《Lazy immortal》 1 Duped The year 2055 was riddled with new discoveries and inventions. The world hunger had ended and with it ended a long period of wars. The was to maintained by an organization the blanketed the entire earth. Humanity was finally on the path to next frontier, the space. "fuck, the new hack was supposed to allow players to break directly to the next level. Dammit, I really hoped that it would works" Lan Long said, exasperated. He was about to break into the weekly leaderboards but he lost his account due to constant reports against him. When Lan Long was 15, he inherited his father''s fortune which he promptly invested into the virtual gaming industry. This enabled him to live as he desired, good food, best games and console available on the market and the best health insurance. This made him into a mole the rarely left his house and got any form of exercise. At the age of 45, he still enjoyed the benefits of the investments he made prior in his life. Due to his constant gaming, Lan Long''s body suffered immensely. He was obese, had dark circle, was pale white and practically uneducated. He had dropped out of school to play games as soon as the investment started reaping profits. Although Lan Long was not stupid and uneducated as he seemed, during his free hours Lan Long constantly read book about engineering, philosophy, arts, medicine, law, physics, chemistry, mathematics, history and even martial arts. Lan Long in no way was a stupid, in fact when he was still in school, Lan Long was reading ahead in terms of his peers and even his teacher. By the age of 40, if he ever chose to give exams on any of the major professions, Lan Long would absolutely ace all to the subjects. He had read enough to be deemed one of the best scholars of this planet, if not the best. The only reason Lan Long chose to live such depraved life style was because he was lazy. Lazy enough not care about the societies standards. Lazy enough never call any of his relatives. Lazy enough to never get a girlfriend or a wife. The only time he chose not be lazy was when he was gaming. " Mister, try this new mod. It can change the time flow in the VR and can copy any sampled biomes to their maximum efficiency to replicated the monster and item spawn location." Called out a shady dealer who clearly looked like he was about to stab someone at a moment''s notice. Lan Long was skeptical at first but then he remembered the coding procedures of the mods. Any mods needed a complete new server to be physically inserted in the system and can be traced at any time. " Time and spawn space mod? Hmmmm, clearly won''t work, the primary programming will notice the discrepancy and soon as the first item or a monster is spawned." Lan Long mused out loud, expecting a hilarious response from the shady crook. After all, Lan Long was also well versed in coding. " Of course, the system will figure it out as soon as its plugged in." TY\he crook smiled. "Well, there we go. Another fucking waste of time." Lan Long was about to storm of but the crook coughed and raised his palm. On his palm was a diamond shaped strip. About 5-inch-long and 2-inch-wide at its widest location. The strip had weird protrusions and was about half an inch thick near those protrusions. "This is not a VR capsule mod." Lan Long said in astonishment. He had an idea but was too scared to think in that direction. "It is a stem implant." The crook said with a smile. Clearly proud to be able to surprise the conceited prick of a costumer. "How did you get it?" Lan Long asked as he calmed down. He had read about the recent break in at the research center. They were apparently developing a nerve implant to enhance the thinking and memory storage in humans. The break in caused a huge gun fight to break out but the thieves got away with minimal causalities. Soon they were found and apprehended but their final accomplice was still at large. It didn''t take Lan Long much time to connect the dots. Just to be sure, the report mentioned a single prototype being developed and all the data being lost to that fight. "How many do you have?" Lan Long asked in a low voice. Although he was scared, Lan Long could not let such a golden opportunity slip. "One and only. In fact, I can guarantee that this is the only piece of stem tech on the planet." The crook declared proudly. "Oh. The price." Lan Long asked expecting a huge amount. "One million credits. On plastic, no wire." The crook deadpanned. ''Fuck that''s a lot. Wait, he cannot publicly advertise this and is in desperate need of cash to bail. I can definitely haggle in down to 800k or maybe even less. Or I can con him into giving to me for free. He is a fugitive after all'' "Can I Inspect the implant for a while?" Lan Long asked with a straight face but inside he was nervous. "Hmmmm, sure." The crook said and handed Lan Long the implant but as he turned his palm onto Lan Long''s palm he grabbed him and said "Be very careful." With a sinister smile. "How do you even use this thing?" Lan Long asked confused upon closer inspection. The whole thigh weighed about 150 grams. "Just place the sharp end on your C7 while the entire thing faces upward. I should detent the connection and activate automatically." He explained while pointing a finger to lower part of his neck. "Is it safe?" Lan Long asked the final question before ditching the loser. He had secretly contacted the peace keepers about a suspicious individual. "100 percent. . . . . . Probably." He sighed at the end realizing now he would lose some of the cash. Lan Long was about to reach into his wallet for cash, the siren started blazing everywhere. The crook smiled at Lan Long before pulling out a gun and pointing at him. Before he could even pull the trigger, another shot was fired. BANG The bullet was fired by a drone at the crook. The bullet which was supposed to kill the crook was stripped of momentum as it closed in on the crook. The Magnetic shield tech was a major life saver under any gun related situations, but the bullet''s momentum would need to be under the critical limit or else the shield would fail. But even if the shield didn''t fail the momentum would still throw the ma of his feet to a certain extent if the mechanism wasn''t grounded. The crook flew of and landed a few feet away, glaring at Lan Long before running away. Lan Long was proud as he had made a killing of the deal and even got the crooks bag. Lan Long carried the bag to his home and threw it to the side before taking out the implant and checking it again to look for damages. He was excited as he believed this to be a game changer, literally. "Hehehe, finally those mother fuckers online are in for a world of pain" Lan Long said out loud before slapping the implant on his neck. 2 Die with Me The instant the implant was placed in the right order, tiny tentacles grew from the side and embedded themselves in his skin. The sensation was like Continuous bee stings to the same spot. Lan Long screamed and tried to forcefully remove the implant. In the other part of the city, the crook was being chased by a dozen peace keeper and drones. Despite the crook being faster than the cops, he was being cutoff at almost every intersection. "Fuck, If I ever meet that fat bastard again." The crook roared out loud as he found a sewage tunnel and entered it. Lan Long was still rolling around in his apartment due to the pain. The implant kept burrowing into his skin. The pain almost caused him to blackout but as soon as he was about to lose consciousness there would be a spark of electricity keeping him conscious. After about 15 minutes of nightmarish pain the implant stopped. The pained slowly subdued and Lan Long finally breathed out a sigh. The constant screaming had left his throat parched. He couldn''t even find enough strength to curse out loud. After about an hour of peace, Lan Long finally got up and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. After drinking his fill, Lan Long walked like a zombie towards his room. He was tired and was still shivering from the painful memory. He finally laid on his bed and closed his eyes. On the other part of the city, the crook had finally lost the cops. He had found a safe corner in the tunnels and sat down with his back to the wall. He reached for his device and pulled up picture of his girl and his friends smiling slightly. Memories came rushing back, there were sad one, there were cheerful ones, but even in those terrible ones he had always been with his friends. The latest client had screwed them over, they were informed that the research was to control the human minds and they had formed a team to rebel against such blatant attack on humanity. Their leader thought that they were up to betterment of the society. They had been played like fools their entire life. Their goal was a sham. They were betrayed and left for dead. He was the sole survivor of the gang. He had placed his bet on black-marketing the tech he got. He thought he could flee and strive for revenge. Then he had met that fat fuck who had fucked him over. At least he had solace about the fact that he was about to die as well. Probably, reunite with his gang in hell and wreck the shit out of it. He laughed drily. The implant went dormant for a while as Lan Long slept but about two hours into sleep two tentacles stared to reach for the electricity outlet. They were like two worms slowly crawling toward the food. In about another hour, the tentacles had finally reached the outlet had attached themselves to it. The implant started to make a slight hissing sound as it forced Lan Long body to near the outlet. As pain, had rendered Lan Long numb, he couldn''t feel the hair sized tentacle borrowing through hi skin. "The fuck" Lan Long shouted as he tried to get off the bed only to find out he was now in capable of movement. He could feel all his clothes on his body even the buzzing of the implant but he simply couldn''t move. Everything below his neck was now incapable of movement. Tears rolled down Lan Long''s face as was feeling all the regret in the world. He thought that he was going to starve to death, crying even harder. "Oh please. Let me live." Lan Long cried and tried to struggle even hard, only to realize that it was all useless. Inside his body, the tentacles had now drilled into his skull and slowly spread throughout his brain and were now trying to drill out of his glabella. The pain began anew and induced another round of horrifying screams from Lan Long. The crook on other hand was awake now and was holding a trigger under his thumb. He was relaxed and looked carefree but in eyes was a psychotic look. Their team always had a bomb ready in case the ever needed a quick distraction or utter destruction. The bomb was a Augmented charge bomb, it could be charge to the required output necessary and at its maximum it was equal to 500 megaton of TNT. The crook let out a scream and held down the trigger. It took 15 minutes to charge it completely and when fully charged it could not be stopped or disarmed. BEEP. . . BEEP. . . BEEP The beeps could be heard All the way to Lan Long bed room but Lan Long didn''t even care about it or didn''t hear it all he was still screaming his lungs out. The tentacle attached to the electricity outlet began to and so did the implant. The process of alteration of memory and reflexes required a lot of energy and that energy being drawn from the electricity outlet. The tentacles which had now spread throughout his nervous system began to glow and the alteration process began. The light emitted was being absorbed by nerves as their efficiency was forcefully upgraded. The entire process was supposed to only last about 10 seconds but due to the lack of energy, it was being drawn out. The pain was so intense, that Lan Long couldn''t breathe, in fact he couldn''t even think. ZZZZZZZZ. . . . . The crook heard some whizzing noises which sounded like the mini drones. He stood still, silent as a dead man, he stopped his breath and took out a gun with his free hand. The sound got closer and closer. He crooks heart was beating faster with each passing moment. The drone came into view and luckily was looking elsewhere. Crook slowly aimed the gun at the drone and fired. As he squeezed the trigger, the drone turned around and a flash was seen. BANG. The drone was down but now the cops new where he was and now he had to run, again, until the bomb was completely charged. The last image sent by the drone revealed that fugitive had a trigger pressed and was clearly waiting for something. The cops didn''t like that something and upped the number of drones. Every drone, cop, detectives and even military got called in. Whatever the trigger was for, it could not be allowed to do its job, especially one of the most crowded cities on the planet. On the other hand, the implant was now fully merged into the nervous system but most of it resided in the brain. The glow from the tentacle was blinding white at this point. Even Lan Long''s skin was starting to glow. Alteration was almost about more than halfway done. The implant could theoretically boost memory, reflexes and computational power of the brain to rival that of a supercomputer, almost a million times that of a normal human. So as the process neared its end, the pain would have become almost insurmountable. Lan Long could only stare into the ceiling as he could do nothing else. The time was passing slowly, every moment felt as long as a year. Lan Long hoped the it would be over so, he screams for death in his mind but all the reply he got was an ever-increasing amount of pain. Resigned to his fate Lan Long gave upon the struggle, had now devolved into a suicidal maniac hoping for death in every passing moment. He craved release from the pain, by any means necessary. The Crook gasped for air as the sirens blared nearby. He didn''t stop running for nearly 10 minutes and was still continuously running at his top speed. He looked at the trigger only to see the bomb was only about 75 percent loaded. Disappointed, he kept up his speed and ran as fast as he could. After all these were the last moments of his life, he wanted them to be glorious. The glow from Lan Long''s body was getting brighter. The outlet was red hot and started to melt away due to heat. The tentacles were forged from super conductive materials and was highly resistant to heat and pressure, which was why the tentacles was still sucking up all the energy from the electric grid of the city. The current loss and voltage drops were being noted through the city, Even the backup generators, failed to replace the energy loss. Suddenly, the entire city was powerless. An executive found out that a certain residence was drawing all the energy from the grid and called the cops on it. Crook had a vehicle now, which he stole from the hover bay. He was now trying his best to leave the city. He had realized that he could still have revenge if he escaped. He was trying his best to out run the cops. The cops had the number on their side and knew the city like their own bodies. They cut off the crook in every way possible, some overly patriotic cop even tried some suicidal maneuvers. The crook has way too experienced in this kind of chase and when he had his mind in the game, he was all impossible to stop. The tentacles which had now realized that their power source was cutoff, began searching for a new one immediately. The scurried straight to all the devises with batteries and immediately drained them of their charge. It was barely enough to be counted as a grain in the desert. The bomb which was almost charges was now emitting heat. The tentacle immediately marked it as an excellent power source and all of them gathered around and pulled it straight to Lan Long''s body. The bomb was placed above the head, closest location to the implant, as the tentacles formed a tight net around the bomb and began to absorb the charge. The new supply of energy, increased the glow and Lan Long''s body was now glowing brightly. As the process neared to its end, the implant stopped corking completely and began to gather and immense amount, a horrifying amount of energy. This was not the part of the process. This happened due to the gaming hack which was inserted into the programming by the crook. This energy was now being used to stimulate an artificial space with separate space time continuum. The AI in the implant Calculated that the easiest way to do this would be to open a worm hole and proceeded accordingly. The crook looked at the trigger again, only to find it only at 90 percent of charge. This time he was not disappointed but joyous as the time allowed him to escape the blast radius. He increased the hover bikes speed to its limit and headed away from the city. Cops where slightly slower as weren''t as experienced as the crook. After he had escaped from the city, crooked finally smiled as he checked the trigger again. This it read 99 percent. The crook had eyes peeled to the trigger as he barely paid attention to the road. PING. . . PING. . . PING The trigger indicated that the bomb was now fully charged, all he had to do now was to wait for the EMP burst to fry out the cop''s vehicles and then bail the fuck out. He decisively started to raise the speed and headed straight into the sky. Some cops immediately followed while some of them set a perimeter around the area, effectively making an inescapable net. The crook had the eyes on the city lights. BOOM The bomb had finally gone off, the implant had enough energy to make a worm hole and it did just that. All the energy was concentrated towards a single point inside Lan Long''s brain and the reality collapsed at that point. A huge EMP wave was created, this didn''t affect the implant or Lan Long as his bogy was already super-heated. The crook saw the lights in the distance flicker, he immediately killed the engine and as the momentum died he began to free fall. The cops were surprised as this was absolutely unexpected, they immediately activated the containment barrier around the crook and his vehicle. There was a slight smile on the crook''s face as he raised his arms. The cop''s communications were glitchy at this point, and soon they engines were fried. The crook laughed as he immediately started his engine and flew into the horizon. Although he was confused, why didn''t the bomb go off, he was too happy to escape out of that tragedy which is why he didn''t care. Lan Long who had a wormhole inside his head was still experiencing teeth shattering pain, finally exploded into nothingness as the wormhole shrunk as it had lost it source of energy to remain open any longer. 4 Ch 4 cultivation Today, Lan Long had finally turned 4-year-old. His clansmen and elder offered him gifts and wealth. Lan Long accepted all these a stowed them into his room. Lan Long didn''t care for these precious herbs and jewelry. He was going to confront his parents and demand them to teach him cultivation. He was nervous and excited but neither of these emotions were seen on his face. On one hand, he was excited on the prospect of cultivation but on the other hand Lan Long was afraid of hard work. Every book he read, all the heroes had one part common, they were all hard working to the maximum and Lan Long was anything but. Soon, he reached his parent''s chambers and stood in front of the door. He didn''t knock because of two reasons. One, he knew all cultivators had keen senses. Even, Lan Long had particularly keen senses despite not cultivating, he had chalked this up to the humans of the new world. "Come in." His father voice boomed from the inside. Lan Long entered the chambers. He found his mother standing beside his father who was sitting on an elevated platform. Tian Long had a stern look on his face. "Father. Mother." Lan Long bowed slightly and steeled his heart. "I want to cultivate. Please guide me." He said as he looked at his parents with determined look. "What did you just say?" Tian Long raised his voice slightly. Lan Long''s mother broke eye contact with him immediately and looked elsewhere. "Father, I want to cultivate and become stronger." Lan Long said with the same tone he used earlier. "Do you even know how hard it is to cultivate? Do you know how many children die of Ki poisoning? Do you know how cruel the world of cultivators is?" Tian Long said in a flat tone. The atmosphere now was worse than before. "I would be lying if I said yes." Lan Long answered in low voice. "But father, clearly do. You can teach me." "Well. Take a look at these books and memorize them word for word." Tian Long said as he waved his hand and a few books flew out of his sleeve and landed in a neat pile in front of Lan Long. "Remember one thing, if you fail to memorize the books by the end of the month, punishment will be due." Tian Long said as Lan Long was about to pick up the books. The warning didn''t faze Lan Long for even a moment as he picked up the books and bowed to his parents as he left. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "A month. Really? Even you needed more than 2 months to digest the basics." Chu Ren said after Lan Long had left the room. "The time limit will not be enough for heavenly geniuses let alone for a child with mediocre talent." Su Ren felt wronged by her husband''s time constraint. He had set their child to an impossible task. "Let his taste defeat in his first task. Let him know of the unfairness of the punishment. Only then will he up to it." Tian Long said these words as the pulled Su Ren in his arms. Lan Long had no idea that he was set to an impossible task, he had rushed to his room and read the titles of each book. ''Book of Energy channeling'', ''Sutra of Elements'', ''The Nature''s Way'' and many more. He had been about 15 books about all the basics to cultivation. None of these books, a cultivation technique. He been handed information equal to fundamentals equations in mathematics and not any application methods. His task was to memorize the content of all the books before the month. He had begun to read the first book immediately. After a few hours, he had finished reading the all the books. He was feeling slightly disappointed as he felt that the task was bit disappointed because he felt that the task at hand was too easy. The time he had spent in the void had granted his clear mind, sharp perception and amazing memory. He didn''t even need a few hours to memorize all the books. His mind would instantly memorize everything that took place around him to the finest of details. The task was completed before the day even ended and hence forth, Lan Long started to experiment, the idea of controlling Ki with his mind was very intriguing to him. Lan Long closed his eyes and entered the ethereal state of mind. He began to sense his surrounding, after he had a crystal-clear image in his mind, he started to look for naturally occurring ki. If his father knew of his accomplishment, he would he rendered into a state of shock. Tian Long took 8 years to even attempt this. He had a master which had put him through many years of training his body and mind before teaching his master thought him the procedure to attempt Ki sensing. All though Lan Long didn''t immediately succeed, he was not too far away from it. Ki-cultivation and body cultivation both had the same requirement, to be able to sense and control Ki effectively. Ki cultivators controlled the Ki directly to impact the environment to the desired effect while body cultivators used Ki to strengthen their bodies. Many only attempted one style of cultivation because they if reached great success in any one style, it would grant them great strength. If they were to attempt both and divide their attention, they may never great success in either and would be muddled in mediocrity for the rest of their lives. Lan Long knew none of these things, he was simply experimenting with his knew idea. After a few hours, he realized that his idea may not work or he was simply lacking in information, even then he didn''t give up. It was either this or playing amongst children of his age, he readily accepted the former. As he was about to leave his meditation, Lan Long felt a few dull grey specks in his surroundings. This immediately grabbed his attention, these grey specks were extremely tiny and numbered in billions. These specks where everywhere. Lan Long guessed that this was the Ki that all the manuals referred to but he was confused. The manuals and books all described the Ki too be extremely pure and bright. These grey specks were grey and dull. Lan Long recalled the scene where his father had waved his hand to make the books fly. At that moment, there was a slight miniscule glow in his eyes. Lan Long theorized that his father had controlled Ki inside his body which was pure to control the books. Lan Long was correct. His father had indeed controlled his Ki to make the books fly. Lan Long didn''t attempt to control or absorb any of this Ki as he was unsure of the result. He simply continued to observe his surrounding and he noticed that near the wood, Ki had a slightly different color. It was slightly green in color, While Ki near the lamp was slightly red. There were slightly blue Colored Ki specks in the atmosphere as well. Near any metallic objects was silver colored Ki. ''Every element has a type of Ki accompanying it.'' Lan long understood. ''But, there was energy in the dark void. Is there a type of Ki which is devoid of everything? What about aspects of time? It''s there, accompanying everything but intangible. Is there a Type of Ki related to time?'' While Lan Long was wondering about the aspects of Ki and its properties, a day had passed. His mother had sent maids to wake him up. The maids entered Lan Long''s room to find him sitting on his bed with his eyes closed. They immediately shut the door and rushed to inform his mother. "Mistress, Young Master is attempting meditation." The head maid said excitedly. "What? Are you sure?" Su Ren immediately hurried to Lan Long''s room. As she went closer, she immediately spread her soul sense towards Lan Long room. Maids noticed that their Mistress''s speed was getting slower and asked. "Mistress, what happened?" A maid asked politely. "Nothing, he is simply sitting on his bed. Go get him to the breakfast." Su Ren stopped head to Lan Long''s room and made her way to the dining area. Lan Long got dressed and ordered a maid to bring the breakfast to his room. This surprised both his parents because Lan Long always preferred to eat with them whenever possible. "The boy must be really trying to get those books down." Tian Long said with a laugh as he ate his food. "You are a bully." Su Ren said with puffed cheek. They both immediately burst into laughter. Days passed as usual, Lan Long was busy with his experiments and managed to gain slight control over the natural Ki. He didn''t bother to go and tell is parent about his task, as he was simply immersed with himself and his new-found obsession with Ki. He even tried to assimilate the Ki with his body to no success and stop trying to do so. He tried merging the Ki of different elements with some success and continued to experiment away. He had found that denser the Ki was, less the impurities would be. He even found out that, if one merged all elements into one speck the outcome would be the purest and the resulting Ki would be the brightest. He had even tried to merge space and time attributes into the mixture, he had failed but he realized that if all the energies could be combined the resulting energy could be the origin of all the other types of Ki. He simply enjoyed to simply stay in his room and ponder and experiment. To all outsiders, it seemed that Lan Long was loitering around and during experiments he was observing with his eyes open. A word of this got to his father and he was immediately enraged but didn''t take any action as the time appointed was a month. Nearing the final days of the month Lan Long had finally incorporated all the energies to a single point and results were extraordinary. The resulting was invisible and strong, where ever this Ki went the surrounding natural Ki immediately moved away. Satisfied with the results of his endless experiments, Lan Long stopped. He wanted to simply observe the natural way and gain further understanding of it. He was simply pondering and theorizing. Finally, his father sent for him. The months'' time was over and now he was to be tested. 