Overcoming Obstacles & Encountering Chasms

In rural areas they learned how to count only to prevent getting ripped off when they sold or bought merchandise.

So, they remembered only addition and subtraction, letting the useless multiplications and divisions fade away in their minds.

Reading and writing required more time, but it was equally simple. Ryujin already knew most of the words and how to spell them.

He only needed to relearn all of it in the presence of his family, and once again, they were all stunned speechless.

And so, while his family considered him a genius, Ryujin knew better.

In the first place, he had needed to practice hard just to memorize just thirty letters and ten numbers, that did not seem brilliant to him, especially when one considered the treasures he had on him.

Nonetheless, Ryujin decided to strike while the iron is hot, and thus came up with a way to display his supposed brilliance without blowing his cover.

He asked Raja to carve out a wooden ruler for him; 50 centimeters in length, and 5 centimeters in thickness and width.

In the front he had engraved all the alphabet, on the back the numbers.

This not only served as Ryujin's crutch and weapon of practice, but he also gave it the guise of a tool necessary for him to be free of practicing anytime without bothering his parents.

Raja was still on cloud nine, so he didn't make any question about the oddly big sizes Ryujin had requested.

He could have easily made it much thinner and shorter, making it easier to carry around, but Ryujin's refused the proposal, begging him to fulfil his wish.

When the weather finally cleared up, Lin decided that it was the perfect moment for Jada to be checked out by a physician.

With all the cold and wind during those last days, no matter how much effort Shin and Raja put into the house's maintenance, it had still been kind of drafty; an aftermath of the destruction it had endured a few years ago.

Jada had been coughing enough for Lin to be seriously worried about her. So, she used the cart she usually took to the market, bringing Dara and Ryujin along.

The bad weather had lasted too long, and the accumulated farm work needed everyone's help to be finished before another frost wave arrived.

She felt the need to bring Ryujin along, as he was still too small to be left home alone in her opinion. After stuffing them with the warmer clothes they had, the trip began.

Ryujin was quite ecstatic; this was the first time he would be seeing the world outside the bounds of his home, and there was simply a lot for him to learn from such experience.

On the road they were bothered more than once by stray peeves . They were wasp like insects with a venomous sting at the end of their abdomen. Compared to Earth's wasps they were much hairier, and reddish instead of yellow.

"Why in the Great Nuwa's name are they still buzzing around?" Lin complained. "They are supposed to be asleep during winter!"

One peeve in particular proved too stubborn, and despite being shooed numerously, it kept coming back, but that was until it got too close to Dara for comfort.

Ryujin clapped hard, missing it entirely. He was still nimble as a brick, but his cultivation wasn't.

His mental sense had already reached a radius of twenty meters radius of effect, so the peeve was squashed effortlessly by the surge of Qi that rippled just after the clap.

Ryujin showed the prey with pride. "Fret not big sister, I will protect you."

After hugging him, Jada became really curious about the dead insect, but Lin, on the other hand, was even more wary about its venom, so upon throwing it away, she had Dara wash and clean off Ryujin's hands.

When they came in sight of village center, much of Ryujin's doubts got cleared.

It wasn't just his family, the whole village truly resembled one of those early middle-ages drawings he had seen in history books.

There was no sign of any overly complex technology, and even machines such as windmills or a watermills would have to be considered a marvel of science.

When Ryujin asked Lin about the village, she explained that only artisans, scholars and merchants lived there, the rest of the population lived in their own farms tending the fields and raising their livestock.

Coral Village consisted of about twenty two-story high wooden (and rarely coral marble) houses, all well-spaced between each other. Not even one was made out of stone or bricks.

There was also no road pavement of any sorts. The space between the houses was just like the road to the village, bare earth and mud.

From the signs hanged outside the buildings, Ryujin could spot a blacksmith, a tavern and a tailor shop.

The bakery didn't need any sign or advertisement, the delicious smell that came out its chimney was enough to make every passerby's mouth watery.

Lith's hunger stroke so hard that he already knew what he would have dreamed about that night.

When they arrived at the physician's house, Ryujin couldn't help but be surprised that it was bigger than their own, yet Lin had claimed that the woman lived alone.

Apparently, it was one of the midwives who had delivered Ryujin back then, her name; Ella.

However, to Ryujin, this meant that either Ella was from a rich family, or more likely healing was a lucrative business, and thus, he decided that he had to cultivate as soon as possible, to be able to make pills and potions.

The door was open, and inside Ryujin got a familiar feeling of a doctor's waiting room.

Inside there was a single huge room that smelled of medicinal herbs and incense.

To the left of the end of the room, was a door, probably leading to Ella's living quarters.

On the right however, hung a huge wide curtain, behind which Ella was visiting and treating her patients.

The rest of the space were filled with benches and chairs, and many of them were currently occupied.

Lin removed all the extra clothing from her children before instructing them to be quiet and not disturb others; not that they would anyways, but the question came as second nature to that of their surroundings.

