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Chapter 111 – Waking up in a foreign land

From the skies, the rain loudly fell, the sounds of the rainfall against the tree made a loud sha sha noise. On the surface of leaves, many raindrops accumulated and slid off the leaves.

In this rain covered forest, the lands had turned muddy as the rain fell,  covering the skies in a faint darkness, only the occasional thunderbolt illuminated these lands. The rumbling thunder in the skies reverberating across the night.

In the depths of the forest, hidden in the darkness was a small mountain range, this group of mountains were not very tall, incomparable in height to the Wu Mountains, yet there are many of them.

As the thunder flashed ripping apart the skies, with the instant illumination it brought with it you can see that on one of the mountains laid a single person.

Furthermore this person had been here for a good number of days, in this obscure place where people never visit, it is not know how he had appeared there. In his ragged hide clothes, he seemed extremely haggard.

Laying there motionless, this young man looked barely twenty years old, yet although his features seemed delicate, a scar was cut across his face.

His eyes were shut as a large number of wounds covered his body. Under the rainfall his wounds had already turned white, yet no blood flowed out.

This rain continued to fall even after several days elapsed before finally weakening, revealing the clear skies once more, as the dark clouds receded, the sunlight returned.

As it was summer now, after the rain stopped a thick mist filled the lands, thoroughly baking all the creatures in its heat.

The youth lying by the mountain side remained unmoving akin to a corpse.

Many more days passed, now several vultures started to circle the sky, dancing in the sunlight as they stared hesitatingly at the young man lying by the mountain side.

Finally one of them grew impatient and dived towards this young man, after making a few rounds near him it immediately dived towards the youth’s chest, using its sharp beak it pecked at this prey it had been eyeing for days.

Beakful after beakful, this vulture ate, as it ate, it slowly let down its guard as it finally decided that this was truly a dead man.

Shortly after, the vultures in the sky flew down one by one, silently landing on this young man’s body. But the moment they landed, this youth’s eyes suddenly shot open, his right hand suddenly grabbing hold of the first vulture which descended. As the other vultures wanted to escape, they realised that their bodies had become stuck onto this young man’s body, preventing they from flying off.

While clutching a vulture, he brought it towards his lips before taking a fierce bite into the vulture and drank its blood. Swallowing its blood and into his body, allowing his body which was numb from hunger to finally once more feel pain.

Yet at the same time, this pain brought a certain warmth back to his body.

Very quickly, the struggling vulture lost all its blood as it moved for the last time, afterwards this youth took a deep breath and reached towards another of the struggling vultures on his body, once more sucking it dry. After the seven or so vultures have met their end, this young man’s complexion finally regained some colour.

Lying there facing the skies, the blue blue skies under the blazing sun, his gaze was a blue, he was Su Ming.

In the many previous days of rainfall, he had already awakened. However the moment he did, he seemed to still be able to hear the faint voice keeping him company calling out to him “big brother”.

But when he had fully awakened, he suddenly felt the intense pain throughout his body, completely powerless, unable to even raise his arm.

He could only lie there as the rain fell onto his body, the raindrops falling against his wounds, enduring the pain until everything turned numb. However the numbness did not come from his body, rather from his mind.

These few days while he laid in the pains, his mind was a confused mess, all he could remember was being midair near the Wu Mountains, because of a single palm from the person in the stars a giant whirlpool appeared, the moment he was sucked inside all he could see was Grandpa’s closed eyes as life eluded him.

He did not know what the whirlpool was, neither did he understand why it appeared, let alone where he was now but as the gazed at the skies, the blazing sun and the unfamiliar surroundings, he had a vague hunch that he was no longer on the Wu Mountains.

He was unwilling to let himself believe that grandpa was dead, but he deeply understood that grandpa’s injuries were much more serious than his, his last look of grandpa’s unmoving body made Su Ming unwilling to think about it any further. His heart was filled with pain, the pain of losing one’s precious kin.

“Grandpa cannot possibly die like this” Su Ming’s eyes slowly closed, his sorrowful expression was gradually suppressed by him. Since he was a child, he grew up under grandpa’s care, never had he left to travel far by himself. But today his surroundings were all foreign to him, leaving him with a sense of solitude yet at the same time filling him with determination.

When his eyes opened once more, his sorrow was nowhere to be seen, it had been hidden deeply in his heart, leaving a cold and calm gaze for others to see.

