1-3 Cultivating The 'Winging It Cultivation Technique' (It Gives You Qi Deviation Repeatedly Until You Die)

Chapter 1 Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit

On the far edge of the territory of the Dragon Flame Clan was a small village. This village was called "Rising Dragon Village". It was called this because of its only notable feature; The Rising Dragon Inn. The Rising Dragon Inn wasn't a nice inn. In fact, The Rising Dragon Inn was what a cultivator would call bottom of the barrel and a more experienced cultivator would call two steps above bottom of the barrel. But for a village as backwater as Rising Dragon Village, this inn was important enough to name the whole village after it.

Outside Rising Dragon Village was a forest, though people would rarely venture out into it, lest they end up somewhere more backwater somehow, or, more importantly, die to a bear or something. And of course, the threat of dying to a bear would become greater when that bear is some form of spiritual bear, and even more so when said spiritual bear is a demonic spiritual bear of some sort. And wouldn't you know it, this forest looked exactly like the kind of place a demonic spiritual bear would live.

It took just a glance to tell that the trees in this forest weren't normal trees. While each tree was pretty thin – thin enough that a regular adult could wrap their arms around three fourths of the way around it – each tree was as tall as a small mountain narrowing into a fine point at the very top, like a very long cone. The trunks of the trees were a golden color, black zigzag patterns making rings along their length. Only three fourths of the way up the tree did any leaves appear. The leaves were purple, arranged in concentric circles, each ring of leaves getting closer to the trunk as they went up the tree. The trees seemed to be related to lighting in some way, each one seeming to glow with the light of electricity, locked up deep within its core.

But the trees weren't the only mystical thing about the forest. Looking into the distance through the trees, one would see a red fog. Though the red fog suffused the whole forest, it was so fine and light that it only became visible when one looked into the distance. This fog was in fact the main reason this was the forest around a backwater as opposed to a site frequented by cultivators year round.

The red fog was composed of violent demonic energy, the kind that would rip one to shreds while turning them insane were it not so thin. As it was, it simply made the forest quite worthless. The demonic energy made it such that any attempt to refine the trees here into lightning attribute artifacts would only result in either it blowing up or being made into an item that can't be used without the user blowing up.

It wasn't useful for cultivation either, as the lightning and demonic energy were too intertwined to be separated without a lot of work, the lightning and demonic energy were both too violent for most cultivators, and yet they were also too sparse to be useful for the cultivators who it wasn't too violent for. In the end, the only people who would really come here were people trying to hide.

—

In a small ramshackle hut in this forest, there was an emaciated boy, no older than three, laying face down on the old wooden floor. The boy didn't seem to be breathing. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be dead.

The boy suddenly opened his eyes, his body no longer looking emaciated. In front of his eyes was a semitransparent white screen. The boy jumped backwards, startled. As he watched the screen follow him, he calmed down, realizing it was just some weird screen and wasn't something trying to kill him.

He ignored the screen floating in front of him and tried to remember where he was. As he thought of the events leading up to his unconscious state he noticed something was very odd. When he thought back to the time before he fell unconscious he got back two different series of events. Before he fell unconscious he was lying on the floor starving to death. But at the same time he was in his hospital bed flatlining. The two completely different events were taking up the exact same space on his mental timeline. Even worse was that in one he was a little over two years old while in the other he was twelve. It was incredibly disorienting! Especially since both those memories had him dying.

The boy decided to look at the floating white rectangle. He assumed that the double memories and the white screen were related. It seemed pretty unlikely that he just happened to have transmigrated/gotten memories from another world and revived from two deaths at the same time as an unrelated white screen appeared.

As he read the words on the screen, his assumption was proven correct.

'Welcome and welcome back! You're likely confused about your current situation. Don't worry! That's normal! You are someone who has gone through a Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon! A Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon is when a soul in the process of moving to a universe duplicates into two identical true souls! This duplication forcefully unaligns the trajectory to the target universe, causing both duplicate true souls to be sent flying to other universes! Because this deviation is unplanned, fate is not changed in any of the involved universes! This means that neither of the duplicate true souls is accounted for in the causal chain, and both will die before causing any meaningful impact! If this is allowed to occur unimpeded, the fate from the original intended destination universe will split itself in two! These half fates will then overlay onto the causal chain of the destination worlds! This interference will connect the duplicate true souls to the timeline! At this time as the half fate overlays itself over the opened gap! But since the gaps created by the duplicate true souls are sized for a full fate, it leaves a gap in the causal chain, which then turns into a metaphysical black hole, completely destroying the destination universes! And that's where the Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit comes into play! It attaches itself to one of the duplicate true souls and forcefully brings it to the other destination universe combining it with the other duplicate true soul! The Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit then absorbs the fate and resurrects the duplicate true souls! With the Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit embedded into the causal chain, any action you take will cause the causal chain to shift, and the Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit will skim the hyperlayer of the in-between state, gathering fate and allowing for the expansion of the omniverse! In return for your assistance in this matter, you'll be given rewards through the User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface of the Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit! In other words, you're employed and the job description is "do anything"!'

The boy was really surprised seeing this. That all that text was fit on such a small box while still being readable gave it another layer of authenticity.

He didn't fully understand what the technical descriptions about his situation meant, he understood a bit of it. It made a bit of sense why both his lives were so bad, now. The whole thing about metaphysical black holes that can destroy an entire universe was scary, but since it wasn't an issue he wasn't as worried. He thought about the last part of the text block. Though he didn't exactly want a job, being a two year and twelve year old, he didn't have any qualms about getting free stuff for just doing anything he wanted.

He pressed the big continue button at the bottom with his hand. The screen switched to a different one. He read the text on the screen.

'To access the User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface, you need to send consciousness into the mind space.'

Below the words was what looked to be a repeating short video. The video somehow managed to show the process of sending consciousness into the mind space. As if the video showed not just the visuals of the actions but also how they were done.

With the help of the magic little video, he quickly entered the mind space. Within the mind space, he saw a new box.

'Welcome to the mind space! This place is your base of operations for all your interactions with the User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface, as well as the Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit itself.'

He pressed continue again and a big screen showed up behind the regular one.

'This is the User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface! First, press on the tab labeled "Homesickness Rectification".'

At the bottom of the screen was another weird video that showed exactly how to do things, but there wasn't any continue button. He followed the video's instructions and pressed on the tab. The smaller screen continued automatically.

