Born

There were few things comparable to the first cry of a newborn, for it is one of the purest calls of life and also death. The cry of a baby carries both the unhappiness of being awakened and the excitement of the newly born soul, it is the first show of a human innate contradiction.

Wu Xue was no exception. He cried so much his parents worried about something being wrong, but as powerful as they were, they also knew it was nothing.

"It's okay, okay, my dear..." Wu Ying, his mother, was as beautiful as a pure lotus flower, and she was the one who gave him his brown eyes. She lovingly embraced him in her bosom.

"Did I cry as much as him when I was born?" Wu Tian, his brother, asked, "He finally stopped."

"The more the baby cries, the better! It's a sign of good health!" Wu Cang, his father, answered, thinking his son was worrying about his younger brother.

Wu Tian was just four years old, but he already began to look a lot like his father. Both carried with them sword eyebrows and sharp facial features, their eyes were as black as the abyss, and both carried the same long dark brown hair, which was also inherited by Wu Xue.

Suddenly, Wu Xue opened his eyes and curiously looked at his mother, who was smiling at him and then looked at his older brother and his father. His eyes sparkled with naive interest.

"He is ugly," Wu Tian muttered.

Wu Cang pinched his ear and said, "Be careful with your words, you were just like him!"

"Huh? Was I that ugly?" Wu Tian was shocked, his childish face seemed to struggle with that revelation.

"You both stop! None of you were ugly at birth," Wu Ying said helplessly, "Go look for my master, she should want to see him too."

Both father and son left the room and left them alone.

"Oh, my dear," Wu Ying kissed Wu Xue on his forehead, "No matter what, you are my son!"

She played with him for a while before three people entered the room, it was the father and son duo and a beautiful woman in plain white clothes.

"Master!" Wu Yin was about to get up to greet her but was stopped by a slender hand on her shoulder.

"You just gave birth, don't embarrass yourself and me," the woman said with complicated eyes, "Even if you have a powerful body, you will still feel tired after the labor."

The woman's name was Xu Ling, she was a very powerful person and known as one of the strongest in the vast known planes. 

"Senior Xu, what do you think?" Wu Cang asked with a nervous expression, "Is it too bad?

Xu Ling looked at the baby, and Wu Xue looked back at her.

"Honestly, if not because I can sense the bloodline connection between you, I would have thought he was an ordinary mortal's baby," Xu Ling sighed and looked at her disciple, "During the time you were pregnant... Did something happen?"

Wu Ying shook her head in denial, "No, it was very tranquil and I didn't even cultivate during that time, so..."

"It's simply his fate, huh..." Xu Ling muttered and looked at the baby's innocent face, Wu Xue was constantly looking curiously at both his mother and her master.

"Should I call him unlucky?" Wu Tian suddenly muttered, "But if he was really unlucky, he wouldn't have been born in our family."

Everyone in the room was stunned for a moment but then smiled.

"You are right, brat!" Wu Cang laughed and patted his son's head, "Since he is my son, it doesn't matter! I can easily make him a great warrior!"

"Is fighting all you can think about?" Wu Ying said unhappily, "Can't he just live peacefully?"

"No way!" Wu Cang hurriedly shook his head, "No matter what, our family is well known throughout the world as a sharp sword!"

Xu Ling suddenly sighed, stopping their argument instantly, "It's kind of a miracle, actually, he managed to be born with a mortal physique in this place.

"The aura here is so rich that even a blade of ordinary grass can be considered a treasure in some places... But he managed to be born as ordinary as a human can be."

"Master, don't be so harsh..." Wu Ying hugged her son lovingly.

"It's the truth," Xu Ling looked through the window to the horizon, "But since luck played against him, what about making him play with luck?"

"What do you mean?" Wu Ying asked.

"I want to take him as my true disciple," Xu Ling said directly.

The room was silent, everyone looked at her with incredulous eyes.

"But, I'm already your disciple... Won't it be a... problem?" Wu Ying asked after forcefully calming down.

