Chapter 70: Chapter 69: Asura Path_1
Mu Qing Mountain slowly opened his left hand. His brow furrowed tightly as he looked at the Sun Stone in his hand that had shattered into powder.
He took out a tissue to wrap up the powder from the Sun Stone, his left palm starting to be exposed. At this moment, his palm had already become charred, and a piercing pain emanated from the center of his palm.
"This kid's True Qi is so lethally strong, indeed, those with a Spirit Form are monsters," Mu Qing Mountain's aged eyes couldn't help but tremble.
Mu Qing Mountain, who was at the midterm phase of the Yingyue Realm, suffered an injury from Fang Ren, who was just a beginner practitioner and had just acquired a Spiritual Root. He hadn't even broken through to the initial phase of the lowest Realm of Cultivation, Qi Gathering.
That Fang Ren could inflict injury on him was utterly inconceivable.
Even if he didn't protect his body with True Qi at the time, his strength as a Yingyue Realm expert was genuine. Practitioners of the weaker Roaming Waters Realm couldn't leave a scratch on him without True Qi. The True Qi of this Fang Ren...
One must realize, the gap between Qi Gathering Realm and Yingyue Realm is a full seven major Realms! What kind of True Qi could possibly defy the natural order to such an extent!
In fact, when Fang Ren shattered the Sun Stone in his hand, Mu Qing Mountain already had the thought to give him two more years, but he held back.
Youth need pressure to grow, and besides, Fang Ren was already twenty-two years old. If he didn't push himself, how could he ever catch up to geniuses like Song Mobei? If he had revealed his palm at that time, he reckoned Fang Ren might have become overly excited, losing sight of the pressure on him.
Does Mu Qing Mountain not love his granddaughter? Of course, that's not the case. Can he really bear to see his granddaughter cry because of a marriage? Certainly not.
On the contrary, he eagerly wished to see his granddaughter happily live with the man she loves.
But the current situation was not looking good. The Void Hole was gradually expanding, and the Void Monsters inside were becoming stronger. Humans really needed stronger practitioners.
"Will the pressure I put on this kid crush him? What if he loses heart and spirit?"
Mu Qing Mountain suddenly regretted it, feeling that he should have extended the deadline from two years to four.
------
Fang Ren stood in front of the window sill. The tear drops on his face and the passing streaks of light in the distant sky were the farewells she had left him for the day.
A very lonely feeling suddenly rose in his heart, but within a few minutes, he turned that loneliness into motivation.
Mu Huanqing had spoken her mind, and she would definitely put forth the effort to achieve what she said. She was making efforts to get closer to him, and he must try as well.
To become stronger, strong enough to crush all the perceptions people placed on Mu Huanqing.
Although Mu Huanqing did not wish for him to become too powerful, and even wanted to shoulder everything on her own, he was still a man and could not let a woman who loved him so deeply bear the burden that belonged to both of them alone.
With these thoughts in mind, he immediately sat at the edge of the bed and began cultivating. The True Qi inside his body surged through his meridians at high speed, and his whole spirit entered into a state of intense concentration.
After a while, Lin Bozhong returned to the second floor of the villa with Qianye, looking at Fang Ren who had entered a state of cultivation on the bed, Lin Bozhong's face showed a helpless expression as he shook his head.
Reaching the Chongshan Realm within two years was not an easy task. Even if one were to triple the Cultivation Talent of Xuan Nv of the Nine Heavens, it might not be achievable, let alone for the young master who started Cultivation late.
"Haha!"
Suddenly, Qianye jumped out of Lin Bozhong's hands, scampered over to Fang Ren, and promptly climbed onto his head.
Pat—
Qianye sat atop Fang Ren's head, her two round arms touching, her eyes closed, and the grey halo on her head began to spin.
Lin Bozhong initially wanted to pull the little guy off Fang Ren's head, but then he thought that as a Spirit Form, whatever it was doing was sure to help its master. He decided it was best not to disturb them.
Lin Bozhong quietly went over to a chair, releasing his True Qi to envelop Fang Ren, protecting him from any external disturbances.
...
Even while cultivating, Fang Ren followed the most common method, manipulating and circulating his True Qi before finally inhaling and exhaling the True Essence present in the heavens and earth.
His Spirit Form had not given him any special Cultivation Techniques, so the only method he knew was the same as that of a common practitioner. This method was certainly much slower than those of the geniuses, but it was the only one he knew, so he had to persistently and vigorously struggle with it.
Although he possessed exceptional talent in Alchemy and weapon refinement, in terms of Cultivation, ever since acquiring his Spiritual Root until now, he felt quite ordinary, without any particular Cultivation Talent.
