Immortal of the Nine Realms

Fang Chen made his way to Fang Zhentian’s courtyard and saw the latter pacing around with a frown. He clasped his fist and asked with a smile, “Grandfather, did you stumble upon a problem in your cultivation?”

“Li Daoye mentioned that cultivation requires a huge amount of resources, especially an item called ki stone, but there’s nothing of that sort in our Great Xia, as well as Guhe, Longdu, and the other nearby countries. Do you have a solution to that problem?” Fang Zhentian asked.

With his temperament, since he had embarked on the path of immortal cultivation, he would put his mind to obtaining the strongest means possible so that he could oppose the Blood Spirit Cult and ensure peace in Great Xia.

But if the Blood Spirit Cultists had ki stones to aid their training whereas the Fang Clan didn’t, their Fang Clansmen, including him, would inevitably lag behind them.

Furthermore, the Fang Clan would become known as a cultivator clan if more cultivators emerged from their lineage.

Li Daoye had told him that the world of cultivation obeyed the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest. Should the world of cultivation notice their existence, it could bring trouble upon them.

Knowing that it was not a rosy path ahead of them, Fang Zhentian had to begin planning the Fang Clan’s future as an immortal clan, lest they be unprepared for what was about to come.

“I nearly forgot about that.” Fang Chen smacked his forehead. He had 400 low-grade ki stones in his storage ring. He took out a hundred of them and passed them to Fang Zhentian, saying, “Grandfather, these are low-grade ki stones. Feel free to use these for now. Let me know if they aren’t enough.”

This matter had slipped his mind as he didn’t use ki stones in his cultivation—his spirit ki replenished so fast that there was no need for it. However, the same couldn’t be said about Fang Zhentian. The latter would progress much faster with the aid of these ki stones.

“A hundred ki stones?!” Fang Zhentian was first shocked, only to be enraged next. “Li Daoye lied to me. He said that normal sects gave their disciples one low-grade ki stone every month, which made me wonder just how valuable ki stones are.”

“Grandfather, you have misunderstood him.” Fang Chen chuckled. He went on to explain how he obtained his ki stones.

“Ah!” Fang Zhentian laughed heartily. He patted Fang Chen’s shoulders and exclaimed, “As expected of my good grandson. You have already resolved our problems even though it hasn’t been long since you embarked on the path of immortal cultivation yourself. The hundreds of ki stones you have obtained should be enough to last us for years.”

Li Daoye was not lying when he said that the Eight Trigrams Sect gave their disciples a low-grade ki stone each month. Even he wasn’t an exception to the rule. Those who wanted more would have to find ways to earn it themselves.

The world of cultivation was always scarce on resources. Those who weren’t strong enough could only watch in envy as others feasted on meat. This was why cultivators were sometimes even more calculative than mortals over a single low-grade ki stone.

“Grandfather, take this jade token and assimilate it with your spirit ki.” Fang Chen passed the jade token he usually carried with him to Fang Zhentian. He had already erased his soul imprint from it.

“Is this an artifact?” Fang Zhentian asked as he took the jade token and fiddled with it. He sensed concentrated spirit ki from it, and he could see a few glowing daosoul imprints on it too.

Had he not manifested his first immortal vein, he wouldn’t have known what was special about this jade token even if he smashed it into pieces.

“Indeed, it’s a protection artifact,” Fang Chen replied with a nod. He then took out Zhou Yizeng’s sword and said, “I obtained this sword from one of the Blood Spirit Cultists. It’s an eight daosoul imprint artifact, so it should be fairly powerful. Grandfather, you should assimilate it too.”

“Good, good!” Fang Zhentian nodded with a smile. He was extremely fond of the sword.

Just then, Xu Ge suddenly rushed over and shouted, “Young master, I have an urgent report!”

“Go and do what you must. I’ll continue cultivating,” Fang Zhentian said with a smile.

Fang Chen took his leave from the courtyard. Xu Ge whispered into Fang Chen’s ears with an excited expression.

