Walking through a former dirt path, now covered in grass and already out of shape. Ding Xiu holding her by hand and leading her through the village.
With rotten houses, and a sickly sun high in the sky, bones and decay all around. Ding Xiu went white, recognizing the village.
It was his, stopping at the front of a half torn house, his house. In the yard were two mounds of earth and flowers on top.
His parents graveyard. He bit his lips, his parents, if you could call them like that. He narrowed his eyes, and turned his eyes in a random direction.
The old lady was tapping the ground with her cane, and said, "Something familiar my dear disciple?"
He said a curt, "No. Why so curious?"
She turned her head and said, "Tone, my dear disciple, otherwise you will be punished."
He lowered his head, looking at the red marks on his hand, fresh cuts from this demon, not woman, but demon, he gritted his teeth and said, "Sorry master."
She enjoyed the scene for a incense stick of time, and slowly started to walk again, letting a sigh of pleasure and saying, "This was the last village I visited, slowly killing the villagers one by one, each night, letting them scream, building the negative emotions, pay attention, negative emotions are the source of cultivation for our path."
She stole a glance at him, then turned back towards his parents house, "This were my first victims, I vaguely remember a child with them, wonder what happened to him, he seemed like a sweet boy."
He couldn't control his face, and let a grimace, saying, "Curiosity killed the cat, or so it's said."
She laughed, and continued to walk.
Ding Xiu, felt remorse now over his actions, he refused to bury his parents, they tormented him for years, beating him and making him do hard work.
He didn't feel any connection, yet, it did sting that this monster trying to act like she had compassion.
Yet, he let a sigh, and stopped thinking, past is past, not something he can afford to worry now, there's only one thing that he should think about it.
That was this old lady, she let him behind, a tiny sparkle of hope, that died as soon as she looked at him and said, "Move faster."
As they were leaving behind the village, or what remained of it, she said, "You will start your training now, the place is perfect to enter the first stage of cultivation, Houtian. Will do wonders to your progress, even more so that you have an emotional connexion, isn't so sweet boy?"
He remained silent, gazing at her with blank eyes, from fear of enraging her, she gave him a toothy smile, and said, "Sweet boy, I don't bite, have no worries, your parents were tasty though."
He responded, "Parents? What parents, there were only two persons. I am not scared of you biting, I doubt you could do anything with your crumbling health."
She let the cane fall on the ground, and was again towering over him, the mouth was getting bigger and bigger, with swords as teeth, she just chuckled, "Don't try my patience, disciple, or you will see how fit and healthy I am, compared to your puny existence."
He hunkered, looking trough his hair with a tinge of fear, as sweat again started to appear, She picked the cane, and took a scroll from air, appearing from nowhere, and thrown it at him.
He carefully caught it and opened, slowly reading the contents, something he learned from the local priest.
It was a technique, raising an eyebrow, chills were passing through his spine, and at the end, he looked with dead eyes at her.
She planned it, he was sure, this was a ground specially made for this technique, dead bodies, negative energies built from death and resentment, his hands were trembling.
The granny looked oblivious to his state, and just said, "Pay attention, and ask questions where you don't understand, I need you healthy, and you making mistakes in cultivation will make it hard for me."
He had no choice, he sat and ground and tried to imitate what he read, first let all thoughts go from the mind, impossible, the old lady was hanging there like a spectre, ever present and negative.
She touched his cheek and said, "My dear disciple, I mean no harm, trust me."
He tried to struggle against the hand, yet, he was powerless to do anything, and closed his eyes hard, letting anything on his mind go into the void. He will be powerful, one day, he will be powerful enough to be free from this woman.
Qi from the surroundings started approaching him, entering through his pores, and feeling the murkiness and the cold sensation, trickling through his spiritual veins, and entering the middle of body.
There, he faintly heard a thunder, didn't know if it was outside, or inside his body, but he felt different. Marked.
His dantian, the spot where all natural qi enters and condenses, the storage of his qi, his qi now. One step towards the liberation.
The lady cackled, looking at him like a prey, and saying, "The rate of absorption is good, good. Suck it, suck all of the energy, don't stop, or you will die. Sweet disciple, if you stop now, not even I could bring you back from death. Your soul will be destroyed by the Heavens."
He gulped down, and didn't dare to react or think of something else, right now, only cultivation, to save his life, to be alive, he need to do it, he can't go back now, only it will be his salvation.
The qi poured in him, forming in his dantian a dark red mist, with vaguely forms in it, that he couldn't see. The mist was like a crawling creature, probing his dantian for any weaknesses.
The granny said, as she was having a hand on his shoulder, "Don't make any sudden moves or break from cultivation, it will take the entire day for you to finish, you know what will happen if you fail."
The sun slowly feel and became red, the village fading in shadows, with a wind creeping down and fluttering the grass, and it fell.
The world stopped, became a mass darkness, only by her hard breathing he know she was there, behind him, infusing him with her qi, he felt how that dreadful qi entered his body, and molded with his own.
The red mist became tangible, opaque, he couldn't see through it anymore, Ding Xiu, was thirsty, hungry, while the time was passing.
The negative qi quickly dwindling down as the sun rose again.
Clouds were lazily flying up, as he got up and cracked his bones, looking at his master, the old lady was observing him, with the same predatory glare he feared.
She made the cane disappeared, and then the scroll from his hand, saying, "You brokethrough, and survived, not many do; I was right picking you, so much resentment in that tiny body of yours."
She gave him a cup of water, the same cup he forgot at the river, and then a plain bread.
He ate in big gulps, eating the crumbs that were left on his hands.
The lady said, "Hou Wen is my name, you should only call me master. Sweet boy, sweet boy, I finally got a good disciple. Not many reach Xiantian realm as fast you, of course, all with my help and guidance, and you shouldn't forget that. You own me your life, cultivation and talent. You are mine disciple."
He said, "Yes master, I am your disciple, that you forced me with death threats and no other options, how could forget what you did to me, my dear master."
Hou Wen didn't show any reaction, just amusement, and then dusting her rackety, but comfortable clothes, said, "Okay, disciple, the ways you became my disciple doesn't matter, be with force, coercion or of your own will, I am a demonic cultivator, rules, ethics and morals are worth nothing in the pursuit of your own freedom and to be able to do as you wish, as I did to you, as you will do when you will be powerful enough. That is to enforce your will upon others."
He shook his head, and thought over his cultivation, trying hard to ignore her presence, maybe, just maybe, this way she will disappear, a growing shadow that looms over his being.
The cultivation art is called "The way of Purple Centipede" and it only carries death, and degradation. Sighing, he was now a demonic cultivator, and it seems nothing good will come from that, maybe a swift death would have been better after all.
She chuckled, inferring his thoughts, "Disciple, you are precious to me, and wouldn't allow you to die, enjoy, for demonic cultivators are free from the will of Heavens, perilous is the road, but sweeter is the reward, being a righteous cultivator would just shackle you to the whims of Heavens."