10 Abandonment and Ascension

"I don't need a single thing from this family, don't you worry. I will be leaving with Ping'er and Ning'er.

"From this day on, I will still remain as Zhou Yan. However, the matters of this family, the Zhou family, no longer concerns me.

"You may stop worrying now since you, as an elder, had completely severed my essence meridian to further my training. The rest of my life would ultimately be destined to live a simple life as a common-folk, so there is no longer a need for you to strike me down any further than you already had!

"I've used every ounce of my potential. I've indeed attacked them, and I have all the right to do so. I could never allow their humiliation to carry on any further!

"As for Little Xu, it was bold of her as a lowly handmaiden to disrespect me to such an extent, not knowing her place. She was obviously not taught well by her master, so I punished her in her master's place. This act of discipline was not wrong! Just as you said before, as long as I've not left the Zhou household, that handmaiden would never be in a position to hurl such insults at me!"

Zhou Yan calmly spoke while grabbing onto the carving tightly.

It seemed that tonight was the only time he had spoken the most.

"Ping'er, Ning'er, Let's go."

"Yes, master."

Ping'er took one last good look at every single person as if she was trying to remember all of their faces. 

Ning'er who was visibly ill and was clad in a white dress, remained silent as she approached the weakened Zhou Yan. She managed to grab him before he fell over. 

Hence Zhou Yan was being carried away by two very stunning women in his injured state, leaving behind a trail of bloodied footprints. The trio left the serene yet melancholic courtyard behind.

Similar to a lonely artistic mind, wherever it had gathered was where it left. it would expand perpetually to a void.

"Elder of Lore, if I may, the skills of his 'Sword Art of Clear Waters Heaven's Blade' was impressive, and his speed was insanely quick."

After a long moment of silence, Zhou Lingyi suddenly made a cryptic comment and no longer paid any attention to her murdered handmaiden.

"His seal was 'his' doing, there is not a single soul in this realm but 'him' that could undo this seal, so don't you worry child."

The Elder of Lore spoke then proceeded to let out a long-winded sigh and continued, "I can feel his essence strengthen through this very encounter. It's normal to have such power when one had overextended themselves beyond their physical limitations. Since Zhou Wangchen was an ordinary man, he was also defeated by Zhou Yuntian. Thus, it was not due to the lack of talents and prowess he possessed, no, it was all because the right moment for him had yet to come.

"Zhou Yuntian was not worthy of praise because, at that very moment, Zhou Wangchen was already incapable of exerting even a fraction of his full strength.

"It seems that Zhou Yan can't die just yet. Well, at least, he can't yet perish by our blades. Since the situation with Zhou Wangchen is not fully over, and the lass, Ning Er, with a mysterious past was brought back by Zhou Wangchen, I fear that she cannot be taken lightly. As for now, we will not make any rash moves," explained the Elder of Lore with great detail.

His detailed explanation was shared with the three generations of exceptional pupils in the courtyard and was not kept a secret.

"Yes, by your grace, Elder, you have covered all grounds. Since this debacle finally has a conclusion, I shall train harder. In a cycle of a moon's time, upon the arrival of the main branch of the majesty that is our Zhou family, I shall impress them."

Zhou Lingyi nodded.

"If I may, Elder, I fear Zhou Yan would speak ill of our family in the open world, or perhaps, he would return to cause even more harm in a cycle of moon's time," asked Zhou Xian with his irrational concerns.

He recalled the menacing, sinister gaze present in Zhou Yan's eyes. He could not help but feel that Zhou Yan was never as a simple man as he thought he was.

"He had lost all his potential and his powers. He will no longer gain such an opportunity ever again! Besides, when the time arrives, the entire family will be on high alert. Although he was a member of our Zhou family for all these years, however, not a single soul in the open world would ever know that he is truly the son of Zhou Wangchen."

The elder, Zhou Wuyan, chuckled as if he had planned for every possibility.

"Ah… you truly are wise, great elder!"

Hence, Zhou Xian was instantly relieved of his concerns. A glint of fierce, primal vengeance glimmered through his gaze.

He felt content to witness Zhou Yan be subjected to such torment.

"My apologies, dear Elder, besides the lot of us in the family, every single pupil stood united and loyal, without question. Also, the Lord of our family, he had always sided with Zhou Yan, would he…"

It seemed that some concerns were still lingering in Zhou Cheng's mind. However, he was worried about something else.

"Do not worry about the matters regarding the Lord of our family, just as we agreed, Zhou Yan is a piece of trash, and Zhou Wangchen was a known genius. Who do you think the lord would side with? If the future concerns you, then arrangements will be made for future occasions, hence, worry not now.

"On the other hand, you're concerned about the truth of this situation that will be spread by the pupils in our family. This has a simple solution.

"We can all say that this situation was due to the intensive training undergone by the genius of our family. It was planned ever since he was little. However, the truth is, Zhou Lingyao was Zhou Wangchen's trueborn son. To prevent his arrogance, the family had decided to indoctrinate a lad named 'Zhou Yan' who was merely an abandoned child when he was discovered. Hence, he has no ties to our Zhou family. He has already been exiled and abandoned by our Zhou family after being such an embarrassment to us."

After hearing what the Elder of Lore had said, the trio were instantly stunned by his wisdom.

"These words were not meant for your ears initially. However, since it's by the grace of Zhou Lingyi, I shall speak without restrictions. Do not tell anyone this at all. On the other hand, whoever enters our Zhou family is not essential. What's most important will be whoever possesses the most talent.

"There is one more thing. This doesn't mean that there can only be two people worthy of this status. If the objective had been achieved, three or four people wouldn't make much of a difference. Little Cheng, Little Xian, I have high hopes for both of you, so fight hard. A lot can change in a cycle of a moon's time," Zhou Wuyan said.

