First Step

"So, cultivation is divided into two realms. Body refining and Aura refining."

In a small carriage, Xen was muttering while looking at the book.

"Body refining is further divided into five realms."

"Bruh!"

After taking a deep breath, he looked at the information again.

'The first realm is muscles refining. When one's muscles are compressed to a limit, and there can be no further development, the person would have officially entered into the muscles refining.'

"Interesting."

After reading this information, Xen suddenly lifted his cotton shirt and looked at his smooth flat stomach.

"Nevermind."

Shaking his head, he continued reading the book.

'The second realm is organs refining. In this realm, one has to refine his organs. Once your metabolism reaches the highest order, you would have reached the second realm.'

"OOOOHHHH."

After a long exclamation, Xen continued.

'The third realm is the realm of blood refining. After your metabolism has reaches the highest order, you could start purifying the blood. Once you can feel your bloodline, you would have reached the blood refining realm.'

"Feel your bloodline? How do I feel it? Do I need to touch it or what?"

Shaking his head, Xen felt like he couldn't understand anything written there.

'The fourth realm is the realm of refining bones. You need to break your bones and construct them continuously till you can not forcefully break them again.'

"Gulp."

Looking at the words 'break your bones' Xen almost threw the book out of the carriage. If this book wasn't given to him by the old butler, he would have taken it as a joke.

'The fifth and the last stage of the body refining is blood ignition. Once you can ignite your bloodline and harvest the strength from there, you would have reached the blood ignition.'

"Ignite bloodline? Like putting it on fire?"

Xen swore to himself, this was the most masochist cultivation he had ever seen. Break your bones, light yourself on fire. He would not be surprised if one needed to kill himself later in the cultivation.

Looking at the last page Xen breathed heavily.

'Aura refining. The second step into the cultivation world. You need to sense the aura of heaven and earth.'

"What. What the fuck? That's it?"

Xen started turning pages again and again in hopes of finding anything else. After wasting five minutes, Xen threw the book in the corner and started muttering to himself.

"Even a donkey can guess from the name 'Aura refining' that you need to refine the aura. Why did they even write this in the book?"

If the old man heard Xen, he would have slapped him to death. People don't even know what aura is, much less heaven and earth aura, but this brat was finding faults.

After thinking for a moment, Xen suddenly poked his head out of the front curtain towards the driver.

"Hey man."

"Mommy."

The driver almost jumped up in fright. After realizing it was the fifth master, he smiled wrily.

"Fifth master."

Looking at the driver who jumped in fright, Xen shook his head.

"How long have you been working in the house?"

"Twenty years fifth master."

"Oh. That means you must know a lot about the house."

"Yeah. You could say so."

With a twitching face, the driver replied in a hoarse voice.

'Fifth master is acting weirdly after coming back. Perhaps it is his way of coping with failure.'

After a quick guess, the man didn't bother thinking about the sudden changes in the fifth master's personality.

"How many Aura refiners do we have in our family?"

As soon as this question came out, the driver almost lost control of the carriage.

"Young master, are you joking?"

Looking at the young master's face which was filled with question and that innocent gaze, it took him a moment to realize that the young master in front of him wasn't joking.

After taking a deep breath, his gaze became serious. With a brief delay, he continued.

"We don't have any aura refiner in our family."

"What????"

This time it was Xen who almost lost control. He was ready to hear the numbers above two digits. Little did he expect that there would be none.

Looking at the young master in front of him the driver shook his head.

"Young master, I think you are in some kind of delusion."

"Interesting. Why do you say so?"

Xen wanted to know his opinions before talking further.

"The body refining is already a monumental task. It is too hard to take a step forward. Just look at me. I am thirty-six years old. I have been practicing since I was sixteen, and I still haven't reached muscles refining."

"Shit.... So hard?"

Xen almost didn't believe him. But looking at his serious face with regretful eyes, he swallowed his words back.

"So, who is the strongest in our family?"

The driver looked at Xen before breaking out in a smile.

