“Who’s there?”
Evan, visibly startled, turned his head rapidly, almost giving himself whiplash, only to encounter the grotesque, bloodied face of Samuel.
"The better question is, why are you two standing above my bloodied body, arguing?"
Samuel, obviously oblivious to the situation, asked the most pressing question on his mind.
Evans' face visibly paled. He said shakingly, “Great master, please don’t misunderstand. We don’t mean you any harm. We were planning to bring you to safety."
“What kind of danger could there possibly be around here?” Samuel asked, not understanding the situation. “Is someone going to steal my kidneys?”
“What? Kidneys? Great master, you were unconscious and wounded; we were worried beasts and bandits would harm you in your moments of vulnerability.”
“Beasts?”. Samuel. Was. Shocked. ‘What kind of backward place is this? Am I hallucinating? Transmigration? Hallucinating about transmigration?’ he thought.
“Yes master, Although these beasts are not powerful enough to harm someone as powerful as you, we didn’t want to take any chances”. Evan was visibly sweating, thinking that Samuel was angry at them.
"Wow, wow, wow, let me stop you right there. Powerful? You think I'm some cultivator or something?”
Now, it was Evan's turn to be shocked. ‘Did we misunderstand? But what was that phenomenon?’.
Luisa, who up until now had only stood nervously at the side, interrupted. “You have to be powerful; how else can space itself open up, allowing you to fall out in an injured state? Are you testing us?
The miscommunication was palpable. Samuel, a very normal, boring guy, felt he was probably dreaming or something. The pair of siblings, however, were convinced he was extraordinary. Not understanding why he was so confused.
Samuel decided to clarify.
“Let me just make something clear. I am not powerful, or whatever. I do not know where I am, why I am here, or who you are. Can you start explaining instead of treating me like some immortal master?"
Luisa's face fell instantly. The hope they had just found was taken from them just as quickly as it came. But out of pure denial, she decided to help him as much as she could, just in case this was all a test. “This is the edge of the Mountain of Transcendence in the Northern Empire of the Cyan continent of the Shattered Realm. I am Luisa, and this is my brother, Evan. As for why you are here, all we know is that you emerged from a grandiose spatial tear.
Samuel was overloaded, not by the amount of information but rather by its significance. ‘Did I truly transmigrate? Well, all right, nice. Finally, something interesting.' He basically did not care. He didn’t really have anything going for him back on Earth anyway.
“Thank you for the information. Is this place actually that dangerous?”
“Depends. Mortal Stage cultivators are usually able to stay safe here, but to truly be confident coming here, you need to be at the Superior Mortal stage or even the Mortal Evolution stage”. Evan was the one to reply this time. The answer piqued Samuel's interest even further.
“So, there is cultivation in this world. Great! How do I cultivate?”
“Mister, so you are indeed from another world. Surely you jest when asking about how to cultivate then.”
Luisa was quick to respond this time, her hope reigniting lightning fast.
“No, no, lady, you have misunderstood again. I don’t know if I am from this world or not; it’s simply not for me to know. But what I do know is that I don't know how to cultivate. So, can you teach me?”
Evan and Luisa: “...”
Samuel kept staring at them with enthusiasm and hope in his eyes.
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“Can you teach me?”
"Well, we are just at the Mortal stage of cultivation and don’t have a master or any reputable techniques.”
“That’s fine. Can you explain what you can explain and teach me what you can teach?”
Samuel was unwilling to accept not being able to cultivate immediately, even going so far as to not care whether their techniques were flawed or weak. ‘As long as I can get started, better ones can be learned later’, he thought.
“Well…fine”
Evan, still reluctant, relented to Samuel’s request.
“There are five cultivation stages of the orthodox path in the Shattered Realm, respectively: the Mortal, Superior Mortal, Mortal Evolution, True Cultivation, and Enlightened stages. The cultivation knowledge of the first three stages is relatively well known by the populace, while the last two are restricted by the various empires and sects.
Samuel had his interest piqued even further.
“So… You know how to cultivate up to the fourth stage?”
“Yes, well, to the peak of the Mortal Evolution stage. The breakthrough method is also restricted.”
Luisa was the one to respond this time: “At the Mortal stage, you have to temper your body to a certain standard, either through techniques or through unconventional methods, such as being beaten repeatedly every day. When you reach the peak of this stage, you will be covered by the spiritual qi of the world and wrapped in a cocoon. When you emerge from it, you will discover you have received a cultivation talent bestowed by the Heavens. The duration of the cocoon varies depending on the level of talent you receive; some stay for mere minutes, others stay for years. When you develop your talent, you need to use it to sense the spiritual qi in your surroundings and draw it into your body. This signifies your breakthrough.”
Luisa looked at Samuel as if what she had just said needed time to be processed. Only…it didn’t. For some reason, every tiny bit of information that entered his mind was processed in mere seconds. Which might not sound very impressive, as it wasn’t very complex, but Samuel was. STUPID. He himself didn’t even realize he was understanding everything he was told and more.
