By the time Chu Bai returned home, even the village dogs had stopped barking.
Pushing open the wooden door, he saw a dim, yellow oil lamp still burning inside. His younger brother and sister were already asleep.
But at the table, his parents were still wide awake.
Seeing Chu Bai enter, his mother, Li Qing, who had been mending clothes on a stool, quickly put down her needlework and stood up. "You’re back, son? I saved some food for you in the pot. It’s still warm."
Hearing the commotion, his father, Chu Xianglin, looked up. A simple, honest smile appeared on his weather-beaten face, but he didn’t say anything.
Chu Bai noticed his father’s trouser legs were covered in hard, dried specks of mud. He hadn’t looked so worn out when he left in the morning.
’He must have spent the entire day in the fields without a break.’
"Dad, Mom, you’re still up?"
A warmth spread through Chu Bai’s heart as he sat down at the table.
Li Qing deftly brought out a large bowl of coarse rice and a plate of stir-fried greens from the pot. On top, there were even a few pieces of pork crackling, each the size of a fingernail.
"Hurry and eat while it’s hot." Li Qing sat down across from him, studying her son’s face carefully in the lamplight. "So... how did it go at the Inner Sect today? Is that Daoist Zhang strict?"
"Everything’s fine." Chu Bai picked up his bowl and shoveled food into his mouth, speaking indistinctly. "Master Zhang doesn’t talk much, but what he teaches is the real deal. I can understand it and keep up."
"That’s good, that’s good." A smile bloomed on Li Qing’s face, smoothing out the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.
Chu Xianglin, who had been silent all this time, tapped out his pipe and said in a low voice, "Son, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. We don’t understand this Cultivation business, but we know it can’t be easy."
"Your mother and I have talked it over. Just do your best to learn. The ten taels of silver are spent, and that’s that. Our family may be poor, but we won’t fall apart over this bit of money."
He paused, his tone growing a little awkward. "If... I mean, if you don’t pass the exam for the Daoist School this time, don’t lose heart. I heard from Old Wang at the village entrance that for that... what’s it called... ’Celestial Examination’ in the future, you don’t have to be from a Daoist School to take it. At worst, you can just practice at home for a couple more years. We can take it slow."
Chu Bai’s hand, shoveling rice, paused for a moment.
He knew his father was trying to comfort him, afraid he’d crack under the pressure.
’But he knew better than anyone that this was just the wishful thinking of a poor family.’
The Daoist Schools cater to young students. They receive subsidies from the Government, their tuition fees are low, and they have a systematic legacy of teachings.
If he didn’t enter a Daoist School and became a "Wild Cultivator," trying to take the Celestial Examination later would mean buying every single Magic Technique and every volume of Scripture from the Marketplace—and they cost a true fortune!
Forget about learning Magic Techniques; just the follow-up Cultivation Technique needed for Realm-Breaking would be enough to bankrupt the Chu Family ten times over.
His family had scraped the bottom of the barrel just to come up with these ten taels of silver. How could they possibly afford to support a Wild Cultivator?
’If I can’t pass this hurdle, the path ahead will only grow narrower until it disappears completely.’
"Don’t worry, Dad. I know what I’m doing." Chu Bai swallowed the food in his mouth and looked up with a relaxed smile. "This is just the beginning."
"Of course. Our boy has been smart since he was little," Li Qing chimed in with a smile.
As they spoke, Chu Bai had already polished off the huge bowl of coarse rice, along with every last bit of pork crackling from the vegetables.
Putting down his bowl and chopsticks, Chu Bai felt that although his stomach was full, the deep, cellular hunger had not completely faded.
"Want some more?" Li Qing asked, a little surprised as she looked at the sparkling clean bowl.
Normally, even though Chu Bai was a growing boy, his appetite was only slightly larger than average. But tonight’s bowl had been packed full, equivalent to one and a half times his usual portion.
"No thanks, I’m full," Chu Bai said, shaking his head.
’There wasn’t much grain left at home. If he ate his fill, the whole family would probably be drinking thin porridge tomorrow.’
But Li Qing seemed to have noticed something. As she cleared the bowl, she said, "It seems that Qi Cultivation really takes a lot of energy. Tomorrow, I’ll take out the old rice from the bottom of the jar too. From now on, I’ll cook your rice drier. We can’t have you ruining your health before you’ve even finished your studies."
Chu Bai opened his mouth to refuse, but in the end, he just nodded silently.
Back in his small, cramped room, Chu Bai didn’t immediately fall into bed and sleep.
He sat cross-legged on his hard plank bed and closed his eyes to quiet his mind for a moment. Only when he felt completely calm did he assume the cultivation posture for the Small Qi Gathering Technique.
The night was deep, and all was silent.
Having cultivated at the school for a double-hour during the day, his body was already quite exhausted.
The feeling of weakness brought on by "Refining Essence and Transforming Qi" made him want nothing more than to lie down and sleep soundly.
If it were an ordinary person, forcing themselves to cultivate at this point would likely lead to a scattered mind, making it difficult to enter a state of Meditation. They might even suffer a qi deviation.
But with a thought from Chu Bai, the pale blue panel appeared in his mind.
[Acquired Fate Chart: Non-stop Rushing, Unceasing Labor]
This line of text seemed to possess a magical quality, instantly solidifying his somewhat drowsy will.
’As long as I practice, I’ll make progress. Since my Fate Chart grants me ’Unceasing Labor,’ I’ll see just where this body’s limits truly lie.’
INHALE— EXHALE—
The familiar rhythm began once more.
Gritting his teeth against the aching soreness in his meridians, Chu Bai guided the faint sensation of Qi through his body, over and over again.
Once... twice... five times...
As time passed, fine beads of sweat gradually formed on his forehead and trickled down his cheeks.
It was a sign of extreme fatigue.
But he didn’t stop.
Every breath was like squeezing out his body’s potential, drawing every last wisp of Essence Qi from the coarse food he had eaten and converting it into a faint, barely-there Spiritual Power.
After an unknown amount of time, just as Chu Bai felt a dull ache begin to throb in his head and his body instinctively warned him that continuing would cause harm, he finally, slowly, stopped.
He let out a long, turbid breath. Chu Bai felt as if his entire skeleton was about to collapse; he didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger.
But he still summoned the panel immediately.
[Skill:]
[Small Qi Gathering Technique: Skilled (2/200)]
Seeing the number that had finally ticked up by one, a genuine smile spread across Chu Bai’s pale, weary face.
’It really went up...’
’Even though it’s just one point of proficiency, and I’m still far from the ’Three Days of One Thread’ standard, I managed to grind this out while utterly exhausted and without any Spiritual Food to replenish my body.’
’This single point of progress means I’ve not only stabilized my Qi Sensitivity, but I’ve also taken a solid, small step toward retaining Spiritual Qi.’
’Even if it’s a tiny step, as long as I keep taking it every day, I’ll eventually be able to fill in that so-called ’insurmountable barrier’!’
Chu Bai couldn’t hold on any longer. His body tilted, and he fell stiffly onto the bed.
The instant his head hit the pillow, a heavy drowsiness washed over him like a tide, completely submerging him.
That night, he slept profoundly.

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