Wayfarer

Chapter 2: Spiritual Power

"Young Master, I don't want to die! My grandson has just been born—please, on account of the fact that I've looked after you all these years, spare my life!" the blue-clad elder begged, his face frozen in shock.

The poison was clearly potent and fast-acting; the elder's breathing took on a staccato rhythm. Unable to make any loud noises, he was forced to plead weakly for his life.

However, Xiao Nanfeng only stared at the fallen elder coldly.

"Elder, it's true that the chief steward has been growing in strength. Many of the servants have chosen to side with him, and I don't blame them for doing so—but you're different. You bear a lifelong debt of gratitude to the Xiao clan. I wouldn't have blamed you if you had done nothing during the decade of my duress, but I won't turn a blind eye to the fact that you've been working for him. In order to get in his good graces, you monitor my every move. Whenever the chief steward restricts my freedom further, you're there to persuade me to give in. Whenever I attempt to search for a cultivation manual, you hinder and stymie me from the shadows. And you think I'd be willing to spare someone like you?" Xiao Nanfeng glanced coldly at the blue-clad elder.

"You've been faking your affection for me these last few years? How long have you been brewing this plan? How? You've been trapped in the estate all your life, and there's no way you could have learned to plot and plan like this! This is impossible!"

Xiao Nanfeng's cold stare never wavered. Perhaps an ordinary six-year-old who had been imprisoned in such a manner for a decade wouldn't have the experience or understanding to defy or resist the manipulation, but he was different. He bore memories of his past life on Earth; he was no fool!

"It's been ten long years, Elder—time for my departure," Xiao Nanfeng suddenly said.

Malice suddenly filled the elder's face. As though sensing that Xiao Nanfeng truly would not spare him, his begging turned into intimidation instead.

"Leave? How do you intend to leave? That's impossible. The chief steward has entire patrols of guards around the estate—around the entire fiefdom at large! Young Master, I urge you not to resist. We've gotten along well over the years. If you give me the antidote, I can pretend that nothing has happened, but otherwise, you'll learn just what happens to those who offend the chief steward," the elder threatened.

"We've gotten along well over the years, have we, Elder? Do you know why I've only gotten close to you all these years, why I'm cold to everyone else, why I won't listen to anyone but you?" Xiao Nanfeng asked, smiling.

"Why?" The elder felt a lingering sense of unease.

"Because you're thin, you're frequently hunched over, you have a lingering ailment that causes you to cough often, and most importantly, because your physique matches mine," Xiao Nanfeng replied.

"Y-you, you, could you be planning to—" The elder gaped in shock as he thought of a certain possibility.

Xiao Nanfeng stepped forward and began peeling off the elder's clothes. "That's right. I'll be pretending to be you and leaving the estate. I've listened to you all these years, allowing you to quickly ascend the ranks and become one of the chief steward's most trusted staff. Those guards wouldn't dare to offend you."

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The elder's eyes widened. Had Xiao Nanfeng been planning his escape all along? Was he really a youth of sixteen? No—he had started planning this years ago, before he was even ten! How could this be?!

"You won't be able to leave. No, you can't, you can't!" the elder called out in shock and fear.

"Why not? This is my estate, is it not?" Xiao Nanfeng replied calmly, inspecting the clothes he had just removed from the prone elder.

The elder coughed again. "What can you do even if you leave? A poisoner's art would only bring you endless trouble! You have no experience outside, and you've been sheltered for all sixteen years of your life. You don't know what dangers await you; without a strong martial foundation, you'd quickly die!"

Xiao Nanfeng turned to the elder. "Elder, are you trying to stall for time?"

Just then, a black shadow darted into the study.

"Woof!"

The black shadow let out a ferocious roar, sending a gust of rank air straight toward him.

Xiao Nanfeng's robes fluttered in the wind, but he didn't retreat. Rather, he glanced coldly at the black wolfdog that had suddenly leapt into the study like a ferocious tiger.

"Pounce on him, Blackie!" the elder cried out.

The unwelcome intruder was precisely the black wolfdog that the elder had reared.

Obeying the elder, the wolfdog bared its fangs as it headed toward Xiao Nanfeng. Its eyes flashed red. Its face was fierce, its teeth sharp, as though it would tear apart the youth within moments.

Just as it pounced toward Xiao Nanfeng, however, a sinister blue glow emanated from his eyes.

The moment the black wolfdog met his gaze, it shivered as though it had seen something frightening, then began to tremble in fear.

"Blackie! Blackie? What are you waiting for?!" the elder cried out in shock.

The black wolfdog whimpered, retreating even as it trembled, as though it hadn't heard the elder's orders. It seemed terrorized by Xiao Nanfeng.

The elder stared in shock at the wolfdog he had reared, then followed its line of sight toward Xiao Nanfeng. What could it possibly be scared of?

"Your cultivation is only at the fifth stage of Acquisition, and Blackie has far more qi than you do—it's already at the ninth stage of Acquisition! How did you manage to frighten it?!" the elder murmured, gobsmacked.

Suddenly, the elder noticed the pale blue light emanating from Xiao Nanfeng's gaze.

"This is... spiritual power?!" the elder exclaimed, incredulous at the sight.

"That's right," Xiao Nanfeng replied.

"Impossible. Impossible! How could someone like you develop spiritual power? Your cultivation technique was one of the worst we could find—a third-rate technique! How could you have developed spiritual power at Acquisition? Even the chief steward himself, at the peak of Immanence, has just developed spiritual power of his own!" the elder cried out, his shock palpable.

