Morning came as usual, rising early in the morning. Light soon peeked into the corner that Li Tian and the mystery man slept in. Surprisingly, the first person to wake up was the injured man. Li Tian continued to rest soundly. Clearly, he was dead beat exhausted from the hike and search for the medicinal herb.
The man looked around his surroundings, realising the young boy that was sleeping beside him. Before he could even prepare himself, a sharp pain came in from the side of his waist. Unbinding his bloodied robe, he looked at his wound. To his surprise, there was a dark paste —a mixture of dried up blood and the herb— applied onto his waist. Only then did he remember what had happen last night.
The man closed his eyes, focusing deep down, not letting his pain get in his way. His legs were crossed, back straightened. He concentrated on the spiritual energy that was within his dantian. As he had expected, that injury from yesterday had put a great setback on his cultivation.
The mysterious martial cultivator was not so mysterious in the Martial continent. He was none other than the Sword Martial God of the Divine Sword Mountain, Mu Zhi Xuan. Mu Zhi Xuan was one of the greatest martial cultivators in the Great world. As his nickname suggested, he was a sword specialist that could even kill enemies with a look from his eyes.
Yesterday, the Golden Rod Sect, a similarly powerful sect, had secretly launch an attack on Mu Zhi Xuan when he was on a visiting trip. The Golden Rod Sect had summoned their strongest five martial cultivators, The Five Pillars to ambush Mu Zhi Xuan. As a result of their sneak attack, they were able to injure Mu Zhi Xuan, but unfortunately, two of them had been shredded to pieces by Zhi Xuan's attacks.
Even though two had died, the now Three Pillars, were definitely able to contend against the Sword Martial God as he had been severely injured. Mu Zhi Xuan knew that was the case and decided to use his lifesaving card, the Void Crystal. When broken, the Void Crystal was able to transcend space and distance to transport the user to a specific point in the user's mind. This treasure was only attainable after going through numerous tribulations in a World Artefact.
Thus, with a place in mind, Mu Zhi Xuan swiftly retrieved the Void Crystal from his Space ring. He broke it in hopes of teleporting back to the Divine Sword Mountain. However, in the midst of transcending space, he had inadvertently stumbled into a space storm. The space storm had resulted in a change in his final destination. In the end, he was teleported to where he was now, the Divided Continents.
Mu Zhi Xuan quickly started to absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy. His face, however, formed a frown. Low! The amount of spiritual energy in this realm was far too low! If I wanted to recover enough spiritual energy to get back to the Martial Continent, it would take me several months without a spiritual energy gathering array. Placing a small bit of spiritual energy into his space ring, he was able to see what treasures he had brought along with him.
Mu Zhi Xuan frowns once again when he looked through his inventory. As of now, there were no pawnable treasures in his ring. Everything he had were all keepsakes and personal relics. He rarely carried around items that are unimportant. In this case, this had backfired on him. Luckily, he had a backup of 1000 gold coins that would be allow him to purchase some resources, but even he knew the extent of his wealth.
There was a few ways he could go about to restore his spiritual energy. The first was the safest, but the slowest. Mu Zhi Xuan could slowly recover his strength in seclusion and after a few months, be able to leave the Divided Continent. The second was achievable and would allow him to recover fast enough. The Sword Martial God could simply recruit himself into a strong and powerful family. The family would have the resources to aid his recovery and then, he would be able to leave back to his home continent. The second plan was definitely better for Zhi Xuan.
Just as he was thinking through the different plans, Wang Li Tian had awoken from his sleep. He stood up and stretched simply. Sleeping on the hard grounds would always make the young boy's body ache. When Li Tian finally opened his eyes, he noticed Mu Zhi Xuan cultivated beside him.
"Ah? You're already awake?" Li Tian spoke, surprised. His question brought Zhi Xuan back to the real world.
"Morning, young boy," Zhi Xuan smiled and gave a firm pat on the boy's shoulder, "Thank you for applying the Moonlight Grass paste on my wound."
"Oh, it is all fine and dandy. I'm more glad that you are alive." Li Tian shook off his thanks as he sighed in relief.
After their introductions with each other, the two sat facing each other and Zhi Xuan asked about Li Tian. He was curious to why an eight year old boy was living on the streets. Li Tian wasn't even living here with his parents. Did they pass away when he was even younger? When Li Tian told his background story to Zhi Xuan, the Sword Martial God almost vomit blood.