Chapter 5 - Jade Pendant

Who’s the Young Master the voice spoke of?

Actually murdering my entire family, just for the sake of a marriage?

Who’s ‘that person of the Dragon Lake City?’

Chen Xi’s mind pondered crazily. The information the Soundsaver Talisman revealed was too obscure, but there were still small hints; All that he needed to do was find a breakthrough point and then everything else would fall into place!

Someone in the Dragon Lake City who was related to me, there was only the…

Su Clan!

Right, it was definitely the Dragon Lake City’s Su Clan!

Chen Xi experienced a flash of inspiration as he abruptly thought of a strong possibility.

He’d heard his grandfather speak of it before. When he was born, his mother, Zuoqiu Xue, had agreed to a marriage contract with the Dragon Lake City’s Su Clan’s Patriarch. The agreement stipulated that when he turned 18, Chen Xi would marry the daughter of the Su Clan’s Patriarch, Su Jiao. However, along with the annihilation of the Chen Clan and the disappearance of his mother when he was 4, the Dragon Lake City’s Su Clan had dispatched more than 10 Golden Hall Realm experts to tear the marriage contract to shreds in front of everyone within the Pine Mist City.

The Dragon Lake City’s Su Clan also undoubtedly possessed the strength to affect what happened in Pine Mist City and to urge 3 Violet Palace Realm cultivators to abduct and kill his grandfather and younger brother!

Right, that’s definitely what happened!

The more he thought about it, the clearer Chen Xi’s train of thought became, and he determined that his inference couldn’t be far from the truth.

As for the identity of that ‘Young Master,’ it should be easy to figure out. Such massive movements that spared no pains to tightly encircle Pine Mist City, for the sake of preventing me and little brother from fleeing, is something only one of the great powers within Pine Mist City are capable of.

The purpose of them doing this is surely for the sake of that ‘Young Master’s’ marriage. Perhaps it was in order to unite with the Dragon Lake City Su Clan through marriage, and the union through marriage hinges upon a term of exchange, which was to drive me and little brother to death! 

Thinking up to this point, Chen Xi felt his entire body go frigid, as though he’d fallen into an icy lake. Tearing up the marriage agreement had already gone over the line, but they actually still wanted to completely extinguish his family. What vile means! What grim hearts!

Chen Xi took a deep breath as he strove to remain calm. He began to ponder exactly which power within Pine Mist City the ‘Young Master’ was from.

The southern territory belonged to the Darchu Dynasty, encompassing over 500,000 km of land and containing numerous cities. Pine Mist City was merely an unremarkable little town within the southern territory’s domain, only occupying an area of about 5,000 km.

Pine Mist City was also adjacent to the Southern Barbaric Mountain Range where demon beasts ran wild. Furthermore, as it lacked a prosperous area that contained wondrous amounts of spirit energy and ore veins, Pine Mist City was an existence akin to a barren land. Thus, very few great powers occupied Pine Mist City.

According to Chen Xi’s knowledge, Pine Misty City was currently controlled by 3 great powers, namely the General’s Estate, the Li Clan, and the Pine Mist Institution.

The General’s Estate was a highly disciplined military force that the Darchu Dynasty garrisoned within Pine Mist City. It held the responsibility of upholding the order within Pine Mist City, and thus detached itself from the affairs of the various other powers in the city.

The Pine Mist Institution, on the other hand, provided a place of cultivation for the Pine Mist City’s juniors. They accepted and instructed disciples by preaching and dispelling their doubts in cultivation. There were no lack of Violet Palace Realm cultivators within the institution. However, the Pine Mist Institution kept an extremely low-profile and never participated in the struggles between the powers of Pine Mist City.

The Li Clan was the only powerful clan that occupied Pine Mist City, and they possessed more than 10 Violet Palace Realm cultivators. After the annihilation of the Chen Clan, the Li Clan’s strength was formidable, to the extent that it became the number 1 clan within Pine Mist City and was extremely influential.

Chen Xi’s gaze firmly locked itself onto the Li Clan.

Among these three powers, if he were to speak of the power that hated his Chen Clan the most, then it would be the Li Clan without a doubt. This was because before the Chen Clan was annihilated, the two clans were mortal enemies that fought endlessly.

It was to the extent that his grandfather suspected that the Li Clan participated in annihilation of the Chen Clan as well.

Possessing the strength to lay a tight encirclement outside Pine Mist City and having enmity with my Chen Clan, that ‘Young Master’ should be a member of the Li Clan!

