Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

After a few hours Liu Zhu's unconscious body was retrieved by Zhu Chao, who was none the wiser to what had elapsed inside the cave. Liu Zhu wasn't visibly injured, but stayed in bed with a terrible fever for nearly a week. After a week passed the fever suddenly subsided, and Liu Zhu regained consciousness.

Once he was conscious, Liu Zhu examined his body more closely. His meridians, which had been forcefully torn open before, were perfectly fine. The wound on his c.h.e.s.t was also completely gone, the skin there having recovered long ago. He let out a sigh of relief upon seeing this. "I was worried about whatever that was killing me, but in the end it looks like I'm perfectly fine. Now I just need to watch out for any hidden traumas."

Relieved that nothing terrible had happened, Liu Zhu began to notice the upsides of the incident. The first thing he noticed was that his body was filled with an overflowing vitality. The feeling was hard to explain, but Liu Zhu was filled with energy and wouldn't be surprised if he ended up living longer than the Five Family's Soul Foundation patriarchs even without cultivating any further. A few moments later Liu Zhu noticed something else, and jumped out of bed, a smile on his face. "Flesh Tempering! I broke through to Flesh Tempering!"

Liu Zhu was overcome with joy for a moment, but calmed himself down relatively quickly. "Was it possible that nearly dying wasn't a tragedy, but a great chance?" Liu Zhu fell silent, and while thinking about things one of the family's servants entered the room. "Young Master Liu has awoken!" This yell caught Liu Zhu's attention, and he realized that he wasn't aware of how he returned home. "How long was I out?" The servant stopped for a moment after being addressed and hesitantly answered. "Six... no, it should be seven days." Liu Zhu muttered to himself after hearing that. "Seven days... I guess I'm not celebrating my birthday this year."

Zhu Chao entered the room shortly after the yell, Liu Xuan and Liu Xingyu following shortly after. Once the three were finished expressing their relief over Liu Zhu waking up, Zhu Chao asked what happened. Liu Zhu knew that the situation was unusual, and worrying about his brother's ability to keep a secret he left out most of what happened. He simply stated that the cave floor had collapsed beneath him and that he fell into a cavern, knocking himself unconscious. As for the fever that followed, he had no idea.

After hearing the story Zhu Chao seemed to be thinking about something, while Liu Xuan approached Liu Zhu, patting him on the shoulder. "That's unfortunate, but at least you're alright now. If you'd woken up earlier we would've had cake, but I'm afraid that it's all eaten by now." Liu Zhu stayed silent as Liu Xuan continued. "Well, we can always buy another one. Anyways, want to go out tonight?" "Drinking?" Liu Xuan laughed in response, as if confused by the question. "Of course drinking, what else would we do. There's also a nice woman at the place on 8th Avenue, if you're interested..."

Liu Zhu turned his brother down on his offer, reminding him that he wasn't as interested in women and wine as him. Liu Xuan turned to leave the room, leaving behind one final quip. "It's fine if you don't share interests with me, but remember not to have too much of a stick up your a.s.s. It could get in the way if you can't let loose once in a while." Before Liu Zhu had a chance to reply his brother left the room, forcing him to swallow down his annoyance.

When Liu Xuan left Liu Zhu spoke to his mother, Liu Xingyu. Their conversation was extremely brief, and Liu Xingyu excused herself after a few sentences. That left Liu Zhu and Zhu Chao alone. Zhu Chao took a seat and began speaking. "Missus Xingyu didn't get much sleep while you were out of it, so I suppose it's natural for her to rest now. She's a mortal after all." Zhu Chao paused for a moment before continuing. "Anyways, we have more important things to focus on. Congratulations Young Master Liu, you've broken through from Strength Rendering to the second stage of Body Tempering, Flesh Tempering. Well, I supposed you've noticed that by now given the good mood you seem to be in." There's a short pause before Zhu Chao awkwardly clears his throat and continues. "Anyways, now that formalities are out of the way, I'd appreciate it if you could drip your blood on this piece of paper."

Confused, Liu Zhu took the small slip of paper from Zhu Chao, glancing at it. "Grand Elder Zhu, Isn't that a bit of an odd segue, congratulating me and then asking me to cut myself? What's the purpose of this?" Zhu Chao shrugged, passing a dagger over to Liu Zhu. "You'll find out in a moment, just do it first. If nothing happens then we can just chalk everything up to you taking a fall and breaking through while panicking. Just consider this an old man's hunch."

Liu Zhu hesitantly took the dagger and cut himself, letting a few drops of blood drip onto the slip of paper he was given. In response, he was met with several surprises. The first was that the tiny cut on his finger was healing rapidly, disappearing at a rate that was visible to the eye. The second was that the piece of paper Zhu Chao had given him was suddenly increasing in area, becoming thinner as the sides lengthened. It continued doing this until it became too thin to stay together, crumbling into pieces.

Zhu Chao stared at the paper, not noticing what was going on with Liu Zhu's wound. "Well, it looks like my hunch was right. Congratulations, it seems that you awoke to some sort of innate constitution while in the cave." "...Innate constitution?" Liu Zhu parroted back, confused. "Yes, an innate constitution. That paper is a rare item used for testing which of the five elements one is most compatible with. While that's its main purpose, it can also find unique constitutions and identify their element based on the reaction. I have no idea about the specifics of yours, but it appears to be related to wood. To be honest I didn't expect this, but I once knew a man who broke through after awakening an innate constitution, and the circ.u.mstances seemed similar enough for me to check."

Liu Zhu trusted Zhu Chao, but he knew that he didn't have any sort of special constitution. Whatever happened was related to that root and the energy it sent coursing through his body. Liu Zhu stayed silent for a moment before telling Zhu Chao what actually happened in detail.

Zhu Chao seemed even more confused than Liu Zhu had been, and the two sat there for several minutes before Zhu Chao spoke once again. "I have no idea what about what was in that cave, but it's possible that you do have some sort of innate constitution or have acquired a bloodline, just not by birth- whatever that root was implanted it within you. Well, I suppose the specifics don't matter, just that you broke through and seem to have some sort of affinity with wood."

Zhu Chao and Liu Zhu finished their conversation after a few more minutes, but Zhu Chao left Liu Zhu with a warning. "Young Master Liu, I'm uncertain of what happened to you, but that doesn't mean that everyone is. Given that there could be a force who knows what happened to you and who may have ways to... take whatever benefits you've gotten back, I recommend that you keep information about what happened to yourself and keep to the story that you just happened to make a breakthrough." Liu Zhu nodded, realizing the seriousness of the situation, and returned to his quarters.

Liu Zhu sat at the desk in his room, scribbling on a piece of paper as he figured out his priorities. With everything that had happened, there were several things he wanted to do. First of all Liu Zhu wanted to look into the new abilities he seemed to have gained. There was the monstrous recovery from earlier and the flower that suddenly grew when his blood dripped onto it. Liu Zhu wanted to understand whether these phenomena were something permanent or temporary aftereffects from whatever happened to him. To do so he would need to conduct some experimentation. Once that was done he'd find a sparring partner and test his newfound strength from breaking through to Flesh Tempering.

Now that Liu Zhu had an objective he left the estate, planning to buy some plants. If he could grow them with his blood it could be a great boon, and so he needed to perform experiments as soon as possible.