The moment he added the points, he felt a scorching feeling in his abdomen that gradually spread to all his body. Immense amounts of pure Qi entered his body from the world and from inside him like a flood as if a dam had broken.
His breakthrough triggered fierce winds that created ripples in waters near him and shook the trees and nature around him. He frowned but endured the pain; His hair fiercely fluttering due to the generated wind.
The two Qi's, one from the world and the other from inside him merged with one another and moved towards his Dantian then they began gathering, and after a burning feeling in his Dantian, the massive amounts of Qi resided there calmly.
As he thought it was going to be over, the Qi began moving again; It circulated in his blood and fused with it. Before this the Qi fused with his blood could be compared to a hair's length; Now, the Qi fused with every drop of his blood and its thickness grew hundreds if not thousands of times.
As his blood moved in his body now infused with Qi, he could feel the Qi transforming his body and making it stronger and better in every way. The Transformation was magical; From bones to veins and even his eyes and brain.
The Qi particularly lingered between his eyebrows for a long time. After the Qi slowly dissipated and began circulating like normal in his body, a strange image entered his mind. If he focused enough, he could see inside of his own body in his mind.
The bones were black and his flesh was dark red and his organs were bright red while his nervous system and brain appeared blue, his blood was white-colored and he could see golden lines across his blood in his veins that showed his Qi circulating on its own. In the location of his Dantian, a big orb of gold shone as the center of his Qi system showing he had begun his Qi cultivation. Every time he breathed, his Qi would circulate on its own as if it had its own system. It was in harmony with his breathing and heartbeat.
He looked at this projection with wonder, 'Is this divine sense? I can only sense my body with it, unfortunately, I can't sense the surroundings yet...'
After making sure the breakthrough was over, he slowly stood up.
He felt no strain on his muscles as he stood up, he clenched his fist, and feeling no strain at all made him sigh.
"I have gotten so strong that I don't feel any strain on my muscles as if I am using them at below 0.1% power..." he murmured as he increased his force while clenching his fist.
He felt the familiar strain, that always existed when he moved any part of his body no matter how little, appear slowly, and build up. His knuckles turned white and he had no idea how much force he was exerting. He turned his sights on a nearby boulder that was as tall as him.
He slowly approached it and punched while using a little of his power, he didn't feel a thing as his fist went through the boulder and caused cracks to appear all over it.
He easily yanked his fist out and smiled, 'It feels as if the boulder isn't even there! Is this the power of that Xia guy when he fought me? No wonder I was not his match!'
He crouched slightly and punched with all his power, the boulder shattered into a thousand pieces with a loud boom and the pieces violently pierced the surroundings leaving holes all over the place. Most of the pieces followed the direction he had punched and left a long line of destruction in the forest.
"It exploded! Let's run before someone comes..." he murmured as he ran while cautiously using his leg power to not accidentally jump.
He didn't expect his body to have grown so strong so easily.
'The system is really overpowered!' he thought with elation and felt smug at having such a powerful cheat in the form of a system inheritance from an immortal who claimed to be the most powerful in the universe.
He opened the system screen and saw he was in the early XianTian stage. He also saw he had unlocked Qi cultivation which the system showed he was at early Xiantian in that area as well. When he saw he needed 40,000 EP to breakthrough to mid-XianTian he almost fainted.
'At this rate, I am going to have to spend years and millennia to have even one breakthrough in higher stages. It seems I need to upgrade my talent to get more EP per minute.' he thought as he checked and realized he needed 5,000 EP to upgrade his talent to mid-earth level.
Cultivation aptitude consisted of three parts: The first was the talent that the body had; This represented the compatibility of the body to the Qi of the world and how efficient it was at absorbing and storing it inside itself. The second was the comprehensive ability of the person, how fast he mastered skills; learned, or made a discovery in cultivation related matters. The third was the willpower of the person, the world was a cruel place that put many hardships especially on those who walked the path of immortality, they had to take on the tribulations of heaven and fate to ascend and become immortals, and all of that needed willpower and drive.
This information entered his mind from his subconscious as he thought about talent, they were from Wenhao's memories that he just remembered as if it was in the back of his mind. He fell into deep thought as he wondered what the best way was.
He saw the river that went through the village, 'I will think about it later, I have time. It's best not to make a rash choice about my future path on cultivating and farming EP. I also need to learn how to fight with the sword, it is called the sword immortal system after all...'
He stopped in front of the calm river and slowly approached it to see his reflection, 'I know how I am supposed to look like but I haven't seen how I actually do!' he thought as he looked at the surface.
A young man wearing ancient villager clothing composed of simple white loose robes that resembled a tunic looked back at him. He had lustrous and silky long black hair that reached his waist and gleamed under the light of the sun, he had jade-like perfect skin with extremely handsome sharp features, his eyebrows had a certain sharpness to them as if something between them was going to pierce anyone who looked at him. He had dark eyes that coupled with his hair created a pleasant contrast with his pale but healthy-looking skin. His appearance excluded a hidden presence that was overall elegant, confident, and imposing with unique sharpness. He was tall and had an athletic build.
