Hi guys! I will take a break tomorrow to carefully plan out the next coming chapters.

Until next time, enjoy!

Andariel was seated on top of his bed in old man Meng’s cabin. Old man Meng himself had gone to pick up Little grey, leaving Andariel alone in the house.

[How to build a good foundation by Chen Ming]

In front of him, the old and tattered book given to him by old man Meng laid.

Andariel flipped the first page open.

“My name is Cheng Ming, and I am a merge realm cultivator of the third stage. I write this to my sect, Heavenly Golden Cicada Sect, but also to other juniors who can find use in what I have to tell. I hope you this can help you as you tread the path of cultivation.

“This book details the conclusions of my experiences and knowledge regarding the first realm, gather. In this book you will find instructions on how to gather energy correctly as well as how to break through from the first to the second realm. It doesn’t matter which mantra you cultivate, this book only instructs general principles that doesn’t rely on the mantra. The first section will be quite brief, while the latter sections will be more advanced.

Reading the first two paragraphs, Andariel immediately got interested and flipped to the next page.

“You might ask yourself, why do we need to gather energy?

In this universe, there are two major forces who constantly battle for supremacy, King Yama and Emperor Pan. We humans are forces of King Yama, and therefore fight against the heavens, where Pan rules with his angels.

“King Yama gives us the chance to break free from our mortal counterparts by using mantras he passed down to us. But in return, he can’t help us, as that goes against his agreement with Emperor Pan. So we have to rely on ourselves.

King Yama? Emperor Pan? Are they not the descendants of the creator, Pan Gu?”

Andariel flipped a few pages until he came to the summary for how to advance to the second realm.

“When one reaches the ninth realm, one will be given a choice. Either he or she can go back to the eight realm, or fill his or her dan tian to the limit of what it can contain. As it is at the brim of collapsing, the barren lands will either use the energy inside to evolve into lands full of life.”

“If the barren lands are not compatible with the energy, if they feel like the body’s constitution is not enough for them to evolve, they will not do so. And if they decide to not, the dan tian will blow up like a balloon, killing the cultivator. Of course, there might be other mishaps even if one has a god given constitution.”

Cultivation is a fight against the heavens, either succeed and survive, or die trying too. Do you want to live happily and blissfully? Then don't enter the ninth stage. Because if you do, you better not hesitate.

Andariel closed the book, taking deep breaths. He had to contemplate on this for a while, it was too much information to take in at once. But he knew one thing for sure, it was definitely something he would do, to break through the second realm that is.

“Knock, knock!”

Hearing knocks on the door, Andariel realized that old man Meng had come back with little grey.

“Come in!”

Andariel turned his gaze to the door.

“Little grey!” Andariel yelled happily.

"Andariel"

From the door, a small, seemingly clumsy panda walked in. He chewed on a piece of bamboo, showing of a sad expression as he said, “I’ve been worried about you and I really regret not watching the arena fight, maybe that would have given me some piece of mind. I could barely get some sleep tonight.”

Old man Meng sitting in the room next to almost dropped the map he was looking at, silently cursing the small panda under his breath, “Worried? As if! You lay peacefully sleeping in the bed with a lewd expression on your face when I got there!”

“I know.” Andariel nodded to little grey, “But it doesn’t matter, nothing bad happened."

A joyous smile was adorned to Andariel’s face, “You met master?

“I have never seen someone so strong before, you are really lucky for him to take you in as a disciple!” Little grey replied and his eyes shone with awe,

This time, old man Meng almost fell backward from what he heard. This little panda hadn’t seen anyone stronger than him? Shoot, this little beast was so shameless.

“I know, He can probably make me really strong.”

“Oh yes, I bet he can.” Little grey rolled his eyes secretly, “Anyway, I shall find myself some bamboo in the forest. See you later.”

As Little grey left, Andariel once again began read the book with interest.

And as such, three days passed in the blink of an eye.

In the south of the island, on a small mountain path leading up to a chain of scorchingly hot volcanoes sometimes spewing up searing magma, one could see three figures; Two walking and one being carried. It was old man Meng, Andariel and little grey.

“I can’t, this is too much…” Little grey’s tongue hung out like a dog’s. He cursed loudly, “Why did we have to go to volcanoes? Can’t Andariel just train underwater instead? Let us just go find a cool, relaxing lake to train inside. Ahh~!”

“Dammit, little grey.” Andariel who carried the little panda said, slightly irritated, “How come you can’t even handle a bit of heat? You are a panda! Pandas should be used to warm climates!”

“We are here.” old man Meng’s voice interrupted them, “Look ahead.”

Looking forward, Andariel exclaimed. In front of him, there were countless of small, miniature pools of water. It was very beautiful.

“Water!” Little grey, seeing the pools, immediately returned from his deathlike state and scurried over, jumping inside one of the pools.

“Aargh!~” But as quickly as he hopped in, he jumped out again, rolling himself on the grass a it further away, “Hot, hot hot, hot!”

Andariel and old man Meng broke out in laughter upon seeing the scene.

“Andariel.” old man Meng addressed his disciple and pointed at the pools filled with hot, steaming water, “This will be your training for one month. These pools are called hot springs.”

“Huh?” Andariel looked at the hot springs, his master, the hot springs and then his master again, clearly confused.

“Haha, don't worry.” His master laughed, grinning as he said, “That’s just for you to recover in."

From his backpack, old man Meng took forward a thin, wooden stick, “I will make your body tougher than iron by hitting you till you can’t even feel it anymore. Then you will soak in the hot springs as to rejuvenate your body. We will continue this until my blows doesn't hurt you anymore.

“Master.” Andariel inspected the stick, “Hehe, you know that is a normal stick, right? If you hit me with that, it will easily get broken in two.”

"Oh." a smile appeared on old man Meng’s lips, "Is that what you think?