"And this will be your final lesson." With these final words, the old man, who looked to be in his late seventies, bid his farewell, leaving behind a group of flustered children who were barely sixteen.
Most of them were wearing simple, coarse clothes that were patched many times. Almost half of them were malnourished and had a lifeless look in their eyes. The peculiar thing about this group was that there were no girls.
"We... we should not give up." It was a meek voice that spoke, but no one bothered to reply. After three years of living in this place, the wondrous dreams and ambitions they once had were now washed away under the cruel reality and hardship of the world.
One of them just turned around and left for their house, and soon the crowd thinned, leaving only a handful of children there who were still struggling to come to terms with the reality.
Amongst them stood a frail boy with sunken cheeks and almost visible bones. Other than his eyes that were filled with wisdom and made a stark contrast with his immature appearance, there wasn't anything that stood out about him.
"What a mess." Looking around him, Yang Ze couldn't help but mutter under his breath. He was less bothered by the present body condition of his and more by the fact that their free trial in the sect had expired, and from today onwards, they need to either pay tribute, do tasks or leave the sect.
Thinking about it, he couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh. It's been almost a month since he came to this world. When he first inherited the previous owner's memories, he was filled with excitement. After all, this was a world where one could cultivate immortality. Though there were no tales of any person living forever, increasing one's lifespan wasn't a secret.
When he first realised he too could cultivate, he immediately sat down and practised according to his memories. But after an entire day of digesting memories and practising, he came to a terrifying conclusion... His qualifications were absolutely terrible. If one had to put him somewhere, then he would be at the very bottom.
And the more he digested those memories, the more he realised how terrible his current condition was.
In this world, only those with Spiritual Veins can practice immortality, and those without it can only remain mortals.
In this case, he was both lucky and unlucky. Lucky because he had spiritual veins... unlucky, because he had only a single spiritual vein prototype. This placed him at the bottom of the barrel, just like every other person in his group.
"This is going to be difficult." Muttering to himself, he slowly began to head towards his house.
During the entire time, his eyes were stuck on a blurry tattoo at the back of his right hand that looked like a half-moon.
From the previous body owner, it was clear that this tattoo only arrived after he arrived in this world.
He didn't know what it was. The only thing it was useful for was to help with his hunger. Every time he stood under the sunlight, this thing would get warm, as if it were absorbing the light. As this would happen, he would also gain a little energy and feel his hunger lessen. Although it wasn't much, it was better than nothing. He even "accidentally" tried to show it to the few children around him, only to find that no one else could see it.
Taking a deep breath, he gently rubbed it. He didn't know what this thing was, but right now, it was perhaps his only hope of getting out of this hopeless situation and preserving his life.
It took him almost an hour to reach his house, which was located at the very end of the mountain range and almost at the outskirts of the Soaring Cloud Sect. Just behind him was a massive forest range that seemed to have no end. Thankfully, the entire sect was well protected, and during the previous body owner's three years of stay here, he never once saw or heard rumours about any beasts breaking into the sect's territory.
He glanced at his house, which was a simple hut with a single room, two small stones adjacent to the side walls which were used as stoves, some scattered pots and a small hundred-meter farm in front of his house that was surrounded by a bunch of thin wooden sticks that acted as fences.
Just like his house, which had only a straw mat and a few sets of clothes, the farm in front of his house was barren too, covered in weeds only.
"Life is going to be hard... very hard." Yang Ze almost shed tears of sadness.
Three years ago, the previous body owner was a mere servant of a large family. Fortunately, due to various events, he got lucky and was able to join the Soaring Cloud Sect. At first, his happiness was through the roof, thinking he was the chosen one and his life was going to be all sunshine and butterflies. But it was only after arriving here did he realised just how foolish his previous thoughts were.
After testing their talents, children like him were divided into three groups. The first group was of children whose talent was immense and who were already accepted by elders as their personal disciples.
The second group was of children whose talent was mediocre and were taken as Outer disciples of the sect, and finally, the third group, which consisted of children like him with the lowest talent.
Thankfully, the sect didn't make their life difficult. Though they were considered miscellaneous disciples, none of the facilities of the sect were forbidden to them. As long as they could pay, they could even get a private lesson from the Sect leader himself.
For the first three years, miscellaneous disciples like him were taught basic knowledge about reading, writing, and introductory cultivation techniques. If, during this period, someone manages to condense their first spiritual vein and step into the First level of Pulse Opening, they would be immediately promoted to the outer disciple.
Unfortunately for all of them... not a single person managed to step into the first level of Pulse Opening. This meant that for the rest of their lives, they would only stay as the miscellaneous disciples of the Soaring Cloud Sect regardless of how much progress they made.
"What do I do now?" Yang Ze just sat on the ground outside his house and fell into deep thought. He didn't know what to do. He first looked at his left side, where a gentle stream of water was flowing.
Even though the sect was huge with tens of thousands of members, every single member had their own personal space with a house, a stream of river, a farm and a large plot of empty land for them to do whatever they want.
Unless one dies or gets promoted to a really high position, this would be their home for the rest of their lives.
