By the time Yang Ze came back to his senses, it was already evening.
"What the..." Looking at the broom in his hand, he broke out in a cold sweat. He was so engrossed in these memories that he didn't even notice the passage of time. After confessing his love to Lan'er, he received the Heavenly Dragon Art and with that came a huge amount of memories. Thankfully, he still managed to finish his daily chores. Perhaps his daily working routine had become an instinct. So even in a trance, he managed to complete them successfully.
"What a miraculous technique." This was the only thought in his mind after going through the Heavenly Dragon Art.
Compared to the previous 'Evergreen Art', this thing was on a completely different level. It was like comparing a sun to a firefly. There was just no contest.
"So, this is the Immortal path." Putting down the broom in his hand, he sat down for a rest as he recalled the information that had been forcefully stuffed in his brain.
In this world, Immortal cultivation started by absorbing the spiritual energy. But to absorb that spiritual energy, one needed spiritual roots.
Yang Ze suddenly recalled twelve years ago, before he was taken as a servant, an old man handed him a stone and after a while, just shook his head with disappointment, speaking something about 'No spiritual roots'.
Earlier, Yang Ze never understood the meaning behind those words, but now...
"No wonder... no wonder." It was no wonder that he was appointed as a servant and never came in contact with any cultivation technique. He even doubted whether his previous failure to cultivate Evergreen Art was due to his lack of spiritual roots.
The Heavenly Dragon Art, however, doesn't need any spiritual root to cultivate. It takes one's body as a tempering point and refines it until it is capable of directly withstanding the corrosive characteristics of the spiritual energy.
For someone like Yang Ze, this was the perfect technique that he could have asked for.
"So, the first stage of cultivation is called Qi refining?" Just like the name suggests, one needs to refine spiritual energy inside the body to step into cultivation, and this was also the start of the immortal path.
This was further divided into three minor realms: the Early stage, the mid stage and the late stage, each one increasing one's strength.
The second stage was called Foundation Building, and the third stage of cultivation was called Spirit Sea.
This was all the information he had right now. As for the rest of the memories... they seemed to have been sealed, making it impossible for the current Yang Ze to go through them.
"At least tell me what is so special about every realm?" Other than the names and cultivation technique for every realm, there wasn't anything else. He didn't even know what was different about every realm.
"Forget it." Shaking his head with a smile, he didn't think too much about it. It's not like he was in a life-and-death situation and needed to fight his way out.
He was just a servant of the Shen family and had plenty of time to figure it out slowly.
The only thing he wanted now was to finish his work as quickly as possible and then find Lan'er. He just wanted to see her. He hadn't noticed it before, but every day without her felt like something was missing from his life.
Two hours later, it was finally night, and his work for the day was over.
Rushing back to his house, he first took a quick bath, changed into a new set of clothes and ran towards Lan'er's house as fast as possible.
"Eh!?" Standing in front of her house, he was stunned to see no lights on. Usually, by this time, she would have lit a few lamps and even hung some paper lanterns outside. But today, the entire place was shrouded in darkness.
"Sister Lan'er?" Yang Ze called out, and when no reply came, he looked around, hoping to see her figure jumping from the sides to scare him.
Unfortunately, even after a long wait, the only thing that greeted him was silence.
"Sister Lan'er?" he called again, hoping she was only asleep.
"Is she not here?" This was the only plausible explanation. Even though he found it weird that she wasn't there, he simply thought that it was due to some work.
"I guess I will just come tomorrow." Even though he was dying to know what she thought about his proposal, there was nothing he could do at the moment.
Cursing his luck, he just headed back home and threw himself on the bed.
The next four days were pure torture for Yang Ze. He would wake up every day, visit Lan'er's house in hopes of finding her, but to no avail. He would then get busy with his daily chores and visit Lan'er once again in the evening.
However, no matter how many times he tried to find her, he just couldn't. Such a situation had never happened before, and for a while, Yang Ze couldn't help but suspect whether it was due to his confession. After all, it all happened right after his confession.
"Does it mean she doesn't love me?" The moment this thought came to his mind, he turned pale with fright. Till now, he had only considered his feelings. He had been with her for so long that he didn't consider what he would do if she rejected his proposal.
"No... No... No..." Shaking his head, Yang Ze refused to believe this was the case.
During these past four days, he was so anxious that he didn't even try to cultivate the Heavenly Dragon Art.
