“Long Wei! Are you watching the sheep? Don’t tell me you are reading one of those stupid books?” Long Wei was currently lying on a grassy hill near his village, reading a book, with the sun on his back. He was entranced by the book. The book was telling a story of a cultivator going on an epic adventure. Cultivators were legendary figures who used the power of qi to unleash powerful magical attacks. Long Wei had always loved stories of them, and read them all the time. The other villagers thought that he was spending far too much time reading stories, and not doing other productive things.

    Long Wei thought sadly, ugh, Elder Zhao is here! Come on! I was just getting to the good part of the book. Long Wei stood up, hiding the book behind his back. He said, “I’m over here, and I’m not reading. I am watching the sheep.” Elder Zhao walked over to him, and saw the book he was trying so hard to hide. She said, “Liar! I’m taking that book from you right now.” Long Wei wailed, “No, please! I won’t read it again while I am doing my chores.” Elder Zhao did not believe him. He had made that same promise a million times before, and he never did it. She then snatched the book out of his hands.

    Elder Zhao said, “That is it, I will take you to the village leader. He will choose your punishment. This has been going on long enough. It was fine when you are young, but now, you are 14, you should not be reading those fantasy books.” Long Wei wanted to tell her that cultivators are real, but she would never believe him.

    When Long Wei was about seven years old, he was lost in the forest around the village. Long Wei could remember the time there vividly. A pack of snarling wolves were surrounding him. Drool was falling out of their mouths. Their teeth were big and sharp. Blood was dripping off of them. It was probably from another animal they killed. Right as they were about to attack him, a man floated down from the sky. He had robes as white as snow, and had detailed designs on them. They were a million times better than what they have at his village. The man walked in the middle of the circle of wolves, right next to Long Wei.

    The man waved his hand, and a blast of energy flew out, and knocked into every wolf. The moment it touched a wolf, the wolf disintegrated into ash, destroyed body and soul. Long Wei looked up at him, and said, “Woah! Thank you so much mister! I thought I was going to die! Who and what are you? How did you do that? I want to do that too!” The man chuckled and said, “I am a cultivator, and who knows, you might be one too.” He then pressed his index finger on Long Wei's forehead. A rush of energy filled Long Wei's Body. With that, the cultivator left. Ever since that day, Long Wei wanted to leave his remote village, and become a cultivator.

    “Long Wei! Were you listening to a word I just said?” Long Wei woke up from his reminiscence, and said, “uh… yeah?” Then she said, “Then what did I say?” “Well, you said I would be taken to the village leader and… I don’t know.” She said, “Seriously, that is all you hear? We are leaving right now.”

Suddenly, they heard a blood curdling scream. Then, a bell rang. The bell signaled that the village was being attacked. So far in their village’s history, they never had to use it.Elder Zhao looked over to Long Wei and said, “There is an attack!”

    Long Wei was terrified, even that would not be an adequate description. There has never been an attack before, so he doesn’t know what to do. Luckily, Elder Zhao is there to help. Elder Zhao said, “We must see what is going on!” Soon, more screams rang out from the village. This is no false alarm.

    They ran as fast as they could in the direction of the village. Soon, they saw something they would never forget. Their village was burning to the ground and the grassy hills were stained with blood. The air was filled with smoke. Then, they saw who did this terrible deed. The people who did it were not ordinary. They could unleash attacks that no mortal could possibly make. Then used magic to attack these defenseless villagers. They had to be cultivators.

    Long Wei was the only one in the village who has seen a cultivator before. Everyone else thought they were just myths, but now, they know they were wrong. Long Wei just sat there, in a daze. Although in the books, there were evil cultivators, he didn’t think he would see one in his hometown.

    Both of them were crying an ocean. Elder Zhao screamed, “NOO!” She then ran into the village. Long Wei ran with her. They both wanted to see if their families made it out alive, and if so, they would take them away from the evil cultivators.

    They ran through the burning village. The grass under their feet was stained with blood. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Long Wei ran to his house, but there was an evil cultivator in front of it. He laughed maniacally, and unsheathed his bloodied sword. He then swung the blade at Long Wei's mother’s neck. Long Wei screamed, “NO!” But, his mother was dead. Right next to her corpse was the corpse of his father.

