27 A Fortuitous Encounter?

A few weeks passed since his successful breakthrough to Qi Warrior. Yu Tian was currently loading up a wagon with starlight ore, his clothes dirty and dusty.

Coughing from the dust, his shoulders have already started to broaden and his body developed muscular undertones. Yu Tian ignored one of the many newly developed blisters on his hand and heaved the wagon outside of the pit.

The other members of the family ignored him as he unloaded the wagon into a huge pile of unrefined starlight ore. Since the clan needed money, all males and females were helping out regardless of age.

As a male, Yu Tian and the others were mainly responsible for the mining and heavy lifting. For females, they were mostly in charge of refining the ore into stardust and handling the markets.

Of course, the younger children weren't expected to handle too much of the labour. The area they were assigned to were much easier than what the adults were expected to handle.

Even Li You Zi went in with the main group to perform the most dangerous task of prospecting and excavating new areas to mine more ore. Yu Tian and the others were just expected to help mine some of the metal in the safe areas.

"Li Yu Tian, move aside." A voice sneered from behind him.

Yu Tian calmly turned and found Li Gang glaring at him. The other boy was also carrying a full wagon of rocks.

Compared to him, Li Gang was already 12 years old and in the second level of Qi Warrior, almost at the third. His cultivation hadn't been very fast after the clan was weaned off most of their cultivation supplies, but it was still higher than Yu Tian's.

Rolling his eyes, Yu Tian ignored him and slowly continued pushing. He became annoyed when the other boy prodded his back with their wagon. "Stop that."

Li Gang snickered. "Or else what."

Yu Tian's eyes narrowed as he lowered his wagon, turning around. Li Gang sensed the challenge and performed the same actions while standing aside.

"Don't get cocky Li Yu Tian." Li Gang sneered. "You might've won against me in the clan tournament, but it's different now."

Yu Tian smirked humourlessly. "Oh? I hope you can show me how it'll be different."

Both boys were about to attack each other until they heard a cold harrumph. A very pretty and familiar girl who was Li Gang's age approached them from behind, crossing her arms.

"Ah, elder sister Yaoyao." Li Gang greeted nervously with a blush, placing his big hand on the back of his head.

Ignoring Li Gang, Li Yaoyao's stare was met by Yu Tian's eyes that were clear like water.

The younger boy seemed to have grown a lot and exuded a mature air, plus some handsome masculine features were already starting to set in. Li Yaoyao resisted this fluttering feeling in her stomach as she willed herself not to look away.

"Hi, big sister Yaoyao." Yu Tian greeted her casually with a calm smile, surprised to see her here in the mines. "What are you doing here?"

A year ago, Li Yaoyao had been accepted as a student of Celestial Academy on Yu Tian's request. Long Qing Yuan was surprised but understood the former god's reasonings once he was told about his cultivation speed decreasing.

"She's decently talented." Yu Tian shrugged to the old grandmaster's question. "I don't think the school would lose out taking her in."

"I see, but my original offer still stands." Long Qing Yuan finally agreed on taking Li Yaoyao in.

"Once you're at Qi Warrior, come to me and hopefully we'll be able to think of ways to solve the problems on your body."

Seeing her now, Yu Tian was rather surprised with her progress. At 13 years of age, her cultivation had already reached Level 5 of Qi Warrior within a year's time.

However, she's supposed to be staying at the school. Yu Tian was curious as to why she was here.

"The inter-clan competition, remember?" Li Yaoyao's pretty voice reminded him, hiding a slight pout. "The governor is arriving in about a month, and I want to participate and try to bring honor to our clan."

The young girl felt a bit disappointed that Yu Tian's first words were about this and not anything like how much he missed her. Of course, Yu Tian was also unable to read her thoughts, although he thought she was behaving a bit weirdly.

Yu Tian simply nodded, remembering that this tournament was not limited to children who went to academies. There was still an age limit of being under 16, and the governor travelled all around Vermillion Bird Nation to host this tournament in the different major cities.

As long as they resided in those cities and met the age criteria, they would be allowed to participate. Even smaller families with good seedlings that wanted to earn renown and curry the governor's favour encouraged their young generation to participate in this tournament.

"You've made a lot of progress." Yu Tian complimented wholeheartedly.

Hearing his words of praise, Li Yaoyao flushed slightly. "It's... All thanks to you for telling the grandmaster to recommend me."

She frowned, observing Yu Tian's body. He seemed to only be in the first level of Qi Warrior, and recently at that. "Your progress..."

"It's still the same." Yu Tian shrugged helplessly. "Ever since what happened 2 years ago, my cultivation became stagnated."

Li Yaoyao frowned and nodded sympathetically. The past event had all been hard on them, especially Yu Tian. She knew his mother was still in her coma, and there wasn't anything they or the clan could do to save her.

Not only that, his martial spirit fell into a deep sleep and still hasn't awoken.

Even if the clan recovered one day and had enough money, would the family members be willing to spend a fortune to save Li Mei Ling, or invest in him?

