《Isekai Abduction : A Speedy Ride To Another World》 1. ITS CURTAINS FOR WALE
AUTHOR''S ANNOUNCEMENT i''m a total newbie in writing at all so my prospective audience please do put some of those shiny star rating your support is the greatest motivation for this elder''s ministry. I have some backlogs which I''m gonna post for starters, once i''m done with the backlogs I''ll open up my patreon for those angelic readers who wanna support this elder finances and don''t worry you can also support me by opening reddits and discord community groups also by generating related arts feel free to do that NOTE:Art is created under this novels copywrite should be under this elder''s purview all right reserved
I am Morakinyo Akinwale my friends calls me Wale 23 years old, a soon to be graduate of L.A.S.U, well my life changed on a fateful day when I got an phone call about my babe at the hospital for reason I can''t fathom just knew that it was real pressing a situation midway while I was speeding up for all I''ve worth at first it was calm then the next moment the bike was right on collision course with truck kun at first bright light and then darkness. the day before At 7:30 in the morning Damilare Jared was facing the standing mirror checking out his style of dressing , making sure to look cool before committing to going out "Umm Wale bro won''t you hurry up for lecture you know that the old ghost Prof. Aderemi is like ''Virus'' in the movie''3 Idiots'' (Viru Sahastrabudhe )" Jared said "Jared please stop fretting like a worrier you know I''m like rancho if that Prof. is like Virus" Wale answered then he jabbed " heh I know for sure that you don''t dare act like we the natural first classers lest you get laden with carryovers ha-ha" with expression of resignation Jared bade Wale goodbye but just before he passed through the door "oh and Lucia asked that why didn''t you picked her calls that she want you to help her with the assignment", Wale groans and answered "look Jared when you meet her tell her that I''ll be a bit late to school, that I''ll be there somewhere around 10:00am" "you sure?" Jared confirmed "yes" Wale said, "Ok then we''ll meet at school" with that Jared took with him his assignment files and his Iphone X and left the room with the sound of the door closing behind him. Now the room was like any bedroom for the Boyz... An explosion site like it was the world war II trench warfare area with books and some clothing strewn around, the room is in a one room apartment building commonly found in Nigeria oh yes it''s the ''legendry face me I face you''. "Oops!" Wale snapped open his eyes "the Prof. Shodiya''s assignment!" with that he bolted out of the bed, got himself into his clothes, grabbed his phone, quickly finalized his assignment and left the room. downstairs "Mama Lasisi! Mama Lasisi!!", "yes what''s it Wale it''s not like the world is coming to an end or do you know the date and time of the apocalypse?! lets know what will be able to do about it humph", Mama Lasisi snorted as she was at her storefront glowering at Wale feeling miffed, well you know Mama Lasisi could be a bit cantankerous at times but most of the time, she''s a sweet old lady, "ah no ma it''s just that..." "it''s just that what!",she cuts in and then continued her tirade "that you want to rupture the old ear of mine?!" "sorry ma" he muttered "it''s just that I want to leave the room''s key in your care ma please don''t be annoyed. Oh and in case Jameela comes by tell her that I am not available." "ok then Jameela''s hubby just be careful of those ladies in skimpy clothing don''t let them distract you from your true purpose in place as its for your scholastic endeavors" she adviced "ok ma I will heed your advice" Wale said "just be careful you know that it''s becoming harder and harder to survive in Nigeria where what is rightfully ours is becoming a luxury to have," she said, and then she asked " well I''ve said my piece now boy where''s the key" wale gave the key to her and went on his way "well then boy I think you have a bus to catch" she said with that Wale left the scene and Mama Lasisi continued her clean up and setting up her stall in preparation for the day''s market Well as you can see I leave at Ayobo along the Ikotun Egbeda lane and man traffic jam made it a sin to leave home at certain periods of time from home because the road was...uurrrgh! honk! hoooonk!!" hey! guy-man stop to dey block road na!" a driver shouted at the other, "this God forsaken traffic uhrg!", wale complained " man lemme get down from this bus to get a bike," with that he flagged down a bike negotiated the price and hopped on the bike on his way to the university campus.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. around 9:30am "hey there Wale," a girl greeted " hi Lucia," Wale answered "why didn''t u come early," she questioned "well I got stuck in a traffic ja..." "so do every Lagosian" she cuts in "Wale if you could have just..." " it''s ok it''s ok just chill babe no need to be vexed as you can see I''m here now happy?" he cut off her would be tirade before it started, "just got one or two things running before I came running to campus, here now this is the assignment of Prof. Shodiya that were going to submit soon so take this rush-hour and complete yours too," wale then continued "oh! and don''t forget to submit my assignment once it''s time ok?! with that wale skillfully diverted her attention elsewhere Jared was in high spirits shiba meme coin just made its initial all time high and he had been on the update for quite a long time now "time to cash out before it all comes crashing down" Jared muttered to himself he then proceed to break the news to wale and his cohorts before returning home knowing that some of his other friends who ran the same update as he did and some really did invested heavily into the shiba meme coin he knew that it won''t be long before one of them gets the party started in celebration of a successful investment and that put a small smile on his face. at around 2:49 pm Jared got home and met the door locked "well I thought wale won''t be going to school whit all that bluff of his seems that he is just full of hot air" Jared couldn''t help but to chuckle a little to himself, he haven''t even settled down yet before he received a call from a friend nicknamed Gentle who gave him the time and place for Smallmoney''s party. Jared knowing that the guy nicknamed Smallmoney was one of the people that invested heavily in shiba meme coin decided to share his party invitation with Wale who still didn''t reply his chat maybe he is still mid lecture. " those blasted lecturers seem to have trained an eagle eye for those who are using their phone while receiving lectures" he muttered angrily while preparing his lunch" just what am I going to wear this night for the party" at around 5:26pm when Wale finished his lectures and checked his phone for any relevant update, he felt poleaxed with what he saw and with a supreme effort he calmed himself down despite that he could not stop himself from grinning like a maiden who just met her first love. i''ll soon get my bike from the dealer and i''ll soon have finally rented my own apartment, bye to Lagos traffic bye to sharing of room at least if caught in a traffic jam I''ll still have some wiggle room to navigate it and quickly get to where I''m going to, as for sharing of room I''ll finally be able to invite Jameela to my OWN room and no negotiating with my roomie when inviting her to my personal room.'' he thought The news hit Wale so profound on him that even when trekking to the bus stop to get a ride with Jameela alongside him Wale was still in his own personal Disneyland when Jameela shook him out of it , "hey wale you seemed lost in thought while smiling like a Cheshire cat" "no its nothing" "it''s always nothing " "it''s just that I have a surprise for you tomorrow " "hmm what sort of surprise could it be now man of mysteries" "ok I''ll tell you what" Wale said, Jameela quirked an eye brow "and?"she asked "there''s a party tonight" Wale said while pausing for effect and saw the impatient look jameela was giving him so what''s so special about the party aren''t there parties every day in Nigeria..." Jameela wanted to continue her piece but got interrupted "and we''re invited, and It''s at Badagry beach area" Wale said clearly excited and continued "so prep up when you get home ok coz we''ve got a party to catch." with the party in mind wale and Jameela boarded a bus home. When Wale got home he asked Jared about the procedure of cashing out, Jared indeed put him through the process and Wale decided to cash out all of his shiba meme coin investments instantly, which he found that even after getting a bike and an apartment there will still be something left in his account for the future. that done he and Jared prepared for the party got the confirmed location of the party from Gentle with Gentle''s confirmation he left home around 8:00 pm with Jared to get his bike at the dealer''s shop, little did he know that the bike will also ride him to another world. You know there is this thing you do when you get something new and wanna flex it... for the first time thankfully Wale had prior knowledge about driving a bike, well have had not one but two people been isekaied on the spot they floor boarded the throttle and woohooed all the way to the party. at around 2:00 am mid party Jared noticed Jameela Wale''s girlfriend behaving strangely and signified wale "hey wale your girlfriend seems to be a bit fried," Wale took a glance at where Jameela was socializing with the others and found a guy getting overly smarmy with her, face blackened he went to get Jameela out of the group towards the bike "now Wale calm down", she slurred "no!," wale retorted "Wale I just wanna have some more fun," she complained "the only place where you are going to have some more fun is in the hotel, in bed, sleeping!" with that been said Wale got Jameela on bike "oh someone is getting jealous" jameela said "no Jameela it not about been jealous it''s about the fact that the guy with you..."he paused already calming down " seems to have an interest in getting you drunk for an unfathomable purpose" Wale continued "he could have even spiked your drink you know." throughout the ride Wale noticed Jameela been strangely quiet but attributed it to the grogginess induced by too much alcohol. Wale got to the nearest hotel that he could afford and book a room overnight for both of them then handed the key to jameela then left for the party. it was around 4:33 am in the morning near the end of the midnight party that wale received a call "hello Wale on the line, who am I speaking with" "pardon?! what did you say happened to jameela ?" keeping a straight face and forcing a calm on himself he notified Jared that he''ll be going quickly to attend to his girlfriend and left the party in moments he was on top speed heading to the hospital at least that was what was in his head till suddenly a long deep honk, two bright light searing his vision and then darkness. the instance it happened the watcher was a bit intrigued by the sudden energy spike near Akashir''s cosmos seeing that he has been battling Emrialel for some eons now and it has mostly been a stalemate, he decided to look into it in fact there had been some immortals that has made their move and seeded the cosmos but been a god king as he is, he simply suspended the spatial temporal laws and created a karmic entanglement which birthed earth''s of alternate timelines causing him to preserve the original timeline in order to keep observing it ''well, well, well, let''s see what interesting thing that again will be of the original timeline hmmm'' Emrialel a true god got an interesting pique when he got a pulse originating from deep within the universes and he saw a hyper-dimensional energy release from a mortal world albeit a very weak one of which the organisms in it can barely break the void. the energy travelling from the mortal world he observed was in-bound for another world of which to his shock severely lacks Qi but still with living beings he immediately seeded the world with a wisp of his Qi which to his disappointment Akashir''s Qi wisp collided with his trying to obliterate it but suddenly there was a thing which surprised him that happened it was the karmic entanglement that managed to create different timelines, one of which both his and Akashir''s fading spark entered. "so the god king acted huh?" he couldn''t help but murmur in subdued shock. 2. BODY HEIST SCHEME Deep within the mountainous jungle in an unknown location of a certain region, a man with a deep and serious visage was working on something amazingly no one was in a five li radius around him'' there have been those unfortunate souls daring enough to cross that gap thinking they will succeed but those unfortunate souls got summarily executed by a young looking beautiful girl who has a visage that will chill the reaper to the bones "spies detected and eliminated at the minor Dui location", she whispered curtly into the voice transmission talisman. The person at the other side simply grunted in reply, with that she continued her patrol through the area. the man who had just acknowledged a voice transmission was in the area continues his work unhurriedly without a change in expression of the news he just heard to him it''s just like listening to a random gossip then he paused an amused look crossed his face in which he starts monologuing as if the lady at the other side was his superior, " this talisman unlike the others will not burn and fly to its location giving its receiver away no, it runs by mother-child resonance which is a new development specifically from me so they do not have a counter to it yet," the MOTHER-CHILD ACCORDANCE RESONANCE TALISMANIC TECHNIQUE you all use was created by your junior brother''s liang yun''s inspiration regarding this formation and if I wanted a bunch of kids nattering away in my head I would have learnt the technique and joined as well, too bad that I am not interested at all" the lady at the other side of the transmission talisman was not surprised at all she seemed to have been used to this strange behavior of her master, and then he continued "THE HEAVEN PIERCING FATE OVERTURNING CELESTIAL DIMENSION GRAND FORMATION is almost done", he said in a low voice like the whisper of a gentle breeze the girl at the other side heard it clearly though with her high cultivation base and a bound connection with the talisman, then the man looked up to the stars and said "it''s almost time, all is all well and done on my own part but we need a stellar positions and the dragon vein formations positions in Lan Yuan continent to match one another, " "this will trigger the descent of celestial Qi causing a collision between the world''s Qi and celestial Qi, normally this will only agitate the Qi of whatever world this happens to causing a boon to all cultivators there but..." " but this formation does more while that previous one will cause boon to the entire world it also needs to be a world spanning formation which I do not have an expertise of, neither do I care about the world" " in short I only need a small portion of what Lan Yuan has to offer just an instant and I''ll get what I want the instant when a collision between the world''s Qi and celestial Qi occurs" " the instance all the energy gets converged in a single point will punch a hole through an unfathomable amount of realms in the fabric of reality to bring me my heart''s desire ha! ha!! ha!!!" " such, my dear disciple is the genius of the CELESTIAL STAR ORACULAR SECT," "but the idiot who developed it wanted to use this as a bride price to a wastrel of a young master of a certain sect? wanting to use such a sublime formation to curry favor from him humph!" he harrumphed then he brought out two voodoo doll looking enchanted items to inspect them "well they deserved to be wiped out for their idiocy why won''t they be destroyed when even the sturdiest of walls won''t block the wind," "the information leaked and they got fucked up by their so called allies in the orthodoxy," "we simply benefitted from the side," " the war that erupted back then was simply a farce something used to make us the unorthodoxy lose face," "we just ended up becoming the fall guys again and again those self righteous assholes might as well be worse than a devil," done with his ranting he sagged a bit then he re-read the manual kept closely with him which bore the title of LIFE AND DEATH INSTANCE REINCARNATION TECHNIQUE for the last time and then destroyed it on the spot "not that I had not fully memorized it anyways" then his eyes flashed tension evident in them, "Yin''er" he called "yes master" came a curt reply from Yin''er "heighten your guard, the time to act is nigh remember even if they are of the unorthodoxy just kill on sight no questioning, ok" "yes, sect master" his face calmed before he made a face that looks regretful ''I would have had more disciple as capable as this girl if given enough time,'' he thought " I would not have emptied villages and towns worth of mortals and draw the orthodoxy''s attention to my machinations " then he took time to sense his cultivation base and cursed "how unfortunate it is that I Yu Ren the sect master of the BLOOD CONTROLLING PROFOUND SECT will fall for bastards that ''supported'' me in the unorthodoxy not knowing that each of them did so to get me in their grasp and I didn''t see it coming blinded by my greed and ambition as I am," " not being vigilant towards their schemes which got me in their webs,"This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. "the unorthodoxy being groups of hyenas, and the orthodoxy being groups of vultures waiting to pick your corpse clean to the bones" " and now my cultivation base is now having problem all due to that shitty pact ritual that I undertook with them which they somehow used it to scheme against me" " I will bet my sect on it that it''s one of those old fogies at the upper echelons that tweaked the normal ritual into the debacle I found myself in and now the possibility of traitors amongst my ranks" " Yin''er, as you can see this is the reason I decided to vanish from the cultivation world and picked you and some other talented kids to train to this level before I returned," "so also to study my path of formations to a profound level but my I measured the time at which my cultivation base will regress out of my current which gave me around twenty more years to act or fall to a lower realm I refuse to accept that thus my decision," "I decided I will pick one of you children to speed things up which made me turn the males into eunuchs to use their primordial yang as an augmentation to their cultivation in accordance to the PROFOUND PRIMORDIAL YANG SEALING ART," " the techniques purpose is to redirect their yang flow and speed up their cultivation beyond compare," "not that it wasn''t without a greater-minor sect worth of resources to burn on them anyways," "after that dual cultivate with you to rapidly increase your realm till it became at the peak of core soul realm which is the sacred soul stage one realm below mine at such a young age so as to make you their leader " " not that the rest did not improve fast" " but they are not fast enough to be really useful.... in this current life perhaps, the next life" then he laughed sardonically to himself. Yu Ren got another alert again from Yin''er about another spy taken down what took his attention is that this time this was no mere scrub it was an elder of WU LUO SECT judging from the description of his crest which is a greater-minor ranked sect which means the orthodoxy are getting restless for action "just but a little more time action you want action you will get" he checked the stars "almost there" he remarked clearly excited, "soon no more bowing and scraping to some higher ups in the unorthodoxy" "I Yu Ren will re-cultivate in a new body," " a body with the talent that surpasses the heavens," "right under the nose of the orthodoxy without them recognizing me this could be called the ultimate disguise a LIFE-DEATH DECEPTION!" then he lit an incense stick "in around an incense stick of time the convergence that happens once in every ten thousand years will occur and that will be the time to act" and then silence befell the entire jungle a deafening silence that of which you hear a pin drop in a li radius, in that silence Yu Ren sat and meditated waiting for the moment to come to pass, by now he could taste his success in the air figuratively of course he went through his entire journey from a mere mortal to his current realm he remembered, how he was when he was a mere mortal his mom and dad ''even their visage has slowly faded from my memory'' he thought he remembered how he promised to them that he will one day flip the heavens, how he promised to them that he will one day become a cultivator, their wide smile at his braggadocio, his betrothed, ''at least I still have an impression of her,'' he ruminated and continued reminiscing ''we could have just spent the rest of our mortal life together if not for the a week before our marriage when village got overrun by a beast tide,'' ''only to find out later that it was the LITTLE CLOUD SECT who was supposed to protect us that used a beast luring formation to guide the beast tide away from their precious cities where most of their income comes from with that and the collateral damage it caused as a ''small price to pay'','' '' heh! as far as they are not the ones paying it with the lives of their disciples or elders'' he reminisced on how he became a cultivator by joining the nearby dojo of THE DRAGON SUBDUING DOJO which could almost rival a gang in power it''s leader Mu Tai Hua was a charismatic and powerful man who managed to subdue and merge not one but two dojo at once after taking on both masters at once in a ring duel bet. ''he was well on his way to turning the dojo to a gang before he was assassinated by the DESOLATE WOLF GANG leader and some of his "elders"'' rumor has it that he is a lackey of a lesser-mid ranked sects inner disciple, '' the death of the dojo master splintered the dojo which gave me the opportunity I need to become a cultivator even so I had to become an independent cultivator since I have become too old to be received in a sect otherwise become a lackey or some sect servant to someone my lesser in age which I loathe to do,'' he then chuckled ''they even gave it a prestigious name of trial disciple who all are servants in all but name.'' ''this was possible because of the cultivation method and detailed experience which described how I could begin my journey as a cultivator thought me some certain principles which can make me bring the most out of the techniques that mastered that I manage to hold on to during the nigh-violent dissolution of the dojo'' ''after I reached the minor realm of dantian manifestation preparing for dantian transformation of which will allow me to break through to the realm of body refining, there I got news from a rumor of which a certain young master from the song family will head for a ancient ruins and is hiring low level cultivators into his retinue to the ancient ruins which I went for,'' '' I imagined the lots of vitality rich plants which will speed up my cultivation'' '' I imagined that I could lay my hands upon if lucky also harvest some spirit pant and keep it totally out of sight not that anyone who is at will sense it'' '' though and anyone who able to sense it might just look down on my harvest unless what I got was extremely precious which I will promptly hand over and blame my bad luck for.'' '' but I was foolish, the drive to quickly breakthrough my current realm to body refining had blinded me to his sinister plan of not letting even a fly leave alive of course unless it is the fly of the song clan,'' ''he collapsed the entire tunnel that leads to the outside trapping us to a slow death'' '' I was lucky to have found an area full of vitality plants and a small spring which is full of sustenance which and some mystery books'' '' I chose to whether the tribulation that befell me with there I found an exit to another unfamiliar region of land twenty three days later and I left but not until I consumed all the vitality bestowing plants and broke through to dantian transformation stage,'' '' as for the others left behind... their state?, unknown'' It will later become known that this ''young master'' song is song zi chen whose family will now offered what he gained to the PURPLE CLOUD SECT a lesser-mid ranked sect in exchange to make him their honorary outer disciple which was due to the way he entered the sect which was not by power but by resources. thus made the clans position in the region more secured, since then I have been trying to get back at him we fought any time we met, close calls?, yes but neither side was able to overcome each other thus a stalemate "humph!, when my plan succeed song zi chen, I will bide my time with you and hit you when you least expected it that will teach you a lesson you shall never forget" with that he got up and muttered "it is time." 3.SONG ZI CHENS POV meanwhile, in the same location an above average fair looking man was standing at the top of a mountain looking at the vista below as if searching for a lost object with a fairly gleeful look "I want to see the look on his face when I finally deal with him" he then brought out a Jian sword start gathering his Qi and momentum readying the latest iteration of his SWORD PIERCES THE HEAVENS TECHNIQUE fairly pissed by its long wind up the previous iteration to this technique do not need that long time to wind up, then he asked the elders that came with him about their preparations of which, he then went through his memory about this ''thorn on his side'' of which their enmity started some 400 years ago or so. "this is still an incomplete technique, but it got praised by the training hall elder as the only technique that I have that could severely threaten him , as for the others even with my best effort it was ''passable at best'' bringing the words directly from the training hall elder" "all thanks to you Yu Ren it''s because of you that I was able to upgrade this technique to this level and I will thank you by making you the first person it felled, and lead an army to wipe of your sect off the face of Jia yuan" "I will never have imagined that not directly exterminating you will lead to all what has happened to me through you till today," "in a way it was a disaster but who is a cultivator if not for someone who is to defy the heavens, ready to do what is necessary to achieve what he wants" the image of a person barely old enough to be considered a man showed up in his mind glaring bloody murder at him as he coldly blocked the only exit from the ancient ruins to the outside world "talented though, your age just worked against you, if you just have started cultivating since very young to have been qualified to be called a talented genius if barely" he said as if the person he was talking to was present he had now fully gathered his energy which he is now layering on the sword albeit with some difficulty then he continued with a sneer "all thanks to you little old enemy, of all the time we have battled, from time and time again we have met and battled, time and time again there was no conclusion to it, fairly equal we are an observer of our history might think, but I know this time there will be a conclusion to all these ''minor scuffles'' we have had in the past, for I have come to exterminate you this time you won''t be so lucky" "humph! you were just an ant that I deigned to allow to enter the ruins temple with me, glaring at me helplessly while I did what must be done to cover my secret fortune, you should have just obediently died in the collapsed temple, never in an eternity will I have known that we would have met again." " Imagine my surprise when we met years later, how I almost lost my life, severely injured the instance we collided, the shock of witnessing you decimate my retinue all with just some skills I considered basic and not worth much, without much protection I ran... from who I once considered an ant? Such a shame." "jeered at by my colleagues in the sect, and losing my standings in the hierarchy of respect, due to what befell me during my second expedition to the ruins that only the fact that I sacrificed my