Huo Long, the Ring Grandma Protagonist, Intruder
This meant that Xue Bai's predecessor, who never awakened any Martial Veins, and missed out on having the possibility of being a cultivator, had to take a different route.
And since he couldn't cultivate his martial strength, Xue Bai's predecessor took the opposite path and decided to cultivate his mental strength and became a scholar.
After he made the choice to be a scholar, he very quickly became a sensation in the Great Xuan Empire.
After all, with his looks, education, and intelligence, how could he not?
Xue Bai was one of, if not the best-looking character in the game, and coupled with his breathtaking poetic ability, he quickly became the female idol in the Great Xuan Empire.
But for a transmigrator, Xue Bai would never accept dying a mortal. No matter how prestigious his predecessor got as a scholar, at the end of the day, he had no strength and could have his neck wrung like a chicken, even by a Vein Transformation ant.
How could he, as a transmigrator, accept such a pitiful life?
Now Xue Bai had to face the problem of his lack of Marital Veins. So before anything else, he needed to find a natural treasure that could help him awaken Martial Veins when he came of age.
Looking over the desk a few steps away, Xue Bai found a calendar on the wall. Looking over at the calendar, Xue Bai saw that the year was currently in the later months of 969.
And since Xue Bai's character was born on the first day of 962, he still had just about 3 years before his 11th birthday, when he would undergo his first attempt at awakening his Martial Veins.
And since Xue Bai wanted to cultivate, he had to go big.
A Yellow–grade or a Black-grade Martial Vein was out the window. At the very least, Xue Bai wanted to become an Immortal and ascend.
However, to ascend, at the minimum, one needed an Earth-grade Martial Vein. Because without one, any cultivator would find it difficult to reach the higher stages in the Xiantian Great Realm, let alone get to the Immortal Great Realm.
But if he wanted a set of Earth-grade Martial Veins, Xue Bai would have to find a natural treasure of at least low Earth-grade. Because how could a treasure in the Black-grade give the consumer a Martial Veins of the Earth-grade? It was impossible.
It was like getting a million dollars out of a wallet. No matter how great the wallet looked or how expensive it was, it couldn't possibly hold that much money.
Only treasures in the Earth-grade could give Xue Bai a set of Martial Veins that could let him cultivate to the Immortal Great Realm and ascend.
And on the Southern Continent, there were only two such treasures from his knowledge.
However, they were both problematic. One was hidden in the Duan Imperial Family's Monarch Tomb Secret Realm.
The other was less problematic because it was in an easily accessible area, but there was a fine print. It wasn't ripe yet, and Xue Bai had to wait about three years before it ripened.
But since the first was only available in a secret realm that would only open 14 years from now, Xue Bai quickly took that off the table, which left Xue Bai with the second less problematic option.
The treasure in question was a low Heaven-grade natural treasure called the Celestial Void Fruit. And its special effect was creating a set of Low Heaven-grade Martial Veins of the spatial attribute, which was one of the rarest and strongest since of its unpredictability and unorthodox fighting abilities.
But unbefitting of its prestige as a Heaven-grade natural treasure, it was currently growing in a small town just outside the Great Xuan Empire.
Thankfully, while it was far away from his dukedom, his family was more than strong enough to take it away without anyone noticing.
Even better, because of the spatial attribute, the natural phenomenon that the Celestial Void Fruit produced at the time of ripening was a spatial pulse.
And no one below the Immortal Great Realm could notice a spatial pulse, as in order to detect such a phenomenon, one would need a link with the void, an alternate dimension that allowed no life. Only cultivators in the Immortal Great Realm could live there.
This meant that since only Xue Bai knew where it was when it ripened and that no one else could detect it, the fruit was destined to be Xue Bai's!
Of course, if it were in the Immortal Realm, the Celestial Void Fruit would cause wars and produce countless casualties. However, since it was growing in this mortal world, it would be fed to him, a cripple.
Sadly while Xue Bai would get this fruit eventually, it also meant that he couldn't cultivate for the next four years and could only start his plan three years from now.
Finished with the first step of his plan to ascend, Xue Bai then placed the history book down and began writing down his plans for the next few years until then.
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After about an hour of writing, Xue Bai's wrist got tired, and he placed his ink quill down.
Giving his aching wrist a small massage, Xue Bai then stood up and started stretching. While it took a while to organize his thoughts well in his mind, Xue Bai eventually managed to write down the two most important things he needed to do in the near future.
The two things he had written down were the Celestial Void Fruit and an extremely important person he needed to build a relationship with before he rose to stardom.
The Southern Continent where he lived was the only one that housed two Children of the Plane.
The other 3 Children of the Plane each had their own continent: the Northern, Eastern, and Western Continents.
And like every protagonist ever, the two Children of the Plane that were on his continent started with humble beginnings. But, of course, their starts were different, and they both had their own struggles.
The protagonist that Xue Bai decided to meet first was someone who also lived in the Great Xuan Empire.
Also, coincidentally he was a part of a subordinate clan under his father as well.
This Child of the Plane's name was Huo Long. He was the eldest son of a fallen Marquis Clan.
The plot he was born in was the cliche of a supreme genius who became a cripple with no cultivation. However, once he found a ring containing the soul of a newly deceased powerhouse.
And with the backing of a supreme powerhouse, like a phoenix from the ashes, Huo Long rose back to power, face-slapping all those who once looked down on him.
