Aiden paced restlessly through the dark bedchamber, not bothered by the dust prints created by his leather shoes. The moonlight illuminating the footprints. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair, pondering on his current calamity. The weight of his predicament pressed down on him like a physical force. To survive through the quest, he desperately needed battle skill and strength, but he possessed neither.

The cool night air seeped through the large open window, chilling him to the bone and serving as a stark reminder of his vulnerability in this unfamiliar world.

A sudden idea flashed in his mind, and he climbed himself onto the wide edge of the window, his legs swinging freely over the steep drop. The breeze carried a blend of scents - leafy plants, woodlands, and damp earth. A storm was brewing in the distance, and he longed for the rain to fall where he sat. He liked rain - it let him think clearly. A walk in the rain with the scent of the damp earth while chewing on something sweet always helped him think creatively.

He sighed out loud. He wanted to experience the rain of this world, but the dark clouds were far away from him.

“I wish I could fly in the rain and see the land from the skies.” In the world of cultivators, nothing was impossible. However, he had the poorest kind of aptitude. D tier aptitude. Aptitude spoke of your potential, so technically he had very poor potential.

Rubbing the leather skin in his hand, he sipped cold water.

Aiden mulled over the concept of aptitude—a measure of one's qi and meridian purity. He recalled Earth's understanding of the human body: a complex network of blood vessels. But here, in this world of cultivators, there existed another, invisible network. One that carried life force itself. On Earth, they'd only theorized about it. Here, it was as real as the air he breathed.

However, it existed. Many cultures of the world had a name for it. Chinese called them Chi, Indians called it Kundali, Egyptians had Ka, Romans had Spiritus, and this world’s people called it as Qi and Mana. Qi and mana were life energies. Every person born with mana in their mana cores. Even common animals, trees had mana in them. It allowed mortals to live until hundred.

Qi was different than mana, and only cultivators who awakened their dantian could cultivate it. Qi increased the life force of humans, and allowed them to cultivate, steal from heavens and do things that no mortal could do.

Aiden sat on the edge of the window, letting the wind brush through his long hair.

To become a cultivator, one had to first awaken their dantian. For Li An, he had done it in the village itself, and it was a wood qi dantian. Once one awakened their dantian, they could cultivate. For initial cultivation levels, they had to forge their qi path through meridians with the help of mana.

Li An had opened his Stomach Meridian. It allowed him to eat and replenish his qi through food and gaining qi was quite simple as body always absorbed qi passively, but he had very less use of qi because of his aptitude.

Sighing, he moved his consciousness into his body. Above his naval sat an ethereal dantian. It was a small lump which could store qi inside, and right now it was bubbling with 900 wood qi. Above the dantian, he had a mana core filled to the brim with his 2000 mana.

Qi Cycling was of two types. One was used for purifying their meridian.

It was time to test his own aptitude.

With a thought, a wisp of mana flew out of his mana core and rushed into his stomach meridian and passed through various obstacles, and then completed one circle after fifteen minutes.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued with a qi cycle.

He repeated the same thing with his qi, which took one hour to complete one cycle and he cleared 1% of his meridian after spending 100 qi. To cultivate, one would need to perform multiple qi cycles in their life, and the slower the qi cycle, the poorer the cultivation one had.

"Damn it. It hurts." He rubbed his temple. The one Qi Cycle had left him out of breath and he needed to rest even to think straight.

After drinking a mouthful of water, he closed his eyes and performed a meditation to absorb qi from the surrounding. It took him 1 minute to absorb and convert 10 units of natural qi into his own.

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"This Li An's aptitude really sucks. I've possessed the worst body out there." But when he soared through the air, this was his sole option. His only option ahead would be to confront this using his own methods.

Aptitude was made up of two things. Purity of qi and Meridian Purity. Aptitude decided on the cultivation, and cultivation was made up of two things. Qi Absorption and Qi Cycling.

Qi Absorption involved taking in energy from the environment both passively and through active meditation. Through meditation, a cultivator could draw in natural energy, but to transform it into their own, they needed to move it through their meridians. The purer the meridians, the quicker the energy absorption would be.

Li An's meridian was like a maze, and he took a complete fucking minute to convert the surrounding qi into his own qi. 1 minute for 10 qi. One could do a simple math. He needed fucking 90 minutes to fill his 900 qi. This was because of his poor meridian purity.

The second type of Qi Cycling helped the cultivator to increase their cultivation level.

