"Ah, these girls are gorgeous." Ye Ming commented as he looked at the ladies on the sect grounds. Dressed in blue and white robes. These were the girls of Cloud Sword Sect.
All of them were pretty, with long black hair; some of them were cute, others were a bit sultry, others were cold. But one thing is for sure: all of them were gorgeous to look at.
The same Sect he was part of. The Cloud Sword Sect is considered a Mortal Sect, with its Ancestor being a Houtian Expert.
While all of that information would be important for a talented youth, none of that mattered to Ye Ming, who was a simple Outer Sect Member.
He awakened in this body nine years ago. At first, he was happy to be in the cultivation world. The possibilities were endless.
But he quickly realised it wasn’t so good. For one, his talent was pathetic; normal people cultivate three times his speed! Normal people! The ones with talent cultivate at least six times their speed.
From what the elders of the sect told him, his parent, most likely his mother, was some farm girl whom a perverted sect member impregnated.
Farm girls, while they can be pretty, have absolutely no talent.
For a simple reason: their meridians are closed; it means that the absorption of Qi is much, much slower.
Such news has quite devastated him. But part of him was relieved; he wasn’t a child who needed a parental figure of some sort.
This was not his first rodeo in life. He had quite a decent life on Earth. Maybe it was what allowed him to inhabit a child’s body in cultivation reality?
Something like that? He had years to ponder the philosophical part of his life.
However, at the end of the day, he needed to get himself together and find a way not to die as useless trash and a farmer boy, as they call him.
His only chance to have a better life is to utilise his only ’cheat’ and the only thing he has going for him.
The talent ’scan’ they did on him revealed above-average ’spiritual’ talent.
Now this talent could mean something in Immortal Sects, as it’s most likely related to understanding Dao, but here? In a Mortal Sect?
They only practise regular stuff. Hell, they don’t even have alchemists who make pills! They buy them in bulk from the Alchemist Association.
And that’s when Ye Ming decided to try his luck. His talent for regular cultivation is shit.
People who began cultivating with him were already in Stage Five of Qi Gathering; the talented ones were in Stage Seven of Qi Gathering.
And he? He was in Stage Two of Qi Gathering! Utterly pathetic. If he hadn’t been constantly doing basic tasks, they would have thrown him out by now.
But as long as he generates Sect contribution points with tasks, they will keep him, and he will get some money out of it.
After pondering on his life and watching the beauties in the distance, Ye Ming walked to the General Hall of Cloud Sword Sect.
This Hall was the Sect’s trash hall, where everything was discarded. Everything that is not useful for their practises is kept here.
Broken Talismans, Formation banners, techniques not related to Swordmanship, manuals of obscure arts- all of the stuff is kept here.
One would think that people would keep techniques in some vault, but that is not the case.
Martial arts and cultivation in this world are meaningless if you are not obsessed with them.
These techniques, no matter what they are, take time to learn and master, and time is one of the most important commodities in the cultivation world.
That is why someone like Ye Ming can easily skim through and buy them for scraps.
Thankfully, this time around, it was not a simple visit.
As the Farmer Boy arrived at the cheap-looking hall, he saw the elder who was responsible for it. This old man was always sitting there. Ye Ming had no idea about this old man’s cultivation, but it takes patience to sit for that long without moving.
Regardless, he greeted him like he always does.
"Elder Ding."
"Ye Ming, back again?" The Elder opened one of his eyes and looked at the boy before him.
"Yes. This time around, I am buying something." Ye Ming declared with a bit of pride. He finally saved enough money from all of his jobs.
"Oh?"
The elder pretended to be curious, not that the farmer boy cared, as he entered the scrapyard by the name General Hall.
It was a classic pavilion-style building. The only difference was that the yard was a mountain of rubbish.
Not that he checked them out. No, he already knew what he wanted, and that was inside the pavilion building.
With extra spring in his step, he got into the building, and the smell of rusting metal, mould and wood assaulted his nose.
’They really should ventilate this place.’
Ye Ming thought about that as he walked deeper into the building. He knew where he was going, so he didn’t look around. Instead, he walked with purpose.
Eventually, he got to the spot and pulled out a bronze cauldron.
It was an old and rusty alchemist’s cauldron. The runes on it were still there; they should do the job.
’The easy part is over; now for the hardest one... to actually use it.’
The happiness lasted only a couple of seconds as he left the building and approached the elder sitting at the entrance.
"...Hah... so that is what you want." Elder Ding wasn’t surprised at all. He flicked his hand, and a manual appeared on the table.
It was Alchemy Flames Control.
"I will add this. I don’t want you to burn sections of the Sect down with your attempts at alchemy." The old man said, in a tone that made it clear this was neither the first nor the last time someone had tried this.
Every single disciple who was shit at swordsmanship wanted to do something else, and most likely this cauldron changed hands many times.
"Know this: I won’t be giving your stones back if you fail."
In other words, there are no refunds.
