Cultivating Once More
After Matthew put in the address for the second home they owned, he drove off in its direction. Though all three pieces of real estate were far away from their home in New York City, they were all within 30 minutes of each other. So, only after 15 minutes of driving did Matthew arrive at the second property.
But now that he was outside, Matthew was feeling a little apprehensive about how to get in. Unlike the first house, which was empty without a tenant, the other two houses both housed people. Moreover, this one in front of him even has a whole five-person family living in it.
However, far too much was on the line here for him to cower now, especially with the Spiritual Qi Vein waiting for him in the backyard. Taking a deep breath, Matthew steeled himself before ringing the doorbell.
And soon enough, Matthew heard some footsteps walking toward the door.
"Hello? Who is outside?" A man's voice came from the other side of the door.
"Is that Ravi? It's me, the landlord, Matthew. May I enter the premises?" Matthew asked politely.
As a landlord, even though he owned the house, Matthew still legally had to ask for permission to be able to enter.
"Yes, this is Ravi. But Matthew, why do you want to come in?" The man named Ravi responded.
Though Ravi knew Matthew from their previous interactions, he was still confused about why Matthew wanted to enter. Because in the two years that Ravi rented the house, he had never seen Matthew in person, let alone come to his front door.
"Um, Ravi, it's kind of hard to explain, so I'll simplify it. My family and I used to live in this house when we were young, and my little brother buried something in the backyard. Am I allowed to go back there and dig it out?" Matthew lied.
After Matthew spoke, Ravi stopped responding and began to think about it for a moment.
"How long are you going to take? My wife isn't home, and I have to go pick up the kids from tutoring in about half an hour." Ravi responded.
At first, Ravi thought Matthew wanted to inspect the house and was going to refuse. But after hearing that Matthew was only going to be in the backyard, he relaxed a little. However, as Ravi wasn't comfortable leaving Matthew alone in his house, he wanted to watch him.
Hearing that he would only have half an hour, Matthew wasn't sure if he could find the Spiritual Qi Vein in time. Though he had unclogged all of his standard meridians, Matthew still wasn't sure if he could dig that deep and that fast. And including the fact that he had to act as a detector and scan the entire backyard before digging, Matthew didn't think he would be able to find the Spiritual Qi Vein.
But since Matthew needed to complete this by today and stalling any longer meant less time on his part, he could only accept the time-limited offer.
After Matthew agreed, Ravi opened the door and guided him to the backyard. And seeing it, Matthew's confidence in being able to find it soared. Unlike the other house, the backyard that Ravi owned was only half its size.
"Matthew, you can dig, but can you do me a favor and fill the hole back up? I have a 7- and a 9-year-old, and having a 1-meter-deep hole in their play area is just asking for an accident." Ravi asked.
From what Matthew could see, this entire backyard was filled with various toys and playground equipment, making it a kid's dream play area. And even though filling it back up would waste more time, Matthew agreed. Though he was heartless and had countless lives to his name, hurting children never felt right with him. Unless he was forced, Matthew wouldn't do it.
Even more so on Earth with mortal children who couldn't cultivate.
After agreeing to Ravi's request, Matthew began to walk around the backyard, sweeping his left foot on the ground as he tried to find the Spiritual Qi Vein. Thankfully, the area he could sense had increased slightly after he unclogged his 12 standard meridians. So he didn't look as stupid as he did in the other house.
But whether it was because Matthew was currently acting like a lunatic or because Ravi actually wanted to get food, Ravi left the backyard very quickly with the excuse that he was hungry.
Matthew noticed this and didn't know what to say, as Ravi's face looked creeped out as he left. But, since there were more important things to focus on, Matthew continued to sweep his foot across the grass until he found what he was looking for.
Luckily, with the much smaller backyard, Matthew found the Spiritual Qi Vein in less than half the time he took at the previous house.
Grabbing his trusty shovel, Matthew started to dig as fast as possible. But, unfortunately, Ravi only gave him half an hour, and he already wanted 6 minutes, and plus the fact that Matthew had to fill the hole back up, Matthew only had about 15 minutes of digging.
Thankfully, however, with Matthews's new strength, he was able to dig at more than five times the speed he was able to at the first house.
But unfortunately for Matthew, Ravi was currently looking at him with a stupefied look from the window of the kitchen. Even though Matthew was in the mindset that his digging speed was too slow, the speed at which he was digging was faster than Ravi could process.
