Floating Sphere

The reason most households would die out in the olden days was because times were hard back then. To the people around, it was a good opportunity to strike it rich. Hence, all the neighbors of a household which was dying out would often kick them down even lower, and tear at whatever remaining fortunes they had left.

Many people despised clans and all their members. But without a clan’s protection, once a tragedy happened to a family without a clan, things would escalate, which would eventually cause the entire family to be wiped out. This happened enough times in Snail Village. For example when a husband died, leaving his widow with children, the village chief would sell his wife to be a slave, and split his assets between his own clan. He would kill off the dead man’s pigs and everyone on within the village would have a share of the meat. His children would be split and sent to different households to be treated as child slaves, with little food. Most of them would die eventually.

Although things like these still do happen in a clan, the outcome was much better. At least the widow will still receive most of his lands and assets. However, this Fu household was clearly a lone household here. Hence, all the neighbouring households and families understood that this household would soon die out, and they would be able to lay their hands on their remaining assets.

Pei Zi Yun never for once thought that these villagers were simple and honest. That was just a rumor circulated by the government officials. In fact, the poorer they were, the more vicious and merciless they behaved. They won’t hesitate to kick a poor and dying house down even further. The reason for that was simple, they wanted to survive, even if it meant someone else was suffering.

Hearing these words, Fu Yu, the young girl, shivered. She was a smart girl and knew what was happening. Although she refused to think about this in the past, she felt like she was at the crossroads at this point. She bit her lips, her face turned pale and she fell to her knees, "Young Master, I’m willing to sell my body to you and become your servant and slave. But please save my brother, and ensure that he grows up big and strong."

"Please get up. I don’t need you to become my slave or servant." Pei Zi Yun replied, "I’m a forthright person, and won’t speak lies or deception. Your jade pendant is good, I want it for myself."

"I will treat your brother and ensure that he recovers. But you mustn't live here any longer."

"If you continue staying here, you will both die sooner or later due to such poor conditions. I have suspicions concerning the circumstances of your brother’s fall in the water, I doubt it was an accident."

"Go to Slow River County’s Snail Village. I can look after you both from there. I will get you a room to live in and 10 mu of land as well. You can look after your brother without worries over there."

Hearing these words, the young girl fell to her knees once more without hesitation, "Yes, Young Master."

"First things first, your brother’s sickness must be treated!" Pei Zi Yun instantly felt the resistance within the jade pendant disappear, and knew that she truly agreed to give the jade pendant to him.

That how it was with Legacies. The owner had to truly give it away before he could be the true owner and absorb it. Of course, he could kill for it as well. But if he could get it fairly, why would he kill for it?

After they finished speaking, they led the doctor to boil his herbs. He had brought along with him the required herbs. They got busy for some time while preparing the medication for the young boy. After they fed it to him, he fell asleep within moments, looking much better. However, he was still burning up with a fever, and his face was flushed red. His breathing was ragged as well.

"Wait for a couple of days, when your brother feels better, you should begin your journey." Pei Zi Yun clutched onto the jade pendant as he spoke.

A dark road

A long row of steps could be seen just outside a cave. The steps were formed naturally, but had been altered and enhanced. The strangest thing about the steps was that the rock had dots on it. Elder Xu took the Fate Lanterns and placed them on the steps as he laughed out loudly, "This Free Cloud Sect is too weak. They actually allowed us to take the Fate Lantern away from them just like that."

Hearing these words, an entire group of Elders burst out into laughter, "These lanterns real use is to guide the spirits of their owners. However, they can also be used to harm the owner. Although, using spells to harm the owners directly would be more effective, the lanterns aren’t needed. The only use we have for it at the moment is to find someone missing, and eliminate him."

"Although, even in our own sect, the security around our own Fate Lantern’s aren’t very rigid."

"It’s just that this Pei Zi Yun’s martial arts skills are too deadly. Plus he has some sort of sacred treasure on him. We were unable to locate him for so long, it almost feels like he is being concealed and protected by a spell."

