Deep in the night, it was pitch-black outside, and the slums had sunk into absolute silence.
Siqin Duanyue knew of the fact that Li Xuan had recovered his innate talent, yet unexpectedly didn’t show it off. As for Li Mo, he made the same decision and stayed silent.
These two days, Li Xuan’s father, Li Ning, still hadn’t returned home, so the matter of canceling the engagement had never proceeded.
But tonight, when Li Ning returned home, Li Xuan had seen him from quite a distance away, and this hunchbacked old man seemed to be a bit different from that that ‘tall’ and ‘taciturn’ father in his memories.
Perhaps during the period of time Li Xuan hadn’t cared, his father had already aged.
A thirty-some year old father and a thirty year old mother instead looked as if they were in their seventies. Exactly what kind of hards.h.i.+p did they have to experience, and how many times had they needed to overdraft their elemental energy to reach this state.
A father’s unspoken love, and the mother’s boundless love.
At times, just a single word, action, or movement would stir up Li Xuan’s emotions.
However, he wasn’t emotionally moved. As a martial arts expert, the minimum requirement was meticulous and thorough observation, nothing less. As such, his heart grew solemn and heavy instead.
“Dududu—”
There came a knocking sound from the door, and Li Xuan knew that his father Li Ning had returned. At once, he calmed down his turbulent heart and walked over.
Pulling open the wooden door that was already riddled with holes and near collapse, “Creak,” the sound of the door swinging open resounded through the air and a man that was a bit hunchbacked stood in the doorway.
“Father.”
“*En.”
(TL: tone of affirmation… decided to keep it that way because i feel like there isn’t really an English translation that has the same tone)
The seemingly old man walked in, then sat on the worn chair next to Li Xuan’s bed.
The door was closed, and in the room, besides a magic enchanted bed, everything else was extremely outdated and old. As for the chair that his father was sitting on, it swayed as though it would crack and collapse any moment.
“I heard from your mother that your innate talent has been restored. Looking at your conduct and steadiness, as well as your restrained personality, I’m very satisfied.”
As Li Ning spoke in a low voice, although his exterior appearance was similar to that of a slave, after so many years, his air of cool dignity and arrogance wasn’t the least bit extinguished, and had instead thickened.
Just hearing these words, Li Xuan’s heart couldn’t help but immediately startle. This kind of person, in modern society, would definitely be someone strong because this was the true att.i.tude of an expert.
And this person was his father, so it was obvious where his big brother Li Mo’s personality had stemmed from.
“Father, right now I’ve already recovered to the first layer of *1st Yuan realm. After re-cultivating, I’ve also thoroughly familiarized myself with the magic elements and such by a lot.”
(*TL: okay I’m confused because raws say 2nd Yuan, but Yuan is the first realm, not the 2nd… So…. I’m just going to a.s.sume that the author made a mistake…. o-o” But then later on, the author uses 2nd again… WHY)
Li Xuan slightly bowed as he spoke respectfully.
“En. I can more or less sense your cultivation. It seems your innate talent has truly been completely restored! Right, I heard from your mother, you wished to break the engagement? Have you considered it carefully?” Li Ning asked after muttering a bit to himself.
“I’ve already thought it over. After dealing with this matter, I will wholly devote myself to cultivation.” Li Xuan answered.
“Good! To have this kind of resolution, it’s fine then! Your innate talent has been restored, and you’ve also become more understanding, so I have a few issues that I must explain to you.
First, cultivate diligently. For the issue of returning to the clan, your father has constantly been working hard, but currently, hope is still far out of reach. Therefore, I’m temporarily placing this hope on your shoulders. The purpose of returning to the clan is not to prove that they had made a mistake, nor is it to make any trouble. Rather, it is only to prove that your aunt’s original decision to support us was right.
She is your father’s younger sister, and for me, she has already lost far too much…
Second, I need to explain the grievances of the clan to you in order for you to understand that if we’re unable to return to the clan, it isn’t necessarily their fault.
Back then, my father wasn’t actually the clan leader, and his authority couldn’t compare with that of the elders of the clan, so he made a foolish mistake, as everyone knows. Therefore, he could only say that he had been framed—you know, in truth, this kind of matter didn’t really matter to the clan, but it happened in such a way that it caused a huge scandal, to the point that everyone knew what had happened. As a result, the clan nearly had no more face.
Furthermore, my mother’s appearance wasn’t very good-looking and her status was extremely low. As such, he had lost all face after being sneered at by others. However, he still didn’t drive my mother away.
