1 New World
"Right, so as we can see here, x^3+9x^2+3x+6=0 can be factored into...", the math teacher said as he continued to prattle on about equations and the like.
A student in the middle of the seats at the very back of the class began to doze off. His name was Yan Guang.
'This is too boring. When will he move on to something more difficult?', he thought to himself.
From a young age, Yan Guang had excelled in all his academics. This made him somewhat of a slacker since he didn't need to work hard to achieve anything.
So what did he do with all his free time? Read novels of course. Stories of other worlds where humans didn't have limits. Worlds where the strong demolished the weak. Worlds that didn't have the boring bureaucracy of his.
Yan Guang felt a strong feeling of dizziness take over. Lowering his head onto the desk, he fell asleep.
"HEY, don't fall asleep in class, I can see you even if you're at the back!", the teacher yelled.
Yan Guang didn't hear anything however, he felt like he was in a mysterious state, closed off from almost all of his senses. All he could feel was his rhythmic breathing, and his heart beating.
After what felt like an eternity, he slowly regained his other senses. He could smell the scent of earth, and he could feel the blades of grass on his arms. Was this a dream? It didn't feel like it.
He quickly got up and pinched himself, and it didn't do anything. He felt like everything was completely vivid. Perhaps even more vivid than before.
As he looked around at his environment, he took a deep breath. And with that breath came a sensation he had never felt before.
Something indescribable. He felt invigorated before a game-like window popped up before him.
[First breath of heaven and earth taken. Would you like to activate the Boundless Growth system?]
[Yes] [No]
Confused, he decided to click yes. A system couldn't be a bad thing, right? Well, hopefully.
[Boundless Growth system activated. Beginning scan of host.]
[Newbie starter pack detected. Would you like to open it?]
[Yes] [No]
He saw the two new notifications and quickly clicked yes on opening the starter box. Only an idiot would click no, after all.
[Rewards received: Inferior cultivation talent, inferior martial physique, inferior comprehension, semi-eidetic memory.]
As he saw the rewards page, he began to feel changes taking place in his body. He felt his skeletal structure and internal organs shift slightly, and he could feel a major improvement in all his physical attributes.
He felt that if he dedicated himself to training for a few years, he could become a world-class athlete.
Moreover, with every breath he took, he felt more of the mysterious invigorating substance enter his body.
Thinking about the dozens of novels he had read and the system notification, he quickly named the substance 'breath'. It was something that existed in every breath, after all
Questions that seemed complicated to him quickly solved themself, like a web of thoughts coming untangled.
Memories that were almost fading were suddenly back to full vibrance.
Whatever this starter pack gave him, it was awesome.
As he was reveling in his newfound abilities, something caught his attention.
A group of brown dots that were coming closer. And they were coming closer very quickly.
"Uh oh. RUN!", he said as he began to sprint. Whatever those brown dots were, it was best not to risk it and just get as far as possible. Maybe he would be able to find some civilization or something because he was no survivalist to live out in the wild for weeks.
He looked behind him for an instant and saw that the brown dots were getting closer. Looking at them more carefully, there seemed to be 6 of them.
He began to run at an even faster pace, bringing out the unearthed strength in his body due to the adrenaline pumping through his veins.
Every gasp of air he took contained little strings of 'breath' that helped combat his exhaustion. He felt like he could run at this pace for half an hour if he wanted to.
Slowly, he could feel the limits of his speed being overcome, as he began to accelerate.
After another 5 minutes of running, he looked back again only to see the brown figures were now even closer to him. He could now make out what they were. They seemed to be some kind of boar, although he had never seen a boar that was so fast and aggressive.
He theorized that the 'breath' present in the air had made them mutate into this new type of boar.
[Scanning completed, opening Status screen]
[User: Yan Guang
Race: Human (homo sapien)
Talents: Inferior cultivation talent, inferior martial physique, inferior comprehension, semi-eidetic memory
Stage: Mortal
STR: 1.5
VIT: 1.5
AGI: 1.5
INT: 1.4
SPR: 1.2
(average for adult males is 1)
Attribute Points: 2 (starting reward)]
Yan Guang quickly skimmed through his status, glancing at the 2 attribute points he had. Assuming this worked on video game logic, he could use those 2 attribute points to upgrade his stats. This was exactly what he needed in this situation.
But now, he had a choice. Would he stay and fight the boars, or would he run?
He made up his mind after a little deliberation. He would stay and fight! If he couldn't beat 6 boars, how would he be able to unravel the secrets of this world and his mysterious system? Does a future immortal emperor have to be afraid of a group of beasts?
He quickly used up the attribute points, adding 0.8 to STR and 0.6 to VIT and AGI.
He instantly felt the boost in his strength, he felt like he could beat 3 of himself before.
Standing tall in front of the 6 beasts that had almost caught up to him, he quickly picked up some rocks from the ground.
He got into a throwing stance and threw the rock at the eyes of the boars with all his strength.
