Chapter 122

The second prince of the Xi Empire is a tall and good looking young man with strength and ability to boot. His intelligence and tactical ability would always leave his enemies feeling despair and pitiful. Nobody would dare challenge the young prince even those influential families within the Xi Empire. There was once the daughter of the Emperor's advisor who is a powerful cultivator in the infant soul realm. She took a fancy to the 2nd prince Li Yan Xi but he would always not put her presence in his eyes. At that time he is only a primary stage gold core realm cultivator and because of this humiliation for being rejected by a lower realm cultivator, she plotted against him and laid an ambush.

While fighting she shouted, "If I cannot have you, then no one can!"

This encounter was soon discovered by the Emperor's adviser and acted like he was a concern with the 2nd prince. But when he saw his daughter's headless corpse, his world immediately crumbled. It was discovered that the adviser has a hand in this plan to assassinate the 2nd prince, and so along with his whole clan they were decimated by the 2nd prince himself.

Thus in the Xi Empire, no one would dare to speak out his thoughts in front of the 2nd prince in fear of his strength and viciousness.

But unknown to all, Li Yan Xi is actually a very cautious person. This is due to a deep and dark secret he is keeping which no one knows even his own parents. A secret that once exposed, the whole Empire would not hesitate to assemble their most powerful army just to get rid of him. But since he is still too weak, he would not dare expose this secret.historical

"Little brother, have you heard the Immortal's trial?" The crown prince suddenly asked breaking the silence between the two.

"Umm.. one of my captains wanted to go there. Why? Do you also want to go?" Li Yan Xi asked while chuckling.

"Haha.. In truth, yes.. I wanted to go to the immortal trials, this only happens once every ten years.. But my duties as the crown prince take precedence.. Sigh.. now I know why you don't want to fight for the crown." The crown prince said feeling envious.

"Good luck with that.. Big brother, I know you'll make a great emperor someday. I got your back.. Hehe.. And talking about the immortal trials, I can only say yes I'm going to enter it."

"But I still have to improve my cultivation. I heard that the minimum cultivation level is the peak of the gold core realm and one should be less than 30 years old. I wanted to enter the school with strong cultivation so I must reach the infant soul realm before it starts." Li Yan Xi said as his gaze went towards the horizon.

"Oh, then how about your marriage?" The crown prince suddenly asked.

"There would be a time for that.." Li Yan Xi replied with a smile.

In his mind, he didn't want to get tied up with any woman, as it would be detrimental to his cultivation. Plus if ever he will be with a woman, his secrets which he is trying to hide would be exposed. He is not too foolish to do that, not yet anyway.

..

Meanwhile, Shin Jiao has already left the cave and began his long journey back to the town of Dis. He silently went out of the Dark Forest and discovers that many people are gathering near the boundary of the forest. He then saw the trade that is happening as many hunters would trade with the group their kills.

Shin Jiao discovered that although the demon beast meat is not edible while it is enveloped with Dark Qi, yet once it is cleansed their meat is most delectable than normal beasts. But of course, cleansing the carcass of the dark Qi is hard labor as it will take many processes.

However, once the dark Qi within the meat of the demon beast is removed. It becomes a lump of normal meat that even mortals can eat, so not all cultivators would go their way for such a thing. Only those rich cultivators who like to squander spirit stones would spend extravagantly just to get their hands on these kinds of normal meat. And because of this many merchants would come in near the edge of the forest just to buy these kinds of meat.

This is the first time that Shin Jiao discovered this favorable trade. If he could have known before, he could have taken some of those carcasses and sold it out in this area.

"Esteem young master what can this humble merchant do for you?" a man suddenly approached Shin Jiao as he walks out of the Dark Forest.

He has already seen them from afar using his new set of goggles, which now looks like a pair of eyeglasses. He didn't want to do a trade with them, but when he walks closer an idea pops up in his mind.

"Hello! I'm a traveling cultivator. Your group is going to the next town right? Can I go with you there? I can pay for my keep." Shin Jiao suddenly said as he gave the person a salute by cupping his hands.

"Oh, then where are you heading young man?" the man asked while he scrutinized Shin Jiao's appearance.

"Me, I'm just seeing the world. I heard that the Dark Forest has many weird beasts so I went to this place. Now my next destination is the Town of Dis." Shin Jiao said while flashing a smile.

As the man discovered that Shin Jiao doesn't seem dangerous he just heaves a sigh of relief. But he didn't agree to his request yet.

"Wait here, I'll tell the master." The man said as he walks towards the largest wagon.

After a few minutes later, Shin Jiao saw a pudgy man which looks like in his 40's getting down from the wagon. Because of this weight, the wagon wobbles from side to side after he got down.

"Master, this is the young man who wanted to travel with us." The man said as he politely showed Shin Jiao.

"Oh, you seemed to be okay. Your clothing is a little bit weird though." The pudgy man said as he looks at Shin Jiao's clothing.

