“This is Xiang Yang. This is as far as I can take you, since they don’t allow people to fly into the city. We’ll have to part ways here, but I hope you find your way in life. If I make any significant progress in my cultivation, I swear I will help you search for your friends.” The elder from the Clear Heart sect with the appearance of a young boy proudly declared.

“...Thank you.”

Elder Nong proceeded to descend right beside the gate, ignoring all the spectators in the line. At the wave of the hand, several guards rushed out toward him, bowing politely toward him.

“Sir cultivator, please let us escort you through.”

“No need, I’m just dropping this boy off.”

“Understood. Allow us to escort him, then.”

The elder nodded, and he floated back up to the skies on his wooden carriage. The soldiers quickly saluted him before they moved to surround Li Lang.

“Follow us.”

Li Lang nodded blankly and did as instructed. They moved right past the line, who were all gossiping amongst themselves while pointing at the strange big-headed child.

“Look, that’s him. The one that senior from the Clear Heart sect brought along.”

“What senior? He looked as old as my son to me.”

“What do you know, you old geezer? Experts can control their physical appearance somehow. He could be a hundred years old for all we know, as Foundation Establishment experts have a lifespan of five hundred years, after all!”

“Anyway, who do you think that child is? A child of that senior?”

“Probably not if he’s leaving him here alone. Look at the size of that head…Maybe he has a special physique.”

“Then the great senior would’ve taken him away to their sect already!”

Li Lang ignored the gossip from the crowd and continued his way through the thick walls into the city. He watched as the guards ushered several people in the middle of paying the toll, to move to the side as they passed by.

Luckily for him, the guards hadn’t asked him to pay the toll and welcomed him into their city.

“Child, was there somewhere you needed to go? I can take you there.” The leading guard asked as he waved his subordinates away.

“Umm, just anyplace where I can find lodging.”

He nodded and wordlessly resumed walking.

Li Lang had to pick up his pace to match the strides of the adult, but that wasn’t able to distract him from taking a look at the city around him.

It was a vibrant and lively place, with street stalls on both sides of the road, where large streams of people went about their lives. The vendors aggressively hawked their wares as they walked by, but none dared to stop them once they recognized the guard’s uniform.

It only took ten minutes before they arrived at their destination. It was a store with a wooden sign that depicted the sun and the moon. Once the guard gestured for Li Lang to go in, he swiftly took his leave.

As if taking over for the guard, a middle-aged woman stepped forward and loudly welcomed her latest guest.

“Welcome to the Azure Sky Inn. How may I help you, little fella?”

“I would like a room.”

“For how long, and would you like your meals included?”

“Do you have deals for long-term stays with meals included?” Li Lang asked as he counted the coins in the purse he had received from the late Elder Chen.

He found several gold coins and a plethora of silver and bronze coins. As he had lived in this world for ten years, albeit with some mental deficiencies throughout most of it, it wasn’t hard for Li Lang to know the great amount of money he had received. He had heard all cultivators were rich, and he currently couldn’t agree more.

“We charge thirty silver coins for an entire month with two meals each day included for a standard room.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Yes, I’ll take that, then.”

Li Lang quickly received the key once he paid and headed up to his accommodations. While he thought it was weird that no one found it strange for a child like him to be alone, he was grateful he didn’t have to go through the awkward conversation as well.

Maybe it isn’t a rare sight in this world…How cruel.

Once he got into his room, he swiftly locked it behind him and jumped onto the wooden bed. With him finally alone, he didn’t waste any time and took out the thing he had kept hidden until now.

He gripped the red stone tightly in his hand and brought it up to his head.

“Master, your analysis on the auto-analyzer is complete! Would you like to enter into my artifact space now?”

“Yes, I’ve waited long enough!”

Li Lang blinked and instantly found himself inside his old lab once again. The auto-analyzer was right in front of him, and he quickly used the touch screen to bring up the analysis report. Various details were displayed, allowing Li Lang to view the makeup of the tree branch he had put into the analyzer.

“This tree…I’ve never seen anything like it before, but it is also remarkably normal at the same time…Why does it say the anomaly here can’t be analyzed?”

