Paul

Adam woke up with a splitting head ache. His mind flashed with images of memories. He saw a world from the perspective of a younger version of himself. Everything from the moment of his birth to the present time when he ate the mysterious pill appeared in his mind. Every single detail of everything his senses had captured was being enhanced. All the memories that were locked had become accessible to him. In fact, he could not stop the surge of memories.

He remembered his father and grandfather, his mother and the fact that he was actually adopted. He remembered the Divum Continent. His meeting with Yin and the necklace on his neck. As he recalled everything, his soul felt a constant burst of pain which continued to burn it. The last thing which flashed through his mind before he fainted again was the scene of a bloodied dying woman who seemed to have just given birth to him placing him in a cloth and putting her pendant on his neck before pushing him to the ocean away from a terrifying explosion whose shock waves pushed him even further away to the depths of the ocean.

***

"You saw that Elder Ming brought a new disciple to Brian's old cave?" a fat disciple asked the thin sickly one in front of him.

"Yeah, but I didn't dare to go mess with him because he has an Elder backing him. We might get sent to the disciplinary hall." replied the thin one trembling.

As they were talking, a youth with feminine features came from the shadows and asked with a wide smile, "What are Fatty Hao and Snake talking about?"

Both fatty Hao and Snake jumped up startled before shouting at attention, "Greetings, Senior Paul!"

"The lightning last night and the red mist before that were so frightening that I wanted to leap into Senior Brother's arms. Where is he now?"

"We have no idea where Senior Jin currently is."

Narrowing his eyes, Paul's wide smile became a thin line. He spoke in a creepy voice,

"If his lackeys don't know where he is, who would? Stop lying to me and tell me now!"

From the distance, a voice called out, "Paul! Stop scaring my friends. I am here. But, I will not play with you." The last word came with a force.

From the distance came a handsome youth with sword like eyebrows and a red mole in the center of his eyebrows acting as a third eye. The mole gave him a devilish attractiveness.

"Hehehe, senior brother sure looks after his lackeys! I wonder when I will receive similar treatment." Paul giggled at Jin's stern warning. The previous looking as if he didn't care. "No matter, I heard that a new junior brother has joined the sect. he was even directly promoted to senior Brian's position. I wonder what he would taste like." Paul licked his lips with a slurping sound.

Paul pranced away in front of Jin's angry glare.

"Hao, Snake, what information did you gather on the newbie?" Jin's face became cold as he questioned.

"Nothing, boss. There is no information about him anywhere."

"Not even his name. The only thing we did find was that he was escorted by Elder Ming to the cave."

"Hmm will he be a threat?"

"We never met him, boss. We cant asses his abilities." Snake replied.

"We can't assess his abilities accurately without meeting him. But since he was assigned all of Brian's assets, he must have roughly similar combat ability." Fatty Hao corrected.

"So, since, Brian was no threat to my position, this new disciple won't be as well. Hmm. When he leaves seclusion, tell him to meet me."

Fatty Hao hesitated before saying, "Boss, the newbie was escorted by an Elder. We shouldn't mess with him. If the Elder stands up for him, we're doomed."

Snake still didn't understand what Hao meant by that. " The boss is also backed by an Elder. What's there to fear?"

"Fatty Hao, I understand. You mean, you want me to protect you in case Elder Ming takes action. You are my man. I will not treat you badly. I have already told you so thousands of times."

"Yeah Fatty, stop being a coward."

Fatty Hao nodded to Jin and inwardly thought about snake, 'I may be a coward. But you are too dumb to even realize that there is danger. Who knows how you got the name Snake?'

***

Paul approached Adam's cave and pressed a door bell installed on the wall.

'I should fit my cave with an electric doorbell too. They save a lot of energy compared to formations.'

One should know that even though spiritual qi interferes with technology. That is only the case with large or complicated technology. A small and simple light bulb or doorbell will not be affected too much.

'Hmm he's taking too long.' Paul presses the bell again and again. The ringing echoed throughout the cave.

The shrill sound of the bell woke Adam who found himself collapsed with Yin beside him who was similarly collapsed. 'There is no problem with disciples having a spirit beast according to the rule book. As long as I register her, Yin will be treated as my property in the sect and won't be treated as a wild beast.'

Adam who woke up with all his memories returned heard the sound of the doorbell screaming on and on without stopping. It was enough to make a dead man get up and try to make it stop. Though, Adam didn't actually mind the sound and Yin still lay there beside him with no movement except the rise and fall of her body showing that she was breathing. As far as Adam had deduced from his memories, Yin didn't need to breathe though.

'Let's leave that as food for thought later. Got to get the door.'

Adam came to the living room and saw that on the other side of a tinted transparent barrier was a feminine man looking particularly annoyed at the lack of response. The other party could not see him or enter the cave due to the concealment and protective formations. Adam saw the man speaking to himself. He could not hear anything from the other side. Adam also wondered why he had to speak to himself out loud. Anya did that too. It felt weird to him.

'*Sigh* I should open the concealment formation. But, I don't want to deal with anyone right now. Whatever. I don't think he will be going away anytime soon.'

Adam opened the concealment formation but left the protective formation in place. The formation required no energy from Adam because it was powered by the spirit vein under the sect. The protective formation was supposed to be able to withstand the force of a Soul formation level practitioner's strength after all. Adam himself had know idea how strong that is actually. All he knew was that it should be a lot stronger than himself. Maybe around the same level as Gron?'

