1 Lightstone Village

In this world, there were cultivators, and there were mortals. Cultivators were powerful, transcendent beings, far beyond the comprehension of the common mortals. Cultivators and mortals were so far removed from one another that they practically lived in different worlds. The cultivators treated the mortal settlements as assets, as manual labor and breeding grounds for potential cultivator seeds.

Lightstone village was one such mortal village, living under the dominion of the Heavenly Path Sect. The mortals here had very little interaction with cultivators, their understanding of cultivators was limited to exaggerated rumours.

Lightstone village was a village like many others within the Ghu Province; small and disconnected from the outside world.

As with all villages in this region, the villagers were segregated from the other settlements thanks to the dangers lurking within the nearby dark forest.

The people in this village mostly lived humble lives as farmers or masters of a craft, whilst the total population numbered fewer than a thousand people. The village residents knew very little about the outside world, since it was too dangerous to leave the village. Given such circumstances, they naturally developed their own tight knit community.

Within this village lived the Kann family, a fairly typical family in this peaceful settlement. Yaan, a six year old child, lived a quaint but happy life with his parents in their small thatched house.

Yaan was currently waiting just outside of the house, curiously trying to peer in through the wooden window. His father had just fetched him from the border between the village and the dark forest in a hurry, but now that he was here, he couldn't even see anything!

Slap!

"Ouch! Aunt, what was that for?!" The hot blooded six year old angrily turned around and glared at his aunt with a wronged expression, but his rebellious demeanour quickly faded when he saw that she was scowling at him quite severely.

"Your mother is giving birth right now! Get away from the window and wait patiently!"

Yaan turned towards his father who had also been booted out, but the large man could only chuckle and shrug helplessly.

For the following hour, Yaan paced back and forth impatiently. He wanted to meet his younger sibling already! He didn't know much, or really anything about childbirth, but why was it taking so long?! He tried to peer through the window once more, but was met with an even more ferocious slap from his aunt.

"You-" Just as the middle-aged woman was about to scold him for the second time, the house door slowly swung open. A woman poked her head past the doorframe. She smiled at the three people stood outside as she held the door halfway open to prevent the cool breeze from blowing in.

"The baby has been delivered without any problems. Congratulations, she's a healthy young girl!" The midwife announced brightly.

Yaan's father let out a relieved sigh. He was secretly extremely worried about his wife and their newborn child, since medicine in this village was very limited and the risk during childbirth was high. In fact, as many as one in ten women would die whilst giving birth here!

Yaan was unaware of this grim fact, so he didn't understand the adults' anxiety.

"Yaan, let's go in, don't you want to meet your little sister?" Yaan's father turned to him with a soft smile. Yaan looked up into his father's eyes and saw the happiness as clear as day. He nodded and took his father's hand, following him into the house.

His mother smiled weakly as they entered. She was propped up against the wall, supported by some loosely arranged hay and a thin wool blanket, as she cradled her newborn child. Yaan waited at the front of the room whilst his father walked forwards and picked up the child, holding her lovingly in his arms.

A few minutes passed by and Yaan finally couldn't restrain his intrigue. He slowly edged across the room and lingered beside his father, peeking at the baby curiously every few seconds.

"Do you want to hold her, Yaan?" His father chuckled upon seeing Yaan's obvious impatience.

"I…is it all right?" Yaan wasn't sure how to hold a baby properly and was worried that he might injure her by mistake. When he gazed down at that small and peaceful face of hers, he couldn't help but think that she looked fragile.

With his mother's and father's help, Yaan was taught how to hold the baby safely. He felt a warm connection to this child when he looked at her sleeping face, a connection that existed between them due to their blood tie. This feeling was only emphasised after she woke up and stared at him with her innocent and curious eyes.

Time passed by slowly as Yaan held his newborn sister in a daze. Eventually, he was forced to let go and leave the house. His mother needed to rest before feeding the child, whilst Yaan himself still had chores to attend to. Yaan wanted to hold the baby some more and was reluctant to leave, but he followed his parent's instructions in the end.

The Kann family owned a small farm, where they grew vegetables and raised chickens. It was Yaan's job to collect the chicken eggs each day and to feed the chickens with some seed. He carefully collected the eggs, making sure not to damage them as he placed them into a woven straw basket.

This work was difficult for a six year old, but Yaan didn't mind it. In Lightstone Village, the children were put to work on smaller jobs like this from a young age, helping them to develop fit and strong constitutions very early on in life. Compared to the children who were born and raised in well-developed cities, the children in these small villages were generally far more capable.

It was considered normal to help out with the family business. Assisting like this was typical for all of the village children, so Yaan had never really questioned it. He knew that by helping out, his parents were granted more free time. Besides, if he provided his parents with additional help, their earnings would increase and he would be able to eat more food.

Although helping out was only ordinary for the Lightstone Village children, very few accepted it without a fuss like Yaan. Yaan was very intelligent for his age, and particularly well spoken for a child so young. Of course, he was also still just an emotionally immature child, and there were many things that he did not yet understand.

