It was only a spark, but it created a type of energy greater than anything Luan had ever experienced.
The dark flames.
It coursed through his body, setting his meridians on fire. Even his core which had always remained pristine and colorless, turned black before being enveloped by dark flames.
Those were the changes on the inside.
On the outside, Luan's beards and hair became darker as they too turned into dark flames that burned over his skin.
Even though it was night time, the dark flames brought upon an eerie light that would chill many eyes.
The whites of his eyes became pitch black, and his originally black pupils became white.
His Qi Condensation aura vanished, replaced with a more devastating aura that blew everything around him into dust, even Steward Jo was affected.
Crushed into the ground by the weight of this aura.
His pupils bulged as his internal organs were being crushed. "Forgive me! Let's talk this out!"
Unfortunately for him, Luan couldn't even hear him. He was too absorbed in the transformation that his body underwent.
Suddenly, the dark flames that burned on his meridians started to affect him. He realized that cracks had started forming on them.
Acting quickly, Luan pulled the immaterial core away from his qi core. At the same time, he exhausted his core and forced out more qi from it, using it to push the dark flames out of his meridians.
Like fire burning through paper, the dark flames burst out from his body burnt everything with the radius of a hundred meters.
It left nothing behind. Steward Jo was erased, alongside the trees. Even the ground was scorched.
As quickly as the dark flames appeared, they vanished.
It came and left like a ripple.
All of this happened within the span of a few minutes.
Though Luan wasn't burned by the dark flames on the outside, his meridians and core were hurting. His qi core now had cracks on it. Luan coughed out blood a few more times and fell to his knees.
He was too stunned to register the pain he was in. The dark flame was something he never thought would happen.
His shock soon turned into joy.
What more could he ask for? The potential of his art that possessed no name, or formal techniques, was already beyond anything he knew.
But his body was too weak to even endure a spark.
This was another obvious weakness he had to deal with in the future.
Luan coughed blood once again, this time, the sight of his blood helped his brain register the agony his body was in.
His sight became blurry as he slowly lost consciousness.
…
An unknown amount of time went by.
Luan suddenly woke up to the sight of a familiar roof.
It was his room.
The memories of what happened before he passed out quickly returned, coupled with the bright light from the sun, Luan help but close his eyes and raise a hand to block the sun's rays.
"Mom! Luan is awake!" Liana called out to their mother who had just left the room to go and rest.
Romain rushed back to the room.
Followed by several elders.
All of them were curious to know what had happened. Though from the remaining two corpses that they found, they could already infer some things.
But they preferred to hear from the horse's mouth before making conclusions.
Greeted by the sight of worried faces, Luan couldn't help but smile.
It's really nice to know that there are people that care for you.
"Luan, what happened?" Belan broke the silence.
After seeing the aftermath of where Luan had battled, finding him unconscious alongside two Foundation Building guards, they couldn't help but doubt his identity once again.
"Second Grandpa…" Luan looked into his eyes. "I was ambushed." He revealed, causing his sister and mother to gasp.
The elders had considered that possibility, but why?
Why was he ambushed?
Luan continued. "I found a Secret Grotto at the borders of our land."
This time, it was the elders turn to gasp.
They all understood the gravity of that, even if it was a low level Secret Grotto, to their family, it was a great boon.
Luan didn't even have to say anymore, everyone present began putting two and two together. It wasn't strange for people to be consumed by greed.
Unless the individual valued loyalty, it wasn't strange for the guards of a large family to steal from their employers. Especially when that said family is on the course of declining.
However, a few of the elders still felt like there were holes.
"So you fought against two early-stage foundation?" Baldeen probed.
"Barely…" Luan shook his head. "One of them used a bead-like graded treasure to kill two of his comrade, probably out of greed. While another brought out a spirit talisman… that's all I can remember. I passed out not so long after that." He finished.
Luan was winging it.
He had no idea of how much time had passed, and what his family's investigation had resulted to.
