Nakamura Clan

“I have a report to make, Lord Tannin.”

“I’m listening, Ji.”

In a room were two men. One was kneeling respectfully while the other was gazing outside the window. The man kneeling was in completely black attire. He had black hair and his face was masked. His name was Ji, a trained assassin loyal only to the patriarch of the Nakamura clan.

The man gazing outside the window had white hair and red noble robes. Although he had white hair, he appeared no older than thirty. His name was Nakamura Tannin, the patriarch of the Nakamura Clan.

The room they were in was large but sparsely decorated. On the walls were hundreds of jade pendants with the names of various Nakamura clan members underneath them.

The man named Ji began his report.

“Young Lord Kenji is currently safe and was last seen in the city of Nara.”

Tannin nodded. He continued looking outside the window. There were vast lands worked by the slaves of the Nakamura clan, mortals captured from villages and forcefully enslaved.

“Kenji must see the mortal world so that he can understand how truly disgusting it is. He must see that these mortals are only fit to be our livestock. With his strength, few can take him on. And with the divine horse talismans he has, no one can capture him-”

Crack

One of the jade pendants on the wall cracked. Underneath that jade pendant was the name “Nakamura Kenji”.

Tannin walked over to the jade pendant and grabbed it. Veiled fury marred his face as he tightly grasped the pendant.

He turned his gaze towards Ji who was now sweating heavily.

“Repeat your previous message to me.”

Ji couldn’t move. He was internally cursing as to who could cause the young lord’s jade to break. Him and his team had made sure that no powerful martial artists or shinobi were present in the city. The report he just gave was a status update from thirty-minutes ago. He never imagined that within those minutes, someone could rise up against the young lord.

Banging his head on the floor, he pleaded.

“Please give this subordinate another chance. I will personally make sure that young lord is safe.”

Tannin shut him off.

“No need.”

Focusing on the jade, a pale white aura surrounded him.

“I want to see who dares to harm my son.”

He vanished in a white light, leaving Ji alone. Without waiting any longer, Ji vanished as well.

Tachibana Auction House

With his dragon eyes, Uehara had long saw the link binding Kenji to something. That’s why he was holding off on killing him since he wanted to see who was behind Kenji.

He felt some foreign energy fluctuation through the soul link and realised someone was using it to travel through it.

He bent down and grabbed Kenji by the hair.

“Sakura. Stay here and pick up some good things. I’ll be back soon. I trust your sight.”

Sakura replied.

“Yes Aoki-sama.”

With that, a dark swirl covered both him and Kenji. After that, they vanished.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Sakura giggled when she saw how quiet the entire auction house had become. Releasing a bit of her aura, she cheerfully commanded.

“Please continue the auction~”

…

Uehara was standing in the plains a few dozen kilometres from Nara city. It was some time before noon and next to his feet was a slowly dying Kenji.

The number of trees within his surroundings could be counted on one hand and they were sparsely spaced. The wind ruffled his hair as he watched a person appear out of nowhere.

The person was a white-haired man who looked to be in his thirties. He was wearing a red noble robe and he gave off an imposing presence.

Tannin glanced down to look at his son. His expression changed slightly but he calmed himself down.

He returned his gaze to look at Uehara.

“What do you want?”

Uehara didn’t answer. He just silently looked at him with his golden eyes.

[His soul is bright, the perfect example of having lived a long life. Although I can’t clearly gauge it due to not having a proper reference, he should be more than a century in age. This could be more fruitful than I thought. People who live long lives have a lot of information.]

Tannin frowned when Uehara ignored him but he calmed himself down.

[I can’t sense any energy fluctuations from him. Even those mortals would emit some fluctuation.]

As much as he wanted to rush in and take his son, he couldn’t risk such a move without understanding his enemy. He had initially wanted to appear next to Kenji and take him but as he got closer, the soul link leading to Kenji got cut off, forcing him to appear a few metres away.

He started getting frustrated but he calmed himself down in an instant.