'This is the "Homesickness Rectification" section. Here you can find items from your other destination universe. These items can only be used in the mind space. It's currently ordered by relevance, which means the things you used the most often will be at the top. Using the Homesickness Rectification section will drain the Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar. This will refill over time for free, but remember to keep it in mind while you make use of the "Homesickness Rectification" section. Now, try taking out an item.'

Once again, a video was at the bottom showing how to take out an item.

The boy looked at the display of available items. He wasn't that thrilled to see the IV stand as the first item in the list. He couldn't think of any situation in which using it would actually help anything. He decided to pick the smartphone a few spots down the list.

After he pressed the button for the smartphone, a green phantom of a smartphone appeared, along with a smaller screen that said "Placing" and three buttons, one white "Multi-Place" button, one green "Place" button, and one red "Cancel" button. He moved the phantom smartphone over his hand and placed the phone there.

He pressed the power button on the side of the phone, turning it on. It seemed just like his smartphone from before his death in the hospital. It seemed to be functioning like normal too. He opened the 2048 game he had downloaded to play before he died. After playing for a minute, it seemed perfectly normal, though he couldn't really be sure since he died before he got to play it.

He tried using the Internet. He opened the browser and searched for "dog" to test it out. It loaded instantly, showing a picture of a dog at the top and an excerpt from Wikipedia, along with a bunch of website results. He looked at the Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar, only to see that it was almost empty. He tried going to the Wikipedia article, but when he pressed it, a floating white screen popped up in front of the phone, reading 'Insufficient Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy. Would you like to use Points?'

He pressed the green "Yes" button but it just popped up with a red screen with 'Insufficient Points.' written on it. He pressed no instead. The white screen disappeared and he saw the same search results page as before. Seeing that the Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar was almost empty he looked back to the floating white tutorial screen. He noticed that it had changed.

'Now, try putting the item away.'

He looked at the video at the bottom and did what it showed. The phone disappeared from his hand and the tutorial screen changed again.

'Next, press on the tab labeled "Information Manual Exchange Marketplace".'

He pressed on the tab and the tutorial screen changed.

'This is the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace. Here you can spend Points to buy manuals for things like skills, spells, and techniques!'

He pressed the continue button.

'Look at the bottom left under the User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface. This is your Point Counter! Points are the currency through which you'll be paid for your work! They can also be received through selling manuals in the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace!'

He pressed the continue button again.

'Manual listings in the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace will have the manual's name at the top and how many Points it costs below the name. Underneath the price you'll see a list of any relevant requirements to make use of the manual, with each requirement color-coded by availability. Black means that the requirement can't be fulfilled in your current universe. Red means that the requirement would be too hard to fulfill in your current universe. Orange means that the requirement is possible to fulfill but you don't have the prerequisites needed to do so yet. Yellow means that you have the prerequisites to fulfill the requirement but would still need to put in a fair amount of effort to do so. Green means that you haven't fulfilled the requirement but could very easily do so. Blue means you have fulfilled the requirement but will still need to put in effort to keep it that way. Purple means you have fulfilled the requirement and it will stay fulfilled barring a very unlikely occurrence or active effort to unfulfill it. If you ever forget what a color means, you can press the bar labeled "Color Reminder Key" on the left side of the screen. Press the bar on the left side of the screen and open the Color Reminder Key.'

The boy read the information and followed the instructions. A screen popped up with the explanations of what each color symbolized. The tutorial screen changed again.

'To close the Color Reminder Key, press the "x" at the top left corner. Try closing the Color Reminder Key.'

The boy followed the instructions and the tutorial screen changed again.

'The Information Manual Exchange Marketplace is currently sorted by popularity. You can change this by pressing on the button labeled "Sorted By: Popularity". You can also search for a specific manual, either by name or by any other quality. To get more information about a manual and the option to buy it, just press on the manual listing. Try pressing on a manual listing now.'

The boy pressed on a manual listing at random. And the tutorial screen changed.

'Now that you've been shown how to buy manuals, it's time to learn how to sell them. Close out the manual listing you opened and press the tab labeled "Document Manipulation".'

The boy pressed the tab labeled documents and the tutorial screen changed again.

'This is the Document Manipulation section. Here you can create, view, edit, copy, and export documents, as well as put manuals up for sale. You can press the plus sign at the bottom of the screen to create a new document. You can edit any saved document by pressing on it and pressing "Edit" in the drop-down menu. You can also make a copy of any document you have saved or copy anything you encounter outside of the mind space into your Document Storage by pressing the Copy button in the bottom left. Items you're holding can have their contents copied in their entirety without reading them. For things that you aren't holding, only what you can perceive can be copied. The Copy function can also be used to save images and multidimensional models. Next to the Copy button is the Export button. Using this, you can export any documents you have saved in your Document Storage into the outside. Doing this will cost Points, use up a physical medium, or both. The physical medium and amount of Points needed will vary based on what you're exporting and how. Documents can also be put up for sale by pressing "Put Up For Sale" in the drop down menu. If the document is suitable for sale in the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace, it will be assigned a price based on its value and be put up on the market. If a document is currently on the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace it will have a gold outline. To remove it from the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace, press "Remove Listing" in the drop-down menu. Anything within your Document Storage can be embedded into your memory by pressing "Embed" in the drop down menu, though you can also bring a document into your mind space by pressing "View" in the drop down menu. If you want to unembed a document from your memory, press "Unembed" in the drop down menu. You can search for a document by any parameter using the search bar at the top.'

The boy read the text on the tutorial screen. This Document Manipulation page seemed shockingly useful. The ability to read an entire book just by touching it was amazing on its own, but it could also be used to save pictures like a camera. He pressed the continue button and the screen changed.

'Now press the tab labeled "General Utility".'

He followed the instructions and the screen changed.

'This is the General Utility section. Here you can alter your appearance, buy exclusive items, as well as buy upgrades to your User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface. If you look to the left, you'll see a picture of your face with your current name under it. This is your User Portrait. Pressing on this will open the Appearance Alteration Menu. The Appearance Alteration Menu allows you to alter your appearance. Though most alterations will cost points, changing the length of hair anywhere on your body, changing your hairstyle, and changing your sex can be done at any time for free. Pressing on your current name will also allow you to change it for free.'

The boy was a bit confused about why sex changes were free, but seeing that hairstyle could be changed he decided to check it out. He changed his hairstyle to the one he had in the world where he was bedridden for now. After changing his hair he looked at the sex changes list out of curiosity. He was surprised to see how long it was. After male and female there were a bunch of variations of neuter, followed by even more variations of intersex, followed by a bunch more he hadn't even heard of before. He assumed they either weren't a thing in his other universe or weren't a thing humans had or both. He stopped scrolling down the list, lest he finds some eldritch sex that kills him when he reads its name.

