The Cultivation Tower's guardian Elder was, amongst the disciples, known as Granny Hua.
Sitting on her chair with a lazy expression and eyes closed, she always stood there in silence, only advising those she thought had some potential – though no one knew how she determined that.
Yueshi calmly walked toward her, wondering how strong this old lady was to be tasked with protecting the Cultivation Tower.
"Elder Hua, I brought the manual back." Standing in front of her, he politely spoke, showing adequate respect.
"Hm", twisting her fingers she made the manual fly from his hands, shooting inside the tower in white light. "Looks like your talent is the real deal since you already formed the first seal." Despite not opening her eyes she seemed to see the symbol on his nape.
Yueshi smiled and nodded, not bothering to act humble. "Elder, is there any advice you can give me?" She had cultivated for who knows how many years longer than him, so any advice would be welcome.
She stood in silence for a moment. "If you ever have enough points, visit the third floor. The true Ancient Dragon Seal is inside of it." Her words were slow. "This little thing you formed is merely a copy, and its functions limited. If you grasp the true Dragon Seal then you will be much stronger." Her words ended there, so Yueshi bowed and left.
There were many things he had to do, but first, he decided to buy a weapon.
And the best place to find one was the Starry Sky Pavilion; he also wanted to visit the pagoda and see how far he could go after implementing the Dragon Symbol.
With that being said, he urgently needed a good weapon to use in a fight, and he was willing to pay any price for that.
Just as he entered it, Yueshi noted this was the most crowded place in the entire outer court. Disciples came and went in batches, some laughing boisterously while others looked sorrowful.
Looking around, he saw that there were a few tables and chairs where people could sit down to interact with others. However, the main attraction was the many counters spread to the sides of the pavilion.
As far as he knew, the first floor was meant for taking missions. There were many boards all over the place and, fixed upon them, scrolls with all important details of the missions.
Yueshi promptly moved to another floor, however, instead of climbing stairs he descended.
The first underground floor was a few times bigger than the first floor, and all kinds of shops and stalls were built there.
Disciples could set their stalls to sell items that they acquired in their missions or produced, while non-disciples could also set a shop here, though they had to pay a certain fee.
Yueshi noted that there were many weapon shops, pill shops, libraries, food stalls, and unknown item sellers, and so on.
After asking around Yueshi found the three best weapon shops here. Old Wang's Weapon Shop, Flaming Steel Smith, and the Thousand Gold Weapon Shop – the last had the greatest reputation among disciples.
After thinking for a while, Yueshi randomly opted for the Thousand Gold Weapon Shop, since the merchant association behind it was famous even in the world outside of the sect.
Moreover, since the three were all famous, he was sure that their products would not be that different.
Different from the small stalls and shops, the Thousand Gold Weapon Shop had an entire floor to conduct its business, and even at this time, many disciples were walking in and out of it.
Because of the number of people Yueshi had to wait in line. It was ten or so minutes later that he reached the counter, where someone finally attended him.
"Hello, mister, what would you like?" A beautiful-looking attendant asked him.
Yueshi smiled. "I would like to see your spear's catalog if that is not too much of a hassle." With the same amount of politeness, he answered back.
The girl nodded smiling brightly, before waving her hand. Yueshi noted that there was an emerald-green ring on one of her fingers – a spatial tool – before his attention was taken away by a small piece of square jade – around half a fist big.
"Do you know how to use one, sir?" The girl asked him, to which he nodded in answer.
Picking it up he put it against his forehead, before sending a trace of qi inside and focusing his mind on it. Soon, it was as if an explosion had happened inside of his brain and given him access to foreign information.
'Heavens Severing Spear, a soft and flexible spear and one of the craftsmen Hu Feng's masterpieces. It comes with five arrays engraved: one fire element high-grade array, one qi absorption high-grade array, one qi release high-grade array, one explosion high-grade array, and one spatial high-grade array. Price: five hundred thousand contribution points.'
'Sky Piercing Spear, an old spear found in historical ruins, researches have proved that it belonged to a powerhouse of the old era. Damaged, only three out of six arrays work. It is engraved with a qi absorption top grade array, a qi release high-grade array, and a mirage top grade array. Price: six hundred thousand contribution points.'
Slowly, he looked through them all, and despite it looking as if took a lot of time, it happened in minutes.
In such a short time he analyzed thousands of spears and was surprised more than a few times by the weapons being sold by the Thousand Gold Weapon Shop.
They truly deserved their names as a famous shop and a strong faction in the outside world.
Finally, his eyes settled on a particular spear.
'Heavens Upheaval Spear, a spear made by famous craftsman Hu Feng when he was younger. The spear comes with two arrays engraved, a middle-rank gravity alteration array, and a low-rank qi purging array. Price: two thousand contribution points.'
