Lucca noticed that most manuals had many strict requirements to even be able to cultivate. For example one would require a certain body type, others needed for you to be a certain species, and most would require you to own a lot of expensive ingredients making most of them completely useless to him; however, after an hour of searching he found a suitable one.
It was called "The Sky breaking Tree" A manual that cultivated a special plant inside his body that would breathe in the energies from the outside while breathing out Qi straight into his body. It was also very special because his Qi would then have a unique property of Life/Healing making him very hard to kill.
It was much cheaper than the rest, priced at 97HC. Maybe because it's not very combat oriented? But that's not the only reason why Lucca chose this manual. This special qi that he cultivated would give him a passive regeneration making his body heal much faster! Which was exactly what he was looking for since his primary reason for getting a cultivation manual wasn't for fighting but to survive!!
Making his choice he once again pressed the buy button "Kching!" but he did not leave the store just yet since there was one more thing he needed to get. A weapon! Metal is much harder than flesh after all.
Lucca wanted a flexible weapon that could defend and attack so at first he was thinking of a staff as it was one of the most flexible weapons he knew but blunt damaging weapons depend a lot on your strength to deal any significant damage.
"Maybe a spear?" He felt tempted but spears felt too limited, if something got too close he would instantly become vulnerable so he kept on scrolling. As he quickly went through the list Lucca found a strange name mixed in with the other weapons and clicked it out of curiosity.
The weapon was called a "Swallow" and he was surprised to find that it was as if they mixed a bunch of melee weapons into one! It looked like a staff with swords on each side. It was basically a bladed staff.
"This is it! I like this one!" looking through them he actually found one that was in promotion for 75 HC! It had a sleek silver look and on its body there were carvings of eastern dragons with some decorations that looked to be made out of high quality jade.
As he read the description he found that this weapon was sturdy enough to cut tier 2 beasts without a problem and could even harm some of the weaker tier 3 ones as well. It also mentions that this weapon came with free lessons! Without having to think anymore he quickly made the purchase. Honestly he was usually very smart with money but he had one large weakness which was "Promotion"
Making the last of the purchases Lucca quickly took out the cultivation manual and started reading from the first page and when he was finished he quickly got up and grabbed a bucket before filling it with water at the pool and ran outside the walls of the castle, not too far though since the outside is scary. It was around midday and the sun was currently at its highest and according to the manual it was the best time to try cultivating!
Lucca took out a little seed that had come with the manual before opening the book to the second page he started to read once again. The book was very short with only a few pages thick so it was better to call it a booklet instead. He only looked up when he read the last sentence but his face had quickly become ugly. This booklet was only PART 1!!
"%@$#%^! .... No wonder it was so cheap! I knew there had to be a catch! Damn my excessive need to save money. Sighs well at least it's good enough to become a tier 1 cultivator and by the time that happens I should have enough coins to get the second part"
Following the instructions he swallowed the seed before splashing half the water on the ground where he would sit and the other half on himself. The idea of the manual was to harness a certain energy from the sun through the seed inside of him while directing the rest harmful one into the ground and this would make the little seed hatch and latch onto the inside of his body. The little plant itself would passively inhale the man from the surroundings and exhale the changed life/healing qi filling his dantian and as it grew it would be able to pull in more and more at once.
Sitting on the ground Lucca started to slowly run the breathing technique which would open up his pores making it easier for him to slowly pull in the sun's energy just as it was instructed on the manual. When he succeeded he would then have to patiently and carefully try the different energies he perceived one by one until he found the one which was compatible with the seed. It was said that he would know which was right as the seed would have some kind of reaction and pulling in the wrong ones would bring some physical pain and some scarring, but nothing to worry about since as soon as he succeeded it he would be able to heal all the damage his body suffered with his new unique Qi.
Breath in…. breath out….. breath in…... breath out….. breath in…... breath out....
