Treasure Hunting

Chapter 5 A Complete Change

"Hello, you haven't told me what stage of cultivation method the God-slaying Formula is," Zachary said while he got his reward, the Refreshing Pill. He had to know the answer. He persisted and continued asking, even if Mimi did not answer him. No one could fool him.

"The prerequisite for receiving the second newbie quest requires that you practice the God-slaying Formula and reach the second grade of Foundation Establishment. However, you do have a choice— you can either choose to exit the Treasure-hunting System and return to the real world, or continue to practice in the second world," Mimi said automatically, ignoring Zachary's question again. She disappeared as soon as she was done speaking.

"Mimi..." Zachary yelled out her name a few times. When he got no response, he finally stopped shouting. However, he did not understand why Mimi did not tell him what stage of cultivation method the God-slaying Formula was. He wondered whether the reason behind her not telling him was because its stage was so low that she did not think it necessary to do so, or because of another reason, which he did not know.

"Never mind. I will find out the reason for her silence myself, sooner or later. Right now, I have to concentrate on my cultivation. My body's former owner was useless. Even after three years of training, he couldn't reach the first grade of Foundation Establishment. Worse still, he was bullied by others all the time. If I were him, I would have committed suicide a long time ago. Oh, right! First, I must repair my double martial speed..." Zachary said, and then quickly threw the Refreshing Pill into his mouth.

It immediately melted in his mouth. After a while, he felt that his entire body was refreshed. He had never felt so relaxed and comfortable, as he did now. The originally damaged meridians in his body also started the self-repairing process. Strangely, he had the feeling that his body was being remolded completely.

After half an hour, Mimi's automatic voice rang out again. "Your damaged meridians have been repaired, and you have also now recovered your double martial speed."

'Huh? It was so easy? I thought that I would experience a life-and-death struggle or something similar to that, ' Zachary thought in disbelief and shook his head. 'The next step is to practice the God-slaying Formula. My body's former owner should have cultivated the Welkin Sect's cultivation method earlier. Now I have to practice the God-slaying Formula from the start, even though that is troublesome. But what choice do I have? None. If I do not practice the God-slaying Formula, I will not be able to get the second newbie quest.'

Therefore, without wasting any time, Zachary began practicing the God-slaying Formula near a lake in the Peach Blossom Forest. The lake had sparkling clear water with dramatic scenery.

Although he did not know what stage of cultivation method the God-slaying Formula was, judging from the training posture it required, he had the feeling that it was not a general cultivation method. It required a warrior to practice by standing upside down in a strange position.

"Damn! I am not practicing yoga. Do I have to be like this?" Zachary muttered unhappily, but continued leaning upside down, against a big rock.

After that, he tried to cultivate martial energy according to the God-slaying Formula. Gradually, as time went by, he felt that he was like a stone pillar standing between heaven and earth, integrating with the world.

At that moment, a morning breeze blew gently, and there were slight ripples on the clear water's surface. At the same time, a thin layer of inscrutable purple energy suddenly appeared on Zachary's body. It required a person to observe it; otherwise, it would have gone undetected.

Slowly, that thin layer of purple energy started spreading around continuously like ripples on the water's surface. Although it was still very weak, it had layers that were visible.

This purple energy was the so-called martial energy cultivated by a warrior!

It was essential to mention at this point that the color of the martial energy at the Foundation Establishment, which was cultivated by a warrior according to some ordinary cultivation method, was cyan. The color would gradually change as a warrior's cultivation level increased. The reason why the martial energy exuding from Zachary was purple was that he used a different cultivation method.

Generally, a regular warrior focused on cultivating his inner energy first, to improve his outer strength. This method was called meditating cultivation and was the Supernal Continent's most used cultivation method. It required circulating the martial energy in a warrior's body according to the cultivation method and stimulating his meridians and muscles to strengthen them, such that it increased his overall strength and qualities.

On the other hand, the cultivation method recorded in the God-slaying Formula was extremely different. It focused on cultivating a warrior's body first, to strengthen his martial energy. That meant that it would push his physical strength to his limit during his cultivation. Therefore, it was also known as physical cultivation. However, with time, the so-called physical cultivation had almost disappeared in the Supernal Continent. The reason for its disappearance was that it was exceedingly difficult to cultivate and became unbearable for any normal warrior, especially in the later period. That was why, gradually, warriors abandoned it.

Nevertheless, if a warrior trained using the physical cultivation method, he was much more powerful than his peers of the same level, who trained using the meditating cultivation. Moreover, he would be even stronger than those who were two or three levels higher than him in cultivation. Without a doubt, this advantage came with a risk to one's life. One could say that both cultivation methods had their advantages and disadvantages.

Zachary was in a headstand posture for cultivation, which was the most regular pose in physical cultivation. As the level of physical cultivation increased, the stance used for it also became more

challenging. Without a doubt, the pain a warrior experienced was a hundred times more intense than what he would feel in cutting his wrist or slicing his flesh.

After a long time, the layer of purple energy that had been earlier floating around Zachary suddenly entered his body. It then turned into a series of star lights as they moved inside his originally weak and empty meridians. After that, they formed a stream of purple energy.

Later, this small stream of purple energy began to flow slowly along Zachary's meridians. Then gradually, it started flowing faster, until it was running through his specific meridians at an alarming rate.

If the Welkin Sect's leader were to see this scene now, he would definitely be taken aback. Such amazing circling speed precisely embodied Zachary's double martial speed qualification!

Generally speaking, before anyone could become a warrior, he would first have to go through the Foundation Establishment for some time. That was to specifically cultivate martial energy, one of the most basic conditions to become a warrior, by basic cultivation methods. Whoever failed to cultivate it could not become a warrior.

Additionally, only those who were physically strong and healthy could become warriors. That was because a strong physique was crucial for those normal people who wanted to become qualified warriors.

Furthermore, martial speed was the most important qualification for warriors. The faster their martial speed was, the better was their cultivation's effect on their martial energy. Moreover, what martial speed qualification a person would have was decided at his birth. Therefore, if a warrior wanted to reach higher level cultivation, he was required to have a higher martial speed. Although a warrior could improve his martial speed, it was extremely difficult to do so unless he was highly talented.

The reason why martial speed was especially crucial for warriors was that after all, they were humans, and humans had a limited lifespan. For example, in case a warrior had the original martial speed, and the other had double of that, then the latter would only need half the time to reach the same level of cultivation than the former. That would, therefore, result in a fundamental gap between the two.