"Damn it... damn it."
Cursing under his breath, Tianyu Xing felt the familiar ache in his stomach. He had skipped yet another meal, but it was all for nothing. He had spent five months cultivating the prized thousand-year-old ginseng root, but he still couldn't feel the flow of his energy, not even the slightest ripple.
"That old man must have lied to me," he muttered. "He said if I used this ginseng root, I could even break through to the third layer... what a scammer."
The weight of his family's disdain pressed down on him with every bucket of water he carried, every courtyard stone he scrubbed. Born into the prestigious Xīng clan, he should have been a rising star.
But at age fifteen, his inability to break through to the second stage of body foundation had branded him a useless failure, a servant in his own home. Children as young as nine would have already broken through to the third layer by now.
He ran his fingers over the smooth surface of the blue jade hidden in his clothes. It was the last gift from his mother, a woman cast out by the elders of the family after his father supposedly died trying to save her, and her son was a failure. He remembered her voice, gentle but filled with sorrow, echoing in his mind.
"This is my family's heirloom, my son. If it ever gets too difficult, if you feel you have no other choice... go into the city. Sell it. It will fetch a high price, enough for you to live a decent life."
I have no choice, Tianyu thought to himself. I'll sell it. I'll find a reputable auction house and buy a spirit pill; maybe then I will get the chance to break through.
With a new resolve, he stood up and went back to sweeping the courtyard.
"Tianyu, you missed a spot here," came a familiar voice. It was Yue Xing, Tianyu's cousin. Yue walked by with his goons, scattering pig dung all over the clean courtyard.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Tianyu rushed toward him, his broom raised high, ready to attack.
Yue stepped to the side, evading the clumsy attack before striking him behind the neck.
Tianyu fell face-first into the foul-smelling dung.
"How does the dung taste, Tianyu?" Yue laughed with his goons as they walked away, leaving Tianyu there, humiliated and covered in filth. "I bet he eats it every day"
Tianyu gritted his teeth as he walked to the river to wash.
"Just you wait, Yue Xing. When I break through, I'm going to teach you a lesson," Tianyu muttered to himself as he scrubbed the dirt from his body.
"Tch, the smell doesn't even come off," he thought, smelling his hands.
He took the jade from his clothes and began washing it as well. They might not take it if I try to sell it this dirty, he thought. But then something tragic happened, jade slipped from his grasp and disappeared into the murky water.
"No!" he yelled, immediately diving in to retrieve it.
His eyes burned as he searched, but he couldn't find it. He went deeper and deeper, his lungs screaming for air.
And finally, he felt oxygen escaping him.
"MMMmMMM," he choked, trying to force one last scan before coming up.
He glanced to the left, nothing, to the right, and it was all the same. Finally, he began to swim up, giving up, and then he saw it glowing deep on the riverbed.
"I have to hurry." Though his chest was burning, he dived even deeper.
He swam fast and barely grabbed it.
But as he began to swim upward, he felt something tugging him down. His eyes shifted, and he glanced downward. There, it was, a dark figure shifting through the water.
"What is he?" he struggled trying to swim up.
"Is that a water-serpent...?" his mind raced. He thrashed and kicked, trying to swim faster, but something hit his stomach, violently forcing all the air from his lungs.
"OOOOOOOOOAAAA"
He began sinking, his vision blurring as his consciousness began to fade.
"Shit, I am really going to die like this, a useless failure who never managed to achieve anything. I am sorry, mother, I thought I could give you a better life after getting stronger."
Lain felt all his strength run away from him as he sank deeper and deeper into the riverbed.
"No!" he opened his eyes.
"I can't die like this! I will not die a useless failure... never!" Tianyu bit his lip, forcing himself to stay conscious. The blood from his lips flowed, touching the jade, which began to glow a bright blue.
Tianyu felt a warm Qi rush onto his body. Then he heard a voice reciting something, it sounded like a poem, ancient and profound, that looped over and over in his head.
The path of the Lotus is for both the Heavens and the Earth.Its foundation, both strong and weak, its neater good or bad, so is the truth of Dao.
For in the heart of stagnation, the true current of Life flows, and the heavenly lotus will bloom.
These words echoed in his head, and he finally lost consciousness.
Oh... Oh."
Water shot out from his mouth as it rushed out from his lungs. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the cold, damp riverbed, the moonlight illuminating the trees above him.
I almost died, he thought, his heart still racing.
He turned his hand over to look at the jade and found that it had vanished.
"No... Where is it?" he muttered, searching around himself. It was dark now, the only light coming from the moon and stars, yet he felt his eyes were strangely sharp; he could see as if it were still day.
What's this? My body feels so light, he wondered, walking to the water's edge, where he saw his reflection.
"What?"
His dark hair had stretched down past his face, and though he had been training for a long time, his muscles were now more defined, and his height had increased a little.