“Speak. What do you want.”

Uehara felt the weakening lifeforce of Kenji and so decided to put him out of his misery.

Uehara extended his hand towards Kenji and a flame formed. Tannin got a bad feeling when he saw this and as he was about to shout, the flame covered the body of his son, burning him to ashes in an instant.

With Kenji burnt to ashes, Uehara turned to look at Tannin with an expressionless gaze.

“I want the information that is stored within your soul.”

Tannin, LOST IT.

“I’LL KILL YOU!”

Charging forward at speeds faster than the eye could see, he was about to pounce on Uehara when force suddenly caused him to be sent back.

Uehara had calmly extended his hand and released a burst of chakra unperceivable to the naked eye.

Not wanting to be outdone, Tannin righted himself and began unleashing blue qi-blasts at his target.

Uehara erected an earthen wall that stopped the blasts. Chunks of earth fell off with each blasts but he would repair them each time.

In blind rage, he kept firing these qi-blasts over and over again.

“YOU DEMON! YOU MURDERED MY SON! WHY?! WHY DID YOU MURDER MY SON?! WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU?!?!?!?!”

Although he had kept his calm before, he had completely lost it now. In terms of power, he was already in the first path and had two-hundred-years of lifespan. He was nearing his hundred-and-fiftieth birthday and could be said to have seen a lot of things during his time alive.

Out of five children, he only had one son and their mother had already died giving birth to his son. Kenji can be considered to be the last gift his wife had left him.

Although he was successful in keeping his emotions intact when he saw Kenji on the ground, he couldn’t contain the rage and sadness when his son died in front of him.

(AN: For simplicity’s sake, there won’t be any cultivation realms like Qi-refinement, Foundation Establishment, etc added. Every person’s power-level will be described in relation to what path or gate they are on. Here’s a recap of the first path. Whoever unlocks it gains a qualitative increase in strength and a three-times increase in lifespan. Power-wise, they’d be able to destroy an entire apartment building in one-punch through pure-physical strength.)

Uehara decided to enlighten the grieving father.

“He offended my person. He was already marked for death.”

Uehara had already formed three clones that disappeared underground to attack Tannin. When they grew closer, they burst out of the ground and began attacking him.

Tannin was taken in complete surprise as he saw the three clones attacking him. Since he wasn’t ready, he was in a distinct disadvantage. He desperately tried to parry the attacks coming from three fronts but in his whole life, he had never been assaulted by such a strange technique.

Another thing was it had been far too long since he had actually fought a life or death battle. As the son of the previous patriarch, his life had been relatively smooth, only having to cultivate. So his combat experience is abysmal for someone his age, something Uehara took notice of instantly.

Bone grew out of his skin, growing malignantly like a tumor. The part that was supposed to be a fist changed into a grotesque pike. Uehara looked like he had a grey iceberg on his arm.

[He most likely can’t sense me but just to be safe, let’s come from underground.]

While Uehara vanished underneath the earth, Tannin was still desperately trying to survive against the clones. He couldn’t activate the treasures he has since they were already destroyed by the clones.

Right now, he was fighting a losing battle and he knew it.

[Damnit! I can’t tell who’s the real one between the two of them! Everything about the both of them is the same! Even their presence and scent is the same!]

Focusing his senses on them, he didn’t even hear the ground behind him open up and before he knew it, he suddenly felt something emerge from his stomach. As he looked down, he saw a grey pike. It was then that the pain suddenly assaulted him.

“ARGH!”

Blood came out of his mouth as he lost all combat power. From his stomach, aside from blood, there was a blue liquid and crystalline substances mixing with the blood. In an instant, he died.

The four Uehara’s were left confused at the spectacle.

““Huh???””

(AN: Sorry for not updating recently. I was swamped by a project that I had to do. But I’m finished now and daily chapter updates will continue as usual. If you like the story, don’t forget to leave a review. If there’s certain parts you don’t understand, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.)