In his mind, he would have plenty of time in the future. Besides, the only thing he was interested in right now was Lan'er. With every passing second, he just got more anxious. All kinds of negative emotions that he didn't even know existed overwhelmed him.
Just when he was wondering whether he was going to see Lan'er anytime soon or not, he heard a commotion in the distance.
At first, he ignored it, but after a few minutes, the commotion grew so large that it was impossible to ignore it.
With a frown, he moved towards the place where a group of people were already discussing something. From the tone of their voice, it was clear that they were still filled with disbelief.
Yang Ze quietly stood behind them, eavesdropping on their conversations.
Usually, the lives of servants like him were monotonous. So every little incident was often discussed with great enthusiasm for days.
The last topic was about a ghost that someone saw during the night. That incident spread like wildfire and, for days, terrified a great portion of servants. It wasn't until much later that the truth came out.
The guy was just drunk and mistook a cat for a ghost.
Yang Ze was ashamed to admit that he was one of the few people who refused to leave their houses. This made Lan'er laugh at him for a long time.
"Perhaps it is the same this time, too." Muttering to himself, Yang Ze silently listened to them.
"Have you heard about the incident?" It was a monkey-faced man who was shouting in a shrill voice. His eyes were wide with disbelief, and his breathing was rapid. It was as if he couldn't believe what he just heard.
"What happened?" A few newcomers, such as Yang Ze, who were late to the scene, immediately asked the question.
"The expedition into the Dark Forest was completely decimated." It was a single sentence that sent a shockwave through the crowd.
The Dark Forest was a forbidden place, almost a hundred kilometres away from the city. There were rumours that it was the result of some powerful curse. No one exactly knew just how big it was, and to date, not a single person has been able to explore its secret.
Every year, the four major families would send their members to explore that place, bringing back countless precious herbs and other resources.
This year shouldn't have been any different. But now...
"Brother Li, have you gone crazy?" The servants surrounding him immediately began to reprimand him. What a joke, if someone from the Shen family were to hear this absurd rumour, they would all be severely punished.
"I am not joking." Brother Li was almost jumping up in rage. "I saw it with my own eyes. The scene was extremely bloody. More than a hundred people departed, but less than five actually returned. Even those who managed to come back were heavily injured."
The crowd went silent for a while before someone rushed in the direction brother Li had pointed to. Immediately, another person followed, and soon, everyone was rushing to see with their own eyes.
Yang Ze, too, was tempted. After hesitating for a moment, he too decided to follow the crowd to see whether this monkey-faced guy was exaggerating or not.
In less than ten minutes, the crowd has already reached their destination. They could already see a dense number of people gathered there before they even reached there. The majority of them were servants like them.
In front of them on the empty ground were three broken carriages. The fact that these three carriages hadn't fallen apart from all that damage was already a miracle.
Other than the dried bloodstains and a rotting stench, there was nothing else. Those injured ones were already taken for treatment.
"Hiss." Letting out a sharp breath, Yang Ze looked at the giant claw mark on the side of the carriage before a chill ran down his spine. He didn't dare to imagine what would happen to him if he were to get hit by such a thing.
Just when he was wondering about it, he heard a sharp scream piercing his ears.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
The person shouting was a man in his late twenties who seemed to have heard something extremely heartbreaking.
"What happened to him?" This time, the brother Li was standing beside Yang Ze as he muttered with a frown.
"Who knows?" Yang Ze just shrugged in response. He couldn't care less about a random weirdo.
But who would have thought that the moment he finished speaking, another sharp scream rang in his ears.... followed by another one... and then another one...
Within a few moments, the servants in front of him were already letting out heartbreaking screams as if their mother had died.
"What the..." Brother Li narrowed his already slanted eyes before stepping forward, intending to know more.
Not even a minute passed, and brother Li was already back... Standing in front of Yang Ze sa he looked at the frail boy in front of him who was still full of confusion.
"Let..." With a sigh, he grabbed Yang Ze by his arm and pulled him away from that place. "Let's go somewhere else."
Although Yang Ze was confused, he didn't refuse his invitation. With a nod, he left the place.
It wasn't until they were back in the Servant's quarters did they stopped.
Releasing his grip on Yang Ze's hand, brother Li looked at him with a complex expression.