5 Ch 5 Surprised Lan Long eagerly walked to his parent''s chambers and stood in front of the door. "Come in." His Father''s voice boomed. Tian Long was angry as he knew that his son didn''t touch the books the entire month. He was extremely disappointed in Lan Long. His rage grew even more as he felt that Lan Long was behaving too casually. "Have you memorized the manuals?" Tian Long asked questioned with a calm tone but his gaze was piercing. "Yes." Lan Long replied without hesitation. "Lan Long, if you to answer any of the questions, you will then face the capital punishment of the clan." Tian Long warned Lan Long. Su Ren frowned immediately and looked at Tian Long''s face. She sighed and kept her calm. "Ok father." Lan Long said with the face confident voice. "Ok. What is the natural phenomenon that determines the purity of Ki?" Tian Long began to ask questions one by one. At a younger age Tian Long himself had answered 100 questions, which is why he decided that the questionnaire needed to be 100 long. "The density and harmony." Lan Long answered immediately. Tian long raised an eyebrow and immediately asked another question to which the reply was accurate and instant. After about 70 questions, he and his wife had lost their composure. They were standing with beaming smiles and a proud look in their eyes. After the hundredth question, Tian Long sat on his with an thump shocked out of his wits while Su Ren was hugging Lan Long with tears in her eyes. "What happened?" Lan Long was confused. The test was mediocre at best which is why he didn''t see the reason why his parents were hysterical. "Nothing." Tian Long immediately replied. He was expecting to punish his son, he was at a loss. "Father, guide me on how to cultivate." Lan Long as from his mother''s embrace. He was quite embarrassed as his mother tried to hug to death. "Ahem. Hmmmm. Yes. But first you need to know the aspects and power and levels in cultivation system." Tian had stood up again and began to explain. "The Ki gathering realm is the first and the weakest. At this stage, a cultivator can simply Ki inside their bodies. Next is the Ki condensing realm. Here, the gather Ki condenses resembles water. After that comes, the Ki Sea realm. At this stage the cultivator forms a sea of Ki in his dantian. When a cultivator reaches the peak of this realm, a tribulation of fire descends and burns the cultivator. If at some point the cultivator had failed an aspect of his Cultivation, he will be burned to death and his soul will be destroyed. If at some point the cultivator escapes the tribulation, he will lose his primary Body and will need to form another body and continue as a Tribulation student. If he succeeds his tribulation, Heavenly fire will burn out his impurities and gather heavenly energy and cultivator''s energy to form a Ki pellet inside the dantian." Tian Long stopped at this point and gazed at his sons face only to find a pair of twinkling eyes gazing at him. "Cultivation requires time and patience. The talent and opportunities help but they can be discovered and not sought after. The greatest virtue of a cultivator is hard work. The harder you work, the greater the rewards." Tian Long finally saw his sons face turn gloomy as he said the word ''hard work''. ''This lazy piece of shit, he-he I will beat that ignorance out of him.'' Tian Long laughed in his mind. The mention of hard work had deterred Lan Long greatly but his curiosity spurred him onwards. "Father, when can I begin to cultivate?" Lan Long asked. "First, you need choose a method of cultivation. Then, we can begin." Tian Long said as he waved his hand, soon many books started to float in the air. There were hundreds of these books, then he waved another time and twelve more books appeared. "These 12 manuals are the best manual of our clan while all these other manuals are low level manuals or incomplete manuals. Choose wisely." He said as he disappeared along with his mother. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Hmm. Ok time to read." Lan Long said as he picked the nearest of the low-level manual and began to flip through. The first one would help the cultivator till the Ki condensing realm while making their Ki hot. Lan Long flipped through all the low-level manual before stopping. Even though it looked like Lan Long was casually browsing through the manuals, he had memorized all to them word for word including all the drawn Ki flow patter and all the symbols. "No wonder these are all low-level manuals, the best was only up to Heavenly Pellet realm." Lan Long finally turned towards the final 12 manuals. What Lan didn''t know was that he was being observed by all his clan elders. This was ceremony of fate, which often conducted in all huge clans. The young ones would be presented manuals without any guidance and would be allowed to choose one manual off each type of cultivation. The ones that choose extremely poorly would be provided lowest of resources, while the ones that choose better would be given the resources according to their luck. Even though Tian had helped his son by letting him know the best manuals, he had lied to his son. The Long clan had only 4 core manuals, elemental dragons, only 4 manuals. The rest of the manual in the set of twelve were either high-level incomplete manuals or absolute garbage. This he had done to improve his sons chances of getting the core manuals. Lan Long had picked up the first manual of the 12. It was of absolute garbage variety. Lan Long frowned as he read through it. He them left the first manual extremely disappointed. The next two he chose were two of the core manuals. Earth Dragon Sutra and Fire Dragon Sutra, Lan Long immediately realized that these were of absolute best quality in their respective elements. He soon read though almost all of the manuals without stopping and sighed when he had read through all the manuals. The Dragon manuals were very enticing but they all constrained the cultivator to a single element. Although, the cultivator could still train in other elements, their speed would be affected. There were many manuals which trained body and Ki simultaneously but each of the manuals came with many drawbacks and constraints. There was one particular manual which had Lan Long''s attention, Nature''s Way. This particular manual was a high grade incomplete manual as it required the cultivators to train all the meridians and acupoints simultaneously. This would in theory, improve the cultivators Ki and body in proportion to the quality of the Ki used. It was an omni-directional sutra which could train any type of Ki but the process of the Ki refinement was varied from impossibly hard when easy to completely suicidal at the hardest. The Ki was to absorbed from the Divergent acupoints to corresponding meridians to death acupoints and their corresponding meridian and finally through all the dantians starting from the top. The dantians were situated below navel, center of the chest and at the center of the brain. A single mistake during the cultivation could reduce a man to an idiot at best or a corpse. This manual was available commonly because of the difficulty of it. It was a cheap manual available in almost all common stores. It had another name that suited it even better, the death sentence. The itself was enough to scare away anyone. Lan Long saw this manual differently, this was a perfect practice material for him. His soul had given him perfect control over his body and the experiment with the Ki fusion had a great success. He was now able to merge Ki subconsciously without any effort. His control over Ki was immaculate which was also the reason he was able to experiment without care. Lan Long made his mind up and choose this Nature''s way. His mother had tears streaming down her face as she tried to desperately stop her son from that accursed manual. His father''s eyes were red as he grabbed his mother. The clan''s rules were simple and the rule had stated that no one was to help a child in choosing the manual. The only help that was to be provided was the base requirement to cultivate the selected manual. The cultivator could change his base cultivation technique when he had acquired contribution points by accomplishing the missions or by doing great merit to the clan. The guidance could be provided when the cultivator had successfully cultivated first part of the technique. "Tian Long and Su Ren, you are to be confined in the head quarter cultivation yard until your son cultivates the first level of the Nature''s Way or if he cannot improve within 10 years of time or till his death." The clan leader immediately gave the orders. His voice boomed in the ears of all elders. After Lan Long''s parent were escorted away, clan leader descended in front of Lan Long. "Lan Long, here is the manual you chose." Clan leader handed the manual to Lan Long. "Thank you, Senior." Lan Long said as he bowed to the old man in front of him. "The cultivation path is very treacherous. Danger often come from the outside and seldom from within. External dangers needn''t be feared while internal ones cannot be over looked." The old man turned silent for a moment and gazed at Lan Long for many breaths of time. "your cultivation resources will be delivered shortly. Cultivate with extreme caution." Old man said with a serious look in his face and disappeared. "Lord must care a lot for this child to provide him with such guidance." An elder by the clan leader''s side mused. "No really, Tian Long will be affected by his loss and if a little bending of rules could avoid that disaster, then let it be." Leader said with a laugh and left. Lan Long rushed to him yard and sat on his bed and revised the method of cultivation in his mind. He then immediately began to mix the Ki in the surroundings to make the Invisible Ki. He soon realized that this method would take an impossibly long time to cultivate. First, he needed to merge Ki outside his body and refine it inside his body, the whole process was arduous and tiring to the extreme. If Lan Long could find a way to merge the Ki automatically and continuously, the cultivation would proceed much more smoothly. Soon, six month had passed and Lan Long was found a way to drawn in and merge Ki by drawing a complex structure of Ki. It worked like a self-sustaining engine and constantly provided Lan Long with the Ki he required. Lan Long had created a Ki refinement formation without even realizing it. If anyone ever found this out they would immediately vomit all the blood in their bodies and ended their lives. The art of formation could only be attempted after decades of practice and hard work. Lan Long had accomplished this in mere six months. The formation itself had to inscribed on each of his cells individually and each cell would need a total on 16 formation to make a grand formation. Lan Long had noticed that if he placed the formation in certain way the total efficiency of each formation would increase tremendously and would even have a self-repairing and replicating properties. Lan Long immediately began to procedure to inscribe the formation. Lan Long''s soul was impossibly strong hence he was able to complete the task in just over two and a half years of time. He was now 7 years old. Most of his peers had cultivated up to peak of mortal''s breath. Many of them were able to enter meditative state for a brief period. Lan Long on other hand barely practiced anything, he was often found near the ponds or on hammock wearing bamboo hat. The method of cultivation required on to be in the most alert and comfortable state, this was the reason why people always sat down with their backs straight and eyes closed. Lan Long was different, he didn''t need to do any of that, he was alert to the max all the time. He had broken in to Ki gathering realm a few days ago, and was in constant need of water to clean himself. His body would release impurities almost constantly. As he broke through the first layer, of Ki gathering his body release almost a kilogram of impurities with smelled like rotten meat. Lan Long didn''t participate in any of the lectures or practices, elder left him alone as they knew that he was fated to die as soon as he began to cultivate. They all had great respect for his father and left him alone. Kids soon realized that the elder didn''t bother with him, so they all ignored him, fearing that he was a son of some big hotshot. He now had a new name, Lazy Long. 6 Ch 6 The flying house Lan Long noticed that is cells were strengthening at fighting speed. He had once tried to cut himself with a carving knife only to see the steel couldn''t penetrate his skin. His reflexes, strength and speed improved at incredible speeds. Although, Lan Long didn''t pick up any of the movement arts and fighting arts, both his fighting skill and speed could be rated at the top of his level. Lan Long didn''t compare himself with his peer, hence he had no idea of his current strength. After reaching first level of Ki gathering Lan Long improved in formation and continued to improve them with every level he crossed. There were 4 Levels in each realm of cultivation. The early, the middle, the late and the peak, these four layers often represented huge difference in capabilities and strengths. Lan Long continued his relaxed and lazy way of cultivation every day, almost never leaving his hammock and only moving for bare necessities. The Ki used by Lan Long was ethereal and invisible, it couldn''t be sensed by any normal cultivator, unless that cultivator was of celestial realm. There was no one of that strength in the Long clan. The strongest cultivator was Great Elder who was a Core realm. Soon years passed, Lan Longs strength grew to a horrifying degree. He was now, 14 years of age and he was now at the early Ki sea realm. He had finally overturned the history and flipped off the heavens. No one in history of the continent had such strength at such an age. His father entered Ki sea at the age of 29 and he was considered a genius. No one knew of Lan Long''s achievement as no one could sense his Ki. Everyone thought of his as the Lazy fool. His parent had often asked elder about Lan Long and they were both joyed and their son was still alive and disappointed as their son couldn''t even cultivate to Ki gathering in 10 years. Soon, in about a month his parent would be lifted of their house arrest and Lan Long would be given a new manual of the clans choosing. Lan Long had grown to a height of 170cm and had long black hair. He would always have a smell of nature about him and his cute round face now had manly features. Too bad, no girls ever paid attention to him as them deemed him useless. Many even made fun of him and rebuked him as they passed by his hammock. Suddenly, there was a huge commotion in the girls living area. Apparently, a huge hamster was causing a ruckus in a girl''s personal kitchen. It had appeared out of nowhere and scared the poor girl, then it immediately raided the kitchen. Too bad for this hamster, he had raided the sweetheart of this generation. The beautiful red head was called Xiao Long. She had extremely cute features and was sought by many. After raiding the kitchen of this girl, the hamster stared to raid all the neighboring kitchens. By the end of the hour a mob of angry looking girls was chasing was a rather smug looking Hamster. Soon, the boys who wanted to gain some points in for girls had also joined. Soon a mob of about a hundred people was chasing after the hamster. After giving a good chase, the hamster was finally cornered. A fight broke out as the hamster easily avoided a mob of Ki gathering cultivators. It then bee lined him was toward Lan Long''s hammock and jumped on his chest. The huge hamster turned to a regular palm sized hamster in a moment as it landed on Lan Long''s chest. This cute little hamster was Lan Long''s pet. He had found him near his house when he was really young and decide to keep him. He had named this little hamster Xiao Kong. In his free time, he had inscribed the same formation on the hamster as well. It then turned into a huge Hamster with human child like intelligence. He had honey light brown fur and was incredibly soft to touch. It was an ordinary hamster when Lan Long found him. It was the not even supposed to reach the Ki gathering realm but Lan Long had inscribed it with the same formations in his body. Over a few years, the sweet hamster grew monstrously strong. Although, the fur looked extremely soft and was comfortable to touch, it was also stronger that the high-grade armor used by cultivators. High grade armor could withstand attacks from Ki sea realm cultivators and was very valuable. Xiao Kong was comparable to extremely rare beasts after reaching KI condensing realm. The crowd saw the hamster land on Lan Long and immediately surrounded his hammock. Even though, Lan Long had warned Xiao Kong not to cause trouble, the rat had gone and pissed of the entire younger generation. "Lan Long, hand over the rat. Immediately." One of the hot-blooded youngsters shouted. "Yes, hand it over." Another girl agreed. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Lan Long pretended to be asleep as he observed his surroundings with his soul sense. Soon, his cousin came and stood before his hammock and exerted is Ki pressure on Lan Long. "Brother Lan Long, please give me some face and hand over your mouse. I will provide a better trained pet in the future." Jiang Long said in a low voice. He was one of the best of this generation and also pursued Xiao Long. Cheee. . . A squeak was heard as Xiao Kong attacked Jiang Long''s face and left many bruises. His pretty face was now scratched and he was rolling in the muds trying to shake of Xiao Kong. Sadly for him Xiao Kong was a late-Ki condensing realm. If Xiao Kong wanted, he could have killed everyone in the mob with ease and even escape. "Xiao Kong." Lan Long''s voice sounded. His voice was very pleasant to hear but had a hint on manliness about it. Some girl even gasped when they heard Lan Long. The little hamster immediately jumped back onto the hammock. "Lan Long, you will pay that." Jiang Long Roared with an extremely red face. He unsheathed his sword and pointed towards Lan Long. "Brother Jiang, it was you who asked for Xiao Kong. If isn''t my fault if you couldn''t handle him." Lan Long said with a slight laugh. Hearing that laugh some girls even awed at the cuteness of the laugh. "How dare you mock me." Jiang Long finally couldn''t control it and sent his sword swinging at Lan Long. As the sword approached a soft squeak was heard and Jiang Long was blown away. An elder watching the scene was alarmed and immediately checked for injuries and sighed. Jiang Lan was unconscious and had 2 broken ribs. The crowd was shocked as they looked at the little hamster, on Lan Long''s hat. The crowd immediately turned silent as they realized that they were all played with. Even if they all could catch the hamster, they could not do anything to it. Xiao Kong landed on Lan Long''s chest after beating Jiang Long and comfortably lied down and closed his eyes. The crowd started to disperse they felt that the show was over, only Xiao Long and a few girls stayed behind. While Xiao Long was interested in the hamster, everyone else was interested in Lan Long. Usually the beast tamer was stronger than the beast by a large margin and they thought that it was the same for Lan Long. "Lan Long, can I have a look at your divine beast?" Xiao Long asked in a low voice. A divine beast was a beast that had formed a soul connection with a human. The connection was a type of bond that the humans and beast could share. It also acted like a crude communication when the beast was at low level and improved with the strength of the beast. At its later stages the bond could be used to communicate with the beast at great lengths and sense it positions. Lan Long grabbed the hamster and kept it in her hands. Xiao Long was surprised at the sudden action and yelped lightly. Soon, many girls gathered around Xiao Long and started to pet the hamster. Xiao Kong despite being a general dick in its treatment of others, really enjoyed when someone petted him and fed him food. A girl took out a berry and handed to Xiao Long and he immediately gulped it down. The girls started to laugh as the berry was the size of Xiao Kong''s head and he looked really cute as the he puffed it cheeks after eating the berry. "Little hamster, can you grow bigger like before." A girl asked while petting the hamster. Almost instantly, Xiao Kong began to increase in size. Soon, it because a meter long and stopped growing. The girls were silent at first and then the group girls devolved into a pool of awes and oohs. They couldn''t get a good look a t Xiao Kong before as he was moving erratically and looked like a blur. Now, see him closely revealed that the hamster looked like a fluffy pillow when it grew. The girls hugged him and basically fell in love with Xiao Kong''s soft fur. After, about 15 minutes of hamster petting girls realized that they were in the company of a boys and began to leave. Some gave Xiao Kong fruits and sweets as they left. No one bothered to ask Lan Long about the species of the hamster. They were far too embarrassed. After all the scene restored its peace with only Lan Long and Xiao Kong on the hammock, the elder came walking to the scene. He stood in front of Lan Long and coughed lightly. Lan Long didn''t respond and kept still with the bamboo hat on his face. "Lan Long, bring out your divine best, so that I may look at it." The elder commanded. Lan Long just grabbed the hamster and handed it to the elder. The elder was surprised that Lan Long didn''t used his soul sense to determine his location and was able to accurately place the hamster in his hand. Elder immediately used his soul sense to examine the hamster. He was able to feel the energy with its bobby but could not associate it with any of the divine beasts. He guessed that it was a hybrid of some different beast. What surprised the elder was that, he was not able to sense the beast''s cultivation. From the earlier attack, he guessed that the hamster was at least peak Ki gathering or at most early Ki condensing realm. "Lan Long, what is this beast''s cultivation level?" Elder finally asked Lan Long. "Don''t know." Lan Long replied still lying down. Elder was frustrated at Lan Long''s antiques but didn''t raise his voice at him. After all, Tian Long would be free to interact with son soon enough. The elder sighed and left. On another part of the clan, Bai Long was enraged and had a murderous look in his face. Not only his son was