Spencer looked on at the line in his head without blinking his eyes, not literally of course. He didn’t know if one could blink mentally.
Is this what I am thinking it is?
Affinities were extremely helpful in the world of cultivation. There were a multitude of techniques and skills one could learn. And all of that depended on affinities. Well, not all, but the majority.
A person who had an affinity with water elements would be able to output higher damage when using water related techniques and spells.
Techniques were mainly auxiliary arts which focused on the body. Techniques were anything which worked on or for the body. The speed increasing art which worked by strengthening your legs through specific movement of qi would be called a technique.
Skills on the other hand were auxiliary arts which focused on the outside. It mainly developed along the lines of spells and qi control. An art which allowed the user to make and control fire would be categorized under spell.
Skills and techniques were both extremely crucial in one’s journey of cultivation.
Affinities to elements or even any particular aspect of cultivation was inborn and could rarely be improved by any treasure. Any such treasure which managed to make its way into the market had always been sold at a price which went to the roof.
Spencer might not know much but he sure knew about the amazing effects of affinity. He didn’t know if the miniscule +1 affinity would even contribute to anything but it wouldn’t be a problem even if it didn’t. He could always grind and keep increasing them.
On the other hand, this ‘Sapling’ part didn’t change. Does that mean I’ll have to keep investing wealth points to grow this plant? The final stage should Ancient Tree according to the message, I don’t know how far that is,
Spencer checked his pouch and belongings once again just to be sure.
Yep, my money is really not disappearing.
He then took a deep breath and clicked on the ‘plus’ three times. Since he had already done it, he wanted to see what would happen if he saw through it till the end.
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
He took a look at the pop ups to see that nothing had changed. The increase wasn’t based on chance, nor did random affinities get upgraded every time. It was a consistent upgrade with no change.
It probably depends on the seed itself. The affinities it is increasing does seem to have resemblance with its name. Eternal starwood huh, I wonder where Selena’s family got it from.
[Wealth: 790]
He took a look at the value of wealth and began clicking on the plus sign once again.
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
[Time element affinity +1, Star element affinity +1]
Suddenly, he saw a change in information after 6 more times. His wealth had dropped to 190 points.
Doesn’t that mean the change takes place after ten times? After 1000 wealth points were invested?
Information panel once again materialized in his head after a few seconds.
[Name: Spencer Lowell]
[Age: 21]
[Cultivation level: N/A]
[Wealth: 190]
[Flora bound: 1]
^ [Slot 1]
[Young tree name: Eternal Starwood]
[Stage 2: Young tree+]
[Vitality liquid: 10ml for 10000]
^ [Slot 2]
[Empty]
[Notifications: 2]
It went up by a stage again.
So 10 wealth points to go from 0 to 1, then 1000 to go from 1 to 2.
I started earning affinity points at level 1, and it seems I can exchange for vitality liquid at level 2. Will I still continue getting affinity points? Also how fucking expensive is that liquid, I won’t be able to afford it even if I sell myself.
Instead of looking at the notification, he tapped on the plus sign once again. This time another pop up sprung up in front of the information panel.
[Insufficient Wealth. Please increase your Wealth points before trying again.]
So from 10 per ‘plus’ to 100 per ‘plus’, is it 1000 for every time I want to upgrade the tree now? This slope is fucking steep, I am already poor.
For the rest of the stuff, a lot of what he was seeing was pretty self explanatory, but he clicked on the notification anyway, not like it cost him.
[Congratulations! Your Eternal Starwood has upgraded to Young tree, and unlocked Vitality liquid. Please keep up the good work.]
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
This one wasn’t important.
[Focus on the name of the flora to take a look at its image. Please keep in mind the flora’s health while exchanging for Vitality liquid.]
Hmm?
Spencer did as the notification suggested, and an image of a tree appeared in his mind.
It would be an understatement to say it was divine and beautiful.
The tree looked young, but tall. Spencer couldn’t get an accurate estimate of the tree’s dimensions in his mind. It had slender, silver branches glistening faintly. The bark, similarly silver and etched with intricate blue patterns faintly resembled the constellations. Every once in a while, the patterns seemed to pulse softly, as if it was trying to sync with the rhythm of the cosmos.
Its leaves were a deep, midnight blue, with edges that shimmered like stars. Spencer noticed them subtly waving about themselves even if there was no wind in his mind. At the base, roots of dark purple color spread out in the open, forming a network even if there wasn’t any soil to work with.
Wow!
An exclamation of pure amazement escaped his mouth as he looked at the young tree.
What did it mean by keeping in mind the tree’s health while exchanging for Vitality liquid? The system told me to look at the image, so does that mean if I exchange a lot of Vitality liquid, at some point the tree’s health will worsen? So there’s some cooldown to Vitality liquid exchange I guess.
Unfortunately he didn’t have money to start experimenting, at the moment he was dirt poor. He suddenly remembered the information he had left out.
[Slot 2]
[Empty]
Does that mean I can bind another seed?
Spencer looked at the two seeds he had bought from the market.
Any seed should work, it did after all say that it could detect 3 seeds for binding, so these 2 should be eligible too.
After a minute of thought though, Spencer shook his head and kept the seeds aside. If anything, he would look for rarer seeds first. What if he got no attribute upon upgrading? Or something like wood?
I mean, wood isn’t bad either. Affinity in any element would help me but it would be better if it’s something rare.
Spencer let out a long sigh as he removed all the thoughts from his head. He was finally done experimenting on the System, at least at far as he could.
Now that he knew the System worked on wealth, it was time to earn some money.
