Under the night sky, deep in the forrest, in a quiet part of the ten kingdoms in the Da He realm was a small wooden pavilion. With its thin walls and a wooden roof, it was surrounded by a small garden and a wooden fence. Next to it was a small stream, perfect for delicious trout fishing.
The door to the pavilion opened and an old man appeared, glancing behind him as he stepped out. Inside one could make out the sleeping visage of his granddaughter, Jane. With a heavy heart he had to leave her. He had his reasons but it still hurt. Leaving her here all alone almost broke his heart, but he had to do it.
The bastard from the immortal crane sect has somehow managed to place a heavens mark on his soul.
"If only that idiot died in the north like his brother did. His existence it the reason we have to hole up in this backward place called the ten kingdoms." He muttered under his breath.
Pretty soon they will track his location and until that happened he had to put as much distance between himself and his granddaughter, Jane, as he could manage. He really thought himself and his precious granddaughter safe, but nothing can prevent one from being found while bearing a heavens mark of the immortal crane sect.
The immortal crane sect is the true hegemony of the Da He realm and adept in divination like no others.
With a heavy heart the old man turns around and disappears into the quiet night.
He intended to find out why and how they gave him a heavens mark.
-
Early next morning Jane wakes up. For once she isn't greeted by the sound of her grandfather cooking breakfast. After making her bed and greeting Xukong, her pet gu, she steps out of her room. Xukong swiftly scuttled across the wooden floor to follow her and used his six legs to quickly climb up her back and nestled itself onto the back of her neck under her blonde hair.
Xukong was a gift from her grandpa. He was about as big as her hand and had a dark black body with a shape of a camel spider with a stinger at the end of his abdomen. She loved how his black chitinous body glistened in the sunlight. It hasn't even been a month since she got him and she already loved the little guy dearly. She trusted him despite him having enough venom to kill a foundation establishment cultivator in a matter of minutes.
Even though she hadn't started with cultivation yet, her grandfather already gifted her first companion on the road to immortality to her. She got it two months ago for her sixteenth birthday. To have Xukong accept her as his master, her grandfather had to help her extract some blood essence to feed him. It nearly killed her, as a mortal, to give up blood essence but looking back she had no regrets.
"Xukong, let's find out where grandpa is." Jane said as she left her room and arrived at the kitchen.
The kitchen was empty, without grandpa and without her much needed delicious breakfast. "Grandpa? Where are you?" She yells into the empty wooden pavilion.
Wondering where he went, Jane went over to his study where all the good books were kept and where she got home schooled for most of her life.
Even the study was empty. Jane saw no grandpa but she noticed that a new book has been added to her grandfathers collection. It was now laying on the desk and she was pretty sure that yesterday that same desk was empty. On the cover was a a picture of green vines covered in thorns surrounded by fog. In the middle of the cover was some sort of seed encased into the book.
Jane curiously picked up the book and opened it. As she opened it a letter fell on the floor, wich she retrieved in order to read first. The letter started with "Dear Jane..." and ended with "Love you to the moon and back, Grandpa"
In the letter she read how sorry her grandfather was to leave her unannounced, but he had to go. Old enemies have place a tracker on him and in order to lead them away from his precious granddaughter he had to go as fast as possible. He didn't tell her in person, because he knew that if he did, his resolve to leave her alone would crumble.
He also wrote, that this book, in which he put the letter, was his last gift to her. It was a cultivation technique that he made specifically for her. Jane was unsure of her grandfathers exact cultivation realm but in order to just create a complete cultivation technique for her he had to be one of the strongest cultivators in this realm. Jane also knew that the realm they were in was a middle realm. Which means there are several middle realms just like the Da He realm around them and countless lower realms under them.
The seed embedded into the cover was a vital part of the cultivation technique. It is supposed to fuse with her core and change the way her cultivation worked. It was the seed of an eastern misty snake vine. It was a rare plant from the eastern beast lands. Grandpa probably had to go through quite some difficulties in order to obtain it.
Her grandfather also wrote that in a lifetime of being openly the strongest he did nothing but suffer and lose. How he managed that Jane did not know.
His advice to her was to be sneaky and crafty. Never let any enemy find out her real strength and most importantly never fight directly.
Finding out that grandfather had to leave, left Jane with an empty feeling inside her chest. But eventually curiosity about her new cultivation technique repressed that emotion.
Full of anticipation, Jane put down the letter and turned to the book in her other hand.
She started reading and couldn't stop. Minutes turned to hours and soon it was almost evening and the only thing stopping her from reading any further, wasn't the fading light but the immense hunger that amassed itself while reading.
While reading she gained a preliminary overview of the technique. With this technique Jane could fuse her core with the seed and gain control of the plant that will sprout from the seed. The plant will grow on her back and its vines will be able to do Janes bidding. The vines had the ability to excrete a mist that draws those that inhale it into an illusion. The illusion is controlled by the misty snake vine and it can be strengthened further by contact with the thorns on the vines themselves.
There even was a section of guidance of her grandfather in the book. He wrote down what he would do in her place. He advised her to go to Hengjing city at first to get some protection artefacts and most importantly to start a rumour that is going to be the foundation of her cultivation.
The rumour was that there is a place close to the city where people could find treasures and resources. The place was almost like the tomb of an expert. That place that supposedly exists near the city is called a dungeon, and people could get loot from it. It was a dangerous place. The idea to use misty snake vines form the east as a way to make a dungeon to lure in other people as cultivation resources was one that Janes father gave her grandfather. He had no idea how his son got the idea for it but he used it as a base idea for his granddaughters cultivation technique.
Hungry, she went into the kitchen and started on breakfast/dinner. She still had some delicious cheese with bread and olive oil together with some herbs. After dinner Jane went to bed. She had some trouble falling asleep because it was the first time she was alone in the pavilion. Thankfully the exhaustion from reading all day helped her in that regard. Pretty soon she was sound asleep.