บท 4: Guming Town
Yan Guang yawned as he woke up in his bed of grass and leaves. It was the start of a new day, and on this day, he would finally set out on his journey of reaching human civilization.
The first thing he did was skin the wolf. Using its claws as a knife, he was able to skillfully remove its fur and cut off a piece of it to use as a coat. He'd learned quite a few handy skills over his few weeks in the wild.
Then, he had his meal, roasted wolf meat with absolutely no seasoning whatsoever. Quite a bare meal, but tolerable enough for him. He couldn't wait to be able to try other foods again. Oh, how he missed regular food.
After all of this time surviving off meat, he even found himself craving vegetables.
Fully prepared, Yan Guang set off on his journey.
It was pretty mundane for the most part, as most of the land consisted of empty forests. Every once in a while, he would see animals but they didn't come close to him. Perhaps it was because of his fur coat reminding them of their predators.
Whatever it was, it made his travel more convenient. After only a day and a half, he had made it onto what seemed to be farmland.
Yan Guang traveled through the rows of rice and found a small footpath. Casually, he looked at his map and saw that he was very close to the town. He must've been in the peripheral area.
Eventually, Yan Guang was able to see a giant wall that was probably the entrance to the town. Walking up to a door in the side of it, he could see two guards stationed by it.
"Halt.", one of them shouted, "Welcome to Guming Town. The entrance fee is one silver coin."
Yan Guang thought about how to solve the problem of not having any money and realized something.
"Well, guards, you see, this coat right here is from a giant wolf. It's much more durable than regular cloth and can reduce the impact of hits. That being said, how much would you pay for it?", Yan Guang replied.
The two guards looked at each other, and one quickly yelled, "We'll give you 3 silver coins for that. No less and no more."
Yan Guang knew he might have been getting scammed, but he didn't really care. All he wanted to do at that moment was enter the town and find a nice bed to sleep in. He took off the coat and handed it to one of the guards who reached into a bag by his waist and gave Yan Guang 3 silver coins.
Yan Guang then gave him one of them, at which point the doors opened and he was finally let into the city.
Everything felt very medieval as if he had been transported into the Middle Ages. Whatever this world was, it was not at the same technological level as his previous one.
He could feel the stares of the town's people on him. Yan Guang had just walked in here from the wilderness, and he looked like a caveman from ancient times.
So, he decided to find a tailor, which didn't take very long. He promptly got a set of clothes and changed into them, finally feeling more civilized. It was like he had returned to being human once again.
The second thing he did was find an inn. After buying the clothes, he still had a silver coin and 80 copper coins left over, as 100 copper coins were equivalent to one silver one. He gave the inn's owner 60 copper and booked a room for two days.
Finally, he reached his room. There, he found the essentials. A bed, a bathroom, and a ceiling above his head. The room felt luxurious to Yan Guang after staying in a hut for 2 weeks.
Sitting down on the bed, he resumed his cultivation, finishing a few more circulations of his internal force.
Essentially, becoming a martial artist was a matter of inundating one's body with the Qi of heaven and earth. Once one reaches capacity, their body undergoes a metamorphosis, with their cells absorbing all of the Qi and transforming it into internal force.
Before becoming a martial artist, the qi was merely borrowed. After, however, the internal force was truly the individual's. One could use it to make their martial arts stronger and even manifest it outside their body to attack others.
This was called internal force manifestation, and it set martial artists apart from mortals.
For now, Yan Guang only had to worry about absorbing as much Qi as he could. According to his Qi Absorption manual, it would take regular people years to reach the martial artist level, but Yan Guang was confident he could do better.
After all, he had been gifted some talents by his system, and he was already halfway to the standard martial artist requirement in terms of stats.
After a few hours had passed, Yan Guang opened his eyes, mentally exhausted. Cultivation took immense focus, and maintaining such focus for hours at a time was difficult. He needed to take a break.
"Status.", Yan Guang mumbled.
[Opening Status Screen]
[User: Yan Guang
Race: Human (homo sapien)
Talents: Inferior cultivation talent, inferior martial physique, inferior comprehension, semi-eidetic memory
Stage: Pseudo Martial Artist
STR: 3.5
VIT: 3.3
AGI: 3.3
INT: 1.43
SPR: 3.6
Attribute Points: 0]
There was a massive change in his stats for someone who'd just begun to cultivate. Yan Guang felt that with his current strength, he could easily beat that wolf without getting injured.
Feeling the rush of getting stronger by barely doing anything, he decided to continue his practice, restarting his rhythmic breathing.
Cultivating required an intense focus, unlike anything Yan Guang had ever needed in his life before. Just as he felt he was about to slip into a trance, a sudden shout from the neighbors below shattered all of his concentration into pieces.
He had to start over once more. Now, Yan Guang finally understood why immortals would always seclude themselves and hole up in caves before cultivating. The mundane matters of mortal life were far too distracting and would delay matters of cultivation.
This time, he assured himself that no matter what, he wouldn't get distracted. Whether the sky fell or the earth shook was of no importance to him, the only thing that mattered was Qi.
He felt an immediate change in the speed of his qi gathering and circulation. It seemed that being meticulous and concentrating paid off.
One hour passed, then two, then three...
Yan Guang didn't feel bored or tired at all, however. To him, it felt like a few minutes.
Eventually, he could no longer feel his physical body. His senses first dulled before disappearing entirely. In his previous world, this kind of sensation could only be experienced in some kind of sensory deprivation tank, but his cultivation had actually put him in this mystical state automatically.
Touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing, these five fundamental functions of the body that had constantly been active since his birth were paused. Yan Guang felt that if he willed it, he could reawaken easily, but he felt that this state he was in was fortuitous, so he held himself back.
Although it was somewhat uncomfortable, it also felt right. Yan Guang could feel that although he had lost five senses, he had gained one in exchange, the Qi sense. He felt thousands of motes of Qi around him, minute dots that were slowly being absorbed into his body. His progress in cultivation skyrocketed, which he could see by the amount of qi motes in his body slowly increasing.
He already had a few of them, but now with an extra miraculous sense, he felt he was able to more accurately guide qi to himself.
It was like running a lighthouse. A blind person obviously wouldn't be able to guide as many ships to shore as someone who could see.
He was getting close to 100 qi motes when he felt a faint tug and a push, which was odd. He hadn't felt a single thing up to this point, so he considered his choices before deciding to exit his trance.
Yan Guang opened his eyes for the first time in a long while, taking some time to get adjusted to even the dim light of a candle in the corner of his room.
He was surprised to see it was already dinner time. He didn't feel too hungry, and he didn't recall practicing for that long.
Yan Guang decided to head down for dinner. If he paid for the meals, he was definitely going to eat them.
The ground floor of the inn was bustling and cheery, full of people from all walks of life chatting and winding down after a long day. Walking in, Yan Guang felt a bit alienated from the rest, partly because he was sort of an alien. He came from a different world, after all.
Seeing people socializing reminded him of his friends from home, who he now began to miss. Walking up to the front of the tavern, he quickly grabbed his food and drink before heading to sit down at an empty table.
There, he sat alone and quietly enjoyed his food. Although the meat from wild animals was tasty, it was nowhere close to the food that was cooked and seasoned properly.
Yan Guang savored every bite he took, admiring the blend of unknown spices and vegetables used in the dish.
Yan Guang let out a sigh. Even though people surrounded him, he still felt as alone as he was in the wilderness.
'Enough moping about, now I have to figure out what to do next', he thought as the sky quickly darkened. For tonight, he was just happy to have a bed, but tomorrow would be the beginning of a new journey, one that he would never be able to forget.
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