What was good and what was evil?
People decided to be good when they put their hearts into it but committed evil when they lost control.
All people are sinful at heart, the righteous path condemn the demonic path but will justify their actions when they commit evil.
No person was completely good, if someone told me that this person was completely good, I'd laugh and say this person was just better at hiding it than others.
I don't despise the self-proclaimed righteous people, but in my eyes they were far more dangerous than the people who committed evil and admitted it.
In this world where the world followed the laws of the jungle, the people didn't respect the pious but the strong. Weak people fell beneath the heavens whilst the strong soared above the sky regardless if they were evil or good at heart.
"So what if the heavens chose that Luo Yun's original fate was to be a mortal, even if I have to carve a path of blood that was filled with sins and hatred, I will rewrite his fate, and break heaven's chains!"
"I would soar the sky and roam the mountains, unrestrained by heaven and the earth. Even if death approaches, so what? What was there to fear about something that can only exist when I do not."
Luo Yun's gaze grew stern as he walked closer to the chamber, his hand slowly pushed open the rigid wooden door. The chamber room's size wasn't small nor wide, the stone walls were old and stony. The only thing that stood out in the dark room was the light illuminating from a leather bag sitting at the far end of the room.
Luo Yun immediately walked to the bag and swiftly opened it, finding the spirit crystals that he had been looking for.
After confirming the amount of crystals residing in the bag, he opened his own leather bag quickly and started smuggling the spirit crystals into it.
Ten spirit crystals!
twenty spirit crystals!
forty spirit crystals!
seventy spirit crystals!
One hundred spirit crystals!
A hundred and ninety Spirit crystals!
As Luo Yun collected the final ten spirit crystals and threw them in the bag, he noticed a small paper was laid beneath the spirit crystals. He slowly reached toward it, but as he tried picking it up a divine sense suddenly barged through his head and spoke three faint words.
"Twin devourer cave…"
The masculine voice left quickly as it passed Luo Yun's head.
"Twin devourer cave?" Luo Yun felt alerted when the divine sense entered him but relaxed when he realized it was a remnant divine sense that was left by a person who was already dead.
Was it an inheritance left behind, but why would it be left here? If the voice was left in the Luo's family chamber then it should've been the Luo family last master who hid the divine sense in here. But even then why hide it beneath all the spirit crystals?" Many questions surfaced through Luo Yun's head but he quickly pushed them aside and closed his leather bag.
"Regardless, I have more important tasks to do right now. When the time arrives I'll investigate it."
He hurriedly sneaked out of the Luo's family household, swiftly finding his path across the village roads. Eventually he stopped by a couple of places. The first place was a graveyard, to be more exact it was the family plot of the Luo family in the Fang village's cemetery.
The first batch was quickly buried beside one of the graves there.
The second batch was buried behind some trees in a valley south-east of the village, Luo Yun swept some branches and leaves to conceal the burial spot before moving to the last location.
The final batch was hidden inside a cave north of the Fang village. Luo Yun made sure to also cover it even more by moving some rocks over it.
It was never wrong to be cautious!
As he buried the last batch in the cave, his breath was ragged due to the contamination slowly leaking out as more time passed. Only thirty minutes remained, but Luo Yun's gaze remained calm and calculated as he left the cave right away upon finishing his task.
After 15 minutes of running back, Luo Yun managed to safely return back to the Luo family's household. He entered the house quietly without alerting Wang Xi's daughter who had just come back with Madam Bo.
He took a long time setting up this act, if he just came back home sober after Wang Xi found him drunk earlier this evening. What would they say by the time this matter was investigated? They'd surely tell Wang Xi and would end up filling the loopholes in this matter.
Luo Yun closed the door behind him as he returned to his room, he took a deep breath and composed his thoughts.
"Now that I have enough spirit crystals, I'll have to focus on cultivation. After I achieve the first level of an essence user, I'll have the freedom to explore the forest, or greater join the Fang sect as an outer disciple slowly climbing my way up…"
As he contemplated his plans for the future, he felt the final essence barrier break as the contamination took effect over his body thus making him fall over the bed with a thud.
….