"Humans can cultivate their bodies and souls separately. The physical body nurtures qi via dantians, whereas the soul nurtures spiritual power via the center of the forehead. What's the problem?"

"But you should only be able to sense spiritual power once your physical body becomes sufficiently strong! We've been checking your physical cultivation carefully, and you're only in the fifth stage of Acquisition. There's no way you could have developed spiritual power, unless..." the elder trailed off, still doubting his eyes.

"Unless what?" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes were piercing as he glanced at the elder.

"Unless you somehow managed to pick up a spiritual cultivation manual from the top Immortal sects—but those manuals are prized treasures, and guarded jealously! How could you have come across any?!"

Xiao Nanfeng smiled. "Why, it's all thanks to all of you, for finding me so many scrolls and documents. You haven't inspected them carefully, have you?"

"Your spiritual cultivation manual came from one of these scrolls? Impossible, that's impossible! The chief steward made sure to find you useless scrolls in order to render you weak and incapable! Medical studies and Taoist scriptures—useless, obscure, and abstruse... There couldn't have been any cultivation techniques among them, not even physical cultivation and certainly not spiritual cultivation! Someone screened each scroll and document you received!"

"And are you so certain that you've checked these useless, obscure, and abstruse Taoist scriptures carefully? That you've studied each one fully before handing it to me?" Xiao Nanfeng smirked.

The elder's eyes grew wide. Taoist scriptures were abstruse and near-impossible to comprehend because of the elevated heights from which the Taoist masters viewed the world, and most could hardly make any sense of it. Who would spend time studying such scriptures? The screening was solely to ensure that these scrolls didn't contain cultivation techniques, but who would have thought that a soul cultivation technique had snuck through? How could this be?

"Useless scriptures, you say? Why, one man's trash is another man's treasure!"

The elder's face was a mask of despair. Xiao Nanfeng's planning and deception was far beyond anything he had planned for. Was this truly the docile young master he had known for his entire life? Even Blackie, the wolfdog, had been suppressed and transformed into a quivering heap from his spiritual power!

The wolfdog was so frightened by the blue glow emanating from Xiao Nanfeng's eyes that its body quivered in place. Even when Xiao Nanfeng approached it with a dagger in hand, Blackie didn't dare move.

"Blackie, is it? My father retrieved you from a spiritbeast lair as a pup, intending for you to grow alongside me, to become my pet, to escort me through my cultivation. The elder to whom you bonded was nothing more than a caretaker working on my behalf—I am your true master. As a spiritbeast, you have more than sufficient intelligence to understand these principles. Yet all these years, you've never shown me the slightest shred of respect, and you've even colluded with your caretaker to take me down. Well, there's no reason for me to keep you, then." Xiao Nanfeng's eyes turned cold.

He thrust his dagger deep into the black wolfdog's head, causing it to keen as it died.

At that point, Xiao Nanfeng's eyes returned to their original shade of color, his face turning pale. Evidently, the spiritual suppression he had enforced was very costly in terms of spiritual energy, and he was looking rather worse for wear.

Xiao Nanfeng ignored the rapidly weakening elder as he put on the elder's clothes and mussed up his hair until it looked like the elder's. Then, Xiao Nanfeng hunched his back and covered his mouth with the elder's handkerchief that he picked up from the ground, emulating his shuffling and deep coughs.

With the handkerchief covering half his face, in the faint evening illumination, it was impossible to uncover Xiao Nanfeng's disguise.

"Ahem, ahem! How does this eem? Do I look like you? Is there anything else I have to add?" Xiao Nanfeng glanced coolly at the elder, his voice taking on a rougher and more mature cadence that mimicked the elder's surprisingly well.

The elder, meanwhile, was chilled to the bone. Xiao Nanfeng had clearly been observing his every action, his every movement carefully. He moved like him, and even his low, hoarse voice sounded like his.

"No! You can't leave!" the elder shouted at his body double.

"Right, the poison I fed you won't kill you. At worst, it'll paralyze you for a few days," Xiao Nanfeng revealed.

"It's not lethal?" The elder's eyes suddenly lit up with hope.

"You've served me for a few years, after all—or rather, you've kept me under guard and lied to me for a few years. How could I let you off so easily? I think it's best if I leave you for the chief steward to deal with. I wonder what he'll do with you, knowing that you allowed me to escape from his clutches? You turned your back on your former master and have been ingratiating yourself to the chief steward all this time. He won't make your life difficult, will he?" Xiao Nanfeng smiled.

The elder's sudden hope was violently snuffed out, leaving abject fear behind. He understood Xiao Nanfeng's importance to the chief steward. If Xiao Nanfeng were to go missing, considering the chief steward's brutality, he would surely be subject to bone-chilling torture—he was no longer of any value whatsoever! Even Blackie had perished. The chief steward might even strike at his family...

"No! Kill me, Young Master, please, kill me!"

If he were to die at Xiao Nanfeng's hands now, the chief steward wouldn't punish his family too, would he?

However, Xiao Nanfeng only glanced at the stricken elder coldly. "Elder, if you've chosen to ingratiate yourself to the chief steward, surely you must have faith in him. You're in your current straits now because of your choices and actions. Isn't that so?

Xiao Nanfeng shut the doors to the study as he wandered out to the wider world beyond under cover of night.

The elder's voice had grown weaker and weaker. Paralyzed, he was unable to call out for assistance; only a deep sense of despair, remorse, and privation accompanied his final hours.