Inside a small cave room, a young boy was sitting cross legged. As he sat there with his eyes closed, his mind was working hard on the final few problems for his own Cultivation Art. Several months had passed since he became the old man’s disciple. With becoming his disciple, the old man gave him several gifts and also a few words of advice.

As he was right now, planning on starting his path all over again from scratch, it was a very bad idea to go to the Upper Realm with him to the Main Sect. It was more beneficial for him to keep a low profile by staying in a Branch Sect in one of the Lower Realm with him. Using the identity token he gave, the boy could go to any branch and receive the treatment a Core Disciple would have.

Plus, the Branch Sect would have no way of ordering him around as technically he is from the Main Sect. Also, once every year, a messenger will come to bring him his annual cultivation resources. As a low level disciple he would get a fixed amount of resources from the sect each month according to the level his cultivation is at and his merits towards the sect.

Suddenly, the boy opened his eyes and let out a deep breath and mumbled to himself, “I have finally solved the various problems of the Art. Now, it is time to make my preparations for dispersing my cultivation and starting anew.” As he mumbled that to himself, he slowly stood up and moved to another room and organized all of his possessions.

In front of him were four boxes neatly in a row. Inside each were various bottles of pills and various raw materials such as metals, medicinal plants, different types of wood and other things. These four boxes symbolized the four main Cultivation Stages before the Heavenly Tribulation: Qi Gathering, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul.

The Qi Gathering was Divided into 13 Stages, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation and Nascent Soul Stages were divided into three levels. One could try and enter Foundation Establishment at the 9th stage of Qi Gathering but the chances of it being successful were minimal and those that managed to succeed would be bottom feeders amongst Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

They also had no more prospect of ever reaching Core Formation. Most of the people that entered Foundation Establishment from 9th stage were forever stuck at Early Foundation Establishment: The Qi Springs Stage. Some lucky people manage to break through to Mid Foundation Establishment: The Qi Sea Stage but only some heavenly blessed with luck manage to enter the Late Foundation Establishment: The Palace Building Stage. However, even if they manage to successfully build their Qi Palace, they will never be able to form their Core.

When all of the boxes were sorted and in order, the boy stored them all inside his Spatial Ring. Over these Nine Rebirths, he had collected vast amounts of Heavenly Materials, Pills and Treasures. This was all in order to start the strongest with his new round of Nine Rebirths. He now had his own customized and personalised Cultivation Art that he had spent over 8000 years carefully and steadily crafting. The Art was a combination of the three main Cultivation Styles: Body, Qi and Soul. The hardest part about this technique was carefully balancing each of the aspects so that one wouldn’t overpower the other’s but at the same time, they had to be mutually supportive of one another.

After his chat with his now Master, he entered a state of epiphany and managed to solve the last few problems. Now, he was all done and was planning on dispersing his cultivation yet again to start over. Cultivation was already a long and hard road but to traverse that same path nine times…. Most people would never have the patience to do it.

The select few who do, they would never imagine doing the same process again nine times. However, the young boy was determined and in his mind, two sayings were deeply rooted: “Slow and steady wins the race.” and “If you plan on doing something, never half ass it. Either go big or go home.”

During his travels of Minor Worlds as a Nascent Soul Cultivator he had come across a little world where Qi didn’t exist. To be precise, it was so thin that no matter how extraordinary the technique, it was impossible to cultivate it there. However, the humans there had many old sayings, many cultures and many sights for the boy to enjoy.

Those two sayings also came from that world and for some reason, they resonated with him and from the moment he heard them, he decided to live his life by those words.

***

A few days later, the boy stood in front of the gates of the Branch Sect. He no longer had the oppressive aura of a Nascent Soul Senior but rather, right now he excluded a mild aura of Foundation Establishment. He fished out a small emblem and poured a bit of Qi into it. As it lighted up, a few moments passed before a streak a light broke through the sky. As the streak passed the Sect Gates, it abruptly landed. “Shi Fang greets to the Main Branch Disciple.”

The young boy let out a smile as he cupped his hands to the man in front of him, “Disciple Ji Curo greets Branch Leader Shi Fang.” After saying so, Ji Curo raised his head as he sized up the middle aged man in front of him. Although he wasn’t muscularly built, his domineering posture radiated dominance. With short chestnut brown hair and sword like eyebrows, the man stood as tall as a mountain. The man let out a smile as well as he said, “It is an honour for you to choose our Sect as the training ground. Lately, the Aboriginals have become more and more ruthless and restless, making it harder and harder for us to stand our ground.”

