In the plains, it seemed an area had been paved after years of the Pure Dao World tradition. A large circular stone platform was on the ground, and every force took its own area. Yu Quan felt it would almost look like those pie charts with the center missing from a bird's-eye view. Yu Quan was standing among the Roaring Flame Sect members. The sect elders who were behind the group of disciples could not see him because he was standing too far back, but he was far enough back to blend in with the crowd. Even if an elder was capable of scanning every person, who would expect someone to try to sneak in with the disciples of a sect? Yu Quan didn’t think he would need to do anything more than remain unseen. Yu Quan looked around as best as he could from where he was. There were about six sects, many of which he couldn’t recognize. But, as he was scanning his surroundings, he saw two uniforms that he recognized.
“Great Artisan Sect and Darting Shadow Sect?”
Weren’t these the sects who were involved in Blossom Hills’ underground? Now that he thought about it, he vaguely remembered that they were from a different region. But he must’ve missed the part where it was the Laiyuandao region. Yu Quan sighed in his head. He was tired of seeing members of that crime syndicate everywhere he went. First, the Hei family attacked him; now this. He vowed he would get his revenge. Then he thought of something. According to the information, they would be isolated while in the Pure Dao World. He’s already disguised himself as a disciple of one sect; why not disguise himself as a couple of others and ruin their reputation? A wide grin appeared on Yu Quan’s face. He quite liked this idea.
“You only have the Hei family to blame.”
Yu Quan continued to wait, but he was getting impatient. He was excited to experience a small world the way the main characters in the novels he read did. Thinking of this, he realized just how often he referenced them. He wondered when he would have experienced everything to the point where he would no longer have the need to reference the novels and could simply reference his past experiences. With how many web novels he’s read, he didn’t think that was coming any time soon. In another few moments, strong winds began flying from several directions.
“It’s starting! Ready yourselves,” said one of the Roaring Flame Sect elders.
Yu Quan watched as the wind met in the area, and all the sects were standing around. The winds began colliding with each other before revolving around themselves, creating a tangled mess of wind. Yu Quan looked with his qi sight and could see thousands of wisps of qi flowing with the head, almost like the qi was leading them to act. The tangled mess of wind grew in size until it was the size of a tumbleweed. Once it reached that size, the space inside of it seemed to tear open, creating a large portal. The portal continued growing in size, even past the size of the bundle of winds, until it reached the size of several people. The inside of the portal was murky and swirling around itself the entire time, but after a few moments at the maximum size, it slowed to a halt, and the picture stabilized. Through the portal, a vast landscape of chaotic shifting energies of different shades of purple.
“Go, go, go!” an elder screamed, and all the disciples rushed out.
Yu Quan rushed out, too. He needed to get as many resources as he could, and it seemed like it was first come, first served. As Yu Quan went through the portal, it didn’t feel any different from walking through a doorway. It was like he wasn’t passing through anything at all. When he got inside, he was able to get a closer look at the world he saw from outside the portal. What he thought was a magical sky was actually the entirety of his surroundings. It wasn’t energy but solid land that was moving and shifting as if it were alive. Sometimes, it would open itself up; sometimes, it would close in on itself, and sometimes, it would do both in succession. There was only one word Yu Quan could use to describe it: chaos.
Nobody who entered stopped to fight each other. Everybody ran in their own separate ways. Competition was great, but if there was nothing to compete over, why bother? Even settling grievances, like Yu Quan wanted to, shouldn’t be done in front of so many eyes. So, naturally, everyone went in their own direction. Yu Quan picked a random place and headed there, going over some humps, through some gaps and around some plateaus. When he looked back at the way he had come, everything had shifted. He no longer knew where he was. Yu Quan continued going around aimlessly, hoping to find something. Just when he was ready to take a break, he ran into a group of people wearing gray and orange robes.
“Hey! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out of here. Lest you want to fight us Great Artisan disciples!”
Yu Quan studied them, seeing that they were all Skin Tempering cultivators, he smiled. “How unlucky could you be?”
Boom! B-Boom, Boom!
…
After a very quick and easy fight, Yu Quan had three Great Artisan Sect spatial rings and was wearing one of their sect uniforms. Since he knew he had time, as each level was two days, he decided to check what his spoils were. Most of them were filled with junk, except there were a total of five crystals from all of them. He took one out of the ring and held one in his hand. It was a bright pink crystal with what looked like deep purple veins going throughout it.
“According to the information, this should be a root crystal.”
Yu Quan wondered how much the root crystal would do for his maximum qi capacity, which was the worst crystal. He sat down in lotus and held it with both hands. As he focused on the root crystal, he felt the energy within it with his qi and started siphoning it out of the crystal. He felt as if the energy followed his qi into his meridians and flowed around his system until it entered his core. He immediately felt his core start to grow. It wasn’t by much; in fact, it was barely noticeable, but Yu Quan felt that was fair. It was the worst one, and it was only one of them.
“Let me check the system for the exact number.”
Yù Quán
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Realm: Body Tempering Realm
Stage: 5th Level Skin Tempering
Main Cultivation Art: [Stolen-eyed Mùmùlián Body](Level 3)
Strength: 1410 Catties
Qi: 2437/2510wisps
Mùmùlián Core:…
“Ah, so each root crystal increases qi capacity by ten. It really isn’t much alone.”
