2 Chapter 2: Frustration

As he walks to the book shelves in the store after handing over Nina to Uncle Chad, his eyes roamed through the tomes and books that lined up on the shelves, trying to find some material to remedy his problem. He randomly took out a book from the shelves and noticed that the book was titled {Common Medicinal Plants Encyclopedia}. He sat at the table provided for reading in the middle of the hall, and flipped through the pages absentmindedly. as he looked at the illustrations of the plants, his thoughts wandered to his current and first predicament after he came to this world.

You see, this world revolves around Spirit Energy. Everything in this world was related to Spirit Energy in one way or other. When he first regained his consciousness, his first thought was that his experiment has gone wrong and he was hospitalized, as he could not even open his eyes let alone move his body.

But as the time passed by, the revelation of his condition brought an immense shock to his scientific mind. He had somehow travelled, or should I say, his consciousness and memories travelled from Earth to this new world, and he was reborn as a baby. The shock was so extreme that his mind simply stopped working altogether.

But as they say, man's best gift is to adapt and live. After the shock passed with the flow of time, he came to a conclusion that this situation came as a result of his crazy experiment he tried to perform. But he couldn't find an answer as to why do this happen. He felt as though his memories grew fuzzy the more he tried to remember them.

So, he tried to adjust to his new surroundings, thinking that with his intellect and scientific knowledge, he can start a new life in this world.

But the next shock came to him when he was introduced to the training regime along with other children of his generation. His mind reeled and his eyes popped out, as he saw a 35 year old person, introduced as their training instructor, lifted a huge rock that weighed, that was according to his estimation, around 2000 pounds, with a single hand.

Then he came to know about the living conditions of this world. This world has no scientific advancement, none so ever. This world focuses more on arousing the human potential by absorbing what they call 'Spirit Energy' into the human body. As the body absorbs more and more energy, the human being breaks through the shackles of mortality and attains a higher form of life.

Even Immortality can be achieved. Yes, True Immortality, the never before reached target of countless scientists and philosophers back on Earth. But it can be achieved here in this world. But there are several conditions to reach that stage.

As he learned more and more of this world, the more he wanted to explore this world. The more he learned, the more his excitement grew. He was a scientist back on Earth. Even though his surroundings changed, his body changed, his mind was still his. This situation he was in was a heaven sent gift to anyone with a mind to explore the unknown. And he was the king of those kinds of people.

But he knew that he can't act rashly, so he focused more on trying to find out more of this world he was in. but the more he read, the more shocked he became. This world is f***ing HUGE. That is the only word he can use to describe this world.

Back on Earth, even though no one can declare that they have explored every nook and corner of the world, but at least we can say with certainty that they knew about the dimensions of the world they reside in. but this world was never completely explored, or more accurately, the part the human population managed to explore is only a part of the whole of this world.

This piece of news further fuelled his excitement, and he threw himself with renewed vigor into the training of his family's new generation. His body grew along with his training and his strength. He was amazed at the changes he was undergoing but he knew that the major change will be at the Spirit Awakening Ceremony, when his Spirit will be manifested along with his potential.

As per the books he scourged in the library, he came to know that the cultivators in this world are divided into 10 Realms. But only the first 4 Realms were recorded along with the corresponding stages within each Realm. The first 4 realms are named Spirit Novice, Spirit Sense, Spirit Condensation, and Spirit Core. Each Realm till the Spirit Condensation was divided into 4 stages, Beginner, Intermediate, Top and Peak. The Beginner to Top stages was comprised of 3 levels each, making a total of 9 levels for each Realm. Only the Peak stage exists without any further division and it exists as an intermediary stage to the next Realm.

The next 6 realms are not available in the public records of the library. It makes a sense in a way, as the general public was not interested in the stages of Cultivation. As such even if one of the common people understands the Cultivation Techniques made public by the Empire, they can join any faction or Academy after they exhibit a certain talent in their Cultivation. So, there exists no need for the advanced knowledge of the Cultivation Realms to be made public.

The Spirit Novice Realm is the preparatory stage for the process of Spirit Awakening. It trains the body to be able to bear the burden of Awakening of the Spirit as it deals a heavy pressure on both the body and soul. There exists 10 stages of the Novice Realm, and each stage corresponds to a particular organ of the body.

The first stage refines the skin, the second stage for the muscles, the third stage deals with tendons and ligaments, the fourth stage cleanses blood and the fifth stage strengthens the inner organs. The sixth to ninth stages of the Novice Realm concentrates on integrating each of the refined organ as a whole and it directly upgrades the human body to a whole new level, as each and every fiber of the body exists in perfect coordination with each other. The last stage opens up the Spirit Meridians to allow the influx of the Spirit Energy they can sense after the Awakening process.

