Looking at the bag causes Marco to pause for a moment. “I really...really need you to be in there.” bending down, he unties the bag from his waist.

The bag is big enough to fit in the palm of his hand comfortably. The top of the bag is already open, so using his right hand he reaches into the bag.

Moving his hand around he feels a few tiny objects. Taking out his hand he pours the objects onto the table. Five items come out of the bag, enlarging as they hit the table. Two books, a paper talisman, a yellow token, and a bronze pearl.

“Looking good!” excited to see the books he quickly picks one up. “Flowing Flower Palm" looking at the book his eyes twinkle. Placing it down he grabs the other. “Revolver Qi" seeing the book he moves to the chair, places the book on the table and begins to read.

Looking at the book it describes a breathing technique on how to gather Qi, it also describes how to move it around outside of the body. After twenty minutes he's read the book twice, but he has no idea what to do from here.

Thinking about it for a few minutes he places the book down and picks up The Levels of Cultivation. Opening the book he begins to read.

“The first three levels of cultivation are Qi gathering, body foundation, and core formation. Qi gathering has ten stages, representing the ten parts of the body used to gather Qi. One in the head, two in the chest, the core, two in your hands, two in the feet, the groin, and the back. Each gate opened allows for more Qi to be gathered. To open the gate one must brute force it from the outside using Qi.”

“Gates become harder to open the older you are. Only a limited amount of Qi can be controlled from the outside at this stage so when one is older it is harder to break the gate. When one gate is opened, the next gate can be attacked from the outside and inside at the same time. For every gate opened the pain and difficulty increases, if one cannot bear the pain and fails to open the gate with brute force they will face a backlash.”

“At this stage, Qi cannot be stored in the body so a cultivator will not be much stronger than a normal person if they aren't constantly absorbing Qi from the outside, so if they ever find themselves in a situation where absorbing Qi is impossible they will be no different than a normal person. This also has a flaw as constantly absorbing Qi will drain your stamina.”

Reading up to here, the book ends. Marcos brows knit together, he doesn't know if his bodies age will be a problem. “Well, at least I know what to do with the Qi technique now.”

As he sets the book down the talisman, token, and bronze pearl catches his eye. The Token has the words Zhu carved into it. Looking at the talisman he sneers “Probably some protection talisman, tear it and some powerful master or senior brother will track me down and give me a hard time.”

Reaching out, he grabs the bronze pearl. The pearl is the twice the size of a fingernail, the outside is a transparent bronze color with a brown gas swirling inside. As he grabs the pearl, the right side of his chest pulsates, as if overcome by instinct he swallows the pearl.

Realizing what he's done his eyes go wide. He can feel the pearl traveling down his throat, but suddenly the lump turns into a warm current. The current travels towards the right side of his chest before being absorbed by something. Suddenly the same warm feeling erupts throughout his entire body.

His body begins to change at a visible rate. It starts to beef up, causing the skinny youth to disappear. His tanned skin disappears, replaced by a flawless jade like appearance. The sheen returns to his hair and his eyes look more clear.

“What was that!?!” with flushed cheeks a broad grin appears on his face “Was that one of those immortal pills from novels? I feel so good right now!" Marco twist and turns as he inspects his body.

Excited, he puts the books back into the bag. As they near the opening they shrink in size. Glancing around the room one last time, he leaves. Stepping into the hallway he opens another door. Behind the door is a kitchen area “Tsk.” closing the door, he moves to the last one at the end of the hall.

As he opens the door a room comes into view. In the back right corner is an actual bed, sheets and all. In the left corner is an armoire.

“Please don't be empty, these clothes suck.” Walking over he opens the armoire doors. Inside hangs three black robes, and at the bottom are rolls of shirts, pants, and underwear.

“Haha! The heavens have eyes!” putting down the bag, he quickly takes off his rags only leaving the cloth shoes on. As he stands in the nude one can see the malnourished youth from yesterday is really no more. In his place is a dashing youngster. Grabbing a pair of underwear he quickly puts it on. Next, he wears the dark blue shirt and pants. The pants are a little long, as he is only 5’10’’ where the original owner was easily over 6’.

