by Tinalynge
At the same time, the only change to the elder man’s expression was a crooked eyebrow and a twitch in his sly smile. Seeing him like this, the young child felt that his possibilities of garnering pity were limited, and he started to think about his other options for escaping once again.
Xu Min’s eyes grew darker and darker as he tried to come up with various escape plans, only to discard them all in the end, because he realized that none of them would work. Hoping to find a weapon of some sort, his mind became frantic as he glanced around the room. Not that he had any experience wielding weapons, but he felt as though his situation would be better with a weapon in hand rather than without.
Unfortunately, no matter where he looked, nothing suitable was in sight. A short time later he finally ended his tale with how he entered the city to look for a master; only to discover that to learn martial arts within the city, he had to be a part of a sect or a great family.
Hearing the whole story, Wang Li started contemplating for a short moment. As soon as his eyes left Xu Min’s body, the young boy kicked the ground, and used the explosive force of the kick to dart towards the door as fast as he could.
For a millisecond he even thought that he had succeeded. However, before he had the chance to celebrate, he felt something hook onto the back of his collar.
It happened in the blink of an eye, and by the time Xu Min realized what had happened, he was hanging in the air. His clothes were gripped by a strong hand belonging to Wang Li.
Although he was caught, the young boy refused to give in. He abandoned his vest to wriggle out of Wang Li’s grasp and rushed towards the doorway once more.
A look of pleasant surprise appeared on the face of Overseer Wang Li, but it took him just a second to catch Xu Min’s leg. Xu Min found himself hanging in the air, his leg held by the older man’s strong arm. To lift him with such ease, the man was at least an early stage Warrior.
“No need to rush like this,” Wang Li chuckled. With a flick of his hand, the young boy was thrown towards the bed. Colliding against the wall, the young boy could not help but grimace in pain before he fell down onto the bed.
Although Xu Min was in pain, he refused to give in. He forced his body to stand up while he waited to see what the older man would do next.
Seeing that Wang Li did not move, the young boy gritted his teeth and quickly took the Shattering Palm stance that he had trained for such a long time. Xu Min stood up and raised his hand in front of him. The Qi that was roiling inside of him went through his body’s meridians in a specific pattern before it started to leak out from the body of the young man, consolidating into a large palm hovering on top of his head. Seeing this translucent palm that appeared above the head of the young Student Warrior suddenly flying toward him, Wang Li was shocked. He couldn’t believe that someone who was not a Warrior yet could have the ability to activate such an advanced technique.
Seeing the palm, a genuine smile appeared on Wang Li’s face, and with steady steps he strode to meet the translucent palm. His own fist moved to meet it in the middle of the room.
Seeing that Wang Li intended to take the hit head on without using any Qi to protect himself, Xu Min was taken aback. He was certain that even early stage Warriors would need to use some Qi to protect themselves against his Shattering Palm. Could it be that Wang Li was a middle stage Warrior, or perhaps even a peak stage Warrior?
These thoughts worried Xu Min; however, he already started the attack and everything was riding on his success. He was sure that if he failed, it would only take a moment for Wang Li to kill him.
The boy would do anything to avoid this outcome. If he managed to escape Overseer Wang Li, then he would have to keep running until he found another city where he could try settling down again.
Thinking back, Xu Min cursed himself for stopping in the first city he came across. He should have continued until he was a good distance away from the Zhong family. However, regretting his actions now would achieve nothing. Instead he poured his entire cultivation base and energy into the palm strike heading towards Wang Li.
The translucent hand was growing more substantial as beads of sweat appeared on the young boy’s face. His arm was starting to shake -- the shaking was even visible by the naked eye, reflected in the massive palm of Qi.
Two palms, one created by translucent Qi and the other completely bare, collided midair resulting in a resounding boom followed by an intense shock wave. The shock wave caused Xu Min to stumble backwards, blood spraying from his mouth as he collapsed on the ground. The world turned black around him and a bitter taste filled his mouth as he realized he had failed.
….
Xu Min started coming to his senses but his eyes felt like they were glued shut. His mouth was dry as the treebark that he had lived on in the forest.
His entire body was exhausted with no energy left at all. Although his body was filled with discomfort and pain, the first emotion which the young boy felt was happiness; a happiness that was impossible to describe or convey.. Even if he had been tied down and brought back to the Zhong family, it was still better than being dead.
Forcing his eyes open, Xu Min found that he was laying on a comfortable bed, still in Wang Li’s house. The smell of delicious food permeated the room.
The first thing his eyes landed on was Wang Li. There were no marks on his body, nor were there any scratches on his fist after directly colliding with Xu Min’s Shattering Palm Strike, a fact that caused the young boy to feel shocked. He was greatly disappointed with his own performance.
