A week had passed.
Yang sat in the courtyard drinking tea. The porcelain cup was delicate in his hands. Perfectly crafted. Worth more than everything he'd owned in his previous life combined.
The past week had been unlike anything Li San and Yang had ever experienced. Food and drinks were included in the price of the courtyard. So they'd taken advantage. Tried everything. All the best delicacies the city had to offer.
Dishes Yang couldn't name. Flavors that exploded on his tongue. Meat so tender it melted. Vegetables that tasted like they'd been grown in paradise. Tea that made his entire body feel lighter.
After Cheng Mo left that first day, both Li San and Yang had stood still for several minutes. Processing. Trying to understand what had just happened. What their lives had become in the span of a single night.
Then they'd decided to explore the courtyard.
Apart from the receiving room in the center, there were two wings on each side. Each wing had its own bedchamber. A dining area. A study area with shelves and a writing desk. A private bathroom with a tub large enough to swim in. And a smaller receiving room for personal guests.
The rooms were bigger on the inside than the building would suggest from outside. Showing that some kind of magic had been used in their creation. Space folded and expanded in ways that made Yang's head hurt if he thought about it too long.
Li San and Yang had explored the rooms and gardens to their hearts' content. Running from room to room like children. Marveling at every detail. Every luxury they'd never imagined.
There was also an orchard. Trees drooping down with the weight of fruits. Apples that glowed faintly. Peaches the size of Yang's fist. Berries in colors that didn't exist in nature.
After asking the inn employees, they'd found out they could eat as many as they wanted. The fruits were included in the courtyard price.
Both Li San and Yang had eaten the fruits eagerly. Sweet and juicy and unlike anything they'd ever tasted.
Apparently they were spirit fruits. All of them. Grown with spiritual energy instead of just water and sun.
After eating them, Yang felt a surge of power within him for the first time in a long time. Similar to how the beast cores had affected him. Energy flooding his veins.
The employee had warned them. Since they weren't cultivators yet, they shouldn't eat more than one piece per day. Or they could literally explode from the concentrated spiritual energy.
Yang had eaten much more than that. Six pieces the first day. Eight the second. As many as he wanted.
Li San had been shocked. Staring at Yang with wide eyes as his friend consumed fruit after fruit without consequence.
Yang had warned Li San against doing the same. Li San had just rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "I know. Is it one of your secrets?"
"Not exactly," Yang had answered truthfully. "I don't know why I can eat so much of it. It's doing something to me. I can feel it. But it's not increasing my strength."
Li San had looked at him thoughtfully. "Is that how you became powerful? Because you could eat spirit fruits without dying?"
"No," Yang replied. "It wasn't spirit food I ate. Some animals I hunted had gemstones inside their skulls. I ate those and gained my strength."
Li San's eyes had almost bugged out of his head. "You ate beast cores?" Then confused. "And you survived?"
Yang was shocked. "You know about them?"
Li San snorted at him. "Of course I know of them. Doesn't everyone? Occasionally people of the village did hunt. Sometimes if the beast was weak enough and the hunting group large enough, they managed to get beasts with cores. The flesh is better for you than normal beast flesh."
"You've seen them?" Yang questioned.
"No, but eldest brother has seen one. When harvest or fishing aren't good for a season, the villagers don't have any choice but to try their hands at hunting. It hasn't been done in more than a decade from what I know. Harvests have been great the last few years so no one has ventured deeper into the forests to hunt."
Li San's expression had grown serious. Worried. "But Yang. They cause people to die a painful death. I've heard that sometimes even their bellies burst with force."
"I didn't know about that," Yang said quietly. "I didn't even know what they were. I got one by chance and I ate it. After feeling agonizing pain and fainting, when I woke up I was stronger. So I hunted more beasts and kept eating their cores until they stopped increasing my strength. Or I became strong enough that any changes made were so small I didn't feel them."
Li San looked thoughtful. "You're extremely lucky you didn't die a painful death."
"I almost wished for it," Yang muttered. The memory of that first agony still vivid. "The pain was unbearable. But as I kept consuming more, the pain kept reducing."
Li San's tone grew serious. "Yang, you must not consume things of unknown origin. You were lucky you didn't die."
He looked so worried that Yang felt compelled to reassure him. "Actually, I knew it wouldn't kill me."
At Li San's confused expression, Yang explained. "My inner instinct warns me if I'm in danger. It's not a hundred percent reliable and sometimes I do get in unsafe situations. But this talent of mine has been of extreme help, it has kept me away from many dangers and guided me towards safely and opportunities."
Li San looked thoughtful at that. "Is that how you knew there was something off about that senior? Did you know he was a cultivator?"
