“Are all the available brothers here? Hmm let’s proceed then. This is the 7th meeting of our 12th round,” the majestic and mighty god, Dinn declared after taking the main seat at a meeting table.

“Then I will begin. Today, you, big brother Dinn, me, 4th brother Gonn, 7th brother Bann and 9th brother Mann are here for the meeting. The rest are out on their respective ongoing missions.

“The update from my mission is that I've picked up some key information from the random hijacked chatter of the enemy system terminal 47. If you remember, this was a mission we all participated on before we began the new round with little FInlay,” concluded Jinn.

“Hmm,” there were nods or sounds of acknowledgements from those around.

“So, what is this important information?”

“It’s about the extremely guarded second moon world. This time, our gain can be said to be massive. It is still unconfirmed from my side, but there is a chance that this will allow us to breach the security of that world.”

“Wow! Truly??!”

“That’s great news 6th brother!”

“That would indeed be great news little 6th,” even the ever solemn and calm Dinn had a bit of emotion when praising the 6th god, Jinn for his latest work.”

“Don’t be too hasty to celebrate brothers, even if everything goes well, we will still need some on site infiltration to be able to properly breach the security.”

“Hmm…the assets we have need to be retained for the task. I’m afraid with their current strength and skill set…”

“...How about little FInlay?” one of them couldn’t hesitatingly suggest their most promising ‘asset’ on hand.

“No!

“Are you crazy??!”

“Absolutely not!”

“No...little FInlay is just a chick. Besides, he is the main objective right now. Prioritising this mission over his safety is putting the cart before the horse.”

“Well said big brother Dinn. Besides, it will be a while before he can grow strong enough. Remember that one needs to be in the Nascent soul realm to be able to enter that moon world.”

“Yes, no need to be anxious. We can take our time to train our available assets.”

“Speaking of Finlay, what happened to that task?”

“Oh? No need to worry about that. I was luckily able to meet up with Calamity lord Cristopher when I went to the higher realm last time. He agreed to help us. He sent me word a few days ago regarding it. He will be on a routine trip closer to that Planet Earth in the next 2 days. We should hear from him soon about the safety of Finlay’s family.”

“That’s great! I didn’t expect that you would be able to meet up with senior so early. Normally, wouldn’t his seclusion last longer? Why is he going on his routine trip so early this time around?”

Dinn frowned at that question with uncertainty, “I’m not sure either. Perhaps he is just going early since he has other things to do on the usual schedule? I don’t know.

“Anyways, it doesn’t matter the reasons but he is a sensible person and is an ally to us. There should be no problems on this matter further. Let’s discuss the next subject.”

“Yes, big brother Dinn. The next subject of discussion is the request for support from Ronn for his special mission…”

----------------------------------------

Back to Finlay.

“Today’s topic is on the deeper history of our cultivation world.

“Previously in the past two weeks, we talked about our recent history and current affairs like the Demon war and its consequences. Today, it will be about the key points of our past and where our known world stands with the rest of the unknown world.

“Yes you heard that right, ‘the rest of the world’. There is a world beyond the one we are knowingly a part of and that rest of the world is cut off from us, mostly anyways.”

The man gave a pause to allow the quiet class to ponder over his words for a moment before continuing.

“This piece of history plays a very important role in the development of our world, both culturally and geopolitically. It shapes the very nature of the existence of us cultivators.

“Most of you brats should know a thing or 2 about the ‘right’ way to curse, no?”

He eyed the class with a playful smile as everyone tried to avoid eye contact out of embarrassment, especially those of a more ‘noble’ lineage.

*chuckle*

“You smelly little goddess’s ass hairs, stop being embarrassed about it. It’s a proud part of our cultural history. Unless you had holes in your brains growing up, you should know what I’m talking about and in case you’re one of those unfortunates, let me reiterate the key points of this ‘culture’ of ours.

“We take pride in cursing using the word goddess. We have banned worship of idols, especially female ones, we also cultivate independent thinking in children early on and even go so far as to restrict large scale influence of any religions. I’m sure some of you are starting to catch on.”

