdoors just having fun with someone was a balm for his mind that was shaken by his parents' passing and his failure in cultivating.

Shen Jian felt more relaxed. He smiled more often and he felt a vague wonder for what every day would bring. The depressed mentality that had persisted for so long and the clouds in his mind and eyes slowly faded away.

In the process, he came to see Mei as a dear friend. He may have only known her for barely more than a month but he quite liked her. He barely had anyone that he called a friend so he cherished her presence even more.

Just watching Mei get grossed out by the sliminess of a fish brought a smile to his face.

Of course, since his first proper friend in this world turned out to be a girl, it was inevitable that his mind sometimes went into spirals of 'what if'. But he suppressed such thoughts as much as he could.

Perhaps feeling bolstered by the changes in himself, Shen Jian slowly mustered his courage to ask her about what he'd been meaning to ask since he'd first seen her… before he got side-tracked into basically hanging out with her instead.

He thought it was about time that he finally asked her how to properly cultivate.

Admittedly, even besides his shyness, he'd gotten distracted from his initial goal in getting acquainted with Mei.

Thus, on one ordinary morning, Shen Jian checked the status of his injury before he prepared to head out. It was surprisingly well healed already, only twinging every now and then if he jostled it too much. But abiding by the credo of 'better safe than sorry', he still decided to not start reusing the limb yet.

He was still young after all. It was better not to let such wounds fester in the background.

Shen Jian left his house and headed towards Mei's. Once there, he knocked on her door and waited.

She took significantly longer than normal to open the door and unlike usual, her smile seemed somewhat dimmer. He had the vague feeling that something was wrong but he pushed it to the side.

Mei briefly went inside to take care of some things. He silently waited for her at the door for a few minutes but got curious since he wasn't hearing any noise from inside.

"What is she doing?" He muttered in curiosity and wandered inside.

Feeling compelled by the silence, Shen Jian instinctively silenced his own steps and went towards the only room with the door open, her room.

Peeking inside, he saw Mei standing still and staring at a flat rectangular object in her hand.

'Is that a… picture?'

It was a photo frame. Although he couldn't tell what it displayed, he could tell from Mei's stance that it was something important.

Shen Jian silently retreated from the room and went back to the door. Then he again approached her room but this time with his feet taking intentionally loud footsteps to alert her.

As expected, when he reached her room, Mei had already put away the picture and was in the midst of leaving the room.

"I'm done, let's go!" Mei exclaimed with her usual cheer. He could see however that she was forcing herself.

Afterward, they went about playing like usual. Right from the start, Shen Jian could tell that Mei was distracted. She wasn't giving her all or she wasn't paying attention as usual.

When the time for lunch was nearing, Shen Jian decided to have a picnic instead of eating at their houses like they usually did.

Carrying a basket filled with food, he led Mei to a quiet meadow where some farm animals were grazing. She was visibly confused by the change in routine but followed along.

Both of them quietly ate their food, watching the various animals wander around. Mei laughed when a young piglet headbutted another out of the way and proceeded to drink from the trough it was occupying.

Even after their lunch, the two of them remained at the meadow, watching the animals and birds and the nature around them.

They sat like that for hours and it was only when the time was nearing sunset that the two decided to return home. Shen Jian was satisfied because Mei looked much better than she did in the morning, now with a more natural smile on her face.

They reached Mei's house first. She gave him a brilliant smile and was about to say something but Shen Jian spoke first.

"Mei, can I ask you for a favour?" He asked slowly, feeling increasingly nervous by the second.

She blinked, recognizing the lack of the 'big sis' he usually attached to her name. From prior experience, she knew he only did that when he wanted to talk about something serious. "Hmm? What favour?"

Shen Jian fidgeted where he stood before he took a deep breath and forced the words out of his mouth. "Can you… teach me how to cultivate? To become a practitioner?" He couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes and was thus looking to the sides and at the ground below.

There was silence around them. He understood that. After all, the method to enter the path of cultivation wasn't something well-known and it was probably restricted to the cultivation sects and prominent families. At least, that was what he guessed from what limited information he had.

The access to that knowledge most probably had strings attached. Either he had to satisfy some conditions to be given the knowledge, pay for it or perhaps join the sect outright.

Shen Jian was ready for most of the conditions. If he had to join her sect to set foot on the path, then he would. He didn't remember the name of her sect exactly but at least he would have someone he knew nearby in the same sect instead of being alone in an unknown one.

He waited for Mei's answer, waited for whatever condition she would put forth.

But it didn't come. Instead, the silence lengthened and slowly turned oppressive.

Getting an ominous feeling, Shen Jian lifted his head and looked at her face.

Her own head was bowed, the bangs of her hair blocking his view of her eyes but her mouth was pressed into a thin line. Her hands were clenched into tight fists.

The ominous feeling in his gut intensified.

Mei raised her head and looked him in the eyes.

Shen Jian's heart sank when he saw her face.

There was a cold, almost hostile look on her features.

"You? Someone like you wants to cultivate?" She spoke with a sneer. "Don't make me laugh."