Another month passed. It has been about two since he came to this damned sect.

Well, he has succeeded in solving the mystery about the damned books. They contain a message.

The notes in the book started off as normal, but soon became random and chaotic. The writer began underlining words without any apparent reason or significance.

What was frustrating is that you had to read all the books on the literature shelf to get the message.

James even had to read through some books that had nothing useful in them, and all they do is tell a story about a man trying to get into the pants of every woman he sees.

At least in the end, James got the message.

After reading for a long time and repeatedly using trial and error, he finally discerned the key rules to decipher the message.

James reviewed them :

It was always the last letter of an underlined word.

A word from the message must be assembled from the same page in reverse order; otherwise, all the underlined words are just decoys. No page contains more than one word.

To form a sentence, you have to reassemble the words in the order they appeared in the book.

No book contains more than ten words.

You have to read the books from the bottom shelf to the top one.

On each shelf, you start from the right and move to the left until you finish the shelf.

James started reading the first part.

‘If you are reading this, that means I am probably dead, and you are going to be as well. You should have noticed it yourself, otherwise, you wouldn't be reading those useless books.

So first, it will be in a ritual, when you reach the end of the foundation stage, and second, you don't have a lot of time.

They know that you will get suspicious the longer you are retained, and the moment they notice that you are up to something, the security will be augmented and the free space you have now will be taken from you.

And if you have any family, or someone precious to you, they will get tortured or killed, unless you cultivate to the desired level, and submit to the ritual.’

James sat there for a long time. He has known that it was bad for him with the isolation and the old man's constant supervision, but it looks like all of this is nothing compared to what will come in the future.

He started reading the second part.

‘Why am I helping you? That is a question you may have asked yourself, well simple, I am just giving you the heads-up that I didn't get, so you may succeed where I failed.

That is enough for me, you don’t know how valuable you are to those human-sacrificing animals, and even better, you might kill some of them, and I will be waiting for them in hell.’

It looks like the writer has gone a little mad at some point, not like James can blame him; anyone in his position will. James continued reading the second part

‘So about why you are valuable to them? They probably told you about the Body of Qi and its advantages.

Well, they didn't tell you the most important part about it. Any cultivator can transform his soul (or what you like to call it in your terms) to your body, in other terms, you are like a new shiny vessel, that any of them can use to exchange for his old and degraded one.’

Well that isn’t scary at all, it is just possession, James continued reading

‘I know what you are thinking, a cultivator can maintain their form, and look, for a very long time, as long as they keep advancing. But one of the most dangerous things for cultivators is the resources they consume, which accumulate impurities. Those will block the advancement of most of them, specifically the ones who did so using shortcuts.

So to the strongest cultivator, with no hope of advancing further, you are the perfect solution, of course, they might lose some levels, but that can be circumvented if they do the ritual correctly, and use the right resources. And even if they did lose some, it is a price most of them are ready to pay to advance further.

This has limits, one of them is a certain difference in stages between the sacrifice and perpetrator. Which is why they are giving you the time to finish the foundation stage.’

James put down the second part.

He is now like a golden ticket to some of the strongest cultivators, no wonder the sect is doing all it can to isolate him. If their enemies get one word about him, they will try to kidnap or eliminate him.

But all of this begs a question: why the hell does this man know all of this?

‘Now you are probably curious why do I know all of that? Simple, I was a part of one of the noble families.

I wasn't the hire or anything important, just a member with no promising future, who liked to read. Like many of my other not-so-useful cousins, I was sent to create a connection between my family and the sect.

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You see, we weren’t strong, but we were ancient. We have a great archive, and a lot of other powers dirty laundry, it is after all one of our means of protection. And that is where I found the mention of this method.

It is one of the few demonic methods that are still in use by some of the most powerful sects, even though they guard that information fiercely.’

James put down the third note, this one gave him some inner knowledge about the noble families and how they work, and it even makes him question the man’s loyalty.

Some may consider it a betrayal to his family. Maybe because they were the ones who sent him to his doom, but at least he didn't give the family name, so there was some loyalty in his heart.

James started reading the last note.

‘Here is what I know: at the beginning I had one guard, when I reached the third level a second came, at the sixth level another was added, each stronger than the previous. So they will probably add an elder soon.

Each day, just before dawn, a message talisman will come from the sect. I suspect that it has a space ring that provides the provisions, and the resources needed for cultivation.

To accelerate my cultivation, they started giving me Qi crystals after I finished the first level.

At the beginning, they provided most of my requests, if they were not weapons or combat techniques. Lately, they have been adding restrictions, with surprise inspections.

So obviously they will stop pretending, it happened to me in the fifth level. If you have any relatives or family members, each time you delay your cultivation, or they think you did, they will kill one of them. I have already lost a friend.

About the guard, every sect has what they call a soul lamp. If the guard dies, their soul lamp will be distinguished, so you have to take that into account.

It took too long to design the code, and now time is running out. I have lost two more friends, and I can't put more of them in danger.

