During the 2 weeks of cultivation, Finlay discovered an interesting piece of information. The medicinal effects show a bias in their efficacy towards the earth element. After some observation, he noticed that the same pill would provide about a 2/3rd more efficacy when cultivating the
Earth element. This means that anyone who has an Earth element aligned body constitution will have 2 spare pills every month to trade or purchase things that help them in other ways. Although this information will not directly give a way for him to earn more pills, if he could find a resource that he could exchange for pills, he would know exactly who is secretly rich and a population of potential customers. After all, the Earth element is a relatively common body constitution type.
For now, he kept looking for that tradable resource. Finlay hoped to find something at the hunting grounds and he had already had some luck finding some herbs and unique magical beasts but they aren’t things he could directly sell to candidates, so he kept looking.
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It had already been 3 weeks since they were thrown into the valley. Finlay had been frequenting the hunting zone the past few days, trying to get as many of the water cores as possible. He also kept an eye out for any opportunities. He finally found some relevant information. He heard from a fellow candidate whom he had helped in the forest that there were various basic pill recipes, crafting knowledge and even fighting techniques on the scattered stone plaques in the forest for those who can reach them.
With such a promising lead in hand, Finlay decided he would first get his strength up by finishing up his body cultivation for water element, the most abundant type of magical beast element in the hunting zone. Today, he was taking a break after trying to look for the blue rabbits in the dark when he sensed something off. The surroundings were too quiet and as he was contemplating if it’s an ambush of some kind and if he should run away, someone walked into the open area under the moonlight, showing themselves.
“Alright come out now. You’re surrounded and this time, there is no escaping.”
Finlay was just confused at the words. He didn’t remember being involved in any fighting or running away recently, so he had no idea what the other person was talking about. He always kept the mask on in the forest, to keep his identity safe too.
“Fellow brother, I do not know what you might be talking about. Are you perhaps mistaken about my identity?”
“Mistaken identity my ass! You bastard will pay for tricking us and beating us up on that day.”
The new voice seemed strangely familiar to Finlay, but he didn’t have to search his memory for long. This person also walked out into the moonlight and Finlay instantly identified him as the runaway ‘senior’ from back in the beginning. This only confused him further. Not only did he not trick them, he never even escaped from this guy back then and clearly these people have been laying this ambush with a lot of effort and coordination, which also surprised him. He did not expect this level of retaliation for disrupting a simple gang extortion activity.
He was really not sure on how to reply to the unexpected situation. He was afraid of giving away his identity accidentally if he tried to explain himself. So he just kept quiet and decided to see what they would do. Worst case, he was confident in running away even if they bought a late stage body transformation practitioner.
“Big Brother, there is no need to speak to this bastard any longer. Let's just beat him up!”
“I will give you one last chance to surrender yourself and any treasures you have on you at once and come with us to receive your punishment.
If not, don’t blame us for teaching an impolite kid like you.”
Hearing such ridiculous words for the first time after his reincarnation, Finlay had to fight to keep himself from cringing hard.
“I must say, this humble one is very unimpressed by the persuasive power of this big brother.”
“*Hmp* You don’t seem to know what’s good for you. Brothers! Beat him up!”
Immediately, there were a bunch of arrows shot at him from various directions with no obvious enemies in sight. But Finlay was prepared for such a ranged attack and quickly dodged and took cover between the trees and boulders but amongst a number of arrows, one seemingly inconspicuous arrow turned mid air and chased him as he dodged. Blessedly, the speed of the arrow was lowered significantly after it started curving towards him. Unfortunately for Finlay, it was still 3-4 times his top speed in a straight line, let alone when he was dodging and moving in between obstacles.
As he dodged, Finlay pulled out his sword and deflected the arrow just in time when it almost was upon him, aiming for his throat. It seemed whatever spell or technique was being used, broke. Before he breathed a sigh of relief, he saw the distant 2 figures already much closer to him.
As he was considering his strategies to deal with them, he suddenly sensed something from his right and instinctively dodged and ducked his head behind the shoulder armour. It was the arrow from before. It seemed it was only pretending to have lost its effect earlier. He got lucky this time, but it kept zooming back to him, aiming at various weak spots, even as he kept deflecting and trying to run away from the approaching enemies.
Earlier, he couldn’t get a good look at the arrow but now he could clearly see that there was an almost invisible thread connecting the back of the arrow.
