Xu Xiong wiped his face full of sweat and observed the man until he went back into his house on the west side.
'He checked out the east, north, and west side of the village and ignored the south side. Could there truly be no one living there? But why don't they rebuild the houses or reclaim the land for more farms?' Xu Xiong wondered.
He's been finding the south side more and more suspicious as the days go on.
To be honest, he hasn't found any traces of Dead Birds, which is weird.
The only way this is possible is that they're in the village, and the only spot that could be is the south side.
For now, Xu Xiong's goal is to break through the scarce realm and then wait for the system's reasons to see if the danger changes.
If it doesn't, he'll simply leave and give the sect his insights and cultivate in his cave for three days before registering with the inner sect.
Anyone who just broke through into the scarce realm can join the inner court and will be allowed to stay in the sect for a month before they must accept an Inner Sect mission.
Waiting for three days merely gives him three days off to stabilize his realm more.
Coming down from the cliff and covering his traces, he returned back to his base and decided that he'll only refine his body today, and skip out on sword practice.
With that in mind, he sat down cross legged and began meditating.
The sect technique helps guide the Qi in the air to undergo purification by removing any impurities or evil Qi that may lurk in the body.
Taking in a breath of the pure Qi in the air, he guides it down to his stomach, and like a stream, he allows it to flow through his veins.
Unlike other cultivation novels, this process doesn't bring any pain, but enjoyment. What he has learned is that if you experience any pain in cultivating, you're doing something wrong.
Pain is the body's natural helper when identifying something is wrong, and if your body is telling you something is wrong, it's probably right.
He stayed like this for four hours, completing 17 cycles of sending Qi from his stomach and into his veins.
Once it started to hurt a little, Xu Xiong stopped and stretched out his body.
"Four hours." Xu Xiong muttered and estimated the time.
"With my current strength, I can break through the scarce realm any time, but to purify my body more in the scarce realm will be difficult." Xu Xiong pondered.
Once someone breaks through the scarce realm, Qi becomes a part of the body. Depending on the cultivation technique, Qi starts to take on some sort of form.
For example, the Black Water Sect takes on a gentle form but is fierce externally, meaning putting that Qi into his veins will undoubtedly ruin him unless he strengthens his body enough to stand that Qi.
And it's not like he can still use the pure Qi in the air, as that Qi becomes one with the Qi in his body.
If you try to purify your body with it, your Qi will destroy it, kinda like how our antibodies work.
Most geniuses will be like Xu Xiong and cultivate their purity to the max before breaking through the scarce realm.
"Pity that I can't cultivate it to the max." Xu Xiong shook his head.
He didn't have the time to do so.
With the danger in the village or even the Sunless Forest now due to the rain causes all the beast to go berserk.
"Well, with the system it shouldn't be difficult to cultivate a body training exercise in a year or two. If I recall, students don't focus on body refinement much as it takes up too much time with our little life span, and will cultivate a peerless body art in the later realms. But this comes with problems, as the higher the realm, the harder it is to perfect your realm and make up for the weak past realms. Though some rich people will just buy herbs for their children to make up for this defect."
Xu Xiong studied a lot about cultivation when he was found by the Black Water Sect, and knew if he wanted to destroy all Fallen Birds and purge the heavens of the phoenixes, he'd need to male sure there were no flaws in his cultivation.
Thinking this, he made up his mind.
"Break through the scarce realm tomorrow. Only one villager has shown himself so far, and I can perfect my purity by cultivating a body training exercise in the sect. After all, if I buy medicine, it's almost like buying two for me." Xu Xiong said, and his eyes lit up when it reached the last sentence.
Since the system boosts his cultivation, deepening on how much he cultivated the day before, a 100% Cultivation Refinement will be like taking two batches of medicine.
But the problem with medicine is that it also leads to an unstable foundation, but the system gives him pure energy which offsets this problem.
"Strange, where did my grandpa get such a treasure? And why didn't he use it? Could he not know that you needed blood to activate it? Well, if it wasn't for an accidental scrape on my arm, I wouldn't have found out either." Xu Xiong laughed at himself, and began climbing the mountain.
Although he really wanted to break through the scarce realm, he could wait an extra day to do so.
Watching over the village is also an important task as it has something to do with his safety.
And just like that, the day has passed and the crimson sun hung high up in the sky.
[Ding!]
[Host: Xu Xiong]
[Age: 17]
[Yesterdays evaluation: D-]
[Rewards: 50% increase of yesterday's cultivation insights. 150% improvement of yesterday's cultivation refinements.]
[Reasons: Host has been investigating a strange village and has practised hard while in extreme danger. With extreme caution and intelligence, the host has managed to avoid getting himself killed.]
Xu Xiong took in a deep breath and a small smile appeared on his lips.
"I've reached 95% purity, though if I had another month it would be at 100%" Xu Xiong said to himself, and let out a slight sigh.
95% is extremely good for someone who doesn't have any real backing, and relies on himself to cultivate.
You actually only need 70% purity to break through, and many choose to do so then.
Entering the scarce realm gives you a huge advantage as you can use Qi to give you range to attack your enemies.
The best example is that you bring a gun to a sword fight.
You with the gun are obviously going to win if you keep your distance.
Those with higher purity have their guns shoot faster and stronger, like armor piercing bullets in a sniper rifle.
Of course, these are just examples, real fights in the world of cultivation are a lot more complicated than that.
"Time to break through." Xu Xiong said, and steadied himself.
The Black Water Sect method is called Mysterious Sea Technique, where you bring in the Qi like a snake and turn the Qi into a core in your chest, creating a pond of Qi.
With the amount of cultivation insights he's gotten over the past couple of months, his understanding was excellent, allowing him to draw in the pure Qi and shape it into a core in his chest.
"The dantian is complete, now to fill it up with Qi." Xu Xiong said, taking a deep breath.
Breaking through here without any source of pure Qi is simply asking for failure, but since his senses and spiritual power has been enhanced, even without a cave, his breakthrough came easily.
After an hour of constant refinement, Xu Xiong opened his eyes.
"The scarce realm, level 11." Xu Xiong muttered.