'This d*mn system! Why the f*ck would you just update yourself without even giving me a heads up!?'
It wasn't just a simple update that only took 5 minutes on your windows computer. No. It took a whole f*cking day. Is the internet too slow today? Wait, is there even internet in this world?
'Haaah' I deeply sighed in my mind
'And I was hoping that I could summon some stuff first before cultivating. Nevermind. At least I get the chance to hang out with my parents.'
I looked towards my mother and my father who both looked eager and happy to teach me.
Jack was the first to talk, as he reached out his right index finger to my forehead "Ok, I will be imparting you the breathing technique first. You would usually have to find a manual for these cultivation methods but" Jack suddenly smirked, "since this dad of yours is so capable, why not just learn it directly?".
As soon as Jack stopped talking, a faint red light suddenly emitted from his index finger. But just as the light appeared, Matilda, who was just quiet a few moments ago, suddenly yelled out, "Wait!".
Jack, Claire, and I were confused. Jack hesitated for a bit before stopping the red light that was about to be 'absorbed' by my forehead.
"What is it, Matilda? Is something the matter?" Claire asked first before Jack and I were able to ask her the same thing.
Matilda cleared her throat first then proceeded, "Please do not take offense, Mr. and Mrs. Ingard. But from what we all know, Matthew hasn't had much physical activities every since he was born. And it was already a miracle that he was able to walk the moment he got up from bed for the first time. May I suggest that Matthew, the young master, first practice some body enhancement cultivation techniques?"
"Hmmm, that is a good idead. By starting with his body, he can layout his body's foundations first. But, I don't know why would you stop me in the middle of transferring Matthew my cultivation technique. Is there a problem with it?"
From the way Jack inquired Matilda, people would mistake the former to be a bit aggressive from the way he asked. But, everybody inside knew that even though Matilda was an acting maid of the family, she was still loved by the couple like they would love their own. It was just that Matilda was too headstrong about serving the two of them that they were hopeless in persuading her to just relax and be herself.
Seeing as the three of us were listening attentively to her answer, Matilda grabbed a black book the size of her palm from her pockets. It had been tied very crudely by small iron chains. If one were to look closely at it, they would be able to see a faint outline of a fish from the front cover.
"!!!" Jack and Claire both had a look of surprise.
"Mom, Dad, what did sister Matilda bring out?"
Jack looked Claire as though he was looking for an approval before Claire nodded back to him.
"Ok. That book that Matilda is holding is something that both of us can't hold on to."
"What? Why? Isn't it just a book?" I was dumbfounded. I never knew that a single look at a book can make people look like they've seen their grandparents in their birthday suits. It was hilarious yet I knew that there was a deeper meaning to it.
"Do you want the short story or the long one? " Jack asked me.
"Uhhh"
'Since I prefer to be more detailed in a lot of things...'
"The long one, please"
Jack hurriedly waved his hands and the chair nearby went to his hands and he took a sit. Then, he started to talk like he was telling a story.
"It's no ordinary book. When both me and your mother were still teenagers, we decided to take on a mission from the sect to get some experience and resource materials. When we were about to return to our Sect, we stumbled upon a cave near the borders of a forbidden area. Normally we wouldn't be able to see it because it was hidden under an average looking tree, but we wanted to bury some of our treasures before we returned. "
"So, lo and behold, the soil we were stepping on suddenly collapsed and we fell down along with it. What we saw when we landed was the sight of a 12 foot skeleton of a human sitting down in a lotus position. Claire told me that we should get out because she felt that something was wrong but I wouldn't listen."
