CHAPTER 15: LIKE A TREE?

In a word, it was disappointing. Dan was beginning to suspect that his expectations were skewed.

Three decorated bookcases stood against the walls. Five shelves to a bookcase and perhaps… three or four books to a shelf. Some held less.

Julien escorted him inside. “Qi techniques to the left, cultivation techniques ahead, martial techniques to the right.”

Dan naturally strode toward the central the cultivation techniques. He swiftly resigned himself to using whichever technique was available. If all goes like it did in the Channel Building stage, the technique’s useability was more important than any unique effects.

He just needed a technique. That’s all. It almost didn’t matter past that point.

Julien gestured to a particular shelf, and Dan’s eyes fell to the books that topped it.

“As a nature aspected immortal, you only get three techniques to choose from. It’s not that bad – if you were metal aspected, it would be the one.”

Dan eyed the tomes, and after considering it, gingerly pulled one from the shelf. It was heavy in his hands. He felt a gentle pressure from it, the energy in his body moving with a gentle hum. He felt a bit light-headed as he peeled back the time-worn cover and read the cover page.

‘Like A Tree. Slow, strong, comprehensive.’

“What.”

Dan put it back, immediately. His energy stagnated, his calm pretence swept away. Another book fell into his hands, and he wasted not a moment in sweeping it open.

‘Grove-keeping. The natural gardening technique.’

Without a word, the natural gardening technique became a shelf-guarding technique. Right behind ‘Like A Tree’. Was he going to prune roses to level through the Qi Refining stage? Was he going to become a tree? Were either of these techniques actually normal pathways?

Had he been tricked? Why was he shaking?

Dan grit his teeth before the silent Julien, and grabbed the final technique, swiftly opening it. He nearly begged to a higher power, but it would change nothing.

‘Cultivating nature. Broad and all-encompassing.’

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He flipped to the next page and eyed the contents list.

Dan sighed. It was a completely ordinary cultivation technique. Simple and bland. A weight lifted from his shoulders.

“Thank the heavens.”

Dan didn’t want to be a tree.

…

“This is your lodgings.”

“Thanks.”

His guide finished the tour and walked away, leaving Dan alone in the outskirts of the oversized Ice Demon Cliffs.

He eyed the stout building he’d been presented with. It was small, but it had four walls and a roof. Originally, Dan had thought he might be sleeping in the woods, so this was an improvement.

It was just…

He eyed distant cliffs. His sight was stronger than it once was. He could make out more than just distant figures, but also extravagant holdings and entire groves of mortals.

Dan felt that being here, on the outskirts, was some kind of disadvantage. He sighed, shook his head, and turned the key.

He explored his new abode. Credit to Lieutenant Thyrl, the home was comfortable and had all the necessities, including a cultivation chamber and a library. Simple and unadorned manuals filled the shelves – comprehensive, inexpensive combat techniques. How to swing a sword and the like.

Dan had never considered learning to fight. But then he’d gone and become a guard of some kind, hadn’t he?

He eyed the manuals, thin booklets that littered the bookshelves in droves. He idly wondered if all of the similar homes on the outskirts were outfit the same way…

Ultimately, Dan shut himself into the cultivation chamber and withdrew the treasured, ordinary cultivation technique from his bag. He still kept his father’s chest in there too.

Flipping open the tome, Dan shivered at the thought of becoming a tree. It was awful. What did it take to convince a person that they should become a tree? An immortal tree, at that. Insane.

These thoughts kept him occupied. His mind strayed far from concerns that it would rather ignore for now. Dan had to become stronger. Far, far stronger.

He had to make a breakthrough into the Qi Refining stage. The same as his father had been. He also had to go through the manuals and obtain a fighting method. Dan didn’t even know where to start, there. He didn’t imagine he’d have much luck swinging a weapon around. Not for a few years. He wasn’t an idiot.

Maybe he could learn runecrafting instead? But he’d still need a way to protect himself, right? What was the point of cultivating strength if he didn’t learn how to use it?

He’d consider it later.

Dan calmed and let his mind’s eye rest on the nature energy that sloshed through his body. He withdrew into his very being.

It was quiet, here. He vaguely understood that the outskirts were better for cultivation.

His spirit energy smoothly flooded his channels. It ebbed and flowed. It massaged his body, cleansing the flesh and bone. It had already done the majority of the work that it could. He was about as strong as he would ever get in the Channel Building stage.

Dan’s attention was split. He eyed the circulation diagram in his hands, while his mind controlled the energy that circulated through his channels, to his meridians and back. The technique covered the entire Qi Refining stage, but he only needed the first step.

He had to condense his spirit energy into qi. His dantian had to be transformed. Following that, to progress through the levels of the Qi Refining stage, he would subsequently transform his meridians, one by one.

Dan shut his eyes, content with his understanding of the technique. Now, he very much had to focus his whole of mind on the task.

The flow of his spirit energy staggered to a stop.

It was all very much easier said than done.