"Should I just get the farming spells?" Taking out a small, exquisite wooden token from his robe, Yang Ze couldn't help but wonder. During these first three years, their food and clothing were paid for by the sect. But now... now they need to earn their own livings.
"Or should I try to raise fish?"
Since this was the first time, the Sect was going to provide them with resources for free. This was why Yang Ze was hesitating a bit. There were only two things he could do now, and those were farming and raising fish.
Though farming was hard, it was a rather stable means of earning money, and one only needed some superficial knowledge along with some spells.
As for raising fish... Not only did he need to make a pond, but he also needed to buy the feed once he ran out of the free one.
It didn't take too long for him to make a decision.
"Farming, it is then." Even though the process would be long and difficult, it was at least stable. Besides, he knew a thing or two about farming from his time on earth.
He then carefully put the token back and then took out a small book. This was what the sect gave them once they were able to read and write.
[Spirit Gathering Technique]
Looking at the name, he let out a deep breath. Even though he had read it countless times after arriving in this world, he still found it fascinating.
According to the book, a human body can have up to nine spiritual veins in their body. These veins exist in a blurry state... like a diagram.
One needs to use spiritual energy to make them real. And the moment the first spiritual vein is constructed inside one's body, then one officially embarks on the path of cultivation.
Those with nine spiritual veins in their body only need to construct them, whereas those with fewer spiritual veins need to first find the proper path for the spiritual veins, construct a diagram inside their body, and then form a blurry figure with spiritual energy before constructing them.
This was also the reason why children like him, with only a single spiritual vein in their bodies, were at the bottom of the barrel.
"Well, at least it is better than being a mortal." Thinking about how those without spiritual veins can not cultivate, Yang Ze let out a sigh of relief. Although it was a hell start, it was much better than being a mortal in this world.
Clearing his mind of these distracting thoughts, he tried to practice according to the book, breathing and then focusing his mind on the blurry spiritual vein that he could sense, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't make any progress. Without any resources, it was going to take him a long... long time.
"Let's just focus on one thing first." Cultivation was never easy, and from what the old man taught them, it would often take people decades to construct a single spiritual vein. Since that was the case, he would rather focus on farming first and only after securing his livelihood would he focus back on cultivation.
Making up his mind, he stood up, patted his clothes and headed towards the gathering hall.
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For miscellaneous members like himself, the sect had established a large number of gathering halls where people like him could go and exchange resources.
At the moment, Yang Ze was standing in front of one such gathering hall.
Instead of calling it a hall, it was much better to call it a small market. There were numerous small stalls scattered all around, showcasing various items. Some stalls were selling precious herbs, some were selling all kinds of weapons, whereas the majority of the stalls were selling all kinds of beast cubs.
This was not the first time Yang Ze had seen this, but he was still fascinated by the sights of the beasts. He couldn't even recognise the majority of them, but it didn't stop him from wandering for a long time.
After retracting his gaze reluctantly, he focused back on a large, exquisite wooden building in the middle of the market before heading inside.
"One of the new members?" The moment he stepped inside, he was greeted by an old voice. Looking ahead, it was a man in his late eighties sitting there quietly with murky eyes.
Contrary to Yang Ze's expectations, the area inside wasn't large; instead, everything was cluttered. There were only a handful of people roaming around wearing the uniform, properly arranging the items there.
"Senior." Giving the old man a respectful bow, Yang Ze took out the wooden token and placed it in his hand.
"Hmm..." The old man only glanced at it once before throwing it back.
"Since your three years are complete, you need to pay a yearly tribute of fifty spiritual shards to the sect."
"Because this is your first time, the sect will provide you with the starting resources. Tell me... do you want to farm or raise fish?"
"Farming, senior." Yang Ze spoke without hesitation.
"Hmm... A wise choice." The old man just reached below the counter, pulled out a small bag and threw it to Yang Ze.
"This bag contains a hundred seeds of white spiritual rice and three beginner spells. Take care."
With these words, he closed his eyes again, completely ignoring the boy standing there.
'Well, that was fast.' Yang Ze slowly walked out of the building. He didn't expect things to go this smoothly and with such efficiency. In less than thirty seconds, he came out with a bag of seeds and techniques.
Even though there were a lot of things he wanted to buy, he didn't have any money. Taking a reluctant look at the items there, he headed back to his house.
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"Should I just start weeding or should I relax for a day first?" The moment he stood in front of his house, he hesitated. Even though he wasn't physically tired... his mental fatigue was real. After losing his last chance of stepping into an official outer disciple of the sect, he was feeling rather low.
"Forget it." Shaking his head, he sat on the ground in front of his house, placed the bag in front of him and first took out three small books.
He didn't glance at them but instead focused on the almost translucent shining rice grain.
"Is this the seed?" Picking it up, Yang Ze admired it for a while. It was no different from regular rice except that it was filled with numerous veins that had turned golden under the sunlight.
Just when he was about to examine it further, he felt the mark on the back of his hand getting hot. Within a few seconds, it felt like someone had poured melted hot liquid of metal on his hand.
"AAAAH..." Before he even had time to scream, Yang Ze felt the world around him go dark as he suddenly found himself standing at an empty piece of land surrounded by nothingness...