Waking up and feeling refreshed. Zhu Tufu went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face before going into the kitchen.

When Zhu Tufu arrived at the kitchen. He saw Zhu Li putting his breakfast oh the table.

"Oh right on time, I was just about to call you. First eat your breakfast and then let's go to our clan's Pill shop to get you some Qi Concentration Pills and then go to the Zhu Technique Temple to get some Battle techniques that will suit you in the future." But while Zhu Li was saying this, Zhu Tufu was thinking.

[Qi Concentration Pill? The one that cuts off your five senses to let you concentrate on gathering and manipulating the Qi near your merdian? What a bullsh*t pill! If I could use a little bit of my Alchemy then I would make some Qi Attraction Pills, which automatically gathers the Qi near my merdians. So infuriating. And the Technique Temple... It isn't a bad idea, They may have some Battle techniques that's related to Blood Qi, but I don't think they will have any battle techniques that are better, then the ones in my memory.]

Battle techniques are a way to control the World Qi or other specific Qi that's outside the body to make your punches, kicks or other body parts more destructive or more profound. This can also be applied to weapons. To make your slashes, stabs and other basic moves into a combination of attacks or just to make them stronger. But you need to use your inner Qi(1) to make the battle technique work.

(1): It's the Qi that you gather inside your core. Only available at the Core Stage.

Alchemy is a skill which let's you control, deconstruct, fuse together or change the shape of the elements with the help of your inner Qi. Something like a battle technique, but with a lot more choices. Of course the more elements you control, fuse together, bigger the change or deconstruct of the element, it will consume more Qi, but you can use the element without Qi if you completely learn the element.

For example the Fire element, if you master the first level, then it is called first level Fire element. And if you want to completely master it then you need to get it to the ninth level. Where it's then called Fire Dao.

After eating his breakfast. They went to the Zhu clan's Pill shop to buy some Qi Concentration Pills.

.....

On the way there. They met an kind looking old woman. When Zhu Li saw her, she walked towards her while dragging Zhu Tufu with her. 

"Good morning, Senior sister Zhu Ya. What brings you here?"

"Hello, Junior sister Zhu Li, I just came back from the Pill shop to take some pills that could help my granddaughter, my little Dite already opened all of her twenty merdians, a once in a thousand years seen prodigy. If this continues she can make it to the competition that's nine months later. But first she needs core(2) for the Core Stage. I need to get her at least a decent quality Saint core. So she won't end up like my son."

(2): You get a core by killing and extracting the core from a Demon, Saint or Divine beast.

"Congratulations Senior sister, as expected of the prodigy of this year's generation seven years old and already at the beginning of Core Stage. And don't make it too hard for your son. He became the First Elder after all."

"If we talk about sons then what about yours. The Freak of the Zhu clan that entered the Academy at the age of six and became the Champion of the 7 Empires Competition all thanks to a Divine core, twenty unlocked merdians and other reasons. If your son took responsibility and stayed in the clan he would have definitely became the Patriarch, but instead he wanted to adventure the World with his wife. At least he left you with a grandchild."

While talking Grand Elder Zhu Ya saw Zhu Tufu listening to the conversion full of interest and then asking.

"Oh yeah is your grandson also going to participate in the competition nine months later? With such a father he would definitely have high talent in cultivation. Which Stage is he already in?"

When Zhu Li was about to say 'The beginning of Qi Manipulation Stage'. Zhu Tufu interjected and said: "Grand Elder Zhu Ya I am at the middle of Qi Gathering Stage."

When Zhu Tufu said that Grand Elder Zhu Ya eyes revealed disappointed, but when Zhu Tufu looked deeper into her eyes. He could see that she felt a little relieved.

"Don't worry about it, life in the clan isn't bad. Oh it's already late and my granddaughter hasn't eaten her breakfast yet. So If you excuse me. Goodbye, Junior sister.

