Warning, from here on out to the next few chapters, things are going to get a little messy, so much so that even I have a hard time understanding. But all of this is for the plot!
***
My name is Shu Wuan.
My age is 70, and I am the protector of the chamber of the treasury present in the manor of the Chen family.
I am a First-rate martial artist.
There were many things I wanted to achieve in the course of this harsh life, but almost all of them remain unfulfilled.
The first thing I wanted was to become a cultivator and soar through the heavens like a bright moon.
However, the slap of having no spiritual roots hit me hard and sent me back down to the abyss of mediocrity.
But hope was still there for me, martial arts; there was a saying that martial arts could allow one to become a being, similar to a cultivator.
Even if it was a legend, I still had a chance.
Years passed, my skills improved, but my reaIm couldn't. Again, I had been stuck at a wall.
More years passed, and I was now a father to a blessed daughter and a husband to a beautiful wife.
Everything seemed to be going well until the day came when cultivators arrived in the village where I resided.
It turned out that my daughter, Shu Xie, possessed a special spiritual root, meaning that she could become a cultivator.
But I...I didn't want my daughter to become a cultivator.
Perhaps it was my awareness of the dangers of being a cultivator, or maybe it was my subconscious that triggered my jealousy.
The jealousy was directed towards my own daughter. The jealousy of my own weakness.
I was weak. Both in mind and body.
I watched them take my daughter and the life of my strong wife, who died helplessly.
5 years passed.
And then the heavens took my daughter from me, too.
She died during one of the cultivation techniques that she was practising, but that was what they told me, as 'courtesy' for being her father.
A courtesy, where they didn't even let me see my own daughter's corpse, whose face I hadn't even seen for 5 years.
I was cursed to be alone.
The heavens had forsaken me. No talent, no luck, born to be always alone in life and... death.
Taking the grief deeper in my heart, I began the latter journey of my life, ultimately, ending up as the protector of the chamber of the treasury present in the manor of the family of my friend, Chen Rong.
A person who is a cultivator and the village chief of the Qincheng Village. A few years later, the family was blessed with a child, Chen Liang.
However, this blessing soon turned out to be a sign of worry, as Chen Liang wasn't born with spiritual roots.
His father—who was always kind to me despite being a cultivator— was using countless methods to cure his son's problem; however, all the efforts were fruitless.
Years passed, and the young master grew up as a spoiled brat with lousy ambitions and unrealistic expectations.
He had visited this place a few times to find a cure for his problem, only to find nothing and left defeated.
I pitied him, and also hoped that he wouldn't go through what my daughter had to go from, if he ever finds a solution to his problem.
Since he couldn't find what he wanted, the lad stopped visiting it, and I started to receive one guest less than the usual.
A year or two passed, and then, suddenly, one day, he reappeared in front of me again.
However...
There was something different about.
It wasn't the same spoiled young master I had known. He...appeared more refined and noble as he always should.
Sitting on the top of one of the shelves in the library, I looked down at him with slight interest. Unexpectedly, my hand clutched around the jade pendant I had made for my daughter.
My hand trembled slightly as I rubbed my thumb over the smooth surface of the jade pendant. It had long lost its glow, yet in my eyes, it still shimmered faintly with the warmth of the past.
The boy—no, the man—stood silently before the shelves, his back straight, his eyes calm like a still lake. There was a faint air around him, something… difficult to describe.
Not quite spiritual energy, yet not the absence of it either. It was as if the world itself leaned slightly toward him, drawn by something unseen.
He wasn't supposed to have that presence. Not him. Not the boy without roots.
Then he shouted:
"This is truly wonderful!!"
My expression sullied.
This brat hasn't changed at all. It was just his appearance, but that 'presence', it was what kept me a little unconvinced.
"What is wonderful, huh, you brat!?" I shouted with my old and cranky voice.
With a swift movement, I appeared in front of him.
Ugh..my back hurts.
Dismissing the pain, I asked with my interest escaping through my voice:
"What brings the young master to the chamber of the treasury?"
The young master bowed down, performing a bào quán.
"Bah! Keep the greetings away from me, tell me what you are here for? There is nothing here that can help you become a cultivator, so if you are here for this, then leave." I snorted.
He released his hand and straightened up his body. Then he looked at my eyes and smiled, and said with firm words:
"I am here to become a martial artist. I know that I have wasted my precious years, but please, Elder Shu, please teach me."
Despite his words, my face remained indifferent; however, my inner self finds itself in chaos.
This.
This.
This...brat. He is following the same path as mine, doesn't he know that the martial arts path isn't as easy as he thinks, that it's even bloodier than cultivation?
No, I will not let him make the same mistake.
My face remained wrinkled and indifferent. I had to break his hope right now, and I knew how to do it.
"If this is what you came for, then don't come to me; do whatever you want in this place. But, no matter what, don't enter the area marked with a black line."
My words pushed through his heart, making his hopeful expression break slightly, but I remained indifferent and disappeared and reappeared back to my spot like a phantom.
Sitting back in my usual place, a seed of thought planted itself in my mind about the words the young master had spoken to me.
It was very strange.
My friend always told me about his son whenever he visited, but he never mentioned even once the change in the behaviour of the young master.
Could it be that the young master was hiding his claws in front of his father, or was it something else?
I didn't know.
However, my thoughts didn't stop there, as a feeling of guilt started to creep slowly into my heart.
I could have taught him. Maybe he could have done it, I mean, he is the son of a genius after all.
Should I approach him? No...let's watch him for now and appear in front of him when he is leaving.
I looked down at him, currently looking around the great library. He took a turn and then reached the martial arts section.
From the interested look in his eyes, I could tell now that he was serious about it.
Sitting idly, I smiled slightly.
"...Let's watch him for a few more moments. I want to see his reaction when he couldn't understand those manuals, as you have to at least be a first-rate to visualise it."
I couldn't wait to see that expression.
With slight chuckles, I watched the young master move around the martial arts section, and to my surprise and luck, he picked out a book which is even beyond my comprehension.
"There now...he is going to make it, that face, hehe~" I snickered silently.
However, all I could see was a frown, not a frown of confusion but disappointment.
"Well...uh...this is interesting," I muttered, continuing my observation.
Minutes passed, multiple manuals were selected out, but that expression didn't change until he took out a very old scripture, which wasn't even a martial arts manual.
But that expression of thrill on his face, just from taking a small glance at that old scripture, was just something else.
"Just what is in that old scripture that he is looking at with such keen interest, despite being surrounded by such masterpieces of martial techniques that even I desire to learn?"
I could only answer it when I would take a look at the manual myself; however, that wasn't possible. Therefore, it might remain a mystery to me forever, perhaps.
Putting the old scripture back in its place, he walked towards the end of the section before taking a sharp left turn leading to the mysticism section.
"Hmm...does he have an interest in shamanism and mysticism?" I asked myself.
Well, interest in one thing, but those techniques have special requirements that mostly can be fulfilled by cultivators or beings with special constitutions.
"Let's leave him alone for a while, mysticism isn't my field anyway..." I yawned before lying down, resting my head on my arms.
Nothing bad will happen, right?
But the thought of the black line, and that 'thing' kept behind it, never let me have breath of peace.
...
"...Sorry...young master."