There Can be Only One

The next day, William's consciousness awoke in Zhang Chun Wu's body. The previous day, he hadn't managed to speak much to the child after he had finished his cultivation session, as the boy had been too busy completing his daily training routines to chat with him.

He had watched as Zhang Chun Wu danced around in the setting sun, spear in hand, kicking up a storm of dust as he lept to and fro. Seeing the fierceness in his eyes, William saw for the first time, the spark of conviction that had brought the child to where he was today.

Residing within the dark corners of Zhang Chun Wu's sea of consciousness, he felt a wave of melancholy wash over him, as Zhang Chun Wu's sweat formed a miniature waterfall in the moonlight. He wondered what the world must have done to the young Zhang Chun Wu to have him act like this at the age where most children were still blissfully enjoying their life in his world.

"Life is an asshole". William mused, as he came back to reality.

Upon adjusting his vision, William realized Zhang Chun Wu was still in his room. From his eyes, William could see that he faced the burning incense. Kneeling before the small statuette, Zhang Chun Wu bowed thrice before standing back up again.

At this moment, a notification interrupted William's gaze. Looking to the top left of the screen, William noticed the number 3 next to the Quest Interface.

Entering into the Quest Interface, William took a look at the new Quests available on the screen.

Reward: 200 World Currency

Penalty: None>

Reward: 400 World Currency

Penalty: None>

Reward: 50 (Unknown) Artifact Pieces, 500 World Currency

Failure: None>

Seeing the newly added quests, William's mood became slightly more jovial. Although he still had to work for it, it seemed that he would be having an income for World Currencies.

"That's fine, I've worked for Yu-Gi-Oh cards before," he mused.

"Oh, it seems that you've awoken as well, De- I mean, William." Moments after William had subconsciously made the comment, Zhang Chun Wu's voice arrived. It appeared that he had accidentally transmitted some of his thoughts to the thirteen year old.

"Why didn't you sleep for a bit more? I remember you were still training when I went to sleep." Temporarily grasping control of an arm, William could feel that the fatigue was still there. Surprisingly, he could not hear any trace of weariness coming from Zhang Chun Wu.

"I wake up at this time regardless of my schedule," Zhang Chun Wu responded.

The child paused for a moment, then added, "I've never went to sleep that late before, but it doesn't seem to have affected me."

Satisfied, William released the arm, before drifting towards the back of Zhang Chun Wu's consciousness.

Zhang Chun Wu left the room that he resided in, before walking out of the Red Jade Pavilion, preparing to go for his morning walk. As he exited the room, he noticed one of his servants standing by the door.

"Young Lord, the Elders have called a meeting in the afternoon, they have requested your presence." Bowing, the servant soon drifted away from him.

His arm momentarily trembled, then returned to stillness. Yesterday, Zhang Chun Wu had been quite excited to go report to the patriarch about the presence of another being living inside him, but now…

His hand tightened as his gaze travelled down to his left arm.

What would the patriarch do if he could remove William?

Pushing away his anxiety, Zhang Chun Wu turned back around and returned to his room.

"Did you forget something?"

He heard the disembodied voice call out from within. The source of his happiness, annoyance, and anxiety spoke to him many times throughout yesterday. Although his mannerism had been strange to say the least, Zhang Chun Wu had quickly adapted to the one residing in his body.

"They're calling the meeting in the afternoon, so I need to cultivate now." He replied, sitting back down on the bed.

"Why don't you just cultivate at night?" Zhang Chun Wu scoffed at that question. It appeared that this William's common sense really wasn't up to par. Did he forget his memories or something?

"Do I look like an immortal to you?"

Zhang Chun Wu snapped back, before sitting on his bed to practice the Blood Crane Inner Breathing Technique. Before closing his eyes however, he paused. Not wanting a repeat of the previous day, he told William to wake him up if he had not stopped cultivating by noon.

Slightly grumbling, William went back to staring at the sea of consciousness as he waited for the time to pass.

A few hours later, William heard a knock on the bedroom door. Noticing that Zhang Chun Wu was still meditating, he took control of both legs and began to walk to the door. This action instantly snapped Zhang Chun Wu out of his mediation.

Again, the sound of knocking sounded, and this time Zhang Chun Wu was conscious enough to hear it, so he regained control of his limbs and opened the door, revealing a female servant.

"Lord Wu Zhi would like me to inform young lord that the meeting with the elders will begin soon." The lady spoke timidly.

Giving a slight Hmph in response, Zhang Chun Wu began to make his way to the meeting space.

"A bit rude, not giving any response, don't you think?" William accused.

Zhang Chun Wu ignored the idiot in his head and continued to walk towards the meeting hall.

Seeing that Zhang Chun Wu had ignored him, William's temper rose a bit.

"You're never going to get a girlfriend if you act like that, brother."

"Why would I need a girlfriend?"

Zhang Chun Wu retorted incredulously,

"I don't get to make the choice about my fiancée anyway."

Stumped at Zhang Chun Wu's declaration, William stayed silent until they had entered into the meeting hall.

