Xuhan Mo, after speaking for a moment longer, left the cabin.
After a while, one of the younger siblings, who looked about twelve years old, entered with medicinal herbs he had prepared and gave them to Li Yi to drink. Later, Brother Zang Li returned to the cabin to speak with him about more personal matters.
"Brother Li, I often find myself thinking about how hard our lives are," Zang Li said. "Having to go out every day without rest, searching for small opportunities that sometimes only provide a single meal... Striving to condense our meager bases for a future that might not even exist."
He sighed before continuing:
"I only feel sadness for all the things I wish I were doing and the places I would love to visit. If only I were stronger, so I could cross the forests and plains to reach the great cities... There, where there are cultivators of higher realms and better opportunities for us, the ephemeral mundanes and minor cultivators."
Li Yi could see the helplessness on Zang Li's face; it was like a man whose desires filled a glass that couldn't hold it all, causing it to overflow.
Since his walk through the streets that morning, he had noticed something: although there were many people in the village, those who seemed to be true cultivators were very few—perhaps one in twenty. There appeared to be no more than a thousand people in this village, and those few were the ones practically in charge of hunting beasts, defending the settlement, and managing businesses.
The ephemeral mundanes wouldn't dare stray far from the village for fear of encountering a beast; that would be the end of their days. In this place, only the Great Families and the martial arts schools held the most development and power. Only by becoming a cultivator with a solid base and talent could one hope to join them, secure better resources, and continue advancing along the path of cultivation.
"Brother Zang Li, do not ask the river to flow against its natural current. It is like asking a bird to stop its song because there is a storm."
"Just observe and enjoy the landscape, but do not stop your pace; perhaps your greatest destiny can only be seen because of your present. So, do not be in a hurry to name what you do not yet know. The 'you' that will exist tomorrow exists thanks to the one who strives today."
A smile appeared on Zang Li's face.
"I appreciate your words, Brother Li. Truly, wanting to change everything overnight is neither easy nor feasible," he replied.
"Since you decided to share your thoughts with me, I won't let you leave empty-handed," Li Yi thought to himself. Then he asked: "Brother Zang, is there another village near here? I don't think the few town guards could resist if a beast horde arrived."
Zang Li thought that Li Yi had been asking strange questions lately. "Could the beating they gave him have left him half-witted?" he wondered.
"Brother Li, there are at least two slightly larger towns nearby. One is to the northeast and the other to the northwest; they form a sort of barrier covering the interior, where there are increasingly larger towns and massive cities, or so I've read in some books. I also know that in those two towns there are more cultivators, and several belong to the Master Realm, which allows them to defend themselves better against beasts and have a better economy."
"Master Realm."
The term reached Li Yi's ears; he had never heard it before. He thought for a moment and quickly asked:
"Brother Zang, what are the realms beyond Base Refinement? It seems there aren't many of those cultivators in this village."
This time Zang Li wasn't surprised; even he had recently found out thanks to some books they were lent in the town center.
"Brother Li, I don't blame you for not knowing. It is understood that after condensing and advancing to the Base Forging Realm, by solidifying it, you can absorb energy into your dantian. When you reach a certain limit, you can break through to the Martial Realm. After reaching the peak of that realm, you advance to the Warrior Realm, whose strength is enough to destroy a part of a city. And then there is the Master Realm, whose beings can erase a city on their own. They are the strongest beings I know of, although it is said that in the inner cities there are beings far more powerful."
Zang Li paused before continuing bitterly:
"Here, only the students of the martial arts schools and the important families have cultivators in the Martial Realm. Only the children of the chiefs or elite students are in the Warrior Realm. In this village, only two of the five Great Families and one school have beings in the Master Realm, but almost none of them stay here. They leave because there are no resources to continue cultivating. What's more, those boys who gave you a beating were just new students tasked with guarding the herb field. If they had been the true experts, your fate would have been terrible."
Li Yi realized then that he was an ant in this world, and that any wind could trigger a catastrophe that would end his life. This only made him think more about how to become stronger. For the time being, he would focus on finishing his recovery and seeing what he could find to repair his body.
A while ago, he had been testing if any "System" had come with him, like in those stories he read as a youth about people who transmigrated and obtained a cheat to become strong extremely fast. But after countless trials, nothing appeared. Disappointed, he understood that his only option was to push forward against all odds.
As Brother Zang prepared to leave the room, Li Yi decided to ask him a favor: if he could bring him any book regarding this world and cultivation. Zang Li thought his behavior was getting stranger and stranger, but he had nothing else to do, so he found a couple of books and brought them to him.
"Here you go. These are some of the few that Sister Shen Shinyu has been keeping. They are the only ones that haven't been damaged; the dampness in these cabins ruins them quickly."
"Thank you very much, Brother Zang. I appreciate your help."
"Don't worry about it. Recover soon; remember that we are all always busy striving to get, at the very least, some food."
Zang Li withdrew, and Li Yi was left alone in the cabin. Upon opening the books, although they were in a strange language, a memory seemed to unlock in his mind, and he was able to understand them perfectly.