A New Beginning

After the couple left, Wang jiaohua had a questioning expression.

"You know that rock is useless right?, you just got scammed"

Li Pingjun shrugged his shoulders without a care in the world.

"so you're here for the usual?" Wangjiaohua asked.

"No, I wanted to ask if there is a top sect that's recruiting. I don't even have to be a disciple, a handy man works too." Li Pingjun said with a serious face.

Although on the surface Wang Jiaohua is just a pawn shop owner, he actually had a lot of connections with all kinds of people. His information network is also not something to joke about.

"Why?, you're age is already way beyond the requirements for new disciples. And being a handyman is not worth it man." Wang jiaohua had a confused look on his face.

Li Pingjun had a gloomy look on his face, "If I only stay here, I'm just gonna rot in this place, at least if I go somewhere where a lot of powerhouses reside, I might have the opportunity to jump over the dragon's gate."

"Those kinds of things only happen in novels, In the real world your chances of that happening is very slim" Wang jiaohua explained to him.

"Whatever man, just tell me if there's a way for me to enter a top sect, whatever I may be"

"You're very adamant about this" Wang Jiaohua said with a wry smile, He continued.

"If you don't mind doing anything, The Thousand Blood sect is looking for people to be used on experiments" Wang Jiaohua said with a smile.

"f*ck , do you want me to die!?" Li Pingjun said angrily.

"At least find a humane top sect" Li Pingjun continued.

Wang Jiaohua snorted. "You think a top sect is that easy to get into?, even as a handyman it's not that easy!"

"Fine, fine. What about a place where a lot of geniuses come to?" Li Pingjun said with a weak smile.

"Well, if we're talking about that. The annual competition of top sects is coming up in a few months." Wang jiaohua said after thinking a little bit.

"And where will it be held?" Li Pingjun said excitedly.

"At the top of mount Gaoda" Wang Jiaohua said.

Li Pingjun had heard of that mountain before, it would take him about 2 months to get there by foot. He was excited, as a competition for all the top sect all kinds of geniuses will convene there. Indeed Li Pingjun's plan to get stronger was to gather all kinds of heaven defying abilities he could borrow.

As he was getting excited to become stronger, Wang Jiaohua said something.

"But you need to pay an entrance fee if you want to spectate the matches"

"What?, how much?" Li Pingjun said with a blank face.

"150 spirit stones" Said Wang jiaohua flatly.

"WHAT!?, that's outrageous!" li Pingjun was surprised.

"It's not that weird actually, They just don't want any Tom, Dick, and Harry attending the competition, I heard you can even join the competition itself for a large sum of spirit stones. it could be a chance for the top sects to notice you." Wang Jiaohua explained.

Li Pingjun was speechless, It's a good thing that he had Cui Yan's ability to hunt for spiritual beasts, if it was before there was no way he could have saved up that amount of money before the competition starts. But it would also be suspicious if he were to bring a large amount of spiritual beasts materials.

"So? are you actually going there?" Wang Jiaohua asked as Li Pingjun was deep in thought.

"Yeah, I'm going there, Thanks for the information" Li Pingjun said.

"Okay that will be 10 spirit stones for the information" Wang Jiaohua said as if pouring cold water on Li Pingjun's head.

"Uhhhh... I didn't know you charge for that" Li Pingjun scratched his head awkwardly, he continued.

"I just used up all my spirit stones for the rock" Li Pingjun was embarrassed.

Wang jiaohua's eye was twitching.

"Fine I'll put this on your tab" He said with exasperation

"Hehe... don't worry, I'll definitely pay for it in the coming days"

After that Li Pingjun bid his goodbye to Wang Jiaohua, on the way home he brought out the rock he just bought, The rock was smooth and round. Li Pingjun used Zhan Hua's physique transformation and tried crushing the rocks with both of his hands. With the strength he had now with the transformation, he would be able to crush rocks easily, yet the rock did not budge no matter how much strength he put into his hands.

Next he used Cui Yan's ability and saw that energy again, he felt a connection with the energy within this rock. Li Pingjun is confused as to why that is the case. His dantian had reacted when he saw that energy, he tried using his spiritual energy on the stone. Immediately after his energy touched the stone, it was sucked in, the stone took a bit of his spiritual energy and stopped.

The stone reacted to his spiritual energy but only for a little bit, Li Pingjun became engrossed in thought, he felt that it had something to do with his cultivation manual and his cultivation base. But he couldn't put a finger into why it is like that.

