A Guide to Not Dying
Back in his rented inn room, Karma sat cross-legged on the bed with the slim scroll he had bought from the guild earlier. The title sprawled across the cover in large, ridiculous lettering: "How Not to DIE in the Astral Vein World – By the Ever-Wise Fatty."
Karma raised a brow. "This had better not be trash."
It was.
Within the first few lines, Fatty proclaimed: "Rule one: If you see a young master, bootlick until your tongue goes dry. Rule two: Marry a strong partner even if they look like your grandpa's slipper—better ugly and powerful than pretty and dead. Rule three: If a powerful elder farts in your direction, inhale it with gratitude. Their qi is worth more than your life."
Karma nearly tore the scroll in half.
Page after page was filled with nonsense. "Always carry pills for diarrhea, because no one respects a cultivator with a dirty robe." … "Smile at enemies stronger than you until your cheeks cramp, then stab them only if they blink for more than two seconds."
By the tenth page, Karma muttered, "If I ever find this Fatty, I'll bury him in his own scrolls."
Yet, buried among the absurdities, there were nuggets of truth. Bootlicking young masters? Probably real advice here. Aligning with the strong? A hard truth. And though the way it was written made him want to scream, Karma grudgingly admitted the book wasn't entirely useless.
Then something actually useful caught his attention: a rough outline of cultivation realms.
Cultivation Realms (as explained by Fatty)
"Listen up, newbie cultivators! Each realm is broken into nine minor stages. Don't whine about it—it just means you'll suffer nine times more. Anyway, here's the path (until you die or get lucky enough to fly)."
Body Tempering Realm – hammering bones and muscles into usable form. Expect pain. Lots of it.
Blood Tempering Realm – refining your bloodline and vitality, so you don't faint climbing stairs.
Energy Absorbing Realm – learning to actually sense spiritual qi instead of breathing like a fish.
Energy Refining Realm – shaping the qi so it doesn't explode in your stomach.
Body Refinement Realm – first step to real power, strengthening body with controlled energy.
Blood Refinement Realm – supercharging blood essence, resilience against wounds.
Qi Condensation Realm – the "Welcome to Real Cultivator" level. Forming qi pools in your dantian.
Foundation Establishment – building the base of your path. If your foundation sucks, you suck forever.
Core Formation – condense your life into a core. Don't break it or you're screwed.
Golden Core Refinement – polishing that shiny marble. Now you're flashy enough to brag.
Void Realm – step into the void, learn to ignore peasants.
Great Void Realm – slightly less useless than Void. Congratulations, you're basically a walking disaster now.
"Above this? Don't ask me. I'm still alive, aren't I?!"
Karma leaned back, lips twitching. At least "Qi Condensation" was clear now. If Fatty's right, trading ten demon beasts at that level probably means I need to be Foundation… He rubbed his forehead. "Sigh. One step at a time."
There were more scribbles in the margins:
If you can't sense someone's cultivation, they're either stronger than you or hiding it. Either way—don't be an idiot.
Never touch a beast egg unless you want new parents. They will not like you.
Carry food. Starvation kills faster than swords.
If a senior smiles too kindly, check your pockets. Then run.
Then came beasts:
Ordinary Beasts – mounts, pets, punching bags. Even these snap careless bones.
Monsters – aggressive, instinct-drunk, eat anything. At the same "level," they hit like someone two minor realms higher. If one chases you, run.
Mystical Beasts – rare; rumors say they talk or form contracts. Nice… until they don't.
Demon Beasts – mutations. Cunning, bloodthirsty, command lesser beasts. "Young masters" of the forest; instead of throwing wine, they throw you down their throat.
Karma closed the scroll with a sigh. "Damn you, Fatty. Ninety percent garbage, ten percent life-saving truth."
Still—framework acquired. He tightened his grip on the sword Su Liana had given him. Tomorrow, the hunt began.
Into the Greenfang Forest
The next morning, Karma joined a group of Su Family disciples. The guard leading them was a stern, broad-shouldered veteran named Captain Han, his blade scarred by years of use. They entered Greenfang Forest under a sky of pale, gauzy mist. Towering trunks rose like columns, bark veined with natural runes. Things cried in the distance—half bird, half something else.
