“Heal myself by cultivating?”
“Well of course, do you see any herbs or medicine down here in the valley?” I asked Liang Zeming again. “It’s mostly rocks. Maybe except for those mushrooms over there, but I think they are poisonous. They’ll give you a good high, though. We should pick some, I’m sure some will be interested in having a good time. We can sell it too, for cash.”
Thanks, ever-convenient-beginner’s-tooltips!
Liang Zeming made a ‘yuck’ face. Great. He still has time to emote his feelings even in the face of death. I noted most of my options in interacting with him were still disabled. Typical of the fate system.
“Alright, so I will bestow on you...” I quickly did a search in the Fate Point Shop for cultivation methods that can fix his current problem. Ah. There’s one, it’ll cost exactly 100 Fate Points too! How convenient. I smirked. “...The [Healing Heart Style].”
I am but a simple rat, but that moment my hands glowed and I tapped him on the head. Instantly he entered a daze. It’s normal for those who receive direct knowledge to the brain to react this way. I’ve seen it before with my previous guy. He sort of died, by the way, I experimented too much on the ways of the Fates.
Liang Zeming’s consciousness and awareness returned 10 minutes later, and instantly he changed his posture and sitting position, however painful it was to him. He started breathing slower, and slower, and slower. There was nothing to distract him, and within two hours he reached the first comprehension of the [Healing Heart Style].
That instant, the Qi Core flooded his body with a torrent of healing Qi. Bone and skin started to heal and mend, the bleeding throughout his body stopped.
“This is amazing!” He exclaimed, then suddenly the Qi stopped moving. He suddenly choked as the pain returned to his body.
“Focus on your cultivation, stupid.” I scolded. “There will be time to celebrate once you get out, and properly healed.” He panicked as he realised his mistake and immediately went back to his breathing practice. He struggled through the returning pain and pulled his scattered thoughts back to the [Healing Heart Style]. The healing Qi continued flowing again, and the repairs throughout his body resumed.
He kept at it for another four hours, and I watched the bones in his body mend itself. This level of physical damage wouldn’t be much for the [Healing Heart Style]. When he opened his eyes, the wound was done, and the pain was gone. Zeming stood up. “...amazing.”
“You shall never speak of this technique.” I reminded him. “Now that you are healed, let us walk.”
“You have saved my life, and made me healthier than ever before. How can I ever repay you?”
“I’ll put that on your tab for now. We’ll talk when we get out.” I said frankly. I do have things I need from him, after all. He nodded.
“Certainly. But more importantly, who are you, my most honored savior?”
I thought about it for a moment. “You may call me the Rat Spirit.”
-
It wasn’t hard for him to climb out of the cliffs. There were certain parts along the cliffs where the slopes were not so steep, and were just a challenging uphill trail. The notion of vertical cliffs are actually quite rare.
“Good, we’re out. Young man, young man. What do you want to do now?”
“Uh...” He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t return to my family, as it is, I’ll just bring them trouble. I’m also not powerful enough to fight that cultivator.” That cultivator wasn’t that strong, really. Probably in the 4th stage? But yeah, this is one of those revenge tropes, and it’s a natural source of growth and challenge for the main character. I’ll totally play along.
“Then you have a few choices.”
At that moment, a menu flashed before me.
[CHECKPOINT QUEST - A checkpoint quest is a quest needed to advance your chosen main character’s main story to the next stage. You have a 3 year time limit to complete this, but early completion awards additional points and perks]
[Join the Thousand Waters Sect -???? FP. ????SP. ????AP.]
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Or
[Join the Knives of the Mist Sect - ???? FP. ????SP. ???? AP.]
Or
[Join the Heavenblade Sect - ???? FP. ???? SP. ????AP.]
Ah. I repeated the names of those three sects and his jaw dropped. “There’s no way I’ll ever pass the Sect Entrance Exams of those three sects! It’s impossible!”
“Really?” I chuckled, I honestly know nothing of these sects either. But I suppose these are probably regional sects and have pretty good reputations. “What sect does that cultivator that tried to kill you belong to?”
“It’s the Flowing Silver Sect.”
“In any case, pick one, then we’ll work to get you admitted. How old are you?”
“15. I’m... a bit too old for the usual sect admission.” Already he was talking down his chances. Is he the humble hero type?
