My eyes followed the slowly retreating figure of my father. He was reentering the temple, probably to continue his meditations on qi.

He had always been distant; rarely did he ever speak to us. It was always simply out of necessity that he did. None of us knew the reason for that but we all felt that there was no true care within him for us.

We seemed to be more of an obligation than anything else.

Our mother at least tried to act like she didn't dislike our existence. She was also rather curt and tense when speaking to us. I suppose that as a mother she probably felt more guilt from her actions but even then, it couldn't overcome whatever disgust was within her. Like father her eyes seemed to be filled with only shame and pity when they looked at us.

As children, we never understood why that was, but we soon stopped asking. We could only find that care and comfort in each other. Some more so than others.

The two were perfectly capable of talking normally to each other, in fact, I would say they had a good relationship. They were just neglectful.

As I grew older the anger and distress, I had felt as a kid slowly subsided and was replaced only with hurt and disappointment. I had hoped that the younger children wouldn't have to feel that lack of attention but that was a fool's dream.

Why did they keep having children if they so clearly did not want them?

Ah well, it didn't matter to me anymore.

I continued to sit atop the cracked and aged pillar as I waited for my brother Marco.

The meat we had was beginning to run low. It would soon be time to stock up again. Father would eventually get to do it, but I decided that it was time to stop relying on him for everything.

I wanted to be independent and do things by myself. I didn't feel comfortable needing something from a man that seemed to care so little.

My siblings and I had done a couple of hunts, but they had been smaller prey. Today I needed something big and mighty. Of course, no one dared to hunt in the radiant plains.

None of us were stupid enough or arrogant enough to step into those fields. It was after all where father had lost his arm. The same man that could take all of us on without breaking a sweat.

I had previously promised Marco that I would bring him along the next time I went hunting. He was 5 years old though I'd overheard my parents talking about how he was 15 by Earth standards.

I'd asked them what an Earth was, but they hadn't answered. I'd simply been told to go play with the others.

It took another 30 minutes of waiting before my brother finally decided to bless me with his presence.

The little shit.

"Marco up here." He craned his neck back to look up at me from the bottom of the pillar. A smile was present on his face as he looked up at me.

Marco had inherited Mother's features. His elegant face and green eyes were all hers.

"Took you forever to get here. What was holding you up?" I asked as I jumped off the pillar and slid downwards on the winds.

"I was busy hanging out with Alice." his already large smile seemed to get brighter as he mentioned our sister.

"Ooh, and why were you with Alice?" I started to walk to get our gear. I already knew the answer, but I hoped that I would be wrong. Behind me, I heard him start to follow.

"Come on man you know Alice and I got a thing together." His answer brought a wave of disgust through my body.

I'd long since guessed that several of my brothers and sisters were eloping. Yet I had refused to believe it.

The very thought of that usually left me feeling disgusted. I didn't know why, our parents who probably already knew hadn't addressed it so it couldn't be that horrendous of an act.

Despite that fact, the thought of it still left me feeling uneasy.

"Yeah, whatever get your gear, and make sure you have everything you need,” I replied as we arrived at the wooden hut that housed our equipment.

I could tell that he wanted to ask why I was so against the idea but the sight of his gear flying towards him shut his mouth.

"This time we're going to be hunting a water deer."

"A water deer?" He repeated, the surprise was clear on his face.

"Yes, a water deer. The winds murmur of good tidings, it would be a waste not to use that to our advantage."

We'd hunted water deer before but that was always when we were with our father. Water deer were low on the hierarchy of dangers, but they weren't to be trifled with.

"And you're sure we're not going to get gored to death by a whole herd?” He asked as he donned his leather armor.

"Yes, I'm sure. I've made some advancements with the calculation techniques father has taught us."

"Really!" he said eyes glistening in excitement. I'm so jealous I've been trying for ages and I still can't get any better with mine."

"If you actually tried instead of acting the fool all day you might succeed."

"I do try though."

I didn't bother to respond to that, instead, I started to walk towards the river.

"Let's go, Marco."

"Has father told you already? I asked some 30 minutes into our walk.

"You mean about the titles?"

"Yes"

"I mean he clearly has since I know what you're talking about. I just don't understand why dad had to tell me now. Why couldn't he tell us before so we could actually work towards those titles and earn them quicker?"

"Well, because then you end up like me," I said, my eyes looking over the surroundings as I made sure no threats were present.

“A broody man who takes himself too seriously. Yeah, that sounds horrible."

"Oh, shut up, "I said as I glared back at him. I was greeted by the sight of that ever-present annoying grin of his.

"They say the truth hurts.” He replied in a sing-song voice.

