It’s been a few hours since I started reading this manual, and all I can say is that I’m pretty screwed. To even begin cultivating, I need to build a receptacle for my Dantian to inhabit to put a dead animal in it to create a being that will fight for me. However, the Forge needs to be hollow to gather Qi, hold the creature's body, and circulate the Qi through the body. This brings me to my next problem: the speed at which I can gather Qi and progress through the realms is directly tied to the material the Forge is made of, the size of the Forge, and the animal within the Forge.

There were a few in-built solutions to this problem. The first is time itself, solving my problems. Letting Qi saturate the Forge and the animal within will slowly change them into a better material and animal. It said this would take a lot of Qi and not progress in realms or fighting.

Of course, this was only an option if I could secure a way to sustain and protect myself without using my Qi. If I could achieve that, I would pick an animal that I figured would be my favorite and simply sit around until they both reached a sufficient grade for me to cultivate. Although I’m probably about to start working with mud or clay, I don’t have high hopes for that.

The next solution to my problem was to build something to gain some power before going out in search of better materials. At which point, I build a new forge and transfer my Dantian over into it, go down a number of realms equal to the quality and size difference of the new forge, then start over. While I didn’t like the starting over aspect, it might be my only choice in certain situations.

The final solution was to add onto the Forge with new and better materials while also throwing in another corpse so that they may fuse together into a new hybrid. Using this method would significantly slow down my cultivation speed but create a stronger Phantom for me to fight with. From what it said, the Qi would get refined as it passed through each layer until only a bit of pure refined Qi was left. The Forge would then use that Qi to melt the corpses into a slurry before rebuilding them as best possible. While this process was happening, I would be without a Phantom to protect me for some time which was not ideal.

For now, I’ll just make a quick Forge from some mud or something, then see if the river has something I could grab. I also need to focus on the other problems with this cultivation method: the lack of techniques and improvement in my body. I will most likely have to sit down and create some techniques using my Phantom to attack, defend, and make my body stronger.

The final problem is that this cultivation method only goes up to something called the Pillar Formation realm, which going by this neat little list in the manual, are a whole four major realms ahead of me. When I reached that realm, I would have to build accessories to add to my Forge to handle the oncoming realms. It then went on to say that the quality of my Forge and my pillars would decide everything from there on out. I hoped that by that point, I’d have better materials to work with and a better idea of what I was doing.

Putting the book on the table, I’d get up and head over to the door and take a quick peek outside to see what the time was. Outside, it was completely dark, as if it was a moonless night which signaled that it was time to sleep. I shut the door and found it had a lock like houses back home, so I turned it and hoped for the best.

Turning back to the rest of the house, I saw that on the table were a bowl and a cup, along with what looked to be a note sitting next to them both. Moving over to the bowl, I’d pick up the note to read it as the contents of the bowl looked rather bland, and the cup only had what looked to be water in it.

‘Hello, again, my wonderful entertainers. I had forgotten to tell you all a little information before I left you. The first is that for one month, anything with a realm of Qi Gathering or higher will not be able to sense you at all unless you attack it. Next, you will be provided with two meals a day for this month. Of course, these meals are porridge and water, so you must go out and get your own food if you want something better. I don’t want you all to get lazy after all! Now, get out there and put on a great performance for me! After all, your soul depends on it.’

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

After I finished reading the note, it burned away before I was left with the bowl and cup. They seemed to be made of a basic ceramic or the like, and I hoped they would stay when I got done eating so I could use them to build my Forge. Although that might just be wishful thinking on my part, sometimes all you can do is dream.

Quickly finishing my bland dinner, I’d strip down to my boxers, climb into my new bed, and force myself to sleep. I’d need to wake up early tomorrow so that I could hurry up and cultivate.

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Waking up in the morning, I’d quickly check the table to see if the bowl and cup were still there. Fortunately, they were still there, and a second set was sitting inside of them. They’ll make today’s work easier when gathering and transporting the mud and making some clay. I put on only my shorts, then gather up the bowl and cup before I unlock the door and do a quick wildlife check to ensure the coast is clear. Seeing no animals around, I head outside and check the sides and back of the house before moving over to the river with my back to the door. Like this, if a normal animal I can’t take comes up, I should be able to make it back to the house before it can cross the river.

As I approached the river, I could see several fish swimming against its current, along with what looked like some snakes as well. Once I have my Forge, I can come back and catch one of them to use as my initial Phantom and get this ball rolling. Also around the river were rocks of varying sizes and shapes, which would make good platforms for me to build on and potentially use to make a furnace.

I decided that grabbing rocks now would be in my best interest, so I went wading into the river, gathering large stones, and throwing them back onto shore. Luckily, this river had a lazy current, so I wouldn’t get swept away. I kept an eye out for snakes that might bite me since I wasn’t sure which ones would ignore me and which wouldn’t.

I gathered eight stones that required both hands to lift and throw before getting out of the water and heading to the tree line. I needed some sticks for fuel, digging, and general stick-related needs like a club for wacking animals to put into the furnace.

I managed to gather dead sticks and leaves for all my needs over the course of, I think, two hours separating them into three piles. A pile for shovels, a pile for burning, and a pile for turning into charcoal. Next, I grabbed a stick and used it to start digging out a hole about a foot deep and three feet wide so that I could fire my mud.

While digging, I had a new idea: simply make something quick and easy and then move up. With that in mind, I abandoned the pit for now, grabbed my flattest rock for a little table, threw sticks and leaves into the hole, and went to the riverbank. At the riverbank, I gathered mud into the bowl and made multiple trips until I had a pile of mud twice the size of my torso.

I dug out a second hole connected to the first before building a wall between the two using mud, putting a hole in the wall at the bottom, and starting a fire. The fire dried out the mud wall before I covered it with the rocks, leaving enough space to add more fuel. I then began to slowly form a sort of pot shape from my remaining mud about the size of my head and set it near the hole in the wall to dry out.

After a few hours, it was almost dark, and my new Forge was ready. Grabbing it and carrying it back inside into some better light, I can’t help but marvel at it for a bit before realizing I had messed up. It had cracks all over, what looked like rocks in it, some roots maybe, and all around looked like the worst possible piece of pot I could’ve made. I shouldn’t have rushed this at all, and now I’m scared to even put my Dantian in it.

‘Well, no use delaying this any longer. I can just make a better one tomorrow.’ I thought as I placed my hands against the pot as I followed the instructions in my manual on putting my Dantian within the pot.

I had to imagine and then will my Dantian flowing from above my navel into the pot and staying there. It said a good image for this would be a ball rising up from underwater, down a waterfall, before landing in a pool of water. To me, this was the worst possible imagery available, but once again, I’ve never done this before, so who knows, it might work.

I sat here for another hour before giving up, grabbing the manual, and rereading the section on putting my Dantian into a receptacle. As I read it over some, there was a part I seemed to have missed, as it said I would need to get the receptacle against my stomach to help with the transfer. It also said making a small cut above my navel would also help in the transfer, which I was not about to do because I did not want Tetanus.

Grabbing hold of the awful mud pot, I placed it against my stomach and again imagined and tried to will my Dantian into it. I sat here on the ground for hours until I felt something, a pulse of sorts emanating from my stomach. Grabbing hold of that feeling, I would try and mentally force it into the pot before feeling a sharp pain as if something was ripping itself out of my body.

It was all I could do to stay conscious as I began to scream as I could now hear a ripping noise coming from my stomach. As the noise increased in volume, so did the pain until I could no longer hold on to my consciousness, passing out drenched in sweat.