Story 29,The Path Of Least Resistance. Chapter 1

An unjust death could scar the soul even after being washed and cared for during its reincarnation.

The scars on my soul weren't as bad as the scars of the asshole sponsor laughing at me though. "You died of your pepper allergy after some Karen pepper-sprayed some asshole up-wind like thirty feet!"

My sponsor giggled as he held his chest and continued. "You wouldn't have died if it was normal pepper spray that is mostly chemicals... But no, it was completely organic pepper spray haha!"

My lips twitched before I shook my head and said. "Laugh it all up buddy, anyway so let's get to the brass tacks. What is going on now?" I asked firmly

My sponsor raised an eyebrow before he said. "Well, you are a little more mentally firm than the other Jakes that die of stupid as hell things. Anyway so obviously with you being with us, you will be reincarnated. What your cheat is, will obviously be tied to your soul and affinities."

I nodded in understanding and he continued. "In either case, I am going to be trying something new anyway. Rather than throwing you into an established universe, you will be transmigrated with your new body to a universe no other Jake has been assigned to."

"So what universe is it?" I asked curiously.

And my sponsor shook his head as he said more firmly. "Nope, thats the thing, you aren't being reincarnated via the request of some useless goddess who can't control her world, nor does your reincarnation have a goal in of itself in sending you to a particular fictional universe."

"And in sending you to a higher tier universe without any foreknowledge I will be upgrading your cheats a bit." He finished.

I had to absorb that info for a second before I took a deep breath and asked bluntly. "So is it something worse than like Warhammer 40k?"

My sponsor's lips visibly curled in amusement before he shook his head and said. "Hmm in terms of power in the universe? Oh yes for sure it is totally worse." 

"The power ceiling itself is greatly raised for all the involved parties. But in its base, its a cultivation universe which has some very interesting notable things."

I raised an eyebrow as I gazed at him and then said. "What kind of horror is 'interesting' to you then." 

My sponsor gave a light chuckle before he said with a smile. "So you will be sent to Earth, but the Earth as you will notice is just... Bigger, the continents are larger, the mountains taller, the seas deeper."

"The immortal spirits of the land are constantly growing with the world itself growing as spirits exhale their power into the world making it also grow ever so slowly. But emotional and mental power of all life across the world and forms beyond the world create energy as well creating pocket realms in this world."

"Wait so like pocket realms or whatever?" I asked curiously.

My sponsor shrugged and said frankly. "One way to call it, but it's a lot more similar to an instance dungeon. As the souls of everyone and everything that dies has their minds and soul mulched and becomes the fuel that creates the instant dungeons/pocket realms that people can loot."

He then added on. "And if the pocket realm isn't looted to the ground or captured... Well, all the energy that is left just redistributes across the world. Which the spirits absorb making the world more rich and bigger altogether. It's a natural cycle that works with not only no loss but at a bonus actually!" 

I gave my sponsor a bland look as I said dryly. "Yay... The world is actively recycling people." 

And my sponsor nodded and said frankly. "It helps much more than you think. Some immortal emperor decides to make a tomb and die in it after getting bored of life. Well then all those treasures won't just be rotting in that tomb for untold millennia until his tomb's defenses begin to break down." 

I shrugged and so I asked the pressing question. "So it's Earth in the 'modern' world. So what horror beyond these instant dungeons are there?" 

My sponsor's smile faded as he brushed a hand across his face and said more slowly. "So like I said before. There are spirits of the land obviously, mountains that gain enough spirituality they gain sentience and begin cultivating, same thing as rivers, trees, and any other life."

He then continued. "So humanity is very much not on the top of the totem pole. As animals and beasts can cultivate just as humanity can, if they have enough talent to awaken their spiritual intelligence that WILL get passed down to their descendants."

And he finished with a wry smile. "Besides just those things, there is also the fact that... Things from beyond the world's natural borders will try to invade the world to absorb the world's luck, karma, and spiritual energy for themselves to say nothing of the demons. That form from the beings that refuse to be mulched into essence for the world." 

