Ding

"Did you hear that?" I asked a shocked Xie Wen.

She flinched "Ah- No, I didn't. What did you hear?" she shook her head and asked, "Is- it something bad?" Xie Wen started looking around, "I don't see any of the inner disciples anywhere..."

"No, don't worry about it," I replied.

She really shouldn't, because the ding that I heard didn't come from anywhere physical. Or at least I hope it didn't.

Quest Completed! - Put Gang Gong in his place.

That is what the box floating in front of me says and at this point, I'm not even surprised. Status. I thought.

User: Yu Song

Qi: 537/700

Realm: 7th Stage (Qi Gathering)

Techniques:

- Punch

- Run

- Throw

Quests:

*Reach Body Refinement Realm - (7/10)

*Put Gang Gong back in his place - (Completed! Rewards Ready!)

It looks fairly simple. I thought. So Techniques, how much Qi I have, and what kind of stage I am in. Pretty neat. Oh and I guess the reward System too?

At the thought of that, I looked around, Xie Wen is in front of me, staring at me like I'd grown a second head, Gang Gong is also there, lying on the ground while staring at the sky with wide eyes, fortunately, he was breathing so I didn't just murder someone. All around us were other outer disciples, some looking at me with apprehension and interest.

Yeah, this isn't exactly the perfect place to open a reward now is it?

I looked at Xie Wen, "Come on, let's go." she nodded and started following me. We were walking in silence but I got more and more curious as we continued and eventually, curiosity won out. "By the way, Xie Wen, what's up with you and Gang Gong?"

"I- uhm is it important?" she asked meekly while scratching her cheek, "I- I don't- is it important for you to know?"

"Pretty much," I nodded. I mean, it's not like the guy didn't say he took care of you before the original Yu Song, and guess what? You abandoned him for Yu Song and Yu Song fucking died.

So yes, it's pretty important.

Xie Wen hesitated for a bit then answered, "Fine," she sighed, "I used him." she admitted.

"And you're not using me?" I eyed her in the corner of my eye while keeping my gaze straight, "And not to be annoying or anything but Xie Wen, I got hit in the head because of you." Original Yu Song or not, it was this body that suffered. Who knows what kind of effects that hit in the head will have on me going forward?

"Sort of?" I turned back and Xie Wen winced, "I- I am using you yes but it's not like I don't like being with you."

I rolled my eyes, "Right," oh gee, how nice. She says that she didn't hate being with me! "You heard what the old guy said to me earlier though right?" I asked and Xie Wen nodded, "I can just leave you anytime,"

"What do you want me to do?" she asked. "Then..?" she added hesitantly.

"Nothing," I replied, "I don't want anything from you." and I was being honest too, I'm done with dealing with girls like her.

"Then... are you gonna leave me?" I turn to face her and shake my head. She sighed, "Thank you,"

"Sure," I replied, "but I still want to talk to you about something alright?" she nodded.

We got home after that and Xie Wen immediately started cultivating while I stared at her. She sat with her legs crossed while pressing both her hands on her knees, she breathed in and out, slowly, then quickly. Her chest heaved up and down, followed shortly by her thin body as it moved in tandem with her chest.

Xie Wen opened one eyelid- "Yu Song?" she asked.

"Nothing," I shook my head and went to my bed, there, I pressed the Talisman that I got on it and inserted a bit of Qi. And as I expected, it activated and a golden hue shone on the bed for a few seconds before it expanded to take over the entire house, "huh, it's larger than I thought." I mused before facing Xie Wen, she looked pale, "You okay?" I asked.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Yes," she replied while looking down.

"Good, then." I nodded, "you can go back to cultivating, I'm just gonna go take a shit,"

"Okay," after Xie Wen said that, I headed straight for the bathroom to open my rewards.

Reward Opened!

*Palm Strike - the ultimate technique.

*Minor Pills of Cultivation.

A yellow book and a bottle of pills suddenly appeared in my hand. Looking at them, they didn't feel that special and I strongly feel that way when it comes to the book. I grabbed the book about Palm Strike and moved it around to give it a better look, "it doesn't look that special," I whispered.

The book has no other design except for the title written at the front with white ink, opening it let me see the things written inside. All of the words are written in Chinese, which I can understand, no surprise there I guess. There are also drawings on the side of the pages, most of which are just caricatures doing palm strikes using different methods.

The book had 6 pages in total and skimming through all of it got me to feel a bit underwhelmed, "so much for the rewards..." I sulked and closed the book.

Then there's also the Minor Pills of Cultivation, they don't look that good and the name alone tells me how useful they're gonna be, "eh," I shrugged and popped the bottle, "every little bit helps I guess," I said before emptying the bottle of pills and swallowing them all.

"Is something supposed to happen?.." I asked out loud.

Just when I thought that the pills are useless, a rush of energy suddenly enveloped me and a headache started to form inside my head.

I sat down and positioned myself away from the place's toilet, then I sat cross legged and started cultivating inside the bathroom to manage the sudden burst of energy.

