Now then, how should I proceed with studying spiritual roots?

Li Lang dove into his old memories of the few cultivation novels he had read. He normally only read the beginning parts and the ending, skimming for sections to do with immortality. Many of them never went into detail about how, except to absorb energy, but cultivation often had something to do with the meridians.

So far, he hadn’t heard anyone mentioning meridians, but he believed spiritual roots to be in the same line of thought.

The issue is that the human body does not have such a thing…Unless the people in this world are different.

He booted up his terminal and retrieved the old reports he had compiled back when he first experimented on Qi overdose. He had recorded every single participant’s cultivation rank and number of spiritual roots back then, which has now come in handy.

From that information, he concluded that people with grade one aptitude had up to seventeen spiritual roots, and all those who had eighteen or more were grade two. Long Yi with grade three aptitude had forty-one roots. He even remembered his childhood friends had over eighty spiritual roots back during the Clear Heart Sect’s entrance exams.

From what he had seen, the number of spiritual roots was directly correlated with aptitude.

While he gleaned a lot from this information, it didn’t help to verify what type of existence spiritual roots were. So far, he believed it filtered out the toxins in Qi, but he didn’t know if it was something physical in the body or something intangible.

It didn’t take long for Li Lang’s mind to wander off in brewing up ways to secure the remains of a body for study. He believed it could be worth it, despite the risk of being mistaken as a dangerous person or a grave robber.

His urges only grew stronger when Ruby suddenly notified him that the auto-analyzer was finished with the blank talisman paper. He read over the report, which consisted of the material makeup of the paper and the Qi signature of the talisman. There was nothing special that caught his attention.

“Hmm, like I had suspected. The function of a talisman all lies in the Qi aspect, or in this case, the runes I’ve started to learn about.”

“Master, should I proceed with putting the inkstones into the auto-analyzer now, or did you have something else in mind?” the child-like voice innocently asked.

“No, go ahead as planned. No point in wasting any time.”

Li Lang moved over toward the large machine encased in glass to see the inkstone enter the mouth of the auto-analyzer. He stayed until the estimated amount of time appeared on the screen, showing a measly three hours. The catch was that it wasn’t able to analyze the Qi aspect of it.

“Master, the inkstones contain small traces of Qi from someone in a higher realm than you. None of its Qi properties or signature can be analyzed.”

“That is fine. I’ll get another sample at my level soon enough. Go ahead and analyze it anyway.”

“Right!”

Seeing there was nothing else that needed his attention, Li Lang exited from the artifact space. He opened his eyes and found his two companions already dead asleep.

However, he wasn’t tired and was brimming with curiosity. If any of his old coworkers were here, they would not be surprised at all, especially if they knew Li Lang had embarked on a new research project.

Under the sound of Long Yi’s snoring, Li Lang carefully made his way out of the room, careful not to cause the wooden floorboards to creak.

He passed by the quiet lobby only to make eye contact with a young man sitting in the innkeeper’s seat. He politely nodded his way before exiting the inn.

There were still a few pedestrians even during the late hours past midnight on the streets of Emberglow, but many of them were wearing a full-body cloak to hide their figures. A certain part of town stood out with its bright lights that could be seen in the distance, but Li Lang didn’t bother dwelling on it. He knew it was the red-light district, and it had nothing to do with his objective tonight.

During his time in Emberglow, he had heard many things from Wei Ping’s daily reports. The masked boy enjoyed talking and learning from the people around him, and he wouldn’t fail to do so every day.

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That was why Li Lang knew exactly where to go.

He soon found himself on the edge of the underground city, towards an area that had a dark path slanted downward. The path was not short, and it took Li Lang a whole half an hour before he arrived in a mini expansive zone. However, this expansive zone wasn’t one with a wild ecological system, but had obvious manmade structures.

Proper roads were well-maintained with lines of tombstones filling the area. From what Wei Ping had learned, only the relatively wealthy could afford a grave in this place. The poor simply cremated remains or left them out in the wild. It couldn’t be helped, as the underground real estate was limited and difficult to expand.

Li Lang scanned the area before heading in. He confirmed no one was present before he ventured even further inside. The area swiftly changed from that of well-maintained to that of rough terrain. He soon spotted a small building next to several large furnaces.