injured but person who injured him unharmed and free. He felt like he had lost all face and was slapped openly. The fact that it was his cousin''s useless brat enraged him even further. After, 10 years of choosing the Death Sentence, Lan Long was still alive and kicking. Even the worst talent would have at least tried to attempt the technique but this lazy brat was always lazing around and doing nothing. "So, a brat who is still at mortal''s breath beat my son." Bai Long was smiling at the servant who came to inform him of the event. The servant was instantly horrified and explained. "Master, it wasn''t Lan Long who is strong but his divine beast." The servant explained. "Oh, how did that weak brat get a divine beast? He could not even cultivate to Ki gathering." Bai Long roared. "Master, maybe the beast was extremely weak or some elder aided Lan Long to acquire it." Servant made a guess. "Hoh, let that brat know that he cannot offend with and be well. Go spread the news that if someone was to beat him and kill his beast. I will personally reward that person with a year''s worth of core resources and a low earth blade." Bai Long said ruthlessly. Soon, the news spread that an elder had announced a prize to anyone who killed the hamster and hurt Lan Long. Many elders were surprised that someone of them didn''t care for Tian Long, some expected a great show and were quite happy about it. In about a week, an inner court disciple made his way to the outer court and began to yell out for Lan Long. Soon, some others came and began to search for Lan Long as well. Although, Lan Long was infamous for his tardiness and his hamster, he was a nobody in the inner court and core region. Literally a few elder who kept a look out for Tian Long''s son knew him. No one was bothered with a weak and lazy person. Soon, the guy had found Lan Long and went straight to him in a hurry. According to the information, Lan Long was at mortal''s breath and the only mild threat was the hamster. He wanted to reach him as soon as possible and kill the hamster and claim the reward. The resources were sure to land him a spot in the core region and the blade would improve his strength even further. "Lan Long, had over the hamster and I will only break both your hands. Resist and I will cripple you for good." The disciple immediately said as he came closer to Lan Long. ''The fuck, what did I do?'' Lan Long thought and peeked through his hat. The man looked about 20 and was looking quite smug. "Ahem, elders please stop this mad man. He is being trying to rebel against the clan." Lan Long shouted at the top of his life. "Dammit. You are dead." The man yelled as the threw a punch at Lan Long. Before the punch reached Lan Long an elder appeared and restrained the disciple. Usually, the fights were encouraged between the younger generation to promote competition and the disciples fighting would never complain as it would be against their pride. All the fight would be prompted with the consent of all the parties involved and the elder would act only when the life was threatened. "Lan Long, fight me like a man." The disciple yelled. "Why behave like a fucking coward? Don''t you want to enter the inner court and learn more advanced techniques. Even your shitty rat would receive resource to cultivate." The disciple tried to bait Lan Long. "No." Lan Long said in a calm tone. "Elder, tried to assassinate me in order to get to my father. HE must be a spy from the enemy clans, please send him to the punishment Elder." Lan Long said to the elder in a scared voice which sounded completely fake. "You have made an attempt at a fellow disciple''s life. The punishment faction awaits." The elder immediately contacted the punishment elder in the vicinity. He had a look of disgust in his eyes and reluctantly handed the inner disciple to the elder. He was disgusted by Lan Long shamelessness as he used his father name for safety instead of even attempting to even fight. ''Tian Long, is indeed unfortunate to have such a son.'' Elder thought as he left the scene. The very next day, a punishment elder arrived in every cultivation area and reviewed the rules of the clan. This was meant to remind disciples that forced fight were not allowed. The rules to a challenge was simple. The disciple with higher cultivation cannot challenge the ones with lower permission without the consent of 3 elders. The challenges from the disciple with lower cultivation could not be avoided. The challenge from the same cultivation group could not be avoided. Basically, if disciple in the same cultivation realm and same level of cultivation challenges you, according to the clan rules the challenge cannot be rejected. If the challenger''s cultivation is in the same realm but higher level, the challenge could be rejected by an elder consent or the challenger must not use weapons or armor during the fight. If challenger''s cultivation is of a complete higher realm, then the challenge could be out right rejected. The only place where a challenge could be issued without any constrains was when the disciple signs the death battle certificate and it needs to be agreed upon by either five elders of different factions or by head elders of two factions. Once signed, the fighter cannot give up unless the victor decides not to take the opponent''s life. Of course, betting was allowed in all the battles except the death battles, because the victor has the right to all the possessions of the loser. This announcement deterred the disciples that were after Lan Long''s bounty. Though some disciples, tried to offer many gifts and huge bets, Lan Long was not moved by them even once. All the challengers were of higher level than Lan Long which was why he could easily reject all the oncoming challenges. The situation soon became a running gag to the outer court, every other day, a disciple would come and taunt Lan Long then proceed to bait him into a fight and finally leave cursing. Lan Long on other hand had simply shut off all his senses and enjoyed the felling of nature and he cultivated all the time. The resource provided to outer disciple were a joke to anyone of Ki sea realm, which was why Lan Long only relied on the formations to gather and absorb Ki. During the ten-year period, Lan Long always had to improve the formation to keep up with the rate at which his body absorbed Ki. He didn''t need any resources to cultivate, which was why Lan Long didn''t bother to apply for inner or core disciple exam. He was soon about to break into the Middle Ki sea realm. Usually when a cultivator tried to break through to a higher level, that person would usually gather a lot of resources in order to provide Ki far the breakthrough. A after they broke through to the Ki sea realm, the cultivator would often opt for a bunch of missions to acquire more resources for another break through. Lan Long would usually upgrade his formations and attempt the break throughs, his breakthroughs would usually last for about a week or so. Any normal cultivator only needed about a day for him to move the Ki about the required meridian of the technique. Every break through symbolize a bunch of new meridians being unlocked. A bottle neck occurred when a cultivator would fail to move his Ki about the new meridians or failed to acquire a new type of Ki which the technique required. This kind of bottle neck didn''t exist for Lan Long, his soul had provided perfect control over his Ki. His Ki wouldn''t even vibrate without his consent let alone move without control. This was another reason why, no was ever able to find his cultivation level. His ethereal Ki could not be sensed and even if it could be sensed, the person checking his would have to be at an impossibly high realm. The Ki sea formed by a cultivator represent his strength, large the Ki sea, greater the strength. Lan Long''s Ki sea was abnormally large, comparable to a peak ordinary Ki sea cultivator. The cultivators at this realm would usually have enough soul strength to be able to sense the nature. The cultivator with enough insight into the nature would be able to beckon it to the aid. The path of nature was extremely large and intangible, making it extremely hard to a tune with a particular type of element. When the cultivator had enough compatibility with the nature and the elements, it be easier for them to sense the elements. When the cultivator comprehends enough, the element would come to his aid. This was called the Dao. Lan Long didn''t have a particular affinity with anything, he was simply compatible with everything. His soul had comprehended enough for him to call upon any element with ease. The other benefit the Dao provides a cultivator was Ki and Ki provided would be of the element or type of Dao he had comprehended. This provided in huge boost to the cultivator during battle, where Ki was used for every movement and during cultivation the Ki would be abundant in his surroundings. In Bai Long''s residence, he was furious, he had killed the servant which had brought him the new of Lan Long''s wellbeing and his antiques. He was strolling his courtyard trying to calm his mind but he got further enraged every time he thought about his injured son. He finally could not take it as he grabbed the edge of a nearby house and chucked it towards the outer courtyard. The house had a few servants inside as he threw it. The house reached and impossible Hight as it flew towards the outer yard. Almost every cultivator was alerted due to the disturbance in Ki and the screams of the servant. Tian Long on other hand only sighed. He was confused as to how the brat had acquired the beast. He was frustrated as the heard some elder reported him about Lan Long shameless antiques. He was disappointed as his son didn''t bother to cultivate even a bit. He was happy that his son was still alive. He had asked the clan leader to give his son the Water dragon manual. The leader had agreed instantly as he wanted to encourage Tian Long to cultivate harder. If Tian Long could reach Heavenly Pellet realm, he could quietly hand him his position and concentrate on cultivation. ''Did I make a mistake when I warned him?'' The leader thought to himself with a sigh. Tian Long was to be released from the confinement soon and he will find out about the warning he gave to Lan Long. Whether Tian Long would be enraged or happy was up to luck. #comment-pls 8 Ch 8 First mission Inside the Bai residence, Jiang Long had woken up. He barely spoke and spent reading books. His maid that usually provide sexual relief could now be found freely roaming in the mansion. The healers had told Bai Long not to cultivate until the wound was completely healed. Bai Long grew frustrated as he saw this gloomy version of his son. He began to plot to kill Lan Long, he had hired a mortal pellet assassin and had him infiltrate Tian Long''s mansion. After a month of patience, assassin gave up on the mission. "Lord Bai, Lan Long is currently inside a formation and cannot be approached. Please, forgive me this time. If the child ever leaves the Clan territory, do inform me. I will immediately kill him." The assassin bowed and left. Although this assassin had failed, Bai Long couldn''t do anything to him. The organization that sent him was far too strong and extremely well hidden. If Bai Long killed this assassin, his clan might be put on the dreaded kill list of the organization. Last time this happened, a clan far stronger than Long clan slowly disappeared over the course of a few decades. This organization was called Golden Arrow and it was aptly named. As long as the person had the money, they could order Golden Arrow to anyone. Their success rate was frighteningly good. Golden arrow appeared on the west continent around 2 millennia ago and had had spread like wild fire. They had assassinated from Weak government officials to mighty cultivators. They didn''t have any problems killing babies or mortals. They only asked for a payment and the name of the target. The time they would ask varied from a week to a decade depending on the target. Soon, the target would be found dead and would have a part of his body and all his possession missing. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Tian Long could only wait it out as he was not able to do anything. "Father, I need to go out and experience the world. I am far too inexperienced." Jiang Long said with a firm look in his eyes. Bai Long could only sigh as he allowed his son to wander the world. "Son, remember not to leave the Long Territory and do not go close to the Shi territory. They have been causing troubles recently." Bai Long warned his son. Although he didn''t want his son to leave with his shattered spirit, Bai Long knew, if his son could overcome this hurdle his cultivation would become stronger and firm. "Yes father." Jiang Long sighed as he looked in the direction of Tian Long''s residence. ''Tian Long, you and your son will pay for all the pain you had caused. This, I promise.'' Bai Long thought with over flowing killing intent. Lan Long and his parent enjoyed the peaceful days. They would usually not interact with each other but once in a while, they would gather and have a meal together. A family made of cultivators was usually the same, they would usually spend all their time in cultivation rarely ever gathering together. A huge pressure suddenly emerged and startled Tian Long and Su Ren, the pressure originated from Lan Long''s room. Tian Long immediately spread his soul sense and scanned Lan Long''s room. The hamster had a break through and was finally at Ki Sea realm. The hamster''s soul was nowhere near as strong as Lan Long, Ki vibrations could not be controlled and the Pressure of ethereal Ki was immense. Tian Long and Su Ren realized that he cute hamster was far strong than an ordinary divine beast. They weren''t able to come to terms with how Lan Long had seeming found his beast in his courtyard. A few months passed in a blink of an eye, Lan Long also gained some improvements. He was now at peak of Mid Ki sea. Lan Long had never tested his strength against any one, which was he didn''t know the extent of it. Nature''s Way didn''t explain the difference between strength levels, it only provided that technique and basically told the cultivator to let thing flow naturally. Yes, the creator of the technique was an obnoxious as hell. Lan Long would often look at the horizon during sun set. He was ready to leave his house and go adventure outside. He had once bought it up with his mother and was immediately shot down. He didn''t even get a chance to argue. Dejected he went back to cultivate and spent his time to redesign his formations. He had seen the formation covering his house and was inspired. He was able to design a defensive formation and incorporated it with the Ki gathering formation inside his body. He also did the same to Little Kong. Little Kong''s fur grew even softer and luxurious after his breakthrough. His mother and some maids were often found playing with the hamster. Soon, another few months passed and Lan Long immediately asked for his father. "Father, I want to go out and adventure." Lan Long asked his father. "Son, the world outside is cruel and merciless. The strong would prey on the weak. There is often no mercy shown to the weak. Are you certain that you want to leave?" Tian ended his warning with a question. "Yes, father." Lan Long replied firmly. "Also, can I have a few movement arts and escaping arts. A few fist arts would help as well." Lan Long asked his father with a slightly red face. Tian Long almost flew into a rage, then he realized that his son is an utter monster and didn''t feel the need for any outer court arts. Tian Long sighed and produced a few martial arts manuals and handed then to Lan Long. "Keep these manuals safe." Said as he handed a few books to Lan Long. "Don''t worry father. I will return these in a moment." Lan Long said as he began to flip through those manuals. Lan Long didn''t need to carry the manuals. If he read those once, he would remember the contents completely. In about a minute, Lan Long handed back the manuals. Tian Long was numb to Lan Long''s antiques at this point and didn''t even think twice before taking back the manuals. "Lan Long, remember this. I do not ask you to be the best. I ask you to be good at your interest. If you ever walk down the path of slaughter, make blood flow like a river and paint the sky red. If you walk the of saint, be the kindest saint to ever exist. Be decisive and wise. Now, go meet your mother before you leave." Tian Long said as he returned to his cultivation room. Lan Long made his way to his mother. Su Ren was usually, engaged in gardening or cultivation. She was currently in her yard tending to some herbs. Lan Long approached and sat on the steps leading to her yard, he was looking at his mother as she was tending to her garden. Su Ren had a light smile on her face and she was humming a light tune. The whole scene was beautiful. ''If somebody ever hurts her, I promise, I will turn the earth upside and kill everyone related to the perpetrator.'' Lan Long promised to himself. In his previous life, his mother had passed away at a young age. Even when she was alive, she was always immersed in her business life and seldom visited him. This life was different, his current mother had showed the love and took care of him. Lan Long also grew to love her, despite his mental age. "Mother, I am leaving." Lan Long said as his mother was washing her hands, finished with her gardening. She immediately looked at him and frowned. "Did your father allow this?" Su Ren asked with a haunting smile. She even had a wisp ok killing intent in her eyes. "Yes. Mother please allow me to go. I really want to experience the world." Lan Long said as he grabbed her mother''s hands. "Lan Long, I will not stop you today. Remember that no matter what happens your mother will have your back on it. Remember to keep yourself safe, nothing is more important than your life." Su Ren said as she caressed Lan Long''s face. "Yes mother. I will be careful." Lan Long replied with a smile. "Remember, do not trust anyone easily. Also, remember to eat properly. Don''t tire yourself too much. Do you want a flying mount? They are much faster." Su Ren continued for about an hour before stopping. She had a frown on her face as she walked towards the entrance to her courtyard. Lan Long hugged her for a final time before leaving and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Mother, don''t worry. I will be fine." Lan Long said reassuringly as he turned and walked away from his home. ''Let''s see where to stop next.'' Lan Long had memorized the entire map available to his clan. Although, it didn''t cover the entire Chu kingdom, it covered almost more than half of it. Lan Long decided to wander around Long territory first before heading towards other territories. The adjacent territories include Shi territory, Fire school territory and Ming territory. Long clan was allied with Fire school and Ming Clan was neutral entity. Shi clan on the other hand was hostile towards Long clan. To the North of the clan territory was Beast mountain range. It was 100 million kilometers long and was governed by no one. Everyone on the west Continent knew it was full of resources and one of the best training ground for disciples. It was infested with all kinds of beasts and was extremely dangerous even to Celestial realm cultivators at its core region. Although, outer region contained loads of beasts they were of relatively low realm. Lan Long had great interest in journeying to Beast mountain. In order to reach the beast mountain range one had to journey along the borders of Shi territory. This was the fastest route; the other route was to pass through the Ming clan but this was far too long for a detour. Lan Long decide to take shorter route and skirt along the Shi territory. The departure of Lan Long was extremely secretive as Tian Long didn''t want anyone to know of his son where about. Lan Long decided to go on foot as this was the fastest way to travel available to him. He could always ride Little Kong but decided against it. The sheer ridiculousness of the idea, the image of him riding a huge fluffy hamster was far to hilarious. Lan Long had also take a low rank mission under the alias of Lazy Immortal. The mission was to aid in collection of moon spirit grass. The mission was issued by a family of herb collectors of Green Village. Green village was situated 5000 kilometers away from the beast mountain and the mission was always available. The family would wait for the cultivator to arrive and depart when a suitable party was formed. Lan Long folded the mission pamphlet and put it away in his pouch. He then took a long breath and started to run. Little Kong was sleeping inside his sleeve, comfortable as ever. 9 Ch 9 Journey begins The first day was uneventful as Lan Long ran for an entire day as he covered a distance of 10,000 kilometers. He stopped in a forest and lied on Little Kong''s enlarged body. Xiao Kong was truly the epitome of all things fluffy. The hamster tried to resist but was bribed by a fruit. Lan Long rested for a night and continued for another week. This had frustrated Lan Long to the point where he had finally given in to the idea of riding Little Kong. Although, Little Kong had a lower cultivation, his beast physique granted him near unlimited stamina and speed. Little Kong was just as fast when running. This continued for another 3 days. As the fourth day began, Lan Long encountered a party of girls that were being robbed. Although, this was happening about 10 kilometers away, form his route Lan Long was able to sense them. He had felt violent Ki vibrations and immediately spread his soul sense, encountering the scene. A sword light shined as it cut through the wall of fire. The goons trying to rob the ladies were about 40 in number and each of them was at either mid Ki condensing or late Ki condensing realm. The leader was at Peak of Ki condensing realm. He was quite famous around this area as he had robbed countless cultivators and raped quite a few beauties. He had evaded many encounters with higher realm martial artists due to his speed and ability to hide his aura completely. The sword light earlier was sent by the strongest female of the group. Although she was only at late Ki condensing realm, she was combat abilities of peak Ki condensing. The ladies were eight in number and belonged to Fire School. "Leave us be and we will not alert elders of our school." Another lady tried to calm the situation. The leader laughed fiercely as he twirled his sword at the group of ladies. "Ladies please. None of you will leave this area. Why bother with empty threats. The only thing that can save you would be, if every one of you accompanied us brothers for a month. We promise to treat you all gently." The leader licked his lips as the said the last part. He was gazing lustfully at the group of ladies. "Sister let us fight to the death, we will not be tainted by these foul vermin." A girl said with determination as her eyes turned red. "No, we will survive. Don''t give up hope. We can beat these men and complete the mission." Another girl tried to raise the morale of the group. The robber snickered as they attacked at the same time. Their attacks were not strong at all, they were aimed to exhaust the Ki reserves of the girl. Although, the ladies were all strong they were only eight of them. They couldn''t compete in a war of attrition. Their leader was already exhausted, as she had single handedly killed off 5 men. The other girls tried to get into a formation and break out of this encirclement. The leader of bandits was looking at the group of exhausted girls with red eyes. He was determined that he would devour them one by one and pas them off to his brother to be played with till their death. The 2 men who died were his friends and they had started the gang together. Now, only he survived and he was going to slowly torture these girls to avenge his fallen brothers. "Control your attacks, don''t hurt them." The leader yelled. The girls now had a look of hopelessness in their eyes. "Sister lest explode our cultivation and kill ourselves. I would rather die without od corpse than to be sullied by these dirty bastards." A girl yelled as her eyes flickered with madness. "Men, attack with restraint and cripple their dantians. Hurry assholes, they are about to kill themselves." All the goons began to gather their Ki as they prepared a decisive attack. Girl screamed as they didn''t even have time to gather their Ki, they could only defend against the oncoming barrage of attacks. BOOM. . . BOOM. . . BOOM. . . Three explosions were heard, the girls looked at the source to find three goons that were crushed under a 50-meter-tall beast. The beast then swiped his hand and ended another 10 lives. Within a second the 40-man bandit group was reduced to a 3-man group. All other were killed, some were crushed under the beast foot and others were turned to a bloody pool of entrails and bones by the beast''s attack. "fuck, where did this monster come from?" The leader yelled as he turned and sprang away. Before the leader could even land the beast had caught him in his hand. The other 2 goons were immediately killed with a sweep of other hand. The girls were extremely terrified, they had gotten out of one horrible situation to another. They felt reassured that at least, they would be killed with extreme prejudice under the beast''s attack. The