The sun had not yet risen above the horizon but the sky above was no longer completely dark. Liang walked into the camp and saw the old man was holding a cup of tea and sitting so still and pristine he could not tell if he was staring at a painting or if the old man had really died. He however, returned covered in blood and filth.
The trip had been a nightmare for Liang. It was difficult to see at night but he avoided many of the beasts as they were agitated and often fought amongst themselves. However, he could not avoid all of them and wolves probed him continuously.
When they finally found an opportunity, two came at him from opposing sides. He was able to block one wolf with his shield but with his attention split, he was not able to stop the second wolf from latching on and pulling his leg. He swung his sword down and cut through the spine of the wolf biting him before chopping the skull of the other but the wolf had already left a deep wound.
After observing the short bout, the other wolves realized he would not be easy to deal with and decided to chase other prey. However, that did not end the constant harassment from a myriad of other beasts. Most ended up as little more than pokes and prods but in the end he had killed six savage beasts and obtained their cores.
Stretching his arms out as if he just woke up the old man said, “You just barely made it back in time. Do you have the cores?” Liang looked at him incredulously wondering if he cared at all about what happened through the night. Without saying anything, he took the cores out and handed them to him.
The old man took them from Liang and examined them. “Two Silver Wolves, a Red Back Raccoon, two Serpent Tail Rats, and a Green Eyed Razor Hare. Barely passable, not very tasty, but passable. Now that you’re here go clean up. After breakfast, we’re going deeper into the forests. These small things are not much of a challenge.”
The remark almost caused Liang to fall down. The old man thought they were not much of a challenge. The bite on his leg from one of the wolves needed treatment and the numerous other injuries to his body were not light either. However, the old man shooed him away telling him he stunk.
While stumbling to the river not far from camp Liang replayed the night through his mind. The sounds, smells, and images still played vividly in his memory and the reality of how dangerous it had been finally hit him. Throughout the night there were many times he thought he was going to die. Times where his body moved instinctually instead of him carefully thinking.
Even in his village, everyone understood that those who walked the path towards immortality could never return to a normal life. Right now, he felt like he was at a turning point. If he continued to follow the old man, he would grow strong enough to avenge his village.
However, his life would be in constant danger. Even if he avoided unnecessary battles, he would still need to fight to gain experience. Blood feuds and grudges would form; there would be no end to it. Every immortal stood on the bodies of countless others.
For now, he had only killed beasts but he wondered how he would react if he had to fight against other humans. He did not want to think that life had so little value that he could murder someone for the smallest things. He did not want to become that heartless.
When he finally entered the river, Liang scrubbed delicately around the wounds using the ice-cold water until all of the filth was gone. He was cold before he entered, but after leaving the river his normally slightly tanned body had turned blue. He was so numb he did not feel the injuries any longer and moved towards the fire as quickly as his hobbled leg allowed.
He thought further and decided not to kill unless it was necessary. The old man told him “do not swing wildly at the flies but make sure to deal with the mosquitoes.” He rarely bothered with small issues and normally avoided things he thought were a waste of time. He was very carefree compared to the image of immortals he had in his mind.
“Are you injured boy?” The old man asked nonchalantly as if his limp did not give it away. Liang’s teeth were chattering from the cold but he was still able to say, “Large gash in my left leg, punctures in my right arm, too many cuts and scratches to count.”
The old man smiled before saying, “Good, that’s good. A man should have some scars” before he erupted in laughter. Liang did not find it very funny so he asked the old man, “Master, can I please have one of those medicinal pills for injuries.”
Still amused the old man replied, “Well I suppose, but I’ll need to make a few more first. I only have two left and the way you get injured so often I’ll run out very soon.” He removed several herbs from his ring and placed them into neat bundles on the ground before looking them over.
Liang knew he bought the herbs but he did not think the old man would use them to make pills. “Master, I didn’t realize you were an alchemist, I thought you hated them.” The old man could drone on for hours about alchemists. “Alchemy! Who’s the alchemist here? Are you calling your master a charlatan? Humph, what a joke.”
A few more insults later and the old man took out what appeared to be a board cut from the Three-Fires Ironwood; however, it was actually made of hundreds of thin layers somehow bound together. “Bunch of greedy bastards those alchemists, watch and see how true pills are formed.”
The old man placed the plants on the board and injected qi into a small circle on one side. Immediately the hundreds of lines in each layer began to glow so bright Liang was unable to see clearly. When the lights finally dimmed, there were nine perfectly round white balls in the center and the herbs were gone. It was so unreal that he almost wanted to ask if the old man switched the herbs for pills while the light was shining.
