Chapter 58: Mental Strength

"AAARGGHHH," Ning kept on screaming due to the intense headache he was feeling right now. A little more pain and he would go mad from it.

"Inikaka, are you alright?" Hyesi looked horrified listening to the terrifying scream his supposed god was producing. He didn't know what to do and was frozen at the place with his arms in front of him.

"Inikaka, What is going on?" the chief came running back to Ning and Hyesi. Seeing Ning not respond he then asked Hyesi.

"What happened? I thought I told you to take him back," the chief started to get a little angry.

"I tried to. I asked Inikaka to come back with me, but then he said a little more and then immediately started screaming," Hyesi replied.

The chief looked conflicted for a second. He then shouted out loud, "Everyone, retreat."

The villagers who had been fighting suddenly stopped when they were called, and immediately retreated.

"What's wrong, Chief?" they asked.

"Something is wrong with Inikaka, we need to stop the battle for today. We will take care of the monster some other day," the chief said.

"Hyesi, carry Inikaka. We are going back to the village."

Hyesi complied and took Ning on his shoulders who was still constantly gritting his teeth, complaining about his hurting head The entire way through, he kept up the gritting and even broke out in screams a couple of times.

As they were about to reach the village, Ning gritted his teeth once more and spoke through his pain, "Take me back to my house."

Hyesi stopped walking and hesitated whether to do what he said or not. On one hand, Ning seemed to be really hurt. But on the other hand, he was their god. Hyesi turned around to the chief waiting for his orders instead.

"Inikaka, you are unwell. We must take you to the village to make sure you are treated well," the Chief said.

"ARGHHH… Just do what I say. T-Ta- Take me to my house," he once more spoke through his pain. The chief also fell into the same dilemma as Hyesi, but unlike Hyesi, he came up with a choice soon.

"Alright, take Inikaka back to his house, but you stay there. If anything happens, call us immediately," the chief said.

"Okay," Hyesi immediately started running towards Ning's house out in the forest. Within a minute or two, he reached it and got inside. Ning's pain had lessened enough to the point where he could start focusing on other things than just pain itself.

"Lay me down… on that… thing," he said with a broken sentence. Hyesi slowly lowered him down to the pile of leaves. As he was being lowered down, Ning saw the necklace on Hyesi's arm. He wanted to just leave the body right now, and go enter that necklace to be away from this pain.

'System, send me there,' he thought through his hazy mind.

<System recommends you do not leave your human body right now>

"Arghh… Why?" Ning shouted out loud.

"Inikaka?" Hyesi said, but didn't get a response.

<Your current pain is being shared through you and your human mind>

<Switching bodies at this point will transfer all the pain to you and can cause you to go into a comatose state>

"Arghh…" he didn't bother with the system anymore.

Hyesi stayed with him the whole night, throughout which he would constantly shout in pain. The pain lessened as time went on, but it was painful enough for him to shout until the morning. Only in the morning did the pain lessened to the point he didn't have to care about it.

"Hyesi, you can go now. I'm fine," he said, sending Hyesi back to the village to practice the body cultivation in the morning. As the pain lessened to the point where he was numb to it, Ning fell asleep.

He slept soundly for nearly 20 hours and woke up at around 2 am in the middle of the night. He looked around with his drowsy eye, trying to figure out what had happened.

"Ah, that's right, I fell asleep after the pain went away," he thought. He recalled back as much as he could and asked, "You said something right when I started hurting with pain. Can you repeat that?" he asked.

<Yes>

<Host has used a lot of mental strength and is now at a critical mental state>

<Any more loss in mental strength will make the system resort to a forced comatose state to preserve the host's mind>

Ning read through the notification and asked, "So… My mental strength is bad?" he asked.

<It is better than average when compared to normal humans>

Ning was a little surprised when he learned that. "So, I'm not as strong as most cultivators is what you're trying to say, right?" he asked

<No>

<Cultivators start increasing mental strength only at Foundation Establishment Realm>

<You are still stronger mentally when compared to most Qi Condensation Realm Cultivators>

"I see… and even then, it wasn't enough for me to see that demon's information through my analysis huh,' he thought. 'I assume I will need to increase my mental strength to be able to see that snake's information right?' he asked.

<Yes>

'How can I do that? Show me,' he said.

<There are 3 ways to increase your mental strength>

< The First option is to cultivate to a realm at or above Foundation Establishment>

'I can't do that. Not with my trash body right now. It will take a few more years for me to adapt to the Qi in this world,' he said.

< The Second option is to buy improved mental ability from the shop. This however is costly>

'Ah right, I remember you mentioning something about me being able to increase my mental ability. So this was what you were talking about. What is the cost for it?' he asked.

<Doubling Mental strength costs 2,150,000,000 Energy>

'That's way too much energy required. I can't do that at the moment. What is the final way?'