“Next simple part to cultivate is actually your bones. They are pretty straightforward. We know how many bones there are in the human body; we know their shapes, we know where each of them is! But just in case, check out this book—it’s got a picture of a skeleton on page 7—then you’ll cultivate the same way you did with your skin.”
Zhi told Seph, while pointing at one book in his vast library, and accurately enough, inside the book was a drawn picture of a skeleton, with names of bones next to each bone in the body. The total was 206 bones; the pages had detailed pictures of each part, showing the smaller bones.
It took Seph several hours to feel confident enough to cultivate. Meanwhile, Sun was already cultivating, but to no avail. The monkey could circulate the Qi around his body; he could bolster his body using it, but he made zero advances in his cultivation. And after watching what his master did last time, when he passed the first level of cultivation, it bummed the monkey out.
Of course, he was happy for his master, but he wanted to advance as well, to be of help to him. He hated being weak, and cultivation was the way to go outside of earthly and heavenly treasures. But what can he do? He was just a monkey. True, he understood what humans said to some extent, but he couldn’t speak like them. He couldn’t tell them of his predicament with cultivation. Which made learning to cultivate that much harder.
All these turbulent thoughts were in his mind while he was cultivating, but what was he supposed to do?
The thought of being stuck in his cultivation haunted him, but there was hope he knew his master would one day help him somehow get ahead in his cultivation.
He didn’t know how, but he knew it would happen.
Meanwhile, Seph didn’t know of the thoughts ailing his dear friend.
Yes, the monkey was his friend. Not his servant or his follower; he appreciated having him by his side. He had never been this lonely in his life. This labyrinth was the loneliest he had ever been.
He couldn’t help but feel that he would have been driven to madness if he didn’t have anyone to talk to all this time.
Sun was there for him. He understood him; he was a little brutal, always laughing at his shortcomings, but it was fun that way, it was a genuine friendship.
Seph’s biggest dream was to one day enable the monkey to talk. He didn’t know what kind of treasure would make that happen, but if the Sun Wukong of legend could speak, he knew the possibility was open for his monkey friend as well.
Sun wasn’t all he had now, though. He had a strong feeling that Zhi Zixin was bound to that furnace, and if the furnace is his prize from this trial, then Zhi will go with him on his journey. He will continue to be his teacher, guiding him to be a renowned alchemist, or maybe just guiding him to be a great alchemist, since he couldn’t imagine himself making pills for other cultivators, to make a living.
He found it easy to circulate the energy around his body while having these thoughts, but it’s time to concentrate on the task at hand.
Dismantling the bones, and remaking them, his body was going to be created entirely from yin energy bit by bit. He wouldn’t finish until he had gotten that cultivation manual, but that was the ultimate result.
And Seph was a believer. He believed he was going to succeed, no matter what happens to him.
He started the dismantling process, and it was again painful, but he was there inside his meditation. His face would wince in pain, but he kept at it; nothing was surprising this time, and the pain was a little more bearable. He attributed this to his gains in constitution, and couldn’t help but think of making constitution boosting pills, but he immediately let go of the thought.
Right now wasn’t the time to think of any gains, so he got his mind back on track to cultivating.
A long time had passed. Seph knew it was long, but he didn’t know how long exactly.
He opened his eyes slowly to find Sun right in his face, looking at him worriedly.
“Hello, buddy. Why are you looking so glum?”
Seph said wearily and slowly, and Zhi intervened to explain the issue. “He got worried after 15 days had passed. He thought something had happened to you, but I assured him that nothing was amiss. This phase took a longer time. He stopped cultivating ever since and kept looking over you. He even started eating way less from how much he was worried about you.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for worrying you, my friend. You should have a feast of fruits now, before we’ve gone to deal with the last garden.”
Seph said, but the monkey, who had been sad, changed, and started making excited screeches and pointing back towards a library shelf; the young cultivator kept following where he pointed, but couldn’t tell what he meant, but he didn’t have to wonder for long, because the ghost alchemist intervened again.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“About that, while you were out, Sun kept messing around with my books. Please tell him to not do this again. He kept pulling books from shelves. I kept scolding him, but he gave me no ear. I couldn’t stop him because of my incorporeal body. At that point, I started threatening him with many threats. He wasn’t afraid of me at all, but I was afraid for my book’s sake, so you will understand what I did next. I started pleading with him, and he still didn’t give me no ear. You have a very naughty monkey. You should punish him for what he did to my poor library. Anyway, after messing around for a long time, he found a secret portal behind that shelf. After taking one of its books out. We don’t know where it will take you. Even I had no clue about it.” The scientist sighed, his predicament weighing heavy on him, of all these surprises that kept cropping up and then continued, “Regardless, it’s up to you if you want to venture that way. The rest of the portals I had knowledge about, but I have no clue what’s behind this one.”
