Chapter 4

This, this statement ignited a fire inside of Ye Xuan. The boy who usually had a calm face devoid of most emotions, had an extremely eager expression.

He had asked his father about how his mother was multiple times. Earlier he asked his aunt how their relationship with his mom was. But even after that he just realized that there was a whole different side of his mother that he didn't even know about.

"Tell me more" said Ye Xuan, his politeness and social anxiety jumping out of the window. For the first time in a while he was acting his age.

Li Shizhen still with the aloof expression on his face looked at Ye Xuan. "Li Xiuying, was one of the most prominent talents of her generation, reaching the Golden Core at the extremely young age of 113."

"Wait, what? 113 years old?" Ye Xuan gradually started to understand more and more that there was much of what he didn't know of his mother.

"How old did you think she was" said Li Xiu in a teasing tone now standing right behind Ye Xuan.

Clearly she liked the fact that Ye Xuan was this surprised. Ye Xuan turned around still flabbergasted.

"Quite the face you got there, you feeling alright?" Li Xiu said starting to chuckle mid sentence.

Even after the teasing comment from Li Xiu, Ye Xuan had yet to be embarrassed.

"Mother was an Immortal at the Golden core realm? At the age 113 at that....and that's considered young" his mind rumbled as he thought.

"Cultivation is a long journey, even most geniuses reach Golden core only after 200 years of cultivation. Xiuying was just a monster" Li Xiu grinned.

"When can I start cultivating?" He said eagerly.

"People usually start at their 14th birthday, when the spiritual root completely develops" said Li Xiu while bringing out something again from thin air.

"You're already 14 years old, so you're at the prime age to start cultivating" she said with a malicious smirk on her face.

"Somehow I don't like the look on your fa-" he was tapped by the object that Li Xiu was holding.

"What's this? I feel pieces of knowledge fragments gushing inside my head. It fucking hurts" A pained expression appeared on his face.

"The pain is slowly dissipating, it wasn't that bad" as soon as he thought that he fell to the ground.

"Ah it's always fun to do that" Li Xiu stood there with a satisfied smile.

"Well we should take him inside now" Li Shizhen spoke looking like he had no complaints.

After all they both experienced the same thing when they first used a jade slip.

....

"Ugh, it's so bright" he said while trying to get his used to the light.

"Rise and shine sleepyhead" Li Xiu said with a smirk.

"She's definitely thinking about what she did last night, evil woman" Ye Xuan spoke in his mind.

"A warning would have been nice, you know?" Ye Xuan said in a salty manner.

"Well, where's the fun in the that? You always gotta add a sprinkle of surprise" she said chuckling.

"Can't she even try to hide her intentions?" Ye Xuan thought as he got up.

"But last night, the information that entered my mind, it feels like I've known about it my whole life. How did you do that?" He asked curiously to his aunt.

"I used a jade slip of course" she said while showing the item she used last night.

"We use it to store information that can be instantly transferred at once to a person's mind" Li Xiu explained as she flipped the jade slip in her hand.

"It completely dissolves in your mind making it feel like a part of your memories"

"Now, what are you waiting for? Get on" she said as she floated up on the back of a fluffy beast.

"What in the world is that? Where did it even come from?" He said as he finally looked around.

"And how did I get on a mountain?" Li Shizhen was also nowhere to be found but Ye Xuan didn't really care.

Ye Xuan finally noticed that he was on a mountain range and was probably laying on the ground until now, it was rocky mountain and a few feet Infront of him was a cliff.

Li Xiu just smiled sitting on the top of the beast. "Are you planning on spending the whole day asking questions? Come up, quickly"

"Ha ha, real funny" he stood there helplessly.

"I know, you don't have to tell me" she said while squealing.

"She has a really weird sense of humor" Ye Xuan thought as he stared at his mocking aunt.

"Ok, let's actually go now" she said as she extended her arm towards Ye Xuan.

"Here I am, floating once again. How did my life get here? Speaking of floating, where did Li Shizhen go?" He thought as he was pulled up to the back of the fluffy beast behind Li Xiu.

"We're ready to take off, grab on tight, it's gonna be a bumpy ride" Li Xiu commanded the beast to take off.

"Eh? Grab on to what?" Ye Xuan asked as he grabbed on to the fur of the beast.

The beast took off in a gentle manner, flying smoothly looking magnificent.

"What happened to the bumpy ride?" Ye Xuan stared at Li Xiu who was just smiling.

Ye Xuan sighed "I don't get what she's thinking at all."

...

"Last night, the series of information that was forced into my mind, The Qi refining manual"

"Should I try it out now? I'm supposed to feel the invisible energy before I even try to gather it inside my body"

"Let's just do it, she did say I already fullfil the necessary quotas to start cultivating"

"I'm supposed to sit in the lotus position and close my eyes to meditate to calm my mind first" he sat on the beast in the lotus position while flying.

"As expected, I don't feel like falling no matter how it flies or how I sit, it's as if I'm stuck too it"

He closed his eyes after confirming his suspicions he felt on the two hours of journey.

