Two hours later, Hu Cheng arrived at the training grounds. The sun was high in the sky—the middle of the day.
The first person he noticed was Sheng Min. The morning run was already behind her, and now she was dodging the balls of light that Qin Ye sent at her one after another.
She did not always manage to avoid them. The fabric on her shoulder and side had been burned through, and the skin underneath was so red that it looked scalded. Sheng Min winced with every hit, and tears could be seen at the corners of her eyes, yet she still continued her training.
A little farther away, there was complete chaos. Hui Mi was chasing Xiao Yu around in circles, occasionally growling or shouting something about "frying him for sure this time," while throwing a bolt of lightning at him every few steps.
Hu Cheng noticed a shallow but bleeding wound on Xiao Yu's shoulder, and in the next moment, he was already standing beside Hui Mi. His fist came down on Hui Mi's head without warning.
Hui Mi let out a grunt and collapsed onto his knees, clutching his head with both hands.
"I told you to catch him. Without leaving a single scratch!" Hu Cheng shouted as he was already turning away. "Are you bad at hearing, or bad in the head? I suspect it's both."
"Damn it…" Hui Mi hissed through his teeth, rubbing the top of his head, but he did not dare continue arguing.
Farther on, near the circle marked out on the ground, Zhou Shengyang repeatedly practiced the sequence of steps from the morning. His movements were still somewhat rough, but every step was performed confidently and without hesitation.
"Not bad," Hu Cheng said as he passed by without stopping.
Zhou Shengyang only gave a brief nod without breaking his rhythm.
Hu Cheng continued on and found Jin Luo curled up and fast asleep on the roof of his own house. An open book containing the Technique of Condensation lay nearby, held down against the roof tiles by the wind.
"Huh! He certainly isn't lacking in courage. Or is his laziness stronger than his fear of me?"
Hu Cheng jumped onto the roof, crouched beside him, and checked his reserve of Spiritual Power. His eyebrow rose on its own.
"A quarter. He compressed nearly a quarter of his reserve in less than two hours."
He gave a low whistle.
"I expected no less from Jin Xian's son," he said aloud. "Still, I'll have to find a way to beat all that laziness out of him."
Hu Cheng yawned slightly and used the toe of his boot to push the sleeping boy off the roof.
"Huh? Aaaah!"
Jin Luo crashed to the ground with a scream and immediately sat up, frantically looking around.
"What a bastard. Did he really have to throw me down?" he thought bitterly, rubbing his bruised side. Realizing that there was no way he would be able to fall asleep after that, he remained sitting where he had landed, legs crossed and his whole demeanor expressing displeasure.
"Today I only threw you off the roof," Hu Cheng said as he jumped down after him. "Next time, you'll wake up somewhere deep in the mountains. Or in the middle of the sea."
After walking around the training grounds, Hu Cheng finally frowned.
"Where is Hao Ming?"
Xiao Yu, still keeping a safe distance from Hui Mi, waved toward the trees without even looking back.
"He went into the forest this morning. Said he was going to train there."
Deep in the forest, Hu Cheng quickly realized that he would not have to search for long—the trail itself led him to a clearing.
The first thing that caught his eye was a massive tree trunk that had been ripped completely out of the ground and thrown a good ten meters away. A hole remained in the earth, with small clumps of soil still crumbling from its edges, while the exposed roots resembled torn threads. Nearby, another tree had been crushed from both sides at once—the bark had been pushed inward so deeply that the trunk had turned into a twisted figure eight, while the wood at the point of compression had turned white and cracked into a fine web of fractures.
The third simply had a hole right through it—perfectly smooth, with edges that looked almost melted, as if someone had pierced straight through it with a single movement of a finger without touching anything around it. The fourth appeared almost untouched from the outside, except that every leaf had been cleanly knocked off.
The fifth had been split exactly in half down the middle. A little farther away stood the sixth. It looked intact at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it became clear that it had been hollowed out from the inside, reduced to a fragile shell ready to crumble at the first gust of wind.
Hu Cheng slowly walked around the clearing, stopping beside each tree in turn, and with every step, his eyebrows rose higher.
"Looks like he's testing the limits of his abilities," he thought.
Hao Ming sat motionless on a rock right in the center of the chaos. He simply sat there, staring straight ahead with an empty, focused gaze. There was no way to tell from his face what he was thinking.
But it was impossible not to notice that his skin had turned red, sweat was pouring down him so heavily that it had soaked through his clothes, and his breathing was ragged.
The footsteps behind him made him turn his head slightly. Hu Cheng stopped beside him and once again looked over the ruined tree trunks.
"You certainly made a mess here."
Hao Ming silently looked at him.
Hu Cheng did not beat around the bush.
"There's good news and bad news. We found the cause of your problem. I won't go into the details—just know that your power system conflicts with the Laws of this world, which is why the Plane Law suppresses it."
Hao Ming said nothing, only narrowing his eyes slightly.
"There are two known ways to get around it," Hu Cheng continued. "The first is to go against the Laws of the Plane themselves. But even I don't know how to do that without violating the natural order of the world. The second is the path of least resistance: cultivate like an ordinary Spiritual Master. But you have neither a Martial Soul nor Spiritual Power, so that path is closed to you."
He sighed.
"My close friends, my disciple, and I discussed what could be done about this for a long time. But we still couldn't find a solution."
"Sorry, kid," he added quietly.
