Even after a day’s rest, Mingwei’s core was still relatively damaged, and at the rate he was gathering Qi, it would take another week before his core was back to 100. 

Qi Storage

43/100 

Core Endurance

30/100

“Your core’s still damaged, eh?” Yu Huadao noticed that Mingwei was still cultivating, and asked. 

“Yeah.” Mingwei nodded. The core healed as fast as his cultivation. 

“Why didn’t you take a pill?”

“I don’t have pills.” Mingwei said frankly.

Huadao rolled his eyes. “Why not, they’re dirt cheap?”

“I... didn’t buy them.”

“Want a pill?” Yu Huadao offered.

“Huh?”

“It helps to repair your core.” Yu Huadao took out a pouch, and passed him one small brown pill. There were a lot of other pills in the pouch. “These are Lesser Healing Pills. Even 1-star cultivators like us can take it.”

He looked at the pill. “How much does this cost again?” 

“I bought it for 120 silver, each. I had to work a bit, but yes.” 

Mingwei examined the Lesser Healing Pills. Yu Huadao just rolled his eyes again. “Man, which village are you from, you haven’t even seen Lesser Healing Pills?” 

Mingwei took a sniff, and his roommate couldn’t take it anymore.

“Uh, you... you take your time, alright.” 

That was fine, of course. Mingwei was just assessing the quality, composition and construction of the Lesser Healing PIll. It was... poorly made, it’s composition not properly balanced and the effects of the layering was poor. But, good ingredients were used to make the pill, and if it’s processed a lot more carefully, it’s effects could be increased by perhaps 20 to 30 times. 

Still, as poorly made as it is, it would be able to restore 3,000 core toughness and add 1,000 Qi instantly, so it’s useful for even middle-two star cultivators. Again, it’s not made properly, which is why the body can only use one of these pills per day. Overconsumption would cause the body to experience instability and experience Qi-poisoning. 

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Mingwei took a needle from his bag, one of the many things he bought, and gently poked the pill. Then, he circulated 30 Qi inside, using his own Qi to adjust the balance and fix the pill layers. His past selves would absolutely reject taking such a poorly made pill. It was a sin to consume such trash. 

Unless they were extremely desperate. 

It took close to an hour for Mingwei to do what he wanted, but when he was done, the Lesser healing Pill had Transformed into a Balanced Healing Pill. Able to restore 10,000 Core toughness and add 3,500 Qi. Best of all, the body can take at least two per day. 

This was what he could do for now, and the gains from repairing poorly made pills are always less than making a pill properly in the first place. A properly made pill, the cultivator should be able to use up to 5 per day with no issues. 

He wasn’t entirely satisfied, but now he considered the pill edible, and he ate it. 

Instantly, his Qi storage and Core was replenished. With that, he stood up and walked out. Yu Huadao had already left some time ago. 

Outside, one of the Sect’s many servants and attendants passed them some robes. “These are the junior disciple robes.” They were stitched with the words, 388, and without wasting time, he got changed. 

It seemed many of them had left to wander the Sect’s grounds. 

“Ah. You. You’re the one who took one of the inner disciples' hits and started begging for his life.” 

Mingwei turned. It was one of his batchmates. “Hello.” He bowed gently. 

He sniggered. “Ah. Good that you know how to show respect. Because you’ll need to keep showing me respect, because I’m the very best of our batch.” 

Mingwei just smiled and nodded. Thing is, even in his past world, those who talk big rarely amounted to much. Those that do, spend too much time talking that they don’t notice others improving past them. So, many of his past lives were the kind to keep their mouth shut, focus on their craft, and let their powers speak for themselves. It wasn’t necessary to keep a high profile or talk about one’s own greatness. In cultivation, the proof is in levels. 

The boy was annoyed that he didn’t bait Mingwei into a response, so he left. “Hmph.”

The Sect was quite big, and walked along the corridors. There were many other cultivators, those of different batches cultivating. Some practiced their techniques. Mingwei looked, and he kept walking.

Then he saw a library. “Ah.” Just what he wanted. If he wanted to learn more about the world, a library was the best place to do it. So much was written about the world, even if they are not cultivation techniques, he would gain a comprehension of this world’s philosophies and ideas. 

There was no one on the ground floor, and the books here looked untouched for years. But they were clean. In fact, he heard more sounds from upstairs. In fact, upstairs was quite loud. 

“I want the Staggerbow Cultivation Book.”

“I’ve told you, no. This floor is off limits to junior disciples!”

“I need the Staggerbow Cultivation Book to break through to 3-star!”

“No. You are expected to use what you learnt to break through. Learning a different cultivation technique is not the solution! It’s about mastering your control and QI-shaping skills!”

And the argument went on, until eventually an older boy was thrown out by an old lady. 

“Stay out! I’m not giving it to you until you get promoted!” The old lady shouted at the bleeding boy. As she walked back into the library she saw Mingwei. 

“You. What do you want?”

“Uh... cultivation books? But only for juniors?”

“It’s that corner.” She pointed, and she went back upstairs. Back in his world, cultivation methods at lower levels were extremely short. Probably a ten page book, but got much longer at higher levels because they had to cover more theory. Indeed, it was similarly simple. “Actually, you’ll get copies of them in your first lesson.”

“Oh.” But Mingwei decided to read them anyway. They were so short he could read it there and then and put the books back. 

The juniors had access to 2 different cultivation methods, and Mingwei was able to summarise it to : 

[The Longbow Junior Bow Method - neutral. 45 Qi per day. Increases power of Longbow Combat Style Techniques by 1.5 times.]

[The Longbow Junior Defense Style - neutral. 45 Qi per day. Increases Longbow Defensive Styles by 1.5 times ]

As a cultivator, one can learn as many cultivation methods as they like, but at any one time, can only use one. It also takes about a week for the body to adopt a new cultivation method. So, changing cultivation methods isn’t something that is done on-the-fly. 

“Which one’s better?” He asked the lady upstairs. 

“They’re about the same!” 

At 45 Qi, it takes about 6-7 years to get to 3-star, if one manages to smoothly get through all the levels. He said thanks, and went back, and started cultivating the Longbow Junior Defense Style.

He felt his Qi gathering improve. Back home, there are certain cultivation methods that gather 2-3million Qi per day, some as crazy as 10million Qi per day. If he used those techniques he could easily leap to 6-stars within a week or two, but he decided that it’s better to learn this world’s techniques. He would be outed way too easily. 

So, he decided to think about his new techniques, and wondered where to improve them.