When Grand Elder Zhu Ya left. Zhu Tufu asked: "What's this competition and what is that Academy thing?"

"The Academy is the most powerful school in Main City only for Freaks among Geniuses. A big city would get three Entrance letters every year, which could let you try the entrance exam while other smaller cities have two Entrance letters and towns only get one every year. You need to be less than twelve years old and have the cultivation of first level Body Stage to even participate. That's why every year there is a competition among the three clans and other clan's to see who would get the first three places to let them take the entrance exam. Of course you need to be less than twelve years old and be at Body Stage to participate in the competition."

After that she asked: "Why did you lie to Grand Elder Zhu Ya?"

Zhu Tufu put on a sincere smile and innocently replied "Did you forget grandma? My Master told me to hide my cultivation and the fact that he exists." While saying that he remembered something and asked: "Oh yeah what's this 7 Empires Competition and where are my parents?"

Zhu Li looked into the sky and replied: "I will tell you in the future where your parents are. And the 7 Empires Competition? You will find out if you get into the Academy." After some seconds she asked: "Oh yeah, did your Master get you a core for the Core Stage and pills to help you unlock merdians?"

After thinking about the Qi Cultivation Method 'Bloody Devourer' that didn't need a core for Core Stage, but needed to strengthen the thing that will replace the core with cores and the special way to open all the merdians at once he said: "I will need a lot of cores as many as grandma can get, for now it's more about quantity than quality. And more Demon beast blood wouldn't hurt."

Zhu Li confusely asked: "Why do you need so many cores, normally just one good core should be enough and why do you even need more blood?"

Zhu Tufu innocently replied: "It got something to do with my Qi Cultivation Method that my Master got me. And as grandma said, people now only care for the very good ones so the low Demon ones are ignored and cheap so we can buy a lot of them and more Demon beast blood just to make sure I can unlock all my merdians."

Zhu Li shocked said: "unlock all your merdians? Do you know how hard it is for normal people to even unlock ten merdians much less all twenty?"

But when Zhu Li saw her grandson with that confident smile she stopped, smiled and said: "But if you say that you can do it then i belive you. Leave this matter to me." After that, they continued on their way into the Pill shop.

.....

The Pill had three floors and looked really elegant. There was a sign above the front door reading 'Zhu's Pill shop'.

When they arrived at the entrance, an attendant greeted and respectfully asked: "Welcome Grand Elder Zhu Li and Young master Zhu Tufu, what businesses does Grand Elder and Young master have here?"

In an imposing tone she replied: "Give me a hundred of your Qi Concentration Pills."

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The attendant went into another room and then came back he had two bottles in his hand and then said: "Here Grand Elder, in each of these bottles are fifty Qi Concentration Pills. Does Grand Elder have any wishes left?"

"Do you have any low Demon cores that you sell?"

The attendant blanked for a moment before saying surprised: "Yes we do indeed have low Demon cores they are sold for one silver coin and are of the worst quality and which are most bought by poor commoners."

"Good, give me all these cores, hurry up."

The attendant astonished, went into, what seemed to be the Manager's  room and came back with an old man. The old man came to them and asked politely: "Hello, Grand Elder Zhu Li and Young master Zhu Tufu. I am the Manager here and heard that Grand Elder Zhu Li wanted to buy all the low quality cores?"

"Yes, is there some kind of problem with it?"

"Well, you see the low quality cores are used by our Pill students to train their skills. So we can only sell you half of the cores we have."

Zhu Li thought for a moment before saying: "I can buy half of your cores, but i want a 10% discount. Deal?"

The manager hesitated for a moment before replying: "Deal." After that he went into the warehouse and brought back a Space ring. After getting the Space ring and checking that they were 250 cores. Zhu Li gave him a space ring that was filled with 225 silver coins. "With The 10% discount, you have 225 silver coins." After saying that they left.

When they left the attendant asked: "Sir why did you agree on that 10% discount?"

