Due to the thickness, complexity, and profoundness of the book, Morbius, decided to take a break. It is enough for today that he knew about the different kinds of energies that exist in the air.
Pure energy, as described in the book, is powerful energy observable. What makes it hard to detect though, is its scarcity as said in the book. But, take note that this book was published thousands of years ago. A lot of things might change with that amount of time, one of those is the amount of pure energy in the air.
Morbius put the thought at the back of his head and tidied his house for a bit. The clutter caused by his training is slowly being put in its proper place.
Knock! Knock!
Suddenly, a knock could be heard from his door. Morbius went to open the door. Outside, a cute little girl could be seen holding something in her little hand.
"Young Elle! Sup?"
"Mister, I forgot to tell you the other day. Merchant Hall will be having a clearance sale today, but for one to attend, one must have a pass. I am on duty for the whole day and won't be able to attend." Elle explained as she hands her pass to Morbius.
Morbius is elated to hear the news. He gladly accepted the pass when he suddenly remembered something.
"Thanks, little girl. Oh, Elle, this old man made some cake rolls a while ago. I'll give you some for as thanks." Morbius smiled. Even though this girl claims to be an adult, in Morbius's eyes, she is a little girl one could entice with sweets.
"For real? You could bake?" Elle's eyes formed little stars showing her excitement.
From time to time, Morbius buys ingredients from grocery shops. These shops sell a plethora of ingredients such as livestock meat, fish, condiments, salt, and even freshly milled flour.
Since Morbius does not know how to preserve food, he often buys it on daily basis depending on the ingredients. Elle knew that he could cook, but baking is a different matter.
"Yep, wait here. I will get your cake roll. I baked too much." Morbius went to the kitchen area and took the wooden plate with a cake on top. Knowing that he need to store some, he bought some boxes from the craft store. He put the cake inside a box and gave it to Elle.
Elle took the cake and smiled. "Thanks, mister. You're the best."
She went back to her post happily. As usual, she is wearing her commoner clothes pretending to be a commoner.
Since today is the Merchant Hall clearance sale, prices will drop. The goal of clearance sale is to get rid of surplus, old wares, and pawned items. Morbius look at his pass and stored it inside his ring. He ate his cake and then went to the Merchant Hall.
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"Too many people." Like a jar of pickles, the people in this place are packed. A little bit of movement and you might lose your first kiss to a stranger. Women need to be careful in this place for they might be sexually assaulted. Accidents might also occur in these kinds of scenarios that may cause misunderstandings and conflicts.
Due to the clearance sale ongoing, a bazaar is being held showcasing different merchants and their goods. The prices are also below the market price. Well, depreciated goods are meant to be sold for less and many people will find these goods a bargain.
Merchants and customers shouting, appraisers criticizing artifacts, fraudulent actors inciting discord to lower the numbers, and many more things are simultaneously happening at the moment.
Despite being called a hall, this place is so open. It is no different from a fish market wherein air could breeze through. The only covering is a roof and ceiling supported by multiple pillars and the walls are nonexistent.
Anyone could enter with or without a pass since blocking passless people is useless. The place is so open that it is impractical to place guards to block people. Despite being an open area, enforcers are roaming around so it is quite safe.
The purpose of the pass is to be able to check out the items and lastly for a 20% discount. During this event, no one could take anything without a pass.
"Hmmm... The Energy Absorption manual here is useless for me. These techniques are for specific energy types. There are no pure energy cultivation manuals here as expected." Morbius sighed in disappointment. He could not haphazardly use a manual here.
He doesn't know what type of energy he accidentally cultivated earlier. He needed to identify the energy inside his body to devise a plan.
While strolling, he found some ancient-text books and immediately bought them. It seems that this writing system became a lost system. No one laid their eyes on these books.
Unlike the magic spells and cultivation books, this time he got tons of techniques and other weird stuff. If he compared the norms of today to the norms thousands of years ago, it is obvious that ancient people are weirder.
'This Alma's Cellular Rejuvenation is quite interesting. This manual kills cells as fast as creating new ones at the expense of energy. The weird thing is that the circulation path includes bone marrow, heart, liver, and kidneys. Also, the brain governs all pathways during circulation. This technique is mind-numbing.
