"Thanks, mom! I always wanted to learn how to py an instrument!" Fu Anwen excitedly thanked his mother as he gently stroked the polished wood of the guqin. Hua and Ying could be seen towering over his shoulders like giants as they looked on in interest.

  While the little boy was usually calm and composed, being overly mature for his age, it was at times like these that his youthful innocence shone through.

  "Aunties, can you set it down on the floor for me?" he pleaded.

  "Of course, Little Prince," Mei nodded, "Happy birthday."

  Shortly after, Fu Anwen was kneeling in front of the guqin, his eyes scanning over every inch of the huge instrument. "So beautiful."

  "Py a song for us, Little Prince," impatiently requested Ying, who was crouched down next to him along with Hua.

  He rolled his eyes, "Settle down, I don't even know how to py it yet."

  He slowly reached up and plucked the bottom string, filling the room with a rich and vibrant sound.

  "Wow! You're so good!" yelled out a shocked Hua.

  Resisting the urge to roll his eyes again at the ridiculous little girls, he ordered, "Just sit down and listen. Don't interrupt."

  His two maidservants-in-training obediently sat down at his side.

  He quickly worked his way through the strings, first listening to each individually, then in various combinations. He was disappointed to find that the effort of plucking the strings was somewhat taxing due to his extremely weak body. There was no way he'd let that stop him from doing what he wanted, though.

  "Mom, did you get me any books on how to py?" Fu Anwen turned and asked his mother, who was sitting on the nearby couch with Mei and Jing on either side. The dies were happily watching him py with his new birthday present.

  She nodded toward the adjacent room with a smile, "Go check the kitchen table."

  He quickly got up and ran toward the kitchen, cheering when he arrived and saw no fewer than two dozen books of varying lengths and sizes. In addition to a handful with titles like "Introduction to the Guqin" and "Learn to Py Your Guqin Like a Master!," there were many containing sheet music for what had to be hundreds of songs. He was particurly interested in "Traditional Music of the Fu Kingdom," which had the author listed as Fu Tianchen, who was presumably one of his Fu family ancestors.

  He quickly set aside all thoughts of anything else and buried himself in the books.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  The beautiful and melodic sounds of a masterfully pyed guqin filled the house. Fu Anwen knelt in front of his instrument with his eyes closed, gently plucking the strings with his right hand, while his left hand deftly maniputed the strings to adjust the sound.

  The song soon ended, and silence gradually returned to the house. When the boy stood up, his legs were weak and sore, and all of his fingers hurt terribly.

  'I can barely even make it through a single song now before the pain becomes too much,' he compined to himself while massaging his aching fingers.

  Almost a year had passed since Fu Anwen's birthday. Once he'd started reading the many guqin books, it had quickly become obvious that his small body with its stubby little arms wouldn't be able to py the instrument the same way as everyone else. Even lying down stretched out from toes to fingertips, he might not be able to reach as far as someone else pying normally.

  After a bit of testing to see what range of motion his small arms could handle, he'd ended up adjusting the sheet music to match the strings he could reach. It took a lot of trial and error, but he believed the final result was fairly successful, even if the range of sound in his songs ended up being a lot more restricted than usual for a guqin.

  Hua and Ying rushed over once he stood up.

  "You get better every day, Little Prince!" Hua excitedly praised. Ying nodded her agreement.

  Fu Anwen shook his head while looking down at his hands. "My strength is still getting worse. My right hand can barely even pluck the strings now, and my left hand isn't good for much of anything. I can't even py most of the songs I've written anymore. This weak body..."

  He shook his head again without continuing.

  Fu Qingyu walked over from the kitchen table where she and her two maids had been listening, then wrapped her arms around her son in a love-filled hug.

  "An'er," his mother softly crooned while caressing his hair and holding his hand, "all you have to do is stay strong and wait to get better. Always remember that mother loves you with all her heart, no matter what."

  He nodded, doing his best to stay strong and not cry. "I love you too, mom."

  "Don't forget, your Awakening Ceremony is tomorrow morning!" she called out as he walked toward his room to rest. He held up a hand to acknowledge that he heard her.

  On a tiny desk inside his room, there was a loosely stacked pile of paper, plus various pens, inks, charcoal sticks, and other items used for drawing and painting. Practicing art had been his mother's idea, as it was an activity that wouldn't require as much physical strength as pying his guqin. He'd spent the past six months steadily improving his art skills.

