The second resurrection changed me.
I was feeling much better than before. Almost as if my body became smoother. Weirdly I was feeling less bloated than before despite inhabiting the same physical form. And I knew for a fact I was stronger than before so it could not be the effect of losing Essence. I could not tear the drone apart so easily otherwise.
As I meditated on the changes, I took an empty Spirit Stone and began filling it up with Spirit Qi. It became full surprisingly quickly. If one Spirit Stone could hold, let’s say 100 units, then I had about 15.000 of them in total.
[Sunfire.]
“Hmm?” The woman slowly opened her eyes and looked at me.
[How many of these can you fill up at once?] I held up the Spirit Stone.
“Umm, about… 90 something?”
[90?] I slowly rubbed my chin. I was clean-shaven after the last resurrection. My short beard was gone. It didn’t quite feel right, but I continued. [What’s your current Level?]
I could have just scanned her, but I decided to ask instead of being rude.
“Spirit Realm Forth Level, why?”
[Just curious.] I said. [What about when you just broke through to the Spirit Realm? How many could you fill then?]
“Well… Maybe eight or nine? Could be more, but I don’t really remember. It had been a long time.”
[I see, thank you.]
“You are welcome.” She smiled and then went back to meditation.
I would need more information, but from what she told me, and from what I already knew, the energy stores should about double every Minor Realm. It, of course, depended on the speed of Dantian growth, but on average it was so. A doubling every few decades, or however long it took to reach the next step.
But that also meant I had nearly 20x the energy stores to a fellow Cultivator in the same Realm. Unfortunately, it seemed that that difference was diminishing because I was growing too fast. Without the Starlight-Tempered Jade Bones, the difference would have been even smaller.
Maybe reinforcing my bones again was possible. I had the ore, I just had to refine the Celestial Metal out of it. It was just an unknown if it was actually possible. Imbuing my body once more could either be the perfect solution, or the stupidest thing imaginable. The possibility of it having no effect on me was about as close to zero as physically possible.
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The higher-ups came sometime later, Manager Green together with a few high-ranking Cultivators I had never seen before. They were older men with gray beards and large statures.
They disappeared into the cavern for a few hours with General Orange, and when they came out, the entire section became off-limits. Everyone had to evacuate and supposedly they were going to bring an elite team to take over.
Lastly, the group came to me, and the oldest man there spoke.
“I heard you were the one to beat the guardian. Judging by the losses, that had to be an impressive feat.”
I nodded. [It wasn’t too bad.]
“Well then. Please hand over the remains, and also whatever you found inside the mansion. I’ll make sure you receive proper compensation in return.”
I shook my head at that request. [I’m afraid that’s going to be a no from me. However, I am willing to negotiate. Please contact Master Gale for that. I’ll speak with him personally.]
“Just who do you think you are?!” One of the men shouted, but then the old guy lifted his hand and silenced him.
“I was hoping we could resolve this like gentlemen.” He said, appearing calm.
[That was my intention as well, but as I said, I need to speak with Master Gale first.]
The old man sighed. “Is that Master Gale, 31st son of the 75th Grand Elder we are talking about?”
[Indeed.] I confirmed.
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While the old guy did appear annoyed and rolled his eyes, he did take a scroll from his sleeve. “What was your name again?”
[Gerald. Gerald Fireborn.] I answered and he slowly scanned through the list on the paper.
“Gerald… Gerald… Ah, Gerald Fireborn! Found it.” As his eyes scanned the page, he became even more visibly annoyed. “I see. Very well, I’ll make sure your request is put forth. As for what happens after, I will not be involved. Have a good day.” He cupped his fist and then turned, leaving just like that.
“Wait, are we just going to leave?” Another voiced his doubts.
“Yes, this is something for the main branch to take care of. Let’s go now, our job here is complete.” The old guy spoke and continued on his way.
“Damn, didn’t even get to fight anything.” A muscular member of the group grumbled and left after them.
Just like that, the cavern returned to normal. I washed my hands of problems by calling on Gale and it seemed that was the right decision. I just had to wait to meet him and all would be fine.
Until then though…
“Alright team, seems we are not wanted here anymore. Let’s go.” General Red said and we slowly marched over to the floating cart, returning to our part of the underground labyrinth.
There the miners were hard at work, extracting the Netherealm Jade, with the rhythmic sounds of pickaxes and hammers echoing through the cavern.
