Chapter 164 – Bai Clan
Liu Ming was naturally alarmed, and before he had time to react, this mental strength violently rushed into Liu Ming’s sea of conscious, causing his mental strength to swell at a frightening speed.
“This is…”
Almost instantly, Liu Ming recalled his past absorption of Fa Li and contemplated the extraction of Fa Li.
This scene seemed familiar, but it wasn’t a feedback of Fa Li this time and rather an infusion of mental strength.
A quick spin of Liu Ming’s mind gave him the answer to why such a thing happened. He suddenly recalled the Consciousness Room and the scene of Six Yin Master’s mental strength being forcibly crushed and devoured by the ash-gray room. In a flash, Liu Ming understood everything.
However, these thoughts were merely a flash of passed matters. Because of the violent surge of mental strength, he was unable to analyze deeply and was forced to cast techniques with all his might. As he chanted the words to his newly learned Demonic Heart Method, he tried strenuously to protect what little consciousness he had left in his mind. Without his efforts, this towering, enormous mental strength would have broken through and collapsed him.
Yet the more he maintained his consciousness, the more he sensed his mental strength furiously expanding in multitudes. In a small period of time, his mental strength shockingly doubled and tripled in size.
Even seeing such an enormous amplification of his mental strength, he still used his Demonic Heart Method to protect his state of mind. Liu Ming’s body trembled ever so slightly as he let his head endure the pressure of the force. With his face pale and ghastly, veins popped out from the sides of his forehead with faint signs of black blood trickling down his face.
In a moment of desperation, Liu Ming used his talent of doing two things at once. With two consciouses, he concurrently expedited his Demonic Heart Method to barely shield the impact of the enormous current of mental strength.
A moment later, Liu Ming let out a huge shout, causing the entire cave to buzz and shake. Then, he fell to his back and unexpectedly fainted.
After an unknown amount of time, Liu Ming finally slowly regained his consciousness, tasting something faintly acidic in his mouth.
The moment that he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that all he saw took on an insipid curtain of blood red.
Alarmed as he was, it immediately became clear to him what had happened. Weaving signs with one hand, a huge ball of clear water suddenly appeared above Liu Ming. Pointing his finger down, a waterfall of water gushed down in an instant.
Raising his head, the water rinsed out all the blood within Liu Ming’s eyes. Using one hand to weave signs again, hot steam rolled from Liu Ming’s body, drying his clothes. As he let out a long sigh, he used his fingers to massage the two sides of his faintly aching temple.
The scene before him was still quite frightening!
If it weren’t for his efforts to strenuously sustain his mental strength before he passed out, which caused flow of mental strength to finally stopping, Liu Ming’s head possibly could have forcibly exploded under the pressure.
Liu Ming felt that the size of his sea of consciousness had probably tripled or quadrupled in size from the mental strength. The enormous amount of mental strength seemed to flood every inch of his consciousness; each small movement he made caused his whole head to ache dully.
It looked like in order to control this current of mental strength with ease, a short period of time was not sufficient to learn to do so.
The amount of frightening mental strength he possessed was perhaps not too inferior to that of a Spirit Master.
Liu Ming thought of this and suddenly remembered something. He immediately had his mind sink down toward the inside of his body as he scanned his Spirit Sea.
Sure enough, the mysterious air bubble had vanished once again.
Bringing his mind back, Liu Ming stroked his chin with the palm of his hand, letting a thoughtful expression escape his features.
His original guess was probably correct and the strong Mental Strength feedback was probably from the Consciousness Room of the Six Yin Master.
Yet this type of feedback occurred only after many days which was much different to the purification of Fa Li.
He made a mental note to be very careful if he were to run into such a situation again.
This time he was lucky that the force did not make his head explode. If he were to run into this situation again, perhaps he would not be so fortunate.
Anyhow, if this method were made use of and done well, it would increase Liu Ming’s mental strength by unimaginable magnitudes. He couldn’t help but feel his heart beating faster as he thought of this attraction to such a method.
However, when Liu Ming recalled the previous situation where mental strength flooded the entirety of his head, he felt a chill seep through his heart and quickly let that thought go.
Additionally, he didn’t even know if he would come across another so-called Consciousness Room. Even if he really had the chance, if he did not have a fail-safe plan, he was afraid to say that it would result in nothing more than suicide.
In the time that followed, Liu Ming examined parts of his body in search of wounds. Seeing no signs of other wounds, he relaxed a bit and started chanting words and making one-handed signs.
……
The Fenyun State was one of the seventy-two states in the Da Xuan Country with Lushui city being one of the three biggest cities within Fenyun. In the Da Xuan Country, Lushui was said to be a meeting area for well-known practitioners.
Built along a river, the city possessed large patches of land suitable for growing rice crops just outside its walls. It also controlled a nearby region where considerably valuable metals could be mined from ore veins. All of this let the city of Lushui flourish and prosper. It was unknown how many powers of different sizes inhabited this city.
