The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was that the sun had moved.

  When I had first begun to meditate, it was in the early morning.

  Now, the sun cast a warm, golden glow upon the courtyard, creating long shadows that stretched from the surrounding buildings.

  It was the afternoon.

  I must have been meditating for several hours.

  As I removed the Void Touching Leaf from my forehead, it immediately crumbled to dust.

  I took a moment to look around.

  A lot had changed while I had my eyes closed.

  Some of the disciples had stopped meditating and were now sitting in small groups, eating from wooden bowls and quietly chatting. Their gray robes were wrinkled and worn from sitting for such a long period, and many of them appeared to be exhausted.

  However, the majority of the disciples remained in meditation; their faces reflected the internal struggle of focusing their thoughts and energies.

  It was the relatively few number of clan disciples that captured my attention most. Their side of the courtyard had been crowded when we first began, yet now there were several open spaces among the seated disciples. These clan disciples had likely found their inner worlds and left to handle whatever came next.

  I looked across to the spot where I had last seen Su Yan. She was still seated in meditation; her face twisted in a mixture of concentration and tension, and I could see her tense shoulders. She was still trying to locate her inner world.

  Since I didn’t want to distract her, I slowly got myself to my feet and flexed my legs to regain feeling. I needed to move, to stretch and to do something other than sit motionless.

  It was then that I sensed it. Something was different about my body. Not bad, merely...more. It was minor, but there was a tangible difference. My senses were heightened. The air felt cleaner. I could hear conversations from across the courtyard that I shouldn't have been able to clearly distinguish.

  Was this what it felt like to be a cultivator?

  “Congratulations on awakening your inner world.”

  I turned to find Wei Lin walking towards me.

  Again.

  Why was this guy always around?

  First, conveniently sliding into my conversation with Su Yan.

  Now here, just when I opened my eyes.

  Was he watching me?

  I tried to push down the suspicion creeping up my spine.

  Maybe I was being paranoid.

  Maybe Wei Lin was just friendly and happened to be nearby.

  But in a world where people could punch through trees and fly on swords, healthy paranoia seemed like a survival skill.

  Still, I couldn't exactly accuse him of anything without sounding insane.

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “Your aura isn’t exactly subtle,” Wei Lin smiled. If he picked up on making me uncomfortable, he didn’t show it. “Any cultivator can tell that you've broken through to Qi Condensation Realm.”

  Damn it.

  I should have remembered about aura control.

  It was such a basic concept in cultivation novels.

  New cultivators always leaked their spiritual energy everywhere like a broken faucet.

  It was practically Cultivation 101.

  And here I was, broadcasting myself to anyone within range like some amateur.

  "To be fair, Master, you only just became a cultivator," Azure commented. "Expecting yourself to know everything immediately seems... unrealistic."

  He had a point.

  But that didn't make me feel any better about it.

  “How do I hide it?”

  “Ah, well, I happen to have a technique for that,” Wei Lin's smile grew wider slightly. "It’s very efficient. I could teach you for, say, five spirit stones?"

  Five spirit stones.

  Which was half of everything I had.

  "Five spirit stones?" I repeated slowly.

  "That is a good price," Wei Lin said fast. "Aura control is extremely important. Without it, you’ll be at a huge disadvantage. People will always know your cultivation level; they can track your growth; they can take advantage of your weak points —"

  "No thanks," I said, stopping him cold.

  Wei Lin's smile faltered. "Okay, fine, three spirit stones then. That’s almost giving it away."

  I began walking away from him, back to where I had been meditating.

  "1 spirit stone!" Wei Lin shouted behind me as he chased. "That’s an amazing deal. Do you realize how much my family normally charges for techniques?"

  I continued walking, ignoring him.

  "1/2 spirit stone! I'll include some information about cultivation meditation —"

  I sat back down and shut my eyes, dismissing him.

  There was a brief pause before I heard Wei Lin sigh and leave, muttering something about "stubborn villagers."

  "Azure", I called out inwardly. "Can you help me in figuring this out?"

