Journey Of An Unknown - Chapter 27

In the very early morning the large lanterns disappeared from the Grand Arena sky, they were lit whole night making the main arena, look peaceful and quiet for Zou Shen who had remained there all alone.

The formation of the platform was activated as it cleaned the platform by making dustless white platform once again. Soon the officials and judges came back to get ready for the second day of the selection tournament. They noticed that Zou Shen was still in his seat with his eyes closed in meditation, they didn’t bother him again. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience

After an hour or so the gates and entrance to the Grand Arena were opened to the crowd outside. Soon enough the crowd started to rush into the main arena seats. They excitedly took their seats from yesterday and waited for the participants of the selection tournament to appear on platform.

As they look towards the fighters seating area, they saw a weirdly dressed person sitting with his eyes closed like he was sleeping on the seats. They didn’t remember who this cultivator was. They asked around but many couldn’t recognize him, soon a person from yesterday who watched the match told others who asked him about Zou Shen.

He just told them he was the person who got a 1-star activation in the inner energy test held yesterday. He didn’t say if he won or what had occurred yesterday that he would not forget for a long time or maybe even forever.

The few people who had watched the last match yesterday also remembered Zou Shen clearly, their minds forced him to disappear from memory but the deep fear which had sprouted in them could not forget about that match and Zou Shen.

They had watched Zou Shen start the regeneration process on Yan Shui hand as they left to go back to their lodgings in the city. Now they knew he probably stayed in the Gran Arena all alone after the healing of Yan Shui’s hands was done.

Those few people might know this, but the rest of the crowd didn’t know anything they thought he just came early after loosing his match and the officials of the selection tournament took pity on him and let him in early. They quietly laughed at Zou Shen thinking among their groups that he was just a village idiot who found stole weird expensive clothes and fancied himself a strong cultivator after learning some few techniques.

They thought that he had lost and in despair wanted to sit among the true prodigies to make himself feel good again. The few people who wanted to shut them all up with the truth didn’t do it as they knew the result of that match and that aftermath. These few people thought this idiotic crowd would learn the results anyway soon enough as the matches and the participants for it were announced.

After the experience of seeing a prodigy being broken down in front of them crying, they knew how shallow their world view was, they looked at the people quietly laughing and remembered they had also laughed at him when he activated just 1 star in the inner energy test. They realized they only saw the veil around the world and that they were ignorant to the true depth of people.

Some of the few people might not be cultivators but this realization was still an eye opener for them, it would help them to be better at seeing the world and its changes. See through people better to find the true gems hence finding and surrounding themselves with talented good people, as for the cultivators their depth of experience would grow, and their mind would strengthen. If a prideful and arrogant prodigy like Yan Shui could be broken down should they really think high and mighty above mortals.

They were still weak, and they had no real strength of their own to even stand against Yan Shui. Their dreams and goals turned to unrealistic fantasies as they now knew the true gap, they had to cross.

The cultivators that were present yesterday for the last match started to change their attitude towards the world and others, they might not realize they had gained a drop of wisdom in doing so making them stronger already than other cultivators of the same quality.

Wisdom is a great strength that rulers, leaders and teachers had. These independent cultivators lack such people in their lives, they might have some encounter that led on their path to cultivation but they grew slowly as they just let the world dictate how they grew strong, not using the wisdom to teach themselves of things that could help speed their cultivation.

All the few people who watched yesterday last match felt deep respect for Zou Shen, as he had given them a chance by showing how people and the world can be broken down. That people and the world had more depth to it than they were willing to look for as they didn’t have the time in their daily lives to think about such things, some had to sell goods or work as servants to other people.

The independent cultivators were trying to gain miniscule amount of strength they could and didn’t have time for such endeavours. Either someone came to them and showed them this or they would never find it out unless they reached a point of death.

The rest of the participants and their backers were in the waiting hall from yesterday waiting for selection tournament to start. Ruozhen and Xinling were also present there, Ruozhen didn’t worry at first when he returned to this waiting hall knowing that Zou Shen just didn’t want to arouse suspicion, so he probably stayed at an inn in the feather’s peak city.

He started to worry again after some time when every other participant from yesterday even the cultivators who lost yesterday all returned for the second day of the selection tournament. Only Zou Shen again was not present, this time Xinling didn’t worry as she knew Zou Shen was probably fine somewhere and would come late like yesterday.

Ruozhen sent his head servant to secretly about Zou Shen match yesterday from an official they had bribed to be their informant as they had left early like everyone else to not arouse suspicion among the higher powers even if both Xinling and Ruozhen wanted to stay and watch Zou Shen match.

The head servant returned telling when he asked about the last match yesterday from their informant official. He started to stutter and say nothing happened and that the results would be announced normally as he left quickly. Ruozhen then knew something had happened to during the last match to put fear of Zou Shen in the official. He relaxed knowing that their Ren Clan Guardian had won the first round, he just didn’t know what happened that scared the official that he would not say.

Same thing happened to Hanrong who also left early to his Red Rain Empire’s lodging for him in the Feathers Peak City asked about Zou Shen match from an official who was close to the Red Rain Empire and was the contact during the time of the selection tournament. The soul of the cultivator in his ring spoke to Hanrong after the official contact left in a hurry.

“You and I both can see that seed of fear in his eyes, something must have happened during the last match yesterday to scare the officials that they would want to avoid talking about it. Let’s just avoid Zou Shen as usual not coming in the way of his plans.”