Seeing the sight of Yu Tian and Li Yaoyao talking casually and ignoring him, Li Gang clenched his fist and shuffled away awkwardly. Even with the death of Li Haoran, there were still many pursuers for Li Yaoyao within and even outside the clan.

Of course, this made their disdain and dislike for Yu Tian even stronger than before, mostly due to jealousy.

"Are you actually thinking of participating as well?" Li Yaoyao asked, biting her soft lips.

"I have to try, for my mother." Yu Tian sighed. "The rewards are just too great."

There were only 2 spots for each clan in the city. This meant that only the 2 strongest children of each clan were allowed to participate, no more and no less.

"You don't have to worry about me though, I know what I'm doing." He grinned.

"Hmph. Who's worried about you?" Li Yaoyao rolled her beautiful eyes, her cheeks slightly tinged red.

The pretty girl then nodded, thinking of how strong Yu Tian was even with a cultivation disadvantage during the clan tournament. He had beaten everyone, even Li Haoran, who had half of a full cultivation stage above him.

Of course, Yu Tian seemed to be much weaker now without his martial spirit. His cultivation might have finally reached the Qi Warrior stage, but without a martial spirit to support him he will effectively be fighting 1 versus 2.

Seeing his determined face, Li Yaoyao decided against continuing on trying to dissuade him from participating. After all, she owes him greatly for the recommendation to the academy.

They provided materials which greatly sped up her progress, so her cultivation is currently the highest within the clan. All Li Yaoyao felt she could and should do is have faith in him.

However, she knows how strong the other families were for this competition. Li Yaoyao truly believed that Yu Tian had no chance at all at even making it past the second round.

This contest was a whole different beast where only the strongest within Stardust City gathered to prove themselves.

"Anyways, it's good to see you again." Li Yaoyao gave Yu Tian a friendly smile. "Take care."

"Likewise." Yu Tian waved, seeing the pretty girl walk off as well.

...

Yu Tian finished emptying his wagon and stretched, prepared to work on another load. He noted that most of the younger boys left to find Li Yaoyao after the news of her sudden return was spread.

"She's a nice girl." Yu Tian smiled and began to wheel the wagon back, whistling softly.

The former god suddenly felt a pull from underneath and was surprised to see a familiar figure. "Huh? Zi Jin?"

Yae gave a soft hiss of disapproval and continued to pull on Yu Tian's pants with her mouth. She felt a strong sense of spiritual energy deeper within the cave, and thought this idiot could also benefit from it.

Yu Tian blinked, deciding to put the wagon down and follow the demonic beast. Being with the little fox over the years had allowed them to gain a deeper understanding of one another, and he trusted her.

"This..." Yu Tian's frowned when she disappeared into a hole that was almost too tiny for him.

Not liking the claustrophobia too much, Yu Tian suppressed the feeling and carried the glowstone torch they used for lighting in the caves with his mouth. Crawling through the tunnel for what seemed like hours, the torch fell out of his mouth when he finally popped out of the hole and into a spacious area.

"Wow." Yu Tian murmured at the place's beauty.

[Eyes of Eternity]

Soft, glowing etchings lined the walls of the large room. Yu Tian took a closer look cautiously using his eye and was surprised to find the pattern similar to runic symbols.

He frowned. The symbols weren't arranged in to create a formation or an array, but they were placed here like messages. Unfortunately, Yu Tian couldn't understand any of these symbols or what they were trying to convey.

Even though he had read a lot of books on this world, none of them had any content similar to what he was seeing now.

Yae prodded him, using her paw to point at a well in the center. Yu Tian's eyes scanned over the area and was shocked to see spiritual energy emitting from the water.

"What is that?..."

Yu Tian carefully placed a hand in, scooping out some of the liquid. He took a small sip and suddenly felt his body become lighter and more energized.

Throwing caution to the wind, Yae immediately leapt before the well and started lapping water up. Her body was rapidly increasing in spiritual energy and she relished the feeling of her cultivaton increasing.

Seeing her drink without fear, Yu Tian also relaxed and placed his head down to take huge sips, enjoying the benefits from the liquid. However, when the water eventually began to recede, something began to feel wrong.

Water shouldn't be receding this fast from how much they were drinking. Even he couldn't discern how deep the well really is, feeling like an endless abyss underneath.

Activating his eye again, Yu Tian's face turned from caution into terror when he roughly grabbed the little fox's scruff and pulled her back, causing her to squeal from the sudden action.

Furious at Yu Tian, Yae was about to smack him when an ominous presence behind her made her spine chill. Turning around, Yae realized that the sharp teeth had just missed her neck by mere inches, taking off a few strands of her golden fur.

"Stay back." Yu Tian's eyes narrowed coldly as he also felt the dread pouring through him.

Slowly, the huge, deformed mouth turned to face both the boy and the fox. It had no eyes in sight on its shiny black body that was connected to its mouth, but Yu Tian knew that this was something they probably had no chance of winning against.

Opening its mouth as if laughing, a tendril made of shadow lunged out of the creature's body, destroying the glowstone torch Yu Tian had.

Like flipping a switch, even the glowing from the runes disappeared and the room descended into pitch-black darkness.