  "Yes, Master. Your spiritual energy is currently escaping due to the fact that you have yet to learn to confine it. Think of it like... " He stopped looking for a comparable description. "Water in a cup with no top. Eventually, it will evaporate into the air. You need to create the top."

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "How?"

  "Just concentrate on the qi inside of you. You should be able to locate the places where it is escaping. Just will the leaks to seal. Don't force it. Just guide the energy inward and seal it naturally."

  I followed his instructions and closed my eyes.

  At first, I couldn't feel anything, but eventually I began to sense what he was referring to. There was spiritual energy within me, and it really was flowing out of my body like water from a broken pipe.

  I focused on sensing where the energy was leaving and tried to close the holes.

  The first time failed. So did the second.

  On the third, something clicked.

  I felt the energy settling, confined within my body instead of radiating outward.

  "Great job, Master," Azure said, and I could sense the satisfaction in his voice. "You did a lot better than the other disciples."

  Azure was right.

  Most of the other recruits had no idea how to restrain their aura, and those who did still struggled to do so at a high level.

  As for me, I had successfully contained my aura completely.

  To cultivators around my level or below, I would come across as a normal person.

  And I had done it without using a single spirit stone.

  Take that, Wei Lin.

  ***

  It had been a little more than a week since the Entrance Exam had concluded.

  A little more than a week since I had awakened my inner world and had officially become a cultivator.

  Results were posted on the day after the exam finished, inscribed on a large jade tablet in the outer sect courtyard. A lot of disciples had gathered to check the posting; they pushed and shoved to see if their names were included on the list of successful individuals.

  All of the clan recruits had passed.

  They had been preparing for this their entire lives, so this didn’t surprise me.

  As for the village recruits, their performance was less impressive.

  There were around fifty village recruits that had participated in the entrance examination, only sixteen had successfully awakened their inner worlds. The rest were dismissed from the sect and sent back to wherever they came from with nothing but memories of failure.

  I remembered seeing several of them leave that exact same day. They had walked out of the outer gate of the sect with hunched backs and empty faces, bearing the burden of unfulfilled dreams and the disappointment of their families. Some had cried, others simply appeared numb.

  Su Yan had been among them.

  I'd spotted her in the crowd of dismissed recruits, her round face pale and eyes red from crying. She'd looked lost, clutching a small bag of her belongings as she made her way toward the outer gates.

  Part of me had wanted to say something. Offer some words of comfort or encouragement.

  But what could I say? "Better luck next time"? There wouldn't be a next time. The sect didn't give second chances to failed recruits.

  So I'd simply watched her leave along with the others.

  It was unfortunate. She'd seemed like a decent person, someone who genuinely wanted to help her family. But that was the reality of the cultivation world. Good intentions didn't matter. Talent and luck were what counted, and she hadn't had enough of either.

  Seeing all of that made me realize just how lucky I really was.

  If I hadn't been a transmigrator, if I hadn't had that abnormally strong soul from crossing between worlds, would I have succeeded? Would the original Ke Yin have awakened his inner world on his own?

  I would never know. And honestly it didn't matter anymore.

  What mattered was that I had succeeded.

  The Azure Peak Sect was enormous, and navigating it by myself would be difficult. But I'd managed alone before. I could do it again.

  ***

  The first week as an official outer sect disciple was overwhelming.

  I remember the days that I thought college was difficult.

  An immortal sect was difficult on a completely different scale.

  It was bad enough that our day started before dawn, but it began with meditation.

  And it wasn’t the casual, sit-and-relax type of meditation practiced by people back on Earth to relax.

  This was cultivation meditation.

  Which meant we sat in the courtyard for hours, absorbing spiritual energy from the world around us and channeling it into our inner worlds.

  It was less about relaxation and more about progress.

  Fortunately for me, I had Azure to help me with this.

  Turns out inner world spirits, or at least mine, could sense the flow of energy better than humans could.

  So usually, he would let me know which areas in the courtyard had the highest saturation of spiritual qi.

  And according to Azure, I was progressing at a rate faster than the norm, which was largely due to my abnormally strong Soul Essence. To my surprise, I could sit for five or six hours before I needed to take a break, while the other village recruits could only stay focused for an hour at best.

