"Damn it. Where is it?" Li Kong grumpily said.
After the work on the field, Li Kong immediately went to his house to prepare his belongings before embarking deep into the forest but here he was now, almost three hours deep in wasted time and almost insane.
'I'm dead if Uncle Zheng find out what am I doing here.' Li Kong gulped at the thought.
But the curiosity far outweigh Li Kong's fear, a decision he would soon regret, as he continued his search and not long after, he found a cave below a cliff.
The cave wasn't too large but still big enough for Li Kong to pass with ease with its entrance reaching up to around 5 meters in length and 3 meters in height.
Li Kong looked at the cave's entrance suspiciously.
'It couldn't be there, right? Hmm. What if it did fell there?' Li Kong rubbed his chin.
'Wait a minute... What if it were a beast's den?'
Li Kong imagined the moment he entered the entrance suddenly he felt a warm breath behind him and slowly turned his head to saw a towering beast with its mouth open to chopped of his head.
His whole body shivered at the thought as he looked at the cave's entrance once again.
The seemingly normal cave suddenly turned insidious as Li Kong felt like he was seeing an ominous air leaking out from the entrance.
Li Kong instinctively gulped and thought to himself.
'There's nothing wrong with being cautious, right?'
Li Kong grabbed a nearby rock and adopted a throwing stance while simultaneously prepared to escape immediately.
Li Kong swung his arm and the rock flew forward as it disappeared into the inside of the cave and making a 'thud' sound as it landed to the ground.
Li Kong's senses heightened as he prepared his feet to move the moment his ear caught slightly unusual sounds.
Few seconds had passed and Li Kong had yet to heard any semblances of howl.
Li Kong carefully treaded his way forward to the wall beside the entrance and peek a little to the inside of the cave.
The cave was medium-sized at best with no particular distinctions.
Li Kong heaved a sigh of relief and went inside of the cave. Li Kong's eyes roamed for a while, inspecting every nook and cranny of the cave. He couldn't find where the rock he threw was at but suddenly something caught his eyes.
He went deeper inside and found an odd-looking little white ball on the ground. The ball looked like it was made from a pristine white marble and an unfamiliar pattern etched on its surface. But except the pleasing marble-looking texture, there was hardly anything worth mentioning.
"Was this weird-looking ball the fallen star I saw?" Li Kong having a hard time believing that he spent hours only to found this odd white ball.
He wasn't impressed at all.
In the end, he sighed in disappointment at the time wasted for this weird-ball.
"I guess it still can fetch quite some price if I sell it to uncle An." Li Kong further sank into disappointment as he reached for the exit.
But suddenly...
"Who dared to call this Venerable weird?" An unknown and ancient voice echoed in his head.
The moment the voice uttered its first word, Li Kong immediately went to full alert. He pulled out his dagger and warily scanned all of his surroundings.
"Hoh, not a bad reaction." The voice expressed his genuine amazement.
Li Kong gave no response and continued to observe his surroundings. His heart beat furiously as adrenaline surged through his whole body, further heightening his sense but no matter how, he couldn't detect the slightest presence of a person.
"For a mortal, that is." The voice turned cold.
As the voice's tone dropped, colors faded from Li Kong's appearance.
Li Kong's senses immediately peaked and the whole world appeared to be in a slow motion.
He spun his body to gain momentum and readied to brandish his knife but alas...
'Ah...'
In the slowed world, Li Kong watched powerlessly as the incoming attack aimed for his heart.
'I'm dead.'
A thud sound was heard coming from the inside of the cave.
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...
Li Kong opened his eyes and gasped greedily for airs as his palm gripped his chest tightly.
His face contorted in pain and he gritted his teeth to lessen the pain.
After a while, his breathing had stabilized and he took the chance to observed his surroundings. He was still in the same cave.
'I'm not dead?' Still quite in a shock, Li Kong sweated profusely.
He suddenly jolted and quickly turned his gaze to where his heart laid and heaved a sigh of relief looking at his still intact chest.
"What was that thing before? I thought that I was dead." Li Kong recalled the seemingly almost transparent attack aimed at his heart.
Li Kong shivered at the sheer terror that attack gave to his entire being.
"Oh, you're wake up." Suddenly an ethereal voice rang inside of his head.
Li Kong's face immediately turn pale and he screamed on top of his lung.
"Aahhhhh!"
"Shut up, won't you? You're hurting my ear!"
Li Kong's mouth instantly shut and he felt his mouth was blocked with something and he couldn't open it. Li Kong fell on his back and rolled on the ground as he struggled to open his mouth with his hands.
