Starting Cultivation During a Trip

”How did you get involved with the Wang Family?” Rosen asked.

”It’s a long story. I have a friend who accidentally took something that the Wang Family valued highly, which led to a conflict.”

”The Purple Electric Toad?” Rosen said offhandedly.

”You know about it?”

”An Innate Treasure, extraordinary in its presence. I happened to be nearby when it appeared,” Rosen said softly. ”So the Zhongnan Mountain disciple who took that treasure is your friend.”

”No wonder you have such luck.”

”You were nearby? Then why didn’t you step in to help...” Zhang Fan felt a stir in his heart.

”Help whom? Why should I help?” Rosen replied indifferently.

”An Innate Treasure means a destined belonging. The Wang Family wasn’t fated to have it. Even if they obtained it, it would be more harm than good, bringing endless troubles.”

Zhang Fan paused slightly upon hearing this, instinctively looking at Rosen’s back, feeling a profound sense of loneliness.

”Rosen, you and the Wang Family...”

”Zhang Fan, back in the orphanage, we were quite different because our parents weren’t truly deceased. Though we were called orphans, we weren’t,” Rosen said with a faint, self-deprecating smile.

”Um.” Zhang Fan murmured softly.

”Ignoring our parents, I really have no ties with the Wang Family,” Rosen said coldly.

”Let me take you to meet my parents.”

”Sure!”

Zhang Fan nodded and said softly, ”Had I known you were here, I would have prepared a gift for your parents.”

”No need to be polite,” Rosen shook his head.

”Even if you prepared something, they wouldn’t need it.”

”Hmm!?”

Zhang Fan was momentarily taken aback as they arrived in front of a small courtyard.

Rosen pushed the door open and walked in, with Zhang Fan following closely behind. The courtyard was modest yet serene. The brilliant moonlight spilled over, casting light on a towering tree by the wall, whose branches swayed in the breeze, scattering the bright moonlight.

”Your parents must be asleep at this hour,” Zhang Fan whispered, afraid of disturbing anyone.

”Dad, Mom, this is my friend,”

Suddenly, Rosen stood in the courtyard and spoke towards a corner.

”Hmm!?”

Zhang Fan raised an eyebrow, his gaze intensifying as he looked over. The corner was empty, devoid of any shadows.

”Rosen, where are your parents?” Zhang Fan couldn’t help but ask.

”Right there,” Rosen pointed to the corner.

Zhang Fan’s face tensed slightly. Despite searching with his Primordial Spirit, the corner remained empty. Besides the towering tree, nothing else was there.

”Mom, this is my friend from the orphanage. It’s been years since we’ve met...”

At that moment, Rosen walked to the corner, gently caressing the large tree with its swaying branches and leaves.

”Rosen, you...”

Zhang Fan’s gaze quivered as he saw the tree’s branches slowly unfurl, with its aged bark peeling away to reveal a shriveled and twisted human face... if it could still be called human. Its grotesque features were faintly visible, as if charred by fire.

”Zhang Fan, you’re still the same as before? After cultivating for so long, you should be used to seeing strange things by now,” Rosen whispered.

Without turning his head, his silhouette seemed to warp under the chilling moonlight.

Zhang Fan remained silent, simply watching him, watching the bizarre tree.

”Before I was even born, I was abandoned by the Wang Family...”

Rosen began. He softly stroked the tree trunk, and his deep voice resonated through the tranquil courtyard.

At that time, his mother had a difficult labor, and he was dead before birth, a complete stillborn. The most critical moment was during delivery, something ominous occurred. The people present seemed cursed, aging swiftly, and ultimately dying inside.

The Wang Family saw his mother and him as anomalies, directly discarding them near a mountain sanatorium and setting everything alight.

”My mom hadn’t breathed her last then and watched wide-eyed as they left her in the mountains, where a sea of flames engulfed her...” Rosen spoke softly, as if he had witnessed it himself.

He saw his mother burned to charcoal, a pain beyond human imagination.

Yet, after the fire, the heart of the stillborn carcass began to beat. The carcass, like a seed, fused with the soil, growing roots that spread like a tree.

She absorbed nutrients from the surrounding earth and even from nearby insects, rodents, wild animals, and birds. Anything within the range where the carcass had taken root would be drained, nurturing the baby within her.

”Zhang Fan, life and death are truly mysterious... Her death incubated my life, and my life brought her back...” Rosen sighed.

The eerie tree’s branches gently brushed against his face, like a mother caressing her child.

”Jia Sheng Gui Si!” Zhang Fan’s eyes narrowed sharply.

Rosen was the fourth cultivator of the Jia Sheng Gui Si.

Yan Fei once said that his mother was originally an experimental subject of the Coffin Lifting Association, with her body infused with the blood of the previous Jia Sheng Gui Si cultivators.

”Inside her body, I could share her memories, feel her pain. I could see every bit of her past...”

”I crawled out from inside her until someone took me away from that place and sent me to Sanqi Orphanage,” Rosen whispered.

”Jiang Wansui!” Zhang Fan uttered a name.

”Yes, Jiang Wansui,” Rosen nodded. ”Now, it seems, he might have been observing me for a long time back then.”

”You know everything that happened with me at the orphanage,” Rosen continued.

”After you left, I also left. First, I went to Shangjing, stayed there for over two years, and then I was sent back to the Wang Family.”