A small pile of books sat on the floor alongside a scroll with a decorative golden dragon head on each side of the protective case. Beside the books and scroll was a small pile of shimmering white crystals and then, finally, a plain-looking leather pouch.
Li Jun eagerly rushed over and began to look through the pile. 'How did this get here!?' He thought as he picked up the pouch and peeked inside.
He gasped as he looked in the leather pouch. His eyes gazed upon dozens of gold coins.
'I'm rich!' He thought with a grin, trying his best not to drool from the thoughts of all the things he could now buy. But he was still confused about how those items had appeared.
He looked down at the ring on his finger and pressed the red gem once more, unsure of what would happen. The pile of treasures vanished as a gust of wind blew through the room.
"This is!?" Li Jun almost screamed as he looked at the ring on his finger.
He had heard about these before from the stories his father once told him. To learn martial arts, one would have to use what was called a cultivation technique.
Cultivation was simply the name for cultivating the spiritual energy from heaven and earth. For example, when a farmer plants a seed and watches it grow into crops to feed people, it is a form of cultivation.
The cultivation a martial artist learned would plant a seed within themselves and use the power from heaven and earth to strengthen that seed and grow that seed until it blossomed into incredible power and strength.
Li Jun's father was a martial artist. One of the best, in fact, and of course, his uncle Li Hong was also a martial artist who was jealous of his younger brother's strength. With Li Jun's father gone, his uncle Li Hong bullied him and his mother as a way to vent his anger for being weaker than his younger brother.
However, among Martial Artists, there were certain people who held so much power that they could imbue jewelry, armor, and weapons with their spiritual energy and turn them into magic artifacts.
There was no other explanation. The ring had to be a magic artifact.
Li Jun felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge. If he had found a magic artifact that could store things, then didn't that mean that the things it was storing would also be some profound treasure?
He pressed on the red gem, and a blinding light filled the room. The items once again dropped to the floor, and he looked at them in a new light. They weren't just random treasures he could sell, but they had to be extraordinary. Perhaps selling them would cause more trouble than it was worth.
He sat down and grabbed the first book at the top of the pile.
"Phantom Steps!?" He couldn't help but shout out the name as he read it.
"It's a martial art technique!?" He exclaimed, quieter to avoid waking anyone up. He then picked up the next one.
"Heaven-splitting sword art? It's a sword technique!" Li Jun froze as he saw it. His father used a sword technique. He wished he could have learned it, but without permission from the emperor, no one was allowed to learn the imperial martial arts. He hesitantly picked up the next book.
"Iron mountain palm strikes." He laughed as he read the name.
"Uncle Li Hong uses palm strikes. I bet his wife has already told him what happened earlier. He's probably furious. I wonder if I should try to learn it so I can use it to fight against him?" He thought as he picked up the final book.
"Hand of annihilation." As he read the name, an eerie feeling filled the room. It was as if all the heat had been sucked out and replaced with a winter frost.
He looked at the book with a sense of dread as he held it in his hands. He felt like if he held onto it for long enough, it would grow arms and wrap them around his throat. Li Jun hesitantly put the book back down, and the feeling vanished.
"Whatever that was, I better not touch it again." He thought as a bead of sweat rolled down his face. His attention then turned toward the golden scroll with a dragon head on either side.
As he picked it up, he noticed that the dragons looked strange. It looked as though its scales were actually feathers, and its long snout was a beak. But without waiting any longer, he unraveled the scroll.
A golden light shone out from the scroll as he looked at a reflective page. There were no words, but it glowed with a bright light.
"It's a mirror?" He thought as he looked at his own face in the reflective golden page, and then, as he was holding it with his one functioning hand, it vanished.
He looked around, but the golden light and the scroll had disappeared; it was nowhere to be seen.
Confused by what just happened, Li Jun stood up. But as he began to move, a shrill screeching roared into his ears. It was as if a bird of prey was descending upon him.
The screech grew louder until Li Jun felt his mind beginning to buzz. The strength in his legs gave out beneath him as a burning sensation washed over his entire body. It felt as though he had fallen into the deepest pits of hell and was burning from the inside out.
Li Jun tried to cry out in pain, but he couldn't even open his mouth. With a muffled scream, he crawled towards the door, hoping that if he could leave his room, one of the maids could help him.
The scorching fire that seemed to burn within him was too much for his body to bear.
He rolled around, trying to put out an imaginary fire that was scorching his flesh, but it wouldn't go away. He rolled and rolled until, eventually, something sharp stabbed him in the ribs.
Li Jun glanced down and saw that he had rolled onto the white crystals, the only thing he hadn't had the chance to inspect. They were sharp like glass and sliced through both his clothes and skin.
The white crystals began to glow as though they responded to his blood, and the burning grew more intense. He finally let out a pleading cry as his mind faded into darkness. Not a single thought remained as the fire within his body took over.