He was lying flat on his back, face pointing upwards. The air was filled with smoke.

Propping himself up on his elbows, he coughed, short and sharp. It was grey as far as he could see. The vague, dark shapes with jagged edges in the distance might have been trees, but they could also easily be ghosts or lurking beasts. Strange shapes loomed out every so often. But above all, the most disconcerting thing was the silence.

The events of the last couple hours crashed into Van. As if he'd been kicked in the backside, he sprung up.

"I'm alive!" he shouted to the smoke.

"It was all a dream?" he tried, tentatively, as of it would make it true. The smoke did not answer.

A dry chuckle sounded from somewhere close by.

[You wish, boy].

[You owe me a favour].

Van blocked his ears with his hands.

[I'm in your head, you twit].

"Oh," Van replied, dumbly.

"But how can you be inside my head? What was that power earlier? What are you, how can you exist? You're a talking ring!"

[…]

[You can't be serious].

Van got the distinct impression that the ring was nervously spinning.

"Deadly."

[…how must spiritual energy has been drained from the Ninth Realm…? How many years have I…?] the ring mumbled, it's tone growing desolate.

"Spiritual energy?" Van tasted the word in his mouth, "Is that what I felt earlier?"

[Yes]

"I never thought something like this could exist. I have never seen or heard of anything like 'spiritual energy.'"

[You're just a villager. I doubt you can even read]

Van was offended. He could read, not well, but he could.

How fearsome would it be, if the world contained beings with supernatural abilities?

[And you have seen spiritual power at work. The bull that chased you down, it had cultivated to the first Qi Distillation realm. That's why it had a greater intelligence and physical strength than ordinary beasts.]

Van considered that and remembered the unusualness of the c.o.c.ky Red Pinion bird that had attacked him.

"What is the Qi Distillation realm?"

[Qi is a form of spiritual power. The most rudimentary first level of gathering spiritual energy is called the Qi Distillation realm… the bull's cultivation was pitiful. Barely half a cupful of spiritual energy had ever been circulated.]

"And yet, that was enough to smash through trees like mas.h.i.+ng potatoes."

[You think that is impressive]

Van nodded emphatically.

[Your sights are too low. How pitiful. I did not take you for a young man who could not see past the front of his shoes!]

[You have seen what spiritual power can do – and that was barely a drop in the vast ocean of what you could do if you started to cultivate. What you did to the death wyrm was the crudest use of qi I have ever had the displeasure of seeing! No technique, no Dao, no form. No nothing. If you thought that was the height of power. You are sorely mistaken]

Van felt chastised. Indeed, he had been thinking about how nice it was that one blast of well-aimed qi had killed such as sinister and dangerous death wyrm and feeling rather impressed with himself. Now it seemed he was truly but a pitiful frog at the bottom of the well, looking at the bricks around him and thinking himself the king of the world.

[Do you want to become strong, Van?]

"Yes." He did. Van wanted to be strong. Strong enough to slap the villagers in the face. Strong enough to protect his sister, be her guardian and knight. He wanted to be strong enough to rise, get out of the village, and see the world. He wanted to see the world, and he needed to know why his parents had left him, and his sister, at ages 9 and 1, in the village to fend for themselves.

He needed to become strong.

"Yes!" He shouted, heart full to bursting in his chest. He imagined himself becoming strong and triumphing over those who looked down on him.

[Very good. I did not choose a coward. A short-sighted buffoon, but not a coward.]

Van didn't make a peep in complaint.

"You can really do that? Make me strong?"

[Fool. I can do that, and more! With me by your side, I can lift you out of your mundane, meaningless, bottom-of-the-food-chain existence and raise you to the top of this continent, and beyond!]

Top of the continent? What was a continent? And what could be beyond it?

The ring revised its little elevator pitch, seeing the incomprehension in Van's eyes.

[Even the top of the nation would not be difficult, if you had the determination to succeed]

It directly lowered its words to suit a villager's level.