He didn’t hesitate to head into buildings that didn’t even have doors, allowing him to stride unhindered into the morgue. Instantly, he found several cheap coffins lying around. Some were opened and empty, and some were closed.

From what he had heard, this was the place where unidentified bodies were kept. If no one claimed them after a month, they would be cremated.

Rather than approaching someone to inquire if he could buy a body, he chose to take a few bodies in secret instead. It was because he determined Ruby’s ability to take in objects would aid him greatly. Without having to carry the body around, it became exponentially more difficult to catch him.

Li Lang didn’t waste any time and opened up a coffin with his augmented strength of a fourth-stage Energy Gatherer.

Hmm…I should only take one or two, lest someone notices.

----------------------------------------

The next morning, Wei Ping and Long Yi woke up to find their companion sitting by the desk with his head in his hands.

“Li Lang, what are you doing, sleeping in the chair? Your bed is only two steps away!”

No answer came, so Long Yi jumped out of bed and shook Li Lang’s shoulders.

“Hey, Li Lang! If you’re still tired, go sleep in your bed.”

It was only then that Li Lang opened his eyes, but his mood wasn’t the best. He was in the middle of analyzing the latest results he got from his auto-analyzer, but Ruby’s incessant yelling about his friends had broken his concentration. He couldn’t even get mad at Ruby. It was Long Yi’s actions that prompted Ruby to interrupt his time.

That was why he glared at the towering boy with unkind eyes.

“Leave me be. I can take care of myself.”

“...Okay,” Long Yi recoiled back.

“B-boss, Long Yi was j-just worried about you. It’s n-not comfortable to sleep in a chair.”

“Okay, okay. Thank you for your consideration, but for today we can operate separately. You all have your own thing to do anyway.”

Li Lang then dove into his bed and wrapped a blanket around his entire body. He slept with one hand grasping Ruby next to his temple and returned into the artifact space.

Wei Ping and Long Yi shared a look before they both shook their heads. They got up and ran through their morning routine, no longer bothering Li Lang.

While they were eating and cultivating, Li Lang resumed going over the new report. He couldn’t precisely grasp what level of cultivation the deceased had in life, but found the body had died due to a wound in the torso. He believed a Qi beast had done him in, and didn’t bother investigating further.

His objective was to discover clues about the mysterious spiritual roots. From the report, he found the human body wasn’t any different from what he was familiar with, which meant no signs of these roots or meridians could be found.

Hmm, if it’s not a physical thing, maybe it is a Qi construct? But then, I don’t have a proper way to study it. The auto-analyzer only gives me the Qi signature, and I don’t have anything that can observe internal Qi.

Li Lang spent the rest of the morning brainstorming various ways to go about his next step. He concluded that he needed more information, so he added a trip to the Bloodwave Conclave’s bazaar on his agenda to find some related texts.

When he finally exited the space and ‘woke up’, he found Wei Ping and Long Yi missing. He rushed to complete his morning routine before heading out toward his new mentor as well.

It was almost noon by the time he arrived at the house belonging to his Brushweaving teacher, Yi Lin. Li Lang had thought he was already late, but when his mentor opened the door, he found a man with a head full of bed hair, wearing a sleepy look.

“Good morning…You’re early, Li Lang.”

“...Should I be coming later? It’s almost noon.”

“Hm…that’s why.” Yi Lin lazily rubbed his eyes. “Yeah. I usually don’t wake up until noon. But since you’re already here, come on in. Did you eat yet?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then feel free to read the texts up in my study. I have written a bunch of notes ever since I started Brushweaving, so there should be some beginner-level texts somewhere. I’ll go make something to eat and I’ll be there with you.”

The young mentor quickly disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Li Lang to his own devices. As he was instructed, he climbed up to the second floor and arrived in the messiest room of the entire house. Somehow, after one night, his mentor had messed the place up even more compared to yesterday.

However, the bookshelves in the corner were at least spared from the chaos. Books were properly lined up on the shelves and Li Lang simply had to climb through the mess of a room to reach it. He found an entire shelf dedicated to his mentor’s research notes, which were ordered chronologically. He picked up the oldest texts and began diving into his mentor’s former insights.

He only made it past the first sentence before he grimaced.

How in the world can someone in a profession that involves holding a brush all the time have such bad handwriting?! I can’t read this!