Chapter 010

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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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Note:

Although the full name mentioned here are Chinese style, (example: Fang Hao, surname Fang first then given name Hao), the names clubbed with descriptions are description and then given name instead of description and surname (example Fatty Hao and not Fatty Meng).

Btw, I read all your comments, but may not reply to each and every one separately.

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Fang Hao returned to his cottage and mastered the 2nd layer of the Sublime Qi Manual in the next week. He was also diligently grinding on spirit chickens and his rate of butchering increased continuously, and he consequently had a sizeable stock of fasting pills. Fasting pills were a currency of sorts among outer disciples. For any kind of goods, services, intel or wagers, fasting pill were used. However, fasting pills were the most useful to those who were attempting a breakthrough to the Qi Condensation realm.

Qi gathering realm cultivators who were attempting to breakthrough into the Qi condensation stage needed a significant amount of Qi to liquefy it and form a Qi lake in their dantian. This often required a good manual and/or external aids to avoid stagnating at the peak of Qi Gathering realm for a long time. There was an annual competition of sorts, where the top ranking outer sect disciples would receive the resources and guidance required to smoothly breakthrough into the Qi Condensation realm. Another alternative was to fight in the arena, risking injury and their lives for the amusement of seniors for the resources they needed for a breakthrough.

However, except for the lucky and courageous few, the most common way to breakthrough was by using fasting pills. Although fasting pills were meant only to relieve hunger and had insignificant effect on Qi restoration, but quantity could make up for quality. In critical moments, they could use dozens of fasting pills to replenish their Qi and making the breakthrough successful. Or they had to somehow gain the favor of their seniors and elders…and there was fat chance of that for most of the outer disciples without a background.

Of course taking a huge amount of fasting pills in a short period of time to restore Qi had its drawbacks. It rapidly increased resistance to the effect of the pills, and built up pill-toxicity in their body. If they didn’t consolidate their cultivation and detoxify themselves, it would lead to an unstable foundation and create further bottlenecks in future cultivation.

However, once they were inner disciples, they would get a set amount of resources periodically and would also be able to complete various missions on Celestial’s Adobe (the mountain peak where the entire sect is located) for contribution points. These points could be exchanged for various treasures, spells, scriptures and pills. So, most of the outer disciples would zealously hoard their fasting pills.

Naturally, all this information was gained by spending a generous amount of fasting pills the five fatties had accumulated. Having exceeding their chore target consistently, he and his clique gained more than a few bonus fasting pills and still had some remaining. However, after a thorough discussion everyone had agreed that the information was worth spending almost three quarters of their fasting pills. He now fixed a goal of winning enough resources by ranking high enough in the tournament.

Although he could grind on spirit chickens for a while, it would take years to grind his way to Qi Condensation even with his improved rate of approximately 30 to 35 chickens per week on an average. And if he exceeded the age of 25 before becoming an inner disciple, his value in the sect’s eyes would reduce dramatically and it would be difficult to seize future opportunities, as he would be labeled a lost cause.

Therefore, he resolved to fight in the tournament for resources which could hasten his cultivation and breakthrough to the Qi Condensation realm before his age limit approached. However, he was unsure how taking resources and cultivating the Sublime Qi manual to increase his cultivation without grinding enough xp would affect him. Once he had reached the Qi condensation realm, he could take a variety of missions to hunt for spirit beasts and make up his xp.

If worst comes to worse, he even contemplated fighting to the death in the arena for getting xp. However, it would be very risky and he didn’t have full assurances of winning in a fight... even if battles between Qi gathering realm cultivators were essentially like traditional gladiatorial fights without usage of spells and treasures. Soon, a little more than four months had passed in total at the sect and Fang Hao had already leveed up once to the 2nd layer of Qi gathering. He was very close to leveling up to the 3rd layer of the Qi gathering Realm while he carried out the scheduled genocide of spirit chickens.

He secreted a greyish-black oily residue from his pores and felt the 3rd layer of the Sublime Spirit Scripture circulate automatically at an extremely accelerated pace as he felt a tingling electric current in his meridians. As his breakthrough was complete, he got a splitting headache as he collapsed. Blood which squirted from the beheaded chicken’s body covered him, as his fat body collided with the barrel holding chicken feathers and stuck to his blood covered body and robes. Fortunately, he had the presence of mind to push the cleaver away from him as his consciousness faded.

He recalled vivid flashes of his supposed encounter with the drunken monk in his host’s past. A translucent phantom of the drunken monk appeared in his consciousness and performed a series of steps, which almost looked like dancing. Fang Hao could see streaks of silver circulating inside the phantom. Fang Hao was a bit startled, but quickly swept aside his thoughts and observed the dancing monks carefully, imprinting it in his mind.

After a series of steps, the monk’s phantom became blurry and soon it faded. A huge amount of information was imprinted in his mind. He lay dazed, covered in chicken blood and feathers as he arrange and digested the information. The old drunken monk was apparently a very powerful rogue foreign cultivator fooling round in the mortal world in disguise.

Although many elites of the cultivation world wanted to become his disciple, he never gave anyone a chance as all they wanted was his body refining art and they all lacked sincerity. He was amused by the coincidence of a mortal child show such sincerity and gave him a chance. He had left a part of his body refining art sealed in his memories. If his destiny was to be a cultivator, it would unlock. And if he could master the fragment and reach a satisfactorily level of cultivation, instructions to find him would be unsealed.

“Oh and one last thing prospective disciple, I have placed a restriction on you so that almost no one can force you to reveal this body refining scripture, even yourself. Because if as much as the name of this legacy is revealed, be prepared to be chased and slaughtered till death.” The phantom of the drunken monk said before it disappeared. Soon, Fang Hao’s headache subsided and he got up. He was no longer in the mood to slaughter chickens as he wanted to come to terms with the recent revelation.

He exited the slaughter house and bid farewell to his clique, with the excuse that he had fainted because he didn’t have enough to eat in the morning. Looking at his sorry state, being covered in chicken blood and patches of feathers, the other fatties were sympathetic and advised him to rest for the remained of the week if necessary; it was almost end of the week and he had finished his quota anyway. Fang Hao made his way to cottage and took a bath, wearing a fresh set of robes before he checked his status.

STATUS SCREENName:Fang HaoRace:HumanGender:MaleAge:14 yearsTitles:Class:CultivatorUnused Skill Points:6Realm:Qi Gathering RealmLevel:3Current Experience:516Level Up at Experience:1177Active Effects:StatsPhysique:0.8Finesse:0.8Spirit:1.2Qi4.3/4.3TraitsCalmLuckyPrimal Instinct??Prospective Disciple of an Immortal monk??Manuals and ScripturesSublime Qi Manual (3rd Layer)Divine Vajra Body Scripture (fragment)

Note: Vajra is Sanskrit for indestructible and/or lightning and/or a weapon with one/both of these properties.