Felix was very uncomfortable. At first, he had secretly thought being held by a girl as pretty as Xue was kind of nice. At least until his limbs started falling asleep. The tedium was also getting at him. He had tried to converse with Xue on the flight but the whistling of the wind had made it difficult at best and impossible at worst. Unlike in the Sect, she was not holding anything back.

She had no problem hearing him though. So, after a bit of yelling on her part, he found out that Core cultivators normally can wrestle control of the surroundings. Enough to allow conversation. She didn't elaborate on why she couldn't.

With a sigh, Felix decided to focus on the current state of his body. He sent his sight inward and tried to explore his meridians. He found it a little easier to do now that he had some cultivation but still found the winding pathways confusing. After an hour of carefully following just one branch, he came to the realization that the pathways didn't seem to conform to the limits of 3D space.

What kind of nonsense is this?

Bringing his attention back to the pathways he had a better sense of, he found a steady but minute stream of earth spiritual energy flowing in the pattern of the Heavenly Earth Manual. He extended his attention to focus on the energy itself. To feel for the essence he had labored to instill into his energy. He barely felt anything.

All of those sword manuals discussed Essence but what the hell is it? It definitely is not just spiritual energy. Yet it is clearly the foundation of those manuals. Xue said it is the why but how does the why make something more? Well, I suppose I don't need to understand it yet.

He played with the refinement for a bit but even that couldn't keep him distracted for long. Out of curiosity, he decided to pull up his status once more.

[Name: Felix]

[Race: Human]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 15]

[Cultivation: Qi gathering 5]

[Constitution: None]

[Bloodline: None]

[Roots: None]

[Potential Points: Undefined]

[Sect: Thousand Seasons (Outer Disciple)]

[KE Points: 70]

[Cultivation Methods]

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

[Heavenly Earth (Earth 1)]

Power: Weak

Comprehension: (100/100)

Stage: Essence Gathering

[Skills]

[Ragnarök (Mortal 1)]

Power: Extremely Weak

Comprehension: Beginner (10/10)

Stage: Qi Gathering

[Notes]

[An abomination of patched-together souls.]

[Fate] Flicker.]

[Description: Your karmic spark is very vulnerable.]

The change about his Fate was nice but Felix's attention was drawn to change in the potential points. When he first got the system, it gave question marks for his potential. It had even removed the subsections for it.

Felix rolled possible meanings for this change around in his head. Then he looked up at Xue's face and an idea struck him. He adjusted his hand to touch hers and tried to encourage the system to scan her like it did a book.

[Error]

Felix almost had a heart attack at the appearance of that dreaded word. However, he didn't feel the wave of pain that accompanied the last time he witnessed it. He considered that part of his soul might be from a lemming. That or he was naturally greedy. He tried again.

[Error]

[System analysis of entities is broken]

[Error]

[Salvaging infrastructure]

[Complete]

Felix waited for more information, yet none came forth. Well, the third time's the charm. With an effort of will, he tried again.

This time no system message appeared. Then after a second, he felt a small tugging that reminded him of the manual learning. Felix tried to listen to this feeling and it wanted him to insert qi into Xue's hand. With excitement, he tried just that. The qi exited his body and contacted Xue's hand. Then it promptly stopped and dissipated. The guiding feeling faded away soon after.

Felix tried three more times until he heard a cough from right above him. He looked to see Xue giving him a quizzical eye. He adverted his eyes and realized that testing out his system on a Core cultivator might not be the smartest idea. Luckily for him, Xue was distracted shortly by the sight of their destination below.

Felix could see a sprawling town surrounded by high walls. A line of seemingly a hundred people waited outside a modest but large gate. Xue sped down and landed at the front of the line.

Two men stood in steel armor on either side of the gate and watched their descent with unease. The taller of the pair took a step forward and clasped his hands together.

“Excuse me Senior Fairy. Welcome to the town of Greenwood. We are honored by your presence. You, of course, do not need to pay the entrance fee as a mighty core cultivator. Would you be so kind as to enlighten us as to the purpose of your visit today?” The guard gave an awkward glance at Felix who was still in a princess carry but quickly resumed his placating look.

Grinning like a cat that had just got her milk, Xue smiled.

“I'm actually here on business for the Thousand Season Sect.” She flashed her core disciple medallion. “The sect wishes to extend the opportunity to join the Sect to the citizens of the Greenwood township.”

The guard's face lit up at this news.

"That is wonderful news senior Fairy. If you will excuse me, I would like to go inform the Mayor of your arrival."

"Of course," said Xue but then she stopped him. "Actually, could you tell the Mayor that I would like to look at all children of eligible age? No matter their station."

The guard paused but then bowed in understanding. Without another word, he ran off to deliver his message. The remaining guard stood there awkwardly as Xue seemed lost in thought.

“Um excuse me, Senior Xue.” Interrupted Felix.

“Mmm,” said Xue, looking down at Felix.

“Could you please let me down?” said Felix.

“Oh. I forgot."

She unceremoniously dropped Felix on the ground.