retinue kept me alive from you as the threat you are." he then dove into his memory while also being alert to his environment ********************* Song Zi Chen remembered the time that he was but a lowly disciple at the LITTLE CLOUD SECT he was but a mere outer disciple then even for a young master of the song clan which is barely stronger than a gang. He still felt discontent with his position being a young master taught him one crucial truth, which is ''to always delegate the unpleasant works to the others and take the glory of their success to add to your own'' thus, this is the path of a young master. This lesson was thrust to him during a certain occasion when he helps devised a diverting plan to save two cites from a beast tide that could while not wipe the city out will cripple its ability to defend against other hostiles. It was a success that which the reward was heavily discounted by the higher ups with my cousin the legitimate heir to the clans head was handed most of the rewards why the elders excuse was that the recommended ''a more fitting person'' for recruitment to TAI XIU ZHEN SECT a lesser-mid ranked sect famous for their battle techniques being the strongest in the province. It was due to the fact that he was made the leader of the mission and of course a core disciple of the sect if not for my little ingenious plan he would not have succeeded he in his testimony of what happened almost negated my contribution to nothing. What was witnessed here by me first-handedly is the callousness of the relationship dynamics between the ''lessers'' and the ''betters'' and blatant nepotism, he could still feel the echo of the vitriol he once had for this ''cousin'' of his before he surpassed him. I took this in as fish takes in water and learnt from it was a profound lesson to be learnt that ''the essence of being able to progress quickly on my path is to be able to make people contribute or sacrifice in my cause regardless of whether they want to or not'' I went to a form of ''seclusion'' in this case I did not go to increase my cultivation but to form a network of acquaintances in the sect spanning the elders and disciples alike even servants in this to pave my way for me and that being done I took a long-term sect mission which will afford me contact with the local Jiang Hu which enabled me to build a base of lackey outside the sect .If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. It was also not without profit because, one of my contact brought to my attention a rumor about an ancient ruins discovered, I decided to take the initiative he informed his parents about his plan came clean as much as needed using their influence to gather needed manpower and to scout for a recruiting sect. Since he told them about his plan of moving beyond the province, using some contribution point to buy supplies from the sect, I enlisted about three loyal outer disciples whose influence in the outer court depends mostly on their connection to me then set off . All said and done my parent had used the families influence in the sect to secure an audience successfully with a sect elder who therefore brokered a deal that involves submission of his findings to the sect and they will also recommend him for the sect recruitment exercise that will take place at the PURPLE CLOUD SECT which they are being subordinated to. Midway during the mission he suspected that the other young master and mistresses must have panted spies among his retinues and the people he hired along the mission to the ruins, to which he devised an extremely simple but vicious plan. The plan is simple burying them all there, with some exceptions though, like his sect mates and those whom he personally trained during his time posing as a dojo master in Jiang Hu, there was where he first met that lad whom he so totally suppressed, tossed in alongside the other suspects and buried alive along with the ruins. It was a total success things went as planned even as an outer disciple here if things go right then he will be more powerful than an inner disciple in the LITTLE CLOUD SECT where he came from. "Success!" I thought, "in just a few years I have reached the minor realm of ''dantian formation'' fully on my way towards body refining and gained an entrance in a tier III sect all those competing siblings of mine at home I have left in the dust, never again will they be an obstacle to my ambitions, after my second expedition to the ruins my cultivation will grow by leaps and bounds ha! ha!!" I settled myself in my new sect for some years growing my cultivation to peak of body refining, mastering my techniques, taking missions outside the sect to grow a sizable influence there and improve my acquaintance with people of higher status within the sect, outer sect elders, inner disciples and such while subtly gathering lackeys both in the outer sect and in the jiang hu even managed to have some disciples there in case I might need them but mostly to maintain a presence there. After I have gotten a headway in the sect and my momentum is increasing, in order to take things up another notch, I intended to visit the previous ancient ruins since I did not take all that is in it leaving some behind. In case the arrangement does not go as planned even if all things went well should I now obediently handover all my earnings to the sect just for some nebulous recommendation from what might not be the sect but an elder with a fairly good connection to the higher ups? oh no!. And so did I song zi chen gathered up a new crew of both sect lackeys and jiang hu lackeys before setting off to what devolved into a disaster in the form of Yu Ren a previous ant, seemingly at the level of a dojo master in all but cultivation level, who then gave me the defeat of my life. The horror the loss of face amongst peers and lessers alike, I took a painful lesson that "never!, never will I song zi chen I will never leave a loose end ever again any enemy that come across me is better off dead or in a state of which they are of no threat again, I will start deepening my martial training that just my presence in battle alone will skewer victory into my team''s side making me come out on top in every battle, this from henceforth with the path of a young master I forged for myself shall be my DAO!". With my ''DAO!'' and my resolve to back me I improved by leaps and bounds made breakthrough to higher and higher realms won sect competition and trials one after the other not without some losses though got scouted and become a promising recommendation to one of the sects that PURPLE CLOUD SECT must answer to if called and the sect is SWORD CONTROLLING PAVILLION a rank V sect and a subordinate sect to the SWORD HALL as a recruit. It is like all the bad luck from the strings of the good fortune I had comes crashing upon me, once I decided to go after his trails to hunt him down only to met him and he broke out formations and talismans like they are bok choi and I almost got refined alive by him. I never knew that he was the ''demonic master'' that I was sent to capture or kill in my mission''s descriptions, had I knew then... well there is still nothing that I could have done about it at that time damn it!, there I realized that as I was developing the world will not just sit down and wait, my enemy from back then is also developing . Now we will be meeting again me as a sword''s master of the SWORD HALL and him as the sect master of the BLOOD CONTROLLING PROFOUND SECT, by fate or by a fortuitous encounter, I came by a news from some of my lessers who is an elder of the... sect a tier III sect sent for their help I almost got angry and punished the messenger for wasting my precious time which I could spend cultivating or tempering my techniques into reading trivialities. However when I heard the name of the aggressor involved caught my attention, Yu Ren the man that I song zi chen is totally determined to kill by my very own hands, with that I collected myself controlled my anger and sent a servant to check whether the mission of exterminating the sect master of the BLOOD CONTROLLING PROFOUND SECT is still available, of which was available. This was the time I took a glimpse of something that eluded me for a very long time how you make seemingly lesser techniques strike beyond its normal capability and I managed to partly comprehend it and fused the little I gleaned into this new sword form of mine, now we meet again, Yu Ren and today will be the day you die by my sword! ************************* His eyes grew sharp he sensed the swell of Qi sensed a formation rising to the sky fifteen li away summoned another jian sword from his spatial ring linked the fully loaded jian blade with a thread of Qi so as to achieve limited control in its ultra high-speed flight towards the target and also prepared to enter close combat in case he blocks the opening technique At that moment, a grand formation that astonished even him activated his jaw almost dropped he only knew vaguely what Yu Ren is up to, and not everything he is up to and set up his pawns right under the enemies nose to assist him in crucial times and he kept secrets to everybody but himself and those strange band of disciples he showed up with right after he vanished from the cultivation world for around sixteen years and came back The formation grabbed his attention from his mild reverie because instead of going up piercing the sky to infinity it converged and... "Wait is that a hol...!" Something vaguely humanoid fell from the sky an elder looked to the sky" he is summoning...!" Yu Ren rose up to meet it and Song Zi Chen will not be having any of that hence, launched his opening attack. Belatedly, he remembered some ancient text warned about summoning which was about the fact that they could inadvertently summon a demon to their realm if not done precisely he was going to use this to discredit Yu Ren that even if he escapes this time he won''t even have sanctuary available for him in the unorthodoxy ''Right turn him into public enemy number 1'' ''Let''s see how this goes'' he thought and acted on his concocted scheme since the opening attack did not kill Yu Ren outright. 4. SCHEMES AND BATTLES Yin''er guard me Yes sect master, she abruptly ''manifested'' behind him due to extreme speed With that he order the sacrifice of which one thousand Qi initiate at the ...level were slautered to power up his auxiliary formation ''This is a formation that is meant to capture the summon, guard and transport its user to another location'' ''This formation is what I am depending onto get I want and bolt, leaving the orthodoxy to punch cotton'' he thought Then he made a hand gesture and activated the grand formation The grand formation created a piercingly bright light at all its nodes, what was strange about this is that it all converged some ten li above his head and then pierced an extreme point of reality of which it blasted a hole through so many realms in a bid to do as intended which is, to summon the fated one. there was something akin to an infinite darkness in which light could not reach in its middle. Knowing that the summoned will be coming through soon, he made his next move. "Activate!" ordered Yu Ren The protective formation flared a bright purplish light and rose from the ground with Yu Ren to capture what fell from the singularity in the sky , he immediately produced some talisman of which he made a simple array to contain the body, midway when he was almost done he sensed danger. Shatter! crash! boom!, he did not have much leeway to turn, he simply delivered a palm strike which contains a lot strength, this is the only thing he could do on a very short notice, the incoming attack struck at reduced power though, even that was too much for the man who was caught off guard Yu Ren was shocked when the attack struck, he knew who had launched it judging by the aura the attack was bearing, he did what he could do to block it, even so, he just lost an arm doing so and the formation he was placing on his prize was incomplete. " Song Zi Chen!" he hollered, rage and pain warping his visage ''I will not be given a chance to complete this huh, '' he thought indignantly. '' Very well then, time for LIFE-DEATH DECEPTION plan it is then,'' Yin''er saw the whole thing unfolded, barely saw it though, ''It was like one moment master was on the verge of completing the esoteric plan of his and a flash of light, a boom of thunder he lost an arm, just like that?'' she was puzzled Fwoom!, the master appeared in a blur and handed to her something of importance, told her to extract herself and her martial siblings from the place find a safe place to keep the body and wait for the awakening. "For your master will not show up in his old ''mortal shell''" he said while gesturing to himself "But will present himself by awakening with this mortal shell I give to you". he said while gesturing to the other body and vanished, only to see that the ''master'' talking to her was a phantom clone, her master in truth with the three senior sect elders was confronting a placid looking sword wielding young man mid air. She looked at the body she was given and voodoo doll thing surrounded by talismans arranged in specific places on the body she was given, and saw an elder surreptitiously leaving the young man''s side in search for... something then it dawned on her that it was her team who are the main gecko in the plan and the master and sect elders were to be the tail in this plan. She, her brothers and sisters ran off to the distance in different direction confusing their would be assailant(s), while activating MOTHER-CHILD ACCORDANCE RESONANCE TALISMANIC TECHNIQUE which is a group technique to keep contact mentally in a five thousand li radius. During her escape, suddenly she sensed that she was been pursued, never would she had known how the elder pursuing her knew that she was the one with the body, anyways she was not fazed, she made a bold decision, she threw the body towards Liang yun and went forth to confront the attacking elder. ******************** Liang Yun received a message from his big sis, unfortunately the ''package'' he was supposed to catch has sailed over his head but he could still see it ahead ''I should be able to catch up to it before the orthodoxy''s disciples'' he thought, then he brought out a fast speed talisman, a reinforcement talisman, and a that boosts output of qi to form a minor talismanic formation that made him break the sound barrier. Yu Ren glared at Song Zi Chen," a sneak attack from you a ''righteous cultivator'' how despicable" he growled both in derision and in pain "All is fair in war as far as victory is assured" Song Zi Chen answered, he was secretly shocked that Yu Ren survived that blow head on and survived. Yes. They were both at the noble stage and their realms are both kings the difference still between an early and late king is not what could be bridged by some formation no matter how intricate it is, even though he put a truly significant portion of his qi into the attack with only loosing an arm and he sensed that Yu Ren is weaker than him he still took him seriously for Yu Ren has proven himself a worthy foe to be cautious of. "All the orthodoxy know is sophistry and backstabbing" Yu Ren mocked secretly buying time for his sect senior elders to come aid him, not knowing who will be traitorous among them he decided that he might just dispose of them all and fill that place with his disciples later but that will wait after this battle..., if they survive.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Song Zi Chen was also stalling for the elder that he deployed has not brought good news to him about the capture of the girl he sensed making off with the otherworldly summon whatever it is demanded to b destroyed and girl captured virgin or not will be turned into a cultivation furnace to harvest her cultivation. This will add to his own momentum of which his cultivation speed moves all thanks to the JOYOUS UNION SECT that procured a special method to attune the cultivation cauldron to one''s self and reconcile the resulting instability if dual cultivation is practiced. Seeing that the elder will not be forthcoming he decided to start his scheme denouncing "Yu Ren! by summoning an otherworldly demon into JIA YUAN and by sacrificing the lives of countless people of JIA YUAN, you have offended man and the heavens with your deeds!" he denounced "And you and by extension the rest of your sect have been considered guilty of the crimes so therefore, I Song Zi Chen hereby stand as an arbiter to deliver justice upon you on behalf of the heavens!" and with that done he ordered an attack to his forces down below and he with his team of sect elders engaged Yu Ren and his elders. ******************** Senior elder Lan Nuo Fu is having no fun at all, he was the one that was in charge of gathering information over Yu Ren and whatever other concerns about him ''how exactly was that damnable Yu Ren able to disappear from my radar so thoroughly that he was able to train this monstrosity of a hidden disciple able to contest with me a LORD level cultivator as a mere Sacred soul without me knowing'' he thought furiously. Even though he barely stepped into that stage as an early lord he should have been able to swat the girl like a fly, what makes him more dismayed is the way the young master treats the people who fails to meet his expectations friends and enemies alike. Yes, he has the weakest among the lords that came to battle but why he was brought here is to be able to perform special duties during battle given that he knew more about the enemy well ,not like the young master himself but at least he knew more about Yu Ren than any other elder present he ought to be able to strike his weakness consistently making him falter, while the others slowly overpowers him in direct battle. but now a problem smashes into him in form of a ''little girl'' who is not even forty years old yet but able to skip realm to fight him what surprising she was almost on par with him with punches and kicks that threatens to shatter bones and a movement speed akin to a relativistic meteor. ****************** HOW IT ALL STARTED "During my scanning of the region I discovered quite an interesting girl a girl of which has so much potential that she could be useful as my newest cultivation furnace" Song Zi Chen jested using voice transmission among his underlings. "Young master, might you have developed interest in that young lass" Lan Nuo Fu asked "Yes and, go get that girl for me," he ordered "Yes, young master" the senior elder answered and left So he went to pursue the young lass wanting to make a short work of her and then suddenly a loud bang was heard, the sky quaked and the ground shook then the bag flashed with what might thought as a treasure light a bag which she threw to the horizon. Lan Nuo Fu was shaken by the blast causing a minor destabilization in the unity of his body and soul, he almost plummeted from the skies of which he levitates, through the corner of his eyes he saw an item of which he guessed to have being the ''otherworldly summon'' and maybe one of the precious treasure of Yu Ren''s, he was a bit curious about the ''thing'' though He sensed a group of disciples milling about the perimeter using his primal sense projected a Qi phantom towards the location "You, you and you there, go retrieve that object for me" he ordered and pointed to the object currently sailing midair to the horizon. "Yes elder" the disciples below answered, he handed some high grade talismans to them to aid them in battle and some other special situation seeing that the object have already travelled far. That settled he then continued his pursuit knowing that the girl cannot outrun him, but suddenly light flashed from below, the girl vanished he merely registered a blur incoming and a foot materialized in front of him, he sneered and just simply protected his torso by reinforcing it with qi wanting to capture her in a swift move. One moment the elder was midair pursuing what should have been an easy target another moment he was violently ''nestled'' within a mountain. Elder Lan was shocked, while Yu Ren''s sect disciples has been known for hitting like a battering ram regardless of gender or physique this here is a whole new level. he did not have much time to ponder when his sense flared warning him of incoming danger. He hastily created an aegis to shield him, which almost immediately shattered with a foot stomping through he managed to dodge the foot this time but not the explosion and shrapnel that came after which he was sent flying he went high enough to see the caldera left behind by the girl''s technique. He was bleeding both blood and Qi, blood because he was injured Qi because he is too busy reinforcing and shielding himself from the girl''s attack, the body of a Noble Spirit Lord is basically different from those below its stage for both body and soul is one and one has access to a true domain to lord over allowing you to enforce certain rules in your domain. However Lan Nuo Fu is a shoddy lord with what could be barely called a domain kinda like a pseudo-Lord but this still should have made him far more powerful than a mere Spirit Refining Sacred Soul Individual yet he has his ass handed to him by what should have been a ''junior?'' Yin''er checked her Qi and found that her Qi is running dangerously low, she knew that as the strongest disciple of her master and she is only able to barely match the elder pursuing her , she gets caught and her life will be worse than death. thus she triggered BLOOD RETRIBUTION SECRET TECHNIQUE to bolster her LUNAR JADE RABBIT KICKING TECHNIQUE with all the power of her aspects and the pseudo-rule that she comprehended that of speed and of might and went after the elder at with all she''s worth, with the power almost rivaling a Lord for just that moment. Despair gripped the heart of elder Lan, when the moment he just got his bearings midair a voluminous and feral aura billowed from down below him he put down his plan of attack and favored an absolute defense strategy trusting that the girl will run out of Qi before him, of which the lass reached above him and stomped. Yin''er knew that this secret technique used will burn her vital and spirit Qi in one supernova making it possible that she is able to remove the elder from the equation , ''one less trouble for master the easier it becomes'' she thought ''so one less elder it is then''. Elder lan received another kick from Yin''er this time from overhead which sent him plummeting towards the earth Yin''er gathered her Qi to form a small platform which she could kick off from oriented herself headfirst to the ground and kicked, bolting towards the ground at absurd speed. Elder Lan smacked into the valley, forming a crater in it. his spine shattered even for a lord it was just too much to take at once, he sent a distress signal of which there was a delay due to the fact that they are still engaging Yu Ren. Yin''er landed foot first in what she had dubbed the LUNAR JADE SKY STOMP first time using it successfully though crashed through the impromptu barrier that the elder had made smashing trough his chest and obliterating him and widening the crater. There she stood huffing and puffing, the fight took more out of her than she thought, in the middle of a battle that seems to span the horizon that could be dangerous, she was about to go and recuperate- shunk!, the sound of tearing flesh, surprisingly she also not just fell the sound but felt the tremor in her body, she was injured, severely at that. 5. THE AWAKENING OF WALE Yu Ren saw during the confrontation that a non-descript elder in the party of Song Zi Chen had disappeared an uneasy feeling gripped his heart he knew that his survival now hinges on two things First the fact that he will go so far as to self-detonate to muddy the waters and secondly to transfer his soul to his target through the mother-child doll and he now currently held the mother doll ready to activate at anytime also with a switch to self-detonate as soon as his soul leaves his body . ''This will buy me time to posses the otherworldly body and bring my plan to fruition'' he thought. However the moment he tried to get close to Song Zi Chen to engage him in ''combat'', he never expected Song Zi Chen who will welcome him directly in combat previously to suddenly change his style and switch to the pretentious sophistry of him being the arbiter of heavens and whatnot. Before he could clearly read the situation he realized that he had been trapped, he has had a premonition of betrayal for long he never expected the act from the senior elders though but from the ordinary elders of his sect, and so he fell for a betrayal. '' It is no wonder Song Zi Chen had the time to babble about some arbiter crap , no wonder the lackeys he brought did not make a move'', he looked down his forces below been decimated and captured . As one final gambit simply activated the mother doll which sent his soul out of his body towards the child doll and the body it''s on, but someone had added a soul layer to the formation trapping him. He saw the knowing condescending smile of Song Zi Chen the conniving smile of the third and second elder and the first elder was subdued... by them of course and his cultivation hamstrung. And then he did one last and spiteful thing of his life, he activated the exploding formation carved in his very own flesh with all his Qi and even a part of his soul. Kaboom! went Yu Ren, louder than the fireworks of the 4th of July did his body exploded, before darkness could claim him, he saw everyone plummeting from the sky at what could be called terminal velocity, felt a tug in his soul pulling him to the child formation still. ''If I can''t be transferred whole at least I still got transferred in pieces heh!'' a bit of humor leaked in his thought and then he knew no more. Unbeknownst to everyone this transfer of soul or what is left of it, is what made it possible for Elder Lan Nuo Fu to spot Yin''er before their fight. ********************** Yin''er felt the impact of something... sharp, tearing into her flesh, she whirled lashing out a kick to an empty area she thought the attack came from, bang! the area exploded in dust and debris even though the kick did not connected to anything. ''A sneak attack, who dares to...'' she thought, shocked she used her senses to scan the area only to discover that there was no one around, then just as sudden did the bushy area not so nearby ''burst'', what flooded her was hundreds of disciples rushing to her with the intent to make her dead. Yun Xiao wanted Yin''er dead so badly, but you can''t just go waving your sword blatantly in front of the person who killed your sect elder in three moves would you?, he swallowed a blood Qi ignition pill Using a body strengthening talisman, a sharpness talisman and a concealment talisman, just to land a nigh fatal blow unto her even so almost received a retaliation which would have surely killed him if it connects of which Yun Xiao is in no illusion that he could dodge. He then used a delayed flash spell, launched towards the sky as a flare, to summon more disciples to swamp the injured and exhausted girl to the death though he''ll still continue his assassination attempts until successful anyways, oh how he was so wrong the spell while not breaking his concealment indicated the position he was in which sealed his fate. Yin''er simply used the forbidden form of the BLOOD RETRIBUTION SECRET TECHNIQUE which burnt her vital Qi and spirit Qi as one, killed the disciples surrounding her around the direction she sensed the flare''s spell aura coming from, bolted towards the location and bombed the area with a crowd control spell which later broke his concealment, spotted him and ended him with a kick to the chest and Yun Xiao was no more. The reinforcement called by Yun Xiao came but that was useless, it was not the time that she just finished fighting the senior elder that they came, even though they came in many, they died also in droves, suddenly she felt a chill down her spine, she was about to dodge but too late she have been severed in half. Song Zi Chen woke up in a crater, of his own making though, he stood up slightly disoriented and checked his surroundings, there he saw the ruinous aftermath of Yu Ren''s self destruction among his retinue. ''Only me survived... again?!''he thought. It gave him the flash-back of the past where Yu Ren gave him a bitter loss where only him escaped alive but this time he did not escaped, he survived, were it not for his sect clothes which serves as a body armor that soaked in what would have been the straw that broke the camel''s back for him he will not have survived that blast. He was not prepared for such an attack which was unleashed at point blank range, making him suffer a huge loss, and now one of the vile spawns of his own creation was running amok in the army that he Song Zi Chen commanded?Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. He in a fit of rage took out his sword, quickly layered with his SWORD PIERCES THE HEAVENS TECHNIQUE and released it, the sword sailed towards its target and severed her into two. He then ordered the death of the BLOOD CONTROLING PROFOUND SECT members, put a sizable resource out for bounty as far as they bring the heads of the BLOOD CONTROLING PROFOUND SECT, sect members, elders and so on then ordered an investigation on what Yu Ren summoned and it''s whereabouts also the rest of that slain girl''s teams whereabouts too, he wants it done and it should be done with immediate effect. ****************** Liang Yun was running for all his worth breaking the sound barrier beyond the factor of two with augmentation of his talismanic formation of course, prior to this he received a bag from his shimei earlier on which contains the single most important part of the mission, the master''s body or at least, the otherworldly body he intends to posses. He like the rest of his siblings knew that the war was a sham anyways, but things could go from ''swimmingly'' to ''so wrong so fast'' and he is not the one to take chances, he preferred to have an expected outcome in every situation. The master Yu Ren , had recognized this tendency of his and cultivated him towards that direction till he is the young man that he is now, though unassuming at first sight he is a brick wall of competence, should anyone becomes unlucky enough to smash his or her head against, the person will feel very, very sorry to have done that. And so did he took the body away, forging ahead towards the rally point which will be the area where all of this debacle will end and master wakes up in a new body, he met an obstacle, nothing much just another group of orthodoxy''s Qi cultivators ''well well well'' he mused he then set the place up, chocked full of talismanic formation. Done with the setup, he then threw the bag to the middle of the formation making a loud thud, how sensitive could a cultivators ear be?, they quickly came to the site of the dropped bag and secured the perimeter against the would be aggressor Seeing that things fell perfectly Liang Yun decided to spring his trap, he sets off the earth spikes talisman not the one that create earth from Qi but the one that quickly moulds the earth into spikes and throw it, it was dodged, then it exploded, sending flames, Qi earth spikes and a concussive shockwave. The result?, one standing, three slightly injured with one among them incapacitated and most killed, of which even the one standing upright has to reinforce blocked some of the attack and also shield himself using a lot of his Qi before surviving his trap. He came out swiftly to engage the one standing in battle, but not after he used some hidden weapon an exploding talisman stuck on it, kaboom!, and so did the lives of the incapacitated and injured ended, the only one left in the team was the un uninjured but exhausted Fu Yan the leader of the vanquished team. ''However there are still some others that were not caught within the formation who still needs to be eliminated before they sing song to the wrong person who will come tracking me down as for the lone leader he is just a fish on a chopping block'' he thought in derision ''though I have to act fast some fishes can get uppity at times he must have had one or two hidden move under his sleeves to somehow keep his cool''. he noticed that the leader. Fu Yan during the time when Liang Yun was eliminating the ''stragglers'' had sent an invisible ''sos'' to whichever team is nearby able to help him, ''at least even if one team comes I can burrow the chaos that ensues to escape no amount of promised treasure can buy my life back if I die that''s if I even get as much as was promised after I do their bidding'' his thought to fight this adversary of his had waned, only leaving the will to survive was left in him,. Unfortunately for Fu Yan no help was forth coming, at least for the immediate present when he needs to preserve his life from this unassuming grim reaper he is unfortunate to come in contact with, he readied his jian sword which is a spirit weapon and his spirit armor then he went to confront Liang Yun. While eliminating the group he was on, he noticed an approach from his back turned he coated his fist with a dense layer of Qi and without any superfluous movement he delivered a punch the punch and the jian connected... the punch won, sending shockwaves into the surroundings and Fu Yan staggering away. Fu Yan tried some more , but he was foiled at every step of his plan, and what''s with the help that is not forth coming, Fu Yan decided to breakout his secret weapon THE BLACK SLAYER''S AWL of which he made use of promptly in his next bout. The little radiance that seeped out from the bag, in a weak flash it came and went, not one of them on the battlefield felt it or saw it, they were too occupied in killing or trying not to get killed to do so. Liang Yun had sensed something off from Fu Yan when he managed to land what should have been a decisive blow in his third confrontation with this purplish blue robed individual, not only did he stood back up he even had the energy to charge back at him. Doing a scan with his spirit sense at the person he about fell, he discovered what his master has once described as spirit armor on him, "oh no wonder he had not scurried yet he seems to be a fat sheep save you for last then I will eliminate you and get your gears to sell for more cultivation materials" he mocked. ''I Fu Yan... was mocked?'', Fu Yan saw red never in his life had he Fu Yan been treated like this even in the sect where he came from not even some of the core disciple wants to incur his displeasure becuase of one person his grandfather who is an alchemy hall elder and also his backer who has immense political connection in the alchemy hall no one wants to offend the big shot it doesn''t worth it for them to do so. "I will get you for this" he swore full of grievance, "I will get revenge for this indignation that you heaped upon me this I swear by the heavens and my life". he then attacked. Liang Yun full of confidence that the youth attacking him is already a turtle in a jar decided to end the farce quickly due to the fact that the ''fight'' had lasted longer than it should have due to him having to eliminate the easier target first, anyone might overhear the aftershocks of the fight happening here and worse come to interfere which will be unfavorable to him he has a rally point to reach. He dodged the first swing followed by delivering his IRON FIST TECHNIQUE to Fu Yan''s torso and caved in his head with the next punch he missed the small smile that came from his enemy while he dodged his opening move he did not quickly feel the venomous needle piercing his flesh which sealed his fate even if he was the winner It was during the time he had almost fully gathered his spoils into a spatial pouch disguised as a common rucksack that he felt the prick he looked to his torso a black needle was stuck in there he searched for an antidote any he could recognize but found none, then dizziness overtook him, he staggered unto a nearby tree, slumped and never to rise again. A bit into the distance some few yards away, the previously unmoving bag was twitching for all it''s worth, it then ripped and a hand poked out a body about to emerge. ANNOUNCEMENT This is to tell all young''uns that this Elder as a person would like to place this story on a brief Hiatus, for the Elder''s council call and he must heed but don''t worry this elder created a free Patreon page tier for all my young''uns to peruse, hence your super interesting stories is still safe and secured. And note this Elder promised that He''d make 20 chapters on royal road before he received his call-up letter from the elder council to serve his nation for just 1 year only, I''ll be doing a lot of my postings on Patreon and I''ll also be doing that of royal roadThis tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. So after this post, it''ll go like this, 2-3 posts per week on royal road, 2 posts ahead in the free tier Patreon & 10 posts ahead just for $3 on my Patreon site. So that''s the end of this elder announcement, He does wish y''all an enjoyable reading and a happy new month in advance 6. SEEKING A PLACE TO STAY Wale struggled and tore off his bindings, he felt like someone who just his bike against a truck, the sheer amount of pain he was feeling in his body was not helping a tall the only thing he know for sure is that he had to get out of this thing that wraps him up tighter than the wrappings of a swaddling toddler He eventually ripped it off only to behold a sight that scared the shit out of him, his wounds healing at the speed visible to the naked eye and the last parts of his joints repositioning themselves like there is an invisible chiropractor putting his bones together from its dislocations His fears further skyrocketed when he saw that the area he woke up from seems to be the re-enactment of a Biafran war battlefield that is to say it''s all bombed up, his instincts was screaming at him to make himself the scarcest commodity in that area but reason put a bit of resistance with the question ''how the heck did I survived all this'' He then scanned the entire area nobody yet to come and check the area, ''the soldiers will soon be coming but from which direction'' he scanned the entire area some more before the bodies captured his attention. ''They seemed to have been hit by a grenade judging from the damage and then someone called an air strike air strike possibly done by a helicopter he surmised... but how did I managed to survive all that bombardment?''. Who or whatever did this must have been long gone, leaving me a short while in this area before the forensics comes in to do a thorough check in the area provided I am in a government ruled area not a terrorist turf like Sambisa forest. Maybe I was a victim of human-trafficking since none of this area or dead bodies screams Nigeria! to my senses he then went to check the bodies left on the battlefield, he saw that they are still carrying some paraphernalia he then decided to take some clothing for himself since he saw one nearly unmarred sitting in death under a tree. I wonder what happened to this poor bloke, probably was sent flying and died on impact due to internal injuries, he then proceed to scour the battle field thoroughly clean of even the barest scrap of man-made items and left all the corpses naked ''they wouldn''t feel shame would they? he mused while wearing the drab clothe of the man he found under a tree, then he continued scavenging ''dead man tell no tales well autopsy and such but hopefully their autopsy would not snitch on me that I so very conveniently took from them''. what he took includes a rucksack and was going towards the nearest hill in search for any land marks that can lead him towards civilization... wait a minute I... how did this bag fit them all?!. he dropped the bag like a burning coal in hand, he then remembered that moment he woke up holy! I ended up with a juju bag that can swallow all things. He wanted to bolt there and then but... all the stuff that he had put into the bag for survival purposes this won''t do and what''s with the Asiatic dress hmmm the looks uh the clothes! I was trafficked to a rural maybe china but definitely Asia that creates juju bags huh? ''Keep cool, oh really, you need to keep your cool man, losing your shit is the last thing you want Wale, just go up that mountain to find maybe a foot path or at least a major road and get to a village town or something other than this forest, maybe a farm and just don''t get accused for stealing the farmers produce coz that will be meh''. With that in mind he continued his journey uphill he managed to reach a height till he couldn''t climb anymore and then turned to scan the area he still saw the devastated pace he came from in an area near the valley. well its evening, and now that I am stuck here with nothing but me and my thought, no and also a juju bag let''s see if it swallows all what is put within or can also show some love and cough out something useful I''ll not complain, not at all He then turned the bag upside-down lo and behold he was swamped with the absolute mass of the stuffs that fell out of the bag he quickly turned it right-side-up to stop lest things go to waste by being contaminated with sand. In there, he saw books written in gibberish he couldn''t understand, he couldn''t read it so he simply packed everything in until his eyes fell upon some meat jerky and some travel rations there oh that settle it I can rest easy so now food temporarily solved water. He looked towards the valley knowing that he is not moving a step there he continued to rummage through the bag till his hand touched a water skin he was pleasantly surprised that it was not plastic bottle but what is it to expect from an area so rural poor guys he shook his head in sympathy for those he saw on the ''battlefield'' no amenities yet still drew the wrong attention of a missile strike Though it will just be right for me to take all that you have coz you don''t need it anymore and I am sorely in need of it. anyways time to settle down for the night tomorrow is sunup have enough energy to keep moving MIDNIGHT He woke up with a startle, a howl, oh shit! he curled up like a ball where he hid to sleep in the mountain crevice wide enough to barely fit a man and his backpack, luckily for him that night it was the corpses of cultivators in the valley that truly attracted the wolves attention, I mean why hunt when there is a free all you can eat buffet. With what he witnessed that night he decided that the other side of the mountains ridge will be safer to pass the night in and left for it.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. MORNING He had finished his night''s rest at the other side of the mountain why because he fears the wolves might come to hunt for some fresh meal when the cadavers aren''t enough, but he was overjoyed when he heard a faint crow ahead yes! there''s finally a lead towards civilization at last, he cheered because as much as he might want to ration the travel rations they are not much probably last a day or two and the bottle will last even less. With his impending salvation in mind he plotted the best possible track with the least bushes to the place he heard the crow of chickens which was quite a distance away, settle first and then solve the mystery of the juju bag he thought to himself. AFTERNOON Another crow this time louder in his ear almost there with legs aching he trudged through the bush till he popped out unto a footpath ,he then bent down to study the path well making sure not to disturb the dirt since the place with the most recent footprint will determine the location where he will quickly meet people and ask for help in order to return home. He managed to spot some prints and where it was headed so he chose to go with it gambling that it will lead towards a main road, he gambled right seems whoever left that footprint is long gone but at least a main-road will perhaps lead to a town or at least a village. EVENING Well there we are, maybe I will be camping near the road today, at least the only thing that I will be guarded against will be marauders not animals that can sniff you out if they discover your scent to hide should be easier then he heard some trampling heading his way neither fast nor slow he was on the road he quickly snuck into the bush to hide and to observe the people who might not necessarily save him He saw them while they passed women some men and kids even some adolescents ok not military but what''s with the rustic look it seems everyone is trying to cosplay ancient Asia with what I can vouch for as a genuine blade in the scabbard, Ok, I will have to give them some social distancing not to get summarily executed for well any charges they trumped up since they can be the judge the jury and the executioner, oh yes dad always say that you should respect the weapon that even a child holds. I camped some distance away from them that night observing the retinue, at least till sleep overtook me and I slept off the next morning when I woke they were already far off so I took this time to get close to them knowing that my window of opportunity might as well slip off if I remain indecisive Not knowing that my speedy movement had caught their attention thunk! an arrow landed nearly on my foot which spooked me, I could not fully control myself from top-speed to stop immediately which sent me tumbling on the ground jeers of laughter erupted from the kids. Hey! I screamed, help a brother here! Please! I''m lost! I want to find a place to stay! I hopped and waved my hand like a drowning man not caring about how pathetic that might come to look like. "#@##$%!" came an incomprehensible reply "Uh what! I did not get it" I shouted back The part where I was asking for help and not being answered continued for a while,and then it seemed the leader or whoever is in charge had had enough of my jabbering he sent someone a sentry I suppose one of those who stood guard last night hopefully not to come and kill me however when he was getting too close I shifted back a little which caused him to pause and then "#@##$#" the sentry said Uh, excuse me?" I replied, "I don''t understand your language. Can you speak English or maybe Yoruba?" So I decided to greet him in Yoruba, first stating my name: "Oruko mi ni Wale, ba''o ni?"I said that with some gestures, hoping the guy would understand. I made some more gestures, stating that I needed a place to stay. Then the boy left, returning to the caravan to converse with the leader. "Xiao Suo so what is with the stranger," Wei Hao asked "he seems to be stranded dashixiong or lost and he does not know the imperial language" Wei Suo answered ''Hmm guessing from his style of dress he is not anybody from a nearby village or town and his dressing is too bland then methods are in some way strange and in another way alien to the other cultures I know of, heard of or read about'' he mused Ok go pick him up he might be anyone important you know lest we offend a lost young master that fell out of favor and might regain it, go quickly Shidi" Wei Hao ordered"Ok da shixiong " Wei Suo dutifully went to do Wei Hao''s bidding or maybe he was just a normal lost one we might never tell his mind reverts to stories of encounters similar to this that ended in both ways possible anyways he plans to hedge it so nothing goes wrong he looked towards the place that Wei Suo went to fetch the stranger "When we get to the village Lu Nan shimei we are taking this straggler we found to the village chief", Lu Nan nodded her head in reply and Wei Hao continued "Please keep watch over him for strange signs we do not want our good will to transform into a security breach for the village or the caravan ok?" "Ok shixiong" came a curt reply from her, Wei Hao glanced in her direction only to see her gazing into the vista at alert. Lu Nan is the eldest daughter of the village chief, Lu Fenglai. She is really good with the bow. She was the one who stopped Wale''s speedy approach with a single arrow near his foot. She is a formidable deadshot in her own right. She is the second in line to Wei Hao when it comes to battle power, making her the second in the village dojo and strict to the core. It was not long after that Wei Suo brought Wale to the caravan to get checked in. When asked his name with gestures, though he somewhat understood, he said Wale, huh? Hua Lei? Wei Hao said, "Okay, his name is known as Hua Lei. At least we won''t call him ''stranger'' when he is questioned by the village head and elders." Ok sundown is coming soon tomorrow we head for village, let''s set up tents and so he was directing the entire caravan efficiently to the role they are going to play Wale read the mood of the caravan''s people ''guess that they will be settling soon'' he guessed filled with anticipation" Finally a place to rest my head" his mind drifted to the horror-filled day He first opened his eyes in this strange land and he shuddered "Never will that level of helplessness befall me again" he swore, and as a cautionary hedge he continues "if I did not get abducted to another unknown area. 7. LING XIAOXIAO THE SOLE SURVIVOR Ling xiao xiao the youngest disciple of Yu Ren had survived, by luck of course for she was located the closest to the rally point and did not participate in the fighting that ensued which enabled her to be undiscovered and her escape from the orthodoxy''s sect disciples. "hu! hu! hu!" she panted after she got to the ''cave'' that was hewn out of a rock in an out of place area, it is also very well secluded, "Thankfully I got away fast lest I will be caught" she gasped already tired. She with what she said sat in a lotus position but leaned against the wall for head rest while recovering her energy, ''By the time I am done hopefully the rest would have returned with the master''s new body and we can finalize what was started'' ''though the master told us his plan but I don''t think he told us he will self detonate during the supposed ritual right?'' she thought wandering what got into her master to do such an act ''self detonation of not hopefully the master will be safe'' When she was done recovering from her nigh-qi exhaustion she noticed that the MOTHER-CHILD ACCORDANCE RESONANCE TALISMANIC TECHNIQUE has had some of its connection to some of her seniors severed immediately she was at alert she checked again and found them rendered moot and only big sis Cao Wan''er and big brother Jue Zheng was still alive but captured very soon it became more garbled and then they also went static. ''They''ve gone beyond five thousand li'' she thought in shock She first calmed herself down and then check the illusory formation outside and still found it intact and found it intact, " there is no problem for this formation''s discovery by the orthodoxy, for now at least" master Yu Ren once said. "You should have known that you have the bloodline of a spirit fox lying dormant within you now" "The little blood that I your master extracted from you to attune you to the formation, is not what you think it is Firstly and most ostensibly, it is to attune you to the formation but secondly it is to research how to awaken your bloodline safely I mean I can''t just brute force it you are the only one that I have found with this bloodline in the last 150 years the last person had to die because he was after me or my resources In short as an enemy but before death he did things that brought the fear and reverence of the bloodline of the spirit fox out of me so how can I not be intrigued of it I tried researching the blood for some hint but the first thing is that he barely awakened it the second was that it lost vitality fast and in order to save my skin I your master did not dare allow anyone to know what I got from it else being stabbed in the back will be the least of my concerns but the ones that has truly awakened the bloodline will be a far greater threat too so do understand my caution But now I might have not solved the mystery to awaken your bloodline but I have gotten a headway take this then he handed to her what is known as FOX TAILED GRASS while not a totally rare plant is still a profound grade spiritual herb with a minor affinity to illusions and SOUL''S EMBER which is a rare earth grade spirit material formed form a fierce land where the least realm of corpses found there will be at PEAK SPIRIT REFINING STAGE which is the of SACRED SOUL REALM and a drop of blood, which is actually a whole juvenile spirit fox with a bloodline, refined into a drop. In order to get it this material will allow you to comprehend the legendary souls fire of the fox otherwise known as FOX FIRE, It had been made known to her that he had completed the formations, incantations and technique to awaken the bloodline but the chances unverified for the above is non-tested. "Know that should you be lucky to awaken this bloodline of yours the heaven shall smile upon you and you shall bound to the heavens in a single step". "You Xiao Xiao while the weakest of my disciples have the greatest potential of them all and I your master placed high hopes upon you that you may succeed She smiled remembering how she bull-headedly ''convinced'' this lone master to take her in as a disciple to which he refused at first until suddenly for unknown reason he agreed not knowing that he saw something beyond her perseverance and grit. It''s no wonder the first one of her kin that he found had a barely awakened bloodline it''s just too hard to get the ingredients to do what is needed and wait a minute... "the bag!, it''s with liang yun!, all the cultivation methods!, the awakening of my bloodline!," she completely lost it at first then calmed down and rummaged the entire cave for something Where is the heavens-damned thing she thought out loud in frustration, then she methodically searched the cave to nigh frustration until she saw the thing hidden cleverly in a shelf not too large barely enough to fit the thing She immediately hopped to grab the thing on the cave wall carved shelf, it is a compass looking contraption thankfully big bro Liang Yun thought me how to use this device she then drew out the aura of the group technique out of herself and the aura of some of her stuffs that recently came out of the bag to be inputted into the device. Soon the device whirred to life and glowing lines was drawn out indicating the cardinal positions of everything related to the inputted aura in relation to her, and then she wove all the concealment and stealth based spirit arts then cautiously she left for the battle field. When she came out she nearly jumped in fright but manage to calm herself down and schooled her expression to a bland mask of apathy, she saw the departing figures of some orthodoxy disciples it must have dawned on her that they have thoroughly searched the area and about how thorough she had no idea.