After cautioning Nick on the things to avoid while cultivating, Mathew took the lead and started heading towards a series of boulders stacked in front of them.
"Now young master, sit on this boulder!" Mathew commanded as he pointed at a random slab.
Nick just did as he was told and sat down cross-legged, but as soon as he did, he found that everything had suddenly turned dark around the boulder. And he couldn't see Mathew, or the training ground no matter how hard he squinted. It was like something had cut his senses off from the outside world.
But this weird situation didn't last long, since the darkness soon lifted, and the training ground entered his view once again.
"I'm sorry about that young master. It took me longer than I expected to deactivate the Silence formation on the boulder. This formation is used to cut off your senses from the outside world. That way someone cultivating a sensitive technique wouldn't lose focus and can concentrate better." Mathew then did a bow as an apology, but when he lifted from his bow, a tattered old book was now in his hands.
"Young master, this manual is the cornerstone for our family's rise to power, and the thing that has helped our family maintain a top tier position throughout the years."
"This book doesn't have a second copy, and the family believes it would be dangerous to make one. So, it is the only one in the world and only the direct descendants of your ancestor may learn it." As Mathew spoke, he kept caressing the dark ragged cover of the book gently. It was as if he was what he was holding was the most precious book in the world!
But Nick looked at Mathew with scorn. If the man acted this way just because of a tattered old book, then what would he have done if he had seen the 'Babes swimsuit limited edition' Magazine of his previous life? Now that was a book worth caressing!
"We call this cultivation technique, the 'Star Devouring Dragon Manual'. It's a technique that your Ancestor found by accident when he stumbled upon the cave of a dead Dragon. This Dragon's origins and powers remain a mystery to this day."
"It is told, that the moment your ancestor's hand landed on the dead dragon's body, the body rapidly decomposed and turned to ash. And it was among the ashes, that he found this book laying!"
"I am grateful for the history lesson Mathew, but I want to start cultivating as soon as possible. I am already lagging so far behind my two siblings, I can't bear to waste another second!" Nick wanted to get more powerful already, what good will this history lesson do him when someone tries to kill him later?!
"Very good young master, your brothers have already reached the Profound realm, and are far ahead of you at the moment. But with a little patience and persistence, I believe you won't take long to surpass them!"
"There are Nine levels in every realm, so for you to catch up to them, you need to work extra hard for the next few months." Finished saying his piece, Mathew then carefully handed Nick the manual with both hands. The technique was just too precious to be damaged by a servant like him.
Taking the book from Mathew, Nick gently opened the book to its first page, which appeared to only contain a poem written in bold letters, and it read.
'THE STARS ARE FILLED WITH POWER AND MIGHT
AND IT IS THIS POWER THAT FEULS THEIR LIGHT
TOWERING ABOVE ALL THAT LAID IN, SIGHT
THEY ARE CREATION'S WEAPON THAT ONE CAN'T FIGHT
EVERY NIGHT THEY SHOW THEIR BEAUTY AND GRACE
YET HIDING THEIR FRIGHTENING POWER THAT COULD BEND TIME AND SPACE
BUT THE DRAGON RACE COULD DEVOUR ANYTHING INCLUDING THE STARS THAT FELL
AND MAYBE WITH THE HELP OF THIS MANUAL, MAYBE WE COULD DO SO, AS WELL.'
"Cough! Your ancestor was a bit of a poet wannabe. He wrote this poem on the first page of the manual hoping that all his descendants would read it and appreciate his genius…" Mathew scratched his head slightly. This poem was like a scar on this beautiful book, but no one dared to disrespectfully erase it since these were the words written by their founding ancestor.
Those words that looked no different from any other, seemed to process a will and power of their own as they kept reverberating throughout Nick's mind like a never-ending echo, only to stop after he went to the next page.
But before Nick could even read what was on this page, the Golden orb in his body reacted.
The Orb flew out of Nick's body and started revolving around the book in his hands. Then, as if it hadn't confused Nick enough, it began emitting a golden beam that slowly covered the entire book, preventing Nick from even seeing his hands!
And even though Nick wasn't sure what the Golden orb's intentions were, he got the bad feeling that it was about to do some irredeemable damage!
But who knew that the book, something that shouldn't have even possessed a conscience, would actually fight back at that moment! Because out of nowhere, a purple scaled dragon had materialized from the book launching its attack at the golden orb.
Then Nick heard that snobby entity in the Orb speaking, "Humph, how dare you try to fight back, when you are merely a silly little reptile!"
The words coming from the Golden orb seemed to carry the weight of the world as they pressured the scary-looking dragon into bowing its head! And after a few seconds of putting up futile resistance, the Dragon once again dived back into the book!
Then a few seconds later, the light encompassing the book faded, and the golden orb sunk back into Nick's body.