This Qi Cycling was a stage where the cultivator converted essence from surrounding into his own qi into the Outerworld Battlefield.

Essence was a mystical energy that allowed a cultivator to breakthrough and increase their qi upper limit, and one could only find it in Outerworld Battlefield.

When one performed Qi Cycling in the Outerworld Battlefield, they would attract essence from the nature and store it for the next breakthrough. It was the only way to reach the next cultivation layer, or realm. The better the qi purity one had, the faster the qi cycle would be. The better the meridian purity one had, the faster the qi cycle would be.

And he had shit in both the ways. His meridian purity was around 10% and that meant 90% of his meridian was filled with impurities, which he had failed to clear. Of course, he could clear it by performing Qi Cycling in holy realm, but with one qi cycle requiring 1 hour and 100 qi he could only clear so much of his meridian, and he required 60% purity of meridian to breakthrough into Foundation Realm.

How the fuck was he going to do it? The math didn't add up. With D tier aptitude, he would need years to breakthrough into Foundation Realm.

Then there was a rumor that if one tried to breakthrough with lower aptitude, one would find an Aptitude Wall inside their meridian. Old man Li also had some memories about it, but they weren't very clear.

Aiden moved back into the cave and then paced through the entire length of it, his mind churning through the information from old man Li's memories. His leather shoe carried the dust from the dirty area to clean area, but it didn't bother him today.

There were six ways to advance through cultivation. Pill, Cultivation Potions, killing enemies in the Outerworld Battlefield, System Reward, some senior's help, or using a catalyst.

Cultivation Potions was the easiest way because one could get it by killing the enemies, or as a reward through the system for completing the weekly quest. Every cultivation potion provided 10% of the natural essence required to breakthrough into the next layer. If one killed five opponents and completed the weekly quest, they would have 25% of the required natural essence for the next breakthrough. So, one could take part in three weekly quests, complete them perfectly and get three Cultivation Potions and 75% essence from killing and breakthrough one layer.

Only if one could get the perfect clearing. Which never happened, and people needed to use six to seven weekly quests to breakthrough. And if they used the cultivation potions outside, then the effect would be reduced in half.

This was only for a breakthrough in minor layers. The major breakthrough like the Refinement Realm to Foundation Realm required one to clear their meridian to 60% and then try the breakthrough. 60% was the base value, and people actually needed 80% clarity to have a decent chance of breakthrough.

Unfortunately, it won't work in his case as he would need to spend countless qi cycles and resources to reach the 80% purity of meridian.

The system's reward offered a straightforward and uncomplicated way to achieve a breakthrough. However, reaching a major realm breakthrough was not easily accomplished. One would need to complete an incredibly challenging quest. Similar to the difficult quests he had been assigned, which he currently had no chance of finishing. For the time being.

He knew no one who could clear his meridian for him. If he had help from someone like old man Li, he could clear his meridian and help him breakthrough, but it wasn't possible as he knew no one.

He could use catalyst, or natural treasure to assist him in breakthrough, but he had none. Old man Li had a few, but his storage pouch was missing when he woke up, and his house would be swarmed by greedy bastards. Aiden couldn't get his hands on one.

All these options were available for the rich bastards, or the battle maniacs. He wasn't anyone from the two.

The last way was pills which every B and C tier aptitude disciple used as it was their only chance to breakthrough. A Foundation Breakthrough Pill could help him by removing impurity from his meridian by 1% so he could use 60-70 such pills and reach 80% meridian purity, but was it even possible?

First, he had no capital to buy 70 pills. Each one would cost a lot of Mana Crystals. Second, a poor pill like Foundation Breakthrough Pill would leave a lot of pill poison inside him, which will reduce the effect of the subsequent pill on him. So if he received 100% effect of 1st pill, by the tenth pill he might only get 50% effect. And the more pill toxin he accumulates in himself, the more chances he will fail and die. One would have to push out the pill toxin slowly before eating the next pill.

So eating Foundation Breakthrough Pill was a no-go. If he found a Foundation Affirming Pill, then it would be a different story. It could erase 5% of impurities in one go, so he would only need 8 pills.

However, Foundation Affirming Pill wasn't sold openly, and only a couple alchemist could concoct it and one of them was old man Li.

There was one more way. When every door is closed, one wpi;d always open up.

Corpse Bloom.

So his only option to breakthrough was killing people.

Then be it.