"Wait I'll have food ready in a bit." Cai Cao said after checking on Zhang's condition before disappearing once more.
"What a nice guy." Zhang thought after Cai Cao had left the room. They had been total strangers but a few days ago, but now Cai Cao was taking care of Zhang and even cooking for him.
Zhang did not have to wait long before Cai Cao returned with a tray, atop this tray was a bowl. Soon enough Zhang may feel the need to take back the words that he had thought earlier because moments later a bubbling bowl of black goo was placed on a table by Zhang's bedside.
"Poison?" Zhang thought as he stared at the black goo, while sweat began forming on his brow.
"I made you some chicken congee." Cai Cao said, looking down on the bowl with a hint of shame evident in his face.
Not wanting to turn down the goodwill of someone who has been helping him, and someone who could possibly kill him, Zhang pushed up his aching body and took the bowl up in his shaking hands.
A gulped as he looked down at what might be his last meal, before picking up a spoon and digging in. As the spoon full of death inched closer and closer to Zhang's lips his life flashed before him.
"Mother, father, I'll be joining you soon." Zhang thought as the spoon finally reached his lips and the black goo flowed into his mouth, slide across his tongue and down his throat. That was when his eyes became wide and an expression of shock covered his face.
"This is surprisingly very tasty." Zhang said as he turned to Cai Cao with a smile and began stuffing himself. Soon enough all that was left was an empty bowl, that looked as if it had just been washed.
Zhang turned toward Cai Cao who had been sitting in the other side of the room, meditating. Feeling Zhang's gaze, Cai Cao stopped meditating to find two pleading eyes staring at him.
"I'll get you some more, if you want." He said, a bit surprised by Zhang's facial expression. A slight smile soon became visible on his face as he left the room.
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After the incident with the chicken congee, Cai Cao had been designated as the one to cook the meals. A week had passed since and now Zhang was back on his feet and finally was able to begin his journey into the world of cultivation.
Sitting outside atop a large boulder sticking out of the ground, Zhang had a ring in his hand, along with a letter. Zhang had found this letter addressed to him in a drawer where the armor, he had worn before waking up at the sect, was found.
"Treasure this ring for it holds what you have lost. Upon reaching the fragmented realm all shall be clear." Was all the letter said.
After tucking the letter into his robes and slipping the pitch black ring onto his finger, Zhang pulled out the Misty Mountain Sect's beginner cultivation manual from his robes. He had opted to read this manual before even setting eyes on the sect's rule manual. Since he had nothing to go back to nor did he have any idea of how to get back to where he came from, Zhang decided to immerse himself in this new world that he had been thrown into.
"What is a cultivator? A cultivator is one who breaks away from the shackles of mortality and defies the will of heaven. A cultivator absorbs the essence of the world and strengthens themselves to one day be able to ascend the heavens and surpass them." Zhang read from the cultivation manual.
"So there are forty-four essence points throughout the body that connect forty-four channels. For each point that a person manages to awaken they would gain two years of longevity, simply from the amount of essence that flows into their body." Zhang mumbled as he read the book.
A person generally lived to be about eighty years old, but if one were a cultivator who managed to open all forty-four of their essence points, then they would generally have a life expectancy of about one hundred sixty-eight years. Of course as they progress in their cultivation their longevity would further increase.
"To open one's essence points, one must circulate the essence in one's body and create a flow. Once the flow is created, direct at a point and have the stream unlock the point. Hmmm, if I follow these instructions I should be able to unblock my essence points, however brother Cai had said that my channels are incredibly small so if I unblock too many points then my channels will shatter. This time perhaps for good because last time brother Cai had only performed a partial unblocking and this time it will be a permanent unblocking, meaning I won't be able to block it once it's open." Zhang thought as he gripped the manual in his hand.
Unlike everyone else who can simply unlock all forty-four points, Zhang can only unlock a portion of them or else he would end up killing himself. But the problem he is facing now is figuring out how many points he can open before reaching the point of no return.
"Well I guess I won't know until I try it out." Zhang muttered as he closed his eyes and began meditating. Essence began swirling in his cultivation core, and started forming a stream that circulated through his channels. Soon essence flowed through every inch of his channels.
"The first point." Zhang thought as he redirected the stream toward one of the forty-four points.
"However in my cause, since my channels that connect to my core can't handle a large amount of essence, I should send only a small amount into the core while the rest should be dispersed throughout the rest of my body to strengthen it."