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. What she knows is that she has some inspection to do in that area lest she falls into a trap of some sort, "When someone searches your area, always make sure that a detection device, skill or talisman is not planted in the area before you relax about it." "Even I your master had caught lots of unfortunate souls with it, and I learned the ''hard'' way too" She then proceed to inspect the area according to her master''s teaching there she found some talismans sloppily placed in some trees and shrubby area ordinarily she would not have suspected but ordinarily is not her case she was drilled to the bones with basic skills like what she just done. All she had done did not have the difficulty level of her older martial siblings still, she did searched the area to the ''normal'' standard and could not find much else, danger temporarily evaded now it''s time to go get the bag. ***************** Wale''s novelty among the caravan was slowly wearing off with them getting busy having to setup tents, cook meals and so-on and so forth. He noticed the caravan deputy leader the girl who almost impaled him from afar with a mean arrow training her hawk eyes on him, ''well I am not so handsome that a lady is smitten by me, talk about love at first sight'' his thought full of mirth. ''The only love she might show me based on the kind of visage she had on while staring at me is to put a lovely arrow through my heart or may be a headshot will be a bargain huh'' then out eyes met I smiled giving her what I thought to be my most gentlemanly smile but... no change, no warmer countenance, at least smile back, nope she just stood there like shell guard the whole world with her presence alone. With the failure of my supposed manly charms I went to look for a corner to sit with enough time to mull over my days since I found myself in this strange land or maybe world, ''no alien will some from this world and will be sophisticated enough to take me away from earth without triggering an alarm or two in my world''. ''I mean look at all this stuff I have been surreptitiously glancing around and no hint of plastic in their dust bun or environment that''s basically impossible on planet earth and what''s with the sword and bows for weapons with all that money they should have bought or made some guns instead. They did not meet the parameters of even earths most rural area will at least have some radio and the youths will be sporting an android phone or an Iphone to access the internet, this... wait a minute the truck oh shit! a look of alarm came upon him momentarily making the ''hawk girl'' who is always focused on him to tense The slight twitch from the wrong place the din of sounds and overlapping chatter died down in the whole camp with eyes focusing on the man and girl looking at each other, the camp there again bursts into a louder chatter. Lu Nan shi mei it seems that our sudden visitor is smitten by your beauty, hmm why don''t you get closer to him that will be even better Wei Suo jested It seems that I''ll have to personally see to your proper training when we get back to the village Lu Nan spat you might have been having too much time in your hands lately Ah no shimei just a suggestion no hard feelings Wei suo said before making himself scarce Why did the camp just went quiet all of a sudden could it be that I am not going to a village but to be abducted for nefarious purposes? wale thought while looking left and right vigilance cranked up to eleven. Maybe the ''hawk girl'' babe that I have been staring at had alerted her boyfriend or something Coz I don''t know why everyone could be so synchronized even if momentarily Well I only have myself to watch my back from now on something''s fishy here Just when I get to civilization first plans should wait With his thought in order he finally got the person who is waving at him to come get his share of food , he finally stood up to go get his food. Well the food could not have been worse than the foods he''d ingested during the time he had nothing on him rice cooked till stuck together and what he could be best described as peppersoup but without its characteristic scent no fish or meat "oh well guess I''ll just make do with what I''ve got". Finishing up my food "can''t wait till sunrise and we get moving, towards civilization," I mumbled before I found a sleeping place to lay myself to rest till tomorrow. ***************** Wei hao keeps on sensing the vibes of a young master wafting off this curiosity of a person that he had picked on the road, of course he is doing a good job masking it with other erratic behavior of his but blatantly staring at the village heads daughter without a shred of shame creeping off his face, or the disappointment dripping in his voice when served his food says it all. Even the way he styles himself as if his stride above everyone else and the way that he is seemingly always sure of himself even when the mode of communication available to both party is gesticulating and trying to understand he always seem to understand and very fast at that. Now all these minor details still makes him suspect that he the random black man surnamed Hua is not an ordinary individual clearly schooled and been schooled is mostly the purview of the young masters so that even if they were not able to cultivate qi they will still retail a modicum of competence in the clan. It doesn''t still helps if he brings out a silver coin and started playing with it as if a child found a riverside pebble, if I don''t pick someone as strict with her work as that girl some idiot might start having ideas about that money on him. Heck even he was tempted when he saw the shiny metal been ''maligned'' by the boy he almost went to ''save'' the poor little coin from the boys hand. He as a guard leader makes a maximum of 20 coppers a day which is still considered lucrative and 100 coppers makes a bronze imperial coin 100 bronze makes a silver imperial coin and so-on for gold and the legendary platinum coin This means he makes 5 bronze and 60 copper imperial coins per month which me and this disguised wastrel of a young master is playing with at an equivalent of least 17 months of his labor! and he ... ''well we''ve reeled up a fat fish this time hopefully it is not a poisonous porcupine'' he thought. "hopefully he is a boon to the village heh, I he is then this risky gamble of mine succeeds and then more good times ahead of us, not to even mention the rewards that it entails" he mumbled quietly with a bit of calculation in his voice "Da shixiong any pending orders or..." wei suo asked "Oh no shidi," wei hao cuts in " you can stand down and keep doing what you have been doing" ''But this will not be the first time the world heard that some young maser mysteriously vanished'' he thought grimly ''well, that''s reserved for the moment he gets too uppity though'' But young master or not he might die if he falls on the bad side of shimei for she might act without caring about who''s who ''hopefully no one gets too uppity'' he prayed inwardly ''that will make my job easier. Wei Hao noticed the change in behavior in his eldest brother and eldest shimei just that eldest brother''s quite subtle and seems to have his eyes flashing from time to time when observing this ''hua lei'' of a person ''Hopefully no problem ensues from this'' he inwardly prayed "It''s already becoming dark," he reckoned "time to resume duty" there he went to resume his guard duty for the night 8.SETTLING WITHIN THE VILLAGE Wale woke up due to the rumbling sounds he heard, and he heard right, the villagers were packing up their luggage and conveying them into carts which are oxen driven, he used the water in his ''bottle'' made of water tight leather to wash his face of which it brought an added effect of wiping out his grogginess making him alert for the day''s rigor. Midway he started his checks, he patted his purse, check, his strange bag is still on him, check... once he did his checks to see that nothing on him was missing, oh he had not have his bath well once I reach their settlement I will try to rent a room from what I see this should be a good amount coz when I brought it out tossing it I saw that some people. The guy with the muscles that every one of those guards answer to will not take their eyes off me, or rather what I was chilling with, which means it seems the plenty in my purse is definitely not low, now there are these gold like coins, gold alloy or not, I won''t bring it out it seems. I''ve landed myself some nifty cash to burn. he had a suspicion that they are actual silver and gold in that case he really got a wind fall. ok now, the plan will be to get to the settlement display nothing but three of the silvery coins at most get an accommodation and if there is a school or someone capable get some education in at least reading and writing, plan set, he decided to watch as the day rolls by, THE AFTERNOON The journey was smooth no shenanigan as the curved the last bend in the hilly region revealing a sprawling settlement, Wale was unfazed by its beauty but the others were like they just got a new lease on life . Being surrounded by people who looked grim before and then suddenly because of what they might have seen heard or signaled to themselves they burst into joy, Wale could not comprehend the only thing in his mind right now is a shelter food and a nice sleep, after which he would... well ''roll'' with them he thought about how dracula said ''roll'' and chuckled softly. They got into the settlement it was midway between a village and a town in its growth stage, so he decided to locate an inn only to be intercepted by the ''hawk girl'' ''Oh shit, they''ve got plans for me'' he thought, the look on the girls face screams ''no nonsense'', Well, okey-dokey I moved with her suddenly it wasn''t only the two of us the muscle guy joined and then the entire retinue of the caravan guards, which makes me wonder whether they thought that I''m a runaway from another town coming to seek refuge from them if that''s the case then fine. But what if they thought that I am an escaped criminal or something, that doesn''t makes sense, well dad always say that ''if the heavens will collapse it will not be of one man''s case''. I will see what life has in stock for me when we get there AT THE VILLAGE HEAD''S PLACE I heard a little boy''s joyful exclamation as he rushed out closing in on... ''hawkgirl?,'' I was shocked to see the ice melting on her expression and she is even capable of smiling then why was she like someone who lost the joy of living when we were traveling to the village, I wondered. WEI HAO''S POV *********** I got to the manor of the village head big sister! a young voice shouted excitedly closing in fast to hug Lu Nan in joy "Ok Li''er behave yourself you are a gentleman right" Lu Nan said beaming "Yes!" Lu Li answered then released his hug It didn''t even help when the stranger Hua Lei was gawking at Lu Nan... when the village head Lu Feng Lai came out due to the minor ruckus caused by Lu Li''s joy about Lu Nan''s return. He was about to address the sentinels and there did he saw a young man brazenly staring at Nan''er his daughter, his face darkened "Who is this boy?" his voice boomed, "has he no manners, staring at my daughter like a lecher?" Then did Wei Hao stepped up to him in order to explain to him how he was found and what transpired throughout the journey, only then did the man calmed down but his glare still remains. there they went on about the news they have gathered during their trading activities and so-on. WALE''S POV *********** While been carried away by what I saw, I suddenly heard a loud voice booming as if I was near a loud speaker, I looked at the man as he started his tirade in their unknown language wondering whether he was born with a natural loud speaker for a vocal cord. It was then that ''muscle guy'' the boss of the retinue stepped up to the man in order to tell him something only God knew what they discussed, the man calmed down but was still glaring at me like I once stole his chicken right before Christmas time. Then muscle guy came to me called what I might term his language adaptation of my name sounding like he spaced it "wa-ley" he said, and I looked at him, he then continued"#@##%"Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. "Shit" I touched my forehead in dismay There I thought maybe I have gained a supernatural power of instant language comprehension but no, the friggin'' language is still as incomprehensible as fuck. Maybe it was my dismayed look that worked it''s magic but he simply took me through the village and started showing me landmarks one was what I could best describe as a canteen where some slurpy spaghetti is served, and what looks like buns but whitish in color. I nodded my head in understanding, he seems to have gotten the gist then took me to a place with a generally bookish vibe, it was a building of two stories and a yard where I saw some children with an instructor I immediately got the gist that the yard was been used as a school and the building is probably a library of some kind or may be a scholar''s house but I might be wrong and the building might house anything who knows. The instructor there came to greet the muscle man and they spoke to each other with a familiarity that borders on intimacy, his bae I assumed as I placed a ''walk away'' mental label on the woman After they''ve taken their sweet time with each other he now had time to introduce me to her and spoke a lengthy what I don''t know to the woman of which she laughed at from time to time, she then looked at me with mirth in her eyes, sized me up, and then beckoned us to come along She took us into the two storey building and introduced us to whom I will term ''the librarian'' he looked refined his vibes different from the others, sharp looking too but with salt pepper hair guess he should be around 50 years old on his way to 60 years. I better not offend this man unknowingly too so I was uptight and controlled throughout the time, though I did not forget to observe the interior of his building and found no semblance not even a faint one of the type of interior decor on planet earth. ''Already days and you have not accepted reality yet'' I scolded myself inwardly WEI HAO''S POV ************** Good I''ll take him said Luo Chang the scholar, we got out of the scholar''s manor which serves as the village''s center for learning and library then head for the dojo, we got there and I greeted the dojo master who happens to be my master and a father figure to me. "Oi Hao''er", the master greeted back gruffly, "this that you came to me with mu''er is it that you two will soon tie the knot?" the master Luo Fu who happened to be the junior brother to the scholar asked No not yet it is about this person we picked on the road..." there I explained what happened on the way but held back some certain key points which in general the master sensed, so I left giving the master a secret signal that I alone am coming back for what I want to say should be totally between me and him. So far so good the village is stable no uppity miscreant but that''s now the very problem I faced which miscreant will not get uppity when they see a silver imperial coin, they might even invite a gang of robbers in order to ensure success and it is up to their dojo for the village''s security. He just managed to comprehend the cultivation method not four years ago even if he now is in the Meridian Creation minor realm of cultivation the rest with the exception of Lu Nan who started last year has not started their cultivation yet and here is a boy threatening the village''s equilibrium with silver(s)in pocket. Well I think I''ve got a solution to that, he would take him to rent a house with a court yard for a year and not a cheap one, then buy stocks of materials that he will need for just that same amount of time, in the boy''s name of course and make sure everything done is around 90 bronze imperial coins then convert four bronze imperial coins for him into copper imperial coins. The above plan should make a win-win situation where the boy hopefully gets what he wants and also make the village safer by not stirring the avarice of the wrong person also makes me look generous and ''graceful'' ha! A plan of which he executed without delay, a friction almost broke out when the coin was demanded but all was settled in a matter of moments leaving the poor boy somewhat embarrassed and sorry for his initial distrust towards him. Then he left wale in his sprawling new courtyard with the keys to his house and how to operate it he even hired someone who will do some grunt jobs in his compound leaving the boy dumbstruck for the second time He certainly must be at least a young master before not knowing the real value for silver he probably just take what he wishes without concerns for money, just like described in the books, why should he concern himself when the clan will simply pay for his excesses with that he left for his masters dojo. WALE''S POV *************** It was nearly in the evening when they were done with the tour-shopping in the village that''s almost a town, well that''s probably a competent village head speaking through his work, that been said muscle guy is nice, well a bit too nice. I went to the living room where there is a chair and table to ruminate the day''s event finding it both endearing and strange, couldn''t help but to think about the ''muscle guy'' ''no wonder the man was able to win the heart of the rest to become their leader, his sense of responsibility is off the roof, though can appear scary at times. The guy first took me to the village head who blew his top when he saw me staring at his daughter ok my bad it was said that it''s rude to stare but seeing some things will definitely make you stare. I mean I never expected such a warm smile from a previously frigid face the transformation was attention grabbing the rest must have been used to it that''s why they did not flinched upon seeing that. There is the ''pasta shop'' that sells what I could only call ''buns'' as a side attraction with many more like a fruity toffee and so-on, he then brought me to an area which is a hybrid of a school area, a person''s apartment and a library with his babe huh, he then took me to a martial training ground to a certain person who he is acquainted to. This was probably done to make me meet this person of nebulous importance, of whose importance to me I know not, well it now got to the place where he rented an apartment, no! a whole friggin'' bungalow for me to stay in and some people to work for me. I outright rejected the would be maid, since I read the mood there enough to know where the story will be going, no thanks I will not be accepting a stranger in my house well since it''s mine right wrong what if she discovers the bags true nature when I''m not around how will that be explainable. Well the two who will act as gardener will just take care of my lawn flowers etcetera, and there is where the fight almost broke the request for fund... from me?! I thought you''re the one footing the bill!, I mean... he gestured me quiet and wanted the money without any compromise. ''Guess you can only puke what you eat,'' I thought in mild regret thinking about how many silvery coins all what was done will take and I gave him one then he quickly retracted his hand and gave me a purse and boy it was heavy on the hand. Is this my change I thought surprised the guy couldn''t help but look smugly at me saying something I do not understand, gave me the legal document even taught me how to sign my name in their characters, completed all that is necessary not that I''ll know and then left... just like that leaving me in my compound 9. LIFE IN THE VILLAGE The next day the village head called for an assembly at his place to introduce wale now known as Hua Leito the villagers alongside some special announcements he had for the villagers, Hua Leias he is now known left the village square after the village head finished his announcements and head straight for the ''pasta shop'' to get his meal. He then went to the pseudo school after eating of which he made a recount, he was introduced to within the village to learn their language this time he wants to learn and learn fast so he adopted the method of which he once used at the L.A.S.U. university to quickly get his grade back to ''normal'' when he was in an academic slump back then. His ''normal'' was something around 4+ C.G.P.A in his final year back then from less than 2 points in his 100 level, he reckoned that if he use this method to learn, provided that he is not doing any other work which will distract him it will be a fast tracked learning experience, and he''s got some learning to do. Paper was real pricy it worth one of those bronze/brass looking coins not the copper ones and I''ve seen people use the copper coins to get a sizable meal which in fact I figured that on a normal day making as much as 20 copper coins was a thing of extreme joy for the laborers. There were lots and lots of paper stack bought for me by ''muscle guy'' well then I think I''ll stop calling people by their formulated nickname after he learned their language, he''d got to the school. When he arrived there, he was greeted by the same lady of yesterday ''muscle guy''s bae'' he thought. He was then introduced to the class of students there each fairly old, around 14-16 years of age from the well off families within the village, all learning how to write their native language scripts here at school, they all stood up from their cross-legged position and greeted me perfunctorily. Their greeting style was it was like liu kang in mortal combat which I immediately copied and I greeted back, of course I memorized that so as not to commit a social faux pax in the future for that could be slowly detrimental to my stay you know. They all sat down there I met my first problem, the problem was how to sit cross legged like them, oh shit, I muttered, the woman looked at me askance, I shrugged and pointed to an empty space at the back where someone could still sit. She looked at the area which I pointed got the gist and motioned to me which was a signal to go and sit down, of course I obliged, but when I sat she got confused about my strange sitting pose so as to drive the story home I mimicked the others by trying the crossed legged style, of which I failed spectacularly at. The whole class bursts into giggles as I slumped showing my ineptitude in sitting cross-legged, the lady therefore quiet the kids down with a glare and continued the class as normal of which I learnt nothing that day. After the day was over at school, the woman brought me to the person I tagged the librarian and explained some things to him, of which he gave me such a measured look that I thought he must have once been a carpenter, you know ''with their measure twice cut once'' motto. They completed their conversation then the lady and I both left the man''s building I was walking down the street deep in thought on the whole thing that happened at school, I bumped into a person, well I might as well bumped into a brick wall, she was holding a locket or something which fell down. We both looked into each other''s eyes, she was wide eyed and I was dumbstruck, firstly I thought I collided with a building secondly what''s with the extreme sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu that I''m feeling then she moved forward and gently laid her hands on my shoulder, Her grip was really strong, I could feel the place she held slightly hurting, what''s with the strength now huh but each time I look into her eyes a strong sense of familiarity emerges from seemingly nowhere, then I did the school taught greetings of which I was stopped promptly and then got flabbergasted when she kowtowed to me mumbling something and is that tears I see in her eyes?. Uh, I must have made her cry by mistakenly hitting her pricy locket to the ground, so I picked it dusted it on the edge of my clothe and gave it to her with the warmest smile that I could muster, she took it from me and again kowtowed. Ok, making her cry by hitting the locket unto the ground, probably but that doesn''t explain the kowtows so I took her to the ''restaurant'' to get a good meal, it took her quite a while to know that I am unable to communicate in the native language. Then I took her to the training centre in the village where I am sure to meet ''muscle guy'' there we waited and shortly I was not disappointed, he showed up and then gave me a strange look, he then laughed and said something of which the girl with me seemed to take personally and said something back rather waspishly. XIAO XIAO''S POV *************** The nerve of this beefy guy, how dare he make fun of master, she thought angry about the way, Wei hao treats Hua Lei casually, my master is so generous deigning to even treat you as peers humph left to me I''ll simply suggest that master buy up your village and everything in it including the people in it for good measure. This of course will be seen as wrong by my master anyways, ever magnanimous as he is, how dare he recommend a maid from this backwaters of a place to my master and expects him to agree with the first rabble offered huh.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She got so worked up that she was red in the face huffing, if not for me deliberately sealing my cultivation to pass off as a mere mortal I would have casually slap this guy to death but caution makes it so that I have to conceal myself Now that I''m with master I can''t ruin his plan because of my pettiness now can I?, so I''ll spare you this one time she thought to herself while glaring red-faced at wei hao, Wei hao simply laughed it off in a mild manner, Then did the woman beside him spoke up, she told her about all that has happened to Hua Leiat school and his learning struggles to how he just even started learning the ''proper sitting posture,'' did it got this bad she was shocked about the sequela of his LIFE-DEATH DECEPTION plan. Seems he really did lost everything the exception of which is the bag and me, anyways he somehow survived good with me so the next thing on the agenda will be to bring him up to speed and fast, to do so we''ll first teach him how to speak the imperial tongue first then we can now proceed, to the script, but it will take about a year or two to get him to speak the imperial tongue fairly and then another one or two years to get an initial mastery of the imperial scripts. Well she knew that it will be much shorter because she had faith in her master''s learning prowess, well hopefully the last technique he pulled off won''t addle his brain and turn him into a dunce once and for all, ok then we''ll stick to your plan. WEI HAO''S POV ************** Well I was right about his young master issue of this guy, now his original maid found him, it seems that what happened to him must have made his memory impaired, but I do not know what could happen to a person to have done this type of damage to him poor fella. The uppity girl and my mu''er went to discuss on how to get this hua lei''s ability to speak back in short order, hopefully they quickly get things in order since I and mu''er has a place to go. The day he came to the village that he was settled in by me, I had a discussion with my shifu at the dojo explaining my suspicions to him and my speculations but the only reply was for me to ''know what I''m doing'' and not to get myself over involved with him After my master and I discussed in the dojo, I decided that being friendly but keeping him at arm''s length will be the best, that''s why I haven''t done much other than the first day he came to the village. done discussing the fate of our dear ''young master'' mu''er signaled me and we vacated the area leaving them to each other ************** Hua Lei simply stood there watching as they discussed about him probably determining his fate, the feeling of not having a modicum of control was gnawing at him which all boiled down to a burning desire to ''master this friggin language''. The following 40 weeks was ''rigorous'' he managed to learn simple words and their meaning at first and then started experimenting on stringing them together which was fun for the villagers especially when he downright ''butchered'' the language, by pronouncing some things too literarily. For example, when he introduced himself as ''HEI REN'' when drunk with rice wine in a bachelor''s gathering on the eve of Wei Hao''s wedding and ''Dark Fox'' when entertaining the kids by playing some kiddies game at the village school and so-on. Well in less than a year he gained an initial mastery in the language, this also qualify him for phase two which is to learn how to read and write the imperial scripts. this was a bit tricky because it was not like the English or Yoruba language where you string letters to form words There he learned the nuances of the script, by first learning what words they correlate to, treating that phase like the learning of ABC made him tide through the learning process fairly fast then there comes the monster part breaking the words down and forming characters that will pass on the meaning of what you are trying to say. I''ll like to call the above statement as simplification in imperial scripting, of course this was taken by the librarian who I later learned that he is called Luo Chang or ''the Scholar'' as his nickname. it was a cumbersome task which took him some three years to gain some mastery on. So was the short of Wale who got isekaied at the age of 23, learned the local language at the age of 24 relearned how to write at the age of 25 mastered it at the age of 28 and fully took upon himself the name Hua Lei and the nickname ''the Dark Fox'' well because it seems cool enough, and people just will not stop calling me that and yup, the kids started it. while I was 25 years when I got a hang of the language I took martial lessons from the dojo master whom I had once misrecognized as Wei hao''s pal, his regimen was strict and stressful, but not as stressful as I thought it should be instinctively. A year after my training regimen I qualified to be part of the village guards and sometimes we also go to hunt some wild games the herbivore brings good meat and the carnivores well good pelts that''s pricy and sometimes meat but dangerous to hunt. The dojo''s shifu I later knew his name as Luo Fu with the nickname ''the tiger hunter'' this was given to him by his team mates when he hunted down a tiger and wrestled it to the death barehanded and brewed tiger bone wine out of its bones rumor has it that he still has some of the wine in his cellar still sealed, ageing. This name will then stick with him to the jiang hu where he acquired some modicum of fame before, being forcibly ''retired'' by some sect brat who had backings, it was when I heard his story that I knew that the scholar was also once powerful, even more so than his junior brother but low key. He also decided to retire due to the same debacle, he took revenge for his younger brother''s sake, due to his cultivation been hamstrung by some ''uppity brat'' and suddenly a sect elder was on his ass, this was where he and his brother hid away from sect influences to slowly recover. He sometimes comes to the dojo to teach the art of meditation, calming one''s mind, splicing and studying the nuances of techniques etc, all of these it took in readily, and now I could comfortably sit in ''perfect'' lotus position and meditate for 2 hours straight. Though I still could not wrap my head around the idea of someone being strong enough to jack a boulder weighing a ton with an arm, one thing I know for sure is that the village chief is rumored to have once battled a ''vicious beast and survived the battle, as for the beast it''s skull is probably in the trophy room. I took in Luo Fu''s physical training like an empty barrel taking in water before I clocked 28,nowthings got a bit off, for example I might be in the middle of my training montage only to see my self- proclaimed, almost ''bossy'' maid looking at me eyes seemingly shining while I was training "excuse me seems a golden imperial coin is growing on my forehead" I couldn''t help but jab. Then she will look away face blushing or sometimes with a somewhat sad face, well I won''t poke around it''s her cross to carry whenever she deems it fit for me to know she will let me know, after all everyone has their own cross to carry. Another good news Mr Wei Hao and Mrs Wei Mu as known now, birthed a cute baby boy after some years of being married to each other this called for a celebration, well didn''t have much to give just a silver imperial coin to the boy''s name will do right?. the party ended on a high note just had to be dragged back home, to bed by Xiao Xiao that evening. 