“Master, that is information pertaining to the Qi of the specimen. You can only analyze Qi of things that are at your level or weaker, which means you currently cannot analyze any Qi-related materials at all.”

“I see…Well, what I got already sufficed for initial testing. Let’s try out the various plants I gathered now.” Li Lang threw a random plant from the pile beside the analyzer, and a timer appeared on the screen.

“...Over twelve hours. Is there any way to speed this up?”

“I’m sorry, master. This is the best I can do until you cultivate and become stronger.”

Well, it isn’t that bad to wait a day. Research is supposed to take a long time after all. The important thing is its accuracy…

“I don’t suppose there are research papers in this world I can learn from, is there?”

“I don’t know, master…but I don’t believe so. I don’t think your so-called ‘science’ even exists in this world.”

Forget it. I’ll do it myself. The materials and everything may be different in this world, but I can still learn about everything using the scientific method just the same. Observe, hypothesize, experiment, analyze, then conclude.

By studying it systemically, I’m sure it’ll help me in figuring out cultivation one way or another.

With nothing left to do inside the artifact space, Li Lang returned to reality. He now had shelter and money. There was nothing left hindering him from beginning his search for either someone to save his childhood friends or cultivate himself.

However, seeing how the guards reacted to Elder Nong, he doubted he would find anyone strong enough to help in this city.

That meant Li Lang’s next step was cultivation. He began reviewing what he learned from Elder Nong’s lessons during their journey.

The stronger I get, the easier it is for me to come into contact with stronger cultivators.

He quickly got into the lotus position and‌ closed his eyes. He sat there and breathed in deeply for several minutes, but to no avail.

Realizing it wasn’t working, he delved into his memories as he tried to remember the sensation Elder Nong had kindly shown him.

“Can you feel it, Li Lang? I am channeling a sliver of Qi into you through your spiritual roots.” The elder had said back when they were still on the way to Xiang Yang while placing a hand on his shoulder. “Do not forget this feeling. The first step of cultivation starts with absorbing Qi into your body and becoming a vessel for it.”

“Yes…The feeling is very strange.”

“You will get used to it with time. Now that you know what Qi feels like, try to absorb the ambient Qi around us.”

The strange sensation quickly subsided, as he felt it drain out to the source it came from, the hand on his shoulder. With the feeling still lingering in his mind, he began taking deep breaths in search of that sensation.

“There is no need to breathe so deeply. Have a clear image of taking in the Qi, and it will naturally flow. The image you have of how you absorb the Qi is the basis of cultivation methods. While I cannot teach you our sect’s methods, you can try using the simplest method of sucking in the Qi through your mouth.”

Li Lang slowed his breathing at the advice, sucking in the surrounding Qi. To his surprise, the method worked, and he began to feel a trickle of that strange sensation entering his body from five different points. However, it was so very slow.

“Good, now will the Qi to gouge out a space to hold it within your body. It will empower you as long as you let it be a part of you. Some prefer to think of it as melding with the Qi. Either way, the end goal is for your body to become a container. Do not be mistaken, it will hurt, and a lot, too. But you will need to be able to bear the unique pain you will feel if you want to cultivate. Just be sure to stop immediately if you feel any sharp pain or you will hurt yourself.”

He swiftly directed the Qi to his finger and tried to dig out an area for the Qi to stay. He felt like he was trying to hollow out his finger to become a container for the gaseous substance that was Qi, and a dull pain permeated throughout his being and intensified quickly. The Qi dug into his flesh and only became more painful the more force he tried to apply.

He could feel sweat dripping from his brow as his body heated up, but he held on. Li Lang continued his first cultivation session for over three hours before he was forced to stop.

As foretold, he eventually felt a sharp pain run its course throughout his entire body.

“You have reached your limit, I see. You can’t get too greedy with your low aptitude. The reason why aptitude is so important is that it dictates how much Qi you can tolerate each cultivation session. You said you only had five spiritual roots, so you will have to take your time. Once you reach your limit, if you continue and ignore the sharp pain, it will start damaging your spiritual roots and could even lead to death.”

“...Is there no way around it?”

Hearing the question, the elder sighed as he looked up into the sky.