Chapter 11: Van The CharmerAs Van paraded his new lady friend throughout the streets, many nearby cultivators noticed and gave out jealous stares, full of hate, as they watched a G.o.ddess walk through the streets with a 13-year-old youth only at the 4th Stage of Body Fortification.
"We deserve her a lot more than him.
"He"s only a boy, a man like me can show her what a real man is like."
"A G.o.ddess like that isn"t one that anyone could touch!"
Van walked on seemingly oblivious to the hateful stares and aggressive stances of the people around him.
"I haven"t asked your name yet. Can I have the pleasure of knowing it?"
Van kept a calm expression but was inwardly anxious.
"Will she answer my question? I mean we barely know each other and just happened to see each other on the way into the city."
A middle-aged man at the 10th Stage of Body Fortification sat in a well-cushioned chair.
Two guards stood there with their heads bowed.
"You let a 13-year-old kid beat you up?"
The middle-aged man was the Guard Captain that the two guards had mentioned to Van after they got beat up.
The Captain sighed at the uselessness of his guards and dismissed them.
In the guards" report, they had conveniently left out the detail of their motivation for the fight. Instead, they had made it sound like Van had an inclination to cause trouble.
"Well, I can"t let this go unpunished. Bai Yun!"
A middle-aged woman wearing scholarly robes entered.
"I am at your command."
The Captain nodded approvingly.
"Call out the elite disciplinary corps. Tell them to search for a 13-year-old with green robes and a cultivation base of about the 6th Stage of Body Fortification. Have them bring him to me."
She left uniformly and moments later a group of 10 men at the 8th Stage of Body Fortification left the guard forums, charging through the dusty streets.
Meanwhile, Van was standing there with his hands behind his head waiting for the woman"s answer.
The woman contemplated what to say for a few minutes before saying.
"My name is Zhao Yunfei."
"What a lovely name."
The woman nodded her thanks and then proceeded onwards.
"So, why are you following me? Not that I don"t want you to, but I"m just a 13-year-old kid with no reputation. With your beauty, I bet you could be treated well even by the city lord."
"Hey, Brat!!!"
Van froze and started to look around frantically.
"It"s me, Yu Lin. You can"t have already forgotten me. I gave you that profound cultivation base!"
Zhao Yunfei looked at him with a worried expression on her face.
"Are you alright?"
"I thought I saw one of the guards come back for revenge, but I guess I was just worried over nothing."
Van laughed nervously.
"What was that for? Yu Lin, you"re supposed to be my benefactor, not my enemy!"
"That woman that is with you. She has a cultivation base of Emperor!!"
"What?!!"
Van was unable to keep an expression of shock from appearing on his face.
Zhao Yunfei immediately felt worried for Van. She started to wonder if Van had garnered mental issues during his reincarnation process.
"Oh, also there are a few men at the 8th Stage of Body Fortification following you."
Van"s expression quickly turned into one of caution. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye.
Zhao Yunfei followed Van"s gaze and she found 10 men in black cloaks hiding around the corner.
She hadn"t noticed them because she was busy giving all of her attention towards Van.
An expression of anger flickered across her face as she waved her hand causing the men to collapse and lose their memories of their encounter.
Van"s eyes widened as he watched the cloaked figures collapse.
"So what were you about to tell me?"
Zhao Yunfei looked at him expectantly and gestured for him to continue on.
Van nodded, dumbfounded, and proceeded to chat and walk towards his house, but this time addressing Zhao Yunfei in a more respectful tone.
She sighed inwardly and wished they could go back to the casual conversation from before.
After a few minutes, they reached the alleyway without any problems. Zhao Yunfei had lured all the lecherous hobos away from the street using a Qi clone and a bag of copper coins. Eventually, Van began to notice the lack of people in their path.
"Usually the streets here aren"t this empty. I wonder where everyone went."
They took a left turn and walked to the end of the alley before Van knocked on the door.
He said the pa.s.sword and Ghan let him in. Ghan had a delightful expression on his face. He was about to give Van a big bear hug, but quickly stopped himself when he noticed a figure accompanying Van.
"Who"s that beauty with you?!"
Ghan was stunned to see this strange stunning woman following Van.
"This is Zhao Yunfei. Zhao Yunfei - Ghan. Ghan - Zhao Yunfei."
"Nice to meet you."
Zhao Yunfei smiled and gave a Daoist"s bow before following after Van to the dining room.
A red-robed figure ran up to Van and gave him a tight hug. Van tried to push his aunt away from him but failed to make her even move an inch.
"Where have you been all this time?! We"ve been so worried for you."
"I"m okay, Aunt...mmph."
Van"s face was currently crushed between the two mountains on his aunt"s chest. After trying to pull away from her a few more times, he finally succeeded on his fourth try.
"I would like to introduce to you my new friend, Zhao Yunfei."
Van straightened out his hair as he gave Zhao Yunfei the spotlight. His aunt turned her attention to the newcomer and her expression turned grave.
"Who are you? What do you want with my nephew?!"
Van"s aunt looked at Zhao Yunfei, trying to find hints of insincerity or hostility from her expression.
Zhao Yunfei continued to smile comfortingly and tried to diffuse the tension that had suddenly built up in the room.
Van had started to sweat and was pulling on his robes. You could see stains on his robes on his armpits.
"Whew! Is it hot in here or what?"
Van smiled nervously as he positioned himself between the two women. This is the first time he had seen his aunty act like this. He knew she was overprotective, but couldn"t she see that Zhao Yunfei meant no harm?
While Van was pondering this strange predicament he was in, Van"s aunt was having a discussion with her father or Van"s grandfather through her Qi sense.
