Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

The day quickly wore onwards as Liu Zhu wandered about the nearby area, taking care of minor chores such as collecting firewood and cleaning up their camping site as he did so. Of course, all of this was just an excuse to avoid the hill for the day. Trying to blend in with everyone else was both extremely useless to Liu Zhu and rather exhausting. If it were up to which activity he'd rather do, without other future opportunities factored in, Liu Zhu would rather withstand the pressure the others were feeling on the hill than just stand there and pretend. At least that didn't test his acting abilities- he was a cultivator, not an actor.

Once night approached most of the cultivators had worn themselves out and rested for the day, returning to the camps scattered throughout the surrounding area. Liu Zhu chatted with Feng Jun and the other cultivators who had accompanied him from Wolfden Village, enjoying the break after their rapid march there and the chance to speak with 'average' cultivators. Besides the obvious fun involved in chatting with others, their conversations were a good chance to learn how to connect with others. Before now Liu Zhu had mainly spoken with cultivators who either had some sort of influence or who worked for his family. This meant he had very little experience speaking with people like Feng Jun or the other cultivators he'd worked with at Wolfden Village, although since his arrival in the Northern Wastes this weak point of his had begun improving. While talking with juniors from other decently sized influences or cultivators of some importance was both more common and more useful for Liu Zhu, being able to connect with the average cultivator was a more important skill than one might think, especially if he planned to enlist into the army at some point. Fortunately his starting point hadn't been too low given his upbringing, and he was rapidly improving with these near nightly talks.

Once the conversation settled down everyone went to their own devices. Most of the group quickly went to sleep, although one of them stayed up for several hours in order to whittle some sort sort of wooden sculpture out of a stray log. Liu Zhu would've been rather annoyed about this delaying his visit to the hill, but since he'd been planning to wait quite some time to ensure most of the other cultivators there went to sleep as well, this minor annoyance didn't set him too off course. Around 1 AM it was finally time to take action, and so Liu Zhu slowly rose from his feigned rest, going into the forest with his things before eventually circling around back towards the hill. He didn't know if there would be something at the top of the hill that would ensure he spent a night up there (assuming he was able to reach it and, of course, that there was something there at all), so in case there was it'd be best that it looked like he'd left the previous night.

Once Liu Zhu circled back towards the hill he carefully scanned the nearby area, making sure that no one was watching him. Luckily the coast was clear, so he began slowly stepping up the hill, paying more attention to his surroundings now that he was alone. As he began walking up the hill, focusing almost all of his senses on the state of his body, he could feel an extremely slight pressure weighing down upon him. If he'd focused earlier he could've as well, but he was so busy keeping up the charade of struggling under said pressure earlier in the day that he couldn't even notice it. As Liu Zhu walked up the hill, quickly approaching the halfway point, the pressure slowly grew. Eventually it was enough to slow down his progress, but it was only that- it wasn't enough to stop him from moving. Within a few minutes Liu Zhu reached the top of the hill, walking the whole way at a steady pace. Upon reaching the top there wasn't much special in sight. The top of the hill was exceptionally clear, and in the center a growth of weeds and grass could be seen covering up an oddly smooth, possibly manmade, surface.

Curious, Liu Zhu approached the seemingly manmade area. As he did so the pressure he felt increased greatly, slowing down his pace to a slow walk. Figuring that this area was likely related to the mystery of this hill, Liu Zhu began pulling out the weeds and grass that had taken root on it. While pulling out the plants he also started to clean the dirt off of the surface. These acts revealed that he was standing on a smooth, blue stone a couple dozen feet in diameter. Further investigation revealed that the stone was set into the top of the hill in a large circle, with thin, intricate lines carved throughout and a large line set throughout the middle.

After examining the stone for a bit Liu Zhu noticed that most of the carvings looked like they were directed towards the center. He crouched down, preparing to clean off that spot so he could see what was there, but as he touched it he felt something shake near his heart. Suddenly vitality began spreading throughout his body, using it as a pathway to flood into the stone beneath him. It wasn't draining any of the vitality from his body itself, but instead seemed to be coming from whatever object had made its home near his heart. Unfortunately Liu Zhu was still unable to tell what it was despite putting all his effort towards sensing it. In the end he simply sighed as he continued to press his hand against the stone, watching as a viscous green blood began filling up the narrow lines throughout the carving. Around this time he considered the possibility of it being a trap, but quickly pushed these thoughts aside in an effort to be hopeful. Most people would rather believe that they were figuring out the mysteries to a secret inheritance or some ancient palace full of treasure rather than falling into a trap in this situation, and Liu Zhu was no exception. After around half a minute the lines seemed to be completely saturated with the 'blood', and it stopped spreading out as greater and greater amounts of vitality poured out from him, who was merely a conduit for energy at this point.

A minute after everything started the withdrawal of vitality from Liu Zhu suddenly stopped, before it rapidly surged back into him, causing the green blood spread throughout the stone to disappear. Perplexed, he prepared to stand up, but before he could he suddenly heard a loud rumbling sound. To his prolonged confusion, the stone began him beneath splitting open from the line in the center, sending him plummeting into a chamber built into the hill.