Grabbing the black robe he puts it on, completing his look. He puts the two extra sets of clothes into the bag before leaving the room. Walking down the hall he heads into the kitchen this time. Going inside he quickly moves towards the cupboards. After searching for a bit, he is able to find a few pieces of dried bread and smoked meat. Munching on a piece of meat he puts the rest into the bag.

As he tries to put in the last piece of bread, it will no longer shrink. “That's it? Guess it's not a very big space.” Tying the bag to his waist he holds a fire starter in his hand. Striking it a few times he manages to light a piece of wood on fire.

Walking back into the hall he sets the burning piece of wood against the wall as he heads for the exit. Before he opens the door he looks back in the direction of the study “Thanks.”

As he opens the door a draft blows in, causing the wall to go up in flames. Closing the door he heads for the hill.

Moving through the small town people give him strange looks. As he is no longer skinny, people fail to recognize him at a glance, and because they think he is a friend of the master as they are dressed similar, no one looks for long.

Hearing the confused whispers he picks up his pace, as he knows the entire house will go up in flames momentarily. Hopefully, all the slaves will escape and no one will think to look for him, but he made one mistake.

As he exits the town he changes direction and moves more towards the forest than the hill.

“I don't know if deep water is still my weakness, so the river is a no go. And If I turn into a phoenix and fly over the plain I might as well ask someone or something to kill me. with my current abilities, my strength is limited. So the forest is my only option.”

He picks up his pace as he hears shouts of fire, before breaking out into a full sprint.

“They should be busy now, time to make a break for it!" as he runs the warm energy from his chest reappears, causing him to run more intensely. While running there is no discomfort from the vigorous movement and he feels no fatigue.

After running for a while he finally enters the forest.

-line-

As the house burns, the study also goes up in flames. The body catches fire along with the room. As the table burns, the Talisman turns to ash.

In an unknown location, in a quiet room, an old man who appears to be in his 60s sits cross-legged. Suddenly he opens his eyes. “Hmm? Why did Haildu use the talisman I gave him? That area is well hidden, and all he wanted to do was play as a village lord.” the man's brow furrows “This is why he stayed at the 2nd stage of Qi gathering for all these years, a little pain and he stops trying to open the gates.” the man shakes his head *Sigh* “I've spoiled him too much, I'm only an outer court elder, which allowed him to run rampant in the outer courts. I thought going out for a bit would help him cultivate, So I gave him some soul slaves to build a town.” the man rises to his feet while shaking his head “Only three weeks and he's already in some sort of trouble. If he could destroy the talisman it means the threat shouldn't be too great.”

The man cups his hands behind his back as he exits the door. As he does a grand hall comes into view. Giant pillars line the walls filled with intricate carvings. The floor seems to be made of marble and the walls of a different kind of stone. Paintings hang on the wall between the spaces left by the pillars. As he moves down the hall young kids of various ages between 8~18 greet him. All the kids are dressed in the same black robes with golden embroidery.

“Evening Elder Jun"

“Greetings Elder Jun"

A smug look appears on his face as he's greeted by the young disciples. Moving down the hall he arrives at a window. Above the window is the word ‘Assignments’. To the left and right of the window is a board filled with paper. Each sheet of paper list a different objective and their respective reward. Behind the desk sits a man who appears to be in his late 20s.

“Greetings Elder Jun"

The man nods towards the Clerk “I have an urgent task” the man pulls out a map. The map is mostly filled with forest, a long river, and a huge plain. One part of the map is circled, where the forest, river, and plain finally meet.

“I need three disciples to go here and fetch my grandson” as he points at the circle he stares at the clerk “Can you find some people now?”

“No problem, If I can't find people for the elder of the task hall what am I even here for?”

“Good" turning around he begins to head back towards his room.

“Elder Jun" the clerk looks a little flustered “As for...the reward?”