"You are my first nominal disciple, but I want to make him my first true disciple, there's a difference," Xu Ling said with a meaningful smile.

"Wait... won't he be in a higher status than me?" Wu Ying was worried, "That's not good, master!"

Xu Ling looked at her with sharp eyes and said, "Since you worry so much about status, you won't be my disciple from now on.

"You already learned everything I planned you to learn, so what's the difference? You already possess a somewhat enough cultivation base and can protect yourself without a problem."

"Master..." Wu Ying was on the verge of crying, her beautiful face turned gloomy.

"Don't call me master from now on," Xu Ling said lightly, "I'm not trying to break ties with you, so don't be too sad, you can still visit me."

At that moment, Wu Xue began to cry again, as if sensing his mother's sadness. 

Wu Ying's gloomy mood was instantly swept away by that cry, she focused her attention on her loved newborn son.

"Since he possesses a mortal's body, he should first grow up a little before we begin to shape his foundation, it's better for him," Xu Ling smiled and left the room with light steps, "I will be living around to observe him as he grows, I need to have a complete understanding of his character, comprehension, and nature, otherwise I won't accept him as my true disciple, but keep my identity a secret from him until I reveal it myself."

Just as she left, other relatives and friends began to show up to congratulate the family, that day was a cheerful day for the Wu family, despite the many twists and turns.

But despite all their happiness, both Wu Ying and Wu Cang shielded Wu Xue from being scanned by others' soul senses, they didn't want rumors about their newborn to spread.

Wu Xue was the only one who managed to rest that day, he peacefully slept in his mother's embrace.

Four years later... 

"Come here little Xue, I have a great wonder to show you!" a young girl in her teens called the young child.

Wu Xue already began to show signs of how he would look like when he turned into an adult, it was surprisingly different from how many people thought.

He had the eyes of his mother and the facial features similar to that of his father, but he had a new element neither of his parent possessed, a slight gloom under his eyes and a naturally dignified-looking face. It was somewhat strange, but not ugly, it was his "unique mark," according to his mother.

"Big! Sis!" Wu Xue cheerfully called out and walked toward her, "What is it?" He anxiously expected something marvelous. 

"Kekeke," the young girl pointed to the sky, "Look at what I can do!"

In the cloudy sky, explosions of varied colors and forms began to give Wu Xue a spectacle.

"Wow! What is this? It's so cool!" his eyes sparkled.

"It's something called fireworks, I discovered it in some books!" the girl proudly shouted about her achievement. 

"Wu Qing, you began to set fire in some places, are you stupid?" Wu Tian suddenly appeared and harshly reprimanded her, "Stop quickly!"

"Ops!" Wu Qing noticed her wrongdoing and quickly stopped, "It's just a little fire, I can easily put it down."

"Hahaha," Wu Xue just laughed foolishly at all that confusion, "Do it again!"

"No!" Wu Tian immediately refused and held his hand, "Let's go, Senior Xu wants to see you!"

"I don't like her!" Wu Xue struggled with a pitful face, "She is boring! I like Wu Qing!"

"Hehe~" Wu Qing's expression instantly brightened, but she quickly began to use spells to put down the fire.

"Cool!" Wu Xue praised again and again.

Wu Tian's eyes lit up as he had an idea, "Do you want to learn how to do those things?"

"Yes! Yes!" Wu Xue nodded earnestly.

"Senior Xu can teach you!" Wu Tian began to seduce him into doing what he wanted, "But you need to be obedient and follow her orders for a while."

"Really?" Wu Xue looked at him dubiously.

Wu Tian secretly sent a sound transmission to Wu Qing, which shouted, "It's true! I learned those things from her!"

"Cool!" Wu Xue was easily tricked, "Let's go!"

"But remember, you need to be obedient, otherwise she won't teach you!" Wu Tian reminded.

After a while, Wu Tian returned alone with a bruised face.

