A heavy headache tortured him while he hastily left the main building. The sect master had noticed his pain and also told him to go their sect hospital as soon as possible.
No open wound, no recognizable injury. The sect doctors had no clue what was going on with him. They thought he was just fooling around and therefore refused to treat him.
'Attention-seeking they say.'
'What has happened that they aren't even trusting me?'
'Could it be that they just want to see me suffering? Or is it more like: Teaching the young, incompetent elder of our sect that he isn't fit to be an elder?'
His combat skills were never really his strength... To be honest, there was never really anything, in which he was particularly good. There was always someone better in the sect. He was pretty mediocre.
'The only reason I was able to become an elder was the sect leader, who once had a good relationship with my father. But even this explanation is lacking. I assume it is because they needed someone to do their paperwork.'
Cie Lin continues walking uncoordinated and a bit swinging to his house in the Inner District of the Clear Heaven Immortal Sect.
With each step he does, his mind goes even more blank. It doesn't just hurt; it also feels like his brain is trying to destroy itself by rubbing against a hard surface.
After what feels like hours Cie Lin reached the door to his room, eyes almost closed from tiredness and exhausted from the pain of the headache.
He opens the door and slowly closes it behind him. He didn't want to lose face by showing his frustration openly. Even though, he very much wanted to do so.
'What am I even thinking? All the face I could lose, I have already lost. It isn't like my life as a loser of society could become even worse.'
Cie Lin was so tired, he forgot to put away his robe before throwing himself into his bed. The headache appeared to be getting worse, and Lin began breathing heavily.
'Am I going to die from this? Seriously? Maybe someone spiked my drink? Does it matter? No, it doesn't. Someone as incompetent as me was either way bound to die. It was just a question of time and place. My third step Qi Gathering Realm isn't even enough to prevent a normal headache from killing me. Maybe, just maybe, I should stop here. If I just did one little mistake in my cultivation method and accidentally hurt my organs, no one would miss me.'
With the headache becoming worse, Lin fully closed his eyes. His mind embracing the numbness and falling into a pained slumber.
The Daoist, Cie Lin, died at the feeble age of 25, because of a simple sickness, dying with regrets, unfulfilled wishes and dreams bound to never become reality.
As a child. More specifically, at the age of 10. When his parents were still alive, he once wanted to become the strongest cultivator under the heavens.
He told this happily to his parents, who smiled and looked at their son with pride in their eyes. They didn't care about him being successful or not. They would support him either way. Even if he is without any talent.
Their gazes interlocked and it was clear, that they loved each other much as a family. But that didn't hold for very long.
Sadly, his mother died when he was 12 years old. She was out on a mission to trade with the locals of a distant village. Her body was found lifeless on the way by Lin's father, when she was missing for a prolonged time and he was part of the search group.
His father, affected by his wife's death got drunk and disappeared not long after that. If he is actually dead is unknown, but Lin still hoped that it wasn't the case.
'But why did he never look after me? Why didn't he care about the twelve-year-old me?'
As for why the sect has to trade with villages, it is for food. The sect needs a stable food supply, because there are young children, who aren't able to cultivate yet.
Cultivation techniques are very different depending on the cultivation stage of the user. The traditional Clear Heaven Technique from the sect is easy to understand and perform, but there are also some other techniques, which seem like utter bullshit, when reading.
The Clear Heaven Technique is the basis of most of the cultivators in this sect. Once you started learning one cultivation technique, it becomes almost impossible to switch to a different technique. That is, because the cultivation technique affects one's Qi pathways in a specific way.
So, even if Lin possessed a good technique. It isn't likely that the technique is compatible with his Clear Heaven Technique.
All this information and more suddenly appeared in someone's mind who definitely didn't expect it.
That person was none other than our main character, Loren Charles.
Loren Charles was a guy in his late eighties, who lived an ordinary, peaceful life. Born in the thousands and almost saw the next century.
Death due to his heart stopping while he was unconscious and under anaesthetics. He died without regrets, and he achieved his life's goals, which were to live an ordinary life, but more importantly to live a stable life.
He never cared about success in his life as he thought: If everyone strives for more by doing the same, how are we supposed to progress?
Loren Charles wondered where that information came from and actually answered himself as this was also included in the information. Apparently, the memories of Cie Lin are from a world, which was different from his. Very different.
Loren had never before in his life heard about Qi or Cultivators like his new set of memories said.
He began to feel a weird sensation on him. It was weird, because he is sure he has...felt it before.
Then realisation struck him.
'Yes, I feel. Feel a body. But it doesn't seem to be mine. It could be that Lin brat's body.' The memories of Cie Lin seemed to coincide with that.
After the fading of the first sensation another sensation erupted abruptly.
"Boorgh!"