‘It will certainly take a while before I can complete all these quests.’ The 2 quests easiest to complete were Everyone Counts and First Steps.

  But besides those 2, all other quests were much harder.

  ‘But if this artifact truly works as it seems, it is heaven-shattering.’ The 15% was already great, but it seemed this artifact still had many layers.

  The obvious next goal was to get 9 more disciples, but before that, Ying Ce had 2 goals. The first was helping Huang Jun out once he had sensed Qi so that he could continue cultivating.

  Besides, Ying Ce wanted to break through himself. He was already very close. And even one breakthrough could increase his power by a lot. Especially in places where Foundation Establishment Cultivators were rare, every extra star in the Qi Gathering Realm mattered.

  “Master, Master, I did it, I can feel the Qi around us.”

  “Great, soon you’ll be a cultivator.” Ying Ce stood up, looking proudly at Huang Jun. He wasn’t someone very sentimental, but even he felt something for the only person on his side.

  “Let’s go outside, I’ll help you.”

  They went to the courtyard, which was full of overgrown plants.

  “Now that you can sense Qi, you can also control it. This is important for cultivating, because to become a Qi Gathering cultivator, you will need to create stars inside your soul.”

  “These stars naturally exist in every soul, and there are 9 of them. 3 groups of 3, every group representing a Dantian. You will start by filling the smallest star of the Upper Dantian. Which will strengthen your Spiritual Vein and make cultivating faster and easier. Then the smallest star of the Middle Dantian, which will strengthen your body, and then the smallest star of the lower Dantian, which will strengthen the soul.”

  “Questions for now.”

  “Yes, what comes after the Qi Gathering Realm?”

  ”About my explanation?” Ying Ce understood Huang Jun’s question, he had also started with a great curiosity for those much stronger than him. But even only 3 years of the hard reality made such curiosity vanish.

  “No.”

  *SIGH*

  “A quick explanation, then. After the Qi Gathering Realm, you reach the Foundation Establishment Realm. Here, you focus on your body, tempering it with the Qi. The difference between a mortal and a Qi Gathering cultivator is much smaller than that between a Qi Gathering cultivator and a Foundation Establishment Cultivator. The reason you do this is for the Golden Core Realm where you start by combing your 9 stars into 3 and then those 3 into one large Golden Core. A body that hasn’t trained and been tempered with Qi cannot handle a Golden Core.”

  Yeng Ci looked at the sky, feeling the grandness of the world.

  “After that, you have the Nascent Soul Realm. Something so far from us that I know little about it. Even The Mirror Blood Sect only had 2 Nascent Soul Cultivators in its long history.” Yeng Ci returned his gaze to Huang Jun, who looked at him with sparkles in his eyes. “Have I satisfied your curiosity enough?”

  “Yes thank you, Master.”

  “Good, then let’s continue. For now, I want you to train moving Qi. You will do this for at least a week, several hours a day. This may seem tedious and unnecessary. But not only is it one of the most important skills for a cultivator, when handling with your soul, you cannot make any mistakes.”

  “Alright Master, thank you for the guidance.”

  Although Huang Jun could be quite irritating, Ying Ce had to admit the young man had a determination and work ethic not even he and many of his peers had when they started.

  It was easy to say for someone that if they could, they would cultivate 12 hours a day. But even 2 hours could bore someone to death.

  “I’ll cultivate next to you, so tell me if anything happens or if you have some questions.

  1 Weeks Later

  “It’s finally time Jun’er. You’re going to officially become a cultivator. You’re Qi manipulation is good enough that nothing should go wrong, but even if it did, I’m here.” Ying Ce said even more serious than he had ever been. For Cultivators such as him, cultivating had become something so easy he could have children screaming in his eyes and not lose focus or make mistakes. But for beginners, it was much harder.

  “Repeat the steps.”

  “I start with manipulating some Qi and bringing it close to my soul. I only control a bit of Qi, not overestimating myself. I’ll push the Qi against my soul around where the smallest star of the Upper Dantian is and try to do the same with said star. Then when they touch, I let the Qi fuse with the star. Then when that is one, I control my soul to once again cover the star.”

