*Clip-clop clip-clop*
A horse was galloping along the dirt road. The rider was wearing a green robe with the word serenity written in white on the back.
'I don't wanna go.' Zhang Wuji was moping around on the horse. A few days after the competition, most disciples visit their families for the annual festival. But he did not want to go. There'll be relatives. Comparing him to their own children. Atleast he didn't have to deal with family politics anymore as Zhang Chen had already been decided as the next head. But for some reason Zhang Chen is always eager to mess with him. To top it all off some take a shot at him just to please Zhang Chen.
'This sucks! Why should I go? It's not like they are my family.' Zhang Wuji sighed with exasperation. If he did not go, his father would send someone to bring him. According to him anyone can miss the annual festival but not the family head's son. And then there'd be a huge lecture about unnecessarily worrying his mother, discipline and being a man.
When Zhang Wuji was fourteen, it was obvious that he wasn't cultivating too well. That's when his second uncle made his move and argued that his own son, Zhang Chen was a better option for the next head and thus must be given more resources. His father bought one year time for him and sent a greater portion of resources. All was for naught. There wasn't adequate improvement in his cultivation and he decided not to go to the annual festival and escape the embarrassment.
Unfortunately for him, his father sent the steward to bring him home after a few days. That added to his embarrassment. There was also the lecturing.
So Zhang Wuji decided to just go. It was just a ten day event. He'll just have to endure.
'This fellow had such typical parents. Strict father and a loving gentle mother. Then the family head position, jealous uncles, cousins with higher cultivation and greater talent, sigh what a typical setting.'
'I'll use cultivation as a method to avoid them. Hopefully it works. Anyway it isn't that bad. I believe I am the only one to reach completion in the martial art in the younger generation. If I use the right strategy I might be able to beat even sixth level body refinement realm cultivators of the family.'
'Speaking of Eagle Claw Art. It's been two months. I'm still stuck at completion. There is no fun in it anymore. Ai.' Zhang Wuji sighed with frustration.
It was difficult to work without any visible improvement. His martial art training was slowing down, and it was effecting his cultivation too.
He did reach completion in a bit more than three months but grand completion is on a level of its own. It allows one to jump multiple levels and fight. In the top ten only five of them had reached grand completion. And they are the top contenders in the whole of outer sect. Obviously he couldn't feel a substantial improvement in his martial art level in less than two months.
'The competition rewards were so alluring. All ten of them were given a mid quality gate opening pill and a the top three were also given a high quality one. With the mid quality gate opening pill they'll easily break through the qi condensation realm. The top three can also use the high quality one to break through the high stage qi condensation. Sigh their lives are so easy.' Zhang Wuji slumped on the horse and sighed.
'There's also custom grade 1 weapons and sect points. How nice. Hand Dongfang was even given a pair of top quality grade 1 gauntlets and a thousand sect points. Those will last him till high stage. Sigh he was even taken as the personal disciple of the sect master. Evil always wins. Sigh.'
He had been travelling for two days and house riding was not fun. In the beginning he was excited about it but after two days, his but was hurting like crazy.
He reached a small town and decided to spend the night there. The past two days that's all he did. Travel in the day rest at an inn in the night.
The next morning he set off for the last leg of the journey. He reached the Eagle Mountain city in the evening.
The city was bustling. The annual festival was a great source of income for big and small merchants. The city was brightly lit and formed a colourful picture as the sun set behind the Eagle Mountain in the background. The city was built at the foot of the mountain.
'The peak does resemble an eagle's head. It feels more real when I see it personally than in the memories. Also the mountain's shadow gives an ominous feel to the whole city. Like a huge eagle is eyeing it's prey from above. Who built the city in this angle? What an idiot!'
He entered the city gates on his horse. He maybe a shut in but as the Zhang family head's son, he was a familiar face to the guards. They bowed to him and he nodded in return.
'Well that feels good.' He couldn't help feeling giddy at the respect he obtained from the residents of the city. Afterall he was like a prince in the city. In the same mood, he reached the north of the city. The horse stopped at the entrance of a manor.
The manor was surrounded by greyish white stone walls with a black door flanked by stone lions and four guards.
He handed the horse to the guards and went straight to greet Zhang Wuji's parents. He was very nervous. At the sect no one would notice anything different about a shut in but his parents might notice some anomaly. He kept recalling how old Zhang Wuji behaved infront of his parents to not screw things up.
'Keep the head bowed, small voice and I'll be fine. Sometimes stutter in fear, no I might stutter too much. Let's just do lowered head and voice.'
He reached the inner yard. Before he could enter his parents' residence, a beautiful middle aged woman with moist eyes come out and hugged him.
"Ji'er!" He felt the warmth and emotions and remembered his own mother. He missed her. In the past five months he did occasionally think about his past life but it was mostly about how screwed up it was. But today he truly missed his mother.