"What happened?" Wu Qing asked curiously.

Wu Tian indignantly said, "That mons- I mean, Senior Xu was angry after hearing the lie I made up from my stupid younger brother.

"She secretly gave me a hard time outside my brother's vision."

"Serves you right!" Wu Qing humphed as if she had nothing to do with that.

"You damn!" Wu Tian was instantly enraged and began to fight against her with punches and kicks, but was mercilessly beaten by her.

"Are you stupid? I'm obviously older and much stronger than you!" Wu Qing said with an arrogant face, "You should respect me!"

"Damn! I will remember this humiliation!" Wu Tian swore revenge and walked away.

Wu Qing simply continued to play around with whatever she found interesting, it was her daily routine except for cultivation.

At the same time, in Xu Ling's courtyard, Wu Xue was resentfully writing on a book, it was one of the many things Xu Ling taught him.

"After writing, you will continue to work on your painting," Xu Ling said lightly as she savored some grapes while sitting comfortably opposite to Wu Xue.

"Teacher, I want to learn cultivation, not those things!" Wu Xue mumbled.

"You need to build a solid literary foundation first, it's important!" Xu Ling said with a frown, "Do you want to disobey me?"

"No! Of course not!" Wu Xue quickly shook his head, afraid of being punished again.

"That's good!" Xu Ling smiled, "As long as you reach my standard for literacy, I will immediately begin to teach you cultivation!"

Wu Xue simply felt suffocated after hearing that, for he knew how high her standards were.

"Your relative Wu Qing finished her literary studies when she was five years old," Xu Ling suddenly mentioned, "Are you going to be worse than her?"

Wu Xue stopped for a moment before continuing to write, he feigned ignorance.

"Do you think I don't know?" Xu Ling laughed, "You want to surpass her, right? You actually consider her your rival!"

"How do you know?" Wu Xue asked, genuinely confused.

"Oh, that's a secret!" Xu Ling smiled with narrowed eyes, "If you don't try hard, you will be left behind!"

Wu Xue felt inspired by that provocation, he studied with all his might. 

Time passed...

A year later, Wu Xue managed to pass Xu Ling's test and was finally "graduated." He learned to write and understand complex texts and poems, and to draw exquisite paintings, he also learned to make and solve complex calculus, surprising everyone.

But the most surprised person was Xu Ling, since she personally saw how he easily understood everything she taught, no matter the complexity, it all happened after he was stimulated by her a year before when she talked about his one-sided rivalry.

It was a great feat for someone without a special talent, he had a completely mortal body and soul.

"Teacher! It's time!" the anxious child urged Xu Ling, "I passed your test, I want to learn cultivation!"

Xu Ling sighed and took Wu Xue to a cave abode, it was crude and had the air of an abandoned place.

"This will be your secluded place of cultivation," she explained and pointed, "Sit on that cushion."

Wu Xue obeyed and found that the cushion was very comfortable, more comfortable than the ones he used before.

"It has the effect of keeping your body and mind in balance, it will be of great help to you," she explained shortly, "Now, let's start with the basics.

"I won't be teaching you about all the cultivation realms in one go, you only need to learn and focus on your foundation, to polish it step by step."

Wu Xue paid deep attention to her words, so much he began to sweat without doing any exercise, but he was writing everything Xu Ling said in a small book.

"Humanity's cultivation path initially focuses on the Essence, Qi, and Soul. 

"Essence is the material and visible part of a human's existence, Qi is an initially invisible but present energy that runs throughout the body, the Mind is where our consciousness and emotions reside and it's the most important part of a human's existence.

As time passed, Xu Ling's teachings got more and more complicated, but Wu Xue easily absorbed them. Not only he easily comprehended everything as also took his time to ponder more deeply on each word Xu Ling said.

When the day was over, Xu Ling looked at the slightly sweaty but energetic Wu Xue and felt a bit satisfied. She understood that he received a great comprehension capability despite his mortal physique.

