《I Reincarnated As A System?!》


 Prologue

    Thesky was dark and chaos filled the barrenworld, storms and earthquakes could be heard as the two figures clashed.


    One ofthe figures glanced at his opponent as his massiveradiant body soared through the sky. He congealed a bright golden sun in his palms and he blasted out an attack at this serpent of chaos.


    The serpent wasseverely scorched as it kept avoiding blast after blast, with a spray of dark lightning it managed to keep its assaulter at bay.


    The radiant man caught his breath and suppressed the poison running through his blood. He had to vanquish this foul demon that originated from his root this very day!


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Space and time were in chaos as these two battled one another relentlessly. The dark and blood red scales on the serpents body had been shattered in several places, but this serpentine dragon stood strong.


    The man''s golden armour had been damaged as well. Despite this he unfurled his once white but now bloodstained wings and struck with his scepter in hand once again at his opponent.


    His foe tore a gap in the chaotic space in an attempt to escape, but the man was hot on its tail. A large golden disk was summoned in his hands as he chased the serpent.


    "It all ends today!" The man furiously launched an attack at the massive body of the serpent, its body blasted out of the chaotic space and forced to take on the massive form of a man, in its eyes could be seen a black sclera with a blood red iris and slit-like pupil that had the depth of an abyss.


    It looked at the bright golden eyes of its assaulter and said


    "The universe always tends to chaos, everything you do is all for naught! The universe made me to win!"


    The serpent eyed man was about to attack, but froze as he looked aroundand soon noticed several other godsarrive at this desolate battlefield, they surrounded the serpent with their weapons drawn.


    Realising that it was nowin a trap, the serpent eyed man laughed, and a chaotic storm began to brew around his body.


    "Outstanding move, brother!"

 Reborn

    JasonChard grumpily got off his massive twin bed. He turned around and looked at his messy, cramped room, where 80% of the spacehad been consumed by the bed.


    He lived all alone, but had such a massive bed, most people could never understand that bit about him, the answer was simple: Jason loved his bed! Not even sleeping on it, just drowning in the softness of his bed gave him comfort.


    He lookedathis clock and saw it was only 6:55 am, meaning he still had a few hours to get to work.


    "For once I''ll actually get to work early. I don''t have to deal with their relentless nagging!" Jason gently yawned, he looked at the clock again. ''But I''m up way too early. I should take a 5 minute nap till 7:00 am, just to make it a round figure.'' He thought.


    With that hedived back into his soft comfy white bed, and slowly sank in, as he was being absorbed by his bed, he realised that the nap probably wouldn''t last for only 5 minutes...


    And 3 hours laterhe woke up to several angry calls from his direct superior, Laura Lace.


    "Jason where onearth are you?! Just because your game had a little success doesn''t mean you can waltz in at any time you want!" Laura Lace yelled angrily over the phone.


    Hearing her angry voice he smiled, and thought of the recent game he had just developed with the team, an extremely addictive and immersiveMMORPG, Dao seeker.


    A crappy name yes, but as an Eastern fantasyaddict he had made a game with the cultivation aspects of the lovely web novels he read, sects, lots and lots of competitions, pill making, formations, you name it! He had dumped it all, and due to the wide possibilities inthe game, it was an instant success!


    "Calm down, calm down, I''d be there in a minute, I''m already driving down." He said as he threw his phone and lazily got off his bed, checking hisplatinum watch he could see it was already 10:15am.


    He got up and glanced in the mirror, he ran his hands through his black hair that was littered with plenty white hair, even though he was only 27,his head was already spotted with several grey strands.


    He had dark eye bagsfrom countless hours reading webnovels at night, but apart from that he was extremely fit. He washed his face and prepared himself for the day, he went to check his phone and realised he was still on a call with Laura, and she had been ranting about Stephen''s current project.


    "Can you believe he did allthat?" Laura asked.


    "Wow I''m shocked." Jason replied, while having absolutely no clue what she was talking about.


    "You''re just shocked? I''d thought you''d be kind of furious?" She replied.


    "Err, I am actually super furious." Jason quickly replied, and begun to wonder what Stephen could have done. Then he instantly realised. "Wait did Stephen touch my..."


    "Yeah, didn''t you hear me tell you all that?"


    "That ***tard, **it, oh no. tell himto stop right now, immediately at once!!!" Jason yelled, and he quickened his pace.


    "You know Stephen doesn''t listento anyone, you''ve got to come convince him yourself."


    "I should have never given him access, he said he just wanted to help me, damn that ***tard! I''ll be there right now!" This time he cut the call and glanced atClay sleeping quietly. He prepared some food for the cute ginger cat, then ran out to stop Stephen.


    "Hey Jason." His neighbor said.


    "Oh hi Martha, love that dress." Jason replied as he kept rushing to the elevator.


    "Late for work again?" She yelledas she saw him leaving.


    "Haha, as usual." He laughed.


    Getting down he quickly popped into his car adjusted his mirrors, and zoomed off.


    He was working with No Lag, a largeteam of software developers, he had been working with them for around 4 years, and his constant cunning innovativeideas had made him a common favourite in the team.


    Recently there was a large breakthroughin AI, and he had come up with an idea to make his game more immersive, and hearing that Stephen wanted touse his idea for his own game made him mad.


    Stephen was working on a lifesimulation game, and he wanted to make the NPCs more interactive, so he had been one of the first people to jump ontoJason''s idea, and with a big shot like Stephen backing him up, the idea had being greatly boosted and was almost nearcompletion.


    He felt a his phone vibrate, andpicked it up.


    "I''m almost there Laura. Justcalm down a bit."


    "No that''s not why I''m calling, just wanted to let you know, Stephen just released the expansion pack for Dao Seeker, it''s live now"


    Jason was temporarily confused, then quickly understood. "Oh wait you mean he''s using it on my project first?"If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "Yes, did you not hear anythingI said this morning?"


    "Of course I did..."


    "Sure..." She replied as shecut the call. Laura was a bit of a blabbermouth so people tended to ignore her, she could go on for hours just talking to herself.


    Hearing that Stephen wasn''tselfishly stealing his work, he had stopped panicking. Even though he was the creator of Dao Seeker, he had already gottenused to the small tweaks the others would add, and as long as it didn''t worsen the playing experience, he was okay withit.


    Less worried, he decided to gograb a cup of hot coffee. As he calmly sipped on his extra cream, with 8 cubes of sugar, he thought about how much hereally loved life.


    "Ah damn, I got killed by thisgolden winged roc again." Jason heard someone saying, he looked around and saw a male of around 17, concentrated on his phone, going for a closer look he could see he was playing Dao Seeker, this caused a smile on his face. The young man waswalking out and Jason followed him trying to sneak a peek at his player ID so he could gift him a super strong flying sword or something similar. He began to wonder how he would react if he found out the creator of the game was right behind him.


    The young man was so engrossedin the game that he mindlessly crossed the road, and didn''t notice the reincarnation device, sorry I meant the speedingtruck, on the road.


    "Stoppp!!!" Jason yelled, "Oh no hehas Airdods on he can''t hear me!" Jason rushed into the road to quickly grab the young man. Obviously he died too, or elsehow would this story progress?


    -


    "What are we gonna do with this messnow?"


    "We only planned for one person wheredid this guy come from?"


    "Is there space for one more person?"


    "Only one useless but secretly talentedmain character just died. It would be hard to find another suitable person."


    "Couldn''t we like, just lump them together?"


    "Wait that''s not a bad idea actually..."


    -


    "Wake up."


    "Huh?" Mo Zuo groaned as he struggledto open his eyes. "Who is that?"


    "I am Jason Chard, and you are nowMo Zuo." Jason replied.


    "My name is now Mo Zuo? Wait didyou say your name is Jason Chard? like the Jason Chard?" Mo Zuo asked, he was a committed Dao Seeker player, so heobviously knew the brains behind the wonderful game.


    "Yes, that is me. You have beingreborn as Mo Zuo of the Mo clan." Jason calmly replied.


    "What, reborn? Just like in Dao Seeker where we start out as the reincarnated form of a character?"


    "Correct, but you are in quite a predicament."


    Mo Zuo finally opened his eyes andlooked around, he saw a blue screen hovering in front of him and on it was displayed


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Gathering stage2


    Class      -:- N/A


    Subclass   -:- N/A


    Vitality     -:- 0.01/1.2


    Qi         -:- 0/1.4


    INT       -:- 0.01


    Sys points -:- 0


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of theblackmamba (Stage 1) Simple Sword slash (Stage 1) Path of Apep (Sealed)


    Current Quest : Eat the Desporium herb next to you (Reward : 1000 system points)


    ---


    Mo Zuo looked at the stats screenand quickly understood what was going on. He struggled to get up and a huge flash of pain surged through his body, he then noticed his current predicament, a Sword had impaled him through the ground, he was currently lying in a pool of blood, a surge of memories began flooding into him.


    "Mo Zuo, only son of Mo Zhi, the head alchemist of the Mo clan and twin brother of the patriarch of the Mo clan, Mo Zhu. Due to a dispute between Mo Zuo and Mo De, fourth son of Mo Zhu, Mo De challenged Mo Zuo to a secret battle outside the clan. Mo De had already broken through into the 5th stage of Qi gathering, but Mo Zuo refused to back down, the outcome was obvious, and Mo De thrashed MoZuo, but Mo Zuo still refused to yield, even managing to use his sword to slash Mo De''s cheek, infuriating Mo De even more, Mo De in anger snatched Mo Zuo''s sword and impaled him. Upon realising what he had done, Mo De hurriedly ran away, and left Mo Zuo in a pool of his own blood." Jason calmly explained.


    "Argh." Mo Zuo groaned. "What canI do?"


    "Complete the quest,eatthe herbthat fell out of your pouch." Jason said calmly.


    "Could you pass itto me please... wait where are you?" Mo Zuo asked while looking around, he looked but couldn''t catch sight of Jason.


    "I''m the blue screenin front of you, just stretch and eat it, we''ll deal with the rest later."


    Mo Zuo forced thelast of his strength and managed to swallow the herb.


    *Ding* Quest complete.


    Reward : 1000System points.


    "What now?" Mo Zuo asked


    Jason looked atMo Zuo and didn''t reply. He mentally shook his head at his current situation, ''It seems I''m now tied with Mo Zuo huh?'' After a moment he checked the system store and found something appropriate for the situation.


    "The herb has some slight regenerative properties, but for a full recovery you would need the ''quasi life snatching pill'' capable of greatlyincreasing your vitality, its worth 899 points."


    "I''ll take it!" The pain from the sword impaling him was getting unbearable.


    "Sure, say ahh."


    "AHHH."


    Jason popped the glowinggreen pill into Mo Zuo''s mouth, and he watched as his body started glowing, and the sword was repelled from his body and the wound instantly healed, his meridians started glowing a bright green and in a few seconds Mo Zuo was perfectly healed.


    Mo Zuo opened his eyes andslowly clenched and released his hands. "I feel fantastic!"


    "Good for you." Jason replied unenthusiastically.


    "Well this was an amazing experience, but how do I log out?" Mo Zuo curiously asked.


    "Log out? Do you not remember how you died?"


    "Dead? I just clicked on install for thenew and more immersive expansion pack on your game and then I appeared in the game?" Mo Zuo asked very confused.


    Jason looked at him and couldn''t helpbutlaugh, "You really think this is all a game? I''m good, but I''m not that good."


    "I don''t understand, what''s going on." MoZuo had started panicking.


    Seeing the kid panicking, Jason couldn''thelp but sigh. "You got run over by a reincar.. I mean a speeding truck."


    "What... but then how are you here?"


    "I was trying to save you, a stupid mistakeofmine." Jason replied slightly annoyed.


    "You lost your life trying to save me?" Mo Zuoasked horrified, he never knew his carelessness could cause the death of another. "I am so sorry." and he smashed hishead into the ground as he kowtowed, "I am so so so sorry." Mo Zuo kept saying as tears flowed from his eyes.


    Jason was shocked as he saw Mo Zuo''s actions, "Stop, its alright, its okay, we''re alive now."


    "No no no, this is not okay, not okay at all." Mo Zuo said while crying.


    "It is actually, we''ve being reborn, here we can get aspowerfulaswewantandreturn to our previous lives if we want, or live as gods here. To be honest as a xianxia fanatic, this is my dream." Jason repliedtryingto ease Mo Zuo''s conscience.


    ''I''ve being reborn, but you''re stuck in a system'' Mo Zuo thought feeling guilt in his heart.

 The Mo Clan

    "Whatdo we do now?" Mo Zuo asked.


    "Getout of this ditch and go wash your clothes of course." Jason answered.


    Mo Zuo began looking for the nearest stream, using the previous owner''s memories, he quickly located a stream and began washing his clothes, he hung them to dry while he swam along the stream.


    "You''re a pretty good swimmer." Jason commented.


    "Ah thanks, I dida bit of competitive swimming... when I was still alive." Mo Zuo gloomily replied.


    "Give or take a fewchapters... days I mean, I''m sure you''d have forgotten all about your previous life." Jason said as he calmly broke the fourth wall.


    Mo Zuo then remembered that he indirectly caused Jason''s death, so he quietly shut up and didn''t talk about it further.


    *New Quest* Becomeacquaintances with the maiden. Reward : 5 system points


    "What''s this?" Mo Zuo asked.


    "You have a system, so you''ll be doing a bunch of quests just like in the game." Jason replied, he was a bit familiar with these sort of things.


    "Where do I find this maiden?" Mo Zuo asked sightly.


    "You''re in a stream, you''re probably going to meet her bathing or something." Jason said. As soon as he said it, he noticed a dangerous glint in Mo Zuo''s eyes, as his swimming speed suddenly increased.


    "Woah, are you sure you didn''t swim in the Olympics or something?" Jason hurriedly replied, as the sounds of the water splashing was extremely loud.


    "Haha, it must be this new body that''s all." Mo Zuo said while smiling, yet not slowing down at all.


    ''Damn it was I lumped together with this huge pervert?'' Jason silently thought.


    Mo Zuo kept swimming for hours along the stream till he received the notification;


    *Stamina +0.2*


    Mo Zuo stopped still in the stream.


    "It seems the maiden is way too far for me to meet." Mo Zuo said as he sulked.


    "Guess you aren''t destined to meet the maiden after all." Jasonlaughed.


    Mo Zuo began his sad journey back to where his clothes were drying, the sun had begun setting and the wild beasts had become more active.


    "Do you happen to have a night vision skill in there or somethinglike that?" Mo Zuo asked.


    "You happen to be in luck, your Path of Mamba has such a skill once you unlock the second stage."


    "The previous Mo Zuo spent over 2 years but was unable to go past the initial stage, how can I do that?"


    "Just 50 points, and poof." Jason replied.


    "Alright let''s do it!"


    *Ding*


    *Path of Mamba upgraded*


    Agility increased


    Vitality increased


    Physical increased


    Venom slash unlocked


    Thermal vision unlocked


    *Breakthrough Achieved*


    Qi gathering realm Stage 3!


    Mo Zuo felt his skin peeling, and Qi was flowing all around him.


    Jason looked at a different bar, one Mo Zuo couldn''t see, ''Seems like this could work'' he thought, he then glanced at Mo Zuo who was undergoing a metamorphosis, and a cunning look momentarily flashed through his eyes. Jason closed his eyes and smiled, ''Apep huh? Guess there''s still hope for me after all.''


    ---


    Elsewhere in the Mo clan, Mo De was being furiously interrogatedby Mo Zhi.


    "I will ask you just one more time. Where is Mo Zuo!" Mo Zhi shouted, his long hair flying and his alchemy robes flying around him, as venomous green lightning Qi furiously circulated around him.


    "I, I, I, I...." Mo De stammered.


    "Leave him alone brother, it is not Mo De''s duty to watch over your son." Mo Zhu calmly answered.


    Mo De glanced at his father and flashed a grateful look, only to receive an annoyed look back, Mo De quickly ducked his head in shame.


    All these movements didn''t get past Mo Zhi''s eyes. "I really hope my son''s disappearance has nothing to do with you." Mo Zhi said as he angrily left.


    When it was just two of them in the room, Mo Zhu activated a cloaking field and turned to look at Mo De, "Please tell me you had nothing to with this Mo De."


    "Of course not! I don''t have time to play with a child still stuck in thesecond stage, but even if father, am I not worth a 100 of him? I am a year younger but I''ve already left that trash in the du..." Mo De was unable to complete his words as he was flung away by a Qi blast.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    "You fool, you have no idea the importance Mo Zuo has in Mo Zhi''s heart, his mother is a high ranking noble of some sort." Mo Zhu replied. "I''m not saying you did anything, but did you clear all evidence?"


    "Ah." A look of panic was all over Mo De''s.


    "How could I, Mo Zhu have such a foolish son!" Mo Zhu angrily yelled. "Call the head of the guards, I have a mission for him."


    "Do you want to locate the body? I can easily help with that." Mo De said eagerly.


    Mo Zhu glanced at him with disgust, "Mo Zuo''s father is Mo Zhi, do you really think it''s that easy for him to die? We need to find him before his father does. Luckily we have a headstart." Mo Zhu answered.


    "If found, would w.., would we dispose of him?" Mo De asked.


    "How are you so talentless and yet so stupid? We''d be lucky if he didn''t die, and you still want to take away this lucky strand of hope? Besides how would I stoop so low and lay my hands on my brother''s child?"


    Mo De looked down on the floor in shame, "I''ll go get the headguard now father."


    Mo Zhu watched Mo De leave and frowned, it was already lateatnight and he had to prepare to receive the guests of the Ji clan arriving soon.


    --


    Mo Zuo walked around testing his vision, walking as silently as he can, slithering around like a snake, suddenly he caught sight of something.


    "What''s that up ahead?" Mo Zuo asked Jason.


    "Let me see,ah its a raging flame boar, as strong as the average person in the first stage of Qi gathering." Jason said after checking the currently limited database.


    "Just the first stage? I should be able to handle that right?" Mo Zuo asked as he silently brought out his sword, he had a strange feeling holding the sword that had just murdered him in his hands.


