14 Choice

At the mansion's gate, there was no one to guard the gate. The gate was more than 15 meters long and around a meter thick. No human with ordinary strength could push it open alone.

Qi followed Serene in a dazed state. He noticed her taking out a crystal which was shining dimly. It flew up in the air and merged into the gate. The gate opened shortly.

Once again Qi was in a shocked state.

'WTH is going on! Can someone explain to me?'

As if like the gods heard him complain, Serene, answered his questioning and shocked look, "It's magic, you know."

Qi laughed awkwardly and said in a self-deprecating manner, "Haha. I can see that. Well, whatever I learned is all for naught in the land of magic I guess."

"Hey, don't be sad. There is so much to learn and it can be fun. It's not like you are old enough to die yet." she cheered him up a little.

She continued, "Let's go inside and meet my mom. She will know something that can help you."

And they stepped inside the gate.

It was a whole new experience for Qi. It felt like a whole village was staying here. People all around were gazing at Qi, but when they saw Serene, they all turned jolly.

It was like a market.

'Quite an imagination right there. A market in a mansion, Haha.' Qi laughed out. But then it hit him. 'Why not outside the mansion?'

He didn't inquire for the fear of incurring someone's wrath in this unknown land.

'Better to be safe than sorry.'

Soon they entered the mansion and went to the top floor. There were only a few rooms here but they all looked pretty big. They went to the last room in the corridor. When they reached the door, it opened automatically. They both entered with Serene leading him in. The room was quite big. Qi looked around and found out that it was not a bedroom, it was more like a living room with a big desk at the side of the room. Qi was unable to find out which material the desk was made of.

There was a beautiful lady sitting on the other side of the desk. She looked in her 30s. Although she was not old, she exuded an aura of a wisdom, like a sage. Qi couldn't understand how could Serene's mother be so much young.

The young lady's countenance changed to one of happiness when she saw Serene. And then frowned a little when she saw Qi. She already found out through her senses that there was a person following her daughter. If he had ill intentions, he would have been dead a long time ago.

Looking at his somewhat surprised appearance, she looked at Serene questioningly and asked, "Who is he? And why is he acting so surprised?"

Qi disappointedly thought, no welcome and all questions.

"He is someone from the outside, mom" Serene said enthusiastically.

As soon as the beautiful lady heard that, there was s look of shock in her eyes and she disappeared from their vision and teleported behind Qi and asked in a solemn voice, "Give me a reason not to kill you."

Pitiful Qi. What did he see in the morning that made his day so bad? Now he was attacked by someone who he just met.

He was scared. Although he looked calm on the outside, he was scared. Come on, who wouldn't be scared if you haven't seen anyone teleport in your whole life and someone whom you just met do that, moreover just to kill you.

Thankfully Serene was just beside him and stopped her mom from doing anything and explained what happened today.

The lady calmed down and went back to her seat and listened to her. Soon she had a look of grievance. She didn't even know her husband's fate. What a tragic life she had. After she learned about what happened outside, she knew that Qi was the link to redeem what was lost and to save the future.

She decided to let him enter the cultivation world. In the end, the more powerful he was, the more hope they had of leaving this Hidden Realm and explore the whole wide universe.

"I am sorry about what happened earlier. I almost lost my senses when I heard that you are someone from outside. I thought that you were here to wipe us all out. First of all, thank you for saving my little treasure. I don't know what I would have done if she died. Now that I know what happened, I can send you back to outside."

After hearing that he could go outside, he was pretty happy. Before he could say that he wanted to go out right now, the lady put a question in front of him that would be the changing point of his life.

She continued seriously, "I will only ask you one time. Please answer carefully. This chance, I am only willing to give you because you saved my daughter. No conditions attached. Are you willing to Cultivate to oppose the heavens and become an Immortal? Are you willing to shed the shackles holding you back in the Mortal state? Are you willing to join the ranks of us Cultivators who are on the path to becoming Immortals? Remember the path will be full of dangers and these dangers won't be ordinary. One misstep and you will vanish."

