—--
It was as if time had stopped; the broken piece of porcelain in Lu Shang hand stopped just an inch away from the man's throat, as if caught in an invisible net.
Lu Shang clearly saw the man who had previously been disguised as a madman's merciless and completely sensible attitude.
Now, Lu Shañg's entire body was frozen in place like a stone statue, and he couldn't move a hair.
Then, looking into the man's all-knowing eyes, he realized that everything was due to the man's manipulation. The man had deliberately angered Lu Shang so that he would attack.
Anger now completely shook Lu Shañg's silence.
Body, but due to the other party's powerful spiritual sense and its invisible pressure, he still could not move a step. Suddenly, before he could understand anything else, Lu Shañg' saw a palm filling his entire vision, which hit his chest before he could blink.
In the blink of an eye, Lu Shañg ran backward at almost several times his own speed, hit the wall, and fell to the ground. Despite wearing protective garments, his bones were broken in various parts of his body, and he was bleeding.
Darkness descended upon him but because of his monstrous willpower despite lying on the ground like a broken doll, he slightly raised his head.
As a result, because of the major internal injury he vomited blood several times and was in endless pain, but he put everything aside and focused on his inner space as if he were trying to feel something. After confirming it a few times, he let out a long breath.
Everyone around him had already come toward him, and he realized that he was now out of danger. Whether they were rich or poor cultivators or mortals, killing someone directly in the family meant breaking the family's core rules, which resulted in death.
So, being able to escape danger from this incident, he supported himself without interrupting his body's defensive mechanism, and the man's cursed words rang out in his ears as he was about to faint.
"I don't know anything anymore. You're all out to kill me. Get out of here. I don't want to see anyone else. LEAVE..."
After listening to the cursed voice, he fainted on the spot before he could feel any more pain.
Many people around wanted to attack this crazy man like Lu Shañg, but did not do it out of fear, so they felt a lot of relief seeing Lu Shang plight.
However, due to their anger and resentment toward the man, some of them saw Lu Shañg, who had already fainted, as a new hero.
After a few breaths later some of them bravely stood between the man and Lu Shang,
Later they carried half-dead Lu Shang to the medical hall.
As an Outlander Lu Shang cannot help but mourn for his former self.
'According to memory, the man is at the peak Qi stage, and former Lu Shañg is at the early stage. Even if the man is otherwise inclined, Lu Shang's sudden attack is just a joke to the man.'
At a close range, the man stopped Lu Shang and turned him into a statue with just his Spiritual Energy pressure.
Then that crazy man used his raw strength to palm strikes to Lu Shang's chest, which almost killed him, despite him wearing the powerful inner protective garments his parents had given him.
'This is truly the cultivation world, where the strong evolve by eating the weak, and even small stage differences are almost impossible to overcome.'
After sighing a few times the current Lu Shang reminisced about the next following event.
-Later, the clan decided to punish Lu Shañg by cutting off the compensation for his parents' death on that dangerous mission. Instead of paying him, they decided that he would have to serve as a clan guard for ten years. Lu Shañg knew very well that if it hadn't been for this situation, he would have died for attacking clan members with higher status.
Because the man was at the peak Qi Consolidation stage, he had some chance of building a foundation; on the other hand, Lu Shan, whose parents had already died and who only had low roots and an Early Stage, had no future.
The difference between them was like heaven and hell, so Lu Shang accepted the ten-year guard service sentence.
As a result he joined as a low-rank guard because of his 2nd-stage Qi Consolidation level ;along with silently pressing the surging emotions into his heart.
In the first year of being a guard, Lady Luck signed Lu Shañg, and his fortune changed dramatically. This year, in an unfortunate incident, he saved the only granddaughter of a powerful Foundation Establishment senior, and the senior was so happy that he promoted Lu Shang from his low-ranking guard post and donated a huge amount of contributions to him.
These contribution points were enough to choose any mortal mid-grade technique of his clan and use the remaining contribution points to acquire some cultivation resources.'
