An ancient dilapidated dark stone building in the middle of a dense forest. There were 4 people standing at its entrance, guarding the surroundings, occasionally taking glances at the door leading into said building with various expressions.
Amongst these 4, one was the familiar face of Lu Bao. He has transformed quite a bit from his elegant but delicate personality from his simple city noble origins. He now had a calmer, solemn air about him. He had gained a more muscular body both from advancing in his cultivation and due to his experiences in this time. He was fully armed, ready for action at a moment's notice.
“Brother Lu, what do you think? Will Big brother succeed this time? If he misses this month…” a nervous, short but stout man couldn’t help but ask the same question for the 3rd time that day. He was a most trusted subordinate of Meng Peng from his gang and now a part of this elite force that travels this deepest region.
“No point in worrying too much. You should have faith in Brother Meng,” Lu Bao tried to comfort him.
“Well, you can’t blame him for worrying, brother Lu. Afterall, if Meng Peng doesn’t succeed in this month, he will pass the 4 year mark and his standing will fall dramatically even if he succeeds later on,” came a reply from another. He was a tall, athletic figure with a dependable appearance.
“Brother Xu…you are indeed right but I believe in brother Meng. He has put in a great deal of effort. He will definitely succeed this time.”
Everyone present couldn’t help but take another silent look towards the building. Afterwards, they silently kept guard as they waited for the person inside to finally come out.
Lu Bao couldn’t help but reminisce about the past 2 eventful months. After his Senior brother had left the valley, he had been left with an abundance of precious resources to push his cultivation to the peak of mid stage within 2 weeks, during which period, he made small trips into the hunting zone to practise his combat arts. His Senior brother had also been thoughtful to give him some guidance in regards to improving his fighting abilities and advice on avoiding problems with both men and beats alike.
That was when he first met the party of Dokgo Xu. Once they identified their mutual friendship with his senior brother, Dokgo Xu took him in to teach him various things and took him exploring in the deeper regions. Not long after, they were able to meet the Wang Doshan Duo of Alchemists who joined the party occasionally to gather some precious herbs. Finally, Meng Peng who was fond of his senior brother came looking for him one day and that’s what led them to this deepest region of the hunting zone.
Reaching this place was unimaginable for Lu Bao just a month ago. This is because the surroundings are so dangerous that no one dared to wander here alone. Each person who dared to venture here did so with peak strength, through preparation and in a solid group of equivalent elites. Finlay would have found this place completely unfamiliar since he did not have enough time to explore this deep in the short 4 months he spent in the valley.
Lu Bao, already at the late stage with his powerful spear wielding ability, a movement art, good armour and solid cultivation foundation, was the weakest in this group of 4. He was mainly shown such a favourable attitude because of the strong impression Finlay had left behind in the hearts of these people.
Finlay had once wondered why someone with talent and strength at peak stage like Meng Peng was still dallying in the valley instead of graduating early. The truth was that, similar to Wang Doshan’s group, the candidates in the valley are constantly looking for achievements to attract the eye of the sect. Especially those who came from smaller or no backgrounds like Meng Peng. This was even more important when one was unable to complete their cultivation in the 2 year period for one reason or another.
One can either make achievements purely using their incredible natural talents like Finlay or find places like the Alchemy stone, Archery stone etc to learn a skill and hone it to perfection, enough for it to be considered valuable by the sect. The deepest parts of the hunting zone is a special place where one can find places that present unique challenges. These challenges are inherently dangerous yet The achievement that comes from overcoming them is considered incredibly valuable.
This location is exactly one such place of trials. Meng Peng had been delaying his graduation for exactly this reason. He wanted to complete a challenge that was incredibly perilous to one’s life, a combat challenge. Here, one had to avoid a continuous barrage of deadly projectiles as they fought with combat puppets.
*tak tak tak*
The sound of a door opening was heard and instantly all of them snapped their gazes towards the building. They say a figure stumbles out of the entrance. He was barely walking with his clothes torn open all over his body in bloody gashes. There was a terrifying wound on his left shoulder.
*blarghhhh*
The man threw up copious amounts of blood as he tumbled down the stairs.
“BIG BROTHER!!”
The concerned junior from earlier caught him halfway down the stairs.
“NO!! Big brother! What happened?! Please don’t…*sob*...You can’t…You’re supposed to…*sob*...”
The man broke down in tears as he kept saying things incoherently.
The other 3 were shocked at the sight. Meng Peng always came out of here injured and a bit dejected but never this badly. Moreover, this month was very important for him.
“Brother Xu, what could have happened?!”