With all that said my sponsor shifted and said. "In any case, let us move on to the more important bit. Your cheats obviously!"

I perked up at hearing that and I blinked as he drew two swirling orbs of light into his hands. "I myself don't like evil assholes frankly. And with your wood and fire elemental alignment then you will perfectly fit into these two cheats." 

He held up one orb that glowed overwhelmingly with a green light that made me kinda squirm in place as he explained. "This one is a small pocket dimension that will be in your soul. Basically, it will allow you to keep and raise any herbs in that pocket dimension with the herbs only taking days instead of years and even centuries to naturally grow."

The glowing green orb flew into my chest and I gasped as I expected agony or something at feeling the cheat integrating into my body... But in reality, I just honestly felt good like it was something I was supposed to have always had inside myself.

With my sponsor snorting as he said. "Yeah, your Wood alignment is rather unusual even to my own senses. But just being a farmer makes for a poor reincarnation, and I want you to live the best life you can as a reincarnator so here." 

The purple orb then glowed powerfully as my sponsor continued. "This is called the Halo of False Providence. Basically to sum it up you in a cultivation universe has a weight of karma and luck. With this Halo, you can see the luck of other people and even the opportunities they will have in the future. If you steal their opportunities their luck and karma will be weakened, but if you help them get their treasure or opportunity then your own luck will be upgraded."

He went on to explain how luck and karma were obviously extremely important in the cultivation world as Luck determined my ability beyond just pure skill to do things like Alchemy and among other things.

But most importantly, the Karma part of it was important because it would determine how much the Heaven's and will of the earth would favor me. Which would determine how powerful and antagonistic the heavenly lightning would be later on...

"Oh, and a powerful good karma will also have you be on nature spirits good side as well. And besides True Immortals, they are by and large the most common and powerful of entities with how they can calmly cultivate for millennia if not literally millions of years without issue." 

Which made sense when you think about it... When a mountain awakens its spiritual intelligence and becomes self-aware but still remains where it is and just cultivates in peace. Why the hell would the mountain have heart demons, self-doubt, or anything that would plague all other cultivators?

"So... I need to help people find their opportunities in order to enrich myself?" I asked just to clarify and sum up everything.

To which my sponsor nodded and said frankly. "Yup, you see someone needing help and having an opportunity to help them out and life will naturally become easier for you as a consequence." 

I nodded and then I asked curiously. "So what is my cultivation situation itself like. What kind of talent will I have or will that really matter?" 

In response that purple orb shot into my chest and I shuddered as some actual pain filled my chest as it felt like my soul was bloated at this point with my sponsor saying.

"You will have the Five Elements Spirit Root which allows you to cultivate any of the classical five elements though your wood and fire attributes are the strongest and water weakest. Now I will be dropping you into a major city with a spatial ring having some money and such." My sponsor explained.

Before he took a breath and then continued. "You will be landing in a rather major city, so if you want, you could make a life there for a long while as it does have decent spiritual energy without even any arrays, but I would recommend joining one of the Sects that will be sending emissaries there to pick up new disciples."

I felt a pinch around my ring finger and looking down I blinked at seeing the silver ring around my finger that had a tiny gem inlaid in it.

But before I could say anything else, a clap rang out and I gasped as I was yanked backward out of my chair with my form falling into a portal of swirling light.

-

Swirling through the tides of the endless light I could feel the two cheats settle into my body and soul without conflict thankfully and the ride itself was... Fine honestly. It just felt like riding through one of those cheap VR roller coaster rides actually.

And I came out of the portal with a soft thump as I landed on soft grass with my eyes staring up at a celestial night-filled sky.

'Whelp I sure as hell am not in Kansas.' I thought with horror as I saw three... Fucking three moons in the night sky!