"Close your eyes and face the darkness. See the world with your mind. Every pore of the body will feel the energy and through the mind shall you identify"

Ye Xuan closed his eyes and faced the darkness, everything was dark after he closed his eyes.

"How am I supposed to see with my mind?" He thought.

"Huh? The pendant, it's reacting again" the pendant radiated a cold air that instantly calmed down Ye Xuan to an ethereal degree.

"..." Ye Xuan felt nothing, he said nothing, he was completely conscious but didn't have any thoughts.

"I can see something" he thought excitedly but just when he lost his calm, it was back to darkness.

"For a brief moment I saw specks of different colored light illuminating the initial darkness I faced by closing my eyes." He muttered to himself.

Li Xiu perked her ears after hearing that. "Did you try to feel the qi according to the manual?"

"Yes, I felt it for a brief moment but it vanished just as soon as it came" Ye Xuan said in a remorseful manner.

"It took me a whole day to feel qi and that's considered quite fast." Li Xiu paused for a moment after saying this.

"We'll talk more about this later, but for now we're going to talk to the elders."

Ye Xuan was confused, which elder were they going to talk to? They were flying in the sky and no one's to be seen.

Suddenly the 30 foot or more furry flying beast that looked like a giant bison landed in front of a mountain.

"Down we go" Li Xiu said after kicking Ye Xuan down from the beast.

"Agh, what the hell" Ye Xuan screamed in fear and tried to brace for the fall. But just a rew inches off the ground, he stopped midair

"Fufufu" Li Xiu laughed and dropped Ye Xuan face first on the ground.

"Perhaps having a nephew isn't all that bad" Li Xiu said to herself as she floated down.

"Come on, let's walk" Li Xiu said heading forward.

"Ouch" Ye Xuan exclaimed holding his nose. "This is the second time my poor nose had to suffer thanks to her" Ye Xuan thought as he got up and started dusting himself while following Li Xiu.

The scenery in front of Ye Xuan was a forest like mountain, filled to the brim with greenery.

"When will this all be over?" He took another step and the scenery in front of him changed.

Now he found himself in front of a city that seemed a bit out of date, he stared at the giant structures and dwellings that were made out of stone instead of concrete.

Almost all the buildings had the original grey color of the stone. While some of them looked more extravagant and were mostly white or crimson red.

The building material almost looked like marble instead of stones, but it was in fact made out of stones.

He looked in front of him to see that his aunt was still there, walking happily unfazed by all of this.

"Guess it's supposed to be normal then, let's just follow her and not be bothered it too much" he thought as he followed Li Xiu closer.

He returned to his calm self, being vigilant. Ye Xuan was a curious teenager who seeked knowledge but he was also afraid of the unknown.

.....

"We are here, be respectful in front of the elders and don't speak unless unless you're told to" Li Xiu said having a rare serious expression.

"Even 5 minutes ago, she was her usual self on the way here." Ye Xuan thought to himself.

The already vigilant Ye Xuan got tense and quietly followed Li Xiu like usual.

Li Xiu stood Infront of the white door that had exquisite red patterns on it.

"Junior Li Xiu has returned seeks an attendance with the elders" Li Xiu said cupping her fists and slightly bowing her head.

"Come in" A benevolent voice of a man spoke from the inside.

"Greetings to the elders" Li Xiu cupped her fists again and said after going inside with Ye Xuan.

".." Ye Xuan stood there silently behind Li Xiu also cupping his fists.

There were 5 elderly men and 3 women sitting there, two of the women looked elderly while one of them looked like she was 20 but Ye Xuan feared it was definitely not the case.

"Who's that boy?" One of the elderly looking woman asked.

"Elder Ning, he's Ye Xuan, he is my nephew" Li Xiu said introducing Ye Xuan to everyone.

One of the men twitched after hearing that. He immediately looked at Ye Xuan "Nephew?"

"He's Xiuying's child, Grandfather." Li Xiu said to that man who bore a complicated expression on his face.

"My aunt's grandfather? That means.." Ye Xuan still stood there silently behind Li Xiu.

He slightly glanced at that man that Li Xiu was talking to "He looks like he's in his 50s, how is he my great grandfather?" Ye Xuan thought to himself.

He also noticed a big scar that started on his cheeks and ended all the way down to his chin

"Where is Xiuying?" The old man asked hesitantly as if he didn't want the answers.

Li Xiu stood there silently for a moment and looked at Ye Xuan.

Ye Xuan felt a strange pressure from this atmosphere. "My mother died while giving birth to me" Ye Xuan said bitterly after a pause.

"Bullshit" A loud voice rang out of another old man. "How can a mighty cultivator who was in the later stages of golden core die during giving birth?"

"What does her being a golden core have to do with her death?" Ye Xuan asked in reply.

"Once again I threw my caution out for answers, I was told mother died while giving birth to me. I had to live with that truth for my entire life"

"This man, what does he mean? I need answers"

"I need to know"