Chapter 9: Who Dares?

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To become acknowledged as cultivator, they had to first reach the Jie Hai realm, where their body would have become strong enough to start learning martial arts techniques and Qi condensation!

Elder Gan paused to looked around before he continued: “However, I will be teaching you all some more methods to help train your body so that you can quickly break through to the Jie Hai realm in the future! While Temporal Di realm is merely training the body, there are many methods of going about this. Since at this stage, the amount of earthly energies you can absorb is little, I will pass on a body refinement manual for everyone to use. If you diligently practice it, then even after you have broken through to Jie Hai realm and open a ‘sea’ in your Dantian, you could continue using it to help you develop further!

In the Jie Hai realm, the goals would be for you to start comprehending profound arts, absorbing even more earthly energies, known formally as Earthly Qi, around you and assimilating your ‘sea of life force’ called the ‘Dantian’. Once you’re in the Jie Hai realm, your dantian should host something similar to a body of water, and by assimilating more Earthly Qi into it, you can expand that water and turn it truly into a sea.

The next step would be to completely stabilize your dantian and harmonize it with your body. Only by doing so, could you hope to grow stronger and possess a stable foundation, enabling you to use the Qi inside your body without having it be used up so easily. Breakthroughs then, would also be much easier!

As for the Tian realm, unless you are as talented as Qiao Sui, you better either hope for a fortuitous opportunity in the future or train like a madman for the rest of your life!”

A few of the youths who heard this unconsciously clenched their fists tightly as unwillingness flashed in their eyes. With fourteen years old already being considered an adult, it was natural that these children had grew up much faster. At ages fourteen or fifteen, they already understood the value of greater strength with some even dabbling in the arts of scheme and tricks…

“But there is no harm in telling you juniors the mystic of the Tian realm.” Elder Gan continued, a faint sneer now evident on his face. “Tian realm practitioners rely on absorbing the Heaven Qi, rather than Earth Qi, to cultivate their Qigong and body. While Earth Qi comes from the soil and earth beneath us, Heaven Qi is the product of the sky and vast heaven itself. Only those who’ve entered the Tian realm could detect this special Qi, just like how only those who’ve reached the Jie Hai realm could feel the Earth Qi around them!

Upon breaking through into the Tian realm, one would create a “sky” inside one’s Dantian. With a sky and sea, the amount of power that person could wield than would naturally be much greater, in both power and Qi volume!

As one ascends higher and higher on the path of cultivation, the harder it is for them to breakthrough. Hehe, for you people, if you could reach the Jie Hai realm by the age of sixteen, that could already be considered pretty good!”

The youths all continued to patiently listen to Elder Gan lecture on about cultivation. Only Qiao Sui seemed a bit restless as her eyes wandered from the elder’s face to her surrounding…

At the end of the lecture, Elder Gan dismissed the youths and had them return to their room. As Qiao Sui was getting up from the ground, an aged voice suddenly ran out from behind her. “Qiao’er, you stay behind and come with me for a brief walk.”

Qiao Sui froze and slowly turned to face Elder Gan. “Elder, you wish to talk to me about something? Can we not talk about it here, since everyone else have left…?” There was a subtle tone of reluctance and alarm in her voice.

Elder Gan had on a smile that was not quite a smile on his face, as he replied: “No, this place will not do. I wish to be completely alone with you to discuss some matters about your future. Come, less talking and follow me.”

When he finished saying this, the elder suddenly reached out and took hold of Qiao Sui’s slender wrist. Before Qiao Sui could say anything further, Elder Gan leaped into the air while holding her, and flew towards the forest area north of his current location. Qiao Sui, who experienced this feeling of flying in the sky for the first time, could only hang on tight to Elder Gan’s hand as the city grew more and more distant.

An uneasy feeling was now beginning to be born in Qiao Sui’s heart.

After an unknown amount of time, Elder Gan suddenly began to descend towards the patches of thick forests below. Landing on a rough, open ground, Elder Gan let go Qiao Sui’s wrists as the latter timidly retreated backwards several steps, until there was a large distance between the two. A moment of silence ensued.

Without around to face Qiao Sui, the elder broke the silence and asked in a rather deep, low voice: “Qiao’er, do you know why I’ve brought you here and what I wanted to speak to you about?”

There not a shred of gentleness in the elder’s tone now, only coldness without emotions.

Qiao Sui hesitated for a while, before she replied: “I do not know, Elder Gan. Were we...not just going for a brief walk?”

Ever since Qiao Sui was picked off the streets as an orphan by this middle-aged man who only called himself Elder Gan, the girl had always felt something was wrong. Four years ago, she was just a commoner wandering the streets of Tao City of the Yellow Province, one of the eighteen provinces in the Yuan Empire.

Qiao Sui had never met her parents as she was already in the streets when she was just a baby. However, strangely she had no memories of her time since young. She only knew she was an orphan at the age of six. Other than that, everything else was fuzzy...

But one day, she was taken in by Elder Gan who had told her that she was a ‘perfect material’ for practicing martial arts and that he would help her if she wanted him to. Naturally, given Qiao Sui’s tender age and desire to be free of hunger, she accepted the elder’s offer and became a student under him.

