Hua Yin is a boy from the family of Empire Administrators. His entire life, he had been preparing for the Imperial Exams, to follow in his father's footsteps. However, a few days before the Exams, he is attacked. His hands are broken to the extent that should forever prevent him from being a scribe.
In his chagrin, Hua Yin Awakens. His hands heal. Alas, the law forbids the Awakened to serve in the Administration. And so, he must find a new place for himself, as a Cultivator.
The Dao of the Awakened
is a Cultivation quest by warumono on Sufficient Velocity.com. The story takes the format of Hua Yin's training and adventures, along with letters written by him to his family at home. The letters tend to be written by the quest readers.
The Dao of the Awakened contains examples of:
- Achievement Test of Destiny: Hua Yin had been preparing for one his entire life... and then a Career-Ending Injury prevented him from taking it.
- Badass Bookworm: Hua Yin, once he gets rid of the Geek Physiques.
- Bag of Holding: A storage ring for one item is the prize of the mountain exploration site.
- Ban on Magic: A variant; Awakened are banned from working in the Administration, to the chagrin of Hua Yin, whose Awakening healed his Career-Ending Injury.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Song Chyou is a quiet girl of peasant birth, but when she believes that another student - a more advanced one, mind you - had made her family harm hers, she publically challenges her to a duel. And she wins, if very narrowly.
- Bring My Brown Pants:
- During their first encounter with Tianlang, the four students all get quite a scare, but Li Gai actually loses control of his bladder. The other three are too polite to comment. The wolf is not.
- During one adventure, Hua Yin cuts down a guy hanging in a trap he triggered. Since he used the sword, and the guy is one who stole from him in the past, the smell at the end is clear enough.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Renxing appears to be one. An extremely eccentric Core Disciple whose dossier has almost all details crossed out.
- Canis Major: Tianlang, a Spirit Wolf living at a Font, is about the size of a house.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Hua Yin starts off as one, part of his nerdy stats, although of course this doesn't last.
- Career-Ending Injury: Hua Yin Awakens after his hands are deliberately broken, preventing him from taking on the administration job he's been preparing for his entire life. In an ironic twist, that heals his hands, but as a Cultivator, he is banned from administration work anyway. Later, he learns a rival of his is responsible. His family arranges a long Humiliation Conga for the guy as revenge, ending up with his hands being broken the same way. He is Driven to Suicide as a result.
- Cheap Gold Coins: Averted. Gold currency is yet to be seen in the quest (although it it is mentioned), but silver, while not worth much when it comes to Sect ingredients and texts, is shown to be a lot in mundane goods - four silver, for example, are worth enough pork buns to bribe a Canis Major for a whole year.
- Combat Hand Fan: Ling Daiyu uses one during the duel.
- Cool Sword: Hua Yin gets a spirit jian named Jianshu in his first adventure.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: The first style Hua Yin chooses for his swordfighting is centered around that.
- Desecrating the Dead: In the letter notifying Hua Yin that Lin Mao was Driven to Suicide, it is stated that his corpse will be fed to dogs.
- The Determinator: One thing no one can accuse Hua Yin of is not making an effort. For example, he knew he was badly outmatched when he and Gao Jin were attacked by thugs, but did his best to at least hold off a foe while his friend dealt with the others.
- Door to Before: As soon as the mountain site adventure is complete, part of a wall vanishes, revealing a tunnel that leads outside.
- Dream Reality Check: During his first exploration adventure, Hua Yin ends up in a Blank White Void and is shown visions of the past, so he pinches himself. He wakes up in a dark room lit by glowing mushrooms.
- Driven to Suicide: After Lin Mao, the man who arranged Hua Yin's Career-Ending Injury, is made to suffer the same fate, he jumps off a roof.
- Empathic Weapon: Jianshu. It tends to be upset at not being used.
- Facepalm: Hua Yin does one when caught returning to him room naked... with the very hand he was using to cover himself up.
- Familiar: Li Gai has a hawk named Feng bonded with him, as is traditional for his family.
