Chương 8: Cruel Reality, Determination, and Preparation
By now, he was eight and a half years old. Shen Yu was one year older than him. She had long started cultivating after their parents decided Shen Yu was ready with Yun Tian teaching her under their supervision. It took her several hours but the advice Yun Tian gave her seemed to really help as she was able to grasp qi and start cultivating within a day.
She started cultivating a few months after him and was a year older than him, but she was only in the third layer of Meridian Opening. At over nine years old that was considered only above average, nothing special. Especially when compared to a genius like Yun Tian.
Even though she was older than Yun Tian she had always treated him as her older brother since he was smarter than her and had much better talent. He always treated her really well too so she always looked up to him and hoped to be like him.
One day at night while Yun Tian was still rigorously trying to break through Shen Yu came and waited for him to finish. She hated having to watch Yun Tian, who she idolized so much, go through so much anguish. It was one thing to cultivate and feel yourself get stronger or to repeat the same thing a few times in order to break through, but it was another when no matter how many times you tried you could not break through and you did not feel yourself getting stronger at all. It was like you were just stuck repeatedly spinning around in a circle until you ran out of energy and then doing the same thing again the next day.
Shen Yu couldn't bear it any longer and spoke out to Yun Tian, "Brother just take a break for a while and get some rest. You have been cultivating for so long with no results. If you take a break once in a while it won't hurt."
Yun Tian looked at her as he was drenched in sweat and in complete exhaustion but with eyes that radiated determination and said, "I won't stop trying until I break through. I have to get stronger and fulfill the expectations of everyone."
Shen Yu said, "But brother, you see how the clan treats us now. No one cares about us now. Why would you even want to fulfill their expectations anymore after how poorly they treat us after thinking that you-"
Yun Tian interrupted her as he exclaimed, "I know that! I don't care about the rest of the clan anymore!"
There was silence for a few seconds before he balled his hands into fists and said, "All I care about now is making Mom, Dad, and you happy. I want to get as strong as possible and make you guys proud. I want to give you all the best lives I can, just as Mom and Dad do for us. I won't stop trying and will make everyone happy. I believe that if I keep on trying I will eventually break through."
Shen Yu thought inside, 'But all I really want is to spend more time with you. I don't care about anything else. You don't need to be strong and give us grand and exciting lives. I am sure Mom and Dad feel the same.'
But, she only said, "Alright brother you don't have to give up, but make sure not to completely exhaust yourself and get some rest. Just know that we will always care about you no matter whether you are strong or weak. Good night then, I am going to bed now."
Yun Tian told her good night as well and then she left. He thought inside his head, 'I know that you guys care about me. I love my family so much as well. That is why I have to get strong so I can take care of you and give everyone a great life. I won't give up on trying to break through. I will become stronger and life will return to how it was before with everyone constantly praising our family. I will make Mom and Dad proud.'
One year passed and no matter what he did Yun Tian could not break through. If not for the fact that he felt himself actually getting somewhat stronger over time even though he hadn't broken through he might have long given up.
This is the longest amount of time that he has ever spent without advancing at least a layer since he started cultivating.
It was hellish for him in more ways than one too. Ever since he had revealed his talent, his parents had also gotten more resources and got easier jobs along with everyone else's resources being cut back slightly, but now that it seemed like he could not break through the way the rest of the clan treated their family became worse and worse.
Now that he seemingly had used up all his talent, they wanted to take out their anger of being stripped of their resources and the jealousy they felt. All his fellow young clan members also all felt superior to him even though they were still below him in cultivation, even those several years older than him. Although they were below him in cultivation they were certain they would be able to break through into the Dantian Building Realm in the future.
It was only when the Grand Elder of the clan came out of seclusion and learned of what was going on that it finally stopped. He had secretly come over one day and witnessed Yun Tian's determination, making him have a great impression of Yun Tian. With that he put his foot down and no one dared to have any thoughts of ridicule or scorn towards their family anymore, openly at least. Their lives didn't get better, but they also didn't get any worse.
