The youth no longer bothered with understanding more. He had a feeling that it was just going to get more depressing.

He sighed and looked at Jian Gong, “Listen, I’m going to cultivate the new Art now and try to regain some strength. You can do whatever you want.”

“You don’t want to ask more questions?” he looked surprised. “Are all of your questions finished?” he looked a bit dark as he asked that question.

“I have loads but now’s not the time for them,” the youth shook his head and Jian Gong’s expression lit up. The former was about to sit down and cultivate but suddenly seemed to have thought of something. He looked around and his eyes lit up.

He walked a few steps and bent down before picking up a rock. Approaching the nearest wall, he etched some sentences onto it. With the strength of a Qi Refinement cultivator, it wasn’t that hard to do. Rather, he did it quite fast.

After he was done, he dropped the rock and sat down in a lotus position. The Qi in the air around him started swarming towards him. Apparently, he had already started circulating the Celestial Monarch’s Cultivation Art.

On the other hand, Jian Gong stared at the wall with interest. The youth had written down questions for him to answer. His eyes shifted to the ground. The rock the youth had used was still there. He bent down and picked it up. Since the youth hadn’t told him to return to his corporeal form, he was still in his physical form and could interact with the world.

He aimed the rock at the wall and started answering the questions one by one. He looked at the first question.

“How are the realms of Spiritual Haven structured?”

His hand moved. “Jing Realm>Second Realm>Third Realm and so on to Ninth Realm.”

Then came the youth’s second question.

“What were the repercussions of fragmenting Spiritual Haven?”

“Not beating around the bush, eh?” Jian Gong smiled and answered. “Now, there are only two ways to ascend to the next realm. The first is increasing one’s Cultivation Realm. Each realm has a certain level cap. And the Fifth Realm we’re on can only bear cultivators up to the Ninth Stage of Xiantian Realm. Once you reach the level beyond the Ninth Stage of Xiantian Realm, the Fifth Realm will automatically expel you into the Sixth Realm. The second one being- someone at the level cap of the next realm pulling you up.”

After he was done writing, he exhaled and looked for another question.

“Even though my physique and spirit root are Divine Grade, there have to be some downsides, right?”

He clicked his tongue, “His thoughts are a bit cynical but I can’t say his mindset is wrong.” He started writing once again.

“There are. Your spirit root allows you to control every element but ultimately you’ll face the same problem every newbie faces in a JRPG. Just like how putting points in everything will hinder your growth, trying to learn might eat away your time and you may be left unable to properly learn everything. Either that or you have a shallow knowledge of everything, which in front of true masters is nothing.”

“Well,” he sighed and thought out loud, “it’s not like that’s all bad. Just like a JRPG protagonist, he’s basically a clean slate. He’s free to learn anything he wants. His constitution also has the same problem. Being attuned with everything means he can learn any weapon he wants. But trying to learn all of them is just stupid.”

His eyes shifted back to the youth. He was still sitting and the Qi was still funneling into him. But his face was red and he was sweating buckets.

Jian Gong no longer paid attention to him and turned his attention back to the wall. There were many more questions but out of all of them, the shortest question caught his eyes the most.

“Can fate be changed?”

Jian Gong let out a resigned smile. His hand dragged the rock across the wall as he etched a simple one-word answer.

“No.”

After a while, the youth’s breathing became steady and Qi that was being sucked into him started easing. A large burst of energy surged out from him. His clothes fluttered whilst his hair whipped furiously.

Soon after, he opened his eyes. The light in ocean-blue eyes had become sharper and his irises seem to sparkle like a sapphire. He got up and stretched.

“Phew, I finally reached the Sixth Stage!” he exhaled a turbid breath of air.

“Congrats!” Jian Gong applauded.

“Thanks, though it’s a bit convenient that I leveled up as soon as I began the new cultivation technique. The notes from the previous Monarchs helped out loads.”

“Their notes had little to do with it!” Jian Gong laughed, “You’ve been absorbing Qi from all your acupoints for six years. Although it was extremely slow, it made your foundations extremely sturdy.”

“Huh?” the youth learned something new. His eyes swam towards the wall with the etchings. “Oh, you answered them all?”

“Yep! Go ahead and look at it!”

The youth walked to Jian Gong’s side and inspected the wall. Some of the answers fell in line with his thoughts, some turned out irrelevant and the others shocked him to no end. Even though he was shocked, he stayed silent. They were answered in a way that required no further questions.