'Wenhao was the crown prince of this Empire! He must have tried so hard to get everything right since looks are important especially to a monarch. The little things that he must have trained to achieve like certain postures and walking in a certain way have built up muscle memory which now affects me. I noticed I walked and moved a little differently and more efficiently so this was the reason! These little things created a certain presence to him that is hidden but those with keen eyes can easily see. I have now that presence because I hijacked his body...' he thought as he analyzed thoughtfully then shrugged and left the river site.
'Who cares? Power is the most important thing, looks, wealth, and influence, things like that come after unless they relate to power...'
He returned to the village and saw old Wang leaving the house, he ran and quickly caught up with him.
"Hey, so where is the boat? I want to pay you back as soon as possible!" he wanted to get this done and concentrate on his cultivation.
Old Wang stared at him calmly and gestured him to follow. Ling Tian followed the old physician to a simple boat with a fishing rod inside, waiting to be used, and a bucket to place the caught fishes inside.
"This is yours, the fishes you get we will split equally and after three weeks, you will have nothing to owe us." Ling Tian nodded in understanding and smiled gratefully, "You are surprisingly nice people compared to those I met before; Thank you truly."
Since it was early in the morning, not many villagers were out but some men recognized him.
"look, it's the injured man we found a few days ago!" said a middle-aged man.
"How is this possible?! He should be paralyzed and resting, how can he walk around?" said the middle-aged man's friend who looked at Ling Tian with shock.
"Indeed, his injuries were lethal! He must be made out of sturdy stuff to be back on his feet so soon." Said an old man who had a ripped body carrying wood on his back.
"He is a MAN!" Said a man.
"He looks so handsome! Maybe we can marry Yan'er off to him..." Said an old woman who carried a fruit basket with a scheming look in her eyes to her old husband who had the same scheming look.
"Enough!"
The chatter of the villagers stopped when the village chief approached Ling Tian and old Wang with annoyance in his eyes as he glared at the villagers.
"Don't gang up on the poor boy, he just recovered! Don't you have better things to do?"
The villagers around scratched their heads and awkwardly walked away. The crowd dispersed and only Ling Tian, old Wang nad the village chief remained.
"So, young man, are you feeling better? I am the village chief if you are wondering."
Ling Tian smiled politely, "I am doing well, this village is sure lively.".
The village chief laughed, "That it is." he turned towards old Wang and said with exasperation, "You sure are a slave driver! The boy just recovered and you want him to fish for you?!"
Old Wang disdainfully looked away, "You wouldn't understand, he himself wants it otherwise it would problematic for him in the future..."
The village chief made his confusion known by looking at Ling Tian who didn't know what to say and just nodded unsurely.
The chief sighed, "Whatever, still, young man, do I need to be worried about people coming here looking for trouble?"
It was clear he wanted to know why Ling Tian was injured like that.
Ling Tian felt conflicted, on one hand, he wanted to lie but on the other, these were good and honest people who helped him. "I... How far is Dark demon city from here?"
Old Wang and the chief looked at each other with clear confusion, "I have never heard the name of that city!" said old Wang with a look of contemplation, "And, I have been to a lot of places in the Empire."
Suddenly Ling Tian had a strange feeling, "What Empire am I in?"
Both of them looked at him as if he were an idiot, the chief answered, "Dao Empire, of course!"
Dao Empire was one of the greatest Empires in the Great Continent, much bigger and much more powerful than the Xuan Empire that Wenhao was the crown prince of, Xuan Empire was located to Dao's east. Dao Empire housed many righteous sects and one of the greatest sects in the 'Profound land', which was the name of the Supermassive continent, the Profound Dao sect. The most powerful cultivators of the Xuan Empire were mere ants in the Dao Empire. Dao Empire was the spearhead of the battle between righteous and evil, they constantly battled the Devil Empire to the south. All cultivators of the Dao Empire especially the cultivators of the profound Dao sect were famous and publicly known for their skill in Demon hunting, Ghost exorcism, and Devil slaying.
The information suddenly hit him from the memories and his eyes widened, 'I am in an entirely different empire?! Just how far did that river carry me?'
Noticing his change in expression, the two old men realized the river must have carried him quite a long distance. "It's okay, if your home is so far away then I guess no problems can arise by you being here..." said the chief consolingly.
Ling Tian shook his head and smiled, "I am grateful, so, is this all I need to fish, old Wang?"
He changed the topic and both old men shrugged while the chief had an amused smile, "Have you used a fishing rod before to catch fish?"
Ling Tian snorted confidently, "Hmph! I happen to be an expert!"
The old men laughed, old Wang looked at him and shook his head, 'He has no clue...'
The Chief's amused expression intensified, "Sure, Sure; Ask me if you need anything."
Ling Tian realized they didn't believe him and jumped on the boat to leave with a snort, 'These two are just like that old man who said I couldn't do it on Earth. hmph! I will show you...'
However, a smile appeared on his face, 'This feels like home...'
The old men looked at each other and laughed as he faded in the distance, sculling and moving forward in the river with his boat.