So That's How It Was

The rain came pouring down in torrents.

The figure, caked in dirt and mud, gradually became clean.

It was Bandit Brother.

"Damn that Black Bear, and damn Constable Yan..."

Cursing, Bandit Brother began working his body free of the mud.

After struggling to crawl out,

he spat several times, then raised his arms and let the storm wash over him.

After standing in the rain for a few minutes and recovering some strength, he shook his head and said:

"I spent over three years in Little Liuzi Town learning how to dig tunnels.

I know exactly what kind of soil is easy to dig and how to dig it.

And now this village dungeon, with its lax security, thinks it can keep me locked up?

What a joke. What a joke..."

As Bandit Brother spoke, he began to chuckle, then laughed louder and louder.

Today,

he had escaped from prison once again.

He had also proved to certain people that some men simply couldn't be kept behind bars!

Still, he was glad that the Black Bear Spirit had kept the constables too busy to pay attention to him, and that they had simply thrown him into some place for temporary detention.

Otherwise, digging out would've been difficult.

At the same time,

Bandit Brother gazed at the hazy mountain silhouettes in the distant curtain of rain.

"They've probably been busy looking for martial artists to help them, and searching the mountains for tracks these past few days.

Since they haven't come to transfer me, either they've forgotten about me, or they still haven't found the Black Bear.

If they haven't found it, that's good news."

After considering the situation, Bandit Brother decided to head back to Little Liuzi Town first.

He still had some money hidden there.

More than a hundred taels!

One tael of silver was worth a thousand coins.

With the usual productivity and stability of the people under this dynasty, around five taels of silver was enough to cover the daily expenses of a family of three.

A hundred taels could support a family for twenty years.

Bandit Brother could bring himself to abandon brotherhood he couldn't see, but he couldn't bear to part with real, tangible silver.

"Things you can see and touch are the only things that are truly real."

Picking his way through the rainy night, Bandit Brother headed straight for Little Liuzi Town.

The next day.

Daylight had fully broken.

At the Dilapidated Temple,

"Snore..."

Chen Guan rose from his bed and found that his hand was much better.

It still felt a little awkward when he put pressure on it, but the sharp pain from yesterday was gone.

"I wonder what my little sister sorted out."

Looking forward to it, Chen Guan wanted to check out the spoils.

When he left the side room,

Xiao Qing was waiting by the Dilapidated Temple's back door, her gaze fixed expectantly on the room.

"Big brother!"

When she saw Chen Guan appear, she bounced excitedly in place.

If she could've left the temple, she would've floated over to him.

"Roar."

Chen Guan greeted her good morning, then went into the temple and looked at the corpse.

There might be something on this Daoist's body.

Not a single mosquito had been attracted to his corpse.

"Big brother, a sachet!"

Xiao Qing manifested Yin energy, then produced an embroidered sachet from behind the statue, presenting it as if it were a treasure.

Chen Guan looked at it and caught a faint scent of medicinal herbs.

That was probably what kept the insects away.

"Xiao Qing tried it. With this around, lots of mosquitoes and insects won't come near!"

Xiao Qing floated over to Chen Guan's side. "Big brother, wear it, and the mosquitoes won't bite you as much!"

"Roar." Seeing how thoughtful his adoptive little sister was, Chen Guan felt a warmth in his heart and did his best to give her a gentle smile.

Xiao Qing didn't mind her big brother's strange appearance. She then took out a book.

Chen Guan looked over and saw that a small patch near the top of the cover had been stained with blood, now dried.

Three characters were printed in the middle of the cover:

Qi Swallowing Art

"Is this a cultivation manual? A manual for practicing cultivation?"

Chen Guan took it very seriously and carefully accepted it with his bear paw.

After all, he had a spirit root: the Fire Spirit Root from his previous life.

More than ten days had passed, but he still hadn't figured out how to use it.

Perhaps this book would explain something.

Of course, Chen Guan regretted killing the Daoist. Otherwise, he could've asked him about cultivation.

But when faced with a Qi cultivator he'd never seen before, with unknown methods at his disposal,

even if Chen Guan had risked holding back, he'd still been forced to play it safe and cripple both the man's arms and legs.

Chen Guan hadn't felt secure otherwise.

Now, whether for his adoptive little sister's sake or because he'd already gained over a hundred points of proficiency,

Chen Guan didn't want to die.

And even if he had to die, it needed to be for something more worthwhile.

Information about cultivation alone wasn't worth it.

As it happened, though, he seemed to have good luck.

When he opened the manual, he found some introductory notes inside.

Chen Guan also learned that some "low-grade spirit roots" had to be "awakened."

His own low-grade Fire Attribute Spirit Root probably fell into that category.

He couldn't sense the Fire Attribute in the air.

But some people with unusual gifts could sense differences in the air even without cultivating.

It was like having Yin-Yang Eyes: they could see the presence of spiritual energy with their naked eyes.

At the same time,

after learning all this, Chen Guan seemed to trigger memories from his first life.

In his memories,

Chen Guan vaguely recalled his adoptive grandson often asking him,

"Grandpa, why are there so many red flowers floating in the air? They look like firewood in the stove."

Hearing such strange imaginings,

his original self had never paid them any attention.

He'd even thought his grandson's "eyes were broken."

Then, out of deep love for his grandson, he'd spent several years traveling a hundred li in every direction, taking him to see many doctors.

During that search, they'd encountered a cultivator traveling the world.

And then that person had taken his grandson away.

Now,

Chen Guan understood: eyes that were supposedly broken but could still see sparks meant "outstanding aptitude, an extraordinary gift."

Based on the grades in this book, it should've been a "fifth-grade spirit root."

The manual also recorded

that spirit roots were graded from "one to nine," with one being the highest and nine the lowest.

His own was probably the lowest, "ninth grade."

But there was no point in dwelling on these grades.

Chen Guan knew that in a world with Gods and Devils, before long, he might learn that there were ranks above first-grade, with classifications like "Supreme, Ultra-Supreme, and even Human, Earth, Heaven," and so on.

After all, this was just an ordinary, widely circulated manual.

Its records were naturally limited by the author's horizons.

But Chen Guan's reincarnation seemed to be an endless stack of layers.

After reading about the grades,

Chen Guan flipped further through the book.

Xiao Qing sat quietly beside Chen Guan, without making a sound.

As he continued turning the pages, he eventually finished reading the entire manual.

First of all,

he had to thank the Daoist for making a habit of writing down his insights. That had made many obscure and difficult terms in the book easy to understand.

To show his gratitude, Chen Guan would cremate him in a little while, then scatter his ashes across the world so he could return to nature and become one with the Great Dao.

After that, thanks to the Daoist's notes,

Chen Guan learned how to cultivate.

The first step was to search for "Qi perception."

As for how to find Qi perception,

he had to quiet his mind and sense the elemental spiritual energy in the air, then draw it into his body and make it his own.

That was the first step on the path of cultivation.

[Refining Essence into Qi]