ã€ŠCosplay Cultivator [Xianxia]ã€‹


 A Friend In Need

    What does it mean to reincarnate?

    The soul is eternal - and much like a person swapping their clothes, can swap bodies as it undergoes an endless cycle of reincarnation until it at last, breaks free of this cycle.

    Tang Ze had heard of such things, but had never experienced anything like this before.

    That said, this could not be said to truly be reincarnation, could it?

    He knew he had died - that much was certain, but he was not in the body of a crying newborn, but had the same body he had when he had passed away on Earth.

    So, this could not be called reincarnation per se- if he didn¡¯t know better, he would¡¯ve thought that he was back on Earth, but this could not be Earth. These woods were nowhere near his home, and it made no sense for him to be here. Not to mention there was¡­ something else in the air here in these woods, something that marked them as completely alien.

    Part of reincarnation, though, also includes forgetting all of what you were in the last life.

    No trace of who you were previously is supposed to remain in the next life - in a way, it would be as if a slate had been washed clean.

    And yet, not only did his memories of his life back on Earth remain, he had carried something¡­ ¡®special¡¯ with him.

    Tang Ze couldn¡¯t put a finger on exactly what it was, but there was definitely something different about him.

    Back on Earth, Tang Ze hadn¡¯t lived much of a remarkable life. He hadn¡¯t accomplished anything of note, but there was a hobby of his that he had absolutely loved engaging with.

    And that was cosplaying!

    Buying or making costumes - and then breathing life into them to, if only for a moment, become the character you were trying to emulate.

    His free time was always wrapped up in such pursuits. Much to the chagrin of the rest of his family, who had oftentimes told him to focus on studying or something else that was more productive.

    Looking back, Tang Ze honestly couldn¡¯t say that they had been wrong.

    He really should have put more effort into things during his old life.

    Then again, there were quite a number of things that he harbored regrets about not doing during his old life¡­

    He shook his head.

    This was no time to dwell on that.

    He had been given something of a second chance, hadn¡¯t he? A second chance to perhaps make up for his shortcomings in his previous life.

    As Tang Ze calmed himself down somewhat, he was able to better grasp this part of him that was ¡®new.¡¯ A part of him that appeared to be influenced by his hobby in his past life.

    No words appeared on a screen before him, but as he looked inward, he knew them to be true as if they had been written in mile-long flaming letters in the sky above him.

    Hidden Talent: When you cosplay a character, you can gain their powers. The closer to the character your costume appears, the closer you will get to their abilities so long as you wear the costume.

    Cultivation Talent: The longer you wear said costume, the more you can permanently imbue yourself with the powers of said character, up to a limit also based on how good your costume is.

    Tang Ze couldn¡¯t help but laugh.

    To think that of all things, his hobby from his previous life could be the gateway to power in this next one?

    Of course, this left him with a few problems.

    For one, he was in the middle of the woods, away from civilization. Meaning there were probably wild animals that were around that could be dangerous.

    Second, his power was kind of useless if he didn¡¯t have the tools to make a costume, now then wasn¡¯t it? He was in his regular clothes, though thankfully he had transmigrated with his shoes on even though he hadn¡¯t been wearing them when he died, strange as that was.

    Third, he had no supplies with him. No food or water.

    All of these things could be solved by finding the nearest place of civilization, which is what he needed to turn his attention to.

    And hope that something like a bear didn¡¯t maul him on the way¡­.

    Within an hour, he heard something in the distance.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    It sounded like the beating of hooves - so unless there were some kind of flesh-eating zebras in this world, this was likely coming from horses.

    It was risky to approach the noise, but then again, what other choice did he have? Die of exposure in the woods as he ran around in circles?

    The hooves were moving fast, such that the riders had passed Tang Ze a spear¡¯s throw away before he could even call out to them, asking for help or something along those lines.

    There were seven of them, and they were riding what looked like regular earth horses and not some sort of fantastical mythical beast. What caught Tang Ze¡¯s eyes however; was that there was an unwelcome passenger with them, so to speak.

    He couldn¡¯t tell clearly from this distance, but it looked like this person was a woman, and more alarmingly, she had been tied up.

    It didn¡¯t take a genius to put two and two together, and realize that she had been kidnapped, or was some sort of prisoner.

    The men were wearing some kind of uniform of blue robes, though the finer details were not visible to Tang Ze from this distance.

    Naturally, he wanted to either stop them, or to try to rescue the woman.

    It was the obvious thing to do.

    The issue was that Tang Ze had no method to do so. He was still for all purposes a normal human, and they not only greatly outnumbered him, but were much faster as well, being mounted atop horses.

    So much so that the dust cloud made by the stomping of their hooves was a distant sight by the time that Tang Ze could get these thoughts together.

    In other words, there was no hope of him being able to do anything.

    Still, they had proved useful in the sense that they had led Tang Ze to what was clearly a demarcated path of sorts.

    Roads were made to connect two places together- so there were two directions that Tang Ze could go in.

    After considering it, he decided that it was best not to follow the people who had possibly kidnapped a girl, and went in the other direction instead.

    It was a few hours later that he managed to run into someone.

    This person was wearing scarlet robes with an emblem stitched to the breast pocket, though Tang Ze couldn¡¯t really see what it was. He was also carrying a rucksack on his back, and was panting heavily as he walked. Wherever he was going, he was in quite a hurry. He looked to be about Tang Ze¡¯s age or only slightly older, and sweat coated his brow. He had clearly been running for quite a distance, and his face was flushed from exertion.

    Still, at the very least, he didn¡¯t appear to be hostile in any way, so Tang Ze figured it couldn¡¯t hurt to ask him for directions.

    ¡°Hello stranger, I was wondering if you could help me out-¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m in a rush!¡± the man yelled out between breaths. He didn¡¯t even send a second glance towards Tang Ze¡¯s way as he rushed on past. ¡°I can¡¯t stop, I have somewhere to be!¡±

    Tang Ze considered what was going on for a moment- and as to why this man might be in such a rush.

    Either he was delivering that bag on his back somewhere, or¡­

    ¡°...are you perhaps chasing after those men on horseback, who were carrying a woman with them?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    The man clearly wanted to stop, but had put in so much momentum that as he tried to do so, he tripped and fell to the ground.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Tang Ze asked. It didn¡¯t look like much of a fall, but then again, he was carrying something rather heavy on his back.

    The man didn¡¯t answer, instead grabbing onto Tang Ze, who had offered his hand to help him up, and said, ¡°Where? Did you see them? Where are they going?¡±

    ¡°Hey, easy there,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°They went in that direction,¡± he said, pointing this person in the direction he had seen the horsemen leave.

    The man didn¡¯t let me say anything further as he got up and began running in that direction.

    It was clear that the kidnapped woman was either his lover- a wife or girlfriend; or a family member like a sister or cousin.

    ¡°But wait! No matter how fast you run you won¡¯t be able to catch up with them on foot!¡± Tang Ze yelled out after him. ¡°And even if you do get to them, are you going to fight off seven people on your own?¡±

    Even if the people of this world had magical powers or could cultivate, if his running speed was any indicator of his strength, he was not that much stronger than a normal person.

    ¡°I know!¡± he yelled back, not even turning around. ¡°But I can¡¯t give up - I have to go after them.¡±

    ¡°At least get rid of what you¡¯re carrying,¡± Tang Ze said, pursuing him, now somewhat invested in this man¡¯s story. ¡°How are you going to run lugging all that weight behind you?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t- I have to keep this stuff safe!¡± he said, though from how red his face was getting, Tang Ze could tell that this man would not be able to keep up this pace for much longer.

    An idea began to form in Tang Ze¡¯s mind - he didn¡¯t know if it would work, but what did he have to lose by trying? ¡°Wait- I think there might be a way that I can help you!¡±

    The man slowed down ever so slightly, giving Tang Ze a suspicious look. ¡°Help me? How? And why?¡±

    ¡°First things first,¡± Tang Ze said, the gears in his head turning. ¡°Do you happen to have a spare uniform? Or just a bit of red cloth?¡±

    The man gave Tang Ze a confused look. ¡°What good will that do?¡±

    ¡°Look, I know you want to save that girl, but you¡¯re not going to be able to get anywhere like this,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re just going to end up running yourself into the dirt, and accomplish nothing.¡±

    The words tasted bitter in Tang Ze¡¯s mouth - he was all for acts of heroism and did not want to demoralize this person, but even he had to note when things were impossible. Unless this man had a secret technique he was keeping hidden for whatever reason, he didn¡¯t have the slimmest chance of rescuing that woman.

    And if he had something powerful like that he probably wouldn¡¯t have been in this predicament in the first place.

    ¡°I know that!¡± the man said angrily. ¡°I know that! But I can¡¯t give up!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not asking you to, I¡¯m saying there¡¯s a way I might be able to help you,¡± Tang Ze said.

    The man slowed down and once again, looked at Tang Ze with suspicion. Tang Ze could understand that - it was odd for a random stranger to be offering a lending hand to someone else, but, from Tang Ze¡¯s perspective, this was an easy enough way to endear himself to someone in this new world he¡¯d found himself in.

    At least, it should be easy - if his idea worked that is.

    ¡°Yeah, I do have a spare uniform,¡± the man said. ¡°Again, why do you need it?¡±

    ¡°If you hand it to me, I might be able to do something with it,¡± Tang Ze said. The man didn¡¯t fully seem to trust Tang Ze as of yet, but seemed to be willing to play along, if for no other reason than he had no other choice in the matter if he wanted to save that woman.

    Tang Ze watched as the man opened up his rucksack, in which there were several packets wrapped up with the emblem of a phoenix on them, but also a spare set of robes.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Tang Ze said as he took the set of robes, and then tied the sleeves around his neck.

    It was a pathetic attempt at a costume, but then again, he hoped it was somewhat close enough that it would get him something.

 Greetings, Zhang Long!

    After all, even if his costume was only 0.5% of what constituted a proper costume, 0.5% of the character¡¯s power he was trying to emulate was nothing to sneeze at.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± the man asked.

    That confirmed it for Tang Ze that he really was in some sort of parallel world, because anyone from back on Earth would¡¯ve almost instantly recognized who he was trying to dress up as.

    If there ever was a child who wrapped a red towel behind them like a cape and started running around like they were trying to fly, it was easy enough to tell who that child was emulating. That was just how famous that character was.

    A character from Western comics who was said to be stronger than a planet! An image that was famous the world over back on Earth.

    Costume is 0.7% accurate to character.

    Tang Ze knew this instinctively, much like he had with how his talent worked, and he smiled. That was to be expected, all he had was a red cloth which he was wearing like a cape, but even that was enough to get a fraction of a fraction of the character¡¯s power.

    And a fraction of a fraction of that power is still immense! Just like how even one percent of a top CEO¡¯s compensation back on Earth was more than many of their employee¡¯s salaries, if you had even around 0.5% of a character that was planetary level, that was still amazing power for a normal person!

    Tang Ze bent his knees, and then launched himself into the air, easily climbing for six hundred feet before he slowly began to descend. While doing so, he made sure to clasp onto his ¡®cape¡¯ tightly - not wanting it to come loose while he was moving, else he might end up going back to normal as he would no longer be wearing a ¡®costume¡¯ - and a fall from that height would certainly kill him then.

    He felt strong enough to lift up a mountain - no, a mountain was probably too much, but he was probably strong enough to lift up a building on his own.

    The man watched with a shocked expression as Tang Ze touched the ground.

    ¡°That reminds me,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°I never caught your name.¡±

    ¡°Z-Zhang Long,¡± the man said.

    ¡°So then, shall we go try to rescue her? Who was she anyway? You bride-to-be? Or sister?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    He still wasn¡¯t sure who the ¡®good guys¡¯ were here. He had thought it better to choose a side so that he would at least endear himself to someone. In such a situation, it was better to align oneself, from a mere pragmatic perspective, with the weaker side. After all, if Tang Ze helped Zhang Long, he would be greatly indebted to him as the others already looked like they had accomplished what they wanted to do. If he sided with the people who had taken the woman away, what did they really have to gain via his help?

    However, that was just from a practical point of view - Tang Ze wasn¡¯t going to help someone in the wrong regardless. He wanted to get the full story from Zhang Long before getting into a fight - and whether or not he would believe Zhang Long depended on how much his story made sense.

    Zhang Long, however, still couldn¡¯t come to terms with what he had just seen.

    This man could fly - and that was a technique that would place him in the Nascent Soul realm at the very least! Zhang Long could not feel an ounce of Qi from this stranger, which meant that he either could not cultivate at all, or was more than one major realm above him. It looked like the latter was true.

    This branch of the Rising Phoenix sect did not have any Nascent Soul cultivators to its name - only two Golden Core ones (the branch head and the sect janitor). Some of the higher-ups in the sect were at the Nascent Soul stage, but none of them were near a backwater like this, they were either in seclusion, on missions, or in the main headquarters of the sect.

    Zhang Long himself was at the fifth minor realm of Qi Condensation, which meant that this man was leagues above him.

    And that was why he couldn¡¯t believe that such a man had bothered to stop and help him out.

    Would a man be bothered by two ants fighting each other?

    No, he would not even think twice about such a thing, which is why it was incomprehensible to Zhang Long that this man was offering him his help especially given the fact that they had no ties together. If it were someone from his sect, Zhang Long could maybe entertain the fact that there was a reason for someone to intervene, but as far as Zhang Long knew he had no connections to this stranger.

    And even if he was helping him out of boredom - Zhang Long was not na?ve enough to think that such help would come without strings attached.

    What would he ask of him in return?

    Even as he pondered this though, Zhang Long came upon an epiphany: if he wanted to save Jin Zhen, there was no other choice in front of him.

    This man could literally ask for Zhang Long¡¯s soul, and Zhang Long would find it hard to say ¡®no.¡¯This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    There was also the factor that if he was indeed so strong, Zhang Long needed to be more careful about how he spoke to the man.

    He had heard stories of high-end cultivators crippling others for so much as sending a glancing at them in a manner which they did not like, and he did not want to find himself at the receiving end of such a blow.

    Tang Ze on the other hand, could not understand why Zhang Long¡¯s demeanor had suddenly changed in the span of a few seconds as Zhang Long answered.

    ¡°Lord,¡± Zhang Long said, bowing deeply. ¡°This one would be eternally grateful for your assistance! However, this one does not have an appropriate treasure or the means to repay the generosity of one such as yourself!¡±

    ¡°I¡­. don¡¯t remember asking for anything,¡± Tang Ze said, rather confused.

    Now that made Zhang Long even more wary. It would be one thing if this man had asked for his eternal servitude, or a massive amount of cultivation resources, or for Zhang Long to offer up any of his future daughters to be his concubines- but to ask for nothing?

    If anything, the unknown was far more frightening than what was known. Because not asking for anything upfront meant that Zhang Long would be in constant fear of what he might eventually ask for.

    Tang Ze on the other hand, seemed to realize what it was that was bothering Zhang Long. ¡°Look, Zhang Long, do you know about¡­ or rather, do you believe in reincarnation?¡±

    ¡°Yes, this one does know about it,¡± Zhang Long said.

    Tang Ze looked out into the distant forest, unsure of how to phrase his intentions. ¡°Most people, when they reincarnate, they don¡¯t remember what happened in their past lives, do they? Well, something like this has happened to me. You might be wondering why it is that I want to help you - and the answer is, that I want to live this life, my second life, at the very least, without any regrets. There was a time when something happened in my prior life, something that I should¡¯ve stepped in to prevent, but I didn¡¯t. I don¡¯t want for that to happen in this life either. I want to¡­ be better than I was in my prior lifetime. Someone who I can actually be proud of.¡± He gave Zhang Long a smile. ¡°You are trying to rescue her, aren¡¯t you? So long as your cause is just, I wish to support it.¡±

    Zhang Long was somewhat even more troubled now. For one to remember one¡¯s memories from a past life - he had heard of some Nascent Soul cultivators who were able to do so, and it was even said that some cultivators of the Eternal Soul realm could influence their future reincarnations and also reincarnate with their memories intact.

    That meant that although this man looked to only be in his twenties, he could actually be a five thousand year old monster in terms of experience! Zhang Long had somewhat misinterpreted what Tang Ze was saying - because Tang Ze did not want to frame himself as coming from a separate world, and instead just described it as his ¡®previous life.¡¯

    After some internal deliberation, Zhang Long realized that he had very little choice, and that if this man did not wish to state his desire upfront, he could not very well force him to.

    ¡°Yes, that girl is my childhood friend, Jin Zhen,¡± Zhang Long said.

    ¡°Right, so how strong are those seven people? Who are they, anyway? And why¡¯d they kidnap her - you know what, the longer we stand here the further away they¡¯ll go, hop on, and tell me the story on the way,¡± Tang Ze said, offering his arms.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll carry you over there - how else can we outrun them? Well, not outrun per se - but you get what I¡¯m saying, right?¡± Tang Ze said.

    Zhang Long did not want to be carried around like an overgrown child, but at the same time, he truly had no alternative.

    ¡°Just make sure that my cape is on tightly,¡± Tang Ze warned as he flew off.

    Zhang Long filled him in little by little as they soared. As it was, Tang Ze¡¯s top speed was not that much faster than that of a horse¡¯s, but that was with him carrying Zhang Long, and they could travel in a true straight line without having to stop for obstacles, meaning they¡¯d catch up to those men soon.

    Tang Ze told Zhang Long that he came from a distant land and was unfamiliar with the local geography, and so Tang Ze began to fill him in on things, as well as what had happened to put him in this situation in the first place.

    The country they were in was called the Raswatian Empire, which, as per Zhang Long, had stood for a little over one hundred thousand years. Most of its land was managed directly by the emperor, though there were portions of land which were managed by sects instead.

    Tang Ze belonged to one such sect - the Rising Phoenix sect, which explained the emblem embroidered into his robes that Tang Ze could now see; a phoenix.

    There were seven other major sects - the Jasmine Dragon sect, Emerald Floral sect, Golden Sun sect, Diamond Dust sect, Astral Winds sect, Swift Sword sect, and the Silver Moon sect.

    The people who had taken Jin Zhen away were rival members of the Diamond Dust sect.

    Zhang Long¡¯s village was near this place. This region was very close to the border between the territories controlled by the Diamond Dust Sect and the Rising Phoenix Sect, though the sprawling forest divided the two of them.

    ¡°So why did these people decide to mess with you?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s a game for them!¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°Some of their disciples come into our territory, burn our crops, steal things, and harass our women!¡±

    Tang Ze frowned. ¡°And your sect elders don¡¯t do anything about it?¡±

    ¡°Ah, no,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°Not unless things are really serious - they usually respond with things such as ¡®we don¡¯t want to be bothered with such trivial matters¡¯ or the like. If they did something like burn down the whole village, then there would be retaliation, but no one is going to rally to my aide for something like this.¡±

    ¡°That sounds messed up,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°You¡¯re one of their members - shouldn¡¯t they be helping you? I mean, even if not out of benevolence, but to keep face?¡±

    Zhang Long¡¯s face fell. ¡°I am only an Initiate, and we are expected to contribute to the sect, not take from it. My other villager friends aren¡¯t strong enough, and to make matters worse, they did this in the middle of one of my sect missions! I was supposed to be gathering herbs to take back, but then right when I was about to be done, they swooped in the moment they saw that I was alone! Mainly because they don¡¯t have the courage to fight fair!¡±

    ¡°Is that what you¡¯re carrying in your bag? The herbs, I mean,¡± Tang Ze said. Was that why he refused to toss it away even as it was slowing him down?

    ¡°Yes,¡± Zhang Long said. He then paused as he saw a cloud of dust in the distance. ¡°Is that them? Are we finally there?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but hold on,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°You¡¯ve told me all of this, but I need to know how strong these people are before I challenge them. They¡¯re riding on what look like normal horses so I¡¯m guessing they are not too strong but it would be helpful to be sure before I engage them.¡±

    ¡°I think two of them are at the Qi Refining realm,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°And the rest are at Qi Condensation.¡±

    ¡°¡­.you do realize that means nothing to me, right?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    It was here that there was yet another misunderstanding between the two of them.

    Tang Ze was asking Zhang Long for clarification, however, Zhang Long interpreted his words as saying ¡®Qi Refining realm cultivators are nothing to me in terms of power,¡¯ which, given he thought that Tang Ze was at Nascent Soul at the very least, he understood.

    As such, Zhang Long did not answer Tang Ze¡¯s question, which annoyed him.

 The Diamond Dust Sect

    ¡°Hey, I asked a question,¡± Tang Ze said.

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    ¡°I said that I don¡¯t really know how strong they are,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°So how much stronger are they than a normal person?¡± From what Tang Ze could tell, Zhang Long might¡¯ve been in a much better physical shape than he was - but that was also likely because Tang Ze hadn¡¯t been quite athletic in his previous life.

    As it was, it did not seem like Tang Ze had superhuman strength or anything along those lines.

    ¡°Ah¡­ about five times as strong as a normal person,¡± Zhang Long said. Shouldn¡¯t a Nascent Soul cultivator know this? Or maybe it had been so long since this man had ascended to a higher realm that he had forgotten what it was like to be at the lower realms? That was a possibility. ¡°And around three times as strong as I am.¡±

    Tang Ze nodded. That should¡¯ve been easily manageable - so long as they didn¡¯t have any strange glowing rocks with them. It also explained why they were still using horses, they clearly weren¡¯t strong enough to the point where they could get around solely on foot yet. Either that, or they wanted to conserve their stamina.

    ¡°Right, so how should we do this?¡± Tang Ze asked Zhang Long.

    ¡°Land in front of them and demand that they hand Jin Zhen back - else we¡¯ll cripple their arms and legs!¡± Zhang Long said.

    Tang Ze sighed. ¡°No matter how strong we are, the fact remains that they have a hostage with them, don¡¯t they? So what will we do if they threaten to chop off you little friend¡¯s head before we can do anything?¡±

    ¡°...ah¡­¡±

    ¡°So this is the game plan,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°I¡¯ll land a bit behind them, and I¡¯ll grab Jin Zhen and take her to safety. Then, we teach them a lesson.¡± He then paused. ¡°Wait - do you think they¡¯ll have any special techniques that they can use?¡± Zhang Long had said that they were only about five times as strong as a normal person, but if they had something say, a skill that could attack one¡¯s soul directly or some other kind of ability that bypassed Tang Ze¡¯s physical strength and capabilities, he might find himself in a pickle.

    Come to think of it, if they knew how to transform living objects, then, he might actually find himself turned into a literal pickle. After all, the character he was emulating did not have any resistance to magic or similarly-based attacks.

    ¡°They might know some techniques,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°But at Qi Refinement, the amount what they can do is limited to temporarily granting themselves some boosts, or healing, and what little attacks they can do are nowhere spectacular. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll have no problem with them.¡±

    Tang Ze was somewhat relieved by this, but was also aware that for whatever reason, it sounded like Zhang Long thought he was a lot stronger than he actually was. The kowtowing near the beginning when he had flown was an example - maybe that was it? Maybe flying was something that was rather difficult in this world?

    So, while he was relatively certain of his victory, he would still need to be careful in case one of them looked like they were going to use a special technique against him.

    The actual best thing to do would be to wait, and see how his powers worked first. But Tang Ze could not do that - he had been thrust into this situation basically the very moment he had walked into this new world, and if he left, it would leave Zhang Long without any method to save his friend.

    And while Tang Ze was not the type to throw away his life when there was some other recourse, he was not overly-cautious to the point where he would not engage an enemy like this.

    There were some times when, even if you knew the odds were stacked against you, or that defeat was inevitable, you had to fight regardless!

    It wasn¡¯t as if Tang Ze was not afraid.

    He was running into an unknown situation - and did not know for sure if he could win or not.

    His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and yet, he could not turn around.

    He felt afraid, yes, but at the same time, he knew that he couldn¡¯t back down.

    Why was that?

    It was not because of any special attachment to Zhang Long - it was because Tang Ze no longer wanted to be that person he was before.

    The coward he had been in his last life.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    If only he had had the courage to step up like this back then¡­

    ...to step up when it had mattered.

    But that was all in the past now!

    One could not choose the circumstances of one¡¯s birth - though to a small extent, one could choose the circumstances of one¡¯s death.

    And if Tang Ze had one wish, it was that in his life, that he could go down fighting for what he believed in.

    Maybe then, he could make up for his failures.

    And so, with a deep breath, Tang Ze landed, depositing Zhang Long a few feet back.

    Tang Ze hadn¡¯t been noticed yet, and it was at this crucial moment that his actual skills would be put to the test.

    He had only recently gotten such strength and speed - he had had no time to practice.

    But like an animal who taught its children how to swim by tossing them into the water, he too, would have to learn by doing. And so, Tang Ze launched himself into the air.

    The leader of the horsemen who were part of the Diamond Dust sect, was named Li Wei.

    He was at the third minor realm of Qi Refining, and had been leading this group for a singular purpose.

    And that was to rile up the Rising Phoenix sect!

    Such border conflicts, in which low-ranking members of a sect would sneak into the borders of the other sect and then either steal or harass the other members, was long since considered ¡®fair play¡¯ between the sects of the Raswatian Empire.

    Not only was this allowed, but it was also somewhat encouraged as a way for the sects to fight amongst each other in a covert way, and to give the newbies some combat experience as well.

    It also fostered a sense of camaraderie between those engaging in such behavior together, as well as a sense of rivalry between factions.

    Granted, there were still tacit rules to such activities. For one, killing or maiming was greatly frowned upon - while it could be said that the journey of a cultivator was all about strength, and as such, even if someone died in the fighting it wouldn¡¯t be ¡®too much of a deal¡¯, Li Wei was not in good graces with his sect, and would like to avoid further censure.

    Golden Core and higher ranked cultivators were not sent on such journeys given how much stronger they were, which would no doubt invite strong retaliation from the invaded sect - as it was such cultivators were rare enough that they were busy with other aspects of sect business rather than doing things like this.

    As another general rule, mortals were left alone.

    Why did they seize this woman then?

    When Li Wei had been given a few horses and told to ¡®sow chaos¡¯ in the Rising Phoenix sect¡¯s territory, he had happened upon a nearly perfect scene.

    He saw an Initiate of the rival sect, along with what looked like his jade beauty! Such an opportunity was perfect for them to have some fun - and to grab her.

    The Initiate had been a pitiful Qi Condensation rank cultivator, so there was no real glory in ganging up to beat him to a pulp. Instead, they took her before his eyes and then taunted him before running off.

    No doubt that Initiate would run back to his sect, and then they would send some others after them. But that would give Li Wei and his gang a chance to fortify their location and ambush the Rising Phoenix sect¡¯s forces!

    In so doing, they would emerge victorious over either an equal number of fighters, or maybe even a numerically superior force if Li Wei played his cards right.

    Now that - there would be great glory in that as he returned back to his sect!

    The Diamond Dust sect would finally be able to recover a bit of its face after recent events at the Advanced Tournament a few months ago. Li Wei also knew that for such a small issue, the Rising Phoenix sect would not send anyone of Golden Core rank or higher to deal with them - meaning that it was would most likely be either evenly matched, or heavily skewed in their favor.

    Despite all that they had traveled for, the horses had not tired one bit.

    That was because these were special horses - raised by sects and essentially the animal equivalent of a Qi Refining cultivator. They were not that much faster than normal horses, but could maintain their top speed even while carrying weights like Li Wei without stopping for several hours, a feat that no ordinary horse could do.

    Naturally, they were almost five times as expensive as normal horses.

    It would¡¯ve been even better for their mobility if they could have something like pegasi or griffins - but there was no way the sect would give such things to Qi Refining realm members like themselves.

    Before he could think any further, a flash passed before his eyes.

    With his heightened senses, he could somewhat make out the blur pass behind him, in front of him, and could just barely trace it with his eyes as it went out of sight.

    What had happened was Tang Ze had flown in, grabbed Jin Zhen after tearing through her restraints, turned around, and then flown back to Zhang Long.

    It was actually good that he could only bring out a fraction of the character¡¯s power, else he might¡¯ve done something like snap Jin Zhen¡¯s body in two by accident.

    Nothing of the sort happened though, and she was quickly reunited with Zhang Long without any issues.