According to my memory,
Notably, except for a few exceptional techniques, the mortal mid-level technique was the highest technique for Qi cultivators.
Lu Shañg had already received the cultivation and defensive techniques from his parents, and joined as a guard he had also received a new attack technique.
Therefore, he only lacked an escape or a powerful movement technique, which is why Lu Shañg used that contribution to later choose his clan's famous footstep technique, which made his clan famous in FrostBloom Solar county.
For the next few years, Lu Shañg kept the pain of his parents' untimely deaths to himself and devoted himself to cultivation. At the age of eighteen, he mastered the Lu Clan's famous foot technique skill at the minor level.
The following year, at the age of 19, using almost all of his suddenly gained resources, he reached the 3rd level of the Qi Consolidation Stage, surprising most of his Clan members who had always looked down on him.
He was happy with his success and even organized a small party with some uncles and aunts who still knew him well. They were actually relatives and close people of his parents who slightly cared for him when he suddenly felt despair after learning of his parents' misfortune.
Later, when he told the senior, whose contribution had led to his rapid improvement, the senior invited him to his house for an evening feast.
Upon reaching the senior's house in the evening, Lu Shan realized that in addition to his success, he was mainly invited to encourage the senior's worried granddaughter.
Because this girl's coming-of-age ceremony was in a few months, this fickle and unruly girl, who grew up hearing many stories about cultivators from her grandfather, suddenly felt the pressure until a month before her coming-of-age ceremony and became depressed.
In the evening, along with eating and drinking, Lu Shang was trying to encourage the girl by talking about his experiences and various things. The girl also felt light and wanted to learn about various things from him. After eating and drinking, Lu Shang saw the smile on the girl's face and prepared to go home. At that time, the girl's grandfather called Lu Shang to have a separate conversation with him.
Senior Lu Shiming said in a very serious and knowledgeable manner, "Lu Shang, I know you are a capable boy. You have managed to bring yourself to this point even in this situation, which is impossible for many. I know you have a bad feeling toward our clan, but it's not just you; many members of this clan have such an attitude.
Since our clan's resources are very limited, it is not possible to consider all members properly, yet injustice has been done to you for various reasons. By saying this, I do not want to show you sympathy because you do not need it. You have done me a great favor that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
That's why you saved my granddaughter. I was looking into your affairs and noticed a strange thing. You were very weak before, so it wouldn't have mattered if I told you this or not. However, I think your future is bright, so you should be more careful.
After looking around, senior Lu Shiming looked around and started speaking seriously again.
"Your parents' sudden participation in that mission was a matter of great concern. Although they had already participated in several dangerous missions, clan missions were only for the elite of the family, which they couldn't participate in if they wanted to. When I looked deeper into it, I felt pressure coming from above. It was beyond my control, so be careful."
After looking around, Senior Lu Shiming looked around and started speaking seriously again.
"Your parents' sudden participation in that mission was a matter of great concern. Although they had already participated in several dangerous missions, that mission of the clan was only for the elite of the family, which they couldn't participate in if they wanted to.
And when I went to look deeper into it, I felt pressure coming from above. It was beyond my control, so be careful."
The words felt like lightning striking his body and mind; even though he was blaming himself in his heart, he still felt uncertain about this matter, and now Senior Lu Shiming's words had taken on a greater form. He thanked Senior Lu Shiming for his warning and left.
The next morning, after thinking all night and not finding any answer, he couldn't control any longer and arrived at his clan's mission hall.Without any permission, started questioning the acceptability of his parents' mission with the members working there.
At one point, an argument broke out between them, and suddenly all the emotions and anger that had been pent up for the past few years started burning like fire in Lu Shang. So he lost control and engaged in a direct fight with them, and finally, Lu Shang was thrown in front of the medicine hall, almost half dead again.
But this time, Lu Shang realizes in a half-dead state that there is actually a big secret behind the death of his parents, due to which he gets a lot of relief from all kinds of emotions of blaming himself and understands clearly that he can reveal all the secrets and punish all the culprits if he becomes strong.
