Getting Ready to Leave

"Raiden! Get your ass out here! The village chief demands your attendance!" An annoying and haughty voice sounded from outside of Raiden's hut.

Inside, Astoria, who was cultivating in the immortal ring, and Raiden, who was moping under his blanket instead of sleeping, opened their eyes simultaneously and thought extremely similar things.

'This idiot is back!'

'Minor characters are so annoying!'

Astoria reluctantly exited the immortal ring and pulled off the quilt that was covering Raiden.

"What are you going to do about him? Is this village chief some big shot who can order you, an outsider, around?" Astoria raised an eyebrow.

"Sadly, yes. While it's not much to you, the village chief here is at the peak of the Skin Tempering Realm and also a tyrant," Raiden explained as he got out of bed.

"He's also Lan Tie's father and the reason I'm suffering so much in this backwater village." 

In response, Astoria raised her eyebrow further, insinuating that Raiden should continue, which he did.

"When I first came here, Lan Tie's father, Lan Tien, saw Little Gold and demanded Raiden to hand him over as a sort of registration fee for being able to live in the village. However, after I gave him enough gold to last him a decade, he simply let me go. But that's when my troubles began." Raiden explained with a grimace.

His body was still sore from yesterday's training.

Astoria understood the rest, even without Raiden explaining it.

'Such a cliche plot. This Lan Tien probably guessed something similar to the truth: that Raiden is the only survivor of a collapsed noble or merchant family and became greedy,' Astoria thought.

You give someone an inch, and they want a yard. You give them a yard. They want a mile. Slowly and surely, you go from giving someone little to nothing to losing everything.

Lan Tien took Raiden's money with a wide smile, but he guessed that the boy had a lot more since he was able to give this much out without a wince of pain.

With the open threat Lan Tien continued to extort more and more money out of Raiden with a smile. He of course could've killed Raiden straight up and taken everything, but Astoria had other thoughts about this choice.

'Was Lan Tien thinking about his reputation, or is someone protecting Raiden in the shadows? No, the former doesn't make much sense. Raiden hasn't been here for long and already knows of the village chief's personality. He doesn't have qualms about violence. Making Raiden disappear in the middle of the night wouldn't have taken any work.'

'But if Raiden does have a protector, where are they? Why haven't they shown themselves yet, even after all that has happened?'

'Or maybe?'

Astoria gave her disciple a deep look but didn't say anything and continued listening to Raiden.

Lan Tien had turned the once-rich Raiden into a pauper by using the excuses of rent or the classic "protection fees." Unable to resist, Raiden was forced to hand over more and more money. Lan Tien's true goal was Little Gold, but Raiden wouldn't give up the tortoise even if it cost him his life, let alone some mortal gold.

Raiden had run out of money now. So, with his cash cow empty, Lan Tien was moving in to skin the animal for its remaining pelt.

He wanted to take Little Gold by force. And judging by how polite his messenger was, the village chief seemed to no longer care.

"Big sister, what should I do?" After constantly suffering at his hand, Raiden was scared of the village chief. At this point, it was a bit like trauma, and as such, he wasn't able to think very clearly. Not remembering who his big sister was.

Thankfully, all it took to bring him back was a fierce glare from Astoria.

"Play along for a little bit. I'll hide in the immortal ring until the right moment and kill that village chief of yours. After that, we can leave this backwater village and see the wider world. Your mindset and worldview are getting narrower by the second living here." Astoria said before disappearing.

Raiden used to be the young master of a decently renowned clan in the Black Lotus Domain, but after its demise, he had fallen greatly.

He had fallen so far that even minor characters like Lan Tien were a fearsome opponent to him.

Astoria needed to get Raiden out of this village before he truly became a frog, forced to see the open sky from the bottom of a well.

Once Raiden remembered Astoria's strength, he felt stupid and slapped his forehead.

'This witch killed three Formation Establishment Realm experts with a simple point of her fingers. Lan Tien is worth less than a fart to her.'

"Alright. I'll pretend to follow this messenger for now." Raiden said, agreeing to her plan.

Nodding at him, Astoria disappeared into the ring while Raiden left his hut.

"Trash, have you eaten the guts of a leopard?! When the hell did you gain the confidence to let my grand self wait outside your house like a servant?!" 

Outside of Raiden's hut was a tall man who looked to be in his late twenties. His appearance was also at least 50% similar to Lan Tie. 

Instantly, Astoria realized that this person was probably Lan Tie's older brother.

'If not for my appearance, Raiden would most likely kill Lan Tie in a heated battle, break through sheer luck, gain some strength to fight his older brother, and run away after fending him off. Then, after gaining more strength in the surrounding forests, he would come back to finish the job and exterminate the Lan Family.' 