Several hours passed swiftly, and it was already evening. Fang Ren, sitting on the bed, opened his exhausted eyes which were filled with bloodshot lines.
His entire body's meridians were filled with a numb feeling, which was obviously a sign of a junior practitioner who had overexerted himself in training.
The little Qianye perched atop his head also imitated his movements, opening its eyes and lowering its round arms that were previously touching each other. However, unlike Fang Ren, its expression was one of happiness.
Whoosh——
Lin Bozhong withdrew his presence from around Fang Ren and, observing his appearance of having over-cultivated, approached and said with furrowed brows, "Elder young master, cultivation is not accomplished in a single day. Moreover, you've just gained the ability to cultivate.
It's quite normal to not see any progress in this aspect. You must not continue to over-cultivate like this; it can cause problems with your meridians."
Fang Ren shook his head wearily, listening to Lin Bozhong's words. Although Lin Bozhong's concern for him was genuine, saying that it was normal for him to make no progress in his cultivation was clearly an attempt to console him.
This initial phase of the Qi Gathering Realm was the very beginning realm for practitioners.
Some geniuses, upon their initial exposure to cultivation at the tender age of three to five, would be able to break through two to three minor realms within a mere few days, reaching the initial phase of intense concentration.
He had been exposed to cultivation for six or seven days now, yet he didn't even experience the slightest breakthrough, not even a minor realm. Could the gap between him and those cultivation geniuses truly be that vast?
"Young master, you must not rush such matters. The more impatient you become, the more likely you are to disrupt your foundation, and then you would have to start all over again," Lin Bozhong advised.
"I understand."
Fang Ren said and directly went downstairs. The second floor's roof had been blown off and was completely uninhabitable.
He wasn't in the mood to dine that night, and after exchanging a few more words with Lin Bozhong, he turned and entered the room where Shang Han used to sleep, lying down on the bed with a face full of unwillingness.
He had the determination to endure any hardships for the sake of being with Mu Huanqing, but the problem now was that his will was strong, but his power was weak. He wished that all the talent he possessed in alchemy and crafting could instead be manifested in cultivation.
Seeing him this way, Lin Bozhong left the little villa and began patrolling the surrounding area of the community.
The group of reporters who had fainted outside the villa during the day had all been thrown far away by him, and by now they should have all gone home.
After all, the news that Xuan Nv had returned to the battlefield had been released, and those reporters didn't dare to follow Fang Ren, especially since Xuan Nv's rumored boyfriend's affairs were being rigorously suppressed by the Mu Family.
In times like these, inaccurate reporting could result in more than just losing their job.
Inside the room.
Fang Ren's mood was extremely tumultuous. He reached out to catch the little lord above his head into his palm, looking at it tiredly with a sigh.
Somewhat resentfully, he said, "Others' Spirit Forms come with innate cultivation techniques, but you're an oddball—alive and active, yet good for nothing but healing."
"Hee ha..."
Qianye stood in his palm, blinking its two eyes incessantly, appearing not to understand what he was saying at all.
"Still staring? Did you hear what I said this afternoon? My marriage is obstructed, my wife's enemy is still at large, and there are people in the Fang Family who want me dead. I must become stronger quickly," Fang Ren bemoaned.
Qianye continued to gaze blankly at him.
Suddenly, Fang Ren slapped his forehead, muttering to himself, "I must be sick, babbling to a tree."
As he spoke, he closed his eyes, overcome by fatigue, and his brain began drifting towards sleep.
Qianye stood on him, and its expression turned melancholic; it rested a round arm on its chin as if contemplating something.
Before long, Qianye's expression brightened suddenly, as though it had thought of a solution.
Then, it hopped over to a nearby table in two or three steps, and within the gray halo above its head, it began to extend a small tree branch. The tip of the branch was very sharp. It reached the table and started to carve.
The grating noise made by the branch as it carved into the table left Fang Ren, already in turmoil, feeling irritable. He opened his eyes and looked with tightly knitted brows at Qianye on the table, engrossed in its carvings, and got up, intending to nab the annoying little creature.
Just as he got up and walked to the edge of the table, Qianye's branch abruptly retracted. Its round legs hopped about on the table surface, and it looked at Fang Ren with delight, pointing a round arm at its carving.
"Hee ha! Hee ha!"
Fang Ren was about to grab it as it continued to make a commotion, but his gaze fell upon the table where he halted his reaching arm.
Three crooked and slanted characters had been etched into the table. Although the handwriting was unsightly, he could accept that, considering they were written by a tree, and Fang Ren could understand them.
"Asura... Path?"
Fang Ren stared at the three characters on the table, frowning in confusion, unable to comprehend why the little creature would write these words. Could they possibly be related to his own cultivation?