He closed the Appearance Alteration Menu and looked at the current name. It read "Will". His parents in his current universe hadn't bothered to name him, just referring to him as "the baby" and he wasn't part of the family of his first world anymore, so "Will" it was. He thought about changing it. On one hand, people in this universe would probably have a hard time pronouncing it. On the other hand, he didn't really care. He decided to leave it for now.

He pressed the continue button on the tutorial screen.

'Underneath the User Portrait is your Gift Inbox. This is where any Bonuses you receive will be found. These may be given for special occasions like holidays, for outstanding work, or other reasons. Underneath your Gift Inbox is where you can buy User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface upgrades. This is where you can increase the capacity of the Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar. On the right side of the screen is where you can buy Absolutes. An Absolute is an ability, the effects of which are absolute. In your Gift Inbox is your sign-on Bonus, which contains two Vouchers for Absolutes of the Immunity type. Press the entry in your Gift Inbox, press the Claim button to claim it, and redeem two Immunity Absolutes.'

Will followed the instructions to claim the Vouchers and looked at the long list of Immunity Absolutes. He considered getting Physical Immunity, but when he saw that there was also an Immunity for Earth and weapon intents he thought better of it. It seemed like it would only be useful against a pure body cultivator. He decided to get Instant Death Immunity instead. It sounded very versatile, especially since, as a two year old, a lot of things would probably be instant death for him. Also, when he thought of someone hitting him with a one time use ultimate attack only for him to be completely unharmed he couldn't help but snicker.

Having chosen his first Immunity Absolute, he already knew what the second would be. Qi Deviation Immunity. He couldn't afford a cultivation manual, and if he tried to go out without a cultivation manual to obtain points, he'd die before he even saw another person. Even if he tried to rack up points in the hut, he'd starve before he managed to get enough. He'd read a fair deal of cultivation stories before, so as long as he had Qi Deviation Immunity he should be able to wing it and figure it out through trial and error.

After he confirmed the last choice, the tutorial screen changed.

'Now that you've redeemed your two Immunities, there are only two more sections you need to be made aware of. First is the Help section. In the help section. In the Help section you'll find the list of Asked Questions. If you want to find a specific question, simply type it into the search bar at the top.'

Will was a little curious about why it was just Asked Questions instead of Frequently Asked Questions. After switching to the Help section and scrolling down the list he found out why. It seemed like pretty much every relevant question was there, each with an answer under it. He pressed continue on the tutorial screen.

'The last section is Settings. Here you can change the settings and customize the User Fate-Exchange Inter-Universal Utility Interface to your liking.'

He gave the settings section a quick scroll through before pressing continue again.

'The last thing you need to know is about your Coworkers. There's a chance you may run into other individuals with a Quantum True Soul Duplication Phenomenon Metaphysical Black Hole Prevention Fate Collection Assistance Toolkit. It's advised you work together with them, as doing so will allow the hyperlayer to be skimmed twice for a casual chain shift created by both of you together. Killing or bringing intentional harm to a Coworker can have you receiving a Penalty if found to be unjustified after a case review. Coworkers will be marked with the logo shown below.'

Below the text was a dark blue rectangle with the short sides slightly rounded. Inside the rectangle was a picture of something, but Will couldn't figure out what it was.

He pressed continue again.

'Good luck and have fun!'

The button that used to say "Continue" now said "Finish Tutorial". Will pressed it, feeling a bit lost as the source of guidance disappeared. He quickly shook his head and focused. He wasn't lost. He knew what he had to do. He had to figure out how to cultivate, cultivate, and then get out of this forest. From there, well, he'd figure it out.

Chapter 2 He Really Doesn't Know How To Cultivate

A two year old with hair longer than a two year old should have was sitting in a little ramshackle hut in the middle of a forest that probably housed multiple demonic spiritual bears. He sat in a lotus position with his eyes closed. Suddenly, the boy opened his eyes.

"Gah ow owie ow owiwee ow ow!"

After saying this, the boy fell over.

This boy was Will, and he was currently trying to cultivate. Sadly, he didn't know how to cultivate, and he was currently in, quite possibly, one of the worst places for someone who doesn't know how to cultivate to try to cultivate. This was because the surroundings were suffused with demonic lightning spiritual energy. Not even just regular demonic lightning spiritual energy either, it was especially aggressive too. Even though Will was completely immune to qi deviation, this demonic lightning spiritual energy was trying both electrocute him and also demonically corrupt him and beat him up as well when he inhaled it.

He had succeeded in feeling the spiritual energy around him and he had succeeded in bringing it in, but every time he brought it in he'd get zapped, eviled, and beat up and lose focus. This last time, he had tried to just keep inhaling throughout this process, and the results were not shocking. It hurt more. That was about it. But he was getting used to it! It hurt like hell, but it didn't seem to do much damage, and the non-demonic lightning spiritual energy brought in with it healed the damage from the previous attempt, thus leaving him with only the new injuries that occured.

He decided to do another big inhale.

"Owie ow ow owie ow ow owww!"

It hurt still, but it seemed like it actually hurt less than last time. Taking this as progress he repeated this process eight more times. By the eighth time, he was only going "ow" and grimacing a bit. He decided to take a break from evil electrocuting himself and try something else.

Will suddenly remembered meridians. He remembered something about having to open them or something. He decided to find them first. He closed his eyes and looked inward, trying to find any weird things. It took a few minutes, but after that, he finally found something. After he found the first, he was able to follow along its length to find the others. He quickly sent a part of his consciousness into the mind space, opened the Document Manipulation section, and used the copy function to copy what he had observed. It seemed to work perfectly. He now had a three dimensional map of all of his meridians. Maybe. He didn't know how many there should be. He decided to keep looking for a bit.

After a minute he found three big balls in his head, torso, and stomach. He assumed these were his dantians. He put them on the map and went back to looking.

After looking some more, he found some weird stick looking thing just overlayed over everything in a really trippy way. It looked grey and was pretty small. He didn't know what it was but it seemed useful so he decided to try giving it stuff later and seeing if it does anything.

After looking for a few more minutes he was almost certain he had found everything. He decided to look at his meridians a bit closer now. Looking at them closely, they seemed to be full of some weird gross crap. Seeing this, Will had an idea. Since the demonic lightning spiritual energy wants to go wild and destroy things, all he needed to do to get rid of all the gunk was to shove it in there.

With a plan in mind, he closed his eyes and inhaled the spiritual energy. Then he lost focus from the pain.