‘That is probably related to how it is being controlled and can attack me repeatedly. But it is just very hard to aim to sever that thread. Whoever is the controller, is too good at protecting it and it is unknown if he cannot connect to it again even if I manage to sever the connection. Then let’s just destroy the arrow.’
Realising the crisis of being ganged upon, approaching with every second delayed, Finlay attacked back with his full strength without hiding anything back and splintered the arrow into pieces. He didn’t relax yet and took note that the ‘Big brother’ was almost on him now. Finlay used cover around him to confuse the enemy as he took off towards the direction from where the arrows came from.
Finlay always made sure to mentally familiarise his surroundings whenever he camped at a place and it came in handy finally as he was easily able to run at almost his max speed and was able to outrun the chasing enemy to the hidden archers from earlier. The two targets were clearly panicking on his arrival. Finlay realised they were much weaker than him at first glance and gave them a few gut punches to incapacitate them temporarily and turned around to face the furiously chasing sword wielder.
“You Piece of shit! Stop right there!”
Of course Finlay wouldn’t stop. He simply took out a small round object, a smoke bomb that he purchased to flush the bunnies out of their burrows. This time, he used it to obstruct the vision of the enemy.
“You’re not running away this time! I’ll kill you!!”
Finlay wasn’t planning on running away, at least not yet. He beelined towards the last ‘senior’ who was staring wide eyed, standing in place as he approached and quickly threw a good punch in the face. He unceremoniously took off the bag and collected all the pills from his bag, discarding the rest even as he started to run away towards the luggage near the campfire. He grabbed his stuff and proceeded to escape from the only enemy he wasn’t so sure about facing, even as he heard increasingly furious curses.
After about a minute of running, Finlay seemed to realise something as he stopped and looked behind him. He noticed a very distant form slowly approaching him loudly shouting curses. Finlay, dumbfoundedly realised that the seemingly tough leader of this group was actually a weakling he didn’t have to run away from. The approaching enemy slowly uttered less and less curses, and grew quieter and quieter. Eventually, he stopped, frozen from realisation and stared at the target of his chase.
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Finlay’s expression slowly changed from that of a fleeing underdog to that of a sharp predatory gaze. The expression of the ‘big brother’, similarly underwent a change from a furious predator to that of a scared prey. The chase soon turned around as Finlay enjoyed being the predator chasing his prey for all of 2 minutes before he caught the now very timid guy.
“Look Senior Black mask, it was our fault. Let’s talk about it. I’m willing to show my sincerity. Please take these.”
Finlay almost felt insulted at being offered a single water core. He had tons of those. He didn’t give his enemy a chance to offer any more pitiful gifts. But he paused as another thought occurred to him.
‘If I beat this guy up, who will come next time? Why don’t I just ask him?’
“Who will follow after I get beaten up?....I supposed it would be vice leader Meng Peng.”
“Oh! Tell me a bit about this Meng Peng. Is there any weakness to him?”
The man had a dazed, spiritless look as if resigned to his fate and answered the questions diligently. It seemed as if this whole gang worked mostly on promises of benefits and very little loyalty.
A few seconds later, the last enemy that ambushed him was out cold on the ground. Finlay unceremoniously looted his pills and carried his unconscious body back to the other 3, putting them all on branches of a tree as if hanging clothes to dry. He didn’t want to leave them vulnerable to the aggressive bunnies.
After looting the 4, Finlay actually acquired another 9 Body Enhancement pills. An involuntary smile bloomed on his face. Looking at the pills in hand, he couldn’t help but consider that maybe vigilante work is not a bad choice to solve his pill problems.
After that, he continued collecting water beast cores for the next 3 days. At which point, he had enough to cultivate his water elemental attribute to completion. He soon left the hunting grounds to do the same.
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It has been a total of 4 weeks from the time they were first thrown into the valley. Finlay kept a low profile after returning with all the water cores he needed and diligently cultivated as much as possible. This day, he was on the final stretch of completing his water attribute part of his body transformation. There were no unexpected surprises and his cultivation went smoothly with all the water beast cores and the plentiful pills, now in his possession.
Once he is done with it, not only will he be able to trade away any future water beast cores, his strength will also take a dramatic up shift. If he so chooses, he can even start cultivating his Qi but that would defeat the point of his efforts. He didn’t let his good thoughts distract him from his concentration. He soon felt the completion of his Body Transformation.
