Ascending The Martial Peak - 1 (Patreon)

Throughout the vast and wonderous lands of the Great Han Dynasty, one power ruled supreme. That, of the Martial Dao, those on the pursuit to immortality, gods in human flesh.

To pursue this great art, many chose to take cultivation as a way of life. And to grow stronger in groups to fend off other cultivators seeking power, Sects were born. Great groups of cultivators that came together to cultivate and train together, all in pursuit of the peak of the Martial Dao.

Once such sect, was known as High Heaven Pavilion Sect. Though merely a second class sect, it was known far and wide through the lands of the Han Dynasty for its brutal training methods to raise cultivators to higher heights and weed out the weak. The strong are kings, while the weak were nothing but dirt to be tread upon.

Such was the way of the Martial Dao. Only the truly strong could reach ever greater heights.

Disciples were given a trial period of three years to break through the first realm. If they did not succeed, they became trial disciples and before long, they were cut off completely.

Today, the main grounds of the High Pavilion Sect were full of a ruckus. Once every week, disciples were forced to challenge one another, winning would result in them earning a merit point which could be exchanged at the treasury for rewards, but to lose was to be injured and lose merit points.

As such, most disciples liked to avoid fighting each other unless forced and preferred to accumulate merit points through other means.

The reason there was such a ruckus though despite it being the day where everyone was forced to fight, was because the vast majority of the young temple disciples were crowded around the only remaining trial disciple in the sect.

Yang Kai. A disciple of the sect for three years, regarded as trash by everyone because of his inability to ascend beyond the third stage of the Initial Tempered Body realm.

Compared to a normal non cultivator, Yang Kai could overpower grown muscular men who worked hard all their life with one hand tied behind his back, but that was his limit. Until one broke through to the fifth stage of the Initial Tempered Body, they could not sense the worlds energy, and it was only then that they truly began to become superhuman.

"Yang Kai fight me!"

"No, no! Senior Brother pick me!!!"

Everyone was desperate to fight him. Because, despite him being a die hard that refused to ever go down, the gap of strength between him and a fifth stage was just that vast that no matter how skilled he was or how determined, he could not overcome that gap.

While everyone else was busy with Yang Kai though, one waiting for an opponent to be ready to fight staggered away from the crowd clutching his head, a splitting headache had suddenly formed and he could barely think straight.

'...What the hell is this!?' Shen Lei growled angrily.

Had someone attacked him with some form of mental attack? No, that didn't make sense. He was a nobody and barely talked to anyone, nobody should have a grudge, especially not someone capable of manipulating their qi to attack him mentally.

As he was staggering away, his knees almost buckled beneath him as the pain in his head spiked and an image flashed through his head, tall buildings that pierced into the sky, strange roads and odd horseless carriages in the hundreds as far as the eye could see.

Cars.

Something in his mind whispered.

He growled and ignored it, doing his best to push down the pain. He felt like he was going to pass out at any moment.

The only thing he could do was struggle back to his quarters, a small stone dorm building.

He barely made it inside and to his bed before the pain spiked once again to unimaginable levels and a rush of images, thoughts and feelings exploded through his brain.

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When Shen Lei came to. He found himself not laying face first in his bed, but floating in an inky black void.

The only light provided in this place, being twinkling star like lights spread out as far as the eye could see.

His attention was not on those though. Rather, he found himself staring at a ghostly near transparent figure of equal height with him that stared right back. It had no face, no mouth, no nose, no eyes or anything else. But still, he could tell it was staring right into his eyes.

Yet, he felt no fear, no trepidation, nothing. Actually, he felt a smile worm its way across his face.

"So it's you." he said, his lips tugging up.

The pain in his head was long gone now, but what caused that pain was still there. Memories.

Memories of another boy of the same age, another boy and another life in another world.

'Myself in another life, or another person that just ended up here by mistake?' Shen Lei wondered for a moment before banishing the thought.

In the end, it didn't really matter.

He looked away from the ghostly form to look around the void around him. "..This is a knowledge sea." he knew profoundly that it was.

The store of all knowledge and experiences a cultivator had gone through and learned. But, that should not be possible.