Compared with the Sky Piercing King's Spear or the Heavens Severing Spear its price was much lower, and so was its quality. Nonetheless, the arrays engraved on it were something that would be of great help to Yueshi in his training.
Still, two thousand contribution points was a lot, even for him…
"Miss, what do you say of one thousand and five hundred for this Heavens Upheaval Spear?" Because of that, he decided to be thick-skinned and ask for a discount, giving off his most business-like smile.
The attendant could only giggle at his awkward smile. "Sir, we can't go lower than one thousand and eight hundred." Yueshi felt she was being honest, and smiled.
"Well, since this miss says so, and is helping me out, what can I say?" He was fairly proud of his ability to judge people, so he believed she was honestly selling it to him at the lowest price.
Following that, he settled his purchase. Disciples carried with them a wristband that they were given shortly after the end of the examination, in there, the amount of contribution points they had as well as their previous purchases were registered.
Yueshi was not sure of how it worked, however, that was not something for him to care about.
Having purchased what he wanted, he bade farewell to the young lady that attended him before leaving.
After familiarizing himself with the new spear, he would try to visit the pagoda to train a bit. He also had to further his studies of the second Ancestral Dragon Seal, which would take a fairly bit of time.
Noting that he had many things to do and that he had to go back home for dinner, he rushed his pace, almost running to that tree by the side of the river.
Once he got there, still holding the spear, he breathed in heavily.
Usually, weapons had a qi absorption and qi release array, so that they could absorb qi from the world as well as smoothly release qi in their attacks.
The Heavens Upheaval Spear was an exception, though, as it lacked both arrays; it was for that reason that, despite it having been crafted by a famous craftsman, it had been left alone.
Yueshi, however, recognized it as a fine training tool.
As Yueshi moved his qi toward his hand, sipping it inside of the spear, he felt the strange and complex diagrams and scriptures carved on it.
Unfortunately, he could not understand them no matter how much he tried to sense them.
Then, he used his qi to activate the first array – the qi purging array. This one was quite mysterious in that it made an area around the user where qi did not flow – as if pushing it away.
Even Yueshi's own qi could not enter the spear after the array was activated. It would remain like that for as long as the previously infused qi worked to charge the array.
Feeling the changes in the atmosphere around him, Yueshi felt a constricting pain in his chest, being forced to sit down.
Qi naturally flowed in the world and constantly supplied every being with energy – it was like life force or vitality, a concept humans on Earth knew about but could not prove the existence of.
To a cultivator, qi was even more important than to mortals. With the refinement of the body through the use of qi, a situation where there is no qi in the environment can lead to negative aftereffects on the body.
Headaches, difficulty to concentrate and think, pain in different areas of the body, feebleness, nausea, and many more… this state was known as qi starvation.
Any mortal that experienced it would end crippled, if not dead.
On the other hand, as long as a cultivator had a strand of qi inside of him, he could deal with the consequences after adapting to the new ambient.
However, long exposure to the qi starvation state would eventually deplete a cultivator's internal qi and lead them to suffer the same fate as a mortal.
So why did Yueshi activate it? To train, obviously.
Right now, his qi could only be used to keep his body in optimal condition. Therefore, at its most natural state, without any interference of qi's physical amplification nature.
Cutting the supply made a great burden be placed on one's body, however, at the same time, having to rely on oneself was a good way of training.
After stabilizing his condition, Yueshi did not rise from the ground immediately. Instead, he waited for the effect to end, and then fed enough energy to the two arrays.
Not even a moment later the ground under him cracked, cutting his breath short. His chest heaved up and down as he gave his best to breath properly, but, as an enormous force pressed down on him, all his effort were rendered meaningless.
'This is truly hard!' Under the effects of qi starvation and affected by a heavier gravity, he could not even breathe properly, much less move. It was only after the two arrays consumed all the energy they had been fed that he managed to stand up.
Panting, Yueshi got out of the ground and looked at the pitch-black spear in his hands.
'I can't even train with it', he shook his head with an awry expression. He had thought he'd at least be able to thrust and swipe it around, but he was mistaken. Right now, under the effect of both arrays, he'd be brought to his knees in an instant.
He did not feel embarrassed, nor ashamed, nor anything of the sort, though. It did not matter what passerby would think, or that it was not good for his appearance. As long as it could help him grown stronger, he was all in.
That being so, after piercing the spear in the ground, he assumed a horse stance. Then, he started the gravity array at full power.
His arms and legs shook as the gravity in his immediate surroundings pressed against him like a thousand tons. Beads of sweat flowed from his temples, and his back was completely drenched in no time. While it was not even that strong of an array, its effect was marvelous.
Yueshi was at the third stage of the Body Refinement Realm, yet even he was having a hard time withstanding it. Well, that was, also, why this would help his cultivation, so he did not complain and only focused on maintaining his stance.