章 2: Yin Long.
The sound of laughter echoed through the halls of the Lang clan mansion, soft smiles appearing on the faces of the various maids and butlers when they heard this laughter. Two young, seemingly only around three years old, children ran around the corner of one of the long hallways in the mansion while laughing, their barefoot feet producing soft pitter-patter sounds as they ran across the dim red carpet. The children ran close to the walls of the hallway, the leaves of the colorful bergenia that were planted in clay pots along the entire hallway slapping them in the face.
Shortly after the two children, a silver-haired boy and a crimson-haired girl ran around the corner of the hallway, a young girl looking a bit older than them also came running around the corner. This girl looked closer to seven years old and had chestnut brown hair hanging down to her shoulders, her red eyes glimmering slightly as she shook her red fists while calling out to the two children running away from her.
"Come back here you brats! Don't make me get Mama and Papa, I'll have them spank you until you're as red as me, and then I'll smear your faces!"
As the girl waved her fists around, a bit of the red color on her hands flew off and splashed the walls, revealing that the red color that covered both her arms up to her elbows was actually nothing more than paint. The two maids currently within the hallway stepped aside with slightly wry smiles, the two children at the front not daring to slow down lest they be caught. But while they didn't dare to slow down, they had no problem turning their heads and sticking out their tongues at the girl chasing them.
"Bleh, Big Ru looks good in red so you shouldn't be so angry."
"Bleh! Big Ru is too mean, if we get spanked we'll blame you so that you get spanked too!"
The young children, the now three-year-old Yin Long and Lang Huo, ran cheerfully without a care in the world. They had made one of the butlers inject a tiny bit of red pigment into the peaches that Lang Ru liked to eat, resulting in the peach being too soft and thus exploding when she grabbed onto it. That was nearly 15 minutes ago, but she was still chasing them without showing signs of stopping, her stained arms reaching for them in a grasping motion.
Yin Long ran as fast as he could, but Lang Ru was still gaining on them slowly, she would probably catch them in another five or so minutes. Lang Huo was keeping pace with Yin Long, but the truth was that she could actually run quite a bit faster than he could, it would be no problem for her to leave him in the dust right now.
And the reason behind this was simple, his twin sister was blessed by flames and had a great affinity with them, coupled with the cultivation manual she had received, the Heart of Fire, she had already reached the 1st Door of the Mortal Heart, or the 1st Mortal Door as it was called, and could freely utilize a bit of Qi to strengthen herself. Lang Ru was a bit worse, the only cultivation manual in the clan that suited her was the Great Buddha's Embrace, but as her talent was far from as good as Lang Huo's, she had yet to reach the 1st Mortal Door.
But Yin Long was even worse off than her, not a single one of the cultivation manuals that the clan held suited him. Much less than simply not suiting him, he couldn't even cultivate a single one of them. Bai Xiang and Wei Ru assured them all that this was within their expectations and that they had nothing to worry about, but Lang Meng and Lang Hua were nothing if not worrywarts when it concerned their children so they continued searching for cultivation manuals that might fit Yin Long.
The twins jumped over the potted flowers right in front of them, sharply turning their bodies to swerve around the corner that they had already engraved into their memories. This was especially so for Yin Long, who had even memorized the usual routines of the maids and butlers that would pass through this hallway. It was indeed just as Bai Xiang had said, Yin Long was born with a special soul and had been perfectly conscious ever since he was born, he could even perfectly remember most things after just reading or hearing them three or so times.
But this time, the unexpected happened and both twins crashed into something just as they turned the corner. All their momentum vanished and their feet lost track of the carpet, both of them falling on their butts with a soft yelp. The two were picked up from the carpet before they even got the chance to look at what they had just crashed into, the stern voice of their father causing their hearts to drop slightly.
"Oh, and just what is it that you plan on blaming on your big sister?"
Yin Long and Lang Huo slowly raised their heads, somewhat averting their eyes as they got face to face with their father, who had furrowed his brows slightly while trying to restrain a chuckle. Faced with the furrowed brow of their father, the twins did the first thing that came to mind, they sold each other out.
"Little Huo put paint in Big Ru's food!"
"Big Yin forced Uncle San to put paint in Big Ru's food!"
In truth, Yin Long was actually only born half a minute before Lang Huo, but that half-minute was enough to make him the big brother so he had long drilled the name, Big Yin, into his twin sister's brain. Lang Meng slowly swept his gaze over the twins, his eyes narrowing slightly all the while. The twins lowered their heads while still being raised up by the scruffs of their light yellow robes, but hiding their faces did not mean that they could hide from their father's judgment.
"Alright, we'll see exactly what Mama has to say about this later, don't blame me if she forces another sermon and study lesson on you, it will be a result of your own actions. But before you go and get lectured, you have to go cultivate. Little Huo and Little Ru, your mom is already waiting for you, and Little Yin, don't make Uncle Xiang angry by making him wait for you."
