Translator: Aristophaneso Editor: Caron_
The next morning, Ye Tian was just climbing out of his bed when his father came and placed a basin of beast blood by his door.
“Dad…” Ye Tian rubbed his eyes, his face filled with emotion as he looked up at Ye Meng.
Ye Meng smiled and patted Ye Tian’s shoulder, saying: “This blood is from a Level Six Martial Warrior beast. I got it from the Captain, and now it’s yours.”
Ye Tian was overcome with emotion. He knew captain Ye Feng was an impartial man and that his father must’ve paid an equivalent price to bring back so much beast blood.
“Don’t worry—not having a Martial Spirit isn’t a big deal. Your old man will bring you beast blood every day, and you will become as powerful as the other Martial Warriors!” Ye Meng promised, striking his chest.
“Thank you, Dad!” Ye Tian didn’t know what else to say, only reaffirming his oath to become the most powerful Martial Artist in all of White Cloud Town and make his parents proud.
“Okay, I need to leave with the Captain soon to go hunting in the mountains. Just relax and cultivate at home!” Ye Meng said, turning to leave.
“Dad, be careful!” Ye Tian called out behind him.
“En…”
Ye Meng waved his hand, disappearing through the door.
After his father left, Ye Tian clenched his fists and turned to the basin of beast blood before him. His eyes glittered and seemed to burn with a fiery light.
A Level Six Martial Warrior’s beast blood. This beast is already very powerful, but how much Martial Spirit Energy does it contain?! Ye Tian wondered expectantly as he brought the basin into his room and closed the door.
“Meow!”
Ye Tian lit an oil lamp to chase away the darkness still lingering in the room. The faint flickering light danced over the little white tiger’s face, and it began purring as it woke.
“Hey little guy, I’ll take you to get some food soon!” Ye Tian scratched the little white tiger’s head before turning to his sheepskin scroll and arranging his materials according to the spell’s instructions.
It was a simple bit of magic, and Ye Tian was already prepared to cast it. All the required materials were common and accessible, easily acquired in the village in the span of one night.
A Martial Warrior wasn’t required to cast the spell, and even people without a Martial Spirit could become a Magus, just like the ancient Magus Balata.
Martial Warriors used their Martial Spirits to communicate with heaven and earth and absorb Spiritual Qi into their bodies. Magi used particular combinations of materials and complex glyphs and inscriptions to control the same Spiritual Qi to cast spells.
There were two types of practitioners—one type relied on their body, the other relied on external objects—and both reached the same goal through different means.
Luckily, no profound magic was needed to extract Martial Spirit Energy, and the required materials weren’t rare. The most important ingredient was the beast blood, which was also the most troublesome.
Ye Tian arranged the prepared materials and began to cast the magic. Even though this was Ye Tian’s first time formally casting the spell, he had practiced many times the night before and was already familiar with the process.
Almost immediately, a faint fluctuation of Spiritual Qi appeared inside the basin full of beast blood, and as Ye Tian began inscribing his newly-learned glyphs on various sheets of hide parchment, the faint Qi fluctuation grew to cover the entire basin.
“Come, fire!” Just at the right moment, Ye Tian called out softly, waving the burning oil lamp over the basin. With a sudden spark, the entire fluctuation ignited and flames covered the whole basin.
Sizzle!
The flames burned fiercely in a sustained fury for a long time before finally fading away and leaving an empty basin.
No!
Only a tiny amount of black blood lay at the bottom of the basin, surviving the blazes.
“Damnit! Why are you playing with me, heavens? All that blood for only this much Martial Spirit Energy?” Ye Tian’s heart went cold as he looked at the remaining blood. It was hard for him to stomach that such a large basin of beast blood contained such a tiny amount of Martial Spirit Energy.
In that moment, Ye Tian wanted to pound his head into the wall. This was the blood of a Level Six Martial Warrior beast and was very precious, yet it only contained this much Martial Spirit Energy? He needed an entire vat of this energy! How much beast blood would he need then?
“This way is not going to work. Dad is only a Level Seven Martial Warrior, and at the most, he can hunt down a single Level Six Martial Warrior beast every month or so. At this rate, I will need eight to ten years to extract enough Martial Spirit energy.”
Ye Tian furrowed his brows, filled with worry and frustration. The gates to the path of the Martial Warrior had opened up a crack, but now he had to find a way to slip through. He fell into deep thought.
“Ah, forget it. This isn’t something I can deal with now. I need to walk!”
After thinking for a long time, Ye Tian still failed to figure out a solution. He sighed and put down the basin, picked up the little white tiger, and left his room.
After feeding the little white tiger some beast milk, Ye Tian hugged it in his arms and began wandering the village.
The Ye Family Village wasn’t small and contained more than a thousand families.
With the New Year Festival so close, the village was already bustling with preparations. Many villagers were gathered in clumps, talking about the New Year Festival and comparing their children.
“My Da Tou (Big Head) is already a Level Eight Martial Apprentice. This year, he’ll definitely have a good show at the festival!”
“Heehee, my Er Gouzi (Second Doggy) isn’t bad either. He’s a Level Seven Martial Apprentice already, and it won’t be a problem for him to enter the top thirty.”
…
Village children were often given weird nicknames. Traditionally speaking, this was in the hopes of blessing the child with a healthy childhood, and when they became adults, they would be given a new name.
