Returning Home

Before Chao even knew it, a cold snort suddenly reverberated throughout the area.

"Hmph!"

The power behind the voice greatly startled Chao. He felt the tiny hairs on his rise at a sudden chilling sensation.

But oddly enough, the surrounding environment temperature actually started to considerably rise.

At the same time, a wave of powerful Origin aura was released throughout the area.

The large vicious beast stopped dead in its track. Its enormous body snapped around and savagely punched out.

From its fist, streams of pure Origin Qi wildly gushed. The Origin Qi stream converged into light blue rays of fist imprints.

At the same time, a gleaming flash of orange lit up the forest. A large fire sword, bigger than the boy Chao had previously killed, sailed straight at the monster's fist imprints.

Instead of any violent collision of energy, the fire sword sliced right through the fist imprints, burning its Origin Qi into nothingness.

The fire sword soared unhindered, smashing right onto the enormous, monstrous beast!

'Bang!'

With a loud explosive noise, the fire sword erupted into a swirling pillar of flaming Law essence.

The fire essence submerged the monstrous beast instantly.

A destructive force released from the essence, burning everything in the vicinity of five meters. Large chunks of trees rapidly melted away and even parts of the ground had small melted holes.

Within only a few moments, the monstrous beast burst into a charred corpse. The fire essence easily overpowered all the beast's natural defenses, burning away all of its life aura.

Its charred corpse slammed into the ground with a loud impact.

'Such power!' Chao nearly couldn't believe his eyes.

Whoever threw that fire sword was no ordinary person. They have accumulated power in both Origin Qi and Law essences. To cause such havoc in the environment would only be achievable if that Origin realm cultivator accumulated a great amount of strength.

While amazed as he was, Chao didn't dare to move from his spot. He patiently waited, knowing somebody will come.

His suspicion proved to be true as three people suddenly strolled right up to the charred corpses.

These three weren't anybody ordinary. Their clothes were of luxuriously high-class quality. They wore robes with unique crest symbols carved on the right side of their chest.

Just the symbol alone would be enough to deter any weak cultivator, much less average mortals.

Chao narrowed his gaze on the symbols, a thick killing intent smoldering within his eyes. In his mind, he muttered, 'The Feng Family! No wonder they're so powerful.'

The Feng family people consisted of two good-looking youths and one middle-aged elder.

From the elder, Chao could detect he had the strongest aura. And his energy was the one that threw that all-powerful fire sword.

Chao focused his senses to just barely make out what this trio was discussing.

"Wow, Elder Shen! Despite being at the same layer, you absolutely dominated the beast." One of the youths gushed over praise.

"Is the separation between layers really so big?" The other youth asked.

Elder Shen appeared calm as he said, "Between the minor boundaries of a realm phase, the power gap isn't extremely large, but a higher layer cultivator will always have the advantage. Between a major phase, such as an ordinary 3rd layer and tilted 4th layer, the power gap becomes near impossible to overcome. Thus, it is imperative you two correctly learn to control the flow of Origin Qi. If you can, your Spiritual Sea perception will increase and your cultivation speed will greatly increase. Understood?"

"Yes, Elder Shen!" The youths eagerly nodded.

Elder Shen then tossed his attention back on the charred corpse and waved his sleeve, releasing a wave of Origin Qi that tore open the beast's stomach.

Clenching his palm, a weak suction force pulled out a small orb from the beast.

With the orb in hand, the Feng Family group quickly sprinted off towards Creek City.

'That orb...that should've been the vicious beast's core,' Chao quickly identified. From what he can recall, these Vicious beasts have their own way of cultivation that comes in the form of constructing their orb cores.

A mass amount of energy, both Origin Qi and Law essence, are stored in those cores. If an expert cultivator purifies the beast's core, taking away its harmful side effect, then it would be safe for a cultivator to comprehend and then later absorb.

Although, this method usually ends up with the beast core only having around 15% of its original energy.

