Author’s note- Hi guys, it’s me again. I forgot to tell you this, but when you imagine Daniel’s home, think of a hobbit home. Only, midgets don’t live there.

Also, if you want to read some other good xianxia novels while you’re waiting but can’t find them, I have my reading list for you right here. I have a lot of stories on this list because I was once a leecher who never donated just like all of you! (No offence intended). But I was inspired by all the translations, and they led me to give back instead of staying a leecher my whole life. So, yay! Here I am giving you Vol. 1 Chapter 3- Thundersword. Enjoy!

PS- Oh yeah, here is a question for all the readers. When ever I have my parenthesis in the middle of the story, does that bother you all? Because I could just link it to 1 2 3 etc, at the bottom of the page without distracting from the flow of the story. Or I could have it at the bottom of the paragraphs as well instead of right in the middle of the story. So vote on this poll here after reading.

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Thundersword

I woke up to shivering from a sitting position on the ground; it seemed I had fallen asleep during my meditation. I uncrossed my frozen legs, and I went back to my bed for the warm cover present there. I thoroughly wrapped myself up in my blanket, and then tried to go back to sleep. But I couldn’t. Sighing softly, I decided to entertain myself by watching the solemn events of the world beyond my window.

In the night sky, the stars were nowhere to be seen. Instead the only thing in sight for miles was just rolling clouds, with the occasional glimpse of the moon. But suddenly, the clouds produced rain and thunder. The rain was harmless, but when it thundered, even the strongest men grew wary.

The lightning was produced and refined by an unimaginable accumulation by the natural energy floating in the sky, and the lightning struck out to the highest density source of energy bare under the heavens. That meant that if a cultivator was not under shelter of any sort, the lightning would strike.

Lightning is undodgeable by anyone or anything under the heavens, and it will never miss its target. It will annihilate anything under the advanced realm without a trace, and the fact that it rang out so near signified a certain death sentence for a wandering cultivator. Immediately my eyes widened, and I hurriedly pressed my face against the quartz to get a better look out into the night sky. I saw a flash that briefly illuminated the surrounding hillside, and not even a second later an earsplitting sound rang out.

“Crackkk!”

My face turned pale; who was it this time? A wandering traveler? A bandit of our clan?

I shook my head in denial. I had to stop thinking like that. Most likely cultivators had enough sense to not be outside during a thunderstorm. The lightning probably struck an accumulation of natural energy, not a person.

Surveying the surrounding area in the rolling hills, I didn’t see anyone in the immediate vicinity that could have been struck by the lightning, but then again, you rarely ever would. But suddenly, the dark clouds turned white yet again, and I saw a brief flash of electricity flickering in the clouds. In that instant, the lighting struck out like a divine hammer, and smashed into the back of the hill side.

Did that lighting just hit the same place twice? There must be something special there!

An insane thought suddenly sprung out within my mind: should I go check it out? I probably wouldn’t be struck by lightning; I hadn’t cultivated yet. But Dad would probably punish me for it…

The curiosity eventually won out, and I quietly put on my shoes to go outside. I looked toward the doorway, but it seemed Dad hadn’t heard me yet. But of course he didn’t, because the pattering of the rain was enough to drown out any sound I couldn’t conceal. I opened the door and was about to walk out when I heard a creaking sound. Was that dad’s door?

I peered into the dark hallway, but I couldn’t make out any movement. My heart started thumping wildly, and I took one last glance before turning around to the open door. Finally, I walked out silently and closed the door behind me without a hitch.

While I walked, the rain and wind whipped around me, and I almost slipped in the hillside that was rapidly turning into mud. But I kept going; I had to find out what caused the lightning to fall. If it was an accumulation of natural energy, it could be a treasure of sorts. If it was a cultivator, we still had an obligation to pillage whatever was left. After all, lightning always struck out to the strongest point of energy nearest to it. That means it would almost never strike out towards an animal or a normal person, but it would attack natural treasures and strong cultivators.

