“How is it possible?” Sheng gasped and stared at the intruder with wide eyes. Seo-Yon took this time to cover herself and get off Sheng.

In front of them was a handsome youth that looked impeccable. The change was greater than heaven and earth. Ryu was a sickly skinny boy that disappeared and presumed kidnapped three years ago. He was barely above four feet back then. Right now he’s closer to 6 feet and his muscles are well defined.

“Grandpa it really is me. Remember how I used to gather herbs for you at night? You would always scold me in the morning. Teacher Lee, I used to spend all my time in the library here back in the days. You took me to the Talent Examination three years ago after I knocked down that tree!” Ryu recalled many intimate memories to them.

“Oh my god, it really is you Ryu.” Sheng said, his dubious voice has transformed into one of joy.

“Ryu you are alive!” His teacher exclaimed.

“Where were you in the past three years?”

“How did you grow up so fast?”

“What happened to your hair?”

Obviously they had many questions for him. This person in front of them looked different and exhibited an unfathomably deep aura.

Ryu shyly smiled and put his fingers on his grandpa’s wrist. As he suspected, a trace of cold Qi still runs through his veins.

“Grandpa please sit still, I’m going to help you purge this poison.” Ryu said quickly and he sat behind his grandpa. He put two hands behind his grandpa’s back and slowly injected his Qi in. The icy venom is a level 20 poison that isn’t lethal, it slowly tortures the victim instead. Ryu knew that he had to slowly dissolve the poison over time.

Sheng was protesting at first but he felt a profound Qi rushing through his body. Since he was not a cultivator, this was a new feeling for him.

“Grandpa, your Qi channels are not opened yet. This might hurt a bit but hang in there.” Ryu said as he increased the volume of Qi. Steams can be seen coming out of Sheng’s body. One by one a new opening for the steam to emit on his body appeared. Over a few hours Ryu opened up all his Qi channels through the insightful knowledge he had gained over the years of cultivating.

Ryu discovered a pleasant surprise. Over the course of time, his grandpa had accumulated a small amount of fire Qi in his body. He had been devouring fire herbs that would have normally killed a regular person but because he had been poisoned by cold Qi, the two were balancing each other out.

Regular doctors or cultivators would have killed Sheng if they only diffused his cold Qi, the fire Qi would then run rampant and tear through his body. Ryu forcefully contained the fire Qi inside his grandpa’s body instead of dissolving it. He patiently spoke a few lines of a simple fire Qi cultivating method to his grandpa.

“Ryu it’s no use, I don’t have any talent in cultivation. I tried for ten years in the past and never made any progress.” Sheng said helplessly.

“Visualize a pipe from the center of your body going to the top of your head, your eyes, your nose, your mouth…” Ryu said patiently, ignoring his grandpa’s protest.

Sheng gave up and sighed. Slowly he tried listening to Ryu and attempting what he is instructing. To his surprise, he felt a tiny stream of hot Qi running through his veins. He had never been able to feel his Qi like this before.

Ryu smiled as he saw his grandpa slowly attempt to control his Qi, it wasn’t going to be easy. His grandpa was just an average adult at level 5 while the fire Qi inside him were of much higher level. Ryu regulated the fire Qi inside his grandpa’s body and released only a small amount each time for his grandpa to gather inside his reservoir and refine.

Seo-Yon only looked on intently, not daring to make a sound. Morning came in an instant without her noticing. The whole room had become like a steam room at this point.

“The kids are arriving Teacher Lee.” Ryu said simply, his eyes still closed and his face showed complete focus.

Distractedly Seo-Yon went to teach the kids for the day. She came during lunch time to check up on the pair but the situation was the same. Ryu was patiently reciting Qi cultivating method while his grandpa was attempting to utilize the fire Qi inside his body and refine it. Days passed by like this. Seo-Yon only brought Sheng water as Ryu instructed. She attempted to get near Ryu and was pushed back by raw Qi being emitted by him.