Yet one of the oldest practitioner clans in Lushui, the Bai Clan, became increasingly active in the recent month. Not only did the famous eldest daughter of the Bai House return, the clan also opened its doors to recruit practitioners. It also started to expand at a frightening speed, tearing down quite a number of opposing forces.
In the eyes of the perspicacious, the last time the Bai Clan had expanded in power was years ago when a descendent of the Bai Clan, Bai Congtian became a disciple of the Barbarian Ghost Sect. This allowed the Bai Clan to jump from being a third-rate clan to suddenly become one of the most respected practitioner clans within the city of Lushui. Yet this time Bai Clan tried expanding without any signs of having the power to do so while some of the biggest practitioner clans within the city of Lushui did not try to restrain such actions. It was as if the Bai Clan did not violate their radii of power, the other clans would turn a blind eye to its advances.
Not after long, there was news of Bai Clan’s young master: Bai Congtian. He was to marry the widely-known daughter of the Mu Clan many months later. Rumors that the Bai Clan’s young master was ranked in the top ten rankings of the Barbarian Ghost Sect gradually imbued themselves in the world of practitioners and practitioner clans.
As a result, other practitioners and small clans suddenly realized the meaning of the Bai Clan’s moves. In a flurry, they rushed to attach themselves or become guests of the Bai Clan. In one single night, the Bai Clan had enough power to keep the other practitioner clans under its control since it now occupied almost half of the city of Lushui.
At this time, the Bai House could be said to be the culmination of Lushui.
Yet at this day, before the now enormous Bai Clan, a youth in a green robe suddenly appeared. He tilted his head back to read the horizontal board that was suspended from the top of the main gate. After faintly sweeping his eyes to the burly looking guard in front, he walked without hesitation in the direction of the main gate.
“This is the Bai Clan. Who are you to dare enter?”
Before the door were four guards. Naturally it was impossible to let this stranger enter in this fashion. At once, all four guards abruptly blocked the gate, refusing to let this stranger through. The one in charge was obviously the tall fat man of dark complexity. Glaring down at the youth with his beady little eyes, he let go a low growl.
If it had not been for his ability to read people, he would have already called out the others to pile the rude youth. Yet in a quick glance, he was certain that this youth before him was no ordinary being.
This youth was naturally Liu Ming who had just hastily arrived. Seeing this scene before him, he did not speak but tossed a light-yellow piece of jade into the man’s hand. Without showing any emotion, he spoke, “Give this to the master of the clan. Just tell him that I’m here.”
In those days, this piece of jade was the exact pendant that Bai Congtian had. At that time, he took it with him while keeping under cover in the Barbarian Ghost Sect. Now, the pendant was again put to use.
“‘I’m here?’ What does that mean? Are you playing with me!” With his reflexes the chubby, dark-skinned man caught the jade pendant. Yet after hearing Liu Ming’s unmannerly request, his face turned bright red.
Knowing of the huge increase of power for the Bai Clan during the past two months, it was common knowledge that these guards naturally were not people one wanted to provoke. To think that the boy who had just come out of nowhere was so ill-mannered filled the man’s heart with anger.
Hearing his disgusted response, Liu Ming stared icily at the fat, dark man and suddenly took a step back.
“What do you think you’re doing? Do you really think if you step back that I won’t… Okay. Sir, please wait a moment. I will pass along your jade pendant to the House.” Just as the fat, dark man was viciously responding, his eyes wandered to the ground where Liu Ming once stood. His face suddenly became a few complexities paler.
Feeling quite bewildered by their leader’s change in tone, the other three guards turned their gazes to the ground. In the same manner, they jumped in astonishment.
The once smooth limestone on the ground now had two deep footprints engraved in it. The footprints looked about one-inch deep and were as pristine cuts as one could get — almost like a stonemason had cut them with utmost care.
Being guards of the Bai Clan, it was natural that they aome into contact with some practitioners over the years. Seeing that the youth before them was no ordinary being, all of them now became respectful toward the boy.
Observing the fat dark man taking the jade penchant in hand and running inside, Liu Ming waited quietly before the main gate.
It didn’t take long. In fact, it was the time it took to make a cup of tea!
Suddenly drums started playing within the Bai Clan which were followed by beautiful music. From the main house marched two columns of servants with an elderly man of snow-white hair walking from the back. Scanning forward, he immediately spotted Liu Ming, who was standing straight as a ramrod. With a smile hanging from his face, he hastily hurried over and bowed to show his respects.
“Young Master Congtian, you are finally back. Old Master and Young Miss were talking about you recently, saying that there was a possibility for your return to the Bai Clan. I, myself, did not expect to meet young master today. If Old Master and Young Miss knew, who knows how overjoyed they will be?”
“Who are you? You know me?” Liu Ming’s eyes flashed as he slowly asked.
“Young master must be joking. I was your old slave Bai Pan! I watched young master as you grew up.” The old man remained smiling as he replied.