THUMP!

A bump on the road awakened Ye Tian causing his eyes to shoot open while also subconsciously getting up to view his surroundings. He was expecting to see the usual unsightly view of the dirty, unswept streets along with other fellow beggars waking up to the irritating beam of the sun on their faces. The pungent smell of days old trash and the sticky blanket on Ye Tian only helped to peak the discomfort.

Instead, Ye Tian saw that he had been lying in the corner of a wooden cart, which looked like a primitive pickup truck's rear, with around a dozen children sitting by the sides of the wooden wall. The scruffy rags, disheveled hair, and malnourished bodies were all too familiar to Ye Tian as faint odors of mixed trash drifted into Ye Tian's nose. All eyes shot on to the suddenly waking up Ye Tian to which Ye Tian reacted with by looking back.

Eh? I don't feel pain from my wounds anymore?

Ye Tian examined his body to find that his legs were no longer in pain and dysfunctional while the other bruises were gone.

"Hey, you, you're finally awake! What happened to you back there?" asked one of the children whose bright eyes couldn’t be hidden by the dirt and dust coating his skin. However, this child would soon realize that his compassion for a fellow peer wouldn't be returned.

"Nothing," Ye Tian brushed him off while getting up into a kneeling position in order to look at the cart's surroundings.

The traveling cart was within a forest that had green and orange scattered leaves on the dirt road, and occasional rays of light leaked through the canopy of leaves. A cool breeze brushed Ye Tian's face as he viewed this enchanting scene and wondered.

It seems like the perfect time of the year since summer is slowly transitioning into autumn.

At the corner of his eye, Ye Tian caught the man in silver armor who had turned around at the noise in the back. What was even more eye-catching than the light reflecting off of the silver armor was the red ox that had three tails and three horns.

The strength of the ox must be astounding.

Ye Tian marveled upon noticing that one was all that was needed to carry a load of children, a cart, and a man in armor. The cart was also traveling at a fairly fast speed.

The speed is pretty fast too with this heavy load. It seems to be around double or triple a normal person’s walking speed?

The man smiled and, upon viewing Ye Tian’s shock, explained, “This is a rank one Horntail Ox which is the demon beast variation of a normal ox. Demon beasts are normal animals with new, odd features on their bodies. Every beast has an energy core, within their hearts, that are the source of their powers. Over time, the body of a demon beast is thoroughly refined and strengthened by the energy pumped throughout their bodies hence the strength of this Horntail Ox.”

The man then looked behind Ye Tian and then smiled, “Good, all of you are awake. My name is Hao Nan, and I will now explain to everyone as to why you guys are here on this cart. First of all, you guys agreed to this. My master, the city lord of Ashurias, needs fresh recruits for his personal force and recruiting from outside towns or villages is the only way to get recruits who are not inserted by his rivals. You guys owe my master a life for bringing you out of the slums. Betrayal is not recommended. Trust me. You guys will definitely have a better time by following my master.”

“You guys will receive three meals a day, clean quarters, and a servant. You will all receive an education and training. I expect effort in learning since all of this is a rare opportunity. There is naturally a catch to all these good benefits. If one does not pass the exam after 5 years then you will be relegated to a servant. The conditions are not very good as a servant so put some effort.”

“The training is essentially cultivation. For now, you guys just need to know about the rebirth and elemental realm. The rebirth realm consists of the muscle stage, blood stage, bone stage, qi stage, and soul stage. Each stage refers to a rebirth of that particular portion of a person. A complete rebirth grants around 50 extra years of life and a new body reformed with qi.”

“During the elemental stage, the body will need to be fueled with the elements. Each person is different during the elemental stage as only one fueled element is necessary to break past this stage, but a person can choose to break through with multiple elements. It is naturally more difficult to gather more elements and most usually breakthrough with 2 or 3. There are 5 elements of fire, wind, wood, earth, and water. Each resource is aligned with either yin or yang thus a person could have yin fire or yang fire.”