After a few seconds of recovery, he inhaled again. This time he was ready for it, and quickly shoved all of it into a random meridian. The spiritual energy phased through the wall, and as soon as it did so, all the pain was gone immediately. The demonic lightning spiritual energy starting attacking the gunk violently, completely destroying a portion of it before dying out.

Will didn't know this, but what he did would've caused a normal person to go into qi deviation as the malicious spiritual energy blew up their meridians.

After the resounding success, he decided to repeat the process. After a few minutes he got bored and played some music with his phone in the mind space. With the music to go with it, the task went by like a breeze. It was really quite satisfying to watch it clear away the gunk. He only stopped two hours later because the Inter-Universal Connection Dimensional Energy Bar was empty and his music turned off.

He suddenly remembered the weird stick thing from earlier. He hesitated to mess with it, in case it was something important, but remembering how the tutorial had said his Qi Deviation Immunity and Instant Death Immunity were absolute, he decided to go for it. He inhaled again and quickly sent it all to the stick thing. Both the pure spiritual energy and the demonic lightning spiritual energy latched onto it. When he did it again, he realized that the amount he brought in was a bit bigger.

What Will didn't know is that the "weird stick thing" was his spiritual roots, and what he just did would have caused a normal person to go into qi deviation as the misshapen roots would cause any qi in their body to go wild.

Seeing the increasing amount, Will was excited. Since the amount increased when more was added, and more was added when the amount was increased, this was basically exponential growth. This was much more satisfying than simple gunk cleaning. As such, Will decided to repeat the process.

He only stopped when he realized that the amount of spiritual energy per inhale stopped increasing. He opened his eyes and looked around him. Looking around, he first realized that the sun had set. But the second thing he noticed was that the room he was in was almost devoid of spiritual energy. He was incredibly disappointed at this. He decided he should just go to bed.

Will walked up to the bed his parents used to sleep in. It was small, clearly intended for one person. His parents in this life had brought him to this forest somewhat recently. They seemed to be on the run for some reason, but he'd never managed to overhear why. Once the food they had ran out, they left the hut in search of more. They never came back. Will didn't know whether they died or not, but frankly he didn't care too much.

He began the laborious work of getting onto the bed. It was a good bit taller than him, so he would have to climb it.

As he grabbed the ledge of the bed and tried to pull himself up, he discovered that it wasn't actually that hard at all. It was like he was lifting his current self with the arms from his twelve year old self. Thinking about it, it was probably because of how he kept getting his muscles damaged by the demonic lightning spiritual energy and repaired by the regular spiritual energy.

The bed was surprisingly comfy, especially considering how much his parents complained about how hard it was all the time. He guessed it was because he was too light to sink into the mattress enough that his back hit the wood. Pulling up the thin sheet and resting his head on the pillow, he soon fell asleep.

—

The night passed and Will woke up feeling rested as can be. He hopped out of bed and danced his way to the kitchen. Then he remembered there was no food there. His spirits were dampened a bit, but they remained high. As he was strutting around trying to find a place with any spiritual energy, he heard a weird noise. It sounded like a buzzy squeak.

Turning to the noise, Will was greeted with a mouse. A yellow mouse. A shiny yellow mouse with red eyes.

The mouse wasn't paying any attention currently. It was currently in the safe spot it found where no predators came. The only other thing here was this bipedal thing, and when it looked at it with its spiritual senses, it had barely as much energy as the surroundings. Though it felt like it remembered it being dead a bit ago. Either way it wasn't a threat, so it just ignored it. Then it got picked up.

Will held the mouse in his hand. He could feel sparks coming off of it. It reminded him of that one electric mouse that was popular in the other universe, but they didn't really look very similar. The mouse was incredibly docile. It didn't even seem upset about being picked up. In fact, it looked at him as if it was just wondering what this idiot was doing. It didn't even register Will as a threat when he held it in his hand.

Though Will had been enthusiastic earlier, now that he held it in his hand he realized that he really didn't feel like eating a mouse. Yet he could feel that the mouse was full of spiritual energy. To give up and just let it go because he was grossed out would be foolish. He really wished he could just take it all for himself without eating it. He sent his gaze inward and went up his arm to his hand holding the mouse, then tried to peer into it. He managed to see a bit into the mouse, though he couldn't send his gaze into the mouse itself. He saw a few of its meridians. They seemed to be empty. On the other hand, the part of a dantian he could see was full of spiritual energy. In a fit of greed, Will tried to inhale spiritual energy from the mouse.

The mouse wasn't too peeved about being picked up. It was kind of fun being up here, and it's not as if it could be hurt by the creature. Until it felt its spiritual energy leaving its body. This startled the mouse a bit. It hadn't expected it to be able to do that. Even so, it wasn't scared by it. It just had to kill the thing, something that it could do with a simple…

BZZZT

The mouse watched as the foul beast got hit by the lighting. It saw and could tell and knew that it turned the damn thing into a pile of buzzing charcoal.

But it was still in its hand. And the thing, that by all means should be a light tap away from a pile of ashes, stood there completely unharmed. It was bewildering.

But not bewildering enough to matter. If the thing could survive that attack, it would just have to use a bigger, stronger one.

BOOM KRAKOOM

The walls shook, the floorboards splintered, charred lines spreading out from the point of impact like cracks in a window. And the point of impact was standing there like nothing happened.

At this time, Will was just confused why the mouse wasn't attacking him. He knew it had the power to, he could feel it. But instead of attacking him, it just attacked around him.

The stupidity of his own question knocked Will out of his half-asleep state. This was obviously his Instant Death Immunity. Which was shocking in its own right, this little mouse being able to instantly kill him.

But a thing this dangerous was sure to have a lot of spiritual energy in it. As the mouse sat dejectedly, now feeling hopeless, Will continued inhaling its spiritual energy. He decided to put it in his middle dantian.

Though he'd probably be able to guess as much, Will was yet unaware that what he was doing now would send any normal person into qi deviation and kill them. Though there were many techniques to turn another's power into one's own, those were techniques. To just pull it out like this was to put one's own spirit roots and qi manipulation ability against another's spirit roots, qi manipulation ability, willpower, and body to grab hold of a power that will refuse to listen to you and fight you the whole time. Just initiating this battle of wills would cause one's own spiritual energy to go wild as well, likely also giving them qi deviation.

Yet as Will pulled all the spiritual energy out of the dantian of the mouse, he put it in his middle dantian and it immediately stopped resisting at all. But even after emptying its dantian, the mouse was still alive. Will also noticed that it didn't seem to be empty. There was still something there.

