One month passed in the blink of an eye, and in that time, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had established a routine.
They would explore the city for several hours and then spend the rest of the day cultivating in their room at the Three Boars Inn.
Yu Nianzhen had long caught up with Jiang Yue, and after a month of diligent practice combined with the effect of the qi gathering array, they were both on the verge of breaking through to the ninth level of the meridian awakening realm.
On this day, Yu Nianzhen felt a slight ripple on the protective array surrounding their room, and he immediately opened the door to see a person standing just beyond the array's range.
The person was dressed in black clothes from head to toe, and his face was covered by a black cloth so that only his eyes could be seen.
"This is the information that you requested." The person said as he handed a packet to Yu Nianzhen.
His voice was indistinct, and it reminded Yu Nianzhen of the modern world's scrambled voice that had been synthesised using a voice changer.
As soon as he took the information packet, the person blurred in place and in the blink of an eye, Yu Nianzhen could neither see him nor detect his presence.
He sighed in admiration and then retreated to the room where Jiang Yue was already waiting.
"The border guard faction is very efficient." Jiang Yue said when he saw the cloth packet in Yu Nianzhen's hands.
After receiving more than two million gold coins from the sale of stone milk, the two had gone to the border guard arena to buy information about old man Cang's enemy.
Although they were too weak to do anything for the moment, it didn't hurt to start preparing, and after three weeks of waiting, a shadow guard from the border guard faction had finally delivered the information.
Yu Nianzhen didn't delay, and he immediately unwrapped the outer cloth on the packet and revealed a wooden box. He then opened the box to reveal a bamboo book.
He unfurled the scroll that was made up of a few bamboo slips, but a frown marred his handsome face when he read what was written on it.
"Let me see." Jiang said and grabbed the scroll from Yu Nianzhen's hands.
However, he also couldn't help but frown when he saw the information that was contained in the scroll.
"This…" He began, but couldn't continue.
They had paid ten thousand gold coins for the information, but all they got was a confirmation that there was an actual person known as 'Siwang', but all other details were restricted.
If they wished to have full access to the information, they would need to reach a higher cultivation realm, and most importantly, the cost of the information would be in low-grade spirit stones and not gold coins.
Yu Nianzhen sighed in resignation before he spoke, "we may have been tricked."
For a long time, he had felt that there was something off with old man Cang and now that he had learned more about the Cangxing world, he could somewhat pinpoint the strange things about the old man.
Old man Cang had said that he was an origin forging realm cultivator, but the protections on the bullock cart were not what an origin forging realm cultivator could afford or access for that matter.
Yu Nianzhen also remembered that when he first woke up after being rescued by the old man, old man Cang had used some kind of force to force him back onto the stone bed.
In the month that Yu Nianzhen had spent scouring all manner of books in Fengying city, he knew that an origin forging realm cultivator was only capable of coating their weapons with qi but couldn't manifest their qi freely as the old man had done.
Taking everything into account, he even began to suspect that encountering the old man wasn't a coincidence but a planned meeting.
Yu Nianzhen frowned as he once again felt the helplessness of not being in control.
"In the end, who was old man Cang?"
Jiang Yue had also realised that old man Cang was not as simple as they had imagined, and the thought worried him.
They had already established a karmic relationship with the old man and if they didn't repay the old man for saving their lives and guiding their cultivation path, their future path would be grossly impaired and they may be unable to reach the peak of martial dao.
However, the repayment that the old man had requested was far beyond their current abilities which meant that the karmic link would persist for a long time and may affect them in ways that they couldn't predict.
For Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue, who were used to being in control, this sort of uncertain thing made them uneasy and for a long time, they could only frown as they thought about the issue.
"There is nothing we can do for the time being." Yu Nianzhen said as he put away the bamboo scroll.
All they could do was to keep searching for their own martial dao and one day, they would surely achieve a level that would allow them to fulfil the old man's request and dismiss the cause and effect.
"We take a few steps forward and think we have made some progress, but the more we know, the more we realise that the road is much longer and tougher than we initially thought." Jiang Yue sighed as he thought about the hourglass that he had previously bought.
It had already been a month since he bought it, but they still hadn't figured out what was valuable about it. For the time being, they could only keep it away and hope that there would be a chance to figure it out in the future.
"Spirit stones…" Yu Nianzhen intoned, and the atmosphere turned gloomier.
Coins were the lowest form of currency in the Cangxing world, but some things could not be bought with gold coins no matter the amount that one had.
After doing some research, the two had found that buying a cultivation manual wasn't as difficult as they had initially imagined.
One could buy a cultivation manual for as low as one thousand gold coins and if they couldn't afford that, they could spend a few gold coins to read the manuals at the shop for a specified amount of time.
However, these manuals were very basic and could only cultivate very basic qi that had no attribute or origin characteristics.
Yu Nianzhen had a sword origin and the most appropriate cultivation technique manual would be a sword cultivation technique manual that could cultivate sword qi while Jiang Yue required an illusion cultivation technique manual.
However, such special manuals could only be found in sects, large clans, or by luck in large auctions, but the most desperate fact was that they could only be bought with spirit stones.
At the moment, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had millions of gold coins, but did not have a single spirit stone.
"Do we really have to join a sect?" Jiang Yue asked as he sighed in despair.
Yu Nianzhen didn't answer because he also didn't know the answer to that question.
Using the sky dragon breathing technique, Yu Nianzhen was able to refine metal qi while Jiang Yue was able to refine water qi.
Once they switched from a breathing technique to a cultivation technique after they broke through to the origin forging realm, they would still be able to absorb the element-specific qi but the commonly available cultivation techniques would then refine that element-specific qi into a general qi without any attributes.
However, if they could find cultivation manuals that were suited to their origin, Yu Nianzhen's metal qi would be transmuted into the more powerful sword qi, while Jiang Yue's water qi would be transmuted into illusion qi.
It would be fine to follow the common path if they had low aptitudes and low ambition, but they both had grade ten aptitudes and their ambition lay far beyond that of common folk.
At the moment, the choice was between joining a sect or accepting mediocrity and neither choice was appealing to the two boys.
"There is still a little under one month before the selection for the Sea Cloud sect, let's take the time to carefully consider our options." Yu Nianzhen finally said but the atmosphere was still gloomy.
After a while, he sighed, placed his hand on Jiang Yue's head, and began rubbing his hair as if trying to soothe an aggrieved cat.
Jiang Yue purred in contentment and then leaned in to accept more care.
Yu Nianzhen smiled when he saw this and wrapped his left arm around Jiang Yue's waist while his right hand continued to gently rub his hair.
Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen were leisurely indulging in this moment when the world suddenly turned black. Soon after, a lightning covered star rose in the sky and filled the world with blue light.