    "Probably, let me see..." Jason said as he tried something.


    *Ping*


    Side Quest activated


    Take down the flame boar -:-Reward : Minor flame breath skill unlocked.


    "Nice, alright let''s go." Mo Zuo said eagerly, a flame skill would be pretty cool he thought.


    "Please don''t die again." Jason said cautiously.


    "Its just a boar, how can it be so hard?"


    But Mo Zuo was wrong.


    "Jason what do we do now?!" Mo Zuo said as he ran for his dear life.


    "Damn I told you to be careful." Jason said. Mo Zuo while trying tokillone boar had ended up infuriating a whole herd! "Up ahead there''s a narrow path in between those two massive rocks. At most only one boar would be able to pass through at a time, use your Slither skill from the Path of Mamba, and quickly pass through."


    "Got it!!!" Mo Zuo said as he looked up ahead, he quickly ran in between the rocks and managed to get out, using his slither skill even though he was slower than the flame boars he had been able to avoid them to a considerable extent.


    "Now try and kill just one boar, and run into the stream!" Jason said, "That flame breath skill can produce enough smoke that could come in handy in a fight."


    "I should still try and kill one? But I can''t kill one in enough time before the other ones swarm me!" Mo Zuo replied.


    "Only one can swarm you at a time, use two or three venomslashes on it and you should win, I thought you were good at playing games?" Jason said slightly annoyed.


    "I am!!!! But reality and a dumb game is so freaking different you know!!!" Mo Zuo screamed.


    "Did you just call my game dumb?" Jason asked.


    Mo Zuo ran to the first boar and screamed.


    "Venom Slash!"


    A dark green slash came out of his sword and hit the boar, the boar was blasted half a metre back and green smoke could be seen coming out of the wound, the boar seemed more enraged and charged again at Mo Zuo, Mo Zuo dodged to the side, but a huge cloud of smoke was blasted into his face. Hisvision was obstructed, and the boar used that to ram into him.


    "Use your night vision now!" Jason yelled.


    Mo Zuo got up quickly activated his night vision and could see the boar once again, looking at the boar he could see that it had begun slowing down. The boars vision seemed to be obstructed but it was making use of its strong sense of smell to locate Mo Zuo. Mo Zuo quick sent out another venomous slash at the boar legs, and due to its poor sight it could not dodge on time and was quickly crippled, he sent out another slash, and was nearing closer to end the boar.


    "Run, two more boars are running towards you." Jason hastilyinformed him.


    "But the flame skill!" Mo Zuo said.


    "Not enough time, but don''t worry about it."


    "Alright!!!" And he began running towards the clan. A few minutes later.


    "I think we lost them." Mo Zuo commented.


    "Apparently."


    *Ding*


    Quest complete: Flame skill now available in system shop. Price 25 system points.


    "What? How did we complete it?" Mo Zuoasked.


    "The poison in the venom must have finished it off, you still have 51 system points, let''s purchase the flame skill now."


    "Alright let''s do it."


    *Ping*


    *Minor Flame skill obtained*


    Mo Zuo then summoned the stats screen and saw his current stats.


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Gathering stage 3


    Class      -:- N/A


    Subclass   -:- N/A


    Vitality     -:- 0.8/1.4


    Qi         -:- 0.5/1.4


    PHY       -:- 2.0


    Sys points -:- 26


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 2) Minor Flame skill(Stage 1) Simple Sword slash (Stage 1) Path of Apep (Sealed)


    Current Quest : Become acquaintances with the maiden. Reward : 5 system points


    ---


    "Hmm just those few strikes have already emptied your Qi reserves. In the Qi gathering stage the Qi amount is very little and physical strikes is the main tool for battle, with the Qi attacks an extra boost to your combat ability." Jason observed.


    "I''m beat, let''s find a place to hole up for the night. I''m seeing a cave up ahead, and the heat signature of the beast seems very weak. should I go on ahead?" Mo Zuo asked.


    "I don''t know, just go chase it away or something, I''m going to bed." Jason said sleepily.


    Mo Zuo was about to comment on how Jason would go to bed in his situation, but he decided to keep quiet. Mo Zuo was able to successfully chase away the fox hidden in the cave and gathered a bunch of leaves and formed a bed of some sort and tried sleeping, but due to his disturbed mind he hadtrouble falling asleep.


    ---


    Eventually Mo Zuo fell asleep and had a dream, in the dream he was a spectator, and he saw a massive pillar reaching the black and red skies rumbling with red lightning, as Mo Zuo squinted his eyes he saw a man staring at the pillar and his back facing Mo Zuo, he could see the man''s black hair littered with white strands flowing in the air, and he seemed to be talking to the pillar, following the man''s gaze he noticedthat there was actually something coiled around the massive pillar, and it was massive! He could see blackish red scales all around the body, and looking at it all the way to the top, he saw a massive head like that of a cobra communicating with the man, and then the head faced him, and staring into the evil chaotic eyes, he closed his eyes and held his mouth from screaming as he instantly woke up.


    Mo Zuo began heavily panting, thick sweat all over his body he heard a rustle in front of him which made him instantly jump up.


    "JASON!" Mo Zuo screamed for helpinternally, but got no response, he started panting heavier, and called out for Jason once more, but still no response.


    Looking at the bush ahead of him, hisheart kept beating faster and faster, his trembling hands grabbed onto the sword and he readied himself for what might come out of it, his heart kept pounding and pounding.


    A small rodent scurried out of the bush, and Mo Zuo''s beating heart temporarily calmed down, ''It was just a rodent...'' A second figure slithered out of the bushfollowing the rodent and sunk its fang in it, carrying the rodent away in its mouth, it glanced at Mo Zuo then slithered away.


    ''A serpent...''

 Ji Yue

    <div>


    "What ah, Jason." Mo Zuo said as the memories ofthe previous day flooded into his brain. ''Soit was all real huh?'' he said as he clenched hisfists and recalled the events of yesterday, as he did he suddenly remembered the horrifying nightmare he had the previous night and fear flooded his face.


    "Jason, I hada terrifying dream yesterday..." Mo Zuo slowly said.


    "Oh what happened?" Jason asked curiously.


    "I saw a hu... oh never mind, it was just a dream." MoZuo responded.


    "Ah well don''t be too bothered, you''re safe and soundnow, I think its time we start heading back before the Mo clan gets too disturbed over your disappearance." Jason said, "And of course beat Mo De into pulp, but thatwill be much later."


    Mo Zuo nodded his head and began his journey back to the clan and was conversing with Jason as he strolled back.


    "Shh, waitdid you hear that?" Jason said.


    "What? let me activate my night thermal vision." MoZuo said.


    "Its too hot to properly detect heat signatures, be quiet and hide, I think a pack of beasts is coming in that direction." Jason said.


    Mu Zuo jumped into a tree and hid in the leaves, soon he heard some voices.


    "I don''t think he is in this area."


    "Do you even think he''s still alive? All that blood on the floor, I think we are just wasting our time."


    "Remember what the captain said, if we don''t find him we are screwed, we have to find him or clear evidence."


    "Hey you three, shut the hell up! We''ve got work to do!"


    Mo Zuo heard the voices talking and instantly got scared, "Jason I think they are here to kill me, they must know I''m still alive."


    "Obviously, it must be Mo De''s father, $#it, this is a really sticky situation." Jason replied.


    *Ding*


    New side quest


    Avoid the assailants -:- Reward, Minor achievement skill book unlockable in store.


    "Wow, a new quest just popped up, alright just keep quiet, and we should be able to easily get through thi..." Jason was saying before he got interrupted.


    "Boss! Come see, these footprints vanished leading towards this tree!"


    "$#it."


    "$#it." Mo Zuo and Jason said at the same time.


    ---


    Back in the Mo Clan, it was bustling with activity as people could be seen preparing the main hall and making food, as they were expecting guests of the Ji Clan! The Ji Clan was the biggest clan in the Xu Wan province and controlled all activities that happened there in, and it was said that one of their ancestors had already stepped into the Sky Realm! A bona fide star grabber! The Ji clan had ruled over the Xu Wan province for over 5000 years, and their achievements in formations was known in the several nearby provinces! The Mo clan on the other hand were masters in Alchemy, but were weaker in martial might. The Mo clan was still able to raise their heads up high because of their mighty connections! They had being contracted to make pills of all sorts, for some of the strongest people around. The payments they received had caused them to be very wealthy. And even with their weaker martial might no one dared to bully the Mo clan, for now.


    A light green robed figure could be seen flying towards the Mo clan, the figure was over 2.1 meters tall and was quite burly, with thick side burns on the side of his face and short spiky hair, everything about his being screamed strength! This was none other than the current head of the Mo clan, Mo Zhu!


    "Welcome Clan Head Ji Yao, I trust that you had a comfortable journey. We have prepared a place for you to rest, please come in to my humble home!" Mo Zhu said while looking at a figure dressed in luxurious white robes with golden embroidery all around it.


    The figure in white looked up and smiled, "Clan head Mo Zhu, thank you for your warm welcome." Ji Yao said, but then a slightly troubled smile appeared on his face, "Brother Mo, may I ask how dangerous is your rainbow forest?"Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    A surprised look flashed across Mo Zhu''s face, the rainbow forest was where the Mo clan obtained the various alchemical materials for their production, it was called rainbow forest, due to the bright colours of the different herbs and trees in it.


    The Mo clan had tried exploring it and set different missions for exploration.


    As Mo Zhu was preparing to answer Ji Yao''s question, a figure rushed across the sky, this figure was just as tall as Mo Zhu but was thin and slender, with long flowing hair, he looked much like a scholar, but if you looked closely you could see that he actually looked somewhat similar to Mo Zhu.


    Who else could it be but the head alchemist of the Mo clan, Mo Zhi!


    "Greetings clan head Ji Yao, I''m sorry I can not entertain you right now, I will discuss the matter as soon as I am back." Mo Zhi said while looking straight ahead


    "No problem Mo Zhi, I can wait a while longer." Ji Yao responded, then turned back to face Mo Zhu, "Yes where were we?"


    ---


    Four figures began heading toward the tree Mo Zuo was currently hiding within, he began thinking rapidly of a solution, they were just four lesser guards of the Mo family and still in the Qi gathering realm, but every single one of them was more powerful than him by at least a stage or two!


    Mo Zuo quietly hid in the tree and looked around for a suitable target for a break out.


    "That guy to the left isn''t he Li Po? he is pretty weak isn''t he?" Jason asked as he was trying to recall the previous Mo Zuo''s memories.


    Mo Zuo looked at Li Po and remembered that he was often bullied, he slightly edged towards him with his silent slither skill of the path of the mamba, and like a snake he struck!


    "Minor flame skill: Smoke cloud!"


    "Ahh we''re being attacked!" One of them called out!


    "Who dares attack us guards of the Mo clan!" Another shouted.


    "Everyone huddle up to me, who is this b#&$%rd who dares not show his face?"


    Mo Zuo used their initial confusion and ran through the smoke, luckily because they couldn''t ascertain the strength of their opponent no one held him back, he kept dashing forward with all his strength and broke though the west wing, and he kept dashing through the forest.


    "S&%t, up ahead there''s more of them." Jason said while using his limited senses to detect the opponents.


    "Damn what do they want from me!" Mo Zuo said as he changed his direction and headed for deeper and deeper into the forest.


    "It gets more dangerous the deeper we go in, try and go around... wait isn''t that a parovi plant there? It could come in handy later on." Jason noticed.


    "What? Is there time to be picking herbs now??" Mo Zuo asked.


    "It''d only be a few seconds grab it and slow down you''re going in too deep." Jason said.


    Mo Zuo went down and gathered the stalks he found, but soon enough Jason noticed another useful herb.


    "Look, look isn''t that the Poxima mineral?" Jason said, and soon enough, the escape had turned into a herb gathering expedition.


    As they picked one herb after the other, Mo Zuo felt his bag couldn''t contain anymore and he asked Jason, "Isn''t there like any system storage or something I can use to preserve these items?"


    "There is but it is worth 450 system points now, a bit out of your reach for now."


    "Is the side quest complete?" Mo Zuo said as he looked around to see if anyone was following him.


    "Not yet, I think you''d need to escape this forest first."


    Mo Zuo started planning his exit from the forest, slowly walking he was enjoying the stroll back home, this was the safer parts of the forest as the Mo clan had frequently explored the area, most beasts saw it as a no go zone, unless it was exceptionally strong.


    Walking through the forest Jason detected some signs of human activity, and alerted Mo Zuo to slow down, the sun had already set once again. And the forest was dark, and beasts were getting active.


    "These footprints are just a single pair and don''t seem to be working in a group." Jason pointed out.


    Mo Zuo looker and noticed that Jason was right, "Does this mean its a very powerful person chasing after me?"


    "That, or its another individual entirely, maybe one of your older clan mates is training here."


    Mo Zuo continued being on alert and activated the path of mamba, and like a snake stalking his prey, he continued following the footsteps, and as he inched closer. Mo Zuo heard a loud commotion up ahead, and heard several trees breaking in a row.


    He jumped up in a tree, and activated his thermal night vision to get a better look at the scene happening in front. He could see a figure in white fleeing and throwing what looked like bombs which littered golden patterns on the floor.


    ''What''s going on'' Mo Zuo wondered as he observed the movements of the figure in white, ''Wait, this looks like formations!''


    Mo Zuo continued watching as the figure chasing the white figure was slowed down by the formations.


    They began to inch closer and closer towards Mo Zuo''s location, and he could see a clearer view of the white robed figure, and he noticed a mask similar to that of a white fox on it, it had a lot of golden patterns and looked quite beautiful.


    "I remember! I know who that is Jason!" Mo Zuo said excitedly.


    Jason had a slightly worried expression as he observed the movements of the two figures, hearing what Mo Zuo said, Jason couldn''t help but bet curious, "Who is it?"


    "You''ll see very soon." Mo Zuo said with a grin on his face.


    Jason was a bit confused but didn''t say anything and wondered what Mo Zuo was up to.


    Mo Zuo started tidying up his clothes with a silly smile on his face, and adjusted his hair.


    "How do I look Jason?" Mo Zuo asked with a suspicious smile.


    "Like me after a few shots, what''s going on?" Jason asked.


    "Just hold on a bit more. you''ll see soon."


    By now Mo Zuo could get a better view and was now sure of his guess, he saw a slightly huge wolf chasing the figure and now knew what the figure was running from.


    He squatted slowly, and with a powerful jump and a flip, he landed in a perfect position between the white figure and the wolf.


    He turned to face the figure in the white robes "Let me guess, you must be Ji Yue, am I right?" Mo Zuo said trying to sound as cool as possible, "I see you are in a sticky situation, let me lend my assistance." Mo Zuo then reached for the black sword by his side and turned to face the wolf. Upon seeing the wolf, Mo Zuo instantly froze in fear, seeing the blue streaks around the feet he realised that he had really underestimated his opponent.


    "Mo Zuo.... RUN!" Jason shouted!

 The Blitz Wolf

    <div>


    Theblitz wolf looked down atthepairof humans below it, it had enjoyed toying with the white robed one, causally chasing after it, and another prey had suddenly jumped in front ofit, the wolf found it all very amusing.


    Mu Zuo looked at the wolf and was trembling, this was a wolf that had entered the core formation stage, two stages higher than Mo Zuo''s current realm, when facing it he instinctively felt fear. From his memories he recalled, he was able to realise the person in the white robe should be none other than Ji Yue, the little princess of the Ji clan and she was 16 just like him.


    If she was able to hold back the wolf, with him around they should have been able to beat back the wolf right? Well he was wrong.


    "Is that you Mo Zuo? Son of Mo Zhi?" He heard a voice talking behind him, but his mind was still in shock and he couldn''t process what he was hearing.


    "Damn it what were you thinking Mo Zuo? Are you suicidal!" Jason shouted. ''Oh no am i going to die once again!'' He thought internally, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and started browsing the store for anything they could use to escape from the wolf, but looking through only a few were available and the prices were above their current points, Jason had no idea what to do.


    The blitz wolf started moving towards them slowly, its blue eyes glowing in the dark.


    It had an amused expression as it looked down on them. This was like playing with a couple of mice, albeit one of the mice had a couple of tricks up its sleeve, and the other seemed to be trying to play dead ever since it arrived.


    Mo Zuo was still paralyzed by the thick beastly aura giving off by the wolf, ''Move dammit, move!'' he tried commanding his body. He was still stuck in the process of unsheathing his sword and was stuck in quite a comical position.


    Only his eyes looked up as he saw the wolf dashing towards him, he felt a small hand drag his collar and fling him back, the figure then dropped what seemed like a formation disk on the floor.


    This disk was unlike the previous disks, a thick golden Qi surrounded them and instantly repelled the blitz wolf several meters back.


    The blitz wolf looked angered and rammed at the golden shield and was repelled once again. It looked at the shield then grinned as it retreated several meters back.


    Ji Yue then turned to face Mo Zuo and took a good look at him, Mo Zuo was wearing the brown robes that disciples of the Mo clan all wore, but his had several cuts from his battle with Mo De, and all the running around previously. This made him look quite worn out.


    *Ding*


    Mission complete.


    Become acquaintances with the maiden. Reward : 5 system points.


    Mo Zuo felt a bit annoyed upon seeing the unhelpful notification.


    *Ding*


    New mission : Do not snitch on Mo De. Reward: 15 system points.


    "What? Another mission? Jason are you broken? Why are you giving us stupid missions in a situation like this!" Mo Zuo yelled as he communicated telepathically with Jason.


    "Hey! Don''t yell at me! Are you mad! I don''t control these silly main missions you know!" Jason shouted back. Seeing the mission, Jason had already begun to learn some clues concerning the missions given out, but he didn''t feel the need to inform Mo Zuo right now.


    Ji Yue quietly looked at Mo Zuo who seemed to be going through an internal struggle.


    "You are Mo Zuo right?" She softly asked.


    Mo Zuo dusted off his clothes and smiled at Ji Yue.