At this point, all of the clues were roughly organized and Chen Xi couldn’t help but heave a deep sigh as he said in his heart, “Grandfather, weren’t you always in agony about not knowing who was the sworn enemy that annihilated our Chen Clan? Don’t worry, your grandson has already grasped an important clue. Once your grandson becomes stronger, I’ll take revenge for you! I’ll take revenge for the 1,000 plus members of our Chen Clan!”

“Brother, have you guessed the identity of our enemy?” Chen Hao’s small face looked upwards with eyes that were filled with the color of hatred.

Chen Xi shook his head, because telling Chen Hao about this matter before he possessed the strength to annihilate the Li Clan would bring nothing but harm.

“Little Hao, since you’ve decided to cultivate left-handed swordsmanship, work hard! Once you’ve become strong, big brother will take you to kill people, to kill our enemies!” Chen Xi patted his younger brother’s shoulder. He had a tranquil expression on his face. “I’ll work hard to become strong as well, and I’ll never let you suffer an injustice in the future!”

Chen Hao firmly nodded. “Brother, for the sake of Grandfather, for the sake of our Chen Clan, let’s work hard together!”

“Okay!” The brothers looked at each other with firm expressions that seemed to be cut from the same cloth.

In the following days, besides crafting talismans to earn spirit stones, Chen Xi devoted practically all his time to cultivating. Although his cultivation had stagnated at the 3rd level of the Congenital Realm for five years, he wasn’t dejected in the slightest and instead cultivated diligently and strenuously like a madman. It was to the point of neglecting sleeping and eating because he wasn’t willing to waste even the slightest bit of time.

Dripping water wears through stone. Only with persistence will one be able to see hope!

Chen Xi was silent and dull, and he’d always had a wilful and stubborn disposition. Thus, this was how he thought and this was what he did.

Chen Hao changed as well. Because he had lost his right hand, the swordsmanship that he’d practiced before was practically crippled. Training with his left hand was undoubtedly no different from beginning anew.

He adapted to his left hand with great effort and worked on adjusting the rhythm of his sword movements, consolidating the foundation of his left-handed swordsmanship bit by bit.

Beneath the rising sun and beneath the curtain of night, his thin and small figure could be seen spraying sweat as he trained in the sword with great effort!

Chen Hao’s natural talent was excellent to begin with, and his foundation was incomparably dense from his grandfather’s teachings. Thus, not even 10 days passed before he’d already completely familiarized himself with utilizing a sword with his left hand. Also, due to his undivided attention on a single hand, he achieved an advancement in the level of his swordsmanship.

Most worthy of mention was that during the eighth day of his bitter training, Chen Hao broke through from the perfection stage of the Postnatal Realm and successfully advanced to the Congenital Realm in one fell swoop!

The speed at which he advanced made it so that it wouldn’t be long before surpassing his older brother became a possibility.

Chen Xi was pleasantly surprised by this, and at the same time he felt a formless pressure envelop himself. What about him? When would he be able to break through the 3rd level of the Congenital Realm?

Although his cultivation still stagnated, Chen Xi had other gains. In these past few days, he had completely repaid the 100 spirit stones he owed Uncle Zhang by relying on the spirit stones he earned from crafting talismans. Moreover, there was still a little left over, and this made his mood much better.

He’d calculated that after deducting the day-to-day expenses, he would be able to save four spirit stones each day from the spirit stones he earned from crafting talismans. Originally, he planned on accumulating sufficient spirit stones to purchase a book on crafting  second-grade talismans, but for the sake of advancing his cultivation more quickly he decided to use the spirit stones on cultivating.

To Chen Xi, who was accustomed to living an impoverished life, using spirit stones to cultivate was a luxury. After all, for the sake of maintaining their livelihood all these years, he had racked his brains to strictly count and budgeted every spirit stone. He wished for nothing more than to be able to multiply each spirit stone into two before using them.

However, for the sake of advancing his cultivation, he couldn’t consider that anymore.

The True Essence within Chen Xi’s body was only capable of sustaining the crafting of 30 talismans a day, which at most would earn him 10 spirit stones. Once his cultivation advanced and his True Essence increased rapidly, he would be capable of crafting even more talismans to earn even more spirit stones.

Thus, the advancement of his cultivation was all that mattered now!

The density of spirit energy in the outside environment was too low after all. Only by earning more spirit stones and using them to cultivate would he be able to allow he and his younger brother to become stronger.