Hao Ming shook his head and calmly replied:
"You don't need to apologize. The fact that you were able to find the cause and even ways to solve it is already more than I deserve."
Hu Cheng had expected a different reaction—anxiety, anger, or at least sadness. But Hao Ming answered completely calmly, and his eyes remained dark and cold.
"Haah… He's like ice… Boy, what happened to you in that world?"
Hu Cheng still did not dare tell Lan Yue and Fan Hobin about Hao Ming.
Hao Ming watched him until his figure disappeared among the trees.
"It seems I'm getting old. Lan Yue and Fan Hobin deserve happiness, but… Hao Ming… where did he come from? It's not even about his genes or appearance. The smallest details—even the expressions that sometimes flash across his face. Everything reminds me of them…"
Hu Cheng shook his head, turned around, and left.
Hao Ming watched him until his figure disappeared among the trees.
"So even someone with such strength couldn't find a solution to my problem."
The thought brought neither relief nor disappointment—it simply joined the other facts he already knew about himself. He had never expected someone else to solve this for him.
"I need to change. If I keep standing still, I'll become prey."
In the past, he had simply survived. Everything had been simple: see a target—destroy it. He only wanted to kill, eat, and survive. His body and mind instinctively knew what to do.
After returning to this world, he had simply copied Hu Cheng's movements, and at first, that had been enough. But now, he could no longer fully unleash their power.
Hao Ming ran a hand over his chest. He could feel the chains, but he still could not touch them. However, he had finally managed to count their exact number.
"Thirteen chains," he said quietly. "I broke one during the battle. Twelve remain."
"The guy with the lightning. And the one with the tiger. Even defeating them now would be no easy task. How can I become stronger?"
He lowered his gaze to his own hands—and suddenly remembered.
"A sword…"
"How could I have left it there?" he muttered. "What a pity. The monster bone it was made from was incredibly tough."
With no other way out, he stood up, picked up a thicker piece of tree trunk from the ground, and began methodically grinding it against a stone.
The next morning began earlier than usual.
Since the previous day, a proper kitchen had been fully operational on the grounds of the complex. Xie Ruyang had personally assigned a chef, along with an entire list of rare and expensive ingredients that were beneficial not only for the body, but also for strengthening Spiritual Power and mental resilience. From then on, meals were strictly scheduled for seven in the morning, one in the afternoon, and six in the evening, and everyone was required to eat together at the same table.
On that first morning, silence reigned at the table. It was not hostile, but awkward—the kind that appeared when people were suddenly seated together despite having no habit of holding conversations with one another.
Hui Mi sat unnaturally straight, trying to take up as little space as possible. Simply finding himself at breakfast beside Sheng Min had thrown him off so much that he did not even dare reach for his chopsticks first.
Xiao Yu, on the other hand, had no intention of tolerating the silence for even a second.
"Hey, do you guys even realize that this is the first time all of us are eating together?!" he announced with such excitement that you would think it was a historic event on a universal scale.
No one answered him, but at least a couple of people raised their heads slightly.
Sheng Min and Qin Ye quietly discussed today's training plan. Judging by snippets of their conversation, they were arguing over whether to increase the running distance or wait a few more days.
Jin Luo, still sleepy and obviously unhappy about waking up so early, still could not resist the free food. The moment the smell reached his nose, he instantly came to life, moved closer, and began stuffing his face, completely forgetting about his laziness.
Zhou Shengyang ate in silence, methodically and without a single unnecessary movement—as if breakfast were another form of discipline training.
Hao Ming sat at the same table—formally together with everyone else, but not quite. He took a seat next to Xiao Yu, yet enough space remained between them for another person to fit comfortably.
Xiao Yu sniffed at his own clothes, clearly trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Hao Ming, do I smell bad?"
"No," Hao Ming answered without looking up from his food. The next moment, he shoved a sizable piece of meat into his mouth in one movement—bone and all. A crunch echoed across the table. "You smell fine."
"Then why did you sit so far away?!"
Hao Ming remained silent and continued chewing.
Sheng Min became slightly embarrassed as she watched him eat—whole, bones included, with his hands and without the slightest hint of utensils. Qin Ye glanced in his direction and immediately returned to her conversation with Sheng Min as if she had seen nothing unusual. Xiao Yu did not seem bothered by the sight either, nor did Zhou Shengyang, who did not even raise his head from his own plate.
But the same could not be said for Hui Mi.
Usually, whenever he found himself very close to Sheng Min, he became unnaturally quiet. But after seeing Xiao Yu stuffing his face with food, his mouth full and sauce smeared across his chin, while Hao Ming noisily chewed through fish bones that were supposed to be carefully removed with chopsticks, he finally could not take it anymore.
"You eat like savages!" he blurted out.
He pointed toward Xiao Yu.
"You—smeared sauce all over your face, and you just keep chewing with your mouth open as if nothing happened!"
Xiao Yu calmly wiped his face with his sleeve, smearing the sauce even further, and grinned widely in response.
Hui Mi shuddered slightly and pointed at Hao Ming.
"And you! Greenwater Fish isn't supposed to be eaten like that! You're supposed to carefully remove the bones first and eat it in small pieces!"
Hao Ming froze for a moment, as if the question had caught him off guard, then calmly shrugged.
"Bones are food."
Hui Mi silently opened and closed his mouth, unable to find anything to say. With obvious disgust, he pushed his own plate a few centimeters farther away—as if distance alone could protect him from what he had just witnessed.