– TWG Chapter 18 –

“ Big brother Wei Yi! Big brother Wei Yi! “ a childish voice called out from the lower slope of a hill.

It was a cute, little girl running towards a waterfall at the other side of the hill with a wide grin on her face. Behind her, a young boy in his early teenage years followed behind while huffing and puffing.

" Ai Mei, huff, slow down! You are becoming too energetic since you started training as a warrior. " The young boy complained towards the little girl ahead of him.

" Ehehe, Big bro Ju Yan* you are so weak! If you don't work hard, I will leave you in the dust one day! " The little girl, Ai Mei retorted laughingly.

Ju Yan smiled wryly. Since he knew why this little mischievous girl is so energetic.

" She really likes brother Wei Yi huh? "

It's justifiable actually, Wei Yi is a very friendly and amiable person. All the kids in the village loved him, the enmity between him and the villagers had also pretty much died down.

" Grandpa Bon used to say that fellows who suffer in this world should not place enmity amongst them. I used to not be able to agree to him but now.. "

He sighed. Wei Yi had not lived an easy life, nor did they. They now knew why both Wei Yi and You Longchang joined the bandits, their parents are in a very poor health, ordinary menial jobs would never be able to cover their costs.

Though Ju Yan is still very young, but his mind matured quickly because of he environment he lived in.

" Mm? Where is little Ai Mei? " When he got out of his trance, he found out that little Ai Mei is no longer in his sight.

He turned his head towards the waterfall, and there she was, playing in the water with Wei Yi.

He smiled and walked over.

~ ~ ~

" Little Ai Mei, you shouldn't disturb brother Wei Yi's training! " Ju Yan softly knocked her head and grabbed her wet body as he raised her from the water.

" B-buuttt " Little Ai Mei puffed her cheeks and showed her displeasure.

" Ahaha, it's fine Ju Yan. I'm already done training anyways. Mediating for 8 hours straight had left me hungry now.. " Wei Yi who was wet from head to toes came over to them.

" Ehehe, alright. Brother Wei Yi, you don't work too much too! I know you are trying very hard to become a great magus but a break from time to time is necessary. Ever since a month ago, you are either training or working to build the village ! "

" Ahaha, right, right. Okay, I'll rest after I play with little Ai Mei. "

Right, Wei Yi is now training as a magus. A water magus to be exact. He spends most of his time mediating under the waterfall as he train.

Since mediation recovers energy, cultivators, especially higher ranked ones rarely slept. Although Wei Yi is still unable to do so without sleep, he doesn't need too much sleep to be fresh and full of energy.

“ Yup, It's been a month already huh..” Wei Yi smiled and his eyes drifted into the sky, a reminiscent look flashed in his eyes.

A month has already passed since that eventful day.

Since that day, Wei Yi had gone back to his village, told his mother the truth and moved to Pumpledom village, where most of the villagers who were caught by the Ravenous Tigers bandits lived before.

Since they were using the trained magic beasts that were used to pull the wagons to travel across the land, it only took Wei Yi a week to travel.

The magic beasts had not been affected by the craze and they were just lazily munching on grass when they saw them.

They did not know but Li Zun had specifically locked the space around those magic beasts to prevent the smell of the acorn from reaching them.

Wei Yi moved to the Pumpledom village along with You Longchang and some of those who don't have a home. Of course there is still an enmity between them, since he was still a part of the Ravenous Tigers, although he was merely a retainer to those bandits.

But even so, he steeled himself and moved to the Pumpledom village in order to repent his faults.

Everyday, he and You Longchang worked hard to help build back the houses of the villagers who were torn down by the bandits.

After a month, things have pretty much been restored back to normal and there were no signs of the Ravenous Tigers coming back to ransack their village.

Now, they are mostly in good terms with each other, his mother is also very happy living in the Pumpledom village, her condition has been improving too.

With the amount of treasure they got from the Ravenous Tigers, it was enough for them to live for a long time without hunger. And Wei Yi exchanged a bit of those treasures to pay for his mother's and You Longchang's family's medical expenses.

He had been living a very blissful life in the past month, all thanks to the intervention of lord expert.

When mentioning lord expert, Wei Yi began to reel back in time, back when they had just avoided the disaster and everyone is in a very solemn mood. While they had just escaped calamity, they couldn't help but ponder what they would do in the future as the threat of the Ravenous Tigers bandit group continue to exist and would never let them live in peace after this incident.

“ You, you say your name is Wei Yi? “  Out of nowhere, a hooded figure appeared right in front of Wei Yi, right in the middle where they are gathering.

“ Eh? Ah, y-yes. “ At the time, although Wei Yi was struck with amazement at the site of a hooded figure appearing out of nowhere, he was not panicking. Instead, he was very…excited.

“ It must be the lord expert who saved us. “ He thought, exhilarated.

“ Mm, good. “ The hooded figure, who was of course Li Zun nodded his head slightly in confirmation.

When Li Zun spreads out his divine awareness, he is able to see a lot of things that mortals could never see. Sometimes, he would be able to find some interesting things, for example, things like..talent.

