"Whatever you wanted to say, you must go with us," the leader of the group said as he approached the old man and gripped his wrist tightly. Meanwhile, the other members of the group held their sheathed swords, ready to fight at a moment's notice if ever the old man, or Jiang Ye, fought back against them.
Of course,se the old man did not struggle at all. He just silently let the officer drag him as he felt the pain of being gripped by his wrist.
"Old Man Zhao—" Jiang Ye was about to say something but the Old Man Zhao merely stared at him and formed some words on his lips.
Tent…
Huh? Jiang Ye looked at the walking old man in confusion. What does he mean by tent? And why was the old man not struggling as they held him captive? He did not understand what just happened. He can't.
Meanwhile, Long Ziwu sneered and looked at Jiang Ye. "Now you have no protection. You will have no choice, but to do extra work keke."
Jiang Ye's expression turns dark upon hearing Long Ziwu's words. There was a little bit of a feud between Jiang Ye and Long Ziwu. It started 6 months ago, a few days after he had started living the life of a slave. He was at the Extreme Dusk Cave, still adapting to his new life as he collected Spirit Stones to fulfill his 100 Spirit Stones quota.
That was when Long Ziwu suddenly appeared. The older, middle-aged guy, who looked a lot stronger than him due to him spending a decade being a slave (about 1/3 of Old Man Zhao's duration here). Long Ziwu approached him and suddenly punched him in the stomach, making Jiang Ye feel extreme pain. Long Ziwu said that the area he was currently in was his "territory" and mining in his territory meant making the enemy out of him.
Jiang Ye, at that time, believed the middle-aged man's words and apologized for his mistake. And so, that's when Long Ziwu started extorting him of his Spirit Stones, demanding to give his hard-earned Spirit Stones daily to fulfill Long Ziwu's quota.
Even though Jiang Ye was clueless at the time, he realized that he was being taken advantage of and so he became angry and took a Spirit Stone, hitting Long Ziwu in the face and breaking his nose.
Naturally, Long Ziwu became extremely pissed so he fought back and beat up Jiang Ye, raining punches that were not painful if he took it right now, but at that time he was just a weak young man that does work at a tavern and some other mundane jobs before being enslaved.
That's when Old Man Zhao entered the story and demolished Long Ziwu in combat. Due to his expertise, Old Man Zhao made it as though the bruises on Long's body were caused by faFafalleweretumbling within the cave.
If Jiang Ye could still clearly remember what happened, Long Ziwu also remember it. The pain, the humiliation he got from that day. "Jiang Ye! There was no old man to save you now. You're going to suffer a fate worse than death!" Long Ziwu said with extreme malice as he gritted his teeth.
Jiang Ye formed his hand into a fist. "You cowardly bastard!"
"What did you just say!?" Long Ziwu became even angrier upon hearing this.
"Long Ziwu!" The leader of the group shouted and so the vengeful expression on Long Ziwu was replaced with a surprisingly tame and irritating face.
"Yes, Officer Qin!" Long Ziwu made a final glance at the angry lion Jiang Ye before making his way to the group.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ye just looked at the departing group, feeling extreme defeat. He did not expect this to happen. Aren't the old man supposed to be free tomorrow? Why was this happening?
Then Jiang Ye suddenly remembered what the old man silently said earlier and so he quickly opened his tent and saw his small black mattress there but didn't see anything strange.
Jiang Ye looked around him and his eyebrows curved downward, making an overall firm and serious expression as he moved the mattress, and what he saw made his heart thump fast.
Thump! Thump!
Jiang Ye looked around again and only saw some bystanders who were watching the encounter earlier. They were all the residents of their respective tents, which were actually near Jiang Ye's.
Jiang Ye hurriedly closed the tent and looked at the object again. It was a book with a title: "Wind Circulation Cultivation Technique."
Wait what? Jiang Ye's expression turned grave when he saw this. Didn't Long Ziwu accuse the old man of stealing some kind of object from the Domain Lord? Could it be, this was it? Was it true that the old man had stolen something from him?
If that was the case then Jiang Ye's expression became even more serious. It was tomorrow that the old man would obtain his hard-earned freedom, but he threw it away by stealing a cultivation technique! What was the reasoning behind this?
Jiang Ye frowned as he took the book to his hand and flipped it open. Some kind of paper slip suddenly fell from the first page so he picked it up and realized it was written by the old man.
Young Friend Jiang Ye,
I am sure you realized by now that I have stolen the cultivation technique from the Domain Lord's manor nearby. Indeed, you are completely correct. You may have realized or I may have told you about it, I will get my freedom sooner or later. So I wanted to gift you this cultivation technique. This posed a lot of danger of course, and I might not be thinking straight when I did this, but I believe this will help you get an edge over other people and maybe even get your desired freedom soon.
I stole this cultivation technique as a gift for you. For the last 6 months, I have been watching you become stronger, and we have had a lot of conversations just like friends. You made me remember the good old days, when I was with my comrades, fighting a war against dangerous bandits and barbarians that attempted to invade our Domain.
I also felt a familial feeling when I see you. Unknowingly, I have treated you as my son, even though I never got to marry and have a child to begin with. If I were to have a child, son or daughter, I wonder if they would be the same age as you? If I got a daughter maybe I will force you to marry her because why not, I shall become your father-in-law HAHAHA.
Now I am leaving this place soon and will find my footing in the outside world. Maybe I will finally live a peaceful life using the privilege the Domain Lord granted me. I can finally live my own life after serving the Warrior's council and becoming a slave. I just hope that before I die, we get reunited again and see you one last time. Well, that is all that I wanted to say. Become free, Young Friend.
