by Kajack
It took only a few more minutes for the Death Core to fix my body properly. I wasn't sure about the results of my body strength after the issue with the life energy. I inspected my body, it seems my cells got properly compacted, fixing the body was the same as using the life energy from the pill. Before my body strength was around 1,200 jin. After my body cells compacted to such a degree, I could feel my strength now being at around 2,600 jin. That's more strength than a 2nd rank Qi Refining stage expert, without using any technique I can almost match a Qi Refining stage 3rd rank. This was amazing! What a huge increase in strength.
“Old Lin! Old Lin!!! Don't hide now! The kid already has the pill, it will take a few days for him to reach the Mortal Realm peak!” Old Ji said. It was clear that he was pissed off that he had to part with that pill.
“Cough! Cough... I just found out that we don't know his main talent...” Old Lin replied.
“I thought you inspected him! Before we got teleported...” Old Ji retorted.
“No...”
“Fuck! You just wanted me to lose my precious pill! How are we supposed to make his breakthrough to Qi Refining stage if we don't know his main talent!”
“...”
“...”
The five old men didn't say anything more. Two days had passed. I was worried about Shu Yi and Shu Er, but there was nothing I could do to communicate with them besides through souls, which could only communicate basic emotions. I didn't have anything to do besides waiting. I decided to not communicate with them using my soul. After all, I'm not at the Qi Refining stage yet... so real communication with them was impossible for the time being.
“The kid should already be at the Mortal Realm peak. I suggest we give him our cultivation manuals. We five are from the five main attributes, perhaps the kid is also from one of them,” Old Wang said.
“Are you kidding? Give a kid our cultivation manuals! These are Nascent Soul cultivation manuals!!!” Old Ji was enraged again.
“Kid! I, Old Han, cultivate wood. I will send you my cultivation manual, try to succeed.”
“Bah! I'm the greatest beast master on this continent. I cultivate earth!”
“Stop bluffing, you are no greater than any other beast master! Last time we fought you lost like a little girl. Hahaha. Kid listen well, you must study my metal cultivation manual.”
“Hahaha, well said, Old Zhang. I will send you my fire cultivation manual,” said Old Ji, seeing that old man was getting bullied by Old Zhang, it seems it made his mood improve.
“I'm sending you my water cultivation manual. Check all of them and use the attribute you have more affinity with.”
Five cultivation manuals popped up from the token. The books were thin and well-taken care of, they had an ancient aura around them. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh... I was expecting some kind of other treasure, even if they are nascent soul cultivation manuals they were useless to me. Death is my main talent! And from the conversation, it seems my talent is too rare, they were powerful experts and they were among the five more common talents.
Obtained Five Ancient Elemental Path Cultivation Manual. Absorb?
“Yes.” At least I can gain a bit of knowledge, in the future I can impart it to someone. After absorbing the manual, I understood a little more about the cultivation path.
This is insane! These five-cultivation manuals were one set, the creator of this was a genius. If one had the same talent in several attributes, it could allow to cultivate them all simultaneously. Having a bad talent but having several attributes at the same level could make you a powerhouse! As long as they are balanced you could cultivate in them. Having two attributes will give you two times more Qi: if you have five of them balanced you would have five times the Qi. Not only that, the manual also showed the way to open up to the 12th meridians.
The more I read the manual content, the angrier I got! This manual was insane and I could not use it. I had to stop reading after I saw that having the five attributes was extremely rare, but if one had it, their talent could evolve.
I didn't notice that one more day had passed. I was so engrossed in the cultivation manual and angry, I forgot about the time. This time I checked with my soul—the token, I could see inside it some runes and some instructions. As long as I used it according to the manual I could communicate with them.
“What if the kid is not from the main five attributes, and has no affinity at all with them!?”
“Old Lin is right. If the kid has no affinity, our cultivations manuals are useless to him.” Old Han’s voice had a tone of worry in it.