"I stepped towards the skeleton and examined it. Claire was still urging at me. As I was looking at the corpse, I saw the book, that was tied in chains, hanging on its neck. I tried to grab it, but it suddenly released an aura that was too hard to withstand. Even the Sect Leader's aura couldn't hold a candle when compared to that aura. It enveloped both me and Claire, completely crushing our bodies just from the pressure. "
"Suddenly, strings surrounded our bodies and we were thrown outside the cave and away from the book. We saw a woman standing in between of us, looking at the book and skeleton below us. That was when we met Matilda's mother She didn't look any older from us, but she gave off a feeling that everything was within her grasp. She only told us 'Stay away' before she unbinded the strings from our bodies and made it fly towards the book. The strings struggled its way towards book, little by little, until it made contact with the book. Then, it wrapped around it. As though it was struggling, the book started to vibrate. And then, it exploded with a force so strong that it swept all of us flying 50 meters away from the origin. "
"When we came back to our senses, we noticed that the woman, or Matilda's mother, was in a bad condition. Both of her hands were mutilated up until an inch away from her shoulders. She lay on ground face up, fainted. There were so many wounds, small and big, around her body. We don't know who she was back then, but we owed her for saving our lives back there inside the cave. We got up, then saw the book laying on the ground. It didn't have its former pressure, so we assumed that it had expended all of its energy on the last attack. We took the book and placed it inside a bag. We didn't know what the book was, but we assumed that the lady wanted to take it or whatever from the way she tried to tie up the book with her strings."
Jack grabbed a glass of water, drank it, then resumed talking.
"Since outsiders weren't allowed inside the sect, we took her back in an inn. Though we looked suspicious for carrying an unconscious and wounded woman inside the inn, nobody went up to us since we were wearing our sect emblems. When she woke up, we thanked her and she thanked us. She told us that her name was Litha and that she was here to retrieve something she was whispered about by an unknown voice in her mind. She told us that originally she didn't know what it looked like, and that she only knew that there was an unknown energy floating around in that area around the forbidden area and all she had to do was walked around and feel it. Litha was so busy telling us her story that she forgot that we were total strangers. She just looked at us blankly and we laughed at her. She then laughed with us as well and then we got to know each other better afterwards. Although she didn't tell us where she was from, we still had the feeling that we could trust her. After she recovered, we bid our farewells and she told us that we she would come visit later after she is finished with the thing in her mind."
"Several years after, we were already married but we still haven't heard anything about her. No letters, no news, nothing. But, one day, we received a visitor" Jack then smiled at Matilda while talking about this part.
"We were only informed by the outer disciples that someone wanted to visit us. There was a cute little, 6 year old girl that went to visit us outside the sect walls. She looked oddly familiar, until she brought out a book that we never could forget in our entire lives. The book that led us to meet with Litha. Matilda told us that she was the daughter of Litha and that she went here through a one-way entry spatial gate that her mother had made. Matilda was told that we were the only friends of Litha and Matilda asked us if she was allowed to live with us. How could we possibly decline that request? After Matilda went in, she suddenly cried. She told us that she saw how Litha was wounded when she was sent away in the spatial gate. It looked 'really, really' bad from what Matilda told us at that time so we came to the conclusion that she was being pursued by someone. The fact that the book was the only thing that Litha gave Matilda before they were separated shows how important the book was to Litha. Maybe it was what she was hiding from whoever was chasing after her. We comforted Matilda because what she had gone through wasn't something a 6 year old girl should ever have gone through. We checked the book and noticed that the previous aura it supposedly had was nowhere to be felt or seen. We checked the contents of the book , only to see nothing but white blank pages. There was a note on the back side of the front cover saying 'Only those whose bodies are untainted by the norms shall the contents of this grimoire be revealed'. We shook our heads at that time since we didn't know what it meant to be 'untainted by the norms'. But I guess Matilda already figured it out. It probably means to never have cultivated, am I right, Matilda?"
Matilda's eyes were slightly covered by a layer of tears. She nodded, then proceeded to wipe her tears with a cloth from her dress.
Jack patted Matilda's head while Claire went up to her and hugged her as to console her from the resurfaced memories.
Matthew's heart was in turmoil as well. They only met once and they already had a bond comparable to lifelong brothers and sisters. Jack and Claire didn't even think too much when receiving Matilda as a part of their family. Matthew wondered, 'If I had a 'Jack' and a 'Claire' in my previous life, would I have felt that familial warmth? Would I have not died lonely and not loved by anyone?'.