Chapter 430: A Wooden Ring - 430
Zhou Fan's mind was completely unconscious as his body floated in space. After an unknown amount of time, he briefly gained consciousness, but he could not move a muscle.
He could only tell that he was about to fall unconscious again before he did so.
An unknown amount of time passed as Zhou Fan remained unconscious. His mind was completely blank.
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As clouds covered the sun, a boy around the age of 12 carried a basket of freshly picked apples down a path. To the sides of the path were endless plains with many trees.
The boy continued to walk through the peaceful surroundings with a sense of calmness.
Suddenly, an exposed wooden stump caught his foot and brought him down. The boy was instantly pushed out of his peaceful mood and cursed at the ground.
"Damn lousy path. Who could have screwed up a path so badly. It's not as if it's a hard thing to create." The boy grumpily picked up apples, but realized that there were only a few around him.
"Damn hill." The boy looked to the side and watched as apples rolled down a hill. "I can't lose these. I've already lost baskets a few times, if it happens again, I'll be fired."
The boy mumbled to himself as he carefully walked down the steep hill. Downwards, there was a more forested area.
It seemed that the forest was where the apples had ended up.
The boy was annoyed, but went down to the forested area. Losing another batch of apples would cost him his job, which would likely get him kicked out of his house. Again.
The boy mumbled as he entered the forested area and picked up apples. "Damn lousy parents, making their 12 year old son pay rent. What a joke."
Suddenly, a cave caught the boy's eye.
"Was there a cave down here?" He asked himself.
The cave was going downwards into a small hill not too far away. Since he was already going to be a little late, the boy decided to enter the cave. After all, he had never seen it despite being in the forested area before.
The boy mumbled to himself. "Perhaps a cultivator is inside. Maybe he'll accept me as a disciple. Imagine that."
He did not hold any hope, but the sudden appearance of an unknown cave gave him the idea at least.
The boy walked up to the cave and looked inside. The entrance was half his height, but inside, it seemed to expand.
The boy looked around before crouching down and crawling through the hole.
"Was this cave revealed by that earthquake?" The boy suddenly remembered the shaking of the ground not too long ago that shocked the village.
When the boy finally entered the expanding area, he was shocked by the inside of the cave. On the walls were sparkling blue crystals that lit up the interior.
The boy's eyes widened as he went up close to the crystals and seriously examined them.
"This… This couldn't be a spirit stone mine could it!?" The boy was shocked, before fear settled in.
Cultivators would kill for a spirit stone mine. It could invite calamity to the entire village. Although it was just a small possibility, the boy was worried that it would happen. After all, he had heard many stories of such things.
The boy wanted to turn around, but he hesitated. He had always wanted to cultivate, but he had never been taught by another.
Although Zhou Fan had put the basic cultivation technique in the minds of all life, it gradually faded to the back of the mind as cultivation society grew.
It was still relevant for beasts, but humans would usually need to either be guided or meditate deeply.
The boy longingly looked at the cave walls before deciding to move further in. At the very least, he could take a look.
The boy walked as he admired the spirit stone mine. There seemed to be hundreds of thousands, though he could not count them. And this was only on the surface. It was also unknown what grade the spirit stones were.
Eventually, the number of spirit stones began to lessen. The boy was surprised. Although he did not know anything about spirit stone mines, he knew that they were usually full to the brim.
"Perhaps a normal cave is connected to it?" The boy had no idea and could only guess.
Eventually, normal stone walls replaced the spirit stone, but the boy went deeper in curiosity.
As he turned a corner, he jumped back shocked. It was hard to believe what he had seen.
He looked again, and saw the same thing.
Leaning against the end of the cave was a person wearing gray clothes. He had gray hair as well, and blood seemed to form a small puddle under him.
After a moment, the boy spoke. "Hello?"
There was no response.
"Sir? Are you dead?"
Once again, no response or even movement.
The boy gained the courage to stop hiding behind the wall and moved towards the person.
As he got closer, he could see an imprint on the ground and the wall that the person was leaning against. It was clear that he had been there for a long, long time.
The boy gained courage as nothing happened. "A cultivator?"
The boy got closer and closer, but suddenly, it looked like a finger on the person twitched.
The boy looked down in shock, but his attention was grabbed by the sudden opening of the person's eyes.
The person's eyes were wide as he looked at the boy. He reached out and touched the boy on the hand before his eyes went limp and his body fell backwards.
The boy finally reacted and jumped backwards, falling onto the ground.
He breathed heavily for a few minutes as he stared at the person.
As everything returned to normal, he calmed down. He turned around and ran out of the cave.