    Tang Ze was quite glad that no harm had befallen her - he was still suppressing quite a bit of his power, and it was good to know that she hadn¡¯t been hurt when he had snatched her away.

    Zhang Long began untying her as Tang Ze turned around to face the perpetrators.

    ¡°Whoa there!¡± Li Wei yelled out as he urged the horse to turn around. It was still an animal and its intelligence was nowhere near the level of a proper magical beast, but it was able to respond to such commands quickly.

    Tang Ze knew that he had to act before they figured out what was going on, and made to strike at the nearest horseman.

    The thing was that there were two targets here - the horse, and its rider. And though he wasn¡¯t one for pointlessly hurting animals, this was a fight, and the horse was the larger target. Not to mention he figured that if he threw the horse off-balance, the rider would also be thrown off and would be out for the count.

    Though, in this case, he did end up underestimating how strong he was.

    The punch he threw was not practiced or elegant, but carried such brute force that it snapped the animal¡¯s spine in half as it was tossed twenty feet back, the point where his fist made impact leaving a huge dent in the animal¡¯s body. Without a doubt, it was dead.

    All through this, Tang Ze had felt nothing. It was like punching a pillow - but that was where the problem lay. He had not actually meant to do that to the horse, as such the result stunned him slightly.

    What if he couldn¡¯t control his power?

 [Monkey Stealing Peaches]

    This is why Zhang Long would¡¯ve loved to have some time to train and figure out what he could do, but no dice.

    Not only was he faster and stronger, but the world also slowed proportionately to accommodate him. It was as if it took an entire ten seconds for a nearby person to draw their sword, by the time that man was done Zhang Long had already knocked them over and moved on to their neighbor.

    These people were only lightly armed with swords and spears, though if they were somehow magical or enchanted, they might end up hurting him.

    So it was best to break their arms, so that they couldn¡¯t draw their weapons, and also one of their legs, so they couldn¡¯t stumble away.

    One didn¡¯t need to go that far though honestly, merely breaking their wrists and their feet was good enough - though it wasn¡¯t until he was at his third victim that this occurred to Tang Ze.

    Zhang Long was not sitting idle while this happened - he did not have any weapons on him, but was able to grab a staff which its unfortunate owner had fortunately dropped for him.

    Li Wei was the only one who was able to reach for his weapon in time.

    What in heaven¡¯s name was going on?

    It was like a bolt of lightning had struck from a clear blue sky, upending their plans completely.

    What made the least sense was the person who was attacking them - a man wearing very strange clothes and with the scarlet robe of the Rising Phoenix Sect wrapped around behind him like a cloak.

    Li Wei couldn¡¯t sense a drop of Qi from this person - which meant that he either had not started cultivation whatsoever, or that he was more than one major realm above him. Meaning that he was not simply a Golden Core cultivator, but a Nascent Soul cultivator!

    The problem was that he couldn¡¯t square either of those scenarios as even being remotely possible.

    If this man had no cultivation, he couldn¡¯t have had the courage to stand before them like this - and his works of strength clearly showed that he was no mortal.

    On the other hand, it was basically impossible for him to be a Nascent Soul cultivator. What would someone of that kind of rank be doing out here - in the boonies? He knew for a fact that the Rising Phoenix sect¡¯s local influence did not extend to beyond the Golden Core realm - for that matter, not even his own Diamond Fortune sect branch had more than one Golden Core member with them.

    And a Golden Core cultivator would¡¯ve definitely thought of this as far below their pay grade, let alone a Nascent Soul cultivator.

    So what gives? The more he thought about the situation, the less it made sense to him.

    Could this man simply have some sort of technique which stopped others from sensing his Qi? Li Wei had not heard of such a technique, but perhaps there was a hidden secret or a treasure that could do so.

    How would such a technique work? Qi was the lifeblood of cultivators, to hide it was like trying to hide your own heartbeat.

    Still, there were ways to slow down one¡¯s heartbeat, were there not?

    Even Li Wei could to some extent suppress his Qi if he so desired - it was not completely far-fetched to believe that one could take this a step further and block other¡¯s from sensing one¡¯s Qi, even if one was just at the Qi Refinement stage.

    Or maybe there was another explanation.

    Li Wei glanced towards the Initiate who he had targeted, and then back towards Tang Ze.

    The two of them looked to be of the same age - though the issue with cultivators was that looks could be quite deceiving. The one he was fighting could be that Initiate¡¯s great-great-great-grandfather for all he knew.

    Following that line of thought, could it be that this Initiate was the descendant of some powerful lineage? And that was why a Nascent Soul cultivator, one of his ancestors, had come to his aide?

    No, Li Wei thought, there was no way this Initiate was some kind of young master. He hadn¡¯t even said ¡®Junior, you dare!¡¯ or ¡®Courting death!¡¯ even once, let alone threatened them with his parental heritage.

    So, Li Wei came to the conclusion that his first idea was most likely the correct one. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    This man likely had some kind of technique that suppressed his Qi.

    Building on from that thought though, and considering things rationally - he couldn¡¯t keep doing that, now then could he?

    Even if one learned to slow one¡¯s heart rate during meditation, as some monks were able to do, when they went to exercise, surely it would increase again?

    By that same logic, even if this man could suppress his Qi in a resting state, while fighting, he most certainly would have to loosen some of his control over the same.

    And so, Li Wei pointed his weapon at his target - there was only one sure way to find out!

    He charged - though before he could take even three steps forward, he found that the man was no longer standing in front of him, and that a blur had swept out his feet from under him.

    The world did a somersault before Li Wei as he suddenly found his face firmly planted on the ground.

    Roaring, he made to get up, before he heard something that chilled him to the bone.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t give up - I¡¯ll have to resort to my ultimate technique,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°[Monkey Stealing Peaches!]¡±

    With that, anyone who was in Li Wei¡¯s group who was still somewhat conscious instinctively crossed their legs.

    ¡°No - NO!¡± Li Wei said, all fire in his heart gone. He had heard of that demonic technique, and did not want to be on the receiving end of it.

    More importantly, he had been keeping a close eye on his enemy when they had charged at each other, and he still hadn¡¯t felt a drop of Qi from his enemy, something he would¡¯ve expected if Li Wei¡¯s earlier theory about him suppressing his Qi was true.

    Either he had achieved such master over his Qi that he could keep it suppressed even while fighting - or that Li Wei had not even been enough of a challenge for him to lose control of his Qi.

    Both of these possibilities was equally terrifying.

    Meaning that the odds that this really was a Nascent Soul cultivator suddenly shot up!

    Of course, Tang Ze did not know such a technique. He didn¡¯t know a single technique actually - but in the many web novels he had read back on Earth, these words would have struck fear into many of the characters.

    After all, even if his bluff did not work out- what did Tang Ze have to lose? He was clearly at an overwhelming advantage already, he just wanted to do something to end this fight quickly.

    Tang Ze feared that the longer that they fought, the higher the chance was that they might notice some weakness of his that they would exploit. Without having a deeper understanding of how this world¡¯s cultivation system worked and what kind of techniques he might end up running into, he would always have to err on the side of caution that his enemies might have some way to one-up him.

    ¡°Ah, please forgive me,¡± Li Wei said. While he had his pride, it was not worth risking his jewels. He then tried to give the Initiate a weak smile. ¡°Such small things are just a way of rival sects to build friendship in a way, aren¡¯t they, fellow taoist? My friends and I didn¡¯t mean anything serious with this¡­¡±

    Li Wei was cursing his fate internally however even as he smiled outwardly. This was supposed to be a simple task - why was there someone so strong here?

    ¡°You honestly cannot be trying to pull the ¡®it was just a prank bro¡¯ excuse here,¡± Tang Ze said. While Li Wei didn¡¯t fully understand the context of what Tang Ze was saying, he did understand that what he was saying was not doing a good job at convincing these two.

    ¡°Do you really think we¡¯re going to let you be after what you did to Jin Zhen?¡± Zhang Long asked, cracking his knuckles and giving him a death glare.

    Tang Ze put two and two together to figure out what he was talking about. ¡°N-No! Ah, we would never think of so much as touching a hair on her head!¡± There was a good reason for that - all sects had a good proportion of their members as women, and that proportion was slightly higher in the Diamond Dust sect compared to the others.

    And so if it got out to the others that Li Wei had a habit of forcing himself onto vulnerable women, it was highly likely that a group of his senior sisters would find him one night and then decide to have their way with him - and not in the way that he would¡¯ve liked (though maybe some of his junior brothers might¡¯ve enjoyed even such treatment)!

    That said, if maybe that girl had been a little more attractive he might¡¯ve copped a feel - but that was the main disappointment he had encountered when taking her away!

    The girl was homely to the extreme!

    Was this supposed to be this man¡¯s jade beauty? Didn¡¯t the word ¡®jade beauty¡¯ imply that that woman was actually beautiful?

    The woman they had kidnapped was extremely below-average in looks!

    Li Wei had actually assumed that to be so riled up, she must¡¯ve been this man¡¯s sister instead rather than his lover (though he had heard that in some areas, the two were not necessarily mutually exclusive terms), but it looked like he had been wrong.

    ¡°Calm your heart,¡± Jin Zhen said, putting a comforting hand on Zhang Long¡¯s shoulder. ¡°They tied me up yes¡­ but nothing like that happened¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Li Wei said. ¡°I would never! Neither would any of my men! She looks way too much like a pig for us to even think about it, it would be like jumping into gutter because one couldn¡¯t find a swimming pool-¡±

    He did not get any further as Jin Zhen had grabbed a sword and nearly cut his head off with it.

    ¡°Ah, calm down just a moment!¡± Zhang Long said, the roles now reversed - with him trying to calm Jin Zhen down.

    In his eagerness to prove that they had not done anything to the girl, Li Wei might¡¯ve ended up saying a bit too much.

    ¡°Who do you think you¡¯re calling ¡®pig¡¯ you swine! I will fill your sinuses with cow urine!¡± Jin Zhen screamed at him.

    Li Wei hurriedly backed off.

    However, now Tang Ze was faced with another problem that he felt was out of his depth to solve, simply because of a lack of experience on how this world worked.

    What should they do with these people now that he had defeated them?

    The character that Tang Ze was dressed as would¡¯ve just told all of them to scram or handed them over to the authorities - after all, he was a paragon of justice. But just because Tang Ze was dressed as him- did that mean that he had to act like him too?

    His innate sense for his talent hadn¡¯t made some things clear, but did part of making an ¡®accurate¡¯ cosplay also include acting like the character? Would it make Tang Ze more powerful?

    Well, he had gone to rescue this girl, and that didn¡¯t seem to grant him any extra powers, but maybe his acting just needed to be better?

    He would need to experiment on that little bit later.

 Hand Over Everything- We Mean Everything!

    On the other hand- if one took his character¡¯s propensities aside, this was a world rooted in cultivation. And in that case, the usual answer was to completely eradicate your enemies - not even leaving their chickens or dogs alive.

    But, Tang Ze was a normal person from Earth and committing what nearly amounted to cold-blooded murder was not something that he could stomach.

    Then again, this world might have different mores on what was acceptable or not than the ones he¡¯d read of. Perhaps there was someone they should hand over these people to? And it might even be possible that it would cause even more trouble for someone like Zhang Long if they were to execute these people.

    Kindness or cruelty - which path was it?

    ¡°Um, Zhang Long,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°What should we do with them now?¡± Given the fact that he had no real idea how to proceed, he was fully willing to trust Zhang Long here, who would know better than him what the right answer would be.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°Given that you came into our territory and tried to steal from us, I think it¡¯s fair that you give us everything that¡¯s yours.¡±

    ¡°Of course! Of course!¡± Li Wei said, turning out his pockets, and throwing various things onto the ground that Tang Ze did not recognize, but looked to be important.

    ¡°And we¡¯ll be taking your horses too,¡± Zhang Long said.

    ¡°It is my great fortune that my sect¡¯s animals will be taken care of by such talented fighters!¡±

    Tang Ze sighed. He was used to reading about such shameless turnarounds from characters in the web novels he had read back on Earth, but to see it in person gave him secondhand embarrassment. ¡°Of course - tell whoever sent you here that if I ever spot you on this side of the mountains again, I will find whoever sent you, and they will indeed be a victim of my technique. Even if they¡¯re a woman, I¡¯ll shove Yin-Yang Pills down their throats and then use it!¡±

    Once again, he was bluffing as he didn¡¯t even know if such pills existed in this world, but based on how Li Wei¡¯s face paled, he figured he had hit the mark.

    Li Wei was shuddering - it was normal for rival sects to hurl insults at each other. ¡®Courting death!¡¯, ¡®I will slaughter your family till nine generations!¡¯, ¡®I will turn your women into cauldrons!¡¯ - these were all standard things that Li Wei had heard and would wash over him like water off a duck¡¯s back.

    However, what were these lunatics saying? Filling his sinuses with cow urine? Turning the female members of his sect into men and then using [Monkey Stealing Peaches]?

    How had he found himself in such a situation?

    Regardless, the important thing was that he could leave with his life.

    So long as his life was safe, Li Wei could always plot revenge later on in the future.

    As he went to grab some of his unconscious comrades and carry them away, a voice yelled out, ¡°Stop!¡±

    He froze.

    What did they want now?

    ¡°We said give us everything and that means <i>everything</i>,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°That includes your clothes- you can walk back to your sect naked!¡±

    With all of that wrapped up, Zhang Long and Jin Zhen mounted their freshly stolen liberated horses with the rest of the horses trailing behind them. These horses had been reared as a group, and by instinct chose to stick to each other.

    ¡°Ah, will you not take a mount?¡± Jin Zhen asked Tang Ze.

    ¡°I uh, actually don¡¯t know how to ride a horse,¡± Tang Ze said. It wasn¡¯t like that was something that was useful back on Earth, and he didn¡¯t fully trust them as it was.

    These horses were more intelligent than horses back home, it seemed, but that also meant that they were more crafty. Who knows what kind of horseplay they might be planning? What if they tried to take revenge for their original masters?

    He would honestly just rather fly alongside the other two, though at a low enough altitude so that he could easily speak to them.

    ¡°Oh? That¡¯s rather odd¡­¡± Jin Zhen said. In this world, a man who didn¡¯t know how to ride a horse was like a man who didn¡¯t know how to ride a bicycle back on Earth.

    ¡°I doubt it,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°Think about it - if you could fly, why would you even want to know how to ride a horse?¡±

    ¡°Ah! That explains it!¡±

    Tang Ze took some time during their journey back to try to learn a bit more about this world.

    At first, Zhang Long was a bit wary - why was someone at his level asking these kinds of questions? Was this some kind of test to see how good that Zhang Long was?If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "Oh, I''m not a cultivator yet," Tang Ze explained, when Jin Zhen just asked him straight up why he didn¡¯t know the basics when he was supposedly so powerful.

    "What?! But then - how did you...?" Zhang Long mused. "Are you a mage?" He had heard of people known as mages who used something called ''mana'' to warp the world around them. They were quite different from cultivators - though Zhang Long had not met one before. However, cultivators and mages generally did not get along very well from what he had heard.

    "Ah, no," Tang Ze said. "Actually - maybe what I said earlier wasn''t fully right. I am a cultivator, I guess, based on my talent, but.... not in the normal sense I guess?"

    Tang Ze tried to tell Zhang Long a bit about his talent (though not too much, he didn''t fully trust Zhang Long as of yet). Zhang Long didn''t understand it very well, so instead the topic shifted to how normal cultivation worked in this world.

    Tang Ze had some idea already about things based on the names of what he''d heard up till now - like Qi Condensation which was a realm he''d heard of many times in some of the web novels he used to read, but he wanted to actually know what they meant and if there were any gaps in his knowledge.

    Cultivation was divided into major realms with each major realm being split into ten minor realms - that was rather standard.

    Some of the names were unfamiliar to him though - Zhang Long knew of seven; Qi Condensation, Qi Refinement, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Eternal Soul, Hinayana, and Mahayana. There might be realms beyond that as well, but there seemed to be no information on them.

    It took Zhang Long a few times to explain things in a way that Tang Ze could understand.

    While Tang Ze had been far from the ideal student back in his old world, he had been reasonably good at mathematics. It was one of the few things that he generally could understand somewhat without having to put in too much effort - which is ultimately why he had been somewhat fond of the subject.

    As such, Tang Ze made his own summary inside his head which was easy for him to understand.

    If each major realm was assigned a value of ''N'' starting with Qi Condensation being N = 1, then each minor realm within that major realm would increase one''s strength by a value of (10 x N/100) percent.

    In other words, at Qi Condensation, going up a minor realm would increase one''s strength by 10%. While this did not sound like much, there was also the fact that this was compounded, meaning that by the time one reached the final realm of Qi Condensation, one would not be twice as strong, but rather, about two and a half times as strong as they would be at the first minor realm.

    Each major realm though, increased one''s strength by a factor of ''N'', as in, going to the initial stage of Qi Refinement from the final stage of Qi Condensation doubled one''s strength.

    So, the difference in strength between a cultivator at the initial minor realm of Qi Condensation and that of one at the initial minor realm of Qi Refining was: 1.1<sup>10</sup> x 2

    Zhang Long had said that the value was about five times, which was correct once Tang Ze tried to do the math himself.

    Then, at Qi Refining, each minor realm was a 20% boost compared to the last one, and going up to Golden Core was a 300% boost on top of that.

    That led to a Golden Core cultivator being sixty times stronger than they had normally started out! And this number went up to over three thousand times one¡¯s base strength at the Nascent Soul stage!

    By the time one reached the Nascent Soul stage, a minor realm was equivalent to forty percent in terms of strength compared to the last minor realm. At that point, even a few minor realms would equal a significant increase in one''s strength and the difference of a single minor realm could greatly influence the outcome of a fight.

    However, going up the realms was also more difficult the more that one progressed, and this too increased in a cumulative fashion rather than linearly. It was said that it was almost harder to go up a minor realm of Golden Core than it was to get from Qi Refining to Golden Core in the first place, which was something that one of Zhang Long''s sect elders had told him once.

    Regarding mages, Zhang Long had very little idea whatsoever on that topic, so he couldn''t tell Tang Ze anything regarding the same.

    However, these ''power adjustments'' in terms of numbers really didn''t really capture the full strength of cultivators - it was more the floor of their abilities rather than the ceiling.

    Starting at the Qi Refinement stage, they could use Qi in their attacks to a minor extent, and for other purposes like healing as well. According to Zhang Long, since the people Tang Ze had beaten were near or beyond the Qi Refinement stage, they could heal things like normal fractures in a matter of days, so long as the wounds had not also been made with Qi.

    Tang Ze didn''t know how to do that, so he guessed that they would soon be back in fighting shape before the week was over.

    At the Golden Core stage, many... interesting things began to happen in terms of the ways that one could use Qi. To the point that a Golden Core cultivator could kill tens of thousands of mortals even at the initial minor realms of Golden Core - and if Zhang Long was to believed, a near infinite number at the higher minor realms of Golden Core.

    "Infinite? Isn''t that saying a bit much?" Tang Ze asked.

    Zhagn Long shook his head. "At that point, they can harden their body passively through Qi to the point where nothing weak can even get through - or they''ll heal faster than any mortal, heck, any Qi Condensation rank cultivator could even hurt them. So yeah, in theory, could take on a limitless number of such foes."

    Regarding the Nascent Soul stage, Zhang Long belonged to an outer branch of the sect, and as such, there were no such people there, though at the sect''s main headquarters you could find a handful of such people.

    As for Eternal Soul realm, only three of the eight sects had even a single person at that level - neither the Rising Phoenix sect nor the Diamond Dust sect were among those three.

    Both the Rising Phoenix sect and the Diamond Dust sect were middling sects in terms of power, they would both be ranked around four or five out of eight as per Zhang Long (though Zhang Long did say that he believed the Rising Phoenix Sect should be ranked higher, he was somewhat of a biased source so Tang Ze chose to take this with a pinch of salt). The Imperial Family also had one Eternal Soul realm cultivator among them, bringing the total number of Eternal Soul cultivators in the country to a total of four.

    The Raswatian Empire had only had four Hinayana realm cultivators in its entire one hundred-thousand-year history - or put more simply, such an individual seemed to emerge about once every twenty-five thousand years; would wander the mortal realm for about ten thousand years, and would go down in the history books of the empire as one who had made great contributions to the country.

    No such cultivator currently lived, however. As for the Mahayana Realm, it was said that it existed, but outside of stories and the like there was no evidence for the existence of a cultivator who had reached it. Extrapolating from what they knew about Hinayana Realm cultivators, however, it was estimated that one would probably arise every half a million to one million years or so.

 Elder He Xuan

    Regarding the rest of the country and the world at large, Zhang Long didn''t have much knowledge regarding them firsthand. He had lived in the region that the Rising Phoenix Sect controlled his whole life, with the majority of that time living in the village he was born in.

    However, from what Tang Ze understood based off of Zhang Long¡¯s descriptions, just the land area that the Rising Phoenix Sect controlled would make it the second or third largest country on Earth.

    The Raswatian Empire was bordered by two countries - the Theocracy of Serragnia which favored mages over cultivators, and the Parthian Empire which treated both about the same.

    All three countries were currently at peace as there was a relative power stalemate between them, though Zhang Long actually knew very little about them - he had rarely concerned himself with anything that fell outside the domain of this outer division of the Rising Phoenix Sect, but any thought that there might be an upcoming war did not even cross his mind as a remote possibility.

    There was also the ocean which bordered a side of the Raswatian Empire, though where they lived was very far inland, and Zhang Long had never seen the sea with his own eyes his life.

    Beyond the sea though, there was the island nation of Maltonetta, but Zhang Long''s knowledge of this was so miniscule as to be practically nonexistent.

    This was a lot of information for Tang Ze to take in. It was also apparently not even a fraction of what cultivation was truly about, but he couldn''t be expected to learn about that so quickly, now then could he?

    As an analogy, it was like he had only just learned to count while other people were already doing trigonometry. If he tried to understand things on their level, it would be a pointless endeavor that would only serve to confuse him. It would be like trying to drink from a fireman¡¯s hose.

    He would need to start at the basics - the very basics. The few lines he had read in some web novels back on Earth likely didn''t amount to anything when compared to what actual cultivation entailed, if they were even slightly accurate to this world at all.

    "So... about the Rising Phoenix sect," Tang Ze said after some contemplation. "How would one go about becoming a member?"

    He had thought of joining for the simple reason that he had just spawned into this world without any real backing.

    His body was still the same from back home, and certainly did not belong to any ancient bloodline. Forget that, he didn¡¯t have any family here in this world.

    And without some kind of backing, whether from family or from a sect, it was nearly impossible to move up in this world, or so he understood. As a matter of fact, extrapolating on his knowledge from back home, familial ties were extremely important in this kind of day and age. Without any, he would be a sitting duck and face problems at nearly every turn.

    He also needed time to get more materials and the like for making costumes, and someone to teach him about the world while he got stronger.

    Not to mention, he needed somewhere where he would be safe from threats like wild beasts and rogue cultivators as well.

    And if he was going to join a sect, well, Diamond Dust was likely already out given what he had done, so it made sense to go with somewhere he might already have an ''in'' with so to speak - depending on how much clout Zhang Long had in the sect.

    "Ah? You? Wish to join?" Zhang Long asked. He really hadn''t bought Tang Ze''s story completely given how outlandish what he had heard was, but the more that Tang Ze asked questions that even a toddler would know the answers to, the more he had a suspicion that he wasn''t faking this.

    Obviously, had he genuinely been a Nascent Soul cultivator there was no question as to whether or not he could get into a sect - they would on the contrary be fighting over each other to recruit him!

    But, that did not seem to be the case.

    "Well, if you don''t have any family members or anyone else you know within the sect..." Zhang Long began. "Well, there is a fee and an entrance exam, let me ask the division elder if you can take it at some point."

    A fee? Tang Ze did not have a coin to his name.

    "Ah, don''t worry about the fee," Zhang Long said. "What you got from them should more than enough cover it. As for the exam... again, I need to ask around." Zhang Long honestly did not have much influence in the sect - he was just an Initiate, which was the lowest level within the sect hierarchy. A reference from an Initiate wouldn¡¯t carry much weight.

    To advance from an Initiate, one either needed to either reach Qi Refinement stage or give thirty years of service to the sect. After that they would become a regular member, and could try to vie for a position like that of a sect prefect. To become a sect elder required one to be at the Golden Core realm.

    Still, having a reference from Zhang Long was better than him just randomly showing up at the sect door with nothing else in hand.

    "What are you doing?" Jin Zhen asked, curious as to why Tang Ze was examining the clothes they had looted from the Diamond Fortune''s Sect so closely.

    "I wanted to see if there was anything that I could use," Tang Ze said, trying to get a feel for the fabric. "What are these things made of?" If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "Silk, and if they''re especially of high quality, they''ll be woven in with Qi between the threads or made from special Heavenly Silkworms - though I doubt small fry like them had the money for things like that," Zhang Long said.

    "Hmm..." Tang Ze said. He wanted to work on the costume he had right now, and spandex was what you would really want for something like it, though he doubted he could get something like that in this world. Other synthetic fabrics like nylon or polyester would also be out of the question.

    Silk could be dyed to somewhat look the same, but it wouldn''t feel the same, and Tang Ze had a feeling that it wouldn''t count as a very good costume.

    How exactly did the intricacies of his talent work? Was it more important that his cosplay look like the real thing, or that it was made of material that was close to the original thing?

    Tang Ze was not a stranger to trying to make costumes himself - he had had an interest in doing so ever since he had made masks out of paper back when he was four.

    However, he was not used to making them entirely from scratch. While repairing tears or making some alterations were within the scope of what he could do, he tended to outsource the harder parts to other people, or buy them from suppliers.

    Such luxuries would not be present in this world, so he would need to learn to be his own tailor if he intended to use his talent to its full extent.

    ...

    How strange...

    It felt so strange for Tang Ze to want to make costumes again. Who knew that his experience with the same would end up being so useful?

    He had nearly given up on his hobby completely back on Earth. How long had it been since he had last indulged in it?

    Of course!

    Two years.

    Two very long, painful years filled with regret.

    "Is something wrong?" Zhang Long asked. Tang Ze¡¯s face had suddenly taken the expression of one at the funeral of a very dear friend.

    "No, I was just ah - reminded of something unpleasant," Tang Ze answered, shaking his head.

    They reached Zhang Long''s village by sundown, after which he said he had to go back to his sect to finish his delivery and his mission - though he said he would try to put in a good word for Tang Ze when he got there, and send word back if the sect might be amenable to taking him in.

    During such time, Tang Ze spent time with Jin Zhen''s family, who were more than happy to temporarily take him in.

    Word did get back to him eventually that the Rising Phoenix Sect was willing to consider taking him in as a disciple, and he needed to start getting ready - as a week later was when he had the sect entrance exam!

    His days were filled with working tirelessly on his costume. Fabrics and dyes were not easily available where they were - but he had to try his best.

    A week later, Elder He Xuan watched from a mountain top. He cast an imposing figure, being one of the two Golden Core cultivators in this branch of the Rising Phoenix sect. He was also the branch elder, meaning he had total authority over this branch.

    This was not the usual mountain that the Rising Phoenix sect used for the sect entrance exam - they¡¯d normally use a low hill or something less difficult.

    However, word had reached him of this particular man¡¯s feats, and he wished to see how he would deal with something like this.

    The mountain by itself was nothing too significant - a man could make his way to the top within two days or so with ease. Even a mortal could do it, provided that they could avoid the myriad number of beasts that were living on it.

    That was to say nothing of the number of traps that Elder Xe Huan had had the Rising Phoenix Sect members laid out for this person who wished to join.

    Moreover, Tang Ze would not be given two days to reach the peak- he had to do so by sunset. All the while avoiding the wild animals and the traps that had been set up by the sect.

    There were several Qi Refining rank cultivators lurking on the mountain as well - they were not there to obstruct Tang Ze in any capacity, but would intervene should his life be put in danger.

    Elder He Xuan was not looking to kill the man, if he was indeed as interesting as Zhang Long made him out to be.