beast opened his hand slightly exposing the leader dantian and crippled his cultivation. The leader tried to keep the Ki he had painfully cultivated inside his dantian but it was seeped away in mere moments. All his hard work, his 50 years of cultivation was gone in an instant. The leader yelled and screamed, he couldn''t even kill himself. If a body cultivator had his dantian destroyed, he would still retain his strong body, this could not be said for Ki cultivators. "Your fate will be decided by those girls." An extremely charming voice spread out. Th girl who were prepared to death fell to their knees as they cried and hugged each other. They were saved by a strong cultivator. The beast then threw the leader in front of the girls and began to shrink to a 10-meter-tall hamster. The girls were surprised, they had never expected the beast to be a cute and fluffy hamster. It big eyes and soft fur looked extremely cute. The fear they had towards the beast had almost disappeared. On the beast, there was a man who was leisurely lying down on the beast''s back with his face covered with a bamboo hat. The girls look at the man in front of them. Their killing intent rose to the sky, this man had tried to sully them and drove them to the point of suicide. The despair they felt would accompany them for the rest of their lives. The leader of the group looked at all the girls and decisively beheaded the man. "Senior, we will remember this grace for the rest of our lives. If senior desires something, please do not hesitate to ask. As long as it is within our capability, we do it without frowning." The leader said with a deep bow. "Okay then please gather all the valuable from the corpses and hand them to me." Lan Long instantly ordered. The girls were startled as they scurried to gather all the storage sacks and weapons off the dead bodies. The leader even had a storage ring. These rings had a separate space inside them. The size of the space depended on the quality of the ring. The girls soon gathered and handed the items to Lan Long. "Senior these are all the items we found." The girl respectfully presented everything to Lan Long. Lan Long immediately grabbed the ring and sent his Ki into it. He discovered a huge pile of gold and silver along with some cultivation manuals and weapons. The space was about 6 cubic meters and was only filled about a quarter of its capacity. Lan Long immediately waved his hand sucked the remaining pouches and weapons into the ring. "What is your age?" Lan Long asked the girl. He was getting tired over all of them calling his a senior. "Su Ming will turn 16 this year." Su Ming replied with a light blush. "Don''t call me a senior. I am younger than you." Lan Long hmphed and sat down on the hamster''s back. He then pulled his bamboo hat into the ring revealing his face to the girls. The girls all gasped as they didn''t expect the owner of such a powerful beast to be a boy younger than themselves. They all had admiring looks in their eyes. "Where were you all headed?" Lan Long asked. "We are headed to Green village for a mission?" Su Ming replied. "Oh. I am headed there as well. Shall we journey together?" Lan Long Immediately proposed. "We will be grateful to accompany brother . . ." She stopped with an inquisitive look on her face. "Just call me La... Lazy" Lan Long said with a pause. His father had instructed him not to throw around his name. "Brother Lazy, we would be grateful." Su Ming said with a weird look. She immediately realized that this was not the man''s name. But did he have to had chosen such a weird alias. "Ok, hop on we will stop at Salamander City on the way. The detour is not much and I heard that the city is extremely well off and beautiful." Lan Long suggested. The girl pondered a while and curtly nodded. "Hop on then." Lan Long said as he tapped Little Kong on the headed. With a squeak, he grew to 20 meters in length. The girls were baffled at the beast ability to grow with causing a disturbance in Ki. Soon the climbed up and gathered behind Lan Long''s back. Some of the girls that were at the back were touching Little Kong''s fur and sighing. The fur was really too soft. Little Kong looked like a small hill from afar. The hamster began to move at the same speed as before, the girls expected fast winds to hit them so they had all erected a Ki barrier around their bodies. Instead of a blast of air, they were greeted with the same gentle breeze when they hadn''t moved. Soon, the girls dissolved their Ki barrier and relaxed. They realized that Lan Long was a good guy because if wished to harm them, they were no even qualified to resist. After a few minutes, Lan Long lied down again and put the bamboo hat on his face. "Lady Ming, are you from the Ming clan?" Lan Long asked to break the silence. It had become too uncomfortable in a matter of minutes. "I am indeed from Ming clan. The Fire School accepts everyone with a decent talent. There are even some members of Long Clan and many cultivators from ordinary origins." Su Ming explained as she had to do repeat the same explanation every time she introduced herself. "Oh." Lan Long said as he began to cultivate. The girls at the back had lied down as well. The time passed as they quietly traveled and soon the sun had set. Lan Long jumped off Little Kong and the girls soon followed. Little Kong immediately turned into the same palm sized hamster as always and landed in Lan Long''s hand. The girls watched wide eyes as the huge Hamster was sitting comfortably in Lan Long''s palm. Little Kong was sniffed the air and ran away. Lan Long on the on the hand had a few sheets in his hand as he made himself a neat looking bed. Girls also settled down nearby. Soon, Little Kong returned with a handful of fruits which he threw beside Lan Long and returned to original sized before he began to chew on a berry. The girls were intently watching him eat as some of them giggled and awed at the spectacle. Lan also grabbed a fruit and took a bite, although the taste was good, it was nowhere near delicious as fruits from his mother''s garden. "You guys can have some as well." Lan Long said as he turned the other way. The youngest girl of the group, immediately came closer and tool a single small berry and brought it near Little Kong''s mouth. He immediately opened his mount and swallowed the berry whole. The yelped lightly as she picked another berry and fed it to Little Kong. She finally gathered enough courage and petted him on his head. The hamster immediately let out a little squeak and jumped into the girls lap and continued to eat the berries. Soon other girls gathered around Little Kong and began to play with the hamster. This continued for about an hour before Lan Long coughed and ended their fun. The sun rose and so did everyone. They group had mounted Little Kong again and continued their journey. The hamster would sometime stop at a tree and devour all it fruits before continuing again. The continued their journey peacefully as all the monster and bandits stayed clear of the hill sized beast moving at such a speed. Stopping them would spell nothing but trouble. Soon, a month had passed along their journey. As they got closer to the Salamander city, they encountered more cultivator''s. Some cultivators completely ignored the group while some cultivators tried to stop them. All those that tried to stop Lan Long were either killed or robbed completely of their belongings. Lan Long had grown warmer to the girls and they were very friendly with the group. They had all shared a few laughs and fruit wines with each other. They only about ten days away from Salamander city, suddenly skies turned a shade of purple and sounds of thunder were heard. The heavens were send a tribulation for someone or something. This only happened when a cultivator was undergoing the tribulation or when a treasure descended from the heavens. "Looks like a treasure descended." Lan Long mused. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Brother Lazy, are you sure? If a treasure really descended this area would soon be littered with cultivators. We should leave immediately." Su Ming said with a frown. "Little Kong head that way full speed." Lan Long said and the hamster changed his direction towards the location of the treasure. Su Ming only sighed as she sat back down. After an hour, they arrived at a crater which was almost ten kilometers in diameter and about 200 meters deep. Lan Long immediately jumped into the crater and came back within 5 minutes. Within his hand was a Dark blue staff. It was 3 meters tall and 8 centimeters in diameter. It was a High heaven treasure. The treasures were usually classified into 4 categories; Mortal, Earth, Heaven and Celestial grade. They were further classified into Low, Mid, High and Top. The staff in Lan Long hand could even tempt a few Core Cultivators while everyone below would be thrown into a greedy fit. Lan Long himself didn''t use any weapons as he preferred to fight bare handed. His father was a sword user while his mother was an archer. Little Kong looked the staff with wide and was jumped up and down. He wanted the staff, something about the staff felt right to Little Kong. Lan Long laughed and handed the hamster the staff. The staff was almost thirty times bigger than Little Kong. The hamster then sent his Ki into the staff and dropped a drop of blood on it. The staff grew smaller and it soon turned to the size of a tooth pick. Little Kong twirled the staff and played around with it. On the other hand, all the girls were shocked out of the minds. Lan Long had given such an amazing treasure to his beast. No one would be generous or foolish enough to do what Lan Long had just done. "Little Kong enough playing around, we need to leave immediately." Lan Long said as he threw a Mid mortal staff into the crater. He had done this to avoid suspicion and to derail anyone that came later. The staff soon disappeared into Little Kong''s body as he grew to a huge size. They left at full speed as soon as everyone got on. 10 Ch 10 Commotion in the fores The Salamander city is well known for its beauty and peace. There was a rich Ki stone deposit below the city. The deposit was later discovered and mined by Long clan. This had played a huge role during the initial years of the development of the clan. The first patriarch of the Long Clan had used this rich Ki stone deposit to make a breakthrough to the Heavenly pellet realm and establish the clan where it was now located. Shen house was located in Salamander city, governing it as the natural peace keeper. This was another sect within the Long clan. The Long clan was comprised of many minor sects and five major sects. The major sects were Right Wing sect, Left Wing sect, Talon sect, Shen sect and Fire Sect. At this time, the Left-Wing sect and the Right-Wing sect were under a major rivalry. The Great elders of each sect had proposed a genius to leader the Clan for a century. The proposed candidate had to be aged less than 50 and would need to pass the trial. Jiang Long was currently residing at Shen Sect''s guest quarters. He had journeyed for months and fought many battles. A few of which had almost claimed his life. He had developed a vicious killing intent and practiced the most brutal form of Ki arts. He had been suppressing his anger over Lan Long all the time after he had been humiliated by him. In one of the battles he had faced a similar situation and was thrown over the brink of despair and madness. Some things in his mind finally broke, he suddenly gained a type of killing intent. This killing intent was called Ashura''s gaze. It''s was capable enough to render cultivators of the completely frozen for an instant if the cultivators mind wasn''t strong. Weaker cultivator would feel their Ki in frenzied state or even face Ki deviation, instantly killing them. Stronger cultivator would feel their reaction slowed or senses being muddled. It was an extremely useful tool for killing and had great value in battles. Jiang Long had also discovered that his Ki flow was much smother when Ki had activated his intent. Due to his gains over the course of his journey, Jiang long had amassed quite a few treasures and exchanged them for better weapon. He even broke through to the Late Ki condensing realm and become far stronger than at the time of humiliation. His new mind set had let those bottled feeling free and they soon turned into unyielding rage. "Brother Jiang come quickly, the elder has summoned everyone of younger generation." A disciple yelled as he left in a hurry. Jiang Long got up hand headed to the main hall. Soon, about a hundred young cultivators had gathered and were awaiting instructions. Soon, long bearded old man came and tapped his cane on the ground silencing everyone. "The heavens have sent down a tribulation 10 days away in the south. It is most likely a treasure has appeared. It would be quite a favorable task for any youngster to acquire that treasure for the clan." The old man then stood silently and looked at all the youngsters with a piercing gaze. "Although, the treasure may not be suitable for man that acquired it, it can be exchanged to contribution points or a new weapon suitable to that man. Many minor clans will be competing for that treasure and the major clans would also send their disciples to compete for it. Do not let down your clan, do not lose face for your ancestors, fight fairly and acquire that treasure." The old man said in a loud voice and he struck the ground with his cane. The cane emitted a blinding light towards the sky and roars of disciple could be heard about five kilometers away. All the youngsters were pumped, their blood was boiling for a battle. Soon, the youngsters left and headed straight to look for the treasure. The Ming''s clans compound had a similar atmosphere and so did the Fire school compound. These were outpost of the Ming clan and Fire school territory, these were set up to monitor the change happening throughout the region. Almost every big Clan or Sect would have a compound or a training area in neighboring territories. Shi Clan on other hand was in an entirely different mood. They were hostile towards the Long Clan and the treasure had appeared in their territory. This had angered many elders of Shi Clan. Some even suggested that they infiltrate the Long territory and acquire the treasure. "Those lizard bastards sure have decent luck. Next time I see any of their disciples, I will slaughter them all regardless of Superiority." An elder yelled as he slapped his palm on the table. "No leys disguise some core disciples and send them along with inner disciples. If they are killed by one of the elders of the Long clan, we can immediately go to war and crush them. After all they don''t know that we are being supported by a minor royal house." Another elder said in a sinister tone. "Great. Do just that. Let''s see how they react." An elder said as he sent some servants to the core region to get some of the core disciples. Soon, a legion of students was gathered and sent into Long territory. The purple clouds often represented an opportunity, an opportunity to rise above your peers. The opportunities often were accompanied with risks. In some weaker regions, the purple clouds represented a calamity and death. The clouds in these regions were called blood clouds. The name was given by a weak cultivator who had journey to one of these locations and found the entire ground littered with bodies and the soil was dyed red. The survivors of these large-scale battles were often known to reach great heights and have better mentality than their peers. The cultivator who participated in such battles either emerged stronger or perished all together. Clan allowed their young cultivators to participate in such bloods because they wanted their next generation to sharp and decisive. As the cultivator of all groups rushed towards the location of the tribulation site, Lan Long and the girls were headed away from it. The hamster travelled at an extreme speed for five days straight as they stopped for some rest. During the journey, Lan Long had his soul sense activated all the time. He had discovered a large group of cultivators and told Little Kong to change direction to avoid any detection. Little Kong had to travel at double his usual speed which was why they had stopped for a day''s rest. The stop at which they stopped was about an hour away from a settlement, the maximum cultivation was of mid Ki condensing realm. "Su Ming, there is a settlement ahead. We can go there and rest for a night before heading to Salamander city." Lan Long suggested. "Okay, but wouldn''t we be discovered?" Su Ming questioned. She was still worried about the pursuit of many strong cultivators. "It''s okay. If we don''t need to be worried about such a thing at such a place." Lan Long said as he picked Little Kong and stuffed him in his sleeve. The group soon reached the settlement and were greeted with an assortment of looks. The girls were being admired while Lan Long was being suspected of lechery. Su Ming stopped a young man. "Brother, we are tired from a long journey. We all would be grateful, if you could guide us to a place to stay." Su Ming said as she offered the man a piece of gold. The man''s eyes brightened as he looked at the gold and politely lead the group away. "Grandma, Grandma. We have some guests." The young man shouted at the house. The went and banged at the door. An elderly lady came out of the house holding a walking stick. "Grandma, look these people are tired from a long journey. Can we let them stay at our back house? Please." The young man went closer and held the old ladies hand. "What did they offer you?" Old Lady asked the young man. "A piece of gold." He man said with a red face. The old lady sighed and waved at the group. She then led the group to a small house at the edge of her courtyard. She then opened the door and left. Before leaving she looked intently at Lan Long for a few seconds and left. Lan Long on other hand was startled as he felt an immense soul sense wash over him. He immediately looked at the retreating figure of the lady. The old woman stopped and turned her head towards him, she had a wise smile on her face. "Lady, this house hasn''t been cleaned in years. How. . ." one of the girls immediately began to throw a fit but before she could complete her sentence. Lan Long had firmly placed his hand over her mouth. "Which is why we can clean it ourselves." Lan Long continued in her place. The old lady let out a laugh as she turned and left. "Brother Lazy, why did you do that. Even said we would clean the house our self." Su Ming asked as he removed his hand from the lady''s mouth. "That lady is a cultivator and a monstrously strong one at that." Lan Long said in a low voice. "What level did she reach? I couldn''t even feel her Ki." Su Ming asked. "At least a peak Heavenly pellet or a Core cultivator." Lan Long answered as he let out a sigh. This was the first-time Lan Long was facing such a strong cultivator. The Old Lady was strong enough to kill him, with a fart aimed at his general direction. "We should escape." Su Ming said in a low voice. She was feeling very depressed. This journey was full of one life threatening situation to another. "No need. If she had wanted to kill us, she could have done it by now and we wouldn''t even have had to even realized that we were dead." Lan Long said calmly. Soon, they tidied up the rooms and relaxed on the beds available. Lan Long on the other hand, didn''t dare relax his senses but he was too afraid to search with his soul sense. He concentrated on his senses instead. After a while, he found a strange area where wind parted and couldn''t flow through this area. This was located in the yard outside the house provided by the old lady. Lan Long got up and went straight to her location stood behind her. She was looking at the stars. "Child, you have a very peculiar Ki and so does your rat." She said without looking at Lan Long. "It is from the technique I practice, senior." Lan Long said politely. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Oh, What a strange technique. Mind telling this old lady the name of the technique you practice." Old lady finally turned and looked at Lan Long. There was a smile on her face. "Senior, I practice the Nature''s Way." Lan Long answered truthfully. "Mm, it truly is a mysterious technique. No wonder, I wasn''t able to recognize it." The old Lady mused. "By the way, how is that old lizard?" She asked Lan Long. Lan Long was perplexed, he did not any old person or an elder in the clan that went by this name. "Senior, forgive this junior. I do not know anyone of such a name." Lan Long replied, politely. "Hmm, call that rat out. I want to look at it." The lady asked. "Senior, this is Little Kong. He is my pet hamster." Lan Long replied, fished out Little Kong out of his sleeve and kept it in his on his palm as he went closer to the old lady. "What a peculiar beast, it has the potential of a Violet spirit rat." The old lady said as she handed Little Kong a dry fruit. Little Kong immediately chomped into it and began to eat. Old lady was surprised to see such a cute side to an otherwise fierce beast. She petted the hamster''s head and handed him another fruit. "Senior, what is a Violet spirit rat?" Lan Long questioned. He had never heard of such a beast before. "It''s a celestial beast with a purple fur and has incredible potential. They could with a hundred percent certainty pass the celestial tribulation." The Lady explained. "Where did you find him?" The lady asked. She knew that these existed only inside the core region of beast mountain and a few were either inside desolate forest or the grave mountains. "I found in my back yard." Lan Long said with a red face. "How? I know you are telling the truth but still, this is just hard to believe." The lady lost her composure for a while but quickly regained her calm face. "Hmm, if you ever meet Yi Long tell this in the exact words ''Old flower still stomps on your lizard tail'' hahaha. Leave whenever but do not disturb me unnecessarily, also there is a hot spring 100 kilometers towards the East in an underground cave. It''s good for cultivation, do go there and be careful of beasts." The old lady said as she disappeared into thin air. Lan Long returned to his room and soon fell asleep. (Do comment, if you find the story interesting or boring.) 11 Ch 11 Tense Situation Lan Long and the girls woke up with the sun and met outside the house. After a quick hello, they all soon headed for the village. The young man that had escorted them was ecstatic, apparently, a mighty cultivator was about to give sermon on cultivation and all the villagers were invited. This was a great opportunity w the villagers to get introduced to the world of cultivation. All the youngsters and children were gathered at the village chief''s house. A platform was created especially for the cultivator stand on. "Brother, who is about to preach?" Lan Long asked a young man. Lan Long had no idea who was about to preach to such a crowd. "He is a cultivator from Salamander city, he had apparently originated from this village 200 years ago," the young man introduced enthusiastically. Lan Long, was who was originally uninterested was also affixed to the spot on the ground. This may also be a major power of the salamander city, Lan Long slightly raised his expectation. The old lady''s cultivation surprising and this so called mighty cultivator may also be a pleasant surprise. After all, not every mind less murderer would make such an elaborate ruse just to fool a couple of village hicks. "Fellow villager and guest''s, I humbly welcome to the lecture by Senior. He was also once a villager like us, but he blazed through the mortal world and finally rose amongst the ranks of absolute legends." The village chief introduced the Senior. Soon an old man came out of the dwelling of the village chief. He had a long white beard and walked using a stick. He had a smile on his face as he looked at the younger generation of his village. Lan Long, on the other hand was disappointed to the extreme. The old man was at the peak of Ki condensing, and going by his age he would not have another breakthrough in his life time. Lan Long, however stuck around none the less, he was expecting to get at least some information about Salamander City. "Have you ever seen a mountain so tall, you couldn''t even see its peak. Did you ever wonder about the strength of the lightning? The heat of the fire that could not be extinguished. The immensity of sky and the heavens beyond them." The Old man stopped as he looked up to the sky. The crowd was instantly drawn into the lecture, the younger generation''s eyes were now burning with passion and desire. "All those wonders are experienced by strong cultivators on a daily basis. The cultivators would look at an indominable peak and immediately build their castle on it. They would see the ever-burning flame and immediately acquire it. They would challenge the lightning as it tore through the sky. The lives of cultivator are as exciting as they are dangerous." "Cultivation however, is a very tiring and time consuming task. There would be constant battle over cultivation resources and treasures. Even during calm Ki cultivation, the cultivator may suffer a Ki deviation. The silver lining would only be the result of success, if you successfully cultivate Ki, your strength will rise. If you are successful in battle, your riches would increase and so would your speed of cultivation. After a period on endless trials and battle, all those years of cultivation, they may just reward you with enough power to rise to the level of major powers, each one of those capable of flying and flipping a tall mountain with a single hand." The old man took another pause, he then looked at his audience. He was satisfied that no youngster was dissuaded. He continued. "The strength of a cultivator is often a very vague subject. A genius of the generation would usually have the strength to fight a few levels ahead of him while an ordinary cultivator may be hard pressed to even fight his peers. However, the general strengths of cultivators are as follows." "An early Ki gathering cultivator would usually have strength of about 500 kilos. While the mid-level expert of this realm would have strength of about a 1000 kilos. Followed by 2000 at the late stage and 4000 kilos at peak of Ki gathering realm. These numbers are only applicable to body cultivators only. The Ki cultivator would have a strength of about four fifth of the said numbers. At this realm of cultivation, as the name would imply, cultivator would have to gather Ki in his surrounding and refine it into his own" "Now, the strength of an early Ki condensing realm cultivator would be about 8000 Kilos. The mid-level represents a strength of about 12,000 kilos. The late level and peaks level would usually be accompanied by 18,000 and 25,000 kilos of strength. This level heavily relies of a cultivator to refine his Ki to a liquid state." "The following realm is called Ki sea realm. At this stage, the cultivator refines his Ki to highly pure stage while a sea made of Ki would be formed in his Dantian. The Early Ki sea realm cultivator, would have a strength of about 40,000 kilos. This would be followed by 60,000 kilos at the mid-level, 85,000 at late-level and 120 thousand kilos at the peak. There would be two sorts of cultivator at this level, the cultivator who had sensed the Dao and the once that are weak comparatively. The Dao would bring the blessing of the nature along with it as the cultivator would experience greater amount of Ki gathering around them and helping then during their cultivation and battles." "It is usually at this stage, the level of your cultivation technique shines, the greater technique would allow the cultivator purer Ki which would assist them during the mortal tribulation. The purer the Ki, more the ease would be when the cultivator attempts for realize the Dao. The tribulation would descend on a Peak Ki cultivator in a decade regardless of his Ki saturation level or insight into the Dao. The tribulation may also descend as soon as the Ki saturates. This is also the reason why expert choose to stay at Late stage for a long time, either to stall the tribulation or to gain further insights into the Dao." "The strength of a mortal cultivators is as follows. 