Lan Long was on his bed, sitting in the lotus position, immersed in the analysis of Ki. It had been months but his tribulation was still nowhere to be seen. There was supposed to a huge tribulation that was supposed to accompany the breakthrough to the Mortal pellet realm. The strength of the tribulation also varied from cultivator to cultivator.
"Why don't you want to stay? Why do you always dissipate?" Lan Long asked to no one in particular. The small wisp of Ki in his hand was flickering but every time it was on the verge of dissipating Lan Long would supply it with more Ki and stabilize it. "May be, I am going about it the wrong way."
Lan Long immediately called back his controlling soul and simply wished that this small wisp of Ki to not dissipate. Although, the wisp dissipated, it was able to hold far longer than before. "heh, so it's not about controlling through sheer soul strength." The Ki, regardless of its attribute was far too complex and mysterious. Lan Long had initial was able to brute force his way into all the cultivation stages. His soul was strong enough to control the Ki regardless but this was not the true way. Any cultivator would need to acclimate his heart and mind, conscious and subconscious, to the Ki they nurtured within themselves and the nature. The tribulation occurred when there was a clash between the natural Ki and the Ki within the cultivator's body. Tribulation was meant to bring these two closer and bridge the gap between the two. This was the reason why he stronger cultivator faced stronger tribulation. The more the cultivator progressed, the larger the difference between their Ki and the naturally occurring Ki. The understanding of the dao and the elements also helped to bridge this gap.
Lan Long, immediately began to experiment along this new route of Ki cultivation. The more he understood this new method, the more his soul relaxed. Up until this point, his soul was constantly holding is Ki in place and moving it according to the requirements. Although, this was still easy for Lan Long to accomplish, the relaxation of his soul brought the similar feeling of floating in the same dark abyss. Lan Long thoroughly enjoyed this feeling of freedom and the same wisp in his hand was now almost completely stable despite no effort from Lan Long.
Ki began to gather around his body and completely cocooned him. Soon, the entire village was blanketed with far more Ki that ever before. Many cultivators immediately began to cultivate, trying to get the maximum out of the strange occurrence. Soon, the Ki began to coalesce into a single point in front of Lan Long's dantian. The entire sky outside was filled with many different colored auroras completely made of unimaginable amounts of Ki. The Ki was now compressed into a small pea sized pellet. The pellet began as a milky white colored pellet but as the time went on the pellet became translucent. Although, a transformation occurred within the pellet, it was still consuming the same amount of Ki as before. This too changed when the pellet sharply increased it Ki intake and began to spin rapidly.
After an hour, the pellet was back to its translucent self with milky haze floating within. Soon, the pellet was absorbed into Lan Long's dantian. As soon as it entered his body, the pellet immediately began to absorb all his Ki, soon all the Ki was drained from his body and the Pellet sent out a few strands of Ki to widen his meridian and remake his body. Lan Long on the other hand was still immersed in his sea of insights, completely oblivious to the change within his own body. His cells were being broken down and remade at a rapid pace all while the pellet constantly sent calming aura over to his soul. His body was remade, stronger and purer than before. A faint scent emanated from his body, resembling that of a fresh spring. His presence was further diminished, his aura almost perfectly matching that of the nature. Soon, the breakthrough was over but the lingering Ki in the atmosphere remained. Lan Long too was enjoying this Ki rich environment.
"Ah, so nice. This kind of feeling can be addictive. Mmmm, so nice." Lan Long said as he lied on the bed and sighed. He had never felt so fresh, there was so much Ki in the atmosphere, it was like dipping into a lake full of Ki. The Ki inside his body had completely gone, with nothing to control, his soul was 100 percent relaxed. Lan Long jerked back into the sitting position and examined his body. "What the hell? Where is my Ki? What happened to all the formations? What is that in my dantian?" Lan Long was terrified of the many questions that pooped in his head. He forcefully calmed himself and activated his cultivation technique. The heavy Ki was finally formed and it entered his meridians and made its way to the dantian. The Mortal Pellet immediately acted and began to further refine the Heavy Ki into a dense droplet of Ki. This drop of Ki then began to roam about freely within his body and finally stopped when it was absorbed into his flesh. Lan Long saw this happen and got some inspiration to further improve on his formation and did just that. Soon, a day had passed before Lan Long was done carving the formations on himself. As the heavy Ki entered his meridians, it was directed straight towards the dantian and the mortal pellet refined it into Ki drops, that were constantly being absorbed by his body. His cells gobbled up the Liquid like parched sand. Another day had before Lan Long's body showed the slightest signs of stopping. After a few hours, he had finally absorbed enough Ki and decided to stop concentrating on it completely.
"Damn, that took way too long. Why did this happen?" Lan Long asked himself. He then looked inside his dantian; he found the small pellet resting peacefully on the top of his Ki sea. "This is very strange. My strength has increased at least a few hundred time, but there is still no sign of a tribulation." He circulated his Ki a few times around his body. "Wait, did I break through the Mortal pellet realm?" He thought to himself.