"Stay in formation," Captain Han ordered. "Greenfang is no playground. Kill only what you can handle. I'll be evaluating each of you."
Everyone in the group nodded in acknowledgment, while keeping their eyes on the path ahead.
The first wave of ordinary beasts crashed through the underbrush—wolf-like creatures with tusks jutting from their jaws. The Su disciples fought with varying skill. Some froze, others shouted and swung wildly, spilling blood everywhere. In the midst, two stood apart.
One was Wei Long, his sword a gleaming arc of discipline, movements drilled to near perfection. The other was Karma, who in contrast, treated each beast like a practice partner. Silent Flowing Steps slid him a breath to the left of charges; Iron Serpent Fists dug at joints; Azure Moon Cleave cut clean and economical. When a beast lunged at him, he dodged by sidestepping while snapping down his blade, causing the wolf to fall without a sound, with only a little blood getting sprayed on the grass.
Captain Han's eyes narrowed. No aura, no realm pressure… and yet clean forms and stable rhythm. His gaze tracked Karma, then shifted to Wei Long—refined, steady, efficient.
More beasts crashed from the ferns, and the party pressed on. By noon, the soil drank lurid patterns while disciples collapsed against roots, panting.
"Alright. That's enough," Captain Han called, gathering everyone's attention. "You've shown your worth. Now back to the city. You're free until dawn."
Relieved murmurs spread through the group as they trudged back toward Greenfang City. Once they reached the gates, some moved to the inn, while others scattered to the markets, or brothels, eager to spend coin or drown fatigue. Karma, however, walked the streets with an air of distraction. His mind was buzzing with possible applications of his powers. He wanted to test his ideas while they were fresh in his mind. So, he decided to go back to the forest to test himself.
His eyes traced the vendors hawking herbs, the guards at the walls, the faint outlines of the forest stretching beyond the city's edge. While everyone went on their own way, his heart beat faster with every step he took. He had no intention of wasting this chance. While the others rested, he would test the power of Devour.
"Mira," he murmured inwardly. "I am planning to see if I can devour the energy of dead beasts. If something goes wrong, can you handle the aftermath?"
Her voice chimed, soft and sweet. "Master, that's very reckless of you. Once something is dead, its energy will turn chaotic. You won't be able to control it."
"That's why I am asking your help."
"I'll try to refine it so it doesn't roast your insides. But… you should be able to absorb it. If not, forget about it. Also, I'll take sixty percent. It's hard work after all."
He snorted a laugh. "Take eighty if you want. Just keep me alive, okay?"
"Sixty is fine," she replied primly. "You're surprisingly generous for someone who doesn't even have a cultivation technique."
"Sigh…" Karma sighed, a soft chuckle escaping from his mouth. He slipped past the last stalls and vanished under the bushes. The forest swallowed the city's noise.
Looking for a suitable place with no one around, Karma dragged a fresh corpse deeper between roots and knelt.
Mira's voice whispered in his mind, curious and cautious. "Master, are you sure? This isn't a game. We don't know the consequences this will bring."
"I know," Karma muttered, crouching beside the corpse of a beast he had dragged deeper into the woods. His hand pressed against its cooling flank. "But if I don't understand what I can do with the only power I have, I won't last long in this world."
He closed his eyes and focused. The concept of Devour unfurled inside him, hungry and vast. His palm tingled, then burned as threads of energy seeped from the carcass. It was raw, chaotic, like molten iron poured into fragile veins. His body screamed in protest, his vision darkening at the edges.
Mira went to work, like a busy little surgeon he couldn't see, working tirelessly by siphoning, grinding, smoothing the chaotic energy that was being absorbed. The burning sensation in his body softened into warmth.
As if a hungry beast starving for days, his body started absorbing the raw energy, tightening his muscles, strengthening his bones, and refining his blood little by little, bringing him closer to the Astral World's standards.
Once he absorbed the energy left in the beast, he staggered back and muttered "It works" while gasping for air.