As Will inhaled the new thing he found, he saw that it was a green energy full of life. In fact, it seemed as if it was a part of life itself. Like it was the force between all the physical parts of life. Or something. As he saw the mouse shrivel up and turn decrepit, he came to the conclusion that it was lifeforce.

This brought up a small conundrum, as he didn't want to mix in mouse lifeforce with his own lifeforce. He didn't much like the idea of mixing part of his life itself with the part of life itself of some mouse in a hut in the woods. This brought up the question of what to actually do with it. It seemed like a very different brand of energy from the regular spiritual energy and demonic lightning spiritual energy he'd been interacting with so far. He decided to slap it onto the stick thing.

Then he stopped. This "stick thing" was probably his spiritual roots. He hadn't made the connection since he wasn't thinking about spiritual roots and the time. And also because they could hardly be called roots if one were just describing the shape. Now he was second guessing whether he wanted to put lifeforce onto it. Putting just spiritual energy on there was already something that seemed iffy in hindsight. The spiritual roots should be made out of… well, he didn't quite know. He went with the idea that they should be made out of spiritual root, whatever that means. Though spiritual energy worked out, spiritual energy and spiritual root were both spiritual? Maybe? This was the issue with having no actual knowledge of any of this. He didn't know if he was super intelligently deducing the way this world worked step by step, or if he was just making shit up so far from reality that any actual cultivator he told this all to would beat him to death for making a mockery of cultivation as a practice.

When he thought about how little he knew, he came to the conclusion that it was best to just try it. The most likely outcome of failure would just be qi deviation, and if he had fucked up really really bad then it would instantly kill him. And he had an Immunity for both of those. And if he were to give up on an opportunity to gain strength over some bogus he made up, he'd be crazy pissed about it when he found out.

Making up his mind, he slapped the lifeforce onto his spiritual roots. What he'd done would've killed a normal person. Adding your own lifeforce to your spiritual roots was something a few archaic techniques describe, sure. Adding something else's lifeforce, furthermore, not even something of the same species's lifeforce, is just insane. Putting any lifeforce on your spiritual roots would already cause you to likely blow up. It's only through exploiting how both one's own lifeforce and one's own spiritual roots are so deeply connected with the self that it can even be feasibly possible. Yet, Will hadn't even done that, he tried to jam together two completely different things from two completely different places and ask it to just work somehow.

The outcome was obvious, he blew up and disintegrated at the same time, dying instantly. And as such he was completely unharmed. 

Once the initial rejection of the two was denied, they were stuck. The explosion between the two would be the time when they separate from each other, and with that negated they were left with no momentum to explode over. They were just there now.

Immediately afterwards, Will felt a huge change. Before, he could only perceive the lifeforce in the mouse because he was already trying to feel energy in it at the time and also knew that it was there.

Once he put that bit of life force onto his spiritual roots, though, everything changed. He could now perceive minuscule bits of lifeforce all over the place! And he could control it all a bit too!

But, if he could control a bit with a bit of lifeforce, then why not get more and control a lot? Will inhaled the lifeforce in his surroundings. It wasn't a lot, and it barely made a change in the amount of lifeforce on his spiritual roots.

After a few minutes, he gave up. This seemed like the kind of thing that would only be useful when he had something to use it on. With just the lifeforce in the surroundings, he was unlikely to have any real difference to show for it.

But when he decided to go back to dealing with spiritual energy, he noticed that the problem of the day before persisted to today. Though it was slightly less barren than he had left it, considering how it was before he started, the change might as well not exist. It seemed like he would have to go outside.

Directly outside, right outside the front entrance, was the same as inside. This made sense since the hut had no door. It didn't even have a door frame. In fact, it barely even succeeded in having the wall that goes around the door frame, considering how misshapen it was. So his plan was to go around to the side of the hut.

Though he was a bit worried about being out here like this, he was assured in the fact that this hut had a formation hiding it from view from the dangerous beasts of the forest. Though, considering the "harmless critters" that the formation didn't stop could kill him in one hit, he was still a bit worried. But trying to cultivate inside would be like trying to fill one's stomach by smelling food. And the longer he spent doing it, the more likely something came through that would manage to kill him, anyway.

He sat against the wall of the house, leaning his back against it, and focused. The spiritual energy here was much better. It was only a sliver less than the spiritual energy inside was before he started. He decided it was time he actually started cultivating, instead of cultivating his speed of cultivating.

He inhaled the spiritual energy, sending it into his meridians immediately. But this time, with his enhanced spiritual roots, he saw more clearly what happened. The demonic lightning spiritual energy didn't fizzle and fade out as he had thought before. No, it was assimilated by the sludge. The demonic lightning spiritual energy was destroying the sludge, but for every 2 parts beaten 1 part of the demonic lightning spiritual energy turned into sludge. It was incredible. And also disappointing that he destroyed so much of it. Luckily, he was still cultivating slowly at the time and had only gotten a tenth removed, though if he had said that one tenth of the impurities in his meridians gone in less than a day was slow, a cultivator in Rising Dragon Village would probably cough up blood on the spot without even hearing the words themselves.

The only issue was that he didn't have control over it. But the solution was obvious to Will. Another repeat of the classic 'put it on your spiritual roots' method. And so he went about doing just that.

He first had to get it there, and since he couldn't control it directly, he would have to move it with something else. He decided to use the spiritual energy he took from the mouse.

Will sent a strand of spiritual energy to a spot in his meridian near the sludge, then shaped it into a big thick bowl shape. He then scooped up a bit of impurities with it, pulled it out through the wall of the channel, and quickly brought it to his spiritual roots before all the spiritual energy got subsumed into the sludge. Once he threw it onto his spiritual roots, he found that there was more to it than he thought.

The sludge itself didn't seem to be causing the spiritual energy to turn into sludge. What seemed to be causing it was, well, he didn't know quite what it was. It looked like a black gas, but it stayed pretty dense and didn't spread out. It looked almost like a flame, but at some points it also seemed more like water. It gave off a very strange feeling as well. It felt like it had a bunch of negative emotions about spiritual energy. It seemed to hold a grudge against it, but also seemed to look down on it, almost scoffing at it. It seemed like it both thought it was unnatural and wrong, but also belittled it for being something so intertwined with everything in nature. It almost felt completely contradictory. Surely any cultivator would consider it a useless thing, reasonless and worthless, hating the very spiritual energy that exists throughout everything and allowed them to achieve immortality.

