Fang suddenly woke up, his back covered in cold sweat, and started shouting for the system in his mind.
"What happened, host?" The system asked Fang in a serious voice.
"You said there would be no side effects, but then why am I still seeing Chen's memories?" Fang asked in a panicked voice.
...
"Host, most probably, you are not mentally strong enough, and it is taking time for your mind to fully integrate with Xiao Chen's memories and differentiate them from your real memories."
"I can assure you, host in a few days, everything will be back to normal."
"While we are at it, did you see anything new, host?"
To this, Fang said in a tone full of disgust, "No wonder in my previous life that Xiao Chen was surrounded by girls who barely looked 15 years old."
...
"Tough night, huh.." the system said in a sympathetic voice.
Fang then stood up from his bed and walked towards the mirror. Since yesterday, he has been wondering what he looked like as a child.
In the mirror was a youth with above-average facial features, black hair, and a build that would put most adults to shame, but it was no surprise because he was training like a madman every day to become strong.
Fang then washed up his face and went straight to the training grounds to exercise. Outside, it was twilight.
After vigorously training for an hour, Fang went straight for a bath and then to his mother's residence for breakfast. Due to her illness, Fang's mother could not sleep for long hours and usually woke up early.
Then he and his mother had breakfast together, and Fang asked her how she was feeling today, to which she happily replied that she was feeling well after having breakfast with her son.
Then he repeated the same routine as every day. First, he spent the morning with his mother reading books, then he went for his exercise at noon, then he had lunch with his mother and talked some more with her, then he practiced his sword skills till evening, and then went for dinner, then finally he went to bed.
Fang repeated the same routine every day.
Because Fang was the son of a mistress, he wasn't allowed to, or rather, given any techniques to practice. So, he made up for it by vigorously exercising every day.
He knew that exercise could not make up for what techniques had to offer, but this was all he had to not fall too far behind his peers.
Does that mean all this exercise was a waste of time?
No, all this exercise wasn't a waste of time because by making his body stronger right now, he could easily make breakthroughs when he reached the 2nd sequence.
In the Pang Du continent, cultivation was divided into 5 sequences. Every sequence had 3 levels, with all levels having 3 sublevels.
The first 3 sequences each focused on Qi, body, and soul.
The first sequence corresponded to Qi, with Qi refining as the first level, followed by Foundation establishment, and finally, the Golden Core. All of these stages were then divided into initial, middle, and peak.
The 2nd sequence focused on the body with Body strengthening, Body refining, and Body foundation, but what separated the 1st sequence from the 2nd sequence was the fact that you could just rush through the 2nd sequence and go to the 3rd sequence.
Cultivators used all types of techniques and weapons to reach the peak of the world. All these weapons and techniques usually had one thing in common, and that was the fact that they all required an immense amount of qi.
A weak person could easily make up for their lack of physical strength by coating their weapon with qi. So, cultivators usually preferred to skip through the 2nd sequence to save their time.
Despite all this, it still didn't mean that the 2nd sequence was completely useless, because during the 2nd sequence, people bound their bodies with a Formless object.
Everything that was sentient had internal energy with a distinct aura or color. Formless objects were the only things that didn't possess internal energy; thus, cultivators bound with them in the 2nd sequence and used them in the 3rd sequence.
As for the use, or what exactly a formless object is, wasn't important right now, but what was important was to spend most time with his mother and the rest on training.
Thinking all this, he suddenly remembered his siblings. His oldest brother was Xiao Ren, and his second brother was Xiao Xuan, while the name of his sister was Xiao Tong.
Both his elder and 2nd brothers were cold towards him. As for his sister, who was the same age as him, she used Fang as nothing more than a sidekick whom she could throw under the bus whenever she needed.
Right now, both his brothers were at the academy, while his first brother was in the 3rd year, his second brother was in the 1st year, and as for his sister, she was also getting special training from the family's elders before starting the academy. So, there was little to no chance for him to meet any of them anytime soon.
As for his father or his wife, they were completely out of the picture. Su Zhan never saw Fang's mother or Fang as someone worthy of her attention, so she never paid any attention to them, which was a blessing for them.
Things were already tough as they were, so attracting Su Zhan was nothing more than shooting themselves in the foot.
Fang also found himself somewhat intrigued by Xiao Chen's old world. From his memories, he could see that while that place called 'Earth' didn't have qi, they were technologically advanced.
He was learning about new ideologies, words, and much more from Xiao Chen's memories.
Then he shifted his focus back from his thoughts to his training.
While training, he suddenly heard the system's voice, "Host, you already have 12 years' worth of experience, why not use some techniques from your past life to build a solid foundation rather than these exercises?"
Fang sneered at this question and said to the system, "Why don't I just tell everyone I came back in time and give them information to prove that I am telling the truth? Don't be stupid, system, this isn't some backwater clan. This is the Xiao clan, the most powerful clan of the Pang Du continent. Just one look and they will realize I am learning cultivation techniques."
Hearing this, the system went quiet.
"Remember, system, in this Xiao clan, I have no friends or allies; these people are constantly watching my every move, and one mistake and my head might roll."
