19 Subtle trust issues, and faster cultivation!

Cultivation was going well, after a full nights of cultivating, I finally reached the qi collection stage once more, I felt incredible joy, like I've never felt before, I was finally able to bring in qi again, the feeling of it swirling inside of you, it's so warm, almost like a mothers embrace, a feeling you never want to leave behind, and a feeling I never had before, for a long time. My cultivation, although being treated incredibly delicately, is still double the speed as before, due to my truly perfect base. I stood up and walked to see if I can go get the key to my brand new residence in the inner disciples area.

"Have you guys finished maki-" I asked, although I was cut off midway.

"ah! Fang mo! We've been wondering where you were!" The man at the desk told me.

Suddenly, he looked as if he had different motives "y-you were?" I said, with I slight quiver in my voice, starting to break out into a cold sweat.

"yeah! We have your key for you, here, enjoy your new residence!" He said, smiling as he waved me off.

"y-yeah…" I said, walking away.

I was confused, I'd never be afraid of someone weaker than me, so why? Why was I so afraid? Suddenly, Anna appeared in my mind, My heart started racing and I sat down at a bench I saw nearby. My heart pounded harder and faster, everything was spinning, and an intense pain, right in the middle of my chest arose, grasping it, panting and sweating heavily, It felt worse than when I was initially stabbed, until suddenly, it just stopped.

People stared as they walked by, though kept on going on their way.

"Kid, you alright?" The stone asked.

"I… I think so, what happened to me?" I asked, my voice still shaky.

"You seem to have developed trust issues, I don't think it's safe for you to hang around with many people for a long time, although I guess that will help you in the long run" The stone said.

"How, can this help me?" I said, almost aggressively, "I can't have anyone to rely on, and this will help me???"

"Sadly, it will, the less relations you make here, the easier it will be for you to ascend without a hitch, conflicting emotions about staying or leaving could very well tear you apart!" It explained.

"So you're saying this trauma is a good thing?" I asked.

"In a sense." It replied.

"God…" I sighed as I sat back and covered my eyes as I looked up, "I mean, at least I'm alive, heh…"

"Yeah, at least you're alive." The stone replied.

I sighed as I got up, "Anyways, let's go to my new residence, we should work on growing in strength, and reaching the qi cultivation realm, so I can truly utilise you as my spirit!" I jumped back into my usual attitude and ran towards my residence, marked on the key handed to me.

When I made it to my residence, I was shocked, to think that it would be so large! A hundred years ago, I was known as an orphan who was the strongest, and was given everything, but this was slightly larger than my house before! It had golden edges, although only made to look like that, it was a true beauty, and it was mine. But it's elegancy wasn't what I was after, it was the cultivation chamber, even though it wasn't as good as the paid chamber, it's far better than sitting in your residence, and after a period, it just gets more and more expensive, meaning that inner disciples don't have to waste their money, and also get to grow far more. I ran down to the chamber and before I started cultivating, I realised that at the centre of each of the walls was a pattern.

"runes!" I exclaimed. Runes were something I'd been studying in my spare time, and something I've gotten fairly good at, even able to make level three runes, though it burned down my money to only a couple thousand low level spirit stones. I pulled out my rune making equipment and began to draw, the kind of runes on the walls were a level one cultivation speed rune, which was linked to the small dragon vein underneath the sect, feeding it constant power. A couple hours passed by and the four runes were finally done, I removed the stones from the wall and replaced them with my runes, instantly sending in five times more qi than before, making my residence equivalent to that of a three striped disciple. Once more, I sat down, and began drawing the energy towards me, and improved upon my base once more.

Hours passed, and dusk had arrived once more, I woke up from my deep cultivation slumber, remembering a fact that almost made me want to kill myself.

"I forgot to use my cultivation tools from the auction!" I yelled out.

"Don't worry kid," The stone spoke up, "they wouldn't have been usable anyways, they were unidentified, and the other one was sealed! If you used the sealed one it could have burst your meridians!"

"Well than! I guess I really am lucky after all!" I replied, slightly smug.

"I can Identify the first one for you, but only after you reach the qi cultivation realm can I truly help you get the seal off of it!" It replied.

"I understand, how long will it take for the other one to be identified?" I asked.

"Only an hour or so, I'd suggest you explore the inner disciple's area a little whilst waiting." The stone told me.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" I replied as I walked out and ran towards the inner market.

The inner market was just as large as the market outside the sect, although this market only had things related to cultivation, there was no regular meats, only beast meats, even the utensils were made out of a spiritual metal. The markets sold runes, and even little beasts, but sadly none of them would buy anything off of you. I roamed around and bout a few more herbs, until finally, the stone was done.

"Kid, This tool is better than I imagined, it's multiplier is thirty times that of normal energy, combined with your cultivation chamber, that's three hundred times!" The stone told me.

"three hundred times?!?" I yelled.

Cultivation: qi collection second stage