That night, after walking over seventy miles through winding forest paths and hill roads, Tian Jue's legs ached and his breath was shallow.
His body though rapidly improving was still young, and it reminded him so as he collapsed onto the straw-filled bedding in the corner of their wooden cottage.
His mother had already fallen asleep, the soft sounds of her breathing a rare kind of peace.
Tian Jue lay on his back, staring through the small wooden slats in the ceiling where starlight peeked in.
"The qi here is… thick."
He inhaled deeply. Even in the stillness of night, the air was laced with pure spiritual essence. It was subtle not aggressive or sharp like the wild qi storms of his past world but stable, dense, and willing.
Just this modest village, hidden in the arms of an unnamed forest, held more ambient qi than the capital cities of his old life.
"No wonder the people here are different."
He had observed it all day.
The butcher's arms, thick like tree trunks. The blacksmith, whose sweat steamed from his body like mist as he pounded iron. Even the town guards, mere mortals with no hint of cultivation, stood firmer than third-stage qi refiners from his past.
Most of them didn't even cultivate. They had no techniques, no foundation, no dantian refinement. Yet just through breathing this world's air and working its soil, they developed bodies stronger than 20-year-old initiates from the Awakened Age.
"If a miner at age thirty-five has the body of a fifth-stage qi refiner…"
He frowned, fingers lightly tapping his chest.
"…then how strong are the real cultivators in this world?"
In his previous life, techniques were everything.
The qi was thin. The world was just awakening—its cultivation era barely a thousand years old. Resources were rare, foundations unstable, and breakthroughs risky. Only the most efficient techniques, honed through countless deaths, could help one rise.
But here?
Here, the world itself had awakened long ago. He could feel it in the bones of the earth, in the stars above, and in the air he now breathed.
And yet...
He hadn't seen a single manual, technique, or dao skill scroll in Qingyuan Town.
No wandering cultivators selling sword strikes for coin. No internal breathing scrolls passed from stall to stall. Not even a simple body-tempering chant in the outer library.
It was as if cultivation knowledge was guarded—restricted, even.
"Maybe… it's because people here don't need it as urgently."
Or maybe… the path was tied to sects, clans, and deeper powers.
He clenched his fist beneath the blanket.
"If I want to continue growing, I need a real cultivation technique."
"My system gives structure and reward—but it cannot build my dao."
"I need techniques. Skills. Paths. Enlightenment."
In his past life, he had cultivated the Void-Rending Bone Sutra, a body-refining technique forged from forbidden scrolls. It was harsh, dangerous, and greedy with qi—because qi was rare. That world's cultivation was like trying to light a fire underwater.
But here…?
"This world has kindling. It has flamewood. It has sun and stars."
He needed to find a sect—a place where techniques were taught, daos discussed, and ancient paths passed down.
And if the sects in this world were built atop this fertile qi sea…
"…then their core disciples must be monsters."
He smiled.
"Then I'll walk among monsters. And become their nightmare."
---
> [System Update: Strategic Goal Set]
→ New Objective: Acquire Cultivation Technique
Location Hint: Sects known to recruit outer disciples at age 7–10 from villages in the Southern Greenwood Region.
Tracking will begin upon next town visit or keyword trigger: "sect invitation," "outer disciple selection," "spiritual recruitment."
---
He closed his eyes, letting his thoughts fade as his body recovered from the journey.
The air drifted softly over him—calm, nourishing, filled with promise.
He had been reborn in a higher realm.
This time, he would rise faster.
But not just with strength.
"This time… I will forge a foundation no curse could ever touch."
---
To be continued…