In a clearing near a waterfall stood a humble wooden hut, its walls covered with mud to protect whoever was living inside from the cold, as a white blanket covered the world.
The green grass now covered in white snow moved as a gush of wind pushed it back. A youth clad in animal pelts held a spear, a head taller than him in his hands, while a rusted sword hung on his waist behind him. The width of the sword was three fingers wide and the blade itself was a bit longer than his arm and was a two-handed handle.
The youth standing still in the snow had his eyes closed as he concentrated on the point of the spear. Even though the straight blade of the spear had a chip in it and rust spots everywhere, it never lost its deadly aura. When a snowflake touched the tip of the spear, the youth thrust it forward, breaking the air and causing a sound like thunderclap to reverberate in the area.
Long Tianyu opened his eyes to see that his spear had pierced a snowflake, a wide smile covered his face and his laugh echoing in the quiet clearing.
“Finally I have reached small proficiency in the 9 thunder spear martial arts”
4 months ago, he found the spear and sword, since then he had begun training in using them. In the martial library, he searched for martial arts that used the spear and sword, while doing that, he found out that all of the books on the first floor were yellow grade.
The 9 thunder spear and the three sword strike martial arts fit him the most, as he needed to learn how to use both weapons and the pendant graded them as the strongest martial arts amongst the yellow grade in the first floor.
Reaching small proficiency in the 9 thunder spears required him to learn the first 3 moves, flash of thunder, thunder rain from the sky, and thunderclap.
Both of his arms still trembled from the third move ‘thunderclap’ as he stored the spear in his ring. The same couldn’t be said for the sword as the martial arts required a fine control of his movements and the sword. The three sword strike martial arts only has three pages that explain the moves, while the rest only show illustrations on how his body should move.
The first sword strike, ‘blood draw’ required him to make 10 sword moves before he could even use the strike, if he didn’t, then it wouldn’t have any power behind it. He had learned 8 moves already, but on the 9<sup>th </sup>move his body gave out and caused the web in between his thumb and index finger to split. The second strike ‘limb sever’ required 20 moves, and the last strike ‘death’ required 30 moves.
In those 4 months he cultivated during the night, while during the day he would hunt or work on his humble little home. Last month he reached the 2<sup>nd</sup> rank of qi gathering, being in the 2<sup>nd</sup> rank, it increased his overall strength by 20%. His qi would also recover faster as, instead of gathering specks of qi, now his dantian easily gathers qi like breathing.
Even though he can gather qi at a much faster rate, he now also requires twice as much qi before he can even step into the 3<sup>rd</sup> rank.
White mist exits his mouth as he breathes out, Long Tianyu stretched his back as he had been practicing the 9 thunder spear all morning. Looking inside his ring, he had many more animal pelts as he had been eating a lot, due to when eating demon beasts, he had found out that he can substitute them for the herbs and medicine required to cultivate in the primordial dragon physique.
Only certain strong demon beasts will allow him to progress as he had hunted like crazy when he found out. But even after eating hundreds of beasts he only managed to strengthen the skin on his fist.
He needed to strengthen every part of his body to reach the last step of the 1<sup>st</sup> stage in the primordial dragon physique, then he had to use a dragon scale as the material to forge his body.
Clenching his fist, he had to make a decision, stay and slowly grow stronger, or leave and face the dangers, but grow quickly.
After a few moments, he looked back to the small hut and the waterfall. With steady steps he turned around and made his way into the forest, leaving the place he called home for a few months, everything he had was in his ring.
He would need to face them, either way it was only a matter of time before they found this place, and if by then he was still stuck in the qi condensation stage then he would only be a lamb for the slaughter.
“I can''t hide forever, Uncle Lei’s killers are still roaming out there. How would I find them if I stay holed in here forever?”
This choice has been plaguing him since the second month, hiding or fighting. Ultimately he chose the latter.
As the snow crunched under his feet, and the sight of barren trees filled his vision. He traveled along parts of the forest he had known as he had hidden in these places to hunt or forage.
He walked in one direction, not knowing if the way he was going would lead him out of the forest, or lead him deeper into it, but he had to trust himself and just follow his guts.
After a few hours of traveling along the dead trees and snow, he would be entering parts of the forest he didn’t know, while also leaving another home. Setting his feet down, he walked forward, not even looking back.
During his journey, he never stopped cultivating during the night, always diligently strengthening himself. There were even days when a snowstorm hindered his journey, and he had to stop and brave through it.
As a month went by, of him just traveling through the forest, he finally saw a different sight a few days later. The dead trees were replaced by a white snow plain with the occasional cluster of trees with its pale green leaves blowing with the winds.
Seeing as the forest ended here, he finally knew that he was going the right way. After a few more days of traveling, he found another change, but this time it was not a pleasant one, as he could smell blood in front of him not far away.
Deciding to keep on heading forward, he followed the smell of the blood. Not long after a frown appeared on his face as a road lay ahead of him but also bloodied carriages and human bodies strewn across the area.