Not only that but the stars themselves. They were so much more vibrant, even as I noted that I had indeed landed in a major city, I was still bound in place at the beauty within the stars as I could see the bands of galaxies or something within the extremely vibrant stars.

A soft thumping noise of something landing beside me rang out and I realized that there was a small bag that when I opened it had a couple of metal coins and a page that I had to read under the light of a nearby street light.

[Your Farming Space's size, and time dilation is dependent on the grade of your Providence Halo which you can see in a mirror or something. Have fun being a good dude and don't let those cultivator fairies lock you down too hard lol Also here is like a couple of months of rent.]

Written on the back of the envelope was a short description of the coins and their value which would be a great value obviously.

So now properly taking in my surroundings, I noticed rather quickly that the city was built with Asian architecture and as I left the park and headed into the city proper I realized all too quickly that thankfully I could read all the signs and such.

Old Asian-style building but scaled up. And along with the people I was seeing wearing wuxia-style clothing... And thankfully I was wearing similar clothing which probably should have been a heads-up for where I was going when I was given the clothes.

But all the details quickly pointed towards my landing point being somewhere in Asia if my sponsor's words were correct... But on the other hand, did the continent matter at all when the world was supposed to be unrecognizable due to the nature spirits and the world itself expanding the size of the planet?

'People's Providense Halo's though...' I mused as I took in my the lightly glowing invisible halo's above people's heads that only I could see.

I knew the density of the light along with the color of the light would determine the luck and karma level of the Providence Halo, but as I looked around I saw mostly only people with grey Halo's who didn't have any opportunities before them.

'Well... Either way, I need to get my life started here. I can probably get a job here as a chef at least.' I thought as I came across a thriving street filled with street vendors hawking their wares.

I walked down the street and I blinked as I saw one of the grandma's who was running a stall that looked like the next level of Providence Halo which was green instead of just grey.

So I walked over to her stand which was a small sit-in pop-up restaurant that served up some kind of sweet and spicy soup. "Hey, can I get the house special," I spoke kindly and the older lady smiled and said gently.

"Coming right up young man. Please just take a seat and I will bring it up to you."

I took a seat on the bench next to another older man who just had a grey Halo that I couldn't get anything from, but either way, I focused on the grandma's softly glowing green halo.

My gaze darkened and the world seemingly fell away as my vision was engulfed with the green halo. 

[I saw the Grandma still working at her store but it was seemingly later tonight. And as she was working, she saw a cultivator who was wearing much more grand clothes flying over her shop before a startled bird flew away from the cultivator.

As the cultivator paused to look upon the large fleeing bird, the older lady saw that a stone fell from the cultivator and it bounced off the road and landed beneath her storefront.

And after she waddled around the shop to pick up the softly glowing stone she noticed that the cultivator had already left by the time she had bent over to pick up the stone for him.

Leaving her with what was obviously a spirit stone of some sort.]

'So her opportunity was just getting a spirit stone?' I thought incredibly before I realized something. Spirit Stones were strictly the currency of cultivators or large merchant clans typically.

If she got ahold of a spirit stone depending on the value of such a stone that would be able to change her life for the better.

As it was clear this old woman was just that. And an old woman who probably didn't even have any kids or anything. It was like an old woman in my old life finding a gold mine and getting a hefty finder's fee for it that could make the rest of her life comfortable.

But it was like I was watching the event from the third person or something. So I just shrugged as I could sorta feel the timeframe of the event and it was going to be coming soon so I just dug into the soup I got while making small talk with the old lady as she kept working.

Finally like twenty minutes later, just as I finished off my food and was about to make my way to the hotel district which was pointed out to me. I saw a blur of motion above our heads.

The same cultivator man was flying above our heads wearing a gold outfit and as he spooked a bird he paused and watched the bird fly off with amusement in his imperious gaze.

Then he flew off towards the richest part of the city I was in apparently.

