Morning of the 3rd day of his transmigration. Han De still hadn't eaten anything. Yesterday he tried to fill up with the spiritual water he saw in the courtyard. Although it was delicious, it was still just a liquid. Obviously though, as a Core Formation expert, he didn't need to eat, drink, or sleep, as long as he cultivated regularly. Cultivation maniac lived that way, but that life was unacceptable for Han De.

Thankfully he now had a disciple so some changes in his routines won't be suspicious at first glance.

'You know, I drank an entire pitcher of spiritual water last night. I should at least… uhh… feel some need to go… right?'

Han De suspiciously looked downwards.

As he was questioning his understandings of the laws of physics and cultivator biology, he heard Ning Bi approach the courtyard. She entered respectfully while holding a big tray.

"Master, my father always told me a disciple should serve their master well. I only know how to make peasant dishes. I don't know if it is any good but… I…"

Her voice kept getting smaller and smaller as she talked. Han De immediately understood what was going on. He switched to a benign smile.

"Alright, thank you. Serve me well in the future as well."

Ning Bi stood up and hurriedly left after bowing.

In truth, with Han De's senses, he had already caught the smell of the tray as she entered the courtyard, he also could feel the heat, and hear the sloshing sounds that came from the tray. He hadn't cultivated yesterday and had already started to feel a little hungry.

'Dumplings huh? Yes, that should be a Chinese classic. Wait, dumplings mean flour, flour means wheat. I searched every inch of that kitchen yesterday. Where did you find the flour?! Which kitchen was it in?!'

Feeling indignant, Han De cursed at his predecessor.

'That cultivation psycho truly knew nothing but cultivation. I nearly thought wheat didn't exist in this world. How rich must you be to not even know about the existence of dumplings or noodles…'

* * *

After eating his first meal in this world, Han De took Ning Bi with him and started walking towards sect archives. He didn't have enough time and privacy to practice his sword flight yet. Even if he did, Han De the Office Worker might have chosen to take a walk anyway.

'If you are a cultivator, does walking after a meal still help with digestion?'

'What goes in, must come out. I can't believe there is a toilet paper made out of spirit bamboo. Feels good to be rich.'

'What do poor villages use then? Do they have s$#%-sticks like ancient people? Or do they just make do with regular bamboo paper? Toilet paper was invented in China, after all, it should be quite widespread in a Xianxia world'

In web novels, no one would think about these things, but once you start living in such a world, these daily necessities were glaring issues. Thanks to that cultivation freak having extremely rich parents Han De didn't need to be concerned about many things. He vowed in his heart that if he ever needed to travel or stay abroad for some time, it had to be in extreme luxury. Thought of using a stick or learning the Virtuous Bottom Cleansing Scripture was enough to make him shudder.

Han De wasn't acting at this moment, he completely forgot about the Silent Profound Teacher A look he was supposed to use. He was just in deep thought.

Walking near her master, Ning Bi couldn't help but take a few looks at him.

'Why does master look so serious? What could he be thinking?'

On his first day, Han De had walked to the Disciple Acceptance Ceremony, but he had no idea of the commotion he had caused. Today he had no idea as well. Ning Bi still being a mortal, was also oblivious to the intense gazes they were getting. Even if they were at the Qi Condensation stage, a cultivator was still a cultivator, it wasn't hard for them to avoid notice.

*gasp* "Is that the rumored Elder De's woman? She is so young!"

"So rumors were true?"

"So Elder De was a lolicon after all!"

"Hey, she doesn't have a cultivation base, that's the disciple, not his woman!"

"Whoa, Youn-*cough* Elder De really took in a disciple?"

"Poor girl…"

* * *

Arriving at the archives, Ning Bi finally noticed the intense stares they were getting. She was a village girl, she wasn't used to being the center of attention like this. It reminded her of the time she was in the city asking for the Starfall Mountain Sect.

Han De ignored both Ning Bi and the stares. He knew he would cause a commotion because he had already seen the memories of the cultivation idiot making a scene inside sect archives.

A yellow-robed elder with abnormally long and shiny hair was already at the entrance waiting for them to enter the archives.

"Elder De! How very nice to see you. It has been a long time"

Han De had already seen him in his memories, but seeing was believing. This walking shampoo commercial of a man was Elder Fu. Using his fake faint smile Han De spoke.

