Episode Five

Nian blinked several times, he couldn't understand at first, he was met by utter blackness - and silence too. He stepped forward and his footstep echoed like someone moving in shallow water and immediately he felt coldness in his feet, he was taken aback by the fact that it echoed off to nothingness; for several seconds the sound of his footstep still echoed, the sound melted with his heart beat.

“sigh” a voice said from the vast nothingness “ you are very handsome; I'm jealous, I must say”.

Nian spun, perhaps the voice came from behind him he spun again to be sure. Suddenly very where became bright, he raised his hand to his face to block the brightness from piercing into his eyes, despite this involuntary action; he was still on guard, it was one thing Nian could never succumb to; to be caught off guard. He looked around; trying to comprehend the picture and moving images of this place, to get his bearing, it seemed like he was in a garden with a big sculpture; one that looked like a tower in the middle, its art was quite fine too, everywhere was filled with water; one that reached his ankles.

“ not bad, very vigilant too” the voice came again.

Nian spun to his left this time, his first prediction had been correct, it was from this side; the voice. He took a good look at this short and back bent old man, he looked very simple or perhaps - unkempt, with only a wine jar and a long twisted walking stick that looked weak and worn out due to usage from ages past, he looked simple indeed but Nian had a sinking feeling that he was a great master in martial cultivation.

“ what do we have here?” the old man said as he rubbed his long white bread, his old weary voice made Nian tremble “lets have a better look”.

The old man took a long drink from his jar.

As the man came closer; Nian had a better picture of the old man, he saw dark spots cover from his bald head to feet, his shrunken skin, both eyes half closed, long mustaches tangled with huge monk taoist beads on his neck. Nian could not help but feel like this old man was seeing through him, he felt like he was filtered through, he felt unsafe, unprotected, insecure, he felt this man was summing him up, like this man knew his past, present and future by just staring at him. He heard something well up from under the man's throat, perhaps a growl or - he wanted to laugh, the latter was correct; he knew immediately after the old master threw his head aback.

“ Hahaha” the old master laughed hard “ how could the Han Family have such a powerless brat, and by the way why did you delay your cultivation”

Nian was overwhelmed, how did this man know so much, how come he knew this much, it was so unimaginable.

“ senior's strength is quite strong, to already know this much about me” Nian said so awe-stricken.

Two expressions flashed through the old master's face; Nian could figure them out, the former was distress and the latter was amusement, Nian could guess why.

“you are very mysterious kid, you are very powerless yet I can't see through you very much, I could only see your distinct heavenly Dragon blood which only those from the heavenly Dragon clan can have, I took a lucky guess that you came from the Han family because only the Han Family of all families in the clan would want to come here, that surprise look on your face when I mentioned the Han Family plus the fact that I couldn't see through you; only the Han Family has such concealment techniques; these were the things that have you away and gave me the confidence that I had not spoken nonsense”.

The man gulped down another long drink again.

Nian felt relieved but he made mental note not to give himself away so cheaply in the future, the noted his mistakes and their corrections too.

“Martial uncle's calculation was quite accurate, but I would dare to ask a favor from martial uncle to keep my background a secret” Nian said, his fist and palm held out in salutation as he took a bow too.

“ ahem, let's get to business already” the old master said and turned.

He headed towards the middle of the garden, where the big sculpture was, Nian still marvelled at this man, he seemed to have lived very long in this life yet he was still bursting with qi energy and his aura was well balanced and we'll maintained too.

They got to their destination, the tower like sculpture, the man delayed them by having another long hard drink, at the sculpture's base was a palm print, after several minutes of chanting the old master finally told Nian to place his palms on the palm prints. Nian placed his palms and was amazed at how much his own palms fitted into the palm prints, then he heard a slow rumble, getting louder and louder by the second, Nian open his eyes and was shocked to see water rising inside the tower like sculpture.

“ place your hands well boy!” the old master said, his voice a bit stern, he looked very serious this time as he narrowed his eyes towards the sculpture, he also stopped drinking for a moment.

Nian pressed his palms into them more firmly this time and was shocked himself at the result, the waters rumbled wildly, bursting and pushing its way all to the top of the tower like a sky rocket with so much force that it left the old master no choice than to open his mouth wide agape , it infact bursted through, the lid flying off, water pouring all over and still going all the way up with an extreme force that left the both of them mesmerized, the water still gushed up several feet about thirty and still promised to continue it way to the sky but Nian quickly removed his hands, he looked over to the old master, for the first time since Nian had met him; his eyes opened as wide as they could, his mouth was not spared either. He immediately narrowed his eyes again; this time towards Nian as if he were some long lost son

“ I know of you!, you are Han family fifth elder's fourth son, that monster who is said to cause great change to the whole thousand chaos continent, the most terrifying talent in the whole Han family, yes its you, the one all the whole of Han Family still looks for while the whole world thinks you are dead” the old master said, the shock still in his voice.

Nian didn't know this man would react upon knowing the truth but at this point It was already useless the man knew about it and there was nothing he could do about it, but something Nian never expected happened, it left him confused, the old man threw his head back and laughed a long hard laugh.

“ hohoho,” the man said and resumed drinking “to think this old man would see such a terrific talent in his life time, now I can die in peace, yes dying after a thousand years of living is not a bad age afterall.” the man said and laughed hard again.

Nian was thrown aback this time, this man standing before him was a thousand years old, it definitely was unbelievable, now he wondered for the millionth time again if anything was really impossible in this world.

“ wait, then how come your cultivation rank is so low?”

“it seems like I really can't hide anything from martial uncle, my low cultivation base had to do with where I was hiding all this years” Nian answered, his head bowed low.

“ohh, that makes more sense, by the way what god- forsaken place were you to have so little qi energy” the old man said, rubbing his long white bread, looking down and clearly thinking.

Nian was amazed at how good this man was at figuring things out and how extremely fast he was too, it seemed like he had seen so much during his one thousand year life time which made him understand the ways of the world too well.

“ my master said that time when I was only a baby, he had used his whole life qi to tear through space and time, this lead him to such a place, this was where I was for the past sixteen years and just managed to come back now that everything has subsided” Nian answered, there was little to hide from him anyways.

“ your master, you mean one of those twins, they were craziness when it came to martial cultivation, so it meant the what the Han Family said that one of them died and the other disappeared with the baby during the battle was correct and the people who thought the Han Family was only trying to frame up stories to hide you from the world was were wrong, the Han Family is really a trustworthy one, the thousand chaos world is a very vast world with different types of places, there should be such a place indeed...” the old master said, rubbing his bread and thinking out loud.

Nian smiled to himself, at least he keep one secret, at least he managed to fool this one thousand year old man in the slightest.

“coming to soaring cloud pavilion is the best choice, you would be able to get just enough resources to make you stronger and bring you a step closer to your family, at least Han Zheng should be able to notice you, but you have to work very hard and increase your strength before he discovers you, hope your aptitude is a bit high?” the old master asked and drank from his wine jar

“ I have only started martial cultivation three months ago” Nian answered

The old master immediately spat the wine he poured into his mouth, it left Nian wondering.

“ three months and you've broken through four minor realms!?” the man said very amazed.

Nian nodded.

“your aptitude isn't bad at all, now I'm beginning to feel optimistic” the old master said with a smile as the took another long drink from his wine.

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