The sky was blue and from the distance there are two birds flapping their wings, flying through the open skies.

Under the birds was an area with apparent weirdness. A lake…one half is frozen the other half is boiling, wasp of smoke moving upwards.

Quanzhong looks at the sky and then he laughed.

‘HAHAHAHA. Truly the world is vast. I accept my defeat, Yu Wang’ he said.

‘Addressing you as Junior is inappropriate. We are cultivators. In cultivators world the strong is the senior. But addressing you as senior will also not be appropriate since you are younger than me. So I will address you as my equal.’

Yu Wang rested his hand and drew away the sword from Quanzhong neck and said as he cupped his hand.

‘I have no problem with that, Senior. It has been an enlightening experience to me’ Yu Wang said. He discovered that the sword hat his second teacher has gifted to him possess such unique ability.

To form ice, like holding the power of nature in his hand. Yu Wang never knew.

He of course knew that melding spirit energy into weapons will give the strikes a different intensity according to the cultivator sprit energy but to actually control elements using weapons?

Only Earth Realm cultivators have the ability to control elements and that is usually two or three elements.

He and Quanzhong is clearly only Human Realm cultivators and they can control elements. No Yu Wang mused.

They did not control it.

Their weapon did. Sealing? he thought to himself. He will examine his sword later he thought to himself.

He never thought such weapon would end up  in his hand. His second Teacher did say his weapon is a bit special.

Thank you second teacher he said gratefully in his mind.

The audience looking at their battle finally approached them. Su Hu jump beside Quanzhong and pat his son back.

‘It seems you need some more training, Quanzhong.’

‘Yes father, it seems I do.’ Then Su Hu looks at Yu Wang and laughed.

‘HAHAHA. Yu Wang was it? Who would have thought you are an expert!’

‘The world is vast; I’m merely a lowly cultivator. I’m no expert I just wanted to prevent bigger understanding. My cultivation is meager compared to others, and my win is only because I know of Senior Quanzhong technique. The Lotus Tears Sword technique is one of the famous techniques of Hua Xin Sects. If Senior Quanzhong mastered all of its move even I will not win and the result will be entirely different. Seeing Senior Quanzhong attack it must be only recently that Senior Quanzhong learns this technique. And this must be the first time that Senior Quanzhong use that technique on a person. To bravely use a new technique with no prior experience. Senior Quanzhong gains my admiration.’

Hearing this Su Hu and Quanzhong is shocked again. First he knows about the Yang Sect Spear technique now even Sword technique of Hua Xin sects?

What is he? Library of Techniques?

Truly he must be some disciple of powerful cultivator. Su Hu and Su Quanzhong both thought.

‘I hope Junior Yu will not hold it against my son.’ Su Hu said, cupping his hand respectfully.

‘It is a misunderstanding and there is no need to address me so respectfully. I will not hold it against your son and no harm is done.’ Hearing this Su Hu is relieved.

Then Yu Wang begun to leave

‘Where are you going?’ Quanzhong said.

‘I said I want to leave. So, now I will leave.’

‘You said you didn’t hold it in your heart.’

‘I didn’t’

‘Then why leave?’ Su Hu asked, perplexed at Yu Wang behavior while Daji is chuckling behind Su Feng. Su Feng also hopes that Yu Wang stays.

Daji think to herself.

 This young boy is very naïve in certain matters, wise in others. His word is profound, humble and polite, yet social etiquette and certain social queues, this boy did not understand. Mused Daji

On the other hand, Su Feng wants to forge some relations with Yu Wang and maybe gain some pointers. He has never beaten his brother in a battle.

How could he not admire such a person? Surely one day this young person in front of him will be a great cultivator.

To Su Feng, his brother Su Quanzhong is like a wall that he could never surpassed but today a young boy, younger than even him has defeat his brother.

Surely if he gains some pointer from Yu Wang, maybe he could improve. After all unlike his brother, Su Feng did not train in any sects.

