12 days later Kael was still watching Muta make things. It had grown more interesting as he started working through basic ranged weapons. Raen was having problems cultivating, and Muta suggested she talk to Iradin when he returned. Kael had to skip cultivation to go hunting for his family and also to pay back Wallus. While butchering the animals he noticed something interesting. His chef profession only needed 1,500 experience to move to rank 4.

That night when he returned home he was met with his father who looked a little worried. “Kael, some people were nosing into who I was when selling to the shops. In the future you can only sell to people we have contracts with. Fortunately, I talked to another merc group. There is a catch though, both merc groups want things every three months, so I won’t be going out as often. Oh and the vice-captain had quoted me the wrong price on minor bone setting potions, he was buying for twice as much thinking it was bone setting potions. They kept to their deal though, but in the future they want real bone setting potions, which is ok.

That also means there is no point in buying 50 sets of qi gathering potion herbs since you can’t sell them. The positive thing is you made 41 gold 500 silver. I spent 5 gold buying the actual bone setting and wound recovery recipes instead of the minor ones. You need to make 1,000 recovery and wound sealing powders. As well as 500 bone setting potions. That is for each group. For the healing stuff, you seem to make 30 per set of herbs. I bought 80 sets just to be sure for the powders and 40 for the potions. The herbs cost 8 gold more or less, with the recipes and what you owed me, that is 13.5 gold total.

With your money, I bought a minor phoenix flight potion recipe for 5 gold. A Meridian Washing and a Marrow Washing pill for half a gold each. 20 body cleansing pills for 2 gold. I also bought you a mortal ranked, external lightness technique for 10 gold. It is an external art since you can’t project qi yet. It seems ok, it is called Heat Rising Steps. Lightness arts are designed to make your body lighter, increasing your movement speed. It should be beneficial for you. The muscle and bone refining powders you wanted cost you 1 gold 250 silver. Everything is in your room along with the 2 and a half gold. I will hang onto the rest for better investments.”

“Thanks, Dad! Why did you buy the pills and not the recipes and herbs though?”

“Son, you can’t make pills until you can externalize your Qi. You can’t make actual Dan’s until you have a spiritual or divine sense. You have natural talent, but honestly, you haven’t become what a real cultivator would consider an apprentice alchemist yet.”

Taking the lecture patiently like a filial child should, he eventually escaped to his room. Looking through what his pops bought him there were a couple issues. The minor phoenix flight potions herbs nagged him that they were wrong. The two pills were worthless for him as they only worked on people under 8 talent or perception. Sighing he set aside the two pills and 5 of the Body cleansing pills. Packing the rest away for later refining he went to sleep.

The next morning he brought Raen to his house to talk to his dad. The issue was that she had already cultivated. If she really wanted to use their technique she would have to start over. After a few minutes of hemming and hawing about it, she agreed. After Kael’s dad helped her reset her cultivation, Kael surprised her with a gift.

Handing over the 7 pills he set aside last night he said, “Raen, these are for you, I think they will help you a lot in cultivating.”

“Oh, what do they do exactly, Kael?”

Staring at Raen, trying to figure out how to explain the washing pills without numerical data he got a very interesting notification.

Soul has examined another living creature.

Living creature, Raen, has a favourable impression of the Soul. Impression level, object of worship.

Allowing examination due to impression level.

Name: Raen Ruǎnjīn, Race: Human, Age: 8, Sex: Female, Bloodline: None, Cultivation: None

Group A

Base

Mod

Total

Group B

Base

Mod

Total

Group C

Base

Mod

Total

Group D

Base

Mod

Total

Strength

5

5

Agility

4

4

Reflex

7

7

Talent

6

6

Body

4

4

Stamina

4

4

Endurance

6

6

Perception

5

5

Intelligence

4

4

Willpower

4

4

Spirit

6

6

Luck

5

5

Profession(s):

Chef: Mortal, Tier 5. No special recipes or equipment

Blacksmith: Mortal, Tier 6. Flaming Raindrops hammering technique

Interesting, since she has not started cultivating, she is actually slightly above average. All of those Group A & B stats should increase by around 2 naturally when she starts cultivating. Super lucky too.

“The marrow washing pill will increase your perception by up to 2 ranks. The meridian washing pill does the same, except with talent instead of perception. Neither will increase your rank past the Violet Stage.”

Raen took the pills and quickly munched on them before anyone could try to stop her. Examining her stats again Kael verified that both her Talent and Perception had changed to 7. Not bad at all he thought.

“The body cleansing pills remove 20% of medicinal residue left in your body from pharmacology goods. Take one each time you break through in my own opinion. Use the powders and potions I gave you before until you reach Rank 3 or when you run out, then come see me for more.”

Raen ran up and hugged Kael before running away. Shouting behind her, she said, “Thanks Kael! Don’t bother coming to the smith today, pops is going to be pissed about my cultivation!”

