Then again, Luan Yuan didn't know what destroy meant in this specific context when talking about cultivation realms. Was it to completely erase all buildings and structures from the vilage, reducing them to rubble and dust? Was it to kill everyone living in the village, wiping out all 500 inhabitants? Or was it to badly damage one critical part of the village so severely and devastatingly that the rest of the village just couldn't survive here anymore, forcing them to abandon their homes? He didn't know the exact definition or care enough to figure it out precisely.
'I should break through to Martial Apprentice before I head off on my journey. I don't want to deal with the nonsense of a powerful expert setting his eyes on me for some reason.' Luan Yuan thought to himself, looking at the small pond in the backyard that reflected his image on its still surface.
He had gotten more handsome over the past week of intense cultivation, his features refining themselves, and with looks as good as his currently were, who knew if some old grandma would set her eyes on him and try to eat him up.
So, he needed to have the strength to be able to properly defend himself from such potentially dangerous situations. So, he sat down in his meditation position and began to start his breakthrough to level 1 Martial Warrior, a breakthrough that took up far more energy than he ever expected it would require, and the time… well, it was surprisingly long compared to the massive energy consumption he was experiencing.
He had created the Warp Sovereign Cultivation art specifically to not increase the energy cost exponentially with each level, meaning the cost of energy for each breakthrough would be significantly less than the energy requirement of a person with cultivation equal to his combat strength would need for a breakthrough at their equivalent level.
But he had gone ahead and added those extra levels beyond the standard cultivation path, pushing from 21 to 33 levels, and it pretty much spat on all of that careful optimization and planning he'd done, and now the energy cost for a single breakthrough was actually greater than the massive energy cost someone at Level 9 Martial Master would need to reach level 10 of that entire realm.
He sighed heavily at this unfortunate realization, but he wouldn't go back and make changes to his cultivation path now, after all this work. After all, his ultimate goal was to reach outerversal power that transcended all dimensions, and with how long it was taking him to have a breakthrough despite all his advantages and cheats, he was sure that his future growth would be relatively slow compared to his initial expectations, giving him more than enough time to gather resources along the way on his journey.
So, days passed by quietly in the village… By the way, he didn't need food to eat anymore, as he was continuously improving his body through constant cultivation; the rate at which he got hungry was steadily dropping with each refinement of his physical form.
So, he was able to sit perfectly still in deep meditation for weeks on end without moving a muscle until he was suddenly snapped out of his deep cultivation by the loud, jarring sound of someone violently shattering the wooden door to his home.
Frowning with clear annoyance at the interruption, he looked towards the entrance where he saw, through the window glass, a middle-aged man making his way towards the backyard with angry, aggressive steps.
"Brat, where is your uncle? He is late on his rent payment." The man said angrily, his voice harsh, making Yuan Long annoyed at the interruption… well, not him personally, but his Primordial Dragon bloodline reacting negatively to the disrespect shown.
How could it stand for such blatant disrespect directed at its host? But Yuan Long easily controlled his bloodline with his strong willpower, shutting it up completely.
"My Uncle has left," Yuan Long said calmly, his tone neutral and completely unbothered by the situation. This here was one of the elders of the village, and it looks like he was responsible for collecting taxes or something similar from the residents who lived here.
His uncle had rented this house from this man for their stay, with rent due once a month on a fixed schedule, and with no one here to pay it this time around, he, of course, came knocking on their door to collect.
"So, he abandoned you? He couldn't be bothered to take his trash with him?" he asked with a sneer, his expression full of contempt and mockery directed at Yuan Long.
"If you knew my uncle wasn't here, why are you wasting my time yapping?" Yuan Long asked calmly, his voice remaining level and controlled, making the man pause for a second in surprise at the response.
Yuan Long knew that people in the village respected his uncle greatly for his past actions. Something about years ago, a neighboring village wanted to swallow this village and absorb its resources, and nearly killed Lue Lu's father in the violent conflict, but his uncle stepped in to save him at the critical moment, leading to Lue Yu's father pushing his daughter to be friends with Yuan Long afterward out of gratitude for saving his life.
With that in mind, why would this guy dare to force himself into this place if he didn't know if his uncle was here or not? Clearly, he knew his uncle was away.
"You trash, look like your uncle didn't discipline you." The man said angrily, his face flushing red with rage, only to suddenly fall to his knees as a powerful pressure fell down upon his body like a crushing mountain.
Horror was written all over his face, his eyes wide with absolute terror, his body and soul shook from the sheer fear he felt coursing through him, he felt like a mighty dragon was looking down upon him from above with overwhelming presence.
