The sect leader had just gotten back from manual picking, only to be immediately told that her youngest disciple had jumped off the side of the cliff and killed herself immediately after she left. Was the shock from hearing that she'd have to do body cultivation really enough for her to commit suicide over? She knew that body cultivation was often thought of as a painful thing that makes those who practice it into buff guys, but it wasn't like she was going to give something like that to a little girl.

It was a pretty big issue, too. Having one of her two disciples commit suicide right after she took them in was really not good for her reputation.

She decided to just give Ranna the manual she'd picked for her and return the other one tomorrow.

—

Will was now trying to think of how to get back to the sect leader's place. The first option he came up with was to get someone to bring him there, and the second was to get someone contact the sect leader to bring him there herself.

He didn't really know who had a flying sword around here, so the second option seemed like the better one. He headed over to the spiritual affairs bureau to get an elder to help.

It didn't take long before he arrived. He hadn't gone that far in his search earlier. Once he got there, he opened the door and headed to the counter with the grumpy old man.

“Hm? I already gave you your money.”

“That's not it. I need you to contact the sect weader.”

“What for?”

“I need hew to come pick me up.”

The old man felt like it was a bit disrespectful to use the sect leader as a chauffeur, but if it was just relaying a message then it wasn't really his problem.

“Alright, just sit tight for a bit and I'll let her know.”

Will nodded and played on his phone for a bit.

“Alright, she's on her way. You can head on outside now.”

Will smiled and thanked the grumpy old man before heading outside to wait for his ride.

As the sect leader arrived at the place her dead disciple had supposedly asked for her, she was once again shocked that her disciple was actually there. She landed softly in front of Will, staring him up and down trying to figure out… well, anything.

“How are you alive?”

Will had all but forgotten the stunt he pulled earlier. As far as he was concerned, if he didn't deeply consider the absurdity of it, it was just a normal method of travel. As such, he was just confused at her question.

“Huh? Why wouldn't I be awive?”

“I was told you killed yourself!”

Will still had yet to put two and two together between his cliff jumping and what the sect leader was saying.

“Why would I do that?”

The sect leader felt like she was going insane.

“How would I know!?”

“Can we go home now?”

The sect leader brought out her flying sword and hopped on, motioning Will to get on. Once he did, she set off back to her place.

“How did you survive a fall like that?”

It finally clicked for Will what she was talking about.

“Oooh, that's what you meant! I just didn't wanna take the staiws.”

The sect leader felt like she was getting a headache.

“That doesn't explain how, Will!”

Well, the how was a secret. If everyone knew he was immune to instant death, they'd just make sure to kill him almost instantly.

“It's fine. I wasn't in dangew.”

The sect leader decided to stop pressing it, detecting that Will would just continue to dodge the question like that if she continued.

After that, they arrived at the sect leader's place, and Will hopped off to head to his room.

“Wait. Take this with you.”

She held the manual she grabbed out to Will, who took it, copied it, and embedded it immediately. Will went through it in his head as he headed to his room.

It was titled “Harmony With Nature”. The name didn't sound like a body cultivation manual, but upon reading further, it was clear it was one.

It was like the classic “eat monstrous beasts and then work out over it” kind of thing, only less “gym bro” and more “hermit in the woods”.

He got to his room and looked through it more.

Every part other than the title and description was basically nonsense. It read like those adult books full of euphemisms he got from the Sick Freak.

But like those adult books, his Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor made the real meaning as clear as day. Which gave him a clue as to why it was written in nonsense code, since a lot of the translation wasn't really possible to put into words. The gist of it could be, though.

To start, the practitioner would place a hand on the corpse of a beast. Then they would feel the lifeforce of both themself and the beast corpse. Then came the confusing part where they had to make their lifeforce and the beast corpse's lifeforce become one, but in a way where the beast life force didn't alter their lifeforce.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

The corpse would also disappear somewhere in the process, which was weird. Will didn't really understand how that was possible. Apparently the muscles and stuff in the beast's body would replace the muscles in the practitioner's body wherever they were stronger.

That also meant the original matter would be expelled as good ol' black goop impurities. He was curious to see if the black gas would be able to handle that.

Anyway, after all that there was a bunch of yoga-like stuff to make the beast lifeforce their own and let it empower the body, as well as make the new matter acclimate to the body.

All in all, Will was satisfied with his first real cultivation method.

As such, it was time to start using it. He brought out the deer Li Yingran had used to make venison and placed a hand on it. Then he started following the instructions.