Spencer took out his clothes from the paper bag. There were two sets of underwear, t-shirts, pants and a white armband.
He donned the armband, and kept aside the clothes, before looking at the cultivation manual and the book of rules and regulations.
I’ll read it later.
Spencer kept aside the book of rules and regulations and finally looked at the cultivation manual. It was barely a few pages, on the first one there was a human body depicted with a dense amount of criss crossing lines. It was a picture of meridians and their accurate placement.
He flipped the page and began reading the theory which occupied the rest of the manual.
Cultivation began by meditating upon the path mentioned in the basic cultivation manual. This path was a basic cultivation scripture. All the outer disciples were given this scripture upon entry, if one wanted a better scripture then they would have to work hard for it. The better the scripture the faster you can absorb the qi and refine it.
Without energy it would be difficult to visualize a path, but that was the main hurdle. One had to do it purely through meditation, and focus intensely on imagining the path mentioned in the cultivation scripture inside your own body.
If your imagination of the route, the path through the body was correct then qi would start gathering in the dantian located in your body after a period of time. Once it gathers to a specific extent, the individual would have to try and control this qi and force it to move through the path previously imagined. Except this time, the energy, qi, would be traveling through the path, so you couldn’t mistake this path.
If the qi moved in an incorrect path, it would result in grievous injuries of the body. This phenomenon was known as cultivation deviation.
Once the qi completed a full circuit, small amounts of refined qi would form in the dantian, staying alongside the normal qi.
This refined qi was used to refine the meridians of the entire body. And it was also what the first stage of cultivation, Qi gathering stage consisted of. Qi gathering stage 1 to 3 included refining the meridians in legs and arms, torso for 4 to 6 and the head for 7 to 9.
Further information about higher stages wasn't included in the cultivation manual. One would have to work hard to gain access to information about higher stages.
It took Spencer an hour to go through the locations of meridians described in the book, then start practicing the cultivation path mentioned in the manual.
It was difficult at first, as he couldn't even imagine a part of the path, let alone the complete one. It was much more difficult than it was mentioned in the book as he had to get the meridians correct.
If a meridian was located in the leg, you couldn't simply imagine a tube in your leg. You had to imagine the thin vessel accurately, relative to its position in the human body, or you ran the risk of imagining the wrong meridian.
When you didn't even have energy, how would you verify if you were imagining the correct meridian? Well, your imagination of the said meridian would take on a golden hue once you imagined the correct one according to the scripture.
It was magical, and one of the wonders of cultivation. You might ask, if the indication for a correct meridian was so visible, how do people still experience cultivation deviation? It was because a person wasn't always in the right state of mind. It was always possible that he mistakenly ran his qi through a different meridian while being absentminded or consumed by his emotions.
It was another hour before his imagination of the first meridian finally turned golden. Feeling of exhilaration filled his mind as he relaxed and laid back on the floor.
The human body consisted of 12 main meridians, 8 minor meridians and many collateral ones. It was the main and minor, 20 meridians that one had to be careful of when controlling your qi, as deviation in those parts might result in extremely severe injuries, resulting in being crippled or even death. Deviation in collateral meridians was less severe and easier to fix.
Spencer sat up, crossed his legs and began his second round of imagination. Perhaps due to earlier experience, he was able to get 2 more meridians correct in 30 mins, then 5 more in the next 30 minutes.
“AaaUaaOoohh~”
Spencer dramatically yawned as he finished imagining 8 meridians. There were a lot left but he knew his speed would only increase as time passed by. He was getting a hang of it, but there was only so much a person who had come from Earth could keep doing without getting distracted.
No. I need to persevere. It’s all for her. Is this how I’ll make it? By taking a break because I simply ‘didn’t feel like it’? Grit Grit Grit. I’ll keep going on.
Spencer closed his eyes and went back to the task. He couldn’t afford to take breaks because he didn’t have the mind to work. Every great person reached their level because they didn’t consider their feelings when working hard for the thing they were working on. It was simply doing it. Every day.
The next four hours, the newbie persevered with imagining the meridians. Only when his stomach began rumbling did he stop. Intense hunger gnawed at his insides but ironically he had a satisfied smile on his face. He had imagined 90% of the path already. He would have gone through with it had his hunger not started making things extremely difficult for him.
He got up, intending to take a look around the Sect, then head towards the restaurant. He was told that he would be formally introduced to the outer sect disciples after the dinner in the Announcement hall. New disciples definitely didn’t get this treatment, but as mentioned countless times by now, talents were rare.
Every new talent could turn out to be a heaven defying talent or a normal talent depending on the chances, so no sect would treat them as ordinary outer sect disciples upon their joining. In big sects like the Boundless Sky sect, talents had to start from outer sect disciples, whereas in some smaller sects they directly began from inner sect disciples or even personal disciples.
He left his cave after wearing his shoes and locked the door behind his back. Of course, it wasn’t secure since he didn’t have his identity token yet. He was told that it wasn’t yet ready, and he would have to check back at the Administration hall the next day. Once he got his identity token, the door could only be opened by him alone.
For that reason, he took the cultivation manual, the pouch which contained his gifted spirit stones and the restaurant coupons. Everything else he was alright with getting stolen.
Just a few minutes of walking outside and he witnessed an increasing number of people running in a direction. Before he could even stop one, a female outer disciple bumped into him. Without thinking much, she hastily urged.
“Why are you walking so slow? Are you a newcomer here? Senior disciple Atlas once again provoked an inner sect disciple, they are fighting in the battle ring, hurry up.”