Chapter 3
The proximity of Sancemore Public Elementary School where Vanz studied and the Chapter Children Orphanage where he lived was nothing of far in his perspective. Merely several miles away, contrary to what most people thought of it; two rides away before reaching the SPES.
As he had nothing in mind on what he should do with his free time, he decided to return straight to the orphanage and cultivate.
Currently, he had already broken through the Qi Gathering Realm, 3rd Stage. From the five years that passed, Vanz didn't neglect his cultivation; the most important thing for him, second only to accumulation of knowledge.
He didn't hastened his cultivation, and remained in a stage for many more weeks before breaking through to another stage after assuring that he had already explored the cultivation stage.
It was important as it lessened the burden that breaking through would brought to his body and for the purpose of possessing a larger and more than one Pure Qi Spring once he broke through to Qi Gathering Realm. As of now, he had three Pure Qi Springs fully opened.
Vanz wanted to open as many Pure Qi Springs as possible as it would brought ease on gathering Pure Qi in the air, as well as in creating a Dao Seed once he entered Foundation Establishment Realm, which would be greatly helpful once he attempt to create his own Completely Perfect Dao Tree, a requirement for Immortal Ascension aside from Immortal Core and Immortal Meridians.
However, perfection wasn't easily acquired without difficulty. Vanz knew that it would be very hard to achieve, but he wouldn't back out just because it was almost impossible. A one percent possibility was enough encouragement for him. He had done it in his previous life, and he swore to do it again even the world where he lived now was different.
It would be very much time consuming and probably needed many treasures, but Vanz was much more inclined in searching for this treasures as he would regret not exploring this entirely new world of his.
On his way out of the school, Vanz stumbled upon a piece of paper that was attached on a bin of trash, huge enough to be a coffin for an adult person.
Without looking inside through physical means, Vanz already knew that a kid was inside the empty bin of trash. As he was already at Qi Gathering Realm, he could use his Spiritual Awareness as his eyes, ears and body to sense things that was not within his grasp.
He could expand his Spiritual Awareness for 300 meters, and with the supplement of his three Pure Qi Springs, it could still be extended with a total of 1,800 meters in an intangible sphere of influence. All concealed things that was within his Spiritual Awareness were nothing but pebbles on the sidewalk for him, buildings that were taller than mountain.
He could easily see them as though he was close to them even though he only had one body. Which means, he could observe all things that was within his Spiritual Awareness.
As of now, he could only observe through his Spiritual Awareness, but once he entered Qi Condensation Realm, he could not only use it to observe, but to influence things as well. A power given to those that broke through to Qi Condensation Realm after closing the Pure Qi Space, which then be called Spiritual Space.
Once he closed and made boundaries around his Pure Qi Space, it would be deterrent for further expansion without his own decision.
Vanz walked towards the bin of trash and opened it. A kid with the samd age as himself came into view. The kid was taller than him, but thin like a stick and definitely had a timid nature.
He wanted to ask how the kid end up inside the bin of trash, but he changed it as he already knew it and didn't needed an confirmation.
"Are you okay?" Vanz asked simply.
The kid groaned and sat up like nothing happened. He heard Vanz and spoke. "I-I'm a-alright. You should leave before they return. If they found I'm being helped by someone, they'll definitely not let you leave. Worst, we both will be confined inside the trashbin."
The kid said and warned him as well, but Vanz wasn't affected. He arranged his glasses and turned around as he started walking, but stopped after four steps.
"If you can tolerate what they are doing to you, then you're the one who's at fault. Because you let them bully you. You mustn't think if what you're doing is right or wrong. I advice you to walk towards the guidance office and confess their wrong doings." Vanz said and left for good, not wanting to be involve in childish fight.
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As he left the SPES, Vanz immediately return home on a bus as his money wasn't enough to pay for a taxi. "Maybe, I shouldn't have paid that uncle..." he mumbled and entered the bus, which drove off after making sure that no seat was left unoccupied.
The bus moved for an hour before reaching the bus station few kilometers away from the orphanage. Vanz didn't rode on another vehicle, but only walked to reach the orphanage.
When Vanz reached the orphanage, he saw Ms.Vienna walked in with three people; two male and one female. And they seemed knew each other well as they talked with various things using past tenses on their words, indicating that they were talking about things that already happened.
Vanz approached them. Ms.Vienna saw him and waited for him. "How's school, Vanz? And why are you so early? Did something happen?" Ms.Vienna greeted him.
"Hello, Ms.Vienna. No nothing happened. Our homeroom teacher is still lazy to start a lecture at the first day of school." Vanz looked at the three people and continued. "Anyway, who are they? They seemed... new?"
"Ha-Ha! You're eyes are good young man. I'm Grille, this man beside me is Bones, and this lady is Ouria. We're here to apply as a full-time guards. You know, the city is becoming more dangerous at each passing days, because of those syndicates. Anyway, why are we talking here outside? Let's get inside and meet the beautiful manager!" Grille said loudly and walked like a muscle man, waving his arms packed with muscles towards the entrance of the orphanage, leaving the four with dumbfounded expressions...
"Well... I can say that Grille still didn't change after many years... Anyway, let's go and stopped that man from scaring the children inside." Ms.Vienna took Vanz's hand and walked. "Come, Vanz. I'll bake you your favorite cookies as a present for advancing in grade school.." She looked at Bones and Ouria and continued. "You too, get inside. Sera is waiting in her office. Good luck at the interview."