    "I am honoured that you would know my humble name Miss Ji. I see you were capable of taking care of that little wolf perfect fine." Mo Zuo said while running his hands through his hair and smiling.


    Ji Yue tilted her head to the side and under the mask she had a slightly amused smile, "You think the wolf has gone?"


    The smile on Mo Zuo''s face froze, "Huh?" He tapped the barrier and looked around. "Hasn''t it gone?"


    Ji Yue didn''t even need to respond, a few hundred meters away blue light could be seen glowing brightly.


    The blitz wolf instantly dashed from its location hundreds of meters away and once again rammed into the golden barrier, blue lightning could be seen running all around it and thus time the golden barrier dimmed by around 30%.


    Mo Zuo was stunned as he saw the wolf walking away once again. He heard Jason sigh in realisation, "It''s gathering momentum and power to burst through this barrier, I believe it can only last three more attacks."This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Mo Zuo turned to face Ji Yue and asked, " What can we do now?"


    Ji Yue looked at Mo Zuo and was a bit conflicted. She had a silver formation disk and also a spatial transference treasure on her body which could teleport her over 5,000 meters, but it was of single use and could only carry one person.


    She would have to leave Mo Zuo to face his doom if she abandoned him now and considering the whole reason behind the Ji clan''s vist to the Mo clan, that was a very undesirable result.


    Mo Zuo looked at the eyes peering through the fox mask and awaited an answer. He watched as she brought out a bright blue formation disk from her robes and placed it in the ground. It flashed for a bit and a thick blue light shot into the sky.


    "Now we hope a friendly face comes this way before more wild beasts come in." Ji Yue calmly said.


    Seeing this Mo Zuo felt more confident, this was the little miss of the Ji clan, obviously her father would send some guards to protect her in secret right?


    ---


    Back in the Mo Clan...


    Ji Yao had a slightly pained look as he heard Mo Zhu''s answer, "So you mean even in the outskirts of the forest, there are beasts that have reached the Core Formation stage?"


    Mo Zhu was still confused and wondered why Ji Yao was suddenly so interested in the rainbow forest. "Clan head Ji Yao, is anything the matter?" Mo Zhu asked once again.


    "Ah, you see my daughter had recently acquired a new contracted beast, a silver eyed crane. She heard that your rainbow forest has the Vileolic root, that she needed to help break the bottleneck the crane was stuck on." Ji Yao said with a slightly pained look.


    Mo Zhu was still confused, as they had plenty in their herb stores, were they scared that he''d offer a very high price? The Mo clan isn''t so stingy!


    Seeing the look on Mo Zhu''s face, Ji Yao was able to guess what Mo Zhu was thinking about.


    "You see my daughter was a bit bored, and felt it would be more of a challenge if she obtained the ingredient her self." Ji Yao answered.


    Mo Zhu laughed and patted Ji Yao''s shoulder, "Youngsters love showing how self dependent they can be, don''t worry I''m sure she''s fine."


    As Mo Zhu was talking a pendant on Ji Yao''s neck cracked, and worry was quickly written over his face. "She has activated her primary self distress beacon, meaning she''s in danger, but not too life threatening, but she would still like some assistance."


    Mo Zhu was slightly baffled at how Ji Yao was able to gain so much information about his daughter''s situation from a mere crack on his pendant. "Oh alright, let me escort you to the forest." Mo Zhu said, he then remembered the mission he gave his guards previously and wondered if they had completed it.


    Mo Zhu was planning to find Mo Zuo first and convince the boy to ignore the matter, and prevent any problems that would occur with the Ji clan.


    ---


    In another location of the Mo clan, Mo De was seen trying to get on the good side of a taller male, this was Mo Xi, Mo De''s older brother, and the third young master of the Mo clan.


    "Brother, I just got news from some of the servants of the Ji clan, and it further confirmed the rumors." Mo De told Mo Xi who had just returned back to the Mo clan.


    Mo Xi was sitting cross legged and meditating and sword Qi could be seen fluttering all around him.


    He slightly cracked his left eye open and paid closer attention to the information Mo De had just passed on to him.


    "Well of course, the Mo clan and Ji clan are still quite close even after all these years, its nothing surprising." Mo Xi said calmly, but a trace of excitement could be seen on his face, ''A chance to study in that academy! It''s great that the two people who would have been my greatest opponents are currently out of the clan!'' he thought quietly to himself.


    Mo De was quite surprised when he saw how unconcerned his brother was, ''This is the difference between me and someone as talented as him!''


    "Brother there is one more thing concerning that cousin of ours, Mo Zuo." Mo De said.


    "Mo Zuo? I hope you didn''t cause any trouble? That''s just stirring a hornets nest for a weakling, pointless." Mo Xi replied.


    "I wouldn''t normally concern myself for him, but it happened like this..."


    ---


    Back in the Forest the blitz wolf had rammed once again into the golden shield, and the shield only had about 30% of its luster left, and could barely withstand one more attack.


    "Where are your guards?!" Mo Zuo urgently asked.


    "This is your clan! Where are your clans people!!" Ji Yue replied back. She was extremely confused, because if any harm came to Mo Zuo, it would affect their entire trip.


    She reached into her storage ring and brought out a new disk, it was silver this time and extremely large, she placed it on the floor and dragged Mo Zuo onto it.


    "This costs a fortune you know?!" Ji Yue said as she felt huge pain in her heart.


    Mo Zuo looked at her and felt relieved once more, "Thank you so much Miss, I will repay this a hundred fold!"


    "Once again your impulsiveness has affected another person huh?" Jason commented on the side.


    "This disk can only take us a 1000 meters, the blitz wolf would catch up in no time! So immediately the wolf crashes into this barrier, we run!" Ji Yue said, this silver disk was slow to activate but had a slight spatial transference ability, and anything that could tear through space, the price was astronomical!


    Mo Zuo gritted his teeth and felt slightly useless, he looked at Ji Yue and saw how composed she was even when facing such a beast.


    "Might I know how strong you are Miss?" Mo Zuo looked at her and asked.


    Ji Yue turned around and looked at him and smiled, "Don''t bother with such things right now."


    They looked up and saw a massive blue flash in the forest.


    "It''s coming!" They both shouted.


    Ji Yue began starting up the formation disk, large amounts of greenish blue crystals were dumped on it.


    Mo Zuo focused on the wolf charging towards them at terrifying speeds.


    But suddenly the wolf screeched to a stop, and looked up. Seeing the figure flying towards it, the wolf retreated this time, and retreated for good!


    Both Ji Yue and Mo Zuo looked up ahead and also noticed the figure coming towards them.


    "Mo Zuo, is that you!" Mo Zhi had been searching through the forest for any traces of Mo Zuo, and seeing the Mo clan''s guards also searching through the forest he was worried something had truly happened to his son. He followed the blue beacon that shot into the sky, and was able to to finally locate Mo Zuo.


    Seeing him hale and hearty, even looking a bit stronger, Mo Zhi was finally able to rest his aching heart.


    Mo Zuo looked up at the person who would be his father in this world, Mo Zuo felt slightly awkward, but he was even more relieved that someone had come to save him.


    "It seems this Mo Zhi is quite powerful, for the blitz wolf to run upon sighting him... How high is his cultivation?" Jason wondered.


    Ji Yue deactivated the golden barrier around them and bowed her head and said "Greetings Elder Mo Zhi!"


    Mo Zhi finally looked down and saw the white robed figure, he squinted his eyes for a while and said, "Ah, are you one of Ji Yao''s daughters?" He then turned to face Mo Zuo, "What''s going on here?"

 A True Man Should Snitch?

    MoZuo was about to explain to Mo Zhi all thathad happened between them, but heremembered the quest given by the system.


    Mission : Do not snitch on Mo De. Reward: 15 system points.


    " A true man doesn''t snitch." Mo Zuo said telepathically to Jason.


    "A true man may end up with much more than he can handle at times, there is nothing unmanly in snitching!" Jason recalled a memory of his former life and transmitted it to Mo Zuo.


    ---


    In that memory a 15 year old Jason could be seen sitting by the window in class, like a typical future main character, he looked calm and at peace but his hair was quite strange. It was littered with white strands giving his hair a grey appearance.


    As Mo Zuo was looking at the younger Jason, seeing the hair he felt a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, ''I''ve seen such hair before, but where...''


    The younger Jason was watching and saw a couple of his classmates harassing a younger kid.


    With his head on the window Jason thought, ''Typical weaklings always running around in groups...'' The harassment was getting more and more severe and they even ripped his shirt. The kids walked away laughing and Jason just thought ''Idiots...'' The harassed kid tidied himself up and sat down like nothing happened.


    The same scenario happened 3 more times during that week, and at a point Jason had had enough of seeing that disgusting scene. He went and stretched out his hand to the kid and helped him get up.


    "Thanks..." He heard the kid weakly mutter.


    Jason just silently nodded,as he was walking away he said, "You should really go tell the adults or something, your parents didn''t send you here to be some play thing."


    The classroom went quiet and everyone seemed to be staring at Jason, Jason looked around and was slightly confused, he was a new student there and wasn''t too familiar with everyone. He quietly went back to his seat and continued reading his wuxia novel.


    The kid didn''t tell anyone, and it continued on for a while. Jason always had a problem with minding his business, same reason he would end up dying.


    Jason hatched a plan, knowing the regular time the idiot kids kept harassing the other kid, Jason excused himself ahead of time and went to go inform a high ranked teacher that a student brought a knife to school! The teacher immediately ran over, and Jason stalled behind the teacher a bit so no one would know he was the one who informed the teacher.


    As the teacher arrived he came upon the scene of the kids pushing the kid around


    Seeing the sorry appearance of the child, the teacher immediately got into action and soon enough the kids were suspended.


    One day as Jason was walking home he met


    the couple of idiots from before, and the harassed kid was standing in front of them.


    "Is it him?" One of the kids pointed at Jason.


    The harassed kid looked at Jason and had a sorry expression on his face as he shook his head saying no. "No it wasn''t him."


    "Liar!" One of the kids said as they pushed him towards Jason.


    "Everyone in class heard him say he was going to snitch!" Another kid said as they started nearing Jason.


    The kid looked frightened but Jason calmly put a palm on his shoulder and smiled, "Trash like this are all weak." Jason said, feeling like a protagonist of his favorite Wuxia.


    A kid threw a kick at Jason, and Jason calmly caught it, and pulled a bit, making the other guy lose his balance and fall. The other kids got angry and charged all at once at Jason, and the memory ended.


    ---


    "Did you win?" Mo Zuo asked as his respect for Jason had suddenly increased.


    "Cough cough, its not the result of the war that matters, but the reason the war was fought!" Jason replied back righteously.


    "Whaaat, isn''t it the other way around?" Mo Zuo was slightly confused. "And are you saying we should snitch on Mo De?"


    "Mo De is a single entity, someone we can still handle by ourselves, there''s no need to inform Mo Zhi for now." Jason responded.


    Mo Zhi was standing there as he watched his son enter a daze, he calmly waited for him to explain what the hell was going on!


    "Father, I broke through the second stage of the mamba path! I also entered the 3rd stage of the Qi gathering realm!" Mo Zuo said proudly, he heard a stifled laugh behind him, and turned around to see Ji Yue giggling, he could even slightly make out the words ''Third stage of the Qi gathering realm...and he wants to save me'' Mo Zuo''s face turned red in shame. He then heard a deeper laughter coming from Jason.


    "Hahaha even the maiden in distress is mocking you!" Jason said as he wiped tears from his eyes.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Mo Zuo''s face started glowing a brighter red in shame, but then he heard an excited voice.


    "You actually broke through?! They said it will take at least four more years! How did you enter the second stage so fast?!" Mo Zhi said excitedly. Mo Zhi was one of the few members of the Mo Clan who knew the real reason why Mo Zuo had problems progressing in his training, and that was due to his bloodline!


    Mo Zuo smiled, and realised the system had probably allowed him to bypass certain restrictions present in his cultivation!


    "I felt something was holding me back, so I went for a secret journey into the forest to sharpen my skills, and gain the last insight to breakthrough!" Mo Zuo said, lying with a straight face.


    "Wow I''m impressed Mo Zuo, never knew you were such a good liar." Jason said as he mentally clapped.


    Mo Zuo grinned and communicated with Jason, "How else do you think I managed to con all those ladies."


    "Ohh this seems like an interesting story, you must share later on." Jason''s interest was piqued.


    "Your former life shouldn''t be too shabby, I''d like to see more stories too." Mo Zuo said smiling.


    Mo Zhi was looking at his son beaming with pride, what useless half blood! The Long clan was wrong! Mo Zhi looked towards the sky and smiled, Long Na, do you see our child will be a true dragon!


    Mo Zhi turned back and faced the two, he conjured a green Qi wind, and slowly lifted them up as he too soared in the sky.


    "Woahhhh!!!!" Both Jason and Mo Zuo said at the same time!


    "We are flying!!!! Like really flying!!!!" Mo Zuo communicated to Jason.


    "I know, I know!!" Jason said extremely excited, how many times had he fantasized about flying in the sky like the ancient cultivators!


    The trio, plus the invisible Jason, soared in the sky and slowly headed back to the Mo clan, on their way they encountered two figures soaring towards them.


    "Ji Yan!!!" The smaller figure dressed in white called out to his daughter. This was Ji Yao the head of the Ji clan!


    "Father!" Ji Yue called back.


    ''Ji Yan? Did the author of this book make a typo?'' Jason wondered.


    Mo Zhu who was heading over paused for a bit as he saw Mo Zhi holding Mo Zuo, he began to wonder if the Mo Zuo had already told him anything, ''but why does Mo Zhi seem so happy'' he thought?


    "Brother! Mo Zuo has broken through!" Mo Zhi shouted!


    "Oh that''s nice..., wait he broke through." Mo Zhu said shocked! He carefully inspected Mo Zuo, and saw the serpent bloodline had truly being further unlocked!


    "How?!" Mo Zhu said shocked, ''So that explains Mo Zhi''s good mood, but how on earth? Did all the blood loss slightly purify his blood? But that''s bulls#$t, then wouldn''t it be so easy to activate dormant bloodlines?'' Countless silly thoughts ran through Mo Zhu''s mind.


    "Haha, it seems our Mo clan''s blood isn''t a useless old padlock which would tie down our progeny for the rest of his life!" Mo Zhi said with a petty smile on his face as he thought of his detestable brother-in-law!


    ''That''s a really oddly specific sentence...'' Jason and Mo Zuo both wondered.


    "Congratulations nephew! The path forward is much clearer now! Remind me to get you a reward when you get back!" Mo Zhu said sincerely.


    "Thank you Uncle!" Mo Zuo replied!


    ---


    Back in the Mo Clan, Ji Yao and Mo Zhi were sitting together in a room.


    "I sincerely than you for this huge favor Brother Mo Zhi." Ji Yao said while kowtowing.


    The Ji clan had taken a trip all the way to the Mo clan, precisely for this matter!


    "No need for all that Clan Head Ji, I''ve already requested six of my close friends to come assist me in making the life renewal fluid. In less than 30 days of soaking in the fluid, Ancestor Ji should be able to overcome this ailment!" Mo Zhi said confidently, while he may not be as powerful as his twin brother, Mo Zhi was extremely confident in his alchemy skills!


    Ji Yao felt more confident on hearing that Mo Zhi would be supported, the resources required by a mid stage sky realm expert was astounding, and not something that a single Mo Zhi could handle.


    "You paid quite the expensive price, even one of your slots, to ''that'' place, is enough to purchase a sizeable army!" Mo Zhi responded while smiling. Imagining the heights Mo Zuo could reach if he could cultivate there, the Long clan would be begging to accept him once Mo Zuo returned!


    "Ancestor Ji was originally the one who earned the slots, using it to prolong his life is only right." Ji Yao replied humbly.


    ---


    *Ding*


    Mission complete : Do not snitch on Mo De. Reward: 15 system points.


    *Ding*


    Mission complete.


    Avoid the assailants -:- Reward, Minor achievement skill book unlockable in store.


    *Ding*


    New mission: Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points.


    Mo Zuo was extremely baffled by his new mission, what the hell does this mean by thief? My herb stash? Mo Zuo decided to put it to the back of his mind for now.


    Mo Zuo looked through the system store and saw his reward. it was a skill book which let him level up instantly to the minor achievement proficiency, in any skill.


    ''I wonder if there might be an [Art of smooth talking] skill book?'' he wondered as his thoughts drifted off.


    He then glanced and saw his current stats


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Gathering stage 3


    Class      -:- N/A


    Subclass   -:- N/A


    Vitality     -:- 1.4/1.4


    Qi         -:- 1.4/1.4


    PHY       -:- 2.0


    Sys points -:- 46


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 2) Minor Flame skill (Stage 1) Simple Sword slash (Stage 1) Path of Pep (Sealed)


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points.


    ---


    "Why are there so few stats?" Mo Zuo asked Jason.


    "The system is not omniscient, it needs something to reference off from, the more knowledge you acquire the better it is for you." Jason explained, "For example if you wanted the minor achievement skill in swordsmanship, you would need basic swordsman knowledge, or the price will be sky high. And for pills and so on, you need to have basic herbs on you which the system can work on to transform it into the heaven defying pills you would need."


    "Wow, so this is how gaining skills was in Dao Seeker right, the player didn''t need to actually know how to use a sword in real life, but just tutoring by swordsmen the player was able to level up his swords skills." Mo Zuo noticed.


    Jason kept quiet and realised that part was a bit similar to the game he designed.


    "True true, but now that we are in this world why don''t we head to the Clan''s library and gain more knowledge?" Jason suggested.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head in acknowledgement and walked out of his living quarters, looking back at his current house, be couldn''t help but feel the old Mo Zuo was quite lucky, ''a house all to yourself at just 16! And with your own staff!


    ---


    "Big brother! Big brother! Big news! He came back!" Mo De interrupted Mo Xi.


    Mo Xi was balancing upside down on a bamboo stick, with a long sword in his mouth, a serving girl would occasionally toss an apple and Mo Xi would attempt to slice it into bits.


