After sleeping an extremely restful night with a bellyful of delicious food, Tyler got up and cultivated for a few hours until Annie returned from Edge City with Gregory.
She hadn't even looked at the contents of the box she was carrying in her storage bag as she handed the ornate box to Tyler. "Thank you, Annie, Gregory."
Expecting this, he put the entire box into his inner world and opened it after both people were gone.
Inside was a storage ring, which he reached into, and almost automatically, it disintegrated into nothing as it spilled its content onto his islands.
Piles upon piles of Tier 3 and Tier 4 Heartwood were stacked up high as he manipulated the large amount of natural resources into a neat pile.
Then, on the side, there was a small mountain of dried meat neatly packaged into a few different backpacks, separating them depending on their provenance, tier, and grade.
There was also a pouch of 5 spirit crystals that contained True Essence instead of Qi.
Unfortunately, Tyler couldn't use these yet unless he was in a perilous situation and risked the massive backlash from that higher-tiered energy flooding his body. These were mostly in case Luo Pang needed them.
Next to it was another pouch filled with 150 silver condensates, which he could use to replenish his qi or to cultivate.
The final piece of this care package was inside a few pill bottles and potions with labels on them, identifying their names and effects.
- 15 tier 2 earth-grade Inner Flame Rekindlers pills, made to fill one's body with fire qi, aiding in recovery once you have tempered your heart.
- 10 tier 2 earth-grade Zenith Vitality Infusion potions, explicitly made to recover from more general wounds. This is meant to be applied directly to the wound.
- 2 tier 2 spirit-grade Qi Revival Pill. They were meant to repair any damage from overdrawing your cultivation base after an extremely tough battle.
- 1 tier 3 heaven-grade Soul Nectar Elixir, Designed to mend and restore any soul damage and facilitate rapid pathways and organ recovery.
A note from Lin Jian accompanied the final elixir.
This is a potion every core disciple carries on their person, reserved for dire circumstances.
In the event of harm to your soul or near death of your physical body, drink this elixir. It should solve those problems as long as you are in or under the sea formation stage_
And to address your inevitable question, this elixir alone costs approximately one obsidian to produce and sells for even more.
However, this is a form of insurance; you can always return it when you return. The manufacturing process is rather intricate, making these elixirs challenging to produce, and I only have a few dozen for the whole sect.
This is the bare minimum when any core disciples go out; regardless of what you say, you are one.
After reading the note, Tyler realized that the Sword King was rather adamant about giving this elixir to him and probably wouldn't take it back regardless of what he said.
Putting all this away made his inner world's island quite crowded, but that was ok. He'd attempt to fix that soon.
In 6 days, he'd have to meet with Luo Pang at the inner sect. After looking at the map Shen had given him a little while ago, he noted that it was hidden between Sword City and Profound City.
During this time, he had a couple more objectives.
First, to replenish his Qi reserves by absorbing tons of water into his inner world.
He had always known that while he meditated and consciously tried to absorb Qi, rain would slowly fall into his inner world. Now, with the almost dried-out seas, he could see how little Qi was absorbed after every meditation session.
Indeed, this water's Qi concentration was much higher than if he had kept absorbing Lake water, but doing that was way too slow.
Fortunately, Tyler possessed extremely powerful acupoints in the form of his Sword Clouds. When those were working full time to refine the Qi within his inner world, this was a much more efficient way to replenish his energy.
To put it in perspective, simply by meditating, he'd spend about four days of actual meditation time refilling his entire inner sea with usable qi.
Otherwise, if he absorbed lake waters and used his cultivation to refine that into usable qi, that time would be cut to around a single day.
Funnily enough, this was around the same amount of time most Qi Transformation cultivators needed to recover their resources fully when they had used up everything—one day.
Although Silver Condensates was an extraordinary resource, Tyler's expanded Qi pool demanded approximately four to five times more than an average cultivator.
To be precise, he required around five condensates to completely replenish his inner world with the rich and potent Qi, and this process would only take him a few hours of absorption unless he crushed the crystal and flooded his system with more energy than it could handle.
This underscored the immense amount of Qi needed and the challenges in tempering one's organs. Tyler's heart alone had consumed 100 of them, not to mention using the Mountain Ascension formation to compress the Qi further.
His second goal was to gobble up more sand or dirt to directly expand his island's size.
