When the old man heard Nalser, he was a bit surprised. From the contact he had had with him until now, he painted him as a delinquent like person. However, when he saw that sort of basic courtesy that wasn’t faked, he was surprised. Back when he was still alive, he had had countless young men with high status or low status bow to him like that but Nalser was the first person to bow with sincerity.

He let out an amused laugh and brushed it off as he said, “Well, your manners are quite refined young lad, now mind answering my previous question?” As he said that, it was filled with a bit of arrogance and superiority. Nalser sized up the old man and just said, “I have no idea if senior would regard my grandfather as an expert but he has been drilling me in our family martial arts since I can remember.” He narrated how his grandfather was very strict in training and punished him for every mistake but outside of training he was a lovable old man.

Since his parents had died in a car crash when he was young, he was raised by his grandfather. In truth, he had no memory of his parents and even though he had seen their pictures daily, for some reason he felt as though they were strangers to him. Since he didn’t remember the time he spent with them, he couldn’t relate to them at all.

As the old man heard of the training that Nalser had been going through since young, even he couldn’t help but get shivers. The training he did was equal to his own back when he started but he had the aid of countless elixirs and other treasures to help him withstand the pain and give him the most optimal training conditions. The young lad in front of him however did not but had persevered through that hellish training and built a very solid foundation in his martial arts. What he didn’t understand was, why he had no Qi what so ever.

When he asked him about that, he was dumbstruck to learn that he was not from this world in the first place and in the world that he was from, there was no concept of Qi. Qi was only used in Chinese novels and other similar stories but in his world at least he had never heard of anyone who could use Qi. When the old man heard that, he fell into deep thought.

In his mind he was currently deliberating over a the only choice he had: Either use the remainder of his consciousness to reform Nalser’s body to clear his meridians and make his body fit to practise with Qi or pass on giving Nalser his Legacy and wait for a new person to arrive. The reason he was currently very torn between the choices was because he had no idea when another person who was qualified would appear but on the other hand, Nalsers foundation was extremely solid making him the perfect person to pass on the technique to. Even though he had been sealed inside, he could still feel the passage of time. He knew that hundreds of eons had passed and Nalser was the first person to awaken the crystal pendant. He knew that his consciousness could only last for a few thousand years at best, to meet someone qualified enough during that time was completely grasping at straws.

If his spirit could remain for a few more million years, he would have no problem waiting but since such little time was remaining to him, he was in quite the dilemma. Both choices had their own merits but currently he couldn’t make a choice.

Ever since Nalser saw that the old man went into deep thought, he shut up. He waited for about 10 minutes for the old man to say something but since he didn’t, he just shrugged his shoulders and went inside to grab a few books. Since he could now understand the language, he was eager to look through the books to gain some knowledge. After about 5 minutes, he frowned. There was clear time gap in the writing of the books and the knowledge imprinted into him by the old man. He glanced towards the old man and discovered that he had a deep frown and was currently mumbling to himself as if he was deliberating something.

Nalser let out a sigh and just looked for the piece of paper where he had written the alphabet. Now another line of letters was written next to the existing ones, these were the ones that the old man had imparted on him. After reading through the list, he nodded to himself, it was easier to draw the parallels between the ancient characters and modern characters than drawing a parallel between either of them with English.

Since he had his trusty sheet of paper he slowly started deciphering the books titles as to establish a reading order. After translating all the titles and skimming through the introductions, he put together a reading order. It was actually as he had thought, the books went from elementary basics to profound specialized knowledge. He looked outside towards the sun for a moment and determined that the time should be around 3-4 PM. How accurate it was, he had no idea, since he hadn’t seen a clock ever since coming to this world.

His gaze fell on to the still mumbling old man but it was obvious that it was like he was having an argument with someone. Since he had learned it the hard way, that it was not a good idea to interrupt old people when they were like that, he kept doing his own thing. He grabbed the first book he was planning to read and headed outside.

He arrived at the tree he was at earlier and cleaned up the mess around it a bit and sat down to read. The book he had decided to start with was “Elementary knowledge of Cultivation”. From the introduction he could see that the book talked about different types of Qi and the stages of Cultivation. It also encompassed the most common bottlenecks at different stages and how to breakthrough them. It also briefly touched upon different professions amongst cultivators and also different types of cultivating. There were Sword cultivators, Spear cultivators, Bow cultivators, Spell cultivators just to name a few. In the myriad of worlds there were countless orthodox and unorthodox cultivation paths. To count them all, it would take eons.