“ Talent, a talent for magic. “ He thought, while sizing up Wei Yi.

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It's not an extremely high talent, but it's still very good nonetheless.

“ Why are you training as a warrior? Your talent is quite poor as a warrior. “

Wei Yi smiled bitterly, he could only. Such an expert looking down on him? he was not even worthy of his belittling.

But the next words uttered out by Li Zun made him even more gobsmacked.

“ You have a high talent for magic, especially towards the water element, if you try hard you will definitely be an expert in the future. “

Li Zun's words kept on cringing on his head, for a moment all he could hear was those words repeating over and over again in his head.

Talent, such a simple word. But that word alone can cause the lives of many people to change. Either they would forever be destined to become mediocre or an expert, it all depends on their talent!

And Wei Yi is one of the many, who did not have the necessary talent. Since he was young, his dreams had always been to become a hero, an expert who would be able to stand high up in the vast world.

Sadly, the world had never been kind. He, Wei Yi had longed to be recognized, what he needs most is people who would believe in him, who believed that he can become a hero and encourage him.

But on that moment, he was finally recognized!  

What's more is that the one who recognize him is an expert of such caliber, such an expert actually told him that he have a talent as a magus, this, how could Wei Yi not become excited? Even if it was all a lie he would love to live in that lie!

One must know that not just anyone can thread on the path of a magus! The most basic requirements to be a magus is that one must have an abundant amount of spiritual energy and have a good aptitude to the elementals!

The path of magus is extremely harsh, in a rural village like where Wei Yi lived, only 1 out of hundreds could thread on it, this is why people from the capital rarely bothered to come and test their talent. This is especially true in places like Wei Yi's village where it's quite far to the nearest large city. Thus, over the passing of time, there will be mortals who could have actually become a peerless magus faded away.

“ If you ever have the inclination to thread on the path of the magus, perhaps this manual could help you. “

Li Zun took out a thick scroll from his interspacial ring and let the wind gently carried it to Wei Yi and with a plop, it softly landed on Wei Yi’s outstretched hands.

The scroll is filled with beautiful handwriting and drawings of the human body with their energy channels visible in it. At the very top, the words “ Aqueous 3-folds wave “ is written in a blue ink.

“ Senior, this is? “ Wei Yi asked, he had only taken a glance at it for a bit, but his heart had been rapidly beating ever since then.

“ It's a cultivation manual for magus created by me during my free time, it's especially suited towards water magicians. “ Li Zun answered casually.

“ Badump! “ Wei Yi felt like his heart had stopped beating for a moment at the time.

“ S-senior I am not worthy of such a thing. “ Wei Yi stuttered. Even if this great expert had created this manual during his “ free time “ such a manual is an absolutely priceless treasure.

“ Take it, I have no use for it anyway. “ Li Zun turned his head and walked away, he did not wait for Wei Yi to answer him as he left him in a daze.

“ Yeah, such a thing did happen. “ Wei Yi grinned and pressed his palm on his cheeks, still reminiscing those moments.

Seeing that his big brother Wei Yi reminiscing when he was recognized by mr.expert, Ju Yan smiled and said. “ Geez brother Wei Yi, you know that you are not the only one who mr.expert gifted some manuals right?”

Wei Yi laughed, it was true. He was not the only one who lord expert gave some guidance to.

Aside from him, the little boy Ju Yan, little Ai Mei and a few others had received some guidance too. What was even more surprising is that lord expert actually founded out that You Longchang had a  talent in treading the path of warriors.

You Longchang is 26 years old this year, he is younger than Wei Yi by 2 years and is also a stage higher in cultivation than him. Sadly, the world is a very harsh place, the Qi manual that is widely distributed to the masses are mostly very rudimentary in practice.

Those who use those Qi manuals are only able to reach the 3rd rank at most, they can never hope to reach the 2nd realm of cultivation. If one has the desire to advance in cultivation, they could only pledge loyalty to a kingdom or join a clan.

But once you do, your life would never become yours forever. It belongs to the kingdom or the clan, if they told you to die then you have no choice but to die. Hence, a lot of people hesitated in joining a side.

You Longchang was one of them, he is after all very afraid of dying. How could he possibly hand his life over to someone else?

He was fated to never advance in the path of warrior until he met Li Zun.

Thinking about the mysterious expert who saved them, Wei Yi sighed.

The past month, Wei Yi and the others had discovered that even the scroll containing the manual is special. It is actually imbued with a bountiful amount of Heaven-Earth Qi. Training while keeping it close to oneself will increase the rate of training by quite a bit.

Such an amazing treasure and lord expert just casually gave it away.

This only made Wei Yi speechless in awe. Just what realm has that expert reach?

And then, the parting words left by Li Zun set his heart in blaze to pursue the path of cultivation.

“ Train hard, if you continue in the path of cultivation, maybe we could meet again one day. Oh, and those bandits? Don't worry, settle down and live freely, I will take care of them. “ The words left by Li Zun became the source of their energy to strive for power..

Note :

1. Ju Yan, remember? The one who escaped from the bandits and met Li Zun in the forest back at chapter 15.

This chapter might be quite rough on the edges, sorry.