"Obviously, it is your father. I once saw him covered in red smoke with a giant boar behind him. He has already reached the blood ignition."

Listening to the driver, Xen was silent. He had greatly underestimated the difficulty of cultivation in this world.

Thinking about the boar that was behind his father, he already has some answers in his heart.

"Bloodline."

"What about the others? The old butler?"

"The old butler is at bone refining."

A brief answer made Xen deeply aware of the power situation of this world. In front of the old man, he couldn't even react.

"Wait."

After a brief silence, Xen looked at him and asked in a deep voice.

"How come you know about all of this, but I don't?"

"Haha."

After a short laugh, the man replied with a smile.

"Young master, before the age of sixteen, the muscles in the human body are still in the phase of development. If someone starts their training at a young age, their body will stop its growth. They will never grow in height or weight. Overall, their physique will remain that of a child. It will also affect their future growth."

Taking a deep breath, he then continued.

"Every family has its own set of exercises which is mainly reserved for the direct descendants. People who don't have any family heritage can join a sect. Of course, sect's exercises are numerous and more powerful than some families. That's why some families send their descendants to train in the sects."

"Overall, everything depends on the qualification. As for how far one can go....."

He didn't complete his sentence. But both Xen and he knew what he was talking about.

"As for your question of why you don't know anything. Many children who had good qualifications were ruined because of their greed. They wanted to achieve greater heights at a young age. This is the main reason why the children are usually not informed about anything here in Northern Lands."

Xen went silent for a long time. The information he got today was enough to answer the majority of his question. For the first time, Xen realized how weak he was.

"I am going to take a rest. Wake me up when we reach our destination."

After saying these words, Xen went back inside the carriage. Picking up the book that he threw at the corner, he took a deep breath and put it inside his robe. Picking up his sword, he looked at the screen in front of him.

[Name: Xen]

[Cultivation: Mortal]

{Begin the story: YES/NO}

Gritting his teeth, he clicked Yes. With a flash of light and the same introduction, he found himself in the open field. The first thing he paid attention to was the sword in his hand.

"Fuck yeah."

Looking at the sword that was in his hand, Xen cheered loudly. He just wanted to try whether he could bring the sword inside or not. The outcome gave him a surprise.

"Boom."

Looking at the puppet that fell in front of him, there was a smirk on his face.

"Little shit. Look at how I clean you up."

Without wasting any time, Xen rushed toward the puppet and swung down his sword with all his might. The wooden puppet was instantly cut into two.

"So fast?"

For a moment, Xen thought he was dreaming, but the torn puppet in front of him was telling him a different story.

"Huff. Huff."

Right now, Xen was gasping for breath. After gasping for a few seconds, he sat on the ground looking at the puppet which was torn in two in front of him. Perhaps it was due to excitement or perhaps it was fear, Xen's legs were still trembling.

Before he could make out anything, his vision blurred and he found himself back in the carriage.

"Wait. What?"

After initial confusion, Xen looked at the screen in front of him which blurred for a moment before going back to normal.

[Name: Xen]

[Cultivation: Muscles Refining]

{Begin journey: YES/NO}

"Huh".

Before Xen could say anything, incredible exhaustion overtook him. He didn't even have time to say anything before he fainted.

As soon as Xen fainted, his muscles started squirming rapidly. Sometimes they would expand while sometimes they would collapse. If anyone looked at him right now, they would be scared shitless.

Right now, Xen looked like a devil. His body was deformed to the point where his original appearance disappeared.

....

" Uugh."

Xen didn't know how long the process went on. He only remembers coming back after defeating the puppet and losing consciousness.

Opening his eyes, the first thing that greeted him was the roof of the carriage that was still shaking. Looking at the surrounding that was going dark, Xen let out a grunt.

He didn't know how long he was asleep. Right now his entire body was aching. The wet clothes on his body along with the unpleasant smell of sweat instantly made him frown.

Xen took out a new set of clothes from the bag before taking off his robe and shirt.

However, as soon as he took off his shirt, Xen instantly cursed out loud.

"Holy fuck."