“I’m not sure either. Could it be that Brother Meng recklessly pushed forward knowing that his deadline was approaching soon?”
“But that’s not his style either, Big brother Xu. He is normally the calmly advancing type and this wasn’t even supposed to be his last attempt. Besides, Brother Lu’s advice last yesterday seemed to have given him new hope as well.”
“Hmm…You’re right. Anyways, let’s quickly take him to sister Rong. But I'm afraid that it’s looking really bad this time. I feel like he will definitely take over a month to recover and he might even sustain permanent injuries if he doesn’t receive good treatment soon…”
Even as they discussed amongst themselves, the 3 quickly got to work stemming the bleeding from the wounds and applying first aid to the wounded man.
“BIG BROTHER IS SAYING SOMETHING!!!!”
The three quickly came to the barely conscious Meng Peng to listen to what he had to say.
“..hehehe brothers, do-*cough* don’t worry about me. I-I almo-*cough* *cough* almost succeeded. I will do it for sure ne- next time!...Brother Lu’s advice was very he-helpful.”
He fell unconscious after that. The 3 silently built a crude stretcher to carry the unconscious man.
Dokgo Xu wore complicated expressions as he ran with the group. He couldn’t help but turn towards Lu Bao before expressing his thoughts, “Brother Lu, it seems the little bit of advice you gave to Meng Peng was truly very helpful. *sigh* I only hope he can make it in time before the deadline.”
“Haa…you praise me too much brother Xu. It was nothing special. It was mostly just what my Senior brother had taught me before leaving that I just repeated to brother Meng.”
“I see. No wonder. You’ve even given us some pointers in cultivation before this from what brother Ming had taught you. They were truly profound ideas that helped further solidify our cultivation. I wonder, if brother ming was with us today, how would he have performed with that same challenge? He could have been a very good brother to have to roam these deepest areas without danger.”
“You are right. I’m really shocked that he actually never entered this deep. Well, he didn’t really need these achievements like us and he seemed like too much of a loner to venture this deep.”
After a few minutes of thinking, Lu Bao called out to Dokgo Xu to give his solution for the current problem with Meng Peng.
“Brother Xu, I have a way to help brother Meng. Senior brother once said that I should go to the old Blacksmith if there was ever a problem I couldn’t solve normally. What do you think?”
“Ohh! If it is a recommendation from Brother Ming, then I’m sure it should be fine to do that. In that case, let’s quickly get some basic treatment from sister Rong and take her with us to keep his condition from deteriorating on the way to the old blacksmith. I can only hope she is enough to keep the situation from worsening for brother Meng.”
“*sniffle* If only we had that fatty Wang Doshan with us still, he would have surely come up with some magical Alchemy elixir to help big brother.”
“That’s true but unfortunately, he had to leave early from graduating.”
“Alright, we’ll do as Brother Xu has said. We’ll first rush to sister rong. From there, we’ll bring her and her guards along to the old blacksmith. Brother Meng, Don’t worry. You’ll be able to achieve your goal.”
----------------------------------------
It was the first day of classes for Finlay. He woke up early or more accurately, he couldn’t sleep after the previous day’s debacle. Thankfully his other bet for placing in the top 5 made him some money, resulting in an overall small net loss.
“Well, at least my good neighbours stopped messing with me after that.”
After his shocking performance, he did draw some unwanted attention but since the other core disciple had a more memorable performance and technically held the highest score that day, the attention wasn’t overwhelming, The Jin clan’s scion still had more attention than Finlay.
“Still, all that money lost was painful…”
Human nature is peculiar in that one’s worries are always focused solely on the losses rather than the net result.
Fortunately that pain didn’t last long for Finlay once the boring classes started later on the day because it was replaced by boredom and the struggle to stay focused through them. Finlay was really looking forward to learning about the history of the world, but he would have to slog through the etiquette on his first day. At least he met a few people who spoke to him without the arrogant tone unlike his previous encounters.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Most notably, he met up with the Wang Doshan duo at the end of the day to his surprise.
“Haha! Brother Ming, I never expected to meet you here. I thought you were from a later batch than us? How did you manage to graduate so early?”
“Well, the details don’t really matter. I’m just glad brother ming is here with us.”
“Ah, it's a complicated story. It’s just good to see you 2 here, but are you just coming here now? Aren’t you late by a day?”
“Haha that’s not a problem. We barely made it in time, but we were evaluated for our Alchemy skills which took sometime. Can you believe it? We now have a senior Alchemist as a master now.”
“Although, we’re mostly in-name disciples of his.”
“Oh wow! It looks like you’ve achieved your goals, brothers. Congratulations!”
