Preparing to Leave

The following morning, William was woken up by an extremely loud noise.

"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!"

William sighed, getting out of his bed and stretching. Then, he walked outside and went to the bag of grain he kept next to his door. Grabbing a handful of it, he walked to Lucky

"You lazy rooster. Why can't you just get your food on your own?"

William yawned, covering his mouth with one hand and feeding Lucky with the other. Absentmindedly, he took a peek at his status panel.

"795 SP!"

It wasn't that much, but it was definitely enough for William to practice the Falling Autumn Swords. Plus, the spirit stone was already done recharging.

"System, sell the spirit stone."

Since its only use was to increase his cultivation, it was useless to him. After all, how could it increase his cultivation faster than the system could?

After taking care of Lucky, William went back indoors and sat on his bed.

"Buy one minute of ultra comprehension boost."

"Purchase [Ultra Comprehension Boost (60 sec)] for 600 SP?"

"Yes."

William placed the comprehension boost in his storage ring for now and took out the manual for the Falling Autumn Swords. Opening it, he gave the book a quick onceover.

This technique had a total of seven moves, each needing more spiritual energy and higher cultivation to use. The first three moves could be used in the spirit foundation realm, the next two in the spirit condensation realm, and the last two in the core formation realm.

With the limited time he had on the comprehension boost, William had to spend that time wisely to make the most out of it.

Therefore, he first read the first three moves of the technique, getting a basic understanding of them so he didn't waste time. Flipping the manual back to the first page, he took a deep breath and used the ultra comprehension boost.

Immediately, he read through the manual once more, further refining his understanding of it. Then, he stood up, taking Dusk Bringer and Morning Glory. Taking a deep breath, he executed the first move of the Falling Autumn Swords.

"Falling Leaves!"

The first move was called Falling Leaves. Four attacks would be launched at almost the same time, which would attack the opponent from different directions. It was the simplest move, able to be used even by spirit foundation realm cultivators in the third stage, so he was able to use it after a few tries.

"Flowing Wind!"

Moving on, the next attack was a series of attacks. The trick to this one was that the attacks had to appear light, but still have a lot of force behind them. This took longer to practice than the first move, leaving William with fifteen seconds to practice the last move.

"Torrent of Leaves!"

The third attack was similar to the second one, but was more focused on overwhelming your opponent. Individually, the attacks were weak, but when put together, their might was nothing to joke about. By the end of the minute, William had not quite been able to use it properly, but he knew he was getting close.

Deciding to save some SP for the entrance exam in case anything happened, he practiced these three moves normally for the next few days, increasing his proficiency with them.

...

Three days later...

When it finally came time to leave, William hugged Lucky in his arms, putting everything he would need into his spacial ring. He also bought two more slots for food and water, which cost 300 SP. However, this small amount of SP was nothing to him, with the insane amount of SP he had now.

"Status."

______________________________________

[William Reynolds]

[SP: 7554]

[Cultivation Technique: Nine Revolution Absorption]

[Cultivation Level: Spirit Foundation Realm- Stage 9] [+]

[Spiritual Force: 90/90]

[Strength: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Speed: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Agility: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Spirit 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Will: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Techniques Learned:]

[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)] [Illusory Sword (Experienced)] [Sword Control Scripture (Experienced)] [Fleeting Cloud Movement Technique (Experienced)] [Falling Autumn Swords (Novice)]

_______________________________________

William had barely used his SP over this time, and he had already accumulated over 7000 SP. Considering the time it would take to arrive at the city, he would already be in the tens of thousands by the time he got to the city. Suddenly, SP didn't seem like a big problem for him.

Anyway, it was almost time to go, so William double checked to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything, before leaving the house.

Just as he went outside, he heard the village bell ringing.

"DONNGGG!"

"DONNGGG!"

"DONNGGG!"

Speeding up, William ran to the entrance of the Village and noticed two carriages parked there. The village chief was there, waiting in front of one of the carriages. Someone else had already arrived before he did, and they were currently talking to him. William walked over to them, setting Lucky own for a moment and telling it not to run off.

"Hello, sir!"

The village chief looked up and noticed him.

"Ah, William! Come here. I want to introduce you to someone."

The chief gestured towards the person standing next to him.

"This is Cody. He's already reached the fourth stage of the spirit foundation realm. I've heard that you started cultivating only recently, so it's likely that he knows more about cultivation than you do. If you ever need any help, you can ask him."