As for me, even though I possessed this kind of ident.i.ty, I did not bother making a good impression on others. Later on, after my father had lost his position, I again offended other people, causing my mother’s death. And because I misunderstood my father, I hated him as well. Thus, I took advantage of being driven out from the clan to go far away. In actuality, even if I hadn’t left, I would still just be waiting for death because as the eldest of the third generation, although I was expected to receive the Li clan inheritance, how could that inheritance fall into the hands of a ‘mixed breed’ and ‘useless’ person like me? Consequently, having me die by accident was the best method.
You more or less know of the incidents that followed after I left.
I didn’t become someone powerful, nor did I have the innate talent to become one, but I strove towards this goal! You had this innate talent, and once the clan began looking at you favorably, the news began to spread until later on, your innate talent was abolished…
Truthfully speaking, I was very disappointed. However, as your father, as long as I was around, I had to bear all the burden and responsibility for you siblings and your mother. Therefore, these past two days, I had returned to the clan to plead for a ‘Heavenly Reversal Pill’ or an ‘Elemental Elixir’. Although I didn’t obtain it, after returning and seeing that you’ve matured after experiencing such a stormy tribulation, only now am I rea.s.sured.
The rest of the matter is basically that you diligently cultivate, then prepare to return to the clan in a worthy manner.
Only under the protection of the clan can we allow such a genius as you to grow safely. Once you’ve matured, your aunt…”
When Li Ning had spoken up till here, has eyes grew blurry with tears.
Concerning the exact circ.u.mstances surrounding this issue, the past Li Xuan did not know. However, whenever it was mentioned, his father and mother would always become deeply grieved.
This affair was clearly involved with something big.
“Father, your child understands!”
“It’s fine as long as you understand. It’s late now, so get some rest. Tomorrow, we will go to cancel the marriage agreement.”
“En. Father, make sure to get some proper rest as well.”
Li Xuan once again spoke while bowing.
The second day, the day’s first sunlight broke through the sky, and Li Xuan had already awoken from his state of cultivation.
Within his dantian, there was already a dense gathering of elemental energy, and in one night, he had already reached 2nd Hui 5th layer from 1st Yuan 1st layer. Not only was the strength of his cultivation before getting beat up totally recovered, it even had a sort of enhancement.
Not only that, the past Li Xuan had only been a mage of the fire element, identical to the cultivators of the Li Clan.
But now, Li Xuan was a mage at 2nd Hui 5th layer of all the elements, not just one!
Thus, the following distinctions were extremely clear.
It’s just that, although Li Xuan could faintly discern the realm he had reached for the other elements (besides fire) of water, wood, earth, wind, light, darkness, and lightning, and his elemental control was fairly effortless, in regards to methods of offense, he didn’t have the least clue.
In this world, people didn’t really fight fist-to-fist, and physical attacking methods had only degraded. Furthermore, in cultivating elemental energy, your body would be tempered and your physical strength would grow stronger and stronger, thus making your body st.u.r.dier as well. Whoever said that mages had weak physiques was gravely mistaken.
Thus, those who only used physical attacking methods were generally those who never had their innate meditative talent awakened, and were looked down upon in disdain.
So although Li Xuan had become an all-element mage at the 2nd Hui 5th layer, for the other elements, he could only condense [Exploding Tiger Fist] into an incorporeal shape of a tiger, then unleash it as if he was utilizing inner jin. This was his offensive method for all the other elements.
As for the fire element, with regard to control and manipulation, Li Xuan had clearly gotten better.
An attacking method by the name of [Spirit Fire Ball] could be unleashed so quickly as if one’s hand had just spasmed, and this flame’s incinerating ability was incredibly terrifying.
Under this type of flame, most types of metal would begin melting in less than a minute, so what was known as ‘equipment’ were all objects that had been magically enhanced, and their prices were awfully high.
There was also a type of AOE-type magic skill, called [Sea of Flame], but Li Xuan’s strength wasn’t sufficient to use it at the moment.
These methods were only simple ways of using magic to attack, and there were still battle skills that were linked with magic, similar in concept to ‘imbuing’. For example, skills like [Blazing Meteor Fist], [Lightning Chain Leg], and [Berserk Lion’s Thundering Flame Roar] all had cosmic explosive potential, their power unspeakably outstanding.
On the other hand, the lightning, fire, and wood elements were the most precious.