'Such a cliche plot. I could literally write something like this in my sleep.' Astoria muttered to herself in the ring as she played with Little Gold's sleeping body.

Even though Little Gold had been sleeping in this Spiritual Qi pond for almost a week at this point, he had yet to show any signs of awakening.

His physical injuries had healed within two days since they weren't too severe. The only remaining problem was his soul injuries.

The golden tortoiseshell he conjured to trap the assassins was his core natal ability. Its destruction left no shortage of damage on his soul, which he was slowly repairing in the immortal ring. 

Astoria was even slowly funneling some of Rictoli's Soul Essence into the tortoise to help speed up this process, but that was an annoying process. She had to first sift the memories out of the Soul Essence and then convert the empty and basic Soul Essence in the Mirror Realm's illusive Soul Essence. Only after that could she finally pour that Soul Essence into Little Gold.

Because the process was tedious, Astoria didn't do it too often and simply left Little Gold alone, healing in the pond.

In her spare time, she would spin him like a top. 

A fun pastime, but that wasn't too important, back to reality.

"Lan Shu, I was asleep and got out of bed as quickly as I could. Surely you won't be angry about me sleeping at this time," Raiden said calmly, pointing to the sky.

It was, at most, 7 am. Most people in the village weren't even up yet, so it was only right for Raiden to take some time to wake up and then leave.

However, what man in the Lan Family was reasonable? At least Lan Shu wasn't. 

As such, the older man simply snorted in displeasure before sending a punch toward Raiden's head.

'Father said I can't kill you, but I can make you wish you were dead! How dare a nobody like you question me?!' Aggressively thinking, Lan Shu could already imagine Raiden flying back and slamming into the hut walls in pain.

But right before his fist touched Raiden's unprepared chin, Lan Shu's shoulder seemed to gain a mind of its own and dispelled all of its power, halting his punch mere centimeters before its target.

In response to this astonishing moment, Raiden's face was calm like the surface of a still lake, while Tian Shu's was anything but.

'What the hell is happening? Why can't I move my arm closer?'

Horrified, Lan Shu tried to move his arm just a bit further, but they stayed still no matter how hard he forced his muscles to work. It was like a pulley was pulling his arm back while he tried to pull it forward.

The more force he used, the more force was used to pull his punch back, and Lan Shu was horrified, rightfully. After all, who wouldn't when their own limb started to disobey them?

After a few more seconds of trying to punch Raiden, Lan Shu's anger left and was replaced by embarrassment.

"Hmph! At least you don't flinch like a little girl." Lan Shu snorted disdainfully before turning around. 

"Follow me. Unlike me, my father won't let you off if you make him wait so long."

Then, without waiting for Raiden's response, he started walking up the hill toward the main part of the village. He was unaware of what had made his arm stop working—or who?

"Big sister, were you the one who did that?" Raiden asked mentally once Lan Shu created some distance from him.

"Of course it was me!" Astoria said proudly, "How the hell would I be able to walk around the Heavenly Martial Domain with my head high if I let any Tom, Dick, or Harry bully my disciple?"

Even stray animals were stronger than this Lan Shu fellow in the Heavenly Martial Domain. Yet he had the gall to bully her first disciple. So, to keep her future face from being ruined, she used some of her Soul Essence to stop Lan Shu from punching Raiden.

It was a simple move that any universal essence could do with some manipulation, and with her much stronger cultivation base, Lan Shu didn't know what happened. All he could guess was that his body was acting up.

"Thank you then, big sister. Seeing his flustered face was rather refreshing." Raiden thanked her with a big smile.

Astoria simply snorted out a simple, "You're welcome." 

Following that brief interlude, the trio continued on their way to the village head's hut, where Lan Tien was waiting for them.

A few minutes later, they reached their target, and once Astoria saw Lan Tien's hut, she didn't have many words at all. Compared to Raiden's hut and the other ones in the village, it was rather grand since it was built of both cobblestone and a nice rosy redwood, but beyond that, it wasn't very special at all.

Compared to the houses in the modern world, it was trash, while compared to any house in the Heavenly Martial Domain, it was worth less than a fart. 

Raiden also didn't have a visible reaction. He was once the heir to a large cultivation family, fallen or not, and simple village houses like this weren't worth much in his mind.

Suddenly, though, while both master and disciple were looking at the house, Lan Shu's voice came into their ears. 

"Stop gawking at my father's house, you bumpkin." Lan Shu sneered as he walked up the steps. "Come inside, Trash. Father is waiting for you."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every little thing helps - https://ko-fi.com/slarbi123.

There is now a discord for this novel. However, be warned. It is rather bare bones. I suck at Discord. The link is in the synopsis.

Also, if you like this novel, you can check out my others!