Just like that, one week passed. The gain from this week is quite bountiful as except for the first day of fishing, Ren Qingquan gained three points every other day due to him merely fishing until evening.
But, Looking at his wrinkled leg from being submerged in water too long. Ren Qingquan chose to have a day off from fishing today. As Ren Qingquan lay on his bed like a salted fish, 'inspecting' the stored book from Ren family library's first floor in the system. Xiao Ling knocked on his door just like usual. But today seems to be different as after preparing a bath and breakfast, Xiao Ling doesn't leave immediately but instead tells him something else.
"Young master, second elder and master are looking for you today."
Actually Ren Qingquan have a feeling of deja vu as he followed Xiao Ling, afterall the first time Ren Qingquan reincarnated into this body, Xiao Ling also says his father and grandfather are looking for him. As Ren Qingquan walked in a daze, both of them arrived at his grandfather, Ren Wangzhen's room.
With a familiar greeting, what comes into view is two middle aged men drinking tea together.
Looking at them, the first thought that come into Ren Qingquan's mind is why do they always drink tea together every time they call me?'
As for the second thought that comes into his mind, it is 'how much tea do they drink in a day.'
Upon arriving at the room, Ren Qingquan finally remembered to use [Scan] on both of them.
[Human: Ren Wangzhen, unable to devour
Age: 68
Realm: Ninth Stage Martial Saint
Technique: ???
Please study more about martial arts, anatomy, and other arts related to humans for further details.]
[Human: Ren Shiluo, unable to devour
Age: 37
Realm: Above Martial Lord (??? Realm) most likely a Martial Emperor.
Note: Unable to calculate specific realm due to insufficient data for creatures above Martial Lord.
Technique: ???
Please study more about martial arts,anatomy, and other arts related to humans for further details.]
Looking at Ren Shiluo's realm, Ren Qingquan's brain started to rotate quickly as he thought about some things. First, he finally could be at ease against Xiao Ling, afterall a suspected Martial Emperor having Martial Lord subordinates is normal. Second, why would Ren Shiluo hide his strength? Does he perhaps have some enemies? Should he start to be even more low key?
'Wait, if i haven't reincarnated as Ren Qingquan, with how protective and powerful Ren Shiluo is, won't he cause some massive calamity to this world? Afterall a Martial Emperor could easily flatten cities and kill many lives. Also, he would definitely try to beat Ren Qingchen to death? Afterall the original Ren Qingquan died due to depression from losing against Ren Qingchen.'
As he imagined many situations, Ren Qingquan was slightly in a daze as he listened to the two old guys.
"I have tried to send an invitation to Ren Qingchen asking him to join our side, but he has been missing since receiving the reward for the annual competition. It even caused some debates from the other old guys during the meetings, so I chose to wait until the situation calmed down before we started to search for him."
After listening to it, Ren Shiluo started his several minutes long complaints, which was followed by silence. Until Ren Wangzhen asked some seemingly unrelated question to Ren Qingquan.
"Well, Qingquan, how old are you this year?"
"I should turn 16 in three months"
The sudden weird question woke Ren Qingquan from his daze.
"During your age, I traveled around on adventure for several years. That is also when I found your grandma which I saved when she..."
"Yeah, dad, you already told that story several dozen times already. Anyway, Qingquan, it hurts me to say this but we are thinking about sending you to Martial Spirit Sect to meet with your peers. After All, only staying at home to train is not really good for your growth. Furthermore, recently the situation in the Great Azure Empire is a bit weird and it might turn chaotic soon. The price of many commodities actually increased greatly in recent times. Some of our family members that work in the palace also often heard that silly emperor's scream nowadays. I also sometimes sensed some big rat at Burning Sky City recently and due to some reason I might not be staying at the house. Anyway, With Martial Spirit Sect's special status and their absolute rule against internal killing, staying there until the chaos in the empire ceased or until I finished my business should be safer for you."
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
*Surprised pikachu.jpg*
"When should I leave?"
"It is better to leave within one week as the Martial Spirit sect will hold their annual test in less than a month. The journey to the location of Martial Spirit Sect's jurisdiction requires between one and two weeks of journey. Of course you don't need to join the test if you don't want to, I have asked your uncle who is an elder in the Martial Spirit sect to put you in as an outer disciple using some backdoor so, there is no need to start as a servant. But I still hope you will try the test, especially the competition part. Fighting against someone of your level is a good way to increase battle awareness. Also, Xiao Ling will accompany you there until the competition, but she shall return after you join the sect. Also, if you have some problem you could just ask your uncle there."
