cultivate for revenge

The Awakening Ceremony (1)

The story starts on the Xonshi continent and follows the main character, Jong Ji.

Four forces rule over the Xonshi continent. By the citizens, they are called the Four Major Clans.

The Four Major Clans are the Qin, Shao, Wang, and Jin clan.

Each clan has its own hierarchy.

Let's take the Qin clan, for example.

The Qin patriarch was the head of the clan, while the patriarchs of the seven cultivation families were the elders.

The Qin clan territory has eight cities, and each cultivation family governs one city.

Of course, the Qin family governs the capital city where Jong Ji and his mother live, the Moon King City.

Jong Ji grew up without a father as he was killed in the mountains by the hands of a magical beast.

Thus, all the burden of raising him fell on his mother's shoulders.

Even though it was hard, she raised him well.

Today was Jong Ji's twelfth birthday.

Instead of celebrating, he left his house early in the morning. He headed toward the Awakening hall accompanied by his best friend, Quin Qi.

...

It was early morning, but the sun was already high in the crystal clear sky. Jong Ji and Quin Qi walked on a small pathway tiled with white bricks next to the main road. Tall trees were towering over the path from both sides.

Their thick green leaves were blocking the sun's rays.

Though it was early morning, many carriages passed on the main road.

Each one had an engraved symbol of a rich and influential family on the side. They all headed in one direction, toward the awakening hall.

(Qin clan territory rulebook, rule number seven: Only rich and influential families are allowed to own or ride in a carriage. Breaking this rule, the person must pay ten times the price of the carriage. This rule does not apply to cultivators.)

Though they walked next to each other, there was a deadly silence between Jong Ji and Quin Qi.

The silence broke when some girls shouted behind them,

"Woahh! He is so handsome!"

As he was in deep thought, Quin Qi did not even notice the shouting.

Jong Ji stopped and turned to look at what was going on.

Two beautiful black-haired girls looking at him whispered to each other:

" He is so handsome." Said the girl wearing a cherry dress.

" Do you think he will date me?" The other asked, playing with her hair.

Then, their eyes met.

The girls immediately covered their faces with both palms and hid behind the nearby tree.

The girls had every right in the world to admire the handsomeness of Jong Ji and Quin Qi.

Both had the average height(60inches-152 centimeters) for twelve years old, with Quin Qi being just a little taller than Jong Ji.

Quin Qi had shoulder-length blue hair, while Jong Ji had long silver hair carefully tied into a high ponytail.

They also wore new clothes.

Of course, those clothes were new according to the standards of the poor citizens. The nobles would probably consider those clothes trash.

Seeing the girls, Jong Ji also blushed. He hurriedly turned back and saw that Quin Qi was ten meters (32 feet) ahead of him.

He increased the speed he was walking at and quickly caught up with Qing Qi.

He felt like his ears were on fire.

" Quin Qi, are you jealous? Why did you not wait for me?" Jong Ji asked.

Quin Qi did not hear a single word Jong Ji said. He seemed not to notice anything that was happening around him.

Not getting any reply, Jong Ji took him by the arm and shook him." Don't ignore me!"

Only then did Quin Qi come back to his senses. He looked around confusingly for a moment before saying, " There is still a long way to go before arriving."

Jong Ji was looking at Quin Qi with hesitation before finally saying:

"Quin Qi, can you do me a favor?"

"Favor?" Quin Qi was caught unprepared by the sudden question. " What is it?"

Jong Ji looked at the sky, or at least the small blue dots he could see through the leaves." Quin Qi, you know I am helping my mother most of the time. You also know I don't have money to buy books. Nor do I have time to read them. So I hoped..."

" You want me to tell you about the cultivation world?" Quin Qi asked, not letting Jong Ji finish.

" Yes, I at least need to know the basics."

" My parents left some books before dying, and I have read them, so I know a little more than you. And since..." As Quin Qi thought of the books, pictures of his family filled his mind, forcing him to pause.

Tears appeared in the corners of his eyes.

He did not want to show weakness in front of his friend, so he quickly wiped them and continued. "Since there is still time before we arrive, I will explain some basics to you." He said and acted as if the unnatural pause did not happen.

They lived together for five years, so Jong Ji knew Quin Qi well.

He immediately noticed the unnatural pause of Quin Qi.

Jong Ji knew why Quin Qi paused.

He also knew that Quin Qi did not want him to notice, but he felt too guilty to remain silent.

" Quin Qi, I am sorry! Sorry for making you remember these memories!" Jong Ji guiltily lowered his head.

Quin Qi warmly smiled. "I know you didn't mean it."

Seeing the smile on Quin Qi's face, Jong Ji cheered up.

" As you know, to become a cultivator, one must awaken class with potential. According to the potential, classes are subdued into five categories: Without-potential, low-potential, medium-potential, high-potential, and full-potential classes." Quin Qi glanced at Jong Ji and asked: "Do you understand?"

"I understand," Jong Ji said, lowering his head. "The chances of awakening a class with potential are very slim." He clenched his fists.

"Do not worry!" Quin Qi said."Even if you awaken low-potential class, the money you will make in one month will still be much more than any ordinary worker will make in one year."