Finally, after a few hours of deliberating, the old man had finally reached a decision. He would ask a few questions of Nalser and depending on the answers he would either sacrifice his own consciousness or not. However, when he started searching for Nalser, he found him sitting under a tree reading a book on cultivation. He was quite surprised about it, since he could vaguely understand the characters but when he saw the sheet that Nalser was consulting with from time to time, he was pleasantly surprised because to come up with this kind of a system in such a short time frame was quite smart.

Atleast he wouldn’t think of such a simple yet effective way in such a short period of time. He let out a sigh as she shook his head thinking, “The passage of time sure is troublesome. The more profound and complex your knowledge grows, the less you think of simple yet effective methods.” It is the same as growing up. In Nalser’s world there was a simple test to prove this theory. On a sheet of paper there was a bus drawn sideways. When you asked the kids and adults which way the bus was driving either left or right, only the children answered in a short period of time while the adults tend to over complicate things. The children would say the bus is going left because you cant see the bus doors. It was a simple answer yet it was correct.

The old mans thinking was currently the same: Over complicated. He currently had the most perfect candidate in front of him to pass on his legacy. He would cease to exist the moment he passed it on any ways, so why deliberate on what could and could not happen. When he thought to this point, the old man let out a bitter laugh as he murmured to himself, “Seems like I truly am over complicating things.”

With that, he had made up his mind to pass on his legacy. When he had finally exited his thoughts he saw that Nalser was looking toward him. He was startled for a second before he cleared his throat and said in an expertly manner, “Now then, how would you like to learn this old man’s methods and acquire my Legacy?” Nalser stared blankly at the old man for a second and asked, “What’s the catch?” When the old man heard that, his head went blank, “What catch?”

Seeing the confused expression on the old man’s face Nalser sighed and explained, “If there was no catch you wouldn’t have had to deliberate so long over whether to pass on the Legacy to me or not. So, there has to be a catch as to why it is either dangerous for me or detrimental to you.” Hearing that the old man understood that the young lad in front of him was no fool. He may not be some unparalleled genius but he had quite a bit of brains.

He let out a bitter sigh and sat down near Nalser and started explaining, “You see, most of your meridians are clogged. Your constitution is quite horrendous as well. However, you have a very firm foundation in martial arts and astonishing willpower. You also have a knack for Close Combat arts, the same thing I specialized in. The reason I was deliberating for so long is that because you are the perfect candidate in terms of foundation but worst in constitution. However, on the other hand, I don’t have that much time left any more. By using the remaining consciousness I have left, I can reform your body to a certain extent clearing out your meridians and improving your constitution.”

Speaking this far, the old man had a serious look in his eyes as he started Nalser straight in the eyes. Nalser was no fool and understood very well, what the old man meant. “If you decide to wait for another candidate, you might not meet one. If you decide to pass it onto me, you need to reform my body.” As Nalser said that in a low voice, the old man nodded.

As he was about to say something Nalser continued, “However, that will hurt like Hell and there is no guarantee I will be able to withstand the pain or not. If I am able to withstand it, I can learn your Legacy but you will disappear. If I can’t withstand the pain, I die and you have no one to pass on your Legacy to either because you will still disappear.” As he reached this point Nalser completely understood why it took so long to deliberate on the this matter.

This directly concerned whether the old man’s Legacy will be passed on or it will fade into memory. The old man bitterly smiled and nodded his head. Nalser’s summary was exactly on point, so he couldn’t refute anything about that. The old man took a deep breath and asked him, “So, which is your choice? Either gamble on the Legacy or stay cooped up here for the remainder of your life?” The old man knew very well that Nalser couldn’t practise cultivation with his current body so the only thing he could do was wait for his death in this sad little birdcage.

Nalser thought for a second and said, “I ain’t no Saint or a Hero. My gramps thoroughly beat it into my since small: The only path to follow is your owns, taking side trips is okey but you need to return to your own path in the end. Staying cooped up here is just a little side trip.”

He took a breath and smiled sinisterly, “I am in.”