When the darkness receded, Shao found himself lying on his back. He was staring upward, witnessing as the surrounding trees reached up into the clear blue sky like massive green fingers clawing desperately at immortality. An exhausted groan escaped from Shao’s mouth as he felt the exhaustion in his body. The minor scrapes and bruises he received while fighting the bull was nothing compared to the exhaustion caused by him using that one attack.
Based on the minute sounds of shifting dirt and fluttering fabric, Shao could tell that Shen Jian was standing just out of sight. Since he could still smell the brown bull, he knew that his body had not been moved while he was unconscious.
As he lifted his body to a seated position, Shao asked, “How long was I out?”
“Just a few seconds,” Shen Jian answered quickly. His eyes were fixed on the corpse of the divine bull. “You actually managed to do it. Good job, defeating a cultivator that’s an entire realm above yours is no small feat.”
“You’re damn right.”
“Make sure your pride doesn’t make you careless. There are a lot of Zhouji on this island, and that trick won’t work on any of them with human intelligence.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Shao mumbled in annoyance. “You sound like my grandmother.”
Shen Jian’s gaze turned toward Shao, and a look of fascination colored his expression. “Though, killing the divine cow was not nearly as impressive as what you did next. You just used a sacred art, there’s no doubt about that.”
“I don’t see what’s so impressive about that. You used a sacred art when you knocked me out a few days ago.” Shao tried to downplay his accomplishment in order to lessen the cultivator’s fascination with him, but he knew it would not work.
“Lianqi cannot manipulate ki,” Shen Jian explained once again. His voice took on an annoyed tone since he had to repeat himself. “You see the contradiction, yes? What you just did should have been impossible, yet there is no doubt that those trees in the distance were felled by a ki-based attack. How did you do it?”
Shao thought about what he would say next. After a few moments, he decided to just tell the truth. “I just followed my instincts. When I held the bull’s heart in my hand, I suddenly felt really hungry. Then, when I had eaten the heart, I felt the instinct to charge forward like the bull.”
In response to Shao’s statement, Shen Jian looked into the sky deep in thought for several seconds. “What you’re describing sounds like a bloodline talent. I don’t know which bloodline it comes from, but it can’t be anything else.”
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“Bloodline talent?”
“It was said that, in the distant past, certain cultivators reached the fifth realm or beyond. These cultivators were so skilled that a small fraction of their power was inherited by their descendants. Bloodline talents aren’t actually that rare; about half of all cultivators have one. Most bloodline talents only have marginal utility, however, so they’re not really that important. Some cultivators are completely immune to the effects of alcohol, and others can intentionally enter a dreamless sleep for years and wake up with no harmful side effects. You seem to have a bloodline talent that lets you eat the hearts of divine beasts and take their sacred arts.”
“Uh huh,” Shao grunted, not understanding at all. “Why do I have a bloodline talent, then? I don’t know much about my parents, but I know they definitely weren’t cultivators.”
“There is one other circumstance where you could inherit a bloodline talent:” Shen Jian held up one finger as he explained, “reincarnation. That’s the only explanation I can think of for your high number of spiritual roots and strange bloodline talent. You must be the reincarnation of a powerful cultivator from far in the past.”
“Sure, sure, whatever. I’ll take your word for it,” Shao waved off Shen Jian’s explanation. All that spiritual stuff never interested Shao; you couldn’t feed yourself with reincarnation or spiritual enlightenment. “Let’s get back to concrete reality. I killed the divine bull. I proved that I can defend my village. I don’t need you, and there’s nothing that Shigong Temple can give me that I can’t get on my own!”
By the final sentence, Shao was shouting at Shen Jian and jabbing his finger into the older man’s sternum. Once again, a mirthful smile appeared on Shen Jian’s face. Shao would have punched Shen Jian in the face if he didn’t know that it would just break his hand. Usually, Shao was a relatively calm person, at least as far as teenagers were concerned, but Shen Jian’s smile always sent him over the edge. Every time Shao refused to travel to Shigong Temple and become Shen Jian’s student, the green-clad cultivator always smiled like an omniscient god who found the suffering of mere mortals entertaining. It reminded Shao of everything he hated about cultivators.
With that smile still on his face, Shen Jian said, “The Dao has already taken notice of you, disciple. Even if I did nothing, you would still find yourself at Shigong Temple by the end of the month. You are an important person. The Dao will not allow someone like you to wallow in obscurity for the rest of your life.”
His eyes filled with hate and his fists clenched in anger, Shao stepped back from Shen Jian. “Leave me out of your spiritual bullshit. I’m going back to the village.”
Shao turned away from the green-clad cultivator in a huff. He took several steps back toward the village, but his pace was halted by a sound that shook him to his core. From several steps behind him, Shen Jian inhaled sharply. For the first time since he had met the older cultivator, Shao sensed fear and sorrow emanate from the man.
In a voice that was clearly not directed at Shao, Shen Jian said, “No, you needn’t put the boy through that. It’s too cruel.”
“What?” Shao demanded.
“Your village is being attacked.”