Little brat, Zhang Wei Feng!

Kayson was relaxing on a rocky cliff looking at the lonely figure of his newest slave who was trying hard to cultivate despite all the lightning crackling through his body. On Kayson's lap, perched a violet-coloured Thunder Bird making 'Kuku' sounds. It was an odd sight because usually Thunderbirds were very stubborn and hard to tame. Even a tamed one rarely liked to be petted by their masters.

Eric was sitting on the edge of the same floating rock in the lotus position. He was concentrating energy according to the Qi manual given to him by his now willingly acknowledged young master.

Keeping to his own trend Kayson, gave him another shock by soul transferring it into his mind. As to his knowledge, only True Spirit realm experts could do that. But then again his young master is not an individual who can be judged by common sense. He was similar to an existence outside of the world's rules.

"Crack" He flinched at the lightning strike. For the last hour he was cultivating, Kayson observed him and directed some lightning from the thunder cage at him. Eric had no clue how Kayson managed to pull lightning bolts out of the field and guide such violent energy in such a delicate way.

Each lightning crackled through his veins cleansing and tempering his body. His skin was already cracked and blood was flowing out of his orifices. He had turned into a bloody mess.

For each lightning cleanse he felt his qi energy become more smooth and easy to circulate.

After going on for an hour, Kayson started to feel the spiritual pressure slowly radiating from Eric. It was the sign of condensing soul. Sign of achieving the nascent realm.

--- Meanwhile more than two hundred celestial leagues away. ---

A golden feminine figure was watching Kayson.

"He is already messing with other people's fate. Clearly has no respect for me! Hump… Let me send some trouble on your way."

She closed her eyes and focused for a moment. The golden aura around her intensified just for a moment. At the same time within the Thunder Birds' Cage, a freely floating rock was covered with a golden glow and changed its direction. It then collided with an eggy-shaped object zooming through the lightning field. Due to the impact, its course changed towards where Kayson and Eric resided.

"There you go. This is going to be interesting. Will he cheat this time? Knowing his character definitely." She giggled.

------

The Thunder Bird on Kayson's lap suddenly went alert and looked into the distance. But soon relaxed under Kayson's petting.

"Did you also feel that little one? Don't worry, it's none of our business." But soon his expression changed. His heightened senses picked up the familiar energy signature of Fate in the distance.

"Damn this woman! Now she's really messing with me!" He said in annoyance. He looked into the distance and soon an eggy-shaped object heading in their direction entered his sight.

"Well, this smells trouble." He took the wooden mask out from his dark robe and wore it.

The object crash landed some distance away from their location. At the same moment, a crackling sound came. Tribulation lightning was gathering above them. Eric was facing tribulation!

*"Get ready for the tribulation. I'll send a slight lightning pulse at your body. Try your best to survive. This is a test. If you cannot even withstand this. You cannot fight against fate." He sent a telepathic message to Eric.

Eric's expression hardened. He still couldn't believe his master talk about tribulation lighting so casually, even immortals fear. He nodded firmly.

While this was taking place the eggy-shaped object opened and a yellow-clad feminine figure stepped out. Her robe looked roughed up. Her hair was all over the place. She looked confused. While looking around, she tried to figure out where she was stranded. Then she saw two figures in the distance. Just as she was about to approach them huge lighting storm started to manifest in the above sky.

"Tribulation! Someone going through a breakthrough. In this place?" To her knowledge, people attempt breakthroughs in very controlled and safe environments. They were also surrounded themselves by a number of countermeasures.

Where she came from there were even businesses that provide safe rooms. Many young masters and mistresses of the powerful families make a spectacle out of their breakthrough tribulations, just to show off their talent and their sects' power.

Only poor average cultivators without enough money would attempt to go through their breakthrough unprotected. But there was another type of people who wanted to face the tribulation, unprotected. They are narcissistic idiots who were too overconfident about themselves. That thought reminded her of an annoying fellow who went through his tribulation unprotected just to impress his elder sister.

"Crack"

Her thought process was broken by a loud crackling sound. She was expecting to see the person attempting the breakthrough suffer but what she witnessed left her dumbfounded.

Red tribulation lightning bolt came directly at Eric's figure. If he tried to face it himself, he would probably burn into ashes.

And Kayson knew that, he unshackled his soul power temporarily.

Soul power manifested into a depiction of his past self. His unwavering confidence in himself was firmly embedded into his soul power for eons worth of time.

The manifested figure stood between Eric and the tribulation. The zooming lightning bolt hit the figure and instantly scattered into tiny crackling lightning sparks. They ran all over the illusory figure. Little by little the lightning sparks started to fade away. In reality, it was not the lightning fading away, the illusory figure was absorbing them!