As he did so, he couldn't help but look down at the wooden ring that had suddenly appeared on his finger.
Chapter 431: Soul Form - 431
When the boy finally returned to the village, he was promptly fired. The boy didn't care that much due to the day's events and returned to his house.
He blankly looked at the floor while his parents scolded him, and soon entered his small room.
He did not say a word of the cave in fear of the body inside, as well as the spirit stone mine. It was unknown what such a calamity would bring, and the boy had no intention of ever finding out.
He fell asleep while looking at the wooden ring that had appeared on his finger. He had tried earlier, but he couldn't take it off no matter how hard he tried.
The next morning, the boy left the house on a "Job Search". In reality, he had simply given the excuse to his parents in order to leave.
His curiosity had gotten hold of him. He wanted to enter the cave again. He had been struck with fear at first, but he soon realized that this was the opportunity he had always dreamed of. A possible spirit stone mine, as well as the body of a cultivator.
Perhaps he could even find the universal cultivation manual on his body. It was said that, long ago, there had been only one cultivation technique that all humans used.
It was said that all truly powerful cultivators practiced it.
After a short travel, the boy once again crawled through the entrance of the cave.
He looked around, still astonished by the crystals embedded in the walls. Although he did not have any actual proof that they were spirit stones, he automatically assumed it so.
The boy walked up to one of the crystals and attempted to grab it. As he felt it in his hand, it suddenly disappeared. The boy looked at his empty hand stunned. There was also an empty hole in the wall where the spirit stone had been stuck.
It was the only physical evidence that proved he was not hallucinating. The boy grabbed another crystal and the same thing happened again. This time, he was sure that he was not crazy.
The boy walked up to another crystal and touched it with the tip of his finger. Nothing happened. He added another tip and another, but even when all five of his fingertips were on the crystal it did not disappear.
The boy's gaze drifted to the ring on his ring finger. He clenched his hand into a fist and touched the crystal with the ring. The crystal disappeared again.
He looked at the ring, then the walls, then back at his ring.
"It must be spirit stones! And this ring must be some sort of cultivation treasure!" He said to himself. "Perhaps it needs to absorb spirit stones in order to activate!"
With this thought, the boy walked around the cave, touching every single spirit stone with the ring, watching it disappear every time.
The boy continued for multiple hours, consuming thousands of spirit stones, more than enough to buy his entire village a thousand fold, but nothing changed.
Instead of being discouraged, the boy got even more excited.
"To use up so many spirit stones, this may be a high-level cultivation treasure." He said excitedly.
He continued on, but as night fell, the ring had still not done anything. There were still many spirit stones left, and the boy returned to the village. He could not just disappear, and he was also getting tired. He was still a mortal after all.
His parents did not ask any questions or say anything all night, and he returned to the cave the next day.
He continued to feed the wooden ring spirit stones, until after what felt like the millionth, the ring seemed to shake.
The boy stopped moving and stared at the ring in excitement. Suddenly, the air around him began to swirl as if a tornado was forming. A green river seemed to appear from nowhere, and the silhouette of a human began to form from thin air.
As the wind stopped moving, a floating, see-through body appeared next to the boy. It was a small body, the size of a doll, but an air of power surrounded it.
The boy stared in excitement as the small human figure sat on his shoulder and took in a deep breath.
"It's about time. I feel like it's been forever since I could think clearly."
The human figure looked around. "My situation isn't quite good. In fact, I'm lucky to be alive."
"Hello? Sir?" The boy said.
Zhou Fan turned his head and looked at the boy. "Hello. My name is Zhou Fan. I seem to be in quite the situation."
The boy scratched his head. "Yes, it appears so. You look familiar."
Suddenly, the boy's eyes lit up. "Of course. You are the body in the cave."
The boy began to walk while looking at Zhou Fan.
"Yes. It seems that I am in soul form, forced out of my body due to weakness and as a method of self preservation" Zhou Fan mumbled.
Zhou Fan looked around his tiny body as the boy moved forward. Although his soul form was currently tiny, he had needed to condense his soul in order to sustain its existence.
His injuries sustained in the battle could not be explained with words. When he said that he had nearly died, he meant that even a fly could have killed him by simply landing on him.
The river of cultivation was still moving around him, though it was also weak and small.
Luckily, no matter how weak or small it was, it was still able to keep cultivation going smoothly. All of the rules and changes Zhou Fan had made were still firmly in place.
The river of cultivation did not consume energy simply by existing and functioning.
Zhou Fan had a lot to think about, especially with the creation of his own power, cultivation. It was different from the idea of cultivation, but an actual energy similar to Qi, though, in his opinion, far superior.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
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