"Elder Fu. It certainly has. This is my first disciple, Ning Bi, she has a bit of a unique temperament, so I have come here to find a suitable cultivation method for here. I hope you do not mind"

Elder Fu was beaming. "Of course not. As a direct disciple, she can choose one method she wants from the first floor. As a core elder, Elder De can also give her any number of suitable methods to her."

Han De nodded to Elder Fu and took Ning Bi to a quiet corner of the first floor, where cultivation methods suitable Qi Condensation stage could be found.

"Although you still not a cultivator, you are nearly there. Choosing a cultivation method cannot be done by an inflexible set of rules. Fate plays a role as well. The first floor holds many methods, none of them should require you to use spiritual energy. More compatible you are, the more you'll be drawn to them. Some of the scrolls might have illusory formations in them, don't panic and just let things proceed on their own. Go, take a look at different methods, you'll know when you find something good. I'll be on different floors and pick you up after"

Thinking of Xianxia tropes, Han De couldn't help but add while leaving.

"Look for dusty corners especially, that's where the good stuff is"

A stiff faced Ning Bi could only answer "Yes, master"

* * *

Now that he got rid of the girl, he could finally do what he came here to do.

'With such a thick MC aura surrounding her, I'm sure she'll find some obscure method that would make her soar through the stages quickly. Only a fool would worry about the MCs cultivation progress'

Han De went directly to the 3rd floor. His cultivation method, Starfall Scripture, came from the Han family. Although the sect had some parts of it as well, it was a generally simplified version. Starfall Scripture had many different compatible and complementary cultivation methods from Qi Condensation up to Nascent Soul. His father even once hinted that there might be methods for higher cultivation stages as well.

Starfall Scripture though, was excruciatingly slow for Han De. If he had enough points he could buy a Cultivation Method Upgrade Token and use it, but he was still 100 points short. And he had no idea how rare the Profound Points really were.

'If only this System was a bit more talkative...'

He had no choice but to do some experiments by spending some points. He had 5 Derive Cultivation Method Tokens from the bonus quest reward. These weren't even available in the shop, he had no idea how expensive they were, but they represented the best option.

'I don't need a complete scripture, if I can make this work with just a few tokens I'll still have some left for the Nascent Soul stage as well. I'll try to keep at least one just in case they are absurdly expensive'

The archive itself wasn't a fantasy-like structure. It was fairly similar to the multi-floor libraries you could find on Earth. The biggest difference was the size and the content within. There were no books in the archive. It was only scrolls and jade slips. There were no tables, only rows and rows of scroll shelves. Trying to comprehend a cultivation method or a spell technique inside the archives obviously wouldn't make any sense.

[Golden Arc]

Power: Extremely Weak

Stage: Up to Core Formation

Roots: Metal, any combination

Notes: Benefits from pure metal element constitutions. Requires 1 Profound Point(s) to learn.

[Luminous Jade Note]

Power: Extremely Weak

Stage: Up to Core Formation

Roots: Light/Water composite

Notes: Requires 2 Profound Point(s) to learn.

[Ethereal Dream]

Power: Extremely Weak

Stage: Up to Core Formation

Required Roots: Any

Notes: Requires 1 Profound Point(s) to learn.

There was no end to these cultivation methods. Even the third floor had an absurd amount of cultivation techniques.

'I get that you don't like any of these methods, but at least adjust your power curve so that I can understand the power difference between them. Who are you helping by saying Extremely Weak to everything?!'

Hearing the sound of scrolls hitting the floor along with a muffled scream, Han De moved towards the nearby balcony while frowning.

Looking down, he saw Ning Bi on the floor with a bunch of scrolls laying around and a thin-looking youth looking at her in a daze.

'This is the first time she visited anywhere in the sect! With maximum luck, her encounter rate is really off the charts. Is that guy a capture target I wonder? His looks are OK, he seems to be at 5th stage Qi Condensation. Perhaps he is the legendary forever rebound guy?'

Han De rolled his eyes on Otome Game Heroine and her prey and went back to check more cultivation methods.

* * *

A few hours after, Han De went down to the first floor. He had found a few dozen cultivation methods that were entirely dependent on pure light element roots. After reviewing all of them with his limited knowledge, he chose 5 of them. Now he needed a quiet space to use some points to comprehend them, and then finally derive a new method from them.

