Sun was high in the sky. But the wind was starting to feel cold. It seemed autumn was about to start.
Wei Ren woke up early and took a cold shower. He quickly put on his clothes. He donned a simple blue linen robe with a big conical hat to cover his face. He did this so that he could blend in with the commoners.
Today he was going to go shopping. He needed to find a place that sold the white grass pills. He asked two guards to escort him but made them take off their armour. Walking with fully armed guards would draw too much attention.
He could have just asked his father to help him get the pills. But then he would have to explain too many things. So he decided to do things in secret.
The guards were not surprised. They had done this a lot of times. Royal officials sometimes dressed as commoners to roam the city streets freely.
The main marketplace that sold things for cultivators was on the east side of the city. This part of the city was not easily accessible. Commoners are not allowed unless they are cultivators.
The marketplace was bustling with people. The shops were open on either side of the road. Some were selling swords and weaponry. A huge shop was selling cultivation manuals. Some small vendors were selling strange artifacts.
"Brother this flying needle was made just for you. It can travel faster than most River Formation experts."
A brawny middle aged vendor was selling a grey needle. He displayed it as if it was a great treasure. A young man in his twenties was pondering whether to buy it or not.
Several others like this vendor were on the road. While walking Wei Ren saw a young man selling maps.
Wei Ren walked over and asked," Hi. I am Feng Lin. Do you know a shop where I can buy medicinal pills?" Wei Ren used a fake name.
Seeing that a customer had arrived the young man was delighted. He immediately greeted Wei Ren and said," Oh, is brother Feng interested in a map that can help you guide through the market?"
"Yes, that will help." Wei Ren said with a smile.
Seeing that Wei Ren had two guards. He decided to act polite.
"Well here you go brother Feng. This map marks all the best places that sell medicinal pills. The two red dots are the ones that have almost any kind of pill you ask for." He immediately changed his tone and said sweetly.
"How much for this?" Wei Ren asked.
"For you brother Feng it is only five gold coins." That young man said.
Wei Ren immediately gave him the money and left.
"Five gold coins can last a family of commoners almost a year. Why is this map so expensive. Maybe because I am buying it in a marketplace for cultivators." Wei Ren thought.
The map was very detailed. It even had information about the owners of the shops. One of the red dotted shops was very near to him so he decided to head towards it. It was also the most expensive one.
Fifteen minutes later Wei Ren saw a big green sign that read :- Heaven Pill Palace.
Wei Ren entered the shop. A young girl in her teens wearing a pink dress immediately came over. She smelled like divine flowers.
Her perfume entered Wei Ren's nose. His face turned pink. It definitely had aphrodisiac properties. A tent started to form on his groin.
"I am Cai Li. Esteemed customer, may I ask your name?" She said so sweetly that Wei Ren almost felt as if he had to do whatever she wanted.
"I can't have this problem here. Why is she wearing an aphrodisiac perfume?" He waved his wide sleeve and crossed his hands in a way that his crotch was completely covered.
He calmed himself down and answered, " Feng Lin.
"Brother Feng, what can I help you with?" She said in her seductive voice.
"I...uh...I need this pill." Wei Ren was barely able to speak. He handed her a paper slip that had white grass pill's name and details on it.
She looked at the paper slip closely and then smiled at Wei Ren. " Brother Feng, this pill is a little rare and also somewhat expensive."
Wei Ren knew what she was trying to imply. These big shops don't like customers who come over to waste time. So they generally ask for a verification from their customers. They don't entertain customers who don't have any money.
Wei Ren pulled his blue rose insignia and showed it to her and asked, " Will this suffice?"
The smile she previously had turned into shock. This was the insignia of the royalty of Blue Rose Kingdom. She immediately dropped her act and became more respectful.
"Brother Feng, please wait. Let me call one of the elders for you." She hurried into the back of the store and returned with a pink robed old man.
"It looks like pink robes are their uniform." Wei Ren judged.
"Brother Feng, pardon us for behaving rudely. This old one is Mu Yi. I have already checked about the pill you want. We have 200 pills in stock. Each pill is worth fifty gold coins but for you it is only forty." He said politely. Mu Yi didn't waste any time an immediately talked business.
"Thanks Senior Mu. I will buy all of them. Wei Ren gestured to one of his guards. The guard was also dressed in simple grey robes. He waved his hand and a big back of gold coins appeared in his hand. He threw the bag towards the old man who grabbed it very swiftly.
Mu Yi nodded towards Cai Li. She understood what he meant. She went back and brought a tray with one white ring on it.
"Brother Feng, here are your pills. Please keep this void ring as an apology." Mu Yi said and bowed.
Wei Ren grabbed the ring and immediately left. The perfume that Cai Li was wearing was making him giddy. And the tent had fully formed. If he were to drop his arms the bulge would be seen by everyone. He grabbed the ring with one hand and immediately went back to the same posture.
"That was a close one. I hope we didn't offend him." Mu Yi sighed as he watched Wei Ren leave.
"He has the royal insignia but his surname is Feng. Don't you think he might have stolen it." Cai Li asked Mu Yi.
"Don't be foolish. Who would dare to use a stolen royal insignia. He is probably using a fake name."
Wei Ren walked around the market for a little and then decided to go home.
The place he chose to start cultivating was not his room. It was the courtyard where he was examined by Grand Healer Lu Sheng. This courtyard was his grandfather's favourite place to cultivate. Emperor Yan also cultivated here occasionally. The courtyard was round and had blue roses surrounding the main building. Including the main building there was also a wooden cabin. This was where his grandfather trained. He also decided to cultivate here.
