I wake up with a strange feeling of disorientation and not quite sure where I am, so I look around as I slowly remember what happened before I fell asleep.

  I realize that I am in one of the uncomfortable beds in the carriage and that it is moving, which makes me wonder how long I have been asleep since I am not still at the inn. In the middle of the carriage, I see my mother, Lianhua and Lingxi sitting, so I call out to them, or at least I try to, because when I try to speak, only a strange noise comes out, which fills me with embarrassment.

  But the strange noise I make is enough for Lianhua to turn around and exclaim “Guifei Xiang, Zhāohuán Wen is awake!"

  My mother gets up and approaches the bed where I am, while Lingxi looks out one of the windows and tells the Nei Wei to stop the carriage. I notice that Lianhua also gets up and seems eager to come over to where I am, but she stays where she is to make room for my mother.

  "Wen, are you okay?" my mother asks me as she puts her hand on my forehead "Both the Nei Wei doctor and the Elder of the Yao clan told me it was normal, but you've been asleep for so long that I was starting to worry."

  Her words make me worry, so after several attempts and clearing my throat, I finally manage to ask in a hoarse voice “How long have I been asleep?"

  "You've been asleep for ten days, Wen”, my mother replies.

  It's an answer I didn't expect. I could have guessed one or two days, but ten days means I wasn't just asleep, I was in a damn coma. As I think about my situation and try to remember all the problems that come with being in a coma, I suddenly realize that in this world there are no IVs or feeding tubes to feed patients, and I soon realize something else.

  I look at my mother and say “I think I have a problem."

  My mother gets scared and quickly asks me “What's wrong, Wen?"

  "I'm not hungry”, I reply to my mother. "I've been asleep for ten days without eating or drinking, and I'm not hungry or thirsty. That's strange."

  I see my mother sigh with relief and say “Don't worry about it, Wen. The Nei Wei doctor has been giving me some fasting pills that they always carry for emergencies."

  That explanation seems sufficient for my mother, but it doesn't mean anything to me, so I ask her “What are those fasting pills?"

  My mother smiles at me as she strokes my head and replies “They are pills that provide those who take them with enough sustenance to survive for a day. They are not very popular because alchemists sell them at high prices, but they are very useful in the right circumstances."

  I'm shocked to hear my mother's explanation and want to know more about the pills, since between these fasting pills and the one that allowed me to breathe underwater, their effects are nothing short of miraculous.

  But another more mundane thought suddenly strikes me, and I realize that these pills are the ultimate weight loss drug. They take away your hunger, feed you, and seem to have no side effects. If I could manufacture them and return to my old world, in less than a year I would become the richest person in the world.

  My mother continues to stroke my head without speaking as my mind wanders off into unconstructive improbabilities as it often does, when Lingxi interrupts us by approaching and saying to my mother “Furen, they have decided to take advantage of the opportunity to stop for lunch."

  My mother stops stroking my head and, after looking at me, says to Lingxi “Since we gave Wen a fasting pill this morning, I think it's best that she doesn't eat anything today."

  I want to protest this injustice, but my clear lack of hunger makes me reconsider, and in the end, I decide not to. Instead, I ask “Mother, can I talk to Lianhua for a moment?"

  My mother smiles at me and gets up, saying “Of course. Take all the time you need while I go find the doctor to check on you."

  My mother leaves the carriage, and Lianhua approaches the bed where I am lying and kneels beside me, asking “What do you want, Zhāohuán Wen?"

  "You've been at all my sessions with Jiaoliu Feng”, I reply to Lianhua. "I was going to ask you when we got to the city, but I think it's more important now. Do you think you'll be able to help me with the exercises I was doing with her?"

  Lianhua seems thoughtful for a moment, but quickly replies “I don't think there will be any problem, Zhāohuán Wen. They're not very complicated, and if we notice any problems, we can correct them as we go along."

  "Perfect”, I say to Lianhua. "Then when you finish eating, we'll have a session. I feel uncomfortable, I guess from lying down for so many days in a row. A stretching session can help a lot in this situation."

  Lianhua nods seriously, and while we wait for her to be called for lunch, I ask her about what has happened over the last ten days. From her answers, I realize that being asleep has been almost a blessing, as it meant I didn't have to endure another ten days of boring travel. Although I regret not seeing the Foggy Marsh, as I was curious to see what it was like.

  After a while, Lianhua leaves to eat, and a Nei Wei, who I assume is the doctor my mother was talking about, gets into the carriage and asks me a series of questions and examines my physical condition, concluding that I am fine and will recover without any problems in time.

