The year after was even quieter with nothing of note except near the end Wen Zixin was nearing his xp goal.
User has 14976 xp
He should hit the fifteen thousand xp mark by the end of the week. During the past couple of years Wen Zixin had noticed that if someone wanted to quit, then they just announce it and leave. So, during the week he made sure everything he had was packed, bought what he needed for the journey from the Mortal Items Menu, and that there would be a caravan heading to The Waste. While no cultivators wanted to go, there were plenty of mortals running from cultivators and crippled cultivators that had been reduced to mortal status running from something heading into The Waste to hide and start a new life. As such occasionally these people would come together before heading out and luckily enough there was such a group leaving on his day off. At the end of the week, when morning came, he grabbed his things, put his backpack on, and went to talk to Cheng as he manned the counter.
“Shopkeeper Cheng I'm leaving now. I wish you luck in finding another worker.”
Bowing to Cheng, Wen Zixin turned and left with Cheng looking on with a frown. Wen Zixin had caught Cheng paying more attention to him during the week, and Wen Zixin was sure Cheng knew this was coming. The caravan was meeting outside the city and Wen Zixin wanted to be there with time to spare. As the people leaving gathered, he made sure to stick with the mortals instead of the crippled cultivators. While they said they were crippled without being able to interact with qi he couldn’t be sure and didn’t want to deal with an ex-cultivator given their probable temperaments. An hour after he showed up the caravan started moving. On the journey Wen Zixin stuck with the poorer mortals. The ones unable to save money for the trip and unwilling or unable to wait till they could buy horses or carts. At night if it wasn’t his turn to keep a lookout, he huddled under a blanket to stay away from the others. A week into their journey they came to the first town in The Waste. Here Wen Zixin split from the caravan. As it headed into town, he turned southwest towards where the city of Shichang should be. Some in the caravan noticed him leaving but given everyone’s situation they weren’t that curious about a lone mortal, who had maintained a distance from everyone else, wandering off. The weather and temperature were mild in the area, something to do lack of qi, so Wen Zixin didn’t really expect to run into rain until he got back to land with some qi. That night as he sat beside a rock with a blanket around him for comfort, sure he was alone he pulled up his Menu.
User has 15035 xp
Primal Chaos Spirit Root (5000xp):
User can convert any free Qi to Primal Chaos Qi, Cultivate anywhere without restriction, and can use all Methods, Techniques, and Skills.
Unbound Primal Chaos Rules Over All Method (5000xp):
Any Techniques and Skills with requirements have said requirements ignored and there are no bottlenecks. Gain 5xp per 1 day of Cultivation.
With a deep breathe Wen Zixin selected his chosen Spirit Root. Immediately a blinding headache struck along with a foreign pressure from inside his forehead behind his skull tried to push itself out of his head. There was an eternity of pain and pressure where not even thoughts could exist. When the pressure had abated, and the headache was gone, he found himself on the ground headfirst in a small hole he seemed to have made trying to push his forehead into the earth. He got back into a comfortable spot by the rock and with great trepidation selected his chosen Cultivation Method. Knowledge flooded his mind, telling him out to sit, what to say, think, and how to feel out the qi to cultivate, but no pain or pressure. Then it hit him. He understood how to cultivate. He knew what he had to do to draw qi into his body and make it his. He knew why a Primordial Chaos cultivation method was so expensive and how the different types of qi interacted. All qi came from Primordial Chaos, it flowed down and separated into yin/yang. From there it swirled around until the Elements separated and from there flowed in various amounts to form the different Daos below them. With bits of chaos moving too fast to stay in this flow turning into lightning that hopped from one spot, where qi changed into another qi, to another. He thought he also saw why things in the things in the Menus associated with the Elements were more expensive, but cultivators valued the Daos more. It came down to comprehension. The Elements were more powerful than the Daos, but without comprehension one could not bring to bear the full power of any qi. The Elements were so vast and nebulous that cultivators usually only comprehend a small portion. While the Daos were smaller and more focused letting cultivators comprehend. Leading Dao cultivators to usually display more power than Elemental cultivators. He could see how this would lead the world of cultivators to conclude that the Daos were more powerful than the Elements. Being nearly overwhelmed with these revelations he went to sleep that night. Wen Zixin tried to cultivate in the morning without results. He thought he could still be too close to The Waste and moved on with his journey until he could see a change in the world around him. He didn’t notice any changes in the world itself until six days later. As it was coming on to night he was about to find somewhere to lay down when he noticed a glow ahead of him. Leaning on his Stealth Skill he got close enough to see what it was and stopped dead. It was a deer on fire but not on fire. It looked normal but there were almost echoes of fire swirling over and under its fur. The deer behaved normally and didn’t act like it was in pain. Then it hit Wen Zixin he was seeing qi for the first time, and it was beautiful. He knew why cultivating hadn’t worked until now he was still in The Waste. He pulled up the different System Menus to look at the differences there.
