‘Woah, cultivation, alchemy, and now flying treasures? This world really is like those cultivation books my friend liked.’ When Ray saw the leaf-shaped metal and heard that it flys, he was extremely excited. Since he lives forever, Ray might as well find a hobby. Alchemy doesn’t seem like it would match him since he would need to specialize in wood, water, or some other kind of energy with merging abilities but Ray has an advantage in the spatial element thanks to his Parasitic Core. ‘I should look into the requirements for making treasures at some point. At least after I reach Meridian Opening since that gives me time to figure out the plan for getting beast cores to cultivate.’

Lea, Jess, Ryan, and Ray all either sat or stood on the leaf as Lea put a light green best core in a hole and then sent energy through her feet into the leaf to steer it as they shot off into the distance. The leaf was riding above the trees, about 20 meters in the air, since they weren’t too afraid of the outer realms. Most beasts wouldn’t be able to get in the way of the flying treasure and those that can are mostly found in the middle realm and farther. They aren’t likely to come across any of those beasts and, if they do, it won’t be more than one which they can easily escape from due to Lea’s help.

Ray was happy. You could fly on earth with airplanes but flying on this world just feels better. There’s an energy shield turning the high wind on your face into a gentle breeze, see without any walls around you, and easily fly it without needing a long pilot training course. Simply flying through the air with a breeze was enough to put a big smile on his face.

Seeing Ray smile Ryan said, “Dude we need to get you some ugle clothes. Fire red hair, that face, with a toned scholar’s body? You’re going to steal all the beauties from the sect even as a servant… Life is cruel.”

“Oh yeah!” Agreed Jess, “Ryan he can’t wear your clothes once we get to the docks since those are inner sect clothes. Let’s go shopping! It’ll be like having a life size doll!”

“A… Life sized…. Doll?” Ray was a bit concerned at this point. On earth he knew to never go shopping with a female, malls are for hanging out and walking but females will spend hours on end in boring stores trying one thing on after the other, boring as hell. “How about this… Ryan can show me some good clothing stores while you two find a ride back to the massive city.”

“Haha,” Laughed Lea, “Jess is right, it would be fun. Most importantly, you don’t know the currency and probably don’t have any. I know Ryan didn’t bring any with him for the trip either so you need Jess and I to buy you clothes.”

Ray could practically hear her smiling through her voice. This only made his wariness increase more. “Dammit. Ryan, listen to some advice from your elder, never go shopping with a woman. As you’re looking for a boat, don’t find one leaving the day we get there or we’ll miss it, UHG.”

From then on, a large metal leaf could be seen jetting above the trees as it carried four people. Lea was a bit tired towards the end of the trip from steering without sleep yet was kept awake by Jess’s constant chattering. Ryan and Ray, on the other hand, were riding along in silence. Ray spent the two days sitting and cultivating as Ryan read the alchemy books found in the cave and periodically slept. This continued for almost a full two days til they began to see other people

__________

“Alright Ray,” Lectured Lea, “As we are now just an hour away from one of the three ports we will probably see a lot of other cultivators either leaving or entering the port. As a five year old kid you probably don’t understand how the world works so just stay quiet and don’t anger anyone or they might kill you. You aren’t a member of the sect or officially marked as my servant until I register that with the sect.”

“Sigh, I’m not five. I’m actually older than you all but bad luck happens, okay? Anyways, I’ll be quiet…” Muttered Ray as Jess and Ryan snickered in the background.

After that, Ray decided something, ‘Fuck it man. They are afraid I’ll piss off some stranger? I’ll piss them off then Mwahahaha! Watch me act like a completely whipped servant. I might have been a business and physics major but I was in the drama club dammit!’

A few minutes after their conversation a group of two females and three males, all appeared to be fifteen, appeared riding on what looked like a large shield with sharp edges. The five of them seemed to notice Ray’s group as they started flying over. Since Ray doesn’t know much about the Cultivation City he glanced at the other three to try and gleem some info from their expressions, only to see them with a big smile.

Noticing Ray seeming confused about their smiles, Ryan said, “They are ‘temporary’ direct disciples in the Smelting Cauldron Sect, our sect's greatest ally since neither of us focus on combat. ‘Temporary’ as an elder took a liking to them but if they don’t meet the elder’s expectations they’ll lose that rank. Just watch us greet our juniors.” Ryan seemed extremely excited as he saw the five fly over, maybe he enjoys being a senior.

