Chapter 6

“Heh heh, Indeed, I am a mid level Practitioner! If not how could I have detected your spiritual pulse with just one glance?” Guan Lao Da smiled as he replied and naturally didn’t bring up his original intention to kill the youth.

“I too had no idea that I could be considered a practitioner.” Liu Ming murmured, as he came to some sort of understanding.

“Did you know that a Practitioner is one of the lowest levels of Spirit Pulse wielders. With your age, if you are able to access your Spirit Sea, you may be able to find a Sect and become a Spirit Apostle.” Guan Lao Da showed a strange expression as he said this.

“Apostle? Sect?” Liu Ming furrowed his eyebrows at these two unfamiliar terms.

Guan Lao Da chuckled but just as he was about to explain, there was a disturbance in the distant grass patch and a skinny figure carrying a big bag walked towards them.

“Brother Gu, come over here, let me introduce you to Brother Yang (Liu Ming’s fake name). Without the guidance of a qualified Practitioner, he managed to train his Yuan Li on his own.” Guan Lao Da waved to Gu Lao San the moment he appeared and said with a profound meaning.

“That’s great news” Gu Lao San said as he walked across, smiling at the his luck.

“My greetings to Uncle Gu!” Liu Ming said without hesitation and stood up immediately to give a small bow.

“Ah haha, little brother, you don’t need to be so courteous. Big Brother Guan, I bought everything I needed. You know, anybody else would have taken at least half a day more.” Gu Lao San boasted as he tossed the bag to Guan Lao Da.

“Of course I knew that, that’s why I asked you to personally make the trip. Right, this isn’t the place to be chit chatting. Let’s find somewhere less conspicuous” Guan Lao Da said while nodding his head.

Liu Ming and Gu Lao San had no objections, and after packing up walked away from the river.

After they passed by a mound of freshly packed earth, Liu Ming casually glanced over it.

While normal people would not be able to notice anything out of the ordinary, the youth smelt the odor of fresh blood and though it was weak, it was not able to escape the notice of one who had been through as many bloody struggles as he had.

Liu Ming felt his heart skip a beat, knowing that whatever was buried within definitely had something to do with the other two men. While they were by no means saints and under their “friendliness” was definitely some hidden agenda.

After an hour, as the sky began to darken. Thus, the three of them took refuge in an abandoned shrine and started a fire to keep warm.

Gu Lao San gutted a rabbit he had killed during the journey and began roasting it over the open flame.

As the three men huddled around the fire, an irresistible smell soon wafted into the air…..

“Those commonly referred to as Practitioners refers to Spirit Pulse users who have successfully undergone their spirit awakening and accessed their Spirit Reservoir. Due to the fact that once a Spirit Pulse user passes their fifteenth birthday, the Spirit Pulse begins to solidify, and from then on would have no more chance to access their Spirit Reservoir, and thus there is a very strict age limit regarding the awakening process. Those that have their Spirit Reservoirs opened will be able to convert Yuan Li to mana and then use mana to wield mana weapons and perform spells. These people are like gods to us. The Sects are places where Spiritual Apostles are trained and normal people don’t even know about these sects. Some extremely powerful sects even have the power to determine the fate of a country with a mere word!” Guan Lao Da seemed almost to have forgotten about the rabbit roasting in front of him, revealing to Liu Ming the existence of a secret and mystical world.

“They can decide who’s in charge of the government? The emperor has a personal army, how could he accept such a thing?” Liu Ming took in a deep breath and couldn’t help but ask.

“Hehe, this is all determined by power. Us mere Practitioners cannot possibly be compared to those Spiritual Apostles. No matter how hard a Practitioner trains, when faced up against an army, the most he can do is kill a few more people and in the end the only option is death. As for those Spirit Apostles and Spirit Masters, they wield the incomparably powerful forces of nature within their palms and have the ability to summon Demons and Familiars, not to mention their ability to fly through the sky or burrow through the earth; regardless the number of troops, no matter how armies gathered, they would still not be enough to even tire them out. In any case, members of the imperial household and high ranking officials who have been marked by the Sects can only resign themselves to their fate and simply wait to die.” Gu Lao San chuckled while explaining.

“However, if one wishes to become an apostle, then one must first undergo an Awakening Ceremony and every awakening will consume an immense number of Spirit Ingredients that the Sects had painstakingly procured over the course of many years. As such, apart from Spiritual Pulse apprentices the Sect has personally raised, ordinary Practitioners who wish to join the Sect must first fork over a horrifyingly large sum of resources. In addition, a Sect in the Kingdom of Da Xuan that is about to perform their Awakening ceremony very soon”

“So that’s how it is!” Liu Ming exclaimed as a glint flashed in his eyes, but he didn’t say anything more.

Gu Lao San saw this, and couldn’t leave it alone so he suddenly remarked in an enticing manner:

“Young Brother, don’t you wish to become part of the Sect? Once you become a Spirit Apostle, not only will you attain unbelievable power, your life force will increase tremendously as well, enough for you to easily live to 200 years old.”

“In the first place, I am merely a commoner and only now have I just found out that I have always had the capability to become a Practitioner, I couldn’t possibly dream of such impossible things. Furthermore, I have never believed in having anything handed to me on silver platter anyway.” The youth unexpectedly rejected Gu Lao San’s proposal.