The Grand Elder started to visit their family occasionally after this and Yun Tian added one more person to the list of people he truly cared about.
Although the Grand Elder admired his determination, he still felt that Yun Tian was a hopeless case. He occasionally tried persuading him to give up his cultivation. He said that Yun Tian could still live a decent life with his cultivation of the seventh layer of Meridian Opening and the backing of the Yun clan.
Eventually, his parents also started having doubts and even wanted their son to stop cultivating altogether.
Even though he told them that he wouldn't stop, they made him spend a lot of his time learning and doing other things so that if he really couldn't cultivate and advance his realm state he could at least survive in other ways. He thought this was fine and went along with it as even if he did break through, what they taught him would still be very helpful.
Five years went by and during those five years, his parents first taught him more about the world.
He learned many wondrous things. Like, the Yun clan that they lived in and were a part of lived in a town called Nanyuan. When compared to the rest of the world both the clan and the town were incredibly small and weak. There were other bigger towns and cities. There even places called cultivation sects who completely focused on cultivating and raising disciples. They were all much more grand and powerful than his little clan and even his grandfather who he thought already seemed strong was nothing but an ant before some forces.
Hearing this he couldn't help but think, 'If even grandpa is nothing but an ant before them, then am I even less than an ant?' and his desire to become stronger was once more invigorated.
He also learned that there were occupations that were useful while cultivating such as alchemist, array master, artifact forger, and many more.
Then they taught him about how he would have to cultivate after breaking through.
Originally he didn't think it would differ too much from the Meridian Opening Realm, but he learned he was wrong. They told him that the next realm required you to accumulate an extremely large amount of qi for each breakthrough, so if cultivated according to the way you did in the Meridian Opening Realm you would never make it to the next realm.
They taught him that the main way people cultivate in this realm was to swallow pills concocted by alchemists called qi gathering pills that had large amounts of qi which allowed for much faster cultivation than just doing it normally by absorbing qi from the world around you.
Hearing this, he realized, 'So that was my Grandfather's plan. He hoped that with my talent and a large amount of resources I could quickly advance.'
They then said there are also other materials and items in the world that can also assist in cultivation. They were just rare.
They told him it would be great if he broke through and if he did he should learn an occupation in the future so he could either trade for pills for cultivation or make them himself. Unfortunately there weren't many with great expertise in any occupations in their town. This meant there were still some, but none of them would want to teach Yun Tian, who didn't seem to have any hope of growing stronger in the future.
When his parents told him about the occupations he asked, "Mom, Dad, can I go try myself to get someone to teach me?"
Hearing this, his mother sighed and explained, "Even if one of few experts in town was willing to teach you, nothing they taught you would help as most if not all things they know require at least a Dantian Building level of cultivation to be of any use. So even if they taught you it would be very hard to grasp anything too."
After he heard this, Yun Tian realized there was nothing he could do about it so he just moved on and continued to learn other things.
One thing that surprised him was that one day his parent's pulled both him and Shen Yu aside and said, "Tian'er, Yu'er, we are a part of the Yun clan yes?"
The two of them nodded blankly wondering why their Mom was asking this.
She asked the same question again, but phrased it differently, "Do you two feel like we are a part of the Yun clan?"
Yun Tian immediately saw where his mother was going with this so he said, "After they saw no more use in me they stopped caring about us. Even if I break through in the future, I don't want to help them out nor do I want anything from them."
Shen Yu was slightly stunned by Yun Tian's words and decisiveness. She hadn't thought so much and was just upset that people stopped coming to congratulate Yun Tian all the time.
His parents were both satisfied by his words and his father said, "I agree son. That is why if you do break through in the future, me and your Mother have decided we would leave the clan with you two. But for now we will stay here as it is at least safe and we can still get some resources for the jobs the two of us perform."
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