“Seniors!” One of them called as he looked over. His gaze stopping on Ray as he asked, “Is this a new senior from your Flying Cauldron Sect?”

‘My time to embarrass them!’ Thought Ray as he interjected, bowing, “Thank you for greeting me seniors but this lowly one is a simple servant to Master Lea. Young Master Ryan was kind enough to lend some clothes, as mine were destroyed on the trip, until we reached a shop at the port. It’s my honor to meet an elder of the Smelting Cauldron Sect’s disciples!” ‘That’s right, I have zero shame and will use my drama club acting to leave you speechless.’

Ryan noticed Lea’s face turn red as she comes from a small family and has never been spoken about like this before. Glancing at Ray he saw a slight smirk in his eyes and signaled him with a thumbs up. Jess also seemed to figure out what Ray was doing as she closely watched Lea with amusement.

“Ryan! You! I hate being called someone’s ‘Master’!! UHG!” Lea’s face was red with embarrassment and her words were laced with annoyance. However, the five newcomers started cracking up laughing.

Smiling at Lea, Ray said, “I’m sorry Master Lea. I thought it would be a good way to break the tension of juniors and seniors with you all and our guests.”

Seeing a chance to cause havoc, Jess said, “Yeah, he’s not really a servant. He saved us and thus became my boyfriend!” Then she grabbed Ray’s hand.

At that, Lea, Ryan, and Ray stumbled and coughed. The three of them were confused beyond belief but Ryan and Lea were actually a bit panicked. In the Flying Cauldron Sect Jess is considered extremely pretty and quite talented so, even in Body Foundation, she has many suitors from not just her sect, but all large sects and families. Announcing Ray as her boyfriend will naturally put a target on his back since he doesn’t have a big background while her ‘young master’ suitors do.

Lea immediately panicked and berated, “Jess! Don’t cause problems for my servant Ray,” before speeding up the flying leaf and speeding towards the port.

As they flew away Ray asked, “Okay so, Jess, I’m not your boyfriend. But why were you two so panicked when she said that?”

Sighing Ryan spoke, “Sigh, Ray I’m sure you know that this cultivation world is strength based but a good background is also a strength. Jess is considered very very pretty and highly talented in alchemy for her age so naturally she has many suitors. She might be an inner disciple but unless she’s strong or backed by a crazy strong person, like an elder of the sect, then she can be pressured to marry someone. Naturally many young masters with powerful backgrounds try to put some pressure on when they see her. This will only cause trouble for you as I guarantee those five will spread the rumor that some nobody is dating my younger sister.”

Smiling as if she was a genius, Jess said, “Yeah but now nobody will harass me and I can focus on my cultivation and learning alchemy! Besides, Ray can live in my place as my servant. People will misunderstand and shouldn’t bother either of us since I’ll just be considered another pretty talent snatched away. Eventually forgotten about.” After a moment of pause she continued, “Also, Ray, you mentioned paying Lea to stay with her. You can think of this rumor as payment and use my guestroom.”

‘Dang. I mean she is cute but I wanted to just live in a guest room until I had the funds to buy my own place. Not live with someone forever and get close to them… I guess Jess won, I can either go with it where I’ll be stuck living with her til she finds her own significant other OR I can live with Lea and be harassed by people thinking we are together but distant enough to be split up.’ Ray was truly feeling cheated. He helped these people, gave up his home, and now he’s gotta deal with this shit.

Grumbling, Ray said, “Fine, you win Jess. I either go with you or get harassed but keep in mind what I said a few days ago. I don’t want to be too close to people, quickly find a husband so I can move out when I have the funds.”

For the next few minutes Ray was brooding on the leaf until Lea cut in, “Stop stewing in silent anger like a baby and let me explain something about our destination. The three ports are each run by three different massive trading companies. They each have multiple Elemental Transition cultivators keeping beasts and fights out of the ports, fighting is prohibited. It’s also rumored that a Space Formation elder is in their headquarters on the Massive Island. Similarly fighting is prohibited in the Massive Island, except for inside ‘The Pit’ where people fight to the death for money. A Space Formation elder just a step away from Nascent Soul rules over the city and keeps it in check with his city guards. However, outside of the city and ports fights to the death happen all the time for resources and grudges.”

