"Xin'er, it's fine even if you don't have a spirit familiar. Grandfather will do his best to protect you at all cost." Jiu Tinghao was sitting across me with Jiu Qiqi-- former Jiu Xinyi's mother, we were eating dinner together and were discussing my plans on going to the south.
"I'm fine grandfather, I already made up my mind to go for it." I said calmly and continued eating my food.
Spirit familiars are spirit entities that can either take the form of a conjurer, a beast, or a weapon. Every individual who has reached their coming of age is granted permission to visit the spiritual abyss once when they turn eighteen.
Every year, in the second month of spring, the spiritual abyss will open its doors for outsiders to seek a spirit familiar and fulfill a spirit contract. A spirit contract is a blood contract that binds both the master and the spirit familiar. In order to fulfill a blood contract, the master needs the acknowledgment of the chosen spirit to successfully initiate the contract. In short, it needs the consent of both parties before a blood contract is made. If successfully done, the spirit familiar will be accompanying its master till its death. If the master dies, the spirit familiar will be automatically recalled at the spiritual abyss and wait for its new master to serve once again.
One of the good things that I happen to come across with during my stay at home, the Jiu residence surprisingly had a huge archive. Despite giving me a questionable look, grandfather still gave me a spare key to access the family archive. I wasn't expecting much at first but good thing they had books I could read and equip myself with. Although I had the memories of the former owner of the body, there are still things she didn't know because she was simply not interested at all. Obviously, she already gave up cultivating.
Jiu Tinghao heaved a sigh and didn't argue any further with me. The dinner ended quietly and I immediately returned to my chamber to get ready for my journey to the spiritual abyss tomorrow morning.
A soft knock resounded at my front door and I quickly swept off my remaining necessities. "Come in." I answered as I stood by the tea-table.
The door opened and revealed Jiu Tinghao. He had a solemn expression as he strode inside my room. If he came here to stop me, he'll leave me no choice but to flee from here, I swear.
"I know that I would not be able to stop you from going tomorrow. Instead, I'll give you this. Xin'er, me and your mom will pray for your safety." He reached out for my hand and placed a ring on my palm. The ring had a blue stone and runes written on its band. "It's a spatial ring. You can use it after you drip a drop of your blood in its stone and use it to store your belongings."
As far as I know, only a few people own spatial rings in Nanchang Empire. Big families in the empire used storage pouches to store objects, which were of a lower grade than spatial rings. Storage pouches are expensive and rare for common people to use, which means a spatial ring is a treasure.
"I don't know what you experienced to go through so much, but seeing you change for the better this past month, I am glad. This time, grandfather will support your decisions." Ju Tinghao gave off a warm smile and held my hand tightly as if he didn't want me to fly away.
A surge of warm feelings engulfed my chest as I felt a sense of relief.
In my former life, having a family that truly cares about me was a luxury I can never afford even after conquering the business world. I had a prostitute as a mother and a bastard as a father. I crawled my way up in the hierarchy to gain my bastard father's recognition but instead of being acknowledged I received hatred and disgust. The woman who gave birth to me was killed by my father. Knowing this, I didn't even felt remorse or anger because I didn't have a single strand of attachment towards her. As my hands got dirtied and soaked with blood in climbing my way to the top, I became obsessed with gaining every bit of recognition I can scrape from that person.
I looked at the spatial ring on my palm once again and a flash of memory played before my eyes.
"Do you think I'd let you live after what you did?!" His heavy words resounded in my dim-lit living room. I saw his eyes rage in fury as if trying to kill me by merely eyeing me. The next thing I saw was the million-dollar flower vase that I bought from an auction flying across my living room to my feet.
The loud crash jolted me from being scared stiff in front of him. Broken shards from the ceramic artwork grazed my skin. The pain I felt from the wounds caused by the broken vase was an understatement from my fear of the man standing right in front of me.
"You insolent whore!" His strides were heavily pact with anger and killing intent as he closed the distance between us and dragged me by my hair.
My face instantly scrunched up from the writhing pain I felt from his merciless grip. Struggling to keep my balance from being dragged across the room, the man simply clenched his hand around my neck and lifted me with ease. "I regret stopping myself from killing you in the first place, thinking it was a waste of time! Look what you've caused me?!" His words felt like daggers stabbing my chest.
My body fell limply on the floor once he let go of me. The atmosphere instantly became dead silent as he walked away from the living room. In a matter of seconds, the smell of gasoline invaded my senses. Gasping for air, my eyes shot up to the figure at the end of the hallway when the realization hit me.
He stood there, expressionless, staring right through me as if I was just another puppet to dispose of. "I should've done this right from the start." His words echoed through me, causing my eyes to break into silent tears as I stare at him drop a lit lighter, watching the flame travel the hallway, slowly engulfing the entire villa. As I saw the last straw I had quickly disappear right in front of me and closed the doors to caged me in, a few words escaped my mouth. "Hell, back to where I was born."
The quick flash of memory right before my death stopped and I was brought back into reality. I smiled bitterly from that memory. I quickly composed myself and breathed out the negativity. I looked up at the old man in front of me, 'he's not the same as the man in my former life,' I said to myself.
He's a grandfather to the former owner of this body, a grandfather that was left behind for me to take care of. I was given a new lease of life to redeem myself, surely they're different from the family that I knew from my past life. This might be new to me, a bit awkward, but I'd like to learn more about this family.
Trying to find the right words to say, a sheepish smile formed on my face. "Thank you... grandfather..." I muttered. And just like that, I received the second warm hug from a family member. Maybe, this is what I wanted back then.
"Take care of yourself child. We will be waiting for your return."