"The truth is, no one here likes me or my mother; those elders are just waiting for her to die, then find an excuse to kick me out of the clan."
"Host, can't they just throw you out right now with your mother? Why would they wait for her to die?"
To this, Fang, in a cold voice, replied, " It's a simple trick system, by kicking me out after my mother is dead, they can just make any excuse to maintain their public image like my mother's death took a toll on me and I was going down the demonic path, so they had no choice but to kick me out and out of filial pity they let me live."
"Who do you think the world will believe? A bas*ard son who now has the stamp of a demonic cultivator or the Xiao clan?"
"Well, can't they just kick you out right now with your mother and make an excuse that you and your mother both were making plans to harm Xiao Tong out of jealousy?"
To this question, Fang just coldly laughed, "You think a clan as big as the Xiao clan won't have any enemy spies in the estate? If someone were to leak this matter to the public, the Xiao clan's public image would surely take a hit."
"While the situation will eventually be calmed down, and it wouldn't affect the Xiao clan in the long run, why make unnecessary trouble for oneself?"
After this, Fang just continued his daily routine while also talking with his mother a lot more than his previous life.
It was during one of these conversations with his mother when she mentioned something that left Fang completely baffled.
"Fang, I wasn't going to mention it, but seeing your behavior for the past 6 months, I think you are ready to receive this," she said, pulling a ring from underneath her pillow.
"I was thinking of giving this to old Meng to pass this on to you after my death, but seeing how mature you have become, I think you are ready for this."
Hearing this, Fang was a little confused, but he didn't let this confusion show on his face and thought to himself, "I didn't receive any ring in my past life, though."
Then his mother spoke, "Little Fang, this isn't some ordinary ring; this is a spatial storage ring with 1000 square feet of space, and inside there are 100 thousand high-level spirit stones and 100 million gold coins."
"This is all the money I have received from the Xiao clan as allowance for both of us during all these years. I saved all this to make sure that when you start your cultivation journey, you have resources to practice and don't have to rely on others."
Hearing this amount Fang realized why he had never received this ring in his previous life.
"That old hag, I thought she was a good person. Alas, how big of a fool I was to believe there were any good people in this Xiao clan."
While this amount might look big to others, it wasn't much for the Xiao clan; to them, it wasn't even a drop from their ocean of wealth and thousands of years of heritage.
For comparison, the central continent where Fang was right now was 10 times the size of Earth's it shared its boundary with 4 borders. The Northern border, which is 6 times bigger than the Earth, the East and West borders, which were of equal size to one another, and were 4 times bigger than the Earth, and there was the southern border, smallest out of the four, being 3 times the size of the Earth.
So in reality, any normal mid-level body refining would have, on average, have same, if not more, money than what was being given to Fang right now.
Nonetheless, it was better than having no money, like his previous life, where he had to become a dog of the Xiao clan so they might give him some resources to cultivate with.
Taking the ring with a happy smile, Fang said, " Thank you, Mom."
Fang knew this was the last thing he would ever receive from his mother, which made the ring even more precious for him.
The ring itself was quite beautiful; it was made out of gold with an emerald colored spatial stone on top of it.
After this, Fang spent the last few months with his mother chatting away and making sure he had enough memories of his mother smiling brightly.
Then the day came, Fang wasn't in a good mood, for he knew what was coming.
He hurriedly went to his mother's residence. It was still twilight, but Fang didn't care less because today every minute was precious.
After reaching his mother's residence, Fang went straight to her room and opened the door.
His mother, who was still asleep, was a little startled by hearing all this commotion and asked Fang, "What happened?"
Fang, hearing this question, said that he didn't know why, but he was feeling scared and just wanted to see her as soon as possible. He thought to himself, "Mom, I can't tell you today is the day I am going to lose you again," with sadness.
After hearing this response from Fang, she gently put Fang's head in her lap and started comforting him. "Don't worry, Fang, Mom would never leave you alone."
While Fang was feeling good, he also noticed how her hands were getting colder, yet he didn't say much and just enjoyed these last moments with her.
Just like this, he spent the entire day with his mother.
The sun kissed the horizon, and just like that, the day had come to an end.
On the bed was a woman whose face had gone pale and whose body was colder than the night. She was Fang's mother.
Fang was sitting right beside her, holding her hand tightly without saying much. He knew his mother's end was coming, and so did his mother.
Gathering all her remaining strength, she said to Fang, "Little bird, mommy is sorry for leaving you so soon, but you are all grown up now. I am sure you will have a good life. Now, promise Mom you will live a good life."
Fang, while holding back tears, said, " I promise Mom, I will become strong and live a good life, but I want you to know, Mom, after becoming strong, I will come to find your reincarnation at that time, I will give you a better life."
Hearing this, his mother laughed a little and said, "It's a promise, Fang, Mom will wait for you, and when you find, you better be a good person or Mom is gonna get angry with you."
These were his mother's final words before her life faded into the light.
Fang kept holding her hand, no longer able to keep his tears from flowing.
The next day was her burial, and just like his previous, there was no one beside old Meng, but there was a change this time; standing in front of his mother's gaze was not a 10-year-old who didn't know better, but a young man filled with determination and a goal he had to achieve.