"No," Yang admitted. "I only knew he was important for me. Turns out I was right."
Li San laughed. "You were certainly right. We spent months looking for the martial path and the more superior cultivation opportunity just fell in our lap."
"I would hardly say fell," Yang scowled. Thinking of the many sleepless nights and days spent searching for the painter.
But the past week hadn't been just fun and leisure. Li San and Yang had spent most of their time researching cultivators and cultivation.
The city had a library. But neither Li San nor Yang were literate. They'd had to spend their time asking people around instead. Gathering information piece by piece.
They'd managed to get a general understanding. And had paid a shopkeeper who sold cultivation goods with two spirit stones to give them as much information as he could.
The man was a middle-aged Qi Refining cultivator. He ran a small shop that sold talismans and other small things required by low-level cultivators. All his clients were loose cultivators. According to him, sect cultivators and clan cultivators had access to superior resources and wouldn't bother with his humble shop.
He'd been a treasure trove of knowledge. Most of the information that helped them decide their path forward came from him.
Wang Fu had been clear. They had three options if they had the ability and desire to become cultivators.
First, become loose cultivators. Earn spirit stones through whatever means available. Buy techniques and knowledge and pills. Become cultivators through their own effort and luck. It was the most risky path with no guidance on the best way forward. No allies. No protection.
According to Wang Fu, who was himself a loose cultivator, it wasn't a choice for most. Most loose cultivators were those who couldn't get into any sect. Who had no choice but to embark on the loose cultivator path if they wanted to cultivate at all.
They were the first targets of demon cultivators. The most likely to die in any dangerous situation compared to the other two types. The weakest and the most vulnerable.
The second option was clan cultivators. Clans took in promising students and taught them. Depending on their talent and contribution to the clan, they were provided with opportunities and help. Sometimes married into the family if they were particularly brilliant.
But they and their descendants were always a step below the main family members. No matter their talent or skill. They had to either take the clan name themselves and become adopted children. Or marry into the family and bear or sire children that would bear the clan name.
They would never be head of the clan. Could never expect to be first or the most trusted. Because in clans, blood reigned supreme.
The third and last type were sect cultivators. They were the most abundant and the most powerful overall.
Sects could range from small groups with dozens of members residing on a small hill. To massive organizations with hundreds of thousands occupying whole mountain ranges. Sometimes with cities and even mortal and cultivation kingdoms under their control.
Sects had the best seeds. They weren't restrained by bloodlines. Would take anyone and support anyone that showed talent. In a sect, one could rise from a simple outer sect disciple that swept floors to the sect leader position if they worked hard enough.
Your bloodline and name had no meaning in a sect. Only your talent, effort and your contribution.
But even that was no easy path. Sects had huge competition. The better the sect you wanted to join, the more competition you faced.
According to Wang Fu, sects also sometimes specialized. Sword sects. Alchemy sects. Beast sects. There were many more. Some sects were so specialized in their techniques that you would be shocked a sect existed for such purposes.
Wang Fu had given an example. A sect that solely reared and bonded with beasts to produce different types of renewable animal products. Milk, eggs, honey from spirit beasts with various characteristics. Cultivators who dedicated their lives to spiritual animal husbandry.
Yang had asked about how they'd be selected for sects. Wang Fu had explained that each sect had different tests. Passing them didn't require knowledge but fate with the sect. That word again. Fate. Cheng Mo had refused to consider Yang and Li San, saying they had no fate with his sect.
Each sect's training was something only those who'd passed or failed would know. Participants were bound not to speak of the tests.
Yang had been looking into all types of sects. Considering their options carefully. But Li San, after finding out about the Azure Sword Sect from Azure Point City, had become adamant.
The Azure Sword Sect was the most powerful sect in this region. Their disciples were legendary. Their techniques coveted and their reputation unmatched.
Li San wanted to join that sect. Desperately. His eyes lit up whenever he talked about it.
Yang didn't have the heart to refute him. Even though he would have preferred a sect that was more geared towards alchemy or tool refining. Or even a general energy cultivation sect rather than a sword sect.
But he loved and cared for Li San enough that he was willing to join it with him. To support his brother's dream even if it wasn't exactly his own.
Li San had such a strong desire to join the Azure Sword Sect that Yang wished more than anything they'd manage to get in. And Yang intended to try his best. To get in himself and if possible help Li San get in as well.
Whatever it took.
Yang was just immersed in his thoughts. The tea cooling in his cup. Contemplating their future.
When Li San came running back into the courtyard. "I got it!" he shouted. A huge smile on his face. Waving a token triumphantly. "Yang! I got it!"