The Southern Region was an immense mountainous area. If the world were a disk, the region would appear as a trapezoid at its bottom that took up roughly an eighth of it.

Like the spines on a dragon’s back, innumerable mountains crossed it in all directions. There were few open areas, with those being grasslands and near rivers. What occupied most of the land were lush forests. It was in one of these forests that Monty and Lillian were currently crouched down, hiding along the side of the road in some bushes.

It was early into the night. The sun had not properly set, casting a dull glow over the leafy canopy. In the shadows, a group of five bandits moved. They wore stitched clothing and carried pitchforks and sickles. Their steps were loud in the thick foliage, unskilled and unwary in their movements.

“Are we just going to hide here?” Lillian hissed, her voice barely reaching Monty’s ear.

He looked at her as if she were stupid. “Do you want to go fight them? Why don’t you just leave a signature saying that we passed through instead?”

“Does it really make a difference? We aren’t the only cultivators passing through here. If we just leave no witnesses, no one will know who we are.” she said.

“It matters,” Monty replied. “It wouldn’t if we were just any cultivators, but since we’re descendants of the Silver Moon Sovereign, anything that might lead back to our true identities has to be avoided. When we reach Phoenix City we’ll create new identities that are completely unrelated to our past. If someone decided to investigate us and found traces leading back to Fletcher Villages’ Monty and Lillian, it would be a problem.”

While the two of them talked, the bandits passed by without finding them. They waited an additional five minutes but the group never came back.

Lillian clicked her tongue. “Mortals.”

They continued onwards. The moon and stars provided enough light to see and with Lillian’s extraordinary senses, they were able to avoid any interaction with other beings, whether man or beast. As the start of the day neared, they found a good spot to settle down.

“I’m going to cultivate, don’t disturb me,” Monty said as he sat down cross-legged. Lillian nodded and did the same. It was important to cover as much distance as much possible, but cultivation took priority over everything else. With enough power, anything was attainable.

At this time, Monty was reaching the limit of the first level of Qi Condensation. In his head – overlayed yet separate to his physical body - what looked like a soft sphere of Qi was formed.

Rather than creating it in his abdomen, he formed his dantian in his head. This was a choice all cultivators could make. It was possible to create a dantian anywhere in the body and, depending on where it was, offered corresponding benefits and demerits.

Akin to the heart and veins, the dantian and meridians functioned as a transport system for Qi. The heart was located close to the center of the chest to pump blood evenly throughout the body. The dantian was the same. Those who pursued an all-around and even improvement in strength would form it in the same place. Those who pursued speed would form it lower, usually in the abdomen.

In Monty’s case, by forming his dantian in his head, his speed of thought, memory, and other traits related to his mind were boosted. It was not the dantian that changed. Rather, by having it closer to the area he wished to focus on, it would simply receive a slightly stronger amount of Qi. At lower levels this usually did not make a difference, but the higher one’s cultivation got, the more small increases in strength mattered.

Where there were benefits, there were demerits. The closer the dantian was to an organ, the further it was from others. By forming it in his head, the strength of his lower body suffered. This was a sacrifice he willingly accepted.

With his eyes closed tightly, Monty focused on the loosely compacted sphere of Qi. Transparent meridians were extended from it like tentacles, spreading downwards and throughout his body. Soon, he reached a point where his dantian could no longer store Qi. It was full like a balloon.

“Finally. The peak of the first level of Qi Condensation,” Monty thought. He had been cultivating daily for the past three months and just now reached it. This meant his talent was average. Compared to Lillian, who was on the ninth level of Qi Condensation despite only being three years older than him, it was very lacking.

He opened his eyes. Lillian was sitting a few feet away from him, also cultivating. All seemed peaceful. Now was the time to break through to the next level. Pouring all his focus into condensing his dantian, Monty pushed it until it would shrink no more. Then, having reached the utmost limit, he shattered it.

Qi spread rapidly throughout his body, rampaging relentlessly. As fast as he could, Monty once again gathered the Qi back towards his head. As he had already completed the process before, he could follow pre-made paths yet this did little to reduce the difficulty. The process was like using one’s hands to shape a rampaging river.

It took him an hour to finish breaking through. Once he was done, he once again had a dantian formed. It was larger but less dense than before. However, the potential after condensing it to the limit was greater. This was the second level of Qi Condensation.

Monty’s eyes opened to see Lillian looking at him.

“You broke through?” she asked and he nodded. “What cultivation technique are you using?”

“None.”

She looked at him in surprise. “Do you not know any? I figured you would. To think that there’s something you don’t know.”

Monty shook his head. “I won’t be using any, period.”

Lillain’s eyes furrowed though she did not say anything. Monty knew what she was thinking. Cultivation techniques were not required to absorb Qi. Rather, they were used to alter a cultivator’s Qi.