  “Good, and what are things to watch out for?”

  “I need to watch out for tears in my soul when bringing the Qi and the star together, and to properly cover the star again.”

  “Good, I’ll teach you how to take out the Qi and use techniques after this, for now, let’s focus on the river, not the sea.”

  [Soul Perception] was a basic technique that most people knew. It allowed them to see the Spiritual plane. But it wasn’t used when cultivating, and neither could Huang Jun currently use it.

  He could only experience the Spiritual plane by using Qi to interact with it.

  Ying Ce looked as Huang Jun took some Qi particles before starting the second step which was the most dangerous one.

  Not only felt controlling a soul very hard, similar to trying to control water with no tools. It was very unpredictable and could suddenly move in unwanted directions.

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  Therefore, it wasn’t hard to create a Soul Tear, which although not fatal in most cases was still incredibly dangerous and damaging.

  Fortunately, after a while of struggle, Huang Jun succeeded in bringing the Qi and the star together. He only needed to keep them together and stop his soul from swallowing his star and the Qi before they fused.

  It didn’t take very long, only a few minutes before the Qi and stars had merged, now if one looked incredibly well, a sliver of Qi was visible within the star.

  [Quest Completed:]

  “Congratulations, you’re now officially a First Qi Gathering Star Cultivator. The difference may now only be small, but soon you’ll properly understand the difference between us and mortals.”

  “Thank you for your guidance, Master.” Huang Jun said truly thankful.

  “It is what I should do as your master. Now enjoy yourself, try to carefully get some more Qi.” Ying Ce could see the amazement in Huang Jun’s eyes, seeing his younger self in him.

  ‘Unfortunately, reality will soon step in.’ While being a cultivator was as amazing as one could imagine, the process itself was quite… boring.

  Ying Ce looked over Huang Jun for some more, being sure he became experienced enough that even if something happened, Huang Jun could mitigate the damage.

  ‘Soon, I’ll also be able to break through to the fifth star. I’ll make sure Jun’er is prepared enough to progress alone.’

  Ying Ce hadn’t remained holed up in his house during this week, he had made some acquaintances within the village. It also helped that many people were curious about him.

  Mostly, Ying Ce wanted to gather information about the Lu Clan. After all, he wouldn’t want to step on the tiger’s tail.

  Fortunately, it seemed that the Lu Clan was a quite generic clan, one that didn’t care to properly recruit members outside of their bloodline.

  Besides that, no one in the village had any connection to the Lu Clan. Only the Village Chief had any acquaintances in the city with Lu Clan members, but that was mostly because of the tribute payments to the Lu Clan.

  Although they were in the territory Lei Kingdom. Regional Clans could act as rulers within their territory. Sects were given control of cultivators and the clans controlled money.

  A kingdom didn’t have one ruler. It was closer to an alliance of clans and sects with one family that had a crown.

  Therefore, while taxes were also paid to the crown, clans like the Lu Clan also collected taxes for themselves from villages and sometimes cities within their control.

  For now, Ying Ce would rather go to nearby villages and recruit without revealing his identity, although there was a limit to how long he could remain hidden, it wasn’t per se bad to be discovered.

  Ying Ce waited for a bit longer, after being sure Huang Jun could do it on his own, he also started cultivating. Only after a few hours did he stop and carefully nudge Huang Jun, making sure he wouldn’t be too surprised.

  “Now, I’ll teach you about how Qi and stars work. What you need to understand is that a star is a part of your soul, just like how your organ is part of your body.”

  “Now there are 2 important things you need to accept. Qi is a representation of the energy of Heaven and Earth and is limitless, if that energy is used by cultivators, it will just recharge. And 2 is that Qi is both like the energy of the sun and the grains of sand on a beach. So when you fuse Qi and your star. You are filling this star with the sand, and you can use the energy that is Qi. When the star depletes energy, it will slowly regain Qi by charging itself with the energy of Heaven and Earth. It’s a lot, I know.”