Upon entering the meeting hall, Zhang Chun Wu furrowed his eyebrows. Sweeping his gaze through the people there, he made out about 12 or so elders in the family.

"That's strange, where did all the elders go?" Zhang Chun Wu self-questioned, before taking a seat near the front of the hall.

A few seats away from him, his sister, Zhang Xia Yun was sprawled onto the chair, looking completely unfocused on the surroundings.

"The Clan meeting commences", an old man at the front of the hall stood up and declared. Zhang Chun Wu recognized him immediately. This was Zhang Wen Ming, one of the head elders of the main panel in the Zhang family, boasting an incredible Cultivation level of the Seventh Stage of Earth Revolution.

"I, Wen Ming will be heading the clan meeting in the absence of the Patriarch this time." He said, explaining his presence.

"We have a few order of businesses to deal with immediately, which is why I've called everyone here two days earlier than normal.

As his wizened gaze passed through the crowd of people, Zhang Chun Wu felt as if his gaze momentarily settled onto him.

"The first thing on our list is regarding a letter that the Patriarch sent from the capital.

Most of you may still be unaware, but the Patriarch and several other elders have gone to the capital to welcome Masters from the Five Elements Sect that have come to our Xia Yu Country."

Zhang Wen Ming paused again, taking in the murmurs that spread throughout the room.

"We had not spread this information to the rest of the clan, because we didn't want to leak the departing date of the Patriarch, in case anyone decided to do something unscrupulous. All the Great families of the Zhihui district have tacticly agreed to this notion, which is why none of you have heard of it either."

At this moment, Zhang Wen Ming signalled the elder to his right to begin speaking. Zhang Chun Wu also knew this elder: Zhang Wu Dao, the elder in charge of diplomacy, stood up and began to narrate.

"The letter that came back yesterday told us that the Five Elements Sect came to recruit promising youths as disciples, and that the we should also send some youths to the capital for their selection trials."

"This will take place in half a month's time. Zhang Wu Dao concluded.

As the crowd digested this situation, a voice spoke out loud, "so what part about that was urgent information?"

As if he had expected that question, Zhang Wu Dao answered, "The Patriarch also left a message in here saying that people going to the capital will need to be careful, since there will be a lot of fights breaking out through the journey."

"This is because the Five Elements Sect has declared that exactly one of their accepted disciples with the highest talent will automatically be accepted as an inner disciple."

"Therefore, it is practically guaranteed that some families will be attacking other families with more gifted children to give their own children a fighting chance." Zhang Wu Dao concluded.

"This is where our problem lies."

Immediately, Zhang Wu Zhi stood up.

Zhang Chun Wu, who was listening from the sidelines, suddenly realized what was going on.

"A week ago, none of this information was too relevant to us…" Although the Zhang family would also be sending their children to test for disciples, they had in fact, already sent a portion of their talents to the Shaking Mountain Sect a few years ago, which decreased the available number of talents they could send this year.

"However, yesterday, Zhang Chun Wu awakened his Prime Artifact." A burst of commotion followed his announcement. Zhang Chun Wu, that poor child, had finally awakened his Prime Artifact? That was akin to giving wings to a tiger!

Waiting for the commotion to settle, Zhang Wu Zhi continued, "as you all know, Zhang Chun Wu has an incredible cultivation level of second Stage Foundation Building at 13 years old, which is almost unheard of.

Therefore, he stands a very good chance of actually being the one directly accepted into the Five Elements Sect."

The surrounding Zhang Clan members all spoke excitedly, but Zhang Wu Zhi had a solemn look on his face.

"The problem is that the Li family knows about it as well, and they might have already spread the news throughout the Zhihui county."

Hearing his solemn words, the speaking clan members came to a halt.

Zhang Wen Ming spoke at this moment.

"As you can see, our journey towards the capital has suddenly been complicated by these events. Therefore, the panel of elders have called up an inner clan meeting to discuss counter measures for the situation."

Upon hearing the news, Zhang Chun Wu suddenly realized why the Li family had made such a ruckus the other day. The Li family must have gotten the news and seen Zhang Chun Wu as a threat for his high cultivation level, and tried to take him out of the running early.

"Unfortunately for them, their plan seems to have backfired." Zhang Chun Wu thought as the crowd began to debate.

"Can't we just send all three head elders with the children going for the selection trials?" A voice sounded from within the crowd.

"Preposterous! How are we going to defend our clan territory then?" An angry voice shushed the first speaker.

"Should we send Zhang Chun Wu separately from the others?" A female voice called out.

"Are you stupid? Do you want Zhang Chun Wu to die?"

"What about not sending him at all?"

"Why should the Zhang family hide it's prodigies just because some other families are jealous? The Zhang family is not scared!"

As he listened to them bicker, Zhang Chun Wu suddenly felt a whisper in his mind.

He was stunned for a moment, then, he angrily thought back, "Are you crazy? Why would we do that?"

However, moments later, his expression became calm again.

Taking control of the body, William suddenly stood up.

"Why don't we just team up with the Li Family?"