After his fight with the rhino, the rest of his time in the swamps was quite uneventful.
Yan Guang managed to quickly find quite a few green-ringed lotuses, enough to complete his mission.
Sprinting back to Guming town, Yan Guang started to feel the full brunt of his injuries. Every contraction and expansion of his diaphragm came with pain, not unbearable, but not much better either.
He was starting to feel out of breath, something that rarely happened ever since he started cultivating. While a jog might be a strenuous activity for an ordinary mortal, it was quite easy for martial artists.
So this is what having broken ribs feels like?
Even in his pain, Yan Guang could still find something to be curious about. To him, every aspect of this world felt refreshing, as if it was reawakening a side of him that lay dormant.
That kind of will, fighting spirit, was something he completely lacked on earth.
He was usually disinterested, lazing around and relying on his talent to keep his grades up. Nothing on earth felt like it could satisfy his constant thirst for exploration and novelty.
Naturally, he was drawn to entertainment. It was the only escape from the mundane world around him, a brief respite from the unending cycle of monotonous tasks dumped upon him by society.
Here, he was free to do anything he wanted, or even nothing at all. Something about that felt right to him.
This was truly how his life was meant to be lived, Yan Guang felt.
Of course, he couldn't truly escape the regulations and tasks of society. Even the adventurer's guild was in a way a job; he clocked in every day, finished a mission, and clocked out.
At least he had the luxury to decide his hours.
Before he even knew it, he reached the town gates. Showing the guards his adventurer's guild token, they immediately let him in.
Adventurers would frequently venture outside, so checking each and every one was just a pain. Especially for apprentices such as himself, the typical policy was to let them through freely.
Reaching the adventurer's guild was just a matter of a few minutes, and he arrived quickly with his speed.
After trading in all of his lotuses, Yan Guang suddenly found himself a wealthy man.
He had almost 40 silver in his pockets, enough to buy some decent equipment or elixirs.
Hobbling out of the guild, Yan Guang could feel the intensity of the pain increasing. He wasn't sure if it was simply the adrenaline wearing off or the ribs lodging themselves into his lungs, but he surely didn't want to risk it.
After asking around, he eventually found his way to a reputable clinic in town.
Stepping inside the doors of the establishment, he quickly found himself face-to-face with a scholarly man who looked to be in his 40s.
"So, what brings you here, adventurer?", said the man, seemingly the only person in the clinic.
"How did you know I'm an adventurer?", replied Yan Guang, although his voice came out more hoarse than expected.
"Well, just some tips and tricks of the trade, I suppose. Each consultation costs 5 silvers, but since you're a new customer, let's go with 4.", said the man.
Forking out 5 silvers from his pouch, Yan Guang followed the man into a backroom.
The man, who he later found out was named Dr. Yuan, managed to pinpoint his injuries quite quickly.
Dr. Yuan's face seemed to morph into a mixture of graveness and concern before he spoke, "Kid, you're lucky you managed to walk your way here. With your injuries, I wouldn't recommend physical exertion for a few weeks, until the pain subsides. Take these pills, and you'll probably be fine. Just be careful next time you go adventuring, alright?"
"What are they, doctor?", Yan Guang asked.
Dr. Yuan briefly replied, "Painkillers. What did you think they were?"
Right. What did I even expect them to be?
Taking the pills and paying an extra silver for them, he thanked Dr. Yuan and left to return to the inn.
After finally getting to his room, Yan Guang simply lay on his bed made of straw.
Even though it was far from what his modern sensibilities would acknowledge as comfortable, at that moment it truly felt like the fluffiest bedding imaginable.
"No physical exertion for a few weeks, huh... I'm screwed.", he remarked to himself.
The entrance test for the martial schools was coming up in a week, and he was supposed to not physically exert himself.
Why not just ask him to cripple himself while he was at it?
Still, Yan Guang refused to acknowledge his circumstances.
There had to be a way to accelerate his healing.
He did feel that his natural healing was much stronger than it was back on earth. Minor cuts and bruises would scab and fully heal within a day, and even his ability to refresh himself after a day's sleep was greatly improved.