  She also tells me that I will start eating the next day, but on the first day I will only have porridge and then light meals, as I have not finished the Tempering of the Entrails and veins, my stomach is weak from fasting, and I have to get it used to food again.

  After giving me her instructions, the doctor left and Lianhua returned. She helped me out of the car and I saw that she had laid some blankets on the ground, where she laid me down and helped me slowly do my exercises so as not to hurt myself on the first day, all under the watchful gaze of my mother, Lingxi, and the Nei Wei, who seemed to have made watching my exercises something to entertain themselves with while they waited for me to finish.

  After finishing, we get back on the carriage and continue our journey. The next two days pass without much to do beyond the exercises with Lianhua, which have been accompanied by advice from the Nei Wei, as well as the light and clearly unsatisfactory food they have been giving me.

  On the other hand, I have been trying to test how effective the bath given to me by the Yao clan is, beyond putting me in a coma for ten days, but if I don't notice anything, I finally give up and simply have Lianhua bring me the books I bought so I can devote myself to reading them.

  Finally, around mid-morning on the third day, the landscape begins to change, and in the distance, with that strange perception one has when seeing distant things in a world without curvature, I see what looks like a city and notice that the fields are becoming more abundant and the farmers more numerous.

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  As we approach the city and see its details more clearly, I notice the differences with the imperial capital. Although its walls are just as high, the outskirts of the wall are full of low, poor-looking houses, although they are not quite slums.

  As we approach, it seems that someone has been alarmed by the sight of a large number of armed people approaching the city, as a group of horsemen, clearly guards or soldiers, approach from the city and I see them stop to intercept the procession.

  When we reach the horsemen, we stop and the Nei Wei at the front of the procession exchange a few words with them, after which I see one of the horsemen gallop off towards the city while the rest of the horsemen take the lead of the procession and open the way for us into the city.

  Once we enter the shanty town area, I see people quickly moving out of the way of the horsemen as they watch the procession with curiosity from the windows of their houses and the adjacent streets. But beyond the curiosity of the crowd, nothing remarkable happens, and we reach the gate in the wall, which is already open, with a contingent of guards who seem to be waiting for us.

  We stop again and once more the Nei Wei speak to the guards, after which one of them runs to our carriage and approaches my mother, who is leaning out of the window, and says “The captain of the guards tells us that the governor of the city wants to meet with you. What shall we tell him?"

  "Tell him I'm tired from the journey and need to rest”, my mother replies. "Also tell him that when I've recovered, I'll send a message to the governor to arrange an appointment with him. Besides, tell him we'd appreciate it if one of his men would guide us to the Celestial Lotus Palace so we don't have to ask around and wander around the city."

  The Nei Wei nods and returns to the front of the procession, where she exchanges a few words with the man who I assume is the captain of the guards. After a brief discussion, I see him, along with half a dozen guards, take the lead of the procession, and we set off behind him.

  As we walk down what I assume to be the main street, I clearly notice that the buildings in this city are different from those in the capital. There is still a clear oriental theme, but there are enough differences here and there to have formed their own style.

  The same is true of the clothing worn by the people who stop to watch us pass by. The cut is similar, but the patterns and colors are radically different. While the people I saw on the streets of the capital wore brightly colored patterns, here they seem to favor plainer, more muted colors.

  What I do notice is that many of the people I see in this part of town almost make me believe that I have entered some kind of medieval fair or, even worse, some kind of adventure video game. Many of the people I see are armed, and some of them even wear armor.

  Almost all of those I see armed are carrying bladed weapons such as swords or sabers, but here and there I see other weapons such as spears or even the occasional axe. I know from my geography studies that the city of Xi'An is close to the border, but it can't be that dangerous, can it?

  I decide to put my doubts aside and ask “Mother, why are there so many people with weapons on the street and the guards don't say anything to them?"

  "Wen, those people are what are commonly called wandering cultivators”, my mother replies. "They are people who want to follow the path of cultivation, but for one reason or another, they did not make the cut to be recruited by the sect or the army."

  "Since they don't have access to the resources provided by the sect or the army, they have to make a living as best they can”, my mother continues with her explanation. "And the city of Xi'An is close to an area called the Forest of Lurking Shadows. It's a place where they go to hunt beasts and search for resources such as spiritual herbs, which they then sell, exchange, or use to further their cultivation."

