I was always a patriotic child but my sentiments could never fully develop since I kept changing places.
Up until I achieved the cultivation realm of foundation establishment, I was a proud citizen of the Lesser Skymountain country. The King's palace wasn't far from where I lived and I used to hang out there a lot as a kid.
I inherited the innate pride and dignity of cultivators from my parents, therefore, had no problem interacting with 'high-class' aristocrats and arrogant nobles.
I was forced to cultivate a lot and it was as habitual to me as eating and drinking. The refreshing feeling of "Qi" traveling through my veins as I meditated soon started to bring me endless joy.
It was actually quite contradictory. I was pressured to cultivate when I wanted to play and used to get sad when I wasn't allowed to go out of my room and to relieve that sadness I cultivated which was exactly the reason I felt sad in the first place.
Anyway, my parents took me to Master Lost Immortal when I was 15 and he resided in the Brokenback mountain range. Antiquity mountain peak was gifted to me 10 years later when I achieved core formation and that's where I spent the next few thousand years of my life.
The mountain range was surrounded by lush green forests and far away in the north was a sea that stretched as far as the horizon. It was my home, of course, but I couldn't develop patriotic sentiments with a dam*ed bald mountain and a bunch of squirrels.
The magical beasts that I encountered were as dumb as wild beasts and the only ability that set them apart was the ability to cultivate.
Master rarely came out of seclusion but whenever he did he made sure to remind us of the reason why we never missed him. His long pauses and outdated life advice gave me worked better than the most potent of sleeping potions made with Alchemy.
My eldest senior brother left master as soon as he achieved the Nascent Soul cultivation and I still admire his bravery to this day albeit I never saw or met him. When old master took me under his wing, I only had two senior sisters, both in the Nascent Soul realm and more beautiful than any of the princesses I saw back at the palace.
My second apprentice sister, Wan Rui, had an oval face, a small curvy nose, straight black hair, and a body that I dared not glance at again to avoid some natural reactions. My first conversation with her went like:
"H-hello there..."
"Yo Pipsqueak, you're my fourth apprentice-brother huh?"
"Ah..yea–"
"Whatever if you want to ask something, ask Xiao-er or master but don't disturb me. If I ever catch you anywhere near my mountain peak, I'll hang you upside down from a cliff, naked"
"...ok"
My third apprentice-sister, Xiao Bingbing, was very small in height and had two chubby pinkish cheeks that urged me to punch them all time(though I restrained myself to avoid a beating). She was around 50 years older than me but kept a teenage girl's appearance and even tied her hair with two knots like a little girl. Assessing her, my mind quickly gave her a title - deranged.
Unlike my second apprentice-sister, my third apprentice sister was very friendly to me, a trait that made me suffer a lot. I was constantly forced to find new ways to flatter her, or otherwise, she would drag me to my second sister's dwelling, knowing I would have to walk back with swollen eyes and a bruised face.
It took me 2 months to realize this whole mountain range only housed dysfunctional beings and this realization made me mourn my fate wallow in self-pity even more. Cultivation, again, came to my rescue and I started cultivating for long periods in seclusion to avoid being bullied as it was a taboo to intrude upon a fellow cultivator's dwelling during seclusion. I started liking the feeling more and more and my body and spirit were both as pure as a newborn.
By the time I achieved the Nascent Soul realm, I was already 45 years old(a significantly young age for a nascent realm cultivator). By that time my parents that only used to force me to cultivate seemed much more loving and dynamic characters to me than this group of dysfunctional secluded freaks.
I went to inform my master of my breakthrough (for the last time) and he gave me endless praises, warnings, experiences, cultivation techniques, and even a 100 cubic square meter dimensional ring, most of which were useless to me. The entire exchange lasted 4 days and 3 nights and wore me out enough that I had to sleep for a whole day when the Nascent Soul cultivators don't even require sleep.
When I woke up, I found a pair of glistening eyes staring right back at me. Startled, I questioned, "Third sister, why are you here?"
She offered a mild smile and responded amicably, "Why? Can't I come to check on you? And why didn't you tell me you broke through?"
Her gentle expression and friendly tone of voice only made me shiver further as I said, "I was about to visit beautiful sister Bingbing but master called me out and then, ah, I took a sleeping pill instead of the energy-restor–"
"Haha well then, I bet you can't wait to have fun with your third sister now right?" Said third deranged after interrupting me.
"...right" was all I could say before I was dragged along with her and forced to sing some timeless folk songs in my squeaky voice out loud, run at my fastest speed while carrying her over my shoulders, and 'improve my combat skill' by taking a beating over and over again.
"Let's practice again tomorrow fourth apprentice-brother buh-bye~~" Her obnoxious voice kept ringing throughout the whole Antiquity mountain peak even after the
hateful mindless man-child left.
Another few years passed by in seclusion when I came out and made my first friend.