Part 2:

Pale green mist wafted out from 12th’s face and moments later it formed a small Fu Orb; it was only the size of a thumb that emanated clear, crisp light floating at the tip of his nose. 12th’s eyes were closed as if he were meditating.

Li Ran was so startled that he exclaimed, “Son of a b.i.t.c.h…… That’s not possible!”

12th suddenly opened his eyes and that little ball of Fu dissipated into a stream of green light and went back into him. Confused, he asked, “Brother Li, what’s wrong? What’s not possible?”

12th didn’t understand what was happening, but everyone present were all powerful people, and they all knew what this meant. This meant that 12th already had his Innate Fu, even though he was only nine years old, which is why it was so unbelievable.

Li Ran asked, “12th, how old are you? Are you really only nine years old?”

Luo Jie smiled bitterly saying, “Sometimes…… I also doubted that, but I know that he is indeed only nine years old, in that there is no doubt, haha, where we come from he has a nickname…… the Demon Child!”

(T/N: GoodWife translated the nickname as the Strange Child, but the chinese characters mean “demonic and evil”, say in the comments which one you prefer.)

12th said defensively, “Master, those people are stupid! It’s just that I am more knowledgeable and a little bit clever with a higher intelligence…… Oh yeah, Brother Li, what you were saying earlier, what’s not possible?”

Li Ran asked, “How did you find that Innate Fu of yours?”

12th said, “Oh it was simple really, Brother Li. Why do I need to spend ten years to find it? Is finding it earlier bad?” He started feeling a little nervous at that thought.

Li Ran was utterly speechless. After a long while he said, “Your Master was right…… You are a little Demon Child!”

A thought suddenly appeared in 12th’s mind, he gleefully asked, “Master! Master! Does this mean I’ve advanced to a FuZhou Master?”

Luo Jie swallowed his breath and said, “You…… wouldn’t be a fully fledged FuZhou Master. I don’t know if this even counts as advancing because your situation is unprecedented, as such your Master cannot give you a definite answer. To be honest with you, 12th, whether you advance or not isn’t really important, what is important though…… is whether or not you’ve become more powerful. So, have you?”

To 12th, this reply felt like a bucket of iced water being poured on his head. At that moment his mind cleared and he answered, “Hmm, I think I’m still not strong enough, there’s too much still lacking.”

Li Ran’s expression was strange, every time he was about to speak, he immediately closed his mouth again. After a long while he finally said, “Luo Jie, my brother, you are very lucky. Although…… you shouldn’t influence the development of this little apprentice of yours. It’s much better to let him grow by himself in his own way, haha, all you have to make sure is that he’s following the right path.”

Luo Jie thought about it for a moment and agreed, “Indeed, this little guy is growing too fast, I’m at a bit of a loss. Alright then, I’ll listen to you.”

Li Ran stood and said, “Alright, it was very nice to meet all of you, but it’s time that I left this place. You guys can stay in this hut but remember to close the door when you leave.” Without waiting for a reply, a Fu Door appeared in front of him and with a wave, he left.

Li Ran left so quickly that everyone just stared as he disappeared inside the Fu Door. Only when the Fu Door vanished did everybody snap out of it.

Luo Jie asked, “What does everyone think?”

Qi Nan Shan answered, “Elder, I don’t think he was speaking nonsense…… The things he showed us are all priceless treasures where we come from, and especially that Fu Door…… That was my first time seeing such a wondrous Fu, and to think, it can allow pa.s.sage to the Mysterious Lands at will! That’s right, Elder, can you copy its creation?”

Luo Jie put the Fu Door Spirit Fu into his Innate Fu Book, he didn’t need to take it out to study it, in fact, he could study it in more detail like this than if he had held it in his hand. After a moment, he shook his head saying, “I have no idea how it was created, it’s different to what we’re used to, the technique used to make this are beyond our scope.”

Qi Nan Shan said, “I felt an aura of power around him, if I was to fight him, I don’t think that I could win at all.”

12th said, “Grandpa Nan Shan, are you saying he is also a Fu Warrior? There weren’t any Fu Patterns on his body though.”

Qi Nan Shan shook his head and said, “Yeah…… Although, if a Great Fu Master were to advance, the Fu Patterns on his body can be hidden inside the body, I’m not sure if he is truly superior to me, but it is clear that he has a different system of governing FuZhou, and that system is no doubt superior to ours.”

Luo Jie also nodded saying, “Yes, I could tell from our conversation, he is indeed stronger than us. I think, where he came from, whatever system they use, he is also a Master of that system. Only, we don’t know what system that is, he wouldn’t tell us.”

12th suddenly spoke up, saying, “Master, Brother Li said he was 600 years old, do you think it’s possible?”

Luo Jie thought about it for a long time silently, finally saying, “At the start I had doubts, but…… it doesn’t seem like he was speaking nonsense, it’s a shame, he imparted a lot of wisdom to us but we didn’t tell him very much. Both he and I had our misgivings, but thankfully he wasn’t spiteful of that. Had he engaged us in anger, I don’t think I could take him in a fight.”

He laughed bitterly and continued, “This is purely speculation but had we fought I think he would’ve been able to predict my every move…… He would be a very commendable enemy.”