Eventually, I had made it past the grassy hill side, and there I saw a familiar sight. The farmfields! They were a food source for our clan, and some pathways from the city passed right by. If there were weak looking merchants traveling along the path, our favorite location was to ambush them at our farm fields! The normal plan was to first attack them from their back with the 2nd rank warriors from our clan. Next we would shoot arrows on the sides from 1st and 0th warriors. Then we would send in a powerhouse at the 3rd rank from the front while their backs are turned. And finally, we would send in our other two leaders of the 3rd rank on the sides supported by arrow fighters to kill the enemy while they were disorganized and confused. The best thing about this tactic was that if their force was unexpectedly too strong, we could retreat into the endless farmlands where we could regroup and finish the merchants off. Our method has never left any merchant survivors, and it has offered the least amount of casualties on our side since the creation of our clan.

I couldn’t wait until I was 11 to finally be able to support the caravan raids! After all, it was a great honor to support your clan by killing the rich, pompous merchants from the city. And the best thing of all was that you got to keep one item from whatever you acquired during the raid! That is, if you were at least a second rank warrior. But if you were attacking from the brush, you got less of a reward. After all, that position doesn’t actually fight in close range, so you only got one item of the valuables that are distributed afterwards.

Now that I think about it, it is strange that the lightning struck in this field. Although this place does hold the pathway between Lucia city and a couple of villages, nobody here of a certain level of cultivation would ever go traveling when a thunderstorm comes. That would just be plain suicide. So most likely the lightning struck a natural treasure.

My eyes brightened up as if I had just seen a spirit crystal, and I hastened down the hill. My chance would not last for long; surely after the thunderstorm cultivators would come to investigate, and after that I would not stand a chance.

At first I searched the sides of the pathways, but it was to no avail. Combined with the fact that I was constantly getting more nervous, and the growing danger that a cultivator could show up and wipe me out without a care, I almost gave up. But another lightning strike renewed the hope that had almost declined to the point of nonexistence.

I dashed through the crops like a gust of excited wind; I finally had a chance! The lightning had struck yet again, notifying me of the location where the treasure was at. Coming from that location, there was only one place that the treasure could possibly be located.

The graveyard!

The graveyard was a place where the mercenaries and bandits that died in battle were respected, and placed with an item they had in their possession. Of course, all of these items had no real use, but the dead had to take something with them. But this time, the leaders may have missed a heaven-angering treasure!

I vigorously charged through the various foliage, and the graveyard immediately broke into sight. Under my immediate observation, I could see about 100 tombstones, each marked with the special symbol called the eight paths of soul. It looked like a swirling circle of mist, with six differently colored lotuses swimming within. The six lotuses were symbols of the six purifications one would undertake when they died. The swirling mist represented the aimless yet inevitable path of the spirit into the center, where their respective memories would manifest into a petal for one of the six lotuses. But the image as a whole represented the way, the path of dispersion. Only through being condensed and churned through the path of dispersion will one finally be reincarnated into another, whether it be human, plant, or animal.

Putting this symbol on the grave was a sign of respect, and a wish of luck. It was put on every grave, no matter who they were because all were the same when they walked the way. But however, one grave had a broken down tombstone with a crater surrounding it. At the center of the crater contained a single wooden sword, that flickered with electricity.

The blade of the sword contained numerous white veins running through it, and they slowly pulsated as if they were breathing. On closer inspection, the edge of the blade seemed so sharp that you could be cut just by looking at it, and it emitted a formless pressure that made me feel inferior just by being in its presence. On the hilt was a single cavity that was spherical in shape, and it looked as if the veins stemmed and flowered out from this empty hole. My eyes involuntarily followed the veins to the sides of the cross guard, and it looked like every part of it was made out of metal feathers, which then combined to spread its wings towards the sky. The pulsating veins wrapped and twisted around the handle, and finally rested on the bottom of the handle where they capped off and went inside the handle.

I stood there, marveling at this wonder. Why had the wooden sword not been noticed by the bandits? Surely a priceless treasure such as this wouldn’t of been thrown away, right?

Suddenly, a sense of urgency overtook me as I realized my time had almost run out. The rain was getting lighter, and I doubted the thunderstorm was going to last much longer. Finally overpowering the pressure that obstructed my very soul, I grabbed the blade by the hilt, and ran towards my house as fast as possible.

