Chapter 6: Road Trip and First Spirit Ring (remade)

Chapter 6: Road Trip and First Spirit Ring (remade)

Original title = Fallen Clans and First Spirit Ring

Original word count = 2053 words on 6/27/2023

New word count = 2422 on 8/3/2023

Currently taking a 1 week break to focus on editing vol 1 while also lightly working on new chapters so i should have 2 or 3 done by the time i restart and don't fall behind

This chapter was already pretty lengthy so i am only adding in some more minor details and interactions

just a word of warning that the content ahead will feature plenty of lOrE. And thus is word heavy. It is partially necessary as the background information and reason for possible animosity with mentioned individuals/clans. The reason for all this knowledge, even if not canon or really important in this part of the story, comes back in volume 3 so there is a role that it does play

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The next day arrived and Xue Tie could only train by himself in the bit of spearmanship and movement he was taught as his father was recovering from the lashing he had received. It's pretty basic movement, suitable for a novice like Xue Tie who has never experienced any sort of weaponry before. Not even guns. As Xue Tie heads into the living room, he finds an interesting sight.

His father is found lying on his belly in the living room. His back, which is covered in red lashes and a soothing gel to help him heal. Xue Tie assumes his mother applied it after she calmed down but it's also thickly applied which means quite a bit of the gel was 'applied' but his back is still healing up slowly.

"Tie'er, we will delay the road trip until tomorrow when I'm healed. Try to get used to your trident in the meantime." Xue Mao, the father, speaks to his son and shoos him away as he slumps his head down again from the suffering that lifting his head caused to his back.

With no proper instruction, Xue Tie can only estimate the proper path of the spear art. So he can only get used to the weight of his trident. Swinging. Thrusting, and doing these two actions on various surfaces to train his balance

He starts getting the hang of it fairly quickly as well as familiarizing himself with his trident. Getting used to handling the trident with it's "Dumb" veins.

The day ends soon and after breakfast, the father and son duo make their way out of the city. Xue Tie is very confused by this as he has never actually been outside the city. Where he used to hang out with his neighbors and Childhood friends was a park inside the city.

After an hour's travel, the duo arrive at the top of a Hill. Xue Mao takes out a pendant from his pocket and sets it against a groove of the tree. The pendant looks like a red tear drop. The tree glows and some sort of click is heard as bits of the dirty ground shifts to reveal a hole. (A hole lot of fun coming up)

Xue Mao grabs his son by the back of his shirt.

"Eh?" Xue Tie says confused.

Xue Mao says nothing as he jumps in, son in tow.

"Egh" Xue Tie yells out a groan as his father begins sliding down the various wall grooves. One to the other as they make their way 100ft down

(A/N. Imagine a Ratchet and Clank grind rail)

They finally stop and the entrance at the top has long closed after them.

The walls glow with bioluminescent mushrooms, providing just enough light for Xue Mao to lead the way forward.

They stop at the end of the cave where Xue Mao takes out a red talisman. Inputting his energy, he makes it glow golden and red letters

"Try….. But Hole"

With some awkwardness, Xue Mao takes out a red chalk and writes 'Finger' in the missing space. He looks at his son and says

"I'll explain in a moment". Meanwhile, Xue Tie is having a brain hemorrhage over the implications of the premier Elden ring text.

The newly written text vanishes and the wall shifts open like a door. What lays beyond is a gloomy looking Pagoda of red and black

"Welcome to the remains of our dynasty, MohgWyn."

Xue Mao leads his son, who is shaking in anticipation over the implication of all this. Some sort of hidden history of the world? But then how is Elden Ring connected to it all?

After walking down the cave entrance as well as some stone stairs. Xue Mao reaches his hand into a hole in the wall. He brings out a set of papers and new chalk and a similar talisman.

"It seems the other subordinate clans have added in a new cave part as well as left some new materials and items. We will check those later. He says with finality in his voice. Xue Tie just nods and waits to ask his questions.

They both walk over to the pagoda and as the great doors swing open due to Xue Mao's touch. There is a sort of reception area with another set of double doors. They both walk through them and find a long hallway filled with murals and tapestries.

The first mural showcases a figure with a sizable bloody trident surrounded by various people. One of them has chains wrapped around them, another has the spirit of a bloody rhino on him. The third has a falcon covering him.

"As you can see, our family was the leader amongst 4 clans. Our clan is the Xue with our control over blood and fire. Your mother is from the Nie clan, with their experience over torture and true damage. The blood rhino belongs to the Slee Clan, After our Clans had fallen, only this one was assimilated to another clan through a distant marriage agreement between one of their elders' children. They are now integrated into the Power Clan under the Clear Sky clan. Then last is the Sky blood Hawk members of the Wind Piercer clan. They are the ones who now maintain the lands along with what remains of the few strong in your mothers clan." Xue mao begins explaining the history of the clans and their relationship

"It was an age of Strife and war. There was no Heaven Dou Empire or Star Luo Empire. There was only MohgWyn, It was our clan that created lands of safety and peace in the land, while our enemies were used as fuel for a later experiment."

He begins walking forward and murals depicting the rise of the dynasty are shown before arriving at the 5th mural and showing a city with a river of blood flowing through it.

