“Mr Harder gave us an assignment for the weekend. 'Show how machinery and technology are still needed in the Cultivation Age’, and this is my answer. The motorbike is a piece of technology from the Age of the Humans, but it could be easily adopted to the Cultivation Age. It is both a mode of transport and an assistance to our cultivation.” Cody said, avoiding the main reason of having a test run and showing off the motorbike to the wider public.

After Cody’s stunt, people in Slamptown already know that the Harder family has some sort of strange vehicle. It was not beyond the realm of possibility that some lowlife in town may have eyes on the motorbike. Chuck and Nancy quickly concluded that the best way to prevent that is to let as many people know as possible that the motorbike comes from the Harder family. Publicity is security, but it was better to avoid telling people you are using them for your own personal safety.

“This vehicle can help in cultivation? Oh, I get it. It is similar to cars and buses, right?” Mr Frank asked.

“No,” Cody shook his head in response, “drivers used the Exhaustion Method to operate cars and buses. Bikers use the Stimulation Method. A brand-new System based around the motorbike.”

Upon hearing Cody’s answer, eyes widened and Mr Oster asked excitedly. “Really? How? Can you show us the cultivation system? How did you build this motorbike in the first place?”

Cody quickly smiled and went into his prepared answer. “Sorry. Family secret.”

Mr Frank’s eyebrows twitched.

Mr Oster’s mouth hung open and a sound came from him as if something was stuck in his throat.

Principal Moongraze narrowed her eyes and gave Cody with a meaningful look.

Cody knew they were not happy, but there was nothing they could do about it. They may be his teachers and principal, but ‘Family Secret’ was an actual law respected throughout the world.

Back when Essence first came into the world, almost all the cultivation knowledge were held by cultivation families and these families only teach their Methods, System and Techniques to their own family members. The cultivation families had a monopoly on cultivation knowledge, and they weren’t shy about using violence to keep it that way.

As time passed, this changed as more and more individual cultivators invent their own Methods and Techniques. Cultivation knowledge spreads, and the families became less influential. However, they were still powerful and when the Cultivation League was first formed, there was a lot of resistance from the cultivation families. The families were afraid that the League would force them to give up their family heritage and a law had to be created to placate the families.

The Family Law state that no one was allowed to force anyone to share secret cultivation knowledge and it is a law that was fiercely enforced. Not only by the Cultivation League, but also by the cultivation families. It is a law with teeth.

A lot of teeth.

Seeing their reaction, Cody decides to throw his teachers and principal a bone. “At least for now. My family intend to submit the motorbike as a cultivation Invention and our new System would be send to the Cultivation League after more testing. As you know, the League is more particular about new Methods and Systems, so we need more time to test it out before our submission.”

After his explanation, Principal Moongraze’s and Mr Oster’s faces returned to normal, but Mr Frank shook his head and said, “A new Invention and a new System? Your family is really ambitious. You actually tried to invent both at the same time? You know how difficult it is for them to be accepted?”

“We have no choice. At first, my father created the motorbike but after riding it, we discovered…well, I’m sorry but I can’t really say too much about it.” Cody apologized with a gentle smile.

Mr Frank’s eyebrows twitched again.

“Come on Paul, you know you need to aim for the Heavens to get anywhere in life?” Mr Oster chuckled as Cody filed Mr Frank’s first name in his mind. His name is Paul Frank? Mr Frank glared at his colleague, but Mr Oster was no student. He was a cultivator in the Adept rank, and just laugh at the teacher with two first names. Cody had to stop himself from laughing.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Mr Paul Frank must really hate his parents.

“Did your family really build this vehicle, and invent a Cultivation System around it?” Principal Moongraze inquired, ignoring the two male teachers.

“Yes, we did!”

“How? I am not asking for the details, just the history of how they were invented.”

I was glad the principal asked and happily shared the story Chuck and Nancy, mostly Nancy, had concocted. I started with how a cousin of the family found a strange metal frame in the junkyard and sold it to my father. My father bought it mainly due to its novelty value, but after noticing that my father was interested in the frame, my cousin came back with a few other frames he found in the junkyard.

