2 The Bright Scripture

The Bright Scripture.

Ming Ren entered four years ago, filled with the excitement of curiosity. The treasure was a gateway to a small secret realm that worked as a library, containing general books, alchemical recipes, formations, arrays, and runic inscriptions. Yet they were so simple even fifth-ranked clans of the Cloud Province wouldn't pay for them.

Ming Ren always thought it contained more mysteries to find. A being capable of opening a secret realm had a high rank, only heard about in legends. Which expert would fill such treasure with only basic information?

Even the elders could not appraise the grade of the treasure. They feared to show it to outsiders, avoiding a potential sect destroying disaster. What you don't completely understand, it's best to keep hidden. Ming Ren still picked a lot of information there, even if basic, as he didn't believe in wasted knowledge.

"Ren, outside again?" After going back to his house, a lovely sounding voice took the youth by surprise.

"Ha ha ha… Yes, Mother," he scratched the back of his head and smiled with a guilty look.

"Child, I told you to cultivate inside the clan, you know how dangerous the times are. You're a smart child, why are you so stubborn?!" His mother's name was Yu Ming, a descendant of the Jade Clan in the River Province. Thirty years old, but still looked in her twenties due to breaking into the Spirit Sea Realm at a young age.

Ming Ren could only apologize. He didn't want to lie to his mother but wouldn't stop training with his friends. She saw through the lie but only glared.

"Any news from father?" The youth changed the subject.

Yu Ming sighed, "No, the war in the northeast is still going. I hope he comes back soon."

His father already fought in the war for two years. The Brave Clan ruled the Cloud Province as its provincial overlord. It sent a punitive expedition against the neighboring Sky Province, and the Bright Clan sent troops to support. War between provinces was common. Most of the time it meant a fight over resources or honor but they weren't allowed to go all out and do as they pleased. It was a "war with rules".

The royal family did not intervene in common matters as long as they paid tribute, but lowering the power of the country was not good for its survival. Complete chaos would ensue if provincial overlords killed each other at their whims, and cultivator's death tolls undermined the country's defenses. With rules in place, it often ended with a few territories or resources switching hands.

The conflicts between sects and clans followed some of those rules but were harder to enforce as many clans dared to do things behind the royal family's back. Sometimes entire clans disappeared overnight.

Yu Ming researched the way of pills as the direct disciple of the clan's chief alchemist elder, "Ren, look at this, what do you think of those proportions?"

Ming Ren glanced at it and shook the head. His mother mixed two spirit herbs with different attributes and misjudged the adequate proportion. The result would be no better than the previous attempt.

"Still no good…" Yu Ming sighed. She taught her son everything but never thought he would surpass her at fourteen. Not even the chief alchemist was better than Ming Ren, but low cultivation prevented him from concocting good pills. This was a secret between the two as Ming Ren's focus was still cultivation.

The Dao of pills took thousands of years to master, the cultivator couldn't waste his best years. Besides, even if he mastered the theory, what good would it be if he stayed at the fourth layer of the Body Tempering Realm?

"I thought I could improve our Qi recovery pill a little," she smiled gently.

"Mother, should I help you…?" Ming Ren knew the answer but could not bear. The Qi recovery pill was the best pill of the Bright Clan, but only an initial stage first-step human rank pill.

In the Dao of pills, each step correlated to a cultivation realm, and first-step medicine corresponded to the Body Tempering Realm. Each step had four stages (Initial, middle, late, and peak). Initial stage pills were equal to the initial stages of a realm.

Human, earth, and heaven rank showed the rarity of the pill. A Qi recovery pill normally belonged to the human rank, while a breakthrough pill belonged to earth or heaven rank. In Bluecloud City, apart from the Bright Clan, the Sunflower Pavilion also sold pills, and until a few months ago they were evenly matched. The Pavilion then produced middle stage qi recovery pills, causing all sorts of headaches to the clan. Their revenue suffered another blow.

"No, focus only on your cultivation. Your mother will work things out with the elder," in the current Bright Clan, even materials for research were difficult to get.

Ming Ren clenched his hands and nodded. He ate something and went straight to cultivate. Sitting in a lotus position, the youth absorbed the Qi of Heaven and Earth into his incomplete spirit sea, refining it into inner spiritual energy. The energy circulated through the cultivation law, tempering the body.

Only a fraction of the world's population could cultivate, mainly because of spiritual roots and physiques. If they were not suitable, for any reason, one could not condense Qi and form an incomplete spirit sea. This would be the reason cultivator's clans would not allow their descendants to marry common mortals as the quality of the spiritual root depended mostly on lineage.

It was harder for cultivators to have children, but their offspring often had good spiritual roots. And yet there were also cases of people with mortal parents and amazing spiritual roots. Everything was up to fate.

A good physique helped a lot with cultivation. Some of them, although powerful, had harsh requirements to be effective. A fourth-ranked influence like the Bright Clan didn't have knowledge vast enough to understand physiques. The clan buried great talent under those circumstances. They acknowledged those with a higher cultivation speed as a genius, and those with special physiques were labeled as failures.

At the Body Tempering Realm, one needed to absorb the Qi of Heaven and Earth and refine it inside the incomplete spirit sea, circulating the energy into the inner organs and bloodstream. Their meridians opened, washing out impurities and tempering the mortal body. This happened at each layer until finally arriving at the peak.

This step needed a good cultivation law, and each realm required a law specific to that step to be effective. Aside from the ever-growing amount of energy to break through, inefficient cultivation laws were the biggest reason cultivators hit a bottleneck.