  After meditation, we had hand-to-hand combat training.

  Chen Bo, an older inner disciple, led the combat training sessions. He looked like a brick wall physically, and possessed the personality of one as well. Didn't speak much, just showed us techniques and expected us to replicate them. We were taught the fundamentals of stances, punching, blocking, and redirecting incoming attacks.

  Back on Earth, I had enrolled in MMA classes as part of the massive UFC craze.

  It was one of those moments when everyone decided they wanted to learn how to fight because they saw it on television. I didn’t train for long, only six weeks of studying some basic kickboxing and grappling. I wasn't good, not even close to being considered competent, but I at least knew how to throw a punch without breaking my own thumb.

  That helped me here.

  While the other village recruits were struggling with the basics of fighting, I had a foundation to build upon. It wasn't much and I was still far behind the clan disciples, but it was something.

  After hand-to-hand combat training was weapons training.

  We were taught how to wield a sword, which was far more challenging than what was shown in films or novels. The swords were not lightweight and elegant, as I had envisioned. They were heavy, substantial pieces of metal that demanded considerable power to wield effectively. After the first training session, my arms felt like jelly, and I had difficulty lifting them the following morning.

  “Swords are extensions of your will,” Feng Hua, another inner disciple, would tell us. “When you reach greater heights in cultivation, you will learn to channel your spiritual energy through your blade. However, first, you must master the physical motions.”

  It sounded cool in theory.

  In practice, it meant doing the same overhead slash about five hundred times until my shoulders screamed at me to take a break.

  Our afternoons were reserved for theoretical study.

  An old man called Master Feng, who seemed to be a walking encyclopaedia, taught us how to identify herbs and how to use them in pill refining and medicine.

  I paid attention during these lessons, taking notes and memorizing what I could. Some of the other disciples excelled here, particularly those with farming backgrounds who already knew common herbs. I wasn't one of them, but I did my best to keep up.

  As for my favourite lessons, they were the ones on cultivation theory; this was where I learned more about the other realms past Qi Condensation.

  Senior Sister Liu taught these herself.

  The first realm was Qi Condensation, the one we were currently at.

  There were nine stages.

  To progress through the realm, cultivators had to continually strengthen their physical bodies, expand their inner worlds and refine their spiritual energies.

  The second realm was the Elemental Realm.

  At this point things became very interesting.

  Cultivators had to introduce the elements into their inner worlds.

  The cultivation method determined which element they needed.

  A fire cultivation method would require fire resources.

  A water cultivation method would require water resources, and so on.

  The third realm was the Stellar Realm.

  In the Stellar Realm, cultivators established celestial bodies like stars within their inner worlds.

  Senior Sister Liu mentioned that most cultivators at the Stellar Realm can project their inner world into the real world as a Domain.

  Apparently, that explained why a dozen of Elemental Realm cultivators wouldn’t be able to defeat the weakest Stellar Realm cultivator.

  The fourth realm was the Life Realm.

  This was where cultivators created actual life into their inner worlds.

  They started with simple organisms and progressed to plants.

  Senior Sister Liu said that this was one of the most challenging areas because it took a great deal of energy and focus to create and sustain life.

  The fifth realm and last realm she told us about was the Civilization Realm.

  Cultivators at that realm could create sentient life in their inner worlds, beings that could form their own culture and society.

  The cultivator even created their own spiritual energy system for their civilisation to use.

  They were essentially the god of their own world.

  And apparently there were rumors of there possibly being realms beyond that.

  But at that point, I was already dizzy.

  As a cultivator, I was only at the Qi Condensation Realm, the first realm, and yet I still couldn't wrap my mind around it. I could feel the presence of spiritual energy in the air. I could feel the flow of qi in my body. I could enter my inner world and communicate with Azure whenever I wanted to.

  But there was a disconnect between knowing these things were real and truly accepting them as my new reality.

  Back on Earth, magic was fantasy. It existed only in books and movies.

  Here, magic was simply referred to as cultivation, and it was as normal as breathing.

  But I didn't have time to ponder existential issues because today’s class was something Wei Lin called "the real foundation of cultivation."