Chapter 3 – Practitioner
“Brat, you dare hurt my wife!? You’re definitely dead now.” The man’s face was somewhat twisted under the reflection of the bone sword in his hand. He quickly threw away the crossbow in his other hand. He then took out a red pill and shoved it into his mouth.
Obviously that logic-defying attack wasn’t something that he could easily perform.
Seeing that, Liu Ming screamed, “Projectile incoming!” He then threw a white blob toward the still twitching woman on the ground while he leaped back and scrambled into the jungle beside him.
Seeing this, the man paused before he flew into a fit of rage. He couldn’t leave the woman on the ground alone and thus had to shift sideways to use the bone sword to stab into the air in front the incoming projectile.
With a “hong”, the white blob was hit by something invisible in mid-air and exploded.
A glob of gray-white powder spread out and covered everything within a few meters.
Seeing this, the blue-robed man became cautious and didn’t dare let the powder touch him. He quickly held the bone sword in front of his chest while he pushed his other hand lightly away from him as he spoke two words, “Elemental Wall.”
With the words, the bone sword let out a faint light as an invisible air wave came from it and pushed away the surrounding powder.
The man quickly knelt down and ran his finger across the powder-covered floor. He smelled what was on his finger and immediately stood up in a fit of rage.
“It’s only common flour. Brat, I will cut you into a thousand pieces.”
The blue-robed man cursed a few more times before he ran over to check on the ugly woman.
The woman was tightly holding onto her neck with both hands. Her breath had already slowed down, becoming indiscernible. There was no hope for her to recover.
“Darling, rest easy. I am going to kill that brat and have him accompany you to the afterlife.”
The blue-robed man grit his teeth as he spoke. He then, once more, tightened his grip on the bone sword and stood up. He then yelled “Lighten” and ran in the direction that the young man ran off in.
His movements changed and became much faster than before. He seemed just like a ghost flashing through a field.
Although his body did not have much Yuan Li, he was drawing support from the red pill that he had ingested earlier, allowing him to use four or five more spells for another quarter of an hour. This was more than enough to chase down and kill any normal person.
TL: Think of Yuan Li as a special strength
……
Liu Ming was violently running through the jungle while his legs started feeling heavier and heavier. At the same, his chest was burning as the violent activity made blood flow profusely from his wound.
The shoulder wound from before had completely reopened, leaving half of his body numb.
Liu Ming had no intention of stopping to bind his wounds and kept running in a single direction.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as the dense shrubbery was replaced by a large field.
At the end of the field was a huge river which roared with water flowing through.
Seeing the river, Liu Ming felt a sense of happiness, but suddenly, his eyes darkened. He stumbled and almost fell down.
With a sense of urgency, he quickly bit his tongue, causing a hint of blood to fill his mouth. Only then was he able regain his senses and stop the fall.
However, at that moment, the bitter voice of the blue-robed man came from the forest behind him.
“Brat, where do you think you’re going!?”
Right when the voice died down, the blue-robed man came out from behind a tree and quickly ran toward Liu Ming.
Looking back, Liu Ming could see how fast the blue-robed man was moving and quickly threw his silver blade backward while he sprinted toward the river.
The blue-robed man flicked his bone sword and deflected the incoming silver blade. He didn’t so much as pause from parrying the sword.
With one running and the other chasing, the two ran for a dozen meters.
After another few leaps, Liu Ming finally got to the side of the river. Making a huge jump, he was about to land right into the river.
The blue-robed man had only a few meters left before he would catch up to Liu Ming when he noticed his actions. He knew that he wouldn’t make it before Liu Ming sank into the river. Thus, he used all of his Yuan Li and pushed it all into his bone sword.
Instantly, the bone sword shined so bright that it hurt to look straight at!
The man lowly roared and slashed forward, causing an almost invisible sword projection to jump out of the sword. In the blink of an eye, it strangely appeared right behind Liu Ming and plunged into him.
“Pu!”
Liu Ming was pierced through the stomach and dropped heavily into the river. After falling into the river, he disappeared under a white wave.
Only then did the blue-robed man get to the side of the river, seeing the raging waves, he furrowed his brow.
He believed that with the combination of his bone sword’s attack and the ferocity of the river, Liu Ming would have no chance of survival. However, he couldn’t be sure without seeing the corpse.
Although, he didn’t know how to swim and this river’s power was enough to run the corpse to a far, distant place.
The man thought about it for a while and looked at the bone sword in his hand.
The weapon, called a Practitioner Weapon, no longer had the bright shine it generated before and had returned back to its original state.
The blue-robed man lingered for a moment, but could only leave in frustration when Liu Ming’s body didn’t float back up.