But from what he had told them, he included enough to extradite himself from much suspicion.
None of them could tell the grade of talisman that had been used to cause that much damage to the surroundings, but they existed.
To the elders, that story matched a bit of what of they found.
It kind of… checked out…
Rather, some of them didn't want to say anymore at the moment. Some things are better left to be said later on.
"What about the Secret Grotto, where is it?" One of the elders asked. This man was from the same generation of Luan great grandfather.
He was known as Dolan.
Dolan was also the one in-charge of the family's finances.
His excitement could be heard in his voice, after all, he knew very well how much a Secret Grotto would benefit the family.
"It's—" Luan began but was soon interrupted by Belan.
Baldeen retrieved a set of flags from his sleeves and placed them at the four corners of the room. He brought his hands together and formed a few signs.
Qi gathered from the earth, rushing towards the flags. At the same time, a bubble like cover, enveloped the entire room.
So they're aware that there might be spies around. Why don't they just get rid of them?
Luan observed.
The Khan family he knew, what he could recall from his childhood, was a family of fierce people.
Though they weren't nobles by blood or title, they had gained enough military infamy and accolades that out of respect for the family's contribution to the empire, very few stepped on their toes.
Big or small, his family didn't back down.
However, it seemed that this was a thing of the past.
Baldeen nodded and said; "You can speak now."
Luan told them where it was and even suggested that he would take them to it.
At first they refused, saying that he was still injured. But Luan insisted, he had checked, his body had healed.
Which came as a surprise to him, but he masked his emotions with a smile.
Whether it was the cracks on his meridians or core, all of it had healed.
After being forced by his mother to eat before stepping out, Luan directed the elders towards the location of the Secret Grotto.
Baldeen immediately brought out a few more flags and planted them in strategic areas before making hand signs that created an illusion over the entrance of the grotto.
Not only that, the illusion formation masked the aura of qi coming from the Secret Grotto.
Shit… I forgot to deal with the corpses of those two couples.
Luan resisted the urge to kiss his teeth and palm his face. Now he would have come up with another explanation for that.
But as the elders emerged from the grotto, one of them kicked a charred arm aside with his boot.
"Serves the thieving scum right," Elder Dolan grunted. "Saves us the trouble of an execution. "
Luan relaxed. Of course to them, the corpses were just evidence of justice rightfully served, not a puzzle to be solved.
This grotto was on their land, legitimately making it theirs. Those who trespass deserved to die.
Belan approached Luan with a wide smile on his face. "Luan!" He held his shoulders, "You have made a great contribution to the family. Tell me, do you have a request?"
Many families as big as theirs in this world functioned on a merit based system.
It is a difficult thing to provide equal treatment to every member of the family at the same time. Not only is it difficult, it is extremely expensive.
The profit that the Khan family would make from this was enough for them ignore their merit based system, just this time. After all, this is something that Luan could have kept a secret and profited from alone.
They were his elders, they couldn't bear to lose face.
"None, Second Grandpa. I'm just happy that I'm able to do something for the family after being a burden for so long… you guys must have spent a lot of money to keep me alive." Luan sighed.
He was truly grateful, especially after hearing that it was a grade-5 heart demon pill that induced his condition.
For him to have survived for so long, his family must have spent a fortune.
His words touched the hearts of the elders. But also, aggravated their guilt once again.
Why had they given in and decided to end his life?
All of them lamented.
If Luan had just made a request, none of them would have to go through the process of soothing their guilty conscience.
As for Luan, he took no offence in the decision they made. All that mattered was the present.
He was alive and well.
"No, that won't do. The fanily does not forget its debts nor its mistakes." Belan spoke up. " He opened his palm and a familiar bead appeared. It was the same bead Steward Jo was using. "This is your by rights of conquest. Use it well."
"Also, I'll have the clan's blacksmith make a better walking cane for you once we get back." Belan finished, not giving Luan a chance to refuse his offers.