Chapter 4: Lu Xun

The man surnamed Lu laid dormant on the ground, his blood painting every inch of the floor. In his seemingly final moments, his thoughts lingered. Not on his impending doom, nor his sin of taking the life of a child he had no right to do so, but instead of his nephew.

'I wonder who is gonna to take care of that brat, hmph….'

Whenever he considered his nephew seeing what he had done, how he had done it, his heart clenched. His thoughts roamed the moment he first held his nephew in his arms, his silky wet skin, such contrast to his owned arms, hardened by a life of manual labor. He thought about the first time he walked, the first time he spoke, the first time he put away his toys to help with the work. If one could even call what he had toys, they were just leftover pieces of wood and yarn he had found in the house. The boy had lived a tough life, a life that he didn't deserve to suffer through, yet it was much worse now that he was gonna lose his only guardian.

The man tried to take his mind to a more optimistic place, maybe he thought the boy would excel without him. Maybe the brat would use the difficulty to motivate himself to become a scholar or at least not a coward like his own uncle. What would the brat even think knowing what he had done to his childhood friend?

"Sigh…"

"Congratulations young Daoist, you have won my masters inheritance," the old haggard had again reappeared from seemingly nothing, but the air. The old haggard bowed, but instead of ceremonially like before, instead this time it was full of veneration.

"Senior, I don't know what you are, but just give the things your master left to my nephew. What's a dead man gonna to do with some gold."

"Nephew!?", the old haggard was puzzled. "Are you referring to the boy that entered the cave behind you."

"Yes."

A strange expression appeared on the old haggard's face, "the boy is dead."

"What," shocked entered through every vein of the man surnamed Lu's body.

"Uh-huh, for every person that enters the inheritance, one person needs to be sacrificed beforehand to give energy to the formation," the old haggard chuckled.

"But what about Little Tao, then how did she enter?"

"Oh, an immortal cultivator entered by luck here 50 years ago."

"Where does it warn about this, how could we not have learned this before!"

"It doesn't, this is part of the luck necessary for one to receive the inheritance," the old haggard had a wide grin plastered on his face. He looked less like a docile senior now and more like a conniving devil.

"Isn't your master an immortal, why does this place require sacrifices, our lives can't possibly be that valuable", the man surnamed Lu screamed.

The old haggard didn't speak, the smile still hanging on his face.

The middle-aged man surnamed Lu made a self-deprecating smile, "even in my last moments I disappoint the ones I love." He couldn't even get revenge, against a supposed immortal, please! He could barely even walk, plus how does one even get revenge against the dead.

The old man's smile dropped from his face and he made a questioning face. "Last moments? You mortals seem to be even dumber than I thought. If you were near death, how would you be able to hold a conversation with me."

'He is right, even though I have been constantly bleeding, I still haven't lost my consciousness," the middle-aged man surnamed Lu was flustered.

"Since the moment you won, the massive amount of qi in this cave has been targeted to your body. Your blood is being replenished, your body is being strengthened, even your mind is becoming agiler. Why else do you think your dialect has become so much more refined." The old haggard made a disdainful face, like a wizened noble contemptuously glaring at an idiot of a peasant.

'So that's why I suddenly felt so cold, my blood is not taking away the sense, but this cave is replenishing me.'

This moment of hysteria had distracted the man from the situation, but just as quickly his thoughts went back to his nephew. 'Screw this old bastard, and his corrupt master,' even when wanting to let out his anger, the man surnamed Lu felt helpless.

"So what shall I address you by my future young master?"

"My name is Lu Xun."