Cultivation Fever

How did I want to portray myself in this world? Being called a monster was surprisingly pleasant and made me realise something.

I wanted to be seen as a genius. I wanted to be someone worthy of the t.i.tle "monster." But if people knew that I had transmigrated, they would dismiss my achievements.

I wanted recognition, not suspicion.

In my past life, great art was expected from me. No-one was surprised when I won compet.i.tions, they simply said:

"Well it"s Oscar. Of course, he won."

The pressure to make something incredible fuelled me. But no-one appreciated my effort.

After school, I was no longer supported by my teacher and my motivation disappeared. Every time my art was called "beautiful," or "incredible," it seemed shallow.

I wouldn"t let the same thing happen here. I would work harder than anyone else behind the scenes. But I would also let people see me struggle.

I knew it was selfish. But I was a selfish person who wanted to be praised.

The first step was limiting how much I showed my achievements. I had already revealed a lot to my parents, but I could slow down from here.

Over the next week, I carefully monitored my behaviour. There were two any things I controlled. How much I spoke, and how much I moved.

I had already spoken my first word, but luckily it could be mistaken for babble speech. I made sure to only repeat basic syllables like "ba," "da," and "ma".

In reality, I could form most syllables, and even speak basic sentences. I didn"t know much about babies, but I did know that a four-month-old couldn"t speak full sentences.

I made sure that I only flopped about like a baby too. However, behind closed doors, I could move my body with increasing precision.

Channelling qi into my muscles gave me the strength to sit upright and even crawl. Doing so made my muscles ache like I had worked out. I knew it was too soon to show this to my parents.

Cultivation was slow and steady. Painting two layers of qi at a time was ideal, as I could do it once in the morning and once before I went to bed.

By the time two weeks had pa.s.sed, my soul had nearly doubled in volume. Painting the layers took longer, but that didn"t bother me.

The book didn"t say how long to do this for. But I noticed something written on the pages that I hadn"t paid attention to.

Soul Birth had a Low Tier Commoner Grade requirement, whereas Soul Expansion had a Low Tier Warrior Grade requirement.

These requirements seemed to be the cultivation level system of this world. The second page had revealed itself after my major breakthrough to Low Tier Warrior Grade.

Maybe the third page would unlock after my next major breakthrough? For now, I just had to wait for my soul to grow.

When I reached six months old, I decided it was time to start showing some progress. I could now crawl without using qi or expending too much effort.

One night, when mother put me to bed, I made a scene out of rolling over in my cot. Her excitement was palpable, and she rushed out to go find father.

She dragged him into the nursery, and after a bit of encouragement, I rolled over again.

"What"s so special?" he asked, unimpressed.

"Didn"t you see that?! He rolled over!" she exclaimed.

"That"s nothing." Father folded his arms. "He crawled all the way to my study months ago."

Mother playfully poked his arm.

"Honey, you were so tired. That was a dream!"

"Look, I"ll show you," Father scoffed.

He picked me up and placed me down on the ground, then got down on his knees. He held me by the waist, a few inches above the ground. I let my limbs flop down.

"Come on! Crawl for dada," he cooed.

Mother let out a snort of laughter at my flailing limbs. Now she was the one crossing her arms.

"Carlo, you"re being ridiculous."

"Come on Osci! Come ooon," father continued, paying her no attention.

I felt slightly embarra.s.sed about the sorry state father was putting himself in. It was definitely my fault. He hadn"t dreamed it at all.

I decided to play along a bit. I let my elbows and knees down and pushed myself up.

"See? See!"

Father took away his hands, and I teetered from side to side. I had to make this seem difficult.

"Come to me Osci! Come here," he beckoned. Mother was silent now, watching intently.

I pushed my right arm forward and collapsed a bit.

"Stop this, he"s gonna hurt himself!"

"Don"t worry. He"s got it."

I brought my left leg forward. Then my left arm. Then my right leg. I made small, b.u.mbling steps toward father. After three steps, I pretended to collapse, and he caught me.

"Haha! Did you see that? Now that"s impressive," father cheered, letting out a long, rumbling laugh.

"Sure. But that was so hard for him!" She sounded embarra.s.sed. "There"s no way he could do that two months ago."

Father laughed again.

"It"s the northern blood in him!" He stood up and brought his face close to hers. "He gets it from me you know?"

Mother sighed, ignoring him. She took me from his arms and put me in the cot.

"It"s bedtime now!" she called. It sounded forced, and father noticed. He strode out of the room, humming a little victory tune.

After father left, she planted a kiss on my forehead.

"Well done sweetie. Sleep tight."

When she left, I did my cultivation for the night, then settled into light meditation. By now I had explored my whole body, so all I had to do each night was find any new pathways.

Over the next week, I built up my parents" expectations of my crawling ability. By the end of the week, they knew that I could at least crawl from the nursery to the study.

Finally, I could explore the house! Being stuck in two rooms and the courtyard had long since grown dull. I wanted to see something new.

Unfortunately, mother kept a watchful eye over me at all times. I understood her reluctance to let me explore the courtyard, but she didn"t even let me go into other rooms.

One morning I stopped meditating early. I wanted to explore before she woke up. I pushed open the latch and jumped out of the cot. For big movements, I just had to channel some qi.

I tried to jump and reach the door handle, but I fell just shy of it. I channelled qi into my fingertips and prised the door open instead.

Looking around me, I wondered where to explore first. I didn"t want to accidentally meet mother, so the left wing of the house was a no-go area.

First on my agenda was the room behind the study. I saw father pull a chair from there once before and wanted to know what was inside.

I crawled over to the study, staying quiet so I wouldn"t alert anyone. I prised open this door and crawled in.

To my surprise, the sliding door was already open. I crawled over, into what looked like a library. The library didn"t interest me one bit, because something else captured my attention.

At the opposite end of the library, there was another open sliding door. Through it, I saw a hulking beast of a man, dancing on a flagstone patio.