After hearing what was told, Zhou Cheng and Zhou Xian felt extremely excited after being praised. They were so ecstatic that both of them had completely forgotten about the injuries they had sustained earlier.

…

Glittering stars stretched across the night sky. It was extremely late at night at this point.

Through an endless stretch of massive hills and thorny bushes, the two young women continued to shoulder the injured Zhou Yan while slowly braved the treacherous path ahead.

The dresses they wore were tattered and torn by the thorny overgrowth. Both of their ankles were also bloodied

Their path was completely shrouded in darkness. The only way they knew was up the massive hills as the path was invisible to them through the dark veil of night.

It seemed to them that this night alone was crawling to a halt. It felt unnaturally long. Darkness shrouded them. It was as if the light of dawn was hidden from their eyes.

Zhou Yan was unconscious and resembled the undead. He allowed both the young women to shoulder his weight, dragging him along their journey.

The trio found a safe spot to rest earlier. However, they realized that the place was a 'forbidden ground' and just like that, they lost the sanctuary they discovered. 

The trio had absolutely no crystals on them, and the two ladies were completely exhausted and were unable to fend off any possible threats that might come their way. In a world like this, it certainly made living a challenging thing to do.

"Lady Ning, why hasn't master awoken yet? His body temperature keeps fluctuating between feverish heat to bone-chilling temperatures uncontrollably… Is he going to perish?"

The green dress Ping'er wore was completely soaked in her own sweat. 

"He...had been mortally wounded by the echoed voice from the Elder of Lore. I'm afraid his meridians are completely severed, and there isn't an immediate cure...for his current condition."

The girl who was wearing a white dress calmly spoke with a soft tone. She simply let out a long-winded sigh after speaking.

"Lady Ning, then, then what should we do? It's… it's all my fault as a shameless, lowly handmaiden. If it wasn't for me, the master wouldn't have… I deserve to die…"

Ping'er bawled uncontrollably. Her tears flowed out of her eyes like a geyser, soaking her sleeves.

There was no difference between the mix of sweat and tears. Nothing could calm her broken heart.

"Ping'er, this has nothing to do with you. Not a single soul could stop them if all they seek for was a reason to fight. The truth is, Zhou Yan was extremely composed and calm in the face of their provocations. If it was up to his old self, he would've rashly fought those people without any concern of the ramifications that would've brought him."

Ning'er's voice was soft however, it contained a calming tone to comfort Ping'er. Just from that, Ping'er was calmed.

"Lady Ning, I know you're a lady from a powerful family of high status. Can you perhaps...teach me the ways of the sword? It doesn't matter if it was the way of healing, pure sword skill, spells, or traps. It does not matter to me, as long as it is powerful enough, enough...to avenge my master, and it'll be fine by me!"

Ping'er's voice was filled with determination, and her gaze was as sharp as a blade's edge!

It seemed ironic that life could force someone so innocent and naïve to the world around her to such a desperate state!

"Worry not, all will be well soon!"

There was not much reaction from Ning'er. Ning'er stared at Zhou Yan, her gaze was filled with compassion and love.

As Ning'er spoke, she looked around cautiously. She felt something watching them. She then proceeded to bend over and pulled out a mysterious golden pill. She slid the pill into Zhou Yan's mouth. 

Suddenly, her soft pale hands stopped in midair. With a twitch, the pill returned to her palm. Ping'er was surprised by what she had just seen. In the next instant, she watched the feverish heat and chilling cold from Zhou Yan's body gathered at one spot and both energies of extreme heat and cold swiftly collided with one another. It morphed into a single unified energy. This circle of mysterious power had an odd curve to it, and at the center of both curves, two bright spots of light could be seen on the opposite ends of each curve!

As clueless as they both were, Ning'er and Ping'er realized that this energy seemed to possess concentrated raw power from the teachings of Taoism within itself!

Both women were shocked as they observed that the spiraling circle infused itself into Zhou Yan's body. This healed him and the pale and purplish state he was in faded away. The weakened state of his face recovered to a state of indescribable health.

"Are you awake, master?"

"Are you awake, Zhou Yan?"

Upon awakening, Zhou Yan was greeted by two gentle and soft, concerned voices.

Zhou Yan smiled compassionately and nodded to them without saying a word.

He was not unconscious earlier. In fact, he was not even mortally wounded. It was merely a minor injury to him. However,he knew the situation was dire so he was forced to pretend to be mortally injured in order to escape. 

The truth was, if it was not for the skill of Spatial Destruction guarding his body, that thundering roar from the Elder of Lore would have ultimately crippled him for the rest of his life. Which was why his earlier act was acceptable.

Just as he planned, he successfully fooled everyone and escaped unharmed. If it was not for his quick thinking, he would never have survived this long.

He now realized that not a single person from his family had truly cared about him!

Afraid of being followed during their escape, he used a secret skill from Nine Folds Yin-Yang Manuscripts to heal his injuries and seal away his life essence. These skills were from a foreign realm known as Earth. It had incorporated the principles of Yin and Yang and the teachings of Tai Chi. On top of that, it incorporated the Scriptures of Morality to such fine detail to yield a remarkable outcome!

Throughout their arduous journey, he had successfully deceived many powerful detection skills used by an equally powerful adversary. He could sense detection skills of his pursuers. However, the enemy sensed nothing in return.

That was not the full extent of Zhou Yan's growing abilities. By using a subchapter from Nine Folds Yin-Yang Manuscripts, Scriptures of Unbound Flexibility, Zhou Yan felt that not only did he fully recover from his injuries but once again he progressed further!