The waiting room was filled with bored mothers, and soon Lin joined the chatting, sharing her experiences and advices with them.

She, just like Shin and Raja was just as popular based on their recent past experience, and the fact that they saw her way more often than they did the sworn brothers.

Furthermore, not only was she entrancingly beautiful (an eye candy), her unique hair color made her more of a people's favorite, even more than her husband and brother.

Ryujin realized he could wander around undisturbed, not that anyone would really notice, since the women were too busy keeping their children under control to take note of his existence.

The room was bare and uninteresting, but once he got close to the curtain he stumbled on a treasure. He found a small open cabinet, filled with books about alchemy, healing and surprisingly cultivation.

'Maybe it is this world's equivalent of a doctor decorating his office with his degrees, masters, and collection of research books.' He thought to himself.

Many of the titles were specific about certain pills and potions as well as their application, but one caught his eye immediately.

It had "The Tempered Body Anatomy" written on the cover. After checking that no one was paying him attention, Ryujin grabbed it and started reading.

"I'm only three years old, so I can afford to ask forgiveness than permission."

He muttered to himself as he moved to a quiet secluded corner, with his back turned to the curtain in hopes of going unnoticed for as long as possible.

It was clearly a book for beginners, so he skipped the introduction going straight for the part that defined and described the 'Tempered Body'.

From here, Ryujin discovered, that there were five stages to the body tempering realm, and that they all made use of herbs, pills or potion to improve, temper and strengthen this body parts.

These stages were; Organ Strengthening, Marrow Composting, Bone Forging, Tendon Condensing, and finally Skin Shedding.

However, just as he began to absorb these information, his Mystic Transformation Pupils suddenly came alive.

It absorbed every bit of recorded information and then sent them to the Origin Codex which in turn recorded, corrected, modified, and optimized the information, before relaying the perfect summary to Ryujin's mind.

From the relayed information, Ryujin was shocked when he realized that four more stages had been added to the initial five, and now, the codex had created a body tempering cultivation technique technique with nine levels, unique to only himself.

Each of these nine levels, and the pattern with which they had been intentionally arranged by the codex, was intent on evolving its user's body from the outside-in.

The body tempering sequence were in the following the order;

[1] Flesh; [2] Pores; [3] Veins; [4] Muscles; [5] Tendons; [6] Bones; [7] Tissues; [8] Blood, and finally; [9] Cells.

But as he continued to assimilate the cultivation technique, Ryujin suddenly began to break out in cold sweat.

Each of the cultivation process of this technique required him to use medicinal potions of specific and unique extreme attributes.

In order to train the preparatory phase of this technique alone, he would practically need an endless amount of herbs with fire attributed energy.

This meant he would either need to re-refine an endless amount of cheap medicinal pills and potions or refine a batch of money-guzzling ones.

The current financial state of his family meant he could only take the former route and even at that, the amount of herbs he would need to concoct these pills or potions were something beyond what his family could currently, muster even if they were given fifty percent discount.

But the most important questions storming his mind were;

Where would he even find these herbs or pills or potions?

If asked, what will he tell those around him he needed them for?

From whom will he get the money from?

And if impossible, how will he generate the funds by himself?

And finally; how could he achieve all of this without blowing his cover?

'Damn it! Just when I thought I had finally overcome the obstacle of finding any records about cultivation, I'm immediately faced with an abyssal chasm of requirements.' Ryujin thought to himself in exasperation.

Noticing he was getting too frustrated, Ryujin dropped the book and picked up one that was focused on healing.

The Mystic Transformation Pupils and Origin Codex had already compiled the best cultivation method for him, and so he didn't think he needed to study it deeper anymore.

While reading, it became clear to Ryujin that whoever had written the healing book in his grasp most definitely had no idea what the human anatomy was, or how it works, precisely.

The book would speak about the importance of keeping a wound clean, there was no use of terms like disinfection or sepsis, so he barely found unknown medical terms.

The author very clear stressed out the fact that he was not a cultivator, and that beginners should never bite more than they could chew.

The book was all about giving insights into the art of healing through hands-on methods.

It began with an exploration of fundamental concepts such as balance, harmony, and vitality, with strong emphasis on the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit in maintaining good health.

It also addressed the common ailments and injuries people encounter in their everyday life.

The traditional healing practices introduced by the author relied heavily on observation, intuition, and the use of herbs, pills and potions.

Some of the techniques he listed and explained were; massages, herbal remedies, poultices, and simple exercises designed to alleviate pain, improve mobility, and restore vitality.

The book also contained practical guidance on assessing and treating various conditions, using the simple tools and resources that are readily available in backwater settlements such as Coral Village.

It even went a step further to illustrate the effectiveness of these methods using several case studies and anecdotes.

Restoring broken bones was more difficult, and was explained at the latter pages of the book.

He was about to turn the page and learn about them when a firm hand squeezed his shoulder, locking him into place.

"That's not a toy, young man. I really hope that you have not damaged it, otherwise your family will have pay for it dearly." A voice said from behind.