Chapter 8: First Meeting

　　By contrast, the Crown Prince himself felt deeply ashamed. He had begun his cultivation at the age of seven, yet after three years, he was still stuck at the Foundation Stage—merely at the fourth level of Qi Refining.

　　Though this was roughly the same pace as most of his peers, having someone so extraordinarily gifted constantly by his side left him with not a shred of confidence, no matter how he progressed.

　　The Crown Prince's master was Hua Sheng, the Chief Master of the Huawei Sect—the foremost sect in all Chen. At that time, the leader of a sect in the world was called the Chief Master.

　　The Chief Master held the supreme authority of the sect, a position generally assumed by the cultivator of the highest attainment within that sect. The Chief Master was responsible for overseeing the cultivation of all members and managing the sect's various affairs—a position of great power and ceaseless labor.

　　Chen Li, by virtue of his status as Crown Prince, was brought before the Chief Master of the Huawei Sect through the intervention of Queen Ying. The foremost cultivator of the sect, Hua Sheng, was invited down from the mountain to enter the palace. When accepting disciples, cultivators would first examine the candidate's spiritual roots; those without such roots were not permitted to enter the path of cultivation.

　　After examining the Crown Prince's spiritual roots, Chief Master Hua Sheng was extremely satisfied and accepted him as a disciple on the spot.

　　King Ying and Queen Ying were overjoyed. For Chief Master Hua Sheng was held in the highest esteem throughout Chen, and had long since entered the Nascent Soul realm. Apart from guiding the disciples of his own sect in their cultivation, he had truly taken only two disciples in his entire life—and Crown Prince Li would be his third. At the same time, Hua Sheng declared that he would take the Crown Prince as his final disciple, and would accept no more students for the rest of his life.

　　Chen Li's two senior brothers had entered the path quite early. The eldest, Li Jin, and the second, Fu Kuo, had both been cultivating for over sixty years. They had accompanied their master into the palace. When they saw the young prince—barely seven years old, clambering up and down, his dark eyes darting everywhere—they could only shake their heads in resignation.

　　After meeting his two senior brothers, this third disciple of Hua Sheng clambered up onto the second senior brother, Fu Kuo, and refused to come down. The young prince, amused by the game of pulling his hair and tugging at his beard, treated Fu Kuo as his plaything—and Fu Kuo could only shake his head in resignation.

　　Their master watched from the side, laughing heartily. Queen Ying quickly caught hold of the little prince. Three days after the formal disciple-acceptance ceremony, Hua Sheng departed with a flick of his sleeves, leaving the introductory cultivation lessons to be taught by the eldest senior brother.

　　Both Li Jin and Fu Kuo had already been in the Nascent Soul realm for many years. Fu Kuo was of a lively temperament and had little patience for teaching, so the task of instructing on his behalf fell naturally to the eldest senior brother, Li Jin.

　　The second senior brother, Fu Kuo, followed his master away. The following year, word came back that, delighted by his final disciple, Master Hua Sheng had grasped the great Dao and entered the Divine Attainment realm.

　　When the news arrived, both the Huawei Sect and the prince's household were filled with joy. The Divine Attainment and Return to Emptiness realms were the highest levels of cultivation in this world—with only a single step remaining before reaching Grand Achievement and attaining immortality on the spot.

　　Crown Prince Chen Li, however, did not feel much of anything about it. Eldest Senior Brother Li Jin's teaching was proper and methodical, and the young junior brother learned in a proper and methodical way. Though his spiritual roots were excellent, his progress remained unremarkable.

　　By the third year, the prince was ten years old and had reached the third level of Qi Refining. Not long after, Eldest Senior Brother Li Jin also left to wander the world.

　　Thereafter, under the supervision of Luo Huangyi, the Crown Prince advanced to the fourth level of Qi Refining.

　　For those who entered the path of cultivation, the master only showed them the way—what they would ultimately achieve depended on their own effort.

　　Over those three years, the young junior brother and Eldest Senior Brother Li Jin had grown very close. The eldest senior brother was steady and composed—a temperament vastly different from that of Second Senior Brother Fu Kuo.