150 thousand kilos at the early stage, 200,000 kilos at mid-level, 300,000 kilos at late followed by 500,000 kilos at the peak. These number although are great, mortal core cultivator would usually have Daos that would help them along their battles. If you fight a cultivator whose Dao is perfectly opposed to yours''s, you would be defeated despite having greater strength." "Earth pellet realm is the realm that follow next. Another tribulation would descend as the pellet upgrades. The strength of an earth Pellet is as follows, 800,000 kilos at early-level, 1.2 million kilos. 1.5 million kilos at the mid-level, followed by 2 million kilos and 3 million kilos at mid-level and peak-level. Another tribulation would descend soon as the pellet under goes another upgrade. The heavenly pellet realm is accompanied by these strengths. 5 million at the early stage followed by 8 million, 12 million and final 18 million kilos from mid to peak levels." "Although these numbers, great deal of strength, the cultivator however are restricted to strength lower than the specified strength. This is mostly due to impurities in their Ki and level of the cultivation technique. The disparity is mostly covered by the Daos but the weapon and armors of the cultivator would also play a huge deal in increasing his strength. The base strength of a cultivator may vary from time to time, if a cultivator only cultivates his speed his strength would be lacking and vice versa." "This is all the information, I know about the greater realms. Cultivate hard achieve these strengths, then hurling mountains at enemies would be as easy as breathing. Soon, an elder from Salamander city would be coming to choose some talents in the younger generation, so don''t slack off." The old man yelled at the end left the stage. The girls looked at each other with wry smiles and Lan Long also had a frown on his face. This lecture was an absolute garbage, complete waste of time. Other than getting a few facts wrong, the old man didn''t even introduce the concepts of elemental Ki and the soul strength. He didn''t even mention the type of tribulation that would descend at pellet realms. Damn, they didn''t even get a single news about the Salamander city. "Fuck off with this shit. Little Kong go drag that man out." Lan Long said in frustration and waited for Little Kong to scurry along and bring the old man. Of course, Little Kong had shut off all his senses and sleeping quietly in Lan Long''s sleeve. "You Little." Lan Long said as he immediately grabbed and threw the hamster at the village chief''s house. Su Ming who was laughing at Lan Long''s fit immediately yelped as he caught Little Kong in midair. The hamster who was sleeping quietly was now startled as he found himself flying at a building but before Little Kong could he was caught safely by Su Ming. "Brother Lazy, please don''t take it out on Little Kong." Su Ming as she gently rubbed Little Kong''s head. "Brother Lazy, you are just a bully." "Brother Lazy, what did Little Kong ever do to you." "Come here Little Kong have a fruit." The girl immediately sided with the cute hamster as the took out their frustrations on Lan Long. "You ungrateful girls, you dare treat your bifactor this way?" Lan Long said in a low voice trying to get one over the girls. "We remember that it was Little Kong that had saved us." A girl said almost immediately. "Yes, how dare you take advantage of Little Kong. You heartless thug." Another girl immediately said as the girls petted Little Kong. "You guy." Lan Long said as he started walking in the direction of the spring. Lan Long was back to his calm self in a matter of minute but he was soon kicked of Little Kong''s back and was forced to run alongside Little Kong. Lan Long cursed out loud at the rather smug looking hamster. They soon reached the cave and entered it. The cave was radiating with warmth and was filled with hot Ki. This type of Ki was neutral as it could be used to rinse their existing Ki of impurities. Lan Long took a huge breath as he loosened his robe exposing his chest and upper stomach. The girls immediately blushed as they looked away. Lan Long didn''t keep a close look on the girls and still had not realized their reaction. As he took another step towards the pond, a light shined as a wall was formed extending from Lan Long''s location to the other end of the spring, effectively creating a screen. Lan Long pointed towards the bigger side and continued to walk towards his side of the spring. "We will stay for a day or at most a week. Cultivate well." Lan Long''s voice sounded as the girls eventually heard a splash at the end of his words. "Brother Lazy really does have a nice body." A girl mentioned in a low voice. The girls soon got undressed as they immersed themselves into the spring and circulated their Ki. The impurities soon were being expelled into the water and being burned away by the heat. The cultivation of this type would usually last about a few days to a week at most. Lan Long on the other hand didn''t expel any impurities as there were none to expel. His Ki had purified his body to the extreme, the only purpose this spring served was to relax his body. He had never travelled this far from home in either of his life times. Lan Long relaxed his body and mind as he drifted in spring water. The day had finally passed and the cultivator all the major and minor factions had restored to their best battle conditions. The stronger of the cultivators took the lead as they lead others to the crater. "Those Shi clan bastards are here as well. Let''s wreck them." A cultivator of Long Clan yelled loudly. "Fucking, Long clan dares to oppress us. Kill them all brothers." A voice sounded from Shi Clan cultivators. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Fellow Martial artists, we should keep the blood count to a minimum." A cultivator from Ming Clan said with a rather sinister smile. "The treasure will definitely be ours." A tall man from the Fire school said in a loud voice. The cultivator from the minor clan didn''t announce their intentions but their goal was clear. The leaders from the great clans immediately threw a yellow slip of paper at the staff in the middle of the crater. This was a sealing formation that would last a day and couldn''t be opened without a mortal pellet realm expert. KILL. . . KILL. . .KILL. . . A crazed battle cry was heard, as the cultivator immediately rushed towards the crater. As soon as the first two opposing cultivators met, explosions took place that sounded if thunder from afar. The Shi clan numbered in many as opposed to other clans but their quality was inferior to the other clans. Soon, valiant warrior from Long clan started to massacre his way into the Shi clan''s warriors. He had soon cut down more than 5 enemies but was blocked by the sixth one, he had charged another Ki strike but before he could unveil it, an arrow pierced his forehead killing him one the spot. The other clan members were immediately alerted against the archer but a long-range attacker could attack at any crucial moment. The sinister man from the Ming clan immediately let loose as huge sword light in the direction of the arrow''s origin but before the sword light could hit anyone, it was met with another arrow and was stopped. "Found you." The man yelled as he charged to the archer and immediately engaged him in a close battle, the archers only downfall. The leader for the Shi cultivator soon fought his towards the sinister man from the Ming clan but was intercepted by Jiang Long. The Ashura''s intent was perfectly suited for battles and Jiang Long was moving like a fish in sea. The two of them exchanged a few blows and stopped. "Bastard from Long Clan state your name before you die." The man form Shi clan yelled proudly, in his mind Jiang Long was a genius and was to killed as soon as possible. "Jiang Long. Tell me yours before we fight." Jiang Long said as he twirled his sword. "Yan Ming. Now, face your death." Yan Ming said before he chopped at Jiang Long with a huge saber. The strike was parried to the side by Jiang Long''s sword. Jiang Long didn''t wait for Yan Ming to recover as he stabbed straight at his throat. Yan Long immediately dodged to a side as he swept his saber horizontally. Jiang Long realized that he couldn''t block this move and immediately dodged it by jumping backward. Seeing Jiang Long flee, a ruthless smile broke out on Yan Long''s face. Jiang Long who was now headed straight into another battle, faced attacks on both sides. He immediately ducked and stabbed towards the cultivator dantian and crippled him. Realizing that his opponent was crippled, the other cultivator struck his fist at Jiang Long back but before his fist could reach Jiang Long''s back another saber shined and killed the cultivator. "Bastard, that man is my prey." Yan Long yelled as he kicked away the dead body. Jiang Long on other hand had picked up the saber that was dropped by the cultivator. Jiang Long now held a saber in one hand and a sword in another hand. Seeing this Yan Long laughed at Jiang Long. The dual wielding was only used by either high level Ki sea or Mortal pellet cultivators. Dual wielding was a dangerous game to play, as the cultivator need to divide in attention towards two weapons and circulate Ki his to support the two weapons. This way of fighting was dangerous and tiring, which was why cultivators at lower realm didn''t dare use it. 12 Ch 12 Dual wielding Jiang Long immediately attacked with saber aimed at Yan Ming''s head while the sword stabbed towards his dantian. The move was a mess to rapidly put together ideas and instinct. The move there fore was weak and ineffective. Yan Ming laughed but didn''t let his guard down. After exchanging ten moves Yan Ming realized that the tenth move was a saber strike but was vastly improved than the first-time Jiang Long had attacked. A smile played on Jiang Longs face as he looked at his newly acquired saber and twirled one more time. He then laughed and immediately discarded his sword and wielded a single saber. Saber was a weapon of choice for mindless slaughter via sheer force. Yan Ming realized that he was becoming a whet stone for Jiang Long. Jiang Long still hadn''t used his killing intent as he wanted to sharpen his battle skills. Yan Ming on the other hand however, had an increasing ugly look on his face. "Jiang Long, do you really expect to master a saber within a span of a single fight? If your skills were as god as your ego, I might even be scared." Tan Ming immediately sent a huge saber light at Jiang Long. Fast, this particular strike could be described in a single word; fast. Jiang Long didn''t have any time to dodge and decide to parry this attack instead. He moved his saber at an extremely bizarre angle and a flicked it to the side as a huge light shined as a line of blood flew out of Jiang Long''s shoulder. Although he was injured, Jiang Long had a smile on his face. He was had finally found his weapon of choice, a weapon that suited his current temperament and weapon which was domineering and brutal. Swords were known for their sharpness and extreme flexibility in attacks. Swords were known to harder to wield and required a great deal of accuracy. Saber were different, Saber was heavier than a sword, inflexible, its attacks were not as sharp and definitely not known for accuracy. Saber however was known for its domineering power and reckless momentum. At the same stage and same level of skill under entirely same conditions, a sabers attacks were far more weight and momentum. Despite being a sword, a saber was a weapon of murderer and massacre unlike a sword, known for its accuracy and speed. After facing Yan Ming''s attack, Jiang Long looked at his saber and lifted it slowly in the air and hacked it in the direction of Yan Ming. Another saber light shone and lit the battle field, momentarily stopping all the ongoing battles. Yan Ming on the other and braced himself and held his saber firmly, he then hacked at Jiang Long trying to destroy his attack and injure him for a second time. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Boom. . . A huge explosion shook the battle field, everyone was silent as they gawked the immensity of the explosion. A few clever, cultivator immediately took the opportunity and slit a few throats or lop of a few heads. Jiang Long and Yan Ming exchanged another round of attacks but of far less strength, it had now turned into a contest of skill. Jiang Long would counter Yan Ming''s attack and Yan Ming would reply with a counter to his counter. This exchange of high speed counter continued for a few breaths of time before Jiang Long withdrew and stood at a distance. He was looking at Yan Ming, disappointment clear in his face. "Yan Ming, this match you have lost and as tribute to your help toward my martial arts, I shall not destroy your body but I will have your saber." Jiang Long declared in a dull voice. "Hah, Jiang Long, how dare you boast of such bullshi. . ." Yan Long words stopped dead in his mouth as he felt an immense pressure coming from Jiang Long, he felt a cold chill creeping up his spine. Yan Long felt like he was looking at the face of death as he looked at Jiang Long. He tried to activate Ki but failed. He was sweating and his eyes immediately reddened, he had never felt like this in his entire life. He had visited a few executions during his preteen years to harden his heart but never did he expect a demon like Jiang Long was exploring freely in the world. He tried to admit defeat and flee but found no words escaping his lips, his parched throat was unable to produce any sounds. He watched Jiang Long walk slowly to his body and place his saber on his chest, over his heart. Yan Ming wanted to apologize, he wanted to flee and above all he wanted to live. All the elder''s in his clan said that he was a one of a kind talent and would achieve great heights. He had a lot of aspirations, he had a few girlfriends, he had a wise master and a good father. He had a lot of expectations to meet in his life and a lot of aspirations for himself. It was now all going to end in a single battle, and a battle of not his choosing. He watched as Jiang Long''s saber sink into his chest as a piercing pain washed over his body. Jiang Long had a cold look in his eyes as he withdrew his Ashura''s intent. "Jiang Long, take my saber and dint fall too early." Yan Ming said in a low b\voice as light soon faded from his eyes as he fell on his back. Jiang Long withdrew his saber and robed Yan Ming''s body off his saber. "Brother, Yan has fallen." "Murder his killer." "We must take revenge." "bury him with our senior." "Kill" Many cultivators from Ming clan yelled as a few who were closer to Jiang Long instantly made their way to Jiang Long''s position. The two men who came first immediately attacked Jiang Long with their mightiest attacks. Jiang Long dodge parried both the strikes together as he impaled his saber into a man''s gut. He then attacked another man and pushed him away. A few entrails fell as Jiang Long took out his saber. "That one needs to die." A young man who was hidden well within the ranks of Shi clan murmured as a fierce look flashed on his face. The other few men had made their way towards Jiang Long who has waiting for the men to come closer before he engaged them. He wanted to save as much energy as possible. Now that he was using sabers his Ki expenditure was turned up a notch. He swiftly moved as he avoided many strike and only attacked when necessary but when he used his sabers he left either a bloody wound or a dead body behind. With these few battles, he was getting more and more proficient with sabers. After dispatching, a few more disciples, quickly made his way towards the edge of the battle field. Jiang Long no longer his hot-blooded self as he was when he challenged Lan Long. He had turned cold and calculating. His Ashura''s intent made him further clear minded. He knew he was in trouble when his Ki had dropped to barely 20 percent. He needed to escape or find a spot to gather his Ki again. One the other side of the battle field, a cute girl was struggling with a few cultivators. She was trying her best to defend but has basically at 50 percent of her Ki. She tried to ask a few of her sisters for help but they too were busy with their battles. This girl was named Zun Ming and was one of the younger generations of Ming clan. She had lost her parents and was basically orphaned at a young age but for some reason she was treated very well by all the elders of her clan. She had to cause a huge ruckus and threatened her clan with suicide before she was allowed to leave the clan grounds. Her grandmother had disappeared after her birth and hadn''t returned, she had never met her just like her parents. At the rate at which Zun Ming used her Ki she would barely last an hour or two before running out and getting killed. She had tried all her technique and had still failed to escape. She had reached a point of desperation where she was only able to defend. "Someone please help." The girl finally yelled out loud, her eyes were red as tears soon began to fell. "Dammit girl, although I cannot help you, I can send a discreet helper." The old lady laughed as she disappeared from the house (damn this turned up on the short side. Anyway, I will soon be publishing longer ones. Also, a lot of explanation coming up in the next chapters. Bear with me.) 13 Ch 13 Fooling a fool Lan Long was completely relaxed he went to his mind space to cultivate and may be get a few inspirations. After all he had experienced quite a few scenarios. He was enjoying himself immersed in his cultivation and without a care in the world. "Lan Long, get dressed and head out immediately. Hand your hamster to the girls and tell them to come straight to my house." The old lady''s voice boomed in Lan Long''s head. Lan Long was instantly startled out of his mind as he immediately put on his clothes and called for Little Kong. "Little Kong. Get over here." He yelled as a squeak heard and brown blur landed on his palm. "Little Kong, I will have gone for a while so, go and accompany the girls for some time before I return." "Su Ming, I need to leave for a while, after your cultivation, go and stay at granny''s house." Lan Long stroked Little Kong''s fur for a while before heading out of the cave. He saw the old woman staring intent at him. Lan Long was immediately startled, what could a cultivator of such strength be worried about. "Lan Long, you need to head to a crater in the south and save a girl named Zun Ming from her predicament. As a numeration, take this mask and these few manuals. Go now. No mistakes are allowed save her by any means necessary." Old lady handed a mask and a few books to Lan Long. He immediately accepted and put on the mask. It fell off immediately as he removed his hand. "Ummm, granny the mask may be broken. If you could give something else." Lan Long stopped expecting another treasure but received a flick to his fore head. "Little brat, this mask is a treasure. It needs blood to be personalized." She explained. Lan Long immediately bit his finger and dropped a few drops of blood on the mask. He immediately knew of it use as soon as the mask was personalized, it could hide any aura and Ki signature of a cultivator. He immediately put on the mask and transformed into a blur heading it the south direction. Soon a few explosions were heard as he increased his speed. With every step, Lan Long was causing a 10-meter-wide crater to appear beneath his steps. Jiang Long was trying his best to prolong his battle limit. He was barely using any Ki to attack or to defend. Whenever an enemy attacked him, Jiang Long would simply dodge it to best of his capabilities and even take a few cuts, if it meant surviving this bloody nightmare, Jiang Long was indeed willing to take many injuries. Jiang Long had made his way to nearly the edge to the crater, only a few enemies remained. If he were to avoid these few men, he could proudly leave this battle ground knowing that he had indeed improved by leaps in fighting strength. Unknowingly, Jiang Long was covered in injuries, although these cuts or bruises were shallow and non-fatal, they number in many. The blood flowed and stained his tattered robes, with every moment more blood flew out. This loss of blood made Jiang Long light headed, it was his sheer will power that allowed him to escape this far out of the main battle. Jiang Long evaded another enemy and then one more. There were only two men left between him and complete escape. Jiang Long tried to lift his sabers but found his hand to be dangling beside him limply. Jiang Long no longer had any strength to lift his sabers. He only had about enough Ki to unleash a single move before he was incapacitated. Jiang Long immediately moved his sabers to is storage ring and assumed a lower stance. He then activated his Ashura''s intent and froze his enemies. He then transferred his Ki to legs and jumped in the direction of the forest. He flew for about a minute and collided with a massive tree. "Fuck, that was way too close for comfort." Jiang Long said to himself as he climbed down the tree and fell down half way through his climb. Thud. Jiang Long caused a small thud as he collapsed on the ground. He then crawled to a tree and lied down. He took out a pill and swallowed it. This was a Ki recovery pill, it could recover about 20 percent of Ki during battle without refining or if refined it could restore almost 60 percent of the Ki. These pills could not be relied on in prolonged battles, as they contained many impurities of herbs and foreign Ki. Once a small amount of foreign Ki is entered into the body, it must either be expelled or refined immediately or it could cause Ki poisoning and damage Ki meridians. Jiang Long immediately revolved the new Ki in his body according to Fire Dragon manual. Soon, a comfortable feeling washed over his body. "Lizard brat. You do not need to put any more effort into recovering your Ki any more. Dead bodies do not require any Ki." A young man said as he slowly walked towards Jiang Long. Jiang Long who had just recovered about 20 percent of his Ki immediately rose to his feet as to saber appeared in his hands. "ha-ha, you do not need to resist any more otherwise I may not grant you a clean death and torture you slowly until you beg for it." The young man said as he released his Ki pressure. "What is a core disciple doing here? This a breach of honor." Jiang Long said, he immediately knew that the man was an early Ki sea realm cultivator as he sensed his Ki pressure. He steeled himself for