by A P Gore
“Uncle Tang. Are you afraid I’ll let your secret out, and that’s why you are trying to frame me?” Wei chuckled in his mind, but in reality, he maintained a furious face. This bastard uncle of his wanted to die today. What could he do about it?
“Brat, what secret are you talking about?” The old man rubbed his chin.
Wei blinked at his uncle. “Uncle, shall I let out the secret?”
“You impudent brat. You dare talk back to me, your uncle? You are insolent like that bitch sister of ours. She had already ruined our clan by giving birth to you without marriage, and now you’re doing the same. If you have guts then go—”
“Tang’er,” The old man shouted, and Li Tang swallowed his own words.
“Father, this bastard stole benefits from the clan and hid his cultivation to injure our Guan’er. We can’t let him go. We must punish him.” He panted heavily. “I say we execute him right away. We have to eliminate a rude brat from our clan before he brings a calamity to our clan.” Pulling his sword out, he dashed toward Wei.
Wei frowned. Li Tang had reached layer five qi Foundation Realm. A whole realm above him. If Li Tang attacked him, he wouldn’t stand a chance to retaliate, even with his strong body. The gap between their cultivation was huge.
But if he used that forbidden technique, he would stand a chance to injure Li Tang and keep his life too. It was called Essence Burning Art. Anyone that stepped on the path of qi cultivation could use it and get battle prowess equal to one realm higher than their current realm.
However, he could only use it once in every realm until he reached Houtian Realm. And using it would burn his life essence, his cultivation would regress to level zero of his current realm—so he would have to cultivate all over—and breaking into every layer would be twice as difficult as normal.
But if it came to it, he had to take that chance. And he had just reached layer two of Refinement Realm, so using it would only regress him to level zero. Other than his life essence, he wouldn’t lose much.
“Li Tang. Stop.” The old man flicked his palm when Li Tang passed near him, and Li Tang was pushed ten steps back.
“Father, you . . .”
“Yes. I’ve advanced into layer seven.” The old man smiled, but his smile seemed to be weighted. “Ti’er. What did the Ten Thousand Miles Pigeon bring you?”
A Ten Thousand Miles Pigeon was a Ferocious Beast that could travel ten thousand miles in a day, and it could be petted to carry letters or messages. If it came, that meant something big had happened.
“Father, a special envoy has come from the Martial Envoy Sect of the Great Martial Empire. They plan to recruit a few disciples from North Providence. Shall we send Li Guan and Li Pi to take part in the recruitment drive in Fragrance Herb City?”
Wei squinted, thinking. This was weird. Great Martial Empire was one of the five great empires of the Mortal World. They governed thirty percent of the whole Mortal World, remaining four empires governed fifty percent while remaining twenty percent were ruled by their vassal kingdoms. Their own kingdom, the State of Zin, was a vassal force of Great Qlin Empire, and they remained neutral with other empires. Normally, sects didn’t participate in the worldly affairs of mortals. They generally stood aloof, backed by sects from the Martial World, so empires didn’t dare to go against sects. But this Martial Envoy Sect was different. They were the force behind the Great Martial Empire, and their force coming to Fragrance Herb City had great implications for their State of Zin. This single event initiated a war between Great Qlin Empire and Great Martial Empire.
But he wasn’t worried about the war. It was run across the border, far away from Fragrance Herb City. And , nor could these forces invade territory governed by Divine Fragrance Palace. They had backup from the Divine Alchemy Hall from the Martial World, and they were renowned in alchemy, so no one dared to enter into conflict with either of these sects.
However, this event also marked the annihilation of the Li clan in the timeline.
In his previous life, he had talked with three different people, and everyone said the Li clan faced a calamity after the Martial Envoy Sect arrived in Herb Fragrance City, that the Du clan’s Bone Baptization Realm elder killed everyone.
This was bad. This meant the Du clan’s Bone Baptization Realm cultivator would be here any day, and Wei had to get Li Chi and Ki Fei out of here as soon as possible.