Of course, it is also associated with release of impurities from the baptism received from the elemental Qi upon completing his transformation.
‘Urg! I hate this shit! Why does this have to happen every time?!’
Finlay’s distress didn’t last long as he discovered something worth celebrating that wasn’t just cultivation related.
*ding!!*
Congratulations on completing the first layer of cultivation of the common realms.
Restriction Unlocked on skill : Analyse (Grade F -> Grade E)
You can now gain more information upon your target. Also, increase the ability to peer into a stronger target’s information.
‘Wow! It was already very useful before. I wonder how much more powerful it is now.’
It was undoubtedly a very powerful skill to Finlay. It had already allowed him to glean information on cultivators of much higher realm, accurately giving key information like cultivation levels, name (If already known), age and allegiance. He certainly valued an upgrade to such a skill.
He left his room to find his roommate buddy, preparing some food.
‘Nice! I don’t have to wait for him to come out. Now, let’s test the new skill.’
Finlay quickly used Analyse on his unaware roommate.
Identity :
Lu Bao
14 yrs old
Male
Favourite son
Character type :
Lawful neutral
Mortality :
Sura (Mortal)
Job :
NA
Titles :
New Candidate - True Sky Immortal Sect
Cultivation Talent
Qi Cultivation : Low
Body : Poor
Constitution : NA
Cultivation :
Body Transformation level - 2
Finlay Immediately noticed the newly added row of information on Cultivation Talent and type of the body’s constitution.
‘Yes! This is just perfect! With this, can’t I easily identify those Earth types?!’
“Brother Bao, congratulations! It seems your progress is very quick! You’ve already reached the 2nd layer.”
Finlay wasn’t exaggerating. Under normal circumstances, he was expecting Lu Bao, with a poor body talent to take about a year to complete his Body transformation level. At his current pace, he would be finished in about 8-9 months time.
“...You can tell?..Haha! It’s all due to your frequent advice, Senior brother. *Sigh* No matter how I look at you, I cannot even tell the first thing about how far you’ve progressed, unlike you. I’m sure you’re far beyond my level too.”
Finlay didn’t say his current level and simply laughed at the compliment. Else, Lu Bao might die from shock at the speed of his cultivation.
“Brother Bao, here is the mask I promised. It’s a bit crude and simple looking since I’m not particularly skilled at wood carving myself, but it’s made from sturdy wood and should fit your face well. We will need our masks and cloaks for the coming end of month pill receiving event.”
Lu Bao happily received his mask.
“Senior Brother, what are you saying? Receiving such a personally carved item from you is my honour! I will cherish it! Besides, the crude appearance looks rather menacing.”
Finlay failed to see how a simple dark, wooden mask with 3 horizontal slit like holes couldn’t possibly look menacing but he didn’t argue with a happy customer.
The next few days till the start of the next month went silently in cultivation.
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It is the day of receiving their monthly supplies, the pills included. Finlay and Lu Bao were prepared well this time and he didn’t think there would be any issues with his current strength, although he didn’t say that to the nervous Lu Bao.
They received their monthly supplies, had the sumptuous, sect sponsored free meal, collected their food, although, this time there was much more competition for the preservable foods. Finlay and Lu Bao started back with a similar strategy as the first time.
They had almost reached their place and had just said goodbye to the other two who left in the direction of their residence.
“Brother Bao, don’t be so distressed about the food, I will make sure to buy you better food from wherever I go outside.”
“Yes, in that case, I’ll be in your care Senior brother.”
Finlay and Lu Bao were casually chatting as they arrived at the premises of their own place. Suddenly…
“Hey you two Juniors! Come here and quickly pay respects to your Seniors.”
Finlay couldn’t help but feel very irritated and had to suppress the nerve that was about to pop out on his forehead. He took a deep breath and slowly turned around to see which idiot came this time to get beaten up.
Identity :
Meng Peng
20 yrs old
Male
Rival of the leader
Character type :
Chaotic neutral
Mortality :
Sura (Mortal)
Job :
NA
Titles :
Old Candidate - True Sky Immortal Sect
Cultivation Talent
Qi Cultivation : Poor
Body : Poor
Constitution : Earth
Cultivation :
Body Transformation level - 8
To be continued