And that will never be possible if he stays in this clan, so he decided that after he recovered a bit, he would run away from his clan.
During the next month, while recovering, he hears a piece of news: the recruitment for the Thousand Mountain Sect will start in the middle of this year. This is the best and last chance he has been looking for in his heart.
A few days after hearing the news, in the dark of night, he silently fled the clan with the last of his possessions.
Finally, after about four months, he reached the Iron Pass of Mountain Range Prefecture. The distance from his county to this place was about several thousand kilometers, which was a journey of a little over two and a half months for him.
However, due to the multitude of unpredictable loose cultivators and fierce beasts littering the mountain path, Lu Shang narrowly evaded death on numerous occasions and had to make several detours to arrive at the 'Iron Pass Bazaar.' This bustling trading hub served as the first line of defense and fortress city of the Prefecture, which fell under the direct authority of the Sect.
At the foot of tens of mountain ranges, a beautiful ancient city stood there. This city stretched for thousands of kilometers, like a massive behemoth lying beneath the mountain range, like a sleeping beast.
Arriving at the heavily guarded Western gate in front of the Western City district, he, who had already spent all of his money, was almost kicked out.
Because every new cultivator needs to pay fifty spirit stones just to get a city pass with a one-year limitation.
Yes, fifty spirit stones! He couldn't believe his ears. Just to get entry into this city, you had to pay fifty lower stones, which was equivalent to half of a mid-level stone, half the annual income of an Early Qi stage Cultivator.
In this world, most cultivators mainly use spirit stones in their transactions.
100 low-grade spirit stones = 1 mid-grade.
100 mid-grade = 1 high-grade, but high-grade spirit stones are very rare.
But hey, this poor sheep still had his wool.
Reluctantly, he sold his last surviving mid-tier protecting inner garment, which was the last sign of his parents and had saved him from death many times.
Almost feeling naked, he passed through the city gate. Later he heard the good news, for which he had traveled thousands of kilometers.
The good news was that the 'Thousand Mountain Sect's upcoming five-year disciple recruitment exam would begin in 15 days.
After getting into this trading city, where most things in the entire country were bought and sold, he found everything here required more spirit stones to purchase compared to outside.
A few moments ago, he sold his almost damaged mid-tier protecting robe for a few hundred fewer spirit stones and gave the guard fifty stones to pass through the gate. So he still has some low-tier spirit stones left.
Later, he goes to the nearby market area to buy some cultivation resources and then go to the building management authority, because of one of the city rule, he can't even sleep on the road.
So, he bought some necessary things for cultivation, such as hunger relief pills and mortal tier medical herbs. And later, he rented an old courtyard near the outermost layer of the Southwest Area.
Because he found out some time ago that in this city, even the cheapest resident inns or houses cost five to six times more, which is a big waste for him at the moment.
Outside the city, they weren't so outrageous. But this city was the sect's direct city that required spirit stones even for dumping your own shit. So he rented an old house far away, for a small price.
It was already evening when he reached the rental courtyard on the Southwest outskirts, between the Southern and Western Division Border areas.
The dilapidated building is located inside the courtyard, opposite the main gate and against the back yard wall.
Arriving in front of the door, he took out the newly-bought, low-level protective talisman that he had hidden inside his cloth, placed it on the door, and entered the room.
Since the talisman is low-grade, it does not completely dissolve into the door or wall and can only block the senses of early-stage cultivators. However, there is another purpose for placing the talisman outside the room instead of inside, which is to make others understand that this room is already occupied and the cultivator inside is practicing cultivation.
Therefore, if someone sees this talisman and still tries to use spiritual sense or any other method to detect what's inside, then it should be understood that the other party has bad intentions.
After entering the room and seeing nothing else, he lay down on the floor in the empty room because he was so tired and mentally exhausted from these past few days of self-defence and non-stop journey.
As soon as he lay down on the ground and closed his eyes, a silent darkness descended before them, as if some dark beast had swallowed the former Lu Shañg whole.
And that was the time when I as a transmigrator completely opened my eyes to this dangerous world...
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