Oath

"Madam meant for us to wait at the 'Chen Yao Inn' opened by their family, and once she had arranged lodgings, she would send someone to fetch us?"

Li Tianming drove the carriage through the streets of the Flame Capital.

The Chen Yao Inn was one of the largest inns in the Flame Capital. Even a single night's stay was exorbitantly expensive. With the travel funds they had left, they could not even afford to linger there for a moment.

"We won't go to the Chen Yao Inn." Wei Jing spoke from within the carriage. That meant she was giving up the lodgings Xue Lan had arranged for her.

Li Tianming had seen all the warmth and coldness of human nature. How could he fail to understand the barbed mockery hidden within Madam Xue Lan's words?

She had already acted that way to their faces. Behind their backs, it was easy enough to imagine how she would ridicule and sneer at them.

"Don't go looking for these so-called sisters again. When you are in glory, there will always be people scrambling to cling to your coattails. When you fall into hardship, every demon and monster will want to kick you while you are down, let alone a friendship from over twenty years ago." Li Tianming shook his head.

"She wasn't like this before." Wei Jing's voice was somewhat weak.

"Mother, I don't want you begging anyone for me. Even less do I want anyone to hurt you."

What had happened today truly broke Li Tianming's heart for her.

The more one trusted someone, the more painful it was when that person gave them such a "joke."

If she had not regarded Xue Lan as a true sister, she would never have come to ask her for a place to stay, only to humiliate herself.

"I understand." She nodded.

She did not want to show the knots in her heart before her son, but Li Tianming knew that she was more devastated than anyone.

"Li Yanfeng's carriage is fairly respectable. It should fetch some money. Let's sell it first; at least then we can stay at an inn in the Flame Capital for a month."

"Once I enter Yanhuang Academy, I'll think of another way." Li Tianming had made his plans.

Xue Lan would certainly have arranged lodgings for them. It would have been effortless for her, but Wei Jing would not even return to the Chen Yao Inn.

This "sister" was no longer worth mentioning.

When someone was poor and destitute, arriving in such a vast city could indeed leave them lost and bewildered. The road ahead was still difficult, but Li Tianming would not lose faith.

The Flame Capital was like a colossal vortex of fire, with everyone struggling within it.

Li Tianming silently swore that for the rest of his life, he would never again allow anyone the chance to hurt her. Starting from this moment!

"Mother, it's time you told me about Heavenly Court. What is the Little Life Tribulation, and who is the Court Lord?" Li Tianming asked.

Heavenly Court was a mysterious place. Li Tianming longed to enter it and cultivate, yet to this day, he knew nothing about the people within Heavenly Court.

"You're still too young. Knowing these things won't do you any good. Being able to return to the Flame Capital for a look this time has already satisfied me." Wei Jing lifted the curtain and gave Li Tianming a deliberately carefree smile.

"So you have no expectations of me at all? You just want to be forgotten like this and quietly leave this world, is that it?" Li Tianming turned back and stared blankly into her eyes and at her white hair.

Wei Jing continued smiling. That was what she had been thinking, wasn't it?

"Mother, listen to me. I will enter Heavenly Court. I will cure your illness. No matter how difficult it is, I swear I will do it!"

Li Tianming's gaze blazed. Every word he spoke was an oath he made to his mother at this moment.

"It's difficult. Entering Heavenly Court is difficult, and curing the illness is even harder—harder than climbing to the blue sky." Wei Jing shook her head.

"I know it's difficult, but you have to believe in your son. I believe in my mother too. You are not a coward who bows to fate, nor are you worthless trash who retreats before difficulty!"

"You must be unwilling to accept this life! So even if I have to give everything, I will accomplish everything I have said!"

It had been a long time since Li Tianming had been this emotional. He took his mother's hand and looked straight into her eyes, his gaze firmer than anyone's.

"Tianming..." Wei Jing was somewhat lost.

In truth, Li Tianming had struck many things hidden in her heart. But with the cruelty of fate bearing down like Mount Tai, how could she not bow her head?

"Mother, you gave me this life. If you die, I'll die with you. On the road to the Yellow Springs, I will not let you be alone again." Li Tianming was absolutely not joking when he said this.

"Don't be like this, child. You still have a grand future ahead of you."

"Without you, no matter how glorious it is or how grand that future may be, it has no meaning."

"I'm not admitting defeat. I just want you to understand that in the face of this so-called fate, I will fight with my life and battle to the end. So please, you must never give up either!"

She was the one who had taught him all these principles. Without her encouragement, how could he have endured these three years?

"Fine, I promise you. Once you enter Heavenly Court, I'll tell you everything." At last, she found faith again and was no longer so disheartened.

Yet tears instead welled up in her eyes. Seeing her like this only made Li Tianming's heart ache more.

"Alright, stop crying. Pinky swear." Li Tianming wiped away her tears and smiled.

"Alright. Pinky swear, hang ourselves, a hundred years without change." She still had a childlike side to her. At this moment, her tears were tears of happiness.

Just as they had when Li Tianming was little, their fingers hooked together, holding fast to their oath to fight on to the end in the days ahead.

"Mother, let's not accept charity from that turtle bastard named Xue Lan."

"One day, your son will buy you the biggest house, even better than Listening Rain Pavilion. I'll make sure you live comfortably, with a whole group of maids serving you." Li Tianming said.

"No, no. As long as I can see you, as long as you are happy and well, even the smallest house will be happiness." Wei Jing finally smiled. Her eyes narrowed with her smile, like an eighty-year-old child...