“The Third Prince has escaped from Greenpine?” The edges of Fang Chen’s lips crept up. “Come, let’s go welcome him.”

…

Celestial Xiao had been keeping a low profile in the Fang Manor all this while, such that only a small handful of people knew about her true identity. She felt conflicted each time she thought about what happened in the imperial court that day.

“What are you thinking about, Celestial Xiao?” Fang Chen asked with an enigmatic smile as he made his way over.

“…Young master Fang,” Celestial Xiao greeted with a strained smile.

It had sunk into her that Great Xia was no longer a weakling that their Greenpine could take advantage of. The Fang Manor’s Li Daoye was not only from grade-6 Infernoblaze Country, but he was also a cultivator on top of that.

Just Li Daoye himself was more than enough to intimidate Greenpine.

“The Third Prince has just left Greenpine. You have been in our Fang Manor for many days now, so it should be about time for you to return home,” Fang Chen said.

“I’m not going back…” Celestial Xiao blurted out.

“You’re Wolf Marshall Xiao’s daughter. He might really think that I have killed you if you don’t appear soon,” Fang Chen replied.

“I can write a letter to my father,” Celestial Xiao said. “I’ll explain things to him, so that…”

“So that you can remain in the Fang Manor and bide your time for an opportunity to steal our cultivation method?” Fang Chen chuckled.

Celestial Xiao turned bright red at having her thoughts revealed, but this was a rare opportunity for her and her clan. She couldn’t let it slip past her fingers.

“First and foremost, there aren’t many people who have the talent to become a cultivator. Second, you’re from Greenpine. You could be talented as a cultivator, but I won’t let you come into contact with anything from that world.”

Fang Chen’s face slowly became stern. “You won’t get anything from our Fang Manor, and you know that deep down. Rather than to waste your time here, I suggest you return to Greenpine and have a good talk with your father. I don’t want to have anything to do with your Greenpine in the next few years because I have better things to do.”

“But…”

“No buts. Leave.” Fang Chen told Xu Ge to take Celestial Xiao away without giving her a chance to retort.

There had been many eyes in the capital recently, and Ji Lengyue was still around. Fang Chen didn’t want anyone to know he was leaving the capital, so he donned a disguise before leaving. With the help of the Great Xia Shadow Guards, their group discreetly left the capital at night.

Several days later, a dashing, white-robed man with a sword in hand could be seen galloping across the Tiger Gate Pass.

There was a huge cloud of dust behind him, raised by the hundreds of Wolf Army elites pursuing him. Any Great Xia veteran would have been shocked to see the commander of the Wolf Army.

The commander of the Wolf Army was in his forties. He had thick eyebrows and a masculine facial structure. From time to time, a sharp glint could be seen in his eyes. He was the man who defeated Fang Chen in the Three Realms Mountain, Greenpine Country’s Wolf Marshall Xiao!

“Hahaha! Marshall Xiao, why are you so bent on chasing me? I’ll stay and leave as I please. You can’t stop me from doing what I want!” The white-robed man laughed while escaping for his life.

Wolf Marshall Xiao’s subordinates growled in anger.

Wolf Marshall Xiao himself harrumphed coldly. “Third Prince, I concede that I’m surprised that you possess the means of a Ki Manifestation martial artist, but the steed you’re riding on hasn’t rested for a day now. It’s already nearing its limit. You can’t escape.”

As if fulfilling the prophecy, the white-robed man’s war steed suddenly collapsed to the ground with a sorrowful neigh, throwing him across the air. However, the white-robed man was able to easily regain his balance and gracefully land on the ground unharmed.

“Pui! You and your ominous mouth! Did you beat Big Fang with that ominous mouth of yours?!” The white-robed man knew that he couldn’t outrun his pursuers on foot, so he stopped escaping and instead spat at Wolf Marshall Xiao.

In an instant, Wolf Marshall Xiao and his men had the white-robed man surrounded. He glared at the white-robed man and sneered, “Fang Chen kept my daughter in Great Xia, so I’ll make sure you remain in our Greenpine too.”