Chapter 20

Rui walked through the familiar streets in a leisurely manner.

It had been a few months since he last saw his family, due to the concentration required for the body refining stage.

He had missed his family quite a bit, so as soon as he had free time he got permission to visit them.

Visiting family and relatives while attending the academy was possible only a few times and this was the first time Rui used one of his permissions.

Although he had not gone to meet his family, he still sent them letters to inform them on how he was doing.

Time had flown by way too quickly while he was improving his cultivation. Although he was so much stronger than the average human, he was still not considered a true rune master yet. Only after reaching the peak of the first stage would one truly become a rune master.

They were able to wield powerful energies and weapons with their bodies, also known as those who had achieved the peak of foundation establishment.

It had taken Rui roughly a little over six months to reach his current point, being the peak of the fifth stage of the body refining stage. He still had half a year left to attend the academy, but he still had no knowledge of fighting.

He was still an amateur when it came to combat, just like the rest of the students. He didn't know as to how they would be trained in combat, but the half a year they had left surely wasn't enough.

Although he had learned and studied the ancestral technique, without any practical experience, they were just flashy moves that did no harm. He still was far off from an actual rune master at this point in time.

Rui reached his destination after five minutes of walking. He found himself walking much faster than before, seemingly having greater speed and walking pattern.

A young boy was currently writing today's menu and deals on a wooden board.

This was an idea Rui thought of in the past. It was a great way to advertise the menu and it was easy to clean up and re-use. In fact, many stores around the area copied this idea.

Selling things in bonus bundles, as well as having deals on certain days made the amount of customers increase exponentially.

Of course, the young boy was Guang Jian.

Hearing someone behind him, he turned his head in a hurry. Seeing that it was his big brother, Jian smiled happily and hugged him tightly.

After a few seconds of hugging, he rushed inside and screamed.

"MOM, DAD, BIG BROTHER IS HOME!"

"Why are you shouting so much? Wait, what did you say? Rui?"

Both of his parents rushed over as soon as they heard Rui was back.

Rui smiled widely and hugged them tightly, seeing his parents after so long made him quite happy.

He could really feel the love they had for him.

Rui didn't really care about other people and had quite a cold approach to meeting new friends. He had a so called calculative disposition when it came to approaching others. Although he appeared quite amicable and caring on the outside, he only cared for his own well being.

Rui perfectly matched the description of his personality path, society born demon.

Society was the thing that made him have this cold approach to life in the first place. Born into such horrible background but still managing to achieve so much, despite his young age of death made Rui quite proud of himself.

Although he knew he was nothing compared to some, he still felt that he had done the best he could.

The only reason his heart mellowed out was due to his later years at the company and the familial love he had experienced for the first time in his second life.

This put his calculative side to rest for the time being, but going to the academy had activated that old forgotten side of his.

He was no hero and the people he trusted could be counted on one hand.

The group he was a part of in the academy was something that made all of them have equal benefits. It was a worthwhile experience and they created some bonds, but Rui didn't trust all of them.

Xiong Liliang could easily be trusted due to his nature. He was someone that could easily be manipulated and Rui wanted him on his side due to his potential and lack of family background.

Gathering potential talents to make his own force was something Rui had planned while he was in the academy.

Although his family clan was great, he still wanted to create his own group, becoming something like a group of individuals that would share certain information with each-other. Something like a small information group.

Having the merchant king be part of that group was also a great advantage, although Rui didn't trust him much.

He trusted Huo Liang, Ning Yinin and Han Dong the most, as for the rest, they really didn't seem interested in anything else other than cultivation and put up a cold front.

Huo Liang was an honest person that held no malice towards anyone. He was someone with a simple mindset, but surprisingly he wouldn't get easily manipulated by others.

On the other hand Ning Yinin didn't really care about anyone else but Huo Liang. The only other thing she cared about was cultivation. She had a headstrong and domineering personality, but she was someone who kept her promises.

