Chapter 22
There is a long and wide path that follows a thousand kilometers road, it's called the Haven Straight. This road connects the City of Er and the border town of Haven. As the road is almost at a perfectly straight line from the city to the border town, it is rumored that it was created by the devastating breath of a terrifying beast. After hundreds of years, people turn it into a road towards the town of Haven. Even though the road is long it became easier for the Kingdom of Er to protect their subjects as people build most of their villages near this road. Thus it was considered as the safest and busiest road towards the Daemon forest. Thousands of cultivators would prefer to take this long and wide road as they would find small trading villages every hundred miles.
On one particular day, a group of around 100 people is traveling towards the town of Haven. Every cultivators and mortal seeing this majestic line of transportation artifact would have their eyes filled with envy. As they know that these people are from the highest family ranks in the City of Er, and also students of various famous cultivation schools from the city. Each carriage artifact has a color representing their school and judging from the number of colors one could see that almost all of the famous school from the city are there. Leading the convoy is a large black carriage artifact that looks like a moving fortress being pulled by 2 large black beasts that looks like a rhino with three horns. Inside this carriage sat ten people, they are the facilitators of the journey, each of them is in the gold core realm at a very young age. Clearly, they are the geniuses and core disciple of the school they belong to.
And leading them is a woman wearing a white robe and a thin veil that covers her whole face. Although nobody can see her face, her figure alone can make almost all the men and women in the carriage feel attracted to her and take glances of her perfect figure every now and then. But since her temperament is too cold, they didn't dare to approach her. And she is called Qin Lou, a girl who always covers her face and a once genius cultivator that reached the gold core realm at the age of 17. At that time, she also entered the school tournament just like the one they are going to now. She became one of the contending students for the number one position after taking down those who were stronger than her. And on one of her fights, she broke through to the golden core stage, which causes a great ruckus in all the tournament. From then on many schools wanted to poach this genius student, but she stayed loyal to Snow Wind School as they are the one who supported her since she started cultivating.
But one day, she was ambushed by a group of cultivators jealous of her talent and just barely escaped with her life. The sad thing is that her gold core was damaged and no one had the ability to heal her or maybe no one wanted to. So, from then on her cultivation stagnate to the first stage of the gold core realm. This made some people who look up to her became dejected and people began to scorn her in secret. As she still has the power of a gold core realm cultivator, at least nobody ever disrespects her in public.
"Hey, isn't she the famous Qin Lou, right? The one they called trashy and ugly cultivator?" a woman in the carriage whispered to her seatmate.
The young man beside her just nodded his head without saying a word. But then another one chimed in and whispered to both of them.
"Yeah, I heard about her. After she became a trashy cultivator, she was assigned as a guide to us student who has the potential to grow. Although the Snow Wind School didn't kick her out, still this is just like abandoning her. I heard that even her master won't visit her anymore."
"Really? She's still a gold core, right? Will she enter the inter-school competition? I really want to fight her, the once called genius student of Er city." another one of the student facilitators whispered.
"She's not participating in any competitions, once I heard that she tried to enter the alchemy competition and exploded a cauldron causing shame to Snow Wind School."
A facilitator from the Snow Wind School heard that and frowns. Then he looks at the group of student facilitators with cold eyes and said.
"We in the Snow Wind School don't want a trash cultivator to represent our school. That time she just entered on her own accord, we really wanted to kick that bitch out of our school but because of her master's prestige, she shamelessly stayed and became a lowly servant." The young man said with a scornful look, clearly, he had some grievances with Qin Lou.
Qin Lou heard this but she didn't react or even reply and just kept her eyes closed. Never minding anyone, she just concentrated and tried to improve her skills. Since her cultivation won't increase because of the damage in her gold core, she spends her time learning various skills, and in time her arsenal of skills became too varied that she could almost do anything. Like her most students would just spend their time cultivating and practicing their skills as their travel.
A month later…
The students finally arrived at Haven Town. This is the biggest town in the Kingdom of Xi, almost as big as a city. But since not all cultivators would stay in town, the number of true residents are actually less. But everyday cultivators and mortal would do trades and sell things in the middle of the town which is where its market is.
The town is being controlled by the royal family of the Er kingdom. Directly managing the welfare and safety of the border. But aside from the royal family, there also exist some minor clans in the area which also helps in defending the town.
After entering Haven Town, the students disembark their own artifact carriages and was kept by the protectors, while the beast drawing them is left inside the base of every school in the town. After a day of preparation, they once again formed a large group and marched towards the forest the next day.
…
It has already been two days after Shin Jiao had found a way to fix the spheres in his dantian. To his great surprise, he now had the ability to manipulate spiritual Qi. And inside his dantian lays a transparent colorless ball with a faint pulse and 31 spheres inside it. The mutation of his cultivation technique was beyond his imagination, and it took him a day to figure out everything. Now that he was able to manipulate spiritual energy, he could already feel his lifespan, and indeed, he is a mere mortal. According to his calculation and the strength of his soul, his lifespan would be at most 80 to 100 years. But there are things that still not clear as according to his body's strength and structure, he could live for at most 300 years already, which is the equivalent lifespan of a core forming realm cultivator.