My advice to you: act fast, you are fighting against time, and don't wait to be strong, they will always be stronger. Be smart, be decisive. And if you think you can't run, kill yourself before you reach the fourth level.

One last thing: if you get out, find a peaceful place, and put up a memorial for me, my name is Silva.’

James put down the last one of Silva’s notes, he wished for the man peace and blessing, in whatever lies beyond this life.

The notes have brought home how urgent his situation is.

If running now, with a guard way stronger than him, is hard, after reaching the third level it will be almost impossible. If he reached that stage, he might as well kill himself and be done with it.

One thing for certain, he will die before they get his body, if only to piss them off.

As for family and friends, he has no family, and his friends, just like him, they tend to stay in the shadows, and are paranoid by nature. So if they sense someone sniffing for them, they will fade away.

James needs to put a plan, and he needed one yesterday. He knows that he has to get to the river from there; he has to navigate using it until he gets outside the sect's land.

What are the obstacles? The first is the guard that is accompanying him. James needs to put him down or at least incapacitate him, and he needs to do that without giving him the chance to send a message or ask for reinforcement.

So a two-part plan, get rid of the guard, and leave the sect ground.

He doesn't know a lot about the second part, but the first part that he has some experience with.

Mostly it comes into three things, the first is an ambush, the second uses a strong weapon, and the third is poison.

But why not combine all of them? Because he is dealing with cultivators, after all.

So about the time and place of the ambush, the best time he can think of is when they are speaking and eating. As people tend to relax in these settings.

About weapons, either get one, or make it.

As for poison, normally he would have bought it, or at least the ingredient, but he can’t do that here, so he has to source all of this himself. That will be a challenge, but not impossible, after all there is a garden in the backyard.

James took Silva’s notes; he re-read them several times, and he started root reciting them.

He took his time until he could recite the notes by heart.

James burned the notes and buried the ash in the plant pot.

The next day, James was having lunch with the old man.

“So how far are you in the first level” the old man said

“I have already filled about one-fourth of the first meridian, so in about three months I will probably be in the second level,” James said.

“So about five months in the first level, not the best outcome we hoped for as seeing you are doing nothing but cultivating, but not the worst seeing you have a huge reserve, so acceptable at the end.”

“I am concentrating on cultivating as much as I can, and the only thing holding me back is mental fatigue. Ah, about that, I would like to start a new activity to help refresh my mind between sessions”. James said

“If it is a reasonable one, and it doesn't take from your cultivation time, or a lot of resources, then that is possible.”

“I would like to start gardening, I will manage my time so that it doesn't hold me back as for resources, there was one in the backyard, so I will just use it, it gets water from the river, so all you have to provide are seeds, tools, and books. Also, I will sell some of what I get back to the sect” James said

“I will make an inquiry with the sect, but why did you choose gardening,” the man said

“Well for starters I think it will help keep me in shape physically and mentally, as I don't do a lot of moving around, and there isn't much of a company around, no offense to you of course. And it will also give more variety to the food” James said pointing at their table, they need more variety in their food.

It looks like the cultivator has a problem with fruits, as he has never seen one since coming here.

“Ok I will talk with the sect, but in exchange, you have to respect the schedule in your cultivation, you can also prepare a list of the material that you need, and give it to me tomorrow,” The man said

James stood up and headed toward his room, he had a list to make. He will have to be careful about what he asks for, to not raise any suspicions.

First, he requires more books, to do his research on, what he has here and what he knows are just the basics, but for this to work he needs to take his time.

Second, are seeds, he will ask for some now, but they will mostly be some exotic fruit, some niche plants, things that will make him look eccentric but do not raise red flags. And when he finishes his research and gains their trust, the real work begins.

James added the resources needed to maintain those plants.

Some of these plants need a special environment with their own requirements. He asked for formation that can help isolate and manage Qi, temperature and other variables, to make these plants flourish and manage the influence they will have on each other.

This will probably cost the sect a penny, but it is nothing against his worth to the sect, and from their perspective, it is a price they would be ready to pay to keep him on track.

After that, he added the other materials, shovels, gloves…etc

With that part down he headed for his cultivation training, he requires every advantage he can get, so his attributes need to be trained. What he can do now is limited because he lacks manuals and techniques and has no teachers.

Currently, he can sense shadows around him, it is still a disorienting process and the range is small, but it can bypass walls and physical objects. He hopes to use it in the future to survey the old man.

The next day, the old man confirmed his request and took the list from James.

One week after that he gave James a special ring that contained the resource he asked for, it was the size of a small room.

It was probably the most expensive thing he has ever owned.

James made his way to the Garden, a place that had long been neglected.

His first task was to ready the soil, rid it of weeds and unwanted vegetation, and enhance its quality. Fortunately, he had access to books and manuals detailing the necessary procedures.

He braced himself for weeks of manual labor before he could see the results of his efforts.

He hoped that the fruits of his labor would be potent enough to incapacitate a formidable cultivator.