But the book, which had been perfectly fine just a moment ago, caught fire mysteriously. And the dragon that looked like the one from earlier, but on a much larger scale, flew out of the burning book and flew directly at Nick's head!
And Nick couldn't even react before the dragon had jumped into his body without asking for his permission. But Nick didn't have time to worry about the dragon at the moment because countless images were flashing in his mind.
In one of these images, the Dragon that had just intruded on his body floated above a world that looked to be much larger than earth. Then, as its purple scales shone, it opened its mouth and swallowed the entire world up in one gulp!
After the images finished giving Nick a headache, Nick then tried to find out where exactly such an enormous dragon was hiding, in his comparably tiny body. And soon he found the dragon, perched right in the middle of his energy center. But in there, its size was only as big as an ant's.
Unlike the dazed Nick, Mathew felt like he was having a nightmare, he had dreamed about the day his young master would ask him to train for so long.. But today, that dream had become a reality. He was so excited when he saw his young master flipping the book open and he believed this would be a new chapter in the history books of the family.
But before he could finish marveling at the joyous occasion, it happened, the thing that made him want to gouge his eyes out and stomp them to the ground!
Everything was going well at first, as his young master flipped the book open. Usually, the poem on the first page would distract most, but Nick didn't seem to mind it. And he was glad to see that it didn't even affect the young master which meant that not only did the young master possess heavenly talent, he actually also had great mental fortitude.
Then before they could go to the second page, it all went to shit, as a mysterious golden beam came out of nowhere and shone on the book, and before he could even react, the book had gotten covered with the golden light.
And try as he may, a weird power had restricted Mathew at that moment, preventing him from intervening. Then, under his horrified eyes, the book started burning, and was soon nothing but ashes on the ground!.
When the family head hears about this later, he won't be able to escape retribution!
Eyes bulging, teeth chattering, and knees buckling, Mathew was on the brink of insanity, as he violently grabbed Nick by the shoulder and started shaking him.
"It's all your fault, this is all your fault! Where is it?! Where did you put the book?! Are you trying to get me killed, you lazy, wastrel, Bastard!"
But in his anxiousness and rage, Mathew had forgotten to control his strength. And with their massive strength difference, every shake was causing Nick heavy internal damage.
It had excited Nick to see that miniature Dragon in his energy center earlier because he could see that the dragon was constantly absorbing energy for him, without him even needing to practice the technique. This meant that he wouldn't need to sit down and focus to cultivate like other cultivators, and he could now get stronger even during his sleep.
Sadly, that excitement all went away, as he saw his servant, Mathew, grab him by his shoulders and shaking him back and forth. Nick couldn't put in words the pain he felt as his internal organs ruptured one by one.
He couldn't even scream from the pain since a large volume of blood rushed into his throat and clogged it. All he could do was gargle and choke as he tried to talk some sense to the crazed Mathew.
'What the fuck is this?! Is this some sick joke that fate is playing on me?! I was so happy to be alive, so grateful for another chance in life, so grateful for being born into a family and not ending up an orphan in this life as well, and most of all, I was so excited to be a rich young master and not a poor beggar!'
'But now that I think about it, is this life really that good. An overpowered Golden orb that looks down on me and gets me into trouble. An aggressive Dragon resides in my energy center, that just went inside my body without asking permission, which makes me feel kind of violated. Now I know how rape victims feel, I understand your pain, my sisters and brothers….'
'Although, my pain can't compare to theirs...no, mine was far worse, cause at least their aggressors were of the same species, mine was a Dragon! So technically, I win...cough got sidetracked there for a moment, back to the main issue.'
'The worst part about all this, however, was my prick of a servant, I haven't even savored my new life as a rich young master for more than a few hours, and yet he is attempting to kill me.'
'If this is some sort of payback from fate for all those people I fired in my previous life, then I would like to sincerely say...screeeeeeeew you fate, go sue me if you dare. I would have gotten you the electric chair for messing with me!'
Mathew eventually returned to his senses and realized his blunder when he saw the blood-drenched Nick who was having trouble breathing.
Loosening his grip, Mathew watched as Nick fell heavily to the ground. Then staring at his hands he started pacing back and forth in worry, while muttering to himself, "At least I could have died alone before, but now, after nearly killing the young master, my entire family would follow me to the grave! "
And as the horrifying images of his family members dying entered his mind, Mathew shook his head with determination and turned towards Nick resolutely!
"Forgive me young master for I have failed you, giving my life is one thing, but I have a daughter and a wife that I must protect. And if the family head finds out that I nearly killed you, they will all die with me. Please know that I have and always will, love you, young master." Crying as he spoke Mathew lifted the injured Nick up and carried him away towards a certain direction.
Mathew was taking Nick to that thing, that thing kept in the most restricted area of the family, and that only a handful of people had the right to stand in front of.
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