Still, he was nowhere close to superhuman, and broken ribs were a serious injury that normally took months to heal.
Then, a light bulb turned on in Yan Guang's mind. If he wasn't superhuman, then why not simply become superhuman?
No physical exercise did not mean he was cut off from cultivation, just body-refining. He could still gather Qi, could he not?
There was still hope, he just had to break through and become a third-grade martial artist!
Then, maybe, with his increased vitality, he would heal in time for the entrance exams.
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that this was the way to go.
First, Yan Guang remembered to write a note and stick it on its door to remind the maids not to disturb him.
Then, he sat in a lotus position and began his cultivation.
The vague feeling of qi motes in the air that he passively had due to his practice of Flowing River Steps was further enhanced the longer he spent in meditation.
It was similar to how eyes would adjust themselves to be more sensitive in the absence of light.
In the absence of his other senses, his mind was adjusting itself to be more sensitive to the Qi all around him.
Each mote of qi began to seem brighter, and he was able to uncover even more of them hidden in plain sight, or whatever this version of sight was.
Then, he began to exert his influence on them. He still wasn't exactly sure what mechanisms were behind this, but he somehow felt his spirit tug at these particles, compelling them to move.
Slowly, qi motes inside and around him began to revolve around Yan Guang before slowly inching closer and closer. A vortex was forming.
This was his first time truly using the Spiritual Vortex Art, so he was still new to it. Luckily, it seemed that initially forming a vortex wasn't difficult.
Yan Guang could already feel the massive difference between his previous cultivation art and this one. The rate of absorption of the Spiritual Vortex Art was many times greater than the Qi Absorption manual.
Yan Guang reminisced on his childhood. He would often play around with water and observe how it created whirlpools. Simply whirl your hand around in a circular motion and anyone could create a tiny one. The greater the speed you whirled your hand, the bigger it became.
Although he wasn't sure he could extrapolate that to Qi, he tried nevertheless. His spirit tried its hardest to exert a greater pull, to spin the motes of Qi faster and faster, increasing the size of the vortex.
Slowly, this action became subconscious as he began to drift deeper into meditation. The amount of thoughts running through his mind gradually decreased until there were none left.
No remembering, no plotting, no thinking.
In truth, having an empty head was a very rare moment for Yan Guang. His head was usually packed so full of thoughts he felt it was about to explode, so this was a rare moment of peace.
Instinctually, the Qi around him continued to revolve, slowly increasing its speed even further. The more he relaxed his mind, the more there was available for him to use in cultivation.
Eventually, all of his senses were completely blocked out. All he could feel now was a vague sense of his own body and an incredibly strong sense of the Qi around him and how to manipulate it.
Each of Yan Guang's cells rejoiced as they happily partook in a feast of Qi motes, absorbing as many as they could.
Indeed, at this moment Yan Guang's body was like a bottomless pit. No amount of Qi seemed to truly fill it up.
For hours, he continued his meditation, slowly drifting further and further into a state of no self. On earth, Buddhists were famous for following the philosophy of no-self, which was perhaps what he was tapping into now. Many Eastern cultures such as Buddhism set their ultimate goal as enlightenment, or more accurately, nirvana.
Meditation was then a method of reaching this state of nirvana. There were levels to it, much like cultivation itself. Yan Guang was simply going deeper and deeper into the levels of meditation, striving to attain nirvana, albeit unknowingly. He was still far from it, though.
The first time he had strayed into this realm of no-self, he had unlocked his qi sense. Now, he was simply strengthening his qi sense even further, a valuable tool for all of his cultivation endeavors.
Hours passed as Yan Guang unwittingly cultivated through the afternoon, the night, and even the day.
His hunger slowly grew until it was too great for even his current level of meditation to ignore, finally snapping him out of the deep trance he had put himself in.
Yan Guang let out a breath of turbid air, as he finally awoke. To him, it simply felt as if he was waking up from a long sleep. He felt even more refreshed than when he slept.
However, his hunger trumped all of his thoughts and desires at the moment.
Yan Guang immediately sprung out of his bed and rushed downstairs, only to notice that it was actually around lunchtime. How convenient for him.
