A Tale of Two Brothers.

- Pò's Sea of Consciousness -

A long silence was filling the quiet sea representing Pò's spiritual self, the girl watching the giant jade carp (twenty meters long per ten meters high), and the carp looking back at her with only its massive head surfacing from under the water.

"So." she tried saying, unsure.

"You took me here from my world as soon as I died,"

Nod.

"Why?"

Fwoosh! At that the carp made a small jump out of the water and left its massive body fall back down creating a massive column of water and giant ripples.

The abnormal thing was that the column of water did not disperse, but actually stood in place and even opened as a curtain in the middle to show a crude ink painting of two featureless men training together.

Then the picture started moving as if alive.

"Big Brother Rén, seems like I won again!" a very youthful voice said happily as the fighter to the right 'talked'.

"Hahaha! As it should be, little brother Linghún! With your talent and strength, you are the shining star that will protect our village for years to come, I am sure of this!" a slightly older voice answered sounding filled to the brim in pride.

[Linghún? isn't that the name of the creator of Cultivation? He had a big brother?] Pò thought confused, and the image actually stopped moving at that, making her ask the obvious question.

"You are Linghún?"

WANG! SPLASH!

In answer the carp violently slammed its head against the pillar Pò was sitting on making it tremble violently.

"OKAY! OKAY! I am sorry! You are obviously Rén!" the girl yelled immediately as she could literally taste the anger the carp was radiating at her mistake, whatever happened left such a deep wound on the thing that the mere mentioning of his brother's name caused him to go in a blind rage.

"Please continue, Mister Rén, tell me more." fearing other outburst from the creature, the girl smartly switched to a more respectful tone.

Gong!

With a sound similar to a gong the image inside the frozen pillar of water started moving again, soon adding more characters and places and drawing a complete tale of what transpired between the two brothers that caused the older one, Rén, to turn into a jade carp and be utterly erased from history.

Pretty much it went like this: a long time ago, before the idea of Cultivation even existed, Rén and Linghún were practically nobodies, two orphans without family living together in the outskirts of a small village of barely one hundred people.

The only thing they had were the teachings the village leader imparted them about martial arts; Rén was the older brother, fierce hunter and apprentice in the village blacksmith while Linghún solely focused on hunting and training in the martial arts the old man taught them, the young brother was also obsessed with strength as he wished to become the strongest man alive.

All was good and peaceful, with Rén even marrying the daughter of a farmer living close to him, when a mysterious woman appeared in the village and possessing a beauty simply impossible for mortals to achieve, nothing strange in fact was that everybody considered her a goddess thanks to said beauty and her mannerism.

Everybody, men or women alike, had soon fell for her bewitching beauty, especially the village leader that had recently lost his beloved wife and was desperately trying to fill the void inside his heart, the only one that seemed to harbor doubts about that woman was the daughter of the village leader, evident with the girl going to great lengths to keep as much distance as humanly possible whenever the two met.

But no matter the warnings the young girl gave about the mysterious stranger, nobody was willing to listen, until Rén himself fell victim to his curiosity and decided to secretly follow the strange woman in a night of heavy raining, especially since he saw his little brother accompany her in the sacred forest growing behind their village.

"Why is Linghún following her? And why in the sacred forest? Entrance is forbidden!" Rén muttered to himself in alarm as he followed the two deep inside the thick canopy of the trees where nor sun or moon could ever shine and silence welcomed every step.

The forest was normally home of powerful and mythical beasts no mortal could hope to match, but to Rén's utter disbelief the few beasts they encountered lowered their heads in front of the woman and scurried away, even if the bewildered older brother could see regret and fury shining in the beasts' eyes as they dispersed.

For two days and two nights Rén followed his brother Linghún and the woman through the forest, deep in the cold darkness of the ancient trees, deeper than everybody ever went even according to the legends the village Elders loved to talk about to the younger generations, each step filling Rén's spirit in awe at seeing the otherworldly plants and animals becoming all the more alien the longer they walked.

"This is the Tian-Fa Forest." the woman had said with an amused tone.