An example would be Lillian, who was cultivating using an ice-type technique. She would absorb Qi as normal. But, once it was within her, through the technique the Qi would be changed from its base form to an icy variant.

This gave her a massive boost when using ice-type techniques. Their strength, casting speed, and many other attributes would be bettered. Of course, just like with dantian placement, there were drawbacks.

The main one was cultivation speed. Changing Qi from one form to another took more time than absorbing it as is. There was also a matter of waste. As atmospheric Qi could be changed into nearly every other form of Qi, there was a great deal of excess that could not be absorbed without resulting in dilution.

To put it simply, cultivation techniques traded one’s speed of advancement for specialist power.

For the most part, it was worth using one. The boost was that great. It was better to be a master of one than of none. However, Monty had other plans. It was not that he was arrogant and unwilling to use one. Rather, knowing all that he did, there was only one path that suited him. For it, he would not be using any cultivation techniques.

Breaking through to the second level went smoothly. Monty allowed himself a smile before focusing back on stabilizing his dantian. By the time he started to get tired, his improvement breakthrough was complete.

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Monty released a deep breath and stood up. He stretched out his arms, pulling at his muscles until the stiffness disappeared. Then, he clenched his hand and felt stronger than before. His physical strength should be at the level of an adult man now. A bit of muscle had also appeared on his frame.

“What a shitty world.” He chuckled to himself, more happy with the progress than anything. “One step at a time and eventually I’ll be able to go back.”

Lillian was still cultivating.

“I’m going to sleep. Wake me up if anything happens,” Monty said, yawning. Lillian did not respond but he knew she heard him.

The next few weeks were spent on the road. When Monty and Lillian needed to eat, they hunted nearby animals. Given the number of nearby mountains, finding fresh water was no issue. They had also fixed their sleeping schedule and were no longer traveling at night but during the day.

Monty’s cultivation progressed steadily. Despite this, at his current pace it would take nearly five more months before his next breakthrough. He heaved a sigh. Sitting for hours doing nothing but spinning Qi around was quite taxing. If it were not for his motivation to go back being so great, he would certainly have slacked off.

“We’ll be nearing Regalt Village soon,” Lillian said as they passed a sign. They were walking atop a pebble road. Monty noticed that as they approached the center of the Southern Region, there were more and more signs of civilization. Back near Fletcher Village they would be lucky if there was any road at all.

“Should we stop by?” Lillian suggested. Monty thought about it.

“We can pass through briefly. However, don’t buy anything. Let’s just see what’s going on, especially regarding the Silver Moon Sovereign.”

A few weeks had passed since that night. Having spent all of that time traveling, Monty was interested in learning the details of the changes that were happening. In the novel, this time period was largely skipped over and it only truly started when the protagonist reached Phoenix City a year later.

His memory was not perfect either. Not yet at least. Thus, the brother and sister duo followed the path to Regalt Village.

Located atop a rounded hill, the village was large in size. Buildings covered the entirety of the elevation like brown spots. Even in the distance, Monty could see it clearly due to the lack of forest nearby.

Traffic had picked up as well. They could no longer dodge into some bushes at the first sight of people. Merchants had become common and bandits rarer. Often, the two of them would pass by a caravan pulled by horses or mule’s.

They reached the village by the end of the day. Despite its grand scale, when walking along its streets the lack of people was apparent. It was easy and cheap for them to find a room for the night so they took the opportunity to freshen up and get a bed’s rest.

Monty woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than he had in the past few months. He turned over in the thick sheets for a minute.

“Alright,” he thought. “That’s enough.”

Just as he prepared to get out of bed, Lillian walked into the room. “Are you up Monty? I woke up early so I went out and learned a bunch of info.”

“Perfect.” “What is it?” he asked, digging back into the bed.

“You were right,” she started, giving him a conflicted look. “Many people left for Phoenix City and other cities after that night. This village is actually better off than others as there weren’t as many people who were his descendants here.”

Seeing how pleased Monty was with himself, she snorted but continued. “I can’t imagine how those large cities look now. It must be pure chaos there. On a side note though, I did not meet any cultivators so I couldn’t get the immortal side of things. But I heard that there’s a name for that night.”

“What is it?” he asked, taking the bait.

“People are calling it Moonfall.”

Monty nodded thoughtfully. “It looks like cultivators are already aware of the main person responsible. The Silver Moon Sovereign going from heroic conqueror to demonic slaughterer certainly qualifies as “Moonfall”.

“Yeah,” Lillian agreed. “I think so as well. I also went out and bought some supplies and stuff. We should be good in regards to that at least for a few more months.”

Monty looked at her strangely. “I didn’t oversleep that long. How early did you wake up?”

She appeared to hesitate before saying. “I only slept an hour. I – because of my cultivation level I only need to sleep a few hours a week.”

