Burning spiciness in his mouth, half-filled stomach, and the lingering godly taste in his mind. Martin gave the bowl one more lick before reluctantly placing it on the bedside table.

He slowly laid down on the bed, avoiding aggregating his wounds. Then he closed his eyes in comfort, feeling his body brimming with spiritual energy from the meal. Thankfully his meridians weren't overly damaged, or things could have been bad.

Although there was damage, it was light and would naturally heal with time. Martin started slowly circulating his cultivation technique to accelerate the healing process.

'Such a large amount of spiritual energy, a single meal saved me at least one week of bitter cultivation. If I eat the mysterious fruit from before, I am guaranteed to break through to the third stage of elemental qi realm.'

'That Jane girl said this is a restaurant, right? I definitely have to get down to the bottom of how they cook spiritual food. If I could cook such meals, wouldn't I become immortal by just filling my belly?' he could help but giggle at his thoughts. Cultivation wasn't that easy.

Although he felt that he could easily break through to the next stage, Martin still held back and decided to do so only when he had fully healed. Since he was already conscious and could actively circulate his cultivation technique, he figured he would be able to get out of bed in a few days.

Thinking about his wounds, he couldn't help but remember the tiger beetle.

'That bastard of a bug just wait until your father, I, breakthrough to mid… no, to high-level initial element qi level and I'm going to teach you a lesson… hmph, otherwise you'd think I'm easy to bully,'

With the psychological shadow the beetle left him, Martin would not be willing to battle it with a slight advantage. So he decided to wait until he was entirely sure he could dominate. He wanted to learn battle techniques that could manifest his qi outside of his body to boost battle prowess.

When cultivators reach the upper level of the elemental qi realm, at the sixth stage, that is when they will be able to start executing battle techniques. By then, Martin thought he would be sure of victory.

The youth pictured his beautiful future with a smile hanging on his lips as he fell asleep. He was not aware of the dept he was amassing.

…

Martin could get out of bed in three days, and by the eighth day, he had mostly healed. Unexpectedly he didn't have a shred of happiness on his face. Why? The reason is in the paper that was sent to his room this morning.

It was an invoice of all the meals he had eaten while staying here. The cost totalled seventy-nine low-grade spirit stones. Looking at the amount calculated in spirit stones, he could feel his heart bleed.

'I haven't even touched a spirit stone in my life, yet somehow I owe nearly a hundred,' he thought with a bitter smile.

Thinking of how the old with the name Jefferey mischievously laughed as he magnanimously said,

"Don't worry little friend, seeing your plight, I will wave off the hundred spirit stone per night rent."

He could only grind his teeth. What else could he do? Beat up the man? What a joke! He wasn't even sure he could beat his lazy looking granddaughter. He couldn't even tell what their cultivation levels were.

Although he was sure they were cultivators, they gave him the feeling of looking at ordinary people. That is what terrified him the most because that meant they were leagues ahead of him.

Especially the man, even when he mysteriously appears and disappears, he never leaves even a wisp of qi. That or he has a higher level qi that Martin can't even sense.

'Could it be true qi? Could that man be a foundation establishment expert? Terrifying! I can't even run if this is the case!'

Old Jeffery had no idea what Martin was thinking. He was sleeping somewhere else with a lecherous smile on his face. If he knew, he would probably laugh at his ignorance.

…

"If it goes on like this, how am I going to survive in the cultivation world? If I don't have the strength, I should at least have wits! How could I let myself be deceived so easily?

Old Jeffery might be a good person, but he's not evil. If I had fallen in the hands of an evil cultivator, he could have possibly sold me as I the money for him!"

Martin looked around the room. He found a small empty spare book, a paintbrush, and some paint. He wrote:

[Rules of surviving in the cultivation world - The survival sutra

1. Don't judge people by their looks or how they behave. These can easily be faked.

2. ]

He then blew on it to make sure the ink had dried before storing it in his robes with a satisfied smile. After writing the first rule to survival of his book, he seemed to have calmed down. So he decided to analyse it further.

'Well… it's not all bad. Since the old man wants me to work as a waiter in his restaurant, let us see how hides the secret to making spiritual food from me.' he thought gleefully.

'I will first increase my cultivation to mid-level initial elemental qi realm. Then I will hunt low-level monster beasts when I'm on break from work. Sooner or later, I will have enough monster cores to pay off the debt,'

…

After deciding to breakthrough, Martin took out the fruit from the sack by the side of the bed, then sat cross-legged on the ground.

The fruit on martins hand felt tougher than a rock in his hand. But as a cultivator that had gone through body tempering, he was sure he could chew it even if it might not be a pleasant experience.

He put the fruit in front of his mouth and bit into it as hard as he could. Unexpectedly though, the sound of teeth knocking against teeth rang echoed in the room. The part of the fruit he had bit into, even though as rock melted mysteriously the moment it went into his mouth.

Old Jeffery, who had woken up to see the scene through his divine sense, boisterously laughed and told his granddaughter, who was next to him, what he had just seen.

"Eeeh? So mysterious?" Martin exclaimed, unaware that someone had seen his blunder.

After clicking his tongue repeatedly and examining the fruit, he continued eating. He then proceeded to refine the energy from the fruit and attempt a breakthrough.