Chapter 007

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‘ ‘ for thoughts.

“ “ for speech.

<> for non-verbal communication like telepathy

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Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk.

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After another few days of cultivating, Fang Hao was becoming better and better at circulating Qi. Just before the dawn he was supposed to receive his chores, he finally managed one complete circulation of Qi according to the Sublime Qi Manual! He would be lying to say that he wasn’t pleased. He felt a bit more refreshed and energetic than usual, but otherwise, he didn’t notice any changes. On a whim, he checked his status screen.

STATUS SCREEN Name: Fang Hao Race: Human Gender: Male Age: 14 years Titles: Class: Mortal Level 0 Current Experience: 0 Level Up at Experience: 50 Active Effects: Unused Skill Points: 1 Stats Physique: 0.5 Finesse: 0.5 Spirit: 0.8 Qi 1.0/1.0 Traits Calm Lucky Primal Instinct ??Blessed by a Drunken monk?? Manuals and Scriptures Sublime Qi Manual (1st Layer)

Fang Hao was elated and surprised at the change in his status screen. He decided to make it a habit to check his status screen after every session of meditation, hoping to see a change. But when it did come, it caught him offguard. He had 1 unused skill points, had unlocked the Qi stat and had learned Sublime Qi Manual (1st Layer) under a new section called “Manuals and Scriptures”

He absorbed himself in contemplating these changes. He speculated that he had unlocked the Qi stat and learned the 1st layer of the sublime Qi manual by successfully completing his first complete Qi circulation. Though, he was still a Mortal at lvl 0 with 0 xp. What was interesting though was that he had 1 unused skill point. Since he could learn stuff practicing, what use was skill points? And was he awarded the skill point because he actually practiced to learn it? If so, what was the alternate way to learn skills? He tried exclaiming mentally various “commands” like “Skill Points”, “Skill Point Information”, “Help Skill Points”. He did strike lucky when he thought out “Use Skill Points”. A translucent window popped up.

No options available

‘Shitty new life system… you could have provided me with a n00b help manual, or at least a list of commands.’ He thought as he shifted his gaze outside. It was a little past dawn, and he immediately left for the dining hall. ‘Not only am I a fat fuck… I am also a dumb fuck. I almost missed breakfast today. Missing free food for cursing a blue screen only you can see. Good fucking job, you dumb ass!’

He hurried o the dining hall and was pleased to see that there was some steamed meat-buns left. They weren’t pork or beef, but still were damn tasty! He quickly grabbed half a dozen of them before he ran towards Old Man Zhu’s place. The few outer disciples he met on the way were disgusted at the sight of him. A meatball was running, while swallowing a meat-bun in two quick bites. Such gluttony and sloth!

On the way, he caught up with his clique of fatties and made small talk with them. Apparently the previously depressed Fatty Lin had felt a Qi strand and was confident in completing one cycle in another week at the latest. Also another member of his clique Fatty Ning had successfully completed a complete circulation a couple of days ago.

‘If I remember correctly, Fatty Ning is a silver grade talent, not unlike me. If he successfully cultivated the 1st circulation a couple of days back, it wouldn’t be shocking for me to have completed it too. Fatty Ning may be bragging, so there is that. Hmm, I’ll play it safe, in either case.’

“Brothers, the reason I was late to our dawn meal was because I almost completed the 1st circulation! If only I had an hour or so would I would have been able to complete it! But I was too hungry and it distracted me…” Fang Hao said with a disappointed look on his face. His fellow fatties consoled him and after acknowledging their good intentions Fang Hao inquired, “By the way brothers, what chore should we select? I don’t even know what chores are available…”

The skinniest of the fatties, Fatty Zhang replied “Fatty Hao, I have made some enquiries with our seniors regarding this. And though the price was a bit high, I got an idea of the best possible chore for us.” Hearing this fatty Hai had a perverted look on his face as he teased, “Brother Zhang, how exactly did you service our seniors? Perhaps from now on, we should call you sister Zhang.”

