Half-asleep, Xu Ziyan heard the words ‘training hall’ and sprang upright. “Ah! I almost forgot!”
Anyone would have been startled to see someone who had been clinging lovingly to his quilt a moment earlier suddenly leap out of bed. Xu Zirong was no exception.
His mouth fell open. He stared for a long moment at Xu Ziyan, who looked so bright-eyed and energetic that he hardly seemed to have just woken up.
“Ah! I forgot! I forgot!” Xu Ziyan muttered in frustration. He had actually overslept. Damn it!
Even before transmigrating, he had been terrible at getting out of bed. But in the modern world he had possessed an unbeatable weapon against oversleeping: more than five alarm clocks!
Here, though… _(:з」∠)_ Which servant in the Xu family would dare disturb the young master while he slept?
“Big Brother…” Xu Zirong asked tentatively, “Are we still going to the training hall?”
“Of course! We’re definitely going! This is all Big Brother’s fault. I overslept! We’ll have to move quickly!” Xu Ziyan said sheepishly as he got dressed.
Xu Zirong sat quietly in a chair, watching Xu Ziyan wash and dress, putting himself in order with quick, practiced movements. His gaze was deep.
The Xu Ziyan before him felt profoundly wrong in a way he could not explain. Perhaps because he had suffered so much torment at Xu Ziyan’s hands when he was little, he remembered the man’s mocking tone, his movements, even the upward inflection at the ends of certain sentences.
Yet although the person before him matched that Xu Ziyan in every visible respect, Xu Zirong could not shake the feeling that they were two completely different people.
An eerie smile curved his lips. What did it matter to him whether this person was truly Xu Ziyan? The debts that had to be repaid would still be repaid!
In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Xu Ziyan had made himself presentable. He grabbed Xu Zirong and hurried out the door.
The Xu family’s training hall stood on the mountain behind the estate, partly because the back mountain was so expansive, and partly because it was home to ordinary ferocious beasts as well as low-level demonic beasts.
Such creatures might be deadly to mortals, but for Qi Refining cultivators they made ideal sparring opponents.
Xu Ziyan took Xu Zirong racing along the path, sending chickens flying and dogs scattering, and alarming countless servants and maids. But with his standing as eldest young master, no one would be foolish enough to complain to the family head over such a small matter.
Even while running, Xu Ziyan remembered to turn at various angles and observe through his square to see whether someone really was following them.
As he had expected, he caught a black-clad figure flashing through the square at least three times.
He rejoiced inwardly. The invisibility technique practiced by the Xu family’s hidden guards might not be of especially high grade, but it worked remarkably well. Yet even that technique was no match for his square. Did that mean assassins skilled at stealth and ambush would be practically powerless against him?
At the thought, Xu Ziyan gave himself a wry smile. His hopes were wonderful, but reality was harsh. The square was only so large. Unless he used it constantly to ‘see through’ his surroundings, its practical value appeared rather limited.
He shrugged helplessly. Oh well. He had acquired the thing for free, and at some crucial moment it might still prove useful. It did not consume anything to operate, either. He should not be too greedy.
“Big Brother? What’s wrong?” Xu Zirong had been watching Xu Ziyan’s expressions all along. There was so much about this Xu Ziyan he could not see through that, in his mind, he had already raised the man’s danger level to the very highest category.
“Huh? Nothing. Big Brother was daydreaming,” Xu Ziyan replied casually.
Xu Zirong felt something catch painfully in his chest, as though he had swallowed a mouthful of air he could not release.
Silently suppressing his violent thoughts, he decided once again that this Xu Ziyan was completely inscrutable… (Not really!)
The two children, one tall and one short, trotted toward the training grounds. To someone like Xu Zirong, who had witnessed scenes far grander than this, the Xu family’s training grounds were little more than a child’s toy. His real reason for coming was his curiosity about Xu Ziyan.
He wanted to know what games this Xu Ziyan, so utterly different from the man of his past, intended to play. Or perhaps…
A dark glimmer passed through his eyes. As a demonic cultivator, Xu Zirong knew a vast array of unorthodox techniques. Although he had never practiced most of them, some were deeply mysterious.
He had once read, on a fragment of an ancient manuscript, that an ancient demonic cultivator had developed a technique for seizing a body by devouring its soul.
Using this technique, the possessor could learn all the victim’s secrets and even reproduce the original soul’s fluctuations. In other words, if anyone suspected possession and summoned the victim’s blood relatives to test them, they would find no anomaly at all.
Unfortunately, the fragment contained no detailed instructions. But if a fragment existed, who could say no one possessed the complete technique?
Watching Xu Ziyan lead the way, Xu Zirong lowered his eyes. Since his rebirth, far too many events had deviated from his memories, and their common source was Xu Ziyan’s changed attitude toward him.
