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  Ancient Fragment #26

  The strings played softly.

  A meteor shower bombarded the city.

  Explosions rang out.

  Buildings caught fire, and charred corpses lay in the streets.

  The woman stood up.

  Blood-red clothes moved softly in the wind.

  -

  Long Tianyu lay sprawled on the thin mattress for hours. The woven blanket was laid beside him as he snored deeply. He was exhausted. He had killed a 6th stage Elementary Qi Realm beast, almost died alongside Hua Qingqing, and somehow caused a massive fight between wolves and a spider. This small adventure had been full of danger. In light of it, he had scratched the surface of the Blood Slaughtering Sword Technique, made a new friend, and gained some treasures that would be useful in the future.

  Long Tianyu's eyelids trembled as one of his snores had just been a little too loud. He rolled to the side and grabbed the woven blanket.

  ''Old Man Zhang, leave me alone! I'll pay the rent another day!''

  Eventually his eyelids trembled and he realized he wasn't in Moondragon City, in his old house. He was in Chisong Village, in a guest room of the Jin family.

  He looked up at the beams on the roof. From the outside came the soft sound of rain tapping on the wooden panels.

  The blanket was rough, coarse but it was comforting in its own way. After all he had grown up in a familiar setting like Jin Lian.

  ''I wonder what has happened to my house now…'' He remembered the old chair, he usually sat there in the darkness when he felt depressed over his situation. ''Maybe that old fart Hua Dazhi destroyed it in rage.''

  ''Maybe Old Man Zhang had heard the rumors by now and sold it off to someone else. Maybe he would be happy to get the rent in time.'' His lips turned up into a bittersweet smile at the thought. The old man had been pestering him a lot, but was still kind to let him rent the house despite being late every time with the rent.

  His life in Moondragon City had been alright. He had been doing small miscellaneous work, cleaning or helping in the kitchen of a nearby restaurant. In his free time he kept trying to cultivate, but alas it was useless.

  Long Tianyu stopped reflecting on his past and instead focused on recent events. It had been a short time since they fell into The Godslaying Abyss, their life had changed completely.

  He thought back to his exhaustion after fighting the Twin Red Viper, a mistake. The terrifying man that almost killed them, and to the Nether-Soul Spider.

  Despite all the troubles in such a short time, he felt energized, something he hadn't felt since he was young. They would soon leave and go back to Moondragon City and then towards the sects. He would also spend this time to understand more about cultivation.

  ''Since leaving I haven't really cultivated...'' He murmured and sat up. He reached for the table where his ordinary pouch lay, he had been too poor to buy a storage pouch for himself.

  He opened it and brought out a low-grade spirit stone and the Scarlet Soul Orchid that he put on the nearby table. He looked down onto the spirit stone... his shoulders tensed. He had tried thousands of times to gather the qi inside, always failing. Old memories surfaced, how he had trembled in sadness and screamed in despair.

  He closed his eyes and focused on gathering the qi into his spiritual core. Softly he tried it, his qi gently touched the spirit stone. His eyes shot open and he shouted happily.

  Crack

  His eyes widened as the low-grade spirit stone disintegrated into small crystal shards in his hand.

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  The Divine Tempering of the Three Origins had refined the qi inside at an extremely terrifying speed, basically imploding the crystal by the sheer force from Long Tianyu gathering the qi.

  Long Tianyu brought up another low-grade spirit stone and tried again.

  Crack

  Another.

  Crack

  Eventually all of them cracked as the qi roared within Long Tianyu. His bloodline had strengthened his body to a terrifying degree, helping him to handle the qi within him. He was still ways away from the 2nd stage of Elementary Qi, but it was a step forward nonetheless.

  ''I wonder what Mid-Grade Spirit Stones would be like..'' His eyes lit up, he had heard legends of cultivators finding a Mid-Grade Spirit Vein, they would turn rich in an instant, or dead if the wrong person found the news about it.

