"This... this is it!", a man exclaimed excitedly as the feeble torch revealed his middle-age face. His dark brown robe fluttered in the wind. Under the dark clear sky covered by vast trees, was an entrance.
Lu Xian felt ecstatic. He had been searching for this place for over twenty years. To be more precise, this was what his father had left him before he died; a map.
And today, he had finally found it; a cave. A cave deep within the Ethereal Shade Forest.
The map his father had left behind was vague, lacking many crucial descriptions costing him to visit a multitude of places in a span of two decades.
He travelled from Frosty Mountain Range, enduring its extreme freezing weather, to the stark opposite Magma Pools, which he felt he was being cooked alive.
As the only item his father had entrusted to him, he made it his goal to find this place.
Lu Xian continued walking deeper into what seemed like eternal darkness. Even with a torch he could barely see a few meters ahead of him.
Thud!
Lu Xian face contorted as his toe had hit something. As a result, he fell, with his head first, hitting the cold...wooden floor? Wait no how could there be wood flooring within a cave.
Unless...this is the final destination. Lu Xian wiped his nose with his arm leaving a trail of blood all over it.
Luckily, Lu Xian didn't drop the torch (though he didn't know how he managed to do so) or else the consequence could have been fatal.
Carefully, Lu Xian took his first step onto the wooden flooring. Then he took his next. And before he knew it, he had arrived before a podium. Placing the torch near it, he realised there was a thick book lying dormant on it.
Blowing the accumulated blanket of dust away reveal a golden glamour that illuminated under the torch light.
"Limitless Realm Tome" Lu Xian murmured as he read the golden engravement on the cover of the book.
With his right hand, Lu Xian opened the book.
Instantly, there was a white flash. Bright and powerful. However, it lasted only a few second before the darkness returned.
Despite that, Lu Xian remained still. Even though his pair of eyes were blank, there was a subtle gleam that was extremely similar to the previous burst of light.
Suddenly, there was a strong gush of wind. A faint aqua light glowed around Lu Xian as his aura weakened.
From the Qi Absorbtion stage 9, to stage 8, to stage 7, it kept falling as more energy flooded out of Lu Xian body creating powerful gales. Even the cave began shivering under the torrent of energy.
The commotion dwindled as Lu Xian regressed to the Qi Absorbtion stage 1 realm.
The cultivation realms that Lu Xian knew of were, Qi Absorbtion – 10 Stages , Qi Refining – 10 stages and Qi Condensation –15 stages.
And now he was back at square one, the same stage a human a baby would have.
Lu Xian sat down in a cross-legged position taking deep breathes. He had just been dumped on with a truck of information.
The Limitless Realm Tome was a cultivation technique. A profound and mysterious technique.
Although only a few second had passed in reality, Lu Xian felt as if he had spent centuries digesting the information.
Even now, he could still feel the tingling pain in his head.
To cultivate this technique, he had to start all over, and hence he dispersed all the spiritual energy in his dantian.
Making use of the disperse energy that was still lingering around him, Lu Xian began recalling the method of the Limitless Realm Tome.
The spiritual energy around him began rapidly swerving towards him. His body, happily absorbed the spiritual energy.
As time minutes turn into hours, the spiritual energy return to its original levels; very faint and weak.
At this moment, Lu Xian opened his eyes, feeling (although not as much as before) a clump of spiritual essence within his dantian nurturing his body.
However, the quality of his spiritual energy was top-notch; he had never seen such pure and dense spiritual energy before.
Despite this, Lu Xian realised he was still at the first stage of Qi Absorbtion albeit peak of the stage.
A low growl from his stomach reminded him that he hasn't eaten anything for hours. Therefore, he took out some of his emergency rations: bread.
After ravaging the bread hungrily, he took some sips of water from his gourd before standing up.
Lu Xian was prepared to return to Shadehaven City, the nearest one from the Ethereal Shade Forest.
However, before he left, he explored the rest of the area, but found nothing else.
It seemed that the Limitless Realm Tome was the main item.
But this birthed many unanswered questions within Lu Xian mind.
Why was such a profound cultivation technique in this place?
How did my father acquire the map?
Why did my father not take it for himself?
Only if he did... if he did, he wouldn't have died that year.
Lu Xian lamented as he was washed over with sorrow.
He only had three things he wanted: strength, to protect his loved ones; immortality, to continue and pursue the pinnacle of cultivation and pioneer new realms; and family, to feel the warmth and love he yearns for.
Lu Xian quickly discarded this feeling of sorrow as he can only move forward from now.
When Lu Xian exited the cave, he was welcomed with the first few rays of light from the rising sun.
Lu Xian admired the beautiful dawn sky. Unconsciously, he also began activating his cultivation method, drawing in the spiritual energy from his surroundings.
It was at this moment, when he felt a surge in spiritual energy within his dantian that he broke free from a trance.
Suddenly, he felt something opened up.
'I've broken through?'
He shockingly thought.
It was then he realised he actually broken through, and joy filled his eyes despite his cold expression.
This breakthrough was timely though. With his second stage Qi Absorbtion, he felt it was going to be less risky returning to the city.
He estimated that he could probably contend with a stage five Qi Absorbtion beast if he encountered one.
And even if he unfortunately encounters a stage six Qi Absorbtion beast, he reckons that he could still escape due to his Gale Footwork technique, which was at the Lesser Mastery stage.
As of Lu Xian knowledge, there are five stages to proficiency of a technique:
Minor Understanding, Major Understanding, Lesser Mastery, Greater Mastery, Perfection.
Each realm of proficiency become incrementally more difficult to reach.
For Lu Xian he had spent over a decade refining his Gale Footwork technique and have managed to reach Lesser Mastery due to his decent comprehension. For other people it would of take a decade or two longer.
But it is also partly due to the quality of his Gale Footwork Technique; lower basic grade.
Martial technique and cultivation techniques are divided into different grades, and the better the grade the greater the benefits obtained.
These grades being, Basic, Profound, Mystical, Legendary. There are also two more grades above Legendary but they were only found in ancient tales that span over a millennium ago: Earth and Heaven Grade.
Looking at the Limitless Realms Tome, Lu Xian believe it is at least at the Earth Grade.
At this rate, it will take at least an hour to arrive at Shadehaven City.
Without any further delay, Lu Xian departed from the cave and rapidly hopped from tree branches to other branches.
...
About an hour and half later, a crazily sweating middle age man arrived in front of a massive gate with a plate engraved with the words 'Shadehaven City'.
It was the exhausted Lu Xian. Fortunately, on the way to the city, he had only encountered a couple of stage 2 and one stage 3 Qi Absorbtion beast which he was able to easily kill.
Despite killing them, Lu Xian felt it was a pity that he didn't have a storage bag nor the even better prestigious storage rings.
He reckoned that those beast body could have been sold for a few hundred Essence Coins – an essential currency but also cultivation material due to its property of storing spiritual energy.
Currently, he only had around 20 Essence coin. This number was bound to decrease due to shelter and food.
After looking around for a while, he found an inn offering a relatively cheap price of 4 Essence coin per day and 7 coins for both a room and three meals included.
Immediately, when it came to his turn to go to the counter, he paid the fees afraid that they will run out of rooms if he were to hesitate.
At the end he decided to purchase the room with the three meals bundle for two days costing 14 Essence coins.
He felt the pinch as he was now basically poor.
As he received a plate which simultaneously acted as a key to his room and a token for his three meals, he went straight to the inn restaurant as he was still starving.