    Alongside Elder He Xuan was Zhang Long, who had been a bit surprised when he had been asked to be here.

    For one, it was very odd for Elder He Xuan to supervise an entrance test himself. Usually he would send one of the prefects to do so instead as he had more important things to do.

    As it was, Golden Core cultivators were the pillars upon which the sects were built. They were strong enough to actually matter significantly, and were also numerous enough to fill in various positions over the Rising Phoenix Sect¡¯s vast domain. Qi Refinement and below level cultivators were too weak for some tasks, and Nascent Soul and higher ranked cultivators were so few in number it was impossible for them to cover a large area. Not to mention they were often tied up in difficult tasks or had gone into seclusion to cultivate for long stretches of time which could occasionally ben as long as several decades.

    If one was good at managerial tasks, they could apply for and reach the position of prefect after they had become a regular member - but the real power always lay in the hands of the elders, who were at minimum Golden Core cultivators. Nascent Soul and higher ranked cultivators, although important, were so few in number and rather inaccessible to the ordinary members and people, so it was the Golden Core cultivators who oversaw the majority of the actual functions of the sect.

    Not to mention that it was at Golden Core that one¡¯s lifespan truly began to extend significantly.

    The best Qi Refinement cultivators could live for about one hundred and eighty years if they were careful, while at Golden Core lifespans averaged around five hundred years. This meant that Golden Core cultivators were also around for far longer than those of the lower cultivation realms.

    As such, they were rather busy even if they weren¡¯t division heads - so why would Elder He Xuan come out to oversee this entrance test himself?

    Then again, he had been rather interested earlier when Zhang Long had described how Tang Ze¡¯s powers worked.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Elder He Xuan had said at the time. ¡°I have heard of something somewhat similar - there are some tribes near the border who make animal masks, some of which carry the property of granting one the abilities of said animals when worn. This seems to take things a step further, though.¡±

    Maybe Elder He Xuan just wanted to see Tang Ze¡¯s powers in action?

    Well, Zhang Long felt slightly uneasy right then. Because he had ¡®overlooked¡¯ one fact when describing Tang Ze¡¯s abilities in his report.

    Tang Ze walked to the starting point.

    He had worked almost night and day on this new costume over the past week - and had verified via Zhang Long that nothing he was going to do was against the sect rules.

    He could wear whatever he wanted during the entrance test, so the costume was fine.

    Overall, Tang Ze was not truly satisfied with what he had made.

    The cape was the easiest part - just requiring a large red cloth. But the rest of the actual costume as well as the symbol on the torso - that had required more work from him.

    For one, the years of him not working on this hobby had showed when he was trying to make the costume - he was out of practice, in other words.

    He also did not have some of the reference materials he would have back home to use while making it, and though he had a good idea of it from his memory, he constantly wished he would just have a picture to compare it to.

 Sect Entrance Exam

    Additionally, the tailors here, while helpful, did not fully understand what Tang Ze needed.

    The barber had been a bit more helpful. ¡®Are you sure you want me to cut your hair even shorter?¡¯ the barber had asked, to which Tang Ze had nodded. His hair was a bit overgrown as he hadn¡¯t had a haircut sometime back on Earth, but nowhere near the level to which men in this world kept it. His hairstyle needed to be modified as well for the cosplay though, not to mention, he could always regrow his hair back longer as seemed to be the custom in this world.

    Thankfully his hair was already black, meaning that hair dye or a wig was not necessary. He also didn¡¯t need contacts as his eyes matched the color needed as well. But he had had difficulty assembling some of the other parts.

    Still, the overall costume was¡­ very lackluster from his own point of view. The symbol on the chest was slightly off-center and something about it seemed wrong though he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on what that was. A lack of references likely contributed to that.

    The boots were also not made of what he would¡¯ve wanted, but he could not find the required materials in this world. They were also out of shape and not the right fit for him, with him having to tie them to his feet with ropes so they wouldn¡¯t fly off them.

    His costume was basically held together with duct tape and prayers - not actual duct tape mind you, that might¡¯ve been useful, but it was not as structurally sound as he¡¯d have hoped.

    It could probably not handle a large amount of strain, which was fine if this was back on Earth and he was only doing something like a photoshoot, but it was important for Tang Ze that his costumes be durable and easy to move about in, two things that this one lacked.

    Not to mention there would be no photo editing he could do to make things look better in post. A lot of the more impressive cosplays you find online definitely have a touch of special effects added to them.

    It was clear that even his natural talent thought that this was not a very good imitation, as he had access to only fifty-five percent of the character¡¯s powers.

    Still, it was far better than simply taking a red towel and wrapping that around his neck for sure. And even around half of this character¡¯s strength, well, it would take him very far. So long as his costume held up, that is.

    The entrance test began the moment the sun crested the horizon, and as Tang Ze basked in its glory as it cleared the horizon, he tried to put the doubts about his costume behind him.

    Yes, he might¡¯ve not been able to make what he really wanted to - but it wasn¡¯t like this was the end of the road.

    He could improve - no, he would improve on the design!

    He would find better materials!

    Not only that, but he would continue to add the strength of these characters to his own so he could use them when he wasn¡¯t even wearing his costume. If he could cultivate on top of that, who knows what the limits of his power would be?

    After all, wasn¡¯t the best part of being reincarnated like this the fact that he could start over? Even if he hadn¡¯t been proud of what he had done in his last life, he could look forward to a new start in this one.

    And with that, his feet began to hover off the ground, and as the sun completed its climb, basking the world in its radiance, Tang Ze launched himself into the air.

    ¡°What?!¡± Elder He Xuan exclaimed. He looked over at Zhang Long, who was trying to appear as innocent as possible. ¡°Zhang Long, did you know about this?¡±

    Zhang Long shook his head. ¡°Elder He Xuan, I am as shocked as you are!¡± If he had told people that Tang Ze could fly, thereby making all the preparations they had done for this test meaningless, they would have found some other way to test Tang Ze.

    And that might¡¯ve been a test where Tang Ze¡¯s powers could not help him.

    This however, ensured Tang Ze¡¯s success. Which is why Zhang Long had chosen to omit that crucial piece of information in the first place.

    Tang Ze actually ended up vastly overshooting his mark and ended up far above the clouds in a single breath¡¯s time - the disparity in power that this costume provided compared to before was immense and so he was not used to it, and he took a minute to control himself and land at the mountain¡¯s peak.

    And with that, he was done with the sect''s entrance test!

    Elder He Xuan, once he got over his shock, had a sordid expression on his face. If Tang Ze or Zhang Long were able to sense Elder He Xuan¡¯s Qi, they would sense the man¡¯s Qi fluctuating wildly at this point.

    But neither Tang Ze nor Zhang Long could not feel anything. Zhang Long, because his cultivation level of Qi Condensation did not allow him to sense the Qi of those at the Golden Core realm, and Tang Ze couldn¡¯t as he had no practice in the matter.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    As He Xuan took a deep breath, curiosity overcame his initial irritation at having gone through the trouble of setting all of this only for Tang Ze man to leap over all the obstacles laid out before him like it was nothing in a heart beat.

    Elder He Xuan had to admit, the man¡¯s clothes were rather odd. Not in what they were made of - he had initially suspected that there might be some trick involving Qi, suspecting that the clothes were like magical armor or enchanted raiments one could find, though he could feel no Qi between the individual threads.

    When Elder He Xuan had come into contact with one of the wandering tribes near the border during his earlier days, he hadn¡¯t felt a drop of Qi from their masks either.

    They were works of great craftsmanship, undoubtedly so, with the tracings on the wood carvings making them leak an eerie but exalted presence nonetheless. In addition they were adorned with the hair and occasionally bits of fur of the animals they were supposed to represent.

    However, when one of the tribesmen had put one on his face, it was as if the mask rippled into life, and Elder He Xuan could actually feel the presence of a lion behind the man! All of a sudden, He Xuan felt a burst of Qi emitting from the man as if a lamp had been turned on bathing a formerly dark room in light.

    It was not so here, however.

    Elder He Xuan could not feel anything at all from Tang Ze¡¯s clothes. There was no sensation of power or strength emanating from him. And yet, they were supposed to be his source of strength?

    Tang Ze looked as he was - a guy who was cosplaying as a western-based superhero in a world of Qi and cultivation, standing before the elder of a sect.

    In other words, he looked ridiculous - and was closer to seeming like a court jester than a powerful cultivator.

    There was truly nothing exceptional about this Tang Ze - that was what Elder He Xuan¡¯s spiritual senses told him.

    And yet, Elder He Xuan could not deny that he had seen him soar up into the sky just now.

    Rather than censure Tang Ze or let his true feeling be known, He Xuan gave a gentle smile instead and said, ¡°Ah, well done Junior Tang Ze! I am quite impressed by your performance! To have cleared this test in so short a span of time - this was completely unexpected! A new record for the sect, as a matter of fact! One I don¡¯t think will ever be beaten mind you¡­¡±

    ¡°I thank you for your kind words, Elder He Xuan,¡± Tang Ze said, cupping his hands and bowing just as Jin Zhen had taught him to.

    ¡°Now, as a formality, I would just like to examine your dantian before you enter our sect?¡± Elder He Xuan said rather casually, though Zhang Long¡¯s eyes widened at the request.

    The dantian was the key origin of a cultivator¡¯s Qi, to ask to examine it was nearly tantamount to asking to examine another cultivator¡¯s privates, though in such a situation, it was difficult for Tang Ze to say ¡®no.¡¯

    Tang Ze, however, really didn¡¯t understand the significance of this and merely nodded as Elder He Xuan put a hand forward and onto Tang Ze¡¯s lower abdomen. Tang Ze, a newcomer to this world, figured this was just part and parcel of joining the sect.

    By examining Tang Ze closely, even if he was multiple major realms above Elder He Xuan, Elder He Xuan would be able to detect the flow of Qi within him.

    It was only at a distance where people could be fooled, at such a close range, and as long as Tang Ze wasn¡¯t doing something funny to obfuscate his own talent, Elder He Xuan would have no problems with his little interrogation.

    Elder He Xuan¡¯s eyes widened at what he had just found.

    He found¡­ absolutely nothing!It appeared that Tang Ze had not even awakened his lower dantian, nor had opened any of his meridians!

    If Elder He Xuan did not know any better, he would have guessed that what was standing before him was a corpse - there was no detectable Qi inside this person at all!

    And yet, this person was breathing, and He Xuan could feel a pulse, so they were not some zombie-like creature either!

    Elder He Xuan would normally interpret this as meaning that Tang Ze was, as a matter of fact, doing something that stopped such surveillance methods like what he was doing, but then he decided to take a second look.

    Elder He Xuan looked further, and it was then that he found the tiniest spark of Qi - it truly was a spark, it could not even be compared to the dying flame of a candle - that was just how weak it was!

    In other words, He Xuan was not being deceived with some kind of technique - it was just that Tang Ze barely had any Qi!

    This was nearly inconceivable!

    ¡°You are¡­ a Zeroth Realm individual?¡± Elder He Xuan said once he had found the right words, though they still felt odd in his mouth.

    When children were born into this world, their bodies would normally start accumulating Qi from their environment in their lower dantian until it was filled, and after this they would gradually prime their meridians to be ready to enter the first minor realm of Qi Condensation.

    This realm that existed before Qi Condensation - well, it couldn¡¯t really be called a proper ¡®realm¡¯ in and of itself, but this state- was sometimes called the ¡®Zeroth Realm.¡¯ Few people even had heard of this stage because virtually no adult was at that level.

    Babies, by the time they were around one year of age or even sooner if they were born to prodigal parents or in a place where the Qi in the air was thicker, would have their lower dantians completely filled by that time.

    As for priming the meridians - that might take a bit longer, say, until one was four or five. But nearly everyone finished this stage by the time they were seven! It was not even something that had to be done consciously, so it was impossible to mess it up.

    Tang Ze however, had not been born in this world. And as such, he had not the time to develop these parts of his body, and had to start from scratch.

    Granted, he was older, and this process would theoretically be far faster than it would be for a newborn or child, but it would still take time.

    He had only been in this world for about a week, after all.

    ¡°Tell me something,¡± Elder He Xuan said. ¡°Were you ever injured in a way that reset your meridians?¡± It was theoretically possible that a major injury or exposure to some kind of poison could derail one¡¯s cultivation and send it back to the Zeroth Realm, though Elder He Xuan had never heard of such a case in his entire career. Granted, anything that could drop it all the way down to the Zeroth Realm should¡¯ve also killed the cultivator in question, but stranger things had happened in this world.

    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t think so?¡± Tang Ze said. He didn¡¯t even fully comprehend how the meridians worked or even what they were, but he was relatively certain that nothing had happened to damage his.

    ¡°That¡­¡± Elder He Xuan began to say. Even if one was just passively absorbing Qi from the environment, much like a plant, they should have been far beyond this level. Going beyond the Zeroth Realm¡­ it was as simple as learning how to properly take a dump!

    Anyone who had not reached this level was clearly a hopeless cause.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Elder He Xuan said. ¡°I know that you technically passed this exam, but we cannot accept you into the Rising Phoenix Sect.¡±

 Elder He Xuan, Please Reconsider!

    The result of the entrance test was not what ultimately made the decision whether one could join or not - one could fail it, but if they gave off a good enough of a performance, the prefect could still pass them.

    The reverse was also true, but almost never happened.

    This was one of those ¡®almost never happened¡¯ scenarios playing out however.

    ¡°What!?¡± both Zhang Long and Tang Ze screamed simultaneously.

    ¡°You simply do not have any talent as a cultivator,¡± Elder He Xuan said. He explained to both of them what the Zeroth Realm was.

    Tang Ze began to understand why it was that this was going on. Elder He Xuan didn¡¯t understand the root cause, but he did. It was because he was from Earth and his body had not had time to acclimatize to the higher Qi density of this world! ¡°Ah- but wait, I can improve! I want to learn!¡± Wasn¡¯t the point of joining a sect to learn to cultivate? So why was he being barred from entry because he had made so little progress?

    While Tang Ze was partially correct, even back on Earth, say, for example, you wished to go to Art School to become a painter - you would still be required to demonstrate some proficiency in painting before they would let you in. They would most definitely not take someone who didn¡¯t even know how to hold a paintbrush the right way! A creative writing class wouldn¡¯t take in someone who was just learning their letters, either, for example.

    It was for a similar reason that Elder He Xuan was rejecting him.

    Elder He Xuan shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid any resources spent on you would be the equivalent of a ship tossing its cargo into the ocean.¡±

    ¡°But, Elder He Xuan, look at how strong he is - and he can fly too!¡± Zhang Long said.

    He Xuan replied, ¡°Strong he may be.¡± He then used a technique - [Gravity Field] which increased the effect of gravity around an area, and Zhang Long fell to one knee. Tang Ze remained standing, able to withstand the increased gravitational force with ease.

    Yes, Tang Ze was clearly strong. But¡­

    ¡°[Qi Binding Field]!¡± He Xuan said, a technique which worked similarly to [Gravity Field], but instead bound one¡¯s Qi compared to the user''s own.

    With that, Tang Ze immediately fell to the ground. His near-indestructibility thanks to his costume meant that it didn¡¯t hurt, but he found that he could not move.

    ¡°Strength is not just physical strength,¡± He Xuan said. ¡°There are many other forms of attacks - ones that target karma, ones that target the soul, and so on. Given this, just being strong is not enough. You will soon be the victim of a weak spiritual technique which will tear you to pieces if you cannot cultivate no matter how strong you are - and that is the point of a sect, to cultivate! If you are strong physically, join a martial arts dojo or a mercenary group - both might willingly take you! But the sect cannot afford to waste resources on one such as you who is so behind regarding their cultivation.¡± He said this with a gentle but firm tone that implied there was no room for bargaining. ¡°However, I will refund your exam fee. You may rest assured of that. If you manage to progress in your cultivation on your own, however, we may reconsider letting you join in a few years.¡± Elder He Xuan had no obligation to return the exam fees, even if someone failed their fee would be forfeit, but in this case, he felt that that was a reasonable thing to do.

    Had it been anyone else¡¯s future on the line, Zhang Long would not have dared to speak up to question Elder He Xuan¡¯s decision.

    But this was Tang Ze, who he owed a great debt to. If he kept his peace right now and remained silent, it would definitely haunt him for the future!

    ¡°Elder He Xuan,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°The Novice Tournament is coming up soon in around a year, and Tang Ze would do well in some of the categories. For that alone, can¡¯t we say that any investment in him is worth it?¡±

    Elder He Xuan¡¯s eyebrows furrowed.

    In this world, resources were not evenly distributed - it could be said that the distribution of resources was far more skewed and uneven in this world than back on even the most unequal nation on Earth. If an economist were to sit down and calculate the Raswatian Empire¡¯s Gini coefficient, it would probably come as close to one as was possible.

    The philosophy of this world was not ¡®each according to each individual¡¯s needs¡¯ but instead ¡®each according to each individual¡¯s abilities.¡¯

    In cultivation, the most important thing was resources. Theoretically speaking, even if one lacked talent and was the most hopeless cripple in the empire, if one had all the resources in the world they could still soar to heights that someone with plenty of talent could not.

    Of course, such a thing was only theoretical.

    Practically speaking, those with talent rose to the top, became powerful, and then hoarded resources, becoming even more powerful thanks to their hoarding, and so on and so forth.

    It was the ultimate ¡®rich get richer¡¯ scheme.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    The Raswatian Empire followed this principle as well.

    The vast majority of territory in the empire was managed by the Imperial Family themselves. They had many areas and resources which were considered to be national treasures when it came to cultivation.

    Such areas were places where the Qi in the air was much thicker, or had plants which made excellent pills, or were the territories of very friendly and powerful spiritual beasts. There was also the matter of certain scriptures that helped with cultivation or described powerful techniques.

    The Imperial Family took a good portion of the best of these, of course, but there was still quite a bit left over for them to distribute to the sects.

    But which sects should get them?

    In line with the philosophy of giving resources to those who could utilize them best, the better sects would get better resources.

    Of course, this was not done simply in line with philosophy - but also from a pragmatic political perspective.

    If the eight sects united, they could easily overthrow the emperor. Yet, by keeping these resources for themselves and distributing them out as rewards, the Imperial Family could play the sects against each other.

    If ever a few sects rose up in rebellion, the Imperial Family could bribe the other sects with rewards to turn on those. In this way, the Imperial Family could keep itself in power, while keeping the individual sects under its thumb. And in exchange for these cultivation resources, the Imperial Family could demand the service of the sects in matters such as national security and the like.

    Currently, none of the sects was strong enough that they could significantly challenge multiple others, and the only time that had not been so since the empire¡¯s founding were the time periods when a Hinayana realm cultivator existed. The first Hinayana realm cultivator was the first emperor himself who had founded the country, and the three others that followed had also left their marks on history before departing this world.

    The sects of course, could not compete with each other directly by fighting without causing untold amounts of destruction and collateral damage. What was the point of being king if all that was left was a huge pile of rubble? So the sects competed in other ways.

    The tournaments were the best example of how sects were often judged - there were two kinds; the Advanced Tournament, which was for Golden Core cultivators only, and the Novice Tournament for Qi Condensation and Qi Refining stages.

    If one was Nascent Soul or higher, one was barred from these tournaments, though such cultivators contributed to their sects in other ways, and would often train the lower-ranked members for these tournaments since they could not directly participate.

    The Advanced Tournament was held every twenty years, while the Novice Tournament was held every five years. Naturally, the results of the Advanced Tournament held more weight, but the resources distributed during the Novice Tournament were nothing to scoff at either.

    There were twelve events in the Novice Tournament, some of which could be won by mere feats of strength.

    If Tang Ze won the first spot in even one of those events, forget about the rewards, just the amount of face that would be gained by the sect would be worth the investment of a hundred Initiates.

    Initiates of the sects often grumbled that they were worked like donkeys, being handed the majority of ¡®scut work¡¯ by the sect, which were things that the higher-ranking members of the sect did not want to do.

    The fact of the matter though, was that the Initiates were - on a pure profit and loss basis, a net negative for the sect.

    The sect spent more to rear and nurture them than they got in return, it was only starting at the higher minor realms of Qi Refining that it could be said that the sect members contributed more to the sect than they took - and it was the Golden Core and Nascent Soul realm cultivators which really contributed to a sect¡¯s financial success.

    Still, that was from a simple profit/loss perspective - but the fact remained that not even Eternal Soul cultivators endured forever. One could not hope to reap the harvest of a field if one did not water and tend to the seeds first. A sect that did not invest in its Initiates would sooner or later, go extinct.

    Of course, one would not invest in a broken-down car to fix it up when there were alternatives available. So why recruit Tang Ze then?

    Yet, one also needed to look at potential. However, most of the time, those with true potential had already accomplished much by the time that

    ¡°So, you are saying that in the long run, he is worth having?¡± Elder He Xuan asked Zhang Long.

    ¡°Indeed- Brother Tang Ze is like a gambling den rock which is of the lowest grade on first glance, but that which has a celestial treasure hidden within!¡± Zhang Long said.

    Elder He Xuan paused for a moment - Zhang Long had made that analogy likely because he had heard of his past of working in a rock gambling den in his earlier days. How did he know that though?

    Ah, that was right -Elder He Xuan had told Zhang Long that himself when Zhang Long had first joined, though he was a bit surprised that the Initiate still remembered that small of a detail after so many years.

    Either that, or this comparison came about as a matter of a mere fluke, though Elder He Xuan doubted that was the case. Zhang Long had shown in multiple instances that he possessed the qualities that would be valuable in a future prefect - and if he could reach the Golden Core stage, an adept elder.

    More likely than not, Zhang Long¡¯s words had been carefully crafted to appeal to Elder He Xuan.

    ¡°I see,¡± He Xuan said. He then turned to Tang Ze. ¡°I will let you know, young man, that we will not go easier on you in any way because of your¡­ condition. You will still be expected to carry your weight.¡±

    The sects distributed resources in their own systems by the same principle of ¡®those who can utilize resources better, deserve more resources.¡¯

    So, Tang Ze would not get any extra help to bring his cultivation up to par.

    This was rather unlike back on Earth - where, had Tang Ze been a weak student, a school would¡¯ve endeavored to get him help in the form of remedial classes, more one-on-one attention, etc.

    He had never been that bad of a student in his previous life, though he knew many who did end up getting this kind of treatment. This was in line with a school¡¯s fundamental idea of lifting everyone to a minimum basic standard. Here though, it was either sink or swim!

    If you wanted something, you had to prove that you were deserving of it first! In other words, geniuses were the ones who received disproportionate amounts of care via the sect.

    ¡°I understand,¡± Tang Ze said, just relieved for now that he had gotten in.

    Elder He Xuan nodded. ¡°Zhang Long, your squad has a missing member, correct?¡±

    ¡°That is correct, Elder He Xuan,¡± Zhang Long said. He was quite relieved that Elder He Xuan had listened to what he had said- if it had been some other elder, or even one of the more arrogant and prideful prefects, they would¡¯ve been enraged at the mere fact that Zhang Long had dared to question one of their decisions in the first place, whether it was correct or not.

    But, thankfully Elder He Xuan was not like that.

    ¡°Then he will join as a probationary Initiate in your squad,¡± Elder He Xuan said. ¡°I expect you to properly guide him.¡±

    ¡°That I will, Elder He Xuan!¡±

 Meeting The Squad

    Elder He Xuan turned towards Tang Ze. ¡°Out of curiosity, what exactly is this¡­ costume of yours supposed to depict?¡± It looked like nothing Elder He Xuan had ever seen - even in paintings or murals.

    ¡°A hero from where I come from who is renowned for his strength and sense of justice,¡± Tang Ze replied.

    He could not speak the actual name of this hero, or else the Heavenly Court [Copyright Lawyers] would strike down the world, burn it to countless pieces, and then after scattering these pieces to the wind seal away the world in a state where no soul could get in or go out.

    He Xuan nodded. ¡°Let us hope you live up to his name then, and not just his strength.¡±

    He made a note of these two- both of them he had no doubt carried great potential to rise in the sect hierarchy.

    Tang Ze, because of this strange ability of his. Who knows - maybe he would never go beyond being a muscle head and remain a frog in a well, never being able to compete with Golden Core cultivators. Or, perhaps he was a hidden dragon, and would soon soar to the heavens.

    Zhang Long, though average in cultivation talent, did show signs of having a good head on his shoulders, was diligent, and was able to lead others well. The sect did not just need powerful people, but managerial talent like his, for lack of a better term, was also invaluable.

    However, the truth of the matter was that Elder He Xuan had not agreed to let Tang Ze in because of what Tang Ze might accomplish in the upcoming Novice Tournament, though if he could do well that would be a nice bonus.

    No, there was another matter entirely that Elder He Xuan thought that Tang Ze could potentially be useful in solving.

    ¡®If he is strong even now, if he can increase his base strength via cultivating, could it be possible that he could get strong enough to actually be able to move that rock?¡¯ Elder He Xuan contemplated. ¡®Well, it¡¯s unlikely, but so long as the chance is there, what¡¯s there for me to lose? And if he does actually manage to come through¡­¡¯ Elder He Xuan smiled in his heart at the thought.

    There was a reason Elder He Xuan had decided to pair Zhang Long and Tang Ze up like this though - because he was curious as to not only what each could accomplish on their own, but how far they could fly together.

    After all, he would need to keep a close eye on Tang Ze¡¯s growth. And Zhang Long was good and loyal to the sect, Elder He Xuan had no doubt that he could use Zhang Long as his watchman in that regard.

    With a flourish, He Xuan left on a flying carpet as the others were left to make their way on foot back to the sect.

    This division of the Rising Phoenix sect was located, like most divisions, on a cluster of mountaintops.

    This was partially for militaristic purposes, given that it was easier to defend them, and also from a cultivation perspective, where the density of Qi tended to be higher at higher altitudes compared to the plains.

    Of course, there was also the status that one showed of one¡¯s station by staying at a higher altitude, literally towering above the common folk.

    There were actually three buildings in this sect division, one was the main building for the administrative branch of the sect which was on the highest mountain, with two smaller buildings on its neighboring peaks.

    It was not usually possible to go from one of the buildings to another without descending the mountainside first and then going up another mountain, though the main building did have some apparatuses that could bridge the gaps on special occasions for special people.

    Not that either Zhang Long or Tang Ze needed such things, when Tang Ze could easily soar to the mountaintop.

    ¡°Are you alright, Senior Brother Zhang Long?¡± Tang Ze asked teasingly as they reached the gates of the building where they would be staying. It was one of the buildings located on a lower mountaintop.

    Zhang Long shook his head. ¡°Again - just call me Zhang Long. Or Brother Zhang if it comes to it. Come on, there¡¯s quite a bit that I need to show you before tomorrow morning.¡±

    Tang Ze was a probationary Initiate, which was where all Initiates started out, meaning that for one year he would be working under the direct supervision of a squad of proper Initiates.

    He could be promoted past this probationary state by either serving for one year, reaching the third minor realm of Qi Condensation, or by completing a significant act of valor that would signify he was ready for more serious duties.

    The third minor realm of Qi Condensation was not difficult to reach - to put things into perspective, some non-cultivators could reach that minor realm without any resources or guidance simply by passively absorbing the Qi in the world and meditating.

    This would take the entirety of their lifespans for mortals to accomplish, but there were some Initiates who had already passed that bar before even the entrance test. Such people either had substantial talent, or excellent resources and backing from their families. For Tang Ze however, who was at the Zeroth Realm, this was a pipe dream.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    As for a ¡®significant act of valor¡¯ that was determined by a prefect, though there were no clear rules on what this meant.

    Being on probation meant that Tang Ze did not get a sash, and his place within the sect was technically tenuous as he could be kicked out without any recourse during this period. There were some other privileges he could not exercise as well.

    All that didn¡¯t matter too much to Tang Ze, he had expected to start out at the bottom of the totem pole, after all.

    What did bother him slightly was that they were expected to wear the official sect uniform at nearly all times.

    This was an issue for someone like him who got his powers from dressing up as other people - but he would try to find a workaround for that later.

    ¡°This is the rest of my group,¡± Zhang Long said after a short tour of the building, leading Tang Ze towards the living quarters for Initiates.