LOCKED
Shop
Personal Cultivation
Personal Cultivation
Wen Zixin
Primal Chaos Spirit Root
Mortal
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Unbound Primal Chaos Rules Over All Cultivation Method
Techniques:
Skills:
Mortal Skills:
Cultivator Skills:
Herbology
Medicine
Stealth
Hunter’s Instinct
Sentry’s Sleep
Leaf On the Wind
Zootherapy
Shop
Cultivation
Techniques
Skills
Items
Cultivation Methods
Movement
Mortal Skills
Mortal Items
Stealth
Qi Condensation Stage Items
Defense
LOCKED
Spirit Root
Attack
Cultivator Skills
LOCKED
Utility
LOCKED
\/\/\/
The First section on the Main Menu was still locked and if he remembered the System messages from when he first appeared correctly, he probably needed a disciple to unlock it first. His Personal Cultivation Menu had some added text but not much else. The biggest difference came with the Shop Menu. The Techniques section was unlocked, he had access to Cultivator Skills, and Qi Condensation Stage Items. The first thing he wanted to check was the Stealth and Utility Techniques to see if there was something to hide his Spirit Root and Cultivation Method. Judging by the xp price he wanted to keep them hidden and didn’t know how cultivators checked for such things.
Stealth
Techniques Costing 50xp
Techniques Costing 100xp
Techniques Costing 250xp
Techniques Costing 500xp
Techniques Costing 750xp
Techniques Costing 1000xp
Techniques Costing 1500xp
Techniques Costing 3000xp
Techniques Costing 5000xp
Utility
Techniques Costing 50xp
Techniques Costing 100xp
Techniques Costing 250xp
Techniques Costing 500xp
Techniques Costing 750xp
Techniques Costing 1000xp
Techniques Costing 1500xp
Techniques Costing 3000xp
Techniques Costing 5000xp
Given the quality difference between the Cultivation Methods and his excess xp Wen Zixin didn’t bother to look at anything other than the most expensive Techniques. While he didn’t find anything for his specific need under the Stealth Techniques, he did find what he needed under the Utility Techniques.
The Forgotten Cultivation (5000xp):
User’s Spirit Root is always shown to others as a Neutral Spirit Root, User’s Cultivation Method is always shown to others as Lower Spirit Cultivation Method, and their cultivation stage always appears to be one full stage lower than it really is (ex. A Liquid Qi Stage cultivator will appear to be a Qi Condensation Stage cultivator.). This Technique has no completion level.
This Technique was just what he needed. Though he did not recognize the Spirit Root or Cultivation Method, he looked them up.
Neutral Spirit Root (10xp):
Users can use aspected qi to cultivate by converting it to unaspected qi at great cost.
Lower Spirit Cultivation (10xp):
Users can use unaspected qi to cultivate. Does not generate xp.
The Spirit Root and Cultivation Method were near the bottom of the barrel, but they could explain why he could cultivate anywhere without raising suspicion. The Forgotten Cultivation Technique would allow him to keep a low profile and just come off as a mortal trying to cultivate, being crappy at it, and not talented enough to threaten anyone’s position or hurt cultivator’s very sensitive ego. Now he just had to wait until he reached an area with qi in it to cultivate. He selected the Technique and felt the knowledge flow into his mind. It didn’t need any qi to start or be maintained so he used it and left it active in the back of his mind. Finding a new spot to sleep for the night, Wen Zixin pulled up his Personal Cultivation Menu one last time before going to bed.
Personal Cultivation
Wen Zixin
HIDDEN: Primal Chaos Spirit Root
Neutral Spirit Root
Mortal
HIDDEN: Unbound Primal Chaos Rules Over All Cultivation Method
Lower Spirit Cultivation Method
Techniques:
The Forgotten Cultivation
Skills:
Mortal Skills:
Cultivator Skills:
Herbology
Medicine
Stealth
Hunter’s Instinct
Sentry’s Sleep
Leaf On the Wind
Zootherapy
He had to wait six days before the ethereal looking qi was everywhere. During those six days the flat blahness of The Waste gradually gave way to rolling hills, with increasing amounts of qi, colored and moving according to its type, the farther he traveled. When night came on the sixth day and the night was lit up by qi, for those who could see qi, he decided to try and cultivate. He settled down, put his backpack off to the side, and then followed the Unbound Primal Chaos Rules Over All Cultivation Method. The world exploded, it contracted, he was surrounded by light, by darkness, he was burning, freezing, weightless, and crushed by unending pressure all at once. He was all of creation and the center of it, he was stuck in eternity and felt the end of time. Then it was over, and he was sitting in a field empty of qi watching the surrounding qi flow in to fill the void. Then the smell hit him. BLARGHHHHH!!! Wen Zixin was covered in a black tar that... BLARGHHHHH!!! The smell! Focusing as much as he could to his hearing with Hunter’s Instinct, he heard the sound... BLARGHHHHH!!! of a stream to his right. He stumbled over to it and... BLARGHHHHH!!! fell headfirst into it not caring if he got injured or not. Wen Zixin used the stream and river silt to wash, scrub, and scour himself clean. He threw his clothes away without hesitation. Even though it had only been a minute or so, the tar was baked into them somehow. With most of the tar gone he was able to think and while he continued to work on getting rid of the last of the tar, he thought about what had happened and why. The tar was obviously the impurities he had expunged with cultivating, but the other sensations took him a moment to figure out. His cultivation method introduced him to Primordial Chaos, something most would never even hear of. This would only happen the first time someone had Primordial Chaos run through them. He hadn’t managed to reach the first level of the Qi Condensation Stage yet. As he got the last of tar off, he headed back to his backpack. After he put on some new clothes, he heard something and turned to look. Standing a few feet away was a man, with more qi than any living thing he had seen so far. SHIT!SHIT!SHIT!SHIT!