As he flew off, I saw the Spirit Stone fall out and hit the ground rolling towards me and instinctively I stopped it with a foot. Then as I picked it up, I felt the old woman's gaze on me as I stood up and taking in my surroundings, I hid a frown at seeing the woman's Providense Halo.

It had degenerated from lightly colored green back to the dull grey the vast majority of civilians had. As I had technically stolen her 'opportunity.' 

'Can't see my own halo... But I ain't going to fuck over an old lady.' I thought as I approached and asked. "Hey, can I get some fried dumplings to go?" 

She gave a small smile and nodded and got to work and after a couple of minutes she handed me a rice paper bag filled with the goodies and I handed over the spirit stone along with the coins needed to pay for the food with a wink. "Thanks for answering all my questions haha!"

And before she could refuse the spirit stone as her halo flared back to life with the green light I was walking back down the street past the other street vendors as I headed over to the hotel district while going over the information I had gotten.

'Ok, this is the city of Shanghai... No idea if it's the actual Shanghai of Earth but thats what this city is called. And it has a massive population of about thirty million people.' I mused as I kept walking towards where I was going to stay for a few days at least.

'Honestly, this world is already so different.' I mused as I realized all too quickly that even the city lights seemed to be split between running between electricity and some kind of spiritual energy/formations.

Either way, I made my way to the hotel district, and after a moment of thought, I went to one of the smaller buildings that seemed to be run by a smaller family.

"Hello, I was hoping to rent a room for like a week or something?" I spoke courteously to the man running the front desk.

He nodded and said calmly. "Each night's stay is ten coppers, and usage of the baths is an additional ten coppers for hot water. Will you also be having seven baths?"

At my nod he said. "That will be a silver leaf and a copper bar then."

See the currency in this world at least in the mortal world had a bit of depth as they used metal coins for all their currency needs.

A copper coin was the lowest amount, with a copper bar being worth twenty-five copper coins. A silver leaf was worth a hundred copper coins, and a silver bar was worth twenty-five silver leaf's and likewise, four silver bars were worth a gold coin or a hundred silver leaf's.

Either way, I paid the man what I owed while idly noting he always merely had a grey halo before I had a thought cross my head.

"Hey, I am new in the city. And I was curious where the local library or something is?"

The man raised an eyebrow and seeing no one else was in line he said bluntly. "Which library do you want? The mortal library or the cultivator library? The mortal one is free for people to read within the library but it costs a gold bar for entry into the cultivator library." 

My lips twitched as I was well fucking aware that I didn't have a single gold bar to my name... I did have a single gold coin but that was it and I knew that it was still twenty-five gold coins to a single gold bar.

"Yeah... The mortal library." I said with a wry smile. Although I knew I wasn't going to find some uber cultivation method or whatever, at the least, I could get some more info about this world along with any threats I should probably watch out for.

And of course... Look into those instant dungeon/pocket dimensions the world is opening for people to explore and deal with.

So the owner of the townhouse handed me a key to my room and then helpfully pointed me in the direction of the mortal library that only cost five copper coins to read whatever I wanted for the day.

'Its already pretty late in the day and I do already have some extra food... Let's just get some sleep and then fresh and early in the morning I can head over to the library and see if I can get any information on this world's cultivation and the instant dungeons.' I thought.

I very much doubt right now that with my lack of any credentials, I would be able to get into any decent Sect, let alone get myself a cultivation method. No... If I could help it I was going to try to get myself into one of those pocket realms if they weren't insanely dangerous.

And then with the resources I gathered from there, I would then see what I could do.

-

The next morning I was up and going. I left the townhouse with my key still on me and from the townhouse I headed straight to the library only stopping to get myself a fried sweet bread of some kind to give me energy and wake me up.

The library itself was huge despite it being labeled [Shanghai's 6th Library] Being three floors tall and without decorations or niceties besides the engraved wooden shelves carrying countless thousand books, scrolls and tomes that were sealed with metal clasps.

