Chapter 4: The Way of Spirit

Small sparrows chirped and flew over a considerable settlement. The sun had risen and bathed the Green Star Village in a warm glow. Housewives stepped out to work within the village itself. Some of them taking care of the pigpen while a few of them washing clothes across a wooden board next to wooden tubs.

The men moved out. A few of them held farming tools in their hands. With the group, there were individuals who did not hold their farming tools. Instead, their farming tools were glowing and floating around them.

In Douluo Continent, the marital souls are divided into Beast Spirits and Tool Spirits. If any spirit is in the form of an animal, then it naturally falls under the categorization of beast spirits while any other form of spirit, including plant spirits, is generally coined as Tool Spirits.

As they walked and chatted amongst themselves, they passed a rather majestic structure. Unlike the cottages that needed constant repairs, this building was built solidly. Its roof had beautiful brown tiles and the entrance seemed to be marked with a strange writing.

In front of this building is a wooden notice board. As they passed, a few of these villagers stopped in front of the notice board and looked at the parchments stuck on the surface of the board.

"Hmm, look at these renegades! Spirit Hall is the strongest power after Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empire. Tch... ah, they still haven't caught this kid?"

One of them pushed a recent parchment aside and looked at an old notice. The parchment was already dirty and yellow, making the ink over the parchment rather light but it was still easy to read and visualize.

On the parchment was a portrait of a small boy. Short black hair that wasn't long enough to even have any partition; slightly longer than a buzz cut. His innocent features could strike a chord amongst villagers but below the portrait was a piece of information.

— Chen is an innate evil cultivator with a very destructive spirit. Any person who brings this boy to the spirit hall alive will be rewarded with a 10000-year-old spirit beast. Anyone who brings his corpse will be rewarded with a 500-yead-old spirit bone. Those who bring validated information about his whereabouts will be rewarded 10000 gold coins.

Caution: An evil spirit attacks any who tries to hurt him. Distance from this evil cultivator is advised.—

"It's been a little over 12 years now. This guy must have become a true demon by now!" One of them proclaimed.

"Yeah... damn evil cultivators! They need to be burnt and torn apart! So many villagers are suffering at the hands of evil cultivators. If it wasn't for Spirit Hall, ordinary men like us would have been killed long ago!"

"Let's go... sigh, no point in wasting our time here. Besides, the spirit hall isn't due to be open till next year. Even this year, our village only had two youngsters with spirit energy... what will happen of us, sigh," One of them patted the man's back and began following the group once again.

"Old Xue! That Li guy, did he ever come down?" The leader of the group looked at the bald Xue Bing. Right now, Xue Bing held a broom as he cleaned the area right in front of the entrance of his tavern.

"No, Brother Li is still in seclusion. Say, Old Ji, did you read it?"

Xue Bing inquired and the man nodded vigorously!

"Your Brother Li is amazing! Last night, Zun'er kept thinking that it was her magic but really, it is Brother Li's writing that made the last night possible!" Old Ji sighed deeply before chuckling.

"Anyway, let him know that I'm really thankful!"

"Of course. He said that he'd leave in a week so he'll probably be down in a few hours," Xue Bing smiled.

Meanwhile, inside the room of the tavern, Chen was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed.

Right now, he was completely naked while his clothes could be seen placed over the straw mattress. Next to the clothes were two tomes, thin manual booklets, and even scrolls.

Chen's thin body was covered with sweat at this moment. He had spent the week inside the room, constantly setting up missions regarding cultivating skills. He did not cultivate the same skill twice. Instead, he would set up additional objectives and then start practicing new skills to gain more techniques as a reward.

A thoroughly broken trait, Chen knew. But out of all these skills, Chen could only cultivate a few. After all, learning techniques and practicing them were clearly two different concepts.

In between, his clothes had gotten too dirty to be worn so he politely requested Xue Bing to have them washed. But Chen himself did not go down to clean himself. At this moment, he was reaching the new depths of personal hygiene.

'So... aside from the most basic spirit qi present in the surroundings, internal energy can be cultivated to raise the quality of the body. Mental Energy can be cultivated to raise the quality of consciousness. Even though I have tried to cultivate spirit energy, it won't have any effect until I actually acquire a spirit ring.

The old Chen was helpless. Although glib, he did not have the skills and resources to get a spirit ring on his own. I do have the skills, but not the resources. Not to mention that while absorbing a spirit ring, a cultivator is completely vulnerable. It's not rational to do this alone.'

Thinking of this, Chen raised his hand and looked at the back of his right palm. The pitch-black eye stared back at Chen.

'Humans are also a form of spirit beasts. Like spirit beasts, we also understand our basic abilities instinctively.

Evil Title, a rare body-type spirit on my right hand. Its ability is to summon an evil-attributed spirit beast of any level and nature. The first and the last time I summoned one to help me protect against that chunni, I would have died if the two of them didn't misunderstand each other as my ally.'

Chen recalled his experience. That beautiful, pitch-black tiger with a strange scorpion tail.

'The moment I try to absorb any spirit ring onto Evil Title, it will resonate and attract other evil-attributed beasts.'

Thinking of his other martial spirit, Chen's expression turned a little normal.

'It's frightening in its own way but its most basic ability is useless until I get a spirit ring,' Chen huffed.

