5 Beginning

Placing one of the two cultivation techniques he had taken from one of the bookshelves on a nearby desk, he went ahead and opened one of them as he read through its introduction.

"The Rudimentary Qi Refinement Manual is one of the most basic manuals for cultivating qi, guiding the cultivator from the start of the Acupoint Breaking Realm to the Meridian Opening Realm, fortifying their foundations. By cultivating this manual, one would gradually become more sensitive to the qi in their surroundings, allowing them to cultivate qi marginally faster than their peers," Shi Li read its contents out loud, nodding in satisfaction after making sure that he had chosen the right technique.

After that, he opened the other book he chose and read it out loud yet again, knowing very well that no one was in the library at this moment. "The Rudimentary Body Refinement Manual is one of the most basic manuals for cultivating the body, guiding the cultivator from the start of the Body Tempering Realm to the Body Refining Realm, fortifying their foundations. By cultivating this manual, one would gradually become more sensitive to the fluctuations and processes of their bodies, allowing them to cultivate their bodies marginally faster than their peers."

"I wonder how much faster I would cultivate with these techniques," he muttered to himself, only to let out a light sigh as he had chosen these techniques to alleviate some of the shortcomings of his illnesses in the first place.

Grabbing both of the books as he made up his mind to cultivate these techniques, he then made his way out of the library, stopping when Shi Daoliang told him to stop.

"Let me take a look at the techniques you chose. It's the library guardian's duty to record the techniques that are taken from and returned to the library," he told him, prompting Shi Li to give him the two cultivation techniques he chose.

"Oh? The basic cultivation techniques, huh? Not a bad choice, kid. It would definitely help out on your cultivation in the long run, given how you have those illnesses," Shi Daoliang said to Shi Li, to which the latter nodded and replied, "Thank you for the compliment, Elder Daoliang."

Nodding in response to Shi Li's words, Shi Daoliang then wrote a few words on a piece of paper with his qi before giving the two techniques back to Shi Li. "You have 30 days to memorize the contents of the books you've chosen. You are not allowed to copy them on pieces of paper, special items or anything else. Am I clear?"

"Understood, Elder Daoliang," Shi Li replied before thanking Shi Daoliang once more as he left the premises, heading back to his room. While looking at Shi Li gradually get farther and farther away from the library, Shi Daoliang could not help but mutter to himself with a light chuckle, "I have a feeling this kid's going to give me a surprise once he comes back to the library."

…

Once he had returned to his room, he could not help but take a look out the window, noticing that there was only a couple of hours left until the sun started to set. Placing the cultivation techniques he had chosen on a nearby table, he went ahead and opened up the book containing the various illnesses a human could have, recalling the conversation he had with his mother.

"10 years left to live…10 years left to live…" Repeating the phrase over and over in his mind as he looked through the contents of the book, he eventually found a certain illness that fit the current state he was in.

"Imperfect Life Base: An illness that reduces the lifespan of a person to roughly a quarter of what it should be. No cure has been found for the illness. No method has been found to relieve the illness either."

"So…if my memory serves me correctly, I have Imperfect Meridians, Imperfect Body, Imperfect Life Base, and Wood-level aptitude. Man, the heavens definitely didn't stop at fucking me over once. They really went all in and fucked me over four times in a row." Shi Li could not help but click his tongue, not despairing over the fact that there was no cure for it. Since he was in a town, information and knowledge was limited. He would eventually find a cure for all of his illnesses, but to find them in the first place, he would need to have the strength to do so…and the time.

"Alright, time to start cultivating," he said to himself, psyching himself up as he opened up both cultivation techniques, wanting to read through the contents of the books first. After closing the books as he had reached their final pages, Shi Li could not help but look out the window with great excitement, seeing as how both cultivation techniques tackle the first two realms of both paths in great detail. On top of that, both techniques also tackled the third realm of each cultivation path as well.

"After one opens up their 9th meridian, one goes from the Meridian Opening Realm to the next realm, the Meridian Union Realm. Once one reaches that realm, one would be able to live for 10 more years," Shi Li muttered, his eyes glistening with rekindled hope.

"As for the body, once one fully refines their body to its limit, they would be able to start condensing their blood, going from the Body Refining Realm to the Blood Condensation Realm. Once one reaches that realm, one would be able to live for 50 more years," he said, instantly thinking of cultivating his body first. However, after thinking about it for a while, he decided to cultivate qi first, knowing very well that cultivating the body was multiple times harder than cultivating qi.

Well, even if that cliche he had read in various novels in the past wasn't true in this world, with how the external cultivation technique needed him to use qi to temper his body, he had no choice but to cultivate qi first.

With that, he opened up the <Rudimentary Qi Refinement Manual> and focused on the first part of the manual pertaining to the Acupoint Breaking Realm.

"According to this manual, there are a total of 1000 acupoints all over the body, with each acupoint serving a different purpose. The goal of the Acupoint Breaking Realm is to break open these acupoints with the surrounding qi, turning them into spots in the body where qi could be stored and used," he thought out loud as he made sure to read through the various steps of cultivation.

"10 acupoints is equivalent to what is called an acupoint cluster. To reach the peak of the 1st Stage of the Acupoint Breaking Realm, one must open three acupoint clusters. Opening a total of 30 acupoint clusters means that one is at the peak of the 9th Stage of the Acupoint Breaking Realm and has achieved the state of Minor Accomplishment. Opening 50 acupoint clusters would be achieving the state of Major Accomplishment, and opening all 100 acupoint clusters would be achieving the state of Total Accomplishment."

"With my aptitude and Imperfect Meridians, I wonder how long it would even take me to break open 30 acupoint clusters, much less a hundred of them," Shi Li said to himself in a joking manner, only to find out that the technique contained a small bit of information regarding the time it took for cultivators of certain aptitudes to open an acupoint.

"What's this? A cultivator with Wood-level aptitude takes on average two hours to open an acupoint? Someone with Stone-level aptitude would take half of that time, and those at Iron-level aptitude would take half of what a Stone-level would take ?" Seeing that there was a part where it told him how much time it would take for a cultivator to open an acupoint, Shi Li decided to use it as a guide to know how much the Imperfect Meridians affected his speed of cultivation.

With that, he closed his eyes and started to sense the qi that was in his surroundings. After a few minutes, he finally felt that he could control a portion of the qi in the surroundings, beckoning for it to head towards one of his acupoints. Surprisingly, it was easy for him to control the qi into his acupoints. However, after that, the effects of Imperfect Meridians had finally showed its true colors.

As if the qi that had entered his acupoints had lost almost all its energy, the speed at which the acupoint was being opened had decreased to what could be said to be slightly more than snail's pace. In fact, he even chose the only acupoint that the previous owner had infused qi into, and it was already halfway open!

With enough determination and persistence, Shi Li had finally opened his first acupoint after 4 hours, sensing a small amount of qi enter the acupoint that had been opened. Seeing how the opened acupoint could only store a quarter of its total space, Shi Li could not help but open his eyes as he let out a sigh.

"Since it was already half-open, that means it would take me around 8 hours to open an acupoint from scratch," Shi Li muttered to himself, only to close his eyes soon after as a determined expression appeared on his face.

"Oh well, there's no point moping around. Progress is still progress."