Ye Xuan stood there, stone faced having not even the slightest shred of emotion on his face. An eerie silence resided in the room.
Ye Xuan, a feeble and weak mortal who everyone in the room could kill without batting an eye gave chills to every single person in the room.
Ye Xuan was stoic, his eyes resembling a calm undisturbed lake, one without even a single ripple in it. But Ye Xuan's silent yet uncanny rage could be felt by every single person here.
He himself felt like he was suffocating in his inner turmoil 'What did that old foggy mean by his mother couldn't die from childbirth? My whole life I've been living with the guilt that i was the one who killed her'
'Why would i be lied to by my father?' Thoughts rummaged through his brain.
Even the elder that had lashed out earlier was stupefied at this point and shaken to his core. 'How can a mere child nurture a killing intent such as this? Worse than that there's not even a glimpse of anger on his face much less any sign of rage'.
Ye Xuan's pendant once again started moving and made the sounds of delicate bells chiming. This caught the attention of all the elders present in the room especially the Ye Xuan's great grandfather.
"The soul nourishing jade?" the female elder that looked to be in her 20s spoke up.
The soul nourishing jade was trying to calm down Ye Xuan but to no avail. The pendant exuded a cool air but that too was of no avail as it could not contain Ye Xuan's complicated feelings anger, frustration, sadness and confusion.
The elders in the room all understood what the side effects of having a soul nourishing jade could be, although the main function of it is to strengthen the soul, it is also used to keep emotions in check which is why it was used by grand masters in alchemy who were attempting a pill hard to refine even for them.
Ye Xuan's personality had to have been altered to a calm demeanor due to it, not able to describe or feel much emotions. And all those emotions of different kinds that were bottled up for who knows how many years were erupting out.
The elder who had lashed out earlier snorted with a look of disdain "How could a cultivator who prolongs her life and increases her vitality succumb to something as childbirth, even a qi gathering cultivator wouldn't fall to such a thing much less someone in the later stages of golden core"
Ye Xuan's anger slowly but surely subsided with the help of the soul nourishing jade and he returned his calm and cautious demeanor. 'Then.... How did she die? Did she die? If not, then where is she?' these thoughts would circle around his head for quite a while.
"This junior presents his utmost gratitude to senior for answering his questions" he said while cupping his fists with a slight bow clearly trying not to anger the elder any further.
"Li Xiu, take him to our residence and let him reside in one of the guest rooms for now." Ye Xuan's great grandfather said to his aunt and looked at Ye Xuan with an awkward smile. "I'm Li Shan, your great grandfather. Go make yourself at home" he sent Ye xuan away to make sure he doesn't attract the anger of any of the elders here anymore.
Ye Xuan looked at Li Shan and bowed in respect and thought 'Doesn't look like he smiles often." and Ye xuan was right in thinking so.
Li Shan was not used to smiling after losing his granddaughter and Ye Xuan's mom, Li Qiushui.
Ye Xuan walked out the doors with Li Xiu while thinking about the things he caused 'Well that was all over the place and frankly... Very awkward'. He looked over to his aunt who had gone back to her usual self after walking out the elder quarters.
Li Xiu looked at Ye Xuan to find him already staring at her "I thought I told you to be careful around the elders, what was that?"
"What were you thinking of when you decided to question Elder Shan ?" She said with a sigh.
"I guess things could have gone better" said Ye Xuan staring at her aunt curiously.
"Yeah, you think? " Li Xiu rolled her eyes.
"Yes" replied Ye Xuan unbothered, still staring at Li Xiu.
'Does this guy not get sarcasm?' Ye Qiu had a horrified look on her face. "Can't be, right?"
"Huh? Can't be what?" asked Ye Xuan.
"Nothing" replied Li Xiu somewhat annoyed. She then diverted the topic "Now, about what i asked earlier, are you certain that you could feel qi? "
"Yes, I closed my eyes and felt small dots of multicoloured lights, some shone brightly while some were dim" Ye Xuan decided to explain as proof that he actually felt it.
"Oddly enough I found that each of them had different properties, the green luminous lights felt like a gentle breeze while the dark brown lights were dim but felt reinvigorating"
"As if it was filled with energy that can increase your vitality" Ye Xuan spoke still looking at Li Xiu.
"I went to absorb a purplish white light that was cackling but i was thrown out of that trance"
Li Xiu looked at Ye Xuan with a bit of amazement 'It is unheard of to feel the energy at your first attempt, but not only did he do that, he got into that ethereal state in mere minutes'
Li Xiu finally spoke up "What you tried absorbing was the qi of lightning, but it's weird that you could feel it's properties despite not having a lightning spiritual root"
"Is that bad?" questioned Ye Xuan.
"No, it's just not normal.. Anyways leave it. After we get home, we'll try to get you to enter that state once more, got it pipsqueak?" said Li Xiu mischievously.