“You have me.” I walked next to him. “Let us go.” If you really don’t realise what luck you have, Mr Main Character, then you deserve to just die. I’ll go find someone else with a typically tragic backstory with a revenge and powerup arc. They should be a dime a dozen with how callous cultivators are.
Liang Zeming chose Heavenblade Sect, simply because it’s the furthest one from here. It’s four towns away, and travelling there by mortal means such as horses or carriage would still take about a month. It’s smart, since he’s ‘technically’ dead so might as well go somewhere far from everyone. That cultivator may just come back to finish the job.
I did a search on the FateSpiritAssistanceChannel, or Fate-Pedia, and quickly discovered that the Heaven’s Blade Sect’s next disciple intake is at least 1 year away. They only open up every 2 years. It’s quite convenient that Fatepedia lists down all the sect admission details, major players and all that.
They even have an admission-chance simulator, and a guide to getting our subjects admitted. I quickly input Zeming’s information, and ran the simulator.
Yup. REJECTED.
As it is he would fail. The guide quickly suggested that given his age in another year’s time, he needed to be early 3 stars to get admission. For younger children, they’ll get in if they hit early 2-stars.
“You are currently in the early 1 star stage, correct?” He nodded. “Good. Here’s our plan. You will cultivate the [Healing Heart Style] every day for at least a week. This method will improve your body’s strength and regenerative abilities.” This method is only good up till 3-stars. Above that it’s efficiency per time spent and output drops, and we’ll have to upgrade to the [Vibrant Heart Style], Which costs 1,500 FP.
“We’re... not going back to town?”
I slapped him with my rat tail. “You’re supposed to be dead, correct? The less time you spend in town, the better. What if any of that man’s lackeys recognises you? We’re not going anywhere near civilization until you hit 2 stars.”
“Ouch.” He was embarrassed when I pointed it out to him. “But this technique... isn’t it a body-restoration technique? It doesn’t raise my Qi...”
“Ah, great! You have at least half a brain. I’ll teach you a new one, of course. But first, you must kneel and take me as your ‘master’.” I said. Stupid system required the target to acknowledge me as a master for me to gain access to a bunch of other details.
He didn’t even blink. He instantly dropped to his knees and his head almost slammed on the dirt floor. “You have saved my life, Rat Spirit, and your aid has been more than I can ever hope to repay. I, Liang Zeming, would be eternally grateful if you would accept me as your disciple.”
“Good, you are now my disciple. Now rise.” The deed is done, and so the data flooded into my mind. The Qi flowing in his body presented itself to me, like his body was transparent, and I gained full control over what filters I wanted to see. I briefly went through them, his stomach is still swollen and damaged, and parts of his internal organs are still hurt. The bones have been mended together, but their strength is still weak. All it takes would be a slightly Qi-infused punch to shatter his vulnerable recovery.
The [Healing Heart Style] would need a bit more time.
“It seems your body has not fully recovered from the fall. It looks like we will need two weeks to nurse you back to full health. Come. We shall find somewhere quiet to cultivate.”
Of course, there’s the issue of food, but it seemed this young man knew the surroundings well enough. Foraging edible fruits, plants and mushrooms meant we could skip going to town, and just travel in the forest. Good thing is, this main character lives in an area where the forests are home to just normal creatures, nothing a cultivator needs to be afraid of.
We found a small abandoned cave. Typical MC luck. Didn’t even need to spend FP to do it. Already the webs of fate bend to aid young main characters. Why am I even needed? Oh wait, because the God of Fates love isekai overpowered stories and love to give more power to those who will have more power.
Zeming naturally settled down, the foraged foods kept aside with a piece of cloth torn from his shirt. He sat on a rock in the cave, entered a lotus position and began cultivating his [Healing Heart Style]. Cultivation methods had multiple types, some are used to enhance physical and bodily strength, some used to build up Qi storage and Qi capacity, some to develop their cores and rank up to higher levels. Some are used for healing, like the [Healing Heart Style].
Essentially, it’s just different types of spells for different purposes, though some cultivation methods are more ambitious and try to cover most of it.
He would need a week, from my calculations, to fully restore his physical strength. The mended bones and the inner wounds need more time to heal. This is normal, as he had just a bit of Qi. A person with massive amounts of Qi can heal their wounds, regenerate lost limbs, and even reconstruct their bodies amazingly quickly. He’ll get there, of course.
After a total of two weeks of healing and food, I got 50 points!
[50 FP awarded for Zeming’s full restoration of health.]
Great! Let’s get travelling!