the oncoming pain. He could only surprise the man with his Ashura''s intent as he fled at his top speed. Now, he needed to wait for an opportunity. "I will allow you to struggle thrice. if you can injure me, I will let you leave but now that you have chosen torture I will introduce you to many torture techniques of Shi Clan. Ha-ha, I forgot to introduces myself, I am Nan Shi. Now make your move." Nan Shi said as he folded his hand inform of his chest. He believed that he wouldn''t even need his arms or his weapons to defend against a late Ki condensing realm cultivator. Jiang Long on the other hand was pleasantly surprised with the situation at hand. He could activate his intent during the last attack and flee. Now, all he needed to do was to fool his opponent into thinking, that his was emptied in first two attacks. Jiang Long immediately attacked with both his saber at a blinding speed. He had grunted out quietly loudly for a better affect. His saber struck a Ki barrier but only caused a few sparks to fly out. "Good. Now put more weight into the next attack. Are the cultivators of your Long clan all this weak?" Nan Shi taunted Jiang Long. Jiang Long immediately pretended to lose his composure as he attacked even more ferociously. This attacked caused the barrier to tremble a bit before Jiang Longs attack vanished. Jiang Long immediately fell on his knee as he supported himself with a saber. "Nice. Extremely well done. If you are given a few years'' time, you would definitely become an extremely power full cultivator. Now for your final attack." Nan Shi said as he stood still but now that Nan Shi was convinced that Jiang Long was completely exhausted, he finally deactivated his Ki barrier and had chosen to receive Jiang Long''s attack with his bare hands. Jiang Long smiled in his heart but showed a look of despair on his face. HE slowly dragged himself up and stood kept Yan Ming''s saber back into his ring. He held his other saber with two hands. He slowly walked towards Nan Shi who was now smiling as he looked at Jiang Long. Jiang Long came within attacking distance and slowly filled the saber with his Ki and stabbed at Nan Shi chest in an extremely wavering fashion. Even a mortal could have stabbed better. As the blade neared Nan Shi who was now only defending with a single hand and had his other hand behind his back, Jiang Long suddenly released Ashura''s intent and stabilized his saber to maximum as he attacked with his full force. Nan Shi on the other hand was greatly startled, his Ki was muddy and his reflexes were slow, although he could still move, he had lost his opportunity to do so. There was barely any distance between him and the oncoming saber. The saber soon pierced his palm and then pierced through his shoulder. He immediately bought his other hand to pull out the saber but found another saber had pierced through it in a similar fashion. The pain had finally gone beyond his limit as he screamed. Jiang Long immediately, turned around and fled at his top speed. He had finally escaped but before he could even run 100 meters, a sword pierced his leg and pinned him to a tree nearby. "Brother Nan, you are bringing great shame to Shi clan. You were injured that badly by a mid-Ki condensing cultivator. Shame on you." A girl said as she dislodged Jiang Long''s sword from Nan Shi''s shoulder. She then started to walk towards Jian Long who was helplessly hanging upside down from the tree. "Don''t kill him. I want to personally tortured him for a month before this insult could be washed away." Nan Shi roared as he pulled out Jiang Long''s from his other hand. He looked at Jiang Long who was smiling at him. He roared as put a Healing pill in his mouth and slowly walked towards Jiang Long. 14 Ch 14 A firm bu Zun Ming had finally run out of Ki and unlike Jiang Long who was the son of a sect leader in a local hegemonic clan, Zun Ming didn''t have any Ki recovery pills. She was on her knee waiting to be killed. Zun Ming had closed her eyes and accepted her fate, she knew that there was no one who could come and save her. "Boss, we have exhausted a cute one. Please tie her up." The Shi clan cultivator said as he moved away. Another Shi clan cultivator appeared and looked a Zun Ming who had her eyes closed. "little girl, if you are accepting we can allow you to live but you need to warm our beds until we are satisfied." The cultivator said as he licked his lips and came closer to Zun Ming who had her eyes wide opened, horror clearly visible in her eyes. She immediate let out a huge scream as tried to get away from the man. BOOM. A huge explosion was heard in the battle field. Lan Long hadn''t controlled his speed as he landed and ended up creating a huge explosion where he landed. ''Dammit, the old lady didn''t give me any picture or painting of the girl.'' Lan Long complained in his heart. With no other option, available he resorted to the old-fashioned method of search for people. "ZUN MING, I HAVE COME TO GET YOU. RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU HEARD ME." Lan Long screamed at the top of his voice. "Dammit girl. You have another suiter and he seems even more violent." The ugly cultivator from the Shi clan laughed. "BROTHER, SHE IS RIGHT HERE." The ugly cultivator yelled out while raising his hand. Lan Long was immediately surprised, he hadn''t expected to find a helper at such a place. Lan Long immediately began to walk towards the cultivator. "Bastard, how dare you trying to harm a member of the Ming clan?" A cultivator said a swept his spear at Lan Long''s head. Lan Long was immediately surprised as he was attacked without reason and the attacker had even aimed to kill him. ''The hell, I just came here. When did I offend you? Got to hurry.'' Lan Long thought as he moved away from the spear and seemingly disappeared into the battle field. He kept moving at astonishing speed until he reached the man who had called out to him. On the other part of the battlefield, the leader of fire school was barking orders to his fellow cultivators and despite his rude tone, everyone was listening to him perfectly. This particular group was closer to Lan Long''s position as he landed and had to face the shockwave of his landing. Soon, a huge voice flooded the battlefield as Lan Long made his announcement. The leader was immediately enraged as he too was pursuing Zun Ming. They had met on a mission and he had fallen for her by the end of it. He had even told a few of his friend and a few elders in his school. He immediately jumped into the air to see which dead man had his eyes on his woman. He saw a young man wearing a white mask, he features were completely hidden. He saw that a cultivator nearby had immediately attacked the masked man''s face. The attack was extremely fast and could only be blocked by his standards. The spear then met the masked man''s face and to everyone surprise passed cleanly through the man body. The body immediately began to blur and vanished completely. The masked man had escaped a long time ago but due to his sheer speed, only an after image was left behind. The man soon fell down and immediately began to make his way towards the second voice. He would try to save Zun Ming despite knowing the masked man''s speed. Lan Long had already reached the Shi clan cultivator who had answered his announcement. "Brother, thanks. I will take my leave now." Lan Long said as he immediately moved and stood in front of the girl who was crying and trying to get away from him. The Shi clan''s cultivator still hadn''t realized that Lan Long was already gone from his location to Zun Ming. He tried to place his hand on the after image as he attempted to stop Lan Long. He was surprised to see he hand phase through the after image at it blurred and disappeared completely. He was immediately scared, he had just tried to touch a man with such terrifying speed. "Calm down. I am here to take you to a senior. The senior had requested specifically for you. Come let''s go." Lan Long said in a clear voice. The mask and the mention of a senior who had wanted her had terrified her even further. Zun Ming was now only able to form some incoherent noises as she shivered violently. ''Okay, this is getting bizarre.'' Lan Long thought as he immediately knocked her out and placed her on his shoulder. He had placed his hand her butt to stabilize her body but was immediately lost to the soft feeling of a girl''s butt. "What a firm butt." Lan Long said out loud as he lowered himself and jumped into the sky. As he applied pressure to the ground, a few cracks formed around his feet and exploded as he took off. While Lan Long was still airborne he felt a huge murderous intent, and sent his soul sense towards it. He discovered an upside-down Jiang Long who was pinned to a tree via a sword in his leg. ''The hell what is he doing here? Never mind, let me get him first.'' Lan Long thought as he changed his direction midair and headed straight towards Jiang Long location. Nan Shi was getting frustrated by the second as he looked at Jiang Long''s smile. He wanted to tear his head off this instant but could only force himself to calm down. "You have no idea, who you have provoked. I feel sorry for you." The girl said as she moved away. Nan Shi was slowly applying an ointment to his hands but his gaze was fixed on Jiang Long. He smiled thinking about how he would torture this genius. BOOM. "Brother Jiang, fancy meeting you here." Lan Long said in a cheerful voice as he walked towards him. He reached Jiang Long whose face was full of surprise. Lan Long sent a strand of Ki into Jiang Long''s would and pulled out the sword. After placing Jiang Long on the ground, he looked at the sword and smiled. "What a nice sword." Lan Long said as he forcefully expelled the foreign Ki and placed the sword in his ring. Lan Long immediately cauterized the would on Jiang Long''s leg. "Fellow martial artist, if you could leave behind that sword and this man. We will not pursue this matter any longer but if were to go against our wishes, you will be an enemy of Shi clan." Nan Shi said with a slight trace to killing intent. "Young Lady, do you also agree with this man?" Lan Long asked the lady. She was immediately surprised, she had not met any cultivator who could repel her Ki from her weapon but from the looks of it, this man was far younger than her in age. "Yes. That was my sword." She said in a low voice. Lan Long immediately moved in front of the young lady and tore her arms off cleanly and snatched her storage ring but before she could even realize what had happened, Lan Long did the same to Nan Shi and returned to his original spot. The whole process was over before the after image vanished and before they had realized that they were now armless. After returning his original spot Lan Long knocked out Jiang Long and ran away at his top speed. BOOM. Another explosion shook the area as Lan Long took off. It was after the explosion occurred Nan Long and his accomplice realized what had just occurred. AAAaaa. A horrendous scream was heard followed closely by another scream. The battle field was startled again by the screams and during this period the Spear was acquired by the Sinister man from the Ming clan. The battlefield received another shock as they realized that the weapon was acquired by Ming Clan. The weaker sects and clans soon dispersed as they couldn''t compete with the Ming Clan. The third Core disciple rushed towards the screams, he had immediately recognized voices both his fellow disciples. Fire school and Long Clan chased after Ming clan before giving up after a while. Shi clan immediately retreated as they saw their elder brother leave in a hurry towards the forest. Upon reaching the location of the screams, the core disciple was stunned. He was weakest of the three but was seeing his senior brother and sister, completely defeated and their arms torn off. Only a peak Ki sea expert could candle them in such a domineering way. He guessed that there may be a peak core disciple for the clans or school behind this event and he could still be around. He immediately ordered his junior disciple to carry their seniors and rush towards the Shi Clan. Lan Long travelled half way before stopping for a rest. He was not too tired but this was his first time fighting a person and expending such amounts of Ki. He placed both Zun Ming and Jiang Long on the ground before recovering his Ki. After about 4 hour, Lan Long was back at his complete strength. He looked at Jiang Long injuries and began to heal them with his ethereal Ki. During his earlier years, Little Kong was injured and his injury was immediately headed when Lan Long send is Ki and covered it. Soon, both Zun Ming and Jiang Long were completely healed. "Senior why did you help me?" Jiang Long asked as he woke up. He was immediately surprised to see that his injuries were complete healed. "What? Why do you think I saved you? Oh right." Lan Long said as he removed his mask and looked at Jiang Long. Jiang Long who was aiming to kill Lan Long was conflicted, he now owed his very life to Lan Long. But his conflicted emotions were soon over shadowed by the huge shock that accompanied the realization that Lan Long was now strong enough to kill early Ki sea realm martial artists with ease. "Lan Long, how are you so strong?" Jiang Long said in a wavering voice. "Oh, that''s because of Nature''s way cultivation manual." Lan Long said as he placed his mask on his face again and lied down on his back. "Oh, look out for that girl. She is a bit weird. Tell her that she is safe when she wakes up." Jiang Long who just had his world shaken, was now sitting down with a rather relaxed look on his face. He realized that he was the one who was in the wrong, and Lan Long had already showed him enough mercy by only sending his pet to fight him. He realized that his outlook on the world was distorted to only fit his eyes, he had only seen what he wanted to see, he had only heard what he had wanted to hear. He hadn''t even realized that his way to thinking constricted him to a point where he was devolved into a killing machine. Although he had found his true way of cultivation, he had succumbed to it instead of mastering it. He closed his eyes, a finally felt that he was closer to nature than ever before. He then stood up and gazed at the tree and smelled the air of the forest. The shadow cast over his heart was gone, although he had not mastered his Ashura''s intent, he was now able to come to peace with it. "Where are we?" A voice sounded. Zun Ming had finally woken up. "Come let''s escape, while this man sleeps." She said as she approached Jiang Long. "Little Miss, do you really think that you could escape from that man?" Jiang Long asked without turning back. Zun Ming froze and thought back to when she was captured. Although she was injured, she could still see the speed at which the man had approached her and knocked her out. "No, but I still have to try." She said as she gathered her Ki. She found that all her wounds were gone and her Ki flow was even improved slightly. Why would her kidnapper heal her? "Sit back down and know this. The time you were captured by this man, you had lost all your rights to struggle." Jiang Long said as he went and stood beside Lan Long. He had a few insights and wished to confirm them. All he was lacking was his weapons. "Hey, Lazy brat, give my sabers." Jiang Long immediately demanded. Lan Long flicked his fingers and two sabers appeared above him. The sabers were different though, they both were of High earth grade. Both had belonged to Nan Shi but were snatched away as Jiang Long robbed him of his arms and ring. "Just take them. They belonged to that man." Lan Long said as sent the saber in front of Jiang Long. Jiang Long took the sabers and nodded light at Lan Long before leaving to practice his saber techniques. Seeing Jiang Long talk to Lan Long in such a fashion, Zun Ming gathered courage and moved closer to Lan Long. "Senior, could you please tell me why you have kidnapped me?" Zun Ming asked in a low voice. She had finally realized that she had long lost her qualification to negotiate. "Kidnap? Lady, was sent to save you from the battle and bring you back to the senior. She even gave me some cultivation techniques a numeration." Lan Long said in a flustered voice. He had been accused of kidnapping. "You perverted little minx, did you really think that I had some indecent motives." "No." Zun Ming said as her face turned red. She fumbled with the hem of her robes trying to figure out what to say next. She had already angered her kidnapper. "Can you tell me about this senior?" "No, if she had wanted to let you know about her. She would have saved you herself." He said in a dismissive tone and continued to lie on the ground. This conversation had given her no information other that the fact that her kidnaper was hired by a woman. "Brother Jiang, I am going to leave tomorrow. If you wish to leave earlier, please do. Or, you can accompany me." Lan Long said as he rolled over to his side and began to flip through the manuals given to him by the granny. Jiang Long on the other hand was sitting in lotus position with his eyes closed. Zun Ming with nothing better to do, cultivated her technique. The manual were top heavenly moment and attack arts, they had a stringent requirement for Ki and cultivation. The best movement art was windy steps while the best attacking art was a staff art. The staff art was called Heavy Cane manual. This particular manual focused on infusing the Ki in to the staff to increase its weight. The heavy Ki was cultivated by forming a dense portion of Ki space inside the Ki sea in the cultivator''s dantian. This particular Ki would be one of the heaviest form of Ki available in Nature. At the early stages of the art, the staff would contain twice the weight in its strikes and at peak of the art, the staff containing the Ki if placed on top and 10-kilometer-tall, the mountain would instantly crumble under it massive weight. Strikes at the peak of the arts would naturally contain unholy amount of force behind it. Although, Lan Long didn''t use a staff, he found the manual quite informative on the new way of manipulation and transmutation of Ki. If he could apply the same principle to his own body, every casual punch of his would contain a mountain''s worth of weight behind it. Since, he was also a body cultivator, the Ki would be wondrous to his dexterity in combat and defense. The wind art was a type to skill based movement art, it didn''t require a cultivator to acquire or develop a new type of Ki but it required the cultivator to release his Ki in quick bursts and at near impossible angles to achieve a blinding speed and since, the cultivator is relying on his as footholds and the sound of every movement would be negligible. The cultivator could travel at speed many times greater than sound through a mortal crowd with causing a huge shockwave. Lan Long immediatelywent to work, trying to hypothesize a way to compress his Ki according to theHeavy Cane manual as well as trying to picturize the movement art. Jiang Longspent most of his time meditating, although he would sometimes get up and do amovement or attack based on his insights. Zun Ming only moved once, and thatwas because she was thirsty and hungry. She looked at Jiang Long and sighed,she was nowhere near this dedicated to cultivating. With this, time soon flowedby and the next day approached 15 Ch 15 Salamander City Lan Long had stood up as soon as the sun, he immediately Zun Ming who as sleeping rather comfortably near him despite her doubts earlier. Jiang Long also stood up from his cultivation. "Brother Jiang, have to decide to stay or to part ways here?" Lan Long asked Jiang Long. He didn''t expect Jiang Long to improve by this margin in less than a year. He had improved in both mind and cultivation. He no longer had the aura of a kid, he was now radiating a calm vibe of a dedicated cultivator. Although no one would call him calm as in the cultivation world, the calm people had more blood on their hands that people with a ferocious vibe. The calm cultivator could attack at a drop of a hat and without radiation any bloodlust or warning. The killing intent were under control for these types of cultivators. "I will travel with you for a while." Jiang Long said as he placed his sabers in his ring and walked closer to Lan Long. "Okay." Lan Long said as he grabbed both Jiang Long and Zun Ming and executed his new moment arts. The trio''s figures flashed as they disappeared leaving behind a faint after image. Jiang Long wanted to protest but as he glanced down he only saw a few scenes of scenery flash by at a remarkable speed. Zun Ming was too shocked to even think properly. In about an hour, they had reached the hot springs. The girls were still cultivating inside and only Su Ming was outside the cave. "Sister Ming, are you done cultivating already?" Lan Long said with surprise. He had not expected that Su Ming would be able to get rid of her Ki impurities this quickly. "Yes, although the other are still inside." Su Ming said as she looked at the entrance of the cave. "Okay then. Sister Ming, this is my brother Saber. Would you be kind enough to guide him to the spring." Lan Long introduced Jiang Long under a weird alias and he disappeared from the scene. "Damn brat." Jiang Long said in frustration but soon came an understanding. Hiding names was a common occurrence throughout the world and Jiang Long was now a saber user, the name made a weird amount of sense. "Lady Ming, what is this spring?" Jiang Long asked Su Ming. "It''s a naturally occurring hot Ki spring." Su Ming said as she began to walk towards the cave''s entrance. "A naturally occurring hot Ki spring within 10,000 kilometers of Salamander city? How has this not been discovered yet?" Jiang Long asked with shocked expression. There was a hot Ki spring within Long clan main branch back at his home but it was reserved only for peak Ki sea realm martial artists who were near their tribulation. The fact that there was another hot Ki spring within the territory was great news for the Long clan. "This Ki spring was discovered and kept a secret by a very strong Core realm cultivator and that cultivator wants it to kept a secret. Brother Lazy, had somehow received the approval to the cultivator and was given an access to the spring." Su Ming said as she looked intensely at Jiang Long. "Understood." Jiang Long said as he entered the smaller portion. He soon stripped down and entered the spring. He felt a warm sensation within his meridians as he cultivated his Fire dragon manual. The impurities within his Ki were soon being washed away at a tremendous pace. Lan Long had now reached the village and stood inside granny''s courtyard. He didn''t announce his arrival or tried to sense her location. He knew perfectly well that if granny wanted to show herself, she would appear. Zun Ming who was standing by his side swayed lightly as she lost her consciousness but before she reached the ground she was caught by Granny. "Kid you are a once in a while genius. It has not even been a day and you already are at early stages of wind steps. Now, go and swiftly clean your Ki before leaving." The Granny said as she disappeared with Zun Ming. Lan Long put his mask away as he disappeared from the courtyard and appeared in front of the spring within a few breaths of time. Su Ming who was standing guard in front of the cave wasn''t able to see him pass by her. Miraculously, Jiang Long and the rest of the girls exited the cave with only a few hours of difference, Jiang Long being the last closely followed by Lan Long. Su Ming was surprised to see Lan Long exit the cave but didn''t question it too much. The party soon left on foot as Little Kong didn''t allow anyone to ride him after he had seen Jiang Long. The group soon arrived at the entrance of the Salamander city. They soon began to walk through the city gates before being rudely stopped. "Brats, line up nicely in front of the gates and pay the entrance fee." The guard said in a booming voice. Lan Long immediately threw a piece of gold at the guard who had caught it without looking. He soon realized that it was a piece of gold and was trying to find the remaining pieces of silver with his pouch. The entrance fee was 5 silver per person and a 1000 silver pieces made up for a gold piece. Lan Long had apparently over paid by 950 silver pieces. This was equivalent to the guard''s monthly income. What was even more surprising was the group had entered the city and didn''t even ask for the change. "Fucking rich snobs." The guard said as he kept the gold and returned to his job with a smile on his face. The group entered the city and went straight to a restaurant. Although the food at the village was better than dry rations, it was still dirt compared to the high-quality food in the city. The restaurant they had chosen was the Cloud Inn restaurant. Although this restaurant was owned by the Shi royal palace, its branches were found in every major city catering to the high class and cultivators. The food was excellent and cheap. The only other restaurant that were able to compete were either of higher quality or catered to a specific crowd. The group entered in to the restaurant as was soon blown away by the lavish decoration and many appetizing aromas that lingered in the air. The group hadn''t even had the chance to take in the entire beauty of the place, a waitress came and greeted them. "Welcome to the Cloud Inn, may I ask if