After being taken to the elder’s residence in another province, Qiao Sui came to meet fourteen other orphans who were also taken in by Elder Gan. And upon getting to know them, Qiao Sui found out that they were all from a different province and city. While this was nothing at first, Qiao Sui began to slowly pick up on the elder’s strange habits. With her experiences of living on the dangerous streets since she was very young, Qiao Sui had quickly gain the ability to read other people’s facial expressions and words to determine if the other party had any malicious intentions. She had to be quick-witted.

As such, Qiao Sui had noticed the changes in the elder’s attitudes over the years. At first, Elder Gan had treated everyone equally and did not play favorites. However, as some of the youths began to show greater talent in cultivation, he began to pay more attention to those students. His attitude would be extremely gentle and he would spend more time assisting those talented students. For the others, he would often ignore them or give them less guidance.

Even more strangely, the elder would not allow the children to call him ‘master’ or say that they were his ‘disciples’. Instead, everyone was to call him ‘Elder Gan’, and was instructed to only say that they were his ‘trial students.’

While Qiao Sui could tell that the elder was faking his emotions most of the time, she was not that worried as Elder Gan had been treating the orphans relatively well compared to her past living conditions. However, soon, students began to disappear one after another.

The ones who disappeared were the most talented ones whom Elder Gan had directly nourished. And each time one disappeared, Elder Gan would say that he had sent the student off to a cultivation sect for further training, and then encourage the other youths to work harder. But when Qiao Sui secretly investigated the house, she found that many of the clothes and items that the other youths previously had were not taken with them. There was even a presumed family heirloom of a student who supposedly ‘left for a sect’, that was left behind.

When Qiao Sui came to realize that something was wrong since that day, she had began to desperately find a way to escape the residence. However, it was as if Elder Gan had eyes behind his back, every movement that Qiao Sui made outside at night was known to the elder. She could not escape. Thus, she resorted to slowing down her training in order to not catch the elder’s eyes. But unfortunately, in the end Elder Gan had still set his eyes on her.

And now, after a series of futile attempt for two years, Qiao Sui was now brought to an unfamiliar place by the very person she had wanted to avoid…

“Go for a walk? Hahaha…” Elder Gan chuckled as he finally turned around to face Qiao Sui. There was a mocking look in his eyes as the elder’s face was distorted in a hideous grin. Looking at him now, Qiao Sui could feel a biting shiver down her back.

“Qiao’er, ah, Qiao’er. You are quite the clever girl, but it is unfortunate that you were born in this era where the strong ones are the favored children of heaven. You are the fourth person to catch on…” Elder Gan said in a calm, low voice.

“E-Eh? What are you speaking about Elder Gan? I really do not understand…” Qiao Sui stammered as her face turned pale. The uneasy feeling in her heart had now blossomed into full-on panic and fear.

Elder Gan shook his head as he said: “It does not matter whether you are pretending or not at this point. Although I wanted to wait a little while longer, I simply cannot hold on any longer.”

When Elder Gan lifted his head to look at Qiao Sui again, there was now a pair of bloodshot eyes glaring at the latter. An expression of madness replaced the elder’s original gentle appearance.

“Once I kill you and eat your entire flesh body and drink your blood, I will be able to further refine my own body. Ke ke ke, and to think you had a Divine Lotus Constitution, too! If not for the signs of your innate potential appearing this late, I would’ve longed refined your body first!” Elder Gan growled lowly as a malicious grin stretched back his face.

An evil and oppressive aura burst forth from Elder Gan’s body, causing Qiao Sui to fall forward to the ground and spit out a mouthful of blood. Although Qiao Sui did not know what level of cultivation Elder Gan had reached, she had always known that the other party was extremely powerful. And in front of such being, Qiao Sui was utterly helpless. She could not even speak a single word under the tremendous strain.

“Ke ke ke! Ke ke ke! Finally! Once I refine you, I can finally attempt to breakthrough to the Empyrean Hun realm! Ke ke ke! Come here now!” Elder Gan crazily laughed as he reached out and grabbed the air. A suction force appeared and propelled Qiao Sui’s powerless body towards the elder’s right hand.

“Am I really going to die..?” Qiao Sui could not help but feel a sense of regret and unwillingness in her heart. To think she had jumped from the frying pan and right into the fire, thinking that her life would finally turn around...in the end, it was just another fool’s dream. However, she refused to let despair show on her face. She did not wish to back down until everything was truly over...

Qiao Sui stubbornly glared at the elder, weakly straining and willing her entire body to stop, as she was pulled closer and closer to Elder Gan...

Just as Qiao Sui was about to land into the elder’s clutches, a sudden aura descended from the sky. The power was different from Elder Gan’s and was able to easily sever the elder’s suction force. At this, Qiao Sui’s body stopped moving forward abruptly as she fell to the floor, while Elder Gan quickly retreated a few steps back. Rage and shock colored his face as he surveyed the sky and shouted:

“Who is it?! Who dares to interrupt me?!”

In response, a slit appeared in the clear blue sky as it slowly opened inward. An ancient and profound aura suddenly seeped out from the gap in the sky as an echoing voice sounded out from within.

“I’ve finally found you, the one surnamed Gan. To dare practice a taboo art and act so impudent in front of me, you are very good -- very good indeed!”