Ye Tian had also been called Xiao Pidan1 before, but at his strong insistence, he was now only called by his formal name “Ye Tian”.
The New Year Festival… Ye Tian thought to himself as he overheard the bustling conversations around him. His lips couldn’t help but shake a little, and his eyes dimmed.
On the Shen Zhou Continent, the Martial Warriors were highly respected. Martial ability prevailed no matter the place, and the same was true in the Ye Family Village. Each New Year Festival, a competition would be held in every village, allowing the children to compete against one another and nurturing the next generation of powerful Martial Warriors in the village.
Ye Tian had participated in the festival the previous year, and while he was only fifteen, he was already a Peak Martial Apprentice and had basically destroyed all his opponents, easily and unquestionably taking first place. He was subsequently called a once-in-a-century talent.
Even people from the other villages in the area had heard of his name, and his reputation had been unrivaled.
It was then that the Village Chief from the Lin Family Village, one of the three most powerful villages in the White Cloud Town area, personally came to Ye Tian’s house to forge a marriage alliance for his youngest daughter.
But those happy days didn’t last, and the news of his lack of Martial Spirit shocked everyone. All kinds of taunts and mockery soon followed and the betrothal was broken. Now, the genius was a crippled piece of trash.
“Just wait. I’ll definitely become a Martial Warrior!” Ye Tian clenched his fists, his eyes filling with determination.
At that moment, a faint, refreshing fragrance passed by with the breeze, and following on its heels was a beautiful figure who came and stopped in front of Ye Tian.
“Ye Tian!”
A young woman stood before him, a year or two over twenty, her eyes and teeth bright and clear. She wore a long, water-like blue dress that couldn’t hide her gorgeous figure. All in all, she was like a spring breeze and a light to brighten the eyes.
But the current Ye Tian was in no mood to appreciate the beautiful girl, and he smiled with some bitterness as he looked at the woman in front of him. After biting his lips for a moment, he said, “Older Sister Xue, what brings you here?”
“Are you alright?” Lin Xue asked gently, her beautiful eyes filled with concern as she examined the somewhat listless Ye Tian.
“There’s nothing wrong; this blow won’t defeat me!” Ye Tian shook his head, sighing quietly to himself. Even though these sisters came from the same parents, each had such different character from the others.
While the Eldest Sister Lin Jiao was mean and snobbish, the Second Sister Lin Xue was warm and generous, and the Little Sister Lin Tingting was a happy flower, cheerful and uplifting. The Lin Family Village Chief’s three precious daughters were well-known and were the three famed beauties of White Cloud Town.
“Don’t blame my little sister for this betrothal-breaking matter. She’s been locked up by Father,” Lin Xue said gently.
So it was true… Ye Tian’s eyes dimmed a little at these words, but they came as no surprise. After a moment of silence, he sighed, saying: “Tingting, she… is she alright?”
“She’s doing very poorly. She said that she will only marry you and even threatened to kill herself. Father had no choice but to lock her up,” Lin Xue whispered.
“Tingting…” Ye Tian’s whole body quivered. He bit his lips and clenched his fists so hard that they seemed to crack.
She hasn’t abandoned me. How could I disappoint her?
Ye Tian slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath before looking back at Lin Xue. He took her hand and said firmly, “Older Sister Xue, please tell Tingting that if she waits for me, I will never let her down. I will definitely make it so that she can marry me proudly.”
Ye Tian’s confident eyes startled Lin Xue.
“Okay! I will tell her for you!” Lin Xue nodded, a flicker of gloom dancing over her eyes before being quickly replaced by kindness and well-wishes.
“Oh, what a touching moment. What now? Since you can’t have my little sister, now you’re targeting my second sister?” A voice called over, sneering.
A male and female pair walked in through the main gates of the village, both in their twenties. The man was tall and strong, and the woman was a blooming flower.
When they turned to look at the pair, both Ye Tian and Lin Xue frowned. The woman was Lin Xue’s older sister, Lin Jiao, and the man was someone Ye Tian was familiar with as well—the Ye Family Village’s #2 young genius, Ye Wei.
Of course, now that everyone knew that Ye Tian had no Martial Spirit, the number 2 genius Ye Wei had already been promoted to number one, and all of the attention was now on him.
“Big Sister, you misunderstand,” Lin Xue replied as she frowned.
“Misunderstand? I saw him grab your hand. What, you think I don’t know you secretly love him? He’s just trash now, yet you still want to protect him? Hmph!” Lin Jiao mocked.
“Big Sister, you…” Lin Xue’s expression fell, and her voice became choked with anger.
“Lin Jiao, don’t cross the line!”
Ye Tian called out as he frowned, unable to watch.
“What? A loser like you dares to criticize this young miss? Hmph. I’ll have you know that as long as I’m here, you will never be able to touch either of my sisters. A toad like you wants to eat swan?” Lin Jiao sneered.
“Big Sister, enough. I’m going back now!” Lin Xue shouted, unable to stand listening anymore. She nodded to Ye Tian before turning and leaving.
“Tell our sister to stop thinking about this trash! I’ve already spoken with Father, and she will marry the mayor’s son next year!” Lin Jiao shouted at Lin Xue’s back, calling out so loudly as if she were intentionally speaking so that Ye Tian could hear.
Ye Tian’s face went pale and his eyes reddened. His fists clenched until the veins protruded.