Seemingly terrified at the mention of The Pit, Ryan said, “The pit is terrifying… People wear masks over their faces so nobody knows their identity, otherwise families of those they kill would go after them. It’s full of death… Every single fight in the ‘Fire Pit’ has a death, it’s the rule. The other pit, ‘Combat Pit’, doesn’t often have deaths. The Fire Pit’s payment is 10 times higher due to the risk of death but the Combat Pit still pays excellent and both pits constantly have people ready for a fight with high level betting pools and massive audiences for both pits. It’s run by the Mercenary Guild of the three main trading companies”

Ray had a lot to think about as fighting in the Combat Pit could be a good way to earn money for cultivation resources and practice his throwing knife skills without dying. So, that’s what he spent the next forty-five minutes doing, thinking about as they got closer to the port. ‘I can’t die so even if I did the Fire Pit I should be fine and make a lot of money. I mean, I’m not strong but if I can’t die then they’ll eventually get tired and I can win, right? But I would need to be absolutely certain that nobody could find out who I am afterwards…”

__________

“Hey, loser,” Said Jess as she knocked on Ray’s head, “stop thinking about something in silence like a weirdo. We are at the port.”

Looking around Ray saw that the lead boat was on the ground about 50 yards from what looked like an odd, mashed together, small town. There’s a massive port with dozens upon dozens of boats of different sizes however, on the land in front of the port was a medium sized town. The town didn’t really have walls or well organized roads. The area near the docks had a few dozen different sized shop buildings, size based on the size of their trading company, with houses and hotels built randomly and haphazardly outside of the shopping district.

“Uhm… This town is kind of ugly isn’t it?” Asked Ray.

With a knowing smile, Jess said, “Yeah but it wasn’t meant to be a town. One of the three major trading companies built the port and set up a shopping district where you can set up a shop for a land rental fee. Then a bunch of people built hotels and houses for when they or others come here to hunt beasts but unfortunately they’re bad at designing so many are ugly or built with odd spacing.”

Ryan opened his mouth to speak but Jess interrupted him, pulling on Ray’s arm she dragged him towards a specific shop saying, “Come on Ray! You can’t keep wearing my brother’s clothes so we need a style to suit your appearance.”

At this point Ray just gave up when it came to Jess. Apparently, according to Ryan, he’s considered very handsome in this world so maybe she likes that? Between her randomly telling the public that they are in a relationship, convincing him to move into her guest room instead of Lea’s guest room, and now dragging him off to buy clothes. Ray simply doesn’t know how to handle this… ‘Are females in this world just more aggressive than back on Earth? Or are Jess and Mya just friggin’ weird? I wasn’t intending on getting close to anyone at this stage in my life but Mya forced me to spend so much time with her and now Jess is doing the same thing. Am I really going to be getting close to someone again? But… What if I’m abandoned again?”

“Rayyyyyy, we’re at the store. Why do you have a frown on your face and a look of daydreaming?” Asked Jess.

“Jess, I don’t really understand why you’re doing this.”

“What? Am I doing something wrong?”

“As I mentioned not too long after I met you three, I don’t want to get really close to anyone. Friends, relationships, masters, or anything else. I have my own reasons why but unless someone is going to reach a crazy high cultivation level then I’ll eventually see them die of old age and I don’t want that. From making me move into your home, chatting with me a lot, and dragging me off on a fun shopping spree, you aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong but it’s slowly making it harder to stay distant if we spend more time together… So, why?”

Blushing a bit she replied, “Are you asking a girl why she’s getting closer to a guy? Well… Well, I won’t answer!” Sticking out her tongue before continuing, “Besides, I’m talented as hell. I’ll have you know that I’m most likely to become a direct disciple and super hot too so I have a ton of suitors. Let me buy you some clothes so you stop wearing my brother’s sect clothes.” Without waiting for a response she turned around and walked into the store.