If you had to fill an entire pool, but could only fill it one glass at a time, how long would it take?

Cultivation laws from a lower realm had reduced effectiveness on the higher realms. The Bright Clan cultivation law, [One Breath Luminescence], was an earth rank Body Tempering Realm cultivation law. The progress slowed down on the Spirit Sea Realm, and it became much slower at the Spirit Gate. Even among Body Tempering earth grade cultivation laws, it could only be called low-tier.

Cultivation laws could be human, earth, or heaven grade, and the Bright Clan had no way of knowing if laws of a higher grade existed. The other fourth-ranked influences also possessed better earth grade laws.

Considered a poor talent, Ming Ren received a single low-grade spirit stone per month for cultivation. Spirit stones brimmed with spiritual energy and sped up cultivation. He also received one more from his mother and two from his father's service, which put him at four spirit stones per month.

The top genius, Ming Qiu, received ten low-grade spirit stones per month from the clan alone. Min Ren's quota should be enough for anyone to break through their shackles, but even after another whole night of cultivation, he couldn't reach the middle stage of the fourth layer. He always tried his hardest and had unwavering discipline, but the Heavens were intent on blocking his path.

After a few hours of rest, Ming Ren waved goodbye to his mother and rushed to the training camp of the clan. He'd train alone usually but today he went there for the scripture, so he had to take part early in case an elder punished him for escaping by not letting him join.

In reality, none of them would do so, since it would be more like a reward. He was the only one that would think of it as punishment!

"Brother Ming Ren!" A bright-eyed and handsome young man in a white robe approached. He carried himself with dignity and already started to exude an aura comparable to those at the Spirit Sea Realm.

"Big Brother Ming Qiu, long time no see!" Ming Ren bowed.

"Nevermind that, quickly, look at my fist!" He took an instance with both fists at the same height and slightly bent knees, punching forward with a fist embedded in a slim layer of bright spiritual energy. The [Bright Fist] he executed carried a destructive force much greater than Ming Ren's.

"Is it good?" The youth smiled proudly of his fist but soon saw an open-mouthed 😮 Ming Ren.

"Big Brother, are you trying to give me trouble?" Ming Ren cried.

"Trouble?" Min Qiu looked around him and, as expected, everyone else had a puzzled face, including the elders.

Min Qiu, at the peak of the eight layer, asked Ming Ren's opinion on his technique!

Ming Qiu sweated, "Sorry, Sorry, I forgot!!! 😳"

"Hahahaha Big Brother, how can I comment on your technique when it's much better than mine?!" Ming Ren awkwardly said 😅.

"Hahahahahaha right, right!!!" Ming Qiu also laughed, 'I'm surprised you can lie with such a straight face, brother!'

"Ah, Brother Ming Ren!" This time a pair of frail-looking twins came running and talking in unison. The boy looked like a girl, and the girl looked very tomboyish. They immediately executed the [Bright Fist] art, "How is it??"

Ming Ren almost spat blood, "😭😭😭😭😭"

'Heavens, these people!!! Do they want the elders to think I'm slacking off in my cultivation?! See if I don't teach you a lesson later!! 😔😔😔' He felt wronged. All he did was to give them a pointer here or there and never thought they'd be so clueless as to put him on the spot. After all, how could a mere fourth layer talentless Ming Ren teach the three geniuses of the clan?!

"Hahahahaa, l-let's go, let's go, the elders are calling!" Ming Qiu recovered first and pulled them towards the inner courtyard where the Bright Scripture would be.

Everyone felt something was off. The elders didn't even wait for the morning training and made everyone sit cross-legged in front of the scripture. As far as treasures go, no one would think the Bright Scripture was one. It had no aura or looked mystical. It looked like a common cheap scripture. Soon the patriarch of the Bright Clan came and stood behind the scripture.

"Patriarch," everyone bowed.

"Once more the Bright Scripture will open. For some of you, it will be the first time, so work hard to comprehend the arts of our clan. For everyone else, try your best again," the patriarch tried to motivate as best as he could but it was hard to get excited about such a place, even if it was a treasure, "Ming Qiu, Ming Bo, Ming Lan. I will train you three from now on."

The younger generation went into an uproar. This meant the patriarch groomed one of them to be the next head of the clan. Ming Qiu wanted to say something, but felt the burning stare of Ming Ren at his back and gave up.

'I'll kill you if you say anything, Big Brother!' How could he not know what he was thinking?

The patriarch poured spiritual energy into the scripture, chanting an ancient law. The entire room lit up and the younger generation fell into a deep trance, pulled into another world.

*

After everything went bright, Ming Ren opened his eyes, full of excitement. The last time he stood in a large room full of books. This time, a surprise. He saw two figures flying in the air above, and Heaven and Earth shook every time their Qi collided. The sky sundered in half and the entire world became numb.

A battlefield!

Many others fought in the ground. Some had human forms, some shaped like beasts, others shaped like demons. Blood splashed, death rejoiced. All around carnage ensued as a scene of hell itself.

"What is going on…?" Ming Ren found his eyes attracted to the beings in the sky. He recognized the bright energy revolving inside one of them and felt an induction of familiarity… and blood.

His blood was boiling!

As the figure up there used his powers, he felt his whole body burn and the urge to help, but how could he? Those beings were above the Spirit Gate Realm!

Not even the bright patriarch had such a powerful aura. Both figures in the air fell after a huge battle. Cries of despair and sorrow echoed. The boy knelt in pain and lost consciousness.

Ming Ren felt as if, at that moment, he also died.