"What's your name?"
"Long Di."
"Why were you at the bottom of the hole?"
"Creating a cultivation technique."
"You can create a cultivation technique in holes!?"
"Where else would you create one? Not in a hole? Pffft, amateur."
"Wow! Did you hear that senior apprentice-sister Feng Yu!? You can create cultivation techniques in holes!"
"Stop annoying Long Di Lang Tie. You were the one who wanted us to leave him in the hole, to begin with," Feng Yu pointed out.
"S-Senior apprentice-sister Feng Yu, you didn't have to mention that!" The youth known as Lang Tie quickly became flustered in embarrassment when he was called out for wanting to leave Long Di in the wild like some diseased bison.
At this time, all four disciples in the village were travelling along with Long Di to the nearest city to purchase medicine for the first elder.
They were currently trekking through a valley at the moment. It was lush with vegetation and a small river ran the way beside them, playing a melody of peace that only nature could compose.
The azure sky above was absent of clouds, yet the sun withheld its cruel heat and instead levied a comforting warmth that soothed the soul. Back on earth, this would certainly qualify as a perfect day, Long Di thought to himself.
'Wait a minute, it just dawned on me that there is literally no reason for us children to go about taking care of something so important. I mean seriously, someone could die if we fail this. How did I not realise this and question the old man? Wait a minute, am I being assimilated into not having my common sense anymo—'
"Uhm, Long Di?" a small voice filled with timidity called out Long Di's name, shaking the latter from his rumination.
"Yes," Long Di answered, turning to look at Shen Ling, the Abyss Ghost.
"H—How did you get to be so strong when you're so young?" she asked.
Everyone was shocked that Shen Ling would take the initiative to ask such a question. It was no secret that she was extremely shy. In fact, her shyness was so pronounced that it even affected her cultivation as it gave rise to doubts within herself.
Her talent at cultivation was even more potent in her than in her senior apprentice-sister, but it was this self-doubt that caused her cultivation to slow down and even be stagnant in some cases. Doubt in one's strength and doubts in what one can achieve can affect one's strength. Strength and willpower were a requirement to walk the path of the dao.
"You don't have to look down after asking me a question, y'kno," Long Di stated after seeing how Shen Ling looked to the ground after asking what she wanted.
"I can see exactly where your character development is gonna head when you come with me," Long Di stated offhandedly.
"Excuse me?" she said with a hint of confusion.
"Yeah, excuse me," her senior apprentice-sister quickly came to her aid.
"I can see why it hasn't been developing much," he said after turning his attention to her senior apprentice-sister.
"What did you say!?" Feng Yu grew a bit annoyed at Long Di and his mannerism, or in his case, the lack of it.
"Forget it," he said, waving off Feng Yu like an insignificant fly one might hate when it pitches on the doughnut they were trying to eat when one was writing a novel. This, however, infuriated her further.
Long Di didn't care though and responded. "About that question of yours, how I got this strong, huh?"
At this point, everyone quieted down, even Feng Yu. This was something they all wanted to know. He couldn't be more than eleven years old, yet he was already at a level far beyond their reach at the moment.
"So I did 100 push-ups, ran 100 kilometres and did 100 sit-ups every single day," Long Di said without skipping a beat.
"W—What?"
Every one of the disciples stared wide-eyed at Long Di, not daring to believe a word he just said. How could someone cultivate by doing such sublunary training? But what if it was true? Surely no cultivator would have attempted such a thing, so could it be true?
It didn't help either when his expression was as impassive as ever. It betrayed no humour, making it appear as if he was dead serious. This wasn't a joke.
"So that was a joke," Long Di said after some time.
"Wait, what!?" The one to react first was Feng Yu.
"A joke, it's a joke," Long Di reiterated.
"How could you joke about something like that!?" She was furious, she almost believed this little demon!
"First of all, the mere fact that you believed that I was able to cultivate to this level simply by doing push-ups, sit-ups and running when you have people here who can literally bench press a planet makes me wonder about your mental faculties and its current wellbeing as well. In that respect, I know of a book called Common Sense For—"
"Hehehe…" a snicker escaped Shen Ling as she listened to Long Di.
She never met someone so… different. His out-of-world view and his ill-timed jokes were… refreshing to her for some reason.
"Really, I can't tell you why I am so strong or if I'm really strong if I'm being honest," he said after a while, stretching his waist as he walked.
He doesn't know why he's strong? He can't tell if he's strong? Isn't he most likely the youngest Core Flame Evocation realm expert alive right now? Isn't that strong enough at the moment?
"What do you mean?" Shen Ling asked once more.
"Well, to you I'm strong, but to those who stand at the top of this world, I'm most likely less than an ant. So tell me, by what ruler, what is the metric of measurement you're using to say that I'm strong?" Long Di asked.
Though Shen Ling was the one mainly conversing with him, this question he put forward was for anyone to answer.
"I think you're strong!" Lang Tie shouted.
Long Di stared back at him with an apathetic expression, causing the latter to shrink back in embarrassment.
"Thank you," Long Di said after a while, causing him to beam with a smile.
They continued in silence for a while, whether it be because they had nothing more to talk about or because they entered deep rumination from Long Di's words remained unanswered.
They were still some distance away from the city they were headed to. At this point, they were already travelling for a little less than a day, and it began to show as the azure sky slowly blanketed itself with the ever-encroaching darkness of night.
The disciples were used to travelling by themselves and already allocated jobs to each other that they knew they were to take care of when it came to setting up camp.
The two youths went off to collect firewood whilst the girls got the tents out and started to prepare the campsite.
Stars soon littered the heavens with a beauty that Long Di had to admit he had never seen in his old world.
He was free at the moment and found a log at the wayside to sit on as he stared up at the Heavens.
Shen Ling and Feng Yu stole glances every now and again as he remained captivated by what he saw above.
What sort of thoughts were running through his head, they wondered.
[Inside Long Di's head]
'I wonder where my parents are? Is everyone still at Thunder Cloud City? I wanted to find Pebbles, but now I want to find everyone and make sure they're safe. I have so much to do now and the goddess is still nowhere to be found. I guess I can only get stronger to do everything I need to do.'
[Outside Long Di's head]
Dum!
The manifestation of his cauldrons materialised and began to revolve around him as they performed their own orbit.
Shen Ling and Feng Yu were frightened when they saw his cauldrons. They never saw cauldrons like this before, and they exuded a pressure that bore down on them.
They felt suffocated, as if being in close proximity to Long Di and his cauldrons would crush them into a paste. They only felt better when they distanced themselves from him.
They paled as they looked at him. They wondered what kind of existence this unassuming boy was.
The only answer Long Di found at the moment was to start cultivating. His body crackled with grey lightning as the same happened to his first cauldron. Clouds even appeared above his cultivation area as the lightning danced around him and his first cauldron.
Krssh!
The lightning increased in intensity and engulfed Long Di in a sea of energy that drowned out any concept of time.
Some time had passed before the lightning finally died down. Long Di slowly opened his eyes where one could see arcs of lightning leaping around.
He could see where the pearl of his first cauldron shone with a resplendent grey light, 'Looks like I'm now at the peak of the 1st Star Core of the Core Flame Evocation realm, nice. This should allow me to handle any sort of crap that comes up for now. But my absorption speed has greatly dropped'
"Long Di!" A shout of panic came from behind him.
"Well, hello 'Crap,' my name's Long Di," he mumbled to himself.
He slowly got up to see Shen Ling and Feng Yu running towards him.
"What's wrong?" Long Di asked them, his expression the same.
"Lang Tie and Jia Yan, they—they still haven't come back yet."
"Of course, they haven't. Let's go."