Han dong was someone who knew the secret of his clan. Rui had had multiple conversations with him in private. They had come to a conclusion that both of them didn't want to be bound by the empire, but they were unable to do anything about it, due to their current positions.

Han Dong was someone who didn't resemble the rest of the royal family. He was an outcast through and through.

If not for him possessing the rune of the illusion emperor, he would have been in a horrible state, possibly even dead.

The royal family was warm on the outside, but extremely cold on the inside. The amount of poisoning attempts, bribery and even assassinations were countless. Thankfully the empress had a tight grip of the current affairs in the court, making most of the politicians stop all their actions with just a sweep of her sleeve.

She was truly a competent empress, but her strength was not enough to appease the worry the current upper management of the empire had.

The country was lacking a powerful individual at the moment. The empress herself being only a sixth stage rune master, also known as Rune celestials. Although she was powerful enough to split mountains in half with her hand, she was still far weaker than the emperor.

Eighth stage rune masters were known as the peak of the rune master realm, only being surpassed by the ninth stage rune masters, who were known to possess strength equal to that of a continent.

No one had seen a ninth stage rune master for thousands of years and they were extremely rare to even see once even every hundreds of thousands of years. Some say a ninth stage rune master is born only once every million years.

Rui had a hearty family dinner. He ate his mother's delicious food and played with his little brother and even taught him a few things.

Rui was almost certain that Jian would awaken as a rune master in the future. He had used his analysis skill on multiple teens on his way here and almost none of them had the invalid error that Jian had shown.

'It was clear the invalid meant that there was a high chance of the individual possessing some sort of energy within their bodies, that was possibly still sealed, making the system unable to properly measure it.'

Rui reasoned with himself, still not knowing how the system properly worked.

It was clear that the system gave out missions and rewards depending on the actions he had completed. Its as if it fed on the data of his everyday life and analyzed it to the most minute level. The adjustments the system had done to his body so far were massive, but they were still within the realm of possibility if one were to account for the functions it had.

'It could be an artificial intelligence that used my soul as a host, acting like a parasite, or it could be something completely out of my realm of thinking, possibly something of the fourth dimension.'

Rui took a deep breath to calm his racing mind down. He stopped thinking of things with no solution and focused at the matter at hand.

He was currently teaching the ancestral martial technique to Jian.

The martial technique he had learned through his insight was impossible to transfer at the moment.

Rui had learned both of them, due to the need to hide the fact that he knew an ancestral grade martial art. This had the added benefit of being able to use the martial art without having to expend as much energy as the ancestral method.

It took him quite a bit of trial and error to blend the two seamlessly, creating a method much easier to use, utilizing the low energy consumption of the downgraded version and the powerful movements of the ancestral version, essentially creating a different variation for the martial art.

So what Rui was teaching Jian was his new and improved method.

Jian was quick to pick it up, absorbing and mastering the technique in mere minutes.

Unlike Rui, Jian was a true genius when it came to martial arts, especially swords. They had multiple spars in the past and Rui was always on the losing side, only winning by using strategy.

After teaching him the movements, Jian quickly adapted and converted them into a more comfortable style to him. He did this without thinking, it was like breathing to him.

Having taught him all the moves, Rui sparred with him, to hone his martial arts even further.

Although Jian was incredibly talented in using the sword, Rui currently possessed the strength of a five times refined physique, they were on totally different leagues.

So even though Jian was able to master and adapt the sword technique, he was easily defeated with just a single half hearted hit by Rui.

This was the difference between cultivation level. A unawakened human and an awakened one were on completely different playing fields.

Rui wondered as to how this was fair and if there existed other methods of awakening something similar to a rune.

What Rui didn't know however, was the fact that the rune wasn't the important part, but the spiritual root in ones body.

What made his ancestors undergo such a transformation was the consumption of runes that would induce the creation of a spiritual root and that spiritual root was the reason one could cultivate energy.

What rune masters possessed was a powerful runic root that allowed them to cultivate without limit, however the only drawback it possessed was its long incubation period of fourteen years.