My father has a business mainly involved in the selling of scrap metal and repairing old broken vehicles. After a lot of work on the Cultivation Net, he found pictures of the motorbikes made by the humans. He concluded that the frames were from motorbikes and tried to build one based on the pictures he found. Cody passed it off as a hobby of his father, one that did not have much chance of success as no one knew how to build a human motorbike anymore. So, his father did the next best thing.

He began to modify the design to fit the Cultivation Age.

As a Adept-One cultivator, it was relatively easy for his father to do this. That was when thing began to get serious. The family began testing the motorbikes and working on the System that have to be used to ride one. The result of their work was in front of them, and Cody became a Mortal-Two cultivator because of it.

Cody smiled when he finished. Eyes widened when Cody informed his principal and teachers about Chuck’s rank and his own advancement. Mr Oster was almost buzzing with excitement, and while Principal Moongraze and Mr Frank looked more sceptical, no one was calling out on his lies. It was as they hoped.

It was Nancy who first realized the problem Cody had.

A cultivator having a vision was not unheard of, but going into a fudge and drawing blueprints of ancient vehicles? Even in the Cultivation Age, that was strange, and the family immediately decided they would not be telling anyone about the fudge. If the Cultivation League or some of the Sects knew, they may try to partner with Cody. They may also decide to lock Cody up and experiment on him.

Best not to take the chance.

So, the Harder family needed a story to explain how they got the motorbikes, and this story was the best they could come up with at short notice. Nancy was worried there were too many loopholes in their story, but Cody thinks she worry too much. Cody was comfortable with the story they came up with and could not see anything too wrong with it. The family’s story even had an element of truth in it.

Chuck did buy the frames from Avery.

Chuck had been working on the frames since he bought it from his cousin.

Chuck was the one who modify the design of the motorbikes and build them.

All were technically true. Cody just omitted certain facts like his fudge, and how Chuck built the motorbikes based on his blueprints. And not telling the whole truth wasn’t the same as lying.

Cody was even careful to call Chuck ‘father’ when telling the story. People who lived in the towns outside the cities may be more easy-going about titles, but Cody was talking to a principal and two teachers, so he knew they would be less understanding about a child calling his parents by their real names. So, Cody was surprised when Mr Frank suddenly applauded and smiled mockingly at him.

“Well done! I must praise your storytelling.”

Cody kept his cool and did not react. Mr Frank basically told Cody he did not believe him, and Cody did not know why. His teacher may know he wasn’t telling the whole truth, but Cody still did not believe there is anything too wrong with his story. Cody maintained his smile as his mind whirled.

“Come on now, Paul. There’s nothing wrong about family keeping secrets, it’s part of the law even!” Mr Oster smirked.

“Doesn’t matter,” the principal said with the glimpse of a smile on her face. “Leave such matters to the Cultivation League to sort out. Mr Harder, please go to class. Don’t worry, the school will ensure that no one touch your vehicle.”

Cody was not afraid of that. No one outside the Harder family knows how to ride motorbikes, and Chuck had put in some safety features to prevent people from just making off with the vehicle. It was still good of the principal to offer the assurances and Cody knew better than to spit on goodwill. He gave the principal a grateful nod before walking away.

His strange clothes and pair of sunglasses caused Cody to attract attention, which was the original idea behind letting him ride the motorbike to school in the first place, and Cody made a point to look as calm as possible. He did not want anyone to know that something was wrong.

Behind his stoic face, Cody’s mind was in turmoil. Was their story that bad? Why is everyone assuming he was lying? Or was Cody just that bad of a liar?

Cody hopes it was the last. Cody knew that there would be some doubts about their story, but he never thought people would dismiss it outright! Was it so expected for cultivation creators to come up with some bullshit story that people instinctively think they were lying? The reactions of his teachers and principal told Cody that may be the case.

If true, the Harder family was in trouble.