Chapter 1: New Plans
A week had already passed since the events inside the Red Cloud Sea had ended. Li Xiaolong’s journey could be described as difficult, yet compared to others, he could still be considered fortunate in some way because he had obtained many valuable things that could be regarded as his treasures, especially his cultivation herbs. For an entire week, Li Xiaolong continued cultivating, paying no attention to the long hours he spent on it. He truly wanted to solidify the energies inside his own body in order to further strengthen his cultivation foundation. This was truly important to ensure that his body could withstand and undergo drastic changes and transformation while breaking through to higher boundaries of cultivation.
It was not as if he only needed to cultivate for one day because he needed to maintain a steady pace while cultivating. He could not neglect the arduous exercises he had to perform so that the progress of his body, especially his cultivation, would be properly secured, rather than doing it inconsistently on different days or simply postponing it for tomorrow.
This was also the common mistake of martial artists like him, who became lazy with the cultivation they were supposed to do and treated it merely as leisure time. It was truly not a good thing for any of them because if he did that, he might only end up looking pitiful in the end. Those who possessed the least talent or the lowest tier of martial talent had to double or triple their cultivation time and work even harder in cultivating, rather than simply concluding that the progress of their cultivation was slow because the martial talent they possessed was low. That was not the basis, if that was what they thought.
Even he, who possessed an Asura Grade Martial Talent—had some setbacks and he knew what they were. Asura Grade Martial Talent was truly an amazing feat and was considered a primary achievement for martial artists who possessed it, but it was truly not a good thing if one did not have a luxurious life or anyone to support them.
As they said, background was considered everything here. What use was such a high talent if he did not even have cultivation resources that would help him progress? What use was this extremely high talent if he could not find a way to aid his cultivation? That was truly a total waste—and if he could not enter the Cosmic Dragon Institute, he had to find some large organization that would help him grow and nurture him into a powerful martial arts cultivator someday. If not, he would simply be an ordinary martial artist.
Full of talent but useless. What else could he expect if no one would take him in and help him become a powerful being in the future? Nothing. He knew that he imagined he would become an extremely powerful individual in the future but the actual crisis was truly inevitable. Who knew, his future dreams might someday be wrecked if he continued to be a wanderer or a traveler without any direction to go.
So in order for him to grow and progress along the way, he had to find a way to secure his future. If he could not help himself these days, could he help his own family? Could he help with his clan’s greatest problems? Could he destroy some places he knew could harm him in the future? Could he really stand on his own for the time being or through however many years might pass? He had to be selfish for now.
How could he truly do great things if he could not even help himself? This past week helped him realize that he needed to care for himself for now, especially with the coming trials he would have to face. There was no way this would be easy, and there would surely be many young martial artists like him attending, who would definitely become his competitors in obtaining a rank. Only one thousand young martial artists would be able to enter and become official students of the Cosmic Dragon Institute. Even he himself was not confident enough that he could surpass several hundred martial artists.
Another one of his problems was obtaining a slot to participate. He was in Dou City, and even though there were many slots here, obtaining one was still difficult. Not everyone willing to participate in the trial for the Recruitment Day of the Cosmic Dragon Institute would be able to get one.
He had learned many things about this. This city was like a city of money and status. This city operated and could accommodate many martial artists and even ordinary people, and of course, they conducted business here. This was the center of trade, so it was not surprising that Dou City had great funds and collected many taxes from the merchants here.
Li Xiaolong thought of first finding a source of income and saving an extremely large amount of money. He was also experiencing culture shock here and the cultivation resources in this place were extremely expensive, especially the cultivation herbs. He did not want to go to an auction house anymore. He had to conduct real business matters by selling cultivation herbs to the known and trustworthy shops here. He was an alchemist, though he was still only practicing. He would sell all the cultivation resources he had collected, except for the Violet Ginseng Fruit. The cultivation fruits he had obtained from that strange place would surely allow him to earn money as well. They also had corresponding contribution points, which could be used to purchase things in Dou City. This was one of his main goals for now while earning some money and conducting real business transactions with the shops here. Of course, not all shops here gave contribution points. These were only given by some large business shops here in Dou City that had gained the trust and support of the city. Not all were qualified under the standards of Dou City, especially small businesses or those with bad records inside Dou City for violating its protocols. This was something he would remember.
He truly wanted to save a large amount if he did not want to be short on money when the time came for him to pay a huge sum for this particular matter. He knew that money was a vital part here. Of course, a high-ranking family or clan background came first in this place but he knew he had none of that. It was not as if he could insist that the Li Clan was wealthy or could afford to move to this city, when he knew the Li Clan had no such thing.
He knew that the Li Clan was well known across the four kingdoms and even here, it was discussed and news about it had reached this place. Who else would have caused this but the traveling martial artists or merchants who came here? He had not even expected that others would simply turn the oppression and abuse suffered by his clan at the hands of the Sky Flame Kingdom into a joke. Painful as it was to think about, even if he confronted them, there was nothing he could do because first of all, many people already knew.