When he looked at his question about fate, he smiled helplessly in the answer. He seemed to remember reading so many stories where the protagonists changed their fates through their strength and willpower; why was this option closed off for him?

I guess this is the difference between reality and fiction, he thought. With a sigh, he went back through the tunnel and came in front of the pond. Jian Gong followed him closely.

“What’re you going to do now?” he asked.

“What else? I’m going to leave.” As he was about to dive into the pond, he remembered something. “Status, use the Monarch’s knowledge of the terrain into a map!”

A blue screen popped up.

[It is ill-advised to use their knowledge this way.]

“Why?” the youth frowned.

[Firstly, their knowledge is heavily outdated.]

“And secondly?”

[None of the Monarchs have any knowledge of this place.]

“Fuck, you’ve got to be joking!?” he cursed allowed.

“Hahaha, retard!” Jian Gong clutched his sides and laughed at him.

“Shut the fuck up!” he grumbled angrily.

“That’s what you get,” Jian Gong gradually stopped laughing. He looked at him with a mocking smile, “That’s what you get. Also, don’t try to do that again. Out of all of the Monarchs’ geographical knowledge, only the Eighth Monarch’s one is somewhat relevant and even then, her knowledge is a thousand years old. So, don’t bank on them too much.”

“Ugh, I know,” he threw his hands up resignedly. “But I still have to try, you know?”

“Yeah, I respect that,” Jian Gong nodded understandingly.

The youth looked towards the pond. “Time to leave this place!”

“Then, I’ll return to my corporeal form,” Jian Gong announced. As he said so, his body felt no longer solid, and instead, he felt more like a hologram.

The youth took a deep breath and dove into the pond with a splash! His visibility was already reduced in the dark cave but now he couldn’t even see one foot in front of him.

He swam underwater and looked around for an exit. After a while of only bumping against walls, he resurfaced. He kept his head above the water and took deep breaths as he panted.

“You found one?” Jian Gong who was squatting down by the shore asked.

“Almost,” he spoke in between breaths. “There’s only spot I haven’t checked. It’s most probably where the exit is.”

“Cool, I’ll see you on the flipside then,” Jian Gong disappeared.

“Fine…” mumbling to himself, the youth dove down again. Just like he had surmised, the exit was in that one place he hadn’t checked out. It was like a circular and horizontal hole filled with water.

He swam towards the hole. He estimated that this hole was almost 2 and a half feet in diameter.

How the hell did I even come in here? He wondered and entered the hole. Using his hands, he grabbed the walls of the hole and advanced forward. The darkness was chilly and felt all-encompassing. The water weighed down on him as he made his way through the hole. It was extremely claustrophobic.

The youth swam as bubbles floated out from his nose. At one point, his hands which were stretched out to grab the wall grabbed something else. He felt the object quickly with his hands. It felt like a stick with a sharp tip and a brushy tail. It was an arrow!

Damn it, are these my arrows!? The youth frowned. He hadn’t even noticed his bow and arrows were lost. And now his arrows were blocking his way forward. It wouldn’t be good if the arrows were to cut him. So, he reached his hand out to look for arrows.

He kept the arrows with him. His dropped arrows were scattered throughout the tunnel. Whenever he found an arrow, he’d grab them and bundle them up in one hand. After a while, he finally felt that the hole was ending. Faint light marked the end.

His lungs were half-empty. He stood in front of the opening and reached his hand out. The water outside the hole seemed to rush by his hand.

Right, the river current. The youth resolved himself inwardly and rushed out the hole. Immediately, the current picked him up and pushed him away from the hole. His mobility had already taken a hit when he had a hand full of arrows. Now, all he could was slowly make his way to the surface while following the river downstream.

The azure color of the river water seemed to be getting lighter as more and more rays of sunlight penetrated the surface. Finally, his head broke through the surface as he madly gasped and swam to the nearest shore.

Now wet and a bit exhausted, the youth walked ashore and laid down on the warm sand. The chill from the water seemed to melt from the cozy sand.

“Finally made it out, eh?” Jian Gong reappeared and smiled.

The youth didn’t say anything as he returned the smile and gestured an ‘okay’ symbol.

The youth looked at the shining sun overhead. “Why is it still noon?” his tone was filled with confusion.

“It’s the noon of the next day,” Jian Gong replied.

“Ah, shit. Well, whatever. Let me close my eyes for a bit.”