3 Mei Kongxu. (1/2)

Li Tian motioned for Li Yang to leave after he finished saying his piece, his gaze drifting back to the documents he was reading. Li Yang's brows were slightly furrowed after being suddenly told that he was going to be betrothed to a stranger, but he didn't allow the thought to linger within his mind for too long. Being betrothed and married to someone didn't mean much, it wasn't like it stopped him from doing what he wanted to do, he didn't even have to be very close with his future wife.

He just had to maybe produce a child or two to show that they were close, that would be good enough for the two sects. Of course, if he could avoid marrying someone he detested then that would be for the best, but he had never met this girl before so he had yet to form an opinion of her. He cupped his hands and respectfully bid his father farewell while leaving behind the plaque, turning around and left the room through the door that was nestled in an opening between two bookshelves.

The door led him into a long hallway that actually looked like it had been carved into the toppled trunk of a massive tree, the walls were covered in brown bark and had small sprouts growing from them. A few windows were carved into the hallway to brighten it up while also giving people a view of the surroundings, a large and exotic forest growing around a hook-shaped mountain to the left and a sprawling city to the right.

The mountain and the forest around it was one of the places where the Deepsea King sect would send younger disciples to train, it was filled with Demonic beasts that the sect kept there for the express purpose of training the children. Quite a few people would die in there every year, but as this was a world where the strong reigned supreme, the sect considered the losses as a necessary expense to weed out the weak.

Li Yang rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck after he stepped away from the door, meeting his father always made him feel like there was a massive mountain weighing down on him. His eyes were suddenly drawn to the right side of the hallway while he was massaging his neck, his gaze landing on an approaching black-eyed and blue-haired boy who looked to be about 12 years old. Li Yang stopped massaging his neck, his standard cheeky smile creeping up on his face as he greeted the boy.

”Yo, Lil Yongi! I see father also called you over to talk about the upcoming sparring matches, but why are you walking here instead of using the plaque?”

Li Yang asked the question despite knowing the answer to it, the plaque would only be handed out when their father felt that the matter of the meeting had at least a bit of weight behind it. Since his younger brother was forced to walk, Li Yang would not let go of the chance to get a rise out of him. And just as he expected, the boy's eyes narrowed in displeasure when he saw Li Yang and heard his greeting, scoffing somewhat coldly in response.

”It's Brother Jueyong, how often must I tell you this.”

Li Yang wasn't dissuaded by the cold scoff of Li Jueyong, pressing on in a casual tone as the two got closer and closer.

”You can tell me as many times as you want, it doesn't mean that I have to call you like that. When you're older than me, maybe then I'll change how I refer to you. But you didn't answer my question, why would you bother walking all the way here? I imagine that it takes you a bit of time with those short legs, you must be exhausted already.”

Li Jueyong's expression sank even further as Li Yang continued his teasing. The two finally passed by each other, Li Jueyong turning his head slightly to give Li Yang a vicious glare that contained a mixture of anger and delight in what would certainly be his upcoming predicament.

”You can continue with your carefree and lazy ways now, but with the sparring matches coming this or next month, at least after your 15th birthday, you can no longer escape and hide as you always do. I will make sure that someone invokes the rite of passage to challenge you, we'll see if you can remain laughing so cockily after getting beaten down in front of everyone. Maybe then you'll finally learn to be more serious.”

Li Yang also turned his head slightly to look at Li Jueyong, but his smile didn't drop when faced with Li Jueyong's glare, it only grew larger and cockier. He even gave a short chuckle while shrugging his shoulders, turning his head back and walking away.

”Go ahead, do what you want. But there's no way you can make me become more serious, the world has enough boring shorties like you so I'm fine with how I am.”

Li Jueyong continued to look at Li Yang's departing back for a bit before letting out another cold snort and walking up to the door leading to Li Tian's study. Li Yang ignored him as he made his way to the end of the hallway, arriving in a circular building that had a little over ten smaller hallways leading away from it. The centre of the room was filled with several small spatial arrays that could be used to move around within the sect, Li Yang picking the appropriate one that would get him closest to his own home.

He teleported away and then took one more spatial array after arriving at his next destination, ending up only a handful of kilometres from his house. He made his way through the mess of buildings, stopping to tease some of the disciples he encountered, eventually reaching the rectangular building that was his house. He pushed open the door and entered the living room, which contained a few bookshelves, a square crystal table surrounded by two couches, and a few potted plants and flowers.

There was a door on the left of the room leading to his bedroom and the kitchen, a door to the right leading to the bathroom, and a door straight ahead that led to the main section of the building, an indoor training area. Li Yang raised his arms to stretch them while using his hands to grab their opposite shoulder, pushing open the door to the training area with his foot.

The training area was just a large stone room that was completely empty, thin lines running over the entire room and forming a large array. The array was a bit special as it was divided into several smaller parts that could be activated individually, one would strengthen the building while others would increase gravity or create stone puppets, one would even spawn small stone shards that continuously flew through the air so that you could train your reflexes.

Li Yang walked to the centre of the training room and lowered his arms again, crouching down and stretching out his legs one after the other to stretch them. He slowly stretched his entire body and then stood up with his arms hanging at his side, his eyes closing as he focused his mind on the blurry words ringing in his ears. With his mind focusing on the words, he became able to make out the occasionall sentence.

”The energy has to go into your wrist through the third vein and then make a full circulation, then bring it back to your heart...”

”The power has to be unleashed not through the toes but through the part of the foot just below the toes, otherwise it will scatter...”

”Breathe in deeply and draw the energy beyond your dantian, keep it a bit below it before exhaling and letting the energy ascend through your dantian...”

This was Li Yang's greatest secret and the reason he looked lazy to others, the reason he didn't pick up too many cultivation manuals from the sect's archives. By focusing on the blurry words ringing in his ears whenever he closed his eyes he could pick out these sentences, which would be beneficial for training about 70% of the time. The rest of the time it seemed like they were just casual chatter so he dismissed them.

Li Yang started to follow the instructions within the sentences, his arms and legs moving in seemingly random ways as he followed the breathing technique, which was one of the most repeated sentences. He sucked in a deep breath and felt faint traces of energy enter his body, the Qi within the surrounding area flowing into his body. He pulled the Qi down and had it pass through his body, following the various paths he had heard about up until now before finally moving the Qi through his dantian and settling it a bit beneath it.

He kept the Qi there by holding his breath for a few seconds, eventually exhaling and allowing the Qi to rise again. Most of the Qi settled within his dantian, a vast and empty white expanse that only contained eight runes, four transparent ones shaped like blurry lines and four transparent yet slightly brown ones that were shaped like downward spirals.