Only one tiny spark was separated and directed at Eric's figure. With that, the figure slowly faded away. Kayson shackled his soul down to the limit that he could handle without much stress on his fleshly body.

Suddenly, Eric felt like ran over by a Hippo beast. He almost vomited blood. But he gritted his teeth and held on. The circulation of his qi energy reached the limit. Tribulation lightning already started devastating his body. All the organs started to rip apart. Burnt black blood started to squish out of him. The only reason he could hang onto his life was the superior Qi manual he was practicing.

"What…?"

Princess Weiwei couldn't believe the absolute insanity happening in front of her, that destroyed her world views. No fleshly body can withstand tribulation lightning, yet the lonely male figure who was going through the breakthrough was doing just that.

Tribulation lightning can only be blocked by a formation or a rune work. But the other person blocked the tribulation by spiritual manifestation. Not only did he block it, he even absorbed the tribulation which was freakish to the extreme.

Slowly the above sky returned to normal. After a few moments, she felt a smooth spiritual wave brush past her. The breakthrough was complete. He seemed to enter the nascent realm.

"Such a spectacle… Only to enter the nascent realm? Who are these people?"

She hesitated for a while and slowly approached the two figures.

*"Put on your mask immediately!" Kayson quickly sent a telepathic message. *"Don't say anything. Let me do the talking."

Eric just came around. He was confused as to whom were they going to talk to in this taboo place. But he followed the order anyway. As he was putting on the mask he heard footsteps. He turned slowly and witnessed the most delicate young lady he had ever seen.

She was dressed in a yellow robe. Which seemed to be decorated with golden embroidery. Even though her robes had hair looked disheveled, it didn't reduce her extraordinary baring one bit. Her face was delicate and there was a hint of immatureness. But the most striking fact was the regal aura around her. It screamed nobleness.

"Fellow cultivators, can you please tell me where the nearest populated planet is?"

She met with an awkward silence. When she was about to ask again a violet streak brushed passed her. She felt a tug on her robe. Her hand went there immediately but, she was already too late. The imperial jade seal was gone! Violet streak brushed pasts her again and landed on the second person's lap.

Then she realized what it was. A Thunder Bird. One of the fastest creatures in the lower realm. The very same type of spirit beast she came there to capture. The Thunder Bird passed her stolen jade seal to the man.

'This masked man has a well-tamed Thunder Bird. Their background seemed to be deeper than I thought.' But her momentary distraction didn't stop her outburst.

"Give that back! You clearly don't know who you're messing with."

But her outburst was ignored by the Thunder Bird's owner. It made her really angry. No one ever dismissed her like that. She was a royal for heaven's sake! She thought about teaching this rude person a lesson. But his next words halted her dead in her tracks.

"Well… well… well… what do we have here!? A royal of the Crimson Dynasty!" Then he slowly observed her from head to toe. It creeped her out she subconsciously took a step back.

"You're clearly not the eldest princess, so you should be the little brat, Zhang Wei Feng! Crash landing in an escape pod. Tch… tch… little brat, you seemed to be in trouble!"

"Little b…b…brat!" Princess Weiwei froze in shock.

No one ever talked to her like that. None even dared to! Even the people from the Middle realm showed her respect. But this person clearly knew who she was and talked to her in such a way.

Middle Martial Realm was the second hierarchical layer of the cosmos. The whole cosmos was built up from three major realms. Out of the three, Lower Mortal Realm was the worst one. In the middle, there was the Middle Martial Realm. Next at the top Higher Immortal Realm. Each of these realms had divided into three planes as low, mid, and high.

Princess Wei Feng felt an uncontrollable anger building inside of her. She might be a princess but she still was a teenager. So as a typical teenager, she started throwing tantrums.

"How dare you! You uncultured man! Wait till I tell daddy! I'll have your head on a spike!"

"Have my head on a spike!? What a joke. Zhang Qiang is simply not capable enough." He shook his head just to exaggerate what he said. Then he muttered. "My head is simply too heavy to put on a spike! Haha…"

Princess Weiwei looked at this crazy person who was laughing like a maniac. She suddenly thought the person she was talking could be insane.

'That should be it. Who else talks about my father so lightly? I should better take my imperial jade and leave' She controlled herself and asked politely.

"Fellow cultivator, can you please return my imperial jade? So I can be on my way."

"Since you asked nicely." He threw the jade for her to catch.

"Little brat, what happened to you? How did you end up this miserable?" Kayson asked in his usual teasing voice.

"I'm not telling you! Who are you anyway? You know too much about the Crimson empire. Are you someone from the royal clan of the Red Mountain empire? Only that place can birth someone rude and uncultured as you."

"Tck… Don't insult them such, only that place has direct and less scheming people in the whole mortal realm. All other places are full of snakes." He returned to the topic. "So what's your problem little brat?"