Your Tough Old Man, Zhao Zhengjin.
The more Jiang Ye read the letter that the old man had written for him, the more he felt his hands shaking as tea flowed down. IdownMan Zhao treated him as his son, and Jian gYand e had already treated him as his father, ever since that very incident with Long Ziwu.
This was supposed to be a happy letter, about an old man who, despite having experienced hardship from his childhood, was finally going to have the life that he wanted to get. The very peaceful life that he swore to protect when he was a member of the Warrior's council. But now, the old man did not know that Long Ziwu witnessed what happened and this letter suddenly became tragic.
"Damn it, this old fool," Jiang Ye bit his lips as he wiped his tears using his sleeves. He did not know what path to take right now.
The cold air of the night seeped into his bones as Jiang Ye stared at the moon, seemingly mocking him for the tragedy that befell the old man. It has been an hour, or maybe two—he did not know—since the old man got arrested and he discovered the letter. He had not touched and read the cultivation technique yet, as he was in no mood to do that.
Jiang Ye just couldn't help but blame the world for giving the worst kind of treatment to good people. "Just why?"
Why? That's the very question that has been plaguing him, not just today, but since the beginning of his enslavement. There are a lot of worse people out there, living a peaceful life while doing total evil to people. Why do they get that kind of life while those good ones are working under them—hardworking—until the time they die?
When he thought about the fate of the old man again, the light in Jiang Ye's eyes suddenly became firm and solid, as though it materialized in the 3rd dimension. He formed his hand into a fist and murmured, "I should save him."
That seems to be a ridiculous notion but for the current Jiang Ye, it was a must. There was no need for slaughter, he just needed to save the old man. Not just to repay him for all his help, but to said that he acknowledge him as his father.
After deciding that, Jiang Ye returned to his tent and took the cultivation technique again hidden under his mattress. This seems to be a really risky place to hide a stolen item, but what could he do? He can't exactly dig a soil and just bury it there. Someone might even notice that buried a book in the soil and reported it to the officers.
Jiang Ye prepared himself as he took a deep breath. Then, he stared at the title again which said Wind Circulation Cultivation Technique.
This was the first time he had seen something like this and he did not know if he had the capabilities to understand something like this. He just hoped that this would work. If he can't even comprehend what the book is saying then the old man's sacrifice will go in vain.
Jiang Ye flipped the book to the first page and saw the introductory message:
The Wind Circulation Cultivation Technique is an Epic-tier cultivation technique, a far superior circulation method than others. The technique has two major factors in the circulation; the wind and the spiritual energy between heavens and earth. By integrating these two factors, it will make a tempest inside the body which hasten the cultivation process.
Interesting, Jiang Ye thought after reading this. Then Jiang Ye flipped a few more pages and found some information that was useful but still hadn't delved into the real thing yet. Finally, on the 7th page, it now teaches the user how to circulate by absorbing the air and spiritual energy around them. Just like what was said in the introductory message on the first page, the instructions further explained the combination of the two factors: wind/air and spiritual energy.
Jiang Ye realized that the terms in the books looked extremely easy to understand. He mumbled, "Wow, so was it that easy to master such a powerful technique and become a martial cultivator?"
Jiang Ye skimmed through pages, upon pages, delving deeper into the stages of the Wind Circulation Cultivation Technique. This Qi circulatory method has several stages starting with Initial Circulatory. In this stage, the cultivator will combine spiritual energy and wind to form a wind-attribute spiritual energy that will forcefully strengthen all the muscles within the user's body, gradually breaking through and advancing to the first stage of cultivation, the Flesh Refinement Stage. As for the later stages, it was best to explain it later.
After Jiang Ye read the book easily by just scanning the words written in it, he realized that he understood the theories and concepts that the circulatory method explained. All of it. He memorized it all and for some reason, in the later stages, his mind seemed eager to do something but he didn't know what. Jiang Ye just shrugged it off and sat cross-legged.
As per the cultivation instructions, Jiang Ye first tried to prepare himself and sensed the spiritual energy around him. For the first few seconds, there was nothing. He's about to get frustrated when he realizes he is feeling something around him. Like it was some sort of air but strange. He can't explain it. The "something" was wrapping around his body like paper, but it was not tangible. Nothing in his five senses worked when he felt this, not even a sense of touch. It felt so strange and weird.
And now, for the next step, Jiang Ye his five senses to feel the air around him. And indeed, at just the first second, he already felt them. So he took a deep breath, absorbing the wind and the spiritual energy using his nose and storing it within him. Then he exhaled, releasing useless air inside his body.
Jiang Ye could feel that there was some sort of something within him, so he tried what the instructions said, and tried to merge both the factors. A few moments later, the combination gave birth to his wind-attribute spiritual energy. And on his own, he was not exaggerating. He could easily manipulate the energy inside him. He directed the energy to his muscles, the microscopic wind within the spiritual energy slashing through his muscles, and the manipulated spiritual energy healing his muscles at the same rate as the microscopic damages.
As his flesh and muscles became stronger, he realized he ran out of wind-attribute spiritual energy and so he repeated the process by taking a huge amount of spiritual energy and air using his nose.
Bang!
In just 10 minutes of repeatedly doing the procedure, his muscles felt overwhelming and powerful. Jiang Ye was now a cultivator, at 1st tier of the Flesh Refinement Stage.