“That’s right! Fourth brother, we are speaking for you because you gave your spot to second bother. What Wang Zhuo said was correct, your son is stronger than Tie Zhu. He might have really gotten selected by the immortals.” Tie Zhu’s fifth brother added on the side.
Wang Zhuo, with a proud smile, gloated, “Their family brought all this upon themselves. My father and I warned them beforehand. This useless family is about as stubborn as a donkey. Now they hit a wall.”
Wang Hao, with a pale face said, “Tie Zhu, he…”
Before he could finish, Wang Hao’s father shot him a fierce look. He lost all confidence and kept quiet afterwards.
Tie Zhu’s fourth uncle let out a deep sigh and said, “Whoever brings this up again means he has something against me, let this be done. Tie Zhu not being selected can only be said that he wasn’t fortunate enough and nothing else. Tie Zhu don’t take it to heart, you can come to your fourth uncle for anything. I have no say in immortal sects, but when it comes to normal sects, your uncle still has some ability to get in you. You can go with my son, Hu Zi. I have alway planned to send him to a sect to train.
Wang Zhuo chuckled when he heard that. He scornfully said, “Tie Zhu, I say go with fourth uncle. When you get there, you can tell them you were the trash that was rejected by the immortals. They might really take you.”
Wang Lin slowly raised his head. He looked around, glaring at all the surrounding relatives. When his eyes finally landed on Wang Zhuo he said, “Wang Zhuo, mark my words. I, Wang Lin, will definitely enter an immortal school. I’ll also never forget how you and your father insulted my family.”
Wang Zhuo laughed when he heard Tie Zhu’s words but before he could say anything else, Fourth Uncle shouted at Wang Zhuo, “ You wordy little brat! I’m going to waste you right now! Let see if the immortals still want you then.”
Wang Zhuo’s father suddenly looked pale. He hurriedly stepped in front of Wang Zhuo. “Fourth brother, you wouldn’t dare!”
The surrounding relatives all held a cold smile on their faces as they watched the events unfold in front of them
Tie Zhu’s fourth uncle laughed. He had a steely look in his eyes. In a low, deep voice, he said, “Really brother? I wouldn’t dare?”
Tie Zhu’s father quickly stepped forward to pull his fourth brother back. “Fourth brother, listen to your second brother. You have a wife and kids at home, acting like this isn’t worth it for you. I will forever remember what you have done for me, just bring my family home.”
Fourth Uncle glared at Wang Zhuo’s father. He then nodded at his second brother, and proceeded to leave the house with Tie Zhu and his family.
Even from afar, Wang Lin could hear the relatives in the yard mocking him and his family.
The family sat in Fourth Uncle’s carriage as he gave them a ride home.
Silence enveloped the inside of the carriage. Tie Zhu’s father quietly sighed. It’d be false to say that he wasn’t disappointed, but Tie Zhu was still his son. He finally broke the silence. “Tie Zhu, this is nothing, alright? When I was forced out of the house before, I was much more despondent than you, yet I still persevered. Listen to your father. Go home and study. Strive towards a good result in next year’s district exam. If you don’t feel like reading, go relax with your fourth uncle.”
Tie Zhu’s mother gave her son a loving look and consoled him. “Tie Zhu, don’t do anything stupid. You’re my only son. If anything happens to you, I wouldn’t want to live anymore. You have to be strong.” As she was talking, tears rolled down her face.
Wang Lin looked at his parents. He nodded and said, “Father, mother, rest assured. I will not do anything silly. Don’t worry, I have a plan.”
Tie Zhu’s mother embraced him. While holding him in her arms she said, “Tie Zhu, it’s over. We will forget about this matter.”
In his mother’s warm embrace, Tie Zhu’s wounded heart was slowly healing. He felt exhausted after the events of the last few days. As the carriage bounced up and down, Tie Zhu slowly drifted into sleep.
He saw a dream. He dreamt that he was an immortal, flying in the sky with his parents….
When Tie Zhu woke up, it was late at night. He sighed lightly as he looked around at the familiar room. His heart was resolute. Before he left the house, he took a long, deep look at his sleeping parents. He picked up a pen and paper, and wrote a letter. After taking enough dry food, he was on his way.