    Looking at the perfectly untouched apples on the floor, it seemed Mo Xi wasn''t doing too well.


    "Is itMo Zuo? I already know." Mo Xi said slightly irritated.


    "No. I mean Mo Fen, he came back."

 Lazy Archer

    <div>


    ''MoFen...'' If there was a name Mo Xi did not wantto hear at this point in time, it was Mo Fen! MoXi felt that if one of his senior brothersreturned he wouldn''t be worried as much, butthis was Mo Fen!


    "Has he broken through?" Mo Xi asked, immediately he said it, he felt it was a stupid question, how could Mo Fen not have broken through?


    "He did and not just once." Mo De looked as Mo Xi''s expression turned hideous.


    "Dammit, dammit, dammit! He can not take away my chance, I will not allow it!" Mo Xi shouted furiously. He looked down at the apples all over the floor, and instantly blasted out his sword Qi and the apples were incinerated into bits. He turned towards the serving girl, and seeing how horrified her expression was, he tightly clenched his fists and controlled his emotions.


    "Fu Min, please let''s start over." He said gently. "But please be a bit slower, as I get better controlling my balance and attacking, you can speed up."


    "Yes young master."


    ---


    As Mo Zuo was heading towards the clan''s library, he passed by the current location the few members of the Ji clan were residing in. He could see a younger child practicing formations by setting up flags all around, it seemed to be a simple Qi gathering formation, but only a cool breeze was flowing towards that spot, the child looked slightly frustrated and continued working.


    Mo Zuo kept on glancing around and in the center he saw three girls walking out.


    ''Is that Ji Yue?'' Mo Zuo wondered, taking a look, it was actually Ji Yue.


    Seeing the acquaintance he met yesterday, Mo Zuo excitedly waved. But when Ji Yue saw him, she had an awkward look and weakly waved back at Mo Zuo, it was even one of the other girls walking with her who excitedly waved back at Mo Zuo.


    Mo Zuo felt slightly dispirited as he thought they had formed a slight friendship, it seems he was wrong.


    "Don''t take it to heart Mo Zuo, you did slightly mess up your first impression." Jason said as he comforted Mo Zuo.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head and continued walking absentmindedly, he kept heading in the direction of the library till he accidentally bumped into someone.


    "Sorry...." Mo Zuo said as he looked up to see who he had bumped in, he instantly felt an aura that was similar to the blitz wolf, but a bit weaker, he looked into the person''s eyes and felt a still calmness, there was a bow strung across his back and a full quiver.


    "Oh Mo Zuo... Long time." The person lazily replied and slowly walked away.


    Mo Zuo was shocked that he would feel such an aura from someone of a similar age to him! Seeing the bow and arrow on the person, he could think of only one person.


    "Mo Fen..." Mo Zuo muttered softly, that is definitely Mo Fen!


    Recalling some memories, the Mo clan once had three male children born in a similar time period, namely; Mo Xi, Mo Zuo and Mo Fen! That was a time for celebration for the Mo clan, as Mo Zuo and Mo Fen were the first male children of the first and second elders, Mo Zhi and Mo Peng respectively.


    Of the three, Mo Xi was the most diligent in cultivation, and he even started months earlier than his two cousins.


    When Mo Zuo began his cultivation, he had trouble even entering the first stage of the Qi gathering realm, and struggle after struggle, Mo Zuo could not advance.


    But Mo Fen was a different case entirely, he was generally called the laziest, but had talent blessed by the Gods! with time he soon caught up with Mo Xi and quickly moved on to surpass him.


    The members of the clan started joking around that all of Mo Zuo''s talent was stolen by Mo Fen, and that all of the results of Mo Xi''s hard work in cultivation was being stolen by Mo Fen.


    All these rumors negatively affected the former Mo Zuo and Mo Xi, and they slowly felt discouraged from cultivating.


    That was until the incident happened, and from then on Mo Fen became a rarely seen figure in the Mo clan, he even abandoned the sword, and became an archer.


    "So strong!" Mo Zuo communicated to Jason.


    Jason was also shocked at how Mo Fen was so powerful, ''What on earth is this!''


    "Jason, we are so weak right now, isn''t there a way for me to possible level up, as fast as possible?" Mo Zuo inquired.


    "For now, I''m not seeing anything good so far, but its not only cultivation levels that matter, Mo Zuo, it''s the skills too."


    Mo Zuo softly clenched his fists and stared at Mo Fen walking away. "I''ll let him be my goal for now!"


    If any other member of the Mo clan could have heard the words Mo Zuo had just uttered, it was unknown if they''d die laughing or die from shock!


    Mo Zuo finally arrived in front of the Mo clan''s library, it was quiet large and had more than 4 floors! The first two floors were open to Mo Zuo and he could pick any skill book he needed.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    As he was about to enter, he met Elder Mo Fu inside, he softly greeted him and proceeded to enter.


    Mo Fu looked at Mo Zuo then continued writing down insights on a scroll.


    Mo Zuo looked around the library and the various sections, he then began heading straight to the martial arts section but heard a voice call him back.


    "Wait, in Dao Seeker, what weapon did you use?" Jason asked.


    "I used a sword, why?" Mo Zuo asked.


    "That''s good, because I''m actually pretty talented with a sword. I think we should focus mainly on sword arts, for now." Jason suggested.


    "You know how to use a sword?" Mo Zuo asked.


    "My father taught me ever since I was 5 or so."


    There was slight shock on Mo Zuo''s face, ''What kind of dad is that?'' Mo Zuo wondered.


    Mo Zuo browsed through the swords section, and there were plenty skills concerning swords in the Mo clan.


    Swords were the primary weapon of choice, except for a freak like Mo Fen, almost everyone learnt sword arts, or fist arts like Mo De and his father Mo Zhu.


    But then again there was also Mo Zhi, his physical strength was not the greatest, but because of his ability to manipulate Qi and combine it with all sorts of poison, he was one of the elders most feared in the Mo clan!


    Mo Zuo picked up a sword art and began to go through it, Jason also read about it from the side, and soon enough they had finished it.


    But then Jason said, "Mo Zuo, I thought of a way to read two times as fast! You could open one book on one side and another book in front of you, then use both hands to flip it."


    "How would this help me read twice as fast?" Mo Zuo wondered.


    "I read one book, you read another!" Jason said.


    Realisation popped into Mo Zuo''s face and he nodded his head excitedly, "This could work!"


    Jason smiled, "One sword art skill is enough for now, we should focus on getting us a subclass!"


    Mo Zuo then realised he had no class or subclass on his stats screen, and he wondered how that will come about.


    Jason then said. "Why don''t you pick a suitable subclass that you think you''d be good in, and as for me, I''ll try and learn formations!"


    "You want to go into formations?" Mo Zuo asked, he then went over to another shelf, and browsed through for any beginner level formation book, he finally stumbled upon one, and he saw that the writer of the book, was none other than a member of the Ji clan!


    The book looked quite dusty as it seemed no one had used it in over a decade! Mo Zuo dusted the book clean and dropped it on the top of the table.


    "Great, so what sub class would you go into?" Jason asked.


    "Alchemy!"


    "You want to follow the trend in the Mo clan?" Jason asked curiously.


    Mo Zuo shook his head and went over to the alchemy section, here the books looked all fresh and new, and one could easily tell they were being actively used.


    There were all sorts of books, and Mo Zuo finally stumbled upon a book that had Mo Zhi''s name on it, opening it, the date dated as far back as 20 years ago! far beyond when Mo Zuo was born!. His father must have been only in his twenties by then.


    He carried the two books and quietly walked over to a secluded place and sat down.


    And he started flipping two books at once.


    ---


    Elsewhere in the Mo clan, Mo Fen was slowly walking through the streets of the Mo clan, no one came over to greet him, they all had looks of pity as they saw him.


    Mo Fen kept walking till he reached the former compound he had lived in, and he froze for a few seconds, he tightly clenched his shirt as pain was written on his normally expressionless face. ''Dammit!'' He silently thought.


    This house he grew up in had turned into the final resting place of Mo Fen''s parents!


    Mo Fen silently walked inside and saw the two massive and heavily decorated tombstones, and a smaller tombstone to the right.


    The inside of the house was clean and well kept, it seemed the Mo clan had not forgotten them. There were fresh flowers there and he guessed it must have been Granny Mo Hu, who had placed them there. Looking at the purple and golden poppy flowers there, Mo Fen shook his head and smiled.


    Though it was a beautiful flower, his mother had always hated the scent. He silently gathered up all the poppy flowers on top of the gravestone, and placed then unto the smaller one.


    He looked back at the now clear grave, and decided he would go and fetch some jade iris flowers.


    He slowly stood up and walked out of the house. As he was walking out, two people were observing him.


    "He reminds me more and more of brother Mo Peng everyday." Mo Zhu commented.


    "Mo Peng can rest easy knowing he left behind such a good son." Mo Zhi looked at Mo Fen walking away and continued, "He is just 16 and is already at the threshold of the Core formation stage!"


    Mo Zhu looked at Mo Fen walking away, and felt it was a pity, if not for that incident the Mo clan would have been about to receive another expert at the Sky realm!


    ---


    Back in the library, the sun had already set and Mo Zuo struggled to move his two hands, flipping page after page of those massive books, his hands were trembling. But looking at the new sub class on his status screen, he smiled.


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Gathering stage (3)


    Class      -:- N/A


    Subclass   -:- Apprentice Alchemist


    Vitality     -:- 9.1/1.4


    Qi         -:- 1.4/1.4


    PHY       -:- 2.0


    DEX       -:- 1.0


    Sys points -:- 46


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 2) Minor Flame skill (Stage 1) Simple Sword slash (Stage 1) Path of Pep (Sealed)


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points.


    ---


    He also noticed a new Dexterity stat on his screen, it seemed since he had gained a subclass this statistic had popped up. Dexterity was like a measure of his skillfulness with his hands.


    The dexterity stat would also be helpful in his sword play, so Mo Zuo was quite happy to have unlocked it.


    Mo Zuo weakly got up and slowly headed back to his compound, walking slowly back to his house, he happened to notice that his door seemed slightly different.


    "Why did you stop moving?" Jason asked.


    "Someone entered my house." Mo Zuo responded, and slowly backed away.


    "Could it be one of the staff?"


    "No, I locked it, twice." Mo Zuo said. If the door was locked once, the serving members of the house could come in and clean around.


    But only the master key, could lock twice, and only it could unlock the door when it was locked twice. This was in case there was anything he wanted to keep private, he could be sure his privacy was secured.


    Standing back, Mo Zuo then activated his thermal night vision, his iris turned golden, and his pupils turned into slits, he looked around the interiors of his house, and could see a figure walking around casually in his house.


    Thinking back to the new quest he just received from the system:


    ---


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points


    ---


    "Jason, I think this is the thief the system meant!"

 The Long Clan

    <div>


    Mo Zuo paused in front of his house, all the staffhad gone and only he and this intruder werearound.


    "Wait,didn''t the former Mo Zuo keep all his important herbs on him? What herb stash is in the house?" Jason questioned.


    Mo Zuo stopped and wondered, Jason did have a point, and the mission said he would have to go to town to find the thief.


    Mo Zuo grabbed onto the hilt of his sword and walked closer and closer towards his house, he kept his eyes on the intruder with his thermal vision.


    He slowly stepped on the old wooden steps on his porch, and a creaking noise was heard, the intruder immediately stopped going through Mo Zuo''s house and immediately jumped into the roof and stopped moving.


    ''Are they trying to ambush me?'' Mo Zuo thought to himself with the fear growing in his heart, ''This is the territory of the Mo clan! I am the son of the first elder, who would dare do such?''


    He raised up his sword and wondered if he should contact his father, but for some reason he decided to still walk in, "If the intruder needed to ambush him, it can''t be that strong right?" Mo Zuo mentally asked Jason


    "Most likely, but do you remember how you were wrong about the strength of the blitz wolf?" Jason replied.


    "The blitz wolf didn''t hide in my roof!" Mo Zuo stubbornly replied, he walked closer towards the intruder, and he finally saw a flash of movement from the intruder.


    The intruder did a flip and landed heroically in front of Mo Zuo.


    "You must be Mo Zuo, am I right?" The intruder said.


    "It''s you!!!!" Mo Zuo shouted.


    Looking at the fox masked, white robed figure, he instantly knew who it was, Ji Yue!


    Jason soon realised where he had seen such a scene before, just the night before! Mo Zuo had similarly jumped in and asked such a question.


    Realising Ji Yan was parodying Mo Zuo, Jason tried to stifle his laughter, ''If cultivation doesn''t work out for Mo Zuo, comedy may not be so bad'' he silently thought.


    "I''ve been looking for you all day! Where did you run off too this morning?" Ji Yan jumped on Mo Zuo''s bed and asked.


    Mo Zuo felt slightly irked as he saw her carefree manner, is this how it is in this world? You can just come in and barge in on anyone''s privacy??


    "How did you get in?" Mo Zuo looked at her and asked, he was still feeling dejected about the weak reply he received from her earlier today.


    And seeing how entirely different she seemed as she put on the mask, the entire scenario was a bit disorienting.


    "I''m a formations prodigy! Your weak security didn''t stand a chance!" Ji Yan responded feeling quite proud of herself.


    "She knows formations! I have a few questions to ask her, I think this would greatly help me understand more!" Jason told Mo Zuo.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head, but asked Ji Yan another question. "You were able to temporarily delay the blitz wolf, so how strong are you?"


    "Hmm? Ummm well the blitz wolf was toying with me a little, so it''s not that I''m super strong or anything, I''m just at the fourth level of the Qi Foundation stage." Ji Yan replied casually.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head slowly, "Oh so you''re just one cultivation level above me, I should catch up within a month...wait! Did you say fourth level of the Qi Foundation stage?"


    Ji Yan laughed once again, "Of course, not everyone''s as weak as you!"


    Mo Zuo''s jaw dropped a little, he guessed she was strong, but this was shocking! The former Mo Zuo hadn''t been up to date with everyone''s cultivation level, so Mo Zuo was not aware how much he was lagging behind.


    "How on earth, sorry I mean... what''s this world called again? Never mind, how are you so strong!" Mo Zuo hurriedly asked her.


    Ji Yan kept laughing at Mo Zuo''s over exaggerated reactions, "Not everyone needed to spend all their time trying to activate their bloodline! But aren''t you meant to get a cultivation boost since you broke through?"


    "A cultivation boost? what do you mean?"


    "Well most people with bloodlines, experience a lag phase, as they try to activate their bloodline, and then boom! They skip several steps as the primary activation of the bloodline occurs.


    My Dad told me that your bloodline comes from a very far far far Clan, and its of snake origins, is that true??!" Ji Yan asked excitedly. After overhearing the discussion Mo Zhi had with Mo Zuo, Ji Yan had gone to disturb her father, Ji Yao, to explain all the secrets behind Mo Zuo''s bloodline, and she learnt some stories concerning Mo Zuo''s birth too!


    Mo Zuo was extremely confused hearing this all, as he had never even known he had a bloodline, the former Mo Zuo was told he was cultivating a very special skill.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    ''Just like I thought, and it isn''t just any ordinary bloodline! it retraces its origins all the way to Apep!'' Jason thought silently. As he had merged with the system, he was privy of some knowledge that even Mo Zuo did not know of!


    Seeing Mo Zuo''s confused look, Ji Yan said, "You should ask your father to explain it more, my Dad barely even knows the full story.


    But considering it slightly concerns your father''s rogue phase where he left the clan guess that''s why he didn''t tell you before hand."


    ''My fathers rogue phase?'' Mo Zuo realised there was really a lot that he didn''t understand.


    Ji Yan walked towards the window and cranked it open. "We''d talk more tomorrow! Till then!" She leapt out the window and into the streets.


    "Alright thanks!" Mo Zuo has no idea why he was thanking her considering she had just broken into his house. He looked through the window, and watched how she gracefully melded into the moonlight.


    Feeling weak and tired after all the stress of the day, Mo Zuo quietly undressed, jumped unto his bed and quickly fell asleep.


    ---


    The next day Mo Zuo went for a trip to his father, Mo Zhi''s house to discuss the matters Ji Yan had told him yesterday.


    "It is a bit unusual that you could enter the second stage of your bloodline associated path, without reaching primary activation of the bloodline. You may need some bloodline stimulating herbs, but I would rather not go into that." Mo Zhi said.


    "Then how does one unlock their bloodline?" Mo Zuo asked.


    "You already have the second stage and should be able to tap into more of the characteristics of your bloodline, there''s no need to rush it, it''ll come soon."


    "And where does my bloodline come from?" Mo Zuo asked.


    Immediately Mo Zhi heard Mo Zuo''s question, the look on his face quickly changed and became a shade gloomier. Mo Zuo realised this was probably a sensitive matter to his father.


    "There''s no need to answer it if you don''t want to father."


    "No no, I should tell you some details about your origins."


    "A couple of years ago, I was implicated in a matter in concerning a very powerful sect. I ran away and was disowned by the Mo clan.


    The Mo clan disowning me, was something I could understand, it wasn''t that the Mo clan disregarded me, No, my importance in the clan was extremely key! I was one of the rare members of the clan capable of activating the catalyst spirit. A rare treasure for the clan, found in less than 1 out of 50,000 direct members!


    But it was a decision they had to take for the safety of the clan, as they planned to use the Mo clan to smoke me out! I held no resentment over their decision, and even rejoiced that I did not implicate them. I knew how painful it was for my father, the former clan head to disown his son.


    My father used some of his deep connections, and managed to get a rarely seen transportation formation to extract me from this area. It was somewhat of a random teleportation that could go as far as a 100,000 kilometers away, and I ended up in an unknown area. There I met Long Na, your mother."


    "You were teleported into the Long clan?" Mo Zuo asked shocked at his luck.


    Mi Zhi shook his head, "No that wasn''t the Long clan, or even close to it. You see Long Na had her meridians corroded by a very powerful poison, and even channeling her Qi was difficult, making her close to a cripple and her life force had almost burnt out. But even an almost crippled Long Na was capable of feats I could only imagine.


