Senior Sister Liu raised her hand.

  Instantly, the whispers died.

  The silence was so complete that I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.

  “An inner world is a space that exists within your soul,” she began, “it starts as a small empty place, but as you cultivate, as you grow stronger, this space will grow along with you. You will add elements, celestial bodies, and if you’re fortunate and talented enough, you might even give birth to life itself.”

  My brain stuttered to a halt.

  Having read countless xianxia, I had prepared myself for a lot of things that cultivation could be in this world.

  Normal stuff like doing breathing exercises for hours, sitting under a freezing waterfall for three days straight, or raising spirit wolves and phoenixes like overgrown pets. Maybe even the less reasonable stuff like breaking bones to temper the ‘temple’, drinking beast blood every morning to improve spiritual sensitivity, or carving runes into my skin to ‘build my foundation’. Hell, even the demonic path where I would need to sell my soul for power would have made more sense to me.

  But creating a world, in my soul no less, that was definitely not on my list of expectations.

  This wasn’t the power of a cultivator; this was the power of a god.

  But it seemed I wasn’t the only one having an existential crisis.

  The other village recruits looked just as shocked and confused.

  Some even looked terrified.

  Beside me, Su Yan had gone pale, her hands clutching the edge of her robes so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.

  But the news didn’t come as a surprise to everyone, the clan recruits were nodding along like this was old news, and I guess for them it was.

  Their families probably taught them all about cultivation from the moment they could walk.

  It wouldn’t surprise me if they had libraries full of cultivation manuals and tutors ready to explain every little detail.

  The gap between them and the villagers was already massive, and we hadn’t even officially started yet.

  “Once you awaken your inner world,” Senior Sister Liu said, “you will gain an inner world spirit.”

  That caught my attention again.

  “Think of it as a servant, it will help you manage and maintain your world. At the first realm of cultivation, the Qi Condensation Realm, this spirit will be very basic, barely able to speak and only able to follow the simplest of commands. But as your cultivation advances, and your inner world grows, so too will your spirit until it eventually becomes as intelligent as a person.”

  So, the inner world spirit was basically an AI?

  Well, I guess at first, it would be a really, really basic AI.

  Kind of like those chatbots that could only respond to specific keywords.

  But it had the potential to become something more, something sophisticated, something capable, and from the sounds of it – sentient.

  That was both fascinating and slightly terrifying.

  I already had a ton of questions.

  Would it have its own personality and desires?

  What would happen if we disagreed about something?

  And more concerningly, could it take control over my body?

  I had only recently acquired this body; I didn’t want to lose it so soon.

  As much as I wanted the answers to these questions, Senior Sister Liu did not seem the type that would appreciate interruptions. I could only hope there would be a q and a segment at the end.

  “The strength of your soul determines the initial development of the spirit,” Senior Sister Liu added. “For those few who are fortunate enough to have stronger souls, you’ll find your spirits more responsive. But most of you should not expect anything except a barely functioning tool that sometimes follows orders.”

  How encouraging…

  She then reached into her purple robes and pulled out what looked like a small pouch.

  With a flick of her wrist, the pouch opened, releasing hundreds of leaves.

  They didn’t fall to the ground.

  Instead, they floated in the air around her.

  I had never seen leaves like that before.

  They were a pale blue-green color, and even from a distance, I could sense a subtle pressure or presence emanating from them.

  “These are known as Void Touching Leaves,” Senior Sister Liu announced. “They are harvested from trees that grow on the border between the physical realm and spiritual realm. You may use them to guide your consciousness inward so that you can locate and awaken your inner world.”

  With another gesture, she sent the leaves over to us, each one found its own way to a different recruit.

  The moment I touched the one floating before me, I felt a cool sensation wash over me.

  It was nice, peaceful.

  “They really are Void Touching Leaves,” Wei Lin muttered beside me, having somehow made his way closer to our group. “You know these are worth at least fifty spirit stones each. I’m surprised Senior Sister Liu is handing them out just like that.”

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  “What if it’s from the sect?” Su Yan asked, looking up from her own leaf.

  “The sect doesn’t provide resources like this,” Wei Lin shook his head. “She must be using her own supply."

  “Oh?” Su Yan eyes widened. “Then maybe she really wants us to pass?"

  Wei Lin laughed at that, though it wasn’t unkind.

  “More likely she gets rewarded based on how many of us pass,” he said with a knowing smile. “The better her recruits perform, the more contribution points she earns. It’s an investment. It has to be.”

  Even though I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t help but agree with Wei Lin.

  Cultivators rarely did things that didn’t benefit them.

  In this world, favors didn’t come for free.

  Especially not favors from strangers.

  “You have three days to awaken your inner world,” Senior Sister Liu’s voice brought me crashing down back to reality. “If you fail to do so by then, you will be dismissed from the sect.”

  The square erupted into nervous murmurs.

  I ignored them, focusing on my own situation.

  As competitive and dangerous immortal sects could be, the outside world would only be more brutal. I had a better chance of survival quietly cultivating in the sect, than walking out to the unknown like a helpless puppy.

  I had three days.

  Either I awakened my inner world and began my journey to godhood, or I failed and would be kicked out.

  No pressure or anything.

  “You may begin,” Senior Sister Liu said, and just like that, she was done.

  There were no additional instructions, no q and a segment like I had hoped.

  She simply sat down on the platform and closed her eyes, entering a meditative state.

  Her heavy presence gradually faded until I wouldn’t have even known she was still here if I wasn’t directly looking at her.

  Around me, the disciples didn’t waste any time.

  They immediately sat down.

  The clan recruits positioned themselves in meditation postures, while village recruits just dropped where they stood.

  “Three days…” Su Yan whispered.

  The poor girl looked like she might actually throw up.