“I will not give up on the path to becoming an immortal. I must try to join Heng Yue Sect one more time! If they still won’t accept me, I must at least find the location of other immortal sects.” Wang Lin’s eyes were filled with resolve as he left the mountain village, carrying only a bag.
With the moonlight paving the road and stars marking his direction, Wang Lin made his way forward, only his long shadow for company.
Three days have passed. Wang Lin was walking on a remote mountain road. He had opened his eyes back when the young immortal was holding him. He could still recall the general direction.
Heading east, Wang Lin ignored the weeds that were cutting both his legs. He kept moving forward.
After a week, he had already entered the inner parts of the mountains. Fortunately, there were no man-eating beasts here. Wang Lin pursued his path carefully. Today, when he looked up, he was finally able to see the familiar misty peaks on an isolated hill top.
Tie Zhu was completely exhausted at this point. He took out some dried food and took a few bites while staring at the Heng Yue sect’s entrance. The hairs on the back of Wang Lin’s neck stood up as he heard a wild animal breathing behind him. He looked back and all the color instantly drained from his face.
A large white tiger with blood-red eyes made the air feel dense. Drops of saliva dripped out of the corner of its mouth, producing dripping sounds as they hit the ground.
The white tiger roared as it pounced. Wang Lin revealed a bitter smile, and without hesitation jumped off the side of a cliff. He felt the wind on his face as he plummeted down. He couldn’t help but remember the looks in his parent’s eyes, as well as all the relatives that taunted him.
“Father, Mother, your son didn’t listen to you. This is goodbye.”
The wall of the cliff was covered in a myriad of branches. Tie Zhu’s body was getting cut by the branches as he dropped at breakneck a speed. A few moments later, in the middle of the drop, Tie Zhu felt an enormous force pulling him.
Wang Lin had no control of his body as the force pulled him. Before he knew it, he was inside a cave that had been carved onto the wall of the cliff. He felt great force constantly pulling his body against the wall, after a long time the force finally disappeared and he fell down from the wall.
It took him a long time to regain his senses. As Tie Zhu struggled to get back up, he noticed his clothes were torn and his body had gotten scraped all over by the branches. Pain came flooding in from his swollen right arm. Large drops of sweat streamed down, sticking to every part of his body. Wang Lin touched his arm, but he couldn’t tell if the bones were broken. This injury was definitely sustained when he hit the wall.
Tie Zhu was pale as he got up and looked around. He found that he was in a small natural cave. The sunlight peered in through the entrance of the cave, revealing a floor covered with the bones of birds and animals.
On the wall behind him was a black hole the size of a fist. He couldn’t tell how deep this little hole was, but on closer inspection one mystery was solved. The pulling force that sucked him into the cave earlier came from this hole. The animals that those scattered bones had belonged to were sucked in just like he had been.
The suction from the hole must be spontaneous. The moment he appeared in front of this cave during his fall, the mysterious hole pulled him in and saved his life. Tie Zhu, enduring the agony of his right arm, was about to walk out of the cave when the bones on the ground suddenly started moving toward the hole. He quickly rolled to the corner of the cave without a moment’s delay as he felt the wind behind him.
The unimaginable sucking force suddenly came from the little hole. All the bones rattled as they flew toward the hole. Some of the bigger bones were stuck on the wall blocking, the little hole.
At that moment, a bird was sucked in as it flew by the cave’s entrance. It whizzed through the air until it splattered against the cave wall.
After about an hour, the force stopped pulling. Wang Lin stared in horror at the corpse of the recently deceased bird. He didn’t move his body at all, only sat still, while calculating the time.
Half an hour later, the suction started again. This repeated several times. Wang Lin had grasped the timing of the strange suctioning hole. It would start sucking every 30 minutes for a duration of 60 minutes.
Taking advantage of the time gap between suctions, Wang Lin painfully crept towards the cave entrance. As he looked below, he couldn’t help but reveal a bitter smile. Below him was a jungle, and the barely visible ground was covered with rocks. The cliff was very steep, there was no way for him to climb down with his broken arm. The distance from the ground measured more than a few dozen meters. If he tried to jump down, it would definitely be the end.