What a vibrant shock QI got! He stood like he was petrified by Medusa. Now everything made sense. When he came here, he heard Serene talk about cultivation level and that he was cultivating there. He discarded it as some rubbish back then. Then he witnessed the flying sword. After that, at the gate, he saw the crystal and how the gate opened magically. After that, he saw Serene's mother teleporting right behind himself. Add the story of how he found the Hidden Realm, he would be the world's biggest idiot if he couldn't figure out what is going on. This whole world, the Shou World was a Cultivation World, where all kinds of races cultivate to become Immortals. He didn't know what exactly happened to Serene's homeworld, but he could figure it out that they started cultivating on this world for sure. If everything he thought was correct, wouldn't that mean that all the Gods on earth were Immortals or were cultivating to be Immortals? Wouldn't that mean that the Trishula he had in his hand was a part of Cultivation World? Wouldn't that mean that someone was pulling strings on Earth just to get people to cultivate? He wasn't sure of the last question though. Then he thought about his brothers and that lady who saved them in the sea. They were teleported from the danger before she vanished. Is this related? There were so many things he wanted to ask her, but she wasn't present to answer him.

Serene's voice woke him up from his petrified state. She saw here waving her hands in front of him. "Hello! Wake up, sleepyhead!"

He decided to start cultivating. Although he had quite an advantage over average humans and in the game world, so what? It's not like it would help him get answers. Strength speaks everything. If he has more strength, he could find out who was behind this game world.

Seems like his bad luck turned into unexpected good luck.

"Yes. I am willing to cultivate." He didn't say much and neither did he promised anything. In the end, he was just an ant right now. His promises were worth next to nothing as of now. But he will remember this gratitude. He was not someone who could overlook gratitude. That is what he has learned from his culture.

The lady saw that he didn't promise anything. It was a little test she gave to him for a long term. If he was grateful then he would be helpful in the future. If he was an idiot, he would die on the path to cultivate. If he was ungrateful, well she couldn't do anything about that. She would just raise her wall against him. In the end, he did save her daughter. On the path of cultivation, the heart needs to be free from all restraints to reach the stage of Immortal.

On the side, Serene was into her own thoughts. The moment Qi saved her, she made a place for him in her heart. It was a kind of respect with a tinge of love. He was the knight who saved the princess in the end. She observed him and decided that she will help him on the path of cultivation.

No one had any idea what the other two were thinking. Qi could feel the lady's sincerity about her inviting him to enter the Cultivation World.

"So you will need to stay here for few days. We will have to teach you all about cultivating, what cultivation levels are there, how to cultivate and some basic knowledge which is required by all cultivators. You wouldn't mind staying here right?" the lady asked.

"About that. Could you give me a day? I need to make preparations on my homeworld so that my mom doesn't fly into a rage and complain the cops that I went missing for few days." he said awkwardly.

He asked, "Could I teach these stuff to my trusted friends in the future?"

The lady frowned and said seriously, "We won't allow anyone to spread cultivation manuals and stuff about cultivation to anyone else. But if you find something that we didn't give you then you could pass it on to your friends. It is not that we are purposefully restriction you. It is our sects principle that we all have to follow. I will have to warn you that you can't pass the knowledge you learn here to anyone else."

'And there goes the plan of helping my friends, into the drain.'

"Rest assured, I won't spread it around. Can you send me back? I will be here in the evening tomorrow for sure." Qi said.

The lady nodded and rapidly created some hand seals. In a matter of seconds, Qi vanished from there and returned to the spot where he saw the cave. Now that he looked for the cave, it wasn't there. He marked the spot on his map now that he could connect with the game system again. And then he hurriedly logged off.

His mom was waiting for him with angry looks.

'Seems like some beating was around the corner.'

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