Advancing

"You, look into my eyes," Xu Ling ordered with a serious tone and cast a spell while looking at the depths of Wu Xue's eyes.

Instantly, she could see through the entire being called Wu Xue, nothing about him was hidden from her. She cast another spell and took a peek at his karma, it was as ordinary as it could be. She cast an even more complicated spell to trace any hidden cause and effect, but Wu Xue had no weirdness in his past.

She was genuinely confused, she then examined his innate influence, an extremely mysterious type of fate, and it was as ordinary as it could be as well, it was so ordinary that it scared her. How could someone totally ordinary do the things he did? How could someone totally ordinary be born in the family he was born into?

She felt something was wrong, but she couldn't understand what it was. But she was also sure no one could tamper with a being to this level, those characteristics were natural to Wu Xue, and she was sure he wasn't tampered with.

"What's wrong?" Wu Xue asked with a frown, "You look rather gloomy, master, just like the slight gloom under my eyes."

"...Forget about it," she sighed and suppressed her uneasiness for the moment, "It just surprised me."

Wu Xue was curious about what she meant but didn't ask further questions.

"Oh, right, since I accepted you as my disciple, I will give you a choice," she smiled at him and said, "I can give you the opportunity of changing your innate talent, changing your mortal physique, and—"

"Forget about it," Wu Xue interrupted her, "It's boring."

"???" Xu Ling was again confused, she even doubted her hearing, "You don't want to? Why?"

"Because it's boring," Wu Xue explained his thoughts, "I find the reality of being at the bottom rather interesting, it gives me more room to shape myself and experience new things."

Xu Ling was genuinely satisfied by his train of thought, "It's good you think like this."

"Right?" Wu Xue grinned, "It seems it was just a test, right?"

"Haha," Xu Ling laughed and patted his head lightly, "I just hope you won't regret your choice later, I won't be giving this opportunity to you again."

"Master, can I ask you something as a gift?" Wu Xue asked with a mischievous grin, "After all, I just became your disciple."

"What?" Xu Ling instantly knew he was acting childish again.

"Give me a promise!"

"...What promise?"

"That you will help me once in the future, regardless of anything!"

Xu Ling smacked his head hard, knocking him to the ground, "I guess I was being too soft, do you think it is a simple promise?"

"Master..." Wu Xue looked at her in tears.

"Change it, I won't promise you such a thing," Xu Ling was adamant.

"Then... I want to go to a lower world to experience the world," he said after sighing, "Of course, not now, but after a few years."

"Why?"

"Master, I bet you had this idea too," Wu Xue looked at her with a bitter smile, "I'm too weak the way I am, any cultivator in this world can beat me, and that's because of my ordinary innate physique and soul.

"Most people in this world were born with a certain level of cultivation base. Take my brother as an example, I heard he was born with a very high Realm, and Wu Qing was even stronger.

"I need an adequate space to grow and refine my foundation to the limits, otherwise I will never be able to surpass them."

"I agree with you," Xu Ling nodded, "But you still have lots to learn before going out."

"I know," Wu Xue laughed.

"I will impart a Soul Cultivation Technique to you," she said and pointed at his forehead, "It's the best technique I found for you."

After the technique was engraved in his memories, Wu Xue asked, "Can it help me in loosening my shackles?"

Xu Ling looked at him meaningfully, "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have given it to you."

"Thank you," Wu Xue laughed and was excited, "I will certainly be able to shape an invincible foundation! Otherwise, receiving this mortal physique and soul would turn into a curse rather than a blessing."

On that same day, Xu Ling helped him get started with Soul Cultivation, he easily entered in the First Realm of the Soul Path, the Cleasing Realm.

In this Realm, the cultivator had to cleanse his soul from impurities accumulated through the years. It had to be spotless before breaking through to the next Realm.

But because he was born in a very high-end place, Wu Xue's soul was already without external impurities, he easily advanced to the second Realm, the Accumulation Realm.

This Realm had as goal gathering enough soul power to open the consciousness sea, something like a Dantian but located in the soul. This Realm was divided into nine layers.

Xu Ling then gave him some cultivation resources and left him alone, she said he already learned how to prepare his medicinal baths for body refining and soul cultivation wasn't too complicated, so there was no need for her to be at his side constantly.

A few days later, Wu Xue comprehended another Artistic Conception by accident. He was reading a poem about the beauty within the transformation of the five elements and decided to write a poem about it, he ended up writing tens of poems using the literary background he built and before he could notice, he was enlightened.

Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. They seem totally separated from one another, but none of them can be without the other. Even in the cold metal, there was a trace of wood element, although it was totally suppressed.

He jumped the usually five artistic conceptions of the five elements necessary to comprehend the artistic conception of the Five Elements (as a single element, the five elements fused).

"Could it be that poems could help me in comprehending any artistic conception?" he asked himself and tried with another element, or rather, a concept.