Only one whom had reached the peak of the Martial Dao and reached the Immortal Ascension realm could acquire the legendary Knowledge Sea.

So how could he, a mere ninth stage Tempered Body level teenager have one?

But then, he supposed he knew the answer to that already.

"Because of you huh?" Shen Lei chuckled looking back to the ghostly form opposite him.

Gratefulness welled up inside him. He had been stuck for so long at this stage, unable to break through his bottleneck, no matter what he studied or tried, that he had thought he was done for, this being the limit of his talent.

How ironic would that have been truly? Since he joined High Heaven Pavilion, many eyes had been on him, many touting him for having heavenly defying aptitude.

In a mere six months, he had gone from the first tempered body stage to the ninth. But ever since then, he had not been able progress at all and for an entire year, he had been stuck.

But now, he could feel it. His awareness expanding, his yuan qi becoming stronger. His mind, loaded with new memories of another, much more mundane yet no less amazing world more free than ever before.

Not since he was a child before his parents were killed did he feel so light.

"Whoever you are, me or someone else, I won't forget this grace." Shen Lei bowed his head respectfully to the ghostly form and then held his hand out.

The ghostly form stared at him for a moment, not moving. Slowly, after a moment, its head tilted to the side and then it reached out and gently grasped his hand.

And then Shen Lei gasped as the ghost rushed forward at a speed he could barely grasp and inserted into his body and light exploded within his vision, washing away inky darkness.

Just as suddenly, Shen Lei found himself awake again, the sheets of his bed pressed against his face.

His eyes widened and he jumped to his feet, "...This is..." he lifted his hands and stared at them in awe.

Liquid Power. That was the only way he could describe the sensation. With a thought, his yuan qi circulated throughout his body, enhancing his strength. Before, he could not manipulate it at all, but now he instinctually knew he could, and the strength his had grown to was leagues ahead of what he expected.

All texts he had read had said that upon reaching the next realm, he could expect around a double increase in power and amount of qi. Yet, compared to before...

What he felt within himself right now, had to be at least four times greater than what he had before and the sheer density of it was like comparing water to oil.

Not only that, but he could feel it. That ghostly form. It wrapped around him like a coat and he could feel it as he could any limb.

How curious.

"I'm not complaining though." Shen Lei grinned massively, with this he would be accepted as a Lower Base Disciple. And would passively earn fifteen merit points each month just for being so.

Merit points could be exchanged for many things, especially supplies helpful to cultivation. Even currency was fine. Each merit point was worth ten silver. The average shop owner in Black Plum Village that was near High Heaven Pavilion would be lucky to get one hundred silver a month in profit, and he could passively gain one hundred and fifty.

Not rich by any means, but it was a very liveable amount.

"For now though, I'll stay here in retreat and consolidate my foundation." Shen Lei nodded to himself, sitting down on his bed cross legged. It was best to do so to familiarize himself with his new power and stop from making any harmful mistakes that could hurt his cultivation.

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Surprisingly despite all he'd heard about consolidating the foundation after breaking through to the next realm, it didn't take Shen Lei long at all to gain a full grasp on his new abilities.

A single day, well, a day and a half since the sun was already beginning to set and cast a light orange glow over the horizon and he'd started the morning before.

Standing in front of his bed, Shen Lei clenched and unclenched his hands, marvelling at the power he felt within himself, "The differences between myself today and from yesterday are like night and day." he mused.

Not just his inner power, but his physical power as well. While all cultivators grew more powerful physically the higher the realm they reached, those who cultivated the yang attribute where reinforced to further heights by yang qi.

He had found out at the first time he started cultivating, that the attribute he had the most affinity for, was Yang qi and so had focused on that. He trained and cultivated under the sun that provided yang qi every day and through various means gained enough merit points for enough silver to purchase many an enflamed yang stone at the Black Woods Market place, sold by the Blood Gang Sect stalls, one of the three Sects that ruled over this area of the Great Han Dynasty, the other two being Storm Manor Sect and his own High Heaven Pavilion Sect.

Enflamed yang stones were quite costly, costing five hundred silver each. But, with good reason. They were stones filled with yang qi that cultivators could absorb to enhance their own overall yang qi.