‘Would you like me to stay then?’ Yu Wang ask, scratching his head in confusion

‘Please do’ Su Hu said courteously

Yu Wang looking at this does not understand. He has no hatred towards Quanzhong only annoyance when he was accused.

Now the matter is resolved he is intending to leave as he has said. But now they invite him back. Should he leave? Should he-

His thoughts are dashed as Daji came to him and grab his hand.

‘Come on, let me show you our house.’ She said smiling and Yu Wang could not help but smile as well and for a while his worries dissipated.

Then he cupped his hand to Su Hu and said

‘Then I will impose on your household for a few days.’

‘No worries. No worries’ Su Hu said and Yu Wang joins Daji as Daji shows him every nook and cranny of the house while chattering nonstop.

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Yu Wang is now in one of the guest room of Su Hu house. After the battle he was treated courteously by Quanzhong and Su Hu.

They are also maids that come serve him some tea. After exploring the house even the house is a little small compared to the House of his teachers, it is still wide and spacious.

Then he went to sleep in the room prepared by Su Hu. He has used his spirit energy and he wanted to rest.

Yu Wang is grateful for the treatment he received. However a few hours before dawn he woke up and begin his spiritual training as usual.

Now sitting cross legged in the room he focused his mind and refills his spirit power. He popped a few Spirit Rejuvenating Pills an dhis core quickly spins, sythesising the pills in merely seconds and Yu Wnag body quickly regain back his spirit power.

‘The two cores’ Yu Wang mused. He is really curios about it. He could feel that his large gourd needs more energy if he wanted to break through to Profound Soul.

He is still Profound Understanding Rank but only his spirit pressure is Profound Soul middle level.

But even that shows his future growth. If he is at peak level of Profound Understanding has the spirit power of Profound Soul middle level, what will happen when he reach Profound Soul low level?

Wouldn’t he have the force of Pure Soul low level? Isn’t that too amazing? On Primal Chaos Mountain he usually broke through realm through understanding the Way of Heaven relying on enlightenment from heaven.

If anyone hears this they would certainly be shocked. Why? Because to get enlightenment in training or fighting is extremely hard.

While it will improve the cultivator soul by leaps and bound no one really used that kind of way to practice.

Why?

Because some may not reach enlightenment. It is easier to consume pills or absorbing the power of Heaven and Earth.

In Human realm the cultivators could absorb energy from places with dense spiritual power, in some caves or mountains and any sect and clan is usually situated in such places.

 For example the Great Ming dynasty place is on top of the burial ground of an Immortal that die in one of his battle and many of the member of that Ming dynasty benefited with that area and this is why many of the Ming dynasty is very powerful cultivators.

In Earth Realm the cultivators could absorb from earth and the life force of anything that reside on earth but with everyone they have a different way of absorbing it.

Some sit in meditation, while some went into closed door training, some practice their battle techniques and gain faster spiritual energy after they expend their spirit power, expanding their soul, but all of this depends on their innate talents and will.

And heaven realm? Not many know.

But this is why Yu Wang energy is pure.

If one who uses pills who have the same spiritual pressure as Yu Wang they surely would crumble when confronted the pure energy of Yu Wang spiritual pressure.

The only one who could pressure Yu Wang is people who are several ranks higher than him.

But Yu Wang has never offended anyone is very polite so he has never been involved in death or life battle.

After convinced his body has been rejuvenated Yu Wang grab something from his bag of holding. By now it is dawn in the Su household.

Then he leaves a letter in the room, writing that he is leaving for a while to train behind the hills and will return by sunset.

Yu Wang does not want to bother the household early in the morning, the chicken just cuckoo and dawn is just showing.

Yu Wang then travel into the forest. In his hand is a book. Then when he found a spacious space to train he readies his stance and begun training.

First he tries to remember the Book of Eight Gates.

The Book of Eight Gates is what cultivators would call a treasure manual. Why? Because it can be practiced even until Heaven level.

For example Yang Spear Technique. Yang Spear technique has 30 lesson. The first ten lessons are for Human realm cultivator.

11 to 20 are for Earth realm cultivator.

21 to 30 are for Heaven Realms.

