TDG: Son of the Lord of the Ten Worlds: Chapter - 19 (Patreon)

Nie Li frowned as he looked around his classroom. Something was wrong, and it had been off last week since he had returned to this timeline.

Du Ze and Lu Paio were already sound asleep sitting against the wall at the back of the classroom they had been assigned to for the week, indeed, he was, and both as supportive friends joined him.

Shen Xiu at the front of the class gave a lecture, explaining the intricacies of the Sacred Flame cultivation technique. Despite all her nasty attitude toward ordinary people, he could not deny that she was a good teacher....

Sure, she was teaching an incredibly bad cultivation technique, but it really wasn't her fault, despite the fact that he wanted to tease her about it. No, the thing that was wrong was the fact that Li Ming was not in the class. Nor had he been since the first day, and neither had Xiao Ning'er.

It had been almost surreal to see Brother Li Ming again. Almost as surreal as seeing Ye Zuyin alive and young again. It was perhaps only because of Brother Li Ming that he survived the fall of Glory City and reached the silver rank.

When he struggled with his lack of talent during those early days and was constantly mocked, it was Li Ming who helped him, even refining the cultivation technique he had used to better suit him, also had entrusted him with techniques for the body to help him given his lack of talent...

"Authentic Altering Muscle Channels" and "Divine Formula of Forging Golden Bones" were two perfect physical training manuals for him who had no affinity. For example, both of the physical cultivation techniques, after achieving Great Success, were to fill a person's Qi and blood with Yang energy and, by doing so, they could become indomitable and unstoppable, with a physical strength that would enable them to overcome different grades.

It was because of these techniques that he had been able to survive so much in his previous life, and now that he was back he could only praise these techniques and understand more and that his brother still had many secrets.

He never got to see what killed Li Ming in the end.... At the time of Glory City's fall, he was the vanguard protecting the city. The strongest demonic spiritualist besides Lord Ye Mo, a prodigy who had become a demonic spiritualist legend at the young age of fifteen.

What he knew was that whatever killed Ye Mo eventually killed Li Ming as well, or so he thought.... The battle fought then could be heard for miles around and ended with a mountain erased from existence before the sounds of battle faded into the distance.

"This is no coincidence," the orange-haired boy thought to himself. Ning'er was his sworn brothers' lover in the original timeline.

He didn't really know what drew them together, only that at that time he vaguely remembered her being around him and making the lunches she brought him in class.

He particularly remembered why he still had a good chuckle from the way Li Ming had mocked Shen Fei when the idiot had been insulted.

The last time he saw Xiao Ning'er was when he was helping fugitives from Glory City at her side, running away from the cataclysmic battle between whoever or whatever Li Ming and Ye Mo had been fighting.

When they felt Li Ming's massive soul force that had covered the mountain range plummet massively before disappearing altogether as if it had never existed.

Honestly, he had to be dragged away himself. Not because he had rushed to face whatever it was like Ning'er in anger, but the almost soul-crushing despair of feeling the soul force of his friends was simply gone, and he would never see his brothers again.... Just like his family.

He had been discouraged for days, and it was only because of Ye Ziyun slapping him around that he came to his senses.

He had clung to her like a rock after that, and she comforted him in his despair, even when she herself must have been desperate with her father and grandfather dying, that was when he began to go from crushing the girl to really falling in love with her.

Not to mention that he had recently sensed Li Ming clearly. He could not accurately measure how strong his fortitude was, but he was sure that his cultivation was already far superior to his own.

But in all honesty, he was not very surprised: his Brother, Li Ming's talent was far superior to even the so-called ‘prodigies'  of the higher realms. For Nie Li it would not even be fair to call him a "monster," in his opinion the term "prehistoric beast" was more apt to describe his Brother.

"Did I do something that changed things?" Nie Li wondered. In the past week the price of zoysia grass had started to rise massively. But he knew this would not happen for a month or so.

By that time he had become friends with Li Ming, and the boy had explained to him his plans for using zoysia grass when he had taken him to hunt for the Earth Devours one day.

His friend had noticed his slow cultivation speed and had taken him to his side, promising to help him become stronger and getting him an Earth Devourer and giving him a modified version of the original cultivation technique he was using. Together, at that time, they had increased his cultivation massively, to the point that he had become the strongest in the class, behind him and Xiao Ning'er.

What could have happened to force Li Ming to put his plans forward? He knew around this time in the original timeline he'd been hunting lots of demon beasts alone in the training area to increase his money so he could buy common demon spirits from the street vendors.

The only real difference Nie Li had made so far was speaking out against Shen Xiu on the first day and hunting horned sheep last week.... Of course, together with the paralytic poison he had learned from Li Ming in his past life, it had been incredibly easy.

And together with his two friends he had managed to hunt many horned sheep, two of which had been spiritual grade beasts. Earning them a total of just over thirty thousand demonic spirit coins. One more week of hunting and he would have enough capital to begin his plan with Purple Haze Grass.

"I don't think that's all though." Nie Li shook his head. By this time, Li Ming would have already moved on to hunting the tusk pandas since they were usually clustered in much larger groups and worth more.

Only one other difference came to mind. He had started cultivating using the Heavenly God technique, a technique he had found rivaled Li Ming's "Ten Thousand Beast Totem" cultivation in terms of potential, or so he thought...

At the moment it was slow, but soon it would show more. He really wanted to go get an Earth devourer demonic spirit, as they did not have an attribute that would greatly help his cultivation.

Moreover, he was very fond of the species as a whole; he had kept the Earth devourer demonic spirit he had received from Li Ming for years and it had served him well.

Could it be that Nie Li had not yet befriended him in this timeline? He remembered hanging out with Li Ming a lot during the first week, and thinking back, perhaps it had hindered his initial progress in becoming his friend.

Either way, it was disappointing. He still had not had a chance to talk to his old best friend since he had returned. It hurt his heart to see him and Ye Ziyun alive once again, but without even being able to talk to them.

"Just a little longer," he consoled himself, leaving the classroom behind and sinking into his soul realm, starting to cultivate again.

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