Yu Quan then looked at the other crystals. He realized that if they were able to get five so quickly, root crystals must be easy to find.
“If I use the rest of these, I’ll be at 2,550 maximum qi capacity. If they really are easy to find, this is a pretty good deal.”
Hence, Yu Quan was on a mission to collect as many as he could find. If root crystals gave ten each, he could give them to his cult disciples and save the best ones for himself. Since there wasn’t any real sense of direction, he was just going as fast as he could and picking them up when he saw them. What made it difficult was that they would move with the weird landscape. This means that if the landscape is closed or folded in on itself, the root crystal will be out of reach. Regardless, Yu Quan pushed through. Grabbing whatever root crystals he could get his hand on.
After collecting around twenty, Yu Quan stumbled upon people again. This time, it was a group of disciples wearing white and pale blue robes. He didn’t know this sect, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t cause trouble. Before he could rush out, though, he saw that they seemed to be fighting something. It was an oddly shaped four-legged beast that seemed to shift in the same way the world did. The only thing that helped to tell the difference between the beast and the world around them was that the beast was colored differently. The deep purples were muted, and the bright purples were more vibrant. In theory, it should only be a small change, and they should still be difficult to see, but the way their colors were and how they were arranged made them surprisingly easy to see.
Seeing that there were a few cultivators all fighting one beast, he held back and just watched in case. But, when he realized that the beast was weak and they were all just weaker, he rushed in wearing the Grand Artisan Sect robes and took them all out. Yu Quan was liking how strong he was, but he knew it wouldn’t last long. He was essentially a heavenly talent living in the backwaters. Even in the Laiyuandao region, he was likely stronger than average. It was just that the people at his strength would probably be younger than he was because of that boost in cultivation speed. Most of these people seemed to be Skin Tempering and Muscle Tempering cultivators, which he had no problem beating. But, Yu Quan did see a few stronger disciples, so he was being wary before charging in and fighting anyone.
With the disciples and the weird beast defeated, he notices a shiny purple sphere within the beast. He takes it out and studies it.
“This has to be a fundamental pearl. The information didn’t say they came from these beasts, though. But, it did mention them as a danger. What were they called…? Primordial False Beasts?”
Yu Quan took out his jade tablet and read over the information about the first level again.
“Right. Primordial False Beasts. And I guess you obtain fundamental pearls from them. Maybe I should sell that information to Merchant He. But for now, what do fundamental pearls do?”
After searching some more, he found the answer.
“Ah here we go. ‘Fundamental pearls are highly sought after, as they can improve the spiritual root, stimulating the cultivator’s potential and talent.’ Isn’t this too good for the first area?”
Yu Quan was excited. he was getting such good things from the Pure Dao World. This time, he put the pearl away. He wanted to save something like that for when he had the time. Plus, he wanted to make sure had had some for the disciples of the cult. Even if he didn’t get enough for all of them, at least those who showed promise. The beast was still laying their despite losing his pearl.
“I wonder if I can take its eyes. It doesn’t seem to have any.”
Despite his doubts, Yu Quan put his hand on the primordial false beast’s body and activated his eye-stealing technique. Sure enough, he was able to take its eyes. Without waiting, he grafted them to his skin to see what he would get.
[Seek Order]
The eyes of primordial false beasts can sense existences with more structure than their surroundings. This makes up for their often lack of vision since their everchanging, immaterial forms tend to cover up the eyes.
Sense the order in your surroundings. Will only work when surrounded by chaos.
“Looks like this will only be useful here. But, at least I’ll have a way to find other cultivators.”
Yu Quan could immediately sense a small instance of order. When he turned and looked, ready to defend himself, he saw a root crystal come out from behind a shifting hump.
“…And root crystals, too, I guess…”
Yu Quan looked towards the cultivators and decided to take the contents of their spatial rings.
“More crystals and pearls for me,” he said with a grin, leaving their rings on them so that they can still collect something when they regain consciousness.
He was just trying to cause some trouble for the Grand Artisan Sect and Darting Shadow Sect, and maybe gain a few benefits along the way. He didn’t want to ruin these disciples opportunities completely. But, he would take a little something from them. And that he did, to cultivator after cultivator. When he finally found disciples of the Darting Shadow Sect, he took a uniform and ruined their reputation, too. Yu Quan was collecting resources and dragging their names through the dirt.
…
Yù Quán
Realm: Body Tempering Realm
Stage: 5th Level Skin Tempering
Main Cultivation Art: [Stolen-eyed Mùmùlián Body](Level 3)
Strength: 1410 Catties
Qi: 2500/2550 wisps
Mùmùlián Core: 22/100
Strange Fire: (Level 4)Murderous Flame(x4), (Level 7)Common Flame(x1)
Techniques:
[Mùmùlián Eye Stealing](Level 3)
[Mùmùlián Eye Refining](Level 3)
[Murder Mantra](Level 3)
[Yellow Qilin Dance](Level 3)
[Qi Compression](Level 3)
Attributes:
[Strange Fire: Murderous Flame]
[Starfire Eyes](Level 1)
[Sightburn](Level 1)
[Seek Order](Level 1)
[Top-Quality Maned Hog Ferocity Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality Winged Watcher Awareness Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality False Dragon Pride Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality Death-Dealing Dama Killing Eyes](Level 1)(x10)
[Low-Quality Primordial False Beast Eyes](Level 1)