Calm winds blew across a serene vista, coming down from a high cliff that overlooked a sprawl of low roofed buildings. Surrounding this village was a dense bamboo forest that seemed to stretch for miles on end only giving way on the eastern banks of a river. There flowed the Flowing Grass river, life blood of not only this village but many other clans that were situated within this valley. To the east of the village winds blew down from the tall cliffs that stood tall and proud in the sky forming a natural protective wall to the east as the river did to the north, the quaint and humble village showed few signs of opulence or arrogance. In fact the architecture in the village was very plain, of the buildings all were simple and practical with slanted roofs to drain away rain and simple fittings for doors and windows. Outwardly the only thing that would catch one's eye was the golden symbol of a palm with an observing eye at the center of it, this crest was emblazoned on the main door of every building.

Every person who lived in this valley would instantly recognize this crest as that of the Fan clan and this village as their ancestral grounds called Little Green Bamboo village. Today the sun rose high in the sky as a gentle breeze seemed to inject calmness into the hearts of even the most agitated of beings, it felt as if the spirit of the village itself was seeping into everything around it giving one a feeling of peaceful serenity and contentness. Atop the highest cliff bordering the south of Little Green Bamboo Village stood a man flanked by two young youths. The man’s back was tall and straight as the proudest peaks, his short cut black hair gently moving with the fierce winds sweeping down the cliff edge. One look from his golden eyes pierced the soul and his classically handsome face rivaled even the heroes of ancient tales. Golden robe flowing in the wind with the Fan clan crest proudly displayed on his back, to the two youths standing behind him Fan Long seemed to exude the aura of a peerless expert with the grace and poise of a true immortal that had descended from the heavens.

“ Zhong’er” Fan Long’s calm voice broken the young men’s trance like a hammer blow “one month ago you entered your 14th year, until now i encouraged you to enjoy your youth and the fancies afforded to you however this ends today. As an heir to the Fan clan you must begin your training and prepare yourself to fulfill your duties to me as your father and the clan as someone who might one day have to lead, do you understand?”

Fan Zhong stared at his father attempting to keep a grimace from his face, the breeze that felt so calming inside the village now chilled him to the bone. He had been dreading this day for months and now it was finally here and he could no longer avoid it. Quickly he steeled himself and met his father’s eyes with all the willpower he could muster.

“O… Of course father! Your son will train diligently and uphold the honor of the clan, this son will bring no shame to our house!” Fan Zhong replied in the most formal tone he could manage.

“ Mmmmm good, starting now I will demonstrate to you the 9 basic palm techniques the clan practices. Afterwards you will live on these cliffs with your older brother away from the village, when he deems you have the basic skills to advance on your own you will be allowed to return. During this time I will visit each month to check on your progress as well as providing personal guidance to you, train well and show all of us your talent! “ Fan Long emphasized his last words with a small amount of qi causing the sound to explode out in all directions before he lightly sighed giving his young son a look of pity, obviously he knew his son and understood him well, this would be a tough trial upon him.

Fan Zhong stiffly bowed, even if he knew his father did not expect much of him, the pitying gaze hurt his pride. However deep down he was extremely worried about how long he would have to stay in this isolated training, in the worst case it could be years. In truth Fan Zhong was not a bad person, it was just that he had never seen much of a point in the martial training his family valued so highly. In the Flowing Grass Valley there hadn’t been a large-scale war since his father was his age over a century ago, and that itself had simply been a major conflict between two large clans, not a war that enveloped the entire valley! Although there were minor disputes that happened peace was plentiful in the valley and even his Fan clan, whose men were regarded as truly fierce warriors and who’s women had a lineage of being deadly scouts and assassins, had shifted to mostly providing contracted bodyguard services. Even the deadly lineage of female scouts and assassins now fulfilled contracts as village observers for clans and settlements.