    Being Initiates, they shared a common living space as a squad, though they had separate bedrooms.

    ¡°Hello everyone!¡± Zhang Long announced as he walked in.

    There were two other people lounging in the common area. One of them was working with a mortar and pestle, while the other one was writing something on a scroll.

    Both of them stopped what they were doing to look at Zhang Long, and then at Tang Ze. These two both wore white sashes on their waists, meaning that both of them were proper Initiates, and were not probationary Initiates like Tang Ze.

    ¡°So, this is our new squad member!¡± Zhang Long said, pointing to Tang Ze. ¡°I told you about him - Tang Ze!¡±

    ¡°Is he the one¡­?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°Alright, Tang Ze, that person over there is Yin Tiang,¡± he said, pointing to the person who was working with a mortar and pestle, ¡°he really likes alchemy - which is why he¡¯s trying to make ah¡­ something I guess?¡±

    ¡°Dragonroot Powder,¡± Yin Tiang said, exasperated while rolling his eyes, as if this was something he had told Zhang Long multiple times over and over.

    ¡°Right! That! And that person over there is Chen Yu,¡± Zhang Long said, pointing to the person who lazily lifted a hand in salutation.

    ¡°Well met, Brother Yin Tiang, Brother Chen Yu,¡± Tang Ye said.

    ¡°No need for the ¡®brother¡¯ part, we are all squad mates, aren¡¯t we?¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°With that said - when do we proceed with the hazing, Squad Leader?¡±

    This question was directed at Zhang Long who frowned and then sighed. ¡°Come on guys, after all that Tang Ze did, you can¡¯t be serious about the hazing thing, right? Not to mention not only is he strong, but he knows [Monkey Stealing Peaches] too.¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Tang Ze was about to point out that he couldn¡¯t use that - why did Zhang Long think he could when he knew that Tang Ze couldn¡¯t cultivate? Maybe he thought it was a power given by his costume?

    Regardless, the two other Initiates immediately paled, and the thoughts of ¡®hazing¡¯ immediately left their minds.

    ¡°So, Tang Ze, forget about all that ah,¡± Yin Tiang said, waving his hand. ¡°Chen Yu says stupid nonsense all the time, best to ignore it.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­¡± Tang Ze said.

    Zhang Long told him more about how the squad system within the Initiates worked. They usually consisted of four to five members, one of whom would possibly be a probationary Initiate.

    The Squad Leader was chosen by popular vote among the squad, though as a probationary Initiate Tang Ze would not get a vote.

    It was a bit shocking to learn that, and even more so to learn that the Squad Leader could be replaced at any given time by popular vote once again - barring times of emergencies and when the squad was on a mission, both of which were not the times for democracy or a popular vote.

    The fact that Zhang Long had apparently been Squad Leader uncontested in all the time he had been here in the sect spoke volumes to his leadership skills - either that, or he had been paired with people who essentially had no desire to move up the managerial chain.

    As it was, being Squad Leader, from a simple benefits to effort ratio point of view, was not worth it.

    Squad Leaders did get a slightly larger distribution of resources compared to ordinary Initiates, but compared to the work they had to do in writing monthly reports, organizing logistical issues, and attending the mandatory Squad Leader meetings, it was certainly not in proportion to them.

    Rather than spending time organizing things like that, it would be better to spend time cultivating. You would get much further that way rather than relying on the slightly increased batch of resources you would get.

    The real benefit to being Squad Leader was the prestige - which most people didn¡¯t care that much about as on the totem pole they were still very close to the bottom, and the slight chance that in the future it might give you an edge if you wanted to become a prefect. Beyond that though, the benefits were practically nonexistent.

    ¡°Anyway, you probably want to set things up in your room,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°This place only has four sets of bedrooms, but you can take Xu Feng¡¯s old bedroom. It hasn¡¯t been used in months - but don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s clean.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°So Xu Feng graduated and left?¡±

    ¡°Nah, he died,¡± Chen Yu said nonchalantly, as if this was not a big deal to him. The others were slightly more aghast at the mention of the demise of one of their squad members, though only slightly so.

    ¡°Died? How?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    ¡°Well, there exists this potion called the Elixir of Tribulation,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°Yin Tiang can explain it better than I can though¡­¡±

    ¡°It allows a cultivator to greatly speed up their progress in cultivating,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°It¡¯s also pretty cheap, relatively speaking - though there¡¯s a reason that almost no one uses it. It causes the cultivator to undergo three days of intense pain, said to be so horrible that most people who use it die from the pain overwhelming their senses. Xu Feng had other ideas though, and decided, ¡®How bad can it possibly be? I¡¯ll try this out! After all, if we wish to defy heaven we need to take risks! Those who died were just weak-minded fools!¡¯ despite literally everyone warning him against it.¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t even last ten minutes before he died from the pain, let alone three days,¡± Chen Yu said, shaking his head. ¡°He died right there, actually, right about where you¡¯re standing right now.¡±

    ¡°Ack!¡± Tang Ze said, moving away from the spot while the others laughed, leaving him unsure if that had been a joke or was just a prank on their part.

    ¡°Anyway, point is, he¡¯s not using his room now,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°So go ahead and keep your stuff in there.¡±

    The individual rooms were barely larger than a closet, but Tang Ze had expected as much. There was only enough space for him to sleep and keep at most, something the size of a suitcase.

    Tang Ze, however, needed more space to make as well as store costumes and would need other supplies - he hoped that the others wouldn¡¯t mind him taking a share of the common space to set up something like that. It seemed that Yin Tiang had already done so with his alchemy set and the like, so Tang Ze hoped they would allow it once they saw what he could do with making costumes.

 Breakthrough!

    Tang Ze exited his bedroom, to see that Zhang Long had placed a wooden box in front of him. ¡°Before I forget, here¡¯s your split from what we got from those Diamond Dust idiots. We have a few pills here, and they should help you advance.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Tang Ze said, observing the three pills, which were about the size of a thimble each, round, and were a dull gray. They were not high-grade pills, only somewhere between low and medium quality, but it would be unreasonable to expect those kinds of people to be carrying high-grade pills anyway. As it was, he was sure that these were still quite expensive by mortal standards. ¡°I bet they weren¡¯t expecting to lose these otherwise they wouldn¡¯t have been carrying them.¡± As Tang Ze was about to reach for one, Yin Tiang closed the box before him quickly, as it contained some kind of venomous snake. ¡°Wait - before that, what realm are you at? I can¡¯t sense any Qi coming from you.¡±

    ¡°Zeroth Realm,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°So he can¡¯t even start cultivating - which is why he needs some resources to help him with-¡±

    ¡°Wait, Zeroth Realm?¡± Yin Tiang asked. ¡°In that case¡­ you definitely can¡¯t consume one of these!¡±

    ¡°Eh? Why not?¡±

    ¡°There is a limit to how much Qi you can consume through pills,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°When it comes to natural Qi in the environment, the body absorbs as much as it can, and expels it out slowly as well, so there is never any risk of overloading the body. When it comes to pills though, as they go directly through the stomach and through both the dantians and the meridians, without a proper outlet, they can easily overload a person.¡± He then sighed. ¡°As another example, one can drink water of course - water is necessary to life. But even drinking too much of something as harmful as water can kill you.¡±

    There was something called ¡®water intoxication¡¯ where the body couldn¡¯t get rid of water fast enough, and it would accumulate, leading to swelling of various organs, most significantly of the brain and this could be fatal.

    In that way consuming too much Qi like this could also be fatal.

    That was why even if the pills were appropriate for the cultivator, there was a limit on how much they could take at a time as their bodies would dissipate the excess Qi gradually which had a limit to it. And if the pills were too high of a grade, they couldn¡¯t be used at all.

    There was a story about a Qi Condensation cultivator who had broken into the house of a famous alchemist, and found a pill appropriate for Golden Core cultivators. The thief, not understanding what he was doing, took it, and then burst into flames, dying nearly immediately from Qi overload.

    ¡°But these are just low to medium grade pills,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°So why can¡¯t he use them? A single one shouldn¡¯t hurt.¡±

    ¡°Yes, and they would be fine for someone like you or I,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°But at the Zeroth Realm, his meridians have not even fully opened. So when he swallows a pill, where does the Qi go? It is the equivalent of trying to eat food when one¡¯s stomach has been removed. The Qi will be forced to disperse through his other organs, damaging them permanently. Just as blood has to flow through vessels and if such a vessel ruptures inside the body it is an internal hemorrhage, Qi also has to flow through its own proper channels being the meridians and not some other part of the body itself. It will be too much for him.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Tang Ze said. Yin Tiang did not look like he was lying, and it wasn¡¯t like Tang Ze was going to pop a pill just to prove him wrong. ¡°So, is there anything that can help me clear the Zeroth Realm?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°Actually - there probably is, or at least a way to make something like that, I guess? It¡¯s just that no one would develop something like that, because well¡­ no one would actually need something of the sort. So why even bother with that in the first place?¡±

    ¡°Wait - you¡¯re really stuck at the Zeroth Realm?¡± Chen Yu asked incredulously. ¡°Our family¡¯s maid¡¯s daughter was only able to pass that at eight years old, and her mother was worried sick because of her ¡®slow cultivating progress.¡¯ What have you been doing for the past few decades? I mean, I was called a slacker when I was younger, but even I cleared this at six years old.¡±

    ¡°I guess it has something to do with my alternate powering method?¡± Tang Ze said sheepishly. ¡°So, there really is no way to improve myself then?¡±

    ¡°The best thing to do,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°Would be to go somewhere where there is a lot of natural Qi in the air - only thing is that such places are coveted cultivating locations, and all of them are taken up. Our sect has access to a few, but they wouldn¡¯t let an Initiate like you visit them.¡±

    ¡°So I really am hopeless then?¡± Tang Ze sighed. ¡°Well, at least I can focus on other ways to power up until then. And then I can eventually use these pills.¡±

    ¡°Ah, about that,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°Pills have an expiry date, at least the lower-quality ones do. If you don¡¯t use these in about¡­¡± he picked one up, examining it, ¡°...six months, they¡¯re as good as gone.¡±

    ¡°Oof, that¡¯s right,¡± Zhang Long said.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°If you want, I know a few alchemists who will buy a few,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°And then you can keep the money you get and use them later.¡±

    Tang Ze thought about it for a minute, and then said, ¡°Rather than that, there are three pills left over, each of you can have one.¡±

    ¡°Eh?!¡± three voices exclaimed.

    ¡°Yeah, they say that cultivation is the greatest treasure, right?¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°So why sell the pills for something else when they can help you three? As it is, I can¡¯t use them right now, and so, I think it¡¯s better someone makes use of them.¡±

    Tang Ze knew that he was still ¡®the new guy¡¯ here, and in his mind, giving up these pills was a small price to pay to earn the goodwill of his squad. As it was, for the foreseeable future, they would be working together.

    He offered them these three pills as a gesture of friendship. Not that Tang Ze thought that Zhang Long needed that, but he did not know the other two.

    ¡°Is this really alright?¡± Zhang Long asked.

    ¡°In return,¡± Tang Ze said, ¡°can you guys help me get a few things?¡± There were some materials for costumes he needed, and he wasn¡¯t sure where the best places to get them in the sect would be, or how much they¡¯d cost.

    Tang Ze took stock of the situation. At his level, even if he broke through the Zeroth Realm, a minor ten percent increase in strength was nothing compared to what he could achieve with his cosplay.

    Of course, eventually he would need to focus on cultivating, but he could focus on his own power system right now.

    Cultivation wasn¡¯t the only way to gain power in this world, after all. Mages did exist, and there was his own talent. Why cry about what he couldn¡¯t change when there was something that he could change?

    It was better to make use of what he could do.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Zhang Long said. He gave the other two a gist of Tang Ze¡¯s powers.

    ¡°So, as I understand it, what you¡¯re dressed up right now is a famous hero from where you¡¯re from?¡± Chen Yu asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Tang Ze said.

    They wanted to hear some stories about him, and Tang Ze began narrating some of them.

    Eventually he moved on to other things.

    Back on Earth, Tang Ze had read and watched quite a bit of media - not just western shows, comics, anime, and movies, but Xianxia and other genres as well.

    Basically anything to escape from the mundane realities of life!

    As he went towards them, enrapturing his squad mates in the process, they all suddenly stopped as¡­ something happened to Zhang Long. There was a strange shift in the air, though Chen Yu and Yin Tiang were the ones who could pick up on it far better than Tang Ze could.

    Tang Ze thought that he was having a seizure for a moment given how his eyes were fluttering and his body was shaking, but neither Yin Tiang nor Chen Yu seemed to be alarmed enough for that to be the case.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you tell? Can¡¯t you feel the spike of Qi in the air?¡± Chen Yu asked.

    But, the thing was that no, Tang Ze couldn¡¯t. Realizing this, Chen Yu added, ¡°He¡¯s breaking through a minor realm!¡±

    Zhang Long¡¯s face was flushed with sweat as the episode was over, but he breathed as he calmed down somewhat. Yin Tiang handed him a vial of some red liquid which Zhang Long gulped down and within five minutes was mostly back to normal afterwards.

    ¡°Sorry - what happened again?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    ¡°What¡¯re you sorry for?¡± Zhang Long asked. ¡°That was incredible! I was listening to your story, and something in it, just¡­ struck a chord with me, you know? And before I knew it, I felt as if the Qi in my body had swelled up, and then my meridians just flared with Qi.¡±

    Cultivation was usually a slow and gradual process, as Tang Ze understood it, but there were points where cultivators would stagnate for long periods of times, called bottlenecks. On the other hand, there were times, usually when cultivators had a surge in emotion, were in dangerous situations, or had suddenly realized some deep and profound mystery of the universe, where their cultivation would suddenly advance. They might even find themselves being able to reach new horizons after this breakthrough.

    Cultivators often longed for breakthroughs, whether to get past bottlenecks, or to just quicken their progress. They would meditate in caves for years on end, sit under waterfalls, travel the world over, or fight dangerous enemies - all in the hope of getting a breakthrough.

    Now, Zhang Long was still at Qi Condensation so a breakthrough really wasn¡¯t that much of a big thing - he had just recently used some pills from the Diamond Dust raiders earlier and had felt that he would be nearing the next minor realm within a few month¡¯s time anyway, but it turns out that not even that was needed. More important than the jump though, was whether his future progress would be faster, as sometimes happens after a breakthrough as well.

    The pill he had just been given by Tang Ze was still there, unused.

    Tang Ze wasn¡¯t sure what to make of it - it was clearly a big deal, and he understood that, but he couldn¡¯t help but feel a pang of jealousy in the moment.

    Here he was, helping Zhang Long jump up a minor realm, while he himself was not at Qi Condensation yet, and not only was he not there right now - there was apparently nothing that he could do to quickly bring himself up to that point. He couldn¡¯t even use resources to try to make this step quicker.

    But this was only a fleeting feeling, as he congratulated Zhang Long.

    What bothered Tang Ze more was what they told him next.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hit the hay early,¡± Chen Yu said. ¡°We have to wake up extra early tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°We do? Why?¡± Tang Ze asked, greatly alarmed.

    ¡°We have to fill up this building¡¯s reservoir with water tomorrow,¡± Zhang Long said.

    Tang Ze sighed inwardly.

    If there was one thing that he hated, it was having to get up early.

    This had been the same back on Earth, and had been a big reason as to why his performance in school tended to be as mediocre as it had been.

    Quite frankly, if the secret of immortality involved waking up before sunrise to obtain it - Tang Ze would prefer to keep dreaming.

    And to be told that they had to get up extra early for this task?

    But, Tang Ze could do no more than groan.

    He tried testing out a few new ideas on how his talent worked before heading off to bed.

    That night, Tang Ze dreamed.

    His dream started off as it had many times before.

    Tang Ze was walking down a crowded street, back on Earth. Only he wasn¡¯t himself, he was watching the scene from the side, like he always did in this dream.

    The worst part was that he was frozen like that, unable to do anything in this dream.

    No matter how much he wanted to shout out, or move, it was as if he had been petrified and turned to stone.

    There was nothing he could do to warn himself about what was coming up.

    There was a flash of steel in the crowd in front of them¡­

    And then his dream shifted.

 Slap Young Masters, Court Jade Beauties!

    Tang Ze was no longer back on Earth, and there was no crowd in this new dream.

    He was in the middle of a large cavern, and there was an eerie presence around him.

    He couldn¡¯t put his finger on it, but it was as if he was being watched.

    He looked around constantly - now being free to not only move, but to call out, ¡°Is anyone there?¡±

    Only he didn¡¯t get a response, and on top of that, he didn¡¯t see anyone either.

    There was a large lake in the cavern, which was perfectly clear, though there was nothing at the bottom.

    As he walked towards it and saw nothing, not even his own reflection, he turned around to see something that hadn¡¯t been there before.

    There was a large dress made up of patchwork materials - it was sewn together out of various pieces of cloth which did not mesh with each other at all.

    Whoever had started making that dress looked like they had no idea what they were doing as it was a mess of clashing colors, textures, and materials. It was like someone had decided to make food in their kitchen by dumping all the ingredients that were in there into a pot - which would¡¯ve resulted in an inedible mess of course.

    Next to it were a pair of scissors, sewing needles, and threads - arranged in a neat workstation that Tang Ze wanted to replicate for himself at some point.

    It would be useful to have something like that set up.

    Still, the eerie feeling that told him that he was not alone down here remained until he felt someone shaking him.

    ¡°Get up! Time to go!¡±

    That abruptly ended the dream.

    Breakfast wasn¡¯t being served in the mess hall this early, but Zhang Long made something for the whole group.

    ¡°This tastes pretty good,¡± Tang Ze said, his rather poor mood at having been roused so early mildly improving as he tasted breakfast.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°He¡¯s a great cook - unfortunate that it¡¯s kind of a useless skill.¡±

    ¡°Useless?¡±

    ¡°Well, eventually useless, right? When he marries Jin Zheng it¡¯s not like he¡¯s going to cook for the two of them - and later on, they¡¯ll have a team of servants to cook for them.¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ right,¡± Zhang Long said, though his face twitched unnaturally when this had been said, as if there was something he wanted to say at this point but didn¡¯t.

    Come to think of it, as Tang Ze recalled, Jin Zhen hadn¡¯t made a single meal back when he had been staying with her family. Her family always dragged her away from the kitchen whenever she tried to enter through some excuse or the other.

    Breakfast was finished rather quickly though as they moved on to their job.

    Their squad¡¯s task was to fill this building¡¯s water reservoirs for the day. As it was located high up, and rainfall was not consistent enough to fill them, people were required to carry water up to these reservoirs whenever they were about to run dry.

    This task fell to the Initiates - though thankfully, they did not have to travel all the way down to the mountain¡¯s foot to get water. There was a stream a ways down from the peak, but it was still quite the climb to take water from there all the way up. It was tedious and back-breaking work.

    At least, it would be normally, given the climb and the steepness of the path.

    For one like Tang Ze who could fly, the task was completed before the sun could fully crest the horizon. He was wearing only his cape right now, as he didn¡¯t want to be scolded for being out of uniform, but that in itself was more than enough to make short work of things.

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯re done, do you want me to report that we¡¯re done-¡± Tang Ze began to say, before he was interrupted.

    ¡°No, don¡¯t do that,¡± Chen Yu said. ¡°Let¡¯s just stay here by this stream, and we¡¯ll tell them that it took us till noon to get this done later on.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°We don¡¯t want them thinking we¡¯re too good at this, or they¡¯ll ask us to do this every single time the water runs low.¡±

    The prospect of having to wake up this early stung Tang Ze like a swarm of bees. ¡°Alright - but won¡¯t we also get something for a job well done like this?¡±

    ¡°Pfft,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°They might give us ten percent more rewards for double the work. Trust me, we won¡¯t make a name for ourselves by being good at carrying water. It¡¯s not like we killed a beast king or anything impressive.¡±

    ¡°Alright¡­¡± Tang Ze said. He personally felt different, but he had just been here for a day. He wasn¡¯t about to go against the group. ¡°So then what do we do?¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Relax,¡± Chen Yu said, finding a nice spot to lie down. ¡°You were complaining the whole morning about having to get up early- get some shut-eye then?¡± The reason they had to wake up so early was because the reservoir had to be filled by noon, and it was assumed that they would need a head start to get it done on time. That had not been the case, however, because of Tang Ze''s little talent.

    ¡°Yeah but¡­¡± Tang Ze said, trailing off.

    It was true that he hated to be woken up early, but now that he had woken up, gotten ready, and worked on something like this, he didn¡¯t feel like he could drift off back to sleep so easily.

    The others though, seemed to have a similar idea as to Chen Yu.

    Tang Ze was a bit disappointed at their lack of ambition, though he guessed that these people must¡¯ve known what they were doing.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to take a nap?¡± Chen Yu asked, seeing Tang Ze just standing there.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you all feel that we should be doing something¡­ I don¡¯t know, more productive with our time?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    ¡°Like doing what?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know- cultivating, or making pills or¡­ if that feels like work, why not try to go on some kind of adventure? Like, trying to impress jade beauties? Or fighting arrogant young masters?¡± Tang Ze suggested.

    His head was still full of thoughts of the web novels and other such things he had read back home. Even though this was his first day in the sect, he already expected something significant to happen.

    Such ideas were highly unrealistic and just showcased his naivety - he knew this deep down, still Tang Ze couldn¡¯t help but be swept up by them.

    ¡°I already have someone,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°No interest in courting jade beauties - Jin Zhen and I have promised to be together for seven lifetimes.¡±

    This was an expression oftentimes used in this world - when two people really loved each other, they would promise to be together for seven lifetimes.

    ¡°Do you really think it works like that?¡± Yin Tiang asked. ¡°Do you think that relationships can last beyond a lifetime?¡±

    ¡°I mean, doesn¡¯t Tang Ze remember some things from his earlier life?¡± Chen Yu pointed out.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know if you can really call that reincarnation,¡± Tang Ze admitted. True, he had died back on Earth, but here - he still had his old body from back home. He even had his clothes from the time he died when he had spawned into this world, and to add to that, his shoes as well, though he hadn¡¯t been wearing them at the time when he died. ¡°But people do remember their past lives sometimes, right?¡±

    This was only partially true - there were stories of people suddenly reawakening the memories of their past lives, but these stories were so notable precisely because of how infrequently they occurred when it came to ordinary people. Very experienced cultivators could do so by meditating as well, but they were also very few in number.

    Take for example, a story that occurred in a village on the other side of the Raswatian Empire. A wealthy couple had lost their daughter at the tender age of six years in an accident, who had been their only heir.

    The grieving couple gradually moved on from their loss, only for thirty years later, a woman to walk up to their doorstep. When asked who she was, she replied, ¡°Ah, Mother, Father, do you not recognize your daughter when she finally returns home?¡±

    This was a woman in her twenties, claiming to be their daughter in her previous life, who had just only reawakened her earlier memories one day when she tripped over a rock and hit her head on a tree!

    Naturally, the couple were highly skeptical of her claims at first. This woman¡¯s ¡®new¡¯ family she had been ¡®reincarnated¡¯ into was poor, and this seemed to be more of a case of a conwoman trying to fleece the two of them out of their wealth more likely than not.

    They did not have any other children, so the allure of inheriting their estate must¡¯ve been quite tempting for people who wanted to worm their way into their good graces.

    Initially they assumed that this lady had simply found out a few clues about their daughter from some sources and was using them to masquerade as her, but as the weeks dragged on, and they continued to probe her, they could find no fault in her story.

    Of the couple, the wife soon passed away, and the husband only a few months thereafter. As he was lying on his deathbed, however, he called the woman over and said, ¡°Even today I harbor doubts in my heart¡­ yet you have given me no reason to doubt you in all these years. I give you my blessing, and choose to think that you truly are the daughter I lost all those years ago¡­ I wish to embrace her one last time¡­¡± He hugged the woman and from that point on only called her by his deceased daughter¡¯s name, then made the woman his official heir before passing away three days later.

    The woman in question, until her dying day, maintained that she was, as a matter of fact, the couple¡¯s reincarnated daughter.

    Even now, this story was talked about with people eagerly debating whether she had really been the couple¡¯s reincarnated daughter, or was just one of the most successful swindlers in the history of the Raswatian Empire.

    There was another famous story - in which there had been a couple who, two years after marrying, had both nearly drowned in a river in a tragic accident. When they recovered, they realized that they had both been brother and sister in their earlier lives!

    While they had been extremely passionate lovers earlier, now they could only look at each other, even in their new bodies, as nothing more than siblings!

    Both of them recounted the fact that they now had severe mental trauma whenever they thought of the intimate times spent together with each other in their new bodies, and were, for this reason, granted a swift divorce.

    Even in this case, there were some who doubted the veracity of their claims and thought that they had simply fallen out of love and wanted an easy excuse to separate without causing any hassles; though this did not seem to be likely.

    Nascent Soul and Eternal Soul cultivators were said to have techniques by which they could actually verify such claims, and even plan to take some memories of theirs into their next lives, but such people were rare enough that information on them was limited - at least, for people at the Qi Condensation level it was.

    And given all the shenanigans awakening one¡¯s prior life¡¯s memories could cause, it was probably for the best that people don¡¯t remember what happened before they were born.

    Tang Ze could imagine several more strange situations that could arise as a consequence of that.

    ¡°Well, for what it¡¯s worth, I¡¯m fully willing to believe that we may have met each other in a prior life,¡± Chen Yu said. ¡°Like, I think in a prior life, I was a hardworking farmer, and Yin Tiang was one of my donkeys. I could totally see that happening. But moving on, if you want to court jade beauties - it¡¯s easy! Just tell them that you have the ¡®Extreme Yang Physique¡¯ and that you¡¯re going into ¡®Yang Crisis¡¯ in front of them, and then collapse before saying you need an injection of their Yin energy to survive before pretending to pass out. Taking pity upon you, the jade beauty will ¡®heal¡¯ you by extracting your excess Yang with her Yin vitality. Naturally, she will grow attached to you as well after saving your life, and with that, your love story will begin!¡±

 Success Probability 0%

    In response to Chen Yu¡¯s suggestion, Zhang Long could only shake his head.

    ¡°It¡¯s said that the universe is three thousand celestial cycles old,¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°Each celestial cycle lasts for ten great ages - and each great age lasts for ten thousand eras. Each era lasts for as long as the longest lived person in that era lived for. With that said, in the entire history of the universe that strategy has never worked, and even if the universe lasted for another three hundred thousand celestial cycles, I don¡¯t think that strategy would even work once!¡±

    ¡°You genuinely would have better luck,¡± Yin Tiang said, ¡°walking up to a girl and saying, ¡®I think I crapped my pants, can I slide into yours?¡¯¡±

    ¡°Yeah well,¡± Chen Yu said, ¡°a guy can dream, can¡¯t he?¡±

    ¡°And as for arrogant young masters,¡± Yin Tiang said. ¡°We have the ¡®arrogant young master at home¡¯ right here - our very own Chen Yu!¡± He continued with his voice dripping with sarcasm. ¡°Did you know that his father is one hundred and ninety-fifth in line to inherit the throne? That means that all that needs to happen is for one hundred and ninety-four of his relatives to die all at once, and then Chen Yu will be the next heir to the throne! Well, after his other three brothers, that is!¡± Yin Tiang then chuckled.

    ¡°Well, in case that does happen,¡± Chen Yu said, glaring at Yin Tiang, ¡°Emperors have a habit of keeping eunuchs in high positions, why don¡¯t you start right now by castrating yourself, and I¡¯ll consider adding you to my council in the future?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Tang Ze said, turning to look at Zhang Long, who shook his head and gave him a ¡®those two are always like this¡¯ kind of look.

    ¡°But, one hundred and ninety-fifth?¡± Tang Ze asked. He knew that the emperors kept huge harems, but to not only have so many children, but keep track of who was to inherit up to that big of a number - it was actually quite impressive in a way!

