Chapter 10: fate stealing pearl
Li Xuan pushed open the door.
“What, do you want to be the oriole? Burn me to death?”
Zhao Tianniu scratched the back of his head awkwardly and handed the torch to Li Xuan, “What oriole? If Xuan’er wants to eat birds, I’ll take a few people up the mountain to get some another day!”
“Tonight is moonless; we brothers were worried Xuan’er couldn’t see the way clearly…”
Li Xuan took the torch.
“Heh! Go inside and clean up! There’s a cloth bag in that courtyard; you should have heard it outside just now.”
“While money is good, I, Li Xuan, only wish for my elder brother to pass peacefully…”
“Ai! Ai!”
He sighed heavily twice.
“Xuan’er is benevolent!”
As soon as Li Xuan left, more than a dozen Zhao Family men who had surrounded the Village Head’s house rushed in, scrambling over each other.
When they saw the courtyard full of headless corpses and heads with wide-open, unseeing eyes, a strong sense of nausea shot straight to their Spiritual Aperture!
“Ugh!”
“Ugh…”
Zhao Tianniu suppressed his nausea and picked up the burlap bag on the ground.
As soon as he opened it, an incomparably foul smell assaulted him.
With a clang, Zhao Tianniu fell to the ground!
…
In the Li Family courtyard.
Li Xi’s eyes were slightly closed, and his fingers tapped rhythmically on his arm, but his constantly shifting steps showed his anxiety.
Li Ling looked towards the courtyard gate, clutching an iron awl in his hand, eager to try.
“Grandpa, Uncle Zhao’s Family has already come to seek medical help, which means the Sun Family matter has already been resolved. Why hasn’t Second Uncle returned yet?”
After the Zhao Family arrived, Li Ping called his three grandsons back.
“Ling’er, curb your impatience, don’t speak too much, just wait patiently!”
“Grandpa, could it be that Second Uncle also fell victim to the allure of that money? Should we think of a way to prepare for Second Uncle, and perhaps also gain a bit of favor from the Zhao Family?”
Li Liangyu frowned and spoke faintly.
“Could it be that Elder Brother is still interested in Zhao Tianniu’s Er Ni?”
“Third Brother, I…”
With a creak, Li Xuan pushed the door open and entered.
“Father, not a single one was missed!”
Seeing Li Xuan safe and sound, the stone in Li Ping’s heart finally dropped.
“It’s late; everyone go to sleep!”
“Grandpa, then…” Li Liangyu was about to speak when Li Xi suddenly pulled him towards the house.
“Elder Brother! Go to sleep!”
Li Ling pouted, ran to Li Xuan, looked him over, and even dared to dip his finger in the blood on Li Xuan’s blade and put it in his mouth.
Li Xuan slapped him on the forehead and scolded with a laugh:
“You audacious little monkey, scram to sleep!”
Sleep, how could he sleep?
Tonight, the Village Head’s house’s mournful wails echoed throughout the entire village. Every household tightly shut their doors and windows, fearing that “mountain bandits” would break into their homes.
Li Xuan didn’t sleep well either. He had just gone outside the village to retrieve the valuables buried under the dead tree.
He put the gold and silver aside and picked up the pearl to examine it carefully.
Outside the door, Li Ping’s voice came.
“Go to bed early; there isn’t much pine oil left…”
Li Xuan responded and blew out the lamp.
He sat upright on the bed for a while until he heard faint snoring from next door, then lit the lamp again.
The pearl was perfectly round, half the size of an egg, exuding a hazy gray aura, like a mushroom that had just broken through the soil, spewing out spores.
“Precious pearl, oh precious pearl, what exactly are you for? How should I use you!”
This was the most treasure-like item on Huang Lij, and Li Xuan dared not underestimate it in the slightest.
Li Xuan picked up a small knife, cut his palm, and dripped blood onto it.
He waited for half a quarter of an hour, but nothing happened.
“The method is wrong! Do I need to activate it with a Cultivator’s magic power?”
Li Xuan refused to give up, cut another opening, squeezed out half a bowl of blood, and completely submerged the pearl in the blood.
Half an hour later, the pearl began to emit a faint glow, like a firefly in the night, vast and indistinct.
The blood at the bottom of the bowl also began to decrease, and Li Xuan was overjoyed, adding more blood to the bowl again.
Half an hour later, the pearl flew up and burrowed into Li Xuan’s abdomen.
“This is… Ah!”
Li Xuan hadn’t even reacted when his abdomen suddenly experienced immense pain, as if a small knife was digging at his flesh little by little.
Li Xuan forced himself to stay conscious, sat cross-legged, and tried to steady his breathing.
Suddenly, a massive amount of information poured into his mind, and Li Xuan could no longer hold on, falling into a coma.
…
“Hoo hoo hoo ~”
Li Xuan suddenly sat up, gasping for air, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
He turned his head and saw Li Ping sitting beside him, holding a paper talisman, his eyes glinting.
“Father!”
“Don’t worry, none of them saw these things; I chased them all out!”
“You’re too tired; oversleeping is perfectly normal; no one will suspect…”
Li Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, “Father, how long have I been unconscious?”
“It’s already noon the next day!”
Hearing this, Li Xuan could no longer suppress the excitement in his heart and chuckled softly.
“Does Father recognize these items?”
A trace of reminiscence and fervor flashed in Li Ping’s eyes, “When I fled to this place, I saw an Immortal use this item; this is an Immortal’s item!”
“No, this is my son’s prey!”
Li Xuan briefly recounted the process of slaying the Cultivator.
Li Ping’s breathing quickened as he listened!
An Immortal!
My son actually slew an Immortal!
Even though Li Xuan spoke lightly, how could Li Ping not guess the danger involved!
“Can my son become an Immortal?”
Li Xuan was safe here now, so pursuing the dangerous process was meaningless. What was most important now was:
Could his Li Family cultivate with this Immortal’s relic!
Mortals have clans and Families, and Cultivators naturally have Immortal Families. Li Ping had heard that in Baishui County, there were several Immortal Families.
They soared high and low every day, and each Immortal Family owned tens of thousands of acres of farmland, supported by thousands of commoners, eating delicacies, wearing silk and satin, and even those high-ranking officials treated them with utmost respect!
If his Li Family could also become an Immortal Family…
Li Xuan grinned, a trace of magic power circulating at his fingertips. He flicked his finger, and a fist-sized indent exploded on the mud wall.
“Your child, already is…”
The pearl that burrowed into Li Xuan’s abdomen was called the fate stealing pearl, used to steal others’ Luck and cultivation to strengthen oneself.
It was a supreme treasure forged by an Evil Path Cultivator in ancient times.
For some unknown reason, it fell into Huang Lij’s hands, allowing Li Xuan to pick up a bargain.
This fate stealing pearl had two effects: first, differentiation, it could differentiate into nine sub-pearls, allowing those without Spiritual Apertures to open them, and those with Spiritual Apertures to open an additional two inches of Spiritual Aperture!
Second, fate stealing, the owner of the fate stealing pearl could steal the Aptitude, cultivation, and even the ethereal and boundless Luck of those who consumed a sub-pearl.
According to the information within the fate stealing pearl, its creator relied on it to transform from a two-inch Spiritual Aperture to a nine-inch nine supreme-grade Spiritual Aperture, and his cultivation even reached Mahayana Great Perfection!
Unfortunately, during his Breakthrough to Mahayana, nine heavenly lightning bolts struck, turning him to ashes…
“The Cultivator who refined you stole too much Luck from others, making him intolerable to heaven and earth; he deserved this calamity!”
“But in my hands, it will be different…”