  Unfortunately, due to his ck of strength, most of his time each day was now spent sleeping. He still tried to py a song or two every day and painted occasionally, but most of his waking hours were spent helping his mother and Aunties train and educate his lively servant girls, Hua and Ying. He simply didn't have the energy to do anything else anymore.

  After entering his room, he id down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

  "Awakening Ceremony, huh?" he pondered.

  He'd asked his mother for details, but she knew almost nothing about what the Awakening Ceremony entailed. All she could say for sure was that whatever he was going to do tomorrow was somehow reted to immortal cultivation.

  While Fu Anwen still dreamed of becoming a martial artist or immortal cultivator, he'd already resigned himself to living life as a weakling. Only in his imagination would he ever be able to burst out sound waves from his guqin to slice through enemies or soar through the sky while riding on a sword.

  He raised his head and looked around.

  The walls of his room, just like most other walls in the house, were covered with the beautiful and detailed paintings and illustrations he'd been creating ever since he'd first learned to draw and paint.

  The oldest drawings were darker, as his physical strength had been a bit higher then. The more recent illustrations, however, were far more stunning, though many parts were so light that they were nearly impossible to see due to Fu Anwen's ever-decreasing strength.

  'Who knows? Maybe I really have the potential to become an immortal cultivator.' With hopeful thoughts, he closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  The night passed, the sun rose, and the morning of Fu Anwen's sixth birthday arrived. It was finally time for his long-awaited Awakening Ceremony.

  He was sitting at the kitchen table eating a huge breakfast as usual, only he was doing so much earlier than most days due to the busy morning ahead of him. His pte was piled high with a mix of scrambled eggs and deep-fried rice balls filled with minced vegetables.

  The meals Fu Anwen ate were rge enough to turn a typical child his age into a round ball of dough, but they barely provided him with enough energy to get through the day. While his mother had tried to feed him more in the past in an effort to help him grow, testing showed that the amount of food he was currently eating was as much as his body could digest before lunch time.

  He grunted his assent as his mother lectured him again on how he should act while he was out of the house. Even though he had to put up with a lecture, he was still excited for his first trip out of the house—well, a mixture of excited and mildly terrified, but close enough.

  "—to be polite to everyone you meet. Even if you're part of the royal family, there are plenty of people with high enough positions that they won't think twice before caning your backside bloody."

  "I'm always polite, mom," he mumbled around a mouthful of eggs.

  "And don't talk with your mouth full. It's impolite."

  Fu Anwen rolled his eyes and continued eating, allowing the lecture to peacefully flow in one ear and out the other.

  As soon as he finished eating his meal, Mei crouched down and wiped off his face, while Jing walked over pushing the wheelchair he'd be using while he was out. Though he'd never used a wheelchair before, it was clear that his current strength wouldn't be sufficient for a walk across the royal estate and back.

  "Please take a seat, Little Prince," she offered, gesturing with a hand toward the wheelchair.

  He took a deep breath, then walked over and sat down. Once he was seated, Jing immediately started pushing him toward the front door.

  "Always listen to Aunty Jing while you're away, and remember that mommy loves you," his mother nagged on as she followed along behind them. She was far more worried about her son's first time leaving the house than her son was.

  Soon enough, Fu Anwen was off, as Jing pushed him down a path heading to the main road that threaded through the pace grounds. He looked back over his shoulder and saw his mother in the distance. Her left hand was waving frantically, while her right arm was firmly wrapped around Mei's waist.

  'This woman...' he thought as he quickly turned back around.

  Judging by how much time his mother and her maids had been spending upstairs during daytime hours tely, the three of them had grown even closer than ever. He wasn't surprised by his mother's public dispy of affection. In truth, he was halfway expecting the two dies to have already jumped back into bed by the time he was out of sight.

  He'd have to make sure his mother took responsibility and married those two dies as soon as they were able to leave the pace.

  According to his mother, that day should hopefully be coming up soon. As long as nothing unusual happened during his Awakening Ceremony, they'd all be sent away by the end of the year.

  He couldn't wait for that day to finally come.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  Ten minutes ter, Fu Anwen was sitting in his wheelchair in front of a small, gently glowing orb that rested atop a stone pedestal. The orb seemed to be made of some sort of gss or crystal and shone with a faint blue light. About six feet to the right stood a second stone pedestal with a much rger orb on top, though that orb wasn't glowing.

