Negative Luck
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YOU HAVE CULTIVATED FOR 5 HOURS.
+0 Qi GATHERED
+0 CULTIVATION EXP GAINED
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I sighed as the notification rang out, displaying the same information that I had seen every day for the past 6 months.
This damned system is completely useless when it truly matters.
Thankfully, I am not in a rush to increase my cultivation, especially since my attributes allow me to be more than a match for a Silver rank peak stage expert.
When I first realized that my IAS had been replaced with a game-like system, I was ecstatic. I thought that I would be able to rise to the top in a smooth way. Unfortunately, the damned system rained on my parade.
Turns out, the only advantage this damned thing had over my IAS was the ability to increase my body's abilities through attributes, occasionally handing out quests, helping me keep track of my skills, abilities, and ranks, an unlimited inventory, and a shop function.
Fortunately, this thing still had all of the functions of my original IAS, so all was not lost.
"Still no progress?"
"Hmm, not yet."
"Don't worry, you will advance soon enough. The important thing is to not give up."
I simply hummed at Yanmei's words as she sat down beside me on the ground.
Being cultivators, we had no need for sleep, so it was pretty common for us to sit like this late at night and chat the night away before Yanmei left to take her siblings home and start preparing for the day.
The Twins, on the other hand, needed a lot of sleep since they had not even reached the middle stages of Iron rank. Not to mention that they have classes the next day.
In this town, all the children would usually go to Yanmei's house every day to learn to cultivate, a new development that Yanmei proposed when they first arrived in this town so that she could gain the acceptance of the townsfolk and also earn some money. But as the days went by, she grew fond of the children and continued her lessons twice a week, despite not needing money anymore.
Occasionally, I would substitute for her to teach as the only other cultivator in the town when she had to leave for the city to get some supplies.
"Maybe you should try going out of town for some time to gain some experience."
"Miss Xu, are you trying to get rid of me?"
"W-What?? No!"
Seeing her flustered look at being misunderstood, I couldn't hold it anymore and laughed out loud, causing her to pout at me before turning away from me in a show of displeasure.
"Sorry, I couldn't help but tease you a little."
"Hmph, see if I care about you anymore."
"Yanmei?"
She simply ignored me and headed back into the house.
With amusement, I simply looked back at the star-filled sky. A sky filled with constellations that I could never hope to recognize
While Yanmei's suggestion would be a valid one for someone else, it would be completely useless for me.
Because the reason for my bottleneck in cultivation was not experience but an incomplete cultivation art.
When I was running away from the Hengxing family, I used my identity as the Young Master of the Hengxing clan to borrow a few cultivation books from the family library. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and did not see just which cultivation techniques I had picked up, resulting in my system creating an incomplete cultivation art.
The Hengxing family is famed for its two main techniques that are only allowed to be used by the direct descendants of the family. The Celestial Blade arts, the main Qi cultivation technique that relied on the user's comprehension of the sword and the power of the stars, and The Star Chaser arts, a moment technique that increased the speed of the user by several times.
Incidentally, it was because of these techniques that my original failed to advance past the Iron rank peak bottleneck without resorting to demonic techniques. He did not have the mindset and dedication required for the cultivation techniques of the Hengxing family. It is a fact that he hid from his family for fear of being disowned by them.
Yeah, my original had a lot of issues going on. Fortunately, I am not him. At least, not entirely. I will not deny that since our souls have merged, a part of me is Hengxing Haizi, but I would rather not acknowledge that if I could help it.
Putting aside my identity crisis, the main reason for my bottleneck is the incomplete Wuxing Arts. A cultivation art that allows the user to cultivate elemental Qi and make them immune to said elements
The system created this cultivation art after analyzing the bunch of cultivation techniques I picked up at random from the Hengxing family's personal family, a function that it retained from my IAS.
The effectiveness of this technique was immediately apparent since I only needed a few months to rise from the Iron rank peak to the Bronze rank peak. A cultivation speed that would stupefy even the prodigies of the Grand Duke families. I also mastered the power of Fire from the technique, making me immune to all types of fire and heat while giving me the ability to manipulate fire.
Then, I got stuck at that rank for all this time simply due to the fact that the technique was incomplete.
To increase my cultivation, what I need is not experience but more cultivation techniques to analyze and understand.
Thankfully, cultivation is not the only way for me to get strong. Especially since I have a leveling system that allows me to increase my strength through attributes.
But this is also a problem since I have already hunted down the local population of Ash Wolves, making the forests surrounding the town a safe haven without any demonic beasts. While it is good news for the townsfolk, it is bad news for me since there are no more demonic beasts left in the area for me to hunt for EXP.
Although I can get EXP from my regular activities like mining and crafting, I have already stopped receiving EXP from harvesting low-level materials like raw leather, hemp, iron, and iron-based equipment. This becomes a bigger problem since this place doesn't have any higher-level materials. The chances of coming upon a silver or gold vein or herbs and plant fibers that I could harvest are also very low in this place.
Well, I'll think about this issue later. For now, I need to prepare the swords for the garrison forces of the town.