"Stop calling me that!" She had enough of that name. "You really are mean." She showed a sad face and her eyes started to get teary.

Eric who was silent the whole time saw this and he felt his heart is aching. He really wanted to defend this little child from the bully.

'Master is really mean.' As a fellow sufferer under Kayson's sarcastic tongue, he felt pity for the young lady.

"Oh, stop with the act and tell me. Since fate made sure we meet, let me extend you a helping hand." All the teasing and mockery vanished from his voice and were replaced with sincerity and solemnness.

Princess Weiwei hesitated a while and started explaining the situation to him. She really couldn't believe she was explaining everything to a random masked person she met by accident. And the person was rude as a barbarian too.

Kayson listened to it carefully. He cross-referenced all the details with his memories to complete the story. Then he realized something which made him smirk under his mask.

'Fate really loves me, doesn't she?'

"Oh by the way. Who was the commander of your ship?"

It made the princess Weiwei remembered that she left her guardian and best friend to die. She suddenly felt miserable and helpless.

'Was she this pathetic to ask help from a random stranger to save his guardian and friend? It doesn't matter her pride as a princess if she could save them.'

"It was uncle Zhang Wu. Also my friend Xiao Zhi. Fellow cultivator, you seemed to have a capable background…" She struggled to put her words. "…can you please help my friend and guardian? I'll be grateful to you."

"This really is not a simple power struggle in the lower mortal realm. Middle martial is realm also involved, I can guarantee that. In normal scenarios, it's not ideal for me to step in." Kayson explained slowly.

Princess Weiwei nodded. Even though she was disappointed she could understand. No one like to get involved with a problem that might trigger a galactic war. But her thoughts were wrong.

"But since this is a special circumstance forced upon me by fate herself, I'll help you out a bit. But that comes with a price dear. Would you be willing to pay that?"

If the princess saw the devilish smile behind his mask she would probably run away.

"Anything, I'll do anything! Please help me to save them."

"First things first. After everything was done I want, you and your companions to promise me to keep my existence and our upcoming little adventure, a secret. Next, I want all the spoils that include your ship's treasure bay. Last but not least, I want you to owe me a favor. A real favor! The life and death kind… What do you think?"

"Isn't that too much? All the treasures in the ship? They're too valuable."

The main thing she put importance on was the treasures. Not the favor. 'Inexperienced brat!' Kayson thought.

"More valuable than your friend and the guardian?"

"Alright!" She said in defeat. "I can't say, anybody?"

"Maybe your father and sister but that's it. It's for your own good."

"Hmm… But even if I owed you a favor, I will never help you to do anything harmful to our Dynasty." She said in full seriousness. She might be a kid but she was no fool.

'Oh, not so inexperienced then'

"Who wants to harm your precious dynasty?"

Zhang Wei Feng, thought hard what was the best decision to take. She hoped her sister was there. She knew what to do in any situation. But in the end in her desperation, she could only accept the masked stranger's offer.

"Alright. I hope you'll keep your word."

"Good. Ovin, Let's go."

Kayson addressed Eric deliberately using his dead friend's name to hide his real name. Even though Eric was not wistful as Kayson he immediately understood his young master's intention.

"Yes young master."

"Where's your ship?" Zhang Wei Feng asked looking around, there was nothing to see.

"It's here." He tapped on his head. Princess Weiwei's question was quickly answered by a cyan blue glow emitted from his glabella.

A tiny ship model emerged within the cyan glow and expanded. Wei Feng looked at it in pure fascination. It was clearly a different type of ship than any ship she had ever seen. It was pitch black and decorated with dark red lines along its angular lines. It gave off the impression of a ruthless beast waiting to pound upon its prey.

"What kind of ship is this? How come you stored it in your consciousness?"

"Why do you want to know?" Kayson asked back. Then he petted the Thunder Bird sitting on his lap comfortably. "Little one, I'm on my way to rescue some people and do a good deed. Do you want to join my conquest or go back to your home?"

It purred and closed its eyes. "Tch what a lazy fellow. So another companion." He stood up while holding the bird and got into the ship. Zhang Wei Feng and Eric followed.

"Is it not your tamed beast?" Wei Feng asked. Which was answered by two hostile looks from a bird and a man.

"NO WAY! This little one is a companion of mine. Taming is a thing incompetent people do, just because they cannot get along with spirit animals. Don't say that again you're hurting this little fellow's feelings." Kayson said dramatically.

"You sure are eccentric."

Eric who was behind both of them nodded in approval. 'This young lady gets my young master.' He thought to himself.

"Then how did you manage to get to know it…err.. get to know him?" She changed what she was about to say under the hostile gaze of the bird.

"Her! This is a female. I think she likes me since I'm a good person." Kayson answered thoughtfully.

At the back, Eric's mouth twitched.

'What a shameless young master I have?'