Kyo limped as he slowly walked away from the crater where he fell from an immeasurable height. Even though his flying companion cushioned the fall for him, he was not without injuries. The only thing he had on him besides the clothes on his back was just a plain sword sheathed in a wooden scabbard. Each painful step he took, a person that crossed him would flash through his mind. Vengeance was the only thing that keeps a person like him with a foot in the grave going. After fifty excruciating steps he finally made it to a trunk of the tree where he collapsed.
Closing his eyes, his mind drifted to the events that led to his deadly fall from Mount Huang. One of them involved Tang Su, his so called best friend. Kyo was currently twenty-three years old but he had known Tang Su ever since they were babies. Tang Su was the nephew of the current patriarch of the Huang clan so naturally his position was higher than Kyo’s at birth. However since Kyo appeared to be a peerless genius back then, the patriarch arranged it so that the two would grow up together. Patriarch Rowen had no sons of his own so he treated Tang Su like his own child. In fact Kyo even taught Tang Su how to read and write!
Thinking back to two nights ago, the boundless fury within him rose to a whole new level even though he was only half conscious. The current Kyo was only a common laborer that did chores like a regular servant. Tang Su had long stopped communicating with him due to certain events. Yet Tang Su showed up with a group of his lackeys demanding something from him when he was doing his daily physical labor.
“Kyo, long time no see buddy.” Tang Su said politely as he approached with a group of cultivators in the same generation as themselves. There were seven in total, two were also old acquaintances. The other four he hasn’t spoken to before but the enmity was there nonetheless. The seven were all in the Saint Expert realm. All of them belonged to the Heaven Peak of Mount Huang ruled by the Shin family.
“Hm.” Kyo ignored the incoming group and continued to chop firewood. How dare that Tang Su call him buddy? Ever since he fell on hard times over a decade ago, he pretended he didn’t know Kyo and barely spoke to him.
“Aren’t you a bit disrespectful? Where are your manners?” One skinny tall man said coldly. His name was Siwan, apprentice to Saint Champion Jo Dion. Jo Dion was an infamous flame user that can summon a storm of flames and devastate a whole town single-handedly. An invisible warm force warped around Kyo and slammed him forward into the ground. The axe within Kyo’s grasp flew out and pointed directly at his next. In terms of cultivation, Siwan was the most advanced amongst the group.
“There that’s better.” Siwan sneered. Tang Su quickly raised his arm and stopped Siwan from going too far. Guilt and pity secretly struck his own heart due to everything Kyo had done for him in the past.
“What do you want?” Kyo said bluntly even as he was pressed down by spirit force. There was no trace of emotion on his face. Humiliation was something he was used to.
“This trash dares to…” Siwan started to mutter with frustration but Tang Su silently motioned him to quiet. Although Tang Su was slightly weaker than him but his position vastly overwhelms his as the nephew of the patriarch. However Siwan could not accept that a Saint Rookie dares to talk back to him, a Saint Expert! The path of cultivation is ranked as the following; Saint Rookie, Saint Journeyman, Saint Expert, Saint Master, Saint Warrior, Saint Champion, Saint Lord and Saint King. The Patriarch of the Huang Clan is rumored to be a Saint King while the three ruling families that support the Patriarch is definitely Saint Lords. Each realm is exponentially harder to achieve than the previous.
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“Alright Kyo, we’ll get to the point. We want the Five-Point Rebirthing fruit that you acquired during the annual Rookie Spiritual Medicine Hunt. It would be wasted on someone like you who is over twenty but just a Saint Rookie.” A more scholarly man spoke up this time. He spoke straightforwardly but his voice contained no arrogance. This person was Hanso, one of Kyo’s past acquaintances. Right now Hanso is one of the apprentices of the head researcher for spiritual techniques, Saint Champion Galadin.
Hanso was quite intelligent but was born between two lowly servants in the Shin household. Of course his intelligence lags behind Kyo’s own but that did not stop Kyo from interacting with him in the past. Thanks to Kyo’s insistence and help, Hanso was allowed to partake the same training that only people with influential background was able to. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that without Kyo, Hanso could not have started the path of sainthood, nevermind reaching the Saint Expert stage.
“Please Kyo, let’s not make this harder than it already is. We don’t want to hurt you.” Another calm voice rang out. It belonged to Aiden, Kyo’s very own cousin. A practitioner of the swords under the only Saint Lord not related to the patriarch or the three founding families of the Huang clan. Similarly Aiden was close to Kyo in the past, her parents wanted her to follow the intelligent toddler Kyo to greatness but obviously she stopped interacting with him after Kyo’s fame declined.
Kyo’s expression didn’t change but deep down his emotions were in turmoil. There was only one person that knows he acquired a divine fruit that anyone under the Saint Ruler realm would die for. This person was the only person he trusted in the whole wide world. Incomparable dreadful and vindictive feelings filled his heart. He had guarded himself pretty well emotionally since he became the trash of the Huang clan. The useless son of the great Shin family who could not practice any of the Huang clan spiritual arts. The hopeless loser that is weaker than kids a decade younger than him. The inadequate human that might as well be a mortal living outside of Mount Huang.
With a bitter laugh Kyo quickly said, “Sure. Five hundred gold spirit coins and ten spiritual medicine suitable for pathetic Saint Rookies like me from each of you.”
“What?”
The seven of them couldn’t help but cry out. Five hundred gold spirit coins is no small amount even for people like them. They came to extort him so naturally they wanted to keep this matter a secret, there was no way they could use their family’s money. They can’t risk having the news of the Five-Point Rebirthing fruit leak out. It had to come out of their personal stash. Kyo’s mind was still as sharp as ever even if he can’t cultivate much. He knew that each of them most likely have around a thousand gold spirit coins at most.
“You little punk… just see how I torture you, you’ll wish you were dead.” Siwan shouted with fury. Why did that trash even want spiritual medicine? They were hard to come by since only those who practices the way of alchemy with at least three tiers of Enlightenments could concoct proper spiritual pills.
“Go ahead. Even if I am the trash of the Huang clan, I still belong to the Shin family. I dare you to kill me.” Kyo said as he locked eyes with Siwan. The unwavering steel eyes of his caused Siwan to subconsciously stop talking.