Conversing over dinner, Wang Jie asked where the nearest town was. With the husband now over tormenting him, he was eager to help out. With a stomach full to the point of bursting, he went to the room he’d been given and after cultivated for a few hours before going to bed. The first bed he’d slept on in almost a week.
Waking up the next morning he said his goodbyes and left to continue on his journey. It would be 6 hours before he arrived.
The walk was scenic and enjoyable, but having run out of luck, it began to rain midway through. A common sight on the continent, in fact it pretty much rained all year round. This spring hadn’t been that bad so far, but there was still time.
Absolutely soaked by the time he arrived, Wang Jie headed to the first open building he saw and went inside to dry. It turned out to be the local tavern. It was already filled up this early in the day, with loads of people making a racket and drinking.
Wang Jie took a seat near the exit and enjoyed the heat.
“What can I get you?” A barmaid had walked up and asked.
“Nothing.” He didn’t have a single coin.
The barmaid just frowned and left him alone.
Yeah, that had made the decision easy for him. With no money and no backing, all he could really do was join a sect. Besides the technique to cultivate, he knew almost nothing about cultivation itself. How was he supposed to fight? What were the techniques? What did this metal affinity even mean for him? He needed information on so many things, and the best way was probably to join a sect.
From his memory, he knew that the sect selections were on the final day of spring. A rich classmate of his had his spiritual roots tested and found out he was quite talented. With wealthy parents, there was no doubt they would send him to join a sect, and of course they did. He had rambled on and on and bragged about how he was going to a capital city and would join a sect for weeks. At least his information was useful now.
With a goal in mind, he stood up and left the tavern. He had to find a way to travel to one of the capital cities, maybe he could join a caravan.
Outside of the 14 Lesser Kingdoms, there were far fewer existing kingdoms. Two big kingdoms ruled over the majority of territory while three smaller kingdoms lorded over the territory near the border wall. Each of these two big kingdoms had a capital city.
Wang Jie went to the town plaza and checked the notice board for caravans traveling to a capital city and hiring guards. There were actually quite a few and he managed to find one that was leaving later that day. Wanting to get there sooner rather than later, he decided to go for that one.
He headed to a place on the outskirts of the town where a few carriages were being loaded up and prepared. Wang Jie walked up to a gruff man directing others and looking like the caravan master.
“Hm?” The man paused what he was doing and turned to him, “What do you want?”
“I saw you needed a guard.” Wang Jie stated plainly.
“Ahh, that’s great, I was hoping for two more but I guess one will do. You do also look pretty solid.” The caravan master clapped him on the shoulder, “5 silvers for the entire trip, take it or leave it.”
“I’ll take it.” Wang Jie nodded, there was no point in saying he was a cultivator to try and bargain. He didn’t even know how to prove it.
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“Great great great.” The man gazed down at Wang Jie’s waist and formed a puzzled expression, “You don’t have a weapon?”
Right, how had he forgotten, he didn’t even have a weapon.
“Uhh, no, I don’t have one.”
“That’s not good.” The caravan master shook his head, before a smile quickly lit his face, “2 silvers and you can have a sword.”
“2 silvers that’s quite a lot for a sword, besides, I have no money at all.” Wang Jie frowned.
“Oh no problem no problem, I’ll just take it out of your pay. If we don’t make it you can keep the sword.” The caravan master laughed happily.
“Fine, I’ll take it.” Wang Jie wasn’t pleased, but this was not the time to make a scene. He needed both the money and guidance.
“Good good good.” The caravan master turned and yelled, “Stiff bring me a sword.”
A man quickly came running. He handed a sword to the caravan master who then gave it to Wang Jie.
“I’ll just write this down to keep track.” The man pulled out a journal and started scribbling.
“Right…” He felt like he’d just willingly gotten scammed.
They set off a few hours later and began the long trek to the capital city Andory, located in the Aldan Kingdom. A bustling city known for its lavish decorations and various luxury goods. It was a city for the elite where few could afford to live.