Yuan Long walked up to the trembling man and went on to touch his head lightly with his hand, which allowed his mind to enter the man's mind and do a soul search through his memories.
Not like those brutal soul searches that had a high risk of damaging a person's mind permanently and leaving them as vegetables. After all, Yuan Long had cultivated his mind, soul, spirit, and so on to incredible levels of control, controlling it precisely to not harm others in the process, even without a specific technique designed for it, was easy work for him with his level of mastery.
"I'm shocked, of course, he sent you here to test things out." Yuan Long said without a hint of shock, kicking the man forcefully in the chest, sending him rocketing through the building and crashing through the walls violently.
That single touch gave Yuan Long everything he needed to know about the entire situation and the man's true intentions. After all, with his overwhelming strength and refined soul capabilities, a simple touch was all that was needed for him to go through the man's entire life memory in an instant, seeing everything the man had experienced.
Anyway, Lue Yu's father sent him here as a test to see if his uncle had truly abandoned him or not, probing the situation. Of course, killing Yuan Long or doing anything over the top was strictly forbidden by Lue Yu's father's instructions; after all, what if his uncle returned and sought bloody revenge?
He wasn't shocked by this behavior since it was common for people in a cultivation novel to forget their benefactors once they got what they wanted from them.
In this case, Lue Yu's father forgot the crucial fact that he would be dead and this city would be no more without his uncle's life-saving intervention, and was simply scheming to get more benefits from the situation for himself, as if his daughter's entering the prestigious sect wasn't already huge enough on its own.
Greed like that would destroy a man eventually, and Yuan Long honestly couldn't care enough about it to bother with the man.
Seeing that he was just wasting precious time here dealing with this nonsense, he went on to gather his clothing and everything else he needed for the long road ahead, before setting off on his journey without delay, ignoring the large crowd that had gathered around his house to see what had happened with all the commotion.
They all made way for him respectfully, parting like the sea before him, for they had all seen with their own eyes that it was he who had defeated a level 3 Martial Apprentice cultivator with but a single casual kick like it were absolutely nothing, like swatting a fly.
Amongst the gathered crowd was Lue Yu's father, who was too stunned to react properly to what he was witnessing unfold before him. By the time he thought of doing anything to stop Yuan Long or make amends for his mistake, it was far too late, as Yuan Long had already left the village behind completely, disappearing from Lue Village entirely, leaving him deeply regretful for his greedy actions.
What he thought was true about the situation turned out to be accurate, for the so-called talent who had destroyed the martial spirit awakening crystal had been brought back to the village, as it had been discovered he was completely talentless and couldn't cultivate.
This only meant that Yuan Long was the actual person who did it with his overwhelming talent, and he had just driven such a tremendous talent out of his village through his scheming and greed.
He moved quickly, rushing out of the village gates to track Yuan Long down and bring him back before it was too late, but no matter how far he went into the wilderness searching, and how fast he moved with his cultivation boosting his speed, he could never find Yuan Long anywhere in any direction, forcing him to return home empty-handed in deep regret and bitter self-blame…
Meanwhile, Yuan Long, with a mask covering his face, was currently walking through a city miles and miles away from Lue Village. To get a proper guess at how far the distance was between them, picture the distance from New York to Pittsburgh in America—hundreds of miles.
Cities needed to be spread out this far due to the Qi in the area and how it worked with cultivation; cities too close to each other could steal another city's Qi through constant absorption, thinning the overall amount of Qi in the entire area dangerously and making cultivation difficult.
For this very reason, villages were also positioned far from major cities, so they could not worry about the massive amount of Qi being sucked into a city's formations and the cultivation activities of thousands of residents.
This particular city was built near a towering cliff, giving those who called this city their home a beautiful, breathtaking view of the vast world out there beyond the edge. This prime location, of course, meant that living here was pretty expensive compared to other cities in the region, but he had simply secretly entered the city, bypassing the guards and ignoring the entrance fee completely.
This city was called Red Lotus City. It was famous throughout the entire region for the lotus flowers that the land grew once every 5 years in a spectacular natural display.
Every 5 years like clockwork, the land surrounding the city would be completely covered by such beautiful Lotus flowers, which were a beautiful scarlet color that caught every eye; be it the quality of the flower itself or the quality of the element Qi they naturally contained, they were loved and sought after by experts all over the world who gathered here every 5 years for the blooming event.
Just walking down the street casually and observing his surroundings, Yuan Long could see many such preserved lotuses decorating doors of homes and shops as decorations, although their once-vibrant colors had faded and died throughout the year since the last blooming.
Although the lotuses found here had a long lifespan compared to normal flowers due to their Qi content, they would still die out in a few weeks if not properly taken care of.y.