10.THE NIGHT DISCUSSION She entered my bed room that night in nightgowns and sat close to me on my bed, even I wasn''t having a good night sleep due to the sequelae from the hangover of the previous day, my mood wasn''t affected by the hangover though, if not my mood would have been very bad. "Having a hangover sucks" I half complained "Well nobody force fed you with rice wine" she retorted her tone a bit darker than usual "Hey why so gloomy and in the midnight" I jabbed a playfully probing question "Well" she stalled "you know there is something that I have been wanting to tell you," she said with a grave expression on her face. "Ok I''m all ears" I had wanted to continue my playful banter with her to cheer her up but graveness of her expression gave me a pause "Huu" she sighed "well how should I start the story" THE STORY BEGINS ***************** "My full name is Ling Xiao Xiao and I am the last direct disciple of sect master Yu Ren of the BLOOD CONTROLLING PROFOUND SECT and..." "Wait! wait!! wait!!!," I cut in, shocked nearly out of my skin, I spent some time digesting the news giving her an incredulous look that threatens to pop my eyeballs, because according to the villagers and the books I''ve read sect-masters are the things of O.P the threat they pose even the weakest of them is not something you can just ignore. And now there is a disciple of one here, "in my bedroom just introducing herself to me after all these years?!" I asked almost losing my shit "very well then lady, if you don''t mind tell me, what you a sect-master''s disciple are doing here in this village," "Oh at least I am of this world and pray tell otherworlder what you are doing in this world" she countered My next word got stuck in my throat "I...I was r-riding and then something happened" getting bolder I finished my sentence with a bravado summoned from nowhere. "Riding" she mocked "well then guest from the otherworld my master ''rode'' you down to the world of Jia Yuan" For the second time I was struck dumb, I have been behaving as if nothing happened to me as if just tomorrow things will still go as ''normal'' as it can be, that''s if you skip the part of the bag that can literarily swallow all things and puke them out good as new. It all dawned on me and the sadness that had been denied for years burst forth as a question "why?" I asked face as dark as pitch. "Why?" she asked mimicking my baritone "It''s because he wanted to take over your body and re-forge his cultivation so that he will live as both of you gain your name, personality, previous knowledge and what not so that ultimately, he will be able to hide from his fated foe, grow under their nose and slowly, like a snake constricts its prey, get them in his grasp". "And my fate after he does that?" I asked my voice dull "Well he didn''t think you''ll exist" she said nonchalantly "To him just a means to an end is the essence of your existence" she continued "though that''s how he behaves" "And not that all the crazy man did is a failure," "A piece of himself is in you as we speak" she then guffawed "Or do you think you were able to open the bag just like that" "No the bag does not recognize anyone of us his disciples, only him" she dropped another troubling info again " Wait a minute nobody should know about the..." "Well I''ll tell you the name of the bag if you still doubt me, it''s called THE BAG OF UNENDING DEPTHS" "It contains a ''normal space within the clause is that it shrinks what goes inside it" ''How did she know about it?'' I thought ,shocked ''Did she saw those bloody uniforms?'' ''Would she report me to the authorities that I was nothing but a looter that is leaving on nothing but the largesse I stole?'' I was on the verge of panic before something clicks "no wonder " I laughed darkly "no wonder I got a strong sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu when I met you the very first day we met" "No wonder I learnt martial arts so fast that my techniques reached the point it could not improve anymore without cultivating" "After all there is only so much you can do ordinarily, but the day I did what shouldn''t be possible with a normal human body and move beyond the set line of the techniques designed for normal people, I noticed something" I mumbled with a visage that seemed to have lost all hope.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. "Like I had an extra self guiding me, but who goes out babbling all of that to outsiders huh?" "Wait a minute was that the reason that you were looking at me strangely when I was training?" "Yes" she answered slightly flushed "But, don''t worry I am also here because of the things within that I need within," there she momentarily unsealed her cultivation reducing the scope to just the room and scaring the shit out of me. "See, I''m stronger than even the clan in this area so much, that I can single handedly wipe them out" she bragged " I''m impressed" I said still wiping the terror of my face and failing, of which she bore down her gaze upon me letting me know that she could have just taken what she wanted and leave no witness alive, but the blasted master of her''s made them sign an agreement that bound them together for life. Not to mention that he even made a plan for an eventuality like this, and now she is now stuck with this person who is more of not being her ''old master'' than being one. "Perhaps since you are not the old master, you might as well become the young master" "I''ll make you one, I''ll cajole the scholar to the task, of making you one due to political reasons" "Clans and smaller sects might not yield to you if you are just strong since they know the depth of what they are messing with and have backings of their own." "But even if you aren''t too strong and yet you have a horrifying or unfathomable backing you will make them easily vacillate to your whims." "If this path does not work Song Zi Chen would not have won against master even if it''s a narrow win" "Master was strong very strong, able to skip realms to fight multiple people, people who should have been stronger than him combined fell like harvested wheat to him due to his personal power and techniques that are polished beyond perfection." "But at the end of the day he alone wasn''t enough, he fell not to techniques but schemes, betrayal because he was alone, betrayed by the elders of the sect, his sect and so did he lost." "This at least was what I gleaned from my seniors that was captured during the war." "You probably got this bag from one of my seniors that lost his life on the battle field and you even took his clothing too" "Well, I was butt naked then and I needed some clothing too" I retorted " I mean he was dead and only his clothes was really neat without any dirt or bloodstain you know" "Humph my ''big brother Liang is still so prim and proper till death huh" and then she gave me a disgusted look like I once raided her family''s treasure vault. "How will I not choose that" then in my defense I brought out some ruined uniform clothing and continued "These will be discovered a mile away by the owners of this types of uniform or their allies what do you expect me to do especially when there is blood stain on it?" "Fair enough, at least some brains was still left in your head when you woke up lest I find a dead body and no treasure bag" "Why" I asked "Simple," she replied "Simple?" I looked at her askance "You see mid transfer after the betrayal of the second and third elder, master self detonated, not only with his power but with the formation also to blow Song Zi Chen to the highest heavens." she explained "But old Song certainly survived by the skin of his teeth, and not in good shape" "The rest of his retinue alongside the traitorous elders got wiped out" "In his rage he led a punitive raid against all who are still loyal to master killed big sis yin''er in one blow and captured big bro Jue Zheng and big sis Cao Wan''er" "Big bro Liang Yun would have escaped Song Zi Chen but met with disaster midway probably due to carrying you along!" "Now only big sis Cao Wan''er remains apart from me, sold as a cultivation cauldron to heavens knows who, and her cultivation will be extracted fueling another''s." "So how do I fit into all these debacle you mentioned since this so called Song guy that made a bounty so nobody alive saw me when I got punted into this world" "Well there is divination they might not even know who you truly are, it doesn''t matter, they''ve got lifespan in the thousands of years to burn" "Now that''s if it is a lone high level cultivator, I it is a group of cultivators like sects that''s a different ball game entirely for they''ve got not just lifespan but a fuckton of resources accumulated over thousands of years to burn" "Wait!, j-just for me, what did I do?!" as if slack jawed moment won''t end today "Oh you did nothing sweetie, you simply existed and there is resources, power, face and possible sect rank ascension is at stake, now that''s your sin." "Sects stop at nothing to gain one of the four but in your case there is more than one of those cases happening simultaneously." As if that is not enough, she continued "this might be on their head every day and night for the first some years and gradually it will simmer down then the real players will then start their show, if they still can''t find you, well cultivators though long lived dies and could hand over your capture to the next generation as a form of inheritance" "So ''young master'' while I have a powerful method of escape and concealment you on the other hand are as weak as a twig easily snappable, and once word got out about you or even the true nature of this bag you will be hounded all your life." "And as a mortal escaping from cultivators will be nigh impossible and that is from the ones who are still building their qi root not the ones that has transformed their qi root into spirit root and accessed spirit qi." "So any solution to this mess that I find myself in" I then asked "Well, cultivate" she replied "How?" I asked clueless to procedure "Don''t tell me it''s only silver that you have been taking from the bag?" she questioned back "..." a sheepish look on my face "Oh my, you''re such a dunce" she scolded "Well I don''t scold me willy nilly how do you want me to know what I naturally don''t have any idea of" I whined "Does cultivation not exist from the depths of hell where you were summoned from" she asked wanting to blast me some more "Nope," I answered "and my place is not hell it''s ea..." "If it''s not hell why are you so black, isn''t it because you were burnt by the hellfire there so much that no soap and cleaning method could wash you clean?," she cuts in " maybe your answer will be cultivation she continued her words acidic, though she knowingly pulled my leg there "We don''t know what might happen you know, I might become blacker with more cultivation" I rebutted "You''ll become a shadow assassin then, maybe you have some natural affinity for the shadows" she pressed "Ok!, ok!!, calm down before you chew me into pieces, I will cultivate but" I said giving up the banter that ensued after our ''heart to heart'' talk "Oh come on, don''t be a slouch when you have a wealth that exceeds tier I sects" she goaded clearly enjoying the banter, not wanting it to end. "Fine, tier I sects or not I''ve already told you that I''ll cultivate, so how do we start?, when do we start?, can we start now?" "And here I was, wondering when you''ll get the gist" "Tomorrow we shall begin" she declared, with that I shooed her out of my room to get some quality good night sleep, I was already groggy mid conversation anyways. 11. THE MEETING And so did I woke up the next morning fairly late due to the night discussion did the worlds equivalent of brushing ones teeth and freshen myself up, the Xiao girl was nowhere to be found, "Ah well, at least she should have still kept the facade of been a maid a bit longer " I grumbled softly. So I performed my morning meditation to center myself of the days past and by the time I was done she was back with the village head, the scholar and the dojo master. "Uh, this is... new," I muttered "What''s going on ",She turned around to the guests and then said with as much maid-like vibes as possible. "Please do forgive the young master, He is just recovering from the celebration over indulgences" "No offence taken" the village head said "Not at all" the Luo brothers answered almost as quickly, I looked into the parlor but before I had much time to observe I got shoved into the room with quick instruction about ones composure, she told me that since they do not know too much about the higher echelon of the society they will not easily see through the disguise but one person Luo Chang. Luo Chang is an erudite person at heart, and will teach me about scholastic behavioral refinement, then the village head will get him the contact of the clan of which he is subservient to, not for them to come here but for us to go meet them. No need to give them a heads up since it will appear like they gained the attention of a nebulous superior, clans like sects will not give up a chance to ''impress'' their ''superiors''. "Should we manufacture a name of which they will not be able to find" I asked, trying to know the extent of our scheme "No, don''t give anything away for clans just like sects or any other organizations are just as relentless as they come" she said confidently. "and the role of the dojo master?" I asked "His role is to guide you in cultivation in your early stages, then the scholar will take it from where he stopped, before I take over from there." "What if He..." He just like them been made compliant, he won''t snitch" she said with steel in her voice, then her face became sunny again "young master!, we''re making the guest wait, the tea is getting cold," my face twitched ''this girl is qualified for an Oscar award'' I thought I quickly put on a well pressed cloth and tied my braids, looked into the silver doped glass mirror to get my visage right to the most scholastic I could get for now and went to greet my ''guests'' properly. There we discussed buying the property rights to the village from the DA HAI clan that controls this region, we got news that the region they control has four towns around forty villages or more, and one city which is the place the clan is based the DA HAI CITY. "How far is it from here?" I asked, which Luo Chang brought out a map depicting the DA HAI CLAN region, then the village head stood to the table which was promptly cleared for the map to find some space to rest on. Based on the empyrean division of one empire, nine kingdoms, nine prefectures, nine region, nine provinces and nine districts. each district city is around 600 to 1000 li apart on average not counting underground settlements which could not be found on the empyrean maps. "Based on the map It should be around 400 li away from here but this is a rough map though" Luo Chang stated. "But we could skip the normal road and use a boat to sail up river at SHU HE river town which is roughly 5li away in order to cut our journey on land short" "Back then when Wei Hao picked you, he did so at the Mt TENG SHAN mountain pass on the way back from the XI FENG village where we rested our trading caravan and bought extra travel supplies" the dojo master said "At that time we just completed a successful trade in the SHU HE river town he added. The point is that even I the village head have not been to the city before so we have to make do with this map since it''s only the Luo brothers that have done so" Lu Feng Lai intoned "The maximum place that I''ve reached is the SHU HE town where the branch clan of the DA HAI is situated." "So this is for the eventuality that we get to the DA HAI city at the main clan before this village can be purchased, chances is that the branch clan might not want to lose one of their cash cow." "This is the reason why we should visit the branch clan at SHU HE," Xiao Xiao stated, everyone''s gaze landed on her and she shrugged, "the main branch will only see us as equals even with the mysterio we wanna pull off, but, the branch clan will at least be a bit intimidated and remember my statement on stakes and what clans sects and other organization will do if they feel that ''tis genuine enough? "Clans and sects got internal politics but become an iron wall when faced with external threats, so let''s not make ourselves into a threat for them, but just to get them into the fold ,enough that we get what we want, period."Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. So they decided on when they will go to visit the DA HAI clan branched based in SHU HE town. not that the DA HAI clan rules SHU HE totally the town has two fledgling gangs, and three minor clans that jointly ''shared'' what the pace had to offer yet the DA HAI branch clan still barely comes out mostly on top which had made them rule the town as it is. They don''t dare make too much fuss such as renaming the town to soothe their ego lest they might need the main clan''s intervention to settle the matter that ensues for instance, a riot, this in turn, will reduce their standing in the clan and they are having none of that. SHU HE provides a modicum of ''protection'' to the villages and in turn the villages are made to pay taxes through them. market levies on the goods brought to the market, this is because the villagers do come to town with their excesses and the dealings between villages takes place there. of course rural-urban migration factors still holds, SHU HE is a river town and also an important junction for river travel to either the upriver or the down river areas. ''They made plans to buy the village, as outlandish as it sounds, it only seems to make sense to these two youngsters, hopefully the plan will not flop and they will get out of the clutches of the SHU HE town and in extension the DA HAI clan... into the hands of these two youngsters huh''. ''Llife could be funny at times I wonder what their plans could be that it will include buying up a village hope things doesn''t get worse then.'' Lu Feng Lai thought on his way back home. PERIOR TO THE MEETING ************** Luo Chang otherwise known as the scholar had a priceless expression on his face when a ''maid'' of someone that he knew has not an ounce of cultivation under his belt swaggered in on him in his most secret of areas which he thought was well hidden from the public. This place was created using a simple formation diagram which enables it to draw ambient spirit qi in order to conceal its location so much that even Lu Feng Lai the village head who is more powerful than him, scratch that the sect elder that pursued him would have apprehended him if not for this formation. It was his penchant of studying formation fragments and talismans that gave him the moniker the scholar in the Jiang Hu not because of his original scholastic pursuits, yet even when using the most intricate concealment formation he knew to guard his ''hidden'' sanctuary a ''maid'' actually snuck in? ''Impossible'' he thought, "How did you get in here" He challenged the interloper wanting some answer, the answer wasn''t forthcoming, he then decided to use force to get to the bottom of this situation that was when it was as if the world is going to an end... for him, of course he felt as if he was facing the sect elder again. "Have the sect found my hiding place and sent you to finish the job?" He asked knowing the futility of resistance especially in situations like this, there she stood, cool as a cucumber with a bored expression on her face doing seemingly nothing and he kept bearing her spiritual pressure. She didn''t even deign to answer him, of course who will answer the trifling question of a dead man walking, hamstringing my brother''s cultivation and pursuing us relentlessly wasn''t enough, oh no they love it when what they considered enemy dead, some will even go further to refine them into corpse servants, a Jianxi under the will of another. After she had taken her sweet time pressuring me till I nearly lost my mind she simply said with the utmost nonchalance "I''ll be needing your service soon, when the time comes I want your full accord." and then vanished like a puff of smoke, leaving a bewildered me on the floor trying to shrug off the effect of her suppression and also get to the meaning of what she meant in what she said. ************** Luo Fu the tiger hunter was in his private training area which even Wei Hao his closest disciple will not dare step in without prior notification and he might not be answered even with all the closeness because of an open warning in the jiang hu which goes as thus "those who watch you while you train will better be able to counter you, or at least have a measure of you of which can be dangerous if not downright fatal." On instinct he attacked, not that he was weak but even with his cultivation hamstrung he can still wield a portion of it which makes him strong enough to hold his own if not escape the village head if it comes to blows. He summarily slammed into something impossibly ''solid'', it was ''viscous'' in nature and ''heavy'', then he realized he''d fucked up big time and already in range for a counter that will likely see his end ''Is this how I''ll die?'' thoughts flew through his head at lightning speed. He looked up only to see that the girl did not move, just staring at him like a bug she could crush at anytime which sadly was true, then she said something and then just left, the pressure receded in her wake, he then came back to his senses and remembered that what she said implies cooperation, well who is he to defy. ************** Lu Feng Lai bore her pressure modestly but it''s all but a matter of time before he slips off and exposed weakness," at least you unlike the rest didn''t capitulate on the first instance of receiving my spiritual pressure" Ling Xiao Xiao said. "What might you want, great one?" the village head struggled to ask "Great one?, ha!, ok I''ll humor you, I am interested in making sure a certain someone buys the village" she said with a guffaw "Have you any issues with that?" "No great one, just that I''m not of the right nor do I have the authority to accede to this request of yours, this village is under the purview of the SHU HE river town which the DA HAI branch clan serves as it''s overseer." He was already feeling the strain of her spiritual pressure before it vanished, however she was still there studying the man, "it seems the story of you being the strongest in this village kinda'' holds some truth, interesting, well no problem. I''ll be having a meeting today with all three of you and I''ll be glad if you are all there for we have things to discuss in the presence of the young master. do you understand?" Yes I do Lu Feng Lai answered, then she vanished from his eyes and his perception "dangerous" he commented "but hopefully worth it probably a bastard son of a high level elder of a sect or super clan no cultivation base under his belt but such a powerful guardian no wonder he left home. It''s usually being that his more powerful siblings are trying to grab more power and hell just be squashed in the middle of their scuffles," he speculated "well no need for useless theories I''ve got an impromptu meeting I didn''t sign up for to attend." "I never thought the old man will be so reasonable today, I mean the first time we met we weren''t the best of pals" Hua Lei said thought fully. "Oh yeah, ''how to be best of pals for dummies'' hmm, ogle my daughter blatantly in front of me? "It''s not like that," Hua Lei defended. "But the village people talks, you were practically drooling on her all the time when you were traveling to the village for the first time." she asserted. Hua Lei "..." "What cat got your tongue?" she jabbed "Eh no!" slightly flustered he replied "Ok then we''ll start now" slightly tired of their back and forth conversation she asked "Start what" he asked back confused "Your cultivation of course" she declared and Hua Lei groaned. 