Only after one reaches the 10th level of the Spirit Novice Realm, can they undergo the Awakening Process to manifest their Spirit.

He progressed smoothly through the first 5 stages of the Spirit Novice Realm as he has a general understanding of the human anatomy, when compared to the clueless children he trained with. He only met some problem with the final four stages as there was no shortcut to this integration process, but it still was pretty easy for him to advance. As such he was regarded as a little genius of his generation and his family encouraged him by providing him with various rejuvenating medicinal baths and cleansing herbs.

But it all ended when he underwent the Spirit Awakening Process at the age of 8 years. As he sat in the Awakening Hall of the Family, he suddenly felt a rush of Energy into his body. That energy rushing through his body felt familiar and foreign at the same time. As it congregated in the middle of his body, he sensed awareness in his body being awakened.

As soon as that awareness awoke, a loud roar reverberated throughout his entire being. He felt a kind of familiarity with whatever that has Awakened and he knew that that was his Spirit. But before he could rejoice in the success of his Awakening, suddenly he felt cut off from the Spirit. A sense of loneliness suddenly assaulted his consciousness the moment he was cut off from the Spirit.

He suddenly opened his eyes and in his hands was a rock the size of an ostrich egg. He could feel the same sense of the familiarity he felt in his consciousness, with the rock in his hand. He felt saddened by the fact that his future potential has ended right this moment, but he felt sadder that this rock in his hands lost its chance to step into this world. And he also disappointed that he couldn't explore the world as he wanted to.

He knew that this world was different from the Earth he knew. This world has no rules, no government, and no laws that ensure basic human rights. In this world only strength matters, as long as you have sufficient strength or have a support of such power, you can basically do anything. And that means literally anything. You can trample on other people, violate them and even kill them. No one will point their fingers to you as long as you have the strength to intimidate them.

To advance into the Spirit Sense Realm, one has to Awaken their Spirit. After the Spirit manifests, they have to form a kind of bridge with their Spirit through their consciousness or Soul as they call it. The 'Soul Bridge' is the basic foundation of the Cultivator, as only through this bridge can one can sense the Spirit Energy in the atmosphere. And with his Petrified Spirit, Azalon have no chance to form a Soul Bridge.

It has been 2 years from that day. Him being at the peak of the Spirit Novice Realm and with his Petrified Spirit, he was told that he can never sense the Spirit Energy of the Heaven and Earth and advance to the Spirit Sense Realm, the first step into the world of the Cultivation. He tried and tried numerous times to feel the Spirit Energy he was told to exist everywhere between the sky and earth. As long as he could feel the Energy, he could absorb the Energy into his body, and officially step into the Spirit Sense Realm.

The strange thing he felt as he tried to sense the Spirit Energy is that he could feel a kind of Energy in his surroundings. It was like an ocean of that Energy right around him, but whenever he tried to guide that energy into his body, the energy will not even budge no matter what he did. He felt as if he was living in an air bubble within an ocean of water. No matter what happened, the air bubble will stay separated from the vast amount of water outside its boundary. It was the same situation with him. No matter what he did, he couldn't pierce that bubble to allow that water called Spirit Energy to reach him.

With his main plan for the world exploration ruined, he turned to other plans. Weapons. With his memories of scientifically advanced Earth, he was sure that he could make some arms and ammunition that can ensure his safety on the road. But he was met with other disappointment. You see, with the dense amount of Spirit Energy in the atmosphere, even the normal rocks change their structural composition by absorbing the abundant Energy in the air and earth.

And if the rocks can be like that, you don't have to talk about the metal ores and their condition. Even the normal metals available in this world are several times resilient than the metals back on Earth, and they only become malleable, when dealt with Spirit Energy. The traditional methods of heating and pounding on the metal will never work on these kinds of metals. And even that needs various kinds of requirements in affinity and Sensitivity, making the price of such professionals' sky high. Not to mention the risk of exposing his blueprints of guns and bullets to this world. He doesn't want to risk his neck for a gun that he doesn't have the confidence that it would be enough to deal with those super – human existences roaming through this world.

And don't even talk about the advancement of chemistry and physics. If the rocks and metals can evolve, the minerals and plants came as a no surprise, along with the requirements of those professions. Even poison and chemicals are not an option. God, I am so frustrated with this world. It's like being in the middle of a city with all kinds of advanced gadgets and equipment in your house, but without any kind of access to Electricity.

'Why, why is this shit happening to me? I just want to roam the world exploring new places and researching all kinds of things, eventually finding out the reason as to why he came to this world in the first place. I am a scientist, goddammit and I can't do a thing here.' He moaned in his heart in frustration as he thought about his condition…