Although these were vital services his clan provided throughout the valley, Fan Zhong had always lived in the peaceful Little Green Bamboo Village far away from even the minor conflicts and hardships. As such he had little experience with the act of doing these duties much less any connection to the professions themselves. For Fan Zhong the world would be alright if it stayed just as it was eternally, with him safely allowed to experience the music, food and other luxuries he loved without a care for what happened outside of his village. Days spent appreciating the subtleties of intertwining melodies and nights spent enjoying the company of the lovely maidens of the Soft Moonlight Hall, these were the things that brought him the most joy in life! However he knew the opportunity to enjoy such luxury was a privilege of being born the son of the clan leader and as such he had duties and obligations to fulfill to prove he deserved to keep receiving the fruits of the clan's labors. Such duties obviously needed to be fulfilled, perhaps just a bit later? Yes, he only needed more time such duties were for an older Fan Zhong to worry about….

Suddenly Fan Zhong’s mind rushed back to the present as a shockwave of air rushed over him, a shadow flitting past. In an instant his father had moved between him and his brother and now stood behind them in the center of the circular clearing inside the forest that bordered the cliff's edge. Another wave of force pulsed out as Fan Long gathered his qi and stomped his feet on the ground taking a horse stance and drawing in breath, as he did so the rushing winds rustled the leaves of the tall bamboo’s all around and caused the wall of the simple meditation huts encircling them to shake. Fan Zhong focused, he could not miss any details of this moment as his father would be demonstrating the core techniques he would need to learn. With his talents Fan Zhong felt that he would need all the insight he could to have even a glimmer of hope to return to the village before the mountains themselves weathered away.

“ Hmm not quite adjust your feet like so… hmmm and stop breathing so unnaturally let it flow. Fighting your own breathing will cause the opposite of the intended effect” Fan Cheng spoke with a stern but compassionate voice as he lightly prodded and whipped various parts of Fan Zhong’s arms, legs, and sides with a discipline stick to emphasize each adjustment he mentioned. Each hit light enough to be felt as a small angry ember of pain but shallow enough to leave no lasting marks or lingering pain.

It had been 3 hours since Fan Long had finished showing the fundamental techniques to Fan Zhong and left him in the care of his older brother. All together these techniques included 9 unarmed palm strikes, each designed to attack a different angle and 9 armed staff techniques. Fan Zhong had been practicing the basic stance for three hours, poorly if Fan Cheng’s remarks were anything to go by. However he knew his elder brother carried no animosity in his guidance, no Fan Cheng was as upright and honest a man as he had ever met. Simply it came down to their personalities being very different, while Fan Zhong was a light flitting passing gem stone enjoying the luster of the world, his brother was a smooth sturdy boulder that was tempered by an almost inhuman amount of patience and determination. While practicing a fundamental stance to perfection would most likely be the most assured way to learn the clan techniques, Fan Zhong simply found the idea of drilling the same thing over and over dreadfully dull. However, knowing his elder brother he knew not only this part of his training would progress in this process, every single technique would be honed individually until it was perfected, only after grueling polishing of the fundamentals would he be allowed to practice even slightly above basic combination exchanges and the such.

“Mercy elder brother mercy, surely we have earned a moment of rest to… meditate on experience and consolidate my practice!” Fan Zhong tried to lace his words with honey and the type of insane logic practice fanatics like his brother understood!

“Truly brother, your silver tongue is wasted with me. Perhaps I should recommend you to mother? I hear observers need to have a quick wit and tongue for negotiating their prices!” Fan Cheng responded after chuckling in good humor quirking an eyebrow up in challenge to his younger brother

“ N…. No elder brother, surely you jest! As a man of the Fan clan how could I forget the honor of inheriting the techniques of our ancestors?” Panic filled his voice as Fan Zhong hurriedly responded.

The women of the clan started training even earlier than he or his brother’s had and judging from the state his little sister had been in upon returning from such training he doubted it would be any more pleasant than his.

