Zara Village
John's courtyard
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, John had his eyes closed. While sorting out all the information in his mind. His face was deadly pale, but his smile was bright. After assimilating all the knowledge in his mind, he could now write in the five most common languages of the world. He also gained basic knowledge on cultivation and general knowledge of the world. His youthful gaze now held a hint of wisdom, and he exuded a scholarly air.
"Sigh."
"The world truly is big."
John let out a deep breath. He gazed outside the window. After some time, he picked up the yin-yang breathing method. After reading it a few times, he began employing the breathing technique.
Slowly he gathered the ambient spirit energy around him and circulated it through his whole body.
Completing a full Qi circulation. John spent the night on cultivation; at dawn he stopped and slept.
At noon the same day he woke up, went to a nearby inn, and got some food. As he was eating, he kept an ear out on the conversations around him and overheard something interesting.
A man in leather armor and a young man that looked to be a rookie hunter were talking about an accident that happened while hunting nearby.
"Did you hear the inner area of Black Horn Mountain has seen an increased number of beast attacks lately?"
"Yeah, I just heard from the leader of the hunting team that a couple of newbies were attacked by low-ranked demon beasts. And the guild has issued a notice regarding the ban on hunters with silver and ranks below".
Answered the young man. Hearing the young man's words, John's interest was piqued. after a while, as the two continue to get off topic. John lost interest in the conversation.
"Hunting, hah! I should give it a try after I break through to the Qi condensation realm."
While eating, John thought inwardly to himself. But first I need to find a place where spirit power is more dense. On his way to the inn, John found out that different locations have different amounts and different purities.
So John decided to search around for suitable
locations for his cultivation.
John guessed it would be easier to ask around for places where low-grade spirit plants have been found and with a low risk of demon beast attacks. He asked around and found out that near the outer area of Black Horn Mountain, at the edge of a lake, low-grade spirit plants have been found occasionally.
John returned home, pulled out a rusted iron sword and a bow, and packed some dried meat. After leaving his residence, he went directly towards the village gate.
While passing through the gate, he met old Lee and greeted him, and not being fond of small talk, John went straight to Black Horn Mountain. After hiking through the mountain for a while, he found the lake and saw it was getting late. He set up camp and slept for the night. At dawn he ate some dried meat and started searching around the lake. To his dismay, he couldn't find any traces of a high concentration of spirit energy.
Even so, John was determined to find a place for cultivation; he kept searching. And this search lasted for five days. At this point John had no more food and hadn't slept for days.
On the sixth night, he was cooking a small beast that he caught earlier. While he was cooking john sensed a slight change in spirit energy around the lake.
Curious, he went near the lake and found a small, pale white plant starting to wiggle out of the water to absorb the lunar yin energy of the moon, thereby releasing excess spirit energy to the surroundings.
"!!"
After seeing the phenomenon up close, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. After confirming the energy was not harmful to him. He sat down and started practicing the yin yang breathing method.
This phenomenon lasted 8 hours. After 8 hours of continued practice, John had grasped the core conception of the breathing method.
John felt that if he could cultivate for another week in this environment, he could have reached the Qi condensation first stage.
So he waited till night for the pale white plants to emerge. But there was no response.
"Sigh."
"What bad luck!"
John already guessed that the grass would only come out every few days to absorb lunar energy. Having thought of that, he checked his bag only to find there was no food, nor was there any bug repellent powder or arrows for the bow.
John silently marked the location of the lake and headed towards Zara Village. After passing through the guard gate, he went to his courtyard house, took a bath, and fell asleep out of exhaustion.
For the next few days, John kept an eye on the lake and found every six days the lunar plant comes out to absorb lunar energy. and so for the next month. He came to cultivate every six days.
One day, while John was cultivating, cracking sounds came from John's body. He finally stepped into the Qi condensation realm.After stabilizing his realm.he Opened his eyes.
Overjoyed John checked his body and found it brimming with vitality and power, although he has a slender and handsome figure. His internal energy was enough to crush trees, and his senses were further enhanced.
After checking out his body condition, he called out, System interface.
(Host Name: John Green
Race: Celestial Human
Seed of Power: Cultivation
Realm: Qi condensation 1st
Talent: Karmic Instinct
Remarks: acceptable. Although barely, you have finally stepped on the road to power and immortality. Now you are qualified to be a cosmic mosquito.)
(Novice Mission complete: Break through to Qi condensation.).
(Rewards: Wondering Willow.). [sword technique novice].
**(Remarks: a sword technique that is inspired by the wandering willow plant that bends and sways with the harsh winds but never breaks.)
(Would you like to withdraw the reward?)
"Yes."
John was overjoyed. and answered quickly. as soon as his voice fell. Knowledge about the Wondering Willow sword technique flowed through his head.
After John learned the technique, he was amazed. The technique was based on the wandering willow, and its main point was to be free and to make your opponents' flow of battle your own. So that you would never break under overwhelming power, only redirect it elsewhere.
Taking a deep breath and gazing at the lunar plants that were receding back into the ground. He decided to train his swordsmanship near the lake.
After two days of training. John was exhausted and decided he'd head back to his courtyard. On the way, while passing through the gate, he saw Old Lee giving him a strange look.
Noticing this, he looked at himself and found that after two days of training, he looked like a mountain bandit that got beaten up.
Slightly embarrassed, he passed through, and ignoring the strange look people gave him, he dashed towards his courtyard.
After he entered the courtyard, he took a bath, put on some clean clothes, and finally relaxed.
Feeling hungry, he set up a fire as he was about to make himself a meal.
"Bang," "bang."
Banging sounds were heard from outside the courtyard door. Curious to see who it was, John went and opened the door.
The moment he opened the door. An irritated and slightly angry voice was heard.
"Pay your rent now; it's two weeks late."
This voice came from Ralf Otto. John's landlord, who owns all the nearby courtyards, Otto, was literally, as his name suggested, very wealthy. He looked a little overweight with a greedy and cunning light in his eyes. And the one thing Otto disliked more than giving discounts was people who were late on their rent.
"If you don't pay up, you will be charged interest of 4 spirit shards for every day you delay rent."
At Otto's words, John could feel a headache coming because he didn't have any money on him. As Otto was about to speak again, John stopped him and said,.
"I was not in the village at the time. So I couldn't give the rent; I will give the money in a few days. I am a little tight on funds.
At John's word, Otto's face turned black, and he was about to blow up at John. Seeing this, John hurriedly reassured him. After going back and forth and placating him for some time, Otto left.
After seeing him off. John let out a sigh of relief.
"I need to go out hunting to get some money and experience, or next time Otto might just sell my soul to the devil as rent."
John murmured to himself. John decided to go out the next day, after cooking a meal for himself.he packed up food, a clean set of clothes, and other essentials.
Seeing it was getting late, he cultivated for two hours and went to sleep.