'Maybe I should have bought some sunblock .....' Lucca thought while frowning.
breath in…... breath out….. breath in…... breath.. ... 'Wait ... If I try this the right way wont this take really long? It was said that it took around a week for a normal person to even be able to differentiate between the good and the bad energies….. What if I just take everything in? The good energy should come with it then I would have to just latch on to a small wisp. Everything will be healed after anyways right?'
breath in, breath out
Lucca then took in a deep breath and started pulling in all the energy around him towards his body at the same time and as soon as they started to come in through the skin he instantly regretted what he did as the water on his skin instantly evaporated, he felt the scorching heat quickly start to burn his skin.
"@#%$#!" A wail like a dying pig traveled for miles across the forest.
Lucca was sitting there with steam coming out off his body and his skin so dark it looked like he was a large piece of coal but his pained face now had a big smile on it.
"I feel it! I know what the energy is!" He shouted excitedly. Inside his body the little seed now had a very small crack formed on its surface.
Lucca ran back into his house ignoring the strange look that old Ben gave him before grabbing another bucket full of water and running back outside. Once again he put half into the floor and half onto himself and started to cultivate. He first started paying attention to the sun's energies brushing his skin and looked for the one that he remembered had entered the seed. It didn't take very long until he recognized it. Then using his breathing technique he carefully pulled it into his body which started to slowly heat up. Even though it brought some pain he could easily handle it as it was nothing compared to the first time.
Lucca was very excited but stayed calm and slowly directed the wisp of energy into the little seed one after another. After around 2 hours in just when he started to feel incredibly tired mentally he noticed the head of a little bud poking out of the crack on the seed! He had completed the first part of the manual!
The little bud was now slowly pulling in the energy from outside before puffing out green qi straight into his body. He could feel the energy from the atmosphere slowly being pulled into himself without the need of him having to do anything.
After calming down a bit he ran the tiny amount of green QI he had gained through his whole body, and as he did the skin that had been badly burned started slowly whitening again, not only that but he could feel his strength slowly rising as well!
"I'll try the weapon now!" Lucca took out the Swallow and the video crystal that came along with it. Putting his qi into it as taught in the instructions he could see images that taught the basics of how to attack and defend in dozens of ways. After going through it once he tried the first slash which looked very simple.
Grabbing the weapon with both hands Lucca slashed diagonally down but the amount of extra strength and speed he got from the green QI was unexpected and he failed to control his strength. The opposite end of the weapon left a cut on his leg that immediately started spitting blood.
"M*****R F***R" Lucca threw down the weapon and sat on the floor holding his leg. When the pain subsided he took a closer look and found that it was already starting to heal!
"Oooo, this passive healing is better than I thought!!" Lucca exclaimed as he felt a new motivation surging and as soon as his leg fully healed he quickly got up and started practicing once again.
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2 hours later the little castle gate opened up and old Ben quickly went to greet his master however...
"Master what happened!?? Were you attacked?!" He shouted in surprise.
Lucca was standing there with blood all over his body, he looked like he fell into a shredder and was then put back together. There were even some batches of hair missing from the top of his head!
"I fell, I don't want to talk about it. I'm going to take a shower don't bother me." Lucca answered quickly in embarrassment before quickly escaping into the little castle.
Though it looked like he was about to breathe his last he was actually not even hurt at all. The many cuts he inflicted on himself quickly healed right after only leaving some blood behind which is why he looked like he did.
After taking a long shower Lucca now looked like a brand new person! He even noticed that his old scars and blemishes were now completely gone and his skin was as smooth as a baby bottom!
"If only I had this cultivation manual back on earth, imagine how much money I could make selling this to women, none of the skin products that exist are this effective" Lucca said while letting out a sigh.
Taking out some food he ate until he was completely full which was now at least 4 times more than normal leaving him slightly surprised but he just assumed it was an aftereffect of cultivating. Once he finished up everything he walked into the room and turned on the air conditioner before jumping onto the king sized bed as he pulled the very thick black blankets around his body.
"I need to rest if I'm going out to explore tomorrow. hehe I'll make sure to take anything of value from this forest! I'll be rich! I'll show this world what being a human truly means muahahahaah!"