Looking from afar, he could see claw marks on the carriages and sword slashes. When he reached the site, he could still smell blood, meaning this happened not too long ago, and by how dark the blood had become, he concluded that it should have happened a few hours ago.
Inspecting the body’s, he saw sword gashes and bite marks. Looking at all of the bodies, they either had both wounds or only one, and as he saw the state of the carriages with nothing inside them, he quickly came to an answer.
“Bandits controlling some kind of beast must have attacked this convoy, and seeing as how most of the bodies had expensive clothing on them, it must have been a merchant convoy.”
While he had found out what had happened here, his ears twitched as he picked up the sound of whimpering coming from one of the carriages further ahead. Making his way forward, he found where the sound was coming from.
Looking inside the empty carriage, he saw at the back wall trembling slightly and was also the source of the sound. When he got closer to the wall, a misty breath came out of a gap. The wall had a clumsy rectangle cut out of it, and on the side edges were a finger hole.
Pulling the rectangle away from the wall, a girl sat in the hole, her hands holding her knees. The girl was about 2 years younger than him and dressed too lightly for winters like these. She had long black hair with a few locks of white sticking out, she seemed to be half a head shorter than Long Tianyu. Her eyes were closed, her fingers and lips were turning purple as her face was pale as a ghost, she trembled slightly every time a gust of wind entered the carriage.
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Gently calling out to her, Long Tianyu grabbed two of the demon beast pelts he kept in his ring and placed them on the floor. After she didn’t respond to his calls, he put his hands under her knees and back, carrying her out of the hole before placing her on the pelt.
With the cold only getting worse as night fell, Long Tianyu placed one of the pelts on top of her like a blanket before carrying her out of the carriage and walking away from the merchant convoy.
Along the road he looked for any signs of the bandit still hiding out somewhere but after a while, not noticing anything, he dropped his caution and kept on walking until he couldn’t smell the blood anymore. Not far from the road, Long Tianyu cleared an area of snow and quickly made a fire.
Carrying the girl, he placed her as close to the fire as possible without burning her and then sat down himself. Stoking the fire to make sure it doesn’t go out, he grabbed a few more pelts and layered them on her.
Closing his eyes, he began gathering qi and cultivating as he was close to filling his dantian to half. When the night was at its coldest, Long Tianyu checked on the girl, and as she was breathing normally now and her body temperature rose, he breathed a sigh of relief.
When the sun rose, so did Long Tianyu as he checked on the girl sleeping soundly. Yesterday he couldn’t see her face that well, so seeing her fair complexion, he couldn’t describe her as anything else but beautiful. Shaking the blush of his cheeks, he took out a waterskin from his ring, he warmed the water first, then placed the opening near her mouth, letting warm water flow into her mouth.
Sitting by the fire, he soon heard the sound of shuffling as the girl woke up, opening her eyes. Long Tianyu stared at her face as her eyes looked cloudy, while she stared back at him.
Their eyes met but she didn’t seem to notice him as panic flickered across her face when she felt the warm fire. As she was about to flee, Long Tianyu stopped her and opened his mouth.
“don’t worry, I’m not a bad guy, I’m not going to do anything to you”
Covering half her face with the pelt, her eyes doubted him. Long Tianyu noticed her thoughts and laughed lightly. “If I were a bad guy then you wouldn’t be sleeping under a warm blanket and a fire to heat you up”
The girl hesitated for a bit before lowering the pelt and bowed her head, thanking him. “My name is Long Tianyu, and what is yours?”
As she didn’t answer him, he quietly waited, not rushing her as she was having trouble making a decision. “Not answering? Then I might just have to call you mute girl”
The girl panicked again at his joke as she hastily moved her mouth to speak. “M.. My name is Yue Xin”
“Yue Xin, nice to meet you, and what happened to the merchant convoy you were with? If it''s uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer”
The girl hesitated again before answering him with a hint of fear in her voice. “I was sitting in the carriage travelling with the merchants, I always hid in the little hole when the head merchant got angry at me. And then I heard the sounds of shouting not long after”
Long Tianyu frowned before asking another question. “Is that why you were dressed so lightly because the head merchant punished you?”
At that question, a teardrop fell from Yue Xin’s eye before quickly hiding her face in her knees. “I am blind, so I always mess up the tasks given to me”
His frown deepened as Long Tianyu knew why she was dressed so lightly in the winter when, even he would die if he stayed that long in the cold with almost no winter coat on. “Then he deserved what he got, as there are no survivors except for you. But what will you do now?”
Yue Xin didn’t answer as she didn’t know what to do now, she would just get the same treatment as with any other merchant group, and she couldn’t survive on her own either.
“How about you travel the world with me and grow stronger together with me, we might even find a way to regain your sight? Although there will be danger as well”
He did not know why he was so trusting towards this girl, but it might be because of pity, and also likely that he was captivated by her beauty. Even heroes have a hard time passing the beauty’s gate.
“I have been living in misery all of my life, a little danger doesn’t scare me, and if there really is a way for me to regain my sight then I will join you but, won''t I be a burden to you?”
