Chapter 7: Mysterious Immortal

Lance woke up, refreshed and energetic, as he looked around and saw a glass placed on the bedside table. It contained some sweet-smelling liquid, he drank it after some hesitation.

It felt cold while going down his throat but immediately dissolved after reaching his stomach. Warmth seemed to spread across his body, invisible wounds and muscle tears repaired themselves and even strengthened a bit.

He gasped as a pop seemed to go off in his brain as his grogginess from sleep immediately disappeared.

"How do you feel?", came a soft voice beside him.

Lance instantly jumped up from the bed as he looked towards the source of the voice. He saw the same woman who he had seen before he slept.

"I feel fine. Thank you for saving my life." He looked at her and asked," Are you an Immortal?"

"Immortal?", she chucked softly and said, "No, I am just a cultivator."

After some hesitation he asked with stars shining in his eyes, "Can you take me as your disciple?"

"No, I cannot take you as my disciple", she shook her head without any hesitation. He looked crestfallen but instantly rejoiced after her next words.

"But I can teach you cultivation. I will teach you for 5 years but after that you have to go in search of your own destiny."

"Yes, Teacher! I won't disappoint you.", said Lance as he smiled as wide as he could.

She only chuckled and shook her head.

The next day, she took him to a small hill next her house. She lived in a small house which was located on a wild island. He couldn't see any other people or settlements.

"Sit down" He sat down on the ground as she lowered herself onto a stone.

"Calm yourself, take a deep breath. Cultivation means borrowing the essence energy of the world to use it for your own purposes."

She looked at the horizon as she said, "The first step of cultivation is split into five realms, strengthening the skin, strengthening the muscles, strengthening the blood, strengthening the internal organs, strengthening the bones. This stage is also called Cultivation of the body. Each strengthening is again split into 4 - early, middle, late and peak. After that comes the second step or the Cultivation of the soul, it is called the realm of the Divine. It has 3 realms- Soul formation, Ascendant, Transcendent. But the divine realm is too far for you right now."

She then raised her hand with her palm facing upward and a flame blazed into existence.

"Essence energy also has different elements. Fire, water, wind, metal and earth are the basic 5 elements but there are special elements like thunder, light and dark. Cultivators cannot use pure essence energy. The element you cultivate will depend on your cultivation technique."

She then noticed that Lance was dumbfoundedly staring at the flame dancing in her palm. She lightly flicked his forehead while smiling and said, "If you do not tell me the special elements, I will make you clean the whole house including the garden every day!"

"Teacher the special elements are Thunder and Lightning! I read them in a book about mortals.", then he smiled cheekily while looking at her with a look that said, 'I know I am a genius'

"For your insolence, you will carry the water from the spring on the other side of the island every day too!", she said while still smiling beautifully.

He hesitated then asked, "What are the special elements then, teacher?"

"Find it out from your books about Immortals. Now sit here and try to absorb essence energy into your body, you can only eat after you have reached the skin stage.", then she slowly stood up and walked away.

"But you didn't give me a cultivation technique teacher!", he shouted at her back.

"You don't need a technique for reaching the first stage, if you don't reach the it today then I will not let you stay in my house. There are a lot of spirit beasts on the island and they love to eat human meat the most.", she said as she turned around and gave him another one of her beautiful smiles. But he only shivered after seeing the evil intent in it.

He closed his eyes after glaring at her retreating back until she was out of his sight. He tried to sense the essence energy as he calmed his mind.

After some time, he still didn't feel anything. Panic started flooding him slowly till his finally overwhelmed him enough to open his eyes and take a break.

He slowly steadied his breathing again, then the image of general Qin hurting his sister came into his mind as the irritation got to him. The rage which he had worked hard to supress burst out, he clenched his fists and unknowingly the black gas started flowing into his body. He suddenly roared as he punched a boulder with his fist. The bones in his fist immediately broke with a crunch along with the boulder.

He screamed miserably as the pain overwhelmed his rage. The black gas flowed into his body even faster especially around his broken fist. He clutched his hand to his chest as the pain slowly but surely reduced. His finger bones popped into place after being repaired.

He slowly looked around and saw pieces of the boulder lying around. For the first time since the village was destroyed, the fog over his heart cleared.

"I will kill you!", he growled with a smile containing a bit of his madness and hatred.

"Kill who?", she seemed to appear from thin air in front of him.

"No- no one teacher, I was just trying to practice the art of scaring people!" Even he did not feel convinced with his words.

She looked at him deeply as she opened her mouth to say something but thought otherwise and just sat on the same stone from before. He sat in front of her as he tried not to look into her eyes.

"You have become a cultivator." She said simply. "A cultivation technique should have appeared in your memory. Start cultivating according to it."

"What element have I absorbed?" But she continued as if she didn't hear him.

"You can use your soulbound weapons now. Weapons are also divided into ranks according to the amount of essence energy they can store and use."

"They have ranks which correspond to cultivation stages. They are called mortal stage weapons. It has 6 grades- spirit bronze, spirit iron, spirit silver, spirit gold spirit platinum and finally spirit diamond. Weapons need not necessarily be made of the same material as their name suggests, the grade only depends on the essence energy the weapon can use. After that comes the divine grade, but its original name is void grade. The six weapon ranks are usually suggested to be used by their corresponding cultivation levels. Because only those cultivation stages have enough essence energy to use them. But soulbound weapons are always one stage above the owner's cultivation level."

She let it sink in then continued, "If you do not have the materials to upgrade them then the weapons will suck out your essence energy when you are breaking through to the next stage, so the weapons are seen as a double-edged blade. Be careful of them when you cultivate."

"Yes, teacher", he said respectfully.

He then went through the nameless technique which had appeared in his mind.

'Destruction, I cultivate destruction itself', he thought to himself.