Time passed by slowly as he read the introduction of one manual after the other. It was already past an hour when he finally found something that picked his interest.
'Ancestral Dragon Seal Cultivation Technique: through the use of qi, inscribe a mark on the user's body. Each mark allows the user to massively increase their power for a short time. Note: if one overuses the energy stored in the mark, there are chances of the user receiving permanent damage.'
The note made it a bit less appealing, however, to Yueshi, it seemed much better than the ones he had seen until now.
'But…' he looked around, there were still many cultivation techniques left to browse through, and the next time he came here, he'd have to pay to look around.
'Well, thinking too much is of no use.' Trusting his gut feeling and choice, he walked out of the tower and stood by the old granny's side.
"Did you chose, child?" Her voice was languid.
"Hm. I'd like to take the Ancestral Dragon Seal Cultivation Technique." At his words, the old woman nodded before lifting her hand; before he could even notice, a beam of light shot out of the tower, landing in her hand.
"This little trinket can be quite useful if used right, and allow you to face opponents a few layers above you." Opening her eyes, she looked at the book that now laid at the top of her hand. "I hope you never have to use all the power stored in the seals.." After she ended her speech, she delivered the manual to Yueshi.
Yueshi made sure that he committed her words to heart, and after bowing, he retreated.
After that he waited for Xuehua to come out, having also chosen a manual.
The old woman gave her some advice and watched as the two walked away.
"The boy is a genius amongst geniuses, but his bearing is too unstable. At times he is calm and gentle, at others fierce and domineering… the Ancestral Dragon Symbol fits him nicely." The old woman muttered to herself.
Then, her eyes fell upon Xuehua.
"Heavenly Hands is a hard technique to anyone in the Body Refinement Realm. One needs to be all-encompassing to understand its depths. Maybe, with her gentle and calm temperament, she can cultivate it with some effort."
If the two of them would rise or fall, she did not care. She had seen many geniuses along the years, to the point she grew numb to them. Above all, she was old, and it was not up to her to meddle in a world that belonged to a new generation.
When Xuehua and Yueshi returned to the residential area, they chose houses that were next to each other.
For Yueshi it was not that strange, since he had just come to this world; for Xuehua, however, it felt a bit out of place to sleep alone inside a house, since they had been together for many years.
"If you get too lonely, you can come live with me." Yueshi teased, despite not knowing what was going on in her mind.
"Hm? My only worry is that you will not be able to sleep alone and will have nightmares." Joking back, she entered her own house, leaving a dumbfounded Yueshi.
'It seems it backfired?' Maybe he was not good at teasing people, since oftentimes it would turn around and bit him back. Mulling over it, he entered his quarters, prepared to take a deeper look at the Ancestral Dragon Seal.
Having made his mind, he sat on his bed and breathed in deeply.
After opening the manual, he immediately started to read through it. He would have to give it back in a week, despite being only a copy, so he had to memorize it before then.
'Qi is a formless type of energy that can take many shapes, and its composition is variable. Qi can be fire and can be water, qi can be earth and can also be the wind. There is nothing it cannot be. Just like forging masters engrave inscriptions upon their weapons and armors using qi, the Ancestral Dragon Seal aims to do the same on the body.'
The first page had a small introduction about the origin behind the technique and its uses.
Yueshi read it with attention, not leaving a single word behind. After having read the first page, he closed his eyes and analyzed the content. After making sure he remembered every word perfectly, he flipped to the second page.
'To start the process of forming the Ancestral Dragon Seal, one needs to coalesce the qi in the ambient in the desired spot where the mark will be formed. However, that is the easiest part. Each Ancestral Dragon Seal is formed of many lines and small inscriptions and that requires deep focus and attention; moreover, each following mark after the first will become more complex, so that the harmony between them is not disrupted.'
The following pages showed all the lines and small, inscription-like engravings that had to be formed with qi. One by one, they formed almost a thousand lines, with many small symbols inside each of them.
According to the manual, practicing in the body could be dangerous and lead to certain adverse effects. Therefore, the technique's creator recommended forming it with qi in the air, allowing it to disperse once a mistake was made.
Thankfully, a senior left some notes behind. As per his words, training in the air was not only less dangerous but also allowed one to enlarge the seal as they saw fit - allowing one to settle down a good foundation.
As Yueshi continued to read, taking a few seconds between each page to memorize the content of the manual, he eventually became engrossed in it, losing track of time.
A long while had passed when he finally ended reading everything, and all he could say was that it was truly mysterious.
Maybe because his realm was too low, or because his understanding of this world and its laws was lacking, he was not too sure about many things.
However, what he comprehended was enough to cultivate it, because since he was following in the steps of a predecessor, he did not need to have a great comprehension of everything right from the start.
'However, not now.' It was, after all, quite late already, and the day had been a particularly tiresome one.
The battle against Ling Tian Tian had put a great burden on his body, and the following challenge had tired his mind. It was a miracle he could study the manual without falling asleep mid-way.