“Hmmm, I see, it joys me to hear such enthusiastic energy from you! In that case we shall train until our blood runs dry and our bodies can shatter mountains, we will not stop until the heavens themselves tremble or strike us down in the process! Truly your spirit gives off the spirit of a young hero who slays gods and demons brother, to be willing to take up such a grueling training regime!” Fan Cheng laughed heartily smiling so widely at him Fan Zhong thought his mouth would rip open his face, at least he hoped it would, it was the least he deserved for such cruel words! Despite his best efforts Fan Zhong’s face twisted into a grimace that only amplified the sound of his brother's booming laughter.

“Alright, alright have your rest. In any case father tasked me with deepening your knowledge of the martial arts and the world, keep your feet for a moment longer I'll fetch some seats and we’ll have a lesson while we break” Fan Cheng replied in a casual manner as he turned and perfectly assumed the stance Fan Zhong had been trying so hard to master.

Looking at his brother gathering himself and tensing his body, Fan Zhong could not help but marvel. Although he was 3 years older than him, Fan Zhong could not imagine his tall lanky frame ever resembling the stalwart mountain of muscle and energy his brother was. From the side Fan Cheng stood with his golden martial arts robe only slightly loose, fitting enough to billow in the wind, his short pitch black hair staying perfectly still completing the image of an immovable wall of stone. At the top of that mountain Fan Cheng’s visage held the golden eyes all Fan clan men shared upon reaching the master realm of martial arts tinted so by gathering the energies of heaven and earth. Outwardly they seemed like two all seeing suns framed by a robust, if not classically handsome, face. Without warning Fan Zhong was almost flung off his feet as his brother rocked away from the center of the clearing towards one of the meditation huts. Before he could even turn his head fully to follow the motion another booming noise rang out and just like the first and Fan Zhong barely turned in time to see a blurring image of his brother arriving back where he had started. Upon arriving he sat down a table that had been resting on his shoulder and slid a barrel towards Fan Zhong placing one on his side of the small round wooden table and sitting down, quickly Fan Zhong pulled the second barrel behind him and sat down as well sighing in relief to have some rest.

“Today I think it prudent to start with deepening your knowledge on martial arts and cultivation as a whole, now brother a simple test to check your attainment. Please, if you could, describe to me the basic forms of cycling techniques that exist and what realm of cultivation they can be used at” Fan Cheng’s tone quickly took on the inclination of a teacher who was outwardly sincere and inwardly expected his student to be completely unable to answer the question.

“Well, cycling techniques… you see these things are for vaunted masters and experts! Surely my current abilities are far from needing such knowledge?” Fan Zhong struggled at first but quickly tried to deflect and return the question by assessing it’s validity, a smug smile crossed his face as he felt quite proud with his retort.

Suddenly his cheek burned with a stinging pain only a momentary blur of motion and the punishment stick, now firmly grasped in his brother’s hand, gave away the source of the pain.

“For others perhaps, however you are a main line heir of the clan! These are things your tutors have taught you countless times to prepare you and make ready your mind so that when the time is ready you are prepared. Just now you experienced what being unprepared for something feels like, I advise you remember that feeling and work to avoid it as much as possible. In case you are wondering, as I experienced when father taught me in this way, experiencing such a thing again is very possible” Fan Cheng’s voice remained calm but his eye’s twinkled with a small bit of laughter as he spoke.

Although Fan Zhong felt the anger swelling in his chest he knew that his brother was only prodding him, he wouldn’t cause actual harm with this swats merely pain. Pain however was not something Fan Zhong had experienced much of in his life, unfortunately it seemed that was soon to change.

“Now it seems you lack the knowledge expected from your education by the clan tutors. We shall have to assume we are starting with the basic’s and drill them into you alongside your martial training. To begin with let’s go over the basic structure of martial arts cultivation realms.” Thus Fan Cheng began from the basics, sparing no details to make sure his dear little brother received the most solid of foundations!

Slowly but surely Fan Zhong began to remember more and more details of his lessons. Firstly there were the steps of martial arts cultivation also commonly referred to as realms, generally they referred to a qualitative change in one's ability to fight and use their techniques and internal energy. Normally this was the result of arduous years of meditation and practice as well as real world experiences.