This made him confused, and also the fact that he was not able to consolidate all the energy inside his dantian is also mind-boggling. He really thought he absorbed them all, but after that sudden surge of heavenly light when he formed the colorless sphere, a large amount of mixed energy escaped and after the light a faint pulse can be heard within the ball. The energy outside this transparent ball is weird as no matter what he tried to do, he could not absorb them.
"Thank you." Shin Jiao suddenly said as he looks at the distance with yearning in his eyes and a sincere smile appear on his face.
"Mortal or immortal? What am I? Sigh… Anyway, I won't have to go to the town of Dis anymore. I need to find a new place and meet new people to forget all these sad things. Maybe the other town would be a good idea." Shin Jiao said as he took some time to get a bearing of his direction and started walking east.
…
Meanwhile…
On the east Inside the Daemon forest, a few thousand of kilometers away from Shin Jiao's location. A group of around 100 something people, as traveling at a moderate speed following a woman who hovers in the air. Her feet almost didn't touch the ground while traveling. This made most of the gold core people following her astonished.
Among these people are 6 gold core realm peak-stage elders which are the protectors of each school. They are not surprised at the young woman, as they already knew her and would always admire her abilities. The sad thing is that her cultivation level would never increase anymore.
"Hey, senior brother! How is she doing that? We're both first-level gold core realm but I can only fly just like her for an hour at most, but her, she's been floating ever since we entered the forest." a beautiful petite young woman said with a little tinge of jealousy in her voice.
"I don't know… I also wanted to know but she would never ever talk to anyone." The young man replied with a helpless expression on his handsome face.
"Maybe it's a trick or a skill passed to her from her master. If we could learn that skill that would be awesome."
"Yeah, let's ask her… a skill like that is not for some trashy cultivator like her."
As every student facilitator voiced out their discontent, a very handsome young man following them heard this and then smiled cunningly. As if hatching an evil plan in his mind, his eyes suddenly had a glint of craftiness. This young man has a look that's like a young master of a clan, and following beside him is a group of a beautiful young woman trying to vie for his favor as they try to flatter him.
After four days of traveling and resting, they finally arrived at the foot of a majestic but lifeless mountain. If one looks at it that person's interest would die down as the mountain is barren and without a trace of spiritual Qi or life.
The young woman Qin Lou walk towards an inconspicuous area where a small stone is. Then she took a small green crystal hanging on her neck and inserted it to a hole in the stone which suddenly appears when the crystal touches the stone.
Then all of a sudden an entrance like dark crevice appear at the side of the mountain in front from where Qin Lou stood. The whole group of students was stunned but then they entered as they were instructed by the student facilitators and protectors. After everyone was inside Qin Lou followed after them as she removes the crystal from the stone and places it back on her neck. The crevice then gradually disappears after some time and as if nothing had happened everything went back to normal.
When everyone exited the crevice, what appears in front of them is a large crater where lust greeneries and wildlife can be seen. As they walk along the path they came to a small village where cultivators wearing Er city insignia on their robes busily move about with their work. The small village is the camp where the 6 schools would stay, in there they could see shops and restaurants managed by students who are guarding and taking care of the area.
Qin Lou saw that everyone is already inside and so she decided to go about her way. But before she could go a young master looking guy followed by what looks to be his harem approached her with a grin.
"Senior sister, I truly admire you and your abilities. Thank you for leading us safely in this wonderful place." The young man said as greeted with his one hand cupped to the other.
"I am Xian Jian Feng, the young master of the Feng family. As you know my family is one of the great family in the City of Er. We have power and wealth at our disposal. I am truly interested in you, senior sister, with your ability and charm I was truly entranced." He said with a dashing smile.
Xian Jian Feng always has his ways with women, as he would always coerce them with his wealth and status. Although not all would fall for that, he still can get a few of them in his bed because of it. Thus he is confident that this tactic would work on Qin Lou as he considers her as someone who is now trash and knows that she would be glad to accept him as her support. Since it was his first time to qualify and enter the inter-school competition, he is not aware of Qin Lou's temperament.
"Young master Feng, you said you like me right?" Qin Lou sudden reply shocked Xian Jian Feng as her voice is like a piece of soothing music that made his heart jump.
"Damn... this woman truly had a beautiful voice. I think her face would not be that bad either... He, he, he." Xian Jiang Feng said to himself as he grinned more in excitement.
As this is the first time that other people had the gall to confess to her, Qin Lou felt a little scornful and mischievous. Though some people took glances of her face and tried to spread bad rumors about it, she was happy as nobody took it seriously and looks for her for trouble. But this time it's different as a man truly confessed to her and she really wanted to know what would happen if he saw her face.
"Come here young master Feng, let me show you something." Qin Lou said as she turns around with her back facing the rest of Xian Jiang Feng's harem.
Thought the other girls felt angry but they can't do anything as her voice is truly mesmerizing. Then Xian Jiang Feng excitedly ran around and faced her. Then when he was in front of her, she slowly lifted her veil.
Xian Jiang Feng had a wide smile on his face as he felt blessed and happy. He knows that those women who cover their faces are afraid that their beauty would cause them endless troubles. So he is truly thrilled to be able to privately see Qin Lou's heavenly face. He imagined her features while unconsciously looking at her perfect figure, of what her beauty would be like.
After Qin Lou lifted her veil, she immediately closed it and slowly walks away. Xian Jiang Feng still had a wide smile on his face and he just stood there like a statue after seeing something heavenly and didn't move for a long time.