This reaction left Gu Lao San momentarily lost for words.

Upon seeing his companion’s flustered reaction, Guan Lao Da glared at him fiercely and after sighing deeply, faced the youth and said to him

“Young Brother you’ve probably noticed as well. Well, I won’t deceive you. Indeed, while the two of us had ulterior motives for rescuing you, this is also an unbelievable opportunity for you. Once you pass over it, you will most likely regret it for the rest of your life. Would you just hear me out?”

“Since both uncles have said so, then I will listen to what you have to say.” Liu Ming’s expression did not change as he agreed hesitantly.

“Well, here’s the deal; The two of us are simply henchman for the Bai Clan. This time we’ve received the order to send the young master Bai Cong Tian to take part in the Awakening Ceremony hosted by the Barbarian Ghost Sect…” Guan Lao Da was no fool either and knew that Liu Ming already harbored some suspicions towards them. Thus, he no longer had any intention of hiding the impending crisis that was about to befall the two men and completely spilled the beans in front of Liu Ming.

“There was no other choice and thus we wish to use you to replace the young master to take part in the Awakening Ceremony. If you were to go, not only would the two of us escape this life-threatening predicament, this would also represent a great opportunity for yourself. This is the kind of opportunity that wouldn’t present itself no matter how much the other members of the Bai Clan begged for it. My guess is that the source of your troubles also isn’t as simple as meeting a bunch of bandits but once you become an Spirit Apostle of the Sect, there is nothing in the world of mortals that you cannot solve.” Guan Lao Da said with a heavy heart.

There was a slight change in Liu Ming’s expression as he listened up to this point.

“This Awakening ceremony….should be very dangerous shouldn’t it? What would happen if I didn’t successfully complete it?”

“In order to achieve great power, one must also experience a certain degree of danger, but I’m sure it will be no problem for our Young Brother here. Even if you don’t pass, that is a small matter and you simply have to stay with the Sect for a few years and perform services.” Guan Lao Da replied easily with a straight face.

The youth furrowed his brows slightly.

He knew that Guan Lao Da definitely wasn’t telling him the whole truth but also knew that it wouldn’t come out no matter how much he asked.

Most importantly, he did feel somewhat interested in the Awakening Ceremony itself.

After spending such a long time on the Savage Island, the youth learnt early on that so long as one wielded enough power, he would then be free to do as he liked.

All the numerous desires he buried deep in his heart all this while clawed at him to be extremely strong in order to fulfill them.

In any case, even if he disagreed, it seemed like the two Practitioners in front of him also wouldn’t let him go so easily.

Furthermore, since they had already divulged such sensitive information, should he decide to be uncooperative, it was most likely that only the word ‘Death’ would be enough for them to safely protect their secret.

After contemplating in his heart for a long time, Liu Ming finally decided:

“Alright, I will agree. However, let me just make it clear; This situation will definitely be extremely dangerous and after I help you this once, I will consider my debt for being rescued as having been paid in full. Furthermore, in order to bring me to the Barbarian Ghost Sect, I wish for the two of you uncles to promise me two things.”

“If only you are willing to replace the young master to take part in the Awakening Ceremony, no matter how many conditions you throw at us, we will agree to them all” Gu Lao San proclaimed excitedly upon hearing Liu Ming’s words.

After some consideration, Guan Lao Da also nodded his head.

“Both uncles know that even though my body has Yuan Li, I have no knowledge of any of the Practitioner techniques, and thus I hope that during the course of the journey you guys would pass on to me some skills that would help me preserve my life. The other condition is that I wish to obtain this young master’s Practitioner Weapon. Being a Young Master, the Practitioner Weapon he used shouldn’t be too shabby and thus in the event I encounter any problems within the Barbarian Ghost Sect, I should still be able to deal with it to some degree” Liu Ming laid out his demands without reservation.

“The first condition is a good one and in any case even if you had not mentioned it, it was a given that we would have done so anyway. As for the second condition….that Practitioner Weapon contains immense power and I fear it may not be easy for a beginner such as yourself to wield.” Gu Lao San mentioned with some hesitation.

“Even still, I would at least like to give it a shot” Liu Ming replied, with no intention of backing down.

“This…”

“Alright, we’ll give you the Practitioner Weapon.” Guan Lao Da gritted his teeth and agreed to this demand.

Gu Lao San displayed some reluctance upon hearing his words but in the end, raised no objections.

“Right then, from now on I’ll do my best to accommodate the request. However I still don’t know what the previous Young Master was called, I will need to use his name from henceforth after al.l” Liu Ming said as he nodded his head.

“Young Master was named Bai Cong Tian. Here, young brother you should take his possessions.” Gu Lao San opened the massive bag behind his back with a slight movement of his hand and pulled out a small white parcel.

Liu Ming immediately opened the parcel upon receiving it and took a look inside.

Inside it were a number of clean clothes along with a few small accessories but most prominent out of all the objects was a small bracelet.

The bronze bracelet was fashioned in an ancient style and had rows and rows of silver flower patterns imprinted on the front; It gave one the impression that it was abnormally heavy for its appearance.

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