Cruising Along in Desolate Era Prologue

As a portal opened, a body of a teenager with black hair and brown eyes emerged; gravity picked its course and yanked him down, landing face-first into the ground.

His body twitched for a second as he slowly stood up and complained.

“Ugh… it fucking hurt!”

As he complained, he slowly stood up and looked around.

What he saw was primal wilderness!

“Holy fuck! It actually happened! Who in their right mind takes my comments seriously!?” He complained out loud.

He was just joking! That's right! He was a wild commenter in wikis about novels. You could say he was a ‘know-it-all asshole.’

Commenting on novels, pointing out shitty author decisions, and so and so on.

Especially in the Xianxia genre, the plot lasts thousands of chapters. It's full of cliche tropes that force the plot to last long.

Most of the time, he doesn't finish these novels and instead goes to forums to complain about the author's shit decisions to make the novel last longer.

Last time, he complained about the Desolate Era. Like the lack of romance, hot chicks dying, and a brick personality of mc.

So here he was.

From the looks of it, he was most likely in the Desolate Era.

“Not going to lie. I like the nature. This place just smells primal.”

One would think that he should be sad, angry, or petrified. Part of him was, but most was consumed by boredom years ago.

In a sense, he was a sociopath. When he was young, he was traumatised at a certain point. He doesn't even recall who or what traumatised him.

All he can recall was that he was pushed into the water and nearly drowned. His sister saved him, but after that, he was not the same.

One would say that he doesn't care about certain things. He can easily swing to extremes.

Him being in a cultivation world? Now, that was a blessing!

“Hey. I know you dropped me here and all that, but at least give me the same starting gift.” He said that out loud while looking at the sky.

At that moment, he felt someone touch his forehead.

A picture of a hot chick appeared dressed in white robes.

“...Holy fuck. As Sheppard says: ‘We bang okay?’.” He couldn't contain and commented on the beauty of this chick. No doubt this was a ‘Nuwa painting’.

Whoever it was, this individual gave him the same starting gift as Ji Ning.

But, the core issue doesn’t change. He was sixteen, and Ji Ning had an entire infancy to train this method.

“Well, whatever.”

With a shrug, he looked around and proceeded to explore. One might be afraid to do that, but oh well, if he dies, he dies.

At least he can brag in the afterlife that he was in a book world.

~~~

After walking for a while, Ren Ashwell, the guy who was dropped into the world of the Desolate Era, ended up finding a boulder to sit on.

“Hmm, I suppose the core thing of this place is cultivating. So, as long as I grasp the energies and absorb them, I will become Houtian in Qi refining.

As far as I recall, the primary energy absorption methods are related to visualisation.”

The water-flowing method was a mortal rank technique used by the Ji clan.

The Qi flows like water into the dantian until a certain threshold is met, and the breakthrough happens. The whole Xiantian Lifeform realm is an overflow of energy in Ren’s eyes.

‘Meh, let's see if I know what I am doing. Let's see if my nerd knowledge has any value.’

With that idea, he cross-legged, closed his eyes, and tried to imagine water flowing into his body.

He tried that a couple of times. He mentally tried to copy the intensity of that imagination by comparing it to Nuwa.

At that moment, he could feel some sort of reaction. Something has started to flow into him.

A slight smirk started to creep on his face. His grin only grew as the energy flowing into his body continued to increase in size and volume. It was getting bigger and bigger.

It appears he got the general idea right.

He didn't even bother to figure out how on earth he got a dantian and how he could cultivate it. None of that mattered.

Instead, he continued to absorb this energy. He realised that this was like gas. This gas is absorbed and then compressed, eventually becoming liquid.

A cultivator with a violet palace inside their dantian is called a Zifu Disciple. From what he understands, he would need to build a palace in his dantian. But to do that, a strong soul is required.

The reason why so many people continue to be stuck in stages is that they don't have strong souls.

If you can’t visualise a Violet palace in your gut, how can you possibly be an immortal cultivator!? (sarcasm)

After a while, Ren opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He could feel much stronger and more energetic than ever before.

He proceeded to stand up and stretch out. He was ready to get some stuff done.

That stuff is food and water and a shelter of some sort.

So he proceeded to explore once more.

~~~

“...Oh? I see a wild beast! Wait, since I am in the Desolate Era, I should play along! Diremonster it is!” Ren sagely nodded to himself. Sticking to roles is essential!

What he saw was a wolf-like creature. It was an enormous canine with fangs and claws.

If Ren were slightly more sane, he would be afraid, but so far, he only sees the resources he needs.

That pelt will make a nice leather armour, those claws will make a good dagger, and those teeth will make a badass necklace.

Since he is in the wild, it is a predator-eating predator world.

