Chapter 2: ONE CAN ONLY RELY ON HIMSELF TO ACHIEVE GREATNESS
"In the Fighter and Demon Spiritualist tests in two months, I hope that there will be a few 1-star Bronze rank Demon Spiritualists. Both I and the Holy Orchid Institute will feel proud of you!" Shen Xiu laughed.
Bronze, Silver, Gold, Black Gold, Legend, these five ranks are further broken down into 1 to 5-star levels, and thus obtaining a 1-star Bronze rank is considered the starting point.
Once a Fighter's strength or Demon Spiritualist's soul force reaches 100, they can be considered a 1-star Bronze rank. Entering the entry-level is extremely difficult. Lots of people are unable to step into the entry-level to become a real Fighter or Demon Spiritualist.
Hearing Shen Xiu's words, the students in the class started whispering to one another. To become a 1-star Bronze rank Fighter, you must be able to lift a hundred-pound rock and break a tree as thick as an arm with a punch to reach 1-star Bronze rank. For these kids, it's simply too difficult. Unless one has been consuming elixirs since birth, it will be hard to achieve. As for becoming a Demon Spiritualist, one is required to refine a large amount of soul force within their body. This is a lot harder to accomplish compared to becoming a Fighter.
But while the others were thinking about such things Fang Yun mind's wondered towards a different matter. He was trying to remember every aspect of a cultivation world, right now of all things he could list about this place, was that things weren't so simple as it looks on the surface, he didn't believe that there was only a single path towards "godhood" or immortality if you prefer. In this world, one can strengthen the body, cultivate Yuan Qi, comprehend laws, create pills, and other items through alchemy, blacksmith, and Inscriptions patterns. All in all, there were quite a few ways that one could use to get stronger, it's just that in that comic Nie Li only relied on cultivation and pills to get stronger, since he had the method to increase his level extremely fast he probably didn't bother using other methods...
Seeing how things would develop he was feeling a sense of urgency, clenching his fists he started frowning, but unbeknownst to him, he started emitting an oppressing feeling that made the people inside the classroom have a difficult time to breath, Nie Li and Shen Xiu looked at him with a strange gaze, for them it was almost as if Fang Yun was trying to intimidate everyone inside the classroom.
Before they could say anything Fang Yun looked at Shen Xiu with a frown, at that moment her heart started beating faster than normal, it was almost like he was preparing to attack, she subconsciously prepared to counter-attack if he tried anything.
"Since things already developed like this I'll excuse myself, no need to worry about me being or not being here listening to your class. I'm not saying that teacher teachings aren't useful, please don't misunderstand, I just want to use my time in another way." After reading the comics and novels Fang Yun knew that there was no reason to waste his time with those teachings, his time would be better spent inside the school library. But even so, he wouldn't be as savage as Nie Li, he didn't have any reason to create trouble with the sacred family, if he could have a neutral relationship with them it was more than enough.
Having said that, hew bowed slightly and went out of the classroom, making everyone startled. Shen Xiu could only watch as he left and the oppressing feeling disappeared. While the others didn't notice this, Nie Li and Shen Xiu developed some level of wariness towards him, this experience was truly one of a kind, if he was someone above Gold or Black Gold rank they could understand him being capable of leaking out intent, but he wasn't even a Bronze rank yet. In a way or another, they didn't know if he was an abnormality or someone with a weird talent. Thankfully for Fang Yun, this wasn't enough to attract their full attention yet. It's a pity that his lack of experience and understanding of this world didn't allow him to know what just happened.
Inside the library, Fang Yun looked at the countless books and started wondering from where he should start, after thinking for a moment he decided to start with foundations.
After looking for a while he finally found what he wanted, it was a book called "Demon Spiritualists and Fighters fundamentals." He extended his hand and touched the book, but at that time, he felt something weird, as if something was trying to tear apart his head, he bent down and put both hands on his head, tears even left his eyes as he tried to endure the pain.
A few moments later, he blinked and couldn't help but smile, he discovered that he was the cheater type of "character", for some reason the moment he touched the book, all the knowledge inside it was printed in his head, he could instantly recall anything he wanted from the book. But he still had to confirm this, so he tried to touch the book again, seeing that nothing happened, he opened it and started to compare what was in his memory with the book in his hand, but he frowned after reading some parts.
It was the same book, however, there were a few differences, in his mind, there was more information inside the book and somethings were completely different, unfortunately, cheat tools like these don't come with tutorials, he would have to make some tests to understand what was happening here.
Closing the book he turned it back to the shelf and decided to try again with another book, this time, however, there was no painful headache, it only took a few seconds to finish "copying" the book, after that he compared what was in his mind with the book in his hands once again, and had the same conclusions.