  “Hey,” I leaned closer to her. “Are you okay?”

  “What if I can’t do it?” she looked down at the leaf, breathing heavily. “What if I’m not talented enough? My family is waiting for me to send them back some money, but what if I get sent back with nothing?”

  “You’re going to be fine,” I said, trying my best to reassure her even though I had no idea if that was true. “An Immortal Master chose you, that means you are talented. Don’t think about what happens if you fail, just think about the meditation.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” she took a shaky breath then nodded. “One step at a time.”

  “Exactly. You've got this.”

  We made our way to a less crowded section of the square.

  I noticed Wei Lin watch us leave, but he didn’t follow, and I’m glad he didn’t.

  I didn’t know what he wanted, but I couldn’t have a curious disciple sniffing around.

  It was too dangerous.

  Su Yan sat down about ten feet away from me, we were close enough to see each other but far enough to have our own space. She settled into what looked like proper meditation posture – back straight, legs crossed, hands resting on her knees.

  Interesting. It seemed that Su Yan was better prepared than she let on.

  I tried to copy her.

  It turned out to be much harder than it looked.

  My back just wouldn’t stay straight; it kept wanting to slouch.

  Sitting cross-legged felt awkward. I was used to hours sitting on a chair, not sitting on the floor.

  Fortunately, after a few adjustments, I did manage to find something that felt relatively stable if not entirely comfortable.

  Looking around, I realised that everyone else had already started.

  The square had gone from being a noisy gathering of anxiety to a field of silent, meditating figures.

  It was time to join them.

  I took the Void Touching Leaf and pressed it against my forehead.

  Like a magnet with metal, it stuck there immediately.

  The cool sensation from earlier intensified and spread all over my skull.

  It wasn’t an unpleasant experience, just a strange one.

  Like having an ice pack that wouldn’t melt pressed against your head.

  I closed my eyes, but it wasn’t long before I encountered my first problem.

  I just couldn’t stop thinking.

  Every single time I tried to clear my mind and focus inward like Senior Sister had instructed, my thoughts immediately began to wander.

  I thought about my death. About the truck that had hit me. About my family back on Earth who probably thought I was dead. About whether they had held a funeral.

  Then I thought about this body's family.

  The tailor in Floating Reed Village who didn’t even know he lost his son.

  The mother who was probably waiting for her son to send a letter with good news.

  Then I thought about the absurdity of my situation.

  How I was sitting in a magical cultivation sect trying to awaken a universe inside my soul.

  Wow. Just wow.

  Before my thoughts could go on another tangent, I scrunched my eyebrows.

  Focus, Kane. Or Ke Yin. Whoever I was now.

  Even though I tried to concentrate on the darkness behind my eyelids, my mind still kept producing new distractions like the itch on my nose, or the sound of wind rustling through the square, and how I could no longer feel my legs.

  And like this, time passed.

  Whether it was an hour or more, I honestly couldn’t tell.

  But I was no closer to awakening my inner world than when I first started.

  Just when I was about to give up and take a break, something changed.

  The smell from the Void Touching Leaf intensified, from being barely noticeable to now filling my senses completely. It smelled like... I couldn’t even think of an appropriate comparison.

  Whatever it was, with that smell came a change in my mental state.

  The racing thoughts slowed down. The distractions faded into background noise.

  The Void Touching Leaf had essentially turned down the volume on my brain so that I could focus on what was actually important.

  My consciousness drifted away from my physical body, moving somewhere else, somewhere inside.

  The darkness behind my eyelids grew darker until it became a different type of darkness – the void.

  There was no up or down.

  There was no sense of time or space.

  There was only an endless expanse of nothing.

  And for who knows how long, I floated there, despite having no form.

  Just as I began to wonder if I had succeeded and this was my inner world, or if I had failed and was going to be stuck in this void forever, I saw it.

  A light.

  It was tiny, barely visible against the overwhelming darkness.

  But it was there.

  I moved toward it. Or maybe I didn't move at all. Maybe it came to me.

  In this place, normal rules didn't seem to apply.

  The closer I got to the light, the brighter it became.

  Then, suddenly, without any warning or transition, it exploded, blinding me.

  When my vision returned, I found myself standing in a space, or floating.

  I wasn't entirely sure which.

  There was no floor beneath my feet, no sky above my head, but somehow, I had a sense of up and down. The space around me was still mostly dark, but it was no longer the absolute void from before. This darkness had depth, had texture.

  And it was small.

  Very small.

  If I had to estimate, I was standing in a sphere that was maybe two meters in radius which was about the size of a small bedroom. Though calling it a "room" felt wrong as there were no walls or boundaries that I could see. There was just a sense that the space ended right about... there.

  This was it.

  This was my inner world.

  While it didn’t look like much now, it was mine.

  I had done it.

  On my first attempt at meditation, I had found and awakened my inner world.

  Maybe I wasn't completely hopeless at this cultivation thing after all.

  The excitement of success was still washing over me when a new light appeared.

  This one was different from the pinprick that had guided me here.

  This light was soft and white, manifesting right in the center of my inner world.

  I watched as the light began to take shape.

  Slowly, it formed a head, a body, arms and legs.

  Until finally, the light faded, revealing what it had created – a young boy.

  He looked to be around ten or eleven years old, with a slight build and delicate features. His hair was white, matching the light he had been born from, and his eyes were a pale silver that seemed to reflect everything around them. He wore simple white robes that appeared to be made from the same spiritual energy as the rest of him.

  The boy looked around the empty space with an expression of wonder, taking in the nothingness like it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

  Then his eyes found me.

  He blinked once, twice, then his face lit up with a smile so pure and genuine that it made me question if angels were real in this world.

  The boy opened his mouth, and when he spoke, his voice echoed through the entire inner world.

  “Master?”