The raw ore was loaded into carts and moved elsewhere to be further refined, and while we waited for something to happen and for our help to be needed, the gang and I rested, meditating or Cultivating in silence.
Well, for me standard cultivation didn’t make much sense, so I began filling up Spirit Stones instead. The process was quick, only taking a few minutes to slowly fill a Stone, but then I quickly had a problem of replenishing my Qi.
Frowning at the lack of energy in the Underground, I moved some distance away so as not to disturb the rest, and drew a rudimentary Qi-Gathering Formation on the ground. Qi inside gradually increased, but it was still nowhere near enough. I had not realized how incredibly thin the energy was.
After meditating for a few hours, and doing a quick assessment, I realized that even with the help of the Formation, I was regenerating by about a single Spirit Stone every 4-5 hours.
What kind of nonsense was that?! That was so slow! It should have been more like one every hour according to my memories, not this abysmal 0.23 number.
That meant that if I wasn’t careful and exhausted myself completely, I would need nearly a month to return to the peak. That was horrifying. What was a Cultivator without his Qi? A light snack, that’s what.
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Well, it was not all doom and gloom. I was a Spirit Realm Cultivator, so I could siphon energy directly from Spirit Stones, not to mention that I could convert Souls into energy, but the fact remained that it was getting harder and harder to find freely available energy to fuel me.
Soon I would probably have to consider finding my own mountain to siphon the Qi from a large area to keep my speed of growth. Strong opponents, while still relatively common, were going to only get harder to find. And to think that a planet, even after 10.000 years would still be so barren in terms of Qi…
Everyone was in a race to reach the peak of what the world allowed, locking away precious Qi only they could use while doing so. I could only dream of the paradise this place used to be before the great war, before the millions of years of accumulation was stolen, when gods roamed the earth.
It was all gone, taken by the Demons.
The only good thing that came out of this planet becoming barren, was that it was no longer important or worth paying attention to. We were alone in the universe, isolated from the cosmos by our insignificance. Just another speck of dust with no resources to plunder. Why would a cosmic entity in charge of a galactic empire bother traveling the stars, just for this pitiful handful of Qi?
It’s simple. They wouldn’t. We were safe, as long as we were weak. Nobody would seek out to destroy an ant or try t osteal its tiny grain of rice. They had better things to do.
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I also had better things to do than just sit idly around and twiddle my thumbs, thinking about what was, what is, and what could be.
Taking out a stack of papers, I began writing down all the names of techniques I could remember fully, as well as those that had some holes.
I only chose those that were suitable for the Spirit Realm and then picked out those I judged to be worth below 500 Spirit Stones. Because even though I didn’t think I would be betrayed by some greedy bastard, it was best to keep all the good stuff close to my chest.
Over the next few days, while waiting for the reply from Gale, I meditated, writing down the selected techniques in full, sometimes simulating them in my mind and often testing them out in the real world. Cultivators had a nasty habit of sometimes leaving traps behind, changing a tiny detail in the technique that could have devastating consequences if blindly followed.
It was less likely someone would boody trap their own mind, but it was best to confirm, just in case. After ironing out all the kinks and getting the techniques ready, I waited, and it didn’t take long as not even a week after the fight with the guardian, I was summoned to the surface, to speak with the representative of the Verdant Ironwood Willow Clan.
A butler came to greet me at the lift, a distinguished-looking man who appeared to be in his late fifties with a robust body, tall stature, and a short graying beard that reached the top of his chest.
“Gerald Fireborn, I presume?” He cupped his fists and asked.
[That’s me.] I returned the gesture.
“Very well. Follow me, Master Gale is expecting you.”
I stepped onto the lift, and the platform began to rise, bringing me back to the surface, to the cool air, blinding winter sun, and air much richer in Qi.
I was led to a regal-looking pagoda in a small walled-off courtyard, served tea by a cute maid, and then waited for a few minutes, after which the man in question stepped in.
“Hello, Gerald. I heard you have things for me.” Gale greeted with a smile.
[That, as well as a proposition that could benefit us both.]
“Oh.” Gale shifted his eyebrows slightly and then sat down on a sofa opposite me and gestured for the maid to pour him some tea as well. After taking a sip he waved the servants away, leaving us alone in the room.
“Please.” He said, gesturing me to speak. “Go on, I’m all ears.”