Yun Tian was now fourteen. He now looked like a dashing young man with black hair in a ponytail behind his head. He was handsome and anyone would admire his looks and become jealous, even girls. He was also rather tall for his age and wore dark black robes that made him look very eye-catching. He looked very much like a pampered young master, especially since he usually had a calm smile on his face.
However, if one looked in his eyes you could see that his gaze contained great patience, determination, and pride. If you looked into his black eyes you might just fall into them.
Even though he didn't have the cultivation of a great master, his bearing made him look like he thought he was some bigshot. This look would only go away when he was with his family who were the only ones that could make him feel genuine happiness and not the fake smile he got used to wearing after enduring the ridicule from the other members of the Yun clan. They would often mock him for putting in so much effort since it was seemingly useless.
As for why his gaze contained such great emotions, he had spent so much time stuck at the peak of the Meridian Opening Realm and had not been able to break through. Most would have given up if they had not been able to break through for so long. Yun Tian however did not and even though he still has not broken through he believes that he will one day. This is mostly because of the startling talent he displayed previously and the fact that even though he can not break through he has discovered that he has in fact been growing stronger just very, very, very slowly this entire time.
Even with this being the case, his willpower and patience have grown immeasurably over the years. He may not have progressed much in the way of cultivation throughout the years, but his mind and temperament have grown considerably stronger. He simply does not seem like a young fourteen year old most of the time. His willpower is now stronger than most adults, not to mention others his own age.
From his occasional sparring with his parents they have realized the fact that he is slowly growing stronger as well. They thought that there was something peculiar with Yun Tian's body and have thus stopped having doubts about him not being able to break through. Instead, they are very supportive once again with their previous doubts once more wiped away. His parents have started to believe that this period is merely a trial for him and if he can get through it he will soar straight into the heavens from there on out.
His father said something once which especially struck a chord with him, “Maybe your talent is just too high. Maybe you will just take a long time to form your dantian but when you finally do, you will once again blaze through the realms and have increasingly well above average strength just like you do now. Maybe your talent will just continue to grow.”
At the end of the day though, his parents couldn’t be more proud of him. He might not have broken through to Dantian Building, but they had watched as he displayed almost terrifying determination and amazing talent in learning things including fighting ability and skills. You could see it in their eyes when they looked at him and how their face would brighten up considerably with smug smiles whenever they thought about their son compared to other children.
Even if he hadn’t broken through yet, in their town there was still no child even close to the peak of the seventh layer of Meridian Opening at fourteen. Besides, he is still not as strong as a Dantian Building expert, but he is much stronger than a normal peak Meridian Opening Realm expert.
Even though he has not broken through to Dantian Building, because of his great talent and unrelenting practice of his skills he has barely reached Grasping Spirit with all three. Though he has reached this stage, he still can not express the full might of the skills since the skills are meant for Dantian Building Realm experts.
Still with his skills and above average strength, he is a formidable warrior. This combined with all the practice he has gained from hunting wild beasts over the years has made him someone who could defeat all experts of the same realm, even multiple at the same time. Even after he breaks through to Dantian Building, because of his experience hunting and his level of attainment in his skills he and his parents thought he should still be stronger than most experts within the same layer.
Not only has he gained a large amount of experience hunting and training through the years, but he has also gained a considerable amount of gold currency and a few qi gathering pills to use after he breaks through. He has hunted so many wild beasts and brought back all their corpses making the total amount of beast parts he has sold over the years an extremely startling amount. In the end though, it was still just wild beast parts, so he couldn’t get much even with his massive amount.
He also bought a sword that is almost as good as a low grade spiritual artifact. It was made with good materials and fine craftsmanship. It is perfect for him to use for now.
Besides training and hunting he spent the rest of his time with his family and learning more about the world. His parents had thought that he could still cultivate just that his way of cultivation would be a little special. They still thought that he could grow to great heights so they tried giving him all the best advice they could.
Yun Tian was not the only person they took care of though. Shen Yu had grown to be fifteen by now and she looked just as good as if not better than Yun Tian. Her body had started budding in certain areas however her height was also a little below average making her more than a little shorter than Yun Tian who was tall for his age. Over the years Shen Yun still treated Yun Tian as her older brother, but slowly some other feelings of great admiration and more than sibling love had started to sprout. While she hadn’t fully realized this, they were there and the way she treated him slowly changed somewhat.
She had waist length black hair with glistening blue eyes and a face that could charm all the men in the world with one look. She had broken through to the sixth layer of Meridian Opening and was also trained by their parents.
She loved spending time with him and their parents, so whenever Yun Tian wasn't off doing his own thing and she wasn't cultivating she would be with him or their parents. Yun Tian also loved Shen Yu who he completely treated as his little sister. She was one of three most important people in his life. He also enjoyed spending time with her very much.
She often asked to spar with Yun Tian and Yun Tian agreed gladly every time. He always went easy on her and tried to help her learn rather than show off his ability. His great talent and time spent training alone, hunting, and sparring made his expertise when it came to fighting very high. He always did his best to help her improve and she always listened with wide open ears to his advice. His ability at giving advice even surprised his parents sometimes.
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He had so much experience in fighting those stronger than him that his parents even listened to his advice with open ears and learned too. The two of them had mostly relied on their cultivation level and decent mastery of skills before but their fighting potential had slowly increased after training with Yun Tian and listening to his advice.
Seeing him work so hard even made the two of them work extra hard on their cultivation and training of their skills, however their talent was nowhere near Yun Tian’s and was just average. His mother had a somewhat better talent than others but even then cultivation takes a long time. She could only cultivate a little harder and longer everyday.
