Chu Kang was sleeping inside his carriage; it was too hot outside, and he didn't think he would get a passenger. His horse was also stand-sleep.

But alas, a certain someone disturbed his sleep, making him squint his eyes.

"Take me to the nearest city."

Chu Kang looked at this freak: a frail body with sunken cheeks, dressed in ragged robes, not a shoe in sight. What was it that this beggar wanted from him? Take him to the city? For what? He was very confused.

"You... You work at that gambler gook's farm, don't you? Is his harvest ready for sale already?" His first thought was that he was asked by that old scum to call a carriage to transport his yield.

"Nope, those harvests will not be ready this year." Xue Song rolled his eyes. "It's just me who's going."

Chu Kang looked at his face, confused. The harvest wouldn't be ready this year? He wants to go alone? Did this idiot disturb his sleep to play a prank? But this particular youth was known in the village for being quiet and minding his own business.

"Three gold coins for Port City; that's the nearest from here," he said, wanting to end this joke quickly. There was no way this beggar would have three gold coins.

"Upfront?" Xue Song raised his brows. It was troublesome. He didn't want to stay in this village longer than he already had. There was a high chance that old scum could send someone after him.

"Yeah..." Chu Kang smiled to himself, feeling amused at his reaction.

Xue Song smiled bitterly. If possible, he didn't want to do this. He now had only two options: one, procure three gold coins somehow as fast as possible, which was impossible to do in this poor farming village where most people used the barter system for trade. The second option was to walk to the city, which might take weeks, and he would definitely die of dehydration in this heat.

"How about I pay after you take me there?" Xue Song asked just in case.

"Not possible. I have a no-trust policy for such matters," Chu Kang said, putting his head down again and going back to sleep. If this boy wasn't the most miserable in the village, he would have scolded him a bit. But knowing how that gambler treated him, he didn't bother.

Xue Song was pissed as he sat down right there on the ground, going into a lotus position. If both his options were invalid, he would have to think out of the box. He began cultivating.

Cultivation is the art of harvesting the essence of life, qi, and manipulating, mutating, controlling, amplifying, or altering it according to your will. Not everyone can do it. Only those with innate talent by birth are able to even try. These are called cultivators.

This talent is also not equal among all. Some people have high-tier talent, others low-tier. Generally, it's ranked on a scale of 1-5. But with the right procedure or relics, one can improve their talent to some extent; similarly, injuries or damages during cultivation or battles can reduce one's talent significantly.

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Xue Song had 3rd-grade talent. Not too high, neither too low. In his previous life, he didn't know about his talents until he was 17. He only found out when he tried to commit suicide by eating the spiritual herbs that he grew like a slave.

Finding out whether you have cultivation talent or not is very expensive, and the chances are so low that most mortals don't bother. It's like winning a lottery ticket, but the tickets are three times your monthly wages.

The herbs he ate didn't kill him, giving him new hope at life, but to be honest, he was very late by then. His peers were already ahead of him, nor did he have anyone to guide him in this village. What ended up happening was that the old man sold him to a royal recruiter for a fortune.

Despite having talent, he couldn't do anything about it. Having talent is like being a seedling. The higher the grade, the better the quality of the seed. But the seed itself is useless without knowing how to cultivate it and turn it into a tree. Without understanding what kind of seed you are, you can't control what kind of tree you will become.

Hence, in his last life, he was exploited without gaining any autonomy or power. It took him five years to reach the first realm, the Element Realm.

But in this life, he wasn't that pathetic. He had years of gathered knowledge and experience. Breaking through his mortal realm was child's play for him.

He closed his eyes, visualizing his inner core. Gathering all traces of qi flowing through his channels towards the core in his abdomen.

A 3rd-grade talent doesn't have that much qi in his body. But using the right technique and persistence, along with certain qi supplements like pills or potions, the mortal realm can be broken through in six to eight months.

But Xue Song didn't have that much time. Sweat flowed from his forehead as he sat in the blazing sun. If they didn't leave within an hour, the sun would set, wasting his whole day.

He kept cultivating. His core was spinning slowly as qi flooded inside from numerous channels. It was getting bigger; life essence was being sucked from all parts of his body, making his body weak. If he lost consciousness, he would have to restart again. His stomach was empty; his energy was about to run out.

"Persevere. Focus. Don't lose qi while transferring."

Xue had lost all connections with the outside world. No sense of time, heat, or sound. Not even realizing that Chu Kang, had long lost all his sleepiness and was staring blankly at him, sweating buckets. How was this slave cultivating? Was this real? He could feel jolts of qi overflowing from his stomach area.

"Fuck, I messed up. Who knows what he will do to me once he finishes. Is today my last day?"

In the colony continents, cultivators are a protected class. If they kill you, even for entertainment, you can't object. And don't you dare say no to them for anything. That much was common knowledge for mortals—a basis of their life at the bottom of the well. In this huge dog-eat-dog world.

He quickly got up and started pretending as if he was guarding Xue Song from being disturbed, shooing birds away.

Soon, other carriage men also noticed him, their eyes wide and jaws dropped. This was the first time they were seeing someone cultivate.

"Hey Chu Kang, what the hell is happening? Isn't this the Gook's boy? He was a cultivator?"

"I don't know, it seems that way to me. If it's true, then that Gook will surely die a miserable death. Seeing how cruel he has been to this boy, just pray he spares us for not standing up for him."

"Not only us, the whole village was silent. If this guy breaks through, there will be carnage. Why not ask everyone to evacuate?"

"Idiot. How will we run from a cultivator? Even if we did, the king would send his army for crimes against the elite class."

They whispered quietly, scared but thrilled at the sight. Xue Song was emitting quite an aura now. He was almost there.

The carriage men and a few more villagers who came to know about this situation made a circle around him, ready to beg for mercy the moment he opened his eyes. Yet they made sure to stand about six meters away from him, should any accident occurred, they didn't want to be caught up in it.

An hour passed. Xue Song's inner core was overflowing with qi. He focused and fixed the cracks, making the tension rise inside. Slowly the core expanded. His whole body was hurting—a few more seconds.

"1, 2, 3," he counted. At the count of 9, his core burst open, spreading the newly cultivated elementary realm qi all over his body channels.

Soon his body began transforming. His sunken eyes raised up again. His muscles slowly gained mass. His hair grew by an inch. His height also increased by a few inches. He was looking much healthier now thanks to improved life essence.

Slowly he opened his eyes looking at the sky. His previously brown eyes, now lighter in colour.

He was no longer a mortal, becoming a cultivator. The elite of this world. A feat that took years in his previous life achived within an hour. Thanks to his rebirth

"Heh... I succeeded." He exclaimed.

Hence, once a Celestial Realm expert, Xue Song, once again reached the Elementary Realm.