    I first tried curing her ailment, but my skills were not capable of doing anything. But I soon learnt of the heaven defying ability of the catalyst spirit! I was able to use it and the resources she had on her to temporarily stabilize her and prolong her life. With me as an outcast, and she lost and weak, we soon decided to restart our lives, I continued using my alchemy skills as a source of money, and years later my name spread far and wide.


    In fact you could say my name spread too far. Way too far. Not too long after, they came for me."


    "The sect you offended?" Mo Zuo asked interestedly.


    "Them, and the people who set me up in the first place, I soon found out the goal was my catalyst spirit all along!" Mo Zhi said with repressed anger in his voice.


    "They managed me to abduct me while I was out attending to a fake high profile call. And they began the extraction of the catalyst spirit." Mo Zhi said as he tightly gripped his palms with sadness written all over his face.


    Realisation shone on Mo Zuo''s face as he realised how cruel this world treated those who were weak.


    "They planned on a transplant of it into an artifact cauldron, and I too would be refined into the cauldron. But my weak self was saved by your mother, the three ancient experts who were present there had already surpassed the sky realm stage and considering Long Na was unable to channel Qi, I urged her to run, but she refused, and then I witnessed the powers of the Dharma. Even if she could not use her Qi she could still Activate the Dharma.


    Her sword which she once told me could traverse a thousand kilometers but still stay in one position, I understood what she meant! In a few moments, the three proud figures began pleading for their lives, and with a slash, these three figures became history!" Mo Zhi thought back to the day as he realised how powerful she was.


    "What! How powerful was the sword?" Mo Zuo asked extremely shocked.


    "The sword wasn''t the powerful one, in fact the sword at your waist right now, was that sword."


    Mo Zuo glanced at the black blade that he had carried around with him at all times, not too long ago this blade was inside him! ''So this is the blade that could slay 3 experts above the sky realm?'' Mo Zuo wondered.


    "After that, the 3 organizations involved immediately begged for our forgiveness upon learning that their 3 strongest ancestors had died so quickly, but how could I forgive them? Not only had they destroyed the last catalyst spirit the Mo clan had seen in hundreds of years, they had also cut short your mothers lifespan.


    You see it was only with the catalyst spirit that I was able to prolong her worsening condition, and even though she had slightly recovered, she hadn''t healed, and in a few years it kept getting worse and worse!


    As she was reaching the limits of her life force and the last embers were dying out, her brother arrived and met the three of us, you were only 5 by that time, so I do understand why you can''t remember so much.


    He was outraged, but also thankful to me for having let her live so long, I asked to follow him back to his clan to accompany your mother, but he..." Mo Zhi paused as he tightly clenched his fist.


    "Mo Zuo, I am too weak and I''ve already lost my spirit, if there''s any chance of discovering the location of the Long clan, I believe only you can do it!"


    "Me? But if even you can''t do it, how can I?" Mo Zuo asked, he was just a poor 16 year old, how would he track such a powerful clan.


    "The Long clan has almost no presence, I''ve searched and searched and I have even come to suspect they may not even exist on this plane! I would like to know if your mother is still alive, you have inherited her bloodline, an with that comes such talent! You will only excel, so I will shamelessly be entrusting this duty to you Mo Zuo." Mo Zhi bowed his head and said pleadingly, Mo Zhi had tried getting stronger, but since his spirit was extracted, he had trouble advancing even the slightest bit.


    Mo Zuo looked at the pleading expression in his fathers eyes and couldn''t help but say, "Father, there is no need to even ask me! This is my duty!" He replied sincerely.


    Mo Zhi looked up at him and could feel the sincerity from Mo Zuo''s voice ''Thank you so much Mo Zuo... or whoever you are.''

 Who Are You?

    <div>


    Jasonwas deep in thought as he tried to comprehend all he had just heard from Mo Zhi. ''So it seems the Mamba bloodline that originatesfrom the Long clan, and considering that the Long clan represents dragons, it''s not unusual they have a serpentine bloodline, but what if before they had a dragon bloodline? And it came from that serpentine dragonof chaos... Apep. This, I must get my hands on it, getting a physical body is my main quest, and what else to use than this bloodline?'' Jason thought as he laid his eyes on Mo Zuo''s body like a predator stalking its prey.


    Mo Zuo walked back to his house, he took a look around the clean garden and inhaled the scent of the roses. He then headed to the private courtyard, there, you could see several training equipment and dummies.


    In the center there was a larger dummy, and a silver glowing ring surrounding it, it was an autonomous device for training. Once you stepped in it would launch several attacks at you with the mace in its hand!


    You could adjust the difficulty to your level of training. It was a very expensive piece of equipment, and there were only 5 of such in the entire Mo clan! Mo Zuo as the grandson of the former clan leader had inherited one.


    But he wasn''t battling with this puppet today, he was still too weak! He reached into the equipment rack grabbed a wooden sword, and was slightly surprised to find the sword weighed was much heavier than he expected.


    "Alright, like my father always says, the goal is to cut down your enemy before he cuts you down." Jason said as he began teach Mo Zuo.


    Mo Zuo nodded, "Of course! There is no need for flashy skills in sword training!"


    "No need for flashy skills?" Jason asked with a surprised look, "Who told you that? Sword fighting is all about flashiness, why did you think I said you should get the lightning blade skill! Not only most you cut down your enemy, but you must do it in the flashiest way possible!"


    "Whaaattt!" Mo Zuo said shocked.


    "But you are too weak, to even focus on the art that is Sword play, so we would be doing some basic training..." Jason instructed.


    Mo Zuo kept swinging his sword, and continued for several hours, the sun had already begun to set. He only stopped when he finally got the notification:


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Gathering stage (3)


    Class      -:- Swordsman (Minor)


    Subclass   -:- Apprentice Alchemist


    Vitality     -:- 9.1/1.4


    Qi         -:- 1.4/1.4


    PHY       -:- 2.0


    DEX       -:- 1.0


    Bloodline  -:- [In Slumber]


    Sys points -:- 46


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 2) Minor Flame skill (Stage 1) Lightning Sword skill (Stage 2) Path of Pep [Sealed]


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points.


    ---


    "You have now unlocked the Swordsman class! And you have already reached the second stage of the Lightning Sword skill, I guess this is how much someone can improve when they have a great teacher huh?"


    Jason said with a smug smile.


    Mo Zuo was about to reply when he saw a figure approach him.


    "Are you ready?" Ji Yan asked him, she was still wearing the same clothes she had worn the very first time they met and with the same mask, Mo Zuo found it a bit strange since he had already seen her real face several times.


    He was really bothered she was wearing a mask, ''Does she think I''m not worthy of viewing her real face?'' shaking his head out of the temporary daze, he answered her.


    "Ready for what?"


    "We''re going hunting again!"


    "Whaaat? What are we hunting for??" Mo Zuo asked utterly confused.


    "Nothing really, but aren''t you bored staying here all alone?"


    "We almost dieddd, are you serious?" Mo Zuo asked as if he couldn''t believe his ears!If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "YOU almost died. I was pretty much safe you know..." Ji Yan said casually.


    Mo Zuo''s jaws dropped slightly, but thinking about her position, it did make sense she got some protective items, even Mo Zuo had just recently obtained some items from his father.


    "But still I''m pretty weak, what use would you have for me?" Mo Zuo asked, ''Is she starting to like me, and just wants to use this as an excuse to hang out with me?'' he thought silently.


    "Well I was touched by your bravery that time, the way you jumped in front of the blitz wolf, I realised that... you would make pretty good bait if such a situation happened again." Ji Yan said while giggling.


    Mo Zuo: -_-''


    ---


    Mo Zuo followed Ji Yan through the forest as she carelessly strolled through, he had to admit that the rainbow forest, was really colourful!


    "Oh it''s a green nosed monitor lizard! It''s strength is at the fourth stage of Qi gathering, can you handle it?" Ji Yan said as she spotted the reptile a few meters away. It was resting and seemed to be fast asleep.


    Mo Zuo calmly looked at the lizard, it was around 1.3 meters and didn''t look so strong. He nodded his head at Ji Yan to signify yes, and slowly inched towards the lizard.


    Green nosed lizards had quite the venomous bite, and could even spit a slightly corrosive toxin on their prey.


    As Mo Zuo came closer and closer, it raised its head and noticed Mo Zuo. It got up and entered battle mode.


    "Mo Zuo focus on your footwork, try and dodge as much as possible." Jason quipped in.


    "Can you hurry up??!" Ji Yan shouted from the side.


    Mo Zuo glanced at her and leapt towards the lizard, he was about landing a hit till the lizard side stepped and quickly whipped him with its tail!


    Mo Zuo rolled on the floor as he felt a sharp pain in his ribs, ''Dammit, I guess I can''t instantly jump levels, fourth stage is too much for me!''


    Mo Zuo got up, and bent his head down and released a cloud of smoke and started dashing through the smoke to try and land a hit on the big lizard.


    As he neared it, the sword glowed a dark green, as Mo Zuo''s eyes became serpentine, he was using a bloodline skill!


    The lizard sensed this and tried to dodge, but the venom slash extended from the sword and landed a direct hit.


    "Success!" He yelled.


    The lizard looked at the poison scar on its body and was enraged. It instantly jumped at him and the battle ensued.


    ---


    The tussle continued on for a while, till Ji Yan got bored and with a casual wave of Qi, the lizard was blasted out of their path.


    Mo Zuo said nothing, and tended to his wounds and followed right behind, during the battle he had gotten slightly poisoned, luckily the poison was too weak it seemed, and after a slight discomfort he was fine.


    Ji Yan kept walking till she heard some voices above and signified Mo Zuo to keep quiet as they jumped into the trees.


    Mo Zuo looked out for what caused the commotion and spotted a figure with a bow strapped across his back, looking closer he could see that the figure was actually Mo Fen!


    And he observed Mo Fen was talking to a figure dressed in white, and squinting his eyes he could see that she was wearing clothes of the Ji clan!


    ''Who is she?'' Mo Zuo wondered, and hopped over for a closer look!


    ''That''s.... Ji Yue!'' Mo Zuo noticed, but then he snappily turned to look at the figure in the white fox mask, ''If Ji Yue is down here.... who is she?'' Mo Zuo moved away and quickly stood on his guard, looking at the figure, he turned and stared deep at the figure.


    "Who are you?!" He couldn''t understand how Ji Yue who was with him was suddenly down there.


    "Calm down a bit Mo Zuo, she''s not Ji Yue." Jason replied.


    "Not Ji Yue? Then who is she?" Mo Zuo asked.


    Jason was about to reply, when the figure slowly removed its mask, and Mo Zuo could see the face underneath, and he could see the person vaguely resembled Ji Yue.


    Ji Yan smiled as she saw his surprised expression.


    "Wait, you''re her sister?" Mo Zuo then recalled the person who was excitedly waving at him back then, ''Ah I see now, I confused them from the very beginning'' He thought, realising she had never claimed to be Ji Yue, and he had just assumed.


    Ji Yan calmly smiled as she watched Mo Zuo gather his thoughts, she then turned and continued observing Mo Fen and his sister. Mo Zuo hobbled over, and as he watched, it seemed Mo Fen and Ji Yue were chatting quite a bit.


    ---


    Mo Fen has been gathering special rare flowers, when he had chanced upon the young Miss of the Ji clan. Mo Fen had always been polite, so he did a slight greeting and was going on his way, till Ji Yue started pestering him.


    Mo Fen was a known genius, and if he ever participated in the annual competitions he would most likely clear out all the other young geniuses in the other clans!


    Ji Yue had wanted to get pointers from Mo Fen, but she had never seen someone as stubborn as Mo Fen!


    He had been doing everything to get rid of her since the moment they met, slightly frustrated and her ego bruised, she kept following Mo Fen around, till he finally succumbed and started answering questions.


    "And that''s how you train everyday?" Ji Yue asked surprisingly.


    "Yeah." Mo Fen weakly replied.


    "But that''s so simple, is there anything you do different?"


    "Nope, talent I guess."


    The conversation seemed to be going nowhere, and the sun had already set, Mo Fen looked up at the dark skies and turned around and began heading towards the clan.


    "You''re leaving so soon? It just got dark aren''t you going to do a little practice, isn''t that why you came here?" Ji Yue asked a bit surprised.


    "You''re disturbing me."


    Hearing this Ji Yue sightly knit her eyebrows, she was going to be studying with Mo Fen for a very long time, so she was doing her best to get along with him.


    But seeing his cold exterior, Ji Yue felt demotivated and started heading out with Mo Fen. She had finally given up.


    ---


    Apart from the duo of Mo Zuo and Ji Yan watching Mo Fen, there was also someone hidden nearby watching them.


    Seeing how close Ji Yue and Mo Fen were, he was already convinced that the member of the younger generation who would be following the Ji clan would obviously be Mo Fen.


    Mo Xi slowly calmed his raging heart and comforted himself, ''Power, that''s the only thing that matters! If I was stronger I''d be the one chosen, I can only work harder!'' Mo Xi said while trying to comfort himself.


    He grabbed his sword, and ventured deeper into the forest, there''d be a great hunt tonight!


    ---


    Seeing the Mo Fen and Ji Yue leaving, Mo Zuo turned to Ji Yan and said, "The night is just starting, do you want to leave just yet?"


    Ji Yan turned to look at him and slightly laughed, "What? I came here to have fun! How can I leave just now?" She brought out a map from her storage ring and showed it to Mo Zuo.


    Mo Zuo could see several parts of the Map had been marked out and some circled in a bright red, he looked back at Ji Yan and had a slightly worried look.


    Ji Yan noticed the look in his eyes, and she rolled her eyes at him, "No we aren''t going into the red area of course! I still value my equipment." She replied. "We would be going into the safer marked out green places, the beasts there are just around the Qi gathering stage, very safe for you."


    Mo Zuo felt slightly comforted and nodded his head in agreement. His current aim was to further stimulate his bloodline, and become much stronger!


    Ji Yan and Mo Zuo gently jumped down the tree, and headed to the places safely marked out on the map.

 The Bloodline Part 1

    <div>


    Fromhere on it would be 1 chapter a day and around8 a week! Enjoy.


    It was late in the evening and Mo Zuo carefully added some spice to the meat that was bubbling inside the pot. The sweet and lovely smell would have normally drifted out and attracted other beasts, but Ji Yan had created a minor formation to trap the smell inside.


    Jason was very interested as he saw Ji Yan use formation after formation, and seeing all the plenty uses of formations, Jason was able to understand why the need for technology was so reduced! ''Using formations is a form of technology here it seems.''


    But one more thing that surprised Jason was how great a cook Mo Zuo was!


    "Where did you learn to cook?" Jason had lived alone ever since he turned 21, so learning how to cook basic food was a must.


    Mo Zuo smiled and recalled some of his previous memories, "We had a restaurant growing up."


    Jason nodded his head in realisation. This day was very eventful, and they had been able to pick up valuable materials, and even found a beast core!


    This could only come from beasts that had entered the Core formation stage and the uses of the core were extremely useful. Ji Yan had offered the core to Mo Zuo, but Mo Zuo felt too ashamed to ask for it considering the amount of times Ji Yan had to save him that night.


    Ji Yan accepted it, and told Mo Zuo he could have the next good thing they found.


    "Your father wouldn''t leave you alone without a guard right?" Mo Zuo looked around the trees to see if he could catch any figure.


    "Tsk, after last time he has problems leaving me alone, but it''s for the best." Ji Yan said smiling.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head as he felt some comfort welling up in his heart. He brought a bowl, and served the sweet tasting dish to Ji Yan, he then brought out another bowl and left it on the tree stump for the mysterious guard. He nodded towards the empty trees in case the guard was there.


    Mo Zuo sat down and waited for Ji Yan to finish her food, and seeing the way she was diving into it, it seemed he had cooked another masterpiece.


    He smiled as he watched her enjoy his food, nothing brings more comfort to a chef than knowing someone was enjoying their food... Wait a billion gold coins would totally bring me more comfort...


    Mo Zuo shook his head and cleared away his thoughts that had once again gone astray.


    Ji Yan felt a bit embarrassed glancing at Mo Zuo and him seeing her down the food so fast!


    She quietly stood up and returned the bowl to Mo Zuo with a dignified expression, "You did a good job, now let''s continue." She dusted her robes and walked away.


    Seeing this Mo Zuo smiled and was about to say something when his thermal vision saw a large thermal print underground, and it was big!


    "I think there''s a massive beast sleeping underneath us!" Mo Zuo informed Ji Yan.


    Ji Yan squinted her eyes as she suddenly became serious, Mo Zuo eyes had proven extremely useful this night and she already had full trust in his vision, "Let''s go somewhere else."


    Ji Yan was about turning to another direction, when Mo Zuo''s eyes lit up again, "He''s back!!!" Mo Zuo said as he remembered the rampaging rhino-like beast they had accidentally enraged.


    "Oh sh$+." Ji Yan immediately fled, but the speed of the rhino-like beast far outclassed them, it was a beast in the 6th level of the Qi foundation stage!


    In seconds it was catching up to them.


    "Mo Zuo is it me or is the ground trembling?!" Jason suddenly shouted.


    "Ahhh I feel it too." As Mo Zuo looked around huge cracks formed on the ground and Mo Zuo and Ji Yan fell through!


    The guard secretely watching them jumped into action, and dashed towards them, but the land he was running on started crumbling, and soon even he fell through.


    ---


    "Wake up."


    "Huh Jason?" Mo Zuo asked confused. He cracked his eyes open and saw an injured Ji Yan staring at him, one of her sleeves had been dyed red and she was clutching it tightly.


    Mo Zuo looked up and he understood he had fallen into the cave, He slowly got up and the pain hit him!


    "Aaah! Dammit!!" He screamed, his back felt like it was on fire, he looked towards where he came from and saw a long blood streak on the wall, it seemed he had slid down with his back on the wall surface, and the enter surface of his back had been scraped off by the rough edges.


    Ji Yan looked at Mo Zuo gnashing his teeth in pain and felt very bad in her heart, Mo Zuo had tightly held onto her while they were falling and sacrificed his body protecting her.