“Hahaha, then we will force the affinity to him! I'm sure Old Lin will be generous enough to give him a drop of blood from a Divine Beast. The last time you won a drop from the White Tiger. If the kid were to fuse with the divine beast bloodline he will get an affinity metal for sure!” Old Ji kept laughing. It seems he was getting back at Old Lin for making him give up the pill.
“Right! Old Lin, you need to give it to him.”
“But, I...”
The four old men were forcing Old Lin to give out the divine beast blood. After a few hours of discussing, finally Old Lin agreed.
“I won't explore any Spirit King remains anymore! Look at this situation, every time we end up with bad luck, and we still can't break through!”
“Little boy, I will send you a drop of blood, don't worry about it. It will not bring you any damage—any man would kill to get a chance to fight for this blood. When you have the blood you only need to ingest it, after that, cultivate the Old Zhang manual.”
This time I felt like I was doing something really crazy... A drop of blood from a Divine Beast, and it was one of the four divine beasts! As soon as the blood appeared in front of me I could feel an ancient aura, it was so intimidating that I could hardly move. The Death Core in my chest trembled, the divine beast blood had provoked it. A deadly aura expanded from the Death Core covering the room, the ever so mighty divine beast blood was scared like a kitten trembling, it flew on its own accord on a beeline to my mouth. The deadly aura retreated to the Death Core.
Ding!
Requirements to upgraded Death Common Bloodline completed. Evolving Death Common Bloodline to Death Uncommon Bloodline.
Chapter 44
4 days to die
Bloodline: Death Uncommon Bloodline (Evolvable) (20/50 Rarer or greater).
Upgraded Wielder of the Death: Upgraded Death Talent. Death Talent: 1-Yellow.
Upgraded Wielder of the Darkness: Upgraded Darkness Talent. Darkness Talent: 3-Orange.
Upgraded Wielder of Time: Upgraded Time Talent. Time Talent: 3-Orange
Unlocked Wilder of Space: Unlock Space Talent. Space Talent: 3-Red
Upgraded Death Soul Seal: Allow the user to communicate through the Death Seal.
Upgraded Avatar of Death: Consumes 1 death point per five seconds.
Ding!
Detecting new memories... processing...
Learned Death Scripture.
Death Scripture: Minimum Requirements to start practicing Mortal Realm peak. The Death Scripture was created when the universe was born. Allows the user to cultivate Death Qi. rank: Above everything.
Hell! This Death Scripture is a bit overbearing, I guess that solves me the trouble to find a Death Cultivation manual, with this I can start cultivating Qi! Now that my bloodline evolved it also gave me space talent, still I think it's too early to properly use this kind of talent it is far too advanced for me.
I checked my death points—they were empty, and I was at least 15,000 points away to reaching the Mortal Realm peak. Trapped in a room, I doubted that I would gain any death points.
“Old Han don't be stingy and send the kid some spirit stones,” Old Ji said.
“Right! You are a divine doctor aren't you very wealthy! When you are drunk you always play with a lot of women...” Old Wang said trying to sound as a woman softly and shy.
It was clear Old Han was an old pervert, the four old men kep
t teasing him. Old Han couldn't hold it in anymore and surrendered. Roughly 10 minutes later he sent me five hundred low spirit stones.
With these five hundred low spirit stones now, I had around 2,000 low spirit stones total, I was still poor. It was clear that the five old men were waiting for me to breakthrough. Since I needed to wait for a bit of time, I decided to contact Shu Yi and Shu Er.
When my bloodline was upgraded, it affected my Death Soul Seal, thanks to that I can communicate with the people that have my seal on their souls. I thought that maybe it was related to my new space talent, after all, even if we communicate through the soul they are quite far away from me. I was still too much of a newbie on all this stuff on cultivation; even if I read some novels in my past life, it doesn't work exactly like them, at least for me.