Jong Ji did not say anything, but there was a clear improvement in his mood, which Quin Qi immediately noticed.

Just the thought of his mother living in luxury and traveling in those luxury carriages was enough to make Jong Ji's heart race.

Quin Qi smiled gently and continued. "The classes also are subdued according to the power type into three categories: the elemental category, beast category, and mutated category."

Quin Qi stopped and looked around.

" What's wrong?" Jong Ji asked confusingly.

"It's nothing."

Jong Ji did not pay much to Quin Qi for this behavior as this was not his first time doing that since they stepped on the pathway.

"As the name suggests," Quin Qi continued, "under the elemental category falls the classes with the power of the elements. Under the beast category falls the classes with beast powers. And under the mutated category falls the mutated classes.

The mutated classes are very mysterious, so I don't know much about them.

The only information in the books about them was that most do not have potential. As for the cough, cough!"

Quin Qi stopped and placed his arm on his throat. Tears appeared in the corners of his eyes as he struggled to breathe.

Jong Ji immediately took Quin Qi's arm and wrapped it over his shoulder, helping him to move and lean to the nearby tree.

Not losing any time, Jong Ji ran forward along the pathway with all his might.

He ran for a minute before arriving in front of something that looked like a stall.

When he arrived, he was all sweaty and was heavily panting.

Empty leather bottles were hanging all over the stall.

An elderly man in his seventies was selling them.

Luckily for Jong Ji, the elderly man did not have any customers, so he did not have to wait.

" Grandpa Huo..., give me... one full bottle." Jong Ji has never run so much distance in such a short time.

"Is that you, little Ji? Why are you running in such hot weather?" Grandpa Huo glanced down and said:" Ahh, it's sold out, little Ji!"

"Grandpa Huo, please do not joke and give me a cold one!"

"You are in a hurry. Did something happen?" Grandpa Huo bent down and took out a leather bottle full of water from something that looked like a wooden box filled with ice.

" Thank you!" Jong Ji took the bottle and took a few copper coins out of his pocket. Those copper coins were money his mother gave him to buy bread, so he did not want to spend them, but he also needed water, so he had to.

" Ahh!" Grandpa Huo waved his hand." You are my first customer today, so take it! I always give my first customers water for free."

Jong Ji bowed his head in gratitude and returned the copper coins in his pocket.

Jong Ji ran back with only gratitude in his heart towards grandpa Huo.

He knew he was not grandpa Huo's first customer.

He also knew that he never gave his first customers water for free.

On his way back, he almost ran into a few people.

Jong Ji arrived at where Quin Qi was. He seemed to have stabilized, but his mouth was dry. Jong Ji, still panting, gave him the leather bottle.

Quin Qi removed the cap with his mouth.

He raised the bottle one foot above his mouth and started pouring the water down. Quin Qi greedily gulped the cold water, but how could every drop enter his mouth?

A good part of the water splashed on his face and ran down his neck, soaking part of his clothes.

On top of that, he also wiped his face with his sleeve.

Like this, the cold water in the leather bottle disappeared in seconds.

"Slap!" Jong Ji struck his forehead.

"Look what you made out of yourself! How are you going to attend the awakening ceremony like this?" A red mark was visible where Jong Ji struck himself.

"It will dry before we arrive, so don't worry." Quin Qi did not give Jong Ji time to rest.

He pushed himself from the tree he was leaning on."Let's go." He said, calmly handing the empty bottle to Jong Ji

"Ahh!" Jong Ji sighed helplessly and started walking behind Quin Qi.

Quin Qi glanced over his shoulder at Jong Ji, who dragged his legs as he walked. " Jong Ji, the next thing I will tell you about are the realms." Quin Qi said, knowing that Jong Ji would be interested.

Not knowing much about the cultivation world, Jong Ji had an interest in every little thing about the cultivation world.

He hurried and caught up to Quin Qi, who was a few meters before him.

" The cultivation realms are Mortal realm, Spirit realm, Nirvana realm, and Heaven realm. Also, every realm has ten levels."

" That's all?" Jong Ji could not help but feel a little disappointed.

" What do you mean, THAT'S ALL?" Quin Qi shouted.

Every person, be it a child or adult, turned toward them.

An elderly woman wearing noble clothes whispered to her granddaughter: " Dear, be careful out there. These two things look handsome, but they are probably arguing about a few copper coins. You need to avoid beggars like them." If not because she looked like a barrel, one could mistake her for a noblewoman.

The granddaughter just nodded, unable to speak because of the three lollipops she had in her mouth.

" Look at what you have done!" Jong Ji shouted quietly, speeding up his walk.

" Shut up and walk faster!" Quin Qi shouted quietly.

" What do you think I am doing?" Unable to shout, Jong Ji just grilled his teeth.

...

" I think I can see the hall..." Jong Ji said, straining his eyes, staring at the blurry image of a building in the distance.

" That's impossible! There is still a long way before..." Quin Qi paled as he saw the awakening hall in the distance.

He was panicky and started looking in every direction.

" Quin Qi, what's wrong?" Jong Ji asked in confusion.

" It's nothing. I am just...Too excited!"

...

After a few minutes, Jong Ji and Quin Qi reached the end of the narrow pathway that led into the square where the Awakening hall was.