"The Slaughter City, our final creation. Meant to serve as a form of trial grounds for the young ones of our clan…the blood and energy of our enemies used as fuel. At least until the Shura God came around and proclaimed it as a monument to him. He was told to screw off but it did not turn out well for us. He had slaughtered 2 limit douluos' under us and seized the city. Proclaiming it as his and inviting a vast array of people to serve him and attempt to acquire his Death Gods Domain. It's utter crap, It was our bloodtide domain."

"This is one of many pieces that led to our collapse. The second was our encounter with the Rakshasa God. An unfortunate circumstance arose that led to one of our members killing a friend of hers'. She swore revenge and began creeping around like an assassin, killing our higher rank members as well as truly completing her scythe technique and establishing her own legacy, until we were but a shell of our former selves. With our king at the time also falling. His son was the one who led us to go into hiding and set up these strange walls and phrases to ensure our safety. But when we went into hiding, what we left behind was ravaged by others"

"The fragile balance was broken by the mortal Rakshasa god and a revolt was initiated. This was the fall of our Dynasty as well as the rise of many other clans such as the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, the Clear Sky clan and the seven treasure Pagoda Clan. The Blue lightning tyrant and the clear sky clan were the ones at the head. The Seven Treasure pagoda Clan already had long existed but they were always too weak to prove any sort of help. They were still deep in their research, it was only when they were offered plenty of money that they even accepted to help the others take us down."

"It was from the remains of our clan and the work our people did that the 2 kingdoms Star Luo and Heaven Dou rose up as well. They established their kingdoms with our people and our hidden resources."

"You will be able to read up on the books we have left behind here on your own. Let's go and get you your own pendant as well as a few other resources. Then we might explore what has been added since I was last here"

Xue Tie finally nods but is overall quiet as he processes the history that has been revealed to him. Not only the glory that was present during that time but also the level of strength they had yet still fell. This puts plenty of pressure upon his shoulders to do anything at all.

As well as a burning hatred for the two gods as well as the 2 hypocritical clans. From the beginning he didn't care much about the gods from the original story as he never really saw any interaction with them during his past life. But some fanfics he read had created a sense of annoyance about the gods. With a distaste for the gods, he sees no point already in trying to get their lineages, even if he were by chance able to get them.

As for the 2 clans.

The Clear Sky Clan who had abandoned one of the youngest Titled Douluos', Tang Hao just because the spirit hall caused them some trouble. Their frivolous actions had also made them abandon their 4 subordinate clans, weakening themselves further through such rifts.

The Blue Tyrant Dragon clan is instead filled with hypocrisy from many misdeeds. The most notable amongst them is the issues related to Liu Erlong and the Grandmaster. But these are only the most outwardly known issues and they matter little in the grand scheme of things.

"Let's go" Xue Mao says and Xue Tie continues forth. Xue Mao hands his son a book and the new talisman and chalk inside a special case.

"Keep these with you. The book has the typical recommended beasts for our Red Death Tridents. The recommendations provide certain abilities that are considered staples of our clan. Though you do have twin Martial spirits so it's up to you how you want to develop."

Xue Tie looks through the book, skimming it quickly, focusing on the abilities more than the beasts for now. He notices that the beasts provide the abilities of BloodFlame talons, Mogh's premier explosive claw attack and then Bloodboon, ability to splash blood fire at the enemy. Xue Tie quickly summons up his gloves and makes some plans.

After some walking past the hallway of murals and heading downstairs inside the pagoda. Father and son arrive at what seems to be some sort of zoo. It does have various beasts locked up after all. Except these aren't any normal beasts, these are spirit beasts, part of the recommended set of beasts from the book. The first amongst them being the Great Flame eagle

Xue Mao gives his son an orb. One that is very similar to the spirit power tester during the awakening process. "Here, let's see how strong you are by default, I have my suspicions but it's best to be certain."

Xue Tie takes the orb and flows his energy into it and Xue Mao nods. "It's as I thought, Innate spirit power. Good, then you can get your first spirit ring. How do you want to handle it?" he asks his son.

"I think I'll make use of the original abilities through my armor instead of trident." Xue Tie proclaims part of his plan.

"Very well. I'll wound it, you finish off the eagle. Now let's check the years" Xue Mao nods his head and begins studying the eagles to determine their ages and find the right one for his son. He faces little trouble since these have long been domesticated. He picks one up and brings it to another room with Xue Tie following behind. The father takes out his trident and inflicts a severe cut on its chest, the side points crippling it's wings as well.

The eagle squawks in pain and Xue Tie doesn't like the sound of it and so he releases the eagle from it's pain by striking the same area. Knocking it down and covering his trident in it's blood. The eagle was around 800 years old and thus it's a yellow ring with hints of purple around it. Xue Tie doesnt immediately start absorbing it. After killing the beast, Xue Tie stabs his trident down as he sits but unintentionally stabs the ring and strange red vein-like patterns begin growing around it. Just like that of the trident and gloves. After a few moments, the ring has been tainted and seems to have been fully elevated into a purple ring.

Both Xue Tie and Xue Mao have a shocked expression on their faces. Xue Tie on the other hand begins absorbing the ring into himself. He knows that he isn't strong enough to handle a thousand year old ring due to the strength of the beast, but if his theory is correct based on what he just witnessed, then he has corrupted the will of the beast to supplement the strength of the ring over the mental tribulation which would typically enhance his mind.

Even if the mental tribulation is relatively small at this stage. It's still his first ring.. Minimizing the risk while elevating the strength. And this has come to fruition, as Xue Tie absorbs the ring within 5 minutes.Gaining a purple ring for his gloves.