Talking with Shu Yi and Shu Er was simple, I just needed to send my voice to their seals through my mind and soul. Apparently, Shu Yi and Shu Er had hidden away, and roughly one day after they made their breakthrough to the Qi Refining stage 5th rank, a party had appeared outside the cave. It was Young Master Chen and company. It seems that hitting Young Master Chen for being an idiot made him angry enough to get a party to track and kill me. There were twenty Qi Refining stage cultivators and Young Master Chen, the Qi cultivators were between 1st rank and 4th rank. They were waiting outside the cave, they had tracked us and they knew I went inside the cave, yet they didn't dare to enter the cave. The cave had killed many people, it was normal for them to be scared to enter. So they were just waiting outside like vultures. With Shu Yi and Shu Er’s abilities it would be hard to wipe the entire party but still, they could easily hide from them.
I explained to both of them how to communicate with me through the Death Soul Seal, this way the twins could monitor them and tell me if something happened. I made sure to calm down their anxiousness, telling them that I was fine. I didn't tell them that if I died, or properly speaking if I ceased to exist, they will also die.
I decided finally to communicate with the five old men using the token Old Wang gave me.
“Hello seniors,” I said with a calm voice.
“Hahaha, we succeeded!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Great!”
“Good boy, now we can finally talk with you!”
“Good! My metal manual cultivation is the best! I won big this time, hahaha, kid, do you wish to be my disciple?” Old Zhang was in high spirits after hearing my voice.
I wanted to cry... How am I supposed to tell them now that their resources were destroyed or absorbed…
“Who cares about that right now. Kid describe the room you are in,” Old Han said.
I started to explain to the four of them the room that I was in...
“You are inside an array. A very complex one made of runes on the top of it.”
“Old Wang, can you solve it?”
“If it were me or you guys inside it, it would be possible, but it's hard to say, this kind of array is not as easy as telling us about the key to destroy it. From the description the kid gave us, the array will need to be operated through nine points at the same time. Also, the kid will have to know the basics as when the first rotation is done all the other runes will swap positions...”
“Are you kidding me? I'm a beast master but isn't this kind of array a 5-Star array?? Even with the instructions it’s impossible for a little kid in the Qi Refining stage to solve it!”
“We can increase the kid’s realm, Old Ji has many more pills, and we also have a lot of spirit stones to increase his realm,” said Old Zhang.
“I'm afraid we can't do that.” Old Wang’s voice was serious.
“What's the matter Old Wang?”
“Us five already solved our puzzles in our rooms, yet the trap array around our rooms didn't disappear. Based on the kid’s descriptions, his is on the key room. Unless that room is solved the other rooms won't be totally solved. Also... there is a countdown on the kid’s room: 4 days.”
“...”
“Lucky we made the kid a Qi Refining stage cultivator otherwise the consequence will be severe...”
“You forgot the main point... even if the kid is able to operate the 9 points at the same time through my explanation, without being himself at least a 1-Star Array Master, it is impossible for him to keep going through the swaps. We only have four days to make the kid a 1-Star Array Master... otherwise, we will die.” Old Wang explained what needed to be done.
“WHAT!!!”
Chapter 45
Close call
“Start teaching the kid Old Wang!” The four old men yelled. The yell was so loud that it felt like it damaged my ears permanently. Both of them started to bleed...
Fuck... these old men are crazy.
“Don't worry, kid we will start explaining to you the 9 key runes that you will have to operate. Do you see the weird rune, the second starting from the left top corner? Now follow the number ten starting from the bottom...” Old Wang continued explaining to me the key to unlocking this array. The order, the process, and how to detect them when the runes changed. It took him 10 hours to explain all the process. Honestly, it was boring as hell. Old Wang kept asking me questions until I answered them perfectly. It was easy to answer the questions Old Wang asked, with the System’s help any word he said got recorded inside my soul, even if I didn't listen to him it still got recorded. I was a monster at mastering and memorizing anything.
“The kid already understands they key runes and how to identify the swaps and changes to not mess up the rotations. What I'm not sure is, is how many rotations there will be.” Old Wang’s voice sounded worried.
