Good Luck

Jia Li stared at the cultivation manuals in front of her. Since they had gotten back to Martial Peak from her parent's house she had been forced to stay inside her room to study up on cultivation while her Master disappeared to who knows where. It has already been three days since she had last seen him.

Before her Master had left, he assigned to her thick piles of dusty looking books to read through while forbidding her to leave the mountain. Well, it was a wasted warning since she couldn't even if she had wanted to. She has no idea how to use the transportation formation and the barrier around the house prevents her from leaving any other way.

The concepts in the books were completely new to Jia Li so it took a bit of effort on her part to convert it into a way that she could understand with her logic. To be honest, even though she has a good brain and learn things well, she hates studying.

Etiquette, history, acting, the things that nobilities learn since they could walk she had a late start on so lessons at a devilish pace to cram all the knowledge into her head was unavoidable. Although she had somehow managed to pull through, it had left her with a sort of trauma for studying.

Bored, Jia Li propped her cheek up with one hand, legs crossed on a small cushion while flipping through the pages of the books. When she had more or less finally finish reading through all of them she decided to stop for a lunch break.

Reaching into the storage pouch that her Master had left her, Jia Li reached inside and pulled out a fruit. Laying lazily on the floor not caring about the cold, she munched on it in silence.

No matter how many times she does it, being able to pull out a seemingly infinite amount of things out of a small bag is amazing. She had tried emptying the bag out of curiosity but no matter how much food piled up on the floor, the bag just kept on spitting things out without an end.

"Munch, Munch, Munch"

Jia Li stared at the ceiling. The food was good and all but now she was starting to get seriously bored. Maybe.....she can try out some of the cultivation exercises from the books?

Originally Jia Li had thought that she should wait for her Master to come back so she could receive some guidance but as things stand.... she should just go ahead and try them. Who knows when that Master of her's is going to be back?

Remembering one of the books had an introduction to the first step of cultivation, Jia Li found it and flipped it to the first chapter.

On the page was a drawing of the human body with lines showing where the meridians are.

"To officially step into the realm of cultivation you must sense the spiritual energy around you and absorb them into your body...."

Jia Li read further into the chapter but the instructions were all kind of abstract and vague making it hard to understand.

She was supposed to sit down and clear her mind of thoughts as she focuses solely on absorbing spiritual energy. Jia Li did just that and meditated in a sitting position for a couple of hours but nothing happened.

This feels a bit.....silly. All she feels is air as she breathes air, there wasn't a hint of anything that could be the so-called spiritual energy described in the book.

Changing the location to the frontcourt she sat on the stone chair and once again tried to feel something.

Nope, still nothing.

"Little disciple, what are you doing?" He Yang had just come back to find his disciple to be sitting motionlessly outside the front yard. Was she alright? Or maybe...his little disciple missed him so much that she's waiting outside for him???

Lifting Jia Li from her chair, He Yang waved her arms around playfully ignoring the death glare he was getting. "Aw, did little disciple feel lonely without her master around?"

Jia Li, unwilling to spend energy to talk to him made a disgruntled noise. "Put me down. I'm working on sensing the spiritual energy around me."

To be honest He Yang had only given those dusty books to Jia Li as a front. He didn't really expect her to read through them. After all, he himself was never a book person. Unexpectedly his little disciple has inherited some of her father's scholarly tendencies and was hard working to top it off. Mhm, as expected of his disciple. Definitely better than that brat from Twin Peak.

"The willow tree in the backyard has a formation for attracting spiritual energy carved on it. The spiritual energy there should be denser. You'll be able to sense it better there."

Jia Li immediately went to the willow tree to test out if she can fare any better there. Examining the surface of the willow tree Jia Li saw that there was a complicated pattern carved onto the surface which she assumed was what attracted the spiritual energies to gather.

Jia Li picked a comfortable spot under the tree and started to meditate once again. Unlike the previous failures, this time she actually senses something.

Suddenly the air around her seems to be full of soft glowing light of various colors packed densely around the tree's radius.

Jia Li's eye twitched slightly, almost breaking her concentration. Do you mean to tell her that the air was filled with these little ball like things??? That she could only see with her eyes closed??? Once again her logic was being challenged by this world.

（ー△ー;）.....

How was she going to "absorb" it into her body as the book said? Unless.....was she suppose to eat them with her mouth?

As Jia Li was complementing on the next step, she realizes that the space around her was suddenly devoid of any spiritual energy until the surrounding spiritual energy began to fill in that space until it was full again.

Did she just succeed in absorbing spiritual energy?

It appears that all she has to do is think about absorbing spiritual energy and it will happen by itself. Jia Li wasn't clear on how it happened but...it works.

"Little disciple, since you've been cooped up on the mountain for the past several days, why don't master take you to somewhere fun to play?"

Jia Li opened her eyes. "No."

How was she suppose to get stronger if she doesn't diligently cultivate? She didn't come here to have fun.

He Yang obviously wasn't going to take no for an answer. He marched right over to where Jia Li was sitting and picked her up with ease, holding her in the air by both arms like a cat.

"..." This again. Jia Li's desire to grow stronger just intensified. There will come to be a day where she would be the one to slung her master over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

Giving up temporarily, Jia Li lets herself be carried off the mountain again and onto a flying sword.

"Where are we going?" Jia Li folded her arms. Given her master's personality, maybe he just wanted to fool around himself and was just bringing her as an excuse.

"Some were fun. You'll see."

In the end, they landed in a small village so far from any cities or roads that it was practically in the wilderness. All the houses were rotted with thickets and weeds growing wild everywhere. One look and you can tell that no one had lived here for a long time.

The entire village has a gloomy eerie feel to it and the word "fun" was the last word that would come to Jia Li's mind when describing this place. Her Master sure has weird taste.

"Every village starting from this one up until those mountains over there are all chock full of resentment energy." He Yang pointed his fingers to the mountain range so far away that Jia Li could only make out the vague outline of it.

Jia Li has a nagging feeling that her Master was up to no good.

"Normally these areas are blocked off to keep people from accidentally wandering into here, but....." He Yang gave Jia Li a sly smile that made her shiver in cold sweat. "It suits the purpose of this trip just perfectly."

He Yang drew a simple hand seal and tapped Jia Li's forehead. A purple mark appeared on the place where he had just tapped, giving off an eerie pale light.

"Hehe, dearest little disciple, your mission is to survive here until this seal wears off. But don't worry I won't let you die." It's fine if you're half dead though.

(ʃƪ¬‿¬)

Before Jia Li could react, He Yang tossed her a pouch before using a few talismans to create a barrier to prevent her from leaving.

A piercing, ear screeching wail cuts through the air.

Jia Li swung around sharply, hands covered in sweat but maintained a calm expression.

Black mists that weren't previously there before had started to gather, writhing as they began to take on forms that faintly resembles human.

Jia Li felt unsettled to the core as she looks at the pained yet mocking expressions of their faces. Her entire body suddenly felt heavy and her ears rang with invisible laughter and screams that caused her to fell onto her knees in dizziness.

Outside the barrier, He Yang narrowed his eyes in concentration, his face obviously amused and pleased with himself. Seeing his disciple glare his way, he gave a little wave and mouthed "good luck".

Jia Li cursed her Master without restraint in her mind, using every colorful phrase she had ever learned in her life.

Now she knew why he had said this was going to be fun. One look at that annoying expression on his face and she could tell that he was enjoying watching the show very much.

How was this taking her out to "play", this is clearly abuse!

(╬⓪益⓪)