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Chapter 226: The Path To Survival Part One

Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Earth…

A young woman stood in her living room with her arms across her chest. She was looking at the protection in front of her of an old man with his head bowed in shame. Her eyes were cold as she quietly listened to the report. "You really did good this time!" She finally yelled out. "I asked you to watch over her for me. To make sure she could live a good life! But you allowed her to be sent away to a place where you have no idea where she could be? Each of those cultivator worlds is like a death trap to her. Unless she is lucky and is taught how to survive she will not be able to live in any of those worlds! They are like a lawless jungle, kill or be killed!"

"Young Miss, I will search each world. I am able to detect her soul signature now so once I am near that world I can find her..." The old man replied. He knew it was unlikely but he was still willing to try!

"No don't… Although I hate it, I do believe in my daughter. Plus in case something like this happened, the worlds I chose for her to be reborn in also had a bit of spiritual crap those cultivators use. Once she finds her way back she will be even more powerful than before. If she is not back within one hundred years, you can go search for her. Until then watch over her planet until she gets back. Do not let anything happen to it. You know how time flows differently there. Millions of years there are only a few days on her world. So who knows maybe she will be back in a few days. We will just look at this as training for her. Make sure her little husband is in the know as well. Do not keep anything from him. We do not want him to go crazy trying to search for her. That boy…. He's special. Now go do the things you should do!" Alicia's mother said before cutting off the connection. The projection was a device that was handed to her by Old Fen at the time he was giving her some of his power. It was a sort of communication device that could communicate with someone no matter where they were.

Once Grandpa Mu's image disappeared Alicia's mother let out a sigh. "My dearest daughter, my plans for you to live a life of your choosing has followed a path that seems to be fate. I hope you can survive this trial on your own… Wait...The world you are in..." Alicia's mother stopped her words when she heard someone walk into the house. A smile formed on her face as she trotted over and hugged the man. He was tall and well built. He had long black hair that really didn't fit his suit and tie that he was wearing. "Dear, our daughter… she is over there now..."

The man's face that was smiling before turned into a frown and asked. "How!?"

"Omni Box… Akari seemed to have found one of them by accident and touched it not knowing what it was, it sent her to that world." Alicia's mother explained.

"Okay, I will contact someone. She will be fine. It's a good thing you can sense where she is. If she ended up anywhere else she would truly be on her own." The man said with a slight smile. seemingly a little relieved to know she was on that world.

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Alicia looked at the white haired old man, her gaze full of determination. Just seeing such a resolute gaze made the white haired old man think highly of Alicia. "Good! Let me explain a few things. You may think we are speaking the same language but we are not. In truth, we are speaking two different languages but due to heaven's will, it allows us to understand each other. The only thing it does not affect is the written language of this world. So you will need to learn how to read and write our language. In order to survive in this world, you will need to cultivate. To do this, you must first sense the spiritual qi in the air before you even can start cultivating. Only when you can sense it will you be able to truly start on your path of survival."

"So that is what I have been sensing then.. I could feel another energy source in the air different from the Magicules of my world." Alicia said absentmindedly. She was more talking to herself than to the white haired old man.

But the white haired old man was quite shocked that the little girl who had just come to this world was already able to sense spiritual qi. "Good! Since you can already sense spiritual qi I will recite scripture for you. Go sit on the bed and cross your legs, close your eyes, and try to remember everything I say."

Alicia did as she was asked and went and sat down on the bed. She crossed her legs and closed her eyes. Seeing that she was ready the white bearded old man began to recite a few sentences to Alicia. "The wind flows and rustles the leaves on the tree. The flow of the heavens is like the wind. It is all around us and encircles us. By allowing the heavens to seep into our bodies, the heavens will strengthen us. The right flow, the right mind. Take in the energy around you..."

Alicia repeated the words that were being told to her. Soon she felt a warmth all around her body. Different from Magicules, calmer, and more gentle. If Magicules were a spicy sauce then spiritual qi was a sweet sauce. "Once you have the feeling of the spiritual qi around you we will work on opening your meridians."

