Rex furrowed his brows as he saw the text. 'Tch... my Qi-En is so low at the moment that I can't even by something decent, but I guess I'm good for now. I wanted to by something for protection, but I guess that Xie Jingfei will do for the meantime. She is a decently powerful Meridian stage cultivator, and she has accepted to stay at this place under the condition I hide her presence from the ' Flame Ghost' Sect. Also the protection she will provide me is adequate. Still, I can't believe that under the guise of the powerful cultivator residing in this place, I convince her to extend her protection to my normal persona saying I was a descendant........well, it's not that farfetched in this world as bloodline is a very serious matter, especially to cultivators.

But I still can't believe I'll finally get to cultivate using a 'real' cultivation manual! 'thought Rex as he took the thick golden book on his hands,slowly opened the cover and was immediately dazzled by the inside as it was as shiny as the outside. It seemed like the entire book was made of gold and was extremely extravagant, but it also seemed simple and mundane at the same time. It was a strange feeling , but not a bad one.

" Now let's start for real.....

...............

And so, two more weeks passed in the blink of an eye, but to Rex it had felt like an eternity as he struggled to expell the wood Qi of his ' Green Vein ' cultivation manual and start to cultivate the ' Golden State 'manual. He of course was very lucky to obtain the ' Golden State ' manual at this time, because if he progressed to the Meridian stage with the ' Green Vein '  manual he would have to stick with it as the Qi circulation paths of the manuals were of different elements. He could of course change the manual at that Meridian stage if he so wished, but the time it would take to open the new meridians, the low Qi circulation speed and the risk of Qi deviation was not really worth it, especially if you went from a cultivation manual of the wood element to a cultivation manual of the metal element. Thankfully Rex had the two pure metal Qi stones so he had progressed very quickly and had even forcefully pushed himself to the peek of the Qi Gathering realm by using the four pills he had gained from leaving the Millennium Forest Sect.

He had used the Marrow Cleansing pills to remove the impurities of his body, and the Verdant Green pills to quickly recover himself from the rapid change on the nature of his Qi so he could reach the peak of the Qi Gathering realm , but he was now stuck on a bottleneck.

"Tch...."dejectedly looked Rex  at the iron plated, wooden training dummy in front of him. He circulated his newfound metal Qi and gathered it in his fists , before rushing the dummy.

"Hahhtt...

*Bang*

His threw a straight puch at the dummy's head with all his strength and a bang was heard together with Rex taking a deep breath from the pain, but he didn't stop. " Hahhtt...hahht....haahhtt....

*BANG Bang Bang*

The dummy was hit constantly, punched, kicked, headbutted, kneed, elbowed, and each of these strikes was followed with a deep breath from Rex who just wanted to stop, but each time he thought about stopping, he looked at the word written on the dummy's head, possibility.

' Possibility, what a great thing. In this world, no...in this universe there are countless things that are beyond my comprehension, amazing things, frightening things, exciting things, but I'm too weak at the moment. That is why I must grow stronger......heeh, possibility!' thought Rex with newfound excitement.

Rex got in a stance once again as he winced at his aching flesh and bones, but he still continued to strike the dummy, albeit this time with lighter strikes.

*Bang Bang.....bang....

This continued for fifteen more minutes until Rex couldn't take it anymore and he finished with a weak and sloppy punch.

*Bang.....

"AAAAAHHHH~"

'Fuck, fuck fuck! It motherfucking hurts!' winced in pain Rex as he clenched his jaw. The pain made him want to immediately put some ice on the areas he had used to strike the dummy with, but he refrained from that.

' Fucking...ngggg.....

Rex resisted the urge to immediately swallow a pill for the pain, and fell in a lotus position as he started to breathe as was written on the ' Golden State ' manual. It looked like he was cultivating, but he wasn't trying to increase his Qi, he was in fact trying to attain the first level of the ' Golden Gong ' , the body cultivation technique which was a part of the ' Golden State ' cultivation manual. 

In this world, besides the mainstream cultivation of Qi, you could also cultivate the body, but to do that was extremely difficult, and on the brink of impossibility. Thought that was true, it was said that only ones who had a significant concentration of Devine Beast blood in their body could do so without any problem, and even achieve cultivation realms in rapid succession, but unfortunately Rex wasn't one of those people. He was just an ordinary cultivator with not a drop of devine blood in his veins, but the one who had created the ' Golden Gong ' body cultivation technique had managed to somehow mix the Qi cultivation aspect with the body cultivation cultivation aspect, and thus creating a hybrid cultivation technique.

This of course was something every cultivator wished for. Strengthening their body without decreasing the speed of their Qi cultivation was a miracle, but unfortunately this was the real world, and this had a consequence, a painful one at that. 

"Haaaaaaa......" exhaled Rex as he was finally in his optimal state and decided to start the process. He slowly took a cup full of water, and a small leather pouch from his drawer. He then opened the pouch and he saw the contents that looked like golden dust, which in fact was golden dust.

