The continent of Jeraizhi consists of multiple empires and kingdoms. The empires have emperors of Emperor realm cultivation and the kingdoms have kings of King realm cultivation.
In one of the kingdoms, Sherezia, lies the Endless Abyss. A place where terrifying creatures live. Even the king doesn't dare to tread too far.
Near the Endless Abyss lies Polis. A city where many cultivators go to after killing monsters in the Abyss.
The farther you go into the Abyss, the stronger the creatures are. But the qi density is also denser depending on how far you go in. Rumours go around saying a peerless treasure is sealed in the deepest part of the Abyss. How deep that is, no one knows. Hence the name Endless Abyss.
Most cultivators don't go far inside but instead stay at the periphery.
Only 1 out of 1000 ordinary people is born with low grade meridians and only this minority can cultivate. Or if you take a very rare and expensive Meridian Creation Pill, then you can also cultivate. Depending on the quality of the pill, you can get low and mid grade.
1 out of 1000 cultivators with low grade meridians has mid grade meridians.
And 1 out of 1000 with mid grade has a high grade.
There are legends of Heaven realm cultivators who had peak grade meridians but there hasn't been news of anyone who had them in the last 10.000 years.
Cultivators with low grade meridians cultivate much slower than those with mid grade. Therefore, most low grade cultivators don't reach high cultivation realms.
In Polis there are multiple powerful factions. The one with the most authority is the Medicine Pavillion which engages in selling different kinds of pill and medicinal herbs.
Since tons of cultivators go into the Abyss and get injured, healing pills are a must. The Medicine Pavillion also has a powerful backer whose face and name isn't known.
Polis also has an Quest Pavillion where people can issue quests and complete them.
To issue a quest, one needs to fill in an application and deposit the reward.
The city consists of an outer ring where ordinary and poor people live. In the inner ring live low realm cultivators. You have to show a bronze badge with a lion on it to enter the inner ring. In the core ring live only the city officials and high realm cultivators.
Outside the city is not only the Abyss, but on the other side is also a forest with a mountain.
The forest is huge and inside is the main location where people gather medicinal herbs.
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Daniel, who was an ordinary person, was walking through the forest.
With every sound, he anxiously looked around to see where that was coming from.
He went to the forest to find medicinal herbs. He
had huge debts because of gambling.
So far, he hadn't had much luck. He only got a rank 1 Relucita which is used for the Basic Qi Gathering pill.
Herbs are ranked from 1 to 9 with 1 of course being the easiest to find and the cheapest, and 9 being the rarest and most expensive.
A rank 1 Relucita can sell for 3 silver coins.
100 bronze coins are equal to 1 silver coin.
100 silver coins are equal to 1 gold coin.
100 gold coins are equal to 1 platinum coin, but platinum coins are almost never used.
The Relucita is a small plant with oval bright green leaves and it grows brown flowers. They grow alone, but in special cases, there can grow multiple next to each other. They rely on wind to carry their seeds away.
To find more expensive herbs, Daniel walked deeper and deeper into the forest until he stood at the foot of the mountain.
'I've already walked this far?' said Daniel in himself.
'I guess I could rest for a while now. I see nothing near me.'
But when he wanted to sit down against the slope of the mountain, he suddenly fell through it.