Seph patted Sun on the head before saying, “Good job, buddy, great job, actually. Not that you messed around with Zhi’s books. Bad, bad monkey! But this might even count for my hidden places’ quest from the eye of the appraiser quest. Anyway, why do I feel so weak? My body feels like it’s devoid of energy. I think I am even dizzy. What’s happening?”
The scientist answered him, “That might be because it’s taken you so long to get this cultivation level done. You’ve been cultivating for thirty days, Seph. I doubt you have any more energy to make more pills, let alone cultivate another level.”
“THIRTY DAYS!” Seph shouted from the surprise. This meant he had been in this trial for three months now.
“Yes, I’m afraid. You need to replenish your energy before you continue.” The alchemist said, with a hint of worry in his voice.
Seph looked inside his spatial sack, and got out a wolf’s heart from among the few he had stashed in there, and sat down to eat it.
Meanwhile, the ghost was looking at him with disgust, seeing his pupil eat a raw heart like that.
Seph finished this heart in short order, but he was still feeling weak, so he took out one more wolf’s heart.
After finishing his meal, the first one in ages, he got up from the ground, projected energy to his gourd, which floated up to his back.
He then checked his status screen to check his new gains.
Name: Seph ???
Class: Undead Buddhist lvl 3
Cultivation Stage: Body Dismantling stage (III)
Lifespan: 18/40 years
Strength: 39
Dexterity: 6
Intelligence: 26
Wisdom: 7
Constitution: 23
Perception: 25
Luck: 10
+6 free attributes
He discovered he had gained 5 points in his constitution, and 5 points in his strength. Also, five more years were added to his lifespan. The new gains pleased him, but he warily looked at his wisdom and dexterity, both of which were his lowest attributes, followed by his luck.
“Hey teacher, a question if you may, I have 10 points of luck, but I have gained no points of luck since I got this skill; also, I am asking because I can’t imagine cultivating my body will make me luckier!”
The alchemist shouted dramatically while pointing at him, “YOU have 10 points of luck? How come, rarely does anybody have luck to begin with! It’s one of the trickiest attributes in the cultivation world, because, as you said, you can’t gain it from cultivating your body. It’s rumored that you gain more luck in special encounters, or by finding extremely high-rarity loot, and only the first person who finds this loot gains the attribute points, but it’s also rumored that just finding the loot doesn’t automatically give luck, but the first one to identify the item, and make use of the opportunity.”
Zhi had finished telling his theories on luck in the cultivation world.
Seph had his hand under his chin, and was thinking deeply, then said, “Hmm, would a legendary, mysterious martial art manual count as a lucky find, a fortuitous encounter?”
“YOUR MARTIAL ART MANUAL IS LEGENDARY/MYSTERY?!!!” the ghost said with his highest voice ever since meeting Seph.
“Teacher, you almost deafened me, for fuck’s sake, chill!” Seph said while covering both his ears with his palms.
“Chill? What do you mean, chill, kid? You don’t even know how good you’ve got it, how by the heavens and earth, did you get ten points only of luck because of that martial art? It should have been significantly more than that!” Zhi asked him in wonder.
Seph went again to think for a few seconds before saying, “Maybe because it’s only one part of many? I don’t know. I come from humble beginnings, teacher. Please be easy on me.”
Zhi looked like an idea sparked in his head, “AHA, yes, it must be because it’s only part of many, but there must be many parts in this case. Regardless, that’s a huge find, kid. Make certain to use that to the best of your ability.”
Seph bowed to his teacher in gratitude for his many lessons and said, “Thank you, teacher, anyway, now that I’ve learned one more thing about my attributes, and now that I’ve said goodbye to bone ache forever, it’s time to check out this secret portal Sun has found.”
The alchemist stopped him by saying, “I repeat the warning again, Seph. I don’t know what’s in that secret portal, so be very careful, and get back here safe; not like I need you or anything, but it would look bad in my record if I lost a pupil.”
Seph chuckled before saying, “Don’t worry, teacher, we’ve got this.”
He then gave a thumbs-up to the monkey to check his readiness. The monkey gave him a thumbs-up back with a serious look on his face.
“Great, it looks like Sun is ready, and I am ready. We’ll see you when we get back, teacher.”
Seph told his teacher and started heading for the secret portal.