“Let’s talk about it once the leader from Divine Fragrance Palace visit us.” The old man turned to face Wei. “Wei’er, walk with me.”
“But father, how can you—” Li Tang began but was stopped by the old man’s raised hand.
“Enough.” The old man grunted, and Li Tang stepped back with frustration plastered over his ugly face.
Wei snickered, but his face remained gloomy as he followed the old man into woods. The old man had lied to Li Tang. He hadn’t reached layer seven, but layer eight of qi Foundation Realm. How could he hide it from Wei’s divine sense? The old man hid his real strength from his own son.
Green trees covered their path, and soon they were out of anyone’s reach. Spreading his divine sense, Wei checked to see if anyone followed them. But they were alone.
“Little Wei. When was the last time you saw your mother?” The old man asked in a choked voice.
Wei was startled. He thought the old man would reprimand him for beating his favorite grandchild, but he suddenly asked about his mother instead. What was going on?
“I remember,” he continued without waiting for Wei’s answer. “You were just four, and she . . .”
Sadness crept through Wei’s mind. He too remembered that day. He’d been searching for his mother to ask for food when he heard his stepfather shouting at someone, and then news came that his mother had died in a battle.
“I loved Min’er the most. Even more than my three sons.” His grandfather sounded old and fragile. His eyes stared at the horizon, his expression turning solemn. But he couldn’t fool Wei. Wei knew him well.
“If you loved her, why did you force her to marry Li Sua?” Wei snapped. He didn’t want to hear doctored words from this old man. No matter how much he tried to be benevolent, Wei wouldn’t fall for his flowery words.
The old man didn’t reply for a minute. Or he couldn’t. How could he refute Wei’s words when Wei knew he was in the wrong here? He sighed, a heartbreaking sigh. “I was forced to. I had to do it to save your life. I just hoped you’d live a normal life.”
Wei snorted. What a joke. “A normal life where my stepfather beat me every other day? A life where I wasn’t even given a single pill to heal my dantian?” In his previous life, when Wang Zia had sealed his leaky dantian using an array, she’d cursed his clan for not giving him a pill to heal his dantian when he was born. She’d said they could have fixed it with a simple pill. Thankfully, he’d managed to heal it on his own. Otherwise, he would have had to live with a sealing array that ultimately limited his dantian’s capacity by fifty percent.
“I couldn’t. That was a condition for your life. How could I choose between your cultivation and your life?” His voice choked. “Min’er begged me many times, but even if I’d found a Gold Grade pill, how could one heal the injury given by them?”
“Are you saying someone injured my dantian on purpose, that wasn’t a birth defect?” This was serious news. In his previous life, he’d always thought he’d had a birth defect and cursed his destiny. And the Li clan was exterminated by the time he got back. So, how could he know the truth?
But listening to his grandfather, it seemed there was a scary truth behind everything.
What was it?
Chapter 50 Stepbrother?
Li Wei and the old man stepped on a trail that led to a mountain adjacent to the Li clan’s compound. White clouds covered the mountain peaks, and the whole base of this small mountain was the Li clan’s property. Many clans living in Old Martial City had settled their compounds near mountains, using the slope to cultivate herb gardens. Even the Li clan had
done the same.
Although these herbs were only low-tier Bronze Grade, they made up the Li clan’s side income.
The herbs’ fragrance shrouded them soon, and they entered the herb garden. Wei’s eyes gleamed for a moment before turning back to look at the old man. He had been quiet for ten minutes and hadn’t answered his question yet.
“Old man. Why aren’t you answering my question?”
The old man stopped below a pine tree that had popped up in the middle of the herb garden. It seemed odd to have a towering tree at the middle of the garden. He picked up five nearby stones and placed them on certain points by counting his distance and the angle of the tree.
What the heck was he doing? Was he playing a kid’s game with those stones?