"It covers a third of the mortal world and it's the birthing ground of every Celestial Beast. Mighty pets aren't they?" the stranger said caressing the head of a giant tiger, and even if it looked able to swallow five or six adult men with a single bite, the animal stood petrified and left the woman play with its massive nuzzle, glaring defiantly at her and yet unable to do anything.

"A pity though that those celestial pests do not know manners." the woman then said grabbing the massive nose with her soft, delicate and small hand to give it a twist.

To Rén's horror the whole body of the giant tiger twisted on itself until the head detached from its neck in a shower of blood.

"Do you want this strength? This power?" she asked with an alluring voice while holding up the massive head of the tiger with a single hand, and with a simple squeeze making the thing explode like a rotten apple showering everything around her in blood, giving her figure an extra layer of deranged beauty as her skin and clothes turned crimson red.

"Yes!" Linghún answered immediately, and Rén was dismayed to see a bottomless ocean of greed form in his brother's eyes.

"Very well, then knee before me and swear to be my Champion! All you are will ever be shall become mine to do as I please! Become my property and as a gift I will make of you the mightiest of them all! All you ever wanted shall be yours! And nothing will be able to stop you!" the woman said with a booming voice that made the entire forest tremble, and even Rén's spirit became agitated, twirling and twisting in fear as if it tried to escape his body and run far away from her.

"I'll do it! I will become everything you desire!" Linghún swore immediately as he fell on his knees with a fervent expression, clearly feeling the full extent of the woman's might with his standing right in front of her.

"Very well, my Champion...Very well..." the woman said showing a deranged smile twisting her face into a mask of malice.

Turning around she touched a near tree, and from the point of contact between her hand and the bark crystals rapidly covered the colossal plant, turning it from a five meter tall weeping willow into a crude crystal sculpture barely resembling its original form.

"This is a mere morsel of the feast I am giving you, my little toy. With this Gem you will be able to Cultivate your Qi like the Gods can do, bring me the heads of everybody in your village and I will teach you how to do it; reach the peak and maybe you will be worthy of being more than a simple pet for me..." she said yet again with a seducing tone as she plucked a shard of crystal from the tree to show it to Linghún.

"Everybody? Even my brother?" the young man asked shocked.

"Especially your brother." she replied with her eyes momentarily flashing towards the hiding place of Rén, making him understand she always knew he was following them.

"..."

"..."

"...It shall be done." having took a long pause to answer, for an instant Rén believed his little brother was finally snapping out of the woman's spell, until he finally accepted the deal making his brother's heart shatter like glass.

"You made the right choice, so here is your first reward!" the woman answered pleased as she mercilessly shoved the shard of crystal in Linghún's head making him howl in agony and fall to the ground thrashing in pain.

"Be a man, little pet! The benefits you are about to reap will widely cover this little pain!" the woman had said with a derisive tone as she enjoyed Linghún's sufferings.

"YOU DEVIL!" blinded by his anger to the point of madness, Rén threw caution to the wind and charged the woman with the pure intent of killing her shining in his eyes.

"Hahaha! Here is your first sacrifice, my pet! The most important one even! Kill him and the people of your village and I will teach you how to increase your power even more through Cultivation!" the woman said unperturbed, and without even doing the smallest gesture, as soon as he was merely a step away from her, Rén's body stood frozen in mid-air thanks to an invisible power that forced his four limbs stretched in four different directions leaving him powerless in front of the two.

"Aaah!...Aaaah!...Aaaah!" taking deep breaths to stabilize himself, Linghún finally stopped convulsing in pain and recovered his standing position.

"What happened, little brother? Why? Why are you doing this?!" feeling hopeless in saving his brother from the abyss he himself willingly jumped into, Rén asked with a defeated tone.

"I am sorry, big brother." Linghún answered with a sad tone, and now on his forehead there was a bronze Gem the size of a cherry and shaped like a drop.

"A drop even, a very talented specimen...The Bronze Realm is merely the first step, as soon as you surpass the Jade Realm and reach the peak, THEN you will be worthy of divine attention. Now show me your willingness!" the woman ordered.

"No! Linghún! You can't do this! The village! The leader! We would be nothing without their help!" Rén begged a last time to try and have the other see reason.

