Wu Tan Cheng — The Cliff's Edge — That Same Night
Xiao Yan was already there when Xiao Se arrived.
He was lying in the grass at the cliff's edge the same way he always did — flat on his back, one arm folded under his head, the other resting on his stomach, staring at the sky with the expression of a man conducting a silent and very personal argument with the universe.
The moon was fat and silver above them, throwing clean pale light across the hillside and the sprawl of Wu Tan Cheng below. From up here the city looked almost peaceful.
Xiao Se sat down on the flat rock beside him, the one he had claimed over three years of these late-night conversations, and said nothing for a moment. The air up here was cooler than in the compound, thinned by the altitude, carrying the faint green smell of the mountain forest that began somewhere to the east in the darkness.
"9th Stage," Xiao Yan said, without looking at him. It was not a question, and it did not carry any particular weight. It was the tone of someone filing information.
"Part of it," Xiao Se said.
A pause. Then Xiao Yan turned his head. "Part of it."
"I am a 8th Stage Dou Zhe," Xiao Se said calmly. "What the monument displayed was not my full measure. I channeled enough to produce a result that would be surprising without being implausible. 9th Stage is the highest in the clan short of a full Dou Zhe. It is remarkable but not impossible. It generates the right kind of attention."
Another pause. Then Xiao Yan let out a short breath through his nose that was not quite a laugh but was clearly related to one. "The right kind."
"Loud enough to establish credibility. Not so loud that people start asking questions I cannot answer."
"And what questions can you not answer?"
Xiao Se looked at the sky. "The ones about why my real strength is still hidden. The ones about what I plan to do next."
"But still Xiao Se, how the hell did you learn to control Dou Qi perfectly like that?" asked Xiao San in confusion.
"Actually it's simple, you just need to start by walking on a tree using Dou Qi on foot and after you master walking on trees using Dou qi then you can start to learn walking on water surface using Dou qi without falling to water." said Xiao Se in a matter of fact.
"Xiao Yan who was listening to it suddenly became silent and then "what? You did that training method in Naruto. Did that really work?" asked Xiao Yan in a shocked face.
"When I was at Dou Zhi Li it did not work but after I became a Dou Zhe it started to work" said Xioa Se.
"How many years have you been practising that method?" asked Xiao Yan.
"I think around five years but the first 2 years i was stuck into trying to even take two steps up a tree but i always failed since my Dou qi always runs out so i just concentrated improving my Dou Qi and after i became a Dou Zhe, only i was able to properly walk on trees." said Xiao Se.
"Your really something else" said Xiao Yan shaking his head and then sign in frustration and said "but really lucky Xiao Se"
Xiao Se didn't need to be told he knew what Xiao Yan was thinking.
"Come on man, don't think about losing your dou qi. Don't you know that if you need something you need to lose something. Ah ,so when you take off don't forget about me" said Xiao Se jokingly and lighting the mood.
Xiao Yan just shook his head with a smile.
Then they felling to a brief silence
"Hey, I was thinking about going to leave the clan and go around traveling to gain some experience " announced Xiao Se suddenly.
Xiao Yan quickly got up and looked at Xiao Se in shock .
"But why suddenly?" asked Xiao Yan.
"Actully it is not a sudden decision, now I'm at Dou Zhe 8th stage and staying at the clan would not help me improve Dou Qi. So going out is the best thing for me." Said Xiao Se while still lying on the grass.
"Then when are you leaving?" asked Xiao Yan.
"I still haven't decided when but I was planning to leave next month" lied Xiao Se while looking at the sky. Since he had decided to leave the clan tomorrow morning when Yun Lan sect people came to break off Xiao Yan's engagement with Nalan Yanran.
And this was not a decision made just after his System Awakened; this was what he was planning months back.
And thus he had already gathered all his supplies needed for the trip.
"OK, then just tell me when you are leaving. Then I'm going to sleep" said Xiao Yan as he descended the mountain.