- Fantastic Recruitment Drive: After Hua Yin's Awakening, a Core Disciple of the Broken Tree Sect comes and offers him a place.
- Fingore: The breaking of Hua Yin's hands. Luckily, he is unconscious when it happens.
- Food as Bribe: Tianlang demands a supply of pork buns in exchange for allowing people to use the Kiss of Tribulation Font.
- Fragile Speedster: Two out of Hua Yin's first three techniques are for dodging and for leaps.
- Geek Physiques: Hua Yin starts off weak and bad at physical combat. He improves quickly though.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Some Sect members are shown to smoke cigarettes. Presumably, cancer risk is lower than normal for Cultivators.
- Hot Springs Episode: Hua Yin stumbles across a cultivation font serving as bathing springs... as they are used by two women and a man. The threadmark actually uses the trope name.
- Human-Demon Hybrid: People with demon blood aren't common, but not unheard of. Guan Zhi is one, and a former monk at that (not a very good one).
- Humiliation Conga: Hua Yin chooses that for the man responsible for his Career-Ending Injury, believing full-scale Feuding Families to be excessive. The guy is expelled, his pets get killed, his significant other is forced to break up with him... it ends up with the guy suffering the exact same injuries and Driven to Suicide.
- Imposed Handicap Training: The physical training course includes things like running while carrying bags of rice.
- In a Single Bound: The Earth-Defying Path.
- Indentured Servitude: A Sect Disciple who cannot afford the tuition fees can pay them off in the form of mandatory military service.
- Innocently Insensitive: During his dinner with Lao Ai, Hua Yin doesn't realize it's a date, so he talks more about other female sect members than should be appropriate.
- Interrupted Intimacy: One task given to Hua Yin has him retrieving a library book on Sex Magic. As he walks in, the Disciple in question appears to be practicing the technique.
- It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Hua Yin asking for Tianlang's grandchildren to help him practice evasion. Not only does dodging three giant Spirit Wolves turn out to be harder than expected, he soon finds out there is a human audience... so yeah, the trope name is dropped. Twice.
- It Will Never Catch On: One teacher briefly mentions "outlandish theories about how world revolves around the sun".
- Karmic Transformation: A minor example, but the beginning shows Hua Yin rather disdainful toward the Awakened.
- Killer Rabbit: Spirit beasts called Carnivorous Rabbits are very much real in the quest. Not much of a threat on their own, even for a regular person... except you never get to encounter a single rabbit.
- King Incognito: During one task, Hua Yin meets a guy who looks like some scruffed tinker or peddler, shares a meal with him and tells him about himself. Some time later, the Sect is visited by a Saint (that is, a Cultivator who can Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence but chooses not to), and, well, Hua Yin has some trouble believing it's the same guy.
- Large Runt: Tianlang's grandkids. Mere playful pups... the size of a horse, so when Hua Yin requests a day of practicing his skills by evading them, it turns out he really needs to push himself.
- The Marvelous Deer: During one of his exploration adventures, Hua Yin encounters a fuzhu (a mythical Chinese four-horned deer).
- Min-Maxing: Hua Yin's initial stats are... well, the plan that won on the point distribution was called Mega Nerd.
- Mundane Utility: The Earth-Defying Path allows one to make huge jumps... useful when a person is sent on an errand in another town.
- My Eyes Are Up Here: Said word for by one of the women during the Hot Springs Episode.
- Mystery Episode: One sidearc has Hua Yin investigating who stole his textbook and notes.
- Never Learned to Read: Downplayed. Gao Jin has some trouble reading, so Hua Yin takes the time to read the schedule off the bulletin board to him. As he does, a few people of commoner origin stop to listen, indicating they have the same issue.
- Noble Bird of Prey: Feng, Li Gai's hawk Familiar.
- Not What It Looks Like: One encounter has Hua Yin finding Song Chyou crying with a male disciple standing in front of her. It turns out the guy himself has just found her like that, and the reason she was crying was homesickness combined with feeling out of place.