"Hah…" Yaan stepped outside of the chicken coup, staring across at the farmlands dreamily. The cool breeze felt soothing across his skin, but this soothing sensation suddenly made him feel like it was too destitute, out here by himself.

Sometimes, he felt a bit lonely when doing all of these chores on his own. No, that wasn't quite right…even when he was around others, Yaan still felt a strange sense of loneliness that he was unable to explain…

Well, it was probably because he was just a kid, he would surely grow out of it. Yaan vaguely recalled that when he was younger, he easily became enraged at the slightest provocation. Strangely, he couldn't recall any specific incident of this happening, but he certainly remembered the feeling of anger that had filled him in the past. Regardless, he had grown out of that phase, becoming more mature. He was sure that like his anger, this feeling of loneliness would also fade away.

Yaan collected a total of 11 eggs today, this could definitely be considered a good haul. After throwing around some seed and properly cleaning out the coups, he walked for a quarter mile to the nearby stream before washing himself off. As always, he stripped away his clothes and cleaned himself fully nude. There were no people around this place, but even if there were, it wasn't uncommon for a child to wash themselves naked in the village stream.

After drawing up some water into a bucket to bring back to the farm, he returned slowly. The return journey across the grassy plains required more time to complete, since he was forced to stop regularly due to the weight of the bucket. The handle dug into his hand, but Yaan was accustomed to this by now.

After returning to the farm, he finished up his chores and brought the collected eggs and water into the house. A few hours had passed by and his mother had clearly recovered enough strength to sit up properly, but Yaan was still forced to stay quiet and not disturb her too much.

Yaan looked across towards his baby sister, thinking that he wanted to hold her again. His parents and the midwife insisted that the baby should spend more time with his mother though, as was the common belief in Lightstone Village.

"Yaan. Yaan!"

"Ouch!" Yaan was distracted from his daydreaming when his father lightly tapped him on the head.

"Stop daydreaming and help with dinner. Your mother can't cook and she needs to recover her strength by the day after tomorrow."

As he helped to prepare tonight's dinner, which consisted of a mixture of rice, some vegetables and eggs, Yaan asked his father about what was happening in two days.

"Hah…the Lord Immortal is visiting the village in two days time. He only visits every few years or so. If only I had known sooner that he would be coming now, then maybe…hah, well it's too late to regret now. We can only pray."

Seeing his father's gravely worried expression, Yaan couldn't suppress his curiosity.

"Who is this Lord Immortal? Is he like the Immortal Tax Collector?" He asked this question whilst recalling the man with a powerful presence who would visit their village once each year to collect the taxes.

The 'Immortal Tax Collector' was a cultivator from the Heavenly Path Sect who was tasked with collecting the taxes from the mortal settlements under the sect's domain.

Towards his query, Yaan's father smiled and patted him on the head gently.

"The Lord Immortal is far more terrifying a man. No, to call him a mere man would not do him justice. Hmm…you know that the Heavenly Path Sect controls this area, right Yaan?"

Yaan nodded, he of course knew this, as did everyone in the village. The Heavenly Path Sect was said to be a glorious organisation filled with valiant immortals. The sect was located on a mountain a couple of hundred miles away from the village, permanently immersed in a thick white fog which hid it from view. They lorded over the surrounding villages, collecting taxes from the mortals under their dominion.

The entire Heavenly Path Sect was located on that single mountain. The mortal settlements under their domain were situated around and beyond the base of the mountain.

"The Immortal Tax Collector is also from the sect, right?"

"Right. However, the Lord Immortal is far more powerful, and his reason for visiting is different. He visits this village to make sure that everyone is working properly and not having any traitorous thoughts towards the sect. Everyone's presence is required when he visits…including your mother and little June."

Yaan glanced back, his gaze lingering on his baby sister, June. She was named as such because she was born on the first of the month of June, but also because Yaan's great-grandmother was named June. His father had always adored his grandmother and grieved heavily when she died, hence naming his own daughter after her, in honour of her memory.

"But why is it bad that the Lord Immortal is visiting now? Is he a bad guy?" Yaan furrowed his brows and pressed further.

"Bad…I wonder. The immortals are such divine beings, do us mere mortals truly have the right to judge them?" His father muttered, speaking more to himself than to his son. After a moment, he shook his head and smiled. "Anyway, don't worry too much Yaan. I'm sure that everything will be fine."

Yaan desperately wanted to learn more about the immortals, the Heavenly Path Sect and other such matters, but his father was firm on saying no more.

Truthfully, all of the village mortals were curious about the illusive sect. Their only contact with the sect came from two people; the Immortal Tax Collector and the Lord Immortal. From their infrequent meetings with these two people, it was obvious to everyone that the immortals of the Heavenly Path Sect were incomprehensible, powerful beings, but little more was known than this.

As Yaan prepared dinner beside his father, his father looked down at him tenderly and sighed.

'Little Yaan…I pray that the Lord Immortal doesn't take you, or your sister, away from us tomorrow. If that were to happen, I don't even know what I would do…'