As he opened his eyes again, he saw a roof and was able to make out some sounds of pots and pans being rattled around in what was presumably the kitchen of this house.
He was on a bed, under a blanket. He sat up and immediately checked his palms. They were bandaged and from what he gathered, there were a lot of poultices applied as well. Other than a constant numbing and pricking sensation, he didn't feel anything else if he didn't move his hands.
'Just clapping my palms as they are covered in Yin and Yang Qi, caused this, to my body? And that wolf was obliterated even though it was a peak Tier 1 monster. No , it was even more powerful as his middle layer Soul Tier body had huge damage because of it.
This probably does not happen to others as they usually use only one type of Qi. I don't think 'Layers of Chaos' technique was supposed to be used like this, or maybe it is. But it seems like the beginnings of a different technique.
I'll name it the 'Yin and Yang clap'. I'll also need to think about what level of the clap my body can withstand so that it can be used in actual battle without compromising myself.'
As Luo was deep in his thoughts thinking about his battle experience, a small girl peeked from behind the kitchen wall.
"You're awake!! How do you feel? Are you in a lot of pain?? Do you want some food? How about I change the bandages? Ahh, I saw your battle towards the end. You're so strong. They would've killed me like the rest of the village if not for you, so thank you. But how come you're so stro.."
"Whoaa, wait, wait. Calm down. One question at a time. What are you, a chatterbox?"
The little girl came closer. She was a little thing, barely four feet tall, with her jet black hair clipped in a bun, kept in place with the help of an ornately carved jade hairpin. The hairpin was long, with a carved snake running along it and it's mouth opened into a carving of a four leaf clover, as if trying to eat it.
Luo observed her as she came over and without saying another word, as if she was pouting at what he said earlier, began to slowly change his bandages. He saw her cheeks puff up like a balloon in a childish pout and he laughed. "Why are you pouting?"
"Because you called me a chatterbox. I will not speak to you again. Hmph!"
"But you just did."
"Did Not!"
"You did it again. Hahaha, you are such an adorable idiot. Anyway, leave the pouts and tell me what's your name."
She did not respond this time so Luo suddenly yanked his hands away. "What are you doing?? I'm changing the bandages. It will cause you more pain if you move it abruptly like that. Are you an idiot? Give me the hands back."
"Only if you tell me your name. I did save you, you know. Or who knows, you might have been the meal of one of those wolves and probably even be digested by now. HAHAHA"
Her cheeks lost color at this thought and she finally said "My name is Xun Yu. What is yours?"
"Now see, was that so hard? I am Luo LianHao and it's nice to meet you little sister Xun."
"Little sister?"
"Yes, seeing as how little you are, I'm calling you Little sister" She didn't really care for his joke and continued changing his bandages.
"Then, big brother Luo, you will be my big brother?" "Yeah, why not?"
"You know that all the villagers are dead, including my family?"
"Uhhhhhh…"
"And that means if you're my big brother, I can now only follow you and you will have to take care of me?"
"Uhhhhhh…"
She finished tying his bandages and rose up in a flourish as she came close and kissed him on his cheek "Then it's settled, you will be my big brother Luo and Xun Yu will be your adorable little sister." With that she suddenly ran into the kitchen, leaving Luo feeling perplexed.
He brushed off these thoughts and inquired Master Yin 'Master Yin, if I keep using the layers of Chaos and extracting only one type of Qi , what will happen if there is a lot of deficit and my Qi skews either towards pure Yang or pure Yin Qi?'
'It's not a big problem. But you have to be careful in the initial realms as it can hurt your body. Your body will be able to completely withstand it once you're in the Virtual disaster realm.'
"Vir...Virtual Disaster…??[1] But that's so far away. What will happen till then?'
'You know, you ask too many questions. Figure it out for yourself or how will you grow?'
'Whaat!! Finee, I will figure out a solution for this myself'
"By the way, Xun, why was your village attacked and all the wolves seemed to be focussed on you. Is there a reason for that?"
Xun walked up to him and said " Well, how would I know that?"
"Fair enough, I suppose. Anyway, who taught you how to bandage and make medicine?"
Xun beamed at this "My father taught me. He was an alchemist and the village doctor. He used to teach me all sorts of things."
She then realized that her family had died and grew sad again. Luo saw this and patted her on her head "It's going to be okay."
She showed a small smile "Your hands suffered a lot of damage. I think it will take you at least a month for them to heal."
"Nooo! I only have two months left to improve my cultivation for the exam."
"I am sorry brother. Because of me you got these injuries."