- Precision F-Strike: Ling Daiyu drops the F-word when discussing the duel conditions with Hua Yin.
- Oblivious to Love: When Lao Ai requests a dinner together as payment for the new armor, Hua Yin doesn't even realize it's supposed to be a date until it's almost time for them to part ways.
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: During the Hot Springs Episode, Hua Yin comes across the springs in question as they are being used by high level cultivators. Due to With Great Power Comes Great Hotness, he has some trouble looking away... and due to their level, gets noticed rather quickly.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: A couple of sidestories involve a barbarian raid in some villages, although Hua Yin's part is limited to him writing down the reports of the cultivators who took the raiders down. At least, until one mission has him end up in a village about to be attacked.
- Rat Stomp: The first fight Hua Yin gets into, not counting sparrings and exams, is against three dog-sized rats.
- Required Secondary Powers: When Hua Yin reduces his weight with the Earth-Defying-Path, it turns out putting the proper strength and precision behind his blows becomes tricky.
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: As per the readers' vote, Gao Jin and Hua Yin determine who gets the mountain site prize that way.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: A pack of dog-sized rats with a leader that can grow as large as a donkey. Hua Yin survives by the skin of his teeth.
- Roofhopping: When given an errand in a busy city, Hua Yin uses his skills to hop onto a roof to take a shortcut, and notices a number of fellow Cultivators who had the same idea.
- The Rule of First Adopters: It is unclear about the "first" part, but it is mentioned that Hua Yin's sexual experience is limited to a few "viewing stones".
- Scary Impractical Armor: The Muddy Scales are hardly impractical, but it's not recommended to wear them during a polite conversation.
- Sex Magic: An Art called Dual Cultivation.
- Shameful Strip: A minor example, but as punishment for his Outdoor Bath Peeping, Hua Yin is sent back with nothing on except his sword.
- Shock and Awe: The Levin Step technique, in addition to dodging, allows Cultivators to charge their attacks with electricity.
- Sinister Scythe: Song Chyou opens her duel against Ling Daiyu wielding a sickle coated with movement-slowing poison.
- Staring Contest: Hua Yin earns some respect from Gao Jin when he refuses to lose one... while the other guy is holding a hatchet.
- Street Urchin: Gao Jin, a drunk's son from a really nasty neighborhood. Even while a Sect member, he is dealing in some shady business.
- Tempting Fate: Three high level cultivators decide to go to a hot springs cultivation font without reinforcing the wards around it, claiming no one will come close anyway.
- These Hands Have Killed: Hua Yin is forced to kill a barbarian invader while protecting a village, and does not take it lightly.
- This Is Reality: Hua Yin's letters to his younger brothers contain a lot of explanation that Cultivation is different from how novels depict it. Song Chyou's duel challenge also seems to have come from reading too many of the same novels.
- Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Song Chyou challenges Ling Daiyu to a duel by insulting and slapping her.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Hua Yin Awakens after his hands are broken in a Career-Ending Injury.
- Two-Keyed Lock: The second site Hua Yin explores has a door requiring simultaneous channeling of Qi at two points too far apart for one person. It's not the only case in that site.
- Upper-Class Twit: Mo Xiang is one, truly showing it when paired up with Hua Yin as a sparring partner. And later, when he beats up Gao Jin.
- Virtual Training Simulation: The physical training exam involves fighting ethereal simulations of barbarian enemies.
- You, Get Me Coffee: One of the tasks Hua Yin does in the Archives is collecting overdue loaned books.
- Weapon-Based Characterization: Guan Zhi uses a staff, as befits a former monk.
- Wise Old Turtle: The Archive has a spirit tortoise named Sister Ko living among the books. Allegedly, some saw it reading.
- With Great Power Comes Great Hotness: Advancing in Cultivation does tend to make one more handsome. Scars vanish as well.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: At one point, Hua Yin is accused of being the classical Cultivation novel villain. The guy claiming that is operating on rather fragmentary information.