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Liu Zhaohui, the captain of the garrison force of Taizhou, inspected the steel sword in his hand meticulously. Its gleam, sharpness, and durability brought him satisfaction.
"Are they good enough Captain Liu?"
At the young blacksmith's words, the captain gave a sight and looked towards the young man.
"Haizi, you are seriously wasting your talents by limiting yourself in this small town. Unlike the rest of us, this is not your birthplace, so you don't have any obligation to waste your exceptional skills at blacksmithing for us"
"As I said before, Uncle Liu. I am not doing this out of obligation, I like my life here"
Captain Liu shook his head as he deposited the money, 50 gold coins, for 50 steel swords and took the bundle away despite the conflicting emotions he felt at the youth's answer.
Truthfully, he was not the only one who thought that Haizi was wasting his talents by staying in this small frontier town that was probably not even recognized by the Count that rules over this piece of land, let alone his superiors and upper nobles of the empire.
A few months ago, the village chief even offered to write him a letter of recommendation to Jilongtan City so that he could build a place for himself there but Haizi refused. There was also the time when he received an invitation from the Merchant Guild branch from Chenzhou city after one of our old garrison members sold his sword over there. But once again, he turned them down.
On one hand, the townspeople were touched that he preferred spending his time in this small frontier town instead of trying to achieve glory like the rest of the youngsters his age. On the other hand, they were also worried about him, especially the old men and women for whom the kid had become something like a family member due to his kindness despite being a cultivator.
The same sentiment was also shared by the garrison forces of the town, even more so than the townspeople.
Before Haizi's arrival in this town, it was a nearly weekly affair of having Ash Wolves, Demonic beasts that were in the Iron rank initial stages at the minimum and sometimes reached Iron rank peak, attacking the town, causing casualties in the garrison forces every time.
But ever since Haizi wiped out the local population of Ash Wolves, the town hasn't had a single attack for the past 6 months. A new record since the town was created over two centuries ago. Captain Liu was the one most grateful out of all the soldiers since he had avoided the burden of informing the families of his men about the death of their husbands and sons or of their crippling injuries.
It was because of this worry that Captain Liu would always try to convince him to leave this town every time he saw the young man, hoping to change his mind and make him create a good future for himself. Unfortunately, he has remained steadfast in his decision to stay here despite Captain Liu's countless attempts.
Suddenly, Captain Liu remembered something that he heard from the Village Chief and ran back to the only blacksmith shop in the town.
"Haizi! I forgot to inform you. Old man Jian asked you to prepare your forge for a large-scale order"
At the Captain's words. Haizi looked at him in confusion.
"Why? I don't recall any need for the Chief to place a large order of stuff for me. Did something happen?"
"I don't know. But I think it has to do with the recruitment that is going to happen soon in Jilongtan city for the various sects of the province"
At his words, Haizi had a troubled look before nodding to the Captain as he left.
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"Thank you, Mei'er"
"Aunt Wang, it was a small matter. You don't need to say so much"
As the only healer of the town, Xu Yanmei held the hand of Wang Ying, the wife of the owner of the local restaurant, Wang Jian, she expressed a troubled look as the old woman continued to thank the young woman.
As the two continued to chat, two shadows hid themselves behind the adjacent wall, listening to the two conversing.
"Mei'er, have you thought about what you are going to do for the recruitment?"
"…Aunt Wang. The truth is, I don't want Qian and Yulan to join any of the sects. In fact, if it were up to me, I would have forbidden them from even beginning the path of cultivation. Unfortunately, a certain someone beat me to the punch and taught them cultivation"
At Yanmei's grumbles, the old woman simply laughed before becoming serious.
"Are you sure? The recruitment only takes place every five years. So the next time they conduct the recruitment, the children will already be older than the maximum age limit"
"I am sure. I don't want them to get into trouble. They are all I have left, I don't want to lose the last of my family"
As the two continued talking, the twins who were listening from behind the wall immediately headed out of the house with a destination in mind.
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(POV Haizi)
I sat at the counter of my shop in a daze, thinking back to what Captain Liu said.
While it was not a problem that the recruitments were taking place, especially since they would be taking place in the Jilongtan city which is a long distance away, there was a significant chance of some of the prominent members of the sect to arrive in this small town.
Since Taizhou is located at the edge of the Heavenly Saint Empire and borders the Eternal Forests, it is not uncommon for the cultivators of the sects to arrive here to hunt a few demonic beasts and scout out the forests for the presence of Elves or the Fae. At least, that is what the locals say happens every five years when the recruitments take place.
If that does happen this year, there is a high chance that one of them will end up recognizing me. After all, it is not hard to recognize someone even if they wear crude clothes and cut off their hair.
This is a real dilemma.
How the hell am I supposed to fool those Sect people?
As I contemplated this new issue, the door to my house was smashed open by a flustered Yanmei.
Huh? Why are you crying? And what's that parchment in your hands?
"Haizi! The kids! They have run off to Jilongtan on their own!"
…..is this what they mean by fate?
System? Do you mind showing me my Luck stat? I feel like it is in the negatives.