Adrenaline fueled my run as I sprinted through the fields. I did not know if the storm had any lightning left, and I was not willing to sit around and find out. But when I looked back, I discovered that the lightning was the least of my worries. There was a woman on a cliff shaded by trees staring at me with a blood red glow coming out of her eyes. Crap1.

(1: I was very tempted to end the chapter here when I wrote this. Should I end at places like this? Tell me when you comment about the size of the chapters :3)

I looked back ahead and pushed my limits, knowing that the faster I made it home, the better. But I was of course slowed down by the wooden sword. However, it felt like it was slowly getting lighter every second I ran. Not to mention it wasn’t exactly lightweight at the start either. I think at first it weighed around 40 pounds, which is impossibly heavy for a sword of this size. But now it felt like 20, and combined with its height that seemed to shrink every second it passed in my hand; it was getting easier and easier to run with it.

Finally, I could see the familiar hill of my house and I charged to the door. But before opening it, I hesitated. What would my dad say when if he noticed I was gone? I was out for way too long. Suddenly, a pair of bloodshot eyes flashed out from undercover behind the hill and I no longer hesitated. I opened the door and closed it in an instant.

Heaving out a heavy sigh, I stealthily ran to my room and closed that door as well. My god, this blade was a lot of trouble to get. I glanced back over at the blade but to my surprise the veins had dimmed to a soft glow and the size of the blade had grown to fit my height. Now that was a strange sight! I suddenly thought about something, and then looked towards the edge only to find it had gotten dull to the point of being just like a normal wooden sword. Hardly deadly.

I almost cried out in dismay. Where had my beautiful sword gone? Had I taken all that risk for nothing? Saddened and with no energy left, I put the sword away in my closet for temporary safekeeping. Next, all I had the spirit to do is to glance outside through the window, and watch the last rain drops depressingly splash and die out against the ground.

***************

I watched the weather for a little while longer before getting up and drying myself off with some rags. After all, I was soaking wet and shivering cold from all that rainwater. A couple wet rags and a change of clothes later, I was completely dried off and ready to make breakfast. In fact I was getting pretty ravenous, especially considering my frantic running earlier this morning as well as the intense training and fighting yesterday. Also, I did not need a repeat of the episode from yesterday.

I opened the door to my room, but this time not caring about the amount of noise I made. I was only making breakfast, so what did I have to hide? Unfortunately, I did not think of the need to hide myself due to the trouble I caused this morning. Right after I had walked a small distance down the hallway, a dark hand had clasped on my arm and jerked me violently onto the floor. My heart jumped to my throat, and I found it incredibly difficult to breath. I stared upwards, and Dad looked at me with furious eyes.

Dad- “Daniel! What the h*ll have you done! Did you freaking lose your mind? Did I not teach you a single thing about lighting? Had lighting struck while you had that worthless wooden sword, there would be no more f**king Daniel! Do you understand me!?”

I cringed, Dad never got this mad, but thinking back it was true. Carrying that sword under a lighting storm, was just like walking in a den of bandits while flaunting high grade spirit crystals constantly. It was just courting death1. I squeaked out weakly,

(1: I’m sure many of you know what this phrase means, but for those who don’t know it means that you are doing something that is akin to suicide)

Me- “I-- I understand”

He eased up slightly, but I could tell he was steadily getting angrier, like a closed, boiling caldron. One misstep, and it could explode violently.

Dad- “Where is the sword? Bring it to me, Now!”

I groaned, and while not caring about my bodily state, he spoke again, now resembling a tyrant.

Dad- “Was that a question? Get the f**k up and bring it to me NOW!”

He grabbed my arm tightly, making me cringe with pain and pulled me up to my feet. Then I was forced to make a march down the hallway into my room. When we reached the door, he pushed me through making me stumble.

Dad- “Get it from your closet.”

He scowled further and added,

Dad- “And that’s a bad hiding place anyway. If someone came looking for that, the closet is the first place they would look. Next time, find a better place to hide your crap.”

