At this moment, within a small sect city of the Azure Wind Continent royal lands.
Within a small rundown house, a young boy with rosy completion and big bright gray eyes was sitting over a small table filled with all kinds of dishes, and he was happily chunking down the meat with a content expression on his youthful face.
While a petite woman wearing an old apron was sitting in front of the boy watching him with a tender yet complex gaze.
"Mom, your cooking is the best in the world!" The boy happily declared.
The boy's mother smiled with affection and said, "Then eat more. I'll make as much as you want."
"Hehe, you should eat as well. It's very good for your body. I hunt this demonic beast myself. It's filled with nutritious Qi." The boy seriously revealed.
The boy's mother couldn't help but show a worried expression at this moment as she anxiously said, "Damian, you don't need to put your life in danger anymore. Look, I'm fully cured, and I can now do work as well. The cultivation world is too dangerous, especially for someone who doesn't have any background. Why don't you find a guard job in the city lord manor? I'm sure they won't reject a young man like you."
Damian's gray eyes flashed with disdain as he said, "Those guys are rotten to the core. I'll rather be a beggar than join their ranks. But don't worry, Mom, as I said before, I have a Master behind me and his protection, so I'm quite safe all the time. All this hunting is my training.
"When I get more strong, I'll make sure to protect you and help you prolong your life. Then we'll stay together forever!" Damian's eyes were filled with resolution as he arrogantly declared.
His mother's eyes were tearing up as she said, "I'm sorry… my boy, I… I should've done more for you. Y-you were the one who took care of me all these years when you should be playing around with children at your age. Now you even embarked on this dangerous path because of me. I'm… I'm a terrible mother…"
Tears started to gush out of her eyes as she sobbed with grief.
Damian sighed as he stood up and hugged her. As she soothingly said, "Mom, why do you always bring that up? I told you already; those days are past us. I did what I wanted to for my mother. In this world, you are my only family, and if I can't even provide for you as your son, then what's the point of me being alive?"
"Silly boy… my silly boy…" She sobbed in his arm softly with pain as well as relief while the childish look in Damian's eyes was flickering between coldness and dilemma…
After the meal, Damian massaged his mother's legs despite her strong resistance until she fell asleep with a gratified smile. He then stood up and encased her in a soft blanket that seemed to be made with very expensive wool.
He then kissed her forehead and left the room without making any sound and then left the house. Furthermore, he sighed with deep emotions after coming out. Before he flipped his hand, a green formation plate appeared.
Damian stuck it on the house door before activating it, and an invisible barrier covered the house. After making sure the formation was properly working. His figure starting dissolved in his surroundings before he vanished entirely like a ghost.
A few kilometers away from the old house, in a dark alleyway, Damian's figure appeared again, but this time was clad in a black dress, and his face was half covered in a black cloth.
The very next moment thereafter, a person with his face hidden behind long dreadlocks filled with dirt and a bare bonny torso with wound marks and soil and wearing only a short rag walked over.
Damian's eyes were filled with deep respect as he looked at this beggar and bowed in greeting, "I see you, Master!"
"I'm not your Master, boy." A husky voice rang behind those dreadlocks.
Damian seemed to didn't care as he said, "It doesn't matter if you accept or not. For me, you are and will be my Master, who bestows me with the power to change my destiny."
The beggar's expression was unknown as his husky voice sounded again in question, "Do you made your choice?"
Damian's eyes shone with predicament and pain as he said with uncertainty, "Why do I have to leave her? She's the only person in this world who I care about, and I want to be at her side no matter what. If I leave her for power, I'll be no better than an ingrate who abandoned his mother just because she might get in his way!"
"Then you don't want the next realm manual of the Achromatic Theft Cultivation Art?" The beggar plainly asked without any emotions in his voice, as if it didn't matter what Damian chose.
Damian's expression turned even more complicated when he heard 'Achromatic Theft Cultivation Art' as his heart raced with longing.
But when he thought about his mother, who he had to abandon to get his hands on this cultivation art, he shook his head. He ground his teeth before he said, "No, I won't abandon her for power, or I'll never be able to cultivate peacefully in my life. What the use of power if I can't use it for my loved ones."
The beggar then poses another question in a strange tone, "Then tell me, if I decided to kill your mother right now, do you have the power to protect her?"
Damian's body stiffed when he heard this, and his eyes shone with killing intent as he looked at the beggar with vigilance. The respect in his eyes instantly vanished into a void as it had never existed before.
His mother was his reverse scale, and he would not tolerate any kind of threat related to her as he coldly answered, "Then I'll die protecting her!"
"Na?ve…" The beggar's impassive voice rang in derision before a terrifying pressure descended upon Damian.
Damian's felt as if a mountain was crushing down on his back all of a sudden, and he instantly fell to his knees. Even after he tried to circulate his Qi to resist it, it was like he was using a twig to support a boulder.
He felt he would crush to death at this moment, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. He felt like an ant who was going stomped by an elephant before that pressure vanished.
When he caught his breath and looked toward the beggar, he found the beggar had vanished, and a bronze bowl was left in his place, and this time there were three books inside, which made him shocked and also elated.
The beggar's voice rang again, "Since you are still na?ve enough to reject power, let me open your eyes for you. Your next mission is to find your father, who is inside the Dark Nightmare Sect. I'll protect your mother until you decide to kill her yourself…"
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