Matt felt the skill info get injected into his brain one more, the pain wasn’t as bad as before, maybe his body skill upped his resistances to this. He was left with 4734, it didn’t take long to spend the points but it was a hassle go get them. The best way at the moment would be fighting more beasts at his level, but things at that cultivation level were rare plus he got lucky and fought one that had just leveled up and wasn’t used to the elevated cultivation.
He had more skills in his arsenal that he needed to test out, but it was also time to leave this village. The problem with the rage monsters was solved so he had fewer monsters to hunt, also he wanted to see the world a bit more as well. He was a bit more confident in himself now, he pulled up his map and looked at his destination that the system was kind of guiding him towards. Spirit Spring City was located in the Azure Dragon Empire, the map didn’t really go into much detail as it only showed him the locations and the names without explaining much.
He looked at the map and the Spirit Spring city was quite a bit away from his location, he was at the edge of the empire that had mostly small tribes and villages around. The next big city that was about halfway towards his destination was called Moonlight City. It was quite large just slightly smaller than the other City that he knew off. He decided to make a stop there on his way as he didn’t want to just blindly fly all the time and maybe he could sell and but some stuff in there.
He had asked the tribe people about the structure of this empire with the pretext that he was a traveler from another country. They were happy to tell him about the power structures and how the world worked, that they knew of. He learned the Qi Condensation cultivators filled up the majority of the population, most never getting through the 3rd level bottleneck. Everyone hid their cultivation methods and resources so it was hard for regular people to cultivate. That’s why Qi cultivators up below the 4th level were called commoners. After a cultivator reached the foundation establishment-level he or she could create their own family clan, passing down their teachings to elevate it. There was no rule to the size of the clan so they came in various shapes and sizes. After that came the Sects, those mostly required someone to be at least of the Foundation Establishment level but near the top of that. The sect scouted disciples to their location to grow and expand their influence not requiring one to be from the same family lineage. Sects were the biggest fishes around in the empire but it wasn’t ruled by a sect in particular but had an Emperor instead.
The Emperor belonged to the Long Clan and kept the Sects in check, but no one knew who would come out on top if the two factions fought. The tribe people weren’t informed enough about the prominent sects and clans as any one of them was out of their league. There were many new ones being created while old ones were crushed in a constant struggle for power.
*Guess The Azure Dragon emperor would be one of the top cultivators around here then? But those people like to hide their true power so there might be a bigger boss behind him.*
He gathered some info before heading out along with some supplies that he got from the villagers for helping them out with their beast crisis. He could see the silkypants that he saved all bandaged up but mostly from the beating, his father gave him and not from the beasts. His followers looked at him with a gleam in their eyes while smiling, this made Matt feel a bit uncomfortable on the inside. He would rather have some cute girls look at him like that, but instead he had some hairy burly men do that instead which sent a shiver down his spine.
Matt moved in front of the larger brown-skinned man and gave him a smile, he then stretched out his hand going for a handshake which Yang Shan didn’t understand at first.
“This is a way how people from where I come from greet or say their farewells.”
He said while grasping the burly man’s large hand and giving it a firm handshake, the man looked down but then shook it right back looking like he liked this new way of greeting people.
“Cuth… The corrupted one is dead so you shouldn’t have any more beast problems. If you have any troubles you can search for me in Spirit Spring City, that’s where I’m heading for now, I’ll probably be there for a while…” *Or so I hope…*
He shook some more hands as everyone seemed to like this new sign of respect, was a bit more personal than the bowing.
“Well, I’ll be heading out then. You guys take care.”
A lot of people were gathered to send him off, cheering and clapping at him as he started floating up into the air.
“Well be sure to recount your deeds for generations to come, Senior. Everyone will know the name, Zhang Dong!”
*Well, at least I didn’t use the name Long Dong…*
He nodded to the people and wooshed into the air, his cultivation making the crystal-like sword shine in a bright hue as he was propelled forward to his next destination. The scenery changed to a more open one, it wasn’t just trees anymore as he could see people tending to their crops on their farmlands. When they looked up the could see the cultivator dressed in a white robe, his long hair fluttering in the wind along with it. He checked his map as he looked for Moonlight city that he was heading first, but also he spotted a certain spot he wanted to make a pitstop before even going there. It looked like a really tall mountain with a high elevation and that meant a better place to cultivate, he was already halfway done by this point even when doing it in this village, so he should be able to bust through to the middle stage in no time and a few days here and there wouldn’t be a problem.
Nothing much happened on the way there, but he did not make it there through the day. He stopped and descended in an unpopulated area, there was not much around besides grass some trees and bushes. He kind of prepared for this type of occasion as he wondered where he should sleep when he was on the move. The cultivators from the stories always dug out some caves and then squatted in there during the night or when they were injured but he was used to sleeping on a bed.
He pulled up his screen and clicked the crafting abode icon that transported him to the candle and fire-lit space.
*Who needs to buy another pricy base if I have this already!*
The store had big and small houses, rooms and even pocket dimensions with gardens where he could reside but they all cost a huge amount. He took out a bed from his ring that he nabbed from the tribe and placed it on the ground, this crafting area was quite large and he could even dim the light in the setting, so why couldn’t he use it as a sleeping space? So he turned in for the night and dreamed about marshmallow clouds.