Ye Xuan looked at her to see that she was barely taller than him and he's just 14. A look of ridicule surfaced on his face for a while before he decided to continue following Li Xiu. Something that he didn't actually hide this time.
"For some reason I don't like the look on your face" Li Xiu said after noticing the somewhat smug face of Ye Xuan.
"...ouch" Ye Xuan gave a bland cry of pain. He was now rubbing his forehead that was flicked by fingers which surprisingly actually hurt quite a bit.
Li Xiu stood there with a goofy smile on her smile, dramatically bringing her hands in front of her mouth. "Yoh-ho-ho" She mockingly and very dramatically laughed.
"How did you like that, my dear nephew?" She said now with a grin plastered on her face.
Ye Xuan kept looking at her expression, finding it quite amusing. It was rare to find an interesting character like her aunt.
His gaze went to her aunt's fingers for a bit which looked like the most delicate thing in the world. "That has no right hurting so much, it should be at least some form of a crime."
"The true crime should be your bland expressions. You're like no fun, at all" Li Xiu retorted clicking her tongue.
"We HAVE to get you using qi as soon as possible so you could at least subside those side effects of the soul nourishing jade" Li Xiu exclaimed.
There was no way that her, the great Li Xiu's nephew can be this bland and boring. She would not let it be this way.
"Speaking of which, the soul nourishing jade, it sure is a mouthful to say. I wonder why people refuse to shorten names. Oh wait, it's all because of those old inflexible old bastards" She started going on a rant.
"Remy"
"Hm?" Li Xiu stopped her rant and looked towards Ye Xuan.
"I call it remy" said Ye Xuan with all the innocence in the world.
Li Xiu stared for a second or two in confusion then realizing that Ye Xuan had named his pendant....
"What are you? 12?" She said almost bursting out in laughter.
"No." He paused. "I'm 14." He responded with a blank face. He thoroughly enjoyed the horror on Li Xiu's face but that's a secret for him to keep.
Ye Xuan was shown his room and was told to get some rest today. "I'll be back after I settle some things, sit tight and don't cause trouble"
Ye Xuan bid her farewell at the door, looking at her once more mature expression. 'An interesting character indeed.' With that thought passing by his mind, he decided to look at the room he was given to stay.
It was a very well furnished room. Very basic yet pleasent to the eye. He went to his bed which was honestly a bit too big for one person. He found that it was quite soft when he sat on it, something he wasn't going to complain about.
His room had a single window which probably opened to a beautiful view of a setting sun. "Wonder how it would look at night.." With that thought he sat cross legged on his bed.
He closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. 'Empty your thoughts. Don't see, feel.'
Unbeknownst to him, Ye Xuan was extremely perceptive when it came to feeling the spiritual qi in the air.
A minute passed and Ye Xuan was almost on the cusp of entering the same etheral state again.
The soul nourishing jade started making a chiming noise calming Ye Xuan's mind even more.
'I can "see" it again" He was once again in the world of those dancing mysterious light dots.
'Last time I couldn't absorb the lightning spiritual qi... probably because my spiritual root isn't compatible with it. Let's go with wood or wind spiritual qi this time'
With that thought in mind he tried to pull a green speck of light towards him. At first he was succeeding but just after a moment it started moving in random directions.
It wasn't as if it was resisting being absorbed, it was just being hard to lock on to. Almost like a playful child frolicking around, running from his parents but asking their parents to catch them.
Ye Xuan kept failing to catch the wind qi, he tried to catch the same oje and even tried different specks but alas, it was of no use. Only thing he was optimistic about was that at least he wasn't out of his trance yet.
'This isn't working, I have to try something else' Ye Xuan changed the targets to the brown-ish specks of light.
To his surprise the wood qi wasn't anywhere as playful as the wind qi. It was just firm.
It was harder to pull it towards you than the wind qi but it was much less trickier. The overall difficulty to pull it towards you was much less than the wind qi.
'It's almost there. Just a little more' Ye Xuan as the speck of light was barely an inch away from him. With one last pull, the wood qi was absorbed by Ye Xuan.
As soon as it entered his body, he could feel his body rise in vitality, he felt... healthier. His frail constitution had changed even if slightly.
'This is amazing' Ye Xuan was brimming with joy before the soul nourishing jade chimed again and left him with a blank expression again.
Ordinary mortals wouldn't feel any difference after absorbing even less than a wisp of qi, but Ye Xuan because that's how frail his constitution was. And combined with the wood spiritual qi's quality of increasing vitality and healthier constitution, the change was noticable even if barely.
Ye Xuan didn't stop there, since he had done it once he would continue doing it until he got the hang of it.
He continued pulling in more specks of qi towards his body.
One... Two... Three ..Four... Eight.. Thirteen...