บท 37: Unknown Energy
In the Liu clan...
Liu Gong was pondering why Li Bai was able to push him aside with ease.
'Could it be... his Mark has finally awakened?! Or something like that...'
There hadn't really been any cased like this before, so he wasn't too sure. However, this was the only possible explanation he could think of!
'Wait... he pulled out an artifact from his storage ring, right? That means, there's a possibility that he used an artifact on me!'
"That's it!"
Liu Gong, thinking that he discovered the reason, nodded quietly in his room.
A knock was heard, and a girl's voice came soon after.
"Father?"
As he heard his daughter's voice calling out to him, Liu Gong shook his head.
'Ai, relying on her father too much. She can't be separated from me now...'
"Come in."
Liu Heng walked inside with a shy expression. Her hands were wrapped around each other, while her head looked down.
"Father, I..."
After saying this, Liu Heng's mouth closed, hesitating to say what was on her mind.
Liu Gong was normally impatient, but towards her daughter, he was more tolerant. However, the silence remained after a long while.
Naturally, Liu Gong didn't have an infinite amount of patience.
"What? Say it quickly."
"..."
Liu Heng worked up her courage and asked her father with her voice being too quiet. Fortunately, Liu Gong's cultivation was high, so his senses were stronger than a normal person. Hence, he heard Liu Heng's muttering.
"I... want to go to Red Dragon City... if that's okay..."
Liu Gong's eyes widened. This girl wanted to go to join a sect, and leave him? Impossible!
"No!"
This was the reason why Liu Heng was hesitating in whether she would say it or not. Since her father cared too much, he would, of course, not allow her to leave his side.
.....
There were still several weeks before the tournament, so Li Bai searched in his memories for a way to get a body for a soul. After sitting still for a whole day, his endeavors brought no results.
"Haah. How do I do this?"
He looked at the Soul Catcher which contained his father's soul. Analyzing it, he concluded that it should only take about half a year before the soul starts dissipating.
Li Bai stood up and walked out of his room, only to find out that it was already midnight.
"Crap."
Even though it was already midnight, he still wandered around the mansion, then tried to visit his sister again. He knocked on the door to his sister's room.
"Bao jie-jie, it's me, Li Bai."
This time, however, there was not even a slight response from her. Usually, when he knocked, there would still be a voice refusing his entry to her room. Now, this voice was absent.
"Hmm?"
Li Bai opened the door without any hesitation. As his eyes scanned the room, his expression became disturbed. His sister was lying on the floor, traces of fire underneath her.
The floor, which was made of wood, had many burn marks and even holes! He rushed inside and sensed an excess of Earth energy flowing throughout the room. There was also an unknown energy that mixed with it.
"What... is this?"
Sitting down cross-legged, Li Bai tried to absorb this unknown energy, isolating it from the Earth energy. As soon as he did, he felt hot.
He tried to absorb more, but discovered that he was absorbing too much of this unknown energy! His body felt like it was on fire!
Closing off his pathways, he collapsed the same way his sister did, lying on the floor. However, unlike Li Bao, he did not lose consciousness.
As he lay flat on the wooden floor, he wondered what happened. The Zodiac Pot should have absorbed the excess, why didn't it work?
The Zodiac Pot so far absorbed every kind of energy that Li Bai absorbed, but why wasn't it doing the same to the unknown energy?
Despite thinking about it for a long hard while, Li Bai didn't reach any conclusions. After all, he hadn't encountered the Zodiac Pot in his previous lives, so he didn't have time to study it thoroughly.
Regardless of his lack of knowledge about this energy, he still wanted to study it. To do that, he needed to refine the energy he absorbed into his body.
This was a very dangerous task, as it could potentially lead to his gems being shattered. This would make it hard for the individual to continue cultivating, as their gems were now gone. Forming gems was not an easy task.
However, this was no problem at all for Li Bai, since he had plenty of ways to form his gems again once they break.