Not getting anywhere, Li Pingjun put away the rock and his thoughts about it to the back of his head. It was extremely opportune that he found a rock that he felt a connection with, the possibility of this happening is improbable!.

Li Pingjun squinted his eyes and looked at the sky, he felt SUSpicious.

An hour later he arrived back at his home. Li Pingjun sat down on his bed and he took out a pill bottle, it was the pill bottle given to him by Zhan Hua, the pill inside is a precious pill that helps in breakthroughs in the water gathering stage.

Li Pingjun wanted to breakthrough to 3rd stage of water gathering in one go, that's why he bought all that qi strengthening pills to get to peak of 2nd stage water gathering. With the puritiy of the pills, he would not need to expel the impurities through his ***.

A stronger cultivation will definitely help him later on in his journey to mount gaoda. Without waiting any further, Li Pingjun sat crossed legged and put a qi strengthening pill into his mouth, which immediately melted into his stomach.

A burst of Spiritual energy he never experienced from the trash pills appeared, it felt amazing. Li Pingjun focused on cultivating to the peak of 2nd stage using all the pills that he had. After the sun has set, he finally used up the 9 pills, he had reached the peak of 2nd stage water gathering only after a few hours.

Li Pingjun once again felt the unfairness of the world, the privilaged could just eat pills and wondrous treasures like there's no tomorrow to become an expert. Li Pingjun sighed, after he calmed his heart he took out the pill Zhan Hua gave him.

Li Pingjun became serious, he put the pill in his mouth which melted instantly, He felt a strong heat in his dantian, the heat spread throughout his body, his spiritual energy moved faster. Li Pingjun controlled the rampant spiritual energy in his body acording to the tree of life manual to breakthrough the wall that is 3rd stage of water gathering.

As time passed, the wall was broken down bit by bit, after 20 minutes a muffled explosion is heard from his dantian, impurities was expelled through his pores, his spiritual energy became more abundant as his dantian enlarged. He felt stronger and his life force became stronger. Li Pingjun let out a mist of spiritual energy through his mouth.

"I've finally broken through!" Said Li Pingjun with excitement.

After he said that, he felt a buzz in his sleeves, it was the rock he bought in the afternoon, he brought it out and looked at it. Li Pingjun used his spiritual energy again, and this time the rock took more energy than before but stopped all the same. It seemed his cultivation base is not high enough to uncover the secrets of this rock. Li Pingjun disregarded the rock after thinking about this a little bit.

He went to the river to wash the impurities away, at the same time he caught his dinner for today. After bathing and eating, he mused about his ability. When he first got this ability, he would pass out after using it at 2nd stage of water gathering he only became sleepy after using it. Li Pingjun predicted that he should be able to stay awake even after using it now. With that thought, Li Pingjun prepared for tomorrow and went to bed.

For the next few days, Li Pingjun began hunting like a madman in the forest, he hunted all kinds of spiritual beasts as well as gather many kinds of low levelled spiritual herbs, he sold his spoils to many stores in order to evade suspicions.

He had managed to scrape up about 250 spirit stones for the entrance fee and also for funds on the road. He packed necessary goods, clothes and his belongings in his backpack. Now he is ready to go on a journey, he went to Wang Jiaohua's pawn shop to bid his goodbyes and to also pay his debt to him.

As soon as Li Pingjun went inside, Wang Jiaohua noticed him since there was nobody in the store. Noticing the backpack, Wang Jiaohua knew what that means.

"So you're finally going" he said

"Yeah, I'm here to pay my debt to you" Li Pingjun voiced out.

Li Pingjun gave the 10 spirit stones to Wang Jiaohua,

"I'll be going now, I hope we will meet again" Li Pingjun said.

"Yeah, be careful out there" Wang Jiaohua said with a smile.

"May fortune keep coming your way brother!" Li Pingjun clasped his hand and said to Wang Jiaohua.

"Likewise!" Wang Jiaohua said the same.

After that Li Pingjun left the store without looking back, he felt that it will be along time before he is able to meet with Wang Jiaohua again, if ever. He walked toward the western gate of the city, after about 30 minutes he walked out of the city.

Looking at the road ahead of him, Li Pingjun felt a rush of excitement about what the future has in store for him. He took his first step toward his new beginning, with determination.