After breakfast, Lin Fan decided to explore his new home as the memories he received were few and far between, only consisting of a few names and dates. As he walked around, the realization that he was living in a gigantic castle hit him, sending him reeling as in his past life, he was too poor to think about such things. While walking around, he bumped into a servant and asked her where the library was located as he wanted to learn all about this new world's history. As the servant led him to the castle library, he heard a 'Ding!' as the mechanical voice of the system announced 'The host has a new quest.'
Quest: Find out the history about this world
Reward: ???
Penalty for failure: Death
After a while, the servant showed Lin Fan the library. Stepping in, he found himself in awe of the huge library which looked like it could fit in 3 refugee camps, and the amazing collection which ranged from literature to politics to sciences and magic which had what looked like millions of books. Shaking off the surprise, Lin Fan made his way to the history section, trying to find the books on this world's history. He took so long to absorb the new information that by the time he was done, it had already been a few hours.
1000 years ago, the world was a lot like Lin Fan's past world past when out of the blue, monsters and demons alike started appearing out of nowhere. Within a week, 50 percent of humans were either wiped out or trapped in a remote area mercy of monsters and demons. The other 50 percent managed to build defenses and walls in time. However, the monsters only grew stronger and stronger, rendering the swords and bows useless. Just as the human population was about to go extinct, a human named Fu Xuan discovered how to draw in energy from the air and earth and used this energy to repel the monsters. From then on, he became known as the first cultivator. 'Ding! The host has finished the quest!' The system's mechanical voice announced.
Rewards: Basic cultivation scripture and 10 spirit stones (mid)
"A Basic cultivation scripture? This will probably help me advance to the first stage of the qi gathering realm" Lin Fan thought as he took it out from his inventory.
Item name: Basic cultivation scripture
Item description: A scripture made by the first cultivator on what is qi and how to sense, absorb, and utilise it.
Just as he was about to read the book, his butler came and said, "Young master, your parents want me to inform you that it is time for dinner." Putting the book away, Lin Fan answered "Thank you for telling me this. Please guide me to the great hall, I do not remember where it is." "Of course, right this way sir," The butler said as he led the way to the dining room. When Lin Fan entered the dining hall, he was awestruck. The ceiling looked like it was the real sky, with murals of clouds and the sun painted all over it with the lighting making it seem as if it was daytime. The windows towered over him, letting light stream into the room as if attempting to reach every nook and cranny. In the middle of the room lay a majestic long table that was many times longer than Lin Fan himself.
Around the table, there were chairs arranged in such a way that the biggest chairs, reserved for the highest-ranking people in the family, such as his father, were at the ends of the table. On the table lay a velvet red tablecloth and on it, many plates and trays of food were spread out elegantly across the table. Aged wines that were reserved for the adults, Fillet Mignon, assorted cheeses, Iberico ham, and Caviar were all part of the meal. They sat down for dinner and Lin Fan's father, Lin Peng, asked Lin Fan, "Are you ok son? That assassin was an extremely skilled one, somehow managing to sneak past all our defences and kill a few guards silently." "I'm fine. Luckily, you arrived when you did Father." Lin Fan replied. The tension in Lin Fan's father's expression seemed to flow away when he heard that. "Good, good. Remember, the prince's birthday party is in 3 days. You need to attend to show your respect." "Yes Father, I remember" Lin fan replied.
"Is this going to be detrimental to my plans of cultivating secretly?" Lin Fan thought as he sat on his bed and started reading the manual. After a while of studying the manual, Lin Fan felt that he had gotten a grasp of the concept and crossed his legs and sat in a lotus position, trying to sense the energy or the 'qi' that the book mentioned, in the air. A few moments later, Lin Fan began to sense a warm fuzzy feeling in the air around him. "This must be the Qi that the book was talking about!" Lin Fan thought. Moment passed, and he noticed that his body was pulling in this energy and absorbing it.
Suddenly, Lin Fan had a feeling in his sternum, like a limit had been broken or a barrier, shattered. A warm, fuzzy feeling washed over his body. Lin Fan was confused until he remembered that the scripture had mentioned this as a sign of 'breaking through'. In this world, one's cultivation rank determines their strength and future. The first and most basic stage of cultivation was the 'Qi gathering' realm. All realms had 4 stages going from Low to Mid to High to Peak before breaking through. The stages had a very clear gap in strength. For example, 100 Qi gathering cultivators could not defeat 1 Low Foundation Building Cultivator.
However, the limit of your cultivation depended on how good your luck, foundation, and natural aptitude were. For example, if you rush cultivating and forget to build up a strong and steady foundation, you may only be able to reach the third Realm of cultivation before being stuck or worse, getting backlash which is when qi flows the other way due to a person either forcing themselves too far or being attacked.