After training with Jian, Rui spent the rest of the day with his family, reminiscing as to how much things had changed in such a short period of time.

Although his family was the same, he was a totally different individual from when he left a few months ago, both physically and mentally.

Having regained his cold and calculated mindset, but also becoming a rune master put a barrier into the family he cherished. Although he was sad for being an unfilial son and fulfilling his desires, it was something he really wished to do.

Since the moment he was reborn, he wished for something greater and not just the same mundane life he had before.

Rui lay in bed stared at the so familiar bunk bed wood.

He called out the system windows one after another and slowly browsed through them. There wasn't much of a difference, but the skill tree had unlocked another branch from his ancestral martial art.

He browsed through everything he had done so far, as well as the quests he currently had active.

[Man and Earth as One]

[Perfect body, Perfect mind]

These two were the current quests he had to complete.

He had no idea as to how to progress the 'man and earth as one' quest, since it was an obscure concept. As for the Perfect body, Perfect mind, it was a simple quest that would only take a bit of time to complete and also gave out great rewards.

Although the progress he had made in cultivation seemed rapid to him, he could already notice signs of it slowing down.

It was clear that the earlier stages of cultivation were much easier compared to the later stages. Building a foundation was after all the part most people ignored.

Just like a house, you can't ignore the foundation, or else your house will collapse without you even knowing why.

As such, although the progress was fast, it was clear that the lack of a proper foundation would create severe problems in the later stages of cultivation.

Rui thought about it even more and so decided that he would progress his body refinement to at least seven times, or maybe more, simultaneously continuing the refinement of his runic bowl, trying to achieve something greater than the supreme bowl, as the system indicated there was a higher stage.

If he was going to become a rune master, he wanted to become the greatest and most powerful one.

'If one had no ambitions, what was the point of living.'

This was a thought that Rui had quite often.

After all, the pieces for him to become the greatest were here. A system, a cultivation world and a powerful family background.

He had wealth, luck and talent. There was nothing he currently lacked, so why couldn't he be ambitious?

Rui closed his eyes that were shining with desire.

He would stop at nothing to achieve his goal. He was someone like that.

However, he was also someone who was methodical in his ways of living. He would take things step by step, even if he was shunned by others for his slow progress. He didn't care as to how long it would take, but he wouldn't die as long as he had the drive.

He fell asleep planning his future paths.

The following day Rui woke up early as per usual.

He had breakfast with his family and then said his goodbyes to them. He had no knowledge as to how long this separation would last, but he had a feeling that it would be longer than the previous one.

He hugged his family with controlled strength, making sure he did them no harm.

He was someone who hardly shed tears in his previous life, but in this life he cried with all the emotion he had just this once.

These were the people that truly loved and cherished him. People who would trust and be with him till death. This was what family was and he was happy with finally knowing what it truly meant to be loved.

After a few minutes of sobbing, he turned around and left, still teary-eyed.

Getting far away enough, he wiped his tears and headed towards the academy with strong strides.

Since he was going to refine his body and bowl even further, he had planned to run the academy dry on any resources given to him. Since it was all free, he decided to spend every last bit of it to increase the strength of his foundation.

Spending close to a month of closed door body refining cultivation, he achieved the sixth stage of body refining, completing the quest.

[Quest 'Perfect body, Perfect mind' has been completed]

[Rewards are being distributed]

[Beginning upgrade of the physique]

Suddenly, Rui felt his entire body being torn apart.

No, he wasn't feeling it, his body was really tearing apart.

He stared in shock as cracks appeared on his flesh, fresh blood spilling. He felt every muscle in his body moving, like countless worms, causing him monstrous amount of pain.

It was pain that put the training and suffering he had gone so far to shame.

His bones popped out of their sockets, as he felt his body become similar to a mush. At this point his mind could no longer hold on and he fainted.

