Chapter 25: Li Bao

"Li Bao as THE Li Bao?" I asked him to clarify. This is just too shocking.

There was silence in the room for some moments.

"…Yes, it seems so." Grandpa answered me as he was also shocked by this development.

Li Bao.

A name that is too well known in the divine central continent. Even the children know about him and his deeds. This level of famousness is not something that even the current heads of the seven holy lands could enjoy, so you can say that this is a sign of his greatness.

He is the biggest 'celebrity' on the continent so it is not a surprise that in the Li family he is some sort of god. Purging an entire family or destroying whole sects, is one of the smallest things that could be the result of insulting this figure that was active years ago in the divine central continent.

The common people only know myths and legends from him and the powerful places like the seven holy lands know him by heart. He was such a bright genius that if he would declare himself the second in the world, no one would dare call himself/herself thefirst.

'This is clearly a fucking MC if ever there was one.' Even at this point in the story, I could see that this ancestor of mine was definitely a child of the plane.

As I was bitching about Li Bao on my mind, grandpa Long continued his explanation.

His story was what you would find in any Chinese novel that you read.

He started as an unfavored son of the Li family. He had a hard childhood and was bullied repeatedly. Because of his standing in the family, he didn't receive many resources from the family and didn't improve his cultivation and in turn, the family cut his resources because he was a 'trash' as they said.

But the fact was that, because of his special physique he had to intake more resources to gain the same cultivation as others. But this special physique helped him in having a more stable and powerful foundation in contrast to others. This was a treasure for the Li family that wasn't found and probably wouldn't ever be…

But something happened that changed everything. One time that Li Bao was hunting in the mountains to hone his skills and kill beasts for money and food, he comes face to face with a powerful beast that was way beyond his power and could kill him easily.

He tried to run away but the beast was too fast to leave behind and was too clever to deceive. After an hour of pursuit, the beast cornered Li Bao and was about to kill him. As the beast attacked him, Li Bao used all his remaining power to sidestep and preserve his life.

He succeeded in keeping his life and the beast's attack hit the ground. But there was one fact that Li Bao forgot. The beast was very angry after one hour of chasing him and used all his power in this attack.

The ground shook and caved in, swallowing Li Bao and the beast in it.

This fall could be fatal for anyone but Li Bao used the beast's body as a shield for the impact and in turn exchanged the beast's life for his own.

'What the…' I was looking at grandpa Long with wide eyes. In Li Huang's memories, there was some general information about Li Bao but nothing from his origin and with this many details…

Oblivious to my thought, grandpa Long continued his storytelling.

The fact that Li Bao kept his life doesn't mean that he didn't sustain any injuries. He was injured and used all the herbs that he was collecting to fix himself up. Although he didn't heal fully, he could move easier and ventured into the cave that he was fallen into to find a way out of here.

After some exploration, he found a corner with many precious herbs that was in some sort of ancient place, because you could feel that no one has found it in a long while.

I couldn't contain my emotions anymore.

"*tsk* God damn plot armor!" I blurted out.

I mean he just happened to be in a place of the cave that was close to the ground and the damn beast attacked the exact place and boom, he found a treasure trove.

Grandpa Long stopped his story and looked at me.

"…What?" he asked me with narrowed eyes.

"You wouldn't get it…" I shook my head and gestured for him to continue with the story.

At first, he wanted to sell these herbs to help his mother with the expenses but he soon came to a conclusion. He has no power to keep these herbs in his position and if anyone sees them, they would snatch them and possibly kill him to silence him to keep their face.

So he had no other option other than to use them for himself. 'even if I am a trash, I would become more powerful with these herbs.' was what he thought. Using the herbs that he found he began to cultivate and before long he broke through continuously.

After just a short month he was like another person and was at the level of an elder of the Li family in terms of cultivation.

The outside world had already deemed him dead and his mother was mourning for him. He came out of the cave and showed the whole family how strong he has gotten and shocked everyone. Some of the elders wanted to kill him but the grand elder protected him because he know that he was an unparalleled genius and would be the gem of the Li family in the following years.

After that, he got a better standing in the family and joined the heavenly sword sect's examination.

"At the examination for heavenly swor—" grandpa Long was going to continue that I cut him short.

"Wait for a minute old man. Do you want to give me his whole biography? I would rather you train me…" I didn't have the necessary patience to listen to a story that is clearly ripped off multiple times with a tweak or two.

Grandpa Long was shocked by my attitude but didn't care about it too much.

"Are you sure about that?" It was a question about the training and not about the story.

I just shrugged in response.

"Well, from your notes we know that I have the special physique of Li Bao and I could gain from this kind of training so it is better that I use this week to gain more benefits." I told him straightforwardly.

Although I nag about his hellish training regime, but I can't deny that it is effective and now with this herbal mix added to the equation I can be gaining more than I bargained for.

"You are not wrong about that." Grandpa Long nodded to my words.

"I'm expecting that you can give me his methods, training, routines, and whatever you could find on Li Bao. Right old man?" I asked him.

He looked at me for a few seconds.

"You know that most of these are family secrets, yes?" he asked me back.

"Naturally. But I also know that they have no use for anyone other than me, so you have nothing to be afraid of by disclosing them to me." I told him logically.

Grandpa Long contemplated for a minute and then nodded to himself.

"Alright. I'll make them ready for you but you will get it after you come back from the trial so you have to work hard." He told me.

'This sadistic tsundere, he can't say stay safe or something...' I thought to myself.

"Yeah yeah, I know." I told him dismissively.

"Good. Now be ready for more training in ten minutes, I'll go and make more of the herbal mix." He told me and got out of the room right after that.

As soon as he was out of the building I took out my communication device from my storage ring and contacted uncle Aram.

"Uncle there is some training that I am doing so I would be grateful if you could give me the information next week." I told him as soon as the connection was established.

There was a few seconds of delay before he answered me.

"Okay brat, call me when you need it." He told me without asking further and ended the call.

"Efficient as always…" I muttered to myself.

Standing up, I went to the courtyard to continue the training.