Fang Zheng happily strode on the roads of his village. People gave him greetings, warm smiles and overall gave him a happy feeling.
He never truly hated anyone yet. Even his half brother, the one his parents and everyone always badmouthed, Fang Yuan, he was called.
He always questioned, why couldn't everyone just get along? Whenever he asked his father on why his half brother was hated, he always said that he should not think too much on it.
It was when he encountered who he thought to be his half brother's playmates that he realized it.
"Fang Yuan? Young master, you shouldn't get close to him! He once broke Xiao Min's arm." He spoke with a warning in his tone.
Fang Zheng tilted his head in confusion, why would he do that? Doesn't he want to be liked by everyone?
This question piled onto the mystery called "Fang Yuan". Up until he laid down on his bed.
Just then, an immense headache pierced his skull. The pain was so intense, that he had no voice to scream out his discomfort. Rather, he laid down on his bed clutching his head as if he would crush it like a balloon.
After the pain subsided, clarity returned to his eyes. The memories, his hardships and his happy moments all came back to him: "Brother..."
Fang Zheng, Lord of the Demon Judgment Board has returned.
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Fang Zhi had a headache as a result of this incident.
The clues of an enormous Spirit Beast wave was reported to him.
It was an extremely rare event in which many races and herds of Spirit Beasts gather together to form a tidal wave that threatens to sweep the population of the village itself.
It threatens not only the Gu Yue clan but also the Bai and Xiong clans.
Such events only happen to villages populated by Spirit Masters, attracted by their residue of Spirit Power usage.
Such an exceedingly rare event just had to occur at their village.
First and foremost, without even thinking about it, he issued an evacuation of the youth of the village. What use are these children anyway in the face of a Spirit Beast wave? Even an ordinary adult man is more useful than these fledgeling Spirit Masters.
He had no doubt the other villages also thought the same as him. None of the clan heads of this mountain were fools, after all, there was a reason as to why they managed to rise to the top in their respective clans.
He doubted the village was capable of mobilizing the amount of manpower required to move important resources of the Gu Yue clan. Let alone manpower, equipment that can be utilized for the migration was very much lacking.
And even if they did manage to move enough resources, who's to say the rival clans would pass up the chance to strike them in their moment of retreat, completely crippling their clan financially?
Hiding was useless as well, there's only so many places they can hide the people and the resources.
His choice would also affect the choices of other clans. As of right now, the Gu Yue clan could be said to be the most powerful of the three. With longer history, more treasures and in military power as well. He wouldn't put it pass them to ally together.
And so, he was stuck in this specific decision. Suffer heavy casualties to fend off the tide, with a good chance of bringing them down to the level of the other clans, possibly lower, or retreat and risk being plundered by the clan's rivals.
With a heavy heart, and a solemn look. He announced his choice in front of the council of elders.
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"Tch, that damn Fang Yuan." An elegant voice betraying its vulgar language spoke out.
'Even in another world, this curse is still kept on me!' Bai Ning Bing stared at herself in the mirror. Her beauty doing nothing to quell her annoyance at a specific Demon Venerable.
Although she had spent more of her life as a woman, and was fully used to it, she still preferred her original gender. Engaging in combat was superior in her other body.
Unlike her male body, this body has useless piles of meat on its chest. The other one may have it too, but it is much less annoying as the size is inferior to these chest piles. Not to mention, unlike the crotch, these annoyances bounce around.
But enough about her grievances of the female anatomy. Her thoughts wandered to the new world she found herself in.
A world she was completely unfamiliar with.
She may not have learned all of the secrets of the Gu world, but she was familiar with many of them.
But the emergence of an entirely new plain, it fills her with excitement, so much of it.
Her goal had always been to seek excitement, thanks to a certain scheming young man. He pushed her in a direction from a bleak outlook on life, awaiting her inevitable death as one of the Ten Extreme Physiques, to one of hopeful and happiness.
A goal, one she was once unfamiliar with, was formed all thanks to the schemes of that man.
And it was the result of that, that filled her with excitement of the prospects of this new world.
Perhaps, in this life, she would be finally able to outsmart that man, at least once.
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Said man was diligently cultivating inside the dorm. As it was night time, he spent all of it everyday in cultivation. Never once sleeping, and eating extremely little.
All thanks to the dao marks that slowly revealed its power, escaping from the seal.
But, it also gives him a grim timer, as once released, he would very likely starve.
And so, regardless of what the situation is, he needs to make the most of it.
Getting strong as fast as possible would be his goal for now. It doesn't appear to Fang Yuan that the faster he gets stronger, the faster it would unseal, but rather it is fixed on the ever moving current of time.
His thoughts went to Spring Autumn Cicada. So long as Fate is intact in this world, he would have a backup plan in case he fails in his research to find rank 9 immortal apertures.
With plans in place, he quietly sat back and cultivated once more.
Time passed quickly...
Fang Yuan spent most of his time cultivating, other than that, there was not much else.
His routine has always been: Wake up, cultivate, go to class, cultivate again.
As a clan member of an average sized clan, he was exempt from the struggles of a working student.
Eating had essentially been kicked out from his schedule, his dao marks gathered in enough numbers to fully sustain him in that alone.
Food path dao marks truly were useful in this situation of his.
During this time, a few things happened.