Unperturbed by the somewhat disdainful comment, I brought the ‘mostly’ dried off sword from the closet, and handed it over. Dad looked over it, and then immediately turned over the blade to examine it in an excited rush. A small grin appeared when he finished visually looking over the sword. Then he rubbed his thumb over the edge, and the rarely present grin faded away. He snorted in disgust and gave me his analysis,

Dad- “The wooden sword is a rarely seen quality in craftsmanship, there is no grain1 to the wood that I can discover, and it is put together in a way that makes it almost indestructible to attacks in the mortal realm.

(1: No grain to the wood means no cutting through the wood. The only way to break it is to shatter the whole blade.)

However, the edge of the blade is non-existent, you can’t even cut through skin with that kind of edge. Also, although the size of the blade is very suited to you now, when you grow up, you will quickly find that the sword is becoming harder and harder to handle. And, after you become a cultivator, this sword will have no practical use. Because it is made out of wood, it will break in no more than five hits from a basic realm practitioner.”

He threw the sword back at me, and I caught it by the edge without a scratch on my hand.

Dad- “The only use that this may have is in training. It is not worth spending even 5 low grade spirit crystals, much less your life. So since you seem to attach so much value to this trash, you will not receive a weapon from our clan for any reason whatsoever. This blade shall be the weapon that you will have for the rest of your time while you still reside in my house. So get used to it!”

He then left the room in a rage, and I was stuck alone with this trash of a sword. But I was also left with one last strand of hope. He did not mention why it was able to withstand lightning, and the craftsmanship was amazing, no matter how bad the material. I smiled faintly remembering the impossibly profound events at that crater. If I could unlock the secret as to why it was able to withstand the wrath of the heavens; I would have made off with an incalculably valuable treasure. I looked back at the faintly gleaming sheen of the wooden sword and thought, ‘Let me see if I truly cannot find what secrets you hold!’

*************

After about an hour passed in this fruitless endeavor, I decided to put off finding out the power the sword holds for later. I did not have any cultivation yet, and finding anything else about the sword would be just wishful thinking. The only solid conclusion I knew currently was that something had to be inserted in the center of the hilt for the blade to work. After all, all the veins stemmed from that place and that was what previously gave the sword power.

I slowly got up and wiped the a stream of sweat that accumulated over the past hour. Then with a flick of my hand, the sweat was sent to the floor and I walked to the kitchen. On the table I saw the familiar disgusting gruel, and a strap for the wooden sword. First I grabbed the sword and put it in the strap, like I saw some bandits do before battle. Then I placed the strap and sword on my back. Finally I got back the dreaded matter of the gruel. Smiling grimly, I sat down, and ate the nasty food. It seemed I had really messed up big this morning.

After scoffing down the last of the cruel meal, I took a squishy step outside to find the sun glaring me in the face. Immediately my arm went to my eyes, why was it so bright? I squinted in retaliation, yet it did not do much to save me from the blinding reflection of light from my surroundings. I turned away from the sun, and my eyes started to adjust. Looking ahead on the now more visible path, I saw that the whole road had turned to mud! Well, there won’t be anymore running training for today. And I’m also not walking anymore on that. I jumped off the pathway to the grass, and continued walking to the training area.

When I arrived at the training area, it was somewhat different than before. Instead of baskets lining the edge of the arena, there was an extended sheet of white cloth surrounding it. The cloth looked like it had been folded up from squares, yet the space within each was not a big enough for a sparring match. There was only one person in each square, but there was no Ruffian. It seemed like he was late for some reason.

Breaking my chain of thought, a bruised face caught my eye. The boy staggered when he walked, and he was just absolutely smoldering. It was Luke. Of course not to far behind were his two cronies, Logan and… Huh, I don’t think I caught his name. Well either way, it doesn’t matter. He isn’t very important anyways.

I snickered, and that brought Luke‘s attention. However, instead of glaring at me like he normally would, he turned his head down to look at the ground. Hah! I bet he’s scared of me now! Serves him right!

But seeing Luke reminded me of a more important matter, the one regarding the earth shattering fist. Currently, I could initiate the fist attack based on the basis of Creon’s movements. But, I had no idea on how to reach the intermediate realm. I knew that like all 0th rank martial skills, they could be executed without the use of aura for an effective attack, although the attack would not completely follow the hidden principles within the martial art. The basic realm of every art was getting the movement down, and being able to execute it at any time using your own body. But in the end, it was just a copy. It was not sufficient to use the only the basic realm in battle.

