Inside the Black Dragon ravine

"What a joke, sacrificing myself for this poor excuse of a family..."

Wei Yuan muttered as he fell with a smirk plastered on his face, soon he activated a warrior grade defensive artifact. He had already planned to go into the Black Dragon Ravine for a different reason. In other words, all of his sadness, disappointment and that blabbering before the jump was just an act! What he wanted was to unlock his meridians with the help of the massive energy inside the ravine. But there was a problem. Black Dragon Ravine was a forbidden place and no one could go near it without permission. Only high level cultivators were permitted. Originally, Wei Yuan planned to sneak in and come here without this permission, but now his own family allowed it. What luck!

Of course, he already devised a plan in case his own family wanted to kill him. Few members of the family had already accepted him as a leader due to his extreme intelligence and wit. They already knew that Wei Yuan wanted to go inside the ravine, thus, they played along and let him jump. Many events have happened in the family as he slowly gained control and the Family Head always thought of them as mere coincidences.

For instance, the Family Head planned to give a bodyguard to Wei Yuan. He wanted this guard to kill Wei Yuan. The rest is obvious, the Family Head kills the guard who killed his son and the case is over. A mere bodyguard couldn't go against the orders of the Family Head. If the family head wished someone to dead he will be dead before the next dawn, if the family head wanted someone to live then he would live the most lavish life.

Unfortunately, this bodyguard disappeared mysteriously. The family head thought that this bodyguard escaped his fate and ran away from the clan. He once thought that maybe Wei Yuan did something, but how can that be possible? Wei Yuan was a cripple.

Little did he know that a big faction of the family was already under Wei Yuan. Actually, he could even throw the family into chaos and the other great families would assist him, but he won't do it. Not now. The people under him could instantly kill him after they has obtained the benefits. Of course, they won't do it now since they decided to join his faction because of his capabilities. They knew that benefits will come as long as they follow Wei Yuan. Still, Wei Yuan knew the golden rule, better to be safe than sorry. Imagine what would have happened if he trusted his family. Wei Yuan was forced to learn the dark nature of humans and willed himself to learn how to stay alive.

He successfully landed at the bottom of the Ravine and due to the impact,

'boom!'

The warrior grade defensive artifact broke into pieces.

"This Ravine is probably more than two thousand meters deep. A warrior grade defensive artifact broke into pieces and my arm still got fractured. I underestimated this Ravine."

Artifacts are classified into five grades. The difference is like heaven and earth between each grade. Mortal grade is the lowest. A slightly richer normal person can already buy it, expensive, but still cheap enough so everyone can afford it, not just cultivators. The next is the warrior grade. Warrior grade artifacts are already considered effective and all of them are expensive. The five great families got a few of them. Wei Yuan already stole one and broke it. Then came the Heaven grade artifacts, which are very rare in the Xun continent and even the five great families posses only one heaven grade artifact each. That's why they are the five great families in the first place.

Above it is the Mythical grade artifacts, can only be found in the Central Continent. The last one is the God grade. There is only one in the central continent, but no one can use it. The gap between God grade and Mythical grade is unimaginable. The cultivation level required to use a God grade artifact is also beyond imagination.

Warrior grade artifacts are rare in the Xun continent. Now, it's not hard to imagine just how much power is needed to break such an artifact.

Wei Yuan stood in one place, but the evil Qi still didn't enter his body. This was the positive part of being a cripple. The evil Qi couldn't go through his meridians, thus he wasn't affected. Even the evil cultivators would explode if such-like tremendously dense amounts of evil energy entered their bodies.

Wei Yuan planned to open his meridians with force. He wanted to use all of the Evil Qi inside this Ravine to force open his meridians. He didn't care if others called him an Evil cultivator because of this. Being an Evil cultivator was same as being a normal cultivator for him. Just because others decided that all evil cultivators are criminals, that doesn't mean it's true.

"Hmm, if I absorb this much evil Qi then I will become an evil cultivator. Nothing will change in my perspective, but others will view me as a criminal, what a joke."

Wei Yuan started absorbing the Evil Qi inside his body. He couldn't absorb too much at once otherwise he will explode, thus, he needed to take breaks. The evil Qi surged within his body and his meridians trembled wildly. Wei Yuan spat a mouthful of blood. His organs got affected by the Evil Qi but he recovered soon. He stopped absorbing and took an hour if rest. Suddenly, he heard felt cracking sound. One of his meridians had successfully opened.

"Wait, even if I can absorb the evil Qi with just one meridian, I can still nourish my body and core with it."

Wei Yuan planned to absorb evil Qi with just one meridian, this is impossible, but he was a cripple, thus he could absorb it with just one. Normal cultivators couldn't do this because their meridians are already open and they can only absorb Qi with all of them. This is why absorbing Qi with just one meridian is impossible. At least for normal cultivators....

If Wei Yuan can successfully nourishes his body this way, then he can get slowly adopted to the evil Qi and he won't be affected anymore.

Wei Yuan started absorbing the Qi and as he expected, this little amount didn't harm him. His whole body burned inside, but that was normal. The Evil Qi slowly nourished his body and soon his body started recovering instead of getting damaged. Wei Yuan had successfully refined the Evil Qi.

"Now it's time to open my remaining meridians."

Wei Yuan started absorbing the evil energy inside his body greedily. The evil Qi formed into a big vortex inside the ravine. His meridians opened one by one. Days passed like this and Wei Yuan absorbed more and more energy inside his body. What he forgot was that evil cultivators not only use evil Qi, but other types of Qi in order to keep the rampaging evil Qi in check. Wei Yuan just absorbed the evil Qi without thinking and his body accepted it without side effects. This was unprecedented in the long history of cultivation.

OUTSIDE THE RAVINE

Giant black clouds gathered in the sky, huge storms appeared everywhere in the world, countless tornados killed tens of thousands of people. Forests burned with black flames of unknown origin. No one knew why or how this catastrophe happened.

A few unimaginably old cultivators sensed something odd and looked at the sky. They felt uneasy. Phenomenons like this were not unprecedented as per history. This was a warning. Something bad was about to happen and Xun Continent would be the stage.

These phenomenon lasted for 3 days and 3 nights and suddenly disappeared within seconds as if nothing happened.

INSIDE THE RAVINE

Wei Yuan stopped absorbing the evil Qi. Now all of his meridians were open.

"I feel a bit different now."

The evil Qi inside his body became black. His core also changed to black. The evil Qi absorbed by evil cultivators is supposed to be purple. Only, the pure Evil Qi is black. No one could absorb this pure Evil Qi except Wei Yuan.

"I can get into any sect with this Qi, no one will recognize this type of Qi."

Wei Yuan can absorb evil Qi from the air. Thus, no one will suspect that he is an Evil cultivator since normal evil cultivators can't absorb Evil Qi from the air. Especially not this type of evil Qi.

Wei Yuan stood up, his handsome face remained calm as if nothing happened. This extraordinary calmness allowed him to overcome the unimaginable amount of Evil Qi. Others in the same situation would never try something like this.

"It's time to explore this Ravine."

Many evil cultivators had died here. Many of them carried their treasures with themselves and Wei Yuan wanted to take all of them. Sadly, he found nothing even after hours of searching. Only corpses and skeletons with tremendous amount of Evil Qi. The artifacts probably all turned into dust because of the evil Qi. He absorbed the Evil Qi and continued his journey.

"It's time to get out of this ravine."

Wei Yuan activated his storage ring and pulled out another artifact.