His eyebrows raised. “You’re a Foundation Establishment cultivator?”

She nodded slowly. Monty looked at her silently. Then, he burst out in laughter. “That’s great. You should’ve told me earlier, we wasted so much time being careful when there wasn’t any need at all.”

“Ah, really?” Lillian’s eyes widened. Monty nodded, covering his smile. “Yeah. The difference between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment is like heaven and earth. Though, I’m sure you know that. Still, to think you’re only sixteen with that cultivation. Tsk, that talent is something else.”

Lillian beamed. After eating an early lunch, they left the inn and then the village in turn. The suns rays dimmed as they walked through yet another endlessly green forest. Rolling, grey clouds slowly took over the sky above.

“Shit.”

“Let’s go find somewhere to stay before it rains.”

They had been lucky with the weather. Now, it seemed that luck had finally caught up to them. Heavy raindrops soon pattered against the leaves above.

“Over there!” Lillian pointed at a particularly large and gnarled tree in the distance. The two of the sprinted towards it, making it underneath a large branch with just a few droplets hitting their heads.

Monty sat down and looked at the sky. It was so dark that the time seemed to have been moved forward a few hours.

“Doesn’t look like it’ll be letting up anytime soon,” Lillian commented. Monty nodded. The sound of rain was the only thing they heard for a while.

“You know,” she suddenly said. “When do you think you can return Monty’s body to him?”

Monty thought about it for a bit. “Unless you or I happen to get some kind of treasure that’ll help, which I highly doubt will happen in a world like this, when I reach the Nascent Soul realm I’ll be able to safely leave and become an independent being.”

The first four cultivation realms went like so: Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and finally Nascent Soul. In this world, reaching Nascent Soul was a long and arduous journey. The vast majority of cultivators never saw one in their lives.

Lillian’s expression grew somewhat distraught. “Nascent Soul… how long would that take. No, are you even confident in reaching it?”

“I am,” Monty replied, zero hesitation in his voice. “As for how long it will take, I’m not sure. However, I can swear on my dao heart that if anyone were guaranteed to reach it in this world, it would be me.”

“You don’t have to,” Lillian said. “I believe you.”

The rain continued to fall until well into the night. The next morning, a fog had gathered about the ground, obscuring Monty and Lillian’s vision. They set, continuing west towards Phoenix City.

Seven months passed.

In the Southern Region, there were four great cities that made up its heart. Phoenix city was one of them and, seeing it in person, Monty felt it lived up to the name.

The first thing that came into his vision was not the city itself, but the towering stone walls that surrounded it. They stood as tall as skyscrapers from his previous life. He could barely even make out their tops, the immense scale fully displaying the exaggerated size of a xianxia world.

“Incredible,” Lillian whispered, walking up alongside Monty as she looked upward. Her mouth was partially agape and he chuckled, causing her to snap it shut.

From those walls, lines of people entering and exiting them flowed like string. Compared to their size, the passages through them looked tiny. The two of them joined the ends of one of those lines, dreading what could only be a terribly long wait. However, contrary to their expectations, they were pleasantly surprised to find that it was not as long as they thought.

After passing a cursory eye-inspection from the guards stationed at the wall, Lillian and Monty entered the city without issue.

It was loud. Crowded and loud. People streaming from the gates filtered into the network of streets that scarred the gargantuan beast that was Phoenix City. Vendors shouted, customers argued, and any law keeping force was nowhere to be found.

It was in this environment that Monty took a deep breath and smiled. He turned to Lillian. “Now, lets go find some work. We have to settle down as soon as possible.”

His sister, who still appeared dazed, was brought out of her thoughts by his words. The change from traveling as a pair for months to suddenly being surrounded on all sides by an inestimable number of people was harsh. However, she was not one to let these kinds of things affect her for long.

Lillian nodded to Monty. He then stopped a random passerby, asking for directions to someplace that she didn’t quite catch. Luckily, that person knew about what he had asked and pointed them to the west of the city.

Passing through from one side of the city to the other took hours. Along the halfway mark, they stopped to buy some food and ate while walking.

“Here it is,” Monty said, looking at a rather run-down building located on the edge of the city wall. Lillian looked at its sign and her eyebrows raised. Given how confident Monty had acted, her expectations had been rather high. This place completely dumped and burned them.

“Immortal Slaying Mercenaries”

The name on the sign might have seemed grand on fitting building, but being written on a half-broken piece of wood, in front of an ancient one-story house that appeared to never have been renovated, it gave of a feeling of scumminess.

“This is it?” she asked. “Are you sure that guy pointed you to the right place?”

Monty chuckled. “It might not look like much, but one should never judge based on appearances. Especially when it comes to cultivators and the things related to them.”

Saying so, he walked in, leaving Lillian by herself in the street. She could only sigh in resignation, and follow him into the old building.