58 ENTERING CLOSED-DOOR CULTIVATION (1/2)

The first bell of the afternoon rang just as Cheng Hao and Blindlight made their way back into the house. As the child opened the door, an inviting fragrance wafted over, making his mouth water. He was pleasantly surprised to find Fuyin and Xiao Wu were just about finished preparing their meal. By the time he had cleaned himself up properly, everyone was sitting at the table, waiting for him.

”Pardon my tardiness, I encountered some trouble…” the youth excused himself with a bashful smile as he joined them.

”Someone that could trouble you? Must have been quite the large army…” Wang Fuyin remarked as he ate, still unable to completely get over the fact a grandmaster of his same Tamperer path, an experienced general of countless battlefields, was sitting across him. He had long since been grown used to Lu's wisdom and knowledge, but even that had required him some time to accustom himself to, let alone associating the image of a knowing elder with that of the weird child before his eyes.

”I wonder what he must have got out of them this time…” Xiao Wu tilted her head and spoke unapologetically words, ”Last time you conned a whole bandit group out of their life savings.”

”Ah, that was fun, alright.” The golden-eyed youth distractedly poked at the meat in his plate while shaking his head with a sigh, ”This time however, I might just have incurred the wrath of someone I probably shouldn't have…”

Cheng Hao's countenance was incredibly serious.

”Little Wu, Little Yin, Senior Lu, starting from tonight I will begin a session of cultivation behind closed doors. I ask you not to disturb me during meditation unless it's extremely important, however don't hesitate to call out to me in the case something actually happens.”

”As soon as I come out I will head off to the ruins and obtain the manual so I can finally let Little Wu breakthrough to Middle Level Inferior Stage. By then, I can only hope everything has been resolved somehow…”

”But brother, didn't you say that with Fuyin's Advanced Stage cultivation, most threats should be easily taken care of?” Xiao Wu looked at her brother's face, questioning him, ”What was it that made you change your mind?”

Cheng Hao chewed upon a piece of steamy steak as he began recounting what had happened with a straight face.

He did not conceal his usage of the Golden Aura and its effects, nor his advancements in terms of physique. Being from distinguished backgrounds, both Xiao Wu and Wang Lu had their mouths agape as the way they looked towards Blindlight couldn't help but change: to create such a divine technique, it truly did seem as their views of the golden dragon had been flawed from the very start! Fuyin, on the other hand, gulped as the figure of Cheng Hao effortlessly strangling Goldy appeared in his mind…

After a few moments of silence to let the rather sudden piece of news sink in, the golden-eyed youth also shared his worry of having possibly poked a hornet nest by killing the young master of a distinguished family.

”This just had to happen as I was going to leave… Seems like even I have run out of good luck at long last!” With those words, Cheng Hao ultimately stopped talking and focused on the lunch before him. As he chewed, his eyes would at times lose focus and he would be lost amidst his thoughts, his mind wandering who knows where. At those times, neither Xiao Wu nor Wang Fuyin dared interrupt his thought process and simply ate quietly, barely exchanging any words.

As time quickly passed, the sun eventually fell from its peak overhead and followed its path until it eventually reached the horizon. Like so, kissed by the sunset as afternoon turned into evening, the group of five made their way back to the hut from their second daily session in the Beast Forest. It had been a bountiful harvest for most of them: Fuyin had deepened his studies in the art of war even further, while Xiao Wu could now manage five flying blades at once and effortlessly fight half a dozen opponents at her level, a frightening amount that would make people pale in fright if it were disclosed. Even more astonishingly, Blindlight had once again broken through, entering the Advanced Stage!

Glancing at the dragon, now almost ten whole meters long, Xiao Wu couldn't help but grimace in her heart: could they still call themselves unparalleled geniuses if even a snake was clearly outclassing their whole lot by a landslide?

After a sumptuous meal, it was finally time for Cheng Hao to begin meditation behind closed door. It didn't take long for any final layers of preparations to be laid. Finally, with everything having been sorted out, the golden-eyed youth ultimately headed for the small storage space on the back of the hut and proceeded inside. Before closing the door, he turned around and couldn't help but feel his heartstrings being pulled as he saw the worried faces of the two children, one not older than nine, the other merely fifteen years young.

”Have a good session, Master!” Fuyin waved somewhat bitterly.

Xiao Wu was slightly red-eyed, but still managed to blurt out a ”Take care, bro.”

”Mn.” Cheng Hao nodded his head with a smile. ”See you, children,” he said just as the door closed and darkness filled the small enclosed space of the storage room. The white haired teen and the emerald-eyed girl sighed with feeling and only looked away after many breaths had passed.

Inside, the boy took off the black scarf on his neck and placed it on the side, sitting down cross-legged.

The boy's gaze focused as a piece of rice paper appeared in his hands at this point. Atop it were symbols, countless of them, and together they made up a mysterious scripture. It was his work of these last few days, an extremely complex and ancient technique that he had once found in a ruin but never had the chance to put to use. As his eyes fell upon the archaic words, Cheng Hao's eyes lit up, ”Now then, 'Heaven Thus Forbid' Manual… show me why exactly you were worth an entire Grand Sect's demise in order to bring you to completion!”

An excited smirk found its way onto Cheng Hao's face as the youth began chanting solemnly…

That night, Cheng Hao fought against time and with his life on the line to forcefully accumulate enough Spiritual Energy for him to breakthrough to Basic Stage.

Meanwhile, as the twelfth hour kicked in, Wang Fuyin also fell in deep slumber on Cheng Hao's bed, his consciousness transported far away to face off against hordes of enemies: there, he would risk many years' worth of cultivation to test the new knowledge acquired during the day.