[Objective: Practice Mental Acupuncture Technique continuously.

1) Reach the second level of the technique.

Rewards: Gentle Palm Technique—Golden Pupil Eyes.

In front of Chen, a small manual slowly formed midair. The manual booklet seemed rather worn and it felt like it would be destroyed quite easily.

'Tch, couldn't reach the optional objective," Chen clicked his tongue.

Failure is always right at the corner but this week had been extremely great for him already so there wasn't any point in feeling glum.

After a moment's thought, he picked the manual that described gentle palm technique and his expression remained quite calm.

'Eh, a palm technique that infuses spirit qi and blood qi to attack the enemy's innards through the use of shockwave and vibration. Like the Tremble Combat Tactics. Just that this one can infuse with spirit qi and the Tremble Combat Tactics cannot.'

His previous world, despite having mystical traits, was ruled by firearms and the battle techniques that used supernatural forces were quite rare. Even Chen only knew two or three of these techniques and all of them paled in comparison to the rewards given by D and E-Rank missions!

Closing the manual, Chen tossed it aside once the contents were memorized. Since he didn't have any way to carry all of these tomes and skills, he planned to sell the ones that wouldn't have too much of an impact while finding a good spirit ring for himself.

'Well, for now, I will regularly cultivate Storm Steps, Gentle Palms, Revitalized Blood Qi Art, Mental Acupuncture Technique, and Concentric Spirit Technique.'

Out of all the techniques he had learned in this week, these techniques provided great stability to Chen and were in line with his aptitude and practice methods.

Even now, Chen recalled his teacher's saying— The best technique isn't the strongest one, but the most suitable one.

'To respect someone who killed me... teach really was amazing. Cruel, undoubtedly, but amazing,' Chen had a slightly silly smile, 'I wonder if he'll feel the same about me if he realizes that I'm not dead?'

'Now, I need a safe location to bath without showing my face and get rid of the more cumbersome books,' Chen stood up and wore his clothes once again. The terrible scent surrounding his body seemed to be slightly suppressed but Chen himself felt pungent. After all, only his eyes were revealed and his nose was under the clothing which made his senses get attacked by his very own scent!

Thinking for a moment, Chen looked at the window. He still didn't have any possible explanation as to how he got these books without going out. He would have tried to go out just for show if the effect of Li Feng's poetry wasn't so disastrous!

'I could burn down the entire tavern and the books simultaneously...' Chen thought before shaking his head.

'Nah, they're just a peaceful bunch. They didn't even try to target an outsider like me so why make more enemies than necessary?'

Chen stacked all the manuals over the two tomes and then placed the scrolls and individual parchments on top of it before binding it using the bedsheet over the straw mattress.

What the others will think wouldn't matter much to him since he's already leaving. The chances of being pursued will be significantly lessened once he enters the outskirts of the nearby forest.

Once he had the books tied up in the bedsheet, Chen strapped the cloth bag on his back under the cloak. Although he had practiced the body enhancement technique— Revitalized Blood Qi Art, his strength was still in the confines of ordinary men and women and the collective weight of books was not a joke!

His descent into the main hall instantly attracted the attention of two brothers. In fact, Chen chose this time to take his departure since other figures who started their days late were still probably in their mattress.

"Brother Li!" Xue Bing greeted with a cheerful expression. His plump cheeks were pushed up and his mustache tilted upwards.

"Brother Xue," Chen greeted lightly. He was on borrowed time so he kept his words concise to keep Xue Bing and his brother from feeling more excited than necessary. "I must leave at once."

With that, Chen turned around and walked towards the exit.

"Brothers!" Chen stopped and tilted his head to glance at the two siblings with his striking green eyes.

"Don't think of this departure, just think of our future meeting. Till fate brings us all together once again... I'll have more poems ready!"

With that, Chen pushed open the exit and walked towards the exit of the Green Star Village opposite to the entrance Chen chose to enter with.

On the way, he glanced towards the noticeboard of the Spirit Hall and narrowed his eyes.

'That's why color printing is far better... bitches didn't even get my eye color correct. And look at that cute face... evil cultivator my foot!'

"Survive in the Demon Pond Forest for a day. Additional objectives:

1) Survive in the demon pond forest for 10 days.

2) Survive in the demon pond forest for 30 days."

[Objective: Survive within Demon Pond Forest for a day without leaving the area of a 25-kilometer radius around the core pond.

1) Survive for a total of 10 days.

2) Survive for a total of 30 days.

Rewards: A pair of spirit material boots—Journal of Spirit Plants—Devil's Blood Crystal.

Time Limit: 1/10/30 days.]

Accepting the mission, Chen entered the adjacent forest of the Green Star Village. Although he acted high and mighty before leaving, it wasn't beneath Chen to return to the village to recover himself in case of some unexpected issue.

The only reason why Chen chose Devil Pond Forest for this mission is because of the pond formation of the forest. This is one of the rare sources of water without any dangerous spirit beast hiding inside. Aside from the core devil pond deep inside the forest, the ponds around the core pond are clear and often visited by multiple spirit beasts.

Not only that, but this outer pond formation also acted as the 25-kilometer border of the core pond. This way, Chen wouldn't accidentally step out of the determined border.

Seeing the rewards, Chen was slightly satisfied. He could use a pair of new shoes.