Several green bottles of pills were laid on the floor. He sat on a mat looking at them. Mu Yi had given Wei Ren a void ring but Wei Ren could not open the ring. He asked one of the guards to bind it and pull the bottles out. The guard was taken aback with this strange order but he didn't question anything.
Starmist Law - First part is the Earth Law. Earth Law is the easiest of the five laws. There are ten stages in Earth Law. After successfully reaching the tenth stage a person would have power equivalent to that of a peak Qi Streams expert. So basically, nine Qi Streams are equal to ten stages of the Earth law.
There are a total of ten cultivation stages in the world. These are Qi Streams, River Formation, River Expansion, Soul Spirit Formation, Soul Spirit Transformation, Earth Immortal, Heaven Immortal and lastly Mortal Dust Immortal.
Wei Ren was confused. Starmist Law had only five laws yet there were eight stages in cultivation. Maybe Starmist Law can only allow a person to reach Soul Spirit Transformation stage.
But this was all too ambitious. First he had to fix the problem of his dantian. If his trick didn't work it would be all for a naught.
He grabbed one of the bottles and pulled the cap. A dense white smoke started coming out of it. Just breathing this smoke would make a person feel refreshed. Wei Ren pulled one pill out. It was the size of his thumb and perfectly round. It was white with small green spots
"Should I just swallow it?" Wei Ren pondered. He decided not to. He used his small dagger to shave a small thin piece of the pill.
He placed it on his tongue and swallowed it. He immediately felt bloated. White smoke started coming out of his nose and mouth.
"It was too much!!!" He yelled at himself. Thank God he didn't put the whole thing in his mouth. Otherwise he would have exploded before he could finish saying the word cultivation.
Ten minutes of this bloated feeling accompanied him. The smoke stopped coming out of his orifices. He was left sweating with a headache.
He rested for a whole hour. A smile appeared on his face. "This is a minor setback. I can't give up just yet. But I need to be more careful. That was very dangerous." He thought.
He grabbed the same pill and carefully shaved an even smaller piece. It was almost as thin as paper.
He readied his mind and swallowed it.
This time the feeling of being bloated was still there but not so much. He started breathing as it was dictated in the Earth law. Half an hour later his breathing entered into a very strange state. The white smoke didn't leave his body. It just found a space inside his stomach and stayed there. When he stopped breathing as the Earth law said, some of the smoke started to dissipate from his body. His stomach now had a small ball of smoke floating like a cloud.
After another half hour he opened his eyes. The smoke was perfectly still. But it didn't leak anymore.
Success!!
Wei Ren laughed like a maniac. The Earth law works. He found a way to store elemental qi in his body without a dantian. Although storing qi in a dantian is much faster and easier. This was still an exceptional feat for Wei Ren.
Only he can do this. Other cultivators can store qi only in their dantians but he can store it anywhere he wants to. This was the genius of Starmist Law.
Now he had qi in his body. Next step was to see if he could make a meridian!
Excitement can result in disaster. Wei Ren calmed himself down and then started with the breathing exercises. There was a strange pattern of breathing written in Earth law but it worked.
A cultivation technique not only has the breathing exercises but also a qi controlling method. The method stored in Earth Law was very exceptional. Even an absolute beginner like Wei Ren was able to control his qi. Usually it takes a person a week long training before he can fully control it.
He used the qi controlling method. The qi in his stomach started to churn. His control over this qi was still very poor. A thin strand of smoke started to form and elongate towards his navel.
This was the first step of Earth law. Establish a meridian that joins the dantian with the navel. Because Wei Ren didn't have a dantian, he decided to join the qi cloud with his navel. If this didn't work then Starmist Law would become useless for him. It was also the most difficult one because this new meridian was very volatile after all it was formed of elemental qi. Real meridians are much stronger. This type of cultivation required extreme control over elemental qi.
Wei Ren was an absolute beginner at this.
The thin strand of smoke was about to reach the navel, suddenly it collapsed and turned into smoke which dissipated from Wei Ren's body.
A disappointment flashed on Wei Ren's face. He closed his eyes and started the breathing again. This time he used more elemental qi to make the strand. But this thick strand was not able to become long enough. It also collapsed very fast.
"If I make it thin it collapses and if I make it thick then it can't reach the navel. What should I do?" Wei Ren was extremely puzzled.
Plus, the cloud of smoke in his body had also grown smaller. Repeated tries to make a meridian resulted in loss of qi.
Wei Ren racked his brains. He searched through the massive collection of cultivation techniques that Emperor Starmist had given him. There was nothing that could help him because this was a thing that could not be solved in one day. He lacked control. After all, it was his first day. Trying to control qi to make such a delicate meridian would be difficult even for someone like Wei Yu who was at the fifth stage of Qi Streams.
I need another idea.
He didn't want to give up just yet. He couldn't absorb qi from the surroundings because he had no dantian. He solved this problem with pills. He used Starmist Law to control the qi and keep it stable inside his body. Even this alone was already a big achievement.
He decided to stop training. This is how he was. If he couldn't solve a problem he wouldn't dwell upon it. A solution would come to him on its own.
Even in the army there were several times when he couldn't find an opening in their enemies' defense and his soldiers were dying. Dwelling on the problem would confuse him even more. He left the bottles of pills there because this place was heavily guarded. Only he and his parents could come here.
"It is almost time for lunch. I better not get late or mother will get angry." He smiled when he thought of his mother's angry face. Whenever she tried to look scary she ended up looking funny and made him and his father laugh.
"Time to eat." He chuckled and got up.