‘Shadow Steps’

The Shu family's trio of Shu Wei, Shu Wu and Elder 'Fatty' Lu left the palace of the Purple Mist Sect Master with a heavy heart.

Upon careful listening, they learned from few stories that the Heavenly Dragon Sect Master was full of arrogance.

It was understandable since, apparently, said Sect Master Heian, like the Emperor Void himself, was able to achieve the initial Heaven stage of the Emperor realm—and apart from that, he had an Ancient Darkness elemental affinity.

And that was enough for him to become the Master of the clan which was the overlord of the arguably the strongest region in the continent—the Kunlun Mountains.

It is said that his character was something that was hard to please. As a matter of fact, cultivators would often call him 'Lord Heian' rather than Sect Master.

In short, seeking the advice from the said Emperor, who was deemed as an absolute power, was next to impossible.

But even if their trip to the Sect was not successful, they nevertheless got something in return.

The trio from the Shu family were able to get hold of an Expert grade 'Darkness' attribute movement skill scroll, which they traded with the sect for five hundred 'Spirit Stones'—fortunately, Shu Wei brought some wisely thinking before coming to the sect, that they might come in handy.

For an Expert grade skill scroll though, five hundred 'Spirit Stones' was insanely expensive. But that was the way it was—ancient attribute scrolls were the rarest of the rare.

As a matter of fact, the Sect Master was very hesitant to let go of it. If not for the fact that when he personally forged the skill out of the rare beast core several years ago, he was able to come up with two copies of the scroll.

The skill was actually called 'Shadow Steps,' which was actually a movement skill that could create an after-image of the cultivator upon activation.

But the problem would be after learning the skill, Yuan would obviously face the difficulty of finding another rare one for himself.

Apparently, the three higher ups of the Shu family even entertained the idea of sending Yuan to Kunlun Mountains to join the Heavenly Dragon Sect in the hope that the Sect Master, Lord Heian, would take notice of him.

And even if that remained an option, they were not personally keen on doing such move. They would rather send them to Purple Mist Sect, but Emperor Void explained carefully that even his sect had no other available skills with such attribute.

However their hopes were not dead yet as the Sect Master had suggested to let the youth join the next trip to Desolate Wasteland and try his luck to either chance upon a Darkness skill scroll itself or upon a demonic beast with Darkness elemental affinity whose core could be forged into another skill.

The suggestion appeared to be the best option so far, but the three could obviously not let Yuan proceed to such dangerous place with only a movement skill.

It was this topic that the trio was busy with on their way home.

"The Desolate Wasteland would at least not open until after two years," Shu Wei said.

*****************

And while he said that, he was reminded of a 'challenge' he once made in the family. It was the idea that he should reach half-step Emperor before the next opening of the wasteland.

Currently, the Shu family head had just broken through to the peak Sky stage of the Sage realm. With the speed of his present cultivation, reaching Half-step Emperor stage seemed doable but, as said, the higher the level the more difficult it was to cultivate.

There was apparently a huge gap between levels at the later stages.

And as a matter of fact, many Sage cultivators remained at the Sky stages—it was perhaps the most common level and stage for Sages. Thus, crossing to the Heaven stage of the Sage realm would already be a huge achievement for the Shu family.

**************

"Let's just hope either little Qai or Shu Liang would be able to help Yuan when they come back home," Elder 'Fatty' Lu said with a sigh.

The father and son duo nodded in agreement. To them, if it was Qai, he might be able to come up with some bright idea to help Yuan.

But as of then, they were settled in giving their unexpectedly 'prized' recruit, Yuan, the very expensive movement skill.

***************

Outside the city walls, Qai and Feng Lan were busy with their training.

Surprisingly, even if Qai's cultivation was two level higher than Feng Lan's, he wasn't getting the upper hand of the fight—in fact, the slave cultivators insane 'Berserk' skill could practically match up against him and Shandian.

Qai simply shook his head with a grin.

'So that explains why those cultivators with special bloodline are fond of the berserker cultivation path,' he thought.

But not before long, the three Sky stage cultivators wearing black robes and masked suddenly surrounded them filled with killing intent.

'Wooosh,' 'wooosh,' 'wooosh.'

The three black robed cultivators were evidently emitting the very dangerous Poison elemental affinity.

The two youth on the other hand was obviously taken aback by their sudden appearance—but they did not dare to ask anyway. They simply formed a circle together with Shandian with their backs against each other.

Qai readied himself and mentally communicated with his contracted demonic beast to attack anytime.

He was not certain whether they could take the enemies head on, but one thing was sure—there was no way out but to fight.

And without further dawdle, Qai activated his movement skill and draw three arrows in different directions.

'Swooosh,' 'swooosh,' 'swooosh.'

'Baam,' 'baam,' 'baam.'