Sighing he decided to put this on the back of his mind until he could find ways to experiment and truly understand this. After all, if there was one thing his teachers taught him in his previous life was that, if you don't understand something, the scientific method is the way to go: 1 Make an observation; 2 Ask a question; 3 Form a hypothesis or testable explanation; 4 Make a prediction based on the hypothesis; 5 Test the prediction; 6 Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.
He stayed inside the library copying books until the bell went off through Glory City, but he was fast enough to copy everything inside the library, and thanks to that he could even precisely say that the Holy Orchid Institute library had 3451 books... If he didn't have this hack it would probably take quite a few years to read everything.
One thing he noticed was that this knowledge that was imprinted in his mind, wasn't just senseless words, he could confidently say that he learned them for real, he could apply the knowledge inside those books any moment he wanted, thankfully for him, they had books about literally everything one could think of, there was even a few culinary books...
Looking at the pouch hanging on his waist he remembered that he had a demon crystal card, his father was a slightly well-known merchant in the city, he made bronze and silver rank armors and accessories to sell, their monthly income was roughly 2 to 4 demon crystal cards. Since there was only his father, mother, and him at home, their lives were pretty good, he wasn't as poor as the majority of the commoners at least.
Right now what he needed to do, was to put in practice some of his money to prepare for his future, he had been considering whether or not to use Nie Li's help, that guy attracted to much trouble, it would be too dangerous to rely on him since this could implicate his family as well. If he could, he would only rely on his capabilities to strive for greatness! And to do so, he was willing to master every aspect of this world, be it cultivation, bodily strength, alchemy, blacksmith, inscription patterns or laws, he would do his best to dominate everything.
Thinking up to this point he left the school and went to the market, he wanted to buy a high-quality primary soul crystal, based on what he learned today, the high-quality ones were capable of prying much easier into one's soul realm, it seems that there were other cases where one didn't manage to know his soul ream in the past, this could explain why they didn't try again to test him, they must have assumed he had an above-average talent at best.
As he left the school grounds he managed to arrive at the same moment Nie Li and Du Ze were leaving, Lu Piao wasn't with them, although he stood up back in the class, that didn't mean he would be following the guy around if he managed to get some benefits for doing that in the future then that's good, if not it didn't matter.
He simply nodded towards them and continued on his way.
But as they passed through each other, Nie Li stopped and looked at him for a moment, Du Ze noticed Nie Li's gaze and asked what was he doing.
"Nothing... Let's go, we still need to buy Black Pool Grass." Nie Li smiled and kept walking. Du Ze could only sigh and nod.
...
After looking around for some time, he finally managed to find what he wanted, thankfully it only cost 5 thousand demon spirit coins, but he was surprised seeing that the high-quality soul crystal was just an intermediate one, the difference in name was probably because the book who taught this method was quite old, the name of the crystal must have changed some years after it was published.
'Alright, for my next step I need a quiet place to test my soul realm, should I go back to the school library, or perhaps do it at home...?' Shaking his head, he decided to go home, in the way he was amazed by the artistic sense of the ones who built Glory City, this place would be a tourist attraction back in his previous life, it was amazing how architects still existed in a world like this one.
As he was distracted looking at the scenery he didn't notice that he was about to bump into someone.
Puff! He didn't know what he bumped but it should have been a wall... after all, it felt like an iron wall for him.
Cleaning the dust from his clothes he looked up, and gulped, how unlucky he could be... In front of him was the only person he never expected to find outside the school grounds...
Her bright red hair swayed in the air as she turned to look at him, her eyes bearing the same arrogant air as always, but this time she didn't seem to be enraged like when she was inside the classroom. Seeing her figure being illuminated by the sun, Fang Yun's heart started beating faster than normal, he didn't want to admit but she was probably the most beautiful woman he had seen in both of his lives, before reincarnating he was only a sixteen years old boy, and as someone who never had the chance to get a girlfriend he was quite sensitive towards such matters.
Seeing the boy blushing as he looked at her, Shen Xiu frowned, it was not like she disliked people from the opposite gender, but in her eyes, there was no way she would be with a commoner. Being from a family such as the sacred family, she didn't have the freedom to decide such matters, and even if she had, they would never allow her to be with someone other than the people of the three major families of Glory City.
But she wasn't a heartless demon, it was her fault that he ended up falling on the ground, after all, she was the one stoped in the middle of the road for no reason.
Seeing how she extended her hand to help him get up, he gulped and accepted her gesture of kindness. Unfortunately, he didn't know what he should say, he wasn't prepared for a situation like this.
Shen Xiu than turned back and kept walking. Noticing she was leaving he decided to catch up and ask something that he was wondering for some time. "Uh, miss Shen Xiu..."
Hearing his words she frowned and turned back to look at him, "What is it? Are you going to call me a frog as well?"
"Eh?" He frowned for a moment, and finally remembered what she was talking about, she was probably enraged with Nie Li, because he compared her with a frog at the bottom of a well. "Actually I agree with most of your words..."
