Chapter 9: Complete Reconstruction

"Argh!"

The next thing I knew, I was breaking the surface of the hot spring and gasping for air. Warm water dripped down from my face in rivulets, splashing against the now dark red pool. Looking around, disorientated, I stood straight up and gradually allowed my senses to recover.

For a moment, I couldn't remember anything. Then the memory of excruciating pain returned like a knife and I shuddered. Fortunately, that was replaced by relief when I realized that the agony was gone. There were several slight aches throughout my body, but they were fading away swiftly.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused. To my delight, I could feel the qi flowing coherently around my body once more, no longer leaking out of my ruptured meridians. I could once again gather my qi in my restored dantian and control the mystical energies that allowed me to execute arcane techniques passed down through several generations of cultivators.

Wanting to confirm the restoration of my cultivation, I coalesced my qi into a single projectile. It was a very simple maneuver, a technique I often carried out to construct my energy arrows. A sleek, thin arrow formed in my hands, light as a feather yet as deadly as a bullet. I was overjoyed to see the familiar azure qi that shone brilliantly on my palms. It felt like an eternity since I had last conjured an arrow.

"Yes! I'm back!"

At that instance, the system appeared in the form of a window.

-Congratulations to the user. Quest completed. Upon bathing in the hot springs of Di Yu Mountain range and surviving the excruciating ordeal, the user has regained his cultivation. –

"Thanks to you." I dismissed the azure arrow and clenched and opened my fists, testing my body. There didn't seem to be any side effects. "I feel a lot better than before."

-That is natural. Earlier, this system mentioned that your body will be reconstructed from scratch at the cellular level. Not only that, your qi should be purified and refined over and over again when you were soaking in the hot spring. The impurities in your blood have been squeezed out and constantly replaced by the vital essence of the hot spring. –

"Oh, so that explains why there's so much blood around me." I studied the red fluids that bubbled, even as they slowly diluted and disappeared, converted by the potent qi that saturated the waters. I shuddered at the sight. I didn't know there was so much blood in my body. Then I realized something. "You are right, I feel more robust than ever. But…if this hot spring is so good, then why doesn't everyone take a bath in it? Surely removing impurities and strengthening one's constitution would benefit their cultivation greatly, right?"

-While the hot spring does have the miraculous effect of purifying one's qi and strengthening one's constitution, it also will result in resetting the cultivator's cultivation base back to the starting point because it reconstructs the entire body at the cellular level. As such, it is only useful for those who have their meridians and dantian destroyed. –

That made a lot of sense. The purification of one's qi was simply not worth the loss of several years – and in some cases, decades – training, experience and growth. I wouldn't want to lose my yellow-ranked cultivation base either if I could help it, even if I could refine, purify and enhance my qi constitution. I had invested far too much into attaining that previous level.

Well, this was probably what they called a silver lining in every cloud.

I crawled to the shore and reached for my smartphone to activate the camera or mirror option, I saw that my short hair was still black. Well, it wasn't as if I was expecting my hair to change color like some cultivation protagonist.

Toweling myself off, I put my clothing back on, and then wore my glasses. Making use of my newly restored qi, I cleared the foggy smudges that constantly plagued my lenses, allowing my vision to remain clear. At first glance, my body didn't look physically different. It wasn't as if I had become more muscular or taller or anything. However, the transformation was deep inside, with my meridians and dantian being repaired, and my qi having substantially altered.

Damn, I thought azure qi was cooler, and with me being an archer-type cultivator, I thought I could imitate a Quincy. But now I was the stereotypical shounen protagonist with fire powers. Maybe I should become a dragon slaying mage.

That said, it wasn't as if I had totally recovered. My meridians had been repaired, yeah, but I was right now only an ordinary ranked cultivator. I hadn't regained my Yellow-ranked cultivation. Not that I was worried about that – it was a great start and I was relieved that the process had worked. I could work my way back up and slowly build up my foundation again. The most important part of restoring my cultivation from a crippled condition had been done, and I didn't have to worry about what had otherwise been an irreversible injury.

I could even view the next training process as a form of rehabilitation.

First, I should get out of Di Yi Mountain range. Even if I had regained my cultivation, that didn't mean I was out of danger. There were plenty of dangerous spirit beasts lurking in the region. Even if I had been restored to the peak of my cultivation, I still wouldn't be able to fight a Lava Drake, never mind the far superior Volcanic Dragon that reigned over this part of Hua Xia.

However, the system wasn't done yet. Once I was fully dressed and had my backpack slung over my shoulders, it issued another notification.

-Quest completed. Does the user want his reward? –

"Huh? What reward?"

-Upon completion of quest, the user will receive a reward. Please proceed to this location to claim your reward. –

The text transformed into a series of arrows, and I followed the highlighted path toward a ledge. As I rounded it, I caught sight of my "reward."

It was a red egg with black markings. It wasn't huge, about the size of my hand. Bigger than a normal chicken egg, but not so huge that I couldn't fit it into my backpack. Not that I had to. The moment I touched it, the egg glowed and floated in the air, surprising me. While I gaped at it, the system continued to churn out new notifications.