Luo suddenly felt awkward and waved his hands apologetically "No no. I mean I will still have a month left after my hands heal. That should be enough for your genius brother to venture into the forest to find herbs and treasures."
Xun suddenly had a naughty smile as she put her hands into a nearby bag and pulled out glowing Tier1 monster cores.
" That...are those the cores of the wolves I killed? You even got the alpha's core. Look at it, so green and glowing. It's my first time seeing a beast core. The Alpha's core has a different color."
"So this should help brother cultivate here, right? You can stay here for a month until your hands heal." She looked at him with puppy eyes which made him smile with affection.
"Yes yes. But we should clean up the village. Disease can spread if we leave all those bodies out there. We should clean it up tomorrow. I can help with things that don't require my hands...hehehe"
"En. Let's do that tomorrow."
The next day, after Xun changed his bandages again, Luo went out to survey the damage. As he surveyed a few bodies, he saw that there were a few cultivators in the Gathering Qi realm among the bodies as well.
Cultivation was a hard path and not suitable for everyone. Even if some have the aptitude and cultivate, like the villagers in front of him, breaking through requires immense resources and luck, so they just live with their basic cultivation skills for their entire lives.
Xun kept up with him as he surveyed the village. He saw that some of the beasts he had killed had their guts cut, probably the doing of Xun as she collected beast cores. He then saw that the Alpha's coat was rich and probably had some defense properties 'I should collect these skins and sell them later' As he saw the number of bodies another thought occurred to him.
'Why would the wolves come into the village and attack everyone? Even if they were hungry, a few people should have been enough. Why did they have to kill more than 50 people? Something feels wrong about this. Wolves are clever and only pick battles for practical reasons.
What reason could there be for them to go killing the entire village? Could it be the actions of some powerful young lord? But what could possibly be here?'
He immediately looked at Xun, who saw him and smiled warmly. 'Could it be because of her? If so, maybe I should get out of here quickly with her? Master Fu Lin should be able to make sense of this.'
"Xun , change of plans. We're going to leave quickly. Help me skin this alpha wolf and then we will gather food and your belongings quickly and leave this place." Xun was surprised by what he said but nodded yes.
After Xun carefully skinned the Alpha wolf's coat, they then changed into different clothes and gathered foodstuffs from the now empty houses. He gave her time to gather a few personal artifacts and then they began their way back to Xian town in just a few hours.
They encountered a merchant's cart after a few hours of walking and the merchant agreed to give them a ride to Xian town as he was passing through there as well.
After a journey of three days, they reached Xian town. Luo thanked the merchant and with Xun following behind him, he made his way to his shack.
#Glossary
Currently known Cultivation levels:
1.Gathering Qi2. Qi Condensation3. True foundation4. Core formation5. Virtual disaster realm"Ta da. This is my home. Well now it is our home" Luo said as he pointed towards his wooden shack with just one bed. Xun had a peculiar expression on her face, as she struggled between showing thanks to him and showing disgust at the condition the room was in. She finally settled on a forced smile "Great. It looks gr-great brother." After settling down and having some food, Xun changed his bandages again. "It's getting late, we should sleep." Luo said to Xun. "Who gets the bed?" "Who? Me of course. HAHAHA" "You know if you weren't hurt trying to protect me, I would've made you sleep on the floor. Hmph." " Made me? Did you say MADE ME? How would you have done that?" "You will find out." Luo was surprised at this little girl's stubbornness, but this kind of a silly fight made him feel warm as well. He never had anyone to fight with in silly ways. He smiled as he looked at her when she said "What?" " Nothing. Of co
A month passed and Luo reached the peak of the 3rd layer in Gather Qi and Xun reached the 6th layer. Luo's hands healed but scar tissue formed over his palms and obscured all the lines on his hand."Xun, it has been a month now and my hands have also healed. We have one more month for the summer competition and I should go to the Dai Shan forest like I originally planned to increase my cultivation.""Okay brother. I will meet you at the competition directly.""En. Sounds good. You can come there with Master Fu Lin. Don't forget to get the jade slip of the Ancient Zither Abode before the competition." Xun nodded to this and Luo departed towards the Dai Shan forest.After running for three days, taking breaks when he could, the scenery slowly changed around him. He could tell that he was nearing the Dai Shan forest by the increase in the density of Spiritual Qi in the surroundings.As he made his way inside he started to s