Normal cultivators can't perform this technique though. For the reason that some of the veins to be used for the circulation is not normally activated.'
'Bladeless Sword. The name sounds stupid. What is the use of a sword without a blade?' Morbius is scanning a few pages of each book. For now, even though these books are useless, he still bought them since they are way cheaper than they should be. Also, due to the clearance sale event and his pass, he could buy each book in copper.
Copper these days are used for buying useless things. Only slums value the purchasing power of copper. Food and various things are usually bought with silver. The same goes for ingredients that are procured from the jungles and forbidden areas.
The merchants were elated due to Morbius's "stupidity". He kept on scanning books hoping to find methods to view his internal body. For that, a body scanning method is needed, and that kind of method written in a manual is unique. Usually, techniques of that sort are taught in martial arts schools by a teacher. It is rare for it to be circulated in the kingdom in book format.
"Good sir, do you need something? We are selling cultivation manuals, sword techniques, and magic spells. We also have some specials such as ghost warding techniques and energy storage stones." While Morbius is browsing, he did not realize that he already bought all the ancient books. Now, he is going for the modern textbooks. These books are not that expensive, but still pricier than the ancient books that he could easily buy in bulk. Now that he is buying items that are familiar and perhaps appraised by the Merchant Hall, the merchants could finally begin their sales pitch or bullshitting.
Morbius, on the other hand, is not fond of merchants. It is not as if he despises them, but dealing with their antics is quite troublesome.
He is not so knowledgeable in cultivation, so he decided to endure the future annoyance he will experience.
"What is this Energy Storage Stone?" He asked. It is the first time he has heard this term so he needed to ask. The merchant is pumped up knowing that fish took the bait.
The merchant took a small box from one of the hidden spots on his stall. He opened the box and inside is a slightly glimmering blue stone. "Good sir, this is an Energy Storage Stone. This stone comes in different grades and the one I am holding is an appraised and certified Low-class Energy Storage Stone. These stones are precious and rare and can store energy that can be used as a spare reserve. One could also use this to embed their energy signatures to artifacts and magic circles.
There are Low, Mid, and High-class stones. The different grades vary in charging efficiency and transmission. The higher the grade, the more efficient and fast it is." Speedily, the merchant explained. He did not catch his breath until he finished.
Morbius was shocked when he looked at the stone. 'Isn't this an uglier version of my bluish stones?'
It looked like the stones he collected for 4000 years, albeit, the one the merchant had is a cruder version of his stone collection. If he could appraise his stone, then he could sell it for more or use them in the future.
"Oh, mister merchant. I have heard some rumors. Belham Kingdom's royal family seems to have these blue stones in their backyard. According to a castle guard, the bluestones in that area seem to be inexhaustible." Morbius lied. He is curious why such a place for 4000 years kept on producing precious stones.
The merchant's eyes widened. If the rumors are legit, then that would be awesome. "The-the legendary Energy Stone Vein!"
"The what???" With a confused look, Morbius became interested. It seems that the merchant knew what it is.
"Energy Stone Vein! That is an Energy Stone Vein. If what you said is true, then the Belham Royal Family is either lucky or unlucky. Lucky because having that stone vein means that they have nearly an inexhaustible amount of Energy Stones. If I am not wrong, that kingdom lacks cultivation resources making it weak but peaceful at the same time.
They are unlucky because if the news reached other factions, even a strong family or sects, then the Belham Royal Family might be razed to the ground."
Energy Stones are similar to Energy Storage Stones. The former contains a massive amount of unknown energy that could be exhausted after use, while the latter is simply a stone that could absorb energy. Energy Storage Stones are just exhausted Energy Stones. This energy, they say, is neither magic nor qi, but anyone including mages, martial artists, and all sorts of cultivators could utilize this.
'Pure Energy. I have thousands of years worth of Pure Energy in my pocket!'
Morbius was supposed to be elated by the discovery, but his shock overcame his happiness. He might temporarily have a good supply of Pure Energy, but cultivating technique is what he is missing.