' Tch....such a bothersome cultivation technique. Not only do I have to cultivate normally to increase my realm, I also have to continually fracture my bones in order to create a protective layer of gold on them and complete the first layer of the ' Golden Gong '. It's not only painful and time-consuming , but it's also hard to find the right amount of force to use for the ' Golden Gong ' to be fully effective. ' thought Rex as he mixed some of the golden dust with the water and drank it in one gulp. He then sat down again and started to cultivate his ' Golden Gong ' technique once again.

"Haaaaaaa....." Rex exhaled and inhaled in a particular manner, and his Qi also started to move like a wisp of mist through his body. To him it felt like a slightly cold brush moving on the inside of his body and towards the areas he had abused previously. His hands, leg's , and head started to itch as he feel a calming cold which made him smile.

' This is nice.....

 This continued for about half and hour as the Qi forced the golden dust he had just swallowed to mend the tiny fractures and promote the healing of those fractures, but also create a protective layer of gold on his bones , making them harder to damage or break. This of course was known by Rex who immediately after he finished his cultivation eyed the dummy once again.

' Let's see how far I've progressed this time.....

He immediately took a big step forward and threw a right punch once again, and once again the dummy was struck on his face.

*Bammm*

"Hah,hahahaha......."Rex laughed out loud at the feeling of his fist hitting the iron plated dummy as he felt less pain, and less of knock back from the punch he just threw. Of course this didn't mean that he was left unscathed as his fist had left a bloody fist mark on the dummy.

' Good, this is going well, but it's still not fast enough. If I don't complete the first stage of the ' Golden Gong ' I won't be able to advance to the Meridian stage even though I'm a silver away from it. I have to fully clad my bones in gold in order to do so, but for that to happen I have to fracture every bone in my body' thought Rex as a shiver passed through his spine ' That's going to take a long time if I do it myself and I can't ask Xie Jingfei as I fear that she may see right through me.'

 *Sigh* 

" I guess that there is only one choice left then."

...............

The next day Rex seemed to take a day of as he wasn't seen at the restaurant at all. This made Xie Jingfei who was now working as a waitress for the restaurant , and also as Rex's protector a little worried , but she remembered the words the Senior said to him yesterday.

" Tomorrow, my descendant will be going on a little solo adventure so he will not be requiring your protection. You are to continue as usual to work at the restaurant , and just mix with the mortals. Hmmmm....I also forgot to ask..... how are your wound's at this time?"

" Senior, thanks for your concern." said Xie Jingfei" My injuries are good, and I'm almost fully recovered, but I don't dare take any credit! It's all thanks to the medicine I got from your ' Mart'." said Xie Jingfei as she bowed in respect to the powerful, and mysterious man in front of her.

"Hoho, you're going to make this old man blush, thought what you say is true. The medicine is truly effective for those wound's of yours, but it seems that I've forgotten another thing." calmly said Rex as he adopted a deep tone that made Xie Jingfei's heart skip a beat, and almost stop her heart from the words she heard after.

"Listen well!

Now that you're under my wing, I will not protect you from everything as it's not in my nature, but I'll make sure you grow stronger. Yesterday I had a little chat with a Dragon, an old friend of mine about how to increase your cultivation speed, and I think you'll be happy."

*Babum Babum Babum*

Xie Jingfei clenched her fists as she lowered her head even lower, but not because of respect or fear. She was just shocked at the casual statement that he just had a conversation with a dragon.

' A dragon....he had just a conversation with a dragon? How is that possible?! I guess that it may be a lesser dragon , but still.....

A dragon , even a lesser dragon is a rare and dangerous beeing that is at least at the Meridian realm when they are born. They are gifted with monstrous and  tough bodies that can hardly be damaged, and he casually talks about such a being ?!.'

"Ahhh... you don't want to hear it? Well, if that's what you....

"Senior, forgive me for my rudeness, but I was just overwhelmed by those words! I would be extremely happy to be enlightened by you."

" Haha...that so...well then , listen well because I'm not going to repeat it. As you are cultivating a water element manual , and as the Devine Blood in your veins is from a flood dragon, the way for you to increase the cultivation speed is to agitate the Devine Blood.  The easiest way for you to do that is to cultivate fully submerged in the blood of a turtle beast ,preferably one who is at the least on the Meridian stage. For further improvement you should also use the turtle breathing technique to speed it up.

As the Azure Dragon and the Black Tortoise are each a devine Beast , the presence of both of them in close proximity will cause an awakening, or as I said, an agitation of the blood."

"HEY, WAITRESS! Where is my order?"

"..........

Xie Jingfei woke up from her daydreaming, and smiled as she headed the customer who had just called and put down a sandwich in front of him.

"Please enjoy!" said Xie Jingfei before she left , but her smile vanished when she felt the man's gaze of her back.

' Hmph....

*Crack* *Bam* 

The sound of something cracking was heard and two of the table legs seemed to not hold on anymore , and the table fell on the man's foot.

"Aghh, my foot, my foot! Help......

............

EXPLANATION

Each cultivator had a spiritual root and the spiritual root has different attunements according to the elements. Wood, Fire, Water, Metal, Earth, Wind, and also rare ones like Lighting. The spiritual root may have different attunements of different degrees and the more your attunement is towards an Element, the faster you can cultivate using a manual of that Qi attunement .The cultivation speed is not solely dependent on that, but it's a big determiner.