Huo Long's family, the Huo Clan a few hundred years ago, led by Huo Long's grandfather, quickly rose to great heights in the Great Xuan Empire.
But like any normal cultivation world, when one person or group quickly rose, it often caused one to gain public ire. And the wolves appeared after Huo Long's grandfather vanished one day while he broke through to the Xiantian Great Realm.
Then, without the protection of his grandfather, the Huo Clan suffered a steep decline.
Huo Long's grandfather was an anomaly in the Huo Clan's history, and the second generation was never able to live up to their clan founders' potential.
And with the wolves showing their fangs, the Huo Clan went into a steep decline.
However, this decline only lasted until Huo Long's Martial Vein awakening.
That day, Huo Long awakened a Low Black-grade Martial Vein with a fire attribute.
With such high potential, Huo Long was quickly named the clan's hope. Where he was given the entire clan's focus as they saw him as their rise back into the upper ranks of the Great Xuan Empire.
However, the old enemies of his grandfather would never let him rise peacefully, and one day unable to fight back, Huo Long was crippled and lost the Martial Veins that had given him his potential.
After the news of his accident was spread, Huo Long was quickly expelled from his sect. So he returned home saddened until he saw something fall from the sky.
Curious, Huo Long stopped his carriage and followed it to see a ring. Assuming it to be a spatial ring, he picked it up, hoping to sell it to relieve some of his clan's financial problems, only to find it too heavy to be picked up.
Unconvinced, Huo Long tried picking the ring up until he exhausted himself. Then, tired and still depressed from his expulsion, he was about to return to his carriage when he noticed a misty silhouette rising from the ring.
The misty silhouette eventually took shape and turned into a jaw-dropping beauty. With red-colored hair that seemed to emit flames and phoenix-like eyes, a fire lotus imprinted in between her eyes. The misty silhouette looked like a goddess who had descended to the mortal world.
However, oddly enough, other than her beauty, the beautiful woman was almost transparent, like she would fade away if she were hit with a strong enough gust of wind.
The woman, who seemed like she would dissipate in the next moment, looked at Huo Long with eyes that seemed to see through him entirely and then announced herself.
She claimed to be a genius named Feng Huang, who had originally resided in the Immortal World. But, after the death of her senior brother, Feng Huang was caught in an ambush and died.
Unresigned the fact that she never reached her full potential, she sacrificed her physical body to fake her death before leaving her soul in a ring to preserve her life. And that ring had coincidentally fallen into the Baishen Plane.
Now weakened, she needed a host to supply her with Spiritual Qi to keep her soul stable. And since she was on her last legs, she could only choose the nearby Huo Long as her host. Thankfully she chose right, as, under her teaching, Huo Long began to rise again.
If Xue Bai wanted to become close to Huo Long, he would have to make contact before the protagonist established himself as a genius.
During Huo Long's first rise, he was surrounded by fake friends and spies who only sucked up to him because of his potential. However, once Huo Long's accident, they would all leave him hanging dry after his accident.
If Xue Bai wanted to make contact with him, it had to be before his awakening. Coming to him after would make Huo Long put Xue Bai in the same boat as the fake friends. Plus, being a friend before his awakening would show more sincerity.
But sadly, Xue Bai didn't think it was a good idea to meet the protagonist right now. Though he wasn't 100% sure of the exact date, Xue bai knew that one of Huo Long's died during this time.
So at this moment, the Huo Clan was in the middle of a large morning period. Going to meet someone under you while they mourn the loss of one of their most important clan members wasn't a very good idea.
So after some thinking, Xue Bai decided to give it a year before meeting the protagonist. A year was more than enough time for the clan to get over their mourning period, and since Huo Long was only nine, there would still be another year before Huo Long would awaken his Martial Veins.
Also, during the year, Xue Bai wanted to try to gather information about the second protagonist living on his continent, but as she lived outside the Great Xuan Empire, it would be hard to find traces of her.
As Xue Bai was stretching, he yawned.
Feeling exhaustion sweep over him, he decided to end this long day and go to sleep. But before he went to sleep, he slipped the scroll into the geography book, hiding it just in case his father checked his room.
It would be rather hard to explain its contents, and Xue Bai wanted to hide it in a simple spot for the night. Xue Bai planned to get a better hiding spot tomorrow.
For now, he wanted to sleep.
Then after blowing out the candles in his room, Xue Bai covered himself with his quilt and slept.
However, unannounced to him, the second Xue Bai managed to fall asleep, a shadow quietly snuck into his room.
After making sure, it wasn't heard, the shadow slowly crept up to Xue Bai's bed.
Calmly looking at his sleeping face, the shadow confirmed that Xue Bai was indeed asleep.
Following the quick reassurance, the shadow started to search the room.
First, it swept through the entire room until it noticed the two on Xue Bai's desk.
Walking up to the desk, it skimmed through the books, checking if anything was hidden between the pages. And it was right. In the second book, a scroll with somewhat fresh ink fell out from between the pages.
The shadow picked up the scroll and began to read the contents. After reading the scroll, the shadow recognized the handwriting that belonged to Xue Bai, and it started copying the scroll's contents.
After a few minutes of copying, the shadow was finished. Then, putting the scroll back, it took one final look at Xue Bai before sneaking out of the room again.
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