章 3: Morning Preparations
"Urgh... this," Hei Tu muttered grumpily, waking up slowly to the sound of soft knocking coming from his bedroom door. "Is it morning already?"
He rubbed his eyes, which opened with difficulty due to his drowsiness, making his vision blurry as he saw the faint sunlight filtering lightly through the window of his room, but not penetrating deeply enough to reach his bed. This made him think it must not even be six in the morning yet.
Additionally, the early morning air is relatively humid and cool, making his throat a bit hoarse, but nothing too serious, as he slept warmly under his two large blankets, and his clothes themselves are enough to keep him warm.
'It seems like the Awakening Ceremony really happens early,' he thought as he massaged the side of his head, which was throbbing faintly, making him feel the typical pulsing pain of a headache.
But he didn't have time to dwell on his smal headache or his sleepiness, and he quickly threw his blankets to the side to go answer the door, which was probably being knocked on by Grandma Li or someone else who came to wake him up to get ready for the Awakening Ceremony.
Thud
Before he could stand up, he heard a faint thud as something fell when he tossed his blankets aside. Looking at the floor next to his bed, he saw the book titled "The Legends of Ren Zun" lying open on a random page.
He knew that if there was a main culprit behind his current sleepiness and headache, it was this book. He had spent the entire night before reading it, trying to absorb as much knowledge about this world as possible before the Awakening Ceremony, which had been a significant concern for him.
"Hmm, I fell asleep while reading... haha, old habits really don't change," he murmured with a light smile on his face, realizing that he had fallen asleep mid-read.
Quickly, he got up from the bed, picked up the book from the floor, and looked at the words written on the page that had opened by chance. He soon realized it was a part he hadn't yet reached in his reading, so he lightly read a few words from the beginning of the page.
"Ren Zu lowered his head close to the ground before he was able to see clearly. Like Self Gu said, the ordinary marsh was filled with all kinds of marks. Claw prints of wild beasts, root imprints of vegetation, traces of water flowing, and also traces of stones rolling past.
'How can there be so many marks?' Ren Zu asked curiously.
Self Gu replied, 'This is Ordinary Abyss. All living beings will enter here due to various reasons. All living beings are ordinary. But the absolute majority of them will be trapped in Ordinary Abyss for all their lives. Only a small portion can leave Ordinary Abyss through their own efforts.'
'I do not want to be trapped here for my entire life. There is nothing here; it is completely dark, and the air stinks. I want to leave this place,' Ren Zu frowned.
Self Gu laughed loudly: 'If you think that being ordinary is an abyss, then it is an abyss. But if you think that being ordinary is heaven, then it shall be heaven. Since you do not want to stay here, then leave, use your two legs to walk out of the ordinary marsh step by step and become extraordinary.'"
After reading a bit more than half of the page written in impeccable calligraphy, he furrowed his brows slightly, thinking for a moment.
"Even a random page has philosophical words... is this what they call the wisdom of the ancient Chinese thinkers?" he said with a slightly reflective look about what he had just read.
Indeed, he hadn't reached this part of the book yet, but he wasn't surprised by the philosophical content of this passage, since from the very first page of the book up to where he stopped reading when he fell asleep, the book was filled with similar philosophical passages that had intrigued him during his reading.
This actually came as a pleasant surprise because, when he started the book, he really thought it would just be a collection of folklore tales put together into a story for children, which wouldn't be of much value to him, but that he would still have to force himself to read to try to gain some knowledge about the culture and customs of this world.
So, it was really a pleasant surprise when he found himself reading the story with interest in its content, which seemed to be a folklore tale meant to convey to children the lessons of this world about moral values and philosophical knowledge that a person should have.
For him, though, the book had an additional value since it allowed him to really understand some of the values and good practices that were upheld and accepted in this world, and more importantly, he surprisingly managed to deduce a bit about how the cultivation of this world might work!
This was, of course, just a deduction on his part, but combining the fact that he assumed the so-called Gu Masters were the cultivators of this world, and that Ren Zu, the main character of the book, used various of these so-called Gu "worms" to gain supernatural abilities and powers that he imagined only a cultivator would have, it became clear that the power base, for now, was tied to these various Gu "worms."
Unfortunately, that's all he could deduce about the cultivation of this world since "The Legends of Ren Zun" didn't delve deeply into the subject but rather focused on Ren Zu and his children, as well as the moral and philosophical lessons it wanted to convey.
This left him not knowing much about how the Awakening Ceremony would go. Would he obtain a Gu "worm" like Ren Zu? Would it be Strength Gu, Wisdom Gu, and Hope Gu? Or would it be another Gu mentioned later in the story? Would he have a choice, or would he acquire them randomly?
Moreover, he was still a bit confused about how it could be possible that the cultivation system of this world was really based on various talking Gu "worms" of different shapes, so he was almost certain that this aspect was more of a folkloric element focused on being a story rather than representing real facts.
So he deduced that these Gu are probably types of talismans or cultivation artifacts, but because "The Legends of Ren Zu" is likely intended for children, they are being depicted as talking worms to pique their interest and help them remember the names and powers of these Gu.