I shuddered thinking back to the fight previously. It may not have seemed like it, but that was a desperate win. Being attacked by 3 opponents simultaneously was of no small difficulty, even if I was superior to everyone in a 1 on 1 confrontation. I even ended up on the floor, and that should of been my doom. But instead, Luke had been behind Logan allowing me to get back up, and to finish the fight. Being unable to let out more than one earth shattering fist at a time had almost caused my downfall. But with the intermediate realm, they wouldn’t of been my opponents.

The intermediate realm was a bit different. It was a small step that was much harder than just copying the movements. The question to taking this step was how to adapt the attack fully to your body. After adapting it, you could release variations of the move that could attack in different conditions instead of the same footing, same move, every time.

Of course, unlike the basic realm it could not be reached in a mere day. You needed to grasp the concept before even attempting to make variations, otherwise all attempts will end in failure. This depended on your perceptivity. Whether you could comprehend it was all up to you, nothing said or done by others could fix that. But they could at least point you in the right direction, and that’s why I was still patiently awaiting Creon. Just a few nonchalant words could inspire me to achieve the intermediate realm faster than I ever could on my own. That was what I needed. I looked forward to the stage expectantly, waiting for the training to begin.

After waiting for a few minutes, the instructor appeared to be coming up onto the arena. But this time, it was a different person than our normal Creon. Instead 1 middle aged man, was walking up. As he ambled up, he was grumbling angrily.

Middle aged instructor- “Always keeping me outa the loop huh!? They keep saying excuses like, ‘Oh, you’re the weakest, so it's only natural...’ or, ‘Oh, well you’d be in danger if we took you in as well!’ Well, I’m goddamn sick of it! They are just trying to keep the treasure for themselves while keeping me outta it! And worst of all, they leave me with a group of crappy toddlers, who don’t know left from right!”

We were all just staring blankly at him while he continued cursing his comrades. But eventually, he abruptly stopped.

Middle aged instructor- “What the heck are you all standing around like idiots for!? Get with your comrades in arms; your idiotic sparring partners!”

Some kids were put off by the man’s actions, after all they were bandit children. But they held their peace, nobody here was stupid enough to make a scene with a basic realm instructor. Or so I thought…

A girl with black hair and angry piercing blue eyes was stomping towards the man. On her face was a large scowl that was spread out to its maximum capacity and an extremely displeased glare. She crossed her arms haughtily, and stood with one leg facing outwards to the man.

It was Diana Barthen, daughter of the plundering earth clan’s master, Mauris Barthen. She was extremely doted upon by her father, and this was a well known fact. But the instructor didn’t seem to care one bit, he was still in his own world. The fact that he was daydreaming, made her even angrier, and she spoke out intending to deface him.

Diana (Stupid girl)- “Ha! It seems like a loner has come to vent all his little sorrows on a group of kids. ‘Boo-hoo,’ she continued mockingly, ‘I drew the short end of the stick, and none of my non-existent friends stood up for me! And now I’m just going to sit here and complain like a little whiny b**ch!’ Well I’m sick and tired of idiotic instructors who only know how to sit and cry! Why don’t you actually teach you good for nothing!?”

The man looked up at her with a dark face, successfully provoked. He then put his hands on his hips, and stuck out his leg exaggeratedly, just like Diana’s.

Middle aged instructor- “Ha! It seems like a spoiled brat has come to vent all her little complaints on a poor old man. ‘Wahhh,’ he continued mockingly, throwing her own words back in her face, ‘I was thoroughly offended by an insignificant remark, and none of my non-existent friends stood up for me! And now I’m just going to stand here and complain like a whiny little b**ch!’ Well I’m sick and tired of spoiled little brats who can only voice complaints about an insignificant choice of words! Why don’t you complain to your daddy for reimbursing a different instructor and see what he says! Maybe he’ll have the same opinion as me, what a spoiled brat!”

This gave Diana no room for immediate rebuttal, and she could tell the opinions of the vast majority of the people here. It was clear that there was no real reason to voice complaint at this point in time. Otherwise, why would no one else stand up and voice their complaints as well? She had made a stupid move, one that would cause her to lose no small deal of reputation.

