Chapter 2: The Divine Guardian Family

The family that Wu Shan was born into was part of the lower-middle rank in the nobilities of Glory City. However, they had been known for a long time as one of the longest-standing clans that have stood in defense of the city since its founding. Details of their origins have been lost to the legends and myths, however, they're known as the guardians of numerous royal families of eld, prior to the Dark Ages.

As for Wu Shan's specific family, the Wu family line, they were the main family of the whole Divine Guardian Family. His father, the current head of the Wu family, was a 2-Star Black Gold Rank Demon Spiritualist, while his mother, Wu Liangxue, was a 1-Star Gold Rank Demon Spiritualist. Both of his parents were considered to be the strongest of the entire Family, and top geniuses at that. Hence, with Wu Shan being born to such parents, the rest of the Family have high hopes for him to succeed them.

While the Divine Guardian Family were indeed powerful, however, far too many in the clan were significantly lower than them. On average, the subsidiary families in the clan had a patriarch who're at the peak of Silver Rank, but no one were above 1-Star Gold Rank. Due to that, their stature never really risen much since the start of Glory City. Even their current stature was thanks to their Patriarch's capabilities.

The territory under their management was sufficiently large enough to rival at least several small noble families in the city, though it's still smaller than the middle-ranked nobles. As for the division of the territories between the members of the Family, it's basically divided into four sections: Agriculture (Focuses mainly on normal vegetables and fruits), Farm (Mainly on meat, poultry and the such), Cultivation (For cultivating herbs and other ingredients for cultivation), and Refinery (Includes Mining and Forging of ores & other minerals). All these four sections surround the main compound of the Divine Guardian Family, with the sections having their own housing, and the main compound housing the core family and the members of the subsidiary families.

As for their influence, regardless of their current or past stature in the city, were quite deeply ingrained in the city. While their contributions weren't significant enough for them to get a raise in their overall stature, it was enough to gain the respect of the City Lord and the Three Major Families. On occasions, they would get yearly gifts and honors to attend much of the events in the city that were hosted by those people. However, in regards of the political fights and the such of the city, the family's stance were that of neutral, hence the somewhat obvious "fight" between the current ruling family of the city, the Snow Wind family, and one of the Three Major Families, The Sacred family, didn't really matter much to them.

In regards of their income and financials, they have enough to support the family, but weren't able to get anything that's too expensive. Hence, prioritization towards those with high potential was unavoidable, like a lot of the average noble families. Those with said potential were given the highest in terms of pills and other cultivation-raising items, with spirit gears being for those who can prove that they can be responsible with themselves and not being stupid about themselves. However, those with lower potential were also taken care of, at the very least, they could reach Silver Rank by the time they're adults, whether it be as a Demon Spiritualist, or as a Fighter. Any more than that, however, those members must find a way to get better things without much financial support from the Family, for things like higher-grade pills or spirit gears for their rank.

Wu Shan's position in the family is the heir of the Patriarch, and the closest to being the next one. Aside from what's explained previously, his talent was also equally enviable. His Soul Realm was that of Cyan, though his attribute was neutral, or in other words, attribute-less. That being said, his Soul Realm was more than enough to make up for that upset in attribute. This was the results from a test done by his parents when he was several months old. By that time, while he could somewhat speak, it was still far from what he needed. Hence, he could only do inner monologues for the time being.

In the mean time, he then started to listen more towards the conversations that his father has with any of the guests (or anyone really) that's related to the happenings in Glory City at the time. He was surprised to find out that he was of the same age, or slightly older by a few months at least, from either Huyan Lanruo or Chen Linjian. This puts him at least 3-4 years older than Nie Li. Thus, he began to adjust his plan, which was to act from the shadows in support of the man, given that he'll meet him first after his supposed "reincarnation" back in time to the current period. Wu Shan would focus organizing his memories, thoughts and any knowledge that was available inside what he dubs as the "Library of Existence".

The ability that he asked for, the "Library of Existence", contained every ounce of knowledge that he had accumulated in his past life, and also access to other information of both Earth's and the new world's. However, for this world's information that wasn't mentioned in either the manhua or the novel, he'd at least need to have encountered someone who knows of it, or any other sources for such information (like tomes or books or the such), to immediately gain insight into it. As for the difference in time of the knowledge's existence, it didn't matter much.

The current problem with the ability, is that the knowledge that came directly from his personal knowledge was a mess, so he spent most of the time organizing everything back in order. Thankfully, the deity beings that gave him this ability also had the foresight to make it like he's interacting with his PC from Earth, not that it made it easier. It only made him faster in organizing, but it still took enough time from him to not have enough for learning any new knowledge from the conversations he had heard.

As for his third ability, the one where he could create and/or manipulate objects like using a software akin to that of Photoshop, 3DSMax or Blender, he would need to spend his Soul Power should he want to save the design and materialize it into the real world. Granted, more advanced functions would require him to be at higher ranks (Silver, Gold or the such), and would need more Soul Power to operate. However, he could only create and/or manipulate non-living objects. At most, he could only create something akin to a cyborg, but to give it intelligence, he'd need to create the program first.

What about the second one, you ask? The one where he could adjust his body and such, similar to that of Jewelry Bonnie from One Piece? He had second thoughts about using it now, since he's not yet in a position where he could leave without raising alarms for the people in the compound. Hence, he decided to not use it until he's at least Nie Li's age during the start of the main storyline. This didn't mean that he hasn't tested it. While he managed to transform into an adult and a teenager, his speech skill was less than what he'd need, not even mentioning his writing skills. It would take him at least another three to five years before he could do so proper.

And for that, he began learning slowly of the life-skills needed in this world, while simultaneously trying to assess his own Soul Sea form and attribute, so that he can find the right cultivation technique for himself, given that he could screw himself badly if it was the wrong one. This would continue until he was 5 years old, where he had started learning on how to write and read (he already learned how to walk at three years old).

By then, his parents would introduce him to some of the nobles that would come visit them every once in a while, including the City Lord and the Three Major Families. He would meet Chen Linjian and Huyan Lanruo, who were close to his age at the time, often accompanying their parents during their visits or during events hosted by the nobles in Glory City. He never really saw Ye Han, though he had heard of his name being mentioned by the City Lord when he (City Lord) was talking with his (Wu Shan's) father. He also had heard of Ye Ziyun, though he would never have a proper interaction with her until at least eight years later.