Then, a huge man shouted at the entrance. "Hey, where's the Manager's office?!"
"It's on the third floor!" Ms.Vienna shouted back and dragged Vanz to the kitchen.
Vanz baked cookies and shared it to the other children, afterwards he headed straight to his room and locked himself inside as he quietly cultivate.
Pure Qi gathered around. On his will, all that touched his skin was smoothly refined before entering his body, flowing through his meridians and entering his Pure Qi Space. Which then, gathered at one point and formed into an spinning vortex of Pure Qi, several meters away from the three existing Pure Qi Springs.
The Pure Qi Space was akin to a hollow, bare and desolated land inside his body. It was an imaginary space where everything was affected by his cultivation. Currently, he was only at the Qi Gathering Realm which signify the endless barren land within.
To break through to Qi Condensation Realm, the Pure Qi Springs he excavated were needed to be connected. Creating a boundary, closing the Pure Qi Space.
The more Pure Qi Springs he excavated, the more difficult it was to connect all of them as the required Pure Qi needed for creating a connection was becoming more huge. However, each one Pure Qi Springs successfully connected would provide him great boost in physical prowess, strengthening his Spiritual Awareness and comprehension to the Dao.
In his previous life, he studied and experimented on it than any other beings, which became the reason he was regarded as the most strongest. He discovered something very important; that the Pure Qi Spring could be expanded, which many said and proved impossible to be done, yet he succeeded.
However, he only achieved it after several long and painful adventures. Not mentioning what were those adventures, he could say that expanding one Pure Qi Spring was enough to cause a empire's whole treasure trove to be empty.
The Bloody Thorny Fruit was the only treasure that could expand a Pure Qi Spring, but it must be concocted into a Fortune Star Pill and the other ingredients for it were also a treasure like the main ingredient mentioned; those were the Emerald Star Fruit, Four Clove Plant and White Crying Root.
The Emerald Star Fruit could provide an astronomical amount of Pure Qi when concocted and it was a 5-angled yellow fruit of star shaped cross section and became an emerald when ripe.
The Four Clove Plant was the hardest ingredient to be found as it could only appear once every ten thousand year, while the White Crying Root was deadly as it could evaporate a person's life force in an instant once handled wrongly, even an Immortal King died from this deadly root. It wasn't an exaggeration as Vanz witnessed it before in his previous life.
However, that wasn't the hardest part on acquiring a White Crying Root, as it was always accompanied by a Primal Beast which had a prowess equivalent to an Foundation Establishment Realm Expert, while those whom needed this root were only at the Qi Gathering Realm.
The only question left on his head was.... Does those ingredients also existed in this world?
That was the question endlessly running in his head. If those ingredients weren't existing in this world, Vanz could only painfully redirect his cultivation path and his future cultivation would be limited to merely a lowly Immortal Ascendant.
Fortunately, the world where he reincarnated had a very dense Pure Qi, which made the possibility of those ingredients existing higher. The only thing he needed to do was search for them.
As he pondered on it overnight, he found the best way he could do as of his current situation. A child wondering the forest was a very strange thing if anybody would asked, but why search for it personally if he could use the internet?
One click and results would display on the screen. Such technology didn't failed to amaze him.
The morning came and it was his second day as a grade one student of SPES. Since, he wasn't in hurry, he decided to head to school then search for the ingredients of Fortune Star Pill after the school ended.
He came to school after going through a tight embrace with suffocation and feeding frenzy until he vomited. At school, the class was boring for him, but he persisted until the dismissal and head straight to the orphanage. There were nothing mentioning happened in the class, only a boring lecture and easy seatworks.
Those seatworks were easy as he could answer them all correctly, but to not attract the teacher's attention, he intentionally answered wrongly 30% of the questions. There was no primary introduction like most classes did as Mrs.Villania wasn't interested neither in their names nor their hobbies, and their profiles were already on her hand a long time ago.
Meanwhile, the kid that Vanz saw in trashbin was still inside the trashbin. He didn't left even after Vanz told him to confess the wrong doings that had been done to him. But, those words still lingered in his mind, echoing in a black endless space.
However, he didn't had the courage to do it. Worried that if he do it, all that those bullies did to him would only escalate and he would suffer in the end. Not only that, he also worried that if he confessed them, they would suffer far from what they did to him and he was too kind, merciful and compassionate to let it happen.
If people or Vanz had known what the kid was thinking, he might kowtow while crying in front of him, due to his exceeding kindness, that could be seen as stupidity by other people.
"Maybe, this is the reason why, mother and father didn't love me, but what can I do? I'm too afraid to hurt others even in an indirect way. I will stick to my principle. I-I will endure this. They might become bored of me and leave me in the end. That's right... That way, I won't be able to hurt other people..... I will endure... I will endure..." the kid curled and hugged his knees inside the trashbin as he repeatedly mumbled the latter words, hidden in the colorful world of the children playing and laughing outside the trashbin.
While chanting, concealed to the kid, an unknown energy was surging within his consciousness. It was violent and domineering like a tsunami that would washed away everything in its path, paving the land with destruction.
This would be reality once this energy exploded within him, killing everything in his proximity.