"What happened?" Sensing his gaze, Yang Ze felt a bit of unease in his heart. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he could feel a looming sadness in brother Li's eyes.
"About that..." Brother Li took a deep breath as he struggled to find words. One could see the hesitation on his face. Even though he brought Yang Ze here, he didn't know how to break this devastating news to him.
"I just want you to prepare yourself." His words were solemn as he continued with his speech.
"Almost five days ago, the members of the Shen family departed for their Yearly Expedition. And just like every year, they were joined by a large group of servants."
The moment he finished speaking, Yang Ze's heartbeat quickened. His mind was still struggling to keep up with his words. He felt a sense of unease but couldn't quite put his hands on it.
"This year, however, things took a turn for the worse."
"Out of three hundred servants and one hundred members of the Shen family, only five managed to return, and none of them were servants."
Speaking till here, he went silent for a long time, letting Yang Ze digest the information.
In response to this, Yang Ze's breathing only quickened as his head buzzed. He didn't want to believe it... he just believed that this thought was too absurd. After all, how... how could there be such a thing in the world?
In response to his reaction, Brother Li finally finished his last sentence.
"Brother Yang Ze..."
"....."
"....."
"Lan'er was amongst the servants."
*BOOOOM
Yang Ze's legs almost gave up. His entire vision turned black as he struggled to stand still. His mind was so overwhelmed with what he had just heard that it stopped functioning for a while, leaving him like a statue that was about to fall.
Upon seeing his state, Brother Li immediately moved forward to support him.
Even though Yang Ze never made friends with anyone and had little to no contact with others, it didn't mean no one knew about him. On the contrary, because of how loved Lan'er was and her constant bickering about Yang Ze, he was a little celebrity amongst the servants.
A lucky bastard who just happened to be Lan'er's childhood friend.
There were even a ton of people who hated him and wanted to teach him a lesson. But none of them did anything out of their love for Lan'er.
If there was one person who was unaware of all this, then it would be Yang Ze.
"........" Brother Li didn't give him words of comfort as he knew just how little his words meant for a person who had lost someone so close to him. Even though the two of them weren't lovers, even a blind person could see Lan'er's love for this little bastard. And now, judging by his reaction... the feelings seemed mutual.
"Alas!" Brother Li just shook his head with a face full of regret. He too courted Lan'er and wanted to marry her. But who would have thought things would turn out like this?
On one hand, he felt a grave sense of loss in his heart, while on the other, he felt fortunate that it wasn't him who joined the expedition.
"Take care." There wasn't much to say or do. He just patted Yang Ze on his shoulder before leaving him alone.
Yang Ze didn't notice anything at all. From the moment he heard Lan'er was dead, his mind had stopped working. He was someone who had been sheltered all his life, never needing to worry about food, safety, or clothing. For him, the saddest moment until now had been getting scammed by a street vendor into buying the 'Evergreen Art.'
How could someone like that possibly process the earth-shattering loss of the person closest to him?
In a daze, Yang Ze kept walking… seconds turned to minutes, and minutes to hours, until he finally stopped after bumping into someone.
As if waking from a dream, Yang Ze looked up and met the gaze of the person before him. It was a woman who seemed to be in her thirties. He didn't even notice her appearance; at that moment, his eyes were fixed only on hers.
Both of them felt out of place in the Shen family, as if such a large clan had no room for people like them.
Though neither spoke at first, Yang Ze could feel the profound sadness on her face, something that mirrored his own.
"Whom did you lose?" he asked instinctively.
"My other half," she replied. "And you?"
"........"
"........"
There was a long silence before she received a reply.
"My reason to live." Yang Ze said, and for the first time, a faint smile appeared on his face. It was as if he had made up his mind about something.
Seeing his expression, the woman's heart trembled. She knew that look well... it was the look of someone who had chosen death.
She just kept on looking in his eyes, where she could see her reflection. It wasn't until a long time had passed did she finally let out a relieved smile.
"Then... let me accompany you."
With a gentle smile, she placed her hand on his shoulder, and the two of them vanished from sight.
Yang Ze didn't know what happened next, but when he opened his eyes, he was standing inside a dimly lit room.
In a daze, he saw the woman in front of him taking off her clothes before she waved her hand and shattered his clothes too...
The last thing Yang Ze remembered was her pushing him into the bed before his mind went blank. The only thing he felt was the warmth of another body and the softness of her skin...