In a small village located on the frontier of Yin Long Empire, a young man wearing a tattered cloak and dirty clothes walked alongside an elderly man who was talking amicably with the young man, yet did not fail to keep a wary eye on the stranger.

“I never did get your name.”

“…David.”

“Da Wei, strange name. So, how long do you plan on staying here?”

“…I’ll be frank, Chief Chen. I don’t have any plans as of yet. For now, I’ll thank your hospitality and stay for a week at most before heading into the forest.”

Despite his weariness towards the stranger with a strange name that had arrived in his village earlier that day, Chen Jie, the village chief, could not help but stare at the stranger with concern.

“Are you sure? Those woods are filled with Demonic beasts, one wrong encounter is enough to end people like us.”

The young man nodded his head in acknowledgement but did not give any indication of changing his decision.

With a sigh, the old man started laying out the options that the young man had available to him.

“I will talk to the Qin family tomorrow. Given their age and the vastness of their farm there is no shortage of work for you to earn your keep. There are also many families here looking for helping hands to take care of their daily activities. I am sure you can easily find a place for yourself here if you wanted to.”

Once again, the young man nodded in acknowledgement and headed towards the chief’s home alongside Chen Jie.

As he walked towards his home with the stranger Da Wei, He could not help but pity the young man that had stumbled into their village in the morning.

According to what the young man said, he lost his home recently and was looking for a place to work and stay at until he figured out what he wanted to do with himself.

Chen Jie was not unfamiliar with young men and women finding themselves alone and wandering aimlessly in this world due to cruel situations out of their control. Such was the nature of their chaotic world since time immemorial. But, most of these young people were not cultivators like the young man beside him.

Oh, the boy had tried to hide the fact by being vague about his origins, but the sheer difference between how a Cultivator moves, their body language, and the way they carry themselves compared to a mortal is not something that can be easily hidden, especially from someone that is used to dealing with Cultivators in the form of the governors of the nearby cities.

Chen Jie would not pry into the young man’s past or his reasons. As long as he was not a wanted criminal, was not here for nefarious reasons and was willing to earn his keep, the old man would not have any problems with giving this man that was going through an unfortunate part of his life a place in this peaceful village.

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“Ok, now slowly guide the Qi from the ingredients into the Ginseng. Remember, don’t allow the water Qi to overpower the properties of the Ginseng.”

“I know. I saw your memories, remember?”

“Seeing me refine pills is one thing, doing it yourself is another thing all together. Especially with your unique situation.”

I did not have a counter to the bastard’s words, so I simply continued concentrating on the pill furnace, making sure to keep the temperature of the fire stable while also using my Qi to slowly guide the energies within the ingredients to where I wanted.

The practice of Alchemy in this world is completely different from what it was on Earth. On Earth, the practice of Alchemy was actually a primitive form of Chemistry and served as the basis on which all the future branches of chemistry were based on.

However, in this world, Alchemy is truly a mystical art thanks to the existence of Qi. The Alchemy in this world does not follow the scientific method. Instead, it is based more on the philosophical side of things.

Alchemy, just like with many other things in this world, is classified into levels. Basic Level Alchemy, which deals with creating common drugs and medicine that is relatively cheap and can be purchased and used by mortals. This level of Alchemy does not truly require Qi and is vaguely based on the scientific method. Those who can perform Basic level Alchemy are knows as Junior Alchemists.

Above this level, is the Intermediate level Alchemy. From this point on, the usage of Qi is absolutely necessary to make anything that can be considered Intermediate level pill. Correspondingly, it is from here that Alchemists can truly market their products to cultivators.

Above the Intermediate level, there is the Advanced level, Master level, Grandmaster level, and finally, Supreme level.

From what I remember, the Royal Family has a Grandmaster Alchemist working under them, making them the only force in the empire that has access to Grandmaster level pills.

Of course, being the main character, my future self, the bastard, was a Grandmaster Alchemist as well, even if most of his pills were oriented towards the demonic path.

“I still don’t understand why you insist on learning Alchemy in the traditional way instead of using your pure Qi to directly refine the pills. It would save so much time and would be so much easier for you. In fact, you might even end up as a Grandmaster Alchemist in a single decade compared to the fifty years it took me.”