    She did her best protecting both of them from the falling rocks with her limited Qi, but at a point even she was overwhelmed and with no time to set up the formations she was proud of, a massive rock had crashed into them knocking both of them out.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Ji Yan had held out her hand and it got broken in the process with even a fractured bone sticking out. She hid the broken arm in her sleeve as she slowly brought out a powerful herbal balm.


    "Lie down, this may sting a bit."


    Mo Zuo was in too much pain to struggle so he calmly lay down and let Ji Yan apply the balm, she first gathered some bandages and put the balm on it and wrapped Mo Zuo''s back.


    She brought out a pill from her ring, and dropped it in his mouth, Mo Zuo instinctively pushed it out, but she forced it into his mouth till he swallowed, a cool sensation spread through his belly and the pain subsided.


    "What was that?" He asked.


    "A pain killer, stand up." Ji Yan began heading deeper into the cave.


    Mo Zuo was about to ask her why she was heading deeper into the cave, but looking towards where they came from, he realised it was sealed by a large piece of earth.


    He then tried activating his night vision but it refused to activate.


    "Your vitality is too low to activate a bloodline skill manually, you need to finish healing." Jason informed him.


    "Bloodline skills use vitality? Just like in Dao Seeker!" Mo Zuo said excitedly.


    "The system is a bit similar to my interface before."


    Mo Zuo calmly walked behind Ji Yan as they looked for another possible exit. He noticed that her right arm wasn''t moving so much and he realised she may have sprained it.


    "Do you need some help?" Mo Zuo offered.


    Ji Yan glanced back at him, and slowly shook her head and continued ahead, they were too deep underground to activate a signal beacon so she needed to get unto higher ground.


    The lighting in the cave was very poor, and they relied solely on the torches Ji Yan had lit up with her Qi.


    "Mo Zuo on the walls I see something!" Jason looked closer and could make out some sort of symbols.


    Mo Zuo quickly called Ji Yan''s attention to what could be seen on the walls.


    "Can you read this?" He asked.


    Ji Yan shook her ahead signifying no, "Isn''t this from your Mo clan? why are you asking me."


    "I have never seen such signs before, I sincerely doubt its from my clan. This could even be before we moved near this forest!"


    Ji Yan understood what he meant.


    "This... ancient abandoned ruins?!" She said excitedly.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head back in excitement.


    They continued browsing through the cave looking around for anything exciting.


    "I''ve found a room!" Ji Yan shouted, as she neared the room, she felt the Qi in the air getting richer and richer until it almost became unbearable.


    She crossed her legs infront of the room and slowly began to drink in the strange Qi in the air.


    Mo Zuo got closer and he could also feel the Qi in the air, and also felt a sense of familiarity with this type of Qi.


    He also crossed his legs next to Ji Yan and began to focus on the Qi and gathered it towards his dantian. He felt like the Qi had an extremely great affinity with him and as it moved around in his dantian he felt the walls on his cultivation slowly melting, and a few minutes later he felt himself breakthrough!


    *Ding*


    Cultivation Breakthrough


    +15 sys points


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Gathering stage (4)


    Class      -:- Swordsman (Minor)


    Subclass   -:- Apprentice Alchemist


    Vitality     -:- 0.2/1.9


    Qi         -:- 1.9/1.9


    PHY       -:- 2.2


    DEX       -:- 1.1


    Bloodline  -:- [In Slumber]


    Sys points -:- 61


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 2) Minor Flame skill (Stage 2) Lightning Sword skill (Stage 2) Path of Apep [Sealed]


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points.


    ---


    Mo Zuo''s eyes lit up seeing he had become slightly stronger and even gained system points just by gathering the Qi here, he turned to look at Ji Yan and saw she was still absorbing Qi.


    Mo Zuo sat down and continued absorbing the Qi here and he could feel his dantian filling up with Qi once again, and soon enough he once again broke thpoints


    *Ding*


    Cultivation Breakthrough


    +15 sys points


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Gathering stage (5)


    Class      -:- Swordsman (Minor)


    Subclass   -:- Apprentice Alchemist


    Vitality     -:- 0.4/2.3


    Qi         -:- 2.3/2.3


    PHY       -:- 2.2


    DEX       -:- 1.1


    Bloodline  -:- [In Slumber]


    Sys points -:- 76


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 2) Minor Flame skill (Stage 2) Lightning Sword skill (Stage 2) Path of Apep [Sealed]


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points.


    ---


    Before he could even react, he felt a vibration, and looked towards Ji Yan as a golden glow surrounded her, she too was breaking through!


    A few minutes later and she cracked open her eyes her face looked slightly pale, "Stop absorbing this Qi! It''s tainted!" She said as she coughed onto her sleeve and some blood stains appeared.


    Mo Zuo looked a bit horrified as he didn''t even notice any disturbance, he even felt as if this Qi was perfect for him.


    Guessing what Mo Zuo was thinking, Jason said, "It could be due to your weak cultivation level so the Qi you absorbed wasn''t enough to cause negative effects on your body." But Jason could see that a hidden bar visible only to him had once again increased.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head "That''s probably why, but I wonder what''s the cause of this Qi."


    Ji Yan and Mo Zuo headed towards the inside of the room, as they got closer and closer the Qi in the air became denser.


    Inside the room, there was a messy table and it seemed a lot of research had been carried out here. Mo Zuo picked up a dusty piece of paper on the table and gently blew on it, looking down at what was written he was able to make out a ritual of some sorts, and it involved snakes?


    Ji Yan was also investigating around and finally saw the source of the leaking Qi, it was a slightly huge beast core with a crack running along its surface.


    "How long has it been here? And for it to still leak out such powerful Qi after so long, how powerful was the beast?"


    Ji Yan moved a bit back as she started feeling a little bit sick.


    Mo Zuo moved towards it as he felt something calling towards him.


    "I think we found a really powerful treasure!" Mo Zuo said excitedly. As he got nearer and nearer the sweet feeling continued.


    "I really don''t think you should get close to it." Ji Yan said as a very worried look appeared on her face, she felt an ominous feeling appear coming from this place.


    Hearing Ji Yan''s voice Mo Zuo momentarily stopped, but the feeling to get nearer was too hard for him to resist.


    "Why shouldn''t I get closer?" Mo Zuo asked as he struggled to move away from the core.


    Ji Yan was about to answer till a horrifying cold chill spread over her back, fear began stirring in her heart, a hundred times stronger than when she faced the blitz wolf.


    Mo Zuo turned to look at Ji Yan and was confused as he noticed the fear in her eyes. "What''s going on?" He soon looked up and heard a terrifying voice say;


    "She said you shouldn''t touch it."

 The Bloodline Part 2

    <div>


    Mo Zuo looked up and saw where the voice camefrom, his eyes opened wide open as he took in the large figure.


    Just its head was as wide as Mo Zuo''s whole body, the forked tongue slithering out of its mouth, the brown dusty scales all over its body, Mo Zuo looked at the earthy serpent and was surprised that the voice originated from the serpent.


    ''A talking snake? Is this what I saw under the ground?'' He recalled the heat signature he saw underground, but that one seemed a bit larger than what he was looking at right now.


    For some reason Mo Zuo was not scared as he faced the massive snake, looking at Ji Yan, she was already frozen by the aura emitted from the snake.


    Mo Zuo looked at the snake, and seeing that it hadn''t attacked them, he tried talking to it.


    "Senior is the treasure yours?"


    The Earth serpent looked at Mo Zuo and asked, "You aren''t afraid of me?"


    Mo Zuo looked at the serpent and smiled, "I''ve seen a much larger snake." Jason who was listening by the side suddenly squinted his eyes worriedly ''Has Mo Zuo seen Apep?'' he wondered mentally.


    The Earth serpent was also surprised, and it remembered the Dark Monarch sealed several meters below him.


    "You''ve seen the Dark Monarch?"


    "Dark Monarch?" Mo Zuo then remembered he had sensed a massive heat signature from the surface, he tried activating his thermal snake vision and this time it worked.


    His eyes transformed as his iris turned golden and pupils became slits, he scanned around he could soon see the heat signature once again.


    Due to falling several feet below ground he could get a closer look at the massive snake, and it was even bigger than he thought. But still not as big as the massive snake he had seen in his dreams, that snake reached into the clouds!


    The Earth serpent saw as Mo Zuo''s eyes transformed, and anger flashed across its face!


    "You! You are one of them!" And the serpent immediately struck out at Mo Zuo.


    Before Mo Zuo could even think of resisting, a poisonous fang had already pierced through his chest and another one through his thigh!


    The serpent tilted its head with Mo Zuo in his bite and let Mo Zuo''s blood wet its throat ''These crazyb@$+ards and their insane methods to drain the bloodline of us powerful. beasts!'' It thought in its head. It slowly drained Mo Zuo of his blood to recover the stolen bloodline and the venom from its bite flowed into Mo Zuo!


    As it felt the blood go down its throat, its eyes opened wide in shock as it felt a shocking sensation, it immediately spat out Mo Zuo''s body in fear. Mo Zuo crashed into a nearby rock close to the broken beast core.


    Mo Zuo had already passed out long ago and with his body in shambles his life signs had slowly started fading.


    Ji Yan''s eyes trembled in fear as she couldn''t comprehend what was going on, she looked at Mo Zuo''s wrecked body and she struggled to move but the aura from the serpent was too strong, and soon her weak will couldn''t hold on as she passed out too.


    The Earth serpent struggled to spit out the blood that had just gone down its throat, ''This blood, its stronger than even the monarch!'' The serpent looked at Mo Zuo''s passed out body in relief. The Earth serpent had been sealed under here for several years and was in a severely weak state, it would have never imagined that the bloodline contained in Mo Zuo was that powerful!


    In its weakened state and considering it had directly ingested Mo Zuo''s blood, if Mo Zuo was awake he could have easily caused the Earth serpent to submit under his control!


    The Earth serpent was about to lash out to completely erase Mo Zuo till it heard a voice in its head.


    *Ding*


    Activate slave contract? Y/N


    Hearing the sound the Earth serpent was suddenly on alert, and looked for the source of the voice.


    "You massive fool..." Jason said while laughing as he injected his will into the massive serpent.


    The Earth serpent thrashed around in pain as it fought a battle of wills in its mind! "GET OUT!" The Earth serpent screamed in fear, it kept struggling and struggling determined not too lose.


    "Shhh, it''ll be over soon..." Jason said as he bit a huge chunk out of the Serpent''s mental will.


    "AHHHH!" The Earth Serpent screamed. "Stoppp!!!! I''ll submit I''ll submit!" The pain from having its will eaten was unbearable!


    "I don''t need you to submit." And Jason continued his attack on the serpent, bite after bite, the struggle became weaker and weaker till only a tiny bit of will was left.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    The huge body of the serpent fell down and was still for several minutes.


    *Ding*


    Body takeover successful.


    The serpent''s eyes cracked open and intelligence shown from it.


    "Hahaha, success!" Jason shouted feeling ecstatic! "A body! I''m in a body!" He had taken the chance when the stupid snake had initiated a blood slave contract by drinking Mo Zuo''s blood, and he used his own will to takeover the huge body.


    Jason moved around in the serpent and got used to the skeleto-muscular system of the Earth Serpent.


    He looked at Mo Zuo''s body as hesitation flashed across his mind. But he shook his now massive head, and summoned the blood that was refining in his stomach.


    A glowing bead of dark red blood appeared at the tip of his tongue and he dripped it on Mo Zuo''s body. ''This should help speed up the process!''


    He looked at the two unconscious figures and decided to help them out, as an Earth Serpent his ability to dig out of the earth was not to be looked down upon!


    He began to dig out a closer exit for the unconscious duo, as he was digging to earth he suddenly realised, "What giant Earth Serpent! I''m just a super big worm!!"


    Shaking his head he managed to dig out a hole and soon arrived on the surface, looking around he saw a figure trapped under rocks and realised it was Ji Yan''s hidden guard! Still sensing some life in him, Jason used his large head to help release him.


    All that work had made Jason extremely tired, and he began transforming his body back to a human form.


    "Even though most of the cultivation of this serpent has dropped, it still retained its ability to morph! What was the peak strength of this serpent?" Jason wondered.


    He was stark naked but he wasn''t so bothered, he was more relieved to have gained a body once again! But he knew this was only a temporary solution.


    He clenched his fists and started walking towards the opposite direction and headed deeper and deeper into the rainbow forest.


    He just needed to release some of his powerful aura and the other animals would instantly run away, and even the very weak animals would be stunned frozen.


    There were still some dangerous areas, and with his weakened state Jason had to avoid them. He kept walking and walking till his feet got tired and he sat down to rest.


    By now several hours had passed so he decided to check on Mo Zuo.


    ---


    A blood cocoon surrounded Mo Zuo''s shattered body as the broken core kept pouring beast Qi into the cocoon.


    The Qi was so dense that colour could now be seen from it, and it was a light green colour, vitality could be seen from it.


    Around Mo Zuo''s blood cocoon, grass and plants began to spring up as they absorbed the rich vitality.


    Even the injured Ji Yan slowly became conscious, and to her surprise she felt her shattered bones healing slowly. ''What is this?'' She asked herself, she rose her hands and felt they were healed, she was about to rejoice till she started coughing blood once again.


    She took several steps away from the cocoon to avoid the Qi that was toxic to her. ''Something is happening to Mo Zuo!'' She could see the red cocoon pulsing with light, but no movement came from it. She wasn''t sure what to do, if she tore open the cocoon, it could have very negative effects on Mo Zuo, but could she leave him trapped there?


    She decided to wait for the Qi to stop flowing. Slowly she sat down, and took in her surroundings, she narrowed her eyebrows as she noticed a massive hole leading to the surface.


    "Oh no! The beast escaped! She instantly forgot about Mo Zuo''s situation, and instantly ran out of the hole to go alert the her father! A beast that powerful could easily wipe out the entire clan, her family was in danger!


    Reaching the surface she could see no signs of the massive beast, but she could see a figure dressed in black, her hidden guard! She rushed up to him and woke him up!


    " Uncle wake up, wake up, there''s trouble." Ji yan urgently shook him back and forth till he woke up.


    "Huh Miss Ji? What''s going on?" The hidden guard asked, his brain was still fuzzy and confused.


    "Please go tell my father, a massive beast just escaped! And the aura, it was more terrifying than Great-Grandpa!"


    The guards eyes opened in shock, stronger than ancestor Ji?! He was about to tell her she was saying nonsense, but looking at the level of destruction, he instantly got up.


    "Alright! Let''s go meet Patriarch Ji!" He stretched out his hands towards Ji Yan, "Hold on tight miss, I''ll be going at full speed!"


    But to his surprise Ji Yan shook her head, "No you''d be much faster without me, furthermore I need to watch over Mo Zuo. Now Go! This is an order!"


    The hidden guard was at first reluctant, but time was of the essence, he nodded his head and dashed towards the clan.


    Ji Yan saw him off, and then hurried back to check on Mo Zuo, she located the hole she came out of, and once again slowly slid down, a few minutes later she was in front of Mo Zuo again.


    The Qi flow finally seemed to be thinning, and the pulsing around the blood cocoon seemed to have reduced.


    "Finally it''s stopping!" Ji Yan said feeling relieved.


    Soon enough the reddish glow finally stopped, and everywhere became silent. The broken beast core seemed to have been drained of all its Qi, so Ji Yan could finally approach the cocoon without injury.


    Ji Yan was slowly approaching it till she heard a soft groan, and excitement shone on her face, ''He''s alive!'' She thought, as she ran up towards it.


    She stretched her hands to touch the cocoon, but she was greeted with a large ripping sound, as she saw a fist protrude out of the cocoon, and soon a second fist came out as they ripped open the cocoon.


    Mo Zuo weakly walked out of the cocoon, his body was moist as his long hair stuck closely to his skin and back.


    Ji Yan took a close look at Mo Zuo and smiled, his skin seemed much healthier and his body seemed a bit muscular even, his messed up back was clean and spotless!


    Ji Yan looked at Mo Zuo''s face and noticed he looked slightly older, around 19 years old even! She kept looking till Mo Zuo cracked open his eyes, and seeing his eyes Ji Yan was momentarily shocked.


    The white of his eyes had turned black, and his iris was a deep green with slit like pupils! She had seen him activate his thermal vision, but this time instead of golden irises, his were green and even the sclera had turned black!


    Mo Zuo blinked once and his eyes turned back normal so quickly Ji Yan became unsure if she imagined it!


    Seeing Mo Zuo struggling to move, she stretched out her hands and helped him up, ''He feels, much stronger!'' She silently thought.


    They both began crawling out of the hole made by the Earth Serpent. Thinking of the powerful beast, Ji Yan silently prayed for the safety of her clan mates.


    They soon reached the top of the hole and were about walking out when Mo Zuo heard a weak voice whisper in his ears.


    "Come meet me when everything fallsss into Chaoossss...."

 The Duo Who Cried Wolf

    <div>


    "How strong am I? Hmm.. " Mo Zuo was about to answer till he picked up some sounds in the forest. Opening his eyes he caught site of some beasts that were attracted to the commotion.


    A flame boar popped out, and Mo Zuo smiled at his first foe. This flame boar seemed larger than the one he fought before, and hot flame could be seen flaring out of its nostrils. It acted as a torch for the boar, so it could navigate around at night.


    Mo Zuo walked towards the boar, Ji Yan was about to inform him that the boar was in the 2nd level of the Qi foundation stage! But for some reason she had this sense of confidence as she watched him approach the boar.


    The boar lost its patience, and swiftly charged out at Mo Zuo, Mo Zuo was unprepared so he quickly stabbed his sword in the ground and used it to vault himself into the air.


    The boar missed and slammed into a tree and the tree was instantly blasted several feet away! This was a tree that was at least 1 meter in diameter, but it was blasted away so easily!


    Mo Zuo felt a chill in his spine as he fell to the floor, seeing the boar aiming for where he would land, Mo Zuo charged up a Venomous slash! His eyes turned green this time as he felt the poison in his sword seemed several times more powerful than before!