The Manager wisely replied: "If I hadn't agreed to it. Grand Elder Zhu Li would have insisted on buying all the cores and who could stop her expect the other two Grand Elders? Even the Patriarch could do nothing about it."

The attendant looked enlightened and said: "Manager is wise."

.....

When they left and were on the way to the Zhu clan's Technique Temple Zhu Li asked: "Tufu how much Demon beast blood do you need?" 

Zhu Tufu replied: "If possible then ten liters top quality Demon beast blood would be perfect."

"Sure, then let's do it like this. I go to the the Butcher store first and see if they have ten liters, while you go to the Technique Temple. Like this you can take your time picking some techniques, you like. When you arrive at the entrance there should be an Elder, who is there to oversee everything. Say that you were sent by me and they should let you go to the second floor." After some talk later Zhu Li left and Zhu Tufu arrived at the entrance.

The Technique Temple looked like a four floor tower which looked pretty old and majestic. And at the entrance there was a grumpy looking man.

"Hello Elder, my name is Zhu Tufu and my grandma Zhu Li send me to the Technique Temple to take some techniques at the second floor."

When the Elder saw him and heard his words. Zhu Tufu could see that the man had ill intent towards him.

The Elder impatiently replied: "You need to show me evidence that Grand Elder Zhu Li send you or who knows if you really are Zhu Tufu."

Zhu Tufu angry, thought [Fu*k you, with how identical I look to my grandma only blind people couldn't know that I am her grandson. You want to make trouble for me? Well you will reap what you sow.] After thinking this, calmly replied: "Elder I see that you have knee pain which had troubled you for five years and even in your sleep, it will sometimes hurt like hundred needless have pieced your knee. That's why I assume that you are protecting this place instead of doing something else. Am I right? If you let me through, I can give you a prescription on how to cure it."

When the Elder heard Zhu Tufu he was shocked and then suspiciously asked: "How do you know that? Even my wife doesn't know that. I went to all the Pill Masters(3) secretly in our city, but just to find out that they are all useless. So how can a little kid like you know how to cure it?"

(3): There are 7 ranks that are ranked for people who make pills. Pill Student, Pill Junior, Pill Senior, Pill Master, Pill Grandmaster, Pill King and Pill Emperor.

Zhu Tufu sincerely replied: "If you tried all the Pill Masters and know there is no hope. Why not try my advice? Maybe it will even work?"

When the Elder heard him he said with a voice still with doubt: "Let me hear what you have to say and maybe I let you go into the second floor."

"You have a bug that's called Bone Eating bug. As the name implies the bug will slowly eat your bones and are very small. If you were a normal person then you would have already died by having no more bones, but thanks to your cultivation that makes your bones regenerate faster than normal people that's why you only feel pain and are not dead. But if this continues in two years, they will lay eggs in your flesh and then more Bone Eating bugs will eat your bones and after that you will feel pain in your whole leg like a thousand needles have pierced you and will need to cut off your leg to even survive."

When the Elder heard the horrifying effects of the bug, he impatiently asked: "So how should I cure it?"

"First you need to break your Leg make to the bugs loose and then you need to put the broken leg in a bottle of water with the prescription I will give you and then you should be fine. But please tell no one about this or I will have more people to cure and less time to cure you when you need me." But inside, he mockingly thought [You actually don't need to break your leg and the prescription I am giving you will make the bug go into a frenzy and lay eggs as if it would die if it didn't and after when night comes they will eat your whole skeleton overnight and you will definitely die a painful death. And with telling no one I mean so no one will get suspicious of me. But still, who would believe a six year old boy poisoned an Elder without him knowing?]

"Sure, no problem I will tell no one, but how can I be sure that you are telling the truth?"

"Why would I lie to you Elder?"

After remembering that the one he was talking to was a six year old boy he breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Ok you can go to the second floor after you give me the prescription ok?" But in his heart he thought with joy [Who would have thought making trouble for Grand Elder Zhu Li's grandson would save my life.]