Lying back in the comfy pillow, he thought about the future and what he wanted to do from now on. He also thought about the many things he had to do in the following days, and how all the time of the world did not seem enough right now.
As he was going over everything, he eventually fell asleep. To his surprise, his dreams that night weren't any less perverted than from the nights before.
He had to admit that, since that night, he had become a little more perverted each following day – at least inside of his dreams.
Coming to this world had truly changed him, in more ways than one - and the changes were both good and bad However, he had to admit that, until now, things were looking fairly good to him.
This sort of life wasn't that bad.
The following morning Yueshi was awoken by Yuan Yue knocking on his door.
To his surprise, his disciple sister had recovered completely from the poison. Apparently, a young man from the Xiao Family - Xiao Yao - had delivered the cure to her during the previous night.
"He is an oddball." She commented as they walked around. "And not the sort of asshole you'd expect to come from the Xiao Family." He did not understand why, but her opinion of the guy was nice and friendly.
Yueshi did not know much about the Xiao Family and Xiao Yao, so he did not comment about that.
"What are you planning to do today?" She asked him as they stopped to purchase some steamed buns.
"Train. I was planning to go to that strange pagoda as soon as possible, but I decided to focus on my new technique first." He knew fighting against strong opponents was of great use, but he wanted to tackle the Dragon Seal first. "And you? Are you going to choose your cultivation manual?"
He had expected a yes; however, she shook her head. "No, I will focus on my cultivation stage for now. I need to catch up to you all." Despite her saying 'you all', her eyes seemed to tell 'Ling Tian Tian'.
It was odd how he could reach such a conclusion, but her entire demeanor seemed to corroborate that assumption.
"Well… There is something I have been wanting to ask." Hearing his words, she stopped and looked at him. "You don't seem to like Ling Tian Tian, do you?" He sounded a bit unsure, and her frowning expression made him hesitate a bit.
However, after a long sigh, she finally spoke.
"Long story short? She took many things away from me. I… do not exactly hate her. However, every time I see her, I feel really bitter, for reasons that I don't even understand properly." She looked away while shaking her head and laughing awkwardly.
Yueshi understood she did not feel good talking about it, so he decided to change the subject for now. This did not seem like something that could be solved with a single talk.
"Okay, okay. Why don't you spar with this big brother here? Let me teach you a few things" Joking, he patted her head in a teasing way, not being sure of how to comfort her.
"Ptui!", she spat on the ground. "It seems that you grew some guts after being called a genius, huh? Then let this big sister show you how big the world is."
Yueshi laughed seeing her act like the normal her, while Yuan Yue was thankful for his concern and care.
Like that, the two played around for a bit before separating. Shortly after, and as if by destiny, Yueshi found a nice spot near a river and sat down under a tree to cultivate.
'This place is great.' He thought, looking around. The breeze was calm and refreshing, making it easy to clear one's mind.
Sitting below the tree, he thought about the content of the manual he had memorized
and tried to remember everything.
Soon, though, he had to rummage through his robe, take the manual out and read it again - not only there were things he was
unable to recollect, but he also wanted to make sure everything was crystal clear to him.
While he did so, he tried to construct the symbol in his mind - time and time again.
Despite all that, it was hard to form a proper image of it, so he gave up on that; there were too many small details, and once he focused on one, another would disappear from his mental image.
However, this still made him realize an important point. 'With the qi, I will have to focus on it as a whole, or the qi will dissipate…'
Focusing on small details would not help, instead, it would be a problem. He had to pay attention to the symbol as a whole, and form it taking into account all the other lines and engravings on it.
Focusing his mind, Yueshi erased all unnecessary thoughts.
When he came to this world and tried to cultivate for the first time, he had trouble drawing qi. However, after doing it several times, and having reached the third stage of the Body Refinement Realm, it was now much easier.
He judged he could perfectly control the qi in a radius of three meters of his body.
The qi in the ambient was invisible, so he could not see it. However, he was perfectly able to sense it around him, and as he 'touched' it, he could feel when the qi changed shape under his control or moved position.
It was a strange and mystical feeling.
Yueshi then thought about the instructions on the book, moving the qi and shaping it in a line. Then, he gathered more and more qi, turning the once thin and small line into a three meters long one.
Since this was his first test, he decided to start with a single line.
Suddenly, under his command, the line started to distort at certain places. The qi composing the line in certain areas started to change shape, trying to form complicate d scriptures made out of strange symbols and shapes.
Unfortunately, the qi vibrated slightly before dissipating, the line completely disappearing.
Yueshi frowned and tried to do it again. The line took shape once more, and the small like scriptures started to take shape… only for it to break down again, the qi returning to its prior shapelessness and colorlessness.
'I have to make a thousand lines, yet I can't even form a single one?' Sighing he looked toward the flowing river for an instant.
After calming his mind, he tried to do it once again, expecting something to change, or for him to go through some sort of enlightenment. And yet…
Nothing happened.