Book of Cultivation

Seeing something new popping in front of him from nothingness Xiao Fan became curious like a little kid again. Then getting a closer look at the book, he could see that there hadn't been given much note about how the book should look like since from the leather cover to the simple number one on the front Xiao Fan would take this as any other book inside a library or a book shop.

Next to the book that was named The Book of Cultivation, there was also the price for it. Xiao Fan didn't immediately go after it for he braced himself before doing so. Last time seeing the price had taken him a little. And it would take him this time too as he saw the two-digit number presented on the small piece of floating paper.

'Fifty years!' Xiao Fan exclaimed inside his head and took a step backwards. But then a few moments later when the initial shock was gone, and when Xiao Fan began to think about it, it didn't sound that bad anymore, for he thought the pros and cons of the book.

The pros were numerous, beginning from the quality of the content and the amount of it there should be.

The cons? Should be none Xiao Fan reasoned. More he pondered the more he started to think it would be a fine idea to buy the book.

Furthermore, what other choice did he have? Go and seek this knowledge from somewhere else? From where? Would it be as good? Surely not. Of course, fifty years of being a servant to this person he had named Cao Cao didn't feel too good, yet again at least he would be a servant of a God if nothing else.

And so when Xiao Fan had come to a conclusion about buying the Book of Cultivation, he took a step forward so that he was again next to the book. Then looking up towards the projection of Cao Cao who was waiting for his decision, he spoke ¨How do I actually buy the book?¨ His speech having an emphasis on the ¨buy¨

¨Ah yes, Just try and reach for the book¨ Cao Cao spoke back to him.

¨I see...¨ Xiao Fan murmured, then reaching his hand towards The Book of Cultivation. His hand reaching it did he feel a slight pinch when it touched the projection of The Book of Cultivation, yet while the pinch travelled up his arm towards Xiao Fan's head to hold up the contract, the Book of Cultivation took a more real form and fell into Xiao Fan's hands.

Noting how that pinch should be how the contract had been made Xiao Fan's first notion about his new purchase was that the book was light. Surprisingly light. Not that books were heavy. This book just had none. Nevertheless, now having The Book of Cultivation in his hands, Xiao Fan didn't think long about such things as weight of a book or even thanking Cao Cao. He had much more important things to do.

Like opening the book so that he could start learning.

So now having the new book in his possession, he forgot everything around him. Xiao Fan didn't think about how could he read the book or how he needed to find shelter, and quickly forgetting about all this did he began to skim through The Book of Cultivation.

After an hour of skimming through the contents that seemed most interesting like stories telling of someone's cultivation in this Realm called Body Realm, he came to the first spread.

The table of contents it read, and below it was written.

Introduction to cultivation page 1 to 5

Introduction to Body Realm cultivation page 6 to 8

Body Realm cultivation ranks page 9 to 10

Body Realm cultivation methods page 11 to 565

Body Realm cultivation tips and experiences 566 to 2331

Ending words page 2332

The book certainly wasn't done in one day as there seemed to be hundreds of pages mentioning how to improve the quality and methods in cultivation. By now, if the skimming through part hadn't made him happy about acquiring this book, this surely made him think that more than his life expectancy was worth for this book, for if everything inside this book was legit, he would be happily skipping through the Body Realm.

Getting more interested than he had never been, he turned to pages nine and ten, which should hold the information concerning the cultivation ranks. Xiao Fan didn't know his current cultivation rank, so getting to know how strong he was when stacked against others made him eagerly seek the answer, which would, in the end, leave him a little saddened when he came to a page that had been decorated more than the cover of The Book of Cultivation.

But before getting to know his cultivation level, he focussed on the pages nine and ten that were decorated by two white pillars on the sides while in a big cloud that was similarly white decorated the top middle part of the spread. Not concerned about this cloud just yet Xiao Fan focussed his eyes on those six lines that were in the middle of those pillars.

Those six lines were the six cultivation realms that made up the Body realm.

Body Warming realm

Body Activation realm

Body Strengthening realm

Body Shattering realm

Body Reunion realm

Body Limit realm

The Body Warming Realm was at the bottom of the spread, meaning that it was the first Realm of cultivation while the Body Limit realm was at the top near the white cloud.

Seeing this made Xiao Fan jump for a moment as he thought what this meant, yet in seconds his happiness was crushed by a different categorisation.

The Grades inside every Realm.

This small addition crushed Xiao Fan's happiness which had thought for a moment that he was almost halfway done with the body realm. For the reality was that he was only halfway done with the first Realm of the Body Realm. In reality, Xiao Fan was at the Body Warming realm second grade.