“Have you ever heard the saying, never put all your eggs in one basket?”

“Not really, what does it mean?”

“It means, that you should never place all of your efforts into a single thing. For example, if I followed your advice and practiced alchemy by using my Pure Qi, what would happen should I suddenly loose it? Or if I ever end up regaining my spirit roots and my pure Qi suddenly turns back to Water and Wood Qi? Won’t I end up back at square one? Forcing me to relearn everything from the scratch?”

“..Point taken, and that’s a good saying. But, where did this saying even come from?”

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“That’s a secret.”

“Another one of your mysterious piece of otherworldly knowledge, I take it? Fine. Keep your secrets. Not like you already know all of my secrets anyways thanks to this stupid bead showing you all of my memories.”

“Don’t try to guilt trip me. It doesn’t suit an old demon like you.”

“I will have you know that I, Huxing Xiang-“

“Enough. Don’t use mother’s family name. It is already bad enough that you brought shame to that name in your timeline. I don’t ever want to hear you refer to yourself with that name ever again.”

“….She was my mother too-“

“No. If you actually thought of her as a mother, you would never have taken her birth name and turned it into the most cursed name on the planet.”

The bastard fell silent, allowing me to concentrate back on my alchemy. But, the damage is already done as I am unable to concentrate properly on the Qi control and the mergers of various types of Qi within the furnace into a harmony, resulting in a muffled explosion followed by a disgusting smell coming out of the furnace.

Tch, looks like I just lost good ingredients because of that bastard.

With a sigh, I picked up the furnace and headed out of my home. As usual, I dug up the pit and poured in the wasted ingredients before sealing it back up again.

Well, since I can’t concentrate on Alchemy anymore, I might as well take a stroll.

I hate him. There is no denying it. I know, that he is the future version of my past self from before I awakened my memories of Earth. But still, I can never accept such a monstrous man as myself.

Even worse, is the fact that I found his circumstances somewhat relatable, and I still cannot answer the question of whether I would have done the same things that he did when faced with situations like the ones that he went through.

Walking through the woods, I kept spreading my Qi in the surroundings, trying to see if there were any beasts hiding in the vicinity, even if it was highly unlikely that there would be any after I killed the Winged Tiger and claimed this area as my own.

This method also serves as a substitute to my abysmal Qi sensing, caused by the crippling of my spirit roots and is, in many ways, superior to normal Qi sensing.

Although, I doubt anyone below the Nascent soul realm can even dream of spreading their Qi into the surroundings like this without worrying about their Qi consumption.

I guess that is one of the silver linings of my situation, alongside having the so-called Pure Qi.

When a Cultivator absorbs the Qi from the world into themselves to cultivate, their spirit roots automatically convert the Pure Qi of the world into the element that the spirit roots have affinity with. During this process, there is a significant loss of Qi caused by the conversion process.

The rate of loss is the method by which the Spirit Root quality is determined and ranked, from Mortal, Earth, Heaven and Supreme.

However, even for a Supreme quality spirit root with a single elemental affinity, they would still experience a loss of Qi during the cultivation process. This is also one of the reasons why Cultivation takes such a long time for even the greatest of cultivators with the highest levels of talent.

In my case, things are completely different.

Since I don’t use Spirit Roots to cultivate and instead rely on storing the Qi within my body directly, I don’t have to worry about converting the Pure Qi into any other elemental Qi. Rather, the Pure Qi is directly stored into my body at a fundamental level and my limit for storing the Qi is exponentially increased every time I ‘cultivate’ through my destructive methods.

This gives me a distinct advantage over other cultivators and this advantage extends towards Alchemy and Formations as well from what I learned.

Alchemy relies on the principles of Wuxing, the elemental cycle. Alchemists, who usually consists of Wood Qi users, must use the principles of Wuxing and ingredients of different natures to change their Qi and supplement the pill that they are trying to make.

