The hall was gradually plunged into silence as Spencer walked up to the stage. The two new talents they had been notified about had arrived, everyone’s attention was focused on the three people on the podium.
The middle aged man had gray hair, an average square face and a physique which suited the Announcement hall, big. Over his bulging muscles was a long robe, draped casually without being tied at the waist. One could see his bare chest, shorts underneath. The petite young lady was wearing a purple cheongsam, with her long black hair tied up in a bun. She was shifting a bit periodically, apparently still nervous about joining the cultivation world.
“Newbies, I am Elder Sky, the one who presides over this Announcement hall. Sorry for my informal appearance, a certain madman in this sect randomly challenged me to a battle and attacked me before I could even deny. I don’t know what he was doing here instead of in the demon world.”
Is he talking about Lord Lysander? That Elder seems to be a really famous troublemaker. Spencer thought. Somehow, he found the idea of being a troublemaker to be extremely attractive. But he continued listening to the Elder nonetheless, the man was far less scary than he actually gave off the vibe of.
“Nonetheless, I’ll introduce you both to the people here.” His voice increased by a notch as anyone who might have engaged in idle chatter ceased and looked over.
“On my right is Noella Smith. She was scouted by Grand Elder Lyra and has already manifested her talent. It’s not up to me to share information about her talent with you. You can find it yourself from her, or from other sources if you’re capable.
“On my left is Spencer Lowell. He was scouted by that rabid dog and we don’t know about his talent yet. You all are free to socialize with the newbies, or go back to doing your things.
And oh yea, here are the 10 spirit stones. Every talent who enters the sect gets these.”
Elder Sky left the podium and entered his personal room through one of the many big doors in the Announcement hall. It honestly wasn’t such a big issue, especially in a sect as big and strong as Boundless Sky. But these were all the people who had been picked up from Earth, it would give them a better way to mingle with the sect through this method. They weren’t like the people who’ve been born and brought up in this world, taught about sects and socialized with similar people from their childhood.
Spencer thought it would be something more formal and tedious but the process turned out to be surprisingly short.
Is this the cultivation world? Short and practical?
But it was in a way, good for him. Because he fully intended to return to his cave and get on with the cultivation. But he looked at the 10 spirit stones in his hand and thought
Did I underestimate the value of spirit stones? Maybe I took it for granted when Lord Lysander gave me 1000. I should take a good look at the market and Mission hall later to get a good grasp of the vale of spirit stones.
He had just descended from the central podium when a couple of people approached him. From their way of walking, and speaking with each other, it seemed like they were in a group.
“Hello. I am Kevin, and these are my group mates.”
A young man among them extended his hand. He had short vibrant green hair, a healthy build and wore formals. His smile greatly weirded out Spencer.
He nevertheless shook his hand, it wouldn’t do him any good to cross anyone this early in his journey of cultivation.
“You can call us the protection squad. We work for the betterment of the newbies.” Kevin began, while the rest of his group mates spread out subtly.
“For example, our members get to access information which they would otherwise have to look for senior members of the sect to know. It can help you avoid a lot of trouble, since I am talking about things which aren’t mentioned in the book of rules and regulations either.”
He gestured towards the room where Elder Sky retreated into and added. “For example, the Elder Sky. He is the only one apart from the Sect Master who can call Lord Lysander that word.”
Spencer instantly knew what word Kevin was talking about. Rabid dog.
“If anyone else calls Lord Lysander that word, they are sure to get a visit from the guy himself for a battle, which usually doesn’t end up with light injuries. Lord Lysander is well known for chasing after battles, he simply needs a reason to initiate one.
“You might be wondering why exclude those two? It’s because the Sect Master is his elder brother. Lots of people know this information, but very few know about Elder Sky. They both grew up together, almost like blood brothers despite not being one.
“You know? Lord Lysander and Elder Sky are the youngest of all Elders of the sect, almost as if they are of a generation after them. Yes, despite being a blood brother of the Sect Master, the age gap between them is huge. This is also why Lord Lysander is close with Elder Sky, who grew up together with him.
“Now do you understand? If you saw Elder Sky and thought everyone calls Lord Lysander that, you would have had a rough time if you imitated him.”
Spencer got to know more about the sect, so he was grateful to the man. He nodded, and asked with curiosity.
“But why are you telling me this? I haven’t agreed to join your group yet.”
“No worries, that was just one of the most basic pieces of information we offer to every prospective member. Our primary job is to protect newbies, as you can infer from our name. But how you might ask? We protect their cave.
“If you’ve read about the rules you should know you are only safe in your cave for the starting month. After that, you’re eligible to get challenged. If you lose, the cave will no longer be yours, and if you win, you only get a rest of three days before getting challenged again.
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“Our protection squad has enough reputation to deter people from not attacking the cave of one of our members’. You’ll be able to live without worries. So would you like to join?”
Spencer knew there was no such thing as a free meal. “What’s the catch?”
Kevin’s smile only got brighter. “Only 50 spirit stones.”
No way! That’s more than enough to eat for a month even if I use food pills. Fuck not crossing people. They crossed me first, I’ll never be able to advance if I keep retreating.
Spencer immediately shook his head. “Sorry.” Just as he was about to leave, Kevin’s smile turned into a frown, flipping as if there was a switch.