After paying the older lady who was clearly also half asleep for entry into the library I asked her curiously even as I noted she also just had a grey Providense Halo. "Hello, I am curious if the mortal library has books on alchemy and herbal lore?" 

The older lady gave a weak smile and said quietly. "Alchemy is a tightly held practice that Masters of the art pass down to their disciples, however yes books depicting various herbs are freely available within the library on the second floor in the botany section. Will that be all?"

To which I smiled wryly and said frankly. "In that same vein, I was wondering if the library had any books on cultivation? I know you guys won't have cultivation manuals or anything extremely valuable but I just to learn more about the ranks of cultivation."

The woman gave me a long look before she chuckled softly. "A mortal is curious about the immortal life huh... Well on the third floor, we do have some books on such topics as the majority of the third floor holds various information on cultivation and its forms."

I gave the woman a slight bow of my head in thanks for her information and I got moving. Heading straight up to the third floor... As I wanted to know more than anything the sweet forbidden knowledge of cultivation.

I looked past the dozens of grey halo's of people also doing their reading and I blinked as I saw a weakly glowing blue halo of all things.

'Is a blue halo stronger than a green halo?' I wondered before seeing the halo belonged to a younger male teen with dark hair that covered his face as he was reading a long scroll.

Obviously curious about the opportunity he was going to find in the short future I grabbed a random book to act as cover and took a seat a bit away from him and as I held up the book I focused on his Providence Halo.

[He was reading books on alchemy and healing to heal his adopted sister his parents and left to him before they left. He was so poor that he naturally couldn't get any cultivation materials or manuals to be able to protect his beloved sister even if he was able to work hard enough to have her put in a girl's school where she would be safe.]

'The higher ranked halo's allow me to see parts of their backstory or something?' I thought in confusion as the dreamlike apparition continued.

[While researching his sister's nerve issue that prevented her from being able to walk, he came across a set of acupuncture techniques that allowed the user to create spiritual nodes in their body by poking holes directly in the veins that naturally were blocked by the filth they would accumulate in life to begin cultivating spiritual energy.

[Not only that but in the back of the book it contained a very basic breathing method that would allow the user to naturally cycle their spiritual energy to unblock the rest of their meridians with the spiritual energy they could intake.]

I blinked as the opportunity dream ended and after a moment I blinked before I brushed my hand across my face and thought. 'Ok, I can copy the acupuncture method and breathing method and then I can just give the dude the method so it's not like I am stealing from him.' I thought.

It wasn't like I had some vendetta with the dude.

So I got up and after following what I remembered from the dream segment I walked over to the acupuncture section and although it took me a... Very hearty good minute I found the book I wanted.

[Acupunction and Piercing the Heavens.] 

"Holy shit this is pretentious... No wonder, no one stole this book." I muttered with amusement that although it had something very valuable and life-changing within. That didn't give it the right to call itself the method of piercing the heavens!

The Daoist who wrote this assuredly got struck by lightning a dozen times, I am sure!

And so with the book on acupuncture in hand, I got to reading as the youth continued reading his own scroll and I saw how his Providence Halo dimmed from Blue to dark green with parts of grey in the Halo.

[The Art of Acupuncture is never-ending, the human body alone has three hundred and sixty-one points where their meridians collide, merge, and weave within the body. And using those meridians there are 130321 possible combinations for possible intergrations between the Acupoints.]

[However, to learn every single Acupoint and their relation to every single other major point is the life work of a cultivator. Not a mortal doctor however skilled they may be. Hence this book will discuss the five major Acupoints in the spring, stream, river, sea, and ocean.]

With those five major Acupoints being the knee's elbows and the forehead. 

And those five acupoints could be opened up with treated silver needles and then when all five points were poked open with treated silver needles that had been cleansed with certain herbs to gift them a bit of qi. Then a swirling matrix would form with the help of the breathing method.

Which would begin safely dredging up and clearing all my meridians from my extremities down to my core in my chest where the majority of my impurities and meridians lied.

