The first two side quest notifications appear in my mind first.
One details my success in reaching the late stage of qi refinement, and the other congratulates me on cultivating my first true physique, reaching the spirit grade classification. I collect both quickly.
[Ding!]
[Rewards have been deposited into your storage!]
[x3 Perfect 1st Tier Upgrade Card]
[x1 Minor Lottery Draw]
[Ding!]
[Rewards have been deposited into your storage!]
[x3 Perfect 1st Tier Upgrade Card]
[x1 Minor Lottery Draw]
Six upgrade cards and two 20-sided black and red minor lottery dice appear in my storage.
Two more side quests instantly fill their slots.
[Reach the 10th Level of Qi Refinement, becoming a Perfected-Stage qi refiner.]
[Kill 5 Mid Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators, (0/5 Complete).]
The old quest to kill a single Envoy of the Blood Sword Sect is still my third unfinished side quest.
My attention shifts to the last system message.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! Mysterious Quest Complete: Become a True Physique Holder of one of the Lost Physiques, upgrading it to the Initial Stage of Spirit Grade.]
[Collect Your Rewards!]
[YES] [NO]
"A Lost Physique, huh…?"
I look down at my hands that glow bright white, and mentally select yes.
[Ding!]
[Rewards have been deposited into your storage!]
[x3 Perfect 2nd Tier Upgrade Card]
[x1 Mysterious Lottery Draw]
Three silver cards with raised twos on their front and back appear in my storage, beside a shimmering rainbow-colored 108-sided die.
A jolt of surprise courses through me.
I haven't seen a mysterious lottery draw die since the first day I awakened this system… It was a gift along with the three bronze upgrade cards I was granted before I even became a cultivator.
The die is where my strange un-ranked cultivation technique came from.
This is the first mysterious quest I've ever completed, and I did so by accident.
My mental attention shifts away from the shimmering die, and toward the three silver cards beside it.
I instantly pull them out into my hands.
My breathing becomes heavy, as I thought I'd have to wait until I became a foundation establishment myself to come across one of these cards again.
With the growing upward trend of daily tier 1 cards that coincide with my rise in qi refining level, it would be logical to assume I could gain tier 2 cards once I myself am tier 2.
Though, I thought my only other hope of gaining higher tier cards would be to fulfill the main quests.
If the pattern continues, they grant one upgrade card at my current tier, one at the tier above, and one two tiers above.
It appears mysterious quests grant me three upgrade cards a single tier above my own.
My unrestrained aura bursts outward with fluctuations of excitement.
My ring is unable to conceal its presence at all… The perfected mortal grade artifact has become obsolete.
The pressure of the milk fruits I've been eating adds to this, and the enchanted ox fat has been absorbed through my skin entirely too. These added to my bone density and the few centimeters of height I gained during my late stage qi refinement transformation.
My hair is darker black, and my skin feels smoother to the touch.
Even my vision is more crystal clear at a distance, and my spiritual senses have increased by a noticeable amount. It's hard to tell exactly how much inside my hidden realm, but it feels like it pushes even further than that perception expanding jade pendant I own.
Dense waves of spirit grade vibrations radiate off me, shaking the floor of this 5 element cultivation array.
Even the subtle dao rhythm that once calmed down my physique and helped it settle into place is suppressed entirely by me.
I can pull in deeper breaths and take in far more qi through my meridians.
My energy pathways have all naturally opened up, and a thin layer of white martial spirit vibrations saturates my meridians and spirit roots, making them stronger and more flexible.
The root maturity itself has not changed… That appears as though it can only be pushed further with elemental qi control training. However, this spirit grade physique is acting like a strong reinforcement that artificially lifts my base potential.
Meimei's thin silver-white eyebrows scrunch under the pressure, but she stays nearby because our souls are linked, and her physique's pressure at the 10th level of qi refining can handle it.
She's grown a few centimeters longer once again, now almost as long as my foot from nose to tail.
The fluffy creature is still small enough to curl up in a single palm.
However, her dantian is full of extremely dense qi, and the vibrations coming off her create an even heavier weight.
Her soul is extremely smooth and calm, and after consuming a heavenly grade healing elixir and cultivating beside me, all of her bones and muscles have settled perfectly into place.
Little Red feels very different too.
He is still only at the 4th level of qi refining, but he now holds two acquired spirit grade flame physiques.