Time flashed by, suddenly it was the new years again. His yearly income was huge from his sales to the mercenaries. His output had greatly exceeded his father's estimates. After the first trip, he signed up a third merc group. Supplying this group only needed an additional 10 sets of bone setting potion herbs in addition to the extra that Kael had been producing. Besides the additional mercenary group, one thing that made him more money was removing sage from the recovery powder recipe. This made it perfect, raising its potency to 120, then a bonus of 40 for 160.

Kael had made 52 gold in profit for the first trip. Trips after that he made 55 gold. Out of the money made his father, of course, kept half of that. His Alchemy skill had increased and he realized the experience cost per rank went up in a strange way, It made no sense to him at all. From 1,000 to 5,000, to 7,500, to 10k, to 15k, to 20k experience. His current rank was hard earned. The experience reduction was serious too. His first 300 sets of herbs from the three combined recipes made him about 12k xp. The last 300 sets of herbs combined made him about 2k. He did not even get experience for refining herbs anymore. Chef ranks were steady as they went up. Blacksmith ranks had an exp jump from rank 4 to 5, nothing too serious though.

In the last 11 months, Kael had breakthrough after breakthrough in cultivation. His cultivation breakthroughs were always equal to the previous ranks amount of cultivating time plus two weeks. Like a clock, his breakthroughs were always on time. The Qi gathering potions were worthless for him so he gave them to Raen early on. He was currently a Rank 8 Disciple, working on refining his organs. He had increased his strength and agility by 2. His body and stamina had increased by 3.

Raen had finally regained her adult statistics at the new years. All of which were 6’s and 7’s. She had broken through to Rank 4 Disciple during the year, putting her equal to where she would have been if she did not change techniques. However, instead of gaining 1 strength and body while cultivating to Rank 4, she gained 4 strength and 2 body. Although not a super freak like Kael, she was far above the people living in the village.

During new years the two families spent their time together celebrating before life fell back into a routine.

It took Kael only three months to step into Rank 9 Disciple, but he refused to give up on perfection. Just before the new years, he broke through again. For reaching the blood refining stage, Rank 9, he gained 3 strength and 1 agility. This was nothing compared to breaking through into Rank 10, the perfection realm. Perfection increased all of his statistics. His father said his body was currently at half xiantian, which created the boost, but he was still shocked. He had gained 4 strength, 3 body, 2 agility, 2 stamina, 1 intelligence, and 1 willpower. Being only almost 8 years old with the core strength of 1,650 pounds was mind-boggling to him.

Raen managed to cultivate to Rank 6 during this year. It would have been faster but when she reached rank 4, old Muta made a new rule. The new rule refused to let her breakthrough more than once every 6 months. Her advancement was still noticeable as her growth outstripped most of the villagers. With only a few weeks until new years, Kael convinced his dad to take him into town when delivering to the mercs. He was going to get a special present for Raen’s 10th birthday. With two years of profit and the next deliveries money, he had almost 200 gold to spend.

The next day Kael was excited about seeing civilization for the first. Rushing over to let Muta know his father was taking him to a city, he placated Raen by telling her he would bring her something. Returning home to find his parents waiting for him, he hugged his mom before he and his father left.

Heading north into the forest Iradin told him, “You have to keep up with me. This is a 4-day run, we don’t have time for a walk or you will miss new years.”

“Ok dad, I got this!” Speeding up to a long loping run, Kael almost ran into a tree. He had never needed to move his fastest, even when training the weird lightness art his dad had bought him. Subconsciously, he had always run at his previous earth speed. Now that he was really letting loose, he was hauling ass.

Listening to his dad laugh at him, he slowly adjusted to his speed. Guessing he was moving at 25 to 30 miles an hour, the superhuman reality of being a cultivator really hit him. That sprinter, Bolt or whatever has nothing on me. Starting to enjoy the wind whipping past him, he began practicing his heat rising steps. Figuring that the reason he had been stuck at the small success stage was probably that he was running so slow before.

After his heat raising steps kicked in he could actually start to feel that his body was lighter. It did not increase his speed much, but it definitely reduced the amount of energy he was wasting. It also made it much easier to dodge things that were in his way. After about 4 hours and 6 broken tree branches later, he received an upgrade notification.

Soul’s technique, Heat Raising Steps has advanced. New skill rank, Large Success.

Current benefit, 30% reduction to endurance expenditure due to moving increased to 50%.

Additional benefit, 20% increase in movement speed when not using an internal movement art.

Congratulations! Make persistent efforts!

I guess I should have read that last time. It is not nearly as worthless as I thought. Kicking his speed up to 34 to 35 miles an hour he looked over smugly at his father. The smug look on his face froze immediately upon seeing him. He looked like he was still lightly jogging just as he did in the beginning. Thinking this is a bunch of bullshit, Kael began to review his character sheet in his mind, looking for movement mechanics.

