Van whirled around to see a long-necked old man wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeves. His spa.r.s.e eyebrows were drawn together in a grimace of dislike as he looked into the distance.

Senior Ruskel saw Van looking at him.

He put his hands on his hips.

"What are you looking at, huh? You little rascal!"

He shook his fist at the boy but did not make a move. Instead, he frowned as he looked off into the distance.

At length, he sighed.

"Ai. You'd be better off if you stopped offending that Bayer fellow."

Van thought it was just a smidgen too late for these words.

Besides, what had he done? Existed? Fine, he'd rolled his eyes at a bad moment, but Klaus had disliked him from the start, when he'd decided that Van was 'acting above his station.'

[We're all servants now. What did he have stuck up his backside?]

Senior Ruskel saw Van's unconcerned expression. He frowned again, looking uncharacteristically solemn.

"Kid. Don't underestimate that fellow."

"The n.o.ble House of Bayer is foremost house in Cloud River. In the last century, it seemed to be on the verge of collapse, but with the birth of Klaus' two older brothers – their fortune changed. Those two are the pride of Cloud River's n.o.bility."

"Adding to that, the Bayer's wealth is not shallow. I have heard that Klaus is already in the 2nd level of Qi Distillation. Rumour is he started to cultivate late, and narrowly missed becoming outer disciple because of this. We're all expecting him to break through to the 3rd level within months."

When Ruskel mentioned Klaus' cultivation level, Van finally started to pay attention. So it seemed that prat did have some basis for his arrogance.

Senior Ruskel continued in his unusually solemn tone.

"Due to his background that there will be people willing to act against you in the sect. You should take care that your back is never exposed. You two can only rely on each other."

Van glanced at Ryan. Ryan shot him a look with his grey eyes which seemed to say, 'We can't take this sitting down!'

Van smiled.

"Yes, of course, Senior Ruskel. We will lie low."

_______________

The Resource servants were lucky that their sleeping compounds lay at the outer edges of the sect grounds. The buildings were more s.p.a.cious and spread further apart from one another. It was also considerably quieter than the centre of the sect.

Of course, this had other perks – including the ability to slip out easily at night.

Having shucked his servant's uniform and put his old clothing back on, Van had snuck out of the compound and found a deserted area in the sect. He was not the only one who did this – when he left, over half the sleeping mats were empty. It seemed everyone was earnestly putting their efforts towards cultivating. Van had checked on Ryan and found that the boy had also disappeared. Van very much liked this kind of hard-working, studious atmosphere.

Underneath the pale moonlight, Van was sitting with his legs crossed in front of a small banyan tree. Even in this corner of the sect, the spiritual energy within the air was much better than outside of the sect. This little banyan tree also seemed to give off a faint nurturing aura. Two dilapidated and unused buildings – an old shed and bathhouse – conveniently s.h.i.+elded this little spot from casual sight.

With no small amount of antic.i.p.ation, Van drew out the spirit stone.

Except, it wasn't there.

Van's increasingly desperate hand rummaged around his rucksack. There was a faint rattling sound in his mind. And then-

[Ow-ow! b.l.o.o.d.y f.u.c.k!]

Van face-palmed. A gusty sigh escaped his lips.

On one hand, he was happy. On the other hand – his precious spirit stone had disappeared!

Van suspected.

He peered into his mindscape and saw the little black ring trembling, frozen in the s.p.a.ce just above the green turtle sh.e.l.l. Small arcs of black lightning bounced around its body.

Jet cried out mournfully.

After a few moments, the black lightning died down and the ring was finally released from its hold.

Jet swam back up to its customary spot in the middle of Van's mindscape.

It sulked.

Van felt this emotion as distinctly as he felt his face under his palm.

"Are you okay?" He queried carefully.

It was not okay.

Jet nearly spilled its grievances to Van but then realised - doing so would make it lose all face.

It was very not okay!

Jet had finally woken up after absorbing enough spiritual energy to sustain its consciousness and guess the first thing it saw – Some green b.a.s.t.a.r.d occupying its real estate!

Deeply offended but trying not to alert Van, the ring drifted silently downwards. At the final centimetre, it gathered its speed and rammed into the green b.a.s.t.a.r.d, trying to punt the guy into some dark corner of Van's mind.

Unfortunately, Jet was met with the painful jolt of dark, icy spiritual energy. Severely lacking in stored qi, Jet was paralysed by the green turtle sh.e.l.l. Due to the special nature of his body, Jet was not harmed in anyway – in fact he had absorbed the little bit of power the green turtle sh.e.l.l had given off – but the cold energy had been very unpleasant.

The ring turned on Van.

[Give me more power!] It arrogantly demanded.

Van's face blackened.

This scheming b.a.s.t.a.r.d!

"You absorbed my spirit stone and you still dare to demand more?"

[Hmph.]

After a silent cold war between the two of them, the ring relented.

[It wasn't like I wanted that paltry bit of contaminated qi in the beast core anyway.]

Van rolled his eyes. Ignoring the ring, he pulled out the cultivation manual. It was divided into two sections, one called 'Sensing and Opening the Meridians' and 'Levels One to Three.'

Van occasionally struggled with a few words, but there seemed to be a compulsive force on the manual – after looking at the words once or twice, they would magically start to make sense.

"The first step to spiritual cultivation is the sensing of the meridians…

All people are born with twelve meridians. In an ordinary mortal, their meridians contain only the tiny amounts of qi they breathe in the moment they were born. After that first contaminated breath, the meridians close forever. According to theory, one born surrounded by pure spiritual energy - whose first breath contained nothing but pure qi – would be able to cultivate since birth. However, this is only a suspicion and has never been proven. To our knowledge, every cultivator in existence has begun with a mortal body.

Cultivation begins with the reversal of the closing of the meridians that occurred when you were born. The meridian's opening at the surface of the skin is found and targeted. Upon opening the meridian, qi can now be collected within the body and you can be said to have entered the 1st level of Qi Distillation.

The first step is to clear the mind and allow yourself to sense the spiritual power around you. By doing this, you will eventually identify where on your body the natural power within the atmosphere is drawn to…"

Van's absorption was completely shattered by a loud snort. Jet bounced about his mind, as if laughing.

[How many meridians???]