Although he had mastered this technique, he was still unable to use it to the fullest due to his lack of cultivation. He became astonished because he came to the conclusion that Wang Li was at least a peak stage Warrior, someone capable of fighting against the Zhong family head!
Feeling the gaze directed at him, Wang Li lifted his head, revealing a smile on his weatherbeaten, grim face.
“Well done, waking up so soon!” He complimented the young boy, “It seems you’ve had a terrible past, but I don’t really care about that,” He said. “What I do care about, however, is your talent. I’ve wanted to teach my martial arts to someone else, but I haven’t seen anyone who was even close to being worthy of my teaching before.”
“You can choose to either become my disciple or go back to those Zhong friends of yours.”
At his words, the young boy’s mind was in complete disarray, but soon a smile appeared on his face. Becoming Wang Li’s disciple and working hard under his care was something that Xu Min knew he was capable of doing.
Seeing the smile on Xu Min’s face, Wang Li’s lips curled upwards. He poured soup into two bowls and went towards the young child in front of him. “You better make me believe that having you as my disciple is worth more than one hundred coins of gold.”
Chapter 10 – Warrior
At first, Xu Min had believed that becoming the disciple of Wang Li was a fortunate event - an event that would help him increase his strength. However, it did not take long before he realized that being Wang Li’s disciple was not as great as he had expected.
The first thing that Wang Li had taught the young boy was how to cook food that was as delicious as the food made by the overseer himself.
Having learned how to cook, he was told that it was his job to ensure that their living quarters were always clean; not even one speck of dust was allowed within the room or Xu Min would end up being sold back to the Zhong family. Although it was just a threat, the young boy believed that the old man would really do it.
As soon as the sun rose in the sky, Xu Min had to be at the harbor where he was expected to work as hard as everyone else who worked there. The young boy worked hard every single day. He always gave the task at hand his all and frequently ran from one side of the harbor to the other, sometimes carrying two, or even three crates at once.
This sort of physical training was much more intense than the training he had received at the Zhong family compound. It was even
harder than the training that he had given himself during his time in the forest. However, this was a welcome change because the young boy could feel that his muscles were screaming day in and day out. This was proof that he was overcoming hurdles every day, increasing his strength by leaps and bounds when compared to before.
As his body became stronger, his mental training and cultivation became much smoother. Finding someone who would use their external strength to support their internal energy was rare because it was incredibly hard for anyone to go through the physical training that left the body feeling sore and broken. However, as soon as that person sat down and started cultivating, their body would be rejuvenated once more, filling the person with newfound energy and strength.
Seeing the young boy bustling about and working as hard as he could, many of the harbor workers would ask the Overseer why he was making such a poor young boy work so hard. All of them got the same answer: The boy was a peak-rank Student Warrior who was training himself through lifting and moving crates.
Within this world, there were three ranks that one could reach. The first was the rank of a Student Warrior. Student Warriors were people who had become able to refine Qi from the essence of the heavens and the earth. However, since they had too little Qi, they could not truly be considered Warriors. It usually took ten to fifteen years before a Student Warrior would be able to refine enough Qi to transform into a Warrior.
The second rank - the Warrior rank - was split into nine stars. The first three stars were considered the Early Stage, the three middle stars were considered Middle Stage, and the final three stars were considered Advanced Stage.
The majority of all cultivators were either Student Warriors or Early Stage Warriors.
Guards and soldiers were often Middle Stage Warriors. Middle Stage Warriors were not to be taken lightly because they were, without a doubt, a force to be reckoned with.
Advanced Stage Warriors were considered experts. As an Advanced Stage Warrior, one was virtually unrestricted in whatever they wanted to accomplish. Nine-Star Warriors were especially in high demand for everyone.
Above the Warrior rank was only the Emperor rank. Emperors were the pinnacle of the cultivating world, and not many managed to reach this peak. Xu Min had never before seen an Emperor; he had only heard about them from Overseer Tian. But even Overseer Tian did not know much. All he knew was that one had to defy the heavens and ascend to immortality in order to become an Emperor.
Xu Min’s dream was to become an Emperor one day. However, his revenge could not wait for him to reach the peak of cultivation. The Zhong family leader was an Advanced Stage Warrior, but he was an Eight-Star Warrior, not a Nine-Star Warrior. The gap in strength between Xu Min and the Zhong family leader was simply as vast as the distance between the heavens and the earth. For now, the young boy had no other hope than to work harder than anyone else to achieve his revenge.
Because Xu Min trained his body to such an extent, his body began showing evidence of his hard labor. His initially lean muscles became bigger proportionately along with his height, which also grew at an astonishing speed. In this way, his body was balanced in terms of strength and size.
Had Xu Min been focusing on the same training curriculum that Overseer Tian had put the Zhong Family guards through, his body would not have been able to achieve this equilibrium. He would had just been solely strengthening his arms and legs, neglecting the other muscles that were just as important.
