[ 2340 WORDS - AHHH, the rona? Don't mess around with it. Took me over 2 weeks to get better and it wasn't even as bad as it could have been! Man, I feel for the guys that go through the most with this shit.
Anyway, UwU enjoy. Friendly neighbourhood Author-san out!✌ ]
Gu Xuan flew towards the village with Yuji in tow. Considering he had Yuji as a passenger Gu Xuan flew calmly so as not to frighten him.
Meanwhile, Yuji had been having a conversation with Cliona mentally.
'Pffftt hahaha Yuji, your acting skills never cease to amaze me. The old man didn't suspect a thing! How did you get so good?'
'That reminds me, I never talked about my past during the 2 years I was in the God Realm with you and Yuna. It's the reason why my acting is so good...'
For the few minutes that it took for them to fly to his village, Yuji told his story.
The horrifying nights, the unbearable pain and the constantly draining act which leeched away at his spirit that he had to put up for his parents so they would not worry much.
He was only able to tell it so quickly because Cliona silently listened attentively, soaking in every heartbreaking situation that he described made her heart ached at the mental images of his suffering for year's that etched themselves into her mind.
Obviously, he couldn't tell them all, it was over 8 years of content, after all, so he just told a few.
By the end, Cliona felt like shit.
She thought back to just earlier in the day when she had been distraught seeing him in pain that she couldn't fix for a measly few hours.
Compared to what his parents and he had to live through, it was nothing more than a grain of salt in the ocean.
There was no sorry excuse that she could come up with that could justify it. Sure, she could argue that she didn't know about this before and that he was in a life-threatening situation so she shouldn't blame herself, but that kind of reasoning wasn't satisfactory for her.
She felt like she had to do better, for him, and herself because compare to what she went through just now, his past experience was way worse.
What made this all the more impactful to her was the fact that she had never cared for a man anywhere near as much as she does him now so she was running blind.
That's why it mattered all the more to her, because she, by all means, did not want to mess up anywhere with him.
~~~
Arriving over the village, Yuji directed Gu Xuan to his Grandfathers grave and within a few dozen seconds he had landed and sat on the ground near it with Gu Xuan watching from the side.
'It's rude of me to say this after what I've already done but, I still, at the very least want to show some kind of integrity. Even if it might not count for much coming from me who took your grandsons life; I'm sorry that for my selfish wishes, I took away your grandson. I promise to take care of his body as best as I can so please rest easy.
I promise to take care of the house along with everyone in this village and turn their lives around for the better so don't worry abot them.
Once again, I'm sorry for the trouble my selfishness has caused. I won't ask for forgiveness so by all means, you can curse and haunt me for the rest of my life, but even still, please allow me to call you Grandpa from now on too. Goodbye, I'll see you in a month.'
Yuji thought to himself as he plucked out small weeds around it and only after it was clean did he get up and turned back to Gu Xuan as he said. "I'm done, we can go now."
Gu Xuan nodded as he covered them in his power resulting in a blueish circular barrier around them.
Lifting off the ground they shot through the night sky, leaving the earth.
At the same time, 'Is this profound energy?' Yuji thought to himself looking at the blue energy surrounding them.
Its effects were surprising to him. He felt like he was flying for sure but there was no wind brushing against his cheeks and even still, the unhindered feeling of it, despite missing a key component; the wind, was amazing for Yuji who was once bedridden, not even able to take walks majority of the times.
Meanwhile, Gu Xuan flew the two of them through a black hole, not the scientific abomination kind of black hole, simply a dark hole in the fabric of space but unlike the former, it was merely an opening, it did not cause any outside phenomena and disappeared once Gu Xuan flew through it with Yuji.
They were shrouded in darkness as they entered, only being able to see where they were going because of the illumination provided by flashes of lightning that repeatedly struck at the barrier around them.
"Old man where are we going?" Yuji asked, wondering if they would go to the same world that he knew of.
"We are going to a planet that is rich in profound energy for you to cultivate, it's an isolated planet so we won't have to worry much about anyone finding you there unless something big happens. More importantly, can you stop calling me old man and call me master you brat?!."
Yuji couldn't help but grin mischievously at his reply to him being called an old man. "Hmmm... Nah, I don't want to. Old man sounds better."
A nerve popped up on Gu Xuan's forehead as his lip twitched by the side realising just how ballsy his student was. "...fine, I'll be calling you brat from now on."
Shrugging to himself Yuji simply said. " I don't mind, this way we both get what we want. Anyway, what is this place?"
"Tsk...It's a dimensional space used to shorten the distance between worlds. You can only use it if you have reached a certain realm or use a special item otherwise the lightning will kill you and not even leave ashes behind."
'Pfftt, this old man just clicked his tongue at me.'
Half an hour later they finally came to the end of the dimensional space. Gu Xuan flew them through the opening in space and in front of them was a huge, green planet.
The sight of it fascinated Yuji who stared dazed at it because reading about it was one thing but seeing it for himself? That was something else entirely.
As they rapidly got closer to it finer details were visible. The green colouring was from the unnaturally large and uncountable number of trees that covered the world like the Amazon Rainforest.
They descended to the planet, and as they landed Gu Xuan dispelled his energy barrier and the untainted air breezed through Yuji's nose, circulating through his body giving him instant rejuvenation.