Their days continued just like this. He cherished every moment he spent with his family and even if he couldn't break through he was honestly happy with his life as it was.
Yun Tian was happy with his life, but the heavens above don’t care about your feelings. Nothing stays the same and accidents can always happen.
Yun Tian's parents left to run some errands for the clan one day. They were gone for several weeks already, but this was nothing unusual. They did all kinds of things for the clan, including going on trips to buy or sell certain things. Yun Tian and Shen Yu just carried on their lives as usual as they were used to their parents leaving on trips sometimes.
It was only when several of his Aunts and Uncles suddenly showed up at his door one day that he suddenly got a bad feeling. They just showed up out of the blue all together and wore extremely solemn looks on their faces.
After he opened the door he didn’t even get a chance to question them before they said, “Go get Shen Yu and follow us.”
Of course he wouldn’t just blindly follow them though as he asked, “Why? What’s going on?”
One of his uncles, named Yun Haung, stood out and said, “Just do as we say, or I will drag you out.”
Yun Tian Tian looked at this Uncle of his and decided he could only do as they said. Several of his Aunts and Uncles were in the Dantian Building with his Uncle Yun Huang in particular being in the mid Dantian Building Realm. There was no way for him to defy them. With the way they were acting he didn’t want him or more importantly Shen Yu to get hurt.
He gritted his teeth as he went into the house and to the garden. Shen Yu was there waiting for him wondering what happened. The two of them often cultivated in the garden together.
She saw his solemn face and asked worriedly, “What’s wrong?”
He could only reply, “I don’t know, but our Aunts and Uncles are all here with solemn attitudes and are asking us to go with them. Yun Haung said he would force us to go with them even.”
There was silence between them for a moment as they both tried their best to think of what to do.
Eventually, Shen Yu said, “I guess we can only go with them. Even if Mom and Dad aren’t here they shouldn’t want to harm us. Besides, Grand Elder is still in the clan.”
Yun Tian wanted to agree with her, but their relatives had only grown increasingly cold to them over the years and the thing he was worried about was that the Grand Elder was in seclusion at this moment. They were on their own at the moment.
He didn’t want to worry her though, so he could only faintly smile and say, “Yeah, I guess you're right. Let’s go see what they want.”
Shen Yu grabbed the hand he stretched out to her and they walked hand in hand out of their home. After seeing them, their Aunts and Uncles only coldly said, “Good. Now follow us,” before turning around and walking towards the center of the clan.
Shen Yu held Yun Tian’s hand tighter and he gave her a reassuring smile before the two of them followed.
In the end their group stopped at the clan’s meeting hall and went inside. Waiting for them were almost all of the rest of the clan’s members. Except for the Grand Elder and their parents’ that is.
Seeing this, Yun Tian only had his bad feelings increase.
His grandfather had a stern look on his face as the two of them were brought before him. Not waiting for the two of them to speak he said, “Your parents are dead.”
Instantly it was like a bomb went off in his mind. Yun Tian just blanked out for a second. Then, still expressionless, he looked around and saw the solemnness on the faces of those around. It seemed he was telling the truth.
His Grandfather had started saying something else, but the words didn’t seem to register.
After his words set in, Yun Tian was instantly filled with rage and tried to rush forward, but was knocked back by a wave of his uncle’s palm. He quickly stopped himself, but still had the wind knocked out of him.
Everyone there didn’t say anything and just waited a few moments as he lifted his head and stared straight into his Grandfather’s eyes completely ignoring the rest.
With gritted teeth, he slowly spat out, “How. Did. They. Die!”
His grandfather merely tutted in response and said, “That’s what I was in the process of saying. Your parents offended a clan in the city they went to and died. It's good enough that they didn’t attract trouble here.”
Yun Tian and Shen Yu were shocked. They didn't believe what they were hearing. Shen Yu, who had previously run over to him after he was knocked back, grabbed onto him and started crying.
Yun Tian exclaimed in rage, "How are we going to avenge them?!"
His grandpa plainly said, "We're not.”
Yun Tian went wide eyed and fell back a step as he stared straight at his Grandfather.
Not waiting for Yun Tian, he continued, “Their backing is far too great for us to handle. There is nothing we could do even if we wanted to."
Yun Tian screamed out as his eyes black eyes seemingly turned red and slightly swollen, “I may not have broken through! But! But my father is still your son, is he not!?”
Yun Tian was shocked and had lost all hope at this point, but after he heard what his grandfather said next he was angrier than ever before.
He said, "Did you not hear what I said before? It's good enough that trouble didn’t follow them here. Same goes for you two. We don’t need you two attracting trouble. There’s no reason to risk it for someone who can’t even cultivate and as for the girl, there is even less reason. Go take whatever you want from your parents’ courtyard and then get out. You are lucky I don't kill you right here."
Yun Tian could not believe he was hearing this. First his parents died and then his grandpa was so heartless to him. He waited for a second and looked around, but literally none of the many Aunts, Uncles, or Cousins stood up for them. Seeing his Grandfather’s darkening face, he didn’t dare to stick around any longer as pulled along the still grieving Shen Yu and ran back to their courtyard.
Once they were in the door, he hugged Shen Yu who was still crying and said, "Shen Yu. I'm sad too, but I will get revenge on that clan and our clan for their heartlessness so we have to live on for mom and dad, Yu'er."
She didn't say anything back and only cried in his arms for a few minutes. He also let out some tears but kept on telling himself, ‘I have to stay strong for Yu’er.’
They were still very young and their whole world just fell down all around them. It was hard for them to deal with it. Right now the only thing that made it so he didn’t just immediately collapse was this thought, ‘Stay strong for Yu’er,’ and it just kept repeating in his mind.