  “Master, if we only use the energy, how can you do things like create mountains or even use Qi to hold things.”

  “Is this house part of Heaven and Earth?”

  “No…?”

  “Then what about the wood used to make this house, or the stones that make a road? Aren’t they part of the Earth within Heaven and Earth?” Ying Ce could understand how confusing everything must have felt for Huang Jun, his entire worldview being warped.

  “A stone isn’t just a stone. It is a collection of the sand part of Qi. Arranged in such an order that it is heavier than wood, which is also an arrangement of Qi. For now, just think about it and sleep on it, you can ask more questions tomorrow.”

  “Alright, thank you for everything, Master.”

  “Of course, ah also, soon I’ll visit the nearest village. I’m sure you can take care of yourself.

  Yeng Ci went to his bedroom, not waiting even a second to open his artifact.

  He claimed his, well his disciple’s reward before looking at the new quest.

  ‘These appear to be my best chances currently, even only that boost is enough for me to jump ahead in my cultivation.’

  After 3 days, Ying Ce finally arrived at the final stage of filling his fourth star.

  He hadn’t told Huang Jun this, but when a star was filled, it went through a process called star rage. The Qi inside wanted to move, and as long as there was even a bit of space, the Qi could move enough.

  But when the star was full, it would start shaking uncontrollably. There was no way to stop it besides waiting till it stopped and being sure it wouldn’t injure the soul or other stars.

  And because of this process, the gains one made from filling the star from 99,9% to 100% was bigger than that from 0% to 99,9%. Well, not the available Qi, but the specialized gains made from each dantian.

  Ying Ce filled his star with the last needed Qi before it started wildly moving and shaking as if it wanted to burst.

  And while he had experience dealing with the smaller star rages. This one was much heavier and harder to deal with.

  Even when the star created small tears in his soul, Ying Ce didn’t stop and continued doing his best to mitigate the damage, making sure nothing fatal would happen.

  And only after an hour did the star finally stop moving, remaining calmly in its place as if nothing had happened.

  ‘I have 3 small tears and 1 bigger one. I should heal before doing anything.’

  A tear in the soul in most cases wouldn’t be fatal if treated quickly, which wasn’t very hard.

  But since Ying Ce had needed to keep his attention on the star rage to mitigate damage, the tears had already been there for some time.

  The soul was just a vessel for countless energy, and when it tore, there was an opening for said energy to slowly move out.

  While it could be recovered similar to blood loss, the process would be much longer and would keep Ying Ce in a weakened state for at least a week.

  ‘Well, I can still move, I just need to avoid fights. Shouldn’t be all too hard.’

  Ying Ce remained seated, enjoying his newfound control over Qi that was given by completing his fourth star.

  When he was finally ready, he left his room to find Huang Jun, who was cultivating outside.

  “Huang Jun, I’m leaving tonight. You should be able to continue progressing in your cultivation just fine even without me.”

  “Alright master, do you have everything you need.”

  “Yes, it’s not like I need much anyway.”

  “Good, and what do I say if anyone asks for you.”

  “Just tell them I went on a small adventure.”

  “Alright, Master. Please bring me back some juniors.”

  “While they will be your fellow disciples, unlike you who is also my disciple, they will only be Outer Disciples.”

  “Less competition for me.”

  “Yeah sure, as if I would let you live longer than me.”

  “Just get on the road master, you don’t want to see the end of this argument.”

  “Very funny.” Ying Ce enjoyed his time with Huang Jun, happy at who became his first disciple. But he knew that their road wouldn’t be an easy one, and he might one day stand at opposite sides of Huang Jun.

  He was after all a demon, and he wouldn’t keep his sect righteous if it slowed his pursuit of power.

  ‘I better begin his training once I come back.’ For demons like Yeng Ci, murder was far from the only thing they were willing to do for power.

  While Yeng Ci had made a line in the sand somewhere far, he couldn’t know if Huang Jun was willing to accept that.