9 Departing the Clan
Fan Zhi groaned in frustration as he read past the Preparation Realm section of the [Elemental Divinity Scripture].
Of course, there were no free meals for him.
The events of 2 weeks ago may have gotten Fan Zhi even further along with the attunement to the Eight Elements and been able to absorb every last whit of power from the tri-fused Heavenly Tribulation, but he had suffered the consequences.
Once the cultivator of the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] as a whole opened his Energy Systems, depending on how many elements he cultivated, the user would have a varying amount of control over his qi; the more elements he cultivated, the exponentially harder it was to control his qi earlier on, and this occurs for three reasons.
The purity of the qi made it harder to control said qi due to the increasing amount of power that higher purity qi contains.
Just that alone likely wouldn't have caused too many disadvantages in qi control; but not only did the [Eelemental Divinity Scripture] focused on incomparable purity, its other focus was that of making the cultivator's qi as dense as possible!
Denser qi required far more strength to control than qi that was of average density.
The tri-fused Heavenly Tribulation's energy being fused to enhance the qi, body and soul of the cultivator also created another problem; the qi gained a naturally destructive and berserk quality like that of a Tribulation!
If qi was an object used to test the finger dexterity of a person, then having higher purity qi would make the test more difficult and having denser qi would make the test's objects heavier.
If that wasn't difficult enough, then the inclusion of the tri- fused Heavenly Tribulation's energy would make the test randomly undergo changes as you were attempting to complete it.
Thus, in summary, Fan Zhi would have qi that was practically uncontrollable within the early realms.
It wouldn't hurt him, his Elemental Sacred Body preventing his own elemental qi from harming him, but it would be near impossible to use for anything other than self-enhancement and other basic techniques.
Luckily, the main focus of the Formation, Attribution and the soul cultivation equivalent Domains for the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] was to improve the control the cultivator has on his qi.
Still, Fan Zhi knew that he would have quite a bit of trouble controlling his qi until he at least reached the peak of the Formation and Consolidation Domains.
His physique cultivation, while it would be on the same level as his other two paths of cultivation, wouldn't affect his ability to control qi at all.
"Well, the Heavens are always impartial and fair I guess."
Fan Zhi, resigned to this problem of uncontrollable qi, simply sighed as he sat cross-legged on his bed to cultivate.
He only had a month before the clan had to depart for the tournament. Since he was stuck being unable to cultivate his physique for half that time, Fan Zhi wanted to completely consolidate his qi and soul cultivation in that time.
Physique cultivation always took the longest to consolidate, so it would likely take up most of the remaining time he would have left before the tournament after he consolidated his soul and qi cultivation bases.
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A month later
"Alright Fan Zhi, are you ready to go?"
Fan Heng asked as he entered Fan Zhi's training room.
In the month since he woke up, Fan Zhi had been trying his hardest to consolidate his foundations and cultivation base for all three cultivation paths.
The consolidation of his cultivation paths actually took the entire month, almost the same time as it took to actually cultivate and breakthrough.
Although he could have likely at least get halfway through his current stage in the month he spent cultivating, Fan Zhi knew that for a set of cultivation techniques like the [Elemental Divinity Scripture], death would be the result if he didn't absolutely perfect his foundations to the limit each stage.
After all, every tribulation he faced would be a tri-fused tribulation and he was the only person to have ever faced tri-fused tribulations in the Foundation, Conditioning and 1st Evolution Domains; according to the information that came with his inheritance at least.
Either way, Fan Zhi wasn't going to only go halfway in cultivation, whether his life was at stake or not.
This was his conviction, his determination; as naïve as it is.
Smiling in anticipation of seeing the outside world once again, Fan Zhi eagerly answered his father.
"Yes! Of course, I am hahaha! It has been 9 years since I last saw the outside world, I am excited to see how it is now. Wait for me! I am going to thrash those Fierce Tigers and Gale Hawks."
Since the incident a decade ago, Fan Zhi's family decided that it would be best if someone who couldn't cultivate was restricted to the Clan's properties only.
This had meant that for Fan Zhi, he hadn't been out of the Clan properties since he 5 to 6 years old.
That trip had almost been his death, so he had very little memory of this trip apart from the hellish scene of the ambush by the Fierce Tiger Tribe.
Therefore, Fan Zhi was incredibly excited to travel outside, and for a month no less!
Giving his father and mother a hug, Fan Zhi left to join the group that was preparing to depart.
Due to his back being turned, he never noticed the tears in the soft eyes of his mother, who was worried for her son.
Once everyone else was ready, the group of Fan Clansmen soon departed.
