Jun Li walked slowly down a dirt path through the shanty town her orphanage neighbored, four buckets of water hanging off a washing pole on her shoulder.

  Over a month had passed since she had awakened to the memories hidden in her soul, and she had been trying to Cultivate every day since then, to little success.

  With no knowledge of Qi-based Cultivation practices to rely on, she had to take a more methodical approach, beginning with improving her physique as best she could.

  According to her memories, proper exercise and eating habits could improve the 'purity' of her body, thereby improving her ability to absorb such things as Spiritual Energy or Qi.

  The further Jun Li walked, the fewer buildings surrounded her, and the less she had to fight to keep dust out of her eyes, until finally she could see the orphanage just outside the forest on the edge of town. It wasn't a large building, only barely housing a dozen children under its porous roof.

  Freely walking onto the unfenced property, Jun Li made her way behind the building and set the water buckets down next to the orphanage's small garden.

  "I'm back with the water, Auntie!" She called out, taking off the oversized patchwork hat her 'Auntie' always had her wear in town.

  Jun Li's Auntie was at work in the garden, carefully looking over each plant for signs of damage or disease. "Oh, perfect! Could you help water the plants? I'm sorry to ask you after you've been helping so much lately, it's just such a busy day."

  Jun Li eagerly picked up a smaller metal bucket with small holes punched into the bottom. "Kay, make sure to let me know if there's anything else I can do later as well."

  As Jun Li started to water the garden, her Auntie pulled a woven hamper over to one of the buckets of water to start washing the laundry. "So, Auntie, what's it like in the city?" Jun Li hesitated before asking, nervous as to how her Auntie might interpret her words.

  "Hmm, well, I've not been there very often, but I do know that it can be a rather brutal place, near every person there seems to only look out for themselves, even more so than out here." Auntie paused for a moment, seeing how Jun Li's face had turned somewhat glum, hearing such an unfavorable image.

  Despite that, Auntie smiled and continued. "But even so, it's a beautiful place, the bustling center of the Zhao Kingdom, and the royal palace is visible from much of the city. Not to mention, it's the only place in our kingdom you can find a branch of the Alchemist's Guild, supposedly, they have branches across a thousand other kingdoms across the world!"

  "And..." Jun Li's Auntie looked towards her before continuing. "It's the home of the Glass Cloud Sect, where all the Cultivators in the kingdom learn at one point or another."

  Jun Li had stopped watering the plants at this point, and all her attention was focused on her Auntie's words.

  Auntie let out a quiet sigh at Jun Li's obvious interest and continued. "For a student to gain entry to the Sect, they have to already be a Cultivator, which means having the resources and knowledge to begin Cultivation, so in the end, only royalty, nobility, and the children of prominent merchant families can enter the sect."

  Jun Li was at this point holding the bucket close to her chest and was quite unable to look her Auntie in the eyes. "So... how come you know so much about the Sect?"

  Her Auntie chuckled a bit. "You're not the first kid I've raised here that has taken an interest in such things, so I've asked around about this before."

  "I'm not like I'm saying you shouldn't even try, but..." As her Auntie paused, Jun Li spoke up, trying to clear the air. "Don't worry! I won't... I'm not betting everything on this. And I won't be devastated if I fail, I promise. I just want to try."

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  Jun Li truly didn't want her Auntie to worry; she knew her Auntie already had so much more to worry about, so the idea that her hopes might add to her Auntie's stress was painful to think of.

  "I just want to do everything I can to help, and if there's even the slightest chance I can become a Cultivator, I have to take it. That kind of power could change our lives. I'd be able to give something back to you after all these years..." Jun Li knew her Auntie was getting older, and that eventually, she wouldn't be able to take care of the orphanage on her own.

  Jun Li wanted to ease that burden.

  Jun Li's Auntie stood up and stroked Jun Li's head. "Don't hesitate to rely on me, and your younger siblings aren't as helpless as you think, they can help me whenever you're too busy working things out, okay?"

  Jun Li couldn't help but smile at the reassurance and looked away, trying to hide how she teared up.

  A younger child barreled around the corner of the house. "Jun Li! Duan Shu broke the Cuju ball again. Can you sew it up like last time?"

  Jun Li cleared the tears from her eyes and brightened up, seeing that her family could live happily for now, even if she thought they could have more.

  "Sure thing! Did you gather the feathers that spilled out?" As Jun Li walked off to help her sibling, she thought, despite her growing ambitions for the future, 'Some things are more important than Cultivation.'

  ...

  A month after talking to her Auntie about her ambitions, Jun Li was still struggling to progress with her Cultivation. Despite her constant training and efforts to improve her health, she had yet to even sense the slightest presence of Qi during meditation, the complete lack of feedback proving profoundly demoralizing at times.

  On this day, Jun Li had entered the forest behind the orphanage in the hopes of finding something to help with her Cultivation. In particular, any Medicinal Herbs that naturally contained concentrations of Qi.

  She had assumed they existed in this world, based on her inherited memories, and was able to confirm their existence in a discussion with her Auntie.

  Even so, she had no idea what to look for. At this point, she simply wandered around the forest, taking in the sights and smells of the quiet morning, hoping that when she found a Medicinal Herb, her memories would help her identify it on sight.

  After well over an hour of roaming about the forest, taking care not to wander too far from the orphanage, she had all but given up entirely on miraculously stumbling across such a valuable asset when she heard the sound of crashing water from deeper into the forest.

  Following the sound to its source, through the overgrowth and over the loose detritus of the forest floor, she found a small clearing embedded in the otherwise monotonous forest.

  Within, a small but vigorous waterfall stood out, the edges of the river it fed into framed beautifully by the slowly falling leaves of the season.

  It wasn't what she had in mind, but seeing it brought to mind some of her inherited memories. Places such as these were natural locations for natural energies to gather and pass through.

  Although it wasn't much, just a simple idyllic waterfall, it could be just strong enough to help her sense Qi for the first time.

  Jun Li walked across the stones that bordered the small river the waterfall fed and made her way to its base. Though it was louder than she expected, she was eventually able to calm herself enough to meditate.

  She seated herself in a nook just behind the flow of the waterfall, extending a hand into its waters.

  She could not hold her hand very deep into the falls; otherwise, the forceful waters would pull her around too much to focus, so she just barely touched the edge of the rushing water, allowing it to flow off her hand.

  She meditated as such for minutes, before her palm began to feel numb, she then swapped to her other hand, repeating every few minutes.

  Eventually, a subtle sensation shocked her out of her meditation. She pulled her hand back to look at it, and although nothing seemed amiss, she knew something had passed through her hand. Not simply across her palm, of course, but through her skin, muscle, and bone.

  She had, through this waterfall, felt the ambient Qi that permeated this world for the first time in her life.

  Now, all that remained was to grasp it.