Chapter 5

“What you say indeed makes sense. Well, we’ll do it as you say. After we’ve dealt with the present disaster, I will leave the Bai Clan with you.” With a flash of his eyes, Gu Lao San firmed his resolve.

“Haha, that’s the spirit. You and I both have known each other for so many years, if I had no confidence, how am I supposed to complete the task? You go ahead and deal with the body of the ‘young master’, but remember to leave behind the clothes and equipment; I’ll go ahead and save this kid. By the looks of things if I don’t hurry up, he’s really going to kick the bucket and this is going to cost me a lot of Yuan Qi.” Guan Lao Da patted Gu Lao San’s shoulder with a smile.

Gu Lao San nodded, and strided towards the pit.

Guan Lao Da dealt with the kid’s clothes with a few swift motions, immediately exposing the vicious wounds all over his body, along with numerous other scars.

Even for someone who had seen as many things as Guan Lao Da, he couldn’t help but gasp in shock, yet his hands unhesitatingly flew towards the youth’s wounds and started to pat the area around them, at first sporadically, then furiously increased his intensity until the beatings sounded like the firing of firecrackers.

The youth’s body turned bright red and his body that used to be swollen because of the water reverted back to normal.

All of a sudden Guan Lao Da stopped his actions midway and reached into his robes, pulling out a yellow wooden case.

Patting the box gently with a few fingers, the lid popped open automatically with a “pong”, revealing several extremely fine-tipped silver needles of varying sizes

With just two fingers, he reached into the case, and with just a mere touch, he pulled out a single silver needle with a well practiced motion.

With an intense expression, Guan Lao Da moved his arm and it instantly became a blur as he swiftly jabbed several points on the youth’s body.

Liu Ming had no idea when he came out of the river, but found that his head felt unbearably painful, like it was being split open, while every inch of his body felt unnaturally burning hot. However, while he wasn’t paying attention, a cooling sensation had swept across his entire body, bringing him such relief that he nearly cried out loud. At the same time, he felt an immense wave of sleepiness descend upon him and unknowingly fell into a deep sleep.

As he slept like a baby, numerous scenes flashed through his consciousness one after another, one of which depicted the shadows of a middle-aged couple whose faces were unclear, yet there were a bunch of weird demonic faces as well, surrounding him and incessantly speaking to him in a language he couldn’t understand

The couple gave him a sense of familiarity.

The youth tried his best to hear clearly what was being said, but it was clearly an impossible task given the other disturbances around him; in his desperation he tried to push the demons away, but found himself without an ounce of strength. His heart became heavy as his emotions boiled.

He had no idea how long he remained in that state but after a while, Liu Ming gradually woke up as he felt a ball of warmth flowing through and around his body.

The moment he opened his eyes, he found himself face to face with a square-faced middle-aged man.

The man, upon seeing Liu Ming awaken, immediately barked at him.

“Don’t think of anything, hurry up and train. If you don’t, all the effort from earlier will be wasted.”

Liu Ming felt a chill run through his body as he heard this and without thinking too much, mentally brought out a familiar breathing technique, and begin to direct this warm flow to different parts of his body.

It was at this moment that Guan Lao Da released the breath he was holding and withdrew the hand he’d placed on the kid’s chest, stood up, and observed Liu Ming’s actions with a detached gaze.

After a while, the youth’s pale pallor finally gained some color, and opened his eyes looking at Guan Lao Da.

“Many thanks to elder for your merciful rescue, if not this kid would have been dead by now.” Liu Ming stood up and bowed respectfully while saying this.

He had no idea who this person standing in front of him was, but since he’d rescued him, it was natural that he felt extremely grateful towards his benefactor.

At this point he looked around, getting a better idea of his surroundings, and found himself in a pit not too far from the river. He had also been dressed in brand new clothes, while his wounds had all been bandaged. The slightly cool sensation from the wounds told him that they’d evidently used extremely high quality medicine.

As for the side effect from the skills that he used before, the part that he was most worried about; the internal injuries that should have burst open long ago had all been well suppressed with help from the other party.

However, no matter how skilled this stranger was, the disastrous condition of his body was simply too devastating; it was only a matter of time before his injuries began acting up again.

While he was on the Savage Island, he learned some forbidden techniques from the prisoners there that were extremely effective against enemies but the price paid for using them was extremely high as well. It was basically a double-edged sword.

If it wasn’t for the teachings of ‘Uncle Qian’ from whom he’d learnt a set of breathing techniques that allowed his recovery to far surpass that of an ordinary human being, he would never even have considered using these secret techniques so casually.

The fact that he didn’t die from his injuries when he fell into the river was largely due to the effectiveness of this nameless breathing technique.

Seeing the composure of this youth, Guan Lao Da was slightly taken aback but presented a smile as he replied.

“It’s nothing, saving you was just a little thing”

“Ah, you don’t seem to be alone?” Liu Ming asked unexpectedly.

“I have a partner who went to settle some other stuff but he’ll be back soon. By the looks of things you haven’t eaten in a number of days. Eat up first, then we’ll talk about other things” Guan Lao Da said with a hearty smile.