Diana- “Y-you! You won’t get away with this!”

She then looked to the crowd to see if she could get any sympathizers, to her friends. But none could be found.

Diana was now desperate, and her face was dark with anger. Her eyes intimidatingly swept over each square meeting every kid in the eye. But suddenly, her gaze stopped; it rested on me. Suddenly her expression grew complacent, and her eyes filled with contempt. It seemed like she was planning to push the trash down further, to elevate herself in comparison to me, who was another child of the three. However, it will not be as easy as she thinks it is to humiliate me now.

But before she could start something, the instructor had already started again,

Middle aged instructor- “Well it seems by the attitude of our ‘model’ student here, it is questionable on how much of the fist you have comprehended. So, get up there with your sparring partners, and show me what you have learned!”

The others started lining up to the arena, and I did too. But instead of pairing up with one of her friends, Diana started walking over to me haughtily, as if she was once again the queen of the world. She then raised her hand to me and spoke fawningly,

Diana- “Look! Our clan’s genius, young master Daniel has consistently stood above the rest. He managed to fight against our top student, Ocran, and last further than anybody else in his grade has with an age gap of over 4 years! He managed to run fifteen laps, weighted, before some finished ten! He persevered through the night, training the earth shattering fist longer than anyone else in the whole clan! Is it not fitting that he will be the first in demonstrating the earth shattering fist, with another daughter of the three?”

All those who didn’t stand up for her against the instructor now roared in agreement to her words now. And the question was, who wouldn’t? This was the young master, the trash within everybody's hearts. The exhilaration gotten from putting this ‘exalted’ young master below their feet was like a drug; the more they could do it the better.

Right now, Diana was just doing the same thing. She was planning to humiliate me and my skills in a match, and as such, push her loss of face on to me as well. But this time, they were in over their heads.

I smiled brightly, and immediately jumped up on the stage. Then I extended my hand down politely. But she angrily shoved off my hand, and climbed up.

Standing in positions opposite to each other on the stone, we readied in our respective fighting stances. But this time, I wasn’t exactly a complete noob to fighting. I had adapted the stance for the earth shattering fist, poised and ready to strike.

My opposite, Diana, did not seem to be taking this seriously. She had her hands up in a sort of relaxed version of the earth shattering fist, and she didn’t seem to even put up the appearance of trying her best. And her facial expression expressed it all. Her sneer was not hidden, and the fact that she was also raising her head like she was looking down on an insect was very comical. Especially because of the fact that I was taller than her, she had to look up extra high like a chicken craning its neck.

Smiling, I tensed up my stance for the fight. And in a moment, the middle aged instructor had started the countdown for the match.

Middle aged instructor- “3, 2, 1, Fight!”

I cautiously inched forward, making sure to keep within the stance for the earth shattering fist. And suddenly, she pulled off a mediocre fist. It was aimed at my face, and it was not part of the earth shattering fist technique. I ducked the attack, and before she could pull it back, I grabbed her arm. I braced myself against the ground, and pulled her forward. It worked like a charm, and with my other fist I let out a full power earth shattering fist towards her stomach.

My attack was no joke, and I knew this with a certainty. I could send guys like Luke flying with one attack. I was not inclined to have mercy on a girl over a boy, especially one this arrogant. But before my fist hit, a rock hit me with a huge force on my shoulder. This rock somehow hit at the crucial point for the fist technique, and my fist only hit with about 40% of its norm.

Diana staggered back, and the sneer was replaced with a grimace of pain. Then the middle aged instructor announced,

Middle aged instructor- “Match end, Daniel wins!”

The crowd was silent for a moment, then went into an uproar.

RP1- “What? What a cheap, crappy win! He didn’t even take the attack head on like a man would! And then he throws out a super weak punch that only can cause one to lose breath for a moment. Combined with that horrible form for the earth shattering fist, how is that fair at all? Diana hadn’t even tried, yet her fist was better than his! He must of gotten backwater support from the elders.”

RP2- “True dat, true dat. Even I could throw out a punch stronger than that!”