He wanted to hold her and cry out loud about how alone he was in this foreign land but then remembered this was not his mother and he was occupying what was originally her son's body. He felt depressed and alone.
What made him feel even more depressed and angry was that he felt guilty. It's not like he killed her son. Then why? All of a sudden the warm embrace started to feel uncomfortable. He felt like he was shackled and desperately wanted to get out but couldn't.
"It's good that you were able to make it here all by yourself this time." At this time he heard a heavy voice. He turned towards it to see a 6'2 tall man wearing white robes walking towards him. He had nearly trimmed beard and long hair resting on his broad shoulders. His robes drew out the contours of his massive muscles giving him an intimidating look.
Looking at the stern look in his eyes Zhang Wuji felt he was gonna get beaten and was a little scared.
"H, how have you been father?" He lowered his head and stuttered in a small voice. He reacted naturally and couldn't take the credit for good performance.
"Don't scare him!" Perhaps his mother felt his pounding heart and said to his father in a chiding voice.
"Hmph! What level have you reached in your cultivation?" He was going to continue with the stern voice but after looking at his wife giving him a scary look he tried to soften his voice a little.
"F, fifth level" Zhang Wuji lowered his head further and his voice became difficult to hear.
'What the fuck am I scared for?!'
"Fifth level huh?" He nodded and turned back to enter the house. Zhang Wuji could see the disappointment in his face and felt irritated.
"Don't mind your father. Go and freshen up. I'll get the dinner ready." she embraced him tightly for a moment and went back inside the house.
She looked genuinely happy. Zhang Wuji stood still on the spot and looked lost in thoughts. After a while he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled through his mouth. He felt a bit better for a moment before feeling lonely again. He sighed and took his luggage to his room.
He came to the dinner hall and took his seat at the table. The table was filled with all kinds of dishes that old Zhang Wuji liked. Everytime he came his mother personally made all these dishes. The thought made him sadder still. He felt like there was a boulder on his chest and breathing was becoming a chore.
"Ji'er what's wrong, are you feeling unwell?" Chen Yunxi said, looking at her son's haggard face.
"No. I'm just a little tired." Zhang Wuji put on a smile and continued eating.
"Can't even ride the horse for three days without getting tired. How are you even a cultivator?" His father was really getting on his nerves.
'What's your problem? Your son came home after an year and this is how you receive him? Learn from your wife you idiot!'
He kept his head down and continued eating. Things continued with his mother telling him about all the things that happened in his absence, he responding every now and then with as little words as possible and his father taking a jab at him for everything till he was silenced by his mother. After which she asked about his life at the sect and was happy about him making friends.
He intended to say 'just the usual' and skip the questioning but underestimated her tenacity.
After the dinner his father went to his study and his mother brought him out to the garden to take a walk. He really wanted to decline but couldn't.
"Ji'er don't feel bad about what your father said. He just wants what's best for you."
"Mm."
"When he was young, the family was still growing and couldn't nurture the young with as many resources. Your father worked real hard and risked his life to reach his current level of cultivation."
"Mm."
"But his cultivation is nothing special in the world. You might think he is the family head and is free to do anything he wants. That is far from the truth. The world is dangerous. There's bandits, beast tides, sometimes someone from the parent city comes for a visit and your father has to deal with all of them. You can't even imagine how humiliating it is when a kid from the parent city comes for a visit and treats us like trash."
"...."
"Being a family head is tough. That is why he didn't oppose too strongly when your second uncle wanted Zhang Chen to be the next head. He got you admitted into the sect so that you would work hard and atleast become a deacon. With the sect's tag, you would atleast be able to live peacefully. Your father is as strong as a sect deacon but has to deal with humiliation from all sides. All he wants is for your hard work to matter so that you wouldn't have to bow your head to every Tom, Dick or Harry from a big city."
"...."
.
.
....
Back in his room, Zhang Wuji lay on his bed, thought back to his conversation with his mother and sighed.
'I got unreasonably irritated at that fellow. But still he didn't have to take a jab at me at every opportunity he sees. Sigh.' He was feeling helpless at his current situation. There was no way he could break through four levels and one realm and reach qi condensation in four years.
It's one thing reading in the novels and a whole other thing personally hearing it from someone. He was anxious about his future. Once he got kicked out the sect his cultivation would slow down further. And given that his father who was in the level nine of qi condensation realm lived such a miserable life, his would only be even more miserable.
He could picture some young master snatching his wife from him or some bandit torturing him for fun and shuddered. Every breath made him more and more anxious. He sat back up and put his hand on his chest trying to calm his racing heart.
He fell forwards and got into the fetal position. His feet curled and he clutched tightly at his chest.
He clawed at his body and rubbed his legs against each other desperately as if he wanted to get out of his body.
'I wanna go back I wanna go back' he kept repeating his head as he clutched his head and cried.
Unknowingly he fell asleep.