One of the things Ray learned from Jess’s constant talking is that this world has two supreme elements, five standard elements, and an unknown amount of sub-elements. As the world formed, spatial and time elements were formed from the chaos. After an unknown amount of time the five elements of wood, water, fire, earth, and metal. Then, as the world and cultivation progressed, different aspects of each element mixed and formed new, obscure, elements such as fate, explosion, freezing, etc. This shop gave Ray a feeling of a massive amount of elements mixed together, a very weird feeling.

“Ah, the young miss Jess.” Spoke a shopkeeper behind a counter before looking to Ray, “Is your guest new to energy clothes? He seems confused.”

“Yeah he’s a weirdo who lived in the woods on his own, now he’s my bf though so get him the best clothing. It’s weird if he keeps wearing my brother’s sect uniform.” Replied Jess.

Glancing at Ray, the shopkeeper said, “Young man, we buy skin and other body parts from beasts to make clothing and accessories. The clothes in sight are specifically meant to be easy to sense the element they align to for cultivators to find a match. Then we have clothes in the back of different sizes and styles with a sealing formation to keep the energy from leaking out. So, find an energy that feels good for you and we’ll show you what the backroom has with it.”

Ray was interested in the concept of energy filled clothing and accessories from beast body parts. He walked around the small, forty-five foot by forty-five foot storefront, feeling the energy from each item there. Some items felt hot, some cold, some empty like space, and some gave off a strange feeling of dejavu. However, after an hour of walking around he felt a twitch coming from his gut and paused, using his hands to feel his stomach. Then a faint, odd feeling came from his soul, as if something was trying to send him in a direction through his soul, so, without a moment’s hesitation he walked in that direction and found a silver-gray robe. Rather than giving off an energy sensation it was as if it pulled energy towards it. Immediately a twisting sensation appeared in his gut as that odd, faint feeling from his soul came again but this time rather than a direction it seemed like somebody was happy. It was then that he understood, the Parasitic Core was excited about the energy from this clothing.

Feeling the robe, Ray asked, “This energy. I want to know more about it.”

The shopkeeper said, “ Ah, that’s one I personally made out of curiosity. I took a couple of Parasitic Core bests of different elements and crushed them together before mixing them with silk from the Groose Spider which has a web that resists puncture and slash attacks. Since it pulls energy towards it but doesn’t help with cultivation most people found it a ‘stupid waste of Groose Spider Silk’ and nobody has bought it. I actually made only three sets of clothes but it was for the average height of five foot eight in case someone wanted it. Want to see the set?” The shopkeeper seemed excited that somebody would finally buy his personal creation.

“Sure,” replied Ray as he followed the shopkeeper to the backroom.

In the backroom were three sets of beautiful clothing. There were deep black, loose fitting pants, a charcoal colored long sleeve shirt with faded shades covering the shirt, a light red shirt, a light gray shirt, and silver robes that went halfway down the calf. Upon seeing them the Parasitic Core started shaking again so Ray figured it might as well buy it. Maybe it would be nice and stop stealing his energy if he pleased it just once.

Seeing that Ray wanted it, Jess smiled and asked, “Hey Mr. Shopkeep, how much for the three pants, three shirts, and three cloaks?”

Eyes shining with excitement he said, “In three years nobody wanted it, plus you're a repeat customer, so how about 95 silver for the lot of it? 115 if you buy a pair of windrunning shoes.”

“Deal! Those shoes make you a bit faster and the black ones would be good with these.”

After they bought the clothes Ray changed into them in the backroom and after he walked out Jess whistled and then grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the store. She led him wandering around the other shops for a few hours, picking up items and talking to the shopkeepers. Since Ray had no idea what most of the items were and didn’t understand the currency, plus he didn’t particularly care much, he just sort of stumbled around carrying the random shit Jess bought. After a few hours of this, the two of them entered a hotel and saw Lea and Ryan sitting down, eating.

“Hahahaha,” Laughing his ass off, Ryan said, “Maybe you are my little sister’s boyfriend. Carrying her stuff with a depressed look on your face like a whipped boyfriend.”

Lea also couldn’t resist laughing, “Hahaha,” before continuing, “Anyways, Ryan get your clothes back since Jess bought him some. Jess, you and I are in a room while Ray is with Ryan. Our boat leaves tomorrow when the sun rises. I want to get back quick so us three can go into seclusion with the alchemy manuals we found so Ryan and I pooled our money to rent a small private ship that can get us back in half a day instead of three days.”