My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

133  Hou Mang

In a faraway city existed a small clan, the clan barely had 20 people living in it. The family of twenty named themselves the Smoke Clan, and they were rather prosperous. Some time ago, exactly one hundred and twenty years from today, a baby named Hou Mang was born there.

The day he was born, Hou Mang's father crowned him as the one who would go on to become the next Clan Head—someone who would one day become a Power Born. All of the clan's resources were to be used on him, and all his brothers and sisters could only look on in jealousy.

Hou Mang was born of their father's favorite concubine, and they could do nothing. But at age ten, he awakened his Spark, and his intelligent father understood a great fault. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

This son of his had the worst talent.

His Smoke Spark was barely a baby fist size; he could barely sense a meter around him with his Soul Sense. More than that, Hou Mang was not as intelligent as he expected him to be, either. Unlike the cunning concubine, whom he had come to swoon so much.

But still, Hou Mang wasn't treated badly, and he slowly grew up to be a youth of 18 years of age. In the City, he had a great reputation; to build a clan, someone had to be a Power Born, and his father was a Power Born, even though an ailing one. No reputation was better than that in his city.

The old man was at the end of his lifespan and would soon die. But even a dead camel was thicker than a horse, and his father wasn't dead. With that reputation, Hou Mang began to grow a bit cocky.

He began to take away young girls from their homes and murder husbands wantonly as he wished to, but his father was a righteous man; he saved the girls from him and made him officially take them under his wing. And he was given a strong warning to never, ever repeat it.

He agreed with a bowed head.

He was sure as long as that cunning fox of a mother was in his back, he could do anything.

Then, he slowly grew up to be more righteous. He killed bandits from around their city and saved the woman they stole. Some women among them became his through 'rightful' ways, and this continued for three years when he lost interest in such things altogether and focused on becoming a successful cultivator instead.

And that was when it happened.

No, his father didn't die.

The Concubine cheated on his father instead with an Evolution Stage and even an extremely ugly cultivator who had hopes of becoming a Power Born, and more than anything, his father caught it red-handed.

One greyish Smoke had covered the whole city, and in the man's wrath, many had died. But for some reason, the man didn't kill him and let him escape. At age 32, Hou Mang became an Evolved and returned to the city. His father was too weak even for a power Born now, and he himself had let most of his wives and concubines take their leave—to do whatever they wanted.

Hou Mang was disgusted at his father's hypocrisy and went to meet him, but unexpectedly, they ended up having a long conversation about the fate of human life and how fickle it was.

Hou Mang's father then gave him an old scroll filled with random details. "This scroll contains a method of Body strengthening that is far superior to the ones available around us. You can gain a very strong body that can withstand about ten or twenty full-power attacks of a normal Transformation Type cultivator, but it needs you to have children of your bloodline with similar cultivation to you. No need for them to Evolve, just Awakening is enough, and a half-assed Awakening at age seven would do the trick."

"When had you entered the demonic path?"

"I never did; that was a mistake; for me, kill as much as you can."

And that was what Hou Mang did.

He went around in cities, killing mortals when he felt like it to complete the demonic technique, and slowly, even without any resources, his body became as strong as Top Tier Mortal Physiques, but after that, it got stuck, and he needed a child.

But he was attacked by a powerful, Righteous woman, and then, even though he escaped, he had to be bedridden for 59 years, and when he was able to walk again due to a miraculous Magical Resource, he was more than 100 years old. But he had no bloodline of his own, so he went around, and a child was born to him, Hou Jing.

A young boy who called him Grandpa.

Seven years later, he was walking with Hou Jing all over the cities, collecting materials he could; slowly but surely, he was reaching his goals, and soon, he was near another city, Southern Lust City. The city was at the southern edge of Sacred Lust Continent.

Some distance away were the rivers and ocean; he was rowing a boat gently while telling Hou Jing some stories, slowly nearing that city, when suddenly, a dark-robed woman appeared on his boat, her face cold and her eyes colder.

"Hou Mang, right?" she asked coldly.

Hou Mang shivered and answered, "Yes."

"My lady says to give this to every demon I come across. If you speak of this to anyone else, the trap worm technique I just planted into you will be triggered, and you will die. Do what you are asked to do, and I will come to remove the Trap Worm." She threw him a letter and, with a swoosh, vanished herself. Shivering still, Hou Mang nodded.

Even without him knowing, a worm had appeared in his heart; he could feel it crawl inside him. Warning him not to do something stupid.

'Was that how strong a Power Born was?' he breathed heavily and looked at the oblivious boy beside him; he hadn't even known something like that happened. 'What Dao Soul does this Power Born have? Invisibility? What is that?'

How did she find me?