Upon seeing the children’s eyes widen and sparkle with excitement, Hao Nan shook his head and paused with an expression of reminiscence before continuing, “People are naturally born into advantages and disadvantages. I’m sure that you all understand this as you are all born into one of the worst disadvantages possible. The mere fact that you are all on this cart may seem like a dream to you. In cultivation, each person has their own spiritual roots which determine the rate at which they absorb qi.”

At this, a portion of the children on the cart had their excitement dimmed into a downcast expression. If they had been dealt such a bad card already in life then their spiritual roots couldn’t be that good right? Ye Tian’s heart pace increased with anxiety.

As a transmigrator, I shouldn’t have really bad spirit roots right? Is it bad luck or good luck to be thrown into a different world with terrible starting conditions? Even if my roots are bad, I still want to cultivate!

“Relax, the fact that you guys are here means that all of you have spiritual roots which are uncommon within most people. I traveled to multiple towns and villages, yet I could only gather you guys. There are also other resources that can supplement your cultivation speed,” soothed Hao Nan after feeling a depressing mood float around.

If I have a mortal spirit root then I just have to obtain more resources right?

Ye Tian tried to ease his own anxiety while Hao Nan spoke again, “There are, in increasing order, mortal, earth, and heaven spirit roots with each type having, in increasing order again, inferior grade, normal grade, and superior grade. I will measure all of your roots as soon as we arrive to delegate different resources to each of you.”

With that being said, Hao Nan turned back to face the road and the rest of the children sat in silence whilst enjoying the scenery and breeze.

Ye Tian hesitatingly opened his mouth but proceeded to ask, “Elder Hao? Why is my body perfectly fine now?”

“Hmm? I applied a rank one healing ointment made from spirit herbs.”

Upon hearing the ointment’s components, Ye Tian was grateful for Hao Nan’s generosity since Ye Tian knew the worth of spirit herbs and that he had almost died for them.

“Umm… Elder Hao?” asked the previous kid with bright eyes.

“Hmm?” replied Hao Nan.

“What additional features does the horntail ox have?” the kid asked with excitement in his eyes.

Hao Nan chuckled before answering, “It’s just a rank one so it only has extra strength, intelligence, and speed but do not underestimate these beasts since they can match and even overpower human warriors at correlating ranks.”

The horntail ox gave a snort as if it took pride in being able to fight similarly ranked human warriors.

Dude… you’re just an ox…

The rest of the journey entailed the occasional questions raised by the children with Hao Nan patiently answering them. Ye Tian spent most of the journey in boredom where he could not help but have old memories resurge, but these memories were held in high regard as his only property that was brought over.

Mom… Dad… Little Sis… Are you guys all doing well? It’s been around 8 years in this hell-hole of a world. Sis should be around 22 now. I must’ve missed her high school graduation. Damn. I’m going to miss her college graduation too now.

I’ve been missing mom’s cooking. Ahhh the dirty crumbs of the slums can’t even compare to such heavenly cooking!

Dad must’ve saved enough up for his new car. Hehe… I guess he won’t be fulfilling the promise of letting me drive in it first.

A tear slowly made its way down Ye Tian’s face, but he quickly wiped it off and resumed a composed expression lest others see.

Damn! Screw these negative thoughts! What if time actually stopped? What if time is slower? I’ll become super powerful in this world and try to find a way home!

As the sun began to set, the cart traveled over a hill to see a wide expanse of buildings and farms. All the children hurried over to the edges of the car in order to view this massive sight.

“Haha! We’ve arrived!” Hao Nan laughed at seeing the wide-eyed children climbing over each other to get a view.

A city? This is a city? This looks like one of those gigantic city-states of the ancient greek like Athens or Sparta!

As the cart began to draw closer, Ye Tian could not help but tremble in excitement as tremors ran throughout his body.

This is where my journey truly begins.