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Chapter 227: The Path To Survival Part Two

Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Alicia took a good half an hour to make sure the feeling she was feeling was not just her imagining things. After some time she started to see swirls of blue wisps floating around her, almost as if they were smoke. Only then did she open her eyes and say: "I can sense it. It seems like thin blue swirls of energy."

"That sounds about right. Alicia it would normally take someone a few days to sense spiritual qi but I am not surprised since you already could tell it was in the air. Only when you can visually see it in your mind will it actually be considered sensing it. ButAlicia, I have to apologize. I seem to have forgotten a very important step."

Alicia looked at the white haired old man somewhat confused. "Step?"

"Yes, the most important step! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Bai Hong, I am an elder from the Soaring Cloud Sect. I had actually entered seclusion in this swamp to break through but I hit a wall…" Bai Hong replied, feeling a bit depressed.

"I'm sorry, was it because I disturbed you?" Alicia asked.

"No, no. even if you did not come in here on this day I still would not have broken through. Alright, enough of that! I also want to ask if you would like to become my disciple while you are here in this world?" Bai Hong wanted to become Alicia's master for three reasons. First to give her a backing which she lacks at this time. The second was to nurture her because he knew she was a heaven sent genius, and the third reason was so he could boast to the other old men in the sect about his little disciple.

Alicia was surprised by Bai Hong's question but as she thought about it. She figured this might be for the best. Because she had no idea how long it would be before she would be able to find that metal box again and that was if it existed at all. Coming to a decision Alicia got off the stone bed and bowed her head. "Alicia greets Master Bai."

"Mmmm... The greeting is a bit off but this will do just fine. Now we will need to do two more things but they can wait until before we leave. We will decide an alias for you in this world since your real name stands out and I will work on an artifact that will change your hair and eyes color. Golden hair and blue eyes will stand out too much in this world. You may not like it but it will save you a lot of trouble in the future." Bai Hong did not want her to end up in trouble due to her hair and eyes. Some might get some strange ideas about her.

"I will do as Master Bai says." Alicia did not want to bring any attention to herself while she was in this new world. She wanted to get back as soon as possible to her family and friends. She hoped her space will work again once she learns to cultivate the spiritual qi of this world. She was worried about Frey and Loeri.

"Alright let me check your spiritual roots." Bai Hong brought out a small clear ball out of thin air and held it out. "Just place your hand on this. It will test what kind of spiritual roots you have"

Alicia reached out and placed her hand on the ball. As she did the ball glowed brightly as a golden root shaped object appeared inside. Bai Hong looked at the spiritual roots making him open his eyes wide. "Alicia, You will go far with heavenly spiritual roots! You truly are blessed by the heavens! " Quickly claiming himself down he put the clear ball away and said: "Now… The next part will be very painful. Opening one's meridians is not an easy task. I will give you an elixir called the Entry Stage Elixir. This elixir is filled with spiritual qi. I will need to help guide the energy of this pill inside your body. Go sit on the stone bed and sit facing the wall. I will try to reduce the pain as much as possible."

Alicia nodded her head and sat back on the stone bed. She nodded her head and waited for Bai Hong's instructions. "Okay take the elixir and close your eyes. You might feel excruciating pain but please try to bear with it."

Alicia took the elixir and as soon as it entered her mouth it melted sending a stream of energy into her body. Her whole body felt hot like it was on fire. Pain ran through her body causing her to let out a low grunt of pain. She felt Bai Hong place his hands on her shoulder blades. Only then did she feel the energy inside her calm down.

She then felt the energy begin to circulate throughout her body. Her bones, muscles, everything was being strengthened. When Bai Hong felt the last of her muscles reshape and strength. He diverted the spiritual qi towards the correctly closed meridians. "The pain will come soon. Just hold on, it will only take a few seconds."

A few seconds later Alicia let out a muffled cry of pain. But she still did her best to hold it all in. Time passed and finally, after an hour of pain, Alicia felt the warm flow of spiritual qi in her body. Feeling the flow in Alicia's body Bai Hong couldn't help but smile bitterly wishing he was her all those years back. "Since the meridians are now open and it's time to take in spiritual qi on your own."