  He knew that the Low-Grade Spirit Stones were for Qi Cultivators, Mid-Grade for Core cultivators and High-Grade for the legendary Life and Death cultivators... I wonder if I will ever meet one of those strong men.. He didn't know the limit but had a feeling that cultivation continued far beyond that.

  He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thought to rush up in cultivation. Devouring High-Graded Spirit Stones to become the strongest in the Kingdom.

  He smirked.

  It won't be that easy. Thinking about that won't do anything good. I'm only starting, there's a long road ahead for me. I need to take every step carefully.

  He thought about his goal with cultivation. Before, it had just been natural that he wanted to be strong, like something inside him drove him forward. But there was no clear goal with his cultivation. Was it to rule a kingdom? To become a general? An old master in a sect? To be the strongest in the world? Long Tianyu didn't know.

  What is important to me now?

  His thoughts drifted to his family in Xincheng Village, to keeping them safe. To being the Eldest Brother his brothers and sisters in the distant sects could rely on. To his revenge.

  He smiled.

  Qingqing… of course. With her, the road ahead felt… right.

  As the thought settled, Long Tianyu grew dazed. The energy of heaven and earth surged within the room, forming a small storm around him as it rushed into his soul. The blanket was flung against the nearby table, his hair fluttering wildly.

  His soul trembled, then changed, becoming more refined and more resilient.

  After a few breaths, the storm slowed, then dissipated entirely.

  The guestroom fell silent.

  Then a burst of laughter rang out.

  “Hahaha! 2nd stage of Elementary Soul!”

  Long Tianyu exhaled slowly. His soul felt stronger from understanding himself a little better.

  Calming his heart, he drew another steady breath and once more focused on gathering the qi of heaven and earth into his spiritual core.

  -

  In the other guestroom lay Hua Qingqing. Her soul had completely healed now. She also contemplated their future. She had left everything behind. It felt both exciting and terrifying. The unknown. A new start.

  Soon she and Long Tianyu would visit the Hua Clan and make sure her father was okay. If not… her eyes sharpened.

  She was now a Qi Infusion Realm cultivator, on pair with her clan master now. The man that had stood tall and mighty before was just another pebble on the road now.

  Her thoughts drifted to her mother's zither, The Eternal Frost Plum Zither. It was a Low-Graded Mortal Weapon. She hadn't played it for many years, even now it was still inside her storage pouch.

  The soul anchor from Azurythax trembled slightly, unbeknownst to her.

  ''And... above Mortal Weapons are Earth and Heavenly Weapons...They are also subgraded into low.. mid and high tiers..'' She whispered softly her eyes turning dull. ''Pills, treasures, martial arts techniques, cultivation scriptures, talismans are also divided in such a way...''

  She shook her head, her dull eyes turning back to life. She shuddered as she realized what happened.

  Hua Qingqing grit her teeth ''Damned bastard....'' A rare anger revealed itself in Hua Qingqing's tone as she whispered to herself.

  She had been taken control off. Rage boiled inside her, the same feeling she had when her clan had tried to control and sell her off to the Imperial Clan.

  She took a deep breath trying to calm herself down. She decided that she would never allow anyone to control her. She wanted to control her own fate and what she wanted to do. With that she needed strength, far beyond anyone else.

  She touched her storage pouch slightly and brought out The Eternal Frost Plum Zither.

  Her finger slightly trembled as she touched the strings. It was beautiful, white like snow with a plum blossom pattern. She hadn't played it for many years.

  The Celestial Heaven’s Sound Scripture included many types of music, of them was called Strings of Calming Heart.

  Like in a trance she plucked one string, two strings and then the song came effortlessly.

  The Soul-Reaping Melody Bloodline moved silently within her veins, amplifying her soul power into the zither.

  In the living room Jin Haotian trembled to the sound. It calmed his nerves, something that had been on edge ever since that day the demonic beast attacked their village. His shoulders slowly relaxed downwards. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and leaned back on the chair, with a smile on his face.

  Jin Ruyan and Jin Xue'er found him asleep after coming home. They looked at him happily, and Jin Ruyan covered him with a blanket.

  -

  End of chapter 26 - Understanding of Self