Black and Red vibrations cover his skin, making the tiny frog glow brighter and hotter than any of the radiation coming off the array below us.
He cultivates in silence with his eyes closed, still taking in flames from the floor, but they seem to just disappear into his body and go nowhere.
I look straight forward again, and pull out the three lottery dice from my storage.
The first I toss is a 20-sided minor lottery die.
"It would be nice if you could give me something to hide this physique, I don't want to waste one of my new tier 2 cards on that ring..."
I toss it over Meimei's sleeping body to roll a few meters before stopping and disappearing into the air.
A light purple bow appears in my mind, with a shimmering white string of qi.
[Ding!]
[Minor Lottery Draw Successful!]
[x1 Purple Cloud Bow][2nd Tier Offensive Artifact]
I pull it out and let it rest in my hands, expecting it to be heavy or hot with qi, but it's as light as paper, and when I touch the string, it's easily pulled back.
My qi imprints it instinctively when I do, and the tension on the string of qi tightens.
[Ding!]
[Purple Cloud Bow has bound to the Host!]
[Passive Ability: None.]
[Active Ability: 5 Uses, Rechargeable (Cost - 150,000 Spirit Stones). Creates an exploding Qi arrow with the strength capable of killing a late stage foundation establishment cultivator. The speed of each shot is dependent on how far the user can pull the bow string back.]
I pull the bow string back as far as I can, until my muscles start to ache, and a shimmering white arrow forms taut against the string.
No qi pressure comes off of it at all.
With a light twang, I let the arrow fly, rocketing off into the golden mist of the hidden realm.
Its energy stores drop by a fifth, and I gauge the speed to be similar to weak foundation establishment cultivators.
Yet, I mentally force up a wall deeper into the mist of my hidden realm and hear an echoing boom as the arrow explodes out of sight.
The sensation of a pure late stage foundational attack echoes in my sea of consciousness bound to this hidden realm.
"Interesting…"
This will be of no use to a fast cultivator at long range if they see it coming, but it could be practical at closer range or for sneak attacks.
"Still, this won't hide my overwhelming presence."
I toss my next lottery die and watch it roll to a stop and disappear, and a shadowy humanoid figure appears in my mental space.
[Ding!]
[Minor Lottery Draw Successful!]
[x1 Armored Warrior][2nd Tier Puppet Artifact]
I pull it out of my storage, and a 2-meter-tall jet-black warrior in ancient battle armor stands in front of me.
There is a long heavy greatsword on its back, thicker than any blade I've ever seen before. Small dents and chips are visible in its edge, as though it's already been used in battle.
There is an eerie vibration coming off of it, and when I look through the armored warrior's helmet, I see no eyes staring back but can feel its gaze.
I lift a finger, and press it against its helmet.
[Ding!]
[Armored Warrior has bound to the Host!]
[Passive Ability: Radiates an aura of dread due to an initial stage mortal grade innate enchantment left over from its crafter.]
[Active Ability: 1 Use, Rechargeable (Cost - 360,000 Spirit Stones). Is a battle puppet capable of fighting on its own at the late stage foundation establishment level for up to 3 minutes. Can battle longer against weaker opponents, or fulfill less energy taxing tasks.]
I pull out a tier 1 bronze upgrade card on the spot, and tap it against this dark metal puppet. There is a connection that tethers to the enchantment, but nothing else.
The armored warrior shines in a flash of bright white light, and when it fades, the eerie aura coming off of it intensifies to the perfected stage of a mortal grade physique.
The dense tier 2 qi inside it doesn't shift at all.
Meimei stirs uncomfortably, so I pull this strange puppet into my storage.
Both of these minor lottery items are far stronger than any I've received in the past.
Before, only initial stage and mid stage artifacts could be pulled from these 20-sided dice.
When the system gave me a special die for an emergency quest, it granted me a late stage tier 2 shield artifact, but now it seems like items of this quality are not going to be a unique occurrence.
Maybe it is because of my 7th level breakthrough, or my new grade of physique, or a combination of the two, but these lottery rewards appear to be scaling up with me.
I pull out the only die I have left.
"Last chance… Though, I guess you know best. Surprise me." I sigh and let the 108-sided rainbow die clink to the array floor.
When it disappears, a tiny semi-translucent crystal appears in my mind.
I try to pull it out, but the same multi-colored glow that shimmers on the lottery die just ripples off it.
[Ding!]