Just as they were congratulating themselves, a Tier 2 lord Naga monster, which was double their size and had blood red scales appeared in front of them from the mist. It looked at its dead brethren and let out a shrilling scream filled with hate. It was also a mental attack and all the half step cultivators except Luo passed out.Luo was guarded from the attack by Master Yin 'I'll guard against its mental attacks. You can take care of it without any worries.''Thanks master. I won't let you down.'Luo went alongside Ma Jiande as he prepared to attack it. The Qi condensation cultivators had not passed out but it was a strong mental attack and only Ma Jiande was unaffected. "Luo, it seems it's just you and me. Don't piss your pants now.""In your dreams brother."Luo asked him if he had a finisher attack with his machete and Jiande said "I do but that thing's defense is very hard. It won't pierce through.""You let me worry about that and prep
He came out from cultivation and saw that the Tier 3 monster outside had been killed by someone and he could see the signs of a bloody battle. He packed the remaining Blood essence fruits to give Xun and came out of the hollow in the branch.'My body is as strong as peak True foundation disciples now, so I should be good in battles. But I should probably focus on a movement technique for use in battle. My current moves are strong but predictable.''Good thinking Brat. Good movement techniques are a must. I will not help you explicitly by giving you a technique, but I can let you view how I use them and come to your own deductions.''That would help as well master. Your movement techniques must be very profound.'' HAHAHA, of course, they are. They are the profoundest of them all. HAHAHAHA!'Luo rolled his eyes at master Yin's smugness but was excited to learn the techniques. 'This one should do. This is one of the most exciting battles of my life.
Luo now decided to start for the summer competition. Xian town was to his east now and headed Northeast towards Kumji town, north of Xian town, where the Summer competition would be held.He just started running out of the forest, all the while practicing the 'Wave' portion of the Iron and Wave steps as he zipped past the Dai Shan forest at high speeds.After running like that for 2 days, he reached Kumji town with the competition being hosted in 3 more days. The city was already bustling with people coming in from different sects to attend the competition. Lamps were hung in the streets and the shops were decorated gaily.There was a kind of festive mood everywhere. Most of the inns were already occupied, so Luo had to search for a while until he found some boarding for a few nights and paid the rent. He slept through the night and woke up late, getting all the travel tiredness out of him.He washed up, had some breakfast and with the blood essence
Ignoring Cai MingZhu, two disciples who were twins, suddenly went near Luo and as they surrounded him, constantly looking at him from various angels they introduced each other. "We are the nightingale twins of the Ancient Zither Abode. This is Zhong Bai, my brother.""And this is Zhong Gui, my brother. Now, you should introduce yourself."Luo was amused at this and introduced himself "I am Luo LianHao, nice to meet you."The other apprentice, a scrawny girl with a flat chest and short,wild brown hair looked at Luo with disinterest. As their eyes met, Luo smiled "Hello sister, I am Luo LianHao, what would your name be?""Hmm. My name is Hao Qi". She looked at him up and down and carried on with her business.Luo also introduced himself to Cai Mingzhu but she did not grace him with a reply, so he shrugged and moved to the registration counter with Xun.After entering their names for the competition, master Fu Lin bi
As everyone, about 500 who passed out of the 5000 applicants, shuffled into the next building for the test, they were allotted different rooms based on their token numbers. Luo and Xun found their room and started walking into it. Cao Mingzhu , Zhong Bai and Gui and Hao Qi were also in the same room as them.The test began after the instructors explained the rules and gave out written tests with questions that checked their approaches to different problems. Cao and Luo at once began to tear into it and started answering their questions.Xun looked at all the questions and she didn't recognize half of them. The other half were as master Fu Lin had made her practise. The Zhong brothers started meditating and listening to the tempo of the brush strokes of Luo and Cao who were answering the questions vigorously.They found the rhythm in it and started using their own brushes to replicate that rhythm and answers started flowing from their hands as well.Hao Qi
Master Gu Ryu bade all of the applicants to move to the open ground for the next round of testing and everyone followed his orders."All right. Now for testing how much of the 36 walls of Soul you all have comprehended." He then expanded his Qi and his Martial will with the intent to kill, gushed out from him. This was to put pressure on the soul or to test out the mental defense of those around them.Hua Geming comprehended the soul defense technique until the peak of the 4th wall of Soul and he immediately put his soul defense up. While it was still hard for him and he was feeling a little suffocated under the pressure he withstood it.Cai MingZhu had comprehended till the 3rd layer and had broken through to the 9th layer of Gathering Qi. The Zhing Gui and Zhong Bai Twins also comprehended till the 3rd layer but their cultivation had not progressed enough for a breakthrough. These three were finding it very suffocating under the pressure but were able to withs