    Then the evil cultivator smiled, and turned around to face Long Wei. He said laughing, “Now your turn. Ha ha ha” Long Wei screamed and sprinted as fast as he could away from the cultivator. He ran into the forest to get as far away from the cultivator as he could. But the man was a cultivator, so Long Wei had no chance to outrun him.

    Soon, the cultivator caught up with Long Wei. They were a little ways into the forest. The cultivator said, “There is nothing that can save you now! Although boss said to capture the children to put into slavery, I want to kill you anyways!” He moved his hands into a complex series of hand signs. Then he shouted, “Flaming Fist Technique!” He punched the air, and a flaming fist appeared in front of his real fist. The flaming fist was about 3 feet tall, and radiated intense heat. The fist shot out, and was about to hit Long Wei, but something extraordinary happened.

    A magical blue dome appeared around Long Wei. The shield stopped the flaming fist, and even rebounded it! A look of intense surprise appeared on the cultivator’s face as the fist rebounded, and hit the cultivator. According to the the cultivator’s boss, none of the villagers were cultivators. The flaming fist which rebounded and hit the cultivator left severe burns. The cultivator screamed from the intense pain. Then, Long Wei kept on running.

As he was running, he thought, how did I do that?!

    Long Wei has been running for a long time. It was in the morning when he started running, and now it is night. He was very tired and hungry. He needed to find a space to sleep, and he saw a cave nearby. He looks inside, and doesn’t see any animals. He sighed in relief. He can finally go to sleep. The moment he lies on the ground, he falls asleep.

    Long Wei woke up as a ray of sunlight hits his face. He still feels tired, and doesn’t want to get up. But, there might be cultivators chasing him, so he has to get up. As he looks around the cave he is presiding in, he sees a book on the ground. The book wasn’t there last night, Long Wei was sure of it.

    He looks at the title of the book. The book is titled, “Cultivation basics” Wei long is ecstatic! He has always dreamed of being a cultivator. He did not care where it was from. He is just happy he has it.

    He excitedly opens the book. He looks over the table of contents, and immediately looks at the chapter on how to cultivate. The book says, “In order to become a cultivator, you have to cultivate. Cultivating is when you refine the spiritual energy of the world into Qi. Cultivators then store their Qi in their Dantian. They can use Qi to unleash powerful magical attacks. There are 4 realms of cultivation. Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Jade. Each realm is broken up into 5 stages. Bronze stage is when you cultivate a sea of Qi. Silver stage is when you condense that Qi into a spherical core. Gold realm is when you transform your core into a mighty pillar. Jade realm is when you make your one pillar into 9 pillars.”

    Long Wei was amazed. The books he read at his village explained a little of cultivation, but he didn’t get a whole lot of information out of them. He continues reading, “No one knows what is past jade realm. Legend says that past that, you reach immortality. So, those are the realms. The stages are level one, two, three, four, and five.” Long Wei avidly reads this. Then, the book starts talking about how to cultivate.

    “To start cultivating, you have to sense the spiritual energy in the world.” The book then starts teaching Long Wei breathing techniques, and how to meditate. Long Wei tried so hard to sense the spiritual energy. Finally, as night is about to fall, he senses a tiny bit of spiritual energy. He is so excited. He thinks to himself, tomorrow morning, I’ll start cultivating for real. He then passed out from exhaustion.

    Long Wei wakes up in the morning. He then thinks to himself, I can finally cultivate! He then started meditating, and calming his mind. He started used the breathing techniques specified in the book. Soon enough, he senses the spiritual energy. Since he has done it before, it is much easier. Then, he started refining the energy into Qi. After an hour, he finally finished refining the spiritual energy into Qi. Then, a drop of Qi appears in his Dantian. Wei Long started cycling the Qi between his meridians. As the Qi moves around his meridians, it started forcing out some of the impurities in his body. The impurities ejected from his body turned into a disgusting black sludge. His body radiated with power. Although his power now is quite small compared to other cultivators, he could now defeat any normal human. He is now officially bronze rank 1.

    Then, he wakes up from his meditation. He goes to a nearby stream to rinse of his impurities. He then realized that he has only been cultivating for the past day, not running! He quickly picks up his manual, and runs out of his cave. He needs to get as far away as he can!