“At the Superior Mortal stage, you have to draw spiritual qi into your talent to enhance it. If you have a fire spiritual root, you have to draw fire qi into it, letting it grow. There are technically nine levels to this stage, symbolizing the best self of the talent. But in actuality, there is no difference in how to cultivate on the different levels, so you can think of it as one level. When your talent reaches its most optimal state, you will need to draw the spiritual qi through the talent into your body, filling your cells and achieving the Mortal Evolution stage. You start with the skin, then the bones, organs, meridian veins, acupoints, eyes, brain, and then the formation of a core (dantian). With every stage, your body grows closer to the spiritual qi of the world, allowing you to slowly gather qi with your body directly. When you form the core, your talent will fuse with your body, forming a physique, allowing you to gather qi with incredible speed.”
“Crack”
Suddenly a noise came from the small patch of trees behind the siblings, and from it emerged a person covered in black, with only his eyes visible.
“Who are you?”, Evan asked with vigilance.
“Your brother sent me, young master. I need you to come with me”. The person had a very raspy voice, appearing to be some powerful, mysterious assassin. Only he wasn’t. At all. The presence he emitted was that of someone stronger than the siblings at the fifth level of the Mortal stage, but not by much. Probably not higher than the eighth level.
“My brother? What does he need me for?”
Evan was visibly apprehensive. ‘No brother of mine wishes me anything but pain’, he thought. He grabbed Luisa's hand and started retreating slowly.
"Well, I guess I should have made some better excuse.”
He instantly lunged at the pair of siblings, and with a pair of daggers, he pulled out of their sheaths found on his back.
"Luisa, run; I will hold him off!”
Evan got into a fighter stand, getting ready to delay the assailant with his life. However, before they could even clash, the sound of flesh being pierced emerged from Evans back.
“ARGH”
Evan screamed in pain, struggling to turn around, only to be greeted by the face of the person he trusted the most in the world, Luisa.
“Luisa, why!”
“Mister, I did what you asked; please let me go. I will never return to the family.”
Luisa was trembling and covered in blood.
“Sure kid. My mission only requires me to bring back the boy's head. Since you helped, you can go.
As they were conversing, Evan's body dropped onto the cold, hard mountain, void of life. His face showed clear indignance. But what none of the people present realized was that Samuel was nowhere to be seen.
The second he heard the crack come from the forest, he saw a weird glint in the eyes of Luisa, and instinctively he knew something bad was about to happen. So, in true cowardly fashion, he ran away. And you better believe, he ran fast!
…
“Why did they not care about my presence there? And why would she tell me all about cultivation and how to cultivate, only to suddenly backstab her brother right in front of me? Especially when it seemed like she still thought I was a powerful person. It seemed like none of them even remembered that I was supposed to be there. What is going on?"
While he was thinking about this, he suddenly perceived something weird about the air and himself. There was something there—something curious around him. Something he couldn’t see but still knew was there.
“Is this spiritual qi? But Luisa said I would have to temper my body and then stay in a cocoon for a certain amount of time before I could sense it. No way. Even if I were at the peak of the Mortal stage for some reason, there is no way my talent is so poor it didn’t even form a spiritual cocoon, right?”
His thoughts danced in the great abyss of denial, but before he could even attempt to make sense of the situation, he ran headfirst into a wall. Well, not a wall, but rather some sort of barrier.
“Ouch! What the hell! Why is there an invisible wall here in the middle of nowhere? Was it set up by the masked figure?”
Samuel, forced awake from his stupor of sensing spiritual qi, realized the situation was not right.
"It is way too quiet here. No voices, no insects, no rustling of leaves—nothing. As well as a barrier. I am getting nervous here. Hell. What kind of situation is this to end up in anyway? When other people transmigrate, they end up in someone else's body or are reborn. They get a period of free growth with no problems. Why do I end up on some apparently dangerous mountain where the first people I encounter kill each other? I. Am. Exasperated."
It seemed to Samuel that everything around him was dead. Obviously, this makes no sense because the vegetation was intact. But the feeling it gave him was similar to that of a cemetery.
"Honestly, this area is giving me the creeps. I think it would be better to go back. Oh, but Samuel, what if they kill you to silence you? Then they will kill me regardless. Yeah, I'll go back. There is strength in numbers.”
Samuel has the habit of talking to himself when no one else is around. Something he developed due to his antisocial behavior in his previous life. It is a part of his behavior now, and it allows him to straighten out his thoughts.
As dictated by his self-dialogue, he started running back to the clearing he emerged from. Yet there was no difference here. There was no sound at all other than that of Samuel himself.
“Have they left already? But in that case, why would they place a barrier here? Unless it wasn’t placed by them, in which case, this is even worse. Since I can sense spiritual qi, I should at least be at the peak Mortal stage, meaning I should be stronger than that assassin guy. And because I am obviously a very, very experienced martial artist who definitely didn’t stay at home all day every day, doing nothing my whole life, I should be able to pretend to be strong in front of him. But if it’s not him, if it’s someone stronger, then I am dead.”
Wallowing in his complaints and thoughts of dying, he parted the twigs and saw something that left him stunned.