So he still had twenty-two Grades to go before being at the top...

¨Dangit¨ Xiao Fan murmured when reading the information the page gave about the realms and grades. So in the end, this made Xiao Fan a little disappointed in himself, yet knowing that murmuring about it to himself wasn't any helpful he took a look at the cloud.

Which only had two words Qi and Realm.

After reading the only piece that The Book of Cultivation told about the next big Realm, Xiao Fan decided that staying more on this page would only hurt his confidence, and so he flipped to the next page.

This time Xiao Fan would read for many hours in order, learning a lot of methods and making him notice how many things he had been doing wrong, for if he had followed The Book of Cultivation's ways, he at this point, should be at a much higher Grade and Realm, but tough luck he figured. The only thing helping him now would be to start again.

It was hours later when he finally came out of the deep reading session. Not by his choice, of course, but because some type of scream had awakened him up from his reading session.

At this point, Cao Cao, who was still behind him, became very waiting for the future while speaking ¨I think you should have focussed more on finding shelter than reading a book¨ He laughed while the sun was already setting down on the beach.

Not replying, Xiao Fan looked around him and noticed that it was almost already dark and he was still in the somewhat wet clothes and that he no shelter or anything else to secure his survival. Realising this made Xiao Fan fly into a panic, which made him run towards the mountainside, hoping for any shelter to be found there. First trying his luck, he decided to look if behind the waterfall if there was anything and to his joy, there was a cave starting from behind the wall of water.

Thanking his luck that had turned towards the better, he walked inside the cave wetting his clothes again, as he protected the book that he had just bought from the falling water.

The inside of the cave was nothing special; the only thing attaining Xiao Fan's attention here were some mushrooms, and that was because these mushrooms emitted just enough light for him to see where to step.

Moments later, as he was making his way towards the biggest mushroom to take a look at it, his focus shifted as he began to smell something. It was a stench Xiao Fan knew far too well from his time in the prison, for it was the stench of rotten corpses. He didn't mind it too much, he was familiar with it, but one of the conclusions that this smell gave wasn't something to be taken lightly, especially when one of Xiao Fan's other senses picked up something else.

A claw or a nail was scratching over something was producing an eerie noise.

Knowing full well what all these things meant, he zapped up a little after which he then ran towards the cave opening, even forgetting his new book behind him.

When getting out of the cave, he took a look towards the cave entrance and begun to wait if something would come out, but nothing came.

Xiao Fan wasn't a fan of running and had thought himself to be more manly, yet was now proven wrong by his action of fleeing at the first premonition of trouble. This, for a moment, made him think of himself as a coward; however, running wasn't such a terrible idea, he then thought, for who knew what that being or person inside the cave was?

But all thinking about himself aside, he still wanted that cave for himself.

Still, before going back in, he wanted to find something that would count as a weapon, for getting an injury right now wasn't on his to-do list. And knowing how to get a basic melee weapon, Xiao Fan sneaked into the night which made him test his nerves, again, as any noise made him want to flee. Favourably, however, every alarm set off was a false one, and soon without encountering anything, he found a suitable material for his crafting plan.

In front of him, there was a simple stone boulder a little taller than him with a sharp peak.

Yet before continuing, he took a few looks that made him feel that this was the one. Next with a simple chop coming down onto the boulder, he cut the boulder in half, but just enough to the side that the peak was still intact.

His cut had been powerful and precise enough to make the cut seem like it was made by a machine, not a man. But of course, one chop even that precise wasn't enough, and only after ten or so more chops plus hits the final product Xiao Fan had crafted was ready.

Aforementioned product was a spear completely made out of stone, yet it was still light enough to be swung around by him.

The first step was a success, and he wouldn't need help from Cao Cao with this anymore, nor did he need to pay him anything. Moreover, he felt that getting something from Cao Cao was fine for him, but getting every smallest thing sounded stupid, for if he could do something himself, he wouldn't ask the help of a god.

Cao Cao, who was still floating around him watching what the new project of his did step by step, noted this thought inside Xiao Fan's head and he also reasoned that this type of lifestyle was right. He had no need for some softie. What he wanted was to forge Xiao Fan in tribulations and hardships for him to become actually useful for him. Or break under pressure, letting him know Xiao Fan wasn't worth his efforts.

Therefore Cao Cao in the background nodded in approval, and then floated behind Xiao Fan back to the cave that he wanted to claim for himself. On his way, Xiao Fan was still sceptical about his movements and would constantly look over his shoulders, but again without further troubles other than his mind about to break, he got back inside.