So, within the next few days, Tyler did just that.
He ventured to Serenity Lake, plunged into its waters, and, with his recently enhanced divine sense, could now absorb a substantial 30-meter radius of water at once.
This, of course, would've created quite a disturbance, so he forced himself to dive deeper and further out so he didn't bother any nearby mortals.
Occasionally, a few fish attempted to nibble at him, but he extended a tiny portion of his Qi to destroy the delicious fish souls for an upcoming dinner. The Ten Direction Sword was ideal for shattering the souls of adversaries without inflicting harm on their physical bodies.
Although he hadn't yet mastered the ability to empower each sword, he did have control over the number of swords he could generate. In the case of a solitary and weak adversary like these fish, a single sword was more than sufficient.
After a single day, Tyler had absorbed enough water to replenish his entire inner world's ocean.
Throughout that day, he encountered a few perilous situations with Stage 3 fishes detecting the disturbance he created and converging on him to protect their territory.
Fortunately, his divine sense enabled Tyler to effortlessly evade these imminent threats and effectively conceal his cultivation, rendering him indistinguishable from an inanimate object adrift on the sea.
This technique was a valuable lesson he had gotten from Lin Jian. While Tyler had already made headway in this field by sealing his acupoints and deflecting attempts to ascertain his level, he had yet to grasp a crucial component for absolute concealment.
This method of concealment entailed the seamless integration of one's body with the surrounding Qi through the use of divine sense, effectively crafting a cloak that perfectly mirrored the environment.
Although alternate methods existed for achieving this, Tyler had so far only mastered this particular approach. However, it had a notable drawback—it demanded intense concentration, rendering him immobile.
He had learned this technique relatively quickly because he had unwittingly practiced it during his meditation sessions. He only knew about this a few weeks ago when Lin Jian pointed it out and taught him how to employ it consciously.
The next day, he embarked on the quest to attempt to get dirt and sand into his inner world the same way he did the water.
This proved to be a lot more complex, Tyler found.
Submerged in the water, his divine sense extended relatively unhindered through the substance. However, his effective range significantly diminished, much like how light refracts upon entering water. This phenomenon accounted for why he couldn't encompass the 120 meters of his typical range.
When it came to solid objects, Tyler's divine sense was odd. While he could effortlessly see through them, distinguishing concealed animals in their burrows or viewing the interiors of doors and buildings, he couldn't penetrate every aspect of the material as easily as he could with liquids.
Without anyone to consult about matters related to his inner world and how divine sense played a role, Tyler resorted to conducting his own experiments.
Seated in a lotus position on the beach, he attempted to extend his divine sense directly into the ground, trying to feel the individual sand particles.
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After several hours, he concluded that he could extend his divine sense only a few meters at most before he could not discern every part of the grains of sand.
Upon reflection, he realized that divine sense functioned somewhat akin to X-rays' capacity to penetrate different materials, albeit with limitations contingent on the substance encountered.
In essence, the divine sense closely resembled a sonar. Cultivators who had lived in the pre-shattering world would likely draw this connection. Their souls emitted a frequency to synchronize with the surrounding environment, promptly receiving feedback in response. Some textures and materials either absorbed part of said frequency or directly prevented it from passing through.
Selecting a tranquil spot along the beach, Tyler extended his divine sense into the ground, attempting to connect with every grain of sand. After a few minutes of preparation, he was ready to experiment further. He utilized his divine sense to gather a substantial quantity of sand, effectively removing a two-meter radius of sand around him.
Considering that cultivators had been able to store entire tree trunks in their storage rings, Tyler reasoned that he should be capable of gathering soil in a similar manner.
However, upon contemplation, he concluded that he lacked the strength to perform such a feat solely with his divine sense. A more feasible approach would likely involve a technique resembling the mortal's process of water transportation.
In other words, he needed to employ a spatially expanded container, fill it with soil, and then transfer that container into his inner world.
With this plan in mind, Tyler acquired a suitable container similar to Bralok's spatially expanded water barrel. After browsing various options, he purchased one at a reasonable price of 14 silver coins and got to work.
For four days straight, Tyler cultivated in the morning, descended to one of the surrounding beaches where the sand was everywhere, and got to work.
Circulating his cultivation and manipulating the winds, he could freely move massive amounts of sand around and slowly fill one container after another, effectively growing the landmass of his inner world's island.
