It truly was useless knowledge. Zhu Yi kicked the nascent soul realm old man in the head, knocking him out.
He then grabbed the ring off of his finger and left. As he walked away, he looked inside of the ring. There were a few mid quality spirit stones and a high quality spirit stone, but they were nothing compared to Zhu Yi's fortune.
Still, Zhu Yi took the spirit stones out of the ring and threw the ring away. There were a few other things in there, but they were useless to him.
"He was a 1st level nascent soul realm cultivator. You did good." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi thanked him and began to fly.
"Where do you plan on going?" Zhou Fan asked.
"I can go just about anywhere. Even joining the top ten sects is not something impossible." Zhu Yi said.
In this world, core formation realm cultivators stood near the top level. From what Zhu Yi had inferred, the strongest level of cultivation in this world was the void traversing realm.
Otherwise, the world would be destroyed by a single soul formation realm Chaos Beast. He did not have any idea how many void traversing realm cultivators there were, but there were likely very few.
As Zhu Yi thought, Zhou Fan suddenly spoke. "After hearing about Chaos Beasts, I believe that they may be a shortcut to recovery."
Zhu Yi paused and looked at Zhou Fan.
Zhou Fan continued. "Chaos Qi is something completely different from any other Qi. It would be hard for me to give you the ability to use Chaos Qi unless I am able to reconnect my soul with my body and more or less be considered recovered. It can be considered purer than any other Qi, and while a deadly poison to others, it may be the greatest healing tonic to me. I'm not sure if you can defeat a Chaos Beast at the same level right now, but defeating one a level below you should not be impossible. We should at least try it."
Zhu Yi listened and agreed. The faster Zhou Fan recovered, the better. Either way, there was nothing else in this world that could help Zhou Fan recover. Top grade spirit stones were too rare, and Zhou Fan would need a large amount to recover.
"For now, focus on increasing your strength. A Chaos Beast seems to be able to match an average cultivator two realms above it. In other words, a core formation realm Chaos Beast could fight a soul formation realm cultivator. You, on the other hand, would be nearly instantly killed. At best, you could run with instant completion."
Zhu Yi nodded.
Luckily, anybody who could reach the void traversing realm in this world was talented. Otherwise, a soul formation realm Chaos Beast would still be able to destroy the world.
Even for Zhu Yi, it would have been hard to cultivate to the 10th level of the Foundation Establishment realm in a year without the assistance of Zhou Fan and the usage of spirit stones.
Actually, he never used an entire top grade spirit stone while cultivating. It had simply lost about half of its Qi.
All of this was due to the low Qi density. It had a horrible effect on all cultivators.
Zhu Yi continued to fly around while thinking about what to do next. Eventually, he decided to get a bit stronger. At his current strength, he would probably be able to defeat a Foundation Establishment realm Chaos Beast, but would that really help Zhou Fan? It was unlikely, no matter how mystical Chaos Qi was.
Zhou Fan agreed.
After flying for a few days straight, Zhu Yi settled down in a forested valley. There were a few beasts around, but Zhu Yi scared them off.
He sat in a slight clearing and began to learn arrays under the guidance of Zhou Fan. As a core formation realm cultivator, he didn't have to worry about as much as before.
In the worst case scenario, he could live in the woods. He did not need to eat or drink. Qi was his food and water, figuratively.
Unlike his newfound talent in swords, Zhu Yi was still untalented in everything else. It took him nearly 2 weeks, while inside the time bubble, to learn an array that could help power the time bubble. All he needed was a power source and a connection to his own power.
It could not be fully automatic as there had never been an array made using time Qi, and Zhou Fan's mind was still too injured to do anything that complicated.
That and he did not want to imagine how long Zhu Yi would take to learn it. He suddenly regretted not making array talent a tangible thing like weapon talents.
Luckily, it was no burden for Zhu Yi to be connected to the array. He was now able to cultivate within the time bubble using its full efficiency.
With Zhu Yi in the core formation realm, Zhou Fan was able to help him increase the speed of the time bubble even more.
There was now a three times time difference. Of course, it consumed more Qi, but Zhu Yi had top grade spirit stones. A single one would last a long long time.
Inside the time bubble that now had a three times time difference, Zhu Yi cultivated for a year. The entire time, he had the help of Zhou Fan's river of cultivation and top grade spirit stones.
When the equivalent of three years passed in the time bubble, Zhu Yi had reached 3rd level of core formation. He was disappointed with this result.
Zhou Fan explained. "Don't worry about it too much. The Qi here is really too thin. Even with my help and top grade spirit stones, you cultivate as if you had spirit rank meridians, a rank below your king rank meridians. That makes you about as fast as someone with emperor rank meridians in this world."
Zhu Yi nodded, but he was still a little down.
"Cultivation is a long experience. You have to get used to it."