Chapter 4 – Valuable Items? (1/2)
Chapter 4 – Valuable Items?
In a small courtyard on the eastern side of the Ye Castle.
Qinghan was sitting in his house, feeling rather upset by the big words he had spoken just before.
“Oh… Since I’ve already bragged about it, I should atleast try it. But how can I actually improve my cultivation?”
He sighed with helplessness. In order to win some credit within his family, he had shamelessly overstated his ambition to surpass Qingxian within the next three years.
On the other hand, he had already made an oath in front of his deceased mother, that he would one day move his parents’ memorial tablets into the Sacred Temple. Even though he had made so many aspiring promises, he hadn’t even come up with a specific plan to accomplish these promises. After all, it was a decision that was forced upon him by reality and not made of his own volition. Ten years ago, his father had died, his fourth uncle went missing and his grandfather had become a hermit. That year, he had encountered various unfortunate things, one after the other. Since then, his eldest uncle had taken charge of the whole family. As a result, the family status of Qinghan had experienced a sharp drop. Despite the fact that he was a lineal descendant of the Ye Family, he lived a tougher life than the collateral ones.
Qinghan was the only bloodline of his parents, because his sister was an adopted child. Given all of this, he had to be cruel to himself, as he had put the responsibility to revive his family onto himself.
Although he had strategically defeated Qingxian twice, it was far from a true success. He had outwitted Qinghua, rather than beating him with his ability in cultivation.
Not everyone in the Flame Dragon Continent was as gullible as Qingxian. If he wished to survive in this jungle, then he really needed to acquire a higher realm of cultivation!
True ability was the fundamental requirement to live in this world!
The Mars Prefecture was actually divided into six major cities. Apart from the Dragon City, that was located in the center, there were five other cities that had been occupied by the five prominent families. The names of these families were Feng, Hua, Xue, Yue and Ye. The governance of Dragon City was not very stable, as this city saw a change of leadership relatively often. In comparison, the other five cities enjoyed thousands of years long-term governance under the five prominent families.
What was the secret behind the trouble-free governance for thousands of years? They all boasted a rigorous, yet unique training system for their descendants. It was no wonder that there were numerous masters emerging from these families, whom would eventually become the leaders of certain regions.
The unique training skill of the Ye Family was to summon battle beasts. It was said that, in ancient times, the ancestors of the Ye Family shared part of the bloodline of the battle beasts. Nowadays, everyone in the Ye Family would have three chances in their lifetime to awaken and summon these battle beasts.
The summoned battle beast wasn’t only able to fight on its own, but it could also integrate with its master. Once integrated, the attack power would be amplified multiple times, as both strength and speed would jump to a new level. When certain battle beasts were integrated with their master, they could even generate insurmountable techniques. The current leader of the Ye Family, Ye Tianlong, for instance, had summoned an eighth-grade battle beast – the bear of the earth, and once they were integrated, a highly defensive technique called the ‘Armor of the Earth’ would be gained. Ye Tianlong was in the first level of the Realm of the Saint, yet he was already known as the most outstanding cultivator in defensiveness, simply because of this technique.
Due to this special beast-summoning skill, the Ye Family was able to occupy Grey City and enjoy a dominant position throughout the Mars Prefecture.
In order to create more masters in cultivation, the Ye Family would list the most promising members into the key descendant program. However, the criteria to be a part of this program were rather high – either one had to be able to summon at least a sixth-grade battle beast, or one has to have entered the Realm of the Commander before the age of sixteen. If one could summon at least a sixth-grade battle beast, it would serve as solid evidence that the sacred beast blood accounted for a large percentage of the person’s blood. Even if he wasn’t particularly good at cultivation, the Ye Family would still endow him with magic medicines and techniques to help him. If one entered the Realm of the Commander before the age of sixteen, he would also be regarded as a talented master, even if his battle beast was of a lower grade.
“Well, what I have got right now? I really don’t have any damn talent in cultivation. It has been ten years, when I was only 5 years old, since I took my first step on the path of cultivation. How can I achieve the Realm of the Commander within a year? Besides, I suppose that I have too little beast blood in my body, at least, that would explain why I failed the previous two awakenings at the age of five and ten. The Flame Dragon Festival is quickly approaching, I’m not confident in summoning any kind of beast within a month. What shall I do? Alas…If my sister had the beast blood, we would perhaps have a better chance. But… No, she never will.” Qinghan frowned, calculating his chance of success.
For each lineal member of the Ye Family, they would have three chances to awaken their beast bloodline, at the age of five, ten and fifteen respectively. The awakening ceremony would be held once every five years. Basically, if one failed the first two times, the chance for the third time would be extremely slim. At this point, the rare beast blood in his body would be so thin, that it was almost impossible to resonate with the ancient beast spirit. That was the major reason for failure.
Qinghan’s sister, Qingyu, as an adopted child, didn’t even bear any chance to be part of the key descendants. Therefore, Qinghan became the only hope of his direct family to revive the reputation his father had once obtained. Sadly, he had only reached the first level of the Realm of the Elite at the age of fifteen, while at the same time his previous two awakening attempts had both ended in failure. It seemed that his talent in cultivation was so limited, that his future would be bleak in this regard. The Elder Clan of the Ye Family had observed the growth track of Qinghan, and forecasted that he would never be qualified as a key descendant. Apart from his father’s death and his mother’s indecent background, his own lack of talent was another reason he was looked down upon.
……
- Creak! -
The door opened with a shrieking sound, which disrupted Qinghan’s flow of thoughts. Qingyu stood there in a white dress, holding a mysterious-looking box in her hands.
“Qingyu, go to sleep, it’s already late at night.” Qinghan said softly. His sister’s delicate body and feminine temperaments, had always aroused the most tender of feelings from the bottom of his heart.
“Brother, you’re also awake.” Qingyu replied as she put the box on the desk. She coughed a little bit, before he solemnly spoke to Qinghan, “Brother, I have a question for you, if …I mean, what if we run away from the Ye Family and find a remote place to enjoy the rest of our lives? Would you accept this proposal?”
“Hum?” Looking at the sincere expression on his sister’s face, Qinghan knew she wasn’t joking. After considering her proposal for quite a while, Qinghan came up with some broken sentences, “Well, I haven’t… I mean, I’ve never thought of such a scenario. My dear sister, if you’re really eager for that kind of life, I’ll… I’ll have to seriously consider it…”