　　When Li Jin departed, the young junior brother was deeply grieved. He clung to his senior brother's sleeve and refused to let go, until Li Jin promised to return and visit him every three years. Only after Queen Ying intervened did he finally release his grip.

　　In truth, cultivators were supposed to be detached and free from worldly attachments—yet Li Jin's willingness to make such a promise was a testament to his genuine affection for the young junior brother.

　　After his senior brother's departure, the Crown Prince followed his Qi Refining cultivation method every day without fail. Though his progress was steady rather than rapid, he did not fall behind others.

　　Unfortunately, that "others" did not include the bestowed companion, Little Shan. The saying "comparison is the thief of joy" was never more true—every time the prince saw Little Shan's cultivation progress, he nearly lost the will to continue.

　　Fortunately, Chen Li's nature was fiercely competitive. His master's words—praising his excellent spiritual roots—still echoed in his ears. Eldest Senior Brother Li Jin had never shown concern over his progress; on the contrary, he often said that a solid foundation in the Qi Refining stage was far more valuable than rushing ahead.

　　And so the young prince made the first great vow of his life—aimed squarely at the girl beside him: one day, Little Shan would be defeated by his hand.

　　When King Ying and Queen Ying learned of it, they merely laughed and paid it no mind.

　　There was, in fact, another reason behind all this. On the very first day Little Shan returned to the prince's household after being bestowed upon him, she had already played a prank on Li.

　　After the ceremony, the Crown Prince was to leave the palace and take up residence in the prince's household that had been granted to him. The Eight Guards, selected by Queen Ying, and the household servants had already moved in and made all preparations—waiting only for the young prince to arrive after his coming-of-age ceremony and welcome their new master into his home.

　　At the coming-of-age ceremony, after the bestowed companion had paid her respects to King Ying and Queen Ying, she exchanged formal greetings with the Crown Prince. Then, presided over by Queen Ying's own bestowed companion, Luo Huiyan, the two of them made their pledge of shared destiny.

　　The little girl bestowed upon the Crown Prince was of the same age as him—a girl Queen Ying had chosen from among countless candidates, impeccable in both appearance and background. The prince, upon first laying eyes on her, was immensely pleased.

　　But that satisfaction, along with the joy of the coming-of-age ceremony, vanished in less than three quarters of an hour after they entered the prince's household…

　　Upon entering the prince's household, the young Crown Prince took his seat in the main hall. In accordance with custom, he received the formal greetings of the guards and other household members, and listened as various matters of the household were explained to him.

　　From then on, every person and every object within the household would be the prince's personal property. He had the sole authority to make decisions on all matters—though whether he could handle them all properly would depend on his own abilities.

　　At seven years old, the young prince understood little of the household's affairs—those were left to the Eight Guards and the steward to manage. He needed only to remember the names of a few key figures, which of course included the bestowed girl.

　　When the girl, Little Shan, came forward to pay her respects, the young prince noticed a hairpin in the shape of a phoenix on her head—so lifelike, with its wings seeming to flutter in the breeze as if about to take flight. Struck by a child's impulse, he reached out to take it in his fingers and play with it.

　　The phoenix hairpin was a gift from Little Shan's master, Aunt Hui in yellow, presented to her when she accepted her as a disciple. The girl treasured it dearly. She gave a slight bow of her head, causing the prince's hand to close on empty air. Irritated, the prince reached out with his other hand, intending to grab hold of her topknot—but Little Shan dipped her head again, and the prince's fingers closed on nothing once more.

　　Since entering the third level of Qi Refining, the young prince had grown adept at catching birds and snatching butterflies—he had never missed. Even the palace maidservants usually could not escape his quick little hands.

　　Having missed twice in a row, the young prince's interest was piqued. He lashed out with a kick from the Huawei Sect's technique, aiming at the girl. His toes were just about to reach her waist when a small hand seized his ankle and pulled it outward. Feeling his ankle caught, the prince quickly braced himself and put all his weight into a counter-move, intending to swing his other leg out—even if the kick missed, the momentum from his waist would free the caught foot, allowing him to tumble through the air and land steadily on his feet.