If he himself could be reborn, then who knew whether Xu Ziyan might have been possessed? But whoever stood before him, as long as he was not the original Xu Ziyan, Xu Zirong could negotiate a deal with him.
In this world, everything could be traded for benefits. Although Xu Zirong currently lacked strength, the years of experience from his previous life had taught him when and where certain heavenly treasures and earthly wonders would appear.
He might not yet be strong enough to compete for treasures that caused huge commotions, but when valuable items emerged secretly, he could seize them before anyone else realized they existed.
With his previous experience, he was confident he could master the first level of the Blood Sea Heart Scripture much earlier than in his past life. After completing that first level, he would need to vent the violence in his heart regularly, but…
A mocking smile touched his lips. He was a demonic cultivator, after all. Weren’t murder and arson the traditional trades of demonic cultivators?
In his previous life, he had done nothing, yet those fellows insisted that he had released the bloodsucking insects from the Demon Realm. They even rallied the entire cultivation world against him. In the end, was it not because they wanted to use his blood essence to lure the mother insect?
Hmph! Why should he sacrifice his blood essence for those sanctimonious hypocrites? For someone who practiced the Blood Sea Heart Scripture, his blood essence was his cultivation itself. Losing that blood meant losing cultivation. Given his reputation at the time, the consequences of falling in cultivation were obvious enough…
The very thought was laughable. Who did that Bai Hua think he was? What made him so special that he dared urge Xu Zirong to surrender his blood essence voluntarily? Did Bai Hua really imagine that being an incomparable beauty gave him that right?
No one believed Xu Zirong anyway. He might as well become a savage, bloodthirsty demon in this life.
At least then he could cultivate the Blood Sea Heart Scripture even faster. Human blood was more effective than animal blood, and he would no longer need to risk his life fighting savage beasts. Killing people was much easier than killing beasts.
“We’re here!” Xu Ziyan’s voice startled Xu Zirong out of his thoughts. He raised his head, assumed an expression of admiration and envy, looked around, and asked somewhat uncertainly, “Big Brother, are these the training grounds? Will I be able to cultivate here from now on?”
“Of course.” Xu Ziyan nodded firmly. “You’re a member of the Xu family. Naturally you’re entitled to cultivate.”
Xu Zirong put on a look of partial understanding and nodded in a daze.
Xu Ziyan smiled affectionately, then pointed to a winding, rugged mountain path. “From here onward, you’re entering the training grounds. Xu family rules say that only those who climb up to the grounds on their own are qualified to learn the family’s cultivation arts.”
After saying that, he gave Xu Zirong an encouraging pat on the shoulder. “Big Brother can’t help you here, but don’t worry, Zirong. The climb is just a little tiring. You’ll manage it, no problem.”
Xu Zirong nodded silently. He knew the rule, but in his previous life he had never even been allowed near the place, so he had certainly never qualified to climb this mountain path.
“Would you like Big Brother to stay and watch, or shall I go up and wait for you?” Xu Ziyan asked considerately.
Xu Zirong smiled shyly. “Big Brother can go up first. I can do it myself.”
“All right.” Xu Ziyan said nothing more and bounded up the mountain path in a few swift steps, disappearing from sight almost immediately.
Xu Zirong looked at the path paved with massive slabs of bluestone. The smile slowly faded from his face.
The Xu family…
Silently turning those two words over in his mind, Xu Zirong could not have said exactly what he was feeling.
The opportunity he had once yearned for so desperately now lay before him, yet he found he seemed to have lost interest.
More precisely… ever since he had wiped out the Xu family in his previous life, he seemed to have lost interest in everything. It was as though the hatred that had sustained him until then had vanished on the very night he took his revenge.
Emptiness? Confusion? He did not know…
At that moment, he merely clenched his fists and began ascending the enormous bluestone steps, one by one.
The instant he set foot on the first step, an immense pressure descended on Xu Zirong. His expression changed drastically.
A trap!
Xu Zirong’s heart went cold. He did not understand. Xu Ziyan could crush him with a flick of his hand. Why go to so much trouble to bring him here and kill him with a trap?
What possible purpose could that serve?
Bewildered, Xu Zirong discovered he could not understand Xu Ziyan’s thoughts at all. But just as he believed the pressure would crush him into pulp, it suddenly lessened, then dropped further until it reached a level he could bear.
Xu Zirong: ???
All at once, he remembered what Xu Ziyan had said before leaving: ‘The climb is just a little tiring. You’ll manage it, no problem.’
Those words seemed to settle over Xu Ziyan’s handsome face in his memory. Yet Xu Zirong could clearly see a trace of teasing amusement in the eyes that had appeared so calm!!!