Hearing her answer, a grin plastered his face as he chuckled lightly, trying to cheer her up. “Don’t worry, I am quite capable, even if Buddha was here, I would come out victorious”
Yue Xin, hearing his joke, she also chuckled lightly, covering her mouth with her hand, as this is a first for her to be able to be so relaxed. “Then I’m relying on you, Mr. Stronger than Buddha”
While chuckling, a rumble came from her stomach as she had not eaten yet, and the headmaster also punished her by not giving her any food.
A blush appeared on her cheeks as she fidgeted under the blanket before pulling it up, hiding her red face. Long Tianyu, seeing her blushing, blushed himself and scooped a handful of snow throwing it at his face.
Feeling the chill, he calmed down and brought out a few pieces of meat that were still warm like they had just come out of the fire, from his ring. Cutting a piece of, he handed it to her.
“I’m sorry I don’t have any bowls and utensils, bear with it for now until we get to a town”
Accepting the food, she nodded her head and tore small bits of the meat before putting it in her mouth.
While he ate, Long Tianyu went inside the martial library calling out to the golden dragon. “Elder, are you there, I need your help with my questions?”
In only a breath of time, a transparent golden energy transformed into a golden dragon in front of him. “Young master, the guardian spirit is at your service”
“Could I take a look again at the collection of cultivation books that my father allowed me to look at in the beginning, and how do you let a blind person cultivate without being able to read the text on it? I want to give it to a friend”
The golden dragon frowned at his words as the second part is easy and doable, but the first would require him to sacrifice some of his qi. “Young master, that was your father giving his permission for you to choose one of those books. Even I don’t have the right to give them out, I can expend some of my qi to give you a book from one of the upper floors. It won’t be any weaker than a cultivation method manual from the major sects. As for your second question, you need a heavenly jade knowledge strip to record the text in a book, as the jade strip allows the information inside to be transmitted into the mind, she just needs to hold it for it to work”
“Then Elder, this junior requests your help” he asked while bowing his head.
“Young Master, I will only be able to do this once as the martial library has its own rules. I am merely its protector and keeper, do you trust the person, and do you have anything in mind?”
“Elder, I don’t know if I can trust them yet, but I will deal with the consequences. The book should be compatible with a girl, I don’t know what her spirit root, physique, and elements are”
Nodding his head, the golden dragon body moved as it flew up into the upper floors, and after a while it came back holding a jade slip in its hand. “Young master, this is the Moon Blossom manual. It is an inner cultivation manual and is gentle in nature, she would be able to switch to a stronger manual in the future”
Accepting the blue book, he bowed to the golden dragon before leaving the ring. While he was finding a book for Yue Xin, she had finished eating her food and was waiting quietly for him.
“Yue Xin, I have a cultivation manual here for you. I’m a man of my words, so I will help you get stronger”
Knowing how rare and valuable cultivation manuals are, she hastily shook her head. “I can’t accept it, it''s too valuable and we just met, you shouldn’t trust me that much”
Seeing her refuse, he laughed lightly before grabbing hold of her hand and placing the jade slip in her palms. “Since I’m the older one here, it’s my job to take care of you and if you really won’t accept it then, when you regain your sight you can repay me in whatever you want, and I’ll accept it”
hearing the sincerity in his voice and the amount of trust he has in her, she caved in and held the jade slip in her palm tightly. “Then, thank you big brother, don’t regret it ok”
After a few minutes went by, her face tensed up as beads of sweat trickled down her head. Soon a vortex greedily absorbed the qi in their surroundings. When all of the qi inside Yue Xin’s body gradually calmed down, impurities flowed out from her pores. As if her body didn’t allow for anything filthy to toucher her, a gentle light radiated off of her burning away the impurities.
Her appearance changed as her dantian settled down inside her body. Although her height didn’t change, she became more beautiful, and her hair grew an extra few inches.
Quickly looking away, Long Tianyu slapped another handful of snow onto his face. He gave her a few minutes to get used to her new body before telling her his plans. “Yue Xin, do you know where we are?”
“Big brother, we are in the outskirts of the green ocean.”
“Green ocean? I have never heard of that place before”
Surprise appeared on her face, as far as she knew, everybody she came across knew what the green ocean of the Xia empire was. “Big Brother, it’s what the citizens of the empire called it, as it is a forest that stretches across five kingdoms and countless counties”
If the forest was that vast, then he must have been lucky and chosen the right direction. “No wonder it felt like I was walking through an endless forest”
“Then you must have been lucky, Big Brother, as I heard that there were also really strong demon beasts in the forest that can swallow a human whole”
Grateful that he didn’t doubt his own decision, he changed the topic. “Is there any nearby town or village?”
Xue Ying thought hard before answering as she didn’t know how far they were from civilization. “When I snuck out during the night, I overheard the head merchant talking about the convoy nearing Iron Vein Town”
Finally, after spending five months in the forest, he stood up and threw snow on the fire, ready for a change of scenery.