When Xu Min had first heard that Wang Li would take him in as his personal disciple, the young man expected that he would be immediately learning new martial art skills. However, he was quickly disappointed. He discovered that Wang Li had only required him to do chores around the house and work at the docks. In his spare time, he would be told to cultivate.
Having his life filled with working at the docks alongside cultivating nightly, time quickly flowed by, and before long the ten year old boy turned into a fifteen year old young man.
“Overseer Wang!” Xu Min called out, his eyes filled with delight as he jumped up from his seated position. Around him was a myriad of golden specks of light, all of which quickly dissipated into thin air, removing any traces of what had just transpired.
Looking at the ecstatic young man, Wang Li smiled gently as he guessed what the young man was about to say. He waited patiently to allow his disciple to have the joy of announcing it himself.
“I did it! I managed to become a Warrior!” He exclaimed, his face flushed red, and his eyes filled with delight. During the last five years, the young man had worked tirelessly to constantly train both body and soul; and now he had finally succeeded in becoming a true cultivator.
Being a One-Star Warrior at the age of fifteen would not cause him to be considered as a truly outstanding talent, but it was quicker than the average individual. But how could anyone compare Xu Min with ordinary cultivators?
Although Xu Min was focusing every night on cultivating his internal energy, the majority of his day was spent improving his physical strength, something that the majority of cultivators disregarded because all of them focused mainly on the internal aspect of cultivation.
Because he went through the experience of doing all the chores and working hard at the docks, Xu Min was well aware that Wang Li had intentionally focused on tempering his body and put a secondary focus on cultivating internal Qi. He did not fully understand the logic of Wang Li as to why he had decided to train him in this manner, but he chose not to question Wang Li’s reasoning.
Back when Xu Min had first become Wang Li’s disciple, the young man found that it was impossible for him to feel the aura coming from the older man, and he quickly guessed that his strength was far superior of his own. Now that he had reached Early Stage Warrior, he could feel a domineering aura coming from his teacher.
The aura was so domineering and overpowering that Xu Min felt completely incapable of going against it.
One had to remember that Wang Li was not using any abilities nor was he intentionally releasing his battle aura; instead, this was just the aura that belonged to the Advanced Stage Warriors, a realm that no one wanted to fight against unless the contender was of the same realm themselves.
“Well done!” Wang Li revealed a rare smile on his weather-beaten face.. He then went towards a bag that he had tossed in a corner of their shared room.
From within the bag, he pulled out two bottles of wine. After looking around the room for some time, he found two cups in which he poured the wine into, then handed one cup to the young man.
“Congratulations on finally joining the ranks of cultivators!” He said, before lifting the cup of wine up to his lips and emptying the cup in one gulp.
Seeing his teacher toast him in such a manner, Xu Min followed with drinking his own glass.His face flushed red as soon as the strong wine entered his mouth. A burning sensation followed as it went down his throat, and his face turned pale with sweat as the liquor ended up in his stomach.
Watching the interesting changes that manifested themselves in his disciple’s face, Wang Li ended up letting out loud laughter. Clearly in a great mood, he smiled as he clasped his legs with his hands.
“Let me see you use that Shattering Palm technique,” Wang Li finally said. “You can use it against me. I want to feel just how strong you are now.”
Hearing this, Xu Min instantly bowed and complied with the order he had been given. Although he was about to use an ability against his teacher, he did not hesitate. He already knew that although he had become a true warrior, it was impossible for him to truly pose any threat to this teacher of his.
Taking the stance he had performed so many times in the past and forcing Qi to flow out from within his dantian and through his body, it did not take long before pearl-white Qi flowed from his palm, creating a large, seven-meter long palm of Qi.
The palm hovered above the head of Wang Li and with a few quick movements, Xu Min slammed down the palm onto Wang Li’s head, only to hear a resounding
boom fill the room.
A shockwave erupted outwards and swept the unprepared young man upwards and threw him backwards. He landed heavily against the wall, causing him to taste blood in his mouth.
Swallowing down the blood and standing up on wobbly legs, Xu Min approached his teacher to ensure that he was unhurt. As he neared, he secretly looked at the place where he had aimed at Wang Li, but he quickly was disappointed because the only change he could see was that his teacher’s hair was slightly disheveled.
Although disappointment was evident within Xu Min’s eyes, an approving expression was seen on Wang Li’s face. He nodded his head a couple of times before he once more brought forth the bag from before, and started looking around for items within.
Seeing his teacher acting somewhat differently than normal, Xu Min quickly forgot about the disappointing display of his Shattering Palm technique, and attentively observed his teacher as Wang Li searched through the bag.
Initially, Wang Li had pulled out three scrolls from bag. However, Wang Li did not stop. He searched and searched until he found some other scrolls, followed by a map and a small bag of coins.
