Spirit Cultivation

Xuefeng got to the coast and changed his Elfish Clothes he got from the Queen into dry, Liu Clan one. Before he did so, Xuefeng spread his Spirit Awareness beforehand to check if anyone was near the lake. His training paid off a lot and now that his Spirit Awareness wasn't limited like in the Holy Land, he could see everything in the scope of a few hundred meters.

Just as he wore a clean set of clothes and prepared to move out, he was stopped by Ling. ​​

'I didn't want to slow down your return so I didn't mention it earlier, but you received a gift from Wisdom Tree before you left.' Ling said.

'What gift?' Xuefeng asked intrigued as he halted his movements.

'Wisdom Tree gifted you its leaves, for the remaining Elements that you are lacking. I will help you consume them. Don't move.' Ling explained and commanded before she took action.

He looked inside his dantian and saw six leaves appear out of nowhere. They started assigning themselves into different spots in his dantian and soon it was separated into nine different parts. The part with Spirit Qi, Air Qi and Lightning Qi was filled to the brim while the rest only had a small leaf at the bottom.

Suddenly, Ling sent six parts of golden Fate Qi towards the leaves and they began to swiftly dissolve, emitting different colours of Qi. Although Xuefeng only received a small amount of each Elemental Qi, he was on top of the world. He already had a plan in his mind how to use this little bit of Qi.

'You can use this to create a portable Wisdom Tree of each element.' Ling suggested.

'That's what I was thinking as well! But damn I forgot to take Wisdom Tree Seeds from the Queen. I only have Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Lightning Wisdom Trees. If I want all I need to get another four seeds.' Xuefeng slapped his forehead, complaining about his bad memory.

'You also forgot to learn arts for those elements. How are you going to absorb and control their Qi? Also, I just realised. Even if you create Wisdom Trees for the other four elements, you wouldn't know how to proceed next as even elves don't have any arts for them.' Ling reminded him.

'Right… I was so concerned about Wuying that I forgot to ask many things. Well, I guess I will need to take a trip back to the Holy Land sooner than I thought. I also don't feel a lot of Air Essence in the air. It will take a lot of time to gather Elemental Qi in this world.' Xuefeng sighed realising his mistakes.

'It depends on the place you are at. If you visit a volcano area, you will feel a lot of Fire Essence in the air.' Ling answered to one of his worries but stayed silent about the others. She couldn't tell him that she was approached by the Wisdom Tree and made a deal with it. Wisdom Tree would give Xuefeng its leaves and Ling in exchange would bring Xuefeng back into the Holy Land more often. She didn't know why Wisdom Tree wanted to make such a deal, but looking at the conditions, it was hard for her to decline.

'How are you going to explain your appearance changes?' Ling asked, changing the subject.

'If it's Wuying, I will tell her the truth. I don't know how she will take it, but that's the least I can do. I will also tell my parents but I will hide some aspects. Okay, let's go back. It has been so long for them. I hope they don't think I'm dead…' Xuefeng thought and run towards the city after putting on a cloak. It was not that far from the lake but he didn't want to be that eye-catching by, for example, flying with wings on his back.

...….

"What the heck is going on…?" Xuefeng stood before the entrance gate to the Liu Clan and muttered under his breath as he looked into the sky. He could see various Cultivators flying above the Clan Grounds, patrolling and scanning the area with their Spirit Awareness. He could feel it brush against his own for a moment and then switch to checking another person on the street.

'Did something happen to the clan while I was gone?' Xuefeng counted as many as fifteen saint cultivators just in the sky above the clan and he suspected there might be even more on the ground.

"Excuse me, do you know what happened to the Liu Clan? Why are there multiple Saint Experts flying around there?" Xuefeng didn't rush anything and decided to ask the food seller who had a stall on the other side of the street.

"Oh, you are probably not from here, right? No one knows what exactly happened, but one day, a huge flying ship visited Liu Clan. It must have been someone important as I never seen a ship like that. They stayed for five or six days and then flew away, but a lot of experts stayed in the Liu Clan since then. I recall some other news that happened, but I somehow forgot about them just now, cough…" The foodseller looked at Xuefeng suspiciously but started narrating what happened anyway. Seeing that Xuefeng was interested, he coughed and pointed towards the price tag of the hot buns he had for sale.