He looked around at the disciples with various expressions. Some of them had expressions saying as if they’ve realised something. Some remained calm as if they’ve long known what the teacher was implying. Finlay had had some speculations based on what he found out from Lu Bao when he was taught the ‘proper’ way of cursing, but confirming it still made his expression change a bit.

“Yes this goddess we keep referring to inadvertently in so many ways is an actual entity.

“A long long time ago, there was a war spanning the very stars between the gods themselves…

FInlay’s eyes couldn’t help but widen a touch.

‘Is he referring to the conflict The Nine and their alliance had against their invaders?’

“The scale and ferocity of such a war is far beyond what we mere mortals could possibly imagine. The details are lost somewhere in the history but the gods that survived that war are the ones that rule and oversee our world right now.

“It is unknown what exactly happened but we only know that the Goddess wanted to establish a different kind of civilization and path to power and immortality. A very different one from the natives.

“In spite of our mortality, we’ve received support from the higher planes by the immortals themselves. Again, the details are a bit muddied and lost in the river of time but we know that over the course of that terrible war with the goddess’ faction, the remaining cultivators gathered here on the very lands we call home today.

“The war was long and brutal and despite losing most of the world to the other faction, we were able to forcibly create a stalemate in this small corner of the world. The stalemate lasted a long time during which there were repeated and brutal losses on both sides. In the end, our ancestors from the higher planes were able to force the other party to a peace treaty whereby we would remain in our current lands in exchange for mutual non aggression and non intervention.

“The other party agreed, but not before they launched one last desperate attempt to overwhelm our defences through both force and biological warfare. Obviously they failed in the end but we didn’t entirely come out unscathed. Moreover, the area surrounding us, without our defences suffered catastrophic losses.

“The damage was so extensive that no life emerged over said lands for tens of thousands of years and even to this very day, these lands are barren and desolate. They are hence called Ash lands, named after the ashen grey appearance the soil acquired over time.”

The whole class was silent with solemn expressions, none more than Finlay. He was wide eyed as he tried to fit together both what he had just heard and what he knew from the Nine before to give a whole picture. It took a while for the tumultuous class to calm down and the teacher for once gave them time to do so as he calmly observed them.

“That marks the end of today’s class. Your homework will be on writing down 5 things from our culture that you think were directly or indirectly influenced by what we discussed today with explanations for each of them. And please do not just write 5 different cuss words and their descriptions. The previous class tried that, but trust me it didn't end well for them.”

He ended that sentence with narrowed eyes so as to intimidate the brave or rather the stupid sort who didn’t find the message clear enough. Finlay was too preoccupied with his musings to care after that. He simply left the class to walk back to his place, ignoring the distant calling of the Wang Dshan duo.

Finlay was seated in his home, preoccupied with his thoughts as he was suddenly startled awake by a random notification.

*Ding*

System updated but some new features remain unused.

Please review the xp and credits system.

Finlay was just confused at the message after a moment, he tried to think back to the past when he had previously seen the words xp and credits.

“Ohh!!! I remember seeing those terms back when the system allegedly updated. Shit! It seems I forgot to check back on the snoozed notification.”

He couldn’t help but feel very embarrassed at his forgetfulness.

‘I guess cultivation doesn’t cure forgetfulness.’

“Right, let’s check it out now,” he made a mental gesture to select on the ‘xp and credits’ words.

Xp is awarded when completing system assigned tasks or when accomplishing deeds against the Goddess faction…

“Oh!! That sounds cool! But what does Xp even do? Let’s read ahead.”

Xp is a number that represents the contribution towards the struggle against the enemy faction. As a result, a minimum amount of xp is required to qualify to advance to the next realm.

When you acquire a certain amount of Xp, you level up. Levelling up provides bonuses and stats when dealing with scions of the goddess and creatures or entities using the bestowed power of the goddess. It also determines the unofficial rank and authority amongst the allied faction.

“Wow!! That sounds like a genius move in the long run. Although being restricted from advancing through cultivation without enough ‘contribution’ is a bit artificial and annoying, I guess it makes sense from the perspective of the Nine’s struggle and their objective of lending a helping hand to mortals by providing resources.

“Level up sounds like hype though! Although I wonder, what does the system mean by the word ‘Scion of the goddess’? Even the later part doesn’t make any sense to me right now. I guess I just haven’t encountered said enemies yet.