With such plans, Chen Xi shared half of the four spirit stones he earned each day with his young brother and used the other half for his own cultivation. However, what made Chen Xi speechless was that after 10 days had passed, even though he used spirit stones to cultivate, the True Essence within his body didn’t grow a shred.

Could it be that I’ll be like this my whole life?

Chen Xi silently sat cross-legged at the head of the bed at night. Even with his firm and tenacious disposition, he couldn’t help but feel a shred of dejection.

Chen Xi was used to sitting in meditation and cultivating when his heart was troubled, as only cultivating would allow him to forget everything.

Circulating the Violet Sky Arts, the spirit energy from the outside transformed into strands of True Essence as it flowed into the meridians of his entire body and circulated 18 revolutions before being slowly poured into his Dantian.

In the Congenital Realm, a cloud made of True Essence would appear after every increase in level. This was called the cloud stairway of foundation building. When nine clouds were condensed, one could establish their violet palace and become a Violet Palace Realm cultivator that possessed the Dao foundation to officially enter the realm of immortals.

The Violet Sky Arts contained 18 levels in total and was a cultivation technique that was handed down in the Chen Clan. Chen Xi had cultivated it since he was a child, and he had already cultivated up to the 13th level, meaning his cultivation was at the 3rd level of the Congenital Realm. Three violet clouds had already been condensed within his Dantian and floated within it as they drew upon the traces of True Essence within the meridians throughout his body.

Kacha!

After a long time, when his body was full of True Essence, Chen Xi ceased cultivating and was just about to go to bed when he abruptly heard an extremely fine cracking sound. Although the sound was soft, in this silent night, it seemed extremely clear.

Seeking the source of the sound, his gaze quickly descended onto a longevity lock that was hanging on his chest. This was something his mother had placed around his neck when he was born. It was meant to help him grow up in peace without suffering and difficulties.

This longevity lock was also the one and only thing Chen Xi possessed that was related to his mother, so he treasured it extraordinarily. However, at this moment, numerous cracks silently appeared like a spider web atop the surface of the longevity lock, and he couldn’t help but lament in his heart.

What’s going on? Why would cracks appear on the longevity lock for no reason at all?

Chen Xi extended his hand to touch the longevity lock, but to his surprise, his fingertip had only just touched it when innumerable cracks abruptly covered the entire surface of the lock. After a clear ding, the surface of the longevity lock shattered into innumerable fragments that fell and scattered all over him, revealing a matte black jade pendant!

There was actually a jade pendant inside the longevity lock?

Chen Xi could only feel his mind flood with thoughts and was unable to think them through as he sized up the jade pendant in a daze. The matte black jade pendant was roughly the size of a longan[1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longan.] with a perfectly round and crystal-clear appearance; it seemed like an extremely high quality black pearl.

Could it be that this is a present Mother left for me? But if that’s really the case, why did she have to conceal it within my longevity lock?

Om!

Right at the moment Chen Xi was bewildered, a burst of primitive and melodious chanting faintly sounded, like spring water that was gurgling out of a brook, light and pleasing to the ear. Following the sound was a trace of a dazzling, white light that suddenly surged out from the surface of the jade pendant!

After a short moment, billions of dense white lights flew out of the pendant and completely illuminated the entire room, the white light revolving and drifting like mist, seeming like a scene in a dream.

Chen Xi felt like he was within a dream. Just when he was at a loss for what to do, the white lights before him abruptly roiled violently. Gradually, a woman wearing a white dress that was condensed from light appeared out of thin air!

The woman was wearing a fluttering white dress and had features that were as pretty as a picture. She seemed refined and beautiful with a pair of large, sparkling, clear black eyes, emitting an air of liveliness and mischievousness.

A  feeling that was both unfamiliar and familiar abruptly arose within Chen Xi’s heart when he saw her, and he felt a trace of long lost intimacy. He couldn’t help but be curious about who this woman was and why would she cause him to feel such a tricky feeling.

“Mmm, my darling son, we finally meet again!” The white-clothed woman had her hands behind her back as she mischievously blinked her eyes at Chen Xi and spoke with a happy smile. Her clear and melodious voice that was pleasing to the ears was like a tinkling stream, vivacious and light-hearted.

Chen Xi’s eyes abruptly opened wide after hearing what she said as he gazed at the white-clothed woman in horror. His face was full of disbelief, not having his usual sedated and indifferent appearance.

She… Is she really my mother, Zuoqiu Xue?