Most of the time, beast cores' main usage is converting an abundance of them into energy crystals. And as energy crystals serve various functions such as cultivation, creating weapons, talismans, Spirit Artifacts, or even healing resources sometimes, there's considerable importance attached to beast cores.

Chao didn't try taking the previous vicious beast's core as he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself now.

No matter how daring he was, even Chao knows he needed to take certain precautions to survive. Giving out a beast core would only broadcast himself to the other greedy cultivators infesting the lower-class district.

Chao waited for a good five minutes after the Feng Family trio left. When his soul sense still didn't detect anything or was alerted to great danger, Chao dashed right out, making a straight beeline towards Creek City.

He no longer wants any interruptions to come his. After all, his precious little sister is still waiting for him at home.

...

Within the crowds of Creek City's lower district, a cloak hooded figure silently swayed throughout everyone. Their movements were incomparably smooth. They managed to avoid bumping into anyone else while also keeping a swift pace.

At this speed, the cloaked figure ended up at a rundown home within moments.

Taking his hoodie off, Chao had a satisfied smile. Coming home gave him little trouble this time.

Evidently, Lian and his leader expected their other partner to kill Chao easily.

Not like Chao could blame them for reasonable expectations. There's no mortal that can feasibly stand up to any cultivator for more than a few seconds.

But the thing is, Chao was no longer a mere mortal. When thinking about those boys with stacks of resources without any background, greed arouses Chao's mind.

He suppressed it for now, however.

Opening his door with a hidden key, Chao wasn't surprised to see Chen Li still sitting on the couch, studying the Fire Jade Art.

When Chen Li heard the door open, she promptly stood to her feet, absolute glee dazzling her face like a sunlight glow. "Chao! Thank god you're alive. I really thought..."

Chao simply smiles while locking the door behind him. He went up to gently caress Chen Li's soft hair and said, "Didn't I tell you not to worry about me? Moreover, I got two surprises for us. One of which requires you to use your soul sense."

"Eh...?" Chen Li felt a little puzzled. But in the next moment, when her soul sense scanned Chao, she suddenly stiffed.

Her big eyes widened in utter disbelief and simmering joy. She pointed a shaking finger, her mouth flapping like a fish as she said, "Ch-Chao!! You-you actually became a cultivator?!?"

This was the greatest shock that Chen Li received in a while. She nearly thought she fell asleep, and this was all some fantastical dream.

However, the sensation of Chao's hand was far too real to be fake. Moreover, his hand carried a distinct, tingling feeling that made Chen Li feel strangely safer than what she feels usually while under Chao's hand.

Chao had given a broad smile at Chen Li's disbelief. He even raised his hand other and produced a small Ice essence ball, causing Chen Li's shock to rise even further. "Indeed, indeed. Seems like lady luck favors me today! After so many brutal life-or-death situations, I finally broke through and awaken the latent Law essence within my soul. I didn't even need the Jade Fire Arts."

This was, of course, a lie. But a lie that would make sense to anyone else.

Even poor people like Chao and Chen Li are aware of some special oddities in cultivation. One such fact is that some people are simply born with Law essence fused into their souls.

These types of people don't typically show off their uniqueness until they reached the Origin realm. But even so, it is factually known that inborn Law people will awaken a different Law Core compared to the cultivation art they are studying.

Chao didn't want to lie to his dear sister. But what other options did he truly have?

Tell her something about some 'system' that he himself has zero information on?

Chao wasn't sure why, but he had a great feeling that this so-called system probably has some world-shattering secrets he must not share with anyone else, less he wants a terrifying disaster to fall upon them both.

Excitement can always come second. What's more important is taking the right steps to preserve their lives.

Thus, Chen Li didn't question anything and was rather excited. She hasn't felt this much hope in a long time, even eagerly saying, "This is just great, brother. As a cultivator, you can either go to a Martial family and apply for a guard position, join an academy, or even a prestigious sect!"

Chao nodded, having already considered these options long before. "About this...I believe the Ming Family will be best suited for me. Out of all organizations, they are infamously known for prioritizing absolute strength above. Something perfect for my ambitions."