On the morning of the seventh day, Tyler had completed all the immediate goals he had set for himself.
His inner world was now filled with freshly acquired water, which he had already finished condensing with the help of his acupoints, and the island's size had significantly increased with the added sand from all over the surrounding beaches.
It had expanded sufficiently for him to initiate his next project: constructing a designated storage space for his belongings. Simply letting them rest on the island felt weird and out of place.
During this time, Tyler also diligently continued his recently acquired hobby since arriving in this world—maintaining a daily journal and documenting all of his activities and experiments.
He had witnessed firsthand the positive impact such journals could have, as evidenced by their effect on the Sword King a few months prior. Tyler recognized the potential value of his documentation for others, and honestly, it also helped him better internalize those findings and experimentations.
After his morning's cultivation, he finally started to feel a change within his body. He had finally tempered a tiny part of his lungs—about 1%, to be exact.
Slowly tempering your organs through regular cultivation was extremely slow, which is why most used Organ Opening pills or various medicine baths.
Tyler wasn't in a hurry. He had already cultivated extremely fast, according to everyone around him. He would need ample amounts of time to get used to his increase in power, and this mission would be perfect to do just that.
***
Tyler bid farewell to Gregory and Annie. Bob was still away visiting his granddaughter.
Then, as he got to the cliff's edge, he jumped and used the winds to slow his fall, resulting in a much softer landing than his first attempt.
As Tyler contemplated the map, he noted that Sword City lay just below the first layer of clouds, and the Sword Sect was situated within that very layer. The distance was approximately 100 kilometers.
Considering traveling on foot would take a few hours, he didn't want to keep Luo Pang waiting too long. Therefore, he decided to use the sect’s teleportation facilities, which he hadn’t used much more than a handful of times.
Upon arriving at the outer sect, Tyler felt more gazes than usual as he deflected them with ease. However, he paid little attention to it and continued toward the teleportation edifice.
"William, we meet again. How's life?" Tyler greeted the clerk in charge of the outer sect's teleportation office.
"I'm fine, thank you. Where to this time?" William replied without looking up from his book.
"If possible, I'd like to go directly to the inner sect," Tyler politely requested.
William furrowed his brow and glanced up from his book. "As a member of the outer sect, you're not allowed to visit the inner sect whenever you please. Unless you have a mission?"
Despite William's objections, Tyler maintained his smile and stepped onto the platform. "Breakthrough mission. I have to meet with Disciple Luo Pang."
William produced a token and verified the information, noting that Tyler had been allowed access to the inner sect. "Never mind. I'll send you up. I forgot to check the updated list this morning. My bad."
Tyler nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, William, as always."
As space warped around him, Tyler sensed his surroundings shift, and he found himself in a room that resembled the one he had just left. The two buildings seemed almost identical as if they had been copied and pasted.
Behind the front desk, a man with an early Qi Transformation cultivation level was seated. "Origin of teleportation: Outer Sect. Disciple Tyler Reed."
The man paused briefly, inspecting another token. "Scheduled to depart from the Inner Sect today at the latest with Disciple Luo. Approved. You may enter the sect."
Tyler chuckled internally. While this disciple’s cultivation was low, his divine sense detected a late Sea Formation cultivator hiding away in an office nearby. Unwilling to cause a fuss, he simply asked where Disciple Luo was.
The clerk, uninterested, looked at his watch and simply replied, "Training Plaza."
Stepping outside, Tyler observed that the inner sect closely resembled the outer sect, with one notable difference—the higher quality of Qi in the atmosphere. Situated above the first layer of clouds and closer to the spirit vein at the mountain's core, the ambient Qi was significantly purer and more concentrated.
Extending his divine sense to its maximum range, Tyler quickly mapped out the layout of the surrounding area within a kilometer. It took him only a short time to locate the training plaza, where he sensed dozens of disciples organized in neat rows, following the guidance of a senior.
Navigating through the inner sect, Tyler occasionally sensed curious gazes attempting to probe his cultivation, as he was an unfamiliar face.
However, he skillfully deflected these probing attempts, all while deliberately concealing his cultivation level. This left some individuals feeling cautious, but since Tyler was moving freely within the inner sect, no one dared to confront him.
Upon reaching the training plaza, Tyler noticed that all the disciples were engrossed in practicing a series of sword movements, mimicking the cultivator leading the group.