"I have always liked tales of sword cultivators, I wonder if I can comprehend sword intent?" he searched within his archives and found many poems about swords and sword cultivators, he had collected them because of his admiration.

After reading all of them, he began to write poems himself while pondering about what he just read. Over time, he simply forgot what he really wanted, he was disconnected from reality.

When he finished the hundredth poem, he sensed an unbelievably sharp will in his heart, he shouted without holding back and his aura turned so sharp the air screamed.

"I... actually succeeded! Could it be I actually have some kind of hidden talent? It couldn't just be my comprehension capability, right?" he was excited and immediately went to find his master.

"It's just your comprehension, you don't possess any other kind of talent," Xu Ling cut his thought process sharply after hearing his thoughts.

But despite saying that, she was actually shocked by what was happening. She had heard of talented children with extreme affinity to a specific element or a few, but she never heard of anyone at Wu Xue's age being able to comprehend so many different Artistic Conceptions at his age.

Time and Space were very difficult Artistic Conceptions to comprehend, but he did it after reading and writing poems... Not only that but the process was repeated with the Five Elements artistic conception and the Sword Intent.

She thought for a long while without saying anything, Wu Xue calmly waited at the side.

"It seems your talent for the literary path is too great for it to be ignored," she said with a tired look, "But I'm not a master of the literary path, I'm afraid of wasting your talent."

"Then forget it," Wu Xue tilted his head, "It's just a tool, there are many ways for me to get stronger."

"...You think too simply," she smiled bitterly and looked at him with a complicated expression, "Do you think there are many people out there with the same comprehension capability while being in the same Realm you are? Only those very far ahead of you, so far you can't fathom, can comprehend artistic conceptions with such ease."

"This..." he caressed his cheek and said, "The world is big, I don't think I'm special."

"...Bitter child," Xu Ling sighed again and patted his head, "Being humble is great, but being blind about your own capacity is self-defeating.

"I can assure you that I never saw or heard about someone like you," she said with a smile and narrowed eyes, with a somewhat proud look.

Wu Xue was silent for a moment before sighing, "That's not good, master."

A question mark popped in Xu Ling's head.

"I don't want to be special," Wu Xue said, "I think it's cooler to beat the extraordinary with the ordinary."

Xu Ling twitched her eyebrows and hastily controlled her anger, "You simply don't know what kind of nonsense you just spouted.

"The world is a very cruel place, and only those with some kind of special talent or luck can succeed in cultivation. Some use their monstrous talent, others use their immense luck, but the thing in common is... it's all something given to them, not something they conquered by effort."

Wu Xue showed a sad look and said, "I know... I know the world is this kind of place. I read too many books, too many..."

"Haha," Xu Ling couldn't hold back a laugh, "Reading books can't teach you everything about the world, in the future you will see with your own eyes."

Wu Xue suddenly looked at her deeply and said something Xu Ling absolutely didn't expect, "I'm not upset with the fact that talent and luck were both innate, I'm upset with how hypocritical we humans are."

"!!!"

"Master..." a tear suddenly flowed down his cheeks, "I suddenly remembered some things I read about, I'm sorry for showing you such an unsightly appearance."

"...Do you want to speak about it?" she gently embraced him, "I'm all ears."

"...Master, why are we so bad? I mean, we blind ourselves every day," he said while trying to keep the tears from flowing.

Xu Ling suddenly felt guilty about not inspecting the books she gave to him one by one personally, she thought she was careless for not foreseeing such a possible situation. There were many things that children were not prepared to know, even if those things were truths.

But suddenly, before Xu Ling could say anything to comfort him, Wu Xue freed himself from her embrace and said, "I'm indeed a kid, I ask stupid questions non-stop."

"Wu Xue," Xu Ling called gently, "It's not wrong to be ignorant, it's not wrong to be childish, and it's absolutely not wrong... to resent humanity's innate behavior.

"You can judge actions and certain behaviors, but you must avoid judging people themselves because you are also human, you can also be wrong in your judgment.

"If you let your human nature take control and judge people you will be a hypocrite."

Wu Xue looked at her intently and nodded, "I understand."

"That's fine!" she smiled brightly and suddenly kissed him on his forehead, surprising him.

"...I already have a mother," he joked without feeling any kind of embarrassment.

"Can't a master kiss her disciple?" Xu Ling snorted and forcefully held back a blush that was about to surface.

"Master, such saying is dangerous."

"You are just a kid, what kind of thing are you thinking?"

"I read many books."

"You should read less, you might learn something inappropriate for your age."

"It's too late, master..."

"What do you mean?"

Wu Xue made put his palms together as if to pray and said with his eyes closed, "Controlling one's passion is part of self-discipline. Master doesn't need to worry about me, my innate lust is perfectly contained, no impure thoughts will manage my thoughts."

"..."