Rise of the Sword Lord

Chapter 2

Elder Feng, steadying himself with Li's support, pointed accusingly at Kai, who was also rising from the aftermath of their clash. "How dare you interrupt our family meeting and attempt to sow chaos?" his voice thundered. "And why come after Li?"

Kai tried to interject, but Elder Feng continued without pause. "Do you even understand who Li is?" he demanded. "Li awakened while you were at the South Mountains. He is the newly awakened one, chosen directly by the Supreme Being himself. Li is now the rightful Heir Apparent."

Kai’s heart stopped in shock. Elder Feng's words hit Kai like a physical blow, his initial anger giving way to shock and disbelief.

"Elder Feng, what... what are you saying?" Kai managed to stammer, his heartbeat so faint as he kept trying to process the information.

Elder Feng's expression remained stern as he repeated, "You heard correctly. Li has been chosen, which means you are no longer the Heir Apparent." The finality in his words left Kai stunned.

“What?!” Kai exclaimed in disbelief.

In Midan City, a rare phenomenon occurred where a seemingly ordinary individual would suddenly 'awaken,' gaining certain powers and transforming into exceptional beings with doubled cultivation speed and endless opportunities.

Kai was aware of this fact. He asked himself in his mind, could this truly be happening? How could Li, who had always been lazy and never done any significant thing for the Wang family, be chosen by the supreme one?

Kai raised his voice in anger, believing he was being fooled because they wanted to cheat him out of his birthright.

"How is it possible that Li truly awakened?" he demanded of Elder Feng. Turning to the crowd, he continued, "It doesn’t make sense. How could the supreme one choose someone like Li out of this family?"

Li gritted his teeth, angry at Kai’s insinuation. "Watch your mouth, or you will suffer even more before you face your actual punishment," he snapped at Kai.

Kai clenched his fist in anger, his whole body shaking violently as he looked up at Li. "You have no power to challenge me," he roared. "I have been the heir apparent all this time, and it is my rightful place, especially with everything I have contributed for the sake of our family."

Li chuckled. "Nobody cares about all the suffering you went through for the sake of the family," he said. "It doesn’t change anything, nor will it change the supreme's chosen. Accept that you are useless and that all your efforts were in vain. Maybe that will help you find peace after you are executed."

Kai raised his head, knowing Li was talking about the punishment for killing Chen publicly and in the temple. It was a serious crime, but he didn't regret killing Chen for hurting his sister.

The awakened ones were like the favorite persons of the supreme being, with fewer than ten persons having emerged in the entire country of Inicia in a century. And to think that the one the supreme being had chosen for this time was a lazy drunk like Li?

The tension escalated as Li, the newly chosen Heir Apparent and grandson of Elder Feng, spoke with authority. He addressed everyone, "Let us not forget that Kai just killed a person in the temple, so he must be punished."

Elder Feng called for guards to seize Kai, but Kai asked the guards to wait. Desperate to save himself, he stated the ancient rule of the Wang family. "If a challenge is thrown to an Heir Apparent, he cannot reject it because he needs to prove he is worthy of the position."

Li laughed, realizing how smart Kai was to save himself. But his ego took over. He was about to accept the challenge, but Elder Feng, his grandfather, held his hand.

Elder Feng whispered into Li’s ear, "Kai is very strong due to his years of fighting for the Wang family against the Yu family. Are you sure you want to fight him?"

Li turned to his grandfather and said, "I know what I’m doing."

Facing Kai, Li declared, "I will clearly defeat you because I am now an awakened one, whereas you are a nobody."

Kai gritted his teeth at the insult.

Li added, "But the duel will be set for a month’s time, not today."

Li was smart enough to know he would be stronger and would have mastered his newly awakened form in a month’s time. This meant he would be a better opponent and could defeat Kai more easily, which is why he chose to set the confrontation for a month later.

Kai grabbed his sister Ming and walked out of the temple. As he left, Elder Feng turned to Elder Shan, confused.

“Bo is not back yet. I sent Bo out to the South Mountains to investigate what Kai was doing there; how come he is not back yet?” Elder Feng said to Elder Shan.

He had sent Bo to spy on Kai.

“Now, I want you to go to the South Mountains and examine what happened there,” he said to Elder Shan, who was younger than him. Elder Shan nodded and walked out of the temple.

+++

Returning to his quarters, Kai gently laid his sister, Ming, down. Ming had been very ill for a long time and was still beaten by Chen that day.