[Mysterious Lottery Draw Successful!]
[x1 Damaged ???????? ???????? Fragment] [Un-ranked]
I try to read its description, but a heavy pressure beats down on my consciousness when I attempt to make out two of the words. The system text blurs, turning into illegible characters every time it feels like I'm getting close to understanding it.
At first it's extremely confusing.
More and more of the notification turns to scrambled blurry characters, like the system is warning me to look away.
My head starts to ache, so I stop pushing it.
All of the strain on my senses stop.
I wait in silence for a few heart beats, and my confusion only grows as the crystal shimmers in my mind.
This sensation of hidden system text is not the same as when the system glitched and tried to force notifications through and communicate directly with me.
Though, I vaguely recall something that feels more similar.
It was back in the servant camps when Xu Hong, that purple haired servant girl was hiding a secret even the system did not want to reveal.
It was about some strong force that she wanted to get revenge on.
She said even uttering their name would be dangerous, but I have no idea why.
"What is this thing…?" I mutter, and try to examine the crystal with my regular senses instead.
It's weightless and gives off no energy waves of its own. It won't budge from my storage at all.
After a few seconds of trying, the crystal starts to crack open.
The crack grows larger, but it doesn't break apart. Instead, it bends along a strange axis and falls through my system storage, not wanting to be confined by this space any longer.
It touches my raw sea of consciousness underneath.
The blurred system notifications for the mysterious quest all start disappearing entirely. The system is backtracking and deleting its records like it did when it granted me that emergency quest.
I try to open my mouth to respond, but the crystal completely melts and sends a bright oscillating multicolored liquid flowing like a river deep into my sea of consciousness. It spreads, flooding outward like a wave to cover all of my senses.
All I see for an instant is constantly changing metallic rainbow lights. It seems to hit something and reflect back, seeping into both my souls, then flooding into my new physique.
The moment it completely saturates my Martial Spirit, the rainbow aura disappears as though it was never here.
My vision suddenly returns to normal.
I feel no different.
The crystal in my storage is gone.
I take a few deep breaths, checking to see my tier 2 cards are still untouched, the new bow and warrior puppet in my storage are still there.
Then, my physique starts to tremble, and extremely faint glimpses of this rainbow pressure vibrate at its tension points.
I blink once, and my vision turns white.
–
A translucent image of a cultivator appears within this vast sea of whiteness before me.
He begins throwing fists, following through with lunges and kicks in patterns that feel familiar.
They start with the patterns I know, the very same movements I followed to solidify my Martial Spirit Physique.
They then quickly shift to patterns I don't recognize.
It is not only bare fists and kicks being thrown.
Shimmering white swords and daggers form in this cultivator's hands that turn into bows, axes, hammers, and weapons I've never even seen before.
I don't even have to think; every movement fills my subconscious, as though I'm practicing them with this illusion in the white void hundreds of times over.
The cultivator stops, and the bright white vibrations of his physique burst outward with power.
All of the weapons disappear, and he sits down to cultivate.
I watch his breathing shift, and the concentration he uses to squeeze the stress points of this physique inward.
Every breath he takes, the overwhelming vibrations sink inward, and he gains more control over them.
They shift in and out of his body, like a rising and receding tide.
At points, I can't even feel the vibrations of this cultivator's physique anymore.
I become so focused on this technique that my mind wanders nowhere else.
The same rainbow-colored ripple from the strange fragment in my mind covers the void, and I feel even closer to the cultivator.
After his next deep breath in, when his physique becomes completely unsensable. I close my eyes and feel as though I'm sitting in the void exactly where he rests.
For a moment in time, it feels like I am that translucent cultivator.
I breathe out and open my eyes to see the entire white void-like vision is gone.
I'm back in my hidden realm, with Meimei calmly sleeping in my lap.
Not a single stray vibration from my Martial Spirit Physique pours out.
Imagery of hundreds of Martial movements using countless weapons still flash through my mind, and a shimmering rainbow aura fades away deep into my consciousness, as though it was never here.
Whatever that crystal was, it just triggered what I can only guess is my Martial Spirit Physique's Inheritance. Before, It felt like my physique consolidation was already over. I might not have seen these visions without it…
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Author's Note:
One chapter of Five Element Overlord will be posted every weekday: M,T,W,TH,F.
If you'd like to support me, and read 45+ chapters ahead of the public release schedule, my patreon is linked in my bio:)
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