But Will understood it. Though the part of him that always lived in this world didn't give any insight into it, the part from another world allowed him to understand it exactly. In fact, what it was trying to tell was exactly the thoughts that had been in the back of his mind. Spiritual energy was weird. How something so integral to this world, tied into everything, could just not exist in the other one. How it seemed to deny physics sometimes, and follow it at others. How the idea that not having it and being able to use it would make one be considered worthless, but in this world where it existed, they didn't even have so much as trains when it came to technology. They'd consider a place with low spiritual energy backwater here, but when it came to backwater, even the bigger cities he had been taken through would have been considered an almost third world country level of backwater back in the other world.

And this strange black substance felt his thoughts, and where it had been trying to resist before, it stopped. It seemed like it felt like it had been finally understood for the first time. More than that, it seemed as if all of its seemingly contradictory beliefs became possible for it to understand. Like all those feelings were finally explained. Like it had been told for the first time that it wasn't crazy. It felt… oddly coherent for a weird black gas, almost like it was a living thing.

And then it seemed as if the black gas reached out to him. It gave him an offer: abandon this stupid spiritual energy nonsense and make use of it instead. Will refused.

The black gas seemed about to riot at this. It seemed as if it felt betrayed.

Then Will, deciding to treat the black gas as something that he could talk to for the time being, attempted to explain his reason to it. He chided the black gas for being wasteful. This was a world running on spiritual energy, whether he liked it or not. To simply give up on it would be foolish. It was clear that no matter how nonsensical it was, it had power. And Will needed all the power he could get. Even once he got out of the forest, there was still whoever his parents had ran into a dangerous forest like this one to escape, and there was no telling whether they'd chase him down when he got out. He didn't even know who they were. He needed spiritual energy, plain and simple.

The black gas seemed to understand a bit, but it still looked as if it felt it had been abandoned. Like it had found the one person who understood its point against spiritual energy, and they still would use said spiritual energy instead of it.

And Will tried to explain again. How his point about not abandoning things extended to it as well, how he had even incorporated lifeforce when he got the chance. And so he offered the black gas his own offer: to join him. To try to understand spiritual energy, not as the true and only way to gain strength, not as a thing to be deified, but as just another thing that exists and does things.

And the black gas agreed. As soon as it did, he felt all the sludge disappear, as if the black gas was just leaving it there to make cultivation harder. As it did so, the black gas even seemed to get stronger. After that, the bit of black gas he had put on his spiritual roots finally fully melded in. This left Will with only the question of what to do with it all.

Oh, and if it was ever a question, yes, putting the impurities in one's body onto their spiritual roots would give them qi deviation. So would putting on the thing making those impurities. That should be pretty obvious.

He couldn't put it in his middle dantian, since that had the spiritual energy from the mouse in it. He didn't want to put in his upper dantian, in case it prevented some mental ability upgrades spiritual energy might give him, and he already planned to try putting demonic lightning spiritual energy in his lower dantian, since he was scared it might cause issues in his upper dantian. He wouldn't have been so worried to put it in his upper dantian if it was just lightning spiritual energy, since death by brain frying sounded like a level of instant he'd be immune to, but with the demonic part of it, he was a bit worried he'd become an evil demon or something. He could already imagine himself standing over some farm girl face down on the ground with a bloody stab wound on her back, doing that weird slight squat that lunatics do and licking a knife. The worst part is that he'd probably just stand there reveling in the kill like an idiot until someone comes and finds him, and since he'd be too far gone he'd keep killing people while on the run and lead everyone straight to him. He was honestly more upset about the being stupid part than the being evil part. He didn't like the idea of turning evil, he actually disliked it a fair bit, but he hated the idea of becoming the kind of person he'd make fun of for dying over stupid crap more.

Either way, he was left with a conundrum. That was, until the black gas seemed to notice. All the black gas in his meridians flew out to a seemingly random spot. Then he found where it was going. It was another meridian! A big one! Like almost dantian sized big!

He hadn't seen it before, but now that he had seen it, he remembered something about there being some other special meridians or something. He didn't really remember much else, but he felt like getting them was special or something? Well, special or not, it was the perfect place to put the black gas. The meridian the black gas had found was running around his waist like a belt. As soon as it settled in, Will started looking again to find the rest.

After twenty minutes of looking, he managed to find seven more, which seemed to fit with the eight extraordinary meridians he assumed these were. They would do nicely as bonus dantians for all the weird crap he may stumble across.

With his meridians cleared out in what Will assumed was likely record time, or close to it, he now had to do something else. Which was going to be hard, since he really did not know how to cultivate.

Chapter 3 Sick Freak's Evil Basement

Will was stumped. He hadn't really planned out the part that comes after meridian cleaning. Sure, he had some ideas for what to do, but he didn't really have a plan, he was kind of expecting to figure that out as he cleaned the meridians. He decided to just start trying all the ideas out and see what does anything.

As with all attempts at cultivation, it started with an inhale. But unlike the other attempts, he had to do a few things at the same time. He shoved the demonic lightning spiritual energy into the bottom dantian, shoved the pure spiritual energy into the middle dantian, and shoved lifeforce into the top dantian.

The change, while minor, was immediate. The first thing he noticed was that his eyesight seemed a bit better. Not only eyesight, but he was hearing better, smelling better, and could even think a little bit better. It was like everything on his head was healed a bit.

The second thing he noticed, after the pain from getting demon shocked faded, was that his body felt a bit faster. Particularly, when he did small fast movements they were a lot faster. He reached out to grab a blade of grass really quickly.

His hand shot out in an instant and pulled back the next. Except when it shot out the wind from it pushed the blade of grass away and when he pulled it back it was empty. Well, it didn't increase dexterity.

Will didn't notice any difference with the pure spiritual energy, but that made sense, since he already had a good bit in there from the mouse.

After doing it once, he did it again. He kept at it for half of the day before he noticed the same lack of stuff as last time. Looking around, it turned out that he'd dried out the area as far as he could easily inhale, and all he had now was what got pulled into the area by the residual suction force.

All the plants and grass around were dead as well, creating a sight right out of a computer wallpaper that the owner of the computer thinks is really cool.

Will took a moment to examine his current state. The things he'd noticed before were much more pronounced. His head was clearer than ever, and it felt as if his eyes and ears were not only healed, but healed even beyond the healthiest they'd ever been. His body didn't feel much faster overall, but when he made a sudden movement, it was way faster.

But aside from the things he noticed before, he noticed another thing. He felt less like a mouse. It was a very weird thing to feel. He didn't think he felt like a mouse before now either, but when he thought back on it, the level of mouseness was noticeably different. He assumed it was because earlier his middle dantian was filled with the spiritual energy of the mouse. He couldn't really figure out any specifics on why it would make him feel mousey, but that was the only thing that made sense.