While some techniques can be discarded when you have breakthrough to the next realms there are some manuals that does not have to be discarded.

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The Eight Gates technique is one of such techniques. It depends on the spiritual pressure. The stronger the spiritual pressure the stronger the technique and it has no limit.

Then Yu Wang began to train.

‘Peng, circle, forward backward. Disrupt the opponent center, ward their attack with hands. Become alert, maintain power when oppressed.’

Yu Wang said reciting the manual

 And Yu Wang started moving backward his hand in circular movement while imagining his fight with Su Quanzhong yesterday.

‘Lu’ he then said.

‘Circle, yield and roll back.’ And Yu Wang made a sideway circular movement in his mind, deflecting Quanzhong spear with his hand, imaging their fight yesterday.

‘Ji. Press the attack away, the body remains calm.’

And Yu Wang did a squeezing movement offset in a direction away from the body, done with the back of his hand sometime he alternates using the outside edge of the forearm.

Then he did An, Cai, Lie, Zhou, and Kao the shoulder strike. The 8 Gates training is completed this time melded with his Profound Soul middle level intensity and the agility and power of the moves become entirely different from before.

His gourd shows some sign of absorbing the energy around the hills. The cores on the other hand did not spin like yesterday.

Yesterday the core spins and absorb energy with such ferocity that Yu Wang thought he would have a breakthrough.

And the body is strengthened and Yu Wang body become light as spiritual energy flow unrestricted through the veins.

Then he trains his Five Steps. The book he is learning from now is 8 Gates, 5 Steps. Now that he is confident he is fairly proficient using the 8 Steps he is training his Five Steps.

The Eight Gates is the eight trigrams, the Five Steps is the five elements, their combinations create a powerful technique, repel enemies, deflecting attacks.

Then after an hour of training the same motion he sits down and enjoy the scenery of the forest.

Yu Wang does not have to train for long since he has only to remember the movement and not anything else.

Not to mention he always do this. He did not force his body.

‘Be like water’ he reminded of his First Teacher lectures after they finished training a technique.

‘Water is fluid, soft & yielding but water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield ... what is soft is strong. Do not force thing. If it meant to be , it is meant to be. To live without forcing, to overcome without conquering’

‘First teacher’ Yu Wang said and he looks at the sky and the mountains. When will he ever sees his teacher again? he mused.

The only thing he needs to do is to meld his spiritual energy into his attack. The stronger the spirit energy, the powerful the 8 Gates, 5 Steps.

‘Now what should I do?’ he mused.

The first objective would be to see his Senior Brother Lu Shang.

Maybe his senior brother could tell him something or maybe his teacher left a message for him with his senior brother.

Considering using his power to return to the Mountain is impossible not to mention he doesn’t know where the mountain is.

All he knows is that the Zhou kingdom is near the Mountain range of Primal Chaos Mountain; Yu Wang doesn’t know where the exact location of the mountain is.

So, his first objective is finding his Senior Brother.

He contemplated in asking Su Hu about his Senior Brother but then he doesn’t want the Su household becomes suspicious of him.

It is obvious that Su household is the household who works for the King of Shang and surely they know of Senior Brother Lu Shang.

Then why won’t he ask them? It is because he doesn’t know whether the Su family have enmity or not with his senior brother.

After all in politics and the court, there are friends and enemies. If the Su family is an enemy of his senior brother they would not help Yu Wang and maybe even harm him.

This is usually stressed in the lesson of his Third Teacher. While Yu Wang is usually trustful of  a person, and one of the qualities his first teacher always stressed, his third teacher always reminded him trust needed to be earned.

Like love, it must not be given without prove or else the one who is hurt will be yourselves.

While Su Quanzhong is not his match, Su Hu and Su Quanzhong combined, even Yu Wang couldn’t beat that combination.

So for now he will lay low for a while in the Su family and train. After he knows a bit about the general situation around this hill then he will leave.

Sitting looking at the sky, Yu Wang remembers something.

Then Yu Wang brought out Ice Sword Princess out form his bag of holding.