He immediately saw the gloomy-looking Ning Bi nearby, still looking at random scrolls. He had kept an eye on her and already knew how she scoured the entire first floor. Feeling her masters gaze on herself, Ning Bi timidly walked towards him.

"Master, I have looked and looked but I can't find anything that really spoke to me"

Now, this was unexpected.

'Really? You couldn't find anything? Not even a dangerous incomplete art? Are you an MC or what?'

Han De suppressed the urge to pinch his glabella. Previous cultivation pervert visited archives only once. His cultivation method came from the Han family so he didn't need one. He looked at the martial arts, loudly complained about how trash and useless they were, and then left. He never came back to the archives and would even scoff at it when someone mentioned. It would've been fine if it was left with that, but this idiot actually went on and created his own sword art and became famous with it.

Elder Fu looked amiable but Han De was certain he wouldn't hesitate to calculate against him. He belonged to a different internal faction after all. Han De decided to bite the bullet and ask instead of searching for a method himself, he was already sick of looking at jade slips. He found him by himself on the second floor.

"Elder Fu, I need a cultivation method for my disciple. Could you tell me which cultivation art is the most dangerous here? I don't care if it is an incomplete one, I just want the most dangerous one, preferably one that caused multiple people to die, or go crazy, or go crazy and die. I'm not picky"

Elder Fu couldn't believe what he had heard and stood there with a blank look on his face.

'So he didn't die, but went crazy? Interesting. A bit disappointing, but still workable'

Realizing what he said out loud, Han De was about to make some excuse, but Elder Fu interrupted him.

"I remember a fire element cultivation method called Blazing Fury. Over the years there have been a number of disciples that tried to cultivate it but all of them failed."

Feeling intrigued, Han De couldn't help but ask. "What happened to those disciples?"

"Nearly all of them burned to death, unfortunately. Those with special constitutions were luckier and they were just crippled. This scripture requires precise control of fire elemental energy and it is incomplete at the Qi Condensation stage, Elder Yang tried to reconstruct it's matrix some years ago but failed. As such we put it on the 7th floor for the safety of the disciples"

Han De was now certain. This was it. With 100% pure fire roots Ning Bi could perfectly control fire elemental energy. Probably.

"Thank you, Elder Fu, I will take a cautionary look at it"

Han De gave a faint nod, quickly took away the Blazing Sun scripture from the 7th floor and left with Ning Bi.

* * *

[Blazing Sun Scripture (incomplete)]

Power: Very Weak

Stage: Qi Condensation (71%), Foundation Establishment (43%)

Roots: At least 75% Fire roots

Notes: -

'Very Weak! Weak my a*s! Damn stuff meant for the MC truly is different' *sigh*

'System, how many tokens are needed to complete the Qi Condensation stage of this method?'

[Blazing Sun Scripture (incomplete) needs to be comprehended before it can be completed]

'Can an incomplete scripture even be comprehended? What?'

[Use 6 Profound Points to comprehend this method?]

'Fine whatever, it's not like I have any other choice, it should be fine as long as I don't cultivate it, right?'

[Blazing Sun Scripture (incomplete) comprehension successful]

Han De instinctively braced himself for a lot of pain and suffering. He was very familiar with how Xianxia systems worked. Good things would be followed by pain. But he was pleasantly surprised.

'This feeling of understanding, it is similar to what happened when I got Han De's memories, but this is more complete, somehow more thorough. Like the difference between rote memorization and actually learning something.'

Feeling content, Han De looked at his cultivation methods.

[Cultivation Methods]

[Starfall Scripture (Mortal)]

Power: Extremely Weak

Comprehension: Intermediate (24/32)

Stage: Core Formation (Mid-Stage)

[Blazing Sun Scripture (incomplete)]

Power: Very Weak

Comprehension: Beginner (0/32)

Stage: Qi Condensation (0/13)

'Alright, now can I repair this scripture please?'

[Blazing Sun Scripture requires 196 Cultivation Method Fragments to fully complete it. Partial completion not possible]

'I have no frame of reference to know if that is cheap or expensive. But considering the method itself is Very Weak, it probably is expensive isn't it…'

'Complete it!'

[Blazing Sun Scripture (Mortal)]

Power: Very Weak

Comprehension: Beginner (0/32)

Stage: Qi Condensation (0/13)