“Let’s talk as we walk. We are yet to see our allotted places. Let’s go there first.”
“Okay sure!”
They made their way along the path that went along the side of the mountain. They didn’t have to walk long before they came across their accommodations. Finlay noticed that the place wasn’t as large as his own and had to be shared between 2 people.
‘Well, at least, they don’t have to do it with strangers.’
Another interesting fact that FInlay noticed was that, even though the two of them were taken in as disciples under a master Alchemist, even if it was only in name, they were only given outer sect disciples due to their poorer talent for cultivation. That hammered the point that cultivation level is ultimately what mattered in this ruthless world. Even if one can create marvellous things using their Alchemy, smithing or formation skills etc, they can only support another high level cultivator at best and cannot directly confront a strong enemy.
This was completely opposite of his previous world’s situation. As an Engineer, creating things was at the heart of his previous self, causing Finlay to occasionally struggle to accept the new truths of his current world.
‘*scoff* Who says I can’t do both here? I will prove to this world just how important creators are. They just need to change their attitudes on learning and sharing knowledge.’
He was brought out of his musings by the Wang Doshan duo who had finished setting up their things in their new accommodations.
“We’re done brother Ming. Later, you must take us to visit your place as well.”
“Yeah I heard inner disciples get much better accommodations than us.”
“Yeah I will definitely take you over but later. I’m feeling rather hungry and we’ve got permission to go down the hill today. I was thinking of having some good food at one of the fancy places I’ve seen when coming here. Why don’t we three go together? What do you think?”
“Ohhh! That sounds great! Hehe, is it your treat brother? For becoming an inner sect disciple??”
*sigh*
“My heart was just cut up yesterday, but fine! I’ll treat you guys this time. It is after all a celebratory occasion. Also, call me Fan lei from now on,” Finlay made an exaggerated painful expression at the mention of yesterday.
“Oh! What exciting things did we miss these 2 days? And what’s with the new name?” the extra man, Mr. NPC-P tried to dig deeper into the wound from the previous day much to the suffering of Finlay.
*sigh*
“It’s another long story. Come, I’ll explain over dinner. If we don’t hurry now, it might get a bit crowded later on. Oh! Brother Wang Doshan, I need to buy some alchemy recipes and other equipment related to formations. Can you help me with the shopping? I’m a little green when it comes to these matters.”
“Oh definitely! But only after dinner though. I’m starving!”
The three walked as they exchanged casual banter. Or more accurately, it was mostly Finlay and Wang Doshan talking about things as the other, simply named NPC-P by Finlay, simply followed, occasionally trying and failing to interject himself into the conversation. He was starting to grow a bit annoyed at being excluded.
‘You mosquito loving bastard. Serves you right!’
To be continued.
Preview - System Status
Identity :
Finlay
Male
14 yrs old
–
Mortality :
Sura (Mortal)
Job :
None
Titles :
None
Cultivation : (Body cultivation)
Perfected Body Transformation stage;
Perfect Harmony of all elements;
Cultivation : (Spiritual)
Qi condensation realm Level 2;
Origin Qi;
Skills :
The All seeing eye (Analyse) :
(Grade D- )
Authority granted by the first god of the world, Dinn. You can peer into the secrets of things and beings of this world as long as you know what you’re looking for. (Requires activation conditions)
Dabbling in Alchemy:
(Grade F-)
Rewarded for your meagre efforts in Alchemy. It boosts your success rate of any pill below Tier 3 by 5 %; Improves the control of the user over the Qi infused into the pill.
Inventory space :
(Dantian space)
(Locked until Foundation Establishment)
Universal Language comprehension (Grade A+);
Mana Blast (Grade F+)
Preview - Stats
Spiritual :
Cultivation Talent :
S+ Grade (Appears as C-)
Divine Sense :
None
Law Comprehension :
S Grade
Physical :
Body Type :
Five Element body (Grade : B+(Aggregate)) (Appears as C-)
Elemental Attunements :
Metal
S- Grade
Five Element Body Type
(Dominant trait)
Earth
A Grade
Wind
C+ Grade
Fire
C Grade
Water
D Grade
Light/Darkness(Yin/Yang)
D- Grade
Lightning
F+ Grade
Other Talents :
Weapon Talents :
Sword/Bladed type
A+ Grade
Ranged
C+ Grade
Hand to Hand
C Grade
Polearms/Spear
D Grade
Soul based/Mental type
D- Grade
Qi Circuits :
(Arrays, Formations, Magical Restrictions)
B- Grade
Crafting Talent :
C+ Grade
Alchemy Talent :
D+ Grade