"Only one way to find out." With that Lan Long stepped out of his room and with a light moment disappeared completely from the village, finally reappearing on the top of the mountain from which the crawled out of. Lan Long closed his eyes and concentrated on the surroundings, the air the earth and himself at the center of it all.
"Fly." He said with a smile on his face and he hovered ever so slightly above the ground. With a little concentration, he began to fly up and straight away flew up to the clouds before stopping.
"I CAN FLY." Lan Long yelled at the top of his lungs before moving to-and-fro haphazardly. Stopping only after he had become completely used to the sensation of flying. He looked below and sized up the land he had deemed his new home. It now felt a little small. With a sight movement, he dropped to the ground and disappeared. He immediately moved to his village and laid on the porch in his courtyard.
The evening brought about many changes in the Green village. Many cultivators had broken through their realms, many of the non-cultivators had also gained cultivation due to the excess of Ki in the atmosphere. Although, the mortal pellet realm cultivator didn't gain another breakthrough, their Ki quantity improved significantly. Some of the cultivator even had many years shaven off their cultivation. On the other spectrum, almost all the livestock had also gained in cultivation and were rampaging about. The butcher had to struggle to kill a single chicken. The small insect had gained in size and were now capable of devouring humans. The Shen clan had also reached the village and were asking around for the killer but to their dismay, no one seemed to care. All the village was bustling with activity or rather it had descended into madness.
"Elder, there was also a girl with brother Gan. She had brown hair and white pin in her hair."
"Yes, she also wore very scantly."
"If we can find her then we are sure to find the killer."
"She was only at Mid Ki gathering realm."
The disciple hurriedly told the elders about the appearance and the cultivation of the girl accompanying Gan Shen. Elder Sha immediately sent out his soul sense and blanketed the entire village, although this was considered rude by many, there was Shen clan prestige at the stake here.
"Elder Sha, I hope you have a good reason for this." The village Chief voice sounded. He was quite angry but was only able to ask politely. After all, Shen clan was a guardian clan.
"There was a murder of one of our disciple. The killer may still be in the village." Elder Sha said with no regard. The village chief didn't ask any further and ignored the soul sense. He finally discovered the girl but the cultivation didn't match the description. He gave orders to fetch the girl and the disciples followed the orders bringing the confused girl to the mansion.
"Was Gan Shen with you about two to three days ago?" Elders skipped all the pleasantries and went straight to business.
"Yes, but about 2 days back Brother Gan got into a fight with a strong cultivator and was thrown out of the village. He didn't appear since then." She said truthfully.
"Who did he get into the fight with?" The elder asked again. If the killer was still inside the village, he could straight up go and bring him to the clan for a public execution.
"It was a group. There were three men and a woman. The man who threw Brother Gan was wearing white, his companion carried a saber and there was this huge bury guy, he too carried a heavy sword on his all the time." The girl described what she was carefully. Elder Sha immediately found three men with the fitting description but was stumped to find the burly guys to be a member of the Ren clan. Also by the looks of the insignia hanging from the sword, this person was close to the emperors.
"Did Disciple Gan fight the burly man?" Elder Sha asked the girl.
"No, but it seemed like he was deeply offended by what Brother Gan said at the time." She replied. Elder Sha sighed, the matter had gotten much more complicated than before. There was a high-status member of the Ren clan involved. There was a member of the Long clan and there was a mysterious guy with the strength to throw a person across the distance of millions of kilometers.
"Let's visit this killer of ours." Elder Sha nodded at the other elders and walked outside. The other elders walked behind Elder Sha followed by the High-ranking disciples. Soon, everyone was standing outside the inn. Elder Sha nodded at a core disciple and pointed at the building. The lead disciple walked and stood close to the building and stomped the ground.
"Murderer surrender to us peacefully. Else face the wrath of the mighty Shen clan." The disciple yelled at the top of his voice. This immediately jerked everyone out of their cultivation state. Huang Ren stepped outside carrying his heavy sword, exerting the pressure of Ki sea realm on to everyone. He finally stood in front of the disciple that had yelled.
"Member of the Ren clan, we are here to apprehend the killer of our disciple. Please move out of the way." The disciple said in a calm voice.
"Killer? That weak shit head was thrown out of the village by my brother. Where is all this talk of killing coming from?" Huang Ren asked as looked at Jiang Long that had appeared beside him.
"He was cruelly deprived of using his Ki, either by exhaustion or some sort of evil method. He died on the impact. The killer did not even leave behind a complete corpse. This hatred must be resolved by the death of the murderer." The disciple exaggerated the death of Gan Shen and also deemed Lan Long as evil in one swoop.
