After the battle, Kranos couldn't help but feel melancholic.
"Thankfully, my first kill in this life was a monster," he thought, believing that was the only reason he didn't feel too repulsed after taking a life.
What do I do now? Kranos pondered, glancing toward the village. The villagers still hadn't opened their doors, even with the danger seemingly gone.
"I guess I'll have to wait until morning. If they're still hiding when the sun is up... then something is truly wrong."
With that thought, Kranos sat down and began cultivating. But almost immediately, he frowned.
What's going on...? For a moment, he was stunned to discover that the purplish corruption had seeped into the mana of the world. So the only way to absorb mana here is to purify it first? he wondered.
Purifying it meant separating the corruption from the mana—slowly and carefully. Kranos sighed.
Looks like I'll need to focus on cultivating the Time Condensation technique for now...
But then he hesitated.
After a moment of contemplation, he withdrew the Body Cultivation Manual teacher donald had given him just before his descent. Over the past years, he'd been devoted solely to the Time Condensation and Qi Condensation manuals. He had barely glanced at the Body cultivation manual.
He recalled the last time he had forcefully paused time—his body had nearly been shredded by the sheer pressure of stillness.
If my body were stronger... I'd have less to fear from using time-based abilities. Kranos' eyes lit up at the realization.
He immediately began studying the body cultivation manual. After a few moments, Kranos began contemplating, stunned, from the information, if one cultivates this body cultivation technique, their body would be able to break rank one weapons; besides, they would be able to heal rapidly from all their injuries! Heavens! this is truly heaven-defying!
Kranos was amazed to think the body cultivation path was this terrifying. Why don't i see others cultivating their bodies? Although he hadn't encountered many cultivators, Kranos could guess that body cultivators were very rare. be it the fact that it wasn't written in the royal library's books or the fact that neither his father nor his mother had ever talked about body cultivating, they all seemed to lean in to the belief that there was little to no body cultivation in this world.
On second thoughts, could it be a cultivation path of another immortal world? Kranos felt that he had touched upon the truth; with a sigh, he resolved his focus and began cultivating.
…
Time passed and in the blink of an eye, the dark purplish moon seemed to run underneath the horizon under the chase of the horrifying bright purplish sun. The sun seemed to cast a purplish glow on the surroundings.
Kranos, who was in the middle of cultivation, heard a grating sound before other sounds followed, huh? It seems the villagers are finally out! Kranos raised a brow in surprise but he didn't move; he closed his eyes and continued cultivating.
He was now in the first stage of the body cultivation realm; in order to progress, it seems i have to look for a certain first-stage fire or the corresponding fire-related treasures. Kranos realized that in order to progress quickly on the path of body cultivation, he needed fire-related treasures or alchemic fire. With this fire, he could wash away the impurities in his body and burn them to ashes, tempering his body greatly.
"Er… excuse me, young man." while Kranos was in deep thought, a deep, aged voice interrupted him. Kranos turned around and saw a man that seemed to be in his sixties. The man was extremely thin, as though he had been starved of food for a few days; his hair had seemingly fallen off, causing him to be bald, which brought out the wrinkles on his face.
Kranos immediately kept his guard up and took out Eternal hunger. The elder was stunned for a moment, his eyes lit up, "A space artifact?" he looked at Kranos and chuckled, seeing his childish antics. "child put away your wooden sword; it will do me no harm," the man said to Kranos seeing him hold an ordinary wooden sword to attack him.
Kranos was stunned for a moment. I keep forgetting I'm a twelve-year-old kid in this life... Kranos didn't know whether to laugh or cry; he kept his facial expression, however, remained neutral, not withdrawing his sword in the slightest.
The elder didn't say anything more, seeing Kranos not heeding his advice: "how did you survive the night?" the elder studied Kranos closely and gasped. it was just now he realized that Kranos body seemed to be pure with no sign of contamination. "you… you are not contaminated!" the elder was shocked; he immediately asked, not giving Kranos a chance to speak, "are you from the city?"
"City? What city? Besides, what does being contaminated mean?" Kranos asked in confusion.
Realizing the boy knew nothing, the elder sighed and gestured for Kranos to follow. After a brief moment of hesitation, Kranos agreed—but he kept his guard up. Hidden within his robes, his academy badge was ready to activate at the first sign of danger.
As Kranos entered he noticed that there were multiple villagers going about their activities. Kranos was surprised; he didn't expect that there would be so many villagers present in this village. The children were noisy, the elders were working, and the youths were gossiping.
The elder ignored them all and headed into the distance. There was a particular isolated house in the middle of the farmland in the distance. Kranos read the sign at the top of the house 'village chief.' Kranos finnaly realised why the man approached him with no fear: because he was the village chief. if he didn't face the danger, who else would?
The elder entered, which Kranos followed. he noticed that there were not many properties in the house, just a couch, the dining room a few feet away, and some other miscellaneous tools. The elder took a moment to prepare some tea, and as he served the tea, he began speaking.
"It happened some years ago. suddenly the skies turned purplish; after that, an aura of devastation permeated this planet. that was when they emerged…"