After that Zhu Tufu wrote something on the paper and gave it to the Elder. The Elder happily took it and then gave Zhu Tufu a card saying: "Here is the card that will let you go to the second floor. You can only take three techniques. You will need to return them in a month time and can't be learned by outsiders or you will be punished by the clan. Also you need to let me check you so I can be sure that you didn't take more than three." After saying that the Elder let Zhu Tufu enter.

When Zhu Tufu entered. He directly went upstairs to the second floor thinking [That fool shouldn't have made trouble for me. Well bugs eating his skeleton sounds like a fun death. I hope he enjoys it.]

At the second floor there was a door that had a hole fit for the card that Zhu Tufu got. After putting the card into the hole, the door opened and the card disappeared.

[It seems like a formation build by a master Blacksmith.]

Then he started looking for techniques that would be useful to him.

.....

After three hours of looking through the techniques one by one he found exactly three Battle techniques that Zhu Tufu thought were good enough.

The first was a long range Agility Battle technique named 'Bloody Wings' It was ranked as a low grade Heaven rank, but it was on the second floor because it needed Blood Qi to use. If you mastered this technique than you could float in the air like a hang glider and if you were at the Sky Stage then you could fly faster than other people at Sky Stage without wings also on the ground you could use the wings for a speed boost. You could also harden the blood and make the Blood Wings block an attack or swing your wings to shoot your hardened blood at your enemies.

It was apparently found in a tomb of a Devil Cultivator of the Devil Empire here in Human Empire. They usually used dead or living bodies as puppets to fight for them. For their immoral act towards dead or using living beings as puppets and other things, they got named by the rest of the Empires as Devils. They normally cultivate the Yin Qi(4) to turn bodies into puppets.

(4): You can take Yin Qi as Dark Qi and Yang Qi as Light Qi.

The second was a Stealth Battle technique named 'Temperature Stealth' It was only a peak grade Earth rank technique, but had the ability to change your temperature to as cold as a rock or as warm as the desert. So Snake beasts who use infrared vision won't even be able to see you and you can blend more with the background. And if you need to play as a corpse than you can just turn cold as one and hold your breath.

The third and last one was a Battle technique that could change your height named 'Dwarf into Giant'. As the name implies you can only get bigger and not smaller, your strength will still be the same too so you could say it is only for cosmetic purposes. It is a low grade Earth rank and is pretty much ignored here, but Zhu Tufu thought that this was a very good technique, mainly because it didn't need inner Qi to activate and just needed you to gather the outside Qi inside you. Like you would blow a balloon. So he wanted to try something and if it worked than this technique could be overpowered.

After finding these three techniques he started leaving. When Zhu Tufu arrived at the entrance and saw the Elder he said: "Elder I picked the techniques I wanted. Here take a look." After saying that he took three techniques out, but they weren't the techniques which Zhu Tufu picked, but were the most picked techniques in the Temple. When the Elder saw them he said with praise: "Good choices, these are the best techniques for beginners. But I still need to check you." After checking and finding nothing the Elder kindly said: "Ok you can go now and don't forget to cultivate hard."

After that he walked out of the Temple and Zhu Tufu thought with disdain [You would have never imagined that I actually stole three more techniques of you. Hahaha. Well who would expect something as a Soul Space in this world when I myself didn't believe it at that time.] Zhu Tufu hid the three Battle techniques in his Soul Space.

[Oh yeah after I enter the Core Stage. I should check what is inside that Space ring in my Soul Space. And that dragon corpse? Hmmm... I still can't take it out or the pressure of a Divine beast would totally crush my body right now.] While thinking this. Zhu Li saw Zhu Tufu walking out of the Temple and called for him: "Tufu come here and let's go home to have lunch and then I can take out the ten liters of Demon beast blood out of the Space ring for you. And you can then cultivate in peace."

When Zhu Tufu heard her he answered: "Ok, coming."