First, a meeting with a strange man:
As Fang Yuan returned from classes, he was stopped by someone.
The man had silver hair, and a disheveled appearance. He held his hands behind his back, emitting a presence of a wise old man, even if he was not at all that old.
Fang Yuan was not surprised by him. He'd noticed a long while ago that this man was eyeing him. He suspected that he was interested in his constitution, which he doubt the man would be able to gain anything from it.
His current physique was all thanks to dao marks. There is no conceivable reason in this new world they can find to justify Fang Yuan's abnormal body. Unless perhaps they can claim that Fang Yuan was some sort of half Spirit Beast-half human. They were strange enough to be able to justify this.
"Good afternoon to you, grandmaster." Fang Yuan respectfully bowed to this man. He'd long heard the title of the person in front of him through his dorm mate named: "Tang San".
A look of surprise endowed the man's face, but quickly switched to one of calmness: "Good afternoon to you too." He nodded: "If you do not mind, would you perhaps answer some of my questions?"
Fang Yuan expressed his answer through a shake of his head: "I do not mind at all, grandmaster." He already knew what his question is going to be.
"Come with me, we can speak somewhere more private." He signified Fang Yuan to follow him with a nod.
Inside his residence, Fang Yuan stood with his back to the door while the man faced towards the window.
"Do you know why your constitution is so strange?" A shake of his head was his response: "Truth be told, I do not know either." He admitted.
"However, would you like to know?" Fang Yuan became and appeared slightly apprehensive of this. For one, it could uncover something inconceivable should he participate in his research, thereby pointing him out to be somewhat of an anomaly to the public resulting in immediate unneeded attention on himself. On another, he too was interested in the answer.
While Fang Yuan was cautious, he was no stranger to risks. And besides, he estimated that by the time this man uncovered his strange constitution, he would be capable enough to silence him.
Not to mention he would possibly get some much needed knowledge. Clearly, this man was more of a scholar rather than a Spirit Master. And for now, at this stage, knowledge is power.
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Fang Zheng was in complete disbelief at his situation.
He had already spent some time in this body of his, yet this event still had not processed in his mind completely.
He was back, but not back in time, rather back in time from another world.
'Is this... what he felt like?' He knew of Spring Autumn Cicada, and he knew exactly the time when he returned back from time.
His brother, before his return may have been cold, but he was also warm to him. When he looked back in his memories, his brother always protected him through his shadow.
However, it all changed once he took the test to check his talent. Rather than a cold on the outside, soft on the inside person back then, he became purely stone cold.
Really, he thought himself a fool. The brother who tried so hard to protect him, rather became an obstacle in his vision.
Maybe it had been his fault for why his brother forsook his humanity. But in the end, Fang Zheng stopped looking back.
He had long since matured from a hotblooded teenager. No longer would he be fooled, controlled, manipulated.
This was his life now. A life that he can spend, without hardships and heartaches.
Currently, he stayed in this city called: "Nuoding City".
He heard of a Spirit Beast tide coming for his village, and the thoughts of the events back then replayed in his head.
He had to protect them. He wasn't the seedling genius anymore.
He could not allow his clan to be decimated once more.
He does not know if Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing also arrived here, but he could not allow them near their village.
He knew the main culprits back then were his master and the Gu Yue clan ancestor, but those two could not be shifted of blame.
If he could not stop many deaths, then at the very least, he could stop total annihilation.
For that is Fang Zheng's, the future clan head of the Gu Yue clan's vow.
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Bai Ning Bing saw a familiar face.
She did not care however. This person was simply an annoyance who always stayed cooped up inside his Immortal Gu House.
She did not believe he could be much of an annoyance. But oh boy she was wrong.
"Bai Ning Bing, let's go play!" They all evacuated together to Nuoding City. This Fang Zheng kept acting like a real child, but she could easily tell he was also transmigrated.
It was easy. When you spend as much time with Fang Yuan as she has, you can tell when someone is acting with subpar skill.
But clearly, the adults didn't seem to be able to.
"Go on now, don't be shy." This detestable mother of hers kept mistaking her displeasure with shyness.
With a click of her tongue, she obeyed.
It would be a fool's errand to defy the wishes of her parents.
But no matter how she tried to shove Fang Zheng away either, he also keeps coming back.
One time, she beat him black and blue, yet he kept coming back!
He excused it to having fallen down, which infuriated her.
She even confessed that she beat him up, but the adults did not once believe her! How could they, when said beaten child acted like she didn't do anything at all.
She racked her brains in trying to understand what his goal was. Why was he distracting her? She had nothing, nor could she do anything yet this brat continued angering her.
If this child continued, then she'll have to make an extreme action, and then make it seem like an incident. After all, who could believe a child as young as her would ever kill someone, who the adults believed as her friend?
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Now we on children schemes! I made this just today. Lemme know if there are issues, I'll fix it. Hell, I'll even completely rewrite this chapter if an issue did appear, so do correct me if I'm wrong in anything.
My head is also filled with RI fr, as I type this, a Naruto x RI crossover is literally plaguing my head rn. Maybe I'll write it, dunno. My biggest issue right now in this book is the amount of research I have to do, I genuinely spend more time researching than I do writing, which is why I procrastinated so much.
Anyways, here's 2nd chapter for today, bye.