As Ren Shiluo spoke a little bit too fast, Ren Qingquan needed to digest the word for a moment before answering with a slightly excited face. This news came at the right time as he started to feel the point gained from 'fishing' is a bit too slow and without his father's guard secretly stalking him, he could use [Devour] much more freely.
"Alright, I don't have many things to prepare so I can immediately go tomorrow after resting."
As Ren Qingquan exited the room together with Xiao Ling, Ren Qingquan could still hear some conversation from inside.
"Sigh, looking at his excited face. Maybe I have tried to protect him too much."
"See, I told you. You should learn from your Zhang friend. Look at that fat boy he has. Although he obtained some bad habits, at least his son actually matured faster."
"I just want to fill in as his mother, afterall she..."
Ren Qingquan actually wanted to listen more, but as he slowly walked away the sound started to decrease and couldn't be heard anymore.
"Young master, I will leave to prepare your luggage for tomorrow."
"Alright."
Entering his room, Ren Qingquan sat and started some planning. As he is going to travel for sometime, Ren Qingquan wanted to increase his [Storage] skill's space size.
[Ding! Increasing storage space requires 1 point of energy every cubic meters for the first 10 cubic meters. It requires ten points per cubic meter up to 100 cubic meters. Etc.]
'Then System, upgrade [Storage] until it is 10 cubic meters first.'
Followed by that command, Ren Qingquan opened his system panel.
[Name: Ren Qingquan
Realm: Ninth stage martial apprentice
Point: 12
Technique: Body Tempering (Martial Saint)
Skills: Tiger subduing palm(Middle),
Feather step (Low), Iron cloth (Low).
System function: Devour, Shop, Scan, Library, Map, Calculate, System Storage (10 cubic meters).]
Entering his storage room, Ren Qingquan placed all the metal he bought into [Storage].
Returning to his room, Ren Qingquan lay on his bed like a salted fish.
'Well, I choose this day as my rest day. So let's just read those novel in system library *Cough* I mean, inspect the book in the system library.'
Xiao Ling reported something about how his luggage was ready at some point, but Ren Qingquan just grumbled in answer.
***
The next day
As Ren Shiluo and Ren Wangzhen sent him off, Ren Qingquan entered the carriage with Xiao Ling. Different from the carriage he usually used to travel within Burning Sky City, the carriage he used now is almost double in size and equipped with a small bed and storage area for food on the back of the carriage.
As the journey is pretty long and they need to pass several cities and villages during their travel, the carriage is surrounded by six horse riding guards to repel any robber or handle some problems during their journey.
To be honest, Ren Qingquan thought there was no need for any guards as Xiao Ling alone might be able to flatten a hundred man strong company as long as they don't have any Martial Lord and have less than a dozen martial Saints.
To pass some time, Ren Qingquan tried to chat with Xiao Ling. But as Xiao Ling is a woman of few words, he is already out of topic after half an hour of chatting.
'Sigh. It is during this time that I miss my talkative father. At least with him around the journey wouldn't be too silent.'
Looking outside the window, Ren Qingquan could only see a sea of fields and occasional small forest.
As they traveled using the empire's official road, except for greenery, there are only some small villages that are connected but located quite far from the road.
After looking at the field that is either filled with rice or other food materials for several minutes, Ren Qingquan is bored so he chooses to inspect the books stored in the system library.
'Luckily I am smart enough to scan the library's whole first floor'
With that, Ren Qingquan spent most of his time reading until night arrived.
Looking around, they finally stopped at a flatter piece of land. The guards started to pitch their tent and create a fire to cook some food. After Ren Qingquan ate some food, he entered the carriage and slept.
The next morning, Ren Qingquan woke up due to a sudden jolt from his carriage. While in a daze, Ren Qingquan just looked at his surroundings for a moment and then continued to read his novels.
***
As Xiao Ling looked at Ren Qingquan who had been in a daze staring at nothing and sometimes giggling by himself for close to two days already. She started to feel a bit concerned.
'I should tell master about the young master's condition during this journey which is quite concerning. What if he has a brain problem due to wrong practice.'
As Xiao Ling thought so, she closed her eyes and continued her practice. As a Martial Lord, she could practice energy circulation without using the move set. Although it decreases the speed of strengthening, something is still better than nothing.