*Screech screech*

The bell continued to ring until the other side could see him too. The person seemed to say something but Adam couldn't hear him.

'Wait, I have to connect the intercom.' Adam pressed a small switch beside the formation access panel. It allowed sound to pass through.

"…ear me? Press the intercom! It's right there! Damn it! Come on!"

"Yes. Did you need something?"

"I am Paul. A Peak core formation realm cultivator. I wanted to greet our new member."

The enthusiastic behavior was different than the display he showed Jin. There was also none of the feminine characteristics in his mannerisms which he used on Jin and his two lackeys.

"My name is Adam Potestas Fulgur. I have yet to begin cultivating. Well met."

"Oh, are you a noble from the Kingdom?"

"…What kingdom?"

Paul looked incredulously at Adam before saying, "The Merina Kingdom! You know, former Madagascar. That is the only place near this Sect that uses Latin surnames. Latin is a long dead language, you know. Also not originated on the continent. Who knows why those weirdos use it. The nobles also have fair skin and black hair, just like you."

Realizing that he would also be calling Adam a weirdo as well, he hurriedly said, "No offense."

"None taken. In fact, I am not acquainted with the Kingdom of Merina. Nor am I noble."

"Haha, OK. So are you going to invite me in?"

"No."

Paul's smile froze. "Umm..."

"Maybe, next time. I am busy now and do not have the strength or time to entertain guests. Also, you are stronger than me and I have no way to protect myself in case you do anything. The rules only state that no killing was allowed. Anything else is not against the rules. I also sense that your act is fake. You can come back when you are genuine, I am strong enough to survive attacks from you easily and I have time. Bye."

Adam closed the concealment formation and turned the doorbell to seclusion mode while also turning off the intercom.

He saw that the sunny smile on Paul's face cracked and a look of amusement crept in with his iconic wide smile. He started clapping and turned away saying "Bravo, You might just survive.". Adam only read his lips before returning to his cultivation room again.

***

'He is dangerous. I could only see through his act due to my instincts and superior thought process speed. My thoughts have still slowed down considerably I think. I can no longer feel my lightning either. It should still be in my body though. I'll leave that for later. I have bigger things to worry about.'

Adam brought out his bloody red disk. It had been ejected from within his body when he ate the pill. Yin had also come out only to suppress it at that time. It hung from the necklace on his neck.

The disk only had the word 'Rend' inscribed on it now. The word gave him a baleful feeling. If it were anyone else, he would have been frozen in fear. It was not a matter of cultivation base or strength. Any living being would instinctively fear the word on the disk. Adam though didn't fear it because his past memories were unlocked and with it came the numbness to fear. He wasn't immune to the emotion like in the past because his current memories did contain moments of fear. His lightning also didn't act to numb the feeling off.

He rubbed the disk and closely examined it hoping to find a clue.

'It was unleashed yesterday night and was only suppressed with the help of Yin. I wonder what sort of commotion it caused.'

He didn't ask Paul because that might make him suspicious. He already should have been suspicious enough as it happened the day he joined.

After a few minutes, nothing. It seemed to be an inanimate object which would not respond. Only thing which identified it was the eerie feeling he got from it.

He thought of putting the disk away. But as soon as the thought appeared, the disk merged into his body and seemed to disappear leaving the string which it was tied to on his neck.

Bewildered, Adam willed for the disk to reappear. A red circle with the word on it appeared on his palm like a tattoo with a slight burning sensation. It seemed to dissolve out from his skin and gain a corporeal form. The disk appeared on his palm and retracted again when he willed it. He tried it again. After it appeared and retracted for the second time, he tried it with his other hand. It obeyed and appeared on the left hand. He continued his experiments of controlling the disk.

'Weird. It seems to have bonded with me on a molecular level. I can guide it throughout my body. I also have a firm connection with it when it is outside too. This didn't happen before. It doesn't seem to be affecting me negatively. But I still shouldn't experiment too much with it before increasing my cultivation.'

Adam felt the soft fur of the now grown up Yin.

'You have many secrets. How were you able to affect the disk or even protect me during Divum's destruction? Why are you able to transform into that form which resembles a flesh-slime. More importantly, how were you able to enter my body in such a way that even I failed to notice. I must interrogate you thoroughly when you wake up.'

Adam picked up the 'Basic Qi Training Manual' and opened the first page.

It was not in English, but some complicated scribble like language. He then realized, he could not speak or read it. He did not know how to read any language besides the language of Divum and English which he learnt while reading the 'Basic Cultivation Knowledge' book. He continued to look at the only two sentences on the first page. He tried to read them but was unable to learning a short period without any help or tools.

But, as he kept looking at the words, his eyes suddenly glazed over and he instinctively understood the meaning conveyed by them as if something clicked.

"The Dao is boundless, but all come from the same source."

This sentence brought an instinctive reaction from Adam's mind.

Below it was written,

"The Dao has many roads, but all destinations are the same."

This word also conveyed the profoundness of the concept he was understanding instinctively at the moment.

After a while, Adam woke from his stupor having forgotten what concept he had understood. The words, then seemed to imprint a language in his mind. It was actually Chinese. The sentences he read were revealed to be in Chinese. But, the profound feeling he had felt when he first read them was lost. Adam knew about China of the old era. It was a large nation with an extensive and illustrious history. China was also the origin of cultivation. That should be the reason the book was written in Chinese.

Adam read the manual and thus began his cultivation journey.