"Grandchild, by the time you're reading this letter, it means you have received the inheritance... I know at this moment you must be cursing this old man for being so cryptic, haha."
"But that's not important anymore. The reason I left this letter is mainly to tell you about your origin... The truth is, you are not an orphan."
"I took you in at the request of your parents; they didn't abandon you out of a lack of love, nor did they wish to leave you. It's just that..."
"In short, this world is more complex and dangerous than you have imagined, so you must act discreetly and continuously grow stronger. Only then can you truly be reunited with your family. Otherwise, just pretend you never came across this letter..."
The content of the letter wasn't long, and the handwriting was intermittent, but by the time Wu Xiaoshan finished reading, his eyes were blurred with tears.
I am not an orphan, I have parents too!
It was just because of certain affairs that they entrusted me to the old man, and the Eight Trigrams Jade Pendant is the heritage left by them!
"Since the old man said that this world is more complex and perilous than I have imagined, that means there must be other cultivators in this world, and my parents likely encountered a formidable enemy. That's why they left me with the old man."
"Now that I've received the inheritance, I can use it to gradually strengthen myself. Once I reach a certain realm, I will be able to search for my parents!"
It didn't take long for Wu Xiaoshan to figure out the key points. He clenched his fists and decided to use Wolong Village as a base to thoroughly study the techniques passed down by the ancestors.
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. After seated in a meditative posture on his bed, he probed his consciousness into his mind.
The inheritance passed down by the ancestors mainly consisted of two parts: the cultivation technique "Great Emperor's Art," and the medical text "Wu Tao's Materia Medica."
"Great Emperor's Art" has Nine Layers, each corresponding to a specific realm: Qi Cultivation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Exit, Divinity Transformation, Void, Crossing the Tribulation, and the highest Mahayana.
According to the description, once one cultivates to Perfection in Mahayana, they will sense the heavenly tribulation, and if they succesfully cross it, they will be able to ascend to immortality.
"Wu Tao's Materia Medica" is a work composed using the lifelong dedication of the ancestor Wu Tao. It records a disparate collection of medicinal knowledge and includes countless medical techniques accumulated from ancient to modern times. One could say it is an encyclopedia for the medical field.
At advanced levels, even reviving the dead or repairing broken bones would not be strange.
The more Wu Xiaoshan read, the more astonished he became. He had not expected the ancestral inheritance to be so wondrous. However, he wasn't naive and understood that to reach the peak, he would require an enormous amount of time and countless resources.
And to obtain these resources, one had to continuously make money!
"Gurgle gurgle gurgle..."
While Wu Xiaoshan was deep in thought, suddenly, his stomach started to growl.
With no other choice, he swallowed the leftover roasted sweet potatoes from lunch whole, and feeling the hunger diminish, he sat back down on the bed and began to cultivate following the methods recorded in the "Great Emperor's Art."
An uneventful night passed.
The next morning, when Wu Xiaoshan awoke from his cultivation, he didn't feel tired despite having not slept all night.
Instead, apart from hunger, he felt energized and as if he had endless strength throughout his body.
Within his dantian, an entirely new space had opened up, inside which a strand of milky white energy stood quietly.
Qi Refining First Layer!
Wu Xiaoshan was shocked; he hadn't expected to enter the Qi Refinement Realm, the first layer of the Great Emperor's Art, so quickly.
However, before he could rejoice, an overwhelming stink assaulted his nostrils. Looking down, he realized his whole body was covered with a sticky black substance.
"Ugh..."
Wu Xiaoshan nearly passed out from the stench. After retching, he hurried into the courtyard and poured a bucket of well water over himself.
It was already autumn, and the morning air carried a hint of chill. Normally, the well water would have made Wu Xiaoshan shiver, but now that he had entered the Qi Cultivation Realm, he felt no cold at all, only refreshing comfort.
After his bath, Wu Xiaoshan calmed down and the excitement and exhilaration he felt earlier faded.
Because he suddenly realized a very grave issue: after last night's cultivation, it seemed he had absorbed all the spiritual energy around him.
And the spiritual energy of the entire Wolong Village was barely enough to form the strand of milky white energy in his dantian.
"Damn it, this cultivation journey is way too difficult. If I have only these sparse spiritual energies to rely on, forget about reaching higher realms, even stepping into the Foundation Establishment Realm might take until I'm old and gray," Wu Xiaoshan muttered to himself, a sense of powerlessness building in his heart.
He knew that besides spiritual energy, elixirs and formations can also enhance one's cultivation level.
But for elixirs, one needs a massive quantity of herbs, some of which are exceedingly precious and definitely not within his current means.
As for formations, they necessitated spirit stones, which he wasn't sure even existed in this world. He knew jade stones could be used in place of spirit stones, albeit less effectively.
However, even so, he didn't have any money to buy jade stones.
As the saying goes, gold has a price, jade is priceless. Wu Xiaoshan had once followed the old man to the city and knew that the price of jade could be tens of thousands, and fine jade could reach astronomical figures.
The more Wu Xiaoshan thought about it, the more dejected he became. Rubbing his face, he was about to find some food when a stroke of insight struck him: Wolong Mountain was abundant with herbs and wild mountain goods.
In the past, he might have been afraid of danger, but now that he had received the inheritance, as long as he was careful, perhaps he could use the endless resources of Wolong Mountain to grow rich.
With that thought, Wu Xiaoshan's eyes lit up. He found a large basket, brought some hunting tools, and headed towards Wolong Mountain.
The higher he climbed, the broader his smile became, for he discovered that Wolong Mountain was a treasure trove. Even the previously ignored tree roots and wild grasses had become valuable medicinal herbs.
In no time, he had gathered nearly half a basket.
Wu Xiaoshan was planning to venture deeper into the mountains to find more valuable herbs or game when suddenly, a woman's cry for help faintly reached his ears...