Chapter 19. Initiation

Now that he was left alone, he went inside his new house. His house also had a small courtyard, it is good to have a private courtyard to practice his martial arts. He entered his house. As Madam Lin had informed, there were two floors. The first one was a guest hall, which he could refurbish into an alchemist room. He went up and found a bedroom and a balcony.

After being satisfied with his living condition, he went back to the entrance of his private courtyard. He took a string and a bell out of his Space Ring. These were some of the things he had taken from Hei's mansion. He set the string and the bell into a contraption so that the bell would ring every time the gate to his courtyard was opened. This way, he could hear if someone came to visit. He had a Black Aetherium Stone, which was considered a luxury even amongst noble. He did not want to be caught unaware while cultivating using it. The Lin clan might forcefully take it for themselves if they knew he had such a precious cultivating material.

Although those of the Martial realm had the ability to detect Aether fluctuation, those of the lower stages had a limited detection range. Even if those with high cultivation had somehow detected it, he had read from the books that the fluctuations caused by these Aetherium Stones were almost similar to the fluctuation caused by a good cultivation art. It was fine if someone thought he had a good cultivation art. The worse the other side could do was ask him to share the art, he could simply say that it was a legacy of the Hei family and he could not share them. They could not forcefully take a cultivation art away as they could with an Aetherium Stone.

After he was done setting the contraption, he started practicing his martial arts, Silent Swift Stab. All his martial skills were in the skilled mastery now. He decided to focus on this dagger art first as it was the strongest killing move he had. He planned to have this art as the first one to reach expert mastery.

While he was practicing, the servants that Madam Lin said would help him rearrange his ground floor into an alchemy room arrived. He instructed them on how he would like the room to be. He also handed them a list of tools and ingredients which he had written down beforehand. Some of the basic tools he had taken from Hei Pho's inventory. Considering Lin clan's wealth, he should be able to get the more expensive tools.

He also had many basic or exotic ingredients from Hei Pho, but he still asked the servants to purchase more as his experimentation would require lots of trial and error.

It took the servants the entire afternoon under his supervision to set up the room. While the ones that went out to buy the things on his list only came back a day after. Not everything on his list was procured, they were either not available in the market or were too expensive. Although Madam Lin had adopted him as her child, he doubted that he was given free rein to purchase whatever he wanted. He was sure that it had been through a scrutinize. This didn't bother him.

*

Amon spent his days in the Lin mansion cultivating at night, practicing his martial arts in the morning, and doing alchemical experimentation based on the 101 Primal Poison tome in the afternoon. He was left alone in his routine until the third day when his bell contraption rang and announced that someone had visited. He came out to find a middle-aged man standing at the door observing his bell contraption.

When the man saw Amon coming out, he said, "that was some fancy mechanism you made. Are you afraid to be caught unaware when someone comes to visit? That usually indicates that you are hiding something."

"Aren't we all hiding something?" Amon replied. "I don't want to be caught unaware while I'm in the middle of masturbation or when I do something indecent to the female servants."

The middle-aged man was slightly taken aback by Amon's retort. "You are one interesting little kid," he said.

"In whose honor do I receive this visitation?" Amon asked.

The middle-aged man smiled. "You have to learn to address me properly if you are to be my adopted son," he said.

"You are Madam Lin's husband?" Amon asked.

"I am one of them," the middle-aged man replied. "One of the most senior if not the most favorite, I must say."

One of them? That hag had more than one husband? Amon was astonished.

"Well, if I have many adopted fathers, I am confused as to what to call you then. Should I call you the most senior father?" Amon asked.

"Hahaha, you are funny," The man laughed. "You can simply call me by my name, Lin Dong. It is weird for me as well if being called father by a kid I just met."

"All right, Mister Lin Dong, to what do I earn the pleasure of your visit?" Amon asked.

Lin Dong did not immediately reply. He gave Amon a meaningful smile. Amon had met many people with questionable characters in his past life to be able to read that smile and know that the guy did not come with good intentions.

"I see you have settled in quite nicely here, how do you find your accommodation?" Lin Dong asked.

"Satisfactory," Amon answered with the same fake smile as his conversation partner.

"Good, good. Now that you have gotten used to your living condition, you should get to know your living associates. It's not right to keep to yourself, such solitary habit breeds bad gossip."

"Aren't we getting to know each other now?"

"Hahaha, as I said, you are funny. All the children in this mansion had a certain kind of initiation. Call it a rite of passage if you like. If you want yourself to be acknowledged as a member of the Lin clan, it is obligatory for you to go through with it."

Amon did not believe one word of it. Yet, he was in someone else's territory. He had to play by their rules even if he didn't like it. One thing he was depending on, was even though these people didn't welcome him and treated him unfavorably, he believed they would not go so far as to endanger his life, out of fear of Madam Lin. From what he had seen, Madam Lin held a rather prestigious position within the clan. That would be the only protection he counted on for the time being, until he grew strong enough that is.

"What kind of rite is that?" Amon asked.

"Come with me and I will show you," Lin Dong said and walked out the door. He looked back when he saw Amon did not follow. "It will give a bad impression to the others if you are unwilling," Lin Dong said.

Amon gave him the fake smile and said, "sure, I'll come."

The two of them walked out of the current courtyard complex and went to another part that looked like a training ground. It was a wide-open courtyard with stone flooring. There were many youths or even young adults training there. The training was done properly, the ones who trained there were divided by age groups and each group had an instructor. Amon was rather impressed by the scale of the Lin clan. It held so many people and they were rather well organized, it was not strange for them to be one of the overlords of the city.

Amon saw that the youngest within these training groups were around eight or ten years of age. He wondered if he would be incorporated into one of the groups that trained here in the future.

Lin Dong brought him to one of the buildings by the side of the training ground. Inside was a large hall, probably another extension of the training ground but with an enclosed setting. Inside, there were five children who looked around eight or ten years old, Four boys and one girl. They should be grouped amongst the youngest children he saw training outside.

The five were chattering when Amon and Lin Dong entered. One of them noticed the two and let the others know. The five then looked at the approaching two with wide grins.

I guess those five will be the instruments to my rite of passage, Amon thought.

Lin Dong came to those five and introduced Amon to them. "This is Lin Mo, the adopted son of Madam Lin."

"I guess desperation can cause someone to do unreasonable things," one of the five said. "Even a straggler like him can enter our clan because of that. Uncle Lin dong, it's all your fault, you should have worked harder to give Madam Lin a child." The five did not bother to pretend, they sneered at Amon as if looking at their new plaything.

Amon simply gave them a bland smile.