Picking one up the old man tossed it to Liang saying, “You see? Absolutely no waste and no impurities. How many alchemists can do that in the nine heavens? None, I’ll tell you I have never met one. You tell me, if alchemists aren’t a bunch of scam artists then what are they!? All their different flames, temperatures, different wood, it’s all a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Nothing but a big show with smoke and fire to impress everyone.”
Liang was beginning to think the old man had some type of traumatizing history with alchemists as anytime he mentioned them the old man would lose his temper. He thought it would be a good idea to bring them up next time the old man lectured him if he needed a break. He would slip out a “But don’t alchemists” and let the old man spew his venom in their direction for a while.
However, if the pills worked then the old man’s skills were incredible. He had never seen an alchemist work but he knew it took hours to make a single pill and they were not always successful. There were also special pills to remove the impurities from other pills.
The possibilities left Liang with many questions. “Does that mean you can put any herbs on there and make pills from them?” Looking proud the old man replied, “You need to know what ingredients to use but once you place them on there you just inject your qi and the arrays will do the rest.”
Shocked by the old man’s response he asked, “So does that mean anyone can use this?” He smiled and said, “Anyone who can control qi can use this, but who else can make this other than I? If anyone could make this, you would never see alchemist’s waste resources again.”
Stopping to stroke his beard as if pondering a deep life mystery the old man said, “Actually, it might be worth it to make a bunch of these and then the world could see how worthless alchemy is. I’ll think about it.”
The old man’s smugness reached a new level before Liang asked, “Is it possible for me to learn how to make arrays like this?” After the question left his mouth, the old man responded by saying, “Do you think I learned how to make arrays like this from some book?
“That I didn’t practice for thousands of years with countless failures. Do you think I’m called the Array God in the nine heavens because I casually thought I’d like to be an arrayist? You’re 10,000 years too young to even think about arrays like this.”
After hearing the old man Liang felt a little dejected and swallowed the pill. Instantly a warm feeling washed over him and the wounds on his body disappeared quickly. He was amazed that by using what the old man said were nothing more than cheap herbs he was able to create legendary pills.
The old man finished his rant and perhaps feeling a little guilty told Liang, “Arrays like this take countless years to learn. For now, you need to focus all your time on training. When your strength is close to the Nascent soul realm, I’ll teach you some illusion and defense arrays that are useful. Learning arrays takes a long time boy. Anyone can copy directions from a book. Creating your own takes a deep understanding of how to build functional circuits.”
Liang’s eyes instantly lit up and he thanked the old man. The idea of him creating his own arrays was incredible. However, his excitement died down when he realized he did not know how long it would take to reach the Nascent soul realm. He had heard of the Nascent realm before, however, he did not understand much about it so he asked the old man.
“First stage is Qi Condensation which you were at, that’s just wasting the qi and turning it into a liquid, how foolish. After you gather enough liquid you can solidify it, this is the Foundation stage, more time wasted. The foundation is only a base created so in the Core Formation stage you have a home for your pseudo-core.”
“Two stages to finally form a core so it can house what you create next the Nascent soul. You’ll form a small soul inside of your core. After you’ve created the soul you must help it develop, this is the Soul Nourishing stage where you waste all your time feeding the soul you created. Like you’re some parent raising a child.”
“When the soul becomes an adult it is time to connect to it, this is known as the Dao Connection stage. Failure to connect often leads to death and many choose not to do it because of this risk. Many cultivators are old by this age and have been parenting their soul for so long they forget why they were cultivating.”
“Once you reach the peak of the Dao Connection stage and you have completely connected to the soul, you can attempt to leave the first heaven and undergo Soul Forging. Were your body and soul become one and overcome the shackles of this world allowing you to enter the second heaven.”
“There are minor stages in-between each realm so it’s not just six advancements, the whole thing is tedious. Many people can reach the Nascent stage but nourishing a soul to adulthood takes a very long time. Some will die of old age before they can fully nourish their soul. Most will never connect their soul to their bodies and only 2-3 every thousand years will survive Soul Forging.”
“Don’t think too much about these though. They don’t apply to you specifically. Your body is your foundation, your cores are fused to you, your soul will not feed off you but feed on its own, because of the fusion, it is already connected to your body, and forging your soul against the heavens will be no problem. There are always smarter ways.”
The old man was confident, he was always confident no matter what he did which always-left Liang feeling hopeful. However, he finally understood how great the journey of a cultivator was. The old man said there were nine heavens and nine hells. Liang could not imagine how strong someone would need to be to reach the ninth heaven and thought, if the old man made it there how strong was he.