Well, in the end, these were all questions and doubts that filled his mind, but he could only sigh helplessly without having a real answer to any of them.
"Ahh, why isn't the cultivation of this world the classic refinement of Qi, foundation establishment, golden core, and so on..." he shook his head thinking about this as his eyes scanned a few more words from the book. "Well, there's still hope that this might be the case since, apart from the Gu worms, it didn't mention anything I would imagine to be deep about cultivation."
"Besides, there's a good chance that this is just a story and doesn't actually represent how cultivation works in this world at all, being merely a book created to convey philosophical lessons to children..." he continued to muse, but before he could go on, he heard more knocking coming from his door.
Knock Knock Knock
"Young master Hei Tu, are you awake? Today is the day of the Awakening Ceremony, and it's already morning" a soft and delicate female voice called from the other side of his bedroom door.
The voice has a youthful and well-mannered sound to it, clearly belonging to a young lady, and not to Grandma Li, who spoke to him yesterday afternoon.
Hearing this, he snapped out of his trance, looking at the words written in impeccable calligraphy on the book. "Ahh, I'm awake... I'm going now!"
After saying that, he wasted no time placing the book inside the top drawer of the bedside table and headed toward his bedroom door right away, not even bothering to tidy up the messy blankets on his bed.
As he walked toward the door, he forced his mind, furrowing his brow, trying to organize Hei Tu's memories to recall to whom that voice belonged. Fortunately, he managed to do it even more easily this time compared to when he thought of Grandma Li. As he remembered that the voice belonged to Hei Tu's personal maid—or rather, his personal maid now.
And just as he expected, when he opened the door, he came face to face with a young woman dressed in a simple maid's outfit in an oriental style that matched her cute yet simple face. Her light makeup added a natural beauty that made him admire her for a second longer than he intended.
"My apologies for waking you up, young master Hei, but since you hadn't come down yet, your father personally ordered me to come and wake you," she said in an apologetic tone, bowing slightly with grace and politeness.
"It's alright, Min'er. I couldn't sleep early because I was too excited, so I ended up sleeping in a bit longer," he replied, trying to sound as natural as possible while maintaining a sleepy expression.
Hearing this, Ye Min nodded in agreement as she straightened her posture once more.
"Young master Hei, do you have anything else to do in your room, or are you planning to go straight to your bath?" she asked in the same polite and simple tone as before.
"Well, the Awakening Ceremony won't wait for me, right?" he said in a slightly joking manner, carefully observing her reaction.
When he saw her almost unconscious nod in response, he felt a confirmation to one of his doubts.
"Then I'd better hurry!" he said with emphasis on his words.
Ye Min gave a simple smile at his words before beginning to lead the way, with him following closely behind, quietly, his gaze drifting downward more than once, though he didn't dare admit it out loud.
For a few moments, an uncomfortable silence filled the air as his mind worked overtime to think of a natural conversation topic that could help him address some of the questions swirling in his mind.
"Are there already a lot of young people out on the clan streets? I don't want to give the impression of being late," he asked in a casual tone.
Not only did he ask this question, but he also looked around at the walls of the corridor. The walls were adorned with beautiful decorative patterns resembling tree branches with green leaves, giving the place an aura of elegance and wealth, even though he didn't see the grand jade decorations he would have expected from a Chinese cultivation world.
Meanwhile, he paid close attention to memorizing the path from his room, following Ye Min, to what he assumed would be the bathroom where his bath was ready.
"I didn't wake up that long ago myself, and I haven't been to the clan streets, unfortunately," she said in a slightly apologetic tone as she turned left down a corridor. "But I imagine only the most enthusiastic young clan members who couldn't sleep last night have gone to the clan streets for the Awakening Ceremony already. So I don't think young master Hei needs to worry about being late."
"Hmm, I see..." he said, frowning slightly while quickly thinking of his next words. "...It's true, everyone in the clan seems really excited. It's a shame that many will end up disappointed because of it."
He watched her reaction carefully after saying these words, which he had chosen with great care.
Firstly, he mentioned the clan that both she and Grandma Li had referred to, and he deduced it to be the organization to which he now belonged in this world. However, he didn't even know the basics, like the name of his clan, so he brought it up vaguely, hoping she would reveal more information about the clan without sounding suspicious.
Secondly, he hinted at the disappointment of the young members, which is likely common in an event like an Awakening Ceremony in a cultivation world. He did this, hoping she might talk about the possibility of failure in the Awakening Ceremony or perhaps mention the different levels of talent in this world, if they existed.
"Well, that's true, but..." She stopped in her tracks when she reached a door, then turned to him with a gentle smile and continued, "I'm sure that young master Hei won't be one of them!"
After saying that, she bowed slightly once again and stepped aside to allow him to pass through the door while standing beside it.
'Ahh, there goes all my meticulous thinking,' he sighed lightly in his heart but kept the same expression on his face as before. 'Well, at least this is some sort of confirmation that the Awakening Ceremony can have disappointing outcomes, whatever they may be.'
He accepted this small victory as he opened the door to enter the bathroom, using his interaction with Ye Min as a basis to consider his next words, or rather his indirect questions to her, once he finished his bath.
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