"Aron! Is that really you? You are really alive!!" Sima Kong immediately shouted joyfully and hugged the young man in front of him with tears of happiness.
He no longer cared about anything that had happened before, nor did he think about how Aron could fly far from the place where the eternal fire was blazing and still be alive despite falling hard.
"Good, good. It's great that you are still alive! Are you okay? Is there anything injured? Do you feel any abnormalities? What happened before? Tell me, do you still need my help?" While continuing to speak, Sima Kong began to check Aron's body, trying to see if there was anything wrong.
Meanwhile, Aron himself looked a bit dazed as he watched the man in front of him.
Uncle Kong, in his memory, was a man who looked strong and authoritative, but the man in front of him now looked much older, thinner, and unkempt like a beggar. What had happened all this time?
Aron was full of confusion, but he didn't have time to ask such things and began to say, "Uncle Kong, everything is fine. We need to return to the city immediately."
Right now, Aron had too many things to think about and needed to explain, but this was not the right time. He just wanted to get back to the city as soon as possible.
"That's true! After two months have passed, we really need to go back!"
"What? Two months?" Aron's face changed, and he hurriedly asked, "Has it really been that long? Then how are Uncle Kim and the others? And how is Jiajia? What about the costs—"
"We should go back first." Sima Kong immediately stopped him from continuing to ask, knowing they really needed to return first.
___
After returning to Sima's Butcher House, the faces of Sima Kong and Kim Yoon were truly relieved to see that Aron was really not experiencing any problems at all.
If anything, it was that he had grown taller to 185 cm and his hair was much longer. Besides that, only the change in his personality seemed a bit more confident, with a strange aura that always surrounded him.
Kim Yoon's face, which was now slightly better than two months ago, finally managed to smile in relief and patted Aron's shoulder with a bit of surprise.
"Good! Good! Besides not having any injuries, you have actually become a martial artist. Misfortune and fortune seem to be interconnected."
"What? A martial artist?" Sima Kong was immediately shocked upon hearing Kim Yoon's words.
"Did you not know?" Kim Yoon felt strange seeing the shock on Sima Kong's face.
Sima Kong shook his head and replied, "I didn't have time to check. Anyway, as long as Aron is okay, what do I care about other things?"
Kim Yoon nodded and turned back to Aron.
As a martial artist specializing in body refinement, he could sense that the blood and qi in Aron's body were very abundant. And his strong muscles and body clearly indicated that Aron had entered the ranks of martial artists; even Kim Yoon felt that Aron was stronger than him.
"I have indeed awakened my heritage and become a martial artist," Aron verified Kim Yoon's words and nodded, "And I am a blood refinement martial artist. It's just that..." but he hesitated to continue.
"What?"
"Did something happen to your heritage?" Kim Yoon and Sima Kong almost simultaneously asked each other nervously.
Aron did not answer, witnessing the worry and anxiety on the faces of the two elders in front of him; he decided not to say anything.
"Uncles, I am quite tired; can I rest first?"
Sima Kong and Kim Yoon exchanged glances upon hearing that question. But they both knew that Aron must be exhausted or had something on his mind that he didn't want to say at the moment.
So, Sima Kong could only nod and say, "That's true. After months of life and death danger, I think you really need to rest. Go to my room next door. I will call you when it's lunchtime."
Aron nodded, said his goodbyes, and walked out of the office.
After arriving in the designated room, his expression suddenly changed several times. Sometimes happy, sometimes confused, sometimes hesitant, and sometimes filled with fear.
Too much!
So many things had happened that Aron didn't know where to start unraveling them. What was clear was that he was quite happy to have finally awakened his heritage and become a peak blood refinement martial artist.
Yes, a peak blood refinement stage, one step away from becoming a powerful martial artist at the marrow refinement stage.
All the information about martial artists and the methods to continue training to become strong were all recorded in his mind. However, there was a difference in how he trained compared to people like Uncle Kong or Uncle Kim.
Aron was not sure how others trained, but from Uncle Kong and Uncle Kim's explanations all this time, a martial artist was someone who trained their qi and blood by performing several movement exercises to strengthen their body.
The training of a martial artist was also quite rigorous and regular. Of course, there were other ways to speed up training, including pills and so on.
However, the training methods recorded in Aron's heritage memory were very different from what others usually did.
Not just different, but very different. And that was what made Aron hesitant and afraid.
What neither Uncle Kong nor all living beings in the world knew was that the black smoke rising high into the sky and forming a dome of darkness was the beginning of the heritage he had received.
Aron did not know, nor did he understand what had happened. Just as he woke up, the four limbs that had previously disappeared had returned intact. All internal and external wounds had healed, and even his body had become stronger.
At that moment, a sudden explosion occurred within his body, accompanied by black smoke rising into the sky, and cold words suddenly echoed in his mind.
Those words were heard throughout the world, causing everyone to panic, including Aron himself. Because he understood very well the meaning of "utilize the vitality of all living beings or inanimate beings to become your essence."
This meant that Aron could absorb every essence from living beings or inanimate beings in this world to strengthen his body! It was like a funnel that took life and the aura of death around him to train!!
Just thinking about it made Aron terrified. He truly could not imagine what would happen if he absorbed the elements of life and death? If he did such things, wouldn't he become a demon and a bloodthirsty creature hunted by all of humanity and even monsters?
Aron suddenly shivered at the thought.
Moreover, when he saw the death zone when he first woke up, a place where even ghosts could not live. So, he did not have time to verify his heritage and immediately ran away.
By accident, because he was still not accustomed to the power of the blood refinement martial artist, he ran faster than the fastest animal in the world and jumped a kilometer in a single leap. Without realizing it, he had appeared in the outside world and fell right in front of Uncle Kong.
Now, after Aron reflected on everything, his head was truly filled with questions and doubts.
How was he still alive? How did he not burn even though his body clearly charged through the blazing walls of fire? His strength, was it really that strong? And also, what was with that black smoke? And most importantly, what was the heritage recorded in his mind? Who had spoken before?
No one could answer Aron's confusion, and in a state of mental exhaustion, he finally fell asleep and did not wake up for two full days.