"And we must get rid of this person to prevent further changes to the overall destinies. That’s why we require the Fate Lantern, to locate and kill him."

"Besides, with regards to fighting wars between sects, how can these newly formed sects compete with such a reputable and old sect like ours?"

"That’s right, the core foundation of cultivation was to attain Earth Immortal status and dwell within Paradise. Even if our Elders must be the ones to guard over our Fate Lanterns, so be it. How can we let anyone steal them so easily?"

"Elder Xu, such a young and new sect only has members in the hundreds. Their Elders are few and important and have to do other bigger things. How can they afford to assign an Elder just to guard the Fate Lanterns?"

"Our Dark Altar Sect is such a renowned and old sect, with so many more disciples. Hence we can afford to let an Elder guard over the lanterns. That’s normal for us."

"But this Free Cloud Sect was allowed to survive for too long. It’s about time they’re wiped out anyway." This Elder Xu laughed as he spoke.

"Let’s cut the pointless talk. This person seems to be unafraid of Imperial Qi. There must be some secret behind it. Let’s use our Dao arts to vanquish him. Then maybe we can find the reason for his lack of fear." A Daoist spoke out.

The few of them circled the lanterns. With a loud buzz, a white ray of light appeared an entered the Fate Lanterns as it swirled within.

Before long, the white light seemed to get dimmer, causing Elder Xu to exclaim in astonishment, "That’s strange. Even after stealing the Fate Lanterns, we’re unable to find out his current location. This person must really have a sort of special treasure concealing his location."

Hearing these words, the Senior Elder retrieved a map of the area and looked at the map. He then drew a circle around a particular area, "Although we were unable to get his precise location, we can know where he roughly is. It’s right here. It must be that he’s coming for us."

"Besides, everyone. All of you always conceal your most powerful spells. This is the time for us to use them. I don’t believe that he can defend himself against us."

"Yes!" The few of them responded.

Tall Drums County

The wind was blowing across the boat. Pei Zi Yun was standing on the deck speaking to Fu Yu. At that time, his Stars Transposition power felt something move, causing Pei Zi Yun to feel dizzy. In that split second, everything turned silent. Pei Zi Yun then regained his senses. Fu Yu was looking much better and when she saw Pei Zi Yun freeze she asked, "Young master, what’s wrong?"

"It’s nothing. I was just thinking, now that we’re here in Tall Drums County, it means that we’re actually close to Dong An Prefecture. Slow River County is within Dong An Prefecture."

"Later on, I will get off the boat to take a look. The both of you should stay on the boat." He then gave several instructions to Fu Yu. When he saw that she went down in the cabin, his face fell. Who is spying on him and tried to locate him?

The Stars Transposition could reduce the amount of backlash and could also minimize the effects of other daoist spying on him. This was very effective against the Imperial Qi and other forms of Dao arts as well. The feeling was so strong, it must be that a great force was trying to spy on him.

Before long, Pei Zi Yun sighed and smiled but looked unsettled, ’The world moves regardless of whether you like it or not!’

At this point the boat docked and someone shouted out, "We’ve arrived at the pier. Everyone please take your luggages and disembark."

Pei Zi Yun took Fu Yu and her brother off the boat and searched for an inn down by the pier. The minute the arrived at the nearest inn, a serving staff welcomed them, "Young master, would you like to have a meal or rent a room?"

Pei Zi Yun considered this question for some time and tilted his head to get a better look. He noticed that there were tens of rooms around. Although they exactly new, it was clean. He then replied, "Get me a big room and two smaller adjoining rooms. I wish to stay here. Get me some wine and meat too."

The serving staff looked at the few people before him. He then noticed that Pei Zi Yun had a sort of fierceness to him. The girl behind him had a long face, and thin brows. The young boy together with them appeared somewhat tired, and coughed from time to time.

The serving staff then replied, "Please wait, young master."

Pei Zi Yun had some thoughts but kept it to himself. He then placed down five taels of silver as the boss of the inn took the serving staff to the back to prepare. They boiled a large tub of water for their guests and prepared rooms and food. At this point he lay on the bed and tapped on the screen in front of him. A small Plum Blossom appeared before his eyes as it started increasing in speed. Soon, it became an information interface which floated just above his eyes. Numerous words formed on the interface.