Elder Jun pauses for a moment, he answers without looking back as he continues to move “15 low quality spirit stones”

Hearing his answer a wry smile appears on the clerk face as he begins to think of who to send.

-line-

Walking through the forest Marco wades through thick underbrush. Tall trees tower above his head filled with the sounds of birds. The forest floor is teeming with life, insects move about with machine precision.

Every step he takes causes thick crunching sounds, alerting every creature in the area to his presence. The warm feeling moves through his body as he treds along, but after walking for a few hours the feeling begins to fade. After a while beads of sweat begin to form on his forehead.

“I guess this power isn't infinite?” puzzled he looks around. After a few seconds, he finds a huge tree with a few large branches. Blue flames erupt around his arms as they transform into wings. Flapping his wings he flies up the tree. After a few flaps, he arrives at the crown of the tree and lands on a branch.

“This should be far enough, right?” looking around his arms revert back. Besides a few birds nest, nothing else is up here. Sitting down cross legged, he reaches into his pouch.

Pulling out a book he begins to read. “Demonic beast are enemies of humanity. Like cultivators, they are divided into different levels. The levels are Bronze, iron, silver, gold, and legendary. Demonic Beast vary greatly in appearance and innate abilities. One Bronze level beast might be stronger than others. Beast with superior bloodline develops more rapidly than those with inferior bloodlines. One thing remains the same for all beast, every Demonic beast has a Demonic core corresponding to their rank.” reading up to here a light flashes through his eyes.

“That pearl earlier was a Demonic core? But why did I instinctively eat it?” putting a hand over his chest he continues to read.

“Not all demonic cores of the same rank look the same, as different beast have different elements. While demonic beast have different levels, they are unable to cultivate Qi. Instead of Qi, demonic beast utilizes a strange Aura that strengthens their bodies.” pausing again, the hand on his chest begins to tremble.

“Am I a demonic beast?!?” closing his eyes he takes a deep breath “No, that's impossible. I'm a human, but I have the abilities of the bird fruit model phoenix. So technically I'm a phoenix human?” relaxing, a smile forms on his face as he finally realizes what's been going on with his body. Removing the hand from his chest he continues to read.

“Demonic beast are different from humans, the longer they live, the stronger their Aura becomes. But not everything is good as most beast have bloodline shackles. A demonic Gore Tiger is an iron level beast, the same strength as a body foundation cultivator. Their young, while born at the level of bronze like every other beast will eventually become iron like their parents as they grow older. But they will never be able to advance to silver on their own.”

“Bloodline limitation...I shouldn't have that problem being a Phoenix, right?”

Looking at the book he continues to read. “But the heavens are fair, it's virtually impossible for creatures with a powerful bloodline to mate with an inferior creature, as their blood energy is so powerful it will devour the weaker mates bloodline making reproduction near impossible. But some have succeeded, making lesser species. The dragons are a prime example of this. After having trouble finding other dragons for breeding, some finally succeed in mating with a lesser species giving birth to drakes. While drakes are more common, that is only compared to dragons. Eventually, drakes gave birth to wyverns and wyverns gave birth to wyrms.”

“Dragons are real? I wonder If there are other phoenixes?” as the words leave his mouth it dawns on him “Fuck doesn't that mean my blood is too tyrannical?? How will I build the Uchiha clan?!? I'm a fucking phoenix with the rinnegan!! How will I ever have kids??”

Flustered he continues to read. “But the heavens are fair, like how humans can cultivate to get stronger, demonic beasts are able to devour other cores, absorbing a portion of the Aura to strengthen their own. Devouring cores will allow a creature to break through their limits, and some creatures even have the chance to awaken their ancient bloodline to evolve.”

“Distinguishing beast is difficult for cultivators, as they release no Qi. This is dangerous because it's hard to identify them by sight. But stronger creatures tend to stay in places with stronger spiritual air. Another problem is Legendary level beast are able to take human form and infiltrate society.” reading up to here the book ends.

Closing the book he places it back into the bag.

“It's time to try cultivating Qi" while closing his eyes he cups his hands on his lap.