"I am sorry, Rén." Linghún simply answered as he cocked back his fist, and as soon as the woman left his brother fall down, he punched Rén's chest with all his might, turning the other's ribs to dust and tearing his internal organ to pieces making his chest cave-in and a thick explosion of blood erupt from his mouth as he was sent flying against a near tree and deep into its trunk.

"I am sorry, my dear mortal, but between you and your little brother, he was the more susceptible to my offer...As for you, this little tree of Life-Stealing Apples will greatly enjoy your life and spirit so to grow strong, it was in dire need of fertilizer after all! Have no fear, your brother will do great things and help me break free of the chains my father imposed on me, it's time for a new ruler to take the throne up in the Heavens! Hahahahahaha!" having whispered her last farewell to the dying man, the woman took Linghún away back to the village so to get her first sacrifices.

As his life rapidly faded away, Rén barely registered the tree's roots covering his whole body in a warm embrace while the wind seemed to sing for him a faint lullaby to comfort him into a peaceful sleep.

"Why?...Why the Gods have to play with us?...Why us?..." Rén thought faintly as while the body grew numb, his spirit still burned hotly in rage and desire of vengeance.

"...Them...All...I will...Slaughter…Them all..." growing too tired to even keep his eyes open, Rén gave a last defiant and weak roar of fury, and that seemed to switch something inside him.

While his body went completely eaten by the tree, his soul did not disappear, pass over or even became further nourishment for the tree, on the contrary, it seemed like he had become part of it and of Nature itself.

[Am I alive?] the man thought in wonder as he was one with Nature and every living thing was one with him, feeling his essence being spread thin and cover the whole world.

[To Cultivate Divine Qi is to walk the path of the Gods...But to Cultivate Nature Qi is to walk a path that defy the Heavens!] that was the deepest truth Rén obtained after twenty years of meditation while fused with the small, unassuming tree.

He had started meditating like the village leader taught him once prompted by the voice of Nature itself, a lesson carried by the wind and sturdier than the mountains.

The Gods may have created the infinite worlds revolving in the mortal plane, but soon their selfish and greedy ways made so that their own creation grew disgusted and rebellious, and even if each world, each creature, was unable to match their prowess, they had found a way to match their Cultivation practices with one of their own, thus the Celestial Beasts were born.

But still, it was not enough, so they kept perfecting their secret project again and again, putting everybody from the smallest bacteria to the biggest Celestial Beast to work on it nonstop for ages since the dawn of Time and Space themselves.

[The infinite sum of knowledge of every living thing fused together to create a Cultivation technique similar to the Gods, and yet it is still incomplete because only we humans never took part to the project...Until now...I was chosen to fill the void and finally complete the Technique and in exchange they will give me the chance to avenge my people and stop my brother...I'll do it.] Rén answered to the plea of Nature itself with pure determination.

But even by combining himself with the whole of Creation, it took Rén one hundred years to complete the Cultivation Technique and then training in it until his Qi went purified enough to let him be a match for his brother.

And at the dawn of the final day of those one hundred years, the tree that had devoured his body opened to let a completely healed and reborn Rén walk once again the land of the living, and even if lacking a Soul Gem like Linghún, his own power was far beyond that of a mere mortal.

In those one hundred years many things had changed! lands shifted, forests grew and seas went engorged as Nature endlessly transformed itself; even Linghún changed, he had fully succumbed to his thirst of power and had created a regime of terror where he and few chosen ones ruled over the others thanks to the might of their Divine Qi Cultivation.

"...So he harvested the crystals from this tree to give others his same powers, all under the orders of that infernal woman." Rén said watching with sad eyes the very few crystallized leaves still hanging from the weeping willow that had been mercilessly harvested by Linghún for more crystal shards.

"I am not the only one that could live this long thanks to Cultivation, but differently from you, little brother, I at least admit that my spirit is not filled in righteousness. But maybe just for this one time, Revenge can be seen as an act of justice," Rén said smashing the crystal tree to dust with a single punch so to give its tortured spirit freedom and rest.