He proudly flexed his muscles, but then was overshadowed by Diana’s elder brother. He walked casually through the crowd, his unflexed arms making the other kid’s muscles look like toothpicks. Then he stood still at the head of the crowd, his eyes coldly glaring at Diana’s. It was Jedav.

Jedav Barthen was one of the clan’s talented cultivators at the 1st level of the basic realm. Like his sister, Jedav had fair skin with cold, sapphire blue eyes. However, he had a head full of brown hair, and broad wide shoulders, a sharp contrast to his sister. And he as well, did not look happy.

Jedav- “Diana, you have already lost enough face today. Just stop. We are all fellow members of the clan, and if you keep sowing internal strife, how will we ever cooperate in the future? You need to take a step down, and come with me. Now!”

Diana’s face paled and her cheeks turned red. But she could do nothing; her brother’s words were law. She gave me a infuriated look that seemed to tell me, ‘this wasn’t over,’ and slinked out with her brother. Then before anybody could say anything else, the instructor announced,

Middle aged instructor- “Training’s over!”

Everyone filed out discontentedly, but he told me to stay. After the last person had left, he looked around shrewdly. He muttered to himself,

Middle aged instructor- “Good, no one here.”

Then he turned to me and started,

Middle aged instructor- “Good, very good! Reaching the basic realm of the stance in only a day is simply prodigious! Like she said, truly fitting of one of the sons of the 3! And I would have informed the clan leaders of this great achievement, had it not been for the amazing amount of trouble you have stirred up for yourself. Offending your whole generation, causing your trainer to lose his hand, and even attacking the leader’s daughter, to only mention a few. Worst of all, you have even stolen my deceased ancestor’s natural treasure, his wooden sword from his very grave! Informing them of this ‘achievement’ will cause them to pay attention to you, and by no doubt bring all these matters crashing down on your head. In fact, I’m sure the first thing they will do is take away that lightning treasure of yours.”

He paused shortly, collecting his thoughts.

Middle aged instructor- “But I don’t have any enmity with you, yet, so I won’t reveal any of these pressing matters. Of course that is, on the condition that you do some things for me. After all, it’s only natural that you repay goodwill with goodwill.”

Then he drew in closer, and his eyes flickered with a dangerous glint,

Middle aged instructor- “I know what you’re thinking. ‘Why ask a favor from a junior; what can one who isn’t a cultivator do?’ Well, it’s simple actually. Befriend a certain orphan from Nula village, a child by the name of Keith. Being an orphan, he has no surname, so there should be no problems in locating him. Once you do, I will have further instruction for you then.”

He drew back, not caring for a response and slowly walked towards forest path. Then he suddenly turned around and added,

Middle aged instructor- “And try not to showcase your abilities any further. You have already drawn more attention than I would like. Also, avoid those with the surname of Argaroc. It is my family name, and any one of them could recognize that sword you’re holding on your back at a single glance. Don’t get caught dead holding that in front of an Argaroc.”

With that, he turned into a blur, and disappeared into the forest. Watching this, I shook my head in bewilderment. Then I unsheathed the sword looking at it for a moment. What made this drab looking wooden sword so special? Why could it withstand lighting, what does it have to do with those by the surname of Argaroc? And why me?

I shook my head discontentedly; I would eventually figure this out soon enough. But first things first, I needed to somehow alter the appearance of this sword. It wouldn’t do me any good to get into another situation like this or worse. I sheathed the sword with a minute amount of trouble, and walked into the forest.

But unknown to me at the time, a pair of golden eyes flashed out from the cliff where Ocran had flipped off of. He smirked, and started darting through the shadows without a single sound. He disappeared after me in the forest.

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The Universe Catalog

Author’s note 2- Hey, I’m really sorry for all the delays. I think I procrastinated for over a month, but it’s finally out. Also, I have newfound appreciation for all the top writers in royalroadl. The bust out a chapter at least once every 2-3 days, and that pace is just impossible for me. They must be writing all day and night to finish it all. And as for me, this means a change of schedule. In fact, I’m getting rid of it all together. I know it didn’t last for long, but I don’t want to disappoint the few readers of my story everytime I break a promise. So it’s gone. But comments motivate me to write, so please leave a comment whenever you can!