first person POV
'in a few days time nie lie will send a letter to the alchemy association with a list of uses for a common herb called the purple haze herb, this will skyrocket the value of this herb and before that happens i intend to stock up on a good amount of it' i think as i'm heading into a nearby herb store and buy a little bit of it, then i walk to the next store and repeat.
'by buying just a small amount in every store i can avoid drawing attention to myself'
5 hours and 10,000 coins later and i have filled my storage ring with purple haze grass.
'i went overboard, i overestimated how expensive it would be, i have almost 7 thousand pounds of it now, still nothing compared to the hundred thousand pounds or so that ning'er is going to buy for nie lie though.'
...
4 days later
'my body has gotten a lot stronger over just the past 4 days, before becoming a cultivator i couldn't have even dreamed of this kind of growth'
i had not reinvested all my soul force just so i wouldn't be weak if someone attacked my soul sea directly with their soul force but after a few days it seems my tail has reached a limit and cannot absorb any more soul force, currently it produces 20 points of soul force daily and my current soul force is 14.
'how can i get it to absorb more and thus produce more soul force?'
in the end i did not figure it out yet but the price of purple haze is already going up so there is some consolation for me there.
'by now, nie lie should have bought some pills for everyone but i am 90% sure that it's useless for me seeing as i cannot actively absorb anything. better spend my time training, maybe i should go test my power on the hunting grounds.'
i arrive at the hunting grounds and immediately go looking for a horned sheep, if there is even any left after nie lie's massacre.
after about 15 minutes of searching i find one of them, hiding in the bushes nearby i take out my tail now in the form of an obsidian arrow, with my control over it i easily levitate it and aim for the sheep's eye.
one powerfull push with my mind sends the arrow flying through the horned sheep's eye and makes its skull explode.
'awesome but also kinda gross, i really underestimated the power behind that'
the moment i recalled my tail into my soul sea i felt a small surge of power, quickly i take out my soul crystal and check my soul force.
'16 it went up by one, so does that mean i can increase my soul force by killing things? or maybe my tail can consume the souls/spirits of demons? Its not impossible, nie lie did something like that during the attack of the demon beasts on glory city and he did it with even greater effect using an array.'
...
third person POV
3 days later
around glory city rumors can be heard about strange occurrences in the hunting grounds
"have you heard, the horned sheep are disappearing from the hunting ground"
"again? didn't the same thing happen only a week or so ago?"
"yeah they barely refilled the hunting grounds and now its happening again, it must be some kind of fierce demon beast that has gotten in there and is killing all the horned sheep"
"scary, lets stay away from there for a while"
"agreed"
...
"hehe" tang meng is currently at home admiring himself in the mirror while grinning like a kid on Christmas
"i finally broke through to one star bronze rank and i got such great surprises for it."
his breakthrough has changed his appearance his hair, originally brown, was now the same obsidian black color as his tail, his face was much better looking and his pupils are now slit like those of a fox, thanks to those eyes he now had much better night vision.
more important than the change in appearance was the change in his tail, he discovered that his breakthrough allows him to cultivate his tail further.
He also figured out that he could do so without having to sacrifice a permanent part of his soul force, as long as he keeps his tail merged with his body like a fox's tail it will absorb energy from outside and slowly upgrade.
"wait, could i have done that this entire time?" tang meng asks himself
'have i seriously been sacrificing my own cultivation when i could have just kept my tail out and let it do its own thing?' tang meng wonders with growing frustration at his own stupidity
"well.. i guess thats the downside to being the first user of this technique and an idiot, luckily there are no lasting effects to my stupidity, just a slight delay in my initial growth"
the following days tang meng stays inside his house with his tail out which has given him time to learn to use it like a limb, he can lengthen it, harden it, sharpen it and he has great control over it, making it the perfect weapon.
the new limit to his tail's passive cultivation is up to 40 points of soul force per day and its power as a weapon has grown proportionally.
'now i wonder if it will double every time i go up a rank or if it will increase by 20 points per rank instead or maybe it doesn't follow any kind of pattern?' tang meng wonders as he is walking through the streets going back to the same herb shops to sell the purple haze herb bit by bit.
after another 5 hours of manually walking around to all the shops and selling back the herbs for a considerable increase in price he is left with 2,5 million coins
"hehe, today was a good day"
---
A/N i have written 3 chapters on my first day and im really enjoying it, so even if you guys don't like it, i have really had fun :)
if you have ideas or suggestions feel free to write them down right here.