……
Three days later, on a river along the border between Chu State and Feng Yun State stood two men in yellow robes. One was tall and the other short, and they were blankly staring at a well-dressed corpse.
Beside the corpse in front of the two, there were seven or eight more corpses that all had grey jumpsuits. However, unlike the well-dressed corpse, these corpses all had horrible wounds. The wounds varied from being cut in half to having their heads bashed in.
“What do we do? Since young master died so easily, what do we say to our Clan Head?” The speaker was the short and skinny man who had a sword behind his back. His face was quite narrow and his eyes were triangular, giving off the impression of being quite deadly. However, his face was full of worry as he asked his companion.
“Gu Lao San, if you ask me, who do I ask? Who knew that this ‘young master’ was so stupid? To actually let a thief get close to him and cut his throat when he’s a Beginning Practitioner. Even though we have quite a few spirit medicines that the Clan Head gave us, even with them, he still wouldn’t have a chance of surviving.” The tall companion with a square face said. His face was full of frustration.
TL: Lao San = Third brother – Usually not related by blood
“Guan Lao Da, no matter how stupid he is, he is still the Clan Head’s adopted son. In addition, the Clan Head paid a huge price to get him a place in the ceremony. Now that he died halfway there, what are we going to tell the Clan Head!? I fear that us getting beat is inevitable.” Gu Lao San sighed as a vague sense of fear appeared on his face.
TL: Lao Da = First brother or Elder brother
“Hmpf. If getting beat is enough punishment for this I will be burning incense.” Guan Lao Da’s face muscles shuddered as he uttered a sentence that Gu Lao San did not expect.
TL: In china, you burn incense for the dead so he’s implying they are going to die.
“Guan Lao Da, what do you mean by that? You and I are true Middle Tier Practitioners. Even if the Clan Head dearly loved his adopted son… Do not tell me that we really have to repay this with our lives?” Gu Lao San looked at his fat companion with eyes wide open.
“You think this youngster’s identity is simply the adopted son of the head? Although this ‘young master’ has a Spiritual Pulse, his attitude is horrible and he’s quite brutal. He has almost no chance to approach the Clan Head. Why do you think such a person would at all be adopted by our Clan Head!? Let me tell you that this ‘young master’ is the Clan Head’s illegitimate child, born from a mistress. The ‘adopted son’ is just an excuse for this kid to become the Clan Head’s son.” Guan Lao Da sneered as Gu La San stared dumbstruck at him.
“What? ‘Young master’ is really the Clan Head’s own flesh and blood?! Guan Lao Da, how do you know such a crucial thing?” The thin person shuddered as he stuttered out some words.
“Whatever, I guess there is no reason to hide it from you now. You know that my relationship with the Clan Head’s wife’s personal maid was pretty good. She once complained about the Clan Head’s injustices to me, and with a slip of her tongue, she told me this secret. This cannot be fake!” Guan Lao Da sighed.
“So it is like that. The Barbarian Ghost Sect is ranked quite low among the larger Sects in Da Xuan Country and the Opening Spirit Ceremony is quite expensive. Which caused me to wonder why our Bai Clan would let someone, who isn’t closely related to the clan, take that spot? If the kid actually had his Spiritual Pulse opened, he would be a true Spiritual Student and become much, much more powerful than either of us. If he gets some special chance and becomes a Spirit Master, and if the current emperor sees him, then the emperor would have to greet him with plenty of respect.” Finally, Gu Lao San realized the inside story.
“It is not easy to become a Spiritual Student! Not only do you have to have a Spiritual Pulse, you cannot be older than fifteen when you participate in the Opening Spirit Ceremony. Every year, only a handful of participants pass the ceremony and a majority of them die during the ceremony. Even if one luckily survives, one has to work under the Sect as a normal practitioner for twenty years. Head’s decision to send his son this time was probably a bet. Even though Bai Clan has quite a few Spiritual Pulse members, most of them have failed in the Opening Spirit Ceremony. Those that survived are stuck in the sect and are being used as raw labor. Only Lady Yan had a successful Spiritual Opening and became a Spiritual Student of the Sky Moon Sect. Unfortunately, Lady Yan is a girl and will one day marry someone. Head definitely wants his own son to become a Spiritual Student so that the Bai Clan can keep its Practitioner Clan status for another few dozen years.” Guan Lao Da explained even more.
“Looks like Clan Head put great hope in this young master. However, the more hope put into the young master, the larger the chance is that we will die when we go back. How about we escape from Da Xuan Country and never return to the Bai Clan? With our statuses as Middle Tier Practitioners, we’d be respected everywhere.” Gu Lao San said through closed teeth as his eyes quickly rolled.