Why not to be a cultivator

"You know, those cultivators were very strong. How are you all planning to save them?", if they were even alive went unsaid.

Bao turned to face his mother, "By becoming cultivators ourselves."

She looked at Bao right in his eyes and Bao resolutely stared back. She nodded to herself and broke contact.

"And Zhen dear, you want to cultivate too?"

"Yes!", Zhen immediately replied.

She then got up from the ground, looking both sad and proud, and left the home without saying anything.

_____________________________________

Night came and Zhen and Bao made way to Chief's house. Through all the way, Both did not say a thing.

Soon both reached the courtyard of Chief's home. Zhen saw his mother already there standing beside the chief, who looked more resigned than anything.

Other boys of Bao's age joined him, forming a tight knot group at one side but no one spoke a single word.

A bonfire was burning in the middle of the courtyard to ward off the chill of autumn night and many families were huddled around it, waiting for the chief to begin.

Chief cleared his throat and began, "We all are gathered here to discuss what to do with Empire forcibly recruiting our sons in the army. So far only Bao had come up with a solution and I for one, do not like it. If anyone has a better suggestion, please speak now."

Voices of discontent rose among the gathered, many suggesting their own solutions;

"What if we move away, leave the village, and settle elsewhere."

"Not possible, where can we even go? In the forest or back into the empire?", Chief questioned back.

"How about we hide every one of our children when soldiers come?"

"And they would not suspect a thing? As if."

Zhen quietly watched everyone engaged in the surprisingly civil discussion despite most participants' being half-hysterical parents. Throughout the meeting, Bao and his mother remained silent, not contributing anything to the discussion.

The meeting went on for hours but no one was able to come up with a better idea. Chief sighed, "Looks like we have to go with Bao's idea."

Voices of discontent rose among the crowd but no one spoke. Chief turned to boys standing in the corner, "I know you all also want to go out to save our girls, you all never gave up hope don't you?"

This time Feng came forward, the eldest among the group, "Cheif, we want to do this. Not just for our village but also our sisters."

Chief looked resigned but Zhen's mother came forward and asked seriously, "You know your sisters are most likely dead."

Her voice never wavered but Zhen could clearly see the pain and conflict in her eyes she endured saying this. The thought of Yue being dead was not a present one, even if the alternative is much crueler. There is always a hope that her daughter is alive and she would see her again one day.

"They had to be, she had to be", Feng's voice was fueled by the same hope, "Because if not... we will burn every one of those Fiends on her,...on our sister's grave."

The sheer hate and resolve in his voice stirred Zhen, and his mother was no different. Even the gathered families were affected.

Everyone was silent, and for a few moments, there was no sound besides the cracking of fire.

"You know, if you want to even think of doing anything against those cultivators, you will have to become a cultivator yourself?"

Zhen furrowed his brows at the question. The peculiar way she asked, she was not asking 'if they could become a cultivator; but whether they were 'willing' or not.

And the way she turned to look at him, he was sure that question was not just meant for Feng.

Feng answered her with some hesitation, not understanding her intent, "We hunted the beast in the forest and sold them in the city. We were able to gather gold coins by selling them to the Alchemist's Hall, enough to exchange for some spirit crystals. We planned to buy cultivation manuals in the black market but now, we could get cultivation techniques by joining the army."

"So you are ready to cultivate?"

"Yes", Feng answered back, but Zhen could hear he was confused by the question.

"Do you even know what it means to be a cultivator?"

She continues, a little harshly than usual, "It means to cut yourself from the cycle of life and death, to go against very nature itself. To become a cultivator is to walk the path of bloodshed, to lose your innocence in eyes of Heaven and lose its protection."

"It is not something for someone faint of heart, to fail on it is to submit yourself to a fate worse than death."

Zhen looked at his mother in shock, how does she know. She was right, cultivating was not something to be taken lightly. The moment a cultivator establishes his Foundation, he steps on a path of no return, and as she said, start's severing his soul from the circle of life and death.

The death of a cultivator is far different from the death of a mortal.

But no Cultivator realizes it, no one except those in realms of power exceeding divine, at realms where the cultivators can see into the working of Heaven and Earth, and 'definitely not' his mother who had no cultivation to her name.

Zhen looked at Feng, Bao, and others look at her, not wavering in the slightest.

"If this is what you decide,...", she sighs, "Very well then. Come with me to the ancestral temple."

She then turned to Zhen, "You too Zhen", and went inside the house, beckoning them to follow her.