Coming back inside the cave, it seemed that nothing had happened from the time he had left, nothing had changed place, nor was there any new sounds. But not to be fooled into a trap Xiao Fan made a guard that a first-timer with a spear would do and slowly walked deeper into the cave.

Going deeper into the cave the first new thing he found was the origin of the smell that was not into his favour, as it wasn't the dead body of the last inhabitant, but a dump of half-eaten corpses. Now knowing that the enemy wasn't a herbivore that might run but a carnivore that would definitely fight his slow pace of walking became a crawl.

So before anything notable was again spotted by him, it took him ten minutes just to advance a few corners inside the cave, though what awaited his patience or cowardliness was a sleeping foe.

Nevertheless, the foe that Xiao Fan saw was in the form of a giant rat that had been making the sound by twitching its leg during sleep against a rock it was sleeping on, seeing this Xiao Fan grinned as he lifted his spear and aimed it against an unsuspecting foe who wouldn't even notice its death.

The first thing to be heard inside the cave after Xiao Fan had re-entered it was his leg that hit the ground when he was gaining momentum for his throw. Still, even to this sound coming to its ears, the rat sleeping had no real response and was taking its sweet time to wake up from its slumber.

Yet the rat would only wake up to realise and then witness its own doom as there was no time to dodge the incoming projectile anymore, only the corner of its eye got to twitch for the last time before the spear was crushing its body between the heavy spear and the rock it had been sleeping on.

On the other side, Xiao Fan watched how the spear thrown by him was a direct hit which seemingly crushed the rat into two halves. Greatly excited by this, he ran towards the rat, not caring about making sound anymore because right now he wanted to confirm the situation.

And so when he got close enough, he vented some of his pent up feelings and lowered his suspicion by repeatedly stomping on the rats heard and body. However, doing so, the rat seemed a little weird for its dead body could resist the hits his leg was giving it to a too good of a decree, making him wonder.

'How can a rat of any size resist my strikes to which I put all of my strength into? The rat should have been turned into mush already!' He thought to himself.

But it would seem that his questions would be answered as he heard a burst of unique laughter behind him. It was Cao Cao who had the best laughs so far from reading what he was pondering.

¨What is it?¨ Xiao Fan cut his laughter off by asking him a question.

Work it did yet only to some effect as Cao Cao still laughed as he explained the situation to him. ¨That giant rat is strong as you¨ Then after Cao Cao had spoken those words, he burst out laughing, again.

Furthermore, while for Cao Cao, it might be a good joke, it wasn't to Xiao Fan, who looked at the rat and started inspecting and taking this very seriously. Checking the rat, he made few punches and such and indeed felt like the rat would only take injuries but not outright die from them. Then winding up things like how could a rat own this place in the first place, as if it wasn't strong enough any wolf or a bear could have taken it from it, but if the rat were comparable him in power, a bear would think twice about doing so.

¨So animals can be as strong as a cultivator?¨ He confusedly asked Cao Cao, for he wasn't really getting how it was possible.

¨Surely they are, and there are even monsters I don't want to fight like dragons or such things. They are too much of an hasle¨ Although Cao Cao made it seem like he didn't want to fight them without purpose there were still beasts lurking around which would send him fleeing if there was nothing but a rumour about them being near.

But Xiao Fan, who took Cao Cao's words without question nodded and turned to look at the rat again ¨Then should this carcass be helpful to a cultivator in someway?¨

This time he didn't get an answer but saw how the book he had thrown aside was floating towards him, and as it came, the book of cultivation was opening up a certain spread for him to take a look from. When in front of him the first thing Xiao Fan saw was how the Book of Cultivation explained how animals were named by cultivators as mortals while an animal that had become a cultivator was a mutant. There was also a note concerning some higher beings than mutants that evolved from mutants, but his book didn't talk about them nor about cooking them.

Cooking them? Yes, as in the first place, Xiao Fan wasn't reading this information from a specific spot for it but from a chapter that talked about cooking, so in the tips and tricks section. Nevertheless, the thing in front of him was a mutant? Not just a giant rat-like he had thought before, Xiao Fan inferred. Realising this did make his hair on his hands stand up as the rat could have posed a significant danger towards him.

However, there was also that the rat was now his loot from battle, and like the book taught him that it could be used to cultivate! This information made him tempted to start cooking right now, but the feeling was crushed soon, for the night was still upon him, and starting a fire would make him an easy target to the other people clearly in the forest who had already made several fires