He moved to the back of the house to start cultivating there. He decided to put on some music this time as well.

But as Will sent a piece of his consciousness into the mind space, he noticed something. His points were way higher! They were in the thousands now, all the way from one. He supposed killing a magic mouse and creating a barren patch of land would do that. He decided to spend his points.

He went to the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace section, and used the search bar to filter out what he couldn't afford. After doing so, the list came up with a lot of manuals that were theoretical knowledge. He quickly used the search bar to filter those out as well. What he was left with wasn't much. He saw two fist techniques that had a power just slightly above a regular punch. He saw a magic spell using mana (which he didn't have anyway) that seemed to be a water version of a spell used for lighting candles, which didn't really do much of anything since water can't light candles. He saw a blueprint for a wooden toy boat for babies to play with. He saw a lot of things, and none of them seemed useful.

Until he stumbled upon 'My baby boy's first spiritual energy gathering array'. He was about to gloss over it, but when he thought about his current issues with spiritual energy, it seemed like this may actually be a bit useful. He pressed on the entry, and saw that all it really needed was a physical medium to draw it on and some spiritual energy. It seemed to actually work too from what he could tell. He bought it, bringing his points back down to twelve. He went over to the documents section and looked at the manual he bought.

It wasn't much of a manual. It was only a drawing of a circle with a bunch of symbols and shapes in it. He embedded it into his memory and got to work on making it in reality.

After drawing it on the ground with a stick, Will inhaled some spiritual energy from the air and blew it onto the drawing. The array glowed, and Will suddenly felt the spiritual energy get just slightly denser. It wasn't by much, but it seemed to be getting denser over time.

Will was unsatisfied. It wasn't nearly fast enough for his liking. When he thought about it, it didn't really take that much to make it… maybe he could make more? But they'd have to be in the same spot, or else they'd just pull at each other. Actually, now that he thought about it, how big did this thing have to be to work?

Will smudged the side of the circle, deactivating the array. He didn't know if that was how it was supposed to be done, but it seemed to work at least. 

He headed back into the hut and went to the kitchen area. He walked up to the counter, and looked at the door to the cabinet under it. It wasn't pretty. It looked like just a slab of wood, edges rounded by time, with a handle held in place by the rustiest nails Will had ever seen. He pulled it open, revealing two hinges that looked less like rusted metal than they looked as if someone had just made them out of rust. Will pulled on the door, and after a few seconds, it came off the hinges. He brought it outside to the back of the house.

Will picked up a rock and was about to start carving array circles into it when he remembered the Export function. He looked at the document for the array and pressed the Export button in the drop-down menu. It seemed as if he had enough materials on hand to do it for free which made sense since he was able to do it by hand. He went to place an array at the top right corner of the door. Then he thought of a question: how small could he make it?

The answer he found was about one centimeter wide. He could still go smaller, but it would cost points. He exported a tiny array onto the door and blew some spiritual energy on it.

He quickly ran into an issue, the array was barely gathering anything at all. It seemed that his array stacking plan wouldn't work out.

Then Will had another idea. He scratched out the small array and exported an array making use of the whole space of the door. He blew spiritual energy onto it and it worked pretty well. Then he tried to place another array right under it, embedded in the wood. It cost a point but he did it anyway. Then he tried to blow spiritual energy onto it. It took a few blows, but it eventually turned on, and the speed of gathering doubled. He repeated it twelve more times until the gathering speed was quite fast.

Will placed the door on the ground and stood on it. The spiritual energy density was noticeably higher. Though the lifeforce wasn't denser, it was still a great spot for cultivating. And so Will set about cultivating.

Even by the time night hit and all the plants around were dead, the spiritual energy was still as high as ever. Will was barely even conscious. While most people would have to consciously control their cultivation to avoid causing qi deviation, Will just inhaled it and was fine. Combined with the ability to split consciousness gained from his true souls merging, he could cultivate with a sliver of consciousness while the rest slept.

—

It was only when the sun rose and shined into his face that Will woke up.

He noticed that the spiritual energy was still just as high on his cultivation door. On the other hand, when he stepped off of it, it was downright barren.

When he saw this, he had the feeling he had probably gotten more points from this. As it turned out, he certainly had. His points were almost as high as before he bought the array manual. He picked up the cultivation door and filled it out with thirty-eight more arrays, activating them all over the course of a few minutes.

As Will walked around the hut wondering what else to buy, he felt his foot hit something. Looking down, it seemed like the door to a basement. Will grabbed the handles and pulled it open.

He saw a stone staircase, leading down into the darkness. He carefully stepped down the oddly pristine staircase until he arrived at a strange room.

Four candle sconces lit the room, two on both the left and right wall. Only the back wall was decorated, a tapestry of red lightning hanging in the center. In front of the tapestry was a short dais, in the center of which was a yellow box Will could only assume was made from the weird trees that this forest had.

Will walked towards the box, stood to the side of it in case it was trapped, and opened it. His caution was quickly rewarded as red lightning shot out of the chest after he opened it. Will peered into the chest.

Inside the chest was a book, a note, and a compass, all resting atop a red velvet cushion. Will could tell right away that the compass wasn't pointing north. He looked at the note, hoping for a clue as to why.

As Will looked at the note, he ran into an issue. He could not read a single word. Now that he thought about it, it made sense. He was only two in this world, and in the other world he only knew English. He looked at the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace and searched for something to help him learn the language of this world. He noticed his points had gone up a bit, but even with that, the only thing he could afford that showed up was a children's picture book named 'The Duck And The Fish'. He assumed that probably wouldn't help much in reading the note in a secret basement of a hut in a forest of demonic lightning.

He checked the Help section, just in case there was anything there. As he searched up his question, he found an answer:

'If you did not know enough of a language from your current universe before your death, head to the General Utility section, press on "Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor", and press "Apply For Discount". Your case will be reviewed, and the price will be discounted by an amount dependent upon your situation.'

Will followed the instructions and pressed "Apply For Discount". Immediately after, the price was lowered from a number in the millions to the exact number of points he currently had. He begrudgingly bought it, and immediately noticed the difference.

He found that he understood what the tapestry on the wall meant. He now knew that it was in fact red lightning. He wondered if this worked for other things. Like the symbol used to mark Coworkers.

He recalled the image he had seen on the tutorial screen. Instead of understanding what it was, though, he understood that understanding what it was would have disastrous consequences for him. He felt lucky that this Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor had guardrails in place for that.