Van did know what a nation was, but he had a hard time imagining being strong enough to be the foremost expert. Afterall, a nation was just an imaginary concept in his mind. In his entire life, he had been in several large cities when he was very young and with his parents. Vaguely, he recollected the scent of spices and sewerage, mixed together in unbearably pungent scent, too many people all gathered in one place, screaming, shouting, laughing. Big lumbering oxen, dragging wagons fill of strange goods through city streets. But since he was eight, he had lived his life inside Mountain Village. He only went to the nearest town, Clear Water, which was over 10 hours away by mule-drawn cart, once every year.

"How?"

[I will show you the way, but I cannot make you strong]

[That is up to you]

"Please, teach me!" Van said seriously, fists clenched by his sides.

[Then you must fulfil my request]

________________

A vast distance away, a robed figure landed on the front steps of an immense paG.o.da. With over one thousand eaves it was the tallest structure in the Divine River continent, and the centre of power. It punctured through the clouds above, unnaturally seating itself amongst the heavens.

The robed figure hurried into the paG.o.da and ran to the one-hundredth level. His superior was within, barefoot and murmuring a chant in front of a bust of an ancient G.o.d.

"Division Leader!" the figure said respectfully, bowing, "There has been a report of unusual spiritual flux in one of the countries under our jurisdiction, sir."

His superior ignored him, taking his time to complete the chant. The time of an incense stick later, he put down his prayer beads and turned to aim a steady look at his subordinate.

"What could it be, that it would make you directly report it to me, rather than take action?"

His subordinate felt sweat bead on the back of his neck, if he had made the wrong choice to directly report, his neck would be on the chopping block.

"A demon-level fluctuation, sir."

A brief look of annoyance flashed through the Division Leader's face. The level of spiritual flux could be categorised into ten levels from weakest to strongest: human, beast, demon, spirit, sage, disaster, catastrophe and calamity. A demon-level fluctuation was notable, but even spirit-level fluctuations weren't easily brought up directly before him. He considered his subordinate with a cooler eye.

His subordinate felt it and quickly expressed the key point.

"Sir, the fluctuation was caused by an extremely pure flame-aura, the likes of which we have not encountered in decades!"

"What!" The Division Leader shouted, jumping up.

"Flame-aura?"

"Yes," his subordinate nodded vigorously, relieved.

"When did this occur?"

"Just a few hours ago, sir. We were having a hard time deciding if this should be reported, sir."

"That long?" The Division Leader regretted that he had wasted time praying! A flame-attribute fluctuation had many implications, and the G.o.ds above his head in the higher levels of the paG.o.da had a keen interest in flame-attribute fluxes. They would put thunder and rain upon his head if he didn't investigate the source and write a report for them immediately!

"What country?"

"Cloud River, sir!"

The Division Leader's expression darkened, "Gather the rest of the Silver Marks, we are going to go on a little trip."

"Yes!"

________________

Van considered the ring's response. He was a little wary. The ring's existence was already beyond his understanding of the world, any request it had would naturally not be easy to complete.

[My request…is not easy to complete]

It was confirmed. Van felt his glorious dreams of becoming a strong expert wither, almost as quickly as they had formed. If he couldn't complete this request, how could he bargain with the ring and become strong?

[But I do not require success. Only that you try]

Van perked right back up, "I will do my best to fulfil whatever your request is!"

[Good.]

The ring pulsed faintly in his mind as it pondered. When at last it spoke, it struggled through its words.

[My memories are very…disjointed and… unclear]

[I do not know why I was in that Sapphire Dream lotus, nor when I was placed there, nor why I can speak…but I do know that I was made for a purpose]

[I am looking for someone. Someone important to the fate of this realm. But as I am, I am powerless]

[Seeing your situation…the thinness of the spiritual energy around us… I suspect millions, no, billions, of years have pa.s.sed since I was placed within the lotus. My power, though impressive to you, is not worth a fart in comparison to what it used to be. Unless I regain strength, the chances that I will ever find the person I seek is slim]

[Yet I must try. For it is the purpose for which I was made]

[My request for you is simple. Become strong. That way, I will also increase in power. Whatever your goals are, I will use my strength and scattered memories to help you fulfil them]

[But, you must help me find this person!]