12. BREAKTHROUGH AND RECOVERY "Don''t groan you can only have more access to the bag if you have a modicum of cultivation on you not dipping your hand in to pull out random stuff" she said with her hand on her hips She then brought out a nameless cultivation method to him and told him plainly "This is what you''ll cultivate," "This cultivation method is what he fashioned when he was training us" "Why no name?" "''Who cares about names just get strong'' if my memory did not fail me that''s exactly how he said it, gruffly at that." she mimed "The cultivation starter package" Hua Lei declared with a pomp "..." She looked speechless before laughing uproariously, "seriously?, you really do have uncanny names." ***************** The day went on while I was trying to memorize the runic symbols what they meant and the incantation that follows, it was said that you''ll have to memorize all 72 runic symbols and the formation diagram in detail without any deviation and also the incantations to break open the secret area and ''heed the call of Qi as a mortal''. Days passed it was easier for me to memorize the worded incantations, which was within 8 weeks of constant recitation, now remaining the runic visualizations that follows which proved to be tricky to handle. first is the fact of certainty, most people after agonizing on it will find out that they got the visualization aspect wrong and visualize the runes in the wrong order or incomplete runes. This at best will be a waste of time at worst they got unlucky to visualize a wrong but potent combination that will cause some extremely ''weird shit'' to occur, waste their one chance to cultivate or worse kill themselves due to the recoil. So I consulted my ''maid'' to ask about runes drawing and what she told me was a bit disheartening she said that I should get the blood of vicious beasts to test them, though any fluid charged with vital qi will do too She told me to use ordinary materials that could not or barely hold qi without been destroyed since it''s just to test the correctness of the runes that I held in my mind. of all what I want to get the blood of vicious beast and the brush to be used will be the most expensive. The expense will be followed up by the papers fashioned from vegetations that held a slight amount of vital qi which is an inferior talisman paper, of which are sold at the rate of 1000 papers for two golden imperials. ************************ "Expensive!" I couldn''t help but mutter out loud, feeling the pinch of the expenses. "This is still dirt cheap" Xiao Xiao intoned "you are now starting to see the true water shed to cultivation which is ''resources''" "The orthodoxy kept such a tight lid on cultivation resources that the first independent cultivators were actually expelled disciples of the orthodoxy discontent with their lot in life, and so did they kept on it trying newer and more maverick things in order to move forward thus deviating from the normal set path of cultivation" "This people however still follow the general stages realms sub-realms and level involved in cultivation, however they brought a different flavor of cultivation to the world of cultivation, some of these people eventually rejoined the orthodoxy enriching their diversity, while enjoying the orthodoxy''s stability in turn." "The price for that was stagnation, some unwilling for that to happen decided to bunch up in the outskirts of their the orthodoxy''s influence, thus forming the unorthodoxy. these people are loose organization of independent cultivators who want to settle down while keeping their autonomy." ****************************** "However alongside ''independent cultivators'' comes another concerning problem, which is the presence of evil cultivators otherwise known as demonic cultivators or demonic masters. their history could be traced back to before the Battle Of The Chthonic''s End these people are cultivators who cultivates the aspects of the demonic invaders for various reasons." ************************ "And these people are also ''tagged'' unto the unorthodoxy too making us steadily lose face, this also could be said to be a propaganda against us not to amass too much power to threaten their dominance in terms of cultivation resources." "Thus anytime they want to apprehend any of the unorthodoxy''s cultivators they use the old trick of denouncement and some greasing of the right palms to get their way, this makes us appear weaker than the orthodoxy and also makes us look bad in the face of the public hence making us serve as the most convenient blame takers." "But this doesn''t deter us since the recruitment method of the orthodoxy made it so that they mostly recruit from the big clans and other sects, this creates a power vacuum filled by us who mostly recruit disciples while we are out wandering and experiencing what the world of cultivation has to offer." "So get used to things like this" "You mean burning money like firewood?" "Yes," she answered "and get on with your cultivation" So I continued with the runic inscription occasionally taking a pointer or two from the scholar and Xiao Xiao on runes thus I did what I haven''t done at all I made a journal, not the scroll style that is popular but the normal 12 in 1 subject note type, what I ended with was something akin to a grimore.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. *************************** That ''grimore'' was what I used to record the beginning of my cultivation my successes and failures of my ''runology'' as I named it and so for the next one and the half years will I keep practicing burning through over 30 golden imperials till I finally could not only recall the 72 runes perfectly but also inscribe them on a sheet of inferior talismanic paper. One and a half years clocked, and it became obvious that I could not improve anymore using this method again so I bought some more blood found a tree on the outskirt of the village near a mountain and I tried to marking all the runes upon the tree in one go took me some 16 weeks and lots of inscription damaged trees to make my first break through . After that I also switched to rocks which I could lift though, it was harder to mark than the wood, one has to be very steady when carving this all of this is so that I could achieve a one shot rune marking breakthrough. all of this is not to make mistakes when arranging the formation diagram in my mind and reciting the Incantation correctly and in correct order lest I lose the opportunity for ever to become a cultivator. Then it became time painfully obvious that I could not make anymore breakthrough, I''ve exhausted all the plausible Ideas that came into my mind this includes the buying of animals and inscribing on them, this was immediately discouraged. what blood I will use the beast that I awakened will become subservient to and vicious beast to humankind policy is to kill on sight. That will I visit later, when I am stronger, but it is time, the process was surreal, it was as if my very existence was sucked in and concentrated into a point till it spilled over into another space... my own personal ''secret space'' of which I could use to gather the vital Qi that my body generates. ******************* And so at the age of 30 years, 3 months and 3 weeks did I, Hua Lei a man from planet earth who was ''kidnapped'' to planet jia yuan, stepped on the path of cultivation, near the border of the village that I turned into an experimentation site, yeah it was just like that one moment wasn''t a cultivator another moment was a cultivator no world shattering lightning descent no hoot at all! that''s meh! I mean with all this golden imperials I spent and the over 17000 talismanic paper wasted, and over 110 weeks spent to master the runes incantations and all there is to master before a breakthrough I expected more to happen when I become a cultivator not this blandness even my muscle strength did not change at all. Though I feel like I have this sense, of ... let me think about it and then I found that my memory had become ultra full HD exponential X, huh so memory improvement ehn, then I decided to test things out I sat down on the spot and meditated. At first things was so serene that I felt it should go on forever, I was about to congratulate myself for my meditation leveling up when things took another turn, that instant I felt like I lave re-lived my life all over again obscure stuff of the past kept getting clearer and clearer buried memories of different flavors of emotion attached to it was unearthed. And on and on it went, wait a minute this is not my memor... I felt a sharp pain the moment I tried stopping and exiting meditation that I was forced to live and witness the life un-lived by me, this time it was the life of Yu Ren. Be it an instant or an eternity was I trapped in a mental-scape till I woke up on the bed as thin as a broomstick all that was recalled mostly forgotten, all that was left was the impressions left but stronger this time, but that only occurred to most of yu ren''s memories bit I retain 100% of mine. ******************* "Wakey-wakey sleeping handsome," Xiao Xiao said this time not jesting or anything just with a downright serious tone instead "Urgh! what happened to me" I whispered groggily still feeling the disconnect between reality and the journey which I was forcibly made to undergo mentally. "Well nothing I could pinpoint, you still appear normal only dealing with the overdraw of vital Qi of which the origin of it I know not of." Then she fixed me with a leveled gaze and asked with a calmness bothering on the unnatural "what exactly on jia yuan were you thinking?, what were you trying to do over-drafting yourself the first day you managed to cultivate vital qi?." "I-I simply experimented on memories you know trying to recall all what I have learnt ages past and then Yu Ren''s memories found its way towards me disjointed but of so massive proportion that it knocked me out." That explains it she said but still doesn''t explain how you became as thin as a broom stick, The time you were practicing I have been secretly watching you but suddenly you slumped while cultivating it will be hilarious to have cultivation backlash this serious this early, however this exactly is the reality. Then in a week you were like this, Hua Lei inspected himself the atrophy that occurred made him look like a patient of anorexia nervosa disease, he then tried to sit up which proven itself to be a monumental task. don''t worry I''ll fix something for you right away she said already in the kitchen fixing up lunch Lunch came, as a broth, I looked at her askance, she just pretended she didn''t saw my action and fed me the broth anyways, the broth at first didn''t feel like anything special but some minutes into eating I had started to sweat I felt like I could outrun a horse. "Don''t" she reprimanded seeing me twitching in ways like I want to leave the bed, she placed her hand ''gently'' on me which stopped all my attempts to sit up in its tracks," what have you fed me" I demanded. "Oh nothing much I simply laced your broth with the diluted blood of a vicious beast the strength you felt then is false quickly rest yourself and allow me to feed you your ration it loses efficacy quickly." I seemed to remember something that skipped my mind entirely as soon as it surfaced, well I just lay there simply focusing on my breath losing myself in the rhythm of eating while breathing also the process at which the food enters my stomach I seemed to see something then I was jolted awake. It''s already in the evening of the next day somehow I''d gotten an uncanny sense of positioning and time also my body was feeling good in more ways than one, but I''m still skinny though, guess I''ll have to beef up myself before any shit about training and whatnot. "The vicious beasts are one step above the fierce beasts which is one step above normal beasts," she started knowing that I was wide awake now "Their superiors catalyses the development of fierce beasts by deliberately feeding them the blood of vicious beasts in moderate proportions." "So does this you feed me now makes me a ''fierce'' human now huh?" I asked "No," she guffawed "it doesn''t what it does is just similar it stimulates your body to generate more vitality which in turn becomes your vital qi with the help of your secret area and not discounting the body''s capacity though. "Remember vitality is locked, even within your body you can''t manipulate it at all not until you reach the higher stages of cultivation though but in this stage keep what I tell you in mind, while vital qi could flow in your body" "So this is the difference between static and mobile, liquid and solid, structural and energetic yet interchangeable with each other?" "How apt," she looked at me momentarily shocked "it seems that you are catching up a bit faster than I expected with this memory shenanigan that you''ve done, I mean who in his or her right mind begins cultivation by first firming ones memory "That''s me" I jested "A waste of vital Qi if I''ve ever known one" Okay, so this is how it goes, I''ll keep feeding you, you''ll keep this new mode of meditation that you are on right now and after a week of repeating this pattern we shall proceed to the training regimen, got it. "Yeah got it." I answered and once again begin meditating. 13. CULTIVATION LOG Log 1 I tried the incantations only and by the second week I managed to remember the first sentence fuzzily, I then switched to the runes on the third week but I strangely got a fierce head ache while trying to remember the runic glyphs may be because I was ahead of myself, though I had a little headway and by the fourth week the result, it was of no substance. Log 2 On the fifth week I managed to fully cram the incantation in my memory, made a headway in the incantations on the sixth week but with little mistakes recorded though. Log 3 On the seventh through the eight week, I could basically recall the incantations but no headway with the runic symbols yet, with a barely passable for the incantations time to take the runes seriously?!. Log 4 THA F*CK!, I think those sales guys for the inferior talismanic papers are friggin'' rippers, 2 gold for a thousand papers?, it doesn''t even help that Xiao Xiao laughed at my plight when I explained to her why my mood got dark that evening. Anyways still practicing my incantations till my mind calms down though any ways this is the ninth week of practice. Log5 On the tenth week, I can now recall the chants without much stress on my part no headway on the runes yet rendered around 134 pieces of paper useless though, better get some more from the SHU HE market next month lest my ''progress'' gets stunted. Log 6 On the eleventh week, I got my order, and under the guidance of the scholar managed to complete 10 runes correctly, noted that the immediate edges of the paper seemed to shimmer like a roof on a sunny day so I decided to check the previous attempts alas no shimmer paper to get, maybe the limited energy got spent. Log7 On the twelfth week, I wanted to practice the rest but got stopped told to practice what I''ve gotten to know till it became second nature, shimmering papers galore!, though the scholar seemed to have a special interest of them ehn. Log 8 2443 papers later, I was allowed to continue mastering more runes, not much event with the exception of a heap of shimmerless waste paper with minor success on the thirteenth week Log 9 This is the fourteenth week now, I''m getting the nuances of the other 27 runes I picked off the pile, got 18 of them to shimmer and then put aside the rest of them in order to perfect the ones I''ve already grasped making 28 out of 72 which means it remains 44 more to go!, almost there I patted myself in the back Log 10 On the fifteenth week, I went to the market in high spirits and paid over 22 gold imperials to get low quality talisman papers and high quality spell scroll papers which didn''t come cheap and that overt move attracted some unsavory attentions which was promptly crushed by Xiao Xiao of which I intended to ''craft'' a book using the spell scroll paper why to hold theQi power of the runes of course. Log 11 On week sixteen through fifty two, I concentrated on completely mastering the runes inscription method which was almost complete remaining but 5 more runes to go. Log 12 I complete the repertoire! yes I can now rite them runes better. I was going to start my break through before I receive a firm red light from ''the scholar'' and ''my maid'', why?, I asked indignantly, then they explained the danger of rushing head-on towards breakthrough without much consideration that those who luckily breakthrough did so with luck in accordance, lest could lose all chance at cultivation of worse warp themselves spiritually which much more than often doesn''t end well for the cultivator in question all of that took me from the fifty third week to the fifty sixth weeks. week 57 I told my maid to help procure more papers the same quality I normally ordered only to get the news of price increase and with the vexation from not being permitted to attempt a breakthrough still simmering within my heart, my ire erupted that evening much to her amusement. weeks 58-80 It was a simple rinse and repeat of both on paper runic inscriptions and incantations I even managed to fully couple together those spell scrolls into a well to do book with my maids and the scholars help though, she helped in the actual crafting and he helped in guiding how it should be crafted I only described what I have in mind to them , in due time able to inscribe all of the runes on paper at once. weeks 81-96 Time to use different ''test specimens'' for example I noticed a tree near to the outskirts of the village growing really tall for its kind and I wanted to test some of my ideas on it but not wanting to damage it I decided to test on the ones around it first and then the tree once I got the hang of it. weeks 97-110 I spent this time etching on rocks surfaces specially chosen by Xiao Xiao and some chosen by me the runes while chanting the incantations by heart comes easy now it was still an effort at least vicious beast blood made it easy to carve since it''s energetic potential made it easy to etch itself on normal surfaces hence the need for talismanic papers when using it the last time hurts like fuck if it spills on your body Though heard some people not being able to break through will use its blood to ''temper'' the body to be able to dish out more force per body unit, don''t know the veracity of the claim though, done with them I placed them under the giant tree that I etched with runes leaving them there as mere exercise This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. He went on to get some animals to test upon which was promptly stopped and greatly discouraged with horror stories filled with people who successfully tried it and got eaten by the very animal they experiment upon, not to mention that these animals didn''t go feral like the ones recruited into the cultivation world by spirit beasts but hid quietly and gather power till they became a scourge and nigh unstoppable This is partly because they gain from the human some nifty stuff that made them more competent in the world of beasts not all of them though, for if it''s an organization they''ll know better than to use vicious beast blood that has the embedded will in it , it doesn''t help that the will in it hates humans in general the ones that killed it, the ones his master always order it to kill, the ones whose tender flesh it enjoys, the ones who invade their ''lands'' and banish them from it and so-on and so forth ************** The morning after the last etching, after I had been well lectured about the beasts and their cultivation paths and all that I need to know about them for now, I decided to take the bold step forward, chanted the incantations, etched the relevant runes and arranged them into a diagram within my mind. Doing these simultaneously was a chump change all due to the power of focused effort and a ridiculous amount of training time, then lo and behold I broke through XIAO XIAO''S POV: HUA LEI''S COMATOSEAND AWAKENING I watched him at the place which he made private making my stealth as good as I can make it to be, I watched as the mortal took his first step on the path of cultivation, like a kun becoming a peng he shall soar amongst the skies not among mere mortal. I was almost too caught up in my daydream before I just saw him collapsed twitching on the floor in pain I had been carried away not to mention whatever master have done that made me heavily attracted to his aura or at least this person that has the whiff of his aura, needless to say I went forward to pick him up and made him compliant with a swift knockout blow. "Hopefully this doesn''t complicate things," I muttered, "Now I don''t know what happened to you that you fainted and it''s also about time you made your breakthrough though She took Hua Lei home to lay him to rest, in her shock she found him gradually becoming skinnier by the moment she did a scan on him and found that his body is been overtaxed ofQi and its flooding to.. his head no!, his brain! she then force fed him a seriously diluted vicious beast blood made tame by her of course lest she complicate matters needlessly. ************** This went up for a while till it subsided and there he rested for six days straight with Xiao Xiao watching over for him around the afternoon of the sixth day he showed signs of waking up which she quickly went to the kitchen to fix something for him He asked about what happened to him of which I told him what I saw and asked him what he was doing then, he then went on to describe this weird form of introspective meditation which requires you to delve into your memory to meditate upon. We talked as I fed him the food I formulated just for this circumstance he found himself, if he were still a mortal he would have been injured not enhanced by this food for there is no secret space for them to refine the VitalQi off the food that he is consuming Beasts though have resilient and larger physiques making them bear the brunt of what Vital Qi they consume thankfully he is now a cultivator and able to withstand the amount of Qi within the food and not make his case worse. After finishing his lunch he straight away begun meditating, initially I feared that he will try what ever made a mess out of him some six days ago but He seemed less eager to do it it seemed he managed to grasp the most basic form of meditation which is simply focusing on ones breath When he finally got himself stabilized on the seventh day ''fit as a fiddle'' he stood up still thin though since you can''t fatten a thin child within a day thus we discussed on what I fed him made jokes on it and thus begun our talk about beasts and their correlations to cultivators. Beasts find ways to initiate each other through their blood this is only possible for spirit beasts though, an area potentially with spirit beasts will often have mad and raving vicious beasts abound seeking the blood of human It is not so often that we hear that villages got wiped out by the emergence of a single vicious beasts because they could move if they spotted one that is an extinction level threat to their village or hunt it down with concerted effort or the strongest in a village usually the village head hunts it down, anyways villages do have people at the level of a dojo master which is the peak of the realm you just entered The blood of a spirit beast inundates a fierce beast making its VitalQi mobile by force which is a painful process not to mention the emotions both of its own and another giving the beast overwhelming urge for violence and when they inadvertently sees a prey helpless under their might? they perpetrate it to their hearts content, which won''t be they''ll just move to next until they suffer desolation. This ''desolation'' severely test their mind faculty bringing it to the same level of a human of spirit refining spirit sea this time they''ll be able to condense a pseudo core that will house their ''spirit sea'', this also has the added effect of stabilizing their mind, granting them sapience and forcing them to choose willingly whether to continue life as before or cease the farce and becoming peaceful All of that is passed on from beast to beast via the blood into their subconscious, since it takes the catalysis of VitalQi laden blood or other material to stimulate beasts and other already ''fierce'' organism any kind to generate their own VitalQi Note this, ''fierce'' organisms have hoarded vitality eaten from vital plants, dead vicious beasts or stayed in a region where a powerful person/beast died to become ''more,'' more than just normal lest the ''initiation process will just kill them'' some could be lucky and find beast that died of not being able to survive the transition process to a vicious beast and eat their corpses there by amassing vitality. Ferocious beast grows big, pound for pound vicious beasts are more stronger and also hopping mad with fury due to their connection with the records in the blood and its effect on their fragile psyche, it''s in all that has that wronged and warp their minds in general hence, becoming a foot soldier in a beast tide with ferocious beasts as cannon fodder. When things becomes dire for them, mostly at the point of imminent demise they sometimes will trigger an evolution(desolation) which will turn them to a desolate beast allowing them to regain their faculties and become measured in their dealings humanlike intelligence making them an spirit beast''s in a beast tide if they decide to continue their previous path. The spirit beasts evolution is more like a humans evolution to spirit refinement but gives them super-human intelligence and the ability to recruit beasts to its cause they are the beast commanders of the every beast tide, if they participate. Followed by core beasts, which is then followed by true soul beasts, beast lord, beast king, beast emperor, heavenly beasts, celestial beasts and holy beasts. The false leviathans and their evolution to god beasts makes them rival a void breaker and beyond in strength. As for humans they first build their spirit root at theQi Root stage then ascend to spirit refinement stage before they become nobles and then become a Deva, this Deva stage is when they become void breakers and ascend to the higher realms, away from this current reality The wilds where the fight happened was fairly close to this place no? he asked out of the blue Yes it is I answered Humph he scowled all these years we didn''t hear a whiff of them even in SHU HE town, Well they won''t start gallivanting on the streets saying that they are looking for some no name cultivators will they? I answered With that answer given to him, he simply cracked an eye open gave me a stare and went back to meditation. 14. ATTEMPTS AT FURTHER CULTIVATION the first task set upon me after my break through and subsequent recovery is to start some basic exercise to get in tune with myself, did some squats, some pushups, hand stands, four li jogging and so much more by the time it is the evening of the day I was tired to the bone. rinse and repeat it went on like that for around eight days before the martial forms were introduced from basic punching to kicking to positioning to all the others, then the basic sword forms, spear forms, staff forms and knife/saber forms. the above mentioned will be continued for the next 6 months till at least an initial mastery at cultivator level since the ones prior to that didn''t count, this makes it that you get ''familiar'' with the weapons and techniques making it easy to fall into by default and not grant you any ''godly'' abilities and the progress was fast despite the fact that I trained with various weapons then I switched into ranged weapons like the shurikens, throw bolts, throw needles, bow and arrows. this also lasted some two months before initial mastery was scored. all of these trainings were supervised by the village head for the ranged, Xiao Xiao for the weapons, Luo fu for hand to hand and extreme close quartered, Luo Chang for the strategies, mental and theoretical aspects of combats they all have ways you could efficiently apply your Qi in combat and none of them had a profession except Xiao Xiao who is a trained spy a profession of which I don''t need and Luo Chang who is a half baked runologist but gathers books like a nerd, maybe he''s a nerd. so in my free time I''ll apprentice myself to a black smith who by the covert orders of the village head started to teach me the basics of blacksmithing, with the materials to be bought by me though, my Qi enhanced brain is probably the suspicious organ that made me learn the skills needed at record time in the mean time also learned from a cook. there I learned how to cook the native dishes my favorite was the dumplings this is followed by the noodles, it''s a pity that vital Qi can''t travel outside the body, otherwise I would have experimented on its effects on other things like a chopping knife... scratch that, I would have even tried it on my noodles you know using Qi to knead. what I simply know now is that my breakthrough into being a cultivator, wielding the vital Qi that I have now grants me a slightly more resilient more muscle yield per weight, the increase in coordination is a bit more. A moment of inspiration spurred me to open my dusty ''grimore'' and record my progress on it not just to record runes on it since I''ve already used the runes to breakthrough and also tally my development in a book and not lose my developmental track in a cultivation fugue. name: hua lei (dark fox) cultivation stage: stages> realms> phase > levels of cultivation mortal > ordinary ^ Qi root > Qi initiation > awakened ''Secret space'' phase > 1 wisp. techniques: basic unarmed combat; basic dojo fist art lvl 1. basic ranged weapon; shuriken lvl 1, throw bolts lvl 1, throwing needle lvl 1, bows (short and long) and arrows lvl 1. basic armed combat; sword lvl 1, shield lvl 1, spear lvl 1, staff lvl 1 profession: blacksmithing lvl 1 , cooking lvl 1, butchering lvl 1, leather working lvl 1, hunting???. all my perceived ''stats'' were recorded since initial mastery is the bare minimum then I''ll tally that as level 1 and it took me almost a year to get there, not that kicks can''t be integrated with the basic fist art and was right about the fact that if I want to get so strong so fast I''ll need to engage in focused training on my martial techniques and cultivation coz I seem to be getting nowhere even with the ''memories of a 400 years old monster stuffed in my little head not that I could access all of it anyways. I decided that my cultivation will be the best to quickly level up coz it''s the basic of basics, even if I didn''t train in the martial forms well I''ll still be able to nearly one-shot someone who trained all his life but vastly inferior to me in cultivation which makes things simple crushing you by the virtue of out massing you in cultivation. higher cultivation also makes things somewhat easy for instance, the face slapping and noodle shop shenanigans will ''waka jeje''(this means to wisely walk away and not kick up a fuss), though sometimes some people always have a ''degree of freedom'' in their actions, well more like a ''degree of insanity'' because if their personal power is not enough they will start pitting their background against yours. this actions to me... are not wise at all, I view it as ''courting disaster with a passion'' for you might not know when this background of yours is too far away to save your ass in a pinch, so the cure for all this shit, is to be strong!, enough to give your would be victim a good pause, making them think 50 times before committing to their stupid actions. while they are still thinking hard about how to solve the conundrum you became, you are long gone. however there will still be people fated for doom no matter how narrow the road to hell is they''ll jostle their way in and in record time at that, thus is the rules of ''the degree of insanity'' a sort of Murphy''s law that just applies to human interactions only. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. then with higher powers comes opportunities basically laid at your feet, this also could get all murphied up since based on what I could glean in this world of cultivation even the people who are weaker than you wants to use you for their own ends, solution just be a tad more alert to their possible schemes and smarter than them simple yet effective. in cultivation deep within my room where I was meditating, I took a glance into my secret realm not much wisp still, it had moved from 1 wisp which slowly expend itself to empower me or doing some other thing so I determined that I use up my vital Qi just as I generate them which caused this equilibrium so I put it into my note. cultivation: first block identified; stagnation = equilibrium in generation and consumption possible solution(s); create ways to generate more than you consume, focus on meditation all day long, contact Xiao Xiao, scholar, dojo master or village leader for more advice ''now back on my techniques which one should I choose first hmm,'' I thought. ''no I should contact Xiao Xiao for her advice,'' decision made I left to see Xiao Xiao. *********************** hua lei what do you think vitality is?" she threw a question in lieu of an answer to my plight I don''t know stuff generated by the body?" perhaps I answered her riddle like question. "umm, while on track you still didn''t get my question hua lei," she continued, pressing further she asked "where do you think vitality which is transformed to vital Qi comes from?" "well the body I mean the Internal stuff is been harvested from the body using the internal space formed at the secret space phase of cultivation as a tool to do so" I answered hoping I got as close as the answer she''s looking for to make her point." "look at it like this, try eating the meat of a ferocious beast or even a normal wild beast and then cultivate. one is that you''ll find out that the body of a human while a capable generator of vital Qi pales in comparison to the ferocious beasts this stems from the fact that beasts mostly do not use ''secret spaces'' to harvest vital qi, oh no." "what they do is to keep it within themselves till a spirit beasts recruits them or in exceedingly rare cases when it reaches a point it drives them into madness turning them vicious beasts, the other is that the body serves as filter and converter of nourishment to vital Qi thus, the issue with you fainting the first time of your break through when you were over taxed of Qi.". Hua Lei finally knew where she was coming from, he''ll take hunting and cooking as priority, good this would even provide him some martial training time to... "wait a minute isn''t there a part where I buy the village It''s about time." Hua lei said whilst in thought "no!" Xiao Xiao said with an unyielding look on her face "what!" Hua Lei exclaimed surprised "I said no!", she repeated. "you are not doing that, who do you think I wanna raise as a young master?, a silk pants?" she asked "but I thought..." Hua Lei wanted to argue but was quickly cut short "you thought right but not now I mean look at you," she intoned "your cultivation is so ridiculously low for your age that they will laugh themselves to death if we try to convince them now and note this, if you intend to buy the village and turn it into your own domain in the future you at least have to reach the stage of spirit refining at least whether it is a young or old person, any spirit refining stage person is not to be taken lightly" "so by then will they take me ''not lightly"'' I said with a steely-''ness'' seeping into my voice "at least they will be cordial and wont kick up a fuss on a small piece of landmass compared to what they have in total, and don''t forget they always monitor lands too profitable for them, so have no ideas about turning these folks into cultivators thus forming what is termed as a hidden sect, at least not now no organization will allow stuff like that sprouting within their territory." she answered ok its cultivation, hunting, cooking and butchering and then maybe tanning will find a space in my professions list then. I made my resolve. This discussion had firmed up my resolve to choose this path why coz I know that they could form a core methodology that could be used to reach at least. so to improve my cultivation I either have to stop using my vital Qi willy-nilly or find a way to get more vital Qi laden food wait isn''t there anymore of those strange food that kept me going with a small bite all day long when I was stranded in the jungle? he proceed to go and search his bag only to meet a ''steel wall'' of Xiao Xiao''s disapproval "If you lose the bag or you don''t have it in the beginning what will you do?" she questioned this made me have a flashback over a book that I once read titled YOU HAVE A BRAIN so I went again for some more introspection and later I could only settle for the Dojo master training in the aspect of learning to hoard my Qi as a beginner. "little Hua you should have intuited the reason why I scored you to barely passable when you could even bring out more power with the fist art than your peers now right?" Luo Fu spoke in answer to the request that I brought forth I looked at him wide eyed not knowing what to say at first but looking in hindsight it was weird, "don''t know" I said injection as much innocence as possible hoping to draw some hint from him he sighed and shook his head he then closed his eyes faced me and then opened it I could have swore I saw something fierce flashing across the man''s eyes, he fixed me with that glare until I finally started getting uncomfortable. "okay, fine", he said with pauses in between ''okay and fine? these two words doesn''t leads to something good'' I thought. "your task till the next month is to punch 10000 times daily, not just punching but to meditate while doing the task that I give to you and you should ''feel'' your Qi coursing through you, try to gain control of it and then stop your body from drinking it back." he declared to like a final judgment. ''eureka! so that''s it mana... sorry this isn''t the world of LITRPG''s that I do read about, Qi manipulation exercises, but...'' I then thought back on how I''ve tried to gain control of my Qi but no progress thus it dawned on me how much of an uphill task this is going to be I nearly cursed. Luo Fu, seeing that I''m still seating on his floor, still staring to space like a gazelle caught in a hunter''s headlights "come on!, get on with it!" he boomed I quickly got up and left with mixed feelings wondering how I could balance this grueling training with my other professional pursuits. "humph!" Luo Fu snorted "likely looking for a secret ingredient for success though if he was in a sect he could have just traded contribution points for the food he needed to grow scratch that he could have even been fed the necessary type of food without that in some tier 2 sects just that he is now stuck as an independent cultivator walking the path of a lone master." "such is the price of ''freedom'' and being unburdened by sectly affairs, hopefully you do not make your late beginnings later, for even freedom as I know it isn''t free at all, well go on hopefully you succeed when that time comes you could achieve your heart desires... to some extent he then left for the room while chuckling to himself." 16. TRAINING AND LECTURES Well I lost in the first move against Xiao Xiao upon contact, "my bad let''s try again" she apologized "I used too much strength there." but then we went at it again, this time she sealed up all of her Qi and then fought me ''lackadaisically'' I still lost but in two moves progress at last, there is at least a difference between being one-shoted and lasting one extra move. "Again!" she shouted "you need to be able to match me in combat to break through to the next realm of your combat technique" she said. she then continued "don''t be stingy with your Qi since you have been able to manipulate your Qi internally you should have become more efficient with your rate of Qi generation, and I wil be feeding you with foods specially cooked to cater to that need of yours so why hoard your Qi?" "okay" I replied then I reached for that place where my Qi was stored yes, my secret space and well I can''t exactly say if I pulled, pushed or just willed the Qi into myself, it just came flooding in I felt like I was more to myself larger than life all being of this world beneath my notice my les... the punch jabbed unto my face cut off my thought and I was brought to ground level. "you are allowing the abundance of energy to fuck with your psyche, instead bend it to your will better, lest you falter in face of higher energy when you break through to higher realms of power because, it gets worse the higher you go" she warned. "again!" she shouted and I heeded, I reached for and roused my Qi, it tried to put me in that previous state but "I am me not my Qi not the impression it bombards me with, I am Hua Lei not of this world before but of this world now I am me and no other body!" I said inwardly and kept repeating it. okay you can admit that I pulled the last word directly out of Rema''s music "you don''t need no other body!" but it felt right and I think I''ll pen that down in my book after this training, with that I found it a tad easier to call upon my Qi while concentrating on something else for instance reinforcing one''s body with vital Qi. ********************* Xiao Xiao watched the dolt fumble with something as fundamental as body reinforcement, she shook her head in self mockery wondering if this was what master and big sis saw and how they felt when training her in the beginning, pathetic is the word that suits this situation as if it couldn''t get worse, he started displaying some queer expression, some of which she had once brutally wiped out off the face of some unlucky fellas that messed with her, the expression on his face was as if he was on top of the world as if she was being looked down on... like a bug?!. without any hesitation she snapped her fist to his face in an effort to wipe off that expression, lest he internalize it and it becomes part and parcel of him, which will lead him to a quick death if in an eventuality he offends the wrong person and he dies like fowl. after her careful ministration of a well timed, ''light'' punch he snapped out of it and went back to evoking his Qi once more under my instruction, he didn''t have any issues this time, he even seems to be doing better than before and he slowly, for the first time of his life, reinforced his body successfully. ''well what do you expect this is your first experience teaching this stuff to someone truly new to cultivation of any kind'' she consoled herself internally as she watched hua lei fumble his way into making his first Qi technique not counting his method for rousing his Qi. seeing that he successfully reinforce his body with Qi, I threw a punch he staggered under that punch but I kept on coming and he kept on blocking, all being dojo standard nothing too extravagant and seeing that he was adapting I decided to start ramping things up. it''s been over six days now that I''ve been training this person, seems whatever master did to him only shows effects when he''s been pushed to his limit and placed in apparent danger of bodily harm of any other situation of which is blood boils. ''hehe'' she licks her lips and leveled a predatory gaze on Hua Lei ''perhaps he will also be good in bed, like Cao Wan''er shimei would gossip with us about how master was been good in bed it''s just that I might snap him into two or worse my higher level spirit Qi kills him in the throes of passion.'' the PROFOUND YIN SEALING ART cultivation method modified by master and given to us sisters as analogous to the PROFOUND YANG SEALING ART instead turns us into a suitable cultivation furnace, heighten our Qi mobilization and battle power, and it also had a side effect of heightening our sexual tendencies instead of this drawback of the latter who has to turn himself into a eunuch in order to progress faster in cultivation else, he might lose all of his cultivation base to his partner if he is allowed to have sex.. this cultivation method is now making me susceptible to his charms all thanks to the fact that master tuned it to his aura and I guess in this case his aura adjacent, big sis Cao Wan''er might not be able to hold back... I think we should probably rescue big sis after we''ve gotten strong enough to attempt for we might start needing someone who is proficient in alchemy. *************** Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. her first blow rocked me hard and almost broke the concentration that I was expending to hold my Qi in a body reinforcement mode, the punches did not stop coming from then on, then I realized that I could refine my blocking technique with her. that idea was quickly scrapped for one of her blows was particularly heavy that it broke past my guard and struck me, it almost lifted me off my feet then I integrated more of parrying and dodging respectively to my foot work in short I was just trying to survive her onslaught. while concentrating on defense and her blows slowly started ramping up I found out that suddenly I could perform better under her barrages, that I haven''t been sent flying or stumbling away, that I was getting better thus, I went on the offensive. a mistake if I''ve ever known one, I punched thin air which immediately ended our sparring match, since she contemptuously dodged the incoming fist and countered me in such a way that I found myself on the ground before I knew what was going on. at least you make mistakes and keep eliminating them till the only thing left is success up for grabs, though at times just straight up rote learning will do the trick, however it''s time to digest my gains and I sat down to meditate checking on my improvements. and I saw that I am constantly digesting the "soul stuff" put into me by the crazy last acts of Yu Ren, this made me press on further faster than necessary and Xiao Xiao intends to take full advantage of it and make me increase in my realms of power faster. so far so good I''ve not experienced the world blurring movement speed that I initially experienced that day, such a pity, it''s not that I intend to faint again through Qi overdraft again, though I still long to reach for my Qi again and revel on that moment of euphoria and this sense of being powerful and... ok don''t let us go into that rabbit hole again. it seems Qi functionally intoxicates people like marijuana and all other sort of hard drugs, thought it is only those xianxia drug dealers (alchemists) and ''clients'' that it affects but now I have to initiate an early therapy to combat unnecessary god-complex. now with the Qi spiked food I''m being offered by Xiao Xiao, I found myself able to generate and harvest more vital Qi from my body into my secret space and according to Xiao Xiao this Qi type is still the lowest quality on the spectrum of Qi, now how powerful are the other higher spectrum Qi is gonna be? I stopped meditating after I managed to get the amount of wisps to a staggering 7 in my secret space even after my body had during training, passively made use of the majority of the amount generated and this becomes what''s left. I stood up after checking my gains, it''s time for some stretches which strangely did not devolve into a hell in a hand basket, "you''ve already been primed for all of this training when you haven''t heed the call of Qi, making it easy to transit from normal mortal to a cultivator that''s what dojos are for." she said after sensing my bafflement on how the training did not become too strenuous to bare. I felt a bit more freedom in the movement of my joint after training, this also was to make so that I do not end up with torn ligaments and sprained joints once the training took a more acrobatic turn which will mean that a portion of my training time will be dedicated to mastering this also. "reinforce your body now" she ordered, the euphoria took over again not as overpowering as before, since that was directly thrown behind my mind for I''m on the verge of having my ass handed to me again, now with all of that how do you expect man to indulge himself? I reached for the Qi, it heeded my call flooded my body and I felt sturdier, I had a small misconception of time slowing down I leaned into it, remembered the feeling burned how it feels into my memory and I moved like an arrow let loose from a bow. *************** he moved fast, at least as fast as his cultivation could let him to, then I turned the training into a game of tag as once described by Hua Lei himself as police and thief, thief I quickly got a sense of what it means but police, after a period of lengthy explanation did I knew that it was their own version of the city guards, where the first pursues and the other tries every trick in the book to escape the person tagging. childish as the game might seem it was simple and effective especially when it was modified to suit the intent of the training movement and positioning when engaging in combat, it went on till I took over as the person tagging or the ''city guard''s'' role to him being the tagged one or the ''thief'' role, at first I ''caught the culprit'' easily but soon after it devolved into a situation where I have to put more and more effort into apprehending the ''thief''. so I became the lessons about movement techniques by learning how to position one''s self and the ''police and thief'' fun game method, practice 10000 punches another, basic exercises and stretches this will go on for nearly one month to ''firm his foundation''. by the time the training ended, I''ve already reached the limit of the secret space phase firm as he can, ready to transition to the next phase of cultivation which is the internal Qi refinement phase, this phase will require the manifestation of nine clouds of vital Qi wisps. ''you see, cultivation as it is, generally follows the rule of four or the four truths as Xiao Xiao puts it, it consists of creation, formation, manifestation and transformation. These works hand in hand to the extent that one might not know where one ends and the other begins.'' if one could manifest enough Qi to cause a qualitative change transformation occurs, this if grasped well could enable you to have a modicum of controlled breakthrough, this one grants the advantage of you able to have a denser foundation than the ones who just breakthrough when it is time or the ones who forces a breakthrough. "this ''controlled breakthrough'' is an event when a cultivator delays a breakthrough to build up better breakthrough momentum, this helps to firm ones foundations and no one would skip a chance to get as close as possible to be granted the extreme realm by the heavens, " says Xiao Xiao as she began lecturing "the best way to do it is to hold off until you have no choice of releasing your hold on the breakthrough." "the creation of your phase is the moment you transform your raw vitality into vital Qi the formation phase is the moment you stabilize it in your secret space so that your body don''t take it back this was you predicament some weeks ago." "it''s manifestation is as you see it now a mass of highly condensed cloud of vital Qi it''s best to hold off the impulse to cause a breakthrough, disperse the cloud, it was recorded that the secret space could go on to accept more than nine wisps to around thirteen or fourteen." "anything beyond nine wisps signifies the extreme level in this cultivation phase of yours, you might even join the extreme realm exponents if you consecutively reach extreme level in all phases of cultivation in a cultivation stage." "however, Hua Lei will you be up to the task?" 15.TRAINING MONTAGE WITH XIAO XIAO very early in the morning the next day after he met with the dojo master to ask for advice he came to do as he was told the very fact that he might not be able to ''level up'' his proficiency in his other pursuits maybe with hunting as an exception was gnawing at him. "to be really honest to myself this cultivation thing felt like I did a lot of perambulating, like all this while for nearly a year after I had my first breakthrough I''m still at this secret space phase of the Qi initiation realm of my cultivation." he muttered. ''why isn''t everything as straight forward as it is in the books huh'' he thought frustrated he then went to the pace which he broke through in his cultivation in the past obviously other than a casual training of familiarizing one''s self with the martial forms, one needs total privacy for something like this and then settled in a basic boxing stance and "hup! ha!" was heard from him while he was performing his boxing. my meditation skills weren''t too shabby, I seemed to have entered a meditative fugue like state and by the 2000th I lost count of how many punches that I''ve thrown, but paid more attention to what was immediately apparent. I noticed that each time I throw a punch some of the wisps gathering will disappear, this time I paid more attention to this occurrence to try bending it to my will, the wisps at first didn''t seemed to cooperate I''ve once tried forcing it before but it was an exercise in futility. a little nudge here a little nudge there I started to get a hang of it, well on my way to initial mastery of my vital Qi wisp internal manipulation exercise, already feeling the next level calling to me and the whole world suddenly went black for reasons I couldn''t fathom. "Young master wake up" I heard a voice it sounds familiar ''huh it''s still in the morning? so not much time as passed huh?.'' I thought ''and I was almost there, just a little more I would have gained the qualifications for level 2 able to create my second vital Qi wisp'' "what happened to me this time" I groaned while stretching on my bed "oh nothing much young master just that you trained till you almost dropped," she answered, continuing she said "then seeing that you might re-enact the previous time of Qi over-draft I simply knocked you out, you know if that happened it is going to set us back one or two steps and vicious beast blood is expensive nowadays." "uh how much per bottle?" I ventured to ask "nothing much just a 100 golden imperials" she answered cheerily. I was previously on the bed but after the breaking news that I heard, I felt the world blur by the time it snapped into place I''m already holding Xiao Xiao''s hand near the kitchen table, wide eyed and on the top of my lungs. "one hundred golden imperials!", I caught my breath "per bottle?!" "calm down! it''s only just that or don''t you want to recover" "yes! I wanna recover but you didn''t..." I protested but was cut short "did you factor into it that all these are not one of your hard earned money but just mooching off of the money left in the bag a bag that is even not yours" with that my emotions just all quieted and went cold, I looked at her and an amusing thought crossed my mind and I couldn''t help but verbalize it "hmm, not like I''m the only one ''mooching'' off the bag but we''re both as thick as thieves." "yeah, you''re right ." she sighed "I also want to use your advancement to get what I want thus my selfish interest," she then turned but before she left she said "from tomorrow onwards I''ll personally take an active role in your cultivation, seems that leaving you to your own devices won''t do" and for the first time I knew her, the almost always cheery face was gone replaced by a blank mask. "okay now that was a new breed of scary, I''ve never seen her face like that before, though I am beginning to feel worried about this ''training'' of mine tomorrow for she knowingly put an emphasis on it, whatever let tomorrow settle itsel..." it was then that my body decided it''s time to ache something fierce "aargghhh!" I groaned my body hurting in more ways than one, I barely got myself moving before darkness overtook me. ***************** ''I saw him use a technique instinctively, a movement technique executed well to perfection at least as perfect as his Qi could permit'' she frowned deep in thought, ''it seems he is not the talent that could flip the heavens that master postulated but just some regular person yet.'' seems what he truly needs to unlock his potential is to find someone to challenge his limit and push him to the brink and then over the brink, this I theorize will unleash the instinctive memories transferred within him that is still dormant, making his cultivation journey much faster and well smoother The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. deep into the jungle, armed with a standard bow and arrow, a long knife ensconced on her waist deep in the forest looking for the suitable prey that satisfies the specific need for nourishing Hua Lei''s body and increase vital Qi production. she kept on going deeper into the jungle wondering whether the beasts hasn''t consumed the corpses that resulted from the battle between Zi Chen and Yu Ren during the time Hua Lei was drawn in from the otherworld. It took quite a while before she had her first ferocious beast encounter, okay this will barely suffice, she then simply drew her bow reinforcing the arrow with her Qi and loosing the arrow, it sailed and found itself lodged in the beast''s heart. she quickly pulled out the arrow, caught the heart blood in a vial, put the beast in a bag and cleared the ''crime scene'', she quickly was on her way back with her prize in hand good this area is already spawning something worthy no doubt the sects will put this place in a back burner knowing places like this will spawn resources, it''s a pity they are not the nearest to the resource gathering point, giving us the initiative. before this place start bringing forth something clan or sect worthy it is part of my plan to be able to harvest from whatever comes of this, it always roughly takes about some 50 years before anything substantial comes of it though but they didn''t put the scavengers or carnivores into perspective, these are nearly always the first to evolve for they eat the corpses and carcasses that results from the wars, they are then followed by the plants which absorbs the blood spilled or got a Qi dense bone buried underneath. the slowest and mostly the last to evolve are the herbivores, this is done by the consumption of Qi charged plants that can cultivate their own vital Qi or at least suck it in and adapt it to themselves of which in the process they gradually become feral. they could even result in a coincidental beast