"Ha-ha, he died when he fell from the sky? Laughable." Huang Ren was thoroughly pleased with this bit of new. There were deathly glares from the other disciple and one elder almost leaked out killing intent. "That bastard deserved it. He insulted my girl. . . ahem. . . my lady friend. So, my brother threw him outside the village. If he was so weak as to die from a mere fall, we have done a great service to you. Got rid of your filth and you are all welcome. No need to reward us, you may leave." Huang Ren said with his arms fold on his chest. Su Ming was also walking towards them.
"Brother Huang. Brother Jiang. What is happening?" Su Ming asked looking at the angry crowd. Almost, every member of the Shen clan present had a red face and was glaring at her.
"The guy who insulted died when he fell." Jiang Long said it bluntly with a light smile.
"Surely, he wasn't that weak." Su Ming rejected the idea that Lan Long didn't take in the little details about spine injury or neck injury when he threw the man.
"No, that's what happened." Huang Ren reconfirmed the point. "But none of that matters. These people were about to leave anyway." At this point, however, Elder Sha was also boiling with rage.
"Junior Huang. You can't possibly be insinuating to protect the murderer with Ren Clan's name, right?" Elder Sha said with an icy look on his face. There was even some killing intent in his eyes for a moment.
"Insinuating?" Jiang Long repeated.
"Name?" Huang Ren stressed the word. "Well, I am pretty open about it. You can hear me say it, 'your idiot disciple was killed by my friend because he had offended me. I am having my clan protect him'. There, I said it as clearly as I could."
"Hoh, Brother Huang is protecting me now?" Lan Long who had appeared out of nowhere mocked Huang Ren with a laugh. "Well. Elder of the Shen what would you have me do?"
"Brother Lan, don't he might want to fight with you." Huang Ren said in a hurry.
"Yes, some elders would shamelessly attack those of the younger generation." Jiang Long added to remedy the situation.
"Don't worry juniors. What I will you do is a fight to the death with my disciple. What do you think." Elder Sha said with a smile. He had successfully baited the culprit into a fight.
Hahahahaha. . .
Both Jiang Long and Huang Ren burst into laughter. This was the worst possible outcome possible for the Shen clan. No one under the Earth pellet realm could possibly hope to defeat Lan Long in a fight. The idea itself was somewhere from retarded to outright suicidal.
"Umm, Elder please rethink this. I will not be good for anyone involved." Su Ming tried to dissuade the elder from this rash decision but it had the exact opposite effect and further cemented his resolve.
"No need to talk any further." Elder Sha raised his hand to stop Su Ming from saying anything further and pointed at the strongest disciple they had brought along with them. It was a lean man with thin eyebrows and long hair. "You, fight him." Elder Sha ordered the disciple. Soon, the disciple and Lan Long were facing each other. The other disciple pulled out a thin sword from his ring and stabbed at Lan Long dantian.
Lan Long who had gained another level was perplexed. He wanted to test his strength but this seemed to childish. From his perspective, the disciple was standing still with his sword pointed at him. Lan Long waited for a few moments and a grabbed the sword out of the disciple's hand and stabbed it into his foot, burying the entire sword into the ground. The disciple was still standing in the same posture but the sword was now buried into the ground through his foot. Lan Long returned to his original position and relaxed his mind. It was like pressing the play button on the world. The disciple realized that his sword was missing and screamed when he found out where it was.
"So, I guess that you would now like to withdraw?" Lan Long said playfully with a laugh. Although, the rest of the Shen clan disciples were surprised, Elder Sha was the only one with his mouth hanging open wide enough for a fig to fit right in. Lan Long walked back into the mansion and resumed doing nothing on the porch.
"So, I guess that my friend is feeling a bit forgiving. Enjoy your stay at the village." Huang Ren said as he walked into the mansion with Su Ming by his side. Jiang Long on the other hand was staring at the Elder, who by the way still had his mouth open.
"Just so you know, that was the child of Tina Long and Su Ren. Good luck dealing with them." Jiang Long said with a light smirk and also retreated into the mansion.
"Elder, we can't let them go like this."
"Elder, we disciples will attack that bastard at the same time."
"Elder, Please, give the orders."
"Silence. Let us head to the city first and meet up the Lead Elder." Elder Sha said in a low voice. He too felt threatened by Lan Long. He wasn't able to see his moments at all. Added the fact that he was the child of the mad couple with a high-status friend was the icing on the cake. This may lead to many further trouble for him down the line. 'Heaven favors the Ren clan. Favored by the heavens, damn, if that kid is as young as he looks, all the younger generation will be below his feet. Let's report to the Lead elder first.' This was the though Elder Sha had as he hurried to the city.
(Damn, this chapter took way too long. Sorry for the delay and hopefully the next few chapters would be uploaded on time.
Wow, the comments are really sweet and I really wanted to upload sooner. Guys, I am really thankful to you all. We are finally over 1000 votes and over 20k views. Didn't think that this story would garner that much mush attention. Hopefully, the story will continue.)