The Flame Capital was vast—so vast that a carriage rolling down its streets would not draw anyone's notice.

Everyone hurried along, busy with their own affairs. Only Yanhuang Academy's "Palace Examination" three days later could stir anticipation among the people.

But Li Tianming did not know that while they spoke, a man stood in the shadows at the street corner.

The man watched them pass with deep eyes and followed them for some distance. Only then did he stop, a complicated smile appearing at the corner of his lips.

"Life..." He shook his head and continued following them.

Li Tianming sold the carriage and received thirty pieces of Jade with orange Heavenly Patterns. There were Fire Jade, Wind Jade, Gold Jade, and Thunder Jade among them.

Because all three horses pulling the carriage were at the ferocious beast level, it could be sold for such a price. An ordinary carriage could not fetch even one piece of Jade with a red Heavenly Pattern.

Although Little Yellow Chick eyed the Jade greedily, it could not eat them now.

These thirty pieces of Jade had to sustain the mother and son for a long time. His mother especially needed a place to stay and needed to recuperate; there would be many more expenses.

Li Tianming would attend the Palace Examination in three days, so he found a modest inn, rented one room, and paid a month's lodging in advance.

The room had only one bed, which naturally went to his mother. A patch of floor was enough for him to cultivate on.

After gaining the Eternal Purgatory Body, his physique had become exceptionally robust, brave and powerful. Going without rest for days and nights would not affect him.

Once they had settled down, Li Tianming boiled the Clear Spirit Grass into medicine for Wei Jing. Before long, Wei Jing fell into a deep sleep, and Li Tianming prepared to cultivate with Little Yellow Chick.

Ordinary people's companion beasts were forbidden from swaggering through the streets of the Flame Capital, which was why Li Tianming only now let it emerge from the Companion Space.

After all, some companion beasts were enormous and could easily cause destruction in the streets.

Because Wei Jing was sleeping, Little Yellow Chick was fairly well-behaved after coming out and did not squawk and shout as it had before.

"Having no money is the greatest difficulty in the world." Li Tianming smiled. "Fortunately, we snatched Liu Qianyang's Thunderfire Chain. If we truly become poor and destitute, selling it should be enough to buy a place to live in the Flame Capital."

"What sins did I commit in my past life to end up following a poor bastard like you?" Little Yellow Chick said disdainfully.

"Damn it, when it's time to share hardship, you say something like that? Are we still brothers?" Li Tianming did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"What brothers without money? How naive. My stomach is empty—where would I find any brotherly affection?" Little Yellow Chick sneered.

"Trash." Li Tianming looked down on it.

Just as they spoke, Li Tianming suddenly felt his scalp prickle.

He whirled around. A man was standing behind him.

The man wore a voluminous black robe, yet it could not conceal the brilliance of his eyes. He stared at Li Tianming, having appeared here without a sound.

"Shh. Don't wake her." Fortunately, the man bore no ill intent. When Li Tianming discovered him, he lowered his voice, and his tone was relatively gentle.

Li Tianming relaxed his guard because of this, but he judged that this person was certainly exceedingly powerful.

For him to appear without a sound, he had to surpass Li Tianming by countless times in strength.

Moreover, merely from the imposing aura he unconsciously gave off, he was an existence beyond anything Li Tianming could imagine.

"Who might you be, sir?" Li Tianming put away his hostility. He knew that such an existence had no need to deal with him; he was not worthy of that kind of attention.

"Unimportant." The man studied him.

"Then, what are your instructions, Senior?" Li Tianming asked.

"Li Tianming, I know you." There was a trace of amusement in the man's gaze.

"Then should I feel honored?"

"Do you know why I know you?"

"Please tell me, Senior."

"Because I know that you obtained the Sacred Beast Battle Soul, but it ended up making a wedding dress for Lin Xiaoting."

"Three years ago, you had no roots and no support in the Flame Capital, so your ending was tragic. But there is no denying that you were the first to obtain the Sacred Beast Battle Soul, and you were the one it acknowledged."

Only the man's eyes were visible, but there was no doubt that his gaze was exceptionally sharp.

Li Tianming's entire body trembled after hearing those words, because he had never told anyone else about this matter.

He knew clearly that the people of Thunder Lord Manor controlled public opinion. Even if he told the entire world that the Sacred Beast Battle Soul belonged to him, no one would believe it.

Only after entering the path of cultivation, breaking through the Beast Pulse Realm and reaching the Spirit Source Realm, did one understand just how important the Sacred Beast Battle Soul truly was!

Simply put, the combined wealth of ten Lihuo Cities could not compare to a Sacred Beast Battle Soul.

Lin Xiaoting's talent had not been enough for him to become Heavenly Court's number one genius, but the Sacred Beast Battle Soul had allowed him to climb to that position!

The highest level a companion beast could reach was that of a Sacred Beast. Sacred Beasts existed only in legends, while the battle souls they left behind could grant companion beasts heaven-defying combat power. That was capital without end!

Top-grade divine sources were treasures of heaven and earth, and Sacred Beast Battle Souls were just as valuable.

For example, one could spend vast sums at the Starfall Chamber of Commerce to buy ordinary divine sources—even yellow-grade and mysterious-grade divine sources—but one could absolutely not buy a Sacred Beast Battle Soul.

A person who knew that the Sacred Beast Battle Soul had originally belonged to him had suddenly appeared before him. One could only imagine how astonished Li Tianming was.