He struggled to sit up, under the intense sunlight he sat cross legged, slowly circulating his congested blood, as it flowed it transformed into an intense pain that circulated throughout his body yet he still silently grit his teeth.

He understood that after forcefully breaking through then consecutively go through battles each time heavily injuring himself, there were many hidden injuries in his body.

“The two hundred and forty three blood vein cultivation at the seventh level is still here, but after the injury all that i can use is……” Su Ming panted as he painfully raised his right arm. His expression unchanging as he got used to the pain.

“Only about one hundred blood veins, which is about the power of the fifth level of blood condensation. Only, as time passes these problems would worsen as I grow weaker and eventually die.” Su Ming continued to silently circulate his blood veins, eventually the skies darkened and the moon surfaced. While gazing at the moon, strands of moonlight circulated around his body, entering and nourishing it.

A night quickly passed, and the morning sun once more illuminated the lands, dispersing the cold of the night. Su Ming once more opened his eyes as he spat out a mouthful of turbid qi.

His complexion was much better than the previous day, but his weakness was still apparent, frowning he inspected his body with a sigh.

“If not for my mastery of the nuanced realm and the moonlight’s support, after last night I would not even have this much power left, even now I can only release ninety-eight blood veins of power. I need to quickly procure enough medicine to help resolve this issue.” Su Ming let out another sigh as he inspected his belongings, although he was inside the whirlpool for god knows how long, his few possessions were still around.

A damaged pouch, a small bone belonging to Shan Hen before he died as well as a bone token used to signify the tribe’s safety given to him by the patriarch.

Other than these things was a bone Ocarina (Xun), a broken fragment of the Wu Shan Totem, a damaged but not broken vial containing two drops of Mán-Blood.

Looking at these items, Su Ming picked up the Wu Shan Tribe totem fragment, this piece which left a scar on his face as it shattered into pieces.

After staring at these things, Su Ming closed his eyes for a long time, eventually deciding that his only choice was to keep everything in the damaged pouch regardless of whether they would disappear from within.

After packing up, Su Ming stood up, his right hand rubbing his eyebrows as he thought about things. Currently he was alone and could only rely on himself, he had to be careful and not make any mistakes.

“In this foreign land and with my present condition, unless I can recover my cultivation, I doubt I should leave this forest, at least here I might be able to find some of the herbs I need.” With a sigh, Su Ming’s gaze flashed as he slowly walked down the hill with his weakened body. Spending a few days cautiously looking around this area.

“Grandpa…… is not here.” After a few days, by a small lake below a cliff, Su Ming sat with his hand clutching his chest, unable to hide the pain reflected on his expression.

Only after a long while did Su Ming once more regain his calm, the sorrow once more buried deep inside him. By the small lake he washed his body and gazed at the reflection looking back at him, no longer was it a tender youthful sixteen year old’s face, instead it was one marked with the vestiges of time.

“Just how many years have I been in that whirlpool…… “ while touching the scar left on his face by the Mán-Totem, Su Ming silently pondered. After cleaning up, he once more put on his robes and tied his hair before sitting by the lake, silently gazing towards the sky.

“The token that the black robed man took out, why did it make grandpa react like that, from that man’s words it would seem that…… we are one of those people……”

“Although Bi Tu died, but the black robed man said there was another reason behind this war……”

“The flag that flew out of grandpa’s body and transformed into a starscape, that black robed man said something about the outer realm……”

“Grandpa wanted to remember the image of the starscape, could it have something to do with my birth” Su Ming silently pondered as a complex expression appeared on his face. What left the greatest impression on him was the figure in the skies, the person made of starlight, the middle aged man who looked like him, just who was he.

A answer gradually formed in his heart, yet he could not be sure if it truly was the correct one.

“He…… could he be my father……”

As these events occurred, Su Ming started to feel that in his body was a great mystery obscuring him from the truth.

“There is also the matter of me not knowing just how far I am away from the Wu Mountains right now.”

“I still remember the agreement with Bai Ling, but I don’t think I have the chance to make it there anymore.” Su Ming shut his eyes once more.

“Xiao Hong, are you still doing well?” As evening approached and the skies gradually darkened, Su Ming finally left this small area, heading back towards the forest, his solitary figure bleakly hobbling forwards.


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