Xiao Se looked at his descending figure and also took a quick glance at the black color ring that he was wearing and thought "it's not good for people to know that he knows the future and thus he had not revealed the reason for Xiao Yan why he lost his Dou qi and also he only said to Xiao Yan that he is from earth and he had not told that he knew the future thing that was about to happen and he never planned to reveal them just like keeping the system that the awaken today as a secret for ever.
Before Dawn
Xiao Se was out of bed before the sky turned grey.
He dressed quietly, pulled on his travelling robe, and checked the pack he had prepared the night before: two days of dried rations, a waterskin, a short hunting blade with a good edge, basic medicinal supplies wrapped in oilcloth. Everything had a use.
Then he went to the mirror and took it down the wall and placed it on the ground and at the place where the mirror was hung there was a hole which was the size of the palm.
Xiao Se put his hand inside the hole without any hesitation and pulled out a white ring and then looked at the white ring for a few seconds and then he put it on his hand and put his Dou qi to the ring to store his supplies. And yes the white color ring is a high grade storage ring that was left by his parents which his Uncle gave to him when he was 13 years old.
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He thought it was a normal ring in the beginning but one day when he was just checking the ring by putting Dou qi inside the ring he discovered that the ring was absorbing dou qi and then discovered that it was a storage ring.
And inside it he found a letter that his parents had left him. As for the content of the letter, it said How much they love me and wanted to take me with them. And they told me to become strong and not to care for them. And it also said that one day they would come meet me soon.
And Xiao Se had cried a little when he first read the letter because he had not taken over someone's body but reborn inside the womb of his mother. But they were separated by someone from his mothers side even before he could see his parents' faces.
And he also found many Dou Qi Cultivation Techniques of every element, even some rare elements like poison and shadow and also Dou Qi Fighting Techniques.
And the most highest ones were Di high rank techniques and Lowest were Low Xuan rank techniques.
And there were 6 scrolls which were sealed and no matter how he tried he could not open them. So after trying a few times he did not try to open them again.
And lastly there were 1 million Gold coins.
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He set the note on the table in the main hall where his uncle would find it at breakfast. He had written it carefully — brief, not alarming, just enough information to prevent a search party:
'Training outside the city for 1 year. Do not worry. I will bring something back worth seeing.' He had considered adding more, and decided that more would only generate questions he was not ready to answer.
He left through the side gate as the first faint light was beginning to separate the sky from the horizon.
The city was quiet at this hour. The merchant gate was already open — it opened before dawn to let the earliest traders out — and he passed through with a small group of farmers heading to the outer fields, unremarkable in his plain travel clothes, just another early riser with somewhere to be. No one looked twice.
Beyond the walls, the road east stretched into open land, the farmland flat and pale in the pre-dawn grey. He set a steady pace and did not hurry. Hurrying attracted attention. Steady movement simply arrived.
The warmth below his sternum pulsed once as he cleared the city gates, as though marking his departure.
He thought: I am coming.
Then he put his head down and walked.
* * *
After Four days of long journey.
Xiao Se finally arrived at his destination- Qingshan Town
Just when the sun was going to set down.
- Qingshan Town is a mercenary town that was right next to the magical beast mountain range and it was also the town where Xiao Yan first met Xiao Yixian (Little Fairy doctor).
And he especially came to this town to meet the Little Fairy doctor but he was not in a hurry. First what he had to do was to make his first treasure Gu by killing a magical beast and then he could go to meet Xiao Yixian.
But before that, Xiao Se found a small Inn to stay and rest before entering into the magical beast mountain range.
And after slept loudly from exhaustion
The next day Xiao Se got up from his bed at mid-morning , when the town was at its busiest — hunters gearing up for the day's work, traders haggling over beast materials at the small market near the eastern road. He moved through the activity at the same unhurried pace he had used all morning, noting things without staring: the layout of the streets, the location of the supply shops, the track that led from the town's eastern edge directly toward the mountain forest boundary.
After having his breakfast at the inn he quickly entered the magical beast mountain range with his sword that he bought from the Wu tan city.