He also understood the room's decor now. The candles were to evoke a feeling of mystery, and demonstrate the power of the one who placed them in being able to keep them lit years after they were placed there. They were placed on the sides of the room to draw focus to the tapestry, then to the chest on the dais below it. The tapestry on the back wall was to give a hint as to who made this room, by referencing their signature red lightning, such that visitors would be reminded of the legends told about them, while preserving the air of mystery in the room. Will got the impression that the demonic lightning of the forest must've come about after this room was made, as the tapestry wouldn't make sense otherwise.

Will stopped messing around and read the note.

'I am the one known as the Dreadbolt Menace, the Crimson Arc Tyrant, and, last but not least, the Demonic Lightning Sovereign. If you're reading this, it means that you have passed the first test to receive my inheritance. I ask that you don't get too worked up about it. If you wish to cultivate my Demonic Lightning Arts, being able to withstand a small thing like that is the bare minimum. In fact, the attack you just took will play a key role in obtaining the Demonic Lightning Body necessary to cultivate my arts. It will also kill you should you refuse to do so.

But worry not my potential successor! Obtaining the Demonic Lightning Body is an easy task. With the manual inside this chest, even if you're lacking in talent, as long as you have enough willpower, obtaining the Demonic Lightning Body will be short work.

Once you have obtained the Demonic Lightning Body, the compass will lead you to my true inheritance, where you will find everything you need to cultivate my Demonic Lightning Arts. Whether you follow it is your choice, but know that having the Demonic Lightning Body will make cultivating another method nearly impossible. My true inheritance site is hidden under multiple immortal-level formations, and without this compass, finding it is impossible, so the choice is truly yours and yours alone.

Good luck!'

Will was feeling a bit tired from dodging bullets. First it was a lightning bolt, then it was the Coworker marking thing, then it turned out the the first bullet was a double bullet because if he got hit by that lightning he would've had to cultivate some Demonic Lightning Body. He calmed down and decided to read the manual. Maybe it was actually really good and he'd missed out.

He read the first paragraph, that detailed how obtaining the Demonic Lightning Body requires one to deal with extreme pain while fighting against demonic corruption. And the next paragraph explained how human sacrifices could be used to lessen the demonic corruption risk (but not the extreme pain).

As it turned out, there were actually three more bullets he'd dodged. Extreme pain, demonic corruption, and the consequences from using human sacrifices to deal with demonic corruption. He sat down.

After a minute of stewing in emotional turmoil, he felt good enough to get back to doing stuff. He put the manual into his Document Storage. He embedded it into his memory to check for anything of use. He found out that there were also multiple forms of torture that could be used in the sacrifice to improve the efficacy, many of which dependent on certain characteristics of the victim, like female-specific rituals. He hurriedly pressed Unembed. He did not want to know what this sick freak suggested doing to women.

But before he was able to press Unembed, it was already gone. Looking at where the manual was in his Document Storage, he saw it was replaced with a white floating screen.

'You don't meet the Age Requirement to view this content.

Age Requirement: 18

User Age: 12

For more information regarding Age Requirements and how User Age is calculated, check the Help section.'

Pressing the screen, he saw the drop-down menu only had Put Up For Sale. He didn't know if he wanted to press it. He really needed every point he could get, sure, but he didn't really like the idea of selling a torture manual.

After considering it, he begrudgingly decided to put it up for sale. There were probably a lot of manuals like this for sale already anyway. It also couldn't be used on him because of the rules. And maybe it could be used for good? Like, some researcher trying to learn about demonic corruption to make a cure for it.

But more than anything else, it was because he really needed points. This basement had only solidified that need in his mind. Had he not opened the chest from the side on a whim, he'd be cultivating that manual. He wouldn't even be able to rely on embedding it since it would be taken away. And he sure as hell didn't have a strong willpower. The only will he had was his name. Both his lives were full of having everything done for him. His premier use of willpower was willing his hand to press the button to call the nurse. Even now, the thing driving him wasn't his will. It wasn't even really his fear of death driving him, it was mainly his fear of a painful death.

He stopped his self-deprecating and focused. There was a compass in the chest next to him. He needed to make a decision; whether to follow it, or stay here.

On one hand, he'd be going to another place made by the sadistic monster who wrote that manual. Said sadistic monster also wasn't too reserved about harming his successor-to-be either, considering that lightning bolt trap.

On the other hand, this may be a possession scenario, and the guy who set this up may have been trying to find someone skilled in his arts to take over and revive himself.

Will noticed that both hands were bad. That felt telling. He felt that he still had to consider the benefits, though. He was able to come up with more than he thought.

He was really curious, the manual for the Demonic Lightning Arts may not be as bad as the one for the Demonic Lightning Body, he could sell the manual for money, someone else taking it instead would probably be bad, and there may be a treasure there used in cultivating the Demonic Lightning Arts.

The last one was the most convincing reason to go. Especially so if the theory he had was correct.

He had been thinking about it for a bit. It was clear that the demonic lightning spiritual energy wasn't here when that Demonic Lightning guy made this place. But judging by the chest being made out of the lightning attribute trees, the part that was missing had to have been the demonic aspect of it. That also lined up with how the trees were yellow, while the demonic lightning spiritual energy was red. It was evident not only from the tapestry thing, but from the note and the trap. The lightning that came out of the chest was clearly not that different from the demonic lightning spiritual energy outside. If anything, it seemed a bit weaker, like it had to be densely packed to achieve the same level of power as the demonic lightning spiritual energy outside. When he saw it, he even felt an instinctual derision coming from his lower dantian. But the note spoke as if obtaining the Demonic Lightning Body was only possible with that lightning. And if that guy had the ability to make that demonic lightning before the demonic lightning spiritual energy of the forest appeared, and demonic lightning spiritual energy was required for getting his arts, there had to be some source of it. Considering that his true inheritance site had to be within a reasonable distance of this basement, almost certainly within this forest, whatever the source of his demonic lightning spiritual energy was would be as well. Taking all of this into account, Will's conclusion was that the demonic lightning spiritual energy of this forest was likely caused by that source. Or more likely, caused by that source's weaker demonic lightning spiritual energy combining with the wild lightning spiritual energy that was originally here, and making it more aggressive.

He still had some questions that went unanswered by his explanation, but that was also mostly what he was curious about. Will felt like he'd convinced himself too hard. He was hoping for not going to win out, because it seemed dangerous, but when he considered the benefits… It seemed he would be going on an adventure.