“Could he be the mysterious expert that exposed the Wang family?” She asked himself as she watched on.

Finally a week had passed and with a sigh Ryu took his hands off his grandpa’s back. It was night time and Seo-Yon was reading a book beside them, she had gotten used to this scene and even came to enjoy the steam that’s in the room. It’s good for her skin!

“Congratulations grandpa, you have reached level 19, the peak of Intermediary Domain!” Ryu said with a bright smile.

“What!” Both Sheng and Seo-Yon exclaimed. Sheng who had no talent in cultivation couldn’t even dream of reaching level 9, let alone 19. Seo-Yon who had practiced for nearly half a century only reached level 14 and that was with the help of a spiritual pill Ryu won from the Wang family three years ago.

“The fire herbs you were eating over the years accumulated in your body. It was balancing out the cold Qi from the spider venom. All I did was open up your Qi channels and you refined the rest.” Ryu said modestly. Actually Ryu was using up the majority of his Qi to control the fire Qi inside Sheng’s body and slowly purifying it into something tamer before releasing bits of it for Sheng to refine. This was very taxing and required an astonishing control, one mistake and both practitioner would be severely injured.

“Qi channels?” Seo-Yon asked. Naturally she wouldn’t know something this deep from basic cultivation methods she had trained in her whole life. Ryu quickly explained in detail where the seventeen Qi channels are.

“If you like Teacher Lee, I can open up the channels for you. It’ll make controlling and gathering Qi much easier.” Ryu offered. The reason he can’t do it now was because both his reservoirs were quite low on Qi.

“Thank you Ryu. Actually you don’t need to call me… Teacher Lee anymore. Your grandpa and I got married last year.” Seo-Yon said timidly.

“We been in love with each other since we were kids. It’s just that I had no talent for cultivation so the late Mrs. Lee was opposed to our relationship until her very last breath. When we thought you were dead, we decided life was too short and…” Sheng was explaining, it was a rare moment to see him blush.

“That’s great! Now I have a grandma too.” Ryu quickly said to help his grandpa from glowing redder.

“I’m not ready to be a grandma… I’ll go prepare some food.” Seo-Yon said bashfully as she left the room quickly.

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“Grandpa I…” Ryu wanted to tell his grandpa so much but unexpectedly his grandpa held his hand up.

“Ryu, I don’t know what happened and I won’t ask. I am just happy that you are alright. Your secrets are obviously too important for the likes of me to know. Let’s just celebrate tonight.” His grandpa spoke with genuine happiness and wisdom.

As they sat around the dining table. Ryu learned that the twins Jia-Hui and Jia-Hua had accepted the invitation at a first rate school in another city, the Purple Lotus School, and they visit every year near the summer time. A school is much smaller and weaker than a sect and exist inside a town, city or metropolis. Eu-Meh actually got scouted by an all-girls sect, the Saint Jade Sect. It’s a rank 6 sect meaning its headmaster was in the King Domain!

It’s been pretty much deduced that Ryu is the expert that exposed the Wang family but the elderly pair decided not to question him. With their wisdom and experience, they know the world is a harsh place. If one day a supreme expert came looking for Ryu, they would rather die than reveal his secrets but there is probably some method of extracting secrets even from an unwilling person.

Instead his grandpa brought up a serious topic, even his expression changed. He carefully and slowly spoke, “Ryu… I think it’s about time you hear about your real parents. They didn’t abandon you. In fact I’ve never had kids in my whole life. You were… given to me by my younger brother, Feng Sheng.”

Inside Ryu had a hunch he wasn’t blood-related to his grandpa at all but he didn’t care. The person who brought him up and taught him his values was Sheng. “Grandpa I don’t care if we are related by blood or not. You will always be my one and only grandpa.”