So he grabbed a stone and closed his eyes. He used Nuwa painting as a basis to get a strong visualisation of what he wanted.

He was imagining a meteorite, an asteroid burning ball of flames rushing to smash into Earth.

Qi rushed into the rock, and Ren threw it right at the butt of the wolf.

The rock turned into a burning projectile and slammed into the beast's leg.

There was a loud cracking sound. It was the sound of bone breaking.

The beast collapsed and turned very meek, releasing sounds of pain and despair.

“Sheesh. I guess I have overestimated your level, buddy.” Ren exclaimed as he walked over. He had another rock in his hands. The beast tried to run away, as the beast’s injury started healing.

“You Diremonsters are an exciting bunch. It appears the brain subconsciously dictates how Qi acts, accelerating the healing factor.” He commented as he walked over. Once he saw that the beast was almost up, he threw another stone at extremely close range.

This time, the stone pulverised the wolf’s head.

“Oof. This time, it was better than last time. I guess I am getting the hang of this.” He commented as he looked at his hand. The energy flow is improving, and he is getting a better idea of visualising the chick’s picture in his mind.

Yes, he is constantly thinking and imagining that picture. One would say he is always training with the technique.

For now, he pulled the carcass  and proceeded to find a place to stick around. He needs a cave. A man cave!

~~~

Ren found a cave which he thought was good enough. In the process, he killed another bunch of Diremonsters. Part of him joked that he was grasping the dao of rock throwing.

As it becomes much easier to channel this energy, imbue the rock with it. Get a hint of ‘fire’ or something like that.

He is pretty confident that Ji Ning had no idea how valuable the picture of that hot chick was. It was like a hint of how to make a ‘software’.

With a little bit of tinkering, other ‘software’ can be created.

Even if they didn’t have much substance, a basic boost is enough against basic creatures.

For now, Ren decided to be a caveman.

First, he decided to rip the claws out and use them to create stone tools

Channelling Qi through these claws, he was able to slice rocks nicely. With a sharp rock knife, Ren then started to gut the wolf he had killed.

He did throw up a couple of times, and his hands were shaky, but he was able to get over the sight of a massive amount of blood.

Next was the organ, which he threw away from his man cave.

Then he started to skin the wolf. Not the best work. But he got some ideas on how to do better next time!

So he is indeed cultivating!

Regardless, he proceeded to start a fire. Once again, he used his cheat visualisation method and created a few sparks and then lit up a fire, which he made from wood he found.

As the fire burned, Ren tried to cook some meat.

…

…

…

“Not the best. But this will do.” He complained as the meat was just that, meat. No spices or salt makes it super bland.

Regardless, after eating, he proceeded to cultivate his Qi. He does need to reach that Xiantian!

Just like before, he rapidly started to cultivate. His speed would increase each second as he could make the image in his mind even better.

One would say it was passive or his mentality of a crazy dude, but he was not afraid or had doubts. He just did it, and the world reacted to that. The speed of his cultivation was on a completely different level.

For Ren, it was as if he was watching how a bucket filled from multiple hoses.

Before he even realised it, it was already the following day.

He cultivated through the entire night.

‘Amazing. These sessions are hell fun! More fun than playing those grindy games!’

And yes, Ren loved those! Seeing numbers going up, it was like other people enjoying watching how their bank account numbers were going up!

As morning arrived, he went to work once more. Finding some water, cooking some meat and then exploring the forestry area.

He didn't find any sort of tribes or clans, which was good. He isn't ready for his grand conquest yet.

For now, he lived in a cycle of cultivating, eating, hunting, and exploring.

Eventually, he got the hang of skinning, making some stone tools and finally making a tannery rack. He saw a couple of videos of this. The visualisation method allowed Ren to recall the stuff even more.

So he made some proper leather and even proceeded to try out stitching.

‘From what I recall, only major tribes have properly and nicely stitched leather.

The development level is terrible, to say the least.’

Ren realised that he could easily be a tribe leader by this point. And he had only been here a couple of days tops.

‘Hmm, but first, I need a tribe.’ He rolled his eyes. Well, whatever, he continued to work.

Cultivate Qi, make some tools and clothes and eat. Around a week later, he made a training spear and a sword.

Since he was in legit Xianxia, he needed to learn how to fly on a sword; that's a staple thing he needs to experience in such a reality.

‘Hmm, since Nuwa painting is helping me, I can already recall some stances I saw in video games.

But first, let's get some basics down.’

Ren started with basic swings and stabs. An actual manual would be better, but he doesn't have a school or section.

For now, he is just doing what he remembers.

Midway, he decides to train his body as well. That helps with discipline.

Hell, midday, he even recalled that Martial arts started from observing animals and nature.

So that means he should observe that, too!