The first step

Bai Hao sat crossed legged in his room, a small notebook lying in front of him. He looked at the notebook with hesitation, he still wasn't convinced that this was a real cultivation manual. "Well there is only one way to find out" he told himself, stretching out his hand he picked up the notebook and opened it to the first page and started reading.

Reading the introduction, Bai Hao figured out that the first realm of cultivation has various levels of attainment in cultivation, these are the 12 levels of Qi Condensation. Generally, a cultivator of a higher cultivation level had more strength than one of a lower level, though this was not set in stone and there were many that could fight those a level higher than them. Strength was not only determined by cultivation level, but also by the cultivation technique people trained with, higher quality cultivation techniques would not only allow one to attain a strength that someone could not get with the lower techniques.

The technique Bai Hao was reading was called the Heavenly Fire Technique, it needed him to absorb qi from the surrounding environment and use it to light a ghostly fire in his dantian, by cultivating this fire he could burn the impurities from his body. After reading through the first few chapters he had a better understanding of cultivation, while he was still not convinced he decided to turn over the page to the next chapter which would explain the cultivation method for the 2nd level of qi condensation, instead after turning over the page he was greeted with an almost blank page. In the middle of the page was a complicated and intricate sign. "What has that old geezer given me, where is the rest of the technique" Bai Hao complained loudly. Quickly he went through the other 15 or so pages left in the notebook only to find each page contain the same drawing. "Damn you old man, you didn't have to lie to me, you could have just told me the truth and I wouldn't have blinked". Grumbling Bai Hao turned back to the first page, reading through each paragraph intently in an attempt to find anything he missed before. Unfortunately, the goddess of luck was not smiling upon him today as he could not find anything else. "Grandpa Luo has always been nice to me, he also gave me this cultivation manual without asking for anything in return" Bai Hao sat down for over 10 minutes considering the problem. Finally he got an idea, he went back to the intricate sign that was on the other pages and inspected it more carefully. "These signs must mean something, I bet that I first have to cultivate the first level of the technique to see the rest of it" Considering the problem from all sides and how grandpa Luo had treated him all this time, he become more and more certain of his deductions. Making up his mind, he decided on cultivating using this heavenly fire technique.

Sitting cross-legged in his room, Bai Hao closed his eyes, "the first step is to sense the surrounding qi", emptying his mind he tried to focus on his senses feeling the surroundings through the light breeze that came in through the open window. After quietly sitting down for 20 minutes a frown became visible on his face. His eyes shot open and he opened the book again: To sense Qi, close your mind and sense your surroundings. Feel your surroundings with your mind. The time it takes for someone to sense qi depends on their talent, someone that is talented might be able to sense qi within a few hours while someone without talent might take months. "Hmm I see, so the earlier I sense qi the higher my talent is". Bai Hao put the book away and closed his eyes again, he emptied his mind of all distractions and tried to use his mind to sense the surroundings. Slowly a snoring sound could be heard coming from him.

Three days passed while Bai Hao spend all his time meditating in his room in search of the elusive feeling of Qi. Other than relieving himself, eating and sleeping he spend all his time sitting in his room meditating and that was exactly what he was doing now. He sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, a stick of expensive incense that helped calm the mind was burning on the small table beside him. Out of frustration he had bought the incense in hopes that calming his mind would help him. He just got ready for another try, removing all distracting thoughts was harder than that it seemed. The brain was used to a multitude of impulses and whenever Bai Hao tried to calm his mind, his brain managed to produce one distracting though or the other. He was tired from a long day of attempting to cultivate however he did manage to gain a little progress, it was now much easier to think about nothing than when he started. Slowly his mind calmed down and he banished thought after though from his mind, drifting in that emptiness time had lost meaning, there was only the now. Suddenly he became aware of a new world just outside of his reach which contained strings of light seemingly fluttering in the wind. The strings had no strict form and changed forms randomly, some became as long as a rope, while others were not even the size of a hair. He could feel his body longing for these lights that were radiating a feeling of kind power. Bai Hao tried to move his arms to reach out for the lights but realized that in this place he didn't have his arms, nor his body. He had no physical existence here in his mind, but still he was there. Calming down from this surprise he remembered the cultivation manual and instead tried to use his will to grab one of the strings. A tiredness overcame him while he was trying to capture a string, but slowly and surely a string drifted towards him. Once it reached him, he felt a comfortable feeling in his body, all the cells in his body rejoiced with an intensity that you would only expect from a thirsty man in the desert finding an oasis. Back in the room, Bai Hao's eyes opened, and an intense smile was visible on his face. He had finally taken the very first step as a cultivator.