The bag filled with food was left at the top of the mountain with no way for him to retrieve it. Right now food was the most important problem he needed to solve. As he was pondering, he suddenly remembered the suction time and rushed back to the corner of the cave.
Time in the outside world seemed to pass by quickly. Wang Lin could feel his body grow weaker and weaker. He had no feeling in his arm, it was completely numb. He smiled bitter as he said to himself, “Being stuck here means a slow death, but jumping down would be instant death.”
He looked at the bloody corpse of the bird that was sucked in earlier. With a bit of hesitation, he walked over, picked it up, and reluctantly took a bite. The taste was appalling. He exhaled as the raw meat in his mouth flooded his senses, but then continued to eat it.
He barely chewed the meat, opting to just swallow it nearly whole. Tie Zhu felt warmth enter his stomach as it churned. He ate the bird quickly in big bites, then he stood up and took a deep breath to keep himself from puking it all out.
He tossed the remains of the bird to the side and sat down against the cave wall. His mind wandered, one moment thinking about his parents, one moment thinking of his fourth uncle, one moment thinking about the mocking faces of his relatives, and one moment he even thought about the cold eyes of the middle aged man in black from the Heng Yue Sect.
In a trance, Wang Lin looked at the half eaten bird corpse. Without batting an eye, he picked up the corpse for a closer inspection. He saw that within the bird’s corpse there was a red bead the size of a baby’s first. He was very surprised as he took it out of the carcass.
Why was there a bead in this bird’s body? Wang Lin’s heart was pounding as he thought of a book the teacher in his village had once shown him. Some animals live to be much older, and that something called a dantian will form within their body.
If one were to eat a dantian, their life would be prolonged, and their strength would increase. Even limbs that had been cut off would grow back.
When he saw that description, he didn’t believe it, and secretly scoffed at it, but now he couldn’t help but to believe in myths and legends a little more after meeting immortals.
Wang Lin’s heart was pounding hard enough to fly out of his chest. If this bead was really the dantian described in the book, then eating it would not only heal his injuries quickly, but it would also make it easy to leave this place. Even passing the test to join the Heng Yue Sect should be possible, at least he would be able to pass the perseverance test.
But the bead was very hard. It didn’t seem edible. He used some of the ragged cloth on his body to wipe it clean, restoring its original color.
A gray bead, with five clouds carved on it, was revealed. It looked very old. Wang Lin was very disappointed, unwilling to give up, he gave the bead a bite, then silently laughed at himself. “Tie Zhu, you are too delusional. How could some random bird that just happened to fly by have a dantian?”
Wang Lin sighed. It was already dark outside. He felt weary and fell asleep with the bead by his side and animal bones covering the floor.
Since it is fall right now, the temperature dropped very quickly, especially in the mountain area. The cold air entered Wang Lin’s body. He curled up, and the night passed by quickly.
The next morning, sunlight peered in from the outside of the cave as the sun rose. A few drops of sparkling dew secreted from the bead by Wang Lin’s side. As the dew gathered, it dripped on to the bones nearby.
After a while, Wang Lin woked up. Not only was his arm still swollen, its condition seemed to have gotten worse. Wang Lin sat on the floor, feeling very depressed.
Wang Lin muttered to himself, “Am I going to be stuck here my whole life?” He slowly turned his head and noticed the dew that accumulated on the bones. Since he was thirsty, he carefully picked up a few bones and licked the dew off them.
The sweetness of the dew was quite good. He couldn’t tell if he was imagining it, but his whole body felt warm and comfortable after drinking some.
Especially the injury on his arm. There was feeling of comfort and itching as the swelling lessened. Wang Lin rubbed his eyes, and closely looked at his arm. The swelling had indeed gone down. He quickly looked at the bones around him but wasn’t able to find any more with dew on them.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed the bead and saw drops of dew on it. He remembered that all the bones that had dew on them were next to the bead. He gently picked up the bead, with his heart pounding, and rolled the bead on his arm to evenly spreading out the dew.
Waves of cool and refreshing feelings came from the arm. Wang Lin stared at his arm without batting an eye. After a while his eyes lit up. The swelling from the arm had gone down. He tried waving his arm. While there was still some pain, it wasn’t a big deal.
“This stone bead must be a treasure!” Wang Lin was pleasantly surprised.
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