The realms so far as he was taught were 3rd Grade Martial Artist, 2nd Grade Martial Artist, 1st Grade Martial Artist, Master, Grandmaster and the mythical Supreme Grandmaster. Many of the legends and fables did mention ancient heroes who had reached realms beyond this such as “Qi Condensation” where one condensed the energies of heaven and earth permanently in their body and ascended their mortal frames resisting the will of heaven itself while becoming true immortals who lived thousands of years!

However the entire valley had only a single supreme grandmaster in their entire history, Wei Yan, and at this point he should be more than 300 years old; many believed him dead of old age. Although Wei Yan’s legendary might had allowed his clan to become the overlords of the valley clearly his descendants did not share his talent as no other Supreme Grandmaster’s of his lineage had appeared, this lead many to question if he ever achieved such a realm or perhaps was simply an incredibly strong Grandmaster who claimed to have achieved a higher realm. There were rumors that Deng Clan leader, Deng Wuying, had also achieved the realm after entering closed door cultivation a decade ago. Indeed this would explain how the Deng clan remained the only other Super size clan in the valley controlling the plains the Flowing Grass River ran through after exiting the valley on it’s way to the sea. In any case such things were beyond what Fan Zhong hoped to achieve in his lifetime, although living long would be nice he believed a life that had to be spent doing so much work couldn’t possibly be enjoyable!

Continuing afterwards were the details of how strong martial artists of each step were and what abilities were gained upon breaking through. For 3rd Grade Martial Artists the bar was to be a competent expert fighter with a style of unarmed or armed combat, able to hold their own in a fight with 1-2 untrained individuals as well as handle another skilled opponent. While not Master’s in their own right 3rd Grade Martial Artists usually served as able and competent foot soldiers. Curiously he remembered this was the no realm that required some sort of breakthrough or qualitative change simply recognition, if others recognized you being skillful enough to claim the title then so it was.

Next came 2nd Grade Martial Artists those who mastered a fighting style to the apex pushing the limits of human ability. At this level the ability to handle 1-2 opponents at the level of 3rd Grade Martial Artists is expected as well as contending with half a dozen untrained enemies. After breaking through to this realm the practitioner will generate a wisp of mental energy, an internal energy that actively speeds up the ability to perceive events and mental processes in general such as thoughts.

Afterwards the martial artist enters the 1st Grade Martial Artists realm, at this point the abilities of the practitioner well exceed the capabilities of a normal human who lacks any type of internal energy. Dozens of untrained opponents pose no threat to a 1st Grade Martial Artist and even twenty or so 3rd Grade Martial Artists would have difficulty causing much harm to them. In general attacking a 1st Grade Martial Artist with less than 5 2nd Grade Martial Artists has little hope to succeed and even then only if they are willing to kill the 1st Grade Martial Artist. Upon achieving this realm of martial arts the practitioner will be able to actively sense their mental energy and channel it towards certain tasks they focus on, such as doing a large number of calculations quickly or perceiving the flight path of multiple arrows to knock them out of the air. Although they are still unable to fully control and utilize the mental energy simply being able to focus it like this vastly increases their abilities.

At this point further breakthroughs bring the martial artist into the Master realm where they can finally fully control their mental energy and must learn to cycle it to generate ‘Qi’ and strengthen their bodies through purging supposed impurities and infusing their flesh and bones with the energy. Gracefully with the sun going down Fan Cheng spared him the increasingly difficult and nuanced information about the master realms, saving it for later.

“Good progress brother, now let us complete a run up and down the cliff trails to imprint this knowledge in your mind!” Fan Zhong barely contained his groan slowly rising from his seat until he heard his brothers last words “At this pace perhaps we will finish the basic stance and realm knowledge this week and the weekend I set aside to bolster your knowledge will be free, who knows where disciples can wander during their free time? Certainly not me, I have no reason to dote on my students in such a way in any case and I hear father will be gone this weekend a prime time for eyes to be blind to crimes that have no victims” before he could even finish a cloud of dust was the only thing Fan Cheng could still see of his brother as he raced down the trail hearing.