"You"re at the Emperor Stage."
Zhao Yunfei nodded her head slowly and sent out her Qi sense, noticing an old aura at the Peak of the Emperor stage. Her eyes widened in surprise and bowed towards the aura.
Van"s grandpa nodded in approval and withdrew his Qi sense. He then focused on healing his wounds.
Van put on an expression of shock, but his rather bad impromptu acting lead to everyone realizing his false expression.
"How did you know, Van?"
Zhao Yunfei was surprised at his high perception. Van rubbed his head sheepishly.
"I forgot to mention that I met a mysterious master who decided to train me. He"s busy at the moment, but decided to mention it to me so I wouldn"t be too surprised."
"Is your master an Emperor ranked expert?!"
Zhao Yunfei and his aunt looked at him, shocked. Emperor ranked experts didn"t grow on trees, especially in this continent.
"I haven"t really asked, but all I know is that he has a very high cultivation base."
This distracted the two women from their Mexican standoff and Van quickly invited Zhao Yunfei to sit down at the dinner table.
His aunt recovered from her shock and unconsciously went to go prepare the table and serve the food.
They had a scrumptious meal of roasted Spirit Duck and Jade Cabbage with a few custard buns for dessert.
Van encouraged the two women to talk and make amends. By the end of the meal, you would have thought they were friends from birth.
While the women continued to gossip and talk about their makeup, Van headed up to his room to release Sanji into the hidden forest.
After releasing Sanji into the wild, the Mouse gave out a majestic roar and started to retrieve the loyalty of its subjects. Van watched for a while to humor himself and watched a few Rank 2 beasts resist only to be beaten into submission.
"Hey! Brat! Get to your room, I think it"s time for you to start mastering some martial techniques."
Van stood up and ran to his room excitedly.
"Am I going to learn a Saint rank technique or maybe even a G.o.d ranked?!"
"First of all, the Stage after Saint is not G.o.d nor is it the DemiG.o.d Stage. It is the 7 Steps of Ascension! Also, do you think you can handle those techniques?!! You"re only at the 9th Stage of Dantian Formation! The most you can handle at the moment are King ranked techniques."
Van stared at the dodecahedron, now turned orb, embarra.s.sed.
"Here are some options, insert some Qi into this jade slip and you can choose two to start off with."
A Blood Red jade slip popped out of the orb and floated into his hands as he placed the orb on his bedsheets.
He inserted some Qi and his soul was sucked into the Jade slips dimension.
He found himself in front of a Golden Jade gate with depicted golden dragons crawling up the gate doors.
"Absorb this drop of blood and then open the gate."
A drop of golden red blood appeared in front of him immediately. He grabbed it and the drop of blood started to fuse with his body.
After a few minutes, his face was covered in sweat and he walked towards the gate, reaching his hand out.
The moment he touched the gate, he felt a strong divine sense enter his body and death for something.
A voice came from the door.
"GOLDEN DRAGON BLOODLINE QUALITY 0.01%. QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE BOTTOM FLOOR HAVE BEEN MET. RANK: OUTER SECT MENIAL LABOR SERVANT."
The doors opened and he found a large circular room with many floating Jade slips.
"Did that automaton just call me an outer sect servant?!!"
Yu Lin ignored Van"s outburst and proceeded to explain what Van needed to do.
"Now that you have successfully entered, you can now go look for some King ranked slips. With your current authority, you can barely get a Jade slip for the 7th Stage of Inner Discovery."
What kind of sect was this?! The servants could obtain martial techniques at the stages of inner discovery?!!
Van"s jaw dropped.
"If only you were in my sect currently, we could"ve gotten you some merit points and a few King ranked techniques easily."
The treatment of this sect was so extravagant. Van thought to himself as he started to browse through the Jade slips.
After some guidance from Yu Lin, Van found the highest ranked Jade slips he could access. There were 4 slips for the 7th Stage of Inner Discovery.
He started to read each of their descriptions.
METEORITE PUNCH - 7TH STAGE OF INNER DISCOVERY
PEAK RANK TECHNIQUE
There are 5 stages in this technique with the first stage allowing one to punch with the force of a small mountain and the last with the impact of a meteorite.
A picture depicted a martial artist destroying a city with a single punch.
LIFE RENDING BLAST - 7TH STAGE OF INNER DISCOVERY
SUPERIOR RANK TECHNIQUE
There are 7 stages in this technique with the first stage allowing one to send a Qi blast that would be able to kill another person one stage above them and the 7th stage allowing one to destroy the other"s soul.
A picture depicted a martial artist delivering a palm strike and the soul of the victim disintegrating.
HAMMER STRIKE - 7TH STAGE OF INNER DISCOVERY
PEAK RANK TECHNIQUE
There are 3 Stages with the first allowing one to deliver successive strikes and rendering one"s opponent immobile. The 3rd Stage allows one to collapse mountains and disintegrate large hills.
A picture depicted a blacksmith casually disintegrating a large hill into a pile of dust.
LIGHTNING STRIKE - 7TH STAGE OF INNER DISCOVERY
SUPERIOR RANK TECHNIQUE
Out of all the superior rank techniques for the 7th Stage of Inner Discovery, this one is the hardest to learn. One has to has a good grasp of the concepts of the element of Lightning to allow the strike to develop.
Van stepped back and started to contemplate which martial technique he was going to go with. That was when he noticed an ancient looking book out of the corner of his eye. Van decided to check it out.
"Hey! Where are you going? The good skills are right here!"
Yu Lin watched from inside of the orb, astounded, as Van walked towards the Mysterious Ancient book.