Chapter 12 – Multitasking
“Hmph, we aren’t fighting with them for our sect trained members. If they dare try to take these outsiders, I will definitely fight them for it. Even though our faction has been weak for many years, we won’t let others trample over us.” The gowned man replied.
“Since Senior has already decided, Junior Zhong and I will support you. Our faction has only three Spiritual Masters so we must do everything as one.” After a few seconds, the messy-haired man responded.
Just as the messy-haired man barely finished, his face changed and he started coughing violently. Quickly, he took the red gourd at his waist and drank the crisp green liquid that was inside.
A thick wine scent wafted in the air. What was in the gourd was an unknown powerful wine.
After drinking, the messy-haired man’s face recovered.
“Junior Zhu, are you okay? The chill in your body has been there for many years, and just using Medicinal Wine to suppress it isn’t a long term solution.” Seeing this, the gowned man spoke with a worried face.
“It’s fine. As long as I can drink this ‘Three Sun Wine’ in time, I can control the chill. You don’t need to worry about it.” Junior Zhu replied with a smile, as if he didn’t care about his chill.
“It’s all my fault. I knew that you had just become a Spiritual Master and should have insisted that you rest and familiarize yourself with your new power. Instead, you went to Nightmare Valley. If you hadn’t done so, you probably wouldn’t have gotten that chill.”
“This isn’t Seniors’s fault. I requested to go of my will. After all, Senior was at an important point of his training and couldn’t leave our sect. However, Junior Zhong was in a life or death situation and we couldn’t waste any time.”
“After this Opening Spirit Ceremony, I’ll go ask Martial Uncle for some Pure Sun Pills. Even though these pills can’t cure your chill, they can at least alleviate your pain.”
“It’s fine. Martial Uncle is still trying to make a breakthrough and our previous interruptions have caused displeasure with the other factions. If we go again, they would definitely make trouble.” With a bitter smile, the messy-haired man replied.
“You don’t need to worry about that. If they really do come, I will take care of it.” The gowned man said with a cold hmph.
After hesitating for a second, the messy-haired man stayed silent.
Soon, the two disappeared in a gust of mist.
…..
At this time, the youths had finally arrived at their newly constructed stone houses. Under the arrangements of the man leading, they quickly found their respective homes.
When Liu Ming pushed open his fresh wooden door, a room that was about 4-5 meters in length appeared before his eyes.
There was a green wood table, a chair of the same material, and a gray stone bed. On the bed was a thin layer of a blanket. Other than that there was nothing else in the room.
Seeing this, Liu Ming didn’t show displeasure and instead lightly sighed. With a few steps, he jumped onto his bed.
The simple arrangement within the stone house made him recall his tough life on Savage Island. For an instant, he felt as if he was back on that deadly, ruthless place.
After a long time, Liu Ming finally came back to his senses. Then, he sprang into action by inspecting every possible corner of the room before finally relaxing and recalling past memories on the bed.
Back then, Liu Ming was sent to Savage Island because his father had been taken in by the government. Even though many years had past, he could still recall every single detail of the ordeal.
When it all began, there was only his father and a couple of servants in the house.
He had never been able to remember his mother even in his oldest memories. What he was told was that his mother died of a miscarriage when he was young.
As for his relatives and his parent’s friends, he had never heard his father speak of them.
When he asked others, they told him that his father had moved here when he was still an infant. Even they did not know where the duo, of father and son, had come from.
His father was always very strict. Ever since Liu Ming could understand things, he was forced to learn and memorize ancient texts.
A few days before Liu Ming’s father was taken in, his father suddenly made Liu Ming — who was only a couple years old — memorize a secret place. Only when Liu Ming memorized the place and was told to not tell another living soul did his father finally let the matter go.
And a few days later, his father was taken in while he was sent to Savage Island.
Maybe those officers didn’t think that a small kid would have any useful information.
However, even if Liu Ming never said a word of it to anyone else, he would still smile bitterly whenever he remembered that place.