"Mission : Help the Crown Prince launch an offense against King Lu. Influence a talented individual named Ren Wei to leave King Lu’s service.(Completed)"

"Divine Powers : Stars Transposition Level 2 (98.5% Completed)

Pei Zi Yun then gave a relaxed smile, ‘Indeed, my prestige level has increased my divine powers rapidly. It’s only July now, and summer is here. The capital city is flourishing and the Crown Prince’s status looks more secure day by day. On the opposite, King Lu’s position seems to be weakening and my mission is completed. It’s rather timely that I received this Dao art within the Legacy as well.’

‘Besides, now that Chess Spirit has been distributed widely and was a main reason my prestige increased tremendously. Over the past few days the Stars Transposition has improved by leaps and bounds.‘

Pei Zi Yun tapped onto the completed mission as a transparent Plum Blossom became visible over his forehead for several seconds before fading out, ‘Since I’m now able to weaken the effects of absorbing Legacies, I'm going to test it!’

He placed his head down on the pillow after putting the Legacy beneath. Just like the previous few times, he fell asleep almost instantly.

He felt like everything was dense and deep.

When Pei Zi Yun awoke, the room was pitch dark. He then felt an overwhelming feeling of comfort sweep across his entire body.

It was extremely hard to describe the feeling. It was as if his body had just been cleansed of the layer of filth and grime and was now clean and smooth to the touch, as if he was soaking in warm water.

At this point however, Pei Zi Yun felt like something wasn't right and closed his eyes to concentrate. He could then see a floating sphere before him. The sphere had a golden tinge but contained white energy swirling within.

Pei Zi Yun had a rough idea of what it was. He then concentrated on thinking about his sword skills and martial arts skills. The energy within the sphere started swirling and roiling, but there were no changes to it.

"I'll try again." Pei Zi Yun then concentrated all his thoughts on the Dao arts. He didn't know why this happened but the white energy within the sphere started spilling out and entering his forehead. In an instant, he felt a certain clarity overtake him and a new level of understanding descended upon him.

"Dao Techniques : 33 Variations, Advanced (0.01%)

Although the improvement was minor, and the white energy within the sphere seemed to have been reduced, Pei Zi Yun inhaled a breath a cold air. He finally understood. In the past, he used to absorb the Legacies directly which was why there were always huge side effects and consequences. But now, the energy within the Legacies had become a sort of stored up experience which I can just learn from instead of absorbing.

‘All I have to do is to ponder over the experience in order to ‘use’ it and improve. Of course, I would only reach the level of understanding if the Dao arts acquired was of the same category.’

‘With this, I can be sure that my Dao arts will continue improving with time. It’s no wonder Xie Cheng Dong and the original owner could improve with such frightening speeds, and could eventually turn his flesh into that of a saint. That was really impressive.’

‘But it looks like I must not waste the energy.’

‘Divine powers are created when the boundaries of Dao arts have been pushed to the maximum..’

‘Since the amount of energy I can acquire from the Legacy is limited, I have to use it wisely. If I were to use it recklessly, I wouldn’t be able to go far.’

‘According to this thinking, I should spend the energy on a suitable divine power and improve it. I shouldn’t spend it on all the divine powers.’

‘If I were to pick all the divine powers, that would make me a jack of all trades, which would be useless.’ Just as he was thinking about this, he felt dizzy once more and his chest tightened.

‘Was I wasting energy? No, that’s not it. That was the movement of the Stars Transposition. Someone used a spell to try and locate me.’ Pei Zi Yun thought, ‘And it seems like he’s close?’

Pei Zi Yun stood up and picked up the sword beside his bed and placed an ingot of silver beside his bed. He thought for several moments before writing a letter, instructing Fu Yu to stay here until he returned for them. This silver could ensure that they could live comfortably for half a month. When he finished, he leapt out of the window.

He landed on the ground, killing intent radiated from between his eyebrows.