For example, to make a Condensation Pill that is popular among the various powers of the world who have Qi Condensation realm disciples, an Alchemist must use four different ingredients, the Phoenix Grass for the Fire element Qi, a Ginseng for the Earth elemental Qi, the bark of an Iron Wood tree for the Metal elemental Qi, spiritual water for Water elemental Qi, and finally, they would use their own Wood nature Qi for the Wood element.

With the combination of these five elements complementing and cancelling each other out under the Alchemist’s careful guidance, all of the Qi would then disperse into Pure Qi which would then condense into the Condensation Pill.

In my case, if I wanted to make the same pill, I would not need any of the ingredients. All I would need to do is use my control to solidify my Pure Qi into a pill. Such is the advantage provided by my Pure Qi.

Of course, it would be a completely different matter for any other pill, but the point still stands. Where as other Alchemists would have to use multiple ingredients to follow the Wuxing cycle, all I would need is the ingredients corresponding to the elements that are actually needed for a pill to form and my Pure Qi, significantly reducing the loss of time, money and resources.

I got rid of my thoughts when I suddenly sensed a presence within my Qi field.

The being felt small. Probably no larger than a child. In contrast to their size, however, their Qi felt huge, easily surpassing my own reserves of Qi, sending a shudder down my spine.

‘What the hell is this?? is it a late stage Nascent Soul expert? If so, why are they so small?’

“I highly doubt it’s a child. Most likely, it is some kind of a demonic beast.”

“…And what kind of a demonic beast would choose to take such a small shape when it has such a high power level?”

Whether it is people of demonic beasts, once they attain a certain level, they would always try to flaunt their power in front of others, such is the nature of all sentient beings. In case of Humans, they would show off their power, either in the form of feats of strength or through fame and money. In the case of Demonic Beasts, they would change their size to absurd levels, making them look extremely intimidating to others.

So, it made absolutely no sense for a Demonic Beast to turn itself into such a small size when it had such a huge power level.

I immediately got ready for a fight and retracted my Qi from the surroundings. With a thought, I formed a thick layer of Qi over my body, forming a protective barrier around me with hardened Qi. This method also served to isolate my body from the surroundings, erasing my presence, scent and Qi signature so that nothing could track me.

I also equipped my Gauntlets and extended the three claws on each one made from the claws of the Winged Tiger.

As blades made from the claws and fangs of a peak Foundation Establishment realm beast, I don’t have any hope of them causing any fatal injury to a beast that is probably at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm, however, it is still better than fighting bare handed.

Slowly, I moved towards the source of the presence, taking advantage of the unnaturally tall grass that impossibly grew this deep within the forest.

However, all of my expectations for a fight turned to ash when I saw the source of the presence.

“….Is that a cat?”

“IS THAT A FUCKING BODHI FRUIT??”

Lying on the ground was a small black cat with injuries all over its body with a fruit that looked similar to an Apple.

After confirming that the cat was unconscious, I once again directed my Qi towards the Cat’s surroundings and was surprised with the result.

Unlike what we assumed previously, the source of the massive Qi signature is not some demonic beast, it is this fruit.

Truly, my main character luck has a very weird and impossible timing.

After all, what are the chances of a Bodhi Fruit, an object that is considered a heavenly resource for its properties of advancing someone’s cultivation by at least a major realm, to be found in the middle of nowhere like this?

Walking forward, I directly placed the fruit into my storage ring and scooped up the injured cat into my arms.

I’ll think later about what to do with the fruit. First, I need to patch up this cat.

“Why bother? That is not even a Demonic Beast. It’s just a regular cat. If you want a Dao Familiar, you already know the locations of several high level beasts that would only be little cubs at this time from my memories, you can chose one of them right?”

“I don’t really care about getting a Dao Familiar. I can’t just leave it here to die like this. Besides, I’ve always wanted a cat since I was a child.”

“…You did? Why can’t I remember ever having such a wish?”

“Because you are an old man whose memory is failing him.”

“Why you little-“

I cut off my connection to the bastard and focused back on the cat.

Since the injuries does not seem too deep, a simple Recovery Pill should do the trick. As for food, I do have the meat and fruits that are consumed by mortals that I can feed it.

“I think I’ll call you, little Xing.”

It wouldn’t be bad to have someone to accompany me in this wilderness.