Watching Xie Wen cultivating made it look easy but actually doing it felt... Painful-

IT FEELS FUCKING PAINFUL.

I WANT TO SCREAM.

I internally yelled and started gritting my teeth. There isn't a single spot in my entire body that didn't hurt right now and it only got worse with every single second that passed. Eventually, I was able to circulate my Qi but I couldn't even do it well because it was my first time doing it, the powerful surge of energy danced around my body and surged through my meridians, ripping them apart before I forced them back to heal through circulation.

It felt so painful that I started to jokingly think that this is what it must feel like to get cooked as a coping mechanism,

I didn't know how long it took, seconds, maybe hours, but my Qi did calm down eventually.

Everything is a blur when I opened my eyes, my senses came back quickly after, and all I heard in my ears is ringing, my skin felt hot and wet, my throat felt dry, and my head feels like it's been hit by something hard. I raised my hand and grabbed my head, I winced, "Oww..."

I closed my eyes and started circulating my Qi again, then things started to calm down for a while and I was able to see well enough to take a look at myself- "Yeah, I expected this much," I muttered way too calmly while looking at my bloodied clothes. I glared at the empty bottle of pills that no doubt caused all of this to happen, "Minor Cultivation pills my ass."

My legs immediately gave up on me when I tried to stand up and I fell down to my knees. "Fuck." I said with a grunt.

Okay, so I can't stand up for now. I thought while grabbing the palm strike book, I lifted it up and started reading, Might as well try to see what's up with this thing.

Basic Palm Strike- Everything became white the moment that I read those words and I suddenly found myself in the middle of a modern dojo after I blinked. "Huh, this is one hell of a trip," I said while looking around.

Everything looked exactly like what you'd expect from a modern gym: Benches, weights, mats, treadmills, and even those pulley things that help with your hips. From the looks of it, the gym is built circularly with three corners blocked off by solid walls, the remaining end seems to be the front and entrance of the building I am on, with double glass doors and windows that showed a pure black void with stars all around it.

At the center of the Gym is a boxing ring and that's where I am, there's a mannequin standing in front of me, fully humanoid and positioned with its feet doing an L shape- the start of a stance.

"Okay, this isn't creepy at all," I murmured whilst looking around, I tried to walk over to the edge of the boxing ring to see if I could leave but there's an invisible wall surrounding it, "so what? I'm just stuck here now?" I asked the surroundings calmly.

And in response, I heard the sound of creaking and I turn my head to see the mannequin staring at me, its oval, featureless face somehow giving out the impression that it could see. "Alright, what the fuck?"

Thinking that I have nothing to lose, I walked over to the mannequin to see what it wants and as I took my step forward, the mannequin did the same before ducking low and shooting out an outstretched hand that ended in an open palm- "What?" I asked incredulously, "What the fuck are you trying to do?"

If it heard me, the mannequin didn't show any signs of it because it straightened its posture and repeated the same thing one more time. I stared at it with a raised eyebrow when it repeated the process.

"Do you want me to..." I trailed off while mimicking its movements and when I got it right, the mannequin nodded at me and for some reason, I felt happy about it. "Cool, cool!" I excitedly said.

Okay, so I have the ability to get books to teach me the techniques and apply them directly? That shit beats reading by an entire mile!

After that, the mannequin did another set of movements which I tried to copy, I did the second one well enough, and the third but the fourth one...

I bent my leg downward and took a step forward, then without losing momentum, I twisted back my arm before thrusting it with all my might- "Ha..." I looked at the mannequin's faceless expression, then frowned when I saw that it repeated the movement again.

Pursing my lips, I decided to just stare at how it does it and see if I can find what exactly I'm missing that I haven't moved on to the last step yet.

The mannequin moved, and I watched. It finished and a few seconds later, it repeated the process and I watched, it continued like this until I felt confident enough that I know what's wrong which if what I'm thinking is right, should be because I stiffen my body way too much.

"But it feels too much like a slap though..." I murmured while getting back into position.

I noticed that the mannequin's movement just kept going and didn't stop a single bit during the entire technique. Doing so allowed for flexibility and a harder hit.

I think.

I repeated the process for a few times because my body would just stiffen in the middle of my attempts and I'd fail. It took a while, but eventually, I managed to do it, "did I do good?" I asked the mannequin and in response, it repositioned itself differently, it spread its legs so far apart from each other that the resulting starting stance turned into a crouch.

I grinned and tried to follow the last technique of the book.

I watched the mannequin move its hand back, then it bent its legs and with seamless effort, it took a step forward that led into a jump and a moment later, the mannequin is 5 steps away from where it started. It thrust its hand forward and used all of the momentum it got from the leap, the result was a sudden shockwave of force that ruffled my clothes.

So it's using Qi this time? I thought in disappointment. Why didn't it teach me Qi techniques from the start?

I shrugged off the thoughts and stepped forward, "Alright, let's see..." I started circulating my Qi.

After two tries, I got the technique in order.