    ¡°Well, you might not know this,¡± Zhang Long said, realizing that Tang Ze hadn¡¯t fully understood what it was that Chen Yu and Yin Tiang were fighting about. ¡°But, the emperor has far more relatives than just that - probably more than you can even imagine. Most of them aren¡¯t in line to inherit at all because of one reason or the other - but in all our history, the maximum degree of separation that anyone has actually inherited the throne was the fourth in line, and that was over twenty thousand years ago. Anyone beyond number ten has virtually no real chance of inheriting, and anyone beyond a hundred is just there for record-keeping purposes.¡±

    ¡°Indeed,¡± Yin Tiang said, also catching on that Tang Ze might¡¯ve actually thought he was being serious earlier. ¡°Not to mention if someone in front of him in line dies, they might be replaced by someone else before you can move up. The only way for his father to inherit would be for the Imperial Family and everyone in front of him in the line of succession to die in one fell swoop.¡±

    Resources were great in this world, but not limitless. A family like Chen Yu¡¯s, while technically in the line of succession, basically got next to nothing in terms of resources given how far removed they were from the throne.

    They were worse off than most noble families in some ways, leaving Chen Yu a ¡®young master¡¯ in only name.

    ¡°Careful now,¡± Chen Yu said, his face more serious than before and he voice had lost its jovial tone. ¡°There are eyes and ears everywhere - even while joking, you shouldn¡¯t speak of the Imperial Family¡¯s demise. That could be called treason, and before you know it, all of our heads are on the chopping block.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Zhang Long said, yawning. ¡°Better to just take a nap for now.¡±

    While the others napped, Tang Ze couldn¡¯t fall asleep and instead focused on the one thing that he felt he could improve about himself - his talent in other words.

    After some experimenting, he had learned a few intricacies of how it worked.

    First off, regarding the fact that the closer his costume was to the original, the closer his powers would also be to the original.

    For one, it did not work with religious figures or the such - he would¡¯ve loved to be omnipotent, whatever a fraction of omnipotence would be, but it turned out that was a limit it could not cross.

    Secondly, it was only the costume that mattered, he didn¡¯t need to pretend to be like the character.

    Thirdly, despite making him more powerful, whatever costume he happened to make was just that - a costume made up of whatever it was made of. This could be an issue regarding durability in the future. He had made a somewhat rough getup for a character he knew about whose power was super speed and who could move many times faster than light at his peak power. The issue was that even when he moved at a fraction of that speed, the air friction would cause what he was wearing to wear down - and the moment that his costume was damaged, the amount it represented the character decreased, and so on until he could not really run much faster than a normal person.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    The outfit he had used to pass the entrance test, despite being used only for a few minutes, had minute tears in it from the strain that he had put on it and needed to be repaired. With his costumes, he needed to take care that they didn¡¯t rip apart in the middle of battle. That was going to be hard with some of them though given the nature of their powers. It would be very hard to use any character with, say, pyromancer-like abilities for this reason.

    Because while getting hit by fire, or acid, or something else that might not harm him because of his powers still meant that part of his costume could dissolve though, weakening him. Also, he couldn¡¯t rip his shirt off in the middle of combat no matter how cool that might seem later on when he finally got around to working out and getting a six pack.

    Fourthly, it wasn¡¯t just appearance, what the costume was made of did matter if it was something that clearly was not made of that material. For example, for a character wearing leather boots, he could make socks that resembled them, but the fact that they would be made of cotton or something of the like meant that its resemblance to the original was less, meaning it would not make him as strong.

    Fifth, he had to actually intend to cosplay a character for it to work. If you think about it, he was almost constantly cosplaying something or someone even if it was just 0.0000000001% resemblance to the character, but he had to intend to be doing it - or it wouldn¡¯t count.

    Sixth, he couldn¡¯t mix-and-match different outfits to get a piece of multiple character¡¯s powers simultaneously, he could only do one at a time.

    Seventh, the outfit had to actually be visible for it to work. Tang Ze was secretly wearing a costume underneath his sect uniform, but he couldn¡¯t get access to any of its abilities. It was only the fact that he could still wear his cape was what gave him what little powers he had right now.

    It didn¡¯t matter if no one could see it - say if it was pitch-black in darkness it would still work, but it had to be visible and not covered by something else like a cloak or coat.

    Now, coming to the second part of his ability, that was naturally what Tang Ze was more interested in.

    The power to keep these abilities permanent and add them to his repertoire even when he wasn¡¯t dressed up - that was something that he could mix-and-match to ultimately become undefeatable.

    If only it didn¡¯t take so long!

    The closer his costume was to the actual thing, the faster that he could gain those abilities permanently it seemed, up to the maximum that the costume allowed for.

    Sadly, ¡®faster¡¯ was a relative term. Even when considering his full current set, by his approximation, it would take him about two hundred years to fully acclimate to its powers.

    Now, its powers were great - no doubt about that. Even if he could only be half as strong as the character in question, it would likely place him around the Hinayana realm or higher in terms of the raw strength it would give him.

    The weakest Golden Core cultivator was about sixty times as strong as an ordinary human. That number jumped to three thousand at the Nascent Soul stage.

    An Eternal Soul cultivator could approach the strength of over a million times that of a normal person, while a Hinayana realm cultivator could nearly approach the strength of a billion. The Mahayana realm, if it even existed, was over a trillion times one¡¯s base strength. Tang Ze had a bit of difficulty believing those numbers at first, but that was just the effect of compounding on top of bigger and bigger numbers cumulatively. Compounded numbers have a way of getting out of hand rather quickly.

    That was still relatively about what his costume could provide, and to gain just the physical strength of even a Hinayana realm cultivator in two hundred years was an excellent opportunity that many cultivators would die for.

    Still, two hundred years! A normal human lifespan would not last that long, so his only real way out was to extend his lifespan somehow. He would need to cultivate for that, something he was apparently quite bad at given that he was at the Zeroth Realm right now.

    No, it wouldn¡¯t be right to say that he was necessarily bad at it, rather, he was behind by several years as he didn¡¯t belong to this world, and had to literally start at zero.

    Maybe there was a way to speed up the process of his talent to make it take less time than two hundred years? That was why resources were so important for cultivation in the first place, after all.

    It was unfortunate he couldn¡¯t find anything in the meantime to speed up breaking through the Zeroth Realm, but in the future he would be able to use resources like the rest of his squad could.

    He tried to sit down on a rock and start meditating - though he didn¡¯t get very far and didn¡¯t think that he had accomplished much as noon came and the team reported that they had finished the job.

    That was not the only job they were given - they were given various other tasks by the sect, either to do as a group, or more rarely - alone. Most of these were very mundane tasks like gathering, throwing out waste, or cleaning. As it turns out, the majority of their time was spent tied up in these tasks.

    Two things did happen in the next week that could potentially help Tang Ze when it came to his cultivation, however.

    One was that Chen Yu slipped him a bottle of some clear liquid one day. ¡°I got this from my family - it¡¯s a bottle of baby oil.¡±

    ¡°How many babies did you have to kill to make that?¡± Yin Tiang asked. While he was working on some kind of concoction, he had evidently been overhearing what they were saying.

    Yin Tiang was joking - but Tang Ye knew even with his limited experience in this world that if killing babies could raise your cultivation by even zero point one percent, even the most righteous sects would start researching the most efficient ways to slaughter babies.

    Chen Yu ignored the rather bad joke and added, ¡°This is supposed to be good for babies - in that it has small amount of Qi in it and is supposed to seep into one¡¯s body through the skin. It¡¯s very mild of course, so even babies can wear it without it causing any nasty side effects - maybe if you put it on every night it¡¯ll help with your breakthrough to the first minor realm of Qi Condensation?¡±

    ¡°Maybe?¡± Tang Ze asked, taking the bottle. ¡°You¡¯re not sure if it works?¡±

    Chen Yu shrugged. ¡°I mean, if you ask me - it¡¯s probably just a marketing ploy to sell it at five times the normal price, which is why my mother used to use it. Didn¡¯t really help me that much though, as you can see.¡± Chen Yu and Yin Taing were both at the fourth minor realm of Qi Condensation, while Zhang Long had only recently broken to the sixth minor realm of Qi Condensation. There was only a twenty-one percent difference when it came to two minor realms at Qi Condensation, though as this effect was cumulative, the absolute difference was higher when one went to higher minor realms.

 Supernatural Sam

    Basically, Chen Yu was saying that he really didn¡¯t believe that it would work, but on the off chance that it could, he was giving it to Tang Ze. ¡°Thanks - what do I owe you for this?¡±

    ¡°Forget about it, this is a fraction of that pill¡¯s value you gave me earlier,¡± Chen Yu said.

    Before sleeping, Tang Ye would apply the oil, hoping for some kind of benefit. He also slept in modified pajamas he had made himself to sort of look like a costume, so that he could gain the passive benefits even while he slept.

    Yin Tiang also found something that might help him.

    ¡°So, there was a theater troupe I found, and they had all these old and worn out costumes - I though that maybe you could use them? I got them for cheap,¡± Yin Tiang told him.

    The pile of messy clothes, many of which were torn up, would be junk to most people and especially to cultivators.

    However, to someone like Tang Ze, these were like hidden gems, covered in dust and needing polishing, yes, but still quite valuable.

    They were made of various different materials and not just silk or cotton, and because they were costumes, they were already stylized in different ways that normal clothing wouldn¡¯t be. It would be much easier to make alterations to them.

    In addition, they came with various other accessories like masks, hair clips, props like swords or magic wands, and even one or two wigs. A lot of the stuff needed to be cleaned up before it could be used, and probably also had to be disinfected for things like lice given the day and age they lived in, not to mention most of it needed to be repaired in some way or the other - but as the saying goes, you cannot make bricks without clay.

    Already, as he glanced through what was laid out for him, he could already picture what he could arrange from these.

    When asked how much he needed to repay Yin Tiang for this, he gave him the same answer that Chen Yu had - that this barely covered a fraction of the cost of the pill that Tang Ze had given him earlier.

    Both of these things - the costumes, and the oil - were not big gestures. One could even say that such things were expected given what Tang Ze had done for them by donating his share of pills.

    Still, even if the oil was not useful, or if the costumes were damaged - they showed a degree of thoughtfulness, and as the saying goes ¡®it¡¯s the thought that counts.¡¯ His new squad members had thought of him enough to go out of their way to arrange these gifts for him.

    Both of these gifts, however small, moved Tang Ze.

    He had been thrust into this world all alone. He had no family or friends from beforehand that he could rely on while here.

    Reciprocity was the basis for nearly all social interactions - but Tang Ze felt that he couldn¡¯t take it for granted. After all, he had read stories of people getting betrayed by their teammates and the like in various stories he¡¯d read. Not to mention this was supposed to be a cultivation dog-eat-dog world.

    Giving up the pills had not just been a spur-of-the-moment decision with no intention behind it, but also to see how they reacted to this.

    Tang Ze had already seen Zhang Long vouch for him during the entrance exam, so he already knew that Zhang Long was not the kind to repay honey with vinegar - or to take kindness as weakness.

    It looked like Chen Yu and Yin Tiang were also in the same camp.

    Tang Ze had thought that was to be expected given that they were all in a sect. A sect, unlike a clan, took members from different families and asked them to work together in tightly knit groups. It would make sense that different members would want to be cordial to each other.

    But, at the same time Tang Ze felt that he couldn¡¯t take such a thing for granted without testing it out.

    And it seemed to be true enough!

    His heart was somewhat more relaxed than it had initially been, so he didn¡¯t have nightmares about that incident back on Earth as frequently as before.

    What he did dream of nearly every single night was that same underground cavern, where he always felt that there was someone else there with him, even if he couldn¡¯t see who that person was.

    He noticed over time that it was as if the Qi in this cavern was denser than even on the top of the mountain. Could you absorb Qi in a dream? Was this place even real? It looked the same to him every single time he dreamed of it, with the tools for making clothes next to a patchwork dress always being there in the same spot. The dress, also, no matter how many times he had the dream, always seemed to be the same with the same patches in the same location.

    Later, one afternoon, they were tasked with cleaning up some antiques in a storage room.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    It was here that Tang Ze¡¯s unnatural strength and speed were more of a bane than a boon.

    After all, if he couldn¡¯t control himself, some of these items might end up becoming damaged.

    To avoid this, he was asked to contribute relatively little to this task. The rest of the slack was picked up by the other three members - this was not entirely fair, but Tang Ze had contributed far above his weight with other things, so the others did not grumble about this.

    Still, accidents were bound to happen at some point or the other.

    CRASH!

    The sound of something fragile smashing against the floor rang across the room, as they saw that Yin Tiang was standing over the remains of a shattered vase.

    Zhang Long sighed. Oh well, the cost of that would be deducted from the squad¡¯s resource distribution at the end of the month, but it was no big-

    -these thoughts died in his mind as he realized which vase it had been that Yin Tiang had broken.

    ¡°Is that¡­?¡± Zhang Long began.

    ¡°...a Yuo Ping General Vase?¡± Chen Yu finished, his face becoming pale.

    ¡°Can you guys see something I can¡¯t?¡± Tang Ze asked. The three other members were looking at the vase as if there was some secret inside, but to Tang Ze, it looked no different different than half a dozen other vases in the room.

    ¡°There¡¯s Qi around the shards,¡± Zhang Long said. Right, Tang Ze¡¯s ability to see and sense Qi was still very rudimentary given that he was at the Zeroth Realm. ¡°About two thousand years ago, the then emperor¡¯¡¯ brother Yuo Ping staged an attempted military coup - long story short he was killed, and as punishment, many of his generals were turned into ghosts and trapped in vases like this. I didn¡¯t think one would be here, but¡­ if word gets out that a ghost escaped, we¡¯ll be in much worse shape than if we simply had broken a normal vase.¡±

    ¡°What do we do?¡± Yin Tiang asked.

    ¡°We have to catch that ghost somehow before someone finds it,¡± Zhang Long said.

    The issue was- how?

    None of them had any skills that could detect or restrain ghosts. The higher-ups would though, and once they found that a ghost was on the loose, they would be cooked!

    At least, none of them that they knew of had a way to detect or catch a ghost.

    ¡°Tang Ze, do you have anything in your wardrobe that can help us?¡± Zhang Long asked.

    Tang Ze closed his eyes and went through his memories.

    There was one character that he knew which could easily hunt ghosts down, but trying to cosplay them was extremely difficult given their design. He would need a way to make a spectral tail, and also some body paint - two things that he did not have at the moment.

    But wait!

    He suddenly remembered someone else - a character he seldom thought of, but who might be able to do the job.

    And it wouldn¡¯t require that much work for him to create either.

    ¡°Wait right here, I think I do have someone,¡± Tang Ze said as he rushed back to their living quarters.

    Back in the 1980s there was a western cartoon called ¡®The Stories of Supernatural Sam.¡¯ It was basically about the titular ¡®Supernatural Sam.¡¯

    It was a very campy and corny show, even for its time. The only reason Tang Ze knew about it was because there was one episode that a friend of his liked to watch.

    The usual episode formula went that there was something like a ghost or curse that needed to be resolved, and Sam would be called in to investigate. He had a magic watch from somewhere wherein he could trap spirits, and would often use it - though in that particular episode he didn¡¯t end up chasing the ghost out.

    He had been called to an old house where it was rumored there was paranormal activity occurring inside by the neighbors - though for some reason the owner of the house didn¡¯t seem to even want Sam there for some reason. The owner treated him more like a pest than anything else, and was very reluctant to even let Sam step in to his house.

    After some investigating, Sam was able to determine that the cause of the supernatural disturbance was a haunted doll. You see, about a hundred years before the start of the episode, a girl who lived in that house had passed away from tuberculosis. But, her spirit had remained, and was able to live inside a porcelain doll within that house.

    Every night, she would come to life as she possessed that doll, and would return to a lifeless doll by the morning.

    Sam was ready to capture her, but it turned out that the owner of the house had fallen in love with her, and as such, Sam left the two alone.

    Looking back - it had been quite the bizarre episode. It was the only one in which Tang Ze remembered that Sam had left the ghost or paranormal entity alone at the end.

    Then again, that was why he remembered it so well in the first place.

    The other episodes were far more clich¨¦ and generic and didn¡¯t have that kind of ¡®twist¡¯, so Tang Ze didn¡¯t watch more than a few - but he still remembered how Sam used to dress up like.

    It would be easy to make a costume like that if Tang Ze were back on Earth, but some of his clothes were hard to replicate in a world like this.

    He wore a Hawaiian floral shirt, khaki pants, sandals, and a fishing hat most of the time. Oh, and there was the famous watch in question - Tang Ze thankfully still remembered the design.

    He didn¡¯t have much time to get to work, but he also didn¡¯t need for it to be perfect. The clothes were easy enough to either make, or to make something that at least was close to them visually.

    As for the watch - Tang Ze had to take a piece of parchment, cut it into a circle, draw on it, and then strap it to his wrist with leather.

    A poor substitute, but it was all apparently forty-five percent good enough!

    He just hoped that would be sufficient as he ran back.

    Normally, you couldn¡¯t wander outside out of your uniform, but in this case, Tang Ze was more worried about what would happen if that ghost escaped or was found out by a prefect.

    ¡°Will this work?¡± Yin Tiang asked, seeing Tang Ze¡¯s getup.

    Tang Ze scanned the area, and could see glowing green footsteps. ¡°Looks like it!¡± That was one of Supernatural Sam¡¯s powers, to be able to not only see ghosts, but track them down based on where they had been.

    ¡°Alright, let me come with you,¡± Yin Tiang said. The others remained behind, after all, we still had to clean the room.

    The two followed the spectral footsteps that only Tang Ze could see, while Yin Tiang tried to calm down anyone who saw them.

    ¡°Ah, just passing through - Brother Tang Ze here is trying out for this month¡¯s play, that¡¯s all!¡± he would yell out whenever someone gave the two of them an inquisitive look.

    Tang Ze stopped in his tracks as he found the culprit.

    The ghost looked hideous - barely resembling a human. It was like a light green figurine of a person which had melted after it had been put outside in the sun for too long.

    And it was in the open, in a courtyard.

    Tang Ze didn¡¯t know if it could tell that he could see it, but it began to move faster nonetheless. Sadly, for it, ¡®faster¡¯ was only relative as Tang Ze went to pounce on it.

    Would Sam¡¯s watch work like it did in the show?

 Ghosts of the Past

    The moment Tang Ze thought of this question, the watch - even though it was just a piece of paper and a strap of leather, began to glow.

    The ghost had a horrified expression on its face - even more than its usual one, as it was sucked into the watch.

    After that, Tang Ze could feel it in the watch.

    He was aware of its consciousness inside. It was quite the eerie feeling.

    ¡°Right, I caught it,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°What do I do now?¡±

    Yin Tiang shrugged. He hadn¡¯t thought of what they would do once they had it, only that they needed to catch it.

    The two of them returned back to the room, to tell them that they were successful.

    ¡°But what do we do about the ghost?¡± Tang Ze asked. ¡°I can¡¯t leave it like this on my wrist forever!¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Zhang Long said. ¡°I have an idea¡­¡±

    He brought out another vase, nearly identical to the one they had broken, and opened its lid. ¡°Earth jars like this can be used to capture spirits if you know the right technique even from a distance - but if you put a spirit inside it, that also means that it shouldn¡¯t be able to walk out. Drop your watch into this, and then I¡¯ll seal the lid.¡±

    ¡°Will that work?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    Zhang Long shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t have a better idea.¡±

    Not feeling particularly confident, Tang Ze put his hand into the jar, and then removed the watch. He saw a green light fill it just as he withdrew his arm and Zhang Long slammed the lid on the jar.

    Now, his cosplay was only judged at forty percent, but it was still good enough to see that the ghost was sealed for good, it seemed.

    Only then did Tang Ze relax.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Chen Yu said.

    They put this new vase in place of the old one, and hid the old one¡¯s shards away.

    Very few people came into this room, so what happened would likely never be discovered.

    And if it was, more likely than not it would happen in a few years¡¯s time, after which the group would have a lot of plausible deniability.

    All of them let out a great sigh of relief now, though Zhang Long warned them that they were not out of the fire yet.

    ¡°Tang Ze, you should change out now,¡± Zhang Long said.

    ¡°Right,¡± Tang Ze said, leaving to change back into his sect uniform.

    His pace was slowed down because of how out of breath he¡¯d gotten after chasing the ghost. He wiped the sweat that coated his brow.

    He first washed his face in a water basin. He had requested a spot to set up a little workstation to work on outfits and the like. There were a few spots in the shared space that could be used for this, and his squad members understood why he wanted a space like this, so he had been granted the request.

    He wanted to change into a washed set of sect robes instead of his old ones, and there was a washed set in his room, but when he opened the door he yelled out and drew back.

    Tang Ze was still wearing the Supernatural Sam costume, and so he still had its abilities.

    But he had not been expecting to see a second ghost that day!

    This ghost was not deformed, but had the pale, bluish form of a man about Tang Ze¡¯s age, and who was wearing a translucent Rising Phoenix sect uniform.

    ¡°Can you see me?¡± the specter asked.

    Tang Ze found his words soon enough.

    Right, he had seen a ghost - but in this world, that wasn¡¯t too shocking.

    Most people could not, not unless they had some inborn talent to see spirits, were at Qi Refinement stage and had specialized in such, or were at Golden Core stage.

    It was said though, that if you were able to see a ghost in the periphery of your vision, you should ignore it.

    Apparently, ghosts had the ability to tell when people could see them, and if it were a sinister spirit with evil intentions, they would then attack you if they could tell that you had spotted them.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Evidently, this was true, as the pale aura around this boy flared as Tang Ze took note of him.

    It had been different back with the vase - with the ghost of the general having been stored there for so many years, the small amount of Qi they saw was a defense mechanism designed into the vase to let them know the ghost had escaped, which is how the others had noticed it.

    With a ghost like this though, it appeared that no one in Tang Ze¡¯s group had noticed its presence till now.

    ¡°W-Who are you?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    Even though he knew that most ghosts in this world were weak and therefore couldn¡¯t hurt him, and that this outfit likely gave him some protection against it, his voice couldn¡¯t help but tremble before this ghost.

    ¡°My name is Xu Feng,¡± the ghost said. ¡°And you¡¯re in my room!¡±

    ¡°Xu Feng¡­ why is that name familiar¡­ oh!¡± Tang Ze exclaimed as he realized where it was that he had heard that name.

    That was the name of the person who had earlier been a member of Zhang Long¡¯s squad - the one who had died after drinking an Elixir of Tribulation since he couldn¡¯t handle the pain.

    ¡°Right, I know who you are,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°But why are you still here? We all would¡¯ve thought that your soul would¡¯ve passed into the next life already by this time.¡±

    Xu Feng shook his ghostly head. ¡°It is not so. Unfortunately, I still have a deep regret within my heart, Brother Tang Ze. I cannot leave this mortal plane until I resolve it. I have been watching you and the rest of my friends for some time, hearing your voices, but unable to say anything.¡±

    As Xu Feng said this, Tang Ze couldn¡¯t help but feel like he had heard of something like this.

    Right!

    This was like literally every single episode of Supernatural Sam that involved a ghost!

    Sam would find a ghost, find out that they were in the mortal realm because of some regret they had from their human lives, and then he would either try to resolve it and the ghost would pass on into the next life - or if the ghost was really dangerous, capture it in his watch.

    Tang Ze chuckled lightly, but then his smile dropped as he thought of Xu Feng¡¯s condition.

    The guy had overstepped by drinking that Elixir of Tribulation, yes, but maybe he had just been overly optimistic? He should¡¯ve listened to other peoples¡¯ cautionary tales, but Tang Ze didn¡¯t feel like he should¡¯ve died for that kind of folly.

    And now, his heart was filled with regrets - so Xu Feng was stuck here, in the mortal realm, unable to cross over to the other side. Worse still, he had seen Tang Ze take his place within the squad, and his former friends gradually forget about him over time.

    Realizing this, Tang Ze¡¯s heart was filled with sympathy for Xu Feng, even though the two of them had never met before.

    His heart filled with resolve, Tang Ze slammed a fist to his chest, in a form of gesture often done in this world when making vows. ¡°Alright, Brother Xu Feng, I¡¯m sorry to hear that - but worry not, for I, Tang Ze, promise to help you with whatever lingering issues you have in this world!¡±

    He felt it was the least he owed to this spirit of a former squad member, even if they hadn¡¯t been in the squad back when Tang Ze had first joined.

    ¡°Is that so?¡± Xu Feng asked, surprised.

    ¡°Yes, what is that troubles you?¡±

    ¡°Brother Tang Ze, there is a girl by the name of Tang Ru. During life, I had been too scared to tell her of my feelings towards her, but I need to let them out,¡± Xu Feng said. ¡°But for some reason, I cannot wander far from this room, else I feel like I¡¯ll disappear completely.¡±

    Tang Ze nodded. ¡°No worries - I can take you to her with the help of my watch - wait, it¡¯s back there in that vase. No problem, I can make another one soon enough.¡±

    ¡°If you really want to help me,¡± Xu Feng said, ¡°I know where and when we can find her. Every morning, before sunrise, she tends to a garden of Yellow Apricot Flowers.¡±

    ¡°So you know where she¡¯ll be huh?¡± Tang Ze said, but then he paused. ¡°Oh, in that case, I change my mind. You¡¯re on your own if you want to confess to her.¡±

    There was a simple reason for Tang Ze to say this.

    Well, it was against the rules to go to the women''s side, but he wasn''t too miffed about that.

    No, what he was against was waking up so early in the morning.

    He had never liked doing so back on Earth, and here in this world it was only slightly better.

    Slightly better in the sense that a lack of things like smartphones, tablets, television, or a computer made it easier to go to bed on time.

    It still annoyed him greatly to have to wake up early though!

    And tomorrow was one of the very few days in which he didn''t have to wake up before the crack of dawn as there were no early-morning chores planned for his squad - he wasn''t about to give up a day of sleeping in for this!

    "If the only way to claim immortality is to get up early in the morning," Tang Ze said, "I''m happy just being mortal and content to keep on dreaming."

    After all, he barely even knew this Xu Feng guy. And while he was willing to do a lot for his friends, he just wasn''t willing to do that.

    It was a good thing that he hadn''t spawned into this world with some sort of system that rewarded him the more he woke up early in the morning - had that been the case he would have basically gotten zero benefits from that kind of system in the first place.

    Xu Feng''s ghost got rather agitated at Tang Ze¡¯s sudden one-eighty on his stance. "Brother Tang Ze? What are you saying - right now you just gave a heartfelt declaration that you would do whatever it took to help me? How can you turn back on your word so fast and shamelessly? Do you have no regard for your Senior Brother¡¯s plight?"

    "Eh, that was before I knew that I''d have to wake up early," Tang Ze said. He was already yawning just thinking about having to get up that early. "You''ll have to find some other way."

    However, Xu Feng''s ghost was not going to relent so easily. "If you don''t help me, you''ll have to live with the consequences of always seeing me and knowing that you let me down!"

    "I''ll just take this costume off and then I won''t be able to see or hear you any more," Tang Ze said smugly, proud that he had found a workaround for all of this.

    "But then you''ll have to live with the knowledge that I''ll always be watching you, and you let me down!" Xu Feng said. "I''ll put a curse on you!"

    "Yeah, if you could actually do something, you''d have done so in the week I was already here," Tang Ze said to him. The fact that neither Tang Ze nor the other squad members even got a hint that something was amiss until now spoke volumes about how little this ghost could do.

    Eventually, after some pleading, and crying, and more pleading, and even more crying, Tang Ze finally agreed to do it. But he told Xu Feng that he would complain all the while while doing so.

 Confessing My Feelings

    "Thank you Brother Tang Ze, I won''t let your kindness be in vain," Xu Feng said once Tang Ze had finally begrudgingly once again agreed to do what he had said he would do in the first place before learning it involved waking up early. "As a matter of fact - there was a little secret that I never ended up telling anyone - but I''ll let you know before I pass onto the next life. I think this secret will help you greatly!"

    "Whatever," Tang Ze said. "Now turn around - I need to change back into my uniform!"

    Had Xu Feng¡¯s ghost been watching him all this time when he had been in here? Because Tang Ze had changed many times while in this room...

    Whatever, at this point it was too awkward a point to even ask about.