From stabbing the shovel into the dirt to him throwing the dirt behind him, the time it took for him to have a shovel full of dirt didn't take longer than 5 seconds. And in less than 10 minutes, Matthew had already dug almost a meter into the earth.
"Dammit! How deep is this Spiritual Qi Vein? I'm almost twice as deep as we dug in the other hole, but yet I still can't find it!" Matthew angrily mumbled.
Ravi was still in the kitchen looking through the window, so Matthew didn't have any worries about him being overheard by a third party.
So, to soothe his anger, a little Matthew started to kick the dirt in front of him to see if he somehow dug around the Spiritual Qi Vein. And sure enough, he did after digging into a pocket that had roots he ignored. Matthew found the Spiritual Qi Vein.
As excited as he was, Matthew still calmed himself down. It was only after he made sure that Ravi hadn't seen it that Matthew put it inside the duffle bag he had brought with him.
Quickly filling back up the hole he had made, Matthew bid farewell to Ravi and left the house before driving to the next location.
The next location was the furthest away from his home, but since it was still in the same general area as the other two, it didn't take long for Matthew to arrive.
This time, the tenant wasn't home, unfortunately, but after calling the man, Matthew was able to gain permission to enter the backyard.
Apparently, the man had surveillance equipment covering almost every inch of the property and was confident that even if Matthew were to steal something, he would know.
After another quick 20-minute job, Matthew was able to find the third and final Spiritual Qi Vein.
Politely filling the hole once again, Matthew left the third home and drove back to the first house, where he had left John and Joanne.
After parking the car in the driveway, Matthew grabbed his duffel bag, which was carrying two priceless objects, and entered the house.
Inside, John and Joanne were still on the couch, thinking over what he had told them.
After all, it was already hard to accept that everything they knew about the universe was wrong. But including the news about the impending future of Earth, cultivation, and a universal geography lesson, the twins were struggling to process everything quickly.
Matthew let them do their own thing, as he himself was only gone for about an hour and thought they needed more time to process it.
So, going back into the backyard, Matthew sat cross-legged and prepared to cultivate once again.
Grabbing one of the Spiritual Qi Veins, this time without the need for the shovel, Matthew crushed it with his hands and took a huge breath, inhaling every last particle of Spiritual Qi that flowed out of the destroyed vein.
The Meridian Opening Realm itself only had 12 stages originally, but the Ancient Cultivators built upon it and created the eight secret stages as well.
With just the 12 standard meridians, cultivators would be able to cultivate normally. This was very strong already, as even without the eight secret stages, humans were already one of the Chaotic Universe's strongest races.
However, when you included the eight extraordinary vessels, humans went from the top tier to the top 10. And despite only being in the top ten, humans, thanks to their massive population, still managed to dominate the Chaotic Universe.
The advantages that the eight extraordinary vessels provided were just too much, after all.
A cultivator with the 12 standard meridians had an inner circuitry resembling a lake system that had many connecting sections. But they also limited the amount of Spiritual Qi you could use at once. And without a natural treasure that could expand and temper them, your meridians would stay that size forever.
The Ancient Cultivators saw through this and thought that there was no way that this was the limit of the limitless potential of the human body, as humans were the favorite races of the Universe. They were so favored that every single race in the universe either had a humanoid body or was cultivating one.
So, after a few millennia of researching the human body, the Ancient Cultivators found eight extraordinary vessels.
Not only were these 'vessels' able to connect the 12 meridians together, decreasing Spiritual Qi circulation time, but they each also served as pseudo-Dantians that were able to store and hold Spiritual Qi within them.
After testing the difference between a cultivator with and without them, the Ancient Cultivators soon realized that it wasn't even comparable.
Not only was the cultivator with the eight extraordinary vessels able to circulate his Spiritual Qi faster, but they also had almost five times more Spiritual Qi than his opponent.
Matthew, knowing this from his precious life, was sure to cultivate the eight extraordinary vessels once again. In his previous life, they were one of the reasons that he was able to cultivate so far with cheap, low-tier cultivation techniques.
As with them, his combat power was almost three stages higher than his actual stage. Coupled with his Divine Level Qi and Soul Cultivation talent, Matthew was always a high-potential target for forces to hire.
Sadly, with his unstable foundation and humble beginnings, that's all he was to them—a high-potential hire, not a man to recruit into their own forces.
Done with reminiscing about his prestigious but cruel previous life, Matthew started to focus on the present.
Currently, he had a body filled with the Spiritual Qi that was flowing through his standard meridians, so concentrating on himself, Matthew began to unclog his extraordinary vessels.
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