  "Touch the orb with your right hand," intoned the servant who'd met him and Jing at the door of the building where the Awakening Ceremony was currently taking pce. Jing had been left to wait at the door, while the servant had taken over wheelchair duty.

  Fu Anwen couldn't reach the orb from his chair. After standing up, he raised his right arm high and pced his hand on the orb. Nothing seemed to happen.

  A moment ter, the servant made a mark on the sheet of paper he was carrying around, then called out in a monotone voice, "No spirit root."

  The servant then looked up from his paper and asked, "Do you need me to wheel you over to the other orb?"

  Fu Anwen shook his head before walking up to the much rger orb. After seeing that the small child was in the right pce, the servant spoke again in the same bored manner, "Pce both hands on the Awakening Orb. Don't be surprised when it lights up. That's normal."

  Fu Anwen reached up with both arms and rested them on the surface of the orb.

  Foom!

  As soon as his hands touched the orb, it burst out with a green glow so bright that he was forced to squint his eyes again the light. A pleasant warmth started coursing into him from the orb. This warm feeling seemed to circute throughout his entire body, giving him a feeling unlike anything he'd ever experienced before.

  "Remove your hands and walk back to the first orb," the servant commanded a brief time ter.

  Fu Anwen quickly lowered his hands to his sides, quietly enjoying the warmth that was still circuting inside his body.

  After Fu Anwen was once again standing in front of the first orb, the servant again called out, "Touch the orb with your right hand."

  Once more, Fu Anwen's hand rose up to the orb. Once more, the servant made a mark and spoke, "No spirit root."

  Just like that, Fu Anwen found himself being wheeled out of the room, where he was quickly returned to his Aunty Jing and sent back to the Jade Court.

  ~-o-O-o-~

  An hour ter, after telling his mother about his experience at the Awakening Ceremony, Fu Anwen again found himself lying in bed while staring up at the ceiling. The warmth that had been circuting throughout his body ever since he'd touched the second orb was steadily receding, but the sensation was still very pleasant at the moment.

  He wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen as a result of that morning's Awakening Ceremony, which he assumed he'd failed miserably.

  Spirit roots, according to the books he'd read in his house's little library, were something that allowed immortal cultivators to sense spiritual energy. The higher the level of the spirit root, the faster the cultivation speed.

  Being born with such a small and weak body had cut off his path of martial arts, and while he didn't understand exactly what had happened during the Awakening Ceremony that morning, the results seemed to have shown that he also cked the ability to practice immortal cultivation.

  While frustrating, his situation was by far the most common one. The only difference between him and others was that his inability to practice martial arts was due to his weak body, while theirs was caused by a ck of money and proper techniques. As for immortal cultivation, only those chosen by the heavens could practice that, and the heavens were apparently very picky when it came to who they chose. He'd read that barely one person in a thousand was born with a spirit root.

  After staring up at the ceiling in thought for a long time, he realized that something about his body felt different. He looked down at his arms and moved them around, then did the same with his legs. They all seemed perfectly fine, but the feeling of wrongness was growing even stronger.

  'What's the problem?'

  Suddenly, it hit him.

  'The soreness! It's gone,' he thought in amazement.

  When he'd gotten home after completing the Awakening Ceremony, he hadn't paid any attention to how sore his body was.

  'Was I already feeling better then?'

  He couldn't remember for sure. Now, however, he felt almost as if he was in a completely different body.

  Another realization quickly arrived. When he'd been inspecting his arms and legs, doing so had been effortless. The feeling of extreme weakness that had always pgued him seemed to have vanished along with the soreness in his thin and underdeveloped muscles.

  He slowly rose to his feet and began moving and twisting his body, lifting and shaking his arms and legs, jumping up in the air, and basically doing anything he could think of to test out his physical condition.

  Never in his life had he felt this good!

  Now that he was paying close attention to his body, he detected a sensation that he'd never noticed before. It felt like something was being drained out of him.

  However, as soon as he noticed the sensation, he could already tell that the draining speed was rapidly decreasing. It was this sudden reduction in speed that had allowed him to notice the sensation in the first pce.

  Suddenly, a fsh of darkness passed through his mind, and the drain completely stopped.

  In an instant, the world opened up to Fu Anwen in such a strange new way that he almost felt like he was experiencing everything for the first time.