"I'm sorry, dear sister," Kai said to her, stroking her face.

Ming, with a weak voice, replied, "You don’t need to apologize, brother. You have always protected me. It is a shame that I can’t do the same."

“Everything will be all right,” Kai murmured to her with a smile on his face.

Kai kissed her on the head and made sure she fell asleep. After she fell asleep, Kai walked up to the mirror in his room and tore his shirt off.

“Ahhh!” He groaned as he felt an intense pain shooting through his lower abdomen.

He examined the cut from the battle with the Yu family, inflicted by a strange blade he deemed to be poisoned. Although he won the battle, during the fight, he was momentarily careless and attacked by a mysterious man.

He had killed his opponent, but not before the man's knife pierced his Elixir Field, a vital energy center in the lower abdomen where one's internal energy and qi are stored and cultivated.

He whispered to himself, "That man targeted my Elixir Field on purpose. I have no idea who sent him."

“He didn’t come for just any random fight." He murmured as he stared at his reflection, replaying the incident in his mind.

"The damage is done. Now, how can I reach the Qi Varying Realm without my Elixir Field?" he asked himself, his voice barely audible.

The thought shocked him to his bones. "Am I going to be stuck at my current rank forever because of this?"

Turning to face his sister, who was almost freezing despite being covered with numerous duvets, he felt a pang of worry.

Ming's condition wasn't just a regular cold; due to her exposure to cold when she was very young, it had never departed, not even as she grew. Sometimes, Kai considered it to be supernatural.

He whispered to himself, "The only reason the elders used to make drugs for Ming to keep her alive was because I was the heir apparent. But now that I am not, how will she survive?"

“They are definitely going to stop giving her those drugs as a means to punish me,” he said, hanging his head. At that moment, his eyes met the ring he had kept under the bed away from his little sister, Ming.

He walked slowly and picked up the ring. So many memories surrounded that ring, and grabbing it made him think back to how he got the ring.

Kai's mind wandered to a distant memory, one that always stirred emotions in his heart.

He remembered it all, the night his mother gave him the ring before she disappeared mysteriously.

FLASHBACK:

"Mother, what's wrong? Why are you running?" little Kai asked as his mother rushed towards the back door, breathless.

She held him tightly, kissing his head as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, my dear son, I have to leave. Please don't hate me. Protect your little sister, Ming," she cried, her voice breaking.

"Mother, what are you talking about?" Kai asked, confused. At just ten years old, he understood many things for his age, but his mother had kept this one thing from him.

“I have to leave, I’m sorry,” she cried.

Suddenly, a man in a flowing black robe appeared out of nowhere. Kai was shocked to see the man floating in mid-air.

"We have to leave now. If the patriarch finds out about the child, everything will be lost!" the floating man warned Kai's mother protectively.

Kai was bewildered by the man's presence and how his mother knew him, but his questions went unanswered as she shoved a black ring into his hand.

He glanced down at the ring, unsure of what it was. Before he could look up to ask his mother, she disappeared into the clouds with the floating man.

"Mother!" Kai cried.

END OF FLASHBACK

Remembering his mother's plea to take care of Ming before she mysteriously departed, Kai knew he had no option but to find a way to save his sister without the elders' assistance in providing medicine.

“I must go to Inicia Central Institution. They have a lot of good doctors that may be able to help Ming,” he concluded.

A frown crept on his face as he remembered that his Elixir Field had been broken. How would he journey out of Midan City to another city within the country without his Elixir Field functioning? He felt vulnerable without it.

Lost in thought about Ming's condition, he had forgotten he still held his mother’s ring in his hand until he suddenly felt a strange energy emanating from it.

Shocked, he looked down to see that the blood from the wound on his palm, sustained in battle, had mixed with the ring.

A thick black smoke started rising from the ring, leaving Kai bewildered as he asked himself, "What is happening?"

Before he could process it all, he fell into a trance.

Opening his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar realm—a tower that was dark and gloomy. Though shocked, Kai tried to stay calm as he observed his surroundings.

Above the entrance of the first floor, two big characters caught his attention.

On each side of the door, there were lines of blood-red characters, forming a couplet.

On the left side, it said: "Imprisoned the sky, imprisoned the earth, imprisoned the gods and devils in all the heavens."

On the right side, it said: "Forbidden the Tao, forbidden the fate, forbidden the immortals and humans in all the worlds."

These words filled Kai with a deep unease as he stood before the dark entrance, wondering what awaited him in this mysterious realm.