The days since waking had passed like slow-moving
clouds—gentle, calm, drifting endlessly.
He spent most of his time either resting or gazing
through the half-opened windows, feeling the warmth of the air itself.
He knew cultivation. He knew Qi. He knew fighting.
But memory itself was a missing mountain behind fog.
And yet…
Here… felt safe.
No hunger gnawed at his stomach. No blood in the
air.
Just the soft hum of healing Qi arrays etched
across his bed frame, constantly feeding his body gentle energies.
The medicinal pills worked slowly, their warmth
spreading like kindled embers deep in his broken core, helping his shattered
dantian repair.
"I don't know who I am," he whispered to himself
one evening, "but… I want to deserve this peace."
One morning, Elder Huo Wenjian arrived with a
faint smile, his calm presence never sharp, never loud.
"You've recovered enough. Come. Let the clouds
show you their home."
Wuxie followed, barefoot, enjoying the strange
softness of polished sky-blue stone beneath his feet.
The Sect Grounds were beautiful.
Floating platforms, elegant structures like petals drifting in perfect circles around central towers.
Thin bridges of shimmering Qi-light,connecting building to building.
Lakes of mirrored jade, calm like glass,
reflecting the slowly drifting clouds above.
"We cultivate in harmony," Elder Huo explained
as they walked. "The Virtuous Path teaches patience, discipline, and inner
stillness."
"Not all roads lead to power. But this one leads
to completion."
"Completion… of the self?" the boy asked softly.
"Indeed."
Wuxie's childlike gaze absorbed everything, awe
growing with each careful step. His curiosity didn't shout or run—it wondered
in soft, careful thoughts, absorbing everything with quiet reverence.
"I… I want to learn," he whispered, feeling
awkwardly like a stranger in a dream that belonged to someone else.
Elder Huo, using this opportunity to explain the cultivation stages to him again
"In the Tianxu Continent, cultivation progresses in nine great steps."
1. First Awakening – Sensing Qi and opening one's channels.
2. Path Rooting – Creating foundations for specialized paths.
3. Spirit Blooming – When spiritual sense expands, forming connections to external energies.
4. Vein Melding – Strengthening meridians and Qi flow, building resilience.
5. Core Weaving – Forming the inner Qi Core, the cultivator's true foundation.
6. Heart Cleansing – Facing one's inner demons, breaking attachments to gain emotional
mastery.
7. Dao Tracing – Walking the personal Dao, refining techniques aligned with it.
8. Heaven Sealing – Breaking free from mortal bindings, stepping into true power.
9. Immortal Calling – When the heavens themselves invite a cultivator into the ranks of
immortality.
"And we walk these steps not for conquest—but for understanding."
" Come now, the Grand Elder wants an audience with you"
Wuixe was surprised but complied
Finally, Wuxie was led into the Sky Bloom
Pavilion, a vast hall made entirely of polished jade and drifting Qi mist, hung
with floating scrolls that wrote ancient scripture by themselves in golden
characters.
At the center stood her The Grand Elder of Azure Sky Cloud Sect.
Radiant robes of pearl-white, lined with light
blue silk, draped perfectly on her slender frame.
Her eyes: calm like starlight, yet sharp as the
first edge of winter's cold.
She looked no older than her twenties… but her Qi Signature was immeasurable—like standing before a sky that stretched on forever. And her beauty? as pretty and pure as the moon, skin almost silk and stainless.
Wuxie bowed immediately, folding his knees to the
pristine floor, his forehead gently touching the cool stone.
"Elder…" he whispered, voice small but firm with
genuine respect.
Her voice drifted, soft, yet powerful enough to
fill the entire chamber without effort.
"You bow well, child. And yet, you do not know your own name?, hmm you are a strange child."
"No… I… I don't know my name."
She studied him like an artist studying a blank
canvas—not with judgment, but with intent.
"You have no name. No identity. But the path of cultivation—especially the virtuous way—requires an anchor. Theheavens know the names of those worthy."
She closed her eyes for a moment.
"Your Qi feels… like something lost… yet
something yearning to be right."
Opening her gaze again, bright like cloudlight over jade lakes, she spoke:
"Then let your name reflect the new you, the you yet to bloom."
Her lips curled upward slightly, approving of her own decision.
"From this day forth… you are Lan Wu."
"Orchid Fog. A flower of grace hidden among drifting clouds."
Wuxie—Lan Wu now—felt his chest tremble. It was
simple, but it was something. A gift.
His eyes watered slightly, though he did not cry.
"Thank you… Elder… I… I will not disappoint you."
She nodded once, her face still.
"Tomorrow, you will begin your cultivation
properly. You will start as an Outer Disciple. Prove yourself. Grow."
"Welcome to the Azure Sky Cloud Sect, Lan Wu."
Night time:
That night, Lan Wu sat alone by the open windows
of his chamber, watching three moons rise in slow procession over layered cloud seas below.
"I have a name… I… have a path…"
His small, battered hands tightened into careful
fists—not in anger, but determination.
"I don't remember who I was… but I know who I will be."
"I will repay their kindness."
"I will learn the way of virtue."
"I will grow."
He stared at the moons—calm. Focused. Ready.
Far, far beneath that peace, in the shattered
pieces of his real self, a chained voice snarled in madness behind iron
barriers:
"They will all BURN—".
But Lan Wu? He heard nothing but the gentle breathing of his own heart.
The path of two souls, one climbing to the heavens for recognition, not for power but for the chance to help those in need.... to be a sword for justice and virtue. And the other descending deeper into the underworld for power, power to control and govern his own fate, to be under no one and to above all, to make the world just in his own way, the way of blood, for hypocrites have no place in his world, to him the righteous are just a lie wrapped in honey... and he will overcome.
Two souls, one body, one and the same, different paths but same destination. Ying and Yang