Wait. Wei’s mind stirred when he detected an undulation of energy through those five stones. No, it wasn’t coming from the five stones, but the array lines connecting those source points. In his divine essence, those lights flickered like a bright sun before dimming once more.
Damn, how did the old man carve an advanced array on this place?
The old man stepped forward and tapped on the tree trunk, hitting five points again that matched the stone pattern he’d placed around the tree.
Wei felt goosebumps raising over his whole body.
It was indeed an array, and an advanced one. This wasn’t a two-layer array, but a twofold array. Each side balanced the other, and none could be activated without following a proper sequence. This was a far more advanced concept than normal arrays which could be broken by tapping on a few source spots.
Wow!
A small portion of the tree trunk in front of the old man’s face caved in, and a keyhole appeared. The old man fumbled through his pouch and took a storage ring out. Out of that storage ring, a rusted green key popped out.
When the key was exposed to the air, it shone with a golden light and, like a snake shredding its old skin, it shed the rusted green color and turned into a pure gold key.
Wei frowned. This wasn’t a Mortal Realm artifact, nor a Martial Realm artifact. It had to be an ancient artifact that the old man had gotten his hands on.
But why was he showing this to Wei?
The old man put the key in the keyhole, and a golden circle wrapped around the keyhole, and it vanished, replaced by a small hole.
Wei’s eyes widened. It had to be another array, but he didn’t remember seeing anything like this in the Inheritance of Array Masters.
How could it be possible?
“Your brother left this with me. He said if you even step on the path of cultivation, this should be your gift from him.” The old man pulled a small pendant out of the hole and handed it to Wei.
“What is this thing?” Wei rubbed his fingers on the green pendant-like object. It was colder than normal, and it glimmered when he touched it. “Wait, what? A brother?” Wei’s head jerked up, his mouth wide open. When did he get a brother?
The old man sighed. “He isn’t your real brother, but a stepbrother. Your father’s son from another woman.”
Wei chocked on his saliva. What the fuck was wrong with his family?
Were they crazy for sex? His father had another wife and a son, his mother had married another man and gave him a stepfather. “What the heck is this thing, old man?”
“Maybe a storage object. Your brother said you would find its use if you reached Houtian Realm. But you have to bind it with your blood.”
Wei rubbed the strange green pendant, feeling the intricate design carved on the green stone embedded in the golden ring. Touching it made him remember a strange stone he’d seen in a secret dimension in his previous life. That stone was called a Bloodline Stone, and it was formed from the blood of primordial beasts that were extinct. People went crazy for such a thing, as it could enhance their own vitality. Was this stone the same thing?
It didn’t look like one, as it had some patterns carved on it.
Thinking about something, he poured a bit of his divine sense in the pendant, and it was sucked in. Okay, he didn’t expect that to happen.
Now he wanted to know origin of this stone and why his brother left it for him.
Curious, he cut his finger open and let a drop of blood fall on it. It was sucked in right away. The pendant emitted a green light and hovered in the air and then wrapped around his neck on its own accord. A piercing pain emerged from his neck when the pendant cut through his skin, and a strange suction force emerged from it, sucking in his blood.
Cursing loudly, he tried to pull the pendant out, but to no avail. The pendant stuck to his neck like a leech. He could feel his blood entering the pendant like a river entering the sea.
“Wei’er, what happened? Why’s your face so pale?” The old man asked, sounding worried.
Damn this old man. Did he give him some kind of cursed item? Why the heck was this pendant pulling blood from his body? With his divine sense, he could feel his blood being sucked into the pendant, and his total blood percentage was decreasing rapidly.
Fuck it.
Dropping on the ground, he sat cross legged and circulated Blood Essence Body Cultivation Art. If the pendant was trying to suck him dry, he would overcome it by feeding it more than it could take in.
Broom!