As if having found its paradise Yuji's body tingled from the single deep breath he took, relaxing his body more than ever.
Gu Xuan did the same; taking in a deep breath because even he could tell the distinct difference between air quality compared to Earth.
This was mainly because of the abundant profound energy which provided the relaxing and refreshing effect.
The purity of the air was obviously because of the dense rainforest that covered the whole world.
Earth was simply too polluted for such a nourishing atmosphere to exist. Thin profound energy and polluted air, there was barely anything left contributing positively to the world's atmosphere.
"This is where you will be training for a while. I won't always be here to accompany you and will often leave for a few days or weeks but don't worry, you won't die. I'm going to set up an array to keep the magic beasts away." Gu Xuan said after his breath as he hovered back up back to the sky and flew off into the distance.
~~
The old man was hovering in the sky after being gone for over 2 hours. Hovering quite a distance up in the sky, his body shone with a blue light that brightened by the second.
Only after a few minutes, the light shot upwards into the sky forming a pillar and in quick succession, four more pillars of light shot up in the distance forming a square with the old man as their centre.
From the tops of the four pillars, light beams further stretched, connecting each of the pillars then stretching diagonal beams which connected to Gu Xuan at the centre.
The whole process created a rumbling sound that shook the ground like a mini earthquake.
*RUMBLE* *RUMBLE*
This square barrier stretched for hundreds of miles around.
Having finished setting up the defensive and energy collection array the old man floated back down to Yuji and said. "This dome will gather the profound energy from 200 miles around us and the magic beasts will be kept out of the area that same area. Now, let's choose a suitable technique for you."
Yuji who had still been amazed at seeing the array suddenly being built came back to his senses hearing Gu Xuan speak.
Obviously, he had seen Yuna use her powers to perform impressive feats, however, seeing the events that he had once read about and could only imagine unfold, he couldn't help but be dazed, anyway, as he snapped out of his daze Yuji said. "Wait, old man, I need to tell you something."
Gu Xuan's eyebrow raised and he unconsciously stroked his beard as he asked. "What is it brat?"
Considering he was going to be choosing his techniques now Yuji decided it would be best to show Gu Xuan his sharingan right now which thanks to Yuna, he awakened.
Anyone with common sense would awaken it with her help just like him if they were in his position because they were a massive help in his training and it would allow them to evolve.
However, he didn't awaken his other bloodline powers of light and darkness yet. Those, he was saving for now when he starts dealing with magical stuff since his training with Yuna and Cliona was mainly on the physical side; martial arts, swords, all other sorts of weapons, and the art of killing itself being examples of the stuff they taught him.
"You told me about some strong bloodline earlier, I think that something I have is related to that. When I heard you talk about techniques I knew I had to tell you since it would be beneficial considering its power."
The old man's interest piqued at Yuji's statement. He knew sooner or later Yuji's bloodline power would present itself but he never thought it would already have done so while he was a normal human.
"Quickly, show me!" he said with an excited glint in his eyes.
Yuji nods his head and activated his sharingan. His eyes swirled and changed colour turning black as 2 silver tomoe formed, swirling around the pupil.
Originally, he had 1 tomoe but during his year-long training, he managed to get it to 2 and he could tell he wasn't far from the 3rd, there was a familiar itch in his eyes that he could feel so it wouldn't be long till it evolved again.
"Whenever I activate these eyes I can see things in great detail and even predict movements through the slight changes in muscle movements of the body. It also lets me comprehend things very well. Lastly, using them I can copy any move that I've seen with them to near perfection but I guess because they're still weak it takes some time for me to learn it up to such a degree."
Gu Xuan was left speechless at his explanation. 'If these eyes are already this strong when they're weak how strong would they become once hes trained them?!' He thought to himself in shock at the future possibilities of his sharingan raising a strong pride within him of having Yuji as his student.
"Hahahaha brat you're amazing! Now let's not waste time and go find you a technique!" With a wide grin, the old man waved his hand and a large pagoda appeared out of nowhere with 3 floors. "Let's go in!"
Following behind Gu Xuan, Yuji walked into the first floor and his eyes which had returned to normal widen at how much bigger the interior was compared to the outside.
The rows of technique books stretched for dozens, maybe even over a hundred meters with around the same width.
"This is the low-class technique floor but since you have those eyes then you can start from the mid-class techniques on the second floor." Gu Xuan said as he pointed to a staircase off to the end of the room leading up to the next floor.
With a goal in mind, Yuji shrugged off what Gu Xuan said and shook his head as he walked over to the shelves to find the inheritance book and any other technique that might be useful. "Old man, they might be low-class but it will also depend on how you use it so I'll just start here." He said as an excuse.
This statement surprised Gu Xuan because to him, it seemed like Yuji was being very mature about this. Unlike most, he isn't rushing for the top techniques and instead of taking into consideration the utility that some low-class techniques might have.
Then he remembered what Yuji told him when they first met and gave an understanding nod as he thought to himself. 'Pain and grief tend to temper a person and motivate them either positively or negatively more than anything else. I'm glad I found him so early...who knows what would have happened if an evil cultivator found him, especially considering his innate powers.'
Meanwhile, Yuji looked around for a long time but couldn't find THAT book or anything else that seemed useful to him since considering that he would have very useful techniques thanks to his wishes nothing on this floor satisfied him.