While the world and its many geniuses were preparing themselves for the upcoming trials, Herman was doing the same. October was already over by the time he finally managed to heal both his damaged acupoints, as well as the cracked spiritual world.

'Rewards come hand-in-hand with danger' they say and this particular saying couldn’t be truer in his case. Through the cracking his spiritual world suffered, there was a slight increase in the size of the now endless blue skies. He had no clue what this meant, or how it would impact his future since the system refused to comment on it, but it certainly wasn't anything usual.

By the time he woke up from his grind, it was already mid-November and he finally finished the process of having his acupoints polished and doubled in size. There was now only pure refined Qi flowing in his spiritual world and the accumulation of it looked similar to a slowly moving sea. With each 'wave' the image of the sky reflected above would be changed, turning it into a most beautiful view.

“Now all I need to do is to meditate in here, guide the flow of the Qi through the meridian pathways, and form the big Qi circulation the system was talking about. It was a quick process in my past life, so I should be done with it soon enough. The only thing that sucks, is that there was no improvement in my body’s refinement levels anymore, even after this much time passed…”

To keep his secrets closer to himself, he rented a villa near some mountains and almost in the middle of the woods. He could’ve easily bought it, but that might draw unwanted attention to himself. He wasn’t aware that people such as LinkWill were already searching for him day or night and even managing to connect the dots behind him being the one to release the tutorial which helped their entire world so much.

In his past life, Herman was also one of the plebs that looked towards LinkWill as if the later would be a God of sorts. His achievements in the Immortal World made everyone wonder if it was even possible to do some of the things he's done.

Anyway, seeing that his physique couldn’t be improved further without Primordial Qi, all he could do is get his body to remember how combat feels like. The weapon he used most in his past life was the spear since it was one of the best weapons in allowing one to advance and retreat as he wished. There was even a saying he heard before from a master: ‘a day with the stave, a year with the saber and a life with the spear’.

Now, if someone were to watch him practice spear arts in the huge courtyard, they would also hear the faint sounds of waves crashing into the shore. It was much easier to move Qi around when one is practicing martial arts when compared to when one is simply meditating in silence. This was another shortcut of sorts that he took to give himself as much time as he possibly could.

The result? At the start of December, he already finished connecting his twelve primary meridians and found traces of the remaining 54 acupoints.

“Since the process is quite difficult, I might as well explain more of its details to the rest of the world. After all, this is a competition I cannot win alone against the remaining 360 other planets. Even LinkWill was almost exhausted to near death while fighting on his own against only two of these other worlds… I just realized how ridiculous that sounds once said aloud...”

That’s how, two weeks before Christmas, another huge gift was presented to the world. In this download file there were clear instructions about clearing the acupoints and what one needed to do to further refine them, the easiest way to connect the primary meridians and the secret behind the Refined Spiritual Qi needed to open the remaining 54 hidden acupoints. Herman didn’t stop there either. After checking with the system and asking some probing questions for free, he found that there was indeed information regarding the quality of the Spiritual Roots in there, so he simply added that as well. He even hinted at the importance of high-quality roots in the Immortal World and that it was better to first cast them at their highest level before actually participating in the trials.

He didn’t bother thinking about if the world would believe him or not and simply gave his advice, wishing for the best. As a person that thought of suicide immediately after being reincarnated because of the exaggerated work he had to put in again, it was obvious that he didn’t want to become a solitary dumbass hero of justice that shouldered the world on his back. He wasn't planning to shoot a movie for Hollywood. Why the hell would he work himself to death instead of letting others do that for him? That would much more sense…

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With time slipping through one's fingers, New Year’s Eve caught Herman in the final process of casting his Spiritual Roots. Fortunately, each one of the primary meridians opened granted him 5 points to Strength, Life Essence, and Dexterity, with another 10 in Vitality. So, after connecting twelve of those, his body was already tempered close to Mortal Flesh II. His muscles were just like a taut bow ready and a simple punch from him would leave a gaping hole the size of a bowl in a huge tree.

Moreover, if that wasn’t enough, once he managed to connect the remaining eight extraordinary meridians, he got 10 points for Strength, Life Essence, and Dexterity, with another 20 in Vitality per each, pushing him in Quasi-Mortal Flesh IV according to his estimates.

“Without any Primordial Qi, my body refinement will remain like an incomplete puzzle. Once I ascend to the Immortal World, just the passive Primordial Qi absorption should put me around the peak of Mortal Flesh III. My attribute panel is quite absurd for a newbie…”

With stats like those, he should be able to hold his own even again a Gold Core cultivators that didn’t pass the fourth level.

