3 Qi Gathering Realm

"Did you hear about the death of the crown prince? I was so shocked I pinched myself to see if I was in a dream!"

"Yeah, I know, and now who's going to inherit the Heavenly Dragon empire?"

As he walked into the crowded inn, Jian Long, who now went by Li Zhu, overheard many conversations about his assassination, as he forced himself to stay quiet.

'The news traveled fast' he thought, considering in only a day even a small kingdom such as Crouching Tiger had received the news. 'Someone must have really wanted everyone to know the fight for the throne will restart, which means someone out there is trying to start a war'.

It was now late in the day, and Li Zhu had just started his journey towards the Flaming Saber sect. Although he could have continued without rest, he was still gravely injured, and healing was in order. He also wished to start cultivating, to at least reach the qi gathering stage before attempting to enter the sect.

Although a summoner needed spirit beasts to have any substantial power, one could still cultivate without any beasts. That said, spirit beasts generally made cultivation faster because each beast cultivated as well, and part of the energy went to the summoner.

Although this made the summoner path faster than the two others, generally speaking a summoner could only make a contract with a spirit beast weaker than himself, meaning all his spirit beasts would be weaker than a weapon or elemental cultivator, making a summoner's fighting strength quite weak.

Li Zhu was determined to break this rule, though, as he quickly bought a room and sat on the big, clean bed, searching through his memories for a suitable cultivation method.

As with the fighting path, he needed to also change the cultivation method, since the one he used to use was exclusive to main descendants of the Heavenly Dragon Empire, which would make his identity obvious to all.

As he tried to remember a method, he bitterly smiled. Throughout his sixteen years as the crown prince, he had gotten many gifts and found many treasures, yet most of them were left in the palace, as he did not expect this turn of events.

He did still have a spatial ring on him, a treasure which contained an internal space of a few yards and was accessed with heavenly energy. This ring contained a few of his most precious belongings, including many cultivation methods, yet the catch twenty-two was that he needed heavenly energy to access the methods, but he couldn't have any before he started cultivating.

Sighing, he went back to going off his memory, as he recalled all the methods he had seen. Many such methods were too recognizable, and many others were just not suitable for summon cultivation, yet after a few minutes of searching, he finally found one which was quite interesting.

The "Undying Beast Soul" method: As the cultivator advances in cultivation, he can gain beast souls, which allow the user to make a contract with spirit beasts. This contract gives you part of their soul, meaning if their physical body dies, they can still be reborn, albeit greatly weakened.

'This one will do just fine!' thought Li Zhu, as he himself was surprised at his luck so far. Following the method, Li Zhu begun by sensing the heavenly energy around him. This step usually took a few days for cultivators, yet it took only a minute for him, as he had already cultivated previously, making him very sensitive towards heavenly energy.

After that, he needed to circulate the energy through his meridians, according to the cultivation method. This was generally painful as one needed to open their meridians, which were naturally closed at birth. Yet again, though, his previous experience helped him, as his meridians were still semi-open, even after his serious injuries.

With that, he reached the final and most tedious step: gathering heavenly energy through his meridians into his middle Dantian. This final step was also the easiest, as it only involved hard work and constant cultivating. Li Zhu was confident that with a night of nonstop cultivating he could reach the first stage of the qi gathering realm, so he traveled down the stairs to the inn restaurant, to have some dinner.

The restaurant was full of people, and Li Zhu couldn't even hear his own thoughts over the loud chattering. As he scouted the area for an open table, he noticed that most of the people there were mortals, and there were only a few qi gathering experts. 'I guess that's what its like in a small kingdom' he thought, before starting to walk towards a table.

In the corner of his eye, though, Li Zhu noticed something which caught his attention: there was a man, with a long black beard, whose cultivation he could not tell.

This meant that he was a cultivator of at least the core condensing realm, which was very uncommon in a place like this, and would mean certain death for a qi gathering realm expert.

As much as his cultivation surprised Li Zhu, what he was doing was even more shocking. The man was yelling at the restaurant owner, while holding up a painting… of him. The owner, knowing the man was powerful, kept apologizing while begging, "please let my restaurant be, we have not seen him, he is not there, I am sorry, please let us go" while the man didn't look surprised, as he knew he wouldn't find such an important target in a small restaurant.

'They've got people looking for me everywhere, huh, not even a small kingdom like Crouching Tiger was spared'

Li Zhu, not wanting to take the risk of being recognized, hastily returned to his room, while trying to act normal to avoid suspicion.

As he closed the door behind him, a serious look emerged on his face, as he knew keeping his identity secret would be hard. He also realized that not everyone that was looking for him had bad intentions, yet he wouldn't want to risk his life for a possibility.

His determination restored, Li Zhu immediately started cultivating, striving to reach the qi gathering realm as soon as possible.

'I need to get stronger, or I will be killed!'

With that thought in mind, Li Zhu spent the whole night cultivating, while his stomach grumbled, and his gashes burned.

_____

On the top floor of a small inn, a light suddenly shined brightly, bringing with it an aura of suppression, waking up all the late risers, as well as frightening the people having breakfast.

That said, the aura disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and the day went on as though nothing had happened.

"Yes, I made it, I am awesome!" yelled Li Zhu, before realizing he was alone in an inn bedroom and he was acting proud of reaching the first stage in cultivation, which caused him to slump back down into the bed, albeit with a smile on his face.

He was now officially a cultivator! Again.

Having recovered the ability to use heavenly energy, Li Zhu wasted no more time, as he tended to his wounds, before they became life-threatening. Although he managed to close all his gashes, they would no doubt leave his body riddled with scars, since he had waited too long for the treatment.

Although he realized this, Li Zhu was not bothered at all, quite the opposite in fact. He though the scars looked cool, and they signified having fought great battles, though what had actually happened was a one-sided beating from which he had barely escaped, holding his life but not his cultivation.

He would not admit this, though, as he finished healing the superficial injuries, while preparing for the journey ahead.

Lastly, having recovered heavenly energy, Li Zhu looked this finger before… 'What!? Where did my spatial ring go? No, No, no… this can't be!'

The spatial ring which had been with him the last night, had somehow disappeared… while he was cultivating!

'it couldn't have fallen anywhere, because it fits my finger exactly, so it must have been stolen. For someone to have stolen it without me knowing, though, they must have been very powerful, yet they didn't harm me.'

Li Zhu just couldn't wrap his head around what had happened, yet he knew he shouldn't investigate too much, since a person so powerful could kill him instantly. Although the loss of his treasures was painful, there was nothing that could be done, so Li Zhu just accepted the situation.

'I will get it back one day, whoever the thief is!'

With that, the day that had started so well turned sour, so Li Zhu went out of the inn, and started walking towards the Flaming Saber Sect. Although it would take much longer than just riding a horse, the little money the parents of Mao Mao had given him was spent on the inn bedroom, meaning he couldn't afford anything but walking.

_____

After a few hours of walking, Li Zhu still looked as sharp as before, as even the weakest cultivator had much greater stamina than mortals, making them the kings of the Endless Sword Continent.

As he was happily walking on the trail, which was commonly used for trade, he heard voices from over the hill. Thinking it was just another company of merchants, Li Zhu continued on, yet before he knew it, he heard an aggressive voice, yelling "You are surrounded, give us your belongings and we will spare you from death!"

As that voice rang out, many big men appeared from the bushes around the trail, all holding various weapons, including rusty swords, big machetes and most of all, wooden clubs.

'What an interesting sight... let's have some fun'