Guan Lao Da walked away a few steps and bent over, pulling out a package wrapped in a flowery cloth from some unknown place. Upon opening it, revealed that it was full of all kinds of delicious snacks, which he brought and placed in front of the youth.

Indeed Liu Ming had been starving for a long time and with a word of thanks, received the package before stuffing his face ravenously.

In a flash, he’d devoured 7 or 8 pastries of varying sizes, upon which he slowed down his eating speed.

“There’s no need to rush young one, if there’s not enough I still have more with me. Ah right, may I have the pleasure of knowing your name? Why were you in such a place with such ridiculously heavy injuries?” Guan Lao Da asked as he laughed.

“I am a merchant, my name is Yang Yuan. Originally I was transporting a shipment of extremely valuable cargo with my uncle, ready to do business somewhere else, unfortunately we met a bunch of bandits on the way. I escaped into the river while I have no idea if my uncle managed to survive.” Liu Ming gave a fake name as he sighed with a sorrowful expression

While he was on the Savage island, Liu Ming learned from a well known fraud, a technique to manipulate his emotions and control his facial muscles and was a simple matter for him to produce such an expression.

Now that he was a wanted fugitive, carelessly giving his real name would bring him trouble no end.

“Ah brother Yang, it was such misfortune for you to encounter bandits. Indeed in recent times the world is in turmoil, but to think that these bandits would have the nerve to commit these crimes in broad daylight, they really have no fear. When we return I will get the head to report to the officials to put out several wanted posters, making sure this band of bandits will definitely be arrested.” Guan Lao Da expressed his fury upon hearing about the bandits and inadvertently revealed his true feelings.

If not for the bandits that killed the young master they were escorting, the pair would not have fallen into such dire circumstances.

“If that is true, my uncle’s spirit in heaven will definitely thank you.” Liu Ming replied with a somber expression.

“This is a small issue, don’t worry about it. But from your injuries I saw it looked as though you experienced a fierce battle, and even used abilities that burned your potential.If not, then the healing process would not have been so troublesome.” Guan Lao Da asked while looking troubled.

“My uncle and I had both learnt a handful fighting skills and were schooled in some secret techniques and we engaged the bandits in a fierce all out battle. Due to their overwhelming numbers I had only one escape route which was the river.” Liu Ming replied without too much thought.

“Brother Yang, you are too humble. You have a spiritual pulse within your body, clearly a well trained practitioner of some caliber, how can it be that you only know a handful of techniques? To be able to force you into the river, they cannot be any ordinary bandits.” Guan Lao Da replied while laughing at Liu Ming’s reply

“Spiritual pulse? What’s that? I have heard people speaking of practitioners before…” Liu Ming replied truthfully.

“Could it be that you don’t know that practitioners are people that have spiritual pulse? And even then they are the lowest ranked amongst spiritual pulse wielders? If you really were unaware, from where could you possibly have learnt the method to train your spirit and even more so how did you get such a decent size of Yuan Li…” Guan Lao Da looked at the youth through squinted eyes.

“I honestly don’t know what ‘Yuan Li’ is but when I was young, I found a nameless breathing technique which had the effects of strengthening my body and have been practicing it all these years. Perhaps this might be the Yuan Li training technique Uncle Guan speaks of!” Liu Ming’s eyes lit up as realisation dawned upon him.

“So it was like that…that is indeed a possibility. Although the methods to train Yuan Li have always been controlled by the Practitioner Families, there are still some low profile techniques that exist. It’s such a pity, if only you knew a few more skills that Practitioners use and had a Practioner Weapon by your side, then a band of bandits would have been no match for you.” Guan Lao Da said as he shook his head, evidently not intending to pursue the matter any further.

“Does this mean that the technique elder used to heal me was one based on the use of Yuan Li? Then conversely, this also means that elder is a Practitioner!” Liu Ming exclaimed while looking peaceful even though his heart was in turmoil.

While in the midst of escaping, he unexpectedly ran into practitioners but yet another one appeared before his eyes, this was definitely a rare accident.

While he was on the Savage Island, he’d heard numerous rumors regarding practitioners from the mouths of the prisoners.

From what he heard, these Practitioners were a rarity within Da Xuan Country, normal people would have extremely little contact with them but they all possessed unbelievable abilities. They could move light-footedly through the air or they could take control of the air directly to injure people. Even more incredible feats include being able to wield super strength, invulnerable to sword and spear attacks and even immune to drowning or burning, enough so that one man could be the equivalent of a thousand men.

The only way to recognize them was that when they released their power, they would often be holding something known as an ‘Practioner Weapon’, which upon activation would give off all kinds of light.

Of course, some of the prisoners spoke of the stronger Practitioners who could utilise their full power without the Practitioner Weapons.

Therefore, when Liu Ming first saw that blue robed man using his Practioner Weapon, he immediately turned tail and ran for his life.

If not, he would have lost his life to some bizarre attack long ago.

Of course now that he was told that he possessed spiritual pulse and could be considered a Practitioner, he couldn’t help but be taken aback

In an instant, the unknown breathing technique ‘Uncle Qian’ taught him was immediately brought to mind.

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