    The beast could dodge in time and a wide slash appeared on its side, sizzling sounds could be heard as the wound became corroded, the boar squealed in pain and tried running away!


    Mo Zuo ran hot on its tail and with each passing second the boars speed reduced due to the poison, ''Perfect!'' and with a slash he cleanly chopped of its head!


    Ji Yan was extremely surprised as she watched how quickly Mo Zuo dispatched the Qi foundation beast! "That was a flame boar in the 2nd level of the Qi foundation stage." She stated while smiling.


    Mo Zuo turned around and looked at her keeping the joy in his heart hidden, "Qi foundation stage? I guess its nothing much huh?"


    Mo Zuo was very curious on his current strength level, so he called out to Jason and said, "What are my current stats at?" hearing no reply he called out again, "Jason?"


    "Calm down calm down, I''m refreshing the stats screen." Jason calmly said.


    Mo Zuo didn''t know why but he felt a sense of relief hearing Jason''s monotonic voice.


    "Here."


    ---


    Name      -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn     -:- Qi Foundation stage (2)


    Class      -:- Swordsman (Minor)


    Subclass   -:- Apprentice Alchemist


    Vitality     -:- 12.2/12.5


    Qi         -:- 8.2/15.5


    PHY       -:- 10.5


    DEX       -:- 1.1


    Bloodline  -:- [Minor Awakening state]


    Sys points -:- 76


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 3) Minor Flame skill (Stage 2) Lightning Sword skill (Stage 2) Path of Apep [Sealed]


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points


    ---


    Mo Zuo was momentarily surprised at first, but he calmly nodded his head, this is how it should be, how could I be so weak?. He looked through the stat screen and saw his bloodline had finally awakened!


    "Wow just the minor awakening of my bloodline was so powerful!"


    Jason slightly coughed in the background, Mo Zuo was unconscious so he couldn''t have know that Jason had used part of his blood to subdue an ancient serpent! It was the leftovers and the beast core that had let Mo Zuo advance to that level.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Ji Yan watched as Mo Zuo seemed to celebrate, and smiled and shook her head.


    They continued their slow walk to the Mo Clan, and seeing that there was absolutely no sign of destruction she could put her mind at ease.


    The duo went over to the clan center to report all that had happened to the elders, as they were about approaching, they saw a sizeable team of people heading out towards the rainbow forest in a hurry, Ji Yan looked at Mo Zuo with a questioningly look, Mo Zuo shrugged his shoulders indicating he had no idea, "Probably a clan mission I guess?"


    Ji Yan nodded her head and walked in with Mo Zuo. They saw the elders in a hot discussion, and the Ji patriarch and the few elders with him were there too.


    Ji Yan noticed the hidden guard that was following them kneeling in the center.


    The room became quiet as they noticed the presence of Mo Zuo and Ji Yan, relief could be seen on the faces of Mo Zhi as he confirmed the safety of his son.


    Ji Yao, the patriarch of the Ji clan furrowed his eyebrows as he saw bloodstains on Ji Yan''s sleeve, but seeing how she seemed alright he gently smiled.


    "Father! Did uncle tell you about the massive snake?" Ji Yan urgently asked.


    The hidden guard turned around and had a wry smile, "What massive snake do you mean Miss Ji?"


    Ji Yan was confused for a moment, and realised that the guard must not have seen the snake, she still felt a bit furious that the guard didn''t trust her, and almost caused a calamity for the clan!


    "You! I told you to immediately inform them! Do you know what could have happened!" Ji Yan had lost her temper by the guards reckless actions.


    The guard displayed an uncomfortable smile ''Why am I forced to play such a silly role?'' The guard thought to himself.


    "Now now, don''t shout at your seniors Ji Yan, have you no manners?" Her father asked with a playful tone. "I understand that you may have had your reasons for making such an excuse to send the hidden guard away, but its alright."


    Mo Zhu, the patriarch nodded his head with a smile on his face, "Yes yes, we understand you youngsters value your privacy, but that guard is there for your safety!"


    Mo Zhi, Mo Zuo''s father also joined in on the play, "I understand you have taken a liking to my son, but crying wolf just to have some alone time with him, isn''t that a bit too much?" Mo Zhi said while covering his mouth to hide his laughter.


    Ji Yan stood there with her mouth agape, she could not believe what these crazy old men were saying, she turned her face to Mo Zuo for support but saw a crazy smile on his face.


    Mo Zuo grabbed Ji Yan''s hand with a smile on his face, "If you want some alone time with me, all you need to do is just ask."


    Ji Yan''s jaw was almost touching the floor now. ''Am I dreaming? What''s going on?'' Ji Yan shook off Mo Zuo''s hand and angrily walked out of the hall.


    Mo Zuo smiled, and looked back at the elders before chasing after Ji Yan.


    "Don''t worry you know they are playing with us. I''m guessing they don''t want to cause widespread panic, imagine how everyone would evacuate if a snake that large attacked, it would be a mess!"


    Ji Yan looked at Mo Zuo and angrily left him, Mo Zuo seeing this smiled and walked back to his house district, today was really spectacular!


    ---


    Back in the Mo Clan Hall


    Mo Zhu and Ji Yao were engaged in a very serious conversation!


    "To think that we would stumble upon a relic site of that heretic sect!" Mo Zhu said with excitement in his eyes, there was a common legend about an extremely powerful sect that controlled the entire Xu District!


    They carried out research on how to artificially inseminate bloodlines into normal people, experimenting with the genes of several types of beasts. They were so powerful they could enslave beasts that had broken through the Dharma actualisation stage!


    It was a mystery how this great power was swept clean in just one night! Almost all records of them were wiped clean and all their various branches vanished.


    Mo Zhu and Ji Yao smiled as they thought of how strong their respective clans could grow if they could properly harness the resources to be found in there!


    But first this entire operation had to be kept underwraps and with utter secrecy!


    Mo Zhu glanced at his twin brother, and Mo Zhi already knew what to do. A purplish cloud spread through the air and surrounded all the present occupants of the room!


    ---


    In another area of the rainbow forest


    Jason slowly opened his eyes and looked around, he was sure he had already moved several hundred kilometers away from the Mo clan, but still this wasn''t enough.


    Jason doubted any member of the Mo clan could penetrate the rainbow forest as deep as he could, right now he couldn''t even guess how strong the beasts in this area were!


    As he moved deeper and deeper into the forest, while entirely butt naked, he noticed the beasts were getting weaker and weaker. ''Have I finally reached a potential exit?'' Jason wondered.


    He slightly sped up till he almost tripped on a body, Jason wasn''t used to seeing dead bodies so he paused in horror. Calming his mind he analysed the body.


    It seemed to be very dull yellow robes, with a simple black robes on it. The face of the body had purple veins running through it making Jason assume this young man had died of poison!


    This would also explain why no beast had mutilated the body! Suddenly feeling a chill pass between his legs, Jason stared at the clothes on the corpse as a crazy idea popped into his mind.


    ''Nah, I shouldn''t even think of this!'' Jason said shaking his head. He decided to dig a simple grave for this random corpse he didn''t even know the name of.


    Burying the corpse he luckily noticed a purple storage ring! But he stopped as his mind was slightly conflicted on whether he should really rob a corpse...


    A few moments later, Jason was putting on the simple black robes he had found in the storage ring, and had a brand new map in his hands. There was also a personal diary of some sort in the ring, but Jason chose to ignore that for now.


    With a map in his hand Jason was finally ready to put the plan in motion!


    Jason though back to what had happened ever since he came to this world. When he had first reincarnated into the system, the first person he met was not Mo Zuo, no it was someone else. Or something else.


    AUTHOR''S NOTE


    A slightly short chapter! For everyone who has gotten up to here, you deserve a reward!


    Mini mass release coming in a few days!


    SPOILER:


    The elders actions may seem a bit strange, but this is my attempt at foreshadowing De****ion of Mo Clan.

 An Innocent Citizen

    Jasonshook his head as he tried to forget about that terrifying experience, ''Why didn''t I just reincarnate as a plant!'' But when he thought about it, being forced to work for an ancient evil or getting peed on and eaten by wild animals every day, which was better? Definitely working for the ancient evil, right?


    He knew he would soon reach the outskirts of this area of the forest by relying on his newly gained map, and soon enough he could hear human voices.


    Moving closerfor a better look, he squinted his eyes and could see a young group of five battling with a massive bear. Using the strength of the beasts he and Mo Zuo had encountered as a reference, he guessed that this bear was most likely in the Core formation stage!


    He was impressed that they could hold on while fighting a beast that strong, but they seemed to be slowly losing the battle.


    There was a burly guy with a large shield that he empowered with earth Qi, he did his best to distract the bear, while two of his companions launched attacks from the side.


    A lady with a wooden staff summoned vines from the ground and used it to tie down the movements of the bear, and her teammate kept launching water attacks at the bear kebear''s it constantly confused!


    This was quite an effectiveformation, and Jason commended their teamwork! But he could clearly see the burly man with a shield could no longer hold on, and the attacks of his companions were getting weaker with time!


    Jason smiled and stuck a fist in the ground, ''Time to go save the day.'' And with that he lifted his fist from the ground, and a sizeable earth gauntlet had covered it! Jason currently possessed the body of an Earth Serpent, and its natural ability to manipulate the soil was remarkable. Jason clenched his fist and got used to the feel. ''This body has a lot of recovering to do.''


    He slowly walked out of the trees towhere the battle was going on, instantly causing the team to be on guard and that slight moment of distraction was all it took for the ferocious bear to break out!


    The bear looked quickly for the weakest link, seeing a single person it turned towards Jason, but its instinct warned it to stay away! It looked around and then pounced at the two support members that had greatly hindered its mobility.


    The bears strength was mostly physical, sure enough if the bear attacked, it would leave the two ladies as mashed potatoes! With the two of them gone it would be ableto easily deal with the other members.


    Jason smiled as he noticed the bear''s intention, he saw the tank of the team rushing to intercept the bear, but he was way too slow. Jason was the nearest to the ladies, so he leapt in front of them, and with his powerful right hand (Author: He was single what do you expect) he launched an attackat the bear. The fist quickly connected with the bears head and landed a solid blow!


    The bear shook it''s head in confusion as it was dazed by the sudden attack! Furious it was about to slam its massive paws on Jason''s head.


    Jason looked up at the bear, his iris turned an earthybrown and the slit-like pupils appeared once more as he leaked a bit of the desolate beast aura in him.


    The bear instantly froze, as its instincts kicked in once again, and it instantly turned and ran away at top speed!


    Jason smiled and then turned to face the members of the team, but was surprised to see awkward looks on their faces.


    Save for the two girls whose faces showed relief, the other team members had a pained look on their faces.


    "Aren''t you meant to thank me?" Jason asked slightlyannoyed.


    "Thank you? You let the bear get awa..." One of the hatchet wielders wanted to say before he was interrupted.


    "Sorry, don''t mind my mindless teammate, we are very grateful to you for saving our lives." The lady who controlled vines bowed her head slightly and responded with a meek tone.


    "How important was the bear?" Jason asked curiously.


    "Senior, this is a bit... confidential." The lady had a struggling expression as she answered him.


    "Why are you bothering with him? Lets go!" Another male on the team yelled impatiently.


    Jason was a bit surprised, he had just displayed power superior to the bear, but these set of people didn''t even show a bit of fear when facing him, and they still wanted to chase after that bear!Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The vine lady put on a gentle smile saying, "Thank you for your help senior, though I can''t repay you now, in a few days please come to the number one medicine sect, and ask for Lei Huan!" She bowed and went to meet up with the rest of the team, the water caster also bowed towards Jason and walkedoff.


    Jason stood there and watched them walk away, due to his new body his hearing was enhanced and he could catch some of the conversations they were having.


    *


    "Why did you go through all that stress? You''d have been fine evenwithout his help!" He heard the rude man who used blades say.


    "Manners, it''s all about manners! He used his strength to save us,and we didn''t even have to use a protective talisman. They aren''t cheap you know." The water caster lazily berated the blade wielder.


    *


    Jason nodded his head as he heard this, ''Just as I expected they must befrom quite powerful sects, that explains why they showed no fear when interacting with me.''


    Jason put the matter that had just happened to the back of his mind, and continued heading towards the exit of the forest.


    Surprisingly it wasn''t called the rainbow forest here, and Jason could understand, this part of the forest lacked the wide variety of medicinal herbs found in the other area, it was more green.


    He took one last breath of fresh good air and finally stepped out of the forest. Without the shade of the trees, he was able to fully feel the sun and it was scorching hot! ''In the core of this district iswhere I would find the first piece huh?''


    A few moments later, Jason had reached the closest city, there were two strong sects located in just this area, while back on the other side of the forest, only the Mo clan ruled there. Jason assumed the power levels on this side of the forest were probably much higher!


    ''The Sky realm was the peak back there, what''s the peak realm going to be here?'' Jason asked around for a good inn, with really soft beds where he could spend the night.


    Sadly people misunderstood him when he kept stressing on the ''softness'' of the beds and assumed it was some code. He ended up being directed to brothels over and over!


    Defeated he finally decided to enter a brothel, it seemed inns were quite scarce in this city. The pink light giving off by the pink paper lanterns, the scented candles and the vast amount of young masters, Jason smiled and quietly mused, ''typical xianxia brothels, I wonder if I''ll end up fighting over a young master''s girl or something....''


    ---


    Back in the Mo clan...


    Several days had passed since the Earth Serpent escaped, following its tracks, it seemed to have headed deeper into the forest and vanished! But there was still a lot of activity, asthe Mo clan and Ji clan had partnered up and begun excavating the ruins


    At first no discovery had been made, but on the sixth day, a team from the Mo clan had discovered a strange cube room! A few tests were done and they discovered that this cube could warp time flow, time sped up by as much as 10 times if you stayed within.


    Mo Zhu the head of the Mo clan was ecstatic on discoveringsuch a great treasure! The cube room was littered with all sorts of research paper, so it seemed the cube room was where the heretic sect came to brainstorm!


    Ji Yao had been trying to broker a deal concerning the usageof the cube room, but Mo Zhu had proven extremely stubborn.


    Mo Zhi on the other hand was very excited, his son Mo Zuo had broken through to the Qi foundation stage and truly awakened his bloodline!


    But Mo Zhi had some slight worries, the strength of a bloodline couldbe seen by how much the cultivation and strength is increased on awakening.


    But Mo Zuo''s awakening was by less than 9 small cultivation stages, an amazing result, but Mo Zhi had expected a higher cultivation jump...


    Putting this small matter to the back of his mind, Mo Zhi went tocontinue the preparation for Ancestor Ji''s healing.


    ---


    Mo Zuo and Ji Yan had gone on several more adventures after their last fiasco, none of then were as dangerous as the previous one, but they still found a great number of rare herbs and treasures.


    "We are pretty rich right now you know? Who knew getting money was so easy!" Ji Yan had a gleeful smile on her face, she started thinking of all the things they could buy!


    "Well, my clan normally takes 45% of the rewards obtained from the forest by normal mercenaries and the likes. But our special identities protected us from the exploitation." Mo Zuo calmly explained to Ji Yan, "45% may seem a lot, but the amount of effort we take in monitoring and protecting this area of the forest, the 45% is a bit cheap."


    Ji Yan nodded her head as she subconsciously rubbed her full storage ring, imagining 45% of the contents taken away slight horror shone on her face.


    Mo Zuo looked at the storage ring on Ji Yan''s face enviously, he had requested one from his father Mo Zhi, but Mo Zhi was too busy handling the Ji clan matters.


    So Mo Zuo had to constantly carry his spoils back to his house in a very large sack! Worse was how he had to stuff his gains in the ceiling of his roof, night after night! Buying a storage ring was his number one priority right now.


    As he and Ji Yan strolled back to the Mo clan, he noticed some of the guards harassing a skinny figure. In fact he could even recognise some of the guards, they were the ones who were chasingme when I first arrived in this body!


    He felt a bit annoyed seeing those guards, now that he had gotten stronger, it was about time he disciplined these disrespectful guards. Looking at the pitiful man being harassed by theguards, Mo Zuo decided to stand up for him.


    "Why are you harassing this innocent citizen?"


    "Young master its not like that..." One of the guards tried to explain.


    Another guard chuckled and laughed, "Let this ''innocent citizen'' go, you heard the young master!"


    The ''innocent citizen'' looked at Mo Zuo in shock, without even thanking him, the ''Innocent citizen'' fled as fast as he could!


    Mo Zuo furrowed his brows as he began to sense something was wrong. He looked at the guards for some explanation, but saw one of them shake his head in pity, some of theother guards were even secretly laughing at Mo Zuo.


    "Young master... that ''innocent citizen'' was spottedleaping out of your roof." A guard said.


    "Ehn?!" Mo Zuo said utterly shocked!

 To The Nearby Town!

    "Hahaha, so that''s the herbal thief from the quest!" Jason said laughing at Mo Zuo''s comical expression.


    Ji Yan could also be seen using her sleeve to hide the fact she was giggling, ''This Mo Zuo guy...''


    Mo Zuo smiled at the guards and answered, "And so? You didn''t know I ordered him to inspect how weak the Mo clan security was, and as I expected, you are all trash!"


    "If even I, the son of the first elder could be robbed so easily, what does that say about the rest of the occupants of this great clan! I will be speaking with my uncle and let''s see how he deals with your incompetence." Mo Zuo snorted, and looked at Ji Yan, "Ji Yan let''s get out of here as soon as possible, I don''t want to be near these incompetent losers any longer."


    Ji Yan laughed and followed after Mo Zuo, the guards that were just berated were utterly confused and didn''t even know how to counter Mo Zuo''s harsh words. ''This... he is obviously lying, right?'' They each wondered, but seeing how Mo Zuo didn''t even bother chasing after the thief they began to even doubt themselves...


    Mo Zuo and Ji Yan walked back to the house, and Ji Yan couldn''t help but ask, "You obviously didn''t hire anyone to test the security did you?" She said as she slightly tilted her head.