What followed then were ten long years of unending battles as Rén carved a path of blood towards his brother right in the capital of his own reign, the population of Gemless having long grow accustomed to their supposed inferiority to the point of immediately laud Linghún and his chosen disciples as the closest being to the Gods, as the highest form of nobility in the Mortal Realm.

In the end though, having stormed his brother's palace and battled with him for seven days and seven nights without pause, and demolishing everything around them just by their steps meeting on the same ground, the same woman that years prior ensnared Linghún appeared once again to stop Rén from delivering the finishing blow.

"Pathetic! I give you power beyond your mere comprehension and you get defeated by a mortal!" the woman snarled furious, any trace of beauty and godly bearing dispersing like dust in an instant.

"My lady! My Goddess! I-"

"Silence! As soon as I have done killing your brother once and for all, then I will deal with you! And a mere one hundred sacrifices won't be enough to be forgiven this time!" she bellowed in answer.

"T-Then one thousand! One hundred thousand! I will sacrifice whoever you want in exchange of your forgiveness! Just give the word!" throwing pride to the wind, Linghún crawled to the woman's feet and started kissing the hem of her robes in utter devotion.

"Even your daughters and sons?" she asked coldly.

"All of my children! I will make their blood rain on my reign for three days straight if you so wish!" Linghún answered immediately, and a wave of disgust filled Rén's heart at hearing that.

"Very well! I expect that and one hundred thousand sacrifices to reach me in seven days, only then I will give you a last chance!"

"It will be done, my Goddess!"

"You monster." Rén hissed in contempt as once again the woman robbed his body of every movement.

"Goddess, not monster. There is a War going on between Gods ever since you others crawled out of that mud-filled hole that was Chaos, a War to decide who will be the supreme ruler of the Heavens, and I need powerful foot soldiers, and thanks to your brother blind loyalty, I will get plenty without the others knowing. And now! Begone with you!" the woman said covering Rén's forehead with her hand and slowly turning his whole body to jade.

"You will be a nice decoration for my palace in the Heavens! A nice reminder of the success of this small project of mine!" she said pleased as the precious rock slowly took the place of the mortal's flesh and blood.

"You devil! You wretched being! I will return a thousand times no matter what you do! I will become a god myself! I will transcend my mortal soul and become the dragon that will devour you all! I will have my vengeance!" Rén roared with such a fury that even the goddess killing him briefly shivered.

"Big words for a little carp that still has to jump above the gate!" she answered, amused.

"Perfect analogy, you egotistic witch! I shall do as you suggest, and find the perfect host to continue Cultivating until I will leap above the Heavens and come to slaughter you all!" just as the jade was about to fully cover him, Rén built-up as much Qi as he could, and when the transformation into a jade statue of himself was complete, his body exploded into a million shards propagating everywhere in Creation, one of which even leaving a faint scar on the woman's face as a last insult from the now dead man.

- Pò's Sea of Consciousness -

"...And I guess one of those shards reached my world as well, your anger must have been legendary if it even crossed over in a completely different realm." Pò admitted impressed as the image in the water now shifted to only show a single featureless human male drawn with a single outline of ink on parchment.

"Indeed I do, and Nature gave me a last chance by turning me into a carp, so to add that small bit of irony to our revenge against the Gods." the figure answered with a gender-less tone while the carp nodded slightly.

"And your being made of jade?" the girl asked.

"Alas, it was still a God cursing me, that is not something easy to break so that form persisted, but if I transcend into godhood, I will be able to regain my true appearances and reach them."

"And kill them all." Pò added, smirking.

"I never was one good enough to let go of grudges easily, when your grandfather showed you a fragment of me, I knew you were the one I was looking for."

"Why I have the feeling this is not a compliment?" the girl asked dreadful.

"Hahaha! Because I choose you based on your greed and your willingness to do anything to reach your goal! I didn't need a saint or a hero! I need a ruthless Monarch of shadows that gives no value to another life beside their own!" the drawing of the carp's spirit answered after a bout of gentle laugh.

"So I am scum?" Pò asked dejected.

"Not scum, but not a hero either! You still blew-up your brother, but I can see some dying sparks of goodness buried very deep inside you."