Chapter 228: Sword And Fist Part One

Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Bai Hong told Alicia that cultivation came in stages. Body refinement, which refined and strengthened the skin, muscles, bones. Qi gathering which strengthened the meridians and prepared one's dantian to hold spiritual qi. Qi condensation was when you would begin to form your qi sea within your dantian allowing a cultivator to fight longer because they have a larger amount of spiritual qi. Then there was also foundation establishment and core formation but Bai Hong did not go into detail about those. Body refinement, qi gathering, and qi condensation were all broken up into nine stages. Each stage takes longer to reach the higher you go.

"I understand what body refinement is. I have done it before. Magicules will also refine one's body as well. It's the other parts of the cultivation I do not understand." Alicia explained after listening to Bia Hong's lecture.

"That is fine, for now, concentrate on working on body refinement. I will work on the items needed to change your hair and eyes." Bia Hong left these words and then went to a corner of the cave and sat down. He pulled out a few items and began working.

Alicia closed her eyes and entered a state of meditation. She quickly sensed the spiritual qi in the air a lot faster this time. Once she did she slowly willed strand by strand of spiritual qi into her body causing it to merge into her skin, muscles, and bones. Strand after strand as plucked from the air and injected into her body. Nothing was wasted as she did this tedious task meticulously. Hours based and Alicia was still taking in spiritual nourishing her body over and over again.

From the side, Bia Hong watched from the corner of his eye monitoring her the whole way in case something happened. To his surprise, he watched as Alicia carefully nourished each muscle in her body one at a time. Then she moved to her bones and lastly her skin. Slowly but surely making sure every inch of her body was nourished by spiritual qi. Seeing such a sight made Bia Hong very satisfied.

For the next few days, Alicia's daily life consisted of refining her body with spiritual qi, eating the food Bia Hong prepared, learning this world's writing system, and sleeping. Bia Hong even created a second room with a door to give Alicia privacy for when she bathed and changed clothes. He even pulled out a few of his clan robes and adjusted them so they would fit her. For this Alicia was very grateful. Especially because after every cultivation session she would be covered in a black sticky goop that really smelled bad and it would get on the clothes as well.

Alicia found out a few things about cultivation. First, it took a lot of time. To be strong you needed to spend a good amount of time to be able to defend yourself. Second, was the fact that it was very tedious. And one must have a determined mind in order to cultivate. So even if one was a genius, if they were lazy they would be no better than those who had no aptitude for cultivating.

The last thing she found was that although it was very tedious it showed great effects. She could feel her skin, muscles, and bones growing stronger every day. These kinds of results Alicia liked very much. Even after her body was strengthened with magicules she could feel herself growing even stronger. It seemed magicules had a limit to strengthen the body but allowed for one to use very strong magic. From what she learned from Bia Hong was that cultivation was more about training oneself to become stronger. Each thing one did during their cultivation journey was a step by step process even when using techniques. Each technique would come in layers and you could not advance to the next layer until you had mastered the previous layer. The number of layers per technique depended on the technique itself.

It had been a week since Alicia started her cultivation journey when she suddenly felt a rumble inside her body. After the rumble, a large amount of black sludge came out of her pores on her body. "Wha? Why?" Alicia was startled because she had yet to do a full cycle in her cultivation.

"Haha! You finally broke through to stage two of body refinement. Not bad. Using a week without any external elixirs, this cultivation time is not bad. Not bad at all!" Bia Hong was very pleased to see this. This meant her talent was real. Normally it would take a few months to reach the second stage of body refinement without elixirs. So her current speed of cultivation was truly heaven defying. But he did not want to let Alicia know this since he did not want it to go to her head and start slacking off. "Go get cleaned up, after you are done, I will give you a sword technique called the Thousand Piercing Lotus Blossom and a fist technique called the Thousand Fist Lotus Blossom. These two techniques are a pair. They work in a way that allows you to combine a fist and sword fighting style. So even in such a case where your sword falls from your hand in the middle of an attack, you can continue the attack with just your fist! It is a very unique fighting style and this is just the first in a twelve part series. There are one hundred layers for each the sword and fist technique. This technique is of the heavenly grade."

Alicia's eyes lit up hearing sword technique. Even the fist portion interested her. Because this would expand her battle prowess by a huge amount. She quickly ran off to her room to wash up and get ready for a tough day of training techniques!

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