The rock flew out of his hand at a blistering pace, and continued in a straight line till it made contact with the leading boar's eye, puncturing it and tearing a hole straight through it, before entering the boar's brain. The boar let out a whimper, before it fell to the ground, dead.
"Damn, that was a critical hit!"
He quickly reloaded and threw a second rock, hitting another boar, blinding one of its eyes, but not killing it. He then continued the pattern, throwing all the rocks he could, using them to blind the boars.
By the time the boars had caught up, they were all somewhat injured and blinded.
Using his newfound agility, he moved into the blind spots of the boars and began attacking, slowly whittling down their remaining vitality.
It took Yan Guang maybe 10 minutes of straight combat to finally kill another boar, and from then on, it got easier and easier as the number of boars he had to take on decreased. Finally, about an hour later, he stood atop the corpse of the final boar.
"YEAH! I DID IT!", he yelled out of excitement. His first opponents in this new world were dead. He had won.
[6 mutated boars defeated, 60P gained.]
After looking at the new notification, he asked the system, "So, system, where do I use these points?"
[Shop tab opened.]
[Sorting by price, lowest to highest]
[Beginner's guide to cultivation: 10 points]
[Random inferior martial art: 25 points]
[Inferior cultivation manual: 50 points]
[Inferior body refining manual: 75 points]
[Inferior loot box: 100 points]
Sitting down on the grass, Yan Guang considered his options.
First off, he decided to buy the beginner's guide to cultivation. It was the cheapest option and he'd probably need it to understand a little bit more about where he was and what he should do next.
Then, he decided to buy a martial art. He knew that even if he bought the cultivation method, he needed to find a place where he could settle and stay for a decent amount of time in order to begin cultivating, a luxury he didn't have at the moment. So he decided to choose to get 2 martial arts, as it would help him in his survival at the moment. He could always get the cultivation method later.
So, he stepped forth and clicked on the 3 items he wanted to buy.
After a couple of seconds, vast amounts of information suddenly flooded into his head and were cemented into memory.
Yan Guang quickly learned that the continent he was in was called the Azure Spirit continent, although he didn't know why it had that name. He also learned that he was currently situated in the northwest of the continent, far away from its center. Thankfully, this meant that the overall strength of the people who lived in this area was lower, as 'breath' was more concentrated in the central areas of the continent.
Yan Guang felt like it was kind of funny he spawned in pretty much the beginner's village equivalent of the cultivation world. It was pretty good for him. But still, this continent was completely different from his previous world.
It was far more cruel and cutthroat than his previous world, but it also had far more opportunity. If one had the ability to persevere and the fate that allowed them to progress, they could even become a god!
This was it! This was the world of limitless possibilities he had dreamt of! There were no limits anymore, it was on him whether he truly reached the pinnacle of cultivation or not.
Then, he learned the all-important cultivation grades.
It all began with the mortal stage. This was the level of a regular person.
Then came the martial artist, someone who had begun to harness the power of the internal force that Yan Guang had given the name of 'Breath'. Martial artists were feared by mortals, but they were still defeatable.
After that came the terrifying martial master. This was someone with decades of internal force, an expert in the art of battle. They were considered invincible among mortals, being the ones to lead armies in wars between empires. One martial master was equivalent to the strength of a thousand men, leading them to be devastating weapons in war.
Although people in these grades were untouchable to the ordinary mortal, they were still not truly cultivators.
True cultivation began from the next stage, qi gathering. Divided into 3 stages, lower, middle and upper, further divided into 3 heavenstages each, qi gathering was the process of using one's internal force to attract the spirit qi between heaven and earth.
Spirit Qi was essentially the level beyond internal breath, a power far more potent. It existed in very low concentrations in all places, but the amount required to attain qi gathering could only be found in very few spiritual hotspots. Stepping onto the path of true cultivation couldn't be easy, after all.
Beyond these stages, there was no information listed. However, there was some information on the ranks of other items listed. Everything from martial arts, cultivation manuals, professions, elixirs, weapons and other items were listed by these ranks.
Yellow-tier, somewhat rare.
Black-tier, some of the best items that are available to those of disciple-level status in the cultivation world.
Earth-tier, only the highly qualified elite prodigies and mighty qi practitioners could possess these techniques that amplified their strength immensely.
Heaven-tier, unheard of to the common cultivator, any dynasties or ancient sects that possessed these techniques would not announce their existence to the world. Hence, nobody knows if heaven-tier techniques actually exist or not.
Within these tiers, there were 5 further subdivisions; Inferior quality, medium quality, high quality, marvelous quality, and perfect quality.
So given all of that, Yan Guang realized that the techniques that he had bought for 50 points were basically the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality for cultivators. However, they were considered decent for a beginner.
As he finished reading the beginner's guide, he noticed the sun beginning to set. The curtain of night was about to fall, and Yan Guang had no clue what surviving the night would be like in this fantastical world.
