Dark Desires for Power

Chapter 3

After he securely stashed away the scroll, he offered his arm. I naturally accepted.

We eventually walked towards the not so small house and I was super confused. The size was enormous.

"Elder, may I ask why it seems so small at first glance?", I asked in a curious manner smiling shyly.

" Oh dear, I forgot to tell you about the protective barrier which causes illusions to Outsiders. ", he answered." But as I may know you now, I should also tell you more about me. So let me tell you the story of my life and how we come to this point. "

Hence it turned out that my teacher, the one who would take me under his wings, had a similar story and the same problems. He was one of the weakest people, working hard to his now position as the Elder, as a respected person. The success however, the forbidden fruit he didn't get to taste for long.

"My young apprentice, you must know I had a difficult youth too. Just like you in that regard. My cultivation was even worse than yours dear.", he softly patted my shoulder and continued his story.
"My household however was one of the strongest amongst the sects. That naturally impacts. In my time the young generation in our household was usually the strongest. I however was the complete opposite. When I was born a fortune teller told my parents that I would die early. A very unusual and unfortunate ending indeed. The fortune teller also gave me my name, Chen Rugong. Only later, they found out why he wanted to keep me away from the stronger youths in my household. And it turned out he knew instantly from the beginning about my low cultivation. Not daring to tell my parents as they would have abandoned me on the spot or even worse, killed me and never told a single soul. Spreading the news I had died at birth.", he shuddered at the thought of it as if it had happened just yesterday.
"Even just gathering the smallest amount of Qi was such a difficulty me. On the contrary to the behavior the fortune teller had guessed, my mother and father devoted themselves to helping me. I was taught step by step myself. Not using any cheating methods even though O got offered many on the way. Still, a competition should showcase my weak cultivation and Fight Qi. I always feared them a lot as one might expect."

His gaze became sad and regretful. My teacher, a person who was born just like me, getting tormented in embarrassment. My world lightened up and I saw ahead clearly for once as I realized I wasn't the only person suffering under my low cultivation ability. As we stepped forward we reached the door. My teacher, Chen Rugong, continued on with his story.

"At the day of the competition, my mother brought me pills and told me to take them and act as if they were medicine at the competition. My honest heart couldn't bear to so I threw them away in secret when she wasn't watching. The colour looked strange, a dark red and big round pill. I could smell the scent of a drug I smelled on my fathers robe on multiple occasions when he left the medicine house to come back to cultivate. I did know that the flow of Qi through my meridians was not really as much as wished. I however didn't want to cheat to win and for numerous reasons. One was the danger of getting caught and punished. Following the protocol meant becoming an outcast and getting pushed out of the society with abolishing all Qi. Destroying all cultivation to ever be trained on and strengthened. Leaving one to live a normal life and struggling to survive being ridiculed and barely getting by in many cases.
Now to the drug. We still have a lot to talk about after all.", he paused to catch his breath.
"It could expand your power for sure, the risk of getting your Qi sucked up completely was super high as a side-effect. Every great drug had a side-effect. Sucking up a cultivator's Qi was the worst of many. It was too great of a risk for me to take when the strongest in my family could fall deeply in just one second. I had seen a countless number of people going through deviations due to this drug numerous times before as the drug was popular among sects, no matter if evil or righteous. "