  "But isn't cultivation just attracting Qi, like when you do Body Tempering?" I ask my mother, with what I think is a more than reasonable question.

  "Wen, what happened during your initiation into cultivation has skewed your view of cultivation”, my mother tells me as we continue our tour of the city streets. "It takes a long time for people to cultivate, and the lower your talent, the longer each step takes. Take me, for example. Since my talent is average and I would never be chosen by the sect or the army, even with my family's support and their expectations that I would have a good marriage, it took me almost ten months to do what took you less than a day."

  I blink as I take in what my mother has said, and suddenly I understand a little more clearly all the reactions from that day. What I did is the equivalent of never having trained and then participating in a 100-meter dash and breaking every world record ever set.

  "I see that you've understood at least a little bit of what you really did”, my mother says when she sees my expression. "As for your question about cultivation, there are ways to speed it up, although in the Body Tempering phase, the only way to do it is by using a formation like the one your father let you use."

  "There are places where formation masters have created such formations and rent them out to anyone who wants them”, my mother continues. "But it's expensive, very expensive. There's no way a normal person could afford it without saving for several years. That's why wandering cultivators risk their lives in dangerous places hunting beasts that can kill them if they make mistakes, as it's the only way they can earn enough money to boost their cultivation and get somewhere."

  "But how do they make money from the beasts?" I express my doubts to my mother. "There's no way that the skin of a wolf or bear can pay the amounts of money you're implying."

  "They don't hunt normal animals, Wen”, my mother replies. "They hunt spiritual beasts like the horses that pull our carriage. To give the example of the wolf, they would be wolves almost twice as big, twice as fast, and more resilient than a normal one. And their fangs and claws would be sharper and harder, easily piercing the skin of a cultivator despite their increased resistance."

  "But that doesn't tell me why they're so valuable and how you can make money from them”, I complain to my mother.

  "They are so valuable because their skins, meat, bones, and even blood have a multitude of uses, but all of them are for cultivators who are beyond Body Tempering”, my mother says in response to my complaint. "When you finish Body Tempering, which I imagine you will do without any problems at the age of twelve when your dantian is fully formed, we will talk about the opening of the gates and what it means."

  I cross my arms and pout in clear protest at my mother's habit of hiding what she knows about cultivation.

  Unwilling to continue the conversation after this clear case of abuse of power over information, I look out the carriage window and see that we have arrived in another part of the city. In this area, I notice that clothes are more luxurious, and I don't see any of those whom, in another context, I would not hesitate to call adventurers.

  Finally, we arrive at a huge square with an enormous palace standing out on one of its edges. For a moment, I think it is the Celestial Lotus Palace where we will be residing for the next two years, but in the square we turn in the opposite direction from that palace and I see that we are heading for a palace which, although large, is not as big as the monstrosity on the other side of the square.

  As we approach the palace, I see the symbol of the imperial family above the door, so there is no doubt that we have finally reached our destination. At the door, I see a couple of guards with bored expressions on their faces, which quickly turn to surprise when they see the procession heading towards them.

  I see that the captain and the guards who have escorted us here separate from the procession upon arrival and head towards the huge palace on the other side of the square, bowing their heads towards our carriage as a farewell as they pass by.

  Meanwhile, the Nei Wei are arguing with the guards at the gate when my mother looks at Lingxi and gives her a metal plaque with an engraved design, saying “Make sure we can get through quickly. Tell them clearly that I will not be very happy if they make me wait, with serious consequences if that happens."

  "As you say, Furen”, Lingxi replies, after which she gets out of the carriage and heads for the gate.

  Faced with this situation, I abandon my resolution not to speak because of the earlier conversation and ask my mother “Why won't they let us through? We are in a carriage with the imperial symbol, and the Nei Wei are clearly imperial soldiers. I don't understand."

  "Politics”, my mother replies with a snort. "The Zǒngguǎn has probably given orders to delay us in order to intimidate us and make us understand that while we are here, he will continue to run the Palace as before."

  "What he doesn't know is that your father has given me full power over the place”, my mother continues with a smile that sends a chill down my spine. "And I'm not going to let some fool ruin the years we're going to spend here."

  I hear a noise outside and look out the window to see where it's coming from, and I see the palace's large doors opening, presumably to let us through. To confirm my thoughts, the procession sets off and we head towards the gates.

  My mother also looks out the carriage window as she says to me in a cold voice “I just hope that what happened is a simple gesture and not a symptom of something more serious. I wouldn't want to start our stay in the city with a purge."