# Chapter 1
High in the mountains, where mist clung to the peaks, stood a traditional house built of dark brick and carved wood. Its grey roof gave it an air of quiet endurance against the passage of time.
In the middle of the house lay a training yard, its stone-and-earth floor bearing the marks of long use. In one corner stood a wooden post carved with Chinese script, a silent witness to years of practice.
A seven-year-old boy ran after a swarm of blue butterflies across the open, tree-free ground, the cold forest breeze playing across his face as he laughed.
"Ha! Isn't it about time we taught this little troublemaker something? No matter what books we give him, he reads two pages at most before tossing the book aside to go play... assuming, of course, he even finishes the introduction."
Not far off, three figures watched him. One of them spoke first, voicing his frustration with the boy's behavior. The boy's name was Shen Zuo.
The speaker was an old man, tall, with long white hair, of middling build, a sharp white beard split at the chin, and pale green eyes, dressed in traditional robes.
"What do you two think?"
Bai Ren drew a breath from his long black pipe, releasing a strange-smelling smoke from his mouth before asking.
"I've been thinking about this for a while. Since he can't begin cultivation at such a young age... I decided to teach him reading and writing so he could study some of my books on beasts and herbs. He was excited at first, but lately he's been growing lazy. I was thinking of pushing him harder starting tomorrow."
Clasping both hands behind his back, one of the other two answered Bai Ren's question. His voice carried the weight of age. Despite the wrinkles on his face, his features were gentle, the kind that put people at ease without them realizing it, especially when he smiled his disarming smile. This man was Zhou Ji.
He appeared as an old man with long white hair and a thick but neatly groomed beard, somewhat tall, with blue eyes, wearing a long-sleeved dark blue robe that carried a strange scent. Green markings coiled around the right side of his arm, lending his robe an odd touch.
"Hmmm, good idea... Well, you were the one who first suggested teaching that little troublemaker to read and write so he could go through our books. Forcing him to read is an excellent idea."
Bai Ren agreed with Zhou Ji's thought.
"What do you think, Ling Li?" Zhou Ji asked, watching the child with interest as he turned to the man on his right.
Ling Li answered in a calm voice. "While you two were thinking of teaching Shen Zuo through theoretical knowledge... I was thinking of training him practically while we wait for the right time."
Unlike Zhou Ji, with his calm voice, peaceful presence, and gentle face, this man carried a serious, unsettling presence, the kind that made anyone feel an unspoken pressure the moment they were near him.
He was a grown man, grey beginning to show through his hair and thin beard, with dark, ominous eyes. He wore a long-sleeved black silk robe trimmed with dark red edges and patterns. He looked seriously toward Shen Zuo, who was playing in the distance, his hands clasped behind his back, only adding to the weight of his presence.
"Good idea. What would this training look like?" Zhou Ji asked, inquiring further into Ling Li's plan.
Ling Li answered in a calm, smooth voice:
"Since he can't cultivate at this young age, we'll make up for it by training his five senses, hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste, along with four additional senses: intuition, pain, perception, and emotion. That makes nine senses in total. We'll divide them evenly among the three of us, three senses each.
The training schedule would work like this: we divide the month into four weeks. Each of us trains him for one week on our three assigned senses, over six days, and on the seventh day we test everything he's learned cumulatively. Then we rotate.
I was originally planning to have him train on the senses for the entire month, all four weeks. But after hearing Zhou Ji's idea, I decided the last week of every month should be set aside for theoretical study instead.
In short, the first three weeks of each month, we train him on the senses. The last week, we give him time to study our books."
"Hmmm, however I look at it, this training plan is excellent." Zhou Ji agreed with Ling Li's plan for young Shen Zuo's training.
"How long will we keep training him like this? Also, you said each of us would train him on three senses a week, so which three are ours?" Bai Ren asked, after thinking it over carefully.
"Hmmm, it's been seven years and two months. We'll continue training him like this for eight more years. By the time he turns fifteen and becomes able to cultivate, he'll already have some experience, and so he shouldn't run into much trouble with his cultivation. As for your second question, intuition, hearing, and sight suit you best. Given your combat experience and fighting style, you're the most experienced among us in that regard." Ling Li answered Bai Ren.
"Hmmm, that makes sense. But what about you two, have you thought about it?"
"Right, which senses will we take?" Zhou Ji asked Ling Li as well.