The first part went just about perfectly. Will had more control over lifeforce than pretty much anyone else, so it was easy as can be. He felt the deer disappear with a ‘pop’, followed by his body feeling all cramped in a way that was pretty gross.

He then started doing the stretches and movements outlined in the manual. It took a good half hour for the cluttered body feeling to go away. After having the black gas clean up the impurities, he checked his condition.

He was certainly stronger. He felt like he had truly broken into supernatural territory. Finally.

But he put that aside for now. He hadn't noticed it just from the instructions, but after doing it himself, he felt like he could use this to finally make use of the self-directed spatial manipulation stuff he got from the vibrating ring.

Before he could start though, Sarah made her presence known.

<>

Will was impressed with how she managed to be completely genuine while also being sarcastic. But he put it aside, he had weird not-real-cultivation to do.

He brought the little rounded-edged cube of weird jelly-like energy out of his dantian. Then, he connected with it with his lifeforce like he did with the deer's lifeforce.

After some time, the lifeforce was one with his lifeforce just like deer's was, and all that was left was stretching to really mix it in. He began with the first stretch, raising his right arm in the air.

Then he felt something. His lifeforce and the self space jelly were one, so he knew. There was a more efficient way of doing this.

His arm slowly extended, as he made use of the “being in multiple places at once” aspect of the self-directed spatial manipulation gelatin (which he was what he decided its official name was now) to make all the parts of his arm, well, be in multiple places at once.

After that movement he had to bring the other arm across his chest to touch his back next to the his right shoulder. He made use of the “multiple things in the same place at once” aspect of the SDSMG (which he was abbreviating it to now) to phase his arm through his chest to touch his back directly.

Then he had to take a step forward with his left foot. He made use of the “dragging through space” aspect of the SDSMG to slide himself back so that foot landed in the same spot.

Next, his right arm had to curve back down to his side. He made use of the “spatial warping” aspect of the SDSMG to have it be an actual round curve, in a way that looked somewhat like someone used the inflate tool in an image editing software on it.

And for every with every breath, he used the “connect the inside to the outside” aspect of the SDSMG.

Overall, he looked pretty gross the whole time.

But it worked way better. And I'm just a few minutes, he was completely fused with the SDSMG.

<>

She honestly sounded a bit scared.

<>

Acronyms made in English really just turned into gibberish in a language with an entirely different phonetic system.

<>

Will didn't feel like explaining all that.

<>

<>

She seemed to be trying to delude herself. Will ignored her.

He space dragged himself forward. Then he tried to space drag himself up.

He could do it, but he could only hold himself there for a few minutes before he got too tired. It seemed like using the SDSMG used his own stamina.

That was pretty intriguing. The ring seemed to work infinitely, while he had to exert stamina. Was it the materials? Or perhaps an effect of fusing it with his lifeforce. Maybe it was about the conscious control as opposed to the if then style of the ring's usage of it?

Well, who could say? He had something else to do right now. He was going to get a stealth technique.

If he was going to hurry along Ranna and Yan Qingxue's meeting, he couldn't be seen, because if he could be seen, then he wouldn't get to watch the show.

He opened up the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace and pressed the search bar. He searched for something within his price range, that could hide him even in broad daylight, that didn't need anything he couldn't do or didn't have.

He was left with only a few options. After reviewing them all, the one that interested him the most was “External Spiritual Energy Manipulation Pattern For Stealth”.

The name wasn't flashy, but what was in it (which he found out right away because he spent almost all of his money on it immediately after seeing it) was pretty incredible. The user of the technique would move spiritual energy on a thin line that squiggled around a bunch in a kind of pill-like shape (capsule pill, not cultivator pill) around them. The pattern was incredibly complicated so most people stood no hope of learning it, even if they managed to get the ability to control spiritual energy externally to that degree.

Of course, with Will's lifeforce enhanced brain, he could just have it running in the background without a problem.

Though, it did also have another downside, since if the spiritual energy got disrupted even slightly, the whole thing would break. And the spiritual energy could get disrupted by just being near people. The disruption could be countered with better control, but beyond a certain point, Will just didn't have that kind of control or mental ability.

Of course, with his enhanced spiritual roots and enhanced brain, he'd fare better than most, even among those who could actually use it. Still, if he got too close to anyone the whole thing would break.

Nonetheless, he didn't regret his purchase. In fact, he decided to test it out to make sure he didn't.

He activated the stealth technique? Pattern? Stealth pattern. Whatever it was, he activated it. Or started it. Or something.

