5 Power of blood First half

"You are too polite, Mr.Black merchant. I have this little skill. Compare to you, what I achieve is just insignificant."

Both of them are exchange pleasantries for a moment before Zhu Wushang asks for permission and leave. It's not that he's a stoic and unsocial type, but he felt uncomfortable around the one which he can't sense true nature. Plus that Wang Zhao is a treacherous, greedy type of character that he doesn't like to socialize.

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Outside, Not far from The Green Lake Inn.

At the side of the Green lake that glistens with the light of noon sun, In a small pavilion, a ten years old boy is reading the book which contains the knowledge of myriad herbs while looking at the sun from time to time.

But a light footstep sound disturbs him. He looks up to see at the direction of the sound.

What he sees is the Black merchant approaching him with a smile.

"How may I help you Mr. Black merchant?"

Zhu Wushang asks, but there's no answer from The Black merchant. He just ignores and keeps walking until he stops at the entrance of a small pavilion. He waves his hand and his strong dark spirit qi form into an impenetrable barrier around the small pavilion.

"Tell me, child. Where did your parent first found you?"

"Eh?" Zhu Wushang frown, He doesn't know what Black merchant try to getting in to.

"Aren't you an adopted son of the Zhu family? Tell me! Where did they first found you?" Black merchant sound more severe than the first time. His patient is getting thin.

Zhu Wushang is deep in thought and trying to comprehend the situation in front of him. He thinks about all possibility of consequence to the people around him in case he tells him the truth. He knew that it's impossible to lie to the Black merchant that has much higher cultivation than him he can accurately sense the anxiousness while someone that has lower cultivation than him are lying.

[Who's this guy? Why does he want to know where my parents found me? My parent doesn't say much about it. All I knew is that they found me within the Great forest of nowhere. Does he know something I didn't? Or is he looking for something or some clue?]

Zhu Wushang eye grew more fierce and looking directly at The Black merchant eye.

"If I tell you. Whatever the circumstance can you promise not to harm my parent or the people related to me?"

Black merchant chuckle within his heart and think.

[Even if I want to break my promise, you don't have the ability to do anything to me anyway, But… for the sake of this worry wart child, I might just say what he want me to say.]

[Oh right he said for me "to not harm" his parent right? This means if I hide a valuable treasure in his parent bedroom and tell those greedy hypocrite experts about it later... hm… this sounds fun]

He wants to lie and break his promise later whatever the circumstance just to mess with this child. It would be a delightful scene when the child came home and saw all of his loved ones lie in a pool of blood.

One might think that this Black Merchant is an unreasonable evil and twisted psychopath. But in truth, this is just [what] he is. He's not malevolent nor benevolent he just loves to mess with lower being life and love to use manipulation more than act directly.

But when he tried to give his promise, What he saw gave him the shiver and the feeling of terror that he didn't feel for a very long time came back to him.

[What the hell is that eye!]

The eye of Zhu Wushange turn in to the slit-like lizard eye with the dark black; purple light shone out of his eye.

[Shit!! Is this child really him!? But it's impossible!! He will never! But this feeling... damn it! It's too risky to gamble and mess with this child. If this child is really him, then that means… SHIT!!]

Black merchant swearing in his mind. Other than a bucket of sweat behind his back, His outer appearance does not change much.

"I promise." The Black merchant says sincerely.

This surprise Zhu Wushang very much. Because just a moment ago he senses that this Black Merchant wants to lie or tried to lie. Unfortunately, he didn't know that he's the reason that causes the Black Merchant to change his mind.

"They found me in The forest of nowhere. That's all I know." He answers and the phenomenon in his eye quickly subsides and return to normal without him knowing.

This makes Black merchant sigh in relieves of Zhu Wushang before looking at the direction of The Great forest of nowhere.

"I see…" He murmurs before waving his hand again to cancel the dark spirit qi barrier before launching himself to the skies at the direction of The Great forest of nowhere.

"What is he trying to do?" Zhu Wushang mutter in confusion.

He's looking at the direction that black merchant disappears for a while before keeping this at the back of his mind and continue to wait in the small pavilion.

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Afternoon, Zhu Wushang waiting for Xiao Lan more than 2 hours, He starts to feel more sleepy as the time passes by. He's waiting until nearly dusk before he saw the small figure of Xiao Lan is running to the little pavilion from afar.

"Haaah… She sure takes her times."

Zhu Wushang gets up, He looks at the sun that's slowly setting, It seems like today playing need to be canceled

"I'm really sorry Wushang I'm late." She apologizes.

"It's ok but looks like we need to postpone it to another time.

Xiao Lan nod with an apologetic look, She's late because she spends time with her mom and sends her to the spirits ship at the dock which takes a lot of time until she came back.

She wants to tell him the truth, but her mom told her not to tell him. Because she doesn't want him to know the fact that she's the Empress of Great Pheonix empire, and cause her relationship between him to change. But she still doesn't understand why just telling him that she spend time with her mom and send her to the ship will make Zhu Wushang know that her mom is an Empress of Great Pheonix Empire.

It's because of her ignorance that she didn't know the extent of Zhu Wushang intelligence. If she tells him the truth, he can easily trace the list of the spirits ship that sails out of the port today, and he'll know who's her mom really is.

Both of them walking hand in hand together until reaching the canal between the forest and the lake, but Zhu Wushang frown and stop.

"Hm? What's the matter Wushang?" Xiao Lan ask

He didn't answer but pick up the small stone at his feet and throw it to the air in front of him.

The invisible spirit qi wall obstructs the throwing stone path, and this made his frown deeper, he slides his hand in the pocket inside his chest and brings out the dagger. He looks at the forest and brings Xiao Lan to move away from its border.

He

"Xiao Lan stay behind."

He whispers to Xiao Lan and looks at the black substance at the edge of his dagger. It's the potent poison that's he concoct without the spirit qi by the pure alchemy skill of his. He is confident that his poison can kill even the Spirits Commander realm expert If... he manages to wound that experts with his dagger. But luckily his dagger is a King Grade dagger that his father gave him to protect himself.

He might not have spirits roots, but his battle power is no less than the peak of Spirits Disciple realm because he's managed to comprehend all of the fighting technics from his father without his father knowing by looking at his father practice at home for the last ten years.

He heard the sound of many light footsteps from the forest border and many grey wolves appear from the forest followed by the Spirits dire wolf. It seems like the Spirits dire wolf is the leader of this pack.

He looks at all of the wolves that try to surround them; surely this is the human-made disaster. Fortunately, he already secures their back by turning their back to the lake. And if no one interferes with the lake, there should be no dangerous creature within.

The Spirits dire wolf howl in command then, three of the grey wolf launch at them. Zhu Wushang quickly intercepts these three wolves. He quickly slashes at the first one before he kicks at the second one and stabs at the third. Within five breath two of three wolf stop breathing and the last one has a minor injury at its neck.

He sheaths his dagger in the sheath and unsheaths it again to apply the poison that already used on the two wolves.

In this situation, he really wants to escape with the life-saving treasure like those experts in the story that his father usually told him. But unfortunately, those kinds of treasure need spirit ki to activate, and he didn't have that.

Unknown to him that if he had one and have spirit qi to use it right now, he can't use it because Xiao Lan tries to send the message to her bodyguard and Zhu Wushang father that is also working as her protector while he's here. She can't contact them at all. And all of the teleport and life-saving treasure didn't work at all. It's like her connection to these treasure has been interfered by stronger spirits qi.