Chapter 116 Other Places
Qingzhou, Tianyun Sect.
Lin Qingyue slowly ended her cultivation, the spiritual energy around her gradually settling. She exhaled a long breath of turbid air, satisfaction flickering in her eyes—today, she had finally broken through to the mid-stage of the Profound Communication Realm.
"Congratulations on advancing, Junior Sister Lin." A gentle male voice came from behind her.
Lin Qingyue turned to see Bai Mufeng standing with his hands clasped behind his back, a white robe fluttering lightly in the wind. His aura was restrained, yet faintly emanated a pressure that made one's heart tremble—the unique power fluctuations of a Returning Origin Realm cultivator.
"With Junior Sister's talent, perhaps within ten years you will touch the threshold of the Returning Origin Realm." Bai Mufeng smiled, admiration in his gaze.
Lin Qingyue's eyes softened at the sight of him, but soon a layer of worry clouded them. "The ten-year pact is near… tell me, will that person really come to find me?" She bit her lip. "I heard he apprenticed under a very powerful master…"
Bai Mufeng chuckled, raising a hand to brush her hair. "So what? Waste will always be waste." His tone was tender, yet filled with unshakable confidence. "Besides, don't you still have me?"
Their gazes met, and the unease in Lin Qingyue's eyes gradually faded. Bai Mufeng drew her into his arms, feeling her delicate frame tremble slightly.
But from an angle unseen by Lin Qingyue, his eyes suddenly turned cold.
Ten days more, no matter what that useless Xiao brat had become! The Xiao family's spirit artifact… it would be his.
Bai Mufeng looked down at the frail Lin Qingyue in his embrace, a flicker of disdain flashing in his eyes.
This woman was shallow and foolish. If not for overhearing ten years ago that the Xiao family's ancestral treasure, the Xuantian Cauldron, was the key to unlocking an ancient secret realm, would he—dignified Holy Son of Tianyun Sect—ever lower himself to feign affection for such a faithless person?
Ridiculous.
He felt the warmth of her leaning against him, but inwardly sneered. Though she had some beauty, ten years of cultivation and countless heavenly treasures had only forced her into the mid-stage Profound Communication Realm. She was dull as a pig.
But once he obtained the Xuantian Cauldron, he could finally cast off this burden.
At this thought, Bai Mufeng's mood lifted. As one ranked among the top hundred prodigies of the Human Roll, he always held his head high, believing only women of peerless talent were worthy of him.
Unfortunately, his master had said the Heaven, Earth, and Human Steles were about to merge. There would be no more rankings of the Human Roll.
The sole goal of Tianyun Sect was to claim a place on the newly emerging "Immortal Stele" ten years hence. For this, the sect would pay any price.
A harsh gleam flickered in Bai Mufeng's eyes, though his arms only tightened around her tenderly.
Just endure a little longer… soon he would have everything he desired.
…
Lingzhou, ancestral grounds of the Hong Family.
In a rustic courtyard, a youth of sixteen or seventeen was practicing boxing, drenched in sweat.
Every punch he struck made the air boom with muffled explosions. Where the fist wind passed, cracks spread across the blue stone tiles.
Most shocking were his eyes—his left bore a heavy pupil as deep as an abyss, while his right held three rotating blood-red stars. This was the legendary Supreme Bloodline and the Heavenly Communion Holy Body—two heaven-defying constitutions. For an ordinary cultivator to gain one was already an unparalleled fortune.
This youth possessed both, as though heaven itself favored him.
At this moment, his true essence was condensed like mercury, and every movement stirred the surrounding spiritual energy to resonate—signs of a Returning Origin Realm cultivator.
Returning Origin Realm cultivators, also known as Grand Cultivators, were the peak that mortals could hope to reach. One step further, and they would become Longevity True Men.
Many spent lifetimes failing to attain it, yet this youth, Hong Longxiang, at only sixteen, had already reached the late stage of the Returning Origin Realm.
What he practiced was none other than the Hong family's supreme art—the Ancestral Dragon Fist.
Legend claimed this fist art originated from the primordial true dragons. An ancestor of the Hong family once witnessed a true dragon soar over the Eastern Sea and comprehended nine forms of boxing.
When perfected, a punch would echo with dragon song, summoning phantom true dragons with world-shattering might. It was said tens of thousands of years ago, a Hong family patriarch had shattered three mountain peaks with one strike, carving out the thousand-li Dragon Ridge Mountain Range.
The seventh form, Dragon Battle in the Wild!
Hong Longxiang let out a low shout, and his fist momentum suddenly changed. True essence boiled around him, condensing behind his back into the vague shadow of a dragon.
With one punch, a rockery ten zhang away exploded into dust, and the shockwaves shook the entire courtyard.
A hoarse voice suddenly sounded from behind Hong Longxiang. "Your punch has excess ferocity but lacks fluidity. The Ancestral Dragon Fist emphasizes a balance of hardness and softness. With such brute force, you have not even grasped thirty percent of its true meaning."
Hong Longxiang did not even turn his head. He sneered coldly. "When this young master trains, it's not your place, you old fossil, to interfere."
The contempt in his voice was undisguised. As the Hong family's peerless prodigy unseen in a thousand years, he had always been hailed as the family's hope and showered with endless favor.
Last year, when he happened upon a flower-selling girl in the street and glanced at her twice, that very night she was sent into the Hong estate to serve as his personal maid. If not for the need to preserve his primordial yang for cultivating the Ancestral Dragon Fist, with his temperament, the estate would already be filled with wives and concubines.
The one he called "old fossil" was not the current Hong family patriarch, Hong Tianque, who was not even qualified to be addressed that way. The title was directed at the Hong family's stabilizing pillar, a Saint Realm cultivator, the Hong family's patriarchal ancestor—Hong Chenji.
Saint Realm cultivators could not be insulted. This was an iron law of the cultivation world. Yet before Hong Longxiang, this law seemed void.
Even more astonishing, Hong Chenji did not grow angry. Instead, a trace of admiration flashed in his cloudy old eyes.
This child's temperament aligns perfectly with the Hong family's way. He nodded inwardly.
Hong Longxiang's will was as firm as iron, and his methods ruthless. Though lacking in sophistication, given time he would surely become an ideal leader of the Hong family.
Especially with his cultivation surging as his two great constitutions gradually awakened, his progress was advancing a thousand li a day. He had not even encountered the so-called bottlenecks of legend.
Yet, there was a flaw.
Hong Chenji's gaze shifted to the blood-colored stars spinning in the youth's right eye, and his brows furrowed slightly. The original bearer of the Supreme Bloodline still lived, preventing the bloodline from fully merging.
Ten years ago, Steward Wu had been dispatched to seek him, but no word had ever returned. During these ten years, the Great Zhou had fallen, and the Hong family had been embroiled in inheritance struggles with other clans, leaving no time for anything else.
Now that the realm had stabilized somewhat, it was time to send someone to search again.
"Longxiang," Hong Chenji suddenly said, "three days from now, you will go to Qingzhou."
Hong Longxiang retracted his fist and turned, impatience flashing in his heavy pupil. "For what?"
"To retrieve… what should rightfully be yours."
Hong Chenji flicked his sleeve, and a blood-colored jade slip flew toward the youth. "Read it, and you will understand."
As the jade slip landed in his hand, the blood-red stars in Hong Longxiang's right eye began spinning wildly, as if sensing something.
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