“Old Wang, are you confident to explain the operation bases to the kid?” Old Ji said.
“The kid is a genius, everything I told him he had memorized it, but still it was only theory and not practice, not to mention that I will need to explain all the basics to him for being a 1-Star Array Master, otherwise it is impossible to operate the arrays inside the runes...and...” Old Wang sighed and paused for a while, the other four old men were waiting for him to continue talking, the situation was serious so the four old men were behaving. “If there are too many rotations the kid’s mind might not be able to handle so much stress. Old Ji...”
“No!!! Don't even think about it are you insane? How can you be so sure the kid’s mind won't be able to handle it! I don't want to give it away! That's a Divine Mind Peach, the whole continent is worthless compared to it!”
I guess with the power of my soul I could handle activating a 1-Star Array. I was deep in thought with what Old Wang explained to me about the array, the four old men were trying to convince Old Ji to give away that Divine Mind Peach. Suddenly the runes on my room started to move. I knew this was not a good sign!
“The runes are moving! They are moving!” I was starting to get anxious... if they said that we were going to die I believed them, they were Nascent Soul old monsters.
“Describe what you are seeing!” Old Wang suddenly yelled.
“Not good! The difficulty has been upgraded, now we have to locate where the first starting point is before they swap again! What the hell happened. Did anyone see anything or notice something?” This time Old Wang showed an incredible anxiety.
“I...I... punched the room... I was so enraged I already lost a godly pill and now you guys demanded my peach, so I got enraged and punched the wall,” Old Ji said ashamedly.
The four old men started to yell and complain at Old Ji, they started a discussion while the time was running out. I could see the runes changing and swapping faster than a few minutes before.
“Shut up!!! The runes are moving and changing faster!” I yelled, I didn’t want do die again, especially being a virgin again.
“Give the peach to him now! He will be able to split his mind and maybe awaken his soul! This way perhaps he can shoulder the array burden and learn faster if his soul is awoken.”
Old Ji didn't hesitate this time and sent the peach o
ver through the token.
Ding!
Obtained Divine Mind Peach. Consume it?
Divine Soul Peach: Splits the user mind in two. A chance to awaken the soul.
Good stuff! If my mind is split into two I can use it to do several things at a time without having so much burden. This should only affect my soul. I was hesitating a little, last time, my body almost got completely destroyed if it wasn't for the Death Core.
“Consume the peach otherwise it will be too late we have less than twelve hours!”
I consumed the peach... I started to feel a pain worse than death, my mind was splitting into two, this time the pain was in my mind... so being a corpse didn't help me at all. I couldn't endure it anymore and fainted.
Ding!
Obtained Trait, Twin Mind Soul.
◆◆◆
“Old Ji what's going on, why is the kid not answering back?” Old Zhang said.
“There is only one possibility... the kid couldn't endure the pain of his mind splitting and fainted...”
“...”
The four old men were yelling through the token trying to wake up the kid.
“This time we are done for. There is barely two hours left, even if the kid woke up it’s impossible to be a 1-Star Array Master in less than two hours.”
“Unless the kid could waken his soul...”
“Who are you trying to fool, we are going to die. Have you ever heard of a Qi Refining waking up his soul? Even the divine peach will only give him a little bit of a chance. Waking up the soul is the process a Core Foundation needs to do to enter the Nascent Soul stage...”
Less than 30 minutes...
“Give me the books! Hurry!!!” I yelled, I finally woke up, the System kept alerting me, otherwise we would have been dead.
“Books? You have awoken your soul!” Old Han was amazed, a Qi Refining with a Nascent Soul soul! If he could control his soul he could crush anything under the Nascent Soul stage! It wasn't only Old Han who was thinking this, right now in their hearts they didn't give a shit about the Spirit King legacy, they needed to take him out of this place and take him in as a disciple! A Qi Refining stage with a Nascent Soul soul and a divine bloodline! Plus, his mind was split into two... That was the perfect disciple, this kid was simply a monster!