It took me a solid couple hours to read through this book with myself making notations on a scroll I bought from the librarian and once I was done with the breathing method copied it down. I looked over at the despondent-looking teen.

"Hey are you looking into acupuncture, I found this weird book and maybe you can get something from it. It's all just jibberish to me." I said as I put the book down and slid it across the table to him.

He eyed the book and his eyes hit the title with his face having the same expression I had when I saw it. But hell I gave him the opportunity if he didn't read it because someone handed it to him. That's not my fault.

So I then went across the third floor to look at what I really wanted in cultivation knowledge when I didn't have the pressure of running across someone with a special opportunity.

And after doing some research in the books available to me... I realized much of the cultivation knowledge here was shit basically. With the books only get into the first stage of cultivation if at all. With the books focusing on just general descriptions of cultivators and how to avoid them.

But all the books had a consensus that the first tier or realm of cultivation was the Qi Gathering Realm.

One of the books I found had been written supposedly by a Qi Gatherer Cultivator who couldn't make it to the next Realm of cultivation.

[The Qi Gathering Realm is the first of countless steps in the act of cultivation... And the most brutal of them all, as to even become a cultivator if one isn't blessed with cultivator parents is to painfully draw in spiritual energy to cleanse your twelve core Meridans and then fill at least ten of them with Qi to reach the next realm.]

[A Qi Gathering Cultivator however is not something a mortal can understand either. From the moment they clear out and fill a single Meridan with Qi they will be capable of using Cultivator spells, charms, and countless other methods]

The book was less of a complete education and more of a warning as the author seemingly being only in the first couple of levels of Qi Refining wasn't talented enough to find his other Meridians and when he did find them... He was already so old and the impurities so impacted that he couldn't even clean them out.

"Hmm... Even at level three as a Qi Gatherer, he still lived to the ripe age of a hundred and five. That's gotta count for something." I mused with a wry smile.

Either way, I shrugged as this was all the information I could basically get here at the mortal library on the more hidden information on cultivators... Or more like mortals seemingly actively avoided.

So with that, I headed down to the older lady and asked where I could find some healers so I could buy the silver needles and some herbs. Though I only mentioned the herbs saying I just wanted some health supplements.

'Alright... This treatment is going to use a lot of my money but if I can get my Meridians automatically cleared up and found. That will beyond anything help me out when I get checked when I try to enter a sect.' I thought as I made my way down several roads heading towards the clinic the older lady recommended.

But as I was reaching the clinic I shivered as I felt cold air hit my form and then a howl of fury rang out from the clinic I was approaching. And then a mighty crashing noise rang out with my eyes widening seeing from in front and above me. 

At the second level of the clinic, the doctor had been thrown out of the window from the second floor. The doctor landed on the ground in a soft crouch that screamed enhanced martial arts training and looking around at the frozen people staring he yelled out.

"Get away! Get away! Someone drank tainted waters and turned into a zombie when they died!"

And just as he finished yelling out his warning another howl rang out as though furious at the man's own yelling.

Frown the window came a gangly form shot out of the window and I watched as it fell towards the martial artist doctor with a sickening crack ringing out as it slammed onto the ground.

'Fuck that really is a cultivation zombie.' I thought as I saw how the previously female form had thick tufts of hair growing randomly across its body and her fingers had mutated into thick black claws that had an icy feeling about them.

The martial artist/cultivator doctor sighed and I noticed he also had a green Providence Halo around his head but I didn't look into it as I noticed the zombie woman had a grey Halo that was breaking apart within my view.

The zombie attacked the cultivator and he swiftly dodged her clawed hands and then with a weak glow filling his hand, he stabbed two fingers into the zombie's throat with the zombie's eyes flashing with the same light that filled his hand with her collapsing to the ground.

'The Halo...' I thought as abruptly the Halo above the zombie's head shattered and I saw as the Halo's pieces shot into the ground as though sucked away by the very earth itself.