He immediately ordered 3 bowls of soup and a side of stir-fried vegetables and meat.
After a couple of excruciating minutes, Yan Guang was glad to finally eat his first meal in a day.
Martial arts was great, but it also came at the cost of extra food intake. The nutrients needed to maintain a superhuman body were also, well, super.
The innkeeper stared at Yan Guang for a moment watching him ravenously devour his meal. What had he even been doing in his room all day for him to be this hungry?
Yan Guang couldn't care less about what others thought about him at that moment. He simply ate till he was satisfied, and left.
Returning to his room, he uttered, "Status."
[Opening Status Screen]
[User: Yan Guang
Race: Human (homo sapien)
Talents: Inferior cultivation talent, inferior martial physique, inferior comprehension, semi-eidetic memory
Stage: Pseudo Martial Artist
STR: 9
VIT: 8.9
AGI: 9
INT: 1.43
SPR: 8.0
Attribute Points: 0]
His stats had undergone yet another metamorphosis, with each of them increasing by 1.5. His spirit had undergone an even greater change, directly increasing by 2.
This cultivation session was certainly the most productive one yet!
Yan Guang was now fully without regrets about his purchase of the Spiritual Vortex Art. It was his savior in these dark times, his only hope for making it to the martial school entrance exam.
For the next 3 days, Yan Guang's full focus was dedicated to his cultivation. He would meditate for almost the entire day, only waking at meal times to eat before returning to his room to continue cultivating.
In other words, he fully became a recluse.
Still, the silver he had made from the adventuring job was enough to sustain him for the next couple of weeks. It wasn't like he could go adventuring or do anything else, so he might as well cultivate.
It was the only thing that could directly improve his strength without worsening his injuries.
In fact, after a few days, he could already feel the pain subsiding. He was recovering, slowly but surely.
With 3 days remaining before the entrance exams, Yan Guang was confident he could break through.
The night of the fifth day of the week, Yan Guang could finally feel that he was close to reaching his limits.
When cultivating, he could feel that every cell of his body was saturated with Qi, glowing like a nightlight with his qi sense activated.
His stats had all risen once again to almost 15, surpassing his previous self fully.
He had read the advice from both his cultivation manuals on how to break through. At least for the 3rd-rate breakthrough, it was quite simple. After the body accumulated enough Qi, it would naturally change into a form that allowed for the accumulation of even more Qi. This breakthrough, where the body absorbed all of the Qi present and truly made it into its own internal force, was the 3rd-rate breakthrough.
It was the first step beyond the mundane into the supernatural.
Once again entering into a trance that had become so familiar to him, Yan Guang continued to absorb more and more qi.
This time, he didn't fully let himself detach from his thoughts. He still needed some rationality to observe the breakthrough process.
He wanted to see for himself the wonders of the human body and this world. How magical was cultivation really?
After what felt like an eternity, Yan Guang could feel a premonition. His body was full. Any more Qi and he might just explode into meat paste.
Now, it was just a matter of letting his body handle the rest.
A series of clicks ran through his body as he felt his muscles tense.
He could see that the Qi in his body was gradually disappearing as he felt a new power gradually inhabiting them.
After all the Qi disappeared, there was nothing left but a new kind of energy, a more powerful one.
Unlike the colorless almost glassy color of Qi motes, this one felt more personal, like it had been stained by his spirit and become something new entirely. He could feel that his internal force had taken on a blueish tint.
Interesting. He wondered why that color, but he had no answers.
As he sat up, he could feel yet another series of clicks in his joints. His body was still adjusting to its newfound strength.
All of a sudden, everything around Yan Guang felt fragile. He felt he could easily pierce through the wooden floorboards with his feet as if they were paper, or crush the doorknob with his palm.
Martial artists truly lived in an entirely different world from mortals. It was only now that Yan Guang was realizing the implications of being superhuman in a relatively human world. Everything he touched could break with the slightest misuse of force.
However, this wasn't necessarily a con. It simply meant he would be forced to learn how to perfectly control his strength.
As expected, his ribs no longer hurt. They had perfectly healed themselves in the breakthrough process.
"Finally, I can practice martial arts!", Yan Guang yelled.