    "Of course not, but the security is really loose, I wonder how he got in?" Mo Zuo was in deep thought.


    "Why aren''t you worried about the thief then?"


    Mo Zuo looked at her smiled but didn''t answer. This caused Jason''s curiosity to be piqued, "Why aren''t you bothered?" Even he had to ask.


    "You see the quest says we should go into the town and find the herb thief and for 50 points, not stop him at the gate. You have to follow the quest!" Mo Zuo explained.


    Jason nodded his non existent head in realisation, "True, true..."


    Mo Zuo walked up to the stairs, and went to the top of the roof to check the herb stash, there were hundreds of herbs still present but Mo Zuo could tell it was a bit lighter.


    "How are you going to track the thief?" Jason wondered what Mo Zuo was doing by searching through the herb stash, case by case.


    "I''m trying to identify which herbs were stolen, that would be my first clue!"


    "You want to spot the stolen herbs out of these hundreds of herbs?" Jason asked shocked.


    "Yup, my memory is pretty good... alright! they took 14 herbs! And they were mainly of the ice type, but two were quite rare and expensive... hmm.." Mo Zuo said after a while.


    Jason was utterly shocked, could Mo Zuo remember every single herb?


    ---


    Back in the brothel


    Jason woke up and saw a man with heavy make-up sleeping in a corner of the room. Remembering what had happened the night before, Jason felt chills run up his spine.


    *


    He had gone to the lady in charge, and told her he needed one of them best rooms with a soft bed.


    She led him to one of the top rooms, and asked him what sort of girl he''d like to accompany, and Jason told her that he wasn''t interested in any women, he just came here to sleep.


    The lady opened her mouth slightly in realisation, and nodded her head and left.


    And a while later Jason who had already drifted to sleep woke up to see a man with heavy make up entering his bed.


    Jason looked up at the man in shock, and then instantly understood what had happened, ''These damn people and misunderstanding! How does me not wanting any lady mean I want a man?''


    Too tired to argue, Jason kindly explained to the man he didn''t need his services tonight, and that he could leave.


    But the man refused, and told Jason that if he left so early, he wouldn''t get paid and he urgently needed the money to pay off his sister''s heavy debt.


    Feeling slight pity for the man''s situation, he had let him stay, but of course he refused to share his bed, that bed was for Jason and Jason alone!


    *


    Getting up that morning, he took a quick shower and headed out the room, there he met the head lady waiting for him.


    "I trust you enjoyed your night?" She smiled at him.


    Jason, didn''t feel the need to explain, so he just nodded his head, and continued walking out.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "Cough* Emm I think you are forgetting something sir?" The lady said as she stretched out her hand.


    Jason looked at her a bit confused at first, then realised he forgot to pay! He reached into his back pocket to pull out his debit card, as a former flamboyant millionaire, spending money didn''t mean so much to him.


    Except this time, his trusty wallet and credit card weren''t there! ''S#%+!'' Jason peeked into the storage ring he obtained and prayed that there was any amount of money to be found there!


    The lady had a slight frown on her face as she noticed Jason''s panicked face, "Is there a problem sir."


    ''Oh there''s a problem alright, this guy''s ring is broke!'' Jason thought silently. "I seem to have misplaced my storage ring with all my gold in it...."


    "Sir this is a very serious problem. Not only did you use our most expensive room, you also ordered such an expensive service..."


    ''The F#$& I never ordered it!'' Jason thought infernally, he smiled at the lady and asked, "How much is it in total?"


    "Sir, the room is worth 250 gold per night, and that special service ... is worth 750 gold!"


    ''750 gold?!!'' Jason felt his body growing numb, everything he had on his body including the storage ring was only worth 150 gold. ''God, I''ve got to take care of my reckless spending habit.''


    He looked the woman and smiled, "Madam, you may not know, but I''m very powerful... is there a way we can work things out?"


    The lady looked at him, and his muscular toned body, he did seem quite ''powerful'' some of the older female clients might take a liking to him. She nodded her head "That might actually work out."


    "Ah, you didn''t even ask me for my cultivation level? Can you already tell?" Jason''s raised eyebrows showed how shocked he was that she agreed so easily.


    "Cultivation level? What for?" She looked perplexed, this fella is not gonna fight a war in the bedroom, does cultivation really matter?


    For some reason Jason started feeling like she may have misunderstood him once more, "Madam, I wish to pay up my debt by protecting this place with my strength... do you understand? Like a body guard." Jason tried to explain as easily as possible.


    "Oh... of course, yes, of course! My boss has been looking for people to help him carry out a mission, he''d be glad to have you sir."


    Jason carefully nodded his head, though the Earth Serpent had lost quite a bit of strength due to all it was subjected to, in its root it was still a very powerful beast! Handling any mission should be a piece of cake.


    ---


    At the top of a high cliff near the border of the Mo clan....


    Mo Fen tilted up his bow as he aimed towards the sky, Ji Yue was sitting on a nearby tree stump and quietly watched him.


    This Mo Fen fella had surprised her even more! On the very night that Mo Zuo had entered the Foundation stage, the Mo Clan was in an uproar! Mo Fen had entered the core formation stage at just 16 years of age!


    Dense blue Qi wind swirled up around Mo Fen''s body and wrapped around the arrow, his eyes glowed blue as his vision increased. He pumped his bow with more blue Qi, and pulled back the string, the Qi had made the bowstring harder to pull back, the muscles on his left hand became tenser as he stretched the string farther and farther, till he could no longer hold up.


    *Pang*


    Ji Yue heard a loud sound, and flash of blue, but looking at Mo Fen he was still in the same position with the arrow still in between his fingers.


    *Pang*


    *Pang*


    *Pang*


    *Pang*....


    Ji Yue became puzzled as she kept hearing this sound over and over, but Mo Fen was still in the exact same position! The Qi around him seemed to be getting a bit thinner though.


    *Pang*


    This time Mo Fen''s hand finally dropped from the bow, and the arrow was nowhere to be seen. ''What''s going on?'' Ji Yue was utterly confused, this was the first time she had met him training after so many days, but this... this was just bizarre!


    She looked up at the sky, and her mouth opened in shock, looking at the clouds, they were filled with enough holes, that it looked like swiss cheese!( Yup, swiss cheese)


    Ji Yue took a glance at Mo Fen''s quiver, and to her surprise the quiver that was always full, was entirely empty!


    ''How fast did he reload the arrow? And I didn''t even see a thing! What!'' Ji Yue thought flabbergasted, this reload speed was insane!


    Mo Fen''s eyes were still glowing blue, and he zoomed into a distant region, he spotted something and slightly shook his head. Mo Fen glanced towards Ji Yue as the blue glow slowly dissipated from his eyes, and lazily said, "Come let''s go."


    After several days Mo Fen had already gotten used to Ji Yue''s presence, and even if he didn''t want to admit having her around was....


    "Where are we going?" Ji Yue tilted her head to the side and asked. Mo Fen brought out a bowl from his bag, if Mo Zuo was here he would have noticed that this was the same bowl he left for the hidden guard the night the Earth Serpent appeared!


    Mo Fen looked down at the bowl and recalled what had happened that night!


    *


    He had still been on his search for that rare flower, but hearing such a loud commotion, he soared to a higher vantage point and activated his innate blue eyed falcon spirit!


    His eyes could slightly make out the Earth Serpent''s figure, and watched as it saved the Ji clan''s hidden guard, and even saw it transform into a human and run into the woods! A beast that could morph into human form? Chills ran through his normally dead heart, as he didn''t dare guess how powerful the Serpent was!


    He hastily formed a note describing all he saw, and with his powerful bow he had quickly sent the information to the Mo clan''s quarters.


    He then slowly watched the Earth serpent run out of sight, when he saw that it had gone several kilometers away, he started heading at top speed towards where the ground caved in search of Mo Zuo!


    He arrived there, and noticed the massive hole created by the Earth Serpent, he slid down and noticed Ji Yan knocked out unconscious, a giant blood cocoon was glowing in front of him.


    Seeing Mo Zuo seemed to be alright he had planned to leave, till his bird innate spirit began to draw him to something, curious he moved closer and noticed the broken beast core, emitting a strong snake Qi!


    This snake Qi that was normally toxic to Ji Yan, was a delicacy to his bird spirit as it jumped out of Mo Fen''s body and pounced onto it as it hastily begun devouring it.


    Mo Fen was shocked, his spirit had never done such before! He wanted to let his innate spirit continue drinking this Qi, but seeing that Mo Zuo apparently needed it, he summoned his will power and dragged it back!


    It was a fierce tug of war between him and his own spirit! Mo Fen hastily fled the area and left the underground cave.


    As the spirit re-entered his body, the mighty influx of Qi triggered his breakthrough into the Core Formation stage!


    After a sudden breakthrough, he felt a pang of hunger, and managed to see the bowl of food Mo Zuo had left behind.


    *


    Looking down at the bowl, he slightly smiled, ''That cousin of mine can really cook...'' He gathered his thoughts and looked back at Ji Yan.


    "Want to follow me to the nearby town?"


    Author: More information on innate spirits coming up soon! Poor Mo Zuo everyone keeps taking his cultivation ingredients!


    Help me spot errors please. Thanks!

 The Plan To Catch A Thief!

    A certain room in the brothel had been set aside for Jason, and he was allowed to stay there rent free. He was to wait for the ''boss'' who owned this place and several other establishments to return before he could begin.


    Jason lay down on his bed and began to brainstorm possible ideas in which he could make a bit of wealth, he had gotten too used to his former wealthy lifestyle, and this sudden onset of poverty was very unfamiliar to him.


    Thinking about it he decided that going into formations would be the best route for him! He was already fascinated by the formations ever since he got here, looking at the way some formations were set up, it was very similar to a computer program!


    Formations weren''t only used for protection in this world, but you could even see formations used for entertainment, for example the illusory formation in this brothel, it displayed scenes of exquisite dancers, and the sounds were ever so enchanting.


    Jason got up from his bed and decided that while he waited, he must construct at least a basic formation!


    He had a few valuable materials in this ring, but they were not even up to 70 gold coins. Shaking his head, he looked in the direction of the forest he had just came out of, ''Time to make a bit of money!''


    ---


    At the outskirts of the Mo clan....


    Mo Zuo had a huge sack sprawled across his bag, containing several cases of herbs, he had asked Ji Yan to help him hold it, but she was been needlessly stubborn. He started to wonder if she enjoyed seeing him suffer.


    He glanced at Ji Yan walking right next to him. she didn''t wear her usual white battle robe, but had on a casual dress, seeing her dark brown hair gently swaying in the and the sun shining on her face, Mo Zuo gently gulped and looked away, ''Wow, she''s actually a bit pretty...'' he thought.


    Ji Yan caught sight of Mo Zuo glancing at her and sported a puzzled look, she had accompanied Mo Zuo on his trip to the town, so that she could sell off some of her perishable herbs and possibly buy some cool new materials! And to be frank, she had nothing better to do...


    Mo Zuo wasn''t so bothered about the stolen herbs, he was more interested in completing the system quest! To his surprise, ever since he entered a new cultivation stage, the system had a few new things in its store. He could now purchase a proficiency book that would increase his alchemy skills by a significant margin, there were some interesting martial skills available, and a very cool new tool worth 80 points. He couldn''t wait to try these things, but sadly his system points were way too little!.


    Mo Zuo soon arrived at the gates to the town, the walls surrounding the town were quite high, at least 4 meters! But for most cultivators who had reached the Qi foundation level, a casual jump and they''d be able to scale this fence!


    Mo Zuo analysed the guards and he could see that they were mainly at the Qi gathering realm, it was a weak town so he wasn''t too surprised.


    The guards so the duo and their eyes lit up, seeing Mo Zuo donning the robes of the Mo clan, they instantly stood upright, and slightly bowed their heads. Mo Zuo gently nodded at them as they freely entered the town, the guards didn''t even bother searching him, who would dare fake that identity in this town? The presence of the members of the Mo clan was heavy in this town, and an impostor would easily be spotted!


    The streets at the entrance were littered with all sorts of stores, and plenty people could be seen chattering up and down. Unlike the peaceful scene found at the Mo clan, here was much busier!


    "So due to his clothing which covered at least half of his face, we couldn''t get a clear look at him, but there''s a good chance he comes regularly to the Mo clan. I''m guessing he must have spotted all your trips to the forest, and watched you closely. You also said ice type herbs were missing right?" Ji Yan asked, "Is this how we are going to find him?"


    Mo Zuo smiled and explained to her, "Actually finding him is going to be pretty easy. I know exactly what he''s up to and what he''s going to make. The herbs he took, are 75% of the components for a meridian cleansing potion! I once saw this exact recipe in a book found in the library.


    Now I''m guessing for the remaining 25%, he would use the non ice based but valuable herbs he obtained, to trade for it."The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "So, this guy is an alchemist?" Ji Yan asked a bit confused.


    "Actually, I don''t think he is one, you see he seemed a bit anxious and in a hurry, and the nature of the pill is more of a cure to a heat based ailment." Mo Zuo observed, he remembered how the thief had run away in such a hurry, like he was out of time.


    "Hmm, that''s true, and if we went around asking for people who matched his description, he could pick wind of this, and instantly run away." Ji Yan added in from the side.


    Mo Zuo nodded his head with a smile. "You see that''s why I wore the basic disciple robes of the clan and told you to put on something casual."


    He pulled out a letter from his pocket. "I obtained this letter from my father, and presenting this to the lord of this town, we would host a material exchange! My cousin Mo Fen has also been looking for a rare flower, so I invited him too."


    "Ah, so in the material exchange you''d pick him out as you watch him exchange for the other herbs?" Ji Yan was slightly amazed at this simple but effective plan.


    "He''s desperate, so I''m definitely sure he is gonna look for the remaining herbs, and he is in luck, as I happen to just have them in this sack." Mo Zuo said with a sinister grin.


    "Wow, you''re smarter than I thought." Ji Yan said surprised, she would have never expected him to come up with such a plan.


    "Well I couldn''t execute this without my fathers backing you know." Mo Zuo tried to act humble, but a smile could still be seen on his face.


    Jason silently snorted, as he watched Mo Zuo take sole credit for the plan ''they'' had thought of together, but he didn''t complain, problem solving had always been his forte.


    "So we are going to see the town head?" Ji Yan asked.


    "Of course, we''d send him the letter, and in a few days from now after news spreads a bit, we''d host this material exchange. You can obtain all those silly things you need for your formations."


    "What? Silly things? Weren''t you the one hiding under my silly formations two weeks ago?" Ji Yan couldn''t believe someone had just mocked her formations.


    "In the end wasn''t it a weak alchemy skill from my father that had the wolf running with its tails in between his legs? Formations are cool, but you know alchemy is better...." Mo Zuo said proudly.


    He had been practicing alchemy a lot and his Dexterity had even leveled up! right now his stats read:


    ---


    Name            -:- Mo Zuo (16)


    Cultvn           -:- Qi Foundation stage (2)


    Class            -:- Swordsman (Minor)


    Subclass      -:- Apprentice Alchemist


    Vitality          -:- 12.2/12.5


    Qi                  -:-  8.2/15.5


    PHY               -:- 10.5


    DEX               -:- 1.4


    Bloodline     -:- [Minor Awakening state]


    Sys points   -:- 76


    *Other Statistics are currently not available*


    Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 3) Minor Flame skill (Stage 3) Lightning Sword skill (Stage 2) Path of Apep [Sealed]


    Current Quest : Go into town and catch the thief who stole your entire herb stash. Reward - 50 System points


    ---


    His minor flame skill had also been levelling up as his practice with fire control increased, he found alchemy was a bit similar to cooking for him, and he was a natural!


    Ji Yan heard his shameless boast and just shook her head and ignored him.


    Thinking about Ji Yan, Mo Zuo remembered what he had heard from his father, even though she was 1 year younger than her eldest sister Ji Yue, she was more skilled than Ji Yue in formations!


    At just the 4th stage of the Qi foundation realm, Ji Yan could already produce Peak Yellow Grade formations! Ji Yue was still stuck at producing entry Yellow Grade formations, putting it in contrast, a peak yellow grade formation was equivalent to the peak Qi foundation stage! Ji Yan was a prodigy, and heavily pampered by her father.


    Mo Zuo on the other hand could only make Mid White Grade pills and the sorts. But considering he had only begun a few weeks ago, it was acceptable. His father was capable of creating peak blue grade or even entry level red grade pills!


    Red grade pills that were heavily sought after by sky realm experts!


    ---


    Jason had finished his hunting for the day, looking at his storage ring full of all sorts of beast cores, mainly those in the Qi foundation stage, but those in the Core Formation stage could be occasionally seen.


    He could instantly one hit kill Qi Foundation beasts with his current strength, but dealing with Core Formation was a bit more tricky. But he was confident he had cleared the surrounding area of any beast in the Core formation level, going in any deeper would have proven a bit more risky. That was till he could recover his full strength.


    Jason quickly went to the nearest shop he could find, and met with the shop owner, and cleared him of every single gold coin he had! It was a shame it was only 105 coins he obtained, and his storage ring had only reduced by a quarter!


    Jason smiled as he felt the coins jingle as they entered his pocket, if he could do thus every day, he should be free of all his debt before the boss even came back! Turning around, he headed to the nearest Formations guild!


    ---


    Mo Xi stepped out of the time warped cultivation chamber. Breathing out heavily and with his clothes gummed to his sweaty body, Mo Xi flashed an excited smile, the nearby disciples moved a couple of steps back due to the sharp sword Qi flowing around Mo Xi.


    Mo Xi slowly sheathed his sword and loudly said.


    "8th stage of the Qi foundation realm, achieved!"


    Author: Alright so a bit more insight into this story. This would be the first book in my series, and the main focus would be on balance and chaos, I''d probably edit the prologue soon, and include the serpent guy referencing the second law of dynamics, about how the universe tends to chaos.


    My second book Descent into Damnation, would be a continuation but still related.


    I''ve already planned the end for both books and at times I just wish I could just write the crazy ends I''ve planned out!