“Ryu thank you, you know I’ll always love you like my own child.” Sheng said with a tear rolling down his eyes. He paused for a second to collect himself and continue, “My brother was much more gifted than I was. He wasn’t content being confined in this small town like my ancestors. When he was twenty, he had already reached level 15 by himself! My family couldn’t afford to give him the proper training he wanted so one night he just disappeared and left a note saying he’s going to the province of swords, the Yasha Province. I’ve never heard from him since then, I didn’t even know if he was dead or alive… until almost ten years ago. He came by in a stormy night and knocked on my door. I didn’t recognize him at first until he called me brother. He had a huge scar above his right eye and he looked like a rugged seasoned warrior. He told me that he was doing a favor for someone else and couldn’t find anyone he could trust to raise this boy. Before I could ask anymore question, he just left.”

Ryu listened with his eyes wide opened.

“Ryu I know you have plenty of questions but I’m sorry I can’t help you. My brother was carrying a slightly curved foreign sword, I think it’s those swords that a “samurai” uses. I also saw a glimpse of a badge that said “Moonlight”, perhaps that’s his sect. Oh wait actually that night you were wearing a red gemmed necklace. You would cry whenever you touched it so I took it away for safe keeping. Wait here while I get it.” Sheng said as he got up to leave the room.

Seo-Yon also knew that Ryu wasn’t his real grandson, the town was small so there was no way her long time crush had kids without her knowing.

Ryu sat there pondering. Who are his parents? Why did they entrust him to his grandpa’s brother?

Sheng came back with a beautiful necklace in his hand. The necklace chains were delicately crafted as it showed extreme details however the main attraction was the center of the necklace. It had a bright blood red gem that was the size of his fist. It looked perfectly round like a pearl.

Ryu looked at it curiously. There was not a trace of aura that he could detect yet his eyes which can discern all Qi, see any Qi in its raw form showed something similar to a Qi reservoir inside the red gem. Usually when he looks at a person, he can see their reservoir near the center of their body, right below their chest with Qi flowing out of it. When he looks at this gem, he sees a reservoir that’s spinning in circles at constant rate. It looks like a rare treasure Ryu thought.

“Here you go Ryu.” Sheng said as he handed it over. Ryu held out both hands to receive it and the moment it touched his skin, a painful shock rippled through his mind. His vision became dark.

“You have to trust me! I would never betray you.” A beautiful but sorrowful female’s voice rang out. Who is this? Ryu thought.

“I am trying, you know I trust you but how do you explain this?” A male with an angry voice boomed out.

“I don’t know but you have to believe me.” The female kept on begging.

“Get rid of it before more rumors spread.” The angry male continued.

“Get rid of it… but it’s a living being, it must be special. Please don’t make me.” The female voice begged, traces of crying can be heard.

“How can I trust you if you can’t even do this? Do you know what others will say about me? About us? My kingdom will be a laughingstock to others!” The male’s voice just kept getting louder and angrier. Which kingdom? Where are they?  Ryu had so many questions but he can’t see anything, he could only hear the conversation.

“Anything but that.” The female’s voice had become hoarse at this point.

“Guards, arrest her for treason and make her get rid of that abomination.” The male’s voice snapped once again. Abomination? Is he talking about me? More questions just piled onto Ryu’s mind.

“I’m sorry…” The female whispered.

Sounds of destruction and a large-scale battle could be heard. It sounded as if two gigantic armies clashed. Afterwards the female could be heard coughing up blood. Suddenly silence, only small gusts of wind can be heard. What happened? Is she in mid-air? Ryu was worried now.

“You will regret it!” The male’s voice roared out from afar.

Ryu’s vision slowly came back to him. He was in a trance in front of his grandpa. His grandpa had his hands over his shoulders.

“Ryu are you there?” Seo-Yon’s asked with worry.

“Yes I’m alright.” Ryu said as he realized his face was full of tears. That vision sounded so real to Ryu. Was he the “abomination” mentioned? Was his real father and mother having a disagreement over him? A fight could be heard, is his mother alright? Was she injured? Was that why he was born with a frail body?