Chapter 226 - A Different Morning Routine (1/2)

Hua Tuo wasn't too happy about Zero's tardiness. The young doctor was becoming more and more undisciplined ever since he returned from the abyss. The ways of the Demons must be rubbing off him a lot and the Sage God wondered if letting Zero stay there for such a long time was a bad idea. While Zero had indeed matured both physically, mentally and emotionally, he was becoming less obedient.

Just when Hua Tuo was thinking of what sort of punishment to give Zero, he felt something that made his old bones rattle. Behind him, he watched as Zero execute the qi gong exercise with the same fluidity but with something more this time.

”That's...” The Sage God's eyes widened in surprise and he stopped what he was doing to simply stare at his apprentice.

Impossible! The Sage God couldn't believe what he was looking at. With the destruction of the first Earth, Hua Tuo never imagined that there would be cultivators who were able to understand just how profound his qi gong was. This was something that could only be attained by thousands of years in cultivating qi.

The Sage God frowned. Only yesterday, Zero still couldn't manage to harness qi in his body and divert its flow. Today, Zero was not only able to harness qi and divert the flow, but he was also able to produce qi of his own by converting the energy in the dense magical air of Endow Hill. The medicine God took a look at Zero's channels and was surprised to see that they were not only perfectly formed but trained to the maximum potential. This level of hardening and widening would have taken even the most talented cultivators a few thousand years to achieve.

The refined qi flowing through Zero's meridians was golden like honey and smooth like silk. Not even Hua Tuo was able to attain his ideal form of cultivation. Only Buddha was able to create such pure qi because of his domain. Buddha basically can purify anything with his existence and that was a mega cheat that Hua Tuo was jealous about.

Speaking of cheats, Hua Tuo eyed his disciple suspiciously. There was also one brat who excelled at cheating too.

Could it be..?

”Zero,” the Sage God called out and stopped the boy.

The apprentice was clearly not expecting to be stopped so early into the exercise. He knew that there were still three more repetitions to do before the routine ended. Why was his teacher deviating from the norm? Hua Tuo isn't someone who enjoyed a lot of changes and preferred to stick to his old ways. The man was super resistant to change and obstinate about things. For Zero to be told to stop, was the world coming to an end?

”Come here,” the old man beckoned and Zero walked over unsteadily. Sure, he wasn't able to practice much of this in the abyss because they were constantly on the move. However, Zero thought that he remembered the forms correctly. Even if his mind forgot, he didn't think that his body would forget... unless the mistakes were caused by the change in vessels with different sizes!

Zero stiffened when he approached Hua Tuo. Was his teacher going to scold him for skiving? Those were circumstances out of his control too so Zero felt like he shouldn't be blamed for it at all.

”What have you been doing in the forest last night?”

The question was simple and Zero felt his knees go weak. Has his teacher found out that he didn't follow the bedtime curfew and sneaked out?

”Do you feel anything different this morning when you're practising the qi gong?”

Zero didn't know how to answer Hua Tuo. While he felt very strong from all the qi buzzing inside of him right now, Zero didn't know if it was anything different from normal. The exercises still didn't make any sense to him.

”I don't think so?”

Hua Tuo frowned. That can't be.

”You've already broken through to the highest tier of cultivation. There isn't any real need to be practising the gathering of qi in your dantian any longer. We can move on to the next stage. You can start learning the self-defence techniques using qi to reinforce yourself.”

Zero blinked. Self-defence techniques? He had some of those.

”I think Lord Amon has taught me a few neat tricks. Master, would you like to see? Amon claims that they are the most powerful techniques that can help me escape any dangerous situation.”

Hearing that made the Sage God curious. he didn't think that someone would be one step ahead of him to teach the brunet self-defence arts. However, when Zero got into position and started doing strange stabbing movements to where a person's eyes would normally be, the Sage God took it all back. The abyss was a horrible influence on Zero after all! Things were only escalated to an alarming degree when Zero demonstrated the groin kick.

”I think that's good enough,” Hua Tuo hurried to stop his disciple and felt cold sweat soaking his shirt. If the Great Gods ever knew what their precious creator had learnt, he was going to blame it all on Baal.

Zero didn't know why his teacher looked so pale. These techniques were extremely effective. Perhaps he was doing it the wrong way.