-Reward claimed and received. User is now owner of "Salamander Egg." –

-User can proceed to hatch the egg. The egg will automatically hatch after an unknown period of time. You will be able to speed up the hatching process through certain conditions. –

"…that's it?"

Well, I wasn't expecting any other rewards except regaining my cultivation, so this egg was actually a bonus. even so, I couldn't help but feel disappointed.

"Are you serious? It has almost been ten chapters, but I've only received a single egg after all that trouble? Where are all the summoned beasts? I haven't even gotten a single summon beast even after coming this far! What kind of summoning system are you?!"

No wonder I could hear the voices from beyond the fourth dimension condemning the so-called "Super Summoning System" as a "trash system" and other kinds of insults that weren't safe for me to repeat. Never mind that several of the insults were directed at me for being a beta wimp protagonist or whatever that meant.

Exhaling in exasperation, I forced myself to calm down. I shouldn't act all entitled and expect the system to hand me all sorts of generous gifts on a silver platter. Instead of relying on handouts from a system, I should work hard myself. Put in effort and increase my strength. The system was there to supplement my own skills, not a crutch that did everything for me.

"Well, I'll take what I can get and figure out how to accelerate the hatching process after I return home." I reached out to grab the egg, but it shimmered and disappeared. Instead, a notification window from the system informed me that it had been placed in my summoning storage space.

That was…convenient. That meant I could carry a potentially unlimited number of spirit beast eggs wherever I went. Yay.

I confidently strode through the steam and back toward the way I came. I wasn't averse to reusing the same subterranean cavern that I passed through to get here earlier. If it meant minimizing the risk of encountering a strong foe, then I was all for it. I wasn't an arrogant and reckless idiot who thought I could immediately take on a pack of spirit beasts right after regaining my cultivation. Even though I could technically slay all the Salamanders in the cave with my newly restored qi, I had no intention of doing so.

If there was no reason to provoke and kill spirit beasts, then I wouldn't. It was one thing if I was starving in the middle of a forest and had no choice but to hunt spirit beasts for food in order to survive, but I wasn't going to allow greed to cloud my morals and slay a bunch of Salamanders who were minding their own businesses simply to line my pockets with cash.

Honestly, I wasn't a saint. If a spirit beast attacked me, I wouldn't hesitate to defend myself and mercilessly take the life of the foe if necessary. Such as the Lava Drake that attacked civilians in Xia Hai City the other day. But if they were minding their businesses, then why would I go out of my way to kill them? Just because I wanted to become rich? I wasn't a vegan, and I still consumed meat, but that didn't mean I was a murderous hobo who went around killing every living thing in my path.

Coexistence was an ideal I hoped to strive toward. I wasn't naïve enough to think every spirit beast would cooperate, but unless they came looking for trouble with humans, I had no intention of going out of my way to attack them.

"Ugh…"

Despite my hypocritical thoughts, I felt myself tempted by the fire crystals. Forcing myself not to look at them, I marched onward. I had to resist the temptation. I wasn't the thieving sort who would kill my opponents in "self-defense" and then loot their bodies like some common bandit. The fire crystals in the cave belonged to the Salamanders, and I wasn't going to rob them just because they weren't human.

That reminded me. I had a Salamander egg, and I wondered if I should take it out and use this place to incubate it. Reaching out with my hand, I retrieved it from the summoning storage space and placed it on the ground.

Nothing. No notification from the system, no visible sign that anything had changed, nothing. After staring at the egg for a few minutes, I felt like a fool and put it back in the system.

Even the other Salamanders were ignoring me. None of them even so much as glanced in the direction of the egg.

Sighing, I hurried through the cave. Just like the day before, I ended up camping at the entrance once night had fallen, taking shelter inside the underground cavern. With my qi, though, it wasn't as hot as I thought it would be. By regulating the flow of my water-based qi, I was able to cool the interior of my tent and sleep comfortably.

On the other hand, it meant that I had to consume more water to replenish my lost fluids when I woke up. Fortunately, this was the return journey, so I didn't have to worry too much about not having enough water. I was almost home now.

"Ugh…"

After stretching myself, I exited the cave and ventured toward the ledge. As usual, I proceeded with caution. It wouldn't do to get this far, only to get myself killed by a Lava Drake. Never mind a Mystic-ranked spirit beast, I didn't want to run into a Volcanic Viper or Magma Golems either. An ordinary spirit beast, I could still fight evenly with, but even a Yellow-ranked spirit beast would overly tax the current me.

At least that was the plan, but a couple of hours of navigating the treacherous terrain and hiding from the more dangerous spirit beasts, I found myself encountering one. Initially, I detoured to avoid it, but when I saw that it was an ordinary spirit beast, I relaxed a little.

Even so, I kept to my principles. If it wasn't going to provoke me, then I had no reason to attack it either. However, I wasn't naïve enough to drop my guard either, so I carefully kept a wide berth while still following the mountain trail.

However, once it came fully into view, I stopped. From this distance, I could see clearly that it was a Fire Fox, one of the common ordinary-ranked spirit beasts that inhabited this area. Not a big threat, and normally I would leave it alone and continue onward, but…

…it was currently injured.