Bloodline Tree

“Can you feel it, Xiaorong?” Shu Yang asked, taking a deep breath.

“Qi,” Xiaorong answered.

“Spiritual qi,” Shu Yang said, nodding.

‘This place should be similar to the settlement back home.’ Shu Yang thought to himself, looking around.

“Well, do you want to stay for a while? Do you have use for the spiritual qi here?” Shu Yang asked.

Xiaorong was quiet for a moment before asking, “Hurry?”

“It’s fine if you’re quick,” Shu Yang said.

Xiaorong shook her head, “No need.”

Shu Yang sighed, “Okay. We’ll come back after we find Tianyi, and you can stay for as long as you’d like.”

While wasting a week or two would barely make a difference at this point, Shu Yang really couldn’t bear to waste more time than necessary.

He took another deep breath before shooting himself off the ground, continuing his journey north.

“It looks like the environment is getting better, right? I feel like we have been going more down than up the past week, and the air seems to be getting better and better. The fact that we found a place with spiritual qi should be a good sign,” Shu Yang said, feeling quite hopeful that they were finally getting out of these mountains.

‘How long has it been? Eight months? Nine? Not ten, right?’

Shu Yang had really started losing track of time after so long in the mountains. He just knew that the journey had been a lot more difficult than he had first thought. Not to mention the enormous mountains he had to cross, there was a crisscross of rivers of Dust for what felt like hundreds of miles. Finding a way across those places took a lot of extra time and effort.

‘It’s been at least a month since I last saw signs of the Dust. That has to be a good sign too.’

Even though he had been wrong before, thinking that he was close when he was actually months away, he found it hard to suppress his suspicions that this time was different.

…

A few days passed, and Shu Yang noticed that he was getting lower and lower in altitude. It was still a journey over peaks and down in valleys, but overall, the peaks weren’t quite as high as they had been.

“Look, Xiaorong!” Shu Yang exclaimed as he came to an abrupt halt. He ran up to a nearby boulder and leaned in to take a look.

“It’s moss of some kind, isn’t it?” Shu Yang asked, smiling brightly as he touched the first living organism he had seen in months.

“We really are getting close!”

…

Another few days passed, and Shu Yang was able to travel further and further each day, as the terrain got easier to traverse. Vegetation grew thicker and thicker until finally, he saw his first sign of human activity.

‘A path! It looks man-made!’

Shu Yang already knew he was getting close, but seeing signs of civilization still excited him.

He followed the path, running at full speed.

It didn’t take much more than an hour before he saw a village in the distance.

“I’m not hallucinating, am I?” Shu Yang asked.

“Humans,” Xiaorong said.

“Humans,” Shu Yang muttered to himself.

‘I finally reached the Land Beyond the Mountains. This is where the Immortals live.’

Shu Yang stopped running and started walking slowly toward the village.

‘I wonder what the people here are like. Surely, there should be normal people here, too, right? I can’t imagine cultivators living in a place like this.’

Shu Yang stopped walking. He spotted a few people tending to their fields in the distance. They didn’t look much different from the farmers back in Baishu Village.

‘Should I really approach? What do I even say? Ask for directions?’

‘I feel like the people here might not know much either way. Seeing a stranger might just make them wary.’

Shu Yang turned to look at the mountains behind him.

‘Besides, if I make trouble here, I don’t want it to be traced back to my home if I can help it. It might be best if no one sees that I came from the Desolate Mountains.’

Shu Yang was well aware that he might get into conflicts here, and if he wanted a safe retreat, he needed to hide his origins.

‘Taking away Tianyi might give it away, though. I need to think of a way to get her without revealing anything that might lead the Qing family to believe I came from south of the Desolate Mountains.’

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Shu Yang decided not to approach the villagers and turned to go around the village.

‘I’ll travel further inland first, and then enter a bigger city to see what I can find out.’

…

A few more days passed, and Shu Yang felt like he had covered more ground than the entire Yan Kingdom. At least close to it.

He had traveled away from people’s eyes for most of the time, but this morning, he had traveled like an ordinary person, following a large road.

Luckily, the road led to a fairly large city, and Shu Yang could enter it without the guards stopping him.

“Well, what now?” Shu Yang asked Xiaorong in a low voice, “Do we just go to a tavern or something, see if we can overhear anything?”

Xiaorong didn’t answer; she rarely did when she had nothing to say.

‘Let’s start with that.’

It didn’t take long before he found a tavern, so he entered and took a seat at a booth close to another group of people.

As he listened to their conversation, he was a bit disappointed that they were discussing women and not cultivators.

‘I hope they let something interesting slip.’

Shu Yang ordered a meal and a beer, quite surprised at how similar things were to back home.

