In a shallow river, the gentle flow of water traversed the downward part effortlessly. It is constantly hitting protruding rocks and stone on the river's surface, making splashing sounds all around.
Two drenched figured can be seen walking on the riverbank, one is a young man not wearing a top, exhibiting his lean, refined muscles shining in a way that resembles metals. On the other hand, there is a thin figure with robes filled with small holes- the young girl that Ceceada helped earlier on the marketplace.
Although the young girl looked like she just cried earlier, her eyes displayed hope.
The young man is Ceceada who is 'forced' to helped the mother of the girl.
Earlier, while walking, he found out that the girl's name is Hannah.
It is a bit hard to see where the water goes, especially on this foggy and still raining place.
It is raining, so the river that is mostly dry is now at least shallow. The unfortunate part is that there are no fishes swimming, rendering the river a bit desolate and barren.
Hannah brought Ceceada to this river to heal her mother and it is just very close to the market place.
Ceceada is aware of the existence of this river although this is a bit far away to the bamboo hut where he used to live with his parents.
While walking on the riverbank and looking at the shallow river that will not even reach the height of his ankle, Ceceada couldn't help but think, 'I remember almost drowning here.'
This place really changed a lot in just three years. He even remembered catching a few fishes here before, but now...
The rage of the moistened wind hit Ceceada's face violently and he then turned his head away and kept walking.
This place has nothing to do with him now.
"We are close." Hannah's voice sounded on Ceceada ears, helping him further break out of his nostalgic trance.
In a distance, they can see a giant wooden bridge, but the middle part of the bridge already gave up, its destroyed remnants can be seen on the river and forming a small wall, slightly blocking the flow of river.
Under the two bases of the broken wooden bridge, various wooden 'houses' can be seen, textures of the materials having similarity to the broken bridge's materials.
It can be considered that they used the remnants of the broken bridge as materials for their D.I.Y 'houses.'
Most of them have no roofs, as the bases of the bridge is already more than enough to serve as a roof.
However, since it is raining, one can see the trembling of various people, shaking from the cold when the droplets of rain hit their body.
Ceceada saw this and cursed the cruelty of the world in his heart.
There are some campfires that looked like it just got extinguished by the rain not too long ago due to the ashes where the campfires are placed.
'It is probably mainly used for cooking outside,' Ceceada guessed.
They continued walking and stopped when they got really close to the makeshift wooden houses of these people.
Some people looked at them for a few moment, but then turned their heads away, desolate gazes returning in their eyes once again.
After that, Hannah then looked at a particular small makeshift wooden house, about 8 cubic meters in size with a thick wooden roof.
She then looked at Ceceada with hope in her eyes.
"Please... Just try," She thickened her face and uttered these words when she saw that Ceceada's eyes shows hesitation, and it doesn't contain any confidence about his healing power.
She is aware that this man is a cultivator and she is very well aware of the huge gap between mortals like her and the cultivators.
But for her mom to be healed, she is willing to do anything.
Hannah also took advantage of the fact that the cultivator in front of her shows no arrogance and very kind, very different from what she hears vicariously from other people' encounter with cultivators, rendering her doubtful about those gossips.
Ceceada just nodded his head without promising anything and simply said, "Alright."
Hannah eyes lit up when she heard this and then walked together with Ceceada on the small makeshift house with a thick wooden roof.
It even has a door, albeit filled with small holes on the wooden wall, very different from other houses around it. It is a bit unusual for this place where people just made houses without doors.
While walking towards the house, Ceceada can hear a faint and unstable breathing due to his exceptional hearing.
After a moment of walking, Hannah stopped in front of the house and said to someone inside, "Mom. I'm back."
Her mom is in coma, so she didn't expect a reply. She just opened the door and entered with Ceceada.
After entering the unlit 'house,' Ceceada saw an unconscious woman with an extremely pale and emaciated appearance, sleeping on a straw mat. The upper part of the straw mat is rolled, serving as her pillow. Her whole body except for her head is covered with a thin blanket, intermittently undulating up and down due to her faint breathing.
A wooden basin half-filled with mildly warm water can be seen beside the woman, indicating that Hannah left the house not too long ago.
She is balding, with very few white hairs on her head. Some white hairs can be even seen on the wooden floor, Ceceada then attributed this to balding because of the balding appearance of the woman.
If not for the faint breathing of the woman, he might have thought that she is already dead not too long ago.
He looked around the house and saw very few items, mostly for necessity and practicality. Few small bowls made from coconut can be seen, with some unused candles hung all around.
Looking at the wooden walls, he can see various holes, collectively lighting up the house faintly, but also indicating the wearing of these walls.
Ceceada then saw Hannah kneel in front of her mother, then held her mother's hand with her two thin hands.
"Mom... I finally found someone who can heal you... he- he will wake you up mom." Hannah said, her voice trembling with emotion while kneeling and holding her mother's hand, caressing her mother's very few remaining hairs.
Ceceada saw everything and then walked forward a bit while exhaling slowly, unsure of what will happen.
Suddenly, a mechanical voice with enticing property sounded on Ceceada's mind.