    "What took you so long?" Yin Tiang asked when Tang Ze finally came back to see that they were almost done cleaning. Yin Tiang had thought initially that Tang Ze had used the opportunity to goof off somewhere, but a look at Tang Ze''s facial expression said there was something else going on.

    "What happened?" Zhang Long asked. "You look like you''ve... seen a ghost!" He then laughed at his own joke before adding, "No, seriously, what''s going on? Are we done for? Did you get caught?"

    "No, I just ah, saw something really weird," Tang Ze said. He then cleared his throat. "Um, I wanted to actually know something - how was Xu Feng? I mean, what kind of person was he?"

    "Xu Feng? Why are you asking of him all of a sudden?"

    This was a rather weird and abrupt change of topic- to the other squad members it was quite odd that Tang Ze was now asking about their deceased friend.

    Tang Ze hadn¡¯t asked anything about the guy before now, and given the fact that Xu Feng was dead, there was little point in pursuing that line of questioning, now then was there?

    "No reason, just curious," Tang Ze said.

    He didn''t get much on Xu Feng, only that he had really wanted to advance in cultivation when he had been alive - more badly than anyone else for whatever reason. That was what led to his downfall in the end.

    The others probably knew far more than that about Xu Feng, it''s just that they likely didn''t see how any of it was relevant to Tang Ze so they didn''t actually tell him that much.

    Tang Ze later went to sleep still wearing most of his Supernatural Sam costume while he did so, and something very odd happened - even before Xu Feng tried to wake him up.

    He had the same dream where he was in the same cavern.

    While he was still in that cavern; the exact same one where he felt there was a lot of Qi (and there must have been quite a considerable amount if even someone like him could tell this), and he still could feel like someone else was there. But, he could actually see someone else besides him here this time!

    There was what looked like to be the ghost of a woman sitting near the lake in the center. She hadn''t noticed Tang Ze''s presence yet - but this was the first time that Tang Ze had seen her despite having this same dream many times before.

    Before he could step any closer to the woman to investigate, he heard someone almost yelling into his ear.

    "Brother Tang Ze wake up!"

    The dream ended and he flicked his eyes open to see Xu Feng''s ghost standing over him. Or hovering, really.

    Whatever.

    "Alright, let''s head out," Tang Ze said. He had made another replica ''watch'' which he absorbed Xu Feng into, after which he could still ''hear'' him.

    Tang Ze gently opened the door. The others would still be asleep, and he, as stealthily as possible, exited their common area.

    He didn''t really need to hide as he walked out, mainly because there were a good number of other Initiates already up. Some of them gave him and his clothes an odd look, but by now many were aware of his reputation and that he tended to parade around in costumes sometimes, so no one stopped him as he neared the outer wall of this building.

    The chilly morning air made him shudder before he took a good look at where he was going to go.

    The men''s and women''s divisions were separate, on separate mountains.

    Naturally, there were many on the men''s side who wanted to visit the other mountain - since the rules forbade such, and given what lay on that side was a tantalizing dream for many of them, it had the allure of forbidden fruit. A sacred spring to which none were allowed entry, but which nonetheless many dreamed of!

    The normal entrance was of course, well-guarded because of this.

    "How do you intend to get in?" Xu Feng asked.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Tang Ze could ''hear'' Xu Feng through the watch, but no one else could. However, if Tang Ze wanted Xu Feng to hear him, he had to speak out.

    "It doesn''t matter if there are guards at the front gate, we''ll just enter in through the back door!"

    "...I don''t know if that''s some kind of innuendo, Brother Tang Ze but..."

    "No! I mean, the front gate is guarded, but no one is watching the other side of the wall too closely!" Tang Ze said.

    Of course, no one really needed to watch that side. They were atop a mountain of course- so how were people going to get over it?

    By flying? Anyone with that technique had better things to do than sneak into the women''s side. And in case someone that powerful did manage to sneak in, a few measly guards wouldn¡¯t have done anything! Not to mention such a person would likely have stealth-type techniques like invisibility as well.

    But that was exactly what Tang Ze planned to do!

    He couldn''t fly nearly as fast as he could otherwise if he was actually wearing his superhero costume, during which he could easily out speed a jet fighter, but he could still float along at a somewhat leisurely pace.

    And even if he was wearing another costume, the ''permanent'' effects still remained!

    So, if Tang Ze lived long enough, there was the possibility of stacking various power sets on top of each other. He might become unrivaled not just in the Raswatian Empire, but in the entire world as well!

    Still, that would likely take millennia to accomplish, and right now, Tang Ze was still very much the person he was from back on Earth.

    In other words, someone who thought that the two minutes you had to wait to cook instant noodles was too long a time to wait for!

    He still did not have a lot of patience for many things.

    And so, Tang Ze slowly drifted along, under the cover of darkness, away from where he knew the watch would usually be.

    He did however, complain the whole way through.

    "I don''t get why I have to wake up so early in the morning. Humans are diurnal animals, aren''t they? So why make us wake up when we''re not even fully awake? There aren''t even things like coffee or energy drinks to wake you up here and by the time I''m done with my chores I can''t even feel like I can take a nap or something..."

    "I have never heard someone complain so much about having to wake up so early," Xu Feng said.

    Honestly, even for a ghost who had nothing better to do, it was quite tiring to hear.

    That said, complaining aside, they had no problems leaping over the wall.

    Right - the women''s side! A paradise that normally they could not reach, unless one had specific work, and that too only during the day during certain restricted hours! Not to mention even during those fixed times, one could only enter certain areas and could not roam freely into spots like the hot springs.

    During the night - forget about even entering!

    Unless you were someone like Tang Ze.

    "So, do you happen to know where it is that we''re supposed to be looking for?" Tang Ze asked.

    "Right over there, I think that''s where the flowers are," Xu Feng said.

    Tang Ze didn''t encounter many people - although there were some out and about, being that they had early duties, the sun hadn''t even come up yet. And those people weren¡¯t going through the bushes like he was, they were headed towards where they had work.

    The sky had barely begun to lighten as they reached their destination - and though there had been some close calls, they were able to move without being discovered.

    Tang Ze''s lack of cultivation actually helped here - given that no one could sense his Zeroth Realm level of cultivation, meaning that it wasn''t easy to find him. Otherwise he would¡¯ve needed to master some kind of stealth technique to hide his Qi, else he¡¯d be found out in about five minutes.

    "There she is!" Xu Feng said.

    Tang Ze honestly didn''t understand how it was that Xu Feng could ''see'' given he was still in the watch, but he didn''t let that bother him.

    Tang Ru was extremely beautiful - with flawless skin and long eyelashes.

    She was taking care of the Yellow Apricot Flowers, treating them each with a tenderness that evoked a picture of a mother gently stroking her newborn¡¯s cheek.

    She looked ethereal in the early morning light, like a fairy twirling through a celestial garden!

    Tang Ze could understand how it was that Xu Feng had fallen for someone like her.

    Of note, she was not wearing an Initate¡¯s uniform, but that of a regular member. She didn¡¯t look old enough to have served for thirty years, so that meant that she was probably at the Qi Refinement stage. Which likely meant that she came from a wealthy family or had great talent.

    "Alright, how do you want to tell her how you feel?"

    "Can you let me use your mouth? It''ll be easier than relaying words through you. That way, it''s really coming from my own heart, you know," Xu Feng said.

    "What do you mean ''let me use your''-" Tang Ze was about to ask when he felt a spectral essence grab onto his tongue. Naturally - his body fought to get rid of this invading presence and expelled it.

    "Stop resisting!" Xu Feng complained.

    If it was so easy for ghosts to possess people, there would be far more possessions in this world! But if it was just a normal spirit like that of Xu Feng, even one of the weakest people could easily resist a spectral assault.

    It was the spirits of people who had been Nascent Soul or Eternal Soul cultivators that one really needed to watch out for - such as by using talismans to ward off possession by such people.

    There were also several demons and evil spirits that might attempt to take hold of a living person¡¯s body, though once again, the ones strong enough to do so were thankfully very rare.

    As it was, it was highly likely that Tang Ze¡¯s Supernatural Sam getup also provided some protection from spirits.

    "Alright," Tang Ze said, and let Xu Feng command his tongue for now, as he jumped off the ledge he was standing upon and landed in front of Tang Ru.

    Naturally, Tang Ru gasped when she saw someone just leap out of the shadows like that. "Please don''t be alarmed, Senior Sister Tang Ru!" Tang Ze said. "I just had something I wanted to say to you - and to only you! These are the feeling from the bottom of my heart! Please here them out!"

    For now, that was actually Tang Ze talking.

    This whole plan would go up in flames if Tang Ru screamed for help, but while she was shocked by his presence, she didn''t.

    "How - how did you get here?" she asked. Tang Ze had to note that she had a pretty cute voice too - no wonder that Xu Feng had fallen head over heels so badly for her. A shame that they couldn¡¯t get together, given Xu Feng would pass away to the next life soon.

    "That¡¯s not important right now," Tang Ze said. "What is important is why I came over here."

    Tang Ru had half a mind to scream for help - but on the other hand, she had heard of a new Initiate by the name of Tang Ze joining who had some odd powers, and was vaguely curious as to what this was about.

    Also, why was he dressed so weirdly?

    And now, Xu Feng began to speak through Tang Ze.

    "Tang Ru," Xu Feng said. "I wasn''t able to say this before back when I was alive, because I was too scared. But... before I passed on, I wanted to make sure you knew¡­ just how much of a bitch I always thought you were!"

 Collective Punishment

    Tang Ze''s eyes widened- he was not sure why Xu Feng was saying stuff like this!

    Tang Ze had assumed that Xu Feng wanted to confess his love to Tang Ru- but no, it sounded like when Xu Feng said ¡®confess his feelings¡¯ he had meant that in the negative sense!

    "I always thought that your tiny nose made you look like a pig! Out of all the women I''ve met in my life - I had the lowest opinion of you!" Xu Feng continued.

    Tang Ru''s eyes flared, her tranquil expression gone and her eyebrows now knitted in fury.

    "I still remember how on the day we first met, you ended up spilling what you were drinking on top of me - and that was after I had just washed my sect uniform! And rather than apologizing, you made it out to be my fault instead, well guess what-" Xu Feng then let out a stream of expletives that would make a sailor blush, in addition to several sentences that implied that Tang Ru and her family by extension had intimate relationships with a wide assortment of animals.

    Was this why Xu Feng couldn''t pass on to the next life?

    Because he just had to tell this girl how much he hated her?

    No - that wasn¡¯t it!

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s all I wanted to say, good luck Brother Tang Ze,¡± Xu Feng said to Tang Ze telepathically before laughing wholeheartedly.

    It was only then that Tang Ze realized that he had been played.

    Unfortunately, there was very little that Tang Ze could do to fix the situation before Tang Ru raised her fist and then started to furiously pummel him without mercy.

    Tang Ze was stronger than he had been before, but not as strong as a Qi Refinement cultivator like Tang Ru yet, not without wearing his actual costume.

    This Supernatural Sam getup didn''t give anything in the way of physical defense. He had not yet absorbed enough of the earlier costume''s power to make much of a difference in this kind of fight, and so, this was less of a ¡®fight¡¯ and more of a one-sided beating.

    "Help! Guards! Save me!" Tang Ze shouted out.

    Why was he the one who had to call for the guards in this situation?!

    ¡°Ahahahaha, that¡¯s what you get for trying to replace me you idiot!¡± Xu Feng said to him telepathically. ¡°You are far too naive, Junior Brother Tang Ze. But, I will still fulfill my end of the bargain. There is a secret place where you can¡­¡±

    Tang Ze didn¡¯t fully catch what he was going to say next as he was too busy trying to avoid Tang Ru¡¯s fists.

    Later that morning, Tang Ze nursed his numerous bruises with a sorry expression on his face.

    After Tang Ze had been caught by the guards, and after they had dragged Tang Ru off of him, Tang Ze was in big trouble.

    Not just him though, his entire squad had been punished for what he had done by being forced to clean up one of the biggest courtyards all by themselves. Tang Ze was still a probationary Initiate and as such, it was expected that the rest of his squad would show him the ropes and keep him in line. If he committed a huge mistake like this, the others would also be punished.

    Additionally, despite being banned by the Geneva Convention back on Earth, collective punishment was common not only in the sects, but in the Raswatian Empire as a whole. As a more extreme example, the worst offenders against the State would have nine generations of their family executed, whether the others were also guilty or not did not matter.

    In a world where relations, both familial and otherwise, were extremely important it was a very effective way of keeping people in line.

    "I''m so sorry guys,¡± Tang Ze finally said after fifteen minutes of awkward silence. He had done all that work last afternoon so that they wouldn''t get into trouble for the escaped ghost - and they hadn''t, not for the vase.

    However, they were all getting punished now for something that was entirely Tang Ze¡¯s fault.

    The other squad members had all thrown him angry looks while the prefect was shouting at them. Zhang Long, as Squad Leader, ended up taking most of the heat during this time, furiously apologizing for ¡®their¡¯ actions to the prefect, even though there was only Tang Ze to blame.

    To their credit, Tang Ze recalled, the others had not thrown him under the bus by trying to emphasize that it was all his doing and they had no involvement with what had gone on - even though that was the truth. They all just bowed their heads, apologized, and accepted their punishment.

    Which made Tang Ze feel all the more guilty about it all.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Tang Ze knew they were furious at him, he just hadn¡¯t known where and how to start apologizing.

    Yin Tiang shot him a look and said, "What I don''t get is why - why didn''t you invite us with you?"

    "Eh?" Tang Ze asked.

    "Yin Tiang and I have been planning a way to break in for months, but those were all dumb plans," Chen Yu said. "And then you went ahead and broke into that place without us? What gives, man?"

    Most of the Initiates were in their early or late twenties, and being busy with sect duties and the like didn¡¯t leave much time or money for trying to meet up with women. Few of them were like Zhang Long who already had someone outside the sect. Although one would think that they would be above such things as trying to break into the women¡¯s side, but they were at the Qi Condensation stage after all.

    No matter how much their teachers told them that they had to give up on their worldly desires to find enlightenment, it wasn¡¯t as if such teachings were going to trump basic human biology for most of the Initiates.

    Especially at their level when they had just started out on their cultivation journeys.

    It would be a different matter entirely if they were at a higher level, like Golden Core, and had had several decades to hone their minds and senses - but as they were right now, they were little better than hormonally-fueled college frat kids.

    "Ah, no guys, you don''t get it - it isn''t like that," Tang Ze tried to explain. "I wasn''t going over there for any... lecherous reasons, it was all for a noble cause believe me-"

    Tang Ze tried to explain what had happened, but none of them believed him.

    "You''re telling me that you wanted to help Xu Feng confess to Tang Ru?¡± Yin Tiang snorted. ¡°He hated Tang Ru. Just goes to show you that you clearly didn¡¯t meet him since you don¡¯t know the first thing about him. And hey, if you liked Tang Ru and wanted to confess your feelings to her, you can just say that - we won¡¯t judge you for it. And I get it, Tang Ru rejected you and humiliated you, and that must hurt, but that doesn¡¯t mean you need to make some story up how it was the ghost of Xu Feng compelling you all along to cover that up."

    "Xu Feng always used to cuss out Tang Ru when he was with us,¡± Chen Yu said. ¡°Never could say any of that to her face though."

    "Yeah! Well why didn''t you guys tell me that earlier?" Tang Ze asked. If he had known that it hadn''t been a love confession and something else entirely, he never would have agreed to go on this whole excursion in the first place.

    Xu Feng had technically not lied to Tang Ze - but he had tricked him nonetheless by omitting crucial information. Xu Feng clearly resented Tang Ze¡¯s presence in the group, and so had come up with this plan.

    By doing so, Xu Feng had killed two birds with one stone. He had gotten to tell Tang Ru just how much he hated her, and had left Tang Ze to face the consequences!

    "Why would that matter? He''s dead," Zhang Long said.

    Tang Ze sighed. Xu Feng''s spirit had moved on, meaning Tang Ze had no evidence anymore. And even if he wanted revenge against Xu Feng, there was nothing more that Tang Ze could do to him because of the same.

    No one in his squad believe him no matter how much he insisted that was all the truth.

    All throughout while the four kept cleaning, people were watching them from the shadows, muttering to each other. They didn¡¯t approach the group for a while, until finally, one of the other Initiates approached them.

    "Is it true that you all... went over and broke into the women''s side?" he asked.

    There were about twenty people in total looking at the four of them - some of them had haughty expressions while others looked angry, but all of them seemed to want to know what happened.

    "Not really, well, to start off with things, it wasn''t their fault-" Tang Ze began to speak, trying to explain that this was all his fault and that the others hadn¡¯t been involved at all; but Yin Tiang put a finger to his lips before he could finish.

    "Let me answer - indeed, you are all correct! We snuck into the women''s side - all four of us!" Yin Tiang said proudly.

    Eh?

    Why was he trying to take the blame for Tang Ze''s actions? Tang Ze couldn''t wrap his head around it at all.

    "Of course," Chen Yu continued, "however, while we all broke in, it was all my plan!"

    "Don''t flatter yourself, it was I who thought of it!" Yin Tiang countered.

    The two of them were fighting - not for taking up the blame for the incident, Tang Ze realized, but for taking credit for it instead!

    After all, many of the male Initiates wanted to do what Tang Ze had done.

    The women''s section was kind of like a ''forbidden sacred realm'' for the males - the others just didn''t have the courage or means to replicate Tang Ze¡¯s infiltration!

    "Heh," Chen Yu said. "All of you, I know - were planning on going to the women''s side, weren''t you? Or at least, you all dreamed of it. But none of you had the stones to do it!"

    "Indeed," Yin Tiang said proudly. "We''re the only real men here since we were the only ones who had the courage to walk into the lioness¡¯s den! Y''all are nothing more bunch of eunuchs!"

    "This Yin Tiang - calling us a bunch of eunuchs, he''s going too far!"

    "But it''s true that I wanted to see what was there though..."

    "Yeah, but we would get beaten to a pulp if we were caught..." Thinking this, none of them had tried - and yet these four were apparently brave enough to do so regardless of the consequences?

    "And to think we were making fun of Brother Tang Ze for being unable to cultivate - he does have guts though!"

    ''Wait- the others were making fun of me for that?''- Tang Ze thought. Maybe they did it behind his back - because no one had ever said something like that to his face.

    Perhaps they feared falling victim to [Monkey Stealing Peaches] that much?

    There was grumbling from the other Initiates, but most had awe and wonder in their eyes.

    "But... what did you guys see when you were over there?" one of them asked.

    "Did you happen to sneak into the women''s bathhouse?"

    ''What kind of degenerates do these guys take us for?''- that was what Tang Ze was thinking at the moment.

    "Ah, we would love to tell you all the... juicy details...," Zhang Long interjected, "but we have a courtyard to clean up, and it''s going to take up so much time on our own..."

    Before the sentence had even left his mouth, the other Initiates had already started helping them clean up.

    With so many people working - this task that would''ve kept the four of them busy till midnight was done in a matter of a few hours!

    As for what they told the other Initiates regarding what the four of them had apparently seen that was so tantalizing - well, the answer was easy- they just made it all up!

    It wasn''t like the others could discredit or disprove what they were saying.

    The only person who could do that was Tang Ze, and he wasn''t about to open up his mouth!

    It seemed that in a strange way, their reputation had increased among the male Initiates rather than decreasing!

 Lessons

    "Ah, why is Brother Tang Ze bruised though?"

    "Didn''t you hear? He tried to confess his love to Tang Ru and she beat him like a dog!" This statement was not correct, but it was the version of events.

    "Oh, I see - Tang Ze is a masochist who likes it when girls beat him."

    "No, that beating was not an expression of love - she rejected him and then she did that to him. She''s always been a cold-hearted harpy."

    "Hmm... she is pretty though - and has a really nice rear."

    "True, likely why Brother Tang Ze fell for her in the first place."

    ¡°But to thrash him so thoroughly after he confessed to her, Tang Ru might have the appearance of a sura, but she has the personality and temperament of an asura!¡±

    The suras were divine beings who were noted to be beautiful, powerful, serene, benevolent, wise, and restrained. They ruled over heaven, and Indra was said to be their king. They were often mentioned in the mythology of this world, though no one in living memory could be reliably said to have seen one for themselves.

    The asuras, in contrast, were deformed, demonic, violent, ruthless, malevolent, ill-tempered, and cruel. It was said that long before the Raswatian Empire was founded the asuras were engaged in a massive war with humanity. The asuras not only eventually lost said war, but were also completely eliminated by its end. Archeologists would occasionally find the remains of the asuras, so unlike with the suras, there was at least concrete evidence that they had, at one point, existed.

    ¡°Wait- their names are Tang Ze and Tang Ru, no? Aren¡¯t they related? Why was Tang Ze confessing his feelings to her?¡±

    ¡°No, no, they just coincidentally share the surname ¡®Tang¡¯, they aren¡¯t actually related¡­ at least I hope so.¡±

    When all of it was over, there were so many rumors and misunderstandings from this one simple incident that Tang Ze himself had trouble keeping his own head on right as to what actually had happened.

    And yet, no matter what Tang Ze did, he couldn''t straighten things out. Many of the men respected him for crossing over to the women¡¯s side and confessing his feelings to a girl- something a lot of them fantasized of doing but were never bold enough to carry out. The fact that Tang Ru had ¡®rejected his love¡¯ also made it so that he garnered some of their sympathies- and the others thought that even if he had been rejected in the end, he had at least been bold enough to put his heart on the table.

    Of course, these people didn¡¯t understand what actually happened, nor would they believe it even if Tang Ze told them.

    And while Tang Ze''s reputation amongst the men might have skyrocketed, his reputation in the eyes of the women was now lower than even the piles of mud that one would find after the rainwater had dried up!

    ''Nasty pig'', ''pervert'', and ''heartless boor'' were some of the nicer things that they called him.

    <hr>

    There were quite a number of downsides to joining a sect, Tang Ze had soon realized this after joining - but there was quite a bit of upside as well.

    One such upside were the lessons.

    Lessons were sparse and not as frequent as Tang Ze would¡¯ve liked - usually only two or three per week, but the fruit of such was quite rich.

    The best part was definitely the attitude of the teacher¡¯s - Tang Ze had initially been worried, or perhaps it was from the influence of consuming media back in his world, that the teachers here would be overly strict and arrogant.

    But it was not so!

    As an example, when they had a lesson about cultivating, the teacher did not seem to be the slightest bit fazed when he found that Tang Ze was at the Zeroth Realm.

    He did not scoff at Tang Ze or dismiss him as being hopeless.

    Instead, the teacher gave Tang Ze some even more basic pointers than everyone else, based on what he thought Tang Ze could do to get to the first minor realm of Qi Condensation quicker.

    In truth, even his teacher didn¡¯t have much to say to him in that regard, because something like this was not a problem that people usually encountered.

    However, even a few pointers went a long way to someone like Tang Ze - who felt like he was stuck with no real guidance on how to move forward.

    ¡°Cultivation, at its core is about knowing oneself,¡± his teacher told him. ¡°If one does not know oneself, how can one understand the vastness of Heaven and Earth?¡±

    There was a technique called mirror-meditating that worked well for the same.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    The concept was simple, one had to sit in front of a mirror - which were not that common in this world, so most people preferred to sit in front of a small pond or lake, so that there was the added benefit of being surrounded by nature.

    And then, one would look at one¡¯s reflection, contemplating every inch of it, and thinking of one¡¯s past experiences.

    The goal was to get to know oneself better.

    ¡°Once you have become comfortable with that, the next step is to understand the world around you,¡± the teacher continued. ¡°But, that is jumping far too quickly ahead. For now, focus upon yourself.¡±

    Additionally, the teacher noted that Tang Ze¡¯s dantian and meridians were quite weak right now, and much like Yin Tiang, also advised against the use of pills. ¡°Your meridians are weak - just like the bones of a baby are much weaker than that of an adult. Put too much stress on them, and they may be irreparably damaged.¡±

    As for the baby oil, the teacher noted that he wasn¡¯t really sure whether it would work or not, but at the very least it wouldn¡¯t hurt either. ¡°My knowledge has limits, you know,¡± he said with an apologetic tone.

    However, that only made his image rise higher in Tang Ze¡¯s eyes.

    In Tang Ze¡¯s experience, not just from this world, but also back on Earth - a teacher who couldn¡¯t admit they didn¡¯t know something was usually not a very good one. They might make up an answer, or get angry and deflect the question - but this man wasn¡¯t like that.

    That told Tang Ze that he likely knew what he was talking about, and he continued to try to meditate daily, hoping that he would soon be able to use the more advanced techniques that Zhang Long and his other squad members could use.

    In the meanwhile, he continued to try to strengthen himself with the help of making new costumes. However, he was now running into some issues with this that he hadn¡¯t foreseen earlier.

    For one - while it was fine enough to make new costumes for different characters, the fact remained that some were far more powerful than others!

    As an example, he had purchased a large amount of orange cloth to make an outfit that was based on a certain character who was even more powerful than the superhero he had first emulated. This character was based off of Sun Wukong - and for some reason was quite beloved by cartels back on Earth. He could even use Qi to some extent, though was still weak to most magical and spiritual abilities.

    But because some characters were so much better than others, it led to the issue that there was little point in making dozens of costumes. Better to just make one and absorb that one¡¯s power completely!

    On top of that, he hadn¡¯t figured out a way to make things go faster. It would take about three hundred years for him to absorb this new character¡¯s power quickly, but because the ceiling was much higher- it still meant that he got stronger faster with this costume than with the previous one.

    But, it was extremely frustrating to do nothing but wear a costume and wait to get stronger!

    On top of which, it wasn¡¯t just strength he was after. But when it came to thinking of other abilities, he was so spoiled for choice that it was hard to decide. He had the opposite problem here - there being too much choice, and not too little. He didn¡¯t know what might be useful in the future.

    The downside of having a unique talent such as this was of course, that there was no one who could guide him further on what to do here.

    Tang Ze would have to learn by trial and error.

    It was here that a teacher could¡¯ve helped him - but if he was the only one with such a talent which truly did seem to be the case, he could rely only upon himself.

    If the student was unwilling to learn or was completely hopeless, it wouldn¡¯t matter how good the teacher was - that student would not go far.

    Conversely, even if there was no teacher, a willing and good student could eventually accomplish or figure out most things for themselves.

    But that would take time!

    The role of a good teacher in that kind of scenario was to make the few things that a student couldn¡¯t figure out on their own clear - and to shorten the amount of effort and time needed to understand things.

    A good teacher could take something that might take hours to understand comprehensible in a few minutes!

    And even in this world, where people could potentially live for thousands of years, time was not a luxury that could casually be discarded.

    When it came to his talent, Tang Ze would have stumble in the dark to find what worked and what didn¡¯t. There would be no help on that front.

    Other than the cultivation lectures, they had had a basic alchemy lesson as well.

    This was a ¡®basic lesson¡¯ with the more advanced ones reserved for those like Yin Tiang who showed that they were ready to actually specialize as being alchemists.

    These basic lessons were, as the teacher said, more for making sure that they all didn¡¯t make a dumb mistake like eating or drinking something that could kill them, and to ensure that they wouldn¡¯t be swindled when buying or selling such objects either.

    After all, sect missions did involve things like collecting herbs - which is what Zhang Long had been doing when he had run into Tang Ze in the first place.

    They could not do these jobs correctly if they could not, to some extent, identify the plants which were relevant to cultivation.

    Tang Ze found this whole class to be quite boring - as it was just the teacher handing out a plant, going into details about it, asking them to memorize its name, appearance, and properties, and this would continue for another forty plants.

    Tang Ze¡¯s ability to rote memorize things were not good - he could¡¯ve been a much better student back on Earth had that been the case.

    Zhang Long and Yin Tiang shared much of the same predilections as him when it came to this lesson, but because they had been born in this world and had been raised in it, they had some ideas of these plants as they had seen them before.

    Tang Ze was approaching this subject as a total newcomer, and things that would¡¯ve been otherwise very obvious to even an ordinary mortal were foreign to him.

    The teacher though, didn¡¯t seem to care and kept droning on, hoping that by showing them things again and again often enough they would get a hang of it.