When he was still small, he didn’t know the meaning behind the place he memorized. Now that he knew exactly what that place was, it was no different than a tiger’s cave or a dragon’s lair.
If he didn’t have enough power then going there would be suicide.
Liu Ming was not stupid, and realized that since his father was so serious about him memorizing that place, there was probably some kind of huge secret centered around it. It also probably had something to do with his father being taken in.
The hands behind the scene used the sentence of “Great Disrespect to the King” to kill his father. This was definitely the act of someone with a lot of power and normal detective skills were bound to alert that someone, bringing that person trouble.
But the death of his father was something that had to be avenged.
When Liu Ming thought about that, a glint of coldness that was uncharacteristic for his age flashed across his eyes.
Before, he had no chance to avenge his father, but now, if he could become a Spiritual Apostle or at least live through the Spiritual Opening Ceremony, he could easily take revenge.
However, when he thought about the fraction that the man from earlier mentioned, it caused Liu Ming’s heart to sink a little.
During his time with Guan Lao Da and Gu Lao San, Liu Ming had asked about the Opening Ceremony.
Unfortunately, the two were only high end servants in the Bai Clan and didn’t know much. All they knew was that this ceremony would stabilize and show the Spiritual Pulses within one and create a Spiritual Sea within the participants that passed.
Once one had a Spiritual Sea, one could slowly transfer Yuan Li into Fa Li and the speed at which one trained Yuan Li would also increase by leaps and bounds.
The Spiritual Sea was something of a mystery to Guan Lao Da and Gu Lao San, so Liu Ming could not gain much information beforehand.
All he could do was practice his Yuan Li Manipulation.
Even though Liu Ming didn’t know if having better Yuan Li Manipulation could help his chances of passing the Opening Spirit Ceremony, it was all he could do right now.
Suddenly, Liu Ming thought of his special talent and a quick smile came to his face.
This talent did not come to Liu Ming when he was born. Instead it came to him after he had been taken to Savage Island. He had a huge fever after seeing the ruthless and bloody scenes on the island, and when he woke up, he strangely had this talent.
This talent allowed Liu Ming to split his conscious in two and allowed him to control both halves of his body to do different things at the same time.
However, this talent was slightly different from the well known “Being able to do two things with one mind”.
His two consciences could be individually trained to be stronger, and he could also have one half actively working while the other half was sleeping.
However, the “Being able to do two things with one mind” would never be able to do that.
Once Liu Ming realized he had this new talent, he carefully asked the friendly inhabitants on Savage Island. He then looked through quite a few scrolls before confirming that he had a strengthened mutation of the “Two things, one mind”.
As for what this mutation truly was and what side effects it would bring, Liu Ming knew nothing of those matters.
Either way, Liu Ming never wasted any time after gaining this new talent, and after years of training his two consciences, his mental strength was about twice the amount of a normal person’s.
If not for his mental strength, he would have died long ago under the pursuit of the Black Tiger Guards.
He also didn’t display this talent in front of Guan Lao Da and Gu Lao San. Being able to utilize alternate halves of his conscious was no longer something as simple as one plus one.
TL: One plus one in Chinese means that it wasn’t something that had an addition property.
On Savage Island, Liu Ming could train a technique for five or six days before taking one nap to recover to peak condition.
Basically, his training time was quite a few times greater than the normal person’s. Which was why, at such a young age, Liu Ming could already smoothly perform so many techniques.
As Liu Ming thought of this, he closed his eyes and started training on the stone bed.
To him, relaxing was a luxury that he could not afford.
In the next half month, Liu Ming would train his Yuan Li Manipulation every second, only pausing when it was time to eat.
The Tiger Bite Ring which was originally quite hard to use was much smoother to control with the half month of training.
At the same time, some of the other youths trained as recklessly as Liu Ming. Some walked around the forest, and some began to start forming relationships with the other youths.
As for Fang Xiong and the outer Sect Members, they ignored the youths as long as they didn’t walk out of the forest.
Like this, the day of the Opening Spirit Ceremony finally came.