sirs and madams would like to sit together or in separate rooms?" The waitress asked politely. She was also a cultivator and had a very alluring dress which showed off her curves perfectly. "We would like a single room and bring food enough for 11 people. Bring your best dishes and fruits. Also, bring some fruit wines." Lan Long said. He too was starving for some good food. He hadn''t had a good meal sense he left his home. "Also, bring you best wine." Jiang Long added after Lan Long. He was sixteen years of aage and had tasted the allure of alcohol. "Very well please deposit 12 low quality Ki stone as deposit." The waitress said with a smug look on her face. She had given the price of the best dishes on the ground floor. Most of the young cultivator wouldn''t even dare to dish out a single Ki stone, let alone 12 Ki stones for food. "Here. Show us the room and hurry with the food." Lan Long said as he threw the stone at the waitress. The waitress was immediately flabbergasted, she hadn''t thought that this particular group of youngsters were so rich. The shock was not limited to the waitress, Su Ming, Jiang Long and the rest of the group was also shocked. With 12 Ki stones, a Ki sea realm cultivator could cultivate for 20 days while a Ki consign realm cultivator could cultivate for at least a month. Lan Long had thrown out Ki stone without delay, he had treated a precious cultivation resource like a few copper pieces. The maid caught the Ki stones and hurried towards the dining area. She bowed deeply as she left to get the dishes and wines. The wines and food soon arrived as the room was soon filled with an incredible aroma. The fruits were set aside for Little Kong immediately started to munch on them. Within minute the group had finished the dishes but before they could order another round. The waitress came with another assortment of dishes which was soon followed by another set of dishes. All the dishes were incredible delicious. Soon, an hour had passed. Lan Long and the party were completely full. Little Kong was bloated like a small ball unable to move. Soon, Su Ming and the girls left for the Fire School branch in the city and Jiang Long left with Lan Long to the Long branch. They had decided that they would meet after two days and at the city gates before leaving for the Green village. Soon, the duo reached, the Long Clan''s local quarters. The atmosphere was gloomy and many cultivators were either dead drunk or receded into cultivation. The battle over the weapon had caused injuries to over 70 percent of the disciples and death of about 30 percent. The losses were quite heavy this time and frankly, the loss of face caused the elder a lot of anger. Many had lost their favorite disciples and loss of resources was also quite harsh. "Wow, the atmosphere is rather suffocating here. Were you really staying here for the past half year?" Lan Long questioned, oblivious to the battle that took place earlier. Although he was the part of the problem, he hadn''t realized that his little prank had led to the deaths of hundred. "The battle for the weapon earlier had obviously caused a lot of deaths and we probably weren''t even able to acquire the weapon." Jiang Long said as he looked around, he couldn''t see many familiar faces and the face that were seen either had red eyes full of anger or faces filled with sadness. "here, the fun is at the clan which had acquired the weapon. They should be mad with rage about now." Lan Long said with a light chuckle. The clan who had acquired the weapon would have realized that the weapon was Mid mortal staff. Not only did they lose many disciple, they had the knowledge that they had lost them over mortal level equipment. "Why do you say that? At least, they had acquired the weapon." Jiang long was perplexed. With Lan Long strength, he could easily had acquired the weapon and left with ease. Yet, he was standing here laughing at the clan that had acquired it. "Don''t worry. You will know soon." Lan Long and turned quiet. Jiang Long was a loss but didn''t pester Lan Long about it. They soon reached Jiang Long''s courtyard and retired to their rooms. In the meanwhile, Su Ming and her friends also reached their quarters and went straight to the baths. "Sister Su, I think it is better that you continue with Brother Lazy. If we come, we would only be in the way." A girl said with a sigh. Su Ming had gained the most from their time with Lan Long, she was on the cusp of another breakthrough while her companions were either at early Ki condensation or Peak Ki gathering. The girls had already suggested Su Ming to leave with a better group but she had refused firmly. The situation with the bandits had made evident, the fact that Su Ming was subconsciously restraining herself for her friends. If she had been caught in that''s situation alone, Su Ming could have escaped unharmed. Her friend had finally realized that they had become the shackles the held Su Ming back. "Sister, Please. We clearly are in over our heads if we continue to keep journeying together with you. Please for your own sake continue without us." "But we can journey together with brother Lazy." Su Ming argued back. She was feeling conflicted as she knew that her friends were looking out for her but she felt that if she left them, it would be like abandoning them. "Silly Sister, don''t you dare think you can get rid of that easily. Once we reach your level, even if you don''t want to be us then, we will forcefully tie you up and bring you along. Ha-ha" Another girl said in a soft voice as she hugged Su Ming. "Not even have a boyfriend yet but you are thinking of abandoning us. I will personally smack you after a few months'' time, if you refuse to come back." Another girl said. Soon, everyone started to encourage Su Ming to travel without them. Having no other choice, Su Ming agreed but promised them that she would never abandon them. Girls soon retired to their rooms and began to cultivate. The Hit Ki had done wonders to their cultivation, they were no able to cultivate at least twice as quick as before. Shi territory. . . "What Nan Shi and Liu Li both had their hand cutoff. Those damn bastards, they must have sent elders to the battle field. What about the third one, is he okay?" The elder asked in a growly voice. "Master, the third disciple is un harmed." The servant reported quickly. He had seen the fate of the servant that were not quick with their news. "Hmm, if an elder was present and only aimed at crippling our core disciples arms, why would he leave the third core disciple unharmed? It is simply impossible that this is a work of and elder." The elder concluded. "Maybe they sent a peak Ki sea realm core disciple like us and aimed only at our core disciples." Another elder suggested. "It may also have been a work of a rogue cultivator. God know how unreasonable those idiots are." "No, a rogue cultivator wouldn''t have allowed a bunch of disciples to acquire the weapon and moreover he wouldn''t have left our core disciple with only crippled arms." "This matter is rather strange. Lets report to the boss when he leaves the cultivation." "No other choice. The losses this time were quite low on our inner disciple side but the core disciples crippled arms were a huge blow." Both the elder sighed as they called for best healer and medicines for his core disciples. Ming clan branch. Salamander City. . . "Where is the weapon? Did you really think you hide it from me by show this Mid Mortal weapon?" The Leader of the Branch yelled at the Sinister looking man who was now looking quite gloomy. "Elder please. This was the weapon I had acquired. Please believe me. You can even ask others who were present as I had acquired the weapon." The man replied. He felt wronged deeply, he had valiantly acquired the weapon and had earned glory for the clan, but instead of rewards and cheers in his name, he was being interrogated like a criminal. "Han Ming, if you wanted to keep the weapon for yourself, you could have done so. Why are you choosing to hide it in such a way?" The leader asked as he sat down on his chair. He was quite proud of the child to be unwavering in the face of his Ki pressure but he was disappointed that this child had chosen to hide such a triviality from the clan. "Leader, his words are indeed correct, it was a mid-mortal staff that was recovered after the battle. Many of his fellow disciples have the same response. He had even flaunted the weapon openly to everyone without ever keeping it inside his storage ring throughout his journey back." Leader received a voice transmission from an elder who was sent to investigate this matter. The leader was stumped, the tribulation was triggered by a mid-mortal staff. This was simply impossible; the weapon should at least be of top earth level to trigger a tribulation. "Give him a thousand contributions points and an attack manual. Also, guide him personally for a month." The leader said with a tight face, anger evident in his voice. He saved his hand and an elder escorted Han Ming away. "This was a fuckingjoke. All the clans are thinking that they were first on the tribulation site.No, we all were second on the site. There was another cultivator before us andhe replaced the treasure with this trash." The leader was boiling with anger,he wanted to kill the person that had played this joke on them. Not only didthe Ming clan earned the hatred of the younger generation, they had also notearned anything from the battle. Their losses this time were huge, almost 50percent of the disciples had died trying to escape from the battle field. Theelders that had this knowledge were seething in anger. Soon, the news spreadthat the treasure was a Mid mortal weapon. The Other clans were relieved butMing clan became a laughing stock for everyone in the City. 16 Ch 16 The Earth trembles Su Ming and her sisters soon received the news that the Ming clan had fought the huge battle in vain; the weapon that they had received was a mere Mid mortal in quality. The girls behaved life they were in shock but in their minds, they were laughing. No one in the world would expect that a top earth weapon was in the possession of a cute hamster. Jiang Long was already suspecting Lan Long of some major trickery; when he received the new about Ming clans shame. He immediately realized that Lan Long was in the possession of the weapon. Jiang Long simply smiled, as he continued with his cultivation and saber arts. Lan Long on the other hand was trying to teach Little Kong about the staff arts, he had transmitted the information to Little Long mind via soul sense and watch as the cute hamster fumbled around with the staff the size of a tooth pick. After many hours of fruitless teaching, Lang Long retrieved another staff and demonstrated the staff art for the hamster. This too was rather useless, there staff arts were designed for humans. Although these could be cultivated by monkeys and apes, due to the similarity of the bodies, hamsters were entirely different story. It was a fact that a monster would gain complete sentience and self-awareness after it reached core cultivation level, this was only true for common monsters. Some beasts would gain sentience as soon as they reach Ki gathering realm, while some were completely limited to their instincts regardless of their cultivation. Gaining sentience would mean that the monster could begin to accurately train in varied martial arts and movement techniques. The only other way to train a beast was to allow it to fight and sharpen its instincts to the point where its movements resembled martial arts. Lan Long was theorizing and picturing the heavy Ki from the Heavy staff manual in his mind and he didn''t need to put actual effort in his cultivation, he decided that this was the best time to train Little Kong. He grabbed the hamster and stuffed it into his sleeve as he left for the forest to find some bandits or beast as Little Kong training partners. With a single step, Lan Long exited the city and spread out his soul sense to blanket an area roughly equal to a billion kilometers. Although this was actually far from his actual limit, Lan Long imagined this area to have quite a lot of bandits and beasts. Although, the quality of the beast was rather disappointing, some bandits he found were actually at Late Ki sea realm. Satisfied, with his find, he took another step as he appeared in front of an unsuspecting snake, this particular snake was at Mid Ki gathering level. "Little Kong time to train. Use Low Ki gathering strength to fight off this snake with your stick. Remember to only use your stick." Lan Long said to Little Kong. The little hamster grew to the size of 2 meters and took out his staff. He soon began to hit the snake which about 20 meters long with the stick and destroyed the snake within a few breaths of time. Lan Long had underestimated the strength of the staff. "Okay, next time use this staff". Lan Long said as he threw a low mortal staff at Little Kong. The hamster caught the staff and twirled it around for a while. After getting used to the new staff, Lan Long took the hamster to his next opponent and each time he told Little Kong to use strength of two levels lower than his opponents. The next opponent was a Water jaguar. This beast was known for its cunning and frightening reflexes. As Little Kong grew accustomed to the jaguars moves, Lan Long immediately moved to the next opponent. Throughout the day, Little Kong was forced to suppress his strength to multiple levels lower than his opponent and was deprived of defeating any of them. This frustrated the little guy to an extent that he was trying to defeat him opponent before Lan Long could move to a different location. Subconsciously, Little Kong was growing more and more flexible and nimble with his staff. By the end of the day, Lan Long had to move the fight to next opponent within a minute. For Little Kong''s last battle of the day, Lan Long had chosen a lone bandit who was at Ki was at early Ki sea realm and was harassing a couple of Ki Condensing cultivators. "Now, take of all your clothes and hand over all your valuables immediately. You lady, remove your clothes slowly." The cultivator looked at the lady and smiled as he said the last part. Whoosh. . . "Okay, listen up mister. If you can defeat this beast, I will let you go or your fate will to dis as his hand." Lan Long immediately said as he nodded at Little Kong. "What the fu. . ." The bandit didn''t get to finish his sentence as he was attack mid-way by Little Kong''s staff. Without any choice, the bandit pulled out a sword and defended against Little Kong''s staff. Twang. . . The staff vibrated with at a tremendous frequency as it was abruptly stopped against the sword. The hamster pulled back the staff and flipped it in his hand, aiming to attack the bandit''s feet. The bandit was an experienced cultivator, he was accustomed to launching these type of swift attacks; he defended the next attack with ease as well. The bandit quickly stabbed at Little Kong''s neck but was stopped by the other end of the staff. The force sent Little Kong sliding backwards, the bandit then took a few steps back and look at Lan Long. "Why are you sending this weak beast to attack? If you have the balls, fight me yourself." The cultivator roared as he pointed his sword at Lan Long. Whoosh. With a single move, Lan Long closed the distance between him and the bandit and lightly grasped his neck. Bandit grew alarmed, he had never expected the masked man to be such an expert. The after image he left behind had not even faded away but Lan Long had closed the distance and caught his neck. "The only chance you have at life now, is to defeat the hamster. Now fight." Lan Long said in the bandit''s ear before he returned to his previous spot, reoccupying his after image. The bandit looked at Lan Long with a terrified look as he made his mind to fight the hamster and defeat it. The cultivator at such high strength seldom lied. The bandit made his move and attacked relentlessly. Although, Little Kong suffered many injuries, none were lethal. His fur was as strong as a Mid earth armor, capable of completely ignoring the attacks by a late Ki condensing cultivator. The cultivator who were being robbed were looking at the scene with wide eyes. They were ambushed by a Ki sea realm cultivator who was ambushed by a higher realm cultivator and was now fighting a hamster wielding a staff. The whole situation unheard of and no one would ever believe them if they told anyone. Lan Long looked at the cultivator and signaled them to leave. As they left, those cultivators saw the hamster whose fur was light brown was now covered with patched of blood. Little Kong although in pain, persevered looking for an opportunity to attack the bandit. He was so frustrated by the fact that Lan Long didn''t allow him to defeat any of his opponents he had completely forgotten that this was training exercise. His only goal now was to defeat this human before Lan Long took him away. Inadvertently, Little Kong''s skill with his staff was improving visibly. He was now blocking more hits from the cultivator and was even attempting to strike back. The bandit noticed this and as a result his attacks became even more berserk. The fight had now continued for almost two hours with the loss of any tempo; bandit was fighting for his life while Little Kong was fighting to defeat the bandit. These two hours were a major boost for Little Kong''s staff arts. He had even tried to use the moves Lan Long had showed him earlier, although unsuccessful, it showed that Little Kong was slowly gaining the understanding to the staff arts. His attacks were more fluid and heavy, his movements were minimal and precise. Little Kong was now blocking almost every attack, he had even gotten a few attacks in on the bandit. The animal instincts and the experience gained over the course of hundreds of battles were now merging. The bandit was didn''t believe for a single second that a beast with a stick could defeat him, a cultivator with more than 50 years of experience. He was still optimistic and believed that he could still win. Little Kong finally pushed bandit''s sword aside and swiftly pulled on the staff driving it straight into the man''s chest. Bandit immediately did a low sweep with his sword but Little Kong jumped into the air with the support of the staff. The sword met the staff and swept it aside but Little Kong using the same momentum from the sword, rotated the staff on to the bandit''s shoulder. Little Kong didn''t stop for a moment as he rotated the staff in the other direction and hit the man on his chest. Bandit felt that he was about to be thrown back and he executed a quick upwards slash. The scene looked almost choreographed, as Little Kong met the sword with the very edge of staff and carried the momentum around his body and hit the man''s chest again with the very moment from his sword. Bandit flew backwards and crashed into a tree, he tried to get up and coughed a few mouthfuls of blood finally passing out. Little Kong who had his very first victory squeaked out loud as he looked at Lan Long who was smile blissfully at him. The wounds and fatigue caught up with Little Kong as he passed out from exhaustion. Lan Long caught Little Kong and kept the staff away as he immediately began to heal Little Kong injuries. "Little Hamster, you have done it." Lan Long said as he gently wiped the blood and grime away from his little hamster''s fur. After healing Little Kong, Lan Long kept him back in his sleeve and looked to the sky, a proud look flashed on his face. He was genuinely happy for Little Kong, to see his pet hamster learning a new martial art was like watching a child take his first step him. Unknowingly, he had already comprehended the process of converting his Ki into heavy Ki, he already had the designs for the formations. Now the only thing to do was a field test. Soon, Lan Long relaxed his mind has drew up huge amounts of Ki from his dantian, almost about 20 percent and converted in entirely into the heavy Ki as described by the manual. The heavy Ki in of itself was completely weightless. The object or material that it was combined with would gain weight, Lan Long immediately picked up a pebble and infused it with the heavy Ki but to his surprise the pebble remained the same within his hands. "The hell, don''t tell me the can only be absorbed by staff and through the heavy staff arts." He tossed he pebble in his hand but the pebble was identical to the state it was before. "Dammit, what a waste of time." Frustrated, Lan Long threw the pebble into the sky and went to the bandit. He was in a pretty bad state so Lan Long healed him to the point of consciousness and told him to scram. The bandit who was happy as the day he had cultivated for the first time fled without looking back. "Now, back to the city. Maybe, I should visit the Cloud Inn again." Lan Long mused out loud as he took a few steps and arrived back in the courtyard of Jiang Long. Jiang Long was wide awake and was practicing his saber arts in the courtyard, he was surprised to see Lan Long appear. Without any explanation, Lan Long sat on the steps leading to the courtyard and watched Jiang Long practice. BOOM. . . rumble. . . rumble. . . A huge explosion was heard, south of the forest where Little Kong was fighting. Then the earth began to rumble and shake, it was like a minor earth quake and even had residual tremors follow it. Lan Long immediately sent out his soul sense, he had imagined a fight between two major power houses or an appearance of another treasure. The soul sense immediately revealed crater and larger cracks extending from the center of the crater. The crater itself was about a few dozen meter large while each crack was about half a kilometer wide at its start and thinned out as they extended outwards. At the center of the crater was a small pebble which was still falling into the earth at a slow rate. It was slowed down by a huge chuck of crystal ore about 5 kilometers into the ground. "Fuck, it''s this heavy." Lan Long mumbled as he controlled the bead to fly towards himself and immediately with drew the heavy Ki from the bead and stored in his dantian. Jiang Long watched from the side as he watched a small pebble land in Lan Long''s hand. "What is that?" He immediately asked. He was already suspicious of Lan Long''s involvement in the explosion and the bead that immediately followed after was a huge give away. "Just a pebble." LanLong said as he threw the pebble at Jiang Long who caught it. He tossed it afew times in his hand before tossing it away. The slightly heavier pebble by nomeans was an extraordinary find. 17 Ch 17 The Green village The explosion had immediately set the elder and branch leaders heading straight to the location of the explosion. The crater was acting like a basin for water, and now had a small lake at the center of it. The elders and branch leaders sent their soul sense into crater but failed to find the cause of such destruction. These kinds of craters were often formed as an after math of two supremely strong cultivators of at least Core realm but fights would usually last for many hours or days. Other reason would be, a cultivator was trying a new move and caused such destruction. "Hey, lizard bastard. Do you think there is a rogue cultivator of such strength roaming in your territory?" A Shi clans elder asked via soul sense transmission. "Seems so." The elder from Long clan replied. Although he was irked at the remark but current there were bigger problems at hand. "Second head to the headquarters and report immediately. Use a light stone to record the scene and hand it to the clan leader. Also, notify Tian Long. His wife can send reports to the royal clan." The branch leader immediately gave orders. Ming clan and Fire school followed suite. "This is either a false alarm or it is a great omen." The branch leader said as he immediately left the scene and headed back to the Salamander City. Soon, an old woman arrived on the scene and left swiftly. A dark mansion near the other end of the beast mountains was also buzzing with movement. This was the headquarters of the assassin guild, the golden arrow. Messengers and assassin were moving with rapid pace delivering information and to receive new missions. "Hmm, something is happening in Long territory. Increase the surveillance to maximum but cancel all missions to that area." The white robed man said as he looked at the projection of the crater Lan Long caused. "An emergence of a rogue power, this would symbolize the beginning of a storm or it would be nothing at all." The man mused as he concentrated on the projection. Salamander city. Long Clan Branch "Hmm, the ethereal Ki needs to be purged completely and be replaced with the Heavy ethereal Ki. Damn, so basically, I would be useless until all the Ki is replaced. Little Kong better get his fighting skill straight or else we are screwed in the beast mountains." Lan Long said as he prepared a few heavy beads as final resort. He then tied them to a string and made it in to a bracelet. He made his final preparations and began to set the Ki transmutation formation over his Ki gathering formations. Soon, Lan Long entire Ki sea was drained dry and was replaced with a few patches of Heavy Ki. He tried to move a stone a few meters away but failed. He was now only able to display the strength of a Peak Ki condensing body cultivator. If he used more strength than this, his foundations would be impacted. Soon, a Ki pressure