This cultivator possessed the highest cultivation among the other disciples, hovering at the mid-stages of the Sea Formation realm.
Not wishing to disrupt their training, Tyler settled down and closed his eyes, observing their movements with keen interest, utilizing his divine sense. He meticulously analyzed the flow of their True Essence throughout their bodies as they executed their sword techniques.
As he observed, Tyler noted the variations in how their energies flowed within each practitioner's body. Although there were subtle differences from one individual to another, the fundamental path remained consistent.
The techniques displayed were part of a comprehensive sword art rather than a singular offensive maneuver, somewhat reminiscent of the Radiant Wave Stance.
During his observation, Tyler couldn't help but look for potential weak points where he could disarm an opponent or inflict a devastating blow. However, to his dismay, the Sea Formation martial artists executed their movements swiftly and decisively, leaving little room for exploitation.
If he were to engage in combat with them, he would need to calculate his strikes, dodges, and counters with exceptional precision to avoid falling victim to their blades and the subsequent True Essence waves of Sword Energy. If he didn’t possess divine sense, he’d be doomed.
After a full hour of observing the twelve practitioners, the leading disciple concluded the day's training, and Tyler promptly opened his eyes and rose to his feet.
As the rest of the practitioners departed, one individual remained—a disciple who appeared slightly beyond the 20th cultivation level. It was evident that this person was none other than Luo Pang.
Approaching Tyler, Luo Pang greeted him with respect. "You must be Outer Sect Disciple Reed. I appreciate your prompt arrival on the 7th day, even this early. I returned from visiting my family just last night, so your timing is impeccable. I also want to express my gratitude for not disrupting our training session."
Tyler responded with a nod and a friendly tone, "Tyler's just fine. Unless, of course, that's a deal-breaker for you, then feel free to use whatever name you prefer. So, are we prepared to depart whenever, or do you have things to do first?"
Luo Pang suggested, "How about we confirm the supplies and equipment for our mission after we get to my house in the inner sect? That way, we can look at what each of us has prepared. It might be a valuable learning experience."
As they continued their conversation, they arrived at a quaint house nestled on the mountainside, enclosed by a sturdy fence. A well-tended garden surrounded the house, and a large tree with abundant fruit stood above it like a mother protecting her children.
"This is nice," commented Tyler.
“Thanks,” replied Luo Pang. “This is one of the few houses my family has for us inner sect disciples. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
After a few minutes, Luo Pang emerged from the house again and instructed Tyler to show him everything he had prepared.
As Tyler displayed the contents of his supplies, Luo Pang couldn't help but be astounded by the sheer quantity of pills, potions, and condensates that this outer sect disciple possessed.
It surpassed what Pang himself had brought along for the mission in quantity and quality.
Luo Pang's eyes widened in amazement, and he couldn't hide his surprise as he said, "Tyler, are you from some powerful family? This is more than I expected. It looks like you've got everything covered and more..."
Tyler smiled modestly, "Well, I've had some help in gathering these resources. I won't lie, but I paid for them out of my own pocket if that matters."
Pang nodded appreciatively, "That's good. Having someone reliable like that can make a huge difference. Now, let me show you what I've got."
As Pang displayed his supplies, Tyler observed the collection of items, trying to glean insights into how a Sea Formation cultivator prepared for missions. Honestly, it wasn't wholly different from his own.
Having confirmed that they both had their cultivation resources and pills and that Tyler had enough food for them, not counting anything they might hunt on the road, Luo Pang was satisfied.
With everything safely stowed away in his inner world, Tyler posed a question lingering in his mind. "Regarding transportation, any recommendations? I haven't traveled very far from this mountain before."
Luo Pang gave an honest reply, saying, "The decision is yours to make. I'm here as your shadow, so I'll follow your lead. Whether you choose to walk or fly, I'll accompany you. However, if you'd like some advice, I recommend purchasing a couple of striders for 20 silver each once we reach the shore in the Port City of Mountainside."
Putting two and two together, Tyler nodded. "Striders, huh?"
With Luo Pang in tow, Tyler left the inner sect behind, embarking on his first adventure in this new world.
As Tyler journeyed forth, he couldn't help but hold onto the hope that somewhere along the way, he might catch a glimpse of the world he had once known and the people he still loved.