"You took away my chef!"

The puppy and the cat then started rolling around. Jurrath kept pawing him on the head, while Dex kept licking his ear. I ignored their antics. I had nothing to do with the two Aspects fight. After a while Jurrath sat on top of Dex, claiming his dominance.

This young lord was glad to no longer be a chef, but the cat had done a great service for this young lord. I began fixing a nice meal of savage beast meat for my fat cat to reward him for his meritorious subjugation of the halflings. After this meal, he would go on a diet though. This young lord can"t have a fat cat.

"Come get your meal kitty," I said to Jurrath.

"Purr, you"re still going to be my chef?" said Jurrath as he looked like a fat little doe-eyed kitten.

"This is your reward for your great work here handling these halflings. If I didn"t reward you, I would be an ungrateful young lord. However, you"ve gotten much too fat in my time away, from now on you are going on a strict diet!" I said.

The fat cat gobbled down the savage beast meat I had prepared for him, then wobbled off. Apparently, he had other plans than to sit around and be on a diet.

"Sybil, go watch Jurrath and make sure he stays on a diet while I"m in seclusion," I said.

"Yes, young lord," said Sybil as she fluttered off chasing the wobbling cat.

"Now Dex, this should be a good place for me to absorb s.h.i.+ Da"s soul, right?" I said.

"Yes, master, this is a suitable place to attempt the soul absorption. However, before doing that you need to learn the Dream Dao. The Dream Dao is a great Dao, all soul masters should learn. You will need it if you are to absorb souls," said Dex.

"What does the Dream Dao have to do with absorbing souls?" I said.

"Bark, when you absorb a soul you will have to experience someone"s entire life. To understand their Dao, you must experience their hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Everything that defines their Dao and why they cultivate. You will enter their soul world and must find your way out of it. The technical term is soul merging, not soul absorbing. You merge the refined souls with your own soul to increase your power," said Dex.

"If you don"t know the Dream Dao, you could become lost in their soul world losing your sense of self. If you are not strong enough mentally when you got out you might even lose your own personality. Instead of growing stronger, you could become a reincarnated version of that person instead of yourself."

"This sounds very dangerous," I said as I shook my head.

I liked who I was, I would never want to become someone else. This technique could increase my talent and Daos swiftly, but every time I performed it I would be at risk of losing who I was. I would need to study the Dream Dao before attempting to merge with s.h.i.+ Da"s soul.

"Bark, the best way to practice the Dream Dao is through experience. I will enlighten you on the Dream Dao, then help you merge with s.h.i.+ Da"s soul. Because this is such an important part of your training I will act as your guardian on your first merger to ensure you don"t lose yourself while learning the Dream Dao, master. Just sit there and relax," said Dex as he put his paw on my head.

I felt insights flood my head on the Dream Dao as I merged with s.h.i.+ Da"s soul and was reborn into an entirely unknown world.

~~~

I was born in the Moon Dusk World to the s.h.i.+ family. The s.h.i.+ family was a large martial family within the Moon Dusk World. My mother was Zhu Yan, she was the fourth concubine of the Third Master of the s.h.i.+ family. Our Third branch had very low standing. My mother and I had an even lower standing within our branch.

Because my mother was the fourth concubine of Third Master s.h.i.+ Cheng, we had a very rough life growing up. My father was an alcoholic. He tread the martial path, but he had suffered injuries when breaking through to the Core Formation realm. Ever since then he had been stuck at Foundation Establishment and spent his days drinking his life away.

In the Moon Dusk world, cultivation was everything. Strong cultivators were the leaders of clans and sects. They treated mortals as less than dirt in the Moon Dusk World. Those who couldn"t cultivate would be quickly expelled from their clans to fend for themselves in the world.

When I was a child, I would wake up every week as my father would come home drunk and beat my mother. My mother was a mortal, so besides her pretty face, she had nothing to stand on. Being married to a cultivator should have been an easy life for her.

But my father took out all his frustration on not being able to improve his cultivation anymore out on his fourth concubine. His other wives and concubines had martial families behind them, so he would be seeking death if he abused them.

My mother and I suffered in silence. I promised myself when I became strong enough I would kill that heartless b.a.s.t.a.r.d. My mother was the most loving woman I had ever met. She would take gentle care of me every day throughout my youth.

One day the beatings became too intense and that heartless b.a.s.t.a.r.d s.h.i.+ Cheng murdered my mother, Zhu Yan. It was a tragedy. The clan did nothing after her death. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d s.h.i.+ Cheng wasn"t even punished for my mother"s murder!

The entire clan said she had suffered from a strange illness and died. I was the only one to come to her grave for her funeral. A river of tears filled my face as I sat in front of my mother"s grave.

I promised myself when I was powerful enough I would murder the entire s.h.i.+ clan for letting such a fate befall my poor mother. From that moment on, I picked up the sword.

With one sword, I would kill all that lay in my path. With one sword I would avenge the death of my mother. With one sword I would destroy the s.h.i.+ clan, whose name I bore.

"Who are you?" I heard a voice echo in the wind as I sat by my mother"s grave.

"I am s.h.i.+ Da! The One Sword of the Moon Dusk World!" I said as I picked up my old rusty sword.

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