[Ding! A hidden requirement has been fulfilled. A new skill can be learned: Sun Palm.]
[Do you want to buy Sun Palm for 200 points? You currently have 540 points.]
[If you buy, you will be gifted with the shop function!]
Sun Palm....
Ceceada heard this and couldn't help but be shocked as the skill, Sun Palm, sounds very familiar to him.
'Isn't that the legendary skill that only main disciples of Sun Sect can learn?' He thought in his heart, suppressing the urge to laugh from excitement.
In contrast to Sun Fist that is used for combat, Sun Palm is said to be mainly used for healing. It is said that although it can be given to main disciples, no one in the entire sect ever learned of that skill before because of the incompleteness of the skill book being passed down from countless generations; with the only reason it is still being passed down is the hope that someone will eventually learn it.
Even the current Sect Master, Jared Burn, doesn't have the capability to use Sun Palm!
But the system is telling he can learn it in just a few hundred points?
Sun Palm? How convenient is that for his current situation?
It's not even the best part... he will also unlock the shop function of the system!
In various system novels, the shop function can offer the ability to buy various power-ups like weapons, items, techniques, bloodlines, etc., Tsk tsk, isn't that overpowered?
'Only an idiot won't buy such a good offer! Buy it for 200 points!' Ceceada almost shouted in excitement and directly ordered the system to buy it, afraid that the offer or rather advertisement will disappear.
[Ding! Congratulation! You learned the skill Sun Palm for 200 points!]
[Points: 340]
[Congratulation! you unlocked the shop function!]
Three notification entered his mind in an instant, the instinctive feeling that something on his body had changed a lot and that he had learned a new thing, but he still can't quite put into words.
Feeling the change, he suddenly felt the urge to see his status.
[STATUS]
[Cultivation Level: Level 9 of Body Refinement Realm (-900)]
[Expected breakthrough in 33 hours.]
[Skill: Sun Fist -Level 4- 1/2000 (+), Sun Palm -Level 1- 1/10 (+)]
[Physique: Low Basic Physique -Level 4- 1/2000 (+)]
[Points: 340]
[Unlocked function: Shop]
The system can understand his intention and immediately transcribed the information of his status in his mind.
He smiled when he assimilated all these information in a moment. Although it seemed like nothing much changed in the interface, he can still feel the tremendous changed it gave him all this time.
He looked at Hannah's mother before him, thinking that this is the perfect chance to test the power of Sun Palm, a skill very similar to Healing Hearth on video games that he played before.
Hannah looked at Ceceada who stopped moving forward and her expectant gaze urged the cultivator to raise both of his arms in front of her mother, lightly spreading his palm apart.
"Sun Palm..." Ceceada chanted the skill faintly. Although he didn't need to do so, the strong influence of anime and games made him think it will be far more effective with chanting.
In Hannah's expectant gaze, she can see Ceceada's hand light up slowly, making her hope for a miracle to happen.
Bit by bit, the light that the hand emitted became stronger and making the house a bit warmer. Looking at this, Hannah can only think that it resembles the Sun on twilights, specifically dawns.
If someone look from outside the wooden house, one will see a faint light being emitted from the small holes of the house.
Even though the light being released from Ceceada's hand is becoming more intense as time goes by, the light didn't hurt her eyes, instead she felt a euphoric feeling spread in her body!
She ignored the euphoric feeling and turned her head to her mother, holding her mother's hand tightly!
She suddenly saw her mother's index finger moving and shaking!
Hope filled Hannah's eyes when she saw this and she immediately moved away from the euphoric feeling under the light, thinking that she might be wasting the healing capability of Ceceada.
Ceceada also saw the small movement and urged his core to pump mana more towards his palms.
Unfortunately, it didn't get any more stronger than that.
Although it seemed reasonable to just get closer and directly touch the emaciated woman to focus the healing effects on a single individual, Ceceada instinctively felt that it will have far better effect with what he is doing now.
Ceceada smiled indifferently when he saw that it didn't get any more powerful with more mana, only thinking that this is the limit of only using Level 1 of Sun Palm.
'Level 1 is not enough? How about this?' Ceceada thought and immediately ordered the system to upgrade the Sun Palm to level 2.
[Ding! -10 points]
[Points: 330]
[Congratulation! Sun Palm is promoted to level 2!]
[Skill: Sun Palm -Level 2- 1/20 (+)]
Ceceada heard these notifications sound in his mind, but he ignored it. Focusing on any changes of his skills.
However, looking at his palms, he didn't see any visible changes.
Ceceada didn't think much of it, thinking that the improvement is probably not focused on the physical changes, but on the effect!
Ceceada's thought is validated as he suddenly saw the emaciated woman's body becoming a bit more inflated. Her hair, slowly turning black as some directly grew out of her scalp!
Hannah saw this on the side and jumped on excitement, her heart filled with gratefulness while looking at Ceceada.
Ceceada mouth suddenly formed an o shape when he saw the qualitative effect of Sun Palm increasing too much in just a single upgrade.
Hannah's mother' eyes twitched for a moment and her eyes opened slowly, looking at her child.