"I kind of feel guilty for that, I could have used a method that left behind a body for his friends to cry on, after all...If he had any friends, that is..." she answered looking ashamed.

"...Yes, that is what I am talking about." the spirit answered sighing in disbelief at the sheer shameless attitude he was faced with.

"So! If you swear you won't just go around killing people by the hundreds just because, I will help you. I know I can't put too much hope in you acting nicely, I just want you to not go on a killing spree on a whim."

"I promise I will control myself, but what do you think I need your help for?" Pò asked with narrowed eyes.

"Let's see...You want Power so to live a carefree life where you can do whatever you want without fear of repercussions, you want a lot of money so to be free to simply enjoy yourself all you want, and deep down you wish for immortality because Death scares you above everything else.

You want to reach the top of the Mortal World and have unlimited freedom and time to enjoy your supremacy...You don't give a damn about the Daos, Enlightenment or similar.

Your goals are in the materialistic world, the Realm of Heavens has nothing (to your knowledge) worthy of your time. Am I not right?" the spirit asked while holding his hands behind his back.

"...Yes?" feeling more ashamed than what she believed possible, Pò confirmed the spirit's words with an uneasy smile.

"Nothing wrong with that, just remember that my brother was sadly the same, and you saw where that brought him. You just train in the Qi Cultivation technique I will impart you, and once reached the highest Realms I will connect myself to you so that you will be able to purify the Qi of both of us.

Once I reach the point I will be able to Transcend into Godhood and reach the Heavens to start my revenge, I will make sure you will get everything you wish…Even if I was told that apparently the Heavens are worth the hassle of entering them, help me and once done I will show them to you, then you will decide if remaining between the Mortals or joining me up there."

"Are you sure the Heavens are that spectacular?"

"No, I am not, but the souls in the Spiritual Realm seem convinced of this. In the end, a beautiful garden remains a beautiful garden, no matter if walking pieces of shit inhabits it, so I have high expectations for the place itself." the spirit admitted unsure.

"So if I help you I will get Power, Money, Fame...And Immortality?" Pò asked hopeful.

"About the Immortality angle I cannot give you complete assurance, all the rest, I promise you that you will become an unparalleled power in the Mortal World, like that, stealing whatever you desire won't be a problem, along giving you a Lifespan of several tens of thousands of years, by the time we are done though I am certain I will come up with a way to give you complete immortality before I move in the Heavens to start hunting them all down."

"You are far from being gentle and compassionate, eh?" the girl said smirking.

"You are not dealing with a monk. I was a warrior and a hunter, I deal in strength, that is why you and I are compatible enough for this partnership to work, we are very similar."

"Nice choice of words."

"Thank you, I copied your vocabulary from your past life. So? You in?"

"I am in, partner!" Pò answered nodding.

"Augh!" and immediately grabbing her chest in pain as her heart felt like burning.

"A little gift to celebrate this, I inscribed a seal on your heart that will help you Cultivate Qi."

"Okay...Okay...God, it hurts...What now?" the girl asked panting in pain.

"Now we will start with the basics: I will show you the beginner breathing exercises and meditation techniques, then we'll move through the Martial Arts me and my brother were taught, by now this style has long been forgotten, so it will give you an edge against your foes."

"Okay."

"Good! The secret is letting Nature itself purify your Qi, contrary to the Soul Gem method that is all about the strength of will of one's inner self, this one you are studying requires one to commute with Nature as a whole and share your Qi with it, in exchange of you establishing this link through meditation, the spirits of Nature will purify your Qi and give it back to you in a higher form. Of course this needs to be done with small steps otherwise you too will feel 'Burned' like the ones overdoing with a Soul Gem."

"So...No Instant power-up?" Pò asked, looking slightly annoyed.

"Like in the stories of your world? Unfortunately it doesn't work like that, or I won't have took one hundred and plus years to Master it. Luckily for you, I am indeed a Master and with my help you will manage in way less time."

"And won't the Gods notice what we are doing?"