At the mention of his name, Cody looked proud, puffing out his chest like he was the best cultivator on the planet.

Inwardly, William rolled his eyes, but he still agreed casually, keeping a low profile. He had only been cultivating for a while, and it was pretty unrealistic to have reached the ninth stage of the spirit foundation realm in such a short period of time. Best to stay humble until he could justify his cultivation.

The village chief spoke a bit more before everyone else arrived. In total, there were six boys and four girls that would be going on the carriages. The girls all went onto one carriage, while the boys went onto the other. There were also some of the village's guards coming with them, and two people to drive the carriages.

There were five guards coming, three males and two females. They were all in the fourth stage of the spirit foundation realm, with the exception of their leader, who was in the fifth stage. They were also split among the carriages based on gender.

As everyone went into the carriages, William turned back to grab Lucky.

"Be a good rooster, okay? No more of that screaming you do in the mornings. If you don't stay quiet, who knows what these strangers might do? Maybe they'll put you on the dinner table one day."

Lucky: Σ(っ °Д °;)っ

Lucky tried to scramble out of William's grasp, looking back at the carriage as if it was the home of a demon. William tightened his grip, walking into the carriage.

"Don't worry. Just stay quiet and you won't be on the menu. Simple as that."

Lucky stopped its antics and shivered in William's arms, huddling closer to him. Shakily, it peeked around the carriage, wary. Suddenly, it noticed someone looking at it, and it scrambled to hide.

Don't eat me! This rooster doesn't taste good!

William took a seat and looked around. The carriage wasn't as good as the one Fletcher and Ryan were riding before. Its walls were made of shabby wood that was rotten and had many holes in it.

Everyone was already inside, and they were looking at each other awkwardly, and no one knew what to say.

It was Cody who finally broke the silence.

"I'm Cody. I'm in the fifth stage of the spirit foundation realm, and I've been cultivating for two years. I'm twelve years old."

With the exception of William, everyone in the carriage seemed surprised by his cultivation. After a moment, everyone started to introduce themselves.

"My name is Jack. Fourth stage, and I've been cultivating for a year and a half. I'm turning thirteen in three months."

"Um... I'm Freddie. My uh... cultivation has reached the t-third stage of the spirit foundation realm, and I-I'm twelve years old."

"Grant. Fourth stage, thirteen years old."

"I'm Harlow. I'm in the third stage of the spirit foundation realm, and I've been cultivating for about a year. I'm turning thirteen this year."

Everyone then turned towards William, who had yet to introduce himself.

"My name is William. I'm currently in the third stage of the spirit foundation realm, and I've been cultivating for about... two months, I think? I'm thirteen years old."

Everyone gasped at the short period of time that he had been cultivating. As if still trying to steal the spotlight, Cody stood up.

"Well, it seems that I have the highest cultivation among all of us. Therefore, I would like to be the leader. Any objections?"

William raised his hand.

"Do we even need a leader?"

Everyone else seemed to be think the same thing, giving nods and quiet murmurs of agreement.

"The chief was just talking to me about this earlier! Every gender group needs to have a leader, who will be representing the rest and relaying his instructions," said Cody.

Another person raised their hand.

"Shouldn't the wisest person be doing this, not the one with the highest cultivation? Isn't your thinking flawed?"

Cody froze and had no retort.

Harlow raised his hand.

"Then why don't we have a vote?"

Everyone in the carriage agreed with this, so it was decided. There would be a vote to decide who would be the leader.

William and Freddie opted out of this, William because he didn't care about these things, and Freddie because he though he had no chance, and was too scared to walk up.

In the end, there were four candidates, Harlow, Cody, Jack, and Grant.

Harlow was first. William didn't participate in voting, but everyone else seemed pretty excited. Out of the four people voting, Harlow got two votes, which was considered good.

After him was Cody, who was petrified when no one voted for him.

Second to last was Jack, who also got two votes, tying up with Harlow.

Finally, Grant came up. He actually got three votes, which was as good as he could get, since Cody was still salty over the fact that no one had voted for him.

Therefore, it was decided that Grant would be the leader of the boys' carriage.

At that moment, the village chief came in, noticing what was happening.

"I was going to bring up the matter of selecting a leader, but it seems its already been decided. Well, who is it?"

Everyone: "Grant."

"Okay. The leader from the girl's team has also been decided, so well be leaving in a moment."