When he woke once more, he felt fine and all the pain in his body was gone. In fact he felt much stronger, as if his strength had increased by leaps and bounds.

Despite that, he couldn't care less about the changes in his body and put his focus on the system windows that appeared.

[Body reconstruction complete]

[Physique has been upgraded to Extreme Rune Physique]

[Level up! One free stat point has been rewarded]

[Quest 'Perfect body, Perfect mind (2)' has been generated]

[Perfect body, Perfect Mind (2)]

[Reaching the Sixth stage of body refining is something many have achieved, but its of course nowhere near enough for one to reach the peak.

Mission requirements:

Seventh stage of the body refining stage

Reward:

Upgrade to your Bloodline]

Rui sucked in a deep breath. The system windows were way too shocking for him.

It was the first time he heard of the 'Extreme Rune Physique', but was the least of importance at the moment.

'A chain quest, it really is a chain quest. Plus it has great rewards one after another. First physique and now bloodline. This just proves my theory that the system is striving for me to reach perfection when it comes to cultivation.'

Rui thought with bated breaths. He was having a hard time holding in his excitement.

After a while of calming him self down, he spoke to Yue.

"Yue, did the library contain any information about the 'Extreme Rune Physique'."

"Yes master, want me to relay the information?"

"Yes."

Yue was a great tool after all. Although it was useless when it came to combat and the sorts, it had a great function as an artificial intelligence and could hold knowledge much easier than the human brain could.

Rather than memorizing all the books in the library due to time constraints, Rui used Yue to scan them all and make an archive on its system of all the library books.

"The Extreme Rune Physique is an Archaic rank physique that is rarely found due to the heavenly calamity that befalls the holders. It is quite similar to the lower grade 'heavenly Rune Physique', only having the added benefit of meridian observation through an innate skill and a higher absorption rate, of course due to its rank. Its users are also known to possess a light blue tint in their hair, as well as white glowing pupils."

Hearing Yue words, Rui quickly took a bundle of his braided hair and let the sunlight shine through it.

Surely enough, his hair had a light blue tint to it, despite still being black in color.

"Thank you Yue, that's great information. Next I would like to ask for information pertaining to a seven times refined body"

"I have found one article containing the information you requested master. Want me to relay the information?"

"Please do."

"The refinement of ones body is an extremely important step when it comes to establishing your foundation. Although many disregard this step in their cultivation, this in turn would result in a catastrophic aftermath. That's why since ancient times, a mandatory five time refinement of the body is needed to progress further in cultivation. However, by the standards of those who have walked the path ahead, they suggest an at least six or seven times refined body to reaching higher stages of cultivation.

Of course, not all individuals possess the determination, resources and talent to achieve such a feat, but all foundation establishment cultivators must strive for at least a sixth body refinement. It is said that most ninth stage rune masters, if not all of them refined their bodies at least eight or nine times, although that in itself is an unbelievable feat, due to the force and strain the body must endure after multiple refinements."

Rui frowned when he heard the information.

He could already feel the burden of a sixth body refinement, so the subsequent refinements would be even harder. He had to achieve at least nine refinements, otherwise he wouldn't be happy with his foundation and this would create a mental demon, causing him to die prematurely.

Sighing, he prepared himself a medicine bath and soaked his body in boiling water.

After the second body refinement, boiling water was no longer hot enough to hurt him, so the heat had turned up quite considerably at this stage. Though, not hot enough to completely destroy the medical effect of the herbs used.

He had specifically requested Yin and Yang attribute herbs, basically ice and fire herbs, due to their resistance to such heats and the great effects they had on his body.

They were extremely expensive, but since the academy would pay for all resources needed in the body refining stage, Rui used them to his hearts content.

He was essentially using the countries wealth for his own benefits at the moment, but he didn't care. What was important to him was only his family and himself. He couldn't care less about the empire and its people.

He wasn't a charitable person to begin with. Survival of the fittest was the way of the world.

Was it harsh and cold? Sure, but that's how the world worked, especially for cultivators.