Ji Curo raised his brows as he asked, “What about the others Sects on the continent?” The man let out a sigh as he shook his head, “Each year they give us some resources as “protection fees” but as for reinforcements… There is nothing to expect from them.” Ji Curo nodded his head and let out a sigh as he said, “Seems like it was a good idea for me to come here.” After a few more words, the two head inside and the Sect Master personally took him to receive his clothes, showed him his cultivation area and showed him around.

They drew a lot of gazes and hushed murmurs from the many Qi Gathering Disciples that were around. It was a miracle to see the Sect Leader outside of the Main Hall, much less showing around a young boy. Due to Ji Curo’s request, they left the mission hall to be the last and as soon as they entered, the whole hall fell deathly quiet.

Shi Fang then said, “Here is the Mission Hall. You can accept various missions here. I know you already accepted the mission to reinforce our Branch form the Main Sect but you can’t exchange your items here with Merits Points from the Main Sect. If you wish to exchange things here, you need our Branch Merit Points.” Ji Curo nodded indicating that he understood.

A thought passed his mind, “Not to mention not exchanging here, I have no points to exchange in the Main Sect.” As they moved around, Shi Fang introduced all of the various post walls. Each held different grade missions. There were thousands of different missions varying from gathering medicinal herbs to reinforcing various key points such as outposts against Aboriginals, Qi Stone Mines, Clans that had tight relations with the Sect and so on.

As Ji Curo glanced at the missions, his eyes stopped on one that he found peculiar. Seeing Curo’s gaze stop on the mission, the Sect Leader started breaking out in cold sweat as he cursed in his mind, “Why the hell did he have to take an interest in that death trap?” The mission Curo was looking at was to reinforce an outpost in a mountain pass. It was a strategically extremely important point however, the monthly pay for it exceeded other missions of the same grade by three times.

Curo wasn’t planning on taking the mission but seeing the rewards be three times more than other similar mission piqued his interest. He turned his head towards Shi Fang and inquired, “Why is that missions rewards three times more than missions of the same grade and similar in nature?” Having heard the dreaded question, Shi Fang let out a deep sigh as he said, “Because it is a death trap to anyone above Qi Gathering.”

As Curo raised an eyebrow to the explanation, Shi Fang rubbed the bridge between his eyes and continued, “Every Foundation Establishment or higher cultivator that steps inside that fortress dies within a month. No discrimination, whether it is a Foundation Establishment Junior or a Nascent Soul Elder, all of them have been killed by the Aboriginals within a month.” Curo’s eyes opened wide in astonishment as that truly was a shocking piece of information but before he could ask anything more, Shi Fang said with a serious face, “I don’t have the authority to keep you from accepting the mission if you feel like it but I strongly advise against it and to pick another mission.”

Curo let out a sly smile as he said, “I will keep it in mind.” After this little interlude, they visited a few more places and Shi Fang escorted Curo to his cave. After a few more warning about the mission, he turned around and left. Curo didn’t stand on ceremony either and entered the cave. Even though he currently had a Foundation Establishment cultivation, he had been alive for 9000 years.

These crude formations that were supposed to protect his cave were extremely low grade in his eyes. With a sigh, he took out several formation flags and set down his own formations. After three hours of delicate and precise work he was finished. As he wiped his brow from sweat, he grinned, “Now, even if a Peak Nascent Soul Elder wants to break in here, they will have to consider whether it is worth the risk.” After feeling somewhat safe now, he took a look around the cave. It wasn’t big, only about three square kilo meters in total. It was divided into cultivation room, medicinal garden, training room, storage room for his valuables and a small guest room to entertain guests. After feeling the rich Qi in the air, Curo smiled as he planted several of his medicinal plants and trees in the medicinal garden.

Since all of the rare and precious herbs needed different conditions to grow to their best potential, it took Curo a week to carefully and strategically plant all of his medicinal plants. Some plants would grow far more lively if some other specific plant was planted next to it but some would lose all growth if another was planted next to them. After making sure that none of the plants harmed one another, he was happy with the end result. With a wave of his hand three wooden puppets that looked like humans appeared. They wore green robes and since they had no face sculpted, they had a blank look. Curo then said, “Tend to the plants here. If you discover an intruder, kill him or her, regardless of his background.”

The three puppets nodded their heads and rigidly started walking around tending to the plants. Sometimes watering them, sometimes fertilizing the soil with Mid Grade Earth Arts and so on. After seeing the three Farmer Puppets tending to the plants with upmost care, Curo nodded his head and left the room. He entered the Cultivation Room and sat down cross legged.

As he closed his eyes, he took a deep breath and a ghostly image of himself appeared to sit behind him. However, he wasn’t exactly like Curo was. The image had black crystal wings on his back and on his skin was jet black with red lines running along like veins.