Cultivation was of the utmost importance in this world, if the three of them were too weak then there was a chance that they would get exploited when they took over the mantle of the clan leader. The three people reacted in different manners when they were told to go cultivate, Lang Ru responded a bit lazily, Lang Huo's entire body started drooping as she pouted, and Yin Long's entire body straightened up as he nearly gave a salute. Lang Meng let go of the twins, sending Yin Long on his way while bringing Lang Ru and Lang Huo with him.
Yin Long quickly moved through the familiar corridors of the mansion, heading for the exit while murmuring to himself about the various cultivation realms that his parents had already told him about. The first realm was the 9 Doors of the Mortal Heart, or the Mortal Doors as they were often called. This realm was simply about learning how to draw Qi into your body, accustoming your body to Qi and allowing it to start creating a tiny sliver of it on its own. The next realm was the 9 Doors of the Immortal Heart, or the Immortal Doors as they were called. In this realm, you had to take the sliver of Qi that your body could produce and lead it all into your dantian, gathering it all together to form a door there.
Once you managed to create nine such doors, merge them into one and open it, you would reach the 9 Earthen Doors, the realm that his parents had reached. In this realm, you would expand and mold the inside of the door you had created and opened, forming a tiny little realm within your dantian where you could gather large amounts of Qi. His parents didn't tell him much about the further realms, only telling him the names of the realms that they themselves knew of.
The realms following the Earthen Doors was the Skyborne Doors, World Heart realm, and then the fabled Sovereign God realm. As to what exactly these realms entailed or what sort of strength one had in them, Yin Long didn't have the slightest clue, he did, however, have a burning curiosity towards them.
Yin Long swiftly left the mansion and hopped down the stairs before walking along the side of the building to get to the back of it. He was only three years old, but the people in the mansion knew Yin Long to be astute enough to handle himself on short walks like this so no one was too worried about him. The guards and gardeners walking around outside the building would even stop their tasks when they saw Yin Long, nodding their heads at him while smiling and greeting him.
"Good afternoon, Young Master, heading to the back of the forest again?"
"Young Master, keep a bit of an eye on the ground as you're walking through the forest, some of the chestnuts have dropped a bit early this year so there might be a few pointy ends hiding in the grass."
"Did you escape from the Yong Mistress? Or did you end up getting caught by your mother? Be honest now, do you have another hour-long lecture to look forward to?"
"Young Master, catch! Picked the pear just this morning, its the biggest one yet, and this entire batch has been nice and juicy so it would be a shame to not enjoy them."
Yin Long grinned at everyone around him and stopped for a short chat with each and every one of them. Not a single person here had ever looked down on him for not matching with any of the clan's cultivation manuals, everyone treated him well and made him feel at home, he was truly thankful to have been born in such a good place. He somewhat slowly made his way around the mansion and then entered the forest, quickly entering the foggy part and calling out in a soft voice.
"Grampa Xiang? Gramma Ru? Are you already here?"
This was Yin Long's secret, one he wouldn't share with anyone else. The secret wasn't that only he could enter the fog as freely as he wished, no, the secret was that he could call the couple living here as grampa and gramma without receiving a vicious beating. He walked through the fog with slow and careful steps, his breathing instinctually slowing down and nearly silencing completely.
His ears suddenly twitched slightly as the sound of something moving through the air reached him, his body quickly taking a step back. Something moved past his face just as he stepped back, the wind produced by its movement grazing his nose as he had just barely dodged it. But before he could even let out the breath he had sucked in as he stepped back, the sound of something moving through the air reached him from behind.
His body instinctually stepped to the side, but his bare foot landed on a chestnut that had been hiding in the grass, the spiky points digging into his foot and caused him to yelp out in pain. Thanks to this, he failed to dodge at the thing coming at him from behind, a wooden sword hitting the back of his head with a thwack and knocking him to the ground. The voice of Bai Xiang echoed throughout the fog shortly after Yin Ling was knocked to the ground, Yin Long unable to resist grumbling in response. But grumbling only resulted in him getting the answer he feared getting.
"You didn't pay enough attention to your surroundings, you'll die like that."
"I'll only die if I keep getting thwacked like that by you...Just you wait till I grow up and kick your butt..."
"What's that? Ten more thwacks you say? Well if that's what you want, then I'll have to oblige won't I?"
Yin Long almost felt like crying when he heard the retort, he knew that Bai Xiang would 100% go through with it since he said it. He stood up and shook his head lightly to get rid of the stars that he was seeing, the sound of something cutting through the air reaching him before he even finished shaking his head. He picked up a branch at his side to block, but the branch broke beneath the wooden sword, the tip of the weapon hitting Yin Long's forehead and knocking him down again, eliciting another lecture from Bai Xiang.
"Not good enough, have you already forgotten what I told you? You are the blade, your soul and body are the sword, everything you can grasp is your weapon. If your sword breaks, you die, if your sword doesn't break, you are immortal. Do it again."
Yin Long felt like grumbling, but he knew that doing so would only earn him a longer training session. And even though he felt like grumbling, he actually enjoyed these training sessions, he liked pretending like he was swinging around a sword, he liked feeling himself get a bit stronger, his senses a bit sharper. So just as he had done since he turned half a year old and learned how to walk, he stood up and prepared himself to get beaten down again so that he could later brag to his little sister and big sister how tough he was.
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