Lin Jie quickly opened the book titled Origin Acceleration Method. The preface, printed starkly on the first page, was enough to render him speechless. This method of acceleration does not account for the practitioner's survival. Note well: a majority of those who have attempted it have died. Lin Jie smiled helplessly. The warning made it painfully clear just how unreliable this path was. No wonder his teachers always exhorted him to take things slow in the Origin Realm. They were trying to keep him from stumbling down a fatal road. First method: Bathe in the blood of formidable divine and devil beings. These beings are born with all nine acupoints open. Their bodies overflow with source qi, and their blood is a potent concentration of it… Result: Bodily explosion. Past case: Year 9 of the Jianhong Calendar. The son of Great Mei Empire's prefect bathed in the blood of divine and devil beings to rapidly open his nine acupoints, seeking to enter the Mighty Force Realm. He succeeded in opening all nine acupoints in a single day, but his body exploded on that very same day. He died at the age of nine. Lin Jie grimaced. A specific case, complete with a date and a name—the book wasn't bluffing. The son of a prefect, and in the Year 9 of the Jianhong Calendar, that was likely the first son of the Great Mei Empire King himself. If even someone of his status had perished, the method was far too dangerous. Besides, the blood of divines and devils wasn't exactly easy to come by. The divines and devils were among the most powerful races on the Myriad Realms Battlefield. It was said that even their weakest warriors there were at the Boundless Vigor Realm. The Great Mei Empire King's son must have used leftover blood from beings his own father had slain. The sheer rarity of the required ingredient made the method impossible for Lin Jie, even if it weren't a death sentence. "My dad isn't the Great Mei Empire King…" Lin Jie muttered to himself. If his dad were the Great Mei Empire King, he wouldn't need to worry about cultivation in the first place. Who was the Great Mei Empire King? He was the supreme expert who had founded the Great Mei Prefecture, a veritable pillar of humanity. His power was on a level Lin Jie couldn't even begin to comprehend. In short, a method that relied on his kind of resources wasn't worth a second thought. Abandoning the first method, Lin Jie read on. The more he read, the deeper his frown became. Second method: Consuming the flesh of demons. The meat of certain demonic races, when eaten, is capable of forcibly opening one's acupoints. Result: Bodily explosion. Past case: Early in the Jianhong Calendar, when the human race was in decline, human experts slaughtered a number of demons and brought back their corpses. A large number of humans feasted on the flesh. The majority died from their bodies exploding. A small minority, however, managed to rapidly open all nine acupoints. Note: Only a very small number of people have successfully used this method. According to records, the flesh of the following races is beneficial for opening acupoints: the golden peng race, the barbaric bull race, the sky tiger race… Lin Jie dismissed it out of hand. What a joke. The races listed were all terrifyingly powerful. They might not be on the same level as the divines and devils, but they were still far beyond his reach. Third method: The Heavenly Origin Fruit, a treasure of natural creation. The Heavenly Origin Fruit gathers the heavenly source qi, the original energy of the myriad realms. This fruit is exceptionally effective for opening the nine acupoints. Locations: Found in limited numbers in the Immortal Realm, Demon Realm, and Demon Realm. Past case: Year 25 of the Jianhong Calendar. The son of the Great Wang King consumed a Heavenly Origin Fruit and opened all nine acupoints in three days with no lasting side effects. Lin Jie’s mouth twisted into another grimace. "Son of the Great Wang King… That Great Wang King only has one son, right? Isn't that the current prefect of Great Wang, Wang Potian?" This was another method he had to discard. He'd never even heard of this fruit before, but it was clearly an incredible treasure. After all, Wang Potian was still alive and well, and as the current prefect of Great Wang, he was obviously a powerhouse. But even if humanity possessed any Heavenly Origin Fruits, they would have nothing to do with Lin Jie. A treasure like that was effectively a high-level strategic resource. Lin Jie kept reading, but with every page, his hopes sank lower. It was just as his teachers had said: there were no true shortcuts in Origin cultivation. No wonder they never mentioned these methods. The ones that existed required either the blood of godlike beings or peerless treasures, and most of them came with devastating side effects. Ninth method: Seek a location rich in source qi. Origin qi is not distributed evenly across the realms. Some locations are barren, while others are abundant. As a cultivator in the Origin Realm can only train their acupoints passively, the speed of cultivation is directly dependent on the ambient source qi in one’s surroundings… Holy lands of cultivation: The Myriad Realms Battlefield, the secret grottos of the various academies, the Sacred Land of the Vermilion Domain… Lin Jie stared blankly at the page. Locations rich in source qi. In truth, those in the Origin Realm couldn't even sense source qi. Still, he knew Beihe City wasn't one of those abundant places. "I knew it. The bigger the city, the better the location, and the faster the cultivation. It must be related to the amount of source qi." The teachers at Beihe never mentioned this to their students because it was pointless. Moving to another city wasn't a simple matter in this day and age. "In other words, if I can get to a major city or a secret grotto, I could safely speed up my cultivation. But it would still be much slower than the other methods." Abundant source qi could only offer a slight boost, not a breakthrough that would carry him through the entire realm in one go like the other methods promised. Even so, it was a method Lin Jie wished he could use. Unfortunately, he had no way of reaching any of the listed locations. The Myriad Realms Battlefield was out of the question. As for the secret grottos, he'd heard the high academies had them, but he knew too little to even consider it. And the Sacred Land of the Vermilion Domain was even more of