Hearing this she looked at him with an inquisitive gaze. "If you agree with me then why did you stood up and stayed together with that brat? Do you think I'm stupid?"
"Ah!? No, it's not so simple, the reason I stood up is that although I agree with your words, I do believe that someone who put a lot of effort into his training can surpass his limit even if his talent isn't good enough.
In Nie Li's case for example, with enough resources and a good cultivation technique, it is possible for him to achieve legend rank in the future even if common sense doesn't agree with that... I know you don't believe, but there is saying that I think it fits perfectly in this scenario, "Heavens always leaves a path for you.", otherwise we humans wouldn't have survived up to this date."
Shen Xiu pondered about his words but didn't say anything else about this matter. "Then, what is your question?"
"I was wondering how old Teacher Shen Xiu is?"
Seeing his innocent smile, she looked at him for a moment and replied.
"Seventeen, why?"
"Umm, I see, Teacher must be really talented..." Fang Yun, smiled a little. "I have to go now, have a nice day Teacher Shen Xiu."
Seeing the boy leaving, she shook her head and decided to put this in the back of her mind and return to her duties.
As Fang Yun walked home, he couldn't help but remember her beautiful face, he felt really stupid right now, in a moment he was saying that he wouldn't chase after girls, in the other he develop some feelings for his "evil" teacher, although she seemed to be at least a little gentle after that brief interaction between them... and the reason for asking her age was because his body was 14 years old, so maybe there could be something between them in the future.
Sighing he stopped in front of an above-average house and smiled, 'home sweet home...' the place was quite nice, it was warm and cozy during winter and well ventilated during summer, quite a good and comfortable place to live. His parents weren't there right now, they would only arrive a few hours later since they still had work to do.
He went to his room and after making sure to lock the door, he sat on his bed and took out the intermediate Soul Crystal, he slowly injected soul force into it. The Soul Crystal gradually started to shine, getting brighter and brighter. Judging by the speckles he had at least a soul force of 97, but after reading basically all of the books at the library inside the Holy Orchid Institute, and remembering parts of the story of TDG, he knew that the most important part was yet to come!
Within the Soul Crystal, white bolts of lightning started appearing, but soon they started to rotate around some sort of mass of energy, he observed for some time, and a few moments later it took the shape of a dragon with golden scales, his eyes seemed to be the origin of the white bolts of lightning...
"Lightning and holy attributes... And the form is that of a golden dragon? What is this creature? I never heard of western metallic dragons in TDG... And what the hell is this soul realm? Why is it white as well? I've never heard of something like this before! Just what am I? Could this be a side effect of reincarnation?" Frowning he put the soul crystal down and pondered for some time.
Everything was way out of his expectations, how would he cultivate if everything related to him was so weird and definitely unique? In terms of future potential, he didn't know how good those characteristics of his was, but right now this was more of a problem than a good thing.
After searching his memory for a while he only found one cultivation technique suited for him, it was a technique called "Holy lightning mantra." However it was from an unknown era and it was incomplete, based on the information he had about it, no one was ever able to cultivate it since there was never someone with holy and lightning attributes before, but based on the information on it, it should at least allow someone to cultivate until the 1-star Legend Rank, and this was only possible thanks to his cheat tool that he had yet to understand.
Sighing he sat cross-legged and after concentrating for a while, he started cultivating while using the "Holy lightning mantra.". The energy inside his body seemed like some sort of volcano in eruption, he felt like there was water flowing through his veins extremely fast, every time he completed the chant he felt like his muscles would be strengthened at the same time a wave of vigorous energy swept him.
The more he practiced the weirder he felt, if others' soul realm was like a calm sea then his was like a chaotic sea in the middle of a tempest, but even so, everything felt like it was supposed to be like that, he couldn't understand why though...
After a few hours, he felt the energy inside him suddenly became even more chaotic and surged towards his dantian, seeing this Fang Yun was shocked and immediately tried to suppress his chaotic Yuan Qi, alas it didn't work... His desperate struggle only managed to hold the Qi for a second, seeing this he steeled his mind and prepared for the worst.
The moment the chaotic Qi hit his dantian, it literally shattered everywhere, however, the Yuan Qi started entering in his broken dantian and changed it completely, instead of being like a vessel, his dantian was now like some sort of black hole, energy would be constantly poured inside it non stop, he noticed that even without doing anything all the Qi around him was being collected automatically. Frowning he once again remembered the technique and found the reason for this...
"The moment one breaks into the 1-star Bronze rank the dantian will be reborn into a true black dantian, with it one can connect with heavens and earth and absorb all kinds of Qi and refine them."
However that wasn't the only weird thing, the moment he broke through 1-star Bronze rank, he felt something in his mind, it was like something or someone was calling him, turning around he discovered that every time he looked south that feeling would get stronger... 'Just what is this cultivation technique?'
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