Qi Nan Shan nodded, “I also had that feeling, it makes people afraid to pick a fight with him. Almost as if, as soon as the fight starts, he would definitely be victorious. It’s hard to imagine what it’s like where he came from.”

Luo Jie shook his head saying, “We wouldn’t be able to go. Maybe 12th would have the opportunity, but we can’t.”

“Since the owner of this house already left, we might as well go too.” 12th said.

Luo Jie stood up and said, “12th is right, we should leave and meet up with the others at the oasis. Haha, we sure got a lot of stuff today, Li Ran might be mysterious but he doesn’t have malintentions. We were lucky to have met such a powerful man.”

Qi Nan Shan agreed, “Haha, my whole life, this is first time I’ve met such a mysterious person as powerful as that.”

12th asked whilst walking to the door, “Grandpa Nan Shan, you’ve been to a lot of Mysterious Lands, how were they compared to this one?”

Qi Nan Shan shook his head saying, “The Mysterious Lands are all different, there’s no way to compare them. Had we not met Li Ran, there would still be a lot of things that we don’t understand.”

Luo Jie had been to more Mysterious Lands than Qi Nan Shan and he agreed saying, “Yeah, it’s also the first time that I’ve met such a mysterious and powerful man, and to think, I thought that I had already reached the most powerful level possible…… Looking at it now, I still have a long way to go…… It seems I didn’t know as much as I thought.”

After everyone exited the thatch hut, Luo Jie made sure the door was closed himself.

Returning to the oasis, everyone had already set up the tents and fallen asleep. 12th also returned to his tent, which was a.s.sembled by Huo Bao and his other companions. After entering the tent, the first thing he did was exhale his Innate Fu Orb to take a closer look at it.

True Life Fu, True Spirit Fu, Innate Fu, three different names for the same thing, and that was what made up the Innate Fu Core. To any Zhou Master, Fu Master and FuZhou Master, this Fu was the single most important Fu. The more powerful the Innate Fu, the easier it was to create a powerful Innate Fu Book.

12th understood this, it was just like the foundations of a house, so if the foundation was built for a bungalow, then only a bungalow could be built on it and at the very most a two storey house. However if seven or eight storeys were built on top of it then the problem of an unstable foundation would arise, meaning the building would eventually collapse. However, if at the very start the foundations were modelled for such a tall building, it wouldn’t matter how many floors are built on top, there wouldn’t be any problem. This True Spirit Fu was just like 12th laying down a st.u.r.dy foundation.

This True Spirit Fu was only the size of a thumb, bright green and pulsating, there were innumerous amounts of Fu fading in and out of visibility, almost like fish, one moment at the surface and the next deep below the water. What was more interesting was that this True Spirit Fu was very compatible with his own spirit, it was almost like a part of his spirit. After staring at it for a while, 12th contently inhaled it back.

He then proceeded to take out his Fu Door’s Spirit Fu. It was a Spirit Fu triangular in shape with lots of ancient inscriptions of Fu. 12th recognised a few, but he honestly hasn’t seen the majority of them, which were also green in colour. He placed the Fu on his forehead, and using the simplest method, he inspected this Fu.

Once his spirit had made contact with the Spirit Fu, he felt a surge of power suddenly absorbing the Fu Door’s Spirit Fu and shortly afterwards, within his spirit, he noticed a small bead next to the True Spirit Fu. 12th was stunned, the connotations of this were huge, it meant that he had already started building up his Innate Fu Orb. Because he’d already seen the form of an Innate Fu Orb, he knew that this bead circling the Innate Fu Core was an important component of the Innate Fu Orb.

At the same time, when the Fu Door’s Spirit Fu was absorbed, he suddenly just understood the Fu Door. He knew how to operate it like it was second nature; it’s as if he could even use it telepathically. He hurriedly took out the two Treasure Fu that he owned, and likewise tried to absorb them into his spirit, however there was no effect. He was quite confused, could it be that Treasure Fu couldn’t be absorbed into his Innate Fu?

After a long while he finally understood. It was because the Innate Fu was so powerful that these low leveled Treasure Fu practically have no way of entering the Innate Fu. Even though this was the case, he was very content.

After performing a simple nine part routine three times, 12th sat down on the soft beast skin and started his daily chanting. The memories from his first life had long since faded and the only thing he could remember was this scripture. This was also the only thing that in all his three lives he had never stopped or doubted doing.

This time round, whilst chanting, 12th noticed an obvious change. As soon as he started chanting he noticed the Innate Fu in his spirit start to to spin rapidly. Each time when he finished reciting the scripture, his spirit calmed down again. The Innate Fu had completely been a.s.similated into his spirit so he felt better than he had ever felt before.

This part of the scripture was the part that made him very happy, since it even worked on his Innate Fu, and the Innate Fu also had a strengthening effect on his spirit. Even if it were not obvious now, with time, the effects would start becoming more and more noticeable.

Meeting with Li Ran gave 12th a new road to follow, he didn’t know where this road would lead, but it was obvious that following this road, he could only improve.

The next morning, 12th came to the oasis to wash, he saw his Master and Qi Nan Shan discussing something. Curious, he walked over and asked, “Master where are we going today?”

Qi Nan Shan smiled and said, “You Master is deeply worried right now.”

So 12th curiously asked, “Master, what are you worried about?”