Staring at his reflex score, he found that people could move 1 mph per point as his top running speed. Alternatively, he could sprint for a 50% increase in speed, but at a 10 times increase of endurance expenditure. He could also jog at up to 70% of his speed for a 50% reduction in endurance expenditure. His endurance showed he could run at top speed for 10 minutes per point. Doing a bit of quick math he knew he had about 2 more hours before running out of gas.

Still kind of shocked at his dad speed, he took a good hard look at him. Willing himself to examine him, he finally got what he wanted, which promptly sent into shock, then a tree.

Soul has examined another living creature.

Living creature, Iradin, has a favourable impression of the Soul. Impression level, devoted.

Allowing examination due to impression level.

Name: Iradin Darksteel, Race: Human, Age: 304 / 1250, Sex: Male,

Bloodline: Titan, Cultivation: Body Refinement - Perfection (Core Establishment)

Group A

Base

Mod

Total

Group B

Base

Mod

Total

Group C

Base

Mod

Total

Group D

Base

Mod

Total

Strength

81

-30

51

Agility

52

-30

22

Reflex

93

-30

48

Talent

14

0

14

Body

67

-30

37

Stamina

60

-30

30

Endurance

94

-30

44

Perception

8

0

8

Intelligence

47

0

47

Willpower

48

0

48

Spirit

72

0

72

Luck

0

0

0

Hearing his father shout, “Hey, you ok over there?” Kael shook the daze off and stood up. Looking at the large tree that he barely even dented, he felt his sore chest. Crap, I thought running fast made me realize how different cultivators are. Hitting a tree at 30+ and only bruising your chest bring that to a whole new level.

“Yeah, I’m ok pops. I was just shocked that you were still just jogging along at my top speed. I think when you explained your strength to me, you kind of concealed a bit. I know you have your reasons for doing so, but heavens, you are super buff.”

“Good, when you step into the saint realm, I’ll let you know. Your mom and I will also pass you our real skills. You sure you're ok?”

“Yeah, just a bit of a sore chest. Air knocked out of me, no big deal. Let's get moving.” Brushing bark off his chest Kael started to jog. Figuring he had two hours of run time left, he should be able to jog for about 4.

About 4 pm, Kael was totally out of gas. Puffing to his father, “Dad, I think it’s lunchtime, we should stop.”

Chuckling, Iradin slowed down to a stop. “Walk it off, it’s not good to stop immediately when you are that tired.”

As Kael wandered in circles, Iradin dug a small pit. Creating a little campfire in it he took out a big pot, a slab of some kind of meat, and a bottle of sauce. Drowning the meat in sauce he began to cook it. After about 5 minutes Kael finally took a seat next to him. Iradin looked at his son and said, “First time you have ever let loose I see.”

“Yeah, never really needed to go all out before.”

“You know cultivation is the definition of going all out. It is literally about going against the will of heaven. The feeling of succeeding your tribulation is amazing. It isn’t often that you get to slap heaven in the face. To be serious for a moment, if you do not push yourself to your very limits and past them, you will not succeed in your cultivation.”

“Alright dad, I will work harder. It always seemed to just come naturally with cultivation sessions. Even if it was a bit painful.”

“I’m really worried about your Qi refining. Body refining was not an issue, but you will have to push yourself beyond what you think you can handle, then a bit more, to get past your issues.”

“Yeah, I can’t let that little girl Raen pass me up or I won’t hear the end of it.”

Taking two bowls out his pouch and some forks, Iradin lifted the meat out of the pot and quickly sliced bite-sized bits off into the bowls. After eating Kael said, “Dad, making things so spicy you can’t taste them doesn’t mean you can cook. Next time remind me to have mom send us off with snacks.”

Cleaning up the two took off again. The half-hour break was not enough for Kael to recover completely. After 3 hours he was wheezing up a storm. Iradin made him run for another hour before letting him collapse for the night. The only notable moment during their trip was when a rank 5 cat of some sort jumped down at Kael. Iradin turned it into a pile of hashed meat with one punch before it could even get close. Seeing that his dad could easily smash a rank 5 beast he thought, No wonder he was so mad when I stabbed that rank 3 thing. He was just playing around and I almost got myself crushed. Definitely telling mom.

After three and half days of their grueling pace, they finally began to slow down to a jog. Around 10 am the forest began to thin out, by noon it would be better called “woods” instead of a “forest”. An hour after that they broke out of the woods onto a 15-foot wide dirt road.

Looking to the left Kael could see the city. Based on the size it probably housed about 20,000 people. The entire city was encircled by a 20-foot wall that had a handful of patrols walking on it. An enormous gate was open where the road met the walls. There were plenty of people dressed in leather and steel armor coming and going from it, creating a small line of people waiting to enter. It was obvious that the city thrived on the business the mercenaries hunting the deeper parts of the forest brought.

Staring at the huge wall like a bumpkin, Kael followed his father as he walked towards the line to enter the city.