‘Is there more contact between the two places than I thought? Or does human civilization just develop in similar ways no matter what?’

It didn’t take long for the waitress to arrive with his food and drink.

“Here you are, y- young master,” The waitress said hesitantly as she placed the meal and beer on the table, then bowed slightly and went to the back.

“Am I that handsome, Xiaorong?” Shu Yang asked, rubbing his face slightly and then looking at his hand. “I still have the dirt on my face. Even that isn’t enough to cover my charm?”

Shu Yang noticed straight away that people here could tell he wasn’t ordinary. The first people he met on the road had knelt on the ground and greeted him as ‘Immortal Master.’

Shu Yang hadn’t really thought about it before, but he had basically only been with his family for the past nine years, and during that time, he had both gotten the ‘Charming’ trait as well as advanced to the Founding stage. It wasn’t strange that people thought he looked like an Immortal.

But after that, he had grabbed some dirt by the side of the road and put it on his face. He hadn’t noticed any strange looks on the way to the tavern, so he assumed the disguise worked.

But apparently, anyone taking a closer look still noticed that something was different about him.

‘I need to learn how to disguise myself.’

“Anyway, have you felt anything?” Shu Yang asked Xiaorong in a low voice, “Any cultivators?”

“None,” Xiaorong answered.

“No martial artists either?” Shu Yang asked.

“None,” Xiaorong repeated.

“That’s a bit odd, no?” Shu Yang asked. They were in a fairly large city now, after all.

‘How come there isn’t even a single martial warrior around? Is even the mayor or whatever just an ordinary person?’

‘But Xiaorong can’t be wrong, and I don’t feel anything either.’

Shu Yang didn’t know if he was able to sense the presence of cultivators of spiritual qi, since he hadn’t encountered any of them since he himself started cultivating.

‘I should be able to sense it if they were close by; my senses have improved quite a bit since I advanced after all.’

“Your parents never told you about this place?” Shu Yang asked.

“Can’t remember,” Xiaorong answered.

“Guess we’ll figure things out eventually,” Shu Yang said.

Shu Yang started eating his meal, discreetly sharing some of it with Xiaorong. It wasn’t anything fancy, but having a warm meal still tasted amazing to Shu Yang after living on provisions for so long.

‘Maybe I’ll do a round and visit a few other taverns. I can eat my fill and listen for information at the same time.’

Said and done, Shu Yang finished his meal in a minute or two and got to his feet to look for another place for a second serving. The group of people in the booth next to his didn’t seem like they would shift their topic of conversation to anything of interest anytime soon.

Shu Yang walked toward the city center, hoping to find a slightly more upscale place for his next meal.

‘This looks alright.’ Shu Yang thought as he arrived at a slightly more clean-looking tavern. He didn’t want to go to any luxurious place, as he didn’t want to get involved with any people of high rank. He didn’t want anyone important to notice him. It was better not to draw attention to himself for now.

Shu Yang entered the tavern and ordered some more food and a beer.

‘If I need to, I can always use my invisibility talisman to spy on the city’s top brass. But that seems like a waste.’

‘Or maybe I could send Xiaorong to see if she can find out some information.’

‘Maybe I could even just find someone who looks important and take them away for questioning.’

‘But that would leave a trace, unless I kill them.’

‘That seems unnecessary. No one in this place is even a cultivator; they might not know much.’

Shu Yang decided to just enjoy a few meals and see if he could overhear anything interesting. If not, he would just head further north. He was bound to reach a big city with a cultivator eventually.

“Well, we’ll see. He’s still young; we’ll see if he has Immortal fate.”

A few minutes into his meal, Shu Yang finally heard something interesting.

“Are you sure they are coming to the capital?” One of the men in the booth next to him asked.

“Of course, haven’t you heard? It’s confirmed by the city lord himself,” Another man answered.

“I bet everyone with a kid under 12 will head over.”

“Probably. The capital is far away, but nothing compared to the Empire’s capital.”

“Why would they start testing in the kingdoms?”

“Isn’t it normal? It’s strange they haven’t tested us until now.”

“Maybe. Well, my oldest is only six. I’ll wait until the next time to test him. I’ll ask for your guidance at that time.’

“Of course, of course. If both our kids are lucky enough to be chosen, I’ll have mine look after yours when the time comes.”

“Hah! Anything is possible, I suppose. Cheers!”

Shu Yang kept listening intently for a few more minutes, and he soon understood the gist of the situation. The Green River Sect would be conducting tests for spiritual roots in the capital of the kingdom he was currently in. Unfortunately, the testing would only take place in another 7 months.

‘Either way, we have some leads!’

‘First, head to the capital and see what we can find out. If there are still no cultivators to ask, I’ll go to the Empire!’

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