A week has passed since the succession of the plan, the robbery of the Luo family's inheritance caused a big ruckus and several investigations were also set into motion to find out who stole the family's inheritance, but to no avail the robber didn't leave a witness, nor a clue to track so the investigations were closed off after a week passed.
faraway in a dark and quiet place, a youth who looked no older than the age of seventeen sat cross-legged on a rocky surface with a focused gaze as he looked at the shining crystals laid in front of him. The youth had a dark gaze and a lightly tanned skin-tone, his dark-brown hair reached below his neck, slightly above his shoulder. His body was quite frail and skinny but his gaze emitted a cold and sharp feeling if someone were to look back at him
Luo Yun laid his palm on the bright crystal that emitted a deep ocean like hue before slowly closing his eyes and calming his thoughts. His surroundings began to change from the dark rocky interior of the cave to a gray-white place with a small lake residing in the middle.
"To reach the first level of essence, a cultivator must first open the path between his body and the outside world. so If the essence energy was the ocean in this case, then the body's core was the dam holding it from breaking out. For a mortal to ascend to an essence-user he must use his essence to slowly break the dam, but the essence lake in my body isn't enough to break it which is why I'll forcefully break it by absorbing the energy from the spirit crystals into my body to increase the amount of essence energy in my aperture lake."
Luo Yun slowly clasped the spirit crystals and began slowly absorbing them into his body, the lake's essence grew larger and larger as Luo Yun continued absorbing the crystal's energy. Because Luo Yun's talent was only D-grade, the absorption process was going really slow, furthermore the lake's recovery rate was six times slower than an A-grade level aptitude.
This was why the sects favored talent a lot!
Even if two cultivators were of the same level, unless the essence-user with the lower talent had a treasure or a way to speed up the recovery rate of his essence would he then have a chance to kill someone with a greater aptitudes. otherwise it will be simply like fighting multiple people at the same time.
Luo Yun raised his hand slowly and the waves of the essence lake began to ripple, the waves rose and shot toward Luo Yun's heart like a phoenix!
The waves pierced through Luo Yun's heart and revealed a golden core residing inside, the lake depleted quickly as it continued striking into the golden core in a seemingly endless manner, but it only appeared that way because while Luo Yun was controlling the waves, he was also replenishing the lake using his spirit crystals at the same time.
This was not an easy task which was why most D-rank mortals stuck at this stage unless they had help from an external force or encountered a life-changing encounter that would help break the golden core in one go.
But for Luo Yun who was already centuries old, this was an easy task for him.
Time passed and Luo Yun continued doing the same thing everyday, as a month passed by, the amount of crystals used was approximately thirty-three crystals. The size of the golden core was reduced by sixteen percent, reducing it to eighty-three percent of its original size!
Another month passed, the size was reduced by another sixteen percent making it sixty-six percent from its original size!
Another two months passed, thirty three percent!
Another month passed, sixteen percent!
"Only one month…" Luo Yun lightly muttered, his heart stirred with excitement.
Day by day the golden core decreased more and more, but at the last 8 percent a sudden change occurred!
The golden core began radiating a golden light as the edges grew firmer and stern.
Luo Yun's heart leaped as he saw the core reacting to his constant striking.
"To think this body's core is rejecting ascension this much, at this rate my spirit crystals will not last!
The crystals that amounted to sixteen were quickly depleting as Luo Yun used the waves to strike relentlessly.
fourteen spirit crystals.
Ten spirit crystals.
five spirit crystals.
one spirit crystal!
As the spirit crystals were continuously used up, Luo Yun gritted his teeth.
The core still had four percent of its size left, while the spirit crystals were completely used up. Luo Yun knew that if he stopped for a couple of days, then the core was going to restore itself and all his effort in these past 5 months would have simply been meaningless!
"No...I refuse to accept this outcome!"
He began pushing forward with more force, this time using the essence from his own lake as the sole striking force.
The depth of the water decreased quickly as more essence was used.
A phoenix like wave crashed at his heart, unwilling to accept its defeat.
As Luo Yun continuously pushed forward, suddenly he saw a crack forming on his core and he began laughing madly as he pushed all of his remaining essence energy into the golden core.
The light shone brighter and brighter until the gold core couldn't handle it anymore and shattered!
Luo Yun felt his body undergoing a massive change as the limit of his mortal body was broken through.
His perception started increasing, he started to sense and hear better. His body mass began increasing from the frail and skinny size to an average weight which made his appearance look more well-toned and built!
But the most important change was that he could use his essence energy in the real world now!
As he noticed the changes that began happening to his body, Luo Yun grinned as he laughed earnestly.
On this day, Luo Yun has taken his first toward the world of essence-users and reached the first step.