"Yes, I know." Ye Ming pulled out his ten stones and handed them over.
A sign on the General Hall read that any item cost 10 stones.
"Good, then good luck, Ming."
The Farmer boy collected the cauldron and manual and left the hall.
He swiftly retreated to his shabby home in the Outer Sect Grounds.
Like most of the stories he remembers from his past life, the sect is following the typical rules. Outer Sect, Inner Sect and Core Sect.
The majority, like 90% of disciples, live in the Outer and Inner Sect Grounds. Those two sections support 10% of the Core, the cream of the crop.
Over there, they have rankings and intense competition for the number 1 spot. But even then, the Jiang Family rules everything. The Sect Master, the majority of Elders, the Ancestor... all of them are Jiang Family members.
’Ugh... who cares, let’s focus on this!’
Ye Ming placed the cauldron on the table. He then walked to one corner of his room, where the clay pots were.
He opened one, and it was full of herbs that were kept in a cool place.
This was all of the herbs that he was able to gather from his jobs for the Sect. He didn’t give all of them away. Bit by bit, he kept some of them for himself.
And now, he will try to use alchemy to make some basic pills!
’No guidance, no experience... totally... fucking fine!’
He sarcastically thought to himself. He can wing this!
But for now, he opened the manual on fire control and began to read it.
There wasn’t much on it. A simple guidebook on how to make it and how to bend it to his will; it was more like a booklet than a manual.
After reading it a couple of times, Ye Ming sat on the floor and began testing it.
He lifted his hand and sent a small amount of Qi into it, then caused a ’friction’ according to the manual.
Before long, a small flame appeared above his palm.
"Ohh..."
He gawked at the flames. He was like that bald guy who can use elements!
"...But...I can feel it... like... I can feel through it!"
Was this his ’cheat’?
Ye Ming tested it out more; he used his ’will’, and the flames moved according to his will. To the side, upwards and then down.
He could make the fire dance how he wanted.
Then he brought it close to the cauldron and sent the fire into it.
At that moment, the runes on the cauldron glowed, and there was a reaction. The fire grew in intensity, and he could feel the cauldron as well!
It’s like the fire and the cauldron were part of him now, connected with him through the flames.
"Amazing... is this my spiritual talent the elders spoke about?"
It was a cool thing, that is for sure, but the old men of the Sect skipped him without a second thought.
The investment-to-resources ratio, or something; well, it doesn’t matter to him, as Ye Ming decided to test this out.
Stopped playing with flames, went over and took some of the herbs he had stashed away.
These were the Green Strand Grass, or as cultivators call it, the Qi Gathering Grass. The Rank 1 Pills that are mainstream in cultivation circles, and the Cloud Sword Sect buy these in thousands from the Alchemy Association.
While they buy in the thousands, according to the elders who like to brag, Ye Ming has never seen even one in his life!
Because to get even more, he needs to have some talent in cultivation; it’s an investment by the Sect, and no one would invest in him.
That is why he decided to try to make one himself.
So he took several strands of the grass and placed them in the cauldron before using the new technique he had just learned.
The flames touched the cauldron, the runes began to glow, and Ye Ming sensed the grass inside. He guided the fire that ’touched’ the grass. At that moment, he tried to feel it up.
"Oh...I think... I think I can sense the impurities and the essence of this grass!" The Farmer boy was excited, but this is where he ’lost’ control; the grass burned away in a matter of seconds!
"Oops..." He scratched the back of his head, and the next time he was much more focused and tried again.
This time, the flames gently burned the impurities away as the Alchemist-to-be guided the liquid into a single spot, and the runes on the cauldron glowed, helping crystallise the pill.
Moments later, there was a light green pill the size of a small sweet in the middle of the cauldron.
Ye Ming slowly took it and looked at it with wonderment.
"...Whoa... so this is what a pill looks like... It’s not that hard... but this is the basics of the basics from the looks of it."
He commented, recalling the lessons he learned in the Sect: the higher the rank, the more ingredients one needs.
The mythical stuff, something like rank 3 pills, requires three ingredients to mix and bond to create a pill that could easily elevate one through several stages or make one pass through a bottleneck.
"Let’s see if you do what you said you would." He smiled while popping the pill into his mouth.
The moment he swallowed it, he felt like he had consumed a mint-type sweet; it was cool and made his body feel like he was taking bites of ice cream. It was cold... at the same time, he felt he had swallowed raw energy.
’I-I need to refine this!’
With that said, he swiftly stopped channelling alchemy flames, sat down on the floor and began to refine the Qi in his gut.
Before long, he felt a surge of power as his meridians reacted and expanded.
He had just broken through and reached Stage Three of Qi Gathering!
"Hehehe! It worked! Damn it!" Ye Ming chuckled, which turned into joyous laughter. His crazy winging worked! Who knew he had talent for this stuff!
Maybe it’s his old soul fused with this one that gave him the boost, not that it matters! What matters is that he found his way!