Shin Jiao's is currently wearing blue leather pants and a shirt which he crafted from the demon beast's skin. For more than 3 months he got used to wearing these as they are more comfortable than the cultivator's clothing. The pants itself is made of very strong leather just like the shirt, but the thing that made him like wearing this is the cooling effect the leather has.

They came from a demon beast called ice fox, which is very rare in the Dark Forest.

Shin Jiao didn't reply and just showed a courteous smile and cupped his hands.

"You can come with us, but you have to pay for security. You know it's hard to hire mercenaries nowadays, they cost a lot of spirit stones.. Sigh.." the pudgy man said.

"I am called Bibao Ling, the manager of this traveling merchant of the Roc's eye merchant group. And you are?" the pudgy man called Bibao Ling introduced himself.

When Shin Jiao heard the name of the merchant group, he was taken aback. He then recalled the beautiful but naggy young lady of the Roc's Eye merchant group, Susu Ling. He now knows how huge the merchant group is and its sphere of influence.

"I'm.. I'm Shin Jiao. Nice to meet you, sir." Shin Jiao politely replied.

"You can stay with the last carriage, and if a bandit attacks we require you to help with fending them off. Now if you have any questions just ask, now this is the contract. We are just asking you to pay ten low-level spirit stones as a traveling fee until the next town. We can provide you with food and a place to stay." The man on the side of Bibao Ling said as he handed a parchment to Shin Jiao.

The caravan began to move an hour later after they finished buying the carcasses that they needed. Shin Jiao counted around two hundred people along with the hired mercenaries are traveling with this group. There are also other cultivators who wanted to travel safely so they also pay the appropriate sum.

At the back carriage, Shin Jiao found himself seated among ten cultivators, and four of them are women. Upon seeing them, he could not help but sigh in amazement. Most of the cultivators in this carriage are gold core realm cultivator except for a small young boy who is seated between a beautiful and a handsome couple.

Upon sitting down, Shin Jiao noticed a young woman looking at him with curiosity. When he noticed his aura he can't help but knit his eyes. Though the woman looks like an ordinary cultivator with a strong cultivation, her aura is weird. That is because she exudes the aura of a beast-man.

Though she seems to be able to hide it from the rest of the people in this wagon, however, with Shin Jiao's eyeglasses, her aura is immediately exposed. But since she doesn't carry any hostile intent he just shrugs it off and sat in a corner.

In that quiet corner, Shin Jiao began to think of his experience so far with life and death struggle. Starting when he first arrives in this dangerous world through an accidental summoning portal. And due to the extreme energy use by the portal even the life force of the man named Gubu was exhausted.

Then he recalls his encounter with a woman who had eased his pain from his break up with his girlfriend on earth, Cherry Lao. Their encounter and the love that ensues afterward, but then she still broke his heart in the end.

He then recalled his first meeting with Qin Lou, her beautiful voice and kind heart which caught his attention. The struggle he went through as he discovers alchemy through her and more. Then his mind drifted toward meeting the group of mortals which he decided to help and form the underground base. In this place, he started to build his own community which he now considered as his family.

Imparting his knowledge and technology to the mortals is his plan to spread technology on this planet. He just hopes that it is enough to make the lives of the people he cared comfortable and safe.

But then disaster struck and a huge beast tide disrupted his plans. Without a choice, he fought for the people he cared about and was sent to a faraway place.

He then meets new friends, fought against new enemies, and survive them all.

Now his next goal is to return to his family and continue his plan to spread technological advancement and do more research to better the lives of both mortals and cultivators.

Shin Jiao believes that through this, the killings and the lives lost will lessen and the chaos in this world will be controlled. Though world peace is not his goal, as that seems impossible, he just wanted a place where he can do his research and experiments in peace.

After thinking for a while Shin Jiao found his consciousness slowly went adrift as he enters the dream world.

This is the start of Shin Jiao's journey home, as he roams the cultivation land and faces challenges that can either make him stronger or break him.

..

Hi guys!

Thanks for reading the story so far.

I decided to divide the story into arcs as I'm having headaches thinking of chapter titles. Hehehe.. Maybe if I do this it will solve my problems.

Anyway, I think I have introduced the background of the story enough. A little rough though as this is my very first writing ever.

I struggled with words and expressions but I just hope that I was able to convey the story so far to you all.

As I have said I will divide this into arcs because an inspiration came into me and I decided to do it. That way it would be like dividing Shin Jiao's travels into many books. I hope with this I can concentrate on a particular path without thinking too much of the whole picture. (Gosh, I just realized it's hard to go around a very big world, No?)

Anyway, thank you guys so far for reading the story of "The Geared Immortal" so far.

Heads up, the first arc I wanted to call "The super zombie invasion".

I hope that you'll enjoy reading on how Shin Jiao fit himself against zombie cultivators.

See you in the next chapters' guys!!!