Knowing More

After laying down on the bed for a while, Shi Li eventually became bored, deciding to find some things to do while he was waiting for the pain relieving ointment to come. According to his mother, once he had applied the pain relieving ointment on the spots that ached, he was allowed to move freely once again.

With that in mind, he limited himself to the confines of his room for now, finally realizing how important his mother was to the previous owner. Rummaging through the previous owner's memories while he was in bed, it seemed that because he had an illness, almost everyone in the clan did not pay attention to him or thought that he did not exist at all. The only exception to this was his mother.

Since the only person that cared for him was his mother, the previous owner made it his life goal to make sure that his mother was always happy whenever she saw him, always giving off a positive personality. However, with another person's soul taking on his body, it was uncertain if he would still keep it up.

Nevertheless, since he now knew how important his mother was to the previous owner, Shi Li muttered to himself, "Don't worry. I may not be able to emulate your happy-go-lucky personality all the time, but I won't make your mother sad. Perhaps, it's better to call her our mother."

Making a promise to himself, he then looked around the room once more, finally noticing a few books stacked on top of one another on a desk. Beside it was a dull gray crystal, which Shi Li decided to not touch for now, lest it was something that harmed him.

Picking up the first book on the pile, he then looked at its title, thankful that the previous owner's memories allowed to become fluent with the language. "The Territory of Huangdao County."

Opening up the book and reading through its pages, he finally obtained an idea as to where he was located and how big the world was compared to where he was. According to what was mentioned in the book, he was currently in the town of Sanshan, which he already knew thanks to the previous owner's memories. However, the town of Sanshan was being ruled by a city called Wushan, which also ruled over a few more towns.

Above Wushan City was Huangdao County, which ruled over 20 cities in total, forming quite a large territory. Although he was somewhat curious as to how big the world truly was compared to Earth, learning these things was more than enough for him, getting the feeling that it would take a long time for him to eventually go beyond Huangdao County.

Placing the book about territories on the side, he then took a look at the next book on the pile, which had the words "The Basics of Cultivation" on it. Seeing these words, he could not help but have a light smile on his face, which soon disappeared as he remembered how he had an illness that plagued his body. Nevertheless, he still opened it up, wondering what the world of cultivation was like in this place.

Since the book only tackled the basics, it did not have a lot of information on all of the realms of cultivation there were. At most, it only tackled two realms for the two paths of cultivation that existed: internal cultivation and external cultivation.

For internal cultivation, the first realm was the Acupoint Breaking Realm wherein one had to unlock a certain number of spots in their body in order to be able to absorb qi and enter the next realm, the Meridian Opening Realm. Although he wanted a bit more detail on the realms as he felt like the descriptions of the two were lackluster, he moved onto the external cultivation part of the book.

Surprisingly, external cultivation was slightly more detailed, with the first realm being called the Body Tempering Realm. Although it was called the Body Tempering Realm, it was actually split into three major stages, Skin Tempering, Muscle Tempering, and Bone Tempering. After reach the limit of Bone Tempering, one would eventually break through the next realm, the Body Refining Realm. Just like the description on the Meridian Opening Realm, it only talked about the general idea of the realm, so he moved onto the next and final part of the book.

Since the first two parts tackled the two paths of cultivation, the final part of the book instead tackled the various cultivation aptitudes a person might have. Even though it could be enhanced through certain methods like eating fruits and pills according to the book, the initial cultivation aptitude of the person still dictated how far they could reach.

Unfortunately for Shi Li, it only explained the first three levels of cultivation aptitude, which were Wood, Stone, and Iron. According to the book, those with Wood-level aptitude would find their limit at the beginning of the second realm for both paths, while those with Stone-level aptitude had the chance to reach its peak. As for those with Iron-level aptitude, it was said that they had no problems traversing the first two realms, even going beyond and reaching the third realm of cultivation for both paths.

After closing the book, Shi Li then looked at the dull gray crystal that was placed beside the previous stack of books. Finally knowing what it was as he muttered, "An aptitude crystal. I wonder what kind of aptitude this body has?"

Recalling what he read from the book, he tightly gripped on the aptitude crystal as a few strands of energy started to be released from the crystal, which soon circulated throughout the body. After putting up with a slightly uncomfortable sensation, the strands of energy headed back to the crystal, allowing him to find out his aptitude. However, when he looked at the number of strands on the crystal, he could not help but sigh, muttering, "Wood-level aptitude, huh."

Inside the crystal were just three tiny strands of energy, signifying that he had Wood-level aptitude. Those that had four to six strands had Stone-level aptitude, while those that had seven strands and above had Iron-level aptitude. At this point, Shi Li finally had an idea as to why the previous owner was being shunned by his family clan. The fact that he had the lowest level aptitude and an illness on top of that, it was unsurprising for one to arrive at such a conclusion.

With one last book on the pile left unread, he went ahead and picked it up, reading its title as he muttered, "The Various Defects of a Human." Opening the book, he soon noticed that the book went quite into a lot of detail regarding the various illnesses a person might have, as well as the possible cures for it.

As he continued to read the book, he eventually noticed that the owner had encircled two specific illnesses, making Shi Li scratch his head as he asked himself, "Imperfect Body and Imperfect Meridians?"

While reading the description on the two illnesses, Shi Li went ahead and rummaged through the previous owner's memories once more, eventually finding out as to why the two illnesses were encircled in the book. As it turns out, wanting to make his mother proud, the previous owner tried picking up cultivation back then, only to progress only a quarter as fast as other people that also had Wood-level aptitude.

After a bit of searching, the previous owner found out that he had those two illnesses, Imperfect Meridians and Imperfect Body. In fact, even the doctor that took a look at him also said that he had these two illnesses, prompting the family clan that shunned him before to shun him even more.

"Imperfect Meridians: An illness that reduces the capability of the body to absorb qi by a great amount. Can be relieved with a Tier 0 or Tier 1 Meridian Widening Pill. Can be cured with a Tier 2 Meridian Cleansing Pill."

"Imperfect Body: An illness that reduces the capability of the body to retain the improvement of muscles and other parts by a great amount. Can be relieved with a Tier 0 or Tier 1 Stone Body Pill. There are no records of Imperfect Body having been cured."

As he closed the final book, lying down in bed once more, Shi Li had finally realized one thing.

"Man…if I ever plan to start cultivating, I'm already multiple steps behind the others," he muttered. "I am seriously fucked."