Remembering how much one had to toil for pills needed for breakthroughs, or the missions from their sect one had to undertake to get permission to cultivate in the Qi gathering arrays for only a couple of hours every 10 years, a bitter smile crept on his face.

Cultivation was truly an assiduous task. Not only was it endless, but the realms Herman knew of were also too many for his current low standards. He did remember the main points about most of them:

The Qi Gathering realm, where one would slowly gather an ocean of Primordial Qi in their spirit world. Obviously, once the Spiritual Roots would be cast, all the Spiritual Qi would flow inside their space, continuously nourish them, therefore the two types of Qi wouldn’t collide. That would make the spiritual world the Primordial Qi’s container.

The Foundation establishment, or better put, the basis for the creation of a new world. After one gathers sufficient Primordial Qi, to break through to the Foundation establishment realm, one had to condense the Qi to a point where it would become solid and corporeal in their spiritual world. Not only that, one needed to keep the solid Primordial Qi rotating continuously towards a single point and further refining it in the process.

The Gold Core is where all the solid Qi becomes condensed into a primordial core, small in the beginning, but it will continue to grow as one went higher through the levels of the realm. The cultivator’s objective would be to enhance this core to the maximum possible size and refine the energy inside the core to its purest form, as it would, later on, become the heart of a world.

The Soul Wandering realm is where the cultivator’s vague form of himself in the spiritual world becomes real, similar to an avatar, and able to cross into the real world on its own. Not only that but once the breakthrough to this realm, Primordial Qi begins condensing around the Golden Core, giving it more mass, akin to a forming planet.

The Nascent Soul is a realm where the cultivator focuses solely on their soul. It would become stronger and depending on the art one is cultivating, the soul might become even stronger than the body. At the same time, the Primordial Qi one managed to condense around the Golden Core in the Soul Wandering realm, becomes a crust, similar to the dry earth.

The Ensoulment realm represents the fusion of the soul and body, through the polishing of the mind. Not only would the soul be fully synchronized with the physical body, but also one’s perception would likewise soar through leaps and bounds, creating a domain around themselves where Primordial Qi enters the control of the cultivator. At this realm, the Golden Core awakens and pumps Qi through the crust around it, making it appear more like a world. With the Golden Core as the ‘soul’ and the crust as the ‘body’, the Ensoulment realm creates a resonance between the two, transforming them into a budding primordial world.

The Nihility realm is also called the 'transcending mortality' realm. Once a breakthrough to this realm occurred, one’s lifespan goes through a qualitative and quantitative transformation. If the previous realms would increase one’s lifespan between 10-20 years each, the Nihility realm adds by default one entire millennia. Not only that, but through one’s comprehension of life and death being renewed, the primordial world in one’s spiritual realm cools down and water begins flowing on and through the crust, bringing the breath of life along with it.

The Ascension realm is where a cultivator fully severs his ties with mortality. He would no longer need to drink, eat, or sleep from that point onward and those would only become whims that he could entertain if he wants to or not. At this point, the primordial world inside the cultivator’s spiritual world is already complete and in perfect balance. The only thing missing would be vegetation and animal life.

The Half-Immortal realm is a full restructure of the physical body, mind, and soul through the help of Primordial Qi. Not only would one’s overall power increase in an exaggerated manner, but also their primordial world would finally receive its first breath of actual life, with the vegetation being birthed all across it.

The Profound Immortal realm… there was not much information about it that Herman knew, except what he heard from hearsay. It looks like, one’s understanding of life and death to a new stage would allow their primordial world to undergo lighting tribulation and if one passes them, animal life would begin to form on it, in the Darwinian way.

The Golden Immortal realm. For this realm and the following, Herman had no information about them, as one had to go to the higher levels of Heaven to do so.

Immortal Venerable – no details

Immortal King – no details

Not only did the realms didn’t stop there, but there were also supposed to be even more. Unfortunately, Herman’s life was cut short because of an ignorant, jealous, and retarded cultivator.

“Ugh… just thinking about how long it’s going to take to get myself back to my previous Half-Immortal realm makes me want to cry…”

Cutting his complaints short, he stopped practicing his spear arts, undressed, and headed for a nearby lake. Being in the middle of the woods with nobody to see him and honestly speaking little that could threaten the current him on Earth, he walked inside the lake slowly and dived to the bottom, entering meditation.

The lake wasn’t that deep, so there wasn’t much pressure on his body and he could hold his breath for hours on end if need be just by sealing his lungs meridians. As for the reason behind choosing a lake to cast his roots in, that was because he might die anywhere else but in a place with low temperature. That, he added as well in the second file released, since being responsible for too many try-hards meeting their untimely ends might create a mental demon otherwise.