"Hahaha! They are too taken by their war for the throne to even care about what happens in the Mortal World, they only notice if a Qi practitioner dies since they need them as soldiers in their endless quarrel, and only high level ones at that! You are still considered a Gemless, a 'Lesser Mortal', so they won't notice even if you reach Godhood together with me. Thing that nobody knows is impossible to do with a Gem. They can't add a new enemy to their war after all!" the spirit answered amused.

"They can't reach godhood with a Soul Gem? Then why should we be able?"

"That was why Mother Nature needed my help, with the addition of humans to the technique, we completed the picture of Creation by having 'everybody' joining in a single Sea of Consciousness, like that we saw what we needed to do to break the shackles of mortality and join the Gods as equals, that is why NOW Celestial Beasts are reaching the Rank of Gods and reaching the Heavens, we are making our own side to finally put those mad monsters down, and I want to join them."

"I see. Then let's start! The sooner the better!" Pò answered.

"Perfect! Now, sit cross-legged like I do and try to follow my rhythm of breathing, and remember to use the same muscles I do in the same way I do to properly do it. Then we will talk about the proper environment."

"Proper environment?"

"The perfect condition for your Cultivation to give the best results possible. Some Celestial Beasts can have the best results only when Cultivating directly under the sunlight or deep in water, me for example, could do my best only when I was meditating under a tree and directly touching the ground, even if lacking a body and reduced to a mere wandering spirit. You will 'feel' when the environment is right, then I suggest you to Cultivate in that manner as often as possible to maximize your results." he explained.

"Okay, I am ready!" the girl said with a determined expression.

"I hope you are, as this won't be easy. As you progress in your studies I will tell you the other differences between 'Nature Qi Cultivation' and 'Divine Qi Soul Gem Cultivation' and give you more advanced techniques to study and personalize to your own needs."

- Eight hours later – Heavenly Lotus Tea House -

"...Okay, now she is just sleeping, she must be exhausted." Xie said sighing tiredly as he finally finished using all his tricks to check Pò's health.

"So?" Xiao asked growling.

"Little sister is perfectly fine and healthy! She just needs to sleep!" Ke, Xie's little brother, answered immediately and still looking afraid of the woman.

"En...Poor girl, still wanting to fit in a world she doesn't belong to, even with all the warnings I gave her she still looks for ways to avenge herself and old man Dugu." Xiao muttered sighing sadly as she caressed Pò's face and showing a motherly smile as the young girl seemingly leaned a bit more onto her touch.

"What about the Festival?" Xie asked.

"We'll make do without her, it may be still a bit too chaotic for a new-comer to this life. She has all the time of the world to learn and one day take my place here, I am in no hurry." the woman answered distracted as she kept gently playing with Pò hair.

"GAH!" it was then that the girl's eyes snapped open and she sat abruptly on her bed making the others jump away in fright.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!" and that also caused Ke to let out a high-pitched shriek that rattled the windows.

"..."

"..."

"Have you, by chance, turned yourself into a five-year-old girl, little brother?" Xie asked curious.

"Please ignore it, I beg you." the plump boy begged looking downwards in shame.

"Just go take a walk." Xie answered making his brother scamper away to salvage his last vestiges of pride.

"Are you okay, Little Pò?" Xiao immediately asked in concern.

"I am, Aunt Xiao..." she answered letting out a very long sigh with her breath looking eerily thick and black like smoke and smelling of rotting matter.

"Eeew!" the older woman meowed in agony as she took a bit of distance.

"...That is 'Purifying Breath'! It worked!" Xie yelled with wide eyes as he immediately started checking Pò's pulse and the state of her eyes.

"Purifying Breath?" Xiao asked waving her hands around to dispel the horrid stench.

"The initial stage of Qi Cultivation! 'Purifying Breath' cleanses the lungs and bones, then 'Charred Perspiration' cleanses the heart and other organs and last the 'Blood Tears' banishes the remaining toxins of eyes, hair, skin and spirit! Those are the initial stages new students go through once joined the Academy and start Cultivating! I did it!" the scholar yelled ecstatic as he jumped around the room in blind happiness.

"Be quiet!...So Pò can Cultivate Qi now?" Xiao asked with a low voice while her eyes looked everywhere in wild paranoia.

