"Boy, stop searching, I am inside the ring you're wearing," the ancient voice said.
"Ring?" Chu Yang was startled and quickly looked at the ring in his hand, noticing that the simple ring was now emitting a faint blue glow.
This ring was left by his mother before she passed away, telling him only that it was a family heirloom, without ever mentioning its use.
Therefore, Chu Yang had always kept the ring close, as a token of remembrance for his parents.
Chu Yang looked at the ring in amazement and asked, "Who are you?"
He wasn't panicked; he knew he was just an ordinary person, with nothing of value for others to covet.
"You may call me Ink Elder," the voice from the ring came again, with a hint of admiration, "The True Martial Holy Sect, ah, the sect founded by that True Martial fellow, was indeed quite remarkable."
"Ink Elder," Chu Yang pondered for a moment, then asked, "Elder, why are you hidden inside this ring?"
"That's not something you should know now," Ink Elder said, "Do you want to become a cut above the rest?
Do you want to be with your childhood sweetheart forever?
I can help you!"
"How can you help?" Chu Yang asked with a tense expression.
The old man did not reply but smiled, and a pale blue book flew out from the ring.
The book appeared worn and ancient, its corners slightly curled, its yellowed cover inscribed with a few bold characters.
Step Battle Immortal Jue!
"What is this?" Chu Yang felt an overwhelming fighting spirit bursting forth from those bold characters, as though a vision unfolded before him.
A man stood at the zenith of the heavens, battling heaven and earth, slaying gods and demons, with a sky full of yellow sand and an expanse of white bones behind him.
"'Step Battle Immortal Jue,' the Cultivation Technique practiced by the thirty-seventh Great Emperor of the Era of Emperors, the Step Battle Great Emperor," Ink Elder's voice carried an unyielding momentum, replying earnestly, word by word.
The young man stared at the book before him, his pupils dilated suddenly, his mind went blank, feeling a sense of arrogance that seemed to scorn the Eternal Ancient.
......
Atop Goose Southern Peak, Xu Zimei received the message from a servant that his mother, Wenren Yun, had returned to the True Martial Holy Sect and asked him to go to Azure Mountain Peak.
His mother's family, the Wenren Family, was not located in the Eastern Continent but far away in the Northern Continent.
The Wenren Family was also an especially vast clan, with a status on the Northern Continent that was only slightly inferior to that of the True Martial Holy Sect.
This time, for his sake, his mother went back to her family to ask for the Ten-Vein Fruit, which must not have been easy.
The Ten-Vein Fruit was a Cosmos Tier spiritual fruit, flowering once every thousand years, bearing fruit every thousand years, and then waiting another thousand years to mature.
One has to wait a full three thousand years to taste it, and a single tree bears no more than ten fruits at most.
...
When Xu Zimei returned to Azure Mountain Peak, besides his father Xu Qingshan, there was also a woman present.
The woman was dressed in a vivid red robe that swept the ground, fanning out around her.
Her black hair was pinned up behind her head, adorned with delicate and unique jewelry.
Although his mother was several hundred years old, she seemed untouched by the passage of time.
Her face was more delicate than white snow, only showing extra indulgence upon seeing Xu Zimei arrive.
"Mo Er, come to your mother," Wenren Yun embraced Xu Zimei, kissed him gently on the face, and asked with a smile, "Did you miss me while I was gone these past few days?"
"Mother, I'm already fifteen, can't you stop kissing me all the time?" Xu Zimei responded helplessly.
"What? Are you feeling shy?" Wenren Yun looked at him with amusement in her eyes, "Let me tell you, no matter how old you are, you are still my son."
Confronted with his mother's cure-all response, Xu Zimei could not help but feel speechless.
"This is the Ten-Vein Fruit that Mother has gone to great lengths to obtain for you. It will be of great help to your cultivation," Wenren Yun said as she handed a fruit over to Xu Zimei.
The fruit was the size of a fist, translucent and sparkling, with a strange power swirling inside it.
The Ten-Vein Fruit didn't directly increase strength, but its effects made many people drool with envy, desiring it but unable to obtain it.
...
It is well known that there are twelve Vein Gates hidden within the human body.
Once all twelve Vein Gates are opened, one can transcend the limitations of one's species, achieving a sublime state of body with unimaginable longevity and power.
The so-called cultivation, in fact, is simply the process of continuously opening these Vein Gates, thereby embarking on the path to transcendence.
Opening the Vein Gates is a difficult process, especially in the later stages, where it becomes even more challenging to achieve.
The function of the Ten-Vein Fruit is to help living beings open their Vein Gates more easily.
After consuming the Ten-Vein Fruit, the power contained within will divide into ten parts and then hide around the first ten Vein Gates within a person's body.
When you need to open a Vein Gate, these hidden powers will burst forth instantly, clearing your meridians with overwhelming force and providing you with more strength to open the Vein Gates.
Of course, the power of the Ten-Vein Fruit can only affect the first ten Vein Gates; it cannot reach the last two, which are too profound and elusive.
......
The human body is a creation of complexity.
The twelve Vein Gates are hidden throughout the body, and their names are: "Lun Quan, Xuan Gu, Zhao Yingfeng.
Kun Hai, Illusion Blood, Muhuansong.
Lin Que, Cheng An, Shen Poxu.
Bi Yuan, Enlighten, Xin Duankong."
......
Xu Zimei took the Ten-Vein Fruit and nodded heavily in response.
He remembered his previous life when, after his fall into Secluded Dragon Gorge, his mother, like his father, delved into the Demonic Path seeking revenge for him, an ending that was lamentable.
......
"Father, there's something I need to discuss with you," Xu Zimei fell silent for a moment, then breaking his train of thought, he said.
"What is it?" Xu Qingshan looked up slightly and asked.
"I've heard that in Heavenly Sword City, there's a family called the Chang Family. This family has been established there for five hundred years.
Their roots run deep, but their people are known for their arrogant and overbearing ways, for extorting wealth from the populace, and for their myriad of evil deeds.
The City Lord sent by the Imperial Dynasty has been rendered powerless, and even the branch of our True Martial Holy Sect established there is taken lightly by them."
"You rarely venture beyond the Sect Gate, where did you hear such news?" Xu Qingshan asked in surprise and suspicion: "Has this Chang Family offended you?"
"Offended me?" Xu Zimei shook his head. In this life, he had not yet met anyone from that family, so there was no talk of being offended.
But what about his previous life?
Moreover, setting aside his own grudge against that family, there was something within that family he absolutely had to obtain.
"Our True Martial Holy Sect governs the mountains and rivers of this Extreme West Region, which means all the people within these lands are our subjects.
Now that so many of our subjects are oppressed by this family, I think it's necessary to impose a sanction," Xu Zimei thought for a moment, then said.