"As for touch, smell, and taste, Zhou Ji, you're the most experienced among us in that regard. After all, you're an alchemist, an expert in herbs and plants, and even beasts, minerals, and resources in general." Ling Li explained to Zhou Ji.
"Smell, touch, and taste might be useful, but honestly, I don't think they deserve intensive weekly training. If we swap them out and make theoretical education the main focus instead, keeping those three as a side matter, that would work much better." Zhou Ji pointed out some flaws to Ling Li.
"Hmmm, alright. Do as you see fit, then." Ling Li did not object to Zhou Ji's suggestion.
"By the way, I don't think you should train him on pain at such a young age. He's still a child, after all. This could backfire and lead to results we'd regret later." Bai Ren pointed out another flaw.
"Understood. I'll take your advice into consideration." Ling Li expressed his agreement.
"Alright, when do we start?" Zhou Ji asked.
"This..."
....
....
Three years later.
In the middle of a hot morning, in a patch of forest, a boy ran as if his life depended on it. His white robe was caked in mud, his face covered in bruises, his hair a tangled mess, but he didn't care about anything except escaping. Nothing but escape.
*Haaa... haaa... haaa... did I lose him?*
Shen Zuo panted as he hid behind a tree, leaning his back against it for shelter from someone. All he wanted was to collapse to the ground from exhaustion, or even just sit down.
But he didn't have that luxury. He had to keep watch on that deranged old man, or so he believed. When he cautiously peeked from behind the tree, he was met with an absurd, insane sight: a massive surge of water tearing through the forest at terrifying speed.
*Damn it, here we go again.*
Shen Zuo abandoned his spot immediately and decided to find another tree to climb. Since he was barefoot, his feet were covered in painful wounds, blood mixed with dirt.
Still, he managed to find a suitable tree, and despite his miserable state, he began climbing at once.
Over three years of madness and physical and mental torment, Shen Zuo had gained a great deal of experience in climbing.
He'd become skilled at telling weak branches from strong ones, and once he reached the top, he immediately scanned his surroundings carefully before looking toward the rushing flood. It didn't take him long to climb the tree, despite his wretched condition.
*What in the hell, where did all this water come from?!*
Shen Zuo thought grimly, scowling deeply. The current had already reached him, so climbing down would be a foolish idea.
But since when did that ever stop Shen Zuo from moving?
He swung quickly from tree to tree like a monkey who'd wandered into another monkey's territory, a monkey strong enough to grind his bones to dust. And now he was trying to escape it by any means necessary.
As he swung, he began to hear a strange rumbling noise behind him.
So he stopped to look.
*Are you kidding me right now?!*
When he did, he saw hundreds of trees being ripped out by their roots, dragged violently by the raging current, smashing into each other with brutal force.
*By the heavens above!! How am I supposed to escape this? What does this madman expect me to do, turn into a fish?! Damn it, even a fish wouldn't agree to swim in this chaos. I bet it'd crawl out of the water just to die peacefully on dry land, at least it'd stay in one piece!*
The sound of the wreckage drew closer and closer, until the moment Shen Zuo had been dreading finally arrived: the tree he stood on shattered, along with the trees around it.
But he wasn't as shocked as he was furious. Fortunately, his mind had sharpened over the past three years, and his survival instinct had grown stronger. The instant the tree collapsed, he thought immediately to drop into the water and put distance between himself and the debris riding the current.
And fortunately, he knew how to swim, or else he would have met the same fate as the shattered trees around him.
Shen Zuo dove into the water and swam with the current for a while. He didn't want to surface except at the right moment; he needed to choose a tree to float on. It was simple enough: he just had to look up, and if he saw sunlight breaking through the water above him, that meant there were no trees overhead, and vice versa.
It wasn't long before he found one and settled onto it.
*When is this damn training going to end?!*
Shen Zuo cursed inwardly as he clung to the floating remains of a tree, dragged along by the current with no end in sight.
And that was that...
"And so ended the first day of this month."
Bai Ren finished recounting what had happened to Zhou Ji and Ling Li.
Zhou Ji and Ling Li exchanged a wordless glance from the corners of their eyes, then turned sharply to look at Bai Ren.
"What? Was I too soft on him?"
Bai Ren said as he smoked, raising an eyebrow before flashing th
em a wicked grin.
In the end, Zhou Ji and Ling Li looked at each other, and the very same wicked smile spread across both their faces...