He had hoped absorbing so much yang qi would allow him to break through his bottleneck, but alas, no luck. It was not in vain though, because just because he was at a bottleneck and could not reach the next realm through the year, did not mean his power could not grow. And the more his yang qi grew, the more to did his physical prowess.

It was to the point where even other ninth tempered body disciples did not want to fight him unless forced. And it definitely made hunting in the Black Wind Mountains much easier.

Granted, even hunting could not allow him the amount of silver he needed to purchase more than one enflamed yang stone a month. Those of the first realm from his sect were all warned not to go too deep into the mountains for gathering herbs or hunting lest they court death by running into powerful demonic beasts beyond them.

As such, the most he'd come across here and there were the odd demonic spider while hunting normal animals and gathering herbs.

But, he typically purchases around five enflamed yang stones a month. Something he could only do because of the other methods he'd looked into over the past year.

The Heavenly Alchemic Way. The Heavenly Refining Way. The Heavenly Array Way.

While he was only at the very basic levels. Mere Common Low Grade in each, it was enough for him to refine some basic qi returning pills, each of which that was worth fifty silver each, and easy to do with how common the herbs for them were in the Black Wind Mountains.

"Speaking of which, today is the eighth day of the month isn't it?" Shen Lei stopped observing his hands.

The eighth day of each month was the day the amount of merit points each disciple had earned was tallied up and they would be rewarded them at the treasury.

Shen Lei supposed he should head on over there after he informed the elders of his breakthrough to the second realm.

And while he was there, he could ask Treasurer Meng for some advice. The pervy old man was the one who informed him before of enflamed yang stones and lent him books on alchemy, artefact refining and sealing arrays.

The elders of the sect had lost hope for his supposed heaven defying talent after three months of his bottleneck. The only one who even kept him in their eyes was Elder Su, while the others lost interest or focused on others.

Well, he supposed he could not blame them. Unlike the other world he now had memories of growing up in, this world was not kind. Without strength, you were nothing. Civilians for instance were nothing in the eyes cultivators.

For instance, if Shen Lei came across a village with no cultivators guarding it, he could take it over without effort and force every women that resided in the village to be his bed slave, wife and daughter alike and none could stop him.

It was a dog eat dog world as the saying he now knew went. As such; 'I have to be a fucking dragon and devour all the other hungry dogs.' he snorted.

He would repay kindness with kindness, but that did not mean he was a good person. He had looked into many distasteful ways over the past year that he had considered when desperate to break through his bottleneck.

Dual cultivation for instance, the art of cultivating with another during sex, but they were failed arts nowadays, only known for one partner draining the cultivation of another through forcing them to submit.

Many of the talentless resorted to it and raped the helpless.

That was of course his last resort. While appealing to make beautiful women submit to him and increase cultivation at the same time, it was still quite distasteful.

There was another. Cultivating Monster Qi. By taking a monster core and refining it within himself, he could take the creatures abilities into himself and learn them as martial techniques. Those who cultivated monster qi were known for having much stronger bodies and senses than normal cultivators as well. The only problem was, the high risk, low reward factor.

Especially for himself.

There weren't really any particularly powerful monster beasts even within the Black Wind Mountains. And cultivating a monster beast was kind of a permanent thing, especially the first monster and could influence a lot when it came to a cultivators growth. On top of that, if the cultivator could not subdue the beast in the process and make them submit, there was the chance of a rebound and suffering damage to the cultivation meridians.

The best kind of monster to take in was one of the same element as the user. For Shen Lei, that would be one that was attributed to yang qi. The problem was, yang qi was one of the rarest attributes for a monster beast, and there were definitely none native to the Black Wind Mountains, he knew, for he had researched that fact quite vigorously.

After all, if it was simple, he would have done it already. He cast a glance over at the desk at the side of the room, specifically a small wooden chest atop it. Within there were a few monster cores from the few demonic spiders he'd found and killed

"Well whatever." Shen Lei shook his head and got a move on, leaving his dorm room behind, heading towards the Su compound. He was going to inform Elder Su about his breakthrough to the second realm and then visit the treasury.