    And for those who would reach the Golden Core stage - there was likely some truth to that. After looking at plants over and over again for potentially hundreds of years, even if you weren¡¯t actively trying, you would be able to get quite a bit of information on them.

    Tang Ze did not particularly like this class - mainly because he wasn''t too good at it. It was much the same with the cultivation lessons, only he was far more interested in those as that was a definitive requirement of this world if he wanted to go forward.

    In contrast to those two, there were the martial arts lessons. Tang Ze did reasonably well with these, though, in this instance, he had the opposite problem. While he was happy, his teacher was quite annoyed with him.

    The martial arts instructor walked up to Tang Ze after telling everyone else to pair up to practice, and he had a sour expression on his face.

 Martial Arts Training

    ¡°Where did you get those bruises?¡± the martial arts instructor asked Tang Ze.

    ¡°Ah - I uh, got into a fight,¡± Tang Ze said awkwardly. By now, everyone in the sect knew how he had gotten those bruises, so he knew that this had been a rhetorical question.

    The martial arts instructor sighed and put a hand to his forehead. ¡°You do realize how it looks like, don¡¯t you? To have lost to a woman? And how that reflects on me!?¡±

    Why was the martial arts instructor so ticked off at Tang Ze?

    The reason was that back during their last lesson, which had occurred before the whole incident with Xu Feng, the martial arts instructor had noted Tang Ze¡¯s lack of cultivation, and then asked him to spar with him to demonstrate some techniques to the rest of the class.

    While doing so, the martial arts instructor had said the classic line he had said so many times before, ¡°If you want to have a chance of putting up an actual fight - you¡¯ll have to come at me with killing intent. Attack me as if you¡¯re trying to kill me Junior Tang Ze!¡±

    The martial arts instructor knew that Tang Ze was stronger than a normal person - but how much could that possible be? Two times? Five times? At most maybe ten times.

    Not nearly enough to bridge the gap between them, especially given the martial arts instructor¡¯s experience. So what was there to worry about?

    The martial arts instructor knew that Tang Ze¡¯s cultivation base was weak, but by showing him that his physical strength could be a great attribute, he hoped to inspire the other Initiates to train harder, and also to raise Tang Ze¡¯s morale in the same way.

    The problem was that during martial arts lessons, the restrictions on having to wear the sect¡¯s uniform were lifted to a certain extent to allow for comfort during movement.

    And that was why Tang Ze had been able to modify a part of it to resemble a costume. He was only about two percent of full strength, but the problem was that Tang Ze was so hyped he took ¡®come at me like you¡¯re trying to kill me¡¯ seriously. Tang Ze had mistakenly thought that the martial arts instructor would have some way to handle it.

    The result was that he ended up nearly crippling the martial arts instructor in one blow.

    The kicker?

    Tang Ze hadn¡¯t even been fighting at his full two percent of strength. He had still been holding back. After all, there was no way he could actually fight someone with the intention of killing them right now. On top of which he was a novice when it came to actual fighting.

    The strike had also been so strong it collapsed a part of the dojo, which is why this lesson was taking place outside in a courtyard while the damage that Tang Ze had done was being repaired.

    As you can imagine, these two facts did nothing to endear Tang Ze to the martial arts instructor, which was why he had such a sour expression when compared to Tang Ze¡¯s other teachers while dealing with him. It was one thing to be bad at the subject the teacher was teaching - that could be excused, after all, they were there to learn in the first place. It was much harder for a teacher to overlook their student nearly killing them.

    But that wasn¡¯t why he was upset at Tang Ze today. At least, it wasn¡¯t the entire reason.

    You see, Tang Ze could clearly defeat the martial arts instructor. There was no way for the latter to deny that after what had happened last lesson.

    And so, if Tang Ze lost easily afterwards - that was like the martial arts instructor losing easily!

    This was like a slap to his face - because people would measure him using Tang Ze¡¯s feats as a ruler of comparison of sorts.

    He was an ¡®instructor¡¯ after all - what would it look like if he had lost to someone at Qi Refinement stage who was at a lower minor realm than he was?

    Of course, it could be noted that Tang Ze was even lower at the Zeroth Realm, but he was an exception that was relatively well known about. No one would fault a loss to him - but this made it look like nearly anyone could beat the martial arts instructor!

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t able to fight at full strength,¡± Tang Ze protested. He hadn¡¯t been wearing something suited for combat at the time, and had been taken by surprise by Tang Ru. Also, he had just started passively absorbing a costume¡¯s full power, and all of this meant he had not been able to keep up with her.

    The martial arts instructor shook his head, ¡°Just keep that in mind in the future, alright?¡±

    ¡°I will,¡± Tang Ze said. ¡°With that said - is it alright if I can ask you a question?¡±

    This seemed like Tang Ze was trying to change the topic as quickly as possible, but Tang Ze did in fact genuinely have a question.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°If someone were to say¡­ charge at us with a knife and we were unarmed? What would be the best way to stop them? I mean, assuming we can¡¯t use any skills?¡± Tang Ze asked.

    ¡°With your strength you wouldn¡¯t have to worry about it,¡± the instructor said. ¡°You should be more worried about swords and lances-¡±

    ¡°I get that but, say, let¡¯s say that I was fighting someone about as strong as I was, with a knife, and they ran at me - what¡¯s the best way to block them?¡± Tang Ze asked, wording his question differently.

    ¡°Why would they run at you with a knife instead of throwing half a mountain at you?¡± the instructor asked, confused as to why Tang Ze would be pursuing this line of questioning.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just suppose so,¡± Tang Ze said, insisting on that. ¡°Or if it was some other kind of small object that could hurt me. What¡¯s the best kind of maneuver to do to avoid it?¡±

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s see,¡± the martial arts instructor said, handing Tang Ze a small cone he had made out of parchment. ¡°Pretend that that¡¯s a dagger, and try to stab me.¡± He then hastily added. ¡°But please, hold back!¡±

    Tang Ze nodded and then tried to approach with the ¡®dagger¡¯, to have the martial arts instructor twist his arm and then show how Tang Ze could then be forced to the ground.

    There were some other variations of this, such as sweeping out his legs from under him.

    All throughout, the martial arts instructor mentioned that the most important thing was to keep the tip of the knife away from his vital organs, especially if he wasn¡¯t wearing armor.

    Tang Ze did his best to try to understand them, but many of these techniques relied on one¡¯s strength and speed.

    Even if Tang Ze had known this back on Earth, would he have been able to make any difference back then?

    Perhaps not - but he continued to practice this regardless.

    Speaking of the martial arts lesson, Elder He Xuan was currently examining the damage done by Tang Ze from the previous martial arts lesson.

    He had been told of the same before, but had only had time to personally come and inspect it today.

    ¡°This Tang Ze is far too much,¡± a prefect complained to He Xuan. ¡°In the short time that he has been here he has violated two major rules - one, he has caused such damage to the training hall. And two, he snuck into the women''s division past hours!¡±

    The dojo had taken quite an investment to get it up to shape, with the martial arts instructor having to repeatedly ask for the funds for it - and to see it destroyed in a single blow; no wonder the martial arts instructor was in a bad mood.

    ¡°Was this damage really caused by a single blow?¡± Elder He Xuan wondered.

    He could potentially do something like this, but he was at the Golden Core realm. For someone at the Zeroth Realm to accomplish this kind of feat¡­

    He Xuan knew that Tang Ze was strong for his cultivation level, but he had clearly underestimated how strong.

    The reason for this was simple - there had not been an opportunity for Tang Ze to use his full strength as of yet.

    As a matter of fact, even this damage was not caused by his full strength.

    ¡°Indeed, Elder He Xuan!¡± the prefect said. ¡°A second offense so soon after the first - we cannot let this slide easily!¡±

    The prefects were the upholders of the sect rules, so no doubt they found Tang Ze¡¯s presence quite frustrating.

    Tang Ze, for all of his faults - was not actually a habitual rule breaker.

    He hadn¡¯t been like that back on Earth, and he wasn¡¯t like this right now either. While he might¡¯ve gotten into trouble for sleeping in class or being late, he never caused any kind of severe trouble like a delinquent.

    The trespassing incident was entirely because Xu Feng had tricked him, and the dojo incident was because he had overestimated what the martial arts instructor could do and used too much of his strength.

    However, as they say, ¡®you only get to make one first impression.¡¯ The fact that these two incidents had happened so quickly in succession to Tang Ze joining the sect marked him as a severe problem child in the eyes of the prefects and many of the other staff.

    He was now viewed as someone who would cause nothing but trouble - even if this was not true.

    Not to mention it had been the prefects who had spent several days setting up traps for the entrance test, and Tang Ze bypassing all of them by flying, they felt, was like spitting in the face of all of their hard work.

    ¡°If he is so strong at the Zeroth Realm,¡± Elder He Xuan said. ¡°Imagine what he could do if he ascended even higher? Perhaps one day he really will be able to¡­¡± He Xuan trailed off, deep in thought.

    Advancing along the realms of cultivation did make one strong - but that was not the only way to get stronger. The multipliers to one¡¯s strength were multiplying a person¡¯s base strength. A person could actually get much stronger, at least when it came to the Qi Condensation realm, by doing exercises and weight training rather than cultivating. Of course, as one got further along the multipliers became almost ridiculous to the point they were more important than anything else, but the amplification was more useful the stronger you were naturally.

    So, if Tang Ze was this strong at the Zeroth Realm, what would happen when he was two-and-a-half times stronger at the final realm of Qi Condensation? Or for that matter five times stronger by reaching Qi Refinement? Or even sixty times stronger than this at Golden Core - He Xuan shuddered at what the outcome would be!

    ¡°Alright then,¡± He Xuan said, finally coming to a decision. Tang Ze had already been punished for trespassing, but had not been handed a punishment for this as of yet. ¡°As punishment for this, cut down his monthly compensation for this month by ten percent.¡±

    Members of the sect did not get an income for what they did. Almost all they owned, especially at the lower levels, was owned by the sect. If they found a large treasure, they were usually expected to hand it over to the sect itself which would then distribute said treasure - though this usually only applied for treasures on the higher side.

    Instead of a salary, resources were distributed to them every month - such as in the form of sect merit points which could be exchanged for various goods and services later. These points were kept track of strictly by the prefects - though they had no value outside of the sect, they also could not be stolen either. And it was a way to disincentivize people from changing sects- as these merit points would not carry over.

    He Xuan was saying that these rewards, which were already rather pitiful for a probationary Initiate, would be reduced to ninety percent of what they would normally be.

    ¡°Sect Elder!¡± the prefect cried out. ¡°What manner of punishment is this? It is hardly anything!¡±

    The prefect had secretly been hoping to have Tang Ze thrown out of the sect entirely, that was how much a problem they anticipated that Tang Ze would eventually become!

    It was much harder to throw someone out once their probationary period was over, which is why they felt the need to put tacit pressure upon Elder He Xuan, who was overall in charge of this outer division of the Rising Phoenix Sect and could make that kind of decision.

 Introduction to the Mercury Kingdom

    Once Tang Ze became a regular Initiate, it was much harder to kick him out without a good reason. During his probationary period, a decision from Elder He Xuan could terminate his membership as one of the sect. However, once he became a proper Initiate, it would take a decision from three Elders to revoke his membership.

    Naturally the prefects wanted to nip the problem in the bud, so to speak, as from their perspective Tang Ze was a hopeless case who would only cause them more problems in the future.

    Elder He Xuan scoffed, not moved at all by the prefect¡¯s words. ¡°I don¡¯t see a reason to punish him any more than what I have already decreed - one can also argue that it is debatable if he should be punished or not at all.¡±

    ¡°Division Elder - with the damage he has caused and the resources it will take to repair this, how can you say that?¡±

    ¡°With the matter of him trespassing, he needed to be punished, and I agreed to the same,¡± Elder He Xuan said. ¡°But this? This was not done intentionally, first of all, nor was it malicious. It is normal for accidents to happen in training - I can only count this as yet another one of the same.¡±

    The prefect sputtered. Elder He Xuan had a reputation for being a bit softer than the other division heads, likely because at only two hundred and twenty-four, he was much younger than the rest of them. But the prefect still felt that this was far too lenient even for him. ¡°What if he had killed his teacher?¡±

    ¡°Did he though?¡± He Xuan asked. ¡°During sparring, accidents can naturally happen and are even expected to a certain degree. Thankfully a death has not occurred in the past few decades, but there is always the chance of that happening. Should we stop the martial arts lessons altogether because something like that might happen? Of course not! Naturally if we determined that someone was doing such a thing purposefully, they would be punished. But Tang Ze had been asked to come at his teacher with killing intent - and was he not then just doing what his teacher asked?¡±

    ¡°But-but-¡± the prefect sputtered. This was going in an entirely different direction, as if Elder He Xuan was secretly praising Tang Ze.

    What the prefect did not know what indeed, Elder He Xuan was in great admiration of Tang Ze¡¯s physical strength.

    After all, Elder He Xuan had future plans that might involve Tang Ze, so naturally he was not going to kick him out!

    As a matter of fact, it could actually be said that Tang Ze''s position in the sect was nearly untouchable so long as Elder He Xuan was the division elder. Of course, if Tang Ze did something egregiously bad Elder He Xuan would have to step in but barring that, Tang Ze was not going to be thrown out anytime soon.

    Of course, no one other than Elder He Xuan was aware of this.

    ¡°Even the martial arts instructor,¡± Elder He Xuan said, ¡°although he greatly chastised Tang Ze, did not once question the boy¡¯s talent. If anything, he asked if he could take Tang Ze aside for more personalized one-on-one training to bring out his potential and so that he didn¡¯t cause anymore accidents. I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s ready for that yet - or if I should agree to that given it could be seen as a reward, but it is clear that the boy has the potential to become the strongest body cultivator of this generation.¡±

    The prefect realized that there was no use in arguing further. ¡°And about the cost of repairing this place¡­¡± Even if they confiscated the resources they gave Tang Ze for a whole year, it still wouldn''t pay for the repairs.

    ¡°What of it? Don¡¯t accidents happen? If the wind blew and a tree fell, crushing the roof of a building - would we sue the god of wind for damages? Write this off accordingly,¡± Elder He Xuan said.

    As he was about to consider the matter dismissed, an idea crossed his mind. ¡°Let those Initiates know that I will be giving them a ah¡­ special lecture next week!¡±

    ¡°It will be done,¡± the prefect said, not daring to protest any further.

    The next week, the Initiates were sitting, completely focused on Elder He Xuan as he walked into the room.

    Even those who had been there for a few years had not known a single instance in which Elder He Xuan had come to personally teach them.

    Without a doubt - this was not a lecture worth missing!

    Even those who might have otherwise played truant had made it a point to attend.

    What kind of knowledge would Elder He Xuan impart to them? Some secret fighting technique? Or some deep insight into the Dao? Or a way to cultivate more efficiently?

    They all waited with bated breath in excitement!

    Only¡­ they were soon disappointed.

    The lecture wasn¡¯t really about anything that they could think of as being interesting or useful.

    Elder He Xuan was giving them a history lesson.

    ¡°Before the Raswatian Empire stood, there was a great civilization before us,¡± He Xuan said.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    He was talking about the remnants of the kingdom that had stood before the Raswatian Empire had been founded.

    No one was really sure what had happened to it - as most artifacts and relics from that era had been destroyed and knowledge of the same was lost to time.

    What they did know was that there had been a series of calamities that occurred that lead to their downfall which likely involved the asuras in some way, and for several hundred years the area that would eventually become the Raswatian Empire was in a state of chaos and anarchy. Kingdoms would rise and fall in the matter of a few years or decades during this ¡®warring states period¡¯, until finally stability was achieved and the Raswatian Empire was founded.

    Things were so bad regarding the knowledge of this ancient civilization that they didn¡¯t even know what those people called themselves - but because many of their artifacts and relics, at least those that survived, contained mercury, it was called the Mercury Kingdom by many archaeologists.

    Elder He Xuan personally had something to add to this field, as he had written several books on them, conducted his own research into the matter, and also had his own theories on what they may have been like.

    Tang Ze found the subject to be mildly interesting given how little he knew of this world - it was fascinating to learn a bit about its history. However, he could tell that his comrades did not feel the same, as many of them were visibly struggling to stay awake.

    And after two hours of that, they were dismissed.

    Many of the people had forlorn looks on their faces.

    Why had they been forced to sit through something like that? What was the point?

    They had come in with such high expectations for the lesson, but left empty-handed, or rather empty-brained, in their opinions.

    Tang Ze didn¡¯t feel like it was a total waste of time, but he also couldn¡¯t see the application of anything that they had been taught.

    Before Tang Ze stepped out, Elder He Xuan called out to him. ¡°Tell me, Junior Tang Ze - how did you find the lesson?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ quite fascinating!¡± Tang Ze said, trying to sound more eager than he actually was.

    ¡°Yes, we greatly benefited from Sect Elder¡¯s wisdom!¡±

    ¡°Truly, I think I speak for everyone when I say that I feel enlightened!¡±

    ¡°I think I nearly jumped up a minor realm through this lecture!¡±

    Such toadying echoed from the other stragglers around Tang Ze, though Elder He Xuan ignored them completely. ¡°I hope that you reflect on what I taught you, Junior Tang Ze.¡±

    Tang Ze couldn¡¯t help but think there was a deeper meaning to what Elder He Xuan was saying.

    Was there a reason he should be interested in the Mercury Kingdom in the first place?

    Did it have some sort of ties to Tang Ze?

    Elder He Xuan didn¡¯t say anything more, but gave Tang Ze a small nod as there was a twinkle in his eyes.

    That confirmed to Tang Ze that there definitely was some concept or reason behind this lesson which he wasn¡¯t seeing that Elder He Xuan expected him to - or that it would be important for him to know in the future.

    Given this, Tang Ze did try to find out more about the people of the Mercury Kingdom, but they were quite obscure, and what Elder He Xuan had already told him made up the bulk of what he could find in the sect¡¯s libraries.

    He still couldn¡¯t find a deeper meaning behind any of He Xuan¡¯s teachings, however.

    But perhaps, with time, the answers would come to him.

    <hr>

    As part of their work for the sect, not only were sect members sent out on missions or assigned tasks as groups, but also alone as well sometimes.

    This was because while the squad system was intended to foster bonds between members of the sect, the fact remained that the journey of cultivation was one which was ultimately an individual¡¯s road to travel on their lonesome.

    As such, it was also important that Initiates learn how to work alone, and not just as a group.

    Well, that was probably the intention - but it wasn¡¯t like Tang Ze had been with his group for very long before he had been assigned this post. So it felt like he had been separated from them before even getting to properly know them.

    Not that this role was difficult.

    There was a bridge that crossed a river, which was the shortest route between two large trading centers. If one wanted to avoid using the bridge, they would have to risk the treacherous currents of the river, which was almost certainly going to lead to death, or to go the long route through the mountains.

    The mountains might¡¯ve been slightly safer than the river, but there still was the risk of running into wild beasts and the like, not to mention there was no good trail. What would take a day to traverse would instead take about a week to do if one triad traipsing through the mountains.

    This was one of the peak traffic seasons for the bridge, and said bridge had been built and maintained by the Rising Phoenix sect.

    Tang Ze¡¯s job was to operate the toll booth and collect a toll from the people who used said bridge.

    It was hardly a job that on paper would require someone strong to do it, but there was the slight risk of bandit attacks or animals wandering near the bridge or booth.

    This job would usually only be given to someone of Qi Refinement rank, but the prefect in charge of distributing tasks just said, ¡°Ah, but we¡¯ve seen how strong you are, I¡¯m sure you can handle it Junior Brother Tang Ze.¡±

    One person who was approaching said bridge was a woman by the name of Zheng Mei.

    Her family owned a small farm, and she was transporting some of their produce to sell. That was how relatively safe the area was kept - even a lone woman could travel like this without having any major worries. Any major bandit or animal attacks would usually be taken care of whoever manned the bridge before it could lead to problems.

    After all, the bridge was an important source of income for the sect for relatively little work, and they would not want one of their golden geese to croak, now then would they? So whenever a problem occurred, the sect would swiftly deal with it.

    Zheng Mai saw the toll booth up ahead, but she was not worried.

    She had used her feminine charms to sneak past without having to pay anything many times in the past. After all, the toll booth was usually manned by a single male cultivator, and one who was rather low-ranking as well.

    A few sweet words, and Zheng Mei was sure that she could slide on by without having to part with a single coin.

    ¡°Hello,¡± Tang Ze said as she approached. Tang Ze calculated the toll required for a person and a cart in his head, and after an inspection of the luggage, told her how much she needed to pay.

    ¡°Oh dearest me!¡± Zheng Mei suddenly said with an exaggerated look. ¡°I don¡¯t seem to have any coin on me.¡±

    ¡°Alright then,¡± Tang Ze said without batting an eye. ¡°You¡¯ll have to leave a portion of your goods instead then.¡± Most farmers did not do much business with actual coinage and instead bartered, so the sect did allow people to pay tolls and taxes with produce instead most of the time.

    Zheng Mei sighed, fluttering her eyelids. ¡°You know¡­ I¡¯ve heard that beautiful girls don¡¯t need to pay the bridge toll.¡±

    Tang Ze knew there was no such rule, but decided to humor her regardless. ¡°That¡¯s right. So if you see a beautiful girl, let her know that she doesn¡¯t need to pay. Now, the toll please!¡±

 Arrogant Young Master, Where Art Thou?

    Zheng Mei scowled. What was wrong with this man? He seemed to have eyes but could not see Mt. Tai if he did not acknowledge her beauty!

    She was used to the toll keepers letting her pass without her even having to ask for this kind of favor!

    In truth, it wasn¡¯t like Tang Ze didn¡¯t acknowledge her beauty. She was quite cute¡­ but the issue was that with like most ¡®beauties¡¯ of this world, there was something - for lack of a better word, unreal about her.

    He couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. If Tang Ze was asked the question, ¡°Is Zhang Mei beautiful?¡± his answer would no doubt be ¡®yes.¡¯ But if asked if she was his type, the answer would be ¡®no.¡¯

    Standards of beauty varied of course, Tang Ze acknowledged that, and what was considered beautiful in this world was slightly¡­ uncanny for a lack of a better word. Skin like jade, a thin waist, wide eyes, and delicate eyelashes - these features were valued in this world just like on Earth but were exaggerated to the point that Tang Ze thought that many of such girls appeared somewhat alien.

    Now, Tang Ze had average to below average looks, he knew that and while he wasn¡¯t in a position to judge others by appearance, a lifetime of consuming media had primed him to expect otherworldly beauties in a different world.

    And they were otherworldly alright- in a strange, exotic way.

    Compared to this woman, Jin Zhen, although she could be said to be only average in looks at best, at least looked like an actual person.

    Or maybe it was just Tang Ze who was wrong? He thought that was a possibility given this could just be his experience from Earth coloring his judgement.

    Zheng Mei sighed. ¡°I really don¡¯t have the money - and my family can¡¯t afford to give up some of our goods. Can¡¯t I just go through?¡± She even brought out a few crocodile tears to try to appeal towards Tang Ze¡¯s sympathy.

    Tang Ze sighed. ¡°Lady, if it was up to me, I wouldn¡¯t get a toll from anyone - but this isn¡¯t my bridge, it¡¯s the sect¡¯s and I just can¡¯t let anyone pass.¡±

    ¡°Please?¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± Tang Ze said, considering things and giving her an odd look. ¡°Maybe you can pay me back¡­ in a different way?¡±

    Zheng Mei recoiled. Could this man really be trying to take advantage of her like that?

    Despicable!

    All of a sudden, Tang Ze pointed at her and screamed, ¡°Junior, you dare! You are courting death!¡±

    Zheng Mei backed up. Courting death? What had she done to get that kind of reaction from him?

    Tang Ze sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve been in this world for so long, and yet, no one has said those words to me. My ears have been starved for them, much like a wandered in the desert thirsts for water. In all the media I¡¯ve consumed, shouldn¡¯t that be a staple in a cultivation world? Is it too much to ask for an arrogant young master to appear and say those words? Last week, I was in the sect mess hall and accidentally bumped into someone, spilling some soup on their clothes. Do you know what they said?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Zheng Mei asked, bewildered by this turn of events.

    ¡°They said, ¡®no issue¡¯ and then walked on with their day without asking me to kowtow ten thousand times or to break my arms for forgiveness! Who does that? Why were they being so reasonable and calm? They even looked somewhat wealthy and powerful!¡± Tang Ze vented. ¡°If I ran into someone who was like that though, I might be able to make more progress!¡± After all, that was how these stories went, right?

    Zheng Mei was sure that this man had a screw loose somewhere, but if that was all he was asking for¡­

    ¡°Junior, you dare!¡± Zhang Mei asked. ¡°Asking for a toll from someone like me? Don¡¯t you know who I am? You¡¯re courting death!¡±

    Tang Ze sighed. ¡°It just doesn¡¯t feel real when you say it.¡± It was clear that Zheng Mei didn¡¯t truly mean those words, which was what he was looking for. ¡°Ah, whatever, at least you tried- go on ahead.¡±

    Zheng Mei crossed the bridge before that man could say anything even weirder.

    Tang Ze watched her go and sighed.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Was he really just going crazy being stationed out here?

    While it was normal for Initiates to be given individual assignments, he was the only one who had been assigned to a post so far away from the sect.

    It was so out of the way that he had to travel two days to get here - or would have, if he didn¡¯t fly the way here. That was easy enough given that he could just swap into his uniform once he got here, though he still kept his cape on.

    Although the prefects hadn¡¯t outwardly said this, Tang Ze was sure that this assignment was a form of punishment for his actions up till now.

    He was here, in a toll both, away from most civilization. During the day he would just sit there, collecting the necessary toll.

    The only people he could talk to was the occasional person who wanted to cross the bridge, and once night would fall he would close it down and fall asleep near a shack near the toll booth.

    Because of this, while he was working, there was really little that he could do other than wait for people to come. They came regularly enough for him to be unable to do something like cultivate or work on anything.

    On top of that he was not near any major trading hub himself to buy things to either cultivate or make costumes with. Even if that were the case, he couldn¡¯t really buy anything as he didn¡¯t have much in this world¡¯s currency. Much of his ¡®wealth¡¯ was in the form of merit points with the sect, which he couldn¡¯t use out here.

    He didn¡¯t dare touch the stash of the toll coins that he had gotten - those were to be given to the sect, and he didn¡¯t want to get into more trouble for appropriating funds. He was on thin ice as it was when it came to his reputation in the sect.

    Come to think of it, he had probably made a mistake letting that girl go by without paying the toll - but he really had wanted to hear those words.

    Why was that?

    The truth was that he was quite disappointed with his stay in this world up till now. Part of that could be because his expectations were too high, but there was also the fact that till now, he seemed to have quite a run of rotten luck.

    There were quite a few things which contributed to his despondent mood.

    The biggest was that he was out here, alone. Although it wasn¡¯t like things with his squad were perfect, at least they were people he could talk to.

    Most of the other people in the sect didn¡¯t like him very much- he could tell even if they didn¡¯t openly say it. The women openly gave him looks of disdain because of what had happened with Xu Feng, even if his intentions had been only to help out a friend at that time.

    His heart flared up in anger the moment he thought of Xu Feng. That man had taken advantage of Tang Ze¡¯s naivety and sense of doing right by people. When Tang Ze had first come to this world, he had been wary of potentially being taken advantage of by people, but hadn¡¯t run into anyone till that point who was like that. Since Xu Feng was a ghost and Tang Ze had some sympathy for him, Tang Ze had quickly trusted him. After all, he was one of the former members of the squad- just like Zhang Long, Yin Tiang, and Chen Yu, so Xu Feng also had to be trustworthy like them, right?

    Tang Ze did not have ¡®being tricked by a ghost¡¯ on the list of things he thought might happen if he was ever transported to another world.

    In the future, Tang Ze swore to be more mindful of anyone asking for his help. If it was someone he trusted, like his current squad members, it was fine to lend them a hand - but anyone else, he would need to be more wary of.