enveloped the courtyard as Little Kong was making his breakthrough to Ki sea realm. The Ki pressure lasted about 10 minutes before vanishing. Squeak. . . Little Kong''s sharp voice sounded with in the court yard as he popped out of Lan Long''s sleeve and jumped around for a while. Jiang Long on the other hand felt the pressure at a really close range and was incapacitated by it. If other cultivator were present as close to Little Kong they would have burst in to a puddle guts and gore by now. "Was that the rat?" Jiang Long guessed as he saw the hamster, jumping around. "Yes. Also, Brother Jiang, have you made a breakthrough in your saber techniques?" Lan Long asked. He had wanted to take out Little Kong for another round of training but was now currently stranded with the strength of an ordinary peak Ki condensing realm. "Yes." Jiang Long exclaimed proudly. He had finally adjusted to using the sabers but currently unable to dual wield without using up horrendous amounts of Ki. He was capable of dual wielding for about 5 minutes before his Ki reserves ran dry. "Can you spar with Little Kong for a while solely using weapon skills? Little Kong is looking for a sparring partner to work his staff skills." Lan Long finally made his proposition clear. He had wanted to use Jiang Long as a moving target for Little Kong. "Sure." Jiang Long said as he moved to his personal training grounds. He took out the saber and assumed a low stance. He was calm in the face of the creature that had shamed him that day. He was also excited to face the hamster again, this time he would be ready. Little Kong squeaked as he grew to a normal hums size and stood on his hind legs and looked at Lan Long. Lan Long immediately took out the staff Little Kong had used the previous day and threw the staff at him. Little Kong immediately grabbed the staff and held it at his waist level. Soon, both Jiang Long and Little Kong moved at the same time and clashed at the center of the training ground. Jiang Long expertly moved his saber and moved the staff away from his body and in a swift motion attacked Little Kong''s face. Although Little Kong was nowhere near Jiang Long''s skill level, a beast reflexes were not to be underestimated by any means. Little Kong lowered his head and attacked Jiang Long''s legs. To this Jiang Long immediately jumped and executed another attack at Little Kong''s side; almost expecting this attack, Little Kong didn''t stop his staff but allowed it to travel around his body and continued to attack Jiang Long''s exposed side. Jiang Long had not expected this and had to immediately cancel his attack and assume a defensive stance with his saber. The staff and the saber connected with a huge noise and because Jiang Long was in the air. He had to take a few steps back to stabilize himself. A surprised look flashed across Jiang Long''s face as he stepped forward and attacked Little Kong in a weird angle. Soon, Jiang Long had manipulated the fight into his favor. Little Kong was only able to defend and didn''t have any opportunity to attack a single time. Unlike the cultivator Little Kong had faced earlier, Jiang Long was a prodigy of saber. He was extremely adaptable to fight conditions and had trained with a sword from his child hood. Jiang Long was still adapting his saber to be as fast as Little Kong''s reflexes and was almost reaching that point. Little Kong too was adjusting to Jiang Long''s immense skill with his saber. Although, Little Kong was unable to get a single hit in, Jiang Long also face the same problem. He too couldn''t land any hits on Little Kong. They both reached a stale mate and were exchanging attacks at frightening speeds, with neither side being able to gain any upper hand. "Okay. Stop. That''s enough." Lan Long said as he stopped the fight and took away Little Kong''s weapon. He looked at Jiang Long who was breathing heavily and inside his sleeve Little Kong was also exhausted. "Let''s do this once daily. It would be good for you as well as Little Kong." Lan Long declared as he walked back into the house and concentrated on inscribing the formations. Jiang Long was meditating on the insights he had gained from the spar. The fight had revealed many of his flaws, if he could amend these flaws, he would increase his fighting prowess even further. Little Kong with his low intelligence could not visualize and analyses the fight but he too realized his fighting prowess was lacking. He popped out of Jiang Long''s sleeve and broke off a small twig from a tree outside and began to train with that. After, a few hours Lan Long had completed his formations and was looking at Little Kong who was trying to practice with a twig in his palm sized body. Little Kong soon gave up out of frustration and scurried out of the room. With nothing to do Lan Long put on his mask and visited the Cloud Inn and ordered the best dishes and fruit wines. He then visited a clothing line and gave a very peculiar order of an English suit, 3 pieces of course and several orders of t shirts and shorts and jeans. The tailors were baffled at such variety of clothing; these clothes were tighter than what women''s dresses and very uncomfortable. Tailors made those orders in a matter of minutes and handed them to Lan Long. He paid the bills and headed to an accessory shop and looked at things before leaving towards the weapons shop and repeated the process for nearly every business line with either strange orders or none what so ever. Lan Long spent his very first day behaving as a normal teenager but without friends of course. Lan Long even visited the slave market, in the city, he pitied the in slaved but chose not to free any of them. These people were trained to only respond to their masters and would eventually go crazy id they were to be ever released. Lan Long also visited the beast trades men where he saw beast varying from a normal cat to a seven-headed python with its each head a different color. He also visited a martial art library and bought a few basic level staff arts for Little Kong to study. He was not able to find any sort of beast manual pertaining to the cultivation of a beast. With that final shop the day ended, Lan Long returned to Jiang Long''s courtyard and was about to enter his room when he heard the voice of Su Ming. "Yes, it would be fine. Besides we would have brother lazy accompanying us." Su Ming said in a quite exasperated voice. "That''s not the point. We would instinctually be expecting his help in a crisis and it would hamper our own development." Jiang Long argued back. "We can ask him to not help us unless we absolutely had no choice or are about to be killed." Su Ming suggested. "It might work but true adventures are often sought alone." Jiang Long said in a very intelligent fashion. Lan Long laughed and entered the room and took a seat in front of both of them. He then produced a glass and poured a fruit wine for himself. Lan Long took a small sip and looked at both Jiang Long and Su Ming who were shocked to see Lan Long just enter into the room and act so casually. "Well then. I suppose you were discussing about when I am to help you out." Lan Long said with a smile. "Brother Lazy, we were discussing if it would be better for us to adventure on our own." Su Ming tried to break the awkward atmosphere. "well, for the next 6 weeks or so, I would not be of any assistance of what so ever. I am consolidating by foundation and preparing for a breakthrough so no Ki expenditure for me." Lan Long said as he took another sip of the wine. "So, you are going to stay here." Jiang Long mused out loudly. "Sadly no. I am still leaving for the village and I will venture into deeper reaches of the mountain. You guys will eventually have to adventure with me but not now. Where else do you thing I will find such quality sparring partners for Little Kong." Lan Long said with a smile. "Brother Lazy you can''t just be careless about preparing for a breakthrough. What if something happens during the break through, you would need assistance of an elder." Su Ming said, genuinely worried about Lan Long. "There is nothing for. . ." Lan Long didn''t get to complete his sentence as Little Kong broke through the door and began to squeak loudly, almost trying to say something to Lan Long. He also had a small cloth sack in his hands. Little Kong in his palm sized body had an even small cloth sack in his hands. It was barely the size of a pebble. Little gently set it down and pulled out a baby kitten size of a pea. It still had not opened its eyes and was looking quite dull for a mewling Kitten. "That''s a baby palm cat. Little Kong where did you find it." Su Ming said as she sat down in front of Little Kong and looked at the small kitten. "What there are such a small species of cats?" Lan Long said in a surprised voice. "Yes, these things are used for their aesthetic value and nothing else. They have a measly life span of half a year and are quite rare. No one in Salamander city would breed these things. They require a lot of care for same glorified gifts. Their species will soon face extinction as no one will be breeding these things." Jiang Long said and he looked at the kitty from afar. Lan Long had immediately decided to save the kitty as Little Kong had brought her in. Lan Long gently lifted the Kitty and placed it in his palm and immediately began to heal it. Soon, the kitty''s skin turned pink as its breathing became no visible. The kitty slowly opened its eyes and looked at Lan Long before it went to sleep. By the time, it was comfortably sleeping in Lan Long''s palm, he had already decided to keep it. Lan Long immediately ordered a servant to bring so milk and carefully fed the kitty drop by drop. Lan Long started to inscribe it with the formations as soon as it had finished drinking. Soon, the night had gone by and a new day begun. As promised, the three met at the Salamander City''s main entrance and left for the green village. During the journey, Jiang Long and Little Kong sparred daily, sometimes even Su Ming helped out but most of the time she would quietly train in her sword arts. Only ever sparring to confirm her insights or to disprove them. Su Ming would often hold Little Kong and Little Qing, playing with them till her heart''s content. Lan Long would spend his day lying down and concentrating on gathering the heavy Ki. The formations that converted the elemental Ki to ethereal Ki would be working constantly but the formation to convert Ethereal Ki to heavy ethereal would only work only when his normal Ki would gather about the required limit. The conversion would convert his entire Ki reserve worth of into a tiny one percent of Heavy Ki and to gather and to gather that much Ki required him about a day. This meant that Lan Long was trapped at his current predicament for about a little more than three months'' time. Even with his level of insight in to the dao, Lan Long was only able to maintain this rate. A normal Ki sea realm artist would require about 3 to 4 days to replenish his entire Ki reserve from scratch, considering this this, what Lan Long was doing was absolutely amazing. In an ordinary fight, Lan Long could last up to 4 time longer than any other person with heavy Ki if that person didn''t have Lan Long''s level of insight in to nature. Soon, a month passed and the trio finally reached the Green village. They soon discovered that almost all the villagers busy setting up blockades and placing traps and digging trenches around the Green Village. Ignoring the commotion, the trio made their way to the herbalist family. This was the only place that had a semblance of peace in the entire village. The whole mansion was covered in layers of formations and the material of the buildings were of much higher level than the village. 18 Ch 18 Compensating? "Guests, if you are here to help with the beast tide. Please, continue along that way until you reach the guard mansion. If you are here regarding the mission, please follow me." An attendant said in a polite voice as he turned around and walked into the mansion. The trio soon followed, they were guided to a guest mansion of the family and allotted a room each. The mansion had a common courtyard and a common dining hall and a huge lobby. The lobby was littered with cushions and tables, maids and servants were serving wines and some dishes to the people in the lobby. A particular man with a huge sword by his side was getting far more attention from the servers and other people, there were a few beauties throwing flirtatious glances at the man while a few men were trying to chalk up a conversation with him. This man was 20 years old and was at late Ki condensing realm. He noticed the trio that had entered the room, to him, this particular group was very peculiar. A masked man who looked way too young to be of any high level, a young beauty with a warm face clearly of fire school and a cold faced man of Long clan. The group didn''t even cast a second glance at the man as the took a seat in a secluded corner and signaled for a maid. "What is going on in the village?" Jiang Long asked the maid. "Lords may have not heard about the beast tide of the beast mountains. Every decade, a huge number of beasts would descend the mountains and ravage the lands around the mountains. Every time a roar of a mortal core beat would be heard a week before the beast horde arrives. The roar was heard 3 days ago, and the tide will arrive 4 days from now." The maid slowly explained the commotion outside as she poured tea for the trio. "If lords are unsure of your safety. The Fan clan allows anyone to leave the village. Lords can return after the tide has passed." The maid said as she handed the tea to the trio. Lan Long lifted his mask just above his mouth and took a sip. The maid immediately knew that he was no more than 15 years of age. Lan Long took out a small cup size of a thumb and poured the tea into it. He then took out another bowl as small as the little finger and poured a few drops of tea into it. Soon, a tiny cat and palm sized hamster appeared, the hamster took the tiny cup and drank it in a very human like fashion while the kitten licked the tea with her cute little tongue. The maid unconsciously petted the hamster and kitten, before freaking out. It was considered a taboo to touch someone beast without their consent. Many cultivators had lost their lives to such an offence, there was a Clan which as their specialty was into beast taming, they would tame many beasts and nurture them to their best potential. Soon, each member of the Clan had tens of beast at minimum while the elder and the stronger people would have hundreds or even thousands. The name of this Clan was Jing, they were situated a few million miles from the village and would participate in the beast tide without fail. The younger generation of the clan would capture many beast for themselves and the clan. Since, it was a major help, none of the other clans minded their interference. There were clans the excelled in speed, puppetry, strength, defense, and even sexual cultivation. There were other infamous clans such as soul charm clan, blood clan, black lotus clan and the golden arrow. The soul charm clan had an illusion technique which would rid the cultivator of his conscious mind, turning him into a mindless puppet. The blood clan member could only increase their cultivation by absorbing blood Ki, for this reason their members would often go on killing sprees and massacres. The black lotus clan was in comparison very tame, they used poison as their weapon, which was a branch of alchemy. They were not considered evil like the other two clans but their victims never died a clean death. If someone ever offended a poison master, they would live in constant fear of poison. Sometimes, the victim wouldn''t even realize that he was poisoned until he suffered from organ failure or until it''s too late. "Brother Lazy, Little Qing looks quite big for her age. Did you use a medicine of some sort?" Su Ming asked. The little cat had grown too quickly, it had been a little over a month but the kitty was almost fully grown. Her body was covered with pure white fur which was luxurious to touch. It was soft and had a sleek silkiness to it unlike Little Kong who was a ball of soft fluff. "No, it happened by itself." Lan Long said in a calm voice. The nature of strength and growth of his pets could not be told to anyone. "Hey, the man with the sword is looking over here. Maybe, he has some intentions." Jiang Long said as he grew uncomfortable under an unknown gaze. Jiang Long turned around and looked directly at the man and after a bit of time he looked continued to drink tea like nothing happened. "Why did you do that?" Su Ming questioned, she too had grown uncomfortable but she was used to stares in her direction. "No reason. Just wanted to see the reaction. WATCH OUT." Jiang Long yelled at the end as he moved sideways without standing up dodging the huge sword cleanly. The sword continued on it way straight to Lan Long, who just flicked his finger at the tip of the sword and cancelled all its momentum and balanced it on his pinky finger. He then spun the sword about its tip as he sipped his tea with another hand. The man was surprised that his attack was cancelled like thrown candy but surprised him further was the fact that he could no longer call his sword back. The sword was made with thunder steel and weighed over 500 kilos, it was over two meters tall, 5 centimeters thick and 30 centimeters wide throughout. The man finally stood up and walked over to the trio and stared intently at Lan Long who was sipping tea leisurely. "Young man, the sword." The tall man said in a low voice. He was domineering and proud. Judging by his attitude, heavy swords suited him perfectly. "Hmmm, I have taken quite a liking to this sword. Thanks for gifting it to me." Lan Long said as he continued to spin the sword on his finger. He simply couldn''t wait and swiftly moved in front of Lan Long and grabbed the swords hilt. Lan Long in return grabbed the sword in between his fore finger and middle finger, still refusing to stop drinking tea. The man then tried to dislodge the sword from Lan Long''s fingers but failed. He then tried to use his Ki to move the sword but failed again. "Brother, please." He said in a low voice, desperation evident in his face. "It was my fault. I apologies." The man then immediately turned his tone from domineering to polite in an instant. Jiang Long and Su Ming were surprised to the max. From the tone, this man was no more than 17, just a little older than both of them. Lan Long smiled and let go of the sword, he had sensed the attachment this young man had to the sword. He then signaled the man to sit down. "Do tell me. Why a silk pant such as your self is out at green village during the beast tide?" Lan Long questioned as he continued to drink tea. Lan Long was able to guess that this was a sheltered kid judging by the severe lack of killing intent and the sword that was thrown was not even aimed at Jiang Long''s head. Even if Jiang Long had failed to dodge, he would have only had a graze on his shoulder. The kids lack of pride at the last moment was his true self, he was not a warrior. The statement when he had stared intently at Lan Long was lacking any substance, if Jiang Long had stared at anyone at the same level as himself, he would induce almost crippling fear in anyone. "Hey, I am not a silk pant. You are a silk pants, your whole family is a silk pants." The young man retorted in a hap hazard fashion. His face was red as he had said this. Lan Long was immediately stumped at the reply, he wanted to smack the man, he also wanted burst out laughing. SMACK. . . Jiang Long ha smacked the man''s head and Su Ming had burst into laughter. They could not bear to see such a burly man with such a weird personality. Finally, the trio had not been able to contain themselves and laughed. This was too delightful. "Brother, tell us your name." Lan Long said after he calmed down. "Huang Ren. Listen, I am not a silk pants don''t call me that." Huang Ren said in a serious tone which induced another round of giggles from the group. "What? If you don''t stop, I will complain to Uncle Tian and get your ass kicked. Yes, I know a very significant elder from your Long clan." Huang Ren said in a proud voice. This introduced another round of laughter mainly from Lan Long and Jiang Long. Su Ming was confused as she still didn''t know Lan Long''s identity. "How do you know him?" Lan Long asked after he had calmed down, again. He was quite curious, this man knew his father and going by the name, he may as well be from his mother''s clan. "I am his relative." Huang Ren said. He was looking intently at Jiang Long, as if expecting an apology. "So, you are actually related to Lady Su." Lan Long said in a very calm manner as he sipped his tea. "What you even know aunty Su?" Huang Ren said in shock. Poor, man didn''t even know basics of negotiation and etiquette of responding to questions, He didn''t even try to hide any information. "Brother Huang, are you here for experience or are you on a mission?" Lan Long asked changing the subject immediately. He had realized that, Huang Ren was very new to the whole adventuring scenario and was will to accept him into his group. "Father sent me out to adventure. I initially wanted to join the guard mansion but Chief of green village wouldn''t allow me. He said that fighting some common beast was beneath my status. Ha-ha." Huang Ren tone was dripping with pride. Poor chief had to deal with such a brat, even lowered himself to praise him in order to bait him in to protection. After all, this brat was from the royal family. If something were to happen to him, this entire village would be sentenced to death. "Sister Ming, can you spar with him for a few moments. Don''t worry about his cultivation." Lan Long asked Su Ming in a very low voice. He was sure that Huang Ren had zero combat experience, fighting Su Ming who was an expert sword artist would help Huang Ren tremendously. Huang Ren who no knowledge of Lan Long''s conversation with Su Ming, was now completely enamored with the two cute pets. If was a very unsettling to see such a huge man cooing and cuddling two small beasts. "Brother Huang, do you like small pets, too?" Su Ming asked Huang Ren, who was holding the two-small creature close to his face and was making so baby noises. "Yes, but father gave me a dragon snake instead of a small cat which I asked. Although, the snake is nice. I prefer, small fuzzy animals." Huang Ren said absently as he was still rubbing face on Little Kong. Jiang Long on other hand had already crushed his tea cup in his hand, he was too frustrated by Huang Ren''s response. A Dragon Snake was a type of winged snake with dragon blood line. At later stage of cultivation, there was a chance for the snake to turn into a real dragon. Instead of cherishing the Snake, Huang Ren instead wanted a cat. Su Ming giggled lightly and went closer to Huang Ren and took Little Qing into her hand and gently patted its head. "Brother Huang, can we spar a bit later. I have always wanted to fight a heavy sword user." Su Ming asked. "Sure." Huang Ren agreed almost immediately. "So, his sword was compensating for something." Jiang Long finally made a remark about the huge sword, chuckling to himself. "Compensating for an utter lack of brain." Lan Long shot back as they laughed and finished their tea. Lan Long signaled Little Kong to come to him and almost instantly Little Kong disappeared from Huang Ren''s hand and appeared on Lan Long''s shoulder. Su Ming handed Little Qing to Lan Long and the group went outside. They soon left the green village and arrived at a desolate spot in the wilderness. Huang Ren who was still slightly dejected about Little Kong taken away took out his sword and held it in front of him. Su Ming drew her sword and immediately clashed with Huang Ren. The sound of metal clashing resonated within the woods, followed by grunting noises which soon turned into screams of pain. Soon, the group exited the group Jiang Long was holding a very unconscious Huang Ren, Lan Long was teasing Su Ming about her brutality with Jiang Long laughing at her embarrassment. She had attacked Huang Ren with her complete strength and had rendered him unconscious. Poor Huang Ren, who had little to no experience in fighting was completely overpowered by Su Ming who was a seasoned fighter after her clashes with death and desperation. Huang Ren was not capable of using the heavy sword as an effective weapon and he didn''t have any attacking arts he was completely familiar with. Soon, the group found a restaurant and retired into a room. Lan Long had already healed Huang Ren, so he woke up during the trio''s meal and immediately threw a tantrum. "Sister Ming, that was completely unfair. If you are so strong why do you bully the weak? I didn''t even offend you, yet you still beat me so badly. You must apologies immediately, if not I will tell everyone that you like to bully the weak." Huang Ren stopped as he was the dishes and forgot about the rant he was going on and on about. "Brother Huang, in our group, injuries during a sparring match are common. If you want an apology, defeat her." Lan Long said with an authority. "You, I will defeat you. Just you wait and see." Huang Ren said with a mouth full of food and went back to eating. Su Ming smiled at Huang Ren''s antiques and finished her quietly. The group soon left the restaurant and arrived at their mission quarters.