"Technically? Yes, she should be able to do it since the 'Purifying Breath' is the telling sign of somebody with the ability to Cultivate. The problem is now finding a way to do it without a Soul Gem."

"A way to do it without a Gem and with absolutely nobody knowing, you mean! Have you any idea of the scandal this will brig out?! They will do everything in their power to kill all of us! So other than we three absolutely nobody can know!" Xiao said, shaking in fright.

"So you will let me do this?" Pò asked, surprised.

"Technically is your birth right, so give you at least the bare minimum will give you a better chance of survival in the long run." the other answered sighing in dismay.

"It still begs the question why it worked only on you, I tried it on myself, on other Gemless and even with few Burned, and nobody reacted...Why you could instead?" Xie muttered, curious.

"Maybe I was a step close at being born with a Gem and your stuff closed the last tiny gap?" Pò tried saying, unsure about how to cover the mystical Jade Carp peacefully swimming inside her soul.

"...That would mean that you have the nerve rope but the Gem never properly formed, so my concoction kick-started it all the same...It's a good possibility." the scientist muttered while deep in thought.

"It doesn't matter, I will try to see if I can gather some old books the Academy usually burns when too old, we may lack a proper teacher, but is still something."

"Are you planning something, Aunt Xiao?" Pò asked while showing a knowing smirk.

"Well, let's say that I might or might not need a secret agent adept at Qi Cultivation to help businesses here...Being fully legal and just does not always help business as much as one may think..." Xiao answered with her face taking a definitely redder tint than normal.

"Ooh, Xiao! For shame!" Xie said chuckling.

"Shut it, you quack! You were thinking the same!" she replied screeching.

"...Culprit." he admitted while smiling shameless.

"So you two will keep quiet and even help me Cultivate in exchange of me taking care of some dirty work for you?" Pò asked, unimpressed by the revelation.

"Please!" both begged with their best puppy eyes.

"Not always! Only one or two simple tasks from time to time!"

"Yes! Nothing too outrageous! Will even make it worth the effort!" both answered with perfectly-faked innocent expressions.

"Sharks, the two of you are just sharks out for my blood!"

"So it's a yes?" Xiao asked, hopeful.

"...Fine!"

"Good! As far as I know, the three purifying steps I mentioned should come naturally in a period that goes from two weeks to a month and a half once unlocked your Qi, so we have some time to look for those books while you rest and recover from my medicines!" Xie said while looking particularly pleased.

"As for meditation you can use my private garden, the cherry tree in its middle is a thousand years old, the old lady that took me in here told me that back in the days one of the Lotus most beloved, and generous in handling tips, customer was a Qi Cultivator and he loved to meditate under that same tree, so maybe it will bring you good luck in Cultivating!" Xiao added chuckling.

"You rest for now, when the time comes we'll be ready. In the meantime, I will return to my clinic, let me know if you need something else." the scientist said as he gave a last goodbye before leaving.

"The Gods gave you a chance, but this doesn't mean you are free to risk your life, okay? I don't want you to put yourself in danger like you did before, please." Xiao said kissing the girl's forehead and walking away.

"Do not worry about the Festival, you just relax and tomorrow if you feel better I will show you around and we'll see if you can handle one or two guests, okay? Just take it slowly." she added before closing the door behind herself and leaving Pò alone.

"..."

"...The Gods have nothing to do with this, Aunt Xiao. If ever, I am working against the Gods, but at least I will have two people helping me staying hidden as I Cultivate." Pò said getting up from her bed to walk towards the window.

"So, three identities...Pò the abandoned heiress, Fei-Dao the reincarnated girl and the mysterious Qi Cultivator without a Soul Gem. I wonder if I should collapse one into another and simply hide here as Fei-Dao the girl from the Tea House...At best I will fashion myself a mask and become a faceless Cultivator, sure they will never suspect me being able to Cultivate without a Gem." she muttered unsure as she felt strangely free now, knowing that the unnatural way of purifying her Qi she will use would ideally cover her identity while doing whatever she pleased in this strange new world.