    As for Tang Ru, he harbored great resentment towards her as well, though he had to note that given what Xu Feng had made him say to her, her reaction couldn¡¯t entirely be faulted. If someone had said such things about Tang Ze¡¯s family, he too would¡¯ve likely flown into a rage.

    He had tried reaching out once to her via letter, explaining what had happened, and in return all he got was this world¡¯s version of a restraining order telling him that he was no longer allowed to send her letters any longer.

    Evidently she did not believe his explanation.

    It wasn¡¯t just the women though, the higher-ups on the male side also looked at him with distrustful gazes - if his posting here wasn¡¯t a punishment, it was almost certainly a way to get him out of sight and away from where he could potentially cause them trouble.

    If they were feeling particularly vengeful, they might even arrange for some trouble to occur here in this place. Tang Ze didn¡¯t feel like that was very likely, but he had difficulty keeping down the paranoid thoughts.

    If only he had had more of a chance to prove himself - Tang Ze felt that he would be thought of more highly. Right now though, on paper all he was known for was for taking down some of the rival Diamond Dust clan members, a feat that didn¡¯t earn him much renown as it occurred before he had joined.

    He had lots of strength, potentially more than even a Hinayana cultivator, yet the right opportunity to show it off hadn¡¯t presented itself.

    If anything, his strength had been more of a hindrance than anything else as demonstrated with him accidentally destroying part of the dojo.

    His lack of cultivation progress was also bringing his mood down. Right here, where he was, out and away from most people - this would technically be one of the better places to try to cultivate by meditating, but if anything, just sitting here brought out more negative thoughts within him than positive. He was still at the Zeroth Realm - and it wasn¡¯t like he could console himself and say that his rate of growth was good so that he¡¯d eventually outdo his peers. It didn¡¯t bother him that much that his cultivation was the lowest in his squad¡­.

    ¡­no, that was a lie, it bothered him a lot!

    And the fact that during the time he had joined, it looked like his squad members were each going to go up a minor realm, with Zhang Long having even done so with his assistance, while he was still stuck behind even where a child would be - it stung his heart greatly!

    Could he compensate for all of this with his cosplaying talent - maybe, but since coming to this world the talent had already been defeated two times.

    Once, by Elder He Xuan using a technique that didn¡¯t rely on physical strength. And secondly by Tang Ru; although that was because of the circumstances and him being caught off guard, it was a weakness nonetheless.

    It was clear that he couldn¡¯t just coast on his talent in the future as these two losses exposed some glaring weaknesses with it.

 Mistakes of the Past

    Perhaps all of his worries, while somewhat rooted in what was going on in this world, were a symptom of a much deeper problem.

    Tang Ze was still the person he had been back on Earth. Talent or no talent, cultivation or no cultivation, he could not escape who he was.

    The disdainful glances from the other sect members - though painful, were nothing compared to the looks his parents gave him back home.

    They had never said anything outwardly, but Tang Ze had always thought that he could feel their resentment towards him whenever he locked eyes with them.

    Tang Ze¡¯s parents¡­

    He couldn¡¯t help but wonder how they were doing right now - though the moment his thoughts went in that direction, he realized what they must be going through, and immediately severed that train of thought.

    He would prefer to never think about that ever again, and buried that line of questioning deep within his mind, where hopefully it would never bother him again.

    He could only turn to the here and now for comfort - but there was little comfort to be found here.

    Here Tang Ze was, repeating many of the same mistakes as back in his earlier life.

    Complaining about getting up early - which had been such an issue in his past life that he would sometimes miss morning classes because of it.

    Secondly, he was being extremely impatient with things just like he had been back home. If he couldn¡¯t understand something in a few week¡¯s time back home, he would usually give up on it and move on to other things.

    Tang Ze really couldn¡¯t do that here.

    This world was a cultivation world, and cultivation took time. Even if he was bad at it, he had to keep walking on that path. Elder He Xuan¡¯s words from the entrance test echoed - he could be strong, but just being strong was not the point of joining a sect, at least not physically.

    Cultivation was a journey that was unfathomably long. As an example, one would remain an Initiate until one had either served for thirty years, or gotten to Qi Refinement stage. Most people did not meet that second criteria unless they had gotten significant help from their families or lucked out with immense talent, meaning most people took longer than thirty years to get to Qi Refinement stage.

    In practice, it was actually expected for someone to take about forty or fifty years to reach Qi Refinement stage. Most would never reach the Golden Core stage before dying of old age.

    To put things into perspective, back on Earth, his father had once tried to encourage him to enter the medical field. His father had aspired to become a doctor at one point, though hadn¡¯t been able to because of some personal issues at the time. But the time investment required - nearly a decade or more of study, had been more than enough to scare Tang Ze off from even considering going into it!

    His father had been disappointed, though not to the point of trying to force Tang Ze onto that route.

    Instead, his father¡¯s aspirations had been shifted to his younger brother - who might¡¯ve been able to accomplish them.

    When it came to the things that actually mattered, like doing well in school, or getting good grades, studying, or extracurriculars that didn¡¯t involve cosplaying - his younger brother far outshone him.

    Tang Ze felt a sharp pain in his chest at the memory of his brother.

    For a moment, he thought he could even see traces of his brother¡¯s blood on his hands and clothes. The sounds of an ambulance almost began to ring in his ears as well.

    He immediately shook his head.

    If his mind went down that route, it would lead to even more pain. He gave himself a gentle slap, trying to get back to the original point he was thinking of.

    Point being, if around a decade was too long a time to wait on Earth, what was the centuries or even millennia that would need to be invested to become a cultivator about?

    While he hadn¡¯t necessarily imagined himself soaring through the realms with no effort, he didn¡¯t think he¡¯d be stuck at the Zeroth Realm for this long. He was essentially worse than even the lowest cultivator in the sect, worse than many children as a matter of fact, as he was right now.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    True, it had only been a little over two months - and in cultivator terms that was nothing, but Tang Ze was still someone who came from Earth. And to have made essentially no progress up till now was extremely frustrating.

    Video games, web novels, anime, movies - all of them had been an escape from life back home.

    His hobby of making costumes and cosplaying was also that - an escape.

    Eventually, he remembered that life had become so painful that even those windows of escape had lost their flavor for him.

    And that had been all that he wanted to do - to escape.

    This was the ultimate escape though, to be in a whole different world. Where he could be someone completely different.

    For a time, he even believed that he was someone different. When he had helped Zhang Long, it had felt incredible - like he was on top of the world!

    As if he really had reinvented himself!

    As if his problems had vanished instantly.

    Tang Ze felt back then that if his family could see him now, as he was in this world, they might actually be proud of him. That he had finally, in some way, lived up to their expectations.

    That he had come one step closer to redeeming himself in his own eyes¡­

    The high from that had faded off quickly, and been replaced by the dour reality of this world.

    It was certainly not a bed of roses.

    Living in a cultivation world had its own problems, he was well aware of them now.

    The sheen of coming to a new world had worn off, and its mundane reality was now staring him back.

    A reality that was not completely hopeless, but was disappointing nonetheless.

    Most of the jobs they were given were hard, pointless, and also not the kind he¡¯d normally want to do. He remembered having to clean out pegasi during the time he and his squad had been asked to clean up the stables.

    That was just considered to be ¡®paying one¡¯s dues¡¯ as an Initiate, though as he understood it while things might get better in the sense that the amount of scut work would go down as one moved up the ranks, they would be saddled with different responsibilities then instead. So it seemed that cultivation never truly got easier, because people never truly thought that they were finished. There was always another minor or major realm for them to go up. There was always another rare plant or animal they could be hunting down that could be the ingredient for a valuable pill.

    And so, they would run like that, just like a hamster on a wheel, until they died.

    In that regard, this world wasn¡¯t too different from back on Earth. The only thing was that here, people aspired to be immortal instead of filling their days with work and family, though no one ever had achieved true immortality in this world. The Mahayana realm, after all, was largely considered to just be a myth.

    This job wasn¡¯t too bad on paper, though Tang Ze didn¡¯t think that his days in this new world would be spent as a glorified toll booth operator.

    That was why he had gone off on that girl earlier. Maybe - he thought, if he encountered something like an arrogant young master and put them in their place, or beat an old monster - he¡¯d finally either make some progress or get some recognition from people. He didn¡¯t want to be seen as the black sheep of the sect.

    He was just so tired of how slowly he was making progress.

    Was Tang Ze being unrealistic?

    He absolutely was! Without a doubt, even he knew this.

    A few tiny setbacks like this shouldn¡¯t have derailed someone¡¯s ambition to succeed.

    But, that didn¡¯t change that he felt how he felt. He hadn¡¯t yet grasped the mental fortitude needed, despite all of his lessons, to be able to change that.

    And truth be told, he hadn¡¯t been in the best mental state before coming into this world either.

    That part of him hadn¡¯t been magically fixed by coming here.

    Cultivation was about being true to yourself, apparently - though when thinking of who he was, all that came to his mind was ''worthless trash.''

    What was he going to do about it, though?

    Even if a portal opened up somewhere that would take him back to Earth, he would not have done so. There was no way that he could face his parents again after what he had done.

    The sun set after he collected the toll from a few more travelers. Some of them were just walking on foot, and grumble about having to pay just to walk, but Tang Ze gave them the same answer he¡¯d given Zheng Mai. If it was up to him, he would just let them pass - but the sect demanded its dues.

    Once it was nighttime, he closed the bridge through a mechanism that lifted up the half closer to him up in the air. With that, he went to the adjoining cottage, which was more of a glorified shed than anything else.

    All it had in terms of furniture was a bed and supplies needed to change the linen. There was enough food for the maximum time he would be expected to be here, and things like lamp oil and the like were brought in periodically.

    The most important thing to do was to lock up the coinage in a special box kept in the cottage. The box couldn¡¯t be opened easily, and was bolted to the ground making it very difficult to steal.

    As for the produce, that had to be kept in storage, and would be taken away by the same people who would come to resupply the cottage.

    The door to the cottage was made of iron and could be barred shut, making it very difficult to knock down. This would also meant that Tang Ze would be forewarned if anyone tried to knock it down. Not that he thought such a thing was likely - this was supposed to be a relatively safe area, after all, though the sect did leave a staff, sword, and other such basic weaponry in a corner for protecting himself need be.

    Though, for Tang Ze, his costumes were far more effective weapons than such things.

    That was why he still slept in modified pajamas, so he could be fighting ready if need be even in the middle of the night.

    Tang Ze went to bed after preparing a meal, wondering what to do. A diligent person would¡¯ve tried cultivating for even just an hour, but he just felt so drained despite not having done anything that should¡¯ve caused him to feel such in the entire day. He tossed and turned in bed, but despite his fatigue, found it hard to sleep.

    He sighed and wondered what the others were up to.

    How were Zhang Long, Ying Tiang, and Chen Yu handling their missions?

 Ironthorn Fruit: Part One

    The others had also been assigned to solo missions, though they were far closer to the sect.

    Chen Yu had been assigned the same mission this time as he had been last year, though this had been within his expectations.

    When news had reached the group that Tang Ze was being assigned to a faraway outpost, Chen Yu had been shocked along with the others.

    Why were they sending Tang Ze so far away? Not only that, but it was a mission usually given to those at the Qi Refinement realm. Tang Ze wasn¡¯t even at the Qi Condensation realm yet, so this seemed doubly odd.

    This was clearly some form of retribution - though for what, he couldn¡¯t really fathom.

    There was the incident with Tang Ze crossing into the women¡¯s side, but in his opinion, that wasn¡¯t that much of a major breach. Not to mention that all of them had been punished for that, not just Tang Ze, but Tang Ze was the only one who had been sent far away to a remote location.

    As for the incident with the martial arts dojo - even Elder He Xuan didn¡¯t seem to be so mad about it, so what gives?

    Maybe it was just because Tang Ze had no deep foundations within the sect, and was also in his probationary period that they were so made at him?

    There was also his complete lack of cultivating ability that caused many people to look down on him.

    The thing was that Chen Yu was underestimating how petty the prefects could be sometimes.

    They had made up their minds about Tang Ze being a problematic new recruit, and wanted to try every legal method in the book to throw him out. However, they had been unable to do so.

    But if they couldn¡¯t do that, they could try to make things as miserable for Tang Ze as possible, in the hope that he would voluntarily leave.

    Chen Yu sighed. Regardless of how they felt about things, there was little that they could do.

    At the very least, there was a silver lining to all of this in that Tang Ze couldn¡¯t be stuck in that outpost forever.

    There was a certain ratio of group to solo tasks that Initiates had to do, so at most Tang Ze would be away for a month.

    Also, Tang Ze had the benefit of being able to fly there quickly and get back, so he wouldn''t be wasting as much time as someone else would who¡¯d have to walk or ride all the way out there. That allowed him to depart for the mission a lot later than he otherwise would have, and would also let him come back earlier too.

    In all of his time in the sect though, Chen Yu hadn¡¯t heard of a Qi Condensation stage cultivator getting a mission usually assigned for Qi Refinement stage cultivators. However, even if it wasn¡¯t typical, it was not against the rules - Zhang Long had dived into this aspect to see if he could help Tang Ze, but hadn¡¯t really found anything.

    They all had to basically give up and accept whatever fate had in store at that point.

    So what was Chen Yu¡¯s task during this time?

    It was one that he was especially suited for, which is why it was only natural that the sect had assigned him to it once again.

    Although Chen Yu was at the fourth minor realm of Qi Condensation along with Yin Tiang, and Zhang Long had run ahead of the two of them by two minor realms despite being two years younger than either - realms were not everything when it came to fighting.

    Especially when it came to the lower realms of Qi Condensation.

    Before Tang Ze had joined their group, Chen Yu had been quite confident that if it came to one-on-one fights, he was the strongest and would be able to beat any of the others.

    That was because Chen Yu had a trump card that the others simply did not.

    Chen Yu was the youngest of four brothers, and yet, his family had poured a disproportionate amount of resources into him. The baby oil had just been a part of this - he had had access to teachers and the like as well as anything that his parents thought could¡¯ve even given him a hair¡¯s breadth worth of advantage over his peers.

    Most of this money had been a huge waste - even Chen Yu felt like that was the case for much of it, but he couldn¡¯t blame his family.

    Despite being technically in the line of Imperial succession, they had nothing else that could really give them a leg up when it came to this world.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    After all, they were so far down the list when it came to succession that Chen Yu was sure the list only went so far into detail so some bureaucrats could keep their jobs maintaining it - they got virtually no benefits from the same.

    There were many times when it had come as a hindrance, however.

    People dealing with them suddenly assumed that they were swimming in money and would jack up the prices of things two or three times.

    There were also some jobs and opportunities that they could not avail of simply because they would be seen as ¡®beneath them¡¯ despite the fact that they were in all practical terms no different from an ordinary family.

    For example, because they were not within one hundred ranks of succession, they still had to pay taxes! So they didn¡¯t even get a reprieve from that.

    They also had a financial penalty in the sense that there were things that his family had to do to keep up appearances - including making a certain amount of charitable donations to the poor or hosting certain events. Not all of these things were necessarily negatives - though it all did strain their finances.

    Chen Yu and his brothers all knew they had to put forward their best efforts to keep the family name afloat - though Chen Yu had essentially bore the entire weight of his family¡¯s expectations since the moment he was born.

    That was because Chen Yu¡¯s birth had been special.

    In this world, certain talents and techniques could be passed through bloodlines.

    Chen Yu was descended from the Imperial Family, by a number of degrees of separation of course, but they could still trace their lineage to the founder of the Raswatian Empire.

    He was called the Emperor of Five Attributes.

    He was a Hinayana realm cultivator, though it was said that his strength could somewhat reach a shadow of what the Mahayana realm could achieve - not that many knew what it was exactly that the Mahayana realm could do given that there were only sparse tales of people who had reached that far. No one in the Raswatian Empire¡¯s history had ever become a Mahayana realm cultivator. As a matter of fact, they had no reliable records of anyone becoming a Mahayana realm cultivator even outside their empire¡¯s history, but if such records had ever existed, it was likely that they wouldn¡¯t have stood the test of time.

    Regarding the first emperor, it was thanks to his mastery of the ¡®Five Attributes¡¯ that he had united the warring states at the time and placed them all under the rule of a single iron fist.

    The Five Attributes were - One, to strike as fast as lightning; two, to be as swift as the wind; three, to be as strong as a mountain; four, to be as tough as steel; and five, to be as calm as ice.

    These attributes manifested themselves into various techniques, and the attributes themselves were carried through his bloodline. People descended from him would occasionally be born with the ability to use one of the Five Attributes.

    No one currently alive was able to utilize any of them to the full ability of what the Emperor of Five Attributes could, and with time as his bloodline diluted, fewer and fewer people were born with the ability to use them.

    On very rare occasions though - there might be people born with not just one, but two out of the Five Attributes. Thirty-five thousand years ago, a person had been born with three out of five of them, though the Imperial Family at the time had feared their rise and had them executed once they were only twelve years of age; before they could get powerful to the extent that they could become a major threat to their rule.

    It just went to show that in this world, sometimes, it was best to keep your strength hidden!

    Chen Yu shuddered as he thought of the cruelty of that decision - thankfully times were now different, and such a thing wouldn¡¯t have likely been permitted in this day and age.

    After a hundred thousand years of diluting bloodlines, it was now quite rare to find someone who was born with even one of the Five Attributes.

    So you can imagine how happy Chen Yu¡¯s family had been when he had been born with one of the Five Attributes - he had number four of the five attributes; to be as tough as steel!

    His parents had thrown a grand party at the time of his birth as they had been unable to contain their joy at the time.

    This was a powerful defensive attribute, and could be honed into various techniques.

    Ever since then, Chen Yu had bore the weight of his family¡¯s expectations on his shoulder.

    Not to say that everything had all been bad because of this, he had been given quite the bit of favoritism from his parents because of the same.

    He could get away with things that his brothers couldn¡¯t and he usually got his way when it came to conflicts - to the point where his brothers nicknamed him ¡®Little Emperor¡¯ because of this golden child treatment.

    His parents also tried to give him anything that they felt might give him the upper hand later in life - the baby oil had been an example of that. Something that was likely useless, but they were willing to try anything that might give him even the slightest bit of an edge - much like some parents back on Earth would have their children listen to classical music when they were just a few months old in the hope that it would help them become smarter later in life.

    Speaking of such bloodline abilities though - Chen Yu highly suspected that Tang Ze¡¯s strange potential to draw powers from fictional characters he was ¡®cosplaying¡¯ as (as Tang Ze described it, a term for what he was doing) was also some kind of bloodline ability. Just one that he had not heard of before.

    Tang Ze was strangely distant whenever asked about his family for some reason - which Chen Yu found odd. It wasn¡¯t like Chen Yu was particularly interested in Tang Ze¡¯s heritage, it was just one of the first things that people would ask about in this world. After all, people usually identified themselves first with their family, then with their village, and after that with their sect. The two of them already belonged to the same sect, so that left only two things to inquire about.

    From what he could tell though, Tang Ze seemed to talk of his mother and father with no issues, though when asked about siblings, his face would suddenly become cloudy and his mood would become gloomy.

    Chen Yu wasn¡¯t sure if it was because Tang Ze didn¡¯t have a good relationship with his siblings or if something tragic had happened - as it was, he was sure that Tang Ze would tell them when he felt comfortable.

    Chen Yu had no desire to meddle into other people¡¯s affairs, especially if they might make someone uncomfortable.

    And it looked like Tang Ze had enough problems on his hands without being given extra stress.

    ¡°Young Master Chen Yu, are you ready to begin?¡± one of the farmers asked, snapping him out of his reverie.

 Ironthorn Fruit: Part Two

    Chen Yu frowned at the ¡®Young Master¡¯ title - he didn¡¯t like it.

    Back home, it was a symbol of the familial expectations he often found to be suffocating at times. At least when his brothers called him ¡®Little Emperor¡¯ there was a touch of endearment to that name. Here, in the sect, it was usually said by Yin Tiang to needle Chen Yu as it was said ironically. Chen Yu had specifically asked everyone he knew not to call him by that title - Yin Tiang still did so as a joke of course, but no one said called him that with any seriousness.

    However, Chen Yu didn¡¯t express his discontent - he knew this farmer was just doing his job and trying to give him the due respect he thought Chen Yu deserved.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m ready,¡± Chen Yu said.

    He was not that far from the sect division where he usually lived - so close that he could, if he wanted to, go back within three hours. He didn¡¯t and stayed in place near here just because that much traveling would be exhausting, but it just went to show how far they had gone out of their way to screw Tang Ze over.

    These fields were specially owned by the sect and grew Ironthorn Fruit. It was very useful for nearly all kinds of alchemical recipes depending on how ripe they were - but they were extremely difficult to grow and even more difficult to harvest.

    The fruit was tiny, so small that one of them could easily be balanced on the pulp of one of Chen Yu¡¯s fingers.

    The fruit was so called because it grew along a vine. The vines could be as thick as Chen Yu¡¯s body in places, though most of the time they were only as thick as a limb. They were covered entirely with barbs that were incredibly sharp, hence the vine¡¯s name. The fruit was hidden within the vine, and naturally, to get to it one needed to dig through the thorns.

    Despite multiple millennia of trying, people had not been able to breed a variation of the Ironthorn Vine that would grow fruit superficially in large numbers. Instead, the vine had a tendency to grow in layers, with most of the fruit only nestled at the very bottom.

    It was very hard to harvest for this reason - there were not that many ways that one could get to the fruit while bypassing the thorns while also not damaging the fruit, which was incredibly fragile.

    The fruit also grew in very little proportion to the vine, to the point where a field as big as a room might only have a handful of the fruit.

    But, harvesting it was only difficult if one did not have someone like Chen Yu with them. Thanks to his talent, he had a technique that allowed him to be able to reach for the fruit with little difficulty without risking damaging them, and so this was why he had not been surprised when the sect assigned him to this role once again. He was a natural at doing this.

    His technique was called [Steelskin]. Even most Qi Refinement cultivators did not have a special technique like this given that they usually did not have full control over their Qi at that level, but this was the benefit of being born with one of the Five Attributes!

    There was a weaker version of [Steelskin] known as [Ironhide] which some Golden Core cultivators could use, but it had drawbacks that [Steelskin] did not, not to mention [Steelskin] was something that Chen Yu could use even at his low level of cultivation.

    It was thanks to this technique that he was confident of fighting any Qi Condensation cultivator in a one-on-one fight in the sect and coming out ahead - and even most Qi Refinement cultivators as well.

    Well, perhaps Tang Ze could find a way to break through this defensive skill using the powers he got from his odd ¡®cosplaying¡¯ skill, but he was quite the outlier.

    Chen Yu had not yet mastered the technique to the point where he could make his entire body as hard as steel, but he was able to use it on a part of himself. The hands and the arms were the easiest parts.

    And so, Chen Yu¡¯s hands suddenly turned gray and were more well-protected than if he were wearing several layers of inch-thick plate armor over his arms.

    Despite how heavy his hands looked, it did not affect his mobility in any way whatsoever. They were still as flexible as they always were, which is where the lethality of such a technique lay - to be able to strike through bone and skin without sacrificing flexibility or agility!

    Not only that, if Chen Yu were able to use this technique to its fullest, he could cover up his body completely, leaving no weak spot. Normally areas like the groin, neck, and eyes would be especially vulnerable to attacks, but [Steelskin] could completely negate this weakness.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    If Chen Yu practiced further using his attribute, he could branch out into other abilities like [Soul of Iron] which defended from soul-based attacks as well.

    Even the sect acknowledged his innate talent and was willing to invest more in him so that he could continue to build upon it, though right now, he was still at Qi Condensation and couldn¡¯t do much more with it other than using it to cover parts of his body for short periods of time.

    It would only be at Qi Refinement when more avenues would open up for him to use his attribute to its fullest!

    For now, he used his hands to weave through the Ironthorn Vine. The vines were stacked on top of each other and were so crowded it was nearly impossible to find a way through them without cutting them, but this risked damaging the fruit and also injury to whosoever did such.

    Not to mention it would be very time-consuming.

    For Chen Yu however, it was child¡¯s play. The thorns could do nothing to him as he went elbow-deep into the vine, easily finding the bottom, and able to easily remove several pieces of fruit without damaging them or hurting himself.

    The fruit was tiny, almost like a raspberry, and the light color of saffron. It did not look that remarkable when one glanced at it - and someone, if they didn¡¯t know what it was and left it out on a counter, might even eat it, not realizing that what they had eaten could fetch a price that could feed an ordinary mortal family for nearly a month.

    Normally, there would also be some slight damage to them no matter how careful one was while retrieving them, but by now, Chen Yu was a seasoned hand at this kind of work and was able to extract them with minimal loss.

    The amount he managed to get out was worth more than its weight in gold.

    ¡°Amazing!¡±

    ¡°So this is the power of one of the Five Attributes!¡±

    ¡°Young Master Chen Yu truly is superb! To be able to work so fast - he can harvest more than twenty of us put together!¡±

    Chen Yu was used to such praise - as it was, it was coming from mortal farmers so he didn¡¯t put too much stock into it, but it was quite satisfying to see the talent he was born with actually be useful in some way other than in trying to fight.

    Who knows how far it might take him in the future?

    Normally, it was said that the sect spent more on Initiates than they contributed back to the sect, at least in terms of financial resources.

    This could not be extended to Chen Yu, however.

    The amount of Ironthorn Fruit that he harvested not only made up for what the sect spent on him, but his entire squad as well.

    If he continued to improve on his ability to use his attribute, he could easily rise up in the sect at an astonishing rate!

    As it was right now though, there was little else for him to do.

    He could only use his ability so often in a day, and now that he couldn¡¯t anymore after extracting a few more fistfuls of fruit, he had the rest of the time off.

    The sect did not mind this, given how fruitful his labor otherwise was, so he was now left to cultivate.

    He found it all to be quite ironic in the sense that he was considered valuable to the sect right now because he could harvest a kind of fruit very easily - which would be work that his family would otherwise scoff at and believe was quite beneath them.

    Not that that mattered when he was in the sect. It was actually quite relaxing in a way, to be unburdened by his identity while he was within the sect for the most part. Chen Yu was basically given the same tasks as nearly everyone else, though sometimes, such as in this situation, he was given what could be seen as preferential treatment with an easy solo task to complete - though on the other hand, it was something he was being rewarded for being skillful at it.

    Being the golden child had come with downsides, after all. His parents hadn¡¯t strictly forbidden him from having friends, but they had disapproved of nearly everyone that Chen Yu had become friends with as they thought that they would lead him astray and would distract him from progressing. He also couldn¡¯t do some things that his brothers could - such as playing games with the other children outside. His parents had been overprotective to the point that they didn¡¯t want him to accidentally get a fracture or the like, and at the time he didn¡¯t have the [Steelskin] ability.

    Not to mention, now that Chen Yu was older and got to reflect on some of his earlier behavior, he realized with embarrassment at how much of a spoilt child he had been. When his older brothers told him stories about the antics he used to pull back during the times he was so young that he couldn¡¯t remember them, he had trouble believing they were true until his parents would usually confirm that that had been the case at the time..

    Here though, he was just another member of the sect - slightly more talented and with a greater future potential than many others, but still for the most part another sect member. He was also unburdened by many of the usual restrictions placed on him by his family, and was able to grow past the ¡®spoilt child¡¯ phase he had been in before.

    He did not usually like to be reminded of his heritage while in the sect, a fact that Yin Tiang knew, and often needled him over as he knew that it annoyed Chen Yu.

    But, after some time, Chen Yu had learned to ignore such things and even counter Yin Tiang¡¯s taunts with his own.

    Chen Yu watched from a distance as the farmers gathered the Ironthorn Fruit he had managed to pick up and put it carefully into boxes which were loaded upon carts before he went to focus on cultivating inside his lodgings. The place where he stayed was far more luxurious than the cottage where Tang Ze was staying; since it was so close to the sect, supplying it was not so much of an issue.

    Chen Yu sat down on a mat and began breathing in and out until his breathing and heartbeat were steady, and he began to condense the Qi in the air, driving it into his lower dantian. He continued to repeat this process over and over, gathering as much Qi in there as possible, before driving it towards his meridians. Once one such cycle was completed, he repeated the entire process again.