Morning light had just broken over the horizon.
The Great Thousand Gorge basked in the world's first ray of sunlight.
Light streamed through the gorge's mountain walls, cascading down without end.
Within the Celestial Human Clan,
some were cultivators, while others were mortals.
Meng Yuqing was one of the Celestial Human Clan's mortals.
Her family of four lived here. Last year, her younger brother had entered the Celestial Human Clan and become a registered disciple under the great expert Xu Swordsman.
Cultivation was an exceedingly extravagant pursuit.
Without wealth and resources, it was difficult to grow powerful.
Moreover, the Great Thousand Gorge lay far from the secular world and possessed few resources. Spirit stones had become the only shortcut to cultivation for the people here.
Her mother had fallen bedridden when Meng Yuqing was still young.
Her father had shouldered the enormous household alone, but last year, exhausted from labor, he had accidentally fallen and broken his leg.
The family's only supporting pillar had collapsed as well.
For a time, their home, already battered by wind and rain, became riddled with a thousand holes.
Her younger brother's cultivation resources, her mother's illness, and her father, who could no longer work.
It seemed that overnight, every burden had fallen upon the young girl's shoulders.
"Big Sis, I don't want to cultivate anymore.
They need meat choppers over in the east end. I can go help," her sixteen-year-old brother, Meng Xiaoman, said as he looked at his sister with heartache.
"I've grown up too. I can share some of the burden at home."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Meng Yuqing looked at her brother and smiled.
"Our family is still counting on you to succeed in cultivation and lead us out of the Great Thousand Gorge.
This is our only way