Chapter 137: Secret behind the trial
Chapter 137: Secret behind the trial
(A/N: Join the discord, to curse freely where Webnovel can’t remove your comments! Not convinced? Join the discord for character images!
Link: discord.gg/SC9HNKVj5e
)
——(POV third person)——
Li Long looked at his grandson and Cai ZhenKang who were absorbing the herbal mix without much difficulty. Of course, the rate Li Huang absorbed the herbal mix wasn’t comparable to Cai ZhenKang as no matter how fast Cai ZhenKang was, Li Huang was way ahead of him in that regard.
‘Li Bao’s physique…’ Li Long thought. Before the trial, they found out that Li Huang might have the same physique as their ancestor, Li Bao, or at least a similar physique. Li Long didn’t have the full information on the matter at that time and told Huang that he would give him what the family knows about that matter after the trial, and now that he is here, it is the best time to do so.
Li Long waited patiently for the bath to finish, and after a few more minutes Li Huang and Cai ZhenKang were done groaning and the herbal mix was fully absorbed by them.
The moment they opened their eyes, Li Long was standing in front of the basins and he was smiling at them, a look that Li Huang knew all too well.
“Good work for today.” Li Long said as he looked at both of them.
“You can go and rest in your sect’s tent for the night. Get anything that you might need and come back here first thing in the morning.” Li Long continued as he faced Cai ZhenKang. As Cai ZhenKang would have to be trained by him, naturally he needed to be a guest in their sect for that period of time. That aside he would have to talk with his master so Li Long decided to give him the chance to do so before they get back to the Heavenly sword sect.
“Ah, yes! Thank you, patriarch Li!” Cai ZhenKang said as he got out of the basin and after nodding to Li Huang who nodded back, he got out of the ‘training ground’ as fast as he could because the memory of how he spoke in his sleep was still fresh and he didn’t want to make Li Long angry.
Li Huang also knew the reasoning behind grandpa Long’s actions but he also knew that grandpa wanted them to be alone for the conversation that they were supposed to have.
With that in mind, Li Huang too got out of the basin and he put a fresh set of robes on. He also took an item out of his storage ring. This item was a simple privacy artifact that would stop sounds from leaking outside of its small boundary of 10 meters (A/N: ~100 hamburgers).
“Okay, let us talk!” Li Huang said with a smile, they had many things to talk about as one month has passed since their previous conversation.
The smile that Li Long had on his face disappeared and he looked at the device with disdain.
“What is this toy? Even the newlywed use better tools for their room!” Li Long said as he couldn’t believe that Li Huang would choose such a basic device to stop others from eavesdropping.
“Exactly!” Li Huang nodded enthusiastically.
“Then why would you use it?” Li Long asked as he really didn’t see the reason for such an act.
“As you said this is practically trash, yes?” Li Huang said and grandpa Long nodded to his words.
“…So if you sensed such a trashy concealment formation, would you try to eavesdrop?” Li Huang said with a smug look on his face.
Li Long couldn’t refute Huang’s words as it would make sense for this tool to be used as something to stop the noise from going out of the room rather than something that is used for a secret meeting.
This was also a time and place where many top experts of the world have gathered in a single spot, so placing a powerful concealment formation would only make this place stick out like a sore thumb to each and every expert in the vicinity.
“Understandable, but I will also use my Qi.” Li Long said as he put a layer of his Qi inside the boundary of the concealment tool that Li Huang had so that even if someone were to enter the boundary to eavesdrop, he could detect them first.
“Of course, now let me start…” Li Huang nodded as he too would have suggested this extra layer to be sure about the security. After that, he talked about his theories about the trial, the old man, and Guanyu.
Li Huang decided to tell grandpa long about what he heard from Guanyu and how he said he had fallen into this ‘backwater plane’.
“I know this might sound crazy, but the fact that he could do all that with only a small part of his soul remaining shows that he was really powerful and with our standards, he is- was a real powerhouse.” Li Huang said after he explained the fight to grandpa Long.
“Although everything that he said can not be trusted, I don’t think he had any reason to lie because he thought he could kill me so there was no way that I could disclose anything to others from his standpoint…” Li Huang continued. He knew that he might think too much into it so he decided to let Li Long analyze everything.
Li Long was frowning for a minute as he didn’t think what Huang needed to talk about was this.
“What I’m about to tell you is a secret that only the family heads in the Li family ever known.” Li Long said with his eyes closed. Taking a deep breath he continued.
“There are some very old transcripts in the family vault that talk about the existence of the higher planes.” Li Long said as he was looking at Li Huang.
Li Huang wasn’t that surprised as there had to be a record of it somewhere but the question was that why did the existence of higher planes were known back then but not now?
Seeing the pondering look on Li Huang’s face, Li long decided to tell him more.
“You must know that Li Bao was the family head who gave his position away, right?” He asked and Li Huang nodded.
Li Huang did some basic research on him and found out that Li Bao gave his position away even when he was by far the strongest in the family but couldn’t find the reason as there were only speculations about it. Some said that he had a problem with how he was treated in his childhood, some said that he wanted to wander the world as he was at the peak of strength, and many more such things.
“It was written on a note from him that he was looking for a path to a higher plane, and he wouldn’t stop before finding it…” Li Long said and Huang couldn’t be more surprised.
“So from the time of my ancestors, they were looking for higher planes…” Li Huang said. Now it made sense that Li Bao and his wife were not seen anymore as they either found the path to ascension or died trying.
Li Huang was trying to link the information that he had with the new information that he found now.
‘It was understandable that someone like Li Bao wouldn’t die that easily, and the fact that he left the family to the younger generation meant that he had a goal in mind but didn’t want his absence to create a rift in the family, so he decided to handle the matters before heading out to search for the higher plane.’ Li Huang thought.
‘Now it makes more sense that he didn’t have a child as he might have been getting ready for this search for a long time, he probably didn’t want to leave an orphan behind if he were to lose his life on the way.’ Li Huang mused.
“So, the sects probably guess that this trial is also the work of someone from the higher planes?” Li Huang said as now he understood why the holy lands were hellbent on getting bigger rewards in the trial. It wasn’t about the face or the rewards, they wanted to know if the trial contained any secret about the higher planes.