Trying to hide his glee and shock, Morbius changed the topic and asked for a catalog of cultivation techniques.
Ancient-text books are not organized due to them being unreadable. How in the hell could one sort the books he could not read.
Shopping for cultivation manuals, techniques and all books related to life jobs are easier to browse through. Since everything is listed and properly described.
Scanning the catalog, Morbius found several books that are suitable for him. He almost proceeded to order them until his eyes passed by a book that piqued his interest.
"Lifebound Reversal Cultivation Manual..."
Morbius requested the Lifebound Reversal Cultivation Manual. Hearing him, the merchant is kind of confused.
'Did I procure this book? Where did this book come from?' The merchant thought. He did not know where did this book comes from and he does not have any memory of procuring such a book.
After pondering for a while, the merchant decided to not think about it. If he sold it then all is well.
Morbius flipped the book open and read the introduction.
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Introduction
Too old to cultivate? Are you still learning how to absorb energy while death is chillin' at your doorstep? Want to become a legendary figure before being buried six feet underneath the ground? Do you think that because you are an old boney piece of shit, you can't pursue the Hamurrican Dream? What is Hammurican Dream? Well, fuck it! This book is for you.
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"Is this a ... scam?" Morbius was flabbergasted. The merchant already gave him a buying stub with a receipt, which he needed to pay to the cashier to take out his figurative shopping cart.
While queueing, he continuously read...
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Perhaps, you think that this is a scam. You can never be more wrong than that. This book is the gateway to opportunity, a bridge to a brighter future, and a gateway to opportunity. I deliberately repeated that.
This book is for you; you - the old man who had nothing in life, but his broken dream like the readers of this novel.
Did I say novel? Nope, you read it wrong. Focus on your fucking goal. Don't mind the details. This is not a scam. This is your fault for reading the introduction.
------
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Angrily, Morbius flipped the pages and tried to find decent content. He bought this book for 40 silver coins. If he did not find anything useful then he would use this book for starting firewood.
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Requirements of this technique
1. Human race
2. 200 years old and above
3. Below Energy Refinement Cultivation Stage
4. Pure Energy
5. No Martial Experience
6. Blank Magic Plate
Effects
1. Uses the Blank Magic Plate to embed Age Identification Spell. This spell sends the info about soul, bone, mind, and flesh age to consciousness. A ready-made Age Identification Spell works as well
2. The older one gets above 200, the more efficiently the body could absorb energy from the surroundings.
3. No martial experience (does not train weapon intents, palm intents, and other forms of intents)
4. The older the trainee, the purer his energy becomes. The energy purification rate is proportional to age.
5. The downside is the cell regeneration rate affects the cultivation speed. Since one is too old, the cultivation is slower because the cells are regenerating at a lower rate.
6. The older the organs, the higher the chance that they could become additional energy reserves.
7. The bones and flesh regeneration improve at monstrous levels depending on the age.
8. A very small chance of gene improvement. (Not yet tested due to the lack of super old experiment subjects)
Note: This is an experimental technique. Side effects were not thoroughly accounted for because the test subjects are old and only have a few years left in their lives. Aside from that, nobody died because of this technique but because of old age.
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"This manual is too good to be true. Too bad, the cultivation speed is proportional to the cell regeneration. I looked quite old and maybe that is an effect of slow cell regeneration."
This day, Morbius's haul in this hall is great. Books for a cheap price. He did not purchase pills or any medicine that improves cultivation though. He, as an old man, is not fond of ingesting detrimental substances. He would only eat and drink something he made for himself.
Morbius finally reached the end of the queue and paid for his goods.
"Good haul."
As he was leaving, a small piece of paper dropped from the book he was reading a while ago. He did not notice the paper falling and nobody noticed it as well. On the floor, the paper was stepped on unknowingly.
(Piece of paper)
Death toll: 150 (failed to cultivate and died)
Survivor: 10 (cultivated, but died of old age)
Earliest death: 205 years old
Latest death: 420 years old
Side Effects: Energy Poisoning
Experiment Status: Aborted
Note: This manual is subject to incineration. Property of Verdein Empire.