Point was, he was stealthy now.

He opened the door and crept outside. The servant nearby looked at the door, confused where the one who opened it was.

He hadn't really planned what to do next to test it. Maybe go to Ranna's room and test it there?

He went back into his room, closed the door, and opened it again unstealthed. Then, he headed to a servant and asked them to show him where Ranna's room was.

The servant led him there, no questions asked. Once there, he thanked the servant and headed back. It was a bit suspicious for sure, but suddenly turning invisible in plain view was a whole lot more suspicious.

On his way back, he saw a side path with no one around. He immediately headed down it, and once he was out of sight, he entered stealth mode.

After that, he just walked back to Ranna's room. Once there, he faced the conundrum he had been putting off dealing with. The door.

He tried just grabbing the handle and opening it quietly. It opened quietly, and he immediately closed it quietly before Ranna noticed.

Ranna's room was the same as his. She was currently laying on the fancy bed, laying on her side facing away from the door. She seemed to be focused on something. After walking around to the other side of the room, the “something” was revealed to be a manual.

He almost let slip a mocking laugh. How pathetic, needing to read manuals and decipher them. He realized he could probably never decipher nor remember any manuals ever without the Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit, and got a bit depressed.

He shook it off, he had stuff to do…

Actually, what was he even doing here? He just came here on a whim without really thinking about it.

Ranna turned over to face the other way, still reading. He undid his stealth.

“Hi, Ranna!”

Ranna almost fell out of bed in fright. She only calmed down slightly when she realized it was Will. She also didn't speak.

Will spoke instead.

“Are you reading the manual you got?”

She nodded hesitantly.

Will was still upset over his incompetence in manual reading, so he decided to be mean to make himself feel better.

“I alweady finished it and started pwacticing. Oh, wait, I also impwoved it.”

Ranna seemed to latch onto the last part.

“Improved it?”

Will nodded.

“Wike this!”

He started doing his disgusting abomination stretches, with all the arm no-clipping, weird unexplained movement, gross warping, and creepy lengthening.

Ranna just watched the whole show in undisguised horror.

Sarah, having successfully convinced herself that this wasn't an affront to all creation, was now laughing her no-longer-existent ass off. At least he assumed it was no-longer-existent. He didn't actually know what happened to her body.

After a few minutes, he stopped his tomfoolery and spoke.

“What do you think?”

“Wh-what are you?”

“Person.”

Ranna's face showed a look that implied she doubted that heavily.

Will ignored it and moved on.

“Do you ever cwossdwess?”

Ranna was clearly not expecting that, which wasn't a surprise because who the fuck would expect that?

“Huh?”

“Cwossdwess.”

Ranna took a moment to wrap her brain around the question.

“I-I have in the past, yes.”

Will nodded.

“Coow. You should do it again tomowwow.”

“Wha-why?”

Will came up with a brilliant scheme. He made a treasure map. He labeled the spiritual affairs bureau, the pill pagoda (which happened to be nearby), and then marked the spring where Yan Qingxue bathed at with a big ‘x’. Then he spent a couple points to export it and held it out.

“I found this tweasure map, but we're both pwobabwy gonna be hunted by his lackeys if we go out. I'm too conspicuous because of my age, but you can disguise yourself by cwossdwessing.”

Ranna carefully considered the words he lied his ass off lying about. It actually made sense, somewhat. And as a good senior sister, it was her job to help her junior sister out. She grabbed the map from Will's hands.

“Alright. You can count on me.”

Will was giddy. His plan had gone truly splendidly.

“Make sure you ask master to bwing you down the mountain.”

“Alright.”

She didn't even question it. It wasn't like she wanted to walk down those stairs.

“Thank you!”

Will beamed a smile almost bright enough to overwrite how horrifying he looked during the stretches earlier.

He headed out before Ranna could ask any questions. After he entered his room, he brought out another deer from his ring, then placed his hand on it and began using the Harmony With Nature cultivation method.

This time when the corpse ‘pop’ped and he felt stuffy again, he started doing his weird gross version of the stretches. After a few minutes when the crampedness went away, the results were even better than the first time.

No black goop was expelled this time. Instead, the new matter simply overlayed on top of the old. Better yet, the movements had somehow made it so this was just their natural state, so he didn't even need to expend any stamina to keep it like this. He really had improved the cultivation method.

Didn't that basically make him a genius?

He ignored all evidence to the contrary, and tucked himself into bed to go to sleep.