Before cultivating, Li Bai put his sister in his interspatial ring. He also took the bed and put it in the ring. Li Bai followed.
Li Bao opened her eyes and saw that she was in a dark place. She felt like she was moving. Looking towards her side, she could see that she was approaching her bed in the middle of nowhere.
At her other side was Li Bai, who put her down gently on the bed, quickly exiting the ring soon after. But not before speaking.
"Sleep well."
Li Bai, once again, sat down cross-legged on the burnt floor.
Crack, crack!
Refining the unknown energy was not an easy task. After all, he did not know how to. Thus, he tried trial-and-error.
His temperature was increasing, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. His face was flushed red, and so was the rest of his body.
A flame grew on his hair. Li Bai didn't seem to notice it, as he continued refining the unknown energy.
In his body, several changes were occurring. There were now two different sets of gems, the unknown energy lighting up the unlit set one by one.
His mark was changing colors. In every person, black was the prominent color, but his was turning orange.
The flame on his hair grew larger, the ceiling of the room being burned. Soon after, it spread his whole body now in flames.
Li Bai's clothes were burning, leaving only ashes on his small body.
After a long time, Li Bai finished refining all of the energy that he absorbed. He opened his eyes, breathing heavily.
"Cough, cough!"
Li Bai felt that something was rising up through his throat. He quickly covered his mouth with his palm.
"Cough!"
After coughing consecutively, blood spurted out of his mouth. He looked at his bloodied hand.
"What's this?"
The blood on his palm was black. It did not feel like blood at all.
Li Bai wondered what the black liquid on his hand was until he felt a sting coming from it. He quickly let the liquid flow down to the floor.
Upon contact with the floor, the liquid quickly solidified, forming a black rock.
There were still remnants of the liquid on his hand, so Li Bai tried to wipe it on his clothes, only to discover that he was wearing none.
He stood up and took out a cloth from his sister's drawer and used it to wipe the black liquid off his hand. Curiously, the liquid turned red like blood when in contact with the cloth.
The cloth was now stained red.
Li Bai prepared to leave the room, but he was reminded of the fact that he didn't have any clothes on by a mirror.
He quickly took a robe from his sister's drawer and wore it. He didn't want to streak, even when his room was just close by.
.....
Li Da was feeling crestfallen. He had done nothing to defend his clan from the vicious Liu clan. How could he miss this easy opportunity to regain his reputation?
But who could blame him? Even if he did try to do something, it would most likely end up in vain. Thus, Li Da just holed himself up in his room, blocking the door with his bed and cowering in the corner.
Now, he was just walking past Li Bai's room. The door was open, and he aimed to sneak a peek at the beautiful Li Bao to raise his mood up. He walked closer until a small child came walking out.
Li Da hid behind a wall and observed.
"Is that... my trash cousin?!"
Shocked, Li Da continued observing his cousin as he walked further.
"Li Bai was wearing a robe, which one usually wore after having... s..."
Li Da's thoughts were naturally leading there.
"O-oh my God!"
Rushing towards Li Bao's room, Li Da discovered the many holes and burnt wood inside the room.
"Wh... what a violent intercourse..."
Scanning the room even more meticulously, he found a cloth that was stained red.
"Is it... her first time?"
Li Da walked out of the room, his fantasies running wild in his mind.
"What an illicit relationship!"
.....
After arriving at his room, Li Bai entered his ring. He planned to explain to his sister why he put her inside the interspatial ring.
He walked towards the bed, only to find out that Li Bao was not there! The blanket was all rustled up, indicating that Li Bao has indeed woken up.
"Where did she go?"
This interspatial ring was made by Li Bai with an infinite space in mind, but that did not work. Instead, he opted for the second best option, which was still a large area.
"Bao jie-jie!"
Li Bai started shouting in the void.
'It couldn't be, has she found the secret door?'
Someone then bumped into him. It was Li Bao.
"Oh, Bai didi, you're here."
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