I held the old piece of paper in my hands, the key to finally start actual cultivation, but yet, I'm hesitant. I know the great pain that comes with the scrolls. It's one of the prices you pay for growing the mental world. I can already see the diagrams made from old black ink, however, I'm tired of the wait. I'll enlarge my mind and start the cultivation journey again. Atleast now I'm experienced, I'll avoid any dumb and unnecessary mistakes like before.
I finally open the scroll after taking a deep breath, but as expected there's a deep pain in my head. Almost like as if my brain's about to explode. I open them again, then closing them almost immediately again. The cycle continues until I'm finally able to look at the piece of paper properly. It's in a weird writing, one that I can't understand. It's barely even looks like writing and as my brain starts to understand the piece of paper even more, I realize it's a diagram, a very complex one at that with so many eccentric edges and curves it doesn't even seem like it makes sense. But yet I remember that it's not just a senseless piece of writing, it's an inscription which helps cultivators increase the size of the world. It's gets rarer as the tiers go up which makes it more demanding for those who wish to accumulate power anyway. Suddenly, I feel like my brain splits and I go crashing down to ground, my head in my arms banging against the ground with the intense rush of pain in my mind. I then go crashing to the ground, my eyes closed and it feels like I've died, but the intense pain is still there so I know I'm still alive. When the pain finally subsides, I open my eyes, they glow with red light as I inspect the environment. But I'm not in my dirty, scattered room with holes in the ceiling and rat holes at the corner of the room. I'm in an ethereal world, it's looks big, it's practically the size of our quaters. Cool gaseous energy swims around the sphere, I take a look at my arm but I can't see it, it's there I know it is, but if not for the continuous ripples in the fabric of my existence, I'd barely notice it. I can still see the outside world, it seems just past the invisible net of this sphere but I refrain from trying to reach it. I'm aware that one can break his mental sphere by just simply touching past the barriers, atleast not until it's fully developed. I still stare at the scroll for hours forgetting about the real world until I hear the doors metal handle clunking loudly open. My mum finally returns from work, even though it's almost midnight, she still heads to the closet to pick up a broom and starts sweeping the house. She's as energetic as always, but for some reason, she has a bruised cheek. she notices me peeping through her room window and she tries to hide it with her palm, but I've already seen it. She then closes her curtain while stepping out of her room to put on her fake smile trying to show me that she's alright but I'm not five anymore and when I try to remove her palm to see the wounds, she jumps back, rubs my hair and kisses me lightly on the forehead before heading towards her room and locking the door behind her. I feel sorry for her, the cultivation journey is ruthless and only favours the strong. The weak have no other option but to cower in fear and hide under the mighty wings of the powerful. They barely even get ownership of any property other than farmlands. I will never grow up that way. I managed to reach the apex of the cultivation journey in the mortal world before, but there's still an entire immortal realm awaiting my presence. I won't be stuck with the life ants. If possible, Kirin should be alive somewhere. I'd like to pay him a visit and take his head with me as a gift.
A few hours later, and my father is back from his late night shift. We're normally used to him getting back by this time. It's almost dawn, he looks exhausted and sluggish with a strong sense of booze wreaking all over his figure. He's suprised to see me still awake looking at a ruffled up piece of paper in my hands, but he's too exhausted to care. Perhaps he thinks it's one of my lesson notes or tests that I usually wrote from time to time. He heads back to his room also locking the door behind him. As always my mother wakes up complaining about the strong stench of the booze filling the whole floor but there's little to nothing she can do about it. It's not easy to constantly be up at night protecting an entire sect when you don't even have the power to protect yourself. To protect something you can't, the cultivation journey literally makes no sense, but yet we live by it.The constant struggle to accumulate power makes everyone greedy but it can't be helped. The thirst for power can't be quenched.
The sun is up earlier than I expected, and if not for the bright morning rays shining on my eyes, I'd probably never stop looking at the inscription in my hands. I blink slowly feeling the particles in my eyes fall away, it seems like I haven't done that in a while but I don't really bother. I take another look inside my mental world and the gas surrounding the sphere isn't there anymore. Instead, it has condensed to form a short stream. It seems almost like some buckets of water poured into a very large container, but joy fills me anyway. I've made an improvement, and I've almost solidified my position as a rank 1 mage. I'm overwhelmed with joy knowing that my journey has finally set it's course. I almost forget that I have my lessons with Alise, and when I rushed down, I open the clunky door only to find Alise looking at me with a bit of annoyance she's almost about to scold me when she notices the huge the huge eye bags on my face. She almost giggles but she stops and looks at me with a frightened stare when she realizes the reason. There's also a faint presence in the region, it's as if I'm able to sense the movements of everything around me. I even
notice the wind coming before it even hits. I try to expand my mental waves out of my mental sphere, but they crumble immediately they're past my figure. Yet, Alise notices it and her widen even further due to shock. As always, the shock turns into pure amazement and she releases a helpless sigh from her mouth.
"You were seriously up all night looking at that thing, I'm impressed. Some people can barely look at it for a few hours and that includes the guards. You really surprise me more frequently these days". I just scoff, "Maybe your just to weak to comprehend true potential". I say not knowing when that line left my mouth. Alise looks quite stunned at my response, she's not really used to me being the talkative type. I am a bit surprised too, I would normally use that line whenever I fought people who believed to be stronger than me in my past life, usually before beheading them, or ripping their body to shreds. Alise just giggles as usual,"you're quite fiesty for a child your age aren't you? Already hungry for power at such a young age. But don't let it cloud your judgement. Be strong enough if you want to you want to back up that statement". There's no sense of annoyance or coldness in her voice. She actually seems as if she felt challenged by my previous statement. But like Alexander's aloof manner, I just shrug my shoulders and hold her arm tightly. There's a huge gust of wind, it only lasts for some seconds before were Infront of the area leading to the underground training facility. We head down following the flew steps down towards Alexander's personal training room. I pick up my twin blades expecting Our usual duel but she just chuckles and leads the way out of the room. We head up towards the stairs we came from and we're now out of the same door we entered through. I feel like questioning Alise but I don't. I'm sure she has something in my mind. We walk for sometime till we reach an open field. I see children and I know I've met them before, they were the kids that I walked out on. The boy gives me a smug look and grits his teeth at my presence, but I don't even flinch. They might have awakened their dantians, but I doubt they even have enough power in it to threaten me. There are also more children with them and they all seem royal. I don't understand why I'm here, but I can only hope for an answer from Alise. "Well, do you like it. You're going to duel with them today. It'll be fun won't it?". I'd wouldn't have agreed on a normal, but I need to repay these bastards back for snitching me to the counsellor and humiliating my parents. It's the least I could do anyway. The boy stares as me with killing intent, but I only smile. This will be lots of fun.