“That last part is the most surprising though. The wording makes it sound like there are a lot of people in said allied faction having ranks and authority. I guess it makes sense. Even though intervening directly is hard, they should have been able to help a lot of natives and recruited them to their cause. Afterall, not all of their rescues had to be as high profile and expensive as mine.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He was about to continue but had a small doubt.

“Wait, how am I supposed to see these stats and levels from the Xp? I don’t see it on the normal system status screen.”

*ding*

Please find the statistics, level and Xp details on the Stats sheet.

“Oh! Okay then…Stats sheet.”

*ding*

Stats Sheet

Level

0 (No bonus stats)

Health

2675/2675 + (0/0)

Stamina

535/560 + (0/0)

Mental Energy

501/550 + (0/0)

Qi

264/265 + (0/0)

Status Ailments

None, Very Healthy

Special

None

Buffs

None

“Ahh! I remember seeing some of these numbers before my rebirth. I guess I never asked for them, so the system never bothered. I mean I still don’t think these numbers can accurately describe organic things but I guess they represent a useful baseline. I still have no idea what these numbers mean though. Just going by the numbers, it appears the Qi value is small but I know for a fact that I have a rather high Qi capacity with my cultivation method. I guess I’ll have to figure it out slowly. I first need to acquire more Martial arts and spell arts.”

With the Xp part done, FInlay dismissed the messages to read the next one regarding the credits explanation.

Credits are a representation of the resources you’ve plundered or obtained indirectly for completing tasks. Directly by stealing system resources from a scion of the goddess or more likely, earning it as a reward for completion.

Note that rewards are based on budget allocated and not necessarily based on difficulty.

“Hmm, I guess the name credits is pretty self explanatory, but I’m not sure what they mean by ‘stealing system resources’. Either way, what’s the point of credits? Let’s read the next message.”

Credits can be used in the system store to purchase certain services. Like when unlocking memories beyond the basic skill level, learning Martial and Spell arts, upgrading Arts and other techniques.

Note that the services are only available for arts and techniques close to the current realm.

Congratulations, for unlocking new features, You’ve received a first timer reward.

+100 Credits

Finlay was dumbfounded reading the message. He had expected something along the lines of being able to purchase cheap equipment or a skill book, but it ended up being even more amazing than he had expected.

The first one seemed simple enough. Unlocking memories seemed to cost Credits beyond the basic level, but at the moment, he only had dabbling in Alchemy skill, let alone a basic level skill. So, it’s not something he would need to worry about in the short term.

The second one was where it gets real.

“What the fuck does it mean by learn martial arts?? How is the system going to help with it?”

His mind raced and he let his imagination fly. Is it going to have a hologram teach me as a teacher? Is it just going to be some demonstration videos? Or perhaps, one of the Nine themselves will teach him through video conference? No matter which of these, it would be an amazing ‘service’.

The third one is even more ridiculous. It states that the system can just upgrade a lower levelled martial art or spell art.

“Th-that seems OP!”

Finlay couldn’t help but swallow his saliva thinking of the implication of such a thing. If this was the case, couldn’t he just buy cheap martial arts and upgrade them to higher level ones and sell them for ridiculous prices? Of course, for his own purposes, he would obviously purchase the high levelled ones and then try and upgrade them further. Regardless, the possibilities are endless.

“I gotta calm down. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.”

He took a minute to calm down from the excitement brought from the unexpected surprise. This sudden system notification brought him a lot of joy. Remembering that he had actually forgotten about it before and didn’t make use of them for so long, made him curse at himself. He berated and cursed at himself for his stupidity for a solid 5 minutes.

“Okay, I have to try them out right away.”

He couldn’t just not do it immediately even if he wanted to. Anxious, he immediately sprinted away towards the stores at the bottom of the mountain. He ran to a small store that sold techniques and other skill books for Qi condensation disciples.

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

D- 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

Stats Sheet

Level

0 (No bonus stats)

Health

2675/2675 + (0/0)

Stamina

535/560 + (0/0)

Mental Energy

501/550 + (0/0)

Qi

264/265 + (0/0)

Status Ailments

None, Very Healthy

Special

None

Buffs

None