Surprisingly for the group, the patriarch, Fan Cheng, was travelling with the group.
Usually, Fan Cheng would just leave a few weeks later; his speed due to his cultivation being enough to arrive at around the same time as the slow-moving group of the Fan Clan.
The group left the mountainous area they resided in, entering the barren plains surrounding their territory.
The Fan Clan's territory was like an oasis in a desert; indescribably lush and full of life compared to the arid plains surrounding it.
The Fan Clan was very difficult to conquer, due to the natural terrain advantage and the lack of key resources for survival, like water, in the surrounding area.
Fan Zhi's excitement was soon dampened by the monotonous flat land of reds and browns.
Even the leaves of plants were a dull, brownish-green instead of the vibrant greens of the Fan Clan's territory.
Within a few days of travel, Fan Zhi relied upon Fan Cheng, his grandfather, to keep him entertained.
Talking about anything and everything related to cultivation, Fan Zhi and his grandfather caused the envy of the surrounding group who had no one of close relations to talk to for entertainment.
The group travelled through the plains for almost a week before it started to gain green and yellow patches of grass.
After another day of travel, the terrain the group was traversing quickly became a forest.
That night, Fan Cheng pulled out a bow of Daikyu design with a quiver of matching arrows.
The bow had a heavier draw than most, made for physique cultivators' strong physical strength and the quiver was full of metal arrows specifically to counter those kinds of cultivator's strong defences.
The bow was made of a metal with just enough flexibility to be used as a material for a bow but had enough strength to be used as a weirdly-shaped staff for blocking the attacks of enemy weapons if the need arises.
It was a purplish-red colour with fluidly drawn black patterns upon the limbs of the bow.
The string was a gold colour, seemingly made from the signature metal that the Fan Clan used for their bowstrings.
With his expression turning serious, Fan Cheng looked at Fan Zhi for a moment.
"Here Fan Zhi, the forest is dangerous and this weapon will help you survive. The majority of the remaining journey will be within this forest. Although I have no fear of those tigers here, the Gale Hawk Village are all particularly good in forests because their territory is a forest similar to this one. I have a bad feeling about this tournament, please be on guard."
Seeing his grandfather's serious expression, Fan Zhi simply nodded and remembered Fan Cheng's words.
Receiving the bow from Fan Cheng, Fan Zhi stood up, grabbed an arrow and drew the bow in one motion.
Fan Zhi had trained primarily with a bow when he was in the Fan Clan for the mandatory weapon's training.
This was because the bow was the only weapon that wouldn't put him at an excessive disadvantage if he sparred when he had his weak body.
Any other weapon would require the physical prowess of the cultivator to match their opponent, but the bow could use materials cleverly to naturally increase the speed of the arrows.
He wasn't great talent with the bow, but he did solid foundations in its use and had trained harder than anyone else in every way.
Aiming at a knot on a tree approximately 6 mel away, Fan Zhi released and hit the centre of the knot.
Walking up to the tree, Fan Cheng used his qi to cut the arrow out of the tree without damaging the arrow.
Despite the fact that the arrow would most likely be undamaged even if it was just yanked out of the tree, Fan Cheng would rather not lose an expensive arrow just because he wanted to save time.
Walking back to Fan Zhi with the arrow in his hands, Fan Cheng placed the arrow back into the quiver and gave the quiver back to Fan Zhi.
Taking the quiver, Fan Zhi casually put it on and adjusted the straps so it fits well.
Putting the bow on in a similar fashion, Fan Zhi wasn't worried about the bow getting damaged because the black patterns on the bow and the string were enchantments made to prevent wear and similar natural damages.
Bowing to Fan Cheng, Fan Zhi thanked him.
"Thank you grandfather; I will be cautious when travelling now."
"Good kid. Well, I doubt they will attack for another week if they even have the guts to attack."
Fan Cheng smiled, knowing that Fan Zhi had taken his hidden message to heart.
He had always known that Fan Zhi had the best personality for cultivation since he was 10 years old.
When he went for a stroll around the Clan, he had watched the younger generation training for a few hours and Fan Zhi had been the only one training with his all the entire time.
Since then, Fan Cheng had worked doubly hard to prepare for his awakening and had visited the training grounds once a week to secretly observe the younger generation.
He knew all of their personalities, strengths and flaws; Fan Zhi clearly had the highest potential looking purely at his determination and personality.
It was clear that Fan Zhi loved the very act of training and cultivating itself.
Because of this, Fan Cheng knew that he would do anything to make sure his grandson survived the coming storm.
As long as that kid lives, Fan Cheng knew that the Fan Clan would never perish.