Fatty Zhang had a disgusted look on his face as he rebuked, “Shut up you pervert! All I did was pay two of my fasting pills in exchange for information. And don’t project your fantasies onto me.” Fatty Zhang looked like he was pissed and didn’t speak any further. ‘So the perverted troll had to fuck up some free intel…way to go!’ thought Fang Hao. Trying to salvage the situation, Fang Hao put a smile on his face and said in conciliatory tone, “Don’t mind him brother Zhang, here have one of my fasting pills.”, as he retrieved a dull gray pill with specks of green and handed it to Fatty Zhang.

As Fatty Zhang accepted it, Fang Hao glared at Fatty Hai. Taking the hint, Fatty Hai sighed, and similarly tossed a pill to fatty Zheng as he apologized, “Don’t mind me Fatty Zhang. I was just joking. We are all brothers here!” Fatty Zhang seemed satisfied and he elaborated on the available chores, and their merits and demerits.

For entry level outer disciples like them, there wasn’t much choice for their assignments. They could be the assistant of a spiritual herb grower / grain farmer, learning firsthand about horticulture and farming spiritual grains. Although it had slightly better rewards than most other options, it was diligent work with low flexibility.

Another option was being an assistant to an alchemist/forger. It had the highest rewards…but the alchemists and spirit smith masters usually had eccentric personalities. There was a good chance that they would be ignorant participants in an experiment and get deformed or lose a limb. Though they would get treated by the sect for no charge, it did reduce the cultivation time available to them. On the other hand, if the experiments were successful… they could gain beneficial mutation in case of alcheists, or a useful trinket from spirit smiths! It was a high risk-high reward chore.

Then there were physically demanding, but simple chores like porting, mining etc. They were hard work and provided the least rewards… but they did help in tempering the body and hence were popular among those who aimed to practice body cultivation seriously. As he explained his findings, he got a bit excited and said:

“Brothers, I saved the best chore for last. We should join the spiritual beast raisers. Its responsibilities are a bit varied; you have to feed the spirit beasts, clean their dwelling, butcher them and the pay is not too special. But it has a very big advantage! A lot of offal meat is waste like intestines, kidneys, lungs; and sometimes even brains, testicles and hearts!” Fatty Zhang had an excited look. Fatty Ning snorted and countered, “Fatty Zhang, we can eat as much as we want, even if it is only twice a day; why are you excited about some waste offal?”

“You don’t understand brother Ning. The food we get to eat is mortal food! And the offal meat is from spirit beasts! The intestines of an ungraded spirit beast may be trash to those in the Qi condensation layer, but to us it can provide a decent boost in cultivating! Heck even the anus of a twin tailed spirit chicken can be a very valuable elixir for us, who are not even in the Qi Gathering realm!” Fatty said with an excited expression.

Although the mention of a chicken anus had dampened his enthusiasm, but Fang Hao considered his options for the compulsory chore. “OK, so the chicken anus thing sounds weird, but spirit animal husbandry looks like the best option for now. Supplements for our cultivation seem the most helpful option at this stage. Since we know this, it is very likely that many of the seniors know it too. If we do get the chance, we should all choose it and support each other. If others try to bully us; hmph! We will all gang up and teach him a lesson” Fang Hao said with a vicious undertone in his voice.

‘Also, I hope I get some sweet sweet xp for butchering some spirit beasts…’ thought Fang Hao as he laughed gleefully in his mind as he palpitated involuntarily, with his nostrils flaring, on the thoughts of acquiring xp. His fellow fatties shuddered a bit subconsciously, observing Fang Hao’s demeanor and expression.

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A/N: Btw, this will be a bit more slow-paced, for a while at least, than other xianxia-level up fictions/web novels. I like game elements/level up, and I like xianxia. But I feel that most of the xianxia level-up stories I have read power level the MC too fast too soon and sacrifice heavily on world building and plot because of that (Invincible leveling king, Invincible Level up, etc.). So this is more of an experimental work from me, let us see where it goes…

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