Night of the Broken Gliph

Thistle and Thorns was a book that wrote about the cruel reality of cultivation. In the book, a city in the South was mentioned. 

To all twelve-year-old gliphers, their dreams of cultivating would be shattered if they couldn’t break through before thirteen, and they’d end up being a commoner. They might reach the one-chambered state eventually, but never would they reach the two-chambered state and be considered an actual glipher. 

If none out of ten could become a one-chambered glipher, then none out of a thousand could reach the two-chambered state. This ratio represented the cruel reality of their future.

Many clan and sect disciples would head to this city in the South if they were limited by their aptitude and couldn’t break through before twelve. 

This city was known as the Breaking Thorns City, where many talentless children who failed gathered. They came from well-known clans and sects, or were just determined but untalented children who didn’t want to resign themselves to fate. 

Breaking Thorns City was most famous for its Breaking Thorns Stage. 

The South had adopted a gentle way of cultivation by teaching through institutions. Children attended primary institutions at six and learnt basic gliphism, got their chambers checked, and selected a cultivation style and gliphility. At twelve, they would join a higher institution and study a higher level of gliphism while planning for their future. They graduated at eighteen and became the future of the Lam dynasty as either a glipher or gliphist. 

The turning point of their lives was when they turned twelve. After twelve, they either escaped the life of a commoner and became a rare cultivator; or led an ordinary life. 

This was the reason for the Breaking Thorns City’s existence. The city was the last resort for when a gentle approach didn’t work. 

Unlike other cities in the South, this city adopted the North’s predatory behaviour. Twelve-year-olds who wanted to change their fates gathered in the city and stood on the Breaking Thorns Stage, trying to break through their bottleneck with their will to fight. 

The fights might be boring, considering that they were all children who weren’t even one-chambered gliphers, but some were naturally fierce, and those from clans had consumed g-food from young with gliphers teaching them how to fight. Most importantly, they had to put their lives on the line by coming to this city, attempting to break through with sheer determination and force of will. 

They had to become a cultivator, or they would die here!

Chui Yim and Chor Shing Chit sat among the audience of the Breaking Thorns Stage, watching two boys fight. It wasn’t a fight between gliphers, and no fascinating gliphility was used. But having cultivated at least a little, both boys had energliph which made them stronger than pure commoners. Despite their injuries, they were also extremely strong-willed, staring at each other like ferocious beasts. 

Before they entered the Breaking Thorns Stage, they had signed a liability waiver that the winner wouldn’t be responsible for any injuries or deaths no matter the results. If the other party decided to pursue the matter, he or she would be considered to be going against the Lam dynasty and all the clans in the South. 

Roar! 

The boy in a tattered, white robe let out a yell as he dashed towards his opponent, a confident boy in a blue shirt who was unfazed despite being drenched in blood. The boy in the blue shirt dodged smoothly, causing the boy in white fall to collapse like a shrimp. Without hesitation, the boy in blue reached out to strike him until he fainted. 

Om! 

Out of the blue, a sound was heard. Strong energliph waves erupted from the boy in white robes. The energy forced the blue-shirted boy to retreat. 

The audience cheered for the boy happily! Most of them were commoners, and some had experienced the same thing as the boys—being stuck in the one-chambered state and failing to break through. This was why they enjoyed watching fights here, as they felt that their dreams lived on whenever they saw someone succeed.  

The energliph was the sign that the boy in white had broken through! 

In Breaking Thorns City, even if you were a nobody without a clan, the city would help to tattoo a gliph on your chamber. Since people had to pay entrance fees to watch the fights on Breaking Thorns Stage, which funded the city, the free gliph-tattooing service was a well-deserved reward for those who broke through here. 

The boy in white was the winner with the chance of rising through the ranks while the boy in blue turned out to be the loser. This was how cultivation worked.