　　But the girl shifted her grip from a pull to a lift. The prince's second kick never landed. Caught off balance, his own legs tangled together—one tripping the other—and he lost all momentum for the flip.

　　Seeing this, the girl released her hold. With a thud, the young prince landed squarely on his backside, sprawled flat on the ground.

　　The exchange between the two children had been as swift as a falcon's stoop—fast and precise. The Eight Guards, watching from the side, found it quietly amusing. Any of them could have reached out and steadied the prince as he fell, but all knew that he was already at the third level of Qi Refining—the fall would not hurt him. Besides, intervening would only have shamed the young prince in front of everyone.

　　They remained motionless. The girl flashed a sly smile. The prince lay on his back, his face burning red—too mortified to pick himself up and continue the fight.

　　The prince who had come to assert his authority had instead had authority asserted over him—by his own bestowed companion.

　　And so the grudge was born.

　　In the days that followed, the prince suffered repeated humiliations at the girl's hands. The guards turned a blind eye, and even Aunt Hui showed no sign of concern—she never once so much as spoke a word of reproach to the girl.

　　The prince, mindful of his dignity, refused to complain to his doting mother. Instead, he threw himself into his cultivation, hoping that one day he would defeat Little Shan and exact full revenge for the shame she had brought upon him.

　　Their parents naturally knew all about it—but when King Ying heard of it, he merely said, "My dear queen, this child companion you have chosen is truly excellent."

　　At present, the Crown Prince's Foundation Stage of Qi Refining had reached perfection. Vital energy could now flow straight into his dantian without the slightest obstruction.

　　In the entire entry-level stage, drawing vital energy into the body required assuming specific postures—each sect had its own variations, but most prioritized the amount of vital energy drawn in per unit of time as the primary goal.

　　After the body had absorbed vital energy to saturation, the next step was to refine it, separating the pure from the impure. It was at this stage that the quality of a cultivator's spiritual roots began to show clear differences.

　　Spiritual roots referred to the body's capacity to receive vital energy. In the Foundation Stage, the vital energy drawn in was still mixed and impure—it could not directly improve the cultivator's physical constitution. Apart from strengthening the body, its main function was simply to expand the dantian, creating a vast reservoir for storing vital energy—collectively known as the Qi Sea.

　　Once the dantian's Qi Sea was filled with drawn-in vital energy, it had to be refined. Only one part in ten was the pure essence that actually benefited the body. Separating the pure from the impure meant retaining that ten-percent essence, guiding it through the body's various meridians, and slowly transforming the physique day and night.

　　With good spiritual roots, this transformation process would be greatly shortened. The meridians, once transformed, would surpass those of ordinary people—becoming wider, more resilient, and more expansive. This brought numerous advantages: in combat, the meridians could deliver greater explosive power in an instant and sustain it for longer.

　　For those with poor roots, this step might become a long-term bottleneck—progress stalled, and they could only rely on medicinal pills. If one could not pass through the Nurturing Qi Stage within thirty years, Core Formation would be forever out of reach. This was the early-stage barrier that caused the deepest regret for most cultivators.

　　But children with excellent roots were extremely rare—and their quality seemed unrelated to their parents or their sect. For a thousand years, no one had ever discovered the pattern behind it.

　　For sects and great families, finding a successor with both good roots and aptitude—someone who could carry on the sect's arts, or even elevate them to greater heights—was akin to winning the grand prize.

　　Chief Master Hua Sheng, overjoyed at accepting Li as his disciple, had broken through from the Nascent Soul realm to the Divine Attainment realm—and that was no surprise.

　　"Good spiritual roots" was a general term, and individual differences were considerable. A comparison between the young prince and his bestowed companion illustrated this best: though Little Shan had begun her cultivation three years later, she had sailed smoothly through the Nurturing Qi Stage and had already reached the Perfection Stage of Qi Refining. From the eleventh level onward, she was preparing for Core Formation.

　　Our young prince, whose roots were also quite good, had yet to even enter the gate of the Nurturing Qi Stage.

　　In their daily sparring matches, the prince naturally suffered one defeat after another. Though he fought on, undaunted, every battle ended the same way—without exception.