A World of Cultivation.

Seeing the lines of text in front of his eyes, Raymond was baffled. He was happy that he had received some money and all, but the cultivation knowledge captured his attention. To live in this new world, he would inevitably need money, and 500 gold coins seemed like a lot. However, compared to the cultivation knowledge, the money was just secondary.

The most important thing for him to understand right now was cultivation.

[Redeem Beginner Cultivation Knowledge?]

[Yes/No]

With a single thought, he once again chose yes.

[Ding! Beginner Cultivation Knowledge obtained.]

Before he could make sense of the message in front of his eyes, Raymond could feel a stream of new information streaming into his mind. In plenty of novels that Raymond had read, this process was particularly painful, which is why he had braced himself. To his pleasant surprise, there was no pain at all, only a gentle stream of warmth, and a weird sense of familiarity with these new memories. It was almost as if they had always been there.

Thanks to this newfound knowledge he had received, Raymond was finally sure that the cultivation mentioned by the system was the same cultivation he had heard of before. In this world, energy called spiritual energy exists. Or to be exact, it was actually called the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but the name was too cumbersome, which lead people to call it spiritual energy.

To cultivate was to harness this spiritual energy and use it to temper oneself on the path to immortality. The cultivation realms were divided into 9 stages called the 9 revolutions of body refining. Raymond had a feeling that there were other cultivation stages above it, but he had no way of knowing that right now. He had only gotten beginner cultivation knowledge, after all, there were a lot of things that he was bound to not know.

Since he now knew that his speculations were correct, Raymond was beginning to grow excited. He had been given a new shot at life, in a world with endless possibilities. Not only that, but he had a mysterious system on his side. Although he was still unsure about its functions, just the fact that it had given him knowledge and money was a good start. Without money, living in a foreign world would be hard, since he wouldn't be able to get either information or food without money.

From the information about cultivation, Raymond had also managed to glean some information about this world, or at least its techniques. Techniques were divided into different grades depending on how sophisticated and powerful they were. Techniques were divided into 4 large boundaries: Mortal, Profound, Earth and Heaven. These were in turn divided with another 4 small boundaries: low, mid, high and top.

Although he was excited for his future prospects, he was also quickly brought back down to earth. His most urgent need was definitely strength right now. He had no idea where he was, but he was in the wilderness somewhere. Since this world had spiritual energy, humans weren't the only people who benefited from it, the animals did as well. If Raymond was unlucky, he would probably die before he even got the chance to experience this new world.

With a clear mind, Raymond tried to think about his future path a little. The first thing he had to do was find civilisation. The only real problem was that he had no idea where he was, and if he ran into a demonic beast, then he would probably end up dead. This was his dilemma; how was he supposed to get out of this forest if he didn't even know where he was? Why did he have to start in the middle of a forest, instead of in a city?

Being frustrated wouldn't do him any good, and Raymond managed to calm down pretty quickly. Maybe this was one of the few talents he had, calmness bordering on apathy. As soon as the word talent came to his mind, Raymond paused for a moment. Wasn't he forgetting something? When he was shown his character sheet earlier, wasn't there a column for talent? Raymond admonished himself a little before he quickly brought up the system in his mind again.

[Meagre Wealth Mortal Body](0/100)

Seeing these words in front of him, Raymond was both a little baffled and disappointed. He wasn't sure what it was, but it didn't really sound impressive. Not to mention it had the word "Mortal" in it. According to the information he had obtained about cultivation earlier, Mortal was the lowest realm, which meant that no matter what this talent did, it wouldn't be too impressive. With a thought, he pressed on it and managed to obtain a bit more information.

[The physique of the god of wealth. Grants meagre talent in immortal cultivation. Can be enhanced through obtaining wealth.]

[Remark: Money makes the world go around.]

After taking a look, Raymond was excited beyond belief! The physique of the god of wealth? Didn't that imply that he could become a god in the future? Raymond wasn't entirely sure, but he was optimistic for once in his life. He didn't manage to find his purpose before the day he died in his last life, but in this life, he would surely find it. Whether it was becoming a god, finding the love of his life, becoming the richest person in the world, it didn't matter. He just wanted to find his own purpose.

The only real downside to this talent he had obtained, was that it didn't give him any immediate benefits. What good would immense talent do him if he didn't get a chance to even use it? One thing he did notice, however, was the number next to it. If his guess was correct, that number should be what he needed to upgrade the talent.

[0/100 gold coins.]

With a thought, he even found out the currency that he needed to use. Without further ado, he used his thoughts to communicate with the system. He had no immediate need for money, so spending a fifth on it to upgrade his talent seemed reasonable. Who knew, maybe it would bring him other benefits?

[100/100 gold coins.]

The pouch that had appeared on his waist when he redeemed the welcome package had become considerably lighter, as a mysterious force entered his body through his pores. Raymond assumed this force to be some form of spiritual energy, but he couldn't ponder too much about it before his mind went completely blank.

Terrible pain assaulted all of his senses at the same time, completely rendering him unable to even think. It felt like his body was melting from the inside out, before being reshaped again, multiple times over. In his panic, he bit down on his right arm. He couldn't scream out now, if he screamed now, he might put himself in unbelievable danger. He didn't have time to find something else to bite down on, so he just bit his own arm.

After around 10 minutes of unbearable agony, the pain slowly subsided. Raymond could finally relax a little, and as he did, he looked up at the vast blue sky.

"Fuck."