Heaven and earth’s essence rushed through his mouth and moved toward his Yangming meridian and began generating new blood in abundance. After stepping into Refinement Realm of Blood Essence Body, generating new blood was child’s play. Of course, that didn’t mean he was invincible or that his body could regenerate limbs. But if he faced anything that sucked blood from his body, he didn’t have to worry about it.
Or so he’d thought.
At first, he could replenish as much blood as he lost. But as time passed, the suction force increased, and it became difficult to maintain the balance between suction and creation. After ten minutes he was failing miserably and could only generate fifty percent of the blood that was sucked away.
This was bad. Sweat rolled down his face, and he could feel his heart throbbing with pain as he pushed it to work harder.
Ten minutes later, the blood suction force increased by a factor of two, but his creation speed remained the same. So, he was only refilling a quarter of the blood he was losing, his blood level was hitting rock bottom, and that started affecting his bodily functions.
Damn, what the heck was this thing? Was it a trap to kill him? If it was someone else, he would have died ten times by now.
When his blood level dropped to fifteen percent, he wrapped his palm around the pendant and readied himself to burn his blood pearls to boost his power and pull it away from his neck.
However, he didn’t need to. When his blood level reached ten percent, his blood pearls started dissolving automatically, refilling his blood quickly.
The pressure on his heart vanished, and his tense muscles eased. Now his blood was refilling at a speed higher than the suction force, but he was burning his blood pearls faster. If this continued for an hour more, he would run out of blood pearls.
And then he would die.
Chapter 51 Trap or gift?
A cold wind blew across the green herb garden, but it didn’t ease Li Wei. As his blood pearls continued burning, imminent immense danger gripped his heart. If this continued, he would definitely die.
However, after ten minutes the sucking stopped. Thanks to the heavens, he didn’t have to burn all the blood pearls from his body.
Yet he’d had to burn 280 blood pearls. If he hadn’t reached layer three, he would have died.
After the suction stopped, the pendant loosened from his neck and dropped into his lap. Its color had changed from bright green to blood red. It even emitted a bloody aura that sent a shiver across his legs.
Sweat broke out all over his body. If he’d been below layer three of body Refinement Realm, he would have died.
“Wei’er, what is that thing? Why is it red suddenly?” The old man bent down to touch the pendant, but
Wei pushed his shriveled old hand away.
“Old man, it’s a dangerous thing.” He stared at the pendant, unable to understand what the heck it was. He had never seen or heard of anything like it. Of course, he had heard about some Ferocious Beasts that could suck one dry in a breath’s time, but those were present in the depths of the Dark Forest spread across the east of the State of Zin. It divided the State of Zin from other countries. It was an ancient forest, and no one knew how many millions of years it had stood there, guarding immeasurable secrets inside.
Well, he didn’t have to worry about the blood-sucking beasts or the Dark Forest, as he had no plans to venture inside. He was trying to be a lazy immortal, not a battle-crazy immortal.
Fear still gripping his heart, Wei reached out a finger to touch the pendant. If it attacked again, he could still overcome it with his remaining blood pearls. When his finger hovered an inch from the pendant, his heart raced faster than an Iron Blood Horse, the fastest horse breed of the State of Zin. He nearly lost his courage but pushed himself and touched it.
System: Information interface detected. Downloading message.
A percentage marker popped up, and when it reached one hundred, a young man’s image appeared in Wei’s mind. His clear green eyes shone when he talked, and Wei realized he had some similar features like him, but he had green eyes. Deep and dangerous green eyes.
“Brother. If you are reading this message, then I assume you’ve reached the first step in cultivation. Houtian Realm. This pendant is special, and will help you to survive in this brutal cultivation world. You can drop some blood on it, and it will give you enough of a boost to battle across the layers. I hope you like my gift.”
Bastard! This wasn’t a gift but a trap. A fucking trap. That green-eyed bastard said he needed only a few drops, but this nasty thing had sucked gallons of his blood. If it wasn’t for his special cultivation art, he would have been sucked dry before he could view this message.
And how could he already bound it when he hadn’t reached Houtian Realm?