Seriously though you're the best at these things. Even Marianne and Trevor aren't as good as you and they've been doing it longer. If you're bad, then we're just hopeless." finally that smirk was gone from his face and he walked to my side.

"It only looks that way because I put in more effort. The reason I said what I said is that the titles I got from having that foreknowledge are hindering me."

"If this is you hindered then I don't want to see you unhindered.” He replied.

I don't know the title of my father or anybody else, but I guessed that apart from the two older siblings no one else had the term false in their titles.

The rate at which they learned and utilized what they were taught was nearly twice as fast as mine. I genuinely had to spend more time and effort to reach their levels. That had forced me to think outside the box to advance.

When I was young and there had been only 3 of us, our parents tried to teach us what they could of qi and they also told us about the existence of titles. They'd built a training regime that should have given us similar titles but instead, we ended up with the False titles.

Not that we could confirm with each other but the interaction between our title abilities and our parents had given us all a clue.

They learned from that and made it forbidden to tell our siblings about the existence of titles lest they ended up like us. Our rate of growth in the abilities was pathetic compared to the others and so my other siblings had decided to delve deep into cultivation.

I remained stubborn and continued to focus on titles.

We continued to walk for another couple of hours until we arrived at the river.

Only then did we slowly come to a stop at which point I called upon my titles and activated an ability that I'd created.

False Divination.

The world exploded into numbers and calculations. My qi sense overlapped and slowly integrated into the number which enhanced the calculation ability of [ False Numerator] before finally the precognitive whispers and visions of [False Oracle of The North Wind] mixed in.

My vision had turned into a flurry of bright colors and calculations that would flash often with whispers and hints at the future.

And with all this newfound information I knew that there had been a singular water deer here about thirty minutes ago.

"Let's go," I said as I exploded into a flurry of motion and followed the illusionary visons of the deer.

My brother did not question my words but simply followed my lead. We ran across the winds, our excitement slowly rising as we immersed ourselves deeper into the hunt.

I could feel Marco's qi roaring as he weaved and bobbed in between the roots of the sky-piercing trees.

It took only minutes for us to catch up to it. The singular water deer was immediately aware of our arrival.

Ah well, so much for hunting in a cautious fashion. I'd let my enthusiasm get to me and hadn't hidden my presence.

The water deer was a large beast towering above us at a solid 2 meters tall. It wasn't bulky but rather lithe and agile. Despite their massive size, these things could move at dizzying speeds.

Seeing a singular water deer without its herd was unusual but not something completely unseen.

Individually water deer are rather weak despite their size. It was when they were in herds that they were at their most powerful. Each additional member was a force multiplier to the herd. Yet for some reason they tended to separate for extended amounts of time.

My false divination was still active and seeing as the deer was alone, I threw caution to the wind.

I directed my qi to my legs before pushing off the ground and rushed towards the deer, my spear at the ready.

MY brother weaved through the roots and trees in a blur of leaves and arrived at its back.

As I arrived the deer lowered its horns and charged towards me.

Predictable.

I dodged with ease and used the horn to push myself onto its back.

In the next second my brother's spear dug into its side and I had to get off its back as he used the stuck spear to slam it into the grown.

A loud high-pitched grunt of pain could be heard from the deer.

We paid it no mind.

Still, in the air from my jump, I aimed my spear. The air-hardened as my qi gripped it together and then my spear flew true.

A fleshy thunk noise could be heard as my spear sunk deep within.

Its eyes and brain were pierced by the spear that dug deep into its skull.

The grunting stopped.

................

Our arrival was met with cheers of jubilation and many congratulations. Alice took Marco aside and they disappeared to do unspeakable horrors.

We ate a well that night and by the time we finished eating I had recounted the tale of the battle so many times that my throat started to grow sore.

My father did not join us for dinner, as expected he was still busy with whatever business he had within the temple.

The rest of us including our mother were all seated around a bonfire.

Its flames licked the skies as the shadows it cast danced across the ground. The festive mood had started to calm down and we were all starting to feel a little drowsy.

I felt it.

A wave of qi was expelled out of the temple entrance before it was quickly pulled back in.

All the qi in the surrounding imitated the same movement.

A constant cycle of push and pull was taking place. Only the most qi sensitive felt it but none of us knew what it was.

Glancing at mother she seemed unsurprised... as usual.

Her lack of worry calmed us down and that nervousness turned to curiosity.

What was happening?

We did not need to wait long for the answer.

Soon after the motions stopped my father emerged.

As he walked out of the temple, we all felt the strength and pressure of his qi. His already cold and intimidating presence was only pronounced by this new development.

His eyes swept over us before landing on our mother.

"I have succeeded."