a fantasy. Tenth method: Origin qi liquid. There are two types of source qi liquid: natural and synthetic. Locations rich in source qi can produce natural source qi liquid, though it is extremely rare. Synthetic source qi liquid is produced by experts of the Skysoar Realm. Origin qi liquid has the same level of efficacy as cultivating in a location with abundant source qi. There was no chance of Lin Jie getting his hands on natural source qi liquid. As for the synthetic kind… it required a Skysoar Realm expert. Lin Jie smiled helplessly. The Skysoar Realm? One was still cultivating the physical body in the Profound Vigor and Boundless Vigor Realms. Beyond that, a human cultivator could truly take to the skies. The Skysoar Realm marked a qualitative transformation for a human cultivator. Was there a single Skysoar expert in all of Beihe City? Possibly. The mayor, perhaps. But what were the chances of someone like him ever meeting a person of that caliber? As for Beihe Youth Sage, the strongest person was the principal, and even he was only at the Boundless Vigor Realm. If an Boundless Vigor expert could produce it, the principal was a kind enough man that Lin Jie might have been able to beg for a few drops. But alas, that wasn't possible. "I can't rely on anyone!" Lin Jie complained under his breath. No wonder these books were collecting dust in a forgotten corner of the library. For someone like him, none of the methods were feasible. The most accessible options were finding a location rich in source qi or obtaining source qi liquid. But the liquid required a Skysoar Realm expert, at minimum, which put it completely out of his reach. Eighteen years ago, his father had been a seventh-stage Profound Vigor cultivator. In all the time since, hampered by the thin source qi of Beihe City and the lack of resources after leaving the army, he had only managed to advance to the ninth stage. Even at that level, he was considered an important figure in Beihe City. His father, of course, didn't see himself as anything special. Since retiring from the army, he'd worked as a city traffic controller, leading a relatively quiet life. If he hadn't sacrificed his own prospects to raise Lin Jie, his ninth-stage Profound Vigor cultivation would have been enough to secure him a respectable position in the city. "None of these will work!" Finally giving up, Lin Jie returned the books to the shelf. After a moment's thought, he walked over to Qian Mei and asked apologetically, "Qian Mei, can I have a minute of your time?" Qian Mei set down her book and smiled. "Of course." "I haven't paid much attention to cultivation these past few years. Do you know anything about source qi liquid?" "You want to buy some?" Qian Mei understood at once. She was the one who had pointed him toward those books; of course she'd read them herself. "Origin qi liquid… that's a strategic resource. You can't buy it in Beihe City. You might find some in the capital, though. You have to register with your real name to purchase it." "There are different types, too. The liquid varies depending on the cultivation level of the expert who creates it. For Origin cultivators, liquid from a Skysoar expert is ideal. It’s the cheapest tier, and the lower qi density makes it easier for us to absorb. If the density is too high, it can easily cause injury." "But it's definitely not cheap. It takes a Skysoar expert three days just to form a single drop. And they need that source qi for their own cultivation. Unless they were desperately in need of money, no Skysoar expert would willingly part with their own source qi to create it." Qian Mei looked at Lin Jie. "It's really not worth it, Lin Jie. Origin qi liquid only increases the ambient source qi density around you. It doesn't guarantee you'll open an acupoint." "I know. Thanks. So how much for one drop, from a Skysoar expert?" Lin Jie knew it wouldn't be cheap, but he had to ask. His father had left a decent sum of money before he left. Or rather, Lin Tian had left all his money behind. The Myriad Realms Battlefield was a place you didn't always come back from. "100,000 Anyuan Coins." Lin Jie’s face fell. 100,000 for a single drop? His father, a ninth-stage Profound Vigor cultivator, earned a monthly salary of 5,000 Anyuan Coins as a traffic controller—by no means a small sum. After family expenses and some cultivation resources, they managed to save about 20,000 or 30,000 Anyuan Coins a year. Years of scrimping and saving had allowed Lin Tian to put away 300,000 Anyuan Coins, enough for his son to start a family. And now… that entire nest egg was only worth three drops of source qi liquid? No wonder Qian Mei said it wasn't worth it. Using source qi liquid to cultivate was the same as setting money on fire. Seeing his expression, Qian Mei couldn't help but laugh softly. "I told you. It's expensive and not worth it. I actually used a drop once. It only boosted my ambient source qi density for about three days. It's not as miraculous as it sounds. I only tried it that one time. It's just too expensive." "If it were really that effective, the school would have encouraged us to use it. They could afford it for something that truly worked. Just look around. How many people do you know who have used it?" "And if you don't open an acupoint in those three days, you have to buy more. In six days, that's 200,000 Coins down the drain. In nine days, 300,000. No one can sustain that." Lin Jie gave a helpless smile. "I understand. It's far too expensive. If it guaranteed an open acupoint, it might be worth a try. But to waste all that money for nothing… No wonder the teachers all say there are no shortcuts in the Origin realm." "It's the truth," Qian Mei smiled. "Your cultivation level won't be on any of your tests, anyway. Why are you suddenly thinking about buying source qi liquid?" "I signed up for the war academies," Lin Jie explained. "Just hedging my bets, you know? Not putting all my eggs in one basket." He offered a brief smile and took his leave. This was a library, not a place for a long chat. Watching Lin Jie walk away, Qian Mei raised a curious eyebrow. The war academies? Why would he suddenly sign up for them? She shook her head, dismissing the thought. It wouldn't change anything. Even if he signed up, they would most likely end up as classmates at the same cultural research academy. She just hoped he wasn't about to do something foolish.

Chapter 4: A fatal acceleration