tide which is leaderless a form of self preservation mechanism, this could cause a ruckus in the area with normal herbivores slaughtered in droves this also does not spare any type of normal animal, adjacent villages destroyed and towns threatened as for the beasts, they either ascend n cultivation or get slaughtered in the process. the sects disciples, clans or any power closest to the place now sees an opportunity to swoop in kill rabid animals in droves harvest their parts, with a bit of politicking the nearest organization claims the place their own and then gain exclusive rights to the area thereby taxing the other powers and independent practitioners a levy to enter the place. but I''ll not be having that, I will not allow that to happen no I plan to use this opportunity that presents itself to speed up the cultivation of this person hopefully he gets strong enough as soon as possible, she hoped that damned Yu Ren, damn the contract and it''s silly clauses, I will have just got what I want and go on my separate way not babysitting this person he failed to posses, he never even make us change the plan even in case of his eventual failure. ************************ I woke up still hurting deep in the night, it was as if I had participated in a building construction labor for days without rest. I found out that Xiao Xiao is missing so I helped myself to dinner left behind, and the food was amazing though not to mention that I felt my body flooded with Qi. I immediately sat to start cultivating it and making the Qi my own, the 10000 punch training helped a little I was able to gain a modicum of control internally, I am looking forward to tomorrow, I wanna quickly master my internal manipulation of Qi till I am able to get to the next phase and unlock internal vision. morning came with me fit as a fiddle, I freshened myself up, ate the food at the table, ''hmm the food being provided now have Qi in it and tastes great hopefully this is how it keeps going'' I thought, prepping myself to go to my practice hideout to continue my 10000 punch daily training thinking about the first day of practice my face couldn''t help but to turn green. that training is the epitome of train till you drop I mused while jogging towards my training hideout, I was pleasantly surprised when I got there and met Xiao Xiao standing there waiting for me, I palmed my face in remembrance that she promised to take an active role in my cultivation and I had nearly forgotten. "Okay shifu" I mock bowed "what''s on the list of things to do now?" "It''s good for a student to know his place" she said with a straight face, unfazed by my attempt at banter, "while today you will still practice your usual punches you will also have to face me in a spar, for punches, no matter how good it is, is useless if you do not know how to apply it effectively in battle" and then my hell began with my usual 10000 punches, this time she allowed me to pass the 10000 mark without interruption and when I dropped for lack of Qi or fatigue she simply feeds me some sort of meal that I seemed to recognize and a drink that is definitely not water and I find myself re-energized and refreshed, ready for more practice to go. rinse and repeat, so was our marathon, my punches was getting firmer by the day and I figured that if I retained the sense of ''punching'' while meditating, when I''m trying to manipulate my Qi it answers readily to my intent, I lost the sense of time in my training fugue not knowing that three days past from when I met Xiao Xiao in the clearing till now when I''m making a headway to my Qi manipulation success. on the fourth day when I want to resume my training montage she stopped me, "huh" I said surprised, "today you''ll be sparring with me" she declared. "first you should check the amount of Qi wisps that you''ve gathered" she demanded, a demand which I readily complied to, I also would be lying if I am not curious how much I''ve grown. I took a look, lo and behold to say that I was shocked will be an understatement, 4 Qi wisps and not any that resists my control either. "Don''t be shocked It''s as a result of your training this last few days now that you have gained initial control so as not to go back to previous stage of your body guzzling up your Qi" "the reason why it seemed that you have to continue is that you haven''t realized your progress yet" "start rotating it and don''t stop, don''t try compressing it at all just keep them meshed together rolling like one single ball it does wonders this process you undergone is called attuning one''s Qi to one''s self." "with you successfully undergoing this process you''ll find out that you are unconsciously attuning the Qi soon after generating it to avoid the issue of your body eating back it''s thing." "now that that is done and dusted, time to spar and refine your unarmed martial arts to basic standard." I stood up from my meditation pose and bowed to Xiao Xiao then took a fighting stance, this she reciprocated by also bowing and taking a martial stance, nothing fancy to it, we simply went at each other like we see are about to settle some months old grudge. 17. BREAKTHROUGH TO VITAL QI LAKE well I have no idea whether I am up to the task to take on an extreme realm quest she just leveled on me but the prospects of supreme Qi root... heh! I don''t think that I''m ready to relinquish that prize, birds dies for food human dies for wealth? isn''t that how they say it. well thanks for the update received from her, I''ll be able to have a one up against the potential competitions, now time to disperse it so that the cloud of Qi doesn''t rain. I sat down and meditated got a visualization of my Qi wisps or Qi clouds as it presented itself to me. a little flex of my will dispersed the clumps into many ''clumplets'' and it took all my attention from then on not to mistakenly breakthrough since I''ve already reached the ninth level and able to breakthrough at anytime this also could improve my Qi manipulation skill by constantly working my will against my Qi so my next level of Qi manipulation is clear which is when I can unconsciously manipulate Qi even in my sleep this will aid in my breakthrough, hopefully this will enable me to clear the extremes of this level, now this girl didn''t even tell me what to expect upon reaching the extreme of this level of mine, well no sweat let''s find out. " it''s about 3 weeks had passed I now have about 13 ''cloudy'' wisps of Qi in my secret space, time to get things in order and breakthrough to the internal Qi refinement phase." I mumbled to myself while sitting cross legged, I''ve observed that the extremities of cultivation brings good stuff, for me now Qi manipulation had ingrained itself into my behavior enabling me to disperse the Qi with but a mild amount of concentration. "It also helps when I go to sleep and I found out that I have a talent in remaining unfazed by anything that''s considered an emotional stimulator like anger and so on no wonder inordinate anger in cultivators could make them spit blood... I''m talking about actual blood here" there I realized that the right amount of realization that a cultivator could pull out of a certain experience and an emotion to tag along with it, coupled with a smattering of surprise, if taken to the extreme could agitate the Qi within the dantian and meridian and cause a breakthrough in one''s realm. A major breakthrough or level of which is called the minor breakthrough and the latter is more common rarely will you hear or see the former in the world of cultivation it''s more like a myth, a myth that shows up one in a thousand years. I steadied my breath, concentrated within, making sure that there are no disturbances from within or without and initiated my breakthrough, the Qi clouds condensed and it was as if rain fell, droplets made out of Qi formed but with the flex of my will I held them suspended then I fused two together success another fusion of two droplet success rinse and repeat until I reached the thirteenth fusion which the fusion almost failed but succeeded. I opened my eyes and beheld the world same as before no expulsion of gunk from the body and whatnots ''the heck, thought that it will be the time for me to pollute the river with my gunk flushed out of me as it is usually put in all xianxia novels but guess the rules changed here, who am I bullshiting'' I thought mildly pissed off. well it''s about time I checked my gains I then slipped back into meditation to checkout my secret space well what I saw was a round ball of liquefied vital Qi, tried manipulating it, it worked ''guess this will be called Qi manipulation lvl 3 then,'' I thought while playing with the orb of liquid. I did another test, I initiated the process of reinforcing my body, a stop so loud that it could have woken the dead roused me out of meditation, huh? I looked around here and there then I saw xiao xiao looking at me with an exceedingly earnest look on her face. what happened I asked you just have collapsed your own cultivation, came the reply huh, came a surprised reply from me, " you see I''ll hate for if you spend your precious cultivation flexing then regressing thereafter " " why" I asked her, "well, you did just broke through and haven''t stabilized your breakthrough yet making this phase of yours somewhat shaky at best" then Xiao Xiao entered lecture mode "you see the process of breaking through to the internal Qi refinement stage is to ''collapse'' your cultivation into liquid form from the gaseous wisps they''re, thus this I tell you is the process of the vital Qi lake breakthrough", she started. in order to proceed I to learned to focus your will upon your collapsed cultivation and kept rotating the pearlescent liquid orbed droplet to create the gravitational effect upon it this will allow it to passively gather the excess vital Qi you produce. that been all said and done, now learned to split the droplet, the bigger the droplet so that I get more efficient at gathering vital Qi, as you can see, the more orb you have, the more ''tanks'' of Qi you have oh and also increased vital Qi gathering efficiency you have even more so than the one big Qi droplet, this is due to each droplet being given a Qi gravitation effect unconsciously by me though the ''unconscious'' part will be at the later stages. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. the true issue is about splitting the ''one big orb to two small orbs'' 13 times, this will require full focus in meditation this is where things starts getting dicey where weeks of works could be lost if disturbed in an inopportune time. if done well like done as I did in the last stage then I''ll have 16 early stages threshold, 256 mid stages threshold, 4096 late stages threshold and then a staggering 8192 Qi droplets to burn in the peak stages threshold of this cultivation phase. mind you this stage starts creating either genius or trash depending on how they broke through and how they cultivate later for example in some sects they go on the big droplet role where they make it as big as they want it but will hit a wall soon mostly because of how encumbered their soul will be while manipulating the big ''lake of Qi. this faux pas could be avoided by this method that I''m using making the speed of gathering exponentially faster and also with more substance to my foundation. the downside to this method as nearly all methods have is that you must be focused throughout this phase so as not to suffer a recoil and Qi dispersal causing you to start again from your nearest Qi threshold. Xiao Xiao done with her lecture left me alone with my thought contemplating on whether I want to co convenient and loose advantage or go full focused and breeze through this phase with a deeper foundation. the answer was already clear I want my stage thirteen not contented to stop at the standardized stage nine and loose my advantage small as it might be it''ll will all add up sooner or later, firm on the knowledge that I''ll go for the latter I stood up and left for the village one of the rare times that I did not faint from intense training. *************** I had wanted to test my powers very badly but when I remembered that it''s only one tiny pearlescent little droplet is inside me I thought better of it but this is making me fidgety like I took in some super caffeine drink and then some . very well then, I decided to keep it cool since it''s not every day you train without fainting as a result, no real change has occurred no spitting out black gunk no lifting something weighing 250kg using but an arm just like your every day person this of course will stop being like that when I reach the body refining stage. well I hope to see that, the path was not too long just about 1li to around 1.5 li away from the village come to think of it I didn''t really have much in friendship going on in the village with me crafting my young master persona and the village voluntarily buying it not calling my bluff. only God knows how long it''s going to be before a proper young master comes to call my bluff, the answer is that he/she will not live to see the light of the next day, for one will be about trying to wreck the plan to make the village independent of the Da Hai''s influence making it one of the ''hidden villages'' under my control. secondly, this might make me lose face if the young master (the true one) decides to initiate a duel, I''ll lose ,I''ll lose face (prestige you may call it) and the only thing that will make the village to accede to my request of owning it is the sheer destructive potential that Xiao Xiao represents. This to me is bad market, for it''s best to conquer man''s will instead of his body this of course will make them in one accord with you making them a far more potent force under your leadership, I''ve almost reached the village when I got out of my introspective thoughts. "Uncle Hua!"I was accosted by Wei Ping on my way to old Chu''s noodle shop while I was thinking on what to do in order to sate my jittery hands, at first I was stunned into reality and there I saw a little... well not so little boy running towards me hands raised for a speedy carry-hug, well I happily obliged. "not so fast lil'' Pingping" I scooped him up with a smile on my face "uncle I told you that I''m not young anymore" the boy complained "huh" I exclaimed in mock shock "sure our lil'' Pingping is now a fully grown boy, great job growing up do clap for yourself" "uncle hua!" the boy said in mock indignation "umm," "someone is bulling me" he said immediately my visage turned stern "tell me boy who bullied you so that I may dish out an appropriate punishment to the person" I said with my chest puffed out trying to mimic a baritone voiced super hero who save kids from villains. "you" he answered "me?!" I asked in mock incredulity " yes" Wei Ping answered with a giggle "now pray tell little one," then I puffed out my chest spine straight and trying to act important "how do you want this young master to appease you " " old Chu''s place!, my favorite nodules!" Wei Ping crowed victoriously "ok ok we''ve almost reached there," the nodules shop was in sight, I simply sauntered in a little boy in arm and made my orders. Wei Ping ended up eating his favorite nodules, tenghulu snacks and some other desserts till he felt stuffed, I left the shop satisfied and headed for Luo Chang the scholar''s place. I knocked on the door knockers of Luo Chang''s building for a bit only for me not to receive any answers that was weird this place is accessible everyday even if the old bloke isn''t around so now what happened. I rounded the house towards the not so impromptu schooling area to check whether Wei Mu who is Wei Hao''s wife and Wei Ping''s mom is still around teaching the kids or at least around for well just anything she could be doing at school since she''s like the boss in school, that is if you remove Luo Chang of course. Nope my luck didn''t hold waters at all, told that they had an urgent meeting with the village head, now now, what the heck!, if that''s the case then my fart luck that I still did not have anything to do my theory on this is that this new phase of cultivation I find myself in as of now is cranking my metabolism up to 11 thereby making me feel like I can bench a truck. no head way on using the strategy of using the books reading therapy to my advantage I opted to go home, yes, going home to do nothing. ***************** Xiao Xiao returned to the village after giving her young master pointers about the vital Qi lake phase, when she arrived in front of the house ready to retire for the day and do her routine work, there at she met, in the courtyard a messenger sent specifically to her by the village head waiting for her. she got the message from Ling Yun the family''s maid cum messenger that the village head is making a request for summoning, felling intrigued she went along, it''s not every day you get summoned to the village heads house she mused while taking her time on the way. 18 UPRISING BEGINS IN THE NEAR BY FOREST Hua Lei reached home with a jar of rice wine, he quickly set up the hammock which he''ll relax on and fixed himself some snacks alongside his drinks, finishing his setup he then reclined on his hammock snoozing away his day, with some refreshment to go with it of course. it was in the evening when the courtyard door bursts open nearly coming apart on its hinges or so it may seem startling Hua Lei up from the hammock he was idling on "We''ll need to crank up your training montage" Xiao Xiao abruptly said as soon as she spotted Hua Lei''s position knowing he''ll hear what she said. "Huh?!" Hua Lei answered a bit startled by her abruptness and suddenness of her ''request''. "Okay we need to speed up your training some more" "At first I couldn''t comprehend what the girl was spouting" haven''t we sped it up by a lot in our previous training session?" "I mean a training that I could not get any head way of "became less of an obstacle within 1 and 1/2 months and you are wanting to speed things up again?" Yes" came the firm and resolute reply from Xiao Xiao then pray tell, young lady when will it commence for this young master wants a day, today off!" look!" almost pleadingly she asked "at least could you just at least listen to me I looked at her almost surprised the strutting male peacock attitude she''d donned after her initial show of force all these years ago all ''tucked away''. word from the village head is that there have been an un natural surge of vicious beasts and rumor has it that a dire beast also has been spotted this was confirmed when an independent master was rehabilitated at the XI FENG village and this is a something that attracts the attention of sects, their elders and the part where they strong arm everyone so that they feel the ''glory of the sect''. she then said huffily "a supposed ''glory'' that turns them into dogs for the likes of Song Zi Chen and wolves if they get a whiff of unclaimed treasures. so it seems that our window of opportunity is closing up by the moment, the battle zone of which you woke up from is already having changes the likes of which makes it a juicy meat for sects and independent masters alike This means, I will diet you up on ferocious beast meat elixir soup, that will make it easier for you to consume without side effect like impurities in your vital Qi and give your body another exercise marathon, the series of exercises is intended to make you work your Qi just as your body. I was slack jawed by the time she reached this stage of our conversation wait sects even lesser minor sects are no joke, if it reaches that level then the gangs then the DA HAI both branch and main clans, "and the implications of this kerfuffle to our plan of buying up the village? will it mess it up?" I asked No and once this place is secured she gestured signifying the whole village then we''ll completely unveil the whole bag" she said. Oh I''ve nearly forgotten about the bag out of sight out of mind Now look, this plan is of utmost importance for Yu Ren''s mess in the JIAO XIONG jungle barely reached here but using a special type of siphoning formation nearly all the goodies of that place would be siphoned off as material for you to undergo the crucible for the spirit refinement stage. Huh? I was speechless what about the village don''t tell me they will do some esoteric shit during my ascension to spirit refinement Nope, like I said even if you are more powerful than Yu Ren my previous master, you can''t do it all alone who will run all your errands by the time you ascend, you? I doubt it. don''t tell me that you''ll always be quitting your cultivation because of something that you could simply turn into an errand for a powerful underling. She then gave me a deep look of which almost made me cringe and then clapped as if she just had a eureka moment "what do we have here hmm," she put her index finger on her chin pretending to think. "It think the fidgety you that''s silently itching for an action after the break through is now calmer," she looked at me with a knowing look on her face that said a scheme had worked. " Now I''ll start the instruction sit and begin to meditate" she then ordered What choice does man have ehn? man just have to cooperate with this woman based on the normal xianxia troupes, SHTF occurs when the OP character; villain, MC or side character doesn''t get his way or as it is for this time ''her'' way so I sat down jeje no complain at all and begin meditation. Her voice laced with her spiritual power rang in my consciousness while I was visualizing my vital Qi lake it was suspended in the void as a single drop and as grown bigger during my time on my way back the village and on the hammock slacking off. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. She then started her instructions on how I''ll split my Qi lake, this is where I got thankful of my lesson in Qi manipulation for it would have came back to bite me in the ass, in accordance to the technique. I rotated the top of the Qi lake clockwise and the bottom anti clockwise enabling the Qi lake to split apart perfectly in the mid section forming two ball like drop, no heaven shaking might descended in fact no phenomenon occurred only a slightly bigger tug occurred in that void space sucking in more vital Qi with a force greater than the sum of just two times. I also observed that the two balls had this sense of attraction between themselves so I treated it like a binary celestial body subconsciously made them revolve around each other this worked miracles in reducing the burden it placed on my psyche that I quickly got hold on myself leaving Xiao Xiao slightly amazed when I got up patted my butt ready to enter the house for the day but got stopped by her. She put her hands on my wrist like a doctor checking one''s blood pulse then I felt it a jolt of something ran through me from the point of contact throughout my body "huh" she gasped "well I never would have thought of applying such a nifty method into the technique!" Not bad at all she praised and then grew stern "well how will this your rotation method help in the later stage of this technique for I foresee that these droplets will become more as time goes on" Pray tell young master" she said not holding back her mocking tone at all "how will you proceed with this technique you oh so conveniently devised?" I could almost sense an eye roll from the words spouting from her mouth Well I''ll just get on with it" I replied cheekily and moved from the courtyard into my house to retire for the day. **************** THE NEXT DAY I woke up to series of clings and clangs coming from the store, quite early though yes for my senses are now far keener than before and as you might first believe the store isn''t attached to the house it''s a standalone building of its own not that far away from the house though. I haven''t fully gotten out of my bed room before the clangs stopped, ok not stop per say, but approaching in a much more subdued, quiet and orderly manner like someone is marching towards ... shwing!, the door opened starring Xiao Xiao with an armful of well arms. Startled I asked "wanna raid a hideout with those little babies?" "Not a hideout but a whole forest" she answered and then continued "and I''m taking you along, count this as your first self-tempering" "Ok, so what''s the end goal of this tempering thingy" I asked "what is it designed to accomplish?" "Don''t worry, just wait for the surprise I have in stock for you" **************** Deep within JIAO XIONG forest about 10 li away from their camp within the same jungle depicts a scene of a group of 5 youngsters with ages ranging from 16 -23 years of age, confronting what should have been an easy prey or at least that''s what they thought. "Shu Lin! DaHai Xiu''er! Fei hong! Xin Heng!, Five element battle formation!," the oldest of them barked "Yes senior Cao!" the other four answered in unison Shu Lin, DaHai Xiu''er, Fei hong, Xin Heng with Cao Peng at the helm of the simplified five element battle formation lay upon the beast. Cao Peng who has already reached the pinnacle of body refinement and has touched upon the stage of aura condensation was pulling most of the beast''s attention to himself. The rest armed with various weapons built to withstand the stress of usage by Qi root stage beings of the body refinement and below, were able to take ''pot shot'' relatively safely once the helm had diverted the beasts attention the rest lay upon it with all they''ve worth. This situation kept on until the beast seemed to have had enough, seemingly sensing the group''s intent to make it''s death by a thousand cuts it charged at what it sensed as the weakest link of the formation Cao Peng being the strongest of the group occupied the fire position of the battle formation, as for , DaHai Xiu''er she occupied the wood position of the formation and the beast chose the wood position to break through. Cao Peng bolted towards her position aiming his jian at the connective tendon near the beast ankle to hamstring it, Shu Lin occupying the metal position of the battle formation leveled his spear at the beast hoping to poke a hole in its flank using the beast incoming speed as leverage. The boar wasn''t having that at all, the beast was at the same stage with Cao Peng even could have said to have made a little more progress than the man has been able to trigger a berserk technique which normally shouldn''t have been possible The sword originally able to sunder hide and flesh surprisingly bounced off, spear originally able to poke holes through hide got stuck due to it been rammed onto the boar hide by the charge but that also was ignored Shu Lin got dragged along for he didn''t quickly released his weapon. The boar charged at her, Xin Heng in the water position did his best by pelting the boar with as much arrows as she was helpless even her arrow like rain method seems not to work and the boar casually batted the tower shield of Fei hong away like a passing thought, Xiu''er is about to be killed. Xiu''er seeing the danger incoming tried to get out of dodge, the word here is "tried" however in a nick of time bought for her by her team showing that she had been drilled, she instinctively used her coiling dragon technique that she had adapted to her whip forms in conjunction with her movement technique to move away from danger. The beast charged, angled its head to correct its aim still at the same person, it struck, a girls scream tore through the jungle, the boar didn''t wait to finish its job however it bolted away for safety, using its corrected course it hoped to squash the girl for good measure which partially succeeded. The boar will live to die another day, as for Xiu''er well she needs to be hospitalized soon lest she die of the aftermath of the battle she just participated in, none of the people in the group was in the stage of spirit refining yet so they are not able to use the voice talisman yet but they brought along a talisman that they could use to send signal to the clan if they are in danger, if torn it will make a distress signal and will also reveal their location in real time to the person on the other side. ************** Me left the village in the morning and we ran for what Hua Lei could swore to have been hours, they didn''t put it at high intensity but at constant speed a little lower than the fastest man on the planet or at least the planet Hua Lei came from they covered a lot of distance.