All According to Plan (Part 2) [Revised]

Okay, I'm done moping around. Time to get some sh*t done. Since I'm currently naked on a boat, I should probably start with the first step of my master plan: reaching Hollow Core stage. And while we're at it, let's give some context to what that means.

Alright, story time! A long time ago, in a realm far far away, there was a land filled with vast mountains that touched the skies and seas that were deep enough to reach the abyss, a world where humans sought the path towards ascension. Can you guess what place I'm talking about? Ding ding ding, that's right, its the Mountains and Seas Realm, where I spent 500 years of life as a cultivator.

I learned a lot there, but honestly speaking those years kinda screwed me over. In fact, sometimes I wonder about my own sanity, and whether or not it was all a delusion or dream. Damn, that was depressing.

Whatever, if there is one thing I've learned over the years, it's that regardless of how depressed you are, there is likely someone out there who got screwed over way worse than you. So learn to take pleasure in the misfortune of that unknown person (or animal, I won't judge), and then quickly grow stronger so that you can kill whatever it is that's bothering you.

Sigh, went on a tangent again. Anyways, despite my loss of cultivation it wasn't like I was starting from nothing. Taking stock of my resources, I had not only 500 years of cultivation experience, but also possessed a pretty good amount of top-grade techniques.

Now, what were my disadvantages? First and foremost, the natural talent of my body. While I was by no means a complete waste in terms of potential, I was far from being a genius either.

This severely narrowed my options in terms of what cultivation techniques I could utilize, since even if I picked some peerless skill like Luck Sealing Scripture I wouldn't have the time to cultivate it properly.

Furthermore, most of my 500 years of experience was devoted to refining my killing techniques and dark rituals, so my skill level in categories such as alchemy and non-combat magical powers could only be considered proficient at best.

That's without mentioning the various hidden dangers that have accumulated over time within my soul as a result of my reckless learning of various forms of forbidden skills and cultivation techniques.

Last but not least, I currently had no information in regards to what spiritual materials were present and available to me on Earth, as my memory of this place is somewhat sketchy.

While not exactly an inhibitor towards my growth, consuming these materials could help me immensely during the earlier stages of cultivation. Which reminds me, I should probably introduce the levels of Ascendancy.

Energy Gathering to plant the seed, Essence Refining to break the shell, Astral Aura to protect the Sprout, Spirit Manifestation to grow the tree, Hollow Core to see the flowers, Core Synthesis to produce the fruit, Form Sublimation to ripen the fruit, and the Spirit Circle that ties it all together.

These are the 8 phases of Ascendant cultivation, and my first course of action should be to reach the Energy Gathering Stage (or as I like to call it the Rice Bucket Stage*).

This stage is real pain in the ass, mainly because it wastes way to much time and yields almost no benefit.

The process consists of absorbing ambient Spiritual Energy and storing it in the chest, until enough is gathered to form a Manastone. Which does jack-shit.

Seriously, when I first started cultivating I wasted like 9-10 years just to condense a meta-physical rock that did nothing but sit there.

But Heaven never seals off all exits, and there are always ways to speed this process up. And the exit I just happen to know of is called the Burning Blood skill, a core technique of the Longevity Sect which does exactly what it sounds like.

This technique burns my lifespan and converts it into Pure Spiritual Energy, greatly speeding up the Energy Gathering process.

Granted the conversion rate is terrible (10 to 1, if I remember correctly, meaning that it's pretty much only good for the Energy Gathering Stage), but it will definitely save me a ton of cultivation time! Okay, lets begin!

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Gah, that f*cking HURTS! I forgot how painful this technique was. Seriously, it was like someone stuck a blowtorch under my skin and LITERALLY set my blood on fire. Even so, the results speak for themselves, as I now have a clear marble floating in the center of my rib cage. And all it cost me was 50 years of my life! What a deal! Now for the next step.

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(Told From a Third-Person View)

Captain Raquel Molotov was having a terrible month, and that was saying something considering her status as an infamous animal poacher. Despite the wealth of experience she had in her "field," even she would find it troublesome when her client told her to find -

"-a polar bear with red eyes! Seriously, how does that skinny motherf*cker expect us to find a (non-existent) God-damned polar bear with a feature that small! " She said in an exasperated tone, as her crew around her began shaking their heads in dismay.

When the Captain was first approached by her mysterious client to find a polar bear, she wasn't really too interested. That was, until she saw the briefcase full of crisp euros and the check promising 10 million more, just to find the animal. She was naturally elated of course, and the moment the transaction was concluded she gathered her men and set sail.

That's when things started to go wrong. First, their ship encountered a storm that blew them off course and damaged their hull, thus forcing them to retire early for repairs.

Then, upon reaching the North Pole their ship was caught in a random whirlpool, which they just barely managed to escape with a few casualties.

And to top that off, the client had suddenly shortened the deadline considerably, to the point where her crew had but a single month to capture the animal before the contract was void. So yeah, Captain Molotov was far from happy.

"And now we have to take care of some random guy we pulled out of the water," she muttered under her breath, recalling the strange man they had picked up earlier in the day. When she used her family relic to find a clue on what happened to Tony, she was not expecting to find a naked man in the middle of the ocean...but then again the heirloom had always been cryptic.

"I'll ask him a few more questions once he recovers," she thought to herself. After all, what was the worst that could happen if she left him alone?