“Are you sure about refusing? If we can protect you, we can also ensure you’ll never get to live in the cave.”
Spencer’s steps faltered but he steadied himself before sneering. “Some newbie protection squad you are.” He hadn’t come here to get suppressed, not when he had a cheat which boosted his affinity at stage 1 itself. If he was so easily suppressed then an orphan like him wouldn’t have been able to make a living on Earth. Gangs and such wouldn’t even have been the worst of places he might have ended up in.
A person beside Kevin reminded him. “Why don’t we go Noella?”
The man shook his head. “Grand Elder Lyra is known to be overprotective, let’s not touch anything even barely related to her. We only went after the newbie before Lord Lysander doesn’t care about minor stuff like this. Keep an eye on him, teach him some rules of the cultivation world as soon as a month is over.”
Spencer reached his cave and got to cultivating as soon as he removed his shoes. A day hadn’t even ended and he got a rude awakening to what kind of world this was. He was openly threatened but no one batted an eye.
Polite my ass. They were just quiet because of Elder Sky’s prestige. No one’s going to respect you without power.
Spencer emptied his head of the distracting thoughts and got back to imagining the route in his mind. It took him about an hour to imagine the rest of the route.
As soon as he was done, a mysterious feeling enveloped Spencer. His consciousness was immediately attracted to the mote of light shimmering within his abdomen. An extremely faint film enveloped that mote of light.
Is that qi inside my dantian?
His attention was abruptly broken as soon as he was done looking at the dantian.
Spencer remembered about his system, the information where it said his cultivation was N/A.
I should be Qi gathering stage 1 now right?
Information panel materialized in his head once again.
[Name: Spencer Lowell]
[Age: 21]
[Cultivation level: Qi gathering]
^ [Meridians refined: 0+]
[Wealth: 200]
[Flora bound: 1]
[Notifications: 0]
Elder Sky had given him 10, bringing his wealth to 200.
When his sight fell on the ‘plus’ sign beside meridians, his heartbeat shot up as all thoughts ceased to exist for a moment.
Fuck! Is this what I think it is?
Spencer had reasons to be so shocked, if it was true then that meant he could simply accelerate his cultivation with wealth.
I shouldn’t get too happy, the system didn’t help me with imagining after all.
It was true. It was entirely possible that the system couldn’t accelerate his cultivation all the way through, as it proved to be of no help during imagining the route which was also a part of cultivation journey.
There were a total of 20 significant meridians, consisting of 12 main and 8 minor, and 100 small meridians. In total, all 120 meridians had to be refined in the Qi gathering stage.
With curiosity, he tapped on the ‘plus’ sign behind meridians.
One moment, he was sitting cross legged, the next moment he was not.
“Arghhhhh.”
Intense pain registered in his brain as a sudden, searing pain exploded in his leg, as if a white-hot blade had cut apart something. Every movement sent fresh waves of agony coursing through him, radiating from his thigh down to his ankle, where it throbbed with relentless intensity. The pain was so intense that it threatened to overwhelm his senses. He gritted his teeth, his breath coming in ragged gasps, each one a struggle.
It lasted only a moment, but it felt like an eternity to Spencer. Without caring about anything else, he got up and looked at the part of the information panel he cared about.
[Cultivation level: Qi gathering]
^ [Meridians refined: 1+]
[Wealth: 190]
So it’s 10 wealth points, or spirit stones per meridian? That’ll take 1200 wealth points to completely refine all my meridians. Not to mention if I even want to put myself through the torture.
Spencer didn’t know how long it normally took to refine a meridian, and how much spirit stones it consumed. So he had no idea how efficient the system was. To test it out, he held a few spirit stones in his hand and began refining one of the meridians in his leg.
His consciousness focused on a single thing, controlling the minute amount of qi to travel through the route of basic cultivation scripture. It was a painfully slow and arduous process, he could understand now how many people deviated from the course while controlling their qi.
When one full circuit was completed, the qi which completed the course was converted into refined qi and the amount of normal qi in the dantian increased. Going according to the manual, Spencer took the refined qi and once again followed through the course of basic cultivation scripture.
When he was done completing the circuit with the refined qi, the normal qi in his dantian once again increased but the refined qi disappeared. Simultaneously, a warm feeling emerged in a certain part of his leg. Spencer could feel that the meridian where the refined qi was consumed wasn’t fully refined yet. It would need more circulations to refine the meridian fully.
At one point of time, Spencer opened his eyes due to the intense hunger which hit him.
Did so much time pass already? If the food pill works as a full meal then it should last at least 4 hours, and I wouldn’t be this hungry even if 4 hours passed. Good thing I just finished refining the meridian, it took longer than I thought, and it was extremely pleasant, nothing painful about the process.
When Spencer looked up at the clock in his room, which he had discovered later, thankful that the room wasn’t exactly empty, he found out that almost 6 hours had passed. Then he looked at his hand, where three spirit stones had been turned into dust, with a fourth one losing its luster.
So with the system I spent just a moment and 10 spirit stones to get a meridian refined, and lots of pain. While through the traditional method it took almost 6 hours, 3 and a half spirit stones, and a pleasant experience.
Spencer knew what he would be choosing.