"Reincarnation, huh? In a cultivation world no less..."
I was lying on my back, looking up at the sky with an expressionless face. I let out a tired exhale, wondering if some great being has it for me or something?
Truth be told up until my death, I have lived a disgraceful life in order to support my children, while wasting some of my money to read locked chapters of various cultivation webnovels.
As repetitive as they were, they were consistent and I loved that about them. But to find myself in that kind of world was not encouraging at all. It just showed me how much the universe hates me.
At least I died with no regrets, with the money I stole from my scumbag pimp, there should be enough to support my kids till college. If my aunt treats it wisely that is, but I have absolute faith she will.
She loved those kids, and even though she was ashamed of me, because of my line of work, she never once turned her back on me.
I let out another sigh, and thought how ready I was to die, despite truly wanting to begin my second chance in this new world. I mean this is a cultivation world without talent there's no reason to live, it's pointless.
This body has next no redeemable talents to speak off, her intelligence was an embarrassment, I'm glad I didn't inherit it, her empathy for others was too high which led her to being used by many supposed 'friends.'
She was average looking, so she didn't have what it takes to become a leech of someone like a senior brother or senior sister.
As for lucky encounters, I don't think my strings of bad luck can make those happen, but.. I sat up and looked at the weird plant this former body died protecting while being chased by a low-rank leaf-chicken. What an embarrassing way to die.
I wonder if I should give it to Tang Meilin, she would know what it is, and perhaps concoct a potion that will stimulate my body to advance to 2nd Rank of Meridian Awakening, so that I can unlock pathways for my Qi circulation.
'Mmm, I don't think that's a good idea..' after thinking for a while, I don't think anyone who gets their hands on this would be as calm as I am.
Through my qi sense, I can sense a boundless energy contained within this small flower. But somehow it manages to hide it's energy when I'm not touching it.
It's probably why, some great cultivators hadn't found it for themselves yet. Then what am I supposed to do with it? I thought about it for a moment and came to a reckless decision.
If I'm going to die either way, I might as well be bold, but I can't return to the sect. I share a room with five other young women, there's no privacy. That's how it goes when you're worth nothing to the sect.
Sighing, I got up as I placed the flower inside my waist pouch. And dusted my clothes. It's truly fortunate the chicken didn't tear my clothes when it had killed the former owner of the body.
I closed my eyes, and tried to remember as much as I could about these place, I have found myself in. Mmm, it turns out it's just one of the many magical sect forest for outer sect members to excavate some herbs after taking one of the compulsory missions.
I have pretty much remembered the terrain and have committed it to memory. So I began walking towards a place where there was a hollowed out thick tree. I'm going to be staying there for the night.
It took me two hours to get there due to my tired, aching body. I found the hollowed out tree, and slipped inside. Inside, it was very spacious, and it seemed to be the place of a wood goat, probably a mid-rank.
I sighed, I could probably try to build a makeshift door and lay some traps, but I'm far too weak to contest against something like that, not to mention no traps of mine are going to stop a mid-rank magical beast.
Instead of worrying about my already time ticking life, I should focus on my cultivation. If eating this plant brings certain pleasant effects then, I would gladly try my hardest to survive this world. But if it disappoints, I would rather die again, than live a life of mediocrity.
"Here goes nothing," I muttered, as I sat crossed leg, while taking out the ordinary looking flower, with it's redeeming quality being that it has abundant energy to spare.
I blew out a shaky breath, before swallowing the flower. The effects were surprisingly imminent, as in, I immediately felt a surge of energy spread throughout my entire body with hot searing pain.
I clenched my jaw, as the pain increased, and I felt as if I was being boiled alive. It was extremely excruciating. But the last bit of rational thought told me to meditate.
I am currently in the 1st rank of Foundation Layer, in this rank, I can only sense and absorb Qi, which based on this body's memories it wasn't easy to achieve even that.
Reaching 2nd rank might as well have been a pipe dream with this body, let alone reaching the Manifestation Layer and awakening my first resonance.
At this point I'm so weak the previous owner of this body had been killed by a fucking chicken, a chicken?! Granted it was a magical one, but.. it's a fucking chicken! But it doesn't matter now, with this abundant of energy surging inside me, if I use it well, I might actually make in this world.
Since I can't circulate Qi yet, I should wait until the energy surging inside of me awakens my meridian. I just hope I don't suffer from Qi deviation.
I knew I was overthinking, so I emptied my mind. In this empty space, my mind wasn't dominated by the pain raging within my body, doubts about what I just did, fear of death despite putting on a false bravado.
It was then I smelled something awful, I didn't need to open my eyes to know those were my impurities—my senses expanded, and now I could control the Qi inside my body, I had become a 2nd rank, but I wasn't happy. There was still much to do.
Pathways for Qi circulation had been unlocked, now I could direct the raging Qi inside my body, well... barely. Directing Qi was harder than expected, especially one that hadn't yet been refined.
When absorbing worldly Qi, the moment it enters the body it automatically becomes refined into my own. But that's only when I absorb it through meditation, it doesn't work like that when I take things like the weird flower or concocted pills.
Using all my focus into directing Qi, I managed in small amounts to direct the unrefined Qi into my blocked Qi pathways in order to awaken more meridians. And to my pleasant surprise, it worked.
More foul smell assaulted me, but I felt lighter and more refreshed than I ever had in my entire life. I had become 3rd rank of Meridian Awakening in the Foundation Layer.
Now it was time for Refinement in order to become a 4th Rank. Here comes the painful part, that needs a strong Will above everything else.
I exhaled a foul breath, and implemented a technique I would often use during the worst days of my life as a prostitute. I tuned out of my body, while still being able to sense everything that was happening. This will allow me to do what must be done without any interruptions on my part.
Through my unblocked pathways, I circulated my Qi throughout specific parts of my body, first strengthening the muscles while simultaneously doing the same for my bones and internal organs.
Usually you have to focus on one part at the time, but I was under a time crunch. The pain that assaulted my body was the most excruciating thing I have ever felt, but my mind did not falter, not even once.
I endured the breaking and reformation of my bones, the tearing and regeneration of my muscle, the squeezing and healing of my organs. I kept my mind on refining them to perfection, unwilling to settle for any mediocrity on my future developments.
This went on for hours, as I broke through from the 4th rank to the 6th in succession. From then on my break throughs were smooth sailing.
I went from 7th rank to 8th and lastly 9th, which was a cause for a small celebration. You see, from the 7th rank it's called the Peak Mortal stage, meaning I could advance to the Manifestation Layer from the 7th.
The fact that I reached the true peak, meaning the 9th rank, it means my talents are no longer mediocre. My strength alone had reached the superhuman levels, I could even project minor Qi outside my body for awhile.
But now was time for the real stuff, surviving the breakthrough Trial – Qi Baptism, by enduring a Qi storm inside my body, while refining my Core.
'Cultivation is hard, even when it's easy," I sighed before focusing my everything on breaking through to the Manifestation Layer, and awakening my Resonance.