"Teacher... when am I going to start to cultivate?" Wu Xue asked resentfully, "Today was all about hearing."

"Don't be impatient," Xu Ling reprimanded, "You need some common sense first, otherwise you might easily make stupid mistakes."

"All right..." Wu Xue sighed but took her advice seriously.

A few weeks later, Xu Ling judged that Wu Xue already possessed enough basic understanding about cultivation to begin his practice.

In his cave abode, Xu Ling sat behind Wu Xue, who was sitting on the special cushion, and guided him.

"Although you possess an ordinary mortal physique, your five elements were perfectly balanced by living in a place rich in aura, and your whole body has been tempered by it.

"It shouldn't be difficult to initiate your cultivation, so don't be nervous."

"Okay!" Wu Xue closed his eyes and began to enter a state of emptiness, the first step had to be done by him alone.

After emptying his mind, he focused on his body, he carefully felt everything that he could and maintained that state for a long time.

After a few minutes, he suddenly noticed an energy he never felt before, but the sense was gone very quickly. But once he felt that energy, he turned confident and quickly analyzed all he felt at that moment. After a few moments, he repeated the process and easily felt the energy again, this time throughout his body and outside his skin.

'Move!' he ordered in his mind, 'Move!' But the aura around and inside him didn't move. 

He wasn't discouraged and continued to focus his will on the aura, until the moment it finally reacted to his will. He analyzed the difference and what caused it to react after so many failures. When he deduced, he ordered the aura again and it moved as he wanted.

He slowly guided the aura inside and outside his body to gather in his heart, where the gate to cultivation waited.

As time passed and more aura gathered in his heart, he began to feel pressure in his chest, but he wasn't afraid, he had Xu Ling to keep him safe. He continued until the aura began to show signs of being absorbed by something inside his heart, he felt happy and relieved.

Inside his heart, the Natal Acupoint began to absorb the aura spontaneously. 

The Natal Acupoint served as a gate that activated his potential for cultivation, and quickly refined the aura into his own True Qi, which began to circulate throughout his body by itself, transforming it and activating the hidden meridians, acupoints, and the Dantian!

At some moment, however, the Natal Acupoint began to crumble and vanish, causing him some pain, but it already served its purpose. His potential for cultivation had thoroughly awakened. 

Wu Xue opened his eyes and smiled out of excitement, "I did it! I'm finally a cultivator! hahahaha!"

"Brat, don't commemorate so early," Xu Ling sighed, "You just awakened your potential, you still need to enter the first realm to be considered a cultivator."

"Oh, that's right!" Wu Xue noticed his mistake and closed his eyes again.

Now that his Dantian, which was located behind his navel, had awakened, he could more easily absorb aura and refine it into his True Qi.

True Qi was similar to aura, but it was an energy thoroughly owned by him, it was unique to him.

As time passed and more True Qi was gathered inside his Dantian, he began to feel something like shackles surrounding his body and Dantian, making it a bit difficult for him to move forward.

'Is this the so-called bottleneck?' he pondered, 'Break for me!'

With little effort, he managed to continue to refine more True Qi and thus broke that limitation. When the bottleneck was broken, however, he felt a great surge of power and his rate of absorption and refinement skyrocketed.

Not only that, his whole body was also washed and strengthened by the more powerful True Qi.

"Finally..." Wu Xue got up and excitedly cried, "I'm a cultivator! Wait for me, world! There's nothing that can hold me down!"

Xu Ling sighed and smiled at the sight of a naive and pure child happily shouting about his achievement.

"Is this the power of the Essence Refining Realm? It's incredible! I feel like I could blast tens of me from before!

"What If I reach the peak of this Realm, how strong would I be then?" Wu Xue was excited and began to cultivate again, "Teacher! I will continue! I won't stop until I reach my limit!"

"Be calm and patient," Xu Ling rebuked and tapped his head, "There are ten layers in this realm and it will take a while for you to reach the peak, so focus on being stable!"