Except for the constant rain during, the trip went smoothly and they arrived at Andory after seven days on the road. By now Wang Jie was used to things like that, not to mention his new body and cultivation base made it a lot easier. The other guards had been impressed by his physique and tried to make small talk here and there, but beyond tidbits of information about the continent, he wasn't too interested in speaking to them.
The center of discussion had mostly been about something he’d come to know as spirit beasts. Apparently strong beasts on the level of cultivators roamed desolate parts of the continent. The guards considered them extremely dangerous, and seemed to be a threat they were even warier of than bandits. The school books he’d read had never had anything on them, so he took advantage of the opportunity to gain some new information.
According to the guards the beasts were classified into tiers 1 through, well, they disagreed quite a bit on that. Some said 9, some 100 and one guy even proclaimed that there were a 1000 tiers. Yeah, besides knowing that they existed, the information wasn’t worth too much.
After arriving at the city, Wang Jie received his three measly silvers and split from the caravan. He wouldn’t be making the trip back with them.
Settling into an inn, he got robbed of another silver to pay for two days lodgings. People who didn’t risk their lives like a caravan guard, often didn’t earn more than a few silvers per month. It was absolute robbery, but he could only begrudgingly hand over the money.
He’d be a beggar roaming the streets soon if it weren’t for the fact that the last day of spring was three days away.
The room was decent and carried the basic furniture you would expect in an inn. A desk, chair, closet and a bed, just about the bare minimum furnishings.
He didn’t mind though, all he wanted the room for was privacy and a bed. Sitting in lotus position on the bed, he began to cultivate. Inside his dantian, the tiny speck of Qi had already grown a little bigger. He could feel himself nearing the second stage, but there was still one or two more days left. He’d cultivated whenever he could while on the trip, but that hadn’t been much time.
Besides going out to eat and searching for information on the sect selection, Wang Jie spent all his time trying to gather enough Qi to break into the next stage. It finally happened on the second day, a day before the sect selections would begin.
As Wang Jie sat atop the bed, he felt the absorption speed growing faster and faster till it almost exploded in a flood, gathering together and breaking through the shackles of his cultivation stage.
It was a rush-like feeling as the Qi flowed rapidly through his meridians. Again he could feel his body altering, but a much lesser degree. No breakages or pain took place, just a weird heat as the Qi spread through his body parts and strengthened them.
He clenched his fist and felt his new strength. Through that he also came to an understanding, yeah, he definitely wasn’t quite as strong as Siyu yet. Maybe in pure body strength he could take him, but Siyu had a lot more Qi. Siyu was likely at the peak of the 2nd stage. That meant it had been a good decision to not go and immediately challenge him, but it also let him understand that Siyu was not much more than a mere ant. After around 15 days Wang Jie had already started nearing his level of strength. That was probably the reason he was a servant to some woman in the outskirts of the continent. The only way you could get further towards the outskirts was passing through the border wall.
With that he started dedicating all of his time to seeking out information regarding the sect selection. He’d come to know that it wasn’t really all that special of a process. Different sects would send out sect officials that were responsible for testing applicants. Nothing more than a test of aptitude, but hey, at least it was free. They really had a lot more resources outside of the 14 Lesser Kingdoms. Anyone that wanted to be tested there had to fork over a nice large sum. Not nearly as much as passing through the wall, but still a considerable sum. Only the rich like Wang Jie’s classmate could afford it.
Since the manual had told him he had supreme grade spiritual roots, Wang Jie was pretty much certain he would pass the test.
After going to bed and waking up early, Wang Jie checked out of the inn and headed towards the town center. He wanted to get there early so that he could inspect the various sects and find out some information about them. It probably wasn’t that good of an idea to just randomly join one.
Walking around he saw various stands and tents. Some bigger sects even had their own buildings with signs leading to them. Wang Jie wasn’t stupid, if he had supreme grade spiritual roots he would obviously focus on the bigger sects. No need to waste one’s own opportunity on some low tier sect. If he wanted that kind of life he might as well just have gone back home and never even pursued the cultivation path in the first place.