Darkwood Forest

The Shu family was not particularly rich, but neither was it poor—but if it was about a skill scroll, Qai's father would never think twice.

Scrolls, which was a one-time use thing, could be be bought from merchants—although what were available from them were mostly of common class. That was why, a rare or unique one was, at times, subject of a deathmatch, and oftenly prone to theft.

Scrolls were made by cultivators with Void affinity by using demonic beast cores by somehow stealing a beast's skill.

Basically a skill was taken from a beast as beasts develop skills innately. And the higher the skill was the more expensive the developed scroll could become.

So far, no cultivator with any other element was able to forge skill scrolls. Thus, a Void elemental affinity cultivators were, without a doubt, precious to the eyes of large sects.

Rare and unique skills could mostly be found in treasure pavillons or were distributed by sects and clans to their disciples.

But for Qai, learning a skill was not something done arbitrarily. It needs a patient decision. That was because once learned, it could never be changed. In short, there was no room for regret.

One could never know when a cultivator would meet his bottleneck, so there could only be limited skill for each cultivator—a careful choosing was definitely necessary.

"I'm not in a hurry father," Qai intelligently said. "It's not easy to decide for an element like mine."

"Well, you can opt for a common one for a start. Your big sister has 'Cloud Steps' as her first one. You can have the same and join her in gathering the herbs in the inner region of the forest" his father replied with a concerned tone. "That way, you sister-in-law can have more herbs to concoct some pills for the family."

His sister-in-law had actually awakened Fire elemental affinity and was currently in the initial sky stage of expert realm. Her second skill learned was 'Basic Alchemy'—a rare skill only learned by cultivators with Fire attribute.

With 'Basic Alchemy' skill, her sister-in-law can only make basic Qi Gathering Pills and Basic Rejuvinating Pills. Those two pills were enough for the family to support their cultivation and hunting jobs.

"Father, let me think about it," Qai responded not knowing what actually to say.

But he went on anyway with a serious facial expression.

"I want to intelligently choose the path of my cultivation," Qai went on to which his father nodded in agreement.

In this cultivation world, the awakening of Elemental affinity coincided with a sort of total overhaul of a person's constitution—including physical and mental.

And in Qai's case, he was somewhat gifted with advanced wisdom.

'A smart son indeed,' his father thought.

After he left, he immediately went to his sister-in-law to request some basic Qi gathering pills to strengthen his cultivation.

He had yet stabilized his Qi—after all, he had just awaken his element.

So he went to his room to start cultivating somewhat dissapointed with the lack of response from his father although his heart is determined to help build a clan for his family.

As for the skills he needed to learn, he thought that he better choose skills that would be helpful in his bid to establish a cultivating clan.

After few days of closed-door cultivation, he finally achieved initial earth stage of expert realm. Qai finally entered the world of immortals!

Once a person entered the expert realm, his lifespan would eventually extend to five hundred years.

Qai went back to his father and asked him to allow him to enter the outskirts of the Darkwood forest to temper his cultivation progress.

And unlike his father and older brother who chose sword as their preferred weapon to match their Earth elemental affinity, his physique could be said to be far weaker. So for the weapon of his choice, he picked bow and arrows.

'I can't handle beasts in close combat with only this defensive capability,' he thought.

He's not particularly weak, but he's not strong either. So the best approach is to attack the beasts with long range.

Without any learned skill, he could only infuse lightning in the arrows to strike a better blow. It would definitely translate into quick attack with possible stun effects.

"Alright, but don't immediately enter into the inner part of the forest," his father said.

Qai smiled at his father as if he was telling him that he obviously knew that.

"I advise you to never wander off within the inner region. Stay around the outskirts and hone your archery there... And by the way, we only got old bows and arrows in the storage. Are you fine with that?" asked his father.

"No problem," Qai replied.

'Besides there's no way I'll survive out there without any skill,' he thought.

Having prepared all the necessary rations and items for survival, he proceeded to the periphery of the Darkwood Forest without hesitation.