The process of casting one’s Spiritual Roots was a violent one, where the Spiritual Qi would be ignited and poured through one’s meridians, finally forming the five of them in one's dantian, just under the ribcage. Unfortunately, the entire process is immensely painful and it creates terrifying heat in one’s body. Just by casting his poor quality Spiritual Roots in his past life, he was infinitely close to having a heart attack and barely survived.

Now that his Spiritual Qi is already at the refined level in quality, only God knows what kind of pain and heat he would have to go through. So, upon further thought, he decided to relocate to a place that has a body of water on or near a mountain range. With water and low temperatures, maybe he could employ them as external help and not commit suicide unknowingly.

The casting began with the sealing of one’s acupoints on their entirety and throwing the Qi inside his spiritual world in turmoil through reverse circulation. After it was ignited, Herman would unseal his Qi Door, the first acupoint he cleared, and slowly pour it out while guiding it through the major Qi circulation pathways. At the same time, he opened the first out of the 54 hidden acupoints, the Life Gate of the Governing Vessel meridian, and followed the same process with it.

Now, there were two streams of boiling lava flowing through his body and he had to use his mind and will to guide them through the meridians while enduring the horrifying pain. Once the process was halfway through, with gritted teeth, Herman noticed what the system meant by 'connecting the two circulation pathways upon casting the roots'. Simply put, by forcing the ignited Spiritual Qi through the two pathways and all the way down to his dantian point, both were connected through it, allowing Qi to flow in the future from one to the other.

A notification popped up, informing him of the extra 100 Perception he gained due to linking the two, however, he was too focused on his dantian where five different sigils were being formed and almost tattooed on his soul. With his Qi Door fully expanded, he gained another 95 points in Perception bring it to a grand total of 150. Now, he just had another 100 added on top of it...

Unsurprisingly, the five words for Gold, Earth, Fire, Wood, and Water, in the written language of the Immortal World were being carved in his dantian. The only difference between now and his past life was the size of them and how real they looked, compared with the small and almost transparent ones before.

In the future when he is to learn fire attributed skills, for example, the Primordial Qi would travel through his dantian and be converted into Fire Qi, allowing a higher mastery degree of the skill and higher damage being exhibited as well.

The process of casting the roots continued for a couple of hours more and indeed, Herman found out to have made the right choice with the spot where to undertake it.

Upon exiting the lake, he found out that it was already lukewarm compared to the ice-cold temperature from when he entered.

But none of that mattered right now. The feeling of embarking on the path of cultivation once more was… addicting.

Achievement: First to cast the Spiritual Roots

Details: You are the first among your peers to cast your roots.

Reward: 25.000 Wood essence and 15.000 Iron Essence

Achievement: One of Superior quality

Details: Your Spiritual Roots have reached Superior Quality.

Reward: +10 Superior Spiritual Qi Absorption

Achievement: Transcending mortality

Details: Both your spiritual and physical cultivation have broken through to the basic level of the Immortal World.

Reward: 5.000 Spirit Stones and a basic Level 1 equipment pack(Locked in your inventory until ascension to the Immortal World)

Achievement: Achieving balance

Details: You have connected your major Qi circulation path with your minor Qi circulation path.

Reward: +100 Perception (Locked until ascension to the Immortal World)

Checking through the notifications while dressing up, Herman grinned widely. The resources he would have to start with, even if placed in the hands of anyone else, they wouldn’t be able to do half the things he would be able to accomplish. Not only that but now he finally broke through to the realm of Qi Gathering I and Mortal Flesh I, quickly to advance after ascending to the Immortal World.

His Perception was also off the charts when compared to his previous beginning. Back then he started with only two points of Superior Spiritual Qi Absorption after passing the trials and having it automatically converted. Now, besides the 10 points he got as a reward, he had another 10.7 because of his hard work these past five months.

Checking his attribute panel, he shook his head and smiled bitterly.

“I already went three times higher than my original attribute goal... Maybe this time around, I won’t have to work that hard after all…”

Personal Information

Attributes

Ultimate

Pill

Name: Herman Roy

Cultivation time: 0 Years

Spiritual realm: Qi Gathering I

Body realm: Mortal Flesh I

Ascension number: N/A

Attributes

Life Essence: 164

Attack: 820

Strength: 163

Defense: 815

Vital Energy: 215

Health Points: 3225

Dexterity: 164

Evasion: 492

Fortune: 3

Critical Strike: 1

Perception: 250 Points (Locked until ascension to the Immortal World)

Efficiency: 125 Primordial Qi points / 5 minutes

Absorption: 41.4 points

Superior Qi Absorption: 20.7 Spiritual Qi point / 5 minutes

Character (Locked until ascension to the Heavenly Realm)

Personality (Locked until ascension to the Immortal World)