Cultivation: From Poor Peasant to Celestial Lord

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Fate Chart

As dusk fell, Chu Bai pushed open the wooden door to his home.

The room was dim, lit only by a single, faint oil lamp on a wobbly-legged square table. The wick was crusted with soot, occasionally sputtering with a soft pop.

”Brother, you’re back!”

His seven-year-old sister, Little Manx, was squatting in a corner, playing with little figures she had molded from mud. The moment she saw Chu Bai enter, she shot over like a little cannonball and hugged his leg.

His little brother, just over two, was babbling beside her, trying to call out as well.

”Go wash your hands. They’re all muddy.” Chu Bai smiled and ruffled Little Manx’s sallow hair. He pulled two wild fruits he had picked on his way home from his robes and pressed one into each of their small hands.

By the stove, his mother, Mrs. Li, was placing the last dish on the table—a plate of pickled mustard tubers—along with a pot of coarse rice porridge so thin you could see your reflection in it.

His father, Chu Xianglin, was sitting on the threshold, knocking the ash from his old, worn-out tobacco pipe against the sole of his shoe. He looked up at Chu Bai, a faint smile cracking his deeply lined face. ”You’re back? Let’s eat.”

The family of five gathered around the wobbly-legged table, the only sound the slurping of thin porridge.

Chu Bai held his chipped, coarse porcelain bowl and drank his porridge in silence. Though it was only coarse rice, every single grain was precious to him, as he was still growing and in the midst of cultivating his qi and blood.

His mother, Mrs. Li, watched her eldest son wolf down his food, a flicker of heartache in her eyes. She pushed the few bits of dried goods from her own bowl into Chu Bai’s and asked softly, ”Eldest, these past few days at the school... are you keeping up?”

”I’m keeping up,” Chu Bai answered vaguely, taking a mouthful of porridge.

Mrs. Li hesitated, glancing first at her husband, who was smoking in silence, and then back at her son. She began tentatively, ”In half a year, you’ll be finished with school. Your mother was thinking, when the time comes, I’ll ask Aunt Wang next door to find you a match... You’re a man now. If you start a family early, you can bring another helping hand into the house.”

In Mrs. Li’s eyes, the fact that her son had been able to study for two years and learn to read a few characters was already a blessing from their ancestors. As for the ethereal and distant Immortal Dao, it was far too remote. Marrying a wife, having children, and living a stable life was much more practical.

”Ahem...”

Chu Xianglin, still sitting on the threshold, coughed twice, cutting Mrs. Li off.

He stuck his pipe into his waistband and said in a low voice, ”What does a woman like you know! Marry and have kids? You want him to spend his whole life scrabbling for food in the dirt like me?”

Chu Xianglin turned his head to look at Chu Bai, a stubborn light showing in his clouded eyes. ”Eldest, if there’s a chance... you still have to try and test into the Daoist School.”

”Look at Er Gouzi from the Zhao Family Village next door. Didn’t he get into the Daoist School a few years back? Even though he didn’t pass that... that ’Celestial Examination’ and didn’t become a high official, he still managed to get a post at the County Yamen. Now his whole family has moved into the city. They’re living on the government’s dime!”

In Chu Xianglin’s simple worldview, getting into the Daoist School was the only chance to ”change one’s fate.”

A brief silence fell over the room.

Chu Bai put down his bowl and chopsticks. Seeing the hopeful yet conflicted looks in his parents’ eyes, he sighed inwardly.

After a moment of silence, he finally spoke. ”Father, Mother, Master Liu kept me after class today.”

”Oh?” Chu Xianglin’s eyes lit up, and he unconsciously sat up a little straighter. ”What did Master Liu say?”

”Master Liu said I have a talent for cultivation,” Chu Bai said calmly. ”If I had a complete Cultivation Technique, I could hope to step into the Qi Cultivation First Layer within three months.”

”Really?!”

Mrs. Li gasped, nearly dropping her chopsticks. Chu Xianglin was even more excited, his hands trembling and his face flushing red.

”I knew it! I knew a son of Chu Xianglin wasn’t fated to be stuck in the mud!” Chu Xianglin exclaimed, getting to his feet and pacing back and forth in the cramped room.

However, Chu Bai’s next words were like a bucket of ice water, dousing their fiery excitement.

”But Master Liu’s private tutoring requires a tuition fee... ten taels of silver.”

”Ten...”

Chu Xianglin’s pacing feet froze mid-step. The smile on his face slowly stiffened, finally settling into a blank, stunned expression.

Mrs. Li sucked in a sharp breath. Ten taels? That was an astronomical sum.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew heavy. Even his younger siblings, who had been playing nearby, seemed to sense something and fell silent.

Chu Xianglin sank back down onto the threshold. With a trembling hand, he fumbled for his tobacco pouch, but he couldn’t manage to light it.

For a long time, the only sound was the CLICK-CLACK of the flint.

”Spring planting just ended...” Chu Xianglin’s voice was hoarse, as if squeezed from the depths of his throat. ”Buying seeds, buying that damned Spiritual Fertilizer... it wiped out all the family’s savings... Forget ten taels, we can’t even come up with one tael of silver right now.”

In that instant, the back of this man, who had always tried to be the pillar of his family, seemed to slump. He was filled with guilt. He knew his son had promise, but he, the father, was powerless to help.

Seeing his father’s slumped figure, Chu Bai felt a pang in his heart, but he put on a relaxed smile. ”It’s alright, Father. Master Liu said it’s just an opportunity, not a guarantee. I’ll work on it myself. Maybe I can figure it out without spending any money.”

He didn’t want this heavy burden to crush his family.

...

...

The night was deep and quiet.

Chu Bai returned to his tiny room and lit a finger-length stub of a candle.

The dim, yellow flame flickered, casting his shadow on the mud wall, making it swell and shrink.

He didn’t go to sleep right away. Instead, he sat cross-legged on his hard wooden bed, closed his eyes, and focused his mind, beginning to review the key points Master Liu had taught that day.

Inhale, exhale.

”INHALE— EXHALE—”

As his chest and abdomen rose and fell with a steady rhythm, Chu Bai could feel a faint stream of warmth moving through his limbs and bones.

The soreness in his muscles began to fade, replaced by a sense of brimming strength.

This was the physical enhancement brought by the Small Qi Gathering Technique.

But that was all.

After completing one full Circulation, Chu Bai opened his eyes and shook his head helplessly.

He still couldn’t sense the so-called ”Qi.”

It was like a bottle already filled to the brim with water; no matter how much more you poured in, it would only spill over, unable to hold another drop.

’Just as I thought. Without the Heart Method Mantra to go with it, this is the limit of what the Breathing Technique alone can do.’

With a thought, Chu Bai stared into the Void before him.

In the next moment, a pale blue screen of light, visible only to him, slowly materialized.

[Name: Chu Bai]

[Realm: Mortal]

[Acquired Fate Chart: Non-stop Rushing, Unceasing Labor]

(Note: The Celestial Dao rewards the diligent. Any Magic Technique practiced daily will surely yield results, ignoring bottlenecks and achieving success when the time is right.)

[Skill:]

[Small Qi Gathering Technique (Incomplete): Beginner (100/100)—Maximum level reached, cannot be improved.]

Staring at the familiar panel, Chu Bai’s gaze lingered on the [Acquired Fate Chart] for a long time.

This panel wasn’t something he was born with. It had suddenly awakened half a year ago, after he had toiled day and night in the fields and frantically practiced the techniques he had secretly learned at the school.

At first, it only had the Skill section. The Fate Chart was added later.

’Non-stop Rushing, Unceasing Labor...’ A self-mocking smile touched Chu Bai’s lips. ’That really does suit my Hardworking Life.’