Hanrong nodded in agreement at that statement. These officials were not weak cultivators, they were experts of the Red Rain sect. They could single handily destroy low-tier sects and branch families. Even inner disciples of Red Rain sect would not talk look down on them ever lest they their cultivation be crippled as punishment. To put the seed of fear in them was something else that Hanrong could not imagine or achieve for now. He didn’t think about the matter anymore as it would affect his own mental strength.

In the medical room of the Grand Arena, Yan Shui had woken up and was sitting a chair next to the bed he was resting in before. There was a late ascension realm old man who was standing opposite him looking at the healed hands of Yan Shui. This old man was the sect leader of Yan Shui mid-tier sect in the Heavenly Green Region and the master of Yan Shui.

This old man was among others of the special seating area when late at night he was informed about Yan Shui by one of the official of the selection tournament. He wasn’t given a full answer just that Yan Shui was resting in the medical room after an injury in his match. The result of his loss was also told to him at that very moment, the official ended by telling him after Yan Shui could return for the rest of the tournament to watch or he could return to his own sect to recover.

When the old man tried talking to Yan Shui after reaching the medical room. The first thing Yan Shui did was to kowtow in apology on the ground in front of his master to apologize.

“I am sorry Master; I will repent please forgive me. I will accept any punishment, just give me a chance again to show that I am worthy of your and sects teaching.”

Yan Shui had apologized to his master the first chance he got after he woke up in the medical room. He had thought about many things he had done and how he wanted to repent for his sins and deeds. If he did not repent, he would forever carry the weight of his sins to his death and the afterlife. He had to change as recognized if lived as he has done before soon, he would be dead before he knew it living in his own fantasy forever.

The old man saw the sincerity in Yan Shui eye and was reminded of a dirty skinny boy begging in a small village he had once come across. This young skinny boy had a look of strength in his eyes when he looked at the old man like he would not bend his own will even if this old man forced him too. This old man could have been offended by this disobedience from this ignorant mortal but instead he was impressed.

He decided to test this boy and gave him expensive cooked meat to eat. The skinny boy took the meat and ran away after telling the old man he would repay him no matter what. Soon the old man followed the skinny boy to see what he would do with this meat. Soon he found a broken house in the far outreaches of the small village.

From afar the old man saw the skinny boy feed a crying little girl inside the broken house with no roof, the skinny boy stroked the crying little girl’s head and consoled her with promises as he tried to feed her.

“You should eat properly; your big brother will grow up to be a great cultivator one day, then I will buy you beautiful dresses and delicious food. Now try to eat this meat I brought for you so you can grow up healthy and become a beauty one day.”

The girl kept crying more as she didn’t want dresses and food. “I want my mother and father; I don’t want anything else.” She kept demanding nonstop even as she ate the food slowly still crying.

The old man had asked around the village about this sibling life. The chief of the village fearing the old man told him everything, the sibling were orphans from some other village. The skinny boy had appeared one day in their village with a baby wrapped on his back, he begged for food and work.

They moved into a destroyed home outside of the village. He came everyday to beg for work in the village and earn food.

The chief just told other families to warn their children not to interact with the orphans as they could influence them badly. The skinny boy and the baby survived in this village on their own for years now. The chief knew the other children misunderstood their parent’s warnings and bullied the skinny boy and his sister; he still didn’t do anything about this as they were not of this village.

The situation turned dire in the last year as the orphans were having a hard time surviving in the village as the children’s parent didn’t give the skinny boy any job due the demands of their children. To please the children they had given both the orphans the death sentence, the boy had started begging for food from travellers and passer-by of the villagers.

Once an arrogant young master passed by the village to reach a sect. The young master tricked the skinny boy into licking his boots for food and the skinny boy without question did as he was asked.

The young master than kicked him away and gave him nothing as he left the village laughing at the skinny boy. The village chief saw all this happen and still did nothing to help the orphans as they were not of this village, so he didn’t need to feed the extra mouths.

When the old man came the young skinny boy was on his last legs as he had fed all the food to his little sister who had grown up in this village with his help. The old man was so angry when he heard this tale that he wanted to raze the entire village to the ground.

He returned to the broken house to check on the siblings to find that the younger sister was crying loudly on the boy body which had fallen on the ground with the expensive meat falling to the dirty ground.

“Big Brother wake up, don’t leave me alone like father and mother. I will be a good girl; I will not ask anything from you ever just don’t leave me alone.” The little girl picked up the dirty meet from the ground of the house and started eating it as she cried for her brother to wake up.

This scene touched the old man’s heart deeply he appeared in front of the little girl and told her to stop eating the meat, he then used his Qi to heal the young skinny boy who had fainted from lack of food and nourishment. He had been giving all the little food he got to his sister.

After a while the boy recovered but he was unconscious, the very next day the old man took the siblings back to his sect. As he left the small village, he really wanted to raze the village as a punishment but did not as the little sister begged him not to hurt anyone because of them.

This skinny young boy wold grow up to be the Yan Shui of today and his sister became a beauty like he once said. Yan Shui and his sister worked hard than anyone else in the sect. The old man didn’t give any of them special treatment. He was very proud of both and cared for them like his own children. The siblings also respected and thought of him as a father figure also.

Sadly this relationship did not last long as Yan Shui started to change as he grew stronger and stronger. He drifted apart from his own little sister and his master. The want for more power seeped deeply into him and his pride and arrogance reached new heights as a result. Once Yan Shui little sister came to the old man and cried as she said she didn’t recognize her own brother anymore and he wanted him back. The old man could not do anything he could level villages and hills, but he could not bring back the old Yan Shui.

Yan Shui waking in the medical room realized all he had done to hurt his little sister and his master. What he had become and now what he needed to change himself. He also now wanted his family back again.