‘This is a treasure weapons. It is elements sword.’ Yu Wang said as he channeled his spirit energy into the sword and the surrounding area become cold.

Just as I thought Yu Wang mused.

Element sword can only be crafted by someone who is a Divine Crafter. They use their spirit energy to create weapon or shield but it is known that Grand Master Crafter can even seal elements inside weapons.

Considering that Su Quanzhong weapons emits heat whoever crafted it must seal a fire elements in the weapon. And his is Ice Elements.

The elements that are sealed can be obtained in the core of some Demonic beast or some spirit essence of the said elements if you’re lucky.

Then after an hour rest Yu Wang stood up and brought another book out from his bag of holding.

The Primal Chaos Sword Technique. Once the essence of the sword techniques is understood, it can be used in endless ways, hence the idea of no pattern as a stance.

Remembering this Yu Wang try to use Wind God Dancing in the Fiery Storm technique while only remembering the essence of the technique, the agility and fierce attack combined, trying to use it with hundreds of variation.

However Yu Wang did not channel his spirit energy in the attack yet the attack is still so fierce, the sound of wind being sliced can be heard, leaves flutter about near Yu Wang, the bamboo trees around Yu Wang all were cut cleanly into two, some bore holes making the bamboo trees to resemble a flute as the wind go through these holes and produce sounds.

It was about 8 hours he practice using the sword technique until Yu Wang truly grasp the essence and only then he stopped.

He has forget about it. And he smiles.

I forgot about it he smiles and he then swing his sword and with one strike the slice distort the air, and a row of bamboo trees were instantly frozen and a second later cracked, and fall like a broken teapot, producing crashing sounds.

8 hours of training! This just shows Yu Wang determination. He doesn’t forget his teacher’s advice to train diligently.

His teacher has advised him to train in the technique so he will do it. By now it was almost night.

‘I should return now.’

Saying this he stored all the items into his bag of holding and start walking to the Su house.

But then from a distance he could see the surrounding area around the Su house and he knows something is wrong.

The birds are flying away from the area of the house and Yu Wang spirit sense the malevolent energy, so domineering, and so powerful.

There is a battle going on around the house.

Yu Wang becomes alert at this and he focused his eyes using his spirit power and since he is at the top of the hill he has an aerial view of the house.

He focused and he could see two people are fighting one man. Su Quanzhong and Su Hu can be seen fighting with one man, sword strikes becomes flashes of light.

The area around the house is burning; buildings crumbling, trees obliterated and their strikes produced sound waves.

Normal people would have run away by now but Yu Wang in time of such danger still thinks about Su Hu and Su Quanzhong.

When you see someone in danger you don’t think of the danger of the circumstances but think first how to save them.

This is how Yu Wang was raised, to be a righteous man and to not avoid helping people.

 To Yu Wang he has received kindness from the Su family how could he easily abandon these people without even trying to help.

Anyone else would have already run. Yu Wang can be said, to lack some common sense. While Su family did treat Yu Wang good, they did not attach anything special to it.

But Yu Wang is righteous, even though his teacher has always advised him that not every matter is what it seems and neither could Yu Wang save everyone, Yu Wang is stubborn.

The Way of Heaven is mysterious. Not all good people have good lives, and not all evil people have bad life.

Sometimes it’s the opposites.

Yu Wang who was taught in humility and kindness, of honour and valour how could he just leave those people alone in danger without even helping?

This is what separates Yu Wang from the rest of human.

He is a boy blessed by Heaven and as such practice the Way of Heaven. Help, but do not harm.

Benevolence and righteousness go side by side. Mercy and compassion must be practiced. Embrace life and appreciate life because it is priceless.

All these qualities are embedded strongly in Yu Wang since childhood and he made his decision in split second when he sees what is happening.

‘What is happening?’ Yu Wang said anxiously as he quickly rushed to the house, determined to help mediate the situations.

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Ok, this is the new chapter. And any question is appreciated. Give e your thoughts and any suggestion for the story future plot is apapreciated.