Chapter Fifty-Four: The Sudden Appearance of a Colossal Creature

Over the eight years since that night, Kexindi accompanied his grandfather through countless teleportation arrays, enduring one transfer after another until they finally reached the Welsh Empire. Throughout this journey, Kexindi’s grandfather fought numerous battles and was relentlessly pursued. Though he survived, he was left utterly exhausted and gravely wounded.

Two years ago, the injuries his grandfather had been carrying erupted violently, claiming his life and leaving eleven-year-old Kexindi behind. Fortunately, during their flight, the old man, knowing his time was short, had taught Kexindi many survival skills.

With these teachings, Kexindi managed to survive. Upon his narrow shoulders, he also bore a mission—one he might never accomplish in his lifetime: to find the young master who had been sent away by the teleportation scroll, now known as Wang Luo.

To ensure their enemies would never trace Wang Luo, they had used a non-locating scroll. No one, not even Kexindi’s grandfather, knew where Wang Luo had been sent. Yet, loyal to the end, he never gave up hope, seeking news of Wang Luo everywhere.

Even in his final moments, Kexindi’s grandfather did not forget Wang Luo, entrusting this task to his young grandson. He had never taught Kexindi the cultivation of Metal Dou Qi, and before dying, he strictly forbade him from learning it until he found Wang Luo, for the enemies of the Jin-Gold family were still hunting for any surviving kin. Anyone found with Metal Dou Qi would certainly meet a grim fate.

After hearing Kexindi and his grandfather’s story, Wang Luo realized that Kexindi’s grandfather likely never expected his grandson to actually find him. Rather, he had wanted to give Kexindi the courage and perseverance to live, instead of dying in pursuit of vengeance.

Through his grandfather’s name, Wang Luo checked the family records stored in his spatial ring. It turned out Kexindi’s grandfather had been saved by Wang Luo’s own grandfather and settled among the Jin-Gold family. With considerable talent and diligence, he married a woman who was Wang Luo’s grandfather’s half-sister upon reaching the seventh rank.

Their union produced Kexindi’s father, who then married Wang Luo’s father’s half-sister, and thus Kexindi was born. As a result, Kexindi carried the direct bloodline of the Jin-Gold family.

Because Kexindi was also a direct descendant, Wang Luo could sense his presence. Within a certain distance, the direct kin of the Jin-Gold family could feel each other’s existence. It was through this connection that Wang Luo found Kexindi, and likewise, Kexindi, sensing Wang Luo’s bloodline, had not hesitated to seize a dagger and charge at those youths.

As for the Jin-Gold family, Wang Luo felt little attachment. Whenever he thought of them, only the image of that gentle, beautiful woman echoed in his mind. Whether to seek vengeance for the Jin-Gold family remained a question he had yet to answer.

When Wang Luo revealed his identity to Kexindi, he had given it careful thought. On one hand, he was uncertain about what stance to take toward the Jin-Gold family in the future and decided to take Kexindi in as a seed for the future. On the other, Kexindi’s own qualities had moved him to cherish such talent.

Taking Amanda in, however, was truly an unexpected decision. Her actions had left a deep impression on Wang Luo. If he were ever to avenge the Jin-Gold family, he would certainly need talented individuals. Whether he would ever find the family’s true enemies was another matter—after all, Kexindi’s grandfather had spent eight years searching in vain for the culprit behind the family’s destruction.

After imprinting a Blood Soul Mark into Kexindi, Wang Luo led the two of them to a nearby inn. While they bathed, he went out into the surrounding shops to purchase new clothes for them.

The Blood Soul Mark was a mysterious imprint. Beyond controlling its bearer, those who received it could sense its presence in each other. This was why Wang Luo placed one in Kexindi, to prevent him and Amanda from being separated.

On the perilous and predatory continent of Tianxuan, two people who could trust each other would always survive longer than those who wandered alone. Both being but eleven or twelve years old, their chances of survival would greatly increase if they helped one another.

Wang Luo had been cultivating Blood Energy for around eight years, forging one Blood Soul Mark each year. He possessed eight in total and had already used three. Three more had been given to his three beasts. By chance, Wang Luo discovered that, perhaps due to their contract with him, the three beasts could also use the Blood Soul Mark to a limited extent—not as freely as Wang Luo himself, but still able to exert some measure of control over those marked.

Over the next ten days, Wang Luo taught Amanda and Kexindi various survival and cultivation skills, left them with some pills he had refined himself, as well as some gold coins, and instructed them to help each other survive. He told them that, should they ever grow strong, they could seek him out at Tianxuan Academy. With these words, Wang Luo departed from Barbatu City and embarked upon a new journey.

As he set out once more, Wang Luo had no inkling that these two seeds he had left behind on a whim would, through their own fortunes, gradually take root and grow. In time, they would become towering trees, whose very footsteps would cause the Tianxuan Continent to tremble.

Not far from Barbatu City, Wang Luo veered off the main road and took a secluded path seldom trodden by man. The three beasts, long stifled in his pack, burst out impatiently. Once again, a runic beast-hide appeared on Wang Luo’s body, and thus, man and beasts advanced together.

Suddenly, a vast black cloud swept across the sky, blotting out the sun. Fierce winds howled, thunder rumbled, and a torrential rain fell without warning. Drenched to the skin, Wang Luo pressed the beast-hide to his body and struggled forward through the storm.

The three beasts raced wildly through the tempest, occasionally tilting their heads to the sky and unleashing defiant roars. The heavens, provoked, responded with flickering lightning, rolling thunder, ever fiercer winds, and lashing rain. The majesty of nature was on full display.

Though their roars were drowned by the storm, not one of the beasts ceased its defiance. Cultivation was, after all, an act against heaven itself: to draw upon the power of nature, refine it, break through the shackles of one’s body again and again, in pursuit of greater strength and longer life.

Suddenly, a thunderous roar, mingled with rolling thunder, pierced the storm and reached the ears of man and beast alike. In the sky, a point of violet light rapidly expanded before their eyes. In the blink of an eye, a colossal entity materialized in the heavens.

This monstrous being, over thirty meters long, was wreathed in writhing serpents of lightning that danced across deep violet scales. Each gentle beat of its enormous wings, dozens of meters in length, sent the torrential rain veering from its path.

End of Chapter 54: A Colossal Being Appears.