"Better start immediately then, the sooner I get to the top, the sooner I will be free to rob all of them blind and live a life free of worries." Pò said to herself as she sat cross-legged on the bed to go through the breathing exercises the Spirit of the Carp taught her.

The path was still stretching far and far beyond the horizon, and even if still not grasping it fully, whenever she succeeded in her exercise she breathed-out a new mouthful of foul-smelling black smoke, making her develop a pleased smirk at each success showing her she could do it just like she was promised.

- At the same time - Fènghuáng Family Compound – Hidden Chamber of Spiritual Isolation -

Deep underground, hidden under hundreds of meters of solid rock and accessible only by a single secret passage only the Family Elders and Family Head knew about, there was a giant room perfectly spherical in shape the founder of the family had carved out of the pure rock with her bare hands.

The giant room was completely dark as no source of light was permitted to exist inside, it had an inner radius of one hundred meters exactly, and in its middle, a round platform was hanging detached from the outer walls and hold in place only by two bars of iron giving the platform the freedom to spin at the slightest touch, so making whoever stood in its middle fall on the freezing water under it should they not sit perfectly in its middle and immobile.

Although, with the passing of time and the coming of successive generations the water had been switched with a highly-corrosive substance able to melt even an adult man down to nothing in a matter of seconds, no matter their level of Qi Cultivation.

This liquid, actually several hundreds of gallons of blood of a giant Jade Realm Celestial Beast, was bubbling nonstop hoping for the old man sitting cross-legged in the middle of the platform to make a sudden movement, upset the balance of the platform and then fall to his death down below.

But the old man dressed fully in heavy silvery armor never made such a wrong movement in the three months he had been there, never eating or sleeping and completely ignoring his earthly desires and the heat and acre smell coming from the perennially-boiling blood barely a feet under him.

He was the current Head of the Fènghuáng Family and father of both Pò and her brother Jié, and the man that decided to cast her away as soon as he saw she was born a Gemless, giving her to his older brother Dugu in a bout of sentimentalism so that the two disgraced members of their family could share their misery together...And also the one to ask to few friends of his to remove both from the picture as soon as his son Jié's admission into the 'Imperial Military School' endorsed by the Emperor himself had been confirmed, thus giving him the opening to court the Emperor's daughter as she too joined the same school in the same year.

There was no guilt in that man's heart as he did both things, he was first and foremost the Head of the Fènghuáng Family, and its well-being and prosperity came first even in front of his own flesh and blood, same going for him losing face at fathering a Gemless and so in need to cover this small incident as soon as possible.

And now there he was, in the most sacred, and secret, chamber of his family compound once again Cultivating in a desperate attempt to break through his last bottleneck to reach the coveted Gold Qi Rank so to match the power of the Niú Family Head Zhao; the fact that the Minister of War was the member of a family clearly 'Inferior' to the Fènghuáng was a mark of utter dishonor for the old man, that had sworn to himself he would have done anything in his power to surpass Zhao and get himself the position as the Emperor's most trusted aide.

That was why he was gambling his life in this insane Meditation Room, not only the threat of a horrible death made Meditating harder, and so more akin to show results once achieved Cultivation, but the vapors of that blood were also beneficial to people of the Fènghuáng bloodline, making Cultivation show better results even faster than normal, but also making it easier for him to burn his Soul Gem should he overstep in his Cultivation.

It was at the same time as Pò started practicing Nature Qi Cultivation herself that with a sense of foreboding of dark times to come that Wáng (King) Fènghuáng's eyes snapped open and his spirit gave a suffuse growl of warning, having felt thanks to the absolute isolation from the Mortal World the room offered, that something not right could and would happen in an undetermined point in the future of the whole Fènghuáng Family should he not act accordingly and stop this trespasser from acting against them.

"An unknown treat is approaching, who is it? And from where?...It doesn't matter, the flames of this Phoenix will burn to ashes whoever will dare to trespass in our territory, no exception and no mercy!" the old man muttered with his long hair flowing wildly behind him following his small burst of anger that even managed to subdue into silence the deafening bubbling of the blood under him.

Said this thought he immediately fell back into deep meditation, and only the ancient bubbling sound returned to fill the otherwise silent room.