Li Kong rolled for a good amount of time, but suddenly he realized that his life wasn't taken yet and he finally stopped rolling and looked around him in disbelief.
"Finally calmed down now?" The voice sounded exhausted.
Fear struck Li Kong but he hold his entire being from trying to escape and just nodded.
"Now you can open your mouth." The voice once again said.
Li Kong tried to open his mouth but to no avail, his mouth remain shut.
"Huh?" The voice sounded confused.
Listening to the confusion in the voice, Li Kong's face turned pale.
"Hey, wait, wait! Don't panic! Damn it, this is the problem being with no body."
Li Kong inhaled air like he was drinking water and sweats started to form again on his forehead.
'Am I gonna be mute for the rest of my life?'
Li Kong felt like fainting but he persevered and listened half hopeful and half desperate at the voice.
"Listen carefully, child. Look for the white bead you had with you before."
Li Kong immediately stood up and reached to his pouch but the ball was nowhere to found. He didn't lose his temper and calmly looked around the cave. He finally found it and held it tightly.
"Don't squeeze it too tight!" The voice seemed in a little pain.
Li Kong confused but still loosened his clasp.
"Don't do that again." The voice sounded irritated.
Li Kong didn't get why the voice sounded so much in pain and he decided to did an experiment and squeezed the ball again but this time not too hard.
"You brat, what I told you before?"
As the voice finished its words, Li Kong suddenly felt something struck his head and he gasped in pain from the impact.
The ball rolled off from his grip and to the ground while Li Kong protected his head from further attack.
Li Kong rubbed his head a few times before staring right at the white ball and with a quivering voice, he pointed.
"You... You're a ball!"
Li Kong's perception of reality was warped at the incredulity of the situation.
'I was almost killed by a ball? A ball? A weird-looking little ball?' Li Kong felt the world was spinning with this one.
"I'm a bead! What the hell did you mean by a ball?" The ball sounded annoyed.
The ball or the so-called "bead" sighed at the sight of Li Kong who still in shock and mumbling something in a low voice.
"I know it must be hard for you to comprehend this but I mean you no harm so listen carefully." The voice in serious tone.
Li Kong regained his consciousness and without hesitation, he sat right in front of the bead.
Afterall the bead could kill him at any given moment, but it didn't and that was enough to convinced Li Kong.
Li Kong gave a full score to his mental calculation and raised his hand before the white bead.
"Before that can I ask something first?" Li Kong watched his manner carefully and uttered in the politest tone he could voiced.
"Speak." That was his cue.
"Why was you trying to kill me before?" Li Kong asked with the deepest part of his heart.
"Kill? That was just an illusion but your senses were too sharp for your own good and it caused you to perceived it as a genuine threat."
"Why would you do that?" Li Kong said with unhappy voice.
"It was a test." The bead refused to elaborate any further.
Li Kong was speechless.
After the bead had finished its words, the voice resounded once again in Li Kong's head, "Place the bead on your palm."
Li Kong jolted off from his daze and quickly did what the voice told.
Suddenly, a surges of information flooded Li Kong's brain as many scenes quickly formed in his head.
He saw the scene of group of people flying in the sky carefreely.
He saw the scene of the sea of clouds and mountains piercing through it.
He saw the scene of brave warriors fighting fiercely with a beast cladded in blazing flame.
He saw the scene of people partying and laughing glamorously.
He saw the scene of a blooming oath of a pair underneath the cherry tree.
He saw the scene of the broken oath in front of the burning tree.
He saw the scene of the pouring rain washing everything away from the surface of the earth.
Li Kong saw the many facade of the memories before the memories stopped surging his brain and it all went away like a fleeting dream.
Li Kong closed his eyes and a single droplet of tear flowed out then he opened his eyes and he appeared as though he just awakened from a dream.
He wiped off his face with one hand and desperately gritted his teeth as hard as he could because if he didn't, he surely would broke down crying.
Something intense and foreign was welling up in Li Kong's psyche but weirdly, he couldn't told himself to reject the foreign feeling inside of him.
All of a sudden, he felt something warm was coursing through his palm and flowing gently to his head and the intense feeling slowly disseminated.
After that, he stayed silent for a moment before looking at the bead.
"What... What was that?" Li Kong asked in hoarse voice while making sniffing sound.
The bead didn't answered him and finally after a moment of silence, the bead spoke, "I am the remnants of once a great cultivator and I've been tasked to roamed around the world to gave an opportunity to those who were chosen and you..." The bead paused.
Although the bead didn't have any eyes, Li Kong could felt that it was staring right into his entire being.
"This encounter was fated."