2 Chapter 2 - First cultivation
After I came to terms with what was going on, I started to think about what to do.
'I need to handle those two, Meng and Zhong, I need to pay them back that's for sure. They killed previous owner of this body and would most likely cause issues for me so before they do anything I need to handle them.'
'But that will have to wait I need to get myself a steady income, this is world where power means everything and right now I am weakest among weak. I need to get strong fast. Strong enough so that I don't have to live in fear. I hate fear!'
This was when I remembered something!
"System!"
__/\__
Welcome to the cultivation system!
You can choose one cultivation manual for free!
You can choose one martial art manual for free!
Yau can choose two things from the shop as a gift to start your cultivation journey!
__/\__
"System can you help me choose?"
__/\__
System can assist you with selection process!
Please state your criteria!
__/\__
"I would like to became very strong, as strong as you can get. I would love to have two fighting styles, one flashy using a big weapon to show off and second more stealthy and secrete to do the dirty jobs under the cover of night, if you can catch my drift!"
__/\__
Calculating .....
Solution found:
System would suggest cultivation manual Restoration of Kuraokami, it is complete manual for cultivating body and mind that will guide to you up to the emperor stage.
For martial art manual I would suggest Takaokami's wrath, it very strong and flashy martial art that uses polearm. It pairs perfectly with Restoration of Kuraokami, they were made to be used together.
Lastly as a one of your free purchases, I would buy second martial art manual Kuramitsuha's dread. It's a martial art centered around using stealth and subtlety to perform quick and untraceable kills under the cover of night.
Restoration of Kuraokami is a perfect platform for both martial arts and they are like two sides of the same coin. You would have complete package that checks all your criteria!
__/\__
'Emperor stage …' I started to think about what the emperor stage actually is and in a few seconds memories that belonged to the previous owner of this body appeared.
Ranks of cultivation went like:
Initiate - > Soldier - > Corporal -> Captain - > General -> King - > Emperor
As for martial arts mastery it went like this:
Initiate - > Beginner -> Advance -> Expert - > Elite - > Master -> Grand Master
Initiate is just one simple rank with no stages but all the ranks above are split into three stages that are numbered one to three. One being the weakest and three strongest.
As you progress the manuals or from separate scroll you can learn techniques, your familiarity with techniques is displayed by grade.
Grade V - > Grade IV - > Grade III - > Grade II - > Grade I
Grade I meaning that you know the technique inside out and you perfected it, Grade V meaning you just barely learned it and are just able to use it.
Once I processed all the information I nodded. Then I read the message from system once again and I stopped at the 'body and mind'.
"System is it any special that the manual handles both 'body and mind'?"
__/\__
Yes! There three types of cultivators in this world.
Most common are mind cultivators, these are the ones you know from novels, with dantians and all kinds of energy attacks.
Second one being body cultivators, they lack the fancy attacks but they can suplex a mountain without a sweat or run like a flash.
Third one being so called complete cultivators; they are very rare, since there is very few to none complete manuals. These are cultivators that cultivate both body and mind. They ascend the ranks slower but are much more powerful once they do.
__/\__
I nodded. "Ok I will take your suggestion! Get me those manuals!"
__/\__
This will set your body cultivation focus to speed and your mind cultivation focus to Ice. Do you want to proceed?
__/\__
I took a deep breath. "System explain please!"
__/\__
Body cultivation can have one of three focuses: strength, speed and tenacity. Strength will make you muscles strong enough to start suplexing mountains. Speed will give you unimaginable speed and tenacity will make you tough as nails.
As for mind cultivation it can have a lot of different focuses, meaning the element you pursue and cultivate. In case of your manuals all of them are single elemental manuals using ice element.
__/\__
I nodded. "That's fine I accept the focus thing you mentioned."
__/\__
New manuals set as active!
Generating new goals:
Find a place to cultivate for now 0/1
Get a weapon (polearm) 0/1
Cultivate up to Stage 3 Soldier 0/1
Rewards:
Utility Technique voucher 2x
Shop points 500x
__/\__
"Does the other martial art need any weapon?"
__/\__
No weapon is required to obtain for Kuramitsuha's dread.
__/\__
I nodded. "OK then, by the way what rank am I right now in those three?"
__/\__
Initiate!
__/\__
I nodded and moved. Checking if I can move or not. And to my surprise I was able to move without pain.
"System am I fully healed?"
__/\__
Yes! System took care of it before installation! But further full heals are not available!
__/\__
I nodded, and slowly sat up on the ground. I looked around and all what I had to my name right now was torn bloody clothes I was wearing. I tried to dig into memories I got from this body trying to find out if he has anything to his name wort mentioning. And he didn't. This person was just surviving on the goodness of others.
I started to think about what to do and then I remembered something, up beyond the cliff is a big forest with normal animals not monsters since it's not a dark forest. There is water and food there if I am able to hunt it, and I was decent at survival and camping stuff in my last life.
I quickly stood up and run towards the stairs, it was now early morning so I met very few people but since the sun was already slowly creeping up the guard was no longer guarding the stairs. I was able to run up the stair and into a forest without any big incidents. As I ran deep into the forest I started to think.
"First thing I need is some hiding place, ideally near the water."
I searched the forest for few hours and at the end I was able to find large hollow tree that had an abandoned burrow in it. It was decently spacious for one person and still even had some hay and dried-out leaves in there for comfort,there was even a small brook with crystal clear water nearby.
This should take care of abode and water. I was happy. There was abundance of shrubs and herbs that were edible according to the memory of this body so I even had some food.
I ate bunch of small fruits from the shrubs and drank enough water to have my fill. After that I sat next to the burrow and spoke.
"System, how do I find good spot to cultivate?"
__/\__
You won't have access to the good spots unless you join sect or clan.
If you are looking for something decent for now best you can do is the rock in the middle of that brook right in front of you!
__/\__
"What do I have to do to cultivate?"
The moment I asked the information appeared directly in my head. Basically, what I had to do was sit cross-legged and relax. The system would take the wheel.
I stood up and went to cultivate on the rock as system requested. I sat down cross legged and relaxed. System did what it was meant to and took the wheel. The moment I started cultivating two messages popped up, first one was that I completed first part of the goal and found provisional space for cultivation, second being cultivation that showed me how many percent I have done to next stage or rank.
As the cultivation started, I felt tingling in my legs and abdomen. I tried to remember what was going on and I found the response in memories of this body.
Right now, as I was cultivating to soldier rank, two things were going on since I was cultivating both body and mind. First was mind that required me to create lower dantian in my abdomen, which would be followed by two more dantians in next two stages one in my head and one next my heart. As for body cultivation, that was right now infusing my bones in legs with Qi, for the next stage it would be hands, and torso after that.
This process would be normally rather tricky since in order to proceed with both body and mind you had to finish and rank up both at the same time. The moment they fell out of sync the lower cultivation was frozen for good, never to increase again. But this was no problem with the system that was handling it perfectly.