"Tell me everything you know and I might give it to you if I'm satisfied," Xuefeng smirked under his hood and understood what the food seller was implying. He pulled out a high tier Spirit Stone and waved it in front of the seller.

The food seller's eyes brightened seeing the high Tier Spirit Stone in Xuefeng's hand and instantly he was much more energetic.

"About two months ago, Emperor came to visit with his son, bringing many gifts. There is a rumour that the Crown Prince offended one of the experts that are currently patrolling the Liu Clan and when the Emperor learned about it, he flew here to apologize in the place of his son. It turned out that Crown Prince wanted to hurt the Liu Clan's Young Master while he was on the mission but was beat up by the Saint Expert. Even Crown Prince's arm was crippled by him." The foodseller continued the story.

"What about the Saint Cultivators, do you know why they stayed behind in the Liu Clan?" Xuefeng wasn't bothered one bit by the Crown Prince and asked to confirm his conjecture. He already had an idea why.

"Well, people who work in the Liu Clan, say that the daughter of an important family is staying in the Liu Clan. I think they are just protecting her. Some say she is waiting for the Liu Clan's Young Master to come back from the important mission, but I can't confirm that. Liu Clan didn't say anything official about that." The food seller answered verifying Xuefeng's thoughts.

'So, I guess it's Xiao Wen that is waiting for me in the clan. She is the only one who can be from a big family with multiple Saint Cultivators at her disposal. I'm surprised she would wait three months for me to come back.' Xuefeng thought astonished.

"Did I satisfy sir with my answer?" The foodseller smiled as he looked at the Spirit Stone in Xuefeng hand.

"Yeah, here you go. Keep up the good work." Xuefeng threw the Spirit Stone to him and turned around, walking towards the Liu Clan Entrance Gate.

"Hey you, stop right there. Take off your hood before you proceed." Before Xuefeng could even approach the gate, he was spotted about five meters away by the guards and stopped as they shouted

"Is this how you should talk to your Young Master?" Xuefeng removed the hood and smiled to the guards. He didn't want to bring trouble to himself by sneaking inside as the Saint Experts would probably catch him anyway so he just headed straight inside.

What he expected to happen didn't occur and the guards didn't meet him with open arms. Their faces grew hostile and they picked up their weapons,

"You heard that our Young Master is away from the clan and just cause you somehow resemble him, you try to impersonate him? Do you think we are so stupid? Surrender yourself or you will end up badly." One of the guards snickered and aimed his sword at Xuefeng's face.

"Wow… Are you actually serious? Just cause my hair colour changed you don't recognize me anymore? How about this? You should know this, right?" Xuefeng was speechless and decided to pull out his Black Flames Slayer to prove his identity. He didn't want to create unnecessary drama.

A red blade appeared in his hand and black flames burned intensively. He looked at the guards and asked annoyed.

"Haha! Do you think you can impersonate our Young Master with this fake sword? From what I remember the Black Flames were much clearer than this and the sword had more of a blood red colour. Surrender yourself right now! This is your last chance!" The guard laughed seeing the sword and shouted warning Xuefeng for the second time.

"Okay, this is ridiculous." Xuefeng gave up convincing the dumb guards and stopped bothering with them. He didn't think that his slight appearance change would give him so much trouble. Not bothered to create any more commotion, he created a pair of Air Qi wings and flew into the sky, crossing the Clan Grounds' walls.

"Pfft…" The food seller who was watching the scene almost choked after seeing that Xuefeng could actually fly and with wings at that. The guards were also shocked but didn't do anything as they knew that Saint experts will catch the impersonator.

Xuefeng landed on the other side of the gate and just as the guards expected, it didn't take long for him to be surrounded by multiple Cultivators.

"Who are you? Identify yourself." One of the experts asked while aiming his weapon at Xuefeng. He looked like he would strike instantly if Xuefeng's answer wasn't satisfying.

'Uff, I hope they are not as dumb as those guards.' Xuefeng thought as he absorbed the Air Qi wings and looked at the man talking to him.