Moon City
Within a secluded courtyard of the Ling residence, a handsome young man sat on a bamboo chair. In his hands, he held a cup that released a faint steam carrying the scent of herbs.
Appreciating the star-filled night sky, Ling Lin raised the cup to his lips and took a small sip. As he lowered it, a soft wisp of vapor escaped from his mouth.
'I am a joke.'
Ling Lin recalled the days when he was a naïve youth of the Ling branch family in Yun'an Prefecture. Back then, he was known as a once-in-a-century genius, having opened all his acupuncture points within a single year of cultivation, completing the Spiritual Opening Realm and stepping into the Bone Structure Refinement Realm.
The glory didn't last.
With his performance, he earned a place in the main family and soon realized he lagged behind his generation. The prodigies of the capital opened their acupuncture points in just one day of cultivation. At first, he believed it was due to a lack of resources, but that wasn't the case. Over the course of five years, even with the same resources as other youths of his age from branch families, he cultivated only five layers in bone structure, while they averaged six to seven layers—and the greatest genius, Ling Han, possessed nine.
'At least I'm not the worst of them all.'
Taking another sip of tea, Ling Lin consoled himself. Finishing it, he stood up, grabbed the chair from underneath with one hand, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and returned to his simple stone house shaped like a turtle shell.
Upon entering, an open room appeared before him, with a stone bed attached to the right wall. To the left stood a one-and-a-half-meter cylinder filled with water, and beside it, a thirty-centimeter circular basin, also filled with water.
Ahead were a clay stove, a wooden table, and a five-tier shelf: pots on the first, chopsticks and soup spoons on the second, cups on the third, plates on the fourth, and neatly folded clothes on the fifth.
He rinsed the cup in the basin, scrubbing away the residue with fine sand. After finishing, he went to the shelf and placed the cup on the third tier.
With everything in order, his eyes grew heavy. Letting out a yawn, he walked to the stone bed, lay down, and pulled a white silk blanket over himself, covering from feet to neck. The warmth deepened his drowsiness, causing him to close his eyes and gradually fall asleep.
As he slept, Ling Lin had a dream.
In that dream, he stood before a crossroads with three paths. The middle path had white soil. The western path had red soil. The eastern path had golden soil.
'What does this mean?'
Observing the paths, Ling Lin—now a genderless white silhouette—pondered with a hand on his chin.
'Red looks like blood, gold like prosperity, and the white in between means neutrality?'
About ten percent confident, Ling Lin walked toward the golden path.
'I refuse to suffer in my dream.'
Casting a sharp glance at the red soil, he stepped onto the golden path and saw red petals—like rose petals—scattered along the eastern side, and white petals resembling daisies along the west.
'Red and white again?'
'Red rose petals and daisy petals?'
'Why am I dreaming this?'
Ling Lin grimaced in displeasure.
Continuing forward to see what lay at the end, after ten steps he saw the roses being replaced by a grotesque figure, with the tentacles of a black squid and numerous crimson eyes on a spider-like head.
The macabre sight made his hair stand on end. Breaking into a cold sweat, he turned his head to the other side and saw a white hourglass containing red and golden powder within its inner surfaces. The two remained in constant balance.
'This reminds me of Yin-Yang, but it's not.'
'Assuming white is neutrality, and these two represent prosperity and death, then this path shows a glimpse of both. The meaning of this hourglass is cause and effect? Without blood, there is no prosperity. And without prosperity, there is no blood? That makes sense.'
In reality, it is the same.
To obtain resources, one must fight tooth and nail. Even a true genius cannot escape this fate. If one wishes to taste the pinnacle of immortal cultivation, they are destined to have a sea of blood beneath their feet. That is the cruelty of this world.
'Death, cause and effect, and fortune.'
'These are the true meanings of the paths.'
'I don't understand why I dreamed this, but it's certainly an interesting dream.'
Enjoying the perspective, he tried once more to look at the grotesque figure, but failed. With a tightness in his chest, he averted his gaze and walked with his head lowered for another twenty steps, until the hourglass disappeared from view.
Casting a quick glance to the side and seeing no horrific monster, he sighed in relief and turned his attention forward, where a white sheet of paper appeared—ten centimeters tall and five long—its surface marked with three crescent moons representing death, cause and effect, and fortune.
"So this is the end of the road..."
Reaching the end, Ling Lin showed a look of disappointment. Extending his hands, he grabbed the paper to end the bizarre dream.
It worked.
The instant his fingers touched it, he felt a shock, and an electric surge coursed through his entire body, waking him from sleep.
Opening his eyes, Ling Lin tossed the blanket aside and felt a chill run across his skin. It wasn't cold, but wet—he had sweated excessively while experiencing that dream.
'I learned new things and deepened my understanding of certain matters. But I don't understand. Why did I dream of three paths? And why did it feel so real?'
Unable to comprehend these events, Ling Lin shook his head and went back to sleep, hoping the dream would return.
He didn't.
For the rest of the night, he slept like a rock.
...
At the beginning of the next morning—also the start of April—the sun, like a chick, rose in the east and began to paint the land below in yellow hues.
Within the Ling residence, after sunrise, guards dressed in black began moving through the dwellings, striking gongs that signaled the start of the day and the time for collateral disciples to work.
Inside the stone house, Ling Lin, with the harsh sounds ringing in his ears, fluttered his eyelashes. Opening his eyes, he stretched his arms forward to begin the day, got out of bed, and folded